Tale

More XCOM: Enemy Within, Ironman Normal. Much better this time around. I'm about as far as when I failed hard last time, though I held off doing EXALT. I haven't lost a single soldier yet! Very exciting, I know. Having succeeded at a satellite gambit and using the recommended overwatch crawl helped a bunch. Edit: My flawless streak is over. My first exalt mission, the one that was less than a day away from where I started up today, saw three soldiers die, including my operative. I was flawlessly kicking the mission's butt up until a tank spontaneously exploded WITH NO WARNING that they were using as cover. Thankfully they weren't my veterans. They had 3, 4, and 5 missions in their belts, where my true veterans had 17. Edit 2: I lost another two soldiers in another Exalt mission, this time to standard "getting shot." I lost a heavy (of which I have like 4 left) to lots of bad luck. He got shot up from the ground while taking cover near a rail, revived, hit with a rocket later that destroyed his cover, and then shot by a dude who barely showed up. And I lost my MEC Trooper because it was a vertical map and I couldn't get it up with the rest of the team without running through enemies. I tried skirmishing with it when I thought the mission was almost over, but it got torn up by Overwatch. Due to various injuries, I am forced to do my next mission with only 5 guys.

I lost my game of XCOM: Enemy Within on Normal so badly that I just want to get colorful. It all started when I got my first Exalt mission. I've barely got lasers, and not many at that, and there's all these swarms of guys who take 2-3 hits to kill. My sniper died and when I saw they were still coming, I evacced the rest out. Then I got to a mission with a mechtoid. May have blown up two of my veterans fighting that. Cars for cover turns out to be a terrible idea when you're using rocket launchers and MEC punches. Then a third died, I saw those little saucer things, Muton I already hate where there, so I evacced the remaining two. So now nations are panicing. I get a mission to stop the panic, which turns out to be like three saucers and a bunch of those zombie creating guys. Yeah, everyone died. My last one died to a surprise overwatch around a corner that I thought was clear because a civilian was just there safe and sound. Then a mission with more zombie thingies. They pop out of nowhere and kill one of my dudes in two attacks. My sniper grenades them, but dies to the new zombie. The remaining three I just let die. And that's all I could put up with.

https://twitter.com/ChrisAvellone/status/742211783134306304/photo/1 MCA is working on the new version of Prey. I wonder if this direction for the title started while both were under Obsidian.

Actually, it's M then shift. If you're used to moving by just clicking, doing shift then click does a whole other thing. Which is where the confusion set in. There was combat against something on another plane in like the second mission. Which caused all sorts of flailing about by me until it came into sensor range on its own.

Tried out three strategy games to hold me over until Book 5 of Dreamfall Chapters. XCOM: Enemy Within, Crusader Kings II, and Homeworld Remastered. XCOM: Enemy Within came out the winner. So addictive. Homeworld came in at a far second place. It reminded me that I'd played it before, either a demo or a pirated copy in my less upright college days. The game's controls were the big hurdle causing it to fall behind. I'd forgotten vertical movement within minnutes! And building and launching seem a hassle when you're trying to keep other ships docked, like your harvesters. I'll come back to it, but play just wasn't smooth. Crusader Kings II got third place simply for having the largest learning curve. I was looking for something I could get into quickly. The learning scenario doesn't even seem to tell you about armies, just the bare basics. And I was less clear on how long I'd have to wait for things to work. I arranged a marriage and there was nothing indicating I'd actually done the dang thing between the arrangement and the marriage actually happening. And then I plotted to kill my brother/heir, because it seemed the right thing to do, with 63% power, but there's no telling if/when that'll happen. I had an ambition to have a son, is there more I need to do for that to actually happen? I don't know. But I did raise an army and march it against another brother because I was completely at a loss as to what else I could be doing at the time. Or should be doing.

CD Projekt got the memo, it's possible to do a great ending for a story without killing people off.

The leveling ruined Witcher for me. It's when the leveling becomes part of the gameplay loop and the reward system that things start to go wrong. The next level is always around the corner, otherwise the player will lose interest. The thing is, leveling alone is not enough to make me want to play on, and it ruins so much in the constant focus on new loot and becoming 1% better every 15 minuites. Once you start getting witcher sets, you stop even caring about loot except for selling it. Or maybe that was just me.

Heard about a quest I missed in Blood and Wine, so one last trip! Geralt and Roach investigations!

Shiner White Wing It's like a resurrected Shiner Hefeweizen that some hippy idiot decided to put cilantro in for no good reason.

There's just something satisfying in the moment to moment of Skyrim like that. Fallout 4 is the same way. Story's a wash, gameplay is mediocre, leveling system is so very uninspired, there's a few good quests but they are few, and even the loot system is dull. Unless you go grinding legendaries, you'll probably have all you ever plan to equip halfway into the game. Except it also has building stuff, and building stuff is always captivating. And I could spend forever hunting down power armor suits to throw in my house.

The stuff I take for granted, wow. I'm surprised there are any riots on the news.

Wasn't there that one game with cute girls you really liked?

I finished Blood & Wine. A real masterpiece. The only thing preventing me from immediately jumping into another playthrough is the commitment required.

And how awesome we all are. My usual "ooh, I should install and play it again" is FEAR, though.

I find myself playing around with X-COM more than even Witcher 3. Trying to fight off that distraction though.

Hnnng. Reminder that John Gonzalez of New Vegas appears to be the Lead Writer.

My grandmother passed. I find I'm less bothered by death itself than the sadness of the people I care about.

Ban Lexx for hate speach!

In their defense, the pretend Witchers might have just been interested in a round of Gwent.

Played a little XCOM: Enemy Within as a time waster before I went to bed. Was still in the tutorial when I stopped, but it seems promising so far. That's assuming the hand-holding and constant interruption by low FPS pre-rendered cinematics stops once the tutorial ends.

And apparently she's been going downhill since lunch. My mother says they don't think she'll make it.

I've got 8 games to redeem on that, but they seem overloaded at the moment.

So apparently you can just straight buy the Gwent decks by providing proof you've purchased the expansion pass. And its only $20. It's impossible for me to say no to that.

In the world of Tale: Grandmother had a blood clot Sunday. Doctors got around to surgery today, the clot ran about the entire length of her thigh. Impressive. They removed it. As a consequence of all this, though, I've been given reason to google up on "anesthesia induced dementia." A little terrifying to see that happen in an old woman that never had any such signs before. But don't worry, apparently there's no lasting effects.

Am I really the only one playing Blood and Wine? Shame on you people.