~The Game Pass Thread~

Apparently Contrast is a good one for easy achievements, and it will satisfy the “Powerful Women in Gaming” punch card for 500 points as well. I am installing it right now for that very reason.

I played that last week. It’s a little “janky” as I believe the kids say these days.

I played a little bit of Kraken Academy!! over the weekend.

Cons

  • It’s got really over the top anime-looking characters

Pros

  • It’s amusing so far
  • Woah, holy shit, I just got a time amulet and apparently this is a repeating time loop story? That’s one of my favorite subgenres of fiction!

My only really big concern is that if the characters are these weird over the top anime characters that I have no desire to get to know, then maybe I won’t enjoy even a time loop story for the first time? The whole thing with a time loop story is that you get to know characters really well within that time loop. Hmmm, I’m tempted, but at the same time, not tempted to continue.

(I did get the achievements I needed within the game this week).

That don’t confront me
Long as I get my cheevos by next Friday

Yep. Contrast was an early PS+ game back in the early days of the PS4. It was so janky that I was not tempted to return to it after trying it one time.

But at least now you know it’s possible to get three achievements out of it in like 5 to 10 minutes!

So I started playing Valheim, and I’m not sure how long I’m gonna stick with it, but I’ll give it a few days.

I had thought it was an MMO, but I guess it’s not? The fact that it’s essentially a single player game, but still has graphics on par with 2005 games, seems kind of weird.

I didn’t immediately realize that after I created a hammer, I could build other more complex stuff. I was wandering around in the wilderness. I quickly found some place where I guess I’m supposed to summon a monster to fight, but given I have no real weapons or armor other than a stone axe, that seems mistaken.

I did eventually make a hammer, and then built up some stuff.

Night-time kind of sucks… because it’s super dark, with no ability to adjust the gamma. Not really feasible to do anything. Trying to find stone for crafting in the dark is a fool’s errand.

I did finally build up a little shelter, workbench, and bed, so now I can sleep through the night, which I’m hoping will make things better.

Yeah, it’s not an MMO it’s a multiplayer survival and building game (that you can play single player) in the vein of Conan Exiles and…Ark, maybe? CE is the only other game like it I’ve played (also on game pass and fun).

To be fair, I think Valheim is much better with a few folk to play co-op with. While away the nightime hours talking shit to each other while you are building your dream base.

Or just roleplay feeling small and alone at night in viking hell.

I had played Conan Exiles some, and bounced off it… Likely this will be similar, but I’ll give it a shot.

Then you might give Omensight a try if you haven’t already.

You can craft a torch for nighttime, I believe. Also, per videos I’ve seen, in the starting area there are some broken down houses that you can fix up once you build your workbench. Also (and people with more experience can correct me) once you have a small house built with a door you can sleep the night away quickly and get back to daylight.

When you’re cutting down trees larger than saplings, make sure they don’t fall on you (I saw a guy–an experienced guy at that–do that because the physics made the felled tree interact with other stuff that was around and it fell on him and killed him).

And you can light goblins on fire with it!

Thanks! Wishlisted on Xbox. I’ve never heard of it.

Correct for all of this, although even with the torch, it’s still generally dark as crap, and it’s not like the lighting in the game is real advanced.

Like I said in my first post, I actually completed a house, so now I can sleep, which may make things nicer.

Yeah, sorry, I somehow had forgotten/missed the part about how you’d built a house (which is farther than I ever got in the PC version). It is a neat experience and I can understand the hype for the game, even with its stylized graphics (somewhat reminiscent of early WoW as you mention, and also of Immortals: Fenyx Rising). I bet it would be a lot of fun with friends, but alas, “adulting” makes the coordination of that difficult for people with family obligations + work.

I gather it’s still in Early Access on PC (or Game Preview in MS-Game Pass-speak). Wonder if they’re getting close to 1.0.

The other game that I wonder if they’re getting close to finishing is Everspace 2.

It’s releasing April 6th so hopefully :)

It’s an odd mix. I mean no game on 2005 had foliage (and especially grass) anywhere near this dense. The shaders/light/DoF effects are very nice (though no real shadows). But the models are all low-poly/textured. All in all, I think it has a cool ‘storybook’ quality to the style.

I loaded it up today on my gal’s Series S via cloud gaming while waiting for her to get home. It ran pretty great even with all the building and whatnot, and my save picked up right where I left off in my world. I’m always so impressed by that stuff.

Hey cool, Venba is coming to Game Pass Day One.

Here’s the rest of March. Infinite Guitars could be cool.