Legendary developers and Nostalgia

It has come to my attention that my love for the past often clouds my judgment of modern gaming. Often to such a degree that I will often blanket new games as something inferior. In some ways, it can be true since there was a lot less focus on identity politics and such, which is a real killer when it comes to entertainment. However, when listening to Tim Cain’s YouTube channel about his role when developing Fallout and Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, everything, and I mean almost everything came down to pure luck.

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Food for the Soul (gamer style) – Volume Five

It’s once again time for everyone’s favorite – gaming music! Let’s start with some good old depressive wasteland music from The Walking Dead.

Perfect slow-moving moody music for the gray days during the apocalypse. Soon to become real, who knows? At least we got the soundtrack for it!

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A few issues I have with Baldur’s Gate 3

Another interesting game closing in for release, and unlike the years before, this year might actually turn out good for gamers! Like many others, I’m looking forward to Baldur’s Gate 3’s release, which will be on Aug 31, 2023, for PC users. However, from playing it (just a little), and reading about it, it does have some issues that I think might affect the general enjoyment. This is all highly subjective of course, what bothers me, might not bother you, yet, I think it could be worth an article.

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Swelter – Out Now!

Swelter, a free stand-alone modification for Half-Life 2 was released a couple of days ago on Steam. I have not yet tried it myself since I have a lot on my plate currently. But I got to say, it looks pretty darn good from what I have seen.

I have been following the project for a while, and if it’s anything like Black Mesa, it will surely provide a fun time blasting Combine troopers. The main difference between these two mods (besides Swelter being free) is that it’s not a remake of anything. It’s set in the same universe, as it is a prequel to Half-Life 2. However, the story takes place far away from City 17 and provides its own narrative. Just keep in mind that’s highly unofficial, non-canonical stuff, yet, it matters not too much in my opinion.

/Thomas

Concerns regarding Jagged Alliance 3

Jagged Alliance 3 is set to be released in 11 days from today (14 Jul, 2023), and I am of course excited since it seems the developer Haemimont Games wants to make a true sequel to Jagged Alliance 2. However, I do have some serious concerns with it.

My first issue is that burst fire will only do 50% of the normal damage. From what I understand, it was made like this because they couldn’t figure out a good balance for it. It was apparently too easy to just run up to enemies and unload on them. Now, that is worrisome by itself – are there no interruptions? Do the enemy NPCs don’t defend themself in any way? My main issue with this, though, is that it kinda tramples the whole simulation aspect into the dirt. There is absolutely no reason for a weapon to ever do less damage because you fire more bullets. It’s a very gamey thing, in something that wants to take the simulation approach. Or at least, we are told that it wants to do that.

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