Better reviews section
When I added the reviews section back in 2021, it was somewhat readable, if a bit messy.
Four years after, with the addition of 4 * 3 new tables (one per year per category), it became completely unusable.
Thankfully the content of that page was always generated programmatically, so all it took to make it better was a bit of Python followed by re-generation of the page.
Main change is that I split each category (Video Games, Music and Books into a dedicated page, and turned the information for each year into a separate table.
This alone made it so much easier to navigate this information dump.
And the cherry on top was adding a list of years on top, each linking to the corresponding table within the page.
Retrospective
Now that I could finally comfortably navigate the reviews section, I gave it a fresh look, which prompted me for a little retrospective. After all, I have 12 years of data here.
Music
The Music section is hard to evaluate - for me it is too personal and heavily depends on the mood, so I just accept the scores, knowing that that’s how I felt at the time of writing. Very rarely I re-evaluate them - sometimes an album of a band I follow comes out at the wrong time, and completely doesn’t match my mood.
Latest example would be Kanawha Black by Nechochwen. When it came out, I couldn’t get into this album at all, despite absolutely loving their previous albums.
Few years later I gave it another try, and this time I liked it very much. Now it’s a 9 for me. But I never down-rate the albums, only up-rate them. Again, it is all too mood-sensitive.
Books
I have terrible memory for the books I read, so I simply cannot re-evaluate my scores, I just take them at a face value.
It’s obvious I’m really into the Sail Ships, but I didn’t need to re-visit the reviews section to know this.
It’s also rather clear that my favourite contemporary fiction author is N. K. Jemisin. The world building in her books is simply outstanding. I was extremely skeptical when I learned that each book of the The Broken Earth trilogy took a Hugo award. After reading the first one, I was very impressed and bought the second one. After the second one, I bought the rest of her books. So far, none of them disappointed me in the slightest.
Video Games
For video games I think I can do something of a proper retrospective.
Let us focus on the highlights first. Those are the games I either keep playing, or at least keep thinking about from time to time, meaning they left a big mark on me.
Shadowrun trilogy
Such a fascinating world! Good enough gameplay, but it was the world itself and the world building that captivated me. I still often think about it, and the stories told in the games. Especially bad Qi and the Kowloon Walled City…
Planescape Torment
‘What can change the nature of a man?’. One of the stories that will stay with me forever.
Wasteland 2 & 3
Surprisingly great games, especially the plot and the choices player makes. Wasteland 3 was one of the very few games where I kept thinking about my key choices days after I finished the game, and I eventually re-played the last section of the game with different choice.
Assassin’s Creed games
I have to admit that I like them a lot, they are like comfort food for me. Even the hated Valhalla got a 9 from me. They map perfectly to how I typically play video games - short sessions, mostly about one hour or less, sometimes with long breaks between the sessions. With the piecemeal plot and fun open world they are ideal for this type of gaming.
Snowrunner
One of my top games of all times, and the only game where I bought (and played through) 4 season passes. I simply love driving trucks through mud and restoring the infrastructure. Can’t get enough of it! Played hundreds of hours in this game, and will probably play hundreds more.
Fallout 1 & 2
Formative games for me, I keep coming back to them every few years, and replaying just for fun.
Fallout New Vegas
Desperately needs a remake, but even in the current state it shows what modern Fallout games could be. Need to replay it with mods if the remake doesn’t arrive soon enough.
Elex, Greedfall, The Technomancer
Janky, flawed RPGs that reminded me what I love about role playing games. Elex in particular made me realize just how shallow Skyrim and most of the modern RPGs are. And Greedfall showed what Bioware could be doing these days have they not lost it. Now I need to re-play Gothic 1 & 2 which I loved back in the days.
Chained Echoes, Shadows of Adam, Ara Fell, Rise of the Third Power, Cosmic Star Heroine
Modern indie takes on the 16-bit era JRPGs. I never played any of the old games, and with all the mandatory grind I’m not keen on doing it now. But the modern successors I really love, and even supported Quartet (the next game from the creators of Shadows of Adam) on Kickstarter.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom
Truly standout games, where exploration is king. Just a joy to play, despite some infuriatingly outdated game design elements.
Return of the Obra Dinn & The Case of the Golden Idol
Never expected to like this type of games, but ended up falling in love with them. In turn it started my journey into the world of deduction games, from Chants of Sennaar to Frogware’s Sherlock Holmes games.
Lunistice, Tinykin, Yokus’s Island Express
I’m not good with platformers, never played them as a kid, have no nostalgic feelings whatsoever. But those games are pure concentrated joy! I absolutely loved Lunistice, even more than Super Mario Odyssey. And Tinykin is one of very few games which made me stay up late to keep playing. Can’t recommend it enough!
West of Loathing & Shadows Over Loathing
In general I don’t like ‘funny’ games. But those two are absolutely brilliant. I often fondly recall the absurd jokes from those games. And the gameplay is surprisingly fun too.
Games I’d rate differently now
- God of War (original trilogy from PS2 and PS3). I gave it a 9, but I really doubt that nowadays I’d do the same. They are exceedingly violent and masculine games, which I can hardly tolerate now.
- Undertale. I gave it an 8, now I think it’s too generous. I didn’t finish the game, the combat proved to be too difficult for me. And in general it didn’t feel as innovative or unique as it was hyped up.
- Dragon Age Origins. I gave it an 8, probably should have gone higher. Now, given the decline of BioWare, it really looks like the high point of their trajectory.
I also am very curious how I’d rate the Mass Effect trilogy now. Back then I loved it, now I’m a bit afraid to play the remastered version.
Games that disappointed me
Now that we covered the highlights, it makes sense to talk a bit about the most memorable disappointments.
- Transistor - I didn’t even finish this short game. I hated everything about it, from gameplay to narrative. And I was super excited to play it, on paper it looked exactly like my kind of game.
- Horizon: Zero Dawn - again, on paper it looked like something I’d enjoy quite a bit. But I couldn’t stand it after playing first 10 hours. The combat didn’t click with me, the open world turned out to be empty, the characters shallow, and after I learned the explanation about the origin of those mecha-animals I had no desire to proceed.
- The Banner Sage - I did finish it, but the super simplistic gameplay didn’t work for me, and the plot was childish at best.
- Uncharted 4 - I liked first 3 games a great deal. But here the plot was trying to be too serious for no reason, and more importantly I didn’t like the level design. It’s one of the few games that where I got lost many times, not knowing where to go next on a relatively small levels. Dunno what it was, but I’m not surprised the series kinda died with this one.
- Disco Elysium - my latest big disappointment. Didn’t finish the game, found it exceedingly boring. I couldn’t bring myself to play it in a ‘fun’ way as for personal reasons I don’t see addiction as even remotely funny. And neither the political plot nor the setting interested me, I believe anyone who grew up in an ex-Soviet Bloc country would see nothing remotely unique there.
Gaming retrospective summary
What does surprise me a little is that most of the games from my highlights are either indie or made by smaller studios. Out of the whole list only Assassin’s Creed series and The Legend of Zelda games are what is considered AAA tier.
And what truly amaze me is games like Tinykin and Lunistice. Pure joy to play, dare I say better than Nintendo’s first party titles. So good that even someone very much partial to the genre like me found them impossible to put down.
On the other hand, it is no surprise that there are plenty of RPGs in the highlights - after all, it’s my favourite genre.
However, one may notice that there are no games like Baldur’s Gate 3, Divinity: Original Sin 1 & 2, or something like Pillars of Eternity or Pathfinder.
Honestly, it makes me quite sad, but at this point in life I find it very hard to enjoy such deep and challenging games. The thought of painstakingly picking the loadout for each member of the party fills me with dread.
I hope that at some point, with a less demanding job, I’ll get to enjoy them. I even bought few of them, but bounced off because it’s just too much after work.
Conclusion
It was good fun re-visiting my oldest written scores and reviews, and prompted me to deeply think about what I enjoy in life.
The immediate follow-up from this exercise is that I really wanna replay Gothic 1 & 2. And I think another playthrough of Fallout 1 & 2 is due just as well.