My current gaming project is: Gothic 2. If you’re not familiar with the Gothic series, imagine something like Elder Scrolls (single character, open world, action combat) but with a steeper learning curve. By which I mean, expect your pitifully weak hero to get casually murdered by every wolf, bandit and oversized insect lurking 20 yards outside the town gates. This is not the sort of game to hold your hand in the opening chapters.

I think a lot of people found that off-putting, especially given the funky default controls. In fact it can feel like some sort of RPG hazing ritual at first. But it’s worth it once you get the hang of suriviving in the wilderness. You can become proficient in melee which involves your own skill as well as character stats – blocking, dodging, recognising enemy attack patterns etc. Or you can be cheap like me and go climb on top of rocks and shoot stuff up with bows. Anyway once you’re capable of handling the more common enemies, there’s loads of exploring, questing and looting to be doing. All quite rewarding.

Anyway if you fancy a go yourself, it’s going stupidly cheap on gog.com. There’s a major JoWood sale on until next tuesday. Given the latter’s impending bankruptcy, who knows if their stuff will still be on gog this time next year.