Thanks! I think I might try starting with MoW then, and if I like it, maybe I'm motivated enough to replay the first half of the main campaign and then continue from there and play MotB once I'm through with it. That would also justify my purchase of NWN2 on GOG, even though I already owned the retail version (which was missing MoW). ;)


That approach wouldn't work for me, as I don't like to replay stories I already know and would need a new one in order to motivate me to learn the mechanics (which aren't all that complicated though, I think I'm familiar enough with them already, after playing lots of NWN1 and half of NWN2's main campaign). But thanks for the suggestion and advice on the other campaigns! :)

One last recommendation: during the main campaign, save often and in different slots.
Never, and I say never, rely exclusively on auto and quick saves. During the midde part and nearly at the end you may incur in some horrendous bugs that could throw away your entire progress.
Edit: they happen only in two very precise spots, yet you have to know them to avoid them, and if they catch you by surprise...

Postal: Classic and Uncut

What with the whole hullabaloo about Hatred, I got the urge to g̶o̶ play Postal, the game that was mostly compared to it.

Postal is an isometric shooter, in which you control the Postal dude who has just received an eviction notice and has decided to go on a rampage because of that. Each of the game's 20 fast and short stages takes you to a different locale and offer a good amount of challenge (which can be further adjusted by the multiple difficulty settings) but in the end, your objective remains the same in each one; kill X% of hostiles. To accomplish this endeavour, you'll have to rely on the typical shooter hallmarks™. Machineguns, shotguns, grenades, rocket launchers and of course, the flamethrower, because what kind of villain would you be without one? There are also health packs and body armour to help you withstand the attacks of the hostiles and make no mistake, they are not merely barking, but they'll bite you well.

One of my first impressions for a game where you allegedly go in a rampage against unarmed people, is that there seems to be an overwhelmingly higher amount of armed people (with only a few levels providing an exception). They'll hunt you down with everything; pistols, machineguns, rocket launchers, grenade launchers, molotov cocktails. Especially those guys with the rocket launchers can be very annoying, as being hit by them knocks you down and if you weren't far enough from them, their next rocket will hit you before you get a chance to recover and knock you down yet again, sticking you into a loop till your health runs out. The game's isometric view can make them even bigger assholes by hiding in places that are not viewable from the game's perspective and the game's transparency feature only works when your character is near a structure/object that would normally hide his model. Speaking of models, it's a very strange choice to be featuring a game with 2D backgrounds, but 3D models for the characters. While the backgrounds look good and varied enough, the models themselves look really poor. I'd prefer it if everything was in 2D.

Another of my first impressions of the game was that the controls weren't really the best. It turns out that they really weren't. Unlike other isometric/top-down action shooters like Alien/Zombie Shooter, where you use the movement keys to move up, down, left, right and the mouse to aim around the stages, in Postal they did it a bit like a FPS. Specifically, regardless of your orientation, pressing up or down, will always move your character forward/backwards, pressing left/right will make your character turn around left/right, while holding alt and pressing left/right, will make your character strafe left/right. Again, regardless of orientation, which can make strafing pretty confusing if your character is not looking upwards. There is no real mouse-aim in Postal, as all the mouse does is just turn around your character (like the left/right movement keys). There is a pointer to signify if you are aiming at someone, but that only appears when you have lined yourself up with the target in question, making aiming more of a pain in the ass than it needs to be.

In the end, Postal was an entertaining, fast and short isometric shooter that is let down by frustrating controls and isometric transparency issues. They aren't enough to break it, but they can certainly scare away those who have gotten used to other isometric shooters.

P.S.: I know that it's a more serious game than its sequel (those level transition screens), but even then, I couldn't help but laugh at one of the quotes that you hear when you shoot unarmed civilians: "Stop shooting me you sick bastard! I'm already dead!"

List updated.

Tormentum: Dark Sorrow (Casual Adventure)

Very simple options with this one: Sliders for music and sound effects, and full-screen or not. In addition, there are nine languages to choose from.

If you play the demo, you'll find that the game seems to be more of a puzzle game than an adventure, with just a few screens and puzzles before moving on to the next area. This does NOT hold true for the rest of the game. You'll be locked out of some areas once you leave them, but there are plenty of locations to move about, puzzles to solve, and story to discover as you progress.

There are no hints, no skips, and no map. I did not have any trouble completing the game, nonetheless. Nothing I came across was frustratingly hard, and the only real problem I had was missing obvious things on the screen, like something I needed to interact with or an exit I simply didn't see. :p

Every screen scrolls left and right a bit, depending on where your cursor is. Although it would have been nice to just see the full scenes, some of the puzzles involve this scrolling mechanism, so I can't complain.

Speaking of the puzzles, be VERY CAREFUL when you are solving them, and really pay attention to what you're doing! Sometimes there is more than one way to solve a puzzle, and your actions really matter in this game. Your decisions count, so choose wisely.

The art style is dark and disturbing, but also beautifully done and very evocative. Combine this with the well-chosen music tracks, and you have a deeply environmental experience that will question your morals and life choices.

For the achievement hunters like myself, there are 34 achievements to obtain, which will require you to play through the game at least twice. I'm pretty sure most people won't mind going through a second time, as there are two endings!

There is a lot of bonus content to look at, which is not necessary to complete the game, but will enhance the experience. Some of these things will earn your achievements (such as reading all of the books,) so be aware of that.

While Tormentum: Dark Sorrow is on the short side (around four hours for my first play-through,) the multiple endings and fascinating world which the devs have created make it absolutely worth owning. Definitely recommended, and I'm looking forward to OhNoo Studio's next game~! :D

Dust: An Elysian Tale

One of the reasons I haven't finished a lot of games is that there's always the temptation to drop the game you're knee-deep in and try something else. While I dabbled in other games while playing this, Dust really kept me hooked start to finish.

Great art/story/voice, and a really fun little combat system. Some creative level design meant the environment was often a threat even when monsters were not. Playing on normal difficulty you can get through the first half of the game just mashing buttons, but it's still glorious fun, and over time you do develop some actual skill. Which you'll need later on, as many of the monsters parry or otherwise throw a curve if you just go for the button-mashing.

I laughed, I cried, I spun through the air like a dervish shooting fireballs.

Definitely an A+ game for me. Even though it's linear I'd consider replaying it down the road someday with the difficulty ramped up.

Length? Errr...I'd guess someone who just wanted to play through the main storyline could do it in 15-18 hours? If you want 100% completion and to 4-star all the challenge courses, probably closer to 25-30 I'd guess.

any one else witcher 3 wild hunt crash when you have to speak to the witch in her hut. after i go through the portal and find her in the sanctuary place, as soon as it goes to the cutscene it crashes, everytime

Neverwinter Nights

The standard campaign. I'm guessing most people have played it, it doesn't stun you with it's brilliance but is all round pretty solid and enjoyable. I've played it a few times.

I was a strength Monk, it was pretty overpowered. Dexterity monk would have been even more powerful. It has quite a lot of different types of characters you could choose to be which I like.

Unfortunately fighters in general, apart from Monks kinda get the short end of the stick in that game. Conan types with a greatsword, dwarf's with axes will all get their butts kicked.

I might get around to Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark, I also have to play Dragon Age Origins.

Thanks for the review, I was curious about this one myself! :)

You will have better chances of getting a helpful answer, if you ask your question in the Witcher 3 forum. This thread is about games finished in 2015, not games you had issues with in 2015. ;)

Ys: The Oath in Felghana

Based on the same engine as Ys Origin, it's only natural that Ys: The Oath in Felghana would also play similarly to it. Thus, it has everything you should expect from an Ys game; isometric hack and slash with RPG elements where you are faced with a series of increasingly harder dungeons with only your sword and some magic to help you overcome any challenge, alongside a great rocking (pun intended) soundtrack. Unlike Ys Origin, it only offers a swordsman as the playable character and it has some outdoor areas which don't exactly constitute an overworld or something, but just the path to the next dungeon. In a sense you could say that the "overworld" paths are in essence another floor of the dungeon or some such.

The game is harder than Ys: Origin. This is both positive and negative as I appreciate the game's extra challenge, along with the fact that enemies aren't as sponges as they used to be. On the other hand, though, save points are sparse and you might end up in a situation where you lose 20+ minutes because you were a bit overconfident. Thus, your only options are either to "git good" or teleport back to a previous save point to heal, but this still ends up wasting your time as you have to go all the way down to the part of the dungeon you were before. It also doesn't help that you don't get the teleportation item from the beginning, so if you are having difficulties in the early dungeons, you might have to grind up a bit.

Overall, I did prefer Ys: Origin's 3 characters and more forgiving save point placements, but Ys: The Oath in Felghana is still a very nice game and I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that the game didn't crash a single time on me (compared to the crashfest that was Ys Origin).

Another game for the list.

Be sure to play the free DLC episodes for To The Moon. There are two currently out.

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

I know I'm going to be in the minority when I say this, but - I really couldn't enjoy the game as much as I would have liked to. There were a few problems I had with the game.

The first one I noticed, was the somewhat hectic pace. There are a few locations, where you only visit them to do one small job and then you leave immediately. Like Iceland and Monte Carlo, for example. You go there just to talk to one guy, and then you're traveling again. You do re-visit Iceland - but this time, you only go there to pick up one object, and that's it, then you leave again. The pace slows down a little further down the path, but for me it was already too late by then. I would've liked to spend more time in each location and explore them more.

The second problem was that I really didn't like the puzzles. Some were even a little bit silly - for example: You need to find a scripture. It is, for some reason, inside a wax cat figurine, which you need to melt in the furnace. Umm...okay... why is it inside the figurine? And, if I have to melt it in a furnace, how come the scripture doesn't burn away with the wax?

The third problem relates to the hectic pace: it's as if there was a rush to get the plot started. All these talks about Atlantis, the Nazi plans, and the introduction of Sophia seemed to come out of nowhere, and I was already a bit lost before Indy even had left the American soil. Again: the further the game advances, the less of a problem this ceases to be, but I can't overlook this even if I wanted.

Fourth, the game has mazes: and I hate, HATE mazes in video games. One level was even called "Labyrinth" on the official hintbook. Let me tell you a fact: Labyrinths. Aren't. Fun.

Finally, I still don't have any clue how the combat works (I finished the game on the Fists path). Supposedly you can block, but I never understood how. Thus, every combat consisted of simply clicking the mouse as fast as I could, until the opponent fell down. No strategy.

Well, ending on a positive note, I liked the characters, subtle humor and the scenery/locations, even if they were brief acquaintances. Sadly, those alone can't fix the issues with the game. Therefor, I definitely wouldn't list this game among the best Lucasarts adventures. It's not bad - just not the instantly lovable classic I thought it would be, judging by how affectionate people seem to be towards this game.

You Must Build a Boat on PC, which is a direct sequel to 10.000.000

So, it's a matching game, in which you don't control your character at all. But run after run, you amass money, brains and muscles and can upgrade your skills/equipement, recruit monsters you defeated in your runs, thus ever expanding your boat.

I'm a sucker for that kind of game, and You Must Build a Boat delivered, the exact same way 10.000.000 did before. So, yeah, great game. Might not replay it soon, even if I don't have all the achievements, but still a really great game to my opinion... if you agree to look beyond the (intentionally) outdated visuals.

So far in 2015: http://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2015/post2

How difficult is the platforming in this game? Are there many save points or is it Nintendo hard?

Every level has 4-5 checkpoints (but you can destroy them if you want to play the harder version). I did not find the platforming that difficult :-)

Ok thanks good to know, you see I used to play Super Mario on the NES at the MIGROS supermarket when I was a kid and died all the time without getting very far. At home I didn't have many platformers for the PC (Shinobi and a few others) so I didn't get much practice, either. Nowadays I'm still averse to gratuitous platforming, more into the puzzling aspect.

Shovel Knight isn't on my wishlist but if it's on a super steep sale I might pick it up, looks like a fine game.