Return to Grace, Jun 12 (Xbox Game Pass)-An interesting walkie focusing on humanity's relationship with AI. The voice acting is solid. It's strictly exploration as the puzzles are almost nonexistent and the ones that are there are very easy and frequently have an option for the AI to solve for you. But solving puzzles isn't really the point of a game like this It's exploring the world and engaging with the story and the story wasn't bad. The world building mostly centers on the past which makes sense since the main character calls herself and archeologist so there's lots of talk about history but less so about the present. It's not bad as a short, relaxing palette cleanser between longer, more involved games.

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ENCODYA

In Neo Berlin 2062 it takes a Nanny Robot to raise a child

I played this on hard, meaning there are no direct hint using hint keys or direct conversations between 2 playable characters. And boy this really made it a more frustrating point-and-click game compared to some that I've finished recentIy because of the pixel hunting. Some of the items needed are really blurred into the background. And some even only appeared when you triggered a specific conversation with a particular NPC. Same as the conversation. Some also only appeared when a character gave you a hint of something.

There are 2 particularly frustrating pixel hunting for me, one little note to find to solve a tanker puzzle and the quest to find a flat stone.

Also the last "battle" against the boss. The latter is basically me trying to use every inventory items with the environments. It needed to be in specific order as well. Not fun at all.

But perhaps if you don't mind deliberately using hint keys those above won't matter at all. The art is good and the voice acting is splendid. The items combinations are easy to figure out once you actually managed to bring those particular items to your inventory. You also ended up with some junk items that when after you wwatch the end credits It was thrown by the devs as a red herring, made me chuckle watching that. Quite smart really.

Oh and much to the chagrin of the developers, ACF Fiorentina haven't won anything in the last 3 years between this game release and this review. Lost twice in the finals of the lowest tier UEFA club championships. So close.

It was diffficult but fun!

Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer

Decent retroshooter presented as a long lost game started by a teenager in the 90s or early 2000s, with an intentionally cringy edgelord vibe, supposed to be so bad that it's iconic and cool again. For me, it managed to get there halfway, because on the one hand I was never really into that kind of humor, so I didn't think it particularly funny, not even in an ironic way or reminiscing about my teenage self. On the other hand I acknowledge that the whole thing is kind of original regardless and does feature some iconicly dumb one-liners that are amusing in their pretend coolness while being entirely self-aware. Graphics were ugly but fitting to the theme, soundtrack fit perfectly, too, and I also liked the sound design. Last but not least, I didn't realize that this is a spin-off to Hynospace Outlaw, which I guess I'll have to play next.

The gameplay is more or less Doom-like, with the usual types of opponents, though no hitscan attacks - you can dodge everything - and maybe a little Duke Nukem and Serious Sam in the mix, but it does have some neat ideas for weapons, like the Glass Blasta which is similar to a shotgun but shoots "sharts" that you get from smashing windows, or the "Hackblood Talismen" the energy beam of which also allows you to float in the air. Another thing I liked were all the talking rats that are supposed to be your "allys".

In general, I enjoyed the game well enough due to the above. What I didn't like so much is that in many levels I always got to a point where I wasted a lot of time wandering around aimlessly, trying to find where I hadn't been yet, what I had overlooked and where I would get the keys for the locked doors. So I'd say the level design wasn't that great in terms of guiding the player. There also was a bit of platforming at times, and as in most first person games, that part was rather awful; jumps felt a bit hit or miss and it was diffcult to git gud at them. So all in all, I had fun, but it could also get mildly frustrating.

I played and finished Fallout the first time some years ago, and I haven't any real issue with its aging, if that is what you mean.

The interface, especially inventory management, was oddly clunky, but beyond that, it was pretty straightforward to play.

Now, if instead you mentioned some old dungeon crawler RPG (early Wizardry or Might&Magic game) where you are supposed to draw the maze on a graph paper so that you have any idea where you are and where you are supposed to go... that would be quite a feat today, especially for younger gamers who don't know that beforehand.

EDIT: Oh sorry, nothing to report right now, hopefully adding Blood Omen 2 to the list in a few days... Looking forward to report it.

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Mass Effect 3 (XSX)

The legendary edition, which is now the best way to play this. Mainly because they removed all of that multiplayer online stuff that you had to do to get full war assets. Otherwise, it's still the same game- save the galaxy by becoming Space Jesus.

The main reason I wanted to play this was because the Legendary Edition comes with all DLC's, which I'd never played before for ME3. So, now I have.

The first game is still the best of the series, but each game has some good aspects and bad.

Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2

This is the fourth game in the series, just finished it an hour ago. Still one more "Legacy of Kain/Blood Omen/Soul Reaver" game to play, Defiance.

I had heard meh comments about this game, how it didn't live up to e.g. Soul Reaver 1-2 even if it was released after them. I am a bit surprised that I actually liked Blood Omen 2 the most of the four games (as said, yet to play the fifth game, it's next on my list), even though I am ready to admit that Soul Reaver 2 and maybe even Soul Reaver are objectively "better games" than Blood Omen 2, considering gameplay, controls, graphics, level design etc.

However, there were several things that annoyed me quite a lot in Soul Reaver 1-2 that were "fixed" in Blood Omen 2. Like the save game system: SR1 save game system was just weird (saving the game would not save your position, but only the state of the game world, e.g. which puzzles and bosses you had killed), and in SR2 the save game points were sometimes so far away from each other that I remember playing the game for 1,5 hours before finding the next save game point.

Blood Omen 2 has a console-type save point system, but there are checkpoints quite often so that I never really felt the next checkpoint was too far. Usually it took only 5-15 minutes of gameplay to reach the next checkpoint. Also the checkpoints were placed in sane places, like just before big boss fights.

Another thing I liked in Blood Omen 2 was that the combat wasn't frustratingly hard or complicated, but still had things to learn. It was mostly about timing and learning what works against different enemies and how they behave.

Boss fights were mostly not about direct combat, but certain kind of puzzle that you have to figure out. The last boss had some normal combat as well, but it wasn't too demanding. I didn't feel the game was too easy nor too hard, it was mostly maybe on the easy side, I was hardly ever badly stuck into some level or boss fight.

IMPORTANT: To make the game playable with modern PC gamepads and fix some other possible issues, use this:

https://classicrebirth.com/index.php/blood-omen-2-re-vamped/

Black Book (2021) (Linux/Proton)
(thank you, Doc, for the game!)

I really liked this one. The story, the music (amazing folk songs!), the setting, the way they've placed Russian words in the dialogues, many fascinating descriptions of Russian folklore. I also really liked the core gameplay, which is quite clever card battle system. At some points, for various reasons, enemies may be really hard to defeat and a few times, after many lost battles, I've decided to use "skip battle" option (I don't want to spoil the story, but it is possible to reach a stage where it may be impossible to win some encounters – it may be caused both by bad card builds (these may be easily corrected) or by bad story decisions).

Works like a charm with Linux+Proton, played using Heroic Games Launcher, no issues, good performance.

List of all games completed in 2024.

Cyberpunk 2077


whot a fucking amazing ride this was!

Really started playing after the 2.0 update. No regrets there, of course the stunning visuals and quality audio experience were already in place but the gameplay update really nailed it!

Cleared the game in about 56 hours, decided to get uploaded, cause life you know ;-) and already promised to return to see what the DLC entails

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X-Com: UFO Defense once again, as this game is brilliant. First time with openXcom to veteran difficulty. Earth was saved before I could research everything, but since I could fire down any UFO and alien bases were not much difficult at that time, it did not makes sense to wait with final attack.

Fallout 2 was my favourite game ever when i was a teenage. 9 years ago i installed it and just couldnt... it is too old :)

so i am impressed with anyone who can still play them. and in a way jealous.


I have beaten Culpa Innata. I got that game ages ago on Steam but it was censored so didnt play it hoping for it to be here on GOG in uncensored state.


so that never happened. weirdly.

so installed unoffical mod which brings the game to uncensored state.

its pretty unique adventure game experience. And it really needs sequel.

What annoyed you the most that you couldn't stand it anymore? The archaic UI (as mentioned, inventory management, at least moving stuff between characters, was oddly complicated IIRC, at least in the first Fallout game, not sure about 2 don't remember anymore if it was the same)? The low res 2D graphics? The intro tune that stays playing in your head ever after like a broken record?

You don't have to be impressed by me at least, I'm an oldskool gamer so I know what to expect from 90s games. Some old games are too oldskool for me too, e.g. I can't stand CGA/beeper era PC games (just too ugly and noisy), and e.g. CRPGs which expect you to keep a quest log or draw a map on a piece of paper, just can't do it anymore.

Anything above that, I can probably stand. I e.g. played Amiga-version of Wizball some years ago, I loved playing it (I also played the free remake of Wizball, which is also great, but I wanted to first play the "original" version (yeah I know, Commodore 64 version is the original and the Amiga version is a port, but anyways...)).

The intro stays in the same place where teenage mutant ninja turtles song is, as well as, KamehameHA, valve's tune, hell march...



The graphics hit me really bad. Movement, animation. I did trials so many times. and yet after first fight with scorpion, the animation, how slow it is just I decided i shouldnt revisit it.

The great game lives in my memory :)

Little Kitty Big City, Jun 15 (Xbox Game Pass)-A goofy, little game in the vein of Untitled Goose Game. You act cute, cause some mischief, help some animal friends, and collect a bunch of hats. Some of the physics and platforming was a little wonky but it was a fun way to spend a few hours.

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