RPG Tourist

I thought I would try dual wielding the Sepulcher Axe and Lagertha's Axe. This is a good illustration of why this game should be played on no difficulty less than hard. But I am so addicted to playing as an unstoppable raging Viking that I can't bring myself to move up from normal.  

A few days ago I decided to go back to Valhalla and wait a few weeks for some updates to Cyberpunk 2077. I am confident that CD Projekt Red will be able to address many of the console issues. The news that Sony had pulled Cyberpunk 2077 from their store caused quite a debate in my household last night. I am not the original purchaser of the game so requesting a refund is not up to me but I am kind of upset. It seems like a really good game and to be honest I was a little bored with Valhalla. We can always repurchase Cyberpunk 2077 but I am quite willing to give the devs a chance to improve the PS4 version. I know I complained about user interface design but it's probably easier to view on a high resolution PC monitor than a 1080p television set.  Or maybe I'm just old. My favourite web design reference site used to be "Web Pages that Suck" which unfortunately has been archived. It's a visual horror show that mostly illustrates what not to do and I retained those l...

 Yikes. Yet another massive 3D world to get immersed in. I’ve played through the first act and I am now taking odd jobs and exploring Night City. BECAUSE I NEED MONEY. First the good. Intriguing characters and game play kept me going despite massive eye shock and frustrating crashes. This is the type of game that will be declared a masterpiece after multiple patches and free add ons. Much like Witcher 3. Oh but the bad. I am playing on a PS4 slim and we all know that’s bad. I have turned off additive camera, motion blur, film grain and chromatic aberration. Between that and the latest patch, the graphics are looking much better. Performance has improved slightly too. Objects are still jumping up and down occasionally when I get too close, there’s a bit of lag, brief freezes and mis-rendering but it’s not as common as before the patch. I had one issue with a corrupted auto save but an earlier save resolved it. My latest side job is refusing to complete. Grrrr! BECAUSE I NEED MONEY...

 As I mentioned in the photo pages, I found actual barrels behind the Valentine stable long after I had attempted using St. Denis' trees as a substitute. I just posted a couple videos to YouTube on the topic. I'm posting links because they are epilogue plot spoilers. Barrel Racing First Attempt Barrel Racing Second Attempt

I did not know that you could throw weapons out of combat.  

The Warped Brindle Arabian that is. As usual, video captured post epilogue and may spoil plot. And that's when I named her Magic

 Well, I did do some complaining about Odyssey's environment so I am pleased to say that Valhalla's is much more destructible. Despite playing as a marauding Viking, looting is often not a simple smash and grab. To get the good stuff the player might need to search for keys, peer through every window and crevice and destroy things or move stubborn objects. There's the usual visual puzzles and some new types thrown in. I wasn't sure what to think in the early going but as more features unlock, the more enthusiastic I become.  The game world is not restricted to England of course, but so far it's the most interesting place. Before release, I was debating what gender to play. I played the female mercenary in Odyssey and this time I wanted to be a face stomping boy Viking. Well, I didn't know about the face stomping beforehand but I haven't regretted my choice. I really like Eivor. He's a bit mild mannered but he's savage when it counts.  The main quests...

  Warning: Spoilers I have been quiet for a while because I finally obtained Red Dead Redemption 2 and just finished all story missions. For me, the real game has just begun. When the game first came out, I claimed that I would likely turn it into my little pony and that’s exactly what’s been going on. My plan however has changed as I progressed through the game. Overall, the game is technically excellent and Rockstar has really raised the standard for open world environments. I think this is what Kingdom Come Deliverance was aspiring to and developers did admirably considering the time and resources they had. If KCD had been set in a world as lively, detailed and photo realistic as RDR2’s I would have declared it the best game ever made, end of subject. Despite being quite well designed, I have never liked the mission structure in Rockstar games and this is the furthest I have gotten in one. You never know if an interaction is about to suck you into something you’re not ready for...

Horizon Zero Dawn is a game that I deliberately avoided learning much about. It did not look like something I would normally play. It appeared on the PS4 recently (there are multiple accounts) and next thing I knew I was playing it obsessively. I really get the love for this title. You get to play the entire tutorial as an adorable little girl. Main game coming of age Aloy starts out with some moves. She is attractive, the NPC’s are attractive and the environments are attractive which make the robots appear even more unnatural and terrifying. The game play reminds me of Far Cry Primal but Horizon Zero Dawn is post apocalyptic science fiction so everything is possible and plausible. Denizens are articulate and even literate. The resource based economy is a little grindy but the game is generous with XP. Even though it’s obvious what caused societal collapse there is much mystery surrounding Aloy, her society and the weird machines. The game is lore deep. It is mostly a strategy game...

Warning: Spoilers Because I avoided learning very much about Mass Effect 3’s ending controversy, I didn’t really know what to expect. Well for me it’s over now. Yikes. On the surface, 3 isn’t much different than the previous game but there are hints of the catastrophic direction Bioware was about to turn. They deliberately made progressing towards the final mission more difficult for exclusive single play. They addressed this with an extended DLC but I still got frustrated with gathering war assets and cheated. Regarding the Steam version performance issues, enough hate buckets have been tossed that EA has responded. There’s no solution yet but they claim to be investigating. As well they should considering their asking price. I started the game on normal difficulty but got frustrated with a boss, turned the difficulty down and tried using my Steam controller. That got me through the boss fight but made the fps drops all the more noticeable. I think it’s because I put...

I have completed the Dragon Age II base game but could not wait to dig into Mass Effect 3 so I’ll return to the DLC later. Mass Effect’s performance issues are noticeable but it’s playable and I sprang for its DLC. I decided to resurrect the smarty pants female character that I abandoned in Inquisition but as class mage this time and left the difficulty on normal. She was pretty useless for most of the first act. To survive battles, I kept putting together incompatible parties to complement her lack of skill. Ok all the bickering was pretty funny but Hawke had become an irritating goofball that only Varric could love. The prospect of an incompetent Hawke left alone on an Act III battleground was looming over me. If I wanted to avoid that situation, I had to form parties that made narrative sense as well. Hawke also had to become a little more sensitive. Most companions were neutral enough that she could have gone the other way but working towards friendship seemed easier. I w...

I have been doing too many things simultaneously and have bogged down in all of them. I have yet to return to Witcher 3 even though I have watched the Netflix series for the second time. When I left, I was having difficulty progressing in levels. I am stuck in an end game boss fight in Uncharted 2 and trapped inside an outpost in Terminator Resistance with no exit strategy coming to mind. Kingdom Come Deliverance had been uninstalled to make way for other games but I correctly thought I needed to play more dice to progress with my own version. I did manage to complete the Ashes for Ashes DLC and Henry is now so wealthy he can pretty much do as he likes. He replaced Pebbles with a fully equipped Agro and what a difference. She's so fast he hardly fast travels any more. Poor Pebbles apparently just got vaporized which seems hardly fair. To my amazement, Henry did get around to discussing Radzig with Theresa and for once she became worried about their relationship. Wait til she f...

Warning: Minor Spoilers I have now breezed through Witcher 2. At least it feels that way compared to Witcher 1. Geralt can meditate wherever he pleases and the maps seem more compact and much more interesting. Despite many improvements I have some complaints. Geralt can only drink potions while meditating. This means either a full metal alchemist perennially poisoned Geralt or the save a lot, die a lot strategy. All the best gear and character abilities are reserved for Chapter 3 none of which carry over for a second play through. I found character development the most confusing of the three games. I tried to hold out for greater mutagens but only ever got two greater vitality mutagens and by the time I could spend them I was nearly at end game anyway so what was the point? I know that I missed some Chapter 3 content but I was more interested in story progression and didn’t really care. I believe that there is a fair amount of randomness in game play and others may have had a b...

Minor Spoilers Yes, yay! I have finished Witcher Enhanced Edition. Although there is a lot of things I like about it, I must admit it was a slog. I was not inspired to try out the premium content. I don’t think it matters to the story arc anyway. The story, the characters and the alchemy system are cool and you can pick out advanced abilities to complement combat styles you like. The gift giving can lead to some hilarious NPC interactions. Unfortunately important characters can show up in unexpected places or at specific times and Geralt can’t meditate wherever he likes. Climbing and jumping is also restricted and he can’t take short cuts across some of the maps. This means a lot of tedious running around for Geralt. I’m not sure how many quests I failed or how many rewards I missed but I don’t care much. The whole amnesia thing worked well for me because I didn’t know what to expect from the game and for the most part Geralt just goes along to get along until he’s forced i...

I’ve been granted some access to the PS4 again and in the meantime Playstation has released a couple of free game titles. So for a short period I was playing three games at once. Whee! Once I started encountering some cool references to the original game in Witcher 3, I stopped and turned all my attention to Uncharted Drake’s Fortune. I appreciate the remastering but I soon remembered what caused me to abandon it in the first place. At one point I left the room to have a toddler tantrum. Then I thought to turn down the camera sensitivity. Things went much better until the mutant uglies showed up. I truly wasn’t expecting this although when Nate first discovered an abandoned U-Boat I should suspected that something gruesome would turn up. It wasn’t long before I set the controller down and said “I don’t want to do this.” Maybe turning the camera sensitivity back up might help. On the bright side I have finished Witcher Enhanced Edition.

Having temporarily lost access to the PS4, I decided to try the Witcher Enhanced Edition once more. I had left it in Chapter I because of repeated fails at vanquishing main boss The Beast. I couldn’t remember much else about the game so I decided to start over and quickly realized what the problem was. Once you get used to games with a lot of freedom of movement, it isn’t easy to return to restricted movement. Because Geralt can’t jump over fences and take short cuts through the map, he is reduced to running in endless circles. Chapter I’s tedium probably led me to rush through it and I wasn’t really prepared to face the end battle. This time I made sure to do everything possible before I even went to the cave. I tried to knock the Beast down and take him out but failing at that I sent Geralt to that safe space behind a house and dealt with all those Barghests from there. Soon I was on Chapter II which offers a couple of more interesting areas to explore. The swamp has the sam...

Warning: Spoilers The past few weeks have been disruptive and self discipline has pretty much gone out the window. I have mostly been escaping into Witcher world when I can. I have been pleasantly surprised by how much I don’t really remember. I remember most of the main story missions but there are many quests and locations I had forgotten about completely. Thanks to a geared up Roach I am not nearly as anxious about exploring or leveling up. I’m finding it hard to play Geralt as a jerk because he’s generally fairly decent anyway. I struggled with the Keira quest line but finally rationalized that Geralt wouldn’t care much about being used and he didn’t sleep with her because he didn’t like her, right? He didn’t romance her the first time but that didn’t make any difference to the story so once again he gruffly sent her off to Kaer Morhen. At this point I decided that Geralt only goes out of his way for his friends but takes the easy way out whenever he can. And is sometimes ju...

I haven't progressed very far with my dice program. I managed to put together some code without triggering a show stopping execution error but the computer player made dumb decisions and calculation errors. I am now in a cycle of refining and testing.  Predictably I have not stopped playing video games either. I finally finished off the last Assassin's Creed Origins DLC and moved on to my Witcher 3 NG+ save. This time I am playing Geralt as a gambling, womanizing jerk. He has just discovered that Ciri has turned up in the region with the Wild Hunt in pursuit. Even though he has agreed to look for her, he privately believes the search might only lead the Wild Hunt to her. He decides to just continue doing what he does normally and collect information along the way.  On my original play through I avoided alchemy abilities and Gwent. This time Geralt is a horrible looking toxic mess and just loves to play Gwent. Huh. Go figure. He is currently wandering Velen looking for...

Warning: Spoilers    Before I tackled the final missions, I decided to tame the SnowBlood Wolf. It’s nice to have an effective wolf at my side again. At least his growls mean something beyond “I think I might be voraciously hungry”. Unfortunately he’s not quite as strong or as fast as the demented BloodFang so the sabre tooth got recruited for the fight with top Udam, Ull. This mission was more involved than I expected but I still felt well prepared to face down Ull. Tough doesn’t describe this guy. I could barely put a dent in him and his minions kept appearing. My second effort succeeded by playing frantic healer to my beast and BloodFang eventually subdued the big man. My reward for this was a plot twist and more villagers. I was so exhausted that I quit for the day. The following day I decided to go after Great Scar Bear before rushing off to the Izila homeland. I had a difficult time finding my way to his region and managed to die a couple of times in the proces...

Warning: Spoilers    This isn’t what one would call a “frictionless” tour through the countryside but I have been enjoying the journey. The challenges are an incentive to constantly upgrade. Thanks to the Steam controller, I finally got frustrated. I ran into the ludicrous Urki, a man way, way before his time. He sent me on the first of his ill fated missions. I needed to collect materials that he believed would enable him to fly. I could not for the life of me take out a raven for it’s feathers even though I had detected their tendency to briefly settle on nearby rocks. I only succeeded once I finally thought of trying the keyboard. Thanks to aim assist I haven’t been that troubled by sensitivity issues on the right track pad so I haven’t bothered to fiddle with it. His next missions were just as stupid. The second one went fine but I managed to bug the third one out. I was supposed to collect honeycomb from bee hives which was a new twist. So I shot the damn thing and on...

Warning Spoilers I’m 26 percent of the way through the game now. More of the map is exposed and I’ve cleared off all the easy objectives and nearly all the medium ones. Most importantly, I have gained a bear and a smilidon. I want to call the smilidon Snagglepuss but no. The bear acts like a big goofy dog. They are much stronger than any other pets. Smiley has a disturbing habit of picking up corpses and tossing them. I read a guide recently and learned how much I don’t know. I’m not using my pets to advantage. Well I am using Smiley like a pit bull. He tries to kill anything he doesn’t intimidate so that’s good otherwise he just skulks along snarling and intimidating me. I didn’t know I could use the owl to direct the pet. This is another case of me seeing an on screen prompt and not seeing it. Thanks to me, Takkar is the least stealthy hunter going. The only way I get stealth bonuses is by repeatedly waiting for the owl to return. I forgot that I can slide into cover from a ...

Warning Spoilers   Recruiting new specialists was the next essential step towards more upgrades. This meant venturing a little further out towards slightly tougher areas. I gained a cave lion companion in a desperate but effective attempt at not being eaten. Cave kitty is stronger than Wolfie and a rather terrifying walking companion. I’m not sure it’s ominous growls mean anything and beasts now sneak up on me more often. Hunting is easier though. Pissing seems a bit of a theme in this game. I got peed on by one armed cave dweller Wogah the Crafter. He called me “piss man” and ran off chortling all the way. “Oh just wait until I get out of this baffling jaguar infested cave” I thought. I forgave him when I found the grappling hook. Yeah okay seems sketchy but its a game after all and we need cool gear and fun things to do. I’m sure you don’t need two arms to construct one either. Then there was sarcastic hunter Jayma who called me “mammoth feet” and sent me off aft...

Warning: Spoilers I had to do the mission over again and got poisoned again anyway. It eventually wore off. On completion I was rewarded with all kinds of busy work which I am now busy at. I also endured another vision quest which was actually kind of fun this time. These folks have good drugs. The two priorities now are opening spawn points and upgrading weapons. I learned that on death Takkar respawns at the last campfire he visited and bears kill me and Wolfie every time. Wolfie did endear himself to me by taking out two unnoticed Udam and pissing on one of their corpses. Takkar is a much better archer than Henry but I haven’t really made effective use of his spear yet. My favourite thing so far is the background noise. I feel like I am on a treacherous nature walk. I kind of want to turn off the HUD and just rely on audio cues but I’m chicken. I don’t seem prepared for anything even with the HUD and the owl. So for now I’ll just keep on keeping on and moving out slowly towa...

Warning Spoilers  I have progressed quickly. I made my way to a Shaman. This character may be a narrative flourish but this is high adventure so fine. A slightly aggravating vision quest turned me into a Beast Master. I am perfectly willing to go along with this because that got me an owl and a wolf as companions. The owl is a vicious killer not like that random wimpy eagle Kassandra has. The wolf is deadly and intelligent. My confidence has soared. Ha ha. These two protect me while I fumble around with my weapons and help me collect the numerous things I need to build my village. Neolithic here we come. I triggered a new mission from my fan girl and got interrupted just as chaos erupted around my village. I neglected to put the game on pause and when I returned I was still alive thanks to Wolfie but I was poisoned. The game is suggesting there must be a cure somewhere. What? Should I redo this mission or just carry on? I quit instead. Next Post  

Warning Spoilers I decided to foray into the Far Cry Universe and installed Far Cry Primal. Why this one you say? It’s set in the Mesolithic era. Ok but why this one? Linguists extrapolated languages for it from Proto Indo European. A proto Proto Indo European language apparently. I have actually read a book about PIE and I am curious. I can’t honestly say that I grasp the linguistics part but the time period from Mesolithic to Neolithic fascinates me. After a nice opening, everything goes south. I am left alone in a marshy area. But I have Witcher sense! Well no it’s hunting sense but works in a similar way. I learn to hunt goats and make a club. I learn to set it alight. Then I get attacked by hyenas or something and set everything including myself on fire. Good thing I have healing mojo. I track down a girl and a bad bad tiger. We escape and she sends me out for healing leaves. On the way back I encounter aggressive cannibals and I just flee. I have no faith in my clubbin...

I had some trouble finding a comprehensive guide on all enhanced abilities attainable through the Fate of Atlantis DLC. For once I may have something useful to contribute. Since I had decided to equip all of them at once I thought I might review them. Because there are only two Hunter Abilities, the rest take up all the melee slots which meant I had to give up some favoured abilities and adjust my play style. I particularly missed Shield Breaker and now have to rely on charged and overpower attacks. I thought I might miss Hero Strike but these abilities deal enough damage that I don’t really. Engravings that reduce cool down times and adrenaline spent on overpower attacks also help out. If you don’t like the enhancements you can revert them with no penalty. I don’t have exact cool down times but note if they seem fast or very slow. Descriptions are from the in game menu. Fields of Elysium Might of Artemis : Hunter Tree. Acquired through Sunken Jaw of the Styx. Enhances R...

Minor spoilers For the first time ever I have achieved a platinum trophy. I achieved this in the AC Odyssey base game while avoiding the Fate of Atlantis DLC. I have completed the main missions in the Bloodline series. That was enjoyable. For once, Kassandra was invested in a romance although it inevitably led to tragedy. I agree that this mandatory romance didn’t make sense from a role playing perspective but it tied the story to Origins and I appreciated that. Once Kassandra recovered she committed to the vulnerable brother she encountered in Korinth and that was the end of romantic flybys for her. So on to Atlantis and the grueling journey to get there. Elysium is very pretty but irritating to navigate. Enemies can drain adrenaline. Missions are contradictory. I was soon back in Greece pursuing useless achievements. I couldn’t avoid Elysium forever though and eventually Kassandra was chucked to Hades. I loved this episode despite the gruesome environment. The story line...

There are a number of games that probably should be on this list that I haven’t played for some reason or another. The most notable are Civilization, Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2. Update August 23, 2020: Have now added Red Dead Redemption 2 and Mass Effect 3. Update November 30, 2021 Added Divinity Original Sin 2   Update June 1 2022 Added Final Fantasy XV Red Dead Redemption 2 I have completely rewritten this entry and moved Red Dead to number 1. Some distance from the Van der Linde gang has softened my views. I may have had more freedom to create a character and story with other games in this list but I am role playing the daylights out of Red Dead free roam. Horses as NPC companions are fantastic and I am completely free to invent personalities for them. After hours and hours, there is some repetition but the ambient dialogue and activity continues to amuse and amaze. There is so much going on that I do not understand how this game was optimized for cons...

Warning: Spoilers I have been struggling with my Outer Worlds game journal which caused me to stop writing altogether. It’s not because the game is not entertaining, rather that my journal isn’t. I’ve decided to abandon it and move on. The character I settled on is a disgraced corporate agent hoping to redeem himself working for the Board. I thought it would be fun to write out a series of cynical reports to no one in particular considering after 70 years his cover was so deep no one was aware of him at all. Difficulty was set on hard this time. He was supposed to be a charming yet treacherous assassin and handgun specialist. He did throw in with the board and ended the game running the Lifetime Employment Program under Sophia Akande’s leadership. A corporate hired gun all the way. This play through was quite different than my first one. Even small effects from doing quests in a different order were amusing. I could not stay disciplined when assigning points however. He w...