T w e n t y S i d e d
This week I am mortified to find I have forgotten to schedule this post. When I am not making an oops, I am playing the new Phasmaphobia update, which may account for my forgetting to do anything else. It’s still pretty buggy, but with 66% more equipment it’s a lot of stuff to explore. It’s neat.
What are you guys up to?
Netscape 1997
What did web browsers look like 20 years ago, and what kind of crazy features did they have?
Bethesda NEVER Understood Fallout
Let's count up the ways in which Bethesda has misunderstood and misused the Fallout property.
The Best of 2016
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2016.
Resident Evil 4
Who is this imbecile and why is he wandering around Europe unsupervised?
What is Vulkan?
What is this Vulkan stuff? A graphics engine? A game engine? A new flavor of breakfast cereal? And how is it supposed to make PC games better?
Hey, there IS a post this week!
Way of the Samurai 4 has abandoned any pretext of realism. It opens in Victorian-esque era, but the ambassador to Japan is a woman in a little girl poofdress, and she’s meeting with three princesses and no king. Then the foreign troops are led by a woman named Melinda Megamelons. Other than that, they’ve changed from the standard WotS durability system to a more standard durability system. I don’t know how well it works because I got murdered to hell and back one step out of the tutorial.
Cassette Beasts played a particularly nasty trick this week. I fought what apparently was a Legendary
pokemonCassette Beast, and accidentally killed it. I left and came back to see if it would respawn, which it did not. So I quit and tried to load my game, and discovered the autosave saves over your main file, so in leaving the building the game had saved with the thing dead and there was no way to reload to try again.More upbeat, finished a character’s sidequest in which
their Middle School Anime OC drawing shows up for an adventure, but in following her we learn the hard way she’s an ANIME OC, and thus is out to kill God, aka our artist buddy. So despite some REALLY annoying moments I’m still digging this game.Final Fantasy 8 has slowed to a crawl. I’ve abandoned Tonberry Tower and went to do a different sidequest, where I re-learned that sidequest rewards in this game are even worse than I remembered. One Holy Stone, a consumable that casts Holy one time. You can get those ten at a time from a card game. Severely trash. Almost makes me want to get back to the actual game part of the game. But not enough to make me.
Also Chess. OG TB Stra-te-gy.
RE FF8: Normally you can at least get some experience out of the sidequests, but this one actually has the mechanic where the enemies level with you which I find extremely annoying and which further rewards obtaining stuff from the card game… Don’t get me wrong, Triple Triad is not the worst minigame there is but I generally find this kind of thing intrusive and distracting from the game I want to play.
I’m deliberately not avoiding xp this run, no No Encounter or carding everything, and so far I’m still only level 20 and nothing is a problem (climbing Time Limit Tower with encounters on is much easier than I’d been assuming). This sidequest’s a “run around town” one anyway, but normally a game would at least give you a healing item for that. I was originally blaming it on the game getting rid of equipment, but there’s still weapon crafting materials and character/GF abilities and Limit Break additions they could be giving out. And healing items.
Curse of aggressive autosave :/ What would be nice is autosave with rollback feature. And hard saves as well.
That’s the standard for the AAA’s I play, and what I was expecting; Autosave is usually its own file separate from Manual saves, and you can load the last two or three of them. It was this that made me realize Cassette Beasts doesn’t allow saving to an alternate file at all. It has three save files but they’re exclusively for separate runs.
I’ve been on games for a while now where the autosave is a feature meant to lock one into situations like Dark Souls and now Darkest Dungeon. But I was caught out recently in Scarf where I thought I was being funny taking what seemed like an unintentional shortcut and managed to have to re-do a whole level.
Restarted Cassette Beasts for some reason, turning off Autosave this time. Managed to go about forty five minutes without remembering to save, and then the game crashed for the first time since I’ve started playing it, costing me a movement ability and a couple of bossfights. Back to Run 1 we go, Autosave stays on.
Finally caved to my desire to get Balders Gate 3, been running a Drow Wizard. I can’t tell if the giant goblin camp I walked into was supposed to be a big fight for other races because they just instantly became cowering minions when they saw I was a drow. Having so many actions hidden behind right clicking on things confused me when I was trying to catch a chicken I am 90% sure is a druid in hiding. Also been playing through little bits of Fallout 4, slowly picking away at side quests. Been really holding off on doing the Glowing Sea dive for Virgil, so its kinda slowed down in playing. Really should lean more into building for settlements, but the snap build system has never really worked for me.
Also playing a trio of mobile gacha games, but that’s just my life now.
I’m back in the year 2010 playing Yakuza 4. The Yakuza series has been an absolute revelation, but 4 is certainly not one of the strong points. Relative to the other games, even the often-maligned 3, I’m less excited to carve out time to play it and I tend to run out of steam after 90 minutes or so in-game. This could be mere burnout from playing 5 games from the series this year (albeit with some breaks), but I suspect it’s got more to do with the story feeling like all setup, no payoff due to the 3 new protagonists that have to be established. And hey, I’m a patient person and I’ll see where it goes, but I’m almost at the 20 hour mark and it still has the vibe of a prologue to something, which I feel is too long for that particular feeling to linger without damaging my interest and immersion.
3 is next on my list so I don’t have personal experience yet but I have heard a big part of its reputation comes from the fact it didn’t get a “Kiwami” edition and so seems a bit poorer for people who 0*, 1 kiwami, 2 kiwami.
*I’m generally not a fan of prequels but 0 is absolutely stellar and lifts the original game by providing a lot more context for the characters.
Yakuza fatigue is definitely a thing, I love the series but I need to wait a few months after I’ve completed one if I don’t want to burn out.
Incidentally, Yakuza 4 is where I got stuck too, both because of the narrative issue you mentioned and because of its bafflingly random and infuriating difficulty spikes. I will definitely complete it sometimes, though.
The Book of Hours is out now. I got hooked on Cultist Simulator (despite the worryingly generic name) and am now hooked on its successor.
I’ve been thinking about it while at work and making a to-do list on my phone, with entries like “salt for mysterious threshold” and “copy that which barks”.
I tried Cultist Simulator some time ago but couldn’t get into it due to its excruciatingly small text, which was nearly unreadable. Checking the Steam discussions I was far from the only one with that problem. I decided to wait until they fixed it, but then I completely forgot about the game. Has the issue been corrected?
Blah, the lack of UI scaler in games is really disappointing. I’m sure I used to see it in games sometimes.
Finished Dishonored 2. Playing Filament and Falconeer, with a touch of Half-Life: Alyx, which is truly the ambrosia of VR, putting all else to shame.
It took me a long time to finish Alyx, but I keep wanting to play it again. I finished it using Virtual Desktop and a Quest 2, but the lack of external tracking made throwing grenades a major pain. I’d like to try again using a PC VR headset.
Nothing new for me. Between excess work and sickness I’ve done very little in the way of gaming. Still going through Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands and still having a blast with it, but had to pause everything else I was playing. I hope to get better in the next few days because I am exhausted.
Seeing some videos (from Smith Plays Pokemon) about making a nice minimalist fixing pokemon rom hack got me back into the question of yeah, why don’t I just download those tools and tweak the old games however I want so they “make sense” and do otherwise fun and interesting things that I want to see?
Well it turns out the answer is because all those cool rom hacks you hear about apparently must have involved massive amounts of non-tool-assisted coding, and those simple things the newfangled randomizers can randomize no one ever put out simple tools for. So no, I cannot change the movelists of gen1 mons, which is annoying but also an interesting constraint. . . no, the big stupid “how is this not a thing!?” missing tool? Type matchups. I do not see any tools capable of changing the type matchups. Even though it ought to be a comparatively easy task, even though it’s right there in the randomizers (though not random, but under “update type effectiveness”), no simple tools. And if you open up one of the hex editors it apparently translates the hex into. . . still gibberish, which I think has to be translated *again* into a certain type of codebase, at which point you can then edit the code, if you know what you’re doing.
It’s infuriating. The last few generations have seen the official games mutilating their own type chart more and more, and I don’t care about what they think they’re balancing for, particularly when they clearly leave more than half the mons on autopilot from previous games without checking if they’re playable in the new one. In fact, there are ancient canon type matchups that actually don’t make sense and would make useful nerfs which have remained unchanged even while they muck up other stuff. But while people have seen fit to release tools for almost everything else, if you don’t like the Official Type Charts you’re just eff’d. Unless someone here happens to know somewhere beyond a search engine to get the goods- presumably there are some Discords somewhere, maybe the tool collectors are just many years out of date and everything’s hidden under Discords now.
So after diving into that and finding the options more infuriating than freeing, I’ve gone back to my Ultra Moon playthrough. Where I immediately try to continue forcing the use of some cool mons I wanted to use, and over the course of some hours, relearn exactly why I’d been grinding replacements to dump them (part of which includes those type matchups), and why I was going to keep the starter I don’t really like around rather than replacing it (hey look, the mons you want to use have both lower stats *and* basically stop learning moves right now and without getting anything powerful enough, while the starter you don’t like is set to learn three more uber moves over the rest of the game!) Sucks to suck I guess.
Other than that , always hitting a couple rounds of Deep Rock Galactic every so often. Getting close to the end of the (free!) seasonal cosmetic unlocks so even if I don’t finish, it won’t take long to get them from the random pools, since I’ve already unlocked all the random stuff for my two mains (Driller and Gunner). Finally found a build for the Scout’s shotgun that doesn’t suck, which combined with the Shield Battery Booster on the plasma rifle has resulted in a hilariously reversed plan of attack: when I take damage my rifle damage goes down, so I charge *toward* the enemies to shotgun them while my shield recharges. Even and especially dreadnoughts. It’s wild.
One year old daughter was in the hospital all weekend and then some. Since I have no functioning laptop as of right now and I’m sick to death of playing anything on the phone, these were some extremely boring/terrifying days.
She’s convalesced as of now, though still has some mild fever.
I’d be playing Baldur’s Gate 3 if it wasn’t for the fact my PC’s important parts are a decade old.
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew released last Thursday and I’ve just been playing that. It’s a real-time tactics game set in fantasy Lost Caribbean with you controlling a group of undead pirates facing off against a fantasy Spanish Inquisition. The developers have been putting out a series of games using the same engine since Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun in 2016, and with this one they’ve really leveled up. Instead of a strict linear campaign where each map gets played once, you have a much more open-world style where you get to pick missions on various different islands. The islands are generally large enough that to complete a mission you only need to cover a portion of them, allowing you to come back to the same island multiple times on different missions and encounter new areas and challenges each time. You also unlock crew members over time in an order of your choosing, and get to choose whom you take on each mission, again allowing for a lot of replayability and different combos.
The move from a semi-realistic setting to a fantasy one also allowed the devs a lot more leeway in coming up with cool powers, like crewmembers being able to teleport, grow bushes to hide in anywhere, or even forcefully possess enemy guards. Thankfully their games have from the start had a robust and fast quick-save/quick-load function (and it’s even part of the narrative of Shadow Gambit), since you’re constantly pushing yourself to take risks and try some cool elaborate plan…which then inevitably goes wrong a few times before you pull it off successfully as you fat-finger a hot key or forget about some random guard looking your way at exactly the wrong moment. Normally I’m not a big fan of having to try something over and over, but I never feel frustrated with Shadow Gambit since it gives you all the information you could possibly want when planning your latest gamble and any mistakes are clearly your own rather than the game’s fault.
Baldur’s Gate 3, unsurprisingly, and it’ll be a while because if the reviews and the first post-tutorial map is any indication the game is going to be massive. I have by now found a few things that could use quality of life polish but I am willing to overlook them because there is so much good in the game. Still getting around the combat system a bit because what little I know sometimes runs into issues with Larian homebrew and ends up confusing me a bit but I’m sure it’ll be fine. I did end up respeccing some companions: Karlach is now a sword and board fighter rather than a barbarian, because she’s ma girl, I don’t like Lae’zel much, and I need a tank, and Gale is now a rogue because he’s ma boy, I need someone to open locks and Astarion is an ahole.
Destiny 2 just started a new season on Tuesday. Seems like we’re finally moving the plot forward* and I’m somewhat excited, though also worried, for the new developments but at the same time the grind feels more involved and multilayered in this one so a bit conflicted on that. Having said that a big chunk near the end of the season will fall straight into my stay-at-home vacation so might have time to seriously sit down to it then rather than play it semi-casually the way I do most of the time.
*Though largely in a way that gets it out of the mudpit it dug itself in earlier… yes, I’m still kinda salty about splitting the final campaign expansion into two.
I’m super tempted by Baldur’s Gate 3, even though I never bothered with 1 or 2.
In the meantime, my video game exercise program is going well:
MeidoRanger • Telephone (feat Beyoncé) by Lady Gaga • Beat Saber
I’m getting towards the end of Act 1 (allegedly the longest). No need to have played 1 or 2 beforehand so far. I’ve been spoilered by a couple of legacy characters that will show up later, but there’s otherwise no plot or mechanical similarities. If anything, I’d suggest that playing Divinity: Original Sin 2 is more helpful, but still not required.
Had to skip The Old Republic again this week, but I did manage to get in a couple more sessions of Dragon Age 2, and the third time through the game is impressing me more. I have long felt that the DA2 companions are less interesting than the ones in DAO and DAI, but I think DA2 does MORE with them than those games do, likely at least in part because of the more linear plot. For example, there’s a sequence that ends with the death of your mother, and in part of it you might be betrayed by someone who lied to you, and in-game Varric will kill him if he tries it. Then afterwards whomever you’re courting will come and comfort you about it, and you get a quest to talk to Aveline who is the only one of your companions who knew your mother before Kirkwall, which is a nice scene. In addition, at one stage after you set Aveline up she confronts you about what your purpose is, and if you get snarky at her she angrily says that she didn’t ask to be the butt of your jokes and you can remind her of that set-up subplot where she was humourously inept and she concedes the point, which was fun. And I know this carries over the to choices at the end of the game as well, where if you are close enough to your companions you can get them to side with you even if they normally wouldn’t with arguments that make sense, which also happened in ME2 (Miranda vs Jack and Tali vs Legion).
The only odd thing is that the game thinks that my character is romancing Isabella because my character initiated some flirting with her that led to an … encounter, even though my character said that she wasn’t interested in anything long term (she’s flighty and hedonistic and so would absolutely just sleep with Isabella because she found Isabella attractive and available). Meanwhile, she’s been kinda flirting with Merrill and is definitely being more romantic with her and yet that’s not at all acknowledged.
Also, there are differences in the game based on the stance you’ve been taking (diplomatic, snarky and aggressive), since in the quest I mentioned above Varric will ONLY kill the guy if you’ve been acting snarky. If you are diplomatic or aggressive, you can appeal to his better nature or intimidate him respectively.
Which companions are more interesting is to some extent a personal preference but I will agree that it feels DA2 does more stuff with them. In my opinion the timelapses are a big help, the companions have the time to settle in their stories (particuarly visible with Aveline) and there are very nice interactions between them that feel more natural seeing how they know each other for years rather than two weeks, if anything I wish there was more of this (Fenris could clean up that mension at least a bit for one) seeing how DA2 is more a game of personal narratives rather than save the world one.
I have never romanced Isabella but my overall experience is that it is possible to break up multiple times through the process, it is also possible to romance more than one companion (at least up to a point) and at least some of them have dialogues where they address being your ex and current partners.
Still playing Baldur’s Gate 3. I’m playing a rogue because I want one and fuck Astarion. My party is Karlach (best companion), Shadowheart (also I’ve accidentally triggered a romance with her, she’s fine but her religion is the dumbest thing ever) and Gale (nice guy).
I love more or less everything about this game, and the parts I dislike are mostly because of D&D (which I still think is a terrible system for a videogame).
I know everyone is commenting on it, but the part where all the companions suddenly throw themselves on you and/or complain you’re flirting with someone else is… really embarassing. It’s like reading a book and then suddenly there’s a chapter entirely composed of the author’s masturbation fantasies. Or worse, what the author thinks are your masturbation fantasies. Please let me opt-in that stuff, developers. I will, I promise, I actually like that part if it’s not violently thrown at my face.
Just so you know all the companions are perfectly respeccable including their base class. It can make things a little bit dissonant storywise (if, say, you make Shadowheart into a non-religious class) and you can’t touch a few unique features like Karlach’s engine but as I’ve mentioned above I’ve respecced Gale to rogue for the same Astarion related reasons.
I hadn’t played much of anything the last few weeks, but I just got back into Hollow Knight; beat the boss to get the easiest ending with 8 masks, 2 extra soul orbs, all 10 charm notches, and my nail upgraded with 1 pale ore (although I had to go in with my Soul meter full to have a chance; going in empty I could barely make it to the third phase). That play-through took a little under 17 hours – not fast enough for either of the speedrun achievements, but my first time through the game was longer than 40 hours and saw me get stuck at the Watcher Knights, so the altered playstyle (and map knowledge retained from the first time through) definitely helped
Going to go for the second ending, fight some harder bosses, we’ll see how it goes. I don’t know if I’ll go for the endings that you can only get through a boss rush, but I’d like to see the three main story endings through my own skill if possible
All in all, though, beating the game for the first time was extremely satisfying; I was down to my last mask when I got the last hit in, which was true for most of the other bosses too, so that felt fitting. The game is difficult enough that every boss beaten feels like a massive achievement, but the bosses usually don’t have that much health relative to how much damage you can do, so once you have their patterns down reasonably well you can beat them pretty quickly, which I think adds to the satisfaction; even when you’re barely scraping by like I usually did it feels like you beat them pretty handily