The Tiny Bang Story
PC, Colibri Games, 2011

A charming side-scrolling puzzle game albeit very short. You pass through a total of only 5 levels where you are tasked with collecting puzzle pieces and completing various mini-puzzles in order to do so.

Imagine a children's book of Where's Waldo type settings and you have to locate a bunch of little things amidst cluttered pages, and then solve some brain teasers. And you have The Tiny Bang Story. Top it off by doing a standard jigsaw puzzle with the pieces you collect in each level.

Short (maybe 2-3 hours of playtime) but very quaint and charming. Would be a lot of fun for a younger kid.

6/10

The Witness - 11.9/10

I'm not totally "finished" but since I finished the main story, can def review at this point.

All I can say is that this game is phenomenal and exceeds the expectations I had for it while waiting ~3 years or however long it's been since Sony showed the first trailer as a "PS4 launch title". I loved Talos, as you all know, and this game is way better and deeper, it makes Talos look simple and shallow. I don't think I'll be an expert in being able to determine who will like this game and who won't, since puzzle games tend to evoke fickle reactions, I just know that I loved it and it will probably be a very long time before I play a game this good again.

Alright, I'm buying The Witness the first time it is $5 or less.

this. It's wishlisted, look forward to steam summer sale 2017

Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter

So I finished this game about 2 weeks ago, but haven't had the time to write a proper review so here goes.

Story: 10/10 The story is witty and engaging and will keep you riveted throughout the game. I found it hard to put it down at times. The heart and meat of the story where you had questions from the first game will be answered this game, plus you will learn a lot more about the characters.

Gameplay: 10/10 Much like the first game, the gameplay is still similar but they added some more components to the orbs and they added a party attack system which is very very helpful for the bosses. The game also prevents level grinding as when you hit a certain level in certain areas you don't gain as much experience and makes it very difficult to power level, so the challenge will always be there.

Music: 9.5/10 Memorable music to go along the game. You will know why the song the "Whereabouts of Light" is important.

Total: 10/10 It's very rare and difficult for a direct sequel to be better than the original, but this one is absolutely better than the first. One of the best JRPG games I've ever played right up there with Chrono Trigger, FF7, Grandia, and Suikoden. If you love JRPG's, GET THIS GAME! I sincerely hope that the publisher releases the third chapter of this series in the very near future.

Warhammer Online, they had to shut it down to make me stop playing (so you can guess my 10/10). Till death do us part...

To spare you of my extremely biased and rose-colored-glasses textwall rant, here is an old trailer:



And here is couple more lines about it <3

I enjoyed Beyond Two Souls, had no problem with gameplay or storyline.
Having said that, one playthrough is probably enough.
Worth a try if you're stuck for something to play.

Finished up The 11th Hour, the sequel to 7th Guest. I said a bunch about it in the random **** thread when I was still playing it.

It's a 1995 adventure game, with all the cheesy graphics, music, and FMV that implies. The game is objectively not great, but it is possibly worth your time as nostalgia. If you played the original 7th Guest back in the day and never played this, and if some part of you wants to nostalgize about that, playing 11th Hour wouldn't be a bad idea. It takes place in the same mansion as the first (there's a bonus video where they essentially say that all they did was take the old image assets and put dirt on things) with similar music and the same villain, Stauf, so you're getting all of that stuff again.

This style of puzzle is mostly disconnected from any plot or story. You wander around the mansion until you find a puzzle, and it's "move sliding tiles around" or "put bishops on a chess board without any of them being in each other's movement paths". There are also several where you compete against Stauf, the ghost of the house, in Connect 4 or Reversi variants. Supposedly these became much harder when computers got faster, because the AI can calculate more options now. I was actually able to finish most of the competitive puzzles though without cheating.

I spent 20 hours on it, which was a big surprise. I started it intending to just enjoy a small dose of nostalgia, but wound up enjoying myself enough to finish the game. Some puzzles got tiresome, and it's truly horrendous '90s FMV, but as you should know by now, truly horrendous '90s FMV is magnificent nostalgic cheesy gloriousness in 2016. It's breathtakingly great.

It's a 9/10 if you ONLY want to re-experience some '90s FMV and 7th Guest nostalgia for 2 hours, it's an 8/10 if you want up to 10 hours, and it's a 7/10 for the full game. It's a 5/10 if you don't particularly care about 7th Guest, but of course if you haven't played that you probably should, since it was the first big "multimedia" game along with MYST.

Another point that I already made is that this is definitely a better game now than it was in 1995. It was completely unimpressive at the time because it was graphically dated (I think), it takes place in the same locations as the prior game which had only come out 2-3 years earlier, and it has that bad FMV. All of those are now strengths rather than weaknesses.

Like imagine if Mario 64 2 had come out in 1998, and it took place in slightly changed versions of the same levels. Incredible as that may have been if you played it back then, it would be 10x better if you got to play it now for the first time.

Lol at my subtle brag "I beat some of the puzzles in 11th Hour without cheating."

Her Story - Another FMV game, but this one only from a year or two ago. It was an "indie darling" and won awards. It's set up as if you're on a 1990s police computer, and you have a video database to search through. The database is full of small snippets of a police interview of a woman. You search keywords (based on the transcript) to find more videos, so you can pursue different lines of inquiry as you pick up on different clues.

For the most part, from what I saw, there is no definitive "ending" or answers, it's just kinda what you can piece together on your own. Unsolved mysteries are almost always more interesting than solved ones, so I'm kinda okay with this (although it's possibly "solvable" and I just didn't dig hard enough). There is still an "ending" of sorts, you'll see what I mean.

I played 3 hours according to Steam. Worth the time if you're intrigued and are interested in expanding your gaming horizons.

The Last Door: Episodes 1-2 - Standard retro-style adventure game, there are 5 episodes total. Gothic horror in the Victorian era. Nothing new here (except for a scene confirmed by the creators as a reference to David Lynch's Rabbits - still not worth it EDIT: the scene I thought was a reference was not, it's coming later apparently END EDIT) just takes elements you've seen in a ton of adventure games already. The free "5 Days a Stranger" series, from what I've seen of this so far, is quite similar but much better (and $0).

Resident Evil : Game Cube

A haunted house B movie sensibility brought to life by a combination of metroidvania exploration and point and click like item based puzzle solving, all made much more tense by rationing the players ability to save.

Using in game items to ration your saves is a great design decision that forces the player to push on and make progress knowing that behind any door could be a monster or trap they are unable to beat which will send them back hours, coupled with the spooky camera angels and great music It creates real tension.
I opted to play on the lower difficulty setting and while my first few hours in the mansion were a fraught affair frequently low on ammo or health or both. Inching around trying to get back to a typewriter to save. By the end of the game I had a chest full of health packs and ink ribbons.
Other problems included a tiny inventory and a system that prevents you from dropping an object to pick another one up so your constantly forced to back track to do inventory management at the few places you are allowed to do so. Rudimentary combat you just face in the enemies general direction and blast away and some obtuse puzzles I was forced to the internet for solutions four or five times and a couple of very lacklustre boss fights.

Overall I liked the atmosphere but was infuriated and underwhelmed by the actual game play. The story was pure nonsense played straight and failed to engage me. 6.5/10

Yeah I got this in the current Narrative Humble Bundle, installed and played about 2 hours today (accidentally deleted my progress about 45 minutes in the first time, though, so have probably put about half that in). I think it's really cool and would definitely recommend it, especially at it's current price of $1 in the bundle (plus you get two other games). I may have prematurely reached the "ending" but you can go back and see more and I certainly plan to (there are achievements that track how much of the footage you've seen and I'm at less than 50%).

My wife and I were bored over memorial day so we browsed the ps4 store. She was intrigued by the look of Tales From the Borderlands and though neither of us have played a game in the actual series, we have really enjoyed all of Telltale's games to that point and decided to try it out.

It's fantastic, and it now beats out The Walking Dead S1 for my favorite TT game. The writing is off the charts, the storytelling mechanic of flashbacks telling the primary part of the story. Narration from two different protagonists, often embellishing their parts and downplaying or arguing the parts told by the other. Control of both protagonists at different points. It's so much fun.

The game play is standard Telltale fare, so this game is all about the story and having a great time with the writing. 5 episodes runs about 8-10 hours and we knocked it out in a day.

Highly recommended. Full enchilada. 10/10

Uncharted 4

I didn't play the first 3 until they announced that the UC4 Multiplayer Beta was available to those that bought the "Drake Collection". But its Naughty Dog, and because of TLOU, how could I not!! They were fun, with a good story, though the controls were a little funky from time to time.

UC4 was a bit different. The story was freaking fantastic and the game was incredibly fun! Hell of way to wrap it up. The single player mode I'd give an easy 9.5/10

Now I'll review the main reason I bought it, the Multiplayer:

Coming from TLOU, which was my first console multiplayer ever, I was very excited. I went from one of the worst TLOU: Factions players ever into an FN Try-Hard type. I stopped playing a couple of months ago (thank you The Division) after having had enough of how the game had evolved into nothing that seemed to involve gun-skill.

And I didn't just quit, I quit with a freaking vengeance. And so did a lot of my friends. The community is small, but its loyal as hell, and a lot of us are kind of real-life friends now. Some of those friends are actually renowned players/streamers and Naughty Dog even confers with them about improvements. So when they all dove in head first for UC4: MP, I had no choice. And I was quite happy to have a new game to play with my friends.

But I don't like it. At all. TLOU's MP started out phenomenally, and was a slow drop into madness, but UC4's was immediate. I'm not the least bit attached to UC4. There is certain brutality and intimacy in how you fight in TLOU, and I'd hoped that was the case with UC4, but its just freaking madness. Its way too close to a run-and-gun, blind-fire fest. Its a game I think I could eventually get good at, but I'm not willing to put the work in on this one. It takes a lot of finesse to aim in this one, but when blind-fire works just as well, if not better, its just not that much fun. I'd probably give the MP 4/10.

I just finished the first Uncharted and found it to be realllly mediocre; pretty well made but with repetitive gameplay, unexciting "exploration", and kind of a shrug-worthy resolution to the story. That said it is like 9 years old and may have been fairly groundbreaking at the time; something like Assassin's Creed II does almost everything far better but came out two years later. Ill eventually get through the other 2 and pick up 4 when it's cheap.

I should add that I didn't think TLOU was nearly as good as most people on the forum (and general public) seem to think.

I meant the entire saga as a whole. 4 is easily the best, but #2 was well put together. Combined, it's really good.

TLOU really is a masterpiece, and again, I'm speaking about the story and the multiplayer as a whole. Each one on its own is as well, but combined made it for my favorite game of all time, and the MP is pretty close to my most played game of all time.

Super Mario 3D World

10/10

Well, nearly finished, with one star left on the epic final level which I probably won't be bothering to replay to get, having spent around 30 hours just to get to the end of it.

I decided to review this after reading a comment that there are no wii u games he would enjoy playing on with his children. This is a special game for me as my daughter and I played through many of the levels together. While the only possible downside is the availability of the white tanooki, this actually is a positive as it gives younger players a chance on tough levels yet still provides a challenge, and of course, the item can be ignored to make levels harder.

The game looks and sounds beautiful, with some genuinely breath taking moments. I don't keep up with the latest developments in other hardware, so perhaps real-time lighting and shadow effects come as standard these days, but these graphics are just flawless. In fact the entire thing is flawless, it is clear the game was intensively tested - this attention to detail is what keeps me hooked on this stuff and ignorant of other systems which I find just sloppy and tedious. The controls are also unparalleled imo.

Once again Nintendo has re-defined the platformer. For all the bad press the wii u has received, it's hard to believe this stunning title is in it's catalogue. This, alongside Mario kart 8, super Mario maker, splatoon, Mario and sonic Olympics, wii sports, Mario party 10, continue to entertain and delight me and my kids.

Gonna do a 2 for 1 since I recently finished two games that consisted of similar concepts-nothing but boss battles-executed in quite different manners

Furi (PS4, PC) - This game that was totally off my radar and I only caught wind about it because it was free with PS+ a few months back. It starts with your character out getting wailed on and berated while shackled in some futuristic prison but you're soon freed by the narrator and start your first battle with the jailer. Each stage of battle generally consists of two parts: an initial phase focused on dodging enemy projectiles while hitting them with your own (think a twin-stick shooter) followed by an up-close-and-personal phase where you are parrying and countering their melee attacks. Each boss then has multiple stages, generally increasing in difficulty up to a sometimes-frustrating final phase where you may be dodging an overwhelming number of projectiles and dangerous areas on screen. The formula remains generally the same throughout the entire game, though some mix it up and eschew certain phases; for example, there is one boss that is entirely melee, with part of the battle taking place on a two-dimensional plane (the game otherwise offers freedom of motion within an arena).

One of the themes that I noticed reviews focusing on was how difficult this game is, but in my opinion, it's the good kind of challenging (and frankly I didn't think it was that hard, though I did get stuck at a few parts). The focus of the game is pattern recognition and quick reflexes, using your dashing dodge to avoid the multitude of particles on the screen while getting in shots of your own, then parrying and dodging your enemy's telegraphed attacks in the melee phase. You get three "lives", one of which regenerates if you make it to the next stage of battle, though your enemy's health bar will be refilled if you fall; once you lose all three lives, you have to start the entire battle over, which was frustrating on several of the longer boss battles since the early stages could be relatively easy while the final stage would feel nigh impossible. However, the game basically give you a set of rules during your first battle, which is then sticks to throughout - you can dash, parry, shoot, and melee and your attacks can be charged for more damage. Controls are responsive enough that it almost never feels cheap when you lose outside of exceptions where the screen is peppered with danger areas and your dash isn't quite good enough to avoid everything. Frankly, I wish there were more games with this degree of "challenge" out there - I like learning patterns and being forced to improve in order to advance rather than just bludgeoning my way through or getting lucky.

There's something of a story told by a narrator who follows you throughout. I actually enjoyed the exposition, though sometimes the time between battles went on a little long (you can just click a button and let it go on it's own if you don't care). One caveat, though, and don't read any further if you want to go in completely fresh as this will serve as a minor spoiler: the "resolution" of the story stunk, in my opinion. The game seems to be building to something bigger, and while it does sort of give you a resolution, I found it very unsatisfying. Nothing is really explained with regards to the narrator, who seems a lot more interesting than your character throughout the rest of the game. Play this game expecting satisfaction from the action and your increasing skill level but be prepared to be disappointed by the narrative, if you care about that sort of thing.

Titan Souls (PC, PS4, Vita) - This game had been more on my radar since it was hyped a bit before release, likely due to it being published by Devolver. I ended up getting it as part of their HumbleBundle, which looks to me like one of the better ones in recent memory. It's got a simple but clean graphics style and even simpler gameplay - one button to dodge (hold to run) and one to fire your lone arrow (hold to call it back to you). Your opponents are the titular Titans, each of which has a unique attack and movement pattern as well as an obvious vulnerable spot that you must strike with your arrow while avoiding their attacks. If you get hit a single time, you are forced to restart from a checkpoint, which at times lead to frustration as it takes 15-20 seconds to return to a battle but only 2-3 seconds to get killed.

I thought this was a pretty cool concept and the execution is generally strong as well. You need to be almost constantly moving in order to avoid the enemy attacks but the catch is you need to stand still to charge up your attack (makes the arrow go faster and farther but not required to get a kill) or to reclaim your arrow. This creates a lot of tension, where you know what you need to do but need to figure out the muscle pattern to actually execute it. Some battles felt truly epic, with me dodging and missing multiple shots before finally landing that perfect blow - my victories over the last two bosses felt like things of beauty. Unfortunately, it is also possible to win through something closer to dumb luck, where you can position yourself so that the boss ends up vulnerable to your attack without putting yourself in harm's way. There is something deeply unsatisfying about just tapping the button to fire a dinky arrow strike into an enemy who happens to have paused right next to you in a game like this, where each battle is supposed to be an epic.

The last point is why I prefer Furi to Titan Souls, even if I'm far more likely to revisit the latter - I've already earned my victories in Furi but I wonder if I'll get the itch to repeat some of the titans that seemed a little too easy in regular mode. Overall I really enjoyed both games and would recommend them to people who think that the concepts sound interesting. Both took about four hours to complete (maybe a little more for Furi) and are therefore somewhat expensive at their full price points, but given how unique they felt in today's game landscape, I don't think I'd feel terrible playing for either, especially if you're the type to replay games.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Overall an enjoyable experience. If you like this style of game, you will have fun playing it, but don't expect the mind blowing experience of some of it's predecessors.

First for the good.
The story is pretty interesting. Yes they are searching for a lost city with untold treasures awaiting them, but the backstory that goes into it and the relationships are pretty engrossing. You meet his brother and learn how he lost him in a prison 15 years prior to the events that take place, how they initially bonded as children, and there are a few surprises along the way. His relationship with his wife is actually believable for the most part. There are a few things that seem a bit far fetched, such as how she eventually shows up to save the day, but otherwise they talk like couples actually talk which is nice.

The graphics are gorgeous. The landscapes, the detail in the characters, it all leads to a really immersive experience. I liked how light played a pretty big role, and sometimes you had to wait for your eyes to adjust when going from outdoors to a dark cave.

The progression is fun as well, searching for the lost city, learning the backstory, sifting through the different pirate hideouts, etc... It felt like I was in Goonies during certain parts. Just a lot of fun.

Now for the not so good.

The game is easy. I played it on the normal difficulty, and maybe I should've pumped it up a bit, but I never really felt challenged during the game. Part of that has nothing to do with the difficulty level. When you die, you get reborn about 2 seconds before you died. This includes in the middle of battle, where once you get to a certain "checkpoint," you respawn there with all the baddies you've killed already down. This made it so there never was any tension or sense of accomplishment in advancing, as it never really was that tough to kill the next wave of enemies, or traverse the next cliff. I also found that if I wasn't exactly sure where to go next, I would just try and commit suicide, and it would respawn me near where my next objective was, so it was a super easy way of making sure I wasn't going in the wrong direction. There's an option where you can autolock onto the next enemy. Do not turn that on, as it really makes it even easier than it already is. I had it on initially, and it took away any sense of skill during the fighting sequences.

The set pieces weren't as memorable as the prior entries. I still remember escaping the plane crash from an earlier Uncharted, or the falling building/helicopter attack, and yet I feel like I'm not likely to remember fondly any of the major set pieces. Granted part of that might be that we've been there and done that before, but again, I never really felt any tension during those set pieces. The booby trap sequence was particularly cliche. There was one set piece I enjoyed, the one where you are being dragged along the dirt road by the truck and have to escape all the motorcyclists, but beyond that, I just didn't really love any of those moments.

The weapons don't really matter. You are armed with a side arm, a two handed weapon, and some grenades. They are all pretty much irrelevant, and there isn't much strategy to how to take the bad guys out. Just keep shooting them in the head with whatever weapon you can find, and that will probably work out ok. I made one fight towards the end kind of difficult for me, as I was on low ammo for my sidearm, and picked up the sniper rifle, and only had two grenades, and that wasn't a good choice for that particular battle. But after a couple resets, I just ran over to a bad guy, killed him quick, took his gun, and I was back in business.

The ending was a bit bothersome to me. I'll put this part in spoilers I guess.


If you enjoy this series (and I don't know many who don't), then it's definitely worth checking out. It took me about 12 hours to play through the main story

Have you played the Uncharted 4 MP yet? I go back and forth on how much I like it, or if I even like it at all (hahaha) but it basically comes down to the fact that there are very few MP games that are funner when its going well, and more rage inducing when its not.

I really didn't like the MP early on. It was a pretty steep learning curve, but I've grown to enjoy it. After getting used to the mechanics, I've realized that at its core, its as well balanced as an MP can be. That part is really impressive. But the amount of cheap things easily available border on game ruining. Its one of those situations where its not the game itself, but the way that people play it. But when you stumble into "those" lobbies 10 hours can go by in a flash

No, I'm not a huge MP fan. I like the storyline, finish the game, and then move on with my life. That's why I like these games. 20 hours and you are done.

Devil May Cry 3 - Pretty good, but I liked the first one more. The combat is really good and fast paced but you can get by with button mashing tbh. There is a lot of customization available and there is a lot of replay value as well. Unfortunately my backlog is too big for me to go through everything available. I did 8 missions on easy mode and I did every mission on normal mode. I considered completing easy mode but I don't think I will since it is a bit of a time commitment. A lot of the missions can take 20+ minutes to do, some took me 40 tbh. I'd give it 4/5 stars, whereas i'd give the original 5/5

Dark souls 2

The controls, the combat, the atmospheric world full of magic and monsters all return but rather then building on what made dark souls so engaging maddening but ultimately satisfying souls 2 seems like a set backwards.

Gone is the carefully constructed world of Lordran a fully formed land where you can look up from Blight town to the aqueduct running above, the same aqueduct you used to enter the Undead Berg. Lordran was logical and believable after a few hours play you could make a map of it. Areas connected to one another allowing you to open up short cuts and glimpse what lay ahead.
Drangleic is a collection of separate areas connected by tunnels each one feels isolated from the rest of the world and occasionally physically impossible. The boss room in Earthen Peak is at the top of a giant windmill and seems to exist several feet in front of the blades. Dragon Aerie is set of mountain top plateaus but these giant mountains don't dominate the skyline from anywhere else on the map.

DS2 is also considerably easier then DS1. In the original enemies would always re-spawn when you rested at a bonfire in DS2 enemies stop re-spawning eventually. Instead of having to learn the patterns for all the enemies between you and a boss, beat them then beat the boss you can now just die a bunch of times until you have a clear walk to the boss fight. There is a trade off hollowing now reduces your maximum health down to half but the ring of binding is very easily found early in the game and that cuts HP loss for being hollow down to a quarter. With out the ring of binding the non respawing enemies for reduced health would have been a much more even trade.

The story is even more vague then the first DS and there is almost no foreshadowing so frequently you will be stumble upon a boss defeat it and only then be made aware that it was in some way more important then others you had faced. Hours after defeating the last sinner a random conversation with an NPC revealed who he was and what his sin had been.

Lastly balance and pacing seem a bit off by the end I was weighed down by healing potions and stones because my estus flask had quickly become all the healing i needed.
By the time you get the ember to imbue weapons with special types of damage you have sunk so many souls and resources into levelling up other weapons it hardly feels worth using the ember at all even if the game has just thrown a load of special titanite at you. Giving you the ember much earlier and rationing the titanite variants would have seen me rushing off to embue weapons with special damage when I was desperate early on.

Ultimately enjoyable but a lot less satisfying then its predecessor 7.5/10

I picked up Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines from GOG and it's one of the best rpgs I've played in a long time. It's based on the White Wolf pen and paper game and the character mechanics follow the books pretty closely.

positives:
- lots of choice in type of character to build
- the quests are fun and most of them can be completed in multiple ways
- the mood and atmosphere are fantastic
- excellent replay value due to the above points

negatives:
- even with all the love this game has received from unofficial patches, it can still bug out sometimes, like getting stuck in a door or freezing during a cutscene
- it's way too easy

rating 35/37

must play for any rpg or vampire fan

That is probably my all time favorite RPG sun. I recall (though I played it a LONG time ago) Redemption being good, but not as good as Bloodlines.

Bloodlines is soooooo good, even today.