The last few games you beat and rate them 5

[Unholy Diver]

Atomfall - 6.5/10

The potential was there for the game to be much more or much better, but in the end it was so-so, good setting and potential storyline, but the execution was a bit lacking.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Super Toy Cars - 7/10
I was looking for something short and casual after finishing FF7... I had this game in my Steam library for I have no idea how long. I was in the mood for an arcade racer and this one fit the bill. It's not amazing or anything but the cars control well and the tracks are fun. It also has a cool level editor that's easy to use. This isn't a game I'd recommend you rush and buy right now but it's cheap when on sale and if you're in the mood for an arcade racer you can 100% in about 6 hours, this is a solid one.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour - 9/10
I only briefly played Duke Nukem 3D when I was a kid and it first came out and I remember enjoying it but I was too busy playing Doom or eventually Half-Life and its mods instead, I never really came around to playing Duke Nukem as a kid even though I remember enjoying it.

Well here I am almost 30 years later to finally play it! What an absolute blast! The shooting is what you'd expect from a boomer shooter, crude humor that'll make you laugh, and fun guns to mess around with. It was really fun going through this piece of gaming history for the first time in full.

The level design all around was great but my only complaint about the game is some of the buttons are really hard to notice either where they are to press or what they even do. There was a couple times where I had to refer to a video guide because I would see a button and couldn't figure out what it did even after running around for a couple minutes. There's also a weird button puzzle that can be found through several levels that doesn't seem to have any hints or solutions nearby, you just have to press a series of buttons through trial and error until you happen to solve it.

Duke Nukem is a great game and after Duke Nukem Forever really ruined the franchise, it's a shame we probably won't see another one. At least this gem will exist forever!

 

[Osprey]

Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour - 9/10
I only briefly played Duke Nukem 3D when I was a kid and it first came out and I remember enjoying it but I was too busy playing Doom or eventually Half-Life and its mods instead, I never really came around to playing Duke Nukem as a kid even though I remember enjoying it.

Well here I am almost 30 years later to finally play it! What an absolute blast! The shooting is what you'd expect from a boomer shooter, crude humor that'll make you laugh, and fun guns to mess around with. It was really fun going through this piece of gaming history for the first time in full.

The level design all around was great but my only complaint about the game is some of the buttons are really hard to notice either where they are to press or what they even do. There was a couple times where I had to refer to a video guide because I would see a button and couldn't figure out what it did even after running around for a couple minutes. There's also a weird button puzzle that can be found through several levels that doesn't seem to have any hints or solutions nearby, you just have to press a series of buttons through trial and error until you happen to solve it.

Duke Nukem is a great game and after Duke Nukem Forever really ruined the franchise, it's a shame we probably won't see another one. At least this gem will exist forever!

FYI, the 20th Anniversary version omits three expansion packs that the Megaton Edition from 3 years earlier did include. Rumor is that the publisher never got the licensing rights for the expansion packs, so the Megaton Edition was pulled from shelves and digital stores and the 20th Anniversary edition that lacked them was sold in its place. So, if you want more Duke Nukem 3D, look around for the Megaton Edition.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

Avowed - 8.5/10

Enjoyed the story, felt it dragged a little bit though. Ended strong. What made this game great for me was the combat, exploration and side missions. Shame they didn’t have NG+.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Wavetale - 6/10

Wavetale is basically one of those "game as an art" kind of games. The world is pretty interesting, the story's nice, it has some colorful visuals, nice music, nice voice acting, etc.

That being said, it's advertised as a platformer and it's a weak one at that. The jumping is serviceable and none of the climbing sections are particularly fun. Later in the game, the camera twists around when you least expect it and it causes you to miss a jump. The combat is super basic and never develops beyond run at enemy and spam attack. There's only 3 different types of enemies and they're all very simple to deal with.

Wavetale isn't particularly a bad game but I don't think it's a particularly good game either and for that reason I have a hard time recommending it.

 

[SimGrindcore]

Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour - 9/10
I only briefly played Duke Nukem 3D when I was a kid and it first came out and I remember enjoying it but I was too busy playing Doom or eventually Half-Life and its mods instead, I never really came around to playing Duke Nukem as a kid even though I remember enjoying it.

Well here I am almost 30 years later to finally play it! What an absolute blast! The shooting is what you'd expect from a boomer shooter, crude humor that'll make you laugh, and fun guns to mess around with. It was really fun going through this piece of gaming history for the first time in full.

The level design all around was great but my only complaint about the game is some of the buttons are really hard to notice either where they are to press or what they even do. There was a couple times where I had to refer to a video guide because I would see a button and couldn't figure out what it did even after running around for a couple minutes. There's also a weird button puzzle that can be found through several levels that doesn't seem to have any hints or solutions nearby, you just have to press a series of buttons through trial and error until you happen to solve it.

Duke Nukem is a great game and after Duke Nukem Forever really ruined the franchise, it's a shame we probably won't see another one. At least this gem will exist forever!

I bought it last week and reading this makes me wanna play this game ASAP!

 

[Frankie Spankie]

New Star GP - 9/10

This is seriously one of the most fun racing games I've played in years. The racing mechanics feel great and the whole thing oozes retro arcade charm. There's even a pretty deep career mode where you can upgrade your car, build a team working on your car, there's even a fun rivalry system.

There are a lot of tracks and most races will also have a couple bonus races beyond the tournament of perhaps a fastest lap, checkpoint, elimination, etc. I had a blast going through and getting gold in every event in the career. The game took me about 21 hours to 100% and perfect.

My only complaint is the collision physics can be wonky at times. The AI doesn't care when you're looking to pass them and especially at the start line will make erratic movements. Sometimes you barely tap a car and your car goes flying in the air. It can be frustrating when it happens but the collisions are usually your fault anyway. Overall, the game is great. If you want an arcade racer, you need to pick this up. I can't believe this is only $10.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

63 Days - 8.5/10
I really enjoyed War Mongrels and knew I would eventually hop into 63 Days. I'm glad I did! There are only 6 missions in this one but they're all significantly larger. They'll probably take you 2.5-3 hours each. I highly recommend checking out War Mongrels before this one and if you already played War Mongrels, you know what you're getting into here.

This is a stealth tactics game where you control a small group of rebels in Poland as you kill Nazis all over the place. The story is pretty interesting although brief as almost all of your time in game is strictly focused on game play with minimal cutscenes between missions. The game play is great and as you'd expect for a stealth tactics game. If you liked War Mongrels, pick this up. If you liked Mimimi games, pick this up. The main difference between Destructive Creations and Mimimi is DC games are realistic with no super powers of any kind and sometimes for the sake of story at the end of a mission, they force you into combat. If you have trouble with the combat, you can take the time to go through the map and killing everyone individually to essentially skip any forced combat sections. It's a nice option to have though for when there's only a small group of enemies left and it's too hard to perfectly time stealthily killing all of them, you can just take them all out with guns pretty quickly, just don't take on a large group because you will die.

 

[flyersnorth]

Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour - 9/10
I only briefly played Duke Nukem 3D when I was a kid and it first came out and I remember enjoying it but I was too busy playing Doom or eventually Half-Life and its mods instead, I never really came around to playing Duke Nukem as a kid even though I remember enjoying it.

Well here I am almost 30 years later to finally play it! What an absolute blast! The shooting is what you'd expect from a boomer shooter, crude humor that'll make you laugh, and fun guns to mess around with. It was really fun going through this piece of gaming history for the first time in full.

The level design all around was great but my only complaint about the game is some of the buttons are really hard to notice either where they are to press or what they even do. There was a couple times where I had to refer to a video guide because I would see a button and couldn't figure out what it did even after running around for a couple minutes. There's also a weird button puzzle that can be found through several levels that doesn't seem to have any hints or solutions nearby, you just have to press a series of buttons through trial and error until you happen to solve it.

Duke Nukem is a great game and after Duke Nukem Forever really ruined the franchise, it's a shame we probably won't see another one. At least this gem will exist forever!

What are you? Some sort of scum-sucking, bottom-feeding algae eater?

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Cryptmaster - 8/10
I love these kinds of super unique games. This controls like an old school grid based dungeon crawler. The aesthetic is dark and rather creepy. That being said, the game play is word based and about solving riddles/puzzles using words. The game recognizes a surprising amount of words with voice lines. The voice acting is actually great as well.

The combat is very interesting. Each character has a memory/ability that slowly fills up with letters on the bottom of the screen as you defeat enemies and solve riddles. This is essentially how you level up, type in all those memories/abilities. Sometimes you'll get one with just a couple letters and other times you'll need pretty much every letter to figure it out and feel like an idiot for not seeing it sooner.

The music is surprisingly great and there are a lot of laughs to be had despite the dark/creepy aesthetic. It was really fun fighting enemies to try to learn new abilities by the letters you would unlock. Honestly, there's nothing like this game out there. It's a mix of several different genres and screenshots will make you think it's something entirely different from even descriptions of the game. There's a demo to try, I highly recommend it because this is a game that absolutely deserves your time.

 

[flyersnorth]

Kingdom Come Deliverance, 9/10

Just finished it last night - one of the best games I've ever played. Now on to KCD2!

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Turok - 8/10

I remember the Turok games being pretty popular on N64 when I was a kid but I never had an N64 so I never played any of them. I finally get my opportunity almost 30 years later on PC and it was really fun! The jumping feels a little wonky which makes the platforming sections feel a bit like a chore. When you land from a jump, you lose all your momentum for a second. Moving itself on the ground feels great though with just the right amount of speed.

The guns are fun and feel refreshing to alternate between them while the enemies are a cool mix of humans, dinosaurs, and cyborgs. The level design is really good as well. My main issue with the game though is the keys to unlock each stage. Most of them are in open areas that you'll naturally progress through but some of them are fairly well hidden and it can make looking for them a bit of a chore since they're usually down a cliff you wouldn't think to look down or through an underwater cavern. I found myself referring to a guide a few times because I just couldn't find them.

If the keys weren't hidden like that, I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more but it was still a really fun ride through a classic shooter. I definitely recommend it if you're looking to shoot up some dinos!

 

[Osprey]

Turok - 8/10

I remember the Turok games being pretty popular on N64 when I was a kid but I never had an N64 so I never played any of them. I finally get my opportunity almost 30 years later on PC and it was really fun!

They were also on PC almost 30 years ago. I remember playing them a little, but not being particularly impressed in comparison to Quake, Unreal and Half-Life.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

They were also on PC almost 30 years ago. I remember playing them a little, but not being particularly impressed in comparison to Quake, Unreal and Half-Life.

Huh, I don't remember them on PC but I was also mostly playing Half Life and the mods or freeware through most of my youth on PC while splitting time with consoles. Regardless, the new versions run great. I know they really upped the draw distance.

Arcade Moonlander - 7/10
This is a really simple retro style arcade game about controlling a space ship to land on small stations on the moon. You have a thruster and have to turn your ship and use the thruster to avoid making any contact. The game starts to ramp up difficulty around level 7 but once you start getting the hang of it, the rest of the levels aren't too difficult. I 100%ed it in a bit over an hour by optimizing the grinding achievements. It's short and sweet and highly enjoyable for what it is!

 

[RandV]

They were also on PC almost 30 years ago. I remember playing them a little, but not being particularly impressed in comparison to Quake, Unreal and Half-Life.

It may have been released on PC at the same time but Turok was more console focused and probably shouldn't be compared to PC games of the era. For a console game it was a prototype FPS and pretty good for its time. One interesting aspect is that save points were few and far between that were more intended to let you take a break, you had 'lives', and if you ran out it was game over. Resources were quite limited and if you did poorly and/or didn't explore enough and ran out of ammo/health you could be screwed. So basically while a FPS it had that old school console 'game over, start over and do better next time' game play. Doesn't sound good now but for the time made for some tense gameplay. Personally I never owned it but picking it up from time to time as a rental it was a pretty intimidating and hard game to play, though I recall the last time I rented it in the 90's I just used cheat codes so I could play through to the end.

Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire was 3rd person but another game that fit a similar mould on the N64. Early primitive 3D game with some tie backs to old 8/16bit games. Both included 'platforming' where if you fell you died and lost a life, and could expect a lot of game over screens.

 

[Unholy Diver]

Bioshock 10/10 - Rapture just always feels like home, my goto game whenever I'm in a gaming rut, even all these years later

 

[Osprey]

It may have been released on PC at the same time but Turok was more console focused and probably shouldn't be compared to PC games of the era. For a console game it was a prototype FPS and pretty good for its time. One interesting aspect is that save points were few and far between that were more intended to let you take a break, you had 'lives', and if you ran out it was game over. Resources were quite limited and if you did poorly and/or didn't explore enough and ran out of ammo/health you could be screwed. So basically while a FPS it had that old school console 'game over, start over and do better next time' game play. Doesn't sound good now but for the time made for some tense gameplay. Personally I never owned it but picking it up from time to time as a rental it was a pretty intimidating and hard game to play, though I recall the last time I rented it in the 90's I just used cheat codes so I could play through to the end.

Yeah, I know that it was originally a console game, but being ported to PC invited comparison with other FPSes on PC. That's just the way it is. You can only compare to what you know and like.