Webhead123

Yeah, that's probably why I was ready to dive in back when it came out. It was a BioWare RPG. Greatness was all but guaranteed. Thinking back on it, I'm pretty sure that was the year that the disc drive on my Xbox started failing, so I bet that's what interrupted me from getting to actually play it. By the time I got it fixed (which didn't last all that long) and then eventually got another Xbox, enough time had passed and enough other games were calling me that it just faded into the fog of my collection.

This is the very first one, right? I started playing this WAY back in the day, probably when it was still relatively new but I only remember getting like an hour or so into it...and then my memory of anything about the game vanishes. I still own my copy. I can see it right on the shelf behind me. But I simply don't recall why I stopped playing and I somehow haven't picked it back up since. I probably got distracted by some other game, or maybe that was around the time my Xbox started crapping out on me. It's hard to say. Will I ever get back to it? Honestly...probably not. Just too many other games. And these days, it would be competing for time with the likes of Baldur's Gate 3. Sorry, Dragon Age. I know you're well-loved. Looks like I missed the boat.

This is crucial. It's okay to start off thinking that you want to play a game for whatever reason, then get into it and realize that you're just not having a good time. When you hit that point, just put it away and invest your time in something else. There's too little time to waste it on torturing yourself.

I didn't have a Playstation or even PS2 until way late, so I missed the train on the PS-era Final Fantasies. However, thanks to Spoony, I think I've experienced everything I need to about this one. There are much more well-regarded entries in the series that I will never play, so I can't honestly say that I'll ever make time for this one. I'm okay with that.

Necrodancer is still sitting unplayed in my GOG library. I fully intend to play it but I just don't know when I'll make the time. And I've told myself I'm not going to bother with Cadence until Necrodancer is done, if at all. Rhythm games aren't really my thing but the idea of these titles is so charming that I couldn't ignore it. Probably not something I'll play beyond a single completion but something I feel like I should experience even just once.

Absolutely. Without spoiling anything, let's just say that I trivialized a couple of late-game boss encounters with a little ingenuity and a "nudge" off a sharp cliff.

Well, it's done. First play through of Baldur's Gate 3 completed. What a journey. Seriously one of the best games I've played in years and easily a contender for my top 10 favorite game experiences of all time. The campaign clock says 140 hours of play time...and that was even with me ignoring a fair bit of subplot content. There are areas of some of the maps that I didn't even explore. While there is certainly a central plot thread that the story follows, for all the space around that central thread the game does an excellent job not just of making player choice matter but making the player feel like it matters. Sometimes it's in little ways and sometimes in big ones but consequences of your choices make themselves apparent throughout the game. I'd be lying if I said the game didn't stir a few emotions in the old ticker. The writing is something BG3 did particularly well. No, it isn't perfect. As impressively ambitious as it is, it still has occasional bugs and minor inconsistencies with some of its systems. Owing to its depth and complexity, the game also doesn't adequately explain a few of its mechanisms or systems, which can lead to moments of frustration from time to time. But against the sheer scope of what the developers built here and the frankly insane level of craft that's on display, none of that amounts to significant criticism. There is room for them to do further clean up and they've already been aggressively releasing patches to do just that. So, if any game fits the classification of a "10", I think this one does. While I'm tempted to dock it a half-point just for the occasional technical issue, I don't think I can do that and still be fair to the game. If I looked closely at any other "10" game I can think of, I'm certain I'd find at least something of comparable significance to quibble about and few games are as ambitious and pull themselves together as well as this one. So, 10/10. Now, time for another play through. I've got a lot of choices to make differently, new side quests to follow and regions of the map to explore. Adventure awaits.

Agreed. Even if I haven't yet gotten to a lot of my proclaimed backlog, I feel like I've gotten more games knocked out so far this year than the last 3 or 4 and I think this might be my favorite year of gaming in quite a while. Some of it was anticipated titles that finally materialized and some of it was a concerted effort to go through my annoyingly long Steam library and sort it into "Will Play", "Won't Play" and "Done With" folders. I decided I was "done with" a number of those endless, online-only type games that are designed to suck away your time and offer no real end goal. I did enjoy some of them dearly but I was tired of feeling like I was falling back on those kinds of games and never putting time into all the others I could/should be playing. So far, it's been working well.

I would love to own a Saturn and a handful of games for it as it's one of the rare consoles that I've never ever played for even a minute. Unfortunately, I think I missed the boat a decade plus ago when I passed on some reasonably-priced stuff and I doubt I'll ever rectify that. But I've heard that Nights, while graphically quite impressive for its time, wasn't much more than an average experience. Certainly not at the top of my list for Saturn titles to collect.

I knew it was going to be the case but Baldur's Gate 3 is positively devouring my backlog time. 130 hours in and I still feel compelled to keep playing. I was about halfway through Psychonauts 2 (which has been even more excellent than the original) and I'm finally getting somewhere in Oracle of Seasons, so I'm going to be finishing those as soon as I can make myself boot them up again...but...Baldur's Gate 3. The siren is calling to me. I cannot resist her. I'm just glad I decided to wait on Tears of the Kingdom. I'll get to it one of these days.

It's a fair point. I've tried my hand at a few of these "experience" type games and I can appreciate the artistry and grand ideas behind some of them. They don't always fully coalesce, and I find many get too entangled in allegory or raw sentimentality. So, it's a genre that I'm ever curious about but have yet to meet one that sparks something truly deeper. The Talos Principle seemed to come pretty close, though itself quite heavy-handed in all its metaphor. And I'd be super curious to see a "favorite 100" list from you. I've thought about doing one myself for a couple of years, although mine would be something like a "100 most significant". That being, there are certainly some games that were incredibly important and dear to me that I can't (or won't) continue playing for various reasons but that makes them no less "favorite" to me. I have also played significantly fewer "modern" games, so my list would certainly be slanted toward offerings from the 80's, 90's and early 2000's. Still, those kinds of lists are always enjoyable to read.

Worth the time and money?

I hesitate to give it a "proper" rating, as I don't feel I've spent enough time with it to make a full judgement. From the time I have spent, I will say it's probably worth at least a 7. It's an enjoyable platformer with some novel ideas, seemingly solid controls and nice graphics. Like many others, I am kind of at odds with the way the game handles the music but it is what it is. I'm not sure that I like it more than Bucky O'Hare or, say, the later Mega Man games, which is maybe what it's most comparable to but you can tell that some love and attention went into it.

I'm sure there's an obvious one that I'm overlooking right now but one that comes to mind is Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy. I thought that game was cool as hell and it even ends on a friggin' cliffhanger...but I don't think it sold all that well and thus the sequel never materialized. Shame.

I only mean that when they show up, they change the flow of the game. They're not difficult, just tedious damage sponges and I don't find fighting them very enjoyable...at least, relative to the rest of Eternal.

Once you get into Eternal's "zone", it becomes almost a ballet of carnage and it is glorious. Seriously one of the most impressive modern FPS experiences I've ever had. The Marauders and Doom Hunters are my only real gripe, as they tend to force you to stop your beautiful dance of death and play to their very rigid, patterned attacks...but otherwise, just about every moment of the game is pure adrenaline-fueled joy. Going back to play Doom (2016) after Eternal makes 2016 feel positively sluggish and cumbersome by comparison...and that's a game that was (rightly) lauded for how it reinvigorated the modern FPS formula. That's saying something.

Fair enough.

I have the great fortune of being in the Analogue Pocket camp. The primary issue I had playing GB and especially GBC games on original hardware was the small, dim screens that were murder on my aging eyes. GB games were a little easier to deal with, thanks to the Super Game Boy but GBC games were pretty much off limits. The Analogue Pocket's screen is a complete revolution for me. I can finally SEE the games well enough to play them for more than a few minutes at a time and the form-factor is way more comfortable on my hands than the Color, GBA SP or even the DS Lite. I can never go back. It's like rediscovering a whole library of games that I honestly thought I'd never get to explore again.

Well...it's officially happened. I've installed Baldur's Gate 3 and finished character creation. Let's see where this takes us.

Yes. It's called homage. Duke 3D and, in fact, all the 3D Realms trilogy make some subtle and many not-so-subtle tributes to various lines and ideas from popular media. Blood alone has references to Army of Darkness, Friday the 13th, The Shining and about a dozen other films, all done in a manner that shows reverence.

I'm finally making a serious attempt to get through them myself but on the Analogue Pocket. Unfortunately, I'm making the tasking unnecessarily difficult on myself because, as I'm playing on a GB Everdrive, I keep forgetting to bop the cart's reset switch before I turn off the console and keep losing hours worth of progress. I've already played the first two dungeons of Seasons what feels like a half dozen times. Still, great games from what I've experienced thus far.

An amazing FPS and still very much worth playing today. While arguably the weakest of the 3D Realms Build Engine trilogy (which is to say that it is ever-so-slightly less totally fucking awesome than the two games that came after it) and despite my personal biases toward Doom, Duke 3D is still among the best in its genre. Tons of creativity and variety matched with great controls, enemy and stage design. It has some difficulty spikes which can be frustrating but it never gets so discouraging that you want to stop playing. If Doom and Blood are 10's and Doom 2 and Shadow Warrior are 9.5's, then Duke 3D is a solid 9. Play it on modern computers with the conveniences of contemporary control schemes and high resolution through the wonderful "eDuke32" source port. You'll have a blast. Now, if you'll excuse me, those alien bastards shot up my goddamn ride again.

Absolutely. I recognized Mr. Robert Costanzo immediately when playing the game, as he was a fairly prolific character actor all through the 80's and 90's. If you're old enough, you'll remember him as the guy in all the Shredded Wheat commercials. Then, of course, let's not forget his roles in the likes of Family Ties, Total Recall, Die Hard 2, NYPD Blue and about a hundred other guest appearances in every TV show imaginable. I thought he was charmingly despicable as Stenchler and was a great casting choice.

Despite it being an FMV game and the rather limited "game play" that this implies...I've always really liked Sewer Shark and have wished I could see the whole of the game in high quality for a long time. I think the setting and tone that the game sets is genuinely fun and interesting. It implies a post-apocalyptic world of a sort that I've always thought would be cool to explore further. I must have blanked on Dykstra's involvement but that explains a lot of the quality involved in those cinematics. The sets, props, costumes, lighting, camera work...all really good stuff, honestly. As a game, it was just average but as an idea, I found it fascinating.

Not much to say about it. I've basically *seen* the entire game at this point, although I've never actually *played* it. From what I know about it, it's almost exactly what you'd expect from an early 90's FMV game in terms of (and I'm applying very heavy emphasis on the air quotes, here) """"game play"""". Watch horribly grainy video footage and occasionally click a button meant to simulate player interaction. That said, I've considered booting up one of the modern HD rereleases of it just because this kind of classic schlock is right up my alley and I find the whole concept amusingly cheesy.