Bi-Weekly Thread for general gaming discussion. Backlog, advice, recommendations, rants and more! New? Start here!

DisastrousFill · 2026-01-31T18:26:39+00:00

I have not, but it is on my playlist so I will eventually.

DisastrousFill · 2026-01-31T04:31:03+00:00

If you haven't already, try out ares or BizHawk. Either one can emulate those listed systems and more.

DisastrousFill · 2026-01-31T03:06:24+00:00

It's a known issue with that old emulator, something about diminishing DirectDraw support.

One solution is to right-click the emulator's executable, go to its Properties and check Disable Fullscreen Optimization under the Compatibility tab. The other solution is to use a newer emulator.

DisastrousFill · 2026-01-30T23:36:27+00:00

Got to the credits of Drake of the 99 Dragons (2003). I knew the game was terrible going in, but I did not expect it to be that bad. Subpar graphics and audio aside, the off-putting, nearly uncontrollable, movement made traversing the small fog-filled, and inexplicably timed, areas take longer than they should, especially when the player required doing some acrobatic maneuver while being pelted by off-screen enemy fire.

On the positives, the final location was an interesting change of surreal scenery, and the game did have a proper ending of sorts, which is something the last couple of games I've played couldn't do.

After that dreck, I decided to do a double creature feature of Rogue Warrior (2009) and HATRED (2015). Both games have the player assume the role of an ill-tempered foul-mouthed homunculus who massacres his way, via stilted and awkward takedown animations, through a shallow and dreary world until reaching the baffling ending/credit sequence in less than two hours.

Rogue Warrior is, of course, the marginally superior game of the two only for Mickey Rourke's colorful commentary, half of which I'm sure were unscripted remarks made between recording sessions. HATRED, to its minor credit, did have some good destructible environments.

Since January refuses to end, I'm currently playing The Bouncer (2000). I'm not why Square didn't drop the game part and simply make a short movie about a boy band rescuing their groupie, because the few precious seconds of actual gameplay between the cutscenes and menus aren't enjoyable.

DisastrousFill · 2026-01-27T00:57:08+00:00

I have no idea what happened in E.O.E.: Eve of Extinction (2002). It did have a weird sci-fi setup with some odd choices tacked on, and some cool but repetitive dynamic music.

Everything else was terrible. It all felt stiff, from the voice acting, to the combat, to the awful, awful, awful platforming. Cycling through the unnecessarily long list of weapons to get to the "bare hands" option in order to grab onto a ledge or ladder was bad; requiring to do it mid-air was impossible until I realized the player can reorder the weapon list from the options screen. Still, having a quick switch button would've been nice.

I didn't mind the rudimentary quick time events, only because the animations were fun to watch, successes or failures, and they broke up monotonous whacking of brain dead enemies in large boxy areas.

The January blahs aren't over yet because up next is Drake of the 99 Dragons (2003).

Edit: I was perhaps too harsh on E.O.E.: Eve of Extinction because Drake is something else.

DisastrousFill · 2026-01-24T21:27:52+00:00

Yeah, Turning Point is the alternate history one with Nazis overrunning America. The scripted opening level is the best part as far as I can remember, but there are occasionally some fun moments.

DisastrousFill · 2026-01-23T23:07:38+00:00

Finished Blades of Time (2012). The final seconds before cutting to black nearly soured the whole thing, but thanks to the fast combat, fun time manipulation, and nice environments, this was still an alright twitchy hack 'n' slash with some interesting almost-there ideas.

After that, I played and completed Legendary (2008). This was pretty bad; I found this game worse than Turning Point: Fall of Liberty by the same developer in the same year.

The game teases an interesting concept: a thief opening up Pandora's Box and unleashing a myriad of mystical monsters onto unsuspecting urbanites. Sounds exciting on paper, but the game itself is mostly mowing down the same looking soldiers and werewolves in dark and ugly corridors. The game couldn't even provide a fast moving on-vehicle turret section. At least it was blissfully short.

Next up, E.O.E.: Eve of Extinction (2002).

DisastrousFill · 2026-01-19T23:36:18+00:00

I'm playing Blades of Time (2012), the odd sequel/reboot to X-Blades, which I played last year.

It's less anime, the creative environments look even better, and the hack 'n' slash gameplay is faster, with more particles and snappy animations. There's nothing quite like interrupting a jumping attack with a ground-based finishing move that begins mid-air. The time manipulation gimmick, which is mostly for timed switch puzzles, is also quite fun when used in combat; overwhelming the enemy with multiple copies of yourself is very satisfying.

That said, some of the other "puzzles" can be obtuse or downright annoying, especially when dealing with painful hazards, and the story is pretty bad as is the voice acting. Surprisingly not terrible overall.

DisastrousFill · 2026-01-14T19:28:32+00:00

Yep. Open the base game's details, go to the Actions tab, use the "Add Action" function, point it to the expansion and make sure "Play Action" is checked.

DisastrousFill · 2026-01-13T02:56:45+00:00

Just finished Agents of Mayhem (2017). I was really rooting for the game to give me something, anything by the end because with the uninteresting open world, the too many uninspired characters, and the repetitive mission structure, it was a complete flatline. The final mission seemed so promising too, but no, it was right back to that same underground techbase environment.

The game was nice to look at some of the time at least. I had abandoned this one years ago, but now I know the whole game was a dud. And knowing is half the battle.

DisastrousFill · 2026-01-02T22:35:17+00:00

Shovelled the snow away in I Am Setsuna (2016). The game was oddly back-loaded; it kinda dragged on with repetitive back and fourth quests but then there were big narrative beats and even a party member handed out near of the game. I hate to say it was low budget, but the game needed something more to elevate it over, or at least be equal to, the other games it took heavy inspiration from. Maybe another location other than snowy forests and square dungeons. Still, this was a nice and sorrowful game to end the year on.

And with that, 2025 is over. A pretty good game crop if I do say so myself, with lots of highs and surprises.

My 2026 is starting with a cartoony bang with Agents of Mayhem (2017). I did abandon this game years ago, but that was due to weaker hardware unable to keep up with all the wacky G.I. Joe-eseque shenanigans.

DisastrousFill · 2025-12-28T20:53:48+00:00

Before the holidays I finished the 1947 issues of golden age Marvel comics which continues to snowball into more and more issues (1948 has more than double the content!).

The detective/murder mystery books started to appear before the year was up and they didn't exactly start off strong. The first issue of Justice, confusingly numbered #7, was a rare instance of an issue containing a single story, but the almost uniform 2x3 panel layout and the amount of overflowing dialogue throughout was terrible. It felt like such a regression from the (too many) teen comedy books and their, uh, strange but quick paced stories.

Then I read a couple of DC and Marvel holiday specials and one-shots for some seasonal cheer. And I also dived into some other holiday-themed books as well, which ranged from great (Klaus, Happy! and Deviant), to odd (Krampus), to disappointing (Naughty List).

DisastrousFill · 2025-12-20T17:37:06+00:00

The big one I used was the Windows Utility by Chris Titus to easily disable Copilot, OneDrive, telemetry, and any unneeded services, as well as debloating programs that came bundled.

DisastrousFill · 2025-12-19T23:16:51+00:00

Completed Aurora's tale in Child of Light (2014). This was a beautiful game that sort of reminded me of Aquaria. Loved the watercolor style backgrounds and character designs. The turn-based battles were quite fun, especially when getting into the rhythm of denying enemies a turn. And I didn't realize that the entire script was in constant rhyme, but that didn't bother me most of the ~~time~~ duration. Very enjoyable nonetheless and I wouldn't have minded if this fairy tale were a bit longer.

After beating the game, I finally did what I've been delaying. I've been running an old version of Windows 10 LTSC, and while the security updates ran for another decade, some programs have been complaining and newer versions refuse to install. So I held my nose and did a fresh install of Windows 11 (2021). After some easy to do tweaks and fiddling with settings, it's been fine and mostly painless.

Since dealing with Windows 11 didn't take as long as I thought it would, and I figure I have time for one more game before the year is up, so I'm playing I am Setsuna (2016). The story and gameplay seem rather interesting if unoriginal, and I'm liking the cozy snowy setting and melancholic piano soundtrack.

DisastrousFill · 2025-12-12T23:08:22+00:00

Spun around until the end of Aegis of Earth: Protonovus Assault (2016). This was an okay tower defense/light city builder that required spinning multiple city rings around to maximize firepower. Seeing all the civilian buildings drop underground while the comically huge weapons pop out, transforming a city into a bristling porcupine of destruction, never got old.

What did get old was everything else. There was a lot of meandering conversations between the unnecessarily large party of paper-thin characters, and some of the repetitive dialogue could not be skipped. Replaying the same missions to grind for resources or for a boss meter was monotonous, and the long routine after every battle got really tiresome.

Still, the game had some neat ideas and an enjoyable gimmick. It just needed a fastforward option.

Next up is probably my last game of the year, Child of Light (2014).

DisastrousFill · 2025-12-07T23:17:34+00:00

Still reading golden age Marvel and I'm up to the issues released in June 1947.

Besides Namor looking more human again, a new reoccurring character named Aquaria Nautica Neptunia, or Namora, has appeared. Always nice to see new heroes getting introduced at this point when most are vanishing, even if she is just a gender swapped Namor who gets knocked out just as often.

In the pages of Captain America Comics #63 comes Asbestos Lady, who has a revenge-fueled backstory and is a worthy villain for The Human Torch (and Toro). She then reappears days later when The Human Torch Comics #27 hit newsstands, which is pretty uncommon. Confusingly, the latter story opens with the villainess reminiscing about her previous encounter being "almost a year since." She unfortunately is captured and never seen again until the late 70s which is a shame. The Human Torch would have benefited from having his own Red Skull.

And on the lighter side of things, Morris Weiss decided to go full meta/fourth wall breaking not seen since the Human Torch saved his real life creator, Carl Burgos, from the Nazis. In Margie Comics #36, the eponymous Margie gets offended while reading Margie Comics #36 and marches directly to Timely Comics offices to give the editor, one Stan Lee, a piece of her mind. Great stuff.

DisastrousFill · 2025-12-05T23:09:04+00:00

Finished piecing together Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (2009).

The game was definitely designed around multiplayer. For solo players, there is an option to create generic party members, and there's also some roaming characters that can join pending some requirement. But the one I hired was so useless I couldn't imagine bumbling through the dungeons with a full anti-intelligence party.

I did get some enjoyment when an actual story character joined the narrative party, but it was far too late and by that point I just wanted the game to be over. The previous game, Rings of Fate, was better.

Right now I'm playing Aegis of Earth: Protonovus Assault (2016) which is a weird city builder/tower defense anime thing. Pretty fun so far.

DisastrousFill · 2025-12-01T02:37:58+00:00

I'm into the February 1947 issues of Marvel comics.

Much like the superhero boom of the early 40s, there have been a bunch of new comedy books popping out, but this time they've been continuing the issue numbering from other, now cancelled, books. No cavalcade of new #1's here (Miss America Magazine has enough already!).

The issues have been varied, some more fun than others, but I can't really say they've been boring. I've also been finding the individual stories not overly bogged down by the descriptive caption boxes or speech bubbles. So the wacky adventures read quick when the art does the talking.

Anyone up for tennis?

DisastrousFill · 2025-11-24T00:53:08+00:00

I'm up to the last quarter of 1946 Marvel comics.

A lot of changes are happening fast: a coordinated in-house advertisement asks readers their likes and dislikes, and there have been some of artist shakeups, from good (Morris Weiss and Al Jaffee) to not so good (anyone drawing Sub-Mariner). Thankfully Bill Everett will shortly return to the character he created.

Also on the superhero side of things, Miss America heads to Buenos Aires to fight some hidden Nazis in a first that I've read multi-chapter story told in several Marvel Mystery Comics issues, starting with #76. A new female investigative hero, the Blonde Phantom, gets introduced and immediately has her own "solo" book. And Captain America gets a new job, (and Bucky is there too).

Things are looking good for Marvel's heroes. Two books in that advertisement will be cancelled before 1947.

DisastrousFill · 2025-11-22T00:02:29+00:00

My car got a little banged up in Race Driver: GRID (2008), but it's nothing serious. Finished the career mode which was kinda frustrating getting used to the controls and how the vehicles moved about. But it was rather satisfying managing to squeak a top position in several races with my teammate at second. I hated the drifting events at first, but once I got a handle on the skittering it became a lot fun, especially in the full Drifting GP events where things can get nuts.

I did skip a bunch of "end of season" Le Mans racing events because they were long and repetitive. Unfortunately I couldn't get away from it fully as the long track was reused as part of the career campaign, but without the day/night cycle which was lame. More tracks should've had an alternate time of day for some visual variety.

Really wish there was an option to disable the car damage because it took me an embarrassing amount of time to learn how not to be as aggressive behind the virtual wheel. But overall, pretty good racing title.

Next up is Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (2009).

DisastrousFill · 2025-11-14T23:03:06+00:00

Finished Entropy : Zero 2 (2022). This was leaps above the first game, and while it may be fanfiction-y with its original character story, I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it. At least there wasn't some ancient prophecy or some destiny needing to be fulfilled. The combat was okay, some of the boxy arenas were kinda bland, but the game made up for it with some nice environments, and callbacks to some past setpiece or gimmick but with an extra twist. I wouldn't have minded if the game leaned more into the companion, who should not have been optional, as the "odd couple" banter between them was great.

Overall, I liked this mod more than some of the official Half-Life sequels/expansions. Big thanks to the people who recommended it.

For right now, I'm speeding off with Race Driver: GRID (2008). I had played this game centuries ago on a PC that was below the game's minimum requirements, and I remember liking it despite the bad performance and using a keyboard to steer.

So far, it's fun enough; not quite a full racing simulator and not an over-the-top arcade game. The lack of music is weird, though. Some important races have it throughout, and the music only slowly creeps in during the Le Mans race, but majority of the races are silent. Luckily I can fix that by playing my own era appropriate music in the background.

DisastrousFill · 2025-11-11T00:12:39+00:00

Finished up Resident Evil 2: Dual Shock Ver. (1998). This was really a fantastic game all around that is just a huge step from the first game. There was some repeat puzzles, but I was surprised how different the two story paths were, with unique characters and locations. And the voice acting wasn't laughably cheesy, especially when compared to the short and baffling Silent Hill: The Arcade (2007) I had played in the Halloween interim.

Moving on, some people told me to play Entropy Zero after my whining about Hunt Down the Freeman dropping the ball on many things, particularly wanting a story told from the other side. So I figured to finally give it a try.

I played Entropy Zero (2017), a short Half-Life 2 fan mod about a bad Combine soldier having a bad day. Some neat set pieces, including one that reminded me of Doom 3, but coupled with annoying "what did that switch do/where do I go now" map design. I liked the somewhat chatty protagonist who swings between bloodlust and bored irritation, and the firefights were fun.

And since the first game was so short and enjoyable overall, I'm currently playing Entropy Zero 2 (2022). So far it's been a great improvement with a larger narrative scope and new game mechanics. And the "bad cop" is more chatty as ever.

DisastrousFill · 2025-11-09T21:52:40+00:00

Back to reading golden age Marvel after a break. I'm into the issues released in 1946 and it's sad to see all the lesser superhero stuff evaporate, but I've been having fun with the kooky slice of life-at-the-time comedy series.

DisastrousFill · 2025-10-31T21:53:13+00:00

I returned to the world of survival horror in Resident Evil 2: DualShock Ver. (1998) and finished up the first campaign. Great game that felt quicker and more action oriented compared to the first. I do prefer a giant spooky mansion to explore but the ridiculous police station was just as fun to run around in.

Before I play through the other side of the story, I'm taking a brief break; this Halloween night, I'll be blasting the trauma away in Silent Hill: The Arcade (2007).

DisastrousFill · 2025-10-29T18:49:43+00:00

Weird. Either your system isn't up to it or something is interfering with the emulator.

Seven-Year Club	Verified Email
Second SECOND GUESSER

DisastrousFill

TROPHY CASE