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
Status Update: February 2024
Finished
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
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.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut
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.
Ongoing
Dragon Age: Origins
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.
Dwarf Fortress
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.
Postponed / Discarded
Starfield
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.
Tags: Videogames
Status Update: September 2023
Finished
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
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.
Diablo IV
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.
Ongoing
Starfield
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:
- Ammo does not weight, but most other things do, and containers have "limited weight space", so you'll just drop stuff around your ship/house
- Quite a few skills look exactly like a sci-fi Fallout 4/Skyrim, and some are mostly just locks behind crafting different stuff. Plus topics like lock-picing is even more tiring this time (puzzles to solve each time? really?)
- NPCs are cool at first, but the eyes are too bright, sometimes the face gestures look weird, and crowd-NPCs are way simpler than the ones you're expected to interact with. Plus some dialogs trigger incorrectly, or repeatedly, breaking the moment
- You'll miss lots of tutorials on how to do things: It took me 10 minutes to find the "storage" in my ship (hint: near the driver seat, and there are actually two of them, one in front of the other); I can equip boost packs, but can't boost until I unlock the boost perk... and is just double jumping; Advanced lock-picking perks are confusing (and one feels useless); I had to search online to learn that I cannot be alone, and will always have a companion, which at the beginning means no sneaking/stealth because you go questing with a big noisy and chatty robot at your side
- The graphics look great at times, and just a beefed up Fallout 4 other times. I feel we were shown videos and demos very carefully selected to showcase the cool parts, while hiding that the game feels so similar to previous Bethesda titles. Plus requires a beefy graphics card
- Too many loading screens, and all the exploration and space flight part feels like a poor copy of No Man's Sky. I expected smoothly going from the planet surface to space, then flying to my desired planet. Instead, you get to hold a key, watch a cinematic, open terribly-designed menus to pick a destination, hold another key and watch another cinematic. Did somebody really thought this is a cool and immersive experience, that you are supposed to hundreds of times? To me, it feels more like the game engine couldn't do better, so they just pushed in the new space sub-system, glued together with loading screens, and decided to force you to use menus and fast travel
- I'm already using more than half a dozen mods just to fix or improve things: color exposure, flashlight radius, NPC eyes, a better UI for the inventory (terrible by default on PC)... To me, this is a sign that things were not fully refined and playtested, just hurried away to focus on other more pressing topics
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".
Dragon Age: Origins
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.
Tags: Videogames
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