It's very rare for me to buy games close to their launch but I'd been a big fan of Oblivion and got caught up in the excitement surrounding the release. It didn't disappoint. I've fully played through the original version twice, in 2011 and 2014, and must have had a few extra playthroughs during that period as well. So I've had a 5 year gap, I've since played a few other newer and well reviewed open world games and managed to get into Fallout as well (still need to play 4), and I was worried it might not be as good as I remembered. Maybe it's easier to see some of its issues but honestly I still had a incredibly good time returning to Skyrim.

The remastered graphics are a huge improvement looking at some comparisons in my older screenshots of the original, I did download a few mods of course just to try and make it that bit better as well. The world is beautiful, I tried to avoid fast travel at least at the start when I was rediscovering the game just to take it all in again, I was regularly pausing to pan the camera around and admire the landscapes. The map size feels right too, it might not take an entire day to get from one end to the other, but each hold is distinct enough to separate it from the others, and it means you don't need a horse to get everywhere, running around is best for finding everything hidden away and another map marker is never far away. The issues would be the huge amount of quests you gather that you quickly forget about and it just becomes a long checklist of things to do, there's not much complexity either with the combat being hit things with my two handed hammer before they hit me, it's easy to become overpowered and have more coin than you know what to do with meaning the looting loses its value, and while each hold is distinct enough most of the cities feel more like villages, I've also realised how basic the factions are with the exception of the Dark Brotherhood just how quickly you rise through their ranks. When I reached the end of my playthrough it did feel like a final goodbye, it's unlikely I'll replay it again unless they remaster the remaster in a few years... but I'm really happy to have gone back to it, there's a reason it's still talked about so long after its release, it's well worth playing again.

There's so many positives to talk about Firewatch but the main one has to be the art style, I took so many screenshots, and the setting is great too, it's awesome to have this national park which is yours to look around, there are places off limits to begin with but you get some equipment later on that opens it all up, the soundtrack works well with its sparse use, it's often just outdoors and nature sounds while you're walking around. The map has to be mentioned as well, it's an actual physical one your character takes out while hiking that updates based off dialogue choices that stays and later gets referred to as such for the rest of the game, there's so many neat touches like that. The conversations between you and Delilah who is stationed nearby are great, the voice acting is perfect, plenty of chemistry there, the story telling is fantastic, there's a real feeling of investigating and calling in discoveries you find, it reminded me of INFRA except I much preferred this to the underground crumbling concrete structures. It has some funny moments too, kind of like Tales from the Borderlands I'd just pick the most amusing option possible where possible, and it also has some emotional moments as you deal with backstories and uncovering mysteries. It's been three years since it came out and as often is the case when I'm only just getting around to playing these popular games, yes I agree with everyone else, it's great.

This is so impressively creative. It's a puzzle game that takes place on a 4 tile grid, usually at least 2 tiles are in use and you need to zoom in and out of these artworks, take them apart, combine them with one another, place them next to another tile, usually in an effort to look for something that your character requires in another tile or to move them forwards by creating a path for them. It's absolutely wonderful to look at, I never knew what to expect whenever I was looking around, the solutions to the puzzles tended to make me shake my head in disbelief just how well it all fits together. There's a few hints in the form of visual clues and notes but it does get quite difficult as it goes on as you might expect from a puzzle game. I wish it was clearer when you could disassemble a title and create a new one as that tended to be what I got stuck on the most. It is quite short but it's such a quality experience that there's been clearly so much effort put into it that the price doesn't seem unreasonable. I've not played anything like it before and I'd highly recommend it.

I remember a lot of positive reviews back when Gravity Ghost came out and seeing it get plenty of coverage but it feels like since then it's just been forgotten about which is a huge shame, does this tend to happen to indie games that don't reach a certain status? I've only just bought and played it myself so I guess I'm also guilty having had it on my wishlist since its release, due to its short length I'd been holding out for a higher discount or a bundle that never came so I finally caved in and got it. It's totally worth it and a true gem! I'd been drawn to it by just how beautiful it looks, every level had me pausing to take it all in, the water planets are my favourite. The objective is always simple, you start a level, collect a star, then exit through a door which the star opens. However you're jumping around, orbiting planets, and using gravity to pull you where you need to go. It's a bit awkward to get used at at first but as the game goes on you get more familiar with the controls and how each planet type feels, and you gain new abilities through optional levels that can make things more easy or convenient, like not using up any of your hair (which grows when you collect flowers) when you terraform planets, yes, what a sentence! There's quite an emotional story told through cutscenes that I wasn't expecting at all, and has a nice soundtrack that helps build that relaxing feeling while you're floating around in space. I absolutely love these kind of games.

Wow what an experience! This is easily one of the best games I've played. The graphics frequently amazed me, the motion capture for Senua's cutscenes is perfect, the voice acting is great which makes the emotional moments more real, the soundtrack is fantastic (absolutely love the music that plays in the final fight, goosebumps), the story feels like a journey that you want to see to the end, and the atmosphere is often so chilling that it made me shiver. It's not for the fainthearted, it's gruesome at times, and the voices the character hears in her head have to be mentioned, it only adds to struggles she has to overcome fighting these inner demons. The combat was decent enough, I died a few times but that's only because I'm bad at countering, it shouldn't put you off playing as it's not too difficult. The puzzles slowed things down but that's not much of a bad thing, sometimes they were welcome breaks, I liked the trials section in particular. The game's collectables are lorestones that each tell interesting stories about Norse mythology that make finding them all worthwhile, my only other knowledge of Ragnarok was that Thor film so it was nice to build on that... Hellblade is just such a memorable game, one that I'd recommend to anyone.

I won't say too much about this until I've beaten it, however it has already left in me in no doubt as to what a great game it is. I did give it a try almost exactly a year ago but I just wasn't in the right mood it, I did everything in White Orchard, and during a story cutscene the game crashed and I never went back to it. I'd built my new PC, finished Dragon Age Inquisition that took over 100 hours and decided to jump straight into Witcher 3 next having been so excited to play it as well, and I couldn't get into it. I was worried I'd made the same mistake again with Skyrim but a month's recovery period for huge games like these seems to work okay for me, I'm having a much better time! I'm also playing it on the Death March difficulty which hasn't been too bad so far...

This is an easy one to recommend, there's just so much style and humour to it, the writing is witty and entertaining, there's so many unnecessary details that only make it better, like the level up screen and the rewards page for your donut delivering, or your phone texting and how you can spam a duck to people. It may be one of the most easy games I've played, there's no challenge to it, you have a small hole that you move around which grows the more you drop things down it, you start with small furniture and later you're bringing down cars and buildings. It does get a bit more involved later on with a catapult that allows you to shoot things back up like frogs to catch flies, but it's very simple to play, which makes it a nice relaxing break if you're looking for a game to calm you down from something less so. Unfortunately it doesn't take long to finish however it keeps its fun factor high throughout and there's some secret achievements that you'll most likely have to go back to replay a few sections. The soundtrack is fantastic too, it sets the tone perfectly, my favourite track is Birds of Paradise, so chill! You can buy it in the Annapurna Interactive Bundle on Steam, which includes What Remains of Edith Finch, Gorogoa and Flower, Donut County deserves to be in such company.

This was another emotional one with a good story. While I've got a few complaints about it, like the big open levels and slow movement speed of your character that makes exploring a bit of a chore, and the controls awkward enough to make the platforming more of a nuisance than it should have been, in the commentary you can switch on (absolutely worthwhile to listen to) the developer explains his need to prioritise when making the game and his focus on delivering a great story and that's fine, it does that. I was initially going to try and find everything, there's loads of secrets hidden away that the developer says is one of his favourite parts of adventure games, but the chapters aren't clearly marked when the story will progress so I made a mistake of going too far in one direction and got forced into a loading screen with no way of going back, no level select once you've beaten it either, I don't think I've got the patience to try and 100% it. But those small issues aside it is quite charming, the fox you play as is adorable, the art style is nice to look at, the environments are lovely, the relaxing music fits well, as mentioned the story is an emotional one which I won't spoil, and it has an absolutely fantastic final level that delivers a couple of surprises I found quite cool.

I’d been meaning to play Hidden Folks for a while now after seeing a few people recommend it. It’s a hidden object game where you need to locate people and objects in these often huge black and white levels. Just like Under Leaves I found this surprisingly difficult, never underestimate hidden object games! I don’t think the colours, or lack of colour, helped at all, as it was sometimes hard to tell certain characters apart that I was looking for, and there’s often just so much going on at once, there’s so much movement, for instance there’s a city level and you have people walking by on the streets, cars going past, all these windows for apartments you need to check with things going on in them, it is quite hard to find what you’re looking for. At least something like Where's Wally which this is clearly inspired by is just a still image making the task much more simple! And unlike Hidden Paws you don’t have any cats meowing to help in your search, instead there’s a row of icons showing everything you need to find and if you click on them there’s a text hint which could have been more useful at times. I was often a bit intimidated at the beginning of each of the main levels with so much going on, but equally keen to look around and start finding everything. I did have a lot of fun with it, my complaints aren't really complaints I just had a bit of trouble at times, it's got a lot of charm to it and plenty of little details to admire and secrets to discover, that DLC beach level is totally worth it too, the ship battle at the end was a highlight, however the snowy one with the ski slopes and winter sports was my favourite.

I've marked this as beaten as I've had a few victories but there's still a lot left I need to try out, there's so much replayability with all the different squads you unlock that each have their own abilities that change the way you play. It's easy to see why it's so well regarded, it's fairly simple to understand but if you want to be perfect at saving all the citizens, fulfilling objectives, killing all the bug things, without losing someone from your squad, then you're going to need to spend plenty of time planning out moves like you're playing chess every turn to make sure you don't make your situation even worse in the next round. The odds tend to be stacked against you and I was regularly thinking how I'm going get my squad out of this in one piece, but there's almost always a solution if you look for it. It feels very rewarding to play when you manage to get your strategy right and I mean to go back to it to give the other squads a try. Fantastic soundtrack too by Ben Prunty, if I was to given the task of making music for mechs punching and exploding bugs it would sound like this.

I got this in the last humble monthly and wasn’t sure what to expect, I haven’t played anything like it aside from maybe Telltale games. Of course I was expecting it all to be filmed on a mobile phone, vertically shot with black bars, with the camera man’s hand shaking, so I was really impressed by its cinematic quality, I thought it might make me cringe but the dialogue and actors were great, the special effects were solid and I was gripped from start to finish. There’s several different endings depending on your choices that encourage a few replays even if it is inevitably a bit tedious going over the beginning each time, based on your choices your character is put in different scenarios that you’d miss if you only played it once. Really enjoyable, I’ll have to keep an eye out for other worthwhile FMV games.

There is so much charm in this game it made me smile while playing it. It's an easy to finish point and click that only takes a couple of hours, but it uses that time well to create a nice story with some great characters, I especially liked the ultimate rescue dog who was adorable in its efforts to prevent you coming to harm from your character's own clumsiness, I don't think I've wanted to hug something so much since Spot from The Whispered World! I might replay it for the 100% with the help of a great guide written by tsupertsundere that helped me get most of the achievements, thanks for that!

Having enjoyed this one so much I'll be sure to play the sequel soon as I've heard that's even better. I've not played a tower defence game like it where you actually drop down and take part in the fighting, it's a lot of fun setting up your traps and then ensuring no sneaky orc manages to break through them, it also allows you to orchestrate your defences in the midst of battle and correct any flaws you see develop, like if you've got a few surprise ogres to deal with then some extra swords from your paladins always helped turn the tide. There's usually something different to keep an eye on in each level and you're always treated to a new trap, there's tons to choose from towards the end of the game so it feels like you have the freedom to find some combinations that work for you, all have their uses. The character you play as feels nice to control, it's all very smooth with decent movement speed which is important considering you need to be on the move a lot covering all the enemy spawn points, he does have a personality that I thought would get on my nerves but somehow it managed to stay amusing. Recommended!

I added this to wishlist just based off the screenshots alone, if I'm honest I wasn't sure what I was in for when I bought it other than it caught my eye. Thankfully it was fun! It's quite short, however the time to play through all the levels is entirely up to you, you start up a new area that tends to be quite empty and quiet, and then you're free to just mess around manipulating settings to create new visuals and sounds by combining the two, there's a lot of options and it's unlikely you'll ever be able to produce the same thing again if you went back to it, I also found it very relaxing to play and I think it has good replay value because of that. There's so many possibilities in each world to change the look to something completely different, whether you're using different shapes, quantities, colours, angles, sizes, speeds, there's a lot you can tweak until you're happy with your creation. The best way to describe it is like creating your own effects for windows media player!

I found this to be a fun fast paced action game, with a lot of weapon variety and plenty of creative ways to explode enemies, the environments were quite impressive on this vibrant post-apocalyptic touristy alien planet, and the gameplay was rather satisfying with the grapple you can use to pull objects and enemies towards you, then kicking them away triggering slow motion to get your aiming right. The weapons are all rather impressive, the sniper especially was cool with its control of each individual shot that you takes you on a ride to guide the bullet into bandit skulls while they run away... it's all very silly and there's no realism to be found here, just mindless slaughter. The reason I've got it down here is I wasn't a fan at all of the group of characters you're forced to spend time with, nobody is likeable and there's a lot of dialogue and story cutscenes that were painful to watch and listen to. The "banter" between them is so weak and feels like its just trying to be controversial and cool for people that are entertained by them having the "balls" to say that. It doesn't take long to finish and I'd recommend it for the action, but there were sections that got repetitive and the characters got on my nerves a lot.

I have quite mixed feelings about whether to recommend this one, there’s really not much of a game to play here, you’re moving these three burly men at sea, that you can tell apart by their beard colour, by sliding the screen left or right, and occasionally clicking on things. The biggest complaint is replaying it to go through all the different paths which was way too repetitive for it to be fun. It also felt like it had the potential to be much better if the paths you took branched out more in a way that avoiding revisiting the same places, having the same scenes play out with some slightly different dialogue. But the minimalist art style is nice, the soundtrack is rather pleasant, and it’s got a few quite literally magical moments and creatures to discover that was nice enough to at least make some of the playthroughs interesting when I found them for the first time. Just a shame there isn’t a pay off at the end for all the repetition, it’s strange to me in an adventure game that encourages you to see its other endings, surely the developers would have made more of an effort to make multiple playthroughs more interesting and worthwhile. Why you have to walk along that island each time where nothing changes I don’t understand, maybe they could have added new wildlife to at least freshen it up, to accompany that moose and those birds. It barely gets a recommendation but it’s short and the issues only really get bothersome if you’re going for 100% like I did.

Although it's a very different type of hidden object game (it's 3D) to Hidden Folks, if I were to make a comparison I'd have to say I didn't like it as much. You're looking for cats and yarn balls in these snowy levels, they're often very well hidden as it makes good use of different breeds and their colours to blend them into the environments. I spent a lot of time fighting with the camera while I was looking which is my biggest complaint as it just never felt natural, there's so much zooming in and out required, panning around, looking under trees and around corners, it felt very awkward to use and no matter how long I played I couldn't get used to it, eventually it started to make me feel ill so I ended up having to take some short breaks. Taking it more slower paced helped with the nausea and I still found it enjoyable overall, it felt like the perfect time to play it with its winter theme, and there's always that satisfying feeling once you've managed to find everything.

You're a leader of a group of nomads struggling to survive in this ICY post-apocalyptic wilderness, you're also wandering from place to place looking to find and free the rest of your group that had been taken captive, while recruiting help along the way. The cold isn't the only thing to worry about, there's varied enemy encounters like mutants, bandits, savage wildlife, you know the usual stuff when the world falls apart. There's a lot of reading involved so thankfully it gets that right, it has lots of text options in conversations for different responses and then some more meaningful choices to make with a few different endings that makes saving at a key point worth it to go through them all. But it's not just a visual novel, it has RPG elements too, you get XP for completing quests that you can spend on level ups improving weapon skills, speechcraft, and more luck based attributes for better looting. You've got big map to click around to visit locations that have buildings to scavenge if you're in an abandoned village, or forests to hunt in if you're low on food. Like most survival games the start is always the most interesting period for me where it's all about prioritising inventory space to get the essentials and that relief when you find something when things are truly dire that can keep you going, when it starts to get comfortable, when your party is geared up with guns and combat armour instead of makeshift spears and winter coats, the survival element disappears and you're instead just wrapping up (that was intentional) the story by following the objectives to get where you need to go, the enemy encounters become trivial after a while with the exception of a couple of final fights that were more of a challenge. In the end it was enjoyable enough for me to recommend it.

As it's a game about discovery and piecing together information I'll keep it short, mainly because of spoilers and also because there's not much gameplay to talk about! You spend the game clicking on mobile apps, browsing forums, reading text messages, trying to make sense of what happened to the owner of the phone you're in possession of, the story unravels itself as you become more familiar with the characters as they go from just being names into people you recognise and figure out why that's significant they're talking about something to that person at that place during that time. It reminded me of Orwell in that respect, I liked the investigating you do to figure out passwords and working out what's important and what's not using all the information available... at your fingertips, because you're using a phone! It's best knowing absolutely nothing about it, I had no idea what this was going to be about and I think that's ideal for the mystery and impact the game gives you in key moments and when you work it all out.

There's not much I can really say about this one, it's a poker game! Your opponents are Tycho from Penny Arcade webcomic, Max from Sam & Max, the Heavy from Team Fortress 2, and Strong Bad from Homestar Runner. I only really knew about the Heavy having played TF2 for quite a bit a few years ago and he did make me laugh with some of his incredibly graphic and detailed war stories that break up play every so often as the characters chat amongst themselves, unfortunately I can't really say the others left much of an impression on me and hearing the same lines repeated got tiring fast, thankfully there's some settings to reduce chatter. I played the sequel back in 2016 and preferred that, I'll have to replay it to be sure but I remember the AI being less braindead going all in with the worst cards possible, unless that was just incredibly advanced bluffing, I'd recommend that one over this but I still enjoyed it.

If I'm honest I'm shocked how positive the reviews are for Fumiko. I really didn't enjoy this. The visuals and music are nice enough but it failed the most important aspect, it wasn't fun, and I had that dreaded feeling of reluctance whenever I pushed myself to continue, which I did because it was a gift. Thankfully it's short, the story starts quite strongly and I was intrigued, you're broken free from your shackles after being told things aren't what they seem, and you gain new abilities as you regain your powers as the game goes on. But I lost interest the more I played and longer I had to deal with the gameplay. The platforming just felt incredibly awkward, everything is so weightless, you're almost flying around towards the end once you have unlimited jumps and boosts, but the movement was a nightmare to control, like having to land precisely on small objects to collect powerups, or trying to duck under moving laser beams that destroy you if you make contact. I died quite a lot and unlike something like Dark Souls where the fault is usually on you, it felt instead like the game was to blame for just being poorly designed and it didn't feel fair, things tended to get frustrating quickly. Maybe you'll have a better time with it but it wasn't for me.

In my mission to get through the shortest games in my library I played this. My initial thoughts were positive, I quite liked the main gameplay mechanic, using a scanner you find to light up the cave system you’re exploring, the longer you linger on an area the more detailed it becomes, the more warmer the colours, and there's a few upgrades from packages you find conveniently left around to improve your scanning. But while this is quite cool and likely more so in VR, the novelty wears off and it just turns into find the path that takes you to the next path. It starts quite supernatural and spooky which I think would suit it much better if it kept that way, but then you go on a tranquil boat ride and the threat disappears for the rest of the game. Usually the further in and deeper down you go, the creepier it gets, Scanner Sombre felt the opposite. I also thought it was weird how there wasn't much to scan, you're meant to be exploring but there's not much to see, surely that could have been more of a feature. I just didn’t find it enjoyable, and if it was any longer then I probably would have abandoned it. It’s a missed opportunity for a decent horror game, instead it became boring and a relief when it ended.