30 March 2024

[Video] 18th Century Colonial America Petting Simulator

Bamboozled! It’s Assassin’s Creed III. Honestly, as much I enjoyed first two games of this series, this one is not the same. Colonial America as a setting just is not as interesting as old Europe – old the buildings are the same and I don’t really feel like walking in the snow on forest is what made those original games so special. But at least there are animals to pet!

18 March 2024

Few Words About Tomb Raider I

Photo: https://laracroftonline.com/music/tomb-raider-one-soundtrack-1996.html

First obstacle with the original Tomb Raider wasn't any of the puzzles or platforming, instead it was getting it to run on Steam Deck and Linux in general. After one evening of irritation and fighting with different emulators I finally got it working without any bigger problems, except cutscenes didn't really work – there is sound, but screen is black. Thankfully you can watch them on Youtube, so that's exactly what I did.

After getting used to terrible (old-school) controls game surprised me by being fun. Of course it feels old and outdated, but that doesn't really matter because on its core Tomb Raider is a fantastic game. Atmosphere is unique and difficulty is just perfect for my stupid brain. I had so much fun trying to figure my way through the Indiana Jones styled obstacles while occasionally fighting some nightmare creatures (and dinosaurs). And thanks to very detailed walkthroughs at Stella's Tomb Raider Site I rarely got stuck on any puzzle for too long.

I especially enjoyed later levels with more macabre and grotesque designs – it truly felt that Lara Croft went from this pretty ordinary tomb raiding into something unsettling and unknown. PS1 era graphics and minimalistic sound design (though I think that at times music was bugged because it played only for a short time at random locations and stopped just like that) gave me at times horror vibes that modern indie titles that are trying to replicate original Playstation's looks can't reach – after all imitation isn't the same as the real thing in bigger picture. But that is a conversation to be had on an another blog post.

Overall I would say that original Tomb Raider is great piece of history, that I'd recommend anyone who is interested in 90's gaming or gaming culture in general to check out. And as the remastered version just released, I think even more players are able to see what Lara Croft's first adventure was like. I need to try that new version myself at some point too as I am very interested in modern control scheme it has. But until then I will be continuing my Tomb Raider adventures with the original titles.

I'm trying something new: I will be uploading these blog post on a video from on Youtube from now on – just trying things out. Tell me what you think!

15 March 2024

[Video] Borderlands 2 Co-op Madness (feat. eew)

Pew pew! Borderlands 2 is fun but it is even more fun when playing together. On Nintendo Switch. Which was meant for games like this. Oh well.

09 March 2024

[Video] Skyrim Experience

I've bought this game only twice. And to be honest, playing it unmodded on Nintendo Switch while focusimg on everything else but the main story was probably the most fun I have ever had with Skyrim. Even with all the bugs and glitches. Those just make the experience more unique.

04 March 2024

Doom (1993)

Photo: Steam

After all these years I finally tried and played through one of the most influential video games ever, id Softwares 1993 classic Doom. And what a game it is! This game is older than me but gameplay is so much fun, and shooting demons with different weapons while navigating maze like levels can sometimes be truly exciting – at times this old PC game captures better horror atmosphere than many modern survival horror experiences, which is truly unbelievable. But I think there’s a reason, and it is Doom’s now outdated, sprite based 3D graphics and simple textures combined with lo-fi sound design and midi music. It leaves more room for your own imagination, which is always a plus in my books.

Unfortunately everything is not perfect, not even in Doom. Some of the boss fights even on lower difficulties are such a bullet sponges that I just turned on god mode (which is easily accessible in the Steam version as are other cheats). id has really kept Doom alive with making sure it runs on modern machines with all bonus features (like those cheats) you'd hope for. Game preservation at its best.

As Doom is not too long of a game, I would recommend that anyone who is into FPS or game history in general play it through at least once in their life. It really makes you appreciate how far video games have come from mid-90's and how technology has developed rapidly to allow us to have modern gaming experiences from MMO's to VR. Or if you just enjoy shooting some demons with cool weapons, that is really a great reason to play Doom too.

02 March 2024

[Video] Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth is not weird at all

Title says it all…

I played through this game a while ago, you can read some of my thoughts from this blog post. Now I am playing Hacker’s Memory DLC, which is a lot of the same stuff with terrible, terrible story and some really stupid characters. But more about that on a later date…