Ah! Danke!

Finished two games:

1) Serious Sam: Double D
I do prefer the first person games. This one wasn't particularly hard, didn't have too many enemies, it was amateurish looking and generally had no moment to say "wow". An OK game but nothing to write home about.

2) GoldenEye (1997)
Now that one rocked. While the controls take a lot of getting used to and there are some annoying flaws, it is an fps that I believe has not been surpassed yet. Memorable locations, no handholding for the mission objectives (I find it pretty hilarious that the game lets you complete the mission without completing the objectives), freedom in how you go about the mission objectives (all guns blazing or a stealth bastard?) and hey, it's a great Bond game, how rare is that? (No pun intended) Now, let's see whether the remake can do it justice...

And here's my updated list

Finished Gunpoint.
Though short, it's unique, very well thought out and incredibly fun. Loved every second of it. Great soundtrack, and hilarious dialogue too.

Finished Portal 2. Fun but some parts were a bit too repetitive (especially at the beginning with the same pattern repeating: dialog->room->dialog->elevator->loading screen).

Finished the SP campaign for Crysis 3 (PC).

Added it to my 2013 Finished list:
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2013/post44

Finished off Carmegeddon this weekend. Probably the most fun I've had in a racing game in a long time, the sandbox levels were a joy to explore whilst sowing general destruction. I'll be playing through the Splat Pack soon, and picking up the second soon.

So far:
Bulletstorm
Medal of Honor Allied Assault (Base)
Medal of Honor Allied Assault Spearhead
Medal of Honor Allied Assault Breakthrough
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
World in Conflict: Complete
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
Medal of Honor: Airborne
System Shock 2
Mass Effect 1
Mirror's Edge
Mass Effect 2
Crysis
N v2.0
Mass Effect 3
Stronghold HD
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault of Dark Athena
Crysis 2
Carmegeddon

Dust: An Elysian Tail. Awesome game, well worth the money. Felt like a perfect combination of Aquaria and Fortune Summoners (the inspiration was Metroid, Castlevania and Ys, I think, but I haven't played the classics). It did get extremely easy in the end (maybe also due to my completionist approach), then again I think I still prefer that to the exaggerated difficulty of Aquaria's final boss who so far has kept me from beating that other metroidvania title. With Dust there wasn't a single moment where I got stuck or sick of the game and I enjoyed every moment of it, completing it within a matter of days.

There is some room for improvement, e.g. travelling between discovered checkpoints within a level would have been a nice touch in order to avoid too much backtracking (especially considering that the additional experience from 'grinding' on the way isn't really necessary to beat the game). And the economy could have been a little more balanced, the use of shops and money decreased very quickly during my playthrough. On the other hand, the distribution of treasure keys seemed very severe. I found all of them and also bought several until the shops ran out of them and I was only barely able to open all chests (I carelessly wasted one key during the whole game, and in the end I had none left, so it seems you're only allowed to fail once if you want to open them all; not that it's hard to take care of your keys and try not to waste them, but a margin of one error only appears very strict for an otherwise fair and rather easy game based on free exploration, especially if the game doesn't warn you about it).


*MILD SPOILER*
I'd also have liked to learn more about the motivation of the final boss, because while his ascribed actions were cruel and fanatic, in his dialogues he appeared rational, human and loyal to a friend. Sadly this apparant discrepancy was never expanded on.



Still, one of the best games I've played this year and a lot of fun. I'm glad it's here on GOG now!

Kohan : Arhiman's gift. Pretty old strategy game but it was very "modern" and innovative for its time, a real lost gem. If you are an RTS fan and you aren't especially found on micro, this is a game for you.

Woo, just finished my 100th game this year, Journey of a Roach :o

And can you recommend it? (I'm still wondering whether I should get the Humble Bundle or not, and this is the only game I'm interested in, apart from the German versions of TWW and Chains of Satinav.)

Well, overall, I enjoyed it. It depends on how fond of Amanita-style games you are - there's no dialogue, only weird sounds; it's very cutesy; and things are communicated via images in speech bubbles.

The game is fairly short - although, it depends on how fast you breeze through the puzzles (I found only one of them to be particularly frustrating). The game has an achievement for finishing the game in under 18 mins, so that should give you an idea of the amount of content in the game.

Your character also has the ability to climb on walls, which causes the camera angle to rotate with you. That was something I personally found incredibly nauseating - keep that in mind if you think that would also make you feel sick. Also, there are some areas that seem like you can walk on them, but you arbitrarily can't. So, the movement in the game can be a bit awkward.

Basically, it's pretty enjoyable, but I wouldn't strongly recommend it. Perhaps it's better to wait for an even cheaper price.

Well, I loved Botanicula and enjoyed the Samorost series (and I'd love to like Machinarium more than I actually do). I also don't mind shorter games, although completable in 18 minutes sounds maybe a bit too short for that price ... Then again, a cheaper offer probably won't include the two P&C adventures I'm missing the German DRM-free version of (which might or might not get added to my GOG account a few weeks later). Hm ... Still undecided about the bundle. :/

But thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts on it! :)

Unreal 2: The Awakening

I know this game got a lot of flak for not being up to people's expectations, but I thought it was a good, though not great shooter. Better once I figured out that disabling vsync speeds up the horrendous loading times by a factor of 30 or so on my machine.

I could've done with faster "running" and fewer "tower defense" sections - seriously I took a break from Brütal Legend because of the RTS segments, and now I find this. Ah well, at least there were only three or so of those.

It's too bad a couple crucial plot elements had been spoiled for me, but I guess that's what I get for not playing a game for the first time until a decade after its release...

Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition.

So, after completing Doom I+II 2 years ago, I have now completed Duke Nukem 3D. Who knows, maybe next year I might complete Wolfenstein 3D. Anyway...

Awesome, fast, furious, tough, funny, awesome, badass. Great level design, great guns, kill or be killed gameplay, rocking music (pun fully intended). And imagine having played this 17 years ago. It would be even more mindblowing. The ending was also unintentionally hilarious: "Look for a Duke Nukem 3D sequel soon."

And I updated my list.

Deeper Dungeons (12th November 6:42pm)

OMG my god I beat Deeper Dungeons. I remember when I was a kid I couldn't beat a single level and now I have beaten it. To be fair some of these levels are really easy and feel rushed. However I do recommend it bcause if you found Dungeon Keeper to be easy this will challenge you