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Since the last post, I’ve been a bit busy, completing two extremely short games. Well, for the most part, they feel like tech demos more than anything, but they’re in my Steam library, and now I’ve been able to put them in my “Completed” category.

Half Life 2: Lost Coast

This really, literally is a tech demo. To be more precise, it’s a tech demo for using HDR in the source engine. I played through it with commentary on and cleared it in under half an hour. There really is nothing to it. They explain a bit on how they design games, what technology is involved and that’s it. You kill a few enemies, fight a helicopter and get invited to dinner by a fisherman.

Lume Screenshot

Lume is a beautiful game, but it’s much too short.

Lume

This one isn’t a tech demo, calling itself a full-fledged game, but it sure feels like a tech demo. It’s a pretty, but extremely short adventure game. You play as a girl who visits her inventor grandfather. Unfortunately, he had to go to the nearby village to fix their power generator, so while you wait for him, you have to fix the generator at his house. That’s it, nothing else to the game. It was fun, but it was short, taking me about 40 minutes to complete. Still, my backlog is getting smaller. It’s still huge, but it’s getting smaller.

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It took me ten hours of playing in total, but today, I finally managed to complete the last stage and end the game. I have no idea what compelled me to play this utterly dull and not at all engaging game, but I did it, and now I can play something else.

Faerie Solitaire - In Game

I had to run the game one last time to get an actual game screenshot.

With the game over, I’ve collected 26 out of 30 achievements in total. Getting the last four doesn’t really sound like a fun activity, though:The last few levels weren’t any different than the previous levels. I think that’s my main issue with the game. Past the first few levels, there is absolutely nothing new that happens. It’s just a single, monotonous activity you do from start to end. The pets could’ve been something to help with this, but they do nothing to the game. They’re basically just stamps you collect. If only each pet had something like a passive bonus to you as a player, it would all be so much more engaging.

  • Elite Skills: Complete all challenges.
  • Hatch’em All: Collect the baby form of each pet.
  • Millionaire: Earn $1,000,000.
  • All Grown Up: Collect each pet’s adult form.

Elite Skills is doable. The challenge levels seem only slightly harder than the later adventure levels. The only real difficulty is filling the purple bar in less than 1 minute on each level. It’s not impossible, but it requires luck. Then again, pretty much anything in this game requires luck. Millionaire is close enough already. I’d probably get it by the time I get Elite Skills, since I’m already at around $800,000 right now.

Faerie Solitaire - Endinge

The game ends with a cliffhanger, since a sequel is planned.

Hatch’em All and All Grown Up are the annoying achievements. The way I understand it, you get eggs at random when you clear a single column of cards, just like with gold and materials. Throughout my ten hours of playing, I didn’t even get half of them. As far as I know, there is no faster way to get them, meaning I’d probably have to play for at least as much as I did already. In addition to that, for a pet to evolve, you have to play long enough with that pet set as active. This means even more time is needed, and nothing else other than the time.

Suffice to say, there is no chance in hell I’m doing this.

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Faerie Solitaire is not a very fun game, but for some reason, I feel compelled to complete it. I’ve already put close to ten hours into it and I’m slowly reaching the end. Today, I managed to complete stage 7, meaning there’s only one last stage left.

Faerie Solitaire - Cut Scene

The game has good narration, but the story isn’t very compelling.

As for the achievements, I got a bunch of them, but some of the ones I haven’t unlocked yet seem to be even more grindy. One of them actually requires me to get all the pets and evolve them. The pet’s drop at random, so it takes nothing but time to get them, and they evolve after a set amount of time spent playing the game, meaning even more of a time requirement.

Basically, I don’t think I’ll be completing those. Still, I could try the challenges, at least, and skip the time hogs.

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Yes, I did it. I “won” Faerie Solitaire on SteamGifts.com a while ago, but never got around to even installing it. I say “won” because it was a special 25.000 copy giveaway, meaning anyone who entered got it.

What’s there to say? Fairy Solitaire is a game, a solitaire game. Well, it’s not really a solitaire game. It’s a card game that kind of works like solitaire, except you don’t organize your cards in stack by color. Instead, you just chain combos of cards in a sequence. The longer the sequence you manage to create, the more points you get. There’s also a story through all this. You use these combos to free captured fairies, because you are their chosen champion, a protector of magical creatures. You also earn money through combos, which lets you buy upgrades. Finally, you can find magical pets throughout your journey. You can then train them and evolve them, but they don’t really do anything, other than being there, in your collection.

Faerie Solitaire - Pet Screen

The pets you can collect and evolve are just that – collectibles. They serve no other function.

I’m not gonna go to 100% though. No way am I doing that.Faerie Solitaire consists of several stages, each stage of a couple of levels, and each level of a bunch of “hands”. Each of these hands is basically a single, simple solitaire game. In my short time of playing it, I managed to complete the first stage, get to the second level of the second stage, find and evolve two pets and waste far more time than expected. I’m thinking I’ll probably complete this game, since it isn’t to annoying and seems to be a good time waster.

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I’ve wasted a couple of hours on Port Royale again. I got another captain to a high enough experience level to do automatic trading and sent him with a convoy to trade in the large central area of the Caribbean. After a couple of rounds, he was bringing in about 1000 gold per day, so he’ll be a nice addition to my income. I also have a different captain working the small trade route between the two towns I have properties in. This one is bringing in about 500 a day, so not as much, put still quite nice.

Port Royale 2 - Town View

This is yesterday’s, because I keep forgetting to take screenshots.

I also tried my luck with the first scenario that isn’t a tutorial, but I failed in a very epic fashion, meaning I still have a lot to learn about the game. Still, I’m getting there.Thanks to all this, some warehouse management and investing, I got up to around 400 thousand or so, and I’m growing at an insane rate. I already have a nice wood industry going, a bunch of wheat and cotton plantations, several residential buildings and I’ve just built a cloth factory. My plan is to keep getting building permits in locations around my base of operations and focus on further increasing my passive income, so I can stop trading with my primary convoy, and start doing other fun stuff in the Caribbean.

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I bought Port Royale 2 way back in the last Christmas sale on Steam, if I remember correctly. I never really got around playing it, though the reason for that escapes me. It’s a fun Caribbean trade/pirate game, not too simple, but also not to complex. You trade goods, fight sea battles, build up or conquer towns and fight in wars as a buccaneer.

Today, I played through the tutorial scenarios, and even managed to lose the last one, so that leaves four more scenarios to finish. The game isn’t really about finishing scenarios, though. The “Free Play” mode is where Port Royale shines. You start out in a town of your choice, with a small ship, a building permit and 30.000 in cash and you get to build your trade empire or pirate fleet, whatever you prefer.

Port Royale 2 - Town

You can also buy out and improve towns to get ahead. I threw a feast in my home town here.

After completing the tutorials, this is exactly what I did. I started the free play mode and played for a couple of hours. I got one of my captains to four experience and sent him to do trading on his own, bought another ship and hired another captain, built a bunch of farms and houses in the starting town and traded up to a couple of hundred thousand. My plans are to get more captains on auto-trading, increase my passive profits and eventually build a fleet big enough to start some fighting.

I’ll probably play some more tonight.

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As I thought, the game is short. The five levels I could see on the level select screen are all the levels A.R.E.S. offers. After my post last night, I’ve spent some time upgrading my weapons on one of the earlier levels and this morning, I cleared all that was left. I think I’ve cleared the game in under 3 hours.

A.R.E.S. - Boss Screenshot

The game boasts excellent 2.5 D graphics. This is the fourth boss.

All in all, it’s a very fun game which any fan of the Megaman franchise will absolutely love.  I know I did, but my backlog is still huge, so I’m moving on to another game for now.A.R.E.S. is a short game, then. That’s not all it has to offer, though. Megaman style games are all about mastery, and the achievements you can unlock in A.R.E.S. show this. Other than the basic “Clear the game” and “Watch all the cut scenes” milestones, you have some pretty tough achievements such as “Kill the boss without getting hit”, or “Clear the level without dying/using repair kits”. I’ll keep the game on my hard drive for now, because I wan’t to at least try to give a shot at some of those, but in all honesty, I’m not sure if I have the skill to get all of them.

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I got this game ages ago, in one of the first bundles out there, I believe. Games have been coming and going, but this one never got its turn, even though I assumed I’d like it, from what I heard of it. Today, I finally installed and played it.

I like it. It’s obviously a Megaman clone, but it plays a bit differently. First of all, you can buy upgrades for your weapons, making it more like one of the GameBoy Advance Megaman Zero games. Secondly, while it still very much relies on learning enemy and boss patterns to get ahead; it also relies on fast reflexes and a large amount of rapid shooting, reminding me somewhat of games like Contra.

A.R.E.S - Prototype Suit

You get new weapons and gear as you progress, allowing you to go buck and find more items and secrets.

All in all, it’s a decent game I intend to complete soon. The controls take a bit of getting used to, because they feel very stiff and precise, with very little slack. Once you do get used to it, though, you can do wonders.The looks are nice to, mostly hand drawn with some tiled level elements. The characters seem to be animated puppet style, with static parts moving on a simple skeleton. It’s easier to make than full animation, but it looks very effective and the drawings are very sharp.

I played through the first two missions and then returned to the first one in order to unlock a couple of bonuses. You get a grade after completing a mission and if you get good enough grades overall, you actually get stat bonuses. I’ve collected a couple of upgrades and bough the final level of the Laser SMG weapon, which made the third level much easier, allowing me to complete it.

From what I can tell, there’s only five levels in the game total, but you are encouraged to go back to previous and use acquired abilities to find new items, upgrades and secrets. I’m not sure how long it will take me to complete it, but it looks like a game that might make me aim for 100% completion. We’ll see.

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After beating Eufloria, I decided to continue my winning streak and try my luck with beating Toki Tori. It took me a while, and plenty of those puzzles made my head hurt, but I managed to complete all the normal levels, which the game counts as me completing it. Of course, there’s a whole bunch of extra hard and bonus levels I have yet to even try, but the game is small, so it can remain on my hard drive for when the mood strikes.It turns out, there’s only four normal worlds in the campaign. The fifth world, called Test Lab, consists of only  three levels made especially for the Valve Portal 2 ARG. These three levels weren’t too hard, compared to Bubble Barrage and Stinky Swamp, so I managed to beat those right after I beat the game.

Toki Tori Collapsing Bridge

The bridge here collapses, so the game isn’t over yet.

It’s a fun game with  plenty of challenge left in it, so puzzle lovers will get an honest recommendation from me. It’s time to try something else, but this game will go on my “Beat 100%” imaginary list.

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It took a lengthy session to complete this game, but I did it, just a few minutes ago.

The third world was called Outer Colonies, and it wasn’t too hard. As far as I can remember at this time, I only had to restart one level. Overall, it was mostly a world with typical conquer-all levels. The fourth world, Deep Space, was a lot more creative, with a level where you couldn’t build anything and one where you had to run from the enemy until you could increase your numbers enough to beat him. Due to these special levels, it was also a fast world, with the longest mission taking me 21 minutes to beat. In comparison, level 14 of the Outer Colonies, called Liberation, took me over an hour.

The final world, also had a few creative levels, but most ended with me conquering everything. Naturally, the very final level, The Centre Cannot Hold, was the hardest. I probably restarted it a dozen times before finally beating it. I’m not even sure how I did it in the end, since I didn’t change my strategy much compared to previous attempts.

Eufloria, Final Level

The final level had a dark theme.

Now that the game is won, I have access to bonus modes, but I really don’t feel like playing those. I got a total of 9 out of 18 achievements, and from the description, I think I could unlock a few more with relative ease, but I don’t feel the game is good enough to spend more time than necessary. It’s fun and relaxing, definitely beautiful, but nothing to deep. If I had a tablet, it’d probably have a permanent place on it, but there’s to many games in my backlog not to move on.The gist of it was to capture another large asteroid right at the start and then slowly conquer an area closer to the edge, since being at the centre would mean all the opponents would focus on me. Once I got out of their way, they mostly kept busy killing each other, keeping their numbers relatively small and allowing me to pick them off one by one. Once I got one of the two huge asteroids, I could launch assaults more easily and the game was pretty much won.