[PS4] Catherine: Full Body (2019)

How:
Wanted more after finishing the first Catherine, got it on PSN during sales.
Endings:
- I got the Rin true ending.
- I got to Rapunzel stage 22.
Pros:
- Sympathetic and likable characters
- Cool setting and overall style
- A very good challenge with clever puzzles
- Tons of level variations with high replay value, including the new blocks and Remix mode
Cons:
- A bit too silly in the finale

[PC] Fallout Shelter (2015)

How:
Was randomly browsing Microsoft Store free games.
Notes:
I didn't finish all available quests, but I'm basically unbeatable. I got 3 Mr. Handy's, almost all dwellers at max level, all available rooms, multiple dwellers on missions, all recipes.
Pros:
- Can get pretty addictive
- Nice post-apocalyptic setting
- Many customization possibilities for characters and vault
Cons:
- Almost no music at all
- Too much based on waiting
- Gets very repetitive after a while
- Enemies can get very tough if leveling is done the wrong way
- Unclear effect of endurance and level on game difficulty

Got Bottle & Cappy in a limited time quest.

[PC] DoomRL 0.9.9.7 (2013)

How:
Don't remember, probably found after playing NetHack.
Pros:
- Very accessible for roguelike newbies, the complexity can be explored gradually
- Very replayable, provides several challenges and achievements
- Great atmosphere
- Winning is not close to impossible, unlike many other roguelikes
- Allows for quick sessions
Cons:
- Music is too much intense and distracting

One of my winning characters in the Angel of Berserk (melee-only) challenge.

My PC as of April 2018. Won a total of 3 games (2 easy, 1 medium).

[Amiga] Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (1992)

How:
Played the PC (CD) version but never finished it, finally got to play it again with ScummVM amazing support for Amiga files.
Endings:
Out of the three possible paths, I finished the game in the "collaboration" mode (with Sophia), both bad and good ending.
Pros:
- Multiple ways to solve puzzles and multiple game modes increase the game's longevity noticeably
- Excellent graphics, animations, and fitting music
- Marvelous, immersive sense of adventure
- Just the right amount of comedy one would expect from an Indy movie
- Likable, well outlined characters with custom animations
- Nice, well-balanced puzzles
Cons:
- No sound effects in the Amiga version

In an attempt to make Sophia run away from the cage, I managed to trap a crab inside with her.

My final score after finishing it the first time on Team mode.

[PC] Portal 2 (2011)

How:
Got it together with the first episode in a Portal bundle sale on Steam.
Pros:
- Excellent gameplay and very well balanced puzzles
- Cool untold story that slowly unfolds, additional details can be grasped by doing more things (e.g. save a turret from incineration)
- Awesome graphics full of nice touches
- Excellent writing, dialogues and voiceovers
- Amazing environments and overall mood
- Great music
- Much more lengthy than the first episode
- All gimmicks (portals, light bridges, propulsion gel, etc.) come with a cool, "musical" sound effect
- The story continues with an awesome, lengthy co-op

Cons:
- I didn't like the colored gels too much, too many puzzles with them
- Some glitches

A hidden portrait of Cave Johnson and Caroline.

[PSP] Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (2009)

How:
Heard about it in Japan.
Ending:
I did not play the epilogue part (a few more hours worth of gameplay).
Note:
Press Start during battles to make them considerably quicker. Without this feature, the game is an absolute pain to play.
Pros:
- Cool blend of isometric goodness and first-person dungeon crawling
- A LOT of cool monsters with funny moves and animations
- Handy auto-fight
- Very nice character graphics and animations for the different skills of all personas
- Every monster and every persona has a rationale/story behind it. For example, the くちさけおんな monster actually comes from an urban legend and behaves as the legend tells.
Cons:
- Background music is an annoying collection of distracting and out of place songs. Totally spoiled the cool mood from the original game.
- Most of the personas you create cannot be "equipped" because of level requirements, which is too high for at least the first half of the game.
- Fights can be trivially easy or frustratingly difficult even with the same exact monsters. Charmers can charm you forever, and infinite looping situations can and will take place unexpectedly.
- Too many demon combinations and too many persona skills make the game content overwhelmingly complex.
- Clichéd, unlikable playing characters (the hip-hop type, the bully, etc.).
- Very high encounter rate and repetitive gameplay.
- The game overstays its welcome by a large margin.

[Android] Layton Brothers: Mystery Room (2012)

How:
Heard about it on Adventuregamers.com. Found the demo on the Play Store and bought the game after playing the first two episodes.
Pros:
- Great, colorful graphics
- The 3D sections are simple yet very consistent and well integrated with the rest of the game
- Quirky characters
- Fun and addictive gameplay
- Nice background story
- Cool turn of events near the end
Cons:
- Apparently there is no penalty for making mistakes
- One long episode is suddenly interrupted specifically by the end of the second (purchased) episode package
- Pop-up messages are there until the very last episode
- Puzzles are often given away by excessive talk and hints
- Correct answers given at the wrong time are considered wrong
- Title is completely misleading

[PC] Portal (2007)

How:
Knew about it since HL2, got on Steam with a daily sale.
Pros:
- Immersive and addictive gameplay
- Amazing atmosphere
- Surprising turn of events near the end
- Excellent voice work and amusing script
- Cool puzzle mechanics
Cons:
- Graphics are a bit monotonous
- Music is a bit lacking

[PC] Hamlet (2010)

How:
Read about it on Adventuregamers.com, got with the Bundle in a Box (Capsule Computers indie bundle).
Pros:
- Nice, colorful graphics
- Boss fights
- Some clever puzzles
- Fun setting and story
Cons:
- Extremely short
- Sold as a "classic adventure game"
- A couple of puzzles require quick reflexes

[Amiga] Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

How:
Played on the Amiga as a kid, never finished it because the game crashed in the catacombs. Eventually found it again in my Gamebase Amiga collection.
Endgame:
Actually I didn't manage to complete the game since I couldn't identify the correct grail to pick at the end (tried all of them --should have read a certain message in the catacombs in order to be able to finish the game). Obviously didn't feel like going through the maze sequences again to properly finish the game.
Pros:
- The game introduces the Talk verb and dialogue trees for the first time
- Very good graphics (only 16 colors!)
- Smooth animations
- Very good puzzles
- Cool, adventurous settings
Cons:
- Character interaction feels a bit rushed (especially between Indy and Elsa Schneider)
- The game follows the movie a bit too closely
- Terribly annoying maze sequences, especially in the zeppelin
- Very frustrating and repetitive dialogue puzzles, the only way to solve them is via trial-and-error
- Mediocre music
- Fights are annoying, useless and basically unwinnable
- The game starts very well, but completely changes for the worst after the catacombs
- I've never used the Load game feature so much in any other game before
- Dead-ends

[PC] Back to the Future: The Game - Episodes 1-5 (2010)

How:
Read about it on Adventuregamers.com, bought the series during a Steam sale.
Pros:
- Very nice in-game animations
- Excellent voice acting
- Great writing, dialogue and characters
- Well-balanced puzzles overall, with some fun semi-arcade parts
- Some very good humour
- Compelling story and nice setting
Cons:
- Occasional graphics, sound, gameplay and camera glitches break the game flow
- Facial animations are of alternating quality
- Music, sound effects and voice overs are out of balance
- The movement mechanism is sometimes annoying and rather buggy
- Feels a bit isolating at times
- The built-in hint system gets too much in the way (can be disabled though)

[PC] Mystery Legends: Beauty and the Beast (2011)

How:
Read about it possibly on Adventuregamers.com forums, tried the demo and enjoyed it immediately (purchased from BigFishGames).
Pros:
- Excellent voice acting
- Superb graphics and animations, totally on another level with respect to any other HOG/light adventure I've ever played
- Nice puzzles and hidden object scenes
- Some light arcade sequences (e.g. playing darts)
- Backtracking is not painful at all
- Overall very enjoyable light adventuring with well integrated hidden object elements
Cons:
- Some hidden object scenes are used many times

[PC] Dark Parables: Rise of the Snow Queen (2011)

How:
Played the demo from BigFishGames after reading about it somewhere (possibly just browsing through the website after playing some Mystery Case Files episode).
Pros:
- Very nice in-game animations
- Voice acting
- Abundance of cut-scenes
- Generally better graphic quality with respect to previous episodes
- Story is somewhat interesting and connecting to previous episodes
Cons:
- Quality of cut-scenes is very inconsistent and generally mediocre
- Very similar to previous episodes of the series, with the usual arbitrary collection of medallions, shields and goblets to collect, statues to activate, and doors to open
- Graphics quality feels heterogeneous (e.g. some items are evidently re-painted photos, some characters are cartoony while others are more realistic)
- The children sound way too mature for their age (having a little child scream "Help, detective!" is quite unnatural)
- Very little variety in puzzles
- Voice-overs,  although abundant, are generally mediocre

[PC] Dark Parables: The Exiled Prince (2011)

How:
Tried the demo and liked it, bought it right away on BigFishGames.com, together with other two episodes.
Pros:
- Neat graphics
- Good pace and well integrated cutscenes
Cons:
- Heavy on the HOG side
- Overabundance of inventory items and collectables (jars, tiaras, potions, etc)
- A lot of backtracking
- Boring and repetitive music

[PC] Dark Parables: Curse of Briar Rose (2010)

How:
Tried the demo of the second episode on BigFishGames website, liked it and bought the whole series.
Pros:
- Beautiful graphics, fitting music
- Some amount of non-linearity
Cons:
- Adventuring elements are limited to very repetitive inventory puzzles, the rest is pure HOG
- Shallow storytelling
- Lots of backtracking
- The diary gives away some puzzles
- The puzzles per se are trivial, one specific puzzle appears at least three times (place colored balls on colored tile)
- Only a few events, no character interaction (starts with the princess appearing, to never see her again) 

[FC] ゲゲゲの鬼太郎 妖怪大魔境 (1986)

How:
Explicitly looked for Kitaro-based games for the FC, out of an interest for the manga series.
Pros:
- Some nice gameplay elements (e.g. the lit-the-candle levels)
- It's always nice to see the usual monsters from Japanese folklore in a game, including those coming from Kitaro's world (e.g. ねずみ男)
Cons:
- There is no proper ending as the game levels repeat after 8 world maps
- Very repetitive gameplay
- Some levels can get frustratingly difficult
- No introduction, no story, no plot, no ending
- Couldn't understand how to use the "special weapons" (the three monster icons appearing in the bottom part of the interface) during boss fights

[Browser] Rizzoli & Isles - The Boston Butcher (2012)

How:
After playing the first episode I was actually on the lookout for a second one. Eventually came up in Adventuregamers.com monthly free adventures feature.

Pros:
- Nice mood, fun enough to play
- Crime stories always keep tension high (kind of)
Cons:
- Generally worse and easier than the previous episode
- Graphics are somewhat lacking
- Very short

[PC] Life of D. Duck II (2008)

How:
Having enjoyed the first game, always been curious of trying this one as well but was held back by negative reviews. At some point I remembered it and just grabbed it.

Pros:
- Fun, odd, violent at times
- Puzzles are rather fun and well balanced, somehow reminds of good old Dizzy Island
- Rather long-lived
Cons:
- Can be a bit tedious with all the traveling
- The race minigame is fun but 5 minutes are way too long!

[Browser] Rizzoli and Isles - The Masterpiece Murders (2011)

Pros:
- Nice backgrounds and graphics
- Taking blood samples and fingerprints has always been fun
- Direct and varied play mechanics
- Would make for a nice episodic series
Cons:
- A little too hurried in the end, would have made for a nice short game with just two times the playtime

[PC] Emerald City Confidential (2009)

Pro:
- Incredibilmente longevo e mai noioso
- Ottimo doppiaggio
- Ottima caratterizzazione dei personaggi, in particolare Petra la protagonista
- Grafica e ambientazioni a metà tra noir e fantastico
- Belle musiche
Contro:
- Gli enigmi sono pochi e facili essendo un gioco sostanzialmente story-driven
- Poche animazioni
- Alcune parti di testo (es. le descrizioni) non sono doppiate
- Se le musiche avessero avuto il fade-in/fade-out sarebbe stato perfetto
- La struttura ad obiettivi può dare fastidio
- Qualche bug