Sulphur on 19/1/2023 at 17:08
Tomi, Malf, if you're looking to make your Witcher 3 playthroughs a more involved experience, I can think of nothing better than (
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2364) this mod to turn it into a truly immersive experience. I'll admit it's a bit low-hanging fruit and might make you sack off the entire thing, but it's nothing that taking a minute to steep a teabag or two can't fix. At the very least, it promises to be testacular until Geralt encounters his next conjunction of the spheres.
Starker on 19/1/2023 at 17:56
Bollocks!
Malf on 19/1/2023 at 22:39
@Thirith, it's not just that; her habit of stating the blindingly obvious was just mind-bogglingly bad.
A massive step down after being spoiled by Keeley Hawes.
henke on 21/1/2023 at 10:12
Dakar Desert Rally just got the Free Roam update so I've been hunting treasure in Saudi Arabia. As in Dakar 18 you just the the rough location of a treasure, then you head out across the landscape and look for it. There's no in-game map-view, which was initially annoying, but after playing a while I'm starting to dig it. You only have a icon in the corner of the minimap as your guide and you gotta survey the landscape and try to figure out what's the best path to take.
Also been playing Axiom Verge 2. Despite its predecessor getting a lot of acclaim I don't think I've heard anything about this one. It's a solid metroidvania with some unnusual gameplay mechanics and quirks. Combat is mainly melee and hacking-based. I'm enjoying it, but honesly it feels like there's too much STUFF in this game. Too much lore that I'm not interested in, and too many gameplay mechanics. Your item-wheel soon fills up with all manner of doodads for unlocking and accessing various things and hopping between dimensions and gazing into other dimensions and attracting portals that pull you into other dimenions. Too much STUFF! I'm near the end and running around basically 100%-ing the gameworld, not because I want to, but because I have no idea how to move on and get to the next story-bit.
I'm ~6h into Disco Elysium, it's getting close to the end of the day, and I don't have the money to pay my hotel bill. I hope Kim will let me crash on his couch.
Hit Deity on 21/1/2023 at 15:51
Quote Posted by Sulphur
Tomi, Malf, if you're looking to make your Witcher 3 playthroughs a more involved experience, I can think of nothing better than (
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2364) this mod to turn it into a truly immersive experience. I'll admit it's a bit low-hanging fruit and might make you sack off the entire thing, but it's nothing that taking a minute to steep a teabag or two can't fix. At the very least, it promises to be testacular until Geralt encounters his next conjunction of the spheres.
omg.. But what does it actually
do? :)
Quote Posted by Malf
@Tomi: as noted above, I've been replaying Witcher 3 myself recently, having rebought the complete edition for a steal on Steam during the Christmas Sale.
Before playing on Steam, I'd put something ridiculous like 600+ hours into the GOG version, and I have settled on some core mods to keep the game interesting and more balanced whenever I play it now. They all focus on removing level differences and normalising all gear, so equipment remains relevant throughout playthroughs, and the game gets a LOT better with the levelling stripped out. You still level to get ability points, but that's it.
Nice! For my next playthru..
Quote Posted by Tomi
I'm done with
Witcher 3 at last. I played the two DLCs but didn't get around to playing the brand new content, because I couldn't be bothered to install the next-gen update. Did I miss anything?
...Why are the harder difficulty modes always locked on the first play through in so many games?
I dunno, and often wonder myself.
Aja on 21/1/2023 at 16:09
Not sure I’ve heard anyone else here ever talk about playing Shadow Man, but I got Shadow Man: Remastered on PS5, and it’s great. I played the N64 version as a kid (and it scared me a lot) and later the PC version, but the remaster is 4K, 60 FPS with high-res textures, an updated control scheme, and kind of absurdly sharp graphics given that they didn’t update any of the geometry or models. I think this is a fine approach as it’s basically like I remember it except not blurry and slightly easier to control. Plus the gun casts shadows now.
But the best part is that they restored a lot of cut content that was planned but never included because of time constraints. So instead of three of the five main bosses sharing the same location, they now each have their own sprawling levels. They even got the original composer to touch up the music and integrate the tracks he was working on for the cut content. There’s also two new bosses and a weapon. And it all feels period correct; i.e. slightly janky, which is what you want. Oh yeah, and they put a subtle hint system in to prevent you from running in circles for hours, a pretty common issue with the original.
Sulphur on 22/1/2023 at 05:32
Quote Posted by Starker
Bollocks!
Rude.
Quote Posted by Hit Deity
omg.. But what does it actually
do? :)
It makes the game a bit of a ballache, of course.
Essentially, the less you take care of Geralt's boys, the more he's gonna be uncomfortable to the point that he won't be able to lollop around fields with gay abandon any more. True realism for everyone.
---
As for what I'm playing, I've been having a great time with Pentiment. It's exactly the sort of idiosyncratic, richly detailed, and lovingly made title that you only really see in the indie space and not from big, established studios any more. Yes, it's slow going, but if you're able to slow down and take in all the finery, it's the sort of transportive experience that a book like, say, Orhan Pamuk's My Name Is Red is able to conjure. The aesthetic of the entire thing unfurling within an illuminated manuscript is fabulous, perhaps more so for me because I love the tactile experience of a solid, physical book, and illustrated old-timey books always felt magical to me. Pentiment shares my joy in that regard, and at the same time it's also trying to do a historical story that I
guess is period-accurate, because I have no idea of what the period was actually like in that part of the world; only historical enthusiasts and academics would, probably.
Anyway, it's sort of an adventure visual novel, if I had to classify it, and as someone who was raised Catholic, getting to interact with Benedictine monks and getting to be a conflicted ass about their traditions while investigating a murder is perfectly in my wheelhouse. It even lets you choose some of your traits and experience at the outset, which will impact your options with different conversations - just like in Fallout, but from a historical context. There's an element of time pressure in that you can only make so many key decisions as to where to spend your time, and once you do, you'll have to commit, otherwise risk not having enough solid evidence to justify your suspicions. I like that, even if I don't enjoy it. It's probably divisive in terms of design, but I appreciate what it's trying to do in forcing your hand to prioritise where you think your time will be best spent. The outcome will likely be something you're not too happy with, because you can't chase down every lead, and you'll have to live with that. I guess mediaeval life wasn't so different from modern life after all.
I've got a ways to go, but I've had a good, long soak in it and can say it's a good time for anyone who has the time and the interest for something that's at once more
and less cerebral than an adventure game, and a little different from your conventional VNs/adventure games.
Hit Deity on 22/1/2023 at 16:04
LOL @Sulphur: that's hilarious actually. I have a friend who is a bigger fan that I am of TW3. I've got to tell him about this one!! He is going to laugh his bollocks off. :laff:
That Pentiment sounds really good; I wishlisted it on Steam. I tried to get into a game called Heaven's Vault but couldn't get very far; it was 'different', but just a bit too different and the walking around (3D) parts were a slog. If it had been more like you describe Pentiment, I think I would have liked it much more.
I too have a soft spot for illustrated "tomes", although I don't own too many of them. I have a huge hardback bound book of Samuel Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner that I love. Also, I have an illustrated and annotated Alice in Wonderland that is divine.
Hit Deity on 22/1/2023 at 23:32
Quote Posted by TheRealSlimGarrett
Been having a Thief FM binge, just completed Home Sweet Home, one of Lady Rowena's finest.
A break from Thief for the next few days, think I'll break out The Saboteur, I'm in the mood for wiping out Nazis.
Oh wow, now
there's a blast from the past.
Have you ever played No One Lives Forever? There were 2 great games, then a Contract Jack third game that I never played. Great spy game(s).
NOLF is currently free online, just search for nolf revival. The license was dropped from the public eye and no one has claimed it; somebody owns it, but they aren't making it known or doing anything with it.
Sulphur on 23/1/2023 at 05:09
Quote Posted by Hit Deity
That
Pentiment sounds really good; I wishlisted it on Steam. I tried to get into a game called
Heaven's Vault but couldn't get very far; it was 'different', but just a bit too different and the walking around (3D) parts were a slog. If it had been more like you describe
Pentiment, I think I would have liked it much more.
I love Heaven's Vault in concept, but in practice, yeah, navigation and getting around wasn't as snappy as I'd have liked. The river segments essentially were the nadir of it all, and about as engaging as eating drywall. Still, the rest of it gives me a bit of a frisson with the whole 'figuring out a language' bit, and Andrew Plotkin, one of my favourite interactive fiction authors, really liked it too, and he's got good reviews of this sort of thing (in that I agree with him most of the time), so there's definitely things to enjoy in there past the boredom barrier.
Quote:
I too have a soft spot for illustrated "tomes", although I don't own too many of them. I have a huge hardback bound book of Samuel Coleridge's
Rime of the Ancient Mariner that I love. Also, I have an illustrated and annotated
Alice in Wonderland that is divine.
Well now, I'm kind of jealous. That's exactly the kind of thing I love. :)