RPG Tourist

I have been playing The Outer Worlds obsessively over the last week and just finished the main quest. It turns out that Bridget’s lack of charm meant that she struggled to gain a positive reputation with factions and use her companions as effectively. She was all over the place with dialogue but managed to blow her relationship with Pavarti early on. She did keep her focus on tech skills but developed stealth and sniping skills as well. I was a little disappointed in science bonuses until Bridget began tinkering a lot. Her favourite weapons were an assault rifle modded for corrosion damage, the Shrink Ray and the Mind Control Ray. The game is quite forgiving in normal mode depending on party members. Bridget ruled Monarch with Sam and Nyoka who was equipped with an N-Ray spewing machine gun. They handled Mega beasts, Automechnicals and mobs with ease. Otherwise, Bridget was a little dull. I can’t say I was all that invested in her but I was distracted by the main story and was quite a

Mild Spoilers    I have spent quite a few hours already on The Outer Worlds. My journal plans haven’t worked out. I don’t have much of a handle on my character or the game. I did create the high intelligence low charm character I planned but there’s nothing stopping me from assigning skill points wherever I want. It is so hard not to allocate points to the dialogue category. I’ve stuck with it for the most part trusting the developers that the game won’t punish me for such an unbalanced character. I’ve had to flesh her out a bit in my imagination. She is very on mission and possesses both good temperament and intentions. If a sarcastic response doesn’t seem appropriate she goes for the most direct one. I have to admit I felt some disappointment as I played through the initial learning section of the game. I thought it was just a really colourful Fallout. Thanks to high long gun skills I had even inadvertently recreated my New Vegas sniper. The time dilation thing is cool tho

Henry is going on hold for now because The Outer Worlds is sitting on the PS4 drive ready to unlock tomorrow morning. This is the first time I have bought a game before launch so it could get interesting. Ever since I played Final Fantasy VIII, I have thought about designing a game that employs a leadership skill so I was interested in The Outer Worlds right away. It's not looking like it's implemented in any way I imagined so I might be disappointed. Trailers do look fun and reviews are good so far however. I wanted to go completely against the grain and make a big dumb melee character but it seems a lot of people are planning that so now I'm considering a highly intelligent female with lower than average charisma. We'll see.

According to Steam, I have logged 214 hours in this game. Henry is now presiding over a habitat for humanity project in Pribyslavitz. Although he is almost guaranteed substantial profits in the long term, funding requirements have Henry treasure hunting, lock picking and haggling in earnest. Clearing out enemy camps is so lucrative that Henry has finally resumed the Rattay missions. I am shocked to report that Henry can survive fights with multiple armoured opponents. He has been so successful at avoiding fights that his combat stats aren’t very high but he is quick enough now that he can move backwards and avoid being flanked. If he keeps his stamina up and defends, sometimes a weak opponent will move in and lock on. A quick death triggers a perk. As hard as it was, not riding Pebbles to raise that vitality stat paid off. Battles go even better if Henry has had time for an Aqua Vitalis. I can’t remember when I started to enjoy one on one combat. I just remember Henry dancing arou

Warning: Spoilers Henry got to test the trebuchet as a reward for his hustling and bustling. It was the most Henry thing ever. The mighty wrecking ball only managed to elicit a surprised cluck from a chicken. While the engineer rambled reassuringly about trajectories, the leadership group received an urgent message about a new threat marching towards Talmberg. As Henry raced off to help repel these invaders, I thought about how obvious the trebuchet must be to the castle occupiers. Henry acquitted himself quite well in the ensuing battle and the invasion force was defeated quickly. But of course, the aforementioned trebuchet was now under attack. Henry thought Pebbles was the fastest way back but she continuously threw him off. Henry hadn’t ridden her enough to get the Warhorse perk and I figured that may be the problem. Oh the trade offs one makes in this game. So he ran as fast as he could. The allies prevailed but Henry got bloodied in this battle. After healing up and re

Warning: Spoilers When Henry reached Vranik, the enemy occupied fort, a warning flashed that progressing further would cause some uncompleted side missions to fail. I assumed that from here Henry gets locked onto the main quest and that seems true to a degree. I tried to look into these quests while avoiding plot reveals as much as possible. Things don’t look good for Talmberg. It’s been quite obvious all along that Henry was missing key parts of his life story but I still managed to be surprised somehow by the Vranik plot twists. Part of this was due to not remembering much about early game Skalitz. Henry made multiple escape attempts but sneaking or fighting his way out just didn’t seem possible and he tried making a run for it. I had to watch a You Tube video to learn why Henry couldn’t just jump over the palisade at the designated point. Henry was being spun around so often by combat lock on that I never noticed the use prompt at the palisade. He finally vaulted over and r

Warning: Spoilers Predictably Henry spent many sleeps trying to get out of the monastery. If he had high lock picking and pick pocketing skills or even a Padfoot recipe he could have short circuited the whole thing though that might not have been as easy as it sounds. Even so, the monastery presented a bit of a catch 22 since Henry needed lock picks anyway and the items he could exchange for them seemed limited. At first he was fully committed to his monk schedule and tried to solve his various dilemmas during the day. It sort of reminded me of my son rolling around the floor laughing while I tried to obey traffic laws in Grand Theft Auto only to crash the car anyway. He spent at least 2 nights incarcerated in the cellar before he learned that he could probably get away with sneaking out of the dormitory at night. As a bonus he got the fatso achievement down there. From then on all the doors opened for him literally but progress was slow. I am glad things turned out this wa

Warning: Spoilers Henry has indeed turned a corner. He has triggered a number of missions many of which require minimal combat. That does not mean Henry hasn’t created any obstacles for himself. He rushed off to Sasau Monastery seeking aid for Merhojed. He didn’t anticipate that he would be tasked with finding the solution and had forgotten most of his conversations in Merhojed. I could have just looked this up but I forced Henry to do this quest all over again. Lol. Why? He ultimately made the right choices but while waiting for the outcome reported to Radzig on his primary Merhojed investigation. Is Henry beginning to see Radzig as a father figure? He engaged Radzig in a rather cool philosophical discussion. At least I thought it was cool. He was dispatched to Sasau again in full investigator mode. He gained a mysterious and hard nosed temporary ally who lent a hand with the only tough combat sequence for Henry. They parted ways but will we see him again? I hope so. He

Warning: Spoilers It didn’t take too long to tire of grinding stats or dealing with the Farkle scoring conundrum for that matter. So it’s been on to the main quest and moments of triumph and sadness for Henry. He had attempted and failed at this quest already and thanks to a guide I knew that this big battle preceded a boss battle hence all the preparation. I was hoping that Henry would be able to pop a couple of potions in between the battles but of course not. Other than not quite full health, Henry was in good shape for the boss fight. It took 6 or 7 tries. I knew Henry could win because Henry’s wasn’t the only blood flying but I was still shocked when the extended kill animation cut scene loaded in. Henry was competent and savage. I was thrilled. There was of course some humorous reminders after the fact that Henry is still a novice. He didn’t get Radzig’s sword back either. After the cut scenes ended all open quest options concerning Matthew and Fritz ominously fail

Warning: Spoilers Henry enjoyed another loopy adventure with Hans Capon. He should have found Hans sooner but apparently the concept of a third floor escaped him. Sure I’ll blame Henry for that. Hans really is a bad influence on Henry. He eventually resisted offering Hans hypocritical advice though he was tempted to. In the end this encounter furthered Henry’s transactional relationship with Theresa so all is well. So far the game has made it pretty easy for Henry to do the right thing or at least live with some questionable outcomes but he has now made a fateful decision to catch up with his reprobate companions Matthew and Fritz. Up until now Henry’s career path has not been disrupted by their shenanigans but they cannot be dissuaded from their latest scheme. Faced with equally awful actions Henry has opted for avoidance. I can’t help but think of my earlier assumption that the player will be able to take Henry in one moral direction or another but this is another layer. I ha

  Warning: Spoilers Henry has now swapped his longsword for the best mace he can afford. After being bludgeoned for a few rounds by Captain Bernard, Henry finally had the confidence to accept Lady Stephanie's request. Plus his bounty in Sasau had expired. To my shock he managed to win an archery contest. Henry has become quite good at shooting things that stand still. It took some time to collect all three items but Lady Stephanie's idea of a reward was a let down. It seemed more like a reward for herself. I suppose it depends on how you look at it. Henry could only think of Sir Divish and of Theresa to a lesser degree so he just walked away. On the bright side, he gained enough confidence to start clearing some side quests and activities off the map. He stumbled across some new ones in the process. Eager to help the unfortunate widow at Neuhof stables, he agreed to enter a horse race arranged by the aforementioned Sir Divish. On the third try Henry was doing quite we

Warning: Spoilers Ah yes back to Henry. I see that Henry is now wanted in Sasau. Oops. Henry was testing Lullaby potion treated arrows on a wayfarer. He missed of course. The wayfarer freaked out and ran off apparently to Sasau and I believe ratted Henry out. So Henry has been looking for things to do in other towns until the heat comes off. He has again lowered his reputation with the Uzhitz priest. I dread to think what that might mean down the road but Henry just has to live with the consequences this time. On the bright side Henry found a necklace for Theresa and that really accelerated her interest. The whole thing was a little tough on Henry’s ego. First she abandoned him in the barn and when he found her and tried to pin down her feelings for him, the conversation was awkward to the point of insulting. Henry is stupid though. They ultimately agreed whatever the future brings they are presently a couple. I had to laugh at the first dialogue option available with The

As expected I flew through Heart of Stone with a very modest XP gain. I enjoyed the main story line but balked at investing in the runemaster. I turned to Blood and Wine intending to deal with the runemaster later. Blood and Wine is a substantial expansion. It’s also quite a departure from the main game. I’d describe it as whimsical Arthurian fables set in an idyllic Renaissance world. Violence and monsters are even more jarring there. Of course a monster contract prompts Geralt’s return. He faces typical moral quandaries but there was only one way it was going to end for me. There are certain story lines I just can’t resist. During the final mission I found myself thwarted by shortsighted gaming decisions. Geralt was still short of cash and resources. I had thought the Yennifer relationship was blown but a letter Geralt received indicated that it wasn’t. This caused me to obsess on reuniting Geralt with Yennifer post main quest. I collected all the grandmaster diagrams b

I meant to get the last post up awhile ago but the Witcher 3 expansion bundle went on sale and I am now completely distracted by that. I really wanted to finish KCD before taking on another game but I could not resist reinstalling Witcher 3 and checking out the additional content. Odds are I’ll blow through it much faster than KCD so Henry is on hold right now. Even with Witcher 3 I had a false start and backtracked. Since KCD I seem much less resistant to doing this. I had forgotten how Witcher 3 works and started Blood and Wine first out of curiosity but regretted that not very far in. I had left Geralt at level 39. He has a full collection of mastercraft witcher gear but not much coin. He’s also over levelled for Hearts of Stone. Besides relearning game play, I found Witcher 3 overwhelming visually. I contemplated customizing the hud but eventually got used to it. Thinking the screen was too dark I adjusted gamma but the shock of Toussaint’s colourful fairy tale world

Minor spoilers and some tips maybe I have lost quite a few hours now, either from dying unexpectedly or abandoning quests and back tracking. The easy going exploration is over and I’m at the consult guides and obsess over stats stage. It’s so much like Oblivion that way. At least KCD doesn’t tie attributes to specific weapons. To progress I must attend to skills that I have neglected. Even though horsemanship skills are valuable raising vitality requires a lot of running and jumping obstacles or surviving combat which Henry still isn’t good at. So for now Pebbles is only summoned for escapes. Sniff. I have equipped her with a better saddle though and she carts more loot. Other than that coin is preserved for food, repairs and training rather than niceties like clothing and tack. Thanks to combat training, Henry can handle one assailant fairly well or even two or three unarmoured peasants. Two or more armoured opponents are still a problem. I thought Henry could overco

Warning: Spoilers At this point I decided Henry needed development and abandoned the main quest line. He is perpetually poor and cannot fight his way out of a paper bag. I did take advantage of Captain Bernard’s training in Rattay but after one round Henry is usually bleeding all over the place. His speech and herbalism skills however are skyrocketing. He now gets a strength boost from flower picking. Sad. His paltry funds go towards food, bandages and shoe repairs. I decided that Henry has no choice but to learn reading and alchemy. These two skills are far more elaborate than in most games. The reading is a nice touch and alchemy is hilarious but gets tedious quickly. I am looking forward to that auto perk. For right now, I am very happy Henry can brew Saviour Schnapps and Marigold concoctions. And instead of just waiting around for NPCs Henry can improve himself by reading a book. I must now amend this post. After spending some time on side tasks and sucking up to Th

Warning: Spoilers Henry was rescued by Theresa and a party from Talmberg and he woke up at the mill operated by Theresa’s dad. Other than Theresa, no one seemed very happy with him. Mollifying the miller involved grave robbing and more lockpicking. Henry then informed Sir Radzig about his lost sword. He somehow convinced Sir Radzig to employ him. Sir Radzig really must know something the rest of us don’t. Henry got some training and was assigned to town patrol. We met an elite character that seems about as bright as Henry. During cut scenes Henry engages in some alarming behaviour. I hope this changes but I doubt it somehow. He was sent hunting with his new nemesis but he managed to do something heroic for once, made an influential friend and got the best reward so far which is Pebbles the horse. Unfortunately, he did not learn how to hit anything with a bow. Pebbles is part mule and part get a way car. She seems to reside in some always accessible ephemeral place and appears

Warning: Spoilers On introduction main character Henry does not appear all that virtuous. I assume that the player can take him in one direction or another. His parents are much more tolerant than I imagine medieval parents would be but Henry does get assigned some simple tasks in the process of forging a sword for the local noble. Aside from basic game play, I learned about the benefits of allies and time sensitive quest objectives. Yeah Pa’s ale got warm and I had to go back. We got on with completing the sword and met some pivotal characters. I also learned that there might be more to Henry’s backstory than even he knows. Then Henry witnessed the cruel death of his congenial parents at the hands of the (I assume) central villain of the story and the next quest began. You know when a quest is titled Run things are going to get hairy. Henry was urged to run and warn a nearby settlement but he’s quickly taken out by a Cuman mercenary. Next time he managed to jump on a

Kingdom Come Deliverance: First Impressions Yay Steam Summer sale. My CPU just meets the minimum requirement for Kingdom Come Deliverance. This means I have to play on low settings but I can live with that. I should have purchased the Royal version but after looking through the DLC I cheaped out and just got the base game and the From the Ashes DLC for now. The game often gets compared to Skyrim but I’d call it Oblivion plus. KCD employs a similar art style and user interface but the overall graphics and character model quality is much higher as would be expected. Character development is more straightforward in KCD but there is a plethora of status effects and permanent attribute bonuses and debuffs that interact in complicated ways. Class refers to a character’s station in life rather than a traditional RPG play style and that shapes the role playing possibilities. There is no magic enhancement. Henry must rely on currying favour and developing skills. Unlike many o

Ubisoft still has me in their grip. Recently I got fed up with Odyssey’s Alkibiades and attacked him which caused him merely to run off. I lost him in a rocky elevation. I shouldn’t have been surprised he is adept at climbing. This caused me to return to Origins. It took a bit to get reoriented. The map looked quite barren compared to Odyssey but there was still much to complete including the final DLC. There were multiple unassigned ability points. I had to relearn controller assignments that I never completely grasped in the first place. I want to save my game constantly even though it strictly auto saves. I often forget I’m not immune to fall damage or that I have no health replenishment abilities. I kind of hope no one avenges me. Avenging fallen players is silly idea that doesn’t appear in Odyssey but I have done it a couple of times. I have mostly been determined to fully exploit tools and abilities. Things don’t always work according to plan but that’s all part of

A while back I mentioned the Mass Effect series. It’s been a while so my memory of the three games I played is hazy. I skipped Mass Effect 3 because it’s not available on Steam. I like the Star Trek vibe of the series. However, I was most excited to finally be able to import a save file into the next series installment. Not many games allow for this. This led me to race through the first game in anticipation of playing the second. I selected male Shepard for his classic military demeanour. Series one Shepard was mostly a boy scout eschewing romance and opting for the most diplomatic decisions. Harsh choices and an unanticipated story conclusion had an impact on his character going forward. Game two veers towards X-Files in space. I liked the game play improvements Bioware made but I did not understand the morality system at all. Events did not turn Shepard renegade but he was much more neutral and less selfless. This turned out to be a mistake and his disengaged attitude

Warning: Minor Spoilers I just finished the family story quest line in Odyssey but still have two major quest lines to finish not to mention add ons. The map is not yet fully explored and is still cluttered with incomplete objectives. Still, I feel I’ve given the game a fair enough shake to compare it to my Origins experience. It’s clear that the same development environment was used for both games but Odyssey leans heavily towards RPG and Origins leans slightly more to sandbox. The maps are equally stunning. If I had to recommend one over the other, I would pick Odyssey for it’s game play improvements. Systems are so similar you could almost describe Origins as a game length tutorial for Odyssey albeit a very entertaining one. Both games offer loads of optional content but Odyssey offers more incentives to engage with that content. This is due to more elaborate equipment and naval options. Origins usually rewards some coin and XP plus a purely cosmetic item or a weapo

Recently I listed off all the Assassin’s Creed games I am playing concurrently despite the fact I have never played a game from the franchise before. I’ve completed Origin’s main story missions and the Hidden Ones DLC and have now moved on to Odyssey. Seeing that Odyssey rolls Black Flag and Origins together with a heap of Witcher 3, I may never have to return to any of those games. It depends on how long Ubisoft spews content. Right now Odyssey looks like a completionist’s nightmare but forturnately I am not one of those. Ubisoft has taken a really interesting turn with Origins and Odyssey. They have moved away from multiplayer completely to single player with limited shared social features and mostly cosmetic microtransactions. Even loot boxes can be purchased with ingame currency. No luring children towards controversial forms of gambling here. No siree. Origin’s stand alone discovery mode goes even further to buff up video games’ tarnished reputation. This looks like

We’ve finished both seasons of Westworld. By the end of season one, William’s hat is definitely black. We also learned that we have been following William’s story on two separate timelines and nothing is as it seems especially the ever menacing Robert Ford. Once the AI characters achieved self awareness the discomforting violence became incessant. The series began to feel much less like a video game and more like the sci-fi horror film that spawned it. The message is clear this time though. Corporations are evil. By the end of season two there were hardly any redeeming characters left and there were only five or six maybe to begin with. The multiple timelines became so incoherent I needed to consult an online wiki. But due to the nature of the technology will any character truly die? We did get treated to some philosophical questions. Are the AI really autonomous? Just when we think they are the puppet master reappears. Hector is the only AI character that ever becomes unbound

Right now I’m watching Westworld and I feel compelled to talk about it even though I’m only at Season 1, Episode 8. It quite obviously draws inspiration partly from popular video games. It may be the best adaptation of a video game that doesn’t exist ever. The image of Yul Brynner in the original movie still burns in my memory. I remember the movie itself as a sci-fi horror though. This series seems to be about NPC’s come to life. The writers do a great job of illustrating NPC game mechanics in the first few episodes but I was glad to move on from Dolores’ part mundane part horrific loop. I identified with young William right from the moment he picked his off white hat. I was also filled with dread because I know that Westworld will inexorably darken that hat. Otherwise I’m enjoying the scenery and the plot twists. I’ve read that the author Michael Crichton was disappointed that audiences seemed to misinterpret the original Westworld’s message. This time the real v

As noted before, there are many popular games I haven’t played for various reasons. We never had any Nintendo devices so no exclusives for that platform. It’s been Atari, Sony and PC. Due to constraints, I have missed quite a few titles published for the latter two. The most notable series are Assassin’s Creed, Uncharted, Tomb Raider, Mass Effect and The Last of Us. Of the first three series I have only played recent releases. I didn’t get very far into The Last of Us. The whole zombie thing put me off. I’m just sick of zombies in general. I quit watching The Walking Dead after season 3 or 4. I can’t even remember which. I can tolerate the feral ghouls in Fallout because they are just one of the unfortunate sideshows in the Fallout world. I feel slightly bad exterminating them because there’s so many sane, friendly NPC ghouls. I did enjoy A Thief’s End and Tomb Raider. Lost Legacy was a little dull until the second half. I always felt an urgency to follow the narrative. The env

My desktop system is underwhelming to begin with but I have had some frustration lately that affected my gaming choices. My obsolete discrete video card died but due to the installed apu I postponed getting another card. I was halfway through Assassin’s Creed Black Flag at the time. Much of my library became unplayable. So I went looking for appealing titles with low system requirements. I had missed the popular Mass Effect series so nabbed that when a bundle of the first two games went on sale. I did finally get a new and powerful video card and erroneously believed that I could now play newer games. I could run games with higher system requirements but nothing released after 2015 thanks to a lack of RAM and the under powered apu. Within the limited titles I would actually like to play, I discovered that I already had PS4 versions of some of them. On the Linux side things were even worse. I still hadn’t upgraded Ubuntu 14.04 and there was no driver available beyond a very basi