Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon (2025)

Weekend Gamer’s 2025 Playlist

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
Own the original game, checked it out on Game Pass… love the new visuals, but level scaling still remained in game and I still do not like this “feature”.
Avowed
Although I love the game, I don’t think anyone else did. When you compare it to Skyrim or Oblivion, it doesn’t stand a chance. NPC don’t walk around, they don’t react to you. You can steal and loot and no one cares. Yes, all that is awful, but I still think it was a fun game – even though I think it’s super easy on the normal setting that I had to play it on hard. As much as I love it, I will admit it got really boring and not memorable.
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon
So far, this is the best game I’ve played this year! It’s Oblivion but minus the level-scaling. Based on what I played, this is probably my “Game of the Year”
Marvel Cosmic Invasion
I tried out the demo, and I love it! But I don’t think it’s worth $30, so I’ll just wait for a sale.
Doom: The Dark Ages
Recently purchased on sale. It’s Doom. Too fast… too many jumping… it’s Doom.
Path of Exile 2
This game is in early access and not officially released yet. I love what I played. My only complaint that this is an online-only game.
Titan Quest II
This game is in early access and not officially released yet. This game is amazing and doesn’t require you to be online to play the game. When all is completed, I am almost certain this will be one of my favorite game of 2026.
— DID NOT PLAY LIST —
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Won numerous awards at The Game Awards, but had no interest (hated the name) and did not buy.
Atomfall
Was interested, but cancelled Game Pass and did not play.
Hollow Knight: Silksong
I thought the first game was too hard for me (and never finished the game). Didn’t want to waste my money on the second game.
Elden Ring Nightreign
Did not buy. This is basically an expansion to Elden Ring… but for online/collaborative play. Sorry, not an online guy.
Borderlands 4
Did not buy. I love all the Borderland, they’re just dumb shooters. I’ll wait for a sale next year.
The Outer Worlds 2
Did not buy. I didn’t like the first Outer Worlds (level scaling), so I’m definitely not interested in the sequel. MicroSoft wanted to charge $80 for this game! What a joke.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Too much controversy (black samurai and no male Japanese player). Was burned by paying full price for Assassin’s Creed Mirage, so decided to wait on a sale.

It’s been a few months, but I am playing a new game called Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon (not to be confused with Tainted Grail: Conquest). The game was originally in early access in 2023, but it only got officially released in May 2025 for all the platforms (Windows, PS5, Xbox).

Let me catch up on my Weekend Gamer playlist: There’s been regular updates on the work-in-progress Titans Quest II since August 2025 (such as a new area, a new Forge/Engineer class, and relics) and Path of Exile 2 since December 2024 (new balancing, new third act, and they’re going to introduce the Druid in a few days). I gave up on Last of Us 2 game on account that the television show was incredibly awful. I technically am done with Titans Quest II and POE2, but I keep coming back and starting new characters to see what the new contents are. I’ve been into virtual pinball recently with my AtGames Legends Pinball Micro, but those type of games are like casual or very quick plays. Since cancelling my Game Pass in Fall 2025, and since I pay for all my games – I no longer have a large pool of new games to play.

With the new game Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, this should take me about 40 hours to play through… but how I play may be much longer on account that I will play a game half-way through and realized all the mistakes I made along the way, and then re-starting the game with a new character and making all the right choices on the second play through. So, a 40-hour game is more like going to be 80 hours when I’m done with it.

What sold me on this game is that it’s often been compared to Skyrim, which is one of my favorite RPG. In my typical Weekend Gamer mess-up, I missed a ton of items in the prologue of Tainted Grail and I screwed up my points. I found out I missed the “Origin Potion”, which would have reset the points… but at this point, I re-started the game as a one-handed character.

As of this writing, I am only on the first area of the island and having a blast discovering all the secrets and learning how to become an unstoppable character.

STORY
You start the game as a prisoner, ala Oblivion. After answering some questions, you get + to some starting skills. Soon enough you are set free by a mysterious figure and now you must find your way out of the prison. Before you leave, you are transported to this weird world where you learn about the “Wyrd” and King Arthur. Your goal now is to find pieces of King Arthur in the world and resurrecting him to save Avalon.

GAMEPLAY
If you’re on a PC, your left and right mouse buttons dictate which hand you can trigger. However, I couldn’t get used to this play-style, so plugging in an Xbox controller will give you access to controller mode… which is how I prefer to play with this game. The game was designed in Unity, which has support for PS5 and Xbox, so it seems to work better.

This game was designed as a first-person view, but at the last minute, the developer, Questline, decided to add a third-person view. But as the developer warned, it wasn’t designed to be played this way. They only added this feature as an accessibility option and for those who prefers to play in third person.

VISUALS
From a distance, it looks great… but when you take a closer look, especially for character’s animation and lip-syncing… it looks terrible. I think it’s forgivable, because it’s still very impressive what this small team was able to pull off. As long as the game is good, I don’t really mind bad graphics, or even that famous Bethesda’s “jank”.

PLAY YOUR WAY
I love that the game allows you to play, however you choose. Every level, you’re given a point in attribute and a skill. You can apply to some gameplay: magic, fighter, bow, or a jack-of-all-trades. Right now, I’m playing as both magic (left hand) and fighter (right hand). However, I may want to reset later in the game and become something of a bow user. Maybe later I might want to try out two-handed weapons, who knows. That’s part of the fun of the game is deciding what is right for you and your play style.

PRICE
In the age of the $80 video game, it’s refreshing to see that this game was reasonably priced at $45 on GOG. It’s currently on sale. There is a $15 expansion, which will add an underwater adventure… but I am probably not going to get it as I saw that it had level-scaling. I really hate that, so I’ll stay away.