Gabriel Knight 2 - The Beast Within

I think I've just outdone myself :) Yesterday in the morning I finished the first Gabriel Knight but I was so eager to learnt what happened next that... well... I bet you can you imagine how I spent those two days ;) The second game is finished and with a perfect score which is quite surprising! I think it's considerably easier than the predecessor but the story is even better. I was a bit surprised to see a polish actor Piotr Andrzejewski (a.k.a. Peter J. Lucas) as Baron Friedrich von Glower. Anyway, I don't think I have to convince anyone how awesome this game is.

Right now I have to consider whether I can spend two more days on Gabriel Knight 3. There is, however, one thing that repel me - the graphics looks awful, I hate early 3D. But on the other hand perhaps it's actually a reason why I should play it now - I'm so excited about those games at the moment that it's more likely I will be able to turn a blind eye to the way it looks.


Full list

Do it. True, it looks awful but the story is quite enjoyable (a little Dan Brown-ish but still fun) and the free-roaming camera works pretty well.

Wasn't that obvious from my post that I would ;) Can't resist.

As for Dan Brown... well I haven't read any of his books and I haven't seen any movie based on them. And the only things I know are that according to one of his books St. John was a woman and that the Paris meridian (which I've seen with my own eyes in Paris Observatory) is in a church. I'm not sure which of those two facts made me laugh harder when I'd learnt them.

I've been slacking. I was doing so well the first couple weeks of the year, then I started spending too much time on various online games that don't really end.

Anyway, just finished Mega Man X for the first time in quite a while. I used to be pretty good at the game (100% in ~45 minutes), so it was pretty frustrating dying all the time. My reflexes aren't what they used to be, and it has been too long since I played it.

Mega Man has completely sidetracked me from clearing out the NES backlog. I want to play the whole series now.

Detective Grimoire, a Kickstarter game that I backed. It was short and easy, but fun--I don't regret having sent $10 their way. It's the first project that I've backed and played; Legends of Dawn is apparently terrible (and more to the point, still being patched), and I'm holding off on Broken Sword.

Star Wars: Dark Forces

Phew, what an intense game. The inability to save mid-mission really makes a difference. But, frustrating as it was, I had fun with it. A very polished game, especially for its time, it is a game worthy of both its Star Wars name and easily stands proud along the rest of the Lucasarts classics. Let's see whether the sequel is better.

Oh, and if you are thinking about using the DarkXL source port, I'd advise against that. While the increased visual fidelity is nice, the missing music is disappointing and, even worse, the game would constantly freeze on me on the 9th level forcing me to restart the whole game because the DarkXL source port save files are incompatible with those generated normally by the game.

Games for the games list!

Both Jedi Knight and Mysteries of the Sith are real masterpieces.

Just 2 days ago I finished TES IV: Oblivion with all its expansions (it took me 127 hours more or less). Really fun game, even though it has its flaws, like a boring main quest (luckily there are many fun side quest to do) and none of your decision influence in any way the game.

Also, on Xbox I finished Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider: Guardian of Light and Brothers: Tale of two sons.

Now I'm going to play again The Witcher :D Even though, watching my backlog, I should play other games :D

I don't know that. I will reserve my judgement till I play them.

Funky Smugglers
Hard to say with an endless game, but I think I can mark this one as completed. Got every ingame archievement (except for 'Playing on Christmas Eve'), and unlocked every power-up and extra from the store. Can't expect more.

About the game: It's a casual game, clearly developed with mobile devices in mind, but to my surprise it also works surprisingly well with a mouse on a desktop PC. I had a lot of fun, the game will stay on my HDD and I'm sure I will return from time to time.

And last, but not least, I have to say that Funky Smugglers has one of the best soundtracks ever. I absolutely love it!


Lumen
A freeware game that looked very promising. But after playing, I have to say that I'm disappointed. The graphics and animations are very well done and the idea to manipulate your environment using photos is quite good and original, but unfortunately there are several negative points too. First of all the game is very short. I think you can beat it in 20 minutes if you know what to do. And you will know what to do, because the developers didn't believe in the player's intelligence and so the game tells you exactly what to do the whole time. If you will die that's probably only because of he controlling that doesn't work as smooth as it should. Also the voice acting is awful.

Altogether I wouldn't regar Lumen as a complete game, but more as a tech demo or a prototype for a future good game.


My complete list of finished games in 2014

Finished Chaser ( for the 3rd time ) 2 days ago .

maps / missions i hated :
Portland - Kabir
Light House - Sniper

favourite :
Little Tokyo
Nippon Hotel
Anadyr
Novyy Yeropol
Gulag
Spaceport

Started in 2013 :

PC :
- F.E.A.R 3
- Prototype

PS-VITA :
- Muramasa (not the alternate endings yet)
- Velocity Ultra

Started in 2014 :

PC :
- Bastion – Completed all the achievements.
- The Walking Dead : 400 days
- Brothers A Tale of Two Sons

PS3 :
- Vanquish (oh gods I love this game)

Finished:

Smugglers V - It's not perfect or stunning in any way, but it is a very fun game imo. The game is quite long, but can be casually played now and then, which I thought was great. Only things that bothered me a little were the rather unfair boarding battles ( could be just me not being very good at it though) and that the manual could have been a bit more thorough on what exactly each class/fraction can and cannot do. Would recommend the game to anyone that likes strategy games in space.

Complete list: http://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2014/post44

I just finished Dragon Age 2. Now, this is interesting, as it took me a couple of years to finish the first, as I didn't think it was that special and the general concensus seems to be that DA2 is much worse game, but I liked it. I see the issues the game has, like relatively poor map design and such, but the narrative of the game is pretty good and it sucked me in much better than DA1 did.

Interesting thing though, that almost all the male companions on the game are whiny idiots, or perhaps it was just because I played with a female character.