Crimson Desert sold 4 Million copies. Quite the feat, right before launch the reviews were mid, and I was even on the fence about it.
But it’s an awesome game, so get it!
Crimson Desert – The fetching cat
Once you start building out your camp, you’ll be served with a small side mission called “Fang Without a Master”. The goal is to help one of your camp mates, Naira, care for a stray dog she left somewhere. She feels bad about leabing it, and the best solution is obviously to dump the stray on the player. After completing “Fang Without a Master” you basically run around with a pet dog that fetches resources from downed enemies, chopped trees and mined ore. No more manually having to pick up everything. But its a dog, and I’d rather have a cat. So tried taming a cat. And it behaves the same as the dog, picking up resources. And one added bonus, half the time your new cat buddy sits on your shoulder, even when riding a horse.
Screenshots from Uncharted 4
Found this old draft of some screenshots of Uncharted 4 from back in 2016. Never posted these, and the screenshots don’t actually look that impressive either.
Anyway. Uncharted 4!
Crimson Desert – my new obsession
The new open world game Crimson Desert is quite something, it has that strange feeling of total freedom. The world you’re dropped into just exists it seems. That world also looks gorgeous, I’m running everything on ‘Ultra’ settings on an RX 7900 XTX and get around 60fp in 4Ks. One example is the sun setting behind the mountains, harsh blinding sunlight because of the low angle, and then poof dusk. (You know what I mean if you live in a valley like I do).
Setting sun Sun behind mountains It’s full of weird little details. I went to mine some iron ore to enhance my gear and put my horse in the bushes. The poor thing started neighing like it was dying, apparently there were flies in the bushes that were annoying him/her.
The controls are rough, and probably will take a day or two to get used to. They’re not like the default standard modern style, more like odd PS3 era controls.
The menu layout with the map, journal, knowledge base is also confusing but again takes time to get used to. This was 3 hours in.
I’m now 24 hours in and things have gotten a lot clearer and better. The game is like an onion, layer after layer has to be peeled open for more and more mechanics to become available. It is filled with all types of mechanics, camp building/management, sending NPCs on missions, horse management, some kind of investment banking at the bank. That last one I have not even touched yet. Controls are still an issue if you are not willing to learn. And other elements like sending NPCs on missions is barely explained. Had to google that one.
But as it stands, it’s a great game that still needs some polishing. Could have done with another round of work. But it looks like the developers are doing that as a first patch dropped last night. The patch solved some issues with the menu layout, but as I was about 24 hours in I already got accustomed to the initial layout so back to square one on that. A stash was also added to your basecamp. You can now offload your inventory. Very helpful. Controller controls were not updated but are coming too, don’t know about that now that I am well into the game.
More to come on this.
Hellbound Season 2 Trailer
Very excited for this. Will be rewatching Season 1.
Currently watching Gyeongseong Creature season 2, which started with a great twist/reveal to jumpstart the season. One thing that was a letdown with Season 2 of Gyeongseong Creature was the reduced episode count, only 7, and the reduced episode duration, around 45 mins down from 70/75. Hope that does not happen with Hellbound.
In case you missed it Balatro+ launched on Apple Arcade
Held off playing this for ages, but just tried it. It is addictive.
Welcome to the official Balatro+ game! Hypnotic and endlessly satisfying, Balatro is a magical mix of card games like Solitaire and Poker, that lets you twist the rules in ways never seen before! Your goal is to beat the Boss Blinds by making strong poker hands. Find new Jokers that change the gam…
Source: Balatro+
Cyperpunk 2077 PC Patch 2.13
Patch 2.13 for Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty is being rolled out!
Source: Patch 2.13
The long awaited patch finally arrives. It has FSR 3.0, but at AMD they already brought out FSR 3.1 with substantial improvements. And apparently there are issues with ghosting.
I’m on my fourth play-through at the moment, 100 hours in. And probably my last as I’m expecting to 100% the game this time.
Tepid ‘Star Wars Outlaws’ Reception Sinks Ubisoft Stock
Star Wars Outlaws may have reviewed okay enough, but it may not have sold enough, if Ubisoft’s recently stock decline is any indication.
Source: Tepid ‘Star Wars Outlaws’ Reception Sinks Ubisoft Stock
This news is a bit dramatic, it’s not that bad. Still, from what I’ve seen it’s a “get on sale” game, and that seems to be the general consensus.
The journey back To EORZEA (2/?)
Found an extensive recap video, that is not too long, on YouTube courtesy of The Exploring Series.
The journey back To EORZEA (1/?)
I’m going back to Final Fantasy 14. This will be my 4th attempt. Every time I started playing FFXIV I fell off somewhere in the first chapter, A Realm Reborn. The consensus online seems to be that its the worst chapter. Apparently it is that “bad” that Square-Enix shortened and removed several quests in ARR in 2020. But even with that my last attempt failed.
Earlier this week I resubscribed and download the game. This time on PC, I previously played on Playstation. After loading my old character I had no clue what to do or where I was, or even how to play. Took my bearings and started looking for a guide to relearn how to play my level 51 Black Mage.
This video was very helpful:
Next up was finding out where I am in the story. My next MSQ is “The Ultimate Weapon”. Googled the quest and it was a “fuck me” moment, apparently the last time I stopped playing I stopped right before the start of the “Big Battle” and end of the ARR quest line, with some additional quests to follow before heading into Chapter 2 Heavens Ward.
I was inclined to just jump in now that I know how to play again, but I have only a vague recollection of the story so far. Someone on Mastodon suggested rewatching the cutscenes with The Unending Journey book at an Inn, but it misses out all the details not shown in the cutscenes. So will be looking on YouTube for a good video, so far I only found crazy long ones.
To be continued.
