Status Update: January 2026
RPGs
Sadly, work absorbed most of the RPG group's time and energy, so we've decided to reboot the sessions after Xmas. So many months without playing, we don't even remember where we were anyway...
Videogames - Finished
The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - Remastered
I finished a 54 hours playthrough, maxing out many of the guilds. Sadly I couldn't finish all of them, nor the Shivering Isles content.
There are many game-breaking bugs, including one that begins to manifest after 30h or so of gametime, and keeps getting worse: Upon changing area (entering a building or cave, fast-travelling, and the like), the game might consistently crash. At first, tweaking some graphics settings fixed it, but something is terribly wrong with the new 3D engine, because now there is no way to progress.
It is a trully amazing game, and the remaster is quite beautiful, but the issues really get in the way.
Videogames - Ongoing
Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom
I haven't advanced too much. I'm still on the new playthrough, with ~45 shrines completed and not yet all the towers, so plenty of game ahead. I'm playing it slowly, enjoying again every bit of the fantastic world.
Starfield
I'm starting to play it more seriously as of late. That's why I recently created a list of my favourite mods for the game. It is giving me vibes of a flawed gem: sometimes it is incredibly immersive, beautiful and vast, like the other day when I discovered that I can spend hours decorating "my home" (not counting the ship building system), or the myriad of optional quests. But other times, it looks like a mess of half-backed features, like the space jump (so many animations to, in the end, a menu-based instant travel system) or the vehicles (such terrible controls...).
Still, I think that the game is better than the critics say. It was simply over-hyped and then did not live up to the promise, but all the systems from previous Elder Scrolls and Fallouts are there: tons of side-quests, hiden details, elaborate mechanics and sub-systems, crafting, a decent skill tree... and gorgeous science fiction visuals, way ahead than No Man's Sky or Mass Effect (the remaster). Not that graphics drive me, but at times, it looks like a modern sci-fi movie.
Crafts
During Christmas holidays, I assembled a few wooden crafts for my partner.
I built another Rowood flower:
And a bonsai:
And even a tree house (no photos yet, so using one from Rolife's website):
The tree house was a decent challenge, with hundreds of pieces, but it looks stunning and it is full of tiny details.
I also forgot to post a picture of something that I've had since a while, and that sadly now is quite hard to get, because it is so cool. Unnofficial Zelda brickheadz figures!
There were two sets, and I only picked Link's. While the pieces are clearly a LEGO copy of lesser quality (e.g. the hand has a less firm grip of items), for displaying the figures and not playing with them, does the job perfectly. I wish LEGO copied the idea and releasd official brickheadz sets...
Tags: Crafts Elder Scrolls: Oblivion LEGO RPG Starfield Videogames Zelda
Starfield Recommended Mods
Introduction
The first time that I play a videogame, I prefer the vanilla experience. However, at times some design decisions might not sit well with the players, or there might be some subtle bugs, or half-baked features. Starfield leans towards the first category: When you are play from a PC, certain aspects feel quite annoying. So, here is my small list of mods and tweaks that I am, at the time of writing this post, using on my first playthrought of the game.
Installation Instructions
Read carefully the instructions for each mod. Also, the ones I use do not disable achievements, but others might do!
There are two main directories files usually go:
Documents\My Games\Starfield- Your Steam game install directory: In Steam, e.g. in your Library, right click on the game ⇾ "Manage" ⇾ "Browse Local Files"
Mod Recommendations
- BetterHUD: A more minimalistic main in-game HUD.
- Cleanfield: De-clutter the main menu.
- EXE - Effect Textures Enhanced: Vastly improved effects, from particles to blood and explosions.
- NaturaLUTs: I use the enhanced preset. This is a must have.
- StarUI Inventory: Another must have, because the default inventory UI was clearly designed for consoles, not PC.
Comic Book review: Resident Evil: Code Veronica books 1 to 4
Books: Resident Evil: Code Veronica - Book 1, Resident Evil: Code Veronica - Book 2, Resident Evil: Code Veronica - Book 3, Resident Evil: Code Veronica - Book 4
This is going to be a very brief review. If you don't know what Resident Evil: Code Veronica is about, I encourage you to stop reading here and instead go to the Wikipedia page, then maybe come back. Still reading? Good!
The comics are very faithful to the videogame, both in characterization, events, and even the dialogues are at times an exact copy of the game transcript. Some scenes have small differences, though, and the general narrative is maybe not converted the best way into a comic. The art and drawing are good, always following the game style.
It's all about the expectations: If you want a thrilling zombie story, there are way better options out there. If you want a Resident Evil videogame adaptation to comic, then you have a decent one.
Status Update: August 2025
RPGs
Summer means different people having vacation at different times, so hard to group the full party. Hopefully around September things will get rolling again.
Videogames - Finished
Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
I got a Switch 2, so the first thing I did was another run of Zelda: BOTW. Only 40 hours, and not all the shrines finished yet (nor many of the secondary quests), but I got the "completed" star on the savegame, and now I can progress sporadically.
What I did was also pick up my old completed savegame, and left it nearer full completion:
I've only got to get a few more koroks to unlock the final extra shield slots, and farm two items to complete the last two armours I have not yet maxed.
I doubt that I'll ever get to 100% koroks, as it gets tiring after a while.
Videogames - Ongoing
Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom
Similar to Zelda: BOTW, I'm doing a new playthrough, although this time the completed savegame is missing a lot of content, so I expect to switch to it as soon as I catch up.
The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - Remastered
Ongoing, not many news, other than the company that did the "remaster" clearly ported everything as it is, as the same bugs from the old Game Of The Year versions are present. Thankfully, the game is so versatile that you can escape some buggy situations by checking online for the old XBox 360 GOTY tricks/solutions.
Starfield
I just purchased it, with the DLC and all. I know it's not the greatest game, but I really liked what I saw regarding immersion and lore. Maybe it reminds me of Mass Effect in the aesthetics, but whatever the reason is, I plan to toggle between Oblivion, Zelda and this title as my main long term pseudo-RPGs for a while.
My Oblivion Remastered Recommended Mods
Introduction
This is a (small) list of the plugins/mods and other tweaks for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered that I use. You can find many more, but I mostly want small tweaks and re-balances, so I haven't even looked at what else appeared since I began playing.
Installation Instructions
For standard mods, download the corresponding files and put them in the Content/Dev/ObvData/Data subfolder of where you installed the game. Then open the file Plugins.txt (in the same folder), and add the names of the new plugins to the list (often to the bottom).
Custom mods usually come with their step-by-step instructions.
My Mod Recommendations
- Ascension Remastered - Vanilla-Plus Loot and Balance: Fixes leveling and loot. I use the main
Ascension Remasteredplugin, andVanilla Spell Effectiveness. - Better HUD: Smaller and better organized HUD elements. I use the
Default Size (16x9)version. - NPCs Catch Fire: Adds a bit of realism.
- Permanent Doomstones: Makes Doomstones more useful. I use the
vanillaversion. - No Pickpocket Chance Cap: Caps the ability at 100%, instead of to 85%.
- Richer Vendors: Makes vendors have way more gold, to purchase your items. This one becomes more useful as you progress in the game and find better items. I use the standard version.
- Shady Sam Buys Stolen Goods and More: Useful if you play a thief, but beware that selling items to Sam does not count towards your thieving rank. It is still good to simplify getting rid of stolen items. Move to the bottom of
Plugins.txtif you enable the Richer Vendors mod too. - Skip Intro: No explanations required. I use the basic "Skip Intro Screens" version.
- Universal Achievement Unblocker: If you get stuck because of a bugged quest (e.g. Go Fish), and you need to restort to using console commands to fix it, this mod will re-enable achievements on the "tainted" savegame file.
- Weightless Alchemy and Misc. Items: I don't like having to travel home constantly just to drop resources and other miscellaneous items, and this mod solves that. Important stuff like armour and weapons still has weight.
Console Tweaks
Note: you need the Universal Achievement Unblocker plugin (listed above) if you want to make your savegame normal again after using any console command.
- If you need to make an item yours (e.g. you escaped jail and stole your own items from the evidence chest):
- With the console already opened, target the stole item (click with the mouse an element, and having the inventory closed)
- Type in
setownership - The item it will lose its stolen tag/become your property
- Be careful when you target, as you can for example also make npcs "followers"
- If you need gold because you accidentally sold your amazing magical item:
player.additem 0000000F 500
General Game Stability Fixes
Oblivion was a buggy game. Oblivion remastered inherited all the old bugs, plus by swapping the 3D engine to Unreal Engine 5, seems to have added a new generation of bugs. I almost gave up twice playing the game due to issues, so here are my recommendations to (at least for now) remove the annoying "game crash on load" or "game freeze on travel" bugs.
- Disable autosaves in the gameplay settings: as you advance, the game will start crashing pseudo-randomly on loading new areas or fast travelling. It began to happen to me after 30h.
- Disable hardware Lumen effects in the graphics settings: Nobody knows exactly why, but even with autosaving disabled, at around 40h I'd get frequent crashes just changing the area, and since I disabled Lumen, zero.
- Disable non-native game mods: Mods like Universal Achievement Unblocker rely on special DLL files, which can make the game crash sometimes. I noticed more frequent crashes when having this mod enabled, so I removed it (and if needed, I'll use it once and re-disable).
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