Has anyone tried GoG Galaxy?

It gets better, Botch, to the point where I was actually pleasantly surprised by the experience. The voice acting is definitely a weak point and the developers clearly didn't understand the universe of Thief the way they should have... but as a stealth game, it's pretty good. That tutorial is one of the weakest points though.

I've been playing my first MMO with some friends, since The Secret World was on the Steam sale. It's the only one that's ever really interested me, for some reason. It's a lot of fun, though I don't see it as a long term investment since we're playing it basically like we play Borderlands, which is to say treating it as a progression thing.

It's odd that you mention The Secret World as the only MMO that's ever interested you, as that exactly mirrors my thoughts.  I think it's because it looked like an MMO in which interacting with other real people wasn't really required or necessary, which pleases this old misanthrope.  I bought the game a while back and fiddled around with it a bit, but got distracted before really getting anywhere.  I think I got to the first boss, if you can call it that.  I should give it another try.  Unfortunately I remember hating the combat (which is all too common in my post Dark Souls world).

I do remember the furnace. And with a game like Guild Wars 2 in particular, where the atmosphere is a character unto itself, you need to stop and stare now and again. 

Gregg, you would do poorly in our group of four. Actually I'm amazed I'm still friends with those guys, because we are wholly incompatible -- hilariously at times -- when on a co-op team. Some of us like to do as you do, and poke around, see what's under the surface, admire the scenery, and watch the cutscenes.

Others of us are the same way but then get bored and start running to the next objective.

Still others of us are Quest Diamond Nazis, driving the whole group forward with threats and verbal abuse, winding everyone so tight that if we exploded it would be heard for miles and miles.

Then there's also the fact that I become a different person when we play. It was triggered, somehow, by Borderlands -- by the loot around every corner. Loot is the flame and I am the moth. In fact, this moth will push you into real flame if you get between him and his loot. My loot obsession bends the laws of the universe. Even gravity warps before my lust for riches. On many occasions loot has been observed making its way toward me, as if drawn by an irresistible attraction, even when I'm nowhere near it.

But overall what I like about The Secret World is that it plays like a single player (or co-op) game. Half the time I forget there are ten thousand people online. I play with the guys and it feels no different than Borderlands or Dying Light, except for the problems I describe above.

But I doubt we'll stay with it long. It's a good game, but the combat isn't great and the interface... I don't know how it ranks against other MMOs, and I get that interfaces are necessarily complex in those games, but... it gives me problems. And not just because I haven't been able to adequately sort and organize my loot for maximum admiration.

The new Tomb Raider game looks interesting.  What I found in the recent reboot was a great game with only a few missing elements (read: actual tomb raiding).  But most importantly, it seemed to set the stage for something which would flesh out those missing elements.  For that, I easily forgave its shortcomings.  They obviously listened to my sage advice. 😉

I'll be looking for it on PC.