Still, it was before Dan Brown :) I knew those stories because I'm pretty interested in religion \ occult \ apocrypha, but for most players that was probably pretty new.
And Wandering Jew? The only other incarnation of him I can think of was in 100 years of solitude :)

Have you read Marcin Wolski's books? I believe quite a lot of them had similar stories about the religion and at least one of them (it was Krawędź Snu I think) has a lot about the Wandering Jew.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller also comes to my mind (just don't read the sequel, it was bad)

And as I said before I haven't read anything by Brown. I've also mentioned the only two facts I know about his books and since you mention that the GK3 story is somewhat similar I think I'm able to figure it out now. And it's not about Paris Meridian ;)

EDIT: And I've read a lot me medieval legends, every second or third of the has something about Wandering Jew ;)
EDIT2: One more thing: I believe such stories were cliché in 1999 mainly because the general idea of them is "an alternative history of Jesus Christ" and actually every second heresy (especially the early ones) is exactly that ;) So it's not really about Ban Brown. I believe you that he somehow popularized it but definitely there was nothing new nor original in his stories - similar stories has been told for centuries...

I just finished a game I would love to see on GOG: Quake. (Here's the wishlist entry.)

It was a great game when I played it (secretly) as a kid and it's still a great game today. The music and the sound effects are good and the graphic aged surprisingly well. At least in the original version, glQuake looks ugly. The only thing that didn't age well are the animations, they look very choppy but I got used to that fairly quick.
The journey took me 4,5 hours, which is much shorter than I remember it and back then I played on easy, this time I played on normal.
Sooner or later I'll play the mission packs. I never played them as a child and I played a bit of the first one around five years ago, I think.

Here's my list.

Hm, I haven't played GK3 so I can't judge how clichéd the plot really is, but if you're only referring to the variation of an old subject or theme, to the fact that others have told similar stories before, that alone is not what I would call a cliché. But maybe the way in which the story is told is very unoriginal and the subject treated quite superficially?

It's funny how many games I own from purchases with actual money but I'm finding my focus has been toward free games as of late.

What I played and finished:

Firstly, I've been digging the hell out of these RPG Maker/Wolf RPG Editor horror titles lately and played through several within the last month. Long before the only two I played were Yume Nikki (which is a great game) and .flow (a Yume Nikki fan game which is good but definitely not as good as YN), and now I have a bunch more I have downloaded, ready to play. I may give my thoughts on the following games soon but for now I'll just throw in a star rating next to them (out of a possible 5, or ***** stars).

Ib ****
The Crooked Man ****1/2 (by far my favorite one of these games as of this writing)
The Witch's House ***1/2
Mad Father ***1/2
Ao Oni ***
Hello? Hell...o? **1/2
Clock of Atonement **1/2 (not really a horror game per se but the subject matter is pretty damn dark)
Skinwalker **1/2

Most of these games are pretty short (the last three especially) so that's how I was able to go through them so quickly. I didn't haphazardly rush through them either, I did take special care in getting the best or "true" endings for all of the ones applicable, saw all the endings and paintings for the unlockable gallery in Ib, etc. I did need to consult a walkthough more than once, I will admit (some of the solutions being stupidly obvious that I failed to notice when I should have), especially, say, for finding certain well-hidden gems in Mad Father (necessary for the "full" ending).

Other games:

Through the Portal - an Amnesia full conversion custom story. Basically it imagines what might have happened right after the abrupt end of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, the "best" ending that is. Won't spoil it for those who have yet to play it (the ending is kind of meh I have to admit), but as for this custom story the environments are pretty amazing to behold. Extremely creative use of the game's resources and possibly some custom stuff. I know there are a number of custom stories that are pretty long and involved, possibly as long or longer than the actual original game itself, but this is definitely not one of them. This one can be completed in under an hour, maybe less if you know what you're doing. Not so heavy on scares, but there are a few chase scenes. Overall, thumbs up!

Sepulchre - another horror game, but this one is very different from the usual fare. No blood or gore (though there is rotting food!), jumpscares, monsters, chase scenes, basically nothing you'd expect from your average horror game made today. A very old-fashioned, Henry James type of horror you could say. And yet it still manages to be unsettling, so much respect for this game! It takes place on a train, and the story is... strange, to say the least. And confusing. Though there is a certain "twist" you might see coming right from the beginning, everything surrounding this twist and giving it context is highly ambiguous and I assume is meant to be symbolic. Though I still don't really quite understand the entire story, it manages to be a gripping one, with great voice acting and artwork, done by one of the guys who does art for Wadjet Eye's games (it looks, plays and feels a lot like a Wadjet Eye title in fact though this one was actually made by Owl Cave, the developers behind Richard & Alice). Definitely has its share of creepy moments even though, as I said, it relies not on any standard horror game tropes. Not a long title, maybe a half hour or so worth of gameplay, some basic puzzles, only a few rooms to explore and backtrack to and even fewer characters to talk to. A really good game though that manages to cram a surprising amount of substance in its limited confines. And it's free too! Though you can also buy it in a "deluxe" set (which I didn't know about when I downloaded the game) which includes I think a soudtrack, artwork, that sort of thing, but also I believe a book one of the game's makers wrote in .pdf form. So yeah, I liked this one a lot.

The 4th Wall - the only game on this list that I had to pay for (if you don't count the Amnesia custom story which requires actually purchasing Amnesia, which I had for a while anyway, to play it), though it was dirt cheap, something like $1.99. This one is also labeled as horror, though more than anything it's weird as fuck. Again, really short, but there's a lot of awesome-looking scenes and effects to behold. You'll definitely be tripping balls playing this, but I probably wouldn't recommend playing with hallucinogens, that'd be one hellish trip you'd have if you did.

I agree with you absolutely. Without spoiling anything let me just compare GK3 to previous games: GK1 is about voodoo and GK2 - werewolves. Both subjects are well known and there are thousands if not millions stories about them. But in those two games Gabriel and Grace were personally involved, strongly involved in those stories. So it was not the general idea (voodoo, werewolf) that made those games original - it was about those two characters, how would they respond to what was happening around them. And therefore it would be unjustified to say that those games are clichés.

GK3 is, however, completely different. There is nothing personal here, the plot doesn't influence the main characters one way or another. To the very end of the story I had a feeling that at any moment Gabriel could have said: "You know what guys? I don't give a shit about it, I'm leaving". That wouldn't be possible in previous games, starting from more/less middle of the plot line. In other words: GK1 and 2 were characters oriented, those were stories about Gabriel and Grace. Here, however, you cannot find anything like that so the game automatically becomes plot-oriented. And there were so many games/books/movies with conspiracy theories about religion, taking over the world, secret societies etc. that I think it's fair to say that the game is a cliché. That is at least my opinion :)

I think GK2 is my favorite, mostly because of its plot. I do agree with you that puzzles were not of the best sort...

I think it's worth to mention that some of the puzzles in GK3 are really good, especially when you control Grace. In previous parts she was doing her research automatically (even if you did control her actions in GK2). In GK3 you have to do it yourself. Sure, sometimes it can be a bit... artificial, depending on your own knowledge. For example I know a fair bit of Latin so I understood Latin phrases but I had to use in-game translator to progress the story. I also know who Ra or Isis are but still had to find this info in game to complete the task. But it doesn't actually diminish those puzzles. The most important part of them was that they couldn't be solved by random clicking on everything or trying every item from your inventory. You had to know exactly what and why you are doing. It was really enjoyable.

Sadly not every puzzle was like that. I believe GK3 is quite infamous because of its mustache puzzle ;)

Anyway, I think you won't miss that much if you decide to skip it but it's not that the game is bad. It's pretty solid and it's just much weaker than predecessors and hence by the comparison may seem to be bland.

I understand, and I didn't think it was bad, it's just that I have too many (adventure) games to bother with those that are only solid and not extraordinarily good or enjoyable. And like I said, I already had mixed feelings about GK2.

Just beat Intrusion 2. You know a game is good when you're on the final boss and cursing nonstop every time you die, but you just can't walk away from the game until you're done, and then when you do beat it you start yelping in triumph even though no one is around to hear you.

Admittedly the game had to grow on me a bit. The early part of the game isn't particularly interesting aside from giving you giant wolves to ride, and the scenery never changes from snowy mountain stuff. Also, the music is monotonous and it's not fun when the physics cause you to get trapped under a pile of boxes for a couple of minutes. From the mid-point on, though, the game gets increasingly intense and it's impossible to not love the bosses. Those dragon robots are pretty cool, too.

In the process of (still) trying to finish the story of Dragon Age: Origins, but I've got so much damn Physics and Calculus homework, I don't think I'll be able to finish it anytime soon :(

Now I finished...

- Dracula 1: the Resurrection ( To be continued… )
- Dracula 2: the last sanctuary (that's all folks! ...)
- Recettear : an item shop tale ( Now plaing unenless mode :) )
- Beyond: Two Souls ( the game is not bad but I did not expect another Heavy rain :/ )

Finished Cthulhu Saves The World today. It was fun but a bit repetitive in the end.

Full list here.

Finished Dust: An Elysian Tail Early this morning. It...wasn't as good as I was hoping. There were maybe 5 combos in the game. I feel as it's good for one playthrough and that's it.

My list

Just finished Midnight Mysteries 3: Devil on the Mississippi. There were a couple of spots where things seemed to deadend. Luckily there are plenty of hints to collect, so they weren't a problem.