Another session of Journey finished on my PS4. Took me around 2 hours again, but this time with a companion, who was helping me traveling around and has shown me how to get some trophies. It was a lot of fun, but this took away little bit of the feeling from the exploration of the world. I am happy that my first playthrough was solo :)

And few hours later I've finished one more trophy run of Journey finished on my PS4. This time, I've met 4 new companions. Just 5 more missing for the last trophy to pop-up :) .

List of all my games finished can be found >>>HERE<<<

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition (Switch)

I sold my old Wii disc for $90 on ebay and bought this version. It is the definitive version as well. Not just some better graphics, but more along the lines of better interface and quality of life improvements. Things like indicators to help you know when your positioned correctly for special attacks to work...in the original it's near impossible to tell when you're on an enemies side or rear, so it was just guess work. Also quest markers to make those dull MMO style side quests less tedious. All the improvements meant I finished this with the new stand alone expansion in under 80 hours instead of over a hundred hours like the first time on Wii. Which is even more impressive since I did all quests this time.

But otherwise still the same game. The open areas a great fun, the later more linear areas are still dull. The combat is pretty good. All the Japanese RPGness is still correctly present- like getting a bosses health bar to zero does not mean they're dead like a Western RPG. It actually means we all stop for a chat, the boss then attacks again at full health and kicks your ass and tells you all how powerful and great he is whilst running away. Repeat over and over. Whenever anyone asks me what's the difference between a WRPG and a JRPG I tell them: Western RPG- zero health bar equals dead boss. Japanese RPG- zero health means boss gets stronger. Simple, I don't know why people get so confused.

I must be getting tired of these Japanese tropes though, despite this version being better, I did not enjoy as much this time around. Once I would have said with certainty that the Xenoblade games were the best RPG's on Nintendo systems. But since then I've been playing Atlus games like Tokyo Mirage Sessions and the SMT series and now I know I was wrong all along.

IGI 2: Covert Strike

It's a very unique and underrated game. I'd define this game as a Stealth FPS. It plays sort of like a middle ground between a first-person Splinter Cell and Goldeneye 64.

The stealth mechanics are reminiscent of Thief, meaning that standing on a shadow makes you borderline invisible in plain sight. It's simple and at times remarkably unrealistic like almost all early stealth games.

However, the fact you are a heavily armed super spy makes the effort to avoid breaking stealth a lesser burden. Don't get me wrong, you won't get far by ignoring the stealth entirely, but if you happen to get spotted you still have a chance to shoot your way out of a messy situation.

I played through most of the game on Hard difficulty, but after beating Mission 13 I decided to drop to Normal difficulty for the last 6 missions. I would've continued to play on Hard mode if it allowed at least one mid mission save, but the fact it disables saves completely started to get very frustrating.

The game has it's fair share of jank too. There is a reload save/mission bug that forces you to go back to the main menu at times. The running gun animation continues if you go prone while running. Ladder movement is identical while running or walking, but the enemies will "hear" you if you are in running mode.

Overall, despite some of it's shortcomings it's a very cool game.

SLUDGE LIFE

Yesterday I tried a few smaller and more obscure indie games from my collection, first Spirits of Xanadu, then Heavy Bullets, then this weird little thing called SLUDGE LIFE, which is currently free on Epic for one year. I had no idea what to expect, what type of game it is, I only grabbed it because it was free, and ironically, I was even oblivious to the fact that it's created by the very same devs that made Heavy Bullets. So for me, this was pretty much a surprise hit, because it really clicked with me and drew me in and I just could not stop playing.

It's basically a short open world exploration game with first person (parkour?) platforming and a strange grimy setting centered around graffiti tagging in a rundown, waste filled town of industrial islands in a sea of sludge, including drug abuse, virus infected laptops, toilet humour, ironic sticking-it-to-the-man attitudes, pigeon paparazzis and the latest in frog rap. To me it felt like a dirty mixture of A Short Hike and Grow Up, with a pinch of Supraland and Jet Set Radio in it, just to give you an idea what kind of gameplay to expect (although there hardly are any puzzles and no time-sensitive action sequences, it's mostly just scoping out the environment for places to tag on and then finding ways to get there).

While graphics are crude and intentionally worsened by screen wobbling and VCR grain effects (which can be switched off in the menu) and the dialogue lines by the NPCs are never laugh-out-loud funny, the entire presentation is just so consistent and fitting for what the game is going for, the world building is pretty great, and I really enjoyed the soundtrack (by anticon's doseone) and casual gameplay. You have to like this sort of open world exploration / collecthathon game and you can't be allergic to FP platforming, lo-fi graphics, weirdness, dirt and rap, but personally, I loved it.

Parallels Cross (2016) (Linux)

Mediocre HOPA (hidden object point&click adventure) game with a few interesting puzzles and quite a dull story. It's quite short – about 2,5h is enough to complete it (no bonus episodes or achievements available).

List of all games completed in 2020.

Amnesia: Memories, Aug 10 (GOG)-Terrible Boyfriend The Game. The premise was interesting, you've got amnesia and have to make your way in the world without knowing who you can trust. But the execution was poor. All of the love interests were awful ranging from insensitive asshole to criminal abductor not to mention everyone else trying to kill you. I never really felt good about any of the 'good' endings. And some of the choices you have to make to get those good endings were pretty bad too. You really have to lean into the Stockholm Syndrome or embrace the crazy person. I had higher hopes for it but it ended up rather disappointing.

Full List

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan (XB1X)

Xbox Game Pass addition last week. Anyone that has played Supermassive Games "Until Dawn" knows what this one is like. Except you don't need a PS4. It's interactive movie horror done in a way that I really enjoy. I don't tend to like cinematic experiences much, but Remedy and Supermassive seem to be devs that are able to nail it in a way that I really like. Until Dawn was a "Cabin in the Woods" story, Man of Medan is a ghost ship story. As the name suggests it's the first in a planned anthology of standalone games, with the next part due later this year. Each story is introduced and your progress commented upon by a curator...sort of like the old TV series The Twilight Zone.

Man of Medan looks outstanding and ran really well too- though be aware it is letterboxed to reinforce the cinematic nature. It's literally meant to be you (and maybe some friends) in a movie. The story was quite good- but could really depend upon on how many of the collectible secrets you pick up. They fill in details that lead to revelations about the story. Of the five playable characters, all can survive, all can die and any combination. I messed up some sequences that led to two people snuffing it. On the other hand I found a and read a lot of the secrets and feel happy that I have a good grasp on what is really going on.

I'm going to play at least once more (it takes about 5 hours if you're diligent about searching out story secrets) as I really had fun. Probably not as good as Until Dawn, but still pretty good and I'm really looking forward to other stories in the anthology. The only downside for people that know they like interactive story experiences like this, would be the balance of length vs price. As much as I liked it, I don't think I'd pay the full price. But on sale or using Game Pass is a good deal. Hopefully the rest come to Game Pass and when the series is finished then I'd buy a compilation collection.

Pure bliss!!
Glad you had a good time. My favorite is X!

Shadow Warrior 2, one of many freebies gathered during time on GOG. Since I like very much original game from 1997, remembering when my brother brought home demo of this game… I was very disappointed.
1. This game is not DRM free, when Comodo firewall block communication game does not start.
2. SW2 is not as original SW, but more like Serious Sam with complex game mechanics.
3. Game looks nice, but everything inside is recycled many times, it took me almost 18 hours, but I could not bear it any more.
4. Most levels can be completed quite fast running to quest destination on map and using chainsaw.
5. Jokes are too much for teens (somebody can like it).

The Legend Of Spyro: A New Begining (OG Xbox)

I've finally gotten round to softmodding and upgrading HDD on OG Xbox I got a few months ago, by the virtue of setting original hard drive on fire by managing to short circuit something. I got the CRT, a Sony Trinitron so I can play my old consoles in all their scanliney glory. Xbox came with a crappy 3rd party GameStop branded controller, so it was swiftly replaced with a pair of original Xbox controllers - both Duke and S. I also got advanced SCART cable for all the RGB goodness! :D
After all this, I looked at the Xbox library to see what to play. I grew up with a PlayStation so I had no idea what to look at other than the obvious choice of Halo. I saw it had Spyro. recalled Spyro was awesome on PS1 and thought what could go wrong, right? Reviews said meh, but it's Spyro you can't break that can you? Turns out you can.
The story goes you live with your adoptive dragonfly parents thinking you're a fat dragonfly when some baddies show up looking to wreak havoc. You beat the baddies, find out you're a dragon, and you're on your merry way to find out the truth about yourself. You run into a huge grown dragon that for some reason or the other sends Spyro away on a quest to save 3 more grown-ass dragons 10 times the Spyro's size. Through each level, you get an additional breath power (a dragon that breaths electricity and ice? if you say so) but you end up spamming fire attack 2/3 of the game. Between levels, you go to get trained by the same guys whose ass you've saved 10 minutes ago in a most boring and repetitive way possible teaching you about ways to attack with your new power - you'll still end up mashing basic attack as that's what works best 90% of the time. After getting trained, it unlocks projectile attack of that element that you'll also rarely use.
The levels are your obligatory ice, forest, volcano, fort, space setting where you'll beat tons of same boring enemies that keep spamming you, and you mostly get hit when the camera gets too close so you get jumped. There is no real penalty for dying as you respawn on a checkpoint right before the fight.
Characters are voiced by some rather high-paid folks, but the dialogue is not particularly interesting and senior dragons are straight-up annoying so this is not really a redeeming feature.
A bonus note is that unlike checkpoints that are everywhere, savepoints are few and far between, and there is no manual saving. If you're doing something else while playing, this can get very annoying. I lost something like 30 min o gameplay because I had to leave.

Bottom line is it's serviceable but it's a far cry from the original 3 games. If you want 3d platforming though, your time is better spent elsewhere.
4.5/10

That would be a big issue if it applies for SP... Where is it connecting?

I do not like it, but it is not so terrible from spying point of view.

For playing must be allowed by rule in firewall internal loopback 127.0.0.1 (if user allow it manually, then it is too late). I reported this behavior in connection with different game in past, see https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/requests/396565?product=gog if you are interested.

Moreover after that game try connect to 93.184.220.29 or 194.110.240.210 or 194.110.240.211, when I set rule to deny it, then game does not start, but when I deny it manually game worked - at least for me it was annoying.

Just about hour ago, last and final trophy run of Journey on my PS4 is behind me. Last trophy popped up after 2 hours of matchmaking :P . In the final session I've met 3 more companions. 21st game at 100% in my PS collection :)

All my finished games this year can be found here :)

LOL

Nightmares from the Deep: The Siren's Call
Nightmares from the Deep: Davy Jones

Part 2 and 3 (final) of the Artifex Mundi HOG and enigma/puzzles games.

Good time-killers, not too long, not too short. Good balance in the puzzles, too, I only skipped once or twice and only because I despised that precise puzzle's mechanism.

Will definitely look into other Artifex Mundi games if I have the occasion.

So far in 2020: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2020/post29