Bard's Tale 2 (DOS).

* Got a Bardsword early. (That's the most important early game loot item, as it gives you unlimited Bard Songs.)
* Already have a Sorcerer and a Wizard, but they skipped spell levels to do so.
* Using a Fire Elemental (Wizard summon). It's very strong, but only has a 25% chance of breathing. I may try using the Molten Man (summoned via Molten Fgn), which is weaker but more likely to breathe. (I may try using a Wind Dragon and see if that works decently in this game, though there is the danger of it being disbelieved.)
* Useful trick to get light: Play a Watchwood Melody before entering the dungeon (or before going past the first floor of Dark Domain), and it will illuminate a longer range than if you played it in the dungeon; furthermore, the light will continue until you stop playing Spellsong (outside of battle only) or enter a dark zone. You can then switch to playing a different bard song. (Yes, your light goes out when you stop playing Spellsong, not when you stop playing the song that gave you the light in the first place; this is very obviously a bug.)
* It appears that shop inventory is saved when you enter the Adventurer's guild, though your characters aren't saved until removed from the party. This can be helpful if you decide you want to duplicate items, but don't want to pay for them.

I certainly wouldn't mind hearing any of your thoughts on any, all, or some of these titles, if you wouldn't mind sharing them here.

Things I don't own yet anywhere - Hades; RE3 Remake; Trials of Mana.

Things I have backlogged - Dark Souls 2 (Original Edition & Scholars Edition); RE7 (Complete); and Redout.
Prey 2017 is fantastic. Yes, it's similar to Deus Ex in many ways - but I think a better comparison to me, in many ways, would be System Shock 2. Ever play System Shock 2?

Prey 2017 is basically System Shock 2 w/ aliens; alien super powers (if you want to take them on); and a few cool new things & twists thrown in for good measure (the GLOO gun).

SS2 is fantastic. If you like and finish Prey 2017 - I'd recommend you go back and check out System Shock 2. I never finished it, as other stuff got in my ways - which happens a lot, to me, since I buy so much - but what I played of it, it's great.

I need to go back and finish SS2; and actually start up SS1 Enhanced.

Never played System Shock 2 but after Prey I'm very inclined to check it out.

Check your GOG account.

System Shock 2 has been given away for FREE on GOG before, back some time in 2016 during a Summer Sale here - https://www.polygon.com/2016/6/8/11884346/system-shock-2-free-gog-summer-sale-end-date

Hope you were around here then and that you did grab it!

Playing Bard's Tale 2 (DOS version). A few things:
* My Hunter hit the critical chance overflow bug at level 15, so I used a hex editor to correct it (and will need to do so at every level up from now on).
* Went into the Destiny Stone to stand on the Dreamspell square before getting Speedboots (and horribly underleveled). Managed to get through with a lot of reloading. To give you an idea of how screwy this game's balance is, I had one battle where I failed to run the first round, the enemies blasted party wide spells at me, and yet only one chararacter took all of 14 damage. I even won a fight (just one enemy, so I figure I'd try). Want to guess what the item drop was? (Hint: It was Speedboots.)
* Maze of Dread level 1 may be the best place to get XP. The Gray Crypt level 1 is actually the best place to get item drops. (Don't forget that, in the DOS version, monster party members that cast spells can successfully use them in anti-magic zones; on the other hand, projectiles thrown by enemies will fizzle.)
* There's been times when characters have had more SP than their maximum. (Even better, that situation is stable in the sense that SP will not drop back to its maximum except via spending the SP or having it drained; SP regen won't ever reduce SP in this game (unless something strange happens at exactly 65535 SP or something). Haven't tried Roscoe's.

Edit: For those curious, I did try Roscoe's, and he wanted to charge over 980k to "fix" the character's spell point "problem". I posted a screenshot in the "Take a screenshot" topic.

On Hades(16h): Wow. I picked it up on a whim,after seeing the trailer, and I was not disappointed. When playing something like say Dead Cells (I cleared the default difficulty, but have yet to clear the Boss Cell runs), when I hit a stumbling block I'd usually feel a bit burnt out, put the game down for a few days, and then try again. In Hades, the instant you get out of that blood pool, I dive right back in. I thought that having virtually no healing items (you can get more of then through perks, but in the beginning they're quite few and far between), would hamper gameplay, but it forces you keep on your toes. The various weapons/strategies (while only a few) can be quite diverse thanks to the boons from the gods. I love the banter between the characters, and I love the voice acting (where often times in other games, I would either be indifferent or find it annoying).

Trials of Mana(12h): This was more of a nostalgia buy for me. I LOVED Seiken Densetsu 3 (I considered it among my favorite SNES games, next to Tales of Phantasia, Super Metroid, Megaman X, LoZ ALTTP), and I very much wanted to get the remake. It looked pretty damned good (although the lack of ability to tweak the graphics setting kind of irked me), and the rearrangement of the soundtrack was wonderful (and I loved the fact that they gave you the option to use the original SNES soundtrack). Gameplay wise, it isn't anything earth-shattering. The same essential beat-em-up gameplay from the original, with the ability to dodge, and some combos. The class/skill tree gives you a few extra options, and the game has additional skill than can be equipped (i.e. favoring attack enhancement , spell support , enemy aggro). The thing that kind of unsettled me about the game was the almost abrupt scene shifting from cinematics to gameplay.

Dark Souls 2 (14h so far): This was my first experience in the souls series, and boy was that a wake up call. When I played for my first hour or so I said to myself, "You really can't bullshit this game can you." In other words, button mashing, ignorance of your surroundings, improper use of game mechanics (i.e. parrying/dodging), will earn you nothing but a swift death. Learn from your mistakes, and take it slow.

Resident Evil 3 Remake: I went into it fully aware of the complaints that other players had voiced (a lot of cut content, not as well made as the RE2 remake). I loved the original Resident Evil 3, and even if the game was shorter I still wanted to try my hand at it. I like it so far. The graphics are gorgeous, although I have to turn the settings down a bit because the game can be VERY taxing on my GPU (I have a EVGA SC Ultra RTX 2060 super: I can't max the detail settings because it exceeds the RAM of the GPU and raises the temperature from ~60°C to 80°C, and the shadow settings/model detail can't be maxed because the framerate drops from 60 to about 30-40fps). The controls are alright, but I'm still trying to get a hang of the perfect dodge mechanic timing.

Resident Evil VII: A decent looking first-person Resident Evil was something I wanted to try my hand at (I had bad memories of a FP RE for PS1 where I somehow beat the game on my first try with a HANDGUN, and that had soured my opinion of such a game in the future). The game has a nice atmosphere, but the controls feel a bit sluggish, and I find the lack of the ability to customize your controller layout disappointing to say the least. Despite that I managed to survive the attack by your crazy gf, and get the escape from the guest house achievement. I put the game down for the time being but I'll get back to it.

Redout: I don't remember when last I've played a racing game, so when I saw it on sale on GOG I picked it up. I've been playing practice runs so far (doing a 99lap run, messing around, trying to drift around corners), and I like the look & feel of the game so I'm not disappointed.

Two more game I've picked up that I'm currently loving:

Little Witch Nobeta. It's like a Dark Souls sorcerer build game, only the main character it a cute witch. For an early-access game it's pretty good.

Star Fetchers: I've never played a game that looked and played with such unapologetic jank, but that's so fun that I don't care. It's a free 2D kb/mouse-controlled action/adventure game where you could play as either of two gangsters trying make a name for themselves in their crime ridden city, by hacking and slashing through rival gangs. You use the keyboard to move, and the mouse to freely swing your sword to slash and stab enemies/deflect bullets. The game can get quite frantic when your facing blade wielding enemies on top having to swat away a hail of bullets.

Oh and one more thing about Star Fetchers, the soundtrack is very kick ass.

@bsmrk_95

Wow! I didn't expect all of those impressions, reviews, and thoughts especially THAT fast. Thanks for the thoughts, impressions, opinion & whatnot on those games.

Awesome job on those impressions/reviews!

No problem, I just happened to drop in to check for updates. There's a new demo out for what appears to be a Metal Gear parody, it's actually pretty neat (and funny).

I'm playing Forsaken. I think I'll start Toonstruck soon.

Went back to Quest 64 for a bit. Haven't decided if I would play further, but I got Wind Cutter Lvl3 and already have 26 MP as a result. Furthermore, I've used the Agility glitch (end your turn before the battle finishes loading to get a nice permanent AGI boost) to get my Agility up, so if I do continue, it will be nice being able to act before, rather than after, the enemies; should make the longer dungeons less painful. (I've beaten the first boss (without using any healing items!) but haven't played much further.)

Gladius. I suck.

I beat this one on a singled weekend as a kid, but I guess I was starved for RPGs back then.

Yes, the Nintendo 64 had an unusual lack of RPG. Even other consoles that weren't known for their RPGs got more RPGs than the Nintendo 64 did (excluding consoles that came before the NES and SMS).

I just reached the end of Blue Cave on this playthrough, which is probably the most annoying dungeon in the entire game.

I've been Agility glitching, but I haven't either done spirit duping (the controller I'm using is not suited for that, at least with my configuration of using the right analog stick for the C-buttons) or out of bounds.

Speaking of out of bounds, I remember, back when the game first came out, somehow ending up OOB. I know for a fact that I was in Brannoch town, and since there's no encounters in town, it could not have been the Compression method (but then again, I never used that spell IIRC).

No Man's Sky, Exanima, and Halo: The Master Chief Collection (I'm currently playing the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary's campaign)

Not really a game but Windows 1.11 : Stranger things edition!

Damn it now there are no downloads

Gameplay Here