Status Update: May 2025
RPGs
Old-School Essentials
We continue with the first campaign. As all the party members recently had a spike of intense work (we're all in the same team), we lowered the frequency of sessions, but things should be back to normal now.
Videogames - Finished
None since the last update 😬. Although I played a lot of GTA-like titles: GTA 3, GTA: Vice City, GTA: San Andreas, Mafia and Mafia 2.
Videogames - Ongoing
The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - Remastered
Oh boy, so many memories from the past, and yet I'm enjoying it as if it was my first playthrough.
Funnily, it contains the same issues and bugs as the original, but people already came up with updated mods and fixes for everything. I'll probably write a post soon with the list of mods that I'm using.
Diablo 4
In the end, I bought the expansion heavily discounted, and I admit that it adds a decent amount of end-game content. The story advances just a few steps, but it is pleasing to watch (the 3D engine is so good and detailed) and play once or twice.
I'm now playing from time to time some of the seasons, as they at time have decent story lines (e.g. as of May, Belial has returned). Creating a new seasonal character made me try the classes I had pending, so not bad. I'm currently levelling up a werewolf-druid that goes around with another 3 companion werewolves, and it feels more of a tank than the barbarian 🤔.
Dwarf Fortress, KeeperRL, Ancient Domains of Mystery
Grouped these three, as they are in the same status: Not fully postponed, but also not actively playing them.
Earthbound
A friend recommended me to play Earthbound on the SNES "if I like Final Fantasy like titles", so I picked it up and I'm slowly starting. Such a weird beginning, but it is best to not spoil anything.
Videogames - Postponed / Discarded
Zelda BOTW and TOTK
I'm almost 100% decided to get a Nintendo Switch 2, which means I'll replay both open-world Zeldas from the beginning. So, I'll wait to have the console.
Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
The whole echoes idea is cool, but I got tired mid-way of the general gameplay. Companions have poor artificial intelligence, quite a few segments become repetitive, and while I applaud the initiative of not having Link as the main character, I got the feeling that this title is too experimental. Plus all those objects and entities you can spawn, and most of the times you'll just use over and over a tiny selection.
The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind
I bought the game and prepared my guide about how to upgrade it for modern times, but at the same time I also purchased The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Remastered, so I've decided to play Oblivion first.
Miscellaneous
I'm doing some crafts, like this wooden flower:
Tags: Diablo Elder Scrolls: Morrowind Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Videogames Zelda
Playing The Elder Scrolls Morrowind with fixes and graphical updates
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was my first real interaction with the saga. I saw Daggerfall but never played it. And in the case of Morrowind, I don't even remember if I finished even the lengthy tutorial, as you couldn't save until after completing it.
Anyway, advancing to the present (April 2025), I picked the game on a sale, and decided to see if I could improve its visuals and fix some bugs and annoyances. I was successful, so I want to document here what works for me (also for future reference).
- Morrowind Code Patch: Lots of fixes and QoL changes.
- Morrowind Graphics Extender XE (MGE XE): Improves almost everything, but specially the water and illumination will look amazing.
- Morrowind Enhanced Textures: Upscaled textures, but respecting the originals. Combined with MGE XE, looks as good as it can!
- How to fix the glitchy music bug: I faced this issue. It has an easy solution, but you will be surprised about how to solve it 😅
- How to save even at the start of the game: Open the console (
~key), typeset CharGenState to -1and pressENTER. This marks you as having finished creating the character, and finally shows theSaveoption in the main menu. - Easier thievery: Open the console (
~key), typetfhand pressENTER. It displays ownership information of all items, so you can know if what you are going to pick is owned or not.
There are many cool mods, and even instaling the Code Patch alone will give you the option of activating some tiny quality of life tweaks. I like to keep the experience as near the "vanilla" one as possible, so for now I'm sticking with mostly fixes and graphical updates.
As an extra for the future, two insanely big mods are currently being developed as of 2025 (and they even share some resources!):
They are still halfway there, but being so vast, it seems that you can already explore and experience a lot of content. Maybe for the future, when I finish the main game and original expansions...
Status Update: October 2024
RPGs
Old-School Essentials
For the first time in probably half a decade, I have news on this front!
Thanks to some work colleagues, we have just begun playing Old-School Essentials, a reinvention of the original Dungeons & Dragons rules, brought from the dead to take dungeon crawling adventures back to the old days of storytelling and exploration, instead of all being so driven by rules, and tiles (and miniatures).
It is called "0ed" and, while I have only read the basic free rules so far, I can clearly see why. They try very strongly replicate the old first edition of D&D/DnD, making everything quite simple and approachable to insist and focus a lot on the "this is an adventure, improvise!" take.
But damn, it is also very challenging! Level 1 characters are so fragile; my lawful cleric almost died on our first encounter... And I don't even have any spells other than "turn undead"!
But what I'm most happy about is the fact that after so long, I'm back into some roleplaying. We're doing it online, so it is a new and different experience, but I'd rather meet virtually than not meet at all!
Videogames - Finished
XCom: Enemy Unknown
I got a brand new iPad, and when I saw that the game is available there (expansion included), couldn't resist. I finished a full ironman mode walkthrough, with many augmented soldiers but no MEC.
Videogames - Ongoing
Zelda(s)
I decided to do another run of both Breath of the Wild, and then Tears of the Kingdom, and I began, but Echoes of Wisdom just came out! So it really should be in the postponed section, but as I switched a Zelda game with another Zelda game, it's kind of even.
Dwarf Fortress
Really not advanced much, the game is as good as deep and complex, so I have it kind of on hold until I have enough time to properly immerse on its mechanics. Still, by far the best and most complete game of its kind.
KeeperRL
I decided to buy this roguelite mix of Dwarf Fortress and Dungeon Keeper, and so far so good. While not as deep as DF, it is also much easier to begin playing, and I like the dual real-time-for-building and turn-based-for-fighting approach.
I must confess that the Dwarf Fortress-like graphics and building/crafting were what sold me in the first place. It is also quite cool that it features multiple game mode variants: being a knight, an adventurer, a dungeon keeper but themed to a necromancer... Looks like highly replayable.
Ancient Domains of Mystery
I'm slowly trying to play more old-school kind of roguelites, but the user interfaces are often really complex. I don't mind the ASCII graphics, but relying more on keyboard shortcuts than on menus requires some investment. ADOM provides a nice graphical UI and mouse support over (most of) its game, and has very good critics, so I also began playing it.
So far I merely finished the tutorial and some initial quests, but looks very promising.
XCom 2
After playing again the first one, I am eager for more turn-based stragegy, so I just began a new game. Of course in ironman mode, I love the thrill of not being able to go back after any mistake or bad luck.
Videogames - Postponed / Discarded
Diablo 4
I got my necromancer to level 100, played a bit more, but got tired. The expansion just came out, but they redesigned the crafting and levelling for the 4th or 5th time, so I'm going to pass for now. When they make up their minds and stop to properly think what and how they want the game progression to be, then I'll consider coming back.
Also, the expansion is way overpriced for the small chunk of new stuff it brings, so I'll wait for some sale if I decide to play the game again.
Diablo 2: Resurrected
After dismissing Diablo 4, I wanted more, so switched to D2R. I got my necromancer there to level 73, just after unlocking the Hell difficulty level. But I need to grind quite a bit for better equipment and runes, as even the starting enemies are such a challenge.
Parked the game for now, but I'll probably come back in the future.
Oxygen Not Included
While not an RPG per-se, it is one of those base-building games in which the characters and the world feels so alive that I'm treating it almost as if it were one. An adventure of a group of interstellar travellers that got stuck in an alien planet, and now struggle to build a habitable underground base? station? city maybe?
I think I am in the middle stages of the game, where you can sustain your colony almost without issues, and I have plenty of resources and they deplete slowly; I can recycle water, I generate some food, and I generate some oxygen and recycle/clean more. It is never a long-term sustainable scenario, but I'm happy to have learned the ropes of the game without having to sacrifice any colony and start over again.
Let's see if I manage to finish it (I think you can build a rocket and fly away from the planet).
Tags: DnD Old-School 0ed RPG Videogames
Book review: Art & Arcana: A Visual History (Dungeons & Dragons)
Book: Art & Arcana: A Visual History (Dungeons & Dragons)
August has been for me the Dungeons & Dragons themed month. After the Lore & Legends book, I picked another history lesson book: Art & Arcana. As the title hints, the main topic is about how D&D art and style has changed during on each edition; From the original, black and white and a bit amateurish drawings, to the astounding coloured depictions of adventures, adventurers, and monsters of the later editions.
One thing that stands out when you read the book, is that there is a lot of information. It is not a mere visual journey, and even focusing only on the textual content, I feel the quality and depth of it to be superior to Lore & Legends. There are so many interesting stories and details of the evolution of TSR, its illustrators, the art direction... I went for it because of the drawings, but it was a pleasant surprise to find so much content.
The illustrations are spectacular and, of course, the main focus. Being able to see all five evolutions of many creatures, book covers, the TSR logo itself, even some maps! Going from clearly hand-drawn irregular maps to the ultra-detailed and dense most recent iterations is such a joy. Learning the fun source of quite a few monsters (spoiler: plastic children toys), and then watching how they evolved into more serious and colourful depictions, is also very cool.
I've always been drawn into D&D because of its amazing book covers and incredible drawings, and this book contains the reason why. Moreover, In my case I began with the 2nd edition and its more professional but still mostly mono-color images, so experiencing how much everything has evolved, and expanded, and matured, was very fascinating.
A remarkable reference book.
Tags: Books Dungeons & Dragons Reviews
Comic Book review: Dune: The Graphic Novel book 3
Book: Dune: The Graphic Novel Book 3
This will be a brief review. I just picked up the third and last book, and the same that I mentioned for the two previous titles apply to this one too. Visual style from David Lynch's film, close book adaptation, and still not fully my liking of the drawing. But I think this volume does a better use of color, or at least it felt nice in that regard.
I would rather not spoil anything, but plenty of things happen, so if you're new to the Dune lore, you're in for an action-packed ride.
At least no surprises, which is good if you're searching for continuity. If you enjoyed the past volumes, you'll like this one.
Tags: Comic Book