System Shock (remake). TL;DR: This is a generally faithful remake of the original and is therefore very good and worth playing. It's close enough to the original that you could almost use walkthroughs of the original to get through this if necessary, although there are some distinctions. With that said, it's more fun to look at how it occasionally differs from the original and ways in which it's actually worse.

The graphics are basically nice-looking, although there's a lot of "noise" in the form of bright colored lights dotting everything. It took me a little while to get used to it and early on I was double- and even triple-checking my surroundings to make sure I didn't miss anything important. This was good because a couple of times I did indeed miss some stuff. The original, as primitive as it is, is much easier to read at an instant. The noisy look also affected the puzzles and I quickly restarted the game and switched the puzzle level down to easy because it was just too much of a pain to interpret where the interactive elements were facing. I don't feel bad about it at all.

I do think the game captures the vibe of the station, for the most part, although it goes for a grittier style than how think of the original. The original game has always had a very 1970s cold sci-fi feel to me, especially levels like the research level with its solid bright red and white everywhere. The maintenance level took me aback with how well-lit it was - that's not a bad thing, just one of those little differences. There's a lot of glitchy ragdoll physics and it would weird me out to see enemies I killed ages ago still twitching on the ground every time I passed by. General crew carcasses often seemed to default to lying on their faces with their butts sticking up, which gave me the impression that SHODAN was having her minions sodomize the residents, likely after they were already dead, which I guess would add something to the horrific atmosphere, although perhaps not intentionally.

I was not surprised but a little disappointed that the bridge level looks completely different. In contrast to the gross pulsating bio-mechanical look of the original, the remake has SHODAN reshape the bridge into a sort of electronic cathedral to herself, with long strings of LEDs that resemble stained glass and such. I see the logic behind it, but I just feel the original style is more of a shocking contrast and just more revolting to look at. Perhaps the Unreal engine wasn't up to rendering more organic, moving surfaces without bashing in the performance or something.

I do absolutely love how you can look through windows in this, both to spy through doors to see if enemies lurk within, and the gorgeous views of the station orbiting Saturn. Also how you literally ride trams to the groves and you get to see the Beta grove being ejected in real time rather than a cinematic. It's all quite beautiful.

Musically, the remake goes for the usual modern background ambiance. It's so ambient that I often failed to notice that music was even playing at all. I realized after listening to the soundtrack online that some of the songs include beats from the original but usually as deeply underlying elements. IMO the score for the original is quite superior and if I replay this I'm definitely going to install the mod to replace the music with the original's score.

The voice acting I feel went from one extreme to another. We had random non-actors just reciting stuff off a sheet in the original, and now we have proper actors who all seem to have been told to go as melodramatic as they possibly could. I think the idea was to really stress the horror of the situation, but the early entries you find in particular go overboard on the sobbing and "Oh God help me...!" and such. I wish they had turned the dial down just a bit. Terri Brosius is still fantastic as SHODAN and her new dialogue fits in with the old stuff fine.

It plays a lot faster than the original, which makes it harder or easier depending on situations. For some reason I found the groves a lot easier to get through. The security level is a lot easier simply because of your greater ability to look up and shoot enemies in high places. At the same time, if enemies get the drop on you, you're going to pay for it much more quickly because you'll be losing a lot before you even turn around. The game does a good job of making you feel vulnerable the whole way, so you can't ever get too cocky.

Weirdly, for a game that's so motivated by making the gameplay more accessible, the inventory system is a lot more fiddly. I'm pretty sure they did this because Night Dive are a household that prefers System Shock 2 and they basically just swiped its inventory system for this, but it's weird how the original game just let you grab stuff and not worry too much about it and now you have to think about picking up stuff, fitting it in your inventory space, vaporizing what you don't need or hauling it to a recycling unit that's probably far away from your position (why didn't they put more of those things on each floor...?), wondering how many weapons you can squeeze in, dropping stuff so you can pick up stuff just to vaporize or recycle then pick back up what you dropped...it isn't much fun. I never bought any extra ammo or derms...just saved my money for weapon modkits, which did come in handy.

Cyberspace is a very mixed bag. The Descent-like style is certainly easier to handle but the shooting can go a bit (the lack of a cyberspace time limit seems like an acknowledgement of this) and it feels one-note and barren beyond enemies. In the original, for all its faults, you would still find cool stuff like extra logs or those silly minigames you could play but none of that is kept in this. The lack of saving within cyberspace is also a pain. I probably should have also dropped the cyberspace level to one like the puzzles, considering what a slog the reworked final SHODAN fight is.

About the story, it's essentially the same, which is good, but ever since I played the demo I've never liked the slight reworking of Diego and the hacker's intro. The original is very fast to get you in the action, but the impression is that the hacker is caught hacking TriOp and Diego offers him a deal to get him out of a prison sentence in exchange for a job on Citadel. The hacker is at a disadvantage but it doesn't seem like he needed his arm twisted to take the deal, and Diego is almost chummy in how he observes the hacker work on the job, placing his arm on the back of the chair and such. These are two shady guys making a shady deal with each other in which one or the other is going to screw the other guy. Classic cyberpunk storytelling taking after classic hard-boiled crime fiction.

The remake's take on this involves a lot more violence and coercion. Diego bullies the hacker with a goon squad (where were these guys when the shit started hitting the fan...?) and doesn't even meet the hacker personally. The hacker only does what Diego wants because he's threatened and smacked around. And instead of a real hacking job that turns SHODAN evil as an unexpected side effect, the hacker basically just breaks into a settings menu and switches all the toggles to OFF, like how the killer Krusty doll in the Simpsons Halloween special had his switch set to EVIL. Diego himself is also cast as a more nakedly villainous personality, complete with posh South African accent, rather than the smarmy corporate shit weasel he came off as in the original (e.g., Carter Burke in Aliens). It feels like the remake's creators wanted to counter the moral ambiguity of the original, reducing the hacker's culpability in the Citadel tragedy and shifting everything to Diego. One of the things that hits you in the original is how there truly isn't a good party anywhere. TriOp is bad, Diego is bad, and the hacker is only ever looking out for himself, with the entire game essentially just amounting to a remarkable act of self-preservation that involves saving humanity as a bonus...but of course the whole reason there's a threat at all is because the hacker didn't really give a crap about what he was doing in the first place. This is basically a long-winded way of getting around to saying that I really missed an in-way-over-his-head Diego ranting into his audio logs as his little side-scheme collapses around him. There is no "investigate me, Rebecca! Investigate MY BUTT!!!" in the remake and it's quite a bit poorer for it.

And I wanted to ask someone, since I read the game's page on GOG this morning! It says that mouselook support is added in the Enhanced Edition. That means the mouse isn't used in the included old version of the game?

IIRC, you can use the mouse in the original game, but it's not like modern mouse-look, more like a lot of clicking and dragging on UI elements. I've often said that you feel more like you're controlling a mech than a human being, which became even more appropriate when Terra Nova used a very similar control scheme. The System Shock Enhanced Edition reworks the controls to get you closer to modern WASD/mouselook controls although you still push a button to toggle between the environment and UI. It works pretty well, IMO, especially compared to the original release.

Succubus (Steam)

Gory NSFW first person slasher. Made by the same people as Agony, it's way better than Agony. For what it is it plays really well, looks quite good too. I wouldn't pay full price for it, but on deep sale I got good value from it.

Finished Sonic & Sega All Stars Transformed, well, kind of. You have to earn stars to unlock modifiers and characters but also to unlock sections for the career mode. And it is difficult. It stars quite easy but you quickly have to grind races to earn more stars and unlock the next sections. Wining in normal mode is not enough, you have to win in hard mode to have enough stars for the races near the end. I had to try and try again to earn 120 stars and unlock a section. And now I need to have a total of 165 stars to unlock a character and/or the final race. It started good but I hated that grinding. The previous Sonic & Sega game was more enjoyable.


Full list here

Metro 2033 Redux (Epic)

I've decided to replay the metro trilogy. My previous play through of the first game was the Xbox 360 version. Even on 360 the game looks awesome, though didn't run all that well which made it more difficult. No such problems now as even the Redux version runs easily on pretty much any hardware that is remotely current.

At max settings this game still looks better than most newer games. I used the EGS version because that's what I have- it was a free EGS game way back. The most important thing to enjoying this game is to not play it as a first-person shooter. It's a first-person cinematic survival horror game. Some of the scripted segments that the game drops you into are a pain in the ass to get through and require a few tries. The tradeoff is one of the most atmospheric experiences out there.

This time I made an effort to do good stuff to get the better ending- so I had to curb my natural instincts and only knock people out instead of killing anything that moves. Honestly the good ending is just a little cutscene that makes no difference anyway- since the bad ending is cannon and is what leads into Last Light.

Planescape: Torment (Enhanced Edition)

I decided to play the EE-remake because the original gave me some graphical artifacts at first so instead of trying to fix them, I chose EE as I had it already. I think it was a wise choice because the EE version apparently has some pretty good quality-of-life enhancements (like you can select to get max extra HP in level up, no need to save scum to defeat bad luck; also not sure if the zoom-in effect was in the original either?), and apparently they had also fixed many quest bugs and exploits present in the original.

Overall if left a positive impression on me, but for the reasons I didn't expect. I was expecting to be fascinated by the story, characters and the world (because that is what everyone seems to be praising in PS:T), but I felt they were merely... ok.

Instead, I was impressed how e.g. each party member had its own "system", ie. they were not merely generic fighters or mages or this and that, but e.g. each fighter type seemed to have its own set of weapons (Morte had different kinds of teeth, Dakkodh(sp?) had only one weapon that kept improving with him, Nordom was the only ranged fighter in the game etc.

It felt every party member had their important role, like Annah was the only thief-type for you (unless you wanted to become a thief yourself), Grace was the only cleric option etc.

What I found negative about the game as a RPG was that it didn't make much sense to play as any other class but mage. And, if you didn't pump up your Wisdom (and maybe Intelligence and Charisma), you'd miss a great deal of the game, both story and important dialogue options that would give you massive amounts of experience points. Plus, you couldn't e.g. choose to play as a cleric yourself.

So as an RPG, PS:T was very restrictive IMHO. It just doesn't seem to make much sense to play as any other kind of character but a mage with high WIS/INT/CHA (in that order). You would maybe occasionally change to thief or fighter in order to get some extra experience points, but most of the time you'd play as a mage.

Also, I have to admit I was constantly reading a walkthrough as I was playing the game (where to go next and what to do there etc.), and I am kinda glad I did because I am sure otherwise I would have missed most of the game.

For instance, it would have never occurred to me that you should initiate dialogue with your party members every now and then, as there is lots of experience and extra perks to be had that way (your or your party members stats increasing etc. through mere dialogue), and sometimes it seemed important that you initiated that dialogue in certain parts of the game.

Frankly I don't think I would have ever thought of that, initiating dialogue with my party members every now and then just in case something important can be achieved that way.

Also, I kinda dislike there's so many items in the game with which you don't know if you need them at all, or whether you should keep them after using them once. Like there is certain object that is needed as a "key" in one part of the game, and it isn't apparent that you should keep it with you near the very end of the game as using it at certain specific point of the end-game will suddenly grant you massive 2.000.000 amount of experience points. Without a walkthrough, it would have never occurred to me I should have that item with me at the end, I thought it had already served its purpose.

Similarly, I learned about another item I had acquired earlier, which one person will ask for much later in the game, but only if you have it with you (in your inventory). I learned that too from the walkthrough and remembered I had sold it (them) away to some store to free up inventory space, and now I couldn't find the store anymore where I had sold it, or the item had disappeared with time from that store's inventory.

Also, there were LOTS of items in the game which apparently serve no purpose whatsoever, you can't even sell them. It is like the game is trying to troll the player "should you hoard all this stuff somewhere, just in case it is needed later in the game? Hmmmmmm?".

I personally prefer a RPG would be more frank about which items are important quest items to which you should really hold on, and which are just useless crap you can throw to trash.

Oh one more thing. I wasn't impressed with the music, but then I had high expectations as other Infinity engine games like Baldur's Gate 1-2 and Icewind Dale had such great and unforgettable music. PS:T music was merely... ok, serving its purpose.

Still, it was not a bad experience. I give it 8/10.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena - 4/5

In my mind, I played the first Riddick game recently - but, as it turns out, it was actually 12 years ago. I'm sure my standards have changed over the years. But, I think I'd probably consider the first game to be the better one.

Some parts do feel a little rough; what you can interact with often feels inconsistent and arbitrary, and I can't say I'm the biggest fan of the game's pacing.

And then there's the questionable collectibles. They are all 'bounty cards' that show a picture of a person with a description of the crime they committed. As far as I can tell, they're supposed to be comedic, but a lot of them lack the comedy. They feel like those videos of Ross from Friends with the laugh-track removed (i.e. uncomfortable and/or psychopathic). Example: "Nedrick Veran: wanted for imprisoning two people in his basement for 26 years". Like, there's no joke there. It just feels like something very weird to put in the game as a collectible. They are all optional, though.

The game is overall still pretty good. It kinda makes me wanna rewatch Pitch Black. It's been 25 years since I saw it, and I barely remember anything.

Time makes fools of us all...

Metro Last Light Redux (Epic)

Just like the first game, this time I made an effort to do good stuff so that I could get the moralistic do-gooder ending. I think the second game improves over the first game- it retains the outstanding atmosphere and tones down the BS scripted segments a little bit. This game has more stealth vs human segments and less mutant horde mode survival segments.

It's still a graphical masterpiece, not just for its time, but even now. It came from an era of games where devs had worked out graphics for the current hardware better than ever with games like this, Ryse Son of Rome, 1886: The Order, Mirror's Edge Catalyst- not all great games, but games with great character models and graphics that still rival today's "just turn on ray tracing and use upscaling" era.

Untitled Goose Game. This was a fun little time. It's kind of like a Hitman game, except instead of playing a hitman you're playing a goose bent on terrorizing some quaint villagers. You have little checklists for each area you enter and have to figure out how to cross off those items with only your beak and your honking. If you want to make someone fall down, pull on their shoelaces and then get them to chase you until they go over.

The graphics are simple but effective and the goose is rather realistically animated. My wife said the goose reminded her of our old lovebird in the sense of being really cute but full of attitude. It's not a very long game and I finished most of it in an afternoon and then did the bonus objectives another day.