Rare pic of godprobe and skanda.

Sid Meier’s Covert Action (Classic) (1990)

Played through one case so far, and managed to arrest one of the five criminals involved. The game is randomized, so this shouldn’t be a spoiler, apart from maybe spoiling gameplay concepts. The gang managed to steal plans from the US Embassy in Mexico while I bumbled my way through learning the controls. I’d already read a review that mentioned using the keypad for combat control, so I knew to do that much (although the home row number keys also work the same way as the numpad number keys). What I learned “on the job” was the F-function keys. F2 - take a photo, F1 or Enter - do a thing, F3 - plant a bug, etc. Also, spacebar shoots. Thankfully, the interface for the cryptography section was pretty simple – press a letter to replace, press the letter to replace it with – and also very satisfying to decode. Wiretaps were confusing at first, but I think I have the hang of the basics for that now – just not great strategy yet. Driving was a little awkward, but mostly intuitive – managed to follow… someone… to another building in DC, and get some intel from there after breaking in. Really, this was a very fun game, especially for its age, and I would have played it a ton in the 90s if I’d known about it and owned it. Now… I’ll still probably play it a bunch in 2020! Hopefully I can catch a Mastermind. I only caught the Organizer, and neither the electronics expert, the thief, or the other person (I don’t remember their role in the heist).
Nice animation and overall presentation on this game, too.

The Longest Journey (2000)

Made it to chapter nine last night (of thirteen chapters and a prologue). There’s a lot that I do remember from playing it through years ago, but a lot that I’ve forgotten as well. It’s been good to play it again, already aware of the length and long dialogs and slow walking speed, and getting more engrossed in the story development and the build-up of the main character. Still a little awkward, but still a very good game to play. (Using the high-res mod.)

Update 8/2: Ah, finally finished this game for a second time – I’d been wanting to re-play it ever since finally owning a copy of Dreamfall, which I’d also been wanting to play ever since it released, although I was also disappointed that it had mediocre reviews at the time. Still, looking forward to finally getting to the sequel, and then the more recent Kickstarter’d follow-up!

Again… definitely a very long journey, and has its clunkiness, age notwithstanding, but also has plenty of charm. If you fear dialog, this game may not be for you, but for those who want a truly epic adventure, it’s quite good. I did end up going to UHS hints again for two or three of the puzzles, but for the most part got through it without. HD mod recommended too, as it will fix some bugs. Onward to Dreamfall…

Friendly Fire (2020)

It’s free, it’s short, and it’s worth your time. Great dialog, nice art, easy gameplay, fun little dumb story.

Blue Toad Murder Files™: The Mysteries of Little Riddle (2010)

Played through the first episode with my girlfriend! Wallace and Gromit style presentation and light-heartedness (and British-ness). Mostly kid-friendly casual puzzles, but they aren’t necessarily easy either. Good length for the first episode, with six more to go!

Two episodes down, four to go!

Did you play any of these games? :D

Hi Daerphen! When you start The Longest Journey, I recommend using the HD mod – it fixes a number of bugs, and makes the cutscene videos much nicer. While I typically play games “vanilla”, I opted for this mod as it fixed some annoyances with white textures showing as transparent, including the cursor at times. I think that savegames are incompatible between the normal and HD version, but if you aren’t too far along yet (and if you only started it this month – you definitely are not far along yet), then it’s honestly not too much trouble to re-play the beginning parts.

HD mod info: https://steamcommunity.com/app/6310/discussions/0/2268068817156430758/
…or… https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1746858370

I played Puzzle Dimension years ago, abandoned it, then revisited it in June/July, and got as far as you did (23/25 achievements, which I call beaten). I liberally used video guides toward the end, though, and won’t go back to finish those last two achievements and complete the game.