Today's game is some more Baldurs Gate 3. I ended up going to recruit Karlach while the other players handled some shopping. I was going to go handle her whole quest but the enemies one shot me, so that's a no go right now.

I ended up robbing the basement out of spite and made out with 200 gold. I just smashed down all the doors. I accidentally set off the poison trap though and had to jump out.

After that i went and met up with the rest of the party who were fighting the Gnolls (we lost). We got our assess absolutely handed too us by the last guy. Surprisingly i held my own pretty well while hitting him with my Great Axe. I got him down to 20 hp and then died. One of our guys was falling asleep on call so we all got off to save the rest of the game to play with them. I did explore around with photo mode a bit by myself.

I took a portrait of Nyla (my Tiefling character for those who missed that last time) while messing with it which i like how it turned out. The reflections in this game really stand out.

On the subject of the games quality. I took a look at her tail, and they really went above and beyond on it. You can see the skin folds and wrinkles, and in some place even see veins, it's a really good attention to detail i wasn't expecting.

I also took a peak down Wyll's pants, and i mean that literally. I noticed i could see through while looking at his face and looked down, and there's nothing down there. It must be terrifying to have a void where your lower body should be.

Astarion has some bite marks on his neck. I wouldn't be surprised if everyone else already knew this though. I'm just now finding this out though and thought it'd be cool to share even though i never use Astarion.

I also took a look at the eye reflections. I was wondering whether they changed at all or not. The answer? I think they change? I'm not 100% sure but i think there was a different structure in the reflection of one character's eye as opposed to another.

But after that short session i just kind of messed around in the photo mode. The last thing i did was get a portrait of my friend's character because he asked for one, which he asked me to share for today's screenshot. I wasn't sure where to squeeze it in so i guess it gets to be the closer screenshot for today.

It took a while, but Nuclear Throne Update 100 is out now! (and 50% off on Steam)

Update 100 adds: a new playable character, custom difficulty mode, c-skins for everybody, 60+fps, widescreen, 4 player co-op, and so much more!

Hey folks! Back in the PS2 days I had Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and besides the quests and stuff I also loved just driving around and going on little road trips and stealing planes.

And then in the PS3 era I had Just Cause 2, and the voice acting was terrible, and the quests were kinda dumb, but wow was it fun to just drive around and go on little road trips and steal planes. And your dumb little hookshot was nearly immersion breaking it was so unrealistic, but instead it was a ton of fun zipping through the air from 150 paces to kick a dude off his motorbike...

Anyway, I'm wondering what people's opinions are on these kinds of games these days! I know Cyberpunk has some driving, but I don't know if people enjoy cruising in it. I really liked Breath of the Wild, which is not really the same but had some screwing around times. I know there's a GTA 5 which I never played but it's probably good, I think there's a Just Cause 3 but I haven't looked into it. Some people love Red Dead 2, which I mostly bounced off of but maybe I was wrong.

Do you folks have any favourites in this "genre"? Things I should check out? Stories of worthless hijinks? Thoughts?

Today's game is some more Shadow of Mordor. I got around to finally finishing the quest where you poison the grog. While doing it i had noticed that this Adaptation of Mordor is weirdly green. It's an interesting take (and not one that i'm opposed too) but i thought it was interesting too see. I feel like as far as i remember the games portrayed them as just black rock as far as the eyes could see.

While doing the mission, i was struggling with the 5 stealth kills mission. I ended up releasing the Caragors around the area to soften them up. That let me take out the snipers while the Caragors took them out, then the isolated groups i'd drop down and take out.

At one point i dropped down on an enemy and it got me wedged in a group of NPCs, and somehow i couldn't get unstuck. I ended up struggling for a good few minutes. The crowd movement in this game definitely is rough. I had to mash the A button to sprint and shove them out of the way.

The mission ended up taking me a while. The reason for that was the side objective i mentioned earlier. Any time i got spotted I had to start all over with the stealth kills and the grog count. So by the time i was done i had been playing for upwards of an Hour. Surprisingly it wasn't that frustrating though. Time just kind of flew by with it. Due to that time constraint though it was the only mission i could get done. So i had to get off then and start taking care of other things then.

Today's game is Baldurs Gate 3. Me and my some friends finally decided to beat this (Me and One of my friends have never made it past the first act, the other quit at Act 2). I accidentally discovered the game had a photo mode while trying to remember the controls and got this group photo while there. My character is in the Background.

I made a Tiefling fighter I named Nyla (I named her after my Halo Spartan; it seems fitting, and I ran out of time to pick a Tiefling name). I usually just play myself, but with Jerry Attricks and now Nyla in Halo, I've kind of developed a soft spot for OCs. I was going to experiment with the body type more besides the default body type too, but I was already slowing down the party, and switching body types jacked up like all the customization I had already done, so I left her like that. Not that's bad, I suppose. It does make it infinitely funnier when she absolutely decks people with her 17 Strength.

I wanted to try and give her some character, so she's got a scar on her right cheek. I feel like the asymmetry really adds to her. I want to try and think up some headcanon for it. I'm still deciding though. I can't decide if I want it to be serious or not.

Somehow she has a knack for anything not strength-related. Wisdom? Dex Checks? All pass. She tries to brute-strength a lock? Instant fail with a 2. Considering my D&D characters of the past have all been dex-based, it's ironic that even now I can't seem to escape it.

I also got her a cat familiar (because cats are great obviously). The little guy seems so damn fluffy. I want to pet it in real life.

I also accidentally threw a rat at a fire in the Tiefling village. ( meant to pick up a chest but wasn't paying attention and accidentally threw a rat instead. I had to pay a poor shop keep 10 gold, and apologize for the emotional trauma of a small rodent going splat right in front of him.

That was where we stopped for the day after one of our player's Steam Deck died. We hope to pick up soon and continue from there.

I had a very strange personal interaction with one of the heads of this studio at a PAX years ago, but the story of this studio, if it ends here, appears to be that they continually bit off more than they could chew and didn't aim to make a project that they could afford to make well.

Currently, only GOG and Itch are still selling this game.

EDIT: It seems the game has returned to Humble Bundle.

I've been lucky to interview a lot of my friends over the last few years now; developers from plenty of projects, programs and apps. But this is one I've been looking forward to sharing for a long time now!

I interviewed the team behind Decky Loader, all about their history and work keeping it running.

If you don't know, Decky Loader is (from my own article):

...[an] indispensable little tool that turns a brand-new Deck from ‘fun handheld console’ into a full-blown customization powerhouse. From adding plugins to tweaking the interface, Decky Loader quietly powers a lot of the creativity and convenience that Deck owners have come to take for granted.

Download it, and you can customize the heck out of how your Steam Deck looks and functions, by community-made plugins.

Anyway, I'm quite proud of this one, and really grateful that they all took the time to chat to me to make this one happen. If you're at all interested in development, Steam Decks, open-source, or just gaming in general, then I think you'll enjoy this one too!

The link to my article is here, please let me know what you think of it! I love doing these interviews, and I've been lucky that so many have followed along with them so far :)