Hmm.... I think I may have posted in this thread this year already, but here's an update of all the games off the top of my head:

Dragon Age: Inquisition
-Good game that overstays its welcome at the end because you have to farm optional quests for Power to unlock one of the final chapters

Mass Effect 3
-Decent, I was moved more in this game than perhaps any I've finished since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. That's a slight exaggeration, but I don't remember the last time I got so emotional over the course of the game

Prey (2017)
-Good game all around, though at points it can seem tedious and like you're doing more of the same... It's definitely not bad, and there are almost always multiple ways to achieve an objective

A Bird Story
-Sadness... This game dev always gives me a case of the Feels

The Bunker
-Very decent FMV interactive game, Wales Interactive is a company to be on the lookout for, which leads me to:

Late Shift
-The second game by Wales Interactive, this one is more of an interactive movie than a game. Multiple endings, good stuff

Quantum Break
-Excellent story in this one, though it is extremely demanding and requires a modern computer... Definitely worth the install, has multiple branches with multiple storylines - also has episodes you watch based on what you choose at these branches, like watching a tv show

Gears of War Windows 10 Ultimate Edition
-Good remake, though I noticed the last hour or so of the game was extremely buggy

Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
-What can be said about Skyrim? You either love it or hate it. Lack of direction does not necessarily make a bad game

Until Dawn (PS4)
-Good horror game with multiple endings. I have not gotten all the endings, but it's an awesome game and has a couple of my favorite actors, Hayden Panittiere (sp) and Rami Malek

The Nonary Games - 999 (PS4)
-The first entry into The Nonary Games is really good, and has a learning curve to unlock all the endings. To get the "True" ending, you might have to get a walkthrough or guide - don't feel guilty, it's a complex series

The Walking Dead - Season One
-What can be said for the walking dead? Fear not, Clem

Maize
-Fun little game that has a lot of enjoyment packed into roughly 4 hours - worth it

The Town of Light
-A beautiful game which talks about mental illness and is a wonderful expose on the subject. Multiple endings

Torment: Tides of Numenera
-You tend to either love this game or hate it, there's no in between

Stories Untold
-Just finished this today, it was a trip! Loved it loved it loved it!

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
-Beautifully gorgeous game, well worth the time

The Park
-Good game, walking simulator

To the Moon
-Same dev as A Bird Story - them feelz tho

Fran Bow
-Another mental health game, this one was fun and terrifying at the same time for me

The Blackwell Legacy
-Finished this towards the beginning of the year, if memory serves, good start to the series

The Last of Us (PS3)
-One of the greatest games I've ever played, was a good reintroduction to console shooting/stealth mechanics for me.

The Order 1886 (PS4)
-Really good game, but heavily invested in the QTE format. Easily one of the best looking games I've ever played.
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I know I'm missing a game or two. This year has been very productive for my backlog because I quit playing mmos for most of the year. You can see the direct result. I feel like an able gamer again, not someone who just collects games meaninglessly.

Good luck in The Quest of the Backlog(TM)! I still have an awful long way to go, but I'm getting there :D

(edited because I forgot The Last of Us)
(edited 2x because I forgot The Order)

That game is a lot of fun. I'm playing it right now.

I finished Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines a couple days ago. I always approach cult hits with apprehension, but I needn't have bothered with such an approach for this game. It definitely deserves the praise it gets. I encountered almost no bugs, which I understand is due largely to the unofficial patch included with the GOG version. I went for a Tremere my first time around, and I had a lot of fun with it.

The difficulty was a little inconsistent; most of the time, combat was a breeze, but occasionally it was incredibly difficult, especially the boss battles, which I was not a fan of for the most part. I can also see the complaints about the game's final few hours. The combat focus is at odds with much of the game, and I can't imagine trying to get through that (or any of the boss battles, for that matter) with a non-combat character.

Regardless, I would say that the game is worth playing, even if you stop at the those final few hours. The writing is excellent, the voice-acting is well done, and the setting is fascinating. I definitely plan to play it again, and I think I will go with a Malkavian next time. I've heard interesting things about playing as one of them, and I'm interested to see them for myself.

Thanks for that opinion.

I completed the game a few months ago (for the first time) and I'm the game's disciple since then. Looking at screenshots and reviews I found nothing interesting in the game. Come on - some vampire shooter trying to be crpg...

Don’t be fooled by appearances! Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines is true masterpiece. It does not matter, if you like vampires, action, crpg, 3D games or whatever. It's just indelible experience. It's true art. The setting of the game is absolutely unforgettable. It's like a real journey to the different reality. Everyone should play the game and I'm sure I'll play it again even if I almost never replay the game I've finished. As everyone I miss some people and places from the past and I know it's only the game, but characters and locations from VtMB somehow got into that part of my mind! Damn, it's magic.

I adore the game. :)

Rogue Trooper

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

I heard mixed reviews so I held off on this game, but I love it. The gimmick of two characters with one controller doesn't take long to get used to, and the game leverages the teamwork to build the story. Game had a good atmosphere, and is beautifully detailed. Very "farm boy off to see the wide world" story, and it is easy to engage with any of the characters that are around for a few screens.

I made sure to sit on every bench, to check out all the little branches along the paths, and to see each brother interact with anything I could. Environment and simple platforming are all of the puzzles, but they are well done. Game is short, like a long movie short, but well worth the experience.

Slayaway Camp (Android)

An excellent puzzle game with a rather interesting voxel-based visual style and an appealing theme, namely that of slasher films. The entire game is a spoof of the genre and the time when it was most popular: each chapter is a different film, presented as a VHS tape in the shelf of a video rental store. Plus the menus resemble the OSD of a videotape recorder of the era, and the in-game rewind feature produces the typical 'static horizontal stripes' you surely remember unless you were born in the mid-nineties or later.

Gameplay-wise, it couldn't be any simpler: you've got to kill everybody in the level (cops and spec ops excluded) and reach the exit point. But your characters (the serial killers starring in the different films/chapters) can only move in 4 directions, and once they start moving they won't stop until they reach an obstacle. With that movement limitation and a bit of clever design on the developers' part, you'll be in for a lot of really challenging levels, where you'll need to go round and round the level before being able to kill an elusive victim.

I think this game may be an excellent entry point to the genre, and not only because of its theme and gore. The first levels of each chapter, where a new game element or mechanic is usually introduced, are quite easy and straightforward. And then, there's an in-game two-tiered help system: you can pay a small amount of coins to get a hint (e.g. "you should leave the victim at the bottom right for last"), and if that's not enough for you, for a bunch more coins you can be shown the full solution. I had to ask for a hint a couple of times, and only once I needed the full solution. In my defense I'll say it was literally the last bonus level of the final chapter, which was particularly long, complex and far-fetched. But other than that damn level it was fun all the way, so I can wholeheartedly recommend the game to any puzzle and/or slasher films lover.

I played it on Android as I got the game in a previous Humble Mobile Bundle, but you can also find it for Windows, Mac and Linux on Steam, where there are also a lot of DLCs that don't seem to be available for Android (or for the Humble build, at least).


My list of finished games in 2017

Watch Dogs 2 (PS4)

I really enjoyed the first game, which I recently completed, so I decided to buy the sequel during a sale.

It plays largely like the first one, the biggest changes that they’ve added a new element: remote controlled drones, and a “Nethack” view which is pretty much a wall hack which also highlights all important items. The drones are fun to use, however I felt that there was much less variety in the open world activities, everything felt too similar because the drones are now used for almost everything. I missed the "camera" puzzles from the first game. Additionally, I really hated the protagonist and all his hacker friends, they are just too overtly goody-goody and annoyingly hypocritical (not intentional I think), hence I did not enjoy the story (which is pretty typical for open world games though). Plus the game is even easier than the first one, which was already pretty easy.

It’s still an OK game if you enjoy this genre, but it doesn’t come close to the original Watch Dogs which is very much superior. Overall I’d not recommend it, there are many other open world games out there which are much better.

Usually I see people saying WD2 is superior. I own the first one but never finished it. Might reinstall UPlay to play through my library from ubisoft, but I really hate them these days. The first one seemed really fun out of the 30 minutes or so I played of it, but due to a system wipe at the time, I stopped playing it and never reinstalled it.

Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of ubisoft's open world games, if I'm being honest. It's like driving the same exact car with a new coat of paint, paying "new car" prices for the fresh paint job each time.

Bad Mojo Redux

Yep, just finished Bad Mojo, which is the Kafka-esque one where you get turned into a roach and you have to solve puzzles from a roach's perspective to progress, y'know this one:
https://www.gog.com/game/bad_mojo_redux
Iiit's not a good game, not a good game at all - the rotational controls are annoying as are the pixel perfect ways you have to interact with the game objects to get the puzzles solved
It's also from the FMV era of games and is full of scenery chewing, jobbing actors mwah ha ha-ing with little provocation
Still it's a different and fairly unique gaming experience and, on balance, I'm glad I did it, although I'm not going to replay it in a hurry.
I recently saw 'The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension' and I feel very similar about that - a flawed experience but, on balance, a worthwhile one if only for the sheer WTF-ness

Full List: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2017/post430

Divinity 2 is in the books!

Good to get another long game out of the backlog finally, and a fantastic one at that. Not sure if I like it more than Divine Divinity, but in any case those were both great games. I may even consider getting Divinity: Original Sin in the future, despite the fact that I don't have any interest in turn-based gameplay. But I think Larian Studios has at least earned my consideration for it. Here's hoping we see Divinity 3 in the near future. I want to slaughter Damian.

I think next up is to get through some of my FPS games. Painkiller and Clive Barker's Undying are in progress, so I guess those will be on my list to finish next.

Grow Up (PS4)

This is a cute and relaxing open world exploration game, the sequel to Grow Home.

The game world is larger and less linear than Grow Home, but it has lost the novelty factor because it is essentially an extension of the first game with some new mechanics. The game is moderately short, although it can be much longer if you try to gather all the collectibles and complete all the challenges (personally I didn’t).

Overall it is fun and I’d recommend it if you enjoy this genre :).

Tharsis

This was an interesting one. I read a lot of negative reviews that said that this game is an RNG-fest and that you will lose most of the time, because you get a bad roll of the dices. I don't agree.

By now I've played many rounds and got a success ratio of 25% on both easy and normal difficulty (and I'm pretty sure that it would be at least 50% on easy, if I would still play on that difficulty). I would say that every single time that I've lost, I made a bad decision or made a risky or stupid move. Of course there are very bad rolls sometimes, but a single one (or even two or three in a row) won't kill you when you play with a good strategy and got your priorities right.

I've unlocked most of the stuff and also completed most of the mission. Still return to the game from time to time, because it's a good way to spend 20 minutes or half an hour.

Complete list of finished games in 2017