this looks super busy with the tiled background. reminds me of roller coaster tycoon but the action is in a window instead of serving as a background. v cool.
1 Like
Welp, it’s been a couple pretty rough, plague-filled weeks and I’ve defintiely played a lot of Warframe in the interim, mostly on the heel of a couple major updates. Been workin’ out the new paradigm of melee, killing liches, and even built a Railjack. So let’s get started with what I’ve played that isn’t Warframe (I know it’s a bit mind boggling, but it’s not the only game I play).
So, first up, The Messenger was recently free on the Epic store, and a game I’d been looking forward to playing for an age so I picked it up. I’ve played it a bit off and on, getting stuck occasionally, most recently at a part that has you chased across clouds by a dragon. The ability to refresh your jump by hitting enemies in melee is kinda neat, need to find time to get further into the game. Supposedly it opens up more later, so I’m looking forward to that. I do find myself forgetting to use my ranged attack, though. I’ve even got the punch-through upgrade but it just doesn’t really ever seem that useful to me, yet. Not a big fan of the way the game insults and mocks you every time you die though.
Significant other got me Ace Combat 7 since it was on sale and I’ve… well, I guess the best way to describe it is it feels like coming home. I’m only a few missions in but it just feels so good. Love the touches with the way you can use clouds to your advantage (or disadvantage if you’re not careful). It’s not a flightsim, though this one seems to have more trappings than any of the other strangereal Ace Combats, but it captures the exhilaration of flying quite admirably. Now, to do my first play through from the front seat of the F-14 and nothing else.
Oh, and yes as mentioned above, I have been playing the absolute shit out of Warframe as of late. I dig the way the new melee system works, especially being able to cancel out of melee attacks with a roll and loop through combos by changing up inputs. Some stances are still a hot mess and others feel really great (especially the nunchuks stance, it’s like playing Maxi from Soul Calibur). Melee weapons build have settled down into one of two types: “Builders” which rely on mods that scale with the combo meter and Heavy Attack builds that focus on using mods that make heavy attacks ultra power… and never shall the two meet since using a heavy attack drains the combo meter.
Builders are great if you’re going to do a lot of melee and have a weapon with good crit, around 10-15% status chance, and are (preferably) slash biased as you can stack large bleeds for days. Heavy attack builds generally require high damage and crit, more commonly available mods, and are better if you’re only infrequently attacking since they aren’t dependent building the combo counter for special effects. High damage pure status weapons, or weapons that only have good status chance and nothing else aren’t worth fielding in the current balance of the game, though they’re more obsolescent than obsolete.
I finished the outer wilds. it was absolutely incredible. easily my game of the year. there is nothing else remotely like it.
14 Likes
I’ve also been playing Outer Wilds for a week or two (and I’ve noticed you playing it while almost everyone else on my PS4 list is playing Death Stranding). I finally reached the Southern Observatory on Brittle Hollow yesterday. It sure took me a lot of tries to get there.
2 Likes
After years of illicit use I decided I might as well buy Lumines for switch. My first playthrough lasted 45 minutes and filled me with deep nihilism.
6 Likes
it’s such a dreadfully boring game. it almost feels cynical to me. “stack blocks of the same color together” I literally do that in my retail job
2 Likes
my Lumines experience every single time is me thinking “Lumines is a good game, right” and then playing it and an hour later I’m still waiting for the game to meaningfully ramp up
although I think that’s missing the point and you’re supposed to chill out to it and feel the beat but taping joycons to my thighs or dick is too much work
5 Likes
If it was supposed to be a chill out game songs wouldn’t be unlocked through LINEAR PROGRESSION. There would not be a song 1.
1 Like
I screamed when I finally figured out how to get there! but that’s the entire experience in a nutshell.
there are a handful of puzzles where I feel the solution is maybe a little too obtuse so if you feel like you need any subtle, vague hints/nudges in the right direction let me know 
1 Like
One thing I was considering looking up is what to do on Ash Twin and Ember twin. I guess it’s a Majora’s Mask-type timing thing, but I have not found/understood enough hints to do anything but trial and error and I keep getting killed.
I mean, I have found a bunch of things there but clearly not everything.
I also have no idea how to get into the center of Giant’s Deep, after riding the cyclone down. Assuming that is a place you can go.
1 Like
it is indeed a timing thing, I would recommend that you try and find a way into the high energy lab on ember twin first. Making your way there will inform you of what you need to know for ash twin
3 Likes
yeah there are a ton of things to do on ash and ember twin, I would start by exploring ember twin as thoroughly as possible because there’s a ton to do there and some of it fairly easily missed if you aren’t careful. you really can’t take any of the alien writings for granted, there was like one little conversation I found there that was a fairly crucial hint to something that I just didn’t pay any mind to at first. for both that area and brittle hollow there is a lot of very important/easily missed information.
as for the center of giant’s deep, you will have to explore elsewhere in the solar system to find information on how to do that. if you find evidence that someone has managed to get there ahead of you, you should try to seek them out for guidance.
1 Like
also there is one other (optional) (neat) place you can go when you get beneath the current, although technically there is another way to get there too.
1 Like
Man I really need to get back to Outer Wilds and try and finish it. All this fuzzed-out text is driving me bananas.
5 Likes
really just fuzzing out place names, the last one in my last message is maybe a mild spoiler
i’ve been fishing in the luoyang moat for pots and saddles that i can sell for tens of thousands of gold in dynasty warriors 9 because i just bought a condo and need to redecorate it. i sent liu bei a letter or something and he showed up to my house and gave me a set of his pajamas. every time i come back to my house after running around in the desert blowing up bandits with grenades for old coins hes still sitting there in his fucking pajamas asking me if i have “Discourses on Salt and Iron items.” it told me that liu bei and i are now friends which is cool i guess but hes living in my god damn condo rent free. this game is insane
15 Likes
Here is a dynasty warriors 9 condo turmoil update. i ran into liu bei on the battlefield and he pretended like we barely knew each other and then after i beat him he returned to my place and told me he’d like to take a long ride on a horse with me. i decided to take him with me if only to get him out of my house for a while and lu bu randomly showed up on my front lawn to tell me he was going to kick my ass. liu bei actually helped me in this fight which was kind of nice and lu bu gave me his pajamas for winning. he invited himself in and told me we were allies now and that he’d erase anybody who got in my way, which is great, except now lu bu is also squatting in my fucking house!!! i got a tea set that attracts women to my house (???) from a merchant because i slayed a roving gang of tigers for him but i really wish he had given me a fucking lock for my front door or something instead
17 Likes
i’ve been playing DARKSIDERS WARMASTERED which i have always been curious about ever since john romero said its basically what he wanted quake to be. i can sure see that from what i read from the early design docs, this is basically dipshit goth zelda and i dig iiitttt. also devil may cry mixed in there i guess
there are a few things that irk me, some of it is just personal taste, other things i may get used to or may get worse… so no real complaints yet, so far this is a pretty fun romp
3 Likes
If you have Apple Arcade you should try UFO on Tape.
I finally tryed Subnautica and…played for a long time. The visuals are really good. and the food and water survival elements are pretty tame. They’re actually only really annoying when you are standing around shuffling inventory and crafting stuff. Its not bad at all, when you are out exploring. But you can turn it off with a new game. And…I might. Because there is a fair bit of standing around to craft and stuff.
There’s a VR mode for head tracking and I bet its super immersive.
2 Likes