Izzy's 2024 gaming year in review.

[canedaddy]

Wow, what a great write-up! That game is not my cup o' tea, and I wouldn't have any clue how to play it if I even wanted to, but I love your insights into FROM and the passion you have for their games.

[isthatallyougot]

Wow, what a great write-up! That game is not my cup o' tea, and I wouldn't have any clue how to play it if I even wanted to, but I love your insights into FROM and the passion you have for their games.

Thanks. But you played and enjoyed Elden Ring, or am I completely out of my gourd now, lol? Their first-person dungeon crawlers are very similar to the post-Demon's Souls titles, albeit in first-person rather than third...and significantly slower in terms of movement. Anyway, I know it's not an NTSC-U/C release, and if you don't/won't emulate, it doesn't matter anyway.

[canedaddy]

Thanks. But you played and enjoyed Elden Ring, or am I completely out of my gourd now, lol? Their first-person dungeon crawlers are very similar to the post-Demon's Souls titles, albeit in first-person rather than third...and significantly slower in terms of movement. Anyway, I know it's not an NTSC-U/C release, and if you don't/won't emulate, it doesn't matter anyway.

I did indeed. Platinumed it. But the open world aspect (and the chance to level up) made it very appealing and accessible to me compared with other Souls games.

[isthatallyougot]

Thanks. But you played and enjoyed Elden Ring, or am I completely out of my gourd now, lol? Their first-person dungeon crawlers are very similar to the post-Demon's Souls titles, albeit in first-person rather than third...and significantly slower in terms of movement. Anyway, I know it's not an NTSC-U/C release, and if you don't/won't emulate, it doesn't matter anyway.

I did indeed. Platinumed it. But the open world aspect (and the chance to level up) made it very appealing and accessible to me compared with other Souls games.

Ahh, I see. That makes sense. And I'm relieved to know that my fragile purchase on sanity is temporarily intact.

[isthatallyougot]

#2 The Elder Scrolls : Morrowind (PC - 2002) 5/5 (Playtime 187.4 hours)



My experience with The Elder Scrolls franchise hasn't coincided with their releases from the beginning. I wasn't into PC gaming virtually at all back when Arena released in 1994. In the early days of PC, I'd play some simple stuff like Tetris or whatnot, but gaming, for me, meant consoles since I first got an Atari VCS as a child. I surely noticed PC big-boxes at game stores, but, for whatever reason and as stated, I just never equated the PC with playing games. They never felt like games-first devices, and that is what I wanted within this medium. I do remember the distinct feeling that gaming on the computer was a “lesser” form of gaming. I saw the visuals, and while they were sometimes pretty impressive from a technical standpoint, they just never seemed as approachable or interesting to me for whatever reason. And coupled with the fact that the early days of PC gaming generally meant keyboard and mouse input - something that is STILL a turnoff for me, with some exceptions - I just felt no pull to explore that realm of gaming, as I was perfectly satisfied with my consoles. So I obviously missed both Arena and Daggerfall. I did have the OG Xbox, and I thought Morrowind looked interesting, but I never picked it up. It wasn't until Oblivion with the PS360 generation that the series really drew my attention. I remember being very jealous of 360 owners, even though I loved and was entrenched in the PlayStation ecosystem. I remember reading all the gaming mags, many of which I had subscriptions for, and the screenshots and info seemed incredible to me. Well, I wasn't about to pick up a 360, but a year after the release on that console, it thankfully arrived for PS3, and MAN, what an unbelievable experience. It was truly like nothing else I had ever played. The scope, the freedom, the quests, the music - my god, what a stunner! It quickly vaulted up the list of my all-time favorites and immediately made me a fan of Bethesda and their RPGs. So, obviously, I picked up Skyrim and Fallout 3 as soon as they were available and had an amazing time with them as well. But as time has gone on, I've developed a love for PC gaming as well as a curiosity for experiencing some bygone classics that I never had a chance to play from earlier PC days. I knew I eventually wanted to go back and play Morrowind, and I could have chosen to get the original XBOX version, but I wanted the “FULL” experience, and it has always been cheap on PC, or at least for a long time, and so in 2024 I decided to finally see if Bethesda's earlier vision for The Elder Scrolls franchise had the same magic as Oblivion and Skyrim did for me.

I will say from the outset that this was a very difficult review for me to write, stemming from both the era and scope of the game as well as the complexity of my interpretation thereof. While I have a definitive “consensus” (I am multitudes, ha ) viewpoint, there is a lot of ambiguity towards the title as a whole, even if I'm able to distill it into a particular category and rating in the end. First of all, it's an older PC game, and that fact alone comes packaged with some issues. I wanted to have a “vanilla” experience for my first run through this beloved classic, so I did not opt to include any content mods. However, as many know with Bethesda's more recent work, they can be more than a little glitchy and unoptimized with their code. And this is an old game designed primarily for KB&M, and, being a Bethesda game, it comes attached to all of those company-specific technical oddities and inadequacies. To get things running the way I wanted took adding a couple of patches and “mods” (for game fixes only) along with some troubleshooting for some issues as well as configuring everything to run smoothly with a controller. This was NOT plug and play - at least to get it in the state I wanted to experience it. (I kept everything as close to vanilla as possible, as stated, albeit with bug fixes, presentation improvements for things like UI and the like.) Of course, I suppose I could have played it on my OG Xbox, but I wanted the benefits of PC, so I suffered a bit for my joy here. But even with my tinkering, this is still clearly a game designed for KB&M first, and there are little annoyances that remind of that fact reflected in my experience. It wasn't overbearing in its effects, but it wasn't as “console player friendly" as I may have wanted even with my tinkering and levels of patience for this sort of thing, although I got it REALLY close to that state with my PC-fu. But even with my efforts at smoothing and console-ifying things, the game itself is nevertheless a product of its time as well as being quite janky in general, even in comparison to many of its own peers of the day. It's not a user-friendly experience in so many ways. (If you want that, I'd assume the OG Xbox would probably be the way to go, although that version has its own drawbacks, for sure.) As a quick example of this jankiness, there was an escort quest in which the character I was chauffeuring got stuck on some foliage in the world and kept running in place since he couldn't follow. It was kind of funny watching him attempt to run faster the further away I got without ever getting unstuck, but there are these little rough edges like that which you should expect to encounter that no amount of bug patches or mods could ever remedy. To be fair, I did still complete that particular quest via other methods, but yeah, it's Bethesda, and there are so many unintentional outcomes and oddities that can transpire - many of which are NOT designed, so you have to be prepared for that. So just to get things up and running so that I could experience Morrowind with LIMITED bugs and with controller in hand took a fair bit of time, tweaking, and acclimation. And even WITH the couple of patches/mods I installed to “eliminate” problems, I did still get an occasional freeze that required a restart, costing me whatever time had been spent since my last save. They weren't frequent, but the fact that stuff like that STILL occurred at all even with community fixes just speaks to the general mess of code we are dealing with here. Again, it was MOSTLY smooth after some initial and relatively mild teeth grinding and hair pulling, but the fact that you have to work to get the game into such a relatively decent state does not make for the most positive of early impressions. But once I got the game into a surgically repaired condition and reconfigured all inputs to my controller (which was quite the job of input juggling given the abundance of potential actions), it was generally stress-free in terms of technical issues for the duration.

So, on to the game itself. Well, the first thing I was eager to know was if the same general feel of The Elder Scrolls and Bethesda open-world RPGs was present as I had come to know them. They, for all their faults, have a really distinct and largely uncopied formula that is such a huge draw for me. There is just this sense of freedom and possibility, both in terms of general adventuring as well as character creation and development, that, taken as a whole, is thoroughly captivating. And I think it's noteworthy that you really don't see many other developers even attempt to recreate this sort of formula. Well, after the introduction, and after you are transported via ship as a prisoner and dropped off for some introductions and red tape, you are, as you may expect - and I certainly hoped - utterly free. Just like in their more recent works, once you've passed the intro and character creation aspects, you get a little pat on the backside, and off you go. Where or to do what exactly? Well, that's all up to you to discover as you roam and encounter the world presented before you. One encounter will lead to another, or multiple others, as tangents sprout up, offering seemingly endless potential pathways to explore before long. You'll find a hint within dialogue or a document prompting you this way, a curious door prompting you that way, an enticing horizon pulling in another. There's really just an incredible abundance of potential things, people, places, and situations to investigate, and it can surely be a bit overwhelming as you accumulate all of these little threads that form the larger tapestry of game-world, systems/equipment, characters, and narrative. You are truly spoiled for choice, and if you struggle to generate your own more limited and narrow focus, you can surely feel pulled apart by all of the options before you. The majority of this information is stored for you in a handy journal, however, the organization wasn't as user-friendly or intuitive as future TES games. Everything is just thrown in a book as more or less a single large and expanding document without any efficient sorting or labelling options. You can end up accumulating pages and pages of notes and references and have to page through everything to find the bit of information you're looking for. Thankfully, key terms/people/quests are hotlinked to find expanded information quickly without having to always dig for every last relevant bit, but it was still not quite as refined a journal as we see in later entries. It worked, but it could have been better. But at least it's always there to refer to as you try to condense your focus on (or figure out) whatever it is you are currently trying to accomplish as a sort of compass against this gaping vastness before you.

And all of your potential actions are framed against a very thoughtful, deept and compelling story. Morrowind takes place on the isle of Vvardenfell, the native home of the Dunmer (or Dark Elves, as some call them). The fundamental conflict revolves around division between various Dunmer folk - primarly three “Great Houses” that function essentially as political factions along with the Ashlanders, who are nomadic wanderers that adhere to more ancient Dunmer tradition, living a simple “uncivilized” life in harmony with the old ways. I sort of think of them as the Amish or a similar modern-day equivalent. I won't get into all the finer points of the narrative, but it is incredibly complex (for a game, for SURE) with religion and ancient history and mysticism woven into all the plots and subplots. But essentially your role as the “hero” is to unite these fragmented cultures back into one while battling against a larger background threat from a main antagonist and betrayer, Dagoth Ur, a Dunmer who lived 4,000 years prior to the events of the game-proper and who still maintains power and influence via the “Heart of Lorkhan”, a divine artifact that grants immortality and god-like influence to those who control it. Again, there is SO MUCH detail and information to digest in terms of the narrative. And, in true Elder Scrolls fashion, you may or may not tap into all that's there. But I must say that, in this case, I find it to most definitely be worth it, worth digging and exploring to stitch together this compelling world, its history and frame it all against the present conflict and your role within, as it really adds impetus and weight to everything you may or may not choose to do. I DO love TES's sense of freedom, but I could certainly imagine many players missing out on this deep and interesting narrative, simply because so much of the depth is optional and not delivered in all its impact and subtlety via the main quest. So that freedom is a bit of a double-edged sword in this case. And the main narrative doesn't even consider all of the books and documents you can read that aren't directly tied to this particular tale. There's a plethora of fascinating reads, both mundane and esoteric, with ‘The 36 lessons of Vivec’ being a real and bizarre highlight - worth reading whether you play Morrowind or not. But whether particular texts are directly linked to this adventure, they are all connected to the larger world of The Elder Scrolls in some way or another, and in that regard, everything is worth perusing and digesting in order to more fully invest in the larger scope of this fascinating series. But back to this more “narrow” story, the Dunmer of Morrowind make for an interesting culture. They remind me of a mix of historical Indian and Japanese peoples in some ways. Like those of India, they have been colonized to a degree and resent that intrusion. Like the Japanese, they are very insular and view all outsiders as “gaijin” of sorts, even fellow Dunmer that have been “infected” by Imperial/colonial ways. They're an incredibly proud race and desire a “cleansing” or return to the ways of the “true” culture of yore. I'll have to limit myself here because this will become bloated and run amok as I ramble, but just know that if you don't mind narrative that must be sought out for full effect, there is a gripping tale to be told here, and your role within is memorable and significant to everyone in the land. And as you immerse yourself more deeply into the overall culture, history, and conflict, things blossom beautifully and take on a very living-world feel. To be brief, if you really want maximum return, it will require investment and attention since it won't all be spoon-fed in all its glory to the player.

As for the physical world itself, Morrowind has its own quirks and charms and is, in many ways, much different than either Oblivion or Skyrim. I've read a great deal of discourse regarding the appearances of the third entry in comparison with the more recent higher-definition titles, and it would seem that (at least the vocal) the majority prefers Morrowind's visual style. I will acknowledge that both Oblivion and Skryim have a more generic, “vanilla” flavor in many ways, I suppose. There aren't too many risks or really interesting visual approaches in those. Things are pretty text-book fantasy fare, and I know many criticize that, but I always really loved the cozy feel and vibe of Oblivion, and Skryim was attractive as well in its own right. Morrowind is less conventional and has more personality, perhaps, from a visual standpoint - that I will readily concede. It is a really varied world with an interesting mix of locales. Vivec, with its nine cantons of labyrinthine self-contained cities; the Telvanni settlements with rounded mushroom-hewn dwellings and circular “hobbit” doors; the Ashland deserts with nomadic huts and yurts peppering the dusty open spaces; bustling cities and centers of trade; and many others. There's just a wonderfully eclectic mix of places that make up an alluring and varied world. And the variety of weather, lighting, and biomes really made the whole experience incredibly diverse and engaging. And I always love the sense of scale in TES games, at least in first person. Bethesda has a way of conveying a sense of large structures and worlds that are pretty awe-inspiring on the surface and really make the world feel LARGE and imposing. Having said that, the modern TES games...from Morrowind on...do NOT feel like they're designed to switch perspectives into third person really. Sure you can do so, but your character is very awkward and floaty in relation to his surroundings. It's nice to get a different view to see some new clothes, weapons, or armor, but I don't know who would enjoy playing these games from that perspective. They're just clumsy when not in first person, in my opinion. In terms of size, surely it's not as big as some other open world RPGs, including those from Bethesda itself, but it's incredibly dense. And the sense of scale is enhanced by the lack of navigation pointers or icons telling you where to go in addition to your VERY slow movement, especially early on. You will have to read, listen, and compare information you're given to the visual world as presented before you, and even then you might find yourself wandering and struggling to find your way, which, to me, really enhances the sense of inhabiting a real place. This is not a dumbed-down RPG that is so easily accessible as to provide no sense of wonder, mystery, discovery, or exploration. You really need to love the possibility of being/getting lost and enjoy the process of navigation and discovery to really sync with Morrowind. This game isn't interested in just shuttling you from cutscene to cutscene. But overall visually, it was a mixed bag for me. There's plenty of unique architecture, flora, and fauna, and the setting is most certainly very different from other TES games I've played. However, the overall style wasn't always as strong and appealing as a whole to me. I know many love the world of Vvardenfell and criticize the traditional-fantasy theming of Oblivion's visual package. But for me, I thought the color palette and the overall visual mood were often very drab (understandably so, relative to both the tech of the era and the narrative) and a bit uninspiring, despite some definite strengths and highlights. And due to the fact that I was essentially playing pure vanilla, outside of the widescreen fix and the code-patch for purely technical fixes, the draw distance was very low. I guess it made things feel bigger and more expansive in some ways, but yeah, overall I'd say I prefer the “boring” visual presentation of Oblivion. And it's not an aversion to lower-fidelity older graphics. I always prioritize style/art-direction over polygon count, but I wasn't as drawn in to the vibe of the scenery as much as others clearly are or as much as I hoped to be. That's not to say I disliked the visuals, but they weren't necessarily always a real highlight of the overall package, even if there were some real high points that impressed within the world. For the era, it got the job done, but Bethesda and art style have never been hand-in-glove as far as I'm concerned. Again, there's plenty to appreciate if you still can enjoy older games; I just wouldn't expect to necessarily be wowed. Saying that, as stated, my opinion seems to be in the minority. Part of it was probably the dusty, dry, fiery, and windy environments. I think they weren't pleasant spaces to inhabit at times, even if they weren't the entirety of the world. And, to be fair, they did suit the narrative very well. Maybe I'm sounding harsher than I intend. I wasn't put off by the visuals overall; they just weren't the thing that did the heavy lifting in terms of my enjoyment here, if that makes sense. But the world was interesting, felt large, and had plenty of diversity. It's a mixed bag overall, but no deterrent in the slightest towards overall enjoyment, I guess, is the way I would summarize it.

In terms of the nuts and bolts of character choice and action, things are quite complex and engaging as well. You CAN choose from a variety of classes and races as well as create your own custom class (which I chose). The choice of class, outside of the tough beginning for a character, isn't really that important, however, as all skills can be maxed out via the course of gameplay, effectively rendering the concept of a class rather pointless in the end. But birthsign and race can be important choices to consider, especially in the early going, as they impart their own potential advantages that can make a difference as you get your feet wet in this world. As for the combat, you, of course, have the option to fight your resistance with either cold steel or via wielding magic. But in terms of how this plays out, it seems it can be a common source of frustration for players enjoying this so long after release. Adhering more to older ideas of what an RPG IS - or ought to be, your success or failure in actions is percentage (dice-roll) based, relative to your attributes. So, in practice, this means that in the early going you will be swinging and missing at your targets frequently or attempting to cast a spell or perform some other action of some sort only for it to fizzle and fail to work. For me, this sort of thing was not a deterrent - in part because I knew what to expect going in, but also because the idea of your character's abilities being perhaps more important than your own is a big part of the idea of an RPG, at least in terms of its formative roots. As you build your character and he/she learns and develops, success will be more frequent and impactful. I understand that the idea of watching your character swing right through an enemy without causing any damage is visually a bit awkward, especially in comparison to the more common action-RPGs of today. I think, however, it's just a matter of understanding how things work and framing your expectations accordingly, ultimately. But choosing what to focus on still matters in the bigger picture, even if you can sort of become a master of all trades. Ever since I've watched some role-play videos in various incarnations of TES, I've always been fascinated by the immense breadth of potential investment. The idea of creating a character within your mind in addition to the factors present in the game is really exciting. I love the idea of forming a personality for a character and sticking to his own moral code or lack thereof and sort of inhabiting these worlds as a secondary sort of life as you really embody the idea of an RPG. I've always thought it would be fun to write out a thorough character sketch / biography prior to playing a run of an TES game (or any other RPG with similar potential for role play) and really getting lost in living out life with those traits, roles, and restrictions - just cranking up the role play to 11. As for myself in my first playthrough, I wanted to be kind of an agile, ghostly magician who sort of “whispered” his way through the world like a breeze. I love the idea of a stealthy, nearly invisible character who kind of appears when he wishes and is otherwise mostly a rumour or legend. So I chose unarmored as one of my skills so I could just roam unencumbered with my exquisite robes and apparel, and of course, I always love the chameleon and invisibility options available in TES, either via alchemy or magic. I didn't even carry a physical weapon after a while - just bound magical spells and spell-based weapons. It's so fun for me to be a lurker in the shadows of the world and only seen and known when I wish to make myself appear. When that happens, it may very well be bad news for the denizens of the world who are “graced” with my presence, if only briefly. When combat rolls around and I'm standing there with only my robes...weaponless against hostile and powerful antagonist foes, I'm imagining this physically graceful and agile magician that is both incredibly quick and hard to detect in his movements, resulting in a sort of Neo-in-The-Matrix type character that bends the way both he and others around him perceive reality as he leaves carnage in his wake. Suffice it to say, there are myriad ways to approach the creation and development of whoever you choose to be, and that freedom, coupled with the freedom to roam and explore however you wish, combines into a real sort of liberation and magic, if you are the sort that likes gaming with minimal direction. You kind of live and breathe your character and his world, if you really allow yourself to surrender to the fantasy, and the game takes on a secondary “life” type of vibe.

Speaking of freedom, Bethesda is a curiosity to me in one regard. They seem to have no problem in allowing the player to break their games completely. Now, I'm not sure if this is general incompetence or a design priority of allowing the player to simply do whatever they want. I lean towards the former because in Morrowind, you can LITERALLY break the game. I'll explain. The game just BEGS you to experiment and push boundaries to exploit things for your benefit. 100 Intelligence (or whatever) is max, right...right....?!? How about NO! Max your alchemy (governed by intelligence) to 100 (with potions or leveling), mix some MORE fortify intelligence ingredients into potions, swig those down to increase above the max, mix more with your now higher-level intelligence, and rinse and repeat until things get stupid on an exponential level (over 100,000 intelligence or whatever attribute, no problem) until you can theoretically make concoctions with ridiculously powerful effects that could easily last you your entire multiple-hundreds-of-hour playthrough. You can become an in-game god with some creativity. How about I just become invisible for the rest of the game, lol, done. And that's just one example. I love how free you are to explore such deep and powerful possibilities if you wish. The game is just rich with breadth and offers an open invitation to tinker and abuse the systems within the world. And boy, oh boy, is it ever fun to do! However, as mentioned, you can break things with such power. Besides “breaking” the game in a fun way, you can essentially and literally BREAK the game for all practical purposes, as I found out the hard way. You can make your speed SO fast that the game literally cannot keep up and will crash because it cannot load as fast as you are moving, for example. And even if it didn't crash, it would be unplayable for human reflexes. I also created a ridiculously overpowered levitation potion, which made it fun to fly around the map like Superman, but it was so fast that any fine-tuning of movement near ground level or in-game objects was VERY challenging or impossible if I overdid it. I was simply overpowered within the game and FOR the game, lol. As fun as it could be to zoom around the map in the skies with your absurd powers, it did kind of feel like using developer tools to access the game map and visual perspectives more than giving any sensation of real flight. It wasn't terrible, to be fair, but that's where your imagination steps in. I also had a problem completing the game due to my abuse of offered freedom. I ended up having to drain some of my attributes via potion mixing due to the fact that my apparent power was just too much for the game to process and was causing the final quest to bug-out. Once I became more “normal,” I was able to complete things. There was another funny instance of this power-tripping I'll relate. As stated, the level of freedom to expand your character's abilities is obscene. And that freedom, while tantalizing, carries the risk of diminishing the sense of challenge, actually rendering it null and void. My character, Almega, had become so powerful that, as mentioned, I created potions that lasted for several hundred real-time hours - potions with all manner of effects that elevated me above any mere mortal concerns. I pushed my strength up so high (hundreds of thousands of points - relative to the “max” 100, lol.) that I could one-shot ANY enemy. So strong was I that a single swing of a blade would destroy the weapon I wielded instantly. I raised my carry ability so high that I could have literally picked up everything in the game world and still have ZERO item burden. I was so agile that I was literally UNtouchable, could soar through the skies and cross the entire map in seconds, and on and on. I was TRULY an unstoppable force. But this godlike level of power also served to divorce me from the world and its inhabitants a bit at times. (Who regularly considers the bugs you're ending with your footfalls? I was oblivious and indifferent.) There was nothing and no one who could relate to me at some point. Not too long after attaining such glorious and tragic power, I had a funny random encounter with Umbra, a character that goes on a long monologue about all the war and bloodshed he's seen and how no matter what he encounters, he cannot be defeated. He pleads for death - a warrior's death - but doubts anyone or anything can offer him what he wishes. (I suppose he feels compelled to fight his best as a warrior.) I agree to send him to the afterlife as he requests, but he is sure it cannot be done. After our conversation, he approaches, and I literally touch him ONE time (with a custom spell I created called “DIE!!!”) and he falls in a second as I watch this unstoppable warrior wilt before me in an instant. This sort of power is what I possessed. But, as mentioned, it sort of distanced me from the world and its peoples. So, just take note that even if you can become a being of such immense capability, it may not be the wisest choice for your own fun and investment. Unlimited freedom isn't ALWAYS a net positive.

I realize this review is becoming longer than I intended, so I'll try to wrap it up. Before doing so, I'll mention some particular negatives in addition to some I've already covered that are worth noting. The world geometry and NPCs can conspire against your free movement through tight spaces at times, which can be annoying. Things often feel very “sticky”. You can end up having to jump around or slightly alter your orientation to get past blocked pathways sometimes - often pathways that appear to be blocked by nothing at all. This can be really aggravating. NPC pathfinding also so often ends up with them standing right in doorways where you are blocked. And you have to awkwardly bounce around and try to hop over them somehow. At times it can be absolutely infurating - not because it's an obstacle that can't be overcome, but because it was an OBVIOUS and consistent problem that Bethesda should have worked out prior to release. Either have the NPCs move out of the way or make them able to be passed through. You can use the “reset actors” to move NPCs in the console commands, but that can create other issues, so I never wanted to use it. There's only one of two options here. Either Bethesda didn't realize the problem - very hard to believe or, and more likely, they were simply at a loss as to how to remedy it. And that falls much more in line with the evidence of their technical chops. I assume they were just perplexed and said, “The player will sort it out.” SOOOO annoying! This problem is slightly less troublesome in 3rd person, but these games are otherwise very awkward from that perspective and feel designed around first-person, as I mentioned earlier. But this aspect drove me crazy sometimes. Also, it's kind of silly that your punishment for crimes of theft merely amounts to “give it back,” lol. And stealing in general is really easy most of the time. Many of the sounds of pain your character makes from inflicted damage just sound silly and cartoony, and that really detracts from the overall mood. They really needed a better sound designer for these conditions. And speaking of sound design, there are some familiar voice actors going backwards from Oblivion, and they're similarly reused too often. Granted, they're mostly relegated to greetings and a few phrases rather than full dialogue, but, like Oblivion, it would have been nice to have greater diversity of voice talent, which would have lent believability to the scope of the world and its inhabitants. Also, there's one particularly grating high-pitched female voice that I don't remember from Oblivion or Skyrim. It's childlike, saccharine and really grating in tone, and I can see why she was dropped for later games. REALLY annoying voice. The cliff racers are TRULY a scourge. I was aware of the memes surrounding them prior to playing, but I HAD NO IDEA! It's not just their ubiquitous nature. It's the fact that they pursue you endlessly, all the while they are squaking this most obnoxious screech that just grates on the nerves. And also their path-finding is TERRIBLE! If they were just an annoying enemy, that's one thing, but they get stuck on world geometry, can't find their way down from the skies to engage you, and so you try to move around to ACCOMMODATE their attack just so you can move on with life. I can't imagine that anyone play-testing this thought they were a good inclusion, either in terms of their prominence within the world or relative to their demeanor. I HATE these sky rats! If there's anything that deserves to be modded out of the game, it's these fuckers. I eventually got to a state where I could 100% chameleon, and I took advantage of it whenever I was travelling and exploring about, simply to avoid their presence. God, what pieces of shit! Another less intense annoyance was, like in Oblivion, there's some of that unintentional Bethesda comedy. Of course, you've got multiple characters speaking at the same time with little point of reference for hearing distance - just an absurd cacophony of blended voice. Sometimes, you can have two characters saying exactly the same thing at exactly the same time, lol. Granted, there's limited dialogue, so this is mostly relegated to greetings and brief expressions rather than Oblivion's incoherent mixture of voices. I had one really funny instance where I was exploring an area with mostly hostile creatures, but turned a corner and encountered an Ordinator - a type of guard in Vvardenfell, and I reflexively laid my death touch upon him without thinking, expecting an enemy. This takes effect and kills anything very rapidly, but being right in front of me, he had enough time to respond to my attack, and since it was a crime to attack him, he interupted the event by demanding gold for my offense or the alternative of jail time. I happily paid him his pittance, knowing his fate. He informed me that the matter was settled, the dialogue box closed and he fell instantly to his death, upon which, of course, I was able to retrieve my gold and all his possessions. Yes indeed, it would seem the matter was truly settled. But all of this sort of thing is, for better or worse, all part of the Bethesda experience. And if you know, you know. It's not a refined and tightly tuned sort of thing, but it's probably the cost of so much freedom in many cases. The OST was good, quite good, but main theme aside, it suffers somewhat in comparison to Oblivion for me. Jeremy Soule is, well, Jeremy Soule. He's an outstanding composer imho, and that holds true here. I just find Oblivion's OST to be more memorable, varied and moving overall. The soundtrack here, though, is nonetheless excellent on its own merits, but it didn't have the same variety in my opinion in addition to not being up to Oblivion's overall standard. Surely this isn't really a big negative, only in relative terms.

Even though Morrowind has its own quirks and idiosyncracies - both good and bad, I was a little surprised to find that it's very much the same as Oblivion and Skyrim in so many ways. Over the years, I had gotten the impression that it was really kind of its own beast, significantly divorced from Arena and Daggerfall while also being quite distinct from the subsequent TES games. And while that holds a certain degree of truth, having played TES IV and V previously, I found myself very much at home and recognizing the very familiar sensations here. But I have to say that I found it really challenging and frustrating in terms of coming to an easily expressible conclusion about how I ultimately felt about this game. On the one hand, it's more of TES, a series I have come to love since first playing Oblivion and then Skyrim. It's truly more of that - an immediately recognizable formula that made me feel right at home and carried many of those positive vibes from IV & V. And in MANY ways, Morrowind is the BETTER game - more gear, more options, more freedom, more depth, more to discover. But on the other hand, there are SO MANY little annoyances that weren't present in IV & V. Granted, IV & V are no perfectly polished games in a mechanical/technical sense either, but they're not nearly as clumsy as TES III, and that's saying something. So in coming to terms with how to review & rank Morrowind, I'm faced with the fact that it's very much the same as two games that I rank in my personal hall of fame AND it is BETTER in many regards than those two. However, the sheer weight of all the little problems really accumulated and weighed heavily against my appreciation of this beloved entry, to an extent. To be fair, Oblivion and Skyrim are NOT devoid of their issues either - the stupid levelling, the unintentional comedy, characters talking over each other, the dumbing down of RPG elements, somewhat bland visual design, etc, etc. But even with their problems, they weren't nearly as clunky and frustrating to play on a moment-to-moment basis as was Morrowind. Again, this was very challenging to reconcile for this game in relation to how I feel about games that are ultimately VERY similar, and games that in some significant ways are markedly WORSE than Morrowind. Just a tough nut to crack in terms of my ultimately meaningless opinion, relatively speaking. I both love it, and was fairly consistently frustrated with it when it was at its worst. It's also the third TES game I've played, and as many have noted, your favorite game in this franchise is often and most likely your first, and that is most certainly true with me and Oblivion. There's something about the Bethesda magic that perhaps loses some of its luster as you sort of ‘see behind the curtain’ with prolonged exposure to the template, I suppose. The flaws and rough edges become more apparent, slightly dimming some of that open world magic and freedom that felt so intoxicating initially. It just becomes REALLY obvious how clumsy of a developer Bethesda actually is, I think. I agonized over this one, not because I didn't love it, but because of some of the reasons mentioned. But I also went back to Oblivion again several years ago and found myself just as transfixed as my initial playthrough. Again, very tough to digest Morrowind in terms of my general appreciation and evaluation. As fun as it is to enjoy that wonderful TES freedom, this entry, while clearly reaching tantalizingly close to other entries in this series, is simultaneously tugged back with a bit of stiffness by a number of issues that hold it back from its greater potential. It's not that they're (the flaws) devastating in isolation, generally speaking, but there is a cumulative effect to the jank and negatives here that was really hard to simply ignore. You can deal with everything, but it simply adds up and hurts the overall experience to a degree. I'm not the type of gamer that generally feels that great games get out-dated. Sure, there are continual shifts within any creative medium and its “ideals" as well as creative skills shifting and rising in their expression. And I wouldn't say the age of the game here is necessarily the primary factor that damages it, but it does have a certain antiquated feel in some regards. However, there are many games of this age and older that I feel are not as impacted, so it's probably more fair to criticize Bethesda's sloppiness as a developer. And yet, having completed it and started another character, I'm still left impressed and somewhat in awe at the experience. I loved my overall time with Morrowind, and am interested in doing another run sooner or later. And the positives are SO STRONG that they kind of mask all the problems. In the end Morrowind is a beautiful, expansive, epic, immersive and ambitious mess of a wondrous thing. I loved it even when I was (sometimes) hating it, and the net effect in my memory (and experience) is nevertheless that of an all-time classic that lingers in my mind and, despite its warts, still tantalizes with its mostly - but not always completely - fulfilled promise. It's an uncut and "flawed" gem that nevertheless sparkles brilliantly. When you see it, its greatness is obvious, even if it's not immediately apparent why and a little bit hard to fully comprehend. The potential is realized with time and attention to suss out its peculiar and particular shine. If the light catches your eye right as you gaze upon it, you'll want to make that investment too. 5/5

[canedaddy]

I've long suspected I would like Morrowind better than Oblivion and Skyrim, largely because of the environment, setting/story and scope. Nothing you said dissuades me from that. I wish Bethesda had dropped a surprise remaster of that instead of Oblivion. Maybe someday a reworked version will come to PS5? Anyway, great write-up, as per usual.

[isthatallyougot]

I've long suspected I would like Morrowind better than Oblivion and Skyrim, largely because of the environment, setting/story and scope. Nothing you said dissuades me from that. I wish Bethesda had dropped a surprise remaster of that instead of Oblivion. Maybe someday a reworked version will come to PS5? Anyway, great write-up, as per usual.

Yeah, if *ANY* TES game ought to have been remastered, it's Morrowind - totally agree. (and maybe Daggerfall eventually as well - I'm eventually going to jump into that one finally too.) I never thought Oblivion or Skyrim really needed that treatment. My only concern would be that it would be stripped bare of all its depth and character if modern Bethesda is at the helm, or maybe even if it was handed off to another dev. It's not so approachable and easily digestible as many probably want nowadays, and financial concerns may result in it losing so much of what makes it what it, at this point, is. Of course, it could be done very well. I just doubt that it *would*.

You could stream it on gamepass for the cloud if you wanted to give it a shot I suppose - or play it on some version of an Xbox if you have one. Personally, I think gamepass is headed for the bin overall with the news I've seen of their rising sub prices. I did sub once because of a 3 months for $1 offer I got a few years ago, and I played 10 or so games from the service in that span. But I never had any desire to resub. I just never liked the idea of a "gaming netflix", and it always felt problematic given the time investment of games compared to film or music. I'd rather own my games anyway - even digitally. Look at me ramble.

[isthatallyougot]

#1 Guacamelee: Super Turbo Championship Edition (PC - 2014) 5/5 (Playtime 37.8 hours)



The metroidvania genre has become so popular over the years, and with good reason, for my money. But as with any label we establish via language, the borders will always be a little fuzzy and interpretive - like all words and concepts. But as far as I'm concerned for this review, I'll call Guacamelee : Super Turbo Championship Edition a “Metroidvania” for the sake of some sort of loose classification. Not that things necessarily need to be placed into rigid categories, but I find this game to tick enough of the boxes that it fits my own definition just fine, with some aspects that may place it on the fringes of the genre for some. I know some may quibble, but things are what they are no matter the identifier we place upon them. “A rose by any other name...” Call it an action platformer, a 2D beat 'em up explorathon, or just "Guacamelee," ha, whatever you prefer. Whatever the identifier, I went into this game with pretty high expectations, knowing that it was in a genre I love as well as the fact that it had such a positive reputation back when it was released in 2014 (2013 for the original and now “Gold” monikered edition.) But other than knowing that it had been classified (as far as I knew) as a Metroidvania and that it had a Latin American flavor, I really went in pretty blind, barring having absorbed some of the general positivity from a decade ago via spots of dialogue and the osmosis of forum discourse over the intervening years.

In the introduction we are introduced to Juan, an apparently "super ambitious" Mexican agave farmer who wakes up at the crack of noon. Got to seize the day! lol. He moves when motivated and not otherwise...I can relate. His love interest and acquaintance from early childhood, Lupita, is shortly thereafter kidnapped by a vengeful skeleton, Carlos Calaca, from the land of the dead (and ON the Day of the Dead holiday, appropriately enough)...and, with that, it's time to don your luchador's wrestling mask and head off to "save the princess." The narrative is suitably simple in premise and exposition, but that's not to say that it wasn't rich with flavor and humor. Without spoiling too much, I'll share a funny example. There is a moment where Lupita, Flame Face (a boss character), and Calaca are having an interaction where Lupita expresses her faith in Juan to rescue her, and then the luchador enters stage right and apparently accidentally turns into a clucking chicken, with Calaca dryly expressing, “Ooops! I hope that wasn't your hero.” to Lupita. The timing and execution, lmao. I was rolling...A wonderfully unlikely hero indeed. There are also plenty of other moments of comedy that I won't spoil, but if it clicks for you, you'll be laughing. And in addition to the humor, there are tons of references, both cultural/meme (from the time) and to many other video games. There are plenty of Nintendo references for the likes of Zelda, Mario, and especially Metroid, appropriately enough. But the references go far beyond those icons. I even found one of my favorite golden-era arcade entries referenced in Q-bert. (only available to be seen in the dead world - screen included) I didn't notice any other people who saw that reference when I looked around. Maybe I'm just too old. It makes me wonder how many references I missed. It felt like a love letter from gamers to gamers with all the little nods and winks to the history of this medium - just so many references to other gaming classics tucked into the levels. But they were done with enough subtlety and care that they fit in contextually with the art and weren't intrusive or clashing, but they were there and fun to find if you wanted to look for them, which was a fun sort of game within the game. And they were indicative of a development team that was eager to show respect to the history of this art form, a respect that extended beyond mere visual homage and into a tightly designed and beautifully controlling game.

The mechanics themselves were superbly designed. The most clever thing about everything was the fact that the moves you had (and eventually unlocked as you progressed) for combat were the very same maneuvers that facilitated the excellent platforming. There was a real elegance of design on display when you realized that your “uppercut” for the excellent fighting mechanics also serves to propel Juan upwards to reach hard-to-access platforms, or your “blue shield” breaking lunge also serves to extend your reach in the direction you're facing while jumping. The headbutt was even useful in the hardest platforming section of the game that had disappearing platforms because the move would temporarily pause you in midair while executing it, giving the platform underneath time to reappear or allowing you to plan your next jump. And then there's this connection where you've discovered a full arsenal of moves that allows you to string things together in BOTH combat and platforming in such a wonderfully satisfying manner. And the game offered plenty of tests to see if you'd internally digested all those possibilities as things progressed, both in the primary path as well as so many optional and exciting challenges to really allow you to push your integration of the entire moveset at your disposal. There was even a “Combo Chicken” trainer challenge that helped open your mind to the possibilities of combat and movement, an aspect that was wonderfully done. Eventually, you'll find yourself dealing with enemy rooms that contain enemies from both the dimensions of the living and the dead, forcing you to switch between those realms on the fly, flying projectile-shooting enemies, enemies with colored shields that can only be broken via the corresponding special move, and just a wide variety of opposition that forces you to utilize your entire arsenal in such a satisfying and (on the hardest difficulty) challenging manner. Speaking of genres, I could easily call this a satisfying beat-em-up when taking the combat in isolation from the rest of the package. Relative to other Metroidvanias I've played, I'd say Guacamelee is the creme de la creme when it comes to battles. And the platforming fares just as well. Things start off simply enough and in typical genre fashion as you jump and double jump around levels. But as things progress and you acquire new moves, you'll be running up walls, shifting dimensions mid-jump in order to navigate, flying across the world, and stringing together sequences of moves to deftly navigate an increasingly challenging platformer. So what is this game? It's surely a mix of things, but I found them all to be done astonishingly well.

Now, I will also offer some notes of caution for potential players. Some of the world platforming could be a little awkward. It wasn't due to poor controls; rather, it was just a situation where you had to sometimes contend with a set of circumstances with little room for error as you avoided obstacles, leapt into the air while simultaneously needing to shift dimensions in order to grasp another edge, or a variety of other navigational challenges. At its most challenging, the game asked a fair bit of mechanical competence from the player, especially in optional areas and challenges, both in combat and platforming. Also, it was more directed and linear for a Metroidvania, at least in terms of the primary path. You are pointed in the direction of your next objective throughout. There wasn't the sense of NEEDING to explore, and that is something I really enjoy in the genre - being forced to find my own way. Having said that, there are plenty of reasons to dig around on your own, primary path aside, and I didn't really mind being pointed in the direction of my next objective here too much, for whatever reason. It probably speaks to the overall fun I was having. But despite there being new abilities required for progression, the sense of discovery is muted just a bit by the guidance you're given, at least in terms of primary objectives. I only note these things out of an attempt at objectivity because I really found nothing that didn't click with me here.

Overall, I was floored with Guacamelee Super Turbo Championship Edition. The presentation was excellent, with really good world-building from all the aesthetic elements. The dual living/dead worlds, which could be switched at will, had different art and musical tones and really added to the flavor of the Mexican mythology. The music, art style, humor, and overall vibe came together into a really cohesive game that felt like it was crafted by loving and talented hands - just oozing personality and charm...bursting with life and color! And the gameplay rocks! You can tell early on that there's going to be room to grow and learn with all the moves and really get your pugilism on in your own style. There's plenty of incentive to keep playing after finishing. There's a hard mode, which I found even more fun as my second run, and it starts with an excellent Souls reference with a message on the floor saying, “The real Guacamelee starts here!”, lol. There are a good number of secrets, challenge rooms, and the quest for 100% completion. I eventually did EVERYTHING, and I did it all without looking anything up - something I wasn't sure I could accomplish, given the way a few things were hidden. I rarely care about achievements, but I was so invested here that I was committed to playing until I'd gotten them all. The learning and growth curve was a straight line up and to the right, smoothly progressing until the climax. There wasn't a moment of waste or bloat. Things stayed fresh and engaging throughout. And the challenge was always pleasantly tough. It had so many moments, both in combat and platforming, where I was like, "Man, this is tough - I hope I can do it." And even when it was really hard in spots, it was the type of challenge that made me want to rise to meet it - probably because of how fun it was, but also because of some excellent design and mechanics. The race up the pursuing lava of the volcano in Pico de Gallo was one such moment. (in hard mode) At the top there's a very tough enemy (a Void Dasher, I think) waiting, and even with VERY tight/no-waste platforming execution, it just didn't seem like there was ever going to be enough time to dispatch him and open the way before the lava roasted you. I had to rerun that section quite a few times before succeeding, but it was so fun to finally win that one. So many examples of being pushed, challenged, and encouraged to raise your game. And as I've expressed so many times, I absolutely adore the combination of whimsy and hard-core challenge. (When the primary foe has defeated the devil himself, you know that's making a statement, even if he turned out to ultimately be a relatively easy boss, ironically.) There's something so delicious to me in that contrast of silly presentation mixed with ball-busting struggle that is endlessly endearing to me. Think Godhand for another example. I think I'm having a joy-filled seizure, lol. And hey, you get to embody the form of a frickin' chicken. So silly, I love it! Viva el pollo! As mentioned earlier, Guacamelee felt like a love letter from gamers to gamers. And at the risk of sounding stupidly pretentious, this is a real gamer's game. It's some of the most enjoyment I've had with a game in a good bit. Pure, undiluted FUN! An all-time classic for me. 5/5

WHEW, I'M DONE! What a laborious year this has been, lol.