When the Fallout Settles

Personally, it hasn't been the greatest couple of weeks for me and my gaming has been on a brief hold.  However, it has been nearly impossible to miss the massive gaming news of late 2020--the fact that the highly anticipated CyberPunk 2077 released and turned out to be a hot, buggy mess.  I've seen reporting on it in my normal gaming sources, but also in some very mainstream media--that tells you a bit about how catastrophic the launch was.  I had decided early on that it was probably best to sit on CyberPunk for awhile and see how it panned out, so luckily I didn't pre-order.  Here's where I would love to tell you "I told you so," and be triumphant, but I'm mostly just bummed that it turned out this way.

There is a ton of speculation about what exactly went wrong and you can spend five minutes on any gaming related social media and find plenty of articles describing the myriad issues surrounding the flawed release.  My skepticism about the release was built around the fact that the game was being completed in the middle of a pandemic (and so many games have opted not to release or to push back until later).  I was surprised that they did finally decide to release--from what I remember of The Witcher 3's release, it was delayed multiple times (but was awesome at release).  Maybe another, longer delay would have given them time to work out the kinks?  From what I've read another delay wasn't going to happen and the corporate overlords wanted it pushed out (even though it seems like it was known that it wasn't ready--and especially the console versions).

Another point of skepticism for me was the fact that releasing on PC, the now, last-gen consoles, as well as trying to release on the now current-gen consoles, seemed very, very ambitious--even in the best of times, and this isn't the best of times.  Even though I've always been a fan of CD Projekt and they have a reputation of being very consumer oriented, there was definitely some shady nonsense going on with the console versions of the game.  However, this hasn't stopped them from raking in massive profits and already reporting that with pre-sales they've already managed to recoup their production costs.

Is this CyberPunk fiasco going to damage CD Projekt's reputation?  In the short term, probably, but I would argue that people have short memories.  Many other games have rolled out in a catastrophically bad state and have managed to survive (and even thrive).  In a few months, after the bugs have been worked out, people will have forgotten and possibly will even start to really enjoy the game.  I've been avoiding reading any reviews, but just from what people are saying online is that they enjoyed the game, but the bugs are obnoxious.  Without the bugs, is it another great game?

I personally plan to wait until later--maybe until the first time it goes on sale, to grab it.  For the time being, I'm contenting myself with playing a different game that also had catastrophic release--Fallout 76.  If you're out there, playing CyberPunk, I hope you are enjoying it.

Non-Accomplishments

The hot gaming news this week has been the release of the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077.  Being that I'm a big Witcher fan, you would think that I would be one of those ravenous gamers who are currently gobbling up the glorious world of Cyberpunk, but I'm not.  I have stuck to my plan of waiting awhile for the bugs and kinks to be worked out (and, according to many of the review headlines--I didn't read any actual reviews) there's quite a bit that needs to be fixed.  So, for the time being, I'm going to content myself with listlessly wandering around in Fallout 76.

My CAMP (and dumpster armor)

What have I accomplished since my last update about playing Fallout 76?  Is my character decked out in uber-power armor and wielding legendary weapons?  Hahahahaha....nope.  I would describe the current look of my character as dumpster-diver chic--mismatched armor of varying levels and makes topped off with my favorite Civil War Era top hat.  Since I've opted for a stealthy, sniping/surprise attack build, I've chosen weapons suited to that playstyle--a sniper rifle for long distance attacks and a suppressed pipe pistol (I know....a crappy, pipe pistol).  My weapon choices have also been shaped by the amount of ammo I've managed to pick up--I accumulated a very large amount of .38 ammo and varying amounts of other ammo.  I'm trying to burn through the .38 ammo with my pipe pistol (largely since you can't sell ammo to vendors) to simply get it out of my inventory.

I'm largely spending my time in Fallout 76 trying to pursue the main and side missions and also, just wandering around and discovering new locations.  I've spent some time working on a long quest chain tied to a random item I looted from a dead woman in a weird dress.  The quest prompts you to check out this big manor house while wearing a mysterious, veil.  Once you've fought your way through a horde of Scorched, you make the discovery that the mansion belonged to a famous actress who played a comic book character.  Even better, she was using her mansion to secretly train orphans from the war and turn them into a force of post-apocalyptic crime fighters who roamed the land trying to aid the many people who were simply trying to survive after the bombs dropped.  The basement of the mansion functions as a large, lair-like area where you check-in, get missions, and can move up in rank using a computer system.  Part of the quest chain involves trying to reconstruct all the various items that make up the weapons and tools of the character--a sword, a stealth device, and a gun.  In order to do this, you have to head to specific locations to try to find specific objects that can then be turned into the full garb of the hero by a handy device called a fabricator that is part of the secret base.

Photomode has some fun frames to help capture Appalachia.

When I'm not following a quest line, I'm just exploring.  The map is scattered with tons of locations and a big part of the gameplay in Fallout has always hinged on finding places and then scavenging.  I've managed to accumulate an impressive amount of stuff--so much that I had to do some soul searching and clean out my inventory.  Past games have trained me to hoard (especially health items) and that's not much of an option in 76.   One of the irritating aspects of the loot system is that ammo cannot be sold to NPC vendors; it can, however, be sold to other players through CAMP vending machines.  I've had to figure out the best way to deal with the large amounts of varying ammo that I have built up--mostly, I'm just dropping it for some other lucky player to pick up.

One area that I want to work on more is my CAMP.  I've found a really nice location (close to a train station so I can run to the NPC vendor and sell stuff) but would like to spruce up the overall aesthetic of my building.  I found a plan for barn walls and converted my ramshackle, wooden structure into a slightly less, ramshackle wooden structure.  I also completed a quest to build a shelter but don't think I have enough concrete to make it a reality.  I'm going to work on visiting some other CAMPS to look for some cheaply priced plans for my own CAMP.

Next week....pics of my super, cute CAMP and swaggy armor (*hahahaha, that's unrealistic).  

Wasteful Wandering: Fallout 76

Sometimes you just have to go out on a limb and take a risk on a game that might be a bit iffy.  As a Fallout fan I was feeling a bit Fallout-curious about Fallout 76.  Due to many negative reviews (particularly when it first launched) I quickly decided that maybe this version of the apocalypse wasn't worth the attention.  In the next two-ish years, Fallout 76 has seen many major updates and I started to see the reviews tip in a more favorable direction.  I still teetered between grabbing it or not--quite frankly, multiplayer games really aren't my thing and I had many concerns about that particular aspect of the game.  But, like any good stalker, I continued to read reviews and look longingly at info about it.  Finally, after months of swaying between purchasing it or not, it was on sale for $13.  For $13 I was willing to take the risk and give it a try.

Thus far my experience in Fallout 76 has felt, well, very Fallout-like.  Similarly to the other games, your character starts off in a vault (Vault 76) and then is given a directive to go out and rebuild a new version of America in the post-apocalyptic world of Appalachia (West Virginia to be specific).  Character creation doesn't vary much from previous games although there does seem to be a bit more freedom in making small tweaks to specific facial features.

My character prepares to exit Vault 76.

Once you've finished gathering all the newbie materials from your vault you're ready to take the big step of entering the fray in the open world of Appalachia.  As a setting, Appalachia is pretty--lots of trees, mountains, and much less of a drab, ruined feeling than in the more urban games.  One of the first big gameplay changes that I had to get used to was the fact that there are more survival oriented elements built into the game--your character needs to periodically eat and drink or else they will suffer health losses.  A handy hunger and thirst meter indicates if it's time to chow down on some wasteland delicacies--maybe a nice mutt chop (finely crafted from the meat of a feral dog that attacked you) accompanied by some handcrafted tato juice.  The meal of a true wasteland champion!

The gameplay still largely functions around exploring the vast open world--poking through abandoned, ruined buildings and scavenging anything with remote value.  During your poking around you will also have to fight off the many dangerous post-apocalyptic denizens of Appalachia.  Many of the same enemies from previous games make an appearance--lumbering, robotic Protectrons; hulking, green super mutants; buzzing bloatflies--but there are also some new baddies; the Scorched are an infected group of humans who aren't quite as wasted away as feral ghouls.  Rather than blindly charging at you in flailing horror, the Scorched can wield a variety of weapons and will take cover.  Like feral ghouls, they also have horrible vocalizations that indicate their presence.  Since I'm still fairly low-level I doubt I've encountered the full menu of things that want to kill you.

One of the new features in Fallout 76 is the ability to craft your own personalized C.A.M.P.  Your C.A.M.P. is a portable device that allows you to build structures and workbenches and make your own personalized camp area.  The building function is very similar to settlement building in Fallout 4--you pick the individual pieces and snap them into place to form a structure.  You can also craft numerous workbenches to help you create, maintain, and modify your gear as well as craft survival materials (food, drinks, and chems).  Once you've built to your satisfaction, you can save a blueprint of your structures and easily move your camp as you search different areas of the map.  So far I've managed to make a number of very ugly, very square, boring buildings.  You can spruce up your C.A.M.P. by purchasing, unlocking, or finding plans to craft different material types for your buildings.

The most distinctive feature of Fallout 76 is the fact that it is multiplayer.  As you wander the wastes you will encounter other players--you can team up with them to accomplish tasks or you can wander on your own.  I've largely stuck to myself, but I have completed a couple of "events" (timed, special encounters that periodically pop up on the map and reward players for completion) with a few other players.  Thus far (fingers-crossed) my encounters have largely been peaceful and pleasant.  A fun feature is the ability to visit the camps of other players.  There is good reason to visit the camps of other players--you can purchase a vending machine for your camp and sell items you've looted using those machines.  Often other players will sell materials that you need (and, in most cases, much cheaper than the NPC vendors)--things like plans, mods, and recipes.

Playing instruments grants an AP buff.  Also, it's goofy.

My most interesting encounter with other players happened when a couple of people wandered into my camp and decided to drop some items they didn't need.  I'm not really sure why they did this, but they seemed to want me to loot them, so I did.  It was strange, but nice.

I've been half-heartedly following the main storyline missions (you're trying to seek out the vault overseer from Vault 76 and they've left a number of breadcrumbs in the form of holotapes scattered around the map) but have mostly just spent my time wandering and scavenging.  A major change in the gameplay that is taking some getting used to is the fact that you have to be much more selective in your looting--you cannot actively hoard in the traditional manner of other Bethesda games.  Storage in your camp is limited; food items will spoil over time, so lugging around a ton of food is usually a bad idea; it's a hard habit to break.

Thus far I've been enjoying my experience in Fallout 76.  Crafting my camp has been fun and I've enjoyed the simple pleasure of exploring a new world.  I'm struggling a bit with finding new/improved weapons and armor or crafting them and I'm still getting used to the vendor system in the game (it's undoubtedly better to purchase stuff from other players).  I feel like my $13 was well spent, but we'll see if that feeling persists as I play more.

Free to a Good Home

Love them or hate them, Epic Games has chosen to use free game giveaways as one of their strategies to lure in potential video game buyers.  If you're a skeptic, like me, your first reaction is usually to scoff and think thoughts along the lines of "they're probably giving away trash!"  Or, fun old-fashioned maxims like "you get what you pay for!"  And, in this case, you're paying for nothing, so the likely outcome is...a big, pile of nothing.  News flash though--they actually give away some games that can turn out to be fun.  They've also given away some big name titles (I mean, they aren't giving away anything that's a recent release) like Grand Theft Auto IV and Sid Meier's Civilization 6 (I snatched up Civ for reasons I can't fully comprehend--I am horrible at 4X games and usually give up on them very quickly).  I have grabbed a number of free titles in a number of different genres and, someday I might actually play them all (one of my free grabs didn't pan out--I tried to love Kingdom Come:  Deliverance and just couldn't do it).  One title in particular manages to grab me in a very strange way...the kind of way where I will obsessively play it and it gets a bit weirdly consuming.  I grabbed Surviving Mars at some point in the recent past, added it to my library, then decided to test it out this last summer (and then forgot to write it up).  I've spent the last few days obsessively trying not to ruin my Mars colony and I can definitely say that for a game that I received for free, it's fun (in an odd way I hope to explain).

Surviving Mars is a sort of strategy, survival/management simulation game that challenges you to create and grow a colony on Mars.  Creating a functioning colony isn't an easy task though and probably the biggest challenge in the game is trying to think at least one step ahead.  Your first task is to lay the groundwork for the basic infrastructure in your colony--you will need resources; then you will need to use those resources to build basic life support systems (oxygen and water); then, you finally get to the big first step...building your first dome--the basic Mars habitat where colonists will live, work, and hopefully thrive.  After you've finished getting your basic colony on its feet you have to manage all the growing pains that come with a bigger, more populous colony--how's your food supply?  Can it support a bump in population?  What about water and oxygen?  Will you need more power?  It's a constant litany of issues to consider, but watching your tiny colony grow into a thriving Martian empire (empire might be a bit of a strong word, growing your colony beyond a few hundred colonists is a serious task) is very engaging.

Part of my colony.  Features the Mega-Tridome

Pros:

+ Lots of tutorials.  Sometimes survival/management games can sort of throw you to the wolves, but Surviving Mars has a number of great tutorial features.  There is an optional tutorial selection on the main menu screen that lets you practice with many of the game mechanics before you start and there are also in-game pop-up screens that offer help.  I've only had to Google once!  If you're too leet for tutorials, you can completely close and skip them.

+ Controls are easy to use and understand.  Everything is categorized in a way that makes things easy to find.  A convenient right-click brings up the build menus with all the various options located under specifically themed classifications--infrastructure, production, life support, etc.

+ Multiple scenario choices with varying difficulty.  You can choose a sponsor (which establishes a set of goals for you to achieve and also will grant you a base amount of cash.  Sponsors also include a variable--for example, I picked the USA as my mission sponsor and they grant a periodic $500 million in funding.  Other sponsors offer their own perks.); you can choose a special "event" from a vague list of descriptions (that does helpfully indicate difficulty) that will randomly occur (I picked one where a series of metallic spheres floated around the map and would periodically fixate on my settlements...causing issues.  I had to research a way to wrangle the spheres onto special containment devices because the more energy they sapped the stronger they became and they would freeze everything in their vicinity); and you can pick the site for your base.  Picking a good site can be tricky--some areas are more prone to specific challenges (like meteor and/or dust storms) or are more difficult to build on due to rocky terrain or might only offer a limited amount of certain resources.  There's a lot of replayability built into the scenario options.

+ Challenges you to think ahead.  In order to be successful you have to figure out what the next major need in your colony will be.  In my most recent scenario I has just managed to get my colony into a comfortable almost self-sufficient state--then, thanks to a boost in comfort (and a lack of attention on my part), my colonists had a bit of a baby boom.  All of a sudden my colony population had shot way up and my comfortable food supply cushion started to disappear.  I had to quickly scramble to build up a new dome with a functioning farm and to use supply pods and rockets to slightly pad my food supply and hope that things could hold out.  Basically, there's always a crisis looming on the horizon and ultimate success rests on your ability to avoid it.

+ Specific mission goals to work toward.  Once you've picked your sponsor there are several different goals that you can work toward.  Meeting the goals set out by the mission sponsor will provide you with rewards--I met an early goal in my scenario and was rewarded with 5 free supply pods.  Generally, there are some good rewards--I've netted a free megadome which is great (megadomes are very resource spendy).  There are also colony specific milestones that don't vary from scenario to scenario--these reward a research boost and are generally rewarded for achieving specific population numbers.  Getting to 1,000 colonists takes some serious patience.

+ Periodic disasters and challenges.  Meteor storms can last for several days and drop deadly chunks of rock (on the plus side, sometimes those rocks are metallic or polymer and can be harvested) at various locations.  Dust devils can pop up and disable buildings or your rovers.  Life on Mars isn't easy.

+ Martian terrain looks cool.  Each map has the barren, red planet feeling that was clearly inspired by the images sent back by NASA landers.  Depending on the site you choose for your base you could also be battling difficult terrain--lots of rocky areas to clear or plateaus that require long ramps (ramps are the worst...they take forever to build).  

+ Multiple in-game radio stations give the music some fun variety.  There's not a ton of variety--there are 3 or 4 different stations, but they're kind of fun and feature music that can be kind of space-western to just more sci-fi/electronic.  There are even DJ's to make it feel like actual radio.

+ Different gameplay modes.  Other than the default mission mode there is also a challenge mode (which features maps with specific goals that must be met within a certain timeframe) and a creativity mode which lets you create your own colony without any fear of catastrophe.  There's a wide range of gameplay to suit games who run the gamut from casual to hardcore.

Cons:

- Slower style gameplay.  It's not an RTS that's fast-paced and requires you to make a jillion keystrokes.  Especially at the beginning when you're getting everything set up, it can feel quite slow.  Part of the challenge lies in the fact that if you push too fast you'll run into some sort of supply headache.  I think this could be a turn off for people who are lack patience or who are hoping for something that's very quick.  

- Certain tasks and abilities can be difficult to navigate.  I find navigating between my various domes to be a bit of a hassle at times--especially with things spread out the way they are on my current map.  Moving colonists can get quite tedious as there is no easy way to simply click into the place where you want to move them.  There is some micromanaging required in making sure that your colonists wind up living in the correct location (they lost -10 performance if they don't live in the dome where they work).  There's no easy way to shuffle people around.  

- There's really no "I win" moment.  You get rewards for accomplishing your sponsor goals and a little pop-up about hitting milestones, but basically you could play your colony forever.  It's open-ended and some people might have a problem with that.

Recommendation:

If you're looking for a slower paced, but still challenging strategy/management game with a fun Mars theme, Surviving Mars is a great option.  However, I don't think it's the kind of game that everyone will love--there's a lot of watching and analyzing, and we all know that patience isn't really much of a gaming virtue (although....it sort of is--stealth games, I'm looking at you).  It manages to suck me in and keep me playing, but I usually hit a point where I start getting a bit bored.

For a game that I paid $0 for, I've really enjoyed Surviving Mars.

A Rip, Tearin' Good Time--Doom: Eternal

I'm fresh off finishing my playthrough of Doom: Eternal and it's time to write up my thoughts.  A tinge of adrenaline is still pumping through my veins because the final fights are a real doozy and finishing them up felt very good.  And, even though I've finished up the campaign, there's still more to be done!

To summarize my playthrough--I chose the default difficulty (Hurt Me Plenty) and played through the entire campaign but didn't touch the multiplayer (which looks interesting).  I ended up re-playing almost all of the levels before finishing the campaign because I misunderstood some of the re-play mechanics (I will get to that) so my total played time is probably not a good reflection of how long it would take to play through the campaign--I would estimate a single playthrough will take you between 20-24 hours (of course that depends on if you spend time trying to find collectibles of just speed through the missions).

Pros:

+ Core gameplay is familiar, but improved.  Your ultimate task is to shoot a bunch of demons, stagger them, and then loose a stunning variety of glory kills onto them.  The improved part comes in the fact that the movement in Eternal just felt...smoother, somehow.  It actually really threw me off at first and I was constantly running past demons and having a hard time adjusting.

+ Each level features multiple set combat encounters and they are all an orgy of demon-slaying.  Completing a gore nest is Doom (2016) could be a bit crazy, but Eternal took that concept and then multiplied it...by a lot.  Each wave of demons that spawn makes every encounter feel just a little bit desperate--your ammo is low--chainsaw!  Your health is low--glory kill!  Cooldowns!  It's a constant flow of violence and figuring out the best way to scramble around the area.  Each combat encounter has an arena-like feel and is packed with tons of nooks and crannies to find--there are jump pads, monkey bars (a new addition), and portals to help you dash away from the demon hordes.  They're a lot of fun.

+ Addition of dash ability.  Now, Doomguy has the very useful option of quickly dashing away from danger.  This ability also lends itself to platforming because it can be used while airborne to clear large gaps and navigate to climbing walls (another new feature).  The more mobile nature of movement means that levels can be more spread out and feature vertical traversal.

+ Lore with surprising depth.  I was very surprised by the story in the game--I guess I went into it with pretty low expectations, but for a game that is primarily about creatively slaughtering demons, Id has managed to create a story that involves the forces of Hell, the backstory of Doomguy, and a brand new, God-like race.

+ Environments are really great.  The levels take place in a variety of settings--the demon infested ruins of Earth, a secret, high-tech cultist lab, the ruins of a formerly great civilization, a city hidden in the core of Mars...and many more.  There's still quite a bit of gore and satanic-like influence (if that's your jam) throughout the game, but there's more than just a gooey, pile of demon refuse.

+ Challenges.  Specific levels contain special "slayer gates" which are additional combat encounters that are built to be more challenging.  To access these gates players need to find a special key hidden within the level.  Players have to use the resources they have and will lose anything they spend inside a slayer gate.  These encounters are designed to push you to use your full arsenal of slayer abilities.  Completing them all unlocks a special weapon.

+ Old, familiar weapons with a few changes.  There's really only one new weapon type--the arbalest, a crossbow-like energy weapon--and they decided to ditch the pistol (a good choice).  Like the previous games as you progress there are opportunities to earn weapon points which can be used to unlock special attacks and improvements for each weapon.  Some of the weapon options are familiar, but some have changed.  One of the most challenging parts of the weapon set up is that your weapons share an ammo pool and keeping an eye on your ammo is much more necessary than it was in Doom (2016).  You're gonna be busting out the chainsaw...a lot.

Doomguy & Bunny (2019)

+ Collectibles.  Each map is scattered with various collectibles--there are demon themed toys, records, cheat codes (funnily, they are on 3.5" floppy disks), and codex entries.  Finding them means being extra vigilant on each map and looking for breakable walls or tucked away areas.  The records unlock posters in your home base that allow you to select music from past Id games (Doom, Quake, and even the classic Commander Keen) that will play while you tool around.  The disks unlock actual cheat codes that can be enabled while you play (and there's quite a variety of options).  The fun part of the cheat codes is that they don't actually hinder your progression.  It's a fun addition to explore Doomguy's base and check out the posters (with very heavy-metal inspired artwork) and the shelves of toys.  There's also an old computer which is locked and requires a hidden code--I am fairly certain you can play classic Doom on it (I didn't look up the code).

+ Additional, cooldown based weapons.  Doomguy's suit now features a special spring-loaded blade and a shoulder-mounted flamethrower.  The blade is handy for creating a stunning variety of glory kills that involve slicing...things and the flamethrower douses demons with flame which makes them drop armor.  They also added in an ice bomb on top of the stock grenade.  Honestly, it's a lot of cooldowns to keep track of, but it gives you a lot of versatility when it comes to dealing with different demons.  Oh, and there's the blood punch--a powerful, wave-like punching ability that is powered by glory kills and can easily lay waste to a group of lesser demons or seriously damage the larger variety.

+ A mix of old demon types and new, really annoying ones.  Imps still scamper around and fling fireballs at you from afar, but they fall into the cannon fodder category--they are plentiful and convenient sources of a quick glory kill. New demons include the stupidly obnoxious Marauder--an agile, armored foe that is very difficult to hit and kill (until you figure it out...then it's still annoying, but not as anger inducing).  One new addition to the gameplay is that larger demons feature weakpoints that when disabled (through some careful aiming or nice grenade throws) greatly weaken them.

+  Upgrade system that is slightly different.  You can upgrade your suit with special tokens which are hidden throughout the game.  Each upgrade costs a certain number of tokens and is built around specific abilities--one set reduces damage from environmental hazards; another improves your grenade; there are upgrades for the ice bomb; and there are some handy navigation upgrades.  There are also special runes which will grant improved abilities much like the runes in Doom (2016)--you can have three active at a time.  A new upgrade category involves finding special crystals and is tied to your flamethrower and blood punch abilities--they also will beef up your armor, health, and ammo.

+ Warnings.  Stick with me on this one, but I am a fan of games giving you notice when something could potentially be closed off to you or might be too difficult.  I encountered a slayer gate early in the game and, after failing miserably, I was told that it was probably better to do slayer gates later on in the game (after acquiring upgrades and more weapons).  I also received adequate warning that I wouldn't be able to return to base once I started the final sequence of missions--this meant wrapping up any unlockable items in the base (including doing the slayer gates).  I appreciate this very basic feature and the fact that it saves you from the headache of realizing you should've done something earlier (it's also necessary since there aren't any manual saves).

+ Some fairly standard boss fights and then two semi-bonkers boss fights.  There were fewer boss fights than I remember in the previous game (but I think I'm probably misremembering that) but the boss fights, particularly at the end of the game, are insane.  Big boss + tons and tons of demons flying at you--I died a lot.  One nice feature of dying a lot is that the game offers to give you "sentinel armor" which buffs you and lets you take reduced damage.  This is great for times when you get stuck and absolutely cannot progress.  I'm stubborn though and opted to forgo this feature and instead just die a lot--but, I did eventually do it!

+ Replayability and additional game modes.  The option to select missions is unlockable very early in the game and offers a convenient way to find any collectibles that you missed.  There are also "master levels" which are supposed to be the same levels, but with 1000x more demons (more challenging).  I am not big on multiplayer, so I didn't check it out, but it seems to feature the ability to play as some type of demon or as Doomguy--that is...different.

Cons:

- Buggy demons.  This didn't happen extremely frequently, but it happened at least three times throughout the campaign.  Once, I had a demon get stuck on top of a platform; another time I had one get stuck on a weird, ledge-like area; and the last time an Arachnotron wedged itself into a weird nook where I couldn't shoot it (and it was clearly stuck).  In some regards, this can be nice--you can kill them while they're stuck.  In others, like my Arachnotron situation, you have to reload a checkpoint.

- Crashes.  Oddly, I had no crashes while I was playing through the main campaign.  However, when I went back to re-play the levels, I started having frequent crashes.  One of the suggested fixes was turning off the Steam overlay, so I tried it and it solved the crashing issue.

- Soundtrack isn't as epically heavy metal as Doom (2016).  If I remember correctly, there was some kind of dispute with the composer and the heavy metal-esque stuff ended up not being fully complete (there is definitely a metal feeling to some sequences).  The music is still good, but it's not 2016 good.

Recommendation:

If you enjoyed Doom style demon slaying (circa 2016), the formula has been tweaked, and improved.  There are chaotically charged combat encounters that feel frantic but are very fun to complete.  The glory kills are sadistically violent (break a demons arm, tear off that arm, and then cram it into said demons, big, ugly mouth) but oh, so enjoyable (if you're not a fan of violent video games you probably want to give anything Doom a fairly wide margin).  It's blood-pumping madness, but dammit, it's fun.

Rip, Tear....and, Collect?

I've spent a bunch of time the last couple of weeks enjoying the cathartic experience of Doom: Eternal.  I'm not quite done with the main campaign and am attempting to replay levels to find collectibles I missed and complete challenges.  In general, I'm not a big FPS enthusiast, but Doom (2016) was just so much fun that I couldn't pass up the chance to violently destroy more demons.  And wooo, boy, are there more demons to murder in Doom: Eternal!

My first impressions of the game were a bit mixed.  One of the things that I immediately noticed is that the learning curve and difficulty at the beginning of the game is a tad brutal.  Let's just say that I was dying a lot and had reached a point of frustration.  Luckily, I stuck with it and now that I've beefed up Doomguy's suit, runes, and arsenal...I feel more like the demon slaying badass from 2016.  (I'm not playing on some uber-difficulty either--I opted for "hurt me plenty" which is the default difficulty)  If you find yourself dying a ton in the beginning of the game, don't panic, it does get easier, but it does take awhile.

So, what has changed in this newest iteration of the classic FPS Doom?  For one thing, Doomguy has beefed up his demon-slaying arsenal by adding in some suit-based goodies--his Praetor Suit now includes an arm mounted, spring-loaded blade and a shoulder-mounted flamethrower.  The blade is used to add a stunning amount of gory variety to glory kills--now, instead of merely enjoying punching some exploding heads (which you do still get to enjoy) you can also bask in the magic of slicing demons into fun size chunks or skillfully jabbing their vulnerable eyeballs, hearts, or explodey-bits.  Some of the best glory kills involve chopping parts off of demons and then smacking them with their own arms or wings--it's violent, but oh so fun.  The flamethrower attachment adds in the ability (on a cooldown timer) to periodically douse a group of demons in a curtain of fire.  Burning demons drop armor and will drop even more armor if you glory kill them.  It's a handy way to quickly refill your depleted armor.

The other big change is the fact that Doomguy is much more agile with the addition of a quick recharging dodge that also serves as a gap clearing mechanism.  The dodge is useful for quickly getting out of hairy combat situations and putting some distance between Doomguy and the absolute hordes of demons that he faces.  But, with increased power, comes increased responsibility and there are some sequences of light platforming (I'm going to call it light, because most of the sequences aren't too difficult).  I've read some mixed impressions about the addition of platforming--some people have been very turned off by it because it hasn't been a traditional part of Doom.  Personally, I find that the platforming sequences add some variety to levels that help make them seem less linear (although they are linear).

The core of the gameplay is largely the same--you deck out Doomguy with an arsenal of weapons, you blast demons until they are staggered, and then you get to enjoy slicing them into chunks or punching their ugly faces off.  The maps in Eternal have quite a bit of variety this time around--you're not always journeying through a bloody, satanic, cesspool but might find yourself in the ruins of an ancient city or a futuristic base.  They decided to get rid of the physical gore nests and instead there are specific parts of the map with fixed combat encounters that function much like the gore nests--you face massive waves of varying demons and have to do your best to survive.  One of the other major challenges I struggled with early in the game was ammo--you'll probably find yourself pretty thirsty for ammo and have to be ready to bust out the chainsaw for ammo refills (I rarely used the chainsaw in Doom 2016).  In general, I've felt like the levels are longer than in the previous game and that the set encounters are much more chaotic--you will face huge numbers of demons and have to be ready to scramble around the area and to manage your various cooldowns (the downside of having more in your arsenal means more cooldowns to manage).

Another notable change to combat is the fact that larger demons have weak points--vulnerable areas that can greatly reduce the amount of damage they do.  For example, the new, part-spider, part-robot enemy, the Arachnotron, features a large cannon mounted on top of its bulging cranium--shooting that cannon will destroy it and render the Arachnoton much less dangerous (it can't shoot you from range, but that doesn't mean it can't still kill you).  These weakpoints are difficult to hit as most of the demons that feature a weakpoint are fairly agile and like to jump around.  Demons that feature weakpoints hit like a truck though, so it's generally in your best interest to take the time to carefully aim.

Doomguy has a nice place to kick back.

A fun feature is the fact that Doomguy now has a home base where he can hang up his shotgun and kick back and relax.  In between missions you have a chance to return to this floating fortress and use resources you collect during the missions to unlock upgrades located throughout the base.  There are several different items hidden throughout each level--you can find demon-themed toys (akin to the Doomguy toys from 2016), records that unlock music from classic Doom, Quake, and other Id games (weirdly including Commander Keen--a very fun game I remember from my childhood), and codex entries that reveal the much more complicated lore (yes, there's actual lore!) present in the new game.

I am hoping to finish up Doom: Eternal soon and write up a full review.  So far, I'm having a demon-punching good time.

How the Sausage is Made--Not For Broadcast

Last weekend, Steam decided to offer up a quick, weekend Halloween themed sale.  I decided to knock a couple of spots off of my wishlist and grabbed Doom: Eternal and then waffled about buying a lower priced, more indie title (I generally like to grab a game that falls into more of a standard fare category and one that's a bit quirky and can offer something different).  After scrolling through the numerous indies that populate my wishlist, I decided to go with Not for Broadcast.

Not for Broadcast offers you the chance to go behind the scenes and play video editor for a fictional news program.  The core of the gameplay hinges around your ability to multi-task--you need to manage four different cameras, be ready to quickly censor any naughty words that might tumble from the mouths of many of the colorful guests, pick which advertisements will play during commercial breaks, and occasionally try to time camera changes to the tune of whatever random musical number is being performed or played.

There's also potentially some choice based elements that somehow influence the outcome in the game (I haven't quite figured it out).  In between broadcasts you are presented with text-based scenarios that revolve around the events revealed during the newscasts.  You get to choose how you want to deal with these events.

The game is set in Britain and many of the events depicted on the fictional news station revolve around the election of a new political party that is seeking to radically redistribute wealth.  On the very first broadcast you have to edit the major announcement from the whacky leaders of this party--a very serious woman and a very drunken older man who likes to keep you ready to smash the censor button--as they announce that they will be seizing the income of the wealthiest members of society and spreading it around.  It's fictional class warfare that plays out in a very silly way.  You get to choose how you present the ideas of this new party--you can choose to play the party advertisements during commercial breaks (or not); periodically you get to choose the images for headlines and you can either choose to pick favorable ones or ones that are less flattering.  Do you toe the party line or do you take a more rebellious stance?  The text-based scenarios that play out between broadcasts also challenge you to decide how you will deal with the challenges in the fictional world--Advent has revoked passports for the 1% and your brother-in-law shows up at your house asking if he can use yours to flee to country...do you give it to him?  Your son wants to join a new Advent "youth club" (umm, freaky?) and wants you to sign his permission slip?  Do you do it?

Through multiple broadcast scenarios you get to see how things  play out as people deal with the political upheaval.  On top of that, other whacky events also start impacting the nation (which I won't reveal because they are spoiler-y).  Let's just say that the 1% are not thrilled about their new status and things start getting chaotic.

Pros:

+ Gameplay is relatively simple, but to truly master it is challenging.  Each broadcast scenario is scored with a letter grade based on how well you've managed to edit it--to earn higher scores you need to make sure you're frequently switching shots (basically, you don't want to sit on one camera for more than 10 seconds) and how well you're managing to keep the shot on whoever is doing the talking (which can be quite chaotic).  On top of that you need to make sure that you're censoring any foul language used by the hosts or their many...interesting...guests.  There's a lot to manage and it can be quite hectic, but it's fun.

+ Manages to have a somewhat serious story but also to just be extremely goofy.  In one broadcast a group of high school students perform a truly horrible skit and musical number that is so cringey that you will be laughing.  In a sports-themed broadcast a very odd game with completely nonsensical rules is being played (and then gets stormed by a group of naked, rich protestors which means you have to do some quick editing to avoid any...parts...being broadcast live).

+ After you complete a broadcast you have the option of viewing the content you just produced.  It's enjoyable to see the finished product and does make you feel like you have legitimate skills (you don't).  There's also a fun option to be able to watch content that occurred on cameras that you weren't broadcasting--it gives you more insight into the story and just more silly scenarios to experience.

+ There are choices to be made throughout the different scenarios and they can impact what you see on the broadcasts.  I am still not completely clear about how much your choices impact the broadcasts--I played through the scenarios and made different choices but didn't see a big difference (I'm not sure that I picked enough divergent options though).  There's replayability built into the gameplay.

+ Challenge modes.  After you've completed the full scenario (what's currently available) you unlock a variety of challenges that revolve around editing scenarios with certain restrictions in place.  In one scenario all helpful labeling on the broadcast booth is removed; in another there's an electrical short that means you have to be selective about which buttons you press (or you get zapped to death); and there are many more.

Cons:

- I didn't have any serious crashing, but I did have a couple of crashes.  Some of the broadcasts take awhile to play through so it could be quite frustrating to have to go back and replay them.  I enjoyed the gameplay a lot though so I wasn't too troubled by having to replay.

- It's currently in early access and is only partially complete.  The pandemic has also set back their production schedule.  The good news is that the second part of the game seems to be back in production.  As with any early access games, it's a work in progress.

Final thoughts:

If you're a fan of unique games that have something new to offer, I would recommend checking out Not for Broadcast.  Even though it's in early access, and isn't complete, it's a breath of fresh air.  The gameplay is a lot of fun and the stories within the game are a perfect balance between being serious and being goofy.  I'm looking forward to the second part of the game being added and to find out what happens in faux-Britain.

Outrage is Now

First of all, happy Halloween to everyone out there!  Steam decided to launch a Halloween sale in honor of the spooky holiday and many halloween-esque titles are currently being offered at a discount.  I've been trying to decide what I should scoop up--I'm feeling strong Doom: Eternal vibes because it has been awhile since I punched a demon and then tore its stupid face off (current mood, btw).  Part of me feels guilty about my recent foray and then betrayal of CrossCode, so I think I'm going to try to soldier through it and maybe grab Doom: Eternal for later.  Choices, choices.

The big gaming news story this week was another delay to the much hyped Cyberpunk 2077.  In typical fashion, CD Projekt rolled out the news and people immediately started freaking out.  Then, in typical abhorrent internet idiot fashion, death threats to the developers started flowing to CD Projekt.  Let me just state it here, that kind of behavior is loathsome--I love games, I have been highly anticipating Cyberpunk since I first saw the concept trailer several years ago, but in the end, it's a game!  Your life isn't going to end because the release of a video game got pushed back twenty-one days.  I saw a range of responses from "meh, as long as it's stable/playable upon release," to people being upset because they had scheduled days off to play on release.  I don't quite know how to feel about the days off thing...I guess I am past the age (and it's just a huge pain in the arse to take a day off of teaching) where I would consider trying to take time off work to play a game.  There were also some salty reposts of a past Tweet (from the last delay) where someone asked CD Projekt to promise the game wouldn't be delayed again, and of course, they promised.  The delay seems to have its roots in the fact that they are trying to make sure the game is stable on all platforms--this includes the upcoming next gen consoles.  So, have some patience people, we'll get it when we get it.  You really have to consider the current circumstances too--we're in the middle of a pandemic, people are working from home, we're lucky to be getting it at all.  If I remember correctly, The Witcher 3 was delayed a few times.  The plus side of that situation was that it was very stable upon release--I remember very few, if any bugs.  I would much rather wait and have that than go through the frustration of a crashing, buggy, sloppy mess of a release.

A patient with Soiled Self.

With that unpleasant bit of news out of the way, I've largely been spending my gaming time playing through the "Culture Shock" DLC for Two Point Hospital.  I three-starred the final hospital last night, so I've finished the whole she-bang.  The second map in the DLC is the Mudbury Festival.  Mudbury is a wave based map, but they decided to make it different from past wave based maps.  Rather than slowly increasing the percentage of patients you need to cure each wave, they decided to have a bunch of random objectives.  Some waves might require you to train a certain number of staff; some waves require you to upgrade machines; some waves require the dreaded "hospital attractiveness" and you'll spend your time plopping down a number of yucca plants that will then be neglected--it changes every time.  The most challenging parts of this map though were the waves that would throw a large number of patients at you with a specific type of disease that needed to be cured.  One wave had 20 patients with Stunt Trouble and 20 patients with Soiled Self (a new disease where patients look like some kind of muddy, swamp creature) and you had to cure all of them (in a wave of 80 total patients).  Basically, to be successful at Mudbury you need to be ready to quickly copy rooms, to have a large staff to potentially staff these additional rooms, and to prioritize the objective patients.  It took me several tries to get past this tricky wave, but I did finally manage it.  The final wave (to get a three star rating) is a real doozy--you have to cure 40 patients with Soiled Self.  This is particularly challenging because diagnosing it can be tricky--for some weird reason patients seem to only be diagnosed through psychiatry or general diagnosis.  Your best bet for success is throwing down some extra GP offices, about 4-5 general diagnoses, an extra psychiatry, and 5-6 Wash Pits.  It might take you a few tries, but you will eventually get it.

The Wash Pit helps soiled patients get squeaky clean!

The final map in "Culture Shock" is a bit of a weird one.  It takes place in the fashionable Fitzpocket mansion and involves a new-ish gameplay mechanic--there is a set of criteria that impacts the amount of funding you receive.  In order to receive full funding you must do the following:  keep visiting VIP's happy, cure a high percentage of patients, work quickly to diagnose and treat patients, make your hospital attractive, and also score a high room prestiege score.  The percentage that you earn is based on how well you do all these things and is assessed on a three-month basis.  On top of that there is challenge in the fact that you start off with a very small hospital area and have to purchase additional real estate.  The most challenging part of this map is funding related--if you don't keep Zara happy and get her to pay at 100% or higher you're going to be scraping together pennies to try to do simple things like train your staff or build new rooms (there's a wide variety of diseases on this map).  There's also the challenge of trying to root out the paparazzi (the alien imposter-like annoyances) who are trying to crash the party.  They are noticeable by their flashing cameras and will clog up your diagnosis rooms unless you take care to boot them out.

The new cure room for treating Private Parts.

If you enjoyed Two Point Hospital, "Culture Shock" is a chance to spend more time gleefully managing a few new scenarios.  It adds some new objects, new diseases, and new challenges.  If you're hoping that it's a massive change to the base game, it's not that.  I enjoyed it and found Mudbury to be the most challenging of the new scenarios.  At $8, I feel like it was money well spent.

Oh CrossCode, I Will Never Finish You

I was feeling fairly proud of myself last week for dusting off CrossCode, a game I had started, played through for a decent chunk of time, and then had shelved.  Then, I had some internet issues (no internet or phone service for two days....) and also got some unexpected DLC news for one of my favorite silly management games, Two Point Hospital.  The new DLC, "Culture Shock," was being released in just a few days!  The scent of burning plastic was intense as I whipped out my credit card to grab the newest addition to my sprawling hospital mega-industry.  Prior to my internet cutting out I had moved into a brand new zone in CrossCode and had also found myself stumped by a puzzle.  After trying to solve the dang thing for 30-45 minutes (and I had figured out 3/4ths of it!) I decided to go to bed and that I would look up the solution in the morning.  The morning came and the internet went and my motivation to finish the puzzle went with it.  I fully intend to finish CrossCode....some day.

But let's talk about the newest DLC for Two Point Hospital, "Culture Shock."  The DLC is set on a series of maps that are designed to have an artistic theme--the first map takes place on a movie lot; the second map takes place on the scene of an outdoor music festival and I haven't quite unlocked the third map yet.  I am guessing the third map will angle more toward the hospital attractiveness goals.

Dr. Roderick Cushion at your service!

The first scenario has a fun map that is set on the location of Plywood Studios, a functioning movie studio--you get to build your hospital next to a giant, mechanical shark in a pool (very Jaws-esque) and other movie themed set pieces.  The first scenario challenges you to build a hospital that is actually the set for a reality hospital show featuring none other than the famous film star Roderick Cushion!  Roderick is playing the role of an actual doctor, so you're required to have him on staff.  Having a famous movie star on staff isn't all it's cracked up to be--Roderick Cushion is untrained, has an insanely high salary, and isn't content to share the staff room so will retreat to his private trailer so he can properly rest (which means he takes very long breaks and has to walk across the entire map).  While the medical drama plays out, the shows producers will periodically propose events to add drama to the show and not all of them are positive--sometimes they will offer you a bonus if Roderick cures some patients and other times they want machines to explode (I allowed this to happen once....the bonus was more than the cost to replace the machine).  As an added challenge, fans can periodically leave reviews for the show that can impact your reputation--let's just say that they're mostly negative and it takes awhile to build reputation.

A patient with Stunt Trouble waits outside the cure room.

Every new Two Point DLC features a few new diseases that include new cure rooms.  The first of these that I encountered on the Plywood Studios map is called "stunt trouble."  Patients afflicted with stunt trouble can be seen wearing Evel Knievel-like outfits and pretending to ride a motorcycle.  To cure these patients you must allow them to act out their dare devil desires by allowing them to ride a fake motorcycle through a set of faux flaming rings.  There are also several other new diseases that have visual cues--some patients present with giant, pixelated glasses on; others are wearing one of those weird green screen outfits covered with little white balls (from motion capture); and one where patients have a giant pencil sticking out of their heads (writers block!).

A new added challenge is trying to impress the resident art critic Zara Fitzpocket.  Like other celebrity guests she periodically asks to be invited into your hospital so that she can inspect your artistic flair.  I generally get around to fully decorating my hospital, but my artistic sensibilities weren't enough to impress Fitzpocket.  I'm guessing you need to place a dazzling array to sculptures, paintings, and other artistic features to adequately gain her praises.

I played Plywood Studios to three stars and have now moved on to the second map, Mudbury.  Mudbury takes place on the scene of a music festival and it's your job to provide medical care to the various waves (yep, it's another wave based challenge) of festival-goers who are afflicted with a wide array of health issues.  The wave based maps are always kind of fun, but also a bit obnoxious due to the fact that your income can vary quite wildly due to the massive influx of patients and then the relative calm as they go through the diagnosis and treatment process.  Mudbury seems like it might be a bit different because the goals they want you to accomplish on each wave aren't necessarily built around cure rate.

If you're a Two Point Hospital fan like me, check out "Culture Shock" and enjoy some relaxing hospital management.  

Pulling a Title off the Pile of Shame

 I've been spending my gaming time this past week between a couple of different pursuits--namely the excellent roguelike Hades and the game-within-a-game CrossCode.  I've also been keeping my eye on gaming news and have seen some eye catching tidbits.  One of my favorite silly management sims, Two Point Hospital, is getting another DLC!  The "Culture Shock" DLC offers up three new hospitals with a sort of artistic theme and boasts of more new illnesses than previous DLC's.  I will definitely be scooping it up!  I've also been excitedly watching any and all news from CyberPunk 2077--it's getting close, so exciting!

If you were someone who played Hades during early access and then walked away (something that I did), I would highly recommend returning to the full release.  The story has been fleshed out and now there is more to encourage your repeat trips through the underworld.  I generally get bored with roguelikes within a few hours but I have been going strong with Hades.  SuperGiant has brilliantly placed small chunks of the story and characters at the beginning and end of each effort to escape.  There's something there for different types of gamers--for those who simply want the challenge of fighting out of the underworld there are modifiers to increasingly make those escape attempts even more challenging.  For the players who are more interested in the more story based aspects of the game there is "God Mode."  God Mode makes Zagreus stronger with each death which allows players who might struggle with the combat related parts of the game to enjoy getting to see the story without the frustration of repeatedly dying over and over.

I've been playing on normal mode and I've noticed some changes--one that I've been enjoying is that fountains are more likely to appear during escape attempts (once you're purchased the upgrade, of course).  I rarely got fountains during early access.  They've also added in even more fun cosmetic items to spice up the House of Hades!  Give it a play, you won't regret it!

Even thought I'm having fun with Hades, I will generally play 1-2 escape attempts per session before I'm ready for a break.  I decided it was time to revisit a game that I had put a bit of time into several years ago and had then shelved.  CrossCode is a sort of action/adventure/pixel game that is set in the world of an MMO.  One of the fun parts of the game is all the MMO related references and jokes--it has a serious story, but the world is filled with characters and elements that will make anyone who has spent time playing MMO's chuckle.  I'm looking forward to trying to finish it and checking a title off the list of the pile of shame.

Inching Up--Finishing my Third Andromeda Playthrough

 Just last night I finished my third full Mass Effect:  Andromeda playthrough.  I've found that with every completion that I generally walk away feeling slightly more positive about the game.  Even after three mostly completionist playthroughs (I did not attempt to complete all the optional side tasks because I get irritated at the mostly random nature of actually finding them) Andromeda just doesn't quite stack up to the original ME trilogy.  Just a note that this might be a bit spoiler-y for those who haven't played Andromeda yet.

Things that still bug the k-rap out of me:

--I am still completely boggled by the plot hole around the use of mass relays.  In the OT a very central part of the story is the use of mass relays to facilitate almost instantaneous travel throughout the galaxy.  There are multiple plot problems with the mass relays:  1.) they were created by an alien race in the Milky Way 2.) according to the ending in ME3 they all were destroyed when Shepard used the Crucible (this in itself is a big plot problem because in earlier games it is mentioned that destroying a mass relay will release enough energy to annihilate an entire star system) and even though the technology was being researched it still wasn't fully understood 3.) THERE ARE NO MASS RELAYS IN ANDROMEDA...and yet, the Tempest can travel between systems.  There's absolutely no explanation for this, and I suppose that if you're a new player it's something you wouldn't even be aware of.

--Minor gameplay issues.  Let me list them:  1.) the weird camera angles that make it difficult to hear dialogue when in a conversation 2.) I seriously wish mining zones would appear on your map in a marked zone as opposed to one marker that requires you to puzzle out their boundaries 3.) I may have missed it through all three playthroughs but a hotkey for quick weapon swaps 4.) the annoying layout of Kadara--why the swapping between zones and the stupidly slow doors? 5.) companions who are almost completely useless in combat 6.) occasionally weird facial animations for Ryder.  I could probably think of more, but I digress....

--The main storyline is weak in comparison to the OT.  I am always amazed at how short it really is and how unsatisfying the ending is. There has always been a part of me that feels like they followed the "formula" for a ME game a bit too closely--If there are future games I hope they try for something a bit more unique.

Things that I enjoy:

--Beautiful worlds to explore.  ME1 had a nice space exploration feeling but the other games in the trilogy were much more focused on more story based aspects.  I am glad that Andromeda returned the series to the wonders of exploring a new galaxy.  Tooling around in the Nomad across the various worlds in the Heleus cluster is enjoyable.

--Combat in Andromeda is better (in some regards!) than in the previous games.  It's much more mobile and Ryder feels like a combat badass.  With that said though, I do miss the ability to issue commands to followers and to more effectively utilize the combo system.  It is almost impossible to get your  companions to do what you want them to do in combat and they end up dead more often than not.

--Companion banter is funny and helps to bring some levity to periods of exploration.  It's fun to swap out squadmates and see where the conversation ends up.

Jaal's romance is 🔥😘❤

--A wide variety of romantic choices.  This time around I chose Jaal as the partner for my Ryder and it's always fun to see how the relationship plays out.  Lemme just say here that the Jaal romance has one of the spicier romantic scenes--it made me laugh because I remember the controversy over ME1 and the fact that Shepard could hook up with Liara (there was an actual news story about it because some people were very scandalized by the entire concept).  Well, good thing those people have moved on from worrying about fictional alien/human sexual relationships in video games because I think Jaal and Ryder would cause them some internal panic. 🔥🔥🔥 It's also interesting that they threw in the option for casual hook-ups (which I haven't really checked out due to my innate fear of messing up relationships).  The relationship aspect has always been something I enjoy and Andromeda does it well.

In conclusion, a silly hypothetical ME question:

If you asked me "would you rather have an OT remaster or a new Andromeda game" I would lean decidedly toward a new Andromeda game.  It's not that I don't absolutely love the OT, but I am highly skeptical of remasters--most of them feel like simply slapping a new layer of paint on the game in an effort to make more cash.  The OT remaster rumors have been popping up occasionally and I always take them with a grain of salt.  If they decided to offer the remaster for free to people who already own the original games I would snatch them up in a heartbeat.  If there was an option for a remake of ME1 where they fixed the wonky-ass combat...maybe, just maybe I would think about spending some cash.

It saddens me that Andromeda never got DLC and that there are major cliffhangers (the benefactor?  the murder of Jien Garson?  the Kett Primus?  the Quarian Ark?) that could possibly never be answered.  My hope for the survival of BioWare and any future ME games is hanging on the upcoming Dragon Age game--if it does well I think there's a chance we could possibly see another Andromeda game. 

Space Magic

The bad news is that lately I haven't had a ton of time to spend gaming.  I've been halfway paying attention to gaming news but haven't seen much of note.  I'm excitedly eyeballing the recent full release of Hades and looking forward to diving back into the roguelike Greek underworld.  For now though, I'm continuing to spend my time playing through Mass Effect:  Andromeda.

Pre-terraformed Kadara is a bit hellish, but still pretty.

Last week I spent time feeling annoyed with some minor design flaws in Andromeda, but this week I am feeling more positive about my experiences in the game.  One of the things that I do enjoy about Andromeda is the beauty of the settings within the game--whether you're in the desert splendor of Eos or the icy, wastes of Voeld, the planets look great.  I've been pondering which planet is my favorite from the game and I would lean toward Kadara.  There's something beautiful about the way they made the planet have a slightly grassy feeling but combined it with an almost aquatic/coral reef type of environment.  I also always have a soft spot for the less reputable planets and settings--they're just more fun!  Sure, Kadara might be crawling with outlaws and criminals, but that just gives it  more personality.

The perennial "hardest decision" in ME games has also rolled around--to romance or not to romance, that is the question.  My former Ryders have struck up relationships with various crew members (namely Liam and Peebee) so I've been trying to branch out to the other romances that I haven't experienced yet.  This time around I decided it was time to strike up a relationship with Jaal, the squishy, pink, Angaran sniper.  I have read that it's one of the sweeter romances in Andromeda, but I'm in the early stages and haven't seen much of it play out just yet.  It always feels a bit weird to romance the alien members of the crew (with the exception of the Asari who are very human-like).

I've also finally got to the point in my playthrough where vanguard has gotten much more enjoyable--my charge ability fully refills my shields so I can blast across the battlefield and shotgun blast almost everything (architects excluded) right in the face.  It's highly enjoyable...would recommend (even though early going vanguarding was pretty painful).  My Ryder is now an official shotgun wielding badass (*although not really much of a badass because I just can't play real "badasses"--paragon all the way).

Overall, I'm having fun with Andromeda.  Sure, there are things you can diss, but when push comes to shove, I generally find that I'm completely absorbed in what I'm doing in the game.  So, if you're one of the people asking "should I play Andromeda," the answer is yes, you should play it (I follow a popular ME fan group on social media and this question comes up all the time!).

Why Can't You Just Talk to Me? Irritation in Andromeda

 It was a bit of a slow gaming news week--I didn't encounter anything that piqued my interest (apparently the PS5 ordering has been a complete and utter clusterfunk, but I'm not part of that crowd), so I thought I would give some thought to my current Mass Effect:  Andromeda re-play.  I've been playing for awhile now and have settled back into the groove of the game...and, it's still mostly the mixed bag that I remember.  I've encountered some small, but nonetheless irritating issues that I vaguely remember from previous playthroughs.

Issue #1

I jog my Ryder (who looks basically identical to another Ryder I created....I'm bad at the character creator, can you be bad at that?) over to an NPC either to strike up a conversation or to turn in a mission.  My squadmates are lingering somewhere in the background when I hit the "e" button to initiate the conversation.  The NPC talks and it's fine.  Ryder talks and it's still fine.  Things get annoying when the NPC/Ryder says something and one of your squadmates responds...but, they're off in the background somewhere and the camera is fixed, so you can't hear anything that they're saying!  I'm stuck looking at the POV of my Ryder and just silently standing there....I had forgotten about this issue but now that I've encountered it multiple times, I'm freshly annoyed by it.

Should you play Andromeda?  Yes, with some warnings.

Issue #2

I've reached the point in my playthrough where I'm fighting the Remnant Architects (I like to think of them as "space dragons" because they operate on very similar principles to the dragon fights in Dragon Age:  Inquisition).  The Remnant Architect fights are designed to be boss fight-like encounters--long, drawn out rumbles with a big baddy.  My main point of irritation has to do with the fact that the encounter doesn't autosave when you take down one of the "leg" conduits.  It would be so nice if you didn't have to completely restart the encounter when you die.  Last night I was fighting the Architect on Voeld--probably my least favorite fight location in the game (you have to deal with environmental hazards and the battleground is spread out in a weird way with cramped locations offering the best cover but being difficult to move in)--and it was a huge pain in the buttocks.  Part of me wishes they had spiced up the Architect fights a bit--there is no variety in the tactics of the fight, once you master the pattern it gets very rote.

Since my current Ryder is a vanguard build, I also get irritated at how useless certain ability sets are for the Architect fights.  You really can't charge/nova at all (I'm not quite at the point where I have enough points to create a swappable ability set for just the Architect fights).  I just want to punch an Architect in the face!

Issue #3

Why, oh why, isn't it possible to swap out gear at any place in the field?  Yes, you can fast travel to a forward station (if you've found a few) but that can be a bit of a pain if you're in a new location.  I just want to be able to equip the hot new piece of loot I found!

I don't want to totally diss on Andromeda though; I've always enjoyed the combat and found it quite challenging and I find that with each new playthrough I enjoy the companions more.  It's still not the OG Mass Effect trilogy, but it's worth playing (especially now that it is available for extremely cheap).  I just wish they had fixed a few of these small, irritating things.  It's really a shame that the DLC was scrapped and that we'll never get a satisfactory end to the story.

How Long is too Long? A Story Length Query

This week I've been trying to navigate all the social media posts about people doing some version of the following:  1.) bemoaning the fact they haven't had success in ordering the PS5; 2.) gloating over the fact they were able to order a PS5 or, of the more PC variety, 3.) bemoaning the fact that they haven't had success ordering a 3000 series GPU; 4.) gloating over the fact they were able to order a 3000 series GPU.  After seeing approximately 9 billion different versions of the aforementioned posts, a couple of pieces of gaming news were able to break through.

System specs for CyberPunk 2077!

Both pieces of news are related to the highly anticipated CyberPunk 2077, which is slated to be released later this year (November-ish, I believe).  After much waiting and anticipatory gnashing of teeth, the system requirements were released (see image below).  I was pleasantly surprised as both the minimum specs and the recommended specs seen reasonable.  I know there was some concern that the game could gobble up an insane amount of disk space, but the 70 GB listed is well below what many people anticipated (I think Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey is currently gobbling up a very sizable chunk of space on my HDD).  Now everyone has a target to aim for and hopefully the rabid fanbase can get their hands on needed upgrades prior to the release

The other piece of news is related to the length of the main storyline.  According to this source, the story in CyberPunk will be shorter than the story was in The Witcher 3.  Data from player activity in TW3 revealed that many players never actually finished the main storyline and CD Projekt Red apparently wants more people to finish it.  I am a bit surprised by the fact that people didn't finish the main storyline--according to the above linked article people can finish the entire main storyline in 32 hours...if they skip all the side content.  What kind of monster does that though?!?

Personally, I've always enjoyed a big RPG and if it's well designed (as TW3 is) I'm willing to spend a lot of time playing.  I can also understand the reality that many people just don't have hundreds of hours to sink into completionist playthroughs of todays uber open-world RPG's.  I am looking forward to a long jaunt through the world of CyberPunk 2077 and fully intend to spend as much time as I can meticulously completing every bit of content.

Even though TW3 had a long story I liked how it was designed--it took you to every region in the main game and placed you in a new location at perfectly spaced intervals.  Lingering too long in one place can get tedious, so a change in scenery is needed every once in awhile.  One of my main complaints about Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey is that the absurd size of the map feels fairly pointless.  The main storyline doesn't take you to every region (although there are side quests that can draw you there) and much of the exploration based content seems a bit like needless filler (but, I'm positive that I read something Ubisoft said--that in their playtesting people actively requested the nightmare map o' symbols that seems pretty stock in their games).  I'm on board for engaging content rather than the mindless grind through map symbols that don't contribute much to the actual game.

As much as I would love to pre-order CyberPunk, I'm probably going to hold off until it has been released, gone through the early release growing pains, and is stable and has been patched (even though I don't remember many problems with TW3).  It's going to be painful, but I think I will survive.

Good luck to those of you trying to navigate the PS5/3000 series GPU ordering frenzy.  I would highly encourage you PS5 people to come to the world of PC gaming where it's not a bare knuckled brawl for hardware (the vast majority of the time).  I know you love your exclusives....but it's better over here ;)

Sitting in my Smoke Filled Room

Today it's hard to want to do anything.  The state where I live is dealing with catastrophic fires--luckily, I don't live close to any of them, but we're currently dealing with hazardous levels of smoke (the air quality index for the town where I live is so high that it's completely off the scale....by a lot).  I'm grateful to be safe and it's heartbreaking to see what has been happening throughout the West.  We're going to be contending with hazardous smoke levels all weekend and I'm currently feeling the effects--I've had an ongoing headache and my throat has started to feel very scratchy.  Even with all the windows closed and trying to barricade myself inside the smokey smell has made its way indoors.  So, I'm going to try my best to drum up something for this week even though it's hard to think.

Is the era of Andromeda hate over?

As a teacher, the first few weeks of school are generally a bit chaotic.  This year is no exception since I'm starting the year teaching fully online.  Much of my time has been spent trying to redesign everything for an online format.  I haven't had a ton of time to dedicate to gaming.  What time I have had, I've spent starting up a brand new Ryder in Mass Effect:  Andromeda.  What drew me back to this weirdly controversial title?  I guess it was a combination of seeing the "mostly positive" reviews on Steam and seeing a number of posts about Andromeda in a ME group I follow on social media.

I am fairly certain that the Ryder I designed is almost identical to one that I created in one of my previous playthroughs--I'm getting weird deja vu vibes that makes me think that I'm not very creative and will pick exactly the same features every time.  This time around I decided to play a class that I've always struggled with, vanguard.  Look, using the biotic charge ability is lots of fun, but my personal play style leans more toward shooting than punching.  I don't know if I just need more practice with using the abilities, but it seems difficult to charge into a group of enemies, then scramble back into cover before getting swiss-cheesed with bullet holes.  I also opted for some extra challenge and am playing on insanity mode (I don't know if I have finished it on insanity before) so it's a rootin'-tootin', my Ryder dying a lot, good times!

Andromeda got a ton of flak when it was released in 2017 and it's interesting that the reviews on Steam have angled toward the positive side.  I do think some of the scorn was unwarranted--the combat is fun, challenging, and much more mobile than in the original trilogy.  There are still things that bug me--the facial animation remains awkwardly wonky at certain moments--cringeworthily so, but I think there are plenty of things to enjoy.  The more open-world nature of the game is a change from the ME trilogy and lends itself to better exploration.

Part of me hopes that BioWare doesn't give up on ME and that in the future there is some resolution to the lingering questions that were left when they decided to scrap the DLC for Andromeda.  I'm keeping a wary eye on the development of the upcoming Dragon Age game as an indicator for the possibility of the continuation of the ME series.  Any way you look at it, a new ME game is probably way off in the future.

Stay safe commanders!