Still on Baldur’s Gate 3. Just started my fifth or so character. An Abserd (someone multiclassing into every class) character who fools around in Honour Mode. Works surprisingly well so far and I still manage to find stuff I have never seen before.
I didn't have too much time for gaming this week, except for my usual Diablo bs lol.
Diablo 3: Season 29 - Finally completed the season journey. I've got my pretty wings and a new pet. D3 is now going to the back burner until the Darkening of Tristram event in January.
Diablo 4: Season 2 - The Midwinter Blight event started this week, so my focus has been temporarily on that. Well, that and farming Forgotten Souls in Helltide, bleh.
Still playing Octopath Traveler, it’s alright, although with some really rough spots. I should hopefully be done soon though.
It has some neat mechanics, like hitting enemies with their weakness to eventually stun them and cause them to take more damage, but it also leads to a lot of fights (mostly against trash mobs) that take far too long, because you might not be able to exploit that weakness well or at all.
Also, as the name suggests, there are eight playable characters, with a party size of four. You might think you could easily have an A and B squad, but for some reason, one character is fixed and can’t be changed. This leads to this one character being massively higher level than the other party members at times, and because there’s no exp for inactive party members, makes keeping everyone else roughly the same level a real pain. I just had a main party and would occasionally swap in one of the lower level guys to do their story.
Speaking of story, it’s pretty boring. Every character has four chapters (dunno if there’s more for the whole group afterward) and almost all of them play out the same. Start a story with some exposition, gather intel by speaking with a few NPCs, a bit more exposition, go to a short dungeon, fight a boss, exposition, done. By the way, your whole party never shows up in the “cutscenes,” it’s always just the single character, whose story you’re doing.
Strzelał, że może na geoportalach miejskich jest gdzieś warstwa z zagospodarowaniem i aktualnym użytkowaniem? Spróbuję jutro/pojutrze zerknąć, jak siądę przy kompie.
I’ve finished Eiyuden Chronicles: Rising, as a preparation for Eiyuden Hundred Heroes.
It’s not a good game, but it’s not terrible either. I played it while watching TV.
The combat is interesting, you have 3 attack buttons, and each of them switches your main character. However it’s really unpolished, you can’t do uppercut or downward attack before upgrading your weapons.
The story… is not interesting at all. It’s largely fetch quests for the residents to build / expand stuff.
I’m halfway thru Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII
This is a bad game. The gunplay is okay, but the level design, the enemies become increasingly dull and boring in later chapters. Halfway thru the game, I just find most chapters are way too long, empty, and repetitive.
The story / writing is not good at all. All those Deepground characters are boring, cliched, and annoying.
Also, I’m back with my BS, where I play Resident Evil Zero with a guide and skipping all the cutscenes, so that I can get the infinite rocket launcher, before replaying the entire game for the story.
Finished Paradise Killer early last week. I liked it a lot, it got to be pretty addicting uncovering new pieces of the mystery. Whenever I had to put the game down, I’d come back to it thinking “Oh shit, I discovered x last time I played, can’t wait to see how that pans out.” The one negative thing I’ll say is that there’s not a lot of actual detective work on the player’s part. The actual mechanics of the game are pretty much just running back and forth over the island, talking to the same characters, and chasing collectibles. But I enjoyed the loop, so it worked out.
Started up Moonlighter for a low-commitment game. I’ve played about 10 hours and enjoyed it so far. It’s got a pretty well-balanced progression loop (explore the dungeon, sell your stuff, afford a small upgrade, get a little further in the dungeon, sell your stuff…) which is a big draw for me. Not sure it’ll keep my interest to the end but I’m fond of the time I’ve spent.
Jumped into Chernobylite the other day, haven’t sunk much time into it, but I’m digging the atmosphere. So far it’s been a decent game to pop into after work and poke around a bit.
I would love to see an actual lawyer’s take on this. Jirard’s response is basically “we mislead everyone and were shitty for not donating before now, but it was perfectly legal for us to hold the money until now, and it was also legal for us to use donations for operating expenses of the foundation/events”. While Karl presents a lot of evidence of misleading statements by Jirard, his usage of the encyclopedia brittanica to define charity fraud instead of any actual legal definition, and presentation of evidence as more damning than it actually is (and in a very hostile manner) leads me to view both sides in a negative light. At this point, I have no idea whether either side has any legal grounds for the accusations made toward the other, and I don’t see that changing unless someone with actual legal knowledge weighs in
I agree. I usually like Karl’s content but his tone really did a disservice to this story. He really should have consulted someone that knows USA charity law for this. I don’t think he’s wrong, he just needed more credibility for his video. He’s also Australian, so US law isn’t something I’d expect him to know at all.
I don’t see how the completionist could make these claims about donating to specific cherities without actually donating a single cent until someone noticed. Surely USA charity law isn’t so broken that this is legal?
I mean, it’s pretty scummy but “working with” could refer to just being in communications with those charities about what a potential donation would be used for. Given what Jirard has said, I assume he was completely negligent about checking in on any of the foundation’s activities, and was probably just handed a paper with the names of “partners” on it for the stream. That said, I feel like the quotes about being a “major” or “main” partner with some specific organizations could get them into trouble, even if it’s legal for them to hold the money that long and they pass IRS audits
I don't think that they do. They still had the money. It's now been donated, and Jirard is distancing himself from the charity and not running them attached to IndieLand anymore; the trust is gone, so it would have been difficult to get people to donate anyway. The only smoking gun I could see they had against him was the money still in the account (at the time). The accusations about the golf tournaments had no numbers attached to them, only that "there must be more money there", and it felt very unfounded and as though Jobst just needed another video out for his baked in sponsor slot. From what I can see, Jirard did exactly what he should have to make amends, and now that a bunch of people have all been encouraged en masse to lodge complaints to the IRS, the rest of the truth will come out of that inevitable audit, because I sure didn't feel like I got it from Jobst's follow-up videos. His and OrdinaryGamers are two channels I'm certainly not interested in watching again. If you're going to do something resembling investigative journalism, then act like it; don't preamble your video telling me how I should feel about something before you've presented your facts.
By that I meant from the perspective that the initial allegations still felt like it could all just be a misunderstanding. Now that it has been donated, it seems to be more a matter of who at Open Hand was actually in the know (since it is possible that Jirard geniunely was being misled himself), and why the money wasn’t being donated. The golf tournament stuff definitely feels much more circumstantial since it is based on extrapolation. Overall it does seem like the IRS getting involved is going be the only way definitive evidence of what was actually going on will come out.
I'm reading between the lines of what Jirard said in his recorded calls and his response video when I say this, but I got the sense he and his family wanted that dollar value to be significantly higher so that they could have more control over what it gets spent on. People are more willing to do what you want them to do when you give them $1M than if you give them $1000. Still not a great reason to hold on to it if so, but hardly fraud.
Jirard’s words were unambiguous over the years, though. It was always “we’re working with…” or “we’ve donated to…” and not “we’re looking at these charities”. I don’t know what the rationale for hanging on to that money was, whether it was for the right reasons or not. What I do know is that people were lied to. It doesn’t matter if he intended to or not. It’s not a good spot to be in, and I can’t imagine it gets much better from here. The whole thing felt very much like w crypto scam, except the money was still available, but there was a whole lot of “trust me, bro” and misrepresentation of what was happening behind the scenes.
How many years of research do you need in order to pick the charity or university you want to fund? How many times do you repeat the lies (with numbers!) without even knowing what your own charity is doing? I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a different reason they hung on to the money, because this doesn’t pass the sniff test. Where there’s smoke there’s fire.
Karl’s drama/exposé videos have always had this kind of antagonistic energy to them. It usually doesn’t bother me since the subjects, like Billy Mitchell, have brought the absurdity on themselves. Carrying that same energy into serious claims of fraud feels like a poor decision even if it’s the style of video you’re used to making. I don’t think the money would have been donated without these videos so I’m glad they were made, but the presentation was not as effective as it could’ve been.
Agreed with the tone of the videos being off and I don’t like both creators.
On the other hand, there is definitely some weird accounting going on at the charity. They are supposed to report all expenses which they didn’t. They also didn’t provide any banking statement that show the money were there all the time. If the fund is misused and then repaid later, they were still misused.
Also, as I understand it, $600,000 is not all the money. Already last year’s tax filings showed more capital than that. The charity also has some money deducted for “costs” that is not broken down, and although I’m an outsider it doesn’t seem very cool because the charity hadn’t actually been doing anything so I can’t imagine donors feeling like costs of that size are warranted.
He didn’t even manage to donate all the money they claimed to have on their tax filings from over a year ago. There is another entire indie land after that at least.
So no. He hasn’t even donated all the money. His “apology” was also pretty much a non apology. “Sorry if you felt mislead”.
Elden Ring and Stardew Valley ate a decent chunk of 2023 for me. And are both amazing games in their own right. Totally different, though.
I didn’t play anything really bad this past year, but I did bounce off Crosscode pretty hard after expecting to love it given I’m a sucker for early JRPGs and the 8 and 16 bit eras in general. It’s a well made game, just overlong and featuring some tedious and frustrating mechanics.
Street Fighter 6 - Really really good fighting game, definitely a recommend if you want to play one.
Baldurs Gate 3 - It is BG3, what more needs to be said?
Octopath Traveler 2 - It is more of the first, but more refined and better at tying the characters together.
Dead Space Remake - If you like the original, you should really play this, it is incredible.
Remnant 2 - Great game, a good refinement of the first remnant, and fantastic in co-op.
Last Epoch - I really like the leveling systems(Character and also Skills). Not perfect, but fun and chaotic.
Crab Champions - Crab goes BRRR. Not many games I go out of my way to 100% but this games feels incredible to play.
Spiderman & Miles Morales - Finally pick up on the cheap, if you enjoy the Batman Arkham formula, these two are fantastic. Miles Morales definitely feels like a large DLC though.
Driftwood - Longboarding Sloth, super chilled out and relaxing. Just enjoy carving down the hills on sticks of butter.
Lumines - The best game on the PSP, and still love it(picked up for cheap with Tetris, but prefer Lumines)
The not so good.
Ghost Runner 2 - I want to like this more, I loved the first game, but the wide open levels and bike traversal just don’t feel good or fun.
Diablo 4 - Play Last Epoch instead, D4 feels boring and bland and uninspired after finishing the story.
Blasphemous - Didnt click with me, the combat felt good and the movement was good, but never stuck with it, will probably try again at some point.
Hyper Light Drifter - I have tried a few times, and I keep bouncing off it.
Ori and the Blind Forest - I also want to like this game, but bounced off it again.
While Street Fighter 6 is my Favourite game of the the year, Baldurs Gate 3 is definitely the GOTY. I would strongly recommend any game from the favourites list. I haven’t played any really bad games this year, Diablo 4 is probably the worst I have played, do not recommend it. Unlike the other games which I would be tempted to suggest under certain circumstances.
On Ori and the Blind Forest - if you generally enjoy platformers, I would encourage you to give the sequel a shot, Ori and the Will of the Wisps. I played BF years ago and like you, I bounced off it. Then a couple of years back I tried WotW and loved it.
I subsequently went back and retried BF, and I realized that every issue I had with the gameplay had been fixed in the sequel.
The story of the first game only factors into the second game in minor ways, so you’ll be fine if you skip it.
I will give it a try, pretty sure it is in the steam library, but probably be a couple months til I get round to it now (Granblue is being an absolute blast).
The only game that was kinda a bummer was Tears of the kingdom. The sky world was just copy/pastes with nothing but some robots. I wanted the hot bird people up there or something.
The underground was dead and had a few POIs but was basically just those same annoying ninjas from the first game who disguise themselves as civilians. I liked the story and characters in botw2 better. The map was largely unchanged from the first game. Some of the missions were better. Gannon actually getting a plot was cool. The enemies were better this go around. The gmod bits were cool, but caused the game to run like shit. The game also ran at like, 22 fps the entire time anyways. The shrines were as meh as the first game, which were already so dull I’d look up guides just to get more hearts/stamina.
…it should have been a $25 DLC instead of a $70 game.
It was a solid 4.5/10 for me, mostly just on the amount of rehashed stuff for a $70 game, which should have blown my balls off for waiting six years and $70 later. I hope the next Zelda game is more like Twilight Princess.
I was going to contest, but I actually emulated the game and didn’t have the framerate issues. Everything else held up for me though. In terms of the civiskyzation, it has been thousands of years. They all dead. I don’t disagree with the underground being empty, but it is an unknown underground. It made sense for the POI’s to mostly match up with the overworld elements.
I think these are fair lore reasons when it’s like this because of the hardware the game runs on. Maybe there could have been more underground but it affected the performance.
Disagree on the DLC though. It was a pretty fully fledged game. I also agree that it shouldn’t have been $70, though lol.
I think had they released it on PC, it would have been a bit better, since the vehicles could be built larger and have a further despawn distance without big frame drop penalties. (And frame drops in certain environments). I’m glad for the enemy variation and liked the bosses better in totk. But next game, I hope the gameplay is wildly different and they take some risks with the story. I’d love to see parts where you play as Zelda or something.
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