Hurlshort

Oh. Is there crafting?

I finished Zero Company. It was a blast. If you enjoyed Clone Wars or Bad Batch, you are doing yourself a disservice by not playing this game. It is a perfect part of that corner of the Star Wars universe. It was a really good Star Wars game with very little Jedi and Sith stuff. So yeah, story and characters hit on all notes. Gameplay wise it was a more developed version of Chimera Squad. Not enough people played that game, so I'm not sure if that helps. It wasn't quite Xcom, with smaller maps and a more limited cast of soldiers, but it still had a pretty rewarding tactical combat experience. The game is really setup for a longer mode, a la Long War. There isn't really a reason the game has to end after a certain amount of cycles. You could keep doing missions, running intel, and developing your mercs for years if the game would let you. The systems are all there. I didn't even touch the black market or recruiting screen. So hopefully this games gets some post launch additions, despite the alarming furlough stuff, because everything is in place for it. Running a full droid squad, or Mandos, or Clones is definitely an option. The story kind of gets in the way of the decent strategy engine. Hopefully modders will take to it.

Ok, but Starcraft is a strategy game. Why does it need so many years in development? 2030? Are they waiting another couple years to start working on the game?

I would totally dig a pacifist DOOM game, btw.

I actually really prefer this over the way Bethesda RPG's give you what seems like an urgent quest, and then expect you to do a bunch of silly sidequests instead. Your kid has been kidnapped! But first you should clean some radroaches out of a basement. No rush. Dawnwalker is very clear about how much time you have, but also why you can't just rush off and save your family. So far all of the quests have been somewhat tied to the main story. Your spending your 30 days trying to weaken the bad guys, gain allies, and get strong enough to not get murdered right away. But yeah, there is some choice and consequences to how you use your time. We are used to C&C through conversations in RPG's, but this is just a different system. Sure, I wanted to help that lady rebury her kid, but I also needed to get some medicine to my mom before it got dark. It's an interesting system. I'm level 15 and I think I'm close to challenging the first minor boss guy. I prefer the daylight and witchcraft system, so I tend to use all my skill points at night, which shortens that part of the game. We will see if that bites me in the rear down the road. Witchcraft is pretty awesome. Blood boiling is terrifying.

There is an easy mode and I am currently playing it. Combat is complicated, with a bunch of different directions to block and attack. I don't love it. Easy mode seems to simplify it a bit. I can just block and attack. I'm only about 5 hours in though, so I don't know if it will get harder or boring. So far it hasn't been combat heavy. Lots of exploring and investigating.

Ok slackers, I bought Blood of the Dawn Walker and started playing it. I'm just about done with the prologue, although I restarted, so I've clocked about 5 hours in. The story is very good. Interesting characters, good setting, great villains, and engaging quests just in the prologue. It plays a lot like the Witcher series, except the main character isn't a moody bitch like Geralt. It's a solid RPG. The timed quests are interesting. Nothing so far is timed, but you have limited slots of time to use on quests throughout the day (and I'd guess night.) That means you can't do everything, but you have as much time as you want to complete the quests you choose to do. So you have choices to make and it is reactive with consequences. In the prologue I had to make some tough choices that then played out in the story. I'm liking it so far and it is clearly designed for replayability.

I'm surprised no one here is playing Blood of the Dawnwalker. Sounds like a vampire Witcher game. I'm busy with zero company, but I'm keeping it on my radar for later.

The developer, Haemimont, got bought by Paradox, but they don't have the rights to JA, so no chance at a sequel. I also don't really trust Paradox after how they handled Harebrained.

The game is fantastic, so I really hope we get more of it. I don't understand how games like Xcom 2 and Jagged Alliance 3 come out, review well, seem to sell well, and then get screwed over.

All of the GTA games are 3rd person. You could give GTA V a try.

Zero Company is fantastic. I played about 10 hours yesterday, which I probably haven't done with a game since Xcom 2 came out. It runs well on my very mid computer. It does struggle a bit, but not in places where it matters (ie movies and qte stutter a bit, but gameplay is fine.) I only have 16gb of ram. If you liked the Clone Wars series, this is basically the game for you. It really digs into the lore of the animated shows. It feels like Bad Batch. The characters in your crew are all pretty interesting and you have a lot of customization options. It is still very story-centric, so that hurts the replay value a bit, but I am pretty sure I will still get at least a couple playthroughs out of it. Just doing a male and female Hawk alone is different enough. You can recruit a bunch of randos and ignore the main companions as well. It's probably still more Chimera Squad than Xcom 2, but it has more depth than the former. Combat is fun. I started on normal and it is a bit easy, but I can see it getting harder as I move away from fighting droids. Like the show, droids are comically bad.

Just waiting on Zero Company to unlock...

You might be surprised by what she has written. A lot of it transcended the country genre. Rough week with us losing her and Tim Curry.

The whole ship upgrade system is being rework for the next big update. It is very early access. The gameplay is fantastic, but it probably has another year or two to cook.

They are also cutting programs that help people while ratcheting up the budget for ICE and the military. Lets cut medicaid, but at least we have the resources to deport people who overstay their visas. 🙄

This weekend I did an Olympic Tri. I did the same race 2 years ago and I was about 3 minutes faster, but I don't really know what that means. I'm consistent? I finished in 2 hours and 25 minutes. Anyways, the swim felt great, the ride was 4 loops and was a bit of work, and the run was hard but I kept the pace I wanted. I ended up 6th in my age group and 28th overall (out of about 200 races). Now I'm back at work and the summer is over.

I've been playing Oblivion Remastered. I've never really pushed through the main story, so maybe I'll do that. Or maybe I'll get distracted and just wander around until I lose interest. The possibilities are endless. Also my daughter very sweetly bought me $100 worth of Playstation gift cards for my birthday so I could buy GTA 6. She thought it was releasing this month. I was still excited and I preordered it. Now I just need to wait until November.

Summer is almost over. This month has been a lot of training. A couple weeks ago we went to Sacramento and previewed the course for the race. We swam about a mile of the Sacramento river and then did a 58 mile loop on the bike course. The swim was a blast, it was super fast with the current and only took 30 minutes. The river is kinda gross. I'm used to the ocean, so swimming in something that isn't salty is weird and it was pretty warm. There was a lot of logs and debris to avoid, but it might be cleaned up a bit at the actual race. The bike was super flat. I've never really ridden that flat of a course. I'm surrounded by hills where I live, so you are pretty much climbing every timer you ride. I'm feeling good about race day knowing that I should be able to fly on the bike. Strava says I've trained 40 hours this month. That seems reasonable. 12 weeks until raceday.

Definitely giving Darkman vibes:

I grabbed it and spent a day playing it. Interesting game and was super frustrating that I ended up a point off for the skill checks at the end. Suffering indeed.

Finished Mafia Definitive Edition. I wasn't going crazy, they did change the story quite a bit. The ending was pretty good. I'm going to play Mafia 3 next.

I don't really understand the gaming industry, I guess. Outer Worlds 2 and Avowed were extremely good games. They told a good story, they were fun to play, and I finished them. Personally I don't want a bunch of games that overstay their welcome. I don't want every game to be a live service that expects you to play for years to come. I want a good 1-4 weeks of entertainment and then I want to move on with my life.

I showed that to my wife, who is a lifeguard and is terrified of Sharks.

Mafia - I'm playing the redone original. I finished it before the remake, and I remember enjoying it, but I really don't remember the story at all. It's well done though. The city feels alive and the story is solid. I bought the 3rd game with it as a pack (already owned 2) so I might play that next.