Where did you quit in Fallout 2? I love it but the opening hours are pretty rough, even fans of it meme about the temple of trials and the general first few hours.

I do definitely think you’re right that FO2 defined the franchise, it’s where they moved from a slightly more grim and serious post-apocalyptic tone in the first game to a more humourous style with more pop culture references and wacky stuff. Fans or the first two games tend to be divided over that, with some saying Fallout 1 is superior because of the different tone. I can see the argument, but I love Fallout 2 personally.

There are some great mods for it too, not just Restoration Project Updated but Talking Heads and Talking Heads Actually Talk are both incredible fan made mods that blend right in.

Okay, fair enough haha!

Also I love Finland for the record, the joke was just right there you know…

Interesting. Haven’t heard of that but it looks neat. Might be the type of game I’d rather watch a Let’s Play of than play myself, though. Also…

the voice acting and dialogue feels … I dunno, it’s not “bad”, but it feels a bit “off”, like it’s written by “semi-edgy artsyfartsy” type, and the dialogue is performed by aliens who only got the tldr version of how to act human.

are you sure they’re not just… Finnish?

Rise of the Ronin

I’ve been hooked on the open world slop juice. Honestly having a great time with it and I am kind of perplexed it didn’t get better reviews. The combat is really good, there are some charming characters in the cast and the open world is not any better or any worse than your garden variety Ubisoft style open world game. I also quite enjoy the historical aspect of the story and while it isn’t a documentary or anything it’s still anchored in real events and authentic characters from the period.

The combat is the star though and it does have the special Team Ninja sauce I would say. I have some minor quibbles with it (enemy tracking is too accurate, especially when you’ve rapidly changed direction through some movement ability) but overall it’s incredibly satisfying. The pace is super high and frenetic in some boss fights, at least if you’re trying to play to your maximum. Boss attacks come fast and unrelenting and require you to parry, and when it’s your time to punish you can squeeze out maximum performance by attacking at a similar pace, switching stances and weapons constantly and weaving martial arts. I’ve had some insanely hectic and satisfying duels in the Dojo.

Also the Dojo is a great feature, allowing you to fight 1-on-1 and even replay certain bosses, all in a setting where gear is neutralized, your items are limited to 5 healing item uses only and you don’t have access to your pistol or rifle. It’s a great balance where in the story missions you can breeze past bosses through buffs, tons of healing items, using your allies to help and using your guns, but then you still have the Dojo as a true test of skill.

I had no idea this game existed tbh. Is this a cult classic I had missed?

Glad to hear you’re liking Chrono Ark! I think it’s an absolute banger and a must play for roguelike deckbuilder fans. I still need to finish it up by getting to 100% and getting the true ending.

Rise of the Ronin has really hooked me. I don’t know what it is about it or if it is just that I was craving some open world slop, but it’s hitting all the right spots in my brain currently. I think the Team Ninja special sauce in the combat helps keep me interested - there is quite a lot of depth and opportunity to optimise and style on your enemies and it also feels very rewarding doing so. Getting into a fast flow where you’re constantly swapping styles and weapons to use martial art techniques while weaving in parries gets really frenetic and fun.

Overall for my tastes it feels like a better version of Ghost or Tsushima. Now don’t get me wrong: I’m not arguing objectivity here. Tsushima looks better, has better presentation and is way better optimised. I’m just having more fun with Ronin than I did with Ghost.

It also helps to have some more charm and levity among the characters and writing instead of every single thing being delivered in a dour and serious monotone like in GoT.

The final dream is my favourite moment in all of gaming. Complete heart wrenching and beautifully written, and really kind of pulling the whole game into focus and making all the pieces click into place at once. I still can’t believe they made it so easily missable too, as it’s kind of the fulcrum the whole game is balanced on.

It also never ceases to amaze me how Robert Kurvitz managed to distill the entire pathos of the whole game into three words to close it out, too.

Well, probably will need a bit of a break after this one. I get fatigued if I play too many of these in a row, same with Soulslikes.

How much better is Yotei to Tsushima, or is it just more of the same? I thought Tsushima was okay but I’m less high on it than most people. Especially the writing wore me down with the constant dour monotone delivery and serious tone. It was also too long for how little variety it had in both writing and quest design.

I don’t know, maybe it’s just because I relate to him but I do kind of like Harry. Yes, he’s not a regular “good person”, but he’s also much more complex than just a “bad guy”. He’s flawed, tragic and ultimately incredibly human. I think he’s a fantastic character, just like most characters in Disco Elysium.

Matrix still misses a ton of features to be a direct 1:1 Discord replacement. On top of that Fluxer has a familiar UI (it’s essentially just a Discord clone) and is simpler in onboarding (Matrix is still techy).

Federation and easy self hosting will be killer for sure. There is already a Discord migration bot and a Discord-Fluxer bridge bot I think. Future is looking hopeful.

Can’t wait until Fluxer is ready for full migration from Discord.

I have half an idea of going back and replaying Underground 2 and Most Wanted (2005) some day but with mods. I think both have RTX Remix mods by now? Regardless, great games.

I got sidetracked this last week. The plan was twofold: finish Chrono Ark (first ending) and finish Ninja Gaiden 4 to get ready for the DLC that dropped a day ago.

Instead I got completely hooked on Rise of the Ronin. It’s been a hot minute since I played some Open World Slop and it is hitting me just right. With all the shit going on right now it’s been pleasant to have some mind numbing collect-a-thon gameplay, at least thus far.

The comparisons to Ghost of Tsushima are very natural to make, but honestly I’m personally preferring Ronin. GoT wins in graphics and presentation, but the combat in Ronin is a lot more fun and deep. Both use stance switching in a sort of rock-paper-scissors system, but Ronin has a lot more skill expression given that the stance relationships only matter defensively. You counter the enemy stance while parrying, but you’re free to use whatever when going on the offensive. I find this much more satisfying than the GoT system of “pick the right stance and win”, and Ronin also has a lot more active skills to use, especially when you start chaining stance and weapon switching mid combat.

In terms of writing I am still fairly early in the story, but I like the use of authentic history and real historical characters and one thing again where I prefer Ronin over GoT is that there is a bit more humour, levity and charm to the characters. GoT is fine with its writing but everything is so serious and dour all the time and delivered in an almost monotone way that it just wore me out over the playthrough.

More buzz for Titanium Court huh? I am staying unspoiled so I can enjoy it later if it turns out as good as people say, but man I’ve heard so much talk about it lately.

Oh I am intimately familiar with Viva New Vegas and the general modding scene, I’ve spent probably several hundred hours over the years modding New Vegas. Hence my apprehension.

One the one hand F:NV is a broken mess that could seriously use a once-over… but one the other I shudder at the thought of all the mods this might break.

I think the BP parallels came from the combination of the art style, it being set in a vast mansion and a “daily energy” mechanic. I can definitely see it from the outside even though it seems like they play nothing alike.

I’m trying to keep myself unspoiled on Titanium Court as it’s getting such buzz about its writing and world building, but definitely curious. I liked the reveal trailer video though.

Definitely jump right in at Chaos Theory. One of the best stealth games ever, and actually maybe just games ever full stop. One of my favourite games at least, for sure. You may need to do some fixes if playing on PC, but it’s worth it - especially restoring EAX.