Steam sales have sucked me in for a few cheap purchases...

Slender: The Arrival

I'm glad I got this one on sale. That's not to say it's bad, because I don't think it is. It has some good tense moments (mostly those not relying on the collection gimmick of the original), and the style is pretty well done with a good visual style and an often understated soundtrack. But it can be occasionally frustrating, and its short length makes the base ten dollar price tag not exactly worth it.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

I miss when the series was like this: an interesting campaign with memorable moments and a multiplayer not overtaken with cosmetics and crates. I actually enjoy this one more than I did when I first played it since I know the actual history of the setting, and can catch some of the details in the environment. Only thing I don't like is having to buy the Mac version separately, but at least the Black Ops bundle helped with that.

Sill the incr. adv. of van hel. aaaand yeah, it's quite an attaching game. A tad too easy, it's being played as casually as Torchlight or Borderlands, but the design, style and dialogue qualities keep you more attentive to the screen than these. Very beautiful game. Delightful maps and creatures. Unfortunately, it's too fast paced to truly appreciate these. Mobs run at you and explode in a blur, without letting the excellence of the creature design really sink in. It's strange, but this quality feels like an irritating waste, at times. This game deserved to be a tad more contemplative.

But apart from that, it's really enjoyable. I love the universe, and even all the pop culture references, which don't even feel forced, even when they are blatantly humourous. It's a strange world of tongue-in-cheek lampshading that doesn't undermine itself, and doesn't fall into parody. Very interesting balance.

And even with my current build, the farthest from it that could be, I can see how close it could get to a Hellsing simulator.

Anyway, I'm enjoying my time there. I even like the tower defense missions, that some people considered annoying.

I am lost in a huge temple in Unreal Gold, not long after the game start. A game where you have to save a lot to try out things. The fan patch made the difference between not playing this one more than five minutes and me actually trying to finish it.

Always playing M&B, I am addicted. The plan is to replace it with something else that scratches the same itch but just got to play a bit more first...finish this one and maybe try out one build I have been thinking of and....another 1,000h spent on this game.

Been playing a bit of Ru(in)e(d)Scape again but I still hate the loot boxes and stuff. I will never pay a single penny for that game ever again. Good thing I can play for free. The poor computer is struggling with this one as the game is getting heavier as the years go by.

Slowly finishing a game of MoO (original), the second of two rounds in a row; winning this time. I think that one will be put away for the rest of the summer after this but I always return to it, fantastic replayability.

Real life, this MMO feels a bit too much like work a lot of the time and is also very expensive. (Alright, that was a joke entry, not a game.)

I start to play that in hardcore and very hard, but i put mods to lower the xp enemies gave me, so its even more HARDCORE! HAahah

Xcom enemy within(fock the game even in classic is super hard)
Furii
Grid
Dirt (the first one)
Deux ex human revolution

Just wrapped up the three games a couple days ago. Your assessment sounds about like mine, though you said it better than I would have. It really is a good-looking game, and I had the same grumble about not getting a chance to enjoy the enemy models more. Would have been nice if they included a chance to look at those models closer in the Journal. Voice acting for the two main characters was really nice, though a few of the NPCs here and there sounded like they grabbed the office janitor for a bit of studio time. "Here, read this! Quick!" That's a nitpick, though.

The Final Cut is a bit odd, having played the original and then starting over again with the Final Cut - which I thought was VH4, and not a rehash of VH1 kajiggered with the rules from 3. Whatever else they did to the Final Cut, it was downright easy compared to the original version of the first game.

I didn't mind the tower defense stuff, either. If anything, it brought more combat tension to the game than the regular story mode does. Not sure what sort of penalty you face for letting some monsters get past you and 'inside' your base, though. No monsters showed up in there and I still get credit for completing the mission. <shrug>

It ran almost flawlessly, with the only glitches being some text problems in the tower defense parts.

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Now that I'm done with Van Helsing, couldn't figure out what to play. Pored through my backups and decided to give Rogue Trooper a whirl. Wasn't expecting much, but I'm having a lot of fun with it so far.

Subnautica
I'm slowly exploring this beautiful but creepy water world; the fear is so real at times I can barely play it - but I must go deeper!

Really hope this game gets released on GOG at some point, I really love playing it.

Bouncing between Brink, OverWatch, & Fallout 3 because I don't have the time or effort to learn new games much, these days.

Finally starting to get into Divinity Original Sin. I'm still very early into it, though, so I'm mostly just liking how pretty it is. Also it's nice that it has relatively good controller support so I can switch between that or mouse control when I feel like it.

Call of Chernobyl *sniff* All I ever wanted... Started as a merc in Dead City and quickly got two companions. Went through Limansk, then Red Forest, Army Warehouses, Bar/Rostok, Wild Territory, Yantar, and finally Garbage. It was really something, with both Freedom and Duty on our heels, mutants, bandits, anomalies, even a psi storm. Such is life in the Zone.

BUTCHER.

KILLKILLKILL.

Call of Chernobyl.
So I finally reach Cordon. Entering Sidorovich's bunker I hear this. Amazing, that's all I have to say.
It's raining. Military just killed someone, don't know if it was a Loner or something else. My two companions are outside, on the lookout. And I'm still inside, listening to Artemiev.
Another day in the Zone...

So is Call of Chernobyl just one huge sandbox game or is there some sort ultimate goal / central quest-line?

There are 4 modes to choose from: Azazel, Survival, Ironman and Story.
Here's the description for the last one: Story mode starts the game with the "Mysteries of the Zone" storyline, and with the goals to disable the Brain Scorcher and Miracle Machine. Elements from previous storylines are borrowed and recreated, so this is not for players who feel that strict story continuity is essential. Only available to Loner, Duty, Freedom, Ecologist, Mercenary and Clear Sky factions.

Obviously you can ignore these and just go sandbox. Just choose a faction and starting point (or randomize) and you're good to go, picking up different missions along the way.

There are 9 factions to select from, the most hated being Monolith. For instance, a Monolith guy asks you to journey into the Zone and clear the area of hostiles. Quite the challenge if you ask me. At the other end you have the Ecologists, who are on good terms with almost every other faction, except Monolith.
Even as a Mercenary you'll encounter plenty of foes. Just wander into Duty or Freedom territory and you'll be greeted with grenades and bullets.
This is where a mod such as DoctorX's Dynamic Faction Relations might come in handy.