Intro
How has it been a month since the last one?! I'm all over the map recently. Let's do a flyover on what stuck out so far.
A new project: Lyre's Ten Years of Doom
A tie-in to my Grand Tour of Doom (read Part One here!), I'm playing through every entry of Doomworld's "Top 100 WADs Of All Time" list, 1994-2003. That's 102 WADs (10 WADs per year plus a couple extras), and 1,130 maps spanning the first decade following Doom's release. I am documenting my progress on a dedicated Bluesky feed here, and will round up and expand my thoughts on dedicated blog posts right here on Better Lete Then Never. The current plan is to work these into what I currently have going on with the Grand Tour through Doom, with Ten Years of Doom inclusions interspersed occasionally among the other posts.
This is a major undertaking and one that I hope (and pray) I can see to completion in a reasonable amount of time. So far I have played through eight WADs from this list--seven of which come from 1994 and its top ten.
It varies per WAD, but sometimes I find that playing through the WAD takes up only half of the time and the other half is dedicated to documenting everything, including screenshots, notes, and brief write-ups that serve as the basis for the blog posts. I want to stave off scope creep while also making sure that each WAD gets its deserved time in the spotlight. I have 102 opportunities to find that balance.
A new review: Milestone's WRC 4 (2013)
This is one of those games that I've found myself playing enough and being oddly attracted to, to the point where I had to write a piece on it. It's a personal and hopefully fun look at an objectively obsolete simcade rally title from over a decade ago. Spoiler: it's a 6 out of 10 game, but one of the best kind.
Achievement hunting in: Chillquarium
Funny how achievements can turn a relaxing game into a relatively more... intense one.
I am 58 hours and counting into trying for 100% achievements in Ben Reber's Chillquarium, a "cozy and relaxing idle game" per the Steam store blurb, that very easily becomes a more involved and definitely-not-idle game if you want to complete the achievements before the heat death of the universe.
At the time of writing I am two achievements away from completion, and I've already pocketed the most difficult of the set of eighteen achievements. What remains is just a slow steady RNG-fueled march from 16/18 to 18/18. Maybe when I'm in the mood, I'll write a non-serious rant piece on Chillquarium's RNG.
So close. So far.
Trying out: Infinity Nikki
For a subset of players out there, Infinity Nikki has been an anticipated title for quite some time. In short: Genshin-style fashion open-world game that expands the Nikki-verse. You either know exactly what this is or are totally lost.
Reserving too many comments until I have more time with this game. One thing's clear--production values are incredible.
Flirting with: DJMAX RESPECT V
DJMAX RESPECT V is back on the radar thanks to the advent of Season 14 and the announcement of the next DLC: Liberty 2. We saw the major 2.0 Update back in May of this year and a recent update at the end of November continues to add some much-appreciated QoL updates and smooth over some of the quirks introduced back during the early days of 2.0.
I'm not particularly a huge fan of always-online live service games, but DJMAX RESPECT V is probably the best example among games of that model that consistent updates in the form of both paid content and free improvements can work in a way that's sustainable for the publisher and respectful to the playerbase's time and wallets.
DJMAX RESPECT V is a game that I used to put some serious hours into when I was labbing consistently and pushing my skills to improve. Nowadays I'll dive in at the beginning and end of each season, perhaps try out a few ranked ladder matches before going back in hiatus. All it takes it a little spark to get me back into consistently playing again, so until then I won't force it. Thankfully, DJMAX RESPECT V is run in such a way where I have no fears of EOS (end-of-service) any time soon, so I can take long breaks to play other games and make sure I come back refreshed and ready to tackle the challenging charts, right where I left them.
Making my backlog problem even worse
Buying lots of games on sale despite having no time to play any of these titles. Why am I like this.
Anyway, notable pick-ups include:
- Wolfenstein: Youngblood - I've always been interested in Youngblood, half-genuinely and half-morbidly, as a moderate fan of the Wolfenstein reboot in the form of The New Order and as someone who likes the grindy first-person comfort of the Borderlands games. I'm eager to see for myself how good (or bad) this title actually is.
- Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game - The 1997 game that started it all. I'm in no place to start another expansive role-playing game, but it's nice to finally and formally add this one to my Steam library.
- A ton of nu-boomer-shooters - We're talking DUSK and AMID EVIL from New Blood, Forgive Me Father, HYPERVIOLENT, Devilated, Dread Templar, and if they count as boom-shoot, Golden Light and Ziggurat as well as the sort-of-on-topic but very-much-not-nu POSTAL and POSTAL 2. And after adding all these games to the collection... I take on a project that's still focused on Doom. Excellent.
Jokes aside, I'm glad for the chance to expand my games library in the as-of-now underrepresented boom-shoot genre, which as a long-time viewer of Civvie 11 and yet relatively new to the space, is a great way for me to finally get my hands on the genre-of-genres with old and new titles alike.
Round-up
- Further procrastinating getting back into PSO2 (Phantasy Star Online 2). I'll come back, just not now.
- Watching a ton of LGR (Lazy Game Reviews) on Youtube, which never fails to get me into an MS-DOS/Windows 95 retro gaming mood.
- Listening to plenty of early-to-mid-2000s denpa music, which is where I find comfort in these trying times. I will not accept the terrifying fact that these songs are now coming on two decades old.
- Oh, yeah. I have a Nintendo Switch, huh? Putting some casual hours into Fire Emblem Warriors, or I guess technically Fire Emblem Musou since I'm playing the Japanese version. This is a game that I limit my session time for, otherwise things could spiral out of control.
There's always more to talk about, but I'll cap it off here! The winter holidays bring their own kind of busyness and free time in moderation. Roast some chestnuts over an open fire and play some good games.