Morrowind
Playing as a mage has been so much fun so far. The spell creation system is extremely cool and you can make some very powerful stuff with it, but the game wisely forces you to first learn spell effects by buying other spells, and some merchants will refuse to sell you spells unless you are of sufficient rank in the guild.

So, my first step in any new town is to see if there's a Mage Guild or Temple there, and check for spells with new effects to buy. If anything seems useful (especially for utility-type spells), I'll do some shopping. I've been building up a small library of custom spells for specific situations, like one spell that boosts my "Personality" attribute 100 points for a couple of seconds (to pass persuasion checks), and another spell that lets me fly for 15 seconds (to get around more easily... VERY helpful in Vivec).

It's a really remarkable RPG, because there are so many interconnected systems and the developers really attempted to simulate a world using them. The goal of most quests is just to get something or talk to someone, but how you do it is really up to you. It never feels like your only choice is to fight some strong monster to make progress. It's such a shame how much extreme level scaling, instant fast travel, quest compasses, linear loop-around dungeons, and quest markers have ruined the series (and genre), because Morrowind is so immersive and satisfying to play.

Completed Doom 2016.

Well that was a ride. I had very mixed feelings about it during the first two thirds of the game, partly because some of its design and partly because of me stubbornly trying to play it like a typical FPS game instead of being an aggressive wrecking ball it expects you to be before I realized my mistake. But during the last third everything just clicked into place and I started to kinda love the game.

First of all the checkpoint save system never did stop bugging me. Came across a really fun combat arena and want to give it another go but the game already checkpointed? Well sucks to be you buddy! Then there's the max ammo limit, which ain't high at first. Joseph's earlier recommendation to max out ammo capacity immediately was absolutely the right thing to do, but that takes a while as you get those argent points only one per level most of the time.

But my biggest issue is what effectively became the gameplay loop. The game has three different thigs to upgrade, yourself, your armor and your weapons. All these things require points you either get by simply completing objectives and challenges, finding them along the main path or by finding secrets. And it's that last one that really became a pain in the ass for me, finding secrets felt so incentivised I couldn't just push forward and have fun shooting demons only stopping to find secrets when I felt like it, instead the damn game practically punishes you if you don't throroughly sniff through every area.

To make it even worse the map shows you items/areas on it if you get close enough letting you know they are there, and sometimes the game also taunts you by letting you see the secret area through a window or something. That already can be a bit frustrating if you can't find a way to them, but sometimes it's not even possible to get to them yet. The way to them could be in some later part of the map, but you have no way of knowing that. And if you give up in hopes it's one of those you can only get to later the game might then give you the finger, bar the way back and slap you with a checkpoint.

Therefore the gameplay loop was fun combat -> varying levels of annoyance and frustration while looking for secrets -> move forward -> rinse and repeat. I really really wished I could just enjoy the combat and be able to look for secrets only when I felt like it without getting kicked in the balls for skipping them. I guess I just suck at finding them, I found a whopping four classic maps out of apparently thirteen.

But once I had found all the weapons, unlocked the mods I liked and upgraded them, along with the argent points / armor upgrades I could stop giving a damn about secrets and just enjoy the game. The last third was just straight up awesome, combat arenas after combat arenas with the game throwing everything at you. Demons turning into red mist after being greeted by super shotgun, heads getting chainsawed off, blood and body parts flying all around. Special mention for the berserk powerup which I found to be unproportionally fun!

I don't really know how I would find the first two thirds of the game now that I know how to play it, which weapon mods to get first and where to find most of the secrets. I'm hoping this is one of those games where the second playthrough is more fun than the first, but that remains to be seen. I better write some notes for myself later so I don't need to repeat all this once I do go back to replay it.

Also points for the first part of the end credits, they were great. Especially the recreation of the cover art of the original Doom.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-05-25, 20:18:

Completed Doom 2016.

Congrats! 😀 It does take some getting used to, but as you say, Doom (2016) really starts to shine once you find a comfortable rhythm. I do agree with you on the upgrades, and I think the gameplay would have been smoother if health/armor/ammo were fully maxed at the very start. Also, the praetor suit improvements weren't that great either. Personally, I'd just leave the weapon upgrades in place, and cut all the rest. Not every game needs RPG elements and "leveling".

And yeah, the core gameplay was super fun, especially in the later parts after getting more powerful weapons like the super shotgun. I even revisited certain levels to re-experience some of the more memorable fights and find secrets that I had missed. You can do this at any time from the menu.

If you're thinking about trying Doom Eternal, I'll just say that the ammo restrictions are much harsher than in 2016, even after all the upgrades, so you're forced to do active resource management all the time (e.g. kill 10 demons, chainsaw the 11th to replenish ammo, rinse and repeat). There's also a lot more platforming in Eternal, which made me put the game on hold after just three levels. Sometimes, it felt like playing Super Mario Bros in hell. Relevant video.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-05-26, 05:30:

Congrats! 😀 Personally, I'd just leave the weapon upgrades in place, and cut all the rest. Not every game needs RPG elements and "leveling".

Thanks! And yeah, I agree with you on that. For secrets the usual health/armor/ammo, early new weapon and those collectibles that unlock models in the menu would have been reward enough in my opinion, alongside the satisfaction for finding them. Effectively getting "levels" for finding secrets makes them too valuable, making it painful to miss them.

Also unlocking the wrong weapon mod hurts, a new player doesn't know how useful the two different mods are and if you make a mistake it's off to look for a new drone and even more weapon upgrade points to get that upgraded.

If you're thinking about trying Doom Eternal, I'll just say that the ammo restrictions are much harsher than in 2016, even after all the upgrades, so you're forced to do active resource management all the time (e.g. kill 10 demons, chainsaw the 11th to replenish ammo, rinse and repeat). There's also a lot more platforming in Eternal, which made me put the game on hold after just three levels. Sometimes, it felt like playing Super Mario Bros in hell.

No, I don't think I'll be giving it a try even if/when it drops on GOG for pennies. I can tell by just looking at gameplay videos that those ammo levels and constant platforming would annoy me to no end. And they made the secrets even worse by placing codex lore entries in them! Want to know the lore of the game, well better sniff every damn corner! Not everyone wants to read them sure, but hiding them is not a galaxy brain move as far as I'm concerned. Just give them to the player and let them choose do they want to read them or not.

Seems to me like a game that is more fun to watch someone really skilled play it on youtube than play it yourself.

Just bought Shadow Man Remastered from Nightdive Studios.

This is one of those games I remember playing, and really enjoying, but can't remember a majority of it's contents. What's sad, is I played it twice.... originally on the N64, then later on Dreamcast. So, I figured, for $5.99, it was worth playing again to refresh my memory.

Sometimes a bad memory can be a blessing in disguise. I recall just enough to remind me it's a great game. So, I get to enjoy it again! 😜

Kingdom Come Deliverance II

I've been working on a Task involving getting rid of a major bandit leader named Canker. This was a tough one because there are two challenging combats against 5-6 bandits at a time, and I have not developed my character to be a powerful fighter. But if you use your brain, you can find ways. Attributes like Stealth come in very handy, along with being accomplished with a bow as well as just plain common sense. That's one of the things I love about this game.

There are two major battles in this Task. First, there is an encounter on the road where one of the bandits is dressed like a priest, kneeling and begging at the roadside. His four partners are hiding across the road behind bushes. This battle was very difficult for me and took several tries. But it involved attacking the priest from a distance with a bow, then trying to get another couple of arrows into his buddies as they rushed out to attack me. I sic'd Mutt against them as a distraction, backed up to keep distance, and fired as many arrows as I could before switching to my war hammer. If they got close to surrounding me, I'd either back away or side step around them and create more space.

The second battle was against Canker himself and his band. They had a camp hidden in a canyon that is accessible from the two sides that a stream is running through it. I luckily stumbled upon their camp from the canyon top rather than from the stream entrances. Looking down on the camp from about 50 feet, I had clear shots at at least two of them. I decided to attack from above with my bow. I managed to hit two of them while the rest rushed out of the canyon to climb up towards me. They knew which side of the canyon I attacked from because I could see them spotting me when I started firing arrows. So while they spent minutes running to meet me, I skirted to the other side of the canyon and waited. I could hear them looking for me and cursing me. Eventually, they went back to their camp. I could see one of the men I hit had died by then. This time, I fired arrows from the other side of the canyon to throw them off. I took down another bandit this way. Again, they rushed out and climbed up to find me. I used Stealth to sneak quietly through the brush and came across one of the bandits that had separated from the rest. One on one, I took him down quickly. Then I came across a couple of more and with Mutt's help, took them down. Canker was in that last group of two. I found his mace and grabbed it as proof that I eliminated them.

With the bandits gone, Mutt and I went down into their camp and did some looting. Here is Mutt chilling by the first guy I took down with arrows.

And here is a view from the canyon top. The lighting is bad, but you can make out some of their equipment and the body of the first bandit on the right side of the picture.

I had a good time replaying Rise of the Tomb Raider over the past few days. There are a lot of improvements from the previous game, including better stealth mechanics, a more detailed crafting system and the added ability to swim/dive. Graphics also took a big leap forward, with many environments looking absolutely stunning. For example, you traverse some frozen caverns early on, which feature incredible lighting and ambient occlusion effects on the ice formations. In my view, this looks really good, even surpassing the visuals of some recent games.

In terms of gameplay, there's still too much combat for my taste, but at least you have more options now. Thanks to the new triple shot skill, Lara can now take out three enemies simultaneously with her bow, which makes it easier to remain undetected. She can also set traps and lure enemies into them. And the new combat knife allows her to perform stealth kills quicker. Of course, all of the guns return, so you can still shoot everything to bits if that's your preference. Lastly, there are fewer annoying quick time events here, which is much appreciated.

The optional tombs are larger in this game, and the puzzles are slightly more involved. Completion rewards are more logical as well, such as learning ancient archery and healing techniques from old manuscripts. There's also a certain DLC location with some pretty unique gameplay mechanics. Without spoiling anything, I'll just say that this DLC is already included in the "20 Year Celebration" release, and that it seamlessly integrates into the base game.

On the flip side, the main plot of Rise didn't really grab me, and it somehow felt weaker compared to the previous game. I guess that became a tradition, since Shadow is even worse. Still, aside from the flimsy plot, I enjoyed the first three quarters of the game. But that last quarter was simply terrible. Basically, you fight against endless hordes of zombie knights wearing full plate armor, who love throwing napalm grenades at you. Riveting stuff there. The final boss battle was also really dumb, as all your carefully upgraded weapons get taken away due to Lara's (implausible) cutscene incompetence.

Anyway, while that last bit puts a damper on the otherwise fun experience, I think Rise of the Tomb Raider is still a solid game overall. After completing the main plot, you can revisit all previous areas at your leisure, to finish up remaining sidequests and find any left over secrets. As a bonus, you can apply classic Tomb Raider outfits to Lara in this mode, making her look like she did in TR2.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-05-19, 12:59:

I hopped on Doom 2016 for the first time. --snip-- Unless the GOG offline install works on Win7, haven't tested that but not holding my breath.

In case anyone is wondering the current version of GOG's Doom 2016 at the time of writing this (version 20240321-110145-gentle-wolf) works on Windows 7. It installs fine, but doesn't launch complaining about missing xinput1_4.dll. Amusingly this can be fixed by copying xinput1_3.dll from Windows\System32 to the install folder of the game and renaming it to xinput1_4.dll, the game launches just fine then.

Real XInput1_4.dll from a Windows 10/11 install doesn't work, complains about some missing api. Why on earth does the GOG version even want the 1.4.dll is a mystery as the original Steam version of the game supports Win7 natively, GOG's just being GOG again.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-05-26, 18:25:

I had a good time replaying Rise of the Tomb Raider over the past few days.

Without question, my favorite Tomb Raider game from the new trilogy. Hard to believe it’s already been 10 years… At this point, it's well on its way to becoming retro. 😅

bloodem wrote on 2025-05-28, 17:37:

Without question, my favorite Tomb Raider game from the new trilogy.

In terms of gameplay, I like Rise the best too. Lara also looks the most natural in that game, since Shadow makes her face look too "plasticky" or something.

But as a whole package, I think the first game is still my favorite overall, when talking about the reboot trilogy.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-05-29, 05:48:

Lara also looks the most natural in that game, since Shadow makes her face look too "plasticky" or something.

I think so too... there's something off, unnatural about her face in SotTR.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-05-29, 05:48:

But as a whole package, I think the first game is still my favorite overall, when talking about the reboot trilogy.

I really do like the first game as well, but I think the second one feels more refined, both visually and in terms of gameplay. Even though the two were released ~ 2 years apart (IIRC), the second game seems to be a few generations newer in terms of graphics. I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a graphics junkie, I’ve always prioritized visual fidelity over frame rates, even as a kid. 😁.

What is your favorite from the original series, though? For me, it's Tomb Raider 4 - The Last Revelation (and it's not even close). I've played this game so many times, I know every level by heart. 😀

bloodem wrote on 2025-05-29, 06:35:

What is your favorite from the original series, though?

The first one. There's a different vibe to it compared to the other classic games. Lara is alone for the most part, rarely encountering other humans, and she's mainly dealing with wild animals and ancient puzzles/traps. There's a lot more emphasis on quiet exploration there, compared to the later entries.

My least favorite is definitively TR2, due to its egregious amount of combat with blocky, low-polygon human opponents. It feels like the polar opposite of the first game.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-05-29, 06:45:

The first one. There's a different vibe to it compared to the other classic games. Lara is alone for the most part, rarely encountering other humans, and she's mainly dealing with wild animals and ancient puzzles/traps. There's a lot more emphasis on quiet exploration there, compared to the later entries.

I like the first one for what it is (the game that started it all), but never found the gameplay and puzzles very captivating.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-05-29, 06:45:

My least favorite is definitively TR2, due to its egregious amount of combat with blocky, low-polygon human opponents. It feels like the polar opposite of the first game.

Yeah, I think the second one is also my least favorite (though TR5 and 6 are not exactly high up my list either, at least I did finish those games).

Played Elden Ring Nightreign last night for the first time, but didn't enjoy it.

It felt like everything that I like about Elden Ring is missing, but there isn't anything added to make up for it. Ended up refunding it after playing for 2 hours.

FTR, I have never played any TR game, though I do own most of them at this point. :p I have a huge backlog of titles to enjoy.

Shponglefan wrote on 2025-05-30, 15:55:

Played Elden Ring Nightreign last night for the first time, but didn't enjoy it.

It felt like everything that I like about Elden Ring is missing, but there isn't anything added to make up for it. Ended up refunding it after playing for 2 hours.

Can you go into more detail? Loved elden ring and saw that this game came out but seems geared towards coop even though you can solo? Is it just grind and boss fights?

DosFreak wrote on 2025-05-30, 18:37:

Can you go into more detail? Loved elden ring and saw that this game came out but seems geared towards coop even though you can solo? Is it just grind and boss fights?

It's more like a speedrunning hack-and-slash.

The game is designed for 3 players. You either player 3 player or solo. I didn't try solo mode, but apparently it's quite challenging and Fromsoft is already planning a patch to make it easier.

You start out on a Limgrave-style map with various points of interest (enemy mobs, mini-bosses and loot). You're trying to kill and loot as much as you can, so you can level up as quickly as possible. The whole time there is a wall of blue fire that is gradually moving the across the map and closing in. As the blue flame closes in, it forces you into a boss arena where a random "night boss" spawns in. Then the three of you have to defeat the boss to move onto the next night.

In my limited play time, we only attempted three runs and never successfully defeated a first night boss. Twice the night boss was a Bell Bearing Hunter, and once it was a pair of demi-human bosses.

The issue I had is the blue flame closes in so quickly, you don't really have enough time to properly explore or clear areas. Twice we were trying to defeat some mini-bosses only to have the blue flame swoop in and force us to abandon those fights. You also end up collecting a pile of loot (items, weapons, etc), but you don't have any time to read what anything does before you're forced to keep moving.

On top of that, since things are somewhat randomized, you also don't know if what you are collecting will even be useful against the bosses. This is different than in regular Elden Ring where you can plan out different builds and try different strategies to beat bosses. In Nightreign, if you fail you have to start over with different randomized encounters and bosses.

There also isn't much character building or progression. You can unlock 'relics' that allow you specific buffs that you can assign to different character classes. But beyond that, you just pick a pre-defined character class and go with it. Even leveling doesn't give you the option to pick stats. It just gives you pre-defined stats increases.

Overall, this game doesn't feel anything like Elden Ring. The careful exploration, character building, lore, of Elden Ring isn't really present here. Instead, it's a frenetic hack-and-slash speedrunning game where you are trying to race against the clock to level as quickly as possible and then defeat bosses.

meh. Thanks!
Still have the Elden Ring DLC to play some day so I'm good.
Too many games but better too many than not enough.

DosFreak wrote on 2025-05-30, 18:57:

meh. Thanks!
Still have the Elden Ring DLC to play some day so I'm good.

Elden Ring DLC is good stuff, definitely moreso than Nightreign. Enjoy!

Mech warrior 3 with Microsoft sidewinder precision pro. It really needs regreasing