Tale

I finished The Island portion of Ark and moved on to Scorched Earth. I pretty much have to start over. None of my Tek transferred. I'm not even sure if my Tek Rex is about, maybe he's at the obelisk. So I've started over for many practical purposes. I'm not opposed to it. That's how survival games go. Got to build up your base again. I used the stopping point to clear up Doom 2016. I still enjoyed it. I enjoyed it lots when I started getting infinite ammo from runes and could just chaingun demons at range all day long. And then started Doom Eternal. It's... something different. The combat perhaps takes itself way too seriously. Tiny arenas and probably way too many enemies. Low ammo caps, too much obsession over weaknesses and counters. Can't just enjoy my plasma rifle because it has barely any ammo and I'll probably need it if those shielded dudes show up. The power fantasy is lost and it just feels like I'm playing a bunch of noise. On the plus side, the secret hunting and platforming is actually kind of fun.

How did I get dragged into Ark? For the longest time I thought it was just running around shooting other dudes and riding dinos. I guess I just found out you don't have to play it PvP. So now I'm doing singleplayer and cheating my ass off to avoid the grind. Just started taking down the bosses of the first map. It's actually kind of cool having an army of robot T-Rexes that you use to fight a spider queen.

I've played DOOM 2016 three times. I hated it the first two. Lots of tedious item hunting and awkward jumping between merely okay combat. But now I see why people liked it so much. Why is the third time different, you may ask? I'm playing on PC this time. And I max out the skills that tells you were all the items are, so I don't have to waste much time on it. If it weren't a DOOM game I never would have given it so many tries.

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition 9 years since Mass Effect 3 came out. Hard to believe it's been that long. Only Mass Effect I was willing to give a chance after that was a replay of 2 on PS3. Playing Mass Effect 3 after all this time, with the DLC and the extended ending, I don't hate it anymore. It's good to enjoy the series again. And to be able to enjoy the whole series without issuing conditions on 1 and condemnation on 3. The ending is still dumb. Perhaps the dumbest bit in the series. But it no longer feels like the whole thing is ruined. Just a misstep. I'd be glad to play a 4 of the same quality, assuming they don't pick up the dumbest bits of the ending and run with it.

I "finished" a game of Stellaris with the new update. First time I've completed a game since they changed the economy. I put finished in quotes because the game has a repeatable hard lock 900 days from the end of the galaxy. I, as the player crisis, tricked the galactic alliance into fighting against the Awakened Empire. Thus allowing me to mess around and not be attacked by either unless I attack first. And right before I win, the Awakened Empire wipes out the Galactic Custodian. The hard lock occurs after the notice.

When I said Below Zero mainly just reminded me of how incredible the original Subnautica was, I wasn't joking. I'm on my third playthrough now. I've not done much, but I feel like the second I have a Moonpool, the game is already as good as beat.

STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl Aside from the headbob being so bad it's officially a headwobble, this game holds up really well. I played it way back in the day and always meant to give it another go. That said, I have 0 interest in running around doing sidequests. I'm just playing it for the main quest and it's plays very well for that.

Since I'm off this week, I was able to run through Subnautica: Below Zero. It's more Subnautica and that's good. It's got new base building modules and that's also good. The Seatruck is actually really cool. And the environments are all still absolutely incredible. But all of the environs are too small and too cramped to really build a cool base. The Snowfox is wasted and the Spy Pengling is itself a waste that only helps get small amounts of resources early and resolve a plot. And the story is poorly structured.

Have some commentary on random games I've played lately. Buddy Simulator 1984. I'm not sure what this game is trying to do. It's like it's supposed to be a horror title with a really insecure AI creating games for you. The text adventure segment is full horror and aspects of that carry over into future segments. And there's lots of horror tropes. But the buddy is so affable it's like being haunted by Casper the friendly ghost who likes to create quirky NPCs where murder and torment is a punchline. It's impossible to be afraid. And it's not funny either. So I'm lost. Perfect Vermin. A free game on Steam where you bust up stuff in an office building to find creatures imitating furniture. And then it gets crazy. But it goes further in the end and tries to be deep. It's fun, but what it's trying to say ends up causing whiplash with all the gravitas compared to what came before. Vessels. Where has this been all my life? You can beat it in two hours and it's $5. If that's okay with you, BUY IT. You're a guy in an airlock trying to stop himself from getting spaced by the rest of the crew. And there's a voice in his head that grants him powers. It's a cosmic horror story, but more than that it's a great mystery. Explore the ship with your powers and learn what happened. If it had been made with a real budget it could have been the next Outer Wilds.

Baldr Sky is my main game right now. It's... kind of slow. There's advice in writing circles in the US to cut your first chapter or so because people tend to write too much buildup and wait too long to get to the interesting bits. This advice is clearly not popular in Japanese Visual Novel circles I'm finding. Still, it's pretty fun. Dungeons of Naheulbeuk I'm playing on the side. A comedic RPG based on some radio dramas if I remember right. It's actually super charming and been a few laughs so far. So I'm glad I grabbed it and fully recommend.

Team Pfizer in the house. Don't @ me if you're one of those Johnson & Johnson boys. I was literally offered three appointments for today, one for each. Initially offered Moderna through work, but that whole thing got cancelled. So I picked up one from the county for the same day. Then work got back to me for the J&J. I'm pretty happy with what I hear about Pfizer, though.

Raging Loop The best under the radar visual novel I've yet seen. At least under my radar. Maybe it's too recent compared to all the classics I'm still catching up to, but it's pretty great. It's about a guy who gets trapped in a time loop in a village that's playing a real life version of the Werewolf party game.

I've been snowed in all week so far and it's looking to continue. So I'm playing through the Crysis trilogy. I'll be honest. I hated Far Cry. And wasn't thrilled with Crysis when I first played it. It only clicked for me when I played Warhead. Replaying Crysis now, I see a bit of why that is. Because when the aliens show up, the interesting play style goes out the window. Sadly, Crysis 2 does not capture that same play. But it has its own strengths. I've always kind of loved transhuman storylines and it's got plenty of power fantasy when you grab a turret, armor up, and go to town. Now to play Crysis 3 for the first time.

Destiny 2, I know I shouldn't... The three best things about this season are that the activity is actually fun, they put Ruinous Effigy on the kiosk, and removed catalysts are dropping. I've already got Bad Juju's, Ruinous Effigy's, and some other thing. I don't even care about the third one.

Anyone ever find themselves in the mood for a particular kind of game and just can never find it? I want me some good space opera with a starship focus. And not have to grind around trading for hours. I guess I have to wait for Everspace 2 to hit 1.0. Anyway, I played through Metal Unit. A recently graduated from Early Access side scrolling roguelite. It's got a derivative story, what with it being aliens invade earth so we fight them with robots. If you're familiar with that kind of story you'll see the twists coming too. It's decent fun for 12 hours. Got it from Humble Choice. I did my replay of Nier: Automata on PC. And it still proved to be a game I'm absolutely in love with. I tried out Rain World. I bought it expecting a cute+dark platforming adventure. Instead it's kind of a side scrolling survival metroidvania. With a focus on the survival. I ended up replaying sections over to gather food, nap, then try to run past enemies that kill me in one hit. This was not my idea of a good time and so I put it away.

So Wildermyth is kind of addictive. It's pretty much exactly what it's advertised as. RPG and storytelling. With the kind of humor you might find in a webcomic, which matches with the papercraft art style.

This has taught me one thing. That some part of me is an accelerationist. Because I had a giggle and a grin hearing about this today. I do hope we can get back to making progress on serious issues in this country. And that this is more of a last gasp and not the start of another terrifying phase.

I'm really wary of anything Yakuza. I played 14 hours of 0 before realizing I'd only encountered about an hour of worthwhile plot. The game has the pacing of someone walking their execution. It doesn't want to get on with it. I'm serious when I say I thought I'd only had about an hour of plot. Looking at my achievements and I'm in Chapter 5 and apparently completed 10 substories. And I don't remember a single damn thing.

I played through Beyond a Steel Sky over the weekend. Joey is fantastic. That's the only noteworthy part of the game, sadly. None of the other characters are worth remembering. And the story is exactly what you're used to from dystopia disguised as utopia fiction. But Joey is funny and a delight and I wish the game had been all about him instead of the world's most dull and emotionless man, Foster. I find myself wanting a really good party based RPG with quirky characters or super funny adventure game. Sadly I'm turning up empty for one I haven't already played yet. Recommendations, anyone?

And now I just binged through Blacksad. Shows 7 hours, but it felt a little longer. Anyway, it's up there with Telltale's best. Right behind Telltale's own Noir comic license, A Wolf Among Us.

Have you heard about our lord and savior Noita? It's getting hard for me to stick to anything else. I'm always wanting to jump in for a quick run that turns into a few hours and multiple runs. Will I get lightning bolt today? Will I accidentally electrocute myself in water when I do? Will I become electric and stand on a propane tank and explode? Here's to hoping I finally get unlimited bombs and explosion immunity! Finally a luminous drill that can go 4 length indefinitely, killing everything through walls. Except that one thing that... according to wiki only attacks me if I attack it. Too late.

The only competition is for your time. "Cheating" would be letting a game get away with having you spend time doing stuff you don't enjoy.

Cyberpunk 2077, or technically I just finished it. I don't think there's any sidquests left for me to do and there's one ending I can't get without a restart. Maybe I'll do that after they release expansions.

I've already scheduled Thursday off largely to play Cyberpunk. I'll be disappointed if it's still in miserable condition and all the NPCs are T-posing. But I think I'll survive.

I have no choice but to finally finish it now! Drakensang has been in my queue to play since before 2009. I always start and play a couple hours and put it down. Might have to tough through that intro.