Back in Business

I'm continuing my trend of not playing anything new and wavering about signing up for Xbox Gamepass.  Every time I stare at the massive list of games I have accumulated on Steam I feel a crushing sense of guilt about playing the games I already have.  So, for the time being, I've returned to some of my reliable favorites.  I've quashed an almost overwhelming desire to replay The Witcher 3 for the seventh or eighth (or possibly ninth) time.  Thanks Netflix...

Currently, I've felt a desire to play management games and have decided to give the ever-expanding world of PC Building Simulator another whack.  The game has seen many changes and additions from its early days as a niche simulator game and has really turned into a nice, enjoyable management game.  Career mode has been turned into a more challenging, detail oriented process.  No longer can you just haphazardly slap random components into any job that crosses your threshold, now, you must really delve into the true meaning of the e-mails that present you with PC fixing and building jobs.

Build and repair PC's.  Rule the world.

The customers in your fictional PC shop are much pickier and more demanding.  A new-ish part of the game is the introduction of a review system for the work that you perform.  Your ultimate goal in career mode is to achieve a 5-star rating...which is no easy task.  If you miss one tiny, hidden clue as to what work a customer actually wants done you can lose one or more stars per job.  Some customers vaguely hint at the fact that their system is running slow due to malware (needs a virus scan) while most others are direct with their needs--they only want new parts in their PC or they want you to mod their cables with a specific color.  Cable modding is particularly touchy--if you miss replacing one cable you will get docked a star for that job.  I've struggled to reach 5 stars due to the fact that you have to perform a certain number (I think 25) of jobs in a row at top level.  My goal is to reach this coveted pinnacle.

I feel a special sense of affinity for PC Building Simulator due to the fact that it was a game that spurred me to try something new in real-life.  After spending many hours playing the game, I decided that I would try my hand at building my own PC.  Up until that point I had never had the confidence to imagine building my own PC and had bought all my PC's as pre-built systems.  It was a great experience and I would love to build more PC's--the sense of satisfaction gained from piecing together my own system was very rewarding and I would recommend it to anyone who has been hesitant to try it.  There are tons of great instructional videos that can aid in buying parts, building a PC, and installing software.

The Steam Lunar New Year Sale is currently offering discounts on many games and now would be the perfect time to run your own fictional PC building business.   

Better Late than Never--Cyberpunk Delayed

Very rarely do I feel extremely hyped for a big game release--I guess that with the current state of gaming that I've been burned too many times and have learned to go into any potential release with caution.  The one major release of 2020 that I've had on my radar for years is Cyberpunk 2077.  The April release date has been slowly creeping closer and closer...the excitement has been building!  Unfortunately, the major piece of gaming news this week is that the release of the highly anticipated game has been pushed back until September.

Sorry buddy, gotta wait until September.

Interestingly enough, I didn't see a ton of torches n' pitchforks being hoisted at this announcement.  For the most part, people seemed understanding (there's always going to be somebody who's unhappy no matter what).  I think this is for good reason--CD Projekt has a history of releasing very polished products and seems to be much more willing to delay than to release a game in a semi-playable state.  Many people were pointing out the fact that The Witcher 3 was delayed several times before it was released.

I, for one, am perfectly content to wait.  My memory may be imperfect, but I remember very few issues with the release of The Witcher 3.  The game ran great, I don't remember running into any crazy bugs, and it was fun to play from day one.  I think it's definitely worth it to wait for a polished final product.  My one hope is that the game isn't delayed too many times, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

So, while we're going to have to wait a bit longer to dip our toes into the world of Cyberpunk, I think it'll be worth the wait.  Happy gaming!

Subscription Madness

Is a subscription worth it?

The cool, hot trend in gaming seems to be subscription services--Origin Access and Xbox Game Pass are two prime examples.  I've been eyeballing a subscription, but feel a bit weird about actually taking the leap.  I'm going to weigh out the pros and cons in my own head in an effort to get to the bottom of my reticence to bite the bullet on a gaming subscription.

Pros:
1.) Potentially cost saving.  The cost of actually owning all the games available through various subscription services would be monumental.

2.) Access to large library of games which allows users to pick and choose exactly what they want to play.

3.) Ability to experiment with games--you can try a game and then quit if you don't like it.  I received a free month of Origin Access and found this aspect of the subscription service to be novel to me.  If I buy a game and then don't like it, I will finish it anyway (because I paid for it).  I didn't feel that same pressure with a subscription service and actually tried and quit a few games I found myself disliking. 

4.) Higher likelihood to play indies.  I often find myself interested in indies, but hesitant to lay down the cash for a game that might be fun, but also might only yield a few hours of gameplay and/or have a limited replayability value.  With a subscription, I can check out more indie games without feeling the same level of cost-benefit guilt.

5.) Can cancel subscription at own leisure.

Cons:
1.) Choices limited to subscription service library.  Generally you have a large menu to choose from, but those are your choices.

2.) Similar to streaming TV, games seem to be added/removed at random.  I suppose there could be the potential to be playing something and then having it removed from the library.

3.) Most libraries seem to include a few big titles and mostly smaller, less popular options.  I'm usually able to pick out 4-5 games I really want to play and then several that I would be interested in trying. 

4.) Actual value.  It's hard to mentally calculate whether or not a subscription will actually save you money.  You're paying monthly for the service regardless of how much you use it as opposed to purchasing a game and then having it forever.

That's the way I see this choice.  Right now I'm content just bouncing around in Two Point Hospital and Borderlands 3.  I might give a subscription a whirl in the future.

An Adventure in Oddity--Disco Elysium

I couldn't just walk away from the Steam holiday sale without making one semi-new purchase, so I decided to take a chance on Disco Elysium.  I had seen nothing but positive reviews, high praise, and GOTY exclamations about it, so it was definitely a low-risk proposition.  All-in-all, I'm happy to report that it is a great game and that I genuinely enjoyed it.

Disco Elysium is a point-and-click RPG with some quirky mechanics that help make it unique.  The most interesting mechanic is that your talents provide narration about situations and those talents are like individual personalities within your character.  Sometimes that narration is helpful and other times it encourages your bad habits.  The story itself hinges on a couple of main points--the first one being the fact that your character is suffering from a severe case of amnesia.  You start off the game waking up in your trashed hostel room in only your underwear with absolutely no idea who you are or what is happening (you don't even know your own name).  Fortunately for you some of the pieces fall into place and you are able to figure out that you're a detective who is investigating a murder.  The second part of the story is launching your investigation of the murder and trying to solve it.

Some play stats--as per usual, I tried to complete as many of the sidequests as I could.  I completed most of them, but there were a few that I couldn't complete due to various factors (like not enough talent points in certain areas).  Throughout the game there are various skill checks and I tried not to save scum too much (at the beginning, at least) so there were some that I missed that may have caused me to potentially miss a few activities.  I finished the story in 23 hours and have read that people have seen playtime range from 20-40 hours.

Pros:
+Intricately detailed world.  There are many factors at play in the story and trying to understand all of them is demanding.  The politics and history of the world in the game impact the story and characters.  The area where the game takes place has been torn apart by past wars and is plagued by poverty.  NPC's have their own attitudes, opinions, and background around these events and the complicated political systems in place.  The amount of work and writing that went into creating this world is impressive.

+Play your own way.  At the beginning of the game you can choose your base statistics and signature talent.  The talent system is interesting and hinges on four main areas--intellect, psyche, physical, and motorics.  You can choose one of the pre-built characters which have definite strengths in one area or you can create your own.  I opted to create my own because the pre-built characters leaned very heavily on one specific area and I would rather spread it out a little bit more evenly.

There are so many dialogue options.  My favorite is #2.

Along with choosing your own unique talents, there is also the option to shape your character by choosing specific responses during dialogue.  These choices are important because they do truly shape your character and by making a certain responses you gain access to special "thoughts."  These thoughts are like insights that can be researched for a certain amount of time and then provide bonuses (they can unlock certain talent checks you've failed or provide the ability to assign additional talent points to certain skills).  These bonuses can be positive or negative.  You can then choose to place these thoughts in your "thought cabinet."  The thought cabinet uses talent points to unlock slots and can contain a up to 12 different thoughts.  Luckily enough, you can also use talent points to forget thoughts...but then you've just basically lost that point.  You sort of randomly stumble upon these thoughts and part of the challenge is deciding whether to put your points into talents or thoughts.

The thoughts that you can learn widely range to personal insights about your character or can be shaped by the more political responses that your character can make (those responses fall all over the political spectrum).  I made my character into a bit of a sad sack, recovering alcoholic/drug addict, trying to just get his shit together, "I'm sorry," kind of cop.  I unlocked a thought about being the "sorriest cop on earth" because I apologized so much.  Thoughts are truly entertaining.

+Lots of exploration.  At first the area you can explore is relatively small, but as you progress other areas unlock.  Exploring helps you meet NPC's that can provide valuable information or sidequests and also allows you to find items like currency or clothing.

My character sings karaoke in his "high drama" outfit.

+Clothing/items.  Throughout the game you can find items just laying around or purchase them.  One highly important part of gameplay is your outfit.  Each item of clothing you find has specific stats (that can be positive or negative) and gathering as many different articles of clothing as you can is helpful for stacking stats for talent checks.  Some items are useful to gameplay, for example,  early on you find a plastic bag which can be used for picking up bottles to return for currency at the local convenience store.  If you're hoping to give your character a truly cool look, it's almost impossible, and the clothing choices fall toward the pathetically hilarious.

+Interesting and well-written characters.  You have the ability to interact with almost every NPC in the game and learn something about them or the general world around you.  Some characters are willing to explain the wider world (because your character can't remember anything) and some definitely don't want to talk to a cop.

+Replayability.  Re-molding your character allows you to re-experience the game over and over.  Take different talents, make your guy into a buff communist!  Or turn him into a bad cop mix of drugs and alcohol...it's your world.

+Story didn't turn out how I thought it would.  There are a lot of twists.  Your choices have an impact on what happens.

Of course you should hold your boombox and blast tunes rather
than boringly sitting in the boat.

+Your talents talk to you...and they all have different personalities, for example, the drama talent talks like a cheesy, Shakespearean wannabe.  The electrochemistry talent constantly eggs you on to take a drink or do some drugs.  Each situation is flavored by the internal commentary going on in the head of your character.  It's unique and fun.

Cons:
-Sleep mechanic that's a little whacky.  Sleep will heal your character's health and morale (which are what keeps you alive), but it's never clearly stated that you must sleep.  It's stated early on as a tip on the loading screen that most people are in bed by 2:00 A.M.  Part of the story involves the fact that you have to pay for your room in the hostel nightly.  If you don't manage to scrape together the currency each night, you don't have anywhere to sleep.  You would imagine that there would be some sort of penalty for this, but instead it basically borks your game--the clock stops at 2:00 and time stops advancing, forcing you to reload.  I've read some upset commentary on this mechanic (it's interesting because you can take a talent early on in the game which allows you to sleep outside, but it's easy to miss) and in a way it is sort of a weird choice--it sort of forces your hand in a way while the rest of the game is very much built around freedom of choice.

-Some people (not me) have reported performance issues.  I had no issues, but apparently there's no framerate limiter and it can really push older machines (which is weird, because it's not that graphically demanding).

+- Depending on your stance about reading, there's a ton of reading in this game.  A small portion of the dialogue is vocal (and the voices of your reptillian brain and limbic system are hilarious...and they talk to you..just FYI) but mostly it's a flood of text.  The game is so well written that it's fun to read, but there is A LOT to read.  (*As an aside, it always kind of cracks me up when I see people who are upset that games are text-based.  Why would you buy it if you knew you don't like reading?)

Conclusion:
Disco Elysium offers unique mechanics in a genre that can sometimes be pretty stale.  The opportunity to truly shape your character is so much fun and has an impact on the story.  I would highly recommend DE and would even say to pay full price for it.