Essence_of_Meh

I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with a more detailed list once I play a bit more but here are some things off the top of my head.

TD2 -> GRW:

• Smoother climbing/mantling system.
• Slightly slower movement speed.
• Armour pieces which serve purpose beyond looks (even if how it works is pretty gamey in TD).
• Navigation system (route line visible directly in the environment rather than on the mini-map).
• Camera which doesn’t change shoulder offset on its own.
• Weather reactions (different animation sets for different weather conditions).
• Slightly better character customisation (body).
• Some of the (less crazy) cosmetic items.

GRW -> TD2

• Stance system (crouching and crawling).
• Character building (I know TD is a live service looter shooter but boy do the meta changes and all of the build or progression systems get overwhelming at times).
• Gun controls (ability to switch fire mode, change scope crosshair and holster your weapon).
• Number of customisable gun parts.
• Ability to approach action in a more stealthy way and in less linear fashion (for some missions, not everything has to be a tightly directed spectacle).
• Less bulletspongy enemies (not to the level of GRW but a little more squishy than in current TD).
• Environment affecting character look (for example: crawling in the dirt covers your character in mud).
• Better compatibility between all of the outfit elements (some combos in TD2 don’t mesh well together - as in physically, not even in terms of style).
• Ability to save outfit sets.

There are also some elements I keep going back and forth on, like whether I prefer the “hard” cover system of TD (you have to commit to entering/exiting cover) or the “soft” system of GRW (your character automatically adjusts position based on proximity to cover). Both have their good and bad sides so it’s a pretty tough choice.

Eh, it’s just my brain being weird. While it’s not great, it’s something that happens from time to time so I try not to let it get to me too much.
On a brighter side, it gives me a bit more time to work out my Stalker role-play scenario, so there’s that at least.

I mentioned last week that things aren’t great and that’s still the case, leading to a situation I can’t really focus on anything specific and been bouncing between various titles trying to find something to occupy my time. Didn’t have much luck so far but I’m still trying.

Two titles I actually managed to stuck with for now are: Ghost Recon Wildlands and D1AL-ogue.

I have some mixed feelings about GRW. Graphically it looks great (except for characters’ hands, which look like everyone is 80 year old) and the gameplay feels just as good. Gunplay is smooth and satisfying, weapon customisation is simple but does its job well. I also really enjoy its movement system, even if there are some times where it controlled more like The Division (there are also some things I’d from this game I’d love to see in TD).
One thing I wasn’t ready for was how fragile you are in this game - I like it. It forces you to approach missions more tactically instead of running in guns blazing.

Writing is… fine. It does its job but it’s not really my cup of tea. Voice acting (at least for the main character) can also be hit or miss depending on the line. I do however like the approach to in-combat callouts. They are calm, professional and feel perfect for characters who suppose to be an elite combat unit.

Despite all of those things ranging from good to decent, I have a difficult time actually clicking with this game - no idea why. Might be my brain’s fault.

All in all, it’s a decent time waster that should tide me over until I’m ready to go back to Stalker. Probably won’t be something I’ll keep returning to regularly, unlike TD, but it’s enjoyable enough.

D1AL-ogue is a cyberpunk visual novel with puzzle elements, heavily inspired by VA-11 Hall:A. You play as an android repair man instead of bartender but the vibes, gorgeous visuals and (not as great) music leave no doubt about that inspiration. Puzzle gameplay is simple but fun, and each “stage” for visiting character is followed by a dialogue segments about various topics.

Writing could use a bit more polish (studio is Korean, I think, and there are some weirdly worded parts here and there) but it looks like devs are working on an expanded version of the game and improved English localisation so we can expect that to change in the future.

Game is free on Steam so if anyone’s looking for VA-11 Hall:A vibes, this title is a good choice.

I’m not having a great time and will most likely take a break from regular reading for a while. Before that happens however I’d like to write about two series I’ve been looking into recently.

[Beijing Chronicles}(mangadex.org/title/…/beijing) is an anthology of short stories about the life in Beijing before and during the 2008 Olympic Games. Multiple authors, vastly different topics, perspectives and art styles. It’s not exactly the greatest thing ever but I found it to be an enjoyable and interesting read, showing a pretty mundane side of life in the city. It’s also pretty short, sitting at 11 chapters.

Deadlines Are Raining in the Status Window - another comedy manhwa with transmigration focus. Main character ends up in the body of a villainess, decides she wants nothing to do with the main plot and bails to the countryside to lay low, earn money and go to a famous academy for a fresh start.
I actually tried reading it before but due to an unfortunate case of “wrong place, wrong time” I couldn’t really get into and decided to leave it for later. Well, it’s now later so lets try again.

My second attempt started way better as I immediately had a lot more fun than on my first run. “Had” when reading the first arc anyway. Once I got to a point where MC started meeting and fangirling about main plot characters the story lost me completely as she’s the worst and most obnoxious kind of fan - one I really can’t stand, let alone want to read about. The moment she’s with them (especially one of them) she turns from a blunt money hungry opportunist into a total creep ready to demean herself for a bit. It’s not funny, not for me.

So yeah, as much as I enjoyed my second attempt the parts I don’t like are enough to make me stop. It’s a shame but what can you do?

Speaking of stopping - I’ve been actually quite a bit more proactive in dropping series recently, already clearing my library of about a dozen or more titles in the last week alone. I guess I’m a bit tired of reading for the sake of reading at this point. I did it mostly to occupy my mind and since it doesn’t seem to work that well any more I might as well try something else for a bit.

I’m working on the initial premise and background details for my role-play focused playthrough of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Anomaly so I decided to take a break from that for a now. Well, mostly - I’m still adding mods and tweaking the numbers so I jump in from time to time to test things out. Proper gaming sessions however are on hold until I’m ready to start from scratch.

Mod list got another boost since last week, here’s how it look right now:

Since I’m taking a break from Stalker, I decided to use this opportunity to jump back into The Elder Scrolls Online. My time with the game has been… fine. Harder combat is cool and all but everything else?

I’m trying to follow the quests (both local and main story ones) to give myself some goals but the whole thing is pretty boring to be honest. It’s not that writing is terrible or anything like that, it’s just I really hate being the chosen one. I’m SO BORED of this position it’s difficult to get invested into anything that’s happening in the story. “You’re special” - yay… (๑ - ᆺ -)

I dunno, maybe if I played with a group I could feel better by acting as an unimportant support character but as it is now, I’m just going through the motions. Run around, follow the quests, kill some boring bad guys, rinse and repeat. I don’t think classic MMOs are for me any more.
I thought about trying Skyrim multiplayer instead since that’s more role-playing focused (including non-combat roles) but that requires joining project’s discord server which is an instant “no, thanks” for me.

I’m going through a bit of a rough patch right now which affects my motivation to some extent but even in better circumstances my feelings towards the game weren’t much different than now. Time to browse through my library again.

To be clear, I’ll be writing them regardless of whether I decide to post anything online or not. I’m simply not sure whether they’ll be worth anyone’s time outside of the game. As I said though, I’ll most likely pair them with screenshot posting so there should be something worthwhile there.

I’ll let you know if I decide to go through with it.

Duplicate

I’ve got you noted down so I’ll be sure to do just that if needed. And yeah, my mod list is still growing in preparations for this new playthrough - I did not expect to jump right into it this early but hey, I’ll take it!

I’m not sure about the journals though. Not because I dislike the idea but rather because I’m not sure if they’ll be interesting to read. I’m not a writer and they will be kept in character of a fledgling arrival to the Zone. A lot, probably most, of their content will be focused on mundane and low level stuff (travelling from place to place, scavenging, avoiding combat), especially in the early game - it might be pretty boring from a perspective of an observer.
That said, I could use them as an excuse to post Anomaly screenshots on my Pixey profile. It’s about time I started uploading pictures again now that I’m playing something worth capturing. Besides, it’s not like I have to post all of them.

I’ll have to think about it.

More S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Anomaly this week. I feel comfortable enough with the gameplay experience I’m starting to think about making some additional number tweaking and starting from scratch with higher difficulty. My current playthrough works well as a tutorial but I feel like things (especially in terms of equipment) progressed a little too smoothly.
I was thinking about making this new playthrough a themed one, with some basic reasons for entering the Zone, in-character journal entries about my adventures and just general focus on role playing. I’m still thinking about some of the details but even in its current form, playthrough like this would be the most involved project I attempted so far and that makes it kind of exciting.

Modding also continues, with the number of addons more than doubling since last week. New additions are mostly gameplay improvements as these are honestly the things that stand out the most for me. I’m used to old graphics and play on an outdated hardware so visuals aren’t a priority for me, despite that I did find a few additions which allowed me to improve the graphical presentation with very little effect on performance. Enough to leave me satisfied at least. Here’s my current mod list, just like last week:

I keep going back and forth on whether I want to use KVMA (mod adding higher quality character models) in my game. On one hand NPCs do look much better with the mod, on the other it only supports handful of female character types and since I play with LASS + female NPCs, that leads to an ugly mix of old and new models. That also includes my character. @Coelacanth@feddit.nu graciously shared a customised mod with additional female models which does help. Unfortunately, even this setup lacks HD alternatives for some of the outfits - including those I tend to lean into, at least in the early game.

I dunno, I’m sure I’ll make a decision before starting the new playthrough. I’ll just keep toying with both ways until then.

I don’t have much to write about The Elder Scrolls Online honestly. Between modding and playing Anomaly as well as real life activities I didn’t really have much time to spend with it. After playing some more I can confirm that bumping up difficulty does make the game feel better but that’s about it. It’s too early to write more about how much this single fact will improve my overall experience with the game.

I’ve got two series I want to write about today, both with somewhat interesting ideas and enough issues to hold them back from being great.

The Rebirth of a Tyrannical Empress - main character ends up in a novel as the titular tyrannical empress and she does so a few days before the end of the story, when the original protagonist gets executed for her wicked deeds.
Where to start… I think the premise and the story itself are pretty enjoyable for the most part. There are the usual problems of no meaningful challenges (it’s pretty much just “watch how MC and her crew dunk on the opposition”) but it’s still fun enough to read. Then the twists happened. I’ll put them in the spoilers, for obvious reasons, but I’ll try to limit myself to a few specific points.

In the final stretch we also find that she’s even more special than she already was so, you know, things start to feel pretty generic at this point. The worst part is that it doesn’t feel needed since Yulia was already an extremely powerful character without this revelation.

Lastly, there’s romance. I really don’t care for it. It doesn’t show up out of nowhere and it does makes sense from a story standpoint but I really can’t bring myself to care about any of it. At least it seems to be heading towards a harem ending so there’s a bit of a difference compared to all the other series I read in this genre.

I dunno. This story was pretty fun (I still have about 20 chapters left) but my interest ended up fizzling out as I kept reading. I feel like all of the additions in the second half of the plot serve more as a hindrance to the plot rather than worthwhile additions.
On a more positive note, I really love the art style. Characters, especially Yulia, are drawn in a specific way that makes them pop up and looks somewhat unique. I especially like how they draw Yulia as she ends up looking smug vast majority of the time, even if she’s not trying to be. It’s my favourite part of this manhwa.

Surviving as a Maid - MC wakes up as queen’s maid in a Boys Love novel where the king is gay, prefers his lover over his wife and regularly does things that disrespect her, undermine her authority and/or make things more difficult for the staff.

Decent premise but the story isn’t anything special to be honest. It has some interesting aspects like the fact that MC might act out her role to avoid suspicion but never gets to the point of feeling that she IS the character she took over. This leads to her living with a never ending feeling of body dysphoria, to the point she’s thinking about self-harm as a way of dealing with the thoughts that cause this state of affairs. She never actually goes through with it (another character gives her a way to helps her deal with a bit better) but it’s a plot point that never really goes away (at least as far as I’ve read anyway).
It’s also a plot point that doesn’t happen particularly often in similar titles since MCs end up accustomed to their new role and bodies pretty quickly most of the time.

Unfortunately for me this is pretty much the extent of interesting stuff in the story. There are some cool ideas here and there, sure, but for the most part things are rather boring (and not in a “slow burn” kind of way). I’ve read about 50 chapters and I think that will be it for me - there’s just nothing here to keep me hooked enough to care.

The Rebirth of a Tyrannical Empress is honestly the bigger let down of the two. I really like Yulia, I love the art style and I think there could be a lot of interesting things you could do with the premise. Despite that, author decided to take an easy way out, sanding off rougher elements and leaning more and more on “happy good heroes save the day”. It’s not terrible but it is way less interesting.

Surviving as a Maid was the definition of “fine” from the start so I didn’t have enough expectations to be disappointed with it. I’m sure someone out there will enjoy it more than I did.

And to think all that was needed was a threat of NTR.

I agree but I feel like this could’ve been tackled by “the power of friendship” to some extent. Guts has been gathering friends and companions for a while now, some of whom are pretty powerful themselves. I think having them strategise, prepare and work as a group for the final showdown would be a bit more meaningful than a simple birth power-up. I still expect it to happen, even if not in as crucial role as I’m thinking of, but we’ll see how it goes.

As long as we get an ending and they don’t completely drop the ball I’ll be satisfied.

I should’ve worded my point a bit differently as it probably sounds like I think he’s suddenly “the chosen one” (in the classical sense). It just feels like we’re moving away from “man fights hell through lots of training, willpower and anger” to “well, he is that but also the reason he can even do those extreme things was decided by his birth” - I just don’t like this concept in general, Berserk or not. He was already special enough, there’s no need to make him even more magical to justify the final boss fight.

I don’t know, maybe reading through the story again would change my reaction to this. I’ve been following Berserk for more than a decade now (I think?), so there’s a lot I managed to forget over the years. It’s more of an emotional reaction than informed one to be honest. I hope future chapters will alleviate my worries and if not, that a re-read someday down the road will.

Dunno about the mod but special edition is currently 75% off on GOG. As long as the mod is available on NexusMods or somewhere besides Steam Workshop there should be no problem, I believe.

I’m not really sure I like this development but I’ll hold my judgement for now. Sure, it doesn’t change too much in the practical sense (he was already special to some extent) but it kind of feels like we’re shifting towards “Guts was destined to defeat the big evil all along”.

Dunno, maybe it’s just a knee jerk reaction based on hazy memory considering how slow the story is right now (in terms of releases not pacing). I’ll just wait and see, I guess.

I’d love to be able to approach the topic from a more neutral or even positive stance (I really like the idea of AI on a conceptual level) but I simply hate how it came to be and how it functions nowadays. Existence of open source models does help but it’s not easy to change my mind on this with all the other stuff surrounding the tech. Well, that and I don’t have the hardware to run local models anyway.

Yeah, it’s mostly a mix of “I don’t trust them to act I as I want” and “I don’t like feeling responsible for AI”. It’s not really a Stalker thing either, I just like wandering on my own in games. I’ll most likely give them a shot here just to test things out but that’s about as far as my plans go for companionship at the moment.

I’m always wary when it comes to gen-AI powered NPCs. On one hand I can appreciate the idea and the dream of having truly unique virtual characters, on the other I have rather… strong feelings towards gen-AI (for multiple reasons) and don’t really want to interact with it or support it in any way. At least TALKER has Ollama support so that’s something.

Yeah, by collection I meant all of the modules, including Alife+. According to the description it’s more of an extension to the vanilla system rather than an override so it should be compatible with at least some of the stuff you mentioned (probably, we’ll see). Thanks for the links, as always.

I don’t really care for playing with companions to be honest, not at the moment anyway. The only reason I downloaded “He Is With Me” was to test it with a specific situation during a rescue quest. That said, I’ll keep those mods in mind if I start longing for a party.

The video you sent me pushed me into another marathon of mod browsing so thanks for that… Nah, seriously - thanks! I found another 5 or so mods to try out already, though most of them are gameplay related rather than graphical ones.

I was actually planning to try out the Alife collection for AI changes as they seem like a promising set of improvements. Have you tried them? Are they any good or are there others you’d recommend over (or in addition to) those?