Content from Last 48hrs

Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition It feels good to have finally finished this one. I started a playthrough years ago but never finished it. I thought I was close to the end but turns out I was barely halfway through the game. Anyway, it had been so long I needed to start over because I didn't remember anything about the plot. I think this is the first classic-style CRPG I actually manage to finish. The only other one I remember putting significant time into was Planescape: Torment and I ended up hitting a crazy difficulty spike and dropping it, thinking I had messed up my builds. This game is really good. The plot is mostly fine, it has its ups and downs but it's usually interesting enough to keep you going. But the combat is where the game really shines. The way the environment and elements interact with each other is really cool and the game actually expects you to abuse the hell out of it. Most of the time, if a fight is giving you trouble, the solution is to find a choke point and set up some kind of hazard the enemies will have to get through to get to you. A patch of ice means they'll keep falling on their ass while you're free to beat the hell out of them. If there's water on the ground, a lightning attack will stun everyone standing in it. And my favorite: setting up a poison gas cloud and igniting it with a fire arrow when they cross it to get to you. They take poison damage AND they're on fire. Good times. The first time I trivialized a challenging fight by using these systems to my advantage was one of the most satisfying things I've ever done in a game. The one thing I wasn't crazy about is how directionless the game can be at times. I get that it's meant to be open for you to explore and tackle quests in whatever order you like (within reason) but the maps are also balanced for you to be a specific level in certain areas. Maybe I'm just old and too used to quest-markers and other forms of hand-holding but I ended up using some maps someone made that label each zone with the level you should be to get a general sense of where I should be exploring at any given time. Then in the second main area, the quests seemed to want to send me places the maps said I shouldn't go explore yet, so I ended up not knowing where the hell I should be going. I looked at some guides for recommended quest orders and eventually managed to figure out a logical order to do everything but in hindsight I can see why this was the spot where I dropped the game on my first attempt years ago. Anyway, I don't know when I'll have time to get to the sequel but I'm looking forward to it. From what I understand, it's a massive improvement over this one and should have more connections with the new game.

lol no, it was Jan 25, 2026, it just only took me a few days to give up. I actually played Majora's Mask this past December too, and managed to get through it for the first time ever. I enjoyed it, but it's in the lower-tier of my Zelda games.

Oh hehe , I didn't notice that was Jan 2025 not 2026! I think I'm going to give it another go with the mindset that it's an old game and everything that entails, and not The Best Game Ever where I'm doing something wrong if I think otherwise. And also not feel like I've failed if I decide to crack a walk-through out. I think I could get through it and enjoy it with the right mindset. It's a remake of Majora's Mask I'd need most as I just couldn't deal with the time limits on it, I kept going back to a save if I made a single mistake as I was worried they'd compound and I'd run out of time right at the end so it was just a looming pressure the whole time. Should probably look into how the mechanism actually affects it and not the nightmare I've assigned it in my head though and maybe give that another go to.

Previously I'd only played the Link's Awakening remake, which I did like, and Echoes of Wisdom, which I didn't. I actually ended up giving up on A Link to the Past again after I posted that, and switched to A Link Between Worlds which I'm liking a lot more. I think a big part of it is just that with ALttP you're locked to the grid, which makes combat (especially positioning) awkward and frustrating, whereas in the newer ones you can move around more freely and attack in more than just the four cardinal directions. Also ALttP gives you no guidance whatsoever, it makes Breath of the Wild look like it's on rails, and I just do not have the patience for that level of aimless exploration anymore. I think if I'd played it as a kid it would be one of my favorite games of all time, but trying to play it now without that nostalgia it just doesn't work for me. I'm a good bit of the way into ALBW now though, and unless it takes a nosedive at the end I expect to see it through. I think it does a good job of maintaining the feel of ALttP but more modernized so it's less frustrating. I do wish they'd make a remake of ALttP though like they did with Link's Awakening, I think there's a good chance I'd be able to get into it if they just freed up the movement a little more like that one.