My wife gave me Trails in the Sky SC as a gift, so I've been playing that a lot lately. I think I'm most of the way through it now, and I'm enjoying it, but it does this thing that drives me crazy in some games, which is when the cutscenes and gameplay aren't quite in alignment. In this case (without getting into spoilers), I kick the living crap out of a boss character, but when the cutscene afterward plays, the boss is totally no-selling his beatdown, trash talks the heroes about how they almost made him sweat or something, and then skips away while the heroes are left in a sort of really pathetic awe at the insurmountable challenge ahead of them when they next meet. What the hell, man? He was the first one who went down! His minions were causing me more trouble than he did :p It's a nitpick but it bugs me.

This sort of thing is something the bugs me as well, especially when the cutscenes and the changes as a result of them hinder the gameplay.

For example, in one JRPG I played a good portion of (and didn't like):
* At one point in the game, you need to give CPR to a character, which is treated as a rather poor minigame. This is despite the fact that the game gives you healing magic, but yet you can't use it there?
* It's even worse later when a character plot-dies, and there's no way to revive that character, yet when a character dies in battle you can just use a revive spell or item to bring them back (and such things are available at this point in the game). Why can't it be used here? (I note that, unlike a couple earlier cases in the same series, the characters don't even *try*.)

Halo: The Master Chief Collection

Assassins Creed Origins.

chaos marines and space marines are supposed to be the easy ones ;)
and the story is sometimes easier to follow then to win the game
that said, yea it is a harsh game

build as fast as you can... balance those resources, research those super units as fast as you can etc

Age of Wonders 3, one of the finest strategy games ever made, from my favorite series of TBS. HoMM can suck it.
Game seems great, except that the campaign missions get way out of hand. I don't know if it's like that for the other factions, but playing as the Tyranids, I did not appreciate the campaign spawning two large armies out of nowhere, right next to my units, and telling me to deal with it.

Space Marines story involves a secret artifact and a loosing battle against the Necron
don't say a word
the chaos one actually was quite easy but i had a stroke of luck and discovered a unbalance, i belief they nerved the units in question

I started playing Gwent two days ago and I already have like 10 or 15 hours on it. I made myself a vampire/bleed deck and it's fun to play, especially when you can notice the desperation of the enemy not knowing what to do with the slowly but steadily decreasing points. That vampire that gets +1 per turn with enemies bleeding is very helpful.

Became kinda sad when I realized that people don't like bleed that much but I like it, I have fun with it and the artwork for those cards is really gorgeous. Nothing better than lots of blood being drank and spilled everywhere. Hell yeah.

For a second I thought you were talking about a sequel to Gwent.

edited to avoid confusion :P

One thing I am wondering about that game: Are there cards that fill a role similar to that of the Basic Lands in Magic: The Gathering?

In case you're not familiar with that game, here are some properties of Magic: The Gathering's basic lands:
* There are only 5 basic lands, one for each color.
* These basic lands are the primary means to generate a resource called "mana", which is needed to play other cards. As a result, they're considered to be fundamentally important to the game.
* You don't need mana to play them, but there is a one per turn limit.
* While there may only be 5 of them, these cards are more common than common cards, and are found in every single starter pack.
* Magic: The Gathering imposes a limit of 4 of a card for most cards; the basic lands are exceptions, and you're allowed as many as you want.
* Almost every game of Magic: The Gathering starts with the first player playing a basic land.

So, does Gwent have any cards like that?

(I could also ask this question of Hearthstone and other similar games.)

I'm a newbie to this game still, but the main mechanic of the game seems to add/remove "life points" from your own cards and the enemies', since the total addition of said points represents the score you get per round. Weak cards can have abilities that are activated as soon as they are played, or stack with other cards, or are activated x times per turn (with a cooldown to use them again). Stronger cards (with a two digit score, like 10 or 12) don't tend to have abilities, and if they do, they are meant to be used under special circumstances. There's also artifacts, which have many abilities and options, but since they don't have a score on themselves they shouldn't take too many spots in your deck. I have around 4 on mine (the game allows for 25 cards or more, but 25 is the advised and minumum number; each card also has a resource cost that can't go beyond a certain limit).

It is a best out of three rounds type of game, and it's indeed to end relatively quickly. Each game can tke from 15 to 25 minutes, depending on how long you carry your strategy.

Still Command & Conquer 3! In Starcraft II, there were many missions wherein you could create a good base defence and then take your time to build up an offence. Not here, wait too long and you'll be overwhelmed.
It really puts the realtime in RTS. (Of course it also means that the AI is 'cheating' - it doesn't need tiberium resources as much as you do)

Reminds me of Civilization 2 where, on harder difficulties, the game would outright give AI players free units.

(One other curious fact: In Civ 2, if the game decides that you have an unfavorable starting position, the game may give you an extra settler; on Deity difficulty, you always get that extra settler.)

(Side note: I don't really play these games, and I have not beaten Civ 2. I *have*, however, beaten Civ 3, but the method I used is one that most players would argue doesn't count.)

The Wicher 2, for me better choice, than first part, but not so mature as third one. I feel it is as pretty linear, remember old Gothic where you could go anywhere you like, but here is many invisible walls and you cannot kill yourself by falling from a cliff etc.