Hawke64

The Surge 2. I've successfully reached the Seaside Court. TS2 is a souls-like, but there are several notable differences - an actual quest log, crafting system (getting schematics first, then components to actually craft an armor piece), rechargable "Estus flask" (in combat you generate energy, which can be used to generate injectables), leveling system (Power level determines how much armor and implants you can use). The Seaside Court itself was a combat-free zone, so I did not worry about accidentally hitting NPCs, though the inability to mess with the story was not encouraging. From what I understand, at the end of TS1 the nanites were launched, somehow infected one city and the city is on lockdown. The PC's plane crashed when it happened and there were only two survivors - the PC and a random girl, whose luck apparently was better - she got some super-abilities from the nanites.

I suppose, people carefully choose the information to share, regardless of the medium, be it online forums or meatspace. I think, I've successfully adapted to the quarantine, as I fell asleep at work and reached my normal level of exhaustion and apathy. My clients became more active, so I had to work slightly longer than I expected, which made up for the time I slept. Today I've completed a body-weight workout (pushups, leg raises, crunches, squats, lounges, calf raises) and attempted drawing, which reminded me why I mostly do B&W sketches (might be NSFW).

I've finished my 2nd playthrough of Loren: The Amazon Princess and thinking about purchasing the next part, Season of the Wolf (sequel?) or Cursed Lands (prequel?). Not sure, which one I should play first, so additional information would be welcome.

Anima: Gate of Memories; Alpha Protocol; Beyond Good & Evil; Contrast; Dex; Dishonored; Double Cross; Loren: The Amazon Princess; Mars: War Logs (or any other game by Spiders); Prince of Persia; Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Okami HD. Completed the game. Loren: The Amazon Princess. Started the second playthrough, this time as a warrior. The PC's survivability increased, as warrior's HP and damage depend on one stat, unlike rogue's.

I quite liked it (3 playthroughs). Combat encounters were rare, but meaningful and diverse. While there were few option for visual customization of the avatar (only gender and equipment), there were many (9?) combinations of classes and skills. Dialogue option allowed a lot of RP and the alignment system was somehow better than the classic D&D (though, alignment systems in general don't work well in games, telling every NPC you meet your motivation is weird). The only negative aspect I can recall is skill checks in dialogues - if I have 10% to succeed, I will succeed.

Loren: The Amazon Princess. Okami So I used Inferno (they did not burn) and spent next 15 minutes trying to find the required brush technique (which I already had).

Loren: The Amazon Princess. I've completed the game with the normal and DLC endings. The important thing that the in-game tutorials had not mentioned (or I forgot) was that it was possible to change equipment during combat (I discovered it only at the beginning of the third chapter), so by the end I had five elemental and several normal swords and was actively switching between them. Not sure, if it was by design. Also I was able to get the "Alone" achievement. For some reason, only 2.6% of players have it. Okami. I successfully restored all cherry trees in Sei'An after looking for the last one for ~15 minutes in both quarters. It was on the head of the NPC who gave me the quest. Somehow Issun started to annoy me more than before, though considering that the PC is a wolf, I understand that there had to be a talking NPC nearby.

The park I used to jog in was closed, so I jogged around the park yesterday. Considering that it rather early (2-3 AM) I was surprised to see people near a 24/7 fast-food restaurant. The work has been less active - most of my clients are closed. I switched from the netbook to a VM. Apparently, the default Microsoft drivers for Win10 do not support HDMI and it was rather inconvenient to try to find the right ones with the netbook. So, now I have the VM running on the second monitor, which I was able to connect to my main PC. Somehow the current level of social interactions and, more importantly, the expectations of social interactions feels much more comfortable. The only thing I miss is the gym - I don't have enough equipment at home (a pair of dumbbells (4kg) and a fitness mat), so I've been trying to do body-weight exercises with relative success. I could not find any back exercises, except wide-grip pushups.

Spoilers for NieR 1. I suppose, NieR 1 better subverted the hero's journey trope (not sure, if Automata tried to do so) and subsequent "playthroughs" (technically, it was one playthrough, but some parts were awfully similar) were less irritating, due to the fact that enemies and especially bosses did not scale, so by the third run, it required 2-3 minutes to deal with each one and move on. Also not being forced to play as a support character was great (I do strongly dislike 9S).

Loren: The Amazon Princess. It is a visual novel with turn-based combat and Loren is not the protagonist. So far, I am still at the first chapter, but the story and lore look interesting. Okami HD. I defeated Orochi and acquired my first sword. This multistage boss battle felt much more engaging, than the previous ones.

The goal is to connect remotely to the work PC with the minimal risk to the home PC (despite my willingness to go to the office, it is not possible right now). There are several applications that have to be running on the work PC specifically and I must be logged in. I successfully created a VM with as little additional software as possible (Win10x64, Avast, TeamViewer, Mozilla Firefox). So far Avast hasn't discovered any threats.

I have an unsecure network (2 ransomware viruses in 2 years, Win7, half of the PCs does not have any antivirus software) I have to connect to. What is the safest option? My spare netbook does not work well enough to do anything (1GB of RAM). So I am trying to set up a VM (VMWare Workstation 12 Player). Is it reasonable?

I successfully practiced social distancing while jogging. There were less people in the park, than usual, but more, than I had expected (Sunday, 7 AM, cold). The OS upgrade went somehow successful - now the netbook uses Win10, but I forgot to keep specific drivers and now got stuck with the 800x600 display resolution. I did manage to install an antivirus, a browser (MS Edge does not count) and TeamViewer and connect to my work PC. I tried to set up the monitor I had used with my PS3 (the PSP-shaped one), but for some reason neither my main PC nor the netbook were able to detect it. The HDMI cable looks undamaged, and it had worked with Wii U (several years ago) just fine, so I am at a loss what is wrong.

Avadon: The Black Fortress. It might not be the prettiest RPG I've played, but I do like its writing. (Spoilers for the end-game). God Eater 3. The final DLC has been released. Regalia Balmung. The Crimson Ashlands. These missions seem harder with AI-partners, because they cannot adapt to the conditions and requirements (at the upper right corner - the party can cause damage only when AT is active).

Thank you for the information. I have the Obsidian Edition on GOG. I remember that the platform allows to choose between versions, though my Backer DLC is bound to Steam.

I dug up my old netbook (Asus Eee PC), which I have not used for years, and attempting to install Win10 on it. I am not fond of the idea of working from home, but it seems there's little choice. The netbook meets the minimum requirements for the OS (1GB RAM), so I am quite optimistic.

How can I roll back to v4.1.2.0047 on Steam?

Avadon: The Black Fortress. I've completed the game with the less violent main ending. I have tried to kill Redbeard after, but he was spamming the soul jars too quickly, so eventually the party ran out of consumables. Tried the same with cheats, it still took half an hour. Somehow ironically, actions that had not affected the story during the game (or I had not noticed) determined specific outcomes for the regions. Okami. I successfully reached the Sasa Sanctuary and acquired another Celestial Brush technique.

I bought it at Neketaka during my first, second (completionist) and third (critical path only) playthroughs, as well. The hull turned into 5 logs in the last, "Ultimate", update, regardless of the act. On the bright side, I purchased another copy of the game on GOG to be able to roll this ..most undesirable change back in my next playthrough, if I ever decide to replay PoEII (not impossible, but unlikely, considering the game's length - 80-100 hours).

Haven (Demo).

Haven (Demo). It seems to be a nice action-adventure (the RPG tag on the store page is incorrect), with optional co-op (unavailable in the demo). There are good graphics, soundtrack and VA, rather simple combat and crafting. Dialogues don't seem to affect anything and it was somehow odd to be able to choose (very limited) replies for both protagonists. I did not quite understand the combat, but I did beat the boss at the end of demo. After the finishing attack ("Pacify"), the boss stopped glowing red and became an (non-interactive) NPC. I suppose, this relatively non-violent outcome fits the game well. Avadon: The Black Fortress. I have not played the previous games from this developer, so I can't compare, but Avadon seems alright so far (the graphics and interactivity could be better, of course). I think I am getting close to the end-game - the party reached level 28 (the level cap is 30), all regions were visited several times, one companion quest left.

If there are several characters to control, it is easier to do so when you are able to see them all. Plus good-looking fully 3D environment requires more resources to develop. Dragon Age had two camera mods exactly for that and both (IMO) were comfortable. But it also was a triple-A game (series), while isometric party-cRPGs are usually made by independent developers.

Okami HD. The sword became an Easter Egg in Bayonetta. Unfortunately, it is unobtainable in Okami. The Spider Queen.

Avadon: The Black Fortress. I've been slowly progressing through the main story. The linearity of it became more obvious, but I still can role-play and optional content offers more choice. Okami. I've defeated the first (?) boss, the Spider Queen, and reached the Taka Pass. So far the most challenging part was the Celestial Brush sequences, I can't react fast enough and draw it precisely on the first attempt.