Chemslayer's recent activity

  1. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Chemslayer
    Link Parent
    I also didn't realize this, but you gotta play the game 3 times (New Game+ and ++) to get all the best story hits. And it's worth it!

    I also didn't realize this, but you gotta play the game 3 times (New Game+ and ++) to get all the best story hits. And it's worth it!

    5 votes

  2. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Chemslayer
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    Finally picked up No Mans Sky. The most recent update added fishing, and I love fishing, so I figured it was a good time as any to get in. I stayed away from the game for a long time, as while I...

    Finally picked up No Mans Sky. The most recent update added fishing, and I love fishing, so I figured it was a good time as any to get in.

    I stayed away from the game for a long time, as while I love scifi and exploration, I hate "make your own fun" type games (like Minecraft). I need direction and something to do besides build a cool base.

    Well, turns out there's so much to do, maybe too much haha. I'm still on the initial story thread to find a missing guy, and there's also so many technologies to gather resources for, and so many other systems that I've barely even seen or scratched the surface of. 9 hours in and still enjoying my time.

    As far as fishing though.... I can't really figure out what it's for? I can catch some fish, but they don't seem to have a use besides selling. The fishing mini game (if you can even call it that) is crazy simple too, literally just press trigger at the right time, so that's a little disappointing, I would've preferred something closer to stardew valley. If anyone knows a way to make fishing more fulfilling please let me know!

    5 votes

  3. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Chemslayer
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    I left a lukewarm comment about it a few weeks ago, so I wanted to come back and say: Armored Core VI improved drastically with more play. The game is intended to play through new game+ and ++,...

    I left a lukewarm comment about it a few weeks ago, so I wanted to come back and say: Armored Core VI improved drastically with more play. The game is intended to play through new game+ and ++, and introduces new content, story, and twists within. It also uses every system and side game to add to the experience which I really enjoyed. And playing the same missions and seeing your skills and equipment improved is massively gratifying. I'm glad I kept giving it a proper go, it takes some time to liftoff but it's an incredibly fun and fast-paced mech game with so much experimentation and mastery to be had!

    1 vote

  4. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Chemslayer
    Link
    Armored Core VI! Had it in my interests for a while and got it on sale. It's... Okay? The movement is fun, and mastering bosses can feel satisfying some of the time. But the regular goons are all...

    Armored Core VI! Had it in my interests for a while and got it on sale. It's... Okay? The movement is fun, and mastering bosses can feel satisfying some of the time. But the regular goons are all fodder, and some of the bosses just come down to getting lucky with your dodges it feels like. And the story so far is nothing to write home about, I'm about 80% of the way through and despite my love of scifi and robots I'm just not compelled by the generic feeling plot (weird space substance, morally evil corpos want them, you're a really cool and strong guy for no real given reason!)

    I still enjoy it, and I'll finish it, and I love the robots and the cool tech. But I guess I was hoping for more

    1 vote

  5. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Chemslayer
    Link
    Bought the Hexcells complete bundle for $4 based on a recommendation from the gaming sales thread, and have been playing it as a bedtime game on the deck. I'm nearly done with Hexcells+, and both...

    Bought the Hexcells complete bundle for $4 based on a recommendation from the gaming sales thread, and have been playing it as a bedtime game on the deck. I'm nearly done with Hexcells+, and both have been fun so far. The puzzles are relatively simple but difficult, and mostly fair (I've only had one where I had to look up a guide and then "ugh"'d when the solution was to use the "# remaining" count in the top right to deduce stuff, which hasn't been relevant before). Overall def worth the $4, nice change of pace from sudoku while hitting a lot of the same brain energy

    5 votes

  6. Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books

    Chemslayer
    Link
    Four books! First, for my book club I'm reading Aliens: Phalanx. It's basically "what if aliens invaded a bronze-age society"? I only have familiarity with Alien from pop-culture (I haven't seen...

    Four books!

    First, for my book club I'm reading Aliens: Phalanx. It's basically "what if aliens invaded a bronze-age society"? I only have familiarity with Alien from pop-culture (I haven't seen any of the movies), but it's been an enjoyable read. I'm about 60% of the way through, and the pacing has been enjoyable so far but I'm unsure how they'll wrap up the (perceived) plot threads with less than half remaining.

    For my "Drama" book I'm on The Dark Tower series book 3, The Wastelands. Good ol western adventure, Stephen King's writing is enjoyable and the plot has been fun and mysterious so far.

    For my "silly" book I'm reading the 8-Bit Theatre 20th Anniversary Script Book. For those not familiar, 8-bit theater was a long-running silly sprite comic from the mid aughts, which I read at the time. For the 20th anniversary, in lieu of releasing an anthology (because the sprites are 100% definitely copyright violations), instead it's a script of each of the comic panels. The author also provides lots of commentary and meta-jokes, to the point where I think it's actually more enjoyable reading it this way than the actual comics.

    Finally, for my "serious" book I'm reading How to Be Antiracist. It's been eye-opening, and as a white guy I appreciate the perspectives it gives me of other people's experiences, so that I can better empathize and overall just develop myself.

    4 votes

  7. Comment on If you had up to US$250 to get one person into a hobby you're interested in, what would you do to get them started? in ~hobbies

    Chemslayer
    Link Parent
    Pre release is also fun, because it's so casual and you get that satisfaction of opening booster packs and finding new cards. For brand new players in my experience it has the chance to be...

    Pre release is also fun, because it's so casual and you get that satisfaction of opening booster packs and finding new cards. For brand new players in my experience it has the chance to be slightly overwhelming with having to read a bunch of new cards and then put them into a cohesive deck on a timeframe. But an at-home pre release (where you can waive the time restrictions) or as a follow-up once they've learned and got used to some basic Magic gameplay prerelease is a great idea. (We can spend the $40 from our remaining $150!)

    1 vote

  8. Comment on If you had up to US$250 to get one person into a hobby you're interested in, what would you do to get them started? in ~hobbies

    Chemslayer
    Link
    Magic the Gathering (commander especially): I'm kind of cheating, as I already have a large collection I'm very generous with, and I've converted lots of friends by promising they need no money,...

    Magic the Gathering (commander especially):

    I'm kind of cheating, as I already have a large collection I'm very generous with, and I've converted lots of friends by promising they need no money, only time.

    That being said, in the spirit of the question assuming I don't share:

    $40-60 for a pre constructed deck of their choice, the precons nowadays are pretty good and fun so it's a solid start.

    $12 for some sleeves, maybe another $5-20 for a deckbox (depending on how fancy they wanna be).

    Then since we got money to spare, let's go with $15 for a playmat, $12 for a set of dice to use as counters.

    That leaves another $150! They can use this to buy more cards, either through booster pack lottery or singles online, to improve their deck. Or they can buy another precon to have some variety, depending on their tastes.

    Honestly, I know Magic gets a lot of flak for being expensive, and if youre trying to play tournaments or get only the fanciest cards it definitely can be, but if youre just playing with your pals its a very cheap hobby in terms of bang for buck

    13 votes

  9. Comment on Introducing Steam Families in ~games

    Chemslayer
    Link Parent
    It can be, a year is a long time, and it's entirely possible to be emotionally tied to a person enough to want to share the things you love with them (in this case, your games). There's also the...

    It can be, a year is a long time, and it's entirely possible to be emotionally tied to a person enough to want to share the things you love with them (in this case, your games). There's also the issue that when a family ends, there's not an immediate severing of family-shares, as usually it's not relevant. My personal example is my Ex and I had an Amazon family (max 2 adults), which we made to share books. A full year after we split, I found another partner I wanted to share some books with, but turns out Amazon has a 6 month waiting period before you can replace anyone, which sucked and meant that I turned to less-legal avenues to share (thankfully easy to do with ebooks). The family I had setup didn't "cost" me anything so I didn't even think to cancel it, and when it was time the wait was prohibitive.

    All that being said, if my edit is true and the cool down starts when you join a family rather than leave it, then that solves pretty much all my gripes.

    18 votes

  10. Comment on Introducing Steam Families in ~games

    Chemslayer
    Link
    Great: being able to play different games in the same library at the same time! Really nice feature that just makes sense, good upgrade from old family sharing. Bad: One year cool down to switch...

    Great: being able to play different games in the same library at the same time! Really nice feature that just makes sense, good upgrade from old family sharing.

    Bad: One year cool down to switch families, oof. I know this is an anti-piracy measure, but one year seems extreme, even in an actual use case it's entirely possible to leave a family (your partner, maybe) and find a new partner you want to share with within a year. I feel something like a month would still keep pirates from hopping on-and-off at will, while being much more manageable and realistic.

    Edit: reading it a second time, it seems the cool down starts when you join the family, not when you leave it. That makes it significantly less penalizing in most cases, which is good.

    41 votes

  11. Comment on Rimworld - Anomaly expansion and update 1.5 announced in ~games

    Chemslayer
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    Dang, that looks exciting. Rimworld was my pandemic-unemployed-and-depression game, I put over 800 hours into it over the course of a year or so and I'll always remember it fondly, but it's...

    Dang, that looks exciting. Rimworld was my pandemic-unemployed-and-depression game, I put over 800 hours into it over the course of a year or so and I'll always remember it fondly, but it's (thankfully) hard for me to recapture those conditions. It's one of the most interesting and flexible colony sims I've ever played, and the modding community takes it to real greatness. If they ever added proper multiplayer I may just play it forever

    7 votes

  12. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Chemslayer
    Link
    Balatro, which is great (I commented on other post here). Also Tetris Effect, which I got on sale for $20. It's "just Tetris", but I personally prefer to pay for a product that works and is high...

    Balatro, which is great (I commented on other post here).

    Also Tetris Effect, which I got on sale for $20. It's "just Tetris", but I personally prefer to pay for a product that works and is high quality rather than hack together some free solution. And they really do put effort into making it worth your time: theres lots of beautiful visuals and music, and over a dozen different games modes. I beat "Journey Mode", which is their campaign, and have been playing the standalone "effect modes" since. They've got regular Tetris, literal classic Tetris (including choosing between speeds simulating several og systems), and a bunch of fun game modes with different quirks (I like mystery, which is regular Tetris except they occasionally fuck with you in different creative ways). There's also a whole slew of competitive modes with ELO rankings I haven't tried yet.

    Overall, would recommend on sale at least if you enjoy Tetris, they do try and give you as much extra sauce as they can.

    7 votes

  13. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Chemslayer
    Link Parent
    Balatro is so good! I love roguelikes as a genre, but feel a lot of them get too bloated or grindy. Balatro does it perfect, with new things and strategies to try without feeling like I "have to...

    Balatro is so good! I love roguelikes as a genre, but feel a lot of them get too bloated or grindy. Balatro does it perfect, with new things and strategies to try without feeling like I "have to die" so many times to unlock the tools I need to succeed. And I love playing cards as a mechanic, and the constant risk/reward of discarding and the giant numbers and multipliers really tickles the gambling addiction in all of us (without the downsides!). At the price of lunch it's an insane pickup. Also, works perfect on steam deck, even has proper controller icons!

    2 votes

  14. Comment on American Red Cross declares an emergency blood shortage, as number of donors hits twenty-year low in ~health

    Chemslayer
    Link Parent
    After several calls past "removing me from the list" (I'd moved several hours away), I told them I had died. And that finally stopped the calls lol

    After several calls past "removing me from the list" (I'd moved several hours away), I told them I had died. And that finally stopped the calls lol

    15 votes

  15. Comment on Do you sleep inclined? in ~health

    Chemslayer
    Link Parent
    I sleep in a hammock, which naturally inclines my head (and feet for that matter). It is very comfortable, and my super awful acid reflux went away (I used to wake up almost nightly and have to...

    I sleep in a hammock, which naturally inclines my head (and feet for that matter). It is very comfortable, and my super awful acid reflux went away (I used to wake up almost nightly and have to struggle to not vomit, which sometimes I failed). Wedge pillows didn't help, but the hammock cured me.

    Did nothing for my terrible sleep apnea though, but luckily I finally got a CPAP so that's sorted.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Chemslayer
    Link Parent
    Ooh that sounds right in our wheelhouse! We've got Outer Wilds in the chamber next, which from what I've heard has similar themes, so if we enjoy that I'll definitely look into your suggestions too:D

    Ooh that sounds right in our wheelhouse! We've got Outer Wilds in the chamber next, which from what I've heard has similar themes, so if we enjoy that I'll definitely look into your suggestions too:D

    2 votes

  17. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Chemslayer
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    My love and I have really been enjoying "co-op" single player games lately, where it's one player but there's ample opportunity for both of us to weigh in and participate. We'd recently finished...

    My love and I have really been enjoying "co-op" single player games lately, where it's one player but there's ample opportunity for both of us to weigh in and participate.

    We'd recently finished Papers Please, and this last week played through Not Tonight, which is a similar game based in dystopian post-brexit england. It was a good time, and fairly similar to papers in concept and gameplay but noticeably different. The tone was much more humourous and absurd, and the gameplay felt more fast-paced in that you had less to look at but expected to act much faster to get the best bonuses. The game wasn't very difficult, but we had a great time and plan to play Not Tonight 2 at some point.

    Now we've started on Inscryption, and to avoid being a spoiler as possible I'll just say we just encountered the first... Unique tonal shift. The game has been great, the card-game itself is cool and discovering the outer puzzle is good fun.

    3 votes

  18. Comment on What minor or inane decisions have had the biggest butterfly effect on your life? in ~talk

    Chemslayer
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    A few days before freshman year of college I was wandering the campus aimlessly, as I did then. I heard music, and figured that was worth checking out. Turns out that was a freshman "casino"...

    A few days before freshman year of college I was wandering the campus aimlessly, as I did then. I heard music, and figured that was worth checking out. Turns out that was a freshman "casino" night, where they setup a bunch of classic casino games, and you played to win raffle tickets. I went around a few games, went to craps and tried to chat up a girl there, but she left and was replaced by another girl who I did chat with. She would become my freshman year girlfriend, and it's through her I met my friend Y, through which I would meet all the other friends I spent my entire college career with.

    Literally all of my social connections, my hobbies, and really my entire life, was changed... Because they were playing music, and I decided to see what's up. Timelines are so incredibly fragile it's truly scary sometimes

    8 votes

  19. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Chemslayer
    Link
    Been playing Caves of Qud, got it last week and it's been a lot of fun. It's pretty neat how well the procedural generation can make stories and cool locations, even if sometimes it just makes a...

    Been playing Caves of Qud, got it last week and it's been a lot of fun. It's pretty neat how well the procedural generation can make stories and cool locations, even if sometimes it just makes a jumbled mess (I don't know if any books in game are coherent in the slightest). It is crazy hard, but I'm a huge fan of roguelikes so dying repeatedly comes naturally haha.

    Also picked up For the King to play with my partner and it's been neat, wish the game took the time to explain the systems a little more or at all but it's been a cool adventure game that is also sorta rougelike

  20. Comment on Games similar to Prototype? in ~games

    Chemslayer
    Link Parent
    I really enjoyed Control, but it's really nothing like Prototype. Prototype is a power-fantasy GTA game, where you run up skyscrapers and karate kick helicopters and defeat legions of army men....

    I really enjoyed Control, but it's really nothing like Prototype. Prototype is a power-fantasy GTA game, where you run up skyscrapers and karate kick helicopters and defeat legions of army men. Control is a very cool and fun game with some cool weird lore, but plays much more like a traditional 3rd person FPS with some neat powers

    6 votes