[Morgoth]

Back to Total Warhammer 2, this time on the combined map, Mortal Empires dlc. I'm trying out the Skaven on highest difficulty, and after a few false starts I've finally gotten the hang of it as Skarsnik the Plaguelord. It was rough going at first. I was situated at the far south of the jungle continent of Lustria, domain of the Lizardmen. Skaven infantry, as it turns out are terrible early and mid game. They have little armour, little skill and next to no morale. In addition you have no cavalry or fliers, and your ranged units are worthless. The Lizardmen on the other hand have very strong, almost unbreakable infantry, with decent ranged units and some brutal large unites.

With my best early units I couldn't stand toe to toe with a Lizardmen army of basic infantry, no matter how hard I tried. So, I had to use the Skaven's impressive campaign map mobility and their ability to ambush even on attacks to its fullest. Not to mention the satisfyingly destructive plague magic of Skarsnik. I would tail armies of the Lizardmen and wait for a time when attrition or battle with another faction had weakened them enough for me to strike. Then I'd take advantage of my incredible unit replenishment rate to conquer and raze an important city before the Lizards had time to field a new army. Slowly but steadily I ground down their economy while accruing experience for my lord, heroes and units. Not to mention some halfway decent units. Plague Monks were still no direct match for Saurus Warriors, but they held on for long enough. Eventually I reached a point where Skarsnik alone could ramp up kills in the hundreds, at which point the Lizard's unit advantage would dissolve under the weight of the gnawing horde. Saurus Warriors might be almost unbreakable, but under the weight of hundreds of rats even they feel fear.

Now I've conquered all of Lustria and have set my sights on the Old World. As it turns out, the Skaven make up for their shitty early and mid game units with an incredible late game roster. Warp-Lightning Cannons cover the battlefield in an eerie green glow. Doomwheels crash through enemy formations as if they were made of paper. Stormwermin hold the line against even the most elite of enemy infantry. My Deathrunners skulk in from the flank to tear through infantry while Gutterrunenrs provides support with poisoned arrows. All the while Deathglobe Bombadiers and Warpfire Throwers melt any unit they get within their reach. Skarsnik need to do little but stay within the formation and spread his most potent plagues and poisons to the enemy. It is glorious! Battles the computer gives me 0 chance of winning I take with ease. I wiped two High Elf armies consisting of nothing but their most elite and experienced units, a blow from which they can never fully recover.

My goal is to claim Skavenblight, the ancient fortress of the Old World. After that I'm done I think. Nothing seems a challenge at this point, but I haven't fought much of the Old World races yet. I could see Bretonnia being a pain, with their incredible cavalry. Or the dwarfs maybe, with their superior weaponry.

[Gorefest]

I'm absolutely in love with The Witness. It is on the surface of it a fairly straight-forward puzzler, but the setting is gorgeous and the puzzles are fantastic. Don't think I've ever had such a sense of achievement before when solving a puzzle and the game gently guides you through increasingly complicated setups in a very clever way, which is at the same time intuitive and challenging. There's no cheating or short-cuts, all the puzzles make total sense within the rules that the game introduces to you, and they build and merge together gloriously. A real treat if you want something a bit more mellow and relaxing.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 08 January 2019 - 11:57 AM

[Khellendros]

Gorefest, on 08 January 2019 - 11:57 AM, said:

I'm absolutely in love with The Witness. It is on the surface of it a fairly straight-forward puzzler, but the setting is gorgeous and the puzzles are fantastic. Don't think I've ever had such a sense of achievement before when solving a puzzle and the game gently guides you through increasingly complicated setups in a very clever way, which is at the same time intuitive and challenging. There's no cheating or short-cuts, all the puzzles make total sense within the rules that the game introduces to you, and they build and merge together gloriously. A real treat if you want something a bit more mellow and relaxing.

I played it about three, four years ago, and still think about it regularly. It would make my top ten best ever games played list. I played it with my girlfriend and it was really interesting how for different types of puzzles one would find the solution really obvious while the other stared at them quizzically - funny how differently brains work.

It’s also the game I kick myself the most about. We ‘completed’ it without looking up a single solution, but we didn’t *complete* it - we somehow never worked out the game’s twist despite the fact that it stares you in the face, daring you to do it.

[Mentalist]

Thi4f is a terrible game for an OCD completionist. I ended upcoming back and replaying from start of CH1, b/c I missed a collectible the first time around.

So now I'm basically back to just emerging into "The open world" of the City. I'll probably end up spending all my gold on buying the wrench and go around the whole City seeing wherever I can use it- these tools give the whole thing a small whiff of Metroid.

Looking at my schedule for the next 2 weeks, this is gonna be a slow one to be played in chunks- like a block at a time.

[Serenity]

Gods, I'm loving Dragon Quest XI since re-starting it on pc. It's such a chill-out, relaxing, fun game to play after a stressful day at work, plus I love the characters I've met so far, especially Veronica. She funny. Should meet Sylvando in my next session, which would pretty much get me back to where I was on the PS4, which was around 18 hours in, although it's taken about half that time to get there this time.

[Mentalist]

While I'm net-less at home, no point in playing any Steam games (that have achievements at least). So I'll probably move on to Metro 2033 in the meantime.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 10 January 2019 - 03:59 PM

[Mentalist]

so I started Metro 2033 Redux on Ranger difficulty- meaning I have no clue how many bullets or oxygen I have at a given moment. It's not bad, but not amazing.

To its credit, the game follows close to the book (which read as a game script in the first place, to be honest). The most off-putting thing is the lack of saves/quicksaves- checkpointing is generous, but repeating a fight against a mutant swarm 15 times in a row still gets tedious. And shotgun sucks, which is terrible- especially coming off playing RAGE for over 40 hours, and Id loooooves their shotguns.


edit: oh yeah, also screw the 2-weapon carry limit. That's just... ugh
/edit

But yeah. Atmosphere is nice, exploration is decent. Also, I'm playing the Uki version off GOG, and the localization's pretty good, and translates the book elements well. Stealth sections are pretty fun after Thi4f, and knifing gangsters is cool, although trying to knife the monsters is not nearly as good.

EDIT: about 3 hours more played. I found a 4-barrel shotgun, which one-shots mutants (and most people). That's kind of a game-breaking weapon so far.
The story goes off the book rails once you find Khan. Very quickly it starts being Reds vs Reich with either side lacking nuance while Artyom just stealths/shoots his way through (in the book, Artyom was totally ignorant of their history/ideology and had to learn and make up his mind by being on their respective stations and observing how they treated other people). Since I found a way over the Reich station and avoided most shooting, my interactions with them so far boiled down to basically doing an extended turret section. Got my second trip to the surface next.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 12 February 2019 - 05:53 PM

[Aptorian]

I platinumed AC Odyssey the other day and finished the first DLC episode.

First platinum I'd gotten on PS4.

Odyssey is only a "good game" but I had a ton of fun murdering people in the game. It's funny. In Origins, I was sniping enemies from a far 90% of the time. In Odyssey I was assasinating everyone 90% of the time. It was incredibly satisfying murderizing whole castles full of people with out being seen.

Though the game has some good characters the story is hot garbage. Still, if they continue down this route the games might eventually become memorable.

[acesn8s]

Since finishing The Last of Us, I've gone back to The Witcher 3 and I'm working on the DLCs. Combat has gotten more difficult, I may have to respec my character. I'm also short on cash and materials to Master Craft all the Witcher gear. I think after this, I'll go back to finish The Last of Us DLC. Heck, I've still got the HZD DLC waiting as well. I'm good for a few weeks easy.

[Malankazooie]

Oh man, the Blood and Wine expansion is sooooooo worth it! Damn, I wish I was playing if for the first time. Lucky! Have fun mate, cheers!

[Morgoth]

Blood and wine is amazing!

[Mentalist]

Finished "Metro 2033" . The book was better. Started tonight's session from the Library, and honestly? That was probably the best part of the game. The final section... I wasted so many tries trying to climb up beams inside the tower, when all along, there was a ladder right behind me.

I also miss the cannibals. Dropping that entire plot line made things even more simplistic.

Moving on to "Last Light"

[Maark Abbott]

Mostly grinding on Shoujo Sensen at the moment because we have Arctic Warfare drop on Tuesday and it's a three week event. Whilst I'm ready in the general sense, I also need to clear up to Map 9 because there are daily limited drops (4 per chapter per day) that you get from clearing any one map in said chapter (so I could do 1-1 four times for ez drops). So the plan is do E1-1 to E1-4, E2-1 to E2-4 and then farm E3-1 four times because no way in fuck am I gonna be able to complete the full event in one sitting. It's too long.

And as the event for me really starts in the evening, I'm gonna have to really bust my ass at it. Still, should be fun. And I can finally start grinding for Hoxy!

[Mentalist]

Did about 6 hours of Last Light yesterday. The levels are better designed for stealth this time around, but at one point I started getting a ton of CTDs for no apparent reason.

The story's alright. Basically just a bunch of politics and Artyom being dumb and gullible. It's a bit frustrating to pick out nice guns only to have him get captured and lose said guns. But I'm rocking a silenced Kalash and a 6-round long-barrel shotgun, both with night vision scopes and this combo totally rocks on Ranger difficulty. Also, having someone explain to me how to fights the scorpion spiders was brilliant. In 2033 I spent all my bullets fighting one of those right before D6, so I was catastrophically short on ammo for the last few set pieces. Having someone explain to me that I have to shine a light on them until they go belly-up and THEN you shoot them was a godsend.

Game's still creepy AF, but overall, quite decent.

EDIT: crashes persisted until I launched in safe mode. Had smooth sailing since- up to the Swamp now. Got the hang of aiming throwing knives w/o the crosshairs, so stealth is even easier now. Also, guns got laser sights now, so shooting time is bestest it ever was.

But running out of air in the swamp is still an issue. Watching the boss shrimp get distracted from killing me by a demon was amazing though - 2 tough enemies it'd take me waaay too long to try to kill going at each other. It was pretty great.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 21 January 2019 - 05:55 AM

[Serenity]

I've got three games on the go at the moment.

My main one is Dragon Quest XI on pc, which I'm nearly 40 hours into, much further along than I initially got on the PS4. It's so much fun, full of charm and humour, really relaxing to play. Plus it's gorgeous to look at. Wonderful game.

I've been using the Switch in handheld for late night sessions on Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition. Really enjoying it.

Lastly, Dragon Quest IV on 3DS, which I'm playing during my lunch breaks at work, and love it. The DQ games are really hitting the spot for me at the moment, so I'll probably gradually work my way through all of them on 3DS from IV onwards (excluding X, which is a Japan-only MMO).

Oh, make it four games - me and a mate have started a co-op campaign on Divinity Original Sin 2, which is going to take forever as we only play a couple of hours a week.

[Maark Abbott]

Mentalist, on 20 January 2019 - 06:04 PM, said:

a demon

Bitches.

[Mentalist]

Maark Abbott, on 21 January 2019 - 01:51 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 20 January 2019 - 06:04 PM, said:

a demon

Bitches.

They're manageable in Last Light. And you get to shoot one in the face towards the end of 2033.

[Maark Abbott]

Mentalist, on 21 January 2019 - 04:27 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 21 January 2019 - 01:51 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 20 January 2019 - 06:04 PM, said:

a demon

Bitches.

They're manageable in Last Light. And you get to shoot one in the face towards the end of 2033.

I didn't play 2033 past the bit where Bourbon got captured. Too frustrating for me - couldn't sneak through and enemies had night vision accuracy so whenever I was inevitably spotted it was GG.

Arctic Warfare dropping today. Talvisota time boys!

[Maark Abbott]

Whew, the Architect boss fight in AW is actually pretty hard. First wipe on a boss I've experienced!

To demonstrate why, we need a numpad to notate with (as we do in fighting games).

So you've got your tiles of

789
456
123

What makes Architect such a dickhead is that she attacks your backline (741, DPS units) and then does one of two AOE attacks - one is a + shape, the other is a nine tile square.

So even if you spread your units out and position at 79513, she'll hit all of them inescapably. And it fucking hurts. Like, real SOVIET damage hurts. And before you can start attacking her you have to clear trash mobs which do hefty damage of their own.

The rest of the event is generally kind of easy - Gager was too easy of a boss in my opinion. But it gives me a chance to farm for Five-seven (Hoxy) at least.

[Aptorian]

Just finished Uncharted 4.

Phenomenal game with a heart warming ending. I can already see several ways they could continue the Uncharted series without having to bring Nathan Drake out of retirement.

I think the series showed it's age with a bit too many drawn out climbing and shooting segments that makes the pacing uneven, on the other hand nobody else are making games quite like this now. Well, I guess there's still Gears.

Can't wait to play the Lost Legacy but first I have Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and Nier: Automata lined up.

This post has been edited by Alternative Goose: 26 January 2019 - 01:30 PM