I don’t want to block half the Fediverse, and I don’t want to make myself spiral into despair by inadvertently exposing myself to depressing news so I stay off /all.

For finding new communities I use stuff like

!newcommunities@lemmy.world !communitypromo@lemmy.ca !trendingcommunities@feddit.nl (RIP)

So as a Kojima sceptic, is the story/writing better or worse than you expected? Or about what you thought?

I always felt like Kojima would be unstoppable if he hired an editor and a writer he trusted, and just let those two translate the “Kojima” into the scripts. He has always had lots of amazing ideas, but I’m not sure I would call him a great writer.

I’m excited to play them! I also got them yesterday due to the impending delisting. I typically hate puzzle platformers but I’ve been assured they aren’t too bad.

I finished Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree this week, and I had an absolute blast with it. I bought it because it was written by Bloodlines-writer Brian Mitsoda, but while the story ended up being serviceable at most I really loved the gameplay. It’s very light on platforming - which I loved because I hate platforming - and the PoE inspired skill tree added a dimension to the 2.5D Soulslike that really tickled my brain just right. The Metroidvania elements were well done with lots of exploration, shortcuts and secrets and new parts of old areas opening up with each new method of traversal unlocked. Difficulty felt pretty good too, I’m starting to feel like I’m over the super difficult games and this never got too frustrating. Plus it does have accessibility options. In fact, I liked it so much I was extremely tempted to jump right back in and do NG+, and that is a rarity for me. I was thinking second playthrough first with a different playstyle, but I ended up really loving my build by the end.

Instead though I tried out Blasphemous. I got it on the summer sale at 90% off and thought it could satiate the same craving as NG+ of Mandragora. I’m about a third of the way through now though and… I’m not sure I like it. The world building is amazing and I do really love the atmosphere, story and lore. However, a lot of the gameplay design just feels annoying and unfun for the sake of it. I understand that it’s supposed to be because the theme of the game is all about the virtue of suffering but… I don’t know. My life sucks enough as it is, I don’t need to hate myself more. Also there is an enormous amount of platforming for a game with clunky controls and janky detection for hitboxes and ledge grabs and whatnot. If I knew how much platforming it had I wouldn’t have bought it, even for a dollar. We’ll see how it goes but I’m very close to shelving it as I’m not really having fun.

As a palate cleanser today I played through GRIS, which was also 90% off on the sale. While I generally hate puzzle platformers, this is more of an interactive artwork than anything and thankfully the puzzles and platforming bits were very simple and forgiving. I enjoyed it a lot, it’s an absolutely gorgeous game, a very short (couple of hours) emotional journey through grief with a fantastic score and some stunning visuals. Definitely recommend it. It’s a perfect intermission game in-between longer titles.

Any game that allows for a significant amount of visual customisation should have some sort of transmog system. Having to look like a clown for optimal stats is never a fun or enjoyable gameplay experience, while on the other hand feeling like you look awesome adds so much.

Those are some insane review scores. Then again Nintendo flagship titles almost always review well.

Steam is banning porn games!? How will I get my Northernlion Reads Steam Porn Game Reviews content now?

!gaming@lemmy.world has been pretty innocuous, and I also like the ADHD and autism memes. But that’s it for me. And I never browse /all, only Subscribed and Local.

I feel the same way, and do the same thing. News and politics will be toxic almost anywhere on the internet I feel like. And I guess general meme communities might too since the subject matter is often news and politics there as well.

This could be huge, especially for getting people off Reddit and onto the Threadiverse. It’s unfortunate that Lemmy has the political baggage it does, but here we are. So if people are recommending Piefed instead and they now also have a super polished app to suggest, I can see that being a very positive factor.

If you want to be optimal you should be looking out for the Green Gear (Witcher Sets). They are all obscenely broken compared to other gear, to the point where they invalidate almost every unique item in the game. It’s one of the things I hate about the game. For the most part, gear is just a matter of picking the Witcher set that matches your build and play style.

There is a unique Steel Sword you can get at the end of Hearts of Stone depending on your choices that is actually quite good due to its unique ability. Definitely good enough to use for all of Blood and Wine. You can also get a unique Silver Sword in B&W that is very good, though it’s a quest reward that can take a while.

New Moon trousers are not bad, and the Nilfgaardian Guardsman Gauntlets are actually insane gloves, so look out for those. You should still use Witcher gear for the other two armour pieces though, for the set bonus.

Was he not aware of the paradox of tolerance and the Nazi bar parable?

Yeah I feel pretty much the same way. Though I’m starting to get used to Summit now. I kind of like the square user avatars.

A Relic, Restored: Everything you loved about Neverwinter Nights 2 has been preserved. Enjoy smoother gameplay with refined camera controls, polished mechanics, enhanced textures, and full controller support with a newly designed controller-specific UI.

I wonder what specifically was changed for “smoother gameplay” and “polished mechanics”. I definitely do want to play this eventually - for the first expansion if nothing else - but I bought too many games on the summer sales as is. And I am just about to add Limbo and Inside to the list before they get delisted.

Yeah a lot of these ring true for sure, 2&3 especially. I also hate surprises, and the quote about surprise visits from friends feeling like being ambushed in your safe place is spot on.

I guess 5 is also a fairly prevalent contradiction, and one spot where I’ve noticed it comes up a lot is for things like finishing a show/book/movie/game that I’m not really enjoying. The autism part of me needs to see it through to get closure, but the ADHD part is bored and wants something new. What usually happens is a stalemate where I just get anxiety about the whole situation and neither finish it nor do something new.

I’ve seen this too.

You’re only 10 years old?!

Don’t listen to them 2020 was like last year. Also the 90s was ten years ago don’t let anyone tell you different.

Thoroughly unsurprising. Brings in the sponsorship cash and appeals to a large portion of the home audience. Will be interesting to see how he performs.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005) was such a banger.