"I always thought it was because in recent years they seem to devote most of their effort to cut scenes and quick time events instead of creating user playable content."

That's certainly another theory! 

Maybe I need to try Unreal again? I tried it like 3 times but frankly it just bored me. I feel like I need to like it because I really fucking love UT... 

it was great at the time IMO.

I think it's something that I cannot honestly judge objectively now because I have such a deep nostalgic love for it. I mean, I got the game at the same time as I got a voodoo 2... the damn thing blew my mind from start to finish. 

Recently started playing the latest Tomb Raider for the first time because of the high praise it tends to get. Unfortunately I'm close to skipping this one because it's plagued with those insta-death QTE sequences. They're simply no fun for me and sour everything else about the game, despite the platforming/exploration being quite fun. :(

So I've been playing Witcher 2 instead (on Hard difficulty). Had a rough start figuring out group combat but now have a blast everytime I jump into it. Until the QTEs... but not nearly as hair tearing.

It's sad because I absolutely loved both Shenmue titles, stuffed with QTE sequences... but at least not every failed QTE meant game-over though. 

I still think QTE can be done well.

But it seems I'm on my own there. 

There should always be a "just show me the video version" option for QTEs. Seriously, they suck.

The first time I played Tomb Raider I had a lot of trouble with the QTEs. There seems to be some issues on the PC with certain video settings or something. The buttons simply don't respond. The second time I played, it wasn't so bad for whatever reason.

I highly recommend sticking with it. I absolutely hate 3rd person shooters, yet I would rank Tomb Raider 2013 as one of the best games I've ever played. 

Bluff Eversmoking is some fine video gaming in and of itself. Love that map.

BlOps2 took me only 8 hours, but then I discovered I got an ending I didn't like, and realized the game had 16 different endings. So that made me appreciate it a little bit more. That and I liked the ability to configure my abilities and inventory before every level.

I actually did "finish" Fallout New Vegas. Got my character to the base game max level, did most of the quests in each area, and completed the primary story arc for the NCR. Got 86 hours of that game, slow start but I really enjoyed it. 

Quakis it is worth persisting. The QTEs are fucking pointless shit (and very obviously so, god knows how they got left in), BUT they do get sparser later in the game and the pure atmosphere / spectacle more than compensates for them. 

havent played it for a while but it was one of the great games, and some of the community maps/packs (albeit mostly needing UT) were of staggering quality. 

Been Playing this game called

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem:_Avenging_Angel

It's like a cross between Quake II and Undying and it's pretty good.

It's on Isozone, and it runs on Win 7 using wndmode.

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Requiem:_Avenging_Angel 

Was pretty good fun at the time. Turn to salt power especially. 

Great game. Received it on a CD when I purchased an ATI Radeon card for my old Macintosh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Cop:_LAPD 

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but I've spent probably half of the last two days playing maps I made for Doom almost 20 years ago and it's hard to believe how well that game has held up.

As soon as the Quake map I'm working on is done, I may have to go back to Doom mapping for a bit. 

Oh Philippe, Philippe...
It is the Doom 3 Cacodemons. 

 

Any old Mac users remember Swoop by Ambrosia Software? Such a fun game. I still have an old Power Mac 8500 running Mac OS 9.2.2 and it's always a blast to set it up and play this for a few hours. 

Played lots of Ambrosia games back in the day though. Barrack, Apeiron, Bubble Trouble, the Escape Velocities.... 

actually looks enjoyable in this video -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncPK1r_igqk

I like the building your own fort aspect of the game a lot. 

So yep Tron Evolution did massively suck. 6.0/10. Not much more to say, they even fucked up the score.

Bioshock 2 - 9/10. Better than the original game. The gameplay was just more polished with better weapons and while the graphics were similar, there were more underwater vistas instead of just darkness everytime you look out a window. But overall not that different to the first game just more of the same.

Venetica - 7/10. Possibly even more. Just a pretty average RPG/adventure game. Graphics are a little dated, it's definitely not AAA, but also very much worth playing through. Pretty addictive 15-20 hrs.

Next on my list is either The Ball, Two Worlds II or MOH.

I think after I've reviewed everything from 2010 I'll stop doing these reviews - when I started there were only several games a year, 2010 there's 40, 2011 I've got a list of almost 70 games to play. Fuck reviewing all that, it'll be a chore just playing half of them. 

and just 32MB of RAM.

Holy f@ck! 

http://store.steampowered.com/app/302390/?snr=1_4_4__106_2 

kona, just review the one you think that are good or unique. 

kona, just review the one you think that are good or unique. 

A review of a really bad game is just as useful as one of a good game. Maybe even better. It helps me to avoid wasting money. 

Yes, but then Kona has to buy and play shit games just so you can avoid them. Sounds like a great deal for Kona. :)