Coelacanth

I can relate to that. It’s not great. I hope your brain relents soon, then, and starts being cooperative again.

Sorry to hear things are rough. I know there isn’t anything I can do, but I hope things change for the better soon.

I’m playing Road 96 this week, which is on sale for cheap currently and I’ve been curious about for a while.

I should save the full review for after I’ve seen the ending, but it’s definitely an interesting game. The perspective of how the story is told is very unique - there is no protagonist or main character. In fact, it’s almost like a “story roguelite”. You play in multiple individual “runs”, where in each run you play as a nameless and faceless teenager trying to get to the border of the fictional dictatorship Petria and escape the country through Road 96.

During each of the runs, you come across a set of characters, and a large part of the story is their stories, told through the eyes of all these nameless teens you play as as you continuously come across these same characters at random points during your journeys.

The other story is the fate of the nation, and this is where the Telltale-style choices-matter stuff comes in. There are three types of dialogue you can pick, either promoting revolution, peaceful change through voting or just ignoring everything and fleeing the country. I’m assuming the ending you get will be influenced by which of these you pick the most times. I’m interested to see what the endings are like, especially regarding how they’re handling revolution/voting.

Overall it’s a bit of a weird one because I like some of the things it’s doing and it has a charm to it, but I also a lot of the time can’t help but think “man, I wish this game was just a little better”. Like, the story concept seems fine but the writing isn’t great. The voice acting is pretty poor, and it’s not that well recorded either. Some of the political stuff and the story looks like it lacks nuance. It seems like the product of a team with a lot of interesting ideas, but not necessarily the skill or budget to execute them.

But eh, for a couple of dollars I am not going to complain too much. And it does have a charm to it.

You should definitely play Alan Wake 2, especially after having done the homework of playing all their earlier games. It is in my opinion Remedy’s best game and a phenomenal game in general, I had it as my GOTY 2023 over BG3. Great story, beautiful presentation and cinematography and very tight gameplay.

With your tastes (impeccable btw) you might enjoy HYPER DEMON. I think it’s a little too fast and overstimulating for me but it’s still on my to-do list. I’ve had it heavily recommended.

Hummmmm. Hard one, this. I think this is my final 10, after some consideration. I break it down to three categories:

Forever games

• Civilization V: Was a comfort game for years, could probably play it forever as a type of Solitaire. Several thousand hours of content still remain with learning the Vox Populi mod and modded extra civilizations.
• Football Manager: I would try to argue I’m allowed to buy each year’s edition for the data update but if I must choose one it’s 2024. Digital crack that I have lost months at a time to before.
• Magic The Gathering: Arena I would want a card game on the list, and even though I quit playing Magic a long time ago this would be the one with the most limitless content.
• Noita: I’ve never played it, but I’ve been told this game has potentially thousands of hours of content so it sounds like a perfect time to get started with it.

Evergreen action games

• Ninja Gaiden 2: I could probably spend a thousand hours just trying to beat my own high scores in Survival mode. The combat in this game just never gets old.
• Elden Ring:* May be a surprising pick to some since this isn’t even my favourite Fromsoft game and I’ve only played through it once and currently don’t plan to come back. But I do enjoy a Soulslike every now and then and if we’re being economical in terms of content this has to be the smartest pick.

Modding games with infinite content

• STALKER Anomaly: One of my favourite games, an open sandbox with potentially infinite content and a modding scene that could keep it fresh forever.
• Fallout New Vegas: Same reasoning as above. I also love the story and a lot of the writing and I could rotate different styles of roleplay to keep it fresh.
• Skyrim: I’ve never actually played Skyrim, so this would be a perfect reason to. All the mods could probably keep me entertained forever.
• Baldur’s Gate 3: I’m not actually super high on this game, but it’s an investment for the future. If I could choose Pathfinder Kingmaker+Wrath of the Righteous as a combo instead I probably would as I prefer that rules framework. But BG3 is unbelievably popular and has a modding kit that will let fans make custom campaigns, and so I pretty much am just banking on that to keep me going with this one.

It still absolutely holds up. You will be amazed. Phenomenal shooter.

Yeah that’s fair, haha. It’s a fun game though. One thing that amazed me was the amount of peripheral lore and emails and that kind of stuff they put in the game. It’s surprisingly fleshed out for what is like a 12h standalone blockbuster game. I guess Remedy just like to write.

I probably have similar sentiments. I hated the boss fights, I disliked the overly supernatural parts, I hated the shoehorned “love story” and I hated the ending and the general vibe of Artyom being russian Rambo.

I loved the start travelling with Pavel, reminded me of travelling with Bourbon and I loved the settlements. Venice and Theater are some of the best Metro bits I’ve seen between the first two games.

Overall it didn’t hit the same for me, it felt like it leaned away from the grounded bits I loved in 2033 and leaned more into set pieces and action movie spectacle.

Ah that’s a terrible bug! Did you have to restart the whole game or just the chapter? I know the PC port isn’t the best, but I didn’t know there were still bugs like that in it.

Oh, I haven’t been tapped in in a while, I did my heavily modded playthrough pre 2.0 and I remember some of the mods broke with the DLC and I’m not sure they got updated. I know that there is a very popular mod collection called Welcome To Night City you could use as a starting point (or just use wholesale).

Recently some of the old classic mods that broke in 2.0 have started to get new updated versions (the original modder left), like Reinforcements System, SynthDose and Drone Companions.

I like using PED Damage Overhaul, but you need to tweak the default settings (check the pinned comments).

In the pinned comments of HARDCORE22v2 there is a list of mods and settings/tweaks of them by the user ezzio2030 for a more “hardcore” experience that I used pretty much all of. Makes for a more fun game with stuff like limited ammo, ammo refill in vehicle trunk and much more.

Hopefully that’s a starting point?

It’s a great game, still not perfect but I really enjoyed it. Cool modding scene too, if you’re into that sort of thing.

I’ve had a couple of weeks where I’ve been in a real gaming rut. I guess part of it is the World Cup taking up a lot of time and brain space, but it’s not solely that. I’ve just not really been able to get into any game at all recently. I’ve played a couple of hours of Lost Odyssey but it hasn’t hooked me. I also feel a bit fuzzy in the head and lacking the focus to commit to a hundred+ hour JRPG. I played a bit of Splinter Cell: Double Agent on Xemu Xbox emulator but I’m not quite feeling it. I don’t know what I’m in the mood for, maybe I’m just not in a gaming mood at all. But… I feel like there is a hole in my life I want to fill with a game, I just can’t find the one to fit the shape of it. Eh, I guess I’ll just keep scrolling my backlog, I’m bound to find something eventually…

It’s been a while since the latest Friendslop game, last summer was PEAK and I guess this is what people are doing this year.

Looks pretty fun, provided you actually have friends…

No pressure at all. I’d be interested to read them, but only if it’s a fun thing for you to do.

Love seeing the evolution of your mod list, it’s actually a very interesting journey to follow every week. As always, hit me up any time if there is anything.

I see now that you see what I mean by the female model clashes. I love the KVMA models, so I just can’t stand the clashes with the DUX based ones. But I use a male protagonist and not LASS, and I totally get that with LASS it becomes a much bigger problem.

Also, if you wanna publish journals or anything from your RP playthrough project and want to share I’d love to read them.

I still have to get to Exodus. I played and loved 2033, played and has very mixed feelings about Last Light. But now with a fourth title on the way I should really get to Exodus, it’s supposed to be the best one.

How are you finding Last Light so far compared to 2033?

Props for actually playing American Nightmare, too many people skip it but it does pay off to actually play through the whole Remedy catalogue in order. And I actually think it has its moments, too. The live action moments in the TV sets has some really fun acting from Ilka Villi.

Quantum Break is pretty fun, and the live action episodes are actually really well done. It’s funny though that you can really feel how the game is a collaboration with Microsoft. Some of that patented Remedy weirdness is sanded off and it is more of a big budget blockbuster spectacle.

Cronos I actually really liked. Played it last year. The atmosphere is great, it has some cool and interesting lore and story and the gameplay is just very tight.

Oh, they are in fact full length TV show episodes. They’re surprisingly good actually, even production value too. I think Remedy learned a lot about live action work doing QB that they perfected in Control and AW2.

I’m definitely curious how that plays out. The version of Gwent in Witcher 3 is very fun but… I don’t know if I’d call balanced.

If it’s basic to love orchids I don’t want to be extra.

At least the remakes won’t have to suffer from the same affliction as Kingdom Hearts, whereby everyone believes creator Testuya Nomura is making it up as he goes along

Yes, I’m glad the FF7R games are far removed from the Nomura/Najima dream team and there is no need to worry about that problem.

I can’t really go by playtime, because I tend to beat a game and move on to a new experience. But Withering Rooms was like 2023, that’s another one I am completely obsessed with. Death Howl from last year was also amazing. Darkwood is I guess 2010s but I am (trying) to play it right now, also phenomenal. With some notable exceptions I feel like my most memorable gaming experiences are indie games nowadays.

Titanium Court is the best game I’ve played all year and it’s currently only €9.99. Indie games keep completely dominating the value proposition in gaming.

That’s totally fair. Even though I like using companions I don’t always use them, the lonely desolate vibe is definitely part of the charm of STALKER.

I totally respect a dogmatic anti-AI stance. I hate gen AI for most things, in particular art - where I want absolutely zero AI. I personally think dynamic dialogue in a sandbox game is one of the best use cases for it, but I still do hate the intellectual property theft and environmental impact.

That’s fair enough. I personally love playing with companions, especially since the TALKER mod with AI dialogue lets you have some really fun emergent narratives and role playing.

Which is the Alife collection? I think what most people are playing with now is Alife+, although that got released a few months after I stopped playing the last time so I have no first hand accounts of it. I do have a couple of good AI mods in that sheet I linked, like Semi-Radiant AI and rank-based travel.

Otherwise like ReDone Combat AI, RE:Vision, Stealth are popular mods. Probably also want Decreased Enemy Bush Hearing Distance, Zone NPCs Can’t See Through Bushes and Zone Mutants Can’t See Through Bushes and Ghillie Rework. Some of these mods probably need some minor compatibility work for script merging or at least load order management.

Useful Idiots that I already recommended is in my opinion essential for companions (and includes the functionality of the He Is With Me mod you already have installed, I would just replace that with it). Companions Disable Headlamps In Stealth is also good, I’m trying to remember if there is a newer version somewhere though. There might be.

These were just some off the top of my head, I’m probably forgetting something.

This looks amazing, actually. While I usually don’t allow myself the luxury of replaying games this long, a mod like this (combined with the upcoming DLC) might make me reconsider.

Yeah, I totally agree with you. It’s a fine balance between immersion (which to me is one of the main draws of STALKER) and enjoyable gameplay. I tried playing a Call of Chernobyl-based modpack called A.R.E.A. as a counter example, and that shit is just pure pain. Way too much “realism”, way too little fun. It was certainly interesting but… yeah.

Though actually on the note of spotting you from half the map, there are a ton of helpful AI mods that are pretty much standard that I should probably also dig up for you…

I might have to play around with those a bit more. I don’t mind though, it’s suppose to be fun not feel like a punishment.

Well, that’s the thing - STALKER players are generally masochists who hate themselves and love misery! The punishment is the fun! How else would mods like Fatal Error be so popular?

I’m only halfway in that camp, though, even though I do enjoy the loot/survival/scavenging based gameplay. I don’t play the G.A.M.M.A. modpack myself, but I do use a similar design philosophy to that in my own custom list where traders don’t sell guns or armour, everything drops in low condition and you need to scavenge stuff for parts to progress (I forgot to mention Weapon Parts Overhaul probably).