Py

Forward March

To start if off, my last present from blaeo Xmas!

Half-Life 2

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

7/10
95.6 hours
43 of 78 achievements

So I'm not going to explain to anyone what the witcher is. If you don't know, I guess you've been living under a rock.
The game is good in terms of story. Every secondary quest is the same core (hunt monster, kill monster), but I still didn't find them repetitive because of the different wrappings.
It's a pretty good game. I mean I did sink almost 100 hours in it. But it as some big flaw and I'm going to list them here:

  • Over leveling: If you go exploring a bit, you become over leveled way to fast. I did most of the 1st and second zone. And once I reached the 3rd/4th, I had to hurry up along the quests in order to avoid having too many quests that were way below my level. As a result, I almost didn't explore the 4th zone outside of what's needed.
  • Leveling: So the leveling system is pretty underwhelming. You end up having to put a bunch of points in skills you don't need to unlock skills that interest you. And the most important part about leveling is that it's needed for some gear, the skill are mostly passives
  • Crafting: It's almost useless. You can just craft your witcher gear sets, improve them when you reach the needed level and call it a day.
  • (Not so)Fast travel: Crafting stations and stash are often not located really close to a travel point, so you have to fast travel close by, waste 1/2 minutes walking there, 1/2 minutes walking back then fast travel again.
    Oh and also Roach is freaking dumb and sometimes stops in the middle of a road. Also he can't jump.

And then some games I got in a bundle.

Half-Life 2

Unlock The King

6/10
1.6 hours
10 of 10 achievements

A quick 3 game series (the bundle had the 1, 2 and 3) puzzle game that uses chess pieces. It gets a bit complicated when you have to start thinking with portals.
A thing that annoyed me a bit, were the part where they added height that just made the puzzle more complicated because it hampered your vision, not because the logic became harder.

Half-Life 2

Warstone TD

7/10
14.8 hours
85 of 123 achievements
  • Lore / Story : Classic med fan world. You are the humans against a troll army.
  • Game mechanics : As the name would suggest, it's a Tower Defense game. It has all the classical aspect of TD (build tower, upgrade towers, unlock more powerful towers when progressing in the campaign, cast some spells here and there).
    One interesting thing is that it does include all the kind of TD maps. You have some where you put your tower wherever and create your own maze, others with limited place where you can put them. And among those, you even have some where you have to handle attacking and defending at the same time.
    You also level up as time goes on, and you have plenty of choice in term of skill tree. You can focus on towers, spell, economy and anything in between.
  • Difficulty / Length : the game is not overly difficult. I made all the missions in the 3rd difficulty mode out of 4. It tends to be a bit grindy toward the end
  • Conclusion : As far as TD game goes, it's really good. Just the right level of difficulty and not too overbearing in term of tower type while still offering a lot of viable game-play alternatives (either in term of towers or skill build). Warning for achievment hunters, getting all of them seems to be really a grind (not going to try to get them all personally). Also you need DLC to get them all

Along the way I also got some DLC for XCOM2. As I had already done the base game, I’m just gonna do a quick review of DLC

Half-Life 2

XCOM 2

127.7 hours
58 of 88 achievements
  • WoTC: The big one. Adds a lot of good content (soldier bonds, chosen, covert ops, 3 new soldier classes, fatigue mechanism...). Makes the early game a bit harder and the late game easier.
  • Alien Hunter: Adds 3 new unique enemy that are totally OP. Also adds a lot of OP equipment. I think I'll disable it if I ever replay the campaign. The enemy are not fun to play against. And the OP equipment is too good (while it makes you dispatch resources on it, it's still way better)
  • Shen's last gift: Adds the spark unit. Interesting new class that allow for a bit more variety in team comp. Strong, but not overly so.
  • WoTC Tactical legacy: Add some content that's mainly outside of the campaign. Operations that are 7 maps, in iron man. Perfect for me because I can't bring myself to do a real campaign in iron man
Zelrune

I really want to play The Witcher 3 but I need to finished the second one first, but before that, my SG wins.
I did cheat and play a bit of it a while ago. I miss it.
Congratulations on your assassinations!

Py

Yeah you definitely need to finish the 2 if you started it and you enjoy the story. It starts after the event of the 2, and depending upon your actions in the two you might encounter some people (or not).