It's On!

In almost perfect timing, the Steam Summer Sale started right as I was wrapping up my 943rd Mass Effect: Legendary Edition playthrough (*synthesis ending, romanced Ashley, lost Kaiden, Legion, and Mordin--made all the same choices I always do...lolz).  I had just been thinking that it was about sale time and pondering my wishlist to decide what I wanted to grab.  So far, I've only made 1 purchase (well, sort of 2 because it was one of those bundle deals).

What did I snag up?  I decided to pounce on an indie game called Planet of Lana (Steam Store link: here).  For the low price of $4.18 I got it and another game that I've never heard of.  I'm currently playing through it and should have a full review soon.  As for the other game in the bundle...we'll see (it does have positive reviews, so it's probably worth a shot).

I generally like to grab indies during sales--especially if the price is low.  I love the creativity of indie games, but their short length and occasional lack of replayability make me hesitant to pay full price.  I've got a few triple A's on my list, but probably won't bite the bullet on any of those.

There was some exciting Two Point Museum news this week!  On July 17th, the first paid DLC is coming out.  The "Fantasy Finds" DLC adds a new selection of fantasy themed items to populate our museums with even more whacky fun times.  There are also other non-paid updates like seasonal items and even a bonus museum that could be coming out later.  I'm extremely excited!  (Check out the trailer)

There's Never Enough Mass Effect

I'm currently deeply embroiled in my umpteenth Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (actually, I think I've only done the full legendary edition two other times) playthrough.  I've made it all the way to the third game and I'm reminded about how Mass Effect is one of my all time favorites.  There are people out there who would probably question the desire to keep playing a singleplayer game with the same storyline over and over...but it's just that good!

To keep you fully up to speed:  here's my current Shepard.  Paul Shepard--war hero; infiltrator (with bonus energy drain power); heavy on the paragon (I can't be mean, it makes me sad).  Romanced Ashley in ME1; romanced nobody in ME2 (going with the loyalty to Ashley); romancing Ashley in ME3.  One great feature of the Legendary Edition is that importing your Shepard from game to game is (*almost) completely seamless.  The one oddity with the imports is that your Shepard's appearance might be slighly different from game to game.  Weirdly, in ME2, my Shep came out totally clean shaven (and with slightly redder hair) after designing him with a nice five o'clock shadow amount of stubble in ME1.  I chalked it up to Cerberus rebuilding him and giving him a nice, new face.  Luckily, the stubble is back in ME3 and the tones of red in the hair are less noticeable.  In taking this screenshot of my Shep I remembered how awkward human hands are in Mass Effect--they look super weird in a couple of close ups and the characters hold their arms and hands in a very stiff way when standing idle.

Paul Shepard...weird hands, kind heart.

Since I'm out of ideas, I thought I'd do a little rundown of some of my ME favorites and/or likes and dislikes.  I'm going to make it into a Q&A because I'm a dork.

Q: How would you rank the games in order of preference?

A: Mass Effect 2; Mass Effect 3; and then Mass Effect.  The writing in the OG Mass Effect is great but the combat and gameplay just isn't as compelling as in the other games.  Even with the Legendary Edition upgrade to its systems, there are still times when it can feel like a slog to get through.  Even though I strongly dislike some of the story beats in ME2, I have always greatly enjoyed the cast of characters and the ability to learn more about them through the loyalty missions.  The combat in ME2 is also greatly improved and possibly some of the most difficult in the series.  ME3 has the best combat in the series; I love the fluidity of chaining together combos and figuring out the ideal squadmates for each situation.  The ending (even though much improved over the original) is still a bit lackluster.  The total fan service Citadel DLC is the perfect way to wrap up the series.

Q: What are your favorite weapons in the series?

A: I love a slow firing, punchy kind of gun.  I generally go for the Mattock in ME3--it's got a semi-auto feel that allows you to carefully aim and make those shots matter.  The downside is the low amount of ammo.  Depending on the character I'm playing, I will usually opt for either a pistol or a sniper rifle as my secondary (generally more armor piercing focused).  Sticking to the slow theme--for pistols I like the Scorpion--those little, weird balls that it shoots can be devastating to armored opponents.  For sniper rifles I usually spend poor Shep's hard-earned cash on the Widow.  It's slow but packs an absolute punch.

Q: Who is the best romance in the series?

A: I'm fairly certain that I've played through all of them at this point (although Jack may be the one exception) and decided to do the Garrus romance on a lark.  Honestly, if you haven't romanced Garrus, you're definitely missing out!  Sure, Turians aren't the most attractive of the races, but Garrus' romance is the perfect combination of cute awkwardness and fun romantic moments.  It's definitely the best.

Q: What is your favorite mission in the series?

A: Curing the genophage on Tuchanka.  The mission has a bit of everything in it--challenging combat, humor, learning about the Krogan, the loss of a squadmate, and an epic moment of thresher maw vs. reaper.  Plus, it's a (mostly) happy ending for the Krogan.  Of course the ending is totally dependent on your paragon/renegade motivations and how you decide to play it.

Q: There's supposedly a new Mass Effect game in the works; what would you like to see in the upcoming title?

A: I would like to see a game that sticks to the strengths of the Mass Effect franchise--you need a good science fiction story (ME1 did that very well).  I am still unsure about the continuity after the events of ME3 and we're definitely not getting anything related to Andromeda.  Part of me would like a sort of re-building the galaxy kind of thing, but that's probably not good enough.  I would like to see what happens if you do cure the genophage--do the Krogans re-build their society or turn into a galactic menace?

I think one of BioWare's biggest strengths across its games is the characters they create.  They're good at making memorable characters who we are able to learn about and befriend throughout the course of the story.  I like the loyalty missions in ME2 and getting to play through a story that is related to a specific character.  They brought back this same format in Andromeda and they're some of the best missions in that game.  It'd be fun to have some squadmates who aren't from the council races--a volus or elcor!  Seriously, imagine an elcor squadmate....

The combat style should match/be similar to that in Andromeda...with a few exceptions.  I would really like to see them bring back the ability to issue commands to your squadmates.  Yes, I know that it slows down combat, but the ability to do combos gives your squad some serious synergy.  Without it, your squadmates just feel like extra baggage (that can be annoying at times).  Every other part of combat in Andromeda was enjoyable--the more movement-oriented gameplay, the weapons, the enemies.

One big argument in many of the online groups is about the presence of Shepard--many people want Shepard back in some form (either that they survived or it's like a descendant of Shep).  Personally, I'm fine with a new protagonist and think it would be good to start out fresh.  Depending on the timeline of the game, it would be nice to see some familiar faces, but I'm all for something new.

Well. I'm off to finish saving the galaxy.  Have a nice weekend and enjoy some gaming!

PC Dreamin'

I've spent a considerable amount of time fantasizing about building a new PC.  I've watched numerous videos recommending specific builds or parts and I feel like I've done my research.  There's a bit of non-realistic impetus too--the looming end of Windows 10 support (*although my current PC is capable of running Windows 11 and just requires a BIOS update that would flip the TPM 2.0 switch--BIOS updates scare me a bit, but if worse came to worse, it's doable).  So here's my own mental gymnastics about building a new PC.

First off, here's the build that I'm considering--7800X3D Build.  I'm angling for a high-mid range build that could do 1440p gaming for the next 5-6 years.  With any build you might have some questions.  Why a 7800X3D when there are newer Ryzen 9 CPU's?  For gaming performance the X3D CPU's are basically the best--if I was to go absolute top of the line, it'd be the 9950X3D (currently priced at $699)--the 7800X3D is second on the list in benchmarks for gaming and I use my PC for gaming.  You also might be asking, why the cheap-y air cooler and not a shiny AIO?  Air coolers are absolutely fine for regular gaming--if you're looking to do any fancy overclocking stuff you probably want an AIO--and even air coolers that fall on the "cheaper" side of the spectrum do just fine (I actually had a beefier, slightly more expensive model picked but it seems to be consistently unavailable so I opted for another model that has positive reviews and performance but is cheaper).  And lastly, why no RGB, everyone knows that the sparklies make your PC perform better?  Honestly, I love the sparklies, but I just don't want to mess with all the additional RGB nonsense.  For one, non-RGB parts are slightly cheaper; for another, people with RGB seem to be constantly griping about finding software that manages their RGB the way they want it to.  So yeah, it's just another thing to manage that seems to cause a lot of headaches for a purely cosmetic factor.

(Here's a video from Hardware Unboxed comparing current GPU prices in different markets.)

So what's stopping me from pulling the trigger on my big, beautiful new PC?  GPU prices are one major factor.  I'm angling toward either a 5070ti (*on my build the exact model is interchangeable with the one that has the best pricing--the GPU listed was the one that briefly was the cheapest but has since sold out) or a 9070XT, but both are currently priced about 20% over MSRP.  9070XT prices have been stubbornly high (c'mon AMD!) with that card being the better value at MSRP.  Prices have slowly been creeping down, but haven't gotten anywhere close to MSRP.  Maybe it's wishful thinking that they will actually get there, but other parts of the world (that aren't experiencing tariff nonsense) are seeing prices much closer or at MSRP.  (On my first/current PC I absolutely was not paying attention to prices and am positive that I very much overpaid for my 2070--I'm pretty sure I paid ~$700 for it)

There's also the reality that I don't REALLY need a new PC.  I can still play everything that I want to play and I'm not absolutely dying to play any new titles.  I would like to have a new PC for The Witcher 4 (and maybe GTA VI),  So, realistically, I have some time if I were to do it.

So I'll just continue checking those GPU prices daily and finagling the parts on my list.  That's healthy, right?  Happy weekend with lots of potential gaming to everyone!

A Real Beauty

Besides continuing to feel sad about the continuing GPU pricing insanity (FYI--prices are slowly creeping down; they're still nowhere near MSRP...even for cards that probably shouldn't exist like the 8G 5060/9060 models), there was at least a reason to feel some happiness/excitement.  CD Projekt released a "tech demo" showing off Unreal 5 graphics in the upcoming The Witcher 4.  If you haven't had a chance to check it out, here you go:

My immediate reaction was WOW!  It does look absolutely stunning.  But now, to be a buzzkill, we have to remember the teeny little words emblazoned across the bottom of that video--"tech demo--not actual gameplay."  All the big games like to trot out the prettiest of pretties to get that hype train running.  I did find it interesting that it was pointed out that the demo is running on standard PS5 graphics with ray tracing enabled.

There are numerous gameplay tidbits embedded in the video to be excited about.  Ciri looks absolutely awesome--the cloak, the freckles, the scar...this more mature version of Ciri is going to be great to learn about and play.  The manticore in the beginning of the video also shows that they're putting a lot of effort into making the monsters even more realistic.  I'm looking forward to seeing all the new critters that Ciri will be facing.  And what about Ciri's new equine companion, Kelpie!  I mean, she's no Roach, but Ciri's love of horses features prominently in the stories and this horse looks exactly like the one she wins from the Bloody Baron in The Witcher 3.  It also looks like the story is going to take place in Kovir, a new area that is referenced in the previous games.

In other CD Projekt Red news, there's apparently going to be one more surprise CyberPunk 2077 patch coming out.  It's likely going to feature modding support for new platforms, but maybe they'll throw in a few fun features like the new car cosmetics (which I haven't experienced yet).  They've really been pitching the Switch 2 version of the game, so this update is likely in response to its release.

Not gonna lie, the tech demo made me hyped!  Who knows when the game will actually come out, but wow--it's already looking awesome.  I'm also very glad that CD Projekt seems like they're going to stick to what they're good at--open world RPG's.