Jun 2025 Quarterly Games Completion Report (QGCR) #BeyondaSteelSky #CobraKaiTheKarateKidSagaContinues #CobraKai #DoubleDragonGaiden #MonkeyIsland #LucasArts #ReturntoMonkeyIsland #UltimaVI #Exult #DuneAwakening

Welcome to the end of the 2nd half of 2025.  If last quarter was mostly about third person action games, then this quarter is all about "Swan Song" gaming PC, platform action, adventure, FPS and remake games.

Games completed (main quests/missions wise) this quarter:

- Beyond a Steel Sky

- Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues
- Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise Of The Dragons

- Return to Monkey Island
- Ultima VI Remake using Exult

It was a tough decision because 4 out of the 5 are latest entries to existing franchises, but ultimately, I chose the following as the favorite this quarter, because it really brought me back to my younger years:

Oh, and I participated in the Dune: Awakening beta during 8-12 May period and I was instantly hooked! I bought the Deluxe version on Steam and had continued my journey on Arrakis from 5 June onwards. The Spice Must Flow!

Unfortunately, I was unable to complete Doom: The Dark Ages this quarter because I was busy with Dune: Awakening!

Next QGCR will definitely be all about Dune: Awakening because this will be my last MMO game that I will be paying for, my "swan song" if you will. I may complete Doom: The Dark Ages, but most likely not lol!

Revised list of games to play before 31 Dec 2027:

Released

- Doom: The Dark Ages
- Dune: Awakening 

- G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra 

- Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don't Dry 

- Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Dry Twice 

- Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy 

- Monkey Island 2 Special Edition 

- Rise of the Tomb Raider 

- Shadow of the Tomb Raider 

- Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League 

Under development

- Exodus 

- Star Citizen / Squadron 42 
- Terminator 2D: No Fate

"Swan Song" Gaming PC has arrived! #AftershockPC #Intel #Nvidia #GeForce #UltimaVI #Exult #DoomTheDarkAges #CivilizationVII #DyingLightTheBeast #Blokees #Transformers #QGCR

As I get older, I cannot play videogames with the same vigour and concentration that I had when I was much younger. So to play my last MMO game (Dune: Awakening of course!) on 5 June 2025, I bought my last gaming PC, the Aftershock Level 5X Intel from the great people at Aftershock PC! And it even came with 4 great game titles:

- Doom: The Dark Ages Premium Edition
- Dying Light: The Beast (not even released yet!)
- Sid Meier's Civilization VII
- Star Wars Outlaws Gold Edition

Here's my 11-day journey with my "swan song" gaming PC:

Wednesday 21 May 2025

My Aftershock PC was delivered in the evening, but I did not have the time to set it up:

Thursday 22 May 2025

Really excited to set up my Aftershock PC this evening. The colours are so cool!

Saturday 24 May 2025

I decided to put in the Blokees Transformers One Optimus Prime figurine inside my Aftershock PC this evening! Check out the various colour options!

Sunday 25 May 2025 to Saturday 31 May 2025

And the really funny thing that I did was to install a CRPG that I could run on older PCs/Laptops! The videogame in question was Ultima VI Remake using the Exult engine:

which I completed in a week. It was a great nostalgic CRPG (the original Ultima VI is 35 years old this year and back then, it was my very first CRPG!), which got the remake treatment using the Exult engine:

Many thanks to the great folks here --> Ultima VI Remake

Saturday 31 May 2025

Which brings us to the next and newer videogame to play: Doom The Dark Ages!

These two games will be added to the next QGCR!

Ultima VII Part II: A 29th Anniversary Journey Back to Serpent Isle #UltimaVII #SerpentIsle #Exult

What an exhilarating and somewhat tired feeling! I managed to start Ultima VII Part II Serpent Isle on 1 May 2022 and completed it on 13 May 2022.  I played the Female Avatar this time:

Looking back at my previous posts on my Ultima VII experiences, I realised I don't play Serpent Isle as often as The Black Gate.  I supposed I prefer the world of Britannia where it is more open-world as compared to Serpent Isle where it is also open-world, but also rather linear.

Well, this concludes my entire Ultima VII experience this year.  Really not sure when I will revisit Britannia or Serpent Isle again.  Like I mentioned previously, maybe in another 15 years from now, where I will be pushing 60 years old...

"Pleasant dreams, Avatar..."

Ultima VII: A 30th Anniversary Journey Back to Britannia #UltimaVII #SerpentIsle #Exult

So how do you celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of your favourite PC game? By playing it again of course!  And for this special occasion, I have once again travelled back to Britannia to visit my old friends Dupre, Shamino, Iolo and Lord British. I am of course referring to Ultima VII and its sequel The Serpent Isle.  Welcome back Avatar!

I went back to read my previous post and realised that I coincidentally set a milestone for playing Ultima VII. So back in April 1992, I played Ultima VII for the very first time.

I returned to Ultima VII a few times after my first play. And for its 15th anniversary release, I returned to Ultima again and this time documented it in this post on 13 March 2007.

Then another 15 years later from 21 April 2022 to 29 April 2022, because the great people over at Exult (http://exult.sourceforge.net) posted on their facebook to announce that they had released Exult 1.8 on 16 April 2022 (exactly 30 years after Ultima VII was released!), I once again walked through the Red Moongate and experience Britannia in all its original and yet enhanced glory in Ultima VII!

I will start Serpent Isle soon after writing this blog post.

I don't think I will ever get tired of Ultima VII and The Serpent Isle. So I could very well write another post about playing Ultima VII 15 years later...

"Thou hast not age, Avatar!"

Ultima VII and Serpent Isle on my ASUS EeePad Transformer

YES! My No. 1 Favorite can now be played on my ASUS EeePad Transformer! And it's all thanks to the guys @ http://exult.sourceforge.net

Check out the screenshots below:




Welcome back, Avatar!