Recent reviews by Captain Meatmug

This has been sitting on my wish list for a while but not as long as games usually.

I've played Beneath a Steel Sky back in the day and again later when it was released for free. For some reason I thought this would honor the old point&click adventure games. The story was OK and there were references to Beneath a Steel Sky and it helps a bit if you know the story but it is in no way a prerequisite. There weren't many twists in the plot and it sort of felt like the game spoiled the story by revealing a bit too much before it actually happened, so you kinda knew already what was going to happen next. The game is like the one friend who has already seen the film and for the love of all that's holy, can't keep his/her mouth shut. Still I wanted to return to the game to unfold the whole story. Based on the trailers, I though I wouldn't like the graphics, but I actually ended up enjoying the sort of Borderlands type of look of the game.

The UI is hugely simplified version on the classic point&click style and there isn't much to choose from. The usual interactions are look and use. Main focus being on the scanner-hacking device thing that is used to do most of the "puzzles" in the game. You can use the scanner to alter the source code of tech stuff. You can for example change door locks to open on unauthorized interaction etc. There is also some item collection action but not much and there isn't much innovative use of objects: you use them as they were intended. Not very point&clicky.

If the UI was simplified, so is the essence of genre: the puzzles. I can safely say that I have never encountered so blatantly obvious puzzles and if the puzzles weren't obvious enough, by checking and talking a bit you were practically told the solution. There was one "harder" scanner puzzle where you needed to transfer one action from one device to another and it involved transferring it through multiple devices to get it where it needed to go. And one where you needed to use certain actions in certain order. But by trial and error they were quite easily solvable and it was quite clear what was required. Usually the hints are subtle but in this game you were at times told EXACTLY what you need to do in order to advance. This was more like an interactive story than actual game. If this was any more obvious and simplified, the game would've had only play button to show next cut scene.

If it wasn't enough that you were given overly simple "puzzles", you didn't have any choice where you could go next. First you are in this setting and you need to do this in order to advance. After that there is no need to ever in a million years to go back ever. Most times you can't, even if for some reason unbeknownst to the rest of the world you wanted to. Linear wouldn't be enough. Finnish people call this type of games with a term "putkijuoksu" which translates to "pipe run". It is used to describe the lack of possibilities to affect the path of the game and the selections or "selections" are an illusion and everything is scripted. I.E. there's a pipe, you run in it. You get to the other end. Roll the credits.

For hardcore adventure game fans, probably a "no". For laid back adventure action that continues a story from the good old days (tm), a solid 'yes'.

Again one of those games that I didn't get to play back in the oldern days. I still remember reading reviews from a game magazine over and over again and wishing that I'd get to play this game. It took a good 25 years, but I got to play this game.

These games feel familiar (in a good way) but are also very different. It's like reading books. You know how they work and how they look like, but the inside is a unique experience every time. This game had all the basic ingredients of a wonderful adventure: humor, interesting story and insanely hard puzzles.

Unlike other similar games, there was one part that had a sort of action part or reaction minigame. When you moved from one place to another, you drove your Corley and needed to take an exit at the right time. And also fight baddies. Or maybe it was only in one place in the dessert.

There's something that draws me to these "One man in a quest to save <Insert a thing that needs saving>". My make the world right -instincts kick in when I plow through thses games taking names and making a difference.

Story. Nostalgy. Tim Schafer. Mark Hamill. 5/5

A friend of mine introduced this game somewhere in the 90's. I did remember most places but didn't have recollection of what to do. The UI is different to other games of that era. It's the ultimate point and click interface: you interact with points of interest by clicking them. No need to "Pick up", "Talk to", "Use", "Wear" or "Push". You don't end up with an inventory full of weird items. You have only one item: a magical staff that plays different notes. By doing correct stuff, you unlock more notes. By looking (clicking) things you unlock melodies that you can use later: for example "Open". By playing melodies backwards, you will get opposite reaction, so Open becomes Close.

Unlike other adventure point and clicks, this game is quite straight forward. Only once I had to go back to do something before I could proceed, but that was only because I had missed something quite obvious. This is more like an interactive story than a game, but the unique interface was something that I was fascinated by back in the day. That was one of the reasons that I got back to playing this. This game isn't particularly long or too hard either, but still sometimes when you come up with a solution, you'll still get the "A-HA!" reaction. There isn't anything else to explore that the obvious storyline, but then again this wasn't or isn't your everyday adventure game.

The story is fascinating and the game begins with quite immense cutscene explaining the deal. The game had voiced dialogues which, at the time, were not common at all. You expected that with every game there on, but were disappointed too often.

Totally different UI, story and voiced dialogues raised this high back in the day. Add nostalgy-effect today and you'll be enjoying your time with this game.

I usually enjoy these nostalgia trips and Wings! Remastered Edition is no exception. As a pure "Take me back to the good old days" type of pastime Wings! Remastered Edition delivers, but I'd say you need to have played the OG version to get the kicks out of this.

I'm a late bloomer when it comes to this retro remaster and haven't had time to play this through yet (I'm at ~66% atm.), but I'm updating my review when I finish the game.

The game has three types of missions: Strafing, Bombing and Dog fights.

Strafing
These are diagonally-scrolling shooting missions where you destroy certain land targets using your planes machine guns. Usually a convoy of trucks, a train (and every car) or military. As some others have already pointed out, there is one key difference compared to the original version: you can't move "back". In the old version, if you missed a target, you could still move back to shoot it, but in this version the scrolling is so fast that the best you can do is stay still. It's hard to explain but when you play it, you'll understand :).

These missions aren't too hard. So far I have only failed on the ones where you have to shoot military. This is due to the reason I tried to explain. It's is impossible to move from top of the screen to the bottom (or vice versa) in time to shoot enough military, so mostly you end up staying on one or the other and sometimes you still can't shoot enough. Sometimes those little buggers hide in the craters and you can't shoot them no matter what. I seem to remember that in the old version they were a bit harder to shoot, but in this they are nearly impossible with some rare exceptions.

AA-guns throw a little something to the mix, but they are easy enough to avoid so they really don't cause any trouble.

Bombing
These are top down missions where you need to bomb different targets on the ground. Picture of target(s) is shown before mission. There are also secondary targets just for fun. When you advance far enough, you will encounter enemy planes that fly from the top of the screen either straight or diagonally and try to shoot you. These you can shoot down with your machine guns.

I think there is also some issues related to the scrolling speed and when you for some reason miss a target, it's quite hard to have time to drop another one on it. At least if you need to bomb more than one target in the same area. Sometimes it seemed that the bomb hit the target, but it wasn't accepted. Some secondary targets were also out of bounds and I couldn't move the plane far enough to be able to even hit them.

For some reason the controls in the bombing missions got laggy at some point. I needed to press movement keys for quite some time before any actual movement happened. This made aiming quite hard at times. AA-guns were there again and with the laggy controls they actually managed to shoot me down once or twice.

Dog fights
I remember that back in the day these missions were the hardest ones and I usually didn't do very well. In this version these are the missions I ended up enjoying the most. In the beginning they are quite easy and I usually end up killing every or almost every opponent by myself. AI is there to act as a human shield or Cannon Fodder (which also is a great game btw.). Sometimes they get shot down and on rare occasions manage to actually shoot someone. When you get further along you end up flying solo against 7 enemy planes, which was too much to handle. Luckily there's an achievement for bringing your plane down.

There are few different types of dog fight missions but in the end they are more or less the same.
Balloon busting is where you shoot enemy zeppelins. Sometimes there are also planes you can shoot down first or just go for the balloons to end the mission. In my opinion, there wasn't much sense or fun in the ones where there weren't any enemy planes. There were again the AA-guns that could randomly hit you but I think it has occurred only once.
Then there were the protect your this or that -missions. I think it was either a bomber or a balloon. I'm not sure if the enemy AI was deliberately going for the bomber/balloon or not but they haven't been able to shoot it yet so I'm willing to bet they are just aiming for random target or the ones shooting at them.

Again, as few others have pointed out, the silent movie type of entries before the missions don't reflect the actual situation. Text might say the enemies were above us, but actually no, they were in front of us, just as they are in every mission. Original version had varying spawn points and that was one difference that made it much harder. Another thing was that this remaster has "Targets" -setting that helps identify targets. I'm not certain if the OG had it or not, I don't remember using it though. You needed to watch the pilots head turn and try to determine where the targets are and if that plane you shot down was in fact Waldo B. Barnstormer.

I remember back in the old days friendly fire was a issue, because friendly AI would shoot enemies even if you were in the line of fire. They still shoot, but I'm not sure if they can still shoot you down though.

For advanced nostalgia mode, you can turn on the original music. Sadly though, you can't turn on the original graphics. I haven't paid a lot of attention to the story, I just try to waltz through it and enjoy the fast in fast out type of gameplay.

Some bugs are still present and I think that the developers have cashed out and abandoned this since last update is from around 2014 I think. For me they haven't been deal breakers but annoying none the less.

Thumbs up for nostalgia and for those who have listened the rumbling of the Amiga disk drive. For others this might be a dive to the deep end. Not straight thumbs down but somewhere in the middle.

This game has been sitting on my wishlist for a while now and I finally bought it. I never played it when it first game out but I still remember one friend of mine praising it at the time. I have played the classic point and click adventures in the Good Old Days(tm) and I enjoy them so in the end this was a no brainer.

My main concern was graphics and how it has stood the test of time, but luckily the graphics were "good enough" so to speak. I kinda reflected it back to other games of the same era and as an "old" gamer, those games were my first "Wow, that's some awesome looking game right there!" -games so I was satisfied.

The game took me to a nostalgy trip with the witty conversations and mind boggling puzzles. I've read some people say that some or even all of the puzzles in this game were too difficult or even impossible. If you have played these games before, you know that yes, most of the puzzles are impossible, but that's the fun (or maybe frustrating) part. I had to resort to walkthrough only a couple of times which I'm not proud of. You need to try everything in these games and when I say everything I mean EVERYTHING, no matter how vague of far fetched it may seem. In the end all the puzzles made sense in some weird way and there was always some clue either in the dialogue or just laying around for you to look at or try out.

I think that the seamingly 3D environment made controlling Manny a bit difficult and sometimes I couldn't get where I wanted to go on the first try.. or second. The game also crashed two times, but other than that I have nothing negative to say about Grim Fandango. I paid less than €5 for the game but maybe the normal €15 is a teeny bit too much.

Nonetheless Grim Fandango took me to a firm nostalgy grip and didn't let go until the credits rolled. Maybe I even felt something at the end. Definetely worth it and made me want to play some more classic adventures.

Thought this could be fun.. was completely mistaken. I don't know how I managed to play this as long as I did (0.5hrs). Horrible game, not worth a single dollar.

Quite nice and also quite addictive game. Easy to get into but mastering it will take a while. There's your clichés.

Pros: Drifting (of course) plus you can quickly play a game or two or enjoy hours of frustrating sliding while honing your driving/score to perfection. Simplistic graphics work, it kinda reminds me of Mirrors Edge. I'm not sure but I think there's a little difference between vehicles. Quite alike but for a game like this, different enough.

Cons: Too few achievements: you need something more to draw you back day after day. Countdown before the race starts. Great idea, but it's very fast paced game and you end up restarting the race quite a few times when you're trying to beat your friends score. Three seconds is a long wait, too long. Should be: click restart, BOOM! GO! Also you should be able to change car without having to quit the race.
Other than that, I enjoyed this very much, thank you!

Tulee pari euroa rekkakorttia halvemmaksi eikä tarvitse lähteä pihalle kytkemään hydrauliikkaletkuja 30 asteen pakkasessa. Moninpeli lisää tenhoa huomattavasti.