What game are you wasting time on?

[d1r]

Modded NV a bit, lots of quests mods. Mostly bounties. New Vegas Bounties I, II, III. The Inheritance. Headhunting. The North Road. The Depths of Depravity. Headhunter. The Collector. All of these are great, though NVBIII has problems by the climax.

Other quest mods didn't grab me as much. A Difference of Opinion, New Vegas Stories, Fortune Canyon, A simple Package Delivery, Sweet Home, The High Desert, Boom to the Moon, and fucking Autumn Leaves - meh to ugh. Might try out the New Reno stuff. See, what I think it is, is that modders are some creative people, but finding something that complements or adds to New Vegas is hard. All those above mods barely fit New Vegas for one reason or another. Added too many new factions, big ideals, or whatever. Or languished for too long, or the tone was just too off. The High Desert has you make a new brothel-inn in Primm, then shoves you into a religious commune-cult, cursing all the while. Eh. But Bounty Huntin'? That's easy. It's combat, with some lore, maybe some choices, some fucked up set up. Voice Acting goes a long way too, but it's easy to find something that works with just killin' folk than musing on something bigger. Treasure huntin' might be good, too, but what treasure is worth it to a level 50 Courier already with high end weapon mods and damage mods and 300,000 caps?

Mods that expanded the wildlife and so on almost always tacked on some BS I didn't care for. A World of Pain, I remember, did not have a huge Underground Faction thing going on before, but now it does, and I hate feature creep like this. I just wanted more shit to shoot or come across that felt organic/natural to be there. A huge underground city and a faction of tech raiders doesn't fit that. Faction Reloaded mods were the same. Legion, Followers, Raiders would bloat too much. Radio mods were fun. Radio Mayak, Radio Ghosts, Radio Indigo, Combined Syndicates of America, Conelrad, Surf Radio, Pacific West, OWB Expanded, People's Radio of China....

There might be some house mods that add quests, but I dunno. I liked a little hotel mod for the courier and that was it. No bullshit mods about the Enclave, Brotherhood or Steel, or whatever, either. I killed the Enclave in 2 and the BoS got killed by their own stupidity by 2 and I sent the rest of them packing in NV, but nooo. Everyone loves the goddamn Brotherhood of Steel or wants to bring back the fucking Enclave. I would get it if the Enclave was supposed to be like, the whole sum of Post-War America's government, but they were a bunch of deluded asswipes on a rig and Navarro. Dead and gone, stop trying to shove them into everything.

But hey, there's always new New Vegas mods at least. I finished another house ending, but my character is beefy and when another good quest mod comes along, I'll reuse 'em. Or just need something to shoot. Maybe I can try TTW...?

Have you tried Functionl Game Past Ending and the The Living Desert? I would consider these mods absoutely essential for every playthrough.

What about The North Road and Depths of Depravity? Never heard of them. Are these quest mods well integrated into the main game (quest givers not living in horrible placed shacks somewhere in the desert [one reason why I never liked Bounties to begin with]) and could be considered as original content?

 

[somewhatgiggly]

Modded NV a bit, lots of quests mods. Mostly bounties. New Vegas Bounties I, II, III. The Inheritance. Headhunting. The North Road. The Depths of Depravity. Headhunter. The Collector. All of these are great, though NVBIII has problems by the climax.

Other quest mods didn't grab me as much. A Difference of Opinion, New Vegas Stories, Fortune Canyon, A simple Package Delivery, Sweet Home, The High Desert, Boom to the Moon, and fucking Autumn Leaves - meh to ugh. Might try out the New Reno stuff. See, what I think it is, is that modders are some creative people, but finding something that complements or adds to New Vegas is hard. All those above mods barely fit New Vegas for one reason or another. Added too many new factions, big ideals, or whatever. Or languished for too long, or the tone was just too off. The High Desert has you make a new brothel-inn in Primm, then shoves you into a religious commune-cult, cursing all the while. Eh. But Bounty Huntin'? That's easy. It's combat, with some lore, maybe some choices, some fucked up set up. Voice Acting goes a long way too, but it's easy to find something that works with just killin' folk than musing on something bigger. Treasure huntin' might be good, too, but what treasure is worth it to a level 50 Courier already with high end weapon mods and damage mods and 300,000 caps?

Mods that expanded the wildlife and so on almost always tacked on some BS I didn't care for. A World of Pain, I remember, did not have a huge Underground Faction thing going on before, but now it does, and I hate feature creep like this. I just wanted more shit to shoot or come across that felt organic/natural to be there. A huge underground city and a faction of tech raiders doesn't fit that. Faction Reloaded mods were the same. Legion, Followers, Raiders would bloat too much. Radio mods were fun. Radio Mayak, Radio Ghosts, Radio Indigo, Combined Syndicates of America, Conelrad, Surf Radio, Pacific West, OWB Expanded, People's Radio of China....

There might be some house mods that add quests, but I dunno. I liked a little hotel mod for the courier and that was it. No bullshit mods about the Enclave, Brotherhood or Steel, or whatever, either. I killed the Enclave in 2 and the BoS got killed by their own stupidity by 2 and I sent the rest of them packing in NV, but nooo. Everyone loves the goddamn Brotherhood of Steel or wants to bring back the fucking Enclave. I would get it if the Enclave was supposed to be like, the whole sum of Post-War America's government, but they were a bunch of deluded asswipes on a rig and Navarro. Dead and gone, stop trying to shove them into everything.

But hey, there's always new New Vegas mods at least. I finished another house ending, but my character is beefy and when another good quest mod comes along, I'll reuse 'em. Or just need something to shoot. Maybe I can try TTW...?

Have you tried Functionl Game Past Ending and the The Living Desert? I would consider these mods absoutely essential for every playthrough.

What about The North Road and Depths of Depravity? Never heard of them. Are these quest mods well integrated into the main game (quest givers not living in horrible placed shacks somewhere in the desert [one reason why I never liked Bounties to begin with]) and could be considered as original content?

My FGPE turned the Mojave into a empty desert, and I do have The Living Desert. In that House Ending: Only Goodpsrings, Primm, Jacobstown, Vegas and co are still settled. The NCR has abandoned everything but the Mojave Outpost. The BoS are destroyed, the Khans fled to Montana, the Legion is gone. The Kings are dead. Fiends are gone. Novac was abandoned due to the Rockets falling back on it. There's some trade still at 188.

House will get his future...in 50, 100 years time. Until then the Mojave is now quiet, peaceful, and the Casinos attract tourists.

The North Road and The Depths of Depravity take you mostly to a new worldspace (for the North Road), the quest giver is either in a shack at the most isolated Ranger Station or by Westside. They don't impact the Mojave itself much, but are well-written and atmospheric. And voiced well worth a damn.

 

[curds]

Started ToEE replay as a palate cleanser after the cinematic shenanigans of Witcher 3.

For the first time ever I did all the Hommlet quests instead of heading straight to the Moathouse at level 1.

Being level 2 makes a world of difference in terms of the difficulty of the Moathouse, but at what cost? Spending an hour running between houses in that god-awful village. Who can say if it was worth it.

I also got the wife companion which I haven't done before. She's slightly annoying, but the concept of having a NPC party member who is a nagging wife to one of the PCs is pretty funny. Not bad with a cleaver, either.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Tried playing Disciples 2. I wasn't impressed, it felt like an inferior copy of Heroes of Might and Magic 3.
The concept of your cities expanding your influence and taking resources is nice, but having to level up your units from Lvl1 and watching them get one shot by archers who can just ignore your front line was tedious and boring. There aren't really any tactics; unlike HoMM3 where you can move your units and there's min effective range, your units just stay there, their attacks are always effective no matter where they attack and if you put a melee unit in your back line they're too stupid to walk forward to replace a gap in your front line.

 

[ferratilis]

Started the year with Morrowind. First I messed around with OpenMW because people have been praising it for stability and ease-of-use, but after hours of messing with MO2 installing mods, the FPS was just too unstable, it would drop into 40s in Balmora with all the eye candy toggled on. Why would I use something if everything has to be turned off to have stable framerate? It's no bueno. So I just gave up and went to the old habit of using vanilla with MCP, MGE, Wrye Mash, Project Atlas, Patch for Purists, Intelligent Textures and some other minor mods. For gameplay, I decided to give MULE and Next Generation Combat a whirl. They're not good tbh, because they remove dice rolls and vanilla leveling experience (what sets Morrowind apart imo), so I removed them. After generating distant land with MGE, I get rock solid performance, FPS rarely goes below 120fps, and it looks beautiful. Sometimes the old ways are the best.

 

[Catacombs]

Started the year with Morrowind. First I messed around with OpenMW because people have been praising it for stability and ease-of-use, but after hours of messing with MO2 installing mods, the FPS was just too unstable, it would drop into 40s in Balmora with all the eye candy toggled on. Why would I use something if everything has to be turned off to have stable framerate? It's no bueno. So I just gave up and went to the old habit of using vanilla with MCP, MGE, Wrye Mash, Project Atlas, Patch for Purists, Intelligent Textures and some other minor mods. For gameplay, I decided to give MULE and Next Generation Combat a whirl. They're not good tbh, because they remove dice rolls and vanilla leveling experience (what sets Morrowind apart imo), so I removed them. After generating distant land with MGE, I get rock solid performance, FPS rarely goes below 120fps, and it looks beautiful. Sometimes the old ways are the best.

What mods did you settle on?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I started and aborted Silent Hill 2 a few times for that reason. Fuck that shit, I'm playing a game for enjoyment and relaxation, not to feel worse in my normal everyday life.

I can't find the appeal of horror games tbh

 

[BLOBERT]

k, fair enough.
Does that happen with classic titles like the original RE or Silent Hill as well?

Nope. The weird thing is that it didn't used to happen when I was younger. This is something that has come up in the past five years or so. Maybe my body can't handle stress. I don't know, to be completely honest.

BRO IN THE PAST I WOULD HAVE SAID STOPBEING SUCH A PUSSY

I HAVE DEVELOPED AT LEAST ONE WEIRD ANXIETY IN THE LAST FEW YEARS SO I GET IT BRO

YOU STILL ARE A BRO EVEN IF YOU CN PLAY HORROELE GAMES

LOLLLOLLLOL ON THE FAGBOX I ACTUALLY SOLD A GAME TO GAMES TOP CAUSE I LOVED THE MULTILAYER BUT IT ALSO STRESSED ME OUT

 

[Fedora Master]

After some more time with Xenonauts I have to say: The initial impression was good but once you take a good look at how the AI operates the game becomes just stupid. Mission-by-mission gameplay quickly turns into an annoyance.

 

[ferratilis]

Started the year with Morrowind. First I messed around with OpenMW because people have been praising it for stability and ease-of-use, but after hours of messing with MO2 installing mods, the FPS was just too unstable, it would drop into 40s in Balmora with all the eye candy toggled on. Why would I use something if everything has to be turned off to have stable framerate? It's no bueno. So I just gave up and went to the old habit of using vanilla with MCP, MGE, Wrye Mash, Project Atlas, Patch for Purists, Intelligent Textures and some other minor mods. For gameplay, I decided to give MULE and Next Generation Combat a whirl. They're not good tbh, because they remove dice rolls and vanilla leveling experience (what sets Morrowind apart imo), so I removed them. After generating distant land with MGE, I get rock solid performance, FPS rarely goes below 120fps, and it looks beautiful. Sometimes the old ways are the best.

What mods did you settle on?

I used the mods from this guide, minus the last four, because imo they remove what made Morrowind unique and fun. With these mods, the game becomes more like Oblivion and Skyrim. Although you could use MWSE Magicka Regen if you hate how it works in vanilla Morrowind. The others just make the game too easy. MULE makes leveling completely trivial and brainless, Speed Boost remove the need to build your character around speed (rendering at least two stats useless) or search for Boots of Blinding Speed in the beginning, Next Generation combat makes every hit guaranteed, thus turning Morrowind into Skyrim. Some people even think that Patch for Purists changes too much, but I left that one in.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2208675449

But if you're looking for truly essential mods, those are definitely MCP, MGE, Optimization Patch and Project Atlas. The game will run really well while pushing good draw distance and being stable. Intelligent Textures are just upscaled vanilla textures, so you might want to use that one as well. Everything else depends on your preference tbh.

 

[jackofshadows]

After some more time with Xenonauts I have to say: The initial impression was good but once you take a good look at how the AI operates the game becomes just stupid. Mission-by-mission gameplay quickly turns into an annoyance.

You could say that, yes - but the same goes for classic XCOM games. I remember how I was disappointed when realized that the aliens actually do not move during "hidden movement" (unless they saw someone during your turn). Like, the game felt better before that. Similiarly to some other mechanics. Alas.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I remember how I was disappointed when realized that the aliens actually do not move during "hidden movement" (unless they saw someone during your turn).

p. sure they do in openxcom

 

[Ezekiel]

Beat Sonic 3 and Knuckles as Knuckles again. I don't remember his maps as well as Sonic's. I always feel that if I don't get all 14 chaos emeralds on one playthrough and don't try to play most of the special stages perfectly (all rings), then I've failed. Because the game is piss-easy otherwise. It always comes super close because I still can't remember where all the super rings are. Though I got all the emeralds again, I didn't get the opportunity to activate Hyper Knuckles this time. You barely have any time left to play with Hyper compared to Sonic's story, which has two more levels (three if you count Doomsday). Also seems to me that Knuckles' maps have few super rings.

 

[Starwars]

I started playing The Long Dark a bit. Haven't played it in a long while, and enjoyed the survival mode way back when.

Heard that the story mode was bad but still decided to try it and... yeah. It's bad alright. The worst type of overtly emotional storytelling. SAD characters with SAD stories and with a SAD little piano loop playing in the background. Ugh.

 

[Wunderbar]

Just finished S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl.

This wasn't my first time playing the game, but i've never actually finished it properly before. Back in 2008 I wasn't impressed with STALKER, because shortly before that I played another open-world shooter with much more elaborate mechanics - Boiling Point / Xenus. Boiling Point had a true open world without loading screens, driveable vehicles (including helicopters), character skills, lots of side quests, different factions with a reputation system, etc etc. Stalker had... ragdoll physics?

I actually enjoyed this game a lot, but it is a hot mess - and i'm not just talking about the bugs. It feels like a mishmash of stuff taken from other different genres, with mechanics interacting with each other in a crude way. Hard to say if it's because of cut content, or because the developers really didn't know what kind of game they wanted to make (probably a bit of both). In some places it's like a Slav Deus Ex (except with only one way to play the game), in others - a Bethesda game with a mix of survival sim, and then it goes full retard with dozens of heavily armed enemies and callofduty-style scripted shootouts.

There's a durability system in the game, but with no way of repairing broken equipment. There's some serious ballistic math being calculated under the hood when you fire a gun, but at the same time the gunplay is intentionally gimped by bulletsponge enemies and an RPG-like progression of equipment. You start with a shit gun that makes combat feel like you're playing VTMB with zero skillpoints in Firearms, then you get a less shit gun, then a decent gun, and in the end you finish with an OP gun that melts everything in one shot. Same with armor suits - starting jackets barely protect you, while mid- to endgame suits turn you into an invincible tank (unless the enemy is armed with a rocket launcher, then you must load the last save). There's a trading/scavening mechanic, but it's basically meaningless because you are showered with ammo, medkits, bandages and radaways. Money is meaningless too, you will get all the best equipment anyway - either as a quest reward, or as a loot. There is no upgrade mechanic too, despite how obvious it would be to have weapon upgrades in a open-world shooter. The highly advertised "A-Life" is barely noticeable. Hunger? Haha, why did they even bothered to put it into the game?

I already mentioned how the game has some elements of Deus Ex and Bethesda-style RPGs, but its mostly surface-level similarities. Unlike Deus Ex, you can't play STALKER in a variety of ways - stealth is janky and unreliable, and half of the guns are useless: pistols are shit, shotguns are shit, smg is shit, 7.62x54mm long-ranged rifles are end-game content, so 90% of the game you are using assault rifles. Unlike in Bethesda RPGs, the exploration is not encouraged - for some retarded reason, all of the hidden stashes are empty, and you can only find loot in them after getting a "tip" from a dead stalker. I guess it was made that way to prevent metagaming, but there are still some fixed weapon locations, like a free Vintorez in the Freedom base, so metagaming is still a thing. Artifacts aren't very interesting too - they are plentiful, and instead of some interesting effect they just give you lame percentage-based stat upgrades.

Overall I got the impression that a large chunk of the design doc was written that way "because it would be realistic". Hunger mechanic is barely noticeable, but it's "realistic". Weapon degradation is barely noticeable, but "it's more realistic" that way. Why is the game using a grid inventory system, despite the fact that the only limiting factor is weight? Because items of different size "would look realistic". Same with the level design - most of the locations were copied from real-life places, and the actual gameplay function was figured out later on.

The atmosphere is what makes STALKER - it's like a glue that holds the game together. In any other RPG-lite game with loot you get the sense of relief after returning to the hub town and selling your junk. In STALKER the economy is a joke, but i still get the feelies after having to make a long trek to 100 Rads, hearing to the usual "don't stand there, i said come in" and speaking with barkeep. The music and the soundscape in general is fairly minimalist, the gameplay is designed around having "a realistic feel", the environments are based on real life locations. STALKER's greatest strength is its immersive quality. Sure, some of the gameplay elements don't work as advertised and there's a fair amount of jank, but the whole game itself is greater than the sum of its parts.

 

[Hag]

Just finished S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl.

snip

the whole game itself is greater than the sum of its parts.

Nice review. On which difficulty settings did you play ? Playing on Master mitigates a lot the bullet sponging on both enemies and yourself, making fights (and mutants) a deadly business. Sadly, it doesn't fix the economy in particular for weapons that are, as you described, wildly unbalanced - at least until you arrive in the weapon bunkers where you get showered in good-enough to great stuff. The broken equipment progression is a reason I can't replay the game : knowing that as soon as I reach the bar where I can find end-tier rifles kind of kill my motivation to explore and take risks.
Stalker SoC is not a game taking overthinking kindly. If you try to outsmart it, it'll break quickly. But if you tag along the incredible atmosphere will bring you to radioactive rapture.

Stalker Call of Prypiat is much more polished and clicks way better in most directions, at least gameplay-wise. But I found it couldn't match this peculiar SoC feeling of oppression, constant tension and looming fear.

 

[Kabas]

Completing Planescape: Torment made me hungry for more infinity engine games and i remembered that i am yet to comeplete Icewind Dale.
Heard that enchanced edititon breaks the original balance or something, plus i like the original interface more so i am playing classic edition with widescreen patch.
I am having a good time so far.

 

[curds]

Just finished S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl.

Well said. I agree with most of your points, except that I find A-Life to be very noticeable and adds a lot to the game. I'm constantly running into little emergent situations between beasts/stalkers/whatever that makes the world feel alive.

I consider Stalker a 9/10 game, gameplay is janky and often retarded, but the atmosphere is quite simply as good as it gets. Can't think of a more immersive game.

 

[Wunderbar]

Just finished S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl.

snip

the whole game itself is greater than the sum of its parts.

Nice review. On which difficulty settings did you play ? Playing on Master mitigates a lot the bullet sponging on both enemies and yourself, making fights (and mutants) a deadly business. Sadly, it doesn't fix the economy in particular for weapons that are, as you described, wildly unbalanced - at least until you arrive in the weapon bunkers where you get showered in good-enough to great stuff.

yes, on Master. However, I don't think it really affects the bulletsponge problem.

The broken equipment progression is a reason I can't replay the game : knowing that as soon as I reach the bar where I can find end-tier rifles kind of kill my motivation to explore and take risks. Stalker SoC is not a game taking overthinking kindly. If you try to outsmart it, it'll break quickly. But if you tag along the incredible atmosphere will bring you to radioactive rapture.

end-tier rifles don't appear on sale until you finish other tasks (like visiting Yantar, exploring Lab x16, etc), by default barkeep only sells AKs. Though I got lucky and looted Groza 5.45mm from one of the mercenaries who attacked Kruglov in the Wild territories, that gun carried me through the entire midgame until i got my hands on Vintorez.

Stalker Call of Prypiat is much more polished and clicks way better in most directions, at least gameplay-wise. But I found it couldn't match this peculiar SoC feeling of oppression, constant tension and looming fear.

I'm currently playing through Clear Sky and will start CoP after that.

 

[Rincewind]

Granted, I've been numb to fear in media for so long now that I can't wrap my head around adults finding these games scary, but a game like Silent Hill 2 to me falls squarely into that adventure category, I played it like a Sherlock Holmes game or other low-action investigation/mystery games. I play these precisely for their relaxing, low-intensity story-driven experience.

Really a textbook example on how game genres are cultural much more than mechanical.

There's certainly a cultural desensitization going on; allegedly many people were quite shaken by the original screenings of The Exorcist in 1973. I watched it in the 90s and it was no big deal for me. But in general, I'm not sure if mass-desentizing people to brutality is such a good and desirable thing... E.g. I watched Saw 1 back in the day, I was mostly okay with the violence levels and enjoyed the story. Then a few years later saw some excerpts from the second or third movie, and fuck, that was just too much... Either people got used to the gore/violence levels in just a few years, so they had to substantially increase it to keep the shock value, or some people genuinely enjoy watching that kind of stuff. In either case, the trend is quite worrying.

There's also individual differences; I for one just can't handle jump scares, no matter how much I anticipate them. They give me a really unpleasant physical reaction every single time, so I just avoid anything with jumpscares in them because I'm not a masochist.

 

[Hag]

end-tier rifles don't appear on sale until you finish other tasks (like visiting Yantar, exploring Lab x16, etc), by default barkeep only sells AKs. Though I got lucky and looted Groza 5.45mm from one of the mercenaries who attacked Kruglov in the Wild territories, that gun carried me through the entire midgame until i got my hands on Vintorez.

As soon as you have access to the bar you can either hop to the wild territories and loot correct mid game weapons, or head north to the Army Warehouse where, Vintorez and assassinations apart, you only have to lend a hand against the Monolith attack to get the best rifles.

 

[BruceVC]

I have been on vacation since the 21 December and Im back in Cape Town tonight so I havent been gaming for nearly 2 weeks and I cant wait to get back into it. I will be continuing with Bards Tale Trilogy: Remastered and Im excited to continue with this CRPG

 

[JDR13]

Back in 2008 I wasn't impressed with STALKER, because shortly before that I played another open-world shooter with much more elaborate mechanics - Boiling Point / Xenus. Boiling Point had a true open world without loading screens, driveable vehicles (including helicopters), character skills, lots of side quests, different factions with a reputation system, etc etc. Stalker had... ragdoll physics?

 

[Dayyālu]

Hedon: Bloodrite (2021): k, nowadays I don't have the time for gaming like in the good old days. I enjoyed the baseline Episode 1 of Hedon when it came out and I was pretty curious about Bloodrite. Hedon is already a peculiar beast amongst commercial retroshooters: first of all, it's deceptive as fuck as the author tries to sell you as a action-focused blood-pumping shooter, a thing Hedon for sure isn't (and Bloodrite even less). He ain't lying when he's telling you he's a fetishist for muscular women with dicks, tho.

Hedon in its first chapter had far more in common with Strife or even Arx Fatalis than most retroshooters: item hunting and map reading were essential and mass combat encounters were rare. I liked the naif quality of the art and the weapon selection was fun and varied, even if the enemy selection could have used a bit more variety from the clear Doom-derived "types".

Bloodrite is a clear labour of love. It's bigger and better than the first chapter. It's so much big and better that I was extensively sick of it by the time I reached the final boss, that I finished more because "I had to, gone this far" instead of any sense of accomplishment or, God forbid, fun. Bloodrite is .... do you enjoy 90ies adventure game style puzzles? I don't. Do you enjoy extensive running back and forth between hubs searching for hints scattered all around? I don't. Everything is done with so much care tho. The new weapon and enemies add a lot to the experience, but the last hub is so sprawling and messy, needing notekeeping (in a Doom mod!). I don't have the time nor the patience for such an experience nowadays, sadly. The final boss fight is well-done and complex, but it's also a tiresome slog of sub-phases and I only wanted it to be over.

Would I recommend Bloodrite? Yes, if someone enjoy a lot dungeon crawling on the Doom engine. I didn't like it as much as I should have, but you know.... even the best dessert done with the utmost love can become nauseating when consumed in excess. And Bloodrite in the end is simply a tad too much.

 

[Abu Antar]

First game of the year is beaten. I started Heroes of Might and Magic V campaign in 2014. Today, I beat it. I have moved on the the first expansion, and I am planning to play the second one, too.

I plan to play HoMM4 and HoMM 3 during the year. I will be playing them in backwards order. I have played 3 before, but 4 will be my first time.