Play
My 2080ti broke in my PC in Ireland, and rather than buy another second hand card I just decided to get a 5070. Overpriced, over hot and with terrible drivers, what can possibly go wrong. So I've mainly been playing Clair Obscur on the ROG Ally (which is excellent, but holy fuck it needs a map) while I wait for it to turn up.
And that's about it, apart from Valorant and Apex from time to time. Too sunny for gaming really innit.
Want
The new Doom looks good. And I got it "free" with my GPU, so even if I wasn't Gamepassing, it looks like it's going to be in my life. I didn't like Eternal as much as Doom 2016, and I think the more Serious Sam-like cadence looks fun in the new one.
Bin(ish)
As I might've mentioned I've moved to the Republic of Ireland. I thought NI was bonkers, ROI isn't much better. The lack of council tax (?) makes it a strange place where nearly everyone seems to own an immaculate 18 bedroom house set in its own grounds and a top of the range BMW. All the main roads are wide, beautifully maintained super highways funded by the EU, small side roads are 65% potholes. The scenery (in the bit I'm in) is very like Cumbria, with endless bleak forestry land. The beaches are nice. Property out of the Dublin catchment is ridiculously cheap. I could sell my flat in Wales and buy a 14 bedroom mansion overlooking the coast next to a flawless golden beach which only 3 people a year visit. Tempting.
Because waste collection isn't funded out of taxation, fly tipping is everywhere. The people in the bit I'm in are so fucking nosy. Every time I've been out walking at least one car has stopped to enquire who I am and what I'm doing. Admittedly, I'm near the border and perhaps everyone is paranoid, but it is weird. It comes with the "famous" Irish joviality, with a slight hint that they'll bundle me into the car and shoot me if I give the wrong answer.
Nobody understands me, even though I have the most generic flat English accent. Food is ruinously expensive. So much so we drive to ASDA just over the border (the ASDA in question I'm led to believe is the most profitable branch in the whole of the UK). I mean, it's fine. Cheaper than continuing to rent just north of Belfast (I only need to pop into the office from time to time). I am currently in Wales though and enjoying being among people who don't question what I'm doing whenever I leave the house.
Again, I accept that this is a masterpiece and that I should play it.
The 100 hour thing is nonsense, it's quite possible to "beat" the game in about 25 loops (6 to 8 hours?). I think it's only completionists who are going to be putting that sort of time in. I probably could've rolled credits on my 35th run, but I made a catastrophic error of judgement.
I do think it mainly suffers from the fact that each attempt/loop is too long with buckets of RNG. I found Deathloop also had the issue of making each loop a little too long to really be that entertaining (just frustrating). And also, irritatingly, Blue Prince doesn't respect your time that much either. The dartboard puzzle was fine the first time I did it. I now have to do it over and over, and for some fucking reason it adds new elements to it and makes it more complex. WHY?
I also unlocked… something… which I can take advantage of before commencing an attempt - but it adds 5 minutes of walking in a different direction to every loop now. Like…. jeez.
Clair Obscur
Is a masterpiece. And while it looks and sounds amazing and has a stellar plot, I think this Polygon article really nails how un-videogamelike it is in the set up (contains mild spoilers https://www.polygon.com/opinion/563990/clair-obscur-expedition-33-no-exposition)
Nobody in the world stops and fucking explains things to you. Why would they? You're dropped into a world where weird shit is happening and people have histories and backstories that they don't fact dump on you the moment you talk to them. It's so alarmingly novel that I quite often felt like giving out a gasp of surprise when I clicked on a random NPC and they didn't lore-jaculate in my face.
It's also absolutely littered with a mix of English and French swears. Which is brilliant.
Only issue I have, is like with all the other old doddery gamers out there playing this on rllmuk (clearly not Alastor), is the timing for dodges/counters, which I can't get down at all. I'm playing on Easy though, so it doesn't seem to matter much. Oh, and the lip sync is a disaster.
It has to be one of the best looking games you can play on a portable though - with Lossless Scaling it does 60fps on the Ally and looks absolutely jaw droppingly good at times.
I can't imagine that the first-person combat in Oblivion is going to be as good as Avowed's.
It's not.
And yes, the first stable I came across gave me some free horse armour.
Turns out the freezing this morning was shader compilation, which they forgot to put a loading screen in for. So the game just hangs for 10 minutes. I do love a bit of Bethesda jank.
It precompiles all the shades at the first load doesn't it? There are other places too?
I can't believe they missed the opportunity to do the funniest thing and release new Horse Armour DLC for the remaster.
I liked Oblivion a lot (more so than Skyrim, I think) but I'm getting my fantasy nonsense fix from Avowed at the moment so can't see myself starting another one.
The special edition comes with horse armour DLC.
It seems like a decent remaster from what I've played so far. But Avowed really just does what it does better these days.
cavalcade