So my impatient gaming is over for the moment. I’m finally finished with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Well, I say finished but that is a bit of a lie. It still lives rent free in my head and I’m still watching people play it to relive those first playthrough moments. But I’m done playing for now. I was actually tempted to go straight back and do NG+ immediately after seeing the credits, and that is a very rare feeling for me. Last time I had that feeling was Alan Wake 2. Anyway, the game is great: play it, wishlist it, whatever - just don’t miss it. I think it will be a shoe-in for Game of the Year, and it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played.

As my repentance for being super impatient two months in a row with Blue Prince and Expedition 33 back-to-back, I’ve gone back to an old classic for my next game: F.E.A.R.. I never actually played it back in the day, I remember trying the demo but my PC at the time couldn’t handle it and it fell to the wayside later as I played other games. I’ve installed a couple of mods: upscaled textures (didn’t get the actual Rivarez Mod, just the textures) and the Echo Patch for stuff like HUD scaling and FPS fix. I’m also playing on DLDSR 1.78x and with RTX HDR.

With all that said, the game holds up incredibly well. The lighting and atmosphere is phenomenal, but what is really striking is the gunplay and enemy AI. This really doesn’t feel like a 20-year-old game. Even if you completely ignore the horror elements, the game is just an incredibly enjoyable shooter, with every engagement feeling thrilling as enemies flank you, hide, flee, sneak and flush you out with grenades. The bullet time is cinematic, but a little overpowered. Though you can just elect to not use it.

If you haven’t already, pick it up on GOG and play it. You can probably get it for like a dollar on sale and that’s an absolute steal. Now if only I could get EAX emulation working…