Twistor
Reko   Helsinki, Southern Finland, Finland
 
 
A gamer-scientist hybrid from Finland, I'm a budding space physicist who's enthusiastic about games. I take a habit of writing reviews of games I finish.

Oh, moar info! :abs_happy:

I started my gaming "career" with Game&Watch and when allowed, playing some stronger stuff like Commander Keen , Wolfenstein 3D and Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure , and later the various classic NES games.

Warcraft II was the first game I ever bought with my pocket money. :Dosh: Little Big Adventure and all original XCOM games from the 90s were my childhood's great juice along with Worms and Mine Bombers and Heroes of Might and Magic series. Dragon Warrior IV was the motivation for me to learn English (please bring the series to Steam!).

Skipping ahead: Longest Journey , Civilization IV and Mass Effect have been the high-points of my adult gaming life (not any longer in the outskirts but in a city with a speedy Internet). Oh, I still find gems every now and then, but I can't consider them integral to myself just yet. Killing Floor needs a special mention being the one we first played (well, it's Awesomenauts now) with my awesome wife. :ghlol:

I also read (mostly sci-fi, fantasy and science stuff) and play pen&paper RPGs. My favourite rules system by far is Rolemaster. [ironcrown.com] :lltqsword:

Here's various other things that I fancy to advertize, however miniscule they seem to a random bystander:

You can also find me on Twitch [www.twitch.com], where I seldomly stream.

Finally, there's my Metagamerscore profile [metagamerscore.com], my Astats profile [astats.astats.nl] and True Steam Achievements profile [truesteamachievements.com], if you care about such things. :starfull: I identify as an achievement hunter.

I no longer trade games, because I wish to know the origin of my games. My gift games are for my friends.
Currently In-Game
Idling to Rule the Gods
Screenshot Showcase
Flux drive (or whatever) in action
16 1
My reviews
My curator page, Twistorian reviews. If you enjoy my reviews, I'd really appreciate it if you joined the group and/or followed the curator.:selphinehappy:

I play a very diverse sorts of games and my aim is to produce a review every time I have either fully completed a game (preferably 100% achievements) or spent a massive amount of time with it.

I try to always provide an insightful review and while I'd like to make it fun and interesting to read, the main purpose is to tell you whether the game is fun or not and what makes it so.

I play both old and new games, and I particularly like platformers , puzzle games and turn-based or slow-paced strategy . I also like to play RPGs but I often fail to review them because I won't reach the end because of them being usually so long.

As an achievement hunter, I often review short or "easy" games (from artsy walking simulators to visual novels ), and in case I have 100% completed the game I make sure to provide an estimate for the gaming time you can expect to get out of the title. In the case of Visual Novels, I won't give a review unless I actually read them (as many have skip-text feature).

Some of my most recent reviews are showcased below.
Review Showcase
1.3 Hours played
Simple but challenging arcade game combined with a bit of math

A novel idea, in Mighty Math, using a numeric counter as the vehicle, you pick up blocks of arithmetic operations of plus or minus a value from 1 to 9.

You lose if you pick up an operation that takes you outside the range of 0-9, but you have to pick up a number of blocks to survive a wave.

Gameplay intensifies

While it's initially rather easy (if you can do these simple operations in your head), it quickly becomes quite challenging as the number of blocks per wave increases and they start to change shape or rotate. This particularly makes it more difficult to distinguish between sixes and nines, and the latter kills if you're not set for it.

Who knew nines could be so dangerous.

Finally, later on the level itself transforms abruptly for a short time, which is disorienting and surprising when it happens for the first time.

There's three "bombs" to clear the field but you need to be careful to be able to pick enough blocks to finish the wave.

UI issues

I played using fullscreen. Here, in the menus the pointer does not quite hit the buttons correctly but seems displaced.

It looks like a mouse game, but this is just the menus. In-game, the cursor is operated by WASD/arrows (or gamepad if you prefer).

What's odd to me is that your score is hidden while playing, and only revealed at the end. Because of this, the scoring scheme was confusing. Finally, I found that it was explained in the separate highscore menu (you gain points for surviving, picking numbers, and the picked numbers themselves). Not a huge problem but I always prefer to know what my score constitutes of.

Cool short game

I tend to like games involving numbers and math so I enjoyed my time with Mighty Math, and I got a decent (read: enough for 100% achievements) highscore in the end, after about 70 minutes of playing.

There are no Steam Leaderboards to show it off though, just the regular screenshot functionality.

Except for the chill and surprisingly enjoyable music track, there's not much more to the game. I'd recommend getting it on sale for a quick snack of casual gaming.

~Twistorian Curator~
Review Showcase
2.9 Hours played
A decent stealth assassin or maybe a puzzle game

The Psychoduck is a remake of the now-removed [/i]Psychoduck[/i], with slightly better graphics and improved UI.

In the game, you are a duck who collects crowns, worn by herons, so the psychotically logical thing to do is to kill them and take their precious belongings. But since herons can fly and they are guarded by frogs, you need to be sneaky about it.

Increasing complexity

First few levels teach you to approach the heron silently ('shift' for sneaky mode) and to avoid the gaze of the frog guards. Running, while faster, will more easily get you caught and lose, restarting a level.

It takes a bit of time to figure out how the sight of the frogs works. They see pretty far towards sides, but only a bit towards north and south. Then, it's often possible to pass a guard at a daring place. In mid-game it often offers a couple of approaches, and as the levels get larger they become more non-linear.

Tutorial screens welcome new mechanics every few levels, including boxes to push, bushes to hide in, a distracting device to lure guards, and some travel and block mechanisms to bolster level design. For full completion, one needs also to be on the look out for snail shells, which are sometimes hidden away from the path. If you miss any, you can always return to find them using a handy level selection screen.

Small annoyances

The line-of-sight of the frog guards caused me two kinds of grievances, one neutral and one frustrating.

First the neutral one: the levels sometimes have enough space for you to sneak riiight past a guard, above or below, in a way that's probably intentional given that there usually was another clear path to success. This way, it's possible to sometimes skip small or occasionally large portions of the level.

The frustrating one is that initially it's hard to know how well the frogs see, causing many level restarts early on. A sight cone like e.g. in the excellent Shadow Tactics games would've been useful for this purpose, though admittedly it would've made the game way easier. Still, this would have fitted the first tutorial levels nicely.

This remake introduced icons to show guards off-screen, a handy feature that I applaud, since in the first version it was easy to walk into a guard without realizing before it was too late.

Just long enough

The game mechanics are exciting only for a couple of levels. Good that the game is only 50 levels long, or it would have needed something more going for it. I think this was pretty much a perfect length for the game.

For me, the completion was about 2h 40min. Price is quite fair, particularly on sale (I got it for €1/-50%), so it's a good enough recommendation for me.

~Twistorian Curator~
Achievement hunting, friends, and other misc. stuff
Achievement hunting

You can see me playing loads of different games, some of them perhaps good but many instead just casual and boring (e.g. clicker games) or plain-out weird (particularly some visual novels). I play all kinds of games (from easy to challenging) but I mostly concentrate on the ones that have achievements.

I seem to have an odd preference for more obscure games though.

Note: My stance on spam achievement games (games that grant you e.g. 5000 achievements for idling or all of them by merely running the game) is strict: I don't play or promote them because they miss the point, devalueing achievement hunting as a hobby.

Any games I complete I try (with varying success, due to my own laziness) to review in a thorough fashion.

Friends' list

Want to be friends? A few things I usually require:

- Have a public profile
- Have a public games' list (so I can see what games we have in common)
- We share some games we commonly like (as seen from the public games' list)

I do like if you give a proper reason for the request, e.g. in my profile comments or popping a greeting and introduction of some sort once you notice I've accepted it (if there's no response, I'll simply unfriend you after a while - feel free to resend the request). Especially if your profile or parts of it are set to private (because bots). Also, if you mostly play CS (any iteration), it's unlikely we'll have much to talk about.

I usually don't trade (hence my inventory's private), though you're free to ask. I have a huge list of game keys though - if you have something I don't, I might be willing to swap keys.

By the way: If you only want to see my reviews in your feed, you could also follow me or my curator instead of friending.

Finally, here's some of my latest showcaseable completions, below
Favorite Group
Achievement Scouts - Public Group
All you need to know.
10,764
Members
416
In-Game
1,724
Online
186
In Chat
Favorite Game
100
Hours played
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Achievements
Favorite Guide
Created by - Twistor
143 ratings
A quick & dirty guide on how to set up a private dedicated server.
Awards Showcase
x25
x2
x2
x1
x7
80
Awards Received
36
Awards Given
Recent Activity
1,641 hrs on record
last played on May 25
57,337 hrs on record
Currently In-Game
74 hrs on record
last played on May 25
oceanicalex Apr 30 @ 12:31am 
I am adding because you are a fellow ascouts member and achievement hunter
西瓜大又圆i Mar 17 @ 5:18am 
Hello friend, have you ever tried the "undetected" achievement of Stargate: Timekeepers again later? I have repeated it multiple times and cannot unlock it
🔥Emperor Pyromancer🔥 Jan 9 @ 6:59pm 
Pix is the system the Brazilian Central Bank created to bring instant payments to life and has been serving as a successful case story to other emerging markets. One year after its creation in November 2020, Pix increased 14,000%, and by January 2022, it was already used by 71% of the population in Brazil.
Ezra Edelstein Dec 31, 2023 @ 5:04pm 
⢠⣶⣿⠿⣿⣶⡄⠄⣠⣶⡿⢿⣷⣄⠄⠄⣴⣾⠿⢿⣷⣄⠄⢀⣴⡾⠄⠄⣿⡀
⢸⡿⠄⠄⢈⣿⣿⠄⣿⡿⠄⠄⢹⣿⡆⠸⣿⠃⠄⠄⣿⣿⠄⢸⣿⡇⠄⠄⣿⠄
⠄⠄⢀⣤⣾⡿⠁⠄⣿⡇⠄⠄⢸⣿⡇⠄⠄⠄⣠⣾⡿⠋⠄⣿⡇⣿⣿⢿⣯⣿⠄
⢀⣴⣿⡿⠃⠄⠄⠄⣿⣧⠄⠄⢸⣿⡇⠄⣠⣾⡿⠋⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⣿⡇
⢸⣿⣿⣶⣶⣶⣶⠄⠙⢿⣷⣶⡿⠟⠄⠸⣿⣿⣶⣶⣶⣶⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⣿

‎‍‍‍‍‍‎ ‏‏‎‎ ♡ ∩_∩
‎‍‍‍‍‍‎ ‏‏‎‎ („• ֊ •„)♡
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‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ Happy New
‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍Year! (・ω<)☆
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🔥Emperor Pyromancer🔥 Dec 23, 2023 @ 8:08pm 
( ( ´︶´¯︶´`´︶︶´★  ^v^  ┊❅  °☆ .   ☆ :. ☆   
  ) )  ⦅‖ ͇͇ ͇͇▃▇͇͇͌⌂͇͇▌.. ★  ☆ .   ★ ^v^  ° ❅  ☆ .   ★ ^v^  ° 
_̅̏̏▅̅̏̏ ╱◥███████╲ ˆ...^v^ ˆˆ︵.︵...^v^︵¸ ❅  °     ╱◥◣  ☆ . * ★ * 
╱◥◣ ◥████◣▓∩▓∩║   :ai_wormhole:𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐘 𝐂𝐇𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐌𝐀𝐒!!!:ai_flare:  │∩ │◥███◣ ╱◥███◣
│╱◥█◣║∩∩∩ ║╲◥███╲              ╱◥◣ ◥████◣▓∩▓│∩
││∩│ ▓ ║∏ 田║▓ 田田 ▓ ∩║ ii--ii--ii ⏃☃⏃ ii--ii--ii--ii │ ╱◥█◣║∩∩∩ ║◥█▓ ▓█
☸๑۩๑๑۩๑๑۩๑๑۩๑๑۩๑๑۩๑๑۩„„„„„„„„☸„„„„„„„☸„„„„„„„☸๑۩๑๑۩๑๑۩๑๑۩๑๑۩๑๑۩๑๑۩
Chris Fifty-Two Oct 7, 2023 @ 1:15pm 
Added you for reasons.