What games are you playing atm? V2

Diablo 4's new season. It doesnt really revamp most of what is needing an overhaul in the game so ill probably just reach lvl 100, get the seasonal content done and forget about it til next season while i overdose on copium that maybe season 3 will make the game good.

Android.

Uber Lilith dead in like a minute and only because the phases where she breaks the map in pieces makes her invincible despite her health being non-existent. Ball Lightning is broken this season. And with this i've beaten all the end game content in D4. Back to solitaire now.

Fallout new vegas. What a blast. Trigger happy me just enjoying quest progress without spilling blood. Who could thought that would happen.

Deep dive into this rabbit? hole.

Rally your party. Build your deck and boost its power and potential. Slay your enemies and protect your allies. Play your cards right and you might just survive the perilous descent into the depths of Deepest Chamber: Resurrection.

Rarely i saw a video game trailer on steam and think "I WANT THAT". This was on sale during steam spooky sale, and I managed to glance at it while it was new & trending. Turned out this game ended up become niche & not popular.

Yes, there are definitely many great deckbuilder out there and it pretty hard to compete with tough giant that already exist for many year. This game have promising hybrid where you can have small meta progression with gear and plenty of interesting class mixing which lead to many powerful combo. The core boost mechanic is pretty interesting, especially when you start to optimize each individual card to be impactful with tons mechanic like ability move card around so you can boost specific card strategically.

Despite the huge potential of this game, it just abit shallow than what i expected. I dont expect the game to be perfectly balanced, but I thought this will be finally a true game that have meta progression, akin to a proper roguelite with perma upgrade in form of character gear. Sadly, if you just play for fun, probably the game will feel samey after 20 hours in. If werent for achievement, probably i wont reach 50 hours. Heck even one of the annoying achievement with RNG made me spent like 15 hours reseting game over and over again.

If you like deckbuilder and want something new, you can try this. Dont expect something grand, as I really eager wait for developer finally develop the game even more. It fun while it last. Also somehow it made me write my first steam guide here (ah, miss my old day of writing long text guide)

Alan Woke---err i mean, Wake 2.

Impressive graphics, if a bit chuggy and a few odd bugs here and there that'll probably get hotfixed eventually.

However the game suffers from insufferable writing, cutscenes that will chug on the voice lines and subtitles, weird ass hitboxes on the enemies, and lets not forget, playing as a STRONG INDEPENDENT black woman for a lot of the game instead of you know, the guy who's name is in the game, just to tick off a few diversity racial politically correct shit. The game's name is the protagonist's name, Alan Wake. Let me play from the start as Alan Wake.

Are you telling me, this is Diablo... Deckbuilder?

A unique, infinitely replayable, story-driven hybrid between a deck-building Roguelike and an RPG game. Explore the ever-changing maps, fight with deadly enemies, and learn what happened to the cursed island of Avalon.

After finishing the previous deckbuilder game, this game was recommended to me as another better alternative. Thus i kinda immediately bought the game when it was on sale.

The biggest pro is definitely the variety of the game play. It is boiled down to 3 different warrior, 3 different archers and 3 different summoners playstyle. Each class have its own unique resource mechanic, making it felt different despite many of similar cards from the same pools. Each classes have tons of passive bonus which you can choose when level up. Story telling of this game are revolved around dialogue / quests with NPC which you need to solve over multiple runs. Many of quests also give powerful rewards for future runs.

I will be honest to say that I hate the first 5 hours of the game because your card / passive given are very limited while i still havent figure out how the game work. Once you unlock several meta-progression, the game difficulty become a joke where pretty much i dont need to use brain as the game revolved around stacking defensive or just kill all enemies outright in first couple of turns. I also hate the graphic, especially with corruption effect that make your vision blurry. I had to use reshade to make it less painful to the eyes.

If you want to play this deckbuilder, just take note that many of first runs are very painful. Not to mention you each classes unlocked individually, thus it will be snorefest to unlock everything.

Diablo 4 Steam Free Weekend (but not really, just trial with level 20 cap) First Impression.

I dont want to spend 20 minutes making a long review like i always did with image and everything. I just want to take this opportunity to install and play diablo 4 from start.

Pro:
1. CG Cinematic and Ingame cutscenes are top notch. Although it have some sense of goth, it doesnt have the mysterious feeling like diablo 2. You immediately shown full body of Lilith the moment you finish the prologue, making she felt just like Kerrigan from Starcraft game.

2. A dodge button? I dunno if i should appreciate this button with 4 second or not. I have played another game with less delay, and it felt more fluid and balanced. Although I appreciated now Diablo 4 have fully controller support on pc (despite diablo 3 exist on switch / console last time iirc).

3. Sound effect. Perhaps i didnt realize how crisp the sound here than other previous entries. I was playing with rogue, so the dagger and bow both feel impactful, especially when it hit the enemies.

Meh :
1. I feel like Im getting older. The game doesnt have dopamine kick like D3 or D:I in immediate effect and since you need to assign / respec your skill point, making it abit tedious to new skill. Sure it is low cost, because it still annoying.

2. Vast open world map. Again, compare to D3 or D:I feel like D4 is a bit MMOARPG-ish especially when you seeing other player in town hub. It always a dream for me, but I couldnt unlock mount immediately thus every feel like sloth journey / backtracking

3. Gameplay loop. I dunno what i expect from ARPG atm. I kill monster, I collect stuff, I switch gear if it higher number then i sell stuff at NPC. But city remain useless at low level where vendor have no new item (or too expensive to purchase) most of the the game.

Con :
1. Graphic. Im not fan of dark and hyper realistic, despite ppl might find d3 too cartoony. For me it is just too clutter especially with enemy particles effect is less telegraphed combined with floor vomit effect. Biggest offender is the absolute huge amount of fogs effect.

2. Side activities. Kinda weird that Im a person who love to clear map markers hate the renown system in diablo 4. It is not i hate it, but because of vast size of the map, lacked of fast travel points and lack of mount, made me just skip through all main story quest.

3. Biggest offender is definitely how blizzard did the trial. Diablo 3 maybe did a short run to King Leoric fight but it feel like a straight forward journey. My game was abrupted forced to quit when i was middle of quest, as i reached level 20. Bad demo. And you have alot of content available before level 20 that you couldnt do because you get kicked out.

Hours played : 5 hours
Verdict : Really, i think i will wait 50% off with next expansion tbh.
I rather stick with rogue-lite which can give me dopamine rush at faster rate and the grinding is shorter.

EDITED :
I have done the unthinkable, I have reinstall D3 again
It was a game i have play casually once a time to on specific season (2023 mark 10 years i guess?)
And considering, this is last season i have decided to just do the seasonal challenge again.

But anyway, the point i wanted to make is to share what i feel starting from scratch in d3 until end of king leoric fight.
I finished the boss at around level 15, so technically i could finish whole act 1 if i want to.

1. Game give you more skill slots / option from the start.
By level 4, you already get your 3rd skill. Less mundane to play around, unless you dodge button as "active skill". Most of the skill rune modification are impactful and really change how the skill work

2. Im not sure it fair to compare rogue to monk for fast-paced class comparison (i think demon hunter is better comparison) but i have more blast zooming around and delivering powerful AoE blow. Surely there is slow downturn when you fight the boss and the game can feel relatively easy, you have more difficulty option in base d3 than d4 world tier at least for sure.

3. Beat-to-beat D3 is much much faster. Again, im not sure it is fair comparison since I was trying to immerse with story / atmosphere in D4 while in D3 im trying to rush through campaign with my previous 10 years experience. Regardless, it feel like "walking simulator" in D3 than vast open world D4, which is a plus for me for first impression.

4. And there is hireling at start of the D3? I totally forgot about them and how they as addition to your gameplay. If you lacked survivability, then templar added big chunk of defensive option. Only struggled part i faced in D4 was running out of potions fighting boss or getting crowd controlled to death.

5. Speaking of crowd-control, the elite and champion here have more telegraphed ability, mainly the fire and ice explosion on the floor (i havent found the spinning laser yet). D4 visual is very clutter despite people said it is better graphic overall. I have issue trying to distinct too many objects on the the screen, so i appreciated D3 clarity more (despite ppl find it over saturated).

Uh, kinda funny that Im jumping back to D3. I do admit D3 doesnt have good endgame customization or game is too easy, the fun factor & dopamine for me is the main reason why I enjoyed D3 so much. Sure, it will make you only short time before reaching the boring gameplay loop at the end, but as someone who lacked free time & enjoy jumping from one game to another, D3 is perfect leisure game for me.

Expect less game review from me for next couple of weeks lol.

Deep Rock Galactic has been stealing away most of my free time for the past week. I might just be addicted to it, but im not about to confirm or deny it.

Insert your weird alien fetish joke here.

Welcome to City 31, a model of peace in a post-invasion world. However, not all of Earth's inhabitants support interspecies alliance. Chimera Squad, an elite force of human and alien agents, must work together to destroy the underground threats driving the city toward chaos.

Having an itch for more slower methodical game after my disappointing run with diablo 3, i was thinking of playing xcom 2 since i bought the expansion. Then I remember I have the spinoff from humble bundle, so i went with that instead.

Lets just say the comparison with Xcom 2 is that this game is more toward casual gameplay. Instead of making your own squad member, you are giving preset characters that all have unique personality and abilities. By mix and match, you will embark on several investigation throughout the city, stopping the crime in form of short combat battle. Turn combat is slightly different here, where you interwoven between your turn & enemy turns. Key strategy usually revolved around taking key target before they can act.

To say im disappointed with this game, would be immeasurable. I already put low expectation as I already know this game is just fun short spin off, but i didnt expect mismatch of game concept. You get the usual "enter combat, get resource, upgrade your gear / your base" loop, but the depth arent isnt there. Mostly because there are very limited customization you can do with your squad members gears, your base or field team. Perhaps most disappointing is the story, because it told in such a boring comic dialogue.

Above average game, mostly because of good xcom 2 engine. I dread to push myself to finish the game. I could easily get more from other more budget indie turn based tactical RPG on the market.