Just completed Broforce. Been playing the campaign with my 4 & 5 year olds boys over the last year and have to say this is the most fun we've had with any local multi-player game (albeit there aren't that many around). It's just so crazy and intense all the time although the boys get very excited playing it and the sessions get really loud so half an hour at a time was enough for me sandwiched in the middle of them! There's a brilliant feeling of camaraderie though, especially when you've been stuck on a level for ages and one of you, with the end flag in sight, speed runs - jumping and shooting like a manic trying to reach the ladder dangling below the helicopter which signifies completing the level - queue the awesome electric guitar music and high fives all round. Pure gameplay. Pure fun. 10/10

Dropsy. I would say this is a very good point-and-click adventure. It's completely based on icons (whatever voice acting is gibberish), so you have to interpret what people want based on their thought/speech balloons and then try to give them that thing, so that they'll be your friends and let you hug them. Despite being about a fat, ugly clown, it's not a horror game but is actually quite sweet-natured. Dropsy is an easy character to like, he gets these cute animal buddies to help him out, and the game doesn't judge anyone (outside of maybe the villain, and even then I wouldn't say it's entirely devoid of sympathy). It's a pretty easy game, too.

There is a story but it's pretty thin and mostly just an excuse for "sad clown wants to hug people". My biggest criticism would be that the ending is too abrupt and it maybe leans too heavily on some lore that's easy to miss if you haven't done 100 percent of the game (you can finish without having to help out absolutely everyone). The graphics and animation are mostly gorgeous but there are some things here and there that I had trouble understanding because they were slightly too abstract.

I recently finished Half Life 2.

I've just finished sniper elite v2.It was awesome.Best sniping game ever.

Night in the Woods.

It's so good, I don't think I want to play videogames anymore for fear of utter disappointment.

I have continued to play Tales of Xillia 2 on my PS3, and I have just achieved today the "Debt" or Hot Spring Ending for a second time :). To get this one, you have to pay-off your debt, which you get shortly after the start of the game, and which is astonishing 20,000,000 gald. It's almost impossible to pay off during main story line, so you have to continue playing some postgame content. Especially the EX Hunts can give you some money to spend.

As a reward, during paying off your debt, you get some items, which helps you with various tasks in game (new skills, friendship boosters, cat food, etc.)

I have reached level 170 right before the Ending, and will need 30 more levels to get Max Level trophy and finish EX Dungeon and after that EX Team Coliseum Challenge, where I will play against the hardest cameo superbosses of this game. Then I will finally have done everything required for Platinum Trophy in this game as well \o/

List of Games, which I have finished in 2017

<span class="bold">Assassin&rsquo;s Creed IV: Black Flag</span> (PS4)

This is an open-world game, and it’s the first AC game I’ve played.

The open world in this game is a lot of fun, especially the sailing, with a variety of different pirate-y activities. However, the problem is that the open world content is constantly locked behind the story progression, with different activities/areas/upgrades not being available until you reach certain points in the story.

The problem is that story missions are pretty annoying and not fun at all. But that’s not why I play open world games, I play them for the open world stuff and as I first said above, the open world is a lot of fun. So the question is: “Is it worth slogging through the story missions to play the open world?” Overall I’d say yes, it’s still worth it (just barely).

I’d also be remiss in not mentioning the controls. For whatever reason, the same button for “run” is also used for all other actions while running such as climbing or jumping… which leads to many, many, many frustrating situations such as the character stopping to start climbing a wall when you simply wanted to run past it. This is not a rare occurrence, it happens constantly. Similarly, although to a lesser degree, the button for “loot” is also used for other actions such as “whistle” or “use item in the environment” which also leads to your character doing things you did not want.

Magi Trials

Another VN by Dharker Studios. Not long, expect around 2 hours tops for a single run. Which exactly fits my busy schedule these days.

Magi Trials is about your efforts entering a famous magical academy, but of course things won't go as easy as you'd liked them to go...

Story is interesting, characters are relatable, writing is not bad and art is - thanks gods! - not another carbon copy of manga-like bad fanart. So, yes, I enjoyed it.

So far in 2017: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2017/post15

<span class="bold">Final DOOM: TNT - Evilution</span>

This is an expansion pack of 30 new levels (plus 2 secret levels) for the game DOOM II. Nothing new is added, overall they are fun and I would recommend them if you enjoy DOOM and DOOM II (seriously, who wouldn’t?) and want more of the same.

Card City Nights
It was a good tabletop game, but in the end it was too long and the battles got repetitive. There isn't much strategy involved. You need a good deck, but defensive cards are mostly useless and you'll have far more success with an agressive deck with lots of good attack cards and some revive cards. You'll get these cards very early (at least when you are lucky) and so I hardly changed my deck after the first quarter of the game. The only thing that was hard was the final boss battle, because it's created very unfair and the opponent is allowed to cheat. Had to adjust my deck for that fight and it took some tries to find the right combination (and even then I needed some luck).

The story is quite funny and the characters are quirky and likeable. Music was good too.


Infected - The Twin Vaccine (Collector's Edition)
I really liked this HOG game. Not because it was very good, but because it has an interesting theme (outbreak of a deadly virus), a good atmosphere and mostly because it uses cheesy movie scenes instead of animated ones during cutscenes. The puzzles were typical HOG stuff though and (like always) didn't make much sense.

I even enjoyed the bonus material that you'll unlock when you complete this game. Bonus chapter wasn't as good as the rest of the game, but the "Behind the Scenes" feature in which they tell you something about the development of the game was quite interesting.

Complete list of finished games in 2017

Finished Until Dawn today (and my girlfriend has been watching me play it all the way through as she loves horror stuff).

I must say, as much as I dislike this whole genre of interactive movies, Until Dawn really impressed me. It's an entirely different league than Telltale's games and in my opinion also a lot better than Heavy Rain (which I did enjoy a lot, despite its faked interactivity and some very stupid moments and ideas). I started playing Until Dawn with mixed feelings, on one hand the production value is really high, on the other hand it's just an interactive teen slasher movie. With that kind of premise the developers categorically disqualified themselves from creating a brilliant masterpiece in terms of writing and I have little doubt that if this were a film rather than a game it would be B-movie at best, following almost every trope in the big book of horror flicks. I must admit, though, that after a somewhat rough start that introduces you to the band of circle-jerking bros 'n bitches the game actually becomes legitimately interesting, the characters manage to become likeable and you get hooked as you just NEED to find out what's actually going on. As expected the answers aren't some magnificent mindfuckery that will change your life but it is satisfying to get to the bottom of it.

What matters most, though, is that besides offering a fantastic presentation the game also used the format very well. Sure, there's a crapload of QTEs, but what Until Dawn does great is that these aren't just simple challenges to your dexterity, you won't just be presented with a game over screen and get another attempt, you have to make split second decisions that will actually affect the events, the character relationships and decide who lives and who dies. Like Telltale the devs do shove it down your throat how decisions matter but here the devs weren't held back by an indefinite length of the series, they didn't have to even out all big decisions an hour or two later because it would result in more branches than the studio can possibly provide content for. There's a start and an ending and a shitload of things can happen in-between. And thanks to offering many playable characters they could kill off literally anyone. And you know that and that's why you feel the pressure and you truly care. One moment I was indecisive and my favourite character was gone, bam, just like that. And damn, that hurt, possibly more than any other death I have witnessed in any video game ever. I was a little let down by the exploration part of the game with its painfully slow pace, seriously wonky controls and big limitations to where you can go and what you can do but they were definitely very atmospheric, so that's good.

Anyway, great stuff. Not a life-changing experience, not one of those games that make me beg for a sequel but certainly one intense ride that I will fondly remember and I hope will inspire other developers.

<span class="bold">Avadon: The Black Fortress</span> (Android)

Despite owning it for both Linux and Android, I fired up Avadon: The Dark Fortress on my tablet just to see how well it played on it. Next thing I know I'm already 5 hours into it and stuck to finishing it on the tablet as I couldn't access my saved games without rooting my device, and I didn't want to start over on my PC either. Upon reflection it must be more playable on a computer, with precise mouse control and keyboard hotkeys, but having to tap the screen didn't become much of a hassle either.

Gameplay is very basic, with only 4 base stats and only one choice when developing abilities for the characters. So it's very difficult, if not impossible, to ruin a build. And even if you manage to do it, or if you'd like to make some adjustments, there's a point in the story where you meet an NPC that can completely retrain everybody in your party. There are 4 available classes, and you don't really need to replay the game since you have access to all of them when choosing up to 2 companions that will accompany your main character on missions.

All the aforementioned design decisions make it, in my opinion, an excellent RPG for beginners in the genre like myself. However, these hypothetical RPG noobs need to really enjoy reading as there's A LOT of text in this game. If you can get past the monstrous walls of text the game throws at you, you'll be able to appreciate the strongest suit of the game: its story. I don't usually care much for the typical epic fantasy story, but the world and characters of Avadon are something else. Sure, there are fantastic creatures and lots of hacking and looting to do, but you also get to ponder about the motives and consequences of said hacking and looting. You are a Hand (read 'an agent') of Avadon, the fortress/agency tasked with defending the 5 nations of The Pact from the external rogue nations that try to bring it down, but also keeping The Pact itself united. Because indeed, not everything is peaches and cream within The Pact, as old rivalries and political machinations that threaten it from the inside.

It took me around 50 hours to complete the main story and most of the side missions, and I enjoyed every single one of them... except the last one. I mean, in the end you've got to make a very important decision (which is hinted to the player since quite early in the game), and depending on what you choose there's a final boss battle or not. I decided to take it on, but I had to give up after many tries as I could only count on two of my companion's help. The other two refused to help me because I didn't fully support them early on with some personal issues of theirs, even though I did what seemed morally right to me. Oh, well.

It's a pity that neither of its sequels (or any other game from Spiderweb, for that matter) are available on Linux or Android. However, I enjoyed this one so much that I got the second game in the series on the recent Summer Sale, and I'll expect to play it soon on Wine.


My list of finished games in 2017

Minesweeper

and

Solitair

xD

Deathtrap

A spin-off of the Van Helsing series, it expands the mini tower defense game you can play in the bases in Van Helsing. It's a very nice idea, since those mini games were really good.

And Deathtrap didn't disappoint me. First because it's in the Van Helsing universe, which I love (more than Victor Vran, even if they are quite similar). Second because in the normal difficulty level, battles didn't take too long, which is good for my schedule.

Deathtrap expands the game with lots and lots more challenges, levels, traps and monsters. There are even sometimes some sidequests which can earn you a decent amount of xp, skill points and maybe items.

The normal level difficulty took me a little less than 6 hours to complete. But that's in fact just the beginning of the game, since after that you unlock scenarios and the next level of difficulty. So it's a nice introduction before reaching the real challenge.

I consider it "completed" since I finished the normal difficulty, but I'll definitely keep that game installed and come back to it from time to time for a nice little challenge.

So far in 2017: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2017/post15

<span class="bold">Technobabylon</span> (AGS v3.3.5)

Excellent futuristic adventure with a mild cyberpunk flavour. It ranks without a doubt among the Top-3 best adventure games I've played this year, alongside <i>Kathty Rain</i> and <i>The Cat Lady</i>. It probably doesn't look as good as the former and its story isn't as dark and deep as that of the latter, but when put all together the final result is top-notch.

The story takes place between meatspace (i.e. the real world) and the Trance, a VR-cyberspace everyone can connect directly through implants on their brains. You can (most of the time) switch between one and the other at will, and you can also control up to three different characters -- usually only one at a time, but during the final part of the game you can (and must!) alternate freely between them. Both these mechanics allow for some clever puzzles and interactions.

As all other Wadjet Eye-published games this one is fully (and remarkably well) voice acted, featuring some of the 'usual suspects'. It also has an optional commentary audiotrack, which I usually listen to when replaying the game to see if I missed some optional content, while at the same time I learn some insights about the game's design, art, and music from its creators.

It's not available for Linux neither here or anywhere else, but it's perfectly playable with the native port of the AGS engine. However, in order to get voiceovers to work you need to use the old v3.3.5, as for some reason with newer versions you'll get music but not voice acting.


My list of finished games in 2017