Star Wars: Dark Forces - still going through it, level 6 by now 😀

Reached the city of Baldur's Gate in BG: Enhanced Edition and I'm, once again, already running on fumes. But dammit, I'm not giving up this time, I'll snail my way all the way through it even if it takes months to do so. I don't think there's all that much left anyway, I've cleared everything south of Baldur's Gate except Durlag's tower so only the city and expansion content left.

I'm not making it easy for myself either, in addition to my neurotic need of clearing every map I also got in my head that since it's (hopefully) my first time finishing the game I also should do it with the canon party. The problem is that I've started to hate half of them. If I ever come back to the game I'll be giving Jaheira, Khalid and Imoen a wide berth.

Thankfully I'm not in a hurry, while I want to finally cross this game off my list of not yet finished games the other reason why I'm pushing myself through it is to finish it and preferably also BG2+ToB before playing Baldur's Gate 3 since it seems like something I'd enjoy, which is something I honestly wasn't expecting. And I'm not playing that before I upgrade my main PC which in all likelihood happens around 2024-2025 before my currently 9 years old PC runs out of Windows 10 support. Though if I end up disliking Windows 12 as much or even more than Windows 11 I might push the upgrade even further and just switch to linux.

I've played Contradiction: Spot The Liar for three nights in a row and ended up finishing it in around 7 hrs. It was a very pleasant and refreshing experience, it reminded me how much I missed FMV adventure games.

Under A Killing Moon, here I come..

I don't play much at all... since I recently bought a new wheel Thrustmaster T300RS GT (already have Logitech Momo and Logitech GT) I played a little Test Drive Unlimited (2008). This is practically the only game I play with the wheel and of the two I played in the last 10+ years (the other is Warhammer 40K Dawn of War).

Diablo III: Eternal Collection (Switch)
I normally only post about PC games in this topic. However, this is a (great) port of a PC game, so I thought I'd post my thoughts here.

First of all, if you care about draconian DRM, the only option for this game is to play on console, since the PC version requires constant connectivity even to play offline. The console ports are quite excellent, and control perfectly fine with a controller. Playing this way makes the game feel a bit closer to a pure action game, but other than that it's still Diablo III running under the hood.

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I started out on Normal difficulty, but found it to be shockingly easy; my character was basically invulnerable. I decided to boost the difficult level each time I reached a new act, so by the final act of the main campaign I was on the Master level. I tried the Torment level during the Reaper of Souls expansion (Act V), but found it to be no more difficult but much more tedious, since normal enemies became total damage sponges... so I reverted back to Master to complete the game. I played as a Necromancer, btw.

It's a very polished game. I like that Blizzard tried to change things around with how characters level up and are built. It can get pretty addictive unlocking new skills and runes, and it's always exciting to find some awesome weapon that complements your build.

Having said that, I feel that the game is quite a step down from Diablo II, which itself was quite a step down from Diablo for me. Diablo III is lengthier and easier than Diablo II, but is less interesting mechanically. Although there are a lot of new mechanics and it seems more complex at first, it mostly removes the concept of "character building" since every character of a given class will have access to the same skills and runes at the same level. The only difference would be the loot you've found.

I became addicted to the game, somehow, even though I found myself wondering several times, "why am I playing this?" Once I had decided which skills I wanted to use, I spent the rest of the game just running around using those same two skills over and over and over. I never had to position myself properly or retreat from a tough battle... just run in and slay. That can be amusing, but it leaves you feeling empty. I think that this game is addictive for mostly the wrong reasons. It's very easy, and you are constantly getting dopamine hits from frequent level ups and minor equipment upgrades. It feels predatory in a way, like the game it tricking you into liking it by being really nice to you. Rather than playing or completing this game, I felt like I was "consuming" it, like binge-watching a series on Netflix.

However, what's perhaps even more unforgiveable is that the classic Diablo atmosphere is completely gone. The game is more "high fantasy" than "gothic fantasy," and it really suffers for it. Diablo II was also very easy and had some really boring areas, but the detailed monster sprites, atmospheric locations, grim story, and eerie soundtrack gave the game a lot of character.

I have to make special mention the writing in Diablo III, which is some of the worst I've ever experienced in a game. It's like it was written for young children. "While you were collecting those stones, I kidnapped your friends! BWAHAHA!" It's that bad.

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Although I was disappointed with the game, you get a TON of content for your purchase. If you love what Diablo III does, it's basically a game that never ends. After completing Story mode, you can take your character into Adventure mode, which basically turns the game into an open world where you can just run around any of the maps completing quests and challenges. There's also the online Season mode, where you have to start a new character but get access to unique content and rewards, which can then be carried over to an offline character once the season is done.

I just got my first run done with BG3. I was dug into that game like a tick.

Im surprised so few have completed the game! I'm excited for the patch that came out today. https://baldursgate3.game/news/patch-1-now-live_87

I think i might take a break before starfield. But I'm really concerned Starfield is going to be just drenched in Bethesda bullshit, when compared to BG3, its really going to affect things.

Titan Quest
(Just plain old Titan Quest, not Anniversary Edition, and not even with the expansion installed.)

After being disappointed yet strangely addicted to Diablo III, I decided to give this another try. It never really hooked me before, but today I became completely addicted and just couldn't stop playing. It's basically Diablo II, but with a fun multiclassing system and fixed (non-randomized) locations. My biggest issue with Diablo II was the open field maps that had very little to discover in them, but were large enough to be annoying to search through. TQ has some similar areas, but they aren't as large or dull, and therefore are pretty cool to explore.

I must say that, for a game released in 2006, it looks absolutely fantastic; I'd argue that it's a much better looking game than Diablo III (2012), due to the excellent environment textures.

I chose the Hunting mastery as my first class, and have stuck with it 100% so far. I'll probably pick the Rogue mastery as the second class. It's been a lot of fun working on my character build, which is something that I missed in Diablo III. It's very satisfying when stuff all starts to fit together, and it really does take some thought and experimentation to get it working right. I had made previous attempts at TQ, but always ended up with a gimped character because I didn't really understand how to play these types of games before.

Anyway, I'm having a blast so far! It's very similar to Grim Dawn (2016), which I guess was developed by many of the same people.

Sombrero wrote on 2023-08-24, 09:11:

Reached the city of Baldur's Gate in BG: Enhanced Edition and I'm, once again, already running on fumes. But dammit, I'm not giving up this time, I'll snail my way all the way through it even if it takes months to do so. I don't think there's all that much left anyway, I've cleared everything south of Baldur's Gate except Durlag's tower so only the city and expansion content left.

I'm not making it easy for myself either, in addition to my neurotic need of clearing every map I also got in my head that since it's (hopefully) my first time finishing the game I also should do it with the canon party. The problem is that I've started to hate half of them. If I ever come back to the game I'll be giving Jaheira, Khalid and Imoen a wide berth.

Thankfully I'm not in a hurry, while I want to finally cross this game off my list of not yet finished games the other reason why I'm pushing myself through it is to finish it and preferably also BG2+ToB before playing Baldur's Gate 3 since it seems like something I'd enjoy, which is something I honestly wasn't expecting. And I'm not playing that before I upgrade my main PC which in all likelihood happens around 2024-2025 before my currently 9 years old PC runs out of Windows 10 support. Though if I end up disliking Windows 12 as much or even more than Windows 11 I might push the upgrade even further and just switch to linux.

I went through a lot of the same feelings in my attempts to play through this game, though I did finally complete it just a year ago or so. I found the city of Baldur's Gate to be overwhelming and a bit dull, so I skipped most of it and just followed the main quest. I also had tried clearing every map in previous attempts, but then during my last (successful) attempt I only explore a map if I had some quest-related need to do so. It made the game much less tedious imo.

I also hated most if not all of the companions. I ended up setting up a fake multiplayer game so I could just create my own party, and that's the party I used to complete the game.

dr_st wrote on 2023-08-16, 19:50:

Playing through Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers - 20th Anniversary Edition.

Finished it a couple of days ago. I managed to get through most of it smoothly, but had a couple of hiccups on the last day.

newtmonkey wrote on 2023-08-25, 18:51:

Titan Quest
Anyway, I'm having a blast so far! It's very similar to Grim Dawn (2016), which I guess was developed by many of the same people.

GD also uses the same engine, so no wonder they feel similar.

I've been very close to buying Titan Quest several times, but every time I go look gameplay videos on youtube I can't unsee how clunky the animations look. Grim Dawn doesn't have the greatest animations ever either but only dual wielding pistols looked silly enough to bother me. In Titan Quest even the male character running animation looks to me like he didn't get to the outhouse in time. But if the game is good maybe I could get used to it, I might have to give it a go one day.

newtmonkey wrote on 2023-08-25, 18:58:

I also hated most if not all of the companions. I ended up setting up a fake multiplayer game so I could just create my own party, and that's the party I used to complete the game.

Can't blame you. I just want to use the canon party for story continuation reasons and I also do like Jaheira and Imoen in the sequel, but here the constant "omnipresent authority figure queer fellow" bombartment got really annoying really fast.

Titan Quest
I finally completed Act I. I've focused 100% on Hunting mastery, but now that I'm in Act II, I'll probably start developing my second mastery (most likely Rogue). Steam tells me I'm 14 hours in, but that includes a couple of false starts, so 12 hours is probably more accurate. This game is pretty fun and, although easy, it's more challenging than Grim Dawn or Diablo II on their default difficulty levels (or even compared with Diablo III on Master difficulty level).

Having said that, I played this way too much over the past few days, and now that I'm in Act II, I will put it aside to play something else until I get Diablo formula itch again.

Fallout 3
This has got to be attempt 25 or so to complete this game. It always starts out cool (assuming you skip that horrible tutorial/intro), but then I lose interest due to the weird combination of the Oblivion engine with Fallout stats stapled on, which always feels off to me. I also get annoyed with anything that does not involve just exploring the wasteland for cool stuff. I find the towns/settlements and especially the NPCs to be really dull (I really dislike the writing in this game), and I especially dislike the "dungeons" in this game which often require you to slowly creep through them to notice mines and traps, or otherwise just save/reload along the way as you go through them.

Anyway, having finally completed Oblivion and Skyrim somewhat recently, I thought I'd give this one another chance. Like before, it starts out cool and if there's one thing Bethesda did right with this game, it's that first moment you leave the Vault and your eyes slowly adjust to seeing the massive open world for the first time. Anyway, I did a few quests and made some progress in the main quest, and it was alright. Combat still feels clunky, but I made sure to get 9 AGI ASAP to get more actions in the VATS system, and that helps a lot.

I'm playing this 100% vanilla, except with the Darnified UI mod to fit more text on screen. I also disabled all the DLC, to sort of play the game like it was released. If I end up liking it a lot, I'll add the DLC in release order.

Decided to replay Quake 2 after the remaster got released. Completed the expansions too.

The base game and the Call of the Machine episodes were fun, can't say the same for the original expansions and the N64 game - they seemed to just drag on for way too long. Couldn't help but notice the dickish enemy placement - tanky enemies in narrow corridors, on top of stairs and elevators and in hidden rooms that open up as soon as you turn away.

newtmonkey wrote on 2023-08-29, 03:17:

Fallout 3
... I find the towns/settlements and especially the NPCs to be really dull (I really dislike the writing in this game)...

Yes I'm in the same boat - I really want to like it, but it just leaves me cold because of the dull interactions. Same experience with Fallout 4 for me too.

New Vegas though I really got into - must be the Obsidian factor. Much better characters and writing in general I think.

What really makes Fallout 3 and New Vegas really great is the Tale of Two Wastelands mod. It's add quite alot to both games. It's definitely worth playing.

badmojo wrote on 2023-08-29, 23:42:

Yes I'm in the same boat - I really want to like it, but it just leaves me cold because of the dull interactions. Same experience with Fallout 4 for me too.

New Vegas though I really got into - must be the Obsidian factor. Much better characters and writing in general I think.

I think a part of me just wants to blast through FO3 to get to FO:NV... probably why I decided to just disable all the DLC haha.

newtmonkey wrote on 2023-08-30, 03:02:

badmojo wrote on 2023-08-29, 23:42:

Yes I'm in the same boat - I really want to like it, but it just leaves me cold because of the dull interactions. Same experience with Fallout 4 for me too.

New Vegas though I really got into - must be the Obsidian factor. Much better characters and writing in general I think.

I think a part of me just wants to blast through FO3 to get to FO:NV... probably why I decided to just disable all the DLC haha.

I'm probably in the minority, but I find that the Fallout DLCs take away from the games. I find some of them immersion breaking and you end up with overpowered weapons sometimes.

I have a confession. I have beaten all of the Fallouts, except for 2, which is a classic. In my last playthrough, I stored a bunch of stuff in my car, which got stolen. Apparently you can't beat the game if that happens for certain items. I'm still butt hurt and haven't gone back to it.

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2023-08-30, 04:11:

I have a confession. I have beaten all of the Fallouts, except for 2, which is a classic. In my last playthrough, I stored a bunch of stuff in my car, which got stolen. Apparently you can't beat the game if that happens for certain items. I'm still butt hurt and haven't gone back to it.

You could have tracked the car down and get it back. But I have zero recollection did the game make the items stored in it disappear for good through a feature or a bug. Also I'm having really hard time thinking what item you could have had at that point that would have blocked you from finishing the game. In fact I can't remember any item like that. Maybe I've just forgotten, it's been a while.

Fallout 2 is great and I highly recommend giving it a another go, but you absolutely should use the unofficial patch as the game is legendarily buggy.

Sombrero wrote on 2023-08-30, 05:26:

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2023-08-30, 04:11:

I have a confession. I have beaten all of the Fallouts, except for 2, which is a classic. In my last playthrough, I stored a bunch of stuff in my car, which got stolen. Apparently you can't beat the game if that happens for certain items. I'm still butt hurt and haven't gone back to it.

You could have tracked the car down and get it back. But I have zero recollection did the game make the items stored in it disappear for good through a feature or a bug. Also I'm having really hard time thinking what item you could have had at that point that would have blocked you from finishing the game. In fact I can't remember any item like that. Maybe I've just forgotten, it's been a while.

Fallout 2 is great and I highly recommend giving it a another go, but you absolutely should use the unofficial patch as the game is legendarily buggy.

I don't remember the exact details, but I doubt that I would have quit unless it was game breaking. I certainly plan on going back to it and will look at that mod. Thanks!

Finished the Story Mode of Rayman Raving Rabbids. I'm a huge fan of Rayman, but the Rabbids spin-offs are something else, so I've been avoiding them for a long time. The game is basically a collection of mini-games. Most of it is low-hanging toilet humor, but some of it is actually funny, and the gameplay mechanics in quite a few of the minigames are original and reasonably challenging.

Still, Story Mode is easy to complete. I understand it is supposed to be like a practice towards "the real deal" - the Score Mode, but having read some on that, I am not sure I feel like going that way.