Last game you finished, tell us about it

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?

Thanks for the mini-review. You're going to fit right in :)
 
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I'm playing Arcanum at the moment - and for some reason I can't seem to finish it. It irritates me a great deal because I have heard that this was a great game :) I find the user interface very clunky although the story seems interesting. However, I can't seem to figure out if it is best to play as a technologist or magick character...And I have read the manual; this didn't help much...

any suggestions?
 
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I think both can be strong builds (either a gunslinger/explosion expert, or a mage with a lot of emphasis on the harm spell). Plus other combinations. But those are the 2 obvious ones.

EDIT: By combinations, I mean stick to stuff in either Tech or Magic but not both, since your magic/tech aptitudes are exclusive.
 
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That was a good game that suffered from balance issues. Tech characters were severely underpowered and melee characters leveled WAY too quickly.
 
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Iirc, isn't there some kind of unofficial patch that addresses those issues to some degree?
There were several mods for that, but I don't remember any patches, official or otherwise. I ran a melee toon, so I ended up getting a mod that removed the level cap and just took advantage of the poor balance.
 
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Actually The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav is available at GOG, which is always my first choice.

Thank you. The boxed release still requires Steam, however. And I always prefer boxed releases.
 
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I was done with boxed versions ages ago, trashing them away and switching to digital only which means I've bought many games twice. But since those are good old games… :)

Finished Dishonored. Took me 50 hours for the game and both Daud story DLC, didn't bother with missions DLC as those are practically grinds for achievements and whatnot toplist.

1. The publisher is Bethesda. OMG. Or… No, the game has a few glitches, but is not bug-o-rama. I managed to get stuck in the surrounding only once (and it was deliberate nitpicking with jumps/sneak/teleport to test if getting stuck is possible at all), a certain NPC went aggressive although shouldn't in only one occasion but the quest fail is avoidable with teleport skill, a certain achievement didn't trigger (big deal), and in one mission the game said I did one kill and I'm 100% positive I killed noone. In short, the game is almost bugfree.

2. Environment design is amazing. Both visual and audio.
Sounds and discrete music is outstanding, the only small annoyance is hearing voices but because of bad surround system you can't determine which side those are coming from, and could sometimes be from below or above. But the nitpicker in me can forgive that small omission because in the end you want to get some info from the chitchat, not to track enemies - for tracking there is a skill.
Puzzles are not finding a code to a lock, instead the whole area is one huge puzzle you (hopefully) want to crack. And by cracking the area, you'll eventually crack any safe!

3. You start as a mute. Who is empress' bodyguard who fails and gets framed for her murder done by an assassin. DLC has a spinoff story about that assassin btw.
But the story is not just escape, clear your name and take revenge. You'll fight against gangs, with gangs, get doublecrossed and betrayed again, work to see if the plague outbreak can be stopped, etc etc, and on top of it, you will mess with a supernatural being who will give you a possibility of using "magic".
You can't unlock all possible "magic" skills, you may learn to expensive timestopper, but then you maybe won't be able to "summon" a swarm of rats. IMO that's a refreshment, you don't have to be a godlike creature at the end of a game.
By the end of the game and end of DLC, not all questions will be answered, but not in a lame way like what on earth are elder scrolls and how come a snow elf made one and survived as a vampire waiting for you, what remained open is a material for a spinoff or a sequel.

4. Choices matter in this game. The more aggressive you are, the more aggressive the game becomes. And vice versa. Devs did a great job making nonleathal approach more challenging than kill everything that moves.
But from a first half of the game, where you do your "errands" and can't affect the global turmoil really, where whatever you do power struggle will be going on, plague is spreading and the society falls down, in the second part of the game devs went into a trap where it's only your character who determines the fate of others. It's not a minus as such since it's perfectly executed, besides only one c&c RPG (The Witcher) was made as a story where the war is imminent whatever you do and nothing you choose will stop the planet from turning.

Can't remember what I've planned to add more. This game is not RPG, it's a mix of several genres and it does contain RPG elements. It's somewhat an unique experience, can't say I've played anything like this, closest to it but again in many ways different is DX:HR. It's polished almost perfectly so only a nitpicker can find a glitch, it never gets boring, it's full of lore, stories and strategic moves, and your actions matter.

I do wish it had more RPG inside than it does, but can't lie to myself. This game is a masterpiece.
10/10
 
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I too found Dishonered to be one of the gems of 2013. However, I'm a perplexed by your statement that it took you 50 hours. Granted I haven't yet played the two Daud campaigns but I think the main game took me around 20 hours and I was not killing anyone and being super stealthy.
 
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I'm a nitpicker. Had to turn every stone and find every goddamned hard to notice chip. :D
Also had to run through every possible passage and use every possible tunnel.
It was crazy I know now since you don't really need so much cash at all and you don't have to turn off every single machine, but well…

For sure ppl will need less time than me.
 
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You actually can get all the spells in Dishonored quite easily, you might just not be able to get them all to the upper level.

In case you missed it
Every time you come back to the base, there are runes there again. Even if you cleared areas before.
 
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Iirc, isn't there some kind of unofficial patch that addresses those issues to some degree?

The problem with that patch is that it nerfs the only spell that can counter a very harsh difficulty spike. The ore golems will completely obliterate anyone who comes unprepared, and they'll also break your equipment. I'm of course talking about Harm (necromancy black), which is an overpowered spell, but it comes in very handy when the game throws enemies that are far too powerful for where they are in the game.
 
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Just to be clear, we all have a different taste. But I've written already that I can't remember the last game that got me hooked so hard like this one, and it didn't lose that feel till the end. Not just that, even with a cool head after it I can't remember I've seen anything negative in this game.
It would be a slap to my own face if I went lower than 10.

Pladio there is a big difference between level 1 and level 2 spells. Yes you can have all level 1 spells, but Slow Time and Stop Time are level 1 and level 2 of a spell and work totally different. Slow Time is okay if you're killing everyone, but if you want to turn off a machine hard to get close and avoid killing, you'll want Stop version. Blink level 1 won't help you reach some kinky legdes, and if you're into exploration (but real exploration, not skyrim exploration where all you can find is a horde of respawns in all the same shallow area) you'll want also it's level 2. And you can't have all level 2 spells. ;)
 
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Just to be clear, we all have a different taste. But I've written already that I can't remember the last game that got me hooked so hard like this one, and it didn't lose that feel till the end. Not just that, even with a cool head after it I can't remember I've seen anything negative in this game.
It would be a slap to my own face if I went lower than 10.

Pladio there is a big difference between level 1 and level 2 spells. Yes you can have all level 1 spells, but Slow Time and Stop Time are level 1 and level 2 of a spell and work totally different. Slow Time is okay if you're killing everyone, but if you want to turn off a machine hard to get close and avoid killing, you'll want Stop version. Blink level 1 won't help you reach some kinky legdes, and if you're into exploration (but real exploration, not skyrim exploration where all you can find is a horde of respawns in all the same shallow area) you'll want also it's level 2. And you can't have all level 2 spells. ;)

Yeah, but for me as I went through a stealthy playthrough I didn't even need all of them. All that's needed is Blink Level 2, seeing through walls lvl 2, Stop time level 2. That's easy to achieve. I didn't want any of the killing ones anyway...
 
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I finished Alpha Protocol. Well, that was engaging. Really liked the way the story and non-player character interactions varied depending on the player choices. Dug collecting intellgence, and figuring out how to sway others (and even enemies) to support you. A little unrealistic at times, but a fun challenge. Lots of possibilities to check out, but sadly not going to try them out because the crappy checkpoint save system makes it too tedious. I only did one path (save protocol, destroy halbech, kill shaheed path).

I enjoyed the perk and character development system. Increasing skills really makes a significant difference with new capabilities gained, rather than just numeric advantages. Very neat system.

I played a stealth - pistol - technical aptitude build. Ghosting around was a lot of fun with silent non-lethal takedowns being my modus operandi where possible. Tranquilizer chainshots on the bosses (and annoying crowds) made all encounters easy especially with brillance.

Starting Blackguards, and not sure what to make of it. Love the TDE ruleset and grid based combat (ala King's Bounty: TL). But the user interface needs a little work (can't scroll through some of the descriptions), fire wall spell won't cast, and it seems very linear (just finished the graveyard) with no exploration, just combat arenas.
 
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Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is a small standalone expansion/DLC for Far Cry 3, building on what worked in Far Cry 3, and transporting it into a 80's style cyberpunk setting.

Blood Dragon is a rather short game. It took me just over 6h from start to finish, and I liberated all the locations and did a good portion of the sidequests (not all of them though). I do feel that this was an appropriate length for the game though. Had it been much longer, it wold have overstayed its welcome, as the jokes would have started to get repetitive, and the lack of enemy variety would have been more of an issue. But it did hold my interest for the duration of the playthrough.

The game feels like loving homage to all things 80's cyberpunk & the cartoons that were mainly meant to sell toys. Part of the soundtrack feels like it would fit well with the Blade Runner soundtrack, and there were more than a few things that reminded me of Dino Riders. I suspect that anyone who has nostalgic ties to Blade Runner, Cyberpunk 2013, the Sprawl trilogy, Terminator & Dino Riders will probably get a kick out of this game. It pokes fun at the silly parts in those, but not in a mean-spirited way.

As for the gameplay itself, it is solid. The gunplay feels good, and the melee system, while simplistic, does at least feel satisfying. The fights with the Blood Dragons do suffer from the same problem that the fight with the dragons in Skyrim had, and that is the fact that they do after a while start to feel trivial.

Overall, I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoyed Far Cry 3 and/or 80's action movies. It's stupid, it's entertaining and it's relatively short, but for a budget-priced release, it has a good amount of quality content. Had I payed full price for this title, I would still not have felt cheated by its short length.

Also, to anyone with a weaker machine, this game is incredibly well optimized. I'm just above min specs, and the game ran at a solid framerate, even when there was fire & explosions all around me (which happened quite often). In fact, it ran (and looked) better than many games with considerably lower system requirements.
 
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M&M10 is done with. :)

Steam says I've played it for 47 hours, could be true, but it crashed three times on me and I remember steam not registering time if games crashed. Let's assume it's correct.

I didn't finish two quests (IIRC endurance and dodge) from grandmasters as I didn't go into that direction, I just can't be arsed to unlock that bonus dungeon with uPlay points and I never managed to grab the heavy armor relic.
And I really don't care what the witch in front of Karthal will say to me now when I've finished the main story.
My version is deluxe and that means I have to wait for the dream shard dungeon and upcoming free DLC. Honestly I can't force myself to play more of it now as last dungeons were like… Man, I want to finish this game already.

Game start and act 1 is IMO not so good. The same thing goes for the endgame dungeon, it's too big/long and too much of grind.
However, act 2 and 3 before the final dungeon in a matter of exploration are simply awsome.

The story? Meh… It never grew on me. Craig Hack sidestory is better than everything else. Dunno why they took a HoMM6 DLC character for the major NPC, but okay, it was more than decent.

There are very easy puzzles but also very hard ones. Riddles too. I admit I used google in two cases, one was a chest riddle where a solution was a word I've never heard before, and the Vigil level 1 room where you die instantly… Hell the solution is so simple I couldn't believe I didn't try that.
Rewards for riddles are pretty much useless, but for puzzles are worth your time so you know. If you can't solve a chest puzzle, just skip it. Nothing inside that might be worth your time (you'll have so much cash it's not normal, I've finished with 600K in my pocket). However, when you face a puzzle, do not skip it, all of them in the end contain a relic!

Design… There are already posts about combat "stuck if enemy in adjacent square" and making health as the most important stat for all classes. I dislike it, but adapted. Dunno if it's a bug or not, but prime dispel cures everything including poisons, so you don't need other schools' curative spells at all. Secret passages can't be detected with high perception, you need to cast a spell for it, now that's also IMO odd. And etc, small design decisions that would make this post too big.

But in the end I did have much fun and will definetly buy M&M11. Highly recommended.

8/10
 
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