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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2921 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 15, 2024

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

Often happens anyways. Share what you have been playing.

For me I've been hooked on Nightingale recently. A survival crafting game. Their twist on the genre is to have different "realms" or maps where you can explore and collect stuff. The realms can be upgraded to be more difficult and thus provide more resources.

The game feels like a bit of a slog at times, but that is also what I was sorta looking for. A game I could play semi-mindlessly while listening to podcasts. The main frustration has not been gameplay, but a developer decision to make the game always online. Most of the bugs I have encountered are server related. Which is an extreme frustration since I'm basically playing the game like its singleplayer. I am confused why they made the server requirement a thing at all. It just seems like extra crap to maintain.

I'm finishing up a heavily modded playthrough of Mass Effect. Super excited for the Rimworld expansion. SCP/Eldritch horrors are exactly my jam.

Mass effect is ...fine, I guess. The story is interesting, the characters are fun. But the gameplay is just incredibly boring. There's a part of my brain that keeps repeating "If you wanted to shoot at things, why not boot up Stalker GAMMA? The much better shooter experience."
Incidentally, for any Gamma fans out there, Grok posted his plans to completely revamp the artifact system in the near future.

Incidentally, for any Gamma fans out there, Grok posted his plans to completely revamp the artifact system in the near future.

I was a fan...but I just completely ran out of steam. It's the setting, I think. Yes it's a classic by now, but it's also thoroughly used up and I'm entirely sick of seeing it.

A little bit of everything lately.

Helldivers 2 I play semi-regularly. I like it. It's got shooting, it's got some tactics (if you're willing to sneak away while your teammates who went in too loud get eaten), it's got some loadout customization. Not sure how long it'll last, but for now I'm having fun.

Following a conversation on the Motte a few months ago, I started trying to 100% Slay the Spire. Which is to say, 100% it even more - all the achievements I had (not something I usually do), but so far I hadn't completely Ascension 20 with any character but the Ironclad. Well, that's changed now. I've done it with all of the starting three, and I'm currently working my way through with the Watcher. Overall not very rewarding; it feels like any eventual victory is down to stubbornness rather than skill, mostly a matter of playing until the RNG smiles on me and gives me the cards I need.

I played some X4: Foundations. Mostly out of nostalgia for the very first X: Beyond The Frontier. Oh so very German a game. The autism seeps out of every impossibly bad UI element, every pitiably unaesthetic spaceship, the massively insufficient AI, the giant uncanny valley that is the NPCs. This series got away with all those problems 25 years ago, when they could blame it all on hardware limitations or the youth of the industry. But now? Now "dated" doesn't express half of it. They did accomplish some impressive performance optimization, though. Ah, my countrymen.

Other than that, Nebulous: Fleet Command remains one of my favorites, though I've run out of fleet ideas to try and I'm disinclined to just repeat myself in the pursuit of perfecting my skills.

And I recently got roped into playing some Wargame: Red Dragon. I hadn't done that in a decade. The micromanagement and lack of UI support was as bad as I remembered, and I had as little fun as I expected.

I've been playing Resident Evil 7 on and off for a few weeks. I like it and think it lives up to the hype.

As a child, my favourite video game was Oni, an unofficial Western adaptation of Ghost in the Shell from the studio behind Halo. I played it from start to finish numerous times, and periodically I think to myself "you know, I should play Oni again and see if it's as good as I remember". Last night I had such an inkling, and it only took me until the end of the first mission before I was like "man, this controls like shit." I don't know if it's some kind of compatibility issue caused by playing it on Windows 11, but some of the control scheme decisions seem frankly baffling in retrospect. Whoever's idea it was to sprint by tapping W twice should have been fired on the spot. At least the soundtrack holds up, as memorably sampled in this breakbeat track.

some of the control scheme decisions seem frankly baffling in retrospect

That's a problem with many retro games that were released before our modern control schemes were stabilized. Fallout gets a lot of hate for its idiosyncratic controls, for example.

A lot of Oni is works better on a gamepad: the game was also available on console (bizarrely, PS2), and a lot of the weirder control decisions are downstream of then-standard behaviors there. But the console wasn't up to the render requirements later in the game, so the console version was panned near-universally. There's still some jank if you can get a gamepad running with the PC version, which is a pity because a lot of the grappling mechanics were surprisingly well-thought-out for the time.

Good fucking luck getting a gamepad to work, though.

My backlog has reached Nier: Automata, a hack-and-slash Souls-like-ish where you fight Android (the phone) mascots as a small-a android on a devastated Earth. So far I like the combat system, if a bit simplistic. Curious to see what all the hype about the plot is about.

Also grabbed Balatro, which proves itself to be exactly as much an addictive poker-ish roguelike as advertised.

Automata is one of the greatest games I've ever played, I admit to getting lured in by the waifus (with zero knowledge of Nier/Drakengard) and getting completely blindsided by, uh, everything else. The soundtrack is amazing and the game makes masterful use of the medium, the amusement park entrance scene has burned itself into my brain in a way few experiences did. Reportedly the second playthrough turns many people off because of certain changes in mechanics (although personally I liked it, it's up to taste), but I encourage you to stick with it because everything after that is 200% worth it.

Also share tips on how to get away from Balatro, this shit is devouring my free time, I'm a sucker for number go up games in general and this one tickles the monke neurons exceedingly well.

Just recently finished the first playthrough. I suppose I'll see those notorious changes soon.

As for Balatro, can't help here. This is also one of those ultra-completionist games like Monster Train that entices you with getting a win with every single card, even a shit-tier one, so I guess we're doomed.

You've probably heard already, but Nier: Automata requires at least 3 or 4 playthroughs in order to get the full grasp of the setting and story. The first playthrough should only be like 10-20 hours and the next ones much shorter.

Whether or not the juice is worth the squeeze should come down to taste. I'll say, I can at least understand why the story gets hyped up so much. It's not a spoiler to say that there are twists and turns, and the philosophical musings are at the appropriate level of thought provoking for a game of this sort.

I played 5 hours of Civilization 5 yesterday. I hope they make a new one soon. I didn't like Civ 6.

It had been many years since the last time I played Civ so I picked King difficulty in hopes of getting the right challenge. Went for Tradition as Egypt (Pyramids are a Liberty-locked wonder, wtf?). Got a pretty great capital for growth and production after a while. Wiped out my continent-mate. The game ended up being too easy. I had a lead of several hundred points and stopped playing around 1600 AD.

I played 5 hours of Civilization 5 yesterday. I hope they make a new one soon.

Not any time soon. Have you played Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri?

I often claim that all game writing is shit, but of course that's not entirely true because SMAC exists.

The tragedy of Earth is not that so many died. Death is an inevitable part of life. The tragedy is that so many died as victims. When the crisis came, they were helpless, unable to use their deaths to buy anything of value. Millions of otherwise intelligent people had been tricked into ignoring a fundamental truth: that no man has any rights if he is unable to personally defend them.

Civ 4 is the mechanical peak of the series (especially with community QoL mods like BUG), but Alpha Centauri is the best setting.

This is the correct take.

Which makes the messy visuals and such gameplay flaws Civ4 does have all the more grating.

Alpha Centauri's visuals have, by comparison and in my completely nostalgic view, aged better. But AC instead has a host of balance and pacing issues, with many in-game entities seeing little use, the mid-game going by in a blur and the game being over before it even reaches the end-game.

What are the definitive Civ4 mods?

There's Fall From Heaven for fantasy, Realism Invictus and A New Dawn for a Vanilla+ experience, and Caveman2Cosmos if you want Civ4 taken to the uttermost conclusion of its premise.

I recommend Caveman2Cosmos, though there are many rough edges. Especially as one approaches the cosmic end of it - I'd go as far as to call that unfinished. But most players barely make it past the cavemen, so I guess it's fair for the modders to focus on the earlier parts.

I've been playing Card Survival: Tropical Island. Basically you're some variant of Tom Hanks in Castaway, washing up on an island with nothing but some clothes and forced to fend for yourself.

The simple card style UI hides an incredibly complex status system where your mental/physical health is tracked under the hood (all the way down to parasite count for camp fever/malaria and derealization meter etc). It is a turn based game, but different actions take different amounts of time and the management of time is the most critical thing about surviving. Can you dig a well before the dry season comes? Can you find or farm enough spider lily plants before you succumb to Camp Fever? Can you train in spear fighting enough to fight a boar (or better yet trapping so you never have to?) Can you build and stock a raft with enough provisions to escape the island while struggling with loneliness and starvation?

I found it highly addictive and strongly recommend it for those who like in depth survival/base building/exploration games.

It is currently 30% off in the Spring Sale on Steam, but there is also a free demo of the first days available here.

Is this Cultist Simulator but for Castaway?

Cultist Simulator was real time (with a timer on card interactions). Card Survival is turn based. You can just stop and take as long as you want to think about what to do next, eg 'It's one hour to sunset. Do I try to spear a fish to fill my starving belly, or do I play it safe and head back to camp so I'm not trapped in a pitch black jungle until daybreak being eaten alive by malaria carrying bugs?'

Couple of weeks ago I moved my MiSTer FPGA from the living room to the bedroom and turned it into more of a retro-computer like setup. But on it, I've been mostly playing MGS for the PSX for now. I've played through and enjoyed Twin Snakes on the Gamecube back in the day, but never the original.

I've also been trying to get into but been unable to really plunge into old school first person dungeon crawlers turn based RPGs. Stuff like Wizardry, Might & Magic and their descendants. I always loved the aesthetic of that genre and I keep thinking that once it clicks I'll love them, but whenever I try to play them I just... mostly don't have fun. They're mean games; they rarely forgive mistakes, they require remembering a lot of stuff to have a chance. Yet I have no problem with challenging games like From Soft games, shmups, fighting games, etc... or with games that require acquiring knowledge (I love straight up oldschool roguelikes like Nethack). But dungeon crawlers... I don't know why it won't click. The only ones I could stomach a bit (and only a bit, I still dropped them fairly quickly) is the Etrian Odyssey games and some MegaTen games (the remake of the original Megami Tensei on the SNES, Strange Journey, SMT IV).

DayZ was one of those games that kinda looked like a money-grab. It went viral and sold massively well but was a third done, buggy etc.

To my enduring surprise, development continud with a small team and the game now runs pretty well, and still has a very big player base. They seem to want to release a new map DLC every 18 months or so.

ATM playing on a slightly arcade-y (food consumption a bit down, stamina is really high so people run around) first-person only Livonia server. I can't stand 3rd person, it allows spying on people without risking anything.

Total War: Warhammer 3

If anyone has a favorite faction they want me to try (as a total beginner) I’ll give it a shot this week and post updates next Friday.

I'm not very good at it. I usually do okay on Easy/Easy until I'm up against Skaven or a particularly well-defended city battle. Just picked up a bunch of DLCs for Steam's Spring Sale though, so looking forward to trying Chaos Dwarves (EDIT: tried these, way too complicated, will put them off until later), Malus Darkblade, or the Sisters of Twilight. Hopefully the next DLC actually changes some of the base mechanics of the seriously underpowered Empire, Dwarves, and Nurgle factions with balance/campaign mechanics tweaks and not just giving them 20 new units each.

My favorites are the Tomb Kings from 2.

  • Hold the line with your obviously shit infantry
  • Use the souls of said infantry to buff the cool monsters
  • Flank and spank with cool monsters instead of boring ass cavalry
  • Replenish your losses for basically free. You’ve been under the sand for millennia, you’re not paying for upkeep!

I have no idea how much of this translated to 3’s megamap.

I started playing Elden Ring last week. I'm about 20 hours and 6 bosses in, with Godrick the last one I defeated. It's about as good as I'd heard, feeling essentially like Bloodborne (that and Sekiro being the only other From Soft games I've played - Nioh is the only non-From Soft soulslike I've played) but expanded to open world scale.

I always felt there was a fractal quality to the level design in Bloodborne and Sekiro, with how different forking paths attach to each other to create larger areas that are forked from other larger areas, and I feel like it really shows in the open overworld of Elden Ring. It almost feels like they took one of their Bloodborne levels, scaled it up by a couple orders of magnitude, and then put in other Bloodborne levels into the various castles and temples and fortresses and such that serve as important progression points around the world.

As I play, I find myself simultaneously marveling at how brilliant the level design is for balancing the feelings of open freedom and linear progression and being saddened at how other devs can't seem to do the same. Obviously, good level design takes a lot of work, but also, none of what From Soft does with their levels seems particularly difficult to copy and execute. They keep things feeling more open by constantly throwing forks in the road of players, letting many of them accumulate before any one of those paths hits a dead end. And almost always, one of those paths open up to some whole other area with a fresh new set of forks to choose from. They entice players to explore by placing items in areas that are visible but not accessible, sometimes remaining inaccessible until dozens of hours of progression later. And they do still place enough dead ends - true dead ends with no reward, no new information learned, not even an impressive visual to admire - to keep the levels feeling like a real place. All those forks that led up to such dead ends keep them from being unsatisfying, and the fact that, often enough, you do get rewarded by an entirely new world to explore makes the exploration addicting.

Doing all these well almost definitely takes a ton of work and testing, but devs often don't seem to even make an effort at doing them okay. I feel like, most often, 3rd person action games have levels that are either super linear or just fully wide-open, and when they do make an attempt at this forking-paths style design, they stop at just 2 or 3 iterations instead of letting it really get twisty and labyrinthine like From Soft likes to do.

Also, the bosses I've fought are as good as I've come to expect from From Soft, at least this early in the game. Those are always by far my favorite parts of 3rd person action games like this one. I'm expecting that the difficulty and variety of bosses will ramp up as I get deeper in, though, since Margit, Leonine, Erdtree Avatar, Godrick, and even the Ancient Hero of Zapor all felt like variations of each other to some extent.

I'm expecting that the difficulty and variety of bosses will ramp up as I get deeper in, though, since Margit, Leonine, Erdtree Avatar, Godrick, and even the Ancient Hero of Zapor all felt like variations of each other to some extent.

I have to stress that it is a fantastic game that I'm nitpicking and that expecting otherwise is stupidly unrealistic, but sadly I believe this to be the biggest problem with the game, that as you keep playing the map/dungeon/level structure and the boss design, that felt so natural at the start, ends up feeling increasingly game-y. But then again, expecting otherwise is insane; a game that large could not have had hundreds of dungeons with the same intricateness as a bespoke-made Souls game, hundreds of bosses with all different movesets, etc...

I'm back to Factorio with some of my friends. We're trying to get a Space Exploration run off the ground. Been trying to use LTN and a city block layout to simplify trains but they've been hesitant.

Beyond All Reason has been fun, as it's like a modern incarnation of Supreme Commander which is one of the best RTS games ever made. It was the only one to really grasp that RTS's should be about base-building and broad strategic moves, not heavy micromanagement like AoE2 or SC2.

I've been trying to play Steins;Gate solo since people have kept recommending it to me, although I just can't seem to get into anime that much

Rimworld is coming out with a new DLC soon. I'm looking forward to losing another hundred hours, although I'm not looking forward to the mod conflicts that will inevitably arise.

Europa Universalis 5 was basically just announced. I haven't played EU4 in a year or so, but it's one of my favorite games of all time so hopefully that is good.

Europa Universalis 5 was basically just announced

I hope they will avoid the terrible modifier stacking meta that EU4 ended up with.

Late reply but I enjoy stacking modifiers. Stacking most of them (like siege ability) isn't particularly powerful when you know how the game is properly played, but it sure is fun!

Europa Universalis 5 was basically just announced

I hope they will avoid the terrible modifier stacking meta that EU4 ended up with.

I enjoy stacking modifiers. The problem with EU4 modifiers (from ideas and government reforms) is that they're all unalloyed positives. Every country feels the same Risk blob by 1500. It would be interesting if, like in real life, the decision to focus one aspect of national power hurt other aspects. IRL Russia chose Religious and Aristocratic and ended up technologically backward. IRL Britain chose Trade and Expansion and ended up with manpower of a small continental duchy. They had to either adjust their strategy for their strengths and weaknesses, or try painful reforms to adapt to the shifting meta.

In EU4, both countries end up super rich with all technologies unlocked and super powerful militaries. Just like every other successful country on the map.

IRL Russia chose Religious and Aristocratic and ended up technologically backward

MEIOU3 is a total overhaul, possibly more feature rich than EU5 will ever be - it adds pops, simulated economy, and a lengthy, painful process of reform from feudal to modern bureaucratic state. A small but modernized, urbanized country with rich and educated plebs will demolish a country like Poland - strong early, but held back by the powerful nobility, naturally falling behind as game progresses.

The mod is still rough, held back horribly by the UI limitations, has a steep learning curve and demands patience, but I 100% recommend it for all EU4 players.

Rimworld is coming out with a new DLC soon. I'm looking forward to losing another hundred hours, although I'm not looking forward to the mod conflicts that will inevitably arise.

Have you played Dwarf Fortress?

Late reply. I have not played Dwarf Fortress. I've definitely heard of it, but I was a bit hesitant to try it back when its UI was abysmal. I've heard they had an update that added simple graphics which could be enough for me to give it a go.

I've heard they had an update that added simple graphics which could be enough for me to give it a go.

"Simple" is an understatement. The devs added nice sprite work that elevates how the world looks. They also added a new, mouse-driven UI to help with navigation. It's a different game, for the better.

You can, of course, play with the original ASCII graphics and keyboard-driven hotkeys.

hat do you think about the idea of a mmo rts where you get 120 people managing two giant factories and fighting huge battles ?

imo seems very cool, weird there's no game like that.

That's definitely an intriguing idea for sure. I'd probably need to see some sort of indie game or prototype try it first though. It's such an unexplored idea that there's probably some pitfalls with it that we can't think of right now, but it sure sounds interesting.

Factorio engine can manage hundreds of players - been tried, but I'm not sure how low overhead units are - I've read some problems with modded vehicles but even there, if the scripts guiding units are simple enough, it should work.

There's Foxhole. I haven't played it personally because I prefer autistic single player games.

But I know that it has a big focus on players doing everything. Like players need to drive the trucks to the front lines to provide ammo, there's factories that create that ammo, and I don't know if those factories need something else as well, but still.

If you're interested in this premise it might be worth to check it out.

I don't think the automation gameplay is anywhere near Factorio. And the whole thing with game being 3d yet having weird-ass 2d combat is not good either.

the whole thing with game being 3d yet having weird-ass 2d combat is not good either

Did you try it? Foxhole infantry combat is great, and if you're lucky to join an interesting battle, it is downright fantastic. Vehicle gameplay is cool too, though tank line meta is meh and there is a lot of waiting around involved. I thoroughly recommend it for everything except facility building.

It's incredibly stupid when compared to what it could be.

Maybe, no idea what sort of changes you're thinking of. But as it is, it's both good gameplay, and nicely unique. Imo the wasted potential is in the lack of serious experimentation with tools that would enable effortless coordination at all scales while maintaining anarchy.

I mean that something like Foxhole but with Factorio-complex factory gameplay and combat that's more like say, war thunder or Squad (but with lots of AI grunts) would be far more fun. Foxhole is a nice idea but the combat system looks very underwhelming and tbh I lost my taste for that kind of game cca 1997.

No such thing as effortless coordination out there.

So you're saying basically there are no in game tools for large-scale battles ? There's no commander's map view where he can assign objectives to units, where he sees data on what's going on etc?

More comments

That sounds awesome. I'll build it myself if nobody else has in a few years

I've been thinking of coaxing the devs of a recent new EA Factorio-type game -'Captain of Industry' -like Factorio but 3d, with earth-moving machinery, workers / food mechanic) into it. Or just adding in multiplayer.

They seem likely to add in tunneling and bunkers, might even add dams and polders. You play on an island some real estate is a serious constraint.

Seems the unity-based engine they're using is fairly scaleable.

Industrial Annihilation is vaguely on my radar but I don't know whether or not the factory building is team vs. team.

Cool but niche. Factory-games cater more for the aloof, somewhat autistic single-player personality (me) than the gregarious AOE/Starcraft multiplayer people.

I would love a Dyson Sphere Program interplanetary/interstellar PVP battle though, that'd be great fun.

Beauty of multi-modal games is all kinds of people are welcome. Ark Survival is an FPS game that had housewives and hairdressers playing it, because you could breed creatures some combination of terrifying, fluffy and adorable.

I feel like RTS players might be interested in cooperative persistent RTS games. After all running the same shit all over again probably is stale to a lot of people.

Also, with a bit of effort, if you added in 1st person gameplay and mechs and shit you could probably get normies to play it too and now you have a game that also socializes people.

I’m really disappointed that there’s not a Foxhole RTS. Infantry combat is the worst part of that game.

Sounds realistic

The alternatives of “junkyard miner,” “construction worker,” and “Amazon delivery driver” sound better until you realize they are also all in active war zones.

I believe modding in RTS to Factorio is very, very easy.

The game engine is pretty good, simple unit scripting which requires micromanaging to be efficient is probably not that resource intensive..

I'm back to Factorio with some of my friends. We're trying to get a Space Exploration run off the ground. Been trying to use LTN and a city block layout to simplify trains but they've been hesitant.

Oh man I'm jealous, I could never find any friends to play Factorio with me longterm. It has been incredibly difficult getting through a space exploration run on my own. Took me around 150 hours to get to endgame stuff. So much of that was just wasting resources for me bouncing around to different planets to deal with resource shortages or emergencies.

Didn't really get viable until I downloaded the real nukes mod and began nuking the crap out of surfaces to get rid of biters. The size of some of those nukes probably should have been cracking the planet if they were real.

Rimworld is coming out with a new DLC soon. I'm looking forward to losing another hundred hours, although I'm not looking forward to the mod conflicts that will inevitably arise.

Rimworld has always taken my personal crown for "most mods applied". Think I had almost 150 in one playthrough.

Oh man I'm jealous, I could never find any friends to play Factorio with me longterm

Yeah, the wonders of modern technology has made it possible for me to stay in contact with 2 of my friends from college which has been excellent. One of them is super gung-ho about the mod, while the other was keen at first but his interest rapidly waned. Now he mostly just plays other games in the same Discord call while we play SE. Playing games with them regularly has really made me understand how valuable old friends are, since if I didn't have them then I'd have basically no real social contact outside of this forum (which doesn't really count IMO) and work.

Didn't really get viable until I downloaded the real nukes mod and began nuking the crap out of surfaces to get rid of biters. The size of some of those nukes probably should have been cracking the planet if they were real.

Great mod suggestion! I'm always looking for overpowered but not outright cheaty mods, and this looks like a great addition. I'm not too keen on biters myself so this will be a nice way to get rid of them. I thought I saw a "plague rocket" or something that's able to deal with them in the tech tree, but I'm not sure how long it will take to get there.

Think I had almost 150 in one playthrough.

Only 150? Those are rookie numbers! Think I got mine over 300 at one point, but there's some attrition between versions as mod authors drop off.

Rimworld has always taken my personal crown for "most mods applied". Think I had almost 150 in one playthrough.

Same here. It's what saves me from ever wanting to play it again - too much hassle!

Normal nukes are good enough, it's just a volume thing.

Yah it was slowing down my game while I was launching them though. Instead it was quicker to spend a similar amount of nuclear material in a few enormous nukes, and basically have the game pause on me for a minute at a time as it calculated stuff.

I've been playing with Nightingale as well. It's got an interesting core, but in many way it feels very much like an reverse-Palworld -- where Palworld has a really fleshed-out the big selling point of Pokemon With Guns and everything around it got shoveled in from the asset store, Nightingale has a bunch of surprisingly deep random systems thrown in around a core concept that just got a thin coat of paint.

There's a ridiculously complex system for mixing and matching materials to produce gear with widely varying stats, and also handles the aesthetics of gear... and it only actually impacts weapons and armor, and with how combat numbers scale not great at that. There's a cool system where you can burn extra materials for essence dust that funds your gear repairs... but after Herbarium tier you're probably just going to burn a handful of T2 essence to get literally tens of thousands of essence dust, so it's just a slightly-more-annoying trashcan. There's some Bound enemies that have really clever combat, especially the minotaur-like Bruisers... but you can just shoot them, the various sword-wielders and casters really push you to just do that, and most of the time you're just getting swarmed by vermin and going full Lizzy Borden on them. There's a ton of variety in foods, but salted meat steak works for freaking ever.

The Realms are the game's core, and while a lot of people complain about only being variations of the same three biomes with a handful of procgen, there actually is a lot of difference between, say, a Desert Astrolabe and a Desert Provisioner realm beyond just enemy difficulty (nevermind something like Gloom!). But your Respite must be an Abeyance Realm, even as your gearscore makes the difference between level 10 and level 50 a rounding error, and Abeyances miss out on a lot of potential variety. You can make your Respite into little more than a portal waystation, and I think that's going to end up being the long-term meta -- but at least right now the long delays when transitioning from one Realm to another make it wildly impractical.

And, yeah, the always-online thing is a bad decision. Allegedly one they're planning to change eventually, but I've been burned enough before to be a little cautious. They also really need to get their artists to work on some more item graphics, or at least better placeholder art -- I've got a chest that's halfway full of alchemical reagents and crafting components that have that N wax seal.

That said, I am impressed by how relatively painless the building side has been, even with the fairly complex crafting-station augments system, and even the trash Bound feel really weighty in combat. Heart and headshots work really well, esp for an online game. A lot of these frustrations could be fixed pretty quickly, and I am still playing it.

I have attained 350 hours of playtime in the free-to-play game Gundam Battle Operation 2. Unfortunately, the nadir of the game's player count is around 21:00 UTC, which perfectly coincides with my worknight playing hours. But the game is very fun when I actually manage to get into a match. Over-the-shoulder cannons FTW!

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