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f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  Gaming  |  Topic: So, what're you playing? 0 Members and 5 Guests are viewing this topic.
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Author Topic: So, what're you playing?  (Read 2172657 times)
Rendakor
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Reply #13440 on: August 07, 2019, 11:48:27 AM

Kinda starting to feel a Minecraft itch, but I'm not sure there's a new pack out there. Might go back to Stoneblock 2; didn't get very far in that one last time.
I think I lost interest when I realized they removed Refined Storage. I've always been a huge fan of AE2...until Stoneblock, which was my intro to RS. I guess I could add it back in, but meh.
I never got around to trying it, so missing it won't be a problem for me.

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Khaldun
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Reply #13441 on: August 07, 2019, 12:57:34 PM

I gave Black Desert a try. Really did not grab me. For all the slobbering people did over the character creator, it's got a pretty tight leash aesthetically in the end.
Falconeer
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Reply #13442 on: August 07, 2019, 03:54:12 PM

About the character creator, that surprises me. There are some "morph" control that are kind of hidden because originally it was overwhelming. Could be that you missed them. I say this cause I remember contests over contests not just of celebrities lookalike, but also of different kind of monstrosities, and they were all very out there. Other than that, I am clearly in the minority when I say that it's fantastic. I believe there's just too much that needs to be peeled to find its merits. And why would anyone do it if it didn't grab them right away? To me combat and aesthetics clicked immediately, and that allowed me to find everything else out. But it's the MMORPG that all my friends quit in the shortest time ever (between 1 and 3 days) despite paying for it so it clearly is a love it or hate it kind of game I suppose.

taolurker
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Reply #13443 on: August 09, 2019, 05:58:42 AM

I am deep back into Black Desert Online. There's just something with that game, that combat, and that world, that I can't find anywhere else and always pulls me back in.
I'm still playing BDO, it's so very casual if you ignore most of the drama and PvP. The power curve is much easier now, although grind and enhance is still as hard to tolerate as always.. It's why I don't really grind, just dink around, and instead of enhancing with their RNG system, I just hoard/sell stuff to buy enhanced gear.

I gave Black Desert a try. Really did not grab me. For all the slobbering people did over the character creator, it's got a pretty tight leash aesthetically in the end.

No lie, everything about the early part of BDO has been redone, except the character creation, and I had this complaint at release that it's not intuitive at all, with some of the worst menus or decisions. My recommendation for character creation is use the Beauty Album and pick someone else's creation and make minor tweak.

The tutorial and early parts of the game have changed now, along with them adding lots of catch up mechanics, so you do get quite a lot of gear, silvers and enhancement mats if you do the quests early on. It's still confusing and a little overwhelming because of how deep some things become.


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Khaldun
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Reply #13444 on: August 09, 2019, 09:27:48 AM

Trying Age of Wonders. I'd sort of forgotten that Heroes of Might and Magic gameplay structure. Takes some readjustments.
Sky
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Reply #13445 on: August 09, 2019, 09:58:01 AM

Trying Age of Wonders. I'd sort of forgotten that Heroes of Might and Magic gameplay structure. Takes some readjustments.

That's the part that has me tempted. Though really I haven't homamed since homam 4 (I actually liked that one a lot, though 3 is of course the pinnacle).
Phildo
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Reply #13446 on: August 09, 2019, 04:53:07 PM

I tried diving into Pathfinder: Kingmaker after finishing a playthrough of Witcher 3.  Character creation is way too complicated, anyone got some tips?  Even googling builds was less helpful than usual.
Trippy
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Reply #13447 on: August 09, 2019, 06:14:12 PM

Nope. I just semi-randomly picked stuff. Then I ran into a DT* while still on the starter quests and haven’t played it since.

* in retrospect there were clues it was there but I would argue it wasn’t *that* obvious as there were other plausible explanations for why things were that way.
Zetor
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Reply #13448 on: August 09, 2019, 09:13:23 PM

I tried diving into Pathfinder: Kingmaker after finishing a playthrough of Witcher 3.  Character creation is way too complicated, anyone got some tips?  Even googling builds was less helpful than usual.
There are a few build guides out there, but I mostly used the recommendations of some rambling russian dude -- has builds for the MC, recruitable party members, and mercenary PCs. Don't actually watch the videos (unless you want in-depth info), just look for a comment that distills the build into stat / skill / feat choices when leveling. FWIW, I have never played D&D 3.5 (or Pathfinder), but those builds allowed me to go through Challenging difficulty with relatively few problems. If you have the DLCs and stuff, look for the DLC-specific / EE guides (they're later in the playlist).

I also recommend using the turn-based mod; it is vastly superior to RTWP (a turn-based tabletop game being more fun when played in turn-based mode, who wouldda thunk?!), though it does make some encounters easier simply because some of the difficulty comes from the player not being able to micro the entire team at the same time. It does slow combat down - though there are options to speed up movement/animations/etc I think? - but you can just keep it off for most 'trash' combats and only go into TB for boss fights or setpiece combats.

Sky
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Reply #13449 on: August 10, 2019, 09:43:07 AM

An hour of Black Desert was more than plenty for me. PS4 beta this weekend.
HaemishM
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Reply #13450 on: August 10, 2019, 10:53:06 AM

Black Desert would be a great game, but there are so goddamn many levers of grind in that game, it's just overwhelming. The designers mistook complexity for depth. The minute-to-minute gameplay loop is decent for MMOG standards, but the problem is that the MMOG gameplay loop is fucking terrible and shallow.

Falconeer
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Reply #13451 on: August 10, 2019, 11:33:51 AM

I don't think the designers mistook much. As usual, they designed for a different culture which is totally fine with that kind of design. It's a little harder to swallow for westerners and yet it looks to me like Black Desert is still doing surprisingly well for 2019 MMORPG standards. 15k concurrent every day on Steam and who knows how many on the original non-steam client (I don't have it on Steam myself, they never gave out keys to those who bought before the Steam relase). Without counting Xbox and now PS4.
But I have to say, there are so many misconceptions about Black Desert, and a lack of depth is one of them. The gameplay loop is very different to what we grew up on in the West but it is the opposite of shallow. It's PvE, it's grind, it's tradeskills, it's PvP with territory control, it's economy, it's infinite questing and exploring. And then, all of these things are intertwined with each other. I understand I come off as the official defender of Black Desert around here and in a way I suppose I am. I still do recognize and acknowledge its shortcomings and why its cryptic wall of complexity is such a turnoff to many, but every time I see shallowness mentioned I can't help but feel the need to disagree and where possible clarify. I know it's patronizing, apologies for that, it's just that the game is that hard to read from the outside, or even before you hit level 56 or Attack Power 150.

It totally IS a game built around grind (repetition), because that's a staple of gaming in Korea. But there are so many different things you can do outside of just killing that it is mindblowing. It is in fact a sandbox sometimes too big for its own good. But how many of those things and aspects are easily presented to players? ZERO. Yet they are all there. The amount of content is staggering.

If the criticism is a lack of story-driven instanced coop dungeons, fine. That is true. Anything else, no.

Rendakor
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Reply #13452 on: August 10, 2019, 03:51:43 PM

The minute-to-minute gameplay loop is decent for MMOG standards, but the problem is that the MMOG gameplay loop is fucking terrible and shallow.
This is the exact opposite of the problem I have with it. I find the combat to be both mind-numbing and carpal-tunnel-inducing, since you're either one-shotting hordes of trash that can't hurt you or desperately juggling cooldowns trying to survive that one strong mob you didn't see. The action looks flashy, but ultimately feels worse than TERA ever did. Everything else about the game I love: the crafting is interesting with both valuable and useful things to craft and sell, the autopathing is the best I've ever seen in an MMO, the NPC trading mechanic is cool, the AH is actually kinda functional after the redesign, the CP/Investment system is really interesting along with the NPC workers, etc. But the combat is just the wrong combination of boring but attention-requiring that really turns me off, and the RNG enhancing (which is KMMO standard) has always annoyed me.

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Falconeer
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Reply #13453 on: August 10, 2019, 05:28:05 PM

Not gonna add much cause it's a matter of preferences, and personally I totally loved Tera's combat even though I consider it inferior to Black Desert's. Just one thing though: you only one-shot mobs in the beginning or if you keep fighting weak ones, and that's your choice.

HaemishM
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Reply #13454 on: August 10, 2019, 09:44:07 PM

Take every single system out of BDO and put it on its own, without the world, without the other systems, and it will fall apart as repetitive and shallow, just like every other MMOG. BDO's combat IS better than most MMO's I've played, but its gameplay loop on all of those systems are only great by MMO standards.

taolurker
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Reply #13455 on: August 11, 2019, 06:31:26 AM

It totally IS a game built around grind (repetition), because that's a staple of gaming in Korea. But there are so many different things you can do outside of just killing that it is mindblowing. It is in fact a sandbox sometimes too big for its own good. But how many of those things and aspects are easily presented to players? ZERO. Yet they are all there. The amount of content is staggering.

If the criticism is a lack of story-driven instanced coop dungeons, fine. That is true. Anything else, no.
I actually agree with you on BDO, and I believe the main reason most people don't see the depth of the game is because they're comparing it to other MMOs, or are focusing only on the grind towards PvP. As far as MMOs tho, imo it's a perfect mixture of all the MMO things I want, along with a really good action combat system (that's still not incredibly balanced for PvP or between classes imo).

I haven't ever stopped playing, have alts of every class, havent leveled or geared any of them to "softcap", and enjoy doing combos with combat.. but, I'm also a person who enjoys the thousands of quests around lifeskills, doing the little mini games, and doing econmy/trading along with minor increments in "gains". 1 shot clearing to me is boring and repetitive and not what I want from PvE, so I am in harder areas or fighting bosses as a challenge, and trying to survive instead of mindlessly grinding (like the majority does but then complains). There's enough variety to fight different things every session, but shrug lets go stay for hours killing same things one shot. meh that's kinda senseless, no?


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Falconeer
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Reply #13456 on: August 11, 2019, 06:42:17 AM

Yes, exactly. Everything you mention is what I love about BDO. I did stop playing multiple times but it's hard for me to stay on a single game for more than a couple of months. The simple fact that I regularly go back to BDO is proof of how much this game truly ticks my boxes. And about the combat, it is so good for me that I genuinely enjoy playing with different classes just for the sake of it and the combos and the animations. And while I also agree that 1-shotting monsters can get tedious, I am also very happy that it can be done cause it's the most satisfying mindless grind I've ever done in any game short of Diablo 2. And I do enjoy some mindless grind, allows me to catch up with my favourite podcasts.
« Last Edit: August 11, 2019, 06:44:02 AM by Falconeer »

Cyrrex
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Reply #13457 on: August 12, 2019, 11:11:36 PM

Rocksmith (with the bass) really starting to click.  I have actually managed to get past 100% on a few (easy) songs.  I can feel I am getting sucked in.  Question:  How often do the song packs go on sale, and how much to they tend to discount?  I don't really want to pay much for music, but I will eventually have to.

62 hours into Trails of Cold Steel.  Still love it, but I have a few hundred hours now in this series, so I have to step away from it every now and again.

Also, Persona 5 was on sale for almost the same exact amount of money I had in my Playstation wallet thingy, so I picked that up.  Here's hoping I will actually like it.

"...maybe if you cleaned the piss out of the sunny d bottles under your desks and returned em, you could upgrade you vid cards, fucken lusers.." - Grunk
Trippy
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Reply #13458 on: August 12, 2019, 11:25:25 PM

Rocksmith (with the bass) really starting to click.  I have actually managed to get past 100% on a few (easy) songs.  I can feel I am getting sucked in.  Question:  How often do the song packs go on sale, and how much to they tend to discount?  I don't really want to pay much for music, but I will eventually have to.
At least every major Steam sale (Winter & Summer) and sometimes other ones. Songs will be 40% off. You can also buy some songs in song packs which have a slight built-in discount. Unfortunately the Steam store UI continues to be horrifically bad for browsing games with lots of DLC so be prepared for lots of suffering trying to pick and choose the songs you want to buy.

Edit: to be...
« Last Edit: August 12, 2019, 11:37:07 PM by Trippy »
Cyrrex
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Reply #13459 on: August 12, 2019, 11:50:10 PM

I found that the store in-game is much easier to use.  Is there any difference between that and the Steam store?

"...maybe if you cleaned the piss out of the sunny d bottles under your desks and returned em, you could upgrade you vid cards, fucken lusers.." - Grunk
Sky
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Reply #13460 on: August 13, 2019, 08:42:45 AM

There is an ingame store?

Most steam sales there is a 40% markdown. Delay is maybe 6-12 months before DLC is sale-eligible. I toss em in my wishlist, but yeah. It's a chore buying them. At least if you have them in your wishlist, they'll be easier to find in the massive DLC list.

I kind of miss getting over 100%. It's a master mode multiplier that gets you over 100, and I don't use master mode anymore. Now getting a little .1% tick is my excitement, though I don't generally play for score.

The game is 100% better with DLC. I mostly play Maiden, Rush, lots of 70s and 80s stuff.  The paid DLC is worth buying, since it's much better quality on the whole than CDLC, especially if you're using it to learn songs. For CDLC, I'd find the tabs and learn from those. And CDLC sound profiles are super sketchy, Sabbath in particular was created by a tard who thinks you crank the bass knob for bass (cough guitarist, I'm guessing he used emulation to dial in the tone). Still...free. Try a few out, it's pretty straightforward to get working: http://customsforge.com/
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Reply #13461 on: August 13, 2019, 01:23:43 PM

Wife and I have started playing FFXIV. Today she installed it on her work machine (which is actually a gaming rig only because that's the config that can handle her work) and apparently the QoL is so much better that she has decided the really does want me to buy her a gaming laptop. I've located a 17" Acer with a sub-thousand price tag on Newegg. Meanwhile, I'm downloading the free trial on my MBP to see what that looks like, and if it runs fine then she will probably just use that and save the money.

If I can get the trial download to let me play on my real account... not sure I will tell her she could have saved buying the 2nd client on PC.

Otherwise, Path of Exile and Inquisitor: Martyr lately for me. I want to get out of the rut, but ... eeeeehhhhh

No Man's Sky will probably get me out of it. For a bit. The old girlfriend got herself a hairdo and new dress, so I'll end up taking her out for at least a little bit. Until she does that thing I don't like.

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
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Count Nerfedalot
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Reply #13462 on: August 13, 2019, 07:42:23 PM

um, what's an MBP? And what kind of graphics card are you getting in a sub$1K system? 

Yes, I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
schild
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Reply #13463 on: August 13, 2019, 07:59:28 PM

macbook pro
Trippy
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Reply #13464 on: August 13, 2019, 08:56:31 PM

Cyrrex
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Reply #13465 on: August 14, 2019, 12:31:29 AM

There is an ingame store?


It kinda speaks to the somewhat annoying software built around a brilliant "game", but yes, there is a big ole SHOP item on the menu.  OTOH, I wonder if it has even a fraction of the Steam stuff and if it is even coming from the same source.  It is a better interface than the Steam Workshop, but it only has a few dozen songs on it from what I saw and you make it sound like there are thousands out there.

I know I will end up buying a few, at least if a sale comes around.  But spending 8 bucks on a song pack of three songs....the very thought annoys the shit out of me.  Stupid pricinple, or something.

"...maybe if you cleaned the piss out of the sunny d bottles under your desks and returned em, you could upgrade you vid cards, fucken lusers.." - Grunk
Sky
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Reply #13466 on: August 14, 2019, 06:21:24 AM

It is a better interface than the Steam Workshop, but it only has a few dozen songs on it from what I saw and you make it sound like there are thousands out there.




And that's also a fraction of what's out there on CDLC.

As far as cost, yeah. I've bought maybe a handful at full price, the stuff I really really dig (like Maiden and Rush), and I've certainly got my money's worth from it. The stuff I play once in a blue or that I buy because the old lady loves it, I get on sale. I've spent...a lot...which is why I have no problem with using CDLC.

For me, song selection is what makes the experience great. Last night I was playing some DLC Maiden, but most of what I played was CDLC; ZZ Top, Mercyful Fate, RATM, etc. Cheap Sunglasses is my current favorite to play, edging out Rime of the Ancient Mariner for a while. Aces High is probably my all time favorite.
HaemishM
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Reply #13467 on: August 14, 2019, 06:47:22 AM


I'm using a 3 GB version of the GTX 1060 that came with my desktop, and I've run into maybe one instance where I had to turn options down to get an acceptable frame rate in the close to 2 years I've had the machine (don't remember what the game was - maybe Conan? - and until recently, I only had 8GB of RAM). That card is a really good value card and I expect the laptop version to be perfectly fine for most games.

Cyrrex
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Reply #13468 on: August 14, 2019, 10:16:24 AM

Ahahahaha, okay, I finally figured out what CDLC is.  I had no idea there was such a thing.  Explains why all the reviews say to buy Cherub Rock.  That was a fucking head scratcher.

"...maybe if you cleaned the piss out of the sunny d bottles under your desks and returned em, you could upgrade you vid cards, fucken lusers.." - Grunk
HaemishM
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Reply #13469 on: August 14, 2019, 11:19:30 AM

You don't have to buy Cherub Rock. I ended up getting The Sky is Crying for my DLC to do Custom Forge stuff. The quality is variable - I've had some that were just unplayable because none of their effects worked and it sounded like monkey shit.

I finally stopped playing Football Manager 2018 in the midst of my 10th year running Accrington Stanley. In that time, I'd dragged them up from 4th tier of English football to the Premier League (they dropped down the first season but I brought them right back up and kept them up the season before I quit). I wanted to keep playing but it was clear my team's defense was just a fucking shitshow and I was likely going to be relegated again. Only took my 413 hours of play.  ACK!

I picked up Surviving Mars on the Humble Monthly and am playing that now. It's very fiddly - lots of micromanaging to start, which makes sense I guess being in that whole "need every bit of attention to survive living on fucking Mars" vibe. I'm playing it sans DLC or mods and I like it so far, though I keep finding that I don't have enough colonists to produce the things I need to expand. It's early days though.

Mandella
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Reply #13470 on: August 16, 2019, 10:34:00 AM

I found the terraforming expansion to be something of a must have for Surviving Mars. Mars Tribune is also a fun add on.

Still playing it myself, even with mixed feelings. Some of the sci-fi elements turned me off, as did some of the game mechanic decisions. But the biggest turnoff was that, starting after the 130 hours played mark, I started having random hard crashes. Apparently that is a thing with some machines with some Nvidia cards. The solution is to save a lot.

So now I use that as something of a timer. I play until the game crashes and then take that as a sign I should get up and do some chores.

But all that said, it is a fun micromanaging city sim on Mars. Watch out for the predictable but hard to manage senioring of your population. Those old farts won't work any more, but still expect to consume air and water and food.

Entitled geezers.
Reg
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Reply #13471 on: August 16, 2019, 06:58:09 PM

There's nothing wrong with just sending the seniors all to one special dome while ejecting them from the rest. Life support systems go wrong all the time.
Mandella
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Reply #13472 on: August 17, 2019, 10:56:30 AM

There's nothing wrong with just sending the seniors all to one special dome while ejecting them from the rest. Life support systems go wrong all the time.

Lol. Yeah I know, but I'm not going to do that -- not role playing Ming the Merciless here.

But I do build "retirement" domes that concentrate the elders and prevent them from taking up housing in my working domes.

I do have to admit though, since the comfort (or lack of it) in the retirement domes doesn't make a bit of difference (they're not having babies or working anyway) sometimes I do let it slide a bit.

They don't like it, they can go back to Earth.

  Ohhhhh, I see.
Cyrrex
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Reply #13473 on: August 19, 2019, 02:10:05 AM

Got around to getting that CDLC installed for Rocksmith.  Sweeeeeeet.  A bit annoying that many of the songs I want are not available....apparently due to being official DLC?  I am guessing that's how this is even allowed to exist in the first place.

Some of the tones are strange for some of them, but this is otherwise a freaking goldmine.  The interface on that Custom Forge website makes me want to punt newborn kittens, however.

I only play this game once or twice a week, but then I get lost in it for two or three hours.  I can't believe it took me this long to buy a bass guitar.

"...maybe if you cleaned the piss out of the sunny d bottles under your desks and returned em, you could upgrade you vid cards, fucken lusers.." - Grunk
Sky
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Reply #13474 on: August 19, 2019, 07:46:21 AM

Yeah, they're flirting with trouble and I hope it all stay cool. Another reason I want to learn the EOF tool to make CDLC, in case it gets stricken from the Internets. So you won't find any existing DLC on the forge, they're trying to be as respectful as possible. I get notifications from some song entries on the site, and unsurprisingly songs often disappear due to janky downloading hosts, so be aware of that, too. If you see it, probably best to grab it....that's how I ended up with a few hundred  why so serious? I should probably make a run through new entries, it's been a while.

Pretty much everything about the CDLC experience sucks...but when it works, it's total gold.

M20 Browns season is underway and I may have to trade away OBJ. If you can light him up (very easy, I think it's 2x20yd receptions), OBJ+Baker = dominance. And the new DT and LE are just crazy, it's a party in sack town. In M19 it took me years to get Myles Garrett the single season sack record (long after he was pegged 99/99/99), he's already sniffing at the door in week 11 despite it often feeling difficult to break tackles at the line. Light him up (2 sacks) and look out, he just sheds anything.

I'm still oddly fascinated with Dead Cells. So weird that I like this game. I've unlocked most of the basic stuff at this point. Other than the tip to avoid unlocking a ton of weapons (watering down the RNG), I wish I had completely avoided tips/guides on it. It's just so much fun to mess around with I feel like I cost myself a lot of playtime jumping ahead to unlock runes and stuff, rather than finding it all out on my own.

I wish the rest of the genre was like that game, looking forward to the next Motion Twin joint. They split off a new company to work on Dead Cells content while MT works on a new title.
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