I Just Can't Do It

I decided that my new gaming venture would take place in one of my favorite stealth/adventure series--Dishonored 2.  For my first playthrough I chose to play as Emily Kaldwin and enjoyed her set of slightly different abilities.  This time around I decided I would play as Corvo Attano so I can check out any of the major story/plot differences.  So far, there haven't really been major differences.  Corvo's abilities feel comfortingly familiar and I've been happily lurking in the shadows and waiting for my chance to strike.

One of the other major decisions that I usually have to consider is how I want to play--do I want to go for the lesser of two evils and try not to kill anyone?  Or do I take the path of least resistance and just slay anyone in my path?  I've always felt that this decision is a little bit skewed by the way that the story seems to reward the non-lethal path.  If you don't run around killing everyone there is lower "chaos," which means that your actions won't negatively impact the future.  Part of me really leans toward a "high chaos" playthrough--it's great fun to sneak around stabbing everything (and there are some great talents that make slaying extra fun--one automatically turns bodies into ash which means no wasted time trying to stash them somewhere out of sight).  I told myself I was gonna do it this time...but I just can't!  I want the "good" ending too much.  (I've only ever been able to make myself choose what I view as the more ruthless path in a game once.  I played the renegade path in Mass Effect and it made me feel bad--I can't do it again.)

I wish I could get the game to look as good as this picture =/

Something else I realized as I re-booted Dishonored 2 is that it seems to have some hefty technical requirements.  My video card is better than the recommended specs, but I've had some serious problems running it on any settings that aren't low.  I've been frustrated by this fact because it is a game that looks absolutely stunning and I love taking in all the little details that have been painstakingly crafted into the game.

Regardless of my technical difficulties, I've been enjoying my most recent playthrough of Dishonored 2.  I'm trying my best to search every nook and cranny in the game, whereas in my first playthrough I definitely skipped over some things.  I've also been trying to get some of the achievements that I missed out on.  One of those achievements involved saving the life of a merchant who is shoved through a wall of light by some malicious city guards.  Three sleep darts later and the merchant was confusedly sprinting away without realizing that I had just saved his skin.  The other achievement I chalked up was a little challenging and required several bone-crunching falls from the top of the Addermire Institute.  Finally managing to maneuver Corvo into position to jump from the highest point on Addermire and stab a guard (who is very, very far below you) was oddly satisfying.  I highly recommend doing it, laughing at yourself when you die from falling a few times, and then feeling victorious when you manage it.

On a completely unrelated note, I decided to bite and invest in the season pass for Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey.  What finally made me do it?  The newest DLC, Fate of Atlantis, seems to be a fun-filled romp through a bonkers afterlife scenario.  I very much enjoyed the Curse of the Pharaohs DLC from Assassin's Creed:  Origins.  A portion of its story takes place in the various afterlives of dead pharaohs--those zones are very cool!  After I finish my most recent romp through Dishonored 2, I'm looking forward to some more stabby fun with Kassandra.

It's The Most Fun I've Had Failing.

Since it was originally released at the end of last year, I've been keeping a cautious side-eye on Return of the Obra Dinn.  I was a big fan of Papers, Please in all its quirky, document-checking splendor, so another adventure by Lucas Pope was something to look forward to.  Being the extremely frugal gamer that I am, I decided that I should probably wait until a sale.  So I waited....and waited...AND THEN IT MAGICALLY WENT ON SALE AT EXACTLY THE PERFECT TIME!.  By "perfect time," I mean when I got tired of watching my current Cities:  Skylines effort slowly fall apart.

If you haven't heard of Return of the Obra Dinn, you need to seriously check it out--really, really, really.  It came out last year, but I am going to go ahead and pre-call it my current GOTY.  I started it up and thought "I will just dink around for a little while."  Fast forward to four hours later and forcing myself to go to bed...and then going to bed and thinking about how I could better solve a few identities...and then waking up really early because I wanted to play.  Yes, I'm not exaggerating when I say it is that good.

One of the scenes aboard the Obra Dinn.

Return of the Obra Dinn is a mystery game that involves some serious powers of observation and deduction.  You play the role of an insurance inspector who is sent to learn about the mysterious disappearance (and then reappearance) of a ship in 1803.  Luckily, you have a few handy tools at your disposal that help you piece together a picture of what happened.  One of those tools is a strange compass-like object (called a Momento Mortem) that can be used near any earthly remains.  Once activated, it can re-play the death scene of the person who died.  Then, you find yourself in these motionless tableaus where your character can move about and observe any other figures in the scene.  The goal is to observe the scene, dig out any pertinent clues (which can be audio or visual), and then use that information to piece together the identity and fate of the people aboard the ship, and finally to unravel the story of the journey.

The Momento Mortem helps you puzzle out how someone died.

If you're thinking, "I'm good at puzzling things out!"  You might be, but Return of the Obra Dinn doesn't throw out clues willy-nilly and some tiny details can be extremely pertinent.  Another of the handy tools that the game gives you is a logbook.  This book contains valuable information like a crew roster, a map of the ship, and, the best part, it magically adds chapters as you unwrap pieces of the story.  My favorite feature is the drawings that can be used to help you identify characters--you gradually fill it out as you discover details and it's handy for deducing clues about jobs aboard the ship.  There's really only so much you can deduce--a certain degree of informed guessing is required.

The crew portrait page can help you keep track of who's who.

After playing for about 7 hours, I got frustrated and gave up before I had solved all the identities (and, I looked up a few--and totally regretted it--don't do it!).  Solving the entire puzzle is tough and requires some serious detective skills.  Even without solving the puzzle, I was enthralled at picking apart clues and gradually piecing together the story.  I continue to be impressed by Lucas Pope's ability to craft unique gaming experiences that are phenomenal, quirky, and just so damn fun.

Pros:
+ Classic vibes.  You can change your display options to one of several old school graphics looks (Macintosh, Commodore, IBM, etc.).  It's 1985-tastic.

+ Unique.  I cannot think of a single gaming experience that I have had that compares to it.  Sure, there are detective games and puzzle games...but solving this puzzle is so damn enjoyable.  There's something very positive reinforcement-esque when you see the message and sound pop-up that indicates that you've correctly identified three people.  It feels so good.

+ Work.  There's no easy way to solve this puzzle and it requires you to seriously pay attention and use your noggin.  (DON'T BE TEMPTED BY WALKTHROUGH'S/GUIDES!!!  There's so much pleasure in solving things for yourself)  I'm not the kind of person who picks up a game because I want to brag about how difficult it is, but there's something to be said for games that genuinely make you work for your bread.  This is one of those games.

+ Cool story.  As you work through clues and find more and more dead bodies, the story of the Obra Dinn is detailed...and it's a great one.  It's also the kind of thing that you have to piece together for yourself.

+ Tools that guide you, but again, don't hold your hand.

Cons:
- Getting stuck is particularly tough.  Lemme explain--at one point I absolutely could not figure out how to advance the story.  I figured that it was mostly because I needed to correctly identify some more of the characters who I had discovered.  I spent an hour or more just wandering around and re-viewing the scenes that I had unlocked.  I got frustrated and tried to avoid spoilers because I wanted to do it myself.  Avoiding spoilers and figuring out exactly what you need to do to move ahead is kind of rough.  (It turns out that I had somehow missed using my Momento Mortem on one particular corpse--I blew it by looking up spoilers--but I actually figured out which corpse purely by accident).  I guess what I'm trying to say is that this is a game that doesn't hold your hand in any way.  In some ways (like the pleasure of figuring things out) that is great, but in others, it does put a bit of a damper on things.  (And, just FYI, there are a number of helpful guides that don't give any spoilers--just handy nudges in the right direction)

-Replayability factor is low.  Most likely this is a game that you will play through once and then set aside.  The fortunate thing is that it's so amazing that the one time is magical.

Even despite the difficulty and frustration of getting stuck, I had a great time with Return of the Obra Dinn.  After getting stuck and looking up some spoilers, I forced myself to resist the urge of spoiling the rest.  I didn't end up solving the fate of the entire crew and gave up.  Once I've given myself some time (and I've forgotten the story) I'd love to fire it back up and try my hand at rightfully solving it.

Recommended for:
+Anyone who likes to puzzle things out
+Gamers wanting a classic feeling game
+Wannabe sleuths

Not Recommended for:
-Gamers hoping for tons of action
-Impatient/easily frustrated gamers--there aren't any hints and looking up spoilers ruins the whole thing.

We Built This City--And It's a Hot Mess

After a bout of serious indecision, I gave up on Borderlands 2 and decided to try my hand at some Cities:  Skylines.  I love Cities: Skylines and think it's a great modern city-builder.  I've played it off and on since I originally bought it in a sale a few years ago.  I'm going to admit that my adventures in city building tend to end in frustration or disaster (not because of actual disasters or anything, but due to my poor planning).  Please, continue reading to learn about my failure at city building.  (Read my review here)

In general, I've found that my cities move along at a good clip until the population gets to about 50k people.  Then, one of two things usually happens:

1.) Traffic is a clusterf(*k

Traffic jam!

There's always this point where I look up and realize that the traffic in my city is a dumpster fire.  This is usually due to complete failure to plan adequate routes for traffic coming into my city.  I learned a few things from my early ventures into Cities, but I still manage to mess it up.  I've been trying to read some guides and remedy my horrid traffic problems--my solution has been a bit inelegant; eliminate as many intersections on my major artery as I can to keep traffic flowing.  I think I've managed to alleviate some of the traffic pain, but I know it's undoubtedly a ticking bomb that is going to come back and bite me as time goes on and my city grows.

2.) I see dead people.

Santa Vegas has some problems.

 For some reason it always seems like no matter how many cemeteries and crematoria that I build, there's never enough to keep up with the demand (and yes, this is probably partially due to my horrible traffic flow problems).  I've also read that there can be a tendency for large numbers of deaths to occur at certain points due to an aging population in your city.  My city has periodically been plagued by a tide of uncollected corpses.  The end result is usually a glut of abandoned buildings that need to be bulldozed and re-levelled up.

Even though I hit my same wall of frustration, which in the past has seen me just giving up, I decided to soldier on and attempt to solve my problems.  I have spent several hours trying to work out solutions to traffic--bulldozing large portions on the map and trying to build roundabouts or a more complex highway system.  Usually I end up re-loading a previous save and trying from there.

Some of my efforts have paid off and Santa Vegas has become one of the largest cities that I've built.  My goal is to make it to 100,000 but I have a feeling that unless I figure out a way to solve my major problems, I won't even get remotely close to that number.  I really enjoy the challenge of Cities:  Skylines and the fact that it does require management and problem solving skills. 

A Lot of Nothing and My Upcoming Project

I've been trying to keep an eye on new or upcoming games that look appealing, but so far nothing has looked good enough to buy.  I've been listlessly playing through Borderlands 2 (and having a decent amount of fun) but have been feeling a hankering for something new.  One possibility was investing in the season pass for Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey, a game I enjoyed very much, but I was disappointed to read that it is being rolled out in an episodic format.  That's a nope for me--I'm not a big fan of buying individual episodes and then having to wait between them (and the possibility of delays).  I will wait until the entirety of the content is rolled out (due to this stupid episodic strategy, that will be awhile).  What to play...what to play?  There are so many possibilities in my library--Cities:  Skylines was a game I greatly enjoyed, and I'm thinking about giving it another go (with the hope that my own stupidity and poor planning won't doom my city to failure); Farming Simulator 17 was another game that I delved into briefly and enjoyed the soothing nature of running my little farm.  Decisions, decisions.

Nothing fancy.  Sometimes simple is better.

My gaming indecision has been a bit stifling, but I do have an upcoming project that I am very excited for.  I spent a lot of time playing the strangely enjoyable PC Building Simulator.  Through playing that game, I learned the basics of building a PC.  I decided that I wanted to try my hand at building a PC in real life and have been slowly making plans so that this can become a reality.  I've spent hours researching, picking out parts, and planning for my future PC.  Just this last week I took the first step to making this a reality and ordered my first part--a snazzy new case!  (It's actually a bit plain, but I opted for function over form and something that had good reviews for first time builders-this)

The decision to move toward building came from the fact that I decided to upgrade my current PC this year by adding a new graphics card (which, turned out to be a bit disappointing--I ordered an off-brandish one to save money and have had some problems with it overheating) but found out that my processor is also getting to be outdated for many of the newer games.  Therefore, it's time for something new!

With my new build, I am wanting to try some new things.  I've always opted for systems with Intel CPU's, so I am going to try out an AMD CPU.  Similarly, I've also stuck with AMD for graphics and want to make a departure and try out an NVIDIA GPU.  Even though it's not exactly "new" technology, I've never had a PC with a SSD and want to incorporate a nice one for my OS.

I am hoping that my new computer sets me up for some of the upcoming titles that I'm really looking forward to--Cyberpunk:  2077--and allows me to experience some of my older titles with better performance (I've been pretty bummed about my updated GPU that overheats =/).  If you're curious, here's a link to the build I'm going for:  my build.  Wish me luck!

Borderlands 3 Mayhem Starts Early (Opinion and News)

What, no finger guns?

The term "mayhem" seems to be central to the chaos and story of the upcoming Borderlands 3--it notably appears in the first trailers and fits perfectly with the general tone of the series.  This week, a ton of Borderlands related things happened.  On April 3rd, remasters of the three games in the original series were released (if you already owned those games you received the remasters for free!) with updated graphics and a bevy of updates to the original Borderlands.  What's not to love about that?  Weeeeelllll, things got a tad heated when it was officially announced that Borderlands 3 would release on September 13th, 2019...and it would be an Epic Store exclusive for the first six months.  Immediately, some PC gamers began taking out their frustration at another game opting not to release on Steam by review bombing the Borderlands series (it does appear that Steam's new review bombing safeguards are kicking in and keeping the overall rating for the series from dropping).

Personally, I am excited for Borderlands 3.  Period.  I would prefer for it to release on Steam because that's where all my other games live, but if I had to download the Epic launcher, it's not the end of the world.  Heck, I've got so many other game launchers...what's one more?  If Steam is that important to me, I can wait six months and buy it there (which, I might, depending on the reviews).

It's hard for me to understand the outrage over games opting to go to Epic.  Sure, there was something very janky and unfair about Metro:  Exodus because of the way the pre-orders were available on Steam and then at the last minute it was yanked.  I get that, but I can't understand the craziness about other games opting to make the move.  If I was a game developer and could put my game on a storefront that was taking 12% vs. the 30% that Steam takes (which drops lower with higher sales, but I don't think it gets anywhere near 12%)...why wouldn't I choose to do that?  I would do it in a heartbeat.

I think we're going to see more and more developers opt to put their products on Epic.  Steam has enjoyed almost monopolistic status as a digital delivery system for years and finally has some competition.  In order to continue enjoying that top billing they might need to re-think that 30% charge (I don't see that happening for quite awhile).  However, I also think that if Epic is hoping to convert the PC masses that they have a long way to go to offer an experience that is on-par with Steam.  They need to add the features that people have enjoyed on Steam like game specific forums, achievements, friends lists, reviews, and all the other goodies.

Moze, Amara, FL4K, and Zane are our new vault hunters.

Now that we're done freaking out about the Epic Store exclusivity, let's talk about some other exciting Borderlands 3 news--the new set of playable vault hunters!

Moze--is a soldier-like character who can summon a mech-suit that actually forms around her.  It also appears that the suit has a turret that can be used by another player.  She would be a great choice for players wanting to team up.

Amara--is the de facto siren.  Unlike previous sirens who had a mix of different abilities--Lillith's melee-ish shadow walk ability or Maya's more crowd-control oriented singularity--Amara seems to be melee focused with her ability that summons six large arms.  It's very possibly that she could fulfill the role of tank.

FL4K--is the hunter/beastmaster.  He (I think...who knows with aliens though?) can summon a number of different beasts (I'm guessing that we will be able to choose through the talent trees).  He's the new Mordecai, I suppose.

Zane--he seems to be a blend of Zer0/Axton with abilities to summon decoy holograms or summon turrets that can assist.  I'm curious to see what else he has to offer.

Knowing how popular Borderlands 2 was I'm betting that more playable characters are rolled out as DLC.   It will be interesting to see if those new characters offer brand new abilities or stick to the tried and true (as the four vault hunters appear to).