Weekly Update 2025-05-25
Seen any elves?
Game Releases and Updates
Stalker series Enhanced Editions – the war between Russia and Ukraine has wrought untold destruction, but this week, a new front opened up, and the results are devastating. Russian terrorists have attacked the Steam versions of the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. trilogy in a targeted strike intended to destroy all evidence of the Soviet Union's involvement in the Chernobyl disaster, but as collateral damage have also added modern lighting 'features' and some kind of AI upscaling to textures and cutscenes. These are truly reprehensible actions that warrant condemnation by the international community.
Joking aside, this trend of 'enhanced/remastered/sicko edition' updates to older games is becoming exhausting, as each one requires significant research to even unravel what's actually changed or updated. On the one hand, I empathize with developers and publishers that just want a game they have rights to working out of the box on modern hardware without requiring any investment from customers, or if the games need significant engine level overhauls to get rereleased on modern platforms. On the other, most of these games technically worked just fine for the players who were willing to put forward any effort, and it's inevitable that the end result lacks the coherence and framing that existed in the original product at release.
Myst trilogy update – speaking of technically unnecessary updates, the first three Myst games by Cyan ALSO got a modernization update this week, albeit a much less controversial one. The games appear to have merely been tweaked or wrapped in such a way as to function almost exactly like they did at release, but on modern Windows systems and the Steam Deck, with no detectable changes to resolution, audio, or controls. Given that Riven in particular genuinely was kind of a pain to run nowadays, and I don't think any of its scenes or screens would look any better ran through an AI upscaler, I'm actually pretty happy with this update. Maybe because the title screen doesn’t have a splash ad for fucking Firmament.
The Siege and the Sandfox – stealth platformer Metroidvania escapes development. This is one of those rare games I see come out and can't stop myself from picking up immediately, and from what little I've played so far, it seems like I'll at least be relatively satisfied. Movement and environments remind me a lot of the original Prince of Persia games, the stealth including a mix of lighting and sound visualization seems to work pretty well at building tension, and the fact that there's no combat but you can still flee from aware enemies instead of instantly losing when spotted is my personal preference for stealth games. It's unclear how the game will build on the available enemies and movement techniques to make compelling obstacles, but I feel like I'll be finishing it in relatively short order either way. I just hope the narrator eases up a bit on the babble.
The End of Dyeus Second Quest update – this is a game I've had recommended a few times, and with the announcement of a sizable update intended to add some replayability, I figured now was as good a time as any to take advantage of the game being on sale to find out what the hype was all about. So far, the simplistic graphics and combat have made me very nostalgic for the golden age of indie gaming, back when you'd just download a game like this from a random website and grapple with something nobody you'd ever meet in person would ever hear of.
Rogue Prince of Persia update – overhauled movement, overhauled progression, and a host of other changes have brought this promising but clumsy roguelite platformer a tiny bit closer to the heights of Dead Cells. I finally gave it a shot after so many 'overhauls' that I've lost count of them, and I have to admit it feels and plays a lot better. Animations and movement are a lot tighter, more things can be interrupted or combo'd off of, and the new skill and talisman systems seem much more impactful than what I remember.
The State of Games Played
I'm still enjoying the very open-ended third act of Clair Obscur, though I'm not sure how much more of the very obviously optional content I'm going to bother with before wrapping up the story. I'll probably knock out the character story arcs, and at least visit every area, but I doubt I'll try to maximize everything or complete the multiple challenge trials I've already stumbled across.
I started exploring the most recently added area of Tamriel Rebuilt, the Hlaalu region's capital of Narsis, but got frustrated by too many dark areas, which I attempted to solve by A) installing a mod that overhauls light sources including torches to make them more viable and useful, B) forgetting I had done that and decided to make my own ring of constant effect Night Eye, C) realizing I couldn't remotely afford to make such an item, and would have to enchant it myself, D) trying to go to Mournhold to unlock Fortify Skill spells so I could ratchet up my Enchant skill, forgetting that I had also installed a mod that stalls the start of the DLCs until you reach a logical point in the base game's main quest, so I had to E) progress the main story through multiple stages, allowing me to F) set up a recursive cycle of alchemy, enchantments, and buffs, resulting in a set of amulets that I can grasp in sequence, momentarily turning me into the greatest enchanter who has ever lived. And all for naught, as I had forgotten that I didn't actually have a soul in my possession powerful enough to make a constant effect item anyway. Then I went back to Narsis and joined a group of Mages Guild students running an Icarian Flight club.
Writing
I'm nearly done with my write-up of Beyond Citadel, and should have it out this week, along with a short post on Riven, which I sat down and played through as my curiosity gave way to nostalgic bliss. Once those are done, I'll set aside some time to work on my next essay while wrapping up some of the bigger games I've been chipping away out for the past few months.
Other
As I was scouting for my belated VR Mother's Day trip, I found a series of bookmarks someone had made just cataloguing real world counterparts to spots in the Yakuza series, which was mesmerizing to explore – seeing the parking garage where the can collection minigame starts, the planters outside of Survive Bar, and so on, it makes you appreciate just how much effort was spent capturing the little details of Japan.