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.
- 103
- 2
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Vidya Games?
I got Order of the Sinking Star last night. Well, technically Thursday night, but it took so long to download on Switch 2 that I went to bed before it finished. Fucking love it. In typical Blow fashion, every puzzle is solvable when you first encounter it if you think hard enough. At least I think that's the case. Blasted though about 85 boards before I passed out around 1 am. Supposedly there are 1400 puzzles in the game, so that'll be fun.
Performance on Switch 2 isn't great. I almost wish I got it on PC. But I just have issues with too many distractions on PC. The compulsion to have youtube on in the background, discord notifications, etc. I drag my lovesac in front of the TV and zone in for hours on Switch. Single purpose devices are good for that I guess.
I guess Jonathan Blow has said some obvious common sense things, because the comments section of every review are about what a terrible piece of shit he is. In the year of our lord 2026 people are still mad at him on reddit and in game review site comment sections about thinking that COVID 19 was a lab leak. There was a time when this would bother me, but now I just laugh.
Playing Valheim again since it got 1.0 release.
I like that they changed some of the difficulty settings. Previously I had to install mods to not have their preferred hardcore experience.
There is still some slight annoyance with travel distances in the game. It is fun to build huge sprawling bases. But the default setting doesn't allow for ore and metals going through portals until you reach the end game. Sailing is painfully slow given the size of the map. So the game slightly encourages small bases next to resource nodes, but the resource costs of many bases is cost prohibitive since many of the crafting stations use up rare resources.
Fighting the bosses alone is a slog. They are definitely designed around multiple players. Melee DPS is much higher than ranged DPS and the bosses can tear through large health stacks with relative ease. So you are stuck with one strategy of run in a and take a few whacks then back off to shoot from range while health regenerates. You can't spam healing potions even if you stock up cuz they have a two minute cool down.
The boss fights are hour long battles where one mistake sends you to a respawn and erases 15 minutes of progress as their health regenerates and you spend time getting back in the fight.
Still a mechanically fun survival rpg with interesting and unique story aesthetics. Graphics are in an ok spot, better than minecraft but not by much.
At this point I just want to beat it and cross it off the list.
While I am always happy to hear people talk about Valheim, I disagree with many of your points. I find Valheim to be close to the platonic ideal of a survival game. People talk about video games as art and they generally are speaking of narrative and plot. I find the whole design of Valheim to be a superlative example of artistic expression.
Every part of the game has been carefully crafted and balanced around the the developers ideas and taste. Yes, the default setting are somewhat hardcore. There is friction. “Quality of Life” features are eschewed. The game is all the better for it and people should experience the game as they developers intend.
People also complain about the lack of “craft from chest” features. Or the limited inventory (somewhat relaxed in 1.0). People complain the developers are lazy and QoL like this should have been implemented years ago. It’s very clear at this point that it’s not a matter of prioritization, skill, or investment on the devs part. Those features fundamentally change the experience. Some people may be tuned off. Fine. But leaning into these features is what makes the game more of a pure survival game. Compared to every other generic slop/sandbox game. I find video games developers fairly loathsome. But I have supreme respect for Iron Gate for sticking to their guns and not giving the lowest common denominator NPCs what they want.
Compare Valheim to Enshrouded. A somewhat popular, perhaps more popular, survival game that is superficially very similar to Valheim. I found that game to be total trash. It’s got all the QoL that people ask for and more “fluid” combat. It’s also incredibly generic. No soul. I suspect most people would be lucky to get 50 hours of fun out of that game.
Valheim demands more. I’ve got like 500 hours on Valheim over the past 4 years. I am likely going to roll a new world and start fresh on no map, no portal (NMNP) settings. NMNP is an even more pure survival experience. Getting lost in the massive world is very possible. Get caught in a storm and get too far off course and you may never find your base again. No portal requires you to make a base in each new biome. It completely changes the dynamic and makes it much more fun in my experience.
Anyone who hasn’t played Valheim should give it a try. It’s not for everyone. But if you like spending time with games and being fully engaged, you may love it. It’s very different from the modern AAA slop that plays itself.
It's been a while since I cracked open Valheim, but the one aspect(amoung many) that I absolutely adored about it was the base attack mechanic.
It's one of the few, if not only, survival sandbox that did it right - the perfect blend of being just threatening enough you can't turtle and ignore it, but not something that'll turn into a complete base whip and make you rage-quit in frustration.
I could make the perfect sandbox building game if I could somehow put Conan Exiles companions and Valheim's base attack mechanic in the same game. (Conan Exiles has a base attack mechanic. It's been a while since I played that, but when I last did, it was horrible.)
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link