Hawke64

Furi The tutorial. Finally purchased the soundtrack (GOG) and decided to replay the game. It went quite well - I've reached the Song in one session. Not sure, if I should go for the Burst, though. Her last bullet-hell sequence was hard to play for wrong reasons (too bright background, non-45-degree attack angles, so I had to switch the control scheme mid-battle).

The Legend of Dragoon (PS); (played it as a kid, never finished) Dragon Age: Origins (PC); (completed many times) Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time trilogy (PC); (completed many times) Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst (PC). (Steam shows 351 hours of playtime).

Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir Reached Crossroad Keep and realized that the SoZ MC isn't the PC of the original campaign/MotB. It explains why I started at level 1, instead of level 30. I met most of the possible cohorts/companions and currently trying to use them, instead of custom characters. There's a chance that if I want to switch back, they will be underleveled, though. Somehow I forgot that the NWN GUI isn't as clear and transparent as Pathfinder's - no tool-tips, no list of skills on character screen (I don't remember how it was called exactly; there was shown on what level the character gains a feat and which feats have been acquired before), no way to highlight all lootable objects and enemies. It's not really important, but it is less convenient. In general, during a chapter you have the main quest, which should be completed ASAP, and a quite long period, when you can play PF:KM as a BG game - explore the map, take and complete side quests, craft (well, have things crafted for you), talk to NPCs, upgrade your kingdom, etc. The two exceptions are the last mandatory chapter and somewhere mid-game, when the next main quest triggers right after the previous one.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir

Same. In TW3 you do get NPCs as temporarily companions for some quests (I can remember only Triss' questline, though). The game gets more interesting after you reach Novigard, but before you travel to Skellige (I skipped most of the side quests there). NWN2: Storm of Zehir Rescued the last two members of the crew of The Vigilant (the ship from the prologue), visited the Underdark Market and repeatedly failed to free the prisoners and not die (going to return there later).

Wolves near Candlekeep, then kobolds near the mines, then assassins after the mines, then hobgoblins. Then you get decent stats and equipment and can defeat almost everything (excluding beholders without Baldur's shield). Storm gives about 8000 exp at the start, so the party doesn't have to rely on RNG. Got the Platinum Edition on GOG, The Mysteries of Westgate were included. Storm of Zehir was released before TMoW, thus I started with it (played the original campaign and Mask of the Betrayer in 2008, according to the save files). Anyway, I restarted the campaign after I realized that the Favoured Soul was going to become an Unarmed strike specialist (Ilmater). This time the party included a rogue (MC), a fighter, a favoured soul (Lathander, mace), and a warlock. The general idea was to depend on resting less and to cover all necessary skills. We successfully survived the first combat encounter and reached (were escorted to) Samargol, apparently the main city in the campaign. I had the feeling that there wouldn't be many companions, considering that they were called "cohorts" now. But I met the first one at the market. It was a druid with a dinosaur. The dinosaur left after the conversation, though. Not sure, if I can dismiss my custom party members and add more NPCs - the book at the tavern doesn't seem to allow it. The druid had some unique replies in the dialogues and I'd like to have access to more options.

I see. Thank you for the confirmation. I made two custom characters - a fighter and a favoured soul (haven't used or seen this class before, so may auto-level up help me) and started the campaign. So far so good - the ship crashed and the surviving passengers, my party included, were ambushed by the locals.

Started NWN2: Storm of Zehir. Is there any way to import companions from other campaigns? I managed to find my old saves from 2008 (the original campaign and MotB), but could export only the main character.

Fear Effect: Sedna Completed the second mission, started the third. Got stuck at a rhythm mini-game. Solas and the White Winter Completed the game (puzzle-adventure). There was only one progress=stopping bug (switches in the third temple didn't work, restarting the game fixed it) and I completely missed the story (was the kid a ghost?). The controls were imprecise and unrebindable.

Devil May Cry 2 Completed the game as Lucia. It was slightly more entertaining, than Dante's campaign (excluding the underwater missions). The plot seemed more intense and there were less secret missions. Out of curiosity, how the player was supposed to find them in DMC2 without a guide? By interacting with all walls on their way?

Echo The game started as a walking simulator and went to horror pretty fast - the locations looked very similar and there was no map. Echoes (enemies) were respawning too often and running past them was not a good idea, but it worked for the second chapter. Movement felt very limited - the avatar kept switching to walking randomly and sprinting was consuming HP. Ironically, the game supported 5-button mice and had correct on-screen prompts for custom key bindings. I can't refund the game and unlikely to complete it.

Not exactly news, but the article seems relevant, considering the recent 5.0 update for PoEII: https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/the-pressure-to-constantly-update-games-is-pushing-the-industry-to-a-breaking-point/ It's disheartening to see comments like "this game is dead" (not talking about PoEII here; Devil May Cry V might serve as an example), when the developers announce that the game is complete.

Death's Gambit Completed the game. It has an impressive amount of player-determined events for an action game and an engaging story.

I don't care about children, but developing games around microtransactions seems wrong (haven't played Warframe). Middle-earth: Shadow of War proved that loot boxes affect design and balance, so whatever forces publishers to focus on quality of their products (or artworks, if games are considered art), instead of MT, has to be good.

Death's Gambit

Death's Gambit It's an amazing 2D Souls-like. The most notable difference is the ability to use your healing items to increase damage (1 Estus for +10% DMG). The only issue for me is uncompressed screenshots - they are saved in \username\AppData\ and auto-removed, if you launch the game again.

Thank you for supporting the game. Mixed feelings about content changes - it reminds about the game-as-a-service model and makes the original version somehow less. But GOG allows to switch between versions, so it's good, I guess. By the way, any chance of removing RNG elements from "The Courier's Calling" quest resolution?

It's still a DMC game. Not as good as DMC3/4/5, but not too bad. And I need to complete (or, at least, start) Lucia's campaign. Someday.

Devil May Cry 2 Completed the game as Dante. Not sure, if I'm going to try Lucia's campaign.

Yuppie Psycho Completed the game. I liked the design and graphic style (pixel art), boss battles and puzzles were engaging and made sense. I guess, it was a bit linear (some events by the end were unavoidable), but still quite charming.

Devil May Cry 1 (HD Collection) Completed Mission 20 and realized that there are more (all other DMC games I've played had only 20). Mixed feelings on the game, not including the quality of the port (PS button prompts, a separate program to configure keybindings, occasional FPS drops). So far the most difficult things were the last encounter with Nelo Angelo and 30 degree jumps. Fortunately, it's possible to fly in DT, so the latter are mostly avoidable. Edit. Completed the game and it threw me into NG+. I guess, DMC1 is important as a historical artifact (one of the first genre-defining 3D hack'n'slash games), but it did not age well and the port could be better.

Devil May Cry 3 (HD Collection) Cleared Mission 15. Reread the in-game information on enemies. The writing style gave that odd feeling of machine translation. I don't remember, if it was the same in the original game (it probably was, but I cared less). Also the difference in level design approach in DMC3-4 and DMCV became very noticeable - the former had maps and levels were open to explore (and it was possible to get lost), the latter has more points-of-no-return, no puzzles, almost no key items or traps. Not saying that it's a bad thing, just different. Edit. Completed the game. Funny to think that the ending of DMCV is pretty much what I wanted when I played DMC3 for the first time. Yuppie Psycho Somehow reminded me of my first attempt to find a job. So far so good.

The Turing Test It's a decent first-person puzzle game, unless you try to follow its plot or seek challenging puzzles. But I got all achievements, so it's something. Devil May Cry 3 (HD Collection) Started another DMC3 playthrough. PS gamepad prompts are irritating (and show the quality of port), but the game runs well and just as hard as I remember.

Devil May Cry V Completed the Bloody Palace as Nero for the second time.

Finished my last PT in January. There were few bugs, but nothing progress-stopping. It's probably better now.