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Merry Christmas everyone.

It means we'll have an election and probably a Reform, er, sorry, Conservative PM. That's all right now. Was PM for 9 years or so, that's quite a long time - either the people get sick of them or they get taken out by in party knives. It's funny seeing Americans think Trump is responsible for this, but the ones to say that are retarded.

Well, after finishing the game twice, copying my Steam review: @kanisatha If you like the DA lore or the triple-A action-adventure games with RPG and arcade elements, the experience should be enjoyable. Though, I would suggest to customise the settings - disabling the waypoints and setting everything except the enemy health to the highest difficulty worked best for me. Additionally, the Grey Warden elven or dwarven warrior background might provide more options than the other ones (as far as I can tell, the Lords of Fortune have the least faction-specific options; some of them are automatic rather than chosen). There are fewer significant choices (mostly, at the end of Act 1, at the end of companion/important side quest chains, and at the end of the game when everything comes together), but they are present. The "soft" points of no-return are at the Grey Warden companion recruitment and the Fire and Ice quests. The last "hard" point of no-return is clearly marked as such. Regarding Taash, they are a brilliantly-written young dragon hunter who is also non-binary neurodivergent second generation immigrant (unsurprisingly, you can be all of these things at once). They are interested in and experienced in their field, know when to hunt and when not to hunt dragons, possess academic knowledge of the Qunari and Rivaini history and customs (the country is Rivain, not "Rivia"), empathetic in their own way, while struggling to process the weird and obscure neurotypical social cues, and see their faction in a very positive light. And if anyone sincerely has issues with the word "non-binary", I dread to imagine how these people would react to Alistair. As mentioned, I like that the party consists of the LGBTQ+ and ND persons (who are deliberately written as such by LGBTQ+ and ND writers) and it is quite immersive for a largely homophobia-free setting. Regarding the lore, https://www.eurogamer.net/bioware-knew-the-deepest-secrets-of-dragon-age-lore-20-years-ago-and-locked-it-away-in-an-uber-plot-doc .

I haven't actually watched Lost. I saw the first couple episodes on ABC way way way back, went "seems interesting but not enough to wait every week for it (no streaming then). By the time a few seasons had gone by, I'd read enough to know it was nowhere near an end, so I kept waiting. When it ended, "everyone" said it sucked vs. how long they'd been waiting. So I never bothered. My record for liking/having patience for shows with never ending main plots/mysteries is usually low (1-2 seasons). Something like early Dexter, Supernatural, House, crime shows, as I've said before, that have 1-2 background season arcs but are generally self-contained episodes on top are fine. Nothing against something like Lost, I just lose patience or motivation to watch if I can't watch it all in 1-2 months to get the whole story. Although Lexx's point re: ever growing silly mysteries on top of mysteries - or patterns obviously designed to keep something going (can't have lots of red shirt deaths without constant influx of new people) - also makes me roll eyes. 2nd season an average busy busload. Does the 3rd season do 2 full tourbuses or 10 trailers of families all vacationing together? eg, such series, if they go on for a long time, run into ever growing power creep. Every season has to up the stakes/cliffhangers until it's just stupid. Supernatural ran into this after 5-7 seasons, in some ways Walking Dead, many others. It's why I respected Breaking Bad. Guy had an idea and knew where he generally wanted to go, and stuck to it. So we have a complete long form tale without (too much) filler or power-creeping just for the sake of power-creep/endless seasons stakes. Anyway, From is definitely good at making you wonder wtf is going on for a good while so I'd be willing to semi-binge it at some point to see if it keeps it up. I'll just probably wait and see if it ever gets finished, first.

One of the primary reasons I continue to be drawn to Obsidian Entertainment, reaching back to the days of Black Isle, has been its commitment to great storytelling. This has been a quality that I believe has and continues to set it apart in the creative venture to tells stories through the gaming medium. I would like to delve into their artistic storytelling by highlighting just three examples that display their unique approach to narrative design. For me, I was hooked by their stories back in 1990s. When I discovered the stylised ‘isometric’ game of Fallout. It illustrated to me the importance to establish a foundation for narrative depth and complexity. In these early days, I believe Fallout telegraphed this hallmark of Obsidian's later works. The game's post-apocalyptic setting, moral dilemmas, and branching storylines captured my attention to the extent that much sleep was lost and it set my expectation quite high for storytelling in video games. And it all began with a water chip … Though the post-apocalyptic genre has always captured my geeky imagination, it has always been the fantasy medium to which I have been drawn. Some of the first books I dove into, as I discovered the power of the written words, were Tolkien’s and the vastness of Middle Earth. As I shared this passion with so many, Obsidian’s first foray into the genre, particularly through Gary Gygax’ D&D worlds, from Icewind Dale to Neverwinter nights, was amazing, but Obsidian’s ability to create its own IP was when they went to the next level. For me, the evolution of Obsidian has been their ability to create immersive worlds that come alive in dynamic ways. At the launch of the first Kickstarter for Pillars of Eternity, I knew that something amazing was happening in the maturation of the company’s ability to weave tales. The dedication to illustrating rich and detailed environments had me lost for hours. The world of Eora, which I believe will be further expanded in Avowed, exposed me to a living, breathing world with its own history, cultures, and conflicts. The depth of the lore and the complexity of the characters means my choices unfolded in meaningful and engaging ways. Beyond just the first title in the franchise, with Deadfire it was clear to me that my choices had consequences. This is a recurring theme in Obsidian's games, where my agency as a player is paramount. The storylines are often not linear path, but they present multiple divergent paths that lead to different outcomes. This approach not only offers opportunity to replay (if one had the time!) but it allowed me to feel like I was the agent helping the story unfold. Deadfire’s narrative, as an example of Obsidian’s narrative commitments, was further enriched by its well-written dialogue and memorable characters. The last example that I will touch on in this blog is the storytelling that shines in The Outer Worlds. If Fallout was post-apocalyptic, this recent addition to their creative library involves a journey through a dystopic future where the rich and autocratic corporations’ rule and individual freedom is intentionally oppressed. The story unfolds with satire on capitalistic greed. The satire presents a story that unfolds with a nimble wit and dark humour, which I believe is an essential component of Obsidian’s taletelling. As with their other stories, I felt I could become the Stranger. The character offered me a blank slate that allowed me to become the Stranger as I realised my choices would affect the fate of entire colonies, need alone my companions in dramatic ways. The writing is clever and thought-provoking, with plenty of twists and turns that kept me up much too late far too often! Let me conclude this musing, by focusing on Parvati’s Companion Quest. This component of Obsidian’s storytelling is what hooks me every time. Their ability to weave storytelling to liberate the player to see more widely through an artistic medium allows me to commit to the outcome of the story. Parvati’s relationship with Junlei is rich, human, and inspires me to see outside of the box. It allowed me to feel like I was hanging out with Kaylee from Firefly, recognising that in this dystopic future, love endures. The human connexion and emotion this questline evokes are profound, standing as a powerful challenge to the very real-life struggles we face outside the immersion of great gameplay. If a creative story can stir our hearts and show us options that translate into how we might aspire to be better human beings to one another, then those are the games I will passionately continue to play. And that is the true power of storytelling that I continue to experience from Obsidian after over twenty-years of my relationship with them.

Will tell my Ukrainian neighbour that.

The latest blog is now live. Hope it connects with some of your experiences, friends. As well, please do reach out if you have an idea/blog for March!

@Bartimaeus In Diablo1, Warrior had the toughest time mid-late game/high difficulties, Rogue next, Sorcerer was op'd godmode by lvl 20-25. Sorcerer only has issues at the lvl1-10 stage or maybe if luck with spellbooks/gear was terrible, or if one made the mistake of putting too many points into anything other than Magic. Although at max difficulty/MP mode which was more map-open/much more enemies (vs. quest/campaign mode), Sorcerer could still easily die/1-2 shotted/mobbed in some cases. But yeah Warrior late-game/high difficulties sucked because of chasing those witches everywhere and stuff like that. Rogue was annoying (to me) because of the bow aiming with that tile movement system but her magic capabilties were at least a little better to help out. And of course, vs. today's games, it's all very simplistic anyway. Ranged - especially AoE ranged - will always outstrip anything melee (more pure melee, not magic-spell-melee, ahem). Unless one gimps the AoE ranged so much there's no real point in using it anyway. Even today they can't get a real arpg balance for it, having to use massive cooldowns stoppers and other methods.

Don't forget to buy the second expansion/DLC as well https://store.steampowered.com/app/2604510/Underrail_Heavy_Duty/

I managed to figure out that, as a play anywhere title, its Xbox key can be used to redeem the game on the xbox pc app. So if you want a physical edition of the game, and you play on PC, the steelbook Xbox edition will work, with the caveat that the key won't work on Steam

A couple years back, I played the DevilutionX re-build of Diablo 1 (it's very faithful but has some engine and QoL improvements, you can even transfer saves between DevilutionX and the original game), and I tried playing a Sorcerer for the first time: I'd only ever tried a Rogue or Warrior before then. Felt like I was playing on easy mode, the Sorcerer is so much more powerful than the other two classes. Given that I only ever played Sorceress in Diablo 2, you think I would've tried it at some point already... Let's take a twenty to thirty hour game and stretch it into a hundred hour game while diluting and piecemealing out everything fun and interesting that you could do or find in it. I love open world games, they're the greatest.

You can't just get them because they're cute as babies, you have to take care of them when they're adults too.

I just looked at my wishlist on GG deals and caught myself thinking: "Meh, I think I'll wait and see if it goes on sale for Christmas."

My RAM arrived. Installed, winblows memtest at least said no issues found, desktop seems fine/usual etc. I didn't enable XMP. So now I get to see if new ram means games won't cause random system reboots in 1 minute or 2 hrs. Which means I have to turn on/play at least a few different games, for such sessions, multiple times to try to trigger reboots. It's a difficult task, but for the sake of knowledge, I shall endure. I really don't want to build a new PC (yet) and have to spend days/weeks setting up/refining all the stupid O/S, software and bajillion data transfers. So, please be fixed, gimmie another year or two, please.

Well, if DAVe became like this because of Fallen Order's popularity, then presumably the next DA game will be modeled after BG3.

So I was playing around with swapping pistols to fire a second shot without reloading the first gun. This strategy was working pretty well, so I picked up quick switch to shave off one more second during the start of combat burst. I was shocked to find that if you pause the game within about .1 second of the gunshot going off, you can swap guns, then click to fire again, and you will completely skip reload, attack timer and recovery and instantly fire the gun you just swapped to. Rinse and repeat. This could be a more generous window for timing, I didn't do a lot of testing. I have never seen anyone discuss this before, but it seems quite easy to stumble into. Although this might seem game-breaking, because it sort of is, it also takes a small amount of skill to get it right every time. I did take a video where I succeeded at the trick four times in a row. https://imgur.com/gallery/jdLpS3x

Here's one of the funny moments that I had playing Elden Ring. Prerequisite knowledge: Elden Ring loot icons come in different colors (that used to be different sizes in the other games). White for regular items, purple for rare items, and gold for legendary items. Imagine the following situation: you have just stepped onto a lift, and it is bringing you ever downwards. Down, down, down you go. Further. And further. There is seemingly no end to the ride on the platform. Finally, after what seems an eternity, you reach the ground, and you walk out, spotting ruins. Small parts of the area are faintly illuminated by fireflies casting their silvery light into the darkness of these underground ruins. You take note that they do not try to escape when you approach them, and decide to take a few of them with you for further examination. Not that you have any use for them now, but perhaps they will come in handy, their silver glow being similar to items you have found before. Strange looking new enemies creep about. Carefully you approach one that is standing about alone, to test the mettle of your newly discovered foes. You attack. Your opponent is decidedly unimpressed by your attack, as your combat abilities and equipment are seemingly not up to the task of breaking the clay hide of these shambling people, or whatever they are or used to be. You are clearly not prepared to explore the area, but still, they are slow, and you are not. It takes a while to dispatch them, but they are not an insurmountable challenge. You decide to press on, and explore the ruins. In the distance, you can see a human figure atop a broken pillar, clearly clutching something intricate in his hands (out of character note: the corpse has a purple glowing loot icon). Ever so slowly you make your way to your freshly discovered point of interest. It gets dicey for a while, as you notice that these new enemies can also cast spells. Luckily for you though, the projectiles of their spells are as slow as they are, and only the enemies equipped with bows are a slight problem, as they rain arrows down on you from elevated positions difficult to rush to. You persevere, and finally reach the pillar. You see that the humanoid figure you spotted is an old, desiccated corpse. Carefully you make note of your surroundings and find that there is no way to reach the top of this pillar from where you are, but you can see the crumbled walls surrounding the ruins could perhaps be used to reach the elevated platform above the broken column. It would be easy to jump down from there. Tracing your path along the walls you reach the other end of the area you are in. Carefully you climb in top of the partly crumbled walls, going higher and higher. It is a long way down now, a stumble now would surely kill you. There is a broken walkway atop a series of columns, and after a series of carefully executed jumps and a lot of sweat and anxiety, you finally cross the entire area and reach the platform above the corpse. You drop down, and immediately pick up the item the corpse is clutching. Carefully you inspect it. It is an intricate backpack. Slowly, with bated breath, you open it. You wonder what it is you have discovered. A lost incantation? A new sorcery? Some ancient secrets allowing you to concoct potions to ensnare the senses and befuddle your enemies? A new weapon, perhaps? Oh, isn't anticipation just the greatest of feelings? You find three of the fireflies that are buzzing around everywhere and that respawn whenever you rest at the nearby bonfire site of grace. They're classified as rare crafting material, giving them a purple loot glow, and you've just wasted your precious time doing a FromSoftware jumping puzzle for nothing.