I finished Doom in the most recent re-release (Doom + Doom II), Ultra-Violence, Pistol Start and no save scumming. The base game isn’t too difficult, but still one level per episode gave me some trouble. The fourth episode is a massive step-up in difficulty though. E4M6 took me a lot of tries, but it got a lot easier, once I found some secrets with extra weapons.

After Doom, I continued with Doom II, still on UV, Pistol Start, no saves, and the first few levels are no issue, but it got tough real quick. Basically, just like E4 in the first game, it’s often about finding the best path to more weapons and ammo. The levels are also more open, so you usually have a few different paths to choose from, so figuring stuff out takes a bit. Depending on how it goes, I might start looking at the wiki to check out secrets and pickups and kinda plan a route that way.

I also finished Lies of P. It’s a good game and I had fun, but the there are definitely some weird decisions by the devs, although they were pretty minor. Weapon durability felt pretty pointless, I think only for two or three boss fights did I have to sharpen during the fight. Same with the jump, which is only needed a few times. However, since it’s like Dark Souls, so you need to sprint to be able to jump, any more would have sucked anyway. Might as well put in a dedicated button like Elden Ring and make it better, or just remove it. The weapon system was pretty neat, even though I basically just used three different heads and handles. I loved the perfect block mechanic, especially if it also destroyed the enemy weapon. Too bad it doesn’t work on the monster enemies, I guess, since they don’t really carry a weapon. The story got pretty lame in the end, but it’s whatever. I disliked two boss fights, the first Black Brotherhood fight since it was a gank fight, and the penultimate boss, because the hitboxes were just really weird, and I was constantly getting shoved around. Even on a perfect block I was a mile away from the boss, so a follow-up really sucked

Finally, I started Horizon Forbidden West: The Burning Shores DLC. I played the base game earlier this year, when it released on Steam, but I’m not really feeling the huge 3D open world right now. I’ll still finish the story, since it’s pretty short, but will probably only do the critical path and little to no exploring.

Just when the new season in World of Warcraft starts, I stop playing. I had a lot of fun, but also played a lot these last couple of months. WoW is also not a game I just play on the side. If I play it, I basically play nothing else. No idea when I’ll be back, probably if my best friend starts again, but who knows if that happens.

I wanted to check out the latest re-release of Doom with Doom + Doom II, and look at the new episode, but decided to try and play through all the levels of the first two games on Ultra-Violence, Pistol Start, and no save scumming. I’m halfway through episode three of Doom, and it’s not been too difficult so far. Three levels took me a few tries, the rest wasn’t too bad. The main thing is a lack of ammo, especially at the start of a level, so you either got to get comfortable punching things or cause infighting. I usually choose the former, so the Berserk power-up is always a welcome sight.

Then I started Lies of P. I killed three major bosses so far and it’s alright. I play on KB+M, and as always controls are just so-so. It’s not like you have 60-100 keys available, so better put two or three abilities on the same button or force players to cycle through item shortcuts.

Still the new World of Warcraft expansion. While I appreciate Blizzard slowing down the start of an expansion, so you don’t have to rush through everything to get to the endgame, this is a bit too slow for me. The next weekly reset on Wednesday can’t come soon enough, so finally the higher difficulty stuff opens up.

I’m a certified Trails hater, but I loved the two Crossbell arc games. It’s a shame those games are connected to the rest of the series, which is complete trash.

More of the new World of Warcraft Expansion. I’ve leveled four characters to 80 now, and equipped two of them. My Monk and Paladin are basically “done” for now, and I’m kinda waiting for the higher difficulty stuff. Next week I’ll focus on gearing my two other characters, a Mage and a Druid. While the Monk is definitely my favorite to play, the Paladin and Mage aren’t too far behind. Only the Druid is a bit underwhelming, since stuff just dies too fast right now, and I need to apply DoTs to anything to do any real damage (Balance spec).

Even though I’ve had the soundtrack for the first game for a while and even recently bought it for the sequel, I never bothered to check what kind of game this is. Then I recently saw a video of shapez 2, and it looks really fun, so I gotta check it out sometime.

The new World of Warcraft expansion was launched, but only if you paid for the giga edition to get three days early access (which I did). It’s a WoW expansion alright.

The stuff you can do during the early access period is pretty limited, there’s no real way to get a gear advantage or something, just more time to level up characters I guess. I finished the campaign on my Monk (skipping all the quest text as usual, but watching the cutscenes this time) and just started a second character today.

It feels a bit underwhelming right now, because a few of my friends, who usually play WoW all year round, are still on holiday, along with the limited things to do. The first and second week in August should get a bit more interesting, since then the higher difficulty stuff launches.

I’m also 100% done with Melvor Idle and the first two DLC and will start on the new DLC, after some more housekeeping and grinding for items.

Maybe a bad time to pick up the game again, since 1.0 is releasing next month, along with the story/campaign, so you might just get to do it all over again!

I played Tunic last December and loved it, and while I found a lot of stuff, I definitely needed some help to get the good ending. I was definitely glad to have done so though.

Another week until the World of Warcraft Expansion releases, and I used the event to level all of my characters to 70. Even my very first character, who hadn’t seen the light of day in over 15 years, is now properly equipped to take on whatever may come. Too bad it’s a priest, which I really don’t like to play, so back into the dungeon he goes. The Remix mode also ends tomorrow, so all of those characters will migrate over to retail, which means I’ll look over those and do some final house cleaning.

Then I’m pretty much done with the Diablo 4 season, but not because it’s boring or anything, but I kinda finished everything I wanted to do and more. I was playing a Chain Lightning Sorcerer, but found the final item to change my build to Lightning Spear, which is just completely overpowered this season. I kinda breezed through everything, killed all the giga versions of the bosses, cleared Pit level 100, the new Infernal Hordes mode on Tier 8, and upgraded all my stuff. Today I killed some more of the Uber bosses and even got two Uber Legendaries (which I salvaged to crafter another one). I might try and push my Pit level a bit higher, and try to kill Echo of Lilith, the final Uber boss, which got reworked somewhat last season or something, so it’s not just you getting one-shot by terrible hit boxes all the time. (Edit: just killed her, wasn’t too bad, but you need to learn the fight a bit, so in the beginning it just feels you randomly die.)

Also, this last year or so I’ve been “playing” Melvor Idle, which is Runescape, but as an idle game. The game recently launched it’s third DLC, but I’ve been holding off on playing it, since I wanted to 100% everything else first. This week I finally got done with the base game and the first DLC and am almost finished with the second DLC, although it might take another one or two weeks just grinding stuff, so I can craft the missing items. I’ve played a bunch of idle or incremental games over the years, but this is definitely my favorite. It’s not a clicker, there is no constant rebirth or whatever, you just choose a skill and you slowly train it. The best part is, you can actually close the game and fully progress offline. The game also has an in-game mod browser with tons of mods, kinda like the Steam Workshop, which is fantastic.

More of the World of Warcraft Pre-Expansion Event. Like last week, I leveled a bunch of characters to max, just because it’s easy, even if they’ll never see the light of day again (until the next event like this).

Then, the new Diablo 4 season started, and in less than a week I’ve basically progressed as far as the whole of last season. I went with a Sorcerer this time, currently running a Chain Lightning build, and it’s a lot more fun than the Minion Necromancer last time. However, now I’m at the point where it’s not just easy upgrades all the time, but grinding for those drops to feel a real difference, so the honeymoon phase might end soon. The new season mechanic seems pretty neat, although I haven’t done a whole lot of it yet. It’s a pretty simple wave based mode in a small room, where you just get to slaughter tons of demons and a boss fight afterward. This mode has different tiers or difficulties, most of which I haven’t tried yet, so I don’t know how much things change, if at all, but considering I’ll probably only play another two weeks at most (until the Warcraft expansion release) I don’t see it getting old.

Finally managed to kick my current World of Warcraft addiction, or at least massively cut my time with the Remix mode. I did level a new character yesterday, just to get them to max level, but that was pretty much it. There are a few more I plan to level, but I’ll take my time with those, maybe one a week. XP needed for max level is supposed to be slashed soon, because of the new expansion, so the already short level time should be even shorter.

I’m also done with the Diablo 4 season. I didn’t enjoy playing Minion Necromancer at all, and couldn’t be bothered to grind for a different build. Just like the last few times, I finished the Season Journey, and killed one of the new giga versions of the bosses (Tormented Duriel), although I needed help with that. The next season is supposed to start soon-ish (4-5 weeks or something), so I’ll take a break until then and hopefully choose something I enjoy more.

Went back to Dave the Diver, did just one dive, but didn’t really feel it. My extended break with the game really killed my enthusiasm. I might try again here or there, but who knows. There are so many other games I want to try, this might just be it for Dave.

Started Crab Champions, a roguelike shooter, based on the Crab Rave song (I guess). It’s in Early Access, fun for a couple of hours, but lacks variety, so it can get boring relatively quickly. I’ll wait for some more updates or the full release. This game also has multiplayer, so I gotta convince some of my friends to get it, since that’s always more fun.

Once again, I played far too much World of Warcraft Remix this week. I do have three more maxed characters now though and all achievements for the mode. I found Frost Mage to be surprisingly fun, after I totally hated it (my old main) and completely abandoned magic DPS altogether at the beginning of Shadowlands. This time I’ll definitely take it slower and will try to only play my Druid. It went so well the last two weeks.

Depending on how much I get into the new expansion, The War Within, Balance Druid and Frost Mage are definitely some I’ll consider taking a look, although my Windwalker Monk will most likely stay my main.

Then, more Diablo 4. I’m almost level 90 with my Necromancer, Minion build is still boring, but I’ll keep it at least until level 100, and I’ve checked out more endgame stuff.

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in! When I was almost done with the Remix mode in World of Warcraft, Blizzard adds a buff, that massively speeds up your power gain (or buying cosmetics, if you’re into that). This makes playing and gearing alts actually not terrible, so now I have to equip a few more chars, just to see how they play with ridiculous stats. My main, a Druid, is pretty much done, and I’d need to do some massive grinding, to see any real increase from this point. I’ll still play the char here and there, because it’s fun, but less than before. I’m currently equipping two other characters, a Warrior and an Evoker, both should take a couple more days, but I don’t think I’ll play them as much as my Druid before. There are a few more classes I want to level, although just to get them to max level, not to really play this mode.

Now I’ll finally get more into the current Diablo 4 season. I just made it to World Tier 3 today on my Necromancer, minion gameplay is still pretty boring, but I’ll wait until I’m closer to max level to decide if I want to switch builds.

Still blasting through World of Warcraft Remix mode, but it’s slowly losing its grip on me. Playing my main, a druid, is still super fun, since everything just explodes in seconds, but my two alts are kind of boring in comparison. Buying all the cosmetics should take me another week, so after that I might focus more on gearing my other chars. I really hope Blizzard adds something to make gearing alts easier, since I’d really like to give other classes a shot, but I’m not interested in slogging through the slow-ish gearing process for all of them.

I’ve also started playing Diablo 4 again, leveling a Necromancer in season 4. Currently, I’m using a minion build, but it’s pretty boring, since you don’t really do much.

A lot more World of Warcraft Remix mode for me.

Apart from my “main”, a druid, I’ve now also leveled a priest and warrior to 70. I didn’t enjoy playing the priest at all, and just spent all the event currency once I hit max level and won’t touch that character again. The warrior was actually fine, and I’m still playing a bit here and there at max level. On my druid I’m still clearing all the raids once per day, it’s still generally fun, but I’ve switched to tanking for a change of pace.

Man, I couldn’t get into the game at all. I just found it really boring and a chore to play most of the time. This is one of those games, where I don’t get what others see in it at all.

After all the trouble I had with Horizon Forbidden West for a couple of days (endless crashing), it’s been great since then. As if nothing ever happened. So, I’ve just been exploring, killing, and looting.

Then, I also started Dave the Diver. It’s a great game, even better than I thought it would be.

DD1 already was full of microtransactions, but in the sequel they “ruin” the game? What changed for you?

I’m generally having fun with Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, but unlocking and upgrading all the weapons is a huge chore. Also, every time I’m finally blasting my way through all the bugs, the run is basically over, so I wish there was an extended or even endless mode, so I can just mow down everything for a while.

Then I played some more Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin, tried out a few different builds, but nothing really stuck with me. I’ll give it a bit more time, but I might take another break soon.

Finally, I picked up Dyson Sphere Program again. I’m still really early, and the beginning in these types of games is always a bit slow for me, so it takes me some time to really get into it. However, if I get over this hump, I’m usually really addicted for a while, so let’s see how it goes this time.