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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1612 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 31, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Video Game Thread

What are you playing? Are you having fun or just killing time?

This week I was able to sink quite a few hours into Deus Ex. I'm going to use spoiler tags because there's always someone who has not yet played the game but might want to do so.

I let Lebedev live. I used the LAM trick to kill Anna Navarre when she came for Lebedev, and now I've got an angry mech (Gunther) on my ass.

During the 'Paul's apartment' sequence I managed to electric prod stun one of the Men in Black mechs, to keep him from exploding along with his loot. Picked up the auto-shotgun and applied a couple of recoil mods to it. I let Paul do most of the killing because he seemed invulnerable, while I, being stealth based and playing on Hard difficulty, can only survive a couple of hits to the chest/head.

I surrendered to the arrest squad and let Daedalus get me out of my cell and onwards to the Armory. Most of my grenades were not kept. I think I had 7 LAMs when I was arrested and only recovered 1 or 2 in the Armory. Oh well. My weapons with their mods were intact. I'm still carrying the GEP gun from the start of Liberty Island, because it's so useful against bots (and cameras, in some situations).

Despite having played almost exclusively non-lethal up to this point, I ended up wiping out most of the MJ12 guards and doctors, because, hey, they know what they're doing is wrong. I let the Mechanic who sells you stuff live though, he seemed alright. While it would have been fun to receive the killphrase for Gunther in Paris from doctor Jaime, I elected to tell him to join me in Hong Kong for roleplaying purposes; gotta keep my bros with me. He was relieved.

Manderley got a rocket straight to the face. Walton Simmons, in the hologram, was unmoved by my lethal prejudice.

I'm now in Hong Kong and have picked up the Dragon's Tooth almost immediately, because I found my way to Maggie Chow's apartment, and then went collecting evidence from the police station, and returned to Maggie's place to find her gone and MJ12 guards swarming out of hidden doors. Turns out Miss Chow is a nasty piece of work. I'll hopefully get to chop her into pieces with the Dragon's Tooth at some point.

I played through Case of the Golden Idol after seeing @Vollerei recommend it a couple weeks ago, and am halfway through the sequel. It's not quite as good as Obra Dinn, but it scratches the same itch. I also really liked some of the plot points near the end which were interesting and not the way I would expect a story like that to go (Obra Dinn has some great reveals near the beginning/middle, but sort of peters out near the end). The puzzles are weaker and less intricate on average, but overall it's a good game. I am less impressed with Rise of the Golden Idol so far, but haven't finished it so can't give a full opinion (especially given how Case tied things together so nicely at the end that retroactively made earlier parts better and make more sense. I'm holding out hope for something like that here though it seems less likely to be as good even if they try)

I played through Case of the Golden Idol

You may also enjoy The Séance of Blake Manor.

Blake Manor is pleasant, but i don't think it is among the greats. It was pretty easy and the time management mechanics didn't matter nearly as much as I'd hoped.

The Incident at Galley House came out recently and I just finished it. I do think this one is splendid. Great mystery and reveals, plus a neat mechanism for uncovering new scenes. It's a visual reimplemention of Type Help, plus a new great epilogue.

The Incident at Galley House

I hadn't heard of this one. I'll check it out!

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