Octopus Overlords

Knocked out Singularity. Not too bad. I enjoyed it for what it was. But mostly I enjoyed it for being short.

Started Betrayer tonight. Interesting. There are some unusual things going on. I mostly like it so far. Though I'm wondering if I should have given it a bit of color when I started. It's a bit bleak. However, I think that's the look they wanted, so I'll keep running with it.

My son and I have been playing through UNRAVELED 2 on Xbox Game Pass and man is it a fantastic co-op. You play two creatures made of yarn who are connected together, and you have to travel through side-scrolling levels solving puzzles. The game really demands that you work together, and the puzzles are a great mix of brain burners and action-platform timing. It's challenging but not so difficult that it's frustrating, and there's a great hint system if you get stuck.

We're going to hit the original game after this - we skipped to the sequel just because we wanted to try it and didn't expect to enjoy it as much as we did.

Also still grinding my way through AC: Valhalla, and also started GRIM DAWN again just because that's my comfort game I like to play when I don't feel like playing anything else. I tend to restart it every few months.

I've been playing XCOM TFTD lately. The Steam version works fairly well. Still a little bit twitchy making me very careful making my moves.

Alright, so now what? I've finished CP2077. While I'm still putting a lot of time into Stormworks, I need a second game. A couple of things on my radar that are wildly divergent:

Wasteland 3 - I really like RPGs and love me some tactical turn-based combat.
Godfall - initially panned, but a little bit of a revival. Looter-shooters are another genre I really like. Pursuing that great build appeals to me.
WoW - God save me, but... A couple years ago I poured some major time into the LOTRO legacy servers. It was just great. Now seems like a great time to get back into Wow, which I haven't played in probably 10 years.
Division 2 - back to the looter-shooter. This was my game of choice last spring. They've added a couple things since I left. I 'was' kinda waiting for Outriders, but now that is delayed I'm considering a return.

I'm genuinely looking for some advice, even for titles not on this list. Thanks!

Sawyer wrote: ↑Sat Jan 09, 2021 12:03 am Alright, so now what? I've finished CP2077. While I'm still putting a lot of time into Stormworks, I need a second game. A couple of things on my radar that are wildly divergent:

I'm genuinely looking for some advice, even for titles not on this list. Thanks!

Divinity: Original Sin 2, because it's about as satisfying as RPG tactical turn-based combat gets. All the moreso if you're a seasoned grognard capable of taking on the 'Tactician' level of difficulty. If not, check out MajorSlack's series of Divinity: Original Sin 2 video walkthroughs and you'll be good to go.

I’ve been playing Wasteland 3 lately; it’s a pretty good game. I can’t really give specifics as to why, but I’m finding it to be much more interesting than Wasteland 2 (which I never finished). Plus, it’s pretty bizarre and funny at times.

I've recently put Cyberpunk 2077 on hiatus until it's got a few patches (I'm thinking six months), and I'm making good progress on Doom Eternal, with Horizon Zero Dawn going on the PS4 when Michelle is at work (IE - not using the TV.) I'd really like to add an RPG to the mix, something first or third person. I thought about Grimlock 2, but it's less an RPG and more a dungeon crawler (the actual roleplaying/story elements are thin.) I thought about Witcher 3, which I still haven't finished, but I'm not sure I want a second AC-style action/exploration game alongside Horizon Zero Dawn. Maybe it's time to take another carefully timed swing at Kingdom Come Deliverance? I was having a lot of fun with it early last year when the world went topsy turvy and I found it a bit too much to concentrate on.

Big thumbs up for KCD. That is a game made with some passion for the source material. The combat system is great one-on-one.

I've bounced off of Divine Divinity 2 on two occasions. Not exactly sure why as it should definitely be something I'm into.

i'm finally trying to get through Ittle Dew. i think i'm pretty close to the end of the game (it's not very long, maybe three hours if you don't take on every optional puzzle location - there is an achievement to finish it in 15 minutes), but i am wanting to take on the optional "Master Cave" puzzles which i think will take some time. charming and occasionally funny with real comedic timing, i like it enough that i purchased the sequel from Fanatical the other day.

Sawyer wrote: ↑Sat Jan 09, 2021 2:08 pm I've bounced off of Divine Divinity 2 on two occasions. Not exactly sure why as it should definitely be something I'm into.

I recognise what you're getting at. Divinity: Original Sin 2's depth and complexity does tend to demand a certain degree of dedication. Keeping up with all the quests, lore, inventory management, crafting recipes, and sheer depth of squad-based tactical combat options can present a significant challenge if you become distracted and happen to step away from playing the game for any significant period of time. But as complex and immersive as the game's systems are, committing to fully comprehend it pays off with immensely satisfying and rewarding gameplay (all the moreso if deep and often chaotic turn-based tactical combat appeals to you).

Been in a bit of a gaming funk, so I decided to try something completely different. Picked up Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin on Monday and have spent the last few nights with it.

This is a interesting mash-up of JRPG, Vanillaware-ish side scroller beat-em-up, and in-depth rice farming sim. You play as Sakuna, a minor deity who is thrown out of the "Lofty Realm" (heaven) when she accidentally lets in a group of humans in a drunken stupor and they trash the place. As her penance, she and the humans are cast down to the "Lowly Realm" (Earth) to farm rice on a demon-infested island. She has to not only learn the ins and outs of rice farming, but is also tasked with clearing the island of demons. Along the way, she builds relationships with the humans and builds up her farm.

First impressions were fantastic and I really thought this was going to be a surprise hit. It's an interesting idea and absolutely oozes charm. The graphics are fantastic, the music is stellar, the writing and VO work are solid, and the characters are very interesting. The interactions and the dialog is very well done, and it's fun to watch the relationships build and learn more about the characters.

Unfortunately, the game simply tries to do too many things, and ends up not doing any of them particularly well. The side scrolling combat gets repetitive and grindy very early. You have two weapons (heavy and light) along with a grapple that you can use to swing around shielded enemies or reach new areas. The similar looking levels and only 3-4 enemy types don't do it any favors here, and while it looks great, combat quickly becomes a rather boring chore. You do gain additional battle skills and can craft and enhance equipment, but none of it is particularly compelling.

The rice farming, by contrast, is extremely complex. You till your field, clear rocks, determine the amount of water, create fertilizer that helps certain parts of the rice grow better, pull weeds, harvest/dry/thresh rice, etc. etc. There's a huge laundry list of things to do to ensure that your rice crop comes out well, with a ton of graphs, percentages, and other minute details to look at. Problem is, they don't really bother to explain, well, any of it. You get some minor hints here and there by talking with the humans, but those are few and far between. You end up just doing a bunch of trial and error, hoping for numbers to go up on different spreadsheets and radar charts. That may appeal to some, but was completely lost on me. Doesn't help that the mini-game'ish activities required to do things like till the field and thresh the rice are boring as hell.

All in all, it was disappointing to see this game be so mediocre and bland after such an fantastic first impression. I thought this might be something to keep me engaged for a while, but it ended up simply feeling like a mix of rather mediocre ideas.

Lately I've been getting into Board Games on Steam. My buddy and I pound a few beers over a zoom call and play games like Castles of Burgundy, Stockpile, Ticket to Ride, Carccassone, Through the Ages and Twilight Struggle just to name a few. Really having a good time with these.

mcdog512 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 22, 2021 12:39 pm Lately I've been getting into Board Games on Steam. My buddy and I pound a few beers over a zoom call and play games like Castles of Burgundy, Stockpile, Ticket to Ride, Carccassone, Through the Ages and Twilight Struggle just to name a few. Really having a good time with these.

That's a rock solid selection of digital board games (Twilight Struggle & Through the Ages are perhaps the best of all of 'em).

If you're looking for more, you cannot go wrong with the following:

• Wingspan
• D&D: Lords of Waterdeep
• Race for the Galaxy
• Hive
• Root
• Star Realms
• Terraforming Mars
• Sagrada
• Galaxy Trucker
• Small World
• Raiders of the North Sea
• Burgle Bros.
• Splendor
• Gloomhaven - still in Early Access, though not too shabby considering

Scythe, Pathfinder Adventures, and LotR Living Card Game are also solid board/card game ports.

And there a good number of well implemented board games you can play for free on Boardgamearena. I haven’t been playing as many games on there as I did at the outset of Covid/work from home, but still get in a game or two every other week or so.


Just beat Wasteland 3 so time to find a new game....

Watching Mandalorian sent me back to SWTOR. Again.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Sat Jan 23, 2021 7:06 pm Watching Mandalorian sent me back to SWTOR. Again.

That's going to be what I get to next when I finish Disgaea 5 or Divine Divinity - Original Sin. Over halfway through D5 at the moment, while I've barely scratched the surface of DD:OS, but there's always the possibility I bounce off that one & wander away. Either way, I'm set for making a concerted run at finishing SWTOR finally.

I rarely stick with it for the long haul (I only have two toons who finished their class stories), but I usually come back once a year or so and sub for a month to get a Star Wars fix.

Ive maxed all classes and earned Legend status but still think of going back. I just dont know what Id do. I think I have 2 slots left. But Ive done it all many times. Wish there was a second game like it. I dont think we'll ever get another MMO as good as the old ones. I think SWTOR is the last of the good ones.

The voice of one of the minor NPC's on Nar Shadaa, Zan Loren, sounded so incredibly familiar but I just couldn't place it.

Just looked it up...it's James Urbaniak. Yep, Dr. Venture now works for Republic intelligence.

I've been in the mood for a JRPG lately, but there hasn't really been anything new that interested me.

I've always avoided the Atelier series, mainly because crafting is always my least favorite part of RPG's and that's the primary focus of this long-running series. After reading a few glowing reviews of Atelier Ryza 2, I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go. What could go wrong jumping in on the 22nd entry in a series, right? Well...lots, actually. I found that I absolutely hated the crafting system that makes up the bulk of the game, finding it to be ridiculously complex and requiring a stupid amount of simply wandering wandering around picking up random shit off the ground. Add in the fact that the game has a really creepy vibe (enough that Little B 11.10 actually asked "Dad, why are you playing this?"), and it completely turned me off less than 4 hours in.

Instead, I picked up Trials of Mana on Switch, which has been a wonderfully welcome surprise. It's a remake of Seiken Densetsu 3, a SNES game from 1995 and one of the Mana series that had never previously been released in the US. It absolutely oozes 16-bit era JRPG charm, with a fantastic combat system and wonderful music. The story isn't anything to write home about, but does a fine job of moving you from place to place so you can thump more baddies. The only downside has been the laughably bad voice acting, but even that can't distract from the overall charm of the game. Definitely glad I gave this one a shot. Really enjoying it.

Collection of Mana has 1-3 on Switch, 2 is on Steam.

finished the first The Room, now on The Room Two. the puzzle boxes in this one are rather less anchored in reality, so it's not as satisfying to figure them out as it was in the first installment.

also at 65 hours and 160 deaths in Noita, still haven't reached the final level. but it's still a super fun title.

I finally re-loaded Witcher 3 with all the DLC and got back into it. I'm having a blast and have made it a lot further so far. Previously, I left off before going to Skellige. Currently I'm about lvl 30

I've been in a bit of a gaming slump recently, so I've been playing that silly House Flipper game just to turn my mind off and....renovate houses. It's fun in short doses and quite satisfying to take an absolute dump of a place and restore it to like new. You can either do jobs for people where they give you specific things they want done, or you can buy houses and renovate them as you see fit then sell them at auction.

I enjoyed the first part as you have specific goals and can earn upgrades for your character, but the actual house flipping where they leave it up to you I don't really have the patience for. The game's not smart enough to grade you better for a nicely designed interior than one in which you just throw all the furniture randomly in the middle of the room and paint every wall a different color. So I never felt the need to put that much effort into it.

Now that I'm done with that, I'll probably just take a break from it all. I've learned over the years that fighting my gaming slumps is a waste of time, and I'm better off just pursuing another hobby for awhile until the mood strikes again. Over Christmas I got subs for DC Infinite and Marvel Unlimited, so I'm back on a big comic reading kick. I'll ride that train for a bit until something shiny comes along I can't resist.

One of the things I've really appreciated about Trials of Mana is the fact that it shows you very clearly where you need to go next. There's a big giant star showing you exactly which exit to any given map you need to go through to get to the next quest objective. That has allowed me to simply focus on the very fun combat, without wandering around trying to determine which NPC to click on or which of the 8 map exits take me to the quest.

I'm about 15 hours in, and all of a sudden those map markers have simply...disappeared. I'm at the point where I need to find and defeat a few different bosses, but that's happened before and it still showed the quest markers.

I'm super annoyed that they turned off the best QOL feature 3/4 of the way through the game.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 11:56 pm - Gave the new Ori & the Will O' the Wisp a look. It's incredibly beautiful, but I find that I just can't get into the more difficult Metroidvania games any more. I'm absolutely terrible at platforming and get frustrated by backtracking.

I just finished Ori and the Blind Forest, and while I thought the story and atmosphere and music were superb, the heavy trial and error based gameplay was definitely frustrating. I could have done without those escape levels after the big quests where you have to run away from something, can't save, and repeatedly die as you progress further along until you memorize the pattern. Was your foray into the sequel similar to the original? Trying to decide if I should dive right on in to the second, wait, or just not bother.

Been playing a good bit of Valheim lately. I love it!

9 years after release my first play through of BL2 is complete. The siren made it fairly easy to push through.Not sure how I will get through with the psycho or Zero.

My son and I bought THE FOREST on a whim and had a pretty good time. That game scared the heck out of both of us on a number of occasions. It's brutally difficult, and I'm not sure how much patience I have for it to be honest, but we had a great time screaming and laughing at being stalked by naked cannibals.

I also re-started NI NO KUNI: WRATH OF THE WHITE WITCH, this time the remastered version. I had played it originally a few years ago and had only gotten a few hours in, so I decided grabbing the remaster on sale was a good excuse to jump back in and finish it. Having a really good time with it this go-round.

I've pretty much given up on AC: VALHALLA - just don't have the energy for it anymore. I may revisit it one day down the road, but for now 80+ hours has been more than enough to get my money's worth.

pr0ner wrote: ↑Mon Feb 08, 2021 6:55 pm

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 11:56 pm - Gave the new Ori & the Will O' the Wisp a look. It's incredibly beautiful, but I find that I just can't get into the more difficult Metroidvania games any more. I'm absolutely terrible at platforming and get frustrated by backtracking.

I just finished Ori and the Blind Forest, and while I thought the story and atmosphere and music were superb, the heavy trial and error based gameplay was definitely frustrating. I could have done without those escape levels after the big quests where you have to run away from something, can't save, and repeatedly die as you progress further along until you memorize the pattern. Was your foray into the sequel similar to the original? Trying to decide if I should dive right on in to the second, wait, or just not bother.

Sorry, missed this last week.

My general feeling is that if you didn't care for the trial and error gameplay from the original, nothing in the sequel is going to change your mind. I just found it to be frustrating, and bounced off it pretty quickly.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Sun Feb 14, 2021 2:57 pm

pr0ner wrote: ↑Mon Feb 08, 2021 6:55 pm

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 11:56 pm - Gave the new Ori & the Will O' the Wisp a look. It's incredibly beautiful, but I find that I just can't get into the more difficult Metroidvania games any more. I'm absolutely terrible at platforming and get frustrated by backtracking.

I just finished Ori and the Blind Forest, and while I thought the story and atmosphere and music were superb, the heavy trial and error based gameplay was definitely frustrating. I could have done without those escape levels after the big quests where you have to run away from something, can't save, and repeatedly die as you progress further along until you memorize the pattern. Was your foray into the sequel similar to the original? Trying to decide if I should dive right on in to the second, wait, or just not bother.

Sorry, missed this last week.

My general feeling is that if you didn't care for the trial and error gameplay from the original, nothing in the sequel is going to change your mind. I just found it to be frustrating, and bounced off it pretty quickly.

Hmm, thanks. I will put this on the back burner for a bit, then. Thankfully the first Ori wasn't terribly long, but having to replay some sections dozens of times was not the most fun thing in the world.

I stopped my FNV run when the the New California mod disappointed me and The Frontier mod crashed and burned. But the first person TES/FO bug has got me again so I'm replaying FO4.

I got bored with Grim Dawn, at about the same place I wandered off last time. Weird how I can play Diablo 3 for ages, but find both GD and TQ to be very dull after 15-20 hours.

I’m giving Middle Earth: Shadows of War a go on PS4, as the Super Duper Definitive Ultra Complete version was on sale for only $15. I played it ages ago on PC, but didn’t get very far. I remember being frustrated by the endless trash mobs that basically give you nothing (no XP, minimal loot), but have learned this time to just run away from them instead of engaging each one. That has made the early game much more enjoyable. Finished all the collectibles in the first zone and moved on to the second last night. Wow, the difficulty spike is rather...significant.

EDIT: Oh yeah, now I'm remembering why I bounced off this so hard last time. The worse you are at the game, the harder it progressively gets. Each time you lose to a particular boss, they get stronger. That's super fun when you're one or two hits away from beating an epic Captain...and another boss who is 6 levels higher than you appears out of thin air to ambush and kill you. Now both the original boss I was fighting (who I was this close to beating) and this now one are both stronger. Lovely.

I've been powering through Immortals: Fenyx Rising over the last few weeks. Just got to the "no-turning-back-after-this-point" point and have decided to clear out some remaining quests before finishing the game. I was worried when I got it that I quickly fatigue of it after playing AC: Origins and then Odyssey relatively recently, but it's different enough to make it feel new. Well, not new exactly since it clearly copies from those games as well as Zelda, but the setting and the story are fresh. My only real quibble with the game is that it's pretty easy; I'm playing on hard and have rarely died. The trickiest part of the game is the puzzles, but even they aren't too bad once you get a sense of what they're looking for. All in all, I give it 7 out of 8 tentacles. Would recommend!

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Wed Feb 17, 2021 9:19 pm I got bored with Grim Dawn, at about the same place I wandered off last time. Weird how I can play Diablo 3 for ages, but find both GD and TQ to be very dull after 15-20 hours.

Yeah, it's not just you. I do get tired of D2 and D3 before eventually coming back, but I just can't seem to play through an entire game of most of the other big ARPGs. It's not that I don't have complaints about the Diablos. But they're just so playable. I love the atmosphere of Grim Dawn, but just find the gameplay to become boring. Which strangely has never been an issue with D2/D3 despite playing multiple characters all the way through and it being very repetitive overall.

Finished play through two of BL2 with the Mechromancer. My robot kicks some major ass.

Is the DLC worth it and do I need to do it to level up for the True Vault Hunter mode? IS TVHM worth it to work through?

Jaddison wrote: ↑Sun Feb 21, 2021 11:29 am Finished play through two of BL2 with the Mechromancer. My robot kicks some major ass.

Is the DLC worth it and do I need to do it to level up for the True Vault Hunter mode? IS TVHM worth it to work through?

I'm confused. Playthrough 2 is TVHM. Or are you saying that your first playthrough was with a different character?

Assuming the latter, yes and yes. The DLC is great, and I'd do them in release order (Captain Scarlett, Torgue, Hammerlock, Tina, then Commander Lilith.) Hammerlock is probably the weakest, Tina is probably the best. Lilith is the tie-in the BL3.

TVHM is the game at it's best. When I play I tend to speed through the first playthrough to get to TVHM, then take my time with it. The fights are more fun, the gear is more fun and interesting, your ability trees fill out and make them gameplay more fun. If you haven't yet, my suggestion is to do playthrough 2 (TVHM), and then the DLC.

I agree with almost everything Blackhawk posted. Especially Tina's DLC. Torgue's is a close contender, though. The story isn't as good, but he's just too funny to miss out on.

I was going to disagree about TVHM, but after thinking about it, I'm not so sure. UVHM is easily the most difficult. And most demanding. It requires more planning and preparation. To me, it is therefore the most rewarding. However, it can also be way more frustrating. So I would definitely accept the argument that TVHM is more fun. For sure if you are someone that doesn't want the challenge of UVHM. I guess I'd consider UVHM to be kind of the "end game"; although, I suppose that moniker is probably more apt for the grinding that happens after UVHM... since you still won't be at level cap.

But definitely play TVHM. And definitely play the DLCs.

One thing that I like about TVHM and UVHM is that matching the weapon element to the enemy health bar becomes way more important. i.e. corrosive to yellow (armor), shock to blue (shield), fire to red (health) [and slag becomes king!]

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sun Feb 21, 2021 12:35 pm

Jaddison wrote: ↑Sun Feb 21, 2021 11:29 am Finished play through two of BL2 with the Mechromancer. My robot kicks some major ass.

Is the DLC worth it and do I need to do it to level up for the True Vault Hunter mode? IS TVHM worth it to work through?

I'm confused. Playthrough 2 is TVHM. Or are you saying that your first playthrough was with a different character?

Assuming the latter, yes and yes. The DLC is great, and I'd do them in release order (Captain Scarlett, Torgue, Hammerlock, Tina, then Commander Lilith.) Hammerlock is probably the weakest, Tina is probably the best. Lilith is the tie-in the BL3.

TVHM is the game at it's best. When I play I tend to speed through the first playthrough to get to TVHM, then take my time with it. The fights are more fun, the gear is more fun and interesting, your ability trees fill out and make them gameplay more fun. If you haven't yet, my suggestion is to do playthrough 2 (TVHM), and then the DLC.

I played with the Siren and Mechromancer through to killing Jack. I started TVHM with Siren and found it challenging right off the bat as the billabong fur mission wasn't quite so easy.

Thanks for the suggestions. Maybe I will wait on doing DLC until after TVHM play through. UVHM sounds like work