Cyberpunk Hype

I'm still blithely plugging along with my Mass Effect: Andromeda playthrough, but as the release date for Cyberpunk 2077's first (and apparently only) DLC creeps closer I've been seeing more Phantom Liberty news.  I've been feeling a hankering for a re-play of Cyberpunk but it's looking like it's better to wait for a little while.  There has been some good news--especially if you're like me and not intending to pounce on Phantom Liberty immediately (it releases on September 26th).

According to this PC Gamer article, the 2.0 update to the core game will make a new playthrough completely worthwhile.  The highlights for me--a total rework of the talent system!  Let's be real, the talent system was pretty blah--it's hard to get excited for abilities that are like "increase x ability by 3%," but the new system sounds like it adds in some legitimate skills to make V feel like a cyberware sporting badass.

This is an outfit with the best stats that my V sported for awhile.
Would you be scared of this person?

Other highlights include the fact that armor is no longer tied to clothing and instead is part of cyberware stats.  Personally, this is a change I'm stoked for.  All too often my V wound up looking like a goober because the gear with the best stats (which were mostly tied to armor) wasn't the best looking.  Although it's purely cosmetic, it'll be nice to let V look cool.  Also, they added in the ability to pet cats!  Definite plus there.

The 2.0 update is scheduled to release on September 21st, so it's not long until we'll get to see all these changes in action.  One thing I'm a little bit worried about is the fact that they've said that they're dropping HDD support.  My PC is getting a little bit long in the tooth and when I built it (almost 5 years ago), I decided to go with a larger, cheaper HDD as my game storage drive, and that's starting to look like it might be a problem.  Starfield released with a SSD requirement and the HDD is going the way of the dodo.  SSD's are now much cheaper than they were 5 years ago, so adding another wouldn't be too much of a budget crunch.  Another worry is the fact that they bumped the specs up a bit for Phantom Liberty (but in the core game too).  My PC still falls the range of requirements, but it's more toward the minimum side now.  We'll see how it goes.

If you haven't seen it, a new cinematic trailer for Phantom Liberty dropped a couple of days ago.  It's pretty intense and definitely makes me curious about the story and characters.  Take a gander if you haven't already:

I'm looking forward to checking out all the 2.0 changes to the core game.  I'm probably going to sit on Phantom Liberty for awhile and see how it shapes up (and if it'll actually work with my HDD).  Happy gaming!

The Red Headed Step-Child of the Mass Effect Universe

Usually I opt to re-play one of my favorite series during the summer months when I have lots of time.  This summer I decided that it has been awhile since I had delved back into one of my favorite series, Mass Effect.  In general, I'm content to play through the three core ME games (which are now nicely bundled together in the Legendary Edition).  This time around, I decided to revisit Mass Effect: Andromeda, the newest, but most reviled game in the series.

I'm part of a very awesome Facebook group of Mass Effect fans (you can find it here--it's very well moderated and one of the least toxic fandom groups you will find) and a question that gets regularly asked is by new players who want to know if Andromeda is worth playing.  In general, the feedback is fairly divisive.  I'm here to say yes, it's worth playing, but just know that it's not the same experience as the core trilogy.  They definitely made an effort with Andromeda to incorporate more open world gameplay and less of the dialogue heavy interactions with squadmates. 

The Andromeda squad.

Part of me has always thought that Andromeda gets a bit of a bad rap.  So many people act like it is an absolutely abysmal game and it's not (although, it's definitely not of the same caliber as the core trilogy).  There are some things that it does pretty well--the combat is some of the best in the series and is challenging at the upper difficulty levels.  It's not perfect, I do wish they had left the ability to give commands to your squadmates (...and that they didn't feel so utterly useless), but it's definitely fun.  The squadmate banter is also highly entertaining and helps to make those long stretches of exploration a bit more fun.  The planets you visit in Andromeda are quite stunning too and piloting the Nomad definitely beats the Mako.

As I've been playing back through it, I've also remembered the things that make it less enjoyable.  The open world format is...mostly okay.  I dislike the fact that they sprinkled lots of interesting Kett outposts, crash sites, and smaller Remnant sites but gave players basically no impetus to stop and interact with those sites (yes, there are the random "task" missions that ask you to find certain objects, but those are some of the most annoying in the game).  In previous playthroughs I've had very few bug/glitch issues, but this time around is my time, I guess.  I've found my Ryder falling through planets just as I have landed on multiple occasions; I've had my Ryder fall through a set of stairs and get stuck...and then found that it had autosaved under the stairs (luckily I had another recent save to re-load).  I absolutely hate the way that Kadara Port is divided up into two separate zones the require you to load into them (and that the doors there are frustratingly slow to open--why do they need so many stupid doors anyway?) The story feels a bit underwhelming too--it's a bit of a re-hash of the Mass Effect story but with different evil aliens with semi-understandable motives.

If you're looking to check out Andromeda the "deluxe" edition can be purchased on Steam for $39.99.  That price seems a bit crazy to me, but you can also subscribe to EA Play for $4.99 a month and check it out.  I've seen it on sale for very cheap, so that is probably the best time to purchase.

Starfield Madness has Officially Begun!

Before you ask...no, I'm not currently playing Bethesda's shiny new space-RPG Starfield.  I am, however, engaging in a sort of voyeuristic enjoyment of reading reviews and social media hubbub.  The hype train for Starfield has been running at full steam for quite awhile now and it's nice to finally see some actual impressions from players.

Firstly though, just let me say that I think the whole "premium edition" offering that lets people play a few days prior to release feels a little bonkers to me.  People are paying $99.99 to play 5 days earlier?  (I mean, sure, you do get the soundtrack, a digital artbook, and some sort of "story expansion" too)  Kudos to the corps for figuring out a way to get people to pay extra for basically nothing.  I suppose you do get the pleasure/bragging rights of doing something before most people, but I think I'd just save that $30 and wait (that's like half the price of another big name game!).  I also gotta kudos them for dropping the premium access before a holiday weekend in the U.S. Plenty of time to enjoy that extra $30 worth of game that you paid for.

If you haven't seen or read any reviews yet, the good news is that they're mostly positive.  The metacritic score is currently sitting at 88, which isn't Baldur's Gate 3 level of greatness, but it's not bad (and yes, you do sort of have to take metacritic scores with a grain of salt).  Games that are 80+ generally pique my interest, so that's encouraging.  The only full length review I read was from PC Gamer and they gave it a score much lower than the 88--a 75.  Some of the things that I was skeptical about are mentioned in the PC Gamer review.  Those 1,000 planets...yeah, it seems like they're a pretty mixed bag.  The reviewer mentions finding a few unique ones, but that most of them have a copy-past exploration type of format that involves running, finding a thing, and then leaving.  Another review I saw mentioned the fact that the story is pretty forgettable--which, quite honestly, squares with my experiences in Skyrim and the Fallout series.  To me, Bethesda's games are more about interacting with the world and experiencing all the weirdness that comes with that rather than a deeply engrossing and focused story.  It sounds like Starfield follows that formula but does have some improvements to gameplay.

I'm not going to be running out and buying Starfield any time soon, but it does sound like something I'd be interested in at a future date.  Maybe when it starts going on sale.  I'm glad that people are saying mostly positive things about it even if it doesn't sound like the next gaming masterpiece.

Happy gaming and Labor Day weekend!

Off to Medical School!

The latest DLC for Two Point Campus offers up the perfect link between the college themed management sim and its hospital themed predecessor (Two Point Hospital)--medical school!  I purchased the "medical school" DLC and played through the three newest challenges.  There are some things that work and some that don't, but overall, I had fun setting up future fictional doctors and nurses with the training they need to prepare them to deal with ailments like "lightheadedness."

Pros:

+ The way that the traditional training loop works is slightly different--rather than attending lectures students engage in practicum.  Basically, you don't need to build lecture halls but will instead need to build treatment rooms.  Students learn by assisting instructors as they treat patients who arrive at the campus.  There are two types of students in the DLC, medical school and nursing, and they spend their time in the various treatment rooms either for ailments that need a doctor or a nurse.  Everything else is basically the same--when they aren't assisting they will still go to the library to complete assignments or spend their free time doing clubs, relaxing, etc.  It's a very basic change, but it does make it feel slightly different from the core game and the other DLC's.

Molten Rock features tons of room to build, a volcano, and pirates.

+ Three new campuses with various levels of challenge.  There are new rooms (that have basically been recycled from Two Point Hospital) to treat the many different medical challenges--players of Two Point Hospital will recognize the head clinic, the ward, the injection room, and several others.  The main difference is that there are new items for the treatment rooms that are training oriented--for example, you can purchase a training dummy setup for the injection room so that students can practice before poking an actual patient.  These new items help students complete assignments, so you eventually will place them all.

The campuses themselves follow a fairly set pattern of challenges--the first campus is relatively simple and serves as a tutorial for the new features.  The second campus requires players to complete specific objectives to unlock additional plots of land and also throws in two different sets of challenges.  A rival band of pirates (who are also running a hospital) will periodically present emergency patients.  In order to pass the challenge you must successfully treat a certain number of patients--if you fail, the pirates will send a small force of invaders to your campus.  The other major challenge comes from the island itself--Molten Rock features a volcano that also throws out random objectives.  If you satisfy the volcano, it will reward you with a rain storm that seems to improve patient health.  Failure means that the volcano spews blobs of molten lava across your campus--it feels similar to the balls of fire that fall in the wizard themed campuses but the downside is that these blobs are on fire and must be extinguished by a janitor (your janitors need to be trained with "fire resistance" in order to extinguish random blazes).  The real downside is that if these molten blobs fall on your machinery it will be disabled, catch on fire, and requires a janitor to extinguish it before it explodes.  (Pro tip:  hire a lot of janitors and train them in fire resistance)  The final campus of the DLC is the real doozy--it's one of those obnoxious levels where you don't get tuition or money from XP but instead it comes purely from completing specific objectives and treating patients.  It also features surgery...one of the slowest and most annoying medical treatment rooms.  To make matters worse, the campus is also periodically hit with snow storms that afflict students with "brain freeze," a medical condition that must be treated or else they become very unhappy.  I did three star all the new campuses--don't be surprised if it takes awhile.  The final two campuses throw in some challenges but aren't impossible by any means.

Students afflicted with "brain freeze."

Cons:

- Having no set class schedule feels odd since it's a big part of the entire rest of the games.  Planning events for time periods when lots of students are on a break is challenging.  I didn't have a ton of problems with student happiness, but it's more challenging to plan events to have the biggest impact on student happiness.  The last campus was probably the most difficult for happiness and part of that is tied to the fact that snow storms regularly afflict students and their happiness will decline until they're treated.

- Summer break just puts everything on pause--you definitely have to suspend reality here.  Patient health doesn't decline, emergencies suddenly are on pause...basically, the concept of summer break just doesn't work particularly well with the medical scenario.

- If you're hoping for new items and outfits, there's just not much.  Most of the new items are oriented toward the treatment rooms or library.  

Recommendation:

There's not a ton that's "new" in this DLC.  The gameplay loop feels slightly different and there are plenty of emergencies and challenges to keep you on your toes.  If you're a fan of Two Point, well, it's more Two Point and I had fun with it.  If you're hoping for something that's drastically different, "medical school" isn't that.

Is Baldur's Gate 3 the "new standard?"

Much of the hot gaming news this week centered around the much anticipated release of Baldur's Gate 3.  Unless you've stayed conveniently lodged under a rock, it was hard to miss the steady stream of articles covering the online debate that arose.  The good news is that people are heralding BG3 as a regular masterpiece in the singleplayer RPG genre.  Me, I haven't played it, but from what I have seen of it (which isn't much because I'm intentionally avoiding it with hopes of potentially purchasing it in the future) looks to follow the Larian formula that worked well in the Divinity: Original Sin games.  I haven't waded into the minutiae of this debate, but there are certain things that I noticed about the development of BG3 that didn't seem typical of most other games.  For one thing, it was in early access for quite a long time (several years, I do believe)--that seems way out of the ordinary.

For the most part, I think gamers are just happy with the fact that Larian hasn't followed the formula that many other triple-A games have--the constant push toward purchasing MORE!  You know how it goes...day one DLC, cosmetic packs, "boosts," loot boxes...pick your microtransaction poison.  This, however, is also out of the ordinary and I don't think gamers should expect any of the normal shenanigans to change due to one case of a company doing something right.

I'm holding off on BG3 for now, but am happy to hear that it is very good.  I have my doubts that anything will change, but it's nice that it has kicked off a discussion about what gamers really want in a game--and guess what, it's not all the microtransaction-y garbage.  Will it pressure the big dogs to do better?  Maybe...but I have my doubts.

For now, I've finished up my cowboy adventures in Red Dead Redemption 2.  It's always a little bittersweet finishing up an epic adventure like RDR2--I love the world of the old west and the beauty of the environments in that game.  I'm dipping my toes into the newest expansion for Two Point Campus--medical school.  Hopefully I will have a review for it next weekend.

Happy gaming! 

All the Small (Annoying) Things--RDR2 Edition

I've pretty much always been a big fan of Rockstar's games--heck, I even remember playing the OG Grand Theft Auto on my brothers PlayStation (if you're a young'un, look up some videos of it--seriously, because it's kind of amazing to realize how far that series has come).  I've played all the Grand Theft Auto games and they're definitely very memorable and were some of the early masters of the more open world style of game that we see today.  Although I haven't played Red Dead Redemption (and woo boy was there some strange/disappointing news about it this week) the third game in the series follows Rockstar's game style to a T.  As much as I do enjoy their games, I don't want to get too fangirl-y--no one is perfect (woo boy!  That news this week!) and as I've been working through RDR2 I've encountered some aspects of the game that do detract from what is an otherwise fabulous experience.

Before I get to that though, let's not avoid the hot RDR related news that dropped this week.  Rockstar announced this week that they were going to be releasing a remaster of Red Dead Redemption!  For about .25 seconds I was pretty stoked before my brain kicked in and reminded me that it took a very long time before Grand Theft Auto V and RDR2 came to PC (5-7 years?  I think somewhere within that timeframe).  Then things got even weirder because it turns out that this "remaster" is basically only for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch--not even current gen consoles (*although apparently people with the newest XBOX can still play it because it's backward compatible) or for PC.  The PC part isn't too surprising (but nonetheless disappointing), but not even for PS5?  Things only escalated from there when the price was announced--$49.99!  The internet reacted exactly how you would expect--anger, puzzlement, and tons of videos/articles analyzing this strange move.  People with XBOX's were happy to point out that you can currently buy it for $30 (+$13 for some big DLC that's going to be included as part of the remastered version)--that price includes nice graphical updates as well as access to multiplayer--both things that aren't included in the upcoming remaster.  Many articles also pointed out the disastrous GTA remaster as a reminder that maybe people shouldn't put too much stock in this whole "remaster" thing.  The whole thing just seems like another shameless cash grab to me, but maybe I'm just being too cynical.  (*If you missed this entire debacle--here's a link to an article: PC Gamer)

Anywho--back to RDR2 and those small, obnoxious things that drive me a tiny bit batty.

1.) The "weight/body condition" dynamic for Arthur and horses.

Early on in the game it is explained that Arthur needs to eat or else his body condition (which apparently contributes to how full his health and stamina gauges can be--like if you've ever wondered why there's a fragment that just never becomes available even after you've fully levelled it up--I'm guessing that's why) will decline.  "Realistic" you might think--but, unfortunately, I hate how it works.  Most games teach us that you use items when you need them--therefore if Arthur's health isn't low, I'm not having him reach for that delicious can of kidney beans.  Why would I waste an item when I don't need to?  Well, because you sort of need to!  The truly crazy part of the whole thing is that the amount that Arthur needs to eat to maintain "good" body condition is pretty insane (here's a link to a Reddit thread with a recommended "meal plan" for perfect body condition:  Tips for Arthur's Weight).

I wish this mechanic worked slightly differently and that Arthur would actually lose health/stamina and it would make eating more necessary.  This same dynamic is true for horses--if you take your horse to a stable, the hands will comment about how your horse is so skinny--even though it looks fine!  

2.) Having NPC's comment on Arthur's dirty/bloody state.

Arthur can get a little grimy from his activities.  Sometimes the level of filth is completely obvious--if you're carrying around bloody, skinned animal carcasses (or humans who might have met an unfortunate end) there will be a very obvious bloody splotch.  If you've simply shot...say, a rabbit, and then skinned it, Arthur's hands will be bloody.  Occasionally though, there's no obvious blood and NPC's will still comment "where'd all that blood come from?"  In order to get "clean," you can plunge Arthur into any available body of water close by and watch as blood floats away on the surface.

Again, you could easily say "realism," but why, oh why, can't there be an option for Arthur to wash up in camp?  Why do I need to fully plunge him into a river when his hands are a little bit gross?  I wish that his little shaving station had an option for cleaning up.

3.) Death...and horses.

It's just a fact that sometimes Arthur will die.  For me, most of those times happen at the claws of panthers/cougars who can creep up on you pretty easily.  If you're caught totally off guard, you're basically a goner--RIP Artie.  It's also a fact that your horse can fall prey to unfortunate circumstances.  In my case, those circumstances are typically due to my own stupidity (FYI, you do not have to fish for one of the legendary fish on the railroad bridge near Saint Denis and you should, in fact, not do that because it will likely result in the death of at least Arthur, but potentially your brainless horse too--it cannot control itself from running on to the tracks once you've caught the fish.).  Having Artur die costs you some cash...but having your horse die sucks even more.  One of the first things I do every playthrough is have Arthur trek up into the mountains to tame what is basically the best horse in the game--the white Arabian that wanders around near Lake Isabella.  You should do that too because it's a great horse and it's only slightly difficult to tame.  Then, it's just a matter of building up your bonding with the horse--and that does take a little while.

The panther saddle has good stats and looks nice.
(not my screenshot, sadly)

If your favorite, fabulous horse dies...well, then it's an issue of either 1.) returning to the snowy reaches of the mountains to find another white Arabian, tame it, and then bond with it--a somewhat time consuming process OR 2.) heading to the stables and finding an equivalent horse--which will be somewhat expensive.  I had this situation arise when poor Arthur was randomly ambushed near Catfish Jackson's.  Most of the time I'm able to head off any ambushes, but this time I don't know what happened--before I even had time to select my handy repeater from the weapon wheel poor Arthur was dead (I think he took a shotgun blast from short range...somewhere?  It was pretty confusing).  Dying happens, so I wasn't too concerned, but when I saw a totally random horse I was like..."nooooooooooooooooooo!  Not my beautiful Elsa!"  Then I had to seriously contemplate if I really wanted to go through the whole taming process again.  Nope.  Luckily, if you have the cash, there's a very nice black Arabian available from the stables in Saint Denis that is slightly better than the white one.  Due to my previous cheating (AKA looking up a guide to find a hidden treasure--something I usually try to avoid), my Arthur was pretty flush with cash, so I purchased said horse.

About 99% of the time your horse is pretty indestructible....it's that 1% that sucks.  And really, does your horse matter that much?  It's nice to have a speedy horse for quick getaways, but the default horse would probably be just fine.  But oh no...gotta have the best horse!

4.) I just want to take screenshots!

I've complained about this before, but I'm gonna bring it up again because I think it is one of the dumbest parts of the game.  The game includes a nice photo mode and it's a visually gorgeous game.  Personally, I like snapping some nice pics of my adventures.  In fact, I wanted to snap a nice pic of my new black Arabian horse with its snazzy panther saddle.  (In past playthroughs I haven't done the trapper crafted saddles, but I would highly recommend the panther saddle--it's probably the best of all of them stats wise and it's cosmetically a pretty saddle)  Then I remembered that even if you upload your screenshot to the social club then it downloads in this stupid file format.  I even thought I could use the Windows screenshot--no dice there, it saves a black square (*if you're playing on Steam, which I am not, you can use their tool or the NVIDIA overlay screenshot tool).

I just don't understand why they feel the need to make this such a headache.  Wouldn't you want players to be able to easily snap screenies and share them?  It's like completely free publicity!  Yeah, I know that they undoubtedly want to draw people into the social club and Red Dead Online, but it just sucks.

I'm getting close-ish to finishing up my current playthrough of RDR2.  It's a fantastic game, even with these minor annoyances.  Due to the screenshot nonsense, I would recommend buying it on Steam.  

Banditry in the Old West & Medical School

Lately I've been spending my gaming time replaying Red Dead Redemption 2.  If you haven't grabbed RDR2, you definitely should.  It's an open world, old West masterpiece that always amazes me when I start getting back into it.  There's just so much to do!  And, to top it all off, the characters and story are both great.  It frequently goes on sale for around $20 and that's a real steal for the amount of content that you get.

On an unrelated note, it was announced this week that there will be a new DLC for Two Point Campus.  The Medical School expansion is the perfect tie-in between the Campus and Hospital games in the series.  It releases on August 17th for $8.99 and looks similar to the other DLC--three new campuses with new courses and challenges.  I love Two Point so I will definitely be grabbing it.  Here's the trailer:

Back to those rootin' tootin' cowboys in RDR2!

For some totally explainable reason I get a lot of these kind of "gaming secrets" videos in my social media feed and they're of RDR2.  I love watching those vids to see all the random, sort of secret-y stuff that I miss--if you've ever played a Rockstar game, you know that there are tons of little cool things tucked away inside the massive worlds.  Here's the best part though...I usually can't remember where half of them are located after I've watched the video.  Watching these videos made me want to do another playthrough and I've been enjoying the hours spent in the saddle with Arthur and crew.

This time around I've decided to be a bit more exploratory (thanks to all those vids) and to take time to check out the nooks and crannies on the map.  I've stumbled across a few hidden items and locations that I've managed to miss in previous playthroughs--I found a broken pirate sword on a swampy island and several hatchets that I had somehow missed before.

In the past I've largely ignored some of the more obnoxious "collector" type of tasks--namely looking for dinosaur bones or petroglyphs but have weirdly managed to find more than I ever have before.  (Sure, I could look up a guide, but I hate doing that)  I have found that a lot of objects that I took to be animal bones are actually dinosaur bones.  So, if you were blithely riding past an obvious pile of bones...throw on Eagle Eye and see if they're glowing orange because there's a good chance that they're actually dinosaur bones.  I've had no success with the petroglyphs--they must be really tucked away.

The one guide I did look up was for a treasure hunt that I've somehow managed to miss in previous playthroughs.  When you go to confront Flaco in the Grizzlies be sure to fully check out the cabin he comes out of--I think I ignored it in the past because I thought it was locked, but once you've killed him you can enter it and there's some decent loot inside.  This includes a hidden lockbox under a bed that has a map for the "poisonous trail" treasure hunt.  I decided to look it up because I would've never figured it out--in particular there is one part that takes you into an extremely hard to reach part of the map.  It's totally worth it too because you find 4 gold bars worth $500 a piece!

This time around I've also chosen to focus on sprucing up the camp rather than crafting a bunch of clothing for Arthur.  I'll admit to being a fairly pathetic hunter and I definitely don't have the patience to do the collector mission that requires you to hunt down perfect carcasses for random birds and small animals (which are probably the most difficult to hunt).  I always do the legendary hunting and fishing tasks--they're kind of fun.  Typically I get bored with hunting after awhile, so we'll see how much progress I make.

As I've had my Arthur spending some time in camp, I have realized what a total d-bag Micah is.  He's constantly hitting on the women in the camp and generally being a total jerk to everyone else.  I also witnessed him do something that made my skin crawl--at a certain point a stray dog turns up in the camp and Dutch agrees that it can stay.  Jack, the one child in the camp, is elated and excitedly points out the dog to Arthur.  It's a cute scene that I had somehow missed previously.  The dog, who Dutch names Cain, walks around camp and you can find him and pet him.  The bad part--Micah, is a bully and an asshole and at one point I watched as Cain was innocently laying on the edge of camp.  Micah saunters over and kicks poor Cain!  I already hated Micah (I mean...if you know, you know!), but this made me hate him even more.

If there's one major gripe I have with RDR2 it is the way that photo mode images are saved.  They don't get conveniently located in a random folder that you can Google...you can only access them through Rockstar's Social Club.  I've complained about this before, but it's an additional and needless step that turns me off from snapping pics of what is a very gorgeous game.

Am I making different choices for my Arthur this time around?  Nope.  I just can't play him as a ruthless bandit, it breaks my heart.

It's back to the old-timey sort of West for me!  Happy gaming folks!