Bought a fancy new graphics card then just played Doom instead.

There's no logical reason a game from 1993 is still this good to play in the year 2026. Could you call something where you play as a figure simply known as Doomguy relentlessly taking on demons from hell art? I'm not sure, but the best art persists and Doom persists.

I can play the opening level through in my head. Every part of it. I do think I could probably finish it with my eyes closed. Still to this day I don't think there are many games that have bettered the combination of tight levels, satisfying gameplay and pure exhilaration.

I went back to 1993 after bouncing off The Dark Ages when they made me ride a dragon like I was Daneyrs herself. A game made in the modern, corporate era with corporate masters and by people who I suspect hadn't really ever understood what it was that made the original work.

For me, Dark Ages was a victim of the current industry and it's obsession with feature bloat. There is power in simplicity and brevity. I don't need a shield. I'm Doomguy. I don't need combos. I'm Doomguy. And I definitely don't need a ****ing dragon.

At the danger of being old man shouts at cloud and the misty eyed nostalgia imp staring at me and the fact that I'm not 12 anymore I think the environment Doom was created in goes partly towards explaining why the game is so good. There is power in conflict. The team didn't always get on. They disagreed and argued and fell out and I doubt they had a HR team back then and you put all of this into a giant mixer and this is what comes out.

I rolled credits on 1993 for the very first time. I don't honestly even think I'd ever really touched episode three before which is quite wild really. What surprised me was that this was a game I could shoot through in an evening or two. The levels are short and snappy. The game treats you like an adult. There are no quest markers here. Play without a guide. You get stuck then you're gonna need to work this out for yourself big guy.

The pace is fast and relentless and I don't think that shooting an imp with one click of your shotgun has ever been bettered in all of gaming. Why is the sound of a door opening somewhere still so scary and off putting? The ability to recognise exactly what's around the corner by the noises the demons make is exhilarating. I'm down to my shotgun now but it doesn't feel hopeless. Well it does feel hopeless but if I can just make it around this corner, take out those imps and grab that health pack then maybe...

Then you get to the final level and your stick a few BFG shots at a spiderdemon and you're done. 10/10.

Is this the best game that's ever been made? It might be.

The amount of creativity, passion, and detail in this game was beyond what I could have expected. The moment I booted the game and saw all the cutscenes, character banter, warping terrain, and colorful collectibles, I knew I was in for a wild ride.

There were times when the game blew me away to the point that I just had to put it down and take a break. It was too much to take in at once! For example, I went into the mind of the crazy guy who thought he was Napoleon. I was just messing around with the door item thinking "eh, I wonder if it would work on anyone." So I go in his mind, see a small room with two characters playing a board game, and think ok! I guess everyone does have something, if at least a simple small room. But then I accidentally jump into the game and seamlessly get SUCKED IN.

I felt the same awe with this game as I did when I played Little King's Story and Earthbound. Just wildly creative and deviously deep games that are just as much abstract art.

I will admit, the last stretch really tested my patience, especially the section where I have to escort Oly. And man, the camera was worse than Mario 64 overall. I had many moments of frustration, thinking how unfortunate it was that this game just didn't understand its limitations and was overly ambitious in its level design.

But honestly? Bless the team for trying anyway. I think their vision was worth the frustrations.

9/10 thank goodness there's a sequel out now.

I've recently finished Auridia. It's exploration-focused and centers around discovering Auridia, a lost city built by an extinct intelligent species, as well the Auridians' deities, what ultimately happened to them, and finding out what happened to your grandfather who embarked on the same journey but didn't return from. The lost city/civilisation thing isn't a new concept, but what makes Auridia good is the way it executes on that.

Being a lost city, there's very little life. A few non-hostile bugs greet your entry, but they're some of the only life you'll encounter. You start your journey with only a burning torch, with no ability to kill. The torch can stun the bugs, giving you a means of getting through them, but it won't kill them. You won't find much other life. The Auridians are largely absent from the game outside of a handful of encounters, but they are few and far between, and not in a state to converse with you. You will spend most of the game exploring the city on your lonesome.

Being a metroidvania, of course there are abilities and utilities to be unlocked. There's a handful of hostile enemies, and you'll initially be just avoiding them with no way to fight back, but eventually getting 2 powers to combat them: one to block their attacks, and another that redirects them after blocking. The nature of these powers gives you the tools to either continue evading enemies or fight back, but it's ultimately up to the player which they do.

The rest of the powers are traversal utilities: a grappling hook to swing with, a short range teleport, a late game flying ability, and stamina upgrades which fuel your abilities, but even the other 2 combat abilities can be used for traversal techs; the block enabling bouncing off of hazards such as those covering the floor or walls, and the redirect enabling launching off of projectiles and other mid-air objects. The range of abilities are designed to enable a range of challenging platforming challenges, some of which might require the use of many of these powers to complete. Each ability behaves differently for traversal, so judging which abilities to chain into which to overcome a platforming section is something I found doing a number of times throughout the game as the game threw platforming challenge after platforming challenge at me.

Whilst the city itself is largely empty, you find a companion in a researcher who wants to discover the true history of Auridia, but is struggling to traverse it. They ask for your help by finding artifacts that tell stories about what happened there. Each item you collect has a souls-esque description with a tidbit of lore, but when you collect enough about a given subject and give them to the researcher, they put the pieces together for a more concrete retelling. I know a lot of people won't like that style or story telling, but I think it works well for a game of this scale. There's story there for those that want to engage with it, but you really don't need to engage with it at all if you don't care for it.

There's not many metroidvanias like this that steer away from combat. I found the experience of mostly just exploring to be a quite refreshing experience. There's only really 1 boss fight as well right at the end, but even then, it's more of a platforming challenge than a fight. At only about 6 or 7 hours long, I think the game is worth playing, especially as a chill palate cleanser.