Mr Party Hat

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The Outer Worlds 2 is a bit TOO janky for my liking. I don't know if it's Unreal Engine 5 (which really is a plague, isn't it?) or just a general lack of care, but it all just feels a bit naff. I love Obsidian, so it's a shame, but bleh.

Just finished the first good fantasy book I've read in years, and it's by the same author as the posts above!

City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It's set in the occupied city of Ilmar, a place that has more than a whiff of Ankh Morpork. And the reason I loved it, aside from his great writing, is that it's not the neat story most people would have written. The occupiers are a bunch of shits, so you sort of expect the narrative to be 'downtrodden populace fights back'.

Which it is, sort of, but there's so much history in the city that it's not that straightforward. So many warring factions, so many agendas, and a real appreciation that the original Ilmari rulers were almost as shitty as the new imperial occupiers.

Throw in a dash of really inventive fantasy, spooky forest portals, and university professors that fight back by chucking chairs out of top-floor windows (there's Ankh Morpork again), and I hoovered this up in a couple of days.

There are 4 books (groan), but they're all standalone. They just exist in the same universe.

I'm not sure this actually matters any more, does it? The last Halo game to make an impact (Reach) was 15 years ago. That official Halo channel has 800k subscribers, which is peanuts these days.

An entire generation (of people; two generations of consoles!) has come and gone without Halo being relevant. I'd be intrigued to see the sales figures.

If you have a remotely addictive personality, I do suggest deleting it.

BUT. I reckon the game is better now than it's ever been. Start a new character and level through Dragonflight (which introduced the new flying mounts, which are bloody brilliant).

They've separated out main story quests now (the icons look slightly different, there's a key on the map), so you can burn through Dragonflight and War Within without worrying about any 'collect 7 bear anuses' quests. And after the knockabout fun of Dragonflight, War Within is the start of a 3-expansion-long story arc. Their attempt to finally tell a story that makes sense.

It's not really working, but it's better than anything they've tried before. But most importantly, they've polished the gameplay loop to a ridiculous degree, and everything flows beautifully.

I haven't played it enough to appreciate the map design yet, I reckon I've only seen each map once or twice. Definitely haven't had any sniper issues yet, the glowing scopes make them really easy to Spot for your team. But maybe that's something that'll start annoying me in time!

I normally play these games as a medic. I don't have the skillz to take on people directly, and it's very satisfying huddling behind cover, waiting for a gap, then running into open fire and zapping half the team back to life.