I love them both. I feel like they both need to be played on harder difficulties because they’re built for a pushy playstyle, especially Eternal which requires melee finishers for ammo drops even more than the '16 game already did.

'16 has more of a straightforward plot. The story is fine. The main NPC looks and sounds like James Spader’s Ultron, which thrills me. I love the Mars station design and wish the Hell levels were a bit more creative. Other than some mysterious hints at a connection between Doomguy and all the Hell stuff, '16 doesn’t bother much with lore.

Eternal takes everything good about '16 and gives it an espresso, some laughing gas, and a whole bunch of lore that might have been written by Tenacious D. It’s deeply silly, very hard and has some of the best game design I’ve ever seen. I don’t think one is better than the other; 2016 is more nostalgic, but Eternal is more ambitious. The only catch about Eternal’s ambition is that you really have to be on board, because there aren’t optional play styles — you play Eternal the way the devs tell you it’s supposed to be played.

Incidentally I just started Prey about an hour ago after sitting on it in my backlog for a couple years. It’s very good so far, seems to have a good spread of systems with decent depth and the graphics are still 2023-approved.

I’ve been playing a lot of DOOM so the combat feels a bit Lite™, but I felt that way about Dishonored too—blows land like wing chun and not like a rock crusher.

It’s got BioShock’s turrets, F.E.A.R.'s slow-mo and Dishonored’s stealthy parkour, and so far it all comes together nicely.

It feels very much like an Arkane title, too. Maybe a bit too much going on at once, but boy do they know how to throw everything at the wall to see what sticks.

Wow, hadn’t heard of this. It looks great, thank you!

Oh sick, I didn’t realize Deathloop was first-person (I assumed it was over the shoulder 3rd-person like Max Payne & Control).

I almost mentioned Control in my post because it did have great environmental design that felt like a cross between Aperture and The X-Files. I’ll stick Deathloop on the wishlist, thanks for the recommendation!

I’ve started Black Mesa but haven’t finished it yet. What I’ve played has been fucking impressive.

Valve is sort of the best at what I’m asking about—all of their games have the greatest touches that make the settings feel like existing locations you’ve walked into. It’s what makes me wish they published more.

The insane detail that goes into aging Aperture throughout the second half of Portal 2, the way it starts in the 40s or 50s at the very bottom and has a distinct “era” for each level as you get closer to the surface, including Cave’s progressing illness . . . it’s such good storytelling, and it’s literally just window dressing for the already-great main plot.

Not a Skyrim modder, I take it

Fool—the scroll wheel is a scalpel; the scrollbar is a broadsword. Use the right tool for the job.

boring gameplay even on extreme difficulty but the world is so beautiful, and I love just driving around the map with no HUD.

Hey, this is basically Skyrim and I’ve got 2k+ happy hours in that

My impression is that Sega’s always been pretty chill & receptive to interest in respectful revivals of classic IP.

It’s been nice to watch a large company respond to that interest with more accessibility, and not less (Nintendo).

We’re conditioned to invest, both financially and emotionally, not only in what a game is right now, but what it will be in a year. We cling to roadmaps like lifeboats and wield Reddit threads as weapons of sentiment for or against the developers we’ve hitched our wagons to. It’s a fuzzy parasocial relationship that only gets less healthy the more money is wrapped up in it. I’m sick of games that glare at me with dollar signs in their eyes from the moment I press play.

This review heated up fast