Code 7 has some interesting ideas going for it: an intriguing sci-fi story, a straightforward-yet-satisfying text interface, and little real-time minigames for puzzles.

But the execution is overall lackluster. The writing isn't very good. Command-line challenges feel contrived and silly. The minigames are ... pretty dumb, frankly.

When I compare its "hacking" elements to similar implementations in Hackmud or Pony Island - which had problems of their own - Code 7 doesn't measure up.

Also, at least in the demo episode, most of the voice acting is really, really terrible. (The main character does fine, but the rest are quite awful.) And the game has an annoying habit of letting its speech-to-text transcripts get way ahead of the spoken dialog, but still makes you wait for the actor to finish talking.

Code 7's neat ideas are wasted on this amateurish production.

Progress: Finished Episode 0 (the free demo).

In its second half, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy felt much more like other Uncharted games -- with thrilling action set-pieces punctuated by narrative-driving, character-building cutscenes (and a few puzzles). The characters of Chloe and Nadine actually became interesting once they stopped reciting flat lines about their backstories, and started dynamically reacting to the bombastic events around them. Not to mention, said set-pieces were of a scale and grandeur that put them among the best in the series.

It's more than good enough to make up for the experimental first half's lackluster story. Although I do think it's kind of a shame that Naughty Dog went so far as to prove they could tell a story in an open-ended map, only to give that section of the game the dull, boring parts of the story.

It actually wasn't clear to me, until well into the second half, "when" Lost Legacy is supposed to take place in the Uncharted timeline. I'd initially assumed that since Nadine was (somewhat) friendly, it was a prequel to Uncharted 4, but as Lost Legacy went on it referenced history from the fourth game. The timeline made sense once that history was established, but it felt weirdly ambiguous up until then.

So, at a relatively brief 6-ish hours, and with a story that wasn't really any good until halfway through, Lost Legacy isn't quite the cream of the Uncharted crop. But it nevertheless delivered just the action thrill-ride I'd expect from the franchise, and also provided an optimistic hint at the open world game that I hope Naughty Dog makes next.

Better than: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Not as good as: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (although its gameplay mechanics are really better than 2 and 3)
The aiming lock-on and lower difficulty made gunplay trivial: but I'd still much rather that, than tirelessly hurl bullets at a dude only to die in one shot.

Progress: Finished on Light (Easy) difficulty.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy isn't all that good at telling its story.

Really good adventure stories have a way of sweeping you up and into them; typically, by starting with a small, easily-digestible quest which gradually reveals itself as something bigger and more grandiose. Indiana Jones does it, James Bond does it, and the previous Uncharted games did it, to great effect.

In The Lost Legacy, it takes about twenty minutes for Chloe to tell you what she's after - the Tusk of Ganesha - and the obligatory treasure-hunt-rival-slash-evil-warlord is right there from the beginning. So far, there are no twists or surprises to speak of.

Meanwhile, this game's character development is pretty pale compared to its forebears; as is easy for side-stories and prequels (Star Wars), it seems to have fallen into the "static backstory" trap. Throwaway lines about how Chloe learned archaeology, or past dealings with Nathan Drake, or especially reiterating the same history that Nadine got in Uncharted 4, don't make these characters feel interesting.

On the flip-side, though, Lost Legacy shows how far Naughty Dog has come at designing compelling levels and gameplay mechanics. Parkouring through a city is as great as always, but the real showpiece is in the Western Ghats: a sizeable, free-roaming area whose multiple objectives, serene vistas, tall grass (for sneaking!), and organic-feeling enemy encounters are highly reminiscent of Breath of the Wild.

Throw in a neat little lock-picking mechanic, for peeking in enemy weapon crates - and higher-than-normal puzzle density, including one of the best I can remember from any Uncharted game - and Lost Legacy really starts to look like a proof for the concepts Naughty Dog will build in its next, presumably open-world, franchise.

There's still time for Lost Legacy to improve its storytelling chops, which I hope it does, but in the meantime its gameplay is certainly impressing me.

Progress: Chapter 4 - The Western Ghats

Tales from the Borderlands isn't perfect, but it's pretty damn good. A couple plot threads didn't have very satisfying resolutions (although most of them did); one or two interactive sequences felt needlessly frustrating; and it's always a shame that Telltale's tech isn't better than it is.

But Tales is a thrilling, funny jaunt through an interesting world with compelling characters. I think it's about as good as a story-based adventure game can get. (It's really cool to see that Borderlands' brand of silly adventure story is still entertaining without gunplay and loot-collection.)

The worst that can be said about Tales is that its madcap sense of humor is only as good as Borderlands 2's -- which, to be clear, is a compliment. And, arguably, that its new characters aren't quite as "charming" as Mr. Torgue or Tiny Tina.

And I'm not sure if it's because the dialog was predictable, or because my own personality is such a product of irreverent videogame culture, but the dialog choices in Tales almost never frustrated me like this kind of game tends to; I always felt like at least one choice reflected what I, the player, really wanted to say.

I'm still not completely sold on Telltale adventures, but this one is definitely a "win" for them.

Better than: The Wolf Among Us
Not as good as: Borderlands 2
In fact: I'm looking forward to a replay trip through Borderlands 2, as soon as I've got the time for it.

Its sense of humor started out a little weak - more dead-fish than slap-stick - but within the first hour or so, Tales from the Borderlands had me convinced. There may not be loot-based shooting, but this sure is a Borderlands game, with exploding psychos and everything.

Mechanically, nothing's really changed since The Wolf Among Us; there are dialog choices, brief atmospheric walking sections, and action sequences that use clicks or button-presses to attack and dodge. Tales is a little heavier on the action than on the walking -- at least so far, it doesn't seem to have any real analog to the investigations that were so crucial in Wolf.

Instead, Tales from the Borderlands focuses on the same madcap irreverence that made the Borderlands games so charmingly entertaining. (And it does so without requiring a good memory of what happened in Borderlands/2.) The dramatic story that it's telling almost seems snuck in, craftily attached to a humorous thrill-ride.

The voice acting is great, for the most part. In this first episode, I was able to pick out a few familiar voice actors, and they do a commendable job of delivering well-written, silly lines about Pandora's crazy garbage people. But the comedic timing does suffer from time to time, from what must be either poor voice direction or just issues in Telltale's notoriously shitty tech.

And the quality of animations is a little disappointing.

But despite these hiccups, I'm quite anxious to see the story through, and to find out what hijinks these crazy characters get up to next.

Progress: Finished episode 1, Zer0 Sum.

More than it did back in 2010, the combat in Darksiders: Warmastered Edition is really boring me.

Maybe this will become less of a problem once I accumulate more combat abilities; or maybe I'll become more distracted from it once I reach some real dungeon puzzles. But this dishwater-dull button-mashing makes a poor first(-ish) impression.

Progress: Got the Earthcaller.

I'm only "done" with Shenzhen I/O in the same sense that I'm "done" with TIS-100. I've finished the main series of levels, which has unlocked even more, but I don't have the energy or interest to continue on.

While I enjoyed the challenges of mapping high-level functionality to components and code, it remained disappointing, and a little frustrating, that the real difficulty almost always laid in the limits on lines of code and numbers of ports. And, particularly in that low-level respect, I never felt like Shenzhen asked for as much creative problem solving as TIS did.

Shenzhen I/O helped scratch my unending Zachtronics itch, but wasn't really as satisfying as its sibling games.

Better than: Human Resource Machine
Not as good as: TIS-100
I still seriously hate: this bullshit solitaire game.

Progress: Finished the main campaign.

Well, we're done with Tiny Brains. Total running time was about two hours.

I guess the campaign is short enough to run through repeatedly, maybe even as a party game, but I'm not especially anxious to revisit these glitchy physics.

(And in retrospect, I am pretty sure that some puzzles are actually impossible if you're playing by yourself.)

There are a handful of tricky brain-teasers in here, and the game thankfully doesn't overstay its welcome. But neither does it ever really impress.

Better than: HeartZ: Co-Hope Puzzles, Kalimba
Not as good as: Pitfall Planet, Trine Enchanted Edition
Best not to bring this game up: to PETA, what with all the laboratory animal testing.

Progress: Finished the campaign with two players.

Tiny Brains is another Trine-like, where one or more players can switch between characters with unique abilities. Tiny Brains is more about puzzles than about action, although there are some combat stages as well.

The puzzles so far have been fairly simple, and although some solutions require precise timing, there is still a heavier emphasis on planning than on execution. (That said, from my experience with two players and two characters acting at once, it seems like some puzzles would be pretty damn tough playing alone.)

The collision physics don't work right all the time. Jumping up onto a ledge is not always as easy as it should be.

It's ... difficult to pick out anything that Tiny Brains does especially well. It doesn't have stupid controller issues, and the puzzle mechanics work fine despite occasional physics quirks. But the puzzles and the character-specific abilities are pretty basic; and the story, which so far is just a guy yelling in a fake Russian accent, isn't very compelling.

Maybe some mechanical enhancements or puzzle designs later on will impress me more.

Progress: Finished Chapter 1.

The minutes-long, excruciatingly-boring intro movie is not my biggest concern about Shiftlings so far. That honor goes to the fact that my second player and I completely failed to get local co-op to work.

Our experience was just as this poster describes, where the game's functions seemed to become split between two controllers. (It reminded me of my controller issues with Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, which is not good company to be in.)

Local co-op was the whole reason I bought Shiftlings, so I was prepared to write it off completely until I found this post claiming that it "works," but is terribly messaged by the UI.

After calibrating once, both controllers work in-game. Note that only the first controller works in the main menu, though, which arguably can be confusing.

There should be a text in the top-right corner of the screen saying something like "join the game by pressing Return or Start on second controller". It disappears fairly quick, though, so it I guess it's easy to miss.

I'm willing to give it another try, but this bullshit has already soured my opinion of Shiftlings significantly.