I’m more or less done fiddling with mods at this point, and so the last week I’ve been spending my time actually playing STALKER: Anomaly. It’s been an interesting experience, both familiar and different as I’m using several mods that have released since my last playthrough and that completely change the game. Some for the better, some I’m not sure. STALKER players seem to love three things: misery, immersion and realism and while I am one of those too I also recognise that the pursuit of them can sometimes get in the way of enjoyment.
But even with a heavier-than-I’m-used-to Military presence around the starting areas the early game is playing out much the same as always. Grind some simple missions, take the fights you can win, try to loot NPCs kills if possible, abuse any free temporary companions you can get from quests and gradually scavenge your way towards assembling the kit required to move north. Which involves finding a better armoured suit, finding a better helmet with gas mask, finding a scoped rifle or sniper to repair (I got lucky and found an SVT-40), finding a pump-action or semi-automatic shotgun, crafting your entry level tier night vision goggles, getting enough good healing items and anti-radiation meds…
I’m just about setup now and ready for the trek to Dead City where I’ll make my next base of operations I think, but I decided to finish up some missions in the Great Swamps first while I’m still in the south. Despite my initial misgivings about the idea I managed to clear out the military outpost thanks to being able to sneak my way to a perfect cover and some well timed headshots, so now I should be good to actually do some missions in this area.
Despite the bump in difficulty with the new mods I’m having a great time, Anomaly is just such a unique and special experience - the immersiveness, the desolate loneliness, the horror elements, the atmosphere and world design… It’s hard to explain the beauty of it in text, and it definitely isn’t for everyone. But whenever you get that specific itch, there really isn’t a lot else that can scratch it.
Vidyascape, a faithful recreation of the 2007 runescape experience.
All the quests are implemented and the xp rate is slightly higher than regular osrs.
It feels fun to re-experience this, and removing the pressure of a monthly subscription makes it much more enjoyable. They are running it since 2014 without any hiccups.
I’ve been trying (again) to get into Morrowind. I’m enjoying my time with it, I just really hope I stick it through to the end this time. I want to put a lot of hours into it but any time I try to get into it, something comes up or I get distracted. I’ve put a couple hours into this character now, hopefully I can keep it up.
Abiotic Factor. I finally made it to the Residence Sector and am working my way through the last bit of story content now. It’s taking me a bit because I’m kinda taking my time, but also cause I’m playing solo. I’m sure I could do more to make it more smooth/faster, but I like playing at my own pace.
Other than that, I’ve been picking away at 100% Lego Marvel Superheroes 2 and a second run of DC Supervillains.
GTA IV
The only reason I bought it was to play the FusionFix mod that was released last month as it looks amazing and fixes and improves so much. I haven’t played it since the Xbox 360 release so really looking forward to it!
I know what i am not playing! EU5 and Anno 117!
I’ve been playing Outer Worlds. The first one. I didn’t even know there was a second one… Anyway, I’m here too be a silver-tongued loot gremlin and this game fully enabled such a fantasy. So I’m having a good time.
Cyberpunk 2077
I’m slowly progressing with my themed playthrough. While I wasn’t “cheating” during gameplay I haven’t fully committed to the new approach (no cyberware, no hacking) and still kept the default parts “just in case”. Well, no more - I finally sold all of the remaining gear and left only the basic eyes (can’t remove them, unfortunately) and the tiger claw tattoo (I’m only using it as a… well, tattoo and a background detail for my character).
I’m in the middle of act 2. I’m done with Aldecaldo’s and most of Evelyn’s side of things, still waiting for Takemura to finish playing recon for the parade floats (first time I’m not doing it with him). I was a bit surprised because it looks like my different approach started to change things in the story - I’ve noticed V taking small cues from Johnny in a few places despite the fact I tried to act in a way that doesn’t give him control. I might have to work harder to avoid that going forward.
Other than that things go pretty smoothly, even if I need to be reminded sometimes that I’m way more fragile this time around. Even then, it’s more manageable than I though it would be (until I get to some of the Phantom Liberty missions that is). I hope I can keep this up until the end.
This might sound like I’m joking but I finally had my first noticeable issues with the game during this playthrough.
- Sometimes enemies are able to spot me through the walls temporarily. It’s pretty inconsistent and gets fixed rather quickly but I never had this problem before.
- During the final Delamain quest game wouldn’t load the level properly on checkpoint reload and dropped me in a building where half of the models wouldn’t render. This led to occlusion freaking out and whole parts of the level phasing in and out pretty aggressively, even when not moving. I’m stubborn enough I tried to finish the mission anyway but things got bad enough my head was starting to hurt after a while (and I’m not particularly sensitive to such things). Thankfully reload from the menu fixed that.
Halo 3
Some things that caught my attention:
- Devs forgot (?) to normalise the movement vector when moving with turrets, running forward is slower than running forward and to the side. I found it funny for some reason.
- There’s no flashlight issue I had with H2A! Granted these are two different games but I’m glad that’s not a problem here.
- Voice acting can be a bit hit or miss. Most of it is really solid but some of the lines I’ve heard are not great.
- Cortana getting all chunni was not on my bingo card but I’ll take it.
- The Flood is finally how I imagined it. It’s not a huge challenge but the whole section with it feels much better than in previous games. The bloom however… oh man, the bloom.
- What do you mean “Earth is all we have left”?! Did covenant somehow managed to destroy every single human world? When did that happen? I though it was only some (maybe most) of them.
- It really feels like human ships (especially Pelicans) have a higher chance of being shot down than reaching their target. Kinda unfortunate, really.
- Some in-game cutscenes look weird in ultra-wide, like they’re cut off vertically.
- I really could not care less about Gravemind. It’s the weakest part of the game for me.
- The game was way more fun on Heroic than H2.
This is it for the original trilogy. All in all I’m a little underwhelmed - not because the games were bad, far from it. It’s just… after hearing so much about H1-3 it’s impossible not to build up some steep expectations towards those games and, as I mentioned last week, I tend to be way more demanding from stuff hyped to such degree.
Finally, there’s simply the case of my own bias. In case of Halo I simply prefer the sombre/bittersweet/tragic/whateveryoucallit tone of Reach and the few books I read. Action Halo is cool but it doesn’t speak to me the way those other entries do.With whining out of the way let me say that the journey through these games was a pretty enjoyable one. I had my criticism towards some of the gameplay segments and the difficulty of H2 but neither of those soured my time with these titles in a significant way. All 5 entries I played so far hold up better than expected.
Next (and last) stop: Halo 4.
Halo 4
Just started this one so here are my initial impressions:
- I appreciate Covenant going back to alien speak, makes them more… well, alien.
- Going back to fighting Covenant, if only partially, makes sense from the story perspective but it’s still a bit of an underwhelming decision.
- I really like how the guns feel and sound, really punchy. Grenades on the other hand feel way worse.
- Music sounds more generic this time. It’s not all bad but it’s noticeable.
Lets see how the rest of the game fares.
Stardew Valley
Well, I forgot I even had this thing installed so that pretty much sums up my interest in the game. I gave it a shot but it’s just not for me apparently. Oh well.
I’m glad you finished Halo 3, it’s too bad it didn’t live up to your expectations though. It’s understandable for a series with so much hype, but I was still hoping you’d like them like I did. I also played them when they were coming out though, which could play a factor in it. I hope you enjoy Halo 4. It’s my least favourite of 1-4 but it’s still a good game. It’s definitely more polished and modern feeling.
Having it live up to these expectations years after the whole Halo-mania was over is pretty much an impossible task so I’d be more surprised if it did manage to sweep me as much as it did everyone back in the day. Most parts of those games holds up pretty well from an objective standpoint, personal biases on the other hand are a different issue.
It also doesn’t help that you can feel game’s chaotic development in the its story (both 2 and 3 actually), which is unfortunate since that’s the main reason why I play games like these. It wasn’t terrible or complete let down but it did feel a bit undercooked and disjointed at times. At least the trilogy didn’t made me do a 180 on a franchise like what happened with Mass Effect, so there’s that.
Seriously though, I think I liked it as much as I possibly could. I came out of this playthrough with a very positive experience and that’s more than I can say about many other classics, regardless of whether I played them on launch or years after the fact. Weird brain thinks how it does, there’s not much I can do about it.
Yeah, that’s totally fair. You’re definitely not alone in those feelings, it’s just not something I personally share.
I’m almost the other way around in that I’m pretty easily satisfied with most games. I don’t have much time for gaming these days, between work, raising a kid (still just a baby), and trying to be a good husband, so by the time I’m actually able to play something, I usually just want to shut off my brain and play something to have fun with it. It’s usually after they’re both asleep, so it’s either game or sleep myself. With that being said, sticking with a game is a different story. I bounce off a lot of titles these days. I’ve been trying to get into Morrowind for years, currently on another attempt. I’m really enjoying it so far, and I have enjoyed my other attempts too, it’s just never hooked me before. I really hope this time I get properly hooked and get to sink a good amount of time into it. It’s not a game I can turn my brain off for but I also don’t need laser focus for it either, so it’s a good balance. If I get too mentally drained I play either Oblivion or Skyrim, both of which I have so much time in I can practically play asleep, plus it keeps me in the Elder Scrolls mindset. My problem before was my backup game was always a Soulslike, which is usually my preferred genre these days, but then I get sucked into that rabbit hole and don’t touch Morrowind again for a while. I’m hoping that sticking with the same series keeps me in the mood for it and I can play it a bit more consistently.
Like you said, weird brain thinks how it does, there’s not much I can do about it. Except maybe trick it into wanting to play a game I know I’m going to enjoy. It sucks I need to force myself to do something I enjoy though. Oh well.
The Dread Delusion - First person RPG with N64-esque graphics set in a broken world.
I started a playthrough right before they released the 1.0 update and wiped my progress (which I was aware of, and I’m not upset about). How are you liking the full release? I’m kind of excited to get an airship and be able to fly it around.
I had a bash at Please Don’t Touch Anything before getting bored and playing a bit more Into the Breach.
I’m not sure what I’ll play next. Perhaps something rhythm game flavoured.
