It didn’t occur to me that Steam would do this, but I’m pleased to know this information.
It doesn’t surprise me that I’ve spent so much time with V Rising. I’ve been really enjoying it as a podcast game. I’m months behind Never Not Funny, and this game is great for that.
I’m still playing it too! I just got to a new biome. I’m weirdly excited by it.
I played Midnight Suns at the start of the year. That’s a great game too! I may go back to it. I never finished the story.
Balatro is really quite fun. Sometimes you just get a fun deck, and then you lose, and the deck goes away. Ah well.
It may be unfair to call them balancing issues so early into the game. Maybe it’s normal to struggle with stuff at level three. Needed even, so that you can see how strong you’re getting.
I was throwing myself at Beira of the Rotten Pack for a while and not getting anywhere.
Then a few things happen: I realise that I can buy a few items from the shop to get considerably stronger, and I find some caves which level me up and the Devourer inside drops my first skill gems.
Buying stuff of the shop isn’t something I remember doing ever in PoE I. Random loot drops were enough. But it seems loot drops aren’t as common in PoE II, at least not right at the start.
Now, instead of Beira being a soulslike, twitchy combat encounter, I just stand there and tank all her blasts whilst shooting with my arrows. Easy.
I got Balatro on my phone after Justin McElroy mentioned that it was in the App Store now. I’d heard the gang talk about it on Besties for a while and thought I’d like it, but knew it was a phone game for me. Not something I’d feel happy about sitting at my computer playing, like idle games.
Anyway, it’s quite fun! It takes up any amount of time I want it to, from bus rides (making a teeny minute bus ride feel like three minutes) to waiting for the kettle to boil. The game state saves in the background and there’s no real context loss from putting it down for a few days.
The gameplay loop is very tight, with a good number of larger loops within it. Even the individual hands (selecting cards and then playing them) is a fun, tiny loop. It certainly can be addictive if you have that personality type.
Outside of the hands, there’s the “rounds” where you have to decide if discarding and hoping for a good hand or playing a crummy hand and being happy with that. You have limited discards and limited hands you can play, and they’re both resources to manage.
Outside of rounds you spend the money you’ve won to improve your deck. Maybe increasing the score multiplier you get from playing a Pair or adding another Ace to your deck or another Joker.
The YouTube scene around Balatro is huge too. Watching the weird hands and decks that the streamers are playing makes me feel like I’m playing the game wrong though. How are they managing to convert all their deck into Kings? It sometimes feels like I’ve still mechanics to unlock, but progressing is difficult.
Okay, after fixing a few WordPress issues, I’m immediately back to try again.
On the recommendation of a wise friend, I’ve switched to ranger. The ranger does not have the weird, stunted ammo firing issue. They feel much more natural for me to play.
After even just a few moments playing, the Ranger feels much more powerful. The wolves aren’t getting anywhere near close to me before they die. With the Merc, I was running around between every shot. Of course, I’m right at the begining of the game so balance probably isn’t much of a concern, but it’s odd how much more powerful the Ranger feels.
I’m definitely suffering from some network issues. Sometimes I’m sure I’ve clicked a skill at the right time, and the game doesn’t register it. Early Access jitters, maybe? I know the servers are quite busy at the moment.
It seems that flasks don’t refill on kill any more. That seems like a huge change to the game. Many more trips back to town to go to the well? The tooltip says it recharges by killing monster, but I’m not seeing that happening.
There’s no “put all currency into stash” button. I have to drag each item individually into the correct slot. That’s wild. What’s the point of the Affinities? I’m assuming I’m doing something wrong here. Update: It’s control+click.
A game I’ve been playing an awful lot of recently is V Rising. In that game, you often have to keep throwing yourself against a bad guy until you’ve nailed down their attack sequences and the correct way to dodge.
It feels like PoE II might be the same thing. I’m very under powered right now, but I’m getting close enough to killing the icy-hag-that-ressurects-wolves that I feel like I just need to be a bit better before I can actually do it. That’s a fun feeling.
I’m off to bed now, but will certainly be back to play this soon.
Hello. I literally just started playing Path of Exile 2, after chipping in £23 to get the early access.
I chose the Mercinary because he was shown using ranged weapons, and I’m usually more accurate with those – I get annoyed with having to chase around the battlefield as a melee character. Mostly though, I chose him because of his arms. Look at those bad boys.
I’m about five minutes in and I’m wondering if this game will be too hard for me. I’m not a very good gamer.
I’m a bit nervous about my QWERT skills modifying my mouse skills. That’s a lot of skills to remember.
Also, keeping track of bullets will be a bit frustrating too. They’re in the bottom-right of the screen, and usually my eyes are in the middle of the screen.
Lets see – I’ll report back after playing for maybe six minutes. By then I can give a rock solid review.
A few minutes later.
