status 2015 October

2015.10.01

Random Steam sale, Minerva's Den DLC for Bioshock 2 for $4.99. It reviews really well, and I liked Bioshock 2 well enough. And its short, so maybe I'll just play it now.

The Tomb Raider reboot from 2013 is also on sale for $3.99, also reviews really well. I'll take 'em both.

2015.10.11

So, Minerva's Den was scarcely a minor diversion.

I should note that I've been watching the Teens React: Gaming series for The Last of Us. For some reason their mix of reactions is compelling, even though its technically a lame playthrough. It comes out every couple of weeks, has been running for 8 months, and I guess has another month or so to go. I wonder if this game will ever be ported to PC, and if so, will it be a good enough port to care about.

I'm still looking up at the stars on clear nights and thinking about Mass Effect. Like poking a fire the next day and still finding coals glowing under the ash, my anger at the ending of ME3 is still there but going away slowly. All that work, all those carefully made decisions over three games, and the ending boils down to a simple A, B, C choice no matter how you got there.

I watch "ME3: Extended Cut Analysis + Leviathan DLC". Good conclusion that if that was the original ending, most of this controversy could have been avoided.

2015.10.12
It is remarkable that as I read various game sites and forums that Planescape is still coming up. Someday I might revisit the mods.

The weather is starting to get wintry. Soon it will be RPG time, specifically Fallout New Vegas.

2015.10.18
Checking in on Steam occasionally, I see some promotion for Grey Goo. Looks interesting, getting back to the roots of Starcraft and Command & Conquer. I've been increasingly disappointed in where Starcraft is going (action per minute, rock paper scissors, no walls or base defense etc.), and this looks hopeful.

A few things I've been thinking of the past few weeks, but haven't written:

I've been listening to the Retronauts podcast, and I just caught up to where they're talking about video game magazines. I have boxes of such old magazines in the attic, but haven't thought of them in a while, let alone looked at them. They didn't mention Dragon magazine, something I especially payed attention to when they mentioned a game.

I recent installed and showed World of Warcraft to someone. I kept telling myself that I'm not really playing this, I'm just demoing, then I'm moving on. Like an alcoholic wistfully spitting out the mouthwash, I uninstall and feel relieved. Not that the grapes are sour (or even fermentable), but what I saw wasn't all that intriguing. WoW is a riot of blocky colors, a place as noisy, crowded and empty as a shopping mall.

That got me thinking of why MMORPGs give me the shakes - my dormant mud addiction from the 90s. I wonder if I should post about Mystic Adventure here, or make its own mini-shrine. I'll probably just start another blog.

2015.10.24
Still slowly going through videogame withdrawal. I miss the light and the noise, Real Life is too slow, too quiet.
Thankfully, I don't have to decide anything right tonight, as Teens React: Gaming The Last of Us: Part 18 is out. These kids barely understand stealth play, listening, or inventory management, let alone searching every last pixel of the screen for resources. But they seem to be getting better.
Checking for any news of a PC port... no, and extremely unlikely for console exclusivity reasons. But you never know, Halo eventually got to PC.

2015.10.30
GTA V on sale for $40, something that rarely happens. So tempting, GTA would be perfect right now. Time to check video card requirements: 9800 minimum, GTX 660 recommended. Right now I'm using a GTX 460. I found a chart, and my card is right at the bottom, better would be a 780, or even better 970 or 980. My cpu and ram are OK.
What's the best card I can put in my aged Dell XPS 730x? A quick look and there is some trouble getting a 780 to to work. Looking at prices, it seems like around $300 at minimum, not including whatever extra I need to do for power.
I'm finally beginning to see the end for this computer for new games. But I have so many older games to play, I shouldn't run out any time soon.

Speaking of old games that won't stress my video card, there's a big Steam sale right now. Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines and Grim Fandango for $5 each, and there's a lot more single digit priced games to check out.

2015.10.31
Let's not give up so quickly - what does YouTube have to say on the video card question? I watch a video of someone running GTA V on a GTX 460 with 2GB VRAM, running at decent size display with at least normal settings. Frame rates are not high, but they are acceptable for driving, and that's what you need.

I grab a few other sale items, and a recent discovery, and its time to go back to San Andreas.

2015.11.27
Checking out the Steam sales, I check out the Saint Row series again. It looks like a mod of GTA from several versions ago, yet highly produced. As a completionist, I find it highly annoying that Steam starts with game two in the series, yet some reviewers say its actually good to start the series here. Also that the GOG version is better than the Steam version, checking GOG, there are many contradictions to this. Since this series looks about as silly as the Borderlands series, I'll probably continue to ignore them both.

Diablo 2: highlands

Well, Diablo went down easy, it was just a matter of patience, stacking Blizzards on top of him, dodging his weak but constant spells. As he goes down, you can see his soulstone glowing, but you can't pick it up. Back to Tyrael, and he doesn't even mention it. He made a big fuss of smashing Mephisto's soulstone so he could not re-enter the mortal realm. And now we're just going to leave Diablo's soulstone just sitting there?

Such is life in a linear game; time to step through the obligatory red portal. Oh yeah, that's right. The videos explain it - the soulstone is explored in the tacked on story of Marius, the Gollum/Frodo to Tal Rasha/Baal's soulstone. Whatever, on to the barbarian highlands; this town is boring (except for the glowing-rune finger-painter merchant).

The winter city of Harrogath is beautiful; I'm taking the time to slowly wander around and enjoy the scenery, even with the 10+ year old graphics. I wonder, would that other Blizzard world, World of Warcraft, be as much fun to wander around? The few screenshots I've looked at usually bland, and the ones that aren't are perhaps exceptions. It's tempting, sometimes, but I remember all that time I lost on muds, and I think its probably not worth the risk.

Finally, I can learn Frozen Orb. The gap between levels is really getting noticeable now, and it seems like a long long time to get to level 30. Getting to Act 5 really helped pick up the pace; the expansion is noticeably better in balancing action and pacing.

As usual, I'm playing a bit too conservative with my spendable points. I'm walking around with 30-40 stat points and 6-10 skill points most times, waiting for something to justify the spend. But when you clear a bottleneck, like being able to buy a skill or getting a high requirement item, sitting on all those points seems worth it.

Finally, I can put a point into Frozen Orb - this is the pinnacle of cold magic. I buy prerequisites in the lightning skills to get Lightning Mastery (the only mastery worth maxing). And now I'm at another small plateau, in that I can't put another point in either until level 33. Which is probably OK, at this rate it shouldn't take much time, and it also helps me decide what to put points in. Maybe I'll waste a few more points on Warmth, since I still don't have decent mana regeneration.

I can now reset my speed keys for what may be the last time. The primary cluster of keys (F5-F8) where you keep your hands most of the time, I set to Frozen Orb, Lightning, Chain Lightning, and Teleport. I can move among these with no thought at all. The Blizzard attack might actually still be useful (for reaching around corners), so I'll keep it in the almost instant position of F4 (just reach out that pinky finger a little bit). Potions and utility functions still require a bit of thinking and finger fumbling, but I should playing safely enough so as not to need them.