Quake + Scourge of Armagon + Dissolution of Eternity

Since I completed all the commercial id Tech 1 games, it was time to proceed to the id Tech 2 games, starting with Quake. Like Doom, Quake is all about near-zero story exposition, shooting evil monsters with a variety of weapons and exploring mazes to find keys that will allow you to proceed to the next level. Now, I think that Doom has aged very well, but what about Quake? Let's find out.

Quake is one of the first polygonal FPS games. As a result, it shows its age worse than Doom's timeless sprites. Granted, you can use the Epsilon Build (an enhanced version of the Dark Places source port) to enhance its visual quality quite a bit but, standing on its own, it's really not that impressive; I guess that's to be expected with early polygonal games. Despite that, Quake definitely has its own recognizable look, thanks to its suitably atmospheric and menacing gothic/medieval architecture (although, I'm not a big fan of the game's almost constant shade of brown) and the monster design.

Thankfully, Quake has aged better on the gameplay department. Quake's new additions over Doom are the mouselook and the power-ups (like one that temporarily quadruples the damage you deal or another that makes you temporarily completely invincible). All will be necessary to survive the game's challenges, whether it will be enemies who will be shooting at you with grenade launchers from platforms above or fast monkey-like creatures who like to leap around like crazy. Mouselook will be especially important, as the game doesn't sport auto-aim, unlike sprite-based shooters (which makes it quite puzzling that you need to hold down a button to enable mouselook). Quake also features more claustrophobic and interior areas along with fewer opportunities to take cover. Thus, your reflexes will be even more necessary to survive and standing still can be a fast one-way ticket to hell. Thankfully, almost no enemies feature hitscan weapons, so their attacks can be properly avoided for the most part. Of course, it wouldn't be a FPS without guns. On this department, Quake delivers so-so. On the plus side, the nailgun and the thunderbolt are cool new weapons but, on the other hand, the majority of Quake's weapons are the typical ones (shotgun, rocket launcher, grenade launcher) and the weight behind them doesn't feel as meaty as in other FPS. The shotgun (s), in particular, doesn't feel satisfying and the death animations aren't impressive at all.

Something that I didn't like about Quake is the repetition. You might say that this is an inherent danger to FPS games like this, but it is a bit more specific with Quake, as it becomes a formula. Enter an episode, begin in a space-themed area, encounter space-themed enemies, enter a portal to a medieval/gothic world, encounter other monsters, then encounter more powerful monsters and stick exclusively with the more powerful monsters till the end of the episode, with none of the weaker monsters to balance the pace a bit. Then, you enter another episode and rinse and repeat. It doesn't help that for the most part, Quake doesn't try hard enough to make each episode stand out but, thankfully, it does help that vast majority of the game's levels are short (won't take more than 10 minutes to complete each). Also, I didn't like the game's mostly ambient music. Ehhhh....

As for the expansions, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. While most FPS expansions are nothing more than some extra levels with nothing new to keep your attention, Quake's expansions are the real deal. New music (now with metal! YES!), new weapons, new power-ups, new enemies and even some new level themes, with the first expansion offering an interesting mine-themed area and the second one offering an ancient Egypt-like area, complete with mummies as opponents. Unfortunately, the stages are now significantly longer, with some of them taking over 20 minutes to complete. Oh well, you can't have them all.

In conclusion, I did enjoy Quake a lot. Not as much as Doom, but still enough to recommend it as a FPS that has stood the passage of time. Just make sure to use a source port so you don't have to constantly hold down a button to enable the mouselook.

Full list.

Edit: Lol, wrong page, sorry about that.

Sometimes: Success Requires Sacrifice
The concept of this game is simple but good. You play in total darkness. When you die (via suicide, rotating blades or grim reaper) a shiny angel appears and lightens a small area. You have to find and reach the exit of each level without dying to often (there's no limit, but you will get a higher score the lesser you die).

The concept is good, but there isn't much variety in the levels. That isn't too bad, because the game is also very short. You can complete the classic mode in 15-20 minutes. There are some more modes and each of them is fun to play for one or two times. Then the whole thing gets a little boring.

I'd really like to see a more complex and ambitious game with this concept.

Complete list of finished games in 2015

The Inner World

Another GOG game I've beaten thanks to Galaxy reminding me that it exists.

The Inner World is a point-and-click adventure game by "Studio Fizbin"; it appears to be those developer's only game to date, and is a solid freshman effort. You play (mostly) as Robert, a young musician, in a world located on the inside of a sphere. The world is dying because the wind is gone; the Wind Fountains, holes on the sphere through which the wind travels, have mysteriously ceased to function, except for one, which is ruled over by Robert's master, the sinister wind priest Conroy. The game starts with Robert leaving the palace to chase after a bird that's stolen a pendant belonging to Conroy, and, of course, ends with him saving the world. Along the way he meets secondary protagonist Laura, who is searching for his father.

Everything about this game oozes charm; the art style is lovely, the writing is good, and the story is no less fun for being a giant cliche. The puzzles are logical by adventure game standards, and there's a well-done built-in hint system. The voice acting can be a little spotty, but nothing too bad. I'd call it a solid recommendation, but it has one big weakness, which is that it's a technical mess. The voice acting is especially afflicted, frequently cutting out in the middle of dialogue, but twice I had to alt-tab out after the game effectively froze up, and I had to alt-tab out after beating it because it happened again at the credits. There's one part of the game where you talk to a bird, who also is supposed to periodically whistle at some workers. It seems obvious that what was supposed to happen is that the bird would pause, whistle, and continue talking, but what actually happens is that the bird stops, whistles, and all the voice acting cuts out for the rest of the conversation. This was a different problem from the previously mentioned one where that happens at random.

These technical problems didn't ruin the game for me, but they definitely knocked it down a notch. These problems aren't unique to my rig (they're mentioned in the second review on the GOG website), so competent play-testing should have caught them, and they should have been fixed. Being indie is not an excuse for this sort of thing.

Pitiri 1977
A well designed platformer with a beautiful soundtrack. Some of the abilities you can unlock are interesting, but all in all there's nothing you haven't seen in a platform game before.

The game is very easy and can be completed in under two hours.

Complete list of finished games in 2015

Entwined that I just got on my PS Vita thanks to the Playstation Plus program.

Very charming game, where you play simultaneously a fish and a bird (yes, I know... ^_^) You will have to complete 9 stages to make them go back together. It's a kind of action/puzzle game, since you will not control the fish and the bird's speed, you'll just have to make them pass trough portals. Of course, the disposition of the portals will greatly vary in difficulty once you arrive in upper levels and you'll need to be focused to succeed. Still it's far from being that difficult, since I finished the story mode. ^_^

It's a beautiful game, with stylish visuals and an atmospheric soundtrack that is just perfect for that kind of game. It's also very short, but can be longer if you aim for the completion of all trophies, since there are also challenges apart from the story mode.

I like it very much, but to be honest it's very short. And sometimes, the reliability of the Vita's sticks was a little questionable. At least for me, i found that they were a little "soft" in the feedback. Sometimes you think you passed through a series of gates... but no ! Oh, well, it's not a big thing, but it can become a little annoying in the upper levels.

Do I recommend it? Yes if you find it at a cheap price or can enjoy it from the PS+.

So far in 2015 : https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2015/post2

Fear Platinum, fun corridor shooter that can get a little repetitive. Worth a play through though.

Unemployment Quest
I always like when RPGs games use some other setting than the normal save-the-world one. In this game you play a young man who has to find a job. You fight enemies like doubt, shame, stress and rage and in the end the evil boss uncertain present.

Besides the scenario the game is pretty much a standard RPGMaker game. I wish the developer would have used some original graphics instead of the standard tiles and characters which don't go very well with the serious unemployment theme.

Complete list of finished games in 2015

Her Story

I enjoyed piecing together her story very much.

Medieval 2: Total War - Crusades expansion

Egypt - Hard. I find you run into more interesting and realistic tactical challenges on the campaign map on higher difficulties.

I felt like a bit of the macabre and occult, I'm trying to complete Silent Hill 2 currently. It's excellent so far.

I'm waiting for the remake. :P

Silent Hill 2 HD

In Water ending.

Classic videogame in the moderately old style of classic videogames, which I love. But was scary. ; ;

The story reminded me of The Shinning, which is a very good thing to be reminded of, on a scale of things that remind you of other things.

Planescape: Torment
Wow, this game is amazing. Had heard that it was really good, so I had high expectations. They were met. The story and writing were amazing. Not entirely sure what I thought about the ending, yet. Definitely would recommend to random strangers in the street (ok maybe not…)
Oh, and you may as well include me, though I'm not sure I see the point?

So far this year:

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Kane and Lynch: Dead Men

I'm hoping to add more to this list but for now:

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition: Normal mode.