Don’t Think, Just Jam
I started a screenshot album for my virtual adventures. Check it out if you’d like.
None of the workarounds work for me so all I can do is wait and hope it’ll make it into the next patch, unfortunately.
Edit: Never mind, I can’t play properly at all. For some reason game won’t let me move my camera normally and limits the mouse movement to a little more than if I were using freelook. This doesn’t bode well.
Too bad workaround for “smurf mode” on Linux + Vulkan combo didn’t make it in. I’ll keep waiting, I guess.
Well, new patch is quite a doozy so far.
I’m… not sure I want to play any more. I might try again over the weekend, I’m too tired for this clown show right now.
I’m almost done with Shadowrun Returns - all that’s left is the grand finale. Looks like my breaks for Unbeatable didn’t affect my progress as much as I thought they would.
I’m still surprised by the balance between dialogue (or non-combat gameplay in general) and combat - the former is the more interesting part of the game for me so the current state of things is right up my alley. Not that combat is bad, I actually enjoy it way more than I thought I would, but talking with characters is something I always look forward to the most. This is even more highlighted here as I also love the feeling of community in the “Seamstresses Union”, the main hub of the game - there’s not much to do there nor is there a huge amount of interaction with characters but what’s there is enough to make the place feel like home away from home. It’s great.
Writing is pretty engaging for the most part. There were a few less interesting parts but they didn’t really affect my enjoyment though I can’t say I’m a fan of the last minute swerve into the “gotta save the world” narrative. It’s “fine” but I would simply prefer the game to stay with the small(ish) personal stakes instead. I did end up liking pretty much all of the side characters at least (and even some of the random mercs which have no character or conversations at all).
I was worried about two things when I started this playthrough:
The only issues I have with the game are the fact that some etiquette options are pretty much useless in the campaign and that for some reason game always starts on my second monitor, with a borked resolution. Both issues are a bit annoying but they not game breaking so whatever. Other than that nothing stood out in other negative ways.
All in all, I had a great time and can only hope most of my remaining backlog will be just as entertaining. Time to search for another pick.
Edit: Just finished the game. Final section was my least favourite part of the playthrough - it wasn’t terrible, just kinda “meh” compared to the rest of the game. Still liked the game overall and will be happy to play the other two I have.
Last week I mentioned problems with reading on Mihon. I really wasn’t looking forward to migrating my library again so I decided to procrastinate instead (good thing too since the issues seem to be fixed for now). I ended up reading through Don’t Fall for the Villainess since it was one of the few things that worked without problems at the time.
It’s the usual fair - lady ends up isekai’d into a villainess in fantasy world, story happens. It’s… pretty bland, to be honest. The technical side is solid thanks to a unique art style and some interesting panelling from time to time. Story on the other hand was rather boring.
She’s a villainess hated by everyone but after the intro it barely has any significance to what happens in the plot. People hate her, meet her and then are smitten instantly. She’s perfect in every way, everything she does goes without a hitch and with only token opposition. It’s honestly the worst kind of wish fulfilment I can think of (boring one).
It’s an alright read if you have nothing better to do and don’t want to think much but if you’re looking for something interesting there are a lot better titles for that.
Happens to the best of us.
Umm, she’s cool and all but we had this exact post two weeks ago my man. It’s not even off the first page yet.
Yeah, that was my main issue with the writing as well but I treat it as a remnant of the times. Not that it makes it any better mind you, it’s just where the industry (and culture at large to some extent) was back then so I can look past it, even if I don’t like it.
It is what it is, at least now I know I can safely skip the other titles when looking for point and clicks to play.
I sure hope so. Just thinking about having to migrate stuff again is giving me a headache.
Can confirm I’m furiously stomping my feet as enabling the VR mode crashes the game for me. Dead game!
I tried to give it a go but the game crashes the moment I enable VR mode (I tried both with user.cfg commands and in-game settings). I’ll try again over the weekend, maybe there’s something I can do on my side.
You joke but technically speaking their looks are indeed justified from the lore perspective since almost all of the girls were designed as social/civilian units and having them look human made them more approachable to your average person. Their looks also coincided with their roles to some extent, with the best example being KSVK/Dushevnaya whose kid design was used for her job as a caretaker for the elderly. The actual war machines are robots used by the military and their looks are very much focused on function over form compared to the girls.
How much you’ll treat it as a reasonable explanation and how much as a thinly veiled justification for marketing is up to you but there was an attempt.
I don’t mind the writing that much since not everything has to be up my alley and, more importantly, it’s a remake of a game from 1987 - different time, different industry. I do however think they could update it a bit more in terms of gameplay at least. Maybe not completely reworking the moon logic behind some puzzles but getting rid of the option to hard lock your progress would be enough to improve the experience quite a bit, at least for me.
I’m mostly focusing on my backlog for now (except for already mentioned Unbeatable) but I’ll keep this in mind. Thanks for letting me know about it!
Still playing and following through with my plan to finally do some “adventurous” missions.
It’s pretty much a full-on role-play of a weak person tasked with various “hero” jobs. Need sneaking? I can do that. Fighting weak enemies? Sure! Get something from a dungeon filled with powerful hostiles? I… can try sprinting through? Things can be a bit difficult at times when playing a non-combat character (until now) so I ended up bailing on few of the quests but I’m slowly improving.
It’s an interesting way of playing compared to the usual power fantasy. It also helps me to finally get used to the approach of “failing is fun” - not the same as “losing” since I keep going instead of starting from scratch but dealing with consequences (however minimal in this game) is something I’d like to expand to other games I play.
It’s not an easy switch after years of being “the chosen one” but I’m getting there.
Continuing with my point and click adventures I decided to try Leisure Suit Larry. I got it for free on GOG some years ago but never really gave it a shot since I didn’t think it was up my alley. Here are some brief thoughts:
All in all, it was fun enough but I don’t think I’ll be checking out other games in the series. I’m glad to scratch this off my backlog at least.
I was a little worried since I haven’t played this kind of RPG (let alone a Shadowrun title) in a long time but it’s been pretty straightforward so far. Combat is simple and enjoyable even without a proper tutorial. I appreciate the amount of skill and item checks so far, leading to multiple ways of solving problems. Not all of them, obviously, but it’s still common enough to be noticeable.
Art style and graphics in general hold up really well, so does audio. I also like the writing so far, especially how pleasant the conversations can be - just two people being courteous towards each other, without the need to act edgy just because cyberpunk. The only thing I don’t particularly care about is the mix of sci-fi and magic. Not that I hate it, it just does nothing for me despite being a pretty unique approach to the genre.
So yeah, it’s cool and I’m enjoying it so- What’s that? Unbeatable just released? Yeah… I’m gonna have to take a break from Shadowrun for a bit. I’ll be back once I’m done doing crime.
Thanks, I’ll give them a shot then.
What other extensions do you use?
I had the same thing happen when accessing them through a website as well (maybe they do the same due to ublock when that happens). I think, or at least hope, it’s a technical issue since places with multiple entries for the same chapter can have some of the copies working properly.
I’ll probably start looking for alternatives, just in case.
Anyone else having problems with sources on Mihon? I had multiple cases of chapters (from various sites) coming few pages short for the last two weeks or so. Can’t say I’m looking forward to searching for alternative sites with affected series.
Meh, I have other things to play in the meantime. Can’t be bothered to switch renderer only to have to clear and recompile shaders just in case something else breaks once this is fixed. 4.5 won’t go anywhere.
Edit: So… I changed my mind and decided to test DirectX and it’s about what I expected. Performance is about 30% higher than on Vulkan, colours are fixed and the 3D view on engineering screens is working properly (all I could do on Vulkan was point at rooms). Yeah, I’m not looking forward to them switching to Vulkan full time just yet.