Hurlshort

I finished up Tainted Grail. It was a fantastic game, really kept my interest and I enjoyed the story quite a bit. I was level 64 by the end and was uber strong. I went sword and board. I'd be curious to play again using magic. I got the good ending where you cure the red plague, although I did have to look up a couple dungeons I had missed to get that one. I also never did the expansion. I paid for it, but when I got to the temple entrance, I just didn't have the motivation to do that extra bit. I still ended up with a ton of hours in the game, about 55 in a few weeks, so it was well worth the price. Now I'm playing Indiana Jones and the Perfect Circle. It's pretty solid, although a bit more combat heavy than I'd expect. Maybe I'm just not sneaky enough.

The Friday Night Lights sequel looks interesting.

My full Ironman training is going pretty well. Since November I've done a good job of swimming regularly, and my running speed came back pretty quickly. I need to build up my riding miles, but I can do that as it gets warmer. The toughest part, as usual, has been the nutrition. Did you know that exercise causes hemorrhoids? So I was dealing with that for a bit. I am enjoying the gamification of all my training. I'm using Tridot for my workouts, and I'm almost level 17. I don't know what that means, but it's a fun carrot to chase. With the weather being bad, I did a fair amount of indoor rides using Zwift. I'm up to level 24 in that cycling MMO.

Galahad was a tough cookie. I have been playing a ton of this game. The quests are well written. I find myself going back and checking on a lot of NPC's just to see how they are doing.

I picked up Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon on GoG and it's an enjoyable open world game. The crafting is better than Skyrim, that's for sure.

I mean the system is really built so we can replace everyone. We are supposed to do it every 2-6 years. So yeah, we can take everyone down. The problem is those people have a ton of money and power and no one seems to believe in accountability anymore. That being said, these people are all old and will hopefully die soon.

I didn't watch the game, but Bad Bunny was fantastic at Halftime. I don't understand the lyrics and I'm unfamiliar with his catalogue, but the musical march through Latin American history was phenomenal. I have been to a fair amount of Mexican weddings and birthday parties, and that was the vibe.

Shaun Lyng, one of the original developers for Jagged Alliance, is auctioning off some of his design docs. https://thepit.ja-galaxy-forum.com/index.php?t=msg&goto=366702&srch=Lyng#msg_366702 He also answers some questions about developing JA 1 and 2. It's a pretty cool read if you were a fan of those games. Shaun and Ian and Linda Curie are video game royalty. They created some amazing worlds.

I'm hoping that Avowed 2 shows the same growth as Outer Worlds 2, but I am concerned that the improvements don't seem to be increasing sales. Although in retrospect, I'm the target audience for these games, and I still played them on Gamepass instead of paying full price. So I think the business model is more an issue than the quality or marketability of the game.

Menace - This is the new game from the developers of Battle Brothers. The demo came out awhile ago and it was not great for me. You are managing a team of Space Marines. The demo threw you into the middle of a campaign and it was just overwhelming and not clear. It is now in EA, and you can play from the start, which is a much easier way to learn the systems. I enjoyed my first mission and it seems like a solid tactical game. So it's worth picking up if you liked BB and want to support the developers.

Yep, it's the formula.

That's upsetting. These games are very much for me. I don't finish a lot of games, but for some reason, Avowed and OW2 captured my attention and held it until the end. I'm disappointed that they aren't doing better financially. In comparison, while I enjoyed BG3, I never finished it. They did seem to do well critically, so I hope it isn't just unreasonable sales expectations. I don't know, I just hope Obsidian doesn't end up in another hole. They've been remarkably resilient so far.

Eilish has given 22% of her net worth to charity, so it isn't just performative for her. She seems to be focused on green initiatives.

Man, I remember when Howard Stern used to play the tapes of Trump pretending to be his own publicist and calling into NY radio shows to promote himself. What a time to be alive.

Yeah, I quit as well when I realized you kinda had to repeat 8 gameplay loops for all the characters. It was great for about 4 of them.