Black Gate

Tomorrow, I am going to see Blade Runner: The Final Cut, on a giant screen, in a showplace which opened in 1926, with live musical accompaniment. Squee!!!!!I just finished the 3^rd edition of Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner – which I read in first edition form 30 years ago. Hopefully I will be writing about Blade Runner next week.

But that’s for then. I’ve been playing Fortnite regularly since 2021 or so. Mostly solo, or with my son. He quit playing a couple years ago (Call of Duty took over). And the constant updates were overpowering my Asus gaming laptop, so I quit playing it last month. It’s been fun, but I don’t miss it. I’d just been grinding for quests since my son quit.

I often find myself out of sorts when I switch games. I can’t figure out what I want to get into next. Same experience when I finish reading a book, or multiple ones from the same author. I can’t ‘hit my spot.’

I fell back on one of my absolute favorites, Total War: Warhammer. I re-load I and II, and start new games. I never pick up old saves. I wrote what I thought was a pretty thoughtful Total War post, here. I played for a while, bouncing between factions – and getting smacked down, either very early, or 90+ turns in. TW: Warhammer, and Conan Exiles, are my fall back games. Ones I can always install and kill time, having fun. But I had a hankering for something else.

Lord of the Rings Online

I re-watched the three Hobbit movies. I’m not a big fan, and this was my second re-watch. It’s gotten a bit better each time. The flaws are still there, but I try to appreciate the lore from the appendices, even if they didn’t need whole sub-storylines. I also made my first attempt at reading Tolkien’s take on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – which Fletcher Vredenburgh wrote about, here. It’s still sloooow going. 14^th Century poetry is not my thing.

But I was clearly in a Tolkien mood. So I reinstalled Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO). I only played it for the first time maybe four years ago? I got somewhere into Moria before stopping.

LotRO uses the extremely dated Turbine engine. It was developed for Asheron’s Call; one of the very first MMOs (pre-WoW). A few years later it was used for Dungeons & Dragons Online. Then, in 2007, LotRO. Turbine (the company) initiated the ‘free-to-play’ concept, which revolutionized MMOs.

It should come as no surprise that the Turbine engine is very dated. Elder Scrolls Online is my favorite MMO, and I’ve also got a lot of hours in Age of Conan. Both those games look a lot better than LotRO. And the mechanics are clunky. I have to re-learn the interface every time I reinstall.

But the lore is simply so good. This game absolutely feels like Tolkien. Characters from the books are mixed in throughout, and getting missions from Aragorn, or finding Gimli and Legolas in Rivendell, is just too cool. There’s a story line to follow (Aragorn is rather mysterious, but some Nazgul are involved), but you can explore different regions and do a slew of side-quests. In fact, there’s really too much to do. I wish I had skipped the Shire and explored Cardolan instead. You kind of level out of quests, though there’s definitely some flexibility there. But this game offers no shortage of options to pursue. I think Evendim and the ruins of the survivors of Numenor, is my favorite area.

Turbine was bought by Warner Brothers as part of WB’s locking up all Lord of the Rings rights. Turbine eventually became a mobile-only game company. But WB – uncharacteristically cool for such a situation – created Standing Stone Games, with Turbine employees, to continue LotRO, and DDO. And both games are still thriving, with improvements, upgrades, and expansions. That’s actually pretty neat.

I don’t think LotRO is gonna be a favorite for non-Tolkienites looking to get into an MMO. There are too many other slicker options out there. I’d be happy playing ESO for the rest of my life. But if you like the books, or the movies, LotRO is a damn fun game. You can even play as an Orc in a special PvP mode (I don’t do PvP).

I think any gamer who is a Tolkien fan would like LotRO. Or at least should give it a shot if they’re in the market for an MMO. The Tolkien lore alone is worth it. The fact that they’re still adding to it, and there’s a MASSIVE amount of free content (the first five major expansions are included in the base game, and you can get up to level 95. This is years of playing).

I wish it let me kill Tom Bombadil, – you do quests for him instead – but otherwise, no complaints. Once you get used to the wonky controls, and accept it looks nice, but definitely not great, it’s an unmatched Tolkien experience.

DUNGEONS & DYNASTIES

Of course, any MMO involves grinding and somewhat of a repetitive feel. I was looking for a second game to mix in as I worked up past level 30 in LotRO. And I tried out the demo for a game hitting early access just this week: Dungeons and Dynasties.

According to Steam, my third-most played game ever, is Out of the Park Baseball. And I played my first version of that from diskettes (there’s a word you don’t see anymore) before there even was a Steam. I usually take over a team from some year way past, and I play GM for decades. It’s a management sim, and easily my favorite sports game.

There are variations for different sports, and a soccer version, Football Manager, has been around since the early 90s. And Dungeons & Dynasties is compared to that one.

I liked the demo and bought into early access. The kingdom has fallen and is run by guilds. You run one guild. Instead of football or hockey or basketball or whatever players, you have a roster of dungeon delvers. You compete with other guilds from throughout the realm, to finish atop your ‘conference.’ The guilds are in a pyramid shape, like British soccer. You compete to move up the pyramid, into the next league up. But that’s way ahead of where I am now.

You equip your delvers, add buildings to your guild – and possibly to your local town, which gives you benefits – send your delvers on quests, do dungeon runs to make quick cash, and on a fixed schedule, compete in a dungeon delve against another guild. Facing off against them in the final room if it gets that far.

I’ve only played a few hours, and I don’t understand this game yet. I tried Crusader Kings II, which looked like my kind of game. It was WAY too much and totally overwhelmed me. I never got past a few plays.

This game has a LOT. There’s a tutorial that helps. And there’s more tutorial options as you go. The problem so far is I need to stay alive and not get wiped out as I learn all this stuff. I’m in the bottom league, so I won’t get relegated. I don’t care if I finish last. But I need to advance my delvers enough so they don’t die. You start with a team of ten mixed tanks, DPS, and healers. When they die in a delve or dungeon competition, they’re gone. And you need a team with multiple role players, to keep generating money. As with Total War: Warhammer, I’ve made several starts, things have gone badly early, and I quit and started over. That’s fine. But I need to feel like I’m making progress. That’s why I eventually gave up on City of Gangsters. Fun management game, but I’d hit a wall and couldn’t get past it.

I like a lot of elements of this game. It’s early access, so I don’t have issues with things that still have room for development. Frankly, there’s so much to the game, I’m still exploring new things and not running into issues.

A management sim for adventurers is a pretty cool concept. I get the impression this is just one person, whose native language is not English, and is using AI to help. All that considered, this is a pretty robust game that works so far.

I’m gonna see if I can figure it out enough to last a season, then two. I’d hate it to be another Crusader Kings II for me.

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS

David Suchet made me a Hercule Poirot fan. So, I’ve played a couple of Microids’ Poirot games. I’ve got a few hours in on The First Cases, and I bought The ABC Murders. These are point and click adventures. Kind of like Frogwares’ Sherlock Holmes games. But less action and not dark.

I picked up 2023’s Murder on the Orient Express, on sale last week. They’ve since put out Death on the Nile, so apparently the franchise is working. I’m just collecting these now – as I am with the Holmes games – for later play. But I think for a Poirot gamer, these are worth checking out.

Steamed: Gaming with Bob (all my videogaming posts in one)

Hardboiled Gaming: LA Noire
Guns or Butter: Total War Warhammer II
Looking Back at RTS: Myth Lords
Fortnite (one of several short looks I’ve done at it)
What I’ve Been Playing: 2025
What I’ve Been Playing: December, 2023 (Hard West, Curse of Feldar Vale, Solasta, Dungeon of Naheulbeuk)
What I’ve Been Playing: October, 2022 (Elder Scrolls Online, Total War: WH II, Conan Exiles, Titan Quest)
Mount and Blade: Part Two
Mount and Blade: Part One

Bob Byrne’s ‘A (Black) Gat in the Hand’ made its Black Gate debut in 2018 and has returned every Summer since.

His ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate from March, 2014 through March, 2017. And he irregularly posts on Rex Stout’s gargantuan detective in ‘Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone.’ He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, and founded www.SolarPons.com (the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’).

He organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series, as well as the award-winning ‘Hither Came Conan’ series. Which is now part of THE Definitive guide to Conan. He also organized 2023’s ‘Talking Tolkien.’

He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories — Parts III, IV, V, VI, XXI, and XXXIII.

He has written introductions for Steeger Books, and appeared in several magazines, including Black Mask, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Magazine.

You can definitely ‘experience the Bobness’ at Jason Waltz’s ’24? in 42′ podcast.