Just finished Portal of Evil: Stolen Runes SE.  I liked this one, too.  The map was great, showed where something needed to be done along with a picture of the room and it's name and if you transported there it was quick and smooth.  One of the best maps ever.  There were several different worlds and when you were done with one it was sealed off and you went on to the next, so not too much backtracking.  The HOs were done twice, once with a regular interactive list and again where you put the object back into the scene.  There weren't too many of them, they never bothered me.  The puzzles were pretty, mostly fairly easy but with a few harder ones, not too many of them, either.  Sometimes you did have to go to a random place to do a HO for no real reason.   The end was a little abrupt, there were several loose ends, but I defeated the evil forces and someone wrote a synopsis of the bonus chapter so I'm good with the SE.

Tirama, everyone for that matter, were you crazy about the first Phantasmat?  I liked it but I didn't think it was all that, but so many people use it as a benchmark for other games.  I only had the SE version.  Does it stand the test of time?  I liked the second one all right, it took place in a small area and I got a kick out of the characters.  There's several popular games that I'm just so-so about, and I know my tastes have changed over the years. It would be interesting to replay some old games and see what I think now. I liked the first Redrum and Nick Chase.  Wonder if I WOUld still like them now?

Wendy, when Phantasmat came out I bought it but did not like it and never finished.  Since then I've dusted it off and played it from the start.  It's not a benchmark for anything for me. Jmo.  I've never played Redrum, but I like the Nick Chase games.

lilyr wrote:

Thank you barregar and oscar.  In my defense I'm also playing two F2P games.  Eventually I'll finish FAIRWAY TEE TO PLAY.  I just have to keep replaying courses to get enough money to buy the bonus courses.  I don't think ROAD TRIP will ever have an end.  They just keep adding more content.  I really like this game (better than the first 2) and wish they had put out a download-single purchase game.  Or even broken it into 2 or 3 games.

I mentioned reprinting my purchase history.  7 games per page and 100 pages means I have 700 games! Yikes!

Oops!  Only 6 games per page.  So only 600 games!

Wendy your descriptions make me want to run right out and play the games you've finished!  Some day ....

Well, I must be the "slacker" when it comes to buying games, I only have 353.

All games are not created equal.  M3's, TM's, nonogram puzzles, etc take longer to finish than HOPA's, and HOPA's with achievements and collectibles will take longer than those without.

Last year, I played or replayed 179 games.  Only 7 of them weren't HOG's/HOPA's.  This year I've played 27 non-HOPA's, all for the first time.

I think stepping outside your comfort zone and trying something new is also an accomplishment, something to celebrate along with finishing games we've been hoarding.  And you've done that with those free to play games.  

I'm going to make trying free to play games one of my goals for next year
 

Regarding the first Phantasmat , I have a special bond to it, I was in the closed Beta and have played it hundreds of times.

I really liked the graphics (and everything else) and felt sad when the franchise was sold to ERS.

It´s at least on my Top 20.

awww... Thank you so much everyone for telling me I'm niot a slacker.  I meant it humorously, not as a put down.  Anki -- I'm retired so I have tons of time.  Tirama -- I have stretched outside of my comfort zone!  Until I met up with all of you the only M3 I had was BIG KAHUNA REEF 2 and UNWELL MEL.  And the only solitaire game was FAIRWAY.  I still don't like timed games and games like SIMS and VIRTUAL VILLAGERS but I do like my types of games than I used to!  So a big Brava and Thank You to all of you!