Keyrock

I'm not a fan of locking difficulties behind lower difficulties either, but roughly 50% of games that have multiple difficulties do that (if not more).

You have to reach mastery level 20 to unlock professional difficulty, which means completing a bunch of challenges (since they give mastery xp). You don't have to complete every single challenge, there is more xp in all the challenges for a given level than you need to get to lev 20. But yes, you can't just start the game on professional difficulty, you need to unlock it.

Rejoice, I got level 20 mastery in the Hokkaido location in HITMAN! I went from lev 17 to lev 20 in one playthrough of the mission, since I met 4 challenges that time around. One of the two kills was maybe my favorite kill so far. The best part is that I didn't even kill the target, I had someone else do it for me, and they even think it was their own idea. Can't get a much cleaner kill than that. This unlocks Professional Difficulty for that location. I'm going to go to some other locations for a bit and work on raising mastery there, but eventually I'll come back to Hokkaido and attempt to silent assassin the level on Professional Difficulty.

If you are going to buy a PS4 Pro you might want to wait a month or two. I suspect Sony will cut the price of it roughly a month before the launch of the XBox One X, which launches on Nov 7th. I plan to pick one up (if and) when they slash the price.

^ It would be, if I didn't enjoy replaying the missions again and again. Finding and figuring out how to execute all the different kinds of kills are all puzzles onto themselves, puzzles I enjoy. It takes a lot of patience and it's definitely not for everyone. I'm the kind of player who will walk behind a character in a level for 15 straight minutes, studying everything they do and everyone around them, and enjoy that. To someone else that would probably be quite boring.

Still playing HITMAN (86 hours and counting). My current goal is to reach mastery level 20 in one of the locations, which unlocks a cool weapon and tool and professional difficulty for that location. Eventually, I want to reach mastely level 20 for all locations, but one step at a time. The location where I'm closest is Hokkaido, currently lev 17. I have another location at lev 13, one at lev 12, and the rest are lev 10-ish. So basically I'm running through the Hokkaido main mission trying to figure out how to do all the different creative ways to kill the 2 targets.

This story is so infuriating. NOLF and its sequel are a couple amazing games that are just screaming for a remaster so a new generation of gamers could experience their brilliance. Alas, we will likely never get said remaster, despite people out there willing to do the work. I don't normally condone illegal means of obtaining games (or any other media, for that matter), but it is virtually impossible to obtain a legal copy of this game anywhere, so...

Tekken Bowl is back!

Rebellion announce they are making Evil Genius 2. https://youtu.be/DMUG2WCEyOQ?t=210 I have mixed feelings about the original game. It was a FANTASTIC idea, but the execution was far from ideal. I still enjoyed it, but it was disappointing at the same time since it could have been so amazing and it fell far short of amazing. That said, the idea is still fantastic. It's a Dungeon Keeper-esque game where you play as a Bond villain, build an elaborate lair (preferably in a volcano), train operatives to send out into the world to do evil things, and protect your lair from filthy do-gooders. Get it right this time, Rebellion!

I don't really have any brand loyalty or ideological objection to either company, not one that would sway my purchasing decision, anyway. I am simply concerned with getting the best performance for my money, whether the company making that card kills kittens or not. Everything I've heard about Vega lately is very worrying, I hope it's wrong. If Vega can't even compete with Pascal then it will likely get absolutely demolished by Volta, which is just around the corner, and if Nvidia has no competition then they can charge whatever ridiculous prices they want. Let's hope when the "gaming" Vega cards release they perform a lot better that what the scuttlebut is.

I mean, I'm sure KD has plenty of money as is, not to mention he probably makes a few wooden nickles from endorsements. Dude just wants to win more championships and if the Dubs keep their core intact (this helps tremendously) and the injury bug doesn't bite them at the wrong time then they have a very realistic chance of winning not just next year but possibly 2 or 3 more in a row. You win 3 or 4 titles in a row and you're pretty much part of NBA history forever.

I wouldn't mind dropping out of the workforce to play video games (or do anything else than work, for that matter), but there is this issue of having to pay bills and feed myself.

I'm mostly playing HITMAN. I finished all the escalations, level 5, in the Hokkaido location , but there is one escalation I have yet to successfully get silent assassin on level 5. Level 1 tasks you with breaking into a safe and getting the contents. Super simple. Level 2 adds that you have to kill the facility director within a minute after getting the safe contents (you can't kill him before). Easy once you know the director's patrol route. Heck, with good timing you can kill him within a second or two of getting the safe contents, with a little preparation. Level 3 adds that you have to also kill a specific morgue doctor and both kills have to be done "ninja style", which means katana, shuriken, or accident. Not too difficult once you have shuriken unlocked as an item, though it does take some prep work. Level 4 adds extra guards in a couple areas. These guards are quite easy to silently pacify, after that it's the same as level 3. Level 5 is where they throw the big monkey wrench into the mission. Now, not only do you have to kill both the morgue doctor and the director "ninja style", but you have to do it while disguised as either a ninja or the motorcyclist (Think Kill Bill Vol 1). The problem here is that both the ninja and motorcyclist disguises are super conspicuous and anyone that sees you wearing them anywhere in the level (even places where no disguise at all would not be suspicious) will freak out (and insta-ruin any silent assassin run). Killing the morgue doctor is pretty easy since the motorcyclist disguise is in the morgue (hence why the disguise is so conspicuous, you are dressed as a dead man) and it's a secluded enough area to move around unseen if you're careful. The hard part is killing the director while disguised as the motorcyclist (or ninja for that matter). The director patrols exclusively in areas that have a lot of people around. A strat I used in the easier levels of the escalation was to poison some food he eats with rat poison, which sends him to the bathroom to puke his guts out, where I lie in wait and throw a shuriken into the back of his head. The problem is getting to the bathroom while dressed as the motorcyclist. There is a bit of ground to cover between the safe you need to break into and the bathroom and a whole lot of people along the way, plus I only have a minute to get there, so I can't be patient and cautious because I'll run out of time. I've been giving this puzzle some thought and have come up with 3 potential solutions: Before poisoning the food (but after killing the morgue doctor) I need to slowly and cautiously sneak to the bathroom dressed as the motorcyclist. Even with no time pressure this will be very hard since it's such a congested area. I can remove some of the guards along the route, but there are also a bunch of civilians in the way and I very much doubt I can pacify them all unseen and clear an easy path before putting on the motorcyclist disguise. Still, I think it's possible with patience and some distractions (thrown soda cans). Once in the bathroom I can change into a different disguise (likely security guard, since I pacify one and drag his body to a closet in the bathroom anyway) which will leave the motorcyclist disguise near the closet in the bathroom. I can then poison the food, wait for the right moment in the director's patrol pattern, steal the safe contents dressed as guard, run to the bathroom, change into the motorcyclist disguise as the director pukes his guts out, kill him, change back into a guard, then escape. The hard part is getting the disguise to the bathroom. Find a way to alter the director's patrol route so that he enters a secluded area. I already do this by poisoning him to get him to go to the bathroom, but I need to find a way to get him closer to the morgue. I have not yet figured out a way to do this but I bet there are some cues from the main story mission I can use to get him to go somewhere else in the facility (likely the hospital area or his office). If I can figure out when the trigger is then maybe I can find a better spot to kill him along his new route. Set up an accident along his current patrol route. I have yet to identify a potential trap to kill him in an "accident" along his normal route, but maybe I just haven't looked hard enough. If I can find a place to set up a trap he will walk into an "accidentally" die then the mission becomes easy since his patrol route is rather lengthy, so I can set up the trap disguised as a guard, cook, staff, etc, then disguise myself as the motorcyclist, wait until he's close to the trap, break into the safe, then wait for him to die as the motorcyclist, then change disguises and escape. I'm going to figure this out. I need that silent assassin mission completion, I can't feel like a true, proper Agent 47 otherwise.

In that case, next time I'm using 2 foil pans.

Believe it or not, I have never tried to make meatloaf before today. I decided to give it a shot. Nothing fancy: 80% lean beef, whipped egg, skim milk, plain bread crumbs, and sauteed onions. Salt, paprika, parsley, and a bit of sage for spices. Some ketchup on top at the very end. Turns out meatloaf is really easy to make, and delicious!

Were there? It's been so long since I played the Gothic games. I thought there were usually 2 joinable factions and you eventually had to make a choice between them. Edit: If I remember correctly, Risen had soldiers and mages. Risen 2 had colonists and natives. I haven't played Risen 3 yet, so no comment on that one. Edit 2: When I said factions before I meant ones you can join. Sorry for any confusion.

I'm sure Elex will be jank as **** in some regards, on account of being a PB game, but I'll more than likely still wind up loving it. It seems like they have 3 factions this time around as opposed to the usual 2 (?).

I have a deep love of some weird, some may say irrational, things, one of which is the names store brands use for their generic knock-offs of popular brands. I may have just found a new favorite: An an aside, I can attest to the smooth flavor.

I got the 2 DX:MD story DLCs in the Steam Sale (as well as praxis kits, credits, and other crap I don't care about that comes with the season pass) so I'm going to play through those. As with my first playthrough of the main game, the goal is a pacifist ghost run.

Woohoo, my first elusive target silent assassin kill:

You certainly wouldn't be the first person to do so, nor the last.

I might buy the DX:MD season pass during this sale. I hate to give Squeenix money for their ****ty DLC practices, but it's cheaper to buy the season pass than to buy the 2 story DLCs separately (I don't care about the credits and praxis kits and whatnot). At least they'll only be getting a small amount of scratch from me rather than the original asking price.

We play the game so differently. When I play there is very little combat, none if I can help it. My goal is always ghosting the mission, so to me the combat system is mostly irrelevant, since I don't really use it. To me HITMAN is a puzzle game, not an action game. Again, different strokes for different folks. Edit: As an aside, I play Deus Ex the same way. Get in, get the job done, get out without anyone being the wiser.

Thinking about the state of the NBA and what team is in the best position, outside of the Warriors, of course. Conventional wisdom would say the Cavs, obviously, but they are facing the same conundrum the rest of the league is facing, which is how in the world do you beat the dubs? I mean, Cleveland was clearly far and away the best team in the east. The destroyed everyone in their path to the finals and then got demolished. They are obviously much better than anyone else in the east but they are not even close to good enough to beat Golden State. LeBron played arguably the best basketball of his life in the finals and it wasn't even close to enough. It took a ridiculous game from Cleveland where they hit 24 3-pointers (24!) just to keep from getting swept. If you're any team not named the Golden State Warriors you have a choice to make, build for now or build for 2020 or so. If you're building for now you're building to beat the dubs. Good luck with that. Cleveland had a super powered and ultra-talented team and they weren't even close. If you're Cleveland, assuming you keep LeBron, you have to build for now. You can't build for 3 or 4 years from now because LeBron is 32. Sure, LeBron is not your average player and defies normal age conventions, but he'll be 35 in 2020 and father time catches up to everyone eventually. But who do you get that you can afford to close the gap to Golden State? Let's say you deal Kevin Love to get Paul George. Does that help? Probably. Does it make you as good as Golden State? Nope. Does it give you a fighting chance against them? Probably not. For the rest of the league, it would probably the most prudent course of action to build for 2020 or so. In that regard, the Philadelphia 76ers might be the team in the best position. Obviously projecting young players' careers several years into the future is an extremely inexact science, but they have a really great young core. The big caveat being, of course, can Joel Embiid stay healthy? Current evidence suggests he can't.