Sombrero wrote on 2026-01-03, 10:17:

Last time I played I went through a pacifist/ghost run of the main game and these DLC's only to notice at the statistics screen after the very last level of The Brigmore Witches that one of the stupid enemies somehow died. Must've hit their head or something when I dropped their unconcious body on the floor, maybe drowned on a tiny buddle. I was not pleased 😁

Yeah, Dishonored 1 doesn't have the in-game stat screen like its sequel, which makes these kinds of runs a bit troublesome.

However, there's a Mission Stats mod for the PC version of the game, which works great.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2026-01-03, 12:12:

Yeah, Dishonored 1 doesn't have the in-game stat screen like its sequel, which makes these kinds of runs a bit troublesome.

However, there's a Mission Stats mod for the PC version of the game, which works great.

Well that's certainly handy, I'll put that down in my notes so I know to use that the next time I revisit Dishonored. Thanks!

Persona 3 Reload

Overall, I'd say that Persona 3 is still a bit harder than its sequels, despite the new additions that Reload brings to the table. For example, it has a few consecutive boss fights, where you don't have the ability to save in between. And some of the instakill attacks can really ruin your day if they hit the protagonist, since that means game over. This was addressed in later titles, by making your party members take a lethal hit for you, if their social links were high enough. But Reload didn't add that, so you're stuck with the old clunky, mechanics.

Another minor annoyance is that you don't earn any money from simply winning fights. Instead, you have to deliberately pick the "coin" card in the post-battle mini game, if you're lucky enough that it appears (random chance). This is unique to P3, and the devs thankfully changed it for the later games. Of course, money can be earned by selling loot, but that just makes the game even more grind heavy. I had hoped that this was addressed for Reload, but alas, no such luck.

On the flip side, I really like how this game expects you to strike a balance between improving your social links and participating in combat. If you focus on just one of those areas and neglect the other, things will get a lot harder, so you need to manage your free time wisely. I also appreciate the new nighttime activities that were added for Reload, which make raising your stats a bit easier. This allows you to pass the checks for starting certain social links a bit sooner, which can be quite helpful.

Another great addition is that all social links are now fully voiced. Don't get me wrong, the writers did a great job here, it's just that everything feels even better now that the words are actually spoken. Lastly, Reload adds new downtime activities that you can do together with your party members. Stuff like reading books, watching DVDs, cooking or gardening. These little moments give more depth to those characters, revealing some info that was either only hinted or never mentioned at all in the original game. It's a really nice addition.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Mysteria Ecclesiae DLC

I've been talking about how this DLC is all investigation and stealth, with no combat. I assumed that based on the fact that when you start the DLC, all your weapons and plate armor are confiscated just after you enter the monastery grounds. So I just got to a crucial point in the DLC that forces you into a combat with someone with a sword. I have developed my bare hands combat somewhat, but after a few tries, no luck. So now I'm going to look around the area just outside of the hut where the combat is triggered to see if I can find anything I can use. I did come across some information about how to get a weapon in this DLC, but the fact that this did not occur naturally in my playthrough makes me feel like the developers intended the combat to be very difficult. I choose (at this point) not to backtrack in the game to find a weapon that I did not come across naturally in my playthrough.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2026-01-02, 18:09:

If you're on the the Definitive Edition, I would suggest playing "The Knife of Dunwall" and "The Brigmore Witches" DLCs after finishing the main story. A couple of prominent characters from Dishonored 2 first appear in those DLCs, and the plot is connected as well.

I do have the DLCs, so I'll definitely play those once I'm done with the main story!

clueless1 wrote on 2026-01-03, 13:20:

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Mysteria Ecclesiae DLC

I've been talking about how this DLC is all investigation and stealth, with no combat. I assumed that based on the fact that when you start the DLC, all your weapons and plate armor are confiscated just after you enter the monastery grounds. So I just got to a crucial point in the DLC that forces you into a combat with someone with a sword. I have developed my bare hands combat somewhat, but after a few tries, no luck. So now I'm going to look around the area just outside of the hut where the combat is triggered to see if I can find anything I can use. I did come across some information about how to get a weapon in this DLC, but the fact that this did not occur naturally in my playthrough makes me feel like the developers intended the combat to be very difficult. I choose (at this point) not to backtrack in the game to find a weapon that I did not come across naturally in my playthrough.

Haha. Literally moments after I posted this, I found a work axe leaning on the other side of the hut. First try: I equipped the axe and walked into the hut. When the combat started I got my butt kicked because I didn't realize the game unequipped the axe, so when I went to swing, I used my bare hands. Second try: I immediately equipped the axe when the combat started. We parried back and forth several times. I blocked his hits, and he blocked mine. Then I got a direct hit to his head and instakilled him! Granted, he had zero head armor, so that's to be expected, but I don't think I've ever killed anyone in this game with a single melee hit prior to this. At least not during combat (stealth kills).

clueless1 wrote on 2026-01-03, 13:43:

clueless1 wrote on 2026-01-03, 13:20:

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Mysteria Ecclesiae DLC

I've been talking about how this DLC is all investigation and stealth, with no combat. I assumed that based on the fact that when you start the DLC, all your weapons and plate armor are confiscated just after you enter the monastery grounds. So I just got to a crucial point in the DLC that forces you into a combat with someone with a sword. I have developed my bare hands combat somewhat, but after a few tries, no luck. So now I'm going to look around the area just outside of the hut where the combat is triggered to see if I can find anything I can use. I did come across some information about how to get a weapon in this DLC, but the fact that this did not occur naturally in my playthrough makes me feel like the developers intended the combat to be very difficult. I choose (at this point) not to backtrack in the game to find a weapon that I did not come across naturally in my playthrough.

Haha. Literally moments after I posted this, I found a work axe leaning on the other side of the hut. First try: I equipped the axe and walked into the hut. When the combat started I got my butt kicked because I didn't realize the game unequipped the axe, so when I went to swing, I used my bare hands. Second try: I immediately equipped the axe when the combat started. We parried back and forth several times. I blocked his hits, and he blocked mine. Then I got a direct hit to his head and instakilled him! Granted, he had zero head armor, so that's to be expected, but I don't think I've ever killed anyone in this game with a single melee hit prior to this. At least not during combat (stealth kills).

Just found a 2 minute video of this battle if anyone is curious and doesn't care about potential spoilers. FWIW, the guy in the video kills Denes in one hit too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIJdd6KdKQo

And here is where I found that work axe (red circle at corner of hut):

Finished the Mysteria Ecclesiae DLC after about 11 hours. It was actually very good. It's the only KCD2 DLC I've played so far. The combat I alluded to in my previous post was the only required combat in the DLC, and finding that work axe made it all worthwhile. I was a little upset when I first came upon this quest as all my weapons and plate armor were confiscated when I entered the monastery. But I guess there are several options besides the work axe if you happen upon them, look up where to find them, or backtrack after you hit this quest. I preferred the work axe because it happened naturally in my playthrough, and it was just enough weapon to defeat Denes. I literally split his head open with an overhand swing to the top of his unarmored head.

After leaving the monastery, I ended up wandering the countryside awhile. I came upon a side quest that I turned down after looking it up. Then I found a cat lady living in a wooded area. Literally dozens of cats living with her, kind of like you'd find IRL, with filthy living conditions, etc. No quest attached with it, but she was pretty nasty with me and I found a burned out homestead nearby with a dead dog lying in it. Hmmm.

Now I'm back in the big city (Kuttenberg) deciding if I want to start another DLC (Legacy of the Forge). Oddly, I'm not tired of this game yet even after close to 200 hours over a 9 month period. I may keep going until I don't "feel it" anymore.

Done with the Terminator: Resistance DLC. Loved it! Best FPS I've played in a long time.

Love the world building. Expanding the original story. Gameplay is fun. I want more! 😀

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Legacy of the Forge DLC

I started this DLC. The story is pretty cool.

Henry explores the legacy of his adoptive father and practicing the art of blacksmithing as he uncovers forgotten tales of the past. This DLC is included in the Golden edition and season pass. Apart from exploring Martin's past and interacting with his associates, Henry will get to take charge of and rebuild Martin's old forge in Kuttenberg, accepting commissions, restoring equipment, and building a reputation through the new Prestige system with additional opportunities to upgrade the workshop, recruit assistants, and unlock unique late-game rewards.

I've never been a huge fan of the forging mechanic in this game. It's basically a recipe to follow where you need the right ingredients and the right sequence of events to forge a weapon. Basically, you come across an old abandoned forge in serious disrepair in Kuttenberg. You recognize it from childhood memories of your adoptive father, who used to be an apprentice there. You look into reviving the forge and must go through trial by the forge leaders to be accepted. This involves a verbal test, and forging a weapon per their specifications. I've just gotten through the "trial" successfully. From what I understand, the rest of this DLC will involve restoring the forge and building it into a successful business. I'm hoping there won't be a ton of actual forging, but more decision-making on how to rebuild the forge, how to allocate funds to do so, etc. If you've played the games, you know that forging is in your blood, and this definitely makes it more interesting! I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of this DLC plays out.

Persona 3 Reload

While I'm enjoying my time with this game, I was also reminded how grind heavy it can be, especially if you want to fuse some of the better personas. Doesn't help that the main dungeon, that being Tartarus, just isn't all that interesting. It feels kinda weird going back to that randomized maze after having experienced Persona 5's superbly handcrafted palaces. And yeah, I realize that they devs couldn't exactly backport that to P3R, and I am thankful for what they did to make the grind a bit more bearable.

In other news, after playing this some more, I've taken a liking to the new English cast. They all do a great job, and they even made me appreciate some characters a bit more. For example, Yukari feels more likable this time around, and not just because of the voice acting, but also because of how her dialog was handled. Not sure if the devs translated the original text more faithfully, or if they simply tweaked the localization, but she seems more nuanced and less bratty now. Also, some of the social link voiceovers are just awesome, and they really make those characters shine. Lastly, I was wrong, they did keep one voice unchanged from the original P3, that being Elizabeth's. Seeing how you interact with her the most, due to the role that she plays in the story, it's really great they got the original actress back.

Gameplay wise, it's nice that they (re)introduced the skill inheritance mechanic from P5. It's much simpler to customize personas to your liking and mitigate some of their innate weaknesses now. Skill cards also seem more plentiful here, so it's even easier to give a persona some nice combos. Item fusions have been revised too, and while different, I think the new system works well enough. There are also a few other quality of life tweaks that have been backported from P5, which make Reload flow a bit smoother than the original P3. Overall, I'm having a ton of fun so far.

Demon's Souls

I resumed playing this alongside P3R, though I was mostly focused on leveling up my character and improving his gear. Using one of the bows that I had found previously, I farmed the Reaper in the Shrine of Storms to raise my Vitality and Endurance some more. He also dropped a bunch of shards that I needed to upgrade the Crescent Scimitar. Lastly, I saved up 20k souls to buy a spell which returns me to the Nexus, similarly to the Aged Feather from DS2. If I get stuck in a confusing area like those endless caves under Stonefang Tunnel, I can now use this, without risking my hard earned souls. I also got the Antidote spell, just in case.

Tomb Raider 1. After playing Tomb Raider Legend and Underworld I felt like I needed to remind myself how an actually good Tomb Raider game plays, and what's better than the very first one. One of my all time favorites, a game I'm not just very nostalgic about but also one that I still find genuinely fun to play. You can't top that combination, coziness factor goes through the roof. The main theme alone hits straight in the feels.

Playing the PS1 version as I always do. Native gamepad support and resolution can be increased via emulation, also using a CRT shader that I like which I've also slightly tuned to my liking. Looks great on a TV.

About half way through already. I really only have two things I could complain about: The fixed one time use save points while increasing the challenge nicely which I fully approve, also make it a bit difficult to jump in or keep playing after a save if you only have limited time on your hands. You don't know how long it takes to reach the next save point. Though honestly there's generally been little too many of them as far as I'm concerned. I suppose I could use save states with the emulator but I don't like them, feels like cheating.

The other thing is not the games fault but mine, once upon a time I more or less knew where all the secrets were but those days are gone, my ego yelled shenanigans after I found only one secret in Tomb of Qualopec and in St. Francis' Folly 😁

Also been playing Half-Life 2 on the side, I only intended to test does the 20th anniversary version still work fine on Windows 7 but couldn't stop once I started. Back in the day I really liked the game, was one of my favorite FPS games and yeah, it's still pretty great. I've never been the biggest FPS player, a general run-of-the-mill FPS tends to bore me to death, but some of them have had that special something I've really enjoyed.

In HL2's case that's the highly diverse design of it, both in map layouts and in gameplay elements. No Ctrl-c Ctrl-v map design here and while I'm sure plenty of FPS games have better gunplay I wonder how many of them can claim to be on equal terms of gameplay variety. It's a roller coaster, with high intensity parts mixed with slower parts. The several physics based small puzzles that were so novel back then feel a little bothersome to me now though, the game really wants the player to acknowledge its physics engine!

But can't deny it's not hitting as hard as it used to. I'm still enjoying the game, but it seems I've ridden this roller coaster a bit too many times. Annoying when that happens.

It's also another game I had to turn low latency mode on to get rid of frame pacing stutters, I seem to be running into these more and more all of a sudden.

Sombrero wrote on 2026-01-09, 10:17:

Tomb Raider 1. After playing Tomb Raider Legend and Underworld I felt like I needed to remind myself how an actually good Tomb Raider game plays, and what's better than the very first one.

Yeah, the first Tomb Raider remains my favorite of the classic games to this day. And the Unfinished Business expansion is pretty good too. I may have mentioned this before, but I really like TR1's focus on exploration. When you do engage in combat, it's usually with animals or monsters, and very rarely against other humans. Unlike the later installments where Lara is routinely gunning down hordes of generic thugs, which I'm not a fan of.

I initially experienced Tomb Raider on the PC, so I'm still partial to the keyboard controls. But I also played it on the PlayStation using a CRT TV back in the day. About 5-6 years ago, I recreated that setup using a 29" Sony Trinitron WEGA and an original PSOne hooked up via high quality RGB SCART cable. Had a blast with that too, and it looked as good as I remembered.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2026-01-09, 10:46:

Yeah, the first Tomb Raider remains my favorite of the classic games to this day. And the Unfinished Business expansion is pretty good too. I may have mentioned this before, but I really like TR1's focus on exploration. When you do engage in combat, it's usually with animals or monsters, and very rarely against other humans. Unlike the later installments where Lara is routinely gunning down hordes of generic thugs, which I'm not a fan of.

Wholly agree! I still like TR2 but there's no denying it lost something important by constantly throwing mafia guys at you, not to mention those levels with more modern seting. Those offshore rig levels aren't my favorites. But thankfully most of them are still good in my opinion. It's TR3 where I ran out of juice, Area 51, sheesh.

TR1 even used to have pretty thick atmosphere, even managed to give a few scares. I just completed the Colosseum and there's a lion that attacks you on a tight stairway from around the corner, that damn lion gave me such a scare back in the day I've remembered it ever since 😁

I've actually never even tried Unfinished Business, and since you like it I better rectify that. I was under the assumption they're just hastily put together levels that can't compete with the original levels. Some time ago I noticed someone had hacked a PS1 version of it and apparently it's well done so I'll grab that, I think the gamepad controls are too tightly imprinted in my muscle memory to make room for the PC keyboard controls.

Sombrero wrote on 2026-01-09, 12:10:

I've actually never even tried Unfinished Business, and since you like it I better rectify that. I was under the assumption they're just hastily put together levels that can't compete with the original levels.

While I do like UB, I will say that its level design isn't quite on pair with the original Tomb Raider. And some of it does feel like hastily thrown together filler content. But it's still better than most TR2 levels, at least for my taste. Also, UB is fairly short, so even the less polished areas don't outstay their welcome.

That said, it's been around 5-6 years since I last played it, so I don't remember all the levels in great detail.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2026-01-09, 12:21:

That said, it's been around 5-6 years since I last played it, so I don't remember all the levels in great detail.

Sounds like they are still worth playing and I'm more than up for more TR goodness, I'll add it to my "give it a go" -list. I intend to eventually go through the whole classic series anyway, fits right in.

Never played the fourth nor the fift. I'm hoping the fourth will be a positive surprise but something tells me the fift is going to be crap.

Sombrero wrote on 2026-01-09, 12:32:

Never played the fourth nor the fift. I'm hoping the fourth will be a positive surprise but something tells me the fift is going to be crap.

I played TR1 a lot back then, and that's probably why it's still my favorite. I think I got pretty far in TR2, but never finished it at the time. Just didn't like the atmosphere, it was way too different. A few years back, I went through it once again on one of my retro rigs, and still felt the same.

I think I borrowed TR3 from a friend back when I got my first 3D card, but I quickly lost interest and moved on to other games. Same thing with TR4 and TR5 a bit later. Never really played TR6, aside from testing its EAX functionality, which is pretty good. I have them all now, both in physical form and on GOG, so I do intend to catch up on the ones that I missed eventually. Just another part of my ever growing backlog.

Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition
I'm now pretty far into this game (45 hours or so), and I don't know what to think about it. It's very cool how open-ended character development is. Buying just a single point in a skill group allows you to read the low-level skill books, and there are some extremely useful low-level skills in most of the groups. I started by getting my two mages one point in every magic school, and then specialized each of them in two different schools. I have my archer focusing on bow skills but also gave her a level of thief skills, because they are so useful (free invisibility, walk on lava... it's crazy).

Although the game is extremely linear and gated by fixed encounters, it becomes easier as you get more powerful to take on encounters above your level. The game also has boss battles required to actually progress the story, but these are usually out of the way, so you can skip over them, explore the next area and do some quests (and level up), and then go back and wipe the floor with them with your overpowered party.

Having said all that, this game is really tedious sometimes. I'm using Cheat Engine to run it at 2x speed, and even then the combat can be ridiculously slow, thanks to all the animations and how most enemies are total damage sponges. Last night, I ran into an encounter with a handful of giant spiders and, even though they were at my level and I was never in any danger of losing, it took 30 minutes to finish the battle... that would be one whole hour to smash a few spiders if I hadn't been using Cheat Engine to speed it up! Unbelievable.

There are also a really annoying couple of areas you run into 35-40 hours into the game.

First is a forced stealth section where you have to get by patrolling enemies that are literally invulnerable, and if they catch you you get pulled into combat and have to watch your characters get slaughtered one by one (you can flee, but it brings you back to the start of the area). What if you don't have any characters with stealth skills? You can use invisibility potions, but those are rare. Luckily, there's an invisibility skill you get with just one level in the thief skill group, so it's just a matter of getting that for someone (hope you have an extra skill point available, since the game consists entirely of fixed encounters, so if you've killed everything and have done every quest, I guess you just gotta start this 90-hour game over).

Next is a desert where you are constantly slowed, which means massive penalties to your action points. These are used to do absolutely anything in combat, so you go from being able to run across the screen and attack two or tree times, to being able to walk a couple steps or attack. Meanwhile, all the enemies are spiders who are not affected and get to act five or six time each turn. This is why that battle I mentioned above took 30 minutes to complete. Who thinks this is fun or interesting?

Sombrero wrote on 2026-01-09, 10:17:

The fixed one time use save points while increasing the challenge nicely which I fully approve, also make it a bit difficult to jump in or keep playing after a save if you only have limited time on your hands. You don't know how long it takes to reach the next save point.

I'm with you. Sometimes I only have 15 minutes to play a game. Some games are not compatible with that play style. That does remind me of back in the day on first my Apple ][e, then on my DOS PC, when I'd have games that wouldn't allow a save and quit, or forced you wait for a save point that you didn't have time to get to, I'd simply Pause (if the game had the option), or exit to a config screen or some other menu, turn the monitor off, leave the computer on, and go to bed. Homebrew save.