The Syndicate

I have been playing a lot of The Witness this past week. It's from the creator of Braid if any of you are familiar with that game.

It's heavily inspired by Myst, in that you find yourself on an abandoned island and you have to solve puzzles to reach the end. There is no tutorial. No hand holding. The game does an amazing job of teaching you the rules of the puzzles and, even though you will want to bash your head against the wall every now and then because you are SURE the puzzle is impossible, the feeling of solving a difficult puzzle is amazing. It's filled with eureka moments like that... And other absolutely mind blowing moments that I will not spoil.
Absolutely amazing game and probably my Game of the year 2016

Edit: And if you end up buying it, do not search out walkthroughs. Do not look for hints. Figure it out yourself. The game is open world and you are basically meant to be stuck at times. Search for other puzzles, come back with a fresh head. It's a much better feeling solving them then.

Shovel Knight is an amazing game that you should definitely buy! It's inspired by old school Megaman, but it has enough identity of its own to stand out

There's also more (free!) DLC coming, campaigns for Specter Knight and King Knight. It's basically 4 games for the price of one.

I completed the Pacifist route for Undertale yesterday. That made a better impression on me than the neutral ending, I appreciate it more now. Don't think I'm going for Genocide, even though that final boss fight looks amazing.

Dragon D. Luffy wrote:Christmas shopping: Transistor + Valkyria Chronicles + Brutal Legend + Bioshock.

Thanks Steam.

I posted a list of games that are now on sale and that I think are worth the purchase. I'm sure you can find atleast one game there that you'll like!

Also, Bioshock 1 is indeed an amazing shooter. I find the whole Bioshock series lacking a bit when it comes to gameplay, with Infinite being by far the worst offender.

As for last page discussion, I bought Undertale in the Steam Sale. I really enjoyed the "battle" system and the music and some of the writing, but every time I was walking around or solving the "puzzles" I was generally bored. Thinking of going for Pacifist since it's a short game.

I found Transistor (like Bastion, from the same developer) quite repetitive and more reliant on art style, music and narrative than gameplay. It does those first 3 very well, but I just get bored playing it and never finished it. Just like Bastion.