Old_Man_Harper

Great game but whenever I played it seemed to be winter! Living in the north of England I get enough winter anyway. It was like looking out of the window…

After completing the story mode (the final episode was a bit linear, but I suppose that was necessary to wrap it up) I’m playing the survival mode of The Long Dark on Series X.

Fortunately, I spawned in a fairly familiar area, but struggled for a few days from lack of a knife or hatchet. I’d just found the latter when I was attacked by a bear! It was only after I made good my escape that I realised I’d dropped the hatchet and my flare gun so I had to go back to get them. The bear was still there, so I built a fire a short distance away and waited for it to go away. However, the fire in fact attracted the bear towards me, so I legged it, then looped round and got my hatchet and flare gun back. Good, ‘emergent gameplay’ stuff, but in future I’m going to give bears as wide a berth as possible.

Avatar: The Burning Earth is my embarrassing one - back in the 360 days we used to pass the disc of it around because you could get all 1,000 achievements in about 2 minutes!

Yes, I remember playing Call of the Sea about the time of the second COVID lockdown when nothing was getting released. I quite enjoyed it - I don’t know how I missed the Lovecraft reference in the title!

Cyberpunk 2077 on Series X. Just finished the Phantom Liberty DLC which I thought was really good, possibly the best thing CDPR have done and totally integrated into the main game.

One thing I’ve enjoyed this time is that they’ve added an auto drive toggle for vehicles. I never cared for the driving so tended to use fast travel. Using it means the vehicle will drive itself to a checkpoint while you get to enjoy the view of Night City.

Hope everyone enjoys the long weekend! 🙂

The Long Dark is well worth a go if you haven’t tried it. I was going to say that they should have finally released the last chapter of the story mode by now, but it turns out they haven’t - it releases tomorrow, nearly 8 years after the first chapter was released! A good excuse to have another go.

Cyberpunk 2077 on Series X. My first playthrough since the game was launched - they have certainly improved it a lot since then and I’m looking forward to the Phantom Liberty expansion.

I’m also very tempted to spend some reward points on Life is Strange Reunion, but I really should get through Cyberpunk first!

Witcher 3 on Series X. Finished the main story last week and got a different ending to my first play through by making damn certain Nilfgaard won the war. Also finished the Hearts of Stone DLC which I enjoyed, but I’m now onto Blood and Wine, which I have to say I prefer because of the new setting. Combat is a lot tougher in the DLCs than the main game and you do need to think more about what you’re doing, which signs to use in order to win fights.

Hope everyone has a good weekend! 🙂

I wanted to enjoy it, but I found it to be just a great steaming pile of words. It never used one if it could use fifty. Like reading the output of a really poor creative writing class. That’s just me. Others may like it! 😁

Witcher 3 on Series X. I’ve played it before but that was on Xbox One. The S/X edition looks great and you get the achievements all over again. Also - apart from the Bloody Baron quest, I’ve forgotten much else of what happened, so it’s as good as a new game. 🙂

He must have made a tidy pile over the years. If I were him I’d have hit the golf course a while ago. Nobody ever lay on their deathbed thinking ‘I wish I’d worked more’.

@Gemini53 By the end of the game my Henry was going into fights strutting like Archie Cunningham in Rob Roy even without armour. I hit Erik with about nine master strikes in succession!

@Sheppard Once you get some decent armour (I’d also recommend a shield until your character is strong enough for a longsword) and learn Master Strike, combat becomes easier, but it’s never easy to fight two or more enemies, and I guess it never would be in real life. So if in doubt, leg it…

Tip: take your time and try to develop every skill, and don’t rush the main quest, especially early on.

KCD2 is a total belter, one of the best games I’ve ever played, but you can’t rush it. I would advise doing a lot of side quests and activities and levelling up in the early stages, especially before doing the ‘wedding crashers’ quest. Otherwise, enjoy!

Kingdom Come: Deliverance on Series X. Henry is currently investigating some dodgy goings-on at a monastery. Much more confident with swordplay now I have learned the Master Strike (done differently in KCD2). Very much enjoying it, but miss the quality of life enhancements of 2, especially being able to swap between 3 outfits.

I buy myself a nice house, an expensive watch and a flashy sports car.

So she’s been a big part of their AI project. Well, if Copilot is anything to go by… 😐

Playing KCD, which looks a lot nicer with refreshed graphics.

I’m very pleased with myself at acquiring a lovely set of armour after I saw some bandits kill a fellow in the ruins of Skalitz. I got them to chase me, kited them out of town then turned and galloped back past them, looted the dead man and ‘got out of Dodge’ before they caught up with me. 😁

I’m interested by Death Howl, which looks like one of those games that you bounce off in ten minutes or end up playing for 500 hours.

Absolutely! If I’m not dead I’ll be there on day one on Series X.

@Nightcrawler71 Yes, rather than using my ‘Henry’s Saviour Schnapps’ to save, I mostly used it with Artemisia for the stat buff before going into a fight.

Yes, but the game has a way of letting you find about half a dozen of them in your pocket pretty quickly, so you have enough to tide you over until you can make your own. There were only a very few occasions in both my play throughs when I felt the lack of them.

@Fiendish-Beaver yes - to save in-game you need to drink ‘Saviour Schnapps’. It isn’t hard to get hold of and once you are good at alchemy, your own brew not only saves but gives you stat buffs (and you make six in one go). Alternatively, you can sleep in a bed or just save and quit, which doesn’t need a potion. It’s basically the way the game gets you into alchemy.

I’ve played KCD2 for nearly 500 hours, so safe to say I think it’s an all-timer! It plays very similarly to the first game and is a direct continuation of it, but has much improved quality of life elements and the combat is more streamlined.

Unfortunately, the premise means that the game is probably going to attract a bashing from the types who rush to leave one star reviews of Game Pass games they haven’t played.

I finished Resident Evil Village, which I enjoyed while it lasted, but I doubt I’d play it again.

I’m currently engrossed with Talos Principle 2 on Game Pass. It’s very satisfying when you solve what originally looked like an impossible puzzle, also the story is interesting.

If I’m in the mood, I might play a bit more Indika as well. Have a nice weekend!

But they don’t appear to have done anything about the sewer that is the reviews of Game Pass games. Every game - no matter how well it was reviewed by people who actually bought it or played it - seems to get bombarded with 1-star reviews and childish comments.

I enjoyed RE Village and am currently enjoying Talos Principle 2, but haven’t had the opportunity to try any of the other ones yet. A good month all told and I gave it an A.

More Resident Evil Village. Got past what I found to be a fairly tiresome part wandering around a dark house full of dolls owned by a loony who’d seen Dead of Night too many times. I was glad to see the back of her. Now back in the open being chased by some sort of werewolf thing.

Good that those of us on Team Green have been able to put our shoulders to the wheel for the future of managed democracy. I’ve had great fun with it, a great game to enjoy with booze and friends. Glad it has been a big hit for them.

@Nightcrawler71 I find that coating my sword and arrows with my own very strong bane poison adds an extra edge to my combat ability. One hit and they’re a dead man walking!

@Nightcrawler71 Yep, that’s the last main quest in Trosky - you can still go back there for any unfinished activities after you get to the Kuttenberg map, so no need to do everything first.

I thought I’d give Resident Evil: Village a go and am enjoying it a lot. I wouldn’t call it scary, but it’s entertaining. The start rips off RE4, you get chased round a village by some characters who look like the morlocks from the 1960 Time Machine film and a big bloke off the cover of a bad 80s metal album. Then a bell tolled and off they all went. I enjoyed getting chased round a castle by an impressively Amazonian woman, but it was always going to end in tears.

“We’re spending a ton of money on our so-far deeply disappointing AI efforts and we need to maximise every other income stream to support it.”

I thought Double Exposure was okay, nothing more, although it had some good moments. I thought it was a risk bringing Max back because people would inevitably want Chloe too. To be honest, I think they should’ve just come up with new characters, it didn’t hurt True Colors to do so, it’s probably the best in the series.

@Nightcrawler71 The wedding mission is a total blast isn’t it? I loved the one directly after, too, although if you’ve levelled the right stats up beforehand you can do it pretty easily.

More KCD2 on Series X. I’m doing the Legacy of the Forge DLC. Basically, you must renovate an old forge and raise your standing as a master craftsman. There is quite a lot of forging, as you might imagine, but a lot of the commissions you receive from customers turn into entertaining side quests.

@Nightcrawler71 Yes, they’ll all help. It’s not that tough - land a few good ones on him and he’ll call it quits. After that, it sounds like you’re definitely ready to go to the wedding and really get the plot rolling.

@Nightcrawler71 Yeah, he beat me bloody the first time I tried it too! If you’ve got some decentish armour, keep blocking, countering and leaping back and let him come at you. Blocking and then leaping forward to get behind him also works. Don’t try trading blows with him unless you’re very strong.

@Nightcrawler71 Have you got Tomcat to teach you Master Strike yet? Combat gets easier once you do, it’s still tricky against more than one opponent though!

I guess I’m getting near to the end of the Mysteria Ecclesiae DLC in KCD2, which I’ve enjoyed a lot - quite substantial for DLC, with plenty to do. After that, I’ll head back to Kuttenberg and do the Legend of the Forge DLC.

I bought myself a gaming laptop and - as I’m retiring in a couple of weeks - I’m going to try some of those monster strategy/war games that don’t really translate to console.

Happy New Year!

Rolled the credits on my second play through of KCD2 this morning. This time I got the good ending, which requires taking the tougher or more humane option at certain key points.

Now on to the ‘Mysteria Ecclesiae’ DLC, which takes place entirely in the confines of Sedletz Abbey, which isn’t accessible in the main game. As the name suggests, it’s a mystery and all weapons and armour have to be handed in on entry to the abbey. It should suit my Henry, as I focused on speech and scholarship.

More KCD2. I won a duelling contest, which is something I would have found unimaginable the first time I was in a sword fight!

@Nightcrawler71 a tip for lock picking is to rest the controller on your knee so you can use your right thumb and index finger on the thumb stick to get more control.

All my favourites on Xbox this year were ones I bought: KCD2, Helldivers 2, Jurassic World Evo 3, Lost Records, but I used reward points towards all of them.

I’m mixing working from home (i.e. laying on the sofa and occasionally glancing at my laptop) and replaying KCD2, with a focus on doing the side quests I didn’t do on my first time through.

@Nightcrawler71 It’s definitely not a 40-hour experience. More like 150-200. But goodness me I found it rewarding.

@Nightcrawler71 KCD2 is my GOTY - I’m just replaying it myself. My advice - you’ll soon start a main quest called ‘wedding crashers’ - DO NOT rush this quest. Before you go to the wedding take your time to learn the systems, do some blacksmithing and alchemy (you can easily earn money by doing the latter and you’ll soon be making multiple strong potions just by brewing once). Do side quests, read books, get drunk, play dice, explore. Grind some skills up. Get your horse back. Don’t fight armed people if you don’t have to - get some reasonable armour and learn some fighting skills - ‘master strike’ is a game changer.

My picks were:

1 - KCD2 (by a wide margin the best game I played this year)
2 - Helldivers 2
3 - Jurassic World Evolution 3
4 - Lost Records: Bloom and Rage
5 - Ball X Pit