Four more levels of Final Doom’s TNT: Evilution. After it’s done, I’ll take a classic Doom break for a while. I gotta play Dark Ages first, before continuing with Plutonia.
The some more Cyberpunk 2077. I’m a bit pissed at myself and the game, because of a glitch, that blocks some side quests. Foolishly, I just used a single save slot, and the auto saves don’t go back far enough, before the glitch happend, so I might try something to avoid it. The cause is probably a mod, although from what I read this bug isn’t uncommon and can happen without mods. Through the use of a save editor I’ve managed to make the next quest available at least, but wasn’t able to get the broken quest working again or “finish” it. I just hope it doesn’t happen again.
Then I started A Game About Digging A Hole today. Just like the title says, you’re digging a hole. You find stones and ores along the way, that you can sell, to upgrade your stuff. I’m two hours in, and looks like there’s nothing to upgrade anymore, which is a bit of a bummer. Now i just have to go deeper, blow stuff up with dynamite, and look for treasure. That probably also means I’m close to the end of the game.
What have y’all been playing? I’ve been continuing my Avowed grind. I’m starting to be ready for it to be over. But it is still very enjoyable. I just have other games I want to play lol
I finished Final Fantasy III. This one had a weird bug for me, where the game wouldn’t start and stop my mouse from working on my main monitor, when a Stream or Video was playing on my second screen. Never had this with any other game and took a bit to figure it out.
Then more Final Doom TNT: Evilution on the Doom + Doom II port. The second half is definitely a step-up in difficulty, and three levels took me a while to beat. Level 16 had a nasty start, that I had to replay for a while, and not much ammo, if you don’t know where the secrets are. In Level 18 and 20 I just constantly messed up, plus some late Archviles or a Cyberdemon, to surprise you. I’m on Level 23 now, hopefully I can finish this soon.
Finally, I was going to buy the Rise of the Ronin PC port tomorrow, but according to a review it needs to cook a bit longer, just like all the other Team Ninja games on PC. So I started Cyberpunk 2077. I watched a playthrough on Twitch last year, and it looked pretty good. So far it’s pretty good. Right now, I’m doing some side content before continuing with Act 1.
Iron Galaxy had some misses in the past, most notably probably the PC port for Arkham Knight. More recently, Last Of Us Part 1 on PC, which had some bad performance at launch, I think. They did the PC port for THPS1+2 though, and I don’t remember hearing some big complaints, but I also haven’t paid too much attention.
What’cha all been playing? I’ve been playing a ton for Avowed this last week. I’m really enjoying it! It’s definitely got some issues but overall it’s been one of my favorite RPGs in recent memory
I finished Final Fantasy 7. Compared to Remake or Rebirth this thing just moves, and doesn’t constantly waste your time. However, that also leaves little time for character interaction or development, so that’s where the new games are much better.
Next was Mushroom 11. I played it about halfway almost 10 years ago, and finally decided to go back and finish it. This is a game, where you control some mushroom blob, by erasing parts, causing it to regrow somewhere else, e.g. you erase the backside, and the blob regrows in the front, which makes you move forward. The first three levels are great, but the four levels after that, sometimes require precision, that the game just isn’t build for. I still like the concept, but it really can be frustrating.
Then I started playing through Final Doom’s TNT: Evilution episode. It took me a bit to get my FPS legs back and the first half dozen or so levels were a bit rough, but nothing too bad. I’m playing on Ultra-Violence and with a Pistol Start, so a lot of times, I have to re-play the beginning a couple of times, to get oriented, and look for weapons, while the game just throws Shotgunners and Chaingunners at you to shred you.
Lastly, I returned to Final Fantasy III (Pixel Remaster). The game is basically a bigger and improved FF1, with most of the changes in FF2 removed, for the better I think. The characters are back to being a cardboard cutout though, just like FF1. That’s the one thing FF2 did really well, compared to these first games.
I feel like it might be a bit like Ubisoft, although not as bad.
Ubisoft is going back and adding Steam Achievements to all or many of their games, and maybe try to get a better image
EA has some bigger titles not perform like they’d like, e.g. Veilguard, FC 25, maybe Immortals of Avernum, Wild Hearts, Dead Space remake, etc., so they might not want to let it get as bad as Ubi, with some small, easy “wins.”
This is just my theory, of course, I don’t really know anything.
I played some shapez. It’s fun, but some of the later designs are definitely a puzzle on how to make them. The sequel seems to be the same thing, but 3D graphics. Shoutout to the soundtrack by Peppsen, it’s fantastic.
Then I started re-playing the OG Final Fantasy VII, since I just finished Rebirth. I played the New Threat mod after Remake, so I didn’t really get how similar Remake is to the original game, and now Rebirth as well. Yes, the new games are a lot slower, and you get a bunch of fluff, but otherwise they are the same.
I’m at the end of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. This game is all quantity over quality in my opinion. I also think, the devs never thought if the gazillion minigames or one-off quest mechanics are fun. Just add more and more, so you can brag about how much there is to do in your game. If players enjoy themselves, it’s a nice coincidence, but never a goal. I just want this game to be over at this point. The last couple of hours just completely destroyed any remaining interest I had
Are we? Seems like GPUs are not available on launch, or even after a long while. Scalpers are at it again. Should I not wait and look into the used market?
AMD have said, the 9070 series is going to be up to 4070 ti performance. Leaks have also shown the performance between 7800XT and 7900XTX, so you can trust these numbers of course.
As for the price, AMD can say what they want, but how they’ve handled this launch so far doesn’t sound promising. A vendor, who has the cards already, speculated about the price, and it was horrible.
Things have changed since then, but until AMD has released concrete numbers, all these leaks are useless.
I also don’t know what you mean with the artificial restriction of production of the cards. Because NVIDIA is mainly producing AI cards for servers and workstations? AMD will be doing the exact same thing, since that’s where the majority of the money is.
I think we’ve never really left, and it’s been going on for much longer. All the popular tech gets scalped. Switch, PS5, Phones GPUs, etc. If you can’t launch with infinite products available, it’s going to get scalped nowadays.
"Lies of P: Overture is a dramatic prequel to the acclaimed Lies of P, transporting you to the city of Krat in its final days of haunting late-19th-century Belle Époque beauty. On the brink of the Puppet Frenzy massacre, you follow the legendary Stalker—a mysterious guide—through untold stories and chilling secrets. As...
I’ve played three time through Remake. First when it launched on Normal and Hard difficulty, and then again, last December in anticipation for Rebirth.
While I didn’t mind too much my first time, the game definitely has a lot of very slow sections. Like you mentioned, you are constantly forced to walk very slowly, wait for animations, etc. It really feels like Square tried to pad the game a lot.
I really liked the combat at first, but my on Hard difficulty it got terrible. I was always annoyed, that your other party members just stood around and never attacked. Rebirth fixed it a little bit, since they actually are doing stuff, just deal basically no damage and don’t get ATB charge. A few fights are also just terribly designed in my opinion, and Rebirth just doubled down here.
About things not carrying over, I was also a bit disappointed at first, that you basically have to start from scratch in Rebirth, but it wasn’t a big deal. The sequel has other, bigger problems, in my opinion, that drag it down.
The main reason I still like the game, are the characters. If not for them, the very first playthrough would have been enough.
I couldn’t put down Baldur’s Gate 3, again, but managed to beat Honor Mode for the first time. It felt like my characters were doing twice the damage, compared to my previous time in Act 3, so I just mopped the floor with pretty much all the bosses. There are a few more playthroughs I want to do, but I want to wait a bit. I’ve had like over 150 hours of BG3 this year already.
If anyone is interested, here are some more details of the run:
Honor ModeI died four times, and restarted twice in Act 1, before I beat Honor Mode. First Honor Mode try, I restarted shortly after the tutorial, I don’t remember why. Second try, I died to the three Intellect Devourers on the beach. Third time I died to the gnolls sieging the cave. Fourth try I made it to the end, but Ansur, last boss before the end, kinda bugged and killed me (game bugged and crashed as well). Fifth, I tried an all Fighters group, made it to Act 2, but messed up the Isobel fight in the Inn, and she got killed. I survived, ran to the ambush spot with the Drider, almost died, stopped before the battle was over (me and the enemy were very low, maybe I could have won, but I count it as a death). Sixth I restarted after failing in Waukeens Rest (went to camp for Wyll, after getting too close, and everything burned). Then I beat Honor Mode on this seventh attempt. Act 1 and 2 were three permanent party members and two that alternated. Fire Sorcerer (MC), Gloomstalker Assassin (Astarion), Life Cleric (Shadowheart) and switched between Berserker Thrower (Karlach) and Battle Master Fighter (Lae’zel). Act 3 I shelved the Cleric and just went full DPS. For some quest fights I took the appropriate companion (Wyll for Ansur, Jaheira for Minsc), but for the House of Hope fight I went full caster comp and just stacked AoE spells on the choke point and hid, while the enemies slowly died. I also found out that a thrower build with returning weapons doesn’t work for the very final fight against the Netherbrain, since the weapons just fall through the non-existent ground and never return. The rest of my party had more than enough damage, so it didn’t matter, but I should have kept some of the gazillion Daggers I got shortly before. As for progression, Act 1 I got halfway to level 4 with very little combat. Disguising as a Drow and skipping combat with the Goblins is pretty easy. At level 4, more fights like the Gnolls, Paladins in the Tollhouse and starting in the Underdark. Then, at level 5 with a big power spike, the game gets pretty easy. Clearing out the rest of the map, and get to level 6 for the Mountain Pass. In Act 2 I travelled with the Drider group to Moonrise, but joined the Harpers in the ambush. I made the Drider drop the lantern and picked it up in combat. The Harpers want the Lantern afterward in a cutscene, but you can just switch to another character to free the Pixie. So after like 10 minutes, the Shadow-Curse becomes a non-issue. The rest of the zone is pretty easy, I defeated the three bosses in the ruined town (toll keeper, doctor and dude in the tavern) just through dialogue. Then the Gauntlet of Shar. I like to open the door to Balthazar with Knock, so he has to fight himself, while I slink away, invisible. Before finishing the Gauntlet, I go back and clear out Moonrise Tower, so the Harpers don’t just get killed. Then just finish the Gauntlet and beat Ketheric. That fight was probably the hardest in the game. At the end of Act 2 I was halfway to level 11. Then Act 3. Made my way to the Lower City very early and bought all the gear you can. First boss was Lorroakan, since he’s pretty easy, and Rolan survived this time. Through some easy side quests and fights, I made it to level 12, then started on the rest of the bosses. I had to kill Ansur early, since he ended my Honor Mode run previously. With Globes of Invulnerability, it’s a non-issue. The next ones were also no problem. Ethel 2, Cazador, Sarevok and Orin went down easily. Minsc wasn’t a problem, but the fights are kind of annoying, and you have to be careful at the end and don’t kill him. Raphael, another easy one, then the House of Grief. I messed up the Iron Throne again, since I didn’t speak with Gortash and/or Mizora enough and the Duke was dead. Everyone else survived, I think. The Steel Watch was surprisingly easy, it was only my second time doing it, but my party just shredded it. Gortash was the last boss, before the finale, and it was pretty sad, since he and his helpers just continually slipped on ice, while I sniped them from a distance. At the end, my MC was turned into a mind flayer, and I went to kill the Brain. I quickly cleaned up the Dragon and Mind Flayers, before getting to the Brain itself. Inside it wasn’t a problem, but the reaction after your first attack is annoying, and I lost a lot of damage because of that. In the epilogue, I started to talk to everyone, almost ate Jaheira’s brain, and then peaced out. I didn’t want to risk losing the run at the very last moment.
Then, I continued Final Fantasy VII Rebirth today. I completed a quest, won a Chocobo Race and fought a boss. Not much progress, but with BG3 done, maybe I can focus on this one.
A few devs who did have commented that Linux users are like <1% of players but most of the crash reports or things like that. That was before the Steam Deck blew up though, so now you might have more Linux players, but those mostly use Proton, so why do you need a native Linux version.
I’m newish to modding games. I have been on a console my whole life and PC gaming is still relatively new to me. I’ve been modding a few games lately like Mass Effect and Baldurs Gate 3… It’s like a whole ass research assignment to figure out how to load mods. Each one different with different rules. I decided to not...
Yeah, I usually just follow the instructions, which seems to work 99% of the time. The main problem is usually if a mod still works with the latest game version.
Mostly Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Feels like this game took half a step forward and two steps back, compared to the first part. It tries to do a lot of things and doesn’t do many well. There’s minigames-ish for so many things. The open-world stuff kinda tries to be Assassin’s Creed lite, but all zones are huge, but pretty empty, with the same two types of “events” in them (go somewhere or fight). Of course, the game has a shitty crafting system, so you can pick up material in the empty zones. Combat is a bit better than before, but then the devs managed to craft the perfect enemies to make some fights feel like hell, even worse than the worst fights in Remake, and I’m not even done with the game yet. I’ve played the game for 40 hours, but the story has barely moved. I think there’s supposed to be an alternate timeline, but I think I’ve seen like five minutes of it. It’s been pretty disappointing so far, but I still like the characters, so I’ll continue playing.
Then a bit Baldur’s Gate 3. Started another Honor Mode run, going with pretty much the same party build as my first run, where I almost made it. The full fighter playthrough has to wait for the next Patch.
I’m definitely not as down on Rebirth as you, but I liked Remake more. The combat is still fun enough, even if some fights/enemies are terrible.
I’ve also been thinking of re-playing the original, when I’m done, just as I’ve done after Remake. Like you said, I remember the pace throwing me for a loop.
Of course, I had to run it back in Baldur’s Gate 3, Honor Mode, after I failed right before the finish line. This time I went four Fighters, two melee, two ranged. My run ended in Act 2, not because of my party comp, but I let Isobel die in Last Light Inn. I forgot to block a door and the enemy crit three or four attacks on her. I did survive the fight with all the zombies afterward, got into another fight and ended it there. I’ll do another run like this, but probably after Patch 8, when Fighter gets a proper ranged sub-class. No idea, what my next run will be, but it will have to wait a bit.
Then, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth finally released on PC. I’ve been looking forward to this, and just recently re-played the first part. I’m at the beginning of Chapter 4 and it’s good. The big zones are kinda meh, pretty empty, and I don’t think the devs ever used a Chocobo to run around. Unless you only follow the roads, there are small ledges everywhere, and your Chocobo either slows down or stops completely, which is a pain. I still have fun, although the constant short breaks are kinda annoying. Like in the first game, you need to wait for certain animations to finish, before you can go into the menu, or when you completed a “World Intel” objective there’s a 10-second jingle and animation you have to wait for. Often you also get a call from a dude, who tells you he’s found another one, and you just have to stand there and listen. Like I said, I still have a good time, so it’s not a big deal.
So this problem started back in 2023 as in still occurring. Dead Space Remake, Jedi Survivor and Silent Hill 2 are some of the offenders. All these games were highly rated on gameplay and graphics...
This is much older than 2023. I remember Fallout 4, the console version was apparently almost unplayable at launch, so Giant Bomb actually lowered the score, compared to the PC version. And even that example isn’t when this started.
Similarly, what if the reviewers don’t get a specific version, that runs like shit? Like what happened with Cyberpunk, where nobody was able to play the XBONE or PS4 versions.
The thing is, as always, a review is subjective. If the game has problems, but the reviewer can look past them or doesn’t care, why should they change the score.
Someone mentioned it already, but review copies might also run outdated code, and reviewers are in contact with the publisher or devs, and they might say some problem is fixed on release. If the reviewer believes them, it probably won’t affect the score.
Reviewers don’t get these games and then play them in complete isolation. They are in contact with the devs or publisher and might get told which problems are fixed at launch or something.
You kinda have to believe what you’re told, and maybe adjust your score accordingly. Maybe if one dev burns you again and again, you might discard whatever they tell you, but I don’t know who could fit the bill.
Three day weekend … Messed up my schedule. Oh well, what have you been playing? I’ve been checking out a ton of cool playdate stuff, as well as more binding of Isaac. I also picked up a game called the roottrees are dead that I’m excited to check out! It seems like a game similar to case of the golden idol which is one of...
I played an unhealthy amount of Baldur’s Gate 3 and finished my run. Sadly, Ansur, the last boss before I went onto the finale, ended the Honor Mode part. I’m a bit salty about it, since it wasn’t the boss being too hard or something, but mainly bugs, that did me in.
My first try I got him to half HP, then the game just didn’t want to use any actions anymore. I couldn’t even save and quit, but had to go through Task Manager to kill it. Next try I get him to like 80hp, fresh turn with all of my characters, but the game just crashes. Third time, he’s at 80 or so again, but because of terrible animations I didn’t see that he was supposed to be flying in the air, charging his giga attack. Because of some debuff, he was just writhing on the floor, so I just couldn’t really tell. I had a dozen Globe of Invulnerability scrolls, so I could have survived easily.
Anyway, I’ll do another run next month, after Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and maybe the new Diablo 4 season, but dunno about that last one.
Do you think it is likely that we will start to see Large Language Models integrated in to major video games? If so, are there some examples within gaming already?
I dropped Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire for the time being. It’s good, but I just don’t feel it right now. The ship travel does suck though.
Then more coop Baldur’s Gate 3. We are now in Act 3, about to go into the city.
BG3 is part of the reason I stopped playing Pillars 2, since I got a lot more into it than I thought. That’s why I started another solo run, trying to make it through Honor Mode. So far, I died twice in Act 1. First time was the three Intellect Devourers shortly after the tutorial. Second time was to the Gnolls that siege the two dudes in a cave. That one, I could have survived, but did some dumb misplays and paid the price. The current run is going pretty good, although I had some really close moments. The Spectator fight almost took out my party, same with the Robots in the Underdark Tower. If I die again, I’ll probably change to a custom difficulty, where I can save, just to learn the game and fights more, before I try again. I severely overestimated my game knowledge.
I also beat Windblown a few more times, and moved up to the final difficulty, but barely did any attempts since then.
We pass the ps5 controller so we each get an npc during combat and do splitscreen for the world.
Is local coop different from online coop? I’m playing through the game with a friend right now, and we both have our own small party, and control two characters in a fight. Or maybe I just misunderstood what you meant.
Square was really scraping the barrel for this one. “Good graphics, that you can change!”
Changing how many NPCs could be nice, and I’m probably gonna need DLSS for upscaling. AMD and Intel users might have to wait for a mod, since there was no mention of FSR or XeSS.
On the site with the performance graphs, Farcry and Plague Tale should be more representative, if you want to ignore FG. That’s still only two games, with first-party benchmarks, so wait for third-party anyway.
They’ve already said it’s all because of DLSS 4. The 5070 needs the new 4x FG to match the 4090, although I don’t know if the 4090 has the “old” 2x FG enabled, probably not.
I unlocked the final difficulty in Windblown. However, I’m gonna play the previous one a bit more, to get some more reps, since the stat increase for enemies seems just insane.
Then I played more Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire. While the game is good, it took me a while to get into it. I don’t like getting around with the ship, it’s just super tedious. When you don’t enable enemy scaling, the world is also full of enemies, that are far too strong for you (I did beat some fights, the game said are probably too difficult). Now, after 25h I’m level 10, can do more stuff, and it’s getting more interesting.
Finally, my friend and I continued our Baldur’s Gate 3 coop run, and we just made it to Act 3. Because this is a Dark Urge run, and we are pretty much killing everything, there was a bunch of stuff we couldn’t do in Act 2, so it felt a bit short (except for our month break or something), although we did spend a lot of time in combat.
Happy new year guys!😀 Just now, it hit midnight here, and it’s officially 2025. I was playing Pennon and Battle, and I realized it’s the last game I played in 2024!! That gave it a different kind of meaning. Now I’m curious, what was the last game you played in 2024?
The issue is that I think there are Steam bundles that can’t be gifted, such as the Valve pack and that kind of thing. That also makes something like Civ 6 less likely, just because of the DLC bundles. I can also use Fanatical or Humble but frankly the region thing might be an issue....
I watched the trailer and the evolution they’re going with is apparently not making an RTS anymore, but an Action Roguelike. If that’s the kind of evolution we’re talking about, I feel we’ve already stuff in a similar vein (dunno specifically about roguelike though).
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 16th
What have you all been playing?...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 9th
What have y’all been playing? I’ve been continuing my Avowed grind. I’m starting to be ready for it to be over. But it is still very enjoyable. I just have other games I want to play lol
Tony Hawk's™ Pro Skater™ 3 + 4 | Reveal Trailer (youtu.be)
Split Fiction - Review Thread
Game Information...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 2nd
What’cha all been playing? I’ve been playing a ton for Avowed this last week. I’m really enjoying it! It’s definitely got some issues but overall it’s been one of my favorite RPGs in recent memory
BREAKING: EA releases C&C source code under GPL3! (peertube.wtf)
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of Feb 23rd
Whatcha playing?...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of Feb 16th
Whatcha all been playing?...
Are we going through another scalping apocalypse?
Are we? Seems like GPUs are not available on launch, or even after a long while. Scalpers are at it again. Should I not wait and look into the used market?
Lies of P: Overture [DLC] - Announcement Trailer | PS5 & PS4 Games (www.youtube.com)
"Lies of P: Overture is a dramatic prequel to the acclaimed Lies of P, transporting you to the city of Krat in its final days of haunting late-19th-century Belle Époque beauty. On the brink of the Puppet Frenzy massacre, you follow the legendary Stalker—a mysterious guide—through untold stories and chilling secrets. As...
Monster Hunter: World sold over a million copies just in the last 3 months, despite being 7 years old (automaton-media.com)
Thoughts on Final Fantasy VII Remake
I grew up playing Final Fantasy VII. I probably played it around 10-12 years old and again on ios a few years ago....
FF7 REBIRTH HOT TAKES
I hate Yuffie....
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of Feb 9th
What have y’all been playing? I’ve been trying to wrap up Indiana Jones, then I think I’m going to do a replay of the machine games Wolfenstein games
Me, having neither somehow
Why there are few native Linux games compared to Windows or even Mac?
Does the existence of Wine compatibility layer discourages the creation of native Linux games?
I'm still traumatized (lemmy.world)
Are mods usually confusing as hell or am I just an idiot?
I’m newish to modding games. I have been on a console my whole life and PC gaming is still relatively new to me. I’ve been modding a few games lately like Mass Effect and Baldurs Gate 3… It’s like a whole ass research assignment to figure out how to load mods. Each one different with different rules. I decided to not...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of Feb 2nd
What have you all been playing?...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of January 26th
Whatcha been playing?...
Reviewers giving high scores to poorly optimised games really grinds my gears
So this problem started back in 2023 as in still occurring. Dead Space Remake, Jedi Survivor and Silent Hill 2 are some of the offenders. All these games were highly rated on gameplay and graphics...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of January 20th
Three day weekend … Messed up my schedule. Oh well, what have you been playing? I’ve been checking out a ton of cool playdate stuff, as well as more binding of Isaac. I also picked up a game called the roottrees are dead that I’m excited to check out! It seems like a game similar to case of the golden idol which is one of...
Large Language Models in Video Games?
Do you think it is likely that we will start to see Large Language Models integrated in to major video games? If so, are there some examples within gaming already?
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of January 12th
What have you been playing?...
FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH - PC Features Trailer (www.youtube.com)
Nvidia Announces RTX 50's Graphic Card Blackwell Series: RTX 5090 ($1999), RTX 5080 ($999), RTX 5070 Ti ($749), RTX 5070 ($549) (www.theverge.com)
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of January 5th
Happy new year! What have you been playing?...
How many games do you manage to play at the same time?
I’m a separated dad with a demanding job and a fiancé. I only have the kids when I’m not working but I want to be fully available for them....
what was the last game you played in 2024?
Happy new year guys!😀 Just now, it hit midnight here, and it’s officially 2025. I was playing Pennon and Battle, and I realized it’s the last game I played in 2024!! That gave it a different kind of meaning. Now I’m curious, what was the last game you played in 2024?
Longtime buddy of mine just got a gaming PC. What games would make up a good "welcome to PC" care package?
The issue is that I think there are Steam bundles that can’t be gifted, such as the Valve pack and that kind of thing. That also makes something like Civ 6 less likely, just because of the DLC bundles. I can also use Fanatical or Humble but frankly the region thing might be an issue....
Age of Empires designer believes RTS games need to finally evolve after decades of stagnation (www.videogamer.com)