I didn't think it was as good as all that. I like it, it is certainly a solid example of the JRPG genre, I just didn't feel like it went above and beyond like a lot of people seem to think.

Though if I'm entirely honest, it has been so long since I played I can't remember much about it. The battles were almost standard turn-based with a little tweak. I hated the main character (not as much as som tri-Ace protagonists, but still), and I also recall some girl that followed you for half the game and I hated her too. I wasn't particularly impressed by the plot either, but I can't remember if that was because it was the same sort of thing every other JRPG does or if it was different but unimpressive.

I didn't dislike it, it was just very easy to lump it in with the piles of JRPGs released at the time.

Unbelievably, I read this and it made me want to play it, just to see how bad it is. LOL

In that case, if you didn't happen to buy it already, I would suggest you wait for a good price drop (got mine for a whooping €0.59) on Humble Store.

Just finished System Shock. It was my second time, first time a looong time ago. Yeah, this game got the atmosphere very nicely. I think other difficulty settings were at max except "mission", because I didn't like the idea of being imposed of a 7 hour time limit for the whole game. Luckily I didn't try that, in the end I clocked over 21 hours of total playtime. I like to take my time to, I hate time-limited games.

I think it only adds to the brilliance of this game, that the time limit is there if and only if you want it. I would like to see more games with a customizable difficulty like SS, especially decoupling mini-games and combat. I found the JRPG-combat in Anachronox too easy at times, but at hard the "shoot'em up" minigames were just too hard.

True. How I wish e.g. Rise of Nations (a RTS) had an option of switching off the major mission timers, but keeping the rest of the game intact. I really like the challenge the RoN enemies give you at highest difficulty setting (you really have to work for it), but then there is that obnoxious "oh, and if you don't destroy all your enemies in 90 minutes, it's game over man." on top of it all. Gah!

Really nice to see yourself finally holding your own against the enemy and one by one conquering cities from them (while fending them off from your own cities), and suddenly realizing you will lose anyway because you have only 15 more minutes to play the mission. And start all over again, hoping to rush faster that time.

Any game can be made difficult by imposing a tight time limit on top of it. Say, if all Quake levels had a timer for 5 minutes, after which everything would blow up and you'd have to start the level all over again. Whee! Timers should be used sparingly and should make some sense in that mission, like a rescue mission or something. I didn't mind the time limit e.g. at the end of Halo where you are racing to safety, or at the end of Descent (or was it Descent 2, or both?). The time limit made sense in those cases.

Yeah. I'm not into RTS since I suck at them (strange exception: Z), but for me it's the same in TBS. I hate turn limits. It's okay if they are in some missions (like in Incubation) but I never could get along with the likes of Panzer General. I like to do tactical manoeuvring, slowly getting my units in the best position. With those turn limits AND semi-random outcome of battles this just doesn't work for me.
Is this really finishable? I only know the old SCs (1 and 2000) and I would gather them under "neverending games" like Civ or other "every time different" games.

No, you're right, it's still an endless game. Although I'd probably consider it a goal to have a few big and prosperous cities that make use of all the different options the game provides you with. And from what I've seen there's not the slightest chance I could have gotten there during the couple of days since SC4 was released here. That's why I did the "badum tsh".

Ok, understood. I kind of assumed you did have the game before the GOG release and maybe played through all the scenarios (does SC4 have them?).

If it does I haven't found them yet.

The Lost Vikings, after the free release, finished yesterday. So I can say I finished a game 20+ years after first starting it... Quite nice up to level 30, though not something I'd be playing now if not for the nostalgia, expectations of games have changed a whole lot, but whoever designed those final levels was a sadist! 31, 32, 34 and 36 (so and so 37) at least, not a question of figuring out what to do but of managing to do it... Lost count of deaths before each little advancement, and then of course once I managed one thing I'd screw up the next and have to start it all over again, time and time again. Gave up for a short while there, but then got back to it and somehow managed.

I remember playing up to the alien spaceships but don't really remember anything after that, are there many levels after those ?

I might have to restart that great game one of these days...

I finished Blades of Avernum before the last weekend.

This game took me 46 hours to beat which makes it the shortest Spiderweb Software game I have finished so far. That says a lot about the length of these games. (Hint: Buy it ^^)
There where a few improvements in the engine, for example a glowing line around the active character which improved the battles greatly, more potion icons to tell them apart, spells up to level six instead of three and the tool-skill became even more important than in Avernum 3. (In Avernum 1+2 the tool-skill was mostly useless.)

This game is divided into four scenarios.

Valley of Dying Things:
In a small valley the crops are dying and the people are getting sick. Everything startet when the water of the river startet to burn the throats of the people drinking it. Perhaps the abandoned magic school upriver has something to do with it?

A Small Rebellion:
On a small island the people are oppressed and worked to the death by the cruel lord. Do you join the child-slaughtering government or do you join the child-slaughtering rebels?

The Za-Khazi Run:
Avernum wages the second war against the evil Sliths. An important fort was cut of the supply route and the only path left leads though "Za-Khazi" and area where no human (Nephilim / Slithzerikai) has reached the end before.
You only have two weeks. Wil you make it or will the soldiers in the fort become victims to your greed?

Diplomacy With the Dead:
A newly settled forest area is plagued by the undead. You are hired to hunt down the one leading the dead but what will you do when you find out the secret the local lord is hiding?

Here's my list.

If you mean the second spaceship phase, after the wacky world, that's the end, levels 34-37.