I make things with computers. Preferably artsy things, but I also like to work on random scripts and pipelines. I like D&D & video games, but don’t always have time to play them. I like pet chicken. I watch soccer, especially NWSL & USWNT, as well as some WSL and whatever happens to be on.
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We used to really enjoy game pass as a family. I think the best part is discovering games that we wouldn’t have played otherwise. But at some point we stopped using it, so we cancelled. We’ve gotten 1 or 2 months free or cheap a couple of times now, but I ended up mainly playing one game… Although I suppose I did discover that I liked Avowed more than Expedition 33 😳. If I’d had to buy them, I would have only bought Expedition 33.
So I think we’ll keep going like this… Once a year or so use a cheap trial to get a month and try a lot of games, and use steam sales the rest of the year, and every now and then buy a full price game we really want.
Morrowind - the first game that let me leave the path. It completely changed RPGs for me, and I loved it.
Solasta - this game captured the D&D feeling like no other game has. My wife and I have spent hundreds of hours playing this together.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard - this game touched me emotionally, more than any game before it. The whole 3rd act is an emotional rollercoaster. Plus it has one of my favorite action sequences ever, in The Siege of Weisshaupt.
Back to playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Playing a rogue Grey Warden dwarf this run through, and I’m already loving the character.
I turned off the always on waypoints this time, which should probably be the default setting. It’s more fun to explore than to mindlessly follow the floating dot.
Looking forward to kicking some Venatori butts.
But a lot of people are. I didn’t care for BG3, but I tolerated it as a multiplayer game because it’s fun to play with friends. I also played Solasta solo, but most of my hours were co-op, because it’s just a lot more fun.
I guess for me the adventuring ‘party’ experience is a big part of D&D.
A solo experience could still be fun, but, like I said, I’m not getting excited about it.
Just started Avowed (slightly patient, I guess?). I didn’t love it at first, but I’m starting to really like it. It’s much more story heavy than I expected. Combat was really difficult at first, and I lost almost every fight once I got to Paradis. Now that I’m level 6, I win most fight easily. 🤷
The magic casting with a wand and a grimoire feels super cool. They really nailed that.
Playing Oblivion. I don’t remember liking it this much when I first played it way back when. And there’s a lot I don’t remember, so maybe I never got that far into it. I just discovered that the Daedra shrines give you crazy powerful magic items, so now I’m tracking all those down. Although I contacted vampirism during one of the missions, which is starting to suck.
It feels really good.
It’s kind of crazy how well this 20 year old game is designed. Each NPC has a life. Each house is a real house, and not just a closed box for background setting.
The gameplay feels so good that it’s a bit startling when things are buggy, or just not as modern. Like when you have a fetch quest, but you already have the item: there’s no option to say: here it is! You have to literally walk away to trigger something in the quest engine, and then come back to deliver the item.
Also, the way enemies are not at all aware of each other stands out: 2 bandits standing next to each other. I snipe one of them, and the other doesn’t even react. Must have been the wind…
But overall I’m loving it.
Driving to tracks is 100% a chore. It’s made me not enjoy any new racing game in the last 5 years. I really hope this game has an option to skip that and jump right into a race. I don’t look forward to wrangling my family to drive to the same track just to start a race. I’m sure at least one of my kids would drive in the opposite direction because they think it’s funny.
I don’t really see it being a sandbox. I mean, all answers are given, and you select from those choices. That’s the same as other games that have pc vo. I feel like it would have made more sense to have no voice options at all, and to just get rid of the ridiculous quips. That way, you create your own voice in your head. In no universe would the character I created complain about having to put her hands onto everything before opening a door.
Anyway, not a big deal, but like I said, it was a bit jarring.
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Yes, the combat is awesome. I just played Origins, and sure, there were a lot of opportunities for my character to be a dick, but I really wonder how many people choose those options. I didn’t. I liked how close you could get to the companions in Veilguard. It felt much more impactful in the end game.
Dragon Age: Origins. Playing on the Deck, and it’s taken a while to get used to the remapped PC controls. The game definitely feels 15 years old. Still, the story and characters are good.
I see some similarities to newer games like BG3, like the idea of the camp, and having a large number of companions to switch between. I actually didn’t like this in BG3. I think the Lighthouse setup in Veilguard, while mechanically similar, felt, and fit into the story, much better.
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My friend said it was the best D&D experience he ever had. I love D&D and also had hundreds of hours in Solasta. I immediately bought 2 copies of BG3 so I could play with my SO. BG3 sucked for me. It’s like pretend D&D, with the whiniest, most burdened companions they possibly could have created, and a terrible UI to boot. We tried it again after the ‘final’ patch (still buggy, but better). Ended up pretending it’s not D&D and tried to ignore all the terrible nonsensical gameplay mechanics. Made it all the way to Act 3 before giving up again.