Think of the Children
I got it from GOG community giveaway, donated by ElTerprise

Yet another game (after Party Hard) that I would probably never buy myself so I decided to give it a try when I saw it available at the GOG community giveaway. What I can say - I would have missed tons of fun! Seriously, I do love this game.

Basically you are a parent responsible for six children who are on a quest to win a Darwin Awards. They can kill themselves with almost anything so you have to be extra careful. Obviously they don’t want to stick together (nor near you) so you have to run all the time from one corner to another, grabbing your suicidal kids and running again to rescue yet another one. In the meantime you have to fulfill other chores like flipping hamburgers, taking photos, buying various things at a store and so one. In one word: mayhem.

The game is really, really hard and very chaotic (but that’s good!). At one point it may seem you are doing fine but a second later all of your kids are doing something stupid so you panic, run to grab one of them, realize it’s too late already, change the direction, nope, this kid is a gonner too, so maybe… argh! They are all dead! So you have to repeat.

As far as I can see you need to save at least four children to continue which is a good choice - very challenging but still doable. In same later levels I got so accustomed to the game I actually managed to save all of them (Bonfire level is something I’m most proud of, scored A+ here).

Story of the game is goofy and not really important. Before the last level there is a little twist that I think shouldn’t be there but on the other hand the very last level is so great (and so damn difficult) that I can forgive them.

I guess the game is mostly designed for a co-op but I played alone and had tons of fun nonetheless. I played it on keyboard and it wasn’t a problem but maybe I’m not the best person to say so as I’ve never ever owned a controller.

I really recommend the game but be warned that it’s hard as nails.


Full list

Finished Virginia, a short interactive story. There are no dialogs (no voice and almost no text) and I did not really understand the story.

Full list here.

Moonlight

A very short platformer/adventure game, light on both aspects. Basically a fetch-quest simulator. Attractive pixel art and whimsical dialog/story are the only thing it has going for it.

Paranautical Activity

FPS roguelike. It's actually not bad. I wasn't very good at it, but I did manage to beat the "Normal" mode. I doubt I could do the Hardcore mode, which is the way the game is intended to be played.

DRIVECLUB VR (PSVR)

Cons:
- This game takes a huge graphical hit over its predecessor: fewer details, no weather effects, blurry as f***
- Mostly the same tracks, cars, and events as its predecessor and there is no DLC for extra cars and events

Pros:
+ VR
+ same fun gameplay as DRIVECLUB

Verdict:
Driving in VR is so awesome I don’t even notice how shitty the graphics are while actually racing, highly recommended :)!

Wolfenstein II The New Colossus (XB1X)

This one takes ages to get going. The initial hours had me thinking that this was a step back from the previous two games, with dull levels and lesser game play. But it got way better after finishing off the early Submarine and flying fortress level. By the end I rate the game about on par with The New Order and The Old Blood.

The story is just as silly as earlier games, and is told by longer cut scenes this time. Although I normally don't like lengthy cut scenes, at least they only come at the end of levels and never during actual game play. I'll take long occasional cut scenes at story milestones over continuous micro cut scenes like in Resident Evil 6- that actually interrupt you when you're doing stuff.

The biggest single change this time is a controversial one. Most people will like it, but I don't- the introduction of save anywhere/anytime. I know PC gamers love it, and I save scummed my way through all the old 90's classics back in the day. Now though, I think nothing destroys the flow of a good game more than bringing up a save/load screen every 10 paces. Machinegames had the game balance just about spot on with their check pointing in The New Order. It provided chunks of challenges to overcome in a fair way and you could bump the difficulty way up if it was too easy. In The New Colossus, to balance out being able to save anywhere you now fight through wave upon wave of lengthy fights where you're expected to save mid battle to get through. So you soon find yourself savescumming. Savescumming is not skill, anyone can do it on any difficulty if you just have patience. I despise it, especially in games like this that have stealth elements.
How easy and pointless would Super Mario Bros be if you could save at anytime? How easy would Dark Souls be? To achieve tension and fear you need to have the potential to lose something tangible- like progress or time, so when you fuck up and die you REALLY feel it, you then start to treat the game almost like something is really at stake. Anyway that's my rant on the topic. What I'm saying is that some of the tension from the big fights in the previous games is now gone and so is some of the sense of achievement with it. But most people will just happily save their way through the game every 10 paces and love it.

Technically the game is amazing. It runs at 2160p mostly except for very demanding scenes where it tends to drop to around 2000p. It looks stunning to be honest. It is mostly locked to 60fps, but early on i did notice frame time spikes when blowing open crates with the Laserkraftwerk- caused by the mass of particles and the hard v-sync. So I turned on freesync and that cleared those right up. Freesync (XB1X supports AMD Freesync 2) on a console is a game changer, especially now that the coming HDMI 2.1 ready TV's are looking to bring freesync game modes with them. For now though, my monitor has freesync on it's HDMI 2.0 port, and it's working like a charm.

The Shadwen demo.... nice puzzle stealth when I finally got the hang of it. Not sure I will add the game to the wishlist though, maybe after I finish Thief which I did not even install yet (sorry about that, kind donor).

Just beat Gurumin on Happy mode, and I think it is time to take a break from the game; I don't think I'm going to try Crazy, at least not anytime soon.

Just finished Quern, which was magnificent. What a wonderful Myst-like puzzle adventure! Quern was one of my most memorable gaming experiences in over 20 years of PC gaming.

A Hat in Time

Very entertaining 3D platformer. I had it at top of my wishlist and got it for Christmas and I wasn't disappointed. The game is very cute, the gameplay was fun and I liked the sounds and music.
There are few quirks, mostly with some bugs (nothing serious, though, just some clipping and stuff) and some camera issues. But I would rarely say camera was problem. Certainly not more than in other 3D platformers. More likely less than in many I played in the past.
Overall I had blast.

Complete list.

Really? Is it that good? Wishlisted then!
What about hardware requirements? Is it (as Myst) based on prerendered videos or the whole game is rendered during the game? If (b) I suppose I'll not be able to play with my PC for now...

Yes, I really did enjoy it. There was only one puzzle which I disliked and looked up the solution for, the rest were great puzzles. Of course, it's all my own personal opinion!

The game seems to be rendered in realtime, and has quite beautiful graphics but must have some higher requirements to render all that beauty. Hopefully your computer can handle it soon!

Enigmatis 2: The Mists of Ravenwood (2013)

This one surprised me a bit - it's one of the best Artifex Mundi games I've ever played. It's still quite short and simple hidden-object point&click, but it's just beautifully designed, has relatively interesting puzzles and quite decent story. It has also darker atmosphere then the previous one, however it's still Artifex-horror, which means you can actually play with kids being around ;)

If you want to try these kind of casual games, there is Indie Gala Artifex bundle still available. There are also some keys available in zeo's non-GOG giveaway key-bank.

List of all games completed in 2018.

Thanks for the answer. Will keep it on wishlist for better times ;)

Paperclips - http://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/

I began 2018 as I began 2017, with a browser clicker game. I have significantly less unaccounted for time these days than I used to, so New Years eve weekend - Jan 3 were perfect for gaming, and Paperclips got the call.

Idle games are what they are: numbers go up, you buy things, new things appear, maybe new numbers, etc. I really enjoy these kind of games when they are a finite experience and have some kind of endgame. Paperclips changes things up often enough: it starts off as Clip Clicker, then turns into managing some mini-games, then changes and changes again. There's kind of a story, and some nice singularity theme play. Interface is minimal, but functional. Things pop in, so it's easy to idle for a bit and then find entirely new UI elements with little explanation.

That's the biggest fun of Paperclips, the more you get the hang of something straightforward, the more it makes you pause as it offers something opaque. There's more than one ending, and I might just play again to see the alternates, but I'm not a big enough fan to jump immediately back in. Clicker gameplay doesn't have anything to it once you've seen the tricks other than watching numbers go up.

Paperclips was fun, I really like these games when they have an end game.

Just finished Until I Have You.

A strange, strange, and incredible game from the developer of Primordia.
A retro-themed platformer with light RPG elements that encourages speed-running, but easily allows a more methodical approach to the varied game mechanics introduced in each new chapter. A mature and fantastically told tale of revenge and corporate manipulation in a cyberpunk setting accompanied by a synth-heavy soundtrack. Enjoyed every minute of it. Check it out!

I keep meaning to check this one out but just haven't gotten around to it. I might have to grab it next time it's on sale...