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.
These are two that might be well known, but I don't really hear people talking about:
I use Map Genie quite a bit. It's just a bunch of interactive maps for a lot of different games, but it's really helpful when looking for that one item you're missing, or waypoints in general. It's mostly geared towards open world games.
I also use How Long To Beat if I looking to play a new game but don't really want to spend over a certain amount of hours playing. (Although I'm a bit of a slow player, so whatever completion times are listed I have to multiply by 2).
The other reference sites I use like NeoSeeker and Game FAQs are pretty well known and have been around for ages.
I always have fun with Don't Starve until the winter season/section comes along. Then unless I very closely follow a guide or customize the world heavily in my favor at the beginning of the game, I always end up dying.
Diablo 3: Season 29 - Completed the Guardian chapter! Now I have only one more objective/conquest to finish out the season. I was going to try to go for the one of completing the campaign under 1 hour, but I quickly realized I would not be good at that by any means. So I'm working on the one for going through a level 55 greater rift with 6 different set bonuses. Sounds easy enough, but since I usually only use one character per season, I'm having to level up another for their set run.
Diablo 4: Season 2 - Still working on reaching level 90.
Gray Dawn - I've played my fair share of bizarre games, but I'm not sure if I've ever said "wtf" so many times while playing a game. So much so that I just kind of gave up on trying to figure things out about halfway through and was there for the ride. Before I actually started it, I read it described as a "priest simulator", and that it did seem to be at times. I'm not really into structured religion, so there were probably a lot of symbolism that went over my head and/or didn't make sense. (I also got a strange feeling towards the end that I wasn't actually the target audience? Like this was a horror game, but not for people like me.)
Apparently I got the "good" ending, which didn't really seem that good at all, so I went and got the bad ending... which was just as much 'meh' as the other ending was. Overall, the pacing was a little slow and at times it seemed to drag on at times. Some of the voice acting also left something to be desired, but it wasn't horrible, and the main redeeming factor is that the imagery was really cool.
::: spoiler Rant
Even though some of the imagery isn't explained? Like there is what looks like a bloody wax child with one eye in a glass case in this dude's library, and it's just... never talked about? I mean there's a lot of things in this game where it's just, oh something spooky! Satan's out to get you! Blood and guts, bleh! But like I was sitting there wondering, is this dude just not going to mention it? Has it always been there? If it has, why? If it hasn't, why isn't he saying anything about it!
Also there's a lot of Latin in this game that whenever I tried to look it up it just ended up being lyrics to old metal songs, which in itself is kind of hilarious to me, given the subject and themes of the game.
:::
I also did a quick run through the original Dead Space (2008) since I'll be jumping into the remake soon. I've only heard good things, but I'm eager to see for myself how the new one compares, since it's one of my favorite franchises. I'm stoked that they brought back Isaac's voice actor from 2 and 3. I can't imagine anyone else but Gunner Wright as Isaac Clarke.
Diablo 3: Season 29 - Working on stocking up on Torment 16 bounty caches for the Avarice conquest (completing a 50,000,000 gold streak). It's taking me longer than I anticipated, but then again, I keep getting distracted by the Visions of Enmity. I really need to start ignoring those portals.
Diablo 4: Season 2 - Snagged the Razorplate chest armor with around 15,000 Thorns and a level 925 bow, so I've been kicking ass and actually surviving Helltides. My current goal is reaching level 90.
No one lives under the lighthouse - This was the first time I played this game, and it was amazing. It's been sitting in my Steam library since this past spring, and I didn't really know a lot about it going in except that is was more or less atmospheric horror. It was not what I was expecting, and in a good way. It was way more horrifying and lightly Lovecraftian than I thought it would be, since I was expecting something more similar to Dear Esther or What Remains of Edith Finch where I just kind of walk around while learning the story, so I was pleasantly surprised when I actually had work to do lol. I thought I'd get sick of the pixel art graphics, but it held up pretty well, and I even got some nice screenshots out of it. The only parts that were relatively frustrating were two weird chase scenes, but luckily the game gave me the choice to skip them after dying so many times. I've read that there's multiple endings, but I was satisfied with the one that I got (whichever one it is), since it was pretty much like a light bulb going off in my head and made sense with the story as I understood it. Parts of it felt very Amnesia-like as well, which is always a plus for me. I don't plan on 100% it any time soon, because it's definitely one of those games I like to finish in one go, but I think I'll have fun whenever I do.
Thanksgiving and family visiting kinda threw me for a loop as far as gaming goes, but for Diablo 4: Season 2 I managed to move into the Champion chapter at the beginning of the week before anyone showed up. I'm finally in World Tier 4, so I'll be working on that when I have more time.
I haven't been playing as much since I've been prepping for Thanksgiving, but I still had some time for Diablo 3: Season 29. I spent nearly all week looking for a Treasure Goblin to open a portal to The Vault so I could slay Greed for one of the Conqueror chapter tasks. I came across quite a few of those lil guys, but they kept being stingy with the portal. Then I finally found a Puzzle Ring, surprisingly the first one I've found all season. Popped it into Kanai's Cube and finally got into The Vault. Now I'm back to working on Rifts, honing my time down to below four minutes for Torment 13. I've also hit that point where it feels like I'm leveling up suuuupppppeeerrr slowly, so, uh, that's fun.
Haven't done too much with Diablo 4 this week, but I'm hoping to get a few tasks done between family visits this coming week.
Dishonored is amazing! I love that even though the story is pretty linear (and a great story it is), there's so many ways to go about to achieve the objectives. It's a fun time.
I played Dishonored 2 once, but I couldn't really get into it because, one, I didn't like the changes they made to the Outsider, and two, for whatever reason it felt kinda depressing to play. It was pretty cool you could choose who to play as though. I've thought about revisiting it at least once more to play as Corvo, since I picked Emily the first time.
Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi - This has been sitting in my Steam library for a few years, and I finally decide to try and give it a go. I'm usually a sucker for vampire games, but I'm not sure how I feel about this one. There's so much backtracking, and not in a fun, Resident Evil kind of way. And I guess some of the deaths are either on a timer or scripted? Either way, because I didn't really "know" anything about any of the characters, I didn't have that sense of urgency to get to them so quickly. Like who even are these people to me besides just my relatives? I didn't end up finishing it, but I think I'm going to try to give it another go before putting it in my 'meh' pile.
Diablo 3: Season 29 - Finished the Destroyer chapter! The conquest that finished it out ended up being to complete a level 45 rift with no set pieces. Now I'm taking a little break from it before I start working on the Conqueror chapter.
Diablo 4: Season 2 - I am despising Helltides right now and trying to get Living Steel. That is all.
Very nice to see The Sinking City included so many times. There was so much weirdness surrounding its release that I feel like it gets swept under the rug a lot. It's incredibly underrated in my opinion, and while not the greatest, it has interesting characters and story.
Mad Max - Played for a couple days this week, taking down camps and gathering scrap, and I think I got it out of my system. For now. Metro: Last Light - Finally got around to finishing the playthrough that I started a few weeks ago, plus ran through all the DLCs. I had a lot of fun with them, except for Heavy Squad and The Tower. Haven't quite got the hang of those two yet. The Developer pack was pretty cool with the 'museum' and shooting range/arena. I liked the little challenges. Diablo 3: Season 29 - Working on the conquests for this season. Completing one will finish the Destroyer chapter for me, but it's taking a little time.
Diablo 4 - I feel like I talk about this game every week, but I've been playing it every week, so... working on Season 2. Doing pretty good, already on Slayer chapter, and I'm happy to see a change up in the season journey objectives from last season. Feeling apprehensive but optimistic about completing all them this round, except for the PvP objective. There's like nobody in the PvP areas every time I'm there. Diablo 3 - season 29. Trying to improve my wizard for Greater Rifts. It's going... meh. I feel like I've hit a plateau in progressing, even though I'm still leveling up like crazy. Mad Max - I hadn't finished a previous playthrough of this game and was kind of having a shitty week, so I've been revisiting this favorite of mine. Ended up finishing the story while chatting with a friend, so now I'm just driving around in the Interceptor finishing up side quests and taking down camps.