Help me Codex, you're my only hope.

[Elwro]

The Agata Christie adventure games are pretty nice, but you have to like titles with sloooow action and lots of talking. Actually, the devs managed to surprise me a few times in And then there were none, even though I had read the book before. (It even includes a secret ending.)

But, well, to be frank, the games are pretty boring. For me the mood, voiceovers and the sense of mystery made them enjoyable, though. Maybe you can find a compilation with three games from the series.


The newer Tomb Raider games are pure joy. Just finished "TR: Legend" and played demos of Anniversary and Underworld. I'll buy them when the prices decrease.

 

[Longshanks]

Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis has been recommended to me (think also known as Holmes vs Lupin). I have it, but not yet played it. Helpful, I know :wink:. There is a demo though, so give that a try.

Other games I'm considering purchasing - A Vampyre Story, Prince of Persia.
Not overly excited by either. Was disappointed by the AVS demo, and PoP's reported lack of difficulty is a concern, but it does look great, and I've got some fun out of all the other PoP's.

 

[Hazelnut]

Thanks for all the help everyone, I'm too busy to do more than skim some reviews at the moment, and no demo playing possible. So the decisions weren't very scientific and were based somewhat on price & availability @ Amazon UK.

Anyway I decided to get the first 3 AGON games compilation (£4.95), and two Sherlock Holmes games - Nemesis (£11) and Silver Earring (£3.87) which are all pretty good prices and will give the kids something for me to unwrap that'll make me grin.

 

[DefJam101]

World of Goo is actually a p. cool game. It's cheap, addicting, challenging in the later stages, and has a nice musical score to it. I'd say it's worth more than Left 4 Dead or other contemporary Steam games.

Also:

 

[Jung]

This is strangely addictive...and there is a demo.
http://www.garagegames.com/products/17/

 

[Rhett Butler]

I asked for Teudogar this year.

 

[Hazelnut]

Thanks, World of Goo doesn't get a Euro release until next year and I'm not sure it would come in a box anyway.

What's Teudogar Rhett?

 

[Elwro]

http://rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=13

It's a nice little Romans'n'Barbarians cRPG. A demo is provided.

 

[Hazelnut]

Heh, I didn't recognise the name from one of our own forums. Can I get a facepalm?

 

[Elwro]

 

[Hazelnut]

Thanks Elwro! :D

 

[cutterjohn]

The Rhiannon game, which I just happened to read a little about recently, is based on Welsh myth, the Mabinogion, hence the subtitle.

The game itself is made by a husband(programmer) and wife(design/research), and the wife's brother(teh grafix). They're quite literally a bunch of amateurs having zero prior game experience. The programmer while working in IT has, apparently, extremely little programming experience before this game, the wife just played lots of adventure games and talked the husband into trying to make their own after playign scratches or barrow hill, and the grafix guy mainly just did CGI mockups for architexts apparently. (Apparently they live in Western Wales, in a Welsh speaking area to boot... Also they bill it as not quite a horror game, but I guess as more of a psychological thriller maybe...)

The game got mixed reviews web-wide, but a fairly decent writeup at justdventure which means more to me, and that I'll likely pick it up eventually.

X3 Reunion: MOO3 was the shit game. X3R was, as usual for egosoft, and, apparently ALL German devs, buggy at release but is completely patched up and fine now. The CP has also been remove (v1.5 or v2.0 patch IIRC, v2.5 patch is the latest).

X3 Terran Conflict: Was buggy at release, but I'm guessing that it's better now, up to patch v1.3.

@Hazelnut
Don't tell me that you have to go out and buy your own present as well as telling them what to buy? If so, please don't tell me that you wrap them yourself...

 

[Hazelnut]

@Hazelnut
Don't tell me that you have to go out and buy your own present as well as telling them what to buy? If so, please don't tell me that you wrap them yourself...

What's this 'going out shopping' of which you speak? Nah, I just order the stuff on Amazon and it magically appears on our doormat. I open and check it's right then hand to my wife - I assume that she probably wraps them with 'help' from the little blighters. ;-)

 

[PennyAnte]

I plan to get Dead Space myself, but that's just based on reviews. I want to wait until it costs less than $50. I can afford $50, I just tend to think a game with such limited replayability isn't really worth $50, and I'm not otherwise a big survival horror fan. But, that said, I thought Mass Effect and The Witcher were worth what I paid, so maybe Dead Space would be the same. A lot of people dislike a lot about Mass Effect, including the combat, but that's one of the things I found enjoyable, and the achievements actually gave character boosts, so there is an incentive to go after them, which helped its replayability. I'm hoping Dead Space's story is as good as has been reported.