Computerchairgeneral

This actually isn’t a terrible use of an LLM. It’s actually kind of refreshing to see a news story about a beneficial use of it in a very specific context.

Ridiculous, but depressingly unsurprising.

Been bouncing between Wizordum and Void Stranger over the last few days. Wizordum is a fun “boomer shooter” that takes a lot of inspiration from games like Hexen and I’ve been enjoying mowing down monsters with fireballs and a magical shotgun. Void Stranger I’m still not sure how I feel about. Heard it mentioned a few times as a very meta game with a lot of layers. In theory I like games like that. Figuring out the core puzzle gameplay of moving blocks around has been fun, even if I don’t consider myself that great at puzzles, but the meta stuff is riding that fine line between being just cryptic enough to be intriguing to being so cryptic that I’m not sure how I’m supposed to figure this out without a guide.

Glad to see the campaign still going strong. Almost being past the minimum threshold requirement for seven countries is impressive. Hopefully it can reach one million signatures, even if I’m a little skeptical about the EU taking this seriously and passing a decent law. Still, anything that keeps the topic on peoples minds is a good thing.

Sega is definitely winning the console war now.

I’ve been working my way through the Baldur’s Gate series after putting about ninety hours in BG3. BG1 was fun even if the story was a bit predictable and generic, although it did feel like playing through a DnD campaign. Really enjoyed Shadows of Amn, but Throne of Bhaal just turned into a slog at the end. I think the most interesting part of playing through the trilogy was watching Bioware’s style develop over the course of the three games. As someone who was introduced to Bioware through Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire I’ve always thought Bioware’s character writing stood out, especially in the old days, so it was a bit jarring to play through BG1 where the companions feel more like hirelings you pick up for their class rather than full-fledged characters. BG2 felt more like a classic Bioware game with banter, romance, and companion quests, although the Real Time advancement system kept glitching out on me. I was hoping to move on to Planescape: Torment after TOB, but I’m feeling burnt out on Infinity Engine games. So right now I’m trying to find something in the Summer Sale to serve as a palate cleanser.

Accidents happen. Your finger slips and suddenly your game is full of Nazi symbols. Happens all the time. Also, I get the gist of Garriss’s response, but mentioning that he had men and women at his house and his mother was always present just makes things sound weirder than a simple denial. Sounds like a horrible situation all around.

I’m impressed at how well thought out this battle plan is. I’m usually pessimistic when it comes to governments taking pro-consumer stances, but then again all it takes is one government siding against game companies to set a precedent. Hopefully this picks up steam and gets to a wider audience. It feels like one of the few things gamers can agree on these days is how much they hate business practices like this.

Because the games are good? Does their need to be a deeper reason then that? I mean, I guess a boom in retro games among Gen Z and younger says something about the state of the modern industry, but younger generations have always liked older things despite entertainment industries trying to push them towards the shiny and new. Still definitely nice to see though.

I have an unhealthy cycle of this with Hearts of Iron IV a WW2 grand strategy game. I’ll realize the embarrassing number of hours that I’ve put into the game and then I’ll stop playing for a while. But then one of the big mods for it will update and then I dive back in and lose a weekend and then the process repeats.

The other game I consistently come back to is Threads of Fate or Dewprism it’s a PS1 action-RPG with dual protagonists where each one has their own campaign or story to play through. I guess it’s nostalgia that keeps me coming back to it, but it really wasn’t a favorite game growing up and I didn’t beat it until years after I’d gotten it. But every few years I’ll just remember it out of the blue and get the urge to play through it again.

I’m really tired of politicians who barely understand the internet trying to write sweeping legislation to regulate it.

From what I understand, fast travel isn’t locked behind microtransactions, despite some claims I’ve seen. You can buy an item that you can place that lets you teleport back to that point, kind of like fast traveling to a map marker. These items are available in game along with fixed fast travel points between major cities. So the reviewers would have had access to fast travel they just wouldn’t have been able to use real money buy them whenever they needed them.

The microtransactions are bad enough, but the fact that none of these were present in the build given to reviewers just makes it worse. I mean people would still be complaining about them, but I don’t think the backlash would be as bad if Capcom had made it clear from the start that the game was going to be riddled with microtransactions.

The thing that gets me about this is that it’s always some nefarious outside group pressuring devs to make their games “woke” or whatever. It never seems to occur to these people that the people making the games might actually hold those beliefs and aren’t being forced to put them in games at gunpoint. Also, did the guy complaining about Ragnarok play GoW 2018? The fact that Kratos isn’t the same person he was in the old series is basically the entire point.

After around sixty hours I finally rolled credits on Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Started to feel like a slog towards the end, but I wanted to see the story through to the end. Those last three chapters had to have the most Yakuza-style plot twists I have ever seen. Overall I ended up liking it a lot more then I was expecting given that its the series first JRPG. I think it handled the switch well, although it did feel a bit grindy at the end. There’s still some side content I might end up doing, but for now I feel like I need a break from it.

Good. If the last few months have shown anything it’s that more workers in the industry need to be unionized.

Television. Can’t remember the last time I turned my TV on to actually watch TV. It’s mostly for streaming, but even that’s getting harder to keep up with. It just feels like there are too many services and shows to keep track of. If I sit down and watch a show then I really need to want to watch it. More and more I’ve been listening to podcasts or treating Youtube videos like podcasts. It lets me multitask in a way that sitting down and trying to watch something just doesn’t.

Maybe a dumb suggestion, but since you mentioned older systems, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is a PS1 classic that helped create the Metroidvania genre. There’s also Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, which is a spiritual successor by one the key developers behind SOTN. Dead Cells and Hollow Knight are solid games that have been recommended already, but if you find yourself enjoying the rogue-lite elements of those you might enjoy Cult of the Lamb. Admittedly it’s top down 2.5d, but it’s a nice blend of rogue lite and town management as your tasked with building up a cult and turning it into a thriving community in between fighting your way through dungeons.

Depends on your tastes. If you like platformers the PS2 had some great ones. Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, and the Sly Cooper series to name a few. For something more action-oriented the old God of War games still hold up, although they are very different in tone from the modern ones. If you have any interest in JRPGs there’s FFX, X2, and FFXII along with Personas 3 and 4. Although most of those have better ports/remasters/remakes on modern systems.