Wormerine

Grounded is coming out. Crafting/survival isn’t my thing, but I will probably check it out through gampass. If anyone wondered about lyrics #oldclassicalmemes

I finally booted up Cyberpunk for the first time. I created a male Corpo V. And finished the introduction (origin, plus first missions). I must say, the first impressions aren't great. The game feels very rough - there is something about movement, animation blending, way of interacting with stuff which so far feels unenjoyable. While the game can look nice in stills, it feels very janky when interacted with - weird body and cloth physics etc. I also already encountered some really visible bugs, like NPC t-posing when I got close to them, and in a scripted cinematics at the end of Corpo's origin sequence Jackie's head was spazing out which was a bit distracting. The intro bored me. Corpo's origin story was briefer then I expected. For a new comer to the setting I don't feel it managed to present the part of the world and forge a connection with the world/characters. I think it boils out to how uninteractive it was - even in Witcher3 opening I was immediately presented with some compelling conversation choices. Cyberpunk so far felt very on rails - and that putting aside two lengthy rides I had to sit through. I don't think that the experience of playing it was much deeper then if I watched it on youtube. I do hope it will get better. There have been moments of potential - I just wish I got to play the game in the last two hours.

Huh… once it out, could someone do that to Thief1&2, Deus Ex and Systemshock2, please.

Finished Gears Tactics campaign. According to achievements I have been playing it for almost a year (for total of 32 hours). I really liked the core mechanics - it's a nice spin on XCOM with it's own identity and neat little quirks. What drags it down is lack of variety and development - and I played "Jacked up" version with new enemy variants and extra party member, the original must have been very dull indeed. To explain my issues with the title I need to describe it in a bit. Structure wise it's essencially an XCOM without strategic layer. The main campaign consists of three acts with boss encounter at each one of them, with 6-8 story missions in each chapter and side missions between those. You have pre-made main characters (5 of them, including jack from DLC) and generated soldier. If story character dies it's game over, but random cogs can die like in XCOM. Most main missions require some or all of the story companions - side missions on the other hand force using more of your roster. WIth each act you need to do more sidemissions before proceeding (1 for main chapters, 2 for 2nd chapter 3 for 3rd chapter) and they are not skippable. You also can't use same unit twice - so starting with chapter 2 when side missions come up you can't progress by using your A lister only. My issue is as follows: With main missions requiring specific characters, there is no point of spreading the experience and items around - as such extra side missions become a waste of time. You train extra soldiers not to fill ranks if something goes wrong like in XCOM - you train them so you can send them on more "side missions" which won't contribute much to the power of you key squad. As such extra side missions feel like a complete filler padding space between main missions. Later on those side missions get modifiers and optional objectives, but I found those range from irrelevant to annoying. It doesn't help that missions variety is low. Honestly, the only difference between most of side and main missions is that main mission have some narrative justification and squad requirements - a lot of the time it is very much the same type of mission and map that you would be playing in side mission. I started to get bored in chapter 2 and once I got to chapter 3 wth 3 side missions to do per "story break" the game really started to drag. This repetiteveness could also be leveled at XCOM, especially Vanilla2. But I think GT showed me the value of XCOMs strategic layer - with ability to research and buy stuff between missions even doing a boring missions yelds a reward in XCOM. GT quickly started to feel like final hours of an XCOM campaign - where you have all that you need, and just wait for the game to end. You get experience and gain accessories for you Cogs, and some of the skills items you get can be very fun, but it is a very passive experience - items are randomised so you don't actively pursue anything. You just get stuff after missions. I also felt that classes and enemies had little personal identity - they all were based on the same foundation with a minor variation - I didin't feel like running with different squads or builds, or against different enemies really changed the gameplay. Still, a good solid foundation. Want to see GearsTactics2 in the future. Not a bad game to boot up every few days or weeks and do a mission or two.

Ha! i know how you feel. It is my common dilemma - going all the way to rescue poor Imoen only to say: “Sorry, my party is full”. I am sure Copper Inn must be at least somewhat more comfortable than Spellhold.

New DLC for Solasta is out November 14th, and includes Monk, Bard, Warlock & Dragonborn. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1096530/view/3270199639679222894

It has been confirmed that Silksong willbe coming to PS4&PS5. Just no one knows when

It's been on PC since October 2020. November is the console port. I tried to get into it, but never managed to get into it. Looks interesting. Maybe I will attempt again, once I have more brain power available, and am not tempted by more accessible titles.

Yeah like oddly, because Civ6 launch with most core features it failed to develop each one of them that carefully. Both expansions for Civ5 added really well throughout systems - I can’t say the same for civ6 - their implementation of golden eras and natural disasters are interesting concept, but I don’t think they work well. On the other hand, I wish they would polish a bit more features the game shipped with.

Yup. Didn't get properly into Civ until Civ5 precisely becayse of the doom stacks. I would start Civ4 games and play until someone attacked me. Personally, I like a lot of Civ6 - I liked unstacking cities just as much as unstacking units! - but I don't think it comes together as nicely as Civ5 did with all it's expansions. Don't like religion in Civ6, and I just wish they would copy united nations systems from Brave New World - I thought it was done much better in Civ5.

He provides fair criticism later on. I do like the artstyle. I think it looks unique and interesting.

Cool! Loved SoaSE1 back in a day. I will keep my eye on this one. Also this just dropped. I rather liked Freedom Planet.

Noice. Just wish they were available outside Nintendo, with proper framerate.

and I don't know why Kiryu is back, nor why he got this stupid haircut. I thought, Like a Dragon, did well moving away from Yakuzas. Now they drop the Yakuza brand, but bring Kiryu back... huh? Edit. Oh! And Judgement and its sequel just released on steam.

Eh, a benefit of making a niche product for a narrow audience, rather then AAA product that is meant to appeal to as wide demographic as possible without fully satisfying none.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/uncharted-legacy-of-thieves-collection-will-arrive-on-pc-in-october-leak-suggests According to Epic Game Store leak/unintentional update, Uncharted 4+it's DLC should arrive on PC on October 19th.

Has a cicle gone for long enough to try to appeal to nostalgia?

I need to get to do it at some point. I can't get into the game. I don't like writing nor the overall vibe of the world, I don't enjoy the combat. I don't dislike the game, but I just don't enjoy my time spent with it. Some excellent middle levels in that game. I am doing yet another Dishonored1 run at the moment. I have been playing Dishonored in a non-lethal low chaos playstyle so far, so I have been planning to do a high chaos run for once. I expected it to play better without restrictions, but I am somehow amazed how better it plays. There are far many more cool systemic interactions that just don't happen in a non-lethal run. So many toys and skills to play with. There if a feel of far more consequence to my actions, where for example chopped up bodies with spawn hordes or rats, while non-lethal runs ended up much more empty. I am also for the first time resisting X-ray vision, which makes the game so much more enjoyable - I am discovering envoromental details that I never noticed in my previous 4 (?) playthroughs and I just find the game much more engaging. Oddly enough I don't feel like I am missing much - my loot gathered percentage seems about the same as they were before. Game is good in pointing players into a right directions anyway.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/we-almost-got-a-hitman-movie-directed-by-james-gunn James Gunn of the Guardians of the Galaxy fame, once upon a time pitched a Hitman movie, but was rejected . Just kinda staggeting to think about it, considering there are two god-awful attemts at bringing Hitman to the big screen. Looking at dates, they must have gone with 2nd Hitman film instead, which for full transparency sake I haven't seen, but rotten tomatoes stands on respectable 8%, directed by some Polish fellow with only one film credit to his name

Hmmm... I really liked shooting mechanics. I mean "really liked" is too generous, it's no Doom: Eternal, but I liked it more then any GTAs/Saints Rows or later Mafia games. That's probably my one dislike of the remake - a stock, standard cover shooter mechanics. In the original shooting from Tommy gun felt wild.

Keanu is back! Didn’t expect that.

Blasphemy! If I remember correctly big chunk of Mafia1 soundtrack is missing due to licensing issues. There is a mod for that, though, I believe. In case you didn't play it, the remake Mafia: The Definitive Edition, is actually really good and worth playing instead of the original. The story, while rewritten and recast is pretty much intact and the changes IMO are for the better. Gameplay is a bit on generic side, but it's smoother then the original. The only thing I would be wary of is the driving mission (you will know it while you get there). It's been famous in the original for being unreasonably tough, though in my opinion undeservibly so - once one gets a handle on the driving system, it's actually pretty straightforward to win. However, in the remake if played on hardest difficulty, it is what people claimed the original to me. It took me good couple hours to beat it, and had to look up guides for assistance. Just knock down the difficutly for that section once you get to it and fail once or twice.