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).
~ key), type set CharGenState to -1 and press ENTER. This marks you as having finished creating the character, and finally shows the Save option in the main menu.~ key), type tfh and press ENTER. 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...
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
I was not sure if to buy the only expansion that CP2077 was going to have, but some early comments were hinting at many really main game improvements, plus of course compelling new expansion content, and I decided to give it a try. I can't recommend enough to play the game with the expansion; The 2.0 game patch fixed so many issues and reworked core systems like combat, crafting, the skill trees, vehicle driving, police system... Everything works way better now, way more like you would expect from the original game.
And the expansion blends in perfectly with the main game. Most of its content is in a previously closed area, but a few quests and mechanics "go outside". Fantastic voice acting and music, great 3D modelling and new maps... everything is as high quality as the main game, allowing you now to have 5 different endings (one is secret).
I went on and started from scratch a new game, and unlocked 3 more endings. In fact, I unlocked all achievements with the except of the secret ending, which requires an early expansion decision and I wasn't willing to replay a third time most of the game... for now.
I got the Director's Cut version in a sale. It required some tweaks due to being a frankenstein-mixture of the normal PC version and the Wii U port, but after the tweaking, I enjoyed a pleasant and flawless experience, including the DLC episode (not too badly injected in the main story). The game maps feel tiny now in comparison with open worlds (and makes you like even more Cyberpunk 2077), but the variety of choices are still great.
Not much news, it's costing me a bit to advance, as I remember fragments of the quests and story from the past. But for now, I haven't given up.
One of the main reasons why Dragon Age does not advance 😃. I decided it was time to get it this xmas... and oh boy, such an incredible and complex game (at equal parts). Everything feels like an adventure on itself, but the learning curve is also so steep that I spend half of the time searching and reading how to do X or Y.
It is the ultimate micro-management procedural game, but I miss more in-game tutorials or explanations. Still, I think is remarkable the level of detail you find everywhere, from combat to humanoid and animal personalities, and the events that happen. I like a lot the 2D pixel-art graphics, but the main thing stopping me in the past from trying the ASCII version was the keyboard-based UI, and the Steam version is quite good (not perfect, but probably due to how complex the game systems are).
As I gather information and read guides and find tools, I thought would be nice to keep track of them, so I've added a dedicated Dwarf Fortress page to the blog.
This game is a poor Fallout-in-space. Without other cool space shooters, Mass Effect and No Man's Sky, it would have been good, but comparisons are inevitable, and it fails at every single one of them.
So I'll just wait until either the company improves it a lot, or mods get good enough.
By far, my game of the year. Such an incredible game, with so many mechanics, at first a bit too similar to Tears of the Kingdom, but soon you notice all the new and improved mechanics, and details, and new maps, and the myriad of weapon combinations, and vehicle building... It's huge, really huge.
Also, is a game you enjoy more without spoilers, simply arriving from having played Zelda BOTW [1] and continuing the story. You'll naturally learn all the new things along the way. After all, this is Nintendo, and they are the masters of guiding players and smoothing the learning curves (while keeping a high peak!).
I picked the official game guide just to have a big checklist of all the things I want to do. Because the numbers are staggering: 3 maps, dozens of main quests, combined hundreds of side-quests + side-adventures + shrine-quests + similar, 152 shrines, 1000 koroks (collectible the golden poo-like objects)... I finished the game at around 90 gameplay hours, with ~90 shrines done. At the time of writing this post, I'm at 112 shrines and +110 hours, and lots of things to do and secondary quests to finish. It is immense.
Sadly, my disappointment of the year. I was expecting more Diablo III, maybe with a fair amount of repetition, but also quasi-endless replayability. Instead, what we got was a game that sits in between an MMORPG and Diablo III, kind of picking the worst of both. The lack of random dungeons or enemies (each map zone and dungeon has fixed enemy types), combined with a significant amount of required grinding and a semi-broken difficulty level system [2], makes the game boring once you pass the story and reach around level 60 or so.
I said that I could probably play this title for years. Well, after just two months, I instead got too tired, and felt that the Seasonal system is really badly implemented (lots of grinding with almost no new mechanics, and really bad "free" rewards). And I've noticed that either you endlessly play nightmare dungeons (remember, no randomness, so always the same bosses and enemies and maps) or you just stop playing. So I chose to do the later until an expansion or significant patch comes out.
I had high hopes for this one, but I was reluctant to pre-order it without having seen the final result. I'm happy for not having picked any fancy edition, but I am playing it, and I feel... kind of sad.
It feels like a good game, but nowhere what the hype sold us about an amazing space adventure. Starfield feels more like "Fallout 4 in space". Same mechanics, some additions (like space-combat), different setting... but still clearly an improved version of the same engine, and at times too familiar to Fallout or Elder Scrolls players. Also, some of the new systems or changes to existing ones feel quite patchy:
In any case, I might try to at least finish the main quest storyline, but this is a game that needs months of patching and community mods to aspire of becoming "great".
At first while waiting for Starfield, and now mostly because of it, I decided to begin with the Dragon Age trilogy. I had played a few hours before, but long ago, so I restarted. At times I remember too well what's going to happen, but I hope to reach the point where I left it (which I don't even remember exactly!).
Anyway, it's a nice Bioware-syle game, my beloved Star Wars: KOTOR system with a fantasy setting. Graphically begins to feel very outdated, but the writing/dialog is soo good; It is so fun to listen the conversations between the party members (often they don't think alike, and just tag along because of you), entertaining to solve some quests in different ways (this is a game where persuasion/intimidation opens new choices), and the story so far is a bit typical and kind of predictable, but good enough to make you push forward, and a good excuse to allow you to solve situations in different ways (including malevolent and violent ones).
[1] Although I recommend not playing both just one after the other. Take your time, because TOTK requires a lot time.
[2] At least with some classes, you'll transition from being under-powered to over-powered in the current tier quickly, but then need to rely on Nightmare Dungeons to level up decently and improve gear, until you can properly play in the next tier. I soloed the Tier 4 unlock dungeon at level 66, but Tier 4 enemies are level 75+, so until I reached level 70 couldn't even fight normal enemies.
Again no painting nor boardgaming.
I planned to buy Games Workshop's Lion El'Jonson primarch miniature, but their greed made it impossible, by only offering a limited edition (with some extra minis) that went away as soon as it went online. So I'll wait until the normal edition comes out, whenever that happens (GW an amazing company but at times totally careless about their customers).
Let's go on with the video gaming updates:
To be honest, I finished this title a while ago, but decided to play it a bit more before starting with the second part (whith I put on hold, for various reasons).
It is a small gem: A roguelite that is partly a "choose your adventure" game, partly a card game, with a big amount of luck/randomness, and bits of arcade when you fight enemies and bosses. The premise is that you are a warrior that will play a very dangerous game with a "dungeon master", having all sorts of adventures, choices to make, and dying (a lot), all meanwhile you unlock better cards to potentially use in your next attempt.
It can get a bit repetitive at the end, when you've unlocked most cards and basically depend on luck and some bits of strategy to reach the last levels not only alive but well equipped, but the storytelling, the voice acting, and the atmosphere is awesome.
Meanwhile I waited for Diablo IV, I picked up some similar action RPGs with isometric view, and Chaosbane was the first one I went with. While not terrible, you will soon notice the medium-budget aura. Mechanics are not too varied (a few feel half-done/unfinished), maps are very repetitive, and in general there's not much incentive to play it once you finish the campaign once, because you will face almost the same content, with no randomness.
Still, if picked in some sale is fun for a few hours.
Another action-RPG, this one with more budget than Chaosbane (but still not a Triple-A title). Wolcen is... a bit disappointing. It begins nicely, but has too many ups and downs: in the story, in the gameplay, in the graphics (why some characters are so taller that you feel puny?)... It is not bad per-se, and I mostly enjoyed going through the campaign. But instead of keeping and keeping playing, even with some curious end-game rogue-lite mechanics, I "shelved it" as soon as I finished, wanting to move on to another game.
Again, good if picked in a sale.
Diablo is back. When I write a bit below about the only title I have in progress, I can only say that I was happy that Zelda TOTK was released a few weeks earlier than Diablo 4; That way, I could enjoy both, as now Diablo is eating most of my free time.
While to me feels way better than Diablo 2, and in some mechanics also than Diablo 3, D3 is still a superior and more polished title. D4 feels... rushed out. The campaign is a bit too long, with some fragments a bit boring (while others are great), the game has been transitioned to a kind of lite-MMORPG, with tons of very similar side quests and an open-world map at times repetitive...
But my biggest issue is the voice acting: Diablo titles never had the best voice acting outside the main characters, but in D4, it feels like they spent most of the budget in Lorath, Lilith and a few other voices, and 90% of the remaining ones have quite noticeable accents, giving the game a feeling of being lower budget than it really is.
As usual also with all the series titles, except maybe the first one, male characters excepting the Barbarian are "too emo" or ugly, so after levelling a male sorcerer to 52, I decided to start again with a female necromancer (drow-like appearance, really cool).
By the time of this writing, I've already finished twice the campaign and I'm enjoying the "end game" content (where really most of the content resides, except videos!). We'll see how the seasons work, and how Blizzard updates with some free content, apart from confirmed paid expansions, but the loot formula is there and working wonders (most of my friends are also playing it).
Considering that I put hundreds of hours in Diablo 3, plus some unmeasured (but not small) amount in the first two titles, looks like a game I'll be playing for years.
Although I haven't finished it yet, after more than 70 hours of gameplay, in my eyes the new Zelda is the game of the year for 2023.
"Bigger, faster, better" is the TL;DR. Same world, but with notable changes. Same 3D engine, but pushed this time to the limits of the Nintendo Switch. Similar familiarity if you have played Breath of the Wild, but new at the same time...
I won't spoil anything about the game, other than it begins just a bit after where BOTW ended, that the new magic abilities are between cool and amazing (the ultrahand/"glue" is simply mind-blowing), and that now the game has three maps: air, land and underworld.
If you want to know more go and check some review, or watch one of the official trailers, but if you have a Switch, this is an even more must-have title than Zelda: BOTW was.
See you back once I'm done with Hyrule (and more Sanctuary)!