GRcade

So, about how I said I was doing the quicker raid layer this week...turn out we're doing The Last Wish instead, on Saturday night (got the wife's blessing this time!).

Had a quick look at some tutorial vids and Jesus it makes Leviathan look simplistic. We aren't planning on doing the whole thing this time I don't think, but I'm away next week so we'll see how we go. I'm getting close to 600 now, currently 592, so I'm levelled enough but some of the mechanics look horrible. In a fun way.

OrangeReindeer wrote:

Lotus wrote:Fallout: New Vegas
Enjoying this a lot. At this stage I’m barely following the main plot, and if I’m honest I’m not even sure what it is / where I’m at in it. I’ve so many quests active that I don’t know which is the ‘main’ one anymore. I’m just having a good time exploring and doing side-quests. I can see me playing this for a long time, as I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. A few annoying glitches so far, one with a quest point not activating, but it’s Bethesda, so no surprise it’s shitty like that.

It's Obsidian, Bethesda just published, but yes it's still their engine

Glad you're enjoying it! The main plot is definitely worth following through (with whichever way you choose to take it), but is also best resolved at the end of your time with the game so that you'll have met all the factions etc (you get pushed to do this anyway if you haven't). Did you reach New Vegas itself yet?

Yeah TBH I group Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout NV and Skyrim under the same umbrella because they use the same engine or a modified version of it and have the same look, feel, and oddities. So, regardless of the developer, it feels the same to me, bugs included. I think I've skirted around New Vegas - the aerospace place, westside, the farm place I can't remember the name of...I think Freeside looks like the main area that I haven't been in yet.

Rudolphin wrote:So, about how I said I was doing the quicker raid layer this week...turn out we're doing The Last Wish instead, on Saturday night (got the wife's blessing this time!).

Had a quick look at some tutorial vids and Jesus it makes Leviathan look simplistic. We aren't planning on doing the whole thing this time I don't think, but I'm away next week so we'll see how we go. I'm getting close to 600 now, currently 592, so I'm levelled enough but some of the mechanics look horrible. In a fun way.

Yep, did this last night.

Much, much better Raid than Leviathan I think. Where the latter was frustrating and exhausting the Last Wish was fun and exhilarating, where before there was team fatigue and a sense of relief when we finished this time there was a real sense of enjoyment and discovery. A lot had to do with the mechanics being more precise I think, so if something goes wrong you know why it's gone wrong. In Leviathan there were so many occasions of "What happened?" or "Was that me?" whereas in TLW it was always "That was me" and "Aaaah, I know what I did wrong."

We didn't finish unfortunately, we got to Riven but were all pretty tired so the eye shooting caught us out. But we'll go back. I got a bunch of raid armour, the pulse and scout rifles and a curated Masterwork version of the hand-cannon which I was super happy with. And I hit 600!

Xenoblade 2, which I'm mostly loving. I'm on chapter 5 now. The story is building really slowly.

New Vegas

Played for 2-3 hours yesterday and had 4 or 5 crashes in that time, mostly between new areas but once just freezing in the middle of walking along. So frustrating.

So here's an interesting one. theHunter: Call of the Wild (XB1X version), which is available free on GamePass. I saw ACG play this recently on a stream and got curious so I downloaded it. It's a real oddity. Hunting games are just not my thing - I object to any form of animal cruelty and I've never understood the attraction of killing wild creatures as a sport, nor am I a gun-fetishist in any sense. Hunting sims are a niche market (rather akin to fishing sims) and unless you're all clued-up about all the terminology, techniques, manufacturers, kit, ammo types, drop distances, etc it can all be rather tedious and meaningless.

However. Using the Avalanche game engine, probably most well-known for the Just Cause games, this is a fantastic-looking virtual world. Ostensibly a hunting game, it's also an amazing 'walk around peacefully taking in the landscape, exploring, taking pictures and generally wasting time' simulator. It does look outstanding. There are five gigantic regional maps (known as 'reserves'), spanning the Pacific Northwest of America, Siberia, Central Europe and South Africa. I think there might be a South American map due soon on XB1X (it's just released as DLC on PC).

The visuals and the sound design (surprisingly important in this genre) are probably the best I've seen in any hunting sim to date and the world itself is an ever-changing wonder - weather, light, atmospherics all combine to place you in the environments on offer.

It's free (on GamePass), and I think it's worth exploring for anyone who wants a complete break from all the bombast and haste of your average shooter. This is another world - quiet, peaceful, contemplative. Running around shooting all the things is a viable option, too.

The Council

Well the last few episodes took a pretty unexpected turn (don't read if you're going to play



But strong first episodes make the whole thing really good. Seem to be properly divergent endings too!

I strawberry floating loved the original Rocky Mountain Trophy Hunter. Me and my mates had a running competition for the whole of year 10 on who could bag the largest elk.

I never came close... Stupid lightweight deer.

I’m approaching the end of Iconoclasts now. I’ve found all the items and believe I just have the second of two optional bosses and the main end boss to fight but I’ve taken a little break from it to play some Master System and Mega Drive Disney games.

I'm away and can't play smash online for a while so I got Mario Oddysey to occupy myself with. Been doing a comprehensive comb of the sand kingdom and probably ready to move on soon.

Also started playing Shovel Knight Treasure Trove on the 3DS and man is it good too. Was considering getting it on PC, but I guess switching relics on the fly is pretty neat.

Just completed The Last Wish raid. strawberry floating hell, that was something.

Much much better than the Leviathan raid, and something I would gladly run again. I didn't get any decent loot, an old exotic helmet I trashed ages ago, but one of my clanmates got One Thousand Voices so we were all very jealous.

Still coming down from it all. That was intense.

God of War

Working my way through, taking it at a steady pace; its fan feckin tastic! Really turned into something special once I reached the lake of nine. Puts me in mind of Zelda a lot, with regards to the puzzling.

d'mince pies wrote:God of War

Working my way through, taking it at a steady pace; its fan feckin tastic! Really turned into something special once I reached the lake of nine. Puts me in mind of Zelda a lot, with regards to the puzzling.

You don't even know. Granted the last Zelda game I finished was... er, OoT but realising how the lake worked and played gave me the warm and fuzzies for Zelda.

Shadow of The Tomb Raider

Hmm. Bit slow and ponderous, isn't it? Looks very nice but the pacing is all over the shop, primarily due to its unnecessary insistence on introducing 'open world' mechanics. Finding it difficult to stick with games at the moment (put Red Dead to one side after only playing it for 3-4 hours) so can't me lasting the distance with ol' Lara, but you never know...

Got back into Breath of the Wild today

I generally go back to this game every few months to continue where I left off (a year and a half one and I still haven't finished it), I'm like 150 hours and wow it actually managed to grab my interest again. I finally finished the master sword trials and damn is the full powered sword sick.

Since that I've been exploring the areas that the hero's path thing showed I hadn't gone to, and I accidentally stumbled on one of the Champion's trials or whatever. It's crazy how much new gooseberry fool I find in this game every time I play it

Decided to go for 3 star ranks on all the cups in MK8 Deluxe. Didn't really go for it on vanilla MK8, but here it didn't take me long apart from that cup with the space-station rainbow road. Breezed through the others but that took a few attempts. And to my surprise since I wasn't expecting a character unlock I got... Gold Mario. Fantastic. Now I guess I'll do some time trials.

Finally started the Xenoblade Torna DLC last weekend, so far I’ve put about 4 hours into it and I’m enjoying it, characters are good, story seems decent enough so far, battle system is similar but different enough to feel like it’s something new to master, graphics are a nice jump up from the base game as well from what I can see.

Been going through the Hitman 2 Christmas event and I've unlock a Santa getup for Agent 47, look forward to playing other levels dressed as Santa.

Rudolphin wrote:Just completed The Last Wish raid. strawberry floating hell, that was something.

Much much better than the Leviathan raid, and something I would gladly run again. I didn't get any decent loot, an old exotic helmet I trashed ages ago, but one of my clanmates got One Thousand Voices so we were all very jealous.

Still coming down from it all. That was intense.

What format are you playing on? Think it just came out on iOS too.

Currently playing Heaven Will Be Mine on Steam. A visual novel about lesbian space mech pilots in an alternative history post-Cold War 1980s.

Mafro wrote:

Rudolphin wrote:Just completed The Last Wish raid. strawberry floating hell, that was something.

Much much better than the Leviathan raid, and something I would gladly run again. I didn't get any decent loot, an old exotic helmet I trashed ages ago, but one of my clanmates got One Thousand Voices so we were all very jealous.

Still coming down from it all. That was intense.

What format are you playing on? Think it just came out on iOS too.

Now I really want to try The Last Wish on iOS.