Games

Baldurs Gate 3 is fun! Who would have thought, the game everyone said is good, is, in fact, good.

My standards for RPGs are so low that the main story being competent has me really impressed. I think the parasite is a great hook to bring together characters from different backgrounds, with different goals and moralities. There are many reasons for your character to do a quest, like for investigating the goblin camp. You could go there to save the emerald grove and Halsin (altruistic), to recover the Songbird and get the parasite removed (self-interested) or to destroy the emerald grove and side with Minthara (evil).

Mechanically, I like how much common sense applies. If you grease a surface, then it becomes susceptible to fire. People in metal armour are susceptible to lightning. Pushing someone off a chasm kills them.

I really like the nudity, it's the best nudist representation I've seen in a game. I get to play as a naked sorcerer, with 15 AC thanks to my draconic bloodline, and it's just not an issue. I really like that it's an option. I also like that genitals are not tied to body shape, but I do wish there was more body customisation options.

Played some Rimworld as a solo mechanitor. Nice how well the game scales down challenges to something that is usually still manageable. Research takes so long with a single pawn though. Especially if you spend half your time fixing robots that got eaten by mad animals.

Now that I've finished studies for the year I can sit back and continue my 19 years long colony in Rimworld. As we prepare to receive our 100th colonist (soon will be born) we received a pretty big mechanoid raid which we defeated without losses, now I realized how important good melee colonists are and how vulnerable to melee attacks some mechanoids are too! Later on a big pig humanoid raid tried to breach my walls but ended up getting crushed by my artillery.

We'll celebrate the arrival of our 100th colonist with a party and a parade which will display our colony's military might. Also work on a secondary colony continues. I have selected a place far from my main colony that is just a big mountain. A bunch of colonists with mining, farming, construction, cooking and medical skills were sent to build a massive underground burial ground that'll contain dozens upon dozens of sarcophagus in which dead enemies, neutrals, allies and colony animals will be buried and laid to rest. Once the work is complete a small number of colonists will stay there in rotative periods to act as gravekeepers and for general maintenance. I'll have to think about a way to deal with infestations though, that colony's wealth will skyrocket soon enough.

I plan to stick with this colony for many years, until it either corrupts itself or the urge to play version 1.6+ becomes unbearable. The performance is not very good either, 300 mods take a toll on my tps... every day at 4am, 10am, 4pm and 10pm the game freezes for a moment. For now it's tolerable though.

I am addicted to Europa Universalis V despite the fact that's its unfinished and broken beyond belief.

Started playing Death Stranding 1, just doing the first mountain bits.

It's an interesting game, and honestly refreshing to see a post-apoc setting where humans came together and put in the work to care for each other... though I'd like it to be a little grungier (pre-apoc humanity was close to a techbrotopia), and the plot and characters are hm, realistically nonsensical. "Die Hardman", who wears a skull mask, is actually a mild mannered manager type, etc.

Funniest moment so far - found a schematic for a bike that references the show Ride with Norman Reedus, and sometimes when you ride it, the player character (Norman Reedus) will say "man I feel so fucking cool, it's like I'm on Ride with Norman Reedus".

Max Payne 1!! Been busy preparing for medschool exams and decided to play something that seems cool and oh boy am I in love.

Been playing the living hell out of Foxhole recently, as a solo player. Mostly helping on the front lines as engi or med. Spent the entirety of yesterday hauling stuff to Feirmor. Still very new, but so far even though I'm not a PvP person by any measure, this game has been scratching an itch that nothing else did.

Oh also Helldivers 2 and TF2 MvM.

Last week @context@hexbear.net broke the news (to me, anyway) about the Dwarf Fortress seige update, so I've been playing Dwarf Fortress. Spent some time messing around with the world-gen parameters, rolled about a dozen worlds, and found one I'm alright with (suitably deep). Along the way I tried a sinister embark an immediately got wiped out by nauseating muck. I also tried a volcano embark and discovered I was right on top of an active Kobold camp - which was cool, but impractical.

There was an ongoing vampire problem which cost three lives. It turned out to be the Mayor, who has now been arrested by the Captain of the Guard and thrown in a dungeon where she can enjoy the craftsdwarfship of my metalsmith's chains for eternity. She only received a 400 day sentence though (she's immortal you idiots!) and is still the Mayor, so I walled it off. Hopefully the chuds don't re-elect her.

The Fortress is up to about 85 residents with a stream of monster hunters passing through to visit the underground caverns. A few of them turn up dead now and then but my idiot Dwarves are still happily wandering to all extents of the underworld to gather cave spider webs so it must be Human stupidity. I was able to have my militia commander take a squad out to do recon in the caverns and they discovered a cave leading down to a second cavern level. After doing recon in the second level, I was able to choose a spot where I can build a "Great Hall" in-between them, spanning multiple Z layers with overlapping facilities and balconies. I'm planning it out to fit all 11 guild halls, plus a library, tavern, hospital, and dorms - but in a way these fit the architecture and aren't just extra rooms dug out when needed. Since about 30% of the caverns above are underwater, I'm trying to incorporate an underground waterfall and river as well.

No seiges yet, but I have ample steel and a small castle on the surface built from bauxite blocks.

Started up another Total Warhammer 3 campaign, this time trying out Valkia and holy FUCK she is cracked. Thanks to a mod, I also recruited Kholek after his faction got wiped out so now I have two LLs that can basically solo armies on their own.

In Warframe, the only progress this week was getting the most-common Lato Vandal part. At least I'll have some new content to do in a few weeks when Uriel drops.

Also got a bit more progress in Halls of Torment, stuff like killing the "invincible" ghosts in level 3. Still have quite a few challenge runs to do and not many are possible to do simultaneously, plus I need good RNG for artifacts/relics/whatever the stage modifiers for Agony are called.

Convinced a partner to play factorio with me so now I'm on my like 50th playthrough and I can't wait

Still mostly EU5

Also decided to revisit black ops 1 campaign because blops 7 release made me nostalgic. As expected, it is an intensely stupid, american chauvinist slop where most of the plot points make absolutely no sense if you know any history. At least the shooting is fun

Im playing Stellaris and listening to lofi music while drinking green tea (I love the Stellaris OST but after many hundred hours it does get a bit samey)

Just started Vagrus: The Riven Realms. All the complexity of a Paradox 4X game, plus all the reading of Baldur's Gate 2! If anyone has played it, very open to suggestions on how to do this.

more time stranger with fiancée
also tried some return to moria, it's surprisingly ok, though i do have a high tolerance for survival crafty games

I’ve decided I need to cut myself off from playing Victoria 3, it’s simply been taking too much time. Fuck that game is good though.

Also my spouse and I have been playing Code Vein co-op. Super fun.

still playing subnautica submersed VR mod. I now have a base, cyclopes, and prawn suit, and have been down over 500 meters to find a lifepod. not quite sure where i should be going next since I didnt play subnautica this much when i first tried it a long time ago

Replaying Shadowrun: Dragonfall. I've never had much luck with physical adept builds compared to a shooty-talky elf of somesort, but I'm having fun with my axe + chi casting troll.

Slowly getting through deltarune but mostly focusing on a writeup on the 43 games I completed this year that nobody will read

Been no-lifing Total War Three Kingdoms. Like I posted last week, I got a RX 9070 XT so I can run whatever I want now at 1440p. I haven't played this one much since launch, but I've been doing non-stop Nanman campaigns. My first one with Zhurong ended quickly while I was just messing around and figuring out mechanics again.

I then tried to play King Mulu, but I made the mistake of attacking non-Nanman factions early on to consolidate a commandery. This pissed off the Han Empire, Liu Bei (who had taken over most of the Eastern part of the map), and just about everyone else. That's expected eventually, but the problem is that Nanman get bonuses for every other Nanman faction they conquer or annex and can't unlock parts of their tech tree until that's done. So I was left with little tech, underdeveloped regions, and not enough money to fight 5 factions at once. It would have taken 3 times as long to continue this campaign than to just start over.

This time, I went with the classic Meng Huo, very aggressively expanded (battles every other turn) into the other Nanman regions with my OP starting elephants, made use of multiple smaller armies instead of a doom stack, and used ambush bait (one small army sitting in the open, a bigger one in ambush stance waiting for the enemy to attack them). All the Nanman factions are mine, I have 6 armies roaming around, and I have so much surplus food from my building trees that I bribe whoever I want to leave me alone for a bit by giving them 20 extra food per turn. I have 34 surplus when most other factions have 7.

My eldest sons are set to inherit my kingdom should I perish, but Meng Huo is still only like 36 and probably isn't dying any time soon. They were born before he married Zhurong, so I might make my youngest son or daughter my heir when they come of age to roleplay being a father with a favorite. One of my sons married a Han vanguard character, so I'm starting to show them the ways of my people and expand the family tree.

Everything about the franchise is coming back to me, essentially. I'm on Normal battles and Very Hard campaign, since I found that to be the best balance in most other titles. I might actually try a Legendary campaign sometime soon though after I finish this one and get all the achievements possible for the Nanman. Hard battles and Very Hard campaign might be the best actual balance. It's very easy to beat the AI by stacking spear/javelin infantry exclusively, along with whatever ranged unit, because the Han factions favor cavalry a lot more and they also counter other Nanman elephants. A single poison dart unit also destroys infantry morale if you can circle them behind. I won an almost impossible siege defense with just my garrison by circling them out the back and firing darts into everyone. Saved the day.

I think I prefer the older style of battles from games like Rome 2 that emphasize stuff like fatigue a lot more, because especially as the Nanman, I usually win by just making everyone flee 3 times, meaning they don't recover and I can mow them down. Battles are over very very fast. Like 5 - 7 minutes fast. I could play Records mode instead that is supposed to be a little less Dynasty Warriors, but it disables pretty much all general skills and makes the rest of the game less interesting diplomacy and roleplaying wise.

I've been getting my shit absolutely rocked in tarkov. Still occasionally trying to figure out how to conquer France as the British in EU5.

I am currently completely consumed by ARC Raiders. Yeah I know it has some gen-AI bullshit but it's so goddamn fun. I love loading up with just bandages shield chargers and defibs, running around with proximity chat and my flashlight always on RPing as a Sperenza (the fictional underground city refuge of the last humans) EMT.

Finally "finished" my Hades hell mode run, which for me in this case was getting the party ending, completing all prophecies, max affinity with all characters, max level with all keepsakes and cthonic companions, winning a Heat 16 run, and winning a boonless run.

Really the only things I didn't do were grind the titles beyond Alpha Warden or Heat 32, but tbh neither sounds like much fun.

Great game! Gotta find something else to play now though. I did just get Another Crab's Treasure on humble choice but idk if I wanna lock in with a soulslike rn, plus I'd want to play it on my desktop while I'm currently really into comfy gaming on my laptop or deck

I played the 15-ish minute prologue to Mizzurna Falls on PS1. Was really good. The translation is good (Cirosan's translation). The presentation is good. Not sure what actually playing the game is like yet. A mod/romhack was released that slows time down by 1/4 to make it more manageable.

Finally getting gud at Beyond All Reason again and wondering if I dip my toes in multiplayer. For an Open Source Total Annihilation it plays extremely well and stable. I'm already at the limit of the AI opponents without learning some bad habits. The main problem is the AI fighting is good, but fights like a blob for both allies and enemies which is much different from how real players operate. AI also do not do common team meta strategies, like a player rushing t2 and letting other players "buy" a t2 worker.

I'm also getting back into Timberborn, because I'm married to city builders / colony sims. It's getting close to 1.0 and out of early access so I'm running the experimental build to see all the features it'll bring. I'm most excited to have my beavers play with ziplines because I am 5 years old. Badwater/Badtide are terrible, but I'm learning to manage irrigation and contamination mitigation.

My BG3 and ME1 saves look at me accusingly as I neglected them for another week :oh-shit:

In other news, I once again held my annual Thanksgiving Kids Gaming Extravaganza where I set up all my old consoles and TVs and the kids can be loud without bothering the adults. This time I had my Wii with Wii Sports (Boxing and Bowling were the most popular) and my PS4 running the perennial favorite SW:Battlefront 1. I tried to get my Raspberry Pi to run emulated Goldeneye 007 but I couldn't get it working correctly (aka, stubborn) before the night was over. I'll tinker with it in the meantime and see if I can get it up and running for Christmas.

Fortnite because I can't justify buying new games this close to the holidays. I'm looking forward to Ghost of Yotei and Expedition 33, though.

Uhhhh gacha game that's Honkai Star Rail

I know I know but the story's worth it..? (Or at least having enough themes jammed into it that gets me thinking)

Played 3.7 story and since I don't like giving Reddit HSR content imma just:

3.0 to 3.7 was a rollercoaster from boring 10 hrs to like peak animation and battle so honestly, I'd just say to not play the game and just watch someone else's gameplay since GACHA. Thinking about time travelling, gods, the nature of the universe, memories, and bonds, is cool and theory/lore exploration is my favourite part, wondering how it will all end (it won't since GACHA but it's fun to think about) and integrate that to my writing or how I think about stuff when it comes to other media.

Also I wish unlimited destruction on the IPC (Space Capitalists) and such a shame that some of my fav. characters are from there... Also, this is still a story that when looked from in the storytelling and engaging to actually play (not watch/read like a movie/anime) then it's still worse than Belobog (Frozen Wasteland, City Bastion, in the game). But what can ya' do, it's a GACHA game..

Battlefield 6 (mostly) and Ghost of Tsushima

been playing vanquish, i'm about 75% through and i gotta say this shit gets hectic towards the end

i also decided to give heartworm another try. i was having some technical difficulty when i first tried it a couple weeks ago, which i still have because my pc sucks, but the bugs i'm experiencing aren't as game breaking as i thought. they do a lot of things right for a 90s style survival horror game, but they also do this one thing that annoys me that a lot of indie games do where they make some areas really big so it's ａｔｍｏｓｐｈｅｒｉｃ, but it just ends up wasting your time, and giving me specifically hand cramps because i'm constantly holding down shift to run across these huge ahh areas. can't have it all ig

i started ender lilies earlier this week. only played about an hour and i like it so far, but i'm waiting until my backlog is emptier to continue, since i do best with metroidvanias when i can really get into it and play it to the point where i can use all the mechanics with muscle memory.

is kentucky route zero any good? all i know about it is that it's one of the earlier story games, and inspired night in the woods, which was one of my favorites.

I finished Dragon Quest II last night. I had a good time with it until I got to the area outside the final dungeon and the game gave me a giant middle finger. Basically every random encounter there either nearly or completely wiped my party just from damage alone, and they gave the enemies there a skill that has a chance to instantly kill you and that targets your whole party. I tried a few different strats to see if I could make it through but realized I was just severely underleveled, so I grinded for like an hour but then realized I still stood no chance and had hours of fast-forward grinding to go just to even unlock the revive spell, which only one party member learns and he might just get insta-killed anyways. With the only other revive being an item you can only hold one of and that you need to travel to the opposite side of the map to get another of, I kinda just didn't feel like playing any more. So I decided to abuse save states to clear the last zone just to see the end.

Otherwise I've been back into NetHack lately, playing the 3.7.0 pre-release. I'm still not very good at the game, but I'm getting better. I'm still a long ways off from ascending, but I think with some practice I can start getting deep into the dungeon at least.

Pixel art point and click adventure Kathy Rain. It really scratches that itch for pixel art point and click games that only a pixel art point and click game can scratch.