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PC Gaming

Disco Elisium

One thing that the game doesn’t explain well is how important “Volition” skill is. During the first 4 days, you don’t get into any fights at all, and rarely ever get hurt. But your morale gets damaged during dialogues quite often. And if you’re morale hits zero, it’s a game-over, just like with health.
On the 4th evening the fight between mercenaries and Union “regulators” finally errupts. I’m not sure if it’s possible to completely diffuse it, as you shouldn’t be able to know who the real killer is by this point. I survived it by having the armor, and not having any gun, as I let Ruby go (so I didn’t pick up her gun from the corpse), and I didn’t manage to recover my pistol.

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Got the first ending. I let both Ruby and Klasje escape, Titus dies, and Colonel was killed by a crazed communist on the island that is still fighting The War. And there’s also the huge telepatic insect that I got to chat with. After all that, Harry is accepted back to the force, and Kim joins him in Presinct 41.
Also, I didn’t manage to complete the MMORPG quest. Now I’ll try another build and pick different thoughts to see if I get another ending without a guide.

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PC Gaming

Disco Elisium

The game uses real game time: some characters will go to work and return in the evening, shops close at night. A bit like Shenmue. That also means that you need to hustle for money to pay for your hotel every day, as you start the game not just broke, but also in debt. One way to earn money is to collect empty bottles scattered around the district.
Perk system is interesting. Perks are called “thoughts”. You need to learn, or “internalize” them first, which takes a few hours of game time. During that process, you may get some negative effects as well.
Some checks are straightforward: fail them once, and that’s it. But some actually benefit from repeats, or picking the right option before the attempt. Sometimes it also works the other way around: if you pick a wrong option, you get a debuff for your attempt.

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PC Gaming

Disco Elisium

It is indeed very impressive, with the amount of dialogues (a lot of them internal), all voiced, and skill checks. I have played Planescape Torment only as a teenager, so the closest comparison for me would be LA Noir.
I’ve recently listened to an interview with creators of Dark City, and how the City is supposed to be from different epochs and placed, making the viewer uncomfortable. There’s a similar theme there, where a city is both post-WW2 Berlin, divided between external powers, but uses French names, and the struggle between communist Union Workers and capitalists is more of US in the 20s.
And our investigation doesn’t start with a dead girl! Instead, we have a security guard that was apparently lynched by some Union workers.

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PC Gaming

Greedfall

Completed Greedfall.
The game becomes slightly tedious towards the end, but same could be said about any Mass Effect as well. The monsters do not level up with you, which is good, but you still have to fight them every time you enter a region. I miss the system from Witcher, where underleveled monsters would run away from you. But I think that’s the only game that ever implemented it.
The story is still good, though. It’s not groundbreaking, but it has this nice back-and-forth, showing that someone understood what they were doing.
We need the High King of the Natives in order to understand the nature of the plague. But he secluded himself on the mountain, and only his girlfriend knows where to find him. She is held by scientists, but since we rescued them once, they release her without a fight. She tells us where to find the High King, but turns out he’s evil, killing one of the native shamans and kidnapping our plagued cousing. And we fight and kill his girlfriend, who we rescued recently, in the process.
Here it is a bit disappointing, as you cannot negotiate with her or him, no matter what. And natives will get angry at you for that. But I guess there had to be some conflict.
Final confrontation has your companions stay behind one by one. I think Mass Effect 2 did the same. Then you need to pick between sacrificing your cousin, who did you no wrong and your companions. Picking your cousing is considered the bad choice, although it’s not clear to me why, as even at the end of the game he doesn’t act as a tyrant.

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PC Gaming

Greedfall

Still impressed by what this game has to offer. I assumed that if I completed Kurt’s quest before the coup, he may stay with the band, and the game didn’t disappoint. There’s also quest for Vasco, a sailor. All of the sailors have Maori-like facial tattoos and once you complete his quest line, his appearance also changes. Well done indeed.
It’s not all rosy, of course. The idea of the combat system is that you would first break opponents armor with a blunt weapon, then switch to a sword to finish them. But with the upgrades, you can easily create a weapon that works well against both armored and unarmored opponents, completely negating the point in switching between weapons.
There’s also a reputation system, but story-wise, it is heavily skewed towards natives. You will inevitably loose reputation with Mercenaries during the coup, and since the only healer that can actually help Constantin is the native healer, you will loose reputation with “Spaniards” as well.

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PC Gaming

Greedfall

The story did manage to lul me with some predictable plot-twists (protagonist being a Native, his cousin sick with the plague) just to completely blindside me with betrayal of one of the companions, that ends in his death. I wasn’t prepared for this, nor did the game prepare me, as it ruins good half of side-quests. It is still brilliant, though.

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What isn’t as brilliant is the battle system. Around level 15 you unlock your “ultimate” skill, which for fighters is simply a rage buff, and that’s it, really.

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I’m used to games raining items on you all the time. Not Greedfall. I’ve been running with a yatagan picked from the crab-man miniboss chest for a few hours, and ended up replacing it with a two-handed sword bought from a random merchant.

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What I do like about the combat mechanics, though, is a honest cleave. You hit everything with your weapon, no matter if it’s a one-handed or two-handed sword, not only the target.

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PC Gaming

Greedfall

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It’s fascinating to play Greedfall after Far Cry 6, as Far Cry 6 has breadth, but no depth, with it’s tons of repetitive and shallow missions, while Greedfall has a lot of variety in its quests, but those are few. It becomes quite obvious as you visit San Matheus. I was expected to be flooded with new quests, but there was literally one waiting for me. Also, all three royal palaces have exactly the same layout. Which might be a blessing, though, as you know exactly where to seek audience.
After Kingdom Come Deliverance, it also takes time to adjust to the fact that there’s no “property”. You can pick any loot, and if you have the pick locks skill, you can also lockpick any chest in front of everyone.
Speaking of skills, you get those rarely, and when I started the game, I picked up “Charisma”, which should have allowed me to convince people during some dialogues. The problem is, this is chance based, and if you fail, you don’t get a second attempt. So either you save/load or bribe, when it’s an option, which actually works every time.
There are companion quests, which are broken into multiple phases. Those are great, except for the fact that once accepted, you must hang with that companion until this phase is complete. Taking into account that you can have just two companions at any time, that’s quite the commitment, as I discovered while accepting quest from the “Pirate”.

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PC Gaming

Greedfall

I didn’t expect this game to blow me away, but it did. Maybe because the expectations are so low nowadays. But it has this crisp introduction, that clearly outlines the character motivations and the world, without throwing walls of text or monologs at you.

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Then it has this ambiguiness in quest design. Early in the game you are asked by Alchemist Guild to unmask a charlatain that sells potions. But turns out he isn’t a charlatain, but a former member of the guild. But turns out that he does sell fake potions. But only because he wants to experiment on people to try and cure the plague. But Alchemist Guild also experiment on people, with deadlier results. But now the townfolk wants to lynch him, because he was selling them fake remedies. And now you decided if you arrest him, or try to sneak him out of the inn he’s holled in, or negotiate with the mob. And all that is just a sidequest.
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The fighting system is Assassin’s Creed, although I haven’t played Assassin’s Creed in such a long time it might have a changed since then. Lock, LMB to attack, RMB to parry. There’s also a rage meter that builds up and allows to unleash a more powerful attack. A mechanic I last saw in Mass Effect, I think, is that first you need to strip the armor from enemies with blunt weapons, then switch to swords to finish the job.

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PC Gaming

Far Cry 6

Completed Far Cry 6.
In an uncharasteristic moment, you’re actually given a choice if you want to shoot McKay or not, because he made a deal with the guerillas, actually. I decided to shoot him in the face anyway. He gassed Jonron, and Jonron was a waifu, despite being vegan.
Dani is then captured by the one legged general we’ve only seen in the intro some 50 hours ago. But Diego, dictator’s son, shoots the general in the head, because Dani spared him once. Doesn’t take much to get friends with this guy. Then Anton, the dictator, decided to give Dani a chance, but throws an incideary grenade into the cell. Does he just casually cary those? Also, our weapons don’t even need recovering, but I think the last bit is just laziness from the game authors.
Castillo captures Clara. We’re supposed to care about that, but she’s just a character that doesn’t do anything except introducing us to the world of Yara and then congratulating us on completing each episode. But the game does take the weapons away from us. So they can do it when they care.
We fail to save Clara, and Anton shoots her. We chase him to the top of his tower, where he kills himself and Diego.
This was probably the least satisfying ending in the entire series. For a series that loves to mess with your head, it is just so very bland. I was prepared that Dani is just a plot of Diego imagination, a kid that likes comics and baseball would imagine this guerilla that blows tanks with a minigun. Or that Dani is actually grown up Diego, and all the interjections with Anton are somehow his memories. Or that Clara is just another dictator (she never explains what is her plan after Anton is dethroned), and we have to shoot her just like El Tigre shot Lobo. Or that Diego is actually Vaas (I remember this theory based on the artwork). Or that Diego’s blood is somehow involved in producing Viviro (Viviro was invented 13 ago, same as Diego’s age). Or that Diego kills his father in the end, ending the cycle (we have the bloody gun and the baseball at the title screen after all). But no. They went down with a whimper.

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PC Gaming

Far Cry 6

Second region is just an exercise in bad writing. We are told that Paolo is indispensable, but the game never actually demonstrates why it is so. What happened to “show, don’t tell”? It’s unsurprising that they killed of the best characters in the game, Jonron and El Tiger. Made all the others look really bad. And those are the only two characters I actually could care about.

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Pablo gets captured by The Doctor. Presumably to detransition her? Then when we try to rescue her, the Doctor captures us too, and puts a cellphone with a poison inside our belly. This one of the worst plot twists brings one of the best episodes in the game, where we ride in a car hallucinating our dead friends, that tell Dani he doesn’t care about the Revolution, and just likes shooting people. A very deep self reflection.

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Then we cut out belly open and extract the phone. Not clear why it had to be a phone in the first place.
The mission where you have to follow the pipes is kind of okay. At least it’s not capturing yet another base. Then there’s the revelation that El Tigre killed one of his comrades, Lobo, because he was going to become the next dictator. As far as I remember Lobo was the name for Vaas character from Far Cry 3.

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PC Gaming

Far Cry 6

Completed half of the 2nd and 3rd regions, and I already have the entire arsenal unlocked, except the Magic Rifle. There’s literally nothing else to do.

I don’t care to prove this, but I’m pretty sure that stories for different regions were written by different authors. Story of the old guerillas from ’67 is the best one out of the three. Yes, it’s comical, but the entire gameplay is comical, so I don’t mind fighting alongside a crazy cockerel. I hate the band of rappers from the 2nd region, but Jonron and El Tigre are actually quite fun.

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And storming the fort episode is awesome. I just wish the game wasn’t bogged by everything else, like capturing 30 checkpoints.

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There’s this scene that shows why I appreciate Far Cry:
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Yelena is supposed to be a teenager that became a revolutionary after her classmates were hanged by a general for criticizing the government. And what she does after we help her kill the general? Hangs the corpse and takes selfies.

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PC Gaming

Oblivion Remastered

I stopped reading gaming news altogether shortly after war in Ukraine broke out, and haven’t really read them since.
So the remaster of Oblivion came as a surprise to me. And it seems I’m not the only one, news sites or no.
I played Oblivion a lot in the day, “in the day being” July 2007, and “a lot” being for probably two weeks. But I never finished it, for the game ending up being too repetitive with the enemy scaling with you making the whole leveling up process quite pointless. Not sure if I’d give it a go now, but some YouTubers are sure gushing about it a lot.

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PC Gaming

Far Cry 6

Not sure what’s worse: a “helicopter boss” or not having a boss at all.

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Usually, the most devastating LMG in Far Cry is MG42. Not this time, this time we get a minigun, if handicrafted. And a sniper rifle that shoots explosive darts. I didn’t say there are no cool weapons in this game.

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Second region is big on LGBT agenda. How do you know Paolo is trans? Don’t worry, “he” will tell you. As will “his” doctor, that is very proud of top surgery he performed. And there’s also two lesbians to save. You need to save them not because they are opposing the regime, but because they are lesbians. That’s what I call “subtle writing”.

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PC Gaming

Far Cry 6

There are a few design choices I find plainly strange. Right after the tutorial island you are given what is basically a personal helicopter. Nobody tells you that you have it, but it’s there on the top of the bunker if you know about it. But you can’t fly it anywhere, because of anti-air turrets. So you spend hours destroying those. It would have been easier just not to give you early access to helicopters. After all, it’s not like in Cuba helicopters are just sitting in every backyard. But I guess they just wanted to prolong the game, and towers weren’t an option anymore.

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The second issue is the crossbow, or hand balista that I already mentioned, I think. Again, you are given this weapon at the very start. At just look at its stats:

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This is basically a railgun. It reloads slowly, but it can take any enemy, even minibosses, with a single headshot. Yes, you get limited ammunition for it. But you have almost zero motivation to discover other weapons when you have this in your arsenal. Oh, and did I mention it’s almost silent as well?

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Speaking of progress, I’ve barely completed one region out of 3, and I’m already level 8 out of 10. Not sure if there’s much to look forward to.

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PC Gaming

Far Cry 6

Like many other sandboxes, Far Cry 6 can’t decide what it wants to be. Either you can singlehandedly hijack a Soviet tank, jump from 50m only to open a parachute and a wingsuit, and if you venture into a zone too early, enemies there would withstand multiple headshots from a sniper rifle. Also, you have a backpack that shoots homing rockets that are able to blow both tanks and helicopters.
But then the story is this family feuds and serious sacrifices. At least they still have the ability to kill off characters.
Also, there is counter narrative, it wouldn’t be Far Cry without it. Castillo mentions that 80% of his soldiers come from farmer families, not a fact for cartoonish tyrant. And Alejandro tells her sister that she is a guerilla just because she thinks it’s all a game.
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MMORPG PC Gaming

Albion Online

As I still have a couple of days of Premium, I decided to keep at it. A couple of hours in, you finally get some weapon variety. Not just sword and shield, but two handed swords as well.
There are no experience levels, but instead every skill has a level. Swing a claymore, and you will raise both “sword” and “claymores”. Swing it enough times, and you’ll be able to use claymore of the next tier.
Levels also affect which skills you get. Every piece of equipment has multiple skills to pick from. The choice is mostly between single-target and AoE.
Group dungeons are fun. Or at least they are fine. But unlike Diablo Immortal, there’s no built-in mechanism where you queue to a dungeon. You just need to descend into a dungeon and hope other people will come with you.

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PC Gaming

Albion Online

I can see why many praise that game. The chunky low-poly visuals are reminiscent of Torchlight 2. Combat is quite solid, with enemies telegraphing their attacks and cycling through skills. The other aspects don’t inspire me us much, though. All equipment seems to be just generic “Novice Sword”, “Journeyman Sword”, etc. And the whole gathering/refining/crafting loop seems tiresome.

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PC Gaming

Far Cry 6

Right of the bat you get access to some pretty powerful weapons. One of the makeshift weapons is a crossbow shooting harpoons. And then there’s the in-game shop, and maybe because the game is pretty old they were giving away in-game currency at some point, but I had enough to get a bullpup sniper rifle as well.

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In addition, you have a superpower in a form of a improvised backpack. The default is kind of a mortar attack, but there’s also poison and EMP AoE variants.
With all this crazy weaponry and constant references to superhero comics, it would be interesting if they try to turn this into a “Vanishing of Ethan Carter” kind of story, where everything is just imagination of the dictator’s son. Speaking of which, no matter which gender you choose at the start of the game, everyone still calls you Dani (Daniel/Daniella), which is a smart trick, instead of everyone “swallowing” the protagonist name like in some other games. And condiering how androgynous this “son” looks, it might be he’s not son at all… But we’ll see.
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PC Gaming

Kingdom Come Deliverance

Completed Kingdom Come Deliverance.
Quite unexpectedly. Which is a funny thing to say about a game you spent 80 hours on. But the thing is, one of the very first quests you get is to recover your father’s sword and avenge the dead of your parents. And turns out, you never get to complete this quest. This is quite brilliant.
So, in the end, Istvan, the evil henchman of the Hungarian king, is allowed to go free, and you end up traveling with Hans Capon, the arrogant “prince”, to convince the lords to ally with king Wenceslav.
There’s still plenty of bonus content I didn’t complete: the village that you can rebuild, and helping a band of mercenaries, and a whole lot of other stuff. But I think I had enough of that for now.

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PC Gaming

Kingdom Come Deliverance

As by the end of the game most enemies become heavily armored, in a historically-accurate manner simple blunt weapons become much more effective than fancy expensive swords. Every battle I feel like Henry IV from “The King” played by Chalamet, wielding that punny hammer with mostly anguish.
On the main quest, you need to enlist kind of a “mad scientist” to build a trebuchet for the siege. And he tells you that a trader that arrived in town recently is there to assassinate him, because he had a row with Hungarian king. You can confront the trader, and he will deny everything. At night, though, he tries to pick the lock. You can confront him again, and he’ll provide a plausible excuse. I thought that’s the end of it. Imagine my surprise when he suddenly did appear in the camp and assassinated the engineer in front of my eyes.
Johanka’s quest line makes you take a pilligrimage by walking across the map wearing a robe, and ends with a heretic trial. I didn’t get the best ending, but by that point, I was pretty tired with the whole affair, honestly.