
Maclintok wrote:- GRAW 2: blast from the past! I wanted to test out the backwards compatibility on Xbox Series X. One of my favourite Clancy/tactical shooters from the 360 era.
I played at least several dozen amazing hours of co-op of this on PC around 2010.
Hell yeah! Very fond memories of GRAW 1 as well, being the pack-in game for the 360 and all. But I believe the sequel was better in pretty much every way.
I missed out on GR Future Soldier in the early 2010s. Waiting for them to discount that thing on the Xbox Store or Steam as the regular asking price is a bit much.
I blew a lot of hours on Ara: History Untold. I finished my first playthrough. Funnily enough it ended like my many Civ games ever did with just clicking next turn. It seems the endgame of this genre still needs to be addressed.
Old World already addressed it by tying victory to either 1) completing objectives or 2) being so far ahead that the game is out of reach for the other players and just ending at that point. I don't know why nobody else has copied them.
They do have a similar system (outclassing by prestige points) in Ara.
The victory threshold is about 36,000 prestige points.
Once you cross the threshold, a doom timer of 20 turns starts ticking and the person with the highest points wins at the end.
That meant sitting through 20 clicks (often more because of all the turn activity) and by the time the game ended I was at 46,000 points just building random wonders and often not building anything.
It's a good game. It has way more meat (in supply chain management) than Civ ever did. But it does have launch issues to address (performance is one of them). Things like a broken diplomacy system, bugged masterpiece sets that don't generate the prestige per turn the tool tip suggests (heck I've never had a proper collection to exhibit in Civ6), and weird debuff mechanisms that are designed to cap city size to 30. UI is another but they're working on it.
I also think the leaders should be reworked. Some leaders have such meaningless bonuses.
I'm going to let it get better with more patches then get back in.
DEATHLOOP will be my next FPS fix, it seems...
I Played three boomer FPSs in a row (Amid Evil, SPRAWL and E.Y.E Divine Cybermancy). Well, EYE DC is just plain old.
Developed appetite for something with more modern mechanics. I mean, it's Arkane/Bethesda - how bad can it be...?
***
UPDATE after the first 2 hours in DEATHLOOP: I like it...
It may be too early to gauge if the dying reset/loop thing will be an interesting mechanic or just plain annoying, but I still didn't get myself killed, aside from those couple mandatory deaths during introduction.
The best thing so far, actually, is the protagonist. I like the guy. I also like the woman who seems to be the main antagonist, at least in these early bits. Their banter is actually pretty funny and the voice acting (of everyone) is the best I heard in a very long time. Really high quality stuff: funny, well acted, realistic and engaging.
I also like over the top 60's design aesthetic - it's the same vibe like in The Invincible, just more Earth-bound. Julianna's cliff mansion you'll see within the first hour is just amazing, I fell in love with the place immediately. All it's lacking is my computer and solid internet connection - I'd literally never leave the place If it were real and mine.
The performance is somehow nailed to 115 fps with RTX something or other and no Vsync - I didn't pay too much attention to the video settings, I kinda clicked on the stuff I thought off the top of my head may be ok and at this point I see no need to be at all tinkering with it. It works really well, so I am not sure why are there so many complaints on Steam about the crashing and performance issues. Seems rock solid so far.
Anywhoo, it's looking good. We'll see how it keeps up during the weekend.
Balatro (curse you Apple Arcade and your free trials) and/or Neva. Also, maybe some co-op.
I should be wrapping up Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s story this weekend. Then it’s just wrapping up the remaining trophies for pretty easy Platinum.
Apparently I'm playing Octopath Traveler II to the exclusion of pretty much anything else. 37 hours in and have 7 of 8 travelers and have done 4 of their chapter 2's.
More of this. I might even finish my main character's story. She's currently level 48, and most main party members are right behind her in the mid 40's.
Most characters have finished chapter 3, two are done with only 2, and Ochette hasn't really gotten started.
EDIT: Apparently Stubbs the Zombie is also on the menu.
Hoping to get some COD in ASAP, first one i Have played since the Advanced War days which feels like the right amount of time to me.
Have some work stuff to carry over through the weekend and some volunteer work, but assuming I get some down time between and after, I'll likely be playing some Monster Hunter Rise with my daughter. Have some Crow Country still left, so I might knock that off and get an ending on Sunday night.
Might also do a sessions with one of the following, time providing: Trials of Mana, Cross Code and/or Cyberpunk 2077
Batman Arkham Shadow. This game is a lot of fun. They really nailed bringing the Arkham games to VR. Combat is great and the predator rooms are as fun as they are in the Arkham games. It's one of the few full on game experiences in VR. So, loving that too.
Hoping Behemoth, Metro, and Alien offer similar full-on experiences.
God of War Ragnarök: Haven't had a chance to play it in a week and Batman's likely not going to help but can probably get in a little time when the VR battery is recharging.
Udio: It was painful but finished my 70's style Halloween Song. Crafted a little story around it to fit the Halloween theme a bit better. But yeah that last half of the song was not fun. Was never able to bridge the song back to the chorus so said screw it and just continued on. And not really happy with the lyrics I crafted for that last half. But oh well.
So probably taking a break from Udio for awhile.
It's time for Session 8 of Descent into Avernus!
There is but one cute robot to save, and one Astro Bot to save them.
At this point, I wonder if that damned robot even wants to be rescued. I will try again!
I'm giving The Quarry a go. I'm early in chapter 2 and enjoying it. Trying to see if I can outperform my Until Dawn playthrough where I had everyone alive into the last 15% then I screwed up twice and got like 4 of them killed.
We'll see if I can do better for the kids of Hackett's Quarry.
I'm gonna spend some time with Wayfinder this weekend, as it's been fun since it hit 1.0, along with some Distant Worlds 2.
Even more LOTRO, where I am debating whether to complete the Foundations of Stone or just take the next goat out of there. In my defence, I did find the exit doorway via a mission to escort a dwarf to them, rather than cheesing my way there. And it's not like I've skimped on missions, I've maxed rep with both the Guards and the Miners.
Other than that, might be time to continue my American Truck Simulator career. Or sit down with the rulebook of my Divine Right boardgame (reissue, I'm not made of enough money that I could pick up the original '79 version) and read my way through it.
I'm gonna spend some time with Wayfinder this weekend, as it's been fun since it hit 1.0, along with some Distant Worlds 2.
Veloxi how is DW2 faring nowadays? Put it down after that DLC with the uh frog and insectile dudes. Has the core gameplay changed?
I've yet to check out Cities Skylines 2 after or Ara after their most recent major patches. This weekend seems a bit too busy for a lot of gaming, unfortunately.
Going through the backlog and Crow Country seems like the ticket. Resident Evil style game
Veloxi how is DW2 faring nowadays? Put it down after that DLC with the uh frog and insectile dudes. Has the core gameplay changed?
I mean they've added stuff like outposts and new starts but the core gameplay has slowly been getting better. Basically like the original game.
Hooked on Mechwarrior 5: Clans.
Yep, DEATHLOOP
5 hours in, I like it even more. I just "proper" died for the first time. Interestingly, according to the achievement, only just over half of the players "proper" died even once. I guess I'm getting older... But then again, dying in this game is in the name, it's inherent to the mechanic, unseparable almost - so, is it really that I suck, or did those "perfectionists" actually miss out, in a way? Who can tell...?
Nothing so far is making me like the game less in any way. I am starting to get the gist of it. Yeah, it's a "Groundhog Day" derivative, and it's holding up very well as it blooms out more and more.
I got access to all four districts, got my first Visionary kill and am currently working on figuring out how to keep stuff when the day resets - pretty important under the circumstances. No real spoilers here, this is all pretty much still introductory material. I am still only getting to know the "colleagues". And myself, for that matter - amnesia and all. Speaking about amnesia, this is one of the best ever instances of your standard "woke up as tabula rasa" game beginnings I have ever seen. The way the story is deployed and presented, it really does not seem awkward nor forced - it's really completely plausible and seamless as you progress.
The overall quality is maintained as well, the shooty and stealthy bits are nice (for the most part, it's your choice which it's gonna be), the environments are consistently well thought out and interesting. All in all, a solid worldbuilding exercise. I find it curious that this game has not been praised much more - or I just may be unaware…
Are we (the gamers in general) that spoiled?
UpToIsomorphism wrote:There is but one cute robot to save, and one Astro Bot to save them.
At this point, I wonder if that damned robot even wants to be rescued. I will try again!
Turns out, he got saved whether he wanted it or not!
And by saved, I got to him and punched him in his god damned face!
UpToIsomorphism wrote:UpToIsomorphism wrote:There is but one cute robot to save, and one Astro Bot to save them.
At this point, I wonder if that damned robot even wants to be rescued. I will try again!
Turns out, he got saved whether he wanted it or not!
And by saved, I got to him and punched him in his god damned face!
Well done! Although that level isn’t half as annoying as splashing sprint.
A few. I'm still working on my Franchise in Super Mega Baseball 3, but I've also fired up Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed, since the DLC for the game has been on the pile for a bit and it's reasonably short. And Vampire Survivors has a free demo week on the Switch so I've done a few runs with it. That's a dangerous game right there.
Debating grinding out the alternated endings for The Planet Crafter, but I'm getting an itch for something else. Lightspeed Frontier seems to have gotten more content at some point so I'm checking that out. Might look at getting started guides for Empyrion Galactic Survival because I'm just wandering around on a hover bike not sure of what to do next at the moment. All that just so I don't buy anything new on a whim.
Hooked on Mechwarrior 5: Clans.
That helped tip me over from waiting for a sale to just buying it.
So far, so good! I'm just getting started but love the attention to the details of the setting.
Having breezed through the puzzles to which I already knew the final answers, I've now begun chipping away in my idle moments at The Case of the Golden Idol: The Spider of Lanka. It's more Case of the Golden Idol, which I'd consider to be a good thing!
Been playing a few thangs:
Ghost Recon: Breakpoint - just got it on sale and I'm really enjoying it. Switched it to the "immersive" mode and made some of my own tweaks to tailor the experience. The movement and sense of "self" is really impressive due in large part to the fantastic character animations. So far it does seem a bit easy if you are even somewhat mindful about approaching things stealthily.
CoD: Black Ops 6 - playing on Game Pass. Just focused on the campaign right now (which is surprisingly good), with plans to hit up zombies a little bit. Almost no interest in doing the MP.
The Forever Winter
Well done! Although that level isn’t half as annoying as splashing sprint.
Indeed, that was the 300th bot I rescued.
D4? Nope
MW5 Clans? Nope
WoW 20th Anniversary event? Nope
DAOC? You betcha
D4? Nope
MW5 Clans? Nope
WOW 20th Anniversary event? Nope
DATV? You betcha
Dragon Age The Veilguard
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