Games played in 2026
Heretic + Hexen
In the spirit of Black Fridays, I also got "Heretic + Hexen." It was discounted and I wanted to try the cleric with the shield and I always felt that I didn't play "Hexen" the proper way: always with the god mode on, etc. I was too young to munch through like a pro.
Superliminal
"Superliminal" is a game that can easily be considered a worthy successor to games like "The Stanley Parable," "Antichamber," or "Manifold Garden;" including featureless player character. The action is set in a dream, which goes into another dream, and into another, etc., thus, resembling "Inception." The main characteristic of the puzzles is playing with perspective and scale, but it also has heavy liminal-space vibes. It's short and sweet, and it's probably my favourite type of games.
Strangely enough, it's so short that there will be no weeks-long thread, nor detailed notes. I finished it in 3 gameplays, which could easily be simply 2.
Spoiler: In the end, the doctor, who was leaving us clues as to what is happening and what to do next, tells us that everything was part of planned experience, and the purpose was to show us that, by going outside of the box, we can overcome any obstacle. On paper, that's cheesy in a modern "spiritual" way, and should not work, but it worked for me. I felt better about myself after finishing the game. So, I guess they nailed it.
I might replay it in the future, to find all the Easter eggs and generally, explore more. Now I was more preoccupied with the main plot.
It also makes me thing that I made a huge omission in my gaming live by not playing any "Portal" game. Maybe this year I will fix it.
Tomb Raider
I started playing "Tomb Raider" remaster. I'm not sure it'll be something I play a lot soon, but I wanted to see it.
The Chaos Engine
I've got interested in "The Chaos Engine" recently, having fond memories of the game, from my Amiga 1200. It inspired me to buy "The Difference Engine" by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, as apparently, the plot of the game is roughly inspired by the book. I went to GOG today, and there it was at the price of 2 euros, even less, so, despite the bad reviews, I decided to buy it. I played a little, but I'll try the Mega Drive port on R36S later, too.
Demolition Man
"Demolition Man" is a SNES game from 1996, loosely based on the movie of the same title, starring Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes (for some reason, I remembered it was Dennis Rodman; mayhap due to the hair colour, no clue). It's generally a side-scrolling shooter, with two top-down levels. I found it accidentally while browsing the SNES catalogue on my R36S. I played the first level for a bit, and it fell to my liking, so I returned to it this week.
X2: Wolverine's Revenge
Yesterday, I gave "X2: Wolverine's Revenge" a shot. It's loosely based on the movie but focused on Wolverine; I've seen it in 2003, so I don't remember it that much. There was PC/console game of the same title, but it was fully 3D and all. This one here is a 2D hack'n'slach side-scroller. Pixel art is really good here. I added it to favourites, to return to it later. The funny thing is that back then I wouldn't walk next to it, but now, it's a perfect product to play.
Batman (NES)
Yesterday, I saw NES's "Batman" on YouTube (compared with Game Boy's), and the pixel art was so exquisite that I just had to try it for myself. Musically, it's a bit worse, but the character design, and background design, and all that with a limited palette of colours -- it's just amazing. You can feel it's a late-in-the-lifecycle entry. Gameplay wise, it holds pretty well, as well. And they have cut-scenes, in a form of slightly animated frames.
Van Helsing
"Van Helsing" is a Game Boy Advance game from 2004, and it's based on the movie of the same title, with Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale. As with the Wolverine game last week, there were two different games for GBA and consoles at the time. I gotta say, I had fun with it, but then I read it was a bit of a disappointment at the time, which doesn't really surprise me. But now, it doesn't matter anymore.
Turok: Evolution
I had a quick run with "Turok: Evolution," which, per tradition, has a separate Game Boy Advance version: a side-scroll shooter. Pixel art is beautiful, reminding me heavily of arcade games. The gameplay is very demanding as for a game from early 2000s, because you generally have to make a perfect run. For some, it was a bad thing, but you have infinite number of continues, so if you only have stamina, you'll munch through. I've yet my first level to finish. :D There is a story, but who cares?
Oscar
When we bought Amiga 1200 in 1993, it came with two games in the box, and one of them was "Oscar," and I spend many hours with him.
"Oscar" had many ports: there was one for PC and also SNES version, but the Amiga's was the most definite experience. PC had ulterior graphics, and SNES had content cut out (only 4 worlds instead of 7, and Oscar doesn't change his outfit to match the movie).
Thus, I'm glad I managed to make CD32's version working.
Doom PSX
After making PlayStation Classic play a wider variety of games, I had unlimited options. I could've played anything from the large library of PlayStation One. And I chose Doom. Yep.
And this thread will document my journey.
Furi
"Furi" is a 2016 game that has only boss matches. The creators didn't have enough budget for anything bigger and decided to scale down. As often is, it gave us an interesting product. No-nonsense, I'd say.
I found out about it through its soundtrack, which has all the best of Bandcamp, to just name Carpenter Brut or Waveshaper. It's a solid synthwave set of music that matches closely the neon visuals that the game is soaked in.
Five Nights at Freddy's
"Five Nights at Freddie's" is a short horror game with a limited action. We play as a night-shift security guard working at a family pizzeria. We need to survive from midnight to six AM. Did I say survive? There are four animatronic animals who come to life and are trying to get into the room, to do unspeakable things to us. We have no weapons, but we can close the doors to not let them in. The problem? There isn't enough energy to lock ourselves for the whole night.
Therefore, the game is primarily about resource management. We can open and close the doors on our left and right. We can also turn on the light to check if an animatronic is there. And we have access to the closed-circuit system to watch the whole place. And all the three things use energy, so we cannot use any of them for too long.
The game started as a response to the creator's previous game, where people said that it was too scary when it was not supposed to be scary at all. In response, a horror game was created. It's a good example of finding a niche where people tell you were it is. Not so common.
My daughter introduced me to the game when she was watching a playthrough by two YouTubers whose names I didn't get. We watched a couple of the games, then I found out it's available for Switch at a rather affordable price, so we went for it.
But I have to say that it was less scary than I expected. I still remember playing "Fibrilation HD" and the game being so scary that I had to split it in short chunks. An alleged 90-minute experience took me weeks to finish. No such thing here. Even when an animatronic monster got to me, I wasn't that scared. But it's fine. The fun part was figuring out the patterns of the monsters. That's the thing here. Pattern-spotting with limited resources. That's why we like indie game. Don't we?
Lorne's Lure
I had an eye on "Lorn's Lure" (2024) since I saw the demo. As a big fan of "NaissanceE" and "Blame!", I got enamoured with the visuals. Though, funnily enough, "Lorn's Lure" reminds me of "Blame!", but not so much of "NaissanceE"; but "NaissanceE" reminds me of "Blame!". So, the connection is a bit of a round trip. But anyway. We play as an android that followed something into an underground megastructure and stuck there for 253 years. That's when we pick up.
The game highlights a point where we should get, but the way there might go not in a straight line. After a couple of minutes we pick up a pair of ice axes that allow us climbing to higher places. Before that we can only jump and climb low obstacles. There's a limitation, though: just like in "The Legend of Zelda", we have stamina and we cannot climb indefinitely. Once it runs out, you're falling off.
The visuals are superb. Low-poly with pixelated textures. A game true to its materials. Very brutalistic. And then the world is also build from some sort of concrete-like material, so it's twice brutalistic. I played the Nintendo Switch port which comes with smaller view distance, which I didn't mind, as it felt closer to PSX games. It's also darker, compared to the PC screen recordings I saw. On the visual level, that's fine. But this leads to certain problems.
Because it's dark, I missed a critical rod I was supposed to land on. After watching a video, I could see it, knowing where it should have been. It would not be a problem at all, I guess, if not for the broken checkpoint system. When I missed the rod and fell down, I ended up a bit further, and it assigned me to the next checkpoint. At this point, I couldn't return and I couldn't try again and it was important, because that was where I was supposed to pick up the axes. I got soft-locked.
As a matter of fact, I got soft-locked thrice. After which I resorted to a video walkthrough. After that I played for two more hours without any hiccups, but there is a section where we go very up and then we have to go down. On my way down, I fell again and got assigned to a lame checkpoint from which I couldn't get anywhere. Somehow, I managed to progress to even later stage, but until I go back to where I can't, I am soft-locked again. At this point, I'm giving up.
It is possible that there is a way out of it, but because of limited visibility, I don't see it. I tried blindly a couple of times, but it was always a miss. It's a shame, because I liked the game. The visuals, the exploration itself, the music. It's all there. The difficulty level is high and I don't mind it, but getting soft-locked like that is just stupid and a game-stopper for me.
Maybe the PC version avoids that because of the larger distance rendered. I don't know. I think a system of manual saves would solve the issue here. If I can save in a safe spot, then I don't mind getting soft-locked. I can just reload the last savegame. But if I'm stuck in an impossible situation, then I'm done. I might actually write to the dev about it. I don't expect much, though. Redesigning the checkpoint/save system would be a tall order and I paid mere 8 euros for the game.
Again, shame. The game world is just humongous, and it falls in line with "Blame!" and "NaissanceE", where you were this little nothing. A particle in the world. Also, as having a fear of heights, I had especially lot of fun with various platforming sections. Sometimes you climb, but sometimes you have to jump on pipes hanging in this black void (courtesy of Switch, but it might be working better for me; it reminds me of some dreams I had; it looks exactly like that).
So, that's probably the end of the line for me.
Dex
I dug out "Dex" from my Switch collection. I bought it don't know how long ago but never even started. Well. That's fixed now. I was planning on running it once and putting aside, but I found it interesting enough to continue. Hard to say now if it's an RPG lite or an action-adventure game with a more elaborate stats system. Or maybe a beefed-up cinematic platformer. In any case, it's fun. And visually appealing. I think I'll go with charming picklocker-hacker build.