STG's

Quantum Conundrum is a physics puzzle game. It really reminds me of Portal, which is the biggest mainstream example of the genre. I've heard complaints about how little of a story there is in the game, and it is fair to say so. You are a 10 years old kid who was dropped in your scientist uncle manor. Something happened and your uncle is trapped somewhere, and you use a device that controls dimensions around you to solve puzzles and keep advancing. Objects and dimensions can have less or more mass, slow motion or reverse gravity. That leads to many puzzles, starting with using the "less mass" dimension - fluffy - to move safes into places or destroy glasses with them. Overall, interesting puzzles and tones, but a bit boring so far. I'll update this as I play more.

Tiny and Big: Grandpa Leftovers is an indie 3D platformer. It is quite unusual, both in the sense of the theme - you are chasing your big brother who stole the magical pants that your grandpa left you - and in the heavy physics gameplay. You have three pieces of equipment - a laser cutter that can cut through anything, a grapple that allows you to pull objects, and a rocket launcher that allows you to push objects. You can also push objects of almost any size yourself. Those tools are mostly used to cut ramps and pillars, and move them into place to move around. Occasionally you also use the laser to drop wherever Big is on top of. Along the way you can collect stones and music tapes, which add to the music you can choose while playing. Overall, very unusual, and nice graphics, and I mostly like it. It does get a bit repetitive towards the end. You can buy it on Steam or GOG

I really love the new GOG downloader (not sure how new it is - it is the first time I've noticed it). It is not in the same league as Steam, but it is still much better than it used to be. The part I liked the most is that it can download the bonus items for a game (which can easily be in the 6-10 range) in a single click. Speed so far has been great - very near 100% of my 20 Mbps connection. I wasn't sure if I should buy a new game (Tiny and Big) there or on Steam - i.e. DRM-free or automatic downloads and updates. So far I'm satisfied that I choose GOG.

I have recently reviewed Infinity Blade II . After playing for a while I was curious to check out the original game. It is almost exactly like the sequel, except for the keys (which are mostly annoying), gems (which quite frankly I'm not sure are necessary). There is a little difference that I found a major improvement, however - in the middle of the battles, on both games you have little cut-scenes at certain damage levels on your enemies. Then they jump back, fall back, or just fall. In the first game, it doesn't matter if you just started hitting - the cut-scene starts. That  means that instead of getting in 4-6 hits and a combo, you get a tiny amount of damage. That is quite annoying, and it was fixed on Infinity Blade II. Overall, pretty good, albeit quite repetitive. The system whereas you keep beginning again (in the first game, you are supposed to be the son of the last warrior who died, continuously. Why you get all his stuff AND experience? No idea) is a great ...

Spec Ops: The Line is a squad 3rd-person view shooter. It is very much like all of them - you have to take cover and kill enemies, and can order your squad mates around a bit, such as killing specific enemies and in special occasions, using flash-bang grenades. The story is a bit unusual - apparently Dubai was lost in a massive sand storm, and your squad was sent to help a group of US soldiers that lost contact while trying to lead a mass move from the city. When your squad arrives, it soon has to fight some guerrilla fighters, although the story implies that you will fight pretty much everyone eventually. The first sequence in the demo is an helicopter rail shooter, which looks great, although it does stretch the imagination a bit - you kill something like a dozen choppers. At least they blow in cute ways, such as hitting cranes, buildings and more. The rest of the battle is pretty standard, as I mentioned. The game seems to be a bit stingy with ammo, and there are a bunch of di...

Plutonic Repulse is an unusual interpretation of the tower defense game genre. You actually have to defend yourself by "nurturing" (looks more like bribing) certain other entities to defense yourself. While the graphics are acceptable, the sounds and music tend to be annoying, and I didn't find the gameplay fun at all. Not recommended.

Atooms to Moolecules is a chemical puzzles game. Atoms drop off the top of the screen, and you drag and drop to combine them in the required molecules. It is not as simple as it may seem, since to get the bonds right you need to combine them in specific orders. I can imagine it as mildly useful on a chemistry class setting, but as a game, it just feels really annoying to me. The graphics are really old school but acceptable, and the music is incredibly annoying. But it really is the gameplay that I don't like.