Things are moving pretty smoothly so far, as I reached a bit over 50% last night according to the in-game progress tracker. I know it includes secrets and that I don’t need 100% to finish the game but that’s the most specific metric I’ve got so…

I’m quite happy with the game overall. I did start to notice some things I’m not a huge fan of but they’re not enough to make we want to quit or even degrade my experience in a significant way. The main annoying element are probably the constantly respawning flying enemies - I know they are a staple of the series at this point and they aren’t difficult to deal with but that doesn’t make them any more enjoyable (especially when they try to block your climbing routes in certain rooms).

Still, game is more fun than I expected it to be before starting so that’s good.

Ahh, another instance of a rare point-and-click adventure game. I played this one years ago and I’m pretty sure I even managed to complete it back then but I wasn’t certain and that’s not good enough. Because of this I decided to go through the game once again to make sure that yes, I did in fact play through the whole thing - it wasn’t easy.

For those unfamiliar, Jack Orlando is a game about a private detective in 1933 America (something they really commit to with the writing, character prejudices etc). On his way home from a night of drinking Jack stumbles upon a murder, gets knocked out at the scene and ends up being the main suspect. Due to his status as a hero cop and years of friendship with the police chief, he get 48 hours to clear his name and find the real culprit - that’s where the player steps in.

So yeah, I said I didn’t remember much about the game, right? Boy was it true. I thought I remembered some bits and pieces from my old playthrough but besides the very beginning of the game everything else turned out to be a complete fabrication on my part. I’m actually shocked how wrong I was about the whole thing.
That said, while my faulty memory is one thing, there are some completely out there sections I would’ve never guessed they were from this title. Did you know prohibition era America had medieval-fantasy-like catacombs with an indoor fountain and automated, Indiana Jones style mechanisms in the middle of the city? Yeah.

My lack of experience with adventure games really shined here but even if I wasn’t THIS bad at the genre, the strict and often extremely weird progress requirements, mixed with a ton of junk items strewn everywhere meant I would never finish this without a guide. A straightforward game this ain’t.

Presentation is pretty good. We have nice looking backgrounds and smoothly animated characters (even if I’m not a huge fan of the art style used for them). Voice acting is pretty solid for the most part, except for some really bad accents here and there.
Music is also great though it can get a bit grating after one too many loops. That’s probably just me though, as I have a hard time listening to saxophone and similar instruments for long stretches of time. Not great position to be in when playing a noir detective story.

I can’t say it was my favourite point-and-click played so far but it was enjoyable enough. I’d just like to know where my completely fake memories came from…

I have no attachment or personal feelings towards the Castlevania series. I appreciate these games from a historical perspective but I never really spent much time with them outside of playing Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow for a few hours as a kid (it was a pretty random purchase at the time).
I’ve been eyeing a bunch of various older (mostly 2D) games recently and decided to buy Castlevania Advance Collection to finally give the series a proper try - it was on sale and fit the criteria so why not?

I was a bit worried about getting into Castlevania as many of the games (especially the early ones) look like they wouldn’t really be up my alley in terms of gameplay and controls. That may as well be true, as I said, I never really played the series, but going with the Advance Collection turned out to be a good choice - even if I needed a moment to get used to how to play “properly”.
While I’m still in the middle of my playthrough, I can safely say that Circle of the Moon is pretty great. It plays amazingly well, looks and sounds fantastic - it’s a genuinely fun title and that’s not always a given when going back to old classics.

It might be one of my favourite “new” titles I’ve tried this year. I can’t wait to get back to it.

This is my… second attempt at playing this, I think? This time with a more “no pressure” attitude though it didn’t help much to be honest.

Game runs and looks beautifully on the Deck - stable performance, no technical issues (except for a single crash), great image quality. Can’t say I’m a fan of the art style (stylised LEGO blocks mixed with more “realistic” environments) but I don’t hate it enough to make it a problem.
Gameplay and story presentation on the other hand… I’m not gonna lie, this title puts me to sleep (literally). Both elements are well made but they also feel extremely flavourless and plain. “Inoffensive”, maybe? I somehow managed to finish year 1 and have zero desire to go back for now - I might have to try playing it in chunks instead of normally.

It’s not a bad game but it’s sooooo boring - enough so to make me wish I was playing the old Harry Potter and The Sorcerers Stone instead.

Ah Rayman… it’s a series I like even though, if I think about it, I didn’t really play much of it. I played Rayman 2 as a kid but only finished it a few years ago, tried (but never finished) 3 a bunch of times, spent some time with Jungle Run and dabbed a tiny bit with Origins - suffice to say, my attachment is more emotional or memory based rather than having to do with my actual experience with this franchise. It’s weird.

For years, Rayman 3 has become something of a “cool game I want to go back to and finally complete”. Well, I did just that.

I initially tried to play with the “Better Rayman 3” mod but something about its widescreen fix broke both the pre-rendered cutscenes and UI so I opted into using Ray3Fix and playing in 4:3 instead. It worked well enough though I can’t say it was worth it.

R3 is a pure downgrade from the second game. Camera control is more finicky, constantly shifting between full control, static placement and a weird in-between with partial control. It’s also physically constrained by the level geometry which makes it feel even more stiff and constricting, especially in smaller environments (which there are quite a few of). I’m genuinely not sure there’s another game where I fought the camera this much, even though I’m pretty sure R2 had a very similar system (it’s been a while since I played that one but I know it wasn’t this painful).
Gameplay feels worse than R2, with enemy lock-on often aiming at a completely different enemy (or even direction) than you intend to, unimaginative level design and pretty boring enemies (including bosses). It’s not all bad (there are some decent sections here and there) but it’s not enough to elevate the experience into something enjoyable. Finally, there’s writing. Oh boy, the writing. It leans way bit too much into the snarky and edgy “attitude” era as if it was afraid to commit to itself and play things straight. This makes it feel very dated and, in my case, difficult to sit through. After finishing the whole thing I can’t say it was worth it.

It’s a mediocre title and a bad sequel, I’m glad I can scratch it off my backlog but I won’t be coming back.