Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

The ending of Wolfenstein: The New Order may have seemed like the end for Mr. Blazkowicz too. But while his injuries were grievous indeed, B.J. is back on his feet soon enough to again kill scores of them "white-ass Nazi bastards".

Patterns in Fallout's Randomness

Or An Achievement Hunter's Anecdote

I've been playing Fallout 4 with the intention of accomplishing everything -- in achievements mainly but also playing as much of the content as I can find without reading a wiki. (And man, if there is content in this game!) I did however have to check an achievement guide for if there were any missable ones. Also, for some reason Bethesda had made every single achievement secret, meaning you can't see the possible unlock hints on Steam. Usually developers only hide story-related achievements and ones that require you to do something very specific or silly.

Project: Snowblind

Developed by Crystal Dynamics and released in 2005, Project: Snowblind was evidently meant to be a multiplayer focused Deus Ex title. However, due to Deus Ex: Invisible War's somewhat undesirable reception, Snowblind was then set in its own, yet very similar universe. I don't know if that helped its sales but at least it spared the fans of the first Deus Ex game from another disappointment.

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood

I should've bought Wolfenstein: The Old Blood with The New Order. If I recall correctly, it was shortly after that when Bethesda started limiting the discounts their games get during sales on Steam (and Humble Bundle). Neither do they do those "complete your collection" bundles that give an extra discount for already owning something. 50% off doesn't feel good enough for me and so I waited. And even now, I didn't buy the game directly off Steam.

Batman: Arkham Knight

I remember how Batman: Arkham Knight's PC version was a near disaster at launch. Warner Bros. had to temporarily pause its sales while the game was being fixed by Rocksteady and Iron Galaxy Studios (who did the PC port). I can't say that I'm surprised things didn't work out as was meant after playing the game: it is really pushing Unreal Engine 3's capabilities with the sheer amount of stuff that needs to be displayed and streamed -- the map is five times the size of Arkham City's. I can't name any other UE3 game with as huge of a single map.

Batman: Arkham Origins

Batman: Arkham Origins is the only one of the four main Batman: Arkham games not developed by Rocksteady. My theory (and apparently the official story as well) is that Rocksteady needed more than two years to develop the new features of Arkham Knight but Warner Bros. wanted a new Batman game out sooner. Thus WB put their Montreal studio to make Origins which often times feels like a rehashed Arkham City.

Mad Max

I guess it was again time to play Warner Bros. games I was never going to if a Humble WB Bundle hadn't been too good to pass. As the first one of this bundle to play I chose Mad Max. It's not a game adaptation of Mad Max: Fury Road though it was still released in the same year as the movie.

Outlast

Outlast is one of the many similar horror games to come out after Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It is also one of the few that succeeded at becoming hugely popular -- for some reason. The game was given away for free last year, I think, and I decided to finally see what's the fuss about, because of October and Halloween, I guess.

DOOM (2016)

DOOM (2016) doesn't try to mix in the horror genre like Doom 3. There are no pitch black areas or slow build-up. Instead it drops you right into action and delivers a straightforward demon killing experience.

Styx: Shards of Darkness

I suppose it isn't that surprising that Styx: Shards of Darkness is so much like Styx: Master of Shadows. Why try to fix something that isn't broken. Still, I wasn't expecting it to follow the same formula to this degree and to retain so many of the old features -- some of which I'm not that fond of. There are few improvements and some whole new things too, though.

>observer_

I found >observer_ (as it is stylized) disappointing. Its futuristic setting had potential for philosophical and ethical questions; I was hoping something as brilliant as Frictional Games' SOMA. Unfortunately Bloober Team left the potential largely untapped. Like their previous title, Layers of Fear, Observer offers style but little substance. It also has some visual quirks that really should be adjustable in-game.

Q.U.B.E. 2

Twitch offered quite a few on-the-house games for Twitch Prime members in July. One of the games was even on my wishlist and two others I considered interesting enough to play. Amazon Prime is not a thing here but Amazon Video Prime is, and it gives you access to Twitch Prime the same way. Its 7-day trial fell one day short for claiming all the three games I wanted, so I paid for a month of subscription, which wasn't exactly a high price for the games either. (3€/month for the first 6 months)

Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition

Bulletstorm failed to meet the expectations of People Can Fly / Epic Games and EA. It did not even turn a profit when it was originally released in 2011. That's maybe not the kind of a game one would expect to see a remaster of, but Gearbox -- who had apparently acquired the rights to it -- decided to publish one anyway.

Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition

When I was younger and read a lot more fantasy novels, I used to have a rule that if there were talking animals, the book or series wasn't for me. There's just something with animals being capable of human speech (more than parroting words) that puts me right off. It also tended to be a sign that there were other things I disliked. I guess the rule might apply to video games too.

Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition: Siege of Dragonspear

In hindsight, I could have skipped going through Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition and jumped right into its whole new expansion, Siege of Dragonspear. Beamdog's quality of life and content additions haven't changed the game enough to warrant a complete playthrough for someone like me who knows it inside out. Then again, thanks to that I could easily tell what hadn't been there in the original game. Beamdog's work tended to stick out.

Dishonored 2

The first Dishonored ran on the tried and true Unreal Engine 3 and did so well. Thus the technical issues of Dishonored 2 surprised many. Probably to avoid paying Epic Games (or anyone else) royalties again, Arkane Studios had taken the Bethesda in-house engine id Tech 5 and largely rewritten it into Void Engine for the second game. Unfortunately the end results weren't exactly desirable.

Persepolis Rising

Bobbie leaned back, a lump forming in her gut. Adding Holden in was not a better solution.
"This'll be great," Holden said.

Torment: Tides of Numenera

Torment: Tides of Numenera had a highly successful kickstarter campaign. Harnessing the nostalgia people have for Planescape: Torment and promising a spiritual successor to it, inXile Entertainment managed to gather more than four times their initial goal of 900k USD. That's a lot of money even when considering the cost of game development. Then again, simply throwing currency at a game is not guaranteed to make its story good enough to be comparable to such a classic.

Babylon's Ashes

The Expanse's sixth book, Babylon's Ashes, features a large number of viewpoint characters. I think the storytelling loses something due to that. You get a holistic view of the story instead of following and cheering for few protagonists.

Prey (2017)

In my opinion the attention on Prey (2017) has been way too much of pointless discussion about Prey (2006) and its canceled sequel. And it is entirely Bethesda's fault. And maybe Kotaku's somewhat misleading rumors too. I guess I'm ironically adding to that discussion but the record needs to be put straight.

Nemesis Games

"What did you do?" Fred asked.
"There was a button," Holden said. "I pushed it."
"Jesus Christ. That really is how you go through life, isn't it?"

Cibola Burn

In book four of The Expanse series, Cibola Burn, the gates to the stars have opened for humanity. The United Nations want to regulate who gets to go where but Belters don't give two shits what Earth and Mars think. And thus one of the big threats people face on a strange planet is what they brought with them -- each other.

Tacoma

In Fullbright's second game, you arrive to an abandoned space station called Tacoma to retrieve its AI data. As you make your way through the not-that-large station's different sections, you discover what led to the abandonment from mundane notes and terminals but also from augmented reality recordings. They work a bit like time rewinding in Remember Me or Life Is Strange but the only interactivity is being able to read AR terminals open in the recording.

Abaddon's Gate

I didn't take an immediate liking to Abaddon's Gate, the book three of The Expanse. It features a plot element I dislike quite a bit: a bad guy scheming against the good guys who are completely oblivious while you as the reader get to see everything unfold, frustrated that you can't do anything about it.

Gone Home

So, uh, here's another one of them walking simulators. It's called Gone Home and has an average playtime of 2 hours, which consists of exploring a house and looking at objects and notes. There's not a whole lot of game to it but that didn't stop Polygon from scoring it 10/10 and choosing it as their game of the year 2013.

Caliban's War

Book two of The Expanse, titled Caliban's War, includes three main viewpoint characters in addition to Holden. Chrisjen Avasarala, a UN high up, gives insight to Earth's politics while Praxidike Meng, a botanist on Ganymede, brings in a more personal take on happenings as he tries to find his daughter who gets kidnapped at the beginning.

Q.U.B.E.: Director's Cut

Q.U.B.E.: Director's Cut is yet another Portal without portals. It had a free weekend on Steam, obviously to advertise the release of Q.U.B.E. 2 and knowing how the titles of the genre typically aren't all that long, I decided to quickly play through the game which was developed by Toxic Games and originally released in 2011.

Leviathan Wakes

The Expanse is an ongoing science fiction novel series written by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck under the pen name James S. A. Corey. The authors appear to be quite productive, having released a new book every year since 2011.

Sword Coast Legends

This decade hasn't seen many takers in video games for the Dungeons & Dragons license. And the few new titles that have come out haven't been on the same level as the games of old. The 4th edition didn't inspire developers and the 5th seems to have a similar problem. Or at least that's my impression.

Planescape: Torment - Enhanced Edition

It had again been 7 years since I last played Planescape: Torment and I thought it was time for another run of the old classic. But before I got to it, Beamdog announced they were releasing an enhanced edition of the game in April (last year) and I ended up waiting for it to get cheap enough to do my playthrough in it instead.

Games I Finished in 2017

I got stuck on writing the previous post for few months and thus this one didn't happen when it was supposed to. But I got it done eventually -- the list of all the 28 games I beat last year placed in arbitrary tiers.

Dragon Age: Inquisition

I'm including Dragon Age: Inquisition in the list of games I beat last year even though I technically finished it a week into January (after having started it in November). The game is pretty long with all of its DLC in the mix and doing a 100% run took me 154 hours in total, rivaling the time I finished The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in.

Sid Meier's Civilization V

Being of the turn-based 4X strategy genre, Sid Meier's Civilization V is not something I consider to be the most enjoyable type of game. I have played some of the earlier titles in the series, the fourth and the very first I think, but I have never owned a copy of one myself. However, I had to make an exception when Civ 5 Complete Edition was 92% off two months ago. The deal was too good to pass.

Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham City takes place half a year after the events of the first game. A whole city district has been repurposed into a massive prison. Bruce Wayne opposes the idea, and during a press conference he voices his opinion in, Hugo Strange's thugs capture and throw him in the said facility.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

It was time to finally beat the first two Batman: Arkham games hidden in my Steam library. I have a code for the third's DLC too but I doubt I will buy the actual game nor continue with the series.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III

Here is a game I did not finish this last year and probably never will either. It had a free weekend -- a second one in fact, so desperate were/are they to get people to play it -- and I decided to try going through its singleplayer campaign during it. I got to mission 5 until I uninstalled the game and removed it from my wishlist. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III -- what the hell happened?