Warriors Orochi 4 ULTIMATE
I "finished" this just now... I put that is quotes because this is one of those games you can never really finish unless you want to spend hundreds of hours perfecting all the maps on the hardest difficulty level and reaching max level with maxed out unique weapons for all characters. If you absolutely love this game, you could probably play it regularly for years.

Unfortunately (maybe fortunately), I don't love Warriors Orochi 4. Don't get me wrong, I have been a fan of this series from back on the PS2, and rank Warriors Orochi 3 as one of my favorite games of all time. The problem with this one is that the game is way too easy, way too long, and way too repetitive. It also wastes your time; the game constantly forces you to sit there listening to characters talking to each other before your next mission starts. This would be annoying in a game with interesting characters and a good story, but it becomes infuriating here when the characters and story are so dull.

I don't mind an easy game (and of course I could have continued to turn the difficulty level up throughout the game), but labeling the default difficulty "normal" is absolutely ridiculous. You become effectively immortal just a a few hours into this long game, which makes the game feel more like busywork than playing a fun game.

I must say that it looks really good and runs surprisingly well even on very modest hardware. There's also lots of content if you are into the game; it took me just under 30 hours to complete the story mode on Normal difficulty level, and there are optional game modes I never even touched (including an annoying scavenger hunt you need to do in order to unlock the epilogue chapter).

It's not a good game. Do I regret spending 30 hours with it? Not really. Sometimes you want to play something brainless while watching shows or listening to podcasts. Warriors Orochi 4 is fine for that, but I'd recommed Warriors Orochi 3 over it any day; it's more interesting and more difficult.

Decided to play a bit of Master of Orion 2, which I had last played in '06 before swearing it off for being too much of a time waster. Works fine on a Pentium M laptop running XP. Weather is hot and my back hurts. Time to waste some time.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-07-24, 20:22:

Playing Mass Effect for the first time on my Xbox 360. I skipped this game back in the day because it had some crappy online DRM […]
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Playing Mass Effect for the first time on my Xbox 360. I skipped this game back in the day because it had some crappy online DRM on the PC, which I didn't want to deal with. Naturally, this isn't an issue with the 360 version, which works just fine without an internet connection.

First impressions are very good. Graphics look quite nice for that time, though character faces do occasionally veer into the "uncanny valley" territory. Performance is also a bit wobbly, with occasional stutters and screen tearing when traversing larger areas like the Citadel. From what I've read, this is just how it was on the 360, and seems to have been fixed in the second game. Voice acting is pretty good as well, with a great cast of characters, but the music is kinda hit and miss.

Gameplay wise, I'm not sure about the combat yet. Feels a bit clunky, though that might just be due to my party's currently low levels. I'm playing as the default soldier Shepard, with most points assigned to various combat skills, and a few in Charm for good measure. The quests and dialogue seem to be of standard BioWare quality, very reminiscent of KOTOR. I also like the lore of this setting. It was interesting enough that I actively wanted to find out more about the world, without being forced into it by a quest or something.

All in all, a very solid start. This game piqued my interest very quickly, and I'm looking forward to (eventually) going through the entire trilogy. From what I understand, you can import your save files into the next game, which gives me even more incentive to finish them all.

Mass Effect 1 has a very memorable final act and finale, it is the highlight of the series AFAIC. I also enjoyed 2, but never played 3 - maybe sometime in the future..

Started Dead Island 2.
Gameplay is different, even if kicking like crazy my friends the zombies don't go down easily and stand up even under heavy attack.
Not realistic but I'll manage.

I'm a huge fan of DI 1, and Riptide. I loved them when they came out.
I'm liking it so far. Blood everywhere.

I've just finished playing the excellent System Shock 2 Anniversary Edition, a remaster (though only very slightly) of the all time classic 1999 first person shooter/RPG, a game with a really great story and deep upgrade choices for your weapons, abilities, and psychic powers. This was my first time with the Anniversary Edition (it was only released a few weeks ago), and it's good, but other than some improved graphics and a tiny few quality of life updates (at least one of which is a step back, unfortunately), I'd have to say that playing the original version of the game running with a good selection of fan-made mods (as we've all been doing for many years now) is the better experience, and not only because many of the best mods (and fan-missions) weren't included with the Anniversary Edition (though modders are now helping to get some of them running with the AE version), but also because the AE still has unpatched bugs.

Still, for people new to the game, or for console owners (who never got to play the original version, since it was PC only) the AE is good port of an excellent all time classic game. It's just a remaster, so it's almost 100 % identical to the original in layout, gameplay, upgrade mechanics, etc, but there's nothing at all wrong with that. I mention that in case anyone confuses it with the System Shock Remake, which was a proper remake (newly designed levels, new or improved systems, etc) of the original System Shock.

I've also restarted Braid, the classic 2D platformer/puzzle/time/control game. It's not a puzzle game fan, but Braid is one of the few puzzle games I've ever bothered to finish, along with Portal 1 and 2, Superliminal, Creaks, and a few others over the years. And now, replaying it, I can't remember how to complete most of the puzzles, so I am exercising my (tiny) mind!

For a while now, I've been meaning to play Atomfall, an open world (well, town and surrounding countryside) set in a 1950's alternative history version of Northern England. I'll probably start it in a day or two.

I've also been meaning to replay Atomic Heart, a mostly brilliant first person shooter that has flashes of immersive sim, and also some strange design choices (it would be nice to find that these things, such as the difficulty spikes, the constant (and I mean constanttttttttt) inane chatter of your player character, and the way you can sometimes walk right into an unwinnable fight due to the far too fast respawning and the unfair odds, had been patched out in the two years or so since I first played it).

Finished Mass Effect. The ending section with those long corridors that you had to drive through was kinda tedious, but the last bit on the Citadel was fine. I was playing as a soldier (default Shepard), who had achieved full Paragon status and maxed out Charm. Because of that, I was able to successfully use diplomacy even during the final confrontation, which was pretty cool.

I still think the pacing of the main missions could have been better, and that some of the side content was weak. My least favorite sections were the (mostly) empty side quest planets, where you were routinely forced to drive the Mako up 90 degree mountain slopes. Not my idea of fun. Also, the plot event where you leave one of your squad members behind felt kinda forced. It's like the devs wanted an "Aeris moment" akin to FF7, but the way it was presented here didn't seem very logical to me.

Anyway, the world building and the character interactions were definitively the highlights for me. The main plot was also fairly interesting, and I appreciate that it wrapped things up nicely, while still hinting at what's to come in the future. Overall, I had a good time with Mass Effect, and I'm curious to see how things will develop in the sequels. I wonder how many of the choices that I made will be acknowledged in ME2, when I import my save.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-07-31, 06:08:

Finished Mass Effect. The ending section with those long corridors that you had to drive through was kinda tedious, but the last bit on the Citadel was fine. I was playing as a soldier (default Shepard), who had achieved full Paragon status and maxed out Charm. Because of that, I was able to successfully use diplomacy even during the final confrontation, which was pretty cool.

I still think the pacing of the main missions could have been better, and that some of the side content was weak. My least favorite sections were the (mostly) empty side quest planets, where you were routinely forced to drive the Mako up 90 degree mountain slopes. Not my idea of fun. Also, the plot event where you leave one of your squad members behind felt kinda forced. It's like the devs wanted an "Aeris moment" akin to FF7, but the way it was presented here didn't seem very logical to me.

Anyway, the world building and the character interactions were definitively the highlights for me. The main plot was also fairly interesting, and I appreciate that it wrapped things up nicely, while still hinting at what's to come in the future. Overall, I had a good time with Mass Effect, and I'm curious to see how things will develop in the sequels. I wonder how many of the choices that I made will be acknowledged in ME2, when I import my save.

I recently got the trilogy for my PS3! Must try them out. So many games to play, too much time tinkering with hardware rather than playing them!

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-07-31, 06:13:

I recently got the trilogy for my PS3! Must try them out.

Go for it. The first game definitively made me want to check out the entire trilogy, so I will be playing the sequels next.

So many games to play, too much time tinkering with hardware rather than playing them!

Yeah, I know the feeling. 😀 Thankfully, at this point I've gotten the vast majority of retro PC hardware and consoles that I wanted, so I can actually focus on using them. Feels great to finally experience some of the games that I missed back in the day.

Just finished replaying "Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri", who knew giving everybody including yourself double M-B Accelerators is the key to winning.

I hate how you get this weapon literally at the END OF THE GAME and no sooner. So you only have one campaign mission to enjoy such a ludicrous weapon. Oh well atleast the limited skirmish option lets you equip the weapon to try it out in more varied environments.

Moving right on to Mass Effect 2. Once again, I'm playing this on my Xbox 360, so importing my ME1 save was super easy. It's amazing how much better this game runs compared to its predecessor, despite having noticeably improved visuals. I haven't encountered any stutters or frame drops yet. Guess BioWare put a lot of effort into optimizing their code this time around. Anyhow, here are some initial observations after a few hours of playing.

The devs made an interesting plot choice for "de-leveling" Shepard. I don't mind this, as it makes sense that you would still need some kind of character progression in this game. What I don't like is how they apparently ditched most of the squad members from the first Mass Effect. Very odd approach, considering how much these characters were developed there.

The new combat system feels slightly better, with smoother mechanics for getting in/out of cover. But the UI changes are not to my liking, and I feel like this forced minimalism is hiding important information for the sake of "immersion" or whatever. Removing the mini-map entirely and making the full map unavailable in non-friendly areas is another step back, at least in my view. On a positive note, I do like the gold accents of the options menu, as that kinda reminds me of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

As expected, the new hacking/unlocking mini games are terrible. Didn't think it could get worse than the QTEs from the first game, but the devs managed to prove me wrong. And this time, I have no idea if these checks are even affected by my party's skills or not. Also, traveling through space is now somewhat tedious, as you have to manage your fuel, and steer the ship manually from one location to the next. No idea who asked for this, but it sure wasn't me.

Anyway, I just visited the Citadel and got myself a miniature giant space hamster. Go for the eyes Boo, go for the eyes! 😁

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-08-01, 06:30:

What I don't like is how they apparently ditched most of the squad members from the first Mass Effect. Very odd approach, considering how much these characters were developed there.

You'll catch up with all of them in a way or another, one even has a full DLC dedicated for them and it's pretty good so hopefully you have it. One you won't meet until ME3.

They wanted to give you a mostly new crew because, well, let's just say they are expendable.

And this time, I have no idea if these checks are even affected by my party's skills or not. Also, traveling through space is now somewhat tedious, as you have to manage your fuel, and steer the ship manually from one location to the next. No idea who asked for this, but it sure wasn't me.

No, the skills are purely for combat. This is why some prefer ME1 over ME2, it steered towards being more of a shooter with dialog.

Forgot the fuel thing... "hey, I've got an idea, let's make everything unnecessarily annoying and tedious, players like that right!" Oh boy.

I really really hope you have the DLCs. Like half of ME2 is in DLCs.

The base ME2 game is not great if you want to see more of ME1 characters.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-08-01, 07:15:

You'll catch up with almost all of them in a way or another, one even has a full DLC dedicated for them and it's pretty good so hopefully you have it.

No worries, I have all the DLCs for this game. Do some of the new crew members actually come from that DLC? That Kasumi girl seems like she might be one of those.

One you won't meet until ME3.

Let me guess, Ashley? While I was at the Citadel, captain council member Anderson told me she's on some top secret mission or something.

xcomcmdr wrote on 2025-08-01, 07:26:

I really really hope you have the DLCs. Like half of ME2 is in DLCs.

The base ME2 game is not great if you want to see more of ME1 characters.

Yeah, I got all the DLCs, and I did notice that the entire package takes up a lot of hard drive space. Like almost 6 GB or something.

Very odd choice to monetize the game in a manner which affects the plot to some degree.

xcomcmdr wrote on 2025-08-01, 07:26:

I really really hope you have the DLCs. Like half of ME2 is in DLCs.

The base ME2 game is not great if you want to see more of ME1 characters.

That's not really true. Only Lair of the Shadow Broker lets you spend time with one previous crew member. In addition to that I'd say only Normandy Crash Site is good for players coming from ME1.

The rest could easily be skipped, though I still would recommend having Zaeed – The Price of Revenge and Kasumi – Stolen Memory for the extra crew members. Firewalker Pack and Overlord feature driving with a vehicle (and some platforming if I recall correctly...) and Arrival, while paving the way to ME3, is kinda crap in my opinion.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-08-01, 07:29:

Do some of the new crew members actually come from that DLC? That Kasumi girl seems like she might be one of those.

Kasumi and Zaeed come purely from their DLC's. They are good to have but aren't all that necessary if you feel like skipping those DLC's. Lair of the Shadow Broker is the one you shouldn't skip.

Let me guess, Ashley? While I was at the Citadel, captain council member Anderson told me she's on some top secret mission or something.

Bingo. Edit 2: Looks like I forgot one interaction with her in ME2. Or with Kaidan, whom I forgot! Everyone leaves him behind!

Edit: By the way, the game lets you keep playing after finishing the main story so you can check out the things you skipped later. I recommend playing Arrival only after finishing the main story, if at all. It's really not that great.

As for Lair of the Shadow Broker I've written in my notes that I should play that too after the main story but I haven't got the slightest recollection as to why, I think it might make a little bit more logical sense to play it after the main story but probably doesn't matter all that much.

Additional thoughts on Mass Effect 2, after playing some more. Regarding the import savegame function, I'm actually impressed with how many decisions from the first game transferred over. Even some minor characters that I barely interacted with popped up and acknowledged my past actions. Not to mention the bigger stuff like saving the Council and such. Well done devs, props for going into so much detail with this.

In terms of gameplay, combat here seems a bit harder, at least as a Soldier. Leaving cover for more than a few seconds can be fatal. And while I acknowledge that the first game had way too much loot, the devs kinda overcorrected here. For example, upgrading your armor seems to barely have any effect on combat performance. Compare that to ME1, where going from light armor with 100 shields to medium armor with 200 shields was instantly noticeable and highly beneficial. Similarly, there are no longer any stats for weapons, so I'm kinda struggling to figure out which one is better. All of them just have vague descriptions like "good vs. armor" or whatever.

Regarding the planet scanning thing, while it is a bit tedious, it doesn't really bother me that much. When playing with a controller, you get rumble feedback whenever you come across a resource heavy location, so you don't even have to look at the graph on the side. After scanning about 20 planets or so, I already have over 100k in all resources, except element zero which seems to be more rare. Still unsure if I like this new research and upgrade system, too early to tell.

Lastly, I'm starting to see what you guys meant when you said that ME2 feels less like an RPG than the first game. Yes, there are still dialogue choices and you can level up some skills, but overall, it seems like a step back from the systems used in ME1. Again, I did see the need to "trim some fat" here and there, but I think the developers may have gone overboard with that. Not really digging some of these changes.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on Yesterday, 06:08:

Regarding the planet scanning thing, while it is a bit tedious, it doesn't really bother me that much. When playing with a controller, you get rumble feedback whenever you come across a resource heavy location, so you don't even have to look at the graph on the side.

With a controller you just press the stick in the direction you want and it rolls in that direction continuously until you release the stick, right?

Guess how it works with a mouse. You move the mouse in the direction you want and the cursor moves SLIGHTLY into that direction and then STOPS, like a mouse cursor on desktop. Meaning you have to keep dragging the mouse over and over and over and over to get it done. If the sensitivity was high enough to easily scan through the whole surface it would be perfectly fine but it isn't, you really do need to drag the mouse so much it wears a hole on the mousepad. Repeat that on every planet.

Whoever made it like that should be shot.

Sombrero wrote on Yesterday, 09:00:

With a controller you just press the stick in the direction you want and it rolls in that direction continuously until you release the stick, right?

Yup, easy as pie.

Guess how it works with a mouse. You move the mouse in the direction you want and the cursor moves SLIGHTLY into that direction and then STOPS, like a mouse cursor on desktop. Meaning you have to keep dragging the mouse over and over and over and over to get it done. If the sensitivity was high enough to easily scan through the whole surface it would be perfectly fine but it isn't, you really do need to drag the mouse so much it wears a hole on the mousepad. Repeat that on every planet.

Oh wow, that sounds annoying as hell.

One of the reasons why I prefer to play multi-platform games from the late 2000s and early 2010s with a controller is precisely because some developers didn't bother with properly supporting mouse + keyboard. Also, the UI of those games is often optimized for controller use, so it just feels smoother to play them as the devs intended.

I'm looking forward to reading your posts as you play through the series!

It's been interesting reading your thoughts on the games! Even though the order we've played the games is different, I'm 100% in agreement with you. When I first played through ME2 on the PS3, it just felt like a somewhat typical console third-person shooter but with more of a focus on story and some RPG elements (ME3 goes even more in that direction BTW). When I finally played and completed ME1 on PC (earlier this year!) I found it to be a clunky but very interesting game with some great world building... and the RPG elements (loot, stats, controlling the other characters in battle, making choices when leveling up and feeling that your choices actually affect how the game plays) made me feel like I was building my own character and making choices. I also liked the Mako driving sections; not great, but it at least felt like you were exploring a galaxy. In hindsight, scanning for minerals in ME2 feels more like something you'd do in some freemium cellphone game while waiting for some timer to expire before you can actually play the game.

Good points also about using a controller to play these kinds of games, and I agree 100%. At that time, developers were focusing on console first and PC second, so using mouse and keyboard is often a nightmare (Skyrim and the Bethesda Fallout games are in the same boat afaic).

Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge
What a game! I've already completed all the previous games (except Wizardry IV, which is less an RPG and more a cryptic adventure game using the classic Wizardry engine), and I absolutely loved the first and fifth games; the second and third games were just alright. I especially liked Wizardry V, so I was excited to play this one (the same guy developed both).

It was the first game in the series to really change the interface, system, and graphics, and it's awesome. Simply creating your party of characters is a fun little minigame, with you rolling stats, choosing races and classes, and then assigning skill points. Probably the most interesting thing the game adds to the Wizardry formula is a skill system; each character has weapon, magic, and general skills, and even better, each time you level up you get to assign points to your skills. Characters also gain points in skills through use, so you can choose to further develop those skills or spend your points in skills that do not develop during play.

The game gets some criticism for using the same gray stone walls/floors whether you're in a castle or a forest. It honestly doesn't bother me. The storytelling, whether through the environment or designer/developer D.W. Bradley's writing, is extremely atmospheric. It's a bizarre mixture of goofy comedy with a very serious and sometimes disturbing story, and Bradley's writing is very unique. He's fond of purple prose and sometimes misuses words, but when he's on, he's on; you can't help but be drawn into the world with his atmospheric room descriptions and bizarre, sometimes brooding, dialogue.

Much like the previous game, you can interact with NPCs and have Ultima-like conversations. In this game, they can be surprisingly lifelike if you are roleplaying and typing whole sentences instead of single words. Even though a lot of the NPCs are goofy as hell, they're quite endearing actually.

I really like how the monsters are depicted and animated in this game. They're drawn really well, but the animation is unbelievable. You won't get a rat just sitting there shaking back and forth to imitate movement. It will stand there and then suddenly jump off screen and then back in screen in front of your face, teeth and claws drawn. A lot of love went into animating all these creatures, and it's just beautiful.

The structure of the game is also great. You're thrown into an abandoned castle from the start, and from there it's up to you to explore and figure it out. It's quite nonlinear, as you have a lot of freedom to walk around, but also a lot of locked doors. If you included a character who can pick locks in your party, you can open a lot of these doors... but you're not stuck if you didn't, because you just go in another direction and, with a bit of luck, win keys from random encounters to open those doors. Alternately, you might be able to open them if you have a character with exceptionally high strength. It's a simple thing, but it's just classic RPG stuff that should be typical but is actually quite rare.

It feels great to play such a great game after playing a bunch of trash lately!