The Betrayer

My CyberPunk adventures have been continuing (I'm probably about 80% done--just have to wrap up scanner jobs and gigs in City Center) and I've had to make some tough decisions for my male V.  In my ultimate quest to experience ALL the potential endings (but in a full playthrough), I made a few different choices this go-round.  Sadly, not all those decisions have felt...great.

The first new decision I made was to test out the Kerry option as a romantic partner for V.  I've always found Kerry to be a bit of an odd choice (I mentioned the age difference in my last post), but the actual relationship plays out fairly nicely.  You can opt to kiss Kerry after you complete the mission to meet up with him during a press event promoting his new collaboration with the band Us Cracks (you know, the Japanese girl group that he's initially trying to destroy).  One thing I've noticed that I haven't paid much attention to before--someone at CD Projekt must like freckles because both Kerry and Rogue have a smattering that isn't immediately obvious until you go in for a kiss.  Then, Kerry calls up V for his ultimate act of revenge on his hapless manager--sinking the poor man's luxury yacht.  It's during this mission that you get to experience the one sex scene and it's a bit of a doozy.  While the yacht is burning, Kerry and V engage in some passionate fun times before taking a naked dive off the sinking ship.  It kind of makes sense with Kerry's whole "rockerboy" vibe and it's definitely less weirdly awkward as the Panam tank sex scene.  Kerry will text V several times making silly, flirty jokes and you can also opt to hangout at one of V's apartments.  Overall, I think Kerry's romance is one of the better ones.

It's V and Nibbles, just chillin'.

(Spoilers for Phantom Liberty ahead--read on with caution)

I had only played through the Phantom Liberty DLC once prior to this, so I decided to try out a different option when it comes to the major fork in the storyline.  Basically everything comes down to choosing if you're going to help Songbird or help Reed.  Both characters have their own understandable motivations, so it's a tough choice.  My first go-round I decided to help Songbird but ultimately handed her over to Reed and the FIA (I wanted to experience the ending where V gets help from them).  This time I decided that I was going to side with Reed and capture Songbird during the mission where you impersonate the Cassel twins.  Reed gives V a device that should be able to disable Songbird while she's busy with liberating the neural matrix from the Cynosure device.  Things immediately go south...Songbird detects the attempt to disable her, is extremely pissed that V betrayed her trust, and goes berserk.  During the chaos of Songbird fleeing, Alex (who is impersonating Aurare Cassel) is killed by Hansen (the first big ugh).  V has to fight through a legion of Barghest goons while chasing Songbird through the stadium and then ultimately face off against Hansen.

After V dispatches Hansen, he meets up with Reed and they drive to a nearby overlook and try to track down Songbird.  It's here that they see something that isn't typically seen in Dogtown--MaxTac comes swooping down to capture Songbird.  Now, Reed and V are tasked with breaking Songbird out of MaxTac custody...and it's going to take some help from friends.  Reed tasks V with finding a netrunner who can hack into MaxTac's database and find out where Songbird is located while he goes off to find some allies who can potentially help with a firefight (you can choose to call up Mr. Hands and pay him $15000 for help or possibly find your own netrunner).

Once V has tracked down a friendly netrunner, they meet up with Reed to set up the ambush on the convoy carrying Songbird.  Reed has enlisted some help from 6th Street (Santo Domingo's local gang and apparently a group that is on the payroll of the FIA/NUSA...go figure) and you can plan out certain aspects of the attack.  The real combat involves attacking a convoy of cops and ultimately a team of MaxTac fighters.  The MaxTac crew is made up of four cybernetically enhanced super soldiers--there's a heavy type toting a big machine gun, a mantis blade wielding dude who jets all over the place, a netrunner who's trying to constantly hack you, and a sniper.  (*I opted not to play on the hardest difficulty this time around and was grateful for it in this particular scenario)  Luckily, you get Reed to help you out (he's got a sniper rifle and will basically attack whatever target you are), but it's a fairly tough combat scenario.

During the chaos of the end of the MaxTac fight, Reed is injured and while V is checking on him, Songbird manages to break free and flee in a vehicle.  V has to chase her down and finds that the truck has crashed into a hidden underground bunker.  This bunker turns out to be the very Cynosure project where the neural matrix was hidden away.  V then has to follow weird traces of the Blackwall left behind by Songbird as she flees through the facility.  This mission takes on a very...creepy, supernatural kind of feeling in a way that's not present in the rest of the game.  As V tracks Songbird he finds himself navigating through a hidden facility where Militech was experimenting with using rogue AI (similar to what Songbird does for the NUSA) as a potential weapon.  Things get even more intense when Songbird boots up a killer robot that periodically emerges to track down V (you can't attack or kill the robot and instead have to hide from it until it will eventually head off somewhere else--I've never played Alien: Isolation but I'm guessing that it's a very similar vibe--oddly unsettling and a bit scary).  You have to avoid the creepy robot and figure out how to disable the machinery to unlock the core of the facility where Songbird has hidden.  Once you've disabled the machinery, you reach Songbird and are greeted with a sequence of memories from her life.  You get to see her early netrunning days in Brooklyn and how everything unravels as she winds up in the clutches of the FIA--there's a lot of insight into her character and personality.  After that sequence plays out, V is faced with another very difficult decision--Songbird begs V to kill her.  She doesn't want to return to the FIA and be forced to continue being their handy Blackwall puncturing tool.  She begs V (it's tough....) and you can choose to kill her or hand her over to Reed.  I opted to hand her over (I intend to choose a different ending than last time that is dependent on Reed's help).  There's a sequence where you transport a barely conscious Songbird across the Night City/SoCal border to meet up with good ol' President Meyers.  Here, the Prez offers V a medal for their service (you can accept it or turn it down) and then flies off into the sunset on her AV.  Songbird is stabilized and placed on a helicopter to be transported to FIA headquarters for treatment/surgery.  Reed and V have a brief conversation about their choices (are they doing the right thing?) and then go their separate ways--Reed's offer to help V is still standing.

I found the mission to enter the Cynosure facility to be more exciting than the one where you save Songbird.  It's not extremely combat focused, so if fighting is your forte, I would opt to save her (you're looking at tons of combat against waves of enemies).  The departure from combat to creepy, scary, hidey game to be kind of fun (the whole sequence in the bunker is weirdly unsettling).  Making a decision about Songbird's ultimate fate is difficult.  In some ways she has been forced to become a tool of the NUSA/Rosalind Meyers/the FIA and she wants to be free.  In other ways, she went along with the whole thing and decided to take the extremely dangerous step of engaging with the rogue AI's of the Blackwall.  Betraying her felt very BAD though.  Next go round, I'm going to save her and help her escape from the FIA (it'll mean killing Reed though...which does suck).

Do I think that I picked the "happier" ending?  Nope, not really.  CD Projekt is very good at making sure that there is no truly "happy" ending and that there are always shades of grey.  The scenario I chose meant that Alex died, Songbird survives...but remains a part of the FIA, and Reed gets to live with his heavy conscience.

Edgerunner's Resurgence

Happy post-4th of July too all who are just grateful that the fireworks have finally stopped (*I say this reservedly as I definitely heard some going off last night...to officially celebrate the oft left uncelebrated 10th of July--not a real holiday, but apparently a good time to continue setting off explosives)!  I took last weekend off to celebrate/eat my once-yearly hotdog with family.  My gaming time has been somewhat curtailed by my weird interest in watching the World Cup.  I am not a soccer fan at all, but I do enjoy it once every 4 years.  The United States is (unsurprisingly) out so I've thrown my meager support behind Norway.  You can't help but root for a guy like Erling Haaland (yes, I've fallen for the hype).  But this is about gaming and not the World Cup!  When I'm not watching soccer I've been re-playing CyberPunk 2077.  And, apparently, I'm not the only one--many players are re-visiting Night City in anticipation of the second season of the anime series CyberPunk: Edgerunners.  So, it's the perfect time to take V, Johnny, and the rest of the crew out for an adventure.

This time around I decided to roll with a male V--for some weird reason I remember the voice acting as being kind of...off, I guess, but this time I feel like it's fine.  I went down the Nomad path because it had been quite awhile since I opted for it (and, I just kind of like the nomads).  Sadly, I didn't alter my playstyle much (which, it's kind of hard to do anyway thanks to the abundance of skill points that you pick up if you're a completionist)--V's mostly sneaking and occasionally submachinegunning down some baddies.  I am trying to be a bit less uptight about failing at sneaking and then just letting things turn into a shootout.  I've also had less remorse over blowing up all those conveniently located tanks of explosive materials.  Boom...limbs everywhere!  I'm also planning on giving the Kerry romance a try--it's the only one I've never experienced.

Is it just me or does anyone else find the age difference with Kerry to be...weird?  Kerry's supposed to be in like his 70's or 80's (and yes, I acknowledge that the technology in the game is supposed to help prolong lifespan and keep people feeling and looking younger) but he looks like he's in his 40's or 50's.  It just feels a bit creepy to me.  Buuuuut, it's the only romantic path I have yet to do, so I'll just shove those feelings off to the side.

Surprisingly there has been some new content added that I somehow missed in my last playthrough.  A strange mission that I couldn't remember popped up and offered up a chance for V to track down a stolen vehicle.  This vehicle was apparently being used by some corrupt NCPD officers and then had been stolen from them.  River Ward asks V to track down the vehicle and learn about the circumstances around how these corrupt officers were able to obtain the vehicle in the first place.  V has to track it down and engage in a heated gun battle with the current occupants (a Maelstrom couple with some ambitious street dealing dreams) to liberate it.  Once V has gained ownership he learns that it has a special feature--namely the new CrystalCoat technology that allows you to personalize the paint colors of certain vehicles--and has to track down some software to fix a bug in the system (basically raid a 6th Street occupied garage and download the file).  The car you get is definitely one of the best--a Yaiba "Semimaru"--that is fast and highly maneuverable.  The CrystalCoat feature is kind of fun and allows you to change the look of a vehicle on a whim.  There's another car mission to recover a special Rayfield model known as a "Mordred" that was owned by none other than Yorinobu Arasaka.  In this mission you can choose whether or not you keep the car (umm, duh?  Who's not keeping it?).  If you do keep the car you will be attacked by a few carloads of angry Arasaka agents at a random time.  It's totally worth it though as the Mordred is comparable to the Semimaru.

Male Nomad V with his lizard friend and the Rayfield Mordred.

I've also only played through the Phantom Liberty expansion once, so I'm enjoying re-visiting it.  It's so much more action-packed--the intro missions with President Meyers reminded me of that.  I think I'm going to opt for a different ending this time around too--last time I went with (umm, spoilers, I guess) the ending that turned out to be sort of depressing (I mean, the other endings are sort of depressing too...) with V returning to Night City (sans cyber-abilities) only to find out that without all their fancy chrome they're going to be surviving, but not necessarily living that big time life envisioned by Jackie.  We'll see how things shake out.

I also purchased several games from Steam's summer sale that I have yet to check out, but am saving them for the future.  Happy World Cup, happy gaming, and happy summer (especially to the teachers out there)!

Divin' & Grillin' in Dave's New Adventure

In the vein of surprising game updates, I was shocked when I saw a new snippet pop up in my Steam Library newsfeed about a new DLC for a game that I hadn't thought much about for quite awhile.  Several weeks ago (and I have no idea if I just blindly missed something) I saw an announcement video pop up in my newsfeed that Dave the Diver was getting a new DLC.  I love me some Dave, so this was a very pleasant and exciting surprise.  I've played my way through the new DLC (and thanks to being on summer vacation I've had plenty of time to play) and it's a great addition to the already existing adventure.

What is it?

An expansive DLC that offers up a new area for Dave to explore--a village located in the middle of a nearby jungle.  There's plenty of new diving to do and tons of other fun new content that manages to maintain the traditional Dave feel of gameplay and throw in lots of silly mini-games and goofy cutscenes.  It begins in the epilogue of the full game and sees you move fully away from your beloved Blue Hole and Bancho's Sushi restaurant.

How much additional playtime can I expect?

Depending on your playstyle, I would estimate ~10-20 for a story-focused playthrough and more for a completionist playthrough (which, at the moment, is a bit pointless...but I'll get to that).  It's not a bad chunk of game for $9.99 (I got it for $8.99 at release...but it's definitely worth that extra $1).

Pros:

+A new area to explore...in the jungle!  Dave and company venture out from their home base near the fantastic Blue Hole to a small village that has been experiencing the odd phenomenon of ancient sea creatures washing up on a nearby beach.  The villagers want someone to find out what the creatures are and where they are coming from.  The village just so happens to be located by a very large freshwater lake that is suffering from some pollution issues.  In true Dave fashion, solving this puzzle is going to require the work of the whole crew.

+ Gameplay loop that is similar to the base game but that offers up more time for above water activities.  Dave doesn't just dive--"In the Jungle" features a daily clock that starts when Dave first emerges in the morning.  Half the day can be spent wandering around the village, talking to the locals, or gathering materials.  If you want Dave to dive he has to enter the water before evening.  It's also possible (if you enter the water early enough) to dive more than once a day.  Once evening hits it's time for Dave to start prepping Bancho's newest venture--the Bancho Grill!  After tasting some less than delicious fish (and slightly offending the villagers), Bancho decides to work on his cooking skills and show the villagers how to create a truly delicious dish.  Running Bancho Grill is fairly similar to the sushi restaurant--you pick specific dishes to place on the menu and then are tasked with serving them to patrons in a timely fashion.  The menu starts off fairly basic but is expanded to include two different kinds of drinks and skewers.  Bancho doesn't mess with skewers so it's up to Dave to grill them up and serve them to anyone who orders them.  This throws in an additional layer of difficulty because you have to balance the normal chaos of serving drinks and meals as well as preparing and serving skewers.  At the end of the night you receive the same star rating based on your timeliness.  There are plenty of new recipes for Bancho to learn and lots of fun dishes to serve.

After the restaurant shift ends, Dave has a small window of time to do some nighttime roaming in the village.  He can chat up any villagers hanging around after dark (there aren't many, but a few), or gather unique nighttime items.  As this thin sliver of time gets closer to the end, Dave can choose to go to bed (and wake up at the same time with a full morning schedule) or stay up and lose part of his morning window.  Just go to bed Dave!

+ A new freshwater diving experience.  There are new fish to catch and catalogue, new items found in crates, and plenty of unique underwater resources to gather.  Diving ain't all fun and games though--there are many different types of aggressive fish and large predators lurking in the water.

+ The jungle gun is four unique weapons in one!  Sadly, Duff can't leave his anime girls behind so there's a new tech expert in residence.  Muna is an assistant to the OG Dr. Bacon and she has a knack for technology.  She grants Dave the jungle gun--one weapon that you can change into four different weapon forms (rifle, shotgun, sniper rifle, and net gun).  The jungle gun is great because you can just scroll through to the type of weapon that you want.  It also means that you have more ammo to use when you're facing a big bad.  All four types of gun can be upgraded in a similar fashion to the base game (provide the correct resources and some money).  One of the upgraded versions offers up a form of the sniper rifle that does a bunch more damage if you stay locked onto a target for more than 1 second--it's very powerful and great for sniping from afar.

Dave's complete skeleton display for the museum.

+ Two Point crossover content.  I'm a big fan of the Two Point games and both games added in crossover content.  Dave encounters an unconscious explorer in the jungle and finds out that he's gathering dinosaur bones for a museum.  There's a mission where Dave can collect bones from defeated creatures in the forest to help complete a unihornus skeleton.  In Two Point Museum they added in a new digiverse rift that features content from Dave the Diver.  There's even an option of open up a mini-Bancho sushi in your museum (...of course you'll be serving up the fist that you catch for displays in your museum which seems maybe a bit questionable).  

+ Befriending the villagers.  In order to gain the trust of the villagers, Dave can speak to them and learn about their preferences.  He can then find (or purchase) items that the villagers like and give them as gifts.  As their friendship level rises, the villagers will offer up gifts in return.  It's a fun way to learn about each individual and their preferences.  Villagers will also offer special missions to Dave--it could be an item they are looking for or a fish/larger critter they would like cooked up.

+ Dave goes exploring.  As you progress the story a new area unlocks that opens up a fun, new type of gameplay.  The Setah Forest is filled with dangerous creatures so Dave has no choice but to take Cobra with him as protection.  When Dave encounters an aggressive forest creature there's a new turn-based combat experience.  Dave and Cobra each have their own set of abilities (Dave's good at swinging a club and Cobra prefers an array of guns and bombs) and facing off against the forest denizens offers up a bit of variety.  Exploring the forest is part of the story but also a good way to find materials that are only found there.  As you progress through the story Muna also joins the party with her own set of abilities.

+ Tons of silly mini-games inspired by classic games.  There's a Duck Hunt-esque shooting game and a sequence with some definite Guitar Hero vibes (there was a bit of this in the base game too).  The games are enjoyable and the references are also fun to pick out.  There's a nod to Resident Evil in the forest as Dave can pick green, red, and yellow herbs to provide health and action point boosts.  (*Some of the references I didn't get because I think they're more related to popular Korean cultural references/shows/games)

+ A cast of new friends to staff Bancho's Grill.  Random people just show up in the middle of the jungle (weird, right?) and some of them offer to stick around and work in the grill.  You really wind up with a diverse group of employees--you'll just have to play to see what I mean.

Dave's hut can be personalized with tons of items.

+Collectibles to hunt down.  Marinca cards still track your fishy friends but there's also a new app called Insectgram for collecting the many bug species that populate the jungle.  Part of collecting bugs involves beetle battles--another mini-game that involves finding large beetles and engaging in a paper, rock, scissors style game where you fight another beetle.  If you win, you collect that beetle and add it to your arsenal.

+ Dave gets his own personalized hut that you can decorate with crafted and gifted items.  You can also personalize the look of the Bancho grill with lots of different options.

Cons:

- No achievements.  I was a bit surprised when I didn't see any achievements popping up.  I didn't even look to see if there were achievements and just assumed that there was (because there normally are).  Do I care about achievements?  Not particularly, but they do sort of gently encourage me to be more completionist.  Apparently this was a big complaint to the devs because just last week they issued a sort of apology video and indicated that they were adding in achievements in a future patch.

- Boss battles are a bit underwhelming.  In the base game Dave would often be facing off against some kind of giant, weird marine creature.  The fights sometimes involved using specific tactics that made them feel fun and unique.  I didn't get that same feeling about the boss fights in this DLC.  The fights are pretty straightforward.  The jungle gun also made the fights feel easier to me.  You have three different guns, so you can use up much more ammo than in the traditional game before you have to go hunt some down.

- The gift giving aspect of the game is pretty meh.  You can purchase different items from one of the villagers every day.  If you chat with the villagers they will tell you what food and gifts that they prefer.  Providing them with either will increase their friendship level.  You can also experiment with gifts, but don't get as much of a boost from more neutral options.  Friendship level rises fast, so the experimentation part just felt extraneous.  Just focus on giving them their preferred gifts and you'll get to max level quickly.

-I want to see ALL the DANG LIZARDS!  One collectible-esque task involves catching the many species of very cute, big-eyed lizards that populate the jungle.  A specific villager LOVES lizards and has a terrarium in their hut where you can go and view the lizards.  The downside...you can only view a few at a time and there's no way to keep track of which lizards you have caught.  Lizards should have their own tracking or some type of list that is tied to the terrarium.

Recommendation:

It had been quite awhile since I had even thought about Dave the Diver.  "In the Jungle" takes much of what I enjoyed about the base game and improves on it.  I liked the storyline and getting to know the villagers.  The diving aspect is maybe a bit underwhelming compared to the base game, but the other added elements (like the turn-based battles in the forest) are something new to enjoy.  There's also that undergirding of silliness with the cutscenes that feature dancing jungle creatures or Bancho's jungle-creature inspired research sequences.  Paying $9.99 to re-visit one of my favorite indie (*yes, I know that term is debatable) games was definitely worth it.  If you're a Dave fan then you'll want to add in this fun, new adventure.

It's Giving Cooking Mama

After giving up on two different titles I decided to look for something that veered from that set of failures.  I was scrolling through my Steam Recommendations when I saw a game that definitely was a departure from my normal choices.  Who woulda thunk that I would enjoy a cute little casual cooking game?  I've had a nice time with some other cooking games--namely Cook, Serve, Delicious which I've recommended in the past (and it's supposedly getting a re-mastered first game).

For the longest time I thought this guy had a loaf of bread on his forehead.

What is it?

KuloNiko: Bowl Up! is a casual cooking-themed game that involves running a noodle/meatball restaurant that you inherited from your dearly departed grandmother.  The gameplay consists of running your restaurant, competing in a cooking competition known as the "meatball brawl," and befriending the many denizens of the fictional town of Kuloniko.  It has some STRONG Cooking Mama vibes--your main character is most definitely a descendant of our beloved Mama.

How much playtime can I expect?

I finished the main storyline in a little over 15.5 hours.  You can run your restaurant indefinitely (if that's your jam).  I'm not sure how much more playtime you could eke out.  I didn't unlock all the cosmetic options, but that could definitely add some playtime for someone interested in a fully completionist experience.

How's replayability?

There's not much of a replayability factor with this one, unfortunately.  I suppose if you also wanted to experience every iteration of hangout with each character...maybe that could motivate some longer playtime or more replayability.

The street view outside your restaurant.

Pros:

+ Cute, anime/Wii-style design.  The characters and town all have a fun vibe that will appeal to those aforementioned Cooking Mama fans.

+ Gameplay that is easy to pick up but has enough challenge to make it feel well balanced.  The controls are extremely simple (we're talking clicking at the right time mostly) but the challenge comes from managing the increasingly complex orders from the restaurant patrons.  Patrons can request specific recipes or they can just toss out a random list of items they want you to throw into a bowl.  It gets more complicated as they can also request that their food have a specific flavor or that they don't want specific ingredients.  Each bowl can only hold so many ingredients, so complex orders can feel quite challenging as you try to balance out the requested flavors.  As you progress and unlock new stations in the kitchen patrons can also request side dishes and drinks.  There's a timer for fulfilling orders and it can feel daunting at times.

The gameplay loop involves running your restaurant throughout the week (fulfilling customer orders) and deciding how you want to spend your two free days.  On free days you can either hang out with friends (the cast of characters you meet as part of the story) and do something fun which will increase your friendship meter/level.  Increasing friendship is important because each of your friends has specific perks that can be applied if you opt to choose them to assist you during a meatball brawl (plus, you unlock all those fun cosmetic options--some are themed around a specific character).  You can also opt to participate in meatball brawls during your day off.

+ Meatball brawl throws in some light faux-competition.  At this event you can challenge another chef to create a dish for a specific panel of judges who each have their taste/ingredient preferences.  You earn points (hearts) by adding ingredients that the judges prefer while also paying attention to the challenge ingredients (each brawl has a different set of unique bonus ingredients).  There are also bonus points awarded for performing specific crowd requested actions during one of the three "action" phases--for example, the crowd might want you to do cutting tasks or add a specific flavor.  Winning the competition requires adding in the bonus ingredients and also making sure to take into account the specific taste and ingredient preferences of the judges.  Overall, winning the brawls isn't too difficult.

+ Very forgiving gameplay.  If you mess up an order or take too long your patrons will still pay for their order...they just don't tip as well and you make less money.  If you lose a meatball brawl your restaurant loses some reputation (which can be re-earned through correctly fulfilling orders in your restaurant) and you can re-challenge the chef at a later date.

A beach-themed restaurant.

+ Lots of cosmetic options for creating your own unique restaurant.  You can personalize your kitchen and your main restaurant area with many fun options.  The basic options can be purchased with coins and other options are unlocked through increasing your friendship level with certain characters and purchasing them with vouchers (vouchers can either be won in brawls or during festivals).

+ A silly main storyline with plenty of feel good cheese.  Friendship, yay!  Sometimes it nice just to keep things light.

+ A cute cat companion.  Every game is improved with a cute, cat.  Teto, the cat, will periodically jump on the cashiers counter and have to be nudged out of the way so you can cook and accompanies you to bed each night.  You can also pet him at night after your restaurant shift.

Cons:

- Mini-games to learn recipes are basically pointless.  Learning a new recipe makes you play a mini-game that literally consists of clicking.  That's it--there's not even a tiny bit of difficulty built it (like clicking a different button).  It could be improved by making different commands for each recipe...at least make it feel unique.

- Might be too casual for some gamers.  The most challenging part of the gameplay is figuring out particularly complex orders that request specific ingredients and flavor profiles.  Everything else is pretty cake--it's basically impossible to lose at meatball brawl and messing up customer orders generally just results in less reputation/profits.

- Recipes seem pointless at times and you wind up giving a customer a bowl with some garlic and a few random seasonings.  Why even have them request a recipe?  (I get that part of it is you remembering that a customer said no meat)  It just feels sort of non-sensical--although, I suppose that people do order whacky things in real life.

Recommendation:

If you were a fan of Cooking Mama then KuloNiko will be right up your alley.  It's like Cooking Mama with an actual story.  If you're wanting a casual, mostly relaxing type of experience, it's perfect for you.  If you're hoping for something that's moderately challenging...this is not it (give Cook, Serve, Delicious a try).  I had a nice time with it and think it will appeal to a certain type of gamer.

...Know When to Fold 'Em

I'm only halfway through my first official week of summer break and I've already lost track of what day it is (I forgot to post yesterday...my bad for all the AI bots who missed out).  Anyway...I thought I would highlight one of the difficult decisions that we sometimes have to make in gaming--should I stop playing?  For some people, this choice can be tough and we often force ourselves to knuckle through something that we're not enjoying.  It has been one of my personal goals to stop doing that and I've had a bit of minor success this week(ish).

Last week I wrote up my feelings/impressions around Graveyard Keeper.  I was feeling a bit mixed about it but would estimate that I'm probably about 75-80% through the main storyline.  Generally when I'm that far along and struggling with enjoyment I will just grind it out.  This time around though, I decided that I was done.  The gameplay was feeling far too grind-y, like I wasn't making much progress, and I was constantly having to look things up (annoying).  Does that mean it's a bad game?  Not necessarily (although apparently there were a lot of issues when it originally came out--like the fact that the game wasn't ever officially "finished" and things like gamebreaking bugs...but I didn't encounter many issues and just found it a bit cumbersome)--I think there are things to enjoy, but for me personally, I lost patience and interest.  Forcing myself to play felt like clocking in to work...and that's not a great feeling.

Why is it so hard to quit when we aren't enjoying something?  I think part of it is about time and money.  I invested 45.2 hours into the story so felt a bit obligated to see it out to the end.  There's also typically the money factor--if you paid for a game you want to get your moneys worth out of it.  (*Here's where I will remind you that I did not pay for this game and received it free as part of a giveaway)  Those two factors make it tough to simply put something down (...and maybe secretly know that it's going to land firmly into your pile/mountain of shame).

Then I made the curious decision to stumble directly into that pile of shame and try to pick up another (beloved by many) title that I had struggled with in the past.  Shovel Knight is a game that I originally bought a long time ago.  I apparently played it for about 1 hour before uninstalling.  I couldn't really remember what the issue was (and thought that maybe it was just that I forgot about it) and that I should give it another chance.  Well, I did that and discovered that, in the words of the great Taylor Swift, "I'm the problem, it's me."  I am so horrible at Shovel Knight that it is demoralizing--I am constantly dying in sad and pathetic ways.  This time I gave up after about 2 hours.  That's progress!

So here's my advice--if you're not enjoying something, just let it slowly slide back into your library.  Don't force yourself to struggle through something.  You can always go back to it later--and, I suppose there's some kind of chance that you might enjoy it at a different point in your life.  In my case, that didn't really shake out, but I tried.

I've been trying to spend more time outside in the glorious summer weather.  Now's the time to be touching the grass, my gaming folks.  Happy summer to all (and hopefully next week I'll remember what day it is).

Corpse Abuse...for Profits!

I picked up a couple of free games as part of random giveaways and have been spending quite a bit of time with Graveyard Keeper.  It's not a new game and definitely is a product of the post-Stardew Valley craze that saw a glut of pixelated games in that vein.  It's no Stardew and I've been feeling a bit divided with my level of enjoyment.  I haven't completed it yet (and probably will), so this isn't my full review, but just some thoughts.

Likes:

+ Easy to pick up.  There's a bit of tutorial but it's pretty basic--you gather materials, you build various crafting objects, you craft items, and you try to complete tasks to further the main storyline.

My growing graveyard.

+ Like the name suggests, a big part of your tasks is to maintain/improve the local graveyard.  A communist-leaning talking donkey periodically delivers new corpses for burial.  Each body has a sort of (unexplained...) quality level and you can decide if you want to alter that level by performing some....unlicensed surgery.  With a bit of training (via a sort of talent point-like system) you can remove various parts such as bones, blood, or skin.  These parts are used in various other applications but will change the quality of the body/grave when buried.  The quality of a grave is determined by the quality of the body and the decorations you place on the grave.  Part of the storyline hinges on improving the quality of the graveyard to a certain level.  You can opt to invest talent points in burial skills (such as embalming) and in crafting fancier grave decorations.  Oh, and you can also carve off some chunks of flesh to sell as "meat" to the proprietor of the local tavern.  There's a meat shortage and he'll buy any "meat" as long as it has the royal stamp (something that you can purchase/obtain from both legitimate or shady sources).

+ If you want to be busy, there's about a million different things going on at a time.  This is both good and bad.  The main storyline branches out into having to complete tasks for a number of different characters.  Plus, you have to keep dealing with graveyard matters--those bodies keep rolling in (at least for awhile--then that punk donkey starts demanding pay in the form of carrots or else he won't deliver any more bodies).

+ Zombie workers!  You can unlock technology that allows you to turn bodies into zombies.  Once you've also unlocked and constructed the requisite work location and porter stations you can set up a nice network or zombies who will gather basic materials for you.  No one in town seems to notice this ominous behavior.

Dislikes:

- My biggest gripe has been the number of totally unexplained parts of the game.  For example, each body has a quality level based on a number of red or white skulls displayed.  The best corpses have none or few red skulls (this can be altered through embalming/application of fluids or removing specific parts) and they're the ones you want to keep in your graveyard.  Other than reading descriptions of talents this aspect of the game is not explained.  There's also an alchemy crafting system that is highly reliant on experimentation--basically you have to combine random stuff until you stumble upon the correct combo.  When you do stumble onto a workable combo it's not saved anywhere.  It would be nice to have a journal/logbook where this info gets saved.

- There's tons to do, but that can feel a bit overwhelming.  I have found that it's best to try to focus on one task at a time (like improving the church/graveyard or specific character tasks).

I'm about 30+ hours in and feeling pretty mixed about my experience.  I'm still entertained enough that I'll probably finish it (especially with summer break looming in my near future), but I've had moments of putting it down and playing something else.  We'll see.

If you're a teacher--wishing you a great summer break!  I get done on Wednesday and it has been a trying school year so I'm very much looking forward to less stress and more relaxation.  If you're not done yet, keep holding on--you're getting closer (I know there are some places that don't get out until the end of June).  Happy summer and happy gaming!

Semi-Unexpected Surprise

I tend to ignore a lot of the internet related gaming rumors--especially the ones that seem a bit unbelievable.  Even though I kept seeing some reports that there was new content for the now 11-year old The Witcher 3 in the works, it seemed downright goofy.  Who makes new content for an 11-year old game?!?  (*Okay, there are obviously some exceptions like games that have multi-player/online content like GTA V or maybe the oddity that is No Man's Sky).  It turns out that these rumors were true--The Witcher 3 will be getting new content as part of the "Songs of the Past" expansion that currently has a very vague 2027 release date.

The Witcher 3 is definitely one of my all time favorites, so yeah, I'm definitely going to play anything related to it.  So far the details about the new content have been very sparse and a bit cryptic.  They released a graphic promoting the new content that shows Geralt (in his very traditional gear) holding an interesting new sword with a giant, crazy tentacled monster lurking in the background (*included below in case you haven't seen it in a billion other places).

What details can we glean from this image--honestly, not much.  We can safely assume (based on previous DLC) that there will be new gear and some sort of big, bad monster that Geralt will ultimately face off against.  The title also hints that it might take place in the past OR potentially involve some sort of event from Geralt's past that has come back.  I'm curious if there will be some sort of tie-in with the upcoming The Witcher 4.  It sounds more likely though that it will reference the OG The Witcher since it is being co-developed between CD Projekt and the devs of the upcoming Witcher remaster.  I had completely forgotten about that project because there has been so little news about it.

There are a few confirmed details--CD Projekt made it a point to emphasize that "Songs of the Past" isn't a DLC but a full expansion similar to "Hearts of Stone" and "Blood and Wine."  Based on that, we'll likely see a new zone, new enemy types, new abilities, and maybe even some new gwent cards!  In a video yesterday they also dropped some hints that there are clues in a graphic related to the in-game holiday known as Belleteyn.  (See below)

So we have Geralt hanging out with the same sword that we see in the other image and Dandelion strumming his lute in the midst of a fun belleteyn celebration.  There's apparently also a poem that accompanies this image:

On Belleteyn night, when tall fires rise,
Whispered wishes go through the quiet skies.
A lion cub’s fate is penned in the stars,
And lilac and gooseberries are never too far.
Tonight, there are no monsters to kill, no roads to roam,
Just quiet thoughts and wishes that try to find a home.
The White Wolf sits still, mesmerized by the dancing flame,
While Dandelion strums his lute and hums Geralt’s name.

The poem hints at Ciri (the lion cub) and Yennefer (good ol' lilac and gooseberries), so there's probably a good chance we'll see involvement or a storyline involving them.  Oh, and Dandelion too.  But other than that, there's not much to glean--a party atmosphere?  Maybe some magical nonsense related to the festival of Belleteyn itself?

I felt like "Blood and Wine" ended in such a great way that I'm a bit surprised at this new content.  Geralt has just settled into Corvo Bianco and he's venturing out again?  I guess he's not actually retired...maybe he has one more adventure in him.

I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for more news related to "Songs of the Past."  Happy gaming!

Leave it to the Beavers--Timberborn

I recently spent a bit of time trying to master my city building skills.  Now, I'm absolutely not an expert in city building, but I can usually do decently.  The city builder in question doesn't involve your typical human cities, instead, it's based on a civilization of advanced beavers.

What is it?

A city-builder with a few unique twists that include the aforementioned society of beavers.

How much playtime can I expect?

Honestly...potentially infinite.  Your city can exist as long as you can keep it functioning and survive gradually lengthening periods of crisis (I will explain soon).

Pros:

+ Mostly helpful tutorial that allows you to get a grasp on the basics.  More advanced features do require some searching.

The industrial area of my town.

+ Beavers!  Humans are boring...but beavers are cute, great engineers, and love to socialize.  Beavers have the same basic survival needs as humans--they need food and water--but keeping them truly happy requires making sure that they have a variety of their favorite foods to choose from (there are multiple buildings where you can prepare a wide ranging menu) and plenty of options for ways that they can spend their free time.  Since beavers are very social creatures they like to have cozy places to gather with others--this includes a nice campfire, a rooftop terrace, or a grand amphitheater where they can discuss their favorite task--logging.  They also like to cut loose and have a good time, so building a carousel and a dance hall is a must.  A unique need for the beavers--wet fur.  Building special showers or a lido deck allows your beaver pals to take a quick dip.  They also love an aesthetically pleasant area with plenty of decorations.  Keeping your community of beavers happy will boost their efficiency.

+ Controls are easy to use and understand.  You can easily rotate buildings and place them where you want.

+ Two different factions of beavers with specific perks.  You start off as the Folktails, a faction that specializes in farming and can build beehives that help crops to grow more quickly.  Once you've played the Folktails faction to a certain level you unlock the Iron Teeth.  The Iron Teeth are more focused on technological skills.  Each faction has its own unique buildings, so it's fun to experiment with their strengths and weaknesses.

The beaver fun zone--a carousel and dance hall.

+ Elements of survival.  The game functions on a calendar made up of cycles.  Each cycle is made up of a certain number of days where everything works as normal and then a period of drought or badtide.  During a drought all water on the map stops flowing.  This means that unless you create a reservoir to store water your crops will all dry up and you'll be totally reliant on your stored water supply.  Drought is the lesser of the two evils though, badtide is more challenging to deal with.  A badtide is an event where all the water on the map is replaced by water that is polluted with high levels of radiation.  It cannot be used for farming and will cause corruption to spread to any areas that are close to water.  Corruption will cause any living things it touches to die (this includes trees, crops, and berry bushes).  Learning how to deal with these disasters is a must as your civilization can only last as long as your supplies do.

These periods of disaster throw some additional challenge into the traditional city-builder genre.  They also lengthen/happen more frequently the longer you play.  I managed to get my civilization to cycle 50 but had one very close brush with disaster when I got hit by back-to-back badtides (the type of disaster you experience is random) and didn't have enough time to store up enough water.  Luckily my few surviving beavers managed to chug along and bounce back.

(*I'm also fairly certain that you can turn off disasters if you're looking for a totally chill experience)

+ Advanced features for the leet.  You can unlock a wide variety of switches that allow you to automate exactly how/when certain parts of your city function.  These switches include logic switches (something that exceeds my abilities) but also a number of other types that trigger based off of things like weather or time of day.  I lack the skills to get into this, but if you're the type of person who likes to tinker with all the fancy stuff...it's there for you.

+ A nice soundtrack.  It's mostly piano-based music but it changes based on the weather.  It's slightly more ominous during droughts and badtides.

+ Monuments to build.  Like many other city-builders the ultimate achievement is gathering a massive amount of materials and building an awe inspiring monument in your civilization.  There are several to choose from and also faction specific monuments.  Most of them are beaver themed, which is definitely fun.

+ Speed controls to play at the pace you want.  

+ Many starting maps to choose from with their own unique challenges.

+ Mod support.

Cons:

- More advanced gameplay mechanics do require some research.  That's not terribly abnormal, but I found the tutorial to be unhelpful beyond the basics.  Just expect that there will likely be aspects of gameplay that you'll need to look up.

Recommendation:

If you're looking for a city-build that mostly fits into the shape of the genre, Timberborn will be right up your alley.  The additional survival challenge (and the ability to toggle it on or off) makes the game more fun.  The infinite playability plus features for all skill levels of gamers means that it's great for basically everyone.

Artistically Gifted

The most recent DLC for Two Point Museum, "Arty-Facts," recently was released.  Being a big Two Point fan, I snapped it right up and returned to the zany world of museum management.  But how does the new DLC stack up?

What is it?

DLC for Two Point Museum that adds in a new art themed vibe.  You get a new museum with its own storyline to run and lots of new items to discover on expedition as well new decorative themes.  It is priced at $10.99.

How much playtime can I expect?

To play your new museum to the four-star/story completion level (because you can keep playing to accomplish additional, more generic goals to get more stars) I would estimate ~10-12 hours.  I completed the story goals and also made it a point to unlock all the new expedition art exhibits, so I played a little bit beyond the story.  Playtime can vary based on your playstyle and goals, of course.

Pros:

The art studio--where masterpieces are made (eventually).

+ Your new art experts don't just go on expeditions, but can create their own unique works of art.  You can build an art studio and direct them to create a variety of artworks.  Similar to expeditions, creating art costs a certain amount and you can specify if you want your artists to spend more time to create a higher quality product.  A higher quality work of art costs more money and means your artist will be busy for a longer period of time, but also yields a perk.

+ Multiple kinds of art talents that can be trained.  All artists can create paintings, but you can also train (or hire) the ability to create 3D art (statues and sculptures) as well as performing arts. 

+ You can also train your artists in emotional intelligence which allows the to learn new emotions that can be added into their artworks.  Emotions impact guest feelings and there are certain guest bonuses related to the emotions that they experience.

+ Lots of fun new art themed decorative items to give your art museum the perfect vibe.

A performance artist puts on a dramatic play.

+ Building a stage allows you to employ performance artists who can put on performances that guests will pay additional money to watch.  You can unlock additional performance styles on expedition and they include themes like miming, martial arts, and music.  Like artworks, the type of performance your expert can put on depends on the emotional range that they are trained in.

+ Tons of funny famous artworks to discover on expedition.  Many are silly mockups of actual famous artwork or have a Two Point twist.

Some of the famous artworks--Cheesy Gothic & the Stinker.

+ New interactive activities to keep guests entertained.  There's an art stations for the kiddies, a fun sketch stage, and a full-body art/catapult activity.

+ To keep your security on their toes, there's also a new guild of thieves to contend with.  These art thieves will steal your valuable work and replace it with a valueless, silly forgery.

+ Making money is a cinch thanks to Snoteby's auctions (love the name).  These monthly auctions seek out specific kinds of artworks (usually a combination of a type of artwork with a specific emotion--statues that express joy, for example) that you can mark for auction.  The amount you get depends on the quality of the artwork.  Auctions are a good option to get rid of lower-quality works, but are a bit of a roll of the dice because the type of art and emotion changes each month.  Creating a range of new artworks is a good way to get your experts some experience but to also make sure you have a range of works to auction.

Interactive art!

+ There's no researching required!  Each famous or created artwork comes with a full amount of knowledge.  This eliminates the need to go on the same expeditions multiple times which can be a bit annoying.

Cons:

- It can be difficult to keep track of the emotions of each artwork and I wish they would add in a special layer on the view option to see emotions.  Instead, you have to click onto each one and find the emotion.  It's a minor annoyance when trying to auction off artwork.

Recommendation:

If you enjoy Two Point Museum you'll want to check out this DLC.  I think I actually liked it better than the wildlife DLC.  I like the ability to have your artists create unique artwork and to make money by auctioning them off.   Having different kinds of artists also adds in some variety--it's not just about paintings.  Give it a whirl!

Finding all the Kitties

I recently stumbled upon a very cute series of hidden object games during Steam's Hidden Object Fest sales event.  If you're a lover of felines and casual, hidden object games, you'll definitely want to check out An Arcade Full of Cats (and potentially the rest of the ...Full of Cats series).  Sometimes it's nice to just kick back with something where there's no pressure and the goal is to just find a bunch of hidden cats.

What is it?

An Arcade Full of Cats is a hidden object game that challenges you to find a specific number of silly felines hidden among the various nooks and crannies of arcades from various periods of gaming history.  As an added challenge there are also extra-hidden cats who are squirrelled away in various cat-friendly nooks on each level.  Aaaaand, there are usually special cats who will ask you to find other objects as well (in a sort of side quest way).  The best part--it's free to play!

How much playtime can you expect?

In the base, free-to-play version of the game you're probably looking 1-1.5 hours-ish (depending on how good you are at finding the cats or how much you want to use hints).  It's not a lot, but it is free.

Pros:

+ Detailed, clever level design.  Each "level" has you finding cats scattered throughout various golden era's of arcade gaming starting with the 1980's and going through the 2020's.  There are tons of era-specific references that have been given a clever feline twist--they have a fun, feline specific title or feature a cat as the protagonist.  There are posters with references to pop culture from the era that feature cats rather than the human stars and all the little details will give you a nostalgic chuckle.

An example of one of the levels (from the DLC).

+ It's made by Devcats who have a very pro-cat message.  They've included fun information about how cat owners can "catify" their living spaces that make it more enjoyable for our feline friends.  They also have a very positive "adopt don't shop" message to encourage pet rescue.  The game features the cats of all the developers.

+ Fun, arcade themed hidden object challenges from different periods of history.  There is a hidden cat coin on each level that unlocks a hidden-object arcade game level where you must find different hidden things (it could be bugs, weird fish, newspapers, etc.).  The 90's themed game is a feline-filled riff on Paperboy.

+ If you get stuck you can get a hint.  There's a bit of a cooldown (so you can't just spam it), but it's handy for when you just can't find the last few cats/objects.

+ Great music that matches each era.

+ The era specific references are very clever and fun.  The feline specific twists on games and pop culture references add to the nostalgia and silliness.

 + Once you've finished all the base levels there is a timed challenge where you cannot use hints.

+ It's free-to-play!

Cons:

- It's hard to say anything negative about something that's free-to-play.  I suppose one gripe would be that the ultimate goal of the free-to-play portion is to ultimately get you to pay for the DLC.  The good news though is that the DLC is priced at a mere $2.99 and you can decide whether or not you want to make a purchase.

I did opt to purchase the DLC and enjoyed finding even more cats scattered throughout history.  I wanted to give the dev(cats)'s some money because I enjoyed the game and their positive feline message.  It's definitely worth the meager $2.99.

Recommendation:

If you like cats, gaming, and finding hidden objects, An Arcade Full of Cats should be right up your alley.  Since it's free-to-play you can give it a try with no strings attached to see if you're going to like it.  If you do like it, there's a whole series of hidden object games by the Devcats under the "full of cats" premise.  

Busy Beavers

After I finished up my latest The Witcher 3 playthrough (probably #10-12-ish--I know, I've got a problem, but it's my all time fave) I decided to switch gears and take on my mounting backlog.  In the last sale I decided to grab the city builder Timberborn since it had recently exited early access.  I've been spending my gaming time with my fantastic civilization of busy little beavers and trying desperately to keep them alive.

What is it?

A city builder with elements of survival and automation.  The twist...it's a civilization of beavers!  These aren't your typical beavers though, they are masters of science and engineering who are capable to building very advanced structures.  Like most city builders, your first task is to simply get your city on its feet--gathering and building all the required elements to simply keep everyone alive.  In this case it's housing and timber and berry gathering posts.  You can also build a science station that allows you to generate research points that can be used to unlock new, more advanced structures and features.

The beavers enjoying a dip in the river at the lido deck.

It's not just as simple as making sure your beavers have a food, water, and a roof over their heads.  Beavers are social creatures who want to do more than just gnaw down some lumber and eat berries, so it's important to keep them happy by beautifying their town with shrubs, lamps, and other decorative elements.  They also like to eat a variety of foods, so you definitely want to build a farm to start growing different types of crops as well as a grill, mill, and bakery.  Since they are partially aquatic they also like to keep their fur wet so it's vital to build showers (or the lido deck) so they can periodically take a dip.

Probably the biggest challenge are periods of drought and bad tides.  During droughts the water flow on the map is interrupted for a short period of time and everything dries up--this means all berry bushes AND any farmland.  It's important to plant a variety of crops because some have a limited tolerance to drought and will quickly die.  At first, droughts only last for a short period, but as you survive for longer and longer they will also get longer.  It's important to maintain a good stockpile of food and water to make sure that you have enough to get through these periods.  You can also build a dam which can help keep some water around even during a drought.  Eventually though, most of your crops will die and need to be completely replanted.  Bad tides are the other major disaster element--they start arriving after you've survived several cycles and are more difficult to deal with than droughts.  Bad water is water that is polluted with radiation and will cause decay to spread wherever it touches.  This means that your lands will frequently be spread with corruption which will kill all plants.  It also means that any beaver who spends too much time in the polluted water can also become ill with disease (luckily once the water is contaminated they will automatically stay out--unless they're busy with a task like building or harvesting).  Sick beavers must be treated with antidotes that are crafted by a healer in order to recover.  They won't work until they've fully recovered.  The solution to bad tides seems to be blocking off the water source that leads to your settlement with a sluice gate (or levee) until the bad tide passes.  This event winds up being a lot like a drought because everything dries up (eventually).

What I am liking/disliking so far:

Like:

1.) Semi-helpful tutorial that covers the basics well.

2.) Nice music and ambience.  The musical change during droughts and bad tides is fun.

3.) Variable game speed controls that are easy to use.

4.) Ability to prioritize different tasks easily.

5.) The added challenge of droughts and bad tides keep you on your toes.  It is possible to disable them if you're looking to make the game feel like more of a traditional city builder.

Dislike:

1.) Tutorial covers basics but not more advanced elements (at least, not so far).

2.) Slow periods of gameplay where I feel a sense that I should be doing something.

3.) Combining districts/expanding settlement is a bit weird and not explained well (but can be figured out/looked up).

Overall, I'm having a nice time with Timberborn and look forward to diving into some of the more advanced elements (if I can survive that long).  I have more of a feel for the basics and a sort of progression path, so it might be time to switch over to a new settlement.  Next week I should be ready to write up my full review.  Happy gaming!

Artistic Endeavors

I've almost wrapped up my latest The Witcher 3 marathon playthrough so unfortunately I'm not doing anything new (...yet!).  I have managed to prop up my backlog which is something I like to do in anticipation of some enjoyable summer gaming once the school year is over.  I'm likely going to hop into Timberborn (a city-builder set in a civilization of beavers) but have a few casual, good-times kinds of games on deck.  It's always a bit fun to have that anticipation of what to play next!

In current gaming news, it was announced this week that the next DLC for Two Point Museum will be released very soon!  The "Arty-Facts" DLC allows you to run a quirky new art museum.  Give the trailer ye olde gander:

It looks like we'll get a new type of art expert who can also create artworks as well as performers.  I'm curious if you'll be able to hire different kinds of performers since the trailer shows mimes, dancers, and a Shakespearean actor.  There also seems to be some sort of guest emotion element that is tied to the displays.

Overall, I'm very excited for this DLC and love the quirky charm of the entire Two Point series.  The best thing about their DLC announcements is that they usually wait until it's pretty close to release--in this case, it's May 7th, so only a short wait.  It's extra fun to add to my upcoming playlist!

Good Looking Gear

Every time I re-play The Witcher 3 I try to mix it up a little bit with some different choices.  One departure I chose this time around was to opt for some of the non-standard craftable witcher gear sets.  You can purchase fragments of maps from various vendors that unlock the standard gear treasure hunts (your griffin, cat, bear, and wolf sets).  There are a few other gear sets that are separate and I usually don't pay much attention to them, but I decided to give them a go this time around.

The last big patch to the game added in a new story type of quest to investigate The Devil's Pit for a priest of the Eternal Fire whose colleague had gone missing.  There's an entire story that involves a long-lost Wolf School witcher who had been tricked into battling a particularly devious type of monster that had then possessed him.  The boss fight is a bit trickier than other fights because you have to figure out the sequence of skills to free the witcher from parasitic monster that is possessing him (it's not that hard though--just a couple of different signs).  After completing this mission the ghost of the witcher offers to share with Geralt the location of plans for a unique set of gear.  This gear is inspired by Netflix's "The Witcher" series and is called the Forgotten School of the Wolf (I posted pictures of it a couple of weeks ago).  The stats are similar to other gear sets but the level requirements are slightly different and the look of the gear doesn't change depending on the crafting level.

Another set of gear that I never checked out is part of the "Hearts of Stone" expansion. As part of the main story mission Geralt has to steal Horst Borsodi's house for Olgierd von Everec.  Geralt finds himself in the company of Vimme Vivaldi, the dwarven banker/entrepreneur from Novigrad, and is introduced to several of his acquaintances while waiting for an auction to start.  One of those acquaintances is the Countess Mignole, an older, very rich woman who is an avid collector of witcher-related items.  She offers to sell Geralt a set of armor plans (...and Vimme of course gets his cut).  I usually pass on her offer, but this time decided to check it out.  The armor is an upgraded version of the Viper armor from the beginning of the game and has a slightly flashier look.  The swords are found separately in two different main story missions (one as part of the auction house heist and the other in the final mission if you choose to solve Gaunter O' Dimm's riddle).  The silver sword is very easy to miss because it is tucked into a side area during the timed mission to solve the riddle.  Overall, the entire set is very nice looking (it's called Viper Venomous).

Since I had opted for these non-traditional armor sets I didn't feel like having to go through crafting all the lower-level versions of the more standard witcher sets once I was ready for the grandmaster level.  Instead, I decided I would check out the one grandmaster set that stands on its own--the manticore gear.  It's definitely a bit more of a hunt to cobble together the entire set--rather than finding all the plans in one place, Geralt must explore multiple locations related to the witcher Merten.  Merten apparently found religion and decided to join the followers of the prophet Lebioda in Toussaint.  As a result, the plans are scattered among the locations related to the prophet.  It turns out that the manticore set is some very handsome gear.  I really like the look.

Geralt in full Manticore glory.

 Like Geralt, we should all be enjoying the fine weather of sunny Toussaint.  I'm planning on enjoying the few days of nice, sunny weather where I live.  Have a sunny, beautiful weekend!
 

The Best Price is Free

Nope, I'm actually not talking about an Epic giveaway (shockingly).  I grabbed a couple of free titles from Steam this week.  And before you think it, yes, I will most likely play them!  You too should grab them if you feel somewhat interested.  What exactly did I snatch for the magical cost of $0?

The first title is a bit of a niche genre that I enjoy, so it might not be everyone's cup o' tea.  Steam has a fairly consistent rolling calendar of genre-specific events/sales and this week happened to be Hidden Object Fest.  I'll admit that I enjoy a light, hidden-object game from time to time (my personal favorite is the classic Hidden Folks).  I decided to check out some of the sale titles that are part of this event and stumbled upon an entire series of cat-themed games that involve locating hidden cats in a number of very artistic environments.  One entry in the series is free to play--An Arcade Full of Cats.  I happily added it to my library and am looking forward to giving it a try (the series seems to have a pretty avid fanbase).

The other game I grabbed is a bit of a classic but has positive reviews.  Graveyard Keeper has been around since 2018, but it's one of those pixel games, so it's not like age is going to make a huge difference.  I had checked it out in the past but never pulled the trigger, so it's something nice to have in my back log (not my pile of shame...hopefully!).

If you're looking to flesh out your back log (...and not your pile of shame!) give these titles a gander.  There's no better price than $0, so what's there to lose?  

One Decision I Won't Change

Unsurprisingly, I'm still playing through The Witcher 3--and I have both "Hearts of Stone" and "Blood and Wine" left too, so it's going to be awhile.  Last week I wrote about a few new quest experiences that I encountered, but this week I had the realization that there's one side decision that I've never ventured away from.  I just can't do it...and that's saying a lot because I have even made choices that have led to the "bad" ending (which sucks and is sad).

Geralt in the Netflix series inspired gear set.

I'm talking about the mission to participate in the assassination of Radovid, but more so the end of that mission.  I've experienced both outcomes of Geralt either refusing to participate in the mission or completing it, but there's another decision after the main event (Philippa Eilhart emerging to get her revenge on the psychopath that is the King of Redania).  After Radovid's demise, Geralt and crew flee to the abandoned theater to meet up with their other co-consiprators (one Sigismund Djikstra and Thaler) under the guise of celebrating their victory and cementing their post-assassination plans.  It's here that a side-plot is revealed--Roche, Ves, and Thaler have negotiated a deal with Emhyr that Temeria will stop resisting Nilfgaardian rule in exchange for becoming an independent vassal state.  It's not exactly the free Temeria that Roche and Ves seem to be fighting for, but it's basically the lesser of two evils.

I particularly like the swords for this set.

It's here the Djikstra emerges from backstage and reveals that he actually has his own plan--he will replace Radovid as the new king of Redania (umm, ok?) and will continue the fight against Nilfgaard.  A pack of his minions emerges and Geralt can make the decision to either leave Roche and Ves to their fate (will they be able to fight off all of Djikstra's goons?) or to defend them.  I've never chosen to leave--it just feels wrong abandoning Roche and Ves given that they helped fight off the Wild Hunt at Kaer Morhen.  I am a bit curious about how things would differ if Djikstra was in charge--maybe a decision for next playthrough.

It's a beautiful day where I live, so I'll likely do some adventuring away from the ol' PC.  I hope everyone has a nice weekend either spent outdoors on a lovely spring day or inside with a nice, cozy game.

A True Skelliger

A few weeks ago I started a comfort play of one of my favorite games, The Witcher 3.  It seems like an inherent millennial trait that when things might be a little rough that we turn to our old familiar favorites--that might be a movie or TV series that you've watched a million times or, in my case, a game that I've probably played through at least 10 times.  There's something about that strong sense of nostalgia that manages to soothe the stress of real life.  One of the things that always surprises me about The Witcher 3 is the fact that I'm almost always able to find something new that I missed in one of my previous playthroughs.  So here's my record of what I've discovered in my umpteenth playthrough of The Witcher 3 (plus, a stupid argument that I have with myself every time that I play).

Sometimes you stupidly mess up something that you've done correctly a million times.  This time around it was the mission to trick Caleb Menge (the leader of the evil, sorceress torturing and burning Temple Guard) by pretending to turn in Triss.  Geralt has to keep his cool while he can hear Triss being tortured in the other room and every other playthrough I've done it perfectly.  This time around I decided to click on a slightly different dialogue option (one where Geralt tries to pretend as if he and Triss never had any kind of past relationship) and Menge immediately caught on.  Instead of coolly waiting for a mangled Triss to  appear in Menge's office after escaping from her captors, Geralt and Triss had to fight their way through the entire Temple Guard.  I figured that I had royally messed things up, but it turns out that there's an alternate way to wrap up the mission.  It involves finding a secret message with a method to meet with a spy outside of Novigrad--apparently Menge used this spy for his nefarious purposes.  Geralt can ask Djikstra about it and then he and Triss can meet the spy.  Triss still goes a little bit nuts (this time on the spy, which is a lot less satisfactory than it being Menge) and it's obvious that she's a bit cracked from her encounter with the Temple Guard.  You can still fully complete the mission to free Dandelion afterwards.

There are a billion side quests and many of them you just have to sort of stumble upon.  In my totally insane desire to discover all the question marks in Skellige (which I will discuss later) I discovered two men on a random island who were having an argument about how one of them had corrupted the others sister by luring her away from the priestesses of Freya (a sort of Skelligan religious sect for the ladies).  Geralt can intervene and slay the attacker.  The survivor then is a bit conflicted about the situation and asks Geralt to find books about different religious practices and then bring them to him.  I have always noticed the random items tagged as quest items that are for sale by some vendors, but had never actually encountered one of them.  Now, for the life of me, I cannot remember where to find the books for the quest since they are sold by random merchants.  And, honestly, this quest is highly inconvenient because it is located on a small island with no nearby fast travel markers--getting back to the quest giver means hopping on a boat and returning to the island.  If I find the books, I might complete it, but I'm not planning on going heavily out of my way to do it.

Behold, the lack of question marks!  (Take a look at ol' Geralt's finances too)

Every time I get to Skellige I am always confronted with what is a very stupid internal debate--do I save myself a lot of time (we're talking multiple hours) and ignore the numerous question marks polluting the map or do I needlessly do them?  There are pros and cons to this debate--the main pros include the fact that you might find a decent item or two that you can actually use (out of an absolute mountain that you will sell) and that you will earn an absolute Skelligan longships worth of gold (which, again, you don't really need).  The cons--sailing around to ALL the question marks means fighting off scores of some of the most annoying enemies in the game (sirens and ekidhnas).  It also means having to manage selling off all your loot--another annoyance since finding vendors who have enough coin to buy it all can be difficult (you can wait for 24 hours until their stock resets).  And, most importantly, it's fairly pointless.  The sad reality--I still do it every time!  I think there's something wrong with me.

Surely I can't be the only one who does this?  There has to be other insane people out there who refuse to let the question marks remain  If that's you, I hope you enjoy your adventure--I used it as an opportunity to get caught up on some podcast episodes that I had missed.

Happy spring to the gamers out there!  The weather is getting nicer, so maybe it's a good opportunity to get outside and touch some grass.  Or maybe we just stay in and explore some more pointless question marks on a map.  Either way...win-win!