Finally! I just finished Rise of the Triad: Dark War (ROTT) at the highest difficult level. I play this game since I was eight years old, and since then I thought this game would be impossible to finish. It isn't only quite large, but also very hard at some particular levels. Back at those times, I remember I typed a cheat code to warp to the final boss level, and not even with infinite ammo and "God mode" I was able to beat the game in the right way. I said to myself: "This game is impossible".

However I said the same thing about Shadow Caster and I finished it a few years ago. So I decided to face my fears and try ROTT again... at the hardest difficulty. I spent around two months to reach the final boss level, and I not only killed the bad fella, but also did it in the right way. This game has two possible finals, one being the wrong and easy way. I'll not spoiler what you have to do when facing El Oscuro, but let me say it's very tricky.

Well, I'm just glad that I finished one of the most challenging and large games in the history. I'm not sure what most people think about ROTT, but this game has a peculiar value to me. To be honest, after beating it, I also felt a bit sad because I know I have little reasons to go back all that way again. Maybe I'll wait another full decade to try it one more time, perhaps to collect all the ankh items and search for all the secrets... who knows? =)

Now I'm going to finish the three Duke Nukem 3D expansions: Caribbean, Duke!Zone II and Duke it out D.C., as well the final chapter from the Atomic Edition again. I'm also playing Prey, but this game is incredibly easy and I'm not going to keep playing it exclusively until it's finished. I would get soft by doing so... =) you know, alternating between Prey and one of the Duke add-ons is a good way to keep my fingers well-trained and responsive.

UPDATE ( 27/07/2009 ): To celebrate my new 'Top Reviewers' emblem, I'm going to review Rise of the Triad! Thanks to GameSpot and all the users that kindly recommended me (especially sequekhan). =)

About reading and commenting my reviews, I would like to mention in particular Azghouls, Cunhao, Jepsen1977 and Sorvos (where are you, man?). These guys helped me to continue write stuff about games, not because they used to thumbs up my reviews, but especially because we were always sharing our opinions on the titles we like to play. From my point of view, the reviews aren't to boost my profile level, but to let the gaming world know what I think about games. I like to show my distinct perspective about old-schooling and how someone can still enjoy a new title as it was the old and fun days.

By using a simple concept of "higher the fun, higher the score", I'll keep this idealism in mind and continue to write reviews, hoping I can get better after each written word.