LadyCrimson

I could spam pics of Death Stranding (or Wolcen) but it's not really a game where I feel like you can get cool/interesting or original shots outside of the lengthy cutscenes which everyone and their mother post stills from. Beautiful game but doesn't always translate well to stills. And no Ansel. *sniffle* Although, the zip lines are a lot of fun. It even made the unborn fetus/BT detector BB excited/happy! Sadly I can't use too many because they hog power. Or I thought it a bit amusing when I went afk from the game, leaving the chr idle in a spot, and when I came back the chr. was taking a nap and I had to wake him up before I could do anything at all (couldn't even get to the save/load menu, lol). Hauling 500000kg-to-infinity of stuff is tiring it seems.

Death Stranding - I spent 15 hours beating up "cargo bandits" with hand to hand and gas grenades, to take all their ceramics and metals and stolen goods out of their camps (and steal their trucks to transport it) so I could start building the game's version of US interstate-80 (or route 66 or...). You don't kill humans in this game, you knock them out (corpses have nuclear like consequences if you don't burn the bodies fast enough...) for a few hours (so they're back again later). And when that wasn't enough materials I kept marching around collecting more in the form of "lost cargo" that you can pick up as it appears here and there and other slow methods. Wore out a lot of shoes. Which all reminds me of resource gathering patterns in survival games except you aren't using axes and mining picks. None of which is truly required to do if you just want to see the story. The road/other stuff decays over time, btw, because of "timefall rain" - repair is a thing (but it takes a long time). Probably won't do the whole road (you do it in sections) but it hits the "obsessive" brain quite a bit. I think calling it just a walking/delivery simulator is a bit extreme. It is, and it isn't. Survival, resource/management/strategy, stealth aspects are all there too. Depends on what you want to do with it. And I want to replay it a 2nd time later just to see how different it feels if you do have the "online" aspect on - at the least it'd make some aspects a lot easier I'm sure. I can understand why some would find it too boring but I'm having such a blast. See you all in a few weeks. *wink*

*hops and skips her way through that 1.5 hour long video* Turn based. Meh. I'll probably skip it. No I'm not saying turn-based sucks, just not my thing. Am I the only one who's tired of watching characters largely just stand there for 2-3 minutes while speaking whole paragraphs? It was kinda fun way back when the novelty of seeing chrs. nod and frown with flapping lips was new, but now I just get impatient. Even in New Vegas I recall madly mashing the spacebar (or whatever it was) to skip the vocalizing since I could read 10x faster. If the vocal lines are short back and forths it's fine but long speeches or exposition...Edit - maybe they'll have an option to see text and skip too tho, didn't notice. Anyway ... graphics are ok although as noted by some the close-ups of heads/faces is a bit odd at times. The "I'm peering down into a canyon much of the time" perspective makes the 3D party stuff work I guess but not my favorite type of viewpoint since it tends to emphasize any corridor effect. Gameplay wise ... who knows. Can never really tell from an hour of demo. I liked when the game went wonky on them at the end tho. Hahaha.

It looks even more awesome in-game and in-motion, with music. After 18 hours it's so weirdly more and more addictive that despite a few moments of slight irritation here and there, you just can't stop plowing ahead. Although...was this really necessary, game? Yes the chr. is doing what you think he's doing ... but the AMC ad in the game! And the exact leg/foot positioning. It's too weird! All the lingering showers makes up for it tho. This game is so hilariously bizarre. I love it.

Still Death Stranding. I was in late Chapt. 1 trying to get "stars" with the first ... bunkers? by picking up Lost Cargo over and over ... and realized my shoes were wearing out and I had no way to make more. Pushed forward, managed to steal some MULE's shoes (bandits-like) and a quest later I could make shoes. Phew. I get the feeling at the start one should do less exploring and push the story chapt. forward a bit so you get more options/gear etc ... then you can do more sidequests and mess around etc. The game gets steadily more addictive (and more trippy if that's possible). I played for quite a while last night and want to jump right back in today. It's the first game where I'm hoping it will NOT rain. Edit: if you have a heavy/tall load, walk with both triggers held down all the time - no more of that stupid timing of 'press RT or LT if you lean'. EditEdit: oh I'm playing with the "online" feature turned off, so I don't get the help of seeing/being able to use other players structures. Or their Likes. I don't need no stinkin' outside "Likes."

Rented Terminator Dark Fate or whatever it's called. I liked it. Sure it's derivative of the first two films (in some action cases almost beat for beat for long moments) and doesn't do anything creative/new, but at least it was entertaining enough. Since they could never figure out what to do with the films after the 2nd one, as a coda/topper to a film series - by pretending everything after T2 didn't exist - it works for me. I just hope they end it there, since this one apparently didn't make much money etc. Let it end. I still wish they had figured out how to show, say, the future and John Connor's rise. Salvation tried and for that alone I give it a bit of credit, but the result was a mess.

^ When medium/large 4k screens/tv's at 120hz are in the $500-800 range, that's when I'll care about high hz. It'll also be when I upgrade the gpu. Or build yet another PC if I must (hopefully won't have to tho, since I'm not a huge action or competitive gamer). Ideally a 43"-46" "4k" as a center screen and two 30-32" 1440 on the sides. Until then, I'm still perfectly happy with 60hz monitors/TV. My eyes are just fine with it since I've never bothered with higher yet and I'm not going to upgrade (and then maybe grow unhappy with 60hz like how going bigger screen made small screens "unacceptable" to me...) until I'm sure I can do/achieve what I want. Edit: I'm guessing it'll be the 40xx nvidia line by then...

So BG3 will be turnbased or is that just a hope? Meh. Rtwp would be ok. Do we actually know what graphicstyle it'll be or are ppl just speculating still? Edit: that dragon in the preview of the preview suggests 3d cutscenes anyway.

I need a cure for short attention span. Anyone got one?

I'd find those RML videos easier to consume if they were less than 25 minutes long. But since I'm not watching Picard (one episode was enough for me) I'm finding their commentary on it pretty hilarious and pretty spot on re: much of the whole Roddenberry's visions/world vs. modern/new Trek visions etc. And I have to say ... based off only what RML was yapping about - as a side or potential bigger series plot thread, there's elements of the AGAIN? Can they think of nothing else anymore? Does it always have to be connected to anything/everything that came before? That TNG episode Conspiracy with those bug/larvae things taking over important people? What happened to them? The thing got a signal off before it was eliminated, where are they? Sure they were silly if you thought about it for 5 seconds, but you could tweak it to be something fresh maybe. Or something else never in any other ST series/episode.

I can't believe it was 15 years ago that I played KOTOR2.

Hubby had a doctor appointment on Tues. Doctor called in sick. I don't know why, but I find that hilarious.

Death Stranding: It's like walking around on a desolate moon that suddenly developed an atmosphere at some point. The music really is the best/creates the best moods when you're slowly traversing a stark landscape. The plot/scenes are trippy but who cares. Can't quite get the hang of loading and swaying and not falling. that's going to take a while to get used to/learn I guess. I wish they hadn't used Norman Reedus since I'm so familiar with him from Walking Dead and the uncanny valley of it is occasionally distracting, but yeah ... you think you played an hour but it was really three. People who don't have a lot of patience probably won't like it but I'm still really into it. You could sink 100+ hours into this I'd guess.

Who is Low Roar? I need more.

Death Stranding: pick up containers, put on back, pick up containers, put on back, pick up containers, "almost overloaded", tilt to the side, rebalance, tilt, rebalance, try to sllowly walk down a slippery hill (apparently all hills are slippery), fall and slide, containers damaged, it's ok, not too damaged. Repeat for "miles". Best post-apoc UPS delivery-man game ever! Where's Kevin Costner? ...seriously, I like it. Not for everyone, but ... I like it. And graphics are still beeeyoootiful. Stark and creepy at times, but beautiful.

I caved (again) and bought Death Stranding for PS4. I installed it while playing Wolcen, quit Wolcen and started up Death Stranding. The opening cutscenes are sooooooooo beautiful on the Pro/4k TV. SOOOOO BEAUTIFUL. Lots of that and story set up before getting to the actual main gameplay. Which I usually don't like. But ... SOOOOOOOOO BEAUTIIIIFULLLLL.

Death Stranding on PS4 is on sale for $35. I'm super tempted, someone stop me from maybe double-dipping again. I was going to wait for it on Steam but that's not until "summer" - no idea what that will mean date wise. Seems like a game that would be fine for console too, since it's a slow paced delivery/strategy/management game.

I'm in late Act2 of Wolcen and starting to feel like they shouldn't have made it "full release" yet. Act1 clearly got the most attention. It's still fun but feels more half-baked/draggy the longer you play. The bosses/mini-bosses, btw, tend to be a lot tougher than some may be used to re: arpg's, especially for non-tanky builds. As a simple no-brain grind and loot I may like the end game stuff more and right now I'm considering putting it on Story (easy) mode and rushing to that. Haven't encountered any major noticeable issues in Offline but I am saving the save folder constantly just in case. For some reason playing Wolcen has made me want to play the ancient Darkstone again. It was so fun playing it with the team of Monk and Mage...

Reached Act 2 of Wolcen, and a little ways in, I thought I'd suddenly switched games to Titan Quest. Also, my chr's current look. Haven't used any color dye yet - not much point when you're changing gear all the time still. And of course most of the time she's like an inch high on the screen....

Wolcen: It took a little while to get going but around level 10 or so the game became much more "one more level" for me. You have to either find or buy actual new skills. Building a tanky mage w/summon help. I think this game is not going to be friendly to "glass cannon" types, you can't ignore health/Toughness for pure damage or you'll die. Overall in Act1 so far you can faceroll most things but the mini-bosses (and I hear) the Act bosses get tougher. The bigger enemies have nice tells and animations for big attacks and there's a bit more than most arpg's in terms of having to pay close attention. In Offline if you die seems like you get 3 chances (?) to revive yourself since you have no play partners to help you. I've "died" a few times, mostly to surprise/being unfamiliar. As a caster the one thing I find annoying is the only way to get "mana" seems to be from a potion (which are like in PoE, with "charges", vs. endless pots) or by using a staff (reg. staff attack replenishes it fast). Every other weapon type only builds Rage. Thus you have to either always use a Staff or rely on the potion charges (can only have 2 equipped so 1 health, 1 mana potion usually) if you want to be a caster-only (vs. melee or a gun etc). Or have insane amounts of "mana" regen passives/gear maybe.

Missed me! (in the center) I like that most of the mini-bosses have big "tells" or animations. I still haven't used the actual dodge button, I keep running (or use a teleport spell when I actually remember what hotkey I set for it), like I've done in every arpg, instead. I "possessed" an enemy summoner. This resulted in total hilarity as his summons kept automatically moving slowwwllly forward in a huge tide to the nearest enemies on the map. Sometimes it was summoner against summoner. it did drop my (4k/ultra) fps. But it was so worth it. The skill is called "Parasite" - only one possessed minion at a time and ofc it's only as good as what you posses, but they last until they die/you exit the game (or alter gear too much I think?). Purchase it immediately when the shop (randomly) has it, it's the bomb. In terms of "summoning" in this game, the golem is good/decent at holding aggro/surviving. But the melee zombie sucks (low low hp). The ranged zombie is slightly better but still sucks. Don't think there's going to be a "pure summoner" build -you're going to still be casting a lot of spells as a main offense (which is fine, imo), but man Parasite is entertaining.

I often feel like "goofs/slip-ups" like these are anything but.

Hubby: "$2700? No no, it was $2300" Me: "Oh ok, I swear you said $2700, whatever." (couple hours later) Hubby: "I double checked, it was actually $2600, I have no idea what I said then." Me: "I still think you *said* 2700, but who knows." (we stare at each other a few beats) Me: "Happy Valentine's Day. We're truly getting old together." (another beat) *huge simultaneous guffaws*

Wolcen - still in Act 1 -spent a lot of time staring at the passive tree and figuring other mechanics out. Once you can access the town/your town portal the areas become more interesting, although not as "open" as Path of Exile or even Diablo3. Still might open up yet more in Act 2 and 3 of course. Overall I am liking the game a fair bit. But there are a bunch of little things that start to become vexing. Examples: --The biggest one: can't figure out how the auto-saving works. Sometimes you quit, come back and it loads you at the beginning of last mission like you never did it (but all your gear/lvls gained remain). Other times you quit and it saved quest progress just fine. I'd guess there's an issue between quest saving vs. character saving (gear, stats) not always syncing, even Offline. If you're Offline, backup your save file. --some smaller or flying enemies do not hover-target well from up close. So melee folk will have a hard time hitting them at all. As a mage I can target/hit them from a distance most of the time, because of AoE, but it's still weird. Hitboxes and combat flow in general feel a little off sometimes. Basically, it feels like a fun arpg but still rushed out the gate a bit, perhaps. Too many small/minor weird things that should've been dealt with. Possibly moreso for Online than Offline. Number of things like stash glitches being reported. Hopefully they'll patch enough over the next couple weeks.

Or live in a place where local area transportation kind of still sucks because everything/neighborhoods is/was almost specifically and originally designed around cars. I mean for long work commuters there's a main trainline that is ok these days. Or if the only places you frequent are specific shop spots on one or two main roads it's workable. But if we're talking a dentist 12 miles away not on a main road, then also wanting to run an errand on the other side of town after, not so much. It'd take three or four times as much time for one thing. We have no subway either. Can it be done where I am? Sure, if you really want, and don't mind some lifestyle compromises. But it's not convenient or practical at all most of the time. Eh, I don't think it really matters what "kit" type thing is being used, that's going to be a tiny tiny bit of the cost. The point is neither hubby or I are going to/want to do it at home, so pay for labor we are going to do. :P It's also fine since if he's going to take the whole engine out, he can also do other things that a 21+ year old car could have done, while it's already out. Like some seals - nothing drips yet but you can see a tiny bit of seepage around edges, the timing belt, etc.