Outrage is Now

First of all, happy Halloween to everyone out there!  Steam decided to launch a Halloween sale in honor of the spooky holiday and many halloween-esque titles are currently being offered at a discount.  I've been trying to decide what I should scoop up--I'm feeling strong Doom: Eternal vibes because it has been awhile since I punched a demon and then tore its stupid face off (current mood, btw).  Part of me feels guilty about my recent foray and then betrayal of CrossCode, so I think I'm going to try to soldier through it and maybe grab Doom: Eternal for later.  Choices, choices.

The big gaming news story this week was another delay to the much hyped Cyberpunk 2077.  In typical fashion, CD Projekt rolled out the news and people immediately started freaking out.  Then, in typical abhorrent internet idiot fashion, death threats to the developers started flowing to CD Projekt.  Let me just state it here, that kind of behavior is loathsome--I love games, I have been highly anticipating Cyberpunk since I first saw the concept trailer several years ago, but in the end, it's a game!  Your life isn't going to end because the release of a video game got pushed back twenty-one days.  I saw a range of responses from "meh, as long as it's stable/playable upon release," to people being upset because they had scheduled days off to play on release.  I don't quite know how to feel about the days off thing...I guess I am past the age (and it's just a huge pain in the arse to take a day off of teaching) where I would consider trying to take time off work to play a game.  There were also some salty reposts of a past Tweet (from the last delay) where someone asked CD Projekt to promise the game wouldn't be delayed again, and of course, they promised.  The delay seems to have its roots in the fact that they are trying to make sure the game is stable on all platforms--this includes the upcoming next gen consoles.  So, have some patience people, we'll get it when we get it.  You really have to consider the current circumstances too--we're in the middle of a pandemic, people are working from home, we're lucky to be getting it at all.  If I remember correctly, The Witcher 3 was delayed a few times.  The plus side of that situation was that it was very stable upon release--I remember very few, if any bugs.  I would much rather wait and have that than go through the frustration of a crashing, buggy, sloppy mess of a release.

A patient with Soiled Self.

With that unpleasant bit of news out of the way, I've largely been spending my gaming time playing through the "Culture Shock" DLC for Two Point Hospital.  I three-starred the final hospital last night, so I've finished the whole she-bang.  The second map in the DLC is the Mudbury Festival.  Mudbury is a wave based map, but they decided to make it different from past wave based maps.  Rather than slowly increasing the percentage of patients you need to cure each wave, they decided to have a bunch of random objectives.  Some waves might require you to train a certain number of staff; some waves require you to upgrade machines; some waves require the dreaded "hospital attractiveness" and you'll spend your time plopping down a number of yucca plants that will then be neglected--it changes every time.  The most challenging parts of this map though were the waves that would throw a large number of patients at you with a specific type of disease that needed to be cured.  One wave had 20 patients with Stunt Trouble and 20 patients with Soiled Self (a new disease where patients look like some kind of muddy, swamp creature) and you had to cure all of them (in a wave of 80 total patients).  Basically, to be successful at Mudbury you need to be ready to quickly copy rooms, to have a large staff to potentially staff these additional rooms, and to prioritize the objective patients.  It took me several tries to get past this tricky wave, but I did finally manage it.  The final wave (to get a three star rating) is a real doozy--you have to cure 40 patients with Soiled Self.  This is particularly challenging because diagnosing it can be tricky--for some weird reason patients seem to only be diagnosed through psychiatry or general diagnosis.  Your best bet for success is throwing down some extra GP offices, about 4-5 general diagnoses, an extra psychiatry, and 5-6 Wash Pits.  It might take you a few tries, but you will eventually get it.

The Wash Pit helps soiled patients get squeaky clean!

The final map in "Culture Shock" is a bit of a weird one.  It takes place in the fashionable Fitzpocket mansion and involves a new-ish gameplay mechanic--there is a set of criteria that impacts the amount of funding you receive.  In order to receive full funding you must do the following:  keep visiting VIP's happy, cure a high percentage of patients, work quickly to diagnose and treat patients, make your hospital attractive, and also score a high room prestiege score.  The percentage that you earn is based on how well you do all these things and is assessed on a three-month basis.  On top of that there is challenge in the fact that you start off with a very small hospital area and have to purchase additional real estate.  The most challenging part of this map is funding related--if you don't keep Zara happy and get her to pay at 100% or higher you're going to be scraping together pennies to try to do simple things like train your staff or build new rooms (there's a wide variety of diseases on this map).  There's also the challenge of trying to root out the paparazzi (the alien imposter-like annoyances) who are trying to crash the party.  They are noticeable by their flashing cameras and will clog up your diagnosis rooms unless you take care to boot them out.

The new cure room for treating Private Parts.

If you enjoyed Two Point Hospital, "Culture Shock" is a chance to spend more time gleefully managing a few new scenarios.  It adds some new objects, new diseases, and new challenges.  If you're hoping that it's a massive change to the base game, it's not that.  I enjoyed it and found Mudbury to be the most challenging of the new scenarios.  At $8, I feel like it was money well spent.

Oh CrossCode, I Will Never Finish You

I was feeling fairly proud of myself last week for dusting off CrossCode, a game I had started, played through for a decent chunk of time, and then had shelved.  Then, I had some internet issues (no internet or phone service for two days....) and also got some unexpected DLC news for one of my favorite silly management games, Two Point Hospital.  The new DLC, "Culture Shock," was being released in just a few days!  The scent of burning plastic was intense as I whipped out my credit card to grab the newest addition to my sprawling hospital mega-industry.  Prior to my internet cutting out I had moved into a brand new zone in CrossCode and had also found myself stumped by a puzzle.  After trying to solve the dang thing for 30-45 minutes (and I had figured out 3/4ths of it!) I decided to go to bed and that I would look up the solution in the morning.  The morning came and the internet went and my motivation to finish the puzzle went with it.  I fully intend to finish CrossCode....some day.

But let's talk about the newest DLC for Two Point Hospital, "Culture Shock."  The DLC is set on a series of maps that are designed to have an artistic theme--the first map takes place on a movie lot; the second map takes place on the scene of an outdoor music festival and I haven't quite unlocked the third map yet.  I am guessing the third map will angle more toward the hospital attractiveness goals.

Dr. Roderick Cushion at your service!

The first scenario has a fun map that is set on the location of Plywood Studios, a functioning movie studio--you get to build your hospital next to a giant, mechanical shark in a pool (very Jaws-esque) and other movie themed set pieces.  The first scenario challenges you to build a hospital that is actually the set for a reality hospital show featuring none other than the famous film star Roderick Cushion!  Roderick is playing the role of an actual doctor, so you're required to have him on staff.  Having a famous movie star on staff isn't all it's cracked up to be--Roderick Cushion is untrained, has an insanely high salary, and isn't content to share the staff room so will retreat to his private trailer so he can properly rest (which means he takes very long breaks and has to walk across the entire map).  While the medical drama plays out, the shows producers will periodically propose events to add drama to the show and not all of them are positive--sometimes they will offer you a bonus if Roderick cures some patients and other times they want machines to explode (I allowed this to happen once....the bonus was more than the cost to replace the machine).  As an added challenge, fans can periodically leave reviews for the show that can impact your reputation--let's just say that they're mostly negative and it takes awhile to build reputation.

A patient with Stunt Trouble waits outside the cure room.

Every new Two Point DLC features a few new diseases that include new cure rooms.  The first of these that I encountered on the Plywood Studios map is called "stunt trouble."  Patients afflicted with stunt trouble can be seen wearing Evel Knievel-like outfits and pretending to ride a motorcycle.  To cure these patients you must allow them to act out their dare devil desires by allowing them to ride a fake motorcycle through a set of faux flaming rings.  There are also several other new diseases that have visual cues--some patients present with giant, pixelated glasses on; others are wearing one of those weird green screen outfits covered with little white balls (from motion capture); and one where patients have a giant pencil sticking out of their heads (writers block!).

A new added challenge is trying to impress the resident art critic Zara Fitzpocket.  Like other celebrity guests she periodically asks to be invited into your hospital so that she can inspect your artistic flair.  I generally get around to fully decorating my hospital, but my artistic sensibilities weren't enough to impress Fitzpocket.  I'm guessing you need to place a dazzling array to sculptures, paintings, and other artistic features to adequately gain her praises.

I played Plywood Studios to three stars and have now moved on to the second map, Mudbury.  Mudbury takes place on the scene of a music festival and it's your job to provide medical care to the various waves (yep, it's another wave based challenge) of festival-goers who are afflicted with a wide array of health issues.  The wave based maps are always kind of fun, but also a bit obnoxious due to the fact that your income can vary quite wildly due to the massive influx of patients and then the relative calm as they go through the diagnosis and treatment process.  Mudbury seems like it might be a bit different because the goals they want you to accomplish on each wave aren't necessarily built around cure rate.

If you're a Two Point Hospital fan like me, check out "Culture Shock" and enjoy some relaxing hospital management.  

Pulling a Title off the Pile of Shame

 I've been spending my gaming time this past week between a couple of different pursuits--namely the excellent roguelike Hades and the game-within-a-game CrossCode.  I've also been keeping my eye on gaming news and have seen some eye catching tidbits.  One of my favorite silly management sims, Two Point Hospital, is getting another DLC!  The "Culture Shock" DLC offers up three new hospitals with a sort of artistic theme and boasts of more new illnesses than previous DLC's.  I will definitely be scooping it up!  I've also been excitedly watching any and all news from CyberPunk 2077--it's getting close, so exciting!

If you were someone who played Hades during early access and then walked away (something that I did), I would highly recommend returning to the full release.  The story has been fleshed out and now there is more to encourage your repeat trips through the underworld.  I generally get bored with roguelikes within a few hours but I have been going strong with Hades.  SuperGiant has brilliantly placed small chunks of the story and characters at the beginning and end of each effort to escape.  There's something there for different types of gamers--for those who simply want the challenge of fighting out of the underworld there are modifiers to increasingly make those escape attempts even more challenging.  For the players who are more interested in the more story based aspects of the game there is "God Mode."  God Mode makes Zagreus stronger with each death which allows players who might struggle with the combat related parts of the game to enjoy getting to see the story without the frustration of repeatedly dying over and over.

I've been playing on normal mode and I've noticed some changes--one that I've been enjoying is that fountains are more likely to appear during escape attempts (once you're purchased the upgrade, of course).  I rarely got fountains during early access.  They've also added in even more fun cosmetic items to spice up the House of Hades!  Give it a play, you won't regret it!

Even thought I'm having fun with Hades, I will generally play 1-2 escape attempts per session before I'm ready for a break.  I decided it was time to revisit a game that I had put a bit of time into several years ago and had then shelved.  CrossCode is a sort of action/adventure/pixel game that is set in the world of an MMO.  One of the fun parts of the game is all the MMO related references and jokes--it has a serious story, but the world is filled with characters and elements that will make anyone who has spent time playing MMO's chuckle.  I'm looking forward to trying to finish it and checking a title off the list of the pile of shame.

Inching Up--Finishing my Third Andromeda Playthrough

 Just last night I finished my third full Mass Effect:  Andromeda playthrough.  I've found that with every completion that I generally walk away feeling slightly more positive about the game.  Even after three mostly completionist playthroughs (I did not attempt to complete all the optional side tasks because I get irritated at the mostly random nature of actually finding them) Andromeda just doesn't quite stack up to the original ME trilogy.  Just a note that this might be a bit spoiler-y for those who haven't played Andromeda yet.

Things that still bug the k-rap out of me:

--I am still completely boggled by the plot hole around the use of mass relays.  In the OT a very central part of the story is the use of mass relays to facilitate almost instantaneous travel throughout the galaxy.  There are multiple plot problems with the mass relays:  1.) they were created by an alien race in the Milky Way 2.) according to the ending in ME3 they all were destroyed when Shepard used the Crucible (this in itself is a big plot problem because in earlier games it is mentioned that destroying a mass relay will release enough energy to annihilate an entire star system) and even though the technology was being researched it still wasn't fully understood 3.) THERE ARE NO MASS RELAYS IN ANDROMEDA...and yet, the Tempest can travel between systems.  There's absolutely no explanation for this, and I suppose that if you're a new player it's something you wouldn't even be aware of.

--Minor gameplay issues.  Let me list them:  1.) the weird camera angles that make it difficult to hear dialogue when in a conversation 2.) I seriously wish mining zones would appear on your map in a marked zone as opposed to one marker that requires you to puzzle out their boundaries 3.) I may have missed it through all three playthroughs but a hotkey for quick weapon swaps 4.) the annoying layout of Kadara--why the swapping between zones and the stupidly slow doors? 5.) companions who are almost completely useless in combat 6.) occasionally weird facial animations for Ryder.  I could probably think of more, but I digress....

--The main storyline is weak in comparison to the OT.  I am always amazed at how short it really is and how unsatisfying the ending is. There has always been a part of me that feels like they followed the "formula" for a ME game a bit too closely--If there are future games I hope they try for something a bit more unique.

Things that I enjoy:

--Beautiful worlds to explore.  ME1 had a nice space exploration feeling but the other games in the trilogy were much more focused on more story based aspects.  I am glad that Andromeda returned the series to the wonders of exploring a new galaxy.  Tooling around in the Nomad across the various worlds in the Heleus cluster is enjoyable.

--Combat in Andromeda is better (in some regards!) than in the previous games.  It's much more mobile and Ryder feels like a combat badass.  With that said though, I do miss the ability to issue commands to followers and to more effectively utilize the combo system.  It is almost impossible to get your  companions to do what you want them to do in combat and they end up dead more often than not.

--Companion banter is funny and helps to bring some levity to periods of exploration.  It's fun to swap out squadmates and see where the conversation ends up.

Jaal's romance is 🔥😘❤

--A wide variety of romantic choices.  This time around I chose Jaal as the partner for my Ryder and it's always fun to see how the relationship plays out.  Lemme just say here that the Jaal romance has one of the spicier romantic scenes--it made me laugh because I remember the controversy over ME1 and the fact that Shepard could hook up with Liara (there was an actual news story about it because some people were very scandalized by the entire concept).  Well, good thing those people have moved on from worrying about fictional alien/human sexual relationships in video games because I think Jaal and Ryder would cause them some internal panic. 🔥🔥🔥 It's also interesting that they threw in the option for casual hook-ups (which I haven't really checked out due to my innate fear of messing up relationships).  The relationship aspect has always been something I enjoy and Andromeda does it well.

In conclusion, a silly hypothetical ME question:

If you asked me "would you rather have an OT remaster or a new Andromeda game" I would lean decidedly toward a new Andromeda game.  It's not that I don't absolutely love the OT, but I am highly skeptical of remasters--most of them feel like simply slapping a new layer of paint on the game in an effort to make more cash.  The OT remaster rumors have been popping up occasionally and I always take them with a grain of salt.  If they decided to offer the remaster for free to people who already own the original games I would snatch them up in a heartbeat.  If there was an option for a remake of ME1 where they fixed the wonky-ass combat...maybe, just maybe I would think about spending some cash.

It saddens me that Andromeda never got DLC and that there are major cliffhangers (the benefactor?  the murder of Jien Garson?  the Kett Primus?  the Quarian Ark?) that could possibly never be answered.  My hope for the survival of BioWare and any future ME games is hanging on the upcoming Dragon Age game--if it does well I think there's a chance we could possibly see another Andromeda game. 

Space Magic

The bad news is that lately I haven't had a ton of time to spend gaming.  I've been halfway paying attention to gaming news but haven't seen much of note.  I'm excitedly eyeballing the recent full release of Hades and looking forward to diving back into the roguelike Greek underworld.  For now though, I'm continuing to spend my time playing through Mass Effect:  Andromeda.

Pre-terraformed Kadara is a bit hellish, but still pretty.

Last week I spent time feeling annoyed with some minor design flaws in Andromeda, but this week I am feeling more positive about my experiences in the game.  One of the things that I do enjoy about Andromeda is the beauty of the settings within the game--whether you're in the desert splendor of Eos or the icy, wastes of Voeld, the planets look great.  I've been pondering which planet is my favorite from the game and I would lean toward Kadara.  There's something beautiful about the way they made the planet have a slightly grassy feeling but combined it with an almost aquatic/coral reef type of environment.  I also always have a soft spot for the less reputable planets and settings--they're just more fun!  Sure, Kadara might be crawling with outlaws and criminals, but that just gives it  more personality.

The perennial "hardest decision" in ME games has also rolled around--to romance or not to romance, that is the question.  My former Ryders have struck up relationships with various crew members (namely Liam and Peebee) so I've been trying to branch out to the other romances that I haven't experienced yet.  This time around I decided it was time to strike up a relationship with Jaal, the squishy, pink, Angaran sniper.  I have read that it's one of the sweeter romances in Andromeda, but I'm in the early stages and haven't seen much of it play out just yet.  It always feels a bit weird to romance the alien members of the crew (with the exception of the Asari who are very human-like).

I've also finally got to the point in my playthrough where vanguard has gotten much more enjoyable--my charge ability fully refills my shields so I can blast across the battlefield and shotgun blast almost everything (architects excluded) right in the face.  It's highly enjoyable...would recommend (even though early going vanguarding was pretty painful).  My Ryder is now an official shotgun wielding badass (*although not really much of a badass because I just can't play real "badasses"--paragon all the way).

Overall, I'm having fun with Andromeda.  Sure, there are things you can diss, but when push comes to shove, I generally find that I'm completely absorbed in what I'm doing in the game.  So, if you're one of the people asking "should I play Andromeda," the answer is yes, you should play it (I follow a popular ME fan group on social media and this question comes up all the time!).

Why Can't You Just Talk to Me? Irritation in Andromeda

 It was a bit of a slow gaming news week--I didn't encounter anything that piqued my interest (apparently the PS5 ordering has been a complete and utter clusterfunk, but I'm not part of that crowd), so I thought I would give some thought to my current Mass Effect:  Andromeda re-play.  I've been playing for awhile now and have settled back into the groove of the game...and, it's still mostly the mixed bag that I remember.  I've encountered some small, but nonetheless irritating issues that I vaguely remember from previous playthroughs.

Issue #1

I jog my Ryder (who looks basically identical to another Ryder I created....I'm bad at the character creator, can you be bad at that?) over to an NPC either to strike up a conversation or to turn in a mission.  My squadmates are lingering somewhere in the background when I hit the "e" button to initiate the conversation.  The NPC talks and it's fine.  Ryder talks and it's still fine.  Things get annoying when the NPC/Ryder says something and one of your squadmates responds...but, they're off in the background somewhere and the camera is fixed, so you can't hear anything that they're saying!  I'm stuck looking at the POV of my Ryder and just silently standing there....I had forgotten about this issue but now that I've encountered it multiple times, I'm freshly annoyed by it.

Should you play Andromeda?  Yes, with some warnings.

Issue #2

I've reached the point in my playthrough where I'm fighting the Remnant Architects (I like to think of them as "space dragons" because they operate on very similar principles to the dragon fights in Dragon Age:  Inquisition).  The Remnant Architect fights are designed to be boss fight-like encounters--long, drawn out rumbles with a big baddy.  My main point of irritation has to do with the fact that the encounter doesn't autosave when you take down one of the "leg" conduits.  It would be so nice if you didn't have to completely restart the encounter when you die.  Last night I was fighting the Architect on Voeld--probably my least favorite fight location in the game (you have to deal with environmental hazards and the battleground is spread out in a weird way with cramped locations offering the best cover but being difficult to move in)--and it was a huge pain in the buttocks.  Part of me wishes they had spiced up the Architect fights a bit--there is no variety in the tactics of the fight, once you master the pattern it gets very rote.

Since my current Ryder is a vanguard build, I also get irritated at how useless certain ability sets are for the Architect fights.  You really can't charge/nova at all (I'm not quite at the point where I have enough points to create a swappable ability set for just the Architect fights).  I just want to punch an Architect in the face!

Issue #3

Why, oh why, isn't it possible to swap out gear at any place in the field?  Yes, you can fast travel to a forward station (if you've found a few) but that can be a bit of a pain if you're in a new location.  I just want to be able to equip the hot new piece of loot I found!

I don't want to totally diss on Andromeda though; I've always enjoyed the combat and found it quite challenging and I find that with each new playthrough I enjoy the companions more.  It's still not the OG Mass Effect trilogy, but it's worth playing (especially now that it is available for extremely cheap).  I just wish they had fixed a few of these small, irritating things.  It's really a shame that the DLC was scrapped and that we'll never get a satisfactory end to the story.

How Long is too Long? A Story Length Query

This week I've been trying to navigate all the social media posts about people doing some version of the following:  1.) bemoaning the fact they haven't had success in ordering the PS5; 2.) gloating over the fact they were able to order a PS5 or, of the more PC variety, 3.) bemoaning the fact that they haven't had success ordering a 3000 series GPU; 4.) gloating over the fact they were able to order a 3000 series GPU.  After seeing approximately 9 billion different versions of the aforementioned posts, a couple of pieces of gaming news were able to break through.

System specs for CyberPunk 2077!

Both pieces of news are related to the highly anticipated CyberPunk 2077, which is slated to be released later this year (November-ish, I believe).  After much waiting and anticipatory gnashing of teeth, the system requirements were released (see image below).  I was pleasantly surprised as both the minimum specs and the recommended specs seen reasonable.  I know there was some concern that the game could gobble up an insane amount of disk space, but the 70 GB listed is well below what many people anticipated (I think Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey is currently gobbling up a very sizable chunk of space on my HDD).  Now everyone has a target to aim for and hopefully the rabid fanbase can get their hands on needed upgrades prior to the release

The other piece of news is related to the length of the main storyline.  According to this source, the story in CyberPunk will be shorter than the story was in The Witcher 3.  Data from player activity in TW3 revealed that many players never actually finished the main storyline and CD Projekt Red apparently wants more people to finish it.  I am a bit surprised by the fact that people didn't finish the main storyline--according to the above linked article people can finish the entire main storyline in 32 hours...if they skip all the side content.  What kind of monster does that though?!?

Personally, I've always enjoyed a big RPG and if it's well designed (as TW3 is) I'm willing to spend a lot of time playing.  I can also understand the reality that many people just don't have hundreds of hours to sink into completionist playthroughs of todays uber open-world RPG's.  I am looking forward to a long jaunt through the world of CyberPunk 2077 and fully intend to spend as much time as I can meticulously completing every bit of content.

Even though TW3 had a long story I liked how it was designed--it took you to every region in the main game and placed you in a new location at perfectly spaced intervals.  Lingering too long in one place can get tedious, so a change in scenery is needed every once in awhile.  One of my main complaints about Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey is that the absurd size of the map feels fairly pointless.  The main storyline doesn't take you to every region (although there are side quests that can draw you there) and much of the exploration based content seems a bit like needless filler (but, I'm positive that I read something Ubisoft said--that in their playtesting people actively requested the nightmare map o' symbols that seems pretty stock in their games).  I'm on board for engaging content rather than the mindless grind through map symbols that don't contribute much to the actual game.

As much as I would love to pre-order CyberPunk, I'm probably going to hold off until it has been released, gone through the early release growing pains, and is stable and has been patched (even though I don't remember many problems with TW3).  It's going to be painful, but I think I will survive.

Good luck to those of you trying to navigate the PS5/3000 series GPU ordering frenzy.  I would highly encourage you PS5 people to come to the world of PC gaming where it's not a bare knuckled brawl for hardware (the vast majority of the time).  I know you love your exclusives....but it's better over here ;)