Gaming

sounds like jostling the crowd is safer in the witcher (at least the first one). Mostly they just stumble aside... (and some won't budge, like guard commanders and knights)

Sounds nothing like Morrowind where characters just stand in the middle of doorways/corridors/stairs and block the way so you can't get past, causing you to get trapped in rooms until they decide to wander off randomly.

depends on the game really in 1 and 2 your fairly safe to nudge anyone even while running but later games you can end up getting about 7 guys waiting round in a nice circle to kill you. the npc blocking the way still happens in that with some of the side alleys and a wild stab in the dark solves that problem quite well.

Banj wrote: Sounds nothing like Morrowind where characters just stand in the middle of doorways...

That's so painfully true. There are a couple of women in the Balmora Mages Guild who always get in the way. And I remember one quest where a guard trapped me in a bookstore for about twenty minutes. Bloody move, will you?!
I still haven't played Morrowind since getting the Dwemer cube. Just haven't had the time to commit to the one-more-quest phenomenon. Maybe next week after I finally finish watching Westworld.

In Subnautica you need to eat and drink regularly. You could literally starve to death waiting for someone to move aside! No wonder there are no other humans around

GOG.com have started a summer sale and are giving away a game called Obduction for free for another 26 hours. No, I don't really know what it's about. According to the info, you're transported to an alien world with various other bits and pieces of human history and you need to explore and figure out what's going on. Looks pretty.

Just googled that and it sounds like a modern version of those baffling yet lovely puzzle games like Myst. I never played that one but I always heard a lot about it, as if I was missing out on something.


Meanwhile in Florence...
I've been climbing all the tall lookout points in order to "synchronize" the map so that I know where I'm going. (Took me a while to realise what that meant and what I had to do.) The last one seemed to be right in the heart of where the Pazzi bad guys are. There were loads of people I had to sneak past and evade but I finally got up there.
It looked very pretty from the top too and after taking in the view I did the big plunge into the large pile of leaves/hay beneath and... apparently EVERYONE saw me!
Suddenly there seemed to be twenty+ guys closing in on me. I tried to hide in another pile of leaves but they weren't fooled (damn that competent A.I.) There were far too many to fight so I had to run for it, but some of them were faster than me and kept catching up! The only thing left was to take to the roofs and start leaping from building to building trying to get out of their range until I could hide behind another tower.
It was quite a spectacular chase and would have been great to watch in a movie but being a part of it was rather panicky!

Anyway after everyone had gone home and I'd calmed down I had a look at my newly synchronized map and noticed an icon that looked like an old scroll. I checked the symbols and it said it's a "codex page."
I'm not quite sure what that's for yet but it must be important because when I went to nosey around I saw that the building was guarded by three tough looking guys. I don't think I'm gonna beat them in a fight. Yet.

Yup it seems to be a puzzle game. I was off to a rather slow start, then I managed to actually make something happen and then I got stuck again...

I hate puzzle games

EDIT: Just got another email abouit the sale and Obduction and it actually says
"from the creators of Myst and Riven"

Sadly I can't help you. It's a bit beyond my specs.

But I did make some progress in Assassin's Creed and got my hands on that codex page .... after a few deaths.
I first tried to sneak past the men by dropping "silently" from the roof in a Splinter Cell style but they saw me instantly and ... death. I then tried charging past them but... death. I even tried distracting them by throwing money at them but obviously the Pazzi family pay them enough already. In the end I started the fight then ran away a bit to separate them so I could punch them one at a time instead of the 3-on-1 death brawl and that seemed to work.
I'll be glad when I progress further and get my hands on some armour or weapons to make these scuffles less deathly.


EDIT: I should be more patient. I now do have some stabby, assassin weapons.
And speaking of weapons, I've also nabbed Thor's hammer in Tomb Raider. But just before I got there I experienced a weird graphics crash which changed my screen to a portrait format!
I had to do some sideways settings changes to get it back to normal.