Since I'm a teacher and not working in the summer I try to strategically plan out my gaming. Usually I like to do long replays of my favorite series--i.e. playing through the entire Mass Effect or The Witcher series. It's always kind of nice and nostalgic to return to some of my favorite characters and moments. This summer though, I decided that I need to do something different about a growing problem. Which problem you say? Why, my growing backlog of Epic Games giveaways that I snag and then rarely (if ever, if we're being totally honest) play. You've got one too! Don't deny it.
You can pet the "dog" in Midnight Suns! (*dog = hellhound)
How's it going so far? Great, actually. The last giveaway I snatched up was Marvel's Midnight Suns and even though I'm not a huge Marvel fan, I'm having a delightful time. I wasn't sure what to expect--reviews on Steam seem to sit between "overwhelmingly positive" and "very positive" and so far, I would agree. The gameplay is a sort of mashup between turn-based strategy and an RPG built around making friends (complete with giving gifts!). I'm not quite done with it and will write up a full review, but if you too were one of those who grabbed it, it's definitely worth giving it a play.
There are several other notable titles in my Epic backlog that I hope to give a try. Most notably on that list: a Hitman game that I played the tutorial for and then ended up playing something else, Frostpunk, Alien Isolation (a game that I'm not sure I have the stomach for), and a historical strategy game Europa Universalis IV. I'm going to do it! (*hopefully....)
On a non-Epic note, the Steam Summer Sale is officially in full swing. I haven't seen any FABULOUS deals but am eyeing a few titles on my wishlist that are discounted. I still haven't played the supposedly good "Phantom Liberty"expansion for CyberPunk 2077 and am thinking about the poker-based deckbuilder Balatro. I'd love to snatch up Slime Rancher 2 but I try to avoid early access titles.
I've been continuing my "next gen" Fallout 4 adventure and trying to note all the changes, additions, and fixes. Every time I restart a playthrough I try to focus on one aspect that I've neglected in the past. This time around I decided that I would try to focus on my settlements and making them the happiest that they could be. The verdict: despite my best efforts and the "next gen" improvements, the settlement system remains one part of Fallout 4 that is still buggy and vaguely explained.
The concept of building and maintaining settlements was one part of Fallout 4 that I was originally very excited about. The core concepts around settlements is that your settlers need a place where their basic needs are met--they need a covered shelter with a bed, they need food and water, and they need defense to keep them safe from all the dangers of the wasteland. In addition, there's also a measure of settler "happiness." The most basic understanding of "happiness" is making sure that the number of resources remains above the number of settlers, but it's actually more complicated than that and can be cryptic to figure out.
The happiness level in my settlements would generally cap out at about 80 and only for certain settlements. Others would sit in the 60's despite my efforts to make sure each settlement had exactly the same basic needs met and access to trading. I decided to try to search up the secrets to settlement happiness and it turns out that many people still find it very unclear and that there's more to it than simply satisfying needs and providing shopping experiences. Things that you would think would contribute to happiness have no impact--providing fun decorations or jukeboxes and radios do absolutely nothing beyond providing some aesthetic pleasure. Other things though, like making sure all your settlers are assigned a task, do impact happiness (which isn't explained at all).
Why can't these warnings be more specific? Ugh.
But why are some settlements perpetually unhappy? Tenpines Bluff, Abernathy Farm, and Oberland Station seem to stay in the 60's regardless of needs and tasks assigned. Some of that might be attributed to bugs (that aren't fixed)--for example, the beds for the original settlers of Abernathy Farm are always categorized as not being under a roof (a bug) and can't be deleted. There are also other complex factors like having ghoul settlers that can impact happiness. (It also probably didn't help that I accidentally killed a settler while trying to defend one of the settlements--my bad.)
So, the bad news is that settlements (happiness and size) are still whackadoodle. And sure, you're probably thinking "go download a mod!" I know that there are some fabulous mods that address settlements and turn them into something kind of awesome (I can't think of the name of it off the top of my head, but I know that there's one that basically makes your settlements into autonomous units--settlers will build their own structures and take care of their own needs--planting crops, building additional water supplies, etc. as well as decorate!). I just don't want to mess with mods and just wish the whole system was made much clearer.
On a positive note, there does seem to be some improvement. For some reason I feel like my settlement population would always cap out at 10-12ish. This time around my settlements were bursting at the seams! Many of my settlements had 20+ residents and it was difficult to find enough tasks for all of them. The addition of the free "creators club" content has also added some new decorative elements to spice up your settlements--there are Halloween themed items and a bunch of Enclave items from completing new missions. The Enclave chain also provides a great set of power armor and the Tesla Cannon--a big gun that shoots out a stream of electricity.
This time around I also found myself swapping out companions more than I did in the past (which I highly recommend). I've experienced new dialogue and missions that I missed out on in previous playthroughs. It's totally worth it for the perks that you get. So even though we all love Dogmeat, make it a point to spend some time traveling with the entire cast of companions.
I plan on wrapping up my Fallout 4 adventure soon-ish and moving onto my backlog of free titles from Epic Games. I'm also keeping my eyes peeled for the dates of the Steam Summer Sale (which is generally the end of June through the 4th of July-ish) so I can snag some titles off the wishlist.
It's now officially summer, so happy summer and happy gaming.
This week has been a veritable whirlwind of news and emotions surrounding the fourth chapter in BioWare's Dragon Age series. First fun fact--it's now called "The Veilguard" and no longer "Dreadwolf." I'll preface this post by stating that I'm more of a Mass Effect fan than Dragon Age, but I've enjoyed all of the DA games--I'm definitely not the person who's going to be pre-ordering or playing on day one. I do follow gaming news and am a member of a couple of great groups on social media so I've been tracking the official releases and the general vibe in the socials. And wheeeeew-ie....it has been a real rollercoaster of emotions on the ol' socials! (And, sadly, not in a good way.)
The first big freak out came with the release of a trailer introducing the cast of characters who will join our playable hero (called "the rook") in The Veilguard. If you haven't seen it, here it is: Now, to me anyway, this is exciting--you get basically everything that a fan of Dragon Age could want...and then some! There's a beloved character from the previous games in the form of Varric Tethras who is apparently going to play some role in the story (but is notably not a member of the crew). A lot of chatter online surrounded the fact that he looks noticeably older and de-cried the fact that his chest hair is seemingly diminished (sad? I guess.) You get a side character that everyone WISHED was a playable character in Inquisition, Scout Harding. Then, you get a wide array of intriguing new characters that seem cool! A Grey Warden...with a griffin! A necromancer (everyone loves a necromancer)! A female Qunari! And besides the character reveal, there are other gameplay/plot related nuggets there too. The Darkspawn are coming back--I've missed slaughtering them in overly blood-soaked battles. There's new dragons to fight! So, what's not to be excited about?
Well, apparently, basically everything. People immediately started freaking out over the graphics and the fact that they felt like they looked like a mobile-MOBA mashup. They didn't like the way that the characters were introduced stating a similar sentiment. I felt like the freak out was a little overdramatic as this is a trailer and not actual gameplay. Yeah, they're gonna style it up and make it look exciting, that's how trailers work. Immediately though, the vibes were off and the reaction was very negative.
Seemingly in response to this wave of negativity, a 20 minute long gameplay trailer was released. Give it a gander if you haven't yet:
The response to this trailer wasn't as negative, but definitely still leaned in that general direction. It seemed to calm the freak out over the graphics but there were, of course, other aspects of the gameplay that garnered plenty of snark.
I've picked out some notable (good and bad) info from a few articles that might be of interest. Here's my list:
1.) The party size has shrunk from 4 to 3.
2.) As you can see from the trailer (which maybe isn't the best indicator since it takes place at the beginning of the game) the combat style is more like DAII/Inquisition. Expect more hack n' slash style than the Origins tactical focus. I have seen it mentioned that there will still be the ability to issue commands to your followers and utilize combos. I'm hoping it's better than Mass Effect: Andromeda because your squad mates are next to useless (but I don't have high hopes there).
3.) Apparently The Veilguard won't be open world. Personally, I'm glad about that. If BioWare does choose to stick to it's strengths (which have traditionally been strong story and characters) I think that's for the best. I find that open world games tend to lose story and characters beneath the layers of random, meaningless tasks that are inherent in the larger scale.
4.) Controversially, they went the DAII route with romance--everyone is an option. Is it "realistic?" No. Does it avoid the whole "I can't romance that person so I'm sad/mad" subset of players? Yes. I'm a bit mixed on this one. One the one hand, it's always nice to have options. On the other hand, that also means that we're going to miss out on the unique romance options like Dorian.
Since we're on the topic of romance (a HUGE part of any BioWare game), it was also stated that members of your crew will also start their own relationships with whoever you don't choose. This likely means there are some set pairings (think Tali/Garrus) that will play out in dialogue/side content. Sounds fun to me.
5.) There's no release date yet, but I would not anticipate it this year. It feels like there is going to be a lot of big titles coming in 2025.
Honestly, I've been a bit stunned by the negativity around what should be an exciting time for Dragon Age fans. The whole thing is tainted by the "is BioWare dead" narrative that seems to flavor any discussion of a new title. Sure, Andromeda was a flop and let's not forget about the disaster that was Anthem, but it would be nice to just have a little bit of happiness or excitement. My advice, don't get sucked into the doom and gloom of the many opinions and comments out there--steer clear of it and make your own judgements (which is hard to do).
I sometimes make it a point to do a brief log-in to Epic Games to see what they're currently giving away, but most of the time I totally forget. Well, this time it's definitely worth all our collective whiles to log onto Epic for the giveaway--they're currently giving away Marvel's Midnight Suns! I'm not a major Marvel fan, but this game is has had "very positive" reviews on Steam and has been critically praised, so I gave it a grab. Plus, it's supposed to be XCOM2-esque, which is something I can totally get behind. It's free until June 13th, so go claim it before time runs out.
My current gaming ventures aren't anything new--I'm methodically plodding through the wastelands of Fallout 4 and experiencing the "next-genness" of the updated version. It's not completely the same experience and besides the added "creators club" content, I've noticed a few differences. In the past, it seemed like my settlements would usually cap out at 12 settlers. I don't know if I'm completely mis-remembering, but I think it was some sort of bug. I was a bit gobsmacked when one of my settlements hit 20 residents! So maybe it's something that got fixed or maybe I'm just suffering from a bad memory. One thing is for sure, I'm having to build huge, very ugly settlement structures for all these settlers. Guess it's time to keep hoarding all that junk!
The addition of the "creators club" content adds in a few new missions--one involves the remnants of the Enclave and rewards a fancy schmancy new set of X-02 power armor. I haven't fully completed the entire mission chain (too busy collecting all the junk needed to house my 5 bajillion new settlers), but the armor set is very nice. I'd recommend grabbing it ASAP in your playthrough.
The Power Armor Parade!
When playing a game like Fallout 4, I always wonder what weird, completely pointless things that other players like to do. I like to collect and hoard every set of power armor I come across and try to cobble together as many complete sets as I can. I park them in a weird line right outside my home in Sanctuary (fusion cores out, of course, or else your settlers might get some ideas about hopping in during any attacks--maybe they should have those ideas, because it's not like I'm using it). I'm not much for "decorating" my settlements, but I do like to set up a nice display of magazines and bobbleheads in my default home. Also, completely pointless, but fun.
Like any good Fallout or Skyrim playthrough, who knows when I'll actually finish it. I'm just having too much fun hoarding junk, collecting power armor, and blasting raiders to want to stop. It's a simple life.
(I only have 2--technically 3 because of the cleanup day--days left of school left! Hooray! Here's to all the other teachers out there surviving until that happy day finally comes!)
After a recent update to fix a number of issues related to the "next gen" update to Fallout 4, I decided that it was time to revisit the wastes. So far, I've had basically no issues (other than some minor stuttering), so it seems like some of the stability issues have been addressed. The Fallout games have seen a boost in player activity due to the popularity of the Amazon Prime series with the much maligned Fallout 76 seeing a big boost. It's a good time to be a Fallout fan!
My experiences thus far haven't deviated much from any of my prior playthroughs. I haven't noticed any fabulous graphical updates and decided not to mess with any settings. The one major difference is the numerous missions which are now available to all players but were once feel in the domain of the "creators club" (or whatever they called their paid mod service). There are several and I haven't dipped my toes into them yet--one of them looks to introduce a fancy new set of Enclave X-02 power armor, so I'm definitely going to pursue it.
One of my hideous creations.
I wish I could report that I chose to dramatically change my playstyle, but alas, no dice there. I honestly feel like I picked pretty useless combat talents in the name of loot-based skills (like picking locks and hacking) and have been getting blasted more than I remember (especially by super mutants). I've been trying to grab a few more combat talents to make things less painful.
I'm also building plenty of horribly ugly structures in my settlements. I seriously should watch some videos about how not to make your structures look like complete garbage. It's the apocalypse though, so who really cares?
It's the perfect time to give the Fallout games a revisit--so go out there and loot al that useless junk that you plan on turning into a truly hideous, mechanically unrealistic structure.
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