I wish they still made games like ...

I have a cycle that I repeat every so often, and I just noticed it. It seems that, every few years, I start to get nostalgic for a certain type of game, or even a certain game. Eventually, that gets busted up as I fall in love again, but I think I'm on the verge again.

Going into the PlayStation era, I was getting increasingly nostalgic for the OLD JRPGs like the original Final Fantasy, and I was pretty put off by the original Final Fantasy VII demo disc. Looking back, I chuckle, because I think I was hung up on some pretty insignificant shit. I think I get stuck on silly details. I'm embarrassed, but things like the enemies not being in a separate window, and the game was too flashy, and nonsense upon nonsense. I also hated the trend that things had been going with the characters being predefined instead of blank slates. Sigh ...

I'd been building up a bit of resentment for a while.

I ended up preordering the game and loving the hell out of it.

Jump to a few years later, when JRPGs were actually really starting to tank in the post-FFX world. Final Fantasy X had left me ... bewildered and despondent. It's not a bad game, but it's a bad Final Fantasy game. The things I liked about it were the battle system and oops, that's the end. The rest of it, for me was somewhere between bland and annoying.

Little did I realize, until years later, that all JRPGs heroes are supposed to sound barely pubescent and squeaky. That really soured the NES and SNES JRPGs for me, as I couldn't get that 'Tidus shriek' out of my head when I read the hero lines.

KotOR saved gaming for me. That game was such a breath of fresh air for me, and the perfect exit point. It really started my departure from console gaming and JRPGs. I was still a little bitter over the direction that things had gone from the amazing Final Fantasy IX to what Final Fantasy X was, but KotOR and western RPGs really saved gaming for me, and breathed new life into my passion for gaming.

However, the cycle started to repeat after that. Dragon Age: Origins was just as amazing for me, but I was disappointed that I couldn't stack actions in advance. Mass Effect wasn't Star Wars, and was a little too action for me. DA2, at least the PC version, still had the combat mostly intact, but I'll never forget the BioWare directive that 'every time you hit a button, something awesome happens' that had me retching my metaphorical guts out. ME2 was an action game with some RPG aspects. ME3 was actually a great game, up until the meaningless ending. DAI ... I loved it at the time, but it has degraded in quality for me with my second playthrough. It's just lotsa busy work, which wrecks the pacing and sense of immediacy.

Meanwhile, I've been loving games like Pillars of Eternity and The Witcher series, so I think I'm transitioning again, but man ... I'd love something like KotOR and Dragon Age: Origins again. There was just something about those games that suited me just right. This is the same damn feeling I used to have with FFVII (which now feels crazy limited.)

So, yeah, I'm definitely part of the problem. I'm one of those awful gaming enthusiasts that gets stuck on one game and is disappointed when another game isn't just a carbon copy (though I don't voice this in forums or harass developers.) Typically, I just push myself to adapt, and I think I've gotten better about it. I've spread out with games like Divinity: Original Sin, Deus Ex, Dishonored, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, etc. Yeah, I know your cutesy 2D platforming indie media darling isn't listed there, nor is your JRPG that is totally indistinguishable from any other modern JRPG, but I am trying them, especially the JRPGs, since I'd love to get back into that space.

I think Pillars is a step toward that One Game to Rule Them All for the next few years for me. And I'm looking ahead at Torment ... drool ...

I'm torn, though. I think it's OK to love what you love, but I also think we should always be looking to expand our horizons. I think a balance between the two is probably best. Most people I know go too far one way or the other, and I probably skew too far toward 'love what I love,' but I do have evidence that I do eventually evolve.

So, how about you? Are you part of the problem? How do you see your gaming tastes evolving? How have they changed?

Six days 'til Torment/Horizon Day, ya'll.!

-Blaine

Me vs JRPGs vs cRPGs (or however capitalization works now)

Confession time. Actually, I've confessed this before, but it still needs to be reviewed and analyzed, so whatever.

I started gaming in the 80s, and very quickly took to RPGs. There's always been something about living a great novel that has always appealed to me. I love my real life, but I also love the escapism and investing myself in another world that comes with a great RPG. I love the lore, the compelling narrative, the rich characters, the deep systems, all of it. It's really about all I play. I'm at a point now in which, if I venture into another genre, it feels shallow and almost pointless. There have been a few remarkable exceptions, but nearly every non-RPG game feels like something in which I cannot find something to invest myself. 2D platformers feel like me just pressing buttons while getting aggravated. Even a lot of the old classics feel like little more than nostalgic diversions that ring utterly hollow.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN I JUDGE YOU FOR LIKING WHAT YOU LIKE, SO TAKE A GODDAM BREATH.

However, that atrocity is not what I am here to confess.

My early RPGs were things like Ultima and ... Ultima, maybe? And some really primitive shit on Atari of which I can't remember the name.

All that got blown out of the water, though, by the first Final Fantasy. I remember reading about it in a Nintendo Power strategy guide. NP briefly went to a weird format in which every other issue was a strat guide for a game. I wanna say the others were Ninja Gaiden II (one of the great non-RPGs of all time) and some other shit. SMB3, maybe?

Anyway, I read the guide in advance of the game, fell in love with all the numbers and huge land masses, saved up my allowance, and then walked down to the local Wal-Mart and bought it. And fell madly in love. That was potentially the single-most life-changing gaming experience I've ever had. It really altered not only what kind of games I knew I loved, but solidified that I wanted to be a creative person for the rest of my life.

And I pretty much stuck with JRPGs through the 90s (Final Fantasy was released in the US in 1990.)

I did have a time in which I didn't play much. I took a break from gaming to have sex with girls, smoke weed, and get drunk, before I realized I could combine all that with my love of gaming.

Side note - of any man I know, I have the highest ratio of taste in great games to hot chicks I bedded in the 90s. I know that Final Fantasy VI was the best console game of the 90s AND I slept with a model in the 90s. Just sayin'.

As the turn of the century hit, JRPGs tanked. Or I outgrew them. Or both. Or I dunno. It all kinda peaked for me with Final Fantasy IX and Chrono Cross. They're both amazing games, and signal, for me, the end of an era. I've played great JRPGs since then, most notably Final Fantasy XII and Lost Odyssey, but the PS2/Xbox era was where I made a pretty drastic transition.

I can point at two games that caused this major disruption for me. First, Final Fantasy X, despite the great battle system, was a bad game, at least for what I need from a game. The characters, the story, the tone, and the world were all off-putting. The lack of a world map grated on me, but I accepted that Squenix was trying to on-board new fans, and I guess that was a thing or whatever. I actually really enjoyed FFX-2 a LOT more. Gone was the melodrama and incessant whining, replaced with a hilarious and lighthearted tone, which was vastly appreciated.

So, FFX was the first incident. The second was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I remember reading about it, probably in EGM, and thinking 'oh, it's not turn-based, so I don't give a fuck.' Then, I was over at a buddy's place in St. Louis, pulling bong hits, while he explained to me this amazing 'KoOR' game that his other buddy had, and how there were all these different choices that you could make, and it sounded pretty cool. So, a few nights later, I hooked up with this hot Puerto Rican gal in Chicago, and as we were stumbling down a street, I saw we were going past an EB Games, and decided 'fuck it,' and ducked in with her. I snagged an Xbox and a used copy of KotOR. We went back to my place, and proceeded to get loaded while I set up my Xbox and KotOR. I ended up stopping because I could tell I was gonna miss out on my first Latina if I didn't refocus. We went upstairs, had our fun, and then, afterward, when she was asleep, I snuck back down to start playing.

In my defense, I did have breakfast made for her, since I'd been up all night trying to find Bastila.

And KotOR really tipped the scales. From there, I got into Jade Empire, KotOR II, The Elder Scrolls, and then I shifted over to PC gaming during the PS360 era, and discovered the wonderful Piranha Bytes games, The Witcher, and more. I still buy every Final Fantasy that comes out. I played through X, X-2, XII, XIII, but haven't finished one since. I'm pretty lukewarm on FFXV. Honestly, most of it is that it's only on console (I play almost exclusively on a pretty spiffy laptop that I can take anywhere), and the characters are BLAH.

Looking back, though, it's funny, because I missed out on some of the best PC gaming ever. I wasn't on PC at the time that Baldur's Gate, Torment, Arcanum, NWN, and others were hitting.

And that's more or less my confession. I can't decide if I'm a fraud or not. I'm a nearly-40 PC gamer that has never played through a BioWare game that came out before KotOR. I'm sure some snide neckbeard is sneering at me as he reads this, but just remember. I had a better 90s than you did. I guarantee it.

Looking back over the years, I think my greatest RPG gaming experiences, and this is really another post for another time, are probably Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy VII, KotOR, Dragon Age: Origins, The Witcher, SWTOR, Pillars of Eternity, and probably something amazing that I'm not thinking of at the moment.

What about you? Have you swung both ways, in terms of JRPGs and cRPGs? What do you prefer? What are your favorites?

Videos
Here's some cool shit about video games from today.




Also, I am streaming today at 1630 and 2000 (central time) over on my Twitch channel. Not sure what we're gonna at 1630, maybe some Divinity: Original Sin 2, and then 2000 will be the resumption of The Road to Andromeda: Mass Effect 3. See ya tonight!

-Blaine

Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls, Pillars of Eternity, and Streaming

There was a flurry of Final Fantasy announcements early this morning. You can get the full breakdown here.



Here's what caught my eye the most:

01. FFXIV: Stormblood is still on-target for 6/20. I had no doubt, but they're bringing back my favorite Final Fantasy class ever, the Red Mage, in this expansion. I played the first Final Fantasy back on the NES when it first came out, and I loved the Red Mage in that game. I've been hot and cold on Final Fantasy XIV, but the folks that love it FUCKING LOVE IT, so I keep trying it.

02. Final Fantasy XII HD is hitting PlayStation 4 on 7/11. I adore this game, but I'm not sure I'll ever replay it, especially if it's only on a console. I have a PS4, use it occasionally, but console gaming in my house is very difficult, whereas I can play my PC games anywhere, any time, with any mods, and they look gorgeous. I hope this hits Steam.

03. That Final Fantasy VII remake. By the maker, that's a clusterfuck. Today's announcement was just a reminder that this project exists. I already think Nomura is all flash and no substance, and the gutting of the battle system in this thing just reinforces that to me. Materia + turn-based + strategy made for some amazing battles, whereas this dumbed-down action system completely turns me off. I just don't understand this need to make everything flashy and stupid. Strategy is fun. Thinking is fun. And it's episodic because Nomura can't get projects out the door anymore. At least there's a chance he'll be kicked off this project, too (as happened on FFXV), when it takes too long. I hate this. Final Fantasy VI and VII were amazing games, and don't need to be 'fixed.' Make something new and great. Don't take something old and great and make it new and bad. Give me a true Final Fantasy VII sequel. Make it turn-based, strategic, and deep. Bah.



In happier news, Elder Scrolls Online is getting a major announcement today, at 1300 central time. As I said yesterday, I'm expecting it's going to be Vvardenfell (the island in Morrowind.) I'm a big fan of this game and series, so I'm excited to check it out. You can watch it here or below:

Watch live video from Bethesda on www.twitch.tv

I'm also thrilled with how well the Fig campaign is going for Pillars II. I'm loving the stretch goals, especially the one at $2m, which allows for more advanced user-controlled AI programming. I love that kinda shit, like in the original Dragon Age.

Anyway, I'll be streaming today @ 1630, and it'll probably be some ESO, so we can talk about the recent announcement. Check me out here or below!

Watch live video from taranwalker on www.twitch.tv

So, what do you think of the Final Fantasy announcements? Anything you're excited about? Anything really got your panties in a twist? What about ESO? Do you play? What do you wanna see?

-Blaine

Boss Fights Suck

OK, let's see if I can formulate this into a coherent series of words.

I'm actually OK with boss fights. In fact, I even enjoy a lot of them. Among my favorites are the final (real) battle in Final Fantasy VII, the final boss in Divinity: Original Sin, the final battle in Pillars of Eternity, and basically just about anything that doesn't rely on twitchy responses.

I'm actually not bad in really twitchy games. If needed, I can become quite proficient. It's just not how I want to spend my time.

See, I don't allow a huge amount of time in my life for gaming, even though I love it. It's probably my favorite hobby. But I also believe in having a rich, diverse life. I have so many great things, and time is now my most precious resource. I have two amazing children, a fantastic wife, a really cool job, plus I make time three times a week to exercise with a friend and take care of my body, plus I have interests outside of gaming, so I'm basically a weekend warrior. I usually set aside time for maybe one big play session, and I might be able to sneak in a second one. Especially during the summer, time is just tight. During the summer, I actually struggle mightily to hold it together because my days are so dense, and spend all day from 530-2130 going from commitment to commitment to commitment. It's not ideal, but it's where we are in life right now.

OK, let's make a point, shall we?

So, knowing that I don't have a huge amount of time for gaming, but a pretty wicked brain, if I can use my vast intelligence and understanding of the game's systems to 1) over-level myself to ensure minimal enemy resistance, and 2) still be challenged a bit in strategic combat, I'm good.

What I don't like is the final battle in The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine. It took me back to the original Ninja Gaiden on NES, and that game's horrendous final boss. It's in three stages, and if you die, you start at the very beginning of the battle. Right there, I was frustrated. On top of that, with imprecise movements, you can die in just a couple hits. And too much healing poisons you.

It was bizarre, too, because nowhere else in the game, or any of its expansions, is there a cheap-shit, cheesedick fucking boss fight like this.

But, I refused to give up, and actually repeated the fight more times than I normally allow myself, because I was so committed to ending the game last weekend.

I think the expected behavior is that I'd experience a sense of relief and accomplishment once I defeated the boss. Instead, when I defeated him, I felt intense annoyance at the shit I'd just had to wade through in an otherwise pristine and wonderful experience. And yeah, I was playing on baby bitch settings. I'd had other fights that were challenging along the way, but I was always able to get them within a few tries, and they allowed some margin of error. This did not. This was, even on baby bitch, stupidly hard.

The Witcher games are an exception for me. I tend to play mostly pause-and-play or turn-based RPGs, but each of the Witcher titles have featured a pretty fun and engaging approach to battle, and I can make it easy enough that it's still fun for me.

Understand, too, that I'm not condemning your love of Dark Souls. I tried it once. Not my cup of tea. But, I get why that's fun for some people. Me? I prefer to chill. I like using my brain and planning moves, as if I'm playing chess. I don't prefer intensity in my down-time. I like to chill. I spend nearly every moment of every day being extremely fired up and intense, and when I game, I wanna experience a story and some light strategy.

It's kinda the same way I feel about obnoxious puzzle-solving in games. Puzzles are fine. Obtuse puzzles that require a web search are a waste of my fucking time.

Side note - you know who does puzzles well? Naughty Dog. You know who does puzzles well and demands that you stop thinking about games like they're games? Larian Studios.

I used to be super-open about gaming experiences. I used to grab whatever the latest hotness was, regardless of genre, because it's what the cats at EGM and CGW were playing. I ended up with a sizable pile of unfinished games. As I got older, I made my interests less horizontal and more vertical. I now play lots and lots of RPGs, from the big AAA stuff to the smaller indie titles, so long as it's an RPG.

Occasionally, I'll succumb to peer pressure and try out one of those cutesy indie platforming games, and I'll enjoy it, but I think that's enhanced by the fact that I rarely play them. And it seems like a lot of the guys that makes those games are pretentious dickbags.

What about you? What's your threshold for feeling like your time is being wasted in a game? What was one of the most rage-inducing moments you've ever had in a game?

Oh, and I played the first hour of I Am Setsuna last night ... check it out ... I have some warm feelings for it, but also some uncomfortable ones. I'm still formulating an opinion on it, and ... well, I need to play more first. I know it's not fashionable, but I'm actually not rushing forward with an opinion.

I'm one year closer to 40 soon. I'm actually not at all upset or worried about it. Each decade I've earned has been better than the one immediately preceding it. My 30s have been better than my 20s which were better than my teens. Let's see how long this can continue.

Alright, chill time over. Back to the grind.

Oh, and Comic-Con is this weekend. We need to talk about that soon.

-Blaine

Saturday! Pheeew!

I might've said it before, and if so, it's worth saying again. For a short week, this felt like a looong week.

Now, it's Saturday. I got to sleep in until almost 9AM, I'm showered, I'm relaxing with my sons, I'm listening to Elder Scrolls Off the Record, and I'm typing at you. Good times. I'm thinking about taking the boys out for lunch today. Not sure where. Suggestions are welcome.

I fully plan to engage max chill this weekend. I got my sister-in-law and her boyfriend coming down today, and they're both cool people. I'm buying the UFC thing on PPV tonight for her man, for his birthday, I got a buddy coming over tonight to shoot the breeze, and we haven't seen each other in a while, and I got an itch for some MMO action, so either SWTOR, ESO, FFXIV, or Guild Wars 2 (or some combination thereof) is/are going to get played. Probably SWTOR, at least, since I wanna play the next chapter of Knights of the Fallen Empire, and I wanna continue in the Dark vs Light event.

Your vote here might matter.

All four are amazing games, I don't have nearly enough time for all four, three cost monthly money, I know, but all four are amazing games, and I love MMOs. I love RPGs in general, but I love having a main single-player RPG and an MMO to focus on. I'm fickle about the MMOs, though. I dunno. I'm weird.

I'll probably stream a bit, too. I wanted to stream my first foray into Red Dead Redemption on Xbox, since it's on backwards compatibility now, but I don't think I can stream to YouTube Gaming from Xbox One, which sucks ASS. I don't want to stream to Twitch, but I might anyway. We'll see.

I did have a couple GREAT streams the last couple days, though. PLEASE, if you haven't watched any of my stream recordings yet, check these out. The Doom one starts out slow (I had some dog issues), so jump ahead to six minutes. I guess I could just edit it.

Also, playing Inside was interesting. I do not play platformers, especially 2D, and especially puzzle-heavy. I got a request to go way outside my comfort zone with a game, and this one was suggested, and apparently, the results were hilarious. This was kind of a special video. Give it a look-see.

Anyway, check those out, and please give me some feedback, either here, or in that video's comments. And feel free to poke around my channel, take it all in, and give me some overall feedback. I love doing this stuff, and I wanna do it better.

If you have any requests to see me play something, lemme know. I'm pretty open.

Alright, time to plan for lunch. If I'm gonna stream later, I'll throw something up on my Twitter.

Word.

-Blaine

PS - I love Dark Matter and Killjoys SOOO MUCH. Give 'em a look.

Today's the Day

At 4PM central US time today, I officially start my career as a streamer. Note that this is distinct from a 'streaker,' though how much, I have yet to find out (pretty sure Twitch and YouTube have policies about this, actually, that I don't plan to test.)

I'll welcome you all to ... The Blaine Blast!

So, today, we'll be talking about some of the big news from this past week, such as Fig, FFVII on iOS, and some new and upcoming releases. I'll be live-streaming my dive into Shadowrun: Hong Kong, and also talking with chat about whatcha playin' and maybe even a topic or two.

You can check out the action here:

Twitch

And if you wanna take a gander at some of the video work I did last night with Dragonfall, Satellite Reign, and a modded KotOR, you can check out my YouTube channel, which gets all my Twitch stuff post-broadcast.

In fact, here's an hour or so with KotOR:


If you can make it out, light up the chat, and show some support, I'd REALLY appreciate it. If you ever listened to my old podcast, Untitled Podcast, there will be some content similar to that, but I really intend for this to be a whole new endeavor.

Thanks, and I really hope to see you!

 - Blaine

Fuck Off Friday 2015/7/24

My concept of time is one that is often skewed. I will eventually associate linear concepts to it, such as a date, but typically, for whatever reason, I always associate memories and events with what I was listening to at the time.

For example, the summer of '95 was a really special one for me, for a number of reasons, and all those memories are bound to Everclear - Sparkle and Fade, Neil Young - Mirror Ball, Mad Season - Above, White Zombie - Astrocreep 2000 and more. I couldn't tell you when, exactly, a lot of things happened, but I can tell you what was in my Walkman, and later, my phone, at that general time.

Which is why it was so puzzling to me, the other night, that I associate Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic with Velvet Revolver and Melissa auf der Maur. Contraband and Auf der Maur, I was certain, came out a couple years after KotOR.

And I was right. KotOR hit in 2003, but I wouldn't touch it. I also didn't have an Xbox.

Now, I'm also not someone that views nostalgia as a good thing, in fact, I tend to have a pretty low opinion of those that are hung up on nostalgia, as if all good things stopped happening after they turned 18, so I tend not to dwell on the past.

As such, I was fairly surprised and amused when I thought through the events that led me to KotOR.

There was a time, pretty much from sixth grade (when I got the first Final Fantasy the day it came out at the local Wal-Mart after going ga-ga about it from Nintendo Power previews), all the way through high school, that pretty much all I played was JRPGs and other Japanese console games. Western development and PC gaming were nowhere on my radar.

Then, the transition from Final Fantasy IX to Final Fantasy X happened. It was a really hard time. Personally, from 1996 to 2001, I had a pretty substantial 'growing up' transformation, but also, the gaming landscape changed dramatically. JRPGs hit their peak, the Final Fantasy movie happened, Sakaguchi was tossed out of Squenix, and we were handed the very bland Final Fantasy X. It's not a bad game, and actually has some very strong points, but overall, it served as a death knell for the genre and the series.

In that time, a funny thing happened. Microsoft entered the console race. I initially sneered at this, since at the time, I knew Bill Gates and Microsoft were little more than the Borg manifested in reality.

I played through Final Fantasy X, despite the story and characters and overall bland experience (though combat was pretty rad), I tried Final Fantasy XI, which I hated (I'd never played an MMO before), I actually kinda dug X-2, mainly because it had great systems and didn't feature the heavy-handed pseudo-angst of X, while slowly, western RPGs started to creep into the console world.

I remember a roommate showing me Morrowind on his PC during this time. It was ugly, different, and weird. I just flat-out ignored it.

I remember seeing KotOR get previewed in EGM, GamePro, and a few other magazines. I remember seeing it on gaming websites, which were still kind of a new thing for me then.

I remember seeing it, thinking it looked more like an action game, and since it wasn't turn-based, I wasn't even going to look at it.

I remember all this stuff, and I smirk and shake my head. Ah, youth (despite being in my 20s at the time).

I did my undergrad in Chicago. One weekend, I went back to St. Louis (where I've spent most of my life) to visit family and friends. One particular evening, a very good friend, whose tastes I've come to trust, told me about being at another buddy's house and watching him play that new 'Knights of the Old Republic' game, and it was super-awesome, because there was this part where you had to clear a room of Sith, and you could either hack a computer to blow shit up in there, or you could reprogram this droid, and there were all these choices throughout the game that got you light and dark side points, and it was so awesome.

So, I mulled it over, then went out and bought KotOR for PC. And my PC wasn't beefy enough to run it. So I went out and bought an Xbox and KotOR. This was 2004.

Bear in mind, this was my first BioWare game. I'd ignored PC gaming all through the 90s, so this kind of game was just mind-blowing.

Having a JRPG junkie, I was very much accustomed to the 'illusion of choice' that JRPGs gave, and which, years later, BioShock would point out is actually in nearly every game. While KotOR definitely had some of this illusion going, the order of magnitude was far less, in terms of how much of it was illusion. Choices actually produced multiple and seemingly profound outcomes. Companions reacted to me. Situations had multiple approach vectors. AND I HAVE A FUCKING LIGHTSABER.

I was in love, and at a very key time. Some personal things had completely fallen apart, and at a critical juncture. Long story short, I was a free agent, on all fronts, but I needed to go home (St. Louis) and take care of some things there. While St. Louis and Star Wars were all-too familiar to me, they'd also changed a lot in my absence, and I needed that combination of familiar and new.

I played the hell out of this thing, still managed to graduate that spring, and then during my move back to St. Louis, the HDD in the Xbox was damaged, and I was heart-broken.

I went to my local GameStop (one of the old FuncoLands I'd run as a managed, actually), and got a brand-new Xbox and a trial for Xbox Live. I bought the Xbox-exclusive DLC for KotOR (some station where you rescue a guy and you can buy shit), and started my game over. Replaying all the stuff I'd already done was actually more fun than I thought it would be. I actually made some different choices that time around, completed some things I hadn't before, and marveled at how some of the companions reacted a little differently.

That summer, I started to hear about KotOR 2, which was coming from a different developer, but they were friends with BioWare or something, and it was going to hit that holiday. So, I accelerated my play even more, to make sure I was ready.

Anyway, playing through KotOR was a transformative experience, and one that I am so glad happened. It really did forever alter my trajectory, not just as a gamer, but as a developer, and person. My narrow tastes were expanded greatly, and there was so much more out there for me to enjoy. I went back through BioWare's back catalog, same with Obisidian and Black Isle, and then eventually found my way to Bethesda, and on and on.

Also, JRPGs, Final Fantasy XII aside, seemed to go straight into the shitter. I guess I do like Final Fantasy XIV, as well.

Anyway, as you may know, KotOR 2 got a big update out of nowhere, which led me to finally mod up my KotOR1 install to 1920x1080, and I've been replaying it. As I said, I tend to look down on nostalgia quite a bit, and I still do, but it's been interesting to hear echoes of the past as I talk and fight my way through the underbelly of Taris. It's also interesting to compare my more recent adventures on Taris in SWTOR with what I'm seeing now.

I've also found it interesting to see, first hand, just how far BioWare has come as a developer since the release of KotOR in 2002. And not only from the obvious technology standpoint, but in terms of how they implement that technology, and how design sensibilities have evolved, both in terms of development choices, but also how those choices have shaped consumer expectations.

I have many more thoughts on this that I'll share here, but not right now. Time and trying to avoid the 'mega-post' are constraints right now.

Oh, and I don't even have time to talk about the amazing mods out there for KotOR2.

Anyway, I'll be replaying KotOR, KotOR2 (TSLRCM), and then the Jedi Knight story in SWTOR, and I plan to post some thoughts as I go. I might even stream some of it on Twitch. I'll let you know.

Do you have any particularly fun or interesting memories regarding this series? Any plans to replay any of these great games?