I finished Dungeon Siege 3, with its expansion. I really liked the game. There are also some hints at the end about a next game in the series, which I guess we won't get (yet).

Assassin's Creed Unity (uPlay, or whatever it's called these days)

Finally got back to my replay of all the AC games. When possible, I've been playing better versions than the first time I played them. I 100% completed this on an original Xbox One- it came as a bundled game with the console. When I played it, all of the launch problems had been patched out and I actually enjoyed it.

This time I played the PC version, which was a free game some years ago during some Ubi anniversary celebrations. First of all, even on Xbox this game still looks amazing- these days it even runs at 60fps on a Series console. So obviously, at 4K and max settings on a modern PC it looks better than amazing for a game from 2014. It makes me wonder what the hell Ubi has been doing in the intervening years. Seriously this games facial and body animations are better than the recent Star Wars game. There is no other game that I know of that pulls off such huge crowds of people- sure after a while you notice some of the smoke and mirrors and the repetition of the models, but it is quite a sight for tech of the time. On PC, just like the original I played on Xbox, I had no crashes, bugs or performance problems at all.

I enjoyed running through revolutionary Paris again. The story is okay, quite personal- but a bit short. The action is much more combat focused, since the enemies are hyper alert to stealth. If you don't take the time to upgrade, then this is the hardest combat in the AC series. There are a lot of side missions, some are okay, some are tedious- like all AC games really. Since I previously fully completed the game before (even the co-op stuff) this time I did all the map and story stuff, cleared all the collectibles but did not bother with getting 100% sync with the story missions- I've done it before and some of the requirements are hideously tedious for full sync.

A decent game in its patched and stable form, a great city to run around and explore and a decent story with well voiced main characters.

Gears 5, Oct 31 (Xbox Game Pass)-Its a solid cover shooter when you want some fun without thinking too hard. The story is ok and its got an unexpected twist at the end. The Hivebusters DLC suffers playing solo but is still a good time.

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The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me (PS5 PS Plus)

By this time, if you've played any other Supermassive game, then you know what to expect. This time the story has a historical background with the lore based around a real-life serial killer- H.H. Holmes. Most of the game is set in a fictional replica of his "murder castle".

I enjoyed the game, but I also think that some of the deaths were really cheap. There is no way that you can avoid some of the deaths using any form of logic- they are just random choices where one choice means a character survives and the other means they die. At least in the other games, I felt that you could use some logic or reason to avoid most deaths. Also, this game had no twist to the story- if you're paying attention, you can work out the culprit very early on...so early that I was expecting there to be a counter twist that never came.

Anyway, still a fun game. Now that I've played all of the first season, I actually like Little Hope the best because its story had the best ending twist.

Legacy of Kain: Defiance

Finally finished this game yesterday, and with it, I've now finished the whole Legacy of Kain/Soul Reaver series (5 games, starting from Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain).

I played the series in the order of release (I had to check which game was released what year because it was not always apparent from the name or otherwise which game was newer than the other), and that made sense because there was kind of a continuing story arch across the games, same characters across the games with their own history etc. I think Blood Omen 2 was a bit separate story arch, maybe, but still related to the story in other games.

Overall I liked Defiance, how its boss battles and the gameplay was not too hard overall, but you still had sense of accomplishment when you progressed. Maybe the worst part in Defiance was some of the precise and timed platform jumping parts, you had to get precise jumps in limited time, I sometimes retried those several dozen times. Sometimes I even had to check Youtube walkthrough videos if the jump I was trying to make was even possible because I never seemed to quite make it.

Overall the series left a good feeling, the story and characters were deeper than what I was expecting from an action adventure, the action and gameplay was ok for the most part (as long as you used some third-party fixes to get a modern gamepad to work with the four newest games; I have no idea how you are supposed to play e.g. Soul Reaver 2 or Defiance with keyboard + mouse, it just felt impossible to me due to some precise platform jumping parts where the camera behind you might suddenly move to another position etc.). I did play the second game (Soul Reaver) with keyboard and mouse so at least it can be done in that game, but it was a nuisance in many parts of the game, including platform jumping.

I tried keyboard+mouse with Soul Reaver 2 too but it just felt broken, I couldn't figure out how I was supposed to do e.g. combat with that setup. With a gamepad fix and a modern gamepad, the game was much more playable, just like Defiance.

What is also interesting about the series is how the graphics engine and the camera system seems to change from game to game. The first LoK game was obviously a 2D game from above, but the rest four 3D games seemed to have a different graphics and camera system, each. Defiance had the "weirdest" system, like a fixed camera in some part of the gameplay area that would follow (= turn, not float behind you) you when you moved around; sometimes it would also float with you in some fixed angle. Very different from e.g. the earlier game in the series, Blood Omen 2 which was a more traditional "floating camera behind your back", as in e.g. the early Tomb Raider games.


What next? Maybe try to continue and finish Planescape: Torment EE? I really should sometimes try some smaller, maybe indie, games in between, I always seem to pick some massive RPG or somesuch which will take me months or years to finish... maybe I should concentrate on Portal 2, I liked the first game a lot but so far the sequel didn't manage to grasp my interest enough, I've felt kinda meh playing it but I should really give it a better change....

Oh yeah, GTA IV is also waiting for me to continue it, as well as Homeworld Emergence etc...

Vampires: Sex and Blood (Steam)

Short NSFW VN with a very simple combat system. Sort of like one of those old Fighting Fantasy game books, but with really lewd Vampires.

Eldrea: Sex Saga (Steam)

Even shorter NSFW VN. Actually, too short this time.

Darksiders 1. Almost done with Darksiders 2 then moving on to Darksiders 3.

Void's Calling EP1 (Steam)

VN with RPG aspects and quite of lot of world building and story for the NSFW genre. I put 10 hours into it and the story will continue on into episode 2. Unlike most, this game builds its NSFW aspects into the story rather than just simply being entirely tacked on. You're a monster and bounty hunter, with some sensory abilities- yes, sort of like The Witcher, but less fantastical. Anyway, the main story line is attempting to track down an entity, hidden in or around a small city, that causes the "Void"- an aura that increases violent and debauched behavior in the local community.

It plays a bit like Persona games in that each day has 5-time blocks to fill with some activity. Overall, it's not too bad for a small Indie effort and I'm going straight to Ep 2 to see where it goes. Ep 1 finishes on a cliff hanger.

Off the top of my head:

X-COM UFO Defense: Beginner Ironman difficulty - a stepping stone towards an eventual superhuman ironman win
Gnollhack: Grandmaster win - really proud of that one
Diablo 1: For the longest time wanted to try a sorcerer run - pretty fun and I see why it's considered the strongest class. He has all the tools to kill large mobs in an instant
Diablo 2: Always wanted to try a summonancer. Surprised to see how easy it was, a mob of skeletons wreck everything
Alwa's Awakening: Surprisingly fun retro metroidvania. Enjoyed it so much I marathoned the whole thing in two sessions.
Alwa's Legacy: Liked the first game so much I played the sequel shortly after. Better graphics but overall didn't enjoy it nearly as much as the original
Warcraft 2: Actually my third time through the original campaigns, I love the game. Still need to do the expansion however
Jump King: One of those rage bait games that's actually pretty fun once you get the hang of it. Still need to do the two extra routes
Raiden 4: Amazing shmup. Beating the 2nd loop is too much for me though
Andro Dunos 2: Short but very well made sequel. Finished it with multiple credits but want to try beating it with no continues
Starcraft: Last year I finished the first three chapters, this year I finished the Enslavers campaign hidden in the custom maps menu. Still need to play the Brood War chapters

Well damn, only now I realize how much I played this year. Quite a lot.

Like a Dragon Gaiden The Man Who Erased His Name, Nov 5 (Xbox Game Pass)-This was the second Yakuza/Like a Dragon game I've played. I think I liked it better than Kiwami solely because it was quite a bit shorter. I'm still not a big fan of combat and I still ignored most of the minigames but I did complete most side quests. The story was fine but there were probably a lot of references that were lost on me in the several games since Kiwami. If all of the games were this short, I'd be much more interested in playing them. As it is I'm probably good on Yakuza games for another year.

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Void's Calling EP2 plus DLC (Steam)

This is the best of the NSFW VN's I've played so far by a long shot. The DLC should not be considered optional, as it brings the story to something of a finish- I think it was intended to a full third episode but was cut down to a DLC because the dev's ran out of money. Nevertheless, there are something like 14 endings- with some of them seemingly vastly different. It's actually a really decent story.

The series also has excellent rendered screens and convincing animations for the animated scenes. Also has the best breast physics ever in a video game. Since the "modern audience" consultancy companies are nowhere near these types of games- you can also rest assured that the women are really attractive and no gay stuff. What more can you ask for? It takes around 25 hours to play the 2 episodes and DLC. I wish someone would pick this up and keep going with the series to continue with the world and characters.

Halo: Reach (The Masterchief Collection)

After I bought The Masterchief Collection to see what all the fuss was about, I started with Combat Evolved, but after a while I got bored with it due to the long labyrinthine and same-y looking levels, fighting the same opponents again and again. There were some fun parts outdoors, with ridable vehicles and such, but the indoor crawls seemed rather meh. Someone told me CE doesn't hold up that well and recommended I play Reach instead, so I did that.

Graphics, atmosphere and pacing were much better here, there was more of the outdoor fun, less of the same-y corridors, and while the gameplay and opponents seemed more or less the same, it was a better, more varied and more condensed version of what I had seen in CE. I can't say that I really enjoyed the story though. It was very simply and still managed to go over my head half of the time, because it's essentially a military shooter in a sci-fi setting, and I'm not very good with concentrating on all the military lingo and translating it into something I can make sense of and care about. I also found I didn't really care for the characters either. I mostly just followed paths and pointers and shot my way through hordes of aliens. I guess it's a war story about sacrifices for the greater good or something.

It was alright. Not sure if I still want to play another one of these though. I assume, gameplay- and graphics-wise it's already the best one, and I'd expect the others to be just more of the same.

I enjoyed Reach and ODST the most. All the other Halos were just kinda ok to me.

Flintlock The Siege of Dawn, Nov 7 (Xbox Game Pass)-It's Lilo and Stitch in the zombie apocalypse. This game was not what I was expecting. I think I was expecting more a 1600s era monarchial warfare game maybe with some palace intrigue in a fictional universe with little to no magic and no zombies What I got wasn't great. It reminded me of a combat oriented The Last Guardian. The world was kind of interesting and might have been more interesting without the zombies. The sound was also poorly mixed with really, really loud sound effects and really, really quiet voice acting. It's short at least but the final boss is really annoying.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (PC Game Pass)

Just the single player campaign.

Well, it had some good levels- especially the open level in Iraq, which let you just roam around the map taking on objectives (both compulsory and optional) in any way you like. It shows how good CoD can be when the game gets out of your way and stops trying to be a Hollywood blockbuster.

There were a couple of really shit levels as well. The "Emergence" level had too much psycho-la-la-land dream world stuff- as did the final level. I don't like that sort of stuff in my military shooters.

It was overall fun, shooting people and blowing shit up is always fun, but I think the 2 Modern Warfare games I've played are much better than the 2 Black Ops games that I've played. All of them are better than Ghosts! Anyway, I hope that MS accelerates bringing the older CoD's to game Pass now that the latest 2 are out of the way, I want to play them for sure- I just don't think they're worth their price if all I want to do is play the campaign.