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Oh, also, I crafted all three of the clothing items they added in the last update--the wolf skin coat, the deerskin boots, and the rabbitskin mittens. They're all awesome, of course. I trudged around in them and slept in them forever before I really had to repair them much. Well worth the effort.

I'm now console-less. Saw a good deal on a Smart BD player today and it's replaced the PS3...

First time I've not had a console of some description sitting under the TV since the early 90s. I'll not miss the PS3/360 generation although their deficiencies pushed me toward relying on my PC more than I'd ever done and for that I'm glad.

This means, of course, that I'm odds on to get that Wii U at some point. If D4 was available on it, this would be a certainty.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Rabbitskin mittens? Cute! I certainly hope there's at least one real survivalist wearing those right now

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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

Yeah, that one was actually trickiest because I had literally never bothered to build a snare and catch a rabbit. I had to catch four to make them. I think that makes these items a great addition, because it gives you a great incentive to explore the trapping mechanics. I think they need to ramp up the benefits of fishing a little, too--I did that just to sort of experience everything, but the weight-to-calories ratio for fish is hugely out of whack. It'll really only make sense as a food source when my bullets run out and the antiseptic gets low, I think.

Anyway, it's a really great change, and it's cool for anyone who's trying to roleplay even a little bit, because you feel like a real rugged survivalist trudging around months later in clothes you made yourself from wolf pelts and the like.

so The Long Dark is in alpha stage right? Should I download it?

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"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"

"I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle"

It is very solid for an Alpha. It's only got a sandbox mode at the moment, but if you're into survival games definitely give it a go

Ah, video games and poor stories or good ones that falter.

Finished Psychonauts which is a pretty fun game but absolutely exasperating at times with certain level designs. Is there a genre out there that surpasses platformers in inducing controller throwing?

Anyone want to recommend some good 3D platformers for PSX or PC. Played Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia, Psychonauts, Portal. Tried Alice McGee and Alice Returns but they're kinda clumsy and Raymen 2 has camera problems and the environments feel empty.

I wouldn't know what I'd do if I had no console. I'd be frantic. My X-Box One I finally just got replaces a Blu-Ray player I want. Plus I have a smart TV.

I hadn't used a console as a games machine in months and not regularly used in 3 or 4 years. It was a DVD/Blu Ray/Netflix machine with an increasingly loud fan.

@VFN - 3D platformers are things I've never taken to, and neither has the industry seeing as how 2D retro style games are in the ascendant once again. My Steam 'Platform' section only has 2D games in it - Of those I'd recommend Electronic Super Joy, Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams and Guacamelee (although that's more of an action platformer/metroidvania game). There's the critics' darlings of Fez, Braid and Super Meat Boy too.

The Long Dark update: still not dead. 143 days.

Out of leather.

Leather being the item I need to repair my Wildman clothes.

Leather being the thing I left literally 20-30 of behind at the Camp Office when I had to pick and choose what I could carry.

Leather comes from deer. You shoot deer with bullets.

I am out of bullets.

I could make another trip back to Mystery Lake, but I used both my MREs, so the weight situation there is tricky. More likely I'll make a concerted effort to chase deer into wolves and then fight the wolves, for the leather almost as much as the meat.

Problem with that is that I'm running low on antiseptic; got maybe 12-15 more attacks' worth. After that I'm taking my chances with infection, though I've got lots of antibiotics. In all probability this is what I'll be doing up until the end: picking fights with wolves to survive a few more days.

Doing lots of fishing. Hard to say if the number of calories you get from fish justifies the effort though.

How long I survive will depend in large part whether or not I decide to grind it out and make the most of each day, rather than just sort of sleep through some of them.

Either way, I'm at the point where the things that will do me in are coming into focus. The leather shortage is just a sketch outline of my doom.

We knew this is how Yoda would go out. Punching wolves...

(Would almost be nice if there was a nuclear plant. You could contaminate yourself and meta-roleplay that you were in Fallout )

My kit always broke when I tried fishing. Do you get a variety of fish? Possibly there's a big fat payout out there if so? One that would make it more worthwhile, but risky if you miss it.

Also, part of me thinks there should be a shonky old bullet-making kit in one of the survivalist hideouts, with just enough dubious gunpowder to make some unreliable rounds if you have the scrap. Would be an interesting last-ditch option

That and being able to pour the kerosine and light dynamic fires. You could probably rig a pretty reasonable wolf trap that way. Or at least have a rousing last stand!

Well anyway, once the writing is on the leather, I vote you spend your final day running around in your draws hurling flares at the moon. It's the least you can do

"My father went the same way."

The place I'm fishing (one of the shacks on Coastal Highway), I only get two types: Rainbow Trout and Coho Salmon. I've fished a little on one other shack, but I'm not sure I've fished in any others, let alone in Mystery Lake (maybe once awhile ago, not sure), so maybe you have to move around to get different types. Checking the game's Wikia, it looks like there are two others, probably on the other map. In terms of weight and how plentiful they are, they look like rough analogues to the trout and salmon.

I've had a handful of fishing lines break, too, but I'd say it stays intact a lot more often than not. Just bad luck, maybe? The condition does degrade while you hang onto them, though, so if you went fishing after carrying them around for awhile that might be part of it.

Yeah, a lot of people have pinpointed what you'd need to theoretically live forever. Since the wildlife repopulates, being able to make bullets would add a lot, presumably by melting down the scrap metal you find. But even so, the scrap metal is finite, so while that would greatly increase possible survival times, it'd still be capped once the metal ran out. And the amount of cloth is finite, too, so eventually you'd have to do your hunting missing crucial articles of clothing.

Matches degrade, too, and you can't repair the firestriker. But you can find a magnifying glass; you can only use it to light fires outside on sunny days, but if you're patient and persistent that might allow things to keep going.

So, technically, you need either a replenishing supply of metal, or a replenishing supply of medicine (to survive wolf attacks). Everything else is important but could still theoretically be done without.

I have thought a bit about how to die. Way back when I wanted to get back to Trapper's Homestead, hunker down, and just hunt one deer on my own, cook it, and eat it. Not really an option on this run, though.

It's nice (but melancholy) listening to other players describe how they ended things when they had the opportunity to do so on their own terms. One ran out of clothing and food, so he lit all the flares and lanterns he had indoors and just enjoyed all the light bouncing around, which I thought was a nice way to go.

I could do something similar. Or just attack a series of wolves to go down fighting. Or die peacefully in bed. Or freeze to death in one of the shacks. Or I could literally go up the mountain or jump off the tracks at the ravine and end it instantly.

I'm in a great mood now.

FTL is 75% off on Steam right now.

Arguably one of the greatest games ever made. Unarguably the world's greatest Captain Kirk simulator.

I think some melancholy is inevitable in a game such as this. (Which is why strapping deer meat to yourself and choosing death by bear should be an option )

(Sustaining yourself on frozen Argentinian rugby player should not be tho. That would be silly. And macabre)

That has made me think of another thing that's strangely lacking incidentally.... the fact that you can't strip clothing rags off dead bodies seems odd. And the fact that you can't chose to at least have a nibble... well. Times do get tough! Maybe they could balance it with some kind of stress/sanity meter. The further along it you get, the more likely you are to involuntarily strap deer meet to yourself.....

Yeah, on one hand you could argue that you just find the clothes inside those frozen bodies...and very often you do. But you probably always should. And the creepiness and desperation of robbing them like that (as opposed for things like supplies, which don't carry any questions about postmortem dignity or respect) seems like it would feed right into the game's vibe.

Ditto the cannibalism, though I think that's touchier and a more understandable omission. But it does feel like their tagline (something like "How far will you go to survive?") is way further along the development process than anything that's playable. It probably does hint at that becoming an option, though, eventually.

But yeah, I'll be really impressed if they can make more and more of the world usable. IE: you can even cannibalize the house you're staying in for wood, at the expense of reducing its protection from the elements. You can tear down a fishing shack for material, but then you can't fish there any more. Or stripping the cars for parts and metal, etc. Seeing the landscape picked clean out of desperation in all these different ways would really dovetail with the themes of the game.

Yep absolutely. Seems to me you already can forage 'internally' in huts, to a limit, but it has no visual effect. Would be good to see the place stripped bare, and you have to balance homeliness (and weather-proof sanctity) with the need for toasty heat.

I'm so engrossed in Assassin's Creed: Unity. There's literally so much to do it's freakin' insane and it's the best AC installment yet. The biggest and boldest in the series. It may be a little trickier and a slight more harder here and there but that's what makes this game what it is. The stealth is extremely addictive and the environment and just absolutely beautiful.

I am looking forward to the next game in the series which is planned for later this year.

I'll take a look at those 2Ders. Played a bit of Braid so I'll check out the other two. Thanks.

Sounds like you really like this game.

I'm thinking of trying it again. Is getting lost a problem at all?