RPG Tourist

Sometimes I think Ubisoft makes games for me specifically.  By terrible I mean the seriousness of the subject matter. The writers do make some points about violence, corruption and power. The question of whether the ends ever justify the means hangs over the main story missions right to the end. But otherwise it's all just ridiculously over the top. This is only my second Far Cry game but I assume this is typical for the series. I was so entertained by exploration, random encounters and playing in the sandbox that I hardly needed a mission structure. A half hearted attempt to get some achievements only led to more nonsense and photo shoots. The crafting system had me enthusiastically infillitrating military targets. Unfortunately the process usually began with me doing careful recon and noting priority targets only to hit the wrong buttion and fire a grenade. Chaos! Incoming air support! Military vehicles headed your way! Playing on PC with a Steam controller only added  to the fun

Ended the game with another peeping thing. It only took like five months but I finally calmed down enough to finish Divinity Original Sin 2. So now I'm all puffed up because I didn't need to go online for help. It only took dying a few more times to see the path through. I have to confess though that I had forgotten all about the weapon I had been saving for this exact moment and pulled it out just as all was to be lost again. Eureka!  That bad feeling I had that my heroine maybe shouldn't be doing all this stayed with me to the end. My ultimate decision was good in the short term but had long term negative consequences. I don't feel like contemplating the political philosophy of that and I'm just letting it go.  I did watch The Cantina's YouTube video on Why Skyrim is Not an RPG  right after. I can't say that I disagree with anything he said. My issue with Skyrim is that you can role play within it's systems if you like but Bethesda doesn't offer an

Drax is the best Guardians of the Galaxy is populated with great characters but my favourite is Drax. Edios-Montreal went their own way with this title but stayed faithful to the tone and charm of the movies. Not an easy feat. The music, the writing, the artwork and the gameplay all just worked together as an experience. When I first entered the ship as Peter Quill I felt drawn in by it's imagery. Combat might be a weaker aspect but the game has momentum. As usual, I didn't find much of anything. I didn't even save many photos or clips. I was just swept along. There is an option to start a new game plus and look for those missing collectibles but for now I'm savouring a first trip through. It wasn't entirely bug free and there was some frustration with loading screens and repetition but the game never broke. There's not much else to say besides this is a likely game of the year contender. Oh and I shut the fridge door.  

  The Inside Story of Mass Effect 3's Endings, Finally Told - YouTube Bioware Writer Reveals the Truth for the Most Unsubtle Line in Mass Effect (fanbyte.com) Bioware creators shared some much appreciated insights in these interviews. I spouted off about Mass Effect 3's ending myself. It was purely subjective and relayed as I experienced it but I don't think the ending detracted that much from the overall quality of the series. I should have made that more clear. Most of my complaints about Bioware games are technical. I'm unhappy with the user interface or how obscure systems can be to the player. Stuff like that. I've always liked the writing and the effort creators go to engage players. I respect developers like Bioware for doing hard things and taking the flak for it. And I'll never turn down a new Dragon Age or Mass Effect.

  Obsessed with this eye patch for some peculiar reason. At long last I have played through Red Dead Redemption's main story. Inept me gave up too quickly on my first effort but I always intended to try again. If I worried that RDR would be a disappointing step down from RDR2, I shouldn't have. This game holds up. I even managed to become utterly confused for a minute during one session start. "Why am I in New Austin?" "What is John wearing?" "Why is everything so crisp and detailed?" "Ohhhh I have started the wrong game."  Playing RDR2 first probably made it easier for me. I enjoyed a little simpler control scheme and game systems. Fear of never leaving McFarlane ranch caused me to set the mode to casual. To compensate I played with the mini map off most of the time. I never, ever knew what was going on and the results were usually hiliarious. I bought a lot of property in the hopes John would respawn somewhere remotely close to where he

 It's kind of clear by now I am not going to get around to playing any of the DLC. I'm not sure the reasons for this make any sense but I just can't get into it. I started out enthusiastically in the main game but that wore off in England at some point. I was a little disappointed that the raiding crew was just a side activity. I wanted them as offshore companions whether that was reasonable or not. Most likely I really want to play Dragon Age 4.  I was going to make a post called "Saxon collaborator kills all the fun and exciting Vikings" but that would have been really unfair considering that was exactly the nuanced aspect of Viking history Ubisoft developers were trying to portray. Plus that isn't exactly true either. For example, I still have Rollo in my crew and the latest DLC is all about Paris. I just skimmed a walkthrough for Siege of Paris and apparently Rollo doesn't appear at all in it. So I would have been disappointed about that. Ubisoft has b

 I made a rather silly post on Twitter because I discovered the POVRay bot. POVRay is a 3D raytracing engine I have been struggling to use ever since the last DOS version. I uploaded this GIF which is a sine wave plotted by tiny spheres. I have posted the POVRay code on a separate page just in case some one would actually like to see it. Some of it is commented out because I rather obviously poached a scene file from the examples. 

  Sometimes games I wouldn't normally purchase just appear on the PS4. That's the fun thing about a shared console. And I have to at least try them just because they are there. I enjoyed this one enough to finish it and even upload a couple of videos. Everything about this game is clever from the artwork to the game play, story, characters and dialogue. At it's core it is live action gwent or whatever similiar card game you fancy. The story revolves around a socially stratified realm called Random made up of six separated regions. Random is ruled by a mad queen who determines everyone's fate with the roll of a dice. It's like central planning was just Stalin sitting at a craps table. A robotic army keeps the enslaved citizenry in their place. Our protagonist, a little girl named Even, travels through the six districts seeking her sister Odd who has been taken by the evil queen. Even's companion is a vocal albeit incomprehensible animated die she calls Dicey. And

 I wrote this for a family member a couple of years ago and forgot completely about it. I just forwarded it to another new Inquistor so might as well post it as well.   I thought I would send you some tips for playing Dragon Age. Some of these aren’t relevant until later in the game but helpful to know. Levelling: Your companions are never more than one level behind you. As I mentioned killings enemies 4 levels or more below you no longer grants XP. The game automatically raises base health rating and any attributes relevant to character class as you level. If you look at the attributes tab in the character menu you’ll see that there is a ton of them. These stats can only be directly affected through passive abilities and equipment attributes. I will get to the stupidly complicated crafting system later. The inquisition levels too through power and influence. Influence is harder to raise than power. Requisition quests help but they consume resources so it’s a trade off. Abiliti

 I bought some new games on Steam to try out on the new 'puter one of which is Crusader Kings 3. Before I begin this cry baby tale, I want to say that I've never played a Crusader Kings title before and I am very impressed with this one. I am also impressed with the nvme ssd that I installed. It's not necessary but definitely a benefit for this challenging game. I left CK3 still trying to master the tutorial. I tip my hat to this title's brutal learning curve. It should be called "The Curse of Unanticipated Consequences" or in my specific case, "Medieval Wedding Planner". I wasted a lot of time making my very first player character become soul mates with his wife. What does a girl do when her liege is her soul mate? She does an incest with the primary heir that's what. I tried to cover it up because the other options seemed kind of bad and who needs piety anyway? Well yeah I eventually learned that in Christian kingdoms piety counts for a lot. Wh

 Quite some time ago I mentioned WDL's Bloodline DLC. I have been too embarrassed to admit that I was stuck on Wrench's second last side mission. It's like one of those Spyro the Dragon challenges except with jackasses. You know like the ones where Spyro has to fly through rings. Wrench has to pilot three different vehicles through arches and it's timed. I kept failing on the last one with a drone. I wouldn't mind doing it over and over were it not for those slow PS4 loading screens. The drone is piloted differently so you can't learn anything from the first two courses other than the characters' snarky dialogue. I got fed up rather quickly and went back RDR2.  WDL just released some new content. While checking that out I went back and finally finished off Bloodline. To celebrate I recorded another dopey video. I have enjoyed the new content. It was nice to get some back story on Aiden. Wrench injected some missing WD2 goofiness. Ubisoft made a couple of odd

 So to update, the motherboard for the new PC was diagnosed and sent back to me. It's not clear that there was ever anything wrong with it and I don't even feel like getting into what was troubling me in the first place. I just wanted confirmation that the on board sensors were working correctly and for whatever reason the repair department wanted it back maybe just to confirm that.  If the sensors are correct then my hot, hot Ryzen 5 processor has never reached unsafe temps. So fine. It's been reassembled. Reapplying thermal paste and mounting the stock cooler for a third time hasn't changed anything but the system is stable. The 3000 RPM exhaust fan I thought was a great idea still sends me into alarm but maybe a good after market CPU cooler could alleviate that. I'm just happy I've got it up and running because this has all been a bit disruptive. My partner advised to just use the computer and stop talking about it. Lol.

The path I took as a villain does have an impact on the game world. Dutch didn't enslave the entire Commonwealth. I ran out of patience for that. Once the raider outposts were self sufficient I didn't need to bother with them much. They send a steady stream of caps to Nuka World and defend themselves for the most part. I'm missing out on some legendary gear but it's not like there's a scarcity. Occasionally Dutch gets support from friendly raiders out in the Commonwealth which is a welcome change. There is a handful of free, under developed settlements that call for help but it's not too disruptive. Dutch has yet to meet Preston Garvey and the Minute Men don't exist. He never stepped foot on the Prydwen so didn't join the Brotherhood either. The Railroad didn't care at all about his raider connections. They were happy he is as tough as his reputation. Siding with the Institute prevents yet another giant radioactive crater being created on the map whi

I named this fellow Dutch after another morally complex video game villain. He's average in everything but combat and infiltration skills. He relies on persuasion when the situation warrants. He prefers lethal  sniping to in person combat.  Ex military, he had been managing PTSD with medication and a solid family relationship. He woke up in a hellscape and was tormented by memories of his wife's murder and his son's kidnapping. He soon developed a chem addiction. He desperately wanted to find his son but this was complicated by distrust and increasing paranoia. His best friend is a dog he found at a service station and he maintains his true Commonwealth base there. He did do some odd jobs around Diamond City but some of those went bad and he decided to strike out and look for information on his own. The Commonwealth is a very dangerous place and he partnered with Cait until she got too close. He is much more comfortable with robots and synths. Jackass comments cover his dis

 This character was meant to avoid faction and main quest lines until Nuka World had been taken over and two Raider factions had established at least a presence in the Commonwealth. Then the player character would meet and ally with the Institute. This wasn't at all difficult to achieve but there was one thing I didn't consider. When Nuka World came out it was assumed that players already had many developed settlements available to support raider outposts and would just continue playing whether it made any kind of role playing sense or not. By the time we installed Nuka World I had invested too many hours for a restart. I did explore Nuka World and did some quests but my aspirational, diplomatic female lone survivor could not abide slavery and she took the quest path that killed them all. Other than create new antagonistic faction NPCs, this action had no real impact on the game world. I didn't think I was missing any compelling content either. I really didn't know that

I have gone from rarely taking screenshots to seeing photo ops everywhere. This was taken during Chapter 4 right after we learn how torn Arthur is between loyalty to the gang and a yearning for a life of his own. I hadn't noticed the sit prompt there before but the photo really seemed to fit the moment.  

 About a week and a half ago I did a new PC build. The 2012 five hundred dollar build I complain about has been definitely failing. Significantly more was spent this time partly because electronic parts are more expensive right now but mostly because I wanted something better. I will describe it as a medium gaming build. Not high end but included all the contemporary niceties. Things went well. It powered up and everything worked. Unfortunately, I soon began to question my sensor readings and turned to tech support for the motherboard. Long story short, I have to RMA the board. Sigh. This caused some blogging disruption. I haven't been on the PS4 at all. I have been doing lots of stress testing, playing more recent and/or CPU intensive games and reading saved sensor logs. The old computer is hooked back up now so I'll be getting back to Fallout 4. Here's hoping I can get that new system going.

 I just liked this gory screenshot of Hancock and the Sole Survivor for some reason.

 Oh dear. All other projects have come to a halt. I kept telling myself it could wait when it was downloading on Tuesday. Yeah that didn't happen. Then I was just going to "check it out". I think I'm about half way through it now. And of course, I had to celebrate finding a scooter.

  I just learned that River, Dogmeat's real life character actor has passed on. I took this screenshot recently because I thought it was so cute. She added so much to the game. My current character has made Red Rocket his home base because that's where he found Dogmeat and along with two robots, she's guarding his prized possessions. My sympathies to Joel Burgess, River's owner and companion.

  This is what happens when you have no science skills. I have been investing more in combat skills but it's impossible to avoid settlement building altogether. After taking over the Nuka World Raiders, I teamed up with the Railroad to build the teleporter to the Institute. I needed 27 power but the biggest generator I could build was only worth 5 power. There are a number of ways you could cobble this together but I went with 4 large generators and 3 windmills because there is so much water at this settlement. It was fun trying to hook it all together but it worked.

Moose are a bit of a joke in RDR2 because they are a rare spawn for some players. They haven't been for me but something usually goes wrong. The pelt will be poor quality, the moose escapes or I crash into it with an elite Arabian. Recently one became obscured from view by a sudden very dense fog rolling in. So this darn perfect pelt has become an obsession through two playthroughs. Yesterday a moose appeared just as Arthur was leaving Wallace Station. This time he was riding a Mustang and not an Arabian so no crashes and thanks to the buck trinket a good pelt converted to perfect. I wasn't monkeying around with this. I didn't think about taking photos or saving video. I saved the game, went directly back to Wallace Station and took a train to the nearest trapper camp. I couldn't even remember what I wanted it for so badly. The trapper catalogue reminded me that I needed the pelt to craft the Legendary Pronghorn coat which is not even legitimately obtainable until the g

 I rage quit. It took a long time to get to this point but I am frequently distracted by games on the PS4 and sports on the television. The sad part is I am right at end game. I knew that the finale would be especially difficult but I guess it was just one infuriating battle/puzzle combo too many and I still had a number of big bads to go. Hopefully, I will calm down and get back to it but for now I have returned to my Fallout 4 raider replay until that enterprise ticks me off.

While posting photos from my current RDR2 replay, I realized I was about to obliterate all other content here. So I have moved most RDR2 related content to RPG Tourist's Red Dead Redemption Horseback Tour  . For now it's just story mode RDR2 content but I have left the door open for RDO or the original RDR. Yee Haw.

Occasionally you can find some amusing NPCS.

Nothing makes me laugh more in a video game than failing catastrophically especially if in game characters remark on it. Watch Dogs Legion was unusually forgiving in this showcase of game play terribleness. I progressed from one mission to the next even though I failed to follow any mission directives. Next comes a display of the poor driving skills I mentioned in the previous post. After using a taxi to obstruct the target vehicle failed three times, I thought commandeering a bus would solve my problems. The game however had given up on me entirely and decided to move me on once again. How else did law enforcement lose sight of a double decker? Note to self. Raise barriers after passing them not before. Bagley's dry commentary and operative Sharon's typically cheerful and profane optimism is just icing on the cake.

  Many NPCs have unusual abilities. Some are useful and some seem to be for entertainment. I tried panhandling with this fellow. He made a little money but it wasn’t that much fun. He did have one of the busiest schedules I have seen. He also had some insights into illicit drugs which I suppose will happen if you hang around docks begging for work all day. My experiments were as haphazard as usual. They amounted to me just playing the game, trying things out and learning the rules as I went. I tried to convince several NPCs to stop hating DedSec but never succeeded. I also set out to make as many social connections as possible by helping citizens. I disabled harassing drones, got them priority medical treatment and rescued them from Albion security. My operatives got very good at escaping. I tried to find interesting operatives by recruiting NPCs’ every associate and rival. That didn’t necessarily lead to any great operatives but caused some interesting conflicts. I tried to annoy a h

  Entered this lovely garden which immediately tried to destroy me. We got through Chapter 3 just fine and crashed into Chapter 4. I was feeling quite empowered but have now returned to the Reaper's Coast style of inching along and seeking out survivable objectives. At least we have lots of money to spend on more interface clutter because we do need it. I was trying to find a source fountain but according to a wiki it's in the place that I was having problems getting into. I gave up and looked up the solution but I probably don't want to go there yet anyway so we'll just have to vampire it for now. Something seems to be happening that has rarely happened in a game if ever. Even if my player character begins to doubt their mission, I never do. Yet that's what is happening. The elf is keeping up appearances but we're not really sure where all this going. It's been uncomfortable enough wandering through the landscape without wondering if we really should be. I&

Curiosity got the better of me today and I did their survey. They claim I am one of 350,000. Not a huge number considering actual video game sales but a sizeable enough sample I guess. I describe myself as enthusiastically casual but according to my profile that is wrong. I am an Architect/Bounty Hunter. Architect: "My Empire Begins With This Village". Bounty Hunter: "High Octane, Solo World Exploration". That isn't exactly right either but to be fair, I spend a heck of lot more time picking out companion gear than I spent doing this survey. Maybe I 'm just enthusiastically casual about surveys.  My gamer motivation profile is closer. "Analytical, Relaxed, Independent and Immersed" also sounds suspiciously like compulsive blogging motivations. Their site does have some interesting articles to read but when I looked at their client list and testimonials none of them seemed to make games an Architect/Bounty Hunter would be inclined to play. So maybe

 Warning:  Large image background download. Click or touch images to view full size. I am still engaged with deep profiler experiments. I get running around so much I miss many sights and sounds of the city. Checking out art would be a nice break, I thought. You could do this for hours and I had to force myself to stop. My favourites are broken up into four posts. Leake Street This motif is seen in other places but this one is a favourite. The walls here are covered with this kind of work. A couple of more examples are posted below. Leake Street Leake Street The Three Hawker Boys This looks more geometric and abstract to me. It's another style than can be seen around London. Part 2

 Warning:  Large image background download. Click or touch images to view full size. Bankside Playhouse A more traditional art display. Bankside Playhouse The Old Barley Mill Stockwell War Bunker Oh cool! Caught one in action. Part 3

 Warning:  Large image background download. Click or touch images to view full size. South Bank Atrium All kinds of neat things to look at in this location unfortunately surrounding a restricted area. Camden High Street Camden seems to be the place to go for stunning building art. Another example below. Furzton Tower Block The Old Barley Mill Here's a cool one in the Tower Hamlets district. Part 4

Warning: Large image background download. Stockwell War Bunker An example of resistance art. Old Canal Warehouse Ubisoft artists are really great at creating these faded messterpieces featuring familiar styles, expressions of despair and new superimposed on old. I was surprised by the variety when I went looking for examples. Robert E Scott Hall Sadly, it's tough to find flashes of beauty amidst refuse but this little bit of joy caught my eye.

 The crew is finally headed to the next chapter far stronger than when they arrived. Their roles and character are also much more defined. Like it's a role playing game. I think I'm getting it. Joking aside, I have spent a lot of my time poring over party stats and abilities, carefully equipping them with complementary gear. I am even categorizing items stored on the Lady Vengeance by stuffing them into individual back packs. That's tedious. The results so far: My main character is a chatty, empathetic and visionary shadowblade elf with disgusting eating habits. She dual wields magic daggers. She really doesn't want to stab everything she sees and persuading people is her main job. Sadly, violence frequently breaks out even when she succeeds. Enemies are at risk of being transformed into chickens after she beats them down a bit. Still she has managed to achieve the hero tag. She cheerfully encourages the erudite lizard warrior Red Prince even though he's actually th

 But where do I park my car?  Yes I am delighted that my favourite conveyance is so readily available on London's streets. Delighted to the point of cocky. Otherwise I am quite intrigued by the deep profiler. It took me a while to even understand it properly but I am starting to experiment with it. I may or may not have a lot to say about it later. Legion isn't as much goofy fun as Watch Dogs 2 but I am very much enjoying the process of infiltrating restricted areas. 

The main antagonist has been sent off to jail now and I'm so happy I'm making a list. Preferred playstyle: Trickster/ghost. Favourite characters: Marcus and Josh. Favourite vehicle: Muh scooter. I can't believe I missed the bottom jump because of that bike in the way.  Favourite game feature: Photo mode.  It's limited compared to more recent games but I love how it's integrated into game play. Games usually include simple quests to facilitate exploration and discovery but I really liked the ScoutX photography missions. It's a welcome change from "please search for that missing person who's probably dead" or "I need you to fetch me something is really the gist of this time consuming story". Favourite location:  San Francisco. Yeah the whole thing.  Favourite NPC interactions:  Occasionally a gang war erupts right where the player needs to start a mission. It changes the whole scenario. Loved that. I sometimes stopped to gawk at multi-car p

Dumpster fire. That's how it's going.  As you can see by the currently visible toolbar, I am overwhelmed by items and skills. There's a whole lot more not visible. I am a great lover of OC inventory management but this is intense. Left to my own devices, I fail to reveal important clues and quest items, wander off into areas where I am under-leveled, die in relatively lengthy battles and quit. I am still on Chapter 3 and expect to be there for awhile. Guides, maps and forums it is then. 

  This is just one of the many head turning moments I have experienced so far in Watch Dogs 2. I got off to a bit of a rough start. After finally surviving the introductory mission, I tried to talk to some nerds in a game shop but accidentally slapped one around instead. Law enforcement was called.  I developed a distressing habit of shooting up hotel rooms in Red Dead Redemption 2 and got pretty used to waiting  in the lobby for the sheriff and agreeing to leave the area. Not in San Francisco. Player character Marcus actually put his hands up and tried to surrender but nooo, nerd slapping ends you apparently in this game. In fact, you never quite know what all you can get away with. It depends on the NPCs. I tried to do a main mission but failed repeatedly. When I looked it up, I realized that I was likely to just continue failing and decided to explore the city for a while. It turns out that this is just the ideal game for me. You get rewarded for being a tourist and taking photos. H

  I just really like taking photos of horses. Update 04/15/21  I have the impression that some folks are arriving here looking for actual help so I'll try to be helpful for a change. There are known issues that prevent quests from progressing and/or updating in the quest log. No quest objective appearing after pledging to Hamtunscire could definitely result in an empty log if you've done everything else.    Assassin's Creed Valhalla - Known Issues [Updated April 1]  Developers plan to address issues listed in future updates. You can also refer to  Reported Issue Megathread List | Please check here for your issue! [UPDATED 12/04] , Besides waiting for an update, the only solutions I can think of are ones players have probably already tried such as restarting the game or loading an earlier save. My log is empty because I have simply finished all major quests and objectives. If you enjoy viewing video game horse photos and gameplay fail videos or reading debatable opinions fee