Last game you finished, tell us about it

Stronger? As in more or less subtle?

Length?

Well…both, if that makes any sense. As I said, the game does a great job of building tension. Action sequences are sometimes few and far between. There are stretches where you won't encounter anything that attemps to hurt you, and the tension starts to slowly build as you began to wonder how long your temporary peace is going to last.

According to Steam, I played Outlast for 17.4 hours. It's hard to say how long the actual game was minus reloads and time paused, but imo it was close to ideal for this type of game.

Also, the game has been recently updated with some small, but imo significant, changes. So if you have a "downloaded" ;) version, you might want to get the update if you can. Among other things, they added an option to disable the horribly exaggerated motion blur as well as the onscreen prompts.
 
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Well…both, if that makes any sense. As I said, the game does a great job of building tension. Action sequences are sometimes few and far between. There are stretches where you won't encounter anything that attemps to hurt you, and the tension starts to slowly build as you began to wonder how long your temporary peace is going to last.

According to Steam, I played Outlast for 17.4 hours. It's hard to say how long the actual game was minus reloads and time paused, but imo it was close to ideal for this type of game.

Also, the game has been recently updated with some small, but imo significant, changes. So if you have a "downloaded" ;) version, you might want to get the update if you can. Among other things, they added an option to disable the horribly exaggerated motion blur as well as the onscreen prompts.

Oh, I'll buy it if it's any good ;)

It's just that I'm not very fond of cheap shocks and scares - but if it's not too bad, I guess I should check it out again.

I'm a huge fan of good horror games - and as we both know, it's not exactly every day with get to play one :)
 
I completed Walking dead season 1.

Warning some minor spoilers bellow.

I think writing very good, bit too much melodramatic at times but very good overall.
What I didn't like about writing is that game kills interesting characters faster than Martin does.Only one character survived from first to last episode with my choices(besides Lee and Clem),and that was character I found least interesting ,so there is no time for relationships to develop and evolve.

Minimalistic gameplay didn't bother me, but I would like to see complex puzzle from time to time.

I would give it 7/10.I think writing very good and I would definitively recommend the game but it's not masteripece and best adventure in last decade as lot of reviews sites claim imo.
 
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Finally, I was able to finish the Witcher 2. Overall I found it very good. Some minor quirks were the QTEs (Kayran) and that a couple of quests would break. I played on hard but ended up not using around 9 skill points. According to Steam I spend 38 hours in completing the game. Time well spend.
 
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I finally got around to finishing Mass Effect 3 this week. I enjoyed it for the most part, but the endgame was too drawn-out in typical Bioware fashion, and I didn't find the ending very satisfying.
I chose the Synthesis route, but I'm going to replay the final sequence and destroy the Reapers to see that ending as well.

Gameplay-wise, I definitely liked it more than ME2, although ME1 is still easily the best in the trilogy imo. So ME1 > ME3 > ME2 for me.

Bioware's paradigm is definitely getting old though. I'm hoping Dragon Age: Inquisition breaks the mold, but I won't be holding my breath. :)


I played 3 of the 4 single-player DLC missions. I skipped 'Citadel' because I could tell it definitely isn't my thing. My opinion on the DLC…

'From Ashes' is a joke imo. A shameless money-grab that was obviously cut from the main game. While Javik is a decent companion in terms of usefulness, he's horribly written and acted. So the last Prothean in existence is a bloodthirsty warrior with a Jamaican accent…cool.

'Leviathan' is pretty average all around. Can't say I was blown away by it, but it does give you access to one of the best (imo) abilities in the game - Dominate, which I used right up to the end. You also learn some interesting things about the origins of the Reapers.

'Omega' is better than reviews would indicate imo, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Yes, it's mostly just combat, but I thought it was some of the best in the game. I also like the environments which had a sort of 'Cloud City' feel to them.


Overall, I enjoyed the trilogy, but I wouldn't rank it among my favorites, and I doubt it's something that I'll ever replay. Well…maybe just ME1.
 
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I enjoyed it for the most part, but... I didn't find the ending very satisfying.
We all said exactly that.

'From Ashes' is... A shameless money-grab that was obviously cut from the main game.
We all said it's obviously recent fraud type in games business - main game material blocked in the release version and sold separately.

But thanks on the input on other DLC since I don't have those. And refuse to buy them until Bioware points go on sale. Which will happen probably never.
 
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We all said it's obviously recent fraud type in games business - main game material blocked in the release version and sold separately.

Or just cut in order to speed up the development time of the rest - and then finish it up later.
 
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No. IIRC all files for that DLC were already in the game you just had to pay to unlock them. And it's not some side story not important at all, it's a major explanation of certain things not just in ME3 but in the whole trilogy.
 
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I finally, finally managed to finish the 2013 version of Rise of the Triad after they implemented quicksaves with one of the latest updates. While I felt mildy euphoric when starting the game because

1) level 1 was a hommage to the old game
2) the characters were all there (if slightly straightened out regarding nationalities etc ;) )
3) the music was true to the old score
4) God mode and dog mode were nicely transferred from the original game
4) enemies were pretty much the same as in the original game ...,

I don't feel the urge to fire it up again to try it with another character.

The reasons:

1) My machine is too old to play the new game in a satisfyingly un-choppy, yet visually appealing video mode - the old game had auto detail adjust that made for extremely smooth behavior regardless of hardware.
2) Coins and stuff are indestructible. Playing cautiously enough to not destroy bonus stuff could be rather difficult in the original game, though, which was part of the fun.
3) I really, really miss the guard who dropped on his knees when wounded. If they actually implemented the guy in the 2013 game, I didn't notice (which is not good ;p).
4) Er... El Oscuro. Dang, while they actually developed interesting counterparts to/new versions of the old level bosses (Krist, NME etc.), they hit the iceberg with El Oscuro. Both incarnations of Oscuro were such great - because unique - bosses in the original RotT, and both were incredibly boring standard bosses in the 2013 version: no trick needed to topple them, no twist, nothing. Just blasting away at the guy? Come on, you could have done this a LOT better. Really, I actually enjoyed
pressing the button that nuked L.A. out of curiosity
a lot more than defeating El Oscuro. Sheesh, what a letdown ...

Luckily, the game came with the Apogee Throwback pack which includes the origonal RotT in a pre-configured DOSBox.
 
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Baldur's Gate (Enhanced Edition)

Note that this was my first BG play-through so there'll be little useful EE feedback. I've caught a bit of flak in the past in this thread for somewhat ignoring the date and the context in which a game was released and judging it by rather modern standards. I feel this line of criticism will be much more valid in this case since it concerns a genre, of which the developments I'm much more familiar with. To put it simply, I've played a number of Bioware and Bioware-style RPGs that their grandpa ended up looking rather unremarkable.

To start off on a positive note both the gameplay and the visuals haven't aged to any significant degree. Obviously part of the reason is the EE or more accurately the BG2 engine, as a few 1999 screenshots look significantly worse, but the core of the gameplay could hardly have been meaningfully altered.

The game plays quite well and while I was hardly enamored with fiddling with the AD&D rules or the RTwP/big party/isometric aspect of it, it was enough fun to keep me engaged and going through the rest of the RPG stuff. I guess a combat deserves a special mention as even with not being too fond of the ruleset the IE certainly allowed the hard fights to be more tactical than the 3D RTwP RPGs I've played.

Structure-wise the I found BG to be very different from the formula applied to modern Bioware games which was a pleasant surprise and would have been significant to my view of it had the actual content been better. That is, as a matter of fact, my main criticism of the game. The main quest/story, characters, quest-arcs and generally the gameworld was, with a number of exceptions like Durlag's tower, Ulgoth's Beard (curiously both provided by the expansion) at best serviceable and at worst generic, in places cliché and largely unmemorable.

As their take on the genre developed, Bioware went on to refine its delivery of the content, for example contrast the big revelation about the PC in BG1 (letter) and KotOR1 (entire abduction), the companions and their frankly, useless, banter and more notably the quantity and quality of the dialogue involved in major plot-points. Usually a minor point but the villain of BG1 was easily one of the least interesting villains I've had to fight in an RPG. As far as I'm concerned, I definitely prefer a more fleshed out approach so the game loses some few points on that front. One slight positive note that impressed me about BG's plot was how the economy of a region was a major part of it. Usually games use much weaker personal-political events to further their plot. I wonder if those responsible for that plot-point had more of a history/social-sciences background rather than being professional writers.

It is fair to say that Bioware's focus was more on exploration and allowing the player enough freedom to enjoy his own D&D adventure. On that account it succeeded as BG packs an incredible amount of content (much bigger than DA:O, took me ~60 hours to fully go through) that is to be enjoyed in a non-linear fashion. Some of that traditional adventuring is great, Durlag's tower was the fist proper dungeon I've played in years. It, however, does not feature important amounts of reactivity or C&C and thus isn't as strong as Fallout 1 or 2 was. The focus on exploration does not quite work for me due to this type of exploration being better delivered in less restrictive systems and isometric not being as good as full 3d for exploring gameworlds for me.

I think the city of Baldur's Gate probably best summarizes how the game is different to later RPGs. It's by far the biggest city I've encountered in the genre, and while its style works for a big city it ultimately lacks focus and content to fully realize its size. The same can be said about the utter mind-numbing number of recruitable NPCs who can I guess be attributed to the need for party-class experimentation.

As a final though, I wanted to mention the thing that most struck me despite happening too many game-hours ago. I guess it could have been intentional but it seemed at the time as accidental introspection. I was trying to do a quest regarding some Xvarts which were a menace to a farming area. I went to the area where I expected their camp to be, found the guards, who were already aggressive and attacked me as soon as I approached. I started slicing through the population of their camp/village and at that point the leader of the village ran up to me and said:
"You monster! You kill us when we do nothin' to you. Well, Ursa kill you. Ursa protect us because Ursa kind."
Shortly before Minsc hacked him to pieces.
 
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Legend of Kyrandia (ScummVM Android).

Hehe, what a nice little trip down nostalgia lane.

When I'm not in a relationship, I usually spend New Year's Eve in the summerhouse - because my dog doesn't like fireworks (he barks pretty much non-stop at such noise and I don't want to put him through that) and I don't really get into the whole party/drinking thing my friends do, so I might as well go there and I tend to enjoy the solitude and quiet :)

Anyway, I went there again and I brought my Nexus tablet - and a whole bunch of old adventure games. I was already playing Kyrandia, but I started over because I found a new and much better ScummVM client - but lost my savegame.

The biggest surprise is that it's TINY compared to how I remember it. I think you could probably complete it in 10 minutes if you knew what you were doing.

I estimate it took me around 5 hours at most all in all - and for whatever reason, I remember it taking days back upon release.

I got a little kick out of it, because the hardest part of the game is a certain large maze-like cave called the Labyrinth of Fire - and I mapped it with pen and paper like the good old days!

Hehe, it's been many, many years since I had the patience to do something like that - so it was fun to feel like I actually did something with my gaming :)

Beyond that segment, the game is a total pushover - but I actually did have to look something up in a walkthrough - because I didn't believe I had to figure it out for myself, so I thought I was missing something. It had to do with mixing certain potions - where the game doesn't give you any information or clue about what you have to do, and I'm so used to being held by the hand that I was convinced I'd missed some vital clue.

Turns out I just had to experiment and play around - and I remembered that was how games used to be back in the day.

But I was really surprised how quickly I got through it.

Next, I'll play the sequel - Hand of Fate - which is my favorite in the series. I also remember that one being at least 10-15 hours, so it'll be interesting to see how long it'll take.
 
Dishonoured - Main Campagin - ramble

I finished the main campaign only and I have to say I really enjoyed the game. I have never been into stealthy type games, but in this instance it was quite fun.

I tried playing it as a stealthy type, I didn't even use any of the killing type of powers.

While the story itself was quite predictable, the world was really well made. I liked how what you did flowed into the game. I'm talking about small details.

Kill someone and they'll be gone, but handle it differently and they'll be gone and you might get a reward for it. Everything you do also gets talked about by the NPCs. The graphics themselves are not crazy, but are quite good.

The music is not that good though, but good enough to play through it.

The voice acting was quite good in my opinion and the comedic parts in the game are enough to make you enjoy them without distracting you from the game.

I'd recommend the game to everyone who enjoys adventure/RPGs.
 
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Finally done with Skyrim. Had many things to write, but I'll try to keep it as short as possible.

Solved all nonrepeatable quests if I could (some remained stuck in my log), explored everything. Couldn't be arsed to grind all skills to 100 however, although not many are left low (didn't use much of archery, alchemy, pickpocketing and block).

Was it fun? Some rare parts were. For example Dark Brotherhood quest chain is of awsome design. When I say Cicero, anyone who played Skyrim know who that is. But most parts of the game are just an useless filler content, easily forgotten after the game is done.

This time I had all 3 DLC. Housing DLC is a pure crap. Improves nothing of significance really. Although I did make fully all three new houses, adopted children, married, etc, I still used Breezehome as my base.
Dawnguard DLC is so-so. The main Dawnguard quest is silly, boring and in the end if you've sided with vampires an inventory killer since you can't get rid of two (40 lbs) elder scrolls. Poor mule Lydia became poorer. However it does add an awsome Aetherium Wars mystery that in the end nets you an OP crown.
Dragonborn DLC, as I've written before, is top notch. Too bad this masterpiece is not a standalone game, IMO it's worth playing more than both Skyrim and Oblivion. Not only the design of quests, story and visuals in Dragonborn DLC is great, but also I've stumbled upon just a few bugs in that DLC. And none of those were questbreakers or something worth spitting on. Unlike the rest of the stuff in Skyrim, Dragonborn DLC is the only thing I really can't say anything negative about.


Every now and then ppl say I like FO3 more than F:NV or vice versa. I'll say it depends on your taste, but both FO3 and F:NV are 100 times better than Skyrim.

If you've never played any of these games, buy FO3 and F:NV. Skip Skyrim, nothing really worth your time there except maybe great music - and to hear that you can use youtube.

I'm now uninstalling Skyrim and will never return to it.
 
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Memoria, second in series to Chains of Satinav: The Dark Eye
It's a point and click adventure, made by the germans from Daedalic Entertainment. And germans really never fail to tell a good story it seems. I'll keep it spoilerless if anyone hasn't played it and want to try it out (and you should if you haven't already!).

Memoria is pretty much a complete follow-up from Chains of Satinav: The Dark Eye and should be played in that order to get what the story in Memoria is actually about. I assume you'd be pretty confused if you played Memoria without actually playing the dark eye first.
The story telling is very good, mixed up with some good humor and believable characters only undermined by the occasional horrible english translated voice actors..but it's fine for the most part. One of the things I love most about it is the way they develop stories. It's not another "everything was perfect, then everything went downhill and it ends perfect again" story. It's in many ways a pretty gloomy and sad story from start and even end, something I wish more games had.

I would recommend this to everyone who has the patience to play point and click adventures and deal with puzzles. Most of the puzzles are pretty reasonable and should be manageable for most people, with a few spare tough ones. You'll also love this if you have a passion for repeatedly break and fix things…what, is that's just me?
 
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I have heard from several people already that Memoria is a good game.

I won't play Satinav's Chains, however, because it is still tied to Steam - unlike Memoria, which I find odd.
 
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Memoria, second in series to Chains of Satinav: The Dark Eye
It's a point and click adventure, made by the germans from Daedalic Entertainment. And germans really never fail to tell a good story it seems. I'll keep it spoilerless if anyone hasn't played it and want to try it out (and you should if you haven't already!).

Memoria is pretty much a complete follow-up from Chains of Satinav: The Dark Eye and should be played in that order to get what the story in Memoria is actually about. I assume you'd be pretty confused if you played Memoria without actually playing the dark eye first.
The story telling is very good, mixed up with some good humor and believable characters only undermined by the occasional horrible english translated voice actors..but it's fine for the most part. One of the things I love most about it is the way they develop stories. It's not another "everything was perfect, then everything went downhill and it ends perfect again" story. It's in many ways a pretty gloomy and sad story from start and even end, something I wish more games had.

I would recommend this to everyone who has the patience to play point and click adventures and deal with puzzles. Most of the puzzles are pretty reasonable and should be manageable for most people, with a few spare tough ones. You'll also love this if you have a passion for repeatedly break and fix things…what, is that's just me?


I'll have to check Chains of Satinav out then, it's been a long time since I've played a true adventure game.

I have always been impressed with the look of the game, those hand painted backgrounds really do look beautiful, I was just worried it might be too juvenile a story for me now, but your "gloomy and sad story " take on it makes it sound more up my alley.
 
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Well both me and the sis (who was the original recipient but the art and setting lured me over) found the game a bit young-adultish, but in a good way. Sort of like a cute fairytale that took a darker and more emotionally charged turn in the end.

I also found it a bit on the easy side with a few more involved puzzles demanding some creative thinking.

I found it worth my time all in all (and I rarely play adventures these days). A pretty (and with pretty decent music), enjoyable game that set the stage very nicely for the better (from my understanding, have not played it yet) Memoria, that I also promptly bought in this Steam Christmas sale…
 
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