April 2023 Random Game Thoughts Thread

[ZedClampet]

April Sale Dates:

Steam: Puzzle Fest(opens in new tab): April 24 - May 1
Epic: None
GoG: Spring sale currently going until April 3

Coming to Game Pass in April

• Everspace 2 - April 6
• Ghostwire Tokyo - April 12
• Minecraft Legends - April 18
• Coffee Talk Episode 2 - April 20
• Cassette Beasts - April 26
• The Last Case of Benedict fox - April 27
• Homestead Arcana - April ??

Top Game Launches for April (From PC Gamer):

• April 1, 2023 — Crab Champions (Early Access) - Crab-person shooter
• April 4, 2023 — Meet Your Maker - Post-apocalyptic PvP base-builder
• April 4, 2023 — Road 96: Mile 0 - Prequel to the procgen roadtrip adventure
• April 6, 2023 — Everspace 2 - Open-world exploration-heavy starship shooter
• April 6, 2023 — Ravenswatch (Early Access) - Isometric action roguelike with folk heroes
• April 11, 2023 — Sherlock Holmes The Awakened - Holmes consults with the eldritch
• April 11, 2023 — Tron: Identity - Grid-based visual novel
• April 12, 2023 — Ghostware: Arena of the Dead (Early Access) - Arena FPS purgatory
• April 12, 2023 — Wartales - Turn-based Mount & Blade
• April 13, 2023 — Shardpunk: Verminfall - A turn-based tactics take on Vermintide
• April 18, 2023 — God of Rock - Rhythm-based 2D fighter
• April 18, 2023 — The Mageseeker: A League of Legends story - Sylas top-down ARPG
• April 18, 2023 — Minecraft Legends - An action strategy spinoff
• April 19, 2023 — Moons of Darsalon - Lemmings-like astronaut rescue platformer
• April 20, 2023 — Greedventory - Grisly pixel art RPG with mouse-centric action
• April 20, 2023 — Otxo - Hotline Miami meets a monochrome roguelike
• April 20, 2023 — Stray Blade - Soulslike with El Dorado flavor
• April 21, 2023 — Dead Island 2 - Zombie survival RPG infects California
• April 24, 2023 — Shadows of Doubt - Voxel sci fi noir sandbox
• April 25, 2023 — Afterimage - Colorful dreamlike metroidvania
• April 25, 2023 — Roots of Pacha - Stone Age Stardew Valley
• April 25, 2023 — Stranded: Alien Dawn - Space settlement survival simulator
• April 25, 2023 — Strayed Lights - Gorgeous glowy Souls-like adventure
• April 26, 2023 — Desta: The Memories Between - Dreamspace sport roguelike
• April 26, 2023 — Honkai: Star Rail - Turn-based sci fi gacha
• April 27, 2023 — ArcRunner - cyberpunk co-op roguelite in a world that's 80% neon
• April 27, 2023 — Ash of Gods: The Way - Story-driven fantasy card-battler
• April 27, 2023 — Bramble: the Mountain King - Nordic horror platformer
• April 27, 2023 — The Last Case of Benedict Fox - Eldritch murder mystery metroidvania
• April 27, 2023 — Live A Live - Remake of classic SquareEnix RPG
• April 27, 2023 — Omega Strikers - 3v3 hero-based Windjammers
• April 27, 2023 — Zoria: Age of Shattering (Early Access) - Fantasy tactics RPG
• April 28, 2023 — Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - Cal Lightsaber's dark middle chapter
• April ??, 2023 — Star Trek: Resurgence - Star Trek treks into adventure game land
• April ??, 2023 — Untamed Tactics - Tactics RPG with anthropoid animals

Notable DLC Releasing in April

Planet Zoo: Tropical Pack on Steam

Give a warm welcome to the Planet Zoo: Tropical Pack! Adopt and care for five incredible new animals commonly found in tropical rainforests around the world.

store.steampowered.com

X4: Kingdom End on Steam

Enjoy a long-awaited reunion with the Boron in X4: Kingdom End, the fourth expansion for X4: Foundations, which completes the collection of the main factions in the X Universe. Discover the unique Boron ships, and fly them through distinctive systems, on a journey of discovery.

store.steampowered.com

House Flipper - Farm DLC on Steam

It’s time to roll up your sleeves in Farm DLC! Firstly, feed your animals, then start expanding your house, we need more space! Don’t forget about watering the cornfields, seems like the crops will be plentiful this year!

store.steampowered.com

Total War: WARHAMMER III - Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs on Steam

The Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs campaign pack introduces a new brutal race, the Chaos Dwarfs, into Total War: WARHAMMER III, in both the Realm of Chaos and Immortal Empires campaigns. Expand, exploit, and dominate the Warhammer world as Astragoth Ironhand, Drazhoath the Ashen, and Zhatan the Black.

store.steampowered.com

Expansion - Europa Universalis IV: Domination on Steam

Revisit some of the most powerful and popular nations in EUIV Domination. This Expansion Pack offers new mission trees, new government reforms, new estate management and new events for several of the major powers in the game.

store.steampowered.com

Gas Station Simulator - Airstrip DLC on Steam

Cars are nice, but maybe airplanes are nicer? Build a small airstrip at your gas station and help Joe with his air routes in this DLC.

store.steampowered.com

Thief Simulator - Luxury Houses DLC on Steam

To access this content you need to have the game Thief Simulator on Steam.

store.steampowered.com

Additional April Launches Perhaps of Interest: (This is only for Steam. I couldn't figure out how to do this with Epic because most of their games don't list launch dates)

RPG Stories on Steam

Forge your own Tabletop RPG tales across any era in RPG Stories. Build worlds, team up with friends, and embark on limitless adventures. With intuitive tools and a vast library of more than 6K 3D assets, unleash your creativity in this seamless virtual tabletop experience.

store.steampowered.com

Passpartout 2: The Lost Artist on Steam

Embark on your struggling artist adventure. Draw and sell art to cheeky critics to reclaim your lost art career. Explore the endearing art-starved town of Phénix and show them you're a true artist!

store.steampowered.com

Filthy Animals | Heist Simulator on Steam

Filthy Animals is a chaotic single-player/co-op heist game for up to 4 players. Become a mutant animal working for criminal mastermind Tony as you steal, fight, fall over, and eat tacos. Solve puzzles and avoid security before making off with the loot, ya Filthy Animal!

store.steampowered.com

TerraScape on Steam

Build gorgeous kingdoms on floating islands by strategically placing buildings in this cozy City-Puzzler. Discover secret combinations, take on weekly challenges and explore randomly generated maps in various single- and multiplayer game modes.

store.steampowered.com

Grimgrad on Steam

Build your own Slavic settlement. Overcome the hardships of medieval life and don't anger the Gods!

store.steampowered.com

Curse of the Sea Rats on Steam

Embark on an epic, hand-animated, ‘ratoidvania’ adventure, where your crew has been turned into rats by a pirate witch! Explore a rich non-linear world, enjoy fun action platforming, face challenging bosses, and unlock unique abilities - either alone or in local co-op!

store.steampowered.com

Oxygen on Steam

Oxygen is a survival city builder. Build your city around the Oxygen Center and ensure your people's survival in a post-apocalyptic future, threatened by crack explosions, deadly winds, droughts and frosts. Lead your people and more importantly keep the Oxygen Center running!

store.steampowered.com

EA SPORTS™ PGA TOUR™ on Steam

The exclusive home of the Majors, EA SPORTS™ PGA TOUR™ features Pure Strike for superior golf gameplay, powered by ShotLink®, and unrivaled access to the world’s most exclusive golf courses.

store.steampowered.com

Coal Mining Simulator on Steam

Welcome to the world of Coal Mining! Start with almost nothing and get to the top - develop your mine, sell coal, buy new machines and avoid dangers in this sandbox simulator. Take control of numerous mining machines. Destroy, mine, drill, transport and blow things up.

store.steampowered.com

Unscripted on Steam

Dive into the world of a wannabe writer and his friends trying to make it in Hollywood. Build deep friendships, go on hilarious adventures and fall in love. Make highly impactful choices and shape your story in this true-to-life dating sim.

store.steampowered.com

Pets Hotel on Steam

Welcome to Pets Hotel, a place where you can start the business you always dreamed of! Pets Hotel gives you a unique opportunity to build, design, and run a place where pets can feel at home. Cats, dogs, turtles, and many other animals are waiting for you to take care of them!

store.steampowered.com

Flooded on Steam

Flooded is a reversed city-builder, in which you need to optimize your production on an island that shrinks over time. Gather enough resources to flee to safety, while the surrounding world is getting flooded.

store.steampowered.com

Fabledom on Steam

Set in a wholesome fairytale world, Fabledom is a laid-back City builder. Enjoy the growth of your settlement, interact with your neighbors and defend your kingdom from magical creatures. All to find true love and live happily ever after!

store.steampowered.com

Trinity Fusion on Steam

Sundered Spaces Free DLC #2 OUT NOW! Take control of your parallel selves and explore dark, Sci-Fi worlds. Slash, bash and shoot your way through this unique rogue-lite metroidvania where the only way to save the multiverse is to end it.

store.steampowered.com

Save 50% on MEATGRINDER on Steam

Meatgrinder is a chaotic and fast-paced FPS. Use agility and guns to jump your way through insane levels on top of speeding trucks, trains and planes. No cutscenes or storylines, just pure action.

store.steampowered.com

Disney Speedstorm on Steam

Welcome to Disney Speedstorm! Drift into the ultimate hero-based combat racing game, set on high-speed circuits inspired by Disney and Pixar worlds. Master each character’s unique skills and claim victory in this thrilling arcade racing experience from the creators of the Asphalt series!

store.steampowered.com

Archmage Rises on Steam

Experience the freedom normally only found in a tabletop RPG. Empowered with magic, you will create your own story, and experience real consequences from the decisions you make. Will you be the world’s savior... or its destroyer? The choice is yours.

store.steampowered.com

Occupy Mars: The Game on Steam

Survive and colonize Mars in a highly technical, open-world sandbox game. Build and upgrade your base, discover new regions, conduct mining operations, retrieve water, generate oxygen, grow crops, and fix broken parts.

store.steampowered.com

Save 25% on Knight Crawlers on Steam

Spawn your own enemies in this wobbly physics based rogue-lite action RPG and mow down hundreds of foes to your heart’s content. Fend off the Hordes of the Corrupted Realms by choosing powerful skill cards, enchanting equipment, and extracting living essence to upgrade your crawler.

store.steampowered.com

Brinefall on Steam

Embark on an epic journey in Brinefall, where you'll gather resources and construct your own village while exploring a vast open-world filled with secrets and mysteries. Battle fierce enemies and collect valuable loot in this unique blend of sandbox and RPG gameplay.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

What an OP!

I've given up on Atomic Heart and Troubleshooter at least for now. I think I've had my fill of both and can't summon up enthusiasm to play either with the limited time I have. Both decent games but at the end of the day not my favourites. Its the story stuff in Troubleshooter that gets in the way of the combat for me, it forces you to go through quite a lot of it and my eyes are rolled back in my head the whole time. Combat is pretty good though, enough for me to sit through several hours of the nonsense to get to more of it, about 32 hours in total according to Steam, so got my moneys worth.

Atomic Heart I could have finished but ran out of momentum and I'm just not excited to play anymore, combat is pretty samey all through although some of the puzzles are fun. The ones that arent just frustrating at least. Looks like I'm about 3/4 of the way through according to a mission list, might go back and finish it one day, might not.

Instead started playing Dead Cells, and its pretty good. Its a 2d platformer roguelite with what seems so far like a huge range of different builds to try based on whatever drops in a run. I dont have a any nostalgia for the 2d platformers that inspired it like Castlevania, but I like it and will probably spend a good few hours there.

Also because I wanted to play it before I touched the remake, started Resident Evil 4 (2005). Then immediately stopped it and went to look for QOL mods to fix the controls, which were some sort of hybrid between tank controls and mouse look. Horrible. Anyway found a decent mod pack to mostly fix it and its pretty fun so far, although I'm only an hour in.

Not much time at the moment, so those might last me a while.

 

[ZedClampet]

What an OP!

I've given up on Atomic Heart and Troubleshooter at least for now. I think I've had my fill of both and can't summon up enthusiasm to play either with the limited time I have. Both decent games but at the end of the day not my favourites. Its the story stuff in Troubleshooter that gets in the way of the combat for me, it forces you to go through quite a lot of it and my eyes are rolled back in my head the whole time. Combat is pretty good though, enough for me to sit through several hours of the nonsense to get to more of it, about 32 hours in total according to Steam, so got my moneys worth.

Atomic Heart I could have finished but ran out of momentum and I'm just not excited to play anymore, combat is pretty samey all through although some of the puzzles are fun. The ones that arent just frustrating at least. Looks like I'm about 3/4 of the way through according to a mission list, might go back and finish it one day, might not.

Instead started playing Dead Cells, and its pretty good. Its a 2d platformer roguelite with what seems so far like a huge range of different builds to try based on whatever drops in a run. I dont have a any nostalgia for the 2d platformers that inspired it like Castlevania, but I like it and will probably spend a good few hours there.

Also because I wanted to play it before I touched the remake, started Resident Evil 4 (2005). Then immediately stopped it and went to look for QOL mods to fix the controls, which were some sort of hybrid between tank controls and mouse look. Horrible. Anyway found a decent mod pack to mostly fix it and its pretty fun so far, although I'm only an hour in.

Not much time at the moment, so those might last me a while.

I'm thinking about trying to get back into Troubleshooter. The problem is that it drags and drags and drags, and I would have to start over at this point, which is not an appealing thought.

By the way, @Brian Boru, I said elsewhere that I wanted to be able to edit the OP as the month goes on, but I decided to add different information to it that doesn't need to be edited. I was going to have a running list of PCG articles that we linked to from here with links to the article and to where we were discussing it, but that's not workable since it would mean editing old threads, which I can't do, and it's too much work to ask someone else to do it. Just thought it would be something nice to refer back to or possibly something useful to new users browsing the forum.

 

[Zloth]

What an OP!

Really! He even beat me to mentioning the X4 DLC!

I'm thinking about trying to get back into Troubleshooter. The problem is that it drags and drags and drags, and I would have to start over at this point, which is not an appealing thought.

No need. Pick up where you left off, then go back and do one of the earliest missions to remember what you're doing.

 

[mainer]

Very comprehensive post @ZedClampet , I assume this is now our weekly gaming thread leveled up to a monthly thread? Should linked PCG articles be posted here or in their own thread? Sadly, for me, none of those April game releases interest me, probably the next "new" game that I have interest in is the System Shock Remake which is currently (hopefully) slated for May. But I like to know what games are releasing, even if I don't have an interest.

I saw this article this morning on the MSN Sports page, and as it relates to gaming I thought I'd link it here. I haven't seen any game sites post this information yet.
Look: NFL World Saddened By The EA Sports News (msn.com)

I'm not into sports games at all, but what I thought was significant was that EA was laying off 800 employees. Also of note was a quote from Andrew (the antichrist) Wilson:

The CEO of the company, Andrew Wilson, said EA wants to move away from certain projects.
"As we drive greater focus across our portfolio, we are moving away from projects that do not contribute to our strategy, reviewing our real estate footprint, and restructuring some of our teams," Wilson said.

Typical corpo-speak babble from Wilson, but I wonder how many games that's going to effect? If Dragon Age 4 and Mass Effect 4 don't contribute to that EA "strategy", it doesn't bode well for those games.

 

[ZedClampet]

Very comprehensive post @ZedClampet , I assume this is now our weekly gaming thread leveled up to a monthly thread? Should linked PCG articles be posted here or in their own thread? Sadly, for me, none of those April game releases interest me, probably the next "new" game that I have interest in is the System Shock Remake which is currently (hopefully) slated for May. But I like to know what games are releasing, even if I don't have an interest.

I saw this article this morning on the MSN Sports page, and as it relates to gaming I thought I'd link it here. I haven't seen any game sites post this information yet.
Look: NFL World Saddened By The EA Sports News (msn.com)

I'm not into sports games at all, but what I thought was significant was that EA was laying off 800 employees. Also of note was a quote from Andrew (the antichrist) Wilson:

The CEO of the company, Andrew Wilson, said EA wants to move away from certain projects.
"As we drive greater focus across our portfolio, we are moving away from projects that do not contribute to our strategy, reviewing our real estate footprint, and restructuring some of our teams," Wilson said.

Typical corpo-speak babble from Wilson, but I wonder how many games that's going to effect? If Dragon Age 4 and Mass Effect 4 don't contribute to that EA "strategy", it doesn't bode well for those games.

It wouldn't shock me if they didn't just close down Motorhead and Codemasters, who are both recent acquisitions and a part of EA Sports, but what I'm hoping instead is that this has been spawned by the complete failure of Need for Speed, and that they are going to move away from that franchise.

Still, it's practically criminal to be laying off employees when you are on track to make over $10 billion in profit this year. If they were losing money, then fine, but they are just trying to drive the damn stock price up.

 

[Brian Boru]

Incredible OP, I wondered where you'd disappeared to over the last few days—I had a nice free trolling run on you

One thing which might help you:
Install Opera GX browser and click on the little 'GX Corner' icon…

…which brings up a boatload of game-related info—it's a browser variation meant for gamers, I've been using it for a couple of years as my general entertainment browser.

Crab-person shooter

Note to self: Don't ask, nothing good can come from it.

Lemmings-like astronaut rescue platformer

Oh hey, loved the little blu green guys! [Smurfs were the blue ones ] Demo downloading…

Thanks again for all this!

 

[Frindis]

Awesomesauce! Star Trek: Resurgence is the one I am looking forward to as it looks a lot like something you would see in a Star Trek: TNG episode.

 

[Brian Boru]

editing old threads, which I can't do, and it's too much work to ask someone else to do it

For future/other reference:
You're obviously very comfy with the forum formatting, so do you have access to the 'Toggle BB Code' button?

If yes, you could save code view in a text file and update as required. Then just post it here, and ask mod to replace OP content with the new content—NB replace content, not post itself… latter would make a mess of post sequencing in thread. Or some variation of this

 

[ZedClampet]

For future/other reference:
You're obviously very comfy with the forum formatting, so do you have access to the 'Toggle BB Code' button?

If yes, you could save code view in a text file and update as required. Then just post it here, and ask mod to replace OP content with the new content—NB replace content, not post itself… latter would make a mess of post sequencing in thread. Or some variation of this

I do have it, but I'm good with how it is.

Welp, the 3070ti in my new laptop is dead. I hate PC gaming. Right now I genuinely do. I have two other gaming PC's plus Guido's, so I won't miss any of my endless gaming time, but I'm soooooo sick of having problems.

 

[ZedClampet]

So here's what happened today that killed my laptop. So storms rolled in late last night, and there was a small tornado about 10 miles away. So this morning everything was looking fine when the second wave hit. There were no tornado watches or warnings, but trees are blowing over and debris is slamming into my house. My wife says, "We better go to the basement". You know how they always say tornados sound like trains? Right as we got into the laundry room, for the first time in my life I heard that train. It didn't sound like a freight train. It sounded like a high speed subway train driving all-out with the metallic screech of its breaks going non-stop. It would be the most terrifying train you've ever heard. The power immediately went out. The train noise stopped after maybe 10 seconds, but there was a lot of other noise, like things hitting the house and high winds, but it gradually calmed down over maybe 30 seconds, and somehow the power came back on.

According to the news, there may have been some tornadic activity, but they aren't sure. Our house, despite all the branches and stuff that hit it, came out apparently okay, but despite having my laptop plugged into a top-of-the-line Tripp Lite, the GPU didn't make it. While that's frustrating, I have 3 warranties on it, an extended warranty, the manufacturer's warranty and a $150,000 Tripp Lite warranty, so someone other than me is going to pay for it.

 

[Johnway]

Well almost finished Phantom doctrine we're onto the final mission and i'm just prepping my teams gear/training for the final mission. I'm probably over thinking it, but i'm taking no chances. I'm hoping to try and complete some of the achievements but looking at the buy all research and max out an agent, its going to take a long while to do and probably not really worth the effort.

As for Corsair, they still haven't responded to me regarding the faulty PSU. Glad i did splash cash to get it replaced. its been 2 weeks! I know that i bought the PSU in 2017 and with 10 year warranty i'm tempted to continue chasing them.

Onto other game news i saw the boom shooters bundle on HB for around £15. Got to say that is quite a tasty deal as there are a few games i'm quite interested in. Just not sure whether i really want it though.... i still have a large collection and also there is a mix of meh in there as well. That said 8 games for less then £2 each is a steal. I might splash the cash. I'm working at home so i'm saving £85 a month from travel costs so i can use it to buy some stuff in other areas.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Just started playing The Last of Us Part 1 a couple days ago after buying it with admittedly a bit of skepticism over whether it would perform acceptably on my spec. While it's true that it is a rather demanding game and uses too much VRAM and RAM to play at 1440p or higher unless you have 32GB RAM and at least 12GB VRAM, it CAN be played at 1080p on older spec like mine on mostly High with all Textures on Med, yielding roughly 40-60 FPS. That however is without FSR 2 enabled, which can bump it up to as much as 70 FPS depending on it's setting. There's really only been one spot where there was heavy particle affects where I cranked it up to Ultra Performance mode. In most parts of the game it looks and runs fine on Balanced or Performance mode. I had just one crash over two pretty long sessions, but I had the game minimized for some time while doing something else, which may have contributed to it. Just make sure if you get this game, you let shaders completely compile before playing it. I suspect most of the claims of constant stuttering were from people whom got impatient and played WHILE shaders were still compiling, not a good idea.

The performance has been pretty smooth for me, even when frames dip below 45. I should note as well that the main reason I started using FSR 2 in that heavy particle effect spot in the sewers is I was being rushed by several monsters and my shot panning seemed slow. Even on Ultra Performance FSR 2 though, it still felt a bit slow, and I realized it's because the game's animations are tailored more to survival horror than shooter style, so be aware of that.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

TLOU is another game I'd rather play on an upgraded graphics card. Still waiting on those mid range cards to be released at semi reasonable prices.

Good to hear it runs fine on a system more comparable to mine anyway. I saw the Hardware Unboxed testing and it looked like it ran OKish on 8GB VRAM as long as you reduced settings to below ultra in their test as well.

 

[Zloth]

Mass Effect 2 is nearly done. I did one of the DLC missions that had a really pretty (for the times) area to travel around in with a few waterfalls. One of them had something pretty special behind it, of course, because: gaming waterfalls.

@ZedClampet - that could have been straight-line winds, too. Did you have your laptop turned off when the power went out?

Still waiting on those mid range cards to be released at semi reasonable prices.

That could be a long wait, if the recent PC Gamer article is any indication. Jeremy seems to think the big price driver is coming from businesses buying them up to do training for new machine learning systems. That checks out with what our business is doing, too. Businesses have no problem plunking down $1300 on a graphics card and won't even check to see if ray tracing works or not, they just want all that parallel processing power.

 

[Brian Boru]

make sure if you get this game, you let shaders completely compile before playing it

Haven't heard of this before. Is it unique to TLOU, or a thing with more/many modern games?

Do you have to let this happen every time you launch the game, or is it a one-off initial install thing?

 

[Frag Maniac]

Haven't heard of this before. Is it unique to TLOU, or a thing with more/many modern games?

Do you have to let this happen every time you launch the game, or is it a one-off initial install thing?

It depends whether you update your GPU driver after first compiling them, but if not, you should only have to do it once. Shader compilation in games' menus is getting more common as more devs try to appease those with new advanced video cards, especially if using Unreal Engine 4, which is known to have issues with shader compiling stutters if they are compiled in game. Uncharted LoTC also had a shader compiling menu, but it actually has more stutter problems despite it being a MUCH older release. The time of compilation was pretty much the same for me in Uncharted and TLOU, about 25 min.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

That could be a long wait, if the recent PC Gamer article is any indication. Jeremy seems to think the big price driver is coming from businesses buying them up to do training for new machine learning systems. That checks out with what our business is doing, too. Businesses have no problem plunking down $1300 on a graphics card and won't even check to see if ray tracing works or not, they just want all that parallel processing power.

Couldnt find the article you mentioned, but Nvidias drive towards AI and Crypto over the last years has screwed gamers for sure. AMD isn't as strong in AI though, and if Intel keep at it I wouldn't be averse to buying one of those either.

Also have to revise upwards the idea of what constitutes a reasonable price for a gaming GPU.

 

[Brian Boru]

Undertale fans:

Do you know about Deltarune? Apparently Chs 1 & 2 are free, with 3-5 to be paid in future releases.

Steam

Website

 

[Pifanjr]

I decided to give up on Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I thought I just needed to get back into the game, but after having to "force" myself to play it three times and still not feeling enthusiastic about playing more, I don't want to keep trying. I have fun once I'm in the game, but it also takes forever to get anything done and I still don't feel like I'm getting any better at the combat.

So instead I've been trying out Moonlighter. I decided a roguelike would fit better with my limited available time as they typically allow you to have some meaningful progress even in short play sessions. And besides an old man rambling at me for a while at the beginning, the game does a good job of just letting you jump in and play. It helps that I actually enjoy the shop mechanic, I imagine that would be a deal breaker for a lot of people.

I was a bit worried the game was too hard for me, as I'm not very good at these types of games (I'm not sure what to call it), but after getting a bunch of upgrades it seems like it should be doable for me. If I do run in to problems later, I can always lower the difficulty.

 

[SWard]

Zed what an OP, loving your posts <3

 

[ZedClampet]

@ZedClampet - that could have been straight-line winds, too. Did you have your laptop turned off when the power went out?

No, it was on, sadly. Turns out I was using the Tripp Lite wrong, too. It's not supposed to be plugged into an extension cord even if the extension cord is grounded. Just that one, though, my other PC's are fine. But I would have turned it all off and was planning to, but I was doing other things while the wind was gaining steam, and then just went straight to the basement.

I may be hit or miss this week with posting. I'm dealing with house issues (there actually was some damage), Internet issues (ATT is very unhelpful, so I'm switching to our local utility's 1 gig fiber), and PC issues (just mailed it to HP this morning).

 

[McStabStab]

Here's my random thought for the day:

The Godskin Duo in Elden Ring is an atrocious battle and I'm having a hard time with it.

That is all.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Took me a few tries that one too. I think a lot of the gank battles were designed with ashes summons in mind.

What kind of build you got?

 

[mainer]

Mass Effect 2 is nearly done. I did one of the DLC missions that had a really pretty (for the times) area to travel around in with a few waterfalls. One of them had something pretty special behind it, of course, because: gaming waterfalls.

Was it this place from the Overlord DLC?

Did you ever get Steam Achievements to work with the EA App? I still need to play the ME3 part of the Legendary Edition and I've still got the old Origin Ap installed.