Heroes of Might and Magic IV (the original game plus both expansions)

Ah, HoMM IV. Probably the most underrated title in the series, in my opinion. I used to play the crap out of it when I was a teenager (though mostly single scenarios). It's very different compared to the previous games - once a hero has a big enough level, they don't necessarily even need any creatures at all to accompany them. That might be considered a positive or a negative: personally, I often enjoyed roaming with just a single hero and cutting down massive armies single-handed. The vanilla game was top-notch, and I also enjoyed The Gathering Storm, but with Winds of War, I almost gave up. It's apparent they made that expansion for HoMM IV veterans, because the difficulty level takes quite a leap forward. Some of the levels often felt impossible and I had to restart maps more often than once. With patience (and bullshit tactics, such as sneaking in and capturing a key town when the tremendously overpowered enemy was out exploring), I triumphed eventually. I liked the idea of being able to play the final campaign with any of the heroes from the previous campaigns, but in reality I don't see how I could've finished it with any other faction than Death. I was able to raise huge armies of vampires by defeating roaming monsters and whatnot: if the enemy had had that possibility, it probably would've meant a game over for me before even reaching the final bastion, so I had to choose the Death faction. I nearly shat my pants when I saw the garrison in front of the final castle: a level 35 crusader who was a master of Life spells and had a nice setup of supporting artifacts including the one that negates the first three hits entirely - and of course, she had a huge army as well. But, playing as the Death faction proved useful there too - she didn't have enough magic resistance and one Hand of Death spell made quick work of her. After she and her tactics bonuses were removed from play, her army crumbled like dust paper in front of my ~30 bone dragons and +100 vampires. Actually a bit of a lackluster end battle, come to think of it.

Well, enough rambling: the original campaigns and The Gathering Storm campaigns were very good in my opinion, but I didn't really like Winds of War. As a Heroes game it's top notch though and I think more people should give it a chance. It's very different from HoMM II and III, but in a good way. Kinda like having a pizza after a week of nothing but burgers :)

20/08/2014 Defender's Quest: Fun game, even though it got a bit grindy at the end for all the stars. Now to wait for the next part.

Full list here

Finally bought Blackwell Epiphany (on sale yesterday) and decided to get up early today and play it. Just finished game and it was definitely worth getting, turned out to be pretty much as expected in terms of quality. Graphically, the series just kept getting better and better and the storyline is good in all parts, though Deception is my favorite. The gameplay hasn't really evolved and I liked the puzzles in Deception better than in Epiphany. Both are very easy to finish but Epiphany didn't have any puzzles that required any real effort of thought. By now, ghost Joey being able to move items by blowing on them has definitely worn off its novelty factor.
If you just want to fluidly play through a good story with no cerebral hold-ups than this series is perfect for you but in my opinion a good detective mystery needs at least a few meaty puzzles to create that extra bit of immersion and tension that is missing when you can just coast through the game without resistance.

Overall, I'm neither impressed nor disappointed with Epiphany, it's definitely a 5 star game because it succeeds at what it tries to be which is a casual adventure game with a well written story and pleasing presentation. Don't expect it to be mind blowing but this is a very solid finale that wraps up a great series in a satisfying manner.

Finished Goodbye Deponia, which also means I went through the whole trilogy.
It was.... strange. I won't spoil the ending, but it is probably not what you would expect or want. It was sad, I'm not going to lie, but it's been a while since a game made me feel engaged with the characters and their motivations. Still, I wasn't disappointed, not at all. In fact, I think I'm probably the only person which is not unhappy with the ending....

Heh, now I feel even less compelled to play through the trilogy quickly! I was already planning on playing Deponia Complete in fits and starts when I wanted a break from other games.

Yeah, the games are great, but I took my time while finishing the third one. But still I kept coming back because I wanted to know what would happen next! It's a good thing that the minigames become gradually less complex and they start giving you hints and that kind of stuff, because they slowed down the pace in a somewhat unpleasant manner.
But don't mind that bit about the ending, though. Go and finish them! I wonder if you can still play Droggeljug mode in Deponia Complete, though...
And don't forget the leopard mode! :)

Ys: The Oath in Felghana

Yep, that's it. I really need to work on this backlog. :(

I played Long Live the Queen with a kid. We got killed twice or so, then reached what is apparently the best ending.

Yeah, I keep hearing that Goodbye Deponia doesn't have the ending that people would've wanted. I'm guessing the title is a clue (no spoilz from anyone plz)...

Well, gotta get around to playing it eventually, but I only finished Chaos on Deponia a short while back and need a break from Rufus' shenanigans.

I dunno, I was quite stomped by at least a couple of the puzzles. The calendar puzzle in particular - I guess I couldn't quite put 2 and 2 together. Ended up using a walkthrough >_<

If you plan to pay the third game, I'd reccomend you to think about the ending. It becomes clear once you think about the characters and their actions through the game. I guess the old saying about not judging books by their cover applies perfectly here. In my opinion, the people who are complaining about the ending aren't thinking too much, or weren't really paying attention to every event of the game (in the third game many things become clearer, but at the same time there will be many unanswered questions). Poki -the author and singer of the Huzzah songs- already said there will be no new Deponia games. He posted his own thoughts about the ending on the Daedalic forums, you can check his post when you're done with the final game.

And since I'm clearly becoming a Daedalic fanboy, I started a Chains of Satinav + Memoria playthough today. I just made it past the wagon scene in Satinav, so yeah, I'm still quite early in the game. Every new scene looks like the perfect wallpaper :)

Yeah, I beat Satinav last year. Nice game, too bad the character animations are god-awful, especially compared to the awe-inspiring artwork. Story is good too I thought, though main character got on my nerves more often than not. Will get Memoria when I can get it for $5 or less from either Steam store or GMG so that I can use my card monies or playfire rewards to pay for it.

Check Indie Gala's store http://store.indiegala.com/ It's not $5 but it's quite cheap there.

The point of me wanting it on Steam store / GMG sale is so that I wouldn't be paying with real money :)

The calendar puzzle was a very fair one though, properly clued and logical in all the steps it involved including purpose and execution.

I usually get stomped by "pixel hunting" puzzles, the kind where logic can't help. But sometimes I just lose momentum in general and fall into helpless limbo not quite knowing what to do, this happened to me in Simon the Sorcerer 2 where you can highlight all the hotspots with a hotkey but I still got stuck close to the end. I first played this back in 1995 but got stuck early into the game, then I tried again about 10 years later and got stuck again a bit further down, and now I'm hoping to finally finish that game. Worst thing is, the puzzles are for the most part well made and very logical so I can't blame it on the game, Simon the Sorcerer 2 is a top notch adventure game.

I'm rather slow at solving the "idiot savant" type of puzzles that lazy designers put into just about every adventure game, you know those sliding blocks puzzles and all that abstract stuff where it's more about pure mathematical brain bower rather than being smart and combining clues and thinking outside the box. Sometimes, those abstract puzzles are child's play but occasionally they're a bit aggravating and it's pretty obvious designers just throw those puzzles in to artificially extend game length.

I didn't like Simon the Sorcerer 2 primarily because Simon somehow became a complete and utter ass since his first outing. Just couldn't stand the guy. And this is while I find Rufus hilarious.