Just finished The Enigmatis Trilogy courtesy of ninja master Blarth.

I play simple Hidden Object Games sparingly in the past. But The Tiny Bang Story and this series have proved me that HOG could be a medium for story-telling. This genre sure have evolved while I'm not into gaming. About Enigmatis itself, I feel the first one is the best in term of the "found this object". There's more effort to combine it with "point & click" with combine this to do that in the latter series. The puzzle parts is light and fun in all.

I currently not in the mood of a more serious games. Some heavier action & RPG games currently on hold.

I finished:

Grim Fandango
Strife: Veteran Edition
Wolfenstein 3D

Cuphead. I really like Golden Age cartoons and Contra, and this is basically Contra inside of a Fleischer Bros./Ub Iwerks cartoon, which means I loved it. You run and shoot and you jump in a tight somersault that you can control in mid-air. You also have a little dash move and you can use a super-attack occasionally. Probably about 70 percent of the game is multi-stage boss fights, with the rest being some straight-on run-and-gun platforming levels that they apparently threw in after people complained about the game being nothing but boss fights. There are also a few levels/fights in which you fly a cute little airplane, so it's kind of a horizontal shmup, too.

The idea is that you got indebted to the Devil and to pay him off you have to go around and collect the souls of the various bosses you have to beat up, but mostly it's an excuse to do these absolutely gorgeous homages to 1930s cartooning. There's this one nautical-themed boss who looks a bit like Brutus from the Fleischers' color Sinbad cartoons, for instance. They really nailed the animation and art style almost perfectly. A hero who has a teacup for a head does seem a tad on the "LOL =D random!" side, but then again we have old cartoons about people who were living balloons being menaced by an evil pin-cushion, so maybe not so much after all.

It is quite challenging. Some levels I got through without much trouble but others gave me real fits and killed me dozens of times. I was cursing so much my wife thought I wasn't having fun, but I was actually having a great time and I was frustrated with myself probably more than the game. It's just one of those games that you want to start up right after failing again.

Although you've finished the game, Return to Castle Wolfenstein also has a source port you can use if you want to play it again in the future:

https://github.com/iortcw/iortcw/releases

9 years and 4 days ago on steam i bought Grand Theft Auto 4.

Today I finally completed it

The game is worse than VC and SA. I have yet not played GTAV. Maybe in few years.

the biggest issue is not that the realism, they could have done much with it. The issue is that the main character, Nico… is a loser.
through whole game he is massive pushover, does not have the agency of his life. instead, he is a obedient dog who does what he is told with maybe two or three times where he acts on his own…

and that’s annoying. both VC and SA had that Raise to Power flair, where you start as lackey and then starts calling the shots with your allies and your family.

In GTA IV, Nico is just doing favours for people who don’t care about him. and expectedly they turn on him when he stops being useful.
from gaming perspective its disappointing. you are the same guy you were in the beginning. nobody.

also gameplay relates to that.

money is pointless in this game after few missions. you can’t grow your own empire, make yours and your cousins life better. and it also disconnects from the story as per characters comments you are poor.
but you successfully robbed a bank
made a series of well paid assassinations
won races, did hit and runs…

you have a half a million bucks but storywise you are poor.

hence i never really did side missions. what’s the point?

meh. game done. but it is disappointment after the amazing San Andreas which i completed in 2012.

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, Dec 27 (DS)-This was a fun puzzle game. Light on story as you might expect but several of the puzzles were integrated well which I gather was a bit of a criticism of the first game. The puzzles had a good range of difficulty but some of them were so hard that I couldn't get them even with all the hints and had to resort to a walkthru. Overall a feel-good game to close out the year.

Full List

I'm wondering if any ambitious GOGer has the desire and ability to do some end of year stats based on this thread. Things like game most often beaten in 2018, total number of games beaten, averages, etc etc. I have no idea how to do such a thing but it would be fun to know.

I once thought about how it would be cool to have an index with links to all the game reviews in these "Games Finished in ..." threads, but that would require a shitload of unpaid work ... :/

Lego The Incredibles

Another worthy entry in the "Lego" series. Lots of unlocakbles, lots of secrets everywhere, very good animation and design, just pure fun. That's also why i love gaming. Even if you're not really interested into the Incredibles universe (and/or Disney-Pixar), I think that game is still worth playing.

Plus, as always, you can play together with a friend, design your own character, which is always fun.

That's certainly my last game of 2018 and I'm happy to have finished on such a positive note!

So far in 2018: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2018/post12

Well, seems I was wrong in my last post, because I managed to finish Guns, Gore & Cannolli too!

Fun little game, run'n'gun principally with some platforming. You play a hitman during the 1930's prohibition in America, when suddenly the town is invaded by zombies!

The game is made in Belgium, I think, and it shows, since the art style is very close to the european comics like Spirou & Fantasio or the Blue Coats. Frankly, I loved it, it's very rare when you think about it and it fitted perfectly in that game!

So, you have a variety of guns, ranging from the revolver to the bazooka, but you will get them gradually during the game. You'll have also grenades and Molotov cocktails, which helps when you see how many enemies there are, sometimes...

Globally, the game is good and fun, but sometimes a bit hard (mind you, I'm a very average player). I actually had to lower the difficulty for one boss. You also have to understand how your guns work and, more importantly, how many ammo they have and the speed to reload. If you get caught reloading in the middle of a zombie horde, you're done.

And there is my only little grip with that game: if you get caught in a corner, or between groups, especially between a group on contact and a group launching grenades, you can actually be comboted to death, since there is no "invulnerability time" when you're hit, like what you have in platformers. So you have to be extra careful, in fact.

Oh, and the game in itself is not long, in fact. But there's some replay value with the other difficulty levels and the achievements (on Steam).

Except that little problem, that was a fun game. I know there's a "2", so I'll certainly look for it one of these days!

So far in 2018: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2018/post12

Batman Arkham Asylum

I actually started Arkham City first, which feels like almost the same game. The best thing about these games is you feel like you're Batman. In terms of game mechanics it's similar to Assassin's Creed in many ways. From the leaping/climbing to the basic combat system. There's puzzle elements too. The open world environment is there but you do feel led, except for when you're supposed to figure out where you're going and you get lost. So for the latter none holding of the hand, I resorted to walkthroughs a few times when I got lost.

Overall a decent feeling like Batman experience with Assaddin's Creed mechanics and gameplay elements. I enjoyed it and it gave me a week and a half of playing time.

Gothic

It's simply one of the best RPGs I've ever played. I haven't been hooked by a game like this in a long time. It just might be my new favorite game.

THIS

I will create the thread for Games Finished in 2019 around 10:30pm UTC on Sunday, assuming I don't have any other obligations at the time. It'll be pretty much the same routine. If anyone else wants to take over, or if anyone's got any suggestions, feel free to let me know!

Hollow Knight

A very good metroidvania that starts a bit bland but picks up as you start collecting more and more abilities. The words "2D Dark Souls" get thrown around a lot, but this one comes the closest of the ones I've played. Other than the fact that you only have 1 weapon.

Refunct

After sinking almost 50 hours into Hollow Knight, wanted to play something short. And this first person platformer is very much that. Beat it twice in a half hour or so, second time for the <8 minute speed run achievement. There's also a 4 minute one, and that's too hardcore for me. Game's extremely relaxing, except for one part where it sticks you in a spot surrounded by 4 walls and expects you to figure out that you can wall jump wall to wall without any clues. Looked up the solution online...