Thirith on 21/12/2022 at 09:40

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BTW, I got started on Somerville, which is nice enough, but it's not grabbing me as much and as immediately as Inside did (which had the same creative lead, I believe). There was a streamlined simplicity to how Inside played that worked very well; Somerville opens things up a bit more, but not in particularly interesting ways (at least not so far), so that the game lacks the clarity and to-the-point-ness of Inside. But hey, I've only played the game for about an hour so far, so who knows what lies ahead.

henke on 21/12/2022 at 11:52

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Finally got around to playing the Simulation difficulty in Dakar Desert Rally, which makes the game more challenging in some good ways: 1 hour long races!, but also in one very frustrating way: speed limits. The Pro difficulty has these speed zones where you have to go under 90km/h or get a penalty and they're easily the most irritating parts of those races. Well, in Simulation the whole dang race is like that. Keep the truck under 140km/h or get a penalty. This means that the entire 1 hour long race you gotta keep an eye on the speedometer, to make sure you're going as fast as possible without going over the limit. You also need to keep an eye on the roadbook to keep track of navigation, and one eye on the compass to make sure you're going in the right direction. If you've got an eye to spare after all that you should keep it on the road so you see where you're going. It's A LOT to deal with. Too much! Really wish they'd added some kinda speed-limiter to make it more manageable. For now the Pro difficulty is more enjoyable.

Tomi on 22/12/2022 at 10:05

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Finally finished the main story of The Witcher 3 the other day, just in time for the new update. I think it's... alright. I can see why the game is rated so highly and why people love it so much, and there is a lot to love indeed, but it's also a bit underwhelming in many ways.

The world of Witcher 3 is wonderfully large and full of things to explore, and there's always something to do. Tons of side quests and monster lairs and other points of interest, but a lot of this game really is more about quantity than quality. Luckily there are a lot of well designed quests as well that are worthy of all the praise, but I could do without all the filler content. You could easily cut at least 50 hours off the game. I dislike the crafting system and the gear hunting, it all feels quite pointless. I spent a significant amount of time rummaging through random people's belongings and looting mostly worthless junk. I never really seemed to need most of that stuff, and now I'm carrying enough food and alcohol in my inventory that I could throw a party for all Novigrad that lasts for a month. I can't even sell the stuff because all the merchants have run out of money. :D

The difficulty is all over the place. I started the game with the normal difficulty, but it offered no challenge at all, so I soon changed it to the Death March (the hardest difficulty level). Even that was somehow disappointingly easy, I think. A bit later I discovered the "enemy upscaling" option buried somewhere in the menus and I turned it on, which made things a little more challenging and much more enjoyable, but still... the game just is rather easy. And I say that without bragging one bit. I thought that I would need to take advantage of all the different potions and change my approach for different enemy types, but usually I just cast the Quen shield on myself, maybe apply some oil on my sword if I can be bothered to play around with the terrible inventory system, and then just repeatedly mash the dodge button until I get a chance to land a hit on the enemy. I occasionally use the bombs and other signs or potions, but only because it feels like a witchery thing to do.

The story of Witcher 3 is good though, and if I hadn't wasted so much time on doing all the side quests and exploring, then this might have been a much more cohesive experience. There are a lot of memorable moments and interesting characters, and all in all the main story is delivered in a pretty satisfying way. I'm now halfway through the Heart of Stone expansion which has been fun so far, and I've still got most of the Blood and Wine DLC to play. At this point, about 150 hours in, I just kind of wish that the whole thing was already over though.

WingedKagouti on 22/12/2022 at 17:38

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While I haven't played it myself, I did watch the SGDQ run of it, and apparently you have access to every move (but not every item) from the beginning. The things you find to "unlock" the moves are merely pages from the ingame manual which explain how to do them. I wouldn't mind playing it at some point, but I just own so many other games I also want to play.

Aja on 24/12/2022 at 23:04

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Got Sports Story, but it needs a little more time in the oven. Apparently a patch is in the works, so if you're interested, I'd hold off for a bit.