ArcaniA Gothic IV – Another nice adventure RPG for a medieval fantasy world. The dialogue could use some improvement, and there’s an unnatural pause between people speaking, I’m not sure if that’s the game’s fault or if it was just running slowly on this machine. There’s a good amount of demo, but it feels like it hardly even touches on the main storyline of the game, and therefore doesn’t draw the player in as the real game could. Also the mouse sensitivity is way too high, I had it at the lowest setting and could still spin my character 360 degrees fast enough he should get dizzy.

NyxQuest – The demo was very short, seems like a well made puzzle game, but not many puzzles were introduced in the demo, and those that were introduced, were very easy to solve.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light – Wow... I thought Indiana Jones was cool until I saw some of the traps laid out in this game. As the first game I played with Lara as the main character, I found it a good mix of puzzle solving and combat, with the former presenting challenging puzzles. Although the ones in the demo were solvable without much hard thinking, the challenge curve of puzzles presented promise difficult puzzles in the levels to come. The combat, although limited to 2 monster types and 2 weapons in the demo, also promises potential.

King Arthur the Role Playing Wargame – Good graphics and unique battle simulation which forces the player to balance crushing their enemies and taking control of an instanced map each battle. It allows the player to chose which battlefield to fight on in each territory, each with different terrain which effects combat. Knights can go on “adventures” but these often consist of textboxes which give the player 2-3 options to chose from in a sort of chose your own adventure style. This style isn’t as appealing as a full out 3d world to adventure in and interactive NPCs, but it does have its own simplistic charm, and a quest can be completed in a matter of minutes.

Sid Meier’s Civilization V – Good all around game, good graphics, good sound, good game play, good tutorial, multiple unique nations to chose from, Draws from history and is well researched. Has many elements to game play which make it difficult to make decisions, causing the player to balance food, gold, production, science and culture in each of his cities. Despite the complexity, has a simple game play and turns go by incredibly fast, sometimes I click the end turn button as soon as the turn starts, and I still feel like I’m doing something because all of my cities are expanding, producing gold and building a unit.

Opinions on recent demos

Recettear – One of the best item shop games I’ve tried, also a jrpg but these elements aren’t as good as some other games... Enemies have very unbalanced damage and health amounts for the xp and items they give, and not being able to save in a dungeon can be annoying when you’re playing dungeons with 25+ levels.

Mount and Blade Warband – Seems like Oblivion with less options for your character, abilities and a less developed storyline, but has a sort of charm in its look, feel and game play that immerses you in the medieval world in a way Oblivion never has for me. Also has a nice system for medium scale battles (under 100 on each side). It has a few kinks to work out, but I love the game.

Blade Kitten – Cool and easy game play, combines a platformer with a flying sword that makes mincemeat of anything it comes across. The storyline is not well developed in the demo, and all together there’s too much pink for my tastes.

Disciples III – Seems like Heroes of Might and Magic with smaller armies, less overland objects to interact with. A nice intro, but somewhat spoiled by the matter of fact voice of the narrator. All in all... I’d sooner get HoMM then Disciples.

Rhythm Zone – Doesn’t have a tutorial and barely explains game play, if you’re not familiar with the genre it would leave one confused about how to play. Otherwise, nice graphics and the ability to use your own songs is good, but I prefer a system that gives indication of which part you’re playing (say by your instrument stopping playing when you make a mistake).

Alien Breed 2 Assault – A gruesome game with workable game play and good graphics and cinematics, The demo doesn’t develop the story well and the game isn’t from one of my favourite genres so I can’t pass much judgement on it against other games of its type.