Round two. Playing DOOM 3: BFG outside of Steam works very well. Just check out this project and set it up as per the “Quick Installation Guide” in the second link.
I am playing The Witcher: Enhanced Edition for the PC. Given the very basic nature of the models, textures, music and sound effects, I am grateful that Steam offered the enhanced version to play. I do like the story and even the stilted conversations in the game, but not a lot else. The editing and scene transitions are atrocious. Of course, my evaluation is tainted by the games I have played recently, which are orders of magnitude more advanced in every way. Despite the blandness, I will try to finish it before my wife and I settle in to play Horizon Forbidden West for the PlayStation 5.
I have been playing Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla lately on the PlayStation 5 and I noticed that there were no official game guides for it on Amazon. I thought this was odd since there are many things to find and unravel within the game which would surely be enough content to warrant a guide. Some time later, I visited the in-game store and found all kinds of downloadable patches that could alter the game and give you content that you would typically find in a game guide, such as location maps for items and such. Obviously, this is the reason why there are no official guides, since Ubisoft wanted to leverage the power of in-app purchasing and make money directly off of these hints, rather than split the profit with the publisher for the guide. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good strategy and I don’t necessarily disagree with it, even if it costs me more money. The in-game location maps for Vahalla, which could have built-in filters and search features, deliver a better experience than having to flip through pages of a game guide. Naturally, it is a bit of a balancing act, since many gamers want to feel like they own the complete experience for a game once they pay the sticker price. If some content feels like it should have been part of the official release and not as a separate download that must be purchased later, then the model has crossed that line. There are several games available that follow that model to its inevitable conclusion, where the core game is free, but any additional features or content that presumably make the game more interesting, must be purchased separately.
Unusually, the release date for this game in North America appears to be under some debate with some sources listing it as being released in June, July, or August. I chose the latter since it was the only entry listed with a specific day. The Japanese release was in February 1986, over a year earlier.
Before this game, I had played text adventures, Dungeons and Dragons over e-mail, and one or two “RPG adventure” titles on the Atari 2600. I have long been fascinated with the genre as RPG elements and action are two of my favorite themes in a video game.
I finally had an opportunity to play and finish Dead Space for the PC. I had a lot of fun playing this game, and while the camera took some time to get use to and the VSYNC bug that took some time to diagnose, neither detracted measurably from the overall game play experience. I am not going to do a review on this game since the world doesn’t need another one of those. What I have been thinking about, though, is giving you a persona based list of key gaming elements that may help you decide if you want to play it:
Jumping about in 3D space doesn’t make you queasy (you will literally be jumping about in space with no gravity).
You like being told what to do and bossed around.
You can continue to snack while walking through pools of blood and guts.
You like games that allow you to kill things with visceral tools like bolt guns, saws, and fire.
You like it when you are low on ammo and there are baddies around the corner.
Detailed space ship environments make you happy.
You enjoy long load times as it gives you an opportunity to reflect on how you buggered it all up.
I picked up this used game on Amazon the other day for a steal. I had no idea it even existed before I stumbled upon it being mentioned in one of my favourite game magazines, Retro Gamer. Anyway, I am currently playing Wolfenstein: The Old Blood on my PC and loving it, but perhaps not quite as much as Wolfenstein: The New Order, we shall soon see how it stacks up as I get closer to finishing it!
I am ashamed to admit that I don’t play every game I own. Some of them haven’t even been fired up a single time on the machine for which they were destined to be played. Why is that?
Well, the easy answer is that I buy too many games for my current life style, and that is definitely true. I just don’t have as much free time as I had before I had kids. However, that answer doesn’t sit quite so well with me. It doesn’t feel like enough of a reason. I know that if I dedicated all of my free time towards the effort, I could play most, if not all, of those titles. It would take time, but I could slog through them. So then, why don’t I just do that?
The more complex answer is that I find many types of games I own to be mentally exhausting. I do tend to gravitate to the ones involving a lot of action and little else because of that. I just can’t bring myself to face the onslaught of constant decision making most of the time. I do play those other types of games, and I will enjoy them to varying degrees, but I find the exercise of unwinding a little harder than when playing a game like Doom. The fact that I play these games at all is ironic, because I often partake in electronic games to unwind.
With games like Doom, it comes down to a constant cycle of challenge, failure, and success. I have a job and home life where I am challenged with all sorts of problems on a daily basis. That reality is stressful, and I often feel like I make very little progress in the day to day. When I play a game like Doom, it is challenging and I do fail often, but I also succeed multiple times as well. I don’t get that kind of tight cycle in a game like Divine Divinity, the cycle is much slower. With Doom or perhaps a good platformer, those short, micro wins are fulfilling. Sure the mental onslaught of fear, anger, and worry while playing these sorts of titles is tiring eventually, but at the end of it I have usually made significant progress and that progression is enjoyable and ultimately, worth the price of admission.
Without a doubt, this is one of the most difficult levels I have ever played for any game on the NES — incidentally, I don’t think I have ever finished it. Here is someone who played it through with barely a nick:
For those who don’t like playing DOS games using their keyboard, there is a nifty little software package called “JoyEmu“. It allows you to map keyboard keys to joystick input (2 or 4 button joysticks), along with the axial directions. It has a great configuration utility to help you set this up, and allows you to save keyboard mappings and joystick assignments as files. These files can be loaded manually alongside a batch file wrapper, if you desire,  so that playing your favourite games is quick and easy. It also allows for mappings to your mouse and a truck load of documentation; you really couldn’t ask for a better utility of this type!
I picked up this used game on Amazon the other day for a steal. I had no idea it even existed before I stumbled upon it being mentioned in one of my favourite game magazines, Retro Gamer. Anyway, I am currently playing Wolfenstein: The Old Blood on my PC and loving it, but perhaps not quite as much as Wolfenstein: The New Order, we shall soon see how it stacks up as I get closer to finishing it!
