Be Excellent To Each Other

I am now replaying Mirrrs Errrrdj Currttttt.

RE2 Romping through with Claire. Acid/Flame rounds

Started Sekiro

first steps can be seen here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/429203569

As you can see, I'm awesome at this.

Goddamn weeaboo

I am still playing Celeste. 1,200 deaths later I am currently in the mirror temple. I have 39 strawberries.

Rather than continue to get annoyed with Team Sonic Racing on XB1X, I installed Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed and OutRun2 Coast2Coast on the media centre PC*, so I can play them on the big telly.

Both are better games than Team Sonic Racing, and both run at the required bombproof 60FPS that these games demand. Admittedly OR2C2C is ancient now so you'd expect that, but I wasn't sure how All Stars Racing would run, but that's fine at 1080p all maxed out.

* I hadn't quite twigged that the GTX960 in the media centre PC is actually a fairly modern card, (released early 2015), and for games like All Stars Racing, which harks back to 2012/2013, its relatively puny specs by today's standards, and only 2GB VRAM, aren't a problem at all.

OutRun2 Coast2Coast solid for the last two evenings. I don't care that it looks like an original XBox game (which of course, is what it is) - it's fucking brilliant.

Trying to get AAA rankings in all the challenges is massively fun, often frustrating, but always fair.

Only way to get this game now is to get an original XBox with the game on disc. IIRC it came out on PS2 as well, so there's that option.

(If you previously purchased it on Steam it'll let you reinstall it as many times as you like, but you can't buy it any more and haven't been able to for years.)

I think the visuals have aged pretty well though - it's still a great-looking game.

I'm currently still working my way through the tour mode on Golf Club 2019. I think I'll end up buying it once it's out of the Games With Gold offer. One oddity is that for a game with huge levels of detail in certain aspects, like skin ...



there is a distinct lack of choice of haircuts...



And I had to win a few tournaments before I unlocked some glasses for my character too.

As for the golf bits, it's bringing back lots of nice memories of PGA Tour Golf II, but with everything souped up.

Is that Craster's next incarnation?

I was thinking it had a certain Crasterishness to it.

I'm mopping up the last few che.. sorry, trophies (tut) in Mirrrs Erdddj Currttt. Plus I'm finishing off Skyrim this week hopefully. Probably the last time I'll play that now.

This week, everything was Subnautica [PC]. I’m totally hooked on this. If you don’t know it: it’s a first-person survival game (crash on a planet, scavenge resources to build gear to scavenge rarer resources to build better gear etc) with the twist that the game is set underwater. You’re in the middle of the ocean and you’re diving down past bizarre and intimidating alien sea creatures and exploring a variety of underwater biomes.

In theory this is a well-worn formula but it’s surprising how having free access to the z-axis can really change the feel of a game.

Also, it’s really pretty -- and not just for the sake of it, but in the name of excellent atmosphere building. From sun-dappled shallows with abundant fish and coral reefs you go deeper and deeper into the gloom, finding weirder and weirder creatures, the hull of your little microsub creaking alarmingly as you approach crush depth… Yeah, it’s good.

Some nits, though:

(1) Like a lot of survival games, it tells you very little and you have to muck around to find out how things work; also, unlocking various craftable things relies on finding randomly scattered fragments of technology. My brain isn’t good at this. I get worried I’m going to waste some precious rare resource on something useless and I get frustrated when the random fragment drops aren’t going well for me. So I looked some stuff up, but accidentally read some spoilers, which ended up sucking some impact out of some big moments in the game. I’d advise anyone playing to either be more self-disciplined than me or have someone on hand who knows the game who they can ask very specific questions and who will give the minimal amount of information back.

(2) Also like a lot of survival games, inventory space and storage space is an issue. I did ten hours before it became too fiddly for me to persist with at which point I snapped and installed some quality-of-life mods (PC only) that helped a lot. An automap, larger inventory and storage boxes, the ability for the crafting interface to draw resources from nearby storage boxes instead of only from my inventory -- this dramatically reduced the amount of time I was shuffling things around rather than out in the depths being spooked by sea monsters.

Subnautica is a great game. Very effective in VR.

But...

For some reason they force the pda right into your face in vr, far too close to read. This makes it impossible to play, but still OK to wander round, look at the prettyand be amazed at the scale of everything.

I've heard this, probably from you. I don't have PC VR though.

Last I looked, this was shit, but that was some time ago. Maybe it's good enough to be worth trying now...

The telling very little is what really endeared me to it. The exploration and finding the lumps of tech around to scan were my favourite bits. The location of everything, resource rocks included, isn't random though. It's all very much planned. The main thing I found myself running out of was lithium as the first source you come across only has 50 or so lumps of it and I wanted to reinforce my Aqua Den.

The fragments are semi-randomised, or so I've read. They have a chance of dropping in particular biomes and at particular wrecks, but only a chance. In my case, I'd played for hours without seeing any fragments of the

and by the time I got it, I already had more than half a dozen blueprints that needed it, including important ones like


It felt a lot like I'd been unlucky to wait so long for that.

I was quite fastidious in combing the ocean floor. IIRC Dave didn't get the until quite late.

Spoilered, more detailed update on my progress:

Dammit I want to play it again now!

I played Hearthstone. Then OutRun2 Coast2Coast, and then I watched a film.

OR2C2C is better than Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed which is better than Team Sonic Racing.

So even though OR2C2C is basically an original XBox game, and Sonic All Stars is a 360 game, and Team Sonic Racing is a SUPER SHINY XB1X ENHANCED game, out of the three I'd rather play OR2C2C, so that's what I did.

I spent all my OutRun Miles buying all the music from the shop, I'll worry about buying more cars later.

I’m still playing Morrowind, Celeste and Rocket League.

Despite the lacklustre combat, laughable character models, obtuse levelling system, rubbish UI and lack of fast travel, I’ve put 24 hours into Morrowind now. I can see why it’s revered as the best Elder Scrolls game, even if it is really showing its age now.

Nearly 2,000 deaths into Celeste and I’m pretty sure I’m on the last level now. I’m still swearing a lot. It’s still brilliant but maddening.

Within touching distance of Diamond rank in Snow Day mode in Rocket League.

Sorting out the permaloaned PSP ready to take on holiday. Outrun Coast 2 Coast, New Zealand Story & Rastan Saga

I seem to be particularly indecisive at the moment, hamstrung by FOMO whenever I have a spare hour to put into gaming.

As such, last night I decided to scratch an itch for immediate gratification with 15 minutes on Nex Machina, followed by 45 minutes on What Remains of Edith Finch.

I feel there's an enormous amount that lies beneath the surface of Nex Machina. I don't understand how secrets work, how scoring works. What I do know is I'm launching hellfire on lots of goons and rescuing fat green humanoids. Will focus on trying to complete the first world without using a continue, and see what presents itself.

What Remains of Edith Finch - not usually one to grump about performance, but this runs like a dog on PS4. Very juddery and my PS4 sounds like it's about to take off. Anyway, I love the setting and the atmosphere and how they've woven the story in.



It took a while for Firewatch to grab me but in the end it did. I expect this to do the same.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. PS4
This is the first Assassin’s Creed game I’ve played in many years and it’s notable in how it has evolved since the first few versions. This iteration like the earlier versions has a very well resolved game world and it looks very pretty. The game has changed to the point that this feels like a very large adventure game with plenty to do, with many role-play elements, particularly around skills and weapons which can be improved with experience and currency.
It’s a large game and as the world opens out it’s clearly sign posted where you should and shouldn’t go with as yet unexplored areas of the map having suggested levels for completion. The mechanics are pretty well sorted and the combat is pretty straightforward to start with with plenty of room to adjust your character to fight the way you want. I particularly like Ikarus your familiar eagle which you can control to scope out areas for combat and to tag enemies and places of interest.
So far I’m enjoying it a lot, and I suspect it’s going to take a long time to get through as the solo game looks massive.

I put about 80 hours into the previous one, Origins, which is far and away the most time I've ever spent on a single game; and Odyssey is bigger again.

I’ve got that as well! Picked it up very cheap in a PS store sale. Might get around to playing it in about a years time I think

Did you not spend close to that on Bloodborne?

Nah, I think it was only 40 on Bloodborne, which at the time was the most I'd ever spent.

*Looks at Steam hours played counter for Rimworld*

*Gulps*

I have 1,000+ in-sim hours on iRacing. Next up is Rocket League with 400, and I played that on PS4 for two years first.

I think PUBG is next with 100 or something.

I know I hit 124 hours on Dark Souls 3, probably similar amounts on the other Souls games too.

Does PSN keep track of it all?

Go on.

Sadly (or gladly, depending on how you feel about tracking how much of your life you’ve wasted) not.

I've sunk aboot 2500 hours into Elite Dangerous. None of it life wasted.

I liked AssCreeOdd. But as with Origonks I failed to finish it. The fecking boss fights were wearisome.

Just shy of 400 hours.

Oh. You made it sound more impressive.

I think I got to around 2000 hours in WoW. That's a lot of dancing on mailboxes.

WoW for me is 5658 hours, although I quit earlier in the year, probably for good this time.

The new expansion is out in... I dunno... Under 2 years.

WoW Classic out next!

I’ve never played WoW and probably never will. Not sure MMOs are for me because MMOs are quite probably for me.

I honestly think I'm done with 'new style' WoW. But...... *



* Classic has definitely piqued my interest, if Mrs Hearthly and Jnr are up for it we may well all roll chars on Classic and get going on that.

(Mrs Hearthly and Jnr still play WoW daily, but the modern game doesn't float my boat at all, on the other hand I'm not sure the harshness of old WoW would appeal to them, as they like the 'easy ride' that modern WoW gives the player.)

Blizzard had to put out a list of “these are features not bugs” recently because Beta players were reporting them so often.

Yeah, totally understand that. MMOs can get very unhealthy!
Sometimes abstinence is the right choice.

Also I've been eyeing up ESO.

Holy shit! That’s 2 years at 8hrs a day, give or take

Don't encourage them! We'll never get a new single-gonk campaggen otherwise!

See every time you've told me something about yourself and also the first time every woman has seen you naked.