Best RPG.

Tough one for me. I would have to leave FPS / 3PS RPGs out because they are very much their own genre (Skyrim first, then tie between DX / DX4 / DS3 for me?).

In the Iso / top-down / whatever, eeeesh, tough call.

Spent most time ever in Guild Wars, so I guess that's good. It was my first tho, and I was playing it when I had an immobilising injury. In recent years, Grim Dawn has just pipped Diablo 3 and Path Of Exile for reasons I've mentioned before. But.....I might have to go with Divinity Original Sin 2, despite only playing the Early Access....it just has so much to it in all directions (plot, skill, interactions, super-tactical combat), and looks amazing. So maybe that one. 

Witchfire 

Witchfire (much better quality) 

...built around paid advertising for games in alpha.

But Witchfire does look purdy. 

cool
https://www.destructoid.com/gtfo-gets-first-gameplay-trailer-476820.phtml 

Looks pretty promising. 

 

http://store.steampowered.com/app/601430/The_Evil_Within_2/

Do it. No qualms recommending this at full price even. 

I just noticed that the 2017 Cacowards have been anounced, and Shadows of the Nightmare Realm by YukiRaven (who made Temple of Azathoth is number 2 in the top ten (screenshot.

I'm not much of a Doom player, but some of these maps look pretty good, judging by the screenshots. YukiRaven's map requires GZDoom, which I can't get to work on my system, so I haven't played it, but I played Brigandine by Viggles (number 5), and it's really, really nice (screenshot). I quickly get bored of Doom partly because I miss the true 3d of Quake and partly because the gameplay of most custom maps I've played feels like busywork (mindless button pressing without knowing what the buttons do, too many monsters and maze-like layouts), but this map has actual pacing and a manageable scope, and it's just fun to explore. It feels very 3d despite being made in 2.5d engine. 

I didn't expect the Cacowards of this year to be announced so soon. 

Assassin's Creed IV
https://free.ubisoft.com/promotions/assassins-creed-black-flag/16/pc/login

Company of Heroes 2
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/company-of-heroes-2 

Layers of Fear

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/layers-of-fear-and-soundtrack?hmb_source=layersoffear_deluxe_freegame&hmb_medium=banner 

Oxenfree:
https://www.gog.com/game/oxenfree

"Watchdogs", "World in Conflict", and "Assassin's Creed IV":
https://free.ubisoft.com 

Just deciding whether it's safer to download uplay and get Watchdogs or just get a pirate/torrent version. Probably torrent would be safer than uplay.

I've only played a few games this year, nothing since July, until right before xmas, now I've got a bit of free time so getting through the queue.

Bound By Flame - 56% (metacrtic) / 6.5 (me)
Started out pretty decent, good rpg, but really started to go downhill by the mid point with horrible linear maze levels. Combat was fun, although dual-wield with light magic appears to be the only way to go so not much replayability. Supposed to be a fairly hard game but I think I cracked build perfectly. It was very linear overall though, unlike most modern RPGs.

Thief - 70% / 7/10
Reminded me of Dishonest but with more straightforward gameplay. I quite enjoyed it although certainly not on the level of Thief 3 with story.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter - 82% / 6.5/10
Shit some of these story-games are quite overated aren't they? By the time I realised there's actual objectives here and I started doing them, the story was a little difficult to piece together, and then I couldn't be bothered going back to the beginning. I got it in the end though, decent story. Nice looking game. But come on it's a 1 hour walking game. I see the developer second game is a dark fantasy FPS oh fuck yes!
Am really looking forward to this one http://www.theastronauts.com/2017/12/new-game-witchfire/

Child of Light - 77% / 7/10
I played on the lower difficult which is supposed to be really easy, but I still found it too hard and needed cheats to finish it haha. Fuck I feel pathetic sometimes. Nice dark watercolour style art, it's a flying platformer with turn based combat, which was okay. Turn-based is normally not my thing but I was playing it for the art anyway. A bit long though. 

With a score like 91%, with the next highest action game of 2014 way down on 85%, I was thinking they must got it right this time. More frequent and not hidden checkpoints, tick. Less maze-layouts and huge backtracking, tick. Respawning every enemy in the game each time you save at checkpoint, even when you haven't died, ffs. By the time I got through Forest of the Fallen Giants I'd had e-fucking-nough. I look at videos of walkthroughs and yeah sure they're darting and rolling around like rabbits, landing 1 hit every 2 minutes. I'm not playing like that. Screw that. I can't spend 50-100 hours on a game with frantic keyboard pounding wearing my poor wrist out. I'm way too impatient to replay the same set of enemies 30 times over because they keep respawning. I think only hardcore gamers with a lot of time on their hands could truely love this game, which makes me wonder about all the great reviews. Most gamers are casual and this is a slap in the face to casual gamers. Sure that's the way it was intended, but why so much love when it's only designed for a certain audience? If a game was too easy, it would certainly be reflected in the reviews. Anyway I did actually finish the game with cheats and I did enjoy it still. Lots of great locations. I must admit though, the engine is getting a bit dated and maybe 20% of the level design does look pretty bad. Like 4 brush corridors design. I'd love to love DS but not when it requires this much work and time, when I've got 5 other long fantasy RPGs from 2014 alone still to play. With a quicksave I'd love DSII, it would be like Stalker and that's not shit right? Stalker is still a tough game even with quicksave.

Shambler I'm surprised you quit, you loved DS1 right? You know all the keys are remappable, if used with glovepie. You should unmap them all in game, sent them to normal keys you wouldn't normally use, then reset them in glovepie. I was switching between wasd and mouse for movement. 

This is how an Aliens game should be made. Proper dark, surivival horror with an alien you can't kill. It's funny (ironic) that I'd even enjoy this sort of game when I just got off slagging DSII for their distant checkpoints and requiring patience. But it's a different kind. I can plod along slowly in the shadows, not repeating shit over and over, and not jackhammering my keyboard just to kill a small bird. The checkpoints weren't too far apart anyway, and it actually becomes a big part of the intensity of the game trying to survive long enough to get to the checkpoint. All up I only had to repeat a few sections more than 3 times and no more than a few minutes each time. I also played on the lowest difficulty setting, which probably helped. I see a lot of people complaining online about the alien being more luck than skill if you survive and it's too hard bla bla bla JUST PUT THE FUCKING DIFFICULTY DOWN.

It's not perfect though, the game goes on a bit long. The ending was a bit anticlimatic, there was no difficulty spike, just a long walk and a few face huggers. The Average Joe's really get on my tits after a while, enough of these annoying cunts that always seem to grab me from 10 metres away. All the backtracking over previous areas gets annoying. A little bit more wow factor in design would have been nice - more like some of the DSII scenes. But still, the best Aliens game I've played and one of the best survivals.

Unfortunately the developer returned to only spewing out turn based crap after this game, apparently it only broke even so not worth doing a sequel. 

And Alien Isolation had even more broken savepoints, i.e. well before lengthy sequences / cutscenes and not after, and the randomised alien was pure bullshit EVEN WITH THE DIFFICULTY DOWN. 

http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=23795&start=10122 

1. Dark Souls 3 Ringed City DLC
2. Deus Ex 4 Criminal Past DLC
3. Divinity Original Sin 2 Early Access
4. Battletech Backer's Beta Early Access
5. Forgotten Sepulcher Quake AD Map

I am quite proud that none of mine are actual games ;) 

First of all, you are a true masochist if you are playing this with a keyboard. This game series is one of those PC games that is much MUCH better with a gamepad. Yes, on a PC.

Second: do you realize you don't actually have to kill regular enemies? You only really need to kill them if you want to farm for some items or when exploring an area for the first time. If you already know where you are going, you can just run past almost every single mob. 

100% wrong about mouse and keyboard, the challenge in the game comes from a lot of factors but choosing to use a comfortable accurate control mechanism I.E. M+KB is not one of those factors.

Post more GOTYs, bitches. 

uh... RiME, I guess. Not that it's a particularly great game (it is pretty and has some cool puzzle concepts) but 2017 was a rather lackluster gaming year for me. Good year for consoles (Breath of the Wild, Horizon Zero Dawn, Super Mario Odyssey, etc). Too bad I don't own any :(

I still intend to check out PREY when it drops to $5. Fortnite looks fun, I just don't have to time to get wrapped up in a MP game atm. 

By the way, in case some of you are not informed, The Legend of Zelda - Breath of the Wild is available on PC...unofficially :D

It has been entirely emulated, a little community project. Apparently it is even moddable on PC, but suffice to say it runs great and with higher gfx than on the Switch.

So if you don't wanna get a switch but would like to see what the fuss is about, there you go.

To be found in the usual places..

If you feel guilty, just buy a boxed copy and put it in you cupboard before playing it on PC


I have a Switch, holding on to it on low firmware for homebrew which should be soon incoming, but if not I'll probably sell it and get a more emulator flexible handheld gaming device.