Be Excellent To Each Other

It was over a year ago, so no. Can you not watch my replay?

Not that I know of.

I'm pretty sure you could download anyone's replays and watch them. Maybe I'm wrong.

I missed one!

1. Mass Effect 3
2. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
3. Estranged
4. The Room 2
5. Little Inferno
6. Shadow Blade
7. Deus Ex: The Fall
8. Far Cry 3
9. Stick it to the Man

Added 13 & 14

1. Mass Effect 3
2. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
3. Estranged
4. The Room 2
5. Little Inferno
6. Shadow Blade
7. Deus Ex: The Fall
8. Far Cry 3
9. Stick it to the Man
10. Gone Home

I'm genuinely not sure what to think about Gone Home. The 'game' itself quickly becomes a slightly tedious 'cupboard opening simulator', but the atmosphere of the house was so well realised that I found myself quite transported to it. Playing it in the dark sitting close to the monitor probably helps more than sitting on the couch in front of a TV weirdly. The story is very well told and the relationships it describes are very believable; but it's an odd way to spin things out so I think the story might've been good in spite of the game structure not because of it. Maybe? I don't really know, as I said. I can definitely say I enjoyed it and am glad I played it though, so that's something.

1) Trials Fusion (xbox one)
2) 2048 (Android) - I got to 2048!

Malc

Updating again.



21. Papers, Please (PC). It's just an excellent idea, excellently implemented. It's like working at the border of a communist state at war come to life. No wonder it got heaps of praise spaffed all over it's heaving bosoms filled with milky creative ideas. Hmm, that analogy kinda got away from me there.
22. VVVVVV (PC). Platform games get a huge dump on their tired ches... No, I'll start again. It's just a super platforming game with RETRO GRAPHICS! Amazing, I've never seen that before. I've not seen it done so well before either cause this is pretty special. A pretty good Castlevania-Lite map to explore from the outset, clearly thought out ideas with controls just being two turntables and a microphone. No, two keys and the spacebar. 2 hours of magic. The soundtrack is pretty awesome too in a "Monty Mole on the Run" kinda awesome way.

1. Gone Home (PC)
2. 紙 (PC)
3. Dear Esther (PC)
4. The Stanley Parable (PC)
5. Brothers: A tale of how shit the dualshock 3 triggers are. (PS3)
6. Dark Souls 2 (PS3)
7. Saints Row 4 (PC)
Fun, but with a few gripes - Mainly stupid QTEs. Also that it's night all the time. Well, until you finish it and see how much nicer it would've been had it not been night all the time. Although it did have Paul in it. Very much no longer anything like GTA. Except for very small bits.
8. Gunpoint (PC)
Interesting little game. Emphasis on the little. Enjoyed it and had a bit of a chuckle but felt the possible options may have been a bit too constrained at the end,

Currently playing Dark Souls 2 and Persona 4: Golden*. Both are huge. It's going to be a while before I add to this list again. So much for my four a month streak.


* which after 8hrs could be the first JRPG I've enjoyed since FFVII. The combat is actually, shockingly, interesting.

1. Mass Effect 3
2. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
3. Estranged
4. The Room 2
5. Little Inferno
6. Shadow Blade
7. Deus Ex: The Fall
8. Far Cry 3
9. Stick it to the Man
10. Gone Home
11. Fairune

A really fun top-down, 16-bit looking, RPG/puzzle game for Android (and iOS) that I thoroughly enjoyed. I actually picked it up and played it for the first time ages ago but couldn't really work out what was going on with it. I quickly ditched it when I thought the game structure meant just randomly dying and being sent back to the start all the time. I saw it mentioned again on jayisgames and couldn't remember why I hadn't played through it so reinstalled it and this time quickly got my head round it to the extent of being totally hooked.

If you want to 'BE' Bamba, you can pay £3, now, at https://www.humblebundle.com/store

List longening.



23. Cave Story+ (PC)
24. Gone Home (PC)

1. Gone Home (PC)
2. 紙 (PC)
3. Dear Esther (PC)
4. The Stanley Parable (PC)
5. Brothers: A tale of how shit the dualshock 3 triggers are. (PS3)
6. Dark Souls 2 (PS3)
7. Saints Row 4 (PC)
8. Gunpoint (PC)
9. Muramasa (Vita)
All 6 endings. Fun enough, but you felt they could do more. Very pretty, mind.

List longening.



25. Antichamber (PC) I'll be honest, whereas I was initially enjoying it, my interest fell off a cliff after 2 hours. I was progressing, progressing, doing it, doing it, enjoying it and then I didn't know where I was going or why and I suddenly thought that I'm actually not enjoying it at all. The main reason being is that there's no narrative at all besides some "clues" on the walls and I'm not that interested in solving puzzles for the sake of it. It's too much like work. I thought I might have missed a trick about how great it was and so I read a few reviews and, boy, was everyone enjoying it loads.

So, to summarise, I'm probably wrong but I don't think it's that smart or that clever and I probably don't particularly like puzzle games much which is why I wasn't getting much out of playing it. I got properly stuck about once and had to resort to a walkthrough (most, if not all, are walkthroughs on this games are useless, given the abstract nature of the game and non-linear pathways through the game) just to find the right path to take to the next bit. Then I got moderately stuck and could probably have figured it out with a bit of time but the patience was drained and I used the walkthrough again. And then twice more. I did feel like a cheat, but I just wanted it to end by then.

That being said, like everyone on the planet, I fucking loved the Portal games so maybe if they had a narrative it'd have been much more interesting and worthwhile in my brain.

So Antichamber: If you like to solve puzzles, you might like to solve these puzzles.

I'm going on memory here but isn't that mostly what the EG review said about it as well? That it's very clever and well done but lacking a central conceit to tie it together and make it more of a coherent experience rather than just, as you say, a bunch of disparate puzzles? I'm expecting to enjoy it in part but to not really 'get' the whole thing due to a combination of the game being too obtuse and me being too stupid. At some point when my life stops being a giant fucking pain in the arse I'll hopefully get a chance to test that theory.

1. Gone Home (PC)
2. 紙 (PC)
3. Dear Esther (PC)
4. The Stanley Parable (PC)
5. Brothers: A tale of how shit the dualshock 3 triggers are. (PS3)
6. Dark Souls 2 (PS3)
7. Saints Row 4 (PC)
8. Gunpoint (PC)
9. Muramasa (Vita)
10. Transistor (PS4)
Sadly nowhere even remotely near to Bastion in terms of goodness. Lacking in character, not at all sure what the plot was meant to be, weak hiding behind walls combat waiting for bars to refill (because you don't get enough of that in modern FPSs), utterly boring last part of the game topped off with an unfair boss fight. Disappointed.

I'm not keeping up with this list but i'm going to add it up every now and then:

1. A New Beginning (PC) - Great point n' click adventure done in classic Lucasarts style. The plot, involving time traveling to save the earth from an environmental disaster is a bit preachy at time, but the puzzles were among the best i've seen in this genre.

1) Mate In 1 (iOS)
2) Nonoku (iOS)
3) Tengami (iOS)
4) Broken Sword 5 Episode 1 (iOS)
5) Monument Valley (iOS)
6) Device 6 (iOS) - this is the one where it's a mix between a book and a puzzle. Fiendishly difficult, but good.
7) The Silent Age (iOS) - Very short point and click adventure where you shift time zones to complete the puzzles. Very worth it for free but no episode 2 yet and it's been over a year,

1. Gone Home (PC)
2. 紙 (PC)
3. Dear Esther (PC)
4. The Stanley Parable (PC)
5. Brothers: A tale of how shit the dualshock 3 triggers are. (PS3)
6. Dark Souls 2 (PS3)
7. Saints Row 4 (PC)
8. Gunpoint (PC)
9. Muramasa (Vita)
10. Transistor (PS4)
11. Child of Light (PS4)
Relatively simple RPG, very well presented (Crashing not withstanding) Probably would've got a bit bored of the mechanics had it continued for much longer though. Although I have a bone to pick... Astonished does not rhyme with Instead, and altering it to do so sounds stupid. (Indeed, if you don't like Rhyming, avoid this, it's entirely told as a fairy tale, with all the narrative complexity you would expect from the form)

List longening.



26. The Swapper (PC) I've been loving my venture into the world of PC gaming by the way. It's been fab with lot's of fab little games of all types of fabness. Anyhoo, this has been one of my favourites. Again, I've never been a fan of puzzle games, but this had a nice gradual difficulty curve that let me enjoy the experience right up until...well, the time they introduced the gravity wells. Then it got too hard too fast for me. It wasn't a breeze before then but it seemed to take a steep climb in difficulty and it jarred me.

I actually reckon that this was the only mistake in the game. You are getting so close to the end; the story is ramping up; the pace of things happening is rising; events are closer together... yet between that, you get stuck on a few puzzles and the downhill race to the climax fails miserably on its arse. It really could have done with those difficult sections coming earlier or there being a much easier section after them where the end-game events take place so that downhill is uninterrupted as you push through each room to see what is going to happen next.

So for me, it's only failing was the end-game pacing cause everything else was spot on. Oh, cept for me being shit at puzzle games and having to resort to a wiki. Shit, I bet everyone does that these days.

Oh, and great ending by the way. In particular:



The Swapper: If you like puzzles you will like to solve these puzzles.

1. Gone Home (PC)
2. 紙 (PC)
3. Dear Esther (PC)
4. The Stanley Parable (PC)
5. Brothers: A tale of how shit the dualshock 3 triggers are. (PS3)
6. Dark Souls 2 (PS3)
7. Saints Row 4 (PC)
8. Gunpoint (PC)
9. Muramasa (Vita)
10. Transistor (PS4)
11. Child of Light (PS4)
12. Stick it to the man (PS4)
Caused a few smirks, but sometimes seemed forced and uniform. Not the biggest fan of the art style, and the chase sections were a bit rubbish. But worth playing, particularly if you have it free

1. Gone Home (PC)
2. 紙 (PC)
3. Dear Esther (PC)
4. The Stanley Parable (PC)
5. Brothers: A tale of how shit the dualshock 3 triggers are. (PS3)
6. Dark Souls 2 (PS3)
7. Saints Row 4 (PC)
8. Gunpoint (PC)
9. Muramasa (Vita)
10. Transistor (PS4)
11. Child of Light (PS4)
12. Stick it to the man (PS4)
13. Contrast (PS4)
A bit shit. The engine needed polishing some - the number of times the main mechani went a bit wrong was rather frustrating., the style was overly fussy and not well suited to a 3d Puzzler. And the writing was all over the place. And the girl was highly annoying. At least it was short. And Free.

1. A New Beginning
2. Guacamelee! - Great metroidvania with absolutely memorable bossfights. Also amazing mexican influenced aesthetics and soundtrack.

27. Sine Mora (Vita) Great, albeit easy, bullet-hell-ish shooty shooter that doesn't quite work that well on the Vita's screen but, boy, it sure is a looker. I'd love to be able to say that the story was AWESOME for a shooter but I didn't get what was going on until I read about it after is finished it. And if I have to do that then, in my world, that's story telling gone wrong. The twist at the end (you can't say that about any other shooter, right?) was just a 'BUHWAAAH?' moment rather than a 'BUHWAHA!' moment.Good effort mind. Free, free, free on PS Plus! About 12 months ago.

1. Mass Effect 3
2. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
3. Estranged
4. The Room 2
5. Little Inferno
6. Shadow Blade
7. Deus Ex: The Fall
8. Far Cry 3
9. Stick it to the Man
10. Gone Home
11. Fairune
12. Merlin's Adventure: a rock solid puzzle platformer for Android that I've been playing on and off for weeks.

1. South Park: Stick of Truth
2. Dark Forces 2: Jedit Knight (1997)


Yup, going strong.

First game to give me vertigo. Oh man, the drops.

Didn't have that effect on me.

The first game to do that was minecraft.

Crackdown.

I did think about that, but the superpowerness somewhat took the sting away.

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time for me.

I was replaying that for a 'Book club' style thing on another forum. Other people complained of Vertigo. I can see why the large FOV, the insane speed you run at coupled with the realllllllllllllllllly large architecture would induce vertigo.

For me I did have a moment where my brain couldn't understand what was going on, and that was in a system of vents on level 10(?). There's a point where you stand on the intersection of really wide and tall vents going a long distance in all 6 directions (up/down/left/right/front/back), with wind currents from each one pushing you around so they're hard to get into. And as I was trying to get ALL THE SECRETS I tried to go down them all and got completely mind-fucked and lost, as the wind meant there was no "gravity" to reference or whatever. If it wasn't for the axis-lock I wouldn't know which way was "up". (Or maybe the axis-lock made it worse?). I don't know, but it felt like when I look at a really small graph paper very close up (or a very dense circuit board) and my brain just goes NO and explodes.



I watched the movie the first time the other day, does that count?

(Actually, I only started watching half-way through, so I can't even add it to this list )

1. Gone Home (PC)
2. 紙 (PC)
3. Dear Esther (PC)
4. The Stanley Parable (PC)
5. Brothers: A tale of how shit the dualshock 3 triggers are. (PS3)
6. Dark Souls 2 (PS3)
7. Saints Row 4 (PC)
8. Gunpoint (PC)
9. Muramasa (Vita)
10. Transistor (PS4)
11. Child of Light (PS4)
12. Stick it to the man (PS4)
13. Contrast (PS4)
14. Thief (PS4)
I think this would've got much better reviews had it not had the name Thief attached to it. Nearly didn't get it due to all the bad publicity it received, but it's actually rather good, and to my mind much of the complaining was somewhat spurious. Quite different from Dishonoured due to not having the same array of super powers or ability to fight, and the game is much darker. Certainly it managed to make me feel very uneasy in a way that dishonoured never did (Although not quite to the same degree as that level in Deadly Shadows). While somewhat more linear than the preceding titles, it's not as bad as, say, Zaphods thief 1/ thief 4 comparison map made out (That's a tutorial map, essentially, and it's not quite as simple as that drawing makes out. Later levels had me spend (what seemed like) hours studying areas before choosing the best possible way and making my way through them. Didn't feel overly different to playing Thief 3.
Total play time of 26 hours. Could have been quicker, but I was determined never to be seen and suitably plan my approach to be as nonviolent as possible.

So I'm going to try and remember everything I've finished this year so far:


1. A New Beginning
2. Guacamelee!
3. Dark Souls - Most was played last year but i got stuck on Bed of Chaos. What an awful boss fight that was. Everybody knows how good this game is already, but i would have preferred for checkpoints before the boss fights
4. The Whispered World - One of the best point and click adventures i've ever played. Good puzzles for the most part and excellent graphics, atmosphere and story
5. The Book of Unwritten Tales - The Critter Chronicles - Average point n' click. Some nice jokes but also many illogical puzzles
6. Machinarium - Lovely little adventure. Great puzzles and graphics.
7. The Swapper - Excellent for about 3/4 of it. Amazing visuals and sound design, but the last few puzzles left a sour taste.
8. Heroine's Quest - Free Quest for Glory homage that is available on Steam. It really does manage to conjure the spirit of Sierra games right through the awful interface. I enjoyed it for a while but i was a bit bored by the end of it. There was also too many embarrassing attempts at humour.
9. Gemini Rue - Good point and click with nice story and logical (if mostly easy) puzzles.
10. Satazius - Wow! A shmup that i could actually finish on the default difficulty. I really liked this one. Not original at all but what it does, it does it well.
11. Valdis Story: Abyssal City - An excellent metroidvania that unfortunately didn't had much hype. Incredible fighting system.

1. A New Beginning
2. Guacamelee!
3. Dark Souls
4. The Whispered World
5. The Book of Unwritten Tales - The Critter Chronicles
6. Machinarium
7. The Swapper
8. Heroine's Quest
9. Gemini Rue
10. Satazius
11. Valdis Story: Abyssal City
12. Dead Space 2

I was about to give up while midway through, since i was getting annoyed by the repetitive and linear gameplay and stupid plot. But the last few chapters had some great set pieces that made it worth it.

Backlog? What backlog?



28. Touch My Katamari (Vita) I've never played one of these before despite how old they are so it's been 'interesting' to say the least. It's facking mental of course. It starts off mental but flattens out midway through where it becomes a fairly straightforward time attack game and starts to get a little stale but then gets more mental towards the end when you attempt to roll over everything in the world. Where "everything" consists of giant men fighting squids, cars playing football with a melon, pyramids than run away from you as you attempt to roll them over, Godzilla getting angry because he's surrounded by seagulls, King Kong fighting a sumo wrestler, rikshaws being pulled by gorillas and so on. Like the Statue of Liberty, UFO, a bear being chased by a crazed crane... oh you get the idea. I liked it but it needed more variety and less time attack levels. I especially liked the level "Which is better: cows or bears?" Fackin. Mental. But, yeah, it needed a bit more of that.

Side bar: It controls well especially since I avoided the touch controls which looks like they were dreamt up by Captain Hook before he lost his hand to DVT after playing this game with touch controls.

June
15. Mario Kart 8 [Wii U] - Reached the credits via a gold in each cup (but mainly 50cc) and damn I'm going to count it, because otherwise it'll never count as finished. It may be as good as double dash and I've been playing that for a decade. Pushing next to unlock mirror (EDIT: Done). Also makes Sonic and All Stars seem so rough and unpolished in its track design. Which would have been unthinkable last month.

1. LA Noire (PC) - story, all DLC cases and some collectibles
2. Lego Marvel Super Heroes (PS3) - 100% & platinum trophy
3. OlliOlli (Vita) - all amateur and pro levels five-starred
4. The Last of Us (PS3) - NG+ and Left Behind DLC
5. The Lego Movie (PS3) - 100% & platinum trophy
6. Brothers: a Tale of Two Sons (PS3) - trophy max
7. Luftrausers (Vita) - level 10, all parts unlocked, blimp destroyed and SFMT mode unlocked
8. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PS3) - main mission + all Side and Extra Ops
9. Divekick (Vita) - story mode
10. MotorStorm: Apocalypse (PS3) - Veteran difficulty 100%
11. Mario Kart 8 (Wii U) - Gold kart

1. Gone Home (PC)
2. 紙 (PC)
3. Dear Esther (PC)
4. The Stanley Parable (PC)
5. Brothers: A tale of how shit the dualshock 3 triggers are. (PS3)
6. Dark Souls 2 (PS3)
7. Saints Row 4 (PC)
8. Gunpoint (PC)
9. Muramasa (Vita)
10. Transistor (PS4)
11. Child of Light (PS4)
12. Stick it to the man (PS4)
13. Contrast (PS4)
14. Thief (PS4)
15. Mario Kart 8 (WiiU)
By Dr Laves logic, I've completed it anyway.

1. Mass Effect 3
2. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
3. Estranged
4. The Room 2
5. Little Inferno
6. Shadow Blade
7. Deus Ex: The Fall
8. Far Cry 3
9. Stick it to the Man
10. Gone Home
11. Fairune
12. Merlin's Adventure
13. Dokuro: a puzzle-platformer that's an Android conversion of a Vita game. It was alright; a decent length due to being a 'proper' console game originally, but it suffered from inconsistent difficulty (a lot of levels being either insulting easy or brain-meltingly difficult). It had some original ideas and nice presentation but in the end it went on for so long I was actually quite glad when I finished it.

1. A New Beginning
2. Guacamelee!
3. Dark Souls
4. The Whispered World
5. The Book of Unwritten Tales - The Critter Chronicles
6. Machinarium
7. The Swapper
8. Heroine's Quest
9. Gemini Rue
10. Satazius
11. Valdis Story: Abyssal City
12. Dead Space 2
13. Far Cry 3 - This was excellent. It's impressive that a game that does so many things does them better than other smaller, apparently more focused games. The combat is excellent, particularly the feel of the shotguns that may be the best i've experienced since the original Doom. Also stealth is surprisingly good.
It's also hilarious, like when killing wildlife to make wallets and purses and also seeing a tiger attack an outpost and killing all the oposition for us.

The plot is mostly ok for a video games, except for some uncomfortable colonialist/slightly racist vibes, but the characters and the script were much better that was is usual in games of this type

1. Mass Effect 3
2. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
3. Estranged
4. The Room 2
5. Little Inferno
6. Shadow Blade
7. Deus Ex: The Fall
8. Far Cry 3
9. Stick it to the Man
10. Gone Home
11. Fairune
12. Merlin's Adventure
13. Dokuro
14. Tiny & Big: Grandpa's Leftovers. This was fun for most of the game but lost it a bit on the last level by sticking you in a very confined space with a single route through; which which pretty much wastes the fun tools the game gives you. It's still very much worth playing but it's crying out for a sequel with level design that makes better use of the central mechanics.

1. Mass Effect 3
2. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
3. Estranged
4. The Room 2
5. Little Inferno
6. Shadow Blade
7. Deus Ex: The Fall
8. Far Cry 3
9. Stick it to the Man
10. Gone Home
11. Fairune
12. Merlin's Adventure
13. Dokuro
14. Tiny & Big: Grandpa's Leftovers
15. Monument Valley: beautiful and awesome but incredibly short and very easy; I was expecting more challenging puzzles from it as the design and game engine would certainly bear it. Still well worth playing though.

28. Pixeljunk: Shooter Ultimate (PS4) Yeah, it's pretty great. My only complaint is that it should have been harder. It was almost too pleasant and easy to roll through notwithstanding some challenging boss fights. In fact, the last level with light and dark environments was easily the hardest of the lot and all the better for it. I wanted more enemies, more bullets coming at 'cha, more harderest. It's strange because the last few bosses aren't a walk in the park at all and there's even a bullet hell boss. It's like they saved up the toughest challenges for the bosses when they could have easily made each level swarm with more baddies pew pew pew'ing your face off as you dance around trying to find the little fanny-men hiding in the corners of the map.

They might have made some areas unfinishable if you shoot the wrong bit of water/lava whatever in the wrong order without scoping out what they wanted you to do, but no, it seems that every level is designed to be finished quickly without ever getting stuck at a dead end if you don't do the level "properly". It's too pleasant then. It's trying hard to please so you never get stuck and you come back to find all the hidden diamonds or whatever.

I shouldn't really complain though because there's a fair amount of game in there. It certainly won't take a couple of hours to finish and I must have fannied about for a good 8 hours or so collecting a total of 429 diamonds. I'm going to guess there were 450. Anyway, I'm not going back to mop up the remaining ones and finding the remaining secret stuff because, y'know, it's boring and I've got plenty of other games to play, but if you're into that and getting all your cheevo's then I imagine that this'd keep you more than busy.

That makes it sound rubbish. It ain't. It's brill! And free! FREEEEE! For PS4 owners.

To summarise: If you like Thrust and always wanted water/lava/liquid metal/light and dark physics and to shoot and collect stuff then you'll love this game that's just like Thrust with water/lava/liquid metal/light and dark physics and shooting and collecting stuff.

And, let's face it, there's no higher praise than that.

1. Super Mario 3D Land (3DS)
2. Pikmin 2 (Gamecube)
3. Heavy Rain (PS3)
4. Dear Esther (PC)
5. Crysis Warhead (PC)
6. Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360)
7. RE5: Lost in Nightmares (Xbox 360)
8. Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War (PC)
9. RE5: Desperate Escape (Xbox 360)
10. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (PC)
11. The Room (Android)
12. Assassin's Creed II (Xbox 360)

Frustrating controls at times, where it seems impossible to point the analog stick exactly in the right direction for a vital jump, partially due to the camera swinging about at just the wrong time. Still, I got it to 95% completed and did all optional missions so it must have been compelling, I suppose. Story is bland throughout, but then the end is very interesting and makes you want to see what's next.

Bleeding edge, I am.