Add Driftmoon to my list. And I loved every bit of it.

Tomb Raider (2013) - I loved it! The credits said they tried their hardest to make the best game they could, and that definitely shows. I think it's by far the best Tomb Raider title I've ever played, and probably also among the most enjoyable videogames I've ever played. Very close to perfection, as far as I and my personal preferences are concerned. I hope TR 2013 will eventually find its way to GOG, too, maybe in a few years, because this is one the very rare games I could actually imagine to replay one day, just for the fun of it.

I didn't care much for most of the QTEs, but they were very rare and over very quickly. The game crashed on me three times during my playthrough, but due to the comfortable save system and the very fair checkpoints, I didn't lose any progress to speak of. I struggled a bit with the Roll / Evade / Sprint button on the keyboard, but I guess that made the few dramatic (and otherwise pretty harmless) boss encounters more lethal and exciting ;) and apart from that, the controls were spot on. It is a rather easy game, but also because they removed a lot of the frustrations usually found in the genre, and in my book that's a good thing, because it meant that I could enjoy the game almost 100%.

The platforming was great, the shooting was quite good, too (it could have been a little less sometimes, for my taste, but it wasn't too distracting either), the collectibles and leveling up mechanics were motivating. The gamelength was just right. The graphics and animations were awesome, and so were the voiceovers. The story was okay for a TR game, no great surprises regarding the plot, but still well told and entertaining like a good action blockbuster. And I liked the new Lara and her friends, they managed to make me care for them.

I was a bit surprised by how gory, gruesome and brutal the game is, sometimes almost ridiculously so, so that I had to grin a few times like if I was watching an over-the-top silly slasher B-movie. And it is true what some reviewer(s) criticized, that there's quite a large gap between the characterization of Lara as a calm, rational, sensitive and very human woman, and the game mechanics of turning her into a gun-fanatic killing machine by rewarding her for each kill and even more so for brutality. But, what I can say, despite me agreeing with this, it didn't much interfere with my enjoyment of the game. It was still a (guilty) pleasure to play it. :D

Thank you very much for sharing that info. A Mac version is now in the works and when I looked into the game and learned it had QTE's I was really disappointed because I'd heard such good things about it but I hate those generally. I am glad they are just a minor thing in this game and not something you encounter frequently. I wouldn't buy it if they were.

Some of them can get pretty egregious. I would actually disagree with Leroux, they aren't really that rare - there are QTEs during scripted sections; however, there are also QTEs during combat and in order to pry open chests and doors you need to do a fair amount of button mashing.

I will agree with Leroux though in saying that the game is definitely worth playing despite the QTEs and extremely linear sections.

Well that's kind of a drag but I thank you for telling me. For all the good things I've heard I would like to try it but maybe I will just wait for a good sale price so I don't feel too bad if I wind up not liking it too much. I guess sometimes you just cannot know until you dive in yourself.

Well, it depends on your definition of QTEs. Of course, strictly speaking, Austrobogulator is right, but I kind of made a distinction there between the tolerable or hardly noticeable button pressing integrated in the gameplay and the random "Press button now or lose" QTEs.

If e.g. you make a bad jump and Lara doesn't get a firm grip, but you can save her by pressing E in time, than that's a QTE I don't mind at all. I think it's preferable to games where you'd fall to your death right away. Repeatedly pressing E to pry open a door might not be the most enjoyable gameplay element, but I don't perceive it as distracting either and certainly not worse than opening chests in Gothic. I can accept that it's simulating the effort it takes Lara to open that thing. It's not hard, it doesn't take long and I can always interrupt it whenever I want. Then there's the possibility to finish enemies off quickly in melee by pressing Q under certain circumstances, but I didn't make use of that very often and I also don't see a big difference between that and timing your jump by pressing Space when you're close to the edge or something. It's all still integrated in fluent gameplay that you as the player have control over.

The QTEs I don't like are when there's a cutscene and during the cutscene you suddenly have to press or mash random buttons and if you fail, the cutscene starts from the beginning, because that's hardly what I'd call gameplay and it doesn't feel like you're really in control of your character. It's just a game of Simon Says, and if you don't have quick reflexes, it's still not that challenging, because you can just learn the sequence by heart. But it's freaking annoying to watch the cutscene over and over again and try to do what Simon says. Because that doesn't make the scene more dramatic and exiting, but on the contrary more aggravating and tedious. That's the kind of QTEs I was talking about, and that happens very very rarely during the whole game. And when it happens, it's only two or three buttons you need to press and after that you can continue with the game. It's nothing like the stupid QTEs in Fahrenheit, for example. Before I played TR, I was sceptical about the QTEs, too, I'm not a fan of these mechanics either, but I still had lots of fun with the game and I hardly ever got annoyed.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the game isn't using that many buttons, compared to previous Tomb Raider games, which is another reason why I liked the platforming and controls in this one better. And I believe even the bad kind of QTEs are only using Q and E mostly, and those are the ones you also use during regular gameplay all the time, so you won't have to search your keyboard for the right buttons to press. The QTEs aren't really meant to be a challenge either, they won't obstruct you in continueing with the game.

What you describe there is exactly what I consider to be classic QTEs I guess I'd call it and that is the mechanic I also dislike very much. Keeping that to a minimum is a good thing but in my mind never including it at all is better thing. A lot of people seem to dislike this mechanic. I don't know why developers continue to employ it at all considering that.

If it isn't a frequent thing that I have to play Simon-says, I'll probably like the game alright at least.

Dishonored (including Knife of Dunwall & The Brigmore Witches)
Dishonored is still my favorite game of all time & this DLC only re-affirmed it. KoD is pretty nice, but I feel tBW blows it out of the water. It's about on par with the base game. What really stood out were how colorful and beautiful Delilah's paintings were. They served a great contrast to Dunwall. Daud is also a freaking boss, as is Corvo (especially in the last level). The Corrupted bonecharms were also neat (Statuesque is the best bonecharm in the entire game). Daud's higher jumping height and new powers are also nice (the Time-Stop Jump & Pull are awesome).

Overall, it was great experience. I loved it to death and it replaced Dawn of War as my favorite game of all time, after 8 years :P

I have not really finished Emperor Rise of the Middle Kingdom yet, but spent hell too much hours on it this year ( just done 20 cities up to Tang Dynasty this year), I know it is an old game (2003) from the ex- Impression guys / tilt mill, but I revisited this game many times these few years.

Damn fine game, I like the old Caesar 3 walker system. The graphic is a major leap from Zeus series. Road block system further improved from Pharaoh where you have control to which group allow to past. Deities are back with even more varieties. What I like is the moving away from employee seeker walker - that help a lot on large limitation to place house hear to industry building. Interface is streamlined compare to Caesar one where you do not need to go to another screen to meet each of the adviser, the icon and all the data is in the same tab.Farm is revamp over Caesar 3 fix size farm where you get a farm house up with the plantation zone around that together with concept of different season for different type of plants. While I love Caesar 3 very much, I just couldn't go back to that after emperor.

Some people don't like the feng shui which is admittedly quite complicated and the homage to deities or just could not get into the culture. I think some details is oriental culture is a bit ambiguity, Feng shui however probably another level of challenge to the veteran and homage to deities actually a good way to reduce some extra inventory.

Recently, I challenge myself I make "perfect harmony" cites and done a glorious one at Xiang Yang with a population of 5000+, 6 figures city fund and 3 epic monuments.Turn out to be my own "best city". when harvest season arrived , it is kind of joy to watch the supply line full up and efficiently fulfill people's need or when to a chain to become expensive Finished good trade away for cash and the house upgrade to scenario's maximum and villagers walking happily.

If you like Caesar / pharaoh / zeus, and could accept the new culture give it a try, Vote it in wishlist and hope it release in gog soon.

Okay, so that really answers very well what I wanted to know for sure all along. Thanks. That I can live with for a game that is otherwise very good.

I'm transforming myself from someone who buys a ton of games and occasionally plays them, to someone who still buys a ton of games and occasionally beats them.

So far in 2013:

01-27-13 Trine 2 (Steam)
06-05-13 Bioshock Infinite (Steam)
07-25-13 Demon's Souls (PS3)
09-19-13 Cave Story+ (Steam)
10-10-13 Dark Souls (PS3)
11-04-13 The Stanley Parable (Steam) (not really a game that you beat, but I finished it, dammit!)[saw my ex gf's name in the credits. She works for Valve, now. Jealous.]

11-06-13 Dark Messiah Might and Magic (Steam)

Now for GoG games. Witcher 1 is going down next.

I like posting to my backloggery profile after I beat a game. Even if no one but me sees it, it gives me an incentive to finish, instead of just buying more games. Anyone else use backloggery?

I used to, but after a few months stopped, because to me it felt more like a chore than something fun. I get my incentive by posting here when I finish a game, although there's even less chance anyone seeing it here because I only edit my post for the current month, rather than post a new message each time. But I can see why Backloggery would help some people to finish their games - if the size of the backlog once they fully realize it, doesn't crush them first. But for me personally, this thread's enough: besides, the main reason I play games is because I enjoy them, not because I get to showcase them later ;)

I absolutely agree about playing games for enjoyment and not for trophies or achievements. At the same time, while writing my post above, I briefly relived my year in gaming in my head, and I enjoyed it all over again. It has been a great year so far! :)

I do: http://backloggery.com/Ghorpm
So it happens that today is my backloggiversary :D But I must warn you that my page is pretty messy. I keep it because I like to browse my unfinished games when I want to pick something new to play. Sometimes I see a game that I've already finished some time ago so I change its status and thus the date can be totally wrong. For example you can see that recently I've marked three 4X as beaten and there is no way you can do it in 72 h (I've played them for months!). I usually neglect "now playing" list too.

The second reason I like backloggery is that I can write a few words about each game I finish. It helps a lot because by reading this later I can immediately remember how was the game. My memory is like that - it's very good but sometimes needs a little nudge to recall everything with a clarity. Those few sentences do the trick and hence I try to write a short comment for every game I finish.