Just completed the “wolfer” challenge in Rift Wizzard, where the only spell you can use is summon wolf.
Very satisfying to progress from thinking that is stupidly impossible to finally cracking it.
Spoilers
Yes, I could only summon wolves, but by the end of the game I was summoning packs of uber-wolves made of clay and sandstone, regenerating and spitting virulent poison with a paralyzing property, and I was channeling the agony of everything currently poisoned into whatever living enemy was nearest to me each turn. Oh, and if something died from the poison, a giant spider crawled out from the body, so I guess the wolves were spitting eggs too?
I know this is probably very late but as long as you a) ask for a reward when you help people and b) support him after his revelation about being a vampire, he’s pretty easy to please.
I played through Soma; a fascinating exploration of personality and humanity let down by incredibly annoying monsters. Dying once, alone in the dark, is scary. Doing it twelve times in a row is irritating.
The monsters are unnecessary for the plot and feel crowbarred in. It’s a shame because it really spoiled my enjoyment of the story, although I did have a number of problems with that too.
Recently I’ve been playing The Lamplighter’s League, which I’m enjoying hugely. I’m still early on so it may let me down later, but it certainly hasn’t so far.
Revisited Lara Croft and the Temple of Light now that S is more experienced with games, and we’re having a great time solving puzzles and running and gunning through hordes of stone beasties. Surprisingly good.
Also tackling Baldur’s Gate 3, and the moment that won me over was when we stumbled across a phase spider matriarch that was way out of our league, and instead of just dying and reloading, we were able to make a fighting retreat as spiderlings teleported all over us, and got out alive. That freedom to explore, mess up, and recover from mistakes is golden.
I’ve only tried two games so far, I didn’t realised I had room in my life for a relatively quick (compared to Surviving Mars) terraformer, but I really love the replayability (so far at least!). I feel like I’ve already had £10 worth of enjoyment out of it though so even if I get bored, I’m glad I got it.
It does sort of want me to play Surving Mars again though. I have Per Aspera but something about it fails to grip me, I keep bouncing off it. Perhaps I’ll try again. I think I’m not keen on the AI framing device for some reason.
Also been playing a fair bit of Skyrim VR, which is just glorious. Never realised I was an arachnophobe until a giant frost spider dropped from the roof next to me in VR.
I tried Starfield, as Skyrim reminded me how good Bethesda games can be… but oh goodness it’s tedious. It feels like all the worst bits of Bethesda games. Apparently it gets very good after 10-15 hours… but I just don’t have enough time in my life to sink into a game I’m not enjoying.
I feel it stays interesting, as the “challenge” games usually end when you reached the thresholds and I have so far opted out of continuing after that. I’ve managed to sink 20 hours into it already (although that includes some of "oops dinnertime, I’ll just leave it open). So more than worth it.
This is very very boardgame adjacent though. I mean every round you get to draft cards–if you place the right buildings you get better choices and can get more and increase your hand-size.
You need resource management to pay for the cards and every few rounds you get higher expectations to keep the puzzle tight.
But it couldn’t be a boardgame on the table because there would be too much housekeeping–which has not kept people from making a Slay the Spire boardgame (which I have not tried).
Surviving Mars has a steep learning curve because of the survival parts. This here has less actual and more political survival.
Also it is satisfying to finally see a forest grow or spread your first animal on Mars–some cold resistant deer I think.
Yes, I agree. As a board game it’s different enough from Teraforming Mars to enjoy both. Like TM, though, it’s not realistic, I agree. It’s a Mars-themed resource-management relatively light game, but deep enough that I’m enjoying so far. Haven’t got as far as animals yet, I’ve just been firing out my hot bacteria all over the surface so far.
Gameplay-wise yes it’s different from TM… but the tropes of terraforming are all comfortably there.
On the computer game side the next thing I’d compare it with is … Slipways. The network building and resource stuff is different but the feel of playing has some similarities.
It gets… better, but not much. I’ve played 60 hours. It’s just distinctly average all the way through, and I’m staggered that it doesn’t even do voice acting or character as well as Skyrim did 12 years previously (that was full of “arrow to the knee” bots and still did a better job).
Some of the guns get more rewarding later but uurgh. This is nowhere near a AAA game.
One of the things I love about Skyrim is the sense of place. You see somewhere, and you can go there. Decide to deviate from the path? You’ll find something interesting. It has significant flaws but it’s very very good at that. Also the mods are terrific now, you can change and improve so much - more spells, less loot so you don’t find magic items everywhere you go, better characters, better places… Starfield gave me none of that…. It’s like they ignored their own design ideas.
this I’ve was from pumping an aquifer because i needed that spot for a solar array.