I was not sure if to buy the only expansion that CP2077 was going to have, but some early comments were hinting at many really main game improvements, plus of course compelling new expansion content, and I decided to give it a try. I can't recommend enough to play the game with the expansion; The 2.0 game patch fixed so many issues and reworked core systems like combat, crafting, the skill trees, vehicle driving, police system... Everything works way better now, way more like you would expect from the original game.
And the expansion blends in perfectly with the main game. Most of its content is in a previously closed area, but a few quests and mechanics "go outside". Fantastic voice acting and music, great 3D modelling and new maps... everything is as high quality as the main game, allowing you now to have 5 different endings (one is secret).
I went on and started from scratch a new game, and unlocked 3 more endings. In fact, I unlocked all achievements with the except of the secret ending, which requires an early expansion decision and I wasn't willing to replay a third time most of the game... for now.
I got the Director's Cut version in a sale. It required some tweaks due to being a frankenstein-mixture of the normal PC version and the Wii U port, but after the tweaking, I enjoyed a pleasant and flawless experience, including the DLC episode (not too badly injected in the main story). The game maps feel tiny now in comparison with open worlds (and makes you like even more Cyberpunk 2077), but the variety of choices are still great.
Not much news, it's costing me a bit to advance, as I remember fragments of the quests and story from the past. But for now, I haven't given up.
One of the main reasons why Dragon Age does not advance 😃. I decided it was time to get it this xmas... and oh boy, such an incredible and complex game (at equal parts). Everything feels like an adventure on itself, but the learning curve is also so steep that I spend half of the time searching and reading how to do X or Y.
It is the ultimate micro-management procedural game, but I miss more in-game tutorials or explanations. Still, I think is remarkable the level of detail you find everywhere, from combat to humanoid and animal personalities, and the events that happen. I like a lot the 2D pixel-art graphics, but the main thing stopping me in the past from trying the ASCII version was the keyboard-based UI, and the Steam version is quite good (not perfect, but probably due to how complex the game systems are).
As I gather information and read guides and find tools, I thought would be nice to keep track of them, so I've added a dedicated Dwarf Fortress page to the blog.
This game is a poor Fallout-in-space. Without other cool space shooters, Mass Effect and No Man's Sky, it would have been good, but comparisons are inevitable, and it fails at every single one of them.
So I'll just wait until either the company improves it a lot, or mods get good enough.
Tags: Videogames
By far, my game of the year. Such an incredible game, with so many mechanics, at first a bit too similar to Tears of the Kingdom, but soon you notice all the new and improved mechanics, and details, and new maps, and the myriad of weapon combinations, and vehicle building... It's huge, really huge.
Also, is a game you enjoy more without spoilers, simply arriving from having played Zelda BOTW [1] and continuing the story. You'll naturally learn all the new things along the way. After all, this is Nintendo, and they are the masters of guiding players and smoothing the learning curves (while keeping a high peak!).
I picked the official game guide just to have a big checklist of all the things I want to do. Because the numbers are staggering: 3 maps, dozens of main quests, combined hundreds of side-quests + side-adventures + shrine-quests + similar, 152 shrines, 1000 koroks (collectible the golden poo-like objects)... I finished the game at around 90 gameplay hours, with ~90 shrines done. At the time of writing this post, I'm at 112 shrines and +110 hours, and lots of things to do and secondary quests to finish. It is immense.
Sadly, my disappointment of the year. I was expecting more Diablo III, maybe with a fair amount of repetition, but also quasi-endless replayability. Instead, what we got was a game that sits in between an MMORPG and Diablo III, kind of picking the worst of both. The lack of random dungeons or enemies (each map zone and dungeon has fixed enemy types), combined with a significant amount of required grinding and a semi-broken difficulty level system [2], makes the game boring once you pass the story and reach around level 60 or so.
I said that I could probably play this title for years. Well, after just two months, I instead got too tired, and felt that the Seasonal system is really badly implemented (lots of grinding with almost no new mechanics, and really bad "free" rewards). And I've noticed that either you endlessly play nightmare dungeons (remember, no randomness, so always the same bosses and enemies and maps) or you just stop playing. So I chose to do the later until an expansion or significant patch comes out.
I had high hopes for this one, but I was reluctant to pre-order it without having seen the final result. I'm happy for not having picked any fancy edition, but I am playing it, and I feel... kind of sad.
It feels like a good game, but nowhere what the hype sold us about an amazing space adventure. Starfield feels more like "Fallout 4 in space". Same mechanics, some additions (like space-combat), different setting... but still clearly an improved version of the same engine, and at times too familiar to Fallout or Elder Scrolls players. Also, some of the new systems or changes to existing ones feel quite patchy:
In any case, I might try to at least finish the main quest storyline, but this is a game that needs months of patching and community mods to aspire of becoming "great".
At first while waiting for Starfield, and now mostly because of it, I decided to begin with the Dragon Age trilogy. I had played a few hours before, but long ago, so I restarted. At times I remember too well what's going to happen, but I hope to reach the point where I left it (which I don't even remember exactly!).
Anyway, it's a nice Bioware-syle game, my beloved Star Wars: KOTOR system with a fantasy setting. Graphically begins to feel very outdated, but the writing/dialog is soo good; It is so fun to listen the conversations between the party members (often they don't think alike, and just tag along because of you), entertaining to solve some quests in different ways (this is a game where persuasion/intimidation opens new choices), and the story so far is a bit typical and kind of predictable, but good enough to make you push forward, and a good excuse to allow you to solve situations in different ways (including malevolent and violent ones).
[1] Although I recommend not playing both just one after the other. Take your time, because TOTK requires a lot time.
[2] At least with some classes, you'll transition from being under-powered to over-powered in the current tier quickly, but then need to rely on Nightmare Dungeons to level up decently and improve gear, until you can properly play in the next tier. I soloed the Tier 4 unlock dungeon at level 66, but Tier 4 enemies are level 75+, so until I reached level 70 couldn't even fight normal enemies.
Tags: Videogames
Again no painting nor boardgaming.
I planned to buy Games Workshop's Lion El'Jonson primarch miniature, but their greed made it impossible, by only offering a limited edition (with some extra minis) that went away as soon as it went online. So I'll wait until the normal edition comes out, whenever that happens (GW an amazing company but at times totally careless about their customers).
Let's go on with the video gaming updates:
To be honest, I finished this title a while ago, but decided to play it a bit more before starting with the second part (whith I put on hold, for various reasons).
It is a small gem: A roguelite that is partly a "choose your adventure" game, partly a card game, with a big amount of luck/randomness, and bits of arcade when you fight enemies and bosses. The premise is that you are a warrior that will play a very dangerous game with a "dungeon master", having all sorts of adventures, choices to make, and dying (a lot), all meanwhile you unlock better cards to potentially use in your next attempt.
It can get a bit repetitive at the end, when you've unlocked most cards and basically depend on luck and some bits of strategy to reach the last levels not only alive but well equipped, but the storytelling, the voice acting, and the atmosphere is awesome.
Meanwhile I waited for Diablo IV, I picked up some similar action RPGs with isometric view, and Chaosbane was the first one I went with. While not terrible, you will soon notice the medium-budget aura. Mechanics are not too varied (a few feel half-done/unfinished), maps are very repetitive, and in general there's not much incentive to play it once you finish the campaign once, because you will face almost the same content, with no randomness.
Still, if picked in some sale is fun for a few hours.
Another action-RPG, this one with more budget than Chaosbane (but still not a Triple-A title). Wolcen is... a bit disappointing. It begins nicely, but has too many ups and downs: in the story, in the gameplay, in the graphics (why some characters are so taller that you feel puny?)... It is not bad per-se, and I mostly enjoyed going through the campaign. But instead of keeping and keeping playing, even with some curious end-game rogue-lite mechanics, I "shelved it" as soon as I finished, wanting to move on to another game.
Again, good if picked in a sale.
Diablo is back. When I write a bit below about the only title I have in progress, I can only say that I was happy that Zelda TOTK was released a few weeks earlier than Diablo 4; That way, I could enjoy both, as now Diablo is eating most of my free time.
While to me feels way better than Diablo 2, and in some mechanics also than Diablo 3, D3 is still a superior and more polished title. D4 feels... rushed out. The campaign is a bit too long, with some fragments a bit boring (while others are great), the game has been transitioned to a kind of lite-MMORPG, with tons of very similar side quests and an open-world map at times repetitive...
But my biggest issue is the voice acting: Diablo titles never had the best voice acting outside the main characters, but in D4, it feels like they spent most of the budget in Lorath, Lilith and a few other voices, and 90% of the remaining ones have quite noticeable accents, giving the game a feeling of being lower budget than it really is.
As usual also with all the series titles, except maybe the first one, male characters excepting the Barbarian are "too emo" or ugly, so after levelling a male sorcerer to 52, I decided to start again with a female necromancer (drow-like appearance, really cool).
By the time of this writing, I've already finished twice the campaign and I'm enjoying the "end game" content (where really most of the content resides, except videos!). We'll see how the seasons work, and how Blizzard updates with some free content, apart from confirmed paid expansions, but the loot formula is there and working wonders (most of my friends are also playing it).
Considering that I put hundreds of hours in Diablo 3, plus some unmeasured (but not small) amount in the first two titles, looks like a game I'll be playing for years.
Although I haven't finished it yet, after more than 70 hours of gameplay, in my eyes the new Zelda is the game of the year for 2023.
"Bigger, faster, better" is the TL;DR. Same world, but with notable changes. Same 3D engine, but pushed this time to the limits of the Nintendo Switch. Similar familiarity if you have played Breath of the Wild, but new at the same time...
I won't spoil anything about the game, other than it begins just a bit after where BOTW ended, that the new magic abilities are between cool and amazing (the ultrahand/"glue" is simply mind-blowing), and that now the game has three maps: air, land and underworld.
If you want to know more go and check some review, or watch one of the official trailers, but if you have a Switch, this is an even more must-have title than Zelda: BOTW was.
See you back once I'm done with Hyrule (and more Sanctuary)!
Tags: Videogames
Almost no painting and no boardgaming, so I'll focus on RPG and adventure videogames.
I picked this title in a sale, and was a pleasant surprise. Despite some rough edges, repeating mechanics and still some weird character faces (the game features a lot of procedurally generated content, but has improved from the initial release), story-wise it felt different and refreshing, and I enjoyed a lot some of the teammates and their side-quests.
You also get to visit quite a few worlds with nice variety and great level design, and being a different story helps to provide different adventures. There are also quite a few boring "filler" quests, But there is enough content and pseudo-mini-games that I registered more than 50 hours before the ending.
Highly recommended for Mass Effect fans, as for now there's nothing else in the horizon.
I wanted to revisit commander Sheppard's adventures, so I also got the Legendary Edition trilogy with a nice discount, and, after ME Andromeda, decided to replay the first title (for the 3rd or 4th time). Despite of the graphical improvements, it begins to feel the weight of time, especially regarding scenarios: Most non-critical side-quests reuse even the same maps with different generic prop placements; the scenarios feel big and vast but really empty; and the Mako sections (a land vehicle you drive and shoot from) have improved but are still dull and become really boring by the end of the game.
And yet, story-wise is still awesome, as it is playing as a purely evil character (a "renegade"), solving most situations in a badass but funny way, often involving fighting. Later titles became less appealing in regards to the main story, although secondary quests were the best I can remember; ME1 originated everything and it still feels to me like one of those classic sci-fi movies that you can re-watch from time to time, never getting tired.
Ongoing, slowly progressing as I read tiny bits of initial strategies and learned that my initial world seed was not very too good, but thankfully you can travel "between worlds". So I could move the character and inventory to a more suitable one, with more varied biomes, more terrain, and less tiny island-like.
The setting of the game is really good, but at the beginning the "survival" part is your real challenge. And I'm loving the norse mythology vibes.
Dreading the insanely long previous playtimes to feel you are advancing, I don't know why I almost parked this title. Well, actually I also think that the heavily scottish-like accents, while not new to the series, had something to do. They are very noticeable because the first hours involve a lot of talking between many different characters, many of them with the accent. Plus some weird stuff that I don't yet know what it means (no spoilers).
Still, pushing my way through slowly as I guess the remaining folks I'll meet will be more "generic English" voiced. It will probably be my main RPG target for the following months as I'm eager for the story and how it fits with the previous titles.
As if one survival game (Valheim) wasn't enough, I went and picked another one! Also just began playing it so it's still early to form a reliable opinion. Your first steps are quite hard (dying of thirst, hunger, or killed by any human I find), and so far I've been just learning to survive, and chopping trees and rocks to be able to build a (tiny) house. Everything requires a lot of materials and breaks so soon!
The hugely varied crafting system is what lured me into this title, so let's see how it evolves. It also looks to contain a huge world to explore.
Just began playing this one. Planning to take it slowly, as I like the movies and world lore but I'm not a real Potterhead.
Tags: Videogames
It took me time, but I finished J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. II - The Two Towers. The first one looked quite similar to the movies, while this second instalment departs at times quite noticeably from the movies and books (at least what I remember of them). I directly went to use a guide, and while I enjoyed the back and forth between the multiple storylines and you can feel that the game engine now was known and better used (more battles, bigger maps), it felt weaker than the first title.
Unpopular opinion: I abandoned the game. I feel the lore and plot is just a spaghetti of miscellaneous concepts with a thin thread keeping most of them together, and the game demands too much of my time only to enjoy. I love pouring hours in games I have fun with (nearing 200h in Zelda BOTW, hundreds at each Diablo game, etcetera), but I don't enjoy being punished and sometimes cheap-killed frequently. So after 30h of gameplay, just shelved it. Not for me.
After having finished it a few times in Playstation 2 and once in the Nintendo Switch, now I have it on PC and also have finished it once 😆
I've loved medieval history since I was a child, so the early nineties franchise Castles offering me a chance to build and maintain castles "the way I liked" was so appealing. I went and played one campaign of each, and re-watched all the Castles II documentary videos, although the video compression is quite ugly nowadays.
I love how Ubi Soft try to respect history, while twisting details to simplify gameplay. In AC Valhalla you will notice it more frequently because the vikings were all but peaceful folks, so you can do viking raids but they are a decaffeinated version (mostly focused on combat and looting). Still they are a nice addition, and the boat travels, fights and all-things-related feel amazing.
What got me tired of the game is the usual Ubi Soft mechanics: You have so many primary quests, secondary quests, optional quests, side-quests, fetch quests, treasure quests and who-knows-what-else quests, that you burnout easily, because in the end gameplay mechanics are what they are: An assassin jumping, sneaking and killing people. So after around 40h, the game tells me I have finished barely around 30%, so I need to to take a break before I abandon it permanently.
It is really amazing visually, and fun to play, it simply gets tiring and should be smaller in missions scope.
The third instalment came out on Nintendo Switch, so I'm slowly warming up to pour in the dozens of hours that each new title in the saga takes. The beginning is a bit slow, but it is too early and fans of the series praise the plot so let's see what awaits!
More Nordic mythology reading, plus stopping playing AC: Valhalla made me crave for some other "viking themed game". I visited a videogame museum that mentioned the early access title Valheim, and I already had my sights on it, so decided to purchase it and play. It is a survival crafting game (but with a purpose and I think a real ending if you pursue the plot), so I'm still struggling to survive in my small fenced house, while I improve my skills and learn how to craft better tools and equipment to face my first enemy boss, but the game is really fun: you need to build the houses following the old nordic ways, having a fire inside to keep you warm but at the same time letting the smoke go out (or you will choke), structures have weight and pressure, and the pixelated textures 3D engine is actually quite pleasing visually.
On the boardgames side, me and my partner began playing some not too complex boardgames from time to time, so I decided to purchase a very simple dungeon crawler, Karak. We've played a few games and, while it indeed has simple mechanics, is really easy to get into and fun for everyone.
Tags: Videogames