Gaming
What Are You Playing? Decadent December 2024
What are you up to this month? Have any games in mind for the future? Let us know in the comments below!
I bought nothing from the Steam Autumn Sale, which is a good thing. That said, I've been a bad girl and continue to buy stuff I shouldn't with funds I barely have, like board games and stuff D: Next up on the docket is Marvel Rivals, which I assume will cost money: they did a survey and the players overwhelmingly voted for all present and future characters to remain free and open access, so naturally they've got to get the $$$ somewhere lol.
Beyond that, I'm gonna try and make a better effort to clear out my backlog and conserve my funds; first up is Baldur's Gate III, Round 3. Mods should hopefully help spice up the experience and keep me engaged long enough to actually finish it this time!
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Parkitect recently celebrated its sixth anniversary, which added the ability for users to create their own custom campaigns, and Texel Raptor themselves recommended one to download, so it's basically like getting a new DLC... which they also said was coming soon.
I guess this makes up for Planet Coaster 2 having its disappointing launch.
Wow, has it seriously been 6 years for Parkitect already? Time is flying by.
So this month i'm expecting to jump deeper into Stardew Valley, hit up a little bit of World of Warcraft, sink into Factorio harder to maybe play the expansion content for real with the biter problem coming to a close, and I've finally started Pokemon TCG Pocket so that'll get picked up a couple of times a day for quick Pokemon fun.
There's a lot more I want to play, but I'm setting the goals low because time is the bane of my existence.
To bring over a comment from November's Thread:
So, I have an M2 Studio and I love it. Your gaming selection is definitely limited on MacOS, though there are plenty of games to choose from still and the only game I haven't been happy with the way it runs is Path of Exile, so I run that on my gaming PC still. (Path of Exile is much better with various third-party "addons" anyway for price checking items, which are Windows only)
I am hearing AMAZING things about the M4 performance. Compared to my studio, the little thing is looking like a beast! The M2 Max in my studio has more GPU cores, but also they're older GPU cores so its possible the M4 on the Mini could out-perform them with its 20 vs 30. You'd need to do some serious scouting online about the games you'd want to play on it to see how they run on the hardware. I imagine there are a ton of reviews up around the internet on them.
From my Steam Favourites, 21 are available on MacOS (I know games are missing on this list haha) vs the 42 I normally have in the list.
Also, WoW works on Mac as does Hearthstone and they run fantastic, so thank you Blizzard.
Personally, I love my Mac due to the efficiency, it's great to have a unix system for programming on, and there's a whole lot less bullshit going on when compared to Windows. Apple has the advantage of being able to rip ancient stuff out of the OS whereas Windows is stuck in this backward compatibility loop that is 30 years old. Apple having the tight integration of OS and Hardware is a huge positive.
Mac can't replace a gaming PC though entirely, that I'd be silly to argue. But, for me, I can play most of the games that I enjoy so I'm on my Mac 95% of the time.
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Thanks for your thoughts and observations, Flux! I'll do a deeper dive on reviews and stuff while I'm saving up for the thing.
December gaming will feature a big focus on Diablo 4 for me. It's my first Diablo ever and so far I love the atmosphere, the music and the world. I went with a Necromancer for my first run and it feels pretty powerful. Only level 11 yet but I think I can already say I like the game :-)
Other than that, I managed to secure 11x in Wild Hearthstone, so I can afford to climb with a fun deck this month. Looking at my class wins I should focus on Druid and Warrior but it's hard to find lists that are fun and halfway competitive for those. Maybe I'll invest some dust and give Ysiel Druid a try or finally craft the last missing cards for QL Fatigue Demon Hunter. In Standard I'm going to spam Asteroid Shaman until it gets nerfed. I forgot what format Twist will restart with, but I'd like to play Hunter there... only 6 wins away from the 2.000 wins mark which grants access to Sidisi's leaderboard. It would also be nice to claim I got legend with Hunter in every format and since Classic is no longer around and I only ever got legend there once with Hunter, I don't have any other options lol.
I notice I am confused. Something I believe isn't true. How do I know what I think I know?
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, hpmor.com
In my case I will be finishing Assassins Creed Rogue (Been playing all of them in order, except Liberation Remake wich seems to crash and cause problems with my hard drive for some unknown reason, so I am not putting my SDD in risk for a game) and Definitelly start Hades as I have been sleeping on it for way too long and change it up with AC Unity during the month. This is the first AC Game from the series I still have not played so I guess my interest will peak with this ones and the next ones (I hope at least).
Also I finished all the content I wanted to play in Fire Emblem Warriors (I tend to get burned up with those games and return later) so I think I will return to Echoes of Wisdom in my Switch. I had paused it because when I have the itch to play a Musou game I try to do it inmediatelly as it can die down quickly and when in the right mood I really enjoy those games. (The same happens to me with RTS games. I love them but I need the right mood to play them).
Will probably update if I make a change of plans
Other than those I still play Pokemon TCG Pocket (Finally one card away from being able to craft everything I need to get Mew, wich was some kind of goal I established as I am not going for a full collection as a F2P player), Hearhstone and Pokemon Masters EX. My two usual F2P games + TCG Pockets wich seems to be on its way to becoming the third one
Lemushki - The one and only since the 2006 rebranding.
Mostly Pokemon TCG right now - I really like how little of my time the game demands daily, and I enjoy playing around with various deck builds (I made a deck I call Flips that runs Kangaskhan and Exeggutor EX). Nowhere near a full collection, but that doesn't seem to matter because there's no ranked mode.
I'm probably going to go back to Sea of Stars at some point this month to finish the main game and try out the DLC. I also need to finish Echoes of Wisdom - it's a decent game but I'm still terrible at boss fights.
I don't want to cure cancer; I want to turn people into dinosaurs.
Yeah, I wish I had of started it sooner. This is the perfect amount of time for me to have a bit of fun with it! I hate timer-based games with the rewards related stuff, but it also doesn't feel too bad. Though they've certainly done the Japanese mobile thing where there are way too many currencies just to overcomplicate things lol. Maybe that's not even a big unique to Japan thing anymore.
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I platinumed A Hat In Time last night.
Without any of the DLC sadly. :(
That's awesome! Congrats!
Continued the farm last night in Stardew which rolled us over into Fall Year 2. We barely got all the Pumpkins, Artichokes, and Beets planted before it hit 2 AM. The chickens and cows went unloved for a day but it was worth the chaos. Regretfully, I didn't buy the seeds for next year's summer crops so a trip to the store will be mandatory come Summer 3, cutting into the possible planting time.
What was great though was be barely had any plowing to do which is the only reason we were able to plant the entire farm. Planting Wheat across all the fields, which is a multi-season crop, allowed us to quickly harvest it on the first day of fall and not have to plow the bulk of the farm. No plowing means it was also all watered for us. I have not been happier to transition seasons because we actually accomplished all of it - also made room for three new iridium sprinklers too so that's an extra 72 crops planted.
We also got our first Shed which is half full of preserving containers. I know that Barns are ultimately more space efficient, but we aren't perfectly going for min-max and the Sheds just look nicer. Another pond has been started too so we can breed more fish. That puts us at three ponds and we've got the perfect amount of room for another three in the bottom corner, turning it into our own little fish market that would make Willy proud.
I love Stardew Valley.
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Quick update, just finished AC Rogue and Zelda Echoes of Wisdom, so it seems I will be moving straight to Hades and AC. Unity if I am not in the mood for some reason on PC and finish Advance Wars Reboot camp on my switch. My mood was not for it before finishing the second game so it might be time
Lemushki - The one and only since the 2006 rebranding.
Came close to buying into Path of Exile 2 earlier today, after learning you actually get something out of it beyond just a key. Trying to "stay strong" and "endure", as Sinti would put it, and wait until the game is totally free to give it a go - I have 364 hours of playtime in PoE1, but I didn't enjoy it thoroughly. At least the whole "must slot gems into equipment, hope your good equipment can hold them" situation is gone, thank God, but still: no need to drop $30 for an unsure bet as-to whether or not I'll enjoy the game.
Thus, I continue on with BG3: currently in the Underdark with the full team. Found a couple mods I'm happy with, and it does help make things interesting:
Also playing Marvel Rivals now that that's officially released; there are several new characters to try out, which is cool...but also new asshole-players to deal with. I don't remember anyone being a jerk in the beta. But on day 2, we've already got those "you suck, uninstall" type people: I encountered one in a Practice Versus AI game, of all things! Just shut the fuck up and let us mess around with our characters in a no-stakes environment, for crying out loud.
Really fun Hearthstone combo I've been using.
You know, I don't think my copy of Advance Wars Reboot ever shipped lmao. I guess my pre-order was cancelled when it was "indefinitely postponed" and I never really thought about it.
I'm jealous of your beating Echoes of Wisdom as I haven't bought or started it. What are your thoughts on it? Should Nintendo make more games like it? Was it cool to have Zelda as the main character? How'd you feel about the art and performance?
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Had a really bad day, ordered a pizza and bought a key for Path of Exile 2.
"Hehe, I'm so quirky, with my lack of self control." - Me if I was a movie character.
"I think I might have a problem with impulsiveness." - Me...talking to my therapist in real life.
I think that happened to lots of people with Advance Wars while also releasing it on a bad date. I think they really did not think it through and that gave it less of a fighting chance.
As for Echoes of Wisdom, it is on the shorter side and I really enjoyed it. Gameplay is fresh and it takes the concept of Openness fron Breath of the Wild and applies it perfectly into a more classic Zelda. The only problem I had with it, was with the way Echoes are selected. You do get access to a more easy to understand menu where you can select them, but it feels like changing items all the time in classic Links Awakening, slow and inmersion breaking. They fell into the same pit they did with Tears of the kingdom with items selectable in that Horizontal menu, but you end up doing it all the time as echoes are one of the main ways you interact with the world.
I think it is great as a one time thing as I do not think the same mechanic could really be used in a more interesting/different way on a new entry to the franchise.
Zelda as the main character worked great and her abilities seemed apropiate to how she should work. I was worried about it being dull or not as fun as controlling link, as combat is not as direct and this way you are less in control, but in the end I had fun through the whole adventure and powerups you get open up possibilites in the way you use your abilities, not only having new echoes or getting more pieces to use more powerfull echoes (this makes it so you can't just abuse OP echoes from the start if you were tenacious enough to get them) but also making them cheaper to cast, so maybe there was a gap that requiered thinking to traverse and make you change the way you might think about a particular echo at the begining of the game, but later you just build a bridge way easier. This way you get more powerfull, but also do not lose that new ways of thinking wich make you tackle new puzzles in a different way.
Also, while it is true there are tons of ways to do every puzzle, there is also customization items you can equip on Zelda (other than skins) that can really change your experience. For example, you could use your spin to stun an enemy, or maybe you can jump a bit higher so you can traverse the map easier.
Talking about traversal, there are some OP echoes for it, mostly one that I won't spoil as it really changes the way you can play while basically skipping half the intended route, but other than that one, or some others I feel most have their uses even if you get new ones, so they do not get discarded midway. The bad thing about this is that the horizontal menu (even though by default it prioritizes showing the last used echoes) makes it hard to find them when you notice you might need this one echo 3 hours after you last used it (here is when I get into that menu I mentioned before).
Art and performance where both great (mostly played in handheld mode) it works much better than Link's Awakening did as I noticed close to no FPS drops. Maybe some on the final boss of the game, but stuff got crazy on the screen in that moment and got me expecting it to happen.
The game is in the shorter end for the series, but it feels the perfect lenght. I think there was just that much they could do with the system and they do not let it get stale. If I had for example 10 more hours of gameplay, I may have ended up with a less positive view of it.
I really recommend you give it a go when you have the time. I feel it is a solid entry in the franchise.
Lemushki - The one and only since the 2006 rebranding.
A little over two weeks into Diablo IV I'm speechless at the sheer immensity of this game. I have really put in quite a few hours but the number of things I can do keeps on increasing, I haven't even unveiled the whole map yet. That said it's lots of fun and the graphics are so beautiful! Can't wait to dive a little deeper still :-)
(Current standings: Finished the main campaign, but not the DLC yet. Level 60 Blood Surge Necromancer, unlocked Torment difficulty just yesterday.)
Hearthstone hasn't been much fun lately although I've used my 11x star bonus to climb to legend with Hooktusk Pirate Rogue which was really cool. Entered at top 300 and left it at that mostly. Grinding out the event games is a chore for someone who usually rarely plays Standard and no BGs at all. Surely we'll get a Seedlock nerf before the holidays, right? 😬
I notice I am confused. Something I believe isn't true. How do I know what I think I know?
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, hpmor.com
Got into the games I planned, but also got to play Balatro using a remote desktop as I am doing a Marketing Course for Unemployed (I have a whole lot of Marketing Knowledge but it is something I studied in Argentina and they do not like my Degree in Spain) and have lots of spare time during explanations and sometimes even during exercices.
So far I am 19 hours in and I can say I understand why it was so well regarded. Played all the decks possible on the first difficulty and now I am eager to try the next one and the new deck it unlocks.
I also converted my steam copy into an APK so there is not escape. Worst decision ever. My F2P phone games must be feeling lonely
Lemushki - The one and only since the 2006 rebranding.
I've gotten into Path of exile 2 and it's awesome! The bosses are tough as hell. The act 2 one is damn annoying for my sorceress. More or less it feels like a Souls game and I like it. Some systems need improvements (stupidly limited inventory, respeccing is too expensive in my opinion) but the patches are good.
Also eager to try the new HUGE patch in Stalker 2, and check the changes to A-Life. Apparently they fixed what was annoying me most about the game lol.