A Pathological Inclusion: Indie Royale Halloween Bundle
This is incredibly unfair to the other games in Indie Royale's Halloween Bundle but the reason everyone should buy it is because Pathologic is in there. Ice-pick Lodge's disease-ridden horror story takes place in one of the most bizarre and fascinating environments ever crafted, and the game is either brilliantly and intentionally brutal or beguilingly broken. Probably both. For what is just shy of £3.00 (at the time of writing), you'll receive Pathologic, side-scrolling changeable adventure Home, characterful puzzler MacGuffin's Curse, retro ARPG Evil Quest, and Telltale's strongest Sam and Max series - The Devil's Playhouse. But you only needed to know about Pathologic, right? There's a video below, because bundles have videos now.
Pathologic is worth the price of a pint. Don't worry about the pint you don't buy with the £2.80 or so that it costs you because there will be many more to follow. It might even encourage you to move onto spirits. Here's what you should do: tell everyone you know who is interested in games to buy this bundle and then all go out for a drink together a week from now and talk about Pathologic. You'll be in the pub until it closes and you'll have cursed Pathologic, argued about what its redeeming features are, concluded that you can't agree about exactly which flaws hold it back from greatness and then realised that at least one of you reckons it's the best thing he/she has bought for ages. The other Smith wrote all about it.
I bought The Devil's Playhouse when it came out, episode by episode, and enjoyed it. The puzzles are the most interesting in any of the three seasons and the villains aren't as irritating. You don't need to play the previous two seasons first either.
Of the others, I've only played Home and I didn't finish it. Oops. I don't even think it's very long. The story is well told, even if it is reliant on lost memories and the like, and the changes in the character's attitude and thoughts based on the player's actions does actually make a noticeable difference, even if only in tone and detail.
I have a feeling MacGuffin's Curse is the kind of game that John would love and a quick visit to the 'tag' search (after 'love' but before 'and') proves me to be very correct indeed. Here's wot he thought about that.