Morning Folks! It is #PathOfExile Necropolis League launch day, and I spent some time this morning talking about my plans and some of the early uniques that I am going to try and pick up.
Morning Folks! This morning's post took a bit longer than I thought it would because I kept getting interrupted.
I am really pumped about the Necropolis league that starts tomorrow in #PathOfExile and it has very little to do with the league mechanic. I am extremely interested in the sweeping Atlas and Scarab changes and how I think it will lead to a more varied mapping experience.
Since we are on the cusp of another #PathOfExile League which starts this Friday, I figured it might be time to post this link again. Last year I created a "getting started" post that was largely targeting folks with no POE experience.
Hey Folks! I feel like I came off a bit negative on the podcast this weekend regarding #LastEpoch. I talked a bit this morning about how being "done" with something isn't necessarily a bad thing. I've put some 300 hours into this cycle alone, leveled a bunch of different characters, hit level 100 on at least one of them... and consider myself to have finished everything that I wanted to finish.
Morning Folks! A while back I saw someone on the Fediverse talking about an alternative to GOG Galaxy that gave you access to all of your games regardless of launcher through a single interface. Yesterday I finally got around to installing #Playnite and this morning I talked about my experience so far.
I have to say it is pretty slick and takes up a negligible amount of system resources.
I've been screwing around with #DwarvenRealms early access since seeing almost every single #ARPG Streamer or YouTuber talk about it recently. It is very indie and very alpha... but also very much "big dumb fun".
What if Vampire Survivors had a kid with a very Action Combat World of Warcraft clone. Making an entire screen's worth of enemies explode just makes me giggle.
Sometimes I get a dumb idea just lodged in my head... and no amount of failure will dislodge it.
Recently... it has been trying to turn #LastEpoch Warpath converted to Fire Damage into something that feels as chill as playing Righteous Fire did in #PathOfExile
This is my third attempt at this, and forced a new character.. but I think I am finally there.
I figured I would close out the week by talking through something I realized a few months back. I've gone from mostly playing #MMORPG to almost exclusively mainlining #ARPG
Essentially I dive through the thought process of why exactly this happened.
I also spent most of the past weekend playing Last Epoch. It had been in my radar for awhile but I never picked it up while it was in early access. Looked into it prior to its official release and liked what I saw so I pulled the trigger.
It has an online mode as well as two different offline modes (with and without a global chat)
More faster paced for when I just wanna smash some faces. Scratches the Diablo itch for me.
Morning Folks! I've been hitting #LastEpoch pretty hard since the launch on Wednesday. This morning I talked a bit about the wild player spikes and server woes. I also talk about the current state of my build and what I am working towards now.
Last Epoch is an incredible #ARPG that finds a great balance between simple and complex and, even with some weird quirks, is very enjoyable on the #SteamDeck!
A copy was provided by the developer for review. Thank you!
Morning Folks! This morning I got to Divine Era Majelka in #LastEpoch and joined the Circle of Fortune faction. I talk a bit about what I have seen so far in the way that prophecies and lenses work to help determine loot rewards.
Morning Folks! Yesterday was the 1.0 launch for #LastEpoch and there were significant issues. I talk about this, and how for the most part everything stabilized by 5 pm CST.
I remember when servers would be fucked up for weeks... it is wild how far game launches have come.
Sometimes you end up spending several hours writing a post, only to realize it barely scratches the surface.
This is one of those posts as I sat down attempting to share some basic information for anyone considering giving #LastEpoch a spin when the 1.0 patch drops on Wednesday.
A vague attempt to share some useful information for new players.
Morning Folks! There are a handful of games that "could have been" great, but were either canceled before their time or just failed to read the room. One of these games that I will always lament is Outriders and how it actually SHOULD have been a Live-Service game and failed to understand why people were raging against them at the time.
I'm not one for "New Year's resolutions", but I am one for overly ambitious projects.
For 2023, Project365 is "One New Game Per Day".
Given that I have 634 unplayed games in my Steam account and {mumble} unredeemed bundle Steam keys, there's a reason my unplayed collection is tagged "Pile of Shame".
I'll pin this to my profile, and give a brief summary here each day (or x, if I miss x days due to work or stuff).
I'll play 15-30 minutes of (at least) one new game I've never played before (or played less than 15 minutes of). I'll give every game at least 15 minutes, even if I hate every minute of it.
I'm also open to suggestions; if you reply to this thread with a game, I'll schedule it, or tell you what I thought of it.
One of the things that's come up is that I have a bunch of games that I've played once, and not touched again.
Game number 5 is the February Humble Bundle is There Is No Light: Enhanced Edition. It is a top-down, pixel-art hack-and-slash action-RPG (ARPG).
It's set in a brutal, seemingly post-apocalyptic world, and opens with your wife being stolen away during childbirth, so that your newborn child can be sacrificed for the sake of the community.
This threw me off from the get-go, and it didn't improve from here on in.
Here's the thing: I'm on call this week. It's Wednesday morning. I'm three reviews down (have played, though) - four, if I pre-emptive count today's review. I'm running on three hours sleep, and today is going to be another long day.
The reviews this week are going to be perfunctory, but I've remembered the point of this whole thing: whether or not I enjoy a game, and want to play it again.
The answer to that question in regards to There Is No Light: Enhanced Edition is:
February 28, 2024 - Day 424 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 460
Game: Earthlock
Platform: Steam
Released: Mar 8, 2018
Installed: Feb 1, 2024
Unplayed: 27d
Playtime: 20m
Earthlock is a third-person turn-based ARPG, that claims inspiration from JRPG's from the 90's, and really leans into the nostalgia for those games.
I lack the prerequisite nostalgia for 90's JRPGs, and as I did not enjoy this game, I cannot imagine any kind of context in which I'd choose this over Baldur's Gate 3.
March 9, 2024 - Day 434 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 469
Game: Nioh 2
Platform: Steam
Released: Feb 5, 2021
Installed: Mar 9, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 32m
The second game in the March Humble Choice Bundle is Nioh 2; it's a third-person ARPG, which is described by the developers as "masocore".
It's set in a fictionalised supernatural era of Japan in the 16th century, and I hope you like sharp weapons, because there are a lot of them to choose from.
Not that they did me much good, because I died pretty much straight away, and repeatedly.
Turns out that "masocore" is a portmanteau of "masochism" and "hardcore", and Nioh 2 is aimed at a subset of players for whom I guess soulslikes aren't frustrating enough?
It's a gorgeous-looking game, but I have low frustration levels to begin with, and this just didn't click with me.
I still want to give it another try though? So I'm going give it a (just barely):