From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action


Hey, you know what? I had the greatest idea. Let's take the time to
list out what video games we've been playing and maybe share some
thoughts on those games. We could do it at the start of each month,
every month. You think it'll catch on?


Superbrief
---------------------------------------
* Under the Waves
* WH40K: Inquisitor - Martyr
* American Truck Simulator: South Dakota
* Slow Roads



Maximum Verbosity
---------------------------------------

* Under the Waves (abandoned) https://store.steampowered.com/app/1975440/Under_The_Waves/
"Under the Waves" was one of those games I purchased on the spur of
the moment. It looked alright; not great, but something I might be
interested in. It was a walking sim, it had an underwater setting, and
its visuals were pretty enough. Plus it was only a buck-fifty; how
could I resist?

I won't say I made a mistake buying this game, but neither will I say
that I enjoyed the experience. Or at least as much of the experience
as I got. A couple hours into the game (during the second 'dream
sequence' animation) the game repeatedly crashed to desktop. It
probably wasn't an un-resolvable problem; had I put some real effort
into the troubleshooting (or any effort, for that matter) I might have
found a workaround. But at that point I was already struggling to
maintain interest and the crash gave me an excuse to bail out on the
game.

The problem is that the game is just incredibly slow. Its walking, its swimming, its animation; everything moves as if its embedded in
treacle. And I get it; not only are you underwater, but walking sims
are all about taking it slow, not rushing, and immersing yourself in
the environment. But even for the genre, "Under the Waves" was
extremely languorous in its pace; in how slow it forced you to do
anything, not helped by the game numerous times taking away control
from the player to show the on-screen avatar slowly gawking at some
sight.

But even without this problem, the game just didn't feel particularly
special. It's got the usual spiel; your character flees the world
because of some unresolved trauma in the past to take a job in some
isolated wilderness (shades of "Firewatch" or "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture"). Inevitably, freaky things to start happening to him that
makes you wonder if it's all real or just the inevitable collapse of
his wounded psyche. It's not a bad premise, but it's been done before
(and better); "Under the Waves" implementation feels ham-handed and
trite.

It's not helped by the pointless addition of crafting and open-world
mechanics either. They have no real purpose being in the game and are
just there to add grindy time-wasting to the experience that distracts
from the narrative.

Maybe "Under the Waves" would have turned things around had I been
able to play longer; maybe its characters and gameplay would have
endeared themselves to me were it not for that avoidable crash. The
visuals weren't too bad and I liked the setting (what little I
experienced of it); I think there was real potential for this game.
But the two hours I saw just weren't exciting me, and in a way I'm
grateful that the game was as buggy as it was. I think it saved me a
lot of time and effort I might otherwise have regretted putting into
this game.



* WH40K: Inquisitor - Martyr https://store.steampowered.com/app/527430/Warhammer_40000_Inquisitor__Martyr/

I went into this game knowing very little about it. Obviously, as it
was a Warhammer 40,000 game, I expected a lot of grim-dark sci-fi:
giant space-marines clunking about shouting about the glory of the
Emperor and the dangers of heresy and aliens; nonsense stories about chaos-demons; unrelatable characters and --of course-- lots of gore.
That's par for the course with the franchise, after all, and in this I
wasn't disappointed. But the gameplay? I started it not even knowing
what genre the game is.

As it turns out, it's a top-down action-RPG; it's a sci-fi Diablo,
except not as good. And considering I'm not a big fan of action-RPGs
to begin with, that's not a good sign.

To be fair, there's nothing outrageously wrong with the game. You get
a variety of character classes; you get combat, the visuals are pretty
decent; "Inquisitor" is a functioning game. It has some neat
destructibility of the terrain (even if that feature doesn't do much
for the gameplay). But it lacks that spark that makes you want to keep
playing.

Mostly it's the level design. The maps are /dull/. Even though there's
some variety in landscapes, they're also mostly a universal grey in
tone, they lack much in the way of interactivity, and they're fairly
linear and don't reward exploration. Even when you can stray off the
beaten path, all you usually find is just another grey room with some unsatisfying loot.

The combat is okay; it's a mix of melee and ranged fire, although the
short viewing range definitely pushes you towards the former. And I'll
admit, it's sort of fun swinging my great sword and watching
half-a-dozen moblings explode into bloody gibs, followed up with a thunder-punch that knocks back some of the bigger foes, and finally
tossing a grenade that blows up half the scenery as the coup de gr�ce.
But there's an unfortunate lack of variety in the mobs, and the
rewards just aren't there: the gear you find just isn't that exciting,
and the new powers you gain as you level up just don't seem worth the
effort. And maybe it's just because I'm so /tired/ of the WH40K
mythos, but the story just seems so trite and unoriginal.

"Inquistor" ticks off all the necessary boxes for an action-RPG (and
then some, with some procedurally generated side-missions to keep the
action going after the main quest is complete) but it doesn't take any
chances and doesn't do anything beyond the expected. Warhammer fans
and action-RPG diehards will probably love this one, but for everyone
else? There seems little point to the game.



* American Truck Simulator: South Dakota https://store.steampowered.com/app/3749870/American_Truck_Simulator__South_Dakota/

What a surprise; a new DLC map expansion for a truck-sim game drops,
and here I am playing and reviewing it. Surely none of you saw that
coming!

I'm rather torn with my opinion of this expansion. Honestly, I don't
think it was that very good, but I'm not sure the fault can entirely
be laid at the feet of the developers. Some of my problems with the
expansion are certainly their fault, but the rest? I think I'll have
to blame geography for that.

Because while there certainly are some pretty sights to be seen in
South Dakota, it's all very samey and, really, nothing we haven't seen
in earlier expansions. The eastern half of the state is 'more Nebraska
than Nebraska': lots of wide, flat fields with impressive sight-lines,
but little to see beyond that. The western half is more forested, and incredibly reminiscent of the Wyoming expansion (if less mountainous),
and -again- very little to see and do. The overwhelming sensation I
had while driving around the map was gratitude that I didn't have to
live there. South Dakota might have some impressive geography, but it
looks like an incredibly boring place to live. Arguably this is a misrepresentation of the place by the DLC developers... but I don't
think so. I think they did their best to capture the feel of the
state, and -sadly- did a good job of it. So I can't really blame them
if the end-result was somewhere I'd never want to visit.

I /can/ blame the developers for a lack of content, though. There just
isn't much to this map; too few towns, too few roads, too few
destinations (in the form of pick-up/drop-off points for cargo). The
entire south-western quarter of the map is nothing but twisting roads
with no destinations whatsoever; just narrow roads completely
inappropriate for big-rigs and no reason to go there anyway. It feels
like wasted space; roads added simply so there would be /something/
there, placed solely to bulk-out the expansion.

There's some pretty landscapes to be seen in the expansion, but
nothing I haven't seen on other DLC maps. With its too-narrow roads
(not the fault of the developers, who are mirroring reality, but not
fun to drive either) and lack of places to haul cargo, there's no
reason to visit South Dakota in the game. Not to deliver cargo, or
even to drive through. It's really not worth the price I paid for it.


* Slow Roads
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3431300/Slow_Roads/

"Slow Roads" describes itself as a casual driving sim where you drive
down an endless, procedurally-generated highway where you can zone out
and enjoy the zen of the drive. In other words, it sounds like the
perfect game for somebody like me. And, conceptually, it is exactly
the sort of game I enjoy. It's what I most like about Those Damn Truck Simulator games I play. It's the implementation of the idea that's a
bit flawed.

To be fair, the game --while not in Early Access-- still seems to be
in development, so more features are possible. But as it stands, there
just isn't enough content to make the game worth playing over the long
term. With only three biomes, you very quickly see everything the game
has to offer; it's procedural generation engine is impressive in its
function but not robust in the amount of content. Honestly, the game
could use some more landmarks --the occasional town to drive through,
or a rotation through different biomes rather than being stuck in a
single region where you see the same curves and hills over and over
again. Just adding some cross-roads (even if you can't turn off onto
them) would make you feel less trapped on a endless and surreal
highway.

As it stands, after a few miles of driving, the only real reason to
keep driving is to see how many miles you can rack up on the odometer.
And, in all honesty, the driving /is/ satisfying. But it also gets
very boring very quickly. It's close to be the sort of game I could
lose hundreds of hours in... but it's not there yet.



---------------------------------------

It's been a weird and busy month for me, but I'm satisfied with the
gaming I got done. None of the games I played were bad; they just none
of them lived up to their potential (and, in the case of "Slow Roads",
I expect it will only get better with time). So a good month of gaming
for me.

But how about you? Were you satisfied with your gaming? I guess what I
am really asking is:

What Have You Been Playing... in SEPTEMBER 2026?


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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On 10/1/2026 9:26 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

* Slow Roads
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3431300/Slow_Roads/

"Slow Roads" describes itself as a casual driving sim where you drive
down an endless, procedurally-generated highway where you can zone out
and enjoy the zen of the drive. In other words, it sounds like the
perfect game for somebody like me. And, conceptually, it is exactly
the sort of game I enjoy. It's what I most like about Those Damn Truck Simulator games I play. It's the implementation of the idea that's a
bit flawed.

To be fair, the game --while not in Early Access-- still seems to be
in development, so more features are possible. But as it stands, there
just isn't enough content to make the game worth playing over the long
term. With only three biomes, you very quickly see everything the game
has to offer; it's procedural generation engine is impressive in its
function but not robust in the amount of content. Honestly, the game
could use some more landmarks --the occasional town to drive through,
or a rotation through different biomes rather than being stuck in a
single region where you see the same curves and hills over and over
again. Just adding some cross-roads (even if you can't turn off onto
them) would make you feel less trapped on a endless and surreal
highway.

Maybe you just haven't realized that it isn't a driving sim. Its a psychological horror game!

:D
--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Thu, 1 Oct 2026 09:39:01 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
<[email protected]> said this thing:

On 10/1/2026 9:26 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

* Slow Roads
Just adding some cross-roads (even if you can't turn off onto
them) would make you feel less trapped on a endless and surreal
highway.

Maybe you just haven't realized that it isn't a driving sim. Its a >psychological horror game!
:D

It starts becoming very surreal if you drive /off/ the roads and the
game starts glitching out when the procedural generation engine gets
confused. Even if it's not intentional.

But the idea might work. To some degree that was the premise of
"Pacific Highway", except they wedged a crafting game onto the driving
and weird/sci-fi setting. But just driving through an endless highway
and increasingly weird scenery; so long as there's varied enough
content, I think it might be fun.

Let me get my wallet; how many millions will you need to make this
idea of yours a reality? ;-)




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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On 10/1/2026 9:26 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Hey, you know what? I had the greatest idea. Let's take the time to
list out what video games we've been playing and maybe share some
thoughts on those games. We could do it at the start of each month,
every month. You think it'll catch on?

So much so that we continued to do it when you weren't around for months.

Superbrief
---------------------------------------
* Under the Waves
* WH40K: Inquisitor - Martyr
* American Truck Simulator: South Dakota
* Slow Roads

Maximum Verbosity
---------------------------------------

I read all these, I don't have any comment. (yes I read your SD Truck
Sim section)

What Have You Been Playing... in SEPTEMBER 2026?

TL;DR

** Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
*** Bloodshed
** Pathogenic
*** Vampire Crawlers
* Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop
** Deadshot
** Aniimo
** Monster Hunter World
** Astral Ascent
** Star Wars: Outlaws
** High on Life

Verbose Mode:

** Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
A (vampire) survivors like. I intially liked this, but it felt too much
like Hive Jump 2: Surviors, the missions were getting repetative and
long, and I don't think you could save during them. $13, 18 hours, I
didn't come anywhere close to finishing it.

*** Bloodshed
A rogue-like Boomer shooter. I really liked this, so much so I finished
it then kept playing to get all the characters, and try them. It's
simple, graphics are somewhat like old Doom. 14.5 hours.
$13

** Pathogenic
A rogue-like, as if you were playing the first stage of Spore, it's
tough though, I played it probably 20x, but couldn't get past the 3rd
stage, and it started getting repetative.

*** Vampire Crawlers
A deck-builder rogue like by the makers of Vampire Survivors. It's rediculously easy, I think I lost 2 runs by the time I finished it. No complaints (other than I think it could've been slightly harder, not
really a complaint) and in fact the first deck-builder I've liked. 34
hours. $10.

* Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop
It was free. I played this only 14 minutes. Horrible controls,
switching characters was cumbersome. I think it was meant to be played
by 4 people at once, so maybe if you've got 4 friends.

** Deadshot
$5, though I think I got this for free? It's a boomer shooter, but by
the 4th or 5th level ammo is running thin, and I had to use melee which
sucks. Also not very interesting, and almost no enemy varity. I spent
41 mintues in this and didn't finish it.

** Aniimo
It's a pokemon clone, online and free, apperanlty I joined on day 2. It
was good, it just wasn't for me. Too many systems thrown at you to
begin with and not enough fighting and what fighting there was wasn't interesting. It also felt like that other Gatcha game I played,
Wuthering Waves, but not as good.

** Monster Hunter World
This is the 3rd and final time I'm trying to get into this. I actually
started from where I left off last time, just after the tutorial. It's
o.k. I guess. There's very limited inventory space and you seem to be expected to decide what to pick up every mission, as there's far more
than you can carry. The big monsters run away from you over and over
before you can kill them once, which I found very annoying. It's
obviously meant to be played in teams, but after the first day or two,
there was no-one on. I tried most of the weapons, but didn't like any
of them except lance and shield, which was boring. I can truthfully say
I gave it a shot now, and didn't like it. On the plus side, dinosaurs. Currently $30, I spent 19 hours total in it.

** Astral Ascent
This was free on Epic. A side scrollng rogue-like. It's o.k. again, I
can see the appeal, but it's not for me. Too light and airy/kid's game.

** Star Wars: Outlaws
Free on Luna (Amazon Streaming.) I was surprised I liked this to begin
with, it reminded me a bit of KoTOR.

BUT... I found you lose money on certain missions if you reload from a checkpoint, which I was doing a lot. You also lose faction, which is
very hard to get, if you're even seen by any enemies, having to either
take the hit (which I couldn't stand) or having to reload before you
entered an area. I also discovered the auto-saves overwrite your
previous autosave with the faction & money hit, even though they're back further. I reloaded one area over 30 times, taking hours to get through
it. That was when I decided this game wasn't for me. Also the
streaming was bad half the time, and I had to wait 30+ minutes to start playing several times because servers were overloaded. Also a minor
quibble that the main character is somewhat ugly, though she grew on me (unlike Aloy) somewhat, I don't know why these games insist on ugly
women, I'd be happy with average ones (I know there's mods for the
appearance of the character, but you can't mod streaming.)

I'd consider getting this game if there were mods to let you save in
areas (there are, but they reset enemies and start you back at the
entrance, so they aren't any better.) or get rid of the faction & money
loss on being seen/reload (no mods as of yet) and it's on sale for say
$20 or less (it's $17.49 right now.)

** High on Life
Free from Amazon on Epic. By the makers of Rick and Morty. It's o.k.
The humor is neither here nor there for me. It felt too much like
Ratchet and Clank and all the other console games like that. I took a
week break from gaming because I'd been I'm resisting playing it, but
didn't want to give it up. Refreshed, I started it back up yesterday.
--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Already? I played the same games in my iPhone. I stopped playing Propel
after I lost my very long daily streak (oops) and pretty much finished
most of their little games. Last night I played these two online web
games as shown in my https://antsqualityforagedlinks.blogspot.com/2026/10/sort-court-simple-game-in-making-simple.html.
They were addicting. :O I almost resumed playing SW:TOR on Sunday, but
got too busy. I even updated the game. Oy!


Spalls Hurgenson <[email protected]> wrote:

Hey, you know what? I had the greatest idea. Let's take the time to
list out what video games we've been playing and maybe share some
thoughts on those games. We could do it at the start of each month,
every month. You think it'll catch on?

...

What Have You Been Playing... in SEPTEMBER 2026?

--
"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." --Matthew 5:11-12
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )
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What Have You Been Playing... in SEPTEMBER 2026?

Nothing for me, sigh. This was another movies & books month, some 20 movies (many interesting ones from scifiagenda.com) & 5 books. I did buy Signalis, Beat Saber, & some other game I can't bring to mind.

rms

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

I did buy
Signalis, Beat Saber, & some other game I can't bring to mind.

https://www.gog.com/en/game/echoes_of_the_end_enhanced_edition

rms
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Thu, 01 Oct 2026 12:26:57 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Hey, you know what? I had the greatest idea. Let's take the time to
list out what video games we've been playing and maybe share some
thoughts on those games. We could do it at the start of each month,
every month. You think it'll catch on?

I've been playing Deltarune. Sometimes it's really cool, and sometimes
there's a *really* annoying boss fight. Hot and cold I am with the
experience. Unfortunate amounts of DIAS gameplay in Deltarune.

I've also been playing Clair Obscure 33 (barely), Civ VII (now that it's somewhat fixed), and Grandia II (remaster). Grandia II is just a classic,
and the remaster makes it run in widescreen on a modern PC.

I still haven't properly finished a game of Civ VII. Before I can even
assign my factory resources, or even have factories sometimes, I win a domination victory. The game seems balanced to end 1/3 of the way through
the modern age.
--
Zag

Give me the liberty to know, to think, to believe,
and to utter freely according to conscience, above
all other liberties. ~John Milton
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On 10/1/2026 9:26 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

What Have You Been Playing... in SEPTEMBER 2026?

I finished my latest play through of 'My Time at Sandrock' the day the
new alpha-test build for 'My Time at Evershine' was released to us
Kickstarter supporters. So I played through the entire available
content on that (not much but its early testing) in the last couple of
days of September. Did find and report a bug! But then was told they
already knew about it. :(
--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Thu, 1 Oct 2026 12:02:12 -0700, Justisaur <[email protected]>
said this thing:

** Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
*** Bloodshed
** Pathogenic
*** Vampire Crawlers
* Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop
** Deadshot
** Aniimo
** Monster Hunter World
** Astral Ascent
** Star Wars: Outlaws
** High on Life

Man, you play games like I used to do back in the noughties. I envy
you your playlist. Nowadays I struggle to finish four games a month.




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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Thu, 1 Oct 2026 09:39:01 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
<[email protected]> said this thing:

On 10/1/2026 9:26 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

* Slow Roads
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3431300/Slow_Roads/

Maybe you just haven't realized that it isn't a driving sim. Its a >psychological horror game!

On a related note: I was playing the new "Road Trip" expansion for
That Damn Truck Simulator Game (tm) and one mission proved to be
unexpectedly spooky. Not that it was intentional on the game's part;
it was just another randomly generated delivery from one location to
another. But the situation just sent a few shivers down my spine.

Maybe it's because the delivery missions in the expansion have your
cargo sitting right there on the passenger seat next to you; you're a
courier in the expansion, driving a pick-up truck rather than a
big-rig after all. The cargo is just a big brown box with no indicator
as to what is within (and, in this case, the description in the
mission selector was even "unlabeled consignment"). You can't help but
stare at it and wonder: what's this thing I'm transporting across the
state? Why are they paying so much for the delivery? Why are they so close-mouthed about its contents?

Maybe it was how the pick-up was some faceless office park in the
burbs, and the destination was some unlabeled warehouse far out in the wilderness. And that the delivery had to be there before dawn for some
reason. Driving into the sunset with the shadows lengthening all
around me felt surreal. Of the little traffic around me, it all seemed
to be going in the opposite direction; you start to wonder, when that
happens, "Do these guys know something I don't?". The final stretch
was through a long, torturousy windy forest road; it was pitch black
outside and my headlights barely illuminated anything except the
immediate patch of road ahead of me.

The actual destination was an open patch in the middle of this dark
forest; a single warehouse surrounded by chain-link fence dimly lit by
some exterior lights. It looked otherworldly in the gloom. The
drop-off point was right next to a gatehouse with a generically faced
guard standing watch. I get there, push the button to 'deliver' the
cargo; it vanishes like it never existed. And I wonder: what the hell
did I just deliver to this weird location in the middle of nowhere"?

Of course, the fact that I was doing the entire drive listening to the soundtrack for "Alien: Isolation" (another remarkably spooky game)
certainly influenced my feeling of unease.

But it certainly made that otherwise ordinary mission much more
memorable.

Anything can be horrific, if you squint at it hard enough. ;-)


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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On 10/1/2026 2:14 PM, rms wrote:

I did buy Signalis, Beat Saber, & some other game I can't bring to mind.

  https://www.gog.com/en/game/echoes_of_the_end_enhanced_edition

Sounds kind of mid from reviews on Steam. But the price is right.
--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On 10/2/2026 9:18 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Thu, 1 Oct 2026 12:02:12 -0700, Justisaur <[email protected]>
said this thing:

** Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
*** Bloodshed
** Pathogenic
*** Vampire Crawlers
* Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop
** Deadshot
** Aniimo
** Monster Hunter World
** Astral Ascent
** Star Wars: Outlaws
** High on Life

Man, you play games like I used to do back in the noughties. I envy
you your playlist. Nowadays I struggle to finish four games a month.

To be fair, I only finished Bloodshed and Vampire Crawlers of those I
played, and both were short games.

The rest I gave up on as not being worth my time. Except High on Life,
which I'm very slowly getting through, and is also another short game.
--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Fri, 2 Oct 2026 15:07:57 -0700, Justisaur <[email protected]>
wrote:

On 10/2/2026 9:18 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Thu, 1 Oct 2026 12:02:12 -0700, Justisaur <[email protected]>
said this thing:

** Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
*** Bloodshed
** Pathogenic
*** Vampire Crawlers
* Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop
** Deadshot
** Aniimo
** Monster Hunter World
** Astral Ascent
** Star Wars: Outlaws
** High on Life

Man, you play games like I used to do back in the noughties. I envy
you your playlist. Nowadays I struggle to finish four games a month.

To be fair, I only finished Bloodshed and Vampire Crawlers of those I >played, and both were short games.

The rest I gave up on as not being worth my time. Except High on Life, >which I'm very slowly getting through, and is also another short game.

*--


No short games for me last month. One game has kept me overly
addicted and busy for 73 Steam hours.

-pw
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On 10/2/2026 8:02 PM, PW wrote:

On Fri, 2 Oct 2026 15:07:57 -0700, Justisaur <[email protected]>
wrote:

On 10/2/2026 9:18 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Thu, 1 Oct 2026 12:02:12 -0700, Justisaur <[email protected]>
said this thing:

** Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
*** Bloodshed
** Pathogenic
*** Vampire Crawlers
* Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop
** Deadshot
** Aniimo
** Monster Hunter World
** Astral Ascent
** Star Wars: Outlaws
** High on Life

Man, you play games like I used to do back in the noughties. I envy
you your playlist. Nowadays I struggle to finish four games a month.

To be fair, I only finished Bloodshed and Vampire Crawlers of those I
played, and both were short games.

The rest I gave up on as not being worth my time. Except High on Life,
which I'm very slowly getting through, and is also another short game.

No short games for me last month. One game has kept me overly
addicted and busy for 73 Steam hours.

...and that game would be....?
--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.
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Almost nothing (again, but there are personal reasons for that). So I
picked up Jagged Alliance 3 for the whopping price of £4 and I've not
played a lot but so far it's good.

More of my time has been spent on 'branching out' with model making as
I've started a scratch built diorama with inspiration from a Disco
Elysium building.
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I was actually enjoying Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynched for a
few hours. Like the gameplay and graphics and setting. Was having a
blast with it. Then along came IL-2 Korea. Used to be a big combat
and regular flight sim fan. Need to do more with that than just fly
around.

Then, I decided to finally try Gothic Remake and see what that was
like. I will tell you what it isn't like: The absolutely shameful
review by PC Gamer giving it a 60 verdict. I think it should be
considered and perhaps with this years GOTY. I would give it a least
an 8/10 but I am going to change that now to a 9/10 as I type.

So - I am going to start with picking apart that review:

Things I agree with - sort of:

-Needs a compass and quest marker. Perhaps. But I only thought so for
the first few hours of gameplay. Yes, you should buy a map or two, and
ore (the money) is scarce for the player for quite some time in the
beginning (along with combat skills for sure!). I use the colony map
that I finally was able to purchase all the time now, in addition to
others that are given to me as part of a quest. I find doing research
on my own via websites, in-game conversations and tips are more than
adequate and more enjoyable than being told exactly where to go and
what to do. It really is not that hard and time consuming to figure
out things on your own! Sometimes, as the article states, NPCs will
actually lead you to a destination - which is a great way early on to
not get killed by the baddies that are very intimidating early on. You
even get credit for watching them kill things that might have been
very hard or impossible for you to do early on - expecrience points
and resources for just standing by and watching them slay whatever.

- I do not know what the heck the reviewer is talking about (not sure
if a he or a she - the first name is Jody) there being a bound woman
in a corset and cheese and beer to keep the miners happy. I guess I
missed all of that because I do not remember it. Any way, that was 74
Steam hours ago when I started the game.

- All creatures want you dead and the only ones you stand a chance
with early on are basically molerats and bugs with a pick-axe or rusty
sword that you find in the beginning. So what?! That is how combat
is learned in this game and others. I learned quickly to use the S
key to back up after swiping at a creature and not bash the attack
button. Also, not to go out at night! BIG mistake early on and
throughout the game! Right now, it isn't as a big deal, not in the
area that I started out in, because the enemies do not respawn but
decay over time. Nice touch. The game has tons of those little
things. Besides, get this - there is a Quicksave and a Quickload.
Remember those things? And absolutely no checkpoints! And tons of
save game files. All you do is save the game first if you think you
are going to have trouble and then reload it - can't name the save
games but there is a little picture next to them which is good enough.

- What the heck is that reviewer knocking the graphics for, saying
that the faces look like Black Sabbath roadies and there is a loss of
detail and clarity? I admit that I have the graphics on the highest
setting because I have a MSI 5080 RTX graphics cards. The graphics
for me rival or better than anything I have seen in Elden Ring and
Oblivion Remastered and others! Granted, I have not played ER in a
long time. The little micro details, the inssect, enemies, the
overall visuals are beyond superb. There are some mountain scenes
from ledges that rival even Oblivian Remastered. And maybe even that
puzzle game that I quit playing titled "Cirmson Desert". I
uninstalled that one a couple months ago. They are actually
breathtaking. I wish I could post them here. And the characters in
the game each have their own personalities and are the dialog makes me
crack up sometime. And, their faces do not look like stone. Very
detailed as in the rest of the game.

I think this reviewer has got mental issues and also didn't even play
it very long. I am not going to even go over the last paragraph. I
have no idea what he/she is trying to say. A little off the wall.

One thing that was really annoying was the lockpicking, just like in
Oblivion Remastered. I say that in the past tense because just like
with OR - I found something at Nexus Mods for GR to stop that silly
time consuming nonsense, except fo one or two chests that I need some
type of special key to open. No biggie as I don't think I have
anything gamebreaking that I needed inside any so far out of dozens
that I opened. If not for this cheat, I was planning on continuing
with the game without opening chests. Something that could not be
done with Crimson Desert and it's stupid puzzles as far as my
experience with it. I tried to ignore them but couldn't.

Now, the RPG stuff isn't as in-depth as in games like Baulder's Gate 2
and even ER and OR but I don't care. You can't pick and choose what
things to focus on for the most part. I am having a blast with my Strength-Dexterity build and am even doing a little magic too with my
level 22 (?) character. No, you cannot pick an elf, hobbit, etc and
customize your character. And NO - THERE IS NO CRAFTING BULL***!
Unless you want to take up alchemy and maybe I will eventually because
I will probably run out of what is called Learning Points to spend my Experience Points on. I maxed out my strength a long time ago. Maybe
I will take up diving, wall climbing, learn how to ride a scavenger -
don't have a clue how to do that and tons of other stuff yet. But I
did have to turn myself into a meatbug insect in order to get into a
castle using a tiny hole in the ground. There are LOTS of stuff like
that in the game that become available to you as you progress.

The story is magnificient and engaging and entertaining. I decided to
start out with the Old Camp and become a "member" - spend the time and dedication to do that - but now I can't go back - I will leave it at
that. I am homesick! And need to find another bed to rest in order
to skip the dark nights and rejuvinate myself (which can be done with
food, potions, rings, etc... but not skipping night time. You need to
use a torch to help you see at night or maybe cast a light spell -
have a bunch but haven't tried it yet).

So - that is what I have been spending my gaming time on last month.
The game keeps me killing a lot of my spare time. I do not play
games, watch TV and other things during the day time. But only this
game and Elden Ring have made me soft on my rule not to play games
during the day time!

Wow! That was a lot, at least for me! I did not go back and proof
read what I just typed. Sorry! :-)

I think this game is amazing!

-pw

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On Fri, 2 Oct 2026 21:49:31 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
<[email protected]> wrote:

On 10/2/2026 8:02 PM, PW wrote:

On Fri, 2 Oct 2026 15:07:57 -0700, Justisaur <[email protected]>
wrote:

On 10/2/2026 9:18 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Thu, 1 Oct 2026 12:02:12 -0700, Justisaur <[email protected]>
said this thing:

** Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
*** Bloodshed
** Pathogenic
*** Vampire Crawlers
* Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop
** Deadshot
** Aniimo
** Monster Hunter World
** Astral Ascent
** Star Wars: Outlaws
** High on Life

Man, you play games like I used to do back in the noughties. I envy
you your playlist. Nowadays I struggle to finish four games a month.

To be fair, I only finished Bloodshed and Vampire Crawlers of those I
played, and both were short games.

The rest I gave up on as not being worth my time. Except High on Life,
which I'm very slowly getting through, and is also another short game.

No short games for me last month. One game has kept me overly
addicted and busy for 73 Steam hours.

...and that game would be....?

*---

I just posted my first "What..." reply in a long time (besides my
usual on-liners) DT!

-pw
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On Fri, 2 Oct 2026 14:39:59 -0700, Justisaur <[email protected]>
said this thing:

On 10/1/2026 2:14 PM, rms wrote:

I did buy Signalis, Beat Saber, & some other game I can't bring to mind.

� https://www.gog.com/en/game/echoes_of_the_end_enhanced_edition

Sounds kind of mid from reviews on Steam. But the price is right.

Steam Autumn Sale for the win? Is it time to whip out the credit card
and go on a buying spree?


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Oh - and just $50 for this game? Not $80? You gotta be kidding me!!
Do you know how much this game has saved me in not buying games since
I started playing it?! New, or old?? :-) Well, maybe just a couple
hehe

-pw
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On Sat, 03 Oct 2026 11:55:25 -0600, PW <[email protected]> said
this thing:

I was actually enjoying Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynched for a
few hours. Like the gameplay and graphics and setting. Was having a
blast with it. Then along came IL-2 Korea. Used to be a big combat
and regular flight sim fan. Need to do more with that than just fly
around.

Then, I decided to finally try Gothic Remake and see what that was
like. I will tell you what it isn't like: The absolutely shameful
review by PC Gamer giving it a 60 verdict. I think it should be
considered and perhaps with this years GOTY. I would give it a least
an 8/10 but I am going to change that now to a 9/10 as I type.

So - I am going to start with picking apart that review:

Things I agree with - sort of:

-Needs a compass and quest marker. Perhaps.

The game definitely doesn't need a quest marker. But it does need to
be clearer about where things are. I recall one quest giver telling me
that I need to go somewhere 'to the right', except it wasn't clear to
the right of what (certainly it wasn't to his right, since he was
moving around). Other quests were equally vague in destination,
requiring a lot of fumbling about to figure out where to go. This lack
of direction wasn't too much a problem for me, since I was familiar
enough with the map from the 2001 game that I could still remember in
broad strokes where to go, but even so I occassionally got tripped up.

It didn't help that sometimes the quests became unavailable and the
game (for instance, because the guy you were supposed to meet
somewhere was dead) and the game did nothing to let you know.

Jankiness like that was par for the course in a 2001 game, but a
quarter of a century later a bit more respect for player's time is
expected.



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On Sat, 03 Oct 2026 18:25:44 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson <[email protected]> wrote:

On Sat, 03 Oct 2026 11:55:25 -0600, PW <[email protected]> said
this thing:

I was actually enjoying Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynched for a
few hours. Like the gameplay and graphics and setting. Was having a
blast with it. Then along came IL-2 Korea. Used to be a big combat
and regular flight sim fan. Need to do more with that than just fly >>around.

Then, I decided to finally try Gothic Remake and see what that was
like. I will tell you what it isn't like: The absolutely shameful
review by PC Gamer giving it a 60 verdict. I think it should be
considered and perhaps with this years GOTY. I would give it a least
an 8/10 but I am going to change that now to a 9/10 as I type.

So - I am going to start with picking apart that review:

Things I agree with - sort of:

-Needs a compass and quest marker. Perhaps.

The game definitely doesn't need a quest marker. But it does need to
be clearer about where things are. I recall one quest giver telling me
that I need to go somewhere 'to the right', except it wasn't clear to
the right of what (certainly it wasn't to his right, since he was
moving around).

Never seen that.

Other quests were equally vague in destination,
requiring a lot of fumbling about to figure out where to go.

Yup. That would be nice, but honestly, I do not remember that
happening often to me. In fact, I can only remember one quest that had
multiple points where nobody was there (Focus Stones) because perhaps
I went out of sequence or the quest didn't start yet? I forget.

This lack
of direction wasn't too much a problem for me, since I was familiar
enough with the map from the 2001 game that I could still remember in
broad strokes where to go, but even so I occassionally got tripped up.

All games like this that I have played have this problem yoy mention.
I have always had to look things up. Did this happen with the Ultima
games and such before there was the internet and Google? I can't
remember but I am pretty sure I got very frustrated back then too.

It didn't help that sometimes the quests became unavailable and the
game (for instance, because the guy you were supposed to meet
somewhere was dead) and the game did nothing to let you know.

Jankiness like that was par for the course in a 2001 game, but a
quarter of a century later a bit more respect for player's time is
expected.

Nothing has been so bad to stop me from playing Gothic Remake and 76
hours or so in I am still playing it. Really - I honestly do not
remember anything that ticked me off until now. There is this quest
that all the walkthroughs say I have to climb a rockface in order to
access this cave in order to enter the main area. I have found no
other recommendations. I know the map very well by now (am at level
26+ so I have been almost everywhere, I think) and cannot figure out
how to get there another way. Here is the problem - all the
walkthroughs expect me to have the abiltiy to climb rockfaces. I had
to find out how to get it and go halfway around the world to find the
NPC that has it. Come to find out, I do not have the requirements for
it (learning points) because I spent them upgrading something else.
Now, you only get those when getting to the next level and I am far
away from that. I just started earning level 27. Thankfully, there
is a monster that I have to beat that is part of different quest but
that will not put me over enough to be able to get the climbing
ability necessary to start the other quest. Total BS!!

Is that partly what you mean Spalls :-)

So, I am running out of quests to do (they don't always happen on
their own - I sometimes need to google them) and not sure if I will
want to spend any more time trying to find others.

Plus, like I mentioned earlier, the camp I became a member of where my
bed and food and skills were acquired has now has an uprising and I
cannot go back to it without getting beat up and dying, even at my
strength level. Homesick! I miss the guy with the stew pot. My
favorite character in the game. But pretty funny though! :-)

-pw
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On Fri, 2 Oct 2026 14:39:59 -0700, Justisaur <[email protected]>
wrote:

On 10/1/2026 2:14 PM, rms wrote:

I did buy Signalis, Beat Saber, & some other game I can't bring to mind.

� https://www.gog.com/en/game/echoes_of_the_end_enhanced_edition

Sounds kind of mid from reviews on Steam. But the price is right.

*--

I don't want to play a chic. Plus that/it reminds me of "Banshers"
The Ghosts of New Eden" which I already have and enjoyed for a while
but uninstalled it. And of a couple others that I already have but got
bored with (Dragon's Dogma,...).

-pw
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Spalls Hurgenson <[email protected]> writes:

What Have You Been Playing... in SEPTEMBER 2026?

Gah, nothing. Well, it was a short month and I had a week of travel too
and not the fun kind. Oh, and a little Oktoberfest party which has
become a bit of a tradition. Although I have to admit arrangements for
that were mostly in October.

But really, the main problem was no games I wanted to play, so planning something for October now:

- I got the 007 game from Steam's Autumn sale. I'm not a huge fan of the
Bond movies but there's something about them. And the game hopefully
plays a little like Deus Ex, mix of sneaking and combat. Oh, and Bond
gadgets! Ever since NOLF I've wanted to off enemies with something
unusual, Spy vs. Spy style.

- Maybe another round of Borderlands 4, looks like they've come out with
a couple DLCs and two new playable characters, one of which seems
interesting. Still have to decide if I want the "season pack" or
whatever or the single DLC.

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On Mon, 05 Oct 2026 23:27:54 +0300, Anssi Saari <[email protected]> said this thing:

Spalls Hurgenson <[email protected]> writes:

What Have You Been Playing... in SEPTEMBER 2026?

Gah, nothing. Well, it was a short month and I had a week of travel too
and not the fun kind. Oh, and a little Oktoberfest party which has
become a bit of a tradition. Although I have to admit arrangements for
that were mostly in October.
But really, the main problem was no games I wanted to play, so planning >something for October now:
- I got the 007 game from Steam's Autumn sale. I'm not a huge fan of the
Bond movies but there's something about them. And the game hopefully
plays a little like Deus Ex, mix of sneaking and combat. Oh, and Bond
gadgets! Ever since NOLF I've wanted to off enemies with something
unusual, Spy vs. Spy style.

Well, now I want it to be November so I can hear the results of your playthrough.

Like you, I'm only a middling Bond-fan. They're okay movies, but
nothing I usually go out of my way for. And I've been burned on too
many terrible 007 games not living up to the license's potential. So
the new game that came out recently --obviously associated with the soon-to-be-released movie-- doesn't inspire me with a lot of
confidence. But maybe this one surpasses its predecessors?

Hmmm... and it's on sale now too.

{{{ No! Resist! Don't buy until you hear from Anssi first!!! }}}



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rms <[email protected]> wrote at 20:25 this Thursday (GMT):

What Have You Been Playing... in SEPTEMBER 2026?

Nothing for me, sigh. This was another movies & books month, some 20 movies (many interesting ones from scifiagenda.com) & 5 books. I did buy Signalis, Beat Saber, & some other game I can't bring to mind.

rms

you have a vr headset? thats rad
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom
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Zaghadka <[email protected]> wrote at 00:05 this Friday (GMT):

On Thu, 01 Oct 2026 12:26:57 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Hey, you know what? I had the greatest idea. Let's take the time to
list out what video games we've been playing and maybe share some
thoughts on those games. We could do it at the start of each month,
every month. You think it'll catch on?

I've been playing Deltarune. Sometimes it's really cool, and sometimes there's a *really* annoying boss fight. Hot and cold I am with the experience. Unfortunate amounts of DIAS gameplay in Deltarune.

by annoying do you mean the secret/shadow crystal bosses or like
all of the flower fights in ch5. because like yea i also kinda suuuck at
all of them lmao (aqua solo i think im the worst at, then green/orange, yellow/blue, then weirdly i havent died on aqua/seth once) also did you
know they had to outright nerf flowery's fight because it was so bs

also how do you feel about the platforming mode

I've also been playing Clair Obscure 33 (barely), Civ VII (now that it's somewhat fixed), and Grandia II (remaster). Grandia II is just a classic,
and the remaster makes it run in widescreen on a modern PC.

I still haven't properly finished a game of Civ VII. Before I can even
assign my factory resources, or even have factories sometimes, I win a domination victory. The game seems balanced to end 1/3 of the way through
the modern age.

isnt civ vii really bad or is that a different one?
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom
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On 10/26/2026 6:42 AM, candycanearter07 wrote:

rms <[email protected]> wrote at 20:25 this Thursday (GMT):

What Have You Been Playing... in SEPTEMBER 2026?

Nothing for me, sigh. This was another movies & books month, some 20
movies (many interesting ones from scifiagenda.com) & 5 books. I did buy
Signalis, Beat Saber, & some other game I can't bring to mind.

rms

you have a vr headset? thats rad

I have a quest 2? I think. I got it for free from work. They were all
about VR meetings for about a year, then dropped it.

I have beatsaber on it which I played for a bit, and some other games I
played for not very long, most were more like demos. But now it sits gathering dust.
--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'
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On Mon, 26 Oct 2026 13:42:21 -0000 (UTC), in
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, candycanearter07 wrote:

Zaghadka <[email protected]> wrote at 00:05 this Friday (GMT):

On Thu, 01 Oct 2026 12:26:57 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Hey, you know what? I had the greatest idea. Let's take the time to
list out what video games we've been playing and maybe share some >>>thoughts on those games. We could do it at the start of each month,
every month. You think it'll catch on?

I've been playing Deltarune. Sometimes it's really cool, and sometimes
there's a *really* annoying boss fight. Hot and cold I am with the
experience. Unfortunate amounts of DIAS gameplay in Deltarune.

by annoying do you mean the secret/shadow crystal bosses or like
all of the flower fights in ch5. because like yea i also kinda suuuck at
all of them lmao (aqua solo i think im the worst at, then green/orange, >yellow/blue, then weirdly i havent died on aqua/seth once) also did you
know they had to outright nerf flowery's fight because it was so bs

They had to outright nerf Jevil's fight too.

No, it's not the crystal fights, and I haven't reached chapter 5 yet. The crystal fights are fun and challenging. Spamton is especially cool
because it involves "a change of heart." I'm ignoring them and the "weird route" for now. I just found some of the Tenna stuff super annoying, and
the YOUR GOING TOO SLOW guy in Ch 4, well that whole thing just annoyed
me to the point that I was just slugging through it taking damage and not trying to avoid anything. It was total, complete DIAS play. Memorize the
maze, oh the exit's inexplicably there now, etc.

Also, in Ch 3, there's a long stretch with no save point and there was
this super-annoying boss at the end of the stretch of Zelda-like and I
just handed off my controller to my kid and said, "I have to go to bed
and this game's gone all Metroid on me." I literally have no time in my
adult life for Nintendo shenanigans. I ran out of time.

also how do you feel about the platforming mode

Haven't reached it yet?

I've also been playing Clair Obscure 33 (barely), Civ VII (now that it's
somewhat fixed), and Grandia II (remaster). Grandia II is just a classic,
and the remaster makes it run in widescreen on a modern PC.

I still haven't properly finished a game of Civ VII. Before I can even
assign my factory resources, or even have factories sometimes, I win a
domination victory. The game seems balanced to end 1/3 of the way through
the modern age.

isnt civ vii really bad or is that a different one?

Civ VII started out really bad. Now it's kinda interesting excepting the
fact that it's pretty hard to get through the Modern age without some
kind of victory cutting it short. Like I said, I was just chugging along playing Civ like I normally do and it started counting down to a
domination victory. The game has balancing issues still. Victory
thresholds should not be lowered to the point that you can attain one 1/3
of the way through the final age.

I've enjoyed it. Especially the cultural legacy social policies. And now
you can stay who you are and what civ you want, which is what was so
broken before. It feels better than Civ VI to me with the introduction of Generals and Admirals that allow you to stack units on one tile again.

There's a lot less military micromanagement getting 15 units through a
narrow mountain pass.
--
Zag

Give me the liberty to know, to think, to believe,
and to utter freely according to conscience, above
all other liberties. ~John Milton
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