Goat Beats Backlog: Same old, same old

Minesweeper Plus Plus

Actually I'm doing it huge disservice by calling it Minesweeper Plus. While the main concept is very similar to that of Microsoft's classroom/office time-killer, Hexcells is much better in every possible aspect. There are hexes instead of square fields and you need to figure out which hexes are blue (mines). And there's absolutely no need for blind clicking, every level can be solved without guessing. It's a perfect mindbender - challenging, but never frustrating.

Everything I said about the first Hexcells game applies here as well. The only difference is this one is more complicated because of addition of a new hex cell. Game is stll awesome.

Where in the World Is Nico Collard?

The only thing I remembered about playing this game 10 years ago was that Polish release had such a bad voice-overs I ended up pirating English version. As a result I didn't have big expectations when I started playing it and that's why ultimately I'm not disappointed.

Sure, it's definitely the worst part of the series so far (I'm playing Broken Sword 5 for the first time now), Nico plays a minor role this time and doesn't show up until halfway through the game and story... well, it's okay, at least as long as you don't expect much from it in the first place. Still, the thing that actually bothered me the most are horrible controls. How they managed to make them so crappy is beyond me, but neither mouse, mouse+keybord combination, nor Steam controller felt comfortable and controls provided constant frustration throughout my whole gameplay. Other than that Broken Sword 4

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more

Pretty fun, casual strategy/action game. Strategy, because there's some building, resource and unit management involved, action, because you click a lot. Your main goal in most missions is to either destroy the enemy castle or capture the flag planted just behind the castle's main gate. Former is achieved by hurling various types of projectiles at your foe's stronghold, latter by sending in your troops.

There's actually more depth to CastleStorm for those who wish for a more challenging experience. Bonus objectives, mission ratings, spells, heroes, castle upgrades (it's possible to design your own castle from scratch), 3 difficulty settings, additional game modes, co-op and online multiplayer (probably dead). I didn't really get that much into it though. Game was extremely fun to play for the first few hours, addictive even. After a while, though, it started getting repetitive and tedious to the point where I struggled a bit to finish it.

Girls love pearls

A well made physics based match-3 game. You drop coloured pearls on other coloured pearls to clear a level. Nice and relaxing. Unless, of course, you're a compulsive type that needs to obtain a perfect score on every stage, as his can be quite challenging :)

League of Mermaids includes 45-level story mode, 2 endless modes and a lot of bonus stages. There's not much else to say about it really. Take a look at a screenshot or two and you'll know just about everything there is to know about this game.

Blood Spatter Generator

Pretty simple and very entertaining no-bs shooter. There's no story, no briefings, no cutscenes, no limited ammo, just 60 levels of mayhem. Game features boatload of perks to level-up your character and weapons that drop randomly on the battlefield. Some of them are useless, but when you get lucky and hit the right combination of perks and guns, the carnage you inflict is very satisfying. Beating campaign wasn't that hard, only 2 or 3 missions posed bigger challenge, and it unlocks higher difficulty level.

On top of 60-level campaign Crimsonland offers 6 survival modes ranging from a classic endless one to a typing shooter (is that a thing?) and all modes can be played in up to 4 players co-op.

Kermit goes deep

Hmm... You play as a frog diving in an underwater forest, fighting cows on your way down. It's a bit creepy and surreal. If you have ~30 minutes to spare, it's not the worst option to spend your time.

Ready to use 2-column layout adapted from this. You can easily change colors of backgrounds, fonts and buttons, as well as add more items/tabs.