Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Post-Release Content Updates

Ubisoft+ subscription was again 1€ for a month and it was time for me to return to Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which had finally gotten the last of its story updates at the end of last year. And there sure was a whole lot of content added in the two years the game was actively supported post launch. In total, Valhalla got three paid expansions and about five free additions that could be considered as separate bigger features. I was finished with the full game at 270 hours played.

Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition

I beat the original campaign of Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition at the end of 2021 already but only earlier this year finally returned to do the expansion, Heart of Winter, as well. I've always done the expansion just before beating the main game but this time I decided to do it differently and import my characters to the expansion after defeating Belhifet. That wasn't as smooth of a process as I wanted, and while I did get it sorted out, something else came up and the playthrough went on a hiatus.

Alamut

I thought to actually read the novel Assassin's Creed was inspired by after having learned about it last year. The book, Alamut by Slovenian Vladimir Bartol (1903 – 1967), turned out to have a Finnish translation (by Kari Klemelä). The covers had some background information like how the novel was mostly forgotten during Bartol's lifetime but was found again and became more widely known after the September 11 attacks.

Last Argument of Kings

Unlike with the names of the previous two novels in The First Law trilogy, this last one's origin I was familiar beforehand: There's a roguelike in development called Ultima Ratio Regum -- Last Argument of Kings -- which are the words King Louis XIV had had cast on his armies' cannons. The novel's title is again maybe somewhat relevant to its plot but I feel it's again mostly there just because it's cool.

Games I Finished in 2022

Looking at the list of games I beat this year, I think there were more suspect ones than usual. But at least the current backlog is looking to be of somewhat higher quality, although it has its unknowns as well. I almost beat all the games I had a year ago on my backlog but subscription services again and the sudden Assassin's Creed series binge prevented that from actually happening. Currently my backlog is about the same size as it was at the end of 2021. Theoretically it's once again doable in a year but backlogs have a tendency to grow, as one knows.

Of Orcs And Men

There was still one more older Spiders game I was slightly interested in: Of Orcs And Men (2012) that Spiders co-developed with Cyanide Studio. The latter went on to make two prequels to it later on -- the Styx stealth games I have already played.

Half-Life 2

After having bought (and played) Black Mesa, I thought I might as well get Half-Life 2 (or HλLF-LIFE² as it's stylized) and experience first hand how Gordon Freeman's journey ends. The game's second standalone DLC, Episode Two, which was released in 2007, teases another sequel but Valve has not been willing to create one so far. In 2020, they did release a virtual reality game called Half-Life: Alyx (stylized with an upside down lambda as y which I'm unable to reproduce in text) but its events are concurrent at best (though the game does add to Episode Two's ending a bit).

Black Mesa

I have not been interested in Valve's Half-Life games because I knew I wouldn't be able to appreciate the possible innovations they did at the time: I have already played newer games that have done same things better. Half-Life and its sequel would just feel old to me. Despite that however, due to a deep discount last year, I bought Black Mesa (or BLλCK MESA as it's stylized on the cover with the lower case Greek lambda letter) which is a third party remake of the first Half-Life (1998). Originally it was a free mod but later Crowbar Collective got approval from Valve for a commercial release.

A Plague Tale: Requiem

Everything I wrote about A Plague Tale: Innocence applies to its 2022 sequel, Requiem, as well. I don't know myself how one would exactly expand the adventure-stealth gameplay but you'd expect that at least the story would have some progression. But even that in Requiem is pretty much the same thing all over again.

Scorn

Back in 2019, on my Agony post I noted how some people had mixed it up with Scorn and had been disappointed. Well, here we are in 2022 and Serbian Ebb Software's Scorn too is finally out -- and it's not exactly much better than Agony. Visually Scorn is without fault -- it is one massive, masterfully created moving digital painting -- but its gameplay leaves a lot to be desired.