I’m going very slowly with this one as I don’t really have the time to play and when I do, it’s usually at the time when I’m not in a headspace to think as much as this game requires me to. I still enjoy it though!

It’s one of very few titles that can successfully push me towards regular use of items instead of hoarding them “just in case”. This game will not be kind to you if you’ll just try to breeze through blasting without second thought but it will give you the tools to survive if you cooperate. It’s especially important if you’re try to go for all objectives on each stage as these can be a bit tricky at times (nothing too crazy though).

I really like it so far, both in terms of gameplay and story. Can’t wait to see what awaits me later.

I wrote in the past how both Division games are something I tend to come back to semi-regularly. Well, it’s this time of the year again, I guess.

Whenever I want to play something but don’t have the brain power to deal with Reverse Collapse, this is my go-to at the moment. Still plays great and the loop is just as addicting as it’s always been. I honestly didn’t expect to like and stick with these games as long as I have.

The only thing I dislike about TD2 is how manhunts, (side?) story segments about various mooks, can’t be played in their full form. You can only go through a simplified versions of them which cut off some of the presentation and narrative parts. It’s not as bad as vaulting in Destiny but it’s a crappy half-measure to… I don’t really know. I never looked into how the devs explained this decision but it sucks.

Still, outside of this one issue the game is still great and I don’t regret spending my time with it.

I once again spent most of the week jumping between games with no specific plan in mind. My main idea was to play Serious Sam: The First Encounter but this, after a long and complicated process, ended up in complete failure.

I actually tried to play three different versions of the game: classic, HD and through Serious Sam Fusion. Each of them came with their own problems which made them unplayable, specifically:

• Serious Sam: The First Encounter (classic) - camera would point straight up randomly, regardless of mouse movement. Also a lot of rendering issues.
• Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter - same camera issue as above.
• Serious Sam Fusion - game won’t even load levels properly and loads to a black screen instead (no crashing or freezing).

I tried various in-game settings, WINE versions and their parameters - nothing helped. After a few hours without a success I decided to give up and keep looking instead.

After all of the mess described above I finally landed on Reverse Collapse. I actually played it on launch, back in 2024, but my brain was in no shape for this amount of thinking so I set it aside “for a bit”. I’m glad to finally be back.

RC is a 2D XCOM-like tactical RPG, with less focus on randomisation (different approach to hit chance, hand made maps), varied (often tricky) missions and lots of gadgets to help you survive each encounter. It’s also heavily focused on the story with a set cast of characters which may be a good or a bad thing depending on the player.

Game has some nice quality of life features, like:

• Really good controller support (perfect for playing on Steam Deck).
• Glossary, accessible during cutscenes (game even shows notifications whenever a new keyword is used to let you know when to check it out).
• Pre-mission briefing screen with map and enemy layout, as well as a list of enemies you’ll have to face.
• Option to toggle enemy vision range (useful during stealth) and attack range.

I only came back to the game last night so I’ll need a few more sessions until I brush off the rust and have something more to write about. I can however say that if anyone’s interested in this kind of tactical titles, Reverse Collapse is definitely worth a look.

It’s a side-scroller about (kinda sorta) American chicken fighting against Russian/North Korean/Nazi penguins and cloned chickens.

First impressions? It does not handle ultrawide resolution well. Even switching to 1920x1080 left me with a slightly cut off image because it just zoomed everything in to fill the screen. I had to play in windowed mode if I wanted to see the UI elements (inconsistent button selection when using mouse didn’t change even then unfortunately). Not a great start.

While cutscenes and music are pretty good, the in-game presentation is… unique? I was initially rather mixed on it because the game combines 2 slightly different art style (simple for characters and items, more detailed for backgrounds) but I got used to it eventually.

Gameplay is also alright. It has jumpy-shooty sections, with bullet spongy enemies who like to surprise you on screen change and can juggle you with shots to death. The worst example of this is the final boss who has huge health bar, surprise attacks on screen change, directional shield and lesser mobs showing up throughout the fight. It also has no music for some reason.
Besides that there are also neat flying sections with not so neat camera. They serve as a nice palette cleanser between longer on-foot sections while being short enough to not get annoying.

Going back to music for a moment, it has an unfortunate problem - combat tracks reset every time you start an encounter, regardless of how brief pause was since the last one. You can move between screens, combat music still fading out, and the moment enemies show up the track will start from scratch instead of picking up again. Heck, during one of the last flying segments it can even reset between waves of enemies!

It’s a decent game and I warmed up to it as I played but the minor annoyances did prevent it from ever feeling great. It’s also pretty short, with story taking about 3 hours to complete so it’s hard for it to outstay its welcome anyway.

I’m back at the state where I’m not really in a mood to play anything. I thought about starting Neverwinter Nights but I’m not sure about playing such a long game at the moment so I’ve been faffing around with couple different titles.

After spending hours in Colin McRae Rally 04, getting used to driving in this game is a little tricky. I’m sure I’ll be able to do it if my mind goblins let me stick with the game for a while but the transition is a little rough. Good thing there’s a bunch of gameplay settings to make it smoother.

I don’t have much to write about yet since I just started playing. I hope it goes well and keeps me occupied for a bit.

First clear of 2026! Gothic is a game I played many times in the past but never really finished - until now. It still plays and feels really good and I’m pretty happy with it for the most part, I did however completely forgot how unfinished it is. Very limited side content which doesn’t really expand past chapter 2, a bunch of partially implemented or just empty areas, characters that seem like they should have something going on with them. There’s a lot but it didn’t really affect my enjoyment.

I played the game using OpenGothic, project technically focused on Gothic 2 Night of the Raven but it does support the first game as a bonus. Having the ability to play natively on Linux is pretty cool and the whole thing was rather promising early on but the longer I played the more issues cropped up. Some of the problems I’ve encountered include:

• Missing visual effects (barrier) and minor rendering issues (mostly water, especially waterfalls).
• Forests feel less threatening due to longer draw distance and lighter ambiance inside.
• Static rivers - when swimming in rivers in the original water current moves player appropriately, this isn’t the case in OpenGothic.
• Some quests end without removing brought quest items.
• Rare quest trigger/advancement issues, ability to trigger things out of order.
• Various NPC problems, including:
  • Enemies wouldn’t loot player if won in combat (fixed with the latest release).
  • Enemy combat AI can be really wonky.
  • Two-handed weapons are stowed sideways on NPC’s backs (introduced in the latest release).
  • Female characters keep spinning in place.
• Not really a problem but I don’t really care for the updated visuals and feel they take away from the art style at times.

I’m not sure how many of these have to do with OpenGothic in general and what’s the fault of me playing G1 rather than 2 (as I said, support for the first games is just a bonus). I’m sure some of them were also present in the original but I don’t remember enough from G1 to pick them out. Thankfully, none of these problems were game breaking but I think I’ll play Gothic 2 the normal way (whenever that happens).

All in all, it was a fun ride but it also reminded me why I spent waaaay more time with the second game in the past.

After writing my end of the year recap I thought it could be fun to try and come up with the first completion date for as many games in my library as I can. I have a spreadsheet with all of them already so all that was left is to try and figure out the dates. It was easy with some and harder with others but I managed to come up with results for 151 games, with the oldest completion date going as far back as 2003.

Why bother? It’ll make another recap easier to write, simple as that. I also like organising things so the process was fun in its own way and gave me a chance to look back at my gaming habits throughout the years.

I finished the game. As a whole it’s a better experience than the previous title, with slightly more interesting writing (both are great), better balance and an expanded format of acting as a shadowrunner. There’s only one issue that really affected my enjoyment throughout and that’s the amount of large combat scenarios (waves or rooms with 10+ enemies attacking at the same time). They weren’t a majority thankfully, but they were common enough to get a little tiring, to say the least.

I like Shadowrun in its small scale and more personal form, anything big (important jobs with tons of enemies, epic stakes) and I lose interest pretty quickly. I don’t know why games feel the need to end with saving the world or equally important scenarios but it’s the most boring direction a story can go for me at this point. Dragonfall did manage to put a reasonably interesting spin on that at least and I think it did it slightly better than Returns so kudos for that at least.

I loved the side character story arcs - small, personal, some more tragic, other ending happily. Advancing them after every run was one of my favourite parts of the game. I wish such mundane and unimportant story beats played a bigger part in RPGs in general.

After finishing two games I think I’m ready to say I really like this series, WAY MORE than I ever expected to. I had some reservations initially, both due to the setting (not because the idea is bad, I just wasn’t feeling it) and jumping in after a long break from isometric RPGs but these games managed to win me over.
I just wish they had more unofficial content. All I have left is Hong-Kong (with its DLC campaign) and 2 user campaigns for Dragonfall (one of them being a remake of the SNES Shadowrun) - once that’s done I’m out of modules. Cant’s say I’m looking forward to that moment.

It’s an indie tactical(ish) FPS made in EDuke32 engine. It has decently feeling and sounding weapons with really nice sprite work, nine levels (of varying quality) and unique hand drawn cutscenes.

Game aims for a more grounded approach, with relatively low health, reloading, aim-down-sights mechanic and 4 weapon limit. Oh, there’s also localised damage system for enemies (well… head shots), simple squad mechanic (with voice acting for combat barks!) and a stealth system.

Enemies are rather brain dead and have trouble aiming when approached from slightly elevated position - they can still tear through your health if you’re not careful though. Levels are a mixed bag, some parts look pretty good, some are a bit undercooked (simple design, broken lighting on certain models, occasional lack of skybox etc). Heck, one of them might cause some Max Payne’s nightmare level related PTSD flare ups due to its design and pixel perfect platforming. On a more positive note, various map elements have pretty cool damage effects, you can really see the your handiwork after more chaotic encounters.

Outside cutscenes some story segments are displayed as dialogue boxes at the bottom of the screen. Unfortunately, these disappear pretty quickly which paired with their tendency to show up in the middle of the action make them easy to miss. It might not be the best story ever but it would be nice to have a chance to enjoy it.

It’s a neat if amateurish project but it’s fun enough way to spend 3-4 hours with. If anyone’s curious about the game it’s free on Steam.

It’s the final thread of the year so I thought I’d write a short recap. I managed to finish 16 games (that I properly remember) last year, 9 of which were bought this year - I was thinking this kinda puts a dent in the idea of backlog clearing but regardless of their tenure on my “to play” list, the end result is still better than the last few years combined. Backlog is shrinking, if only a little.

Anyway, here are the games I finished in 2025:

• A.W.O.L.
• Ace Combat 7
• Ace Combat Zero
• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
• Halo 1-4, ODST & Reach
• Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded
• Project Wingman + Frontline 59 DLC
• Sam & Max Hit the Road
• Shadowrun Returns
• Shadowrun: Dragonfall
• Umurangi Generation + DLC

There were also other things like visual novels (if you’re interested in those feel free to join us in the [email protected] community) and some smaller indie titles whose names escape me at the moment. All in all a pretty decent number, I’d say.

Can I beat it next year? Probably not but I’ll give it a shot. There are still a lot of titles waiting for their turn so even this pace means a few years of work just to get through everything. I’ll be happy as long as I can finish the year with a slightly shorter backlog than I started it with.

Decided to give it another shot (third or fourth so far), ended as usual - played through about half of the game and got stuck. I’m obviously missing some logic here but things just aren’t coming together, no matter what I try.

Oh well, see you again in another year or two.

I wasn’t really planning on playing it right after Returns (don’t want to burn myself on the series or play style) and mostly installed it to see the difference between the two. Started playing anyway.

I like it so far. I miss being a solo in a new place and the new hub doesn’t feel as cosy as the Seamstress Union but it isn’t bad. Having a proper story related team does make things different enough to keep things interesting. Tone of the writing is pretty different, more “standoffish” and grey than in the first game.

I wasn’t full sold on the updated UI initially but it managed to win me over. I do however have way more issues with miss-clicks in this game. I’m not sure exactly why and while I recognise that it’s my own fault it didn’t make the resulting consequences any more painful unfortunately.
Enemy encounters seem to be a bit more balanced than in the first one and everything feels like an improvement for the most part. That said, there are some scenarios that were… not exactly unfair but definitely weren’t as fun as the rest of the game. It’s fine when there’s an option to scatter and run but that’s not always possible and it did end up affecting my enjoyment at times.

Besides starting the base campaign I also looked into unofficial modules. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit disappointed by my research (there’s only handful of them and most are unfinished) but I did find 2 that might tide me over if I want more after finishing the story. I’ll take what I can get at this point.

So far so good, I’d say. There are some things that turned out better than in Returns and some that don’t really hit the mark but as a whole it’s a pretty good follow up to the first game. I can only hope it sticks the landing as well.

Still playing and following through with my plan to finally do some “adventurous” missions.

It’s pretty much a full-on role-play of a weak person tasked with various “hero” jobs. Need sneaking? I can do that. Fighting weak enemies? Sure! Get something from a dungeon filled with powerful hostiles? I… can try sprinting through? Things can be a bit difficult at times when playing a non-combat character (until now) so I ended up bailing on few of the quests but I’m slowly improving.

It’s an interesting way of playing compared to the usual power fantasy. It also helps me to finally get used to the approach of “failing is fun” - not the same as “losing” since I keep going instead of starting from scratch but dealing with consequences (however minimal in this game) is something I’d like to expand to other games I play.
It’s not an easy switch after years of being “the chosen one” but I’m getting there.

Continuing with my point and click adventures I decided to try Leisure Suit Larry. I got it for free on GOG some years ago but never really gave it a shot since I didn’t think it was up my alley. Here are some brief thoughts:

• Art looks nice but the art style is very inconsistent. I’m sure it’s intended but it it doesn’t always work in my opinion.
• It could really use subtitles. There are no separate volume sliders and dialogue lines can get lost under the music (there’s an option to turn off the music but that’s not a great choice either for me).
• Gameplay is simple but enjoyable, there are no dead ends according to the tutorial but you can absolutely screw yourself by running out of money. You can (and later have to) get more through gambling but that’s not really a viable solution without save scumming.
• Writing is… not my cup of tea but it’s fine for what it is. Constant narration can be a little annoying at times.

All in all, it was fun enough but I don’t think I’ll be checking out other games in the series. I’m glad to scratch this off my backlog at least.

I was a little worried since I haven’t played this kind of RPG (let alone a Shadowrun title) in a long time but it’s been pretty straightforward so far. Combat is simple and enjoyable even without a proper tutorial. I appreciate the amount of skill and item checks so far, leading to multiple ways of solving problems. Not all of them, obviously, but it’s still common enough to be noticeable.

Art style and graphics in general hold up really well, so does audio. I also like the writing so far, especially how pleasant the conversations can be - just two people being courteous towards each other, without the need to act edgy just because cyberpunk. The only thing I don’t particularly care about is the mix of sci-fi and magic. Not that I hate it, it just does nothing for me despite being a pretty unique approach to the genre.

So yeah, it’s cool and I’m enjoying it so- What’s that? Unbeatable just released? Yeah… I’m gonna have to take a break from Shadowrun for a bit. I’ll be back once I’m done doing crime.

Tried playing it on my Steam Deck but it doesn’t want to cooperate unfortunately. Despite multiple attempts over various versions of PPSSPP (emulator) and playing around with settings, game always crashes after 15-30 minutes of play.

I might try setting it up on my desktop as a last ditch effort but that will have to wait as I don’t care enough to bother with it at the moment. I’ll finish it one day.

After my failure with GTA:LCS I wasn’t really sure what to play and decided to go back do Daggerfall instead. Not much new to say about it for now as I only updated the mods and did a few quests. Still haven’t touched the main story outside of reporting to Castle Wayrest since my character is not a fighter and was sent away to train before proceeding (not that I expected anything else, it’s just where I stopped with that for now).

It’s time to play the game properly for a bit, I guess.

I finished the game two or so weeks ago but I’ve been thinking about it again over the last few days so I might as well mention it here. Despite my initial reaction (I liked it well enough, just not to a huge degree) I’ve been slowly warming up to it, especially the writing.

I think the main reason behind my previous opinion had to do with the fact I’m not having a good time in general at the moment so everything I do is tainted by my foul mood. I needed some time to let my brain catch up and understand what I just played.

The more I think about it the more satisfied with the game I become - it’s an interesting reversal since I usually tend to lean towards being more critical as time goes one and I have the chance to look at things from a distance. I also started watching someone else’s playthrough which allowed me to look at things from a different perspective as well. All in all, it’s a lovely (and rare) surprise.