14 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

Crimson Desert: Taming a pet requires "100 appreciation points" - you can only get 25pts per day (petting it). Dogs generally stay in place so you can return to a spot each day to pet it. The cats, so far, because you have to pick them up and pet while cradling them in arms, then put them down again, do not stay in place (they tend to run off) and if I return to an area I can't ever seem to find it again to pet it again.

Hadn't seen a cat I liked much anyway so I was eh. Then I saw --- a sleek black cat! It reminds me of Mr. Black! I must have it! So I picked it up. But if I set it down again, how would I find it again? So ... I never set it down again. Made Kliff stand in place, doing nothing, for 3 "days" while I did other IRL things, petting kitty each day. Until finally:

Forget anything else, this game is now a 10/10. Yes.

The cat looks adorable. Also, I've just noticed that the screenshots are uploaded to a private server. Thought for a second that it was the game's.

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Finished Clash: Artefacts of Chaos. The "true ending" is disappointing. Otherwise, the game is as generic as it gets, excluding the visual style, which looks like something produced by a genAI model. While there are lore reasons, unless you consider it a completely symbolic abstraction, the practical aspects don't really work. The main gameplay loop is the usual action-adventure corridor with light "platforming" of climbing the clearly marked stone slabs (but not waist-high fences) and very explicit arena battles, with random loot scattered in the corners. The Night mode, which changes the time of day, offers mostly padding, unless one really likes the combat - everything met is hostile, but you are not locked into the encounters and can just run to the mini-boss, which I did. The only somewhat original quality of the combat is that the main means of attack is unarmed combat stances, while the weapons provide limited support (they break).

The story of a stoic warrior who adopts the Chosen One child and realigns with his emotions (that are not apathy or rage) is not exactly original either. In terms of narrative themes, the "we create our own imaginary cages" message with the artefacts working only because all participants agree that they work (apparently, including the bees which are summoned by some of them) was spelt out by the lore-dump NPC and hard to disagree with. Social constructs exist only as long as the complacent majority go along with it. The "no laws without justice" sentiment is welcome as well.

A relatively small detail I liked was that the enemies were able to damage each other, instead of clipping through.

The OST was fairly unpleasant in-game, but fine to listen to separately (no idea what the language is). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyP-AOAjVYM&list=PLfuHaTW9nnaBWUou9bklAyOviDKz19yJ0&index=1

So, overall, the execution was lacking, despite the ideas.

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I have finished Oceanwork. The story is about a person sentenced to underwater mining for an unspecified crime. The pace of the exploration and upgrades is good and the environment is interesting to explore, despite the very few points of interest. The upgrades are visible on the character model and the UI is quite helpful.

The game is free, so it lacks saving or rebindable controls, but it is also short and uses only WASD, E, and LMB (might be uncomfortable for the left-handed players). It also lacks subtitles for the intro and any visual aid for the approaching sharks which you can only hear before they attack.

https://warrrkus.itch.io/oceanwork

I completed RDR1 after about 50 hours and it was good fun

Its unfair to compare it to RDR2 which is more complex and better than RDR1 on almost every single level and mechanic and its understandable because RDR1 is an older game and Rockstar would have had a much smaller budget with less developers

I looked this up just to confirm the budget and development differences

RDR1 :

• Development Team: Primarily developed by Rockstar San Diego, with a core team size estimated around 150 people at times, though the total effort involved more over its multi-year development.

• Budget: Estimated at roughly $80–$100 million for development, with total costs (including marketing) estimated around $130–$150 million.

• Development Time: Approximately 5–6 years.

RDR2

• development Team: Involved roughly 1,600 to 2,000+ people total across all of Rockstar’s worldwide studios collaborating as one team.

• Budget: Estimated development costs of $170–$200 million, with combined development and marketing expenditures reaching $370–$540 million.

• Development Time: Approximately 7–8 years.

RDR1 is still well worth playing and it has several unique features that RDR2 doesn't have like going to Mexico and specific cowboy activities like hearding cattle and horses

I enjoyed the main narrative, I didnt realize it was set after RDR2 and it explained a few things I wasn't aware of

Overall it gets a solid 65\100 on the globally followed "BruceVC game rating system "

I then had an unexpected positive gaming experience. I decided to play the DLC Undead Nightmare because its included. I thought this would just be a silly but fun, quick shooting sojourn but it ended up being an excellent integration of a Zombie apocalypse into the RDR1 world and Im enjoying it as much as the main narrative

You dont just fight zombies but you meet other supernatural creatures and its an enthralling alternative reality for RDR1

Im still busy with it, its a full game with side quests and new mechanics and weapons 🧟‍♂️

slay the spire 2 are indeed very addictive

avoid most card game seem like the right choice

I gave in and bought Death Stranding 2. Was sick the week and couldn't do much else, so there was no distraction for me. Oh well.

Anyways. Game feels like a straight continuation after the first game. Even gameplay-wise, a lot of the old features are unlocked quite fast, and then the new combat stuff added on top of that. There's a lot more shooting going on now / feels a lot more like MGS5 than before, and it kinda felt like that already before.

Ambience and music and all of that is very nice again, no surprise here, I guess. Visuals are good too, though my PC is blowing steam quite a lot more than in the first game.

On 3/21/2026 at 9:53 PM, Sarex said:

Playing CO:E33. I wanted to try it just so I can say I tried it, but tbh I am surprised by how much I am enjoying the game so far.

Is there any point in pumping any other stat apart from luck?

Yeah, I usually don't like jRPGs and I really liked this one.

From what I remember stats are most relevant to weapon scaling - as to effectiveness of individual stats - meh, the harder the game gets the more dominant player's ability to dodge and parry becomes.

2 hours ago, Wormerine said:

Yeah, I usually don't like jRPGs and I really liked this one.

From what I remember stats are most relevant to weapon scaling - as to effectiveness of individual stats - meh, the harder the game gets the more dominant player's ability to dodge and parry becomes.

At this point I'm going through enemies that oneshot me by parrying. Still pumping luck.

Played some more Death Stranding 2. Also listening to the Soundtrack on the off and there's a song where Troy Baker is singing. This made me realize - I'm swooning now - this guy is so cool. He is great in everything I've seen him. First really noticed it in the Indiana Jones game, but it's really wherever I see him pop up.

Guy is amazing at his craft.

Crimson Desert - they patched it again. there's now a personal stash function, although it seems mixed with the auto-collect wayward-loot function (it's the same chest), plus some control changes, plus some boss nerfs I guess (some will like that, some won't). A lot of other small things. Kliff now no longer feels like a 3-ton brick - maybe now he's a 1-ton brick. It's still an improvement.

Anyway, I'm around 20-25 hours now, although much of that time initially was wandering starter castle region to amass lots of food (your heal potions) and revive orbs (ability to immediately continue boss fights, with a bit of health, if you die), and upgrading weapons/armor where possible. Because I'm a wuss and figure I'll need extra. :P So far I'd call this a 7.5/10 game. Higher if you like the mechanics/environment, lower if you dislike them etc.

---Main questline goes in chapters, with multi-parts to each Chapter. Doing these quests is pretty important for the first 4-5 chapters to unlock stuff, including some crafts, stores, npcs. Don't have to if you don't want, but you won't be able to access/do everything you may wander into, otherwise.
---definitely a sandbox-action game, with RPG elements. The story cutscenes are there, but yeah.
---exploration and mechanics (outside of the crazy control UI) are good and yes it's very desnse vs. empty. But they ARE a lot of MMO or fetch or "go kill the bandits for me" stuff. A few sidequests are more than that, and MQ stuff can be more involved.
--- the main process of improving gear is upgrading with crafters and resources. So your sword gets +1 or 2 per upgrade - do that often enough you can way outlevel current mobs. But it does take some resource-gathering time. If you don't upgrade your gear periodically and try to rely on randomly finding something better, you're likely gonna rapidly die to mobs/mini-bosses the farther from the starter-castle you go. Diablo/PoE/or even some more focused story-rpg type loot progress this is absolutely not.

I'm having fun. It's kind of obsessive, but for me, not the "sleep, what's sleep" type of obsessive. It's more the load-save, 3-6 hrs blink by, then I feel like a 12+hr break.

EDIT: oh - I have the particles effect at around 30-40%, which so far hasn't felt too busy/ostentatious etc. I think if you have it at 0, it starts to affect things like visibility of rain.

EDITEDIT: weather sometimes affects resources found. Rainstorm - toads/salamanders and other such appear to collect, sunny, it's butterflies and insects, which have different purposes. Small stuff like that.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by LadyCrimson

Postscript: I'm definitely of the opinion that this is a game where one has to give it 10-20 hours before it starts to shine. You can judge two things in two hours: whether you're going to put up with/let yourself get used to the interface UI, and whether the way any story/chr stuff is done appeals to you.

The rest is a slow burn. Combat gets more interesting, exploration gets more interesting, puzzles get more interesting - in a way, the 1st castle-region/starter area gives some bad impressions but get past that and there's a pretty good game. Not GOTY material tho. Unless continued and rapid patches turn that around.