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Another game from Stasis universe finished today: CAYNE: Deluxe Edition. It was as good as previous, although much shorter. The puzzles were less complicated, although few of them gave me headaches, while trying to solve them :) . The ending was this time much more predictable, but it did not spoiled my enjoyment of the game.

All my games finished in 2019 can be found >>>HERE<<<
Post edited November 09, 2019 by MMLN
The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game

This game is a short (<1hr) point-and-click adventure. It is very easy, not necessarily a bad thing but I did not find it funny or charming, rather it was slow and tedious. Not recommended.
ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West Premium Edition

A pretty fun third person brawler game with some mild tactical puzzling when the enemies are to strong or numerous to take head-on. I never did quite get the hang of the brawling, some enemies still gave me an extremely hard time towards the end unless I resorted to using the limited availability stun ammo against them.

Lots of Tomb Raider style platforming, except that unlike Lara, Monkey here is not stupid enough to let the player make him jump to his death. Point to the next flashing bit and press the Jump button, and Monkey jumps; point anywhere else, Monkey stays put. The only way to take damage while platforming is from enemies or hazards that you need to time.

I liked the story and the interactions between the the player character Monkey and his companion/captor Trip (less so with Pigsy introduced much later). I hadn't even connected this game to the Journey to the West story until a few chapters in when Monkey's name was revealed. I wasn't familiar enough with the original to get the hint from "Trip". Still not sure how I feel about the ending.

This edition also has an extra campaign with the Pigsy's character's quest to build himself the perfect robot waifu. A man after many of our own hearts after all! This campaign plays quite differently from the main game - instead of being a lightly tactical brawler, this is moderately tactical shooter, as Pigsy has no melee attacks but does have a gun with unlimited ammo and acquires some really useful (indispensable even) gadgets with cool-down activations over the course of the story. You have to wonder though, why the hell did he not use any of these gadgets to help Monkey and Trip in the main campaign???

Tried to run the game in 4k DSR, but my system couldn't quite handle it, so I just modified the config files for 8x MSAA instead.

Mirror

No decent, self-respecting individual should touch this disgusting hentai match3 puzzler with a 30 foot pole. They should play something wholesome like HuniePop instead. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some additional endings to unlock.
Post edited November 10, 2019 by kalirion
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Leroux: Tyrants of the Moonsea (NWN:EE)

I'm a bit torn on this one.

On the one hand, it's an excellent showcase for some stunningly cool community created tilesets and monster models that I haven't seen used in any other single player module yet and that really give the term "enhanced" a new meaning. The voiceovers are also top notch and do not vary in recording quality as they did in Darkness over Daggerford. There is a whole new overland map of the Moonsea region and fans of the old Goldbox games or Forgotten Realms lore in general will be delighted to (re-)visit such places as Hillsfar, Mulmaster, or Zhentil Keep, including dealings with their tyrannic rulers, their forces, allies and opponents (Zhentarim, Red Plumes, Wizards of Thay, Harpers etc.). The story, while not particularly outstanding and more linear than Darkness Over Daggerford, is not the worst either, it's pretty solid D&D fare. The writing is quite good in general, there are some interesting companions and a substantial amount of content (I didn't track the time on my playthrough, but on the Vault page for the free AL3: Tyrants of the Moonsea gameplay length is listed as 6-10 hours, and I'm pretty sure the EE version is much longer than that, probably twice as much? Just a guess though). I played the free version years ago but I did not remember a thing about it, so I can't compare what's new, but I have a feeling it is quite a bit. In addition to the new tilesets, models, overland map, voiceovers, and possibly extended story and quests, there are also new intro and outro movies, the latter depending on the choices you made at the end (at least three somewhat different endings). All in all, I enjoyed playing it.
As someone that just completed the module too, my overall impression of it is good despite the few bugs/issues i encountered.

On the other hand I noticed several problems with it as well: First and foremost, I felt the balance both in combat and economy was all over the place. I had been warned that the combat in this DLC campaign was very, very difficult, but could not confirm it at all. I'm usually content playing NWN on Normal and don't mind if it's a little easy, but Tyrants had such a lack of challenge that I set the difficulty up to Hardcore D&D and fights were still a walk in the park and rather boring because of it (I also tried Very Difficult and it was still easy, just gave the opponents more HP and thereby slightly prolonged the boredom). I have to admit, I brought in my character from AL2 (Crimson Tides of Tethyr), and since there was no item strip at the start, I was way wealthier and better equipped as a newly created character would have been (you get a +3 weapon if you start fresh and 10k gold, but my character already had 600k gold, +5 weapon and boots of speed and many others things that also allowed me to better equip my new companions). So my mistake was to go along with that, thinking AL3/Tyrants would allow a seamless continuation from AL2 regardless, and I ended up feeling like I was cheating. But in the long run, I don't think it mattered all that much, since Tyrants of the Moonsea is an extreme Monty Haul game either way, and even with a new character I'd have been able to acquire all the powerful equipment soon enough without much trouble. And I don't think my good equipment can completely explain the imbalance away, because it shouldn't affect Challenge Rating and XP. My imported character was one level below the recommended starting level (you get leveled up to 15 if your character is below lvl 13, I think; mine was lvl 14), and yet the Challenge Ratings of opponents oscillated extremely all the time, from Effortless to Impossible (though even Impossible was easy most of the times), and most of the opponents at the end only gave 2XP per head, regardless of CR. Also, the most challenging opponent who was *actually* nearly impossible to defeat had no relation to the plot, no backstory, and was just sitting somewhere in a random room of an otherwise pretty empty dungeon.
Regarding the economy of the game, TotM throws a lot of powerful and valuable loot at you, way more than you can ever use for yourself, and selling it makes you very rich so you can buy more powerful stuff if you even need that, but it's a tough job and no fun at all, because (1) every merchant has a cap on store funds and it's usually rather low compared to the value of the loot you find, so sooner than you'd think, the merchant will not be able to take the loot of your hands anymore unless you buy something expensive from them, so they get more money to spend; (2) they also have a cap on how much they're willing to spend for your most valuable items; let's say you have an item that's worth 25k, then one merchant will only offer you 5k at max, another 10k, the third 15k, and if you're lucky you'll find someone that will pay 20k; (3) not every merchant will buy every kind of item; and (4) merchants are spread over several towns of the Moonsea region. All rather realistic, but it makes looting and selling a real chore with lots of inventory space/weight management and running to and fro involved. Even more annoying, you can't fast-travel to all towns directly via the overland map, but you often have to go to a harbor town and board a ship first to reach the other side of the Moonsea.
I have played the module twice as a fresh character and think part of that is mainly due to D&D itself with how overpowered spell casters can get. The problem you had reminds me of Dragon Age Origins and transferring your character into Awakening expansion. You already start out high level and with the best gear, so makes everything easy.)

Starting out as a melee character or build relying on good gear. The module is quite rough early on. In contrast, my level 16 half-orc wizard breezed though the module with little effort.

And as someone that hoard every bit of loot, i had problems selling the loot a couple times until i could get to the next town. (Melvaunt central market district have the best merchants/ high gold cap for buying btw. Gond's temple buys items up to 25k and made it possible to sell every loot i found in the later part of the module)

There's another "realistic" system in place causing your party to get tired once per day, resulting in temporary stat loss, and if you don't pay attention to it, it can happen at the most unfortunate times, like shortly before a battle (or even in the midst of one?). Not that it mattered very much, with the general difficulty being so low.
Never felt this was annoying. I rested a lot though to refresh spells/buffs so never got the debuff in combat.

The module makes ample use of environmental sounds to create a nice atmosphere which I'd usually applaud but it often goes a bit over board with it, confusing "ample" with "excessive", especially with regard to voiceovers, to an extent that there are hardly any pauses between the voice sounds and occasionally the same ones can be heard simultaneously, even. This quickly got on my nerves in some locations.
I thought the atmosphere was fine personally. But i guess that is a subjective opinion, so will vary depending on who you ask. I quite liked the extra music that was added though. From the epic battle music to the music at the various inns.

So, I'm unsure whether to recommend the DLC or not; it's good but could have been much better still. I don't regret playing it or paying for it though. Some things remain unresolved at the end, btw, and open up the possibility of a sequel.
Yeah, i noticed the hints of a sequel/new dlc module too. Even before the ending. One of the npcs (the dukes adventuring party) mentioned something about their next adventure might be in Westgate.

I'd say it is worth recommending. But that is just my opinion. I really enjoyed the module and story. It also gave me the urge to start playing the other premium modules (currently playing Darkness over Daggerford)
Post edited November 10, 2019 by FoxySage
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FoxySage: Never felt this was annoying. I rested a lot though to refresh spells/buffs so never got the debuff in combat.
I played a spellcaster, too, a cleric (admittedly also the most overpowered class), but I seldom felt the need to rest because it was so easy anyway (and buffs lasted almost a day).

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FoxySage: I thought the atmosphere was fine personally. But i guess that is a subjective opinion, so will vary depending on who you ask. I quite liked the extra music that was added though. From the epic battle music to the music at the various inns.
Oh right, I forgot about the music. The new soundtrack is very nice as well. What I meant about the atmosphere is e.g. each and every time you arrive at a port, you hear the same "Ahoy! ...." voice sample, and sounds repeat very frequently. Like I said, it even happened to me several times that the same voice sample was played almost simultaneously, as if a couple of twins were shouting them ... To me that's definitely too much. I guess the sounds were fine, but the frequency of them was much too high.

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FoxySage: I'd say it is worth recommending. But that is just my opinion. I really enjoyed the module and story. It also gave me the urge to start playing the other premium modules (currently playing Darkness over Daggerford)
I had played all the other premium modules already before ToTM. It's definitely one of the best ones, it's also a bit nicer to look at than the rest, with the best voiceovers of all, but all in all I think my favorite one was Darkness Over Daggerford.
Post edited November 10, 2019 by Leroux
Finished a few ones since last post:
- Bone Episode 2: More of the same. It's ok but nothing really exciting and the story doesn't end.
- The Sexy Brutale: A good game even though it has some flaws (can be repetitive by moments if you fail to go to the needed places at the correct time).
- Broforce: A good game too, very brutal but it needs to be played in small sessions to avoid being too repetitive. The last level is a bit a pain in the ass (difficult and very very long compared to others).

Full list here.
Monument

A meh-to-decent Unity-made Quake-style FPS with some serious problems such feeling like the gameplay is too slow, a few awful platforming sections, having only a single save slot, and a level with a moving platform you have to keep an eye on as missing it means you have to start the level over (or hope your last save was early enough to allow you to catch up). I did appreciate how there was no ammo cap for guns (or not one that I ever reached anyway.)
Haunted Legends 5: The Stone Guest(Collector Edition-PC)

Note: I am mostly done(the main game is done, just have to do the extra content/level).

This game continues where the last few games left off, with you being a "detective"(though of which jurisdiction I cannot say) chasing a vile dwarf-like creature who does bad things wherever he goes.

Likes: Nice graphics as always(for the most part*), and somewhat decent plot. The hidden object scenes were nice(if albeit a bit simple), and the music is good for such a game.

Dislikes: The McGuffin(McMuffin?) was a bit boring in this game compared to other games....it was essentially a heart pendant with gem hearts to fit within it, and different stains(colors to paint it with)/covers/gem colors which one could change but which seemingly did nothing. I had more fun with the ones from a few of the other games(like the cards from the first game and the crystal souls from one of the others).

Also some of the voices didn't seem to fit(like Juan, who you meet about halfway into the game...odd voice choice on that one) well or were just plain odd.

Nitpicks: We never(so far till now) discover where the detective is from/more about him or much about the villain beyond a few basic motivations....hopefully more will be revealed in future games(there are 15 I think).

This game is pretty decent though, but try to get it for cheaper/not on Bigfish if possible as(imo) 20 dollars is a bit too much even for games like this.
Greedfall

While I spent a lot of time talking about this in another thread, I'll just say...

... a beautiful world, wonderful characters and performances, a strong story with interesting and engaging quests, good combat, and certainly the best thing that Spiders has made. That being said, it has Spiders RPG DNA -- lengthy campaign with a lot of backtracking, re-used assets, limited action cut-scenes, and appearances from time-to-time by glitches and jank.. Like Vampyr, It sits on the very edge of AAA RPGs... just shy of taking that last step and bounding over-the-top.

For me, Greedfall is one of the best games I have played in recent years, but I would be reticent to encourage others to try the game who don't already have an affinity for Spiders' particular style.
Spider-Man (PS4Pro)

Best movie I've watched this year.

It's a technical Marvel (that's like a pun..get it?..because it's a Marvel IP...get it now?). Really it's one of the most amazing looking city scapes in a game ever, plus it also ran very well. The Spiderman web slinging and traversal through the city is natural and easy with a bit of practice. I really think they nailed the world and traversal part of making a Spider-Man game.

Pretty average game though. The story was actually pretty good. But the way it was delivered was infuriating. Seriously the entire story campaign consists primarily of cutscenes joined together by thinly disguised QTE's. All major boss fights, wait for the prompt hit the right buttons. Chase someone in a series of cutscenes with QTE's. You are hardly ever in control during the story stuff. There is none of the great mini level design of the Arkham series where you solve simple puzzles to progress in an almost metroidvania way. Outside the awesome city itself this game has no further level design at all. I came to loath the games missions and just wanted it all to finish in the end. The only exceptions to the above cutscene festival are the little laboratory mini games you sometimes need to complete to progress...but even those get a bit old in the end.

Of course lots of open world games like this have mediocre main story missions but make up for it with the open world optional stuff. Here the game does better and initially was great fun. But the game only drip feeds you little bits at a time as you progress in the story. That's probably to hide the fact that most of the stuff is incredibly tedious and repetitive. Most of the side stuff is fight waves of the same spawning enemies. Five times for each of the main four factions for almost each area...making over 100 fights if you want full completion. I'm never going to get full completion on this one. Seriously, this game makes those base missions in Mafia 3 feel fresh and exciting...at least each building you raid in Mafia was a different building and were fun if you didn't try to do them all at once. So unfortunately the game wasn't really redeemed by the open world either. Some of the proper side missions actually were okay though.

In the end the game was a blast for the first 10 hours, no game has ever felt like being Spider-Man like this and the city is amazing. But after 10 hours I started getting bored, by 20 hours I was playing it just to end it. Not a terrible game by any means but the most disappointing one I've played this year because I was expecting it to be one of the best- Insomniac generally make great games that I usually really like.
Post edited November 11, 2019 by CMOT70
Stories: the Path of Destinies. Great story, good but not great replay value,(excessive repetition of story choices)combat that was good up to the point it got massively repetitive, make for a game I'm glad I played but that left a bad aftertaste in my mouth. Which is why I'm not super-psyched to try Omensight, the spiritual successor.
Secret of Mana Snes.

I wasn't particularly fond of this game, back when the game came out in the 90's. There were a lot of things about the gameplay that were bugging me and I didn't really want to finish the game, but the amazing soundtracks kept me going. So my first playthrough was quick, as I was neglecting a lot the game features (like magic).

This time, I decided to give Secret of Mana a second chance and play the game in a thorough manner. So I took the time to level up my characters, to level up their weapons and max out my magic (minus a few buff spells that I didn't care about) and get the couple items here and there that are not necessary to complete the game. I gave the game more attention and overall, I really enjoyed it. Poor story but awesome soundtracks. I will probably give the 2018 remake a try, in a couple years or so!
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Cambrey: Secret of Mana Snes.

I wasn't particularly fond of this game, back when the game came out in the 90's. There were a lot of things about the gameplay that were bugging me and I didn't really want to finish the game, but the amazing soundtracks kept me going. So my first playthrough was quick, as I was neglecting a lot the game features (like magic).

This time, I decided to give Secret of Mana a second chance and play the game in a thorough manner. So I took the time to level up my characters, to level up their weapons and max out my magic (minus a few buff spells that I didn't care about) and get the couple items here and there that are not necessary to complete the game. I gave the game more attention and overall, I really enjoyed it. Poor story but awesome soundtracks. I will probably give the 2018 remake a try, in a couple years or so!
Seiken Densetsu 3 / Secret of Mana 2 is better in basically all ways but the soundtrack, you should really try that. There's a good fan translation out there and even a hack that enables 3 player support and works well.
Hijacking my single comment to post my list here.

1. NieR: Automata – 9/10
2. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – 9/10
3. Transistor – 8,5/10
4. System Shock 2 – 8/10
5. Doom II: No Rest for the Living - 8/10
6. Battlestar Galactica Deadlock – 7,5/10
7. Draw Puzzle – 7/10
8. Hexcells – 7/10
9. The Sexy Brutale – 7/10
10. Ducktales: Remastered – 7/10
11. The Swapper – 7/10
12. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault – Spearhead – 7/10
13. Tomb Raider II – 6,5/10
14. Kingdom Rush - 6,5/10
15. Kingdom Rush: Frontier – 6,5/10
16. Return to Castle Wolfenstein – 6,5/10
17. MDK 2 – 6,5/10
18. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault – 6,5/10
19. Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000 – 6,5/10
20. Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation – 6,5/10
21. Forward to the Sky - 6/10
22. Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter – 6/10
23. Serious Sam 3: BFE – 6/10
24. Zuma's Revenge! – 6/10
25. Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion – 6/10
26. Zeno Clash – 6/10
27. Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior – 6/10
28. Commander Keen Episode IV: Secret of the Oracle – 5,5/10
29. Commander Keen Episode V: The Armageddon Machine – 5,5/10
30. Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham – 5,5/10
31. Kingdom Rush Origins – 5,5/10
32. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire – 5,5/10
33. Tomb Raider III – 5,5/10
34. Stronghold (1993) – 5,5/10
35. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron – 5,5/10
36. Gorky 17 – 5,5/10
37. Commander Keen Episode I: Marooned on Mars – 5/10
38. Commander Keen Episode II: The Earth Explodes – 5/10
39. Jill of the Jungle: Jill Goes Underground – 5/10
40. Jill of the Jungle: The Complete Trilogy – 5/10
41. Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter – 5/10
42. Jazz Jackrabbit 2: The Christmas Chronicles – 5/10
43. Contrast – 5/10
44. Hero of the Kingdom II – 5/10
45. Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator – 5/10
46. Heroes of Annihilated Empires – 5/10
47. Darkstone – 5/10
48. Watch Dogs – 4,5/10
49. Karateka (2012) – 4,5/10
50. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - Breakthrough – 4,5/10
51. Sakura Santa – 4,5/10
52. Commander Keen Episode III: Keen Must Die! – 4/10
53. Jill of the Jungle: Jill Saves the Prince – 4/10
54. Fancy Skulls – 4/10
55. Shuyan Saga – 4/10
56. Total Overdose: A Gunslinger‘s Tale in Mexico – 4/10
57. Rage of Mages – 4/10
58. Sakura Angels – 3/10
59. Undefeated – 3/10
60. Hentai Crush – 3/10
61. Sakura Swim Club – 3/10
62. Sakura Spirit – 3/10
63. Sakura Fantasy: Chapter 1 – 2,5/10
64. Sakura Beach – 2/10
65. Sakura Beach 2 – 2/10
66. Kreed – 1,5/10
67. Hentai Neighbors – 1/10
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Original post:

I wasn't posting here this year but I figured I should make at least one contribution.

I finished Kreed. Russian FPS from 2003. I have free DVD from some gaming mag and I decided to give it a shot.

PROS first:
- It starts and it kind of finishes
- It tries to tell a story
- You can name your character and pick its gender (Male, female, neutral)
- My PC haven't exploded while playing it

Few CONS now:
- It is ugly, even for 2003
- Enemies are boring. Many of them shows only for a single chapter. Those who don't are regular soldier dudes with
different weapons
- Last chapter enemies are floaty orange balls
- It tries to tell a story but it makes no sense and I wasn't able to follow it
- It starts with a criminal fleeing into area of space that can't be ever escaped, your unit pursuing him and being
dismayed you can't leave the area that no one has ever left
- In long series of logs one character tells about meeting Creators of their world. They are supposed to be the
developers and he had beer and good times with them before returning to the game world while the rest of the story
tries to be quite serious.
- Enemies don't react when shot and there is no way to tell if your are hurting them
- Gun wielding enemies look almost identical when walking and when shooting
- Several times there are locked doors/portal/whatever near your starting location; one then has to fight through the whole long level to push a button/pick a key and then walk back through the long empty level back to those doors
- Most weapons are boring
- Third most powerful weapon is the only one efficient against orange balls but before them refused to shoot in primary
mode most of the time
- The second most powerful weapon is shit when used by a player
- The most powerful weapons crashed the game when used
- Saving gives no indication it succeeded or failed and it only lasted fraction of second
- Other times save could take half a minute while looking like the game froze
- Sometime it crashed during loading
- Sounds are boring and I don't remeber music at all
- You can name your character and pick its gender (Male, female, neutral) but then you pick its model and they are all
male
- It ends by walking into a generic room that is full of white light. Your dude looks at the light and then you see ship
flying away. THE END
Post edited February 05, 2021 by Vitek
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Klumpen0815: Seiken Densetsu 3 / Secret of Mana 2 is better in basically all ways but the soundtrack, you should really try that. There's a good fan translation out there and even a hack that enables 3 player support and works well.
Thanks for pointing that out!