This is a rogue-lite puzzle game, where you pick what’s going to be in the next room as you’re entering it (like Hades). You collect items which help you do slightly different things each run. There’s no combat and you can leave the game sitting there are ages whilst you eat some lunch and come back to find it exactly as you left it, even unpaused. It’s a very good podcast game, with the occaisional puzzles which might require you to pause to pay slightly more attention.
Like all these “play and play again” games, it’s slightly different each run through. A new thing is added each time you start, so the feeling of “just one more round” is very present.
Tonight was the third session (which included two cidres, so bear with me) of Stellaris, playing with some friends in the same game.
The first two sessions I was madly clicking around. The game happens so fast, and there’s so much going on. I was randomly clicking research and just throwing buildings onto planets.
This session, I thought I was about to lose, so decided to take it slower and try to claw something back.
It’s getting better for me!
Since I was randomly selection research, there were loads of very low point research projects for me to do. I think I’ve caught up a bit because of that. I’ve paid more attention to the perks of each leader. Fine tuned things. Doing well, I hope.
Tonight our normal DM was away from the table, so another of the group ran a Pathfinder one-shot that shocking took on session!
I ended up making a Chapion for it. In the course of trying to figure out what magic items he should have I came up with a long backstory for him, with mini adventures along the way. One included a roll in the hay with a sea witch that she was so pleased with she gifted him a necromancied horse. Wonderful.
So this is a fun game, but I’m not sure how long for.
I just closed it down thinking “ah, maybe that’s enough”. Which isn’t a bad thing for a game but… I might have had my fill after my third playing session.
It’s using the same engine as Oxygen Not Included, which if you enjoyed and want it shaken up a bit, then you should play this. It did get me thinking: why build this game though? They’re still releasing updates to Oxygen Not Included. I think it’s because ONI just got too complicated. Too many systems that it’s getting harder to build on top of.
I can imagine the developers, in a meeting, saying “if we deleted 50% of the code base we could add in loads more interesting mechanics to the engine”. That isn’t a bad thing! However, there’s no many new mechanics. It’s very true to ONI’s gameplay.
I’ve not run into a situation, like in ONI, where I’ve made a crucial mistaken ten hours in and the only solution is to start again. (No one accidentally vomits in your fresh water supply in this game.)
My own impatience is one of the worst things about this game though, which is the same as ONI. I’ll find myself waiting for the various tasks I’ve queued up to get done. I need some wood, so I’m just waiting for it to get chopped. Or waiting for the fog to come in, so I can send it back, and get a refreshed resource pool.
I can’t get the frigging roofs to do as I want, so I’m really not show to I’m supposed to be making these “wonky” rooms.
This game is in the same genre of Obra Dinn, where you’re given a manifest to fill out (in this case a family tree) and a whole load of information that needs to be dug through to fill out.
The mysterious quest giver starts you off with some information, and then you’re left with your available tools to find out more: a text lookup service (the “Internet”), a book lookup service, and magazine archives to look through. It’s a lot of reading compared to Obra Dinn’s videos, but I’m having fun with it so far.
Don’t zoom in too much: there are spoilers for the first hour or so on the cork board.
I’m playing this with my partner actually. We’re both reading along and coming up with theories. I’m foreseeing a few discussions on what second-cousins-twice-removed are.
The soundtrack is pretty cool too. A nice jazzy number.
I’ve been playing a bit of Cyberpunk 2077 again the past week, after not playing since it came out.
Before I was able to play on a pretty high graphics spec. Recently though, I realised that my monitor was ancient (not upgraded when my computer was) and was only running at 1080p. Which I’ve been happy with for a while, but is not ideal for programming on which is something I do rarely from this workstation but enough to be snagged by it when I do.
Anyway, I got a much higher res monitor, and that can’t run the game as such high settings. So I’ve had to come to a balance of not-max-resolution and mostly-decent settings. The screen size increase is quite nice though.
I took this screenshot using the Photo feature of the game. That’s quite full featured and fun! However, it saved the image to my ‘gallery’ and I’ve no idea where that is. I took a screenshot. :shrug:
It’s been years since I’ve played WoW, and still this quest giver thinks I’ve been quick.
I really loved World of Warcraft for a while. I definitely feel the sense of chasing the dragon. This character, for instance, I clearly created it barely got out the starting area, and got bored. Not to return for a year or two.
Full disclosure: I play Spelunky as a ‘Podcast game’ – that’s the collection I’ve added it to in Steam. So, almost all the time, I’m paying more attention to Never Not Funny than I am the game.
However, I still keep coming back to it because I feel like that might be the best way to play it. If I play for a few minutes, I definitely end up in a state where playing becomes natural and instinctive.
I’ve been treating this game like a Nethack game, where looking up the guidebook is considered ‘spoilers’ (in a way where no one actually cares). So, I’m still surprised by things happening. Even though I’ve barely got to the ‘cold’ area that my last death hinted at.
The pickaxe doesn’t last forever. I thought I had solved the game. But it only last a few whacks – which I completely wasted – before breaking.
The egyptian eye thing will go blue sometimes, showing the way to an early exit. I’ve never had this happen before even though I’ve often got this item.
You can’t jump-kill the red flowers. It should have been obvious from their art, but they just eat you.
Your lover has lives, which you may as well use. If you run headfirst into a bad guy whilst holding the dude you’re rescuing, they’ll take the hit rather than you.
The climbing gloves are surprisingly jarring. After learning how jumping works, having an item that changes that is really odd. Same for the spring boots.
Killing the bees is well worth it. The big one has a bunch of lives that it gives!
