King of Dragon Pass - A wonderful old game, a shame that it isn't very well known. The
overview on the game's website gives a better description than I could provide on short notice. I heartily recommend it for anyone who is interested. Though it is out of print, you can
contact David at A-Sharp, and he can will mail you a burned CD copy and show you where to download a PDF version of the manual. It costs twenty dollars, which may seem a bit steep compared to what you receive, but I believe it is worth it (
besides, the money goes directly to the developers).
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Enjoying this immensely, besides the excellent atmosphere (
for me, the best since the first two Gothics), I also like playing around with light modding of the game.
Dark Messiah - GoGamer had a special several weeks ago where this game was twenty dollars, I thought that was a reasonable price and I was wrong. This game is an uninteresting slog, time slows down to a crawl when I play it. I have just finished the neverending island portion of the game, I have to force myself to finish it. At least it is pretty.
One thing I have to compare between these two games is death animations. So far in S.T.A.L.K.E.R., enemies crumple when they die, while in Dark Messiah they ragdoll and ridiculously fly off. This is more egregious in Dark Messiah because there is a sense of weight when enemies are alive, when swords lock or when kicked. However, if they fall off a cliff or die, they suddenly lose that weight and flail around. The simple crumpling of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. looks much better, if less dramatic (
I can only suppose that is what developers try for with ragdolls, instead of the unintentional comedic effects that are usually produced).
I also have
UFO: Aflterlight on the backburner. I played enough of it to have a strong positive impression, but I'm not really in the mood for it right now. Perhaps in a month or so I will give it a solid playthrough.
