Putting my final touches into my STALKER: Anomaly modlist and creating the last couple of compatibility patches. I think I’ll end up at 400 mods which is a nice round number. Hope I’ll get to start my playthrough this weekend.

Will also try to get through another chapter of Alan Wake 2, I was on a replay of it when I got derailed but I do want to finish it and finally start the DLCs.

Had this on my watch list for a long time and every new video it keeps looking better. I’m still of two minds about the black-and-white - I get the idea and it works for the theme but I can’t decide if it’s worth it or if I miss the detail color would add. But at the same time maybe it would make it too bright and cheerful for the setting and story?

Still looks super cool and I’m looking forward to playing it.

Anytime! One thing I appreciate in Jade Empire is that they attempted to do something different with the good/evil dichotomy. It doesn’t always come off properly and it’s often constrained by the nature of the game (you can’t really opt out of the main quest for example) but I appreciate the attempt. Instead of just good/evil they try to make it a “Good Samaritan versus Hardcore Darwinian” dilemma based on opposing philosophies that aren’t necessarily good or evil.

If you ever decide it’s time to jump on New Vegas, the Viva New Vegas modlist has Wabbajack support now I believe. So you should be able to install the most stable and baseline recommended modlist with just a couple of clicks.

Caveat is I have not played NG2 on Master Ninja because I already hate myself enough, I don’t need more misery . Apart from some single chapter challenge stuff I guess. But I have never felt like pulling off UTs was significantly challenging compared to relying on combos and OTs. You’re moving around so much anyway that an on-landing UT is often easy to pull off as long as you have 2 essences in the air.

What I find most fun in NG2 combat is using all the combos from the move list of the various weapons, and using OTs strategically for i-frames. But UT spam just seems so much more efficient and easy.

Maybe Master Ninja is significantly different, I don’t know.

I’m sure it will happen at some point as I’ve mentally had it on my to-do list for quite some time. But… it might take a year or two. My backlog is extensive.

Thanks, I’ll definitely save this for some day in the future!

I also tend to enjoy the process of setting up your own custom modlist, but after being deep in that rabbit hole before with Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout: New Vegas, Baldur’s Gate 2 and STALKER (all 4 games + Anomaly) I don’t know if I have it in me to learn the ins and outs of another mod landscape 😅

Mapocolops is one of the best Let’s Players out there. Always engages with the story and tries to pay attention, likes reading everything and getting immersed, very genuine while still managing to be very entertaining in an authentic way instead of contrived and faked. Also regularly plays retro games, which is very refreshing and sets him apart a bit.

Do you have any large and complete modpacks to recommend? I don’t know that I have it in me to learn the lay of the land from scratch.

Also, have you used the Mantella mod any? It’s actually a similar mod that got me back into STALKER Anomaly. Really fun immersive use of AI for roleplaying and forming attachment to your companions.

This year in particular has been absolutely insane. I’ve played more releases the same year they launched this year than any in recent memory and still feel like I’ve missed out.

UTs were perfectly balanced in NGB in my opinion. You need a perfect equilibrium between the power/damage of the move, the amount of safety it gives you (i-frames), the charge time it requires and the enemy count (essence generation). NGB hit all of these were UTs were a powerful tool that felt earned whenever you pulled them off and never too powerful.

In NG2 you get an eternity of i-frames, insane tracking that often has you teleporting around the room between enemies (like Tonfas) and a delimb system that means it’s easier for UTs to feed themselves. Which is exacerbated by the design philosophy being “kill hordes of enemies quickly” without tweaking the 2-essence-cost of a full charge UT and even reducing the basic charge time.

I will begin by pushing my personal agenda: Jade Empire is a super underrated older Bioware game and I think could fit your description. While you do amass a large set of followers over the course of the story, they mainly reside at camp. While out and adventuring you’re only ever bringing with you one at a time: exactly the sidekick you’re looking for!

If you want to stay isometric I hold Baldur’s Gate 2 very highly as far as retro RPGs go. You do have a party of six there however. You only have 3 companions for the first few hours though, so at least you get eased into it. And you could just choose to not have a full party if you want. Will make the game a bit harder, mind.

Fallout 1&2 are also retro RPGs and pretty much just better than Arcanum in every way. Not really a party focused experience, you can have companions but they’re more like the sidekicks you mentioned.

Neverwinter Nights 2 just recently got an enhanced edition and that’s also a smaller party experience. The main campaign is decent, but the expansion Mask of the Betrayer is often brought up as one of the best CRPG stories of all time and heralded for its stellar writing.

Better recommendations for… what? For Arcanum or for RPGs in general? 😄Multiverse Edition was pretty good as far as Arcanum goes and I’m glad to have played it, but there are certainly better CRPGs out there.

If they would have finished and polished NG2 then it could have been the best action game of all time, for sure. It still delivers that “playable cocaine” feeling that’s very unique, and Chapter 1 of NG2 is probably the best level in the whole franchise and one of the best action game levels of all time.

The problem is all the absolute nonsense in the game, and the abundance of pretty much garbage levels. I think like half the levels in the game are outright bad. Also stuff like how completely broken UTs are. It’s obvious the game wasn’t fully playtested and balanced, and so the super powered UTs were slapped on as a bandaid. But they’re not really fun to use and end result is a mechanic that you at best feel forced to resort to just to get through levels, but most of the time try to actively avoid using in order to actually have fun.

I love both games. I think NGB is a better game, but NG2 has higher highs. The combat in NG2 is more viscerally satisfying and fun to play around with, but the game is an unfinished, untested and unbalanced mess. I still love it, and Chapter 1 of NG2 is the best Ninja Gaiden level or the whole series, but NGB feels much more complete and balanced.

Great review, as always I love your content! You mentioned a higher price point but I don’t think you mentioned the actual price anywhere in the review. Or did I miss it? I guess it’s just a quick search away.

I really need to get into modding Skyrim at some point. After playing and modding Morrowind and Oblivion heavily back in the day I just never got into it with Skyrim. I never played Skyrim much at all frankly. I was too invested in playing and modding New Vegas at the time. And then later on I found other games, and recently over the past years it’s been STALKER Anomaly filling the craving of “heavily moddable sandbox game”.

I haven’t watched it myself yet but I’ve heard a lot of good things about Mapocolops playthrough of it and I’ve watched plenty enough of his other Let’s Plays to vouch for him in general.

Ah I see. It’s included in Multiverse (plus a lot more). I can recommend it if you’re ever doing a second playthrough, I thought it was pretty good!

I have barely been playing any games at all this week. I have managed to finish a grand total of one chapter of Alan Wake 2: Final Draft I think.

Instead I’ve been spending pretty much all my time modding and fiddling with STALKER: Anomaly. Yes, I’ve relapsed. I can’t help myself. I said I shouldn’t do this anymore and should focus on finishing complete narratives instead of playing around in the Chernobyl sandbox but I just got the craving again. And tweaking your modlist until it’s perfect is just an addiction in itself - making everything work together and throwing together patches in WinMerge.

Maybe when I feel my modlist is finished and ready to play my hyperfixation will give out a bit and I can at least finish AW2.