Gaming

Though I haven't been playing anytime recent, (anything) I actually like Valhalla. But DAMN, did they make the climbs up the mountains quite straining! If you have to go over any, it takes forever to just get up and is only a bit better down. But for the most part, fun. But have to say I'm not a fan of some areas not being 'available' until a later time, when you can see or know somethings there. (No mention if it's a game glitch, or just something you have to access later, during a quest or something else.) That I found aggravating.

I took the time to play some more Guild Wars today. I created a new charr character the other day and I'm liking it well enough, I think. When I first started playing I didn't care for playing the charrs very much, although I still kind of liked my (old) character. But I think I've come to the conclusion that my main annoyance with Charr is that they run on all fours, and 1) it feels like they run too slow to match the movement pattern and 2) I wish we could switch between running on 2 or 4 feet... Technically I could tell my charr to walk instead of run, or I could keep unsheathing my weapon every time she goes down on all four... but I would have rather seen a "slow run" on 2 feet and be able to switch to 4 for swifter running (and no fighting).

Also, it's kind of ridiculous how little control I have of what's going on in a fight. Most of the time I don't even know which character is mine... I just chop chop chop until I win

Charlotte wrote:

Also, it's kind of ridiculous how little control I have of what's going on in a fight. Most of the time I don't even know which character is mine... I just chop chop chop until I win

Yes, I remember that skill.

Now then, is Geralt (ie. me) finally good enough to enter the High Stakes Gwent tournament?
I think I am.

*moments later*

How many damn spy cards do these people have?!
End of the first round (which I lost!) and now he still has twice as many cards as I do. Should have put more decoy cards in my deck.

As for Valhalla I'm sort of liking it. As Banj joked, it does seem like Skyrim but without any of the freedom and the world isn't quite as spectacular as Odyssey but it's still fun to explore. I just wish the characters had more mass/inertia to their movement. Once you introduce that level of realism to the graphics it feels and looks absurd to see them rushing around so quickly, especially when you dodge. The character lunges away with such speed it's almost like Ciri's teleporting Blink trick.

Typical gaming companies making the characters out of cheap low-density pixels.

Sherlock 'Olmes? Never heard of 'im!

 

Yer can tell I'm not that Sherlock fella by the way I talk wiv a funny accent. Naaah, I'm Nigel from "The North" not Sherlock at all.

After a bit of horse riding, a strange dice game (not too dissimilar to Witcher dice poker) a drinking competition and an odd poetry insult mini game, my free weekend of Valhalla is now over.

On to the next challenge.
Which is to get past all those Ubisoft emails encouraging me to buy it.

I have installed Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons....

 

...and it was only just over 1GB to download.

OK, now I'm playing and...

Double Thumbsticks?!
Wow, this is gonna be unusual/awkward/frustrating/fun/weird.
How on earth would you play it on keyboard?

PS. Windows firewall also had a little tantrum when I launched it.
Wonder if that's just a first time thing or if I'll have to put up with that complaint every time.

Brothers is turning into a rather clever little game with that ambidextrous control system. And you can pet and play with the animals!

And in slightly related news I had an idea for this month's challenge the other day and annoyingly there's an almost identical scene early in this game. So much for my "original" ideas.

After lots of previous story/questy/fighty activity I thought it was time to have a break and go home once more in Skyrim. And then I found another of those Giants blocking the path in an awkward way...

 

I really don't want another fight, I'm supposed to be going home to relax before the next big quest so let's just creep slowly past him and hope he doesn't get spooked...

 

Bit of a tense moment at the end with that eye contact but I got away fight-free!
Upon arriving home I found all my Jazbay plants had grown! I now have enough for that little side quest and more to spare. So I gave some to Arissa cos she's always going on about how she likes Jazbay grapes.
At this point I thought I'd leave Brelyna behind here to let her make some house improvements while I planned to go to Markarth and maybe meet up with my housecarl there for a few adventures (Brelyna is now the steward at my big home, she even asked for that job when I first showed her the place.) Unfortunately, because she's originally from the college she's still a bit anxious about the ongoing (SPOILER) thing and didn't want to do any of the things I asked of her.

So it looks like my plans will have to be changed and I'll have to go finish the (SPOILER) thing next ... after my bit of homely relaxation, of course.

Just spent far too long trying to track down one of the music boxes in AC Syndicate. I could definitely hear it but trying to triangulate the sounds through my headphones with my occasionally inconsistent hearing was challenging. If I face this way it's louder on the right, but if I walk over there it goes a bit quiet. Is it through that window? No, now I can't hear it. Should I climb that wall or- now it's louder on the left. etc.
And it was on the roof. But I got it! 

And in another game, Geralt has finally (FINALLY!) arrived in Skellige...

 

Well, those flying things look dangerous.
*F5 Quicksave*
I still haven't done the final Triss quest back in Novigrad but I think it's about time I meet up with Yennefer again. All those tricky dilemmas and decisions can be made later I think.