SleepwalkR: Indeed. The actual challenge is not to chicken out. ;)

Something I forgot to mention. I liked how the game has you interact with the physics more than usual. What I mean is you don't simply click doors and drawers open, but you basically have to hold them and do the proper motion with the mouse (swing or pull). And you can't easily pick up heavier objects. Some stuff can be carried around in your hand; with other things, like bed frames or big stones, you have to grab them and use the movement keys to slowly and awkwardly drag them. Imagine being threatened by a monster and in panic trying to move a heavy bed in front of a door to keep the monster from entering. 

Or like in Dead Space where you have to shake the mouse in order to free from a monster's stranglehold. Or in some GTA game where armwrestling requires you to do the same. Not to mention the countless classic games, e.g. sports-type, that require button-mashing. It's kind of stupid and back then it annoyed me, but if you think about it, the idea isn't so bad. It can make for a more interactive experience.
I think someone posted an article about this, but I can't remember where is was. 

any good? Currently $5 at Steam. 

I've had that game for I don't know how many years.






You reminded me that I had it. 

Something I forgot to mention. I liked how the game has you interact with the physics more than usual. What I mean is you don't simply click doors and drawers open, but you basically have to hold them and do the proper motion with the mouse (swing or pull). And you can't easily pick up heavier objects. Some stuff can be carried around in your hand; with other things, like bed frames or big stones, you have to grab them and use the movement keys to slowly and awkwardly drag them. Imagine being threatened by a monster and in panic trying to move a heavy bed in front of a door to keep the monster from entering.

i like mechanics like this. i remember playing fahrenheit/indigo had this great mechanic for dialog trees.
normally, you get like a list of 2 to 5 things you can say and the game just pauses while you pick what you want. you can spend a minute thinking about it. but in fahrenheit there was a timer of about 5 to 10 seconds depending on difficulty but also how quickly the other character was supposed to answer... and if you answer slowly, the other characters would pick up on it. on top of that, you had to make a semi complex mouse movement which, when you're being drilled by a cop can be pretty difficult. it actually made navigating dialog trees tense. 

it only came out in 2009! Unless you're talking about Riddick - Butcher Bay which I highly recommend. 

Nope, according to direct2drive I bought it on 9.14.09 but I just forgot I had it.

I apparently also have STALKER. 

Wow, another sci-fi first person shooter. Having just completed Rogue Trooper and talking about how similar it is to every other sci-fi shooter from Halo to Unreal 2, Pariah is identical again.

According to the story you're transporting an infected prisoner when your shot down by scavengers into a wasteland that was once Earth. If this game is supposed to take place in wastelands, then the designers failed miserably. Instead we have a mix of outdoor terrain and enemy bases. The Unreal Engine 2.5 looks like it's starting to date in Pariah; there are other games with much better graphics. The level design is a real mix; the indoor areas are often nicely detailed, high-tech and look quite good. The terrain is also fairly decent looking, but doesn't have anywhere near the crisp detail of Far Cry. However some of the bigger buildings can feel quite blocky, especially from the outside.

The gameplay is a little weaker than the design. Unfortunately it's another checkpoint system game so no quicksaves. I didn't have to replay too much of the game because of this, but it does force me to play very carefully. The two end battles were too difficult and long considering you have no quicksave. As were the on-rails sections which included a couple of vehicle levels and train levels; all of which were terrible. Perhaps it was my configuration, but the vehicles were steered using the mouselook instead of left/right keys. So if you want to go left, move your mouse left. This meant trying to shoot enemies from the vehicle was extremely difficult, and forget about attempting reverse.

The first train level just seemed to go on forever; repetitive wouldn't be a strong enough word. While the other had you completing a massive jump, which I failed the first two times because I didn't use the quickrun key, only to find the game didn't bother to add a checkpoint before this jump so I ended up playing half of this level 3-4 times over. Once was already too much.

Your enemies aren't too bad, they do provide a bit of challenge and fun. They are, naturally, all the same humans. Little variation apart from a slightly different human model/skin and different weapons and health. What spoilt the gameplay a little were the poor weapons. The shotgun was useless, the machine gun seemed to spray bullets all over the place and lacked power. Your also have a plasma gun which you're forced to use quite a lot since most of the ammo pickups are for this gun. It's not a fun gun... the firing is slow and at an annoying angle which takes some getting used to.

I guess it should be said that I liked this game enough to play it almost all in one sitting (just one coffee and cake break). That being said, it must have only been a 5-6 hour game. Overall, average gameplay and design/environments that we've all seen before; only pick up this game if you really love the sci-fi/base theme.

Digital Extremes' next release, Warpath, was originally a sequel to Pariah hence many similarities. But due to Pariah being a commercial flop, it was turned into a different game. However it was an even bigger flop than Pariah. 

Batman: Arkham Asylum, which is really kind of like an old school action/adventure/puzzle arcade game with modern day graphics and scale.

Loving it so far. 

one of the few games I've bothered to try and 100% 

I went back once I got to the final boss to find all the secrets in the game.

It was great, but the combat got repetitive and the bosses felt kind of lame, but every thing else was ace. 

I have to say so far I've liked the boss combats in this because each one is different and most of them are not frustrating at all. 

First impression of both games: ugly & boring shit. 

BB and I ended up picking up DA so will post comments when I eventually get to it.

Finished Batman though, turned out to be shorter than I thought. Final boss was indeed a bit lame but now I'm going back to get all the secrets and try out the challenge modes. Excellent fun! 

http://peanutgallerygames.com/games/pond/

pOnd, a one-button zen relaxation game that celebrates the simple beauty of the natural world. Enjoy the pleasant sights and sounds and breathe in nature as you journey deep into the woods.

It's only a few minutes long, and kind of a different experience.

If you try it, please don't spoil any of the fine details in this thread; let people really sink into the game and notice them on their own. 

Very clever! Kinda makes me wanna make a turtlemap....... 

I reckon the version of Riddick Butcher Bay that comes with Dark Athena looks shitter than the original version. 

Nice looking game, but too much boring stealth in it for me. And the stealth wasn't done that well.

I know it was considered a underrated classic, but I just thought it was a decent game, but maybe not as good as some had made it out to be. 

It was the best looking game before Doom 3 got released. The combat/gameplay was (for the time) linear, safe and fulfilling. It had cool mechs at the end (oops, spoiler apology) and the gimmick of a fighting arena was memorable, and a welcome change in tempo. My 2c. 

Think I've written this before but anyway... mediocre action, mediocre hand-to-hand combat, mediocre stealth but mixed in just the right way and presented well enough to offer a really good overall experience. 

I agree. I liked it. It wasn't amazing but it worked well, looked good, and had the right feel for the setting. 

completely different to what I thought it would be (which was a shooter). The gameplay vibe is like Undying though (a game which I cant run on W7 unfortunately). 

Are you killing all the little sisters, or setting them free? 

Either do one or the other consequently, as you'll only get the Good ending if you free every single one of them. 

have only seen them so far.