I loved both Hand of Fate games. I absolutely didn't go for 100% though. It's a shame the studio was shut down.

I didn't even realise they had shut down :( that makes me sad. Does make me appreciate Hand of Fate 2 that little bit more knowing that 3 won't be happening D:

Hand of Fate 2 - Completed. Not a bad game but pushing to 100% it has been quite the marathon. It's not a bad game but I was honestly done with it about 60 odd hours ago but those last few achievements and dealing with endless mode really dragged it out. I personally think the first game was better, just by virtue of being more contained, less is more, pure condensed experience. This game is mostly the same, and if you enjoyed the first you'll likely enjoy this too but it just has a habit of either outstaying its welcome or trying too hard with being gimmicky at times. Don't wanna rail on it too hard, part of it was a me problem and burning out a bit on it in the process. So glad it's over now though lol.

Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden - Completed. I'm a bit split on this one, it's pretty standard as a Hidden Object Game, takes very obvious inspiration from Bioshock with it's art deco underwater paradise gone wrong theme. The puzzles though are at times ludicrously easy, objects are frequently just sitting in the same scene, a lot of the hidden objects are really easy to do. And there's some basic annoyance with the flow of the game having to constantly go up and down an elevator that you can't skip. Not huge deal breakers but would also be a bit better if this wasn't the case. Can't complain too much overall though.

Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak - Completed. Surprisingly decent, managed to translate a space based RTS into a ground based one fairly successfully. More importantly they managed to maintain the general atmosphere and tone of the Homeworld games which was great. Only real downside is a general lack of "sophistication", limited controls in terms of formations etc. that were a big aspect of the previous games. Game plays kinda slow at times, units don't move very fast but they die quick which can be a bit annoying, and there can be a lot of busy work just getting things ready or into position. Also has a bad habit of just surprising you with game altering situations out of nowhere or just ending missions on trivial things. I really miss Homeworld 1 not ending missions until you choose to dock all your units and manually progress. Not a huge deal just one of those cool little things that meant you could always prepare before leaping into the unknown.

Heroes of Might & Magic II (GBC) - Completed. It was fun enough, nice of them to include a campaign mode of 7 maps and a free choice of hero to start with at the beginning. Still extremely basic though and nowhere near competent or as fun as the actual proper PC versions, but it's charming enough seeing how they tried to pare this down to a handheld again. It has another set of scenario maps so I'll keep playing to knock them out over time since it's fun enough and after that I'll look forward to the "Quest for the Dragonbone Staff" Playstation game :D



edit: Dark Heritage: Guardians of Hope - Completed. Fairly standard Hidden Object Game, nothing really stands out about it to be honest aside from their usage of live action actors instead of the cheesy tween animation / goofy 3D models they've used in the past. Would have scored a bit higher but encountered a bugged puzzle and the music kept skipping and had obvious repeat breaks in it, and it's not like these are technically demanding games. Otherwise it's a decent little time killer.

Just 3 games this month

01 - Amnesia: The Bunker
06 - Sonic Colours: Ultimate
29 - Spellforce 2: Demons of the Past

Best - Sonic Colours. I started somewhat lukewarm on this game but it grew on me in a big way. It's solid, just a lot of great fun, good stages, fun bosses, amazing music as usual and the wisp powers add a lot of variety and planning to some stages, good stuff.

The Worst - Amnesia: The Bunker. Awful game. Game world is too small, monster is constantly hassling the player to the point of annoyance. Gameplay is just tedious, a real disappointment. Game tells you that various strategies are possible but 9 times out of 10 you've got one solution and the game is constantly roadblocking you with new mechanics that require specific items to progress, ultimately lying to the player. It's an interesting experiment but a failure in my eyes.

The Rest - Demons of the Past isn't bad enough to get the worst, even though it is janky and fairly mediocre overall. But I enjoyed my time with it, the RPG aspects, the RTS parts are as fun as ever, and even though things like the story etc. are a bit convoluted, I love the voice acting in these games, for some reason it just stands out, and the character writing, something about how the characters talk and how they are brought to life is just very well done and I commend those efforts. I look forward to seeing how / if Spellforce 3 improved things from here since there was clearly a lot of room for improvement :)

Spellforce 2: Demons of the Past - Completed. It's fine, more Spellforce 2. The story is completely lost on me at this point, I can barely keep track of the characters and who did what and when. Gameplay is just the same which is fine, I had fun playing it but it's not without its issues like copious amounts of jank.



Also spent a lot of the month 100%ing Sonic Colours. It's the perfect example of why you should try to 100% games, especially Sonic games, this went from a fairly mediocre, somewhat annoying 7/10 kinda game to a 8 - 9 quality game. I loved it, so much fun, especially getting used to all the wisp powers and figuring out when best to use them. The S rank scoring system was a bit weird, but it had its charms not worrying completely about speed all of the time.

Sonic Colors: Ultimate - Completed. Was decent enough, I will probably keep playing and try to 100% it. Nothing too wrong with it, not a big fan of the wall jump cause I kept sticking to things unintentionally. Some of the wisp powers are a bit pace breaking and clunky but overall it's fine. Character / Story is a bit cringey but again fine. I duno I liked it, you can tell this was a game of them finding their stride, shame I couldn't play Unleashed to get a real sense of the progression first though, but yeah this definitely feels like they made it out of that early 2000's era jank.

Anomalously low times like that should and likely will get pushed out of relevance as more people start submitting times. Especially in the launch window when everyone else is actually playing the game instead of submitting proper times, it's just something that will solve itself eventually. Sucks for sure, but in time it'll sort itself out.

I managed to get through a lot of stuff this month.

09 - The 3rd Birthday
13 - Inside
14 - Dagon: The Little Glass Bottle dlc
16 - Silt
17 - Lake Haven - Chrysalis
19 - Choo-Choo Charles
23 - Scanner Sombre
26 - Darq
27 - Swallow the Sea
28 - Sheepy: A Short Adventure
29 - Dagon: The Railway Horror dlc

The Best - It's a really tough call, there was so many good games. Inside and Choo-Choo Charles and Darq all could easily claim the spot but the real surprise for me this month was Sheepy: A Short Adventure. Everything about it just stands out as impressive, it's short, looks great, sounds great, plays great has some great moments to boot. And it's a free game which blows my mind because it's better than a lot of other stuff out there. I want people to give this game a try.

The Worst - Probably The Railway Horror dlc it was just too basic and not even that scary, trying to make a whole experience out of one of H.P. Lovecraft's dreams based on a letter he wrote. It was a neat idea but I wasn't too impressed. If dlc doesn't count then The 3rd Birthday would be the loser, it suffers from really annoying controls, repetitive gameplay and frustrating design choices. A real shame because if this game had the rough edges sanded off it it might be something incredible, but as it stands it's just like the unfortunate last remnant of the Parasite Eve series :(

The Rest - Inside was great, loved a lot about it, does so much so well, even though at times it starts to feel a bit aimless and the ending is a tad mediocre imo.
The Little Glass Bottle is close to The Railway Horror though a bit more charming.
Silt is fascinating and was a lot of fun to experience, it just lost out to other better games this month too.
Lake Haven - Chrysalis was a neat little homage to PS1 era survival horror games, though it's just a prelude and tbh a bit boring and lacking on content. Puzzles are basic and there's no real survival elements, but it shows promise for the future and the atmosphere is great.
Choo-Choo Charles impressed me a lot, I had so much fun with it, especially in Nightmare mode where the stakes are a lot higher due to permadeath.
Scanner Sombre has made me interested in playing more LiDAR games because I love the atmosphere it manages to create.
Darqwas another pleasant surprise, love the style and the puzzles and scope were a lot of fun to engage with, lots of clever ideas that were well executed.
Swallow the Sea was rather bizarre, very short but interesting.

I've tried writing and manipulating for like 10 minutes in different ways and haven't been able to trigger it. That message is for a client-side catch all error boundary.

Would there be any additional information you could provide? Special character usage or copy pasting certain items or anything you can think of?

Nothing off the top of my head no, sorry. If it happens again I'll see if I can get more info, at least I'll know it's something on my end causing it.

edit: just thinking about it, each time I was about ~2000 character deep and the page had been open for a while, probably longer than 10 minutes, so it wasn't an immediate thing. Like I said not a huge issue and can be worked around, not like it crashes around that character limit specifically since I can save and continue from there unimpeded, so I'm not sure what the exact trigger was.

Hi guys, longtime user of the site. I was just curious as to what the colors blue and red in the background signify when looking at a games hours to beat count? Some games have a blue background for everything while others are in red.

Just to add to UnsungGhost's reply, on the front page there's an accuracy guide to show the colour scaling.

I've been trying to write a review a few times now and the page has crashed (in page, not the browser or tab), being replaced with "Something went wrong! Please try again later". Not sure what's caused that to happen, I'd guess the live preview?



Not a huge deal, just need to save and edit the review more often, just letting you know in case there's a fixable problem behind it.

As someone who grew up playing these games and has been undertaking the same full series playthrough over the last few years this is a cool thread. You're putting in some great effort here, always nice to read some lore and in depth opinions.

Keep it up Exi :)

Thanks for making me aware of Sheepy: A Short Adventure! I just beat it in 1h 20m.

I share your opinion, it's a fantastic game of very high production quality. Even after your glowing review I did not expect such a great experience (especially the latter stages). It reminded me a bit of Celeste. So many things are done well here: gameplay, music, controller support, art style, atmosphere. If this was not just a 1 hour game it would rival some well known metroidvanias.

This makes me happy, so glad you enjoyed it too and that I was able to bring it to your attention :D Apparently there was news of a future game earlier this year so let's hope it's just as good or better.

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Amnesia: The Bunker - Completed. Seemingly an unpopular opinion given how well this game appears to have done, I really did not like it however. The idea is great, and it's hard to say it's not well executed because it is, and frictional are masters of their craft at this point (I'd argue they always were, even with missteps like Amnesia: Rebirth).

Problem for me here is the core mechanics led to some really degenerate gameplay that seemed to work in opposition with their intentions. What I mean is, having a hub you need to keep returning to in order to save and feel safe is a decent idea, but when the game world is so small, your inventory so limited and your goals so constantly impeded by light, items, monsters etc. I ended up just sprinting around the place in the dark like a madman not caring whether I lived or died. Doing this made it so I was mobile, had less chance of dying and ultimately gleaned more information than sneaking around praying not to get spotted by lurking enemies.

By 2 hours in I was so bored having to do this silly dance in every new area, realise i needed something, realise X was locked or Y was blocked or the map was lying and I just got tired and started using a guide for things. A short game but so overwhelmingly tedious to me that it felt several hours longer.

Other people seemed to like it a lot though so, take my words with a grain of salt I guess :P

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

What a wonderful game. The third AC game, but the second in the Ezio Auditore series, he's such a well voiced likable character. There were problems with AC1, that were fixed by AC2, but there was still something of the grind about it. This is a marvellous step forward, the movement is more fluid, especially on horseback. Missions are varied, Side quests interesting if you want and the main story line can pass with minimal character upgrading if you don't. If anything the supplies and last chance death mode in combat is a little too forgiving and some elements of the game that take you from one part of the story to another are effectively on rails, but all in this is the best Assassin's Creed of the first three (making my way through the series). Well worth a playthrough if you haven't.

Requiescat in pace.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood really was something special, glad to hear you enjoyed it :D
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Sheepy: A Short Adventure - Completed. I'm honestly not sure how this is a free game, I personally think it's absolutely fantastic. It's only about an hour long but the production quality is amazing, graphically stunning, cute, the story is basic but functional. The music is just outstanding, and the gameplay within that 1 hour and across only 6 very simple stages is just paced with some amazing moments. It's not the best game ever made, don't get me wrong, but I enjoyed this game so much I went straight back to replay it for both time attack and no death attempt achievements. It's up there with games like Samorost 2 & 3 for me, so all I can say is please give this game a try, cause even if you hate it you'll probably enjoy it.

Darq - Completed. Very, very good game, if brevity is the soul of wit then this game pretty much embodies it. As a 2D puzzle game it introduces and explores a variety of mechanics and mini-games across 6 chapters and executes it all very well with a great art style and macabre theme. It's short enough that it never outstays its welcome, but each of the locations and mechanics feel really fun and intuitive to engage with. It's really inventive, as well as mysterious with a handful of tense moments and decent jump scares, manages to do this too without any dialogue whatsoever. Absolutely fascinating, I hope the devs are proud of this game.



Swallow the Sea - Completed. Very quick game, simple but intriguing. Swim around, dodge enemies, slowly eat other enemies and grow while you survive. Not much to it but it's short and compelling. Fairly gruesome and disturbing as well for a pixel art game, looks decent and music is decent too. Is free to play if anyone else wants to try it, will take all but 15 mins to complete if you don't care about achievements.

Scanner Sombre - Completed. I really liked this, very simple premise, quite unique and fairly well executed. Was worried it was going to be just a gimmicky walking sim but it definitely had some decent little horror elements to it and the ending / overarching story has a terror of its own. Has some great moments that landed very well with me, some of the music in particular just stood out.

What a great word in your mini review there. Had to google it...now need to sink that into a conversation somewhere.

Letting thalassophobia sink into your conversations? I see what you did there lol :D

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Lake Haven - Chrysalis - Completed. Finished this yesterday, it feels like a neat little homage to the survival horror games of yesteryear. Supposedly it's a prologue chapter to an upcoming full game which instils a decent amount of intrigue in me. Draws inspiration from a lot of familiar IPs, hints of Twin Peaks, Resident Evil, Silent Hill etc. My only real complaint is that it feels overly simplistic, it's essentially just a lot of fetch quests, go here, find key, open door, find key, open another door etc. The atmosphere is nice but it's generally not enough to overcome how mundane the actual gameplay is in terms of "verbage" i.e. you don't actually do that much. But I have hope the full game tries to push the boat out and livens things up a bit, otherwise it's going to be just a derivative copycat that never managed to stand on its own, which would be a real disappointment, so much potential here.



edit: Choo-Choo Charles - Completed. I won't post a picture for the sake of mini-spoilers. Fun game, I just hope this game manages to get a sequel or gets treated as a proof of concept because it's so basic but despite its silly premise it's actually really effective. They nailed the atmosphere really well, the general mechanics and stuff all work fine, the train is a lot of fun to upgrade but it's maybe a bit too easy and limited given all that you can explore. And it would be nice if exploration had more meaning etc. I recommend giving it a shot, it's just so goofy yet interesting.

edit: edit: 100% Completed. I love this game. It has flaws, no doubt, but the tension created by the core mechanics of this game can't be understated and Nightmare mode has such a raise in stakes that it make it so much more fun for me.

What an amazing remake! I really had fun getting all achievements, especially the endings.

Nice to hear that the remake has gone well, especially considering how the previous remasters for Silent Hill got messed up :D

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Silt - Completed. Decent little game, short and to the point, has enough mechanics to stay interesting, doesn't outstay its welcome. Can be a bit annoying at times but not majorly, has some difficulty spikes but again nothing major. Story is a bit obscure, it's all environmental and nothing is explained so you're just left to wander around and observe all these strange places and objects, but they are quite a sight to see so that is acceptable in itself. I think if you enjoyed the Rusty Lake series you might enjoy this to some degree, it just has similar vibes, not necessarily the same thing though. Just that weird, overarching gloomy and macabre sense to it all. If you had thalassophobia this game would do a number on you so beware lol.

Inside - Completed. Liked it a lot, very impressed with a lot of it, especially attention to detail and the kinematics of it all, very well done indeed. I agree with what klnak said a few posts up, the ending was rather abrupt and while I enjoyed seeing how it all played out I do feel like it kinda ran out of steam towards the end and tried to end on some poignant kind of note but it lacked the impact because they also wanted to be somewhat abstract and retrospective in the story telling, with very important info being trapped in the hidden ending too.

Easy recommend overall though, I've lined up a handful of similar games now just cause this has put me in the mood for them :)

The Third Birthday - Completed. I really wanted to like this game, I think for the most part I did enjoy it, it's just that it can be really frustrating as a combination of difficulty and awkward controls. The gameplay is mostly interesting, but the constant character switching can lead to some really degenerate gameplay. This is the kinda game that really deserves a remake on something being hamstrung by simply being on the PSP, especially in today's era of Souls-likes, it just has that feel about it, lots of big boss fights with unique gimmicks, a great aesthetic and some great music etc. It's just got way too many rough edges on it.

Might join for Inside if I get the time, been looking for an excuse to play that :D

Shenmue 3 - Completed. Haven't posted here in ages. Shenmue 3 surprised me quite a bit, I've never seen a game manage to stay so faithful to its predecessors almost 20 years later, faults and all. It manages to completely recapture nearly everything, the awkward robotic movements, the borderline cringey, stilted dialogue, the rote tedium of day to day gameplay which seems to go overboard with gambling again. Sounds like I'm being negative but I really did love it, there's just so much attention to detail in places it's overwhelming, and when the bigger story beats hit they hit pretty well. I enjoyed the combat a lot more this time around, just feels a bit more responsive. I love the aesthetics too, it just looks amazing in places.

Still not a huge fan of the QTEs, but there's just no way the series that popularized them is gonna get rid of them unfortunately. Also there's multiple forced failures which really confused me the first few times, bit annoying. Game does feel like it's trying to waste your time in places but overall it's fine. I can truly imagine the disappointment a lot of people must have felt expecting this updated epic continuation and in some ways it's like a modern dreamcast game. Still good though imo.

Getting "503 first byte timeout" errors trying to access my own profile and some other profiles (e.g. lowdefal). Just seems to be the profile page itself, can access lists and other pages just fine from the drop down menu / direct url.