Won this over at SG from a Blaeo group giveaway provided by MouseWithBeer. I am very happy with it, despite it not being either good or memorable.
Lust is another addition in a poorly represented genre of erotic thriller. In this specific case, with some lovecraft and H.R.Giger thrown in

To keep it short, Lust is disappointing through and through. There are no highlights for me, the game is often short of meeting my expectations, in regards to everything that is introduced and everything that it sets out to be.
Even if its visual presentation is about decent, it's hardly a motivation to keep playing. I agree with others that, people didn't get Lust for an excuse to see nudity
Reading through text, creating a visual representation of the horrors, the true limits of sexuality, would be far more shocking than the fetishism and softcore porn we actually got.
The fact is, Lust isnt shocking in the slightest. Immature would be more accurate. it wastes time by offering you pornography in the most banal way possible. It's almost adorable how apprehensive it is, to test the limits or to take sexuality to its more metaphysical form
I feel it also concludes with an undeserved ending, for it though i wont spoil you on that
Rarely deviate from the main plot, to even develop that twist in a way that feels earned. Instead its a dumb end twist.

STORY
Is focused on a search and rescue plot. You will find yourself stuck inside a mansion. This is the exact day the cult is finally entering lustghaa, spending their last day having an orgy. Which gives you an opportunity to enter the mansion and mingle with the crowd, though the lack of AI and NPCs that pay no mind to the player, sort of break that immersion
in tone it lacks good sense, it often downplays the horrors of lustghaa for a lot of fetishism.

SURVIVAL HORROR
It did add some potential with the mask mechanics. it would be an interesting concept, but much of the game gets in the way of it actually being fully implemented into the gameplay
For one the gameplay is streamlined in favor of keeping the plot and events exactly as intended, it lacks interactability, options, strategy. It is not a coincidence the studio goes by "Movie Games"
Things like stealth and AI are almost an illusion
So much is lost by having linear level design. And it feels especially lazy from the developers, because when you pick up this game, the first sequence is stealth. There's an actual open map, with multiple paths, enemies have routes. You will never see that again.
There are monster later on, but these ones sit still until you cross their aggro range. You are supposed to outrun them, at which point they will loose interest. There no attempt to give routes to the AI, or have them activly search for the player. Instead there is this, where my run looks exactly like anyone else's, to the point it might as well be QTEs. For lusstghaa specifically, there are 2 masks. These replace each other as the game sees fit. So the player doesn't have to switch between them, but rather use the one that is given. Neither of the 2 are particularly interesting. At least the one that avoids scripted deaths is pretty lame.

WALKING SIM
There's a lot of downtime in lust. However it lacks content for it to be a walking sim. It doesn't really build up lore, there's a lack of logs, some are hidden in this OCD trap drawers, where you might just open 20 before you get one small piece of text. It is even here, linear. As every other room is locked until the plot decides its not.
No real puzzles either, No item collecting
This is also where the party masks are used, which unlike the ones in Lustghaa, have no other purpose other than to hide your identity. its the reason why the NPCs pay no mind to you.

I don't know if i should count this as finished. The developer did not take into account that you can't double jump out of a fall. Which he would totally be aware had he tested the damn level. well, i did a quite a few levels i have seen worse, this is better than those one screen platformers by just a tiny smidge. Im still surprised steam hasnt purged this one yet.

Control a bunny, collect carrots, return to your house to awkwardly teleport to the next area. except for the aforementioned level, where you can't double jump not to fall in the pit of despair.
There's one collectible (carrots), one obstacle (spikes), the level geometry only needs 2 textures, a few sound effects and a double jump. Do you really need anything else?
i wouldn't even dare criticise this developer, it doesn't even seem worth it when i know this person will never care to learn beyond this point. (yes, he is a well known asset flipper)
but if i was to very calmly express my opinion, i would say...PUT SOME FUCKING INVINCIBILITY FRAMES ON THIS SHIT, ya dingus. Supposedly you get 3 lives, but if fall straight down onto a spike it immediately consumes 3, if you hit the spike from the side bounces you between the 2 spikes.
Also the teleport spawns the character mid air. seriously. And it still feels very boxy, which is common for anyone that is editing a 2d platformer for the first time. except he released it and put a price on it

The most humane way to be done with this game, is to die from spawning near an enemy and proceed to remove it from your steam account.
Barely a game, Bunker 58 is an asset flip, confusingly stitched together, without cohesion or a real end goal.
It's just a terribly designed small map with a few of the same zombie type enemies. No objective. No exit. The game doesn't finish when you kill every enemy.
I think the developer tried working with interactable doors and items, but made no progress on that endeavour. He however left a floating door and a battery, two things that otherwise do not exist in the game. The norm is for Rooms to be left with missing doors, vaults not to be interactable but part of the texture
Its almost like someone wanted to be reminded of his failures, or straight up didnt care. It is one of the 2.
Im extra confused with this collection of weapons, that are either, straight up not working (like the axe), or simply overpowered against zombies. The weapon loadout looks closer to the typical survival trash you see on steam, in that, an axe would have some utility when it comes to crafting. Most importantly its made with one extra empty box, despite the fact there are no other weapons in the game to fill the last empty box. I theorized it was supposed to have a flashlight or something of the sort.

Shooting blanks of pure testosterone

On the surface its a dumb corridor shooter, but deep down hides a mediocre concoction of modified Halo and F.E.A.R mechanics

The story takes place at a mining colony. There's an incredible demand for Hubbardium, whatever that is. Is it even a mineral? Out of utilization alone it seems more like a chemical, with many recreational uses as drug.
Most miners seem to drink it, like booze. Large amounts seem to drive humans insane.
This is not the case for Arnold Weiss, a top of his game, 50 year old man. That can drink Hubbardium beer without getting intoxicated.This bothers me more than it should, it's not like people smoke because of the thrill of getting cancer, but non-alcoholic beer? just drink something else man.
More importantly, he can take larger quantities entering Slow Mo state, without the inconvenience of losing his sanity.
This make him the perfect hero for any story but more importantly missions that involves finding the source of this specific drug, before the main bad guys/future junkies.
And yes, the men are right. There is a not so natural source that transforms rock into Hubbardium. They all call it the heart of Glomar, which makes them suspect in my book. How do you even know this?
ofcourse having a great adventure, uncovering the truth, is all reason enough for any common hero. Thankfully Arnold over here has a heart of gold. All he wants his to rescue his ex´s boyfriend in a way that proves himself the superior male. There is nothing more relatable than that.
That was all i could take, i ended up skipping through a lot of overexposure, redundant dialogue, and a few stereotypical characters.
The one exception was the italian guy, i was glued to the screen during those cutscenes.Give them a watch. The stereotype is a poor representation of Italian people, but you can tell its an italian. My theory is that they got an italian to play an American, in order to get these results

Gameplay:
It's an awkward corridor shooter with poorly thought out ideas, poorly added to an unpolished experience, to the point where, unless your met with such a difficulty wall, you will likely forget to use them. However, it's still what makes it stand out. I was more interested in finding more uses for these mechanics, instead of looking at it as a corridor shooter, because at that its just bland and incopetent
Strictly as a shooter, most of the level design is claustrophobic. All you win from the corridor level design, is cover. The AI only lose from it, because unlike F.E.A.R these are total aimbots. So instead of both parties move around and flank, its mostly a case of cutting a corner and shooting first. Which also trivializes the slowmo, you can't really take anyone by surprise, you just try and kill enemies before they kill you.
it's like that for the entirety of the game, rather than fixing the AI, they just add health stations pretty much everywhere. In very few areas enemies are scripted in like crashing through a window or run back to their squad, no doubt because F.E.A.R did it. Though these are pratically events where the AI acts the same way every time. I have never seen them run away from grenades, i've seen them shoot doors when they cant unlock them, it's like the aimbot is always on. in terms of real combat tactics, they sort of can go into cover.
The other main mechanic is Hacking. And i find this to be the most interesting aspect of the game, even though it's not as useful as there are utilizations for it.
It's one of those things you forget to use due overall fast paced nature of the action, except for when it is crucial.
I appreciate they did not force the player to use the ability, except for a couple locked doors and forklifts, but damn, there's so many rooms that you can analyze, things to hack for instance robots.
The physics are the same both outside and inside the facilities, apparently the consensus was to make things floaty on the planet Alpha Prime, that in itself would not be a problem if it didn't make platforming so frustrating. Sliding and losing momentum when jumping near boxes and walls.

Weapons:
The flamethrower is absolute nonsense. I have gone through plenty of low budget FPS and ive never seen anything like this.
It's a random weapon with a short area damage, it doesn't like the environment on fire, it doesn't have a burn stat on enemies, it doesn't stagger, it just does a fixed amount of damage for as long as the enemy is in range. Its not the most underpowered weapon, but it sure puts you really close to an enemy that can still shoot at you.
The hammer is ridiculously fast, it could be a fun weapon to try out, if close range combat wasn't so deadly against aimbots
The sniper doesn't get much use, it could be worth it if either, damage was increased or the zoom animation wasnt as long as it is. It's a strange inclusion considering even the open areas don't have the long range combat to make it a necessity, You will find the pistol is incredibly accurate for the job at hand.
The Shotgun! the shotgun is rather good in this. Probably not that surprising if they were influenced by FEAR.

Graphics:
it's a mixed bag, the art style is not entirely awful, it's more the quality of the faces and some textures that don't look particularly great for 2007. While weapons and the interiors look much closer to average.
Increasing the FOV to 90 seems to bring a few graphical glitches. And as far as i know you can't change the weapon FOV, so it wont look pretty. Even though i didnt, i would advise keeping it closer to 80

Other issues:
Not only are the vast majority of cutscenes exposition and briefing, they are made in-game engine, on a weird top down angle. Most of them are barely animated
They had a model of a man cut in half, and he is pretty much everywhere
There is only one final boss and it's a cakewalk compared to the rest of the game, its almost like a victory lap, or several...you do a few laps across the room to take him down.

this...this is why it took me so long to check Assassin Creed, there are boring and tedious games in this franchise but the original was bad beyond my expectations.
This complete overall almost killed 2 franchises at once as Ubisoft was still banking on Prince of Persia
2 games, that shared the same issues, of what essentially was prototype of the modern "game as a service" ubisoft model
Yet, the original Assassin Creed was the less polished of the two, while also being offering more content at a slower pace, which truly made it as bad as it was.

Pacing:
To the question "Which games force you to complete sidequest?" I raise you this. A game where the side quests are part of the main quest, which in itself is a gameplay loop
Altair is an Assassin, which are enemies to the Templars. Each of his quests work as follow
Get a contract, travel between near locations in israel, once there, the information hunt begins. You must climb viewpoints to have side quest be shown on the minimap, and you do those side quests to get information about your current target. Once that's done go to the local guild and devise a plan. There's a small cutscene after you kill your target, which makes Altair question the guilds decision, often ending with him returning back to Al Mualim in search of answers
you repeat this loop without major changes to the gameplay itself, other than another piece of equipment
which should have been there since the very beginning, anything would help making the game less monotonous. It's a new take on POP, but there's nothing particularly difficult to learn that would require learning skills bit by bit. Assassin Creed 2 does this to a much lesser degree

Changes:
The control scheme is different, the main focus is to favor a more automated movement, that lets Altair grab, hug,jump nearby objects, like walls and poles, without require timed presses on the players part.
POP reboot kinda gets away with it. But Assassin Creed not only goes hard on its implementation, it has many crowded areas within the city walls, with interactable objects that can be climbed pretty much anywhere.
So, the game is janky, sometimes Altair snaps to nearby objects, The issue also comes from its control scheme
You will also get reused buttons for different actions, it took up to Brotherhood, to actually build a control layout for mouse and keyboard
Swift is your permanent drop down button, that on occasion works as a grab ledge when falling down...fair enough
As far as i know you can't even hold shift to quickly go down a ladder, but you can fall and grab it again mid fall, much like any wall as long as there is something to grab directly below
Space is a jump button, that gets more use combined with RMB (RUN), it turns to a faster run + grab and climb near objects automatically. this can lead to some unwanted movement on ground level where the character can snap on to objects if its close enough, though it works fine jumping from rooftop to rooftop
Swings, also don't require a timed button press, instead you hold jump button + direction and the game does it for you

Weird issues with gameplay decisions:
Having to lock on to enemies, for trivial things
It's the case with pickpocketing, that locks the camera for no reason, sometimes against walls.
This animation was removed from later titles of the Ezio´s trilogy, where you just press space in the middle of a crowd to steal, which i also dont like
same happens with the camera lock during combat, its janky to the point of not being able to put execution moves in frame, due to walls or objects blocking the camera. Also generally slow and clunky when you want to unlock and leave combat

One of the biggest issues with the original is trying to expand a game that doesn't have a lot of content.
its notorious for reusing the same type of obstacles. The most frustrating being the sick and poor, that attack you on sight and try to expose you during stealth missions. No joke, there are spots with 3 of the same women begging for money. This gets less annoying in the Ezio games, where they even switch the women for musicians, so the same models dont stand out as much
The original is exceptional worse, just by reusing the same voice line for each NPC type.
They are also more aggressive here than in later games, it's possible to fail a mission due to NPC interactions, especially when im so tired of them i just casually stab them in the back
I actually had to murder an NPC before starting a side quest. Because he would push me agaisnt some guards that where blocking the exit, during a stealth mission.

Optimization:
it's not Assassin Creed unless its poorly optimized.
It's not one of the more problematic games in this franchise, but it as a highly unstable frame rate
I didn't lock the frame rate out of pure laziness, what i got was really high 200 fps to sudden drops at around 60fps. Especially when jumping from ledges to haystacks. It feels stuttery, though that could be just from the cluncky gameplay

Finished the main campaign,i had i quick look for extra content which is actually the main selling point of the project, but wasn't quite tempted to spend more time, due to not so enjoyable handling and physics
Perhaps in the near future i can give it a fair shot and review it accordingly, but even the workshop looks deserted for what it is
Going through the main campaign, it is exactly how i remember it. It just doesn't stand out these days when compared to BeamNG and Wreckfest, at least on the technical side of things
New edition or not, the biggest differences are to lighting, shadows, textures, the usual deal for "remastered" versions
The main advantage this holds over BeamNG is that, crashing simulator aside, it offers multiple gameplay modes for a series of party games
Wreckfest is a better game, with a good workshop. BeamNg is a serious simulation, that gives no help in the creation of different gameplay modes and it doesnt even offer multiplayer support, though an option does exist
But Crashday is european jank, unfortunately while not a bad game, its good for just a few hours.

This was painfully long, with barely any of the associated rewards. There's only so many vehicles and tracks, it's so prolonged that 90% of the levels rewards are blank.
I really don't recommend, it's the worst game from Slightly Mad. Authenticity is not more important than gameplay.
i highly advise modding your favorite Sim with your favorite vehicles than following this route
Ferrari Racing legends is a broken, unpolished, untested mess of a game. On the surface it shouldn't have been, if you know NFS: Shift, than you know the foundation to this game. which makes it more perplexing how it turned out. Im sure this product needed to be shipped immediately, i however dont understand how you cannot have a clear vision for this, just do Shift: Ferrari edition.
I was always amazed by this game, typically it's the italian manufacturers that ruin the game, by imposing limitations to how the car is presented. But culpability falls entirely on the developer, perhaps publisher.
Seriously, i don't dislike how Ferrari is presented here. The career mode is supposed to be a celebration of the brand. Almost like they allow you to experience their victories. You can easily tell because they often put dates on everything.
So, i guess a lot of tracks are missing, me being portuguese and not get Estoril is pretty sad, but again Ferrari wasn't successful every year, and if you are going to experience their work, might as well be their best work
That however already raises some questions over how to insert difficulty into the game

I would describe it, in a celebration, divided into 3 eras, with a very unconventional career mode and difficulty. The game isn't much of a racing game, but it's not a sim either, it does not want player to race actual pilots, but rather have the player do a test drive and complete 2 challenges for each track.

These are my main issues with the game

1- DAMAGE
player is not allowed to drive a broken vehicle, therefore these are extremely tough to break, plus it doesnt have detailed damage models, as it doesnt need it. I've seen one of 2 results. The vehicle is severely damaged, you won't see or feel it, because you are immediately forced to retire. 2nd choice: have the pilot suffer damage that incapacitates him from fully controlling the vehicle.

2- Brand over the individual
I think a lot of us, would love to play against some of the ferrari pilots, through the years. But this game pays no homage to the skillful individuals that have driven said vehicles, in fact, its weird that they would drop dates yet ignoring the drivers themselves

3- Without route
no real flow or direction.It's not aiming towards anything.
It's not because it feels real, because the physics and driving mechanics are that close to Shift. Meaning, you could drive a 50s car and it would still drift around the corners, because well...NFS is an hybrid, and it worked for them at the time, but its not really the right gameplay for it.

4-unconventional difficulty
The AI is the same in any difficulty, you are never really competing against them, they are seen more as an obstacle. What you want is to avoid them while you are aiming towards a challenge. Therefore, missions that require you to be first, are easier than beating the clock, and even more so, for missions that require you to follow behind a group of agressive drivers without hitting them.So instead there's difficulty spikes, but you are never really learning the game.

5- The AI
For one, they take longer to accelerate to full speed, yet they will follow their path and brake near corners even if they are going on a lower speed.
You get pretty lucky on during the first era, while you are aiming for first.
you will soon find the AI is brain dead
There's a race during the first era, where you need to overtake one vehicle per lap. It doesn't take 20 sec for 6 of those vehicles to crash into each other. I had to come to a full stop and wait for them to get back on track. This happens every time you do that race, at least on hard, that's how it went.

6- bugs and glitches

on a certain angle, F1 cars can clip through the ground.
There is one race that is bugged, with F333SP, that ends before the first lap. You can circumvent this issue by reversing through the finish line,

There ain't much i can say, other than its a really short puzzle platformer, with 2 mechanics. A dimensional shift, and physics based puzzles (mainly stacking boxes).
Other than having a very inappropriate ending, its...well, it's an extremely common genre, which for a full game would have been bland, but serviceable, for a concept however...idk, i get the point, but i think loner devs sometimes forget why people would purchase their game
Far from me, to tell anyone when they shouldn't receive some monetary incentive for the time they invest into learning a new hobby.
to put it simply, Curse of the Crescent Isle is far from a great game, it ain't amazingly polished, and it's more of a concept than anything else. but, at the very least, it was slightly different than doki doki panic, which aint the most common game around to begin with, and it did that while bringing some new ideas.

A new title to be added to the ever growing list of wasted game templates
whatever this is, it's a good foundation for a game. The art style is good and colorful, the handling is fine if a bit dull.
It seems to recognize the finish line, im sure it could use checkpoints.
It keeps track of drift points and There's coins, i don't like collecting coins in racing games, but their are there if you need them.

Yet like so many asset flips, the developer made no attempt to create a game with it.
It should come to no surprise, but i always find it impressive when a game releases and...there are no rules, or a purpose/goal, or if its even balanced or not

AI? :NO; Timer? :NO; Drift multiplyers? :NO; Checkpoints: NO; Penalty for crashing: NO; Nitro: NO; Handbrake: NO. All you do is drive around until you have enough points to cross the finish line. That's it. Would have been the an easy 100% if the game had achievements

An enjoyable spin off/sequel to Blood Dragon, using Redlinx Trials engine.
Its a weird one to discuss, its the least polished Trials game. If Blood Dragon made you question "Why?" Than Trials of the Blood Dragon, makes it clear that, however makes this, they are only interested in continue the story and style regardless what they are given.
Ubisoft´s low effort of appeasing with something that isnt at all cut out for the job, even though they have had 2 Far Cry spin offs already, with Primal and New Dawn, the latter is completely unremarkable.
This, just to say, Blood Dragon 2 would be a better game, and Trials of Blood Dragon was probably not a good idea.

The physics are alright for motorcycles, But that's clearly not what's in store. The ones who wondered why this wasn't a dlc shortly found out why.
They added other vehicles, on foot sections that are floaty as hell, there's gunplay and i advise using a controller, space sections, a small RC car that breaks the laws of physics and moves completely different from all the rest, space sections that i bet everyone hates.
overall it's more action oriented, generally you are going through the level in a faster pace, occasionally killing a few enemies.

Not a great game, but between you and me, it's totally worth it. There's content variety despite its short length, its creative, and completely bonkers. Seriously, one of the levels is a Boss Rush, how can anyone not have a soft spot for this.

Remember to look for the 5 keys to open the not so hidden safe. Theres some fun stuff in there.

it caters to my tastes, im not quite sure it would still hold up on its own. I think horror fans will appreciate it.
You can break down the title to REM MOTH MOTHER RED. And each one is present in game.
Italian made game influenced by western culture.
It checks boxes on:
Silence of the Lambs, as you might be able to tell from the obvious similarities between the main character and Jodie Foster.
Res 7, gameplay and set pieces. At least when it comes to open house location, stealth and hiding location. Consequently even a bit of Texas Chainsaw found its way in there
Lastly, Italian movies in general, particularly Giallo when it comes to storytelling.
Also, all this...
- Sexuality is a prominent theme
- Plot is intensionally broken down in favor mistery
- villains tipically strangely dressed, wielding less conventional weapons
- only women are victims
- Villain Troubled childhood and upbringing
- long plot exposition dump of big reveals and villains explaining their actions to the main character.
- The possibility of there being more than one murderer all along.
- Main character unknowingly gets near a corpse
- Regular person is investigating the case.
- pseudoscience
- Strange DREAMS or hallucinations.

Remothered wears its influences, in part it requires an acquired taste, for being less commercial horror than the majority of games. I wouldn't even say, the reveals would be worth for everyone. I think horror fans would appreciate it as a whole for what it is. Though, everyone would likely appreciate the small details and character backgrounds. The story is open ended, as this is only part one with only a few hours of gameplay. While, it also leaves some aspects open to interpretation, even if the identity of Madame Svenska is somewhat obvious, it means a lot to me, that it does its best a telling a story, instead of explaining a story.
Opening cutscene shows the mysterious Madame Svenska talking to a journalist. The topic, a strange illness. Not primarily a disease, but non conventional science, secret experiments, disregarding secondary effects or inhumane treatments.
Svenska remembers the story of Rosemary Reed, Who forces her way in Felton's house, by pretending to be investigating his strange decease and a drug called Phenoxyl. her objective is to confront Felton over the disappearance of his daughter Celeste.
Rosemary notices signs of mental illness. That however doesn't stop her from Trespassing, after she is ordered to leave.

Theres nothing particularly great nor bad about the gameplay itself.
You roam through a large open house in search of clues.
A few areas are initially closed and require searching for some items and find their usefulness, basically solving small puzzles. Items and puzzles are highlighted and hard to miss.
All the while hiding or running from a psychotic drugged up murderer.
The level design, save points, sound queues, do a good job at directing you towards progress, in some moments. So hopefully, you won't get lost too often.

Most of remothered is stealth and exploration.
Throw or set distractions as means of clearing the way from enemies. seems like enemies are often either spawned, or scripted to move towards your location once you complete an objective.
It's not particularly repetitive, this is a short game after all. For whatever reason, getting the enemies attention and running to a hiding spot seems a more attractive option than to simply throwing or placing a distraction to clear the way. It's even possible to hide behind large objects like tables or counter.
The later portions are more action oriented, with a few chases and qte events thrown in.

I felt more interest towards story and characters, i wouldn't mind sitting for 10 min watching a cutscene. which Is not to say the gameplay was bad, i thought it was quite alright. It works fine, AI wasn't unfair or buggy.
I mostly have smaller issues, that hopefully won't be repeated in the sequel.
The one that stood out the most was voice mixing. It's far more noticeable in game, than cutscenes.
it seems enemies are equally loud, if they stand right above on the upper floor. Creaking wood is fine, but voices should be lowered, as it is important to be aware of enemy location.

Save points are taken from Enemy Within, though that doesn't excuse it from introducing them properly to new players. I'm not making an assumption that different players would not be aware of this mechanic. I just find introducing a mechanic over text and following that up with a different save system to be unnecessary when, you have a save point right at the end of the floor corridor.

I'm also not a fan of quick time events, but if you do have to use them, refrain from using mouse buttons.
It's hard to keep your fingers from instantly clicking, when they are resting right above them. It doesn't help that the icon for RMB and LMB won't be clearly distinct from one another, like a controller button or a Key would be.
Made even worse by lowering the qte over to the bottom of the screen, which also delays that reaction, since its not where im looking at.

I get that they don't wanted to clutter the screen with button presses, as it takes from the atmosphere, than again...quick time events take away from the experience. They are cinematics, requiring the player to click a button doesnt make the set piece more intense.

Swery liked it and that's how little it takes for me to check something out. I will never say about american developers, the industry doesn't really have space for an individual voice, and honestly i cant even stand them when they take their frustration over to social media.
Anyway, this is a good point and click, and don't worry, it had very little in common with Swery´s work. Its goes towards the surreal and it does finish every chapter with a quick quiz that also works as a summary. Thats about it.
it's really well written, i've enjoyed looking for logs. It does help with the murder mystery aspect that you never speak directly to any of the possible killers, instead you read, documents and texts around the house.

this game was probably just 1 hour long, but i enjoyed most of it.
It's cool that you can actually die, but these moments and a trial and error hide and seek minigame
I think, the way they were presented, that the inventions are a bit underwhelming.
And the point and click controls and movement are slow and limited, which perhaps works better with VR, but thats something i have no interest whatsoever

Its an arkanoid on a puzzle bobble board. Except heavy on power up usage.
levels are gonna have a few power-ups laying around the board, each one is a different character. Collect those, while you are still building up a meter.
Once its full, you can use your character´s ability, depending on which power up you are using, if you are using one at all. Essentially, rack up points to build meter, collect power up, use current character´s ability. Repeat the process.

The main objective is to collect the stars on the board, in puzzle bobble rules, these can fall along with other pieces when they are no longer connected. And you really need them to upgrade every ability

Was it worth it? Not really
the paddle sucks, i can't really find a good angle. If you hit the ball near the edge of a normal paddle, it typically, or at least those are the rules, the ball is sent in the same direction, its probably better not to think too hard about the angles right?just that there where specific rules that worked and we accepted them . here, the middle area has a larger vertical hitbox, and it always sends the ball back on the same exact angle. Because of the eyes, even if i hit dead center, it's not guaranteed it will have anything near a simetrical path.

Don't know what to call it, The store description classifies it as a 3D Maze, though that's not very descriptive.
Its a 3D maze where both sides of the path exert gravitational pull, And it's very mild on the "maze" part.

I don't dislike the idea, i only dislike the game. I've seen it done better and even there similar concepts have been more interesting to play, like Escher's relativity in Echochrome for the PSP. People either got keys for free, or they are easily satisfied looping the same path from the opposite side. I won't deny there's something to the latter, that could be worth, had this been a proper game

So, the main issue, is the lack of mechanics and non existent thought process in leaving the maze. I haven't seen any other mechanic aside for gravity pads that turn you upside down. It was the easiest, most bland game i've played in quite a while. Not a puzzle, Not a walking sim, No narration. Just paths on a boxed area and a minimalist wallpaper.

STD Buster sounds like a derogatory term.
There is little to no reason to play this. This is a port of an android game called Dead Shells, however, as android games tend to fall into "games as service" modules. It means this is an older version of a game that as been updated several times since then. The current dead shells is now an endless game, very different from to the 125 very short levels presented here. So really, the only thing on offer here is the end game.

STD Busters is a very simplified rogue-lite with turn based combat, its almost like a clicker game. It ask little strategy and management from the player. The combat itself is not important, it's almost entirely dependent on preparation before entering the level and roaming the level itself. basically you choose and upgrade the characters you are most comfortable with, the ship inventory space to send it in search for items, then in the level, you mostly worry about selecting the 2 primary weapons, keep an eye on ammo, look for special health packs that delay the virus spread in your squad.
I don't know much about the original android version, but i can only assume that from the updates it got, one of them was for Balance.
seriously the squad is a joke, there's a clear superior character and there is a clear inferior one. Its not balanced, and levels aren't even made to force you different builds, it all plays out the same.
You can just upgrade D Scout, that one class is enough to beat the game, its easy mode. The sniper, is a terrible class, that makes zero sense, and has no unique mechanics you usually see from them in other games. What does it matter if you are a long range character if the damage output is the same?

Color Syndrome, combines tetris with connect 4 and possibly Lumines. To a confused and mismatched result.
The board is huge, which makes it last for an insane long time. Ideally you would show the player whether or not he understands and is getting better at it. But here it hardly matters. Maybe old tetris is heavy on RNG, but any of the recent ones, you can survive an awfully long time on skill alone. Its overall a better feeling than making the board multiple times the original size.
The design is terrible, it's incredibly hard to combo or set blocks for a chain. I kept thinking of lumines and how brilliant it was, and so, much like the screen size, it also overly relies on abilities. Almost like it's there to cover an unsuccessful fusion of games.

Then there's the janky controls and the bugs. I played this 2016 game for the first time, and to me its not finished.
It feels like it happens at random, but most likely blocks won't rotate if there's one direction that wont fit. When you eliminate a bottom row Blocks can get stuck or be fused together in 2 different colors.
There's one cleaning block that can be controlled by the player, and boy does the game hate it. It has this mechanic to avoid exploiting the ability that sort of makes it disappear. Its when it doesnt work, and i move the block from one side to the other, that i can get wedged just below the bottom of the screen.

It's a puzzle platformer. It looks like Super Mario Bros. 2 or Doki Doki Panic, but the grab ability works exclusively on enemies to use them as a platform, throwable object, or to use their own ability. A fun small game and i could see a fully fledged version for the Switch. But as is, you are getting what you paid for, which in this case was 0.39€. Dont be surprised if you managed to pass an obstacle in a non intended way.

Steam Review

Steam Review

Steam Review

Steam Review

Back at it once more, this time on steam. Before, i actually had them in physical form, none of them are a complete version, i would collect near released dates, later, not even that long after, i would acquire different releases, thanks to "free games" from gaming magazines. That somehow included, FEAR COMBAT, which was free2play, as any other MP mode is, but this one came in a CD without the main game. it's the lamest thing that could be included in a magazine, i should look into it to know which magazine it was

Anyway, F.E.A.R is one of a kind. If i ever find the strength to check the entire collection, the one thing i want to make clear, is that both Monolith and the other studios that worked on it, had a terrible time to replicate it. the expansion packs where still made on the same engine, but once the sequels rolled in, FEAR started aiming towards the COD crowd
Perhaps the biggest hurdle, is that FEAR was a simple game. Coming off the original, it was easier for Timegate to address the lack of content on the expansion. But for Monolith next entry, they soon entered a point where there was nothing to add. They opted to remove from FEAR 2 rather than add, with a minimum attempt of modernizing the series. While FEAR 3 from Day One went towards a COD direction.

The original, due to time and budget constraints, does not have much to offer in terms of variety. Though, that worked favorably for Monolith, has instead they put emphasis on what distinguish them from other developers

FEAR is a game of opportunities. People associate Monolith with advanced AI. To me FEAR sits between non traditional AI and a carefully built map. A few other games use Goal-Oriented Action Planning architecture, its easily searched and a good read. However this is the one game in the franchise, where the AI can surprise the player
It is interesting to check the expansions and the subsequent sequels, in how level design can deconstruct what once felt like battling actual beginner level players.
So, i always felt not enough credit was given, to whom an monolith was creating the maps. because the lack luster environment and recycled sets and textures just sort of become a more noticeable issue.
But yeah, there is nothing like it. They make short decisions, they are aware of the map itself, and which objects are interactable to them. the most interesting factor about FEAR AI, is that very few battles feel like a typical game encounter, when an enemy flanks the player to shoot through a window, its not an heavily scripted event, it's a quick decision based on player position.they also show individual and squad based behaviour. In turn, it feels different every time you play the game. I don't remember the battle's, just actions made by the AI

The dialogue is also important on selling the magical AI. It gives the illusion of inteligence, aswell as serving a gameplay purpose, in giving the player useful information.For example, most of the time, enemies don't spawn-in during an encounter, they are already roaming the area looking for the player, if they hear sounds, they communicate with the rest of the squad
Dynamic lighting might contribute to the horror atmosphere, but it is most noticeable during combat and identifying enemy position through shadows. It is unfortunate, that immediately after this game, it would fall to its lowest form.
FEAR has a small arsenal of useful semi realistic weapons and some more overpowered for easier disposal of large armored baddies. I just want to point out that, the SMG is not only the weakest weapon due to its spread, it has very little reason to exist when the burst rifle has full auto. yet, the SMG is the early weapon for both expansions.

I find FEAR more interesting at hard difficulty, as it is, the easiest of the 3 campaigns. However, it's the only that doesn't over rely in its slowmo ability, so i would recommend medium to test the AI in a fast paced tactical shooter without the ability, because its totally doable here, yet not at all in the expansions.
if there is any criticism i can give. The lack of variety in sets, textures and objects. Lack of verticality, lack of enemy types.
i dont think its fair to add overconvuluted story to the mix, as Monolith often avoided doing that. F3AR being the first to have a "compelling" narrative. While FEAR doesn't really go to such lengths. Even with the expansions that are set during or right after the event of the first one. The main objective is obvious enough, and most you need to pay attention are the Replica Forces, and to know who Alma and Paxton are.
it's great, i'm of the opinion FEAR doesn't do much, but what it does it does extensively and does it exceptionally well

I have a problem with extraction point. Even though it requires FEAR to run, it sets up its own folder with non widescreen settings. Even if i change to the correct resolution, the game reverts back to 4:3 every time i start it.

Ok, so this aint Monolith, Vivendi had outsourced the expansion packs over to Timegate.
Rather than trying to copy the original, TimeGate decided to address the most criticised aspects. They did a good job at that.
There's more content, more level variety and much more verticality to the maps
Overall, the game feels more scripted, most encounters are an event a challenge for the player. Enemies are inserted into a map designed specifically for them to interact with it in a certain way, a spectacularly predictable piece.
while the AI doesn't really shine on most of the new areas. The direction in taking FEAR to a more challenging match, filled with all kinds of destruction, was fairly successful, even if a bit game like
TimeGate seems to understand FEAR level design better than the F3AR team. They revert back to the series of corridors and interconnected rooms of the original, but often fall for linear corridors and open areas. They often ignore the little details, like shadows. They don't always let replicas roam an area
But thats mostly the chosen direction. They want those explosive moments, they want to use the large areas to ambush the player. And a new arsenal is offered to the player, not just for the changes they made in enemy equipment, but to the map itself. You get these throwable sentries that stick to walls and provide protection over non covered angles.
The one strange thing with the expansions, is the need to out stage the original arsenal, tipping the weapon scale to OP sci fi.

The game is not entirely bad, undeniably weaker, it feels more like a random game on the FEAR engine with the same mechanics
PM introduces a new character. On Paper its always a good idea to experience the same game through a different character, however, they go through extreme lengths to justify keeping the gameplay as it was, instead of designing and adjusting difficulty for a fast paced tactical shooter. they also add unjustified interactions between your new character and both Alma and Paxton. If it was to keep everything the same, why even replace the main character?

PM also excels in bad maps, that often give no opportunities to the Replicas. An overabundance of long corridors and chokes. Other levels include open areas, with cheap cover. The new enemies work well within the level constraints. But often you are slaughtering through weak replicas. Taking a corner and finding 4 enemies just chilling in a corridors with 0 chances of surviving is a common occurrence.
the levels themselves add more down time, with long corridors and stretches that you must cross

As for enemies, the weaker and most common replicas are reduced to jobbers with slowmo trivializing fights. The bad level design also pushed the player into relying heavily on slowmo due to the latent risks of advancing without proper cover.
The new added enemy Nightcrawlers have the same ability, giving the player no viable options other than employing the same strategy
There's a lack of armored baddies, PM prefers to achieve their difficulty quota by pitting you against a few enemies of the same type.
The new paranormal enemy is the scarecrow, An interesting concept, for an enemy below ground that you can spot by a large black poodle on the ground, once the player unknowingly steps in,the enemy grabs the him and pushed him down. It worked, about 2 times, there's a few reasons why they dont work on PM, even as a jump scare, no matter how hard they tried.
For one, this game is far brighter than the rest, exposing most of the puddles. It's also relatively fast to just point straight down and shoot, they also tend to drop multiple on the same location.

Overall, its a mediocre expansion that just so happens to work on the FEAR engine. but they didn't put much care or thought into it. the skybox is horrible, they reuse some levels. I didn't use the new The grenade launcher all that much, but Nightcrawlers did, and that thing has an insane explosion radius,

They seem successful at re-releasing a game that was outdated months before it came out, i mean this is better than the previous Turbo Pug but its still crap.
Still a one button runner, Same hazards with more variations. Looks better, yet the obstacles still blend with the environment. The leaderboard doesn't work. It overheats CPU like no other.

At least it's not a one button infinite runner. You can actually run backwards if you want to grab an item or jump to other platforms. it's not really useful but it's there, sometimes its easier to avoid an enemy by jumping left over the cops and get some space. Has unique abilities, i say that but, one is helpful, one is strictly for achievement purposes and sprint is by far the worst ability for it increases difficulty for a few seconds with no reward.
There's very little variety in enemies, although each enemy acts entirely different. In case of dogs you can even jump on them like Mario for Digital animal cruelty.
Devs made only a few sections and then left RNG to takes care over item/scaffolding/enemy placement
It has bugs, like one achievement is almost impossible, or it would be if the game didn't become unstable the longer you run. In my case, i was lucky enough to get the same section loop forever. It did start stuttering, and eventually crash once i decided to get caught by the cops, in what was probably bad timing.
Repetitive overall. A shorter more difficult run would have been better. But instead devs divided the game in 2 maps for easy and an hard variation of the first map with changes to the objects and the enemies. The result is that neither part have a difficulty increase. It doesn't switch sections, or hazards.

Its very clearly influenced by Deadly Premonition, to the point of including what wasn't intended by Sweary. It loses some degree of freedom in comparison to DP.
One of those games had enough resources that it could build its own town, or should i say, steal from David Lynch´s world.
It's the most noticeable difference between games like DP, Pathologic. The Piano, like many other, entirely follows a very linear path around the core idea.
Leaves little to explore and discover, little to build a world. All elements and mechanics introduced serves to push the story and its ideas, rather than developing them to game form.
In result, the game switched genres often, from stealth, to action QTE, to puzzles, to detective sequences where you search and pair clues.
And its works as one would expect: Some are generic, some are unique but poorly conveyed, Some lose value for how ridiculously linear the game is.
I don't know how much i could give away without spoilers. Basically, the player is accessing memories to remember who might have killed his brothers. There's a mechanic called The Silence, that opens, blocked paths and points of interest.
Death roams in the form of phantoms. Each one makes you use different mechanics. Our friend the raincoat killer is back in the form of The Darkness, and probably more obnoxious than ever. Out of the fact that some enemies don't always work as intended. The Darkness just pops out of nowhere, and forces you into a mashing LMB1 contest.
I wouldn't recommend it. And then you still need to take in considerations the glitches, and the poor optimization.

It's a bad arcade racer. typically, tap brake to drift works by, first picking a direction, let go of the pedal, tap brake...hit the pedal.
Autocross Madness goes: gain speed, tap brake, Nitro...and the car will stick to the track. if you don't push nitro, it works like one of those indie drift games where the track is covered in butter. It's kinda funny that you have no control while drifting, yet using Nitro as you enter the corner will magically help you make the curve.
but that why the car doesn't fall easily from the comically tight track, because Nitro doesnt work the same on curves as it does on straights.
There's no AI or timer, the player makes his own difficulty, if you want nothing stops you from slamming the breaks instead

Good port. No issues whatsoever, other than the game itself being decent at best. works with DS4, has configurable key bindings.
There's no issues related to playing a game on a higher resolution than first intended. it's better than emulation, so its more than enough for me
The game...hey, it's alright. Its like Rayman 2, with a few Crash running sections. The level design is alright. The controls are responsive, you can make accurate jumps, the combat is fine in most situations.
It doesn't have much of a personality, then again, its a 3 hours B-game for kids.
The game is on the easy side, and the boss encounters do more in terms of variety than an actual challenge
The mini games are asinine, thankfully you don't need to play them.

EVERYTHING THAT COULD GO WRONG WENT WRONG!
Anuman never ceases to amaze, If you bought this, i hope you have a soft spot for train wrecks. Im hard-pressed to find one Anuman(microids game) that didn't shit the bed at one point or another, but Dracula...holy crap. It rips and tears the original title to the mangled, unfinished state it is here.
The culprit? OK...enough suspense, the steam version (sheds tear)...(holds laughter)......the steam version, is from an android version. That in itself would be an issue, i mean it's advertised on steam store with screenshots that could belong to any other version: GOG, PS1, whatever...i know its false, for the visual downgrade and the borders this one had.
But if you think false advertisement is the issue, you are in for a world of hurt. And what sweetens the deal is that Microids, much like with Moto Racer collection, did sell non android ports.
As for the game, it's not even a faithful recreation as they took some liberties, oh boy did they!
I didn't know much about the game. However, i remember enough to know we are missing some vital cutscenes right at the start of our unfortunate misadventure. Im all about making bad games shorter, but that cut scene was crucial to plot.sure beats dropping the character on location and expect you to know what is going on.
Even then, that wasnt enough...clearly your phone wouldnt be able handle the original graphics from 1999, which is understandable, its the late 90, everyone was a pioneer, we just cant compare to the standards of 2014.
So, here's a crazy idea. why not remove any character animation for everything that isn't a cutscenes? list that under features "0 Frame animation". What? you never used street view on google maps? No, wait, theres less freedom, you really need to click on tiny little arrows on screen. which, it's not even a thing in the original game.
some other developer would likely add new paths, as the original already had few paths, often pointing the player towards walls, and then you need to turn the camera around, But this version, adds the nuisance of having to click on tiny arrows, also an unnecessary icon to be on the screen.
Some other things that also bothered me tend to fall on laziness. In the first area theres a bridge that falls, and they couldnt be bothered to change the frame after the cutscens for...idk, the one where the bridge isnt still standing!
AH...It sucks so much! The old microids characters are kinda gross, but it was decently animated for the time. and now better than this 2014 version...thats just sad.
Im also really sure they dont have the original sounds and music. This is seems to be stock. I shit you not, they used a Dramatic Stinger wrong.
As for gameplay, regardless how bad this is, you can tell the original wasn't anything special in regards to logic and pacing. it always looks weird to be able to grab a strange item before you trigger something that makes such item important. i clumsy ended in a cemetery at the beginning of my journey instead of entering the inn like a normal person, i decided to desecrate a tomb for a required item the character knew nothing about. And only then can i ask what that item did. Is my character a grave digger...so yeah, the original it's not Syberia levels of good, it was a decent game for the time.
But that wasn't enough,these guys where on a mission, They had to, no they owe it to the buyer to surpass expectations. that's is why, they had to rework the quest line.
So now the game has a failed state. They decided to lock a door at the castle until you bring an item back to a character, there's a tiny little oversight, the original game closes the way out if you have enough to proceed to the next area (library). I will follow that with my final criticism
If like me you screw up, you got to reset the chapter. Because this new version doesn't have save states, it has a load, in name only, its actually a chapter select

Much like spintires it's a relaxing game, even if the main objective is always to deliver logs through muddy trails. Their "game"s are good. still, it's starting to get a bit shady. I bet the upcoming Mudrunner 2 is the same damn game with some minor changes.
That's my only issue with it, i bought the expansion, and it quickly run its course. If i want more free dlc i need to buy Mudrunner 2, the community will also likely move on to the next game´s workshop
As much as i want to support the team for making a good game, some of my issues with Mudrunner could be fixed with a patch, and the ones that could not, probably won't be addressed in the sequel
- the camera needs some work
-The hands movement is hyper sensitive, makes me panic in first person
-They could have given the option to have different objective. There's enough things to do in the game, its just that levels finish once you deliver the logs
-Looking at the speedometer, the vehicles were intentionally slowed down.likely to protect the players from crashing in the small but very dense map. There are at least fast vehicles on the workshop that are impossibly fast on manual...do that's enjoyable
-the editor is a bit outdated, the file format for vehicles and textures dont help. Basically i simply wanted to export the canyonero from simpsons hit and run, from the dsmax over to the editor. Things are a bit more complicated than i expected (mad respect to the steam community for giving tons of mods already) Imidiatly it tells, you need a plugin for dsmax because it just doesnt export in that format to begin with. wheels need to be separated and dsmax and the editor dont share the same axes. The textures need to be brought over in png format. And finally...i would have to write the damn template.
Good enough, i would recommend any of the 3 games. Bloody good time with friends. There's tons of vehicles on the workshop. Never been so relaxed after crashing and loosing my cargo.
Didnt have pictures of it, but at one point we had 4 people working together on the same map.

Decided to go at it in chronological order and was only then told that it makes more sense to start with New Order, even but i wont listen because this was closer to remaking RTCW. I might be wrong to start here but, gameplay wise, it practically starts with an introduction chapter, it's unlikely anyone would find any issues starting here
It actually really slow, Prologue and Chapter 1 are way linear, tutorial like. It gets increasingly better, with the exception of the final boss.
It's surprisingly accessible. I really wouldn't recommend Normal (the difficulty i started), possibly easy for missing achievments. Hard is now the new Normal. You don't even need to complete the main story in Uber difficulty, just the final chapter, there isn't even much to do in the final chapter, other than a rather frustrating boss fight.
I enjoyed everything else. Particularly the stealth sections, easily identified by the presence of a Commander. These parts of the level are well constructed for run and gun. you can just quickly dispatch the commander enemy to stop the alarm. It's perhaps, a bit to easy in some areas. while the stealth option will likely take you a bit longer, but it's generally more fun.
The cover system is odd but functional. Climbing with LMB RMB is unnecessary
The perk system is a fantastic idea, it incentives the player to try different playstyles and weapons. The implementation, not as much, not only can it be exploited by reloading checkpoints, it hardly makes a difference on anything below Uber difficulty. Old Blood is too short for it to pay off.
I did all the Nightmare levels, it's pretty fun going back to 3D with the new weapons and mechanics. I don't quite understand the map choices and enemy placement. It doesn't have a difficult progression to it, however...its super enjoyable and a welcome change of pace. The secrets are still there too, and will show the prompt when facing them
I'm still missing some gold that i really don't care about. And challenges on death incarnate minimum, that i'm not sure i'm capable of doing.
Great game, that could be better with some tweaks, and a longer campaign would be better for a more extensive perk system.

Finished one run and that unlocked new game+ and endless mode. Which are likely a better challange than the main game. I just dont feel like going back
There doesn't seem to be any achievements for those, instead the remaining achievements are from different choices you can take in the main campaign
This is an older game from the same dev of Monster Slayer and it still shared some similarities other than the UI.
Monster Slayer added a card based and roguelike elements to increase the difficulty, By making death vital part of the progress. If both are relatively small games, only one will take you 2 hours to finish
Reverse crawl is complex enough, at least in mechanics. it offered a really large amount of team choices, even if those choices are mostly made through rock paper scissors strategy, consisting of exploiting enemy weaknesses.
Essentially it's a story driven game. player gets to Pick a quest, then goes on series of rounds against different groups of enemies on a small turn based grid. Instead of stacking numbers to a unit. Its done by rounds, until one side has no more units.
It's just a bit too easy, i understand you can't grind, but it's missing something. You can block and get critical damage from flanking. You can stop an enemy to advance towards long range units.
At the same time, the upgrade system doesn't make much of difference, its like every choice you make is a good choice for a well balanced team. Its missing something,

It might be my 3rd run since it came out, have done so only because Every time i promise myself i will check K&L 2 i end up installing this one instead.
Since its gotten a PC release, ive never went back to the PS3 version. This was a badly optimized shooter, and it could also use K&M so yeah...pc is the way to go. Theres a few reason why this was a dud.The stiff controls with the DS3 was one of them, though that was something that lingered with the console among the earlier years
Most criticism went to the short campaign, heh...a longer campaign would slow down the pacing anyway. I would agree in regards to various missing scenes and jump cuts, main characters crash a van and you cant even see it while it happens. the non existing flashbacks,reduced to voices during loading screens or whenever you get knocked down. Thats so cheap, even for a low budget title.
overall that's the most noticeable issues with the franchise, and at the time it felt no one was expecting IO to make a C-entry title.
K&L is an outdated Squad Shooter, that's part of the charm, i wouldn't recommend unless you like budget games, and this one has major flaws. Not to mention its not what it looks like.
shooter or not, accuracy doesn't quite matter as much as positioning yourself and your squad. There's some trial and error for sure, its not entirely skill based, some maps you just have to try and see the results. Wouldn't be an issue if it all worked fine, but it doesn't.
For one, this weird random spread trashes most of the weaponry, i swear they didnt test them and there isnt that many to begin with. it only gets worse with the insane drop in accuracy and damage reduction.
The Snipers are hard to spot, hard to reach and unstoppable head shot machines. K&L is projectile based, but snipers are at an advantage not having to worry about random spread, reduced damage nonsense.
You would think by the title that Lynch is your only partner, but through the story you get other characters joining forces to take down The 7.And with that, Keeping an entire team alive is an infuriating task. They are great, they can provide cover, pin down targets, provide ammo, help you back up with the adrenalin shot mechanic. However the moment you move forward without constantly communicating and marking spots they all advance disregarding cover. Even if the size of the map is small, they find a way to get surrounded. If you think you don't need to shout orders you are in for a rude awakening in Havana. you wont loose because you died, you loose because your teammate died at the worst spot imaginable. And then another followed the mad lad and then another one.
Also armor is for real here. Enemies are bullet sponges without head-shots. I wish melee was more reliable. Its a really long animation and you do take damage during. And The cover system is a nightmare. I cant seem to discern when it snaps to cover and when it will never happen.
In terms of variety, it surprisingly doesn't like to repeat itself. Thankfullly because of its short lenght. Locations are varied, from building, corporations, underground, tunnel, deep jungle, getting yourself in the middle of a civil war. chapters bring something new. a Heist, vehicle sessions, team based tactical shooter, stealth, turret sections.
Not that i have any good memories of the shorter sections. Some are just so poorly done, Thankfully they appear once and leave.
There's not much to say in regards to story. Its a revenge plot, with a final goal of saving Kane's daughter. and many many bad decisions. I remember at the time, they put special importance to the characters and their dynamic.looking back now, even that seems like a force memory. GTA V does a much better job with Trevor.
basically, Kane is a traitor, he understands what he and the people that surround him represent, he will throw them under the bus the moment he doesnt need them. Lynch is schizophrenic, he is seen as a liability and wouldn't be finding much work as a criminal. Both Sociopaths would live their miserable lives alone, get them together and they will bring the worst out of each other. Obviously this game aged badly, but it isnt awfull or anything.

The terrible K&L 2, i finally got to it. Yet far from ever completing it. I cant convice any of my friends and honestly i couldnt put a good argument, that would involve me lying about the game. It also seems i am having a good run of terrible game decisions, so why not top that with extreme difficulty. I mean, i was already pulling my hair out at Normal difficulty in the first one, this should be a cake walk right? Well, a few thing drove me to that decision:
- K&L 2 is short. Like, about 3 hours long. Im not really sure, i never understood if steam adds the offline time if you lose internet conection.
- There's tons of checkpoints, because even though it's in an open area, the levels are nothing more than a series of rooms.
So...Dog Days, is mostly about Lynch. Kane is here for no other reason that the dynamic between the 2 characters needs to always be the motive for the chaos. That doesn't mean K&L2 does it right, it in fact makes very little sense. We are supposed to believe Lynch overcame his psychotic attacks, however it didn't take long for Lynch to escalate the issue without Kane´s help. Kane himself would likely have better places to be than to work with Lynch,
Game play wise, it drops most of its mechanics. And all lot of Acid in the process, that would actually explain the lack of cohesion in all departments. The sad part is how much is sacrificed, in favor of the overall vibe and atmosphere. It legit will make you sick. All that, and it still manages to completely forget the culture it inserted itself into. No joke Shanghai as a location is a poor excuse for how tiny the maps are. Even with all the gun noise, it would be impossible for these streets and roads to be completely devoid of life.
What we are left with is a corridor cover shooter?. It is that, don't ask me how, but this generic formula manages to control, look, feel like nothing ive ever seen. That might just be a good thing, might as well remember something for being bad than not remembering at all.At least i remember being frustrated, that is something.
My experience was resumed by a lot of trial and error. Its room after room of finding cover and trying to find a time window to shot the enemy. Its like uncharted on the highest difficulty. Enemies kill you immediately so you spend most of the time behind cover. Except, Uncharted has a good foundation.
In Dog Days, i cant even see the enemies because of all the found footage filters and shaky cam effects. Shame on you IO, SHAME! you should have filmed it at 480p@30fps. It isn't an entirely idiotic idea, but i think they over done it. You are less disconnected to the violence, just by inserting a bit of realism to it. you still need to integrate the camera man to the story, otherwise its just a weird 3rd person camera following the player...ITS A GAME, ITS a camera you placed, that follows the player in 3rd person. Oopsie!
The gun play is terrible, it really doesn't give you many options. You better be sure you got the right gun, because you just ain't gonna survive leaving cover to grab a weapon. SMG have an Insane spread. Shotguns became a bit more useful here due to the size of some maps. Ideally you want something precise like rifles and pistols. No grenades, you can however grab and trow explosive barrels.
Speaking of cover, its not entire snap to cover. Some walls are just too short to fully protect the player, not to mention its almost impossible to get up and shoot under heavy fire. So...actually you can just get near the wall instead. You can even kinda shoot from the sides. Blind shooting is pretty accurate for enemies trying to flank
There's a few more aspects that bug me. One mission had stealth, i played it like a cover shooter, i cant for the life of me understand what this game calls stealth. In the final mission the player controls Kane, Once. He plays like Lynch. I see no other reason other than they wanted the same ending. It sucks that they removed the simple squad commands, because Kane does not die in this one. I kept looking back to see Kane being knocked out constantly and coming back up. He could have flanked. But well, its good enough that he draws all the attention, otherwise i cant leave cover. I don't even want to image how one would play in Extreme-Co-op . What would i do if my partner was dying? I cant move from cover to do Shit!

Pac-man and 3 Sprockets is a good match, it did not let me down. These guys give new life to classic arcade games, with simple yet addicting spins to the old formulas. Exactly what Bandai was looking for.
I would recommend it, Its a safe bet as long as you can tolerate the mobile menus.
256 as you move upwards away from a constantly rising glitch, death is inevitable, but new mechanics and strategies will help you out achieve a better score. Ghost behaviour remains the same.
If you want to make points, i noticed multiplier, not restocking a dying power up, and eating the troublesome ghosts to be a overall better strategy without the 256 dots mechanic (the name of the game) :P
Coins is an entire different matter, you receive better rewards for completing missions, than you will ever get by eating coins.
it is just a shame that this game is entirely outsourced, i figured the PC version could use some Bandai help, should at least have online multiplayer, as well as a better way to deal with cheaters. This could have been one of my favorites.
Indie games and leader boards do not mix well on PC. You don't need to know anything about programming, to change a variable. Its more of a game issue than it is the player. Though i do look at them with disdain. I wont deny it...i stalked their profiles just to see them pretend they are gods at pac-man. - and a few douche bags ironically refered to as hackers...lol...i can use cheat engine too.
Why would you break the leaderboard!!! cheat offline!!!
Also i had to remove some people from my friendlist just to take that picture. Its cool though, they cheated XD

i must have come in with the wrong expectation, i struggled just to finish the game. The game is gorgeous, For what is worth, Owlboy lets you explore a large open world, with some secrets and side activity. You can waste coins on the store, for more health and rate of fire. The scenery is beautiful, characters and story have that strong 90s feel.
Its the gameplay...its not for me. It's not even hard or unfair, the checkpoint system is overly generous. but for whatever reason, its frustrating for me. I just cant get the feel for it
the flying ability removes good old platforming, and makes moving through screens more of a chore. I kept thinking of the game SHU, where you click once to use different character´s ability, but in owlboy, its your shooting ability. because other characters have guns
I also didn't like the puzzles? their fine, Except, if you did one, you will be repeating it a few times around that area. and its less fine each time.
also bosses that make you fight minions instead suck, but the majority are good. you don't actually fight Maelstrom either, thats a bit lame