I read many reviews across the web before buying this game, so I was very much looking forward to playing it. Don't waste your money or your time. First, it's a total ripoff. I explored every inch of the island accessible, and I took time to soak in the atmosphere and ambience (which is excellent by the way). I completed the entire game in UNDER TWO HOURS. Second, there is no story. Just a guy with a pleasant European accent randomly reciting pieces of his journal. I played the game through six different times because I know the narration varies each time the game is played. If Dear Esther has a story, then Quake's story is epic literature. Seriously. I LOVE games with stories (e.g. Myst series, Gabriel Knight, Thief series, Gemini Rue, Kathy Rain, etc.) Dear Esther does NOT have a story. It has random disjointed readings of excerpts from the narrator's journal. The game IS beautiful, and the atmosphere is the excellent (especially in the caves). Dear Esther reminded me of the mood and feel of Riven. Also it has modest hardware requirements. My laptop has Intel i3 with Intel HD 4400 integrated graphics, and I ran at 1280x800 with highest settings (except anti-aliasing was turned off). But beauty and atmosphere alone with no story and no real gameplay are not enough. As I said before, I've played through this game several times because I thought maybe I missed something. But I didn't. Dear Esther is a beautiful, over-priced, very short and boring game. Save your money!!
This is not a review of the game Planescape Torment (or PT) because there's already enough of those out there. Rather this is a review of how well the enhanced version works with modern hardware, at least in my particular case. I recently found the original 4 CD version at a used book store, and I was looking forward to firing up a great classic game. Unfortunately old games and my laptop often don't get along very well which is exactly what happened with PT. I have a Windows 7 laptop with integrated Intel HD 4400 graphics. Yes, I know there are mods that supposedly allow PT to work on modern hardware. Problem is that none of them worked on my laptop. I spent many hours researching, downloading, installing and configuring with no luck. Nothing I could find would make PT work on my laptop. So I decided to take a risk and buy the enhanced version. Actually it wasn't much of a risk given GOG's very flexible exchange policy. But I'm so glad I did!! It installed and runs flawlessly. No issues whatsoever. All cutscenes play. Sound is perfectly in-sync with video. No crashes. Screen scrolls smoothly. Excellent framerate (measured via Fraps). Zoom feature works perfectly. Definitely well worth the full price of $19.99!! There are only two reasons I don't rate the enhanced version 5 stars. First the textures do not appear to have been upgraded to HD. Maybe they have been, but it doesn't appear so to me. I've compared my screens with HD screenshots and YouTube videos of the original game, and I don't see any significant differences. Second there's no option to change the resolution. My monitor supports 2560x1600, and I would've liked to see the Enhanced version take advantage of that to provide more clarity and details. In summary, if you have a modern PC, the enhanced version is well worth the full price if for no other reason than the simplicity and convenience it provides.
Slave Zero is a very good game that came out in 1999. It didn't get a lot of attention, but it was a very fun, fast paced shooter. It's no Half-Life, Deus Ex or System Shock 2, but it is a very fun game to play. It starts out fairly easy with a relatively small number of somewhat weak enemies, but before long the screen is swarming with tough enemies all around. Basically you shoot or blow up anything that moves. Pure mindless entertainment!! Story is good, but not great. It's the simple, straightforward, fast-paced mindless action that makes Slave Zero so fun to play. When I first installed Slave Zero, it crashed on startup (on WinXP 32-bit and Win7 64-bit). But a simple editing of C:GOG GamesSlave ZeroszHardware.ini fixed the problem for me. I just set resolution to 1024x768. I've played for several hours on Win7 with no crashes or stability issues.
For years I tried to play the original System Shock, but I found the control scheme too big of a hurdle to overcome. I've played System Shock 2 many times, and loved it, even with its complex interface. But I never could enjoy the original System Shock due to the complex and very clunky interface. Fortunately Night Dive added fully functioning mouse-look support, and I was finally able to enjoy the game. If you have played System Shock 2, then the interface in Enhanced System Shock is somewhat similar. Not identical, but similar enough so that you can pick it up quickly. The only real gap in the interface for me was the inability to assign custom shortcut keys (e.g. switching/reloading weapons, changing ammo types, stims, etc.) But I was able to adjust my approach to accommodate this limitation. GOG also includes some very useful extras like two strategy guides (One from Origin and one from Sybex), detailed maps of Citadel Station and solutions to all the puzzles. You also get System Shock Classic so you can try the game with the original 1994 interface if you choose. So it's real a bargain for $9.99!!
My rating is for GOG's packaging of Quake, not the game. Quake is a great game, but save your money. GOG has done update GLQuake for newer systems. I have a fairly old system with Windows XP, Athlon X2 and an NVIDIA card that works flawlessly with nearly all old games released before 1999 and all games released 2000 or after. But GOG's version of Quake will only run in 640x480. All other -width -height options crash. If I wanted to have to scour the Internet, find the recommended mods, install & configure them, then I wouldn't have wasted my money on GOG's version. There are plenty of free mods and ports available. SAVE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY.
It may have been a great game for its time, but this game has not aged well at all. Graphics are really bad, but the controls are even worse (even with US patch). If this game were updated to support modern keyboard/mouse controls similar to what was done for System Shock, then this may be a game worth playing. Otherwise it's to antiquated for my tastes. However, I'm very glad there are many people who enjoy this game and my opinion is the exception.
