Year Walk

Genre: Adventure, Point and click

Developer: Simogo

Released: 6. March 2014

In the old days man tried to catch a glimpse of the future in the strangest of ways. Enter the world of the horrifying Swedish folklore world in this great indie game.

Journal

Genre: interactive adventure game

Developer: Locked Door Puzzle

Release Date: 17. Feb 2014

This isn't a game for masses, not a first person shooter with high quality graphics. It isn't a whole world of role-playing with monsters, weapons and magic. This isn't a strategy game with huge armies to control. If you only play games because of these, then back away slowly from this game. This is just a simple story about a young girl, and how she struggles with some events in her life.

With all the Telltale Games (Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us) interactive stories are becoming more and more and more popular. This game is not that great neither with story, neither with gameplay, neither with graphics, but it crawls into your heart. In it's 1-2 hour gameplay, you control a girl and have to rebuild her somehow-erased journal, walking through the sketchy, but beautiful hand-drawn pages of the journal. I have to admit the surroundings and 3D elements could have been made better, but the journal parts were weird in a lovely way and the narrating circus parts were just magnificent.

I think indie game maker, Richard Perrin, did a great job with this game's story. You are in a fog the whole game, you don't know the most important thing, and it is seldomly mentioned. The game focuses on speaking to other character, and deciding how the girl should behave. There are a couple of bigger decisions, but you can't change the major storyline. Because you are a little girl nobody wants to tell you anything, your parents don't want to tell you why they separated, plus you have troubles at school, struggling with anxiety, and depending on how you behave with your friends will decide how they treat you in the end. Just like in real life. The story deals with these things, which might seem difficult even for an adult, but how these things are even more difficult for a child. Meanwhile there is another storyline with shadow figurines, which at first might seem like it has nothing to do with our young girl, but in the end integrates slowly into her life.

I highly recommend this game, although as I mentioned it before, not for anyone who can't appreciate a simple but makes-you-think story.

Final Score:

8/10

Big Bad Wolf Among Us

Genre: point-and-click graphic adventure game

Developer: Telltale Games

Release Date:11.oct 2013 episode 1

                      14.febr 2014 episode 2

Telltale Games's new hit after award-winning Walking Dead series. We get the usual Telltale game mechanics. This exciting story  introduces us to Fabletown's exiled fairytale characters' struggle with the mundane life. For now there are two episodes released, and 3 more planned. Prepare for a lot of smoking and fighting!

World of Fables

 The story is based on Bill Willingham's Fables comics, Vertigo, actually a prequel to it. The game can be played without any knowledge about the story, anyway you get info while the story unfolds, in the Book of Fables. The exiled fables set up Fabletown, they have their own little government, with huge hidden caves and everything. In order for a fable to stay there, they need a human form, or to be able to buy glamour, a spell which transforms them into human (this is very expensive so they sometimes do stuff to get it), or if they can't afford it the are deported to the Farm. The government itself has serious workforce and money problems, their only sheriff is Bigby Wolf (the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood, Three Little Pigs)

He is the main character of our story, ironic how the big bad wolf now has to protect the fables. There are many more famous fable characters, Snow White now working for the governor, Ichabod Crane, the problematic marriage between Beauty and Beast, the now thugs Tweedle Dee and Dum, bartender trolls, and many more surreal situations. This gives a certain humour to the game, Bigby's occasional roommate, Colin the pig, who says he owes him because he destroyed the three little pigs house, and my personal favorite, Bufkin, flying monkey from Oz, drunkard librarian. I loved this new, more mature and violent approach to fairy tales, everybody knows that originally they were more gory and horroristic, and I always wondered about those versions. Another interesting aspect, that these fairy tales are connected, they have the same wolf for example. Bigby has a hard time, even after the general amnesty the other characters look at him the same, they are afraid, and this is why his moral decisions are so hard to make.

The graphic style is typical Telltale game, little cartoony, much contour. It's like we enter of of those detective novels with a noir mood, but with really vivid colors mixed with darkness. Although the animations could be smoother the overall aspect is great, and with the music and sound effects perfectly match it. Taken the characters and fairy tales, we would expect a charming story, but in fact it is a violent, mature thriller. One of the three little pigs crushing on Bigby's couch, while smoking and drinking his booze, this gives a great style of humour. This lightens up a mood a little, Bigby standing in front of a soda machine giving us his idea of healthy lifestyle: "This shit will kill you", while he is lighting a cigarette every 2 minutes.

The basic game mechanics are similar to the Walking Dead game, three basic parts: point and click for object and puzzles, but less than in the Walking Dead, fighting scenes, where you have to react quickly, and the talking, with choices. Bigby's moral code is far from perfect, so the player will have a couple of hard choices. These affect the game, even in later episodes. You are faced with decisions to choose who will die and live, even if you don't realize it at the moment of decision. The game itself is very short, 2-3 hour per episode, so you have to wait long before the next part.

Final verdict

This game shows you how not even the fairytale life isn't just magic, and princes, and happy endings, and you can't get comfortable before something bad happens. It is a mature detective noir game, in spotlight with big bad wolf's difficult morale choices. I highly recommend playing it, like every other Telltale Game it's a hit.

Score: 10/10

Jazzpunk - We are everywhere and underwear

Genre: first-person adventure

Developer: Necrophone Games

Release Date: Feb. 7

Cold War World. Agent Polyblank goes to take up his next mission in a wornout trailer. Oh I forgot to mention the psychedelic intro. Sits down, fart chushion, laugh. This introduction is as clear as the game itself.
This is the weirdest game I have played. Well at least this year's weirdest, but it is in the top 3.  This weirdness is mixed with a little old-fashioned humour, robot secret agents and high-tech gadgets, and surprisingly it gives a not-that-bad-as-we-would-expect result. It's not a long game, max 3 hours to play.

The Good:

- the jokes (if you are into this kind of humour, but seriously who wouldn't laugh, or a little chuckle at least, for sitting on a whoopie cushion?)
- the artistic, cartoony style
- not like any other games I have played

The Bad

- too many minigames in the end

Retro Cyberpunk Futuristic Jazz

The game's mood is an interesting mix of a noir detective pulp-fiction + James Bond styled secret agent + there was an episode in Tom and Jerry, where Jerry had a funky jazz band playing and Tom (poor Tom) was tortured by their loud artsy music + a handful of simple puns and jokes.

Wedding Qake and Edward Scissorhands making NSFW hedge statues

One of the many things I liked about this game, the many small easter eggs hidden, which all make part of some kind of joke. There are the floating texts, (plus a couple of other things) which reminded me of The Stanley Parable, Polyblank arriving in a "guitar" case, like in the gangster movies the guns, Edward Scissirhands' hands, etc... (plus who knows how many I didn't even get).

Also there are countless minigames, mostly parodies of existing games, for example a bridal edition of Quake. After a while you will notice that it even makes fun of the player itself.

To get the full experience out of this game you have to explore every single object laying around, and find the many puns good jokes. This humour is the cohesion of the game, beside the simple story of going to meet you boss, having you to make a couple of top secret missions, and trying to defeat the Antagonist (yes that's what it says on his business card). Although near the end it gets frustrating that there is not even a decent story, and too many minigames. But it is hard to maintain the fun from the beginning, once you do things too many times it looses it's humour.

You travel through a wide variety of scenes, from japanese sushi restaurants (take your shoes off, robot!) to futuristic spacy apartments. There are lots of details, like a playbot magazine while you are waiting with your bosses secretary.

The game has a unique art style, well a unique style in everything, which is very brave but in a good way. For many gamers it is a must for a game to have high quality graphics, but there are so many games which don't need that, have their unique art style and I appreciate that (of course there are some games which require high graphics). It creates a stronger mood, and a better experience.

The End

It is an interesting, great indie game. If you decide to play it be prepared for a weird, but comical experience, with cartoony humour.

Final Score:

6/10

Octodad: Dadliest Catch

Genre: Third-person puzzle, adventure

Platform: PC/MAC/Linux, PS4

Developer: Young Horses

Release Date: 30. Jan. 2014

The Good:

-interesting movement and physiques
-relaxing gameplay in the first half of the game

The Bad

-short
-destroys the calm game mood with too many unnnecesarey stealth seqences

Take a simple octopus, turn him into a husband, add physics, and you get a humouros indie game, which makes enjoyable even the simplest mundane tasks. It seems pretty simple, the story is simple, the characters are simple the tasks are simple, and then comes the hard part: controlling the octopus husband. Sequel to the Octodad indie game, this takes us through a day of an aquaanimaldad, who has problems with even the smallest everyday tasks, thanks to his sticky tentacles. Can a simple octopus hide his real identity even from his wife and kids?

4 limbs, 1 mouse

The game mechanics are pretty simple, physique-based movement, solving puzzles while trying to hide your true species. You can select to control him with the mouse, keyboard and gamepad. (I prefer the keyboard, it's like you are really moving them and not just pushing some buttons up and down). Using the middle mouse button the player switches from controlling the arms or the legs and vice-versa. After a couple of minutes you can easily get comfortable with controlling Octodad. Actually the moving of the limbs reminds me of Surgeon Simulator, and I think this kind of movement control has a whole new light on movement in videogames, and it should be more thoroughly explored.
In the second half of the game they add some elements, like boss fights, in my opinion they should hav stayed away from stealth, it just takes away that simple gameplay that was in the first half. Althoug in the second part in the aquarium there a some minigames you can play, and those are a nice plus to the game experience, besides sticking your tentacles on everything take a break playing air hockey!

Octodad's tale

You begin the game on your wedding day (actually Octodad's but we could say he is just our squsihy mannequin). We could say wedding are ceremonial, elegant events, but not this one. Octodad's clumsy, his tentacles get stuck to everything, but that makes him adorable, and this gives the game a unique humour, and comical situations. The we jump in time to an everyday morning, like you see in the movies. The dad wakes up, makes breakfast while the wife keeps nagging to him about how many chores he still has to do, the kids happily eating their delicious breakfast... (I always wanted my mornings to be like this, but I'm just not a morning person) This gives the game a nice, relaxing start.

He has to master these simple tasks, but to him these seem like a real struggle, even making a hamburger. But then comes the conflict. The wife (a journalist) wants to go the the local aquarium, where is full of biologists who can spot that Octodad in fact is an OCTOPUS! (yes, beacuse there is needed special biology studies to notice the difference between a human and an octopus... but this is what gives the game a nice comic, cartoony style and mood). Then the game's special mood is destroyed. The new scene is not that catchy, there are too many stealthy places and it just looses it's previous magic. I wish they had continued that simple adventure of housechores and grocery shopping.

There is a reappearing boss, the Chef (of course who else could be the deadly enemey of an octopus?)
For those who like multiplayer there is co-op mode, max 4 players, everyone gets one limb. Sounds like fun and it gives more challange to the game.

Can a cephalopod talk?

No, not even in this game, but somehow with growling and bubbling he gets through his point. The sounds are not bad, and it has a catchy theme song written by Ian McKinney, which goes nice with the cartoony, stylized art of the game. The comments from the family make this game even more enjoyable, and the wife and even the kids are strongly built characters.

Shopping for Easter Eggs

The game is full of cleverly hidden Easter Eggs, I found most of them in the grocery store (a pie named Pewdie Pie, a Stanley ((the parable)) bowl o' cereal, Minecraft reference, etc...), most of them referring to indie games, gamers, stuff. I love this small things in games, they give you a smile every time you find a reference to something you already know and like. Apart from Easter Eggs, some ties are hidden in the levels and they can be put on dad.

The game itself is so short, when you get to enjoy it it's almost over. You can play it under 2-3 hour. Besides these minor bad aspects, it's an enjoyable game, with a heartwarming story and loveable characters. And since it started out as a student indie game project I think I can safely say that it's worth buying it, support the developers, at least they had an original idea.

Final score:

7/10 

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Platform: Nintendo DS

Genre: Adventure, Point and click

Developer: Capcom

I've been hearing about this game so many good reviews, but only now I got to play it. I needed a DS emulator for PC, (which you can download for free from the net) but it was worth it. This is my first game in this genre, and it was a great surprise. You take the role of Phoenix Wright, a defense attorney, and have to solve some cases. Although if you are a fan of skipping cutscenes and not paying attention to the story don't even bother to start this game. It is a Capcom game, and I am a fan of Capcom so I had high hopes.

The Good:
- The cases are interesting and you have to think ho wot solve them
- The side characters are lovable and you get to know them
- The game always introduces new elements and is not repetitive
- The story
- Cute anime style characters

The Bad
I liked everything in this game.

The game mechanics

It is  point and click game, you don't even have to use your keyboard. (If you need later to use a microphone and don't have one you can set the emulator to use a key instead). You have a couple of tehniques in your hand as an attorney. The game mainly consists of trials and investigations. On the trials part you are in the courtroom, and you have to cross-examine the witnesses. You have to press their testimonies, find the contradiction and lies they are hiding, using logic, and presenting evidence. The investigation part is a little more free, you can move around, talk to people, examine scenes, later do scientific investigation, etc. Despite that the storline is linear, (if you don't follow the script you lose) it is a pretty interesting game, I wasn't bored at all playing this game.

The story, the cases

The game consists out of 5 cases, which have to be solved by our rookie defense attorney, with the help of his cute assistants. The first case is kind of a tutorial, guided by Mia Fey, your mentor. The cases are interesting, full of surprises and objections. And there is no better feeling when you have all the little pieces of the puzzle in the end and you point out who the murderer is, and saving the innocent. Be warned that this game is full of anime-humor (which I really like), for example the geeky director in a later case.

The characters

Another great part of the game are the characters. There are a couple of important characters other than the main charcter, who constantly appear in the game, and slowly you get to know them, and get to love them. There is your mentors, little sister, a spirit medium who will use her powers to help you, Maya Fey. She is one of the most adorable characters in the game. Then there is the antagonist, Miles Edgeworth. Don't let be fooled by his serious face, once you get to know him you will love him as well. Then there is this bubbling detective, Detective Gumshoe, who is always committed to solving the crime, just not celver enough, but sometimes he can be really helpful and he gets into your heart. There are other reappearing and fun charcters as well, bu I don't want to spoil the game.

Verdict

All in all I havne't had this fun and wasn't concerned about the characters as much as in this game for a very long time. Despite that this is not a high graphics modern game, I could really imagine I was sitting in the courtroom, investigating the cases. So if you are looking for a nice little puzzle game, or enjoy playing visual novel, point and click or text based games, this is a must. Plus there are a couple of sequels to the game, so you will have a lots of fun.

Final Score:

10/10

A tale of two brothers

Genre: Adventure, fantasy
Released by: 505 Games

One of the best and most beautiful games released this year. It is a 1 player game, but I okayed it with my little sister, so the story was close to my heart.

Good:
- Great graphics
- Beautiful environment
- Great, touching story

Bad:
- Short

The graphics

Everything looks so beautiful in this game. The textures, the environment, the creatures and humans,  it looks like something that was made by great 3d modellers and animators. Everything goes together beautifully.

 

The Gameplay

It has some puzzles, which are not too difficult, but just enough to enjoy it, and they aren't what his game is about. You have two characters, two brothers, and they can interact with several objects around them. You have some other stuff except puzzles, like flying, which is a great add to the gameplay.

The Story

This is not about some epic quest to save a world, or a princess. It is about two brothers, who have lost their mother and now their father got sick, so they have to go get medicine for him. They travel through fantastic lands, and meet with several creatures. Although as beautiful as seems, well... It's better if I don't say anything.

The Mood

The music, environment, textures and everything is just perfect, fantastic and so calm.

Final Verdict

Short and sweet. The most beautiful game I've ever played.

Final Score

10/10

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Review

Genre: Adventure

Electronic Arts, 2001

Trailer

It was a cold, rainy night. I was sitting alone in my room and I just had a brilliant thought. Why not replay the first Harry Potter game? So I spent the night playing it. When I was younger I could never defeat Voldemort in the end so I never actually finished the game. But this time I made it. Yaaaay for me!

Bad:

- I wanted to say there is no bad in this game, but I don't like when I can't skip cutscenes...

- also a little short

Good:

- I'm in Hogwarts!!!

The Graphics

The graphics aren't perfect, but remember it is a game from more than 10 years ago... 

The gameplay

I love this gameplay. I never saw gameplay like this before. I like the collectable magic cards, the quidditch, learning spells, collecting beans... It's just a perfect combination. 

The story

Well if you don't know the story shame on you. Go buy the book or if you are to lazy to do that watch the movie.

The mood

The game gives us back exactly the mood from the books. The music is sooo cute and amazing. The only thing I missed a little is a snowy level. (snow is the best!!!) The castle, the dungeons, Hagrid's Hut, everything fits into the HP universe.

Final Verdict

Old but gold.

Final score

10/10

Devil May Cry - Beating Bob's Giant Head Guide

Didn't had any trouble with any of the foes until this point. Little trouble, but after a couple of tries I figured it out. I didn't really like how this enemy looks. I loved more the demonish looking foes, mostly the Harpies. But oh well I get past it. At first I realized that there are those shiny red thingys on the ground, but somehow didn't get to my mind that I have to do something with them. 

Attacks

He has 4 kind of attacks. You can see which one is coming when it satrts forming under the giant Bob head

Green one

It starts two beams, which you can avoid easily by jumping over them.

 

 Yellow one

 Shoots a circular attack all over the place. You have to watch out for the gaps, where you can jump through it.

Purple one

This one's easy. Shoots three beams, close to the ground, can easily jump above it.

Blue one

This are the slowest to charge, so you will have plenty of time to run to safety. This is one huge beam. My tip is just run from it.

Now that we know about the attacks, we can look at the red spots on the ground. You have to bash them with the eryx stomp attack, until then it is pretty hard to kill it. Once you enter his vulnerable side, you can hit him. After a while he will charge an orange attack, just avoid it and you can hit him again. Once finished with one health bar of Bob, you enter his eye and have to fight a couple of weaker enemies. After this you're back to his invincible state. Now you have to bash two red thingies. The same story as before, and you have to do it third time, now bashing 3 thingies (you have to be really quick here or they restart themselves).

That's it you beat Bob's Giant Head!

Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands

Lately I've been a little nostalgic about some games, and I was playing the new Tomb Raider. I was climbing on a rock and I suddenly rememberd how much I liked jumping and climbing stuff in Prince of Persia so I installed the Forgotten Sands. I remembered playing the Sands of Time, which I liked veeeery much in it's time. But now I wasn't too impressed with the Forgotten Sands.

Here's the trailer if you don't know this game (what I think is simply impossible):

The story revolves around The Prince (of course) in time placed between the Sands of Time and Warrior Within. Then comes Malik, his brother, to release the Sand army (what a fool) to save his kingdom (with good intention), creating a little problem for our hero here. 

The graphics are pretty good, it's a game from 2010, I know it can't look like a game from 2100. The characters and everything are made quite well. Love the style and artwork of the games as well. 

The gameplay is pretty simple, it's like any other action game with a sword. You have basic attack, some special attacks, later some pretty awesome powers with sand and time. You can climb, roll, jump and make some awesome parkour moves. There was only one problem. After like half an hour I got bored. I know the beginning it's like a tutorial, and it needs to be simple to get to know the keys, gameplay, etc. But still it seemed too simple for me, and I was playing in normal mode.

Here's a little gameplay video, if you're like me and like to know how to play a game to see if you will like it: (have to mention I didn't made the video)

The puzzles are too simple (of course I will keep playing, I know later will be harder), but this made me pretty dissapointed at first. 

I have one more issue with the game. The area, where you can move freely is pretty single-lined. There aren't really any sidetracks, (again maybe because I haven't played it enough), and that really bothers me. Maybe this is only me, I looove games with huge maps where I can choose my own destiny. I'm a free bitch, fuck yeah!!! 

So in conclusion I won't give up and keep playing after a little foodbreak, and I really hope things will be getting harder (if you know what I mean).

Other tehcnical infos that you might need to know:

The game is availabe on PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and some other platforms (exclusive only and I don't really know what that means). I can only play it on PC, I don't have any other platform, so I can't tell you how it works on them.

The game is made by Ubisoft, and I really love them one of my faves. 

Minimum System Requirements

Supported OS: Windows XP/Windows Vista
Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended)
RAM: 1 GB Windows XP/2 GB Windows Vista
Video Card: 256 MB DirectX 10.0-compliant video card or DirectX 9.0-compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (see supported list)*
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0-compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended)
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0 libraries (included on disc)
DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive
Hard Drive Space: 8 GB
Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, mouse, optional controller (Xbox 360 Controller for Windows recommended)
* Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:
ATI RADEON X1600*/1650*-1950/HD 2000/3000 series
NVIDIA GeForce 6800*/7/8/9 series