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What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them?
What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.
It's been a while since I posted in one of these threads. As I mentioned in my earlier threads I bought a powerful new gaming PC earlier this year. The two games that I'm currently playing on it don't exactly take advantage of the specs.
Final Fantasy IX: Trance Seek
Trance Seek is a huge overhaul mod Final Fantasy IX that adds different difficulties, new enemies, new bosses, new playable characters, a heavily overhauled combat experience, new storyline elements and so many items and abilities. Every boss fight is different and many of them have gimmicks. This is a complete overhaul on Final Fantasy IX for long-time fans of the game that are looking for a new, albeit far harder, experience.
Each character has their own new gameplay mechanic. Some examples:
I'm playing on the Zidane difficulty which is the default and does not feature level caps. Some of the fights are still pretty tough for a FF9 veteran. Although it currently only covers discs 1-3 I strongly recommend this for a FF9 veteran.
You install this via the Memoria engine's mod manager. It's not compatible with a lot of popular mods but it is compatible with the following mods that I also recommend:
It's not compatible with most of the Memoria engine cheats but stealing on Zidane is easier and you can select the Triple Triad card game rules (in Memoria config) and Turn-Based ATB mode (in Memoria).
Stardew Valley (with mods)
I'm playing through a heavily-modded version of Stardew Valley. With the 1.6 update to the base game and the Stardew Valley Expanded mod there's so much to do. I usually get bored and drop my save shortly into year 2 but I can't see that happening this time. 1.6 massively extends the calendar with seasonal multi-day fishing events, a spring multi-day dessert festival and lots more.
I'm briefly summarise each mod I'm using. Every mod, except SMAPI, is downloaded from Nexus Mods.
Mod engine
There are a few mod engine mods that you need to power other mods:
Content mods
Stardew Valley Expanded
This is a huge expansion for Stardew Valley that changes all of the maps, adds lot of villagers, crops, fish, events, quests and so much more. I rate this mod very highly and strongly recommend it to Stardew Valley veterans. However because it changes so much and makes the community centre and building farm upgrades more difficult I recommend against this mod for first-time players.
Frontier Farm (for Stardew Valley Expanded)
This is the recommended farm map for Stardew Valley Expanded although it's optional so you need to install it separately. This is a big map with lots of features from other standard game maps. It's probably a little over-tuned but coupled with the new content and progression requirements from Stardew Valley Expanded it seems fair.
Seasonal Cute Characters + SVE addon
The base game has the same outfits for the villagers throughout the year. This mod improves the villager aesthetics and makes their outfits change on the season. I'd personally recommend this even for a first Stardew playthrough.
Quality-of-life mods
Activated Sprinklers
In Stardew Valley the sprinklers activate once per day when the day starts. This means that if you till the soil and plant crops then you'll need to water them with the watering can on the first day. That just seems silly. With this mod you can click the sprinkler and it'll water again. I'd personally recommend this even for a first Stardew playthrough.
Automate
If you place a chest next to a machine such as a furnace or cask it'll automatically process items from the chest and then transfer the result back to the chest. So this mod is very, very useful and a strong option for repeat players of Stardew Valley. I do not recommend it for a first playthrough because the game isn't balanced around this automation - you'll quickly build up lots of money.
Automatic Gates
The primary use of gates is to stop animals between gaps in your fences. In the base game you need to activate a gate to open and then activate it again to close it. This mod opens the gate when you approach it and then closes it afterwards. I'd recommend this for all Stardew Valley playthroughs.
Better Shipping Bin
This allows you to add and remove items from your shipping bin at any point through the day before it ships. With all of the improvements that ConcernedApe has made over the years it baffles me that this isn't part of the base game. Definitely grab it.
Better Ranching
Visual indicators on animals that can be petted, milked or sheared. This is more useful than it sounds because with lots of animals roaming in a pen outside it can be hard to keep track. I'd recommend this for all Stardew Valley playthroughs.
NPC Map Locations
Shows you where all the villagers currently are when you open the map. Some of you may consider this a cheat but I've always used a version of this mod since I first played the game. With Stardew Valley Expanded the map is much larger and NPC movement patterns have changed. It would be really frustrating without this.
Dirty-cheat mods
Bigger Backpack
This adds a third backpack upgrade that adds a fourth row to the backpack for a whopping 50,000 gold. Although this makes it very expensive at the beginning you'll reach a point where you're earning that in a few days.
CJB Show Item Sell Price
Shows you the sell price of each individual item and its stack in your inventory. This would have been considered a quality-of-life mod in the past but the 1.6 update of the base game added a way to acquire a weaker version of this via an in-game unlockable.
Gift Taste Helper Continued x2
Displays a tooltip with villager's favourite items when hovering over their birthday on the calendar or social pages of the menu. If you'd previously use a wiki to look this up then include it in the game instead.
Lookup Anything
Hover over any villager, item or crop and press F1 to see wiki-level information on them/it. Hover over a planted crop to see whether it's been watered today and how many days until harvest. If you'd previously use a wiki to look this up then include it in the game instead.
Movement Speed
Makes you move 50% faster (configurable in settings). This is a very naughty mod but it removes the main in-game annoyance for me as a repeat player.
UI Info Suite 2
Provides useful information on your level of luck, tomorrow's weather, whether today there's a travelling merchant, whether it's someone's birthday and whether you have a cooking recipe to learn today. It also shows experience gains, remaining experience, icons on items to indicate whether they're needed for the museum, etc. Also grants you access to the calendar and quest billboard from your inventory. Whilst these are all definitely cheats they're also very much quality of life. I wouldn't want to play without them personally.
Wear More Rings
Let's you equip more rings which is very useful but the game isn't balanced around this.
Thank you for the write up of your favorite mods. Made me google and discover that, contrary to what I believed, I can effectively mod stardew valley on my steam deck. I’m gonna try it out and use your list as a starting point.
Once you run Stardew Valley with mods on Steam Deck you'll see your battery life running it drop drastically. Don't panic. Instead lower your TDP for the game and you'll get most of the battery life back in exchange for longer loading times between in-game days.
Have you tried additional content mods, such as Ridgeside Village or East Scarp? I've gotten way too used to these mods in addition to Stardew Valley Expanded that I often forget that certain things are from those mods. If you ever start a new save, I'd recommend trying them out!
East Scarp specifically has a couple "addon" characters as well, I really like Eli and Dylan as well as Rodney O'Brien. I don't think there are similar character addons for Ridgeside Village but there's already a ton of new characters in that mod. It does make the introductions quest a bit challenging though! (although you can turn off Ridgeside NPCs for the intro quest in the mod settings)
I haven't yet. I will probably install new content mods alongside Stardew Valley Expanded on my next playthrough. For now I'm trying to focus on the 1.6 content and Stardew Valley Expanded content as that's a lot of content on its own.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
It deserves every single bit of praise it gets.
It's taken over all my free time to the point where I can't wait to get home from work to continue playing.
Outstanding music, visuals and some really cool and intriguing story.
So far I'm on act II and while things have slowed down somewhat, it's worth playing it for the prologue and act I alone.
Mechanically takes some time to get the parrying/dodges right, but it doesn't go up to fromsoftware levels and you can always lower the difficulty or repeat the fights until you get it right.
I tried to stay away from wikis, guides and review sites and went in completely blind on max difficulty, I only saw some passing coments in an unrelated YouTube video of someone who didn't like the ending but besides the mood nothing spoiler-y.
If you've ever had a minimum of interest for RPGs and have the pc to run it at max settings I can't recommend it enough.
PS: It got me so excited I had to share it somewhere since none of my irl friends play single player games anymore, for someone who doesn't really engage with social media, even in anonymous sites like tildes, it's a really big deal!
It really is a fantastic game, it's precisely the evolution of the single-player turn-based RPG that I'd always have wanted to see. It's not perfect and there can be some frustrating bits (usually the beaches, the game doesn't platform all that well) but it is outstanding in its field.
The great news is that the devs have started talking about making more content in the Clair Obscur world, though, and consider Clair Obscur to be the franchise name.
Without getting into details, there's backstory mentioned in the game that I'd desperately love to learn a lot more about, and I hope will be the focus of some future Clair Obscur content.
Backstory Spoiling Questions
Who are the Writers, what is their beef with the Painters, and how does the war between them take shape?
I actually just removed this from my wishlist. The parry mechanism was one of the main threads for the negative reviews, as well as some "story line is jargon", both of which are kind of key points I try to avoid in games these days.
This may be a reason for me to reconsider (and I haven't completely given up on it, but I find it odd that I literally removed it like an hour ago!), but I'm also trying to 1) cull my wishlist to realistic purchases and 2) play what I already have without buying more haha.
The parry mechanism makes it divisive for sure. I think it's well implemented, but if you're not into games that have tight parry windows then yeah this game will be frustrating.
As always, mods solve that issue if you're actually annoyed by parries. I think there are mods to remove them outright or simply extend the window. I personally think it adds a lot to a turn based game and like @terr says it's the logical evolution of turn based RPGs in general.
I don't know what you mean with the story is jargon. If you mean that it requires a time investment to understand I'd like to assuage it by saying it starts off pretty easy to follow and will guide you towards understanding alongside the characters.
Good game tbh.
I missed last week but here we go
Death Stranding
I don't get it.
This game had a strong start and I felt like I was in too deep for the first chapter then uh... It kinda becomes super dull? I feel like I should power through the "central" region and see if it's any better but god it's getting difficult.
Like the gameplay is fine. I like the physics based movement and pathfinding. The missions are reasonably boring, there is the occasional fun twist but it's not enough to really stay interesting.
The killer for me I think is how boring the landscape is. I get it's meant to be bleak, post apocalyptic but like... Add something? It's just horizon to horizon grey ground with rocks and some rivers.
I really like games with realism, simulation, physics Yada Yada but mannnn.
If someone has played before can you let me know what you thought and how far you got?
Super Market Simulator
I got this on sale before it exited EA. It's the exact kinda Eurojank simulation I like. It's awkward and grindy and it's dumb.
It's not that great a simulation game to be honest even with all it's good reviews. It's got a lot of little weird quirks which I honestly had to mod out, but the core game is pretty neat.
I also played Crime Simulator but I feel I need write a lot more about this. Maybe next time!
About Death Stranding, once you get to the second location and really start building roads, I found it relaxing and even therapeutic to make deliveries so I could get the likes needed from every outpost. I would throw DS on in the mornings with my coffee while watching a podcast, and it was the perfect companion. It felt like reading a book.
That all being said, and here’s the trope all of us will tell one another, not all games are for everyone. I’d give it more time to really sink in so you can get your mind’s worth out of it.
The walking sim aspect of it is only a sliver of the game’s content in my opinion. It’s a wacky Kojima story, with vistas that I really did enjoy driving through in my van while dodging the death stranding. Also, Conan O’Brien is in there somewhere and he rocks.
I played it through to the end. It’s a worthwhile experience that I won’t forget soon.
I couldn't handle it... after the first few missions it felt numbingly repetitive. But I don't do walking sims very well. I could handle The Long Dark and Firewatch but something about Death Stranding just feels really tedious. I had to switch to watching the rest on YouTube and speeding up or skipping past the walking parts.
DS is such a fascinating game. The concept of the story -- playing a delivery man helping to connect the world -- always resonated with me. Doubly so since I played it at the start of covid lockdowns, which really helped it hit hard. But the rest of the writing is just such a mess. Doofy character names that have sailed past tongue-in-cheek and straight to "no, just actually dumb". The narrative itself was the same, putting the "high" in "high concept".
But despite all of that, I still find myself thinking about it sometimes. The gameplay was slow, but meditiative. The environments were sort of empty, but stark and beautiful in their own way. I really liked building infrastructure to make future deliveries better (especially with one of the late game structures). My biggest complaint was that all of the non-delivery gameplay (boss fights, ghosts, bandits, etc) was terribly underwhelming. There wasn't too much of that though, so I did ok.
But, not everyone enjoys every game. If you're not finding it enjoyable, play something you do like! Life's too short to spend hobby time on a thing you're having to push through.
I felt the same. I had the original game, and it sat on my shelf after trying to just get past the intro for a couple years.
Then I tried again. Was still a little "not my thing", but I pushed through and tried. Then I got a bike, and that helped. Thing is, I still abhor the BTs... wish they'd just remove those, but that'd gut half of the game (and don't even get me started on Mads Mikkelsen's character... I almost hated that as much as the BTs and it justified why I never do main questlines!), but overall... it got addicting. I beat it, then I bought the Director's cut since I started understanding better how things worked, and that is so much better than the original.
Still, I never completed the DC, but I can completely understand not being able to get into the game... but if you do, it's a little bit o' crack.
I’ve been playing a lot of Timberborn. It’s a civilization builder game where you manage a city of beavers and the water that flows around it. It’s super fun and each subsequent update has added a lot of depth to the mechanics without being overly complicated.
I think the terraforming and water management is its most unique and compelling draw. If you like city or civilization builders it’s definitely worth a try!
I'm not quite sure why, but I couldn't really get deeper into Timberborn after the first few hours.
Perhaps it was just too early and lacked a bit of polish for me, but I agree it's worth a try!
It's definitely a wonderful concept, though, and in retrospect, beavers are such an obvious fit for a city builder game that I'm shocked it hasn't been done more often before.
I played the hell out of Timberborn until the Badwater update happened. When that dropped, I realized the devs and I were on different wavelengths about where we wanted the game to go.
With the inclusion of badwater, it became apparent to me that the devs were more interested in making the game about survival from beginning to end. I liked that playthroughs started with the goal of survival, but that you could overcome that challenge with solid infrastructure development. What I wanted was for them to develop the parts that happened after survival was a solved problem. I wanted options for a late-game challenge that would influence the player to think strategically in the early-game. Instead I got a new complication on the basic survival mechanisms that didn't seem to me to add anything new or interesting, just more tedium and annoyance.
More than just what badwater did or didn't add, the fact that the devs chose to focus on an early-game mechanic over making the whole arc of gameplay feel complete and whole disappointed me. It had already been in early access for quite a while at that point, and the decision to change basic gameplay so far along–and not in a way that I felt was very beneficial–suggested a lack of focus. Like they didn't really have an idea on how to tie the game together into a cohesive whole, or worse, would really rather not bother with all that and just make the goal of the game to survive as long as possible. That idea really didn't appeal to me.
I have difficulty explaining my thoughts on the matter, in part because I'm not entirely certain myself how and why my feelings on the game changed, just that it was badwater that did it.
Can’t say I fully agree, but I definitely see where you’re coming from. I struggled with badwater at first but for me I enjoy that it added another water-based complexity beyond just making sure you don’t get screwed by droughts. My current playthrough has been a fun challenge because I had to build a MASSIVE megaproject to divert badwater flow from my main water source. It was a slog but super satisfying in the end; now any time a tide comes, my sluices automatically drain it without polluting my big lake source.
For me the late game stuff has been improved by the added mobility, now you don’t have to have as many districts to spread out throughout the map. I think the late game (and gameplay flow in general) still does need some work, but I’ve enjoyed the arc it’s taken so far.
I’m slowly going through some older AAA titles.
Mafia: Definitive Edition has been a good episodic journey that I can hang w for a few chapters. The shooting mechanic is rough sometimes, but I do enjoy the story. The voice acting feels like I’m watching a true show.
Elden Ring has finally made my library. I chose to be a Bandit, for whatever stupid reason… probably because I enjoy being killed a whole bunch. Next, I’m going to try Samurai or Warrior as a start to see what the difference is. The sound design and visuals…. Sheesh. I knew it was going to be good, but held off so I could focus on life before ER all consumed me.
I really tried to play through Bloodborne, and just found myself getting depressed. I dig the environment, but it got so heavy at times, and with my need for pansy handholding save points, I became frustrated. Oh well. If there’s something I’m missing, please let me know! I’ll always be up to give it a third shot.
I just started another play of Elden Ring a couple of days ago. It's been about 2 years since the last play, and it still is one of the best games I've played.
I was just telling a friend who's 12 or years younger than I am about how it was playing the first Legend of Zelda when it came out. I was a kid who got an Atari 2600 and then got an NES when I was in early elementary school. Seeing how massive and immersive Zelda was at the time was stunning. I never ended up finishing Zelda until I was in late high school but I used to just vibe out exploring in Zelda. This time playing Elden Ring I've decided to do it in a similar way. I still get scared going into boss fights because I'm not actually gud, but I'm really having a good time. Elden Ring is a masterclass in the feeling of discovery, and it's easily the game I've played as an adult that gives me similar feelings as Zelda did as a kid (Skyrim was also up there).
The starting classes for Elden Ring surprisingly don't differ too much, really just starting equipment and some stats. After 25-30 levels or so, you'd be hard-pressed to find a difference between most. The exception to that is the magic and faith classes, which have some starting equipment that is much harder to come by at lower level.
This is good to hear, thank you. I suppose as with all FromSoft games, the learning curve is high, and I’ll just have to keep at it.
Unsheathe is kinda strong though. I'd argue that Samurai is one of the best starts for that reason. Otherwise no remarks. All classes can get an early bloodhound fang and rip with stats only marginally different between each.
I've spent 20 hours playing Tiny Bookshop in the last week. It's a cute little management sim where you have a mobile tiny bookshop. There are side quests you can do for each location you visit, and also for some key NPC's. It's fun and quaint, but some users may find it unchallenging. There is also no replayability. That said, I'll probably go for near-100% completion, and I think the # of hours I put into the game will justify the price.
(For games, I determine price "value" based on the price of going to the movies per hour, and the enjoyment of the game vs. going to the average blockbuster.)
I really enjoyed the demo of this and it's been on my wishlist ever since. I'm really happy to hear about someone else enjoying it :) Sure, organizing and recommending books is "unchallenging" but unbeatably soothing! I'm a little disappointed to hear that there doesn't seem to be much in replayability. I was keeping my fingers crossed for a sort of "endless" mode where you could just buy and sell books as long as you'd like. Maybe someday!
I'm half way through Catherine. This was a generous gift from @cheep_cheep !
The protagonist of this game, Vincent, is in a long term relationship with a woman called Katherine. At the beginning of the game she starts dropping hints that she wants to get married, and also informs him that she's pregnant. More or less at the same time, a drunk Vincent meets a woman called Catherine at the bar where he drinks and hangs out with his friends and they end up sleeping together. Henceforth, when he falls asleep, Vincent is transported to a nightmare world in which he is a sheep and has to climb an endlessly collapsing tower of blocks, sometimes chased by aggressive giant monsters made of female body parts or marriage-related stuff. The towers are populated by other escaping sheep representing men from Vincent's life who cheat on their partners, and news start coming out of men dying in their sleep...
This is an Atlus game, and their DNA is all over it. Like in Persona, the game progresses from day to day, and there's a distinction between the waking/daytime sequences, in which Vincent frequents his usual haunts and participates in conversations with acquaintances and cutscenes, and the nightmare sequences which contain all of the gameplay. The tower climb is very much a puzzle platformer, with Vincent having to open his way up by pushing and pulling blocks and dealing with various types of blocks.
The time limit imposed by the tower progressively collapsing from bottom to top means speed is of the essence, and especially in boss levels the timing can be pretty tight. Controls are a little janky, often changing from camera-based to tank controls depending on where Vincent is; levels typically have one single checkpoint, and since you can freely push blocks off the tower it's not only possible but easy to put yourself in an unwinnable position (or just fall off), which means a single mispress can result in having to repeat a very long sequence. Levels typically end up requiring you to memorize all the moves needed for making your way to the top and pulling them off perfectly. Luckily it's also very easy to gain extra lives (at least so far), so you will rarely have to reload from save.
The story of Catherine is obviously oozing with subtext. The "problem" I have with it is that I kind of... hate every character? Vincent is obviously the worst, too indecisive and cowardly to be honest with either woman (or both) and seemingly content to live each day on a razor's edge, constantly lying to himself and everyone. But I can't say I like Katherine or Catherine either, for reasons I don't want to spoil (and I suspect they're only going to get worse).
Visuals are pretty decent; there are 2D anime sequences by Studio 4°C, but even the 3D cutscenes are well animated, with some great facial expressions on the characters. I'm playing in japanese; unfortunately some of the lines are missing subtitles for some reason, but I do recognize some of the top voice talent that they used from various animes. On the one occasion in which I died, there was no checkpoint; I had to reload from save and replay through a bunch of cutscenes, which was rather annoying. You have to remember to save before leaving the bar, as there's no way to save at the beginning of a nightmare!
The game has only crashed once so far. Could be worse!
Previous
Cool, glad you were able to play it! I watched an LP of the game ages and ages ago, and while I thought the story was interesting, the gameplay looked so frustrating and difficult that I didn't think I would have the patience to get anywhere near the end. I believe there are a few different endings, so I'm curious to see where you end up!
Luckily I'm plenty experienced at puzzle solving, so the biggest source of frustration for me are the janky controls. All it takes to move around and climb up and down is to tap the analog stick - no button presses required unless you're pushing/pulling blocks - so imagine tilting the stick just slightly wrong and launching yourself to your death after 50 moves!
I've been belatedly sucked back into the venerable
colony-managerehwar-crime-simulatoreh story-generator Rimworld with the new Odyssee expansion.After a long stretch where I only played occasionally for being busy, I'm really into it again and feeling the draw to just start up the game in the evenings.
It hasn't been great for getting my full regiment of sleep and I should probably work on finding a balance to neither feel like I don't wanna game at all nor have it take all of my evenings from me.
The game itself is excellent as ever. The gravship really opens up the exploration of the world, where I was always reluctant to leave my colony for fear of having too few defences and losing all that progress. Now I can take the progress with me! It also offers a sort of last resort for ridiculous raids, but must be weighted against losing access to the resources left on the current map. I'm very curious about my first space walk and asteroid-mining-trip.
I still yearn for some kind of better UX and especially better keyboard-shortcuts, but the complexity of the game might just make some rough edges unavoidable in that regard.
As is par for the course, I've had a few colonies fail already, but the current one seems to be more stable now. It's my own fault, really, for consistently, stubbornly refusing to play strategy-ish games on easier difficulties.
As always, I can recommend Rimworld to anyone not too hung up about winning (or finishing) a game. We'll all lose in the end, but the stories remain.
Haven't beaten a single Dark Souls, but I will be beating Hollow Knight
I really love this game. It's difficult if you're not used to soulslike metroidvanias but man is the ambience and game design fantastic.
Right before the second one comes out too! Lucky you :)
Finally saw all 100 endings for The Hundred Line. Some routes - generally those outside this studio's core competencies of suspense/horror/mystery - were definitely a slog. Unless you are a VN fiend, I would recommend just playing the 'main story' route and whatever other routes interest you rather than aiming to see everything.
The 'final route' has some cool stuff in it, but
Spoilers
If you've already played all the other routes (which you will have if you just generally played from top to bottom like I did), you'll already have guessed the answers to most of the remaining mysteries.
Unlike many other VNs where the final route is essentially the 'payoff' that ties the whole story together and drops a bunch of further plot twists on you, there's nothing in this final route which overturns or really adds to the plot in the main story route. It's mainly focused around resolving the loose ends and apparent contradictions in the optional routes.
Even if you see every ending, there are still a few things which are left unexplained (the bees; the woman in the lab coat, etc).
so I don't consider it a must-see.
This week, I'm back to playing Dark Souls Remastered. As per my earlier post, this is the first Fromsoft game that I've seriously committed to learning, after having bounced off of it several times over the years (I've put Sekiro aside for the moment, as my brain isn't handling learning both gameplay styles at the same time). At this point, I've just reached Anor Londo.
I'm still constantly feeling the dread in my gut when I run into a tough gauntlet to the next bonfire or a boss who can 2-shot me when I'm only chipping tiny flakes off its bar, but I find that I'm actually dying less than I expected - usually not more than a dozen deaths or so per section. There's definitely a psychological aspect to this, because unless I'm specifically keeping count, it always feels like I've died way more, and if I die a few times in a row to an avoidable mistake or just before clearing the section, I find that I can lose confidence in myself and feel like the game is harder than it really is, which in turn leads to playing even worse...
To that end, the design decision to explicitly point out in giant text each time YOU DIED or VICTORY is ACHIEVED (even though both are already obvious to the player) actually feels kind of brilliant. It's not there to taunt the player, but to reinforce that the outcome was solely due to your player agency. If you are victorious, you achieved it by playing a certain way. If you died, you were the one responsible (not counting deaths due to the camera in Blighttown) and it's within your power to change your approach. It's a small thing, but it feels like it encapsulates the spirit in which the developers want you to engage with the game, rather than the off-putting 'prepare to die' / 'just git gud bro' discourse which has somewhat unfortunately sprung up around the series.
I still only have the vaguest idea what's happening in the story even though I read all the item descriptions. I understand that the intention is for players to discuss between themselves and work it out, and that's honestly fine. I don't really need to know who this dude kicking my butt is any more than I need to know the backstories to the bosses in Zelda.
What's more problematic is that the same opacity applies to the gameplay mechanics too. Critical systems like humanity, kindling, human / undead forms, summoning, weapon scaling, ascension, effects of stats, light/medium/heavy movement and levelling up the estus flask - all of which can make a big difference to how hard the game is - just go completely unexplained. All the 'quests' are equally inscrutable and often you won't even know whether something is a quest until you get the reward. Again, I'm sure it would have been a neat experience around the launch of the game when people collaborated to work this stuff out, but the flip side is that this kind of game design ages poorly past that period of time, with all subsequent players being forced to either experiment blindly with precious limited resources (and no take backs, since the game auto saves constantly and has no respeccing) or constantly consult a guide.
I'm still using the longsword that I got during the tutorial (although it's a longsword +10 now). I wish you could just go to the smith and transfer upgrades to other weapons. I've picked up all sorts of cool-sounding weapons, but it feels too late for me to switch to anything else since all my upgrade materials went into what I had at the start and it'd be a pain now to grind out upgrade materials for an equivalent level weapon (especially at the zero humanity that I normally find myself at!) - and when even my upgraded weapon can take a good few hits/backstabs to kill enemies, using anything without upgrades feels out of the question.
I guess the option is there for experienced players to just hold back materials for the build they want, but someone playing for the first time:
is going to be upgrading whatever they have as soon as they can, since this is one of the few power ups where you can really feel the difference;
has no idea what other weapons there are in the game or where to find them / whether they'll drop; and
won't understand the weapon scaling / ascension system, so won't understand how good any given weapon is / can be.
It feels like game design for NG+, not a first run.
I also wish they'd scrapped the durability system. Everything has a ton of durability and it never costs much to repair your gear if you're doing it regularly, so it's not a survivability or resource allocation challenge. However, if you're getting pounded by a route / boss (which is what actually causes the wear and tear on your equipment), then you have no souls to do any repairs with when you come back, so what durability does add is the chore of occasionally having to farm a few souls to repair your stuff when you really just want to be getting back to your next attempt.
Those complaints aside, the game still largely holds up once you've closed the knowledge gap, and there's an real pleasure in the progression from getting your buns waxed to the point where your brain has broken down all of the enemy's attacks and you're holding your own. It feels a bit like learning and ultimately mastering a song on a musical instrument.
I still haven't quite become a From-head and learned to love the spiciness (I usually play games to chill out after work, and the constant tension and need to focus in these games isn't great for that), but it's definitely been worthwhile to go outside my comfort zone and get an understanding of why so many people have.
I've been slowly working on Turing Complete, a game where your only objective is to build a functioning computer. My computer is built, but apparently I have to program it now.
Also I've been feeling masochistic, so I've been playing some competitive Rocket League. It's always refreshing to have your partner using passive aggressive quick chat / calling you an idiot for making a single mistake!
I won't lie, my favourite thing in Rocket League is quitting mid match when my partner is acting like an infantile, trollish, edge lord asshole. Worth the ban every time! 🙂
After catching the trailer for Season 2 of the Fallout series, I decided to do another playthrough of Fallout New Vegas, this time on my Steamdeck. It's kind of perfect as a portable game. It's something I can play for a 15-20 minutes, make a little bit of progress, then save wherever and come back to it later.
I've got some random thoughts on it though:
Modern Fallout? Not New Vegas? Oh no... No, no no no no -
NV's music selection is really curated well to the setting, so it's hard to nail the feel as opposed to FO3 where you can just throw random good 40s-50s stuff into a playlist. But a good radio mod really enhanced my enjoyment of wandering around in 3. (If you are interested, it seems like if you can get MO2 running on the Steam Deck, you can use MO2 on Windows to test the mod setup and then port the profile folder over to your Steam Deck's NV directory, which will load it. )
Granted, I never got sick of mock-singing THHHERE WASSS NNNEEVVVERRRRRR A MAAAANNN LLLIKE MMMYY JJJOHNNNNYYYYY over and over. To the point my autocorrect knows what I'm trying to do. But, uh, I get it.
Ha, sorry. I got really into Fallout with 4, which is unfortunate because I think almost all of my "issues" with 3/NV are because I got into the series so late and am spoiled by the modern systems in place. I will say that this attempt to get through it is going a lot better because it's been quite a while since I played 4 or 76, so there isn't the abrupt change I felt last time when I went directly from 4 to NV.
I will also definitely need to check out a radio mod. To be clear, I greatly enjoy the songs on the radio, it's just that Johnny Guitar plays way too often. Which from what I've read is an actual "problem". Johnny Guitar and Big Iron (which may be one of my favorite songs ever) take up an extra slot in the rotation so they get extra airtime.
Though I enjoyed the first two games, I too only jumped on the 3D Fallout wagon with 4, and I've also had a helluva time getting into NV, though I've tried many times. The lack of crafting wasn't my issue as much as the stiff combat and lack of sprint that did me in. I tried modding sprint in to see if that helped, but none of the mods I tried managed to implement it well.
I've kind of just resigned myself to having missed out on 3 & NV. The mechanics are just too outdated for me to get into anymore, I think.
Modern Fallout?! Not FO and FO2?!
Kids these days... laughs in broken hip
I'm trying to learn competitive Pokémon TCG. It's neat, I'm enjoying learning the ins and outs of a card game slightly less crunchy than Magic, but coming from there I don't get why aggro isn't just the answer 100% of the time? Because it's just a hair faster sometimes to do like 220 damage more consistently instead of 300? Not really picking up on why Bigger Number Gooder isn't always the answer. Also not picking up on the strategy of certain cards, or when to assign energy out onto something that isn't your clear wincon, so I'm probably just behind the curve... But if anyone has any good strategy or tutorials, I'd certainly appreciate them!
I just finished Wilmot Works it Out after starting it earlier this year. It's small and relaxing and delightful. Its jigsaws are that are just tricky enough to keep you engaged but not so hard that you're ever stuck. Full review is on my site.
Besides that, I've been getting back into Dragon Quest XI, which I also started earlier this year and had shelved. It's pretty easy overall (I don't lose many battles) and heavy on JRPG comfort food. Nice to just put a podcast in and run around a bit, battling enemies. Just wish they had included a second overworld and / or battle theme. But hey, that's what the podcasts are for.
I watched about 30 seconds of the Wilmot trailer before turning it off to add it to my wishlist :) The narration gave me Henry Halfhead vibes which I just completed the demo for over the weekend. I suspect I have a soft spot for any "friendly British narrator" from all the PBS/BBC TV I watched as a kid. I'll have to revisit your review once I've had a chance to play. Thank you!
Worth noting that there's not a narrator in the game. It's pretty British-coded, but all dialogue is just text.
Past that, lots of fun. Enjoy!
PEAK! And the name is very fitting. It’s the most fun I’ve had in gaming in a while. Playing with 2 friends usually. And it’s just so fun to try and get as high as possible, get lost, find each other, etc
Dave the diver, I have had it in my library for quite a while but never got in the mood to play it. In my head it was a simple game about diving, fishing, etc. Which it is, but also sooo much more! There is an entire insane backstory and an insane amount of minigames and even games within games going on. A lot of mario party like little games, but also a complete take on balatro.
Highly recommend it! I did play it with a controller because that was recommended and from what I have seen that tracks.
Seriously it was not what I expected. A friend bought it for me, and I absolutely binged played it until I got all the achievements. I kind of wish I wasn't such an achievement whore, as I'd just started on the cursed critters and there were other options that could have kept me engaged, but... I "beat" it and moved on.
Chants of Sennaar
I really enjoyed the first two chapters. After a while I got tired of starting over again and slowly walking back and forth. I'm not sure, if I'll have the patience to finish it without a guide
Starting over? What are you having trouble with?
I mean the gameplay loop. After deciphering two languages, a third and fourth time isn't exciting anymore. It doesn't feel rewarding anymore to my ADHD brain
Elden Ring Nightreign
This week we played Elden Ring Nightreign for our podcast on roguelike games.
Wow what a blast this was! I was initially skeptical and baffled when Nightreign was announced: a Fortnite Souls game? Cmon. But I remember how much I liked base Elden Ring before getting burned out on the Mountaintop of the Giants and I was excited to jump back in.
And man does it deliver. It’s not perfect, but it’s got amazing potential to it. If you’re a fan of souls games at all, then you get a really solid 45 minute experience of monster bashing. I was always big into the coop covenants from souls games and this feels like the ultimate incarnation of it.
A new mode is coming in a few weeks which should offer a different, possibly less sonic level speedrun speed to it also. Very excited to see how this game develops and am praying as hard as I can to get an Armored Core Nightreign in the future.
Revolution Idle
I'd sworn off idling games but this one seemed quirky and is free. And yeah, my Deck is over there <--- grinding out numbers because I haven't stopped to look into why/how to better optimize things.
That being said, it's not quite an idler. It will take tinkering and poking and prodding and likely, some wiki/guide lookups, and even then, you'll probably still be on your own. It's my kinda thing though, not a completely brainless clicker or time-wasting idler. (Okay, it is a time-wasting idler, but ... that's the point!)
Payday 2
Got this one for free in '17. Didn't much play until earlier this year... it's very much a DLC-heavy game, but I was able to score quite a bit for relatively cheap (and for my current playtime of around 220 hours and the game initially costing nothing), the ~$10 I've put into it has been worth it. My issue is that I do not much like playing online, so everything solo is rough for lots of aspects. But if you're an online player and are fine with forking out a few extra $$$ for pay-to-win type things (or looking pretty), and you wanna hold up banks or cook meth or whatnot to level up (with way too many options for weapons, masks, outfits, sidekicks, etc.) this may be the game for you.
PictoQuest (Acquired courtesy of here)
I am addicted to the android app Nonogram Katana, and I was hoping for a fix with this one (if you don't know, the following terms are basically the same: nonogram, pic-a-pix, picross, griddler, paint-by-number). It's all black and white so far, though I suspect it will be the whole game. Also if you make a mistake, you get nicked immediately. While it states it's verified for the Deck, the controls are kinda lame and it's either slow to use the controller, or easy to mess up if you use the touch screen. So overall, it's a meh game... I haven't really cared about the story line as it's given me no reason to. The pictures are okay, but had the controls been better, I think I would enjoy it more.
NGU Idle
Still at Amalgamate v1, but I realised I screwed up and actually only got halfway to the recommended Resource 3 stats in Sayo's guide, which is why the last hackday I did didn't get me to cap and why I can't BB all of the Sadistic NGUs. My MacGuffins are at the recommended level for me to do a final long-rebirth to The End by a few weeks.
At the moment I think I'm gonna do some more 24H rebirths, farm enough EXP to finally reach 60k base R3 Power, do my final hackday to max out hacks & wishes, then do the LRB off the back of that.
I cannot wait to be done with this game. It has been such a monumental fucking time sink, to the point where I may drop a negative Steam review after all is done.
Brawlhalla
Played about 20 minutes of it after watching a random video about Luna. Game's a bit daunting for me and it feels like there are too many characters and movesets are too simple compared to other platform fighters.
World of Warcraft (Retail and Turtle WoW):
I haven't had much desire to play WoW despite the launch of Season 3, and part of the problem is that I'm still burned out with the community. Only ran a single Mythic dungeon on my warrior and for me, that was my limit. I was going to do some M+ and raiding with my guild but karaoke and some recent personal events which I won't go into have not made me want to play.
Turtle WoW on the other hand... I got my Tauren Hunter to level 14 and because I was playing on a 2x rate PvP server, I found myself in this awkward spot where I was levelling too fast to even spend my money on abilities. Tried rolling a Goblin Warrior and put it down at level 5 because realized just how bad their starting zone Blackstone Island (literally an island quarry) was, and it's far, far worse than Kezan and the Lost Isles are in retail. My Human Paladin is at level 11 still, because the PvE server is overpopulated and trying to compete for mob spawns is overwhelming.