bluethief: Unfortunately King's Bounty: The Legend is not my type of game, but I'm sure is a great recommendation for people who are into it.

PaterAlf: My progress on Braid:

I've completed world 2 and got all the puzzle pieces. I'v also played world 3, but I am still missing about half of the puzzle pieces. While I like the concept of the game, I also start to remember why I didn't like and never completed it when I played it back then. It's not always easy to figure out what you can or can't do with the time rewind mechanism. And quite often it's more frustrating than entertaining to figure it out.

bluethief: The game doesn't give any hints?

Also, what's the main drive of the game? Is it its story?

maxleod: World of Goo is on my backlog, I'll give it a try this weekend.

ssling: 2008: The Rise of Indies?

I might be wrong but in my impression Braid and World of Goo were THE breakthrough titles, success of which coined the "indie game" term in general consciousness and opened the floodgate.

EDIT: To not just offtop, I'm actually playing STALKER Clear Sky right now. So you can add me I guess although I'm not sure what does it mean :D

KetobaK: Oh man, Mirror's Edge is already 15 years old but that gane hasn't aged a little bit, I think is awesome how good looking it is. Many games have tried but I think no one have surpassed the First Person Parkour from the original Mirror's Edge, not even it's sequel! Great game, it's a shame the series is on the limbo right now :/

Cavalary: Speaking of indies, The Spirit Engine II was also from 2008. And I still recommend it. Freeware.

Some others:
Audiosurf
Sins of a Solar Empire
Iji
Dirty Split
Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (MMO)
The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria (MMO expansion)
Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor (expansion)

ssling: So, I finished S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky. Supposed black sheep of the family. Wasn't nearly as bad as I feared by reading some opinions. In fact, after straining through rough beginnings I ended really enjoying it, as in some ways gameplay is improvement over Shadow of Chernobyl. Note that I was playing with fan patchset "Sky Reclamation Project" and some optional features it provides, which could make my experience vastly different than vanilla.

The Good:

What first catches the eye is that updated engine makes it look noticeably better than predecessor. Maybe it's not Crysis but closer to 2010 era games than 2005. Nights are actually dark now and even with flashlight one can barely see anything without nightvision.

Then by far biggest gamechanger for me is ability to repair equipment. Finally I don't need to save my cool gun and armor because it will be trash after 10 gunfights. Upgrade system for me was ok. At first I didn't like it and seen just as time and money sink, but after getting obscenely rich I kinda appreciated ability to modify weapons and armors in different ways and I get the appeal but still could live without it. Another useful quality of life change is limited fast travel system and getting rid of hunger mechanic.

I also like how factions are presented. In SoC I never cared much about them, but here they got more personality. Some lines from Freedom base in Polish version will permanently enter my vocabulary. And of course musical themes of factions (some of which became memes on their own) are best things ever.

The Bad:

Story is by far the weakest point of the game (and biggest downgrade compared to SoC). It's frankly quite terrible. Basically everything what has to be done and what's going on is laid out in like first 30 minutes of prologue and then entire game is about chasing that certain someone. It's literally walking from point A to point B through all locations and learning where he moved next. SoC has sort of similar structure but there are some twists and turns and it has that sense of mystery which makes story engaging and interesting. None of which can be said about CS; it's just plain flat from beginning to end.

Speaking of end, when we finally catch up with certain someone, it out of nowhere changes into super anticlimactic boss battle. I didn't want to bother with all the "troops teleporting behind your back" bullshit (like in similarly super anticlimactic SoC finale), so I just shot him from the very place the level starts. Took a few tries and a bit of luck but is doable.

As a direct prequel to SoC it doesn't add basically anything noteworthy or enriching. Maybe some general pieces of lore about Zone and background for factions, but when it comes to characters and events it's a joke.

The Ugly:

With the story feeling like an afterthought, the Faction Wars system was probably supposed to be the main feature of the game. And maybe it is if you really love combat in stalker games but I didn't find it worthwhile. Never aligned with any faction and didn't partake in the war, but it was still kinda interesting to see how some posts and places changed owners when I visited a region after a while.

Effects like radiation and bleeding are much more deadly than before. While not a problem in a late-game, early on bleeding especially can be a pretty big issue.

I wouldn't call SoC exactly a horror game, but going down into creepy undergrounds and abandoned labs was distinctive part of experience in first game. Clear Sky almost entirely ditched such sections. Hospital near the end would be perfect horror location but they went for shooting gallery with helicopters and whatnot instead. It still can be very atmospheric though, like Swamps in the evening/dawn or Red Forest at night, but not really threatening.

bluethief: You're on the list now. Have fun :)

maxleod: So, I played World of Goo. Nice. Very nice. It's a fun puzzle game that will never be outdated, with great graphics, a perfect physics engine... I can only recommend it :)