Steam

I’m not one to jump on bandwagons, but with approximately 150% of the people I follow on Twitter jumping into the New World, I really just had to find out what all the fuss was about. Character Creation I was very much impressed with New World’s character creation. While the look of your character doesn’t have the fine tuning one has come to expect from triple-A titles, the large number of classes (called “Backgrounds” in New World) available is fairly impressive. Combined with the significant number of “Starsigns” that grant additional abilities or boost those of your class, there’s 108 different background/starsign combinations available. You will likely never meet someone with an identical build to your own. ...

I drive a VW GTI. My son drives a VW GTI. I have owned many VWs over the years. I bought GTI Racer for the PC. The box is in good condition. The disk is in good condition. But even though I have a physical copy of the game with all the bits, I don’t actually have the game. GTI Racer outsmarted me good. GTI Racer, complete in the original packaging ...

Valheim’s first content expansion brings a little adventure together with a lot of new things to make and build. Is it going to be enough to bring the magic back? It’s not hard to tame a lox – the large, yak-like creatures that congregate in the Valheim plains biomes. All you really need is a few stacks of barley or cloudberries, and a place to hide nearby while they eat and gradually come to love you. This also works for wolves (who enjoy meat) and boars (who love mushrooms and berries). ...

DC Universe Online’s “House of Legends” expansion was meant to create a new game experience for both old heroes and new. It got halfway there. DCUO splits its players into two groups, and it’s not heroes vs villains. Heroes and Villains can group together now and complete the content together, and have been able to for some time. Most of the threats in DCUO now affect both hero and villain alike, and it’s probably not long before they can join together (if reluctantly) in the same super-league. It happens all the time in the comics and the cartoons. ...

Townscaper has left early access and hit app stores all around the world with the peaceful grooves of Swedish seaside villages. It also is released for 3D printers. I have taken the 3D printing for a spin… and the results are pretty cool! A really simple Townscape For those who haven’t had their lives touched by Townscaper, it’s a simple little game, originally out for Steam but now also out for the Nintendo Switch, where you paint a town onto a placid sea. As you build further, landscaping, beaches, even little birds pop into existence. At some point, you have created something with adventure around every corner, or a comfy bench when you just want to appreciate all the choices in life that led you to this paradise. ...

24.8 hours to finish Final Fantasy III. I spent so much time preparing so much for the World of Darkness… and those preparations worked out really well. Here’s how we defeated the Cloud of Darkness and their feckless minion, Xande. Last time I played, I leveled all my warriors up to level 50 by running around the first floor in the Ancient Maze. The Invincible, parked just outside the entrance, was a perfect place to return to for resting, so I could use full power in all encounters without any regard for safety. ...

I didn’t have big goals for tonight. Grind to 50 with the jobs I intend to take on the trip to the World of Darkness. And then… maybe jump into Final Fantasy XIV Online, and try the MMO version of FF3’s final boss. So that’s what I did. Three of the jobs are basically no-brainers. Ninja is the most capable physical attacker in the game. Devout is the best healer, and Sage is the best magical attacker, having access to all black magic, white magic, and summoner spells. ...

I only had time for a short session last night. Time to grasp Real Power in the dungeon of Eureka, and then, just for fun, see what’s at the top of the Crystal Tower… Time to step back and see what I’m going to need to do before I can finish the game. Like most Final Fantasy games – most RPGs of all types, really – there’s a point where you can just forge on to the end of the game, or just dally around working on other goals so much so that the end game isn’t really a challenge. I’m there with Final Fantasy III now. ...

I can stop eating Gysahl Greens any time I want. Not like mister “dude, can I like crash on your couch just for tonight? Won’t even know I’m there” there. That was A WEEK AGO, CHOCO-BRO. Our adventures in FF3 continue… Dislike: Mini Final Fantasy III seems to take some kind of obscene pleasure in making the party take on odd conditions to proceed. There’s a couple, but the one I hate most is MINI. This spell, which has to be cast on everyone to make them smaller, and again to make them bigger, turns your party into useless clods. Sure, magic still works, but guess what, I only have one party member with black magic skills. So mostly I am just running away. I did find that I could just un-MINI everyone once they were past the MINI check, but that just takes more spell slots, or liberal use of mallets. Ouch. We were almost killed BY A RAT. ...

Final Fantasy I was a lot of fun. I really struggled which of the old NES Final Fantasy games to play next. FF2 added Cid and Chocobos – two elements that appeared in every Final Fantasy game afterwards. FF3, though, adds the jobs system, and I really wanted to try that. Excited to try out the new and wonderful jobs, I started up FF3 and, after the short intro, chose the jobs for my crew: Red Mage, Monk, White Mage and Black Mage. Yup, the same jobs as in FF1. But then things got a little more interesting… ...