Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (original release)
I’ve played it before, though never finished it. After jamming on Skyrim for a couple of years, I wanted an RPG with some fresh content so I picked it up again. The graphics are so dated that they almost wrap around to retro again, but I’ve been having fun planning and then executing a build wrt stats, skills, playstyle, etc.
It’s been enough fun that I’m thinking of picking up the official remaster at some point, but I’m more interested in the community version made in the Skyrim engine, Skyblivion. Have been following the project for a while and it’s almost done!
For what it’s worth, I played about 90 hours in the remastered and had a great time with it. Some people had performance issues which I think is where most of the negative press came from, but I never noticed it personally.
Red Dead Redemption 2
This is probably the 5th time I’ve gone back to it after a long break. I was really tempted to restart from the beginning but decided to continue from where I am. It’s such a beautiful game and so far I’ve mostly spent my time hunting and fishing :D
Honestly, RDR2 but just hanging out is such a good time.
Making my way through the last of my achievements in Hitman. I figured these last ones would all take a long time but I’ve gone through 3 or 4 in just a couple hours so maybe I’ll have it all done before I thought I would.
This is the fourth reference to hitman in a week… time to breakout Absolution.
Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter
I tried playing this game a few months ago but couldn’t get it to work - well, it worked out this time. Can’t say it was worth it though.
I started this playthrough knowing these games aren’t really my type of thing but willing to give it a real shot, if only so I could talk with my friend (a huge fan of the series) afterwards and say “hey, I gave it a chance”. Things were relatively alright at the beginning, not great but decent enough to not feel put off immediately. It didn’t take long for my experience to sour though even then I was willing to chuck it up to it to “not being my thing” and wanted to finish the game - by the time I got to Metropolis (level 9 out of 13) I simply gave up.
This was probably the worst gaming experience I had in years. Between mediocre level design, encounter design ranging between “well thought out packs of enemies spread around logically” to “lets just spam a ton of random enemies at once, preferably in small space to make it difficult to avoid” and combat music constantly fading in and out, the whole thing ended up feeling like complete waste of time (in a bad way).I do not want to touch this series ever again and leave it to those who actually enjoy it.
Scarface: The World is Yours
On a more positive note, I started playing Scarface again. Well, I say “positive” but the this one started pretty rough as well, though for different reasons.
Initially, I planned to play the game with the Scarface Remastered Project (mod improving textures, restoring missing effects from PS2 version etc) but had very little luck with it. I couldn’t install it on Linux and when I set up the new files using a Windows partition, none of the new assets would load anyway.
Alright, that sucks but whatever. Let’s just play with the GangstaPatch (mod adding better widescreen support, improving performance and fixing a bunch of other issues) instead - this should be fine, right?
I spent like two hours trying to figure out why the game kept crashing. First it was right after the intro mission, then during said mission the moment I fired my gun. Guess what? You can’t play the game with framerate above 60 (especially during intro). It’ll work fine but only after the intro mission and even then it WILL crash the moment you finish any other mission as well.
Fine, this isn’t a huge deal even if it took me a while to figure out (should’ve start with the obvious solutions first but eh).Great, so the game is working perfectly now. How is it?
Well, it’s pretty easy in terms of difficulty, mouse controls (camera movement and aiming during combat) are abysmal, driving is stiff and weightless, there’s no proper radio system (only a semi-manual music player) and everything looks… pretty bad in terms of visuals. Despite all of these flaws however I really enjoy it.
While it looks and feels like a rushed budget title from a different era, it does have some interesting ideas like active drug dealing, ability to bribe cops, having to launder your money to keep it safe etc. Those things might not be perfectly executed but they’re enough to make the game feel somewhat unique compared to GTA titles. Add the “super serious” if corny story and pretty good voice acting (at least for most of the named characters), and you end up with a pretty decent licensed title. Nothing groundbreaking, sure, but an enjoyable romp nonetheless.
Hopefully I can finish it this time instead of getting distracted again.
Replaying Zelda: A Link to the Past this week. Been kind of a busy/stressful week, so whisking my way through a comfortable favorite to relax.
Still playing Caves of Qud. Probably will be playing that for quite a while (relatively speaking… I mean I tend to lose interest in most things after so many hours).
I’ve started a monster taming game called Anode Heart and it’s good stuff so far. There’s a lot of depth to the gameplay, somewhat nonlinear with a strong story anyway. It came out about three years ago. Comparing to other indie monster tamers I’d definitely put it above Cassette Beasts, not sure about Monster Sanctuary but it’s much less well-known than either and deserves to be.
I just played Refind Self: The Personality Test Game. I had it in my wishlist after playing Seven days to see be with you and checked what other games they did.
The game is with discount now.
I do really liked it, it is very short, but at the prices it really worth it.
I don’t want to tell anything more about it, go ahead with the only knowledge that is a personality test and play as you feel.
Borderlands 4 since it went on sale on PS5. Getting my Siren to the last few UVH ranks, farming some bosses, going through DLC, grouping with my buddies when we can. We’ve been enjoying it.
