Completed Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars.

Quite enjoyable adventure game. The historical plot is interesting, the game is pleasing to play and the music is very nice. Apparently was performed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra according to the end credits. Too bad it's pretty low quality.

Little too disney-esque for my liking though, pretty cartoony characters with very hammy fake accents. Humor left me cold too. There are also moments where you can get yourself killed, they weren't too bad overall but one of them was rather tedious as you have to click through some dialog and watch some unskippable animations every time you fail and need to try again. I definitely prefer the LucasArts approach with unkillable protagonists. Rubber tree!

So pretty alright all in all. Besides the previously mentioned things and the kinda weak last stretch of the game I had a good time with it.

That's it for my adventure bender for this summer though, still have a bunch I want to revisit so I'll probably continue next summer.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-08-15, 14:31:

That's it for my adventure bender for this summer though, still have a bunch I want to revisit so I'll probably continue next summer.

Broken Sword sounds interesting. Back in the day, I was never much into adventure games. I think I only ever completed Simon the Sorcerer 2. I did try a few others as well, but I quickly lost interest. Now that I'm older, I can appreciate the genre a bit more, so maybe I'll give some of these a second chance.

Anyway, during the summer heat wave, I can't be bothered with playing anything that requires sitting at the computer for extended time periods. So only console games (or PC titles with controller support) work for me until the heatwave subsides.

Completed Tomb Raider 2013 and already started Rise of the Tomb Raider.

I need to finish Rise and Shadow to make room to get Star Wars Battlefront II, Star Wars Squadrons and X-Wing Alliance installed and running here...

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-08-15, 15:39:

Broken Sword sounds interesting. Back in the day, I was never much into adventure games. I think I only ever completed Simon the Sorcerer 2. I did try a few others as well, but I quickly lost interest. Now that I'm older, I can appreciate the genre a bit more, so maybe I'll give some of these a second chance.

Yeah, even the best of them require you to enjoy puzzle solving, have patience and occasionally willingness to bang your head against a wall, definitely not for everyone and especially younger folk. And that's with the best of them, I love the genre but I still would rather go clean a public toilet than play, say, King's Quest 1 or 2 without a guide in hand. You won't believe the utter bullshit those have!

I'm not sure would I recommend BS1 as a first stepping stone though, while I find BS1&2 rather pleasant the puzzles do tend to be a somewhat overdesigned and/or suffer from moon logic.

Anyway, during the summer heat wave, I can't be bothered with playing anything that requires sitting at the computer for extended time periods. So only console games (or PC titles with controller support) work for me until the heatwave subsides.

Precisely why I save adventure games, city builders and such slow, easy to hop on and off relaxing games for summers. Especially this summer, it hit 30°C inside my apartment during the worst of it.. a new record I hope won't get broken anytime soon 🤪

I've finished SKALD : Against the Black Priory. I haven't finished a game in years but this one really struck a chord. I wasn't super keen on the ending but ending's are hard to do - I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this developer.

One of the many things I appreciated was the small world and focussed story. There were sidequests but only a handful and they didn't branch on and on, they were generally just a little diversion that filled out the world a bit. I'll be playing more of these small scale RPGs going forwards, starting with Legends of Amberland: The Forgotten Crown, which was recommended in this very thread.

badmojo wrote on 2025-08-17, 03:55:

I've finished SKALD : Against the Black Priory. I haven't finished a game in years but this one really struck a chord. I wasn't super keen on the ending but ending's are hard to do - I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this developer.

One of the many things I appreciated was the small world and focussed story. There were sidequests but only a handful and they didn't branch on and on, they were generally just a little diversion that filled out the world a bit. I'll be playing more of these small scale RPGs going forwards, starting with Legends of Amberland: The Forgotten Crown, which was recommended in this very thread.

Nice! I've been looking for more short RPGs too. SKALD is on my wishlist, as is the Amberland series. From what I have played, I can recommend Eschalon Books 1-3. The first is free, so it's a great way to see if you want to buy the next two (they frequently get marked down on GOG sales). There's also Legend of Grimrock if you can tolerate the real-time combat which does require some twitch skill. I loved the game and finished it despite not being crazy about the combat. And it's a 20-30 hour long game.

Wizardry VII
After completing Wizardry VI (awesome) I had originally planned to take a break and play some other RPG... but the Wizardry addiction struggle is real, and just like when I couldn't stop myself from playing Wiz 1-3&5 several years back, here I am several hours into Wizardry VII.

So far, it's awesome. It's basically Wizardry VI with much nicer graphics and sound (including a great and atmospheric Roland MT-32 soundtrack that only plays in specific situations), a somewhat more serious story, and a bunch of interesting new mechanics... all in a giant open world.

I imported my winning Wizardry VI party, and after seeing that hardly any of my super weapons carried over, I have to admit that I looked up how it works, and then redid the import process to ensure that I got those weapons!

The only issue I have with this game is that the controls are somehow even worse than in Wizardry VI (a step down from the previous games in the series). You have to choose between mouse or keyboard, and choosing one completely disables the other. I tried using keyboard only for a while, but anything outside of combat becomes unbelievably unwieldly. In contrast, mouse control is definitely better for inventory management, but a major pain during combat. It's bizarre that they do not just allow you to use both!

Otherwise, it's even better than I was expecting. There is an interesting reputation and faction system (in an RPG from 1992!), combat is just as good if not better than the previous game, and the area design is excellent. Dungeon delving in this game is fantastic. In between the detailed graphics, atmospheric sound, and fun trap disarming system, you really feel like an adventurer exploring old crypts.

I must also praise how the game provides you with a lot of direction without outright telling you where to go (and without quest markers). There is a main road that runs between all the towns, and it's easy to find the road with just a little bit of exploration immediately after starting the game. You seem pretty safe from encounters on the road, so it's just a matter of choosing a direction and seeing what's at the end.

What a game!

I finished Dead Island 2.
I don't really like it, still preferring the first edition + riptide.

I'd give it a 6/10 with the occasional 4/10.
The story is what kills it for me, not really there.

newtmonkey wrote on 2025-08-17, 12:05:

Wizardry VII After completing Wizardry VI (awesome) I had originally planned to take a break and play some other RPG... but the […]
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Wizardry VII
After completing Wizardry VI (awesome) I had originally planned to take a break and play some other RPG... but the Wizardry addiction struggle is real, and just like when I couldn't stop myself from playing Wiz 1-3&5 several years back, here I am several hours into Wizardry VII.

So far, it's awesome. It's basically Wizardry VI with much nicer graphics and sound (including a great and atmospheric Roland MT-32 soundtrack that only plays in specific situations), a somewhat more serious story, and a bunch of interesting new mechanics... all in a giant open world.

I imported my winning Wizardry VI party, and after seeing that hardly any of my super weapons carried over, I have to admit that I looked up how it works, and then redid the import process to ensure that I got those weapons!

The only issue I have with this game is that the controls are somehow even worse than in Wizardry VI (a step down from the previous games in the series). You have to choose between mouse or keyboard, and choosing one completely disables the other. I tried using keyboard only for a while, but anything outside of combat becomes unbelievably unwieldly. In contrast, mouse control is definitely better for inventory management, but a major pain during combat. It's bizarre that they do not just allow you to use both!

Otherwise, it's even better than I was expecting. There is an interesting reputation and faction system (in an RPG from 1992!), combat is just as good if not better than the previous game, and the area design is excellent. Dungeon delving in this game is fantastic. In between the detailed graphics, atmospheric sound, and fun trap disarming system, you really feel like an adventurer exploring old crypts.

I must also praise how the game provides you with a lot of direction without outright telling you where to go (and without quest markers). There is a main road that runs between all the towns, and it's easy to find the road with just a little bit of exploration immediately after starting the game. You seem pretty safe from encounters on the road, so it's just a matter of choosing a direction and seeing what's at the end.

What a game!

I'm assuming you're playing the DOS version and not Gold?

clueless1 wrote on 2025-08-17, 14:49:

I'm assuming you're playing the DOS version and not Gold?

Of course!

Kingdom Come Deliverance II

Just a quick note. I was working on a main quest, which involved retrieving a body from the shit pile in the pig trough. I did, and got one of the best bows in the game off of the corpse. But the guys in the quest started harassing me to give them the bow or pay them for it. So I refused and they started to attack me. I took off running out of the village. While I was running, I ran past a bandit that was looting someone he'd killed. I turned around after I ran past him, and saw the guys attacking me ended up in a fight with the bandit. He was a skilled swordsman and ended up killing them all, then came after me. It was a challenge, but with Mutt's help nipping at his heels, I got some undefended hits on him and took him down. Problem solved! And we did it outside of the village, so my reputation should be unharmed. Haha.

Wizardry VII
I'm just under 10 hours into this game and am still having a blast! I'm still completely lost and just exploring the massive world and slowly piecing things together. I've been using the Cosmic Editor app as an automap, which is quite nice. It only gives you as much information as the in-game map, but you can keep it open in a separate window while you play (similar to how Wizardry Gold handles it, I think). I've been slowly increasing my fighter's mapping skill, because increasing it apparently adds more detail to your map. At my current level, it just draws squares (no walls, stairs, doors, etc.), so I might have to manually draw some of the indoor areas until the automap becomes more useful. Still, as is it works just fine to keep track of your location while exploring.

Combat became much easier once I gained a single level, and I've read that it's because imported characters function as level 1 characters until they level up once. It definitely seems like that's the case.

Finished playing Outlaws, been playing it for around a month and tried to play every level (there are not many, the main story is quite short, but great game nonetheless). To be able to finish the game in its hardest difficulty you need to spend most of the time crouched so enemies have a bigger chance to miss you, but even so you may get one shot killed, specially by the guy with the shotgun. Being on higher ground is actually a disadvantage in this game as hitting enemies below you may be tough due to the weird colision detection.
This is the first game I ever saw that requires the player to reload the gun manually round by round, and for some reason that makes using weapons (specially the shotgun) much more satisfying, not to mention being able to snipe enemies from afar using a rifle scope (first time I ever saw that mechanic in a game, together with MDK back in 97), the game even has alternate fire modes for each weapon, quite new for the time, too.
There are not many weapons, but each has it’s particular use (revolver for mid range, rifle for long range, shotguns for short range, dynamite for explosions, big machine gun for crowds, etc). The game also has very nice cutscenes exactly like other lucas arts adventure games, despite being an fps, and the music is very well made, too.
Today I was finally able to finish the Marshall
Training missions and the rest of the historical missions on “bad” difficulty. However my feeling of acomplishment was short lived… just a few hours later Nightdive studios announced they are going to release a remastered version of Outlaws in September 😁. There are not many details yet but they usually tend to add some extra levels to their remasters, just like they did for Heretic and Hexen so I have the feeling I’ll come back to it soon.

clueless1 wrote on 2025-08-17, 20:24:

Kingdom Come Deliverance II

Just a quick note. I was working on a main quest, which involved retrieving a body from the shit pile in the pig trough.

One other cool detail. After you get out of the shit pile, even if you wash yourself in a water trough (which is normally enough when you get dirty enough to affect your charisma), people will comment on your smell as you walk by them and your charisma goes down tremendously. You need a full-on bath at a bath house or a laundry pond to eliminate the smell.

Started playing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth or, as we used to call it back in the day, FF7 Disc 2. 😁 Runs reasonably well on my Ryzen 7 5700X + RTX 3060 12GB, with all graphical settings maxed at 1080p, and the frame rate capped at 30. I used the frame limiter in the Nvidia driver panel instead of the one from the game, since the latter was giving me inconsistent frame times. I could probably reach 60 FPS if I toned down a few things, but it's an RPG and I'm playing it with a controller on a big screen TV, so I'd rather have maximum eye candy.

Still not a fan of the "what if" approach to the plot that both FF7 Remake and now also Rebirth seem to be taking. I would have preferred a simple, faithful remake of the original with modern visuals, but oh well. Graphics wise, I remember watching FF7 Advent Children way back in 2005, marveling at the CGI quality, and wondering if we could ever get games to look like that. Well, we're pretty close now, I think. FF7 Rebirth looks absolutely gorgeous, and very much reminds me of that movie. The gameplay seems nearly identical to Remake, which I played (and mostly enjoyed) last year. So far so good.

Pirates! Finally got around to revisiting my Best Game Ever, and I'm also trying to turn it into a choose-your-adventure kinda game where anybody can vote on my next move.

Completed Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror. I just said I was done with adventure games for the time being, I guess I wasn't because two days after I completed BS1 I started wanting to play the sequel. Just when i think i'm out they pull me back!

Not as good as BS1. Feels kinda rushed, like they got surprised how well BS1 was received and scrambled to get on its wake as fast as possible. It's a bit clumsy comparatively. There's even a bit of a maze in there, everybody loves those right. It does have two improvements though; dialog isn't as compressed as in the first game and sounds better, also it doesn't have instant death moments like in BS1. Or possibly only one of those, not sure because I got through it on first try. Seemed like something where you could fail and likely die though.

One thing about it started to bug me as I played it, and it's something also the first game suffers from. The are moments where you can't just directly tackle a puzzle, you first have to work your way into it. One puzzle in BS1 comes to mind where this was logical, the first time you see a certain person you notice nothing of importance about him if you look at him with right mouse button, but later you learn about a certain item that has gone missing and if you then look at the person again you notice that item. I don't terribly enjoy having to double check things I've already had a look at, but in that case it makes perfect sense.

But if only it would make perfect sense every time in such occasions. There were puzzles I had absolutely no idea what I did that suddenly gave me a new dialog option with someone. Example: in BS2 at one point you arrive on a beach with a little boat and you need to climb up a cliff. There are a few points you can look at but you can't clumb up, and nothing you have can be used on anything there. Talking to the boy who took you there with his boat doesn't help. There I was, clicking on everything and trying to use everything on everything, making absolutely no progress. Until at some point I tried to talk to the boy again only to notice I could now suddenly and completely randomly ask to loan his fishing net. Absolutely no idea what unlocked that! Clicking on everything possible on the screen? Really no idea, whatever it was it gave no hint that the protagonist realized something.

Lots of moments like that where you need to go back and forth talking to people again and again to see has anything new popped up. Sometimes it make sense, sometimes not. I find this kinda tiresome even when it does make sense, that's not puzzle solving, that's just clicking on things until the protagonist either realizes something the player probably already has figured out or the game just randomly unlocks something without giving even a slightest hint it's done so.

Oh well, as far adventure games go the puzzles are still alright overall, just periodical stumbles. Which I guess could be said about the whole game really. Three and half stars.

Finished Rise of the Tomb Raider. I'll start Shadow of the Tomb Raider another day.

I still prefer the og Tomb Raider which was, actually, "tomb raiding" rather than shooting right and left to kill enemies and animals....

Recently I've been playing Unreal Tournament 99 with some friends.

The game runs surprisingly well on modern hardware with the latest patch. For some reasons though I had some occasional input lag when firing a weapon.

Facing Worlds is such a great map. So simple yet challenging and fun.

There's even a Dockerfile for the server part: https://github.com/Roemer/ut99-server

Made some progress in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and I keep getting wowed by this game's graphics. As a fan of the original FF7, it's amazing to see familiar places like Junon and Costa Del Sol re-created using modern rendering techniques. Additionally, the amount of detail on the character models is incredible, especially during cutscenes, which often make it feel like you're watching a high budget movie. And of course, the music is top notch, as are the performances of the main voice actors.

At the start, FF7 Rebirth checks if you have any FF7 Remake saves on your system, and awards you with a few bonus items in that case. But your character stats and equipment don't get imported. The gameplay was slightly expanded with stuff like the synergy abilities, which allow two party members to combine their attacks for more power. There's also a somewhat underwhelming card game, which is tied to a few quests as well, but those are optional.

Sadly, we also see the return of craptastic mini games, including forced stealth sections while catching chocobos, and some QTE insanity during the Junon military parade. That said, if you're playing this on the PC like me, there are mods which can make the mini games much less of a bother. Other things of note include the new world map, which has lots of optional places that you can explore for various rewards. Also, each town now has a bulletin board with some local quests. I've only done a few of these, but they seem to be slightly better than the ones from Remake.

The story alterations (compared to the original FF7) have been fairly minor up to this point, except for the bit at the very beginning. However, I don't like how the devs occasionally slap Cloud with some cutscene incompetence in order to prop up other characters who help him during certain events. That could have made sense after a certain plot point, but right now, he's supposed to be this cocky ex-Soldier who doesn't rely on others all that much. Still, I'm willing to wait and see how things develop.