Beating the Heat with Good ol' Geralt

Where I live we are currently in day 5 or 6 of an "excessive heat" event--it has been over 100 degrees every day this week and it's just too miserably hot to do much of anything outside.  I'm extremely fortunate to live in a home with central air and air conditioning and it's the perfect environment to escape from the heat and the best excuse to spend lots of time gaming.  I'm currently 2/3 of the way through my re-play of The Witcher saga having just finished Assassin of Kings and moved on to the third game.

(The "enhanced edition" cinematic of the assassination of Demavend is still awesome...even more than 10 years later!)

I've always thought that The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings never got the praise that it deserved.  I have always enjoyed the way they presented the story at the beginning of the game, namely having Geralt relive his memories of what happened as part of his interrogation by Vernon Roche.  It's a clever way to present a tutorial and introduce the major story beats.  From there, it only gets better--the environments (the ancient, dangerous forests of Flotsam; the cursed battlefield near Vergen; and the ancient Vran city of Loc Muinne) are awesome, the music (particularly in Vergen) is some of my favorite, and the way they divided the story based on player choices--there's just a lot to love about it.

It's great, but there are also small things that drive me crazy.  One of the most annoying parts is the save system--rather than having a few slots for quicksaves and autosaves the game keeps ALL of your saves.  It's ridiculous and creates a huge number of files.  My personal method of combatting this ridiculous system was to delete 10 saved games every time I logged on.  I could scroll through social media while casually deleting files (just be careful you don't get too clicky and delete the wrong thing).

You would think after playing through a game many, many times that I would have all the story beats down pat, but I still managed to mess up a minor quest chain.  Toward the end of the game in Loc Muinne I noticed that my armor wasn't quite what I remembered and realized that I had missed out on the quest that grants you the best armor in the game.  I had somehow missed the shipwreck in Vergen...sheesh.  Maybe I'm getting scatterbrained in my old age!

I've just started the third game and it's always fun to see how much the technology had improved between games.  Usually I turn off the more resource demanding, somewhat extraneous features--usually NVIDIA's Hairworks--but I just can't deny Geralt and the characters of The Witcher 3 their beautiful, flowing locks (*we'll see if this lasts...If I have a bunch of crashes it'll probably get turned off).  Watching the wind blow through the trees and seeing the way the sun shines through a thickly forested area is a huge improvement over the first game.  It's too pretty to turn down!

Interestingly I decided that I didn't want to punish myself through the series this time--I usually like to challenge myself and crank the difficulty all the way up.  I'd rather enjoy the experience and since I've already done it, I'm playing on the "blood and broken bones" setting--so a notch above normal, enough to make it somewhat challenging, but not torturous.  It's nice.

Whether you're trying to make it through a heat wave or just looking for a classic to play, give The Witcher 2 a play.  Maybe turn the difficulty down and just enjoy it!

The Luscious Locks of OG Geralt of Rivia

It's one of my summer traditions to completely re-play one of my favorite gaming series--usually that's a toss up between Mass Effect and The Witcher.  This summer I've opted for The Witcher and I'm currently working my way through the "enhanced version" of the original 2008 game.  Sometimes older games age like fine wine...and sometimes they get a bit like vinegar--I'm finding a bit of both in my re-re-re-play experience.  Here are some random thoughts, feelings, and reflections I've had as I've bounced back and forth between feeling irritated at certain outdated (or obnoxious) gameplay elements and feeling like I'm genuinely having a good time.

Check out Geralt's gorgeous hair!

1.) Geralt has beautiful hair in the original Witcher.

Sure, it's 2008 hair, so you don't get any of the individual strands or have the ability to enable any special "hair effect" settings in the menu, but he's got some luscious layers happening.  A strange part of me wishes that you could give Geralt his OG hair in the third game (you can't...it's always parted in the middle which isn't exactly what I want).

2.) F*$& the swamps.

Every time I get to chapter 2 (and then, unfortunately it also extends into chapter 3) I internally groan at the fact that I'm going to have to navigate poor Geralt through the most annoying zone in the game.  I hate the swamps with a passion--the constant appearance of drowners, drowned dead, and bloedzuigers gets so obnoxious that I eventually give up engaging with them and mostly just run poor Geralt around with a parade of monsters following him.  The way the zone is designed also makes me hate it--rarely can you navigate in a straight line and instead have to run around in a very indirect manner.

3.) Somehow I managed to screw up the investigation in chapter 2.

For some reason I missed/skipped the fun/party mission with Shani until the very, very end of the chapter.  Because of this fact, I ended up accusing the wrong person (something that I've never done before in multiple playthroughs) and somehow managing to confuse myself.  It all got sorted once I completed Shani's mission, but woooow, I guess it had been longer than I thought since I re-played it.

4.) Combat has never been a particularly strong suit in the series, but the first game is a solid reminder of how far it evolved.

If you need a refresher about how combat works in the first game--Geralt has multiple "stances" that the player must manually select.  Certain enemies are more susceptible to specific stances.  Once you've settled on the correct "stance," combat is a timing-based affair that involves staring at a small sword-shaped cursor symbol that lights up when the next attack in a chain is ready to go--basically, you're clicking away...and that's much of the extent of it.  Yeah, it's real bad (and thank baby Jesus that they scrapped this system in the later games).

5.) For its day, there were some pretty advanced mechanics present in the game.

I strongly remember booting it up in 2008 and thinking "OMG these graphics are sooo good!"  That's laughable now, but in its day...pretty awesome.  There are other mechanics in the game that I don't remember being in other games--namely the fact that NPC's have a schedule based on the in-game time and that they react to weather and player actions around them.  This is commonplace in RPG's now, but it's crazy to think that they were doing it back in 2008.

6.) Triss' makeover in the subsequent games in the series was much needed.

Triss is so pushy, demanding, and very sorceress-like in the first game.  (When it comes to the women in the first game...yeah, there are some issues that have been heavily discussed and panned)  I am a fan of the more softened, less-pushy Triss from the later games.  Plus, there's really only room for one pushy sorceress and we all know who that is...

I would encourage anyone who hasn't played the original Witcher in awhile to give it a go.  You'll feel simultaneously annoyed, nostalgic, and maybe even a bit reflective.  It's a good reminder about how far the series has come.

Feel Good Favorite

An article recently popped up on one of my social media feeds that gave me a hankering to return to one of my gaming favorites.  I first played Okami on my Wii and it was definitely one of the best games for that specific console.  In 2017 an HD remake for PC was released and I happily snatched it up (generally I try my best to avoid remakes, remasters, and efforts to pay for the same game more than once--it's hard to resist that urge when it's one of your favorites though).

The main point of the article was that there's something indescribably enjoyable about the gameplay mechanics in Okami.  Rather than causing destruction you play as the reborn, wolf form of the goddess Amaterasu, whose main power is restoring nature.  Each area in the game starts off as a cursed, barren zone and one of the best parts of the game is clearing the curse and then using special "celestial brush" skills to make barren trees bloom again or to clear out the demon gates polluting the area and allowing the animals to return.  Restoring nature is key to building up Amaterasu's abilities--feeding animals, making trees and clover bloom, and defeating demons earn praise (which is the currency used to increase skills).

Playing Okami on the PC is a massive improvement over the Wii--using a mouse to complete the brush strokes is much, much easier.  That's not to say that the HD version of the game doesn't have its issues--the camera controls (if you opt for mouse/keyboard controls) are touchy AF and, like many console games, the camera tends to obnoxiously move around and frequently require repositioning.  There's also the repetitive nature of the boss fights--yeah, you'll fight the same foes multiple times--but overall, Okami remains one of my favorite games.

If you're looking for an enjoyable game (of the console variety) with unique mechanics, I would highly recommend Okami.  You can find it on Steam for $19.99 (a solid price). 

Minor Improvements: Return to Night City

I just wrapped up my latest adventure in the gritty world of Cyberpunk 2077 and am mostly just relieved to be done (which is not necessarily a feeling you want to walk away from a game with).  Most of my reasoning for revisiting the game was a curiosity about how much had changed thanks to the "major" patches released earlier this year.  Now that I've finished my full playthrough, I feel like I have a decent feel for the game in its current state (undoubtedly the "final" state before they release DLC--okay, "if" they release DLC). 

1.) The big question--has the game improved since its legendarily disastrous launch?

The very simple answer is yes, but it's a bit of a complicated yes.  When the game was initially released it was plagued by a ridiculous number of bugs and glitches that rendered it...let's just say, unfun to play.  The multiple large patches since release have been mostly focused on squashing the worst of those bugs.  I am happy to report that in this last playthrough I did not encounter any of the truly disappointing/frustrating bugs that I did in previous adventures (namely an annoying bug where gigs wouldn't complete correctly and phone calls from fixers were messed up and would arrive out of order or missions/gigs that were too close to each other wouldn't complete correctly...and also a bug where the plan for a legendary/iconic weapon wouldn't drop under certain conditions).  Sadly, if you're hoping for a perfect experience free of bugs and glitches...keep dreaming.  I still encountered some minor, but nonetheless annoying bugs/glitches--let me name a few: enemies who are in the process of beating on innocent bystanders and are disabled do not go down and instead turn lootable but continue their animation loop; the annoying audio glitch where the scanning noise continues constantly (which can be easily solved by re-loading); the visual glitch where the aiming reticule appears when your weapon is holstered; a loot glitch where loot would repeatedly appear when enemies were disabled and shoved into containers...and I'm sure there are others that I am forgetting.

One of V's new apartment choices--the Glen apartment is my favorite.

Some of the general quality of life improvements are nice--I like the options for custom filtering on the map and I do like the fact that they toned down the number of phone calls that V receives (now they're text messages which is slightly less annoying).  They have added in many more legendary/iconic items (a few clothing items and several weapons), several new vehicles, as well as apartment options.  If you enjoy the more cosmetic side of the game...well, you'll probably be happy with these new options.  Fixers will now reward you with something fancy for completing all their gigs--these rewards range from cyberware up to vehicles.  Even though it was fun to be rewarded with a vehicle, these automobiles are re-skins of already existing cars...and not even very fun ones.  The upside to this is that V ends up with quite a garage full of nice cars without having to purchase any (downside:  now, there's really no need for the fixers to be offering up every car on the street).

One of the bonus vehicles added to the game--a Batman reference.

Storywise/characterwise there aren't many changes.  I noticed that there were more text message exchanges between V and pals.

2.) Did I make the same decisions or make different choices this time around?

I went with a hacking focused build for my V--most of my points went into intelligence, tech, and stealth--and found that I didn't love it.  The early part of the game in particular felt a bit brutal but the latter part was much easier (once you can invest in quickhacks that can spread things become much easier).  For V's romantic partner I decided to go with general good guy, River Ward.  Lemme just say...River has got to be the most boring romance out of all of them.  I've always found River to be a bit on the clingy side--he professes his feelings way too quickly and it's a bit nauseating.  I also found it a bit odd that V reveals the issues with the biochip to both Judy and Panam but not to River.  It was also a bit of a disappointment that River decides not to accompany V if you opt for the nomad ending (although, I totally expected it).  It really feels like a lot more effort went into the Judy and Panam relationships and they are both way more satisfying.

I will continue to look for news of DLC, but I think I'm all Cyberpunk-ed out for now.  If you're thinking of going back...best of luck, enjoy the new apartments and free cars.

Return to Night City

After puttering around with No Man's Sky for awhile, I decided that it was time to start the tried and true summer gauntlet of re-playing my favorite games/series.  I briefly pondered starting a full Witcher trilogy playthrough but ultimately decided that since I hadn't played Cyberpunk 2077 since any of the big patches dropped, that it was time to make a return foray to the dysfunctional world of corps, gangs, and crushed dreams.  For this playthrough I decided I would change it up a bit--my female (sorry male V, I gave you a shot, but I just don't like your VA as much), street kid V is sporting a heavy intelligence/hacking build and I plan on giving the River romance a shot (sorry Judy, you're still my favorite!).

Firstly, I am not having a great time with the hacking build--it's likely due to my own incompetence (and the fact that I opted for the "hard" difficulty), but I had way more fun with my body/katana and stealth/sniper builds.  I've largely found that when I do have to enter combat (I mostly try to be stealthy) that I am getting one or two shot and it's difficult to keep the quickhacks rolling.  Hacking also seems fairly useless in boss fights.  Oh well, had to try something new--I'll survive.

One of the changes I noticed almost immediately is to the map.  The map has multiple options for what you would like to see displayed.  Probably my favorite feature is a filter option that allows you to customize the map.  Does this really solve the problems of modern game maps being too cluttered with pointless filler?  Nope, not at all, but it does help make the map slightly less filled with obnoxious symbols.

Semi-related to map symbols is a change to the way that fixers assign gigs--now, they piecemeal them out as you complete them.  One or two will appear on the map and once you complete the gig the fixer will call you, give you some encouragement and tell you that there are new gigs.  I was a bit annoyed by this at first, but it does fix the bugs that would occur in places where gigs, scanner hustles and side jobs were clustered too close together.  Handily, you can now see how many gigs each fixer has to assign so you know if there are more.  Fixers will also give you a reward for completing all their gigs (so far I've received a weapon and a cyberware mod).

The vibrant "flamingo" makeover for V's apartment

On the cosmetic level, you can now purchase several different apartments for V and/or spruce up the original apartment with a makeover.  The new apartments are kind of fun and throw in some variety.  Making over V's main apartment involves paying $10,000 and choosing from several different paint/color schemes.  I opted for a flamingly pink and blue look--alternately hideous and bright.  There are also a few new rare/iconic clothing items (that were part of the "free DLC").  The jackets are okay but are rare quality and cannot be upgraded to the next item quality--their usefulness is very limited to the early part of the game.

I vaguely remember that there was some attention given to improving the driving experience--to add more realistic reactions from other drivers and pedestrians (which, I guess I can see--drivers do sort of react if you hit them and pedestrians will flee for their lives if you remotely steer in their direction) and to make the driving feel smoother.  I can't say that I notice much of a change in the driving...it still seems fine to me (and quite frankly it's not a huge part of the gameplay).  The wet pavement looks wet too, in case you were worried (there was some minor controversy over a visual change to how things looked when wet during one of the patches).

The million dollar question remains--has Cyberpunk gotten better with all these patches?  I still feel like the experience is largely the same--many of the same annoyances still exist (namely bugs, but the more obnoxious ones seem to have been quashed--I still hate the way bodies act when you move them/drop them and keep having an issue where certain enemies who are busy beating/kicking people don't go down when disabled and instead continue their loop of animation) and the problem of open world bloat still plagues it.  The main story remains the highlight in a world of too many repetitive map symbol tasks...but, they've added in some fun cosmetic-y stuff, so yaaay?

I'm watching for news of upcoming DLC and have read a few rumor-y type articles that seem to point to a story that takes place in the briefly mentioned "combat zone" of Pacifica.  The rumors also imply that it will be a V-free experience that focuses on a different protagonist.  (You can read about it here) Here's to hoping that the DLC isn't filled with a million stupid map checkmark type of tasks and instead focuses on a cool story with morally difficult outcomes!