Museum Mastery

My Two Point Museum adventure is primarily over (I'm still playing--I'll explain), so it's time to finally write up my full review.  Did they manage to add another enjoyable management experience to the whacky Two Point world?  Short answer; yes!

What is it?

The third game in the silly management-oriented game universe of Two Point county.  The first two games saw players managing hospitals and college campuses and the newest chapter introduces the world of museums.  Play generally hinges on meeting specific goals (which change for each museum, star level, or challenge) to earn "stars."  Meeting these goals means you move on to the next set of more complicated goals to earn even more prestige for your museums.  Managing museums requires you to send staff on expeditions to find new exhibits, to keep your guests happy, and to maintain the exhibits and infrastructure of your museums.  There's plenty to keep you occupied.

My Tiger Shark display in my marine life museum.

How much playtime can I expect?

If you're just focusing on completing the game (each museum to 5 stars), probably 50-60.  There are also optional challenge maps that focus on different aspects of gameplay.  Something new that greatly extends playtime--once you reach 5 stars you can keep playing--each map gets a new general set of goals to continue adding stars.  I think I can currently go up to 8 stars and I'm at almost 80 hours played.

Pros:

+ If you've played the other games in the Two Point series the playstyle and content directly ties-in.  You have the same friendly receptionist making goofy announcements and there are characters from the other games who are VIP guests or special famous spirits that can be captured.  As someone who is a big fan of the Two Point games, I enjoyed the call backs and easy to pick up gameplay.  That doesn't mean that there's not plenty of new content/gameplay to make Museum it's own novel entry into the series.

+ 5 different museums to manage.  Each museum has it's own unique "theme" that means management is slightly different.  You start off with a sort of default pre-history museum that features fossils and dinosaur bones but quickly move on to a variety of others that include: a "marine life" museum that features live exhibits of sea creatures and the ruins of a mysterious underwater culture; a science themed museum where you can build many custom contraptions but can also display classic scientific inventions; a space museum that focuses on finding mysterious "anomalies" and learning about the other denizens of the Two Point universe; the final museum is supernatural themed and focuses on an eccentric collection of "cursed items" and capturing spirits (known as "polterguests") to display.

Managing each museum type presents its own challenges--in the marine life museum you have to make sure that you keep the exhibits alive--fish need to be housed in tanks with specific requirements such as temperature and food type.  You also have to pay special attention to the traits of the fish you capture--some will eat other fish or fight with them.  Science displays will catch fire and explode if they aren't maintained properly.  Polterguests require frequent special "spirit whispering" sessions to be kept happy or else they will break free and cause chaos (or eventually completely escape).  I enjoyed the variety of themes and management requirements for each museum type.  Oh and you can also display as many different themes as you want!

The hemo-gobbler plant transforms guests into vampires.

+ Expeditions to find new exhibits are a fun new mechanic.  There are multiple themed areas that your experts can visit.  Each map location features a specific set of events--some might require a specific set of skills from your staff but also events that can be countered by staff with those skills.  Expeditions cost money and mean that staff will be gone for a certain amount of time, so it requires attention to make sure that you've got enough staff available to deal with the normal management of the museum.

Once your staff reach the location they will discover different "grades" of exhibits--this ranges from average up to pristine.  Higher quality exhibits offer greater "buzz" (guest excitement about the exhibit) and feature special "perk" slots where you can install extra boosts.  Each expedition to the location increases the survey level slightly and can unlock higher quality exhibits.  Unlocking pristine exhibits can require many trips.  Certain items, like dinosaur bones, also require multiple trips to unlock all the parts.

+ Bigger maps!  Each museum features the ability to unlock many additional plots.  One frustrating aspect from previous games was that some maps were cramped and required effort to maximize the limited amount of space that you had.  I haven't even come close to filling up any of the maps.

+ Plenty of themed decorative items to make each museum feel on theme.  They kept the kudosh system from the previous games so you can earn special currency to unlock new items.  I'm not very creative, but with the bigger maps there's plenty of room to design special touches to make your museum feel like a regular wonderland.

+ Challenge maps.  There are three challenge maps that focus on different aspects of gameplay--one map focuses on museum security and challenges you to catch as many thieves as possible (thieves periodically appear in your museum and will try to steal your exhibits--hiring security guards and building a security booth with cameras serves to prevent thefts); another map focuses on marketing and trying to attract a specific set of guests within a certain timeframe; and the last one focuses on farming fish (you can breed fish in aquariums using a special item).

+ Sandbox mode.  You can set your own specifications and run your own mega-museum.

+ Tons of exhibits to unlock.  Each map has way more locations than what you need to reach the five star level.  To unlock new locations you have to meet specific requirements in your museum and those get harder as you advance.  There are also fun crossover locations (for example, unique botany items that might be located on the supernatural map) that require multiple types of experts.  I've been pleasantly surprised by the number of locations and exhibits on each map.  Unlocking and completing them all is quite the challenge.

+ Smoother gameplay.  One mildly annoying aspect of the previous games was the somewhat hitchy saving/loading that would take place at the beginning of each month as it clicked over into a new one.  The game would almost seem like it was hanging for like a couple of seconds before things got back into motion.  Now everything runs smooth as butter.

Cons:

- Some new mechanics aren't explained well.  I had noticed that there was an achievement for "sponsored exhibits" but couldn't figure out what that meant.  Maybe it's my own fault for not fully clicking on all the different management menus, but this was not featured in any tutorial.  I had to Google it to figure out how it worked (basically you can choose to feature special "sponsored" items or displays in your museum for extra income.  Guests might lose buzz--who actually enjoys seeing more ads?--but it can provide a good amount of cash).

 - A few annoying (and potentially serious) bugs.  I encountered one where my security guards would catch thieves only to march them toward the entrance, release them, and then be stuck in a continual cycle of pursuit, capture, and release.  Fortunately, this bug got fixed relatively quickly but there seem to be some players facing bugs with their helicopters getting stuck (preventing you from doing expeditions).  Bugs are to be expected with any new release and it seems like they're being addressed.  My own experience has been great (other than the brief security bug).

- I wish there was a % chance attached to exhibit quality or that it was explained a bit more.  As you re-visit the same expedition multiple times your chance to find higher quality exhibits increases, but its very unclear how exactly it works.  I was playing a 6-star map and it required me to find and display 20 pristine exhibits--this took a very long time.  Revisiting a map with the highest quality listed as pristine is no guarantee that you will find that quality.

Recommendation:

In a world of $69.99 games, it's nice to have something highly enjoyable come along for $29.99.  If you're a fan of the Two Point games, it's a definite must-have.  If you're someone new, it's a great introduction to the series that's a lot of fun to play.  Its laid back style and goofiness mask a highly enjoyable and challenging management game.  I'm greatly looking forward to any future DLC.

Dirty, Rotten Thieves

No, I'm not talking about NVIDIA, but about an unfortunate bug that (briefly) hit my Two Point Museum experience this week.  I was happily grinding away at my museum empire when I got a notification that my museum was being targeted by a criminal guild (an event that periodically happens).  I didn't pay much attention to it--my cameras and strolling guards did what they needed to do and exposed the criminals before they were able to steal anything.  A few minutes later though, I noticed that my guards were simply strolling the captured criminals to the edge of nearby ramps and then the criminals were running loose.  Then, the guards would resume chasing them, capture them, march them to the entrance...only to keep doing the same thing!  I was baffled and figured that it might be a bug, so I took to the bug forums.  The very first pinned post listed it as a known issue and stated that a hotfix was being developed ASAP.  I was bummed and hoped that it would be fixed quickly because I was looking forward to spending time with my museums (it's spring break where I live).  Luckily, they rolled out the fix very quickly and I'm back at it.

The spirit of Lord Blaggard resides in Wailon Lodge.

I'm making solid progress on creating a better museum experience for my guests and have 4-stars on almost every map.  I've found that I like some museum types better than others.  My least favorite is probably the Bungle map and science theme.  Unlike the other museum types, you can find plans and build different science contraptions in the workshop.  It's a bit of a mixed bag--you don't have to make multiple expeditions to the same location, but you do have to gather materials (and quite a lot of materials for the higher quality versions) by doing expeditions to the material locations.  There are some unique features of the Bungle museum that are fun--the addition of robo-janitors and security guards.  You can build charging and mod stations to keep your robots functioning and to improve them.  The downside of the robots (at least so far) has been that part of the story has the robo-janitors periodically going "haywire"--this means that they malfunction and must be fixed by a robo-security guard.  This happens quite frequently.  The map is also periodically spattered with goo (it's part of the plot of that map) and only the robo-janitors can clean it up.  Basically, my map is littered with goo puddles.

Curse, creepy items in Wailon Lodge.

My favorite museum type is the supernatural museum at Wailon Lodge.  I like the creepy vibes of the displays--a combination of "cursed" items, weird plants, and polterguests (ghosts who you can contain in specially themed rooms that are viewed by guests).  One thing I will say about all the maps is that they are much larger than in the previous games--you definitely won't feel pressured for space and can get creative.  Wailon Lodge is a prime example and as part of the story tons of space opens up as you progress.  There are also a ton of tie-ins to the other Two Point games--I've managed to catch two "famous" spirits who are story characters from Two Point Campus.  Lord Blaggard is the infamous black knight whose disciples periodically invade and cause destruction to your campus.  Another fun spirit is Albert Spiffinmoore--the founder of the magically themed Spiffinmoore college.

The Hemo-gobbler Plant is one of my favorites.

Other than the brief introduction of the thief bug, I've been having a marvelous time with Two Point Museum and can't wait to write up a full review.  I'm also looking forward to any future DLC's and plan on adding them to my collection.  Happy spring break (if you're there) and happy gaming!

So Many Museums, So Little Time

Two Point Museum has been keeping me occupied and I'm genuinely enjoying it.  I am likely fairly far from completely finishing it (you can run your museums up to the 5-star level, this is a big change from the 3-stars in the previous games), but I'm fine with that.  Here's what I've enjoyed so far:

There is a great variety of exhibit types and each has their own particular management quirks.  You start off with the mostly straightforward pre-history exhibits--fossils and dinosaur bones.  They're easy to manage because all your experts need to do is "restore" them (keep them clean).  Dinosaur bones provide a bit of challenge because they are discovered in pieces and it generally takes multiple trips to complete the set.  After you earn an initial star you unlock other museum types...and boy oh boy, there is quite the variety.  Here's a rundown:

--Supernatural exhibits.  A whacky collection of "cursed items," (think horror movie-like items--your cursed dolls, creepy rocking horses, and janky animatronics) ghost wrangling paraphernalia (apparently an array of vacuums adapted for ghost catching), and the best part--the polterguests!  Polterguests are spirits that can be captured and placed on display for viewing as an exhibit.  Polterguests can come from several historical periods and have their own likes and dislikes when it comes to their accommodations.  They also require frequent "ghost whispering" sessions from experts to keep them content (lest they try to escape).  If you're striving for the absolute gold medal polterguest, then you absolutely must capture a famous spirit!  Famous spirits have a lot of buzz and are a major attraction--they include knights, pirates, and others.

My Tiger Shark display.

--Marine Life/Aquarium exhibits.  Marine life experts can be sent on expedition to collect a variety of fish that can be displayed in aquariums.  Fish can come from different habitats and have different requirements for their tanks--this can include food, temperature, and temperament.  Experts must also frequently attend to the tanks to make sure that they stay clean and that the fish feeders stay stocked.  One of the challenging aspects of managing fish is that some fish will fight (and can kill each other) or will eat smaller fish.  It's vitally important to pay attention to their traits or else you will wind up with a tank full of dead fish (and who wants to see that?).  I've managed to kill an entire tank of fish thanks to not fully understanding the traits of a sea monster that I placed with other fish.  Luckily, even if you do kill off your fish, you can either breed or send out experts on expedition to capture more fish.  I've probably had the hardest time with my marine life museum--the fish disaster happened and I also had a thief steal an exhibit that I apparently can't replace.  (*I will prevail!)

A mixture of different aquarium displays.

--Space exhibits.  Alien objects have been spotted high in the forest and it's basically the perfect opportunity to study and display those objects.  The space museum features experts who must first dig through piles of space junk to find mysterious objects with different shaped symbols on them.  Once you can send your experts out into the expanses of space to explore, you start finding other mysterious objects that feature patterns of symbols...combining the correct symbol displays with the larger artifacts unlocks them (and provides a boost of buzz).  It's enjoyable to see the unlocked objects.

Once you've made a bit of progress you also unlock special Cheese-moonger displays (*if you haven't played Two Point Campus, the cheese-moongers are a type of alien who farm moon cheese...a delicacy--don't ask where it comes from...).  It's a fun little call back to the other Two Point games.

--Science exhibits.  A collection of classical inventions with a sort of steam-punk vibe.  Some of these items can be tweaked to have special effects on guests--like increasing buzz or entertainment.  They're also prone to catching on fire, so you need to keep those janitors trained up on fire suppression.  (Honestly, I haven't played the science museum too much, so it's on my to-do list).

--Botany exhibits--plants; this can include man-eating plants that will consume guests and turn them into other types of guests--one plant turns them into clowns and another into vampires.  Plants require a humid environment that is provided by misters and can also require warmer temperatures (installing heaters is a must).  Like fish, if your plants aren't tended to by experts, they will die and you'll have to replace them.  There's quite a variety of fun plants to unlock and I also feel like I need to make more progress on this one.

Along with all these big categories, there are also smaller subcategories in each type of exhibit.  For example, pre-history includes fossils, but also includes frozen in time items (creatures and items frozen in ice) and "pre-history's mysteries"--items whose use has been lost to time.  There are a ton of items to discover and each museum can be themed or a sort of mix-and-match of different types of exhibits.  Each type of exhibit attracts a certain type of guest, so there is quite a variety in the folks who visit your museums.

I've been impressed with what I've seen from Two Point Museum and look forward to finishing it and writing up a full review.  Happy weekend (and happy gaming) to everyone!

Night at the Museum

I'm so excited to finally be playing Two Point Museum!  The bad news though--I've sidelined my Satisfactory progress and I was feeling like saving humanity was pretty close.  I'm making plans to finish up my Satisfactory mission in the future, but for now, I'm happily engrossed in my museum adventures.

I haven't played a ton of Two Point Museum (yet), but I've had fun with what I've experienced so far.  If you're a Two Point fan like me there's a nice mix of new and familiar.  Our favorite PA/receptionist still voices the announcements, all the radio hosts are back, and the gameplay has some fresh new elements.  One of the new elements involves sending specific groups of employees (it differs for each location) out on expeditions to discover new displays.  At the end of each expedition you unlock a crate that contains a potentially new item (you can also get repeats of the same items...but there's a system set up around that) and it's exciting to watch that crate pop open.

There's lots to consider when planning your museum--guests want to learn and they also want to be entertained, so you have to plan around those factors.  Each display has a certain amount of "buzz" which can be increased by satisfying special bonuses (like positioning an item close to an item of the same family or near a certain kind of decoration) and by decorating the area around the display.  You also have to provide knowledge through informational displays.  It's important to keep your guests happy because they will make donations that help provide income for your museum.

My dino/botany display area.

When it comes to the items that you can display in your museum there is an impressive variety--so far (in my 6-ish hours of gameplay) I've encountered fossils, dinosaur bones, critters trapped in amber, aquatic ruins, aquariums with different types of fish, and man-eating plants.  Each class of items has special thematic decorative items that make designing your museum lots of fun.

Of course, there's also plenty of management--hiring and training staff, meeting the needs of guests and staff, setting up display areas, and building new rooms.  There's still a whacky/zany vibe that pervades the game and keeps things light.  So far, Two Point Museum seems to take the traditional Two Point style and improve on it.  I've been so excited to come home and play every night and am looking forward to more adventures.

Maybe There's Hope on the Horizon

If you're someone who is interested in PC building--or like me are looking to build a new PC this year--the news around the GPU market has felt...very chaotic and disappointing.  NVIDIA's release of it's new, flagship RTX 5000 series cards has been an absolute dumpster fire.  Stock has been extremely low and actually being able to obtain a card has been almost impossible--as a result, prices have been astronomical.  Then, there was news of issues--melting power cables and manufacturing errors that led to lower performance for some cards.  To top this all off they stopped producing 40 series cards early in anticipation of the new GPU's--basically, it's a very crap time to be trying to get a GPU.

(Here's a Gamers Nexus video where Steve breaks down the official specs for the 9070/9070XT)

Anyone who is interested in getting a new GPU has been crossing their fingers that AMD's 9070 and 9070 XT release will be much smoother than the 5000 series.  Well, we finally got some seemingly good news on that front.  It was announced that the pricing for the 9070 would be $550 and the 9070XT would be $600.  This is...actually, pretty reasonable (with a ton of caveats of course--AMD will need to have enough stock; tariffs on goods from China are likely to increase which will also have an impact).  I'm hoping that all this turns out to be true.

I'm wanting to build to this summer, so I'm hoping it's the perfect time where the cards have been out long enough that there are plenty and that prices have maybe started to dip a little.  I'm still not 100% sure if I want to stick with an NVIDIA card or switch over to AMD.  I'm wanting to move up to 1440p and have very little interest in ray tracing, so I'm leaning AMD.  My current PC has the first NVIDIA GPU that I've ever had in it (and I'm pretty sure that I probably overpaid for it!).  I have felt like NVIDIA's drivers and software have worked more smoothly than when I had AMD GPU's--I had some issues with their driver updater not working, but I never had any major issues with their GPU's.

C'mon AMD...don't screw this up!

Is my progress...satisfactory?

Unsurprisingly, I'm still chugging away at my Satisfactory earth-saving mission.  Phase 9 of the project is a real doozy--tons of parts that not only require a lot of advanced manufacturing but also require extremely power hungry processes.  My dreams of building a secondary plutonium reactor turned into a necessity due to the increasing power demands.  My nuclear reactor zone is a radioactive nightmare--I keep a solid supply of iodine gas filters available.

My Plutonium Reactor and particle accelerator

I've reached a point with Satisfactory where I'm ready to move on to something else, but I just can't give up because I feel like I'm so close to the finish line.  I've got another game waiting in the wings (Terra Nil) but know that if I do move on, it's likely that I won't move back any time soon.  I'm also extremely excited for the release of Two Point Museum and am hoping to be done by the time it releases on March 4th.

On the hardware front, I've been watching news about the continued fiasco that is the RTX 5000 series launch.  The RTX 5070 Ti released earlier this week and it was a similar story as the releases of the 80/90's--low stock and ridiculously high prices.  Every big reviewer (your Linus's, Paul's, Gamers Nexus, Jay, etc.) basically said "do not buy this card at the current prices."  MSRP was supposed to be $750 but most cards are selling for $1000 or more.  NVIDIA has said that stock should increase in the upcoming months and that hopefully prices will drop.  March is creeping closer and that also means that AMD will be releasing their 9070 cards which should be interesting.  I really want to build a new PC this summer, but I don't want to pay the ridiculous prices that seem to be the standard right now.

I hope everyone is enjoying some gaming this weekend!

Melted Dreams

Sometimes it's for the best to not be one of the first to be doing/getting something.  The whole early 5000 series NVIDIA GPU release seems like a fiasco.  Firstly, it was apparently most of a paper release with evidence of extremely meager supplies (so meager that Microcenter located in southern California got something like 67 total 5090's).  Your chances of actually obtaining a card were miniscule, but that might not be a bad thing.  There have been reports that some cards are having the same problem as the early 4090's--those absolute beastly cards suck up a massive amount of power and have been melting power cables.  What a bummer to actually get a card and then have it disintegrate before your eyes!  I'm sure those few people who actually experienced this will be getting a replacement...someday when NVIDIA actually starts pumping out GPU's (rumored to be anywhere from March to June).  And another piece of bad news is that with the new tariffs on China, those cards are going to cost as much as $400 more.

Personally, I'm pulling for AMD to release their 9000 series cards and for things to go much more smoothly.  I'd love to see AMD start grabbing more of the GPU market.  The new AMD cards are supposedly going to be released in March.  I think a lot of gamers are keeping their fingers crossed given that the 5000 series launch has been so ridiculous.

(If you want to listen/watch and entire podcast about this issue here's a link to Hardware Unboxed discussing this issue--link)

If you want a great breakdown of all the 5000 series woes, JayzTwoCents breaks it down well in this video:

My Satisfactory dreams of saving the human race from vague disaster are slowly materializing.  I've reached what appears to be the final phase (9) and am working through unlocking even more complicated machinery.  Completing this phase, of course, requires a mindboggling array of fancy items.  One of my big goals is to build another nuclear reactor that runs on plutonium rods (plutonium rods are a different fuel source that are built from the waste of uranium reactors--it's a whole other complicated process to piece together).  With this extra power I could even further refine my sadly inefficient production lines.

There has always got to be something to look forward to and I'm greatly anticipating the March 4th release of Two Point Museum!  I've seen lots of great videos of the different kinds of museums you can build--the stock natural history variety but aquariums and goofier supernatural themed affairs.  I'm not going to pre-order or buy the slightly spendier "explorer edition" that offers up a week of early access play and a bunch of mostly cosmetic/bonus items, but I'm very much looking forward to the regular release.

I've also reconsidered my opinion of the "early access" bonus days that some games are offering.  It might be a good strategy because it allows developers to have a smaller number of players interacting with the game and discovering issues/bugs before the full release (and then hopefully addressing these issues).  I just don't think it's worth paying 1/3 more of the price (although there are some parts of the explorers edition that do seem nice--like an additional museum to run).

Happy post-Valentines day (I'm hoping to grab some cheap candy--ha!) and happy gaming!