Among the Sleep. (mild spoilers)

My biggest issue with this game is the price to value ratio. As a Kickstarter, they wanted 200k to make a 3-4 hour single player, linear game. While I will state that I liked this mini-game, it has no replay value. The 3-4 hours only comes when you add the DLC which came after the game's launch. The initial game was $19.99 for 2 hours of gameplay. I also did a fair amount of exploration to build up that 2 hours before I realized the game was ultimately on rails.

They also didn't do a very good job with the "enemies" in this game. There was either not enough clues to let you know you needed to hide, or there was no way to escape. Either way, reloading and doing the exact same thing lead to success. So, while it wasn't frustrating (which is a huge pro) it also didn't feel relevant or urgent to figure out the game mechanics. The story kept going anyway which removed a fair amount of suspense. It wasn't until after I finished the game and looked it up online that I realized what the intended experience was supposed to be. It matched my theory, but as I mentioned, the game didn't provide me the feedback needed to do what they expected.

On the positive side this was a very cool demo. You play as a 2 year old with all of the limitations and imaginations that come with that. They did a great job with perspective and translating the world to that of a 2 year old. The sounds, visuals, voices, and atmosphere are very well done. This one is also very creepy, which is nice with Halloween just around the corner ;)

Its very hard to discuss the subject matter without spoiling the ending completely, but I thought it was pretty obvious where it was going so I will say to those who don't like unhappy endings (especially with children involved), you may not like this one much in terms of story.

If you score this game in a bundle, I would highly recommend it. Its very well done as a new and/or interesting concept. In terms of actual value, I'd rate it around $1.99 (one tenth of the asking price). Most people will find very little reason to ever play this again after the first pass and with no typical elements that would lead to replay (exploration, character building, RPG, collecting, multiplayer, scores, random environment, etc). You have to look at how much entertainment the one play through provides... and with the DLC included that runs about 3-4 hours. (My time hasn't updated yet, but I think I'm actually rounding up. I believe I'm closer to 3.5 after finishing the DLC, and that also includes letting the game run a bit after finishing to collect the remaining 2 of the 3 Steam trading cards. Sadly, this puts my time at around 3 hours for a full completion of the game and its DLC. I'm not against shorter games... but the price needs to reflect that. Currently Dust: an Elysium Tale is 5 dollars cheaper than AtS and it has provided me 20 (TWENTY) times the gameplay time.

Dead In Bermuda

The first half was amazing. I honestly thought this was going to be the most interesting survival game I have personally ever played. It was really hard but fun trying to keep everyone alive while still efficiently exploring the island and upgrading the camp. Unfortunately, the game took a complete nosedive afterwards. Once the camp was completed, all challenge was lost. The characters had gain enough skill to harvest more food and medicine they could possibly even consume. Even worse, the game had the most artificial scripted events in any video game I've played. Even though we were living like kings (all things considered), the characters would still find a way to bicker over trivial things. And the most baffling thing of all, one character in particular had a major grudge towards another character and wanted him dead more than anything, because he thought he would be a major liability to the survival of the group. If I didn't have all the surplus of food, I suppose that would have been fine...except that the "liability" was the one who had built half of the campsite and brought tons of fish to the table every day. There was simply zero reason for him to be considered "worthless". So, one night he was poisoned and he died. What a bunch of bullshit. Come to think of it, the whole story-writing was sub-par. You're not just trying to survive on the island, there's also a "mysterious prophecy" you have to solve. I won't spoil what it is, but essentially, it's nothing at all. A waste of time more than anything. There's also a sub-plot about "one character possibly being a spy who needs to be eliminated", FFS. You're stranded, maybe focus all your energy on trying to find a way home? And the one last thing that really irked me, was in the interface. During the night phase, you feed people by dragging fruit to characters, one piece at a time. This is really annoying: why can't there be an automatic "feed all" function? Now I had to give four to five fruit to everyone, one fruit at a time, until all 8 people were fed. That's frigging 40 drag 'n' drops every single night. God!

So basically, it's a game that could have been really awesome, but it's vastly marred down by incredibly infuriating writing, a lack of challenge once you've completed the camp, and an interface that's less than stellar.

I am working on Arc the Lad (1) to have at least 1 game finished this year..

It is the shortest in Arc the Lad trilogy :) Arc the Lad II on other hand is quite long, so I am not sure I will finish another Arc the Lad this year :)

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey 2 (via PlayOnLinux)

It's actually a movie and lacks the charm of point'n'click adventures although some areas do look nice but quite dead.
Rails... moving around... combat (dafuq?)...stealth... rails... endless cutscenes... combat....no immersion... untouching artificially sad scenes... open end.... "buy the next part to see the end, maybe"...
Controlling it with mouse and keyboard was so terrible (btw: Inverted X axis? Seriously?), that I switched to a gamepad and it was indeed designed as a console game which becomes obvious from the very beginning.
The "puzzles" are ridiculously easy, you only have 2-3 items in your inventory most of the time and if you missed the musical notes played in one moment in the game, you can't solve a puzzle and have no chance to hear the notes again.
The German voice-over was one of the most terrible I've ever encountered. You are reminded all of the time that nobody knew what they were actually talking about and which expression to use when reading the script.
The characters are not very well written overall but the main character Zoe is the worst. She is a pampered rich girl that aborted her studies, does not work, abandoned her boyfriend without any real reason (and he is not even mad) and complains about her not knowing what to do with her time while watching TV most of the days, partying and being extremely unreliable which for some reason nobody really minds apart from her female martial arts trainer that in the end only complains a bit about it. If it would have been a guy, the father would surely have minded that "his little prince" is a lazy bum and he would have thrown him out of the apartment to get a job.

It was a waste of time and I hope that Dreamfall: Chapters is way better then this.

List:
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2015/post68

Kind of agree. Its been a while since I played it, but I remember my reaction was similar to Deus Ex 2 (Invisible War). How could it go so far what everyone loved?

I played TLJ about 4 times. Barely finished Dreamfall. I'll play Chapters when its 100%. I don't want to get into a situation where I'm ready for more game and waiting on the devs. But my expectations are significantly lowered, so hopefully I won't be too disappointed.

I've had my eye on that game, but not sure I want to pay full price for it. Do you think it's worth full price (or the $10 it is now?)

I love the Blackwell games. Unbound is probably my favorite, love Lauren and Joey's dynamic. I really would try and go straight into Epiphany after Deception, though. Epiphany is amazing, and really benefits from having just played through the other games. If it was on sale, I'd buy it for you. :P

Bummer. I was interested in seeing this game, but think I might wait for it to be on sale.

I know what you mean. I loved TLJ with a passion, by 2nd favorite video game ever. Dreamfall was really disappointing. And although the plot and where they went was interesting, it just felt like it was going in a completely different direction than the first game. I'm still marginally excited about Chapters and hopefully the game after that where we tidy up April Ryan's story and not Zoe's, but I don't have as high of hopes as I did with the first game. <3

Games I finished in 2015 so far:
Call of Duty 2 Big Red One
Transformers Rise of the Dark Spark [3DS version]
Kings Quest 4
Wing Commander IV [PS1 version.]

Shadowrun Returns.

Shadowrun Returns is a reboot of the Shadowrun series, and is a turn based RPG set in a cyberpunk universe.

The combat is turn based as previously mentioned, and is of the original Fallout style. You can freely move in combat as long as you have Action Points to spend, so you can attack and then retreat if you've managed your Action Points well. I appreciate it using this style of turn based combat than the more common "stand in one place and take turns hitting each other" style.

There are several preset classes to choose from, most are your standard "mage", "gunner" "conjurer" etc just under different names. You can also build your own more or less. Instead of Experience Points you get Karma, which is exactly like Experience Points, which you spend (obviously) to upgrade your character.

The upgrade system is a bit different than most here, as each skill upgrade costs you the equivalent of the skill's number listing. So "Quickness 7" will cost you 7 Karma. Another interesting thing is each class/style's skill is limited by an overall or ruling skill. You can't raise an individual skill past whatever its ruling skill is. For example Rifles are governed by Quickness, if your Quickness is at level 7 then you can raise Rifles up to 7 but no further until you raise Quickness. Of course every couple of levels in a skill grants you some new ability.

The levels are mostly short but to the point in a good way. Before many missions you'll be allowed to choose companions to bring along, as well as having certain characters tied to you by the plot. The characters that you're forced to bring along tend to be underpowered compared to the generic hired goons.

Difficulty wise I have to make a special note that (on medium at least) the game is VERY easy. I faced maybe three fights in the entire game that could be described as "difficult", and all three were due to me being dumb and not really paying close attention.

The story and writing overall is well written, though nothing innovative and is a bit "by the numbers" for the cyberpunk genre. Each character is interesting and each has something to say that is worth listening to. However there aren't that many characters to talk to, you'll mostly be talking to the same ten or so people the entire game. On that note, there is no real flavor dialogue during missions so you might as well bring the more powerful hired goons instead of the unique characters.

The sound design is serviceable, not too bad and not too bad. The music is good but extremely repetitive, it seemed like there might have been ten minutes of actual music.

The atmosphere is well done and the graphics are great. Everything looks hand painted, and everything (characters, backgrounds, environment etc) looks high quality.

Overall I really enjoyed Shadowrun Returns. It's short and easy, but it's worth a playthrough if you're looking for a break from "ye olde medieval" RPGs.

Capsized. Interesting platform shooter. Pretty nice graphics, although the environments are a tad monotonous. It's based around this idea that the shipwrecked astronaut you control can shoot in any direction, hop pretty far through the lighter gravity, or use a grappling beam sort of like a bungie cord to propel you even higher or to grab objects around you and then pull or fling them around, sometimes at enemies. It's not a bad idea for an action game but it does result in a very floaty physics-based sort of experience, which isn't my favorite kind of action.

I didn't mind playing through it, but even though it's not an especially long game I still found myself relieved for it to be done with. Being that it is short, and it grades you on your level performance, it's clearly designed to be replayed but I uninstalled it right away (and my grades on the last few levels were pretty low...). I probably sound more down on it than I mean to be. It's an okay game but...it's just an okay game :)

Hitman: Blood Money

One of my favorite series, but only just got around to the 4th one. Blood Money does the series proud, though i'm not convinced it's better than the first 2, but probably better than Contracts. The levels feel, if anything, smaller and less open than the earlier games, but still full of good content.

I ran a DVD Rom version, not Steam- so i tracked down the most recent patch and played it with no issues at my desktop 1920*1200 with all setting at highest. My PC may be getting a bit old, but Blood Money, as a 2006 game would have been made to run and sell to people still using single core processors, so anything Core 2 and later should be just fine i'd say. Graphics are fine at higher res, but i don't think the engine was the absolute cutting edge even for it's time.

Gameplay is still the classic Hitman style, just let down from time to time by clumsy controls- by that i mainly mean how hard it can sometimes be to select from several items on the ground...you find yourself often walking around, backward and forwards over the same spot just trying to finally select the thing you want whilst accidentally changing disguises, picking up wrong items, whilst accidentally activating the elevator etc. But since things were rarely time sensitive, the clumsiness didn't impact too badly, but was annoying.
It would also have been nice if they had of put in the manual how to bring up the briefing screen in mission...it's not in the keylist, and i came to assume the game simply didn't have the feature until i accidentally discovered it was "b" during mission 5. It now sounds obvious "b" for briefing though i suppose.

Overall a great game with quite a bit of replayability for perfectionists, as there are many ways to achieve your objectives with varying degrees of professionalism. And most of all, top marks to the developers for the ending- quite original and one of the best endings of any game. Far too often developers screw up, otherwise good games, by seemingly being completely clueless as to how to end them.

And then I got to Hitman: Absolution. To say I was unimpressed would be an understatement. Remove the hitman standard tactical map, replace being sneaky with pressing the "instinct" button, replace context sensitive controls with every button on the keyboard and add QTE's.

Congratulations, you've successfully ruined Hitman! There's no way that series is recovering from that. Not even a miracle. Sorry to kill your Hitman buzz, but whoever made the brilliant first four has left the building. Someone took old Yella out the back and fibre wired him.

Surely one of the great videogame disasters of 2012.

<span class="bold">Rune Classic</span>

In all its pure Viking goodness, Rune brings you to a journey into the far north as Ragnar, the youngest among the “Odinsblade” warriors, mighty fighters tasked with protecting the rune stones that hold the mad god Loki in his prison.
As you might expect, a traitorous leader of another clan is roaming the land doing just the contrary, trying to bring chaos with the aid of of the Trickster himself, and foiling his plans will be up to you.

During your quest, you will travel among caves, dungeons, crypts, citadels, icy peaks, woods, Dwarf cities and towns hidden among the mountains in what is probably the most picturesque and detailed game among those made with the first Unreal Engine, of which the game also retains the great performance. Technically speaking, for a game coming from the year 2000 it is nothing short of impressive, and imo the graphics hold incredibly well even today, with a native 1080p resolution and a flawless, contant framerate.
The art direction is superb, and the animations of the many different enemies (counting crabs, goblins, orcs, giants, dwarves, undead and several more, each one with its peculiarities and tactics) always fluid.

All of this helps in defining the fast and gory gameplay, a perfect hybrid between action and platforming.
Many expect to see a kind of Dark Souls (whether good or not, that game gets too many praise for ideas clearly borrowed from much older games as if they were From Software's original ones, imo), but that is not the case: the combat system does not even brush against the depth of its contemporary Blade of Darkness, and it consists in simple, basic hit combos defined by the direction of your movements like in a third person hack'n'slash; while removing the one-on-one “dueling elegance” and tactical aspect of the above mentioned game, this improves a lot the speed and the satisfaction coming from battling several enemies at once like a berserker. One of the main mechanics of the game revolves in fact on the “rage bar”, a special counter that can be filled with each connecting hit; once you have maximized it by battling without pause, Ragnar will go berserk – the bar will deplete very quickly with passing time and hits taken, but in the meantime you will have a greatly increased attack speed and power and your base hit points will not be touched, giving you a sort of temporary “rage shield”.
Your arsenal is divided in swords, axes ans maces, with five different models a kind, each one varying in damage output, speed, range (aside from their material length, all can be thrown if necessary) and special powers; those last ones can be activated by consuming your rune power bar, the equivalent of mana, with effects like fire hits, vampirism, invisibility of petrification.
Neither health nor power regenerates automatically, so you will always need to keep an eye for food and runes.

The platforming sections are also excellent; while the game is quite linear, it gives you a great freedom of approaches in very numerous (44, if I'm not mistaken) and large maps with a very well studied verticality and filled with traps, monsters and simple riddles, making the game much more interesting than a simple “run and jump”.

The game has perfect controls, great sights and an awesome frenetic gameplay (both in combat and in platforming), but I wouldn't call it perfect due to a few issues.
First of all, two of the last levels there are a couple of severe bugs, I'll give you the solution here with minor spoilers that will not affect your enjoyment of the title in any way. I'll try to be vague: in a certain map, the road is blocked until all enemies has been killed; the problem is, they first need to swim in a certain pool to be transformed in more dangerous ones, and if you are quick enough to kill them while they are still “small” the bars won't ever be removed, making you stuck until you restart the map.

In the following level, some enemies are trying to break a wall in a small cutscene; once they do, the game freezes 100% of the times due to a serious problem with the rendering of sounds. The solution is setting the sound to 0 before that event; after that, you'll have no more problems.

My last issue is with the Hard difficulty setting, draining all the fun from the game: the enemies are damage sponges and the rage bar will almost never be full, so you will have to adopt an extremely, pointlessly long and boring “hit and run” strategy that will only get you frustrated.
Rune is already challenging enough on Normal, it is infinitely more enjoyable and it is definitely the way it was meant to play.

I know what you're saying, but i have a morbid fascination sometimes with maligned games. So i just started playing Absolution anyway. Well, at least i know in advance what to expect since plenty has been written about it now, so i can approach with an open mind, knowing what to expect, and see if it may still be okay in it's own way. I've played the first tutorial map...and speaking of map, where did it go? I hate not having a map. But otherwise it's feeling more like a military stealth game rather than a Hitman game. I'll reserve judgment for now.

Seems like plenty of people got used to the changes and liked it fine, so don't let me ruin if for you. :P

I get considerably grumpy old gamer about Absolution but It's got mostly positive reviews.