Don’t Think, Just Jam

I started a screenshot album for my virtual adventures. Check it out if you’d like.

  • 1.08K Posts
  • 1.33K Comments
Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: November 25th, 2023
  • Essence_of_MehtoPatient Gamers@sh.itjust.works•Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?
    2·
    4 days ago

    I totally get that. While my situation is different there are plenty of times where all I want is to play on autopilot, it’s just not something I do when playing something for the first time. I’m also very hard to please when I get to this state so I end up jumping between multiple titles until I find one that’ll grab me, (which can take longer than the actual playtime but whatever).
    Bouncing off on the other hand is something I still suck at but I’m actively working towards. There were way too many games I chose to stick with for the sake of completion despite not enjoying them enough to not feel like I’m wasting my time after certain point. I’m slowly getting better at it but it can still be a tough decision to make (and even more difficult to stick with it).

    I have a similar experience with Morrowind as well, though in my case it has to do with the fact it sits in a weird middle ground where it doesn’t feel as immersive as Daggerfall but also isn’t as enjoyable to play as Oblivion, making it very difficult to stick with long-term. The fact that I don’t really care about main stories in TES games and tend to treat them as sandbox playgrounds doesn’t help either. Maybe one day.

    Good luck with your attempt!

  • Essence_of_MehtoPatient Gamers@sh.itjust.works•Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?
    3·
    5 days ago

    Having it live up to these expectations years after the whole Halo-mania was over is pretty much an impossible task so I’d be more surprised if it did manage to sweep me as much as it did everyone back in the day. Most parts of those games holds up pretty well from an objective standpoint, personal biases on the other hand are a different issue.

    It also doesn’t help that you can feel game’s chaotic development in the its story (both 2 and 3 actually), which is unfortunate since that’s the main reason why I play games like these. It wasn’t terrible or complete let down but it did feel a bit undercooked and disjointed at times. At least the trilogy didn’t made me do a 180 on a franchise like what happened with Mass Effect, so there’s that.

    Seriously though, I think I liked it as much as I possibly could. I came out of this playthrough with a very positive experience and that’s more than I can say about many other classics, regardless of whether I played them on launch or years after the fact. Weird brain thinks how it does, there’s not much I can do about it.

  • Essence_of_MehtoPatient Gamers@sh.itjust.works•Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?
    5·
    5 days ago
    Cyberpunk 2077

    I’m slowly progressing with my themed playthrough. While I wasn’t “cheating” during gameplay I haven’t fully committed to the new approach (no cyberware, no hacking) and still kept the default parts “just in case”. Well, no more - I finally sold all of the remaining gear and left only the basic eyes (can’t remove them, unfortunately) and the tiger claw tattoo (I’m only using it as a… well, tattoo and a background detail for my character).

    I’m in the middle of act 2. I’m done with Aldecaldo’s and most of Evelyn’s side of things, still waiting for Takemura to finish playing recon for the parade floats (first time I’m not doing it with him). I was a bit surprised because it looks like my different approach started to change things in the story - I’ve noticed V taking small cues from Johnny in a few places despite the fact I tried to act in a way that doesn’t give him control. I might have to work harder to avoid that going forward.

    Other than that things go pretty smoothly, even if I need to be reminded sometimes that I’m way more fragile this time around. Even then, it’s more manageable than I though it would be (until I get to some of the Phantom Liberty missions that is). I hope I can keep this up until the end.

    This might sound like I’m joking but I finally had my first noticeable issues with the game during this playthrough.

    • Sometimes enemies are able to spot me through the walls temporarily. It’s pretty inconsistent and gets fixed rather quickly but I never had this problem before.
    • During the final Delamain quest game wouldn’t load the level properly on checkpoint reload and dropped me in a building where half of the models wouldn’t render. This led to occlusion freaking out and whole parts of the level phasing in and out pretty aggressively, even when not moving. I’m stubborn enough I tried to finish the mission anyway but things got bad enough my head was starting to hurt after a while (and I’m not particularly sensitive to such things). Thankfully reload from the menu fixed that.
    Halo 3

    Some things that caught my attention:

    • Devs forgot (?) to normalise the movement vector when moving with turrets, running forward is slower than running forward and to the side. I found it funny for some reason.
    • There’s no flashlight issue I had with H2A! Granted these are two different games but I’m glad that’s not a problem here.
    • Voice acting can be a bit hit or miss. Most of it is really solid but some of the lines I’ve heard are not great.
    • Cortana getting all chunni was not on my bingo card but I’ll take it.
    • The Flood is finally how I imagined it. It’s not a huge challenge but the whole section with it feels much better than in previous games. The bloom however… oh man, the bloom.
    • What do you mean “Earth is all we have left”?! Did covenant somehow managed to destroy every single human world? When did that happen? I though it was only some (maybe most) of them.
    • It really feels like human ships (especially Pelicans) have a higher chance of being shot down than reaching their target. Kinda unfortunate, really.
    • Some in-game cutscenes look weird in ultra-wide, like they’re cut off vertically.
    • I really could not care less about Gravemind. It’s the weakest part of the game for me.
    • The game was way more fun on Heroic than H2.

    This is it for the original trilogy. All in all I’m a little underwhelmed - not because the games were bad, far from it. It’s just… after hearing so much about H1-3 it’s impossible not to build up some steep expectations towards those games and, as I mentioned last week, I tend to be way more demanding from stuff hyped to such degree.
    Finally, there’s simply the case of my own bias. In case of Halo I simply prefer the sombre/bittersweet/tragic/whateveryoucallit tone of Reach and the few books I read. Action Halo is cool but it doesn’t speak to me the way those other entries do.

    With whining out of the way let me say that the journey through these games was a pretty enjoyable one. I had my criticism towards some of the gameplay segments and the difficulty of H2 but neither of those soured my time with these titles in a significant way. All 5 entries I played so far hold up better than expected.

    Next (and last) stop: Halo 4.

    Halo 4

    Just started this one so here are my initial impressions:

    • I appreciate Covenant going back to alien speak, makes them more… well, alien.
    • Going back to fighting Covenant, if only partially, makes sense from the story perspective but it’s still a bit of an underwhelming decision.
    • I really like how the guns feel and sound, really punchy. Grenades on the other hand feel way worse.
    • Music sounds more generic this time. It’s not all bad but it’s noticeable.

    Lets see how the rest of the game fares.

    Stardew Valley

    Well, I forgot I even had this thing installed so that pretty much sums up my interest in the game. I gave it a shot but it’s just not for me apparently. Oh well.

  • Essence_of_MehtoManga@ani.social•Manga Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion Thread [2025, Week 46]English
    2·
    7 days ago

    I Couldn’t Care Less About the Original, I’m Just Trying to Survive
    I know I mentioned not wanting to start anything new last week but I needed something to occupy my brain and decided to go with this. It’s pretty fun so far though it has the same problem as The Villainess Flips the Script!, i.e. obsessive guys hovering around the MC. Not to the same extent as in that title (they don’t have as much power over her) but it’s still important enough plot point to be noticeable. It’s still fun though it’s also too early to have a solid opinion about it.

    One thing I do want to mention is: calling your character Ahwynn (I win)? Really? It’s funny, don’t take me wrong, but also a bit too on the nose to be taken seriously. Or perhaps I’m just reading too much into it.

  • Essence_of_MehOPMtovisualnovels@ani.social•What Are You Playing? General VN Discussion Thread (November 2025)English
    2·
    8 days ago

    Well, it took me a few months but I finally managed to finish The Villainess Just Wants To Eat.

    It was an extremely cute and fun experience, from start to finish. The romance is sweet, art is pretty and the limited voice acting does its job really well. I like how the food is used as means of getting to know and opening up to others - it’s a nice thematic addition besides being MC’s favourite activity. I wish we got to see some of it though as all of the meals and desserts sound delicious.
    Check it out if you want a short and sweet isekai story.

    Now with that out of the way I’m hoping to slowly get back to reading VNs on the regular. I’ll be starting with other short titles soon and build up towards something more ambitious like STEINS;GATE (no, I haven’t read it yet). Wish me luck!

  • Essence_of_MehOPtoStar Citizen•IAE 2955 - Save the Date
    3·
    11 days ago

    Raft is one of the best cargo ships at the moment honestly - relatively cheap, large and easily accessible cargo space, great tractor turret placement, nice interior. I’m currently debating between it and Hull A myself and the only reason it’s even a debate is because I tend to lean towards smaller ships.

    Can’t say much about combat ships - all of my attempts to return to dogfighting end after 1-2 missions due to constantly teleporting enemies. If you want meta, light fighters still reign supreme as far as I know. Otherwise, just pick what looks cool - that’s what the free rentals are for.

  • Essence_of_MehOPtoStar Citizen•IAE 2955 - Save the Date
    3·
    11 days ago

    It really depends on what you’re interested in - big/small, combat/industry, new/old… Personally I’ll be checking out some of the already available ships to see if there’s anything I’d like to buy in-game.

    In general though, probably the new additions? There are no specific confirmations I believe but the current speculations include:

    • New Drake ship (Clipper?)
    • Perseus
    • Kruger Wolf Alpha
    • RSI Hermes

    No idea which of these happen though, we’ll have to wait and see.

  • Essence_of_MehtoPatient Gamers@sh.itjust.works•Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?
    1·
    11 days ago

    No worries, it’s not your fault - I simply found the tracks in the second half of the game to be weaker than the early ones. If anything I’m the opposite and tend to be way more critical about stuff that gets hyped up by everyone while trying to keep an open mind about things others complain about.

    I remember surfing from one of the trailers, I think, I just hoped there’d be at least a short sequence on the ship and that surfing itself would be a part of the game (I expected a cutscene honestly). As good as these games are there are still some parts that feel a bit rough and unplanned. Oh well, it’s not a huge issue.

Moderates