Gaming

It depends if you like walking.

I like walking around Skyrim, I like walking around Los Santos in GTA, I like walking through Novigrad and Skellige in Witcher 3, I like wandering in "Chicago" in WatchDogs and in various Assassin's Creed games I enjoy exploring Ancient Egypt, Renaissance Italy and Victorian London.
So I obviously enjoy walking in this too.

This one is unusual though, there isn't really anything else that you can compare it to. It's a very slow, thoughtful, almost meditative experience. It's an isolated and lonely game that is mostly silent with no-one to talk to or interact with, it's just you and the landscape with hardly any music, which really bothered me at first but now I realise that the occasional scripted moments when soundtrack kicks in (usually a song by Low Roar) are made much more profound by that silence. The sequence early in the game (and I'm trying not to spoil here) when you have to walk to the incinerator is one of the most amazing, emotionally powerful moments I've played in a game, even though nothing really happens on the way.
So, it's probably not a game for everyone, it's either tediously boring or a pretentious masterpiece with some overlong cut scenes and dodgy writing.

There I was having a nice dream about some Elf chap getting some magic weapon thing and Gollum wakes me up!

 

Not a great start to the day.
And then he led me into another trap with lots and lots of ghouls...

 

Ghouls? This is sounding like the Witcher again.
And upon close inspection the "two" swords are actually a sword and a dagger for more sneaky stabbing.
 

At least it's a straight sword.

And when trying to get over rugged terrain always remember your ladder.

 

Damn! I've forgotten my ladder.
Had to do a panicky run down the steep slope to retrieve that ladder from my bike that I parked way back at the charging station. Climbed all the way back up here again and stood at the base of that big vertical cliff. I extended my ladder upwards and... it didn't reach the top.
So I retreated a bit and went a very long way around over another ridge over to the right and then ended up higher than I needed to be. I took a moment to rest at this point and accidentally fell asleep.
The little snooze gave me some confidence and I decided to grip my cargo very firmly and tentatively hop down a few potentially dangerous drops. Baby was a bit concerned but I made it.
I have now found "the place" I was looking for and I dropped a rope off that big cliff edge to make it easier to get there again.
Once you're up there it seems that there is a path that descends more gently on the opposite side but it does cut through the more dangerous area of that baddie camp so I won't be using that route now that they're conscious again.

Valence wrote:

... and I dropped a rope off that big cliff edge to make it easier to get there again.


 

Yeah, I didn't put that rope in the right place either.
It was obviously acceptable for going down but the last step off the rope must have actually been more of a lucky "fall" cos when I went back to climb up I couldn't reach up to where it was hanging in the air way above my head.
So I had to go back to try and find that other ridge that I got over last time and I couldn't find it, not even with the scanner.
I ended up going way up this increasingly steep place...
 
...until I realised I was seeing rocks that I didn't get to before and thought that maybe I should retreat back again... and then I fell.
Managed to stop the nasty slide but then the bad rain turned into really bad rain and it started ruining my cargo, everything I was carrying was starting to go rusty...
 
...the big one ended up being completely ruined and and the rain was also damaging the bike while I was failing to find the right path.
Eventually I improvised a new way of getting up there (but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone) and once at the top I had a good look around, checked all my directions and locations with the map and successfully put the rope in the right place!
 
And I double checked by going down AND back up a few times.

After all that I ended up on another sneaky-stealy mission to that camp again (despite saying that I wouldn't go back there) and this time I wasn't quite as sneaky as last time. Failed to catch the first guy with my rope attack and he set off the big klaxon alarm thing and I was suddenly surrounded by five of them. I tried to beat my way out of it with fists and feet, and knocked a few of them out, but was surprised to learn that the hoodie-style chap has a shield!
And then another two joined in and gave me a damn good beating and took all my stuff.

I need to go away and rest with baby. A quick shower followed by some urinating and I should be fine to go again.

I went to climb up my well placed rope today and couldn't find the end of it.
Found my sign and when I looked up I could see the anchor in the ground up there but no rope down here. It was still coiled at the top!

Has some idiot used it and not thrown it back over the edge??
And was that idiot me?

Yay, the dangerous security flaw in GTA V has finally been patched after two weeks!
I shall have to make the effort to update it later tonight.