macblur2's recent activity
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
macblur2 Link ParentNot gonna lie, last few days basically was split between me actually putting some effort into getting some base frames (for Grendel Locators, Gyre with Cathode Current works wonder), or getting...Not gonna lie, last few days basically was split between me actually putting some effort into getting some base frames (for Grendel Locators, Gyre with Cathode Current works wonder), or getting into a crafting spree with all the dojo stuff I researched but never got (unless Teshin threw them at me).
With a background of sanctuary onslaught and endless SP fissures.
I might take a break once all's leveled and in Helminth. For not even 2 weeks, I think. Still a break. -
Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
macblur2 LinkIf I did my math correctly in Warframe, I should be MR30 once I'm done leveling up everything I'm making (so in a week minimum 'cause of Equinox). A decade after starting the game. Kinda hoping...If I did my math correctly in Warframe, I should be MR30 once I'm done leveling up everything I'm making (so in a week minimum 'cause of Equinox). A decade after starting the game. Kinda hoping I'll be done before Iceblades (next update) releases.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
macblur2 LinkI've been playing a good amount of Descenders (and Next the sequel), they're roguelikes in which you go down a bunch of downhill trails (or ignore them and go off road) until you face the boss...I've been playing a good amount of Descenders (and Next the sequel), they're roguelikes in which you go down a bunch of downhill trails (or ignore them and go off road) until you face the boss jump across multiple biomes.
The game's sense of speed is really good, the rumble when playing with a controller may be the most present thing, but the sense of "uncontrolled control" is unmatched (I mean, I never felt truly completely out of control until parts of the last biome in the first game, but the fact is, at really high speed really small bumps can throw you into the air even if only for a moment, and actual jumps can become impossible to land past certain speeds).
This goes very well with the career (roguelike) mode's focus on risk management: remember, you just need to reach the finish, everything else is a bonus, but those are powerful bonuses, since bailing is very easy (you're either on a bike, or a board of some kind), health is very easy to lose (matter of fact, I often bail multiple time or/and bail at high speed which costs more health at multiple points on the same node in later biomes) which makes bonus objectives very appealing- even if they often put you in those very same dangerous situations (finish without letting go of the accelerator is a particularly mean bonus objective), meanwhile stunts gives REP, which is how you get perks (and if you care about cosmetics, higher rarities are locked behind having a lot of rep when ending a run), further pushing you into taking risks you shouldn't and losing health you almost certainly will need in the later biomes.Regarding changes between the games, the original game is only about bikes and is feature complete, while Next is in early access is almost at feature-parity by now (the obvious one is the Team system, right now we can only join a team, and Team progression is in the backlog right now; technically it's also missing some node types from the original game too), and in some ways is bigger (2 vehicles instead of just bikes, and those will eventually come back too;
bikeparks have better integration into the career, now there's also race track and stunt track, both managed by one of the team, leaving Arboreal as the odd one out since their node is still procgenned).
Beside them, I also got First Light, which I liked to the point that I caught myself multiple times going "I stop after this chapter", only to keep going for a while after.
Otherwise I'm fairly sure my thoughts have already been written down by others, more linear than Hitman WoA, but feels like someone took a James Bond movie script and retooled it into a video game really well.
Lastly I got Screamer, a twin stick racer with a fighting game bend. Twin stick means you drift with the right stick, and the fighting game bit comes from how you're managing 2 resources to attack, defend yourself, and also to use your boost.
While it has less cars than in ID, those cars act more as fighting game characters (complete with similar max speed and handling scheme compared to ID), with the main differences between them being Sync (speed and defense), Entropy (attack and a very high risk/reward super), and their special skill.
Meanwhile it has at least 40 tracks (I think), and more than 3 gamemodes (including actual racing rather than various race-themed time trials).Then there's the tournament, which honestly is more entertaining than I expected (I genuinely expected to skip pretty much every cutscenes, basically didn't, and I'm about 3/4 of the way through) and its willing to play with it's objective a fair amount (for example, in one race, to really hammer in how badly a team has broken down, you're thrown into a Team Race... where your goals are to KO both of your teammates... and get a personal podium), most of it still is just to get a podium or to straight up win the race (or are tutorials which you often can't lose).
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
macblur2 Link ParentI usually stick to Zephyr as my main, although I've been using Valkyr and Volt a lot more recently (only frame with the lens I needed to unlock the last represent shop). And on S&O, from what I...I usually stick to Zephyr as my main, although I've been using Valkyr and Volt a lot more recently (only frame with the lens I needed to unlock the last represent shop).
And on S&O, from what I understand they gotten repeatedly buffed to the point they can do that (at least when in the normal starchart, no idea how strong they are on steel path), so you could have gotten them before the buffs really kicked in (or they don't mesh with you, still is an option).
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
macblur2 LinkI've been playing Warframe, slowly poking and prodding at my prime list, slowly getting stuff off it by getting their rares. Of note, recently I played a Void Cascade relic mission (same as usual...I've been playing Warframe, slowly poking and prodding at my prime list, slowly getting stuff off it by getting their rares.
Of note, recently I played a Void Cascade relic mission (same as usual + wait for some enemies to get corrupted and kill them to unlock the relic and get a prime part), and we had trouble getting the reactant to open the relics. Now, it's Void Cascade, so the occasional round getting skipped because you're too efficient? Normal, somewhat expected.
This was on another level, because even when we made it, it often was at the last moment (so much so someone not opening their relic was common), or we just. can't get enough reactant to open our relic. period. over multiple minutes (usually, you skip rounds by making them last under a minute).
So I checked the stats, see if there's anything that could explain and. YES. THERE. IS.
So, for a VC lasting this long, you should expect 1-2k kills per player. 3 of us (me included) had a combined total of 495. The last player had 14312 kills on their own!
Dude was too efficient for our own good! And despite that, I still got a couple rare parts I needed to make a couple more prime weapons!
But I can see why Pablo (design director for Warframe) basically went "I think I madefishbrothers too hardcore" last devshort.On the other side, I was playing Hitman for a bit, mainly leveling Hokkaido (until you max it out, you can't use your starting gear slot). While that was a fun bit of grinding, I can see why it was never really reproduced even if a few other locations do have some limiting starts (Berlin's story start also completely locks you out of your gear, and the club entrance still locks you out of your weapon since you'll be frisked; meanwhile the Carpathian Mountain is a unique level that never lets you bring anything in, not even by smuggling it in, but at the same time, it is the only truly linear level, so I don't think we're expected to play it more than once or twice) since it requires a lot of work to get essentially back to the basic level of preparation we're given elsewhere.
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Comment on Steam Machine prices revealed, starting at US$1049.00 in ~games
macblur2 Link ParentThere's the fact that you can fit about 4 machines in the space of any of these PCs. All of them are 410x221x410 mm, the steam machine is 162.4x156x152 mm. The machine is closer to a MiniPC than a...There's the fact that you can fit about 4 machines in the space of any of these PCs.
All of them are 410x221x410 mm, the steam machine is 162.4x156x152 mm.The machine is closer to a MiniPC than a regular PC.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
macblur2 LinkFirst up, not an actual game, just a Collab for Monster Hunter Wilds, who're with Ichiran Ramen for this one. Thing is, when I think of them, I just think of this video (French only). Long story...First up, not an actual game, just a Collab for Monster Hunter Wilds, who're with Ichiran Ramen for this one.
Thing is, when I think of them, I just think of this video (French only).
Long story short: it took them about 20 minutes (or 1h30 if we go by what he says at the end of the review) to get a seat (on the second attempt 'cause first time they'd have to queue for 2h30m), and while the food was cheap and fast... it was "ultra basique". Compared it to a Big Mac against other burgers.
So no matter what the game tries to sell the whole thing as being really good and all, I just think back to the video where it's basically pay a couple bucks, spend a fewminuteshours (mostly waiting), and thenYou have eaten. You no longer feel hungry.
Yeah. Also the food skills aren't that good. Just get a base Village menu.
Anyway, the first actual game is The Last Stand: Aftermath. An isometric roguelike where you from point to point to scavenge for stuff, both for you right now and for your home.
Small problem, you're infected. that is why Volunteers (the poor sods you're playing as) have to go on suicide missions. And why their max health is constantly decreasing.
Hey, at least you get augments (mutations) every ~16 Max HP lost! And it can give you things like this:
My character arrived at the HERC Blockade (the first boss stage of the game) with about 30 Max HP, about 15 bullet for an SMG, a hunting rifle with enough ammo to not care about wasting some, and one or two melee weapons.
Stage is set up as 2 "rooms" you have to push through to start a generator (which alerts anyone you snuck past that food's by the gen), then spend like 10 seconds poking at the gate controls to open the gate. By the time I hit the second gen I was out of ammo for my SMG, leaving me with one melee weapon and a (slow firing) hunting rifle to fend off whoever I left behind.
Thankfully they didn't group up into one giant murderball so I could just shoot and slice(/punch) my way through a group, and barely have time to reload.
I though that was impressive and that my character would die soon (again, less than 30 max HP).
Then I got to a Detour (story mission) with 15 Max HP.
I neede to get to a building in a base, which needs a keycard. The keycard was in a small courtyard with 2 zeds. Small problem, those weren't normal zeds.
They were basically a Hunter and a Charger. I was sure that either could kill me in one hit by that point.
The Charger was fairly easy to avoid being hit by, but it took an absurd amount of damage to die, I needed multiple mags from the hunting rifle, a grenade, and 2 flares to do it.
The Hunter went down more easily sure, but if it leaped on me, I was fairly sure I wasn't getting back up (for reference, I think they do around 18-20 HP and lock you in place for a while, don't get pinned while a horde is nearby). I got in, shot once, immediately rolled aside to dodge the leap, then killed it with a point-blank shot.
I entered that base with 20 Max HP. I left with 12 and a new mutation.
Of course this is a roguelike, so literal next stage has me die to a Hunter hiding in grass one-shoting me with a leap. But then I had 12 max HP.Next, that DLC for Inertial Drift I talked about in it's review back in Marsh.
I got it for like, a buck? (It was on discount.) Must have been a buck top.
Anyway, you get 4 pairs of tracks (normal and reverse like the base tracks), a new soundtrack (and the option override the traacklist with either), and 4 cars to unlock in Twilight Rivals, a GP/Story hybrid mode. Much like GP mode, you must win every event. You don't have to do them in a row, but you won't pass on a fail.
You also have a set car for each event, it'll switch through a few cars for each rival.
I'd rec it if you like the base game and can get it at a discount. -
Comment on Steam Next Fest recommendations and game demos in ~games
macblur2 Link ParentSecond half: BOOST VECTOR EX is an extreme parkour racer with excellent aesthetics, menu designs, art style, music, it all works great. Gameplay is all about speed and boosting, which you can get...Second half:
BOOST VECTOR EX is an extreme parkour racer with excellent aesthetics, menu designs, art style, music, it all works great. Gameplay is all about speed and boosting, which you can get through tricks (drifting and air time, mostly), but also through boost crystals (which can only be used once a race each).
The AI really needs a balancing pass, when I did a quick race offline, the Proto-rivals were almost consistently 10 seconds ahead of me, while the random bots were 10 seconds behind me. There are 5 racers in those races. Also could use more content (9 tracks, 3 characters shown. Could have more).RIG Riot is a solo extraction shooter, I'll be honest I dipped after one run.
In short, it has a forced 4:3 aspect ratio, and basically throw you into an arena to be attacked from all directions.
Oh, and it's UI is small (with no scaling?), and I played on a steam deck, so it was extra tiny.CICADAMATA is FPS Trackamania. You got a shotgun-railgun hybrid, a triple jump, a dash, and a stomp. Grab all cores, and make your exit. If a threat's in the way, remove it. All stages are short too.
From what I understand, game won the NF lottery and got a lot of wishlists, so I'll just say that yeah, game good. Hope it gets a level editor of some kind, I'm not joking about it being TM for shooters (more than shootmania is).AUDIOMECH is a shoot-em-up that uses whatever you're playing to power your gear and enemies.
You have a (bass) sword, a (vocal and lead) gun, and a (treble) bomb, all of which are color-coded. So are the enemies.
The more of a thing there is the stronger the weapon and enemies of that type are (mainly, it means they're faster and spew more projectiles, both for you and the enemies).
Big thing from most games like it is it does it's thing live, rather than taking a file and "translating" into game data, so you can use anything as your background track. It probably won't work very well with other stuff like podcasts, but nothing says you can't use that as your audio to play with...Beside that, this fest made me wish we could install things to other active devices, since installing demos on the deck is a bit of a pain once you have multiple things you wanna check.
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Comment on Steam Next Fest recommendations and game demos in ~games
macblur2 LinkThis was the first fest I was made aware of early, so I actually got some games from my wishlist, and some from the discovery queue. Wishlisted games. Clover's Quandrant is a game I got to see it...This was the first fest I was made aware of early, so I actually got some games from my wishlist, and some from the discovery queue.
Wishlisted games.
UDLRClover's Quandrant is a game I got to see it evolve (a little) since the dev's on the discord I keep talking about.
It's a puzzle game where your movement is also your inventory, and it aims to teach you through gameplay alone, so I'll keep my explanation down to a few stages of level 1.
Basic rules are simple: grab all items, then get to the end, problems are:- if you move into an item with an empty direction you grab it;
- if you move into an item with a full direction you push it one space, unless there is something there (then nothing happens);
- if you make an illegal move (either moving out of bounds, or using a direction with the "Zero" item) nothing happens;
- you CAN "jump" across gaps, if you have a "2 Move" item.
Otherwise, it's artstyle is very unique (compared to what I usually play), since it's a heavy paper/cardboard style (with shuffling paper sfx for the menu) and the music is very relaxing (and also made by the dev).
It's a fun (if too difficult for me) game, so give it a shot if you like puzzles.
Also Idolon (the dev) found someone comparing their game to Baba is You and it terrifies them lightly.Driving Rogue is a game I would like, racing (well, Outrun racing but still), roguelike, music is more good than bad, but the drifting...
It's tap brake to drift, except it immediately throws you halfway into the drift, and while controls in it is not as twitchy as some said in the steam reviews (and that might due to TM teaching not to fully steer in any direction most of the time), you need to spend a little while straight before it removes you from the drift.
It's not lost like NFSUnbound, but it's still very awkward to drive (and going off the trailers, that's more to do with it being just shy from the usual driving style than anything else).
It could use a training mode where you can just drive and drift without penalties. Oh yeah, hitting walls remove HP, no HP means you lose, so feeling things out kinda require you to consider wasting a run.
Beside the biggest element of the game, the rest IS good, so that's an issue they'll have to figure out. Or not, they aim for a pretty specific playerbase from the looks of it, I might just not be it. Just... somewhere adjacent.Vampire Crawlers is a remix of Vampire Survivor's setting into a card based roguelike. It fits the VS gameplay surprisingly well (up to 5 enemies at a time, attacks all hit multiple enemies, gems pushes stat boosts onto attack cards, letting them build up through each encounters).
Give it a shot, same polish and style as VS, somewhat different gameplay style.Scott Pilgrim EX is narratively a sequel to Scott Pilgrim vs The World, and mechanically mostly more of the same. Mostly. To be honest, there isn't much to say? Not that it's bad or anything, but if you played vs. The World first you know what to expect.
Discovery Queue games.
Pocket Flight is... Weird. It a freeform arcade plane sim.
It doesn't have settings (and has performance issues on Deck but put a pin in it), it apparently has a native linux version (but it doesn't work, use proton), and what we have access to is just the sandbox, a plane (out of 11) and 2 out of 5 worlds.
Sandbox is a sandbox, look at the biomes, collect coins and go through hoops to get coins, use 'em to upgrade the bird.
The game is fun on Steam Deck, and would be a great fit, not too heavy on the battery, good for short, quick sessions, but not only are there performance issues like I said (almost certainly due to render distance), the game does not support gamepads at all as far as I can tell. Still works well once you map the controls, but still.
Also due to digital controls you set speed like a ship. Kinda weird when you're used to AC/PW.
So a settings menu and gamepad support would help make this a good "Great on Deck" game.Wireworks is a roguelike where you defend a castle with weapons and modules... that you control indirectly through modules installed on a server rack. Can you keep track of your wiring?
The combat is simple because, well, you interact with it through modules on a rack! Even if you do something like use one movement module for everything, your attention is still going left and right like you're watching a ping-pong match (and again that's one module to handle, more will make this even more messy, just y'know, in a good way). This plus the wiring challenge could be fun.
Not completely sold, but still good.Lost Wiki: Kozlovka is a wiki-crawl whodunnit in the style of The Return of the Obra Dinn, demo is too short to really say much (2 pages to fill, 3rd is missing one element). Interesting enough to whishlist from what little there was.
Those are the ones I played through so far, might look for more.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
macblur2 LinkRecently got back into Blue Prince. Considering the game, all I'll say is I'm past Room 46 and got to work on a... long task. Again, post game info. So, first of all, I'm talking about removing...Recently got back into Blue Prince.
Considering the game, all I'll say is I'm past Room 46 and got to work on a... long task.Again, post game info.
So, first of all, I'm talking about removing crates from the tunnel. After I got the shrine experiment blessing to last a week I basically spent the whole week pushing it (and any other permanent I could do otherwise) as far as possible. Week's done, and I think I'm about halfway there?
While that was happening, I also got my 8th trophy, so I could get the 400 gold Blue Tent.
Thankfully I also drafted a Casino on the polar opposite end of the estate, so it was a close call once I spent 2 hours doing nothing but the gold slots for the gold. Didn't get to use them yet tho.
The other game I've playing a lot of is Synduality: Echoes of Ada, which is free on psplus right now.
It's an extraction shooter, don't know much about the genre I'm afraid, although I hope it has a bad case of monetization compared to the rest of it's niche.Seriously, first thing I see is a ~70 day long premium battlepass, shop's full of clothing for the magus (which are a cool idea mechanically), and of course the monopoly money may as well be paid only since you only get like 200 of it via that overly long battlepass on what's supposed to be a premium game.
You also can buy the literal highest quality gear from it straight up, but keep in mind this is an extraction shooter, if you die it's gone too.Best part is the game isn't even bad or anything. again, don't have much experience with extraction shooters, but I assume the gameplay is the basic formula for it: you spawn in the map, are given 3 extract locations, and have to juggle attrition and your countdown to an insta-loss with doing tasks, picking whatever you need up, and making money, while keeping an eye on your carry limit.
Extract, and keep everything you have on you, die and lose it all. Standard wager stuff.The gimmick here is your Magus, an NPC who is always by your side and acts as your mission control.
We may as well not exist, so they act as your primary avatars (complete with a character creator).
Map indicator, various combat/farm skills, priority item tagging, comms, you need one of them for anything like that. Early on that's just lore, since you need to choose to go without one while the game (even if they die, you will get them back given enough time and/or money), but objectives does start forcing you to deploy your Magus for a short while relatively early. Admittedly it hasn't gone past that yet, but I could see them making some fun quest based around that (for example, you might need to deploy your Magus at a spot as usual, but they are unable to go back to you directly, so you have to navigate to them using the main map and whatever they can note about their surroundings since you lack a minimap among other things).As a first extraction shooter it's not bad, even has a safe entry since you start off in a group that penalize random pvp (although you can leave for a proper constant pvp mode), but I can see it running out of steam pretty fast.
Kinda make me wish people would play more with the extraction genre, cause right now only games I can think of are the whole extraction shooter group and like Pacific Drive plus Darkest Dungeon 1.
Lastly, Qualatro is a high-quality mod of Balatro.
It adds 100 Jokers based upon many jokes of the SiIvaGunner channel, which (from a newbie's perspective anyway) feel pretty well balanced and often fits the joke. They will also add themselves to the music, creating a dynamic mashup of the game's theme, depending on the Jokers you have.
If you're a fan of SiIva I recommend installing it. Don't have much to say since I played, like, 3 or so runs.As a side note, I had to update steamodded (and lovely) for it and that broke my old mod for a deckskin so I had to figure out a way to update that too. That took way too long.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
macblur2 LinkLong time ago I was paying Xcom 2/Chimera Squad, never finished what I wrote, but I quickly added something to conclude it and here it is. nuXCOM and Turtling. I've been playing XCOM2 (and Chimera...Long time ago I was paying Xcom 2/Chimera Squad, never finished what I wrote, but I quickly added something to conclude it and here it is.
nuXCOM and Turtling.
I've been playing XCOM2 (and Chimera Squad a little).
Squad tactics games with a strategic element. The interesting part to me is the evolution of anti-turtle measure.Basically, the way the game works makes it so directly attacking is often... not the best option to take.
So, you put most of your units on overwatch and let the ayys do your job of flushing them out.
Needless to say, it's not a fun strat. It can be fun as part of, say, a tense situation where you're on a almost holdout-esque situation, but those are rare in XCOM.So, they need a way to force you to move fast.
In the first game of the reboot (Enemy Unknown), they used Terror Missions, where you're running after civvies before the aliens could kill them.
Works well, but it's an uncommon mission type. So, most mission could be turtled.Since it was such an issue, in the DLC (Enemy Within) they added Meld, a currency used for most DLC stuff.
To get it, you need to rush to Meld canisters in regular missions before they destroyed the Meld inside them. One close and one far (with a bit more time before it broke).
...But the close one could be reached with only a bit of hurrying which only partially helped the problem.Then comes XCOM2 with... timers everywhere. 8 turns to do the job, plus a "stealth" mechanic that gave you an alpha strike.
It was controversial (Meld got a pass by being optional, this isn't), and still had an issue with stealth lasting too long.So in it's DLC (War of the Chosen) they added missions that pushed you to break concealment early and rush anyway (rushing for supplies, or destroy a thing but you have to make up time by shooting small things along the way, etc).
And then comes Chimera Squad with an encounter system.
First is the Breach phase, where you pick who goes where and in what order (diffrent spots have diffrent traits, like having more enemies that shoot during Breach or give the last agent 100% chance to hit, on top of a different number of slots and even requirements).
Then comes the Combat phase, which is mostly regular XCOM combat, but there's a timeline system like most RPGs rather than each side moving all at once, and the arenas are... well, arenas.
Everyone can see where everyone else is at all time, with no chance of triggering another group of enemies, and each group of enemies being completely cut from each other.While Chimera Squad isn't a mainline title, it is the last released title with a mainline-adjacent gameplay. It's still interesting to see how we went from something they mostly didn't expect, to solutions that were too lenient, too getting more and more aggresssive in how hard they pushed you riiight up to the point they said NO MORE.
That was something I wrote months ago, so now in more recent news (more than a week after it's over), I'm writing a... summary? for Red Sun over Paradise's Season of Screams V: Blood Moon (Blood Counter 4) event.
Feel free to call it Blood Moon, or Blood Counter, we do that.SoS4 BC5- no wait, other way around, whatever, BLOOD COUNTER!
Compared to the Metrolands at the start of the year, this was a simpler event: do stuff, get blood, enough blood = rewards. As for what stuff? Well, to quote Mikusch (our second-in-command):
Combat? Blood. Objectives? Blood. Standing in spawn arguing about our spray rules? Still blood. Don't question how any of that works, because we sure as hell didn't.
While you're doing... all that (especially the last one in the early days, got bad enough to add a command to ignore sprays), you'll get to experience the stuff they added for the event.
Most common is the gifts (stolen straight from 2012, I'm not the one saying it!) they spawn every few minutes, get them for Battle Points (currency), a voodoo-cursed item (collect them all for a free crate!) and maybe a key for one of the other crate types- if you're lucky.At the same time, a new map was added to Player versus Map:
Spoilers for Deltarune.
The Roaring Knight, who takes surprisingly well to going from the Fun Gang to roughly 40 crazed mercenaries.
Most bosses have a gimmick of some sort, like constantly teleporting. The Roaring Knight has a simple (NOT easy) pattern of hard hitting attacks.
And long respawns. Jevil in the highest preset power (it has a custom mode) gives you 30 seconds to wait (custom goes up to 45). Normal RK goes for 30.It's a difficult enough boss that it has only 2 difficulty level, Mantleless turn most attacks into 1-Hit kills, mix up the pattern a little (still is completely set), and doubles the respawn time, 1 minute respawns baby!
That boss is hard enough for only one group to beat Mantleless. I, somehow, was in that group.About halfway into the event, someone hit 100k litres of blood (out of the max required of 50k). Their reward was a new, secret one. One that lets you use GabeN's voice to terrify your enemies.
Naturally, we expected some kind of boost sometime in the last week to help people out. We got to beta-test a new gamemode instead.Dice Warfare! It's Class Warfare, but with rtd! Become frozen! A tank! An invisible Heavy! Someone with 3 times the HP of said Heavy! A sentry buster! A Saxton Hale that gets killed by a cardboard cutout screaming "MeeM"!
It's some good dumb fun with a good variety of effects to push the chaos. Like it.By last week, the giant pile of blood we're getting for the admins was getting big enough to hit twice the amount we needed for the last reward. We knew it was coming, a secret community-wide reward. We were in a frenzy, waiting to finally get Jackenstein voicelines. Someone even changed their spray to the Blood Counter showing Jack, even kept updating it as we got closer! Come on, you know it's gonna be-
I ever tell you about the time Keith tried to deep-fry a turkey? Third-degree burns over 90 percent of his body. His doctor called up, like, other doctors to look at him cause they'd never seen burns on top of existing burns―
We can now play as Ellis, from Left 4 Dead 2. We already had a couple L4D items, but they were for a single voiceline each. This is a whole skin, with a whole bunch of voicelines, including what might be the longest Battle Cries on the server. Why, the quote's one (and also the description).
As this was happening, it became more likely to see Ocelot (the Surf-only server) become the only populated one when the server was mostly empty thanks to the Admins enabling blood earlier than other servers (to make up the player slots being lowered to 16 instead of 40). Most were players farming the event. A few new faces only here to play a bit of surf.
Then, there was Shturman.Registered October 24, a week later had Surf Mastery MAX, received for completing 500 surf courses. Less than 2 weeks in, had unlocked all Surf achievements. By the time the event ended (27 days later), they had over 2500 surf courses completed. Little under 100 courses a day, probalby over 100 in truth.
They became a small sensation on the Discord with their exceptional rise on Ocelot, despite not being on it. For a couple days.All in all, a good, simple event (for us, in the back end it was quite complex as said in that forum post I linked earlier), but now that we're out of it we've kinda crashed out.
I mean, it still gets players and all, but it's still a smaller playerbase on for a smaller time window. Still not the worst, an earlier Blood Counter left the servers empty for 3 months afterwards!
To go back earlier, and then jump to the end of the Blood Counter event, I bring Yomi 2.
Now, I got into this a bit weirdly, see there was a kickstarter for the physical game, decided to go for everything + the big box (to get everything extra), which costed me over 300$.
Now, go on Steam. You will find the whole game for under 30 bucks. This form comes with the bonus of handling all bookeeping (like changing HP values), easily showing both player's discard and known cards, a log, and even async games so you can play over timezones!
I spent a good month with the physical game before buying it on Steam.Review/"explanation".
Questionable financial decisions aside, this card game aims to recreate the feeling of fighting games. At high levels.
As such, the goal is to defeat your opponent. To do this, you'll have win the Opener (where both players play a combat card in a double blind), which is a RPS deal: Attacks beats Throws, Throws beats Defenses, and Defenses beats Attacks. Same strikes means the faster one wins, if they tie the active player wins.
It's not that simple, though, in just the basic cards:- Attacks make up 10 of the 18 basic cards, but their combos can empty your hand fast;
- Defenses is made up of Blocks, no damage there but it gives you a card (and are only lost if you get hit), and Dodges, which will let you hit back against an attack (but are always discarded like Attacks and Throws);
- Lastly, Throws punish overly defensive players and if you don't combo, knocks your opponent down.
Keep in mind, this is the Opener at it's most basic, just the basic cards with (mostly) no special effects. Specials and Supers can make things even more interesting.
To help you getting one over your opponent, during your turns you get to draw 2 cards and do a few Actions:
- You can Exchange a valid card in your hand for another valid card in your discard. by default these are the basic cards I outlined earlier, but some characters can occasionally make other cards Exchangeable;
- You can also use Ability cards. Self-explanatory, some are very simple (knockdown your opponent, go to combat), others can be more complex (Lum's Gimme a Jackpot! can have 5 different effects depending on which symbols were on the revealed cards);
- You can discard a pair to Power Up, gaining a Super Meter and either another Super Meter or a Super card from your discard;
- Lastly, you can activate your Gem Storm. For 2 turns you get a strong effect that can make getting hit by you an even more dangerous prospect than usual, or just make it easier to hit them to begin with. Keep in mind you can only activate it once per game.
As you can tell by now, it's the kind of game where you'll second guess yourself all the way to the end, making you feel like a genius as you hard read your opponent, and also like a moron as you walk into what now looks into the most obvious 50-damage super the game has on offer.
Like, genuinely, I once blocked against a full Super Rook. The moment I saw that full super meter I knew what was waiting for me....I may need to write a little less next time.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
macblur2 LinkThe beta test for Sonic Racing Crossworlds is out for a few more hours. Game's fun and chaotic, it does lead to having a "last second matters" issue since you're always right by the pack, but...The beta test for Sonic Racing Crossworlds is out for a few more hours.
Game's fun and chaotic, it does lead to having a "last second matters" issue since you're always right by the pack, but that's one side of the kart racer design flaw coin (the other being someone too far ahead just becomes untouchable even with pick-ups).
It's big gimmick is customizable machines and gadget loadouts. The machine customization effectively don't matter stat-wise, just looks (a quick look + napkin maths tells me car types give 2/3 of the stats, the characters 1/3, and the parts selection barely reached 10 point difference in any stat when I deliberately went from highest to lowest), but the loadouts and machine type will change how you play a lot.For example, a Speed character on a Boost hoverboard with a drift-heavy loadout will have a lot of speed while boosting, boost nearly constantly thanks to the loadout making it incredibly easy to fill a least one gauge, but WILL stop when hit by any weapon for a few seconds, enough in this game to make you go from first to last.
Meanwhile a Power machine and a ring thief/boost build might not be the fastest at any time, but they recover from attacks fast, and usually will be able to get back to their wincon fast (namely roadraging everyone out of their life savings) that you can expect them to always be very close to the pack, but rarely behind- or ahead- of it.If they balance the gadgets well, it could create a lot of variability.
I've also picked up Receiver 2. An extremely manual FPS. By manual, here's what I mean:
When using a double-action revolver, you must hold the fire button to fire the weapon, unless you cock the hammer first (then you just press it to fire), but doing so also means you cannot reload the weapon until you fire or uncock it.
To reload it, open the cylinder and eject all bullets (this might take a few tries, you will also need to pick up any unspent rounds off the ground), then insert each bullet manually. You might have some blocked cylinders, so you'll have to align them according to the direction the cylinder rotates.If it sounds like a lot, it kind of is, especially if you're under pressure (which, as you're so close to being a one-hit point wonder any enemy will put you under a good amount of pressure). Thankfully, there is two modes to this game: the Dreaming (original mode, collect tapes while avoiding and shooting drones) and the Compound (safely train your handling of the weapons), both modes have their own progression (the Compound's one is permanent, the Dreaming partially isn't), and nicely complement each-other (try a level in Dreaming, afterwards decompress by running around the Compound while doing some challenges or just drills, then return to the Dreaming).
The atmosphere of the game is just as oppressive and uncertain as the game itself, the Threat is not given so much as a... body, really (it sounds outright like a memetic hazard, where it infects purely by being heard), the location of the game doesn't quite make sense (all locations are directly linked to one-another, an hospital is one door away from a catwalk on a industrial site which is one door away from an art museum with a built-in apartment and so on), the tapes you collect are mostly spoken in monotone (and the few that aren't...), there are no humans (even your reflection is that of a target cutout) or any organic life besides potted plants, but you can hear noises during the Dreaming (I swear I heard dogs barking at one point). Time being not quite right is a plot point that explains why collectibles are not in any order.
Even the Compound maintains a level of this despite being a safe place. Admittedly, it does lose some of it depending on what you put on the intercom (which affects the audio a lot, you might not hear the intercom at some places in the Compound). -
Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
macblur2 LinkWarframe's latest operation (Operation Eight Claw) is ending soon. It's all about running the Isleweaver node repeatedly, with no alerts running in parallel. Fairly sure we could see DE pushing...Warframe's latest operation (Operation Eight Claw) is ending soon.
It's all about running the Isleweaver node repeatedly, with no alerts running in parallel.
Fairly sure we could see DE pushing the track early on, it was that much of a slog.
It really wasn't helped by Duviri nodes being 3x longer than regular nodes.
I've also gotten back into Monster Hunter Wilds, the game loop is still enjoyable, although I may have made my wishlist useless by putting every armor I don't have either version of on (I have 230+ entries on it), so just about everyone is a wishlist monster.
Lastly, and this one goes a bit weird, I've gotten the Mythic GM Emulator (2nd edition) pdf, with a bunch of compilations of its companion magazine.
Now, I do (plan to) use it on, y'know, TTRPGs, even if all I've done in one is some light prep because I'm waiting for it's second edition to come out first.
I've done too little to really test the system, and it's not helped by not having a proper TTRPG setup in any way (just installed MapTool but don't use it (to the point I didn't realize it was missing dependecies*), heavily rely on google sheets), or my 3 first adventures being a pair of West Marches Campaign-style stories (instead of a set party, you have a host of characters handling a bunch of stuff), and a retooling of the system to give a boardgame a not-really-legacy-but-that's-the-closest-I-got variant.
(That game is Rallyman DIRT, and I might include GT, but that might wait until I have more stuff for it and*or they rerelease RX first, but it only matters for context)The thing is, I spent hours so far redoing a bunch of sheets to more easily make characters and use some other homebrews to give the Rallies more personality than just the terrain ratio and setting the vault to do all of that, to no boardgame time yet. And it was enjoyable?
...At least it something I might share with KamSandwich, I guess?* Technically it was Java/JaveFX missing dependencies, but I found my answer on the MapTool github.
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Comment on Steam Next Fest June 2025 in ~games
macblur2 LinkI found AEROMACHINA through a fanart of the MC (an aeromorph) instead of Next Fest (again, seems to be a recurring thing, this whole fest discovery not helping that much...). The big thing here is...I found AEROMACHINA through a fanart of the MC (an aeromorph) instead of Next Fest (again, seems to be a recurring thing, this whole fest discovery not helping that much...).
The big thing here is gliding since you're a 'morph, big thing that tripped me is that joystick only deals with steering and acceleration, not height (unlike a wingsuit). Once you get used to it it's way better, setting aside the fact that glide and stomp are on adjacent face buttons (Y and B), but they should be rebindable in the full game (there's already a field for those options, even if it's empty right now).
Past that, I don't have that much experience in the genre, but it does place it's backtrack goals pretty clearly in sight (but not on the map, even if you entered it and stood right on something you can interact with later). Combat is fun if mostly pointless (not helped by enemies respawning the moment you leave a room). Didn't do everything yet, but I have to get close to the end by now.The other game I found was though Next Fest itself this time, Slyders, it's pretty much Vampire Survivors (or HoloCure with the upgrade slot system), just as a FPS instead.
Overall, if you like VS/HC and FPS you'll like this game, just noting that it does use AI in artwork (got the whole disclosure thing on steam, right after the description). -
Comment on Drones hit ‘Freedom Flotilla’ Gaza aid ship in international waters near Malta in ~society
macblur2 Link ParentGood catch, I somehow misread the "by" as "of". Makes me wonder how often flags get revoked.Good catch, I somehow misread the "by" as "of". Makes me wonder how often flags get revoked.
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Comment on Drones hit ‘Freedom Flotilla’ Gaza aid ship in international waters near Malta in ~society
macblur2 (edited )LinkFollowup on the ship's state from the Times of Malta: Couldn't be more suspicious if they tried. No flag (was removed one day before being hit going off another article, edit: as noted by...Followup on the ship's state from the Times of Malta:
Malta has offered to pay for the repairs of the Gaza-bound boat and help it reach its destination, but it continues to refuse to let the vessel in Maltese territorial waters and ports.
The government will not let them in unless it is allowed to inspect the ship and ensure it is truly carrying humanitarian aid and that its damage is compatible with the damage sustained by an attack, Prime Minister Robert Abela told reporters Sunday.Couldn't be more suspicious if they tried. No flag (was removed one day before being hit going off another article, edit: as noted by TheMediumJon, the issuing country removed the flag) or insurance, took damage while carrying HumAid but unwilling to let Malta's maritime surveyor in.
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Comment on Drones hit ‘Freedom Flotilla’ Gaza aid ship in international waters near Malta in ~society
macblur2 LinkCouple more articles on it from SB's whitehall: CNN and ToI. For starters, both articles states that the FFC hasn't given evidence that this was a IDF strike, and that the IDF also is silent about...Couple more articles on it from SB's whitehall: CNN and ToI.
For starters, both articles states that the FFC hasn't given evidence that this was a IDF strike, and that the IDF also is silent about it (an IAF C-180 was tracked to enter the area, but left hours before the attack).
The more fun thing is the crew list, it's number to be exact.
Again, both articles report the same number- from Malta's government, 16. Where it gets weird is the FFC's number. ToI states the org's website said there were 21 volunteers aboard, and CNN asked FFC directly and got 30, so where did the 5-14 new crew members come from.
Note that CNN also reported the 21 volunteers from their statement.Then you have the ToI-exclusive info that the convoy was organized by Hamas to attack the IDF troops, they credit Al Arabiya (a Saudi news group), which themselves state they had a Western security source (according to ToI, as their English article does not say so, it could be in the Arabic one though)
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
macblur2 LinkPacific Drive recently got a pretty big update. For starters, they finally figured out whatever problem the save system posed so we went from an Hades system (game saves every time you enter a...Pacific Drive recently got a pretty big update.
For starters, they finally figured out whatever problem the save system posed so we went from an Hades system (game saves every time you enter a Junction) to a proper Suspend and quit option.
I know people weren't fond of the game asking for 15-30 minutes without stops at a time, so this will be helpful to those who can't quite lock that much time to Drive.Besides the much more friendly save (if you don't screw up during a run) they introduced Expeditions, a remixed version of regular drives that basically shove the entire loop of PD into a single run.
Basically you start with next to nothing (it starts off by limiting your inventory, and quickly add your crafting bench and what car parts you have to that) so every run becomes strictly about making the parts you need to get anchors and go through the Gateway, because you just can't afford the space to hoard everything you come across.
Adding to this, Expeditions take place on a randomized map, where the number of Junctions and paths will change each Expedition, and added Junction Features, essentially presets that guarantees certain aspect (for example: Desolate barely have anything, [Blank] Junction are full of whatever they're named after, Pit Stops are stable Junctions with the means to repair, refuel, and recharge your car), which coupled with a region timer that adds conditions that applies to every Junctions the more Junctions you clear, the fact that Junctions you drove through becomes Desolate, and the Instability claiming more and more Junctions over time makes this a very difficult challenge where even routing between Junctions becomes an important choice.It's fun, but basically need the base game to do supply runs (which makes sense, since it's very end-game oriented), also it shows that I need more pnemalockers, 4 isn't enough...
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Comment on Do you have games that you play (almost) exclusively? in ~games
macblur2 Link ParentHonestly fair, and the game's been adding more and more limited-access grinds like that (pretty much 1 new syndicate/expansion, weekly challenges in many forms, I guess even the ones limited on...Honestly fair, and the game's been adding more and more limited-access grinds like that (pretty much 1 new syndicate/expansion, weekly challenges in many forms, I guess even the ones limited on the rewards' side would count?), I personally am fine with it (this game attracts a lot of people who are willing to nolife an update into being completely done within days if given the chance) but I can see how many wouldn't like that sorta thing (hell, I usually hate battlepasses nowadays and waframe has 2 technically, and one's weekly).
And as of a few minutes ago, I am now a True Master.
I like the emote :)