Amnesia: The Dark Descent is free for the next 24hrs on Steam. Horror game, believe it was what started the current trend of first person horror games, and most weren't as good as it.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/57300/ 

Picked up the game after reading your post. I doubt I will play it through though, as I am usually too scared to finish horror games. 

One of my favorite games ever.
Don't miss this one. But be warned, it's not for weak hearts. 

Cryostasis did the horror atmosphere quite well too, I actually remember that more than I remember Amnesia. But Amnesia had better gameplay.

Alan Wake has a good horror atmosphere too, and better gameplay than both, and doesn't feel like a budget indie game. I'm yet to find a survival/horror game I'd classify as great, though. 

I lost interest when I figured out that whenever a monster appeared you just stuck your head in a corner until it went away.

The original design docs for it had weapons in - I really hope they include guns in SOMA, I reckon they'd do a great job with them.

I can imagine a situation where you fire your plasma rifle as a last resort and all hell breaks loose, enemies closing in from all sides and that was the only charge the weapon had... 

I would rather have minimal and ineffectual weaponry to fight back with in last resorts and carefully assessed situations, rather than no weaponry at all. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvOZEj6VaiE

Great footage, the 2nd go with Joe checking out all the animations, looks amazing, this is the PC game portrayal of the Warhammer world we've been waiting for!! 

i'm completely laid up with some kind of bronchial murderflu so I caved to a random impulse and bought Rimworld

it feels like a game about watering a houseplant and making sure it gets lots of sun and still watching it slowly turn yellow and lose colonists until you give up and chuck it

I decided to be scummy on my last colony and kept hitting 'randomize' until I got a good spread of people with strong, non-overlapping skills and no useless nobles. when I landed them the game decided that one should be a 77 year old with dementia that made him prone to just going off his nut and wandering in the trees regularly, and another (the only one with medical or research skills) should be nearly blind in both eyes. \o/ 

http://store.steampowered.com/app/375950/

(also watering the snail that walks around the pot)

(btw get well soon!) 

 

but now I am interested... love these dwarf fortress style games. 

After seeing it on your list Scampie. I was nonplussed. 

Viridi isn't on my list... It just is. 

...is currently free (On the house) on Origin for those that are interested. Grab it while you can. 

Skacky posted the trailer and links from the Early Access shizzle, you lot approved, and now I'm the only one who's tried the full release??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFZVXG0g40Q

Anyway, I like it. The context is generic, the story is meaningless, and the gameplay and missions are quite repetitive....BUT it looks good, the atmosphere is really nice, the music is good, it controls very well (restrictive camera aside) and the gameplay and squad management are well functional. It doesn't really captivate me but it is quite moreish.

P.S. Never played Syndicate, no idea about any comparisons with that. 

Fish are really cute as is the drone thing nuff said. 

Its great how they have to wear neon to infiltrate in that universe. If they wore nondescript clothing then they'd stand out like a sore thumb. 

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a story driven first person mystery/puzzle game.

I've played through it twice. First through the Unreal 3 engine where the game was fresh to me and then again through the Unreal 4 engine with the redux release (separate and stand alone.) In the second play through, I knew all the mechanics and game tasks. I liked it very much for the same reasons that everyone who likes it, liked it.

The first communication the game makes to the player is that their hand is not held and they're essentially on their own with respect to what they do in the game world and with the game mechanics. I think this is fine for the first element (figuring out what to do in the game world) but a very, very bad and lazy choice for the second (you have to figure out the game mechanics.) Most of the mechanics are intuitive except for the ability to use your psychic vision to 'see' the location of items you need to complete some of the puzzles. If you're like me, you completely miss out on this function because you didn't notice it and end up doing those sort of grid/pixle hunts that are the worst part of traditional adventure games. If you're sort of lucky, you might stumble upon a 'vision' of the item by experimentation but then wonder why it doesn't always work.

The exact use of this feature is shown in a 12 minute developer commentary video on YouTube which unfortunately spoils some of the game. If you're interested in the game and know very little about it, here's my spoiler-free gift to you. When you come upon the floating 'Investigate' text and after the parade of words go by, you are left with swirling words indicating the object name followed by a question mark (for example Scissors?). Keep the swirling text in view and slowly look about and turn until the swirling settles and when the word turns yellow this means you are pointed in the direction of the lost object. While the word is yellow (can't be white) activate the use key and you'll see through a psychic portal the object in situ - the view even orbits the object making it easy to locate. How many people do you think figured this out on their own and at what point in the game?

TVoEC is really a great game but I lost out on some enjoyment due to a lack of knowledge on how all the mechanics worked. I think a simple tutorial (could be separate and disconnected from the main game) showing all the mechanics, which are not many, would serve both the player and the publisher because of more satisfaction.

TVoET had a satisfying ending that wrapped things up completely. That said, I hope the developer, The Astronauts, create another such game which I know I would enjoy more knowing that the mystery would be in the game world and not in hidden gameplay mechanics. 

http://www.pulsarthegame.com/
accidently discovered this in steam store. 

Total Biscuit has released a whopping video on this game and it looks awesome -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5YkM5Gkz5w 

Very useful video that. Don't agree that the engine looks amazing, but the game itself looks like it works very well. 

Agree, but I suspect the YouTube conversion mangled the contrast. 

 

http://www.moddb.com/mods/dawn-of-darkness1
Anyone played through this ? Missed it somehow... 

I liked that one a lot. Much slower than your regular Quake, yet pretty atmospheric. Go for it if you're into Hexen and its sequel.