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Mycelia Board Game Review

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River Wild Board Game Review

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Outback Crossing Review

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What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

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29 Aug 2022 12:02 #335297 by Rliyen
Spent time between playing video games and Xenoshyft: Onslaught. Man, playing that game is punch yourself in the balls punishing, but I love it.

So, I cleared off some more achievements. First was Skyhill, a post-apoc point and click. In Omega Man/I am Legend fashion, you are the sole survivor in a hotel after WW3. Object of the game is to go down 100 floors to get to the bottom and escape. There's crafting, mutants, and intermittent fixing of the elevator, so you can fast travel down and up to the VIP room. The last achievement was beating the game on hardcore. After so many tries, I got lucky and made it down. All achievements unlocked. Time to remove off my system and move on to another. I will never play this game again, because it's just not fun and that the game essentially cheats. You get a good streak of hits? Too bad, you'll miss to let the mutant have the chance to rip your face off. Getting beaten like a red headed stepchild? Fine. We'll let you hit the mutant. The system was to provide "balance" as to not to make the game easy. Screw that.

The next game I played a lot was Skyshine's BEDLAM . A post-apocalyptic strategy game that has themes from BSG and The Road Warrior. The object is to defeat King Viscera (think Lord Humungus) and reach Aztec City, a new place for humanity to live. You start with a wasteland RV, a group of warriors, 1,500 citizens, some meat and crude, and then you're summarily booted out into the wasteland. There's two modes: Campaign and Arcade, with Arcade being stripped down from the Campaign setting and the way you collect resources is different. Most times, you run into an encounter and various things happen, but mostly it's combat. That's where your warriors come in.

They come in 4 types: Snipers, Frontliners, Shotgunners, and Pistolers. Snipers do a lot of damage, but move slowly. Frontliners act like mobile cover and melee units. Shotgunners have short range, but do decent damage and can propel enemies back if you hit them short range. Pistolers are a jack of all trades, decent movement, range, damage. Their main ability is to shoot any bastard that hurts them if they are within range. So, they have a rock-scissors-paper style of play. Snipers are slow, so are vulnerable to all types, but they have the longest range. Team them up with frontliners and their survivability goes up. Shotgunners are good against frontliners because of their knock back ability. As units in this game do more damage if they don't move before they attack, this is always helpful to put distance between you and your enemy. Pistolers are a happy medium as they do retaliatory strikes to all units save the sniper, as their range is too short to hit them. Warriors gain experience after every 3 kills, so you can better their movement, damage, or hit points.

Needless to say, the game is beyond hard. It starts off easy, and then the difficulty ramps up. More enemies that do more damage and have more hit points. Your warriors are not the only weapon in your quiver-your RV can also help! Hit them with a tac nuke, throw noxious byproducts from the vehicle to cause the enemies to get drunk and attack their friends, and things of that nature. Those abilities come at a cost of power cells, meat, or fuel. At the end, you'll be hard pressed not having warriors die.

Fortunately, I got a string of good luck in aracade mode, and won. Unlocked several achievements in doing so, as well as a new vehicle to use. I have one achievement left to make, but even after I do it, I'll still play this since this is a great challenge for me.

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30 Aug 2022 09:37 #335309 by Legomancer
Finished Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. This is from a Twitter thread I posted about it:

last night I finished Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. some no-spoiler thoughts. I'm a huge R&C fan going back to the original and really enjoyed the last game.

As always it's a lot of fun. The new characters are great and I'd happily play spinoffs with them. A lot of fun humor and goofiness

I actually played on normal difficulty instead of dialing down the combat. not too easy, not too tough. final battle was rough but only took a few tries

however, this game felt VERY scaled back. Short...fewer planets to visit than before, and smaller maps on those planets.

You start the game with swingshot, grindboots, mag shoes, respirator. you're never without them. so there's no doubling back to planets to get to new areas. that's a huge loss to the gameplay.

you get very few new gadgets along the way as well, so again, no doubling back to previously inaccessible areas, making the world even smaller

still a lot of fun weapons, but not a whole lot of time to really play around with them. I was not able to fully upgrade them all, which is part of the fun. even the arena battles weren't too difficult and didn't provide much help in this area

and cutscenes...a LOT of cutscenes. including a few where I wondered why I wasn't playing this instead of just watching it.

Plot was pretty standard, and "new" bad guy was fine though very cliched. Would help to get some new baddies here. They thankfully avoided a specific cliche I was dreading was going to happen. Ending was kind of abrupt, but that's fine.

all in all, I enjoyed the game but it felt very rushed. I don't know if this is the case, but it *felt* like "we need to have this done for the PS5 launch so don't go nuts with it".

A minor issue: the enhanced graphics are okay, but having everything rendered at the same high level means it's often unclear what is "real" and what is "background". Can I jump to that rock or not? It's not easy to tell.

So while I had fun, and I did have fun, there was a big sense that I was mainly playing a tech showcase. And look, I played the shit out of Astro's Playroom, but I didn't pay fitty bucks for it.

I'd give it a B-/C+. The other R&C games set a high level and this one felt small and rushed by comparison.

oh! oh! In lieu of the lock puzzles, there's a virus-removing element. it's very cute, but it's also very moving around and shooting, so more of what you're already doing. the lock puzzles were often frustrating, so I'm not sure where this falls for me

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06 Sep 2022 08:48 #335420 by Legomancer
I'm playing Horizon Zero Dawn now. I bounced off this in 2018 but I'm having a good enough time with it at the moment. My PS5 came with the sequel so I'm trying the original.

Unfortunately I'm now stuck in a "tutorial" mission in which I have to kill multiple enemies with a single shot from this bomb thrower weapon. It's to teach me how to use the weapon. The thing is, the weapon is absolute shit. Aiming it is a crapshoot, as it's impossible to tell where it's going to land, even with the aiming arc. It never goes where I think it's going. Also it's weak as fuck, so killing 2 with one shot is nearly impossible, even with low level enemies. You have to weaken two of them with other means and then hope they get next to each other so that this dumb thing's 3" blast radius can get them both, but usually one goes down and then you're fucked. I would never use this stupid thing except I apparently need it for a different mission.

Sure, I can ignore this tutorial mission but then I will have an UNCOMPLETED MISSION in my task like and that will not do. So I'm stuck with it. I have to do it three times and I've done it twice after MUCH effort, so hopefully it's almost over. This is the damn parking garage from Driver all over again.
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06 Sep 2022 09:37 - 06 Sep 2022 09:38 #335421 by lj1983
Halo: Infinite

I had stopped mid-way in the campaign a while back. but with 343 announcing that they cancelled split screen coop, the community has discovered a glitch to run split screen anyway. you need to have someone else online, idling in the halo menus. You load a save, join their fireteam while the map is loading (which is pretty quick on the series X). joining the fireteam cancels the game load. then you leave the fireteam, go to custom game and select "offline" for server type. Add your other players locally and voila!, you have local 4-player coop.

First time we loaded, we kept spawning on top of each other and dying. Second time, the game thought we were "outside the battlefield boundaries" and killed us after a countdown. but third time (and pretty consistently since) it's worked pretty well.

and co-op Halo is still great. Open-worldish, coop halo is great. the movement and shooting 'feel' is still among the best in the business. Since it's not 'officially' supported, there are glitches that pop up. The save it loads (since all the profiles playing are at different spots in the campaign) is kind of random. We couldn't access the vehicle/weapon spawn in the marines FOBs throughout the map. There are plenty of vehicles and weapons on the map to make this a limited issue.

Eventually we stopped when a campaign mission wouldn't trigger correctly. It's frustrating that coop exists, but isn't supported...and looks like it won't be.
Last edit: 06 Sep 2022 09:38 by lj1983.
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06 Sep 2022 09:50 #335423 by the_jake_1973
That damn parking garage! I do wish there was a modern Driver installment.

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06 Sep 2022 10:31 #335426 by Legomancer

the_jake_1973 wrote: That damn parking garage! I do wish there was a modern Driver installment.


I never got out of it. Never played the main game, just the two minigames, which I loved.

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06 Sep 2022 10:45 #335427 by hotseatgames
I remember a mission in GTA: Vice City that nearly had me quit the game entirely. Burt Reynolds tasks you with flying drones through a parking garage to blow some stuff up. Or something like that. I know drones are involved, and I know this mission was so out of whack with its difficulty spike that it was maddening and absolutely zero fun.

Vice City is still my favorite entry in the series, but they all seem to suffer from an occasional mission that is just ridiculous.
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06 Sep 2022 11:03 #335429 by Rliyen
My entire weekend was pretty much committed to playing video games, as I had a very stressful week last week (pending trial, a lot of motions being filed). I decided to complete achievements in games that I plan on never playing again.

One being Deep Dungeons of Doom, a little 8 bit mindless dungeon crawler. I had five achievements to unlock, three of which were a SLOG!

There is a endless dungeon mode, where you keep going down levels. The last three were the 7th Circle of Hell (reach 300 in DDD), 8th Circle (360) and 9th Circle of Hell (666). Whelp, there went 5 1/2 hours of my life I will NOT get back. I started at 4:30 p.m. and it took 3 episodes of the Casual Criminalist to get down to level 666. I thought I'd fight the Devil again. NOPE, I ended up getting an Undead Moose. Hooray. The other two achievements were merely unlock all the skills of 2 characters. With the amount of gold I had previously accumulated, that was easy. Uninstalled and hidden.

Played a lot of Payday 2, just for sake of it. I'm trying to dip my toes into the Death Wish level of difficulty and, aside from a few heists, I really suck at it and I don't find it fun at all. The only achievement I was able to unlock was EXPERT LANDING (200 kills in Birth of Sky after landing on the roof of a building).

Played a little bit of Generation: Zero after the patch, but I feel like the patch did more harm than good.

I started playing an indie Pokemon game, called Beastmancer. It's anime inspired, but the models of the monsters are amazing looking. I'm just trying to winnow down my unplayed games and to enjoy them.

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07 Sep 2022 02:38 #335441 by Nodens

hotseatgames wrote: I remember a mission in GTA: Vice City that nearly had me quit the game entirely. Burt Reynolds tasks you with flying drones through a parking garage to blow some stuff up. Or something like that. I know drones are involved, and I know this mission was so out of whack with its difficulty spike that it was maddening and absolutely zero fun.

Vice City is still my favorite entry in the series, but they all seem to suffer from an occasional mission that is just ridiculous.


I remember a mission with a model plane and cash drops? Maybe it 's that one. A friend of mine started fuming when I told him to read all the screen prompts. IIRC it was the only place inthe whole game to get told which buttons raise and lower the nose. He had over a hundred tries without it, after that: one.

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07 Sep 2022 10:34 #335445 by hotseatgames
Could have been. It was definitely controlling some small remote device, I know a parking garage was involved, and I know it absolutely fucking sucked. I also have to believe there is a non-zero chance that Rockstar knew it fucking sucked.
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07 Sep 2022 16:26 #335469 by RobertB

Legomancer wrote: I'm playing Horizon Zero Dawn now. I bounced off this in 2018 but I'm having a good enough time with it at the moment. My PS5 came with the sequel so I'm trying the original.

Unfortunately I'm now stuck in a "tutorial" mission in which I have to kill multiple enemies with a single shot from this bomb thrower weapon. It's to teach me how to use the weapon. The thing is, the weapon is absolute shit. Aiming it is a crapshoot, as it's impossible to tell where it's going to land, even with the aiming arc. It never goes where I think it's going. Also it's weak as fuck, so killing 2 with one shot is nearly impossible, even with low level enemies. You have to weaken two of them with other means and then hope they get next to each other so that this dumb thing's 3" blast radius can get them both, but usually one goes down and then you're fucked. I would never use this stupid thing except I apparently need it for a different mission.

Sure, I can ignore this tutorial mission but then I will have an UNCOMPLETED MISSION in my task like and that will not do. So I'm stuck with it. I have to do it three times and I've done it twice after MUCH effort, so hopefully it's almost over. This is the damn parking garage from Driver all over again.

Yeah, I gave up on that mission. I can't hit jack shit with those bomb throwers.

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16 Sep 2022 10:54 #335609 by Ah_Pook
I was getting sort of background hyped for Modern Warfare 2, but it's not going to include zombies so I don't think I care any more. That mode has become a big draw for me, even if I don't do the crazy easter eggs and etc. Might still grab it if it's reviewed well and also gets a good sale on Black Friday but eh.

Also, Bear and Breakfast is out today in Switch and I'm pretty excited to try it. It's a laid back management sim where you're a bear and you run a bed and breakfast in the woods. Looks real cute and chill. It'll complement Ooblets well, which I'm deep into ATM.

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28 Sep 2022 09:35 - 28 Sep 2022 09:38 #335783 by hotseatgames
Two games have captured my attention lately:
Death Loop - finally on Gamepass. This game is damn cool. Every morning you wake up on a beach, having the same day repeat, but each time you gain more knowledge of the island. The island is broken up into 4 zones (I think) and there are 4 times of day. Each zone has different goings-on at different times of day, but in general, if Citizen X is standing on the street corner at noon, they will always be standing on the street corner at noon.

Your journal helps keep track of all the clues you have gathered. Your ultimate goal is to break the loop so that you can quit repeating the same day over and over. It's fascinating, the voice acting is top notch, and I can't even imagine how difficult this must have been to put together.

It would also make a killer movie, ideally starring Idris Elba. He's perfect for it.

Warhammer 40k Inquisitor: Martyr - this is basically 40k Diablo, and it is a blast. Easy to play, with lots to do. I don't have the difficulty cranked at all, and am just enjoying absolutely wrecking the minions of Nurgle. Haven't tried co-op yet, but my friend also got it so that is coming soon.
Last edit: 28 Sep 2022 09:38 by hotseatgames.
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28 Sep 2022 10:10 #335786 by Gary Sax
I like death loop so much better than other people. It's the first Arkane game where going hot didn't feel like a failure.
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28 Sep 2022 10:20 #335787 by hotseatgames

Gary Sax wrote: I like death loop so much better than other people. It's the first Arkane game where going hot didn't feel like a failure.


That's a good point, you definitely don't have to be Sam Fisher in this one.

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