The terran campaign of SC2 was the one and only thing I played of it, then never touched the game ever again. This is how terribly ripped off I felt like back then.

I've built my 2nd base in Xenonauts 2 and the skies are starting to fill up with UFO's. I've also lost more soldiers this go around than in previous games. Just bad luck, I suppose. Nothing crazy, but I've lost about 8 soldiers. Mostly fairly green ones, but I had a terror mission that got messy and lost one of my favorites. Ah well, we fight on.

On 4/8/2026 at 8:35 PM, Hurlshort said:

I am also playing WoW, after a few years away. I don't really know what is happening anymore, but my house looks nice.

Got suckered into WoW Anniversary (aka TBC Classic), but Blizzard really managed to ruin the experience by adding phasing to an expansion that really, really cannot support that many players in an area, and I just gave up. Anyway, apparently they also messed up by applying "final" patch balance to the start of the expansion, making early content excessively easy, but I never made it to level cap, so I guess I at least dodged that disappointment.

Sure as hell killed any chance of me touching retail again if they can´t even manage to not mess up something that had already proven itself. Ugh.

Not really feeling like playing much right now, current Where Winds Meet storyline isn´t really doing it for me, and constant FOMO it pushes is wearing me down.

Been wanting to start Rogue Trader, but the sheer size of the game is kinda scaring me, because if it's really good it will consume me... and I've already been trying to stay away from the likes of Factorio, Stellaris, and Satisfactory to safeguard my sleep schedule...

Maybe a few games of Darktide would do me. Hmm...

Oneshoting everything on the main story quest. Feelsgoodman.

On 4/9/2026 at 12:06 PM, Wormerine said:

Wings of Liberty is still my favourite, but I loved Sc2 singleplayer campaign. I also like co-op mode in its own brainless grindy way. Which reminds me, I don't think I ever platinumed Legacy of the Void nor Nova DLC. Maybe should get back to it.

Co-op is quite fun and relaxing, I play a game or two of it now and then.

Edited April 12Apr 12 by MrBrown

Oh... So Simon is a f**k you boss... I guess I can time the last bit of his health so I can burst him before he wipes me. The issue I'm having is that I haven't really found a broken Lune build (I haven't touched her since I got Monoco) and have not touched Sciel.

I guess I can learn the counters, but he really is a f y boss. I like it.

Edited April 12Apr 12 by Sarex

Sciel has fantastic buffs, and if you haven't found the pictos that lets you do two actions in one turn, go get that before fighting Simon.

2 minutes ago, majestic said:

Sciel has fantastic buffs, and if you haven't found the pictos that lets you do two actions in one turn, go get that before fighting Simon.

I have it and the revives and the insta fill break bar and max weapons and lvl 88. At this point if I get lucky (on free aim AP gain) I can finish phase one in one turn.

I think I can maybe use the double damage from Sciel on Verso and try to cheese him to phase 3. But I need some good dodges to get a couple of turns in phase 2.

Edited April 12Apr 12 by Sarex

Prior to the DLC the go-to cheese for nuking everything in one turn is stacking burns with Verso (free aim with burn chance + AP gain until out of AP, then basic attack combo I, II + III with the sword that adds burning stacks, double burn application pictos) and using Sciel to damage buff Maelle with Medalum for Burning Canvas. DLC weapons mixed that up a bit, but it still works well enough until you actually get to the DLC and its items.

Make sure that your character turn order is Verso > Sciel > Maelle (auto-die and resurrect Maelle with 1hp and equip the damage scaling pictos with lower HP = more damage, you basically want to stack every damage multiplier on her, auto-invert with more damage from being inverted, more damage from shields with auto-shield, and so on and so forth), then make Sciel give Verso another round, buff Maelle with an extra 100% damage in her Virtuous Stance and watch Simon die after Burning Canvas.

Edited April 12Apr 12 by majestic

43 minutes ago, majestic said:

Prior to the DLC the go-to cheese for nuking everything in one turn is stacking burns with Verso (free aim with burn chance + AP gain until out of AP, then basic attack combo III with the sword that adds burning stacks, double burn application pictos) and using Sciel to damage buff Maelle with Medalum for Burning Canvas. DLC weapons mixed that up a bit, but it still works well enough until you actually get to the DLC and its items.

Didn't do Verso's Draft yet.

@majestic he didn't even get his turn. This felt dirty...

Works with Verso>Maelle>Sciel>Maelle too. Didn't get the chance to change the order...

I should have tried to struggle a bit more on my own... But I think that Verso/Sciel combo would work, especially now that I know Cheater works on Sciels force turn spell. Verso was doing similar damage, if you account for the doubling from Sciel, but I'm not sure if I could have burned him through phase 3. Maybe I'll reload and try tomorrow, just to see how close it would get without needing to parry/doge.

Edit: I do wonder how much time I would need to learn all the parries, and play him through all 3 phases. Can you even parry phase 3 moves? Probably not on a keyboard, or at least not on mine. I need to get a new keyboard... :D

Edited April 12Apr 12 by Sarex

14 hours ago, Sarex said:

Edit: I do wonder how much time I would need to learn all the parries, and play him through all 3 phases. Can you even parry phase 3 moves? Probably not on a keyboard, or at least not on mine. I need to get a new keyboard... :D

I am not particularly strong in abusing character building systems, so I powered through him with parries. Yes, you can parry/jump everything. Party switch for phase3 really messed me up, as I barely used Sciel and Monoco throughout the game.

My enthusiasm is cooling down for Ghost of Tsushima. It is a very, very good Ubisoft-style open world game, but it is a Ubisoft-style open world game nonetheless. Great "filler" for tired evenings, but not a main dish. Too repetitive and shallow for that. So I am leaving it for evenings when I can't be bothered to do anything more demanding, and am returning to Kingdom Come2 which I a bit abandoned as I focused of testing my new GPU. Good game that one.

@majestic@Wormerine did you guys do Simon the Divergent Star (Endless tower)?

1 hour ago, Sarex said:

@majestic@Wormerine did you guys do Simon the Divergent Star (Endless tower)?

No, I haven't played the DLC yet. Not really sure I will, I started a NG+ on my save before the DLC came out and don't feel like going through the whole game again.

Not because I didn't enjoy it, far from it. It's probably the best I've played in the last two decades, but it was far too emotionally draining to replay in a long while.

Edited April 13Apr 13 by majestic

1 hour ago, majestic said:

No, I haven't played the DLC yet. Not really sure I will, I started a NG+ on my save before the DLC came out and don't feel like going through the whole game again.

Not because I didn't enjoy it, far from it. It's probably the best I've played in the last two decades, but it was far too emotionally draining to replay in a long while.

I kind of want to wrap up the game. Doing Verso's Draft now and that's the last of the content baring Lumie.

Edited April 13Apr 13 by Sarex

Finished Clair Obscure, did all that can be done apart from the bosses in the endless trials and have put almost 3.5 day in to the game, but I think it's enough. Don't feel the need to do them too, maybe I'll come back to them.

All in all the game is fantastic, the story is a masterpiece (for a game) and I will definitely play whatever is next. Even knowing the main plot points beforehand, going through all the connecting material made it so much better. The side content is interesting and I don't think there was anything that felt like padding gameplay time wise.

The combat mechanics, while not something I usually enjoy, had so many extra things to them that it was fun. There were some enemies early on that I had to learn to parry and do them the "intended way", but later on when the dmg cap is removed the fun moved to how high can the numbers go. That may be the only mark against the game, but then again maybe not. As always you are free to choose how to play and they give you the tools to do so. I respect that they didn't bang their head against people cheesing stuff and from what I see they even leaned in to it.

The art style is pleasing, moody, fun and unique (at least from what I have seen).

The music... That may be the greatest thing about this game. Kudos to the music department. The only knock against them is that there are no subtitles, especially for that poem in White Sand. That was a big miss in my opinion.

The only thing this game is missing is that it's not a CRPG, but no accounting for taste and all that.

Edited April 17Apr 17 by Sarex

I am now about 110 hours into AC Valhalla and Im still having fun with the repeated activities and general side quests

Im at the part where I have found Sigurd's arm and I now have about 7 regions who have pledged to me

The game really does a good job at keeping me interested outside of the main quests. So for example I am now at power level 210 and I am actively hunting Order members, Ragnar's Drengrs and Legendary Animals because they provide an exciting combat challenge

Then I have committed to completing some of the Hunting and Fish objectives because they provide Tungsten so I can upgrade my items to Mythical

The economy is well balanced, you need to keep exploring to find loot if you want to buy resource upgrades

Thats the best way to encourage and motivate exploration in any game , economic exigencies that create real rewards make exploration seem worthwhile and fun 👌

Recently I got hooked on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim again, it's really addictive with its atmosphere.

I constantly catch myself just walking around the world and exploring, instead of going through the story. Now I'm stuck at one point and I'm not sure if I'm going through the quest correctly. It seems like I missed something or did something wrong. Does anyone remember how to complete the quest with the Dark Brotherhood correctly to get the best reward?

On 4/13/2026 at 7:12 PM, Sarex said:

@majestic@Wormerine did you guys do Simon the Divergent Star (Endless tower)?

Simon, the Divergent Star, located inside the Endless Tower, is the enhanced version of the original Simon in The Abyss.

Enhanced....?! WTF. No, I played E33 through gamepass before the update. I was planning to pick it up on GOG at some point and give it another playthrough at some point, but now I am straight up scared😅

Edited April 15Apr 15 by Wormerine

16 hours ago, Sarex said:

The music... That may be the greatest thing about this game. Kudos to the music department.

I have thoughts on the subject, which I might as well use this as an excuse to express them.

I mean obviously the OST is pretty darn good. But I keep thinking whenever it is a good "video game soundtrack". I think it's greatest strength is that it is being in a way very "old school". There is no reactivity here, no dynamic soundtrack, no smooth transitions from one bit to another based on players actions. That gives E33 OST an advantage, which a lot of older games had - you can write more traditional music (with full phrases and direction) and not worry about awkward transitions if, for example, player engages in combat halfway through it. I think it very much makes it a better music to listen then a lot of video games OST, but does it make it a better video game OST?

I suppose I feel about a soundtrack the same way I feel about E33 story - it's good, enjoyable stuff, but I will always have more respect for soundtrack and story that supports interactive nature of the medium. Still, considering the uninteractive tradition if jRPGs I can't really fault it for being conservative. (though I am also a bit bitter by headlines calling E33 OST #1 on Classical Music Charts.... it ain't classical music. Like none of it).

2 hours ago, Wormerine said:

Enhanced....?! WTF. No, I played E33 through gamepass before the update. I was planning to pick it up on GOG at some point and give it another playthrough at some point, but now I am straight up scared😅

From what I understand they just made it harder to oneshot. He now always plays first and you cannot burst him through phase 3. There is also enhanced Clea and Lampmaster with 5 lives.

2 hours ago, Wormerine said:

I have thoughts on the subject, which I might as well use this as an excuse to express them.

I mean obviously the OST is pretty darn good. But I keep thinking whenever it is a good "video game soundtrack". I think it's greatest strength is that it is being in a way very "old school". There is no reactivity here, no dynamic soundtrack, no smooth transitions from one bit to another based on players actions. That gives E33 OST an advantage, which a lot of older games had - you can write more traditional music (with full phrases and direction) and not worry about awkward transitions if, for example, player engages in combat halfway through it. I think it very much makes it a better music to listen then a lot of video games OST, but does it make it a better video game OST?

I suppose I feel about a soundtrack the same way I feel about E33 story - it's good, enjoyable stuff, but I will always have more respect for soundtrack and story that supports interactive nature of the medium. Still, considering the uninteractive tradition if jRPGs I can't really fault it for being conservative. (though I am also a bit bitter by headlines calling E33 OST #1 on Classical Music Charts.... it ain't classical music. Like none of it).

That is a fair way to judge it, I just put a lot less thought in to it. I never got sick of it and always looked forward going back to the Continent to hear the song.

I can even vouch for encountering awkward cuts in the music, or no music at all or cuts to new songs. But somehow I never particularly mind it.

As for the story, I don't think it's fair to compare it to an interactive game where choices change the content you play through. This is not that type of game and I think it's better for it. What I mean by that is if they tried to shoehorn in some reactivity it would have hurt the story overall. Even the 2 endings were unnecessary in my opinion and on that topic, I rewatched Maelle's ending on YT... I don't know who picks that and defends it.

As for it being classical, idk what they are smocking... Maybe it's classical, like in Star Trek, where they play AC/DC as classical music... I guess the line for classical has to move at some point.

Edited April 15Apr 15 by Sarex

5 hours ago, Sarex said:

That is a fair way to judge it, I just put a lot less thought in to it. I never got sick of it and always looked forward going back to the Continent to hear the song.

(...)

As for it being classical, idk what they are smocking... Maybe it's classical, like in Star Trek, where they play AC/DC as classical music... I guess the line for classical has to move at some point.

Well, as a professionally trained and working classical musician I tend to contemplate those things more then is normal :-).

Yeah, don't mean it as a honest criticism of E33 soundtrack, just finding it curious how well received it is and if it will have impact on OST expectations going forward. Seems people still respond rather well to good tunes, and those are difficult to pull off if you OST is set up to transition from one bit to another at any moment.

As to classical bit - it's pretty well defined and pretty flexible as it is. I just think due to streaming services some folks treat "classical" as anything with acoustic instruments in them... or something old. Potentially an existential issue from my perspective, but what can you do.

Edited April 15Apr 15 by Wormerine

35 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

Yeah, don't mean it as a honest criticism of E33 soundtrack, just finding it curious how well received it is and if it will have impact on OST expectations going forward.

Hopefully it means more folks try doing non English tunes.

56 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Hopefully it means more folks try doing non English tunes.

Or levaraging unique backgrounds. Sandfall doubled down on their fenchness to their benefit. CDPR did well meaning into easter european flavours with Witcher.