I finished Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on the DSi
I’ve started D&D: Pool of Radiance after seeing SKALD as that gave me the same vibe as seeing advertisements for Pool of Radiance (and some others in that series) way back on the C64. (Though in hindsight the screenshots were probably from the Amiga or Atari ST versions). Anyway, SKALD is on my wish list, but as I have all the other gold box SSI games (and then some) in my GoG library, it’ll take a while before I get there.
Please report! I’m still not sure if I should buy the gold box SSI games. I haven’t played them back then but I consider to catch up now someday in the future.
I’ve been playing Cyberpunk 2077. It’s a rather huge game. The graphics are very nice and the gameplay is mostly interesting.
I was on the fence about those for a while, too, and in the end decided not to bother. One thing that irks me about D&D, and I assume it’s part of the gold box games as well, is the way magic works: if I have to memorize a spell before casting, but don’t know what kind of encounter will be next, I’ll never be prepared unless I take a peek, reload, and then do my buffs and offensive spells accordingly. Plus, I guess these old games are rather heavy on combat and light on story …
But yeah, @Sushi, please do share your experience. I’d be happy to be proven wrong 
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After having finished RtMI several months ago, I have been playing Sonic Mania. It is very nostalgic to me, because I used to play the early Sonic games during my childhood. What a great homage it pays! I hardly get to continue it, though, because I do not have much time. And even though I am almost at the ending (it’s the next-to-last level), my motivation has decreased a bit since I have been stuck somewhere. This might change, if I manage to make progress again. Overall, I really have enjoyed this game and would recommend it to anyone interested.
Thanks for the recommendation, I just bought it… I like to play through Sonic 1-3 occasionally, so this looks like a nice addition.
I have been playing it with my children. The younger one is a Sonic fan. We are having fun so far, but I believe we are only 1/3 into the game.
So apparently it took me about a year to continue into the actual game. Overall it was an enjoyable riff on Ace Attorney. Presumably mainly due to budget or time constraints it wasn’t without its shortcomings. The game was rather easy and a lot of the characters were a bit shallow, but that didn’t keep me from enjoying it.
There’s another AA-inspired title coming up, Paper Perjury: Paper Perjury - Paper Cat games -A detective mystery game inspired by the Ace Attorney series (Demo on steam) : Games
Played Kaptain Brawe.
Well, my memory wasn’t quite correct. The Kickstarter was for part 2. What I just played was part 1, which originally released in 2011. Though like a lot of 2D games, it doesn’t really show its age.
All in all, it’s a fairly short game, with 4 chapters set in 3 different locations. There aren’t a lot of rooms in each location, and not a lot of items and NPCs. I played in “Adventure mode”, and that felt casual. I wouldn’t want to try the actual casual mode. There are 3 playable characters, and portions of the game where you can switch between them at will, but they rarely interact with each other for the purpose of puzzle solving. Still, I was glad not being stuck as the Kaptain for the whole time.
He and his crew member come across a bit like Zapp Brannigan and Kif, which could have been fun, except what you do as the player and how the game portrays the character are pretty much at odds. There’s some fitting dialogue, but all the problem solving makes the Kaptain appear pretty kompetent after all. Bit of a missed opportunity here.
The thing I liked best was the voice acting. While not all the actors perform great, each character has a distinct accent, and at least with the English voices that felt quite fitting. Some of the writing was funny as well, but it wasn’t very consistent. Props for the robot named Rowboat.
All in all a game that doesn’t really live up to its full potential. In hindsight, it might have been more fulfilling to rewatch a couple episodes of Futurama instead.
I finished Sam & Max 304 (alley of the dolls) and (some weeks ago, but forgot to report) Ron’s ssitvtdtuss:AMMTPRPG
Scurvy Scallywags in The Voyage to Discover the Ultimate Sea Shanty: A Musical Match-3 Pirate RPG
I collected all outfits, ships and sea shanties, defeated the final boss in a really hard level with all the pre-bosses stacked up together but a major pushover in the end.
Too bad getting the last sea shanty removes the MMmmmh mMmmh one which had a nice instrumental score.
I guess it is a game you could keep on playing, but I fear it will feel a lot more repetitive without new “story missions” and I don’t care for the achievements.
As for D&D: Pools of Radiance, I haven’t progressed a lot at all. I cheated in the tavern and got my level 1 party wiped out by the constables before I could even stock up on weapons and armour and stuff.
The same thing happened when I took some randomly generated party outside the town you start in and got slaughtered by a group of goblins.
I fear I’ll need to read the manual, but that is (almost) as bulky as the tabletop game. I also started that recently as DM, at least I can bend the dice rolls a bit there to keep things fun and moving.
Just the other night I listened to the Pools of Radiance episode of the Stay Forever podcast. (The show’s in German, unfortunately). It’s basically two old game journalists talking about old games, and Pool of Radiance was regarded quite favorably by both. So I guess that means don’t give up, don’t mess with the wrong enemies and save early and often!
This won’t come as a surprise, but their biggest gripe was the D&D spell memorization system, which means some fights will be tough or unwinnable unless you look what’s coming, then reload and prepare accordingly.
Is that one iPhone/ iPad only?
That is cheating though… and not sure if effective with all the random encounters. Those are especially annoying when you have bandaged most of your party, then while resting to memorise some healing spell, your party gets attacked again. I have not figured out yet how long you need to rest to memorise spells, but it seems any interruption resets the process. Taking a lot of shorter rests won’t help either.
And god forbid you would try to make camp in town. The city guard will come and say you need to leave. If you don’t follow their orders, they attack your band of 6 with a troop of 40+ high level fighters, bowmen, magic users etc.
And here I thought that the town of Phlan was happy to see some brave adventurers to save them from some orcs and monsters in the slumps of town? Just wait until I am at level 20 or so… I’ll be back to wipe out that town guard on every occasion I get.
One nice experience I had was taking a boat to a castle nearby, getting attacked by a bunch of zombies and skeletons and turning them all in one go with my priest. On a next similar encounter the zombies weren’t turned and it was game-over. I think it is this randomness and high dependency on luck (dice rolls) rather than strategy (which was the same in both encounters), is what I dislike most about that game.
I’m afraid so. It used to be on Android in the play store, but not anymore. You might still find the APK, but that might just be some trojan.
I just finished Killer Frequency, a pretty cool concept where you play a radio host while the town is being stalked by a serial killer. Currently available on Humble Bundle alongside a few other games. In the end I wasn’t able to save 3 people. I liked it.
And how many can you save? Is it possible to save all?
Er, 20 or something? And yes, you should be able to save the 3 I failed. I didn’t count the 2 (?) opening victims that you’re merely told about who are dead no matter what.
Oh, how many times I had listened to that tape! With my eyes shut, I imagined every scene. Glad there’s a digital version now.
Welcome back @ZakPhoenixMcKracken! 
What did you do in the last 10 month? 
Well, I had a kind of… peace of mind. I believe that after David and Annie Fox’s visit to Italy in 2023, a void was filled, which made my existence fulfilling. I no longer felt the need to … play video games!
Now it’s back, and I’m here again!
Just finished replaying a couple of time-travelling classics…
Day of the Tentacle
I’ve replayed this a few times over the years, and while it’s still in my top 10, it goes down just a bit each time I replay it. In contrast, MI1 and MI2 go up in my estimation each time I revisit them, especially if I’ve just played other PnC games.
I think a lot of it with DOTT is that the setting is quite restrictive, even though you go to three different time periods, it’s all in the one mansion, so we never quite get the fun exploration of a Monkey Island or a Fate of Atlantis. Great humour and clever puzzles though.
Space Quest 4
This was one of the games I played most as a kid and it’ll probably always be in my top 5 because of the atmospheric locations, the clever concept, and the humour.
However, this is the first time I’ve replayed it since I was kid, because I’ve always remembered the frustration of it as well.
It’s still just as frustrating replaying it now, mainly because Roger bumbles along and is kind of unresponsive and awkward to move. Which might be ok if it weren’t for so many puzzles requiring him to avoid things with limited time.
As well as the usual Sierra dead-ends it’s also very linear, things only really open up a bit when you get the mall.
It’s a shame that this (and some of the other Sierra classics) weren’t designed by LucasArts, as it makes them tough to revisit.
Still love this game though.