The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (Redux)
- It's a pretty short game, I finished it in one day. It's not a bad thing - I have enough long games still waiting to be played.
- Great atmosphere and story. It reminds me a bit of Alan Wake...
- I guess every adventure-like game must come with at least one frustrating puzzle. Here: the portal rooms
- Manual saving would've been better - but it's irrelevant in my case.
- I wish it had an optional mini map... for the spatially impaired, such as myself.
- All graphics settings on max. (150% scaling) really pushed my GTX970 to its limits. I didn't find the recommended specs for the redux version online... It's a really good-looking game!

I still miss modern classic point & click adventures, but I like this too! Is this a "visual novel"?

For a visual novel you still have too much player action. People have come to call these type of games Walking Simulator, even if The Vanishing of Ethan Carter has a couple of puzzles in it, IIRC, and Walking Simulators often don't even have that, but I think it still applies. Also with regard to the story, which I thought was a typical indie Walking Simulator story. ;)

(see Dear Esther, Gone Home, Firewatch, Blackwood Crossing, What Remains of Edith Finch etc.)

I never liked the term "Walking Simulator"; they're not simulators - and I can't imagine that there's a game where all you do is walking. "Walking Simulator" just sounds slightly less boring than Standing Still and Do Nothing Simulator.

I still think it's a good story. Is it original? Depending on who you ask, the last original story ever has been written in the year XXXX. ;-)

I know, it also started out as a term that was meant to be dismissive, but it's more or less established by now. Many genre names don't really make sense if you take them literally. An adventure game also isn't more of an adventure than the average action game, a lot of RPGs don't really allow for actual role-playing etc. The terms are more relating to the genres' origins rather than being descriptive.

I guess - Realtime FPP adventure without inventory based puzzles or NPC interaction - isn't catchy enough. ;-P

I liked this game a lot. And yes I also struggled with the room puzzle...

I would categorize it as first person adventure game, "walking sims" usually don't have puzzles required to "win tha game".

Firewatch got as close to the perfect "walking sim" experience as I can currently imagine. You explore, the game shows you stuff, what you make of it is entirely up to yourself. There is a puzzle to solve - but the game doesn't pat on your back if you solve it, you can try, or leave it.

VNs are something different, although a bit similar. 2D static backgrounds, 2D sprites of the characters speaking. And many VNs have actual win-lose conditions, depending on the choices you make.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (PC)

I was initially reluctant to get this game, a friend told me it was like Phoenix Wright (One of my favourite puzzle game series) but all the community reviews for this game called it a 'visual novel' when I was looking for more of a puzzle/mystery type game. Thankfully after taking the plunge, I realised it wasn't a visual novel, or that I have a different definition than the reviewers do. Anyway D:THH is a puzzle/mystery game that see's you trapped in a school full of 'ultimate students', these are students who are the best in their field, these fields ranging from swimming and programming to ultimate biker gang leader and fanfic writer. Controlling the school is some kind of demonic headmaster in the form of a robotic teddy bear, who will only let a student leave if they kill another student and get away with it (guess what happens next), however every other student will be killed as well if they succeed. So of course your job is to solve these murders through class trials, sort of a peoples court style thing.

The game is split into free time, investigation and trial modes. During free time you get the opportunity to build relationships with students, building friendships gives you special abilities you can use in trial mode. Investigation mode works the same way as any other detective game, you go around speaking to people, examining crime scenes and gathering evidence. The trial mode is where the gameplay changes dramatically, if you've ever played the Ace Attorney franchise, the trials in this work completely differently. Trial mode is split into several minigame style modes the most common being argument, basically characters start speaking, and if they say a contradiction you can shoot evidence at the false statement to reveal the lie. You are usually choosing between 3 pieces of evidence and 3 possible false statements to shoot at so 'normally' it isn't that difficult to work out how to progress. Other modes in the Trial mode include: a hangman style game where you shoot letters to make a certain word, a recap mode where you build a comic-book style timeline of events and some kind of rhythm game where you shoot objections down to the beat of the music. Oh yeah trial mode minigames also have time limits, however these limits are VERY generous. It's certainly the most distinct mystery game I've played.

The story is pretty decent, unlike most mystery games you know every character from the beginning so you get to see them develop, the story as a whole can get a bit... weird, but it is fairly decent. Quite a few of the characters are memorable, for good and bad reasons. You can tell from the graphics this was originally a PSP game but their good enough. Music is fairly good. My only objections are the fast travel mechanic is fairly cumbersome and one word in the hangman style game which isn't actually a real word in English. I'm interested in trying out the sequel as I've had a real craving for mystery games recently.

Bioshock 2 - I'm happy that I decided to give it a chance after being somewhat disappointed by the first game. The combat and level design are greatly improved in the sequel. Now to play Minereva's Den and Infinite...

Xanadu Next - An obscure Falcom game that plays like a mix of Dark Souls, Diablo, and Ys. I was constantly impressed by the level design, especially in the final dungeon. It's a shame they never made another game like it.

Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail! - Funnier game than I had anticipated. The puzzle solutions are hinted at quite obviously, so I rarely ever got stuck.

Outcast 1.1 - Why don't they make open world games like this anymore? It's a tragedy.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons. After skipping the series on the 3DS, I decided to give it a try on the Switch. Not the best in its category in my opinion. There are too many restrictions to my liking (small amount of residents per island, only 8 bridges per island, most stackable items don't stack over 10 or 30, can't enlarge rooms and too many more) and, at times, the game is overscripted, leaving too many dull moments. That being said, I overall had a lot of fun playing it and I really got addicted.

Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow Comes Today (2015) (Linux)

I'm a great fan of dystopian fiction (in literature, mostly). I've played the game on Steam – just to check if it's good enough to purchase it once again here, just to keep it in my GOG collection. And I'm not going to do this. It wasn't bad game. It's decent point and click adventure with good enough puzzles and interesting setting. But, as I said, I love classics of dystopia and the game is so far from books of Orwell, Dick, Zajdel, Bradbury and other great masterpieces of the genre. As a person who remember world behind iron curtain, I'm telling you – it does not touch the sense of the problem. It shows some cruel scenes ("gore" included), tough choices etc., but it's not that what makes totalitarian system. However, considering very low price in current sale (Daedalic bundle), you may want to invest 3-4 hours and check yourself.

List of all games completed in 2020.

Far Cry Primal (XB1X)

Far Cry with spears and clubs instead of guns. I prefer guns, no one would ever bring a club to a gun fight. But Primal was still fun and had a different feel to it. The world was smaller than FC 4, but that's a good thing since you don't have cars and mini helicopters, the fastest way to get around is to ride your pet. Oh yeah, pets- probably the main distinguishing feature of Primal. They are good fun, but way overpowered. Get yourself one of the special Sabre Tooth Tiger and you can sit back in a bush and just use that to take over pretty much any base in the game along with your Owl (also massively overpowered). Flying your Owl over a base camp and dropping toxic bombs that make everyone fight each other is pretty funny.

Some annoying parts for sure. The game makes a big deal about fire as a weapon...but I found using it usually resulted in setting myself, my pet, and half the forest on fire every time. So I didn't use fire much. The other annoying thing, like many games, is the AI of companion pets. They get in the way a lot, blocking your path or sitting right behind your ass so when you try to back out of a situation you get blocked. The Cave Bear with it's huge fat ass is the worst. I lost track of the number of times I'd be swearing at it because it parked it's huge ass right where I'd need to go and wouldn't budge. I'd hit with my club, but that just makes it angry and it attacks you. Which is fair enough I suppose. Yeah, so a bit of a love/hate relationship with the pets.

Overall it's on par with the others in the series, though a bit different in feel. It took me a bit longer to get into. I'd still say I like Far Cry 2 the best in the series though.

Noooo! Why did they ruin it.

I personally call them 1st Person Adventures, that's not much longer thatn walking sim and think it describes them well. While WS isn't used as dismissive term anymore I still don't like it much as I don't find them to simulate walking al lthat well. My legs never hurt in games even though I have just spent 4 hours running all across the woods, climbing rocks, hauling items and having strange visions. :-)

It's just that when I think of 1st Person Adventures, I think of Myst, and admittedly there are some similarities but IMO games like Ethan Carter are usually more about uncovering the dramatic plot and less about the (comparatively few) puzzles. Of course, genres flow into each other, the borders between them aren't always that clear. In my list here in these threads, I just put games like that under the general header of "Adventure Games, Visual Novels and Narrative Experiments" which includes everything remotely adventure-like.

I find this to be very similar genres and most difference is in the amount of puzzling. It's just in Myst the puzzle is the centerpoint and plot second while in the Walking Sim it is reversed but usually there is at least some puzzling involved too.
If I am to distinguish them, I would call Myst & co. 1st Person Puzzle Adventure or just 1st Person Puzzle.
It doesn't really matter what people use to describe them as long as we understand each other but for me this tends to work well.

Okay, another PSVR game down: Until Dawn: Rush of Blood which I only had because I got it from PS Plus a few years ago. It's pretty good.

So, this spin-off of Until Dawn is a VR rail-shooter - quite literally, as throughout the entire game you're sitting in a roller coaster and shooting stuff. It's a pretty brilliant idea, in a way, as this formula allowed to create an action-packed game that probably won't cause motion sickness in too many people and it ties into the main Until Dawn plot somehow. This one's quite cryptic and random, your typical western "psychological horror" really where everything is chaotic and pointless but then you start getting more and more pointers that (should) allow you to make sense of it. It's not the best kind of horror setting or writing but it could have been much worse - I guess any excuse for shooting stuff is better than none. Also, I only beat the game on normal and the ending contained a hint that you get more specifics if you beat it again (presumably on hard but perhaps by getting all collectables or secrets - not yet sure).

In terms of presentation it's probably one of the best games available on PSVR. It feels like (again) Supermassive Games squeezed every last drop out of the PS4. Everything is highly detailed, most textures look crisp, most character and monster animations are great and you've got real-time lighting - your guns have flashlights which also serve as crosshairs and it's super satisfying to scan the usually very dark environment for secrets and whatnot. In most PSVR games I've played so far the low resolution helped mask the lack of detail - here it feels like the low resolution is actually holding everything else back. The audio is also pretty great and especially certain key moments just sound very detailed and real.

As for the gameplay: well, it's a rail-shooter - a decent one, I guess. You carry two guns at a time which you can aim independently if you're using two Move controllers which is initially fun as hell and soon becomes second nature. There's also different types of guns like shotguns and UZIs and also some more powerful stuff. When you're wielding two different types of guns in each hand, that's when things get crazy and even a bit complicated in the heat of battle. I must say, though, that I was a bit disappointed by the enemies and their behaviour - it's just not as smartly designed as, say, the House of the Dead games. It often feels like there's either too few or too many enemies, they usually don't have any interesting patterns and disappointingly often there are enemies on the screen who are invulnerable because they are part of some scripted sequence (which you can't always tell and trying to shoot them apparently counts as a "miss"). But still, most of the time the game is quite satisfying, the guns sound and feel badass and once in a while you can shoot stuff to kill a bunch of enemies with a single explosion or change your path. A very nice touch is that sometimes there's obstacles or other hazards that you have to dodge by leaning or ducking. It's quite exciting and immersive stuff. Oh yeah, and it's probably one of the easiest rail-shooters I've played. I died maybe four or five times and there was always a checkpoint before the difficult moment.

Aaaanyway, it's not an amazing game but it's another decent PSVR showcase title that should keep you busy for three or four hours, probably a lot more if you start going for high scores. I'm surely gonna keep this one installed for a while.