Whereby the user, Castin, will record herein a random stream of consciousness about any and all videogame intellectual properties she is currently partaking of, ad nauseam. Perchance.
Random thoughts about games I'm playing
Posts
Total:
18
Just started playing Morrowind for the first time and Jesus Christ.
I thought the Windhelm Nords were racist in Skyrim. They got nothing on Morrowind Dunmer. It's like they invented xenophobia. At least the Nords didn't enslave anyone -- Morrowind Dunmer be just casually enslaving Khajiit and Argonians left and right. Every tavern I go into seems to have some poor kitty or lizard shackled up in the basement. Every bandit lair has a cell full of slaves. And everybody calling me n'wah and telling me to gtfo. SORRY I'M AN IMMIGRANT, GAWD. These are some seriously nationalist isolationist chaps.
That said, this game is crazy good in some ways. The culture and landscape are truly unique. It feels huge, huger than Skyrim and Oblivion somehow. Maybe because there's no fast travel?
- I can fly/levitate?? Why did they make this go away?
- Spells can FAIL Jesus Christ this is frustrating.
- To advance in any guild you have to meet skill requirements. This stops me from burning through the ranks too quickly, I like it a lot. Also makes advancement feel authentic. Can't become guildmaster without truly mastering the skills required.
- I met A DWEMER. A still-living Dwemer. Holy shit. It's in the dungeon of a mad 4,000-year-old wizard who invites you to steal from his collection of legendary artifacts. Ignore his four wives that are actually his magical constructs or something.
- No quest markers, just gotta listen and follow directions.
- You can join every guild but there will actually be some conflicts and decisions of loyalty, unlike in later games where your various guilds weren't very aware of your involvement in the others.
Red Dead Redemption 2. There's a creepy guy living in the swamp north of Saint Denis. He invites you into his house (creepily). I really enjoyed the revenge story that unfolded from the last creepy people who invited me into their house, so I go in. Dude hits Arthur over the back of the head. Camera cuts to a first person view of Arthur looking up at the ceiling and the creepy guy kneeling over him, talking (creepily). Fade to black. Arthur wakes up in the wilderness. Nothing stolen. He groans and says "Oh... my... Lord." I wonder if I got him SA'd for the rest of the game and feel terrible about it.
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@Castin
Maybe because there's no fast travel?
That is terrible, but still a better game than Skyrim.
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@LucyStarfire
Your precious Two Worlds doesn't have fast travel either, except at certain waystations, and even Morrowind has that. The horse controls are awful in TW, btw. The voice acting is worse than a 3 AM infomercial. But other than that it's a pretty fun little game. Reminds me of Fable in graphics design.
I loved Skyrim, will never understand anyone's beef with it. Love me some dragons and Shout magic.
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@Castin
Now i feel compelled to launch a stream of conscious rants about the videogames I am playing.
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@Greyparrot
Do eeeeet
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@Castin
Your precious Two Worlds doesn't have fast travel either
It literally doesnt need one. You have enemies on every step which you farm to get items to sell, so you buy more spells, and you level up. However, there is actually fast travel by teleport stone. You get it at start of a game by completing mission for that mage. Just place teleport stone on ground and enter it, and it teleports you at any teleport on map.
Some other tips, this isnt a game where you play as warrior or mage. You either play as mage, warrior-mage, or archer-mage. You use spells irrelevant of which class you choose. There are spells for warriors, such as spells which provide protections, strength, health and dexterity. Spells for archers are similar.
As for mages, you definitely want Earth class Chains spell. It literally works on everything. You can make anyone in game unable to move.
There are also traps which you can set which also make opponents unable to move.
In Two Worlds, you start as very weak, but after some time, you become God which no one can defeat. You dont get that in Skyrim.
I'm so angry that all the good games came out years after the Covid blackhole of time. So now all my library is stacked with early access games...and I don't want to wait years for the release of course.
So I am playing Bellwright, pump about 100 hours into building a massive world where I have a farming village of about 20 ordinary people and a military base of 30 people all with massive strength. I fit them all with the best weapons and armor available to the medieval period, and am able to defeat hostile patrols on the highest settings. So i get into the questing, and it's super fun, I like the story...and then all of a sudden...no more quests....just like that..and I frantically search google...did I corrupt my game? Nope. Google says it's "early access"... now I feel like I am in the middle of the prom, dancing my ass off, and my date left me.....
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@LucyStarfire
I need to get that teleport stone ASAP then, my stupid horse isn't coming when I whistle. So far that mage has just sent me to activate an altar past some velociraptor things that are tearing me to bits. I'm so fucking squishy, spend all my time spamming dodge.
Some other tips, this isnt a game where you play as warrior or mage. You either play as mage, warrior-mage, or archer-mage. You use spells irrelevant of which class you choose. There are spells for warriors, such as spells which provide protections, strength, health and dexterity. Spells for archers are similar.
I've been alternating between all three, I didn't think it would force me to choose.
Haven't learned any other magics or skills yet and I'm not sure how to get them, I can't unlock them with skill points. They must unlock as I level up.
You dont get that in Skyrim.
If you don't feel weak enough at the beginning of Skyrim you need to raise the difficulty.
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@Greyparrot
Bellwright looks great but I'd rather play a vintage game than play early access. No finishing touches can be suuuper frustrating once you're really into the flow of the game.
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@Castin
Oh and then there's Xenonaughts2...I let that one stew in my wishlist for a year and grabbed it when it's on sale. At least that early access is 90% done. It's a fun game, great nostalgic throwback to the 1990's Xcom game. Maps are fun, graphics are true to the original. Gameplay is good... there's just this one little problem...I always find a way to break the damn algorithm. They added in a soldier class that can hold a riot shield, and that shield has 2x more health than any soldier, so you can essentially take 3x more damage. So instead of getting a diverse mix of shotgunners, heavy gunners, grenade launchers, snipers, and riflemen....I was able to beat all the missions on the hardest difficulty with an assault crew of all shieldbros with a pistol. Google didn't even have anything on that, it just came to me. Well maybe when it's finished, they will fix the balance...but I feel like I ruined my 1st time experience....again....
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@Castin
I need to get that teleport stone ASAP then, my stupid horse isn't coming when I whistle.
I never use horse in that game. It is nice idea, but too annoying in longterm.
So far that mage has just sent me to activate an altar past some velociraptor things that are tearing me to bits. I'm so fucking squishy, spend all my time spamming dodge.
Are you playing with sword/spear/axe, attack spells or bow?
In this game, you can stack up items. If you have 10 same spells, you can place them on each other to improve them. Same with swords.
I've been alternating between all three, I didn't think it would force me to choose.
You cant actually use all 3 until later in game. In the beginning, you must focus on one. That improves damage. I recommend playing as pure mage. It is the easiest by far. Sword is a bit difficult until you get protection spells which make you very hard to kill. Bow is most difficult because it is slow.
Haven't learned any other magics or skills yet and I'm not sure how to get them, I can't unlock them with skill points. They must unlock as I level up.
You buy spells from mages who sell them. To unlock Earth, Water or Necromancy magic, you must find mages which train those, so you learn them and then you can use spells from those magic schools.
However, you get fire magic and air magic at start, and it is actually enough to win game even if you dont learn other schools. You combine Overpower spell with attack spell and it does great damage. Overpower can increase damage of spell by 8x when stacked.
Some other tips, dont invest too much in vitality. Even as a warrior, vitality later becomes less useful. There is spell which converts your mana into health, and at that point, you dont even need health bar.
Summoning magic is strong, but I find it annoying because summoned creatures are so slow to defeat enemies.
Necromancy is strongest magic school by far, because it has spells which both block movement and do damage, and poison.
Again, in beginning of this game, you have to min max. Best play as pure mage, or mage warrior. If pure mage, invest points in mana, level up fire school, at start make sure to invest 1 point in lockpicking skill because those lockpicked boxes give great items. Dont forget to buy more expensive attack spells later.
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@Castin
If you don't feel weak enough at the beginning of Skyrim you need to raise the difficulty.
In Skyrim, you never feel powerful or you feel always powerful depending on difficulty.
If playing on hardest difficulty, you will always be weak. For whole game.
In Two Worlds, even on hardest difficulty, if you farm enough, you eventually become so powerful that even final boss is a joke compared to you. You get that Godlike feeling which you worked for.
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@Greyparrot
That sounds way OP'd. Bad gameplay design. Won't be surprised if they polish that out in final. Again, best to wait for the finished product. Or just don't use the shields. The temptation may be too great, though. Like when I told myself I'd do a runthrough of Kingdom Come: Deliverance without St. George's sword, or play Skyrim without god-tier potion-boosted enchanted equipment. Ha. Ha ha. Can't do it.
Kenshi. It got such great reviews. But it's not a quest-driven game, and without quests I feel so adrift. You can start from one of a dozen backgrounds, play as different races, wild character customization -- love the gameplay -- but there is no direction the game gives you once you start. It just drops you in the desert world. Survive. Thrive. Or not. And I'm bad at those kinds of games. I find myself not playing it, but I feel like I'm missing out on a lot just because I can't get the hang of this "make your own story" thing.
whats worse is the tech tree late game allows you to make alien alloy shields with double the health of a human alloy shield....google doesnt have it so might not get nerfed...
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@Castin
If you play as mage in skyrim on hardest difficulty, it is very bad experience for whole game. Your spells dont do much damage, and there is no any way to increase damage after you hit 100 destruction and have all perks. You just stop advancing and your spells remain same damage for rest of game. Also, only destruction magic is worthy of having as mage. If you play as pure mage in Skyrim, it is not any good experience. You are stuck on same spells forever, cant advance further, and your damage is always low. And your health is low too. You are never powerful as mage in skyrim.