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A system of cells interlinked
Had the past couple of days off, as Lisa was away with the ladies for some much needed relaxation. When Stella was napping, or after she went to sleep at night, I ran through Journey a few times. Probably the most relaxing and pleasant video game experience I have had. I had played the game once through several years ago, during a short stint on PS NOW, and I had picked up a copy when it hit Steam, but just never got back to it. Glad I did! The game puts me in a mellow mood, which is nice when I need to unwind after a few hours of toddler chasing!

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“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
I've managed to wedge about 20 minutes in for Ghost of Tsushima randomly the last few nights since returning from VA (still exhausted from that btw). It was easier to pick back up than I expected, considering the number of controls. It's still a great game, much like RDR/RDR2, in which you can just run around and do random world encounters slicing up Mongols and picking up story lines if you come across any. I love games that do not place urgency on your play. Just do whatever. Finish the story if you like. If not? Go hunt boars or attack random bandits at will.

It's all still a very pleasant experience, if a bit OP. I'm maxed in skills and still have one extra point. I think that was from the digital download. Apart from a few gripes spread out through the game (covered in past posts), I'd totally recommend this for anyone enjoying the RDR games or for those that want a good samurai sword battle, or for those that love gorgeous landscapes and environments. I've yet to see another game as gorgeous.

I did pick up two titles recently during a sale: The Sinking City and Elite Dangerous, both of which I'm very curious about but I'm concerned ED might require a network sub. I read there was a single player story mode but I haven't tried to confirm. I hope both go better than my experience with the EA Star Wars bundle earlier this year. Squadrons was horrible. Starfox on the ole Super Nintendo was a far better play. =\
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there's a frog in my snake oil
but I'm concerned ED might require a network sub. I read there was a single player story mode but I haven't tried to confirm.
ED is always online, even in it’s 'solo' mode. (It’s fairly low bandwidth though apparently, it just needs to connect to the 'background sim' which charts the changing NPC factions. And to sling you the odd news story).

Those news stories are literally all the plot it’s got though. Outside of a few voiced tutorials it’s just you vs that big proc gen galaxy. Wouldn’t expect a 'story mode' at all.

On the plus side, if you find your feet in it, this is pretty much all the game is

fly around and do random world encounters
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The Steam Sale is on! I picked up Hades, which looks like it's right up my alley, for $17.
Share your purchases, bargains, games you absolutely should buy during the sale, etc.



The Adventure Starts Here!
Had the past couple of days off, as Lisa was away with the ladies for some much needed relaxation. When Stella was napping, or after she went to sleep at night, I ran through Journey a few times. Probably the most relaxing and pleasant video game experience I have had. I had played the game once through several years ago, during a short stint on PS NOW, and I had picked up a copy when it hit Steam, but just never got back to it. Glad I did! The game puts me in a mellow mood, which is nice when I need to unwind after a few hours of toddler chasing!

I picked this up on Steam recently. Played for about 15 minutes and just didn't "get" it. Felt like I just ran around a desert and tried to glide onto the tops of oddly shaped buildings.

What am I missing?



A system of cells interlinked
I picked this up on Steam recently. Played for about 15 minutes and just didn't "get" it. Felt like I just ran around a desert and tried to glide onto the tops of oddly shaped buildings.

What am I missing?
There are a few overall objectives to the game, with the foremost being to figure out how to open the gates that let you progress to the next stage. The initial area just sort of introduces you to the mechanics of flight and as you explore, the two types of collectables that help drive the progression. There are glowing symbols you can collect, with each one lengthening your scarf, which serves as a sort of energy reserve for flight. There are also ancient glyphs, which are murals you can light up in certain places in each level.





You also have the ability to "speak" using musical tones, either short tones by pressing the speak button, or a longer tone by holding the same button. The longer tone can unlock and free trapped cloth creatures or cloth pieces that can help you progress in different ways.

When you get to the end of each area, there will be a little altar to meditate at, and at the altar you will see small stones that represent each symbol in the area. If the symbol is glowing, you found it, if it's dark, you still need to find that one. it's not necessary to find them al to progress, but if you do find them all, you get a special reward.

Other than that, it's best to figure out the rest of the game's charms for yourself, especially the sort of random buddy system that can have you sharing the exploration of an area with another player.

Lastly, and probably most importantly, is each player's personal interpretation of the game's theme. I found Journey to be thought-provoking in a really cool way.

Good luck!



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
I saw this title on the PS Store last night. Considered it. It looked like Flower might be included in the bundle. I think that was the name? Same developer maybe? If so, then I imagine Journey to be lovely.

Anyway, I had that demo for Flower on PS3 way back and thought it was brilliant. You're a breeze. That's it. That's your representation in the game. And you just lightly flow around the grassy fields picking up pollen carrying it, gently floating around at will, to then pollenate empty fields creating new flowers. I'm not joking when I say that that demo made me feel exactly the way the Enterprise crew must have felt, in The Next Generation, when someone brought that brainwashing virtual headset game on board. It was really nice.

The PS Store did not have any trailer or video clips of Journey though so it's hard to know. Your screenshot look nice though!





A system of cells interlinked
Haha, I actually caught the episode recently, along with the series finale and the two-parter Klingon Civil War.

I also have Flower, which is super cool. Journey shares some of the vibe in come ways - it's a really peaceful game. Except for those floating guys that tear your scarf...



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
Haha, I actually caught the episode recently, along with the series finale and the two-parter Klingon Civil War.

I also have Flower, which is super cool. Journey shares some of the vibe in come ways - it's a really peaceful game. Except for those floating guys that tear your scarf...
I need some peaceful time in life atm. I may download it. I think it was like twelve bucks for the package: Journey, Flower, and something else I didn't recognize. I could be off on price. I read through a lot of titles =\



A system of cells interlinked
I need some peaceful time in life atm. I may download it. I think it was like twelve bucks for the package: Journey, Flower, and something else I didn't recognize. I could be off on price. I read through a lot of titles =\
Well worth it!



Welcome to the human race...
Haven't posted in here in a while. I did end up playing and finishing Cyberpunk 2077 (on the PS4, no less - not as many glitches as I was expecting, but still quite a few). Should've written something about it earlier while it was still fresh in my mind, but the fact that I finished damn near all the side-quests, completed the main storyline once, and am considering reloading saves from before the point of no return so I can unlock the other endings (I know I can just look them up on YouTube but hey, I want those trophies) should speak to how I liked it at least a little bit. Could probably go extra-critical about it if I felt like it, though.

Otherwise, still playing Mortal Kombat 11 more than anything else. I just like having something simple to pick up and start playing (especially when the online content and competitive play keeps changing enough to keep me grinding away in order to unlock new stuff) but I am thinking that I need to make the jump to a different game sooner or later. Just not sure which one.
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Hades is pretty awesome, but man, is the first boss kicking my butt. I'm not very familiar with roguelike games and this is probably the nature of the beast, but it's a bit frustrating to go through the path to the boss with my eyes closed at this point and have no chance against the boss. Still, I can't wait to play it again, so it must be doing something right.



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
Hades is pretty awesome, but man, is the first boss kicking my butt. I'm not very familiar with roguelike games and this is probably the nature of the beast, but it's a bit frustrating to go through the path to the boss with my eyes closed at this point and have no chance against the boss. Still, I can't wait to play it again, so it must be doing something right.
Tell me about this game. Not sure I've heard of it.



Tell me about this game. Not sure I've heard of it.
It's a roguelike action RPG where you're the rebellious son of Hades and you're trying to escape the underworld. The Gods of Olympus are on your side and they gift you with upgrades. Every time you die, you go back to your home where you can spend your loot on upgrades, weapons, etc. to improve your odds in the next attempt.

I found out about it from Zero Punctuation (a notoriously harsh yet funny critic) who put it at #1 of his top games of 2020:




there's a frog in my snake oil
Time for another Odyssey trip report...



Catastrophe Is Catching

The one thing I don't mention there is that at one point the whole building started to melt and disappear in sections, and I had to log in and out :/

(I've heard of this bug, but haven't seen it til now. Think it might be the start of floating point errors that end up like this )


EDIT:

Here's someone else's vid, featuring a smaller catastrophe in the same type of settlement...

Just sticking this here because it's a fun lil sequence:

BETTER WITH SOUND



Guy on simple delivery mission scans a security guard, unearthing that he's wanted in another system, making him aggro, and the whole settlement follows suit... Eventually hops away like crazy low G frog...

I think I just like the scale of his battered ship, and the NPC one that heaves into the air as he scampers about.

EDIT: It also seems to show temperature flips as he runs in and out of shadows, with direct sunlight pushing him into danger territory. (Although it doesn't seem to happen super reliably...)

Honestly I've never really had to use it as a mechanic, but guess it could become a thing if you were casing a settlement for a long time and ran out of spare batteries. (Being in extreme temps drains your power faster - it would make sense to hug the shadows then - or avoid them on a cold planet).

PS: Verdict for anyone interested is still: Wait for more performance fixes



there's a frog in my snake oil
And another trip report, because what the hell:



The Power of Stealth

And a community report: The Elite community is variously on fire over Odyssey. Partially due to performance. Partially due to the audacity of them adding 'leg things' rather than more 'ship things'. (And a little bit because the legs things are as grindy and procedural as the ship things ).

To the extent that it almost feels like they might have killed the franchise, or at least taken a major misstep. (Steam numbers are back down to a low ebb - not really what you want after a fresh launch ). I don't think they have, I think I'll stick with my doughty labrador metaphor, and say they'll bumble out of this. But it's definitely feeling like a close run thing at the moment...

If they don't improve performance a bit more by the time of the console launch in Autumn/Winter, and capture some attention with the inevitable aliens shenanigans, it's looking a bit grim for this ageing space oddity though.

Would be a shame. I kinda like what they've done here



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
I managed to get in some game time with Ghost of Tsushima these past few days. So, yay. I'm on the last quest chain so I've put a pause to progression to, instead, chase any remaining collectables. Looks like I have maybe 70 of 80 banners to collect. There's one scroll remaining, but I think that only becomes available somewhere during the last two or three quests. Other collectables include singing crickets that, when collected in groups of four, give you a new flute song. These songs can be used to change weather including storms, fog, sunshine, and something else I can't remember. There are random hotsprings to find and meditate at, refilling your life and, if the particular spring is a new discovery, increase your life meter by a bit. There are meditation pads to find on which you form haiku. Doing so extends your Resolve, which is used for special attacks and to heal during combat. Other collectables include mostly vanity gear items like headbands, clan banners that you can exchange for different horse saddle designs (no stat affects, just vanity stuff), and flowers to dye any armor with. Oh, and there are Mongol Artifacts scattered randomly in camps. To delay things more, I've mostly just been running around testing different armor sets against random patrols along the road.

There are several armor sets that you can collect/earn throughout the game's side quests, each having a unique set of attributes and perks. For example, the Tadayori suit provides improved bow and arrow reload speed, increases concentration time (think RDR's Dead Eye time slowdown), and a bump in concentration for landed head shots. I didn't really use the bow as much as I would have liked, only because it's just so fun to rush and and start cutting things down. But I've been running a round trying to get as many head shots as possible at range. With this armor's stats, I've been able to take down groups of 5 in concentration mode (Dead Eye), all headshots, with each headshot extending my concentration timer, keeping things in slow motion to line up the next shot. That's pretty cool actually.

Every so often I come across two Mongols fighting a bear. Sometimes it's three, but that's rare. It seems that you find patrols on roads and bear fights when in the wild. Anyway, both Mongols and the bear are more focused on each other to notice you lobbing arrows from a safe distance. It's fun to take one down to watch the bear bite and toss the other into a tree like a ragdoll. Then claim the loot after putting the bear down. It's kind of funny in that after a point you sort of pick up on visual and audible cues to alert you that there is a fight somewhere near by or that you happen upon one way off in the distance that has yet to start. I suppose it's a weak bug, because the fight is triggered it seems by your distance to those characters. Right up until you cross that distance variable, you see two Mongols and a bear just frozen in position for a few moments. That's wonky, but entertaining.

I don't want to end the game yet, but it might be good to start over soon. Now that I'm comfortable with all the controls and attacks, I'm curious how earlier levels might feel. Upon logging off last night I've put 91.4 hours into this game. Wow. That's NOT required to finish btw! But this game invites exploration and just open world screwing around without being forced to strictly follow quest lines. Great stuff. I record videos but never remember to post them to YouTube. Sorry for the dry text.