Finished F.E.A.R.. Despite what I heard previously about this game, it is not in anyway a horror game or a game with scary moments, most of these moments are telegraphed in advance and are not particularly spooky. Even though the atmosphere of moving through office buildings and warehouses is tense, these horror elements don't add anything. The story is decent; however, the revelation towards the end wasn't surprising.

However, the strength of the game lies in the frenetic firefights. The gunplay feels weighty and the firefights are fierce and often deadly, all taking the place in dimly lit locales. My favorite part of the action is the large amount of dust that is kicked up during the firefights, really adds to the intensity.

So far:
Kingdom Rush: Frontiers
Kingdom Rush
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
FEAR

Titan Attacks isn't a game that can truly be finished, because it's about bumping up your high score, but I did clear the first wave and beat the final boss. It's a stylish Space Invaders take-off which is quite fun. My only real complaint is that the final level is so dark that it can sometimes be tricky just to see your enemies against the dark background.

Yeah, you're right, as there's no separation between the video, animated part and the part where the buttons prompt, it's actually sometimes very difficult to see what buttons are coming up, especially when you have to press simultaneously several ones...

A few classics.

GTA San Andreas (god damn it ryder)

1nsane

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But i mostly play online games as the AI is normally pretty dumb nowadays (which is thankfully changing with UE4 and games like Insurgency. The AI shooter demo on UE4 is amazing)

That looks nice! Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

To The moon mini episode 2 (1st march 12:20)

interesting, dont want to say more then that

Murdered: Soul Suspect.
It's Okay.
No, seriously, it's probably the first game I'm totally indifferent to. I can't say it's rubbish, neither I cannot say it's superb. It has quality well moments, say my favourite attention to details, that is very important for narration and immersion, yet at same time game fails exactly at this department. Game flow is strange, those action elements ("combat") are weird and off place, IMHO, and faceroll QTE only leaves "why the hell they added it" taste. If I'm not mistaken, there are about two dozens of enemies, some of whom you can bypass without repercussions, and fighting them doesn't really changes pace (thankfully this doesn't breaks flow), like different moments in, I don't know, Half-life or LA Noire did. I'd prefer this game to be more like Blackwell series, without any action stuff, and far more suitable to calm, peaceful (more or less) "detective" gameplay, well-suited for casual approach.
However, game has those little irritating things. For example, fonts. Those a-la hand-written notes are quite "atmospheric", but very hard to read (Delta Force: Black Hawk Down did it better, LA Noire did it better and even Blackwell series did it better). In addition, that font colour is mix of white and blue on black. For Szarik's sake, this combination it's very difficult to read (yes, I do hate current Steam's "bluey" colours). Despite the fact that game has a lot of "collectibles", those collectibles have little meaning, as they don't have personal representation, be that picture (Crysis style) or model (Resident Evil 4 style). If they have - then I couldn't open them. :D
Another problem is UI. Thankfully, in most cases basic controls are fire and there are no famous Fallout 3 "pick up ammo/drink nasty water" dilemmas, yet if you want to scroll through above-mentioned collectables lists, you can't just hold your key, you have to press it every damn time. And, contrary to hint, left mouse button doesn't opens them.
On technical side game is done more or less fine, yet 30 FPS lock causes stutters when you running, or crossing "demon traps". Turning V-Sync off is not really helping.
Judging by length of Credits, you may think it's huge project, not some indie stuff, but game certainly lacks that "quality feel" some other projects do have. Despite long list of Voice-Over actors, you can't really feel that, again, contrary to GTA IV, for example. While this game has tonnes of NPCs and you can mind-read most of them, most of them have just two phrases, and most of them have same phrases. In addition, voices you hear during short scripted conversations, that played when you're approaching certain NPCs, these voices do not match "mind read" voices. So in this area game does reminds me of Divinity 2, that has same problem, and sadly, that's not a compliment. Core characters did their job well enough, though.
To make long story short (probably I should do this earlier, eh?:)), this is decent casual game, casual is not derogatory here - even hardcore gamers do need something simple, when their brain can't process amount of data found in hardcore games. So being too simple is not that bad - calculating enemies' patrol paths is child's play for anyone playing any "stealth" game, be that Commandos, Thief, Splinter Cell, Crysis, or any other. Puzzles are simple, and "bruteforce" works there as charm, but really, I've mistaken only four times or so, and I'm not puzzle person.
So, do I recommend this game for purchase? Heh, I don't know:). If you buy it on HumbleBundle, like i did, with big discount, then why not? It may be funny experience and attention shifter, especially if you won't expect much. Since we are Master Race, we are deprived from world's famous cinematic experiences of David Cage and alike, and this will work as substitute, should you want to seat back and relax. Especially if you have someone who does not mind to seat near and watch you're playing (or vice versa). But paying full price for it, even if justified from economical standpoint? Nope. Sadly, this game lacks those things that click in your head and make you liking them. To not to be unfounded, To the Moon clicked. Even if it was more expensive (I have all other games from HB), much shorter (3 hours vs about 12 hours, but I've been thoroughly searching through M:SS' levels), having worse visuals, no voice-over, and not being game at all. Yes, To the Moon have better music, but hey, it was more expensive!:)
Sorry for taking your time, thank you for spending it while reading this, I hope you'll like as much as I liked writing it;), but this game left rather unique impression, so I decided to write it down.

I'm not sure how the days get so busy when I'm not doing much of anything extra-curricular, but they do. I've just finished House of 1,000 Doors - Family Secrets, a hidden-object game of the usual occult stripe; I was curious about this one, because it turned up in several bundles here and there, and has good Steam reviews. So I checked it out.

There's some (proper) controversy in the House of 1,000 Doors Community Hub because Steam has this listed as an Adventure Game, which it pretty much isn't, rather than a Casual Game, which it is (and which is where Artifex Mundi lists their superior products). In fact it is a very middle-of-the-road casual hidden-object game - good enough for a bundle purchase, but not a shining example of the genre.

I've often wondered why I play these games, which seem to appeal to the same part of my brain that played Minesweeper and Spider Solitaire for so many years. I like the fact that they fit into an episodic schedule - I have trouble sinking my teeth into a good big giant RPG, because life takes me out of the house a lot and bigger games always languish unfinished. It's nice to know that I can get into one of these, play it over the course of a couple of days, and then move on without distractions. I guess that's really the main thing. They are soothing when I'm busy and distracted. On the other hand, in game terms, these are essentially on the level of those circle-the-hidden-word magazines - and I prefer crosswords.

Anyway, here it is. The game is good enough, but nothing special - it's adventure-lite wrapped around a core of hidden-object puzzles, which can't be skipped. There are a few other puzzles, which are easy, and a story that efficiently moves from place to place, though it doesn't give you a lot of meat. There's a haunted house, you see, that materializes from time to time in different places, and you are invited there after attending a local seance, and - well, don't worry about this. It's enough of a bare excuse to get you to Badlow Island, where the house is about to manifest. Also on Badlow Island is the Statue of Liberty. Again, don't worry about this. You won't be going to the Statue.

The game has strengths and weaknesses. If you like looking for the hidden objects, the devs have taken care to obscure some of them in clever spots where they can be quite hard to find. That's likely to annoy you if the seeking business is not your thing. On the other hand, House of 1,000 Doors suffers a great deal from "what the hell is that doing there?" syndrome, which speaks to me of slapdash design. The art is solid and the music is pretty; there is relatively little voice work, and what there is tends to the bland but clear. Animations are pretty poor, but that's not what you're here for - in case it wasn't clear, this is not an adventure game (which is still how it's classified on Steam).

Many - most? - of the protagonists in these games are women, which may speak to the intended audience. Here you play Kate Reed, a psychic and author of one occult bestseller and not much since. Once you get to the titular house, you'll "solve" several ghost stories before the game is over. Backtracking is largely under control, and you can fast-travel back and forth on the map; even in Expert Mode the game's map shows which locations have actions to complete, which renders the Hint button largely superfluous. Apparently, there are two other House of 1,000 Doors games which follow Kate's exploits.

In short, this game fills a bit of time and is entertaining and attractive, if not really well-made. It's good enough to play, but stick with Artifex Mundi games if you want to play a good one. Steam says I spent 8.3 hours in there playing the basic game plus the standard Bonus Chapter, which here as elsewhere is long, back-and-forthy, and uninspired. There are no achievements, even though there's a "click-them-all" challenge of 35 "Beyond Objects" that runs through the game. I missed two, but since there are no achievements there was no real reason to go back and get them.

TotalBiscuit does a funny 20-minute Steam Sells video roasting the game: predictably, he's not a hidden-object fan, and he's quickly enraged by the mechanics.

The Year Thus Far

Edit: The whole Statue of Liberty thing was bothering me - what was it doing there? - so I poked into it a little further. As you may know, it stands on Liberty Island, in New York harbor. What I didn't know, though, is that up until 1956, Liberty Island was named Bedloe's Island. Aha! This brief message is brought to you by the Department of Learning Something New Every Day.

Nox
This was one of the first games that I've bought when I joined GOG nearly three years ago and so I thought it would be time to finally play it.

It's a solid action RPG, but everything (story, design, game mechanics, fighting) is pretty much standard. I have to say that that I still enjoyed it and that I was hooked after a while. Don't know exactly why, but somehow these kind of games are quite addictive to me.

I completed the warrior's quest and it wasn't too difficult. I still died several times, but that was normally when new monsters where introduced and I had to find the right strategy to deal with them. Quests for the other two classes are at least partly different and so the game has good replaybility. There's also a Solo-Quest-mode (survive as long as you can) and a Multiplayermode (I seldom play multiplayer-games, but I've heard good things about this one).

Overall the game was fun and if you like the genre you should give it a try.

Complete list of finished games in 2015

I've been meaning to post in this thread for two months now, so here I am! You can include me :D

I've done a lot of damage to my backlog so far this year, but I've also bought a lot of games, so it's neverending! I've made an effort to play through a lot of fighting and arcade games since they've been piling up in various compilations. Anyways, here's my haul so far:

Final Fight - Amazingly, I had never actually played this game. I didn't have a SNES growing up and none of the arcades near me had it, at least not that I can recall. It was a pretty fun game, though I need to track down the sequels now.
The King of Dragons - This is one of my favorite beat 'em up games of all time! I've beaten it so many times, but it's always a blast to run through. Even though it was a SNES home-exclusive (I think?), I actually played through this one in the arcade. And I would eventually purchase the SNES cart, though I played it this time on one of the Capcom collections.
X-Men (1992) - I had played this one before, but I don't think I ever actually finished it. I think I always ran out of money before that happened :P It's a pretty fun game, but hey, I love beat 'em ups.
Knights of the Round - I remember looking at this game, along with The King of Dragons, in Nintendo Power and thinking how much fun it would be...if I had a SNES!! After all these years, I must say I was rather disappointed in it. It wasn't a bad game by any means, but just not quite as good as the other beat 'em ups I had recently played.
Yoshi's Story - This is another game from the '90s that I didn't get a chance to play when it first came out. This was a really different game, compared to the Mario platformers. I think it was fun, but I'm not entirely sure how I beat it.
Double Dragon Trilogy - I played through this one on Steam and it was a pretty fun romp. I finished all three games, but man, the third one was pretty rough. I played a little bit of co-op as well.
Northmark: Hour of the Wolf - This was a nice, casual card game that I played a lot while watching sports. It wasn't super great, but it held my interest and wasn't too demanding.
Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell - Alright, now this game was a BLAST! I'm a huge fan of the Saints Row games (played everything from 2 on, including DLC) and this one was fantastic. I managed to get over 10 hours out of the game, which isn't bad since I picked it up for $5 from GameStop!
Bloody Roar II - I bought the first Bloody Roar when it came out and loved it. This one was pretty much just more of the same, but that's okay since it's still a fun fighting game.
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! - I wish I would've played this game co-op, but it was still a lot of fun. Much like Saints Row, I'm a big fan of this series and have played pretty much everything they've released. I think the next one needs to shake it up a bit since it was kind of a slog towards the end, but I had fun the whole time.
Costume Quest 2 - I was a big fan of the first game and this one was just a continuation of that one. The battle system was enhanced a little bit and I thought they did a good job of ramping up the difficulty from the first one, which was pretty much a cakewalk the whole way through.
Giants: Citizen Kabuto - This game just gets better every time I play through it! I've beaten it countless times, including a playthrough on the PS2, but I always get hooked. If you've never played this, DO IT NOW!
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker - I enjoyed the Captain Toad puzzles in Super Mario 3D World, but I was a little skeptical that the gimmick could hold through for an entire game. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised and it was a great game from start to finish. I would've went for 100%, but alas, my backlog is much too large right now :P
Meltdown - I think I got this in a bundle for maybe a dollar or something and wow, it was GREAT! I sunk 7 hours into it and considered going even longer.
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd - This was just more of the same, just with different songs. I thought there were a few stinker songs on this one, but the gameplay was superb, just like the first one. I'm really looking forward to the new 3DS game in a few months.
Mario Kart 8 - Well, it took me long enough, but I finally went back and completed all of the races in this game. I love all of the Mario Kart games, though the stupid blue shell is sooooo infuriating!!
Ryse: Son of Rome - This game took me by surprise. I loaded it up on a whim and was hooked right from the beginning. It looked phenomenal, even with a low graphics setting and I really dug the gameplay / upgrade system.
Snatcher - YES!! I finally played this game! This was one of the main reasons I finally plunked down the money for a Sega CD. Well, this and all of the terrible FMV games that I strangely enjoy quite a bit. Anyways, this game had a fantastic story and the gameplay was unique and addictive. It'd be nice to see a remake or even an official Policenauts translation at some point.
Cosmic Carnage - Meh, this was a pretty weak fighting game. I only picked it up since I was trying to bolster my 32X collection (yeah, that's right!). The character designs were really neat, but the fighting system had very little depth and the framerate was atrocious.
I, Zombie - This was another indie game I just happened to load up and was immediately hooked. it didn't last very long, but it was unique and fun.
Super Street Fighter II - I used to play this game all the time on my Genesis as a kid and it had been far too long since I last played it!
Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold - I've played the Alpha games, but not Gold! What can I say, it's a great fighting game!
Braveland - This was kinda like a whole game dedicated to the Heroes of Might and Magic battle system. I played on Hard and it was definitely a challenge. I wish you could've grinded enemies since I didn't get to max out my army or buy everything, but oh well.
Street Fighter: The Movie - Okay, so this game wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, but it wasn't great either. I'd say it was better than the movie, but that's not saying much. I tried the "movie mode" or whatever it was and I didn't make it very far since you have to play as Guile. I switched over to the "street mode", which was basically arcade mode and rolled through it with Ken, yeah!

Full List + Completion Times

RAGE

I think. Not wanting to spoil anything but ... I don't think I could, even if I wanted to. There's nothing to spoil, it just, well, ends. Could be the most anticlimactic I've ever seen. And to think people complained about Mass Effect 3, heh.

Anyway, it was fun to waste time with and nice to look at, and it was also rather unremarkable and hardly memorable. I liked the setting in general, I liked the graphics and sounds, I liked the great choice of weapons and ammunition, I even liked driving around (not so much the racing competitions though). What prevents it from being more than an enjoyable time waster is the lack of a gripping story or interesting dialogues, the recycling of levels (you actually go through the same levels in reverse order a few times, for different missions) and the comparatively small variety of enemies and bosses. Although I liked the different looks of the levels, a lot of them still felt more or less the same, and they didn't really get that much harder later on. So in a way the anticlimactic ending kind of suited the game, because the whole thing was a bit anticlimactic. It has all the right ingredients, but it doesn't really feel as if the developers had much fun cooking it up, it's all a bit lukewarm and half-hearted, by the book. Still a nice game that I enjoyed for the most part, just not that special.

Hero of the Kingdom

Options include separate sliders for sounds, 10 languages to choose from, Full-screen or Windowed, and whether or not to use profiles (that's a new one to me!)

Right away you'll see that you can access the main menu via the top right corner of the screen. As you progress you'll end up with something in each corner, as follows:

Hints - Bottom right corner
Insta-travel Map - top left
Inventory and health - bottom left

What I really can't figure out is what kind of game this is. I can't pigeonhole it in a single genre. It has RPG elements, in that your character learns new skills and abilities as you progress; there are useful items scattered about on every screen, which is reminiscent of a hidden object game; and it's an adventure with strategy elements... What it's NOT is a click-fest. There's no chaining, and no rush.

As I mentioned above, some items just need to be clicked on, hidden object-style, something I didn't realized until about eight screens into the game. "I need (x-item), why can't I find someone to buy them from??" The answer is that you need to gather them yourself. New abilities will allow you to find new items in your environment, so you'll want to revisit scenes often, and be sure to click on anything that looks unusual!

We lose energy (health) when we do tasks, and this energy can be restored by staying at one of the available camps. At each camp you'll eat a different type of food before you go to sleep, and this means a varying amount of health restored. At one point I had over 30 health, so I don't there's a cap on how much health you can have.

Don't be thrown off by how easy everything is early on. The game is pretty isometric when it first begins, but once you've explored a few screens, you start to have some freedom to choose your own tasks. Will you just chase the main storyline, or will you explore every nook and cranny and do all of the side-quests? Will you try to get all 38 achievements, or only do what's necessary? The choice is yours! Once you finish the game, you CAN go back in to try and get those awards, which is really nice.

Hero of the Kingdom which took me about 8 hours to finish with all of the achievements, and I absolutely enjoyed my time in the game. Recommended!

Full is of games finished this year.

Psychonauts

Owned the game on the original Xbox, but sadly never completed it. What a mistake. Bought it on the double fine steam sale a while back. Been playing it off and on, trying not to rush it, as the game is beautiful! Its like playing a Tim Burton video game. Anyone that missed gem aught to check this out at any price!

I assume you played on PC? If so, how was the performance? I played some of the game during the Free Weekend a while back and the performance was shit. I had a pretty good GPU (nVidia GTX570) at the time.