random games

[Random]

Play Hades.

I'm playing Hades.

Hades is very good.

[Youef]

I also started Hades last night. Enjoying it quite a bit so far.

[Random]

Cyberpunk is delayed again, which is the best news for me, a person who plays Destiny.

I also started Hades last night. Enjoying it quite a bit so far.

Excellent.

[Random]

I have reached the part where Hades has clicked and cleared 3 straight escape attempts. It felt really great getting that first clear. It was my 28th attempt overall, and my build didn't feel cheesy, just organic. Now the pressure is off and I can enjoy doing runs and talking to folks.

[Scourge the Hedgehog]

Indeed! I dunno if this is how roguelikes usually are because I’ve never really dabbled in the genre, but Hades has a sense of progression that’s damn near unlike anything I’ve ever played. Everything just becomes clockwork and when you hit that point, where you blast through everything that harried you before, it feels GOOD. They do it in such a smart and clean way, I can’t even really describe it. It is a special game, that’s for sure.

I watched a friend go through it a while back and he was blessed by the RNG Gods with an ultra-cheese Charm build. It was to the point where bosses wouldn’t even attack him due to the constant re-application of the ailment over and over again and everything was stunlocked to death. I found it pretty funny because I went through the whole game not knowing how ridiculously strong it could be.

What weapon did you end up using the most, Random?

[Random]

I always just take the purple weapon. Keeps things fresh and most importantly prevents me from having to make a decision. I got my first clear with the sword and have since done 2 clears each with the spear and the shield. I snapped my escape streak at 5 on a failed sword run, which was unfortunate because I accidentally sold my call and then never found another one, so that left me gimped in the last fight.

I think I like using the spear the most, especially with the Aspect of Hades. My most recent run with that one was crazy because I got the big spin and the quick spin hammers, which is just incredibly powerful even before boons.

Also regarding your friend, I've never even gotten a boon from her that gave me that perk. She ranks near the bottom on my boon prioritization, to the point that I suspect she's avoiding me now, and she's the only god I haven't had a chance to get a keepsake from. I'll have to look out for that, though.

Thinking about it all, though, I think the real key to the game clicking is I just started using everything that I was actually given. Leveling up with the mirror definitely helps, but like before I would be going through and not using my Call enough or I'd be ignoring certain traits of weapons. It's once you can work all of the tools available to you into your combat loop that you really start burning through runs.

[Youef]

I had such a great build going with the Twin Fists at one point and I felt such tremendous loss when I died. I made it to Styx with it and died from poison, but honestly I can barely make it out of Elysium alive at this point now. Regardless of Thesus and his bullshit, the rest of that area has been rough on me.

Adamant Rail is also fun because I get to go pew pew and kill enemies at a distance.

[Random]

I had an awesome Rail build at one point with a Demeter special boon and the Triple Bomb hammer. I just got to sit behind cover and mortar everything to death.

Finally got a bow clear tonight and another spear clear (the spear is too good). I stopped in the middle of a promising Fists run that I think had me stumble across the build your friend had, Mattress. Or at least a particular combination of boons that literally stops bosses in their tracks. I feel like the Fists are always volatile, though, because of their close range. I think in the future I'm going to prioritize getting some Athena boons for that weapon.

The story is taking some interesting turns, too, which has confirmed some of my suspicions.

[Random]

I have rolled credits on Hades. I maintain that it is an exceptionally good game, and I still have plenty more to play.

I'm up to 12 clears now, and I've finally got one on each weapon.

I also did a pretty stressful clear with the Aspect of Guan Yu. I usually have 200+ hp at the end of a run, and with that one I only had 64. Fortunately I got the Athena/Demeter duo boon that lets you regenerate health with no death defiances, so I just had to play the final fight carefully.

[Random]

Maaaan, I snapped my streak at 11. The chain skewer hammer for the spear is a god damn scam.

[Random]

Rebuilding my PC has been a whirlwind affair.

Got a late start on it yesterday. Didn't have much trouble taking apart the old hardware. But then the new hardware posed some challenges. The CPU cooler was a pain to mount because of course it was. Then mounting the motherboard, there's a screw in the upper corner that is a big eff you if you don't have one of those magnetic screwdrivers, which I don't. Lost the screw trying to get it in there a few times, had to turn the whole case upside down and shake to get it out. Wound up solving the problem by using the tweezers from my model kit to place it in there.

The rest went smoothly enough. Got everything plugged in fine. Then I got everything set up, pressed the power button. Lighting on the motherboard comes on. All the fans are spinning including those on the GPU. But nothing showing up on the monitor. The DRAM light is on and there's an error code displayed.

So I go to the manual. What does the error code mean? "Reserved for future AMI SEC errors." Cool. Very helpful.

Did some Googling, sent some panicked messages to friends. 3 hours later I haven't been able to figure anything out. I tried the RAM in all sorts of configurations. Tried pulling the GPU out. I even reset the CMOS by popping the battery out and back in. Nothing.

Gave up and spent the rest of the night cleaning out my vault in Destiny.

Woke up today and gave a good hard look at my RAM packaging. I noticed there's an Intel symbol on it. I've got an AMD chip. Now this is not the problem. RAM is RAM and they all come with that symbol on the package. But it did get me to dig deeper. A friend pointed me to the support page for my motherboard, which has a list of qualified vendors and compatible RAM. The RAM I bought

is not on the list.

This is in spite of being the RAM that was linked to me by the friend who put together my parts list, and it was not flagged on PCPartPicker as having a compatibility issue. But it's not on the list, so I have ordered some RAM that is. Also maddening, after having trust issues with PCPP, I tried using both Amazon and Newegg's memory finders, but they won't even let me put my motherboard in there. I type it in and get no results. So I basically have no way to double check that the memory that is on its way will have any other result. I just have to plug it in when it gets here and hope it works.

Been a very boring weekend as a result of this. I almost broke down and bought Hades on Switch, but I resisted. If cross-save was live already, I probably would have done it.

Oh also, display port cables are a thing now I guess. My monitors only have HDMI and VGA ports on them, so I went to Staples today to grab a Display Port cable or adapter. They were selling a 6-foot cable for $50. The adapter was comparable. This felt like a scam, but I bought it anyway. Got home and checked Amazon. Top result is a cable for $13.

Fuck Staples. Fuck Jeff Bezos. Fuck capitalism.

I have to go to a UPS store to RMA my incompatible RAM, and that Staples has a UPS counter, so I inadvertently created a 2 birds, 1 stone situation for myself, but I'm still irritated.

[ganonfloyd]

all of this sounds like a nightmare

[Random]

It all falls pretty squarely on the downside of PC gaming, yeah.

also the staples ups counter couldn't print my shipping label for me so i had to go to a ups store anyway lol

[Random]

It didn't work, of course. Gonna find a repair shop tomorrow.

[Random]

No computer updates, but I have spent the last week playing Beyond Light wall-to-wall.

I liked the campaign. It did a good job of grounding some of the lore that people might not be aware of in the actual story for once, although they still buried the lede on some of the more interesting tales, reserving those for post-campaign quests. The main antagonist suffered the fate of all Destiny campaign villains, which is always a shame, but I just expect nothing else at this point.

Meanwhile the Darkness remains this looming and ominous but ultimately incorporeal threat. I look at the plans for this new age of Destiny, the Age of Darkness, and I still don't see us fighting an actual Darkness race until 2022. That's a long time to wait for new things to shoot at.

They did add a new enemy type for the Fallen and the Vex, and both of those are great. The Brig are cool because you have to pump a ton of damage into them before they even have a crit spot, and the Wyverns command attention in a way few other enemies do. If we just got a new combatant for existing races every few seasons, that would be cool.

The star of the expansion as usual is the new destination. Europa is immediately one of my favorite planets we've ever gone to. I had a night last week where a friend and I just rode around trying to figure out some scavenger hunt type secrets there. It's also just enormous, and the weather effects feel dramatic.

I'm encouraged by how much seems to be left to unspool with regard to post-campaign developments, more to uncover on Europa, and all the seasonal stuff, too. Mostly I am excited for the raid. This should be a good one.

Oh and ice powers. Ice powers are pretty dope. I like that there's more to unlock with those, too. Feels like my characters have to actually spend time learning and taming this new power.