BeamNG.Drive with the BeamMP multiplayer mod. It’s great fun rock crawling in Johnson Valley with other players, trying to wreck as little as possible… Then you always get that one idiot who yolos their truck into everyone else’s after a half-hearted attempt at speedrunning the trail.

I finished replaying Silent Hill 1 and 2 with my BF since he is new to the series and I want him to experience it right. Next up is 3, and then we’re going to play the SH 2 remake. Maybe SH 4 if he wants to keep going. :)

A’ight, time for another wall of text, I’m adding a TL;DR since no one has time to read all this stuff anyway.

Ever since our last thread I’ve been on a journey. A journey through various, mostly sport themed, titles from early 2000’s. It’s not that I’m a huge fan of sports game but for one reason or another I became curious how some of these games hold up in this day and age.

My first choice was Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4, partially due to the recent announcement of the 3+4 remaster (rip campaign mode from 4) but also because I was listening to some old soundtracks and got in the mood to check it out.
What can I say… game is fun. While I’m not some crazy pro, able to string combos into millions I was able to complete all the goals so far without frustration or huge issues. Game oozes a specific atmosphere that’s hard to be mad at (even if a lot of the humour does feel outdated). I can safely say I’ll play it to completion and then some.

Next was FIFA 2002. Kinda.
See, I started with 2002, played it for a bit and now can’t launch it again. What I did manage to experience felt pretty enjoyable if a little stiff in the controls department at times.
One thing I was surprised by however was the options menu, or rather how sparse it was. I didn’t expect to see a full suite of graphical settings available in today’s titles but man was it a disappointment (resolution can be changed outside the game at least).
I really wanted to try this one out for a bit longer but alas it was not meant to be.

Since that didn’t work out as well as I hoped I decided to continue with the series - this time choosing FIFA 2002 World Cup. This one feels like a mix of the base 2002 and 2003 version.
It’s fun even if the “power shots” are a bit of a goofy addition for an official World Cup game. I can’t say I’m as interested in this title as in the others since this game is focused sorely on national teams (well, obviously) which your choice by a lot. Still, it was enjoyable enough for what it is.

As you can probably guess, I didn’t stop there. I decided to play FIFA 2003 as well to kind of complete the transition between the old and updated gameplay styles (which started from 2003 onwards I believe).
After playing it for a bit I have to say I’m a bit mixed on this release. On one hand the gameplay (mainly movement) is smoother and more polished compared to the other two. On the other, the whole game feels a bit… soulless? Corporate? I know this is a funny thing to say about a flagship EA title but the UI style, the lack of music in menus and various other small things all build up to an experience that seems rather “empty”.
The whole thing actually made me curious about going a bit further with the games to see if this keeps up with the future entries or if this was just a one time dud (within the “classic” titles at least). I’m not sure if I’ll follow through (and even if I do it won’t be much further) but I’ll post about it next week if it happens.

After playing all of the above my mind went to wondering about trying things out on the other side, i.e. as a manager. The choice for this theme landed on Championship Manager: Season 03/04.
I’d be lying if I said I had no issues getting my head wrapped around all the tactical and managerial stuff since my passion for the sport waned a good few years ago but this state of confusion didn’t stick for long. I’ve been launching the game for a match or two whenever I have some free time and nothing better to do so I guess it did click with me to an extent.
We’ll see how long I’ll stick with it.

Last but not least, there’s Restaurant Empire, a restaurant management game from 2003.
I don’t have much to write about this one yet as I just started but the amount of customisation and the general vibe seem promising. I hope it’s fun.

I finally started playing Suzerayn and it’s the perfect game for the current tumultuous times.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1207650/Suzerain/

It’s about leading a country while managing issues like immigration, nationalism and the grip of superpowers.

I can’t stress how incredibly fitting it is right now. It’s also pretty great and very well written. You do have to love reading, though, it’s all about politics after all.

Finished Skald: Against the Black Priory, and it was a lovely experience overall. It’s one of those games that knows exactly what it attempts to do, and is very good at limiting its scope and not biting off more than it can chew. I might have liked a bit more agency and player choice - it is very linear for an RPG - but I can see how that would have been a challenge for a small studio and could well have ended up hurting the quality of the experience. As is it’s a very enjoyable ride, full of retro charm, nostalgic music and pretty pixel art but without retro clunk like memory limitations or poor controls and UX. I liked the story and found the writing solid, with a great gloomy atmosphere and some nice cosmic horror touches. The combat and character customization could have been a touch more elaborate, but at around 20 hours the game isn’t long enough that it really becomes a problem.

I’d give it somewhere around an 8 to 8.5/10 and definitely recommend it, especially to anyone who enjoys retro RPGs. It’s quite cheap too, even at full price.

Up next will be Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. I was a little miffed that only the console versions got HDR, but I got the RenoDX mod working and the game looks beautiful. Only just started the tutorial mission though.

Bought X4 some time ago, finally started playing. Sometimes I feel like I’m spending more times checking the controls than actually playing. I’ve only did the first few timelines, it’s a good thing they exist as they’re kinda like arcade levels and extended tutorials.

Might start the open universe journey today.

Split Fiction is so cinematic and even wackier than ITT. I’m hopeful that it’ll have a way better plot conclusion, too, which was one of ITT’s weakest points.

It’s been a little bit since I’ve played any games (life just got busy), but I finally found time to sink some real time into replaying Dark Souls III again. I’m not a pro player and definitely not a speedrunner but I’m about 25 hours into this playthrough (having to kill every boss but no other restrictions or rules), and I’m on Gael. Just need to kill him and Midir and I’m done, I’m pretty happy with how it’s gone. Twin princes took 5 tries, Nameless King and Friede took 2 tries, and I think every other boss was a first try this time which felt pretty awesome. I’m hoping I can do a no death run next time