Last game you finished, tell us about it

Originally Posted by DeepO
Really? I don´t remember it being markedly hard, even though, iirc, monsters moved unusually fast compared to similar games.
Among the Dungeon Master-y games, personally I´ve found Chaos Strikes Back to be the most difficult one.

Anyway, Black Crypt was a fun game and it´s pretty cool to see it reviewed here .

Perhaps I should have used the word "frustrating". I normally find states such as poison and disease to be frustrating in these games.

@JemyM Heads up for the Black Crypt review. It is on my 'to play' list as Raven Software is one of my favorite devs. Too bad they currently are focused on content for MW3.

So a quick review of The Darkness II.

I have spend most of my time lately with The Old Republic and Skyrim but took a break to give The Darkness II a spin. From reviews I gathered that it was fairly short so this was actually one of the things that counted as a plus in my book as I needed something I could finish within a reasonable time frame.

This is the second installment of the series but the first to appear on the PC. Even though I own both a PS3 and a X360 I haven't played the first one, so I'm a bit at a disadvantage as how it compares to the first one and how the story did evolve in the first chapter. The developers have included an introductory cut scene that will give you a resume about the story so far but how well it covers what happened int the first game is as I said hard for me to tell.

The premise is that you play the role of Jackie Estacado, the head of a crime family. You have been gifted/cursed with something called The Darkness, which in essence is a demonic presence inside Jackie which grants him extraordinary powers in the form of two snake-like arms. These snake arms plays an essential part of the combat mechanics of the game. The game starts with Jackie having suppressed The Darkness but an attempt at his life forces him to call upon its aid again and set on a path of vengeance.

The games plays like a straight shooter with levels that are pretty linear. In this case the lack of freedom really didn't bother me as the action is fun. The snake arms is well implemented and works great in conjunction with the regular gun play. The Darkness only works in the dark so you'll have to beware of lights and enemies will sometimes be armed with light casters and light grenades. They are aware of your 'condition' so you don't have to wonder why they would be equipped with these items

You gain experience during your quest which can be spend to upgrade your skills. For instance you can upgrade what you gain from executing an enemy with The Darkness, like health, ammo etc. This also includes unlocking new animations. Besides The Darkness you also have the aid of a Darkling, which is a creature which can be of some assistance in combat. You can for instance pick him up with your snake arm and throw him at enemies, if you acquire the right upgrade. At other times (albeit only two times in the entire game) you will transfer your consciousness into the Darkling to solve specific tasks.

The story is well told and I did find it quite interesting. Voice acting is generally good, albeit a lot of the characters are pretty cliché. Loading between levels are usually hidden by a cut scene where Jackie will tell about his past, thus adding more depth to the character. Besides being helpful in combat The Darkness is also very much a presence in Jackies mind. It will constantly scream out and make you feel on the brink of insanity.
Jackie is also haunted by images of his dead girlfriend, Jenny. These moments are excellently done and you'll constantly be wondering if all this is real or not.

The graphics use cell shading which probably is a homage to it's comic book heritage but don't let this fool you the game still is gory and in general the visual are very fitting for a game of this type.

The game took me somewhere between 5-6 hours to complete, which might put many people off, but to be fair I does have the advantage that the game at all times stays interesting. I can't help but compare this game to Max Payne (especially Max Payne II). They both have about the same length and both succeeds in having you get emotionally involved in the story. So if you liked the Max Payne games I think you might find this one likable as well.

Never Winter 1 first module with the plague, Aribeth etc in multiplayer with my best friend .
I has been a real blast and next we had started Hordes of Underdark. We were very clumsy with our start, was also quite a preparation to get to be both robbed of our equipment (my friend would have never recovered his equipment later, since to have the teleportation device he had to quickly get it all stolen in single player mode) Since Hordes of the Underdark was way harder than the original game and our characters revealed to be real anti-heroes there, we decided to roll new ones with Shadows of Undrentide for later give another go to Underdark
After we will have plenty of user made modules to rediscover and discover while waiting for Grim Dawn, Krater, TorchLight 2, And best of all Guild Wars 2 for our mutliplayer needs.

Previous game were the Witcher 1 and 2 in a row, waiting for the extended version to come and more DLC to give it another go

One these days I always said I'd like to try NWN multiplayer, but by the time I was ready there wasn't much activity. A disadvantage of late adoption…

Originally Posted by Thrasher
One these days I always said I'd like to try NWN multiplayer, but by the time I was ready there wasn't much activity. A disadvantage of late adoption…

I still need to play the single-player campaigns of NWN 1&2. They are the only modern D&D crpgs that I've never finished.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I still need to play the single-player campaigns of NWN 1&2. They are the only modern D&D crpgs that I've never finished.

Same here. I only fairly recently got NWN1, and only loaded it up once to make sure it worked. Too much on my plate as is. And then I turn around and hook up my Gamecube again, and start playing some old console games.

The NWN engine hasn't aged well, I find.

BG is significantly more attractive to me.

So, better hurry it up

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
The NWN engine hasn't aged well, I find.

BG is significantly more attractive to me.

So, better hurry it up

BG was significantly more attractive to me even when NWN was new. That's probably why I never made it very far.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I still need to play the single-player campaigns of NWN 1&2. They are the only modern D&D crpgs that I've never finished.

Just recently repurchased NWN1 from GOG, having given away the game years ago because of how boring the original campaign was.

This time I started with Hordes of the Underdark which was really entertaining.
Then played a couple fan made modules and was really blown away by the Prophet series by Baldecaran, amazing story there.

Getting the latest Community Expansion Pack (CEP) from the Neverwinter Vault is a must before starting- http://nwvault.ign.com/ with all the enhancements it has. Plus with a few other mods from there that 'dress' up the game even a little bit more it has been a ton of fun to play this time around.

Neverwinter Nights was made for multiplayer and the official campaign show this. It's not as good as it could have been, in fact it's one of the worst storywise from Bioware. It's fairly good for Co-Op though so if one have a couple of friends, get them into the game.

Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark are better games, especially HotU. The last two can be played with a single character as a continous campaign.

Neverwinter Nights 2 have a much stronger story, but it did have a very disappointing ending. Good thing is that it got "fixed" in the much improved sequel-expansion Mask of the Betrayer.

Originally Posted by JDR13
BG was significantly more attractive to me even when NWN was new. That's probably why I never made it very far.

Funny. It was the 3d models in NWN 1 that seduced me into the CPRG arena. The isometric top down views of BG2 (at least on the box flip outs) looked boring to me.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Funny. It was the 3d models in NWN 1 that seduced me into the CPRG arena. The isometric top down views of BG2 (at least on the box flip outs) looked boring to me.

To be fair, I was really talking about the game as a whole, not just the visuals, which were actually pretty good.

I was shocked when I found out I'd only have direct control of a single character. Compared to the IE games, NWN just seemed incredibly simplified at the time.

Ah, OK, yeah the gameplay of BG2 is far better than NWN 1, to me at least. I'd say BG 1 and NWN are about equal on gameplay. As others have said, the lack of leveling in BG 1 makes for boring character development, open world exploration + a party helps to make up for that, though.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
I'd say BG 1 and NWN are about equal on gameplay..

Only if you're including multi-player.

Yeah, maybe. I just found BG boring at times… A lot of pointless wandering…

The ability to wander is one of the things I enjoyed about BG. It was the only Infinity Engine game that allowed you to discover new zones at your leisure.

NWN was obviously superior if you were looking for multi-player though.

At the time, I found the emptiness, and filler houses with nothing much of interest not very exciting, coming from corridor shooters and NWN. Of course, one's tastes can change…

I didn't find any of the areas in BG to be empty. There was always someone or something to encounter. People perceive things differently I guess.

The cat & the coup
This is a short, politically charged, puzzle/adventure game that deals with the events surrounding the coup in Iran in 1953.

In it you play as Mohammed Mossadegh's cat. Each room in the game has a small amount of text which explains what was going on during the coup. You also need to solve a simple puzzle in each room, to progress further in the game.

I'm far from unbiased in regards to my opinion about the events that took place. The family of a friend who I've known for a large portion of my life fled from Iran shortly after the coup , so I've heard about the events surrounding the coup, from their perspective, and this game helped reinforce that view. The game is worth a look for anyone who is interested in what I would consider being one of the worst things a western democracy has done to another country, though remember that it is a biased game, so make sure to find more sources than just this.

This game can be found for free on steam, and will take about 10-15min to finish.

Just completed the DS Tactical Strategy J-RPG Luminous Arc.