Playing the original Quake reissue has inspired me to revisit Doom eternal and playing the two games together has given me a new appreciation of the retro shooter in general and the merits of the design decisions made in both of the generations of games.

Quake has aged beautifully where the uncluttered and simplistically pure game design is perfectly balanced so that the sadistic level design feels like a welcome challenge rather than a frustratingly dated and retro thing. You can spam save your way through it and the bosses so far have been a bit rubbish so it isn’t perfect but it’s incredible how many modern shooters it shames. expansion packs where a little more substantial than modern day dlc things and I’ve finished the first being roughly the same size as the original single player game and roughly halfway through the second expansion pack.

I’ve been revisiting the main game of Doom eternal and the master levels as I haven’t brought the dlc yet and it feels more linear and constricting in its level design than Quake but the action is probably some of the best ever out there of this genre as you are constantly forced to make complex, demanding and fast-paced tactical decisions to get by and things like the meat hook on the super shotgun and quick switch really elevate the gameplay to being something truly exceptional. The bosses are definitely an improvement from the bland ones in the 2016 game and whilst the platform sections still suck they work as a nice breather to the intensity of the action sections that almost get a little too sadistic, intense and abusive at times. I will probably get a year one pass whenever it goes on sale again and check out the other modes once I’m done with fighting my way through that.

 

Demon Souls. Getting my ass kicked!

 

Super Robot Wars 30.

 

I ended up uninstalling Star Wars Galaxies a few weeks after making this post, but I reinstalled it a couple days ago. Thankfully my character still exists, so I didn't have to start from scratch. I always get in the Star Wars mood around this time of year leading up to new shows or movies, so its nice to be able to explore the world of Star Wars.

 

Recently bought Metroid Dread. Played it like crazy and finally beat it. Highly recommended. Great addition to the Metroid series.

currently playing Spot Goes To Hollywood for the sega Saturn. Controls are very hard to get used to.

 

In the latter part of FFVIII. Man, I love the airship in this game. So cool.

Also, it's always fun to play a game you played through many times over the years and discover something you never saw before. I think that maybe I never went back and visited Balamb Garden after getting the airship, because.....

Spoiler

Those guys sitting in the cafeteria who were always talk about how "sad" they are? Tonight I went there and found them all wearing SeeD uniforms, which was cool to see. They also thanked Squall for listening to them and talked about looking up to him.

I've also learned that there is a sidequest involving Zell and that girl from the Library Committee with a pigtail that has a crush on him. Never did that one before, so I'll do it next. Then, off to get Bahamut and Eden.

 

Dragon Quest XI

Mordegon is defeated, everything is back to nor- oh well I guess it isn't is it? We're still down a party member, aren't we?

 

Dragon Quest XI

In an effort to undo all the bad stuff Mordegon brought forth at the end of chapter 1 (including the demise of an off-screen party member) the team had to head to the temple of time and play the magic ocarina- I mean smash a crystal ball with the sword of light. So we did that, the Luminary was whisked back to Arboria just before heading up to Yggdrasil. But alas, that jerk Biff came with to steal the Sports Almanac... wait, no it was that black Tockle that was just absolutely jonesing for Erdwin's Lantern earlier. Also, we broke the sword of light. Anyway, we got to Yggdrasil and faced that punk-ass Jasper for round fucking four! But this time we were ready! We kicked his ass, King Carnelian acted uber-sus, but invited everyone to Heliodor for a feast and everything was good.

That night, the good king mineral-guy tried to steal the sword of light we retrieved from Yggdrasil but the black Tockle was all like "nah, bro, you aren't taking this!" So he revealed himself to be Mordegon!(DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUN!!!)
Boss fight ensued and Mordegon was no more... again.

Yadda-yadda-yadda the team went back up to the sky island with all the Mr Popos and now all my team is at level 50+ because that black Tockle showed up and intercepted Erdwin's Lantern and turned into this 100 foot tall baby-faced monstrosity called "Calasmos" and grinding all their levels back up would've been a massive pain in the ass

 

Is it over yet? Lol

 

I've still got another super-boss and his minions to turn into paste, it ain't over till the big King Slime sings

 

Isn’t it great?
DQXI is the best RPG I’ve played in the last 20 years. I love it.

 

Just beat BotW.

 

Fuck, it's been a hot minute since I posted in here. I'm not gonna catch up fully, but I'll just go over the last few months.

Metroid Dread! It's real damn good, maybe my favorite in the series but that could legit just be recency bias. MercurySteam's done two real good games back to back and I really hope this isn't the end of their time with the Metroid series.

Unpacked is a game about taking boxes and unpacking them. That's it, pretty bare-bones. However, what I didn't expect is a game with very subtle environmental storytelling, a chill-ass soundtrack, and the sheer surprise of looking up at a clock and realizing it's been three hours since I launched the game and oh no where did the time go.

Forza Horizon 5, so far, feels like a natural extension of the series. I really enjoy the map, and it might be my favorite environment since Horizon 3.

Destiny 2 is a game that I'm never gonna be free from, and at this point? That's fine. That's okay. I finished all 100 tiers of the Battle Pass a few weeks ago, and now I'm just grinding various activities (Including resetting my Crucible, and getting an entire set of Iron Banner armor for the first time) until The Witch Queen comes out.

 

Played some FF1 the other day, half my team is at lvl 30 now. I'm not sure what level is gonna be good to take on the last boss.

 

Played some Elden Ring at 3:00 AM and all the way 'till 6:00 AM, fell asleep for three hours, just woke up, and wow it felt like a dream. That was so good

 

Star Trek Online's been doing extra XP till the 18th, so been playing some of my low level alts to get them and and their ships leveled up. That includes my one Romulan character and a TOS era Tellarite "Junji Pigo".

 

Almost done It Takes Two.

At the Raven Beak battle in Metroid Dread - I can do the first stage, but this second stage is a bit vexing.

 

Been playing Dragon Quest Builders 2 here lately. Gotta say, I've come to enjoy it. The combat system works really well, the chibi aesthetic works really well for the characters, and the voxel world geometry has started to grow on me.

 

I beat Metroid Dread today! Probably will move on to Streets of Rage 4.

 

Playing Fable Anniversary on Game Pass Cloud, total blast from the past, loved playing the Lost Chapters back when I first got a 360. Only done a few quests so far, and I don't really care for the revamped menu, but overall I'm still loving this game so many years later