Weekly Update #20 - Look Mr. Bubbles - Quantum Powered Sky Fanatics!

'Twas another good gaming week for yours truly.

First, a quick correction to my assessment of Outer Wilds. The game lingered on my mind for another day or two after completion since the things I enjoyed about it were truly great. I realized that I totally misread an important point and it made me realize I misinterpreted the ending. One of the Nomai writings tells the player that what they had first mistaken for distant supernovae were, in fact, galaxies exploding and another writing says that the entire universe is dying. I don't know how or why I didn't put two and two together with this one, but my initial conclusion about the game's ending was that once I warped to the Eye of the Universe and did the weird dream state in the woods with my buds around the campfire I somehow prevented the supernova. I concluded that because the last image the game shows is of planet bodies and stars beyond a campfire millions of years later, rather than nothingness. I now realize that what's really going on is that the universe of the player character is indeed dying and the supernova is not stopped, but the player somehow is witnessing the birth of a new universe... maybe? sort of? It's kind of nebulous (ha, see what I did there?) and artsy. This one last "aha" moment from Outer Wilds made me feel silly for missing the obvious, but I don't think it changes my overall assessment of the game or story much at all.

Moving on!

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Completion!



BioShock Infinite
Main + Extras: 21H 22M
Rating: 8/10

I have now finished the final installment of this great series along with the two Burial at Sea DLC chapters, and I enjoyed the experience of all three games immensely. I definitely have to give the nod of best game in the series to BioShock over 2 and Infinite, no question, but all were good. I think in the end I ever so slightly prefer Infinite over 2, but it's close. Infinite is definitely the most unique of the series, but on the other hand it leans on some plot cliches I am not personally a fan of.

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Aesthetics: 9/10

Let's be real: Columbia isn't quite as cool as Rapture, but it is great! The player character's arrival at the lighthouse and then the city is really cool and sets the mood of Columbia right away so tension can build to the breaking point at the raffle. This installment did a great job with all the same things the first two laid the groundwork for. Phenomenal voice acting, vividly immersive setting and characters, a rich soundscape, etc. I love the imagination with the sky city details, such as the freight lines, the interlocking plates, the buildings docking on a schedule, and so on. I did also appreciate the jump backwards in time from the post-war era to early 20th century and I thought it was pulled off really well. Furthermore, It wouldn't be a BioShock game without some creepy moments, and Infinite does deliver, although I thought it was telling that this is most well done in the DLC when I was back in Rapture.

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Gameplay: 8/10

Here I felt a bit of improvement over BioShock 2, and in some ways even over the original. The two biggest hang-ups I had with the gameplay in the first two games were A) the clumsy map and navigation, and B) the plasmid, gun, and ammo switching. Infinite fixed both issues admirably. The total elimination of a map does trigger my fear of missing out and loot goblin itchiness, but it was fine and I don't think I could have missed very much as a result of not having a map. Reducing the number of weapons I can carry to two and ditching ammo types completely was the right decision for this series. Honestly, it made the FPS nature of this game feel more like Halo, which feels like home to me.

The reason I don't rate Infinite's gameplay more highly than the first two games is because there was quite clearly a difficulty dip. This game is good but remarkably easy, especially when held up to the first two games. I was frustrated by some of the difficulty spikes in 2, but I feel like Infinite overcorrected. The ostensibly most difficult enemy types - the Handymen and the Patriots - were a bit of a joke really. They've got nothing on Big Daddies. Game difficulty is a slippery thing, of course, so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I wish this installment in the series would have been a little more skill testing. Too easy isn't fun, too hard isn't fun, and Goldilocks gamers like me are always wanting the difficulty to be just right.

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Narrative: 7/10

I think the execution of Infinite's narrative is incredibly well done, but I'm not into some of it's style.

It starts out with a strong sense of mystery as you are exploring and thinking about who the player character is, what's behind this city, etc, and then it quickly becomes a travesty of themes devoid of the slightest bit of subtlety, layered with some pretty transparent modern day commentary. Really blatant stuff like: white people are racist, religious people are crazy, capitalism is only ever exploitative and evil, and so on. To be completely fair, BioShock hinged on a purposeful straw-manning of an ultra libertarian and hyper capitalistic meritocracy, but it didn't come across as 21st century social grandstanding quite like Infinite did at first. I'm not going to lie, I thought for a minute that was where the story of Infinite was going to dwell, but I'm glad to say it did develop further. As soon as the Vox Populi make their move, the narrative shifts to a more BioShock-esque theme of "all extremism is catastrophic in it's own way".

I must mention that I really enjoyed the dynamic between Booker and Elizabeth, and the game did a good job of shrouding both of their stories in mystery with only subtle and gradual revelations as the plot wore on.

The twist in Infinite was delicious, but not quite as tasty as in the original BioShock. The big reveal moment when it becomes clear that Booker is Comstock was definitely effective and gets the jaw to drop.

However, I simply can not get past the two primary plot devices, which I despise with every fiber of my being: the time loop and the multiverse. They have been done to death, they never make sense or truly work in any story that uses them, they feel cheap and unsatisfying, and I simply hate them. That being said, BioShock Infinite was probably one of the top three uses of either of them I've ever seen.

The DLCs once again executed their narratives quite well, but stylistically left me wanting something different. The DLCs don't even work as a story if time loops and multiverses were functional plot devices to begin with, but the characters and mysteries were strong enough to make it good anyway. I begrudgingly confess that, while I do not generally enjoy time loops, I was a fan of how the DLCs tied the stories of Rapture and Columbia together and did not see it coming. Watching Suchong get run through by a Big Daddy while recording an audio log that I vividly remember picking up in the original game was great - and as long as I work my hardest to not think about how it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever - Elizabeth delivering Jack Ryan's trigger phrase to Atlas/Fontaine and the segue into the beginning of BioShock was a sensational ending for Infinite and its DLC.

There is a lot more to Infinite's story than what I've touched on here, but none of it worth opining much about except for one other thing: the Lutece siblings. For a while I thought they were just ridiculous comic relief, but it becomes pretty clear that they are largely responsible for so much of what happens. The problem I have with this is that they don't have any stance on anything whatsoever. They just kind of tinker around with temporal mad science and could care less about Columbia, Rapture, Booker, Elizabeth, Jack, little sisters, etc. This is pretty unfulfilling not only for their character non-arcs, but also because the implication is that all of the events in the entire franchise can be traced back to the Lutece sister discovering time travel. It certainly does speak volumes about the creativity and genius of the writers that they squeezed so much great story out of just that and some sea slugs though.

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I'd like to say my thoughts about the BioShock series and it's storyline are complex, but really they are probably just more jumbled than anything. Objectively I'd have to say that they are all really great games, and I'm glad I played them all, but deep down I think my head canon is just going to be the original BioShock. What a banger. I will absolutely be replaying that game, but probably won't ever bother with the sequels again. I just think they are overshadowed by the first. It's like having two plates in front of you: one with a good burger, and the other with a delectably juicy, thick, and perfectly grilled steak. There's nothing wrong with the burger, but I'm going to be ignoring it in favor of the steak nevertheless.

Next for me is finishing up SubNautica. After that I'll see how I feel and the plan is to either play Bastion - a rather short game - or just jump straight into the Mass Effect series. I'm quite excited for that since I don't think I've heard a whisper of a bad thing about ME except for the fourth game in the series, which is supposedly poop soup.

I don't want to get too far ahead of myself - especially since I'll probably be on the ME games for a good chunk of the start of 2025 - but I think one aim for next year is to grind out all of the Final Fantasy games. I haven't decided yet if I want that to include replays of VII - IX and XII, but it's high time I played I - VI, X/X-2, XIII trilogy, and perhaps XIV.

Until next time nerds!

07/12/2024 - 100 Hidden Cats: Pirates Completion.
Current Backlog: 781
Currently Playing: 15

💜 This game was gifted to Catizens Curations for review.

It has really pretty artwork, but other than that, it's just like any other "poorly done" hidden object game
that can be completed in under 10 minutes. It would be a lot better if it wouldn't so easy to complete,
since currently the cats are not at all hidden and you literally don't have to even work your brain to find them.

I completed both the main level and the extra level
and would say that maybe turn your attention towards more of the better hidden cats games, like the ones from Devcats or Nukearts Studio.
I hope to see better content from this dev later though! The artwork was pleasant.
- Marisa (JK)

Cat Quest II
System: PC
Developer: The Gentlebros
Publisher: Kepler Interactive
Genre: Action RPG, Fantasy, Animals



A while ago I talked about Cat Quest, a fun satirical take on the RPG Genre that parodied genre and game cliches while taking place in the 2.5D World of Felingard. It was quick, snappy, short and did enough right to be one of the more memorable experiences of the year. And I'm pleased to say for the sequel, Cat Quest II is a GIGANTIC improvement over everything Cat Quest I did. Not only does it improve the base things such as art style, gameplay, graphics and controls, but even adds new ideas and takes bold new steps to becoming a series that is certainly worth talking about.

This sequel ends up taking away the satirical edge of the first game in favor of a more serious (but still oftentimes funny and lighthearted) epic adventure that now spans two continents. This sequel showcases our two new heroes, two former kings (one a dog the other a cat) who are tasked with taking down the tyrannical kings who rule both their lands and reclaim their throne and stop the war. You'll get help from Kirry, the royal spirit adviser, plus returning faces like Kit Cat, who is much more well developed in terms of characterization, plus new faces like Hotto Doggo, a cheeky parody of martial arts warriors and skilled weapons blacksmith. There's other characters along the way, but these will be the main characters you're teamed up with to fight off Lioner and Wolfen, the two kings raging a war against the lands.

There's tons of gigantic improvements that make the first game seem a bit dated in comparison. One of the main things you'll notice right away is that character speed and controls are much more faster. This is because when you walk a while, the characters you control will start sprinting which is a very welcomed addition considering Cat Quest I's speed was rather slow at worst. There's been many improvements as well in terms of upgrading weapons and armor. Now you don't have to worry trying to find the same item over and over again to level up or buying chests in hopes of getting an upgrade. Now, you can go to Kit Cat or Hotto Doggo's place to upgrade them. My gripe however is that they specialize in one or the other, so I hope you like travelling continents because you're going to be doing that A LOT.

As for gameplay, character building is very simple. You control the two characters and build them to your liking. I made the dog the buffing offensive type, while I made the cat the defensive spellcasting short who chugged health and mana restoration for their magic. You can play it local coop where one person controls one character and the other the next, but I must admit there's something very addictive about Cat Quest's design with building your characters by yourself. It feels rewarding when you have the right equipment and you've leveled up your weapons and armor to make the build you have more sustainable during the rest of the game. Otherwise, gameplay is quicker, much nicer and feels more polished in terms of spellcasting, movement and combat compared to the first game. There's also loads of dungeons that are worth pursuing and the good thing as well is there is more variety in terms of dungeon layout and challenges you'll face especially in many of the ruins you'll find in this game.

Graphics have also seen a boost. Not just in variety, but in terms of better looking more distinct NPCs as well, not to mention the Cat looks so much better than in the first game. The first was apparently a mobile game first and then moved to consoles later. However, the Gentlebros obviously took a Console/PC approach first and so the game looks like the budget was increased somewhat. The lands of Felingard and The Lupus Empire look very distinct, from Felingard's grassy land and high mountains, to the more Persian desert areas of giant skeletons and isolated villages of the Empire. The music, one of my favorite things from the previous game is just as good if not better than Cat Quest I. You get more variety in terms of music and ambient tracks and the main march that starts the game off is fantastic and a great way to get players hyped for what they're about to play. Trust me, if you loved Cat Quest I's music, there's no denying you'll love Cat Quest II's soundtrack as well.

I won't spoil the story, but there's a big twist at the end of the second act that blew my mind. Seriously, play it blind and you'll be absolutely blown away by it. As said, the story is more epic, but there's still loads of comedy in the game. There's certainly funny moments, and then there are tragic ones, heartbreaking ones and somewhat serious ones that give the game more depth from it's predecessor. The side quests are great as well and yep, another side quest at the very end game showcases a dragon helping you figure out something in the quest you're on. Dragons are friends! Not fodder!... despite the fact you kill tons of Wyverns in this game. Overall, it feels much better designed considering I got to Level 100 by the end, so I could have gone to do a lot of post game dungeon crawling if I wanted to since all the dungeons were very high level at this point. So there's barely any post game grinding required. Well, to be honest, before the epilogue, it's basically post game all the way through unless you want to just see the ending.

There's not much bad stuff to say. But I will say Kirry is nowhere near as an interesting character as Spirry was. Spirry was kind of a surrogate for the player's thoughts, commenting, quipping and joking about all the cliches, tropes and odd things that happen during the game. Kirry does get some depth in terms of his character, but he is nowhere near as interesting because most of the time he's in the background and only relegated to main quest duties. And SPOILERS: It is revealed that there are parallel universes/multiverses in this game, which considering how dated and frustrating multiverses as a story gimmick is, it makes the game feel a bit cheaper knowing that this world we're in doesn't feel like it matters when there are so many others to boot, despite the game's villains saying how important this timeline is or whatever. It's not the game's fault per se, it obviously didn't know that Marvel and Everything Everywhere All At Once was going to do this gimmick, but now I just have to roll my eyes.The only time when a multiverse actually seemed to work for me is in Serious Sam 4 and Siberian Mayhem, where it feels that not only do we get to see a glimpse of the many Sams throughout the series, but it's science fiction setting also makes it fit. Sam feels like he gets to have a fighting chance in every timeline and it makes the player think about previous games as their own multiverses as well. And since the conflict is so dramatically HUGE in the game and does involve things like Time Traveling, which fits with the gimmick, it feels like every parallel universe that is in peril because of Mental MATTERS in the end where in Cat Quest II, it just feels like something they threw at the wall hoping it would stick and it ends up sliding down slowly when you realize this doesn't really work considering it's setting and the scope of it's conflict (which for real, is MUCH smaller than a monstrous alien being attacking Earth's colonies in every single universe) as well as the fact this game I think takes place ONE THOUSAND YEARS after it just leaves you questioning the situation all together. I know the main actual villain is specifically a god, but to be honest he feels rather puny considering he feels like a character "Put On A Bus" as TV Tropes calls it where he's in the game very little.(Which to be honest, is much funnier than my term for it "Steele Syndrome")

Anyways, that's enough about that.

The point is, Cat Quest II is fantastic. It improves pretty much every single aspect from the first game and makes for an excellent overall epic adventure that will delight fans of the first and is a perfect start for newcomers to the series. It's a much bigger, bolder game with better graphics and art style, improved controls, better design and an addictive gameplay loop and awesome story that is certainly one I'd highly recommend. It's certainly going down as a GOTY Contender for the games I've played this year. I'll hopefully talk about Cat Quest III soon, so be on the lookout for that!

Rating: 9/10

PROS:

-Music is even better than in the first game
-Graphics have seen a major improvement to NPCs and Characters and the world is more distinctive than the last game
-Added things like a blocking spell and the ability to upgrade weapons and armor from shops, making character building better
-Character building is addictive even in single player and is easy despite having two characters to use
-Controls are much faster and more fluent thanks to increased movement speed giving the game a faster pace
-Story and characterization is all around excellent and heads in a welcome new direction
-Gameplay loop is very addictive
-Design is much better in terms of progression and dungeons
-Mind blowing twist that will rock your socks off by the end of the second act

CONS:

-Kirry nowhere as interesting a character as Spirry was
-You have to go to two separate shops to upgrade either armor or weapons in two different lands, making trips between continents feel like a slog
-Multiverse as part of the story feels dated and oftentimes frustrating thinking it over

-TheAutisticGamer

I just feel like commenting on the native language voice line thing, that is incredibly simple or can be difficult depending on which language. In the case of Swedish, I cannot think of a single relevant game that has spoken Swedish in it besides the few that have been dubbed to Swedish after the fact and then the challenge just feels a little pointless and limiting in my opinion.

Oh yeah you might be right most games with dialog I would think are either in english or japanese so if that is your language that would be fairly easy, I know that I originally wrote that when was playing Resident Evil 4 and herd the enemies speaking in spanish and it was not a localization thing but as the game was intended, but yeah the idea was to search for a game with such feature it might be as you say pretty hard or even impossible in some languages, so at the end might be extremely limiting so maybe it can be changed for any language that you do understand but that is not so common as english/japanese and not only spoken but also written or it can just be discarded maybe just leave it with the language you don't understand without the optional.

I cannot think of a single relevant game that has spoken Swedish in it besides the few that have been dubbed to Swedish after the fact

I think the Magicka games were spoken in swedish, not sure if relevant enough but I played the first one with a friend and was extremely fun.

I just feel like commenting on the native language voice line thing, that is incredibly simple or can be difficult depending on which language. In the case of Swedish, I cannot think of a single relevant game that has spoken Swedish in it besides the few that have been dubbed to Swedish after the fact and then the challenge just feels a little pointless and limiting in my opinion.

Quest For Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness Part 4
The Adventurer’s Log

I had three goals to start with: Erana’s Garden, the lake and the gypsy camp. If I didn’t get distracted or otherwise waylaid by other things. But Erana’s Garden was my top priority.

After a rough encounter with a wyvern I made it. I’m really struggling to click with this one’s combat. I have my settings such that I can just let the computer take over, but I’m not entirely comfortable with that. I should try to work it out, but struggling. Or I need to slow my speed down and try to attack with spells from a distance as much as possible, but that’s never gone super well for me. I mean I’ve been able to get an attack or two off, but I always end up in the fight in the end.

Anyway, Erana’s Garden! Very pretty!



And the water tastes like wild strawberries.

Also my health bar is green because I got poisoned. Again. I was hoarding healing stuff in past games. Now I have no healing when I would absolutely be guzzling the stuff down.

I found 30! crowns in the lantern. Accepted “as a gift from Erana.”

There was a fruit tree.



But as soon as I tried to take one all the fruit vanished… I reloaded and tried a Fetch. That got me one–a Mana Fruit. Probably restores MP? The rest of the fruit vanished.

Detect Magic detected magic from the lanterns and tree. I could use Trigger to light the lanterns.



I almost missed it, but there was also a dug-up hole.



A small bush or tree you say? A Bonsai Tree perhaps?

Yes!



I think I got some points for that. And maybe something more of it will come later? It’s healthy, grew some more and adds some extra prettiness to this already pretty place, so I’m satisfied regardless.

I couldn’t find anything else to do, so I went back to exploring.

As I continued I ran into the hawk again and it even perched on a tree for a bit. It was looking for food and struggling to do so thanks to the monster. I’d like to feed it, but it didn’t seem interested in my garlic and avocado sandwiches or my corn, surprise surprise.

I also, from examining each screen, seemed to be near a strange house up on a cliff, but there was no way up to be seen from this area. I very much appreciate that doing a general examine of the area will point our points of interest nearby and in what general direction. That’s been helpful for getting around.

I got attacked by a fanged vicious bunny…



And once again struggled. I feel like my spells have been missing more often than not. I don’t know if they actually are. Or they weren’t working on the rabbit. I think they were maybe just straight up not working on it. (future note: yeah they’re immune to magic).

I was hoping to take its body for that hawk, but no such luck… even with my bag. Oh well.

I found the lake and a beautiful not suspicious at all naked woman that I totally didn’t recently read about.



Then she straight up said she was the Rusalka which were in that book at the Adventurer’s Guild. Even if I hadn’t read that, this is obviously death. I could talk to her but it all led to trying to get me to come in.

I still went for it, because you know. I had to see. Power of saving.



“Going ‘Drown’? You quickly discover that you really don’t know how to breathe water.”

What I didn’t know was if I could actually do anything with her or if I needed to just avoid this. I tried a flame dart just to see what would happen. That’d warm her up! She appeared shocked by my action and disappeared under the lake. I reloaded.

I tried offering her candy and I didn’t actually think it would work but she accepted it!



I’ve been scooping up flowers in my wandering too and I gave her one for good measure.

My gifts made her friendlier and less lethal. I was able to talk to her about more things and in fact, if I tried the use icon she’d shoo me back so she wouldn’t kill me.

She’d been here for a long time and doesn’t really know why but she can’t go anywhere else anyway. She does feel lonely, drowned men aren’t much for company, but as a Rusalka that’s her job. The lake isn’t safe to swim as there plenty of unpleasant things lurking in the deep water, aside from herself, I guess. The lake also merges with the swamp that has nastier undead than her, so be careful.

She thought she remembered a town and must have lived there once. Beyond what direction it lies in there wasn’t anything else she could say about it.

She also asked me to please come visit her again sometime. Nice to have a friend to talk to, so I guess I’ve made a Rusalka friend now?

I went online to see if I could find info about the combat that would make more sense to me. It’s set to Arcade and I switched it to Strategy to see if that’ll make more sense to me. Honestly, tempted to just knock the skill level as low as it will go and let the computer handle it.

While looking I accidentally spotted that Dr. Cranium is the one to give healing stuff. Which means, there ought to be a way to get through his door already! Thanks to that, I decided to leave off looking for the camp for now and go back to town to try to figure that out. I don’t really want to risk wandering the wilderness at night yet anyway without any healing stuff. I also still needed to have whatever that night encounter I referenced in the first post is too, so I went back to town to tackle Cranium’s door again.

I had the TRAP and the baby antwerps. Maybe I needed to find a way to catch an antwerp? I also had that bag, so maybe I could use it to catch one with bait and the TRAP machine could tell me what that bait is? With the flying aardvark its answer was to teach some termites to fly. I thought I hit up all the combinations of answers but maybe not, so I tried again and tried to be more systematic about it.

Turns out I misunderstood! When it said the aardvark I was supposed to say no to get more options. That was very silly of me. Next up was chocolate moose (“We suggest using whipped cream on your moose, um, mousse.). Then came the antwerp and if I said no it said "Lucky you!” And there weren’t anymore. Progress!

So on the Antwerp path it narrowed things down. Surely not a full-size adult antwerp?? No, but I said yes first to see the result of course:

“Try collecting checks instead. They don’t bounce nearly as often.”

Then I got to baby antwerps. “Bouncing baby Antwerps are avid avocado eaters.”

I baited the TRAP with avocado from one of my sandwiches, and opened the door to release them. The TRAP caught one, but then I wasn’t sure what to do… though more types of things to catch came up with the TRAP, so that may be good to keep in mind.

Ah, the door to the maze. The maze is an antwerp maze.





Oh boy.

With a lot of trial and error I managed to get the key but then I had to get this little fellow back to the exit and guess who hit the exit button and had to get the key again? Cranium, you’re on thin ice, my man.

But I got it, I got it, good little antwerp. I had to do the key picture again but it was at least reduced to just the key hole part. Still… CRANIUUUM, shaking my fist.

Into the lab…



He thought I was Igor at first who sometimes comes in to help in the lab, before he realized, but was friendly with me at least. Not a gnome. Which, yeah, I wasn’t really expecting anymore, but it would have been funny.



Now there’s a worthy quest! (I say as if I actually drink tea.)

Once I looked around there–there was an 'ahead’ joke about the skull because of course there was, what else is skull decor for–I talked to him.

On my personal options, aside from the usual greet and tell about yourself, I also had tell about magic, so of course I had to do that.



We might not be off to the bestest of starts here. He’d just looove the WIT. I wish it’d let me cast magic here. Let me juggle some lights at him.

We talked about science. We talked about the elements… including none other than pizza.



Pizza element! That was in a book in Shapeir. A pizza elemental specifically if I recall.

“Pizza represents the essence of well-roundedness and regaining strength. Most importantly, you can have it delivered in under half an hour in most area!”

He can also make healing and poison cure drinks (NOT magic), but he forgot the formulas for the main ingredient. He names the ingredient then you have to use the game manual to get corresponding formula of elements. Good old copy protection…



They’re time consuming so he can only make one of each per day, but at least they’re free I guess? Not that I’m struggling for money.

He was also happy to give me an empty flask–“always delighted to assist scientific research of any kind”.

I got him on another rant about magic and he was bemoaning how gullible people are. He got given a scroll by someone saying it was a magical spell. Poppycock! He gave that to me too “as a reminder that Magic is figment of fevered imagination.”

It was indeed a scroll. I learned Glide. That sounds exciting.



I would love to see this man enter the Wizard’s Institute of Technocery and see what happens. The drama. Though I suppose they might just boot him out like they did to me a few times, but how do you explain that with your science? Them phenomena.

We moved on to other topics, like the cemetery being a useful source of materials for his experiments. Ah. He sure is trying to reanimate the dead and needs some Essential Etheric Fluid.



Are we getting into Frankenstein territory here? It sounds like we’re headed to Frankenstein territory.

He also wants to brew the perfect cup of tea but that’s been eluding him. You know, just an extra quest alongside some necromancy, I mean, science.

He is also NOT MAD! Just perturbed about the world situation and lack of respect. But not mad.

As I said goodbye he asked me to tell Igor to bring him the fluid if I saw him, which means there is no if here. Obviously I’d go directly to him. That was my intent anyway; there was nothing new when I went to talk to him.

I went back to the inn and the gnome jester was there!



He’s staying at the inn for a while until he finds something. His name is Punny Bones… He claimed to be a pro punster but I sure wasn’t seeing it! He’s up for me visiting and maybe we could have some laughs. He’s got a million jokes, but can’t remember most of them.

It showed.



Once I sat he put his show on…

He needs lessons from Keapon Laffin. Or Yorick.



“You may as well laugh now. This act doesn’t get any funnier.”

He is honest. It sure didn’t.



Well, that adds another person to my rounds, but he is not up to Gnomish standards so far!

Maybe he’s here to find his humour.

The innkeeper was also thoroughly unimpressed.

Nor were the usual trio. And Punny interjected on every topic of conversation….



I poked outside briefly but nothing new, so I went back and Punny had gone to his room so I went too.

And got zapped for knocking by his burglar alarm. I knocked! jerk.



His room is quite something yet about what I’d expect. The garlic is smiling…



Thank you, narrator.

Okay I… I sort of liked the smiling garlic. I think. They remind me of Rotten Tomato or the singing stone in King’s Quest VI.

I did learn some information off him though. I told him about my adventures and he particularly wanted to hear about Spielburg. Turned out he was cursed by Baba Yaga and if I hadn’t made her mad he never would have told the joke that made her take his humour away. He’s “comedically challenged”, “a dweeb dunce”, “vexed with a hex”. So, he IS here to find his humour! My snark was actually right.

I guess that means he has an excuse for his awfulness. I guess.

I also scooped up a rubber chicken. No sign of a pulley.

Then I slept in one hour increments and tried some spells while waiting for midnight to have that night encounter I didn’t want to miss and risk getting dead-ended. I remembered to check that glide spell too. It only works on liquid so… that confused me as to what it actually does.

Then I thought of trying my juggling lights spell with Punny, but no reaction, boo. He did have a little bit more to say though. He heard Baba Yaga landed her hut somewhere southeast of here. He couldn’t find her himself though and also warned me to watch out. She gets real mad. I might be in some trouble when I find her given the grudge she must have against me.

But enough time passed to get my encounter…



Who or what are you up there…?

He was a Domovoi and protector of the Inn. Aw. Most people don’t normally see him but my hero is maybe something special? A hero for one.



Things are bad. Things aren’t good for the inn. The Innkeeper and his wife are sad. Mordavia is very sad. There’s too much Dark Magic for Domovoi to help. He wouldn’t elaborate on the Dark Magic though.

In general he didn’t want to talk too much yet and said perhaps another night. I thought though, since Punny Bones changed when I left and came back, maybe if I slept for just an hour he’d change too? And he did and had a lot more information for me.

Many things need my help: Gnome, Nikolai, Yuri and Bella (Innkeeper and his wife), Olga and Boris. Others. Even the Domovoi needs help.

Not far is a very bad place with a door that would try to kill me and I needed a Magic Symbol. The Monastery–I already found that my friend. There’s a Domovoi there–not alive and not dead, but very dry. That “sculpture” I couldn’t do anything about before? He’ll see me again after I help that Domovoi. I will!

He also had some other advice like to find the Forest Leshy and if I play games with Leshy, Leshy will help me.

Also dead things good and bad.
image

So, I’ll need to help someone who’s dead? Anna? If she is indeed dead and I need to help Nikolai maybe helping her would help him.

He also talked about the Rusalka–killed by an untrue lover and told me if I was kind maybe she wouldn’t kill me, but I’ve already handled that! Proactive Rusalka befriending here.

And the castle is a bad place I can’t be going to yet. Oops. I would need to be very strong, smart and powerful and know many things. It’s too dangerous right now. I went! I survived! I just didn’t… really accomplish anything.

In the castle there are many dead things and many undead.



I don’t know who Tanya is and he didn’t elaborate. The Master’s daughter maybe? Or the kid referenced in the castle? Who may be one and the same.

But I have an actual reason to go find the gypsies now.

A good list of things to do and look out for from this fellow and I need to help him! Poor thing. He’s sweet, makes up for the Gnome disappointment I just had.

I needed sleep then it was time to go see about saving that dried-out Domovoi.

I'm not especially knowledgeable about the topic, I'm just from the region of India where Navratri's celebrated, and I speak/understand the languages I mentioned (except for sanskrit) 🫡.

Ok that yeah so will be posting a new version a little bit more grounded prioritizing those that seem better, also leaving some room for a few subjective/hard to plan challenges like the ones MeowZeDung proposed related to the story/writing aspect of games as I think a few maybe 5? would be nice.

I'm not especially knowledgeable about the topic, I'm just from the region of India where Navratri's celebrated, and I speak/understand the languages I mentioned (except for sanskrit) 🫡.

Oh that's cool, so you have firsthand experience/knowledge of said celebration! so indeed you are more qualified to speak of such than any one I personally know hehe.

I'm not going to nitpick valcrist73 list. I think 60%-70% of suggestions are not usable for the challenge, but that means there are a good 5 to 10 categories that are. He made an admirably long list and I salute him for this.

Thanks bgalon, yeah now we need to figure out which ones, I know checking that list is bothersome even for me hehe, so, after giving a closer look to the current list, the overlapping suggestions and the feedback from NoOne will be posting some new thoughts and probably a full proposal to complete the 50 challenges of the gold tier

Current Challenge List change suggestions and questions
7-2. A demake of a game (Does Warcraft III Reforged qualify as a demake? can someone give examples please?)
10-3. A game that starts with the letter Q. would change it to: A game that starts with the letter Q, J or Y not counting the article "the" (as otherwise in my case only Quake games would qualify but well may be it will be time for some Quake)
19. A game with a real or fictional religion. This one would be included in the proposed BONUS so would replace it with:
19-1. A game that features a language you don't understand, could be a fictional in-game language (like Tunic, Shadow of the Colossus, The Sims or an obscure Japanese game without translation unless you understand Japanese of course)
19-2. A game with spoken dialogs in your native tongue
22. A game where you play as an anti-hero or villain. Just to make a little bit different from this year challenge maybe: 22. A game where you can play the evil route like Baldur's Gate, Vampyr, Infamous, KOTOR, Mass Effect

I’m never lucky with those games, boomer shooters that is. At first I thought this was the one, I was loving just mindless running around and killing everybody. Then I was down in one hit by a not so visible trap and had to replay the entire level.

That was annoying but I kept going. Two or three stages later I got stuck in a level just not knowing what to do. Yeah, I’m never lucky with those games.

I like the Roman aesthetic and vengeance theme though.

Result: retired

Pros:
+ interesting scenarios
+ simple controls

Cons:
- no checkpoints
- unfair traps
- unbalanced


Cozy.


Not so cozy.


Let’s slash all those pixels.

I think this game is overrated. As the studio’s first game (it is the first, right?) it’s quite ambitious. The stages are big, there is a good amount of enemy variety, and the game models are highly detailed. However it fails in some key parts of its execution.

There are a lot of invisible walls, that would be completely fine if the game didn’t push you to go off the beaten path and explore. It never felt great trying to get into a corner that visually seems unblocked and realizing that you are blocked by an invisible wall.

The combat audio and visual cues are fine, but I could notice a bit of an annoying input lag. I was playing just fine, but it never feels great to adapt your brain to react with a slight delay, even if you are able to do so (like I was).

The bosses were a hit or miss. The small-ish ones, that stuck to the ground, were amazing. The bigger one’s felt pretty bad. It’s bosses like those that makes me value the Monster Hunter series even more: it turns out that movement and hitboxes of huge creatures aren’t easy to develop. I ended up retiring the game while on one of those.

Oh, and there’s a particular stage that is so long with enemies and locations spread out so sparse around it. I think they did it on purpose, to convey a sense of grandeur, but it just made it painfully boring to traverse it.

Result: retired

Pros:
+ beautiful graphics
+ easy to understand mechanics
+ amazing enemy variety
+ great boss design

Cons:
- minor input lag
- no map
- hard to follow story

Rating: 7/10

Screenshots:


Give me those eyes.


You’re too pale, are you alright?


Agree, buddha. The game is just “OK”.

Since my last post here, I've finished 3 manga volumes and 1 audio book.

Blood on the tracks Vol 7 and 8:
Good volumes, but I'm seriously considering dropping the series. The volumes are quite expensive for the 1h it takes me to read them and there are still 9 volumes left.

Goodnight Punpun Vol 4:
A good volume with a weak beginning and all in all a bit weaker plot than the others. Things picked up when Punpun got a girlfriend . I still liked it quite a bit.

Helsreach:
I wondered how I would like my first audio book since the fantastic The Way of Kings. I thought this book was a bit too uneventful. It's a straightforward story with no real plot twist or unexpected turns. Just a few days ago I saw a very well put together YouTube video about the creator's top 10 w40k books and Helsreach was high up there. He mentioned liking the melancholic tone of the book and that I have to admit: the melancholic tone gives it its own character.

So, after a disappointing Dan Abnett book I've had a disappointing Demski-Bowden. These two are my favorite W40k authors but I guess you can't always like everything someone else wrote.

I'm now listening to Dune as an audio book after loving the second Dune movie and am continuing with Goodnight Punpun Vol 5. I'm still reading Red Tithe but haven't made much progress.

This one's a permanently free one, but Katawa Shoujo was released onto Itch and Steam back in August (I just found out).

Just beat P.E. Noire decent enough point n click. Nothing spectacular but again another well made game. Not sure there's much to flesh on this one but it does its job

Free to Keep [Steam] ends in 13 days

Pankapu | Store / HLTB

Daily Challenge - 2024-12-06
Score: 233 / 300
🟩🟪🟦 🟦 = 76 | R | Super Mario 64 DS
🟪🟪🟦 🟦 = 89 | S | The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes
🟩🟦🟦 🟦 = 68 | P | Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

after the last "bad" rounds I have a good one today :D

DECEMBER 2024, DAYS 209-266:
Recently Completed:
• Inscription
.
Review (wip)

• Hi-Fi Rush

Review (wip)

• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Review

• Cruelty Squad

Review (wip)

• Metal Geat Solid 3: Snake Eater

Review (wip)

• BioShock Infinite

Review (wip)

• Stray

Review (wip)

Recently Paused:
• Hollow Knight

(Progress | 3h 45m / 41h)

• Persona 5 Royal

(Progress | 46h / 123h)

• Resident Evil 7: Biohazard


Recently Retired:
• Lair


Recently Started:
• Resistance


STATUS:
Playing:

• Resistance
(Progress | 5h / 12h)
Its close to impossible to play this game without youtube playing in the background. which is a damn shame, as i have a very fond memory of playing split screen all the time way back when. Theres just not a lot going on. Lots of cool weapons, levels, enemies, but just a lot of brown/grey blur and checkpoint are so scarce so im doing the same shootouts again and again.

Misc./ Other:
Looking at my stats since August, ive noticed average completions go down as ive picked up watching tv in the evenings. Most times i intend to play handheld games in the background, but it doesn't always work out that way... I finished House; season 7 was pretty awful and im glad season 8 ended good. Still aiming for my house irl to be finished by January. The lights, tile, countertops and flooring is down. Which leaves the rest of the plumbing, stairs, another coat of paint, and inspections. Its consumed most evenings and every weekend since i bought it but itll be so worth it once its finished. Arcane ended and has easily become one of my top favorite animated series. It got me to play exactly one match of LoL, and i didnt like it.

Buh-bye :3

---------------------------------------------
FRI'S BACK(b)LOG
Updates whenever I feel like it.
---------------------------------------------

Fields of Mistria

Daily Challenge - 2024-12-06
Score: 157 / 300
🟦🟩🟩 🟦 = 59 | Super Mario 64 DS
⬛⬛🟪 🟩 = 41 | R | The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes
🟦🟩🟧 🟦 = 57 | P | Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

Last round was so good, back to eh

I've completed 12 of the 20 chapters in Mafia and am around 10 hours into it. So far I've gotten all the collectibles obtained during chapters so far and will need to get the rest in Free Drive mode. You just explore the entire city and collect stuff, steal cars etc... That might take a while but I don't care as I love the setting of this game.

I'm glad I bought the Definitive Edition of this. Something weird kept on happening though... Some cutscenes were different, other parts of missions were different, I can remember you could aim while driving in missions and I could not remember swearing in the cutscenes.

For some reason I keep on thinking I'm just playing the game I played all those years ago but a HD version... even though this is a new game built from the ground up based on Mafia. Nostalgia for the original game is probably me remembering the game was like this when it has changed. Probably how nostalgia makes people think that GTA III is actually a good game (it's not).

Anyhoo, since I mention GTA, this is what they should have done with the Definitive versions of the GTA games... though I can imagine people causing a ruckus if they made changes to the GTA storylines and dialogue or even worse, cast new voice actors.

Game #6 is 'Creature Packets'

Itch : https://kenforest.itch.io/creature-packets
HLTB : https://www.howlongtobeat.com/game/158413

You could think of the 3 completion categories as Main (Beaten), Main Plus (Beaten but have more to do.), Completionist (Mastered). You could mention status in the notes.

There aren't really other flags that could fill this need at the moment but I'm also open to feedback.

For now, I've opted to just lean into the format of the site and use my lower 'Beaten' flag as HL2B's Completed, then I've got a list to denote those titles I've truly conquered to sort of parse out the more to do titles. I'm wondering if perhaps I should invert that (make the flag 'more to do' for easier discovery), but I'll just keep experimenting for now.

One last general HL2B mindset question for now; is it general practice to add multiplayer titles and the like to the backlog? I repurposed one of my available custom tabs to endless to categorize endless and MP titles, but since they'll never be marked Completed, I'm guessing they're inflating my backlog percentage and no one needs that. The original goal as I worked through my import was to clear the Steam import list so that importing future titles would be easier (using the only show games not on profile checkmark) so I had to find a home for these kinds of titles, but I'm thinking I'd rather just have to sift through that list once in a while instead of artificially inflating my unbeaten games figures.

Appreciate the quick replies from the community to my open air ramblings.

EDIT: Seems I sorted this out on my own already, having removed the backlog checkmark on those endless. I guess I'm good; back to housekeeping this list!

Anyone figure this out? My games are public, still having this issue.

Doesn't that make it fairly redundant considering that it basically ends up becoming the "Play a really old game" challenge?

Yes it might so that one could be just discarded

About the multiplayer games, yeah, I don't think most people are gonna be up for setting a goal for themselves and trying to grind for it considering that a lot of people have raised the point of 50 games an year already being a pretty daunting task. Adding a multiplayer game to the mix makes that nigh impossible for most people.

Correct, but as it stands right now I think the "too many games problem" is already neatly solved with the tiers idea (bronze 20 games, silver 35 games, gold 50 games, platinum +50) so everyone can choose which tier to aim for and if time allow it then go for a higher one, the thing is, we have only 29 challenges so missing another 21 to get to the 50 games of the gold tier and the bonuses for platinum so that is where I think some of my suggestions might fit.

They're festivals, not the name of the goddess 😭. And Navratri and Durga Puja are pretty different.

Oh yeah I got it all wrong for some reason thought those were the names of the goddess of the festival but thanks for clarifying, I got those from the article in Wikipedia that supposedly referenced the same festivity, you seem very knowledgeable about the subject and might be able correct/clarify said article.

I'm not especially knowledgeable about the topic, I'm just from the region of India where Navratri's celebrated, and I speak/understand the languages I mentioned (except for sanskrit) 🫡.