Your turn

Wow never knew you could edit stuff and corrections.

At least half the mods for Halo MCC on steam.

Haven't beaten any games lately because holy shit, Tomb Raider 2 is a long ass game, I'm not even sure I'm halfway through yet. One thing I respect about these older Tomb Raider games is how they are pretty damn long games where each level will take an hour to complete and they are entirely gameplay driven. There are barely any cutscenes at all or much of a geniune story. Many long games would try to have story but these older Tomb Raider games you are largely spent playing them. Sure there are other games that barely have plot and you are spent playing them like 90s FPS games, Nintendo games or various platformers, but TR2's sheer length of how much time spent playing put it's in a league of it's own.

I'm enjoying the game, but at the same time, I do think the first is better due to the fact that there were more actual tombs and not "real" locations using Core Design Tomb Raider level logic. I respect how purely "gamey" it is, but at the same time, it gets really goddamn silly.

I find the tomb raider games to be very stressful because they are mainly "puzzle simulators".

Definitely not a Star Wars Chocobo

I see the FF theme with the ending of Phantom menace in this screenshot for some reason.

Congratualtions and hope you have a wonderful wedding.

Glorious journal. Dragon age and one of my favorite game "Halo 3" in the first few blog posts!

Post 19. July 3rd, 2024
Completion: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

One of my longer completions, at about 3 months.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind starts out slow. First off, the game is not hand-holdy, at first it is tough, and hard to get used to. You will get destroyed by simple enemies such as rats near the beginning of the game. There are also no map markers or "GPS" to tell you where to go, it's up to the player to get directions and to navigate. I was somewhat used to that from The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall which I finished right before starting this, but honestly Morrowind is more brutal when it comes to navigation. That was probably the most difficult thing to get used to early on for me. Another stark difference from other games in the series such as Skyrim, and many other modern games is that enemy levels do not scale with the player level, so high level enemies are guaranteed to destroy you if you are not ready for a particular area. But that also means areas you are over-leveled for are much easier. And honestly I did not enjoy the game for the first 5 or so hours, having to follow directions, and getting destroyed by almost every enemy encounter was frustrating.

Playing through the game more, doing more quests and leveling up skills, the game started to get slightly easier. I also started to get used to the lack of navigation and got pretty decent at following directions. This is when my enjoyment of Morrowind started to grow, and it continued to grow for a while as I became more familiar with the game, and its quirks and mechanics. I started to get into the gameplay loop and I started to understand why people love the game so much. Something that I noticed is that for a while, the game become more and more fun the more I played it, to the point where I fell in love with it. The lore is incredibly interesting, the world is almost alien with its creatures and foliage, and the quests are pretty well written and interesting to follow. I ended up getting pretty invested in it. Something I will note is that this level of dedication to the game is required to enjoy it this much, it is not good as a casual game to boot up here and there. That is the one downside of it.

Eventually, my enjoyment plateaued. The gameplay loop started to get stale. It is possible that Mr. Howard did not intend for a player to become the leader of 6 different factions in a single play-through, but grinding the quests did end up getting pretty repetitive. I overall did enjoy the game a lot still, but eventually the magic of the game did fade and it turned into a big effort to just finish everything. I also got to the point where I was severely over-leveled for the base game. By the time I finally finished all of the faction quests the main quest was a breeze all the way through to the end. Not that that's a bad thing entirely, I did find it pretty enjoyable. The late faction quests were pretty interesting at least, becoming the leader of guilds was pretty unique with every one. A few of the non-affiliated quests were also really entertaining.

The first DLC, Bloodmoon was enjoyable. The island of Solstheim itself is very unique and different from the base game, and there are a ton of new enemies, weapons, and armor to discover. The main quest was well made, and it was pretty interesting and well written. The highlight of Bloodmoon for me though was Raven Rock, building a colony from scratch (or destroying it) was incredibly fun. Getting your own residence at the end was extremely cool, something that was somewhat lacking in the base game. I did feel like the overworld of Solstheim was extremely overdone though, there are WAY too many random enemies just wandering around and it got incredibly annoying at times, despite the fact that they are new and interesting themselves. Overall though, Bloodmoon was very enjoyable.

After I finished Bloodmoon I finished the main quest. I was pretty overpowered for it at that point, but it was very fun. The lore and story in the game is really interesting and I got pretty invested in it. After that I moved onto the final DLC, Tribunal, which takes place in the city of Mournhold on the mainland outside of Vvardenfell. The architecture is beautiful, and Bethesda put a ton of effort into adding new dialogue, armor, and weapons. The main quest is also an incredible addition to the ending of the base game, it ties in extremely well. But overall, I honestly didn't end up enjoying it a ton, it seems like half of the quests just take place in sewers and caves, and while the caves and sewers have a lot of effort put into their design just feel miserable to navigate and get through.

One issue that was present throughout my entire playthrough was the bugs. Getting softlocked out of quests was extremely common, I ended up using the console pretty often because of that. I also didn't enjoy the combat overall, Morrowind uses DnD logic for its real time combat, which does not work at all in my opinion, it was very detrimental to the game. The really slow walking speeds was also horrible, it made the game incredibly boring at times. The game is almost unplayable unmodded as well, it did take some effort to get them set up right. Overall though, I did thoroughly enjoy the game, I couldn't say I prefer it to a game closer to the style of Skyrim, but I can highly appreciate Morrowind.

Score: 9/10
Completion: Main + Extras
Time: 87 hours, 24 minutes
Next game in the series: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC)
Series progress: 2/4
*Note: I skipped The Elder Scrolls I: Arena. It does not have a remake and it has aged horribly, hence the 2/4 games.

Other notes
Holy moly that was a long one, Oblivion should have less hitches as it's more modern, and easier to add some QOL mods to. Kirby is going well, I started Kirby 64 and it has been very pleasant so far. I genuinely feel so relieved being done with Morrowind, while I did really enjoy it, it is the kind of game that takes a shit ton of effort to get into and get all the way through. I'm hoping Oblivion is not the same way, if it's not I should be able to get through it quicker.
Edit: This was also my first review to hit the character limit in the game review portion of the site, so that's cool.

I loved how you wrote in your Elder Scroll's 3 review how MR. Howard did not intend you to become leader of all six factions.

What I love about this blog is the variety of games in it!

I would say just put the date you beat the story on teh day that you beated it etc

From reading your blog it seems that you are on a final fantasy rage.

I like the naem of your blog "slow gaming" because the truth is going ot fast in gaming can be quite tiring. Because I like to relax and play games.

With all these ideas you guys have been sharing I might get PS subscription!

Went to the movie theatre the first time in five years. Saw Inside Out 2 and The Firm recenlty.
The Firm- Best early tom cruise movie
Inside Out 2- Great film that teaches about emotions though I would rename the film "ANXIETY THE MOVIE"

Found my old band Dawn of Destiny and Armored Core 4 soundtrack which I put on when I am cleaning toliets at work!

When I read your blog I feel like I am in the late 90s golden age of PC gaming with your profile picture for some reason.

Free free to add me!

Thanks for all the info on free games guys. ALso type in "free packages" "steam db" if you want to collect every free thing on steam!

Currently reading some old import tuner magazines. It makes me wish I had got a focus SVT in 03 versus my grandma's focus which is still in her name despite me driving it for ten years!

keep going though the backlog brother and you will soon earn the 500 completions badge!

OK I give away too many things. As a kid I would always give out lunch money etc. But now for a good cause. Message me and I will choose randomely of people who message me about there love of Fallout. The winner will get a fallout 2 steam key. My best memory of playing fallout was fallout 3 and working for the president in that game!

Hi there! I'm The Grey Jinjo. I've used HLTB as a reference site for years now but I figured I'd also use to to log and keep track of all the games I've played.

I play a little bit of everything but my major focus is retro games (platformers especially). I grew up in the N64 era (if you couldn't tell from my name and avatar) and I've been gaming ever since. I also make YouTube videos, write, and make music in my spare time. Always happy to chat about games with people too!

Welcome and what is your favorite n64 game.

Now this is a fun game that I enjoyed getting all tgg by e achivments in

Nice city just liked your awesome screenshot