Caravan

The game has some potential, good setting, decent story (nothing really special but still), not a bad fighting/trading system but ultimately... is simply boring. A good trading sim should slowly introduce new features and actions you can perform. This way things are interesting enough to keep you playing. Caravan has none of these. Within one hour you will probably see everything the game has to offer, you’ll do the same for the rest of the game. On top of that some features are badly implemented:
- Auxiliaries die off like flies and are too much hassle to be bothered with.
- Even though fighting/trading system is nice (simple but nice - a classical paper-rock-scissors approach) your opponents are total morons and they pick buffs randomly even though in many cases their moves make no sense whatsoever.
- What’s the point of having several skills if using one of them will prevent you from using any other? In this way you will only be bothered with the most useful skill and completely forget about the others.
And probably a few more. Sadly, the game is very disappointing. I cannot recommend.


Full list

DiRT Rally VR (PSVR)

The VR version of this game is not a tacked-on extra, it is the full game, which is very welcome. However, the menus and replays are not in VR which is a little disappointing but not a deal breaker.

I only played the game in VR, and I only played “Rally”, I did not do any “RallyCross” or “Hill Climb” (neither of which interest me at all), nor did I do any online multiplayer. I turned off all the vehicle assists and the entire HUD. The driving feels great in VR, it is a lot of fun and very immersive. My main complaint is that there are only 6 different Rally regions, I would have liked to see more (at the expense of dropping RallyCross and Hill Climb from the game). There is a variety of snow, gravel, and tarmac courses, and they all feel very different. In addition, there are different weather conditions which affect visibility and grip. I also really liked how your co-driver will occasionally pause unnecessarily or stutter, it really adds to the immersion.

My main complaint (which also applies to every other rally game I’ve played) is that the car damage is way too forgiving, you’d have to hit a tree or pole head-on at high speed at least a couple of times before your car starts to get seriously damaged.

This game can never really be completed because you can always generate another rally event, but I did complete (and win) a Masters championship (which is the highest difficulty). I didn’t find even the Masters difficulty very hard, but perhaps that was partially because by the time I unlocked it I had been driving a lot and improving along the way. In any case, I’m sure online would be much harder but I’m not interested in multiplayer.

Definitely recommended!

THOR.N

I got this game for free a little while back from Humble Bundle.

It is very short game (<30minutes), but interesting and is more about the "experience" than the gameplay.

I enjoyed my time with it, I think it's worth it for the price and the time investment required.

Retro City Rampage DX (PS4)

I played this game a couple of years ago on my desktop computer, but I since got it again on my PS4 so I decided to play it again.

My impressions this time are the same as the last time I played it. I don’t normally go for arcade/action games these days, but I like the humour and references (even though I’m pretty sure I still missed at least half of them). There’s even a final boss battle (and I normally hate final boss battles) but this one is in anaglyph 3D so all is forgiven.

It’s a lot of silly fun and I’d still recommend it :)!

Fallout Tactics, Oct 12 (GOG)-This was fun but less so than Fallout 1 and 2. Same character creation and combat but the game is much more linear. There was much less exploration due to the nature of the missions and the last few missions were taking me 2-3 hours each. A bit of a letdown compared to the previous two games. A Fallout game where you can't just wander the wasteland exploring and getting quests isn't quite the same.

Full List

Pillars of Eternity II, Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, Yakuza Kiwami 2, Dragon Quest XI, Ni No Kuni 2
Those are all that I can think of having finished this year.

Braveland (gifted from triock)

At about 4-4.5 hours, this is not a long game, but on sale (or free) it's still a charming little King's Bounty-esque game. Unlike say, HOMM, there's no city building at all, just maneuvering down rails on a path that is more or less linear.

I'm assuming most know the gist, but you fight battles, buy troops or gear at various wayposts, and visit statues/obelisks for spells and skill boosts. No home cities, or resources (besides gold) to harvest or manage. Just, combat.

But the play time is actually a selling point - unlike the subsequent "Braveland: Pirate," which significantly overstays it's welcome, this one just kinda hits the sweet spot. Charming enough to be engaging for a few hours, but not nearly deep enough to be something you want to sink 12 hours into.

Get in, get out. Music is okay, art is good enough to be entertaining, story is whatever. Not a great game, but definitely enjoyable enough for a few hours.

Bought NWN EE for the "new" premium modules, soundtracks, and promises of things to come, ran a quick test and got sucked into the game again, playing two of the old premium modules in order to get a character to level 5. Both had good sides to them but ended up being rather disappointing. They also made me remember the good sides of NWN (the creativity, the imagination, how much can be achieved with so little - graphics really don't matter that much, you get drawn in regardless) as well as the bad ones (awkward pathfinding, the incredibly long pauses during combat that almost make the PC seem unresponsive to commands, etc.).

Witch's Wake (from lvl 1 to lvl 3)

This one was a replay; I still remembered two things about it: that I liked it, and that it was unfinished, more like a first chapter to a series that never happened.

+ The story-telling is good, it has a slightly poetic, mysterious quality to it, quite reminiscent of Planescape: Torment, and it actually adopts some of its elements (some might say "rips off", but I liked it).
+ XP are rewarded for "roleplaying your character", advancing the story, finding secrets or learning something new
+/- few XP are rewarded for combat and opponents often respawn, so hack and slash with a high body count is discouraged, you're better off running from or sneaking around enemies, and that makes more sense than killing everything that moves; but completely avoiding them isn't always possible either, and as a result, the combat in this module becomes even more tedious and annoying than usual
+/- resting is nerfed, you only regain ~ 2 HP per level when resting and have to wait 3 minutes before you're able to rest again, and healing resources are a bit rare as well. I guess it encourages caution, but it's also a bit lame, having to find a safe resting spot and then wait for several seconds only to regain a few measly HP
+/- just one voiceactress doing all the narration and voices, including male ones; but I liked her
- the ending is very abrupt, even more so than I remembered, and it's pretty clear that this was not how the story was meant to end

Shadowguard (first time, from lvl 3 to lvl 5)

+ it starts with a prologue spoken by a first person narrator and it actually adapts to your PC's gender; there's a male voice for male characters and a female voice for female characters (I prefered the latter)
+ in the beginning you get a lore book that actually features cutscenes and voiceovers if you read it (like re-enacted history - a nice touch and a creative use of the engine)
- not that you *have* to read them, but the regular lorebooks are too long and ultimately pointless, the one described above would have sufficed
+/- resting is only possible if you have rations; but since regular rations only cost 1 gp and you're pretty rich in this modules, this system is rather pointless and easily ignored
+ the story-telling, while conventional, works fine, and the quest system as well; they entertained me enough for me to keep going
- the story itself turns out to be less ambivalent and interesting than the beginning would have you think, it becomes a pretty simple and therefor predictable matter of black and white to the point of appearing totally naive, and that's a pity because the beginning clearly suggested that there was some awareness that things aren't always as clear cut. who knows, maybe they still had some twists planned, further down the storyline ...
- ... but even though this module is considerably longer than Witch's Wake, it ends without concluding the story arc as well
- and even worse, I ran into several bugs at the end, one of them gamebreaking, so I had to watch the last two minutes or so on YouTube, since in my playthrough, the concluding conversation was not triggered

So in the end, while both modules have a few nice qualities, I can't really recommend them to anyone but the most hardcore NWN fans. It was interesting to see what they're like and while playing I was invested in them, but that just increases the disappointment about their rushed endings. The time needed to play through these unfinished and in hindsight forgettable stories could be invested in playing more satisfying community modules.

Thanks for the excellent review. I completed these earlier in the year as part of the "old" NWN Diamond Edition and my experience pretty much mirrored yours, good in parts but overall they feel unfinished.

Just for others' information, I completed the modules in the following approximate times: Kingmaker - 8 hrs, Shadowguard - 4 hrs and Witch's Wake - 2 hrs.

Have you played any other NWN modules that you would especially recommend to someone who enjoys exploration and story more than pure hack-and-slash (at least in the NWN world)?

I've played so many community modules, but such a long time ago ... Let's see.

I think the best short story adventure I've played was The Sunken Shrine of Ahmenkatja. It takes under 1 hour to play, maybe even less than 30 minutes, but is a full story with good setting, storytelling, puzzles and a little combat, stripped down to the essence, in that nothing feels obsolete. At least that's how I remember it.

As for more epic, long module series, I guess the Aielund Saga can't be beat (goes from lvl 1 to lvl 40 with lots of story and side quests)*, but my personal favorite is the Prophet series**. From what I recall it's rather linear but gripping like a page turner, possibly the most complex and thought provoking story in NWN or RPGs in general. I don't know how well it still holds up today, but at the time, for me it came second only to Planescape Torment.
* Aielund Saga Chapter One
** Prophet series Prologue

A few other modules I remember liking a lot for their storytelling, roleplaying opportunities or exploration:

- EE2 - Excrucio Eternum (outstanding sequel to the shorter and much less interesting EE1 - Elegia Eternum, but I think you could safely skip the first one without missing much)
- Deja Vu
- Revenant
- Vampire - Heaven Defied (unfinished like Shadow Guard, but worth playing for the atmosphere)
- The Auren Trilogy, although so far there are only two parts, not sure if there ever will be a third one:
Almraiven
Shadewood
- Sanctum of the Archmage series, starting with The Sight
- Swordflight series (starting with this; I think I might have played only the first one before taking a long break from NWN, but the series is supposed to be very good; so far there are three modules, possibly more to come one day)
- Gladiatrix*** is a newer series focused on story-telling and roleplaying, but it's not for everyone, as it has some erotic / sexual content (from a female perspective), even if it's less intrusive than in the popular and very explicit A Dance With Rogues****. IIRC, in Gladiatrix you can say no and avoid most of it, but it's still a somewhat prominent theme
*** Gladiatrix 1
**** A Dance With Rogues Part One
(I list the latter as point of reference and because it's popular and competently made, offering a lot of roleplay options; personally I could never warm up to it, it's just too much - starts with an obligatory rape scene, and then almost every character in the game is lecherously hitting on you; I did enjoy Gladiatrix though, apart from the occasional cringe or eye roll)

Check out this thread as well, for other users' recommendations, and feel free to ask further questions, though it's probably better you post them in the NWN forum or as private messsages to me, so that we don't further spam this thread with off-topic discussion. :)

EDIT: Had to restructure a bit and add line breaks, due to GOG's infamous forum bugs regarding links in text paragraphs.

Thanks for the in-depth reply, it's much appreciated.

Assassin's Creed Rogue, PS3

My first AC game I've really played. I really enjoyed this one, and the naval combat was very fun. I'm considering getting a newer AC game like Unity or Syndicate for the PS4.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (XB1X)

After Peace Walker, I knew the other 2 Xbox 360 HD versions would come to backwards compatibility at some point. Last week it happened. The PS2 MGS3 original has terrible frame rate problems (has trouble even holding 20fps much of the time) and the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are good HD remakes but even still cannot maintain 60fps. No PC version exists for MGS 3 and really only the 30fps PS2 version can be emulated...so the Xbox One emulation is the way to play the game at its best now at a locked 60.

I've been playing the series backwards in story chronology from The Phantom Pain, because it just happened that way. Snake Eater is the origin story and actually a pretty good one. It leads into Peace Walker (though I now realise that Peace Walker has some big story inconsistencies). Then Ground Zeroes and MGS V. Now it's time to move forward from The Phantom Pain...which I think means the original MGS next. Which is a problem...I have the PC version, but it's infuriatingly bad to control from what I remember. So I may end up emulating the PS 1 original. MGS 4 will also be a problem since I don't have a PS 3 anymore. I'll sort something out.

As for MGS 3, I'll be honest- I never truly mastered the controls despite finishing the game. It's very clumsy and is like merging Resident Evils combat with a tacked on user camera control system. And who the hell thought it was a good idea to fire your gun by releasing the button instead of pushing the button?! Anyway, my control issues aside, it was worth it. Kojima beats to his own drum, no one else makes games or puts together a story like him. A lot of people don't like his work, but it's unique and stands apart even from his other Japanese developers.

Unreal Gold

Tried to play this one with both new textures, fan-made patch and dx10 render. Guess what - you can't combine them and had to pick one, I took dx10 render. And regreted it. Game is darker in some places. Like on the speeching post in Sunspot level which made me miss Minigun. That hurt, cause most weapons are cluncky at best.
I really enjoyed the journey through Na-Pali. I did replayed that game because I always got lost in the game for some reason. They said your gaming abilities get worse with age but this time - it was opposite. I was terrible at games decade and more ago....

KISS Psycho Circus

Last boss was meh, weird their put his name in the game title.
A wagons of respawning enemies from Spawner machines and invisibe triggers on the ground, I managed to spawn 15 tought enemies while there should be only one.
I hate respawning enemies in games in general, but this game was doable.
Ultimate weapons are not that great, rocket launcher can do same job for less ammo.