It’s in my backlog - I’ve had it since release day but have been too engrossed in the Yakuza series over the past year plus (almost finally caught up). I loved the first and have been wanting to play the second but I’m put off by the unskippable story-driven requirement that you brutally and graphically kill a dog.
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I have Sunless Skies on my wish list, but Sunless Seas is so maddening, I’ve never given in to buying Skies.
I’ve fallen into the MMO hole again, after about a ~15 year hiatus.
I never did play WoW, for various reasons. Before WoW, there was Final Fantasy XI, in which I shared an account and a character with my wife and played on the Playstation 2. It was extremely grindy, but I have many fond memories of playing with friends.
Around 2010 I signed up for the beta of Final Fantasy XIV to see if I was ready to try an MMO again. I only played it a couple of times, but it didn’t click with me and I didn’t really have time for it in my life. It was received extremely negatively, and I mostly ignored it other than seeing a few years later that they had relaunched it with a new name to try and fix the issues with the original release.
Fast forward to about a month ago, and after hearing quite a bit of praise for the current state of the game, I was considering dipping my toes in to see what it was like. Then, one of my good friends started playing, so I figured the time was right. I signed up myself and my wife, and we’ve both been playing nearly every day.
What I’m liking about it:
- It has an extremely flexible job/class system that lets you approach it as narrowly or broadly and you want.
- It has a crafting system that actually takes some strategy and planning to do, as opposed to just a dice roll.
- Most of the quests can be played solo, and they’ve made it pretty simple to party up when you need to.
- The story is decent, although I’m led to believe that it gets better in the expansions.
- There are a ton of activities to do, from main story quests to side quests and guild questions, to a fully featured casino with Chocobo racing, a MOBA mini game, platforming, and an on-rails shooter. There’s also a ship that leaves every two hours to take you ocean fishing and is probably the best way to level up your fisher job…
What I’m not liking so much:
- There are a ton of activities to do, and it can be difficult at times to decide what you want to do. It can absolutely use all of your time.
- My (and my wife’s) computer does not run it well. We’re getting maybe 20-30 fps at 720p. We’re both using integrated graphics cards, so a PC with a discrete GPU is definitely recommended.
- Despite the hardware requirements, the game is definitely showing its (nearly 10 year) age. You have to choose a data center and server when you create a character, and you have to be on the same one with anyone you want to play with. I would imagine someone creating an MMO today would make it cloud native and automatically scalable to avoid such design decisions.
Overall, we’re having a lot of fun with it. If you’re looking for an MMO, it’s worth checking out. They have a very generous free trial that lets you play up to level 60 (I think) without buying the game or subscribing. There are restrictions, but it’s more than enough to figure out whether or not you want to keep playing.
One final note: For our 19th wedding anniversary, my wife and I went through the quest to complete a ceremony of eternal bonding, which is an in-game wedding. It was a fun little activity we could do together that was pandemic safe. There’s also a practical benefit as we each have an in-game item that lets us teleport to the other’s location from anywhere in the game an unlimited number of times.
If anyone is interested in joining up, feel free to reach out to me and I can give you my character details if you want to play on the same server.
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Probably a stupid question, but here goes:
I like watching streamers play Dead by Daylight, but none of my devices are new enough to play it. The game just lost its license for Stranger Things content, and in October, the Killer and Survivors for that chapter will be retired. Those who purchase the DLC can keep them, but nobody can get them after that.
I don’t think I’m going to be able to get a new PC before then, but I’m wondering… if I purchase the content in advance, before it disappears, might I be able to download the content later, once I get a machine that can handle it?
I doubt it’ll work, but since I don’t have experience with Steam, I thought I’d ask the more knowledgeable gamers here.
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As far as I’m aware, if you purchase something on Steam, you can download it at any time even if it’s no longer available for new purchases. I’ve not heard of any Konami P. T. situation occurring on Steam.
One thing to note is that you need the base game to buy DLC, as Steam won’t allow you to purchase it without that.
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On my way to the Southern Fried Gaming Conference in Atlanta. Ready to pinball up!!!
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Oh yeah, I figured I’d need the base game too. I’d love to play DBD eventually, and the Demogorgon looks like a really fun character to play as, so I’d kinda like to have the option in reserve.
On the other hand, I’m not 100% sure it’s a great idea for me to get into it-- apparently there’s a big learning curve, and it takes a lot of time to “get good.” I’m typically a pretty casual gamer, so that might not be so healthy for me.
I’ve got about three months to decide, but at least I’ve got the info. Thank you! 
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So I decided to fart around on Slither.io for a little while last night, and this happened…
I have no idea if this was a hack, or just a bunch of creative, talented players, but it made me laugh. Well done, Slither players, well done.
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Finished Psychonauts 2 last night, and woo-ee…that was amazing. I would rate it even above the first game, which is saying a lot. Definitely worth the wait from backing it to now (wow, that was 2016), and kinda fun to see my name in the credits 
If you have Gamepass on Xbox or PC, should be a no-brainer to check it out, and I’d say also worth the crazy Australia-tax price as well.
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So after 160 odd hours, I finished Cyberpunk 2077. I was expecting to have fun, but I didn’t expect to love the absolute shit out of it.
Pre-ordered based on loving the Witcher series despite having no prior knowledge of the tabletop RPG, and stopped reading about it prior to release to avoid spoilers. That’s probably good, as it seems it became the holy grail to gamers - everyone seemed to think it would be a different type of perfection. That expectation will never be met, and when you add in the bad performance on last gen consoles, for gamers it went from the next coming of Christ to literally worse than Hitler.
But after playing other things and finally getting to it a few months back, I found it absolutely engrossing. The city they created is as fascinating to explore as the world in The Witcher 3, and it looked and felt like I’d stepped into a Neuromancer/Snow Crash TV show. I’ve begun to read the RPG sourcebooks and they really nailed everything that’s in there. It didn’t feel like GTA, which is a somewhat trite complaint I’ve seen - but it does have the same immersive and lived in world that Red Dead Redemption 2 had.
I’d definitely recommend it for PC, where it looks amazing and ran very well (I’m on a 2060 at 1080p and it was basically locked at 60fps on high). If you’ve pleased the gods and somehow gotten a 3080 or the like, then your brain will probably melt. I’ve only got a handful of mods running but there’s some interesting stuff being made that I’m keeping an eye on.
Anyway 9/10 would definitely cut up some gonks with a katana again
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Paizo has recognized their union.
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Thanks for sharing - I’ve been avoiding it because I didn’t want a major letdown, (I’m an oldschool Cyberpunk fan - both the books and the RPGs) but based on your description I think that might be my next big game.
(My last was Subnautica which is just so good.)
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did you play Below Zero?
Not yet. I just finished Subnautica a couple of weeks ago. It had kept me occupied for months, so I think I’ll give a bit of time with something else before trying Below Zero, knowing I’ll probably like it when I want a change.
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A reminder to anybody interested in playing the Stranger Things characters in Dead By Daylight: the game company lost the license, so Demogorgon, Nancy, and Steve will no longer be available to purchase after (or on? Not sure) November 17. Steam is currently running a sale where you can get a bundle with the base game, the Stranger Things DLC, and a costume pack for $14.71, less than the cost of the game by itself ($19.99)!
I won’t be able to run it any time soon… I need to see if my 11-year-old laptop can be updated to Windows 10 first, and that’s incredibly low on my current priority list. But as I understand it, buying it now should lock in those characters for whenever I can finally start playing. 
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It’s pretty short, especially for a clicker/idle game. I’d estimate 2-3 hours total if you manipulate the markets effectively.
Not recommended for lovers of the Free Market, haters of Raccoons, or those who like happy endings.
Oh, it’s free to play in a browser or download.
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I’ve been playing Civilization V, again.
The game’s seen a bit of a revival, with some big mods like Sapiens or Stone to Stars emerging over the last year.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed playing Civilization V and Civilization VI, especially now that all the expansions have dropped. Civilization V is a bit slower in gameplay, but is quite a bit more flexible in modding potential.
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I’ve got a question, though I’m not sure whether or not I should even be bringing it up.
What should be done when you run across someone with a highly inappropriate username in-game? I reported the person to Support the first time I encountered them, back in May, but I found out today they’re still in the game, same name… and they’re playing in high ranks.
There’s no direct person-to-person contact in game; if I understand correctly, PVP battles are handled by the game itself with bots using other player’s stats. (I’ve actually wound up playing against my own characters more than once, which I find amusing, even if I lose.) And it’s rare for me to play past the point when I gain Champion rank-- it takes a ton of time and effort to battle up to higher levels, and I play fairly casually these days.
I sent another complaint to Support after I won the match, but I don’t know if they’ll do anything. I did attempt to explain why it was problematic, that it was an insult to other players, and reflected poorly on the game itself… but it’s a small company based out of Thailand, so I’m not sure if there’s language or cultural issues complicating it.
I don’t want to let one asshole player run me out of the game; on the other hand, it bothers me to participate when the company seems not to GAF about a username with a racial slur and a word for sexual violence.
Any suggestions?
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I got a reply from the Support team:
Thank you for your feedback. We have noted it and will send to the Product team.
I have no idea if that means anything, but it’s more response than I got last time I made a report, so at least somebody’s paying attention. I’ll keep my eyes open the next time I decide to fight more Champion bouts, to see if they’re still around, and I’ll report them again if I see them. I’ve seen my share of silly and/or stupid screen names, and I shrug those off, but this one’s way above and beyond that.
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