2019: the catch-up post

Merry Christmas!!! I've got a touch of time over the holiday period so I'm going to try and cover all the games I've played in 2019 but missed on the blog, starting with: Beyond DivinityRelease date:              2004 Purchase date:           17 June 2018 Complete date: …

Bits of Backlog – Eye of the Beholder I and II

The Eye of the Beholder games were, apparently, a clone of Dungeon Master with a D&D licence slapped on.  They're part of a brief 90s craze of combining first-person mazecrawling RPGs with real-time combat; that's what Legends of Grimrock is harking back to. The fad didn't last too long until being replaced with the ubiquitous isometric …

Bits of backlog – Opus: Rocket of Whispers

[Another of my short pieces in the "bits of Backlog" series] I've sat on writing about this game for a long time, because I couldn't decide what to write about it. Opus: Rocket of Whispers is a smartphone game.  Mechanically it's "search the maze for missing pieces then return before time runs out".  Imagine Pikmin …

Bits of Backlog: Hillsfar – Pirates! in the Forgotten Realms

[Welcome to the second of my "bit of backlog" format, where I'm much shorter than my usual 2000 word musings.] When I decided to play the sequel to Pool of Radiance, there were two games I could have chosen - Curse of the Azure Bonds (which I did choose) and Hillsfar.  They both came out …

Bits of Backlog – Dr Mario World and how to touchscreen

It happened - the blog has fallen woefully behind.  The reasons are the usual ones: less time for gaming, less time for writing, etc.  So I've decided to change format - less 2000 word full-blown reviews, and more "I'm playing this" type posts. So I give you - Dr Mario World. Dr Mario World is …

Quest for Glory III: The Wages of War is Worse

I once saw an interview with Josh Mandel, a great adventure game designer who worked at Sierra during its heyday. Most Sierra games (like Quest for Glory 1 and 2) used the old "text parser" interface, leftover from the text adventure games.  I had always wondered why Sierra stuck with this old interface for so …

Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon

You are Tex Murphy. A 30s private eye in an 80s cyberpunk novel. One day while searching for the next inventive excuse to keep the landlord at bay for another week, a dame walks into your office. That means trouble at the best of times, but this broad had the unholy trifecta – she was …

Divine Divinity – problems with an “open world”

Another month, another game off the list.  This time it's Divine Divinity - another 80hrs+ RPG - my backlog would be so much easier if I played something else.  It's from 2002 so it's comparatively recent compared to my usual fare, closest to Wizardry 8 (which came out in 2001). Do I recommend it?  Yes.  …

A Better Look – the man in the iron mask

The following post is in response to a writing challenge from Matthew of Normal Happenings.  The challenge was "What is a work of art...that you liked when you were younger, but enjoy even more now in the light of additional knowledge and experience?". I grew up with Ned Kelly.  He was hanging in the lounge …

Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics – neither cold nor hot

(The following review is also posted on The Well Red Mage) Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics reminded me of some truly great games – the elegant rebooted XCom, the engaging storytelling of Shadowrun: Dragonfall and the intricate design of 2018’s Battletech.  With each turn, I thought of those games more and more, until with one fateful turn …