Stalinwolf

Stalinwolf, 3 miesiące temu

One of my staff does this every day of his life. His roommate works with us as well and confirms it. Dude will game until 10am, then crash for a couple of hours and be into work at 1pm. Rinse and repeat. Five days per week. Rolls out of bed with ten minutes to spare, throws on his uniform and starts walking. I don’t know how he survives the lifestyle, but I guess it’s working for him.

Stalinwolf, 3 miesiące temu

I remember at least liking it a fair bit because it played a lot like Halo 1. I was a huge fan of the original and never cared as much for the sequels. I remember all of my friends got really into ODST, and I hated the direction it had taken the gameplay. So when Reach came out and felt comfortable in my hands again, I was stoked.

Stalinwolf, 4 miesiące temu

There was so much magic in this game. That soundtrack and overall atmosphere was incredible. I remember trying it in little bite-sized pieces at Toys R Us and the McDonald’s lobby and being really blown away.

Stalinwolf, 5 miesięcy temu

STALKER 2, and I haven’t felt this frightened to climb down into the basement of a decrepit waste processing station since the original trilogy. So in short, it hits just right.

I actually stood in my kitchen last night eating some yogurt and two Lucky Charms cereal bars just to procrastinate what I knew I had to do.

Stalinwolf, 5 miesięcy temu

It functions well enough that I haven’t noticed anything off, save for maybe two occasions in 40+ hours where I was unlucky enough to have bandits spawn in near me. Once out in the woods, and one time they literally appeared sitting in chairs in the room I had just passed through, then attacked on my way back through it. You can’t help but laugh when it happens, but it’s nowhere near like it was on release.

I know that several of the squads I encounter in the wild have been artificially spawned in just outside of my exclusion radius, but they move organically enough that I’ve never had my immersion broken with the impression that these aren’t just stalkers on their own mission. Sure, if I reload a ways back and travel the same route, it may well be a different assortment of them, no one at all, or maybe bandits or mutants the next time, but rather than feeling tacky it keeps the Zone feeling unpredictable. Retracing my steps after reloading often results in a wildly different experience from Point A to Point B, so I can’t cheese my way through much of anything.

I’ve also encountered large, roaming packs of mutants who, when avoided, travel well outside of my exclusion radius and continue to be heard far off in the distance (Flesh are a good example) even though they’re no longer rendered on my screen. I’ve traveled in that direction a short time later just to run into the same pack having changed direction, so there definitely are some persistent A-Life doing their thing out there. It’s just sprinkled with some chance encounters.

All in all, the A-Life isn’t exactly where they/we want it to be, but they’ve taken enough corrective steps that I find it very enjoyable, and I say that as a long-term fan of the originals, as well as hardcore versions like Anomaly. Honestly, the only thing I truly dislike about STALKER 2 is the number of bloodsuckers. They’ve become a lot easier to dispatch with my better gear, but if I’m ever going to run into three bloodsuckers in the wild, it should be like one time. But there are times where I encounter packs of them several times per day, and on Veteran difficulty that is absolute bullshit.

Stalinwolf, 5 miesięcy temu

No problem. I don’t know what it is about 6am bathroom time that makes me write novels.

Stalinwolf, 6 miesięcy temu

STALKER 2

Stalinwolf, 6 miesięcy temu

The ugly comments are fucking hilarious. She’s a perfectly attractive older woman at this point, and quite honestly, if I’m going to be forced to take up her mantle as the player character, I’ll have a much easier time identifying with a hardened older woman as a Witcher than a young adult girl with perpetually running mascara.

I didn’t enjoy playing the Ciri bits at all in TW3, but this version of Ciri is about as palatable as it could have been, and I’m open to it. Especially if I can customize her playstyle like I could Geralt, so that it’s not just fast, whippy, lightning zippy-zappy whatever-the-fuck that was in TW3.

Stalinwolf, 6 miesięcy temu

Night of the Full Moon is excellent.

Stalinwolf, 6 miesięcy temu

That’s unusual. Yeah, I had only played on mobile. Couldn’t tell you whether or not it contained spyware, but the game itself is fantastic and the only paid content (additional classes/decks) are well worth it.

Stalinwolf, 7 miesięcy temu

STALKER and The Elder Scrolls probably hold the record. I may have wasted even more time in my life on World of Warcraft, but I feel like that doesn’t count since you’re just in a fucking trance for several years until you finally break away.

Stalinwolf, 7 miesięcy temu

o7

Stalinwolf, 7 miesięcy temu

I miss the classic era of DAoC and still hum various town music to this day. Cotswold being the most recurring.

Stalinwolf, 8 miesięcy temu

I never completed that one but had explored most of the mainland. I really need to go back and go through it all again. I loved the small details throughout the world. The wilderness and countryside was so well done, with little shrines along the roads here and there and so many lived-in places throughout. I spent 75% of my playtime with Roach set to a slow trot just so I could really absorb the world and feel like I was making a journey on those old roads. There’s something so profoundly Witcher about quietly riding dark paths at night and stopping to hear a monster in the woods. You climb off Roach and draw your silver sword, then make your way into that decrepit forest to deal with whatever is going on out there.

Stalinwolf, 8 miesięcy temu (edited 8 miesięcy temu)

I went through a brief Asmongold phase about a year or two ago where I enjoyed just listening to him rant and bitch (mostly) about the video game industry. He was surprisingly articulate at times and not quite how I had perceived him. I watched him take a political alignment test and he was dumbfounded that he was fairly left-wing. I thought that might be a turning point for him, but then election season came around and he went right back to being an obnoxious Trump-supporting Texan. I don’t think Asmongold even knows who he is deep down or what he stands for. I think he just spews vomit from his brain and doubles-down on all of it because he’s incapable of dropping an argument or admitting he was wrong. It’s kind of his shtick, but I’m long since done with it.

I know enough about him to attempt a deep-dive into his psyche in regards to his decrepit home, his mother’s death and his unwillingness to seperate from his lifestyle, but at the end of the day his sad circumstances unfortunately don’t excuse the abborant shit he sometimes says.

Stalinwolf, 8 miesięcy temu

I think No Man’s Sky was my first brush with it. In that game the feature is entirely necessary, especially when starting out on survival, but that was ground zero for me.

Stalinwolf, 9 miesięcy temu

Nearly every server is different, but the ones my friends/wife and I always did (10+ years ago) were like role-playing kingdom building maps. Server owner (usually me) would hold the title of King/Sovereign and appoint their friends to specific roles. I would oversee the general development and expansion of the kingdom, as well as decide and manage a system of ore-based currency (or would at least create the mint and appoint someone to running it). Afterward I would introduce and gradually roll out phases of a larger storyline for anyone who cares.

My left and right hand would build/manage the keeps/barracks/military structures, or the government buildings/libraries/cultural centers, etc. These would all be injected with their own lore and staffed by the person in charge of them. Everyone else would receive more minor roles, but typically be given monopolies in certain types of goods or commerce. Maybe Bob wants to be a trapper. Sure, anyone else can legally go and gather leathers and animal parts, but Bob is the only one permitted to sell those items in his shop in the city. Things like that just to try to keep it interesting. When Bob isn’t trapping or trading or being involved with the kingdom, he’s pretty much just playing Minecraft on his homestead.

The idea is to open it up to the public (via applications and careful vetting) and watch people run amock in the simulated medieval economy. We used to have a blast doing it. Especially with mods installed that added skill progression, abilities at milestones and other MMORPG-esque mechanics.

Normal people, however… They just do what they do in single player but occasionally trade, work together, tackle bosses, and show each other their latest creations.

Stalinwolf, 10 miesięcy temu

Those oldest memories of Minecraft are the most peculiar of them all. I still remember starting with either the last Alpha release, or the earliest Beta release. I had come across a comic (using screenshots from the game) of Steve looking out into the night and seeing a single pair of red eyes in a distant hill. He looks out again and a monster is looking back in (or something like that). Always wanted to find that comic again. Anyway, that was my extent of knowledge going into the game. I knew there was mining, night time, and monsters.

I remember digging a hole into a hillside to survive my first night. There was a single torch placed outside of the hole, and throughout the night I watched various animals gather around the entrance to look in at me. I remember feeling awful, thinking they wanted shelter from the monsters outside, but realized while looking back much later that they were just spawning in my torchlight.

I also recall finding sort of a canyon or mountain pass with lava flowing into it. There was a small doorway or opening on one cliff face, and several flaming poles between it and the other side. It looked like an altar of some sort. This was back when lava/fire burned leaves and left the stumps to burn eternally, but in my inexperience I thought these were pyres placed deliberately by some entity, and began to worry there was truth to the Herobrine myth. Maybe other players were in my world.

Early Minecraft was a trip.

Stalinwolf, 11 miesięcy temu

I had the green Gameboy, but this makes me wish I had chosen yellow. Yellow looks sharp.

Stalinwolf, 11 miesięcy temu

I always loved that this mechanic existed, because the flying jingly leap into the box was always a wonderfully satisfying way to end each level.

Stalinwolf, rok temu

I want to be positive and I’m trying to remain optimistic, but somehow I just know it in my bones that they’re going to further Fallout 4 the franchise and strip away even more skills and attributes. Hell, maybe they’ll get rid of dialogue entirely.

Stalinwolf, rok temu (edited rok temu)

I’ve tried to get into ESO multiple times, always hyping myself up to just ignore the combat/difficulty and pacing and do it for the story alone, but it wears me down quite quickly every time. The vibe is just entirely off in every way. It’s like playing with a cheap McDonald’s toy with stiff legs and a weird button that makes it move it’s arms vs. a licensed action figure.

Save for my issues with the lack of real risk or challenge anywhere outside of running end-game group content solo, I always get irritable with the weird class themes the developers went with. I think if they had three guardian base classes (Thief, Warrior, Mage) and allowed players to spend their limited pool of points into other Elder Scrolls trees (Destruction, Alteration, Restoration, Conjuration, Blunt, Blade, etc.) it could have been balanced well enough and felt true to what we’ve come to expect from that universe. But instead it feels like they made the game as an entirely different MMO, then at the last minute agreed to put an Elder Scrolls skin on it.

I’d like to be a Warrior with minor specialization in Restoration and Alteration, but if I want to play that sort or archetype I basically have to be a Templar who uses sun spells and does all of his fighting with aetherial javelins, maybe joining the Mage’s Guild or something to simulate some sort of Alteration type buffs. Or I roll a Dragonknight who is themed entirely around fire and lava spells. Or I run around labeled a Sorcerer and use daedric spells/buffs to simulate Alteration, and ignore the rest of that classes abilities to branch out into melee and armor abilities. It’s all just so convoluted and unusual.

Beautiful soundtrack, though… Moth, Butterfly and Torchbug really does things to my heart, and leaves me hopeful that even without Jeremy Soule, TES6 may still have the type of score it deserves.

Stalinwolf, rok temu

Just give him an NES with Battletoads, file off any print, and tell him you made it.

Stalinwolf, rok temu

STALKER, Stardew Valley, No Man’s Sky, Skyrim, Morrowind, WoW Classic/Vanilla, Mass Effect, Fallout 3/New Vegas.

Stalinwolf, rok temu

Holy shit! Will DK1 and 2 run on Windows 10 now?

Stalinwolf, rok temu

Spyro Reignited is a beautiful remake. The vibe and ambience of some of those levels is absolutely unreal. This has to be my favorite one, hands down. Spyro 1 was on an entirely different level in terms of mood. 2 and 3 just don’t hit the same, but there is still some great atmosphere.

youtu.be/QxEWPRYPaBk?si=os80ZNeZTRCV8724

Stalinwolf, rok temu (edited rok temu)

The sequels just felt too busy, as though the developers tried to jam so many activities and variance into every inch of the map that it wound up feeling extremely chaotic as a result. Even the soundtracks of 2 and 3 seem to reflect this feeling. It’s like they had a lot of pressure on them to deliver everything bigger and better than before, and it took a lot of focus off of what made Spyro so charming in the first place. The games have no chill.

Spyro 1 levels felt like mystic worldspaces to explore, with room to breathe and pretty sights to enjoy. 2 and 3 just feel like dense puzzles, with ladders and layers and tunnels and ledges, and this thing tieing back to this thing, and this thing opening up later once you get this other thing, and it just didn’t feel very organic or authentic. It was like running around in the inside of a clock.

Stalinwolf, rok temu

First one has the best Alchemy system of the three, which only got progressively worse with each entry. I also felt more satisfaction researching monsters and their strengths/weaknesses prior to encounters in 1. The other games for whatever reason didn’t quite scratch that same itch, but were obviously better in most other ways. All in all, I think I liked 1 and 3 the most.

Stalinwolf, rok temu

Still just a heavily modded Skyrim playthrough that still remains perfectly lore-friendly. But I’m strongly considering playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance soon. Unfortunately for me, the prospect of modding the hell out of Morrowind again is also calling to me.

Why walk when you can ride?

Stalinwolf, rok temu

There are few things more zen than sitting in your ship, thrusters off, in an undiscovered system on the other side of the galaxy. It’s humbling, isolating, and beautifully zen.

Stalinwolf, rok temu

Gothic 1 and especially 2 were absolute gems. Clunky as all fuck - especially the first one - but they were hugely impactful on me and way ahead of their time. The soundtrack from Gothic 2 still lingers in me today and makes me feel the way it made me feel even then.

youtu.be/HZ1tyNFODM4?si=MrGAcBmTJlaI9i4w

The meadows in Valheim also bring me back to Khorinis.

Stalinwolf, rok temu

I was enjoying it until I reached the first city. I hate city portions of RPGs.

Stalinwolf, rok temu

I made some shit ass choices on my first playthrough of ME2, during the final mission. Precious Tali took a bullet to the face because of it. I forced myself to live with it and made more sensible choices the next time around. I don’t believe I lost anyone the next time, but when it came to the Kaiden (accidentally called him Carth there for a moment) vs. Ashley, I definitely let Ashley go boom on that second playthrough and every consecutive time afterward as well. Kaiden is moody and a little annoying to have around, but at least he’s not a fucking dickhead like Ashley.

Stalinwolf, rok temu

Fuckin’ SSSLLAAmmMMMMmEeeDddd, dude!

Like a trashcan lid to the head!

Stalinwolf, rok temu

Bassin’s Black Bass with Hank Parker for the SNES. The best fishing game ever made.

Stalinwolf, rok temu

I got into it a few years back and nearly finished ARR. I found the storyline and cut scenes really engaging, and felt like I was a part of something. But I tried to pick it up and start fresh about a year ago and the bastards oversimplified my class (Summoner), and I swear they even further nerfed the low-mid level difficulty, making me feel most days as though I was playing on creative mode. For those who don’t care, though, the storyline, world and music (holy fuck, Limsa at night and Ul’dah at night are absolutely soul stirring) are really something special.

I will likely try the game again with the upcoming graphical upgrade, but I fear I will always feel too behind on the story and won’t be a part of the entirely new storyline/age that is slated to begin with the next expansion. That graphical upgrade will be huge, though. I play a ton of old games myself, but sometimes FFXIV feels like it’s running modern character models over PS2 environments and grass textures. It deserves to cast off some of that jank and show how beautiful it’s natural world can be.

Stalinwolf, rok temu (edited rok temu)

STALKER - Or at least in North America, anyway. While the vanilla games can be a little clunky and difficult at times, they offer one of the most unsettling and atmospheric experiences around.

There is nothing quite like tucking your tail between your legs and hurrying back to the safety of numbers, or a lonely campfire after realizing the sun is rapidly setting and you’re still out there with the shadows. Once you reach that camp or relative safety, there is this strange, mixed feeling of simultaneous security and insecurity as you listen to your temporary companions converse with each other in the glow of a crackling fire in a decaying village or industrial lot, while distant creatures howl in the night, and the Zone itself creaks and groans around you like great metal in the sky.

Those feelings are intensified when conversation abruptly halts and the men around you go on alert, and you remember that nothing stopping those things in the night from wandering right into your camp, or whether/whoever that distant flickering flashlight belongs to from getting a little too close.

And then there is that feeling that follows, after the sun finally rises and you head back out into the strange, abandoned beauty of the world. Never completely safe, always on the edge, but a little more confident after having survived another haunting night in the Zone.

Stalinwolf, rok temu

Have about 200 hours of Valheim logged with my wife. I’m honestly feeling burned out, but she’s still into it, so I’m trying my best to remain interested. I love this game, but we’ve been playing of so much.

Stalinwolf, rok temu

I really enjoyed what I played of Primal, and I hope they do more historic ones like it. One set during the Dark Ages would be sweet.

Stalinwolf, rok temu (edited rok temu)

Honestly, there are two mobile games I’ve really been blown away by: Night of the Full Moon, and Dungeon Boss Respawned. They’re very polished, very feature-complete games that are on the small and neatly contained side. For PC, Bastion is pretty damn good. Dungeon Keeper 1 and 2 as well, but it’s difficult to get those running anymore. Raft, Ori and the Blind Forest and Stardew Valley are also phenomenal.

I’m sure there are other small games worthy of mention, but I’m struggling to remember them. I usually play large open world games. On that subject, absolutely try Valheim if you haven’t.

I’ll be happy to summarize each of these games if you’d like me to.

Stalinwolf, rok temu

Valheim. Just crafted iron scale armor for the first time with my wife and it looks bad-ass as fuck. If we weren’t playing this I’d either be playing STALKER (as usual) or taking a second stab at The Witcher 3.

Stalinwolf, rok temu (edited rok temu)

I don’t know if Gothic 1 and 2 qualify as true cult classics or not, but clunky controls and interface aside, these are two of the best games I have played in my life. Gothic 2 especially. The games offer an atmosphere like nothing I’ve ever played. The soundtrack, themes, and overall color pallete provide this rich and stirring ambience that always manages to make me feel as though I’m exploring an ancient pine forest on a dark, rainy day. See for yourself.

youtu.be/HZ1tyNFODM4

You can feel the spirit of the entire franchise contained within the first two minutes of that audio track, perfectly encapsulated. It was an entire world apart and years ahead of its time. If it resonates with you, then these games are absolutely worth the initial difficulty of figuring out those ridiculous keyboard controls. But if you’re really struggling with them, just read up on the Gothic 1 storyline and then skip straight to Gothic 2. It picks up right where the first leaves off. You won’t miss a tremendous amount, and the controls and gameplay are infinitely improved. However, sticking G1 out long enough to figure out what you’re doing will make G2 far more rewarding when you reunite with various characters and revisit previously explored areas.

A studio is remaking Gothic 1, but everything I’ve seen of it so far is about as faithful to Gothic 1 as The Dark Tower movie was to the books. They’ve massacred it. So stick with the originals.

Stalinwolf, rok temu

Is that the one where you draw signs in the air with your mouse in order to cast them?

Stalinwolf, rok temu

I was thinking of Arx Fatalis. I could have just looked that up in the first place, but for a moment I forgot about search engines.