The Witcher and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the past

After finishing Descent 3 + expansion, I decided to give Forsaken a try since I have it installed already and everything.

I decided to try the hardest "Total Mayhem" difficulty. Ok, the beginning of the first level isn't that bad, I can certainly kill those first robots fine, then some turret(s), then some patrolling tanks... but after that I face some enemy which constantly zaps me with some lightning weapon, which I can't avoid unless I am hiding behind some obstacle. As soon as I show my face from behind an obstacle, ZAP, it hits me again pretty much instantly. And it does massive damage with that weapon, I think it kills me like in three hits or so.

God damn it, right there the difficulty just suddenly jumped through the roof. Feels like Descent 3 actually, it had similar enemies which I really hated, with a Mass Driver guns that were very hard to avoid (from being hit). What's with the design of many of these old games, were they playtested at all?

It also seems each level/mission has a pretty tight time limit (you have a timer running down from the very start of the level), so I can't try to advance the level carefully but have to rush through it. I think this is so much NOT my cup of tea, I probably should just uninstall the game to keep my sanity. I wish there was an option to disable that timer...

Shame really, I recall wanting to play this game ever since I first heard about it as back then I really liked the Descent games (1 and 2), and this is a similar game. Oh well.

By the way, there is a remake of this game (I forget the name but I tried that too), but I decided to go with the original game because the remake is missing the ingame music, as well as the intro videos (then again those are not really important, but since I have the game, why not play it as it was intended...). In order to hear the music though, you must have the CD in the D: drive, it seems this was hardcoded in many old games ie. they tried to play audio CD tracks only from the D: drive. I recall the same from e.g. Dungeon Keeper (Gold), the original retail version.

Forsaken works fine for me in Windows 7/64bit, using the 1.01 patch. I first used nGlide for 3Dfx graphics support in the game, but that has some glitch where it doesn't show any text in the options menus, so you can't change any game options. When I changed the graphics renderer to "generic 3D accelerator" (which means Direct3D I guess), that works fine for me at least with Geforce GTX 670M, even the menus show fine now.

Usually it is the other way around with old games, the 3Dfx/nGlide option works great while the old Direct3D support has graphical glitches or doesn't work at all. Like in GOG Descent 3, the 3Dfx support works fine, OpenGL also seems to work ok... but Direct3D has serious graphical glitches.

Finished Witcher 3's Blood and Wine expansion this morning. Will hopefully soon finish the main campaign (for which I'm now way over-leveled but whatever). And then I shall be free at last. I really like this game but I'm like 160 hours into it - it's time for an ending.

After the big disappointment known as Forsaken, I decided to switch back to Nox. I realized I am apparently already in the last world (Land of the Dead), so I guess I should just push through it to finish it. The decision was made easy as I finally figured out how to open one door in that map (you must put something heavy, e.g. a shield, on a plate that is outside).

At least it isn't as frustrating game as Forsaken, even though I still don't like how fast armor and most weapons break up. So now I just run around almost naked as a warrior because I don't want my precious armor to take damage, I'll save it for some ultra-hard boss encounters. The weapon I have (that staff thing with the eye of Nox or something) is fortunately indestructible, so I use it as my main weapon. I switch to a flame sword only if I face zombies, as they apparently can be killed for good with fire.

Pokemon fire red, also so many others.

When ever totally bored I kick few times some monster in original alone in the darks.
Still it has the best hitting sound ever.

I must admit I am happy I am not drawn to money games (betting, casinos etc.). I haven't really figured out why, as I like other kinds of games, also playing competitively (e.g. Team Fortress 2), but when there is money involved and especially if there is luck involved (like in most casino games and betting)... I totally lose interest. Good for me I guess, at least i won't lose money on them. I guess I am only interested in games where skill is the deciding factor, so, yeah, maybe I might want to duel for money in Team Fortress 2 at some point?

One of my brothers at least used to be big on betting and gambling, and apparently he even got into money problems due to it at some point (he has a good job and is otherwise doing well, but even he could lose too much money on it).

I also have one friend who seems to do a lot of that. I recall when he sent me a photo where he showed he had just won something like 200€ on a slot machine... I sent a question back to him "So how much money had you spent on that machine before you won that amount?". He didn't reply back. :)

Oh yeah, and my _wife_ likes to play poker with her friends, like when they were visiting her yesterday! Fortunately they play only for very little sums of money, and for some reason my wife usually seems to be winning. Or at least she claims so to me, how would I know anyway?

I would also say it is a bad addiction to have but only when you lose. I know.. I have some troubles with gambling.

This morning I was randomly playing an Atari 2600 game called Planet Patrol, published by SpectraVision. Wasn't sure what to expect when I started it but I was pleasantly surprised. It's a side-scrolling horizontal shooter (from right to left this time) in which you avoid enemy missiles while shooting enemy ships. During each wave, you eventually see a unique black ship that appears which you can shoot but you're supposed to run into it because it represents a friendly pilot who needs help. Then you blow up some missile bases, avoid the debris thrown up by the explosion, and land on a landing strip to refuel (shooting makes your energy decrease). Then it starts again but harder.

It's nothing amazing but it's diverting enough and the production values are surprisingly high, comparing favorably to a lot of Activision's games. The colors are well chosen. Controls are solid. Your ship casts a shadow that moves depending on your altitude. The sun is visible on the horizon and things get darker as it sets. When night falls, you can't even see the enemies anymore and you have to shoot to get enough of a moment of illumination to dodge what's coming at you, basically lighting your way by muzzle flare. It could have been a total throwaway garbage game, like so many other Atari games, but they put more care into than you'd expect.

I decided to try out Alone in the Dark (the 1992 game, GOG version). I was supposed to play Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare, but I recalled I had not played AitD 2-3 before, so I wanted to try the original trilogy first.

I started from the first game even though I have finished it back in the 90s, the floppy version. The GOG version is the CD-ROM version which has speech (meh), and more importantly, CD music. I didn't know that, I was expecting the same old Adlib music as in the floppy version. I kinda miss that music, this is a case of "that's how I remember it" even though the CD music is of better quality, but it is also different kind of music.

Most of the stuff I remember, but at times I check a walkthrough to remember things, just to get through the game fast. I've heard the sequels are not that good, but I want to try them out too.

I'm surprised how well the first game has aged. i expected/remembered it to be very low quality pixellated mess with very bad controls by modern standards... but it isn't that bad! The controls are ok for this kind of game after you get a hang of them, and the graphics are impressive for what they are. No wonder I was amazed by this game in the 90s, it was a true sleeper hit for me.

Oh yeah, I also played and finished that "Jack in the Dark" minigame that was there too in AotD. I think I haven't actually finished it before, but now I have. Santa is saved!

Tried some slither.io
It's insanely fun, but unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any servers close by, so it's pretty damn laggy over here.

Cool! I've played the ones like it on Steam, Mitos.is and Worm.is, and it's very fun and addicting! The slither one does lag for me, but I like the more realistic movement than in Worm.is. I like that the balance is somewhat equal, that it is easy to get on top and just as easy to go right back down to the bottom, so the biggest person is always changing. It seemed fair to me.

Yeah, the leaderboard changes constantly :) I tried some agar.io as well, but that seems borderline impossible. The playing field is too small and once you reach a certain size everyone comes for you :P Also, it seems like there were cheaters in my game, or perhaps they were just some highly suicidal cells :P

Neverwinter Nights 2 :D I don't know if it is my build or is the game a little on the easy side?But maybe i am just in the beginning since i just made it to Neverwinter :D

Started to play Ground Control. So far I've managed to loose no troops - in the boot camp and the first mission...