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  • With Cyberpunk 2077 "complete and fixed", I'm finally checking it out. Been using the Welcome to Night City modpack. Act 1 and all the content in Watson (starting area) was amazing. Very immersive. Completed all of that, about halfway through Judy's missions, and most of Panam's missions. I think I'm around 40 hours in.

    Quality starts dipping outside of the main story missions outside of Watson. Nothing so far has been anywhere close to bad, and there's still some absolutely amazing things sprinkled here and there, but it's frustrating how just good some of it is given how strong the start is.

    It's incredibly obvious that the game was meant to be much more. Like Watson district's fixer (person who gives you missions) has 39 gigs, and she has Cyberpsycho fights across the whole map. I don't think any other fixer has more than 15 gigs for their own area, and most don't have any other "gimmick" missions like the Cyberpsycho missions.

    I'm already planning to replay it with mods that add more gang activity and give the gangs "memory" so they hold grudges if you keep doing missions against them. Also, unscaling the stat checks. Stupid that I go from being able to comment on certain topics (the psuedomyth of Rache Bartmoss specifically) in conversations to not being able to because I got too high a level and the stat check jumped from 10 to 15.

    I don't know how to put it. The great stuff is some of the best gaming experience I've had in a long time, where I can't wait to get back to it. Most of the game is good, but not "can't wait to get back into it". But there's a big feeling of missing "what could have been".

    Like the Watson Fixer Regina has extra rewards for you capturing Cyberpsychos alive, but in any of the actual fixer gigs with Cyberpsychos it doesn't matter if you kill them or incapacitate and Regina has no comments on it. There's a lot of emphasis put on customizing your character for you to not see them outside of a few cutscenes (most are first person) and driving a motorcycle. Lots of NPC visual cyberware just isn't available for the player character.

    Maybe it's just residuals from the collective overhyping of the game, but I feel it hard when stuff like that pulls me out of things.

  • Mostly "Disco Elysium" (translates from Latin to "I learn [the world of] Elysium" btw. OFC it's disco AF too)

    And yes, it's been 6 years since release and 4 years since "The Final Cut".... ((:

    I love this game SM. It's such a welcome break from the neoliberal postmodernist slop, being a genuine piece of art. I love it's materialist and politeconomic perspective on society; in general, the writing is just superb (there is no going back after it too, most games and art in general (including novels and films) might just seem mediocre afterwards)...
    The writers did their research about basically everything they wrote about (even racial """science""", OFC depicted negatively), with a focus on psychology, political economy, sociology and philosophy.

    Initially played it in 2021 (but save scummed a lot :/ ). Both me as a person, and my understanding of political economy and philosophy have grown quite a bit since then.
    I tried replaying it in 2023, but didn't get very far (mostly due to mental health) Recently my interest in the game rekindled and I'm trying to play as a progressive social democratic superstar hobocop this time lol

    I've also been getting back into Counter Strike 2 the last few eeks, but it's taken a major backseat to Disco Elysium (a large factor being: I want to make a deck of Anki flashcards to memorise util lineups of the current map rotation; but I just can't summon the motivation for it, so it "blocks" me from playing)

  • Still wrestling with Blue Prince and still as enthralled with it as I was last week. It's such a clever, beautiful, unique and interesting game.

    I'm finally starting to glimpse the finish line at the horizon now after having been in the endgame for about a week. Still a couple of puzzles left to solve, still a couple of unanswered questions left to investigate but I can feel how close I am now.

    God damn it am I going to miss this game once it's over. Experiences like this don't come around often. If you like puzzles and mysteries and escape rooms be impatient for once and play this game. It's extraordinary.

    • I'm loving Blue Prince although I'm quite bad at it, haha! The aesthetic is quite lovely and soothing just building very bad houses.

    • Dang it this sounds right up my alley and I really don't need it right now!

      Most games that are thoughtfully crafted I go in blind, read nothing, no reviews, no wiki for help, just explore. Sounds like this game is just made for that? Or do a lot of the puzzles kind of require foreknowledge?

      • This is certainly a game that is best played blind. Peeling back the mysteries is so rewarding and there is a lot more under the surface than you think at first.

        I don't think there are many puzzles relying on foreknowledge. Most of the puzzles also have clues to be found later, sometimes clues leading to other clues, so if you can't find a solution to something right away I recommend just moving on for the moment and coming back later, doing other puzzles and investigations in the meantime. Exploring and figuring things out, both in terms of puzzles but also narrative is the whole game so just take it slow. You're not meant to solve everything in one run, but gradually learning and making progress over time. Contrary to what the intro video suggests there is no time limit, so there is no rush.

        Also: take notes. I have filled out like 30 pages of notes at this point. This is a very satisfying game to take notes of, making connections and spotting details.

        This is one of those rare Obra Dinn/Outer Wilds type games that only pops up once every couple of years. If you're into that sort of thing you should absolutely jump on it right away, it's spectacular.

  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

    I have this tendency of just playing stuff I already know and don’t enjoy most new game for like six or so hours while I have to „learn“ them - exception are simple things like platformers or racing games where it‘s crystal clear what to do.

    So I have finally decided to really sink my teeth into MGSV and after the warm-up phase, I now can‘t put it down. It‘s crazy how good it looks even nowadays while spitting out triple digit fps at 4k on reasonable hardware. Also 60 fps on the Deck native at high settings. Mindblowing.

    I approached the game wrong at first. I‘ve learned that I should be crawling when I think crouching‘s enough, and crouch when I think I can walk lol, also judo throws are more silent than whispers.

    I‘m inching towards 100% completion. I liked side-ops and the open world more than any main mission. Main missions always felt too stressful with super human ninja zombies in some of em as well. And fuck „A Quiet Exit.“

    Side-ops and the open world really let the games’ more fun mechanics shine for me. With like 120 hours for 100% I also think it has a good length. It‘s starting to wear itself off a bit and it‘s almost done, so it‘s not overstaying its welcome for me. Honestly? A masterpiece.

    Although… for me the story was barely holding it together, just wild stuff that made me go „wait what“ more than a good number of times.

    • If you like the open world free roam stuff, I cannot recommend the Infinite Heaven mod/mod framework enough.

    • Main missions always felt too stressful with super human ninja zombies in some of em as well.

      How did you pass those ? I quit the game because of the "let's put almost unkillable super zombies with superhuman senses in this stealth game" and make missions that quasi require you to fight them upfront/flee from them

      I've been stuck at mission 16 for two years now, can't find the fulton specialist in previous missions (even with guides) and can't flee from the zombies

      • I run and pray. The fulton trick sounds easier though.

      • I did it with the fulton trick: fulton the truck at the airport, then sprint like crazy to a cargo container, climb it, fulton it and fulton myself out with it.

        If you‘re willing to give it another shot and have problems finding the „transport specialist“ hostage in mission 10: I‘ve read that there‘s a guard at the oil facility in mission 13 who has the skill as well. You can just sprint through the savanna to the facility and ignore all enemy bases, look for the guard, whack him, fulton him, wait a few seconds for good meassure, and then „Abort Mission (Return to ACC)“ and the guard should be in the brig regardless (doesn‘t work for hostages for me for some reason). That‘s how you also do the mission tasks without seeing the mission through to the end every single time. Or you could just finish the mission proper if you like.

        Later you can fight the Skulls with a rocket launcher with a few upgrades and whatnot, but it‘s not very fun… Maybe you can do it now already and drive the truck out of the hotzone. I’d rather go get the specialist to upgrade fulton if I were you though. The upgraded fulton is mandatory later on anyway.

        Anything „Skulls“ was my least favorite part of the game, the mech fight wasn‘t great either. If stealth is not an option, my fun nosedives.

  • MotorTown. Absolutely chill. It's like all the vehicle driving sims merged into one!

  • I'm practicing for a PVP VR sword fighting game tournament (the game is death duel VR on steam). This tournament is jousting so i need to practice handling the new horses and lance XD

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