Was getting all set up for another playthrough of New Vegas, mods and all (even made my own, though I ditched it last minute), and then I realised, “Wait, why am I doing this? I don’t actually feel like playing this at all right now, even with the new mods.”

So, now I’ve downloaded some stuff in my backlog, but don’t know if I’ll play any of it at the moment because I’m kind of burned out a little.

Not exactly playing, but learning my way around the GECK to create a few personal radio stations for New Vegas. I’ve learned how to do most of it, I just now need to sort the audio files and add them. Too cold to sit at my desk and finish this, so I’ll do all that later.

(Before anyone says “why not just use the mod that lets you add your own music files”, it’s because I need separate radio stations with unique names that I can switch between, each with their own chronological order, rather than one giant one which basically works by saying “random bullshit go”.)

I did mention it as a smaller, compact alternative, but I maybe wasn’t specific enough with regard to the scope of gameplay.

Probably should have specified that I meant Outer Worlds as an alternative to Starfield mainly for people interested in a game set in space with the familiar approach to worldbuilding that Bethesda and Obsidian seem to share a bit, and also because it’s not uncommon to hear either of them referred to (maybe a bit unfairly) as “Fallout, but in space”.

Then again, most people interested in that would probably already have played it by now (although lots of new Fallout fans this year, so maybe not).

I’m really surprised that neither of the 2019 “Outer” games with similar names showed up in any of your posts: The Outer Worlds and Outer Wilds.

Worlds because if we’re talking about Starfield, it’s something to consider as a smaller, more compact alternative (although I recently finished a playthrough and there’s actually very few comparisons to be made between the two), and Wilds because… well, it’s just straight up space archaeology that makes heavy use of travel and planet exploration. Also because it’s probably one of the most critically well-received space games.

Something else I wanna throw out there: Heaven’s Vault. Nice little narrative game which takes place in space and has quite a calming (even if completely unrealistic) method of space travel.

Ended up starting a new playthrough of The Outer Worlds.

Mostly enjoying it and having Parvati with me again feels great.

Lol, it was buggy as fuck for me as well, so I “downloaded” another build and it worked perfectly.

The Game Pass version is especially bad in this regard.

Also on Netflix:

Play Wonderputt Forever if you like physics-based and/or golf games. I found it pretty fun and fairly challenging in the later levels.

Desta is also a really interesting narrative turn-based tactics game with some poignant emotional moments (it can actually be a bit heavy at times, especially if you’ve dealt with LGBTQ+ prejudice personally).

And I’m also really glad Netflix resurrected Cut The Rope from its grave. New puzzle daily and several months worth (i.e. hundreds) of puzzles to play if you’d like to catch up.

Quantum Break was really fun. I’d love some more time travel games like that.

While Remedy don’t own the rights and it can’t officially be “canon” to Alan Wake and Control, there are some things that the community has kind of put together which establishes how it’s a part of the wider universe/multiverse.

Loaded up The Outer Worlds yesterday because I wanted some first person Obsidian RPG goodness after finishing New Vegas a couple of weeks ago.

Forgot how absolutely fucking saturated and vibrant the colours are. My old monitor must not have had the saturation turned up or something because, as someone super sensitive to bright or intense anything, I don’t remember it immediately hurting my brain like it did last night.

Anyway, used ReShade and toned down a ton of shit. Then I realised I’m not actually feeling it all that much, so I’m going to start a new playthrough of New Vegas instead. I think this time I’m not gonna fuck Benny and kill him in his sleep. Well, maybe I’ll still rock his world because it’s hilarious, we’ll see.

Edit: Oh, also I’ve been playing a bit of XDefiant. It’s not terrible, honestly. Like, I’m not paying for their battle pass and I’ll definitely lose interest fairly quickly, but it’s not a bad distraction.

Something is very wrong with me… I’ve been playing Overwatch and… enjoying it? Still a shell of its former self, but it’s not always too terrible.

I need to get away from the computer desk and mouse/keyboard for a while, though, so I’m thinking of either giving Fallout 76 a shot or starting up a new playthrough of New Vegas and going for a different ending.

Got a few new mods to try, particularly new radio stations and other goodies, but I’m wondering if I should use that “make your own radio” mod to add some old time radio shows like The Shadow(*) and sci-fi podcasts that fit the theme.

Sure there are a bunch of mods with great shows like Dimension X already, but after hearing the same episodes over and over again, it might be nice to listen to other popular shows (e.g. The Shadow) or more obscure ones (e.g. Candy Matson).

Might actually just use one of the other radio mods as a base and make my own mod entirely. Did that with Skyrim to much success (power metal when dragons appear, bardcore in the taverns, all kinds of fun).

(*) (I mean, that’s pretty much what The Silver Shroud in FO4 was, which I should maybe also try and get into my NV radio because I enjoyed that as well.)

Hah, I was actually considering Tunic! But I’m also a little mentally burned out, so I think I need to be in a bit of a different headspace, otherwise I’m going to ignore some of the more interesting parts like the little secrets and slowly revealing the instruction manual and all that curiosity-rewarding stuff.

It’s definitely on my “to play relatively soon” list, though, and thanks for the suggestion!

Okay, just finished Chants of Sennaar. That was a lovely experience. Reminded me a bit of my time a few months ago with Jusant, along with a touch of Journey and Heaven’s Vault thrown in.

Had to laugh out loud when I ended up playing a fucking mechanical crank handle version of Flappy Bird. That was pretty entertaining.

One puzzle completely stumped me, but some kind soul on the Steam forums (!!) had a really good explanation without giving away the actual answer to the puzzle, which I always appreciate.

Anyway, highly recommend for anyone who likes puzzle games, environmental and organic storytelling, languages and written script, and just an examination of history, culture, and how (ideally) we can all connect if we just listen to one another and find shared interests (there’s a particular interest that almost every culture in the game shares, which is something a lot of people IRL bond over as well; I found it pretty interesting because it felt so… quintessentially human).

What to play next? No idea. I think I’m done with intense action games for a while, so might find something else relatively chill to play.

Chants of Sennaar and I’m having tremendous fun.

For all the shit it gets, I still love that game. It might be more heavy on the action than the RPG, but it still feels like Fallout, which is more than enough for me.

Plus it has some of the more interesting vaults, IMO.

Companions are also great. Nick Valentine in particular is a treasure to be savoured.

Oh, and there are like two sidequests I absolutely fucking love and don’t want to spoil, but just keep an eye out for a ship lodged in a building when you’re exploring around the city areas near the Eastern coast.

Cassette Beasts was a real treat. I’ll be finding it very difficult to go back to other monster taming games after playing that.

Yeah, I enjoyed the whole background narrative with the Survivalist, and there’s some great loot as well, but I think maybe I was a bit burned out and having a bad day because I just couldn’t really get into it.

Thinking back, it seems like my only real issue with it was just navigating the map. Maybe I was just tripped up by the sudden change in landscape and didn’t adjust well to it.

Could also be that I just finished OWB and the immediate change in tone and pace gave me a bit of narrative whiplash. Lol, probably should have done some more stuff in between instead of rushing it.

Anyway, a nice break should do me well. Then I can come back with fresher eyes and appreciate the little things without feeling too overwhelmed.

Still on New Vegas, but going to take a bit of a break.

Last time I played (over a decade ago, at this point), I only did the Dead Money DLC. So, over the last couple of days, I’ve been doing some of the other DLC and ignoring much of the main quest.

Old World Blues was super fun (and reminded me of Outer Worlds a lot; I wonder if they took inspiration for OW from their earlier work here), but it kind of took a fair amount of energy out of me.

I probably should have taken a break there, but decided to try Honest Hearts. I really didn’t enjoy it, but at least it wasn’t too long.

After that, I realised I’m burning way out here, so I’m going to get back to the game in a few days.

Wii U gamepad was a lot more comfortable for me. I’d play Windwaker or Mario Maker or 3D World or Splatoon for hours and never feel all cramped up with half-numb palms. I play Ace Attorney for an hour and it just hurts.

Plus the charging port location makes it annoying to play while charging. It makes sense for the dock, but it ruins it in handheld mode.

I’d love to just get a Steam Deck and be done with it, but Valve won’t be shipping here anytime soon and the cost of importing it along with our shitty forex rates end up with the base model hitting PS5 cost territory for me (which is also more expensive here than in most Western nations).

Fallout: New Vegas, because it’s been like a decade and I want to play again, especially after watching the series.

Took a while for me to get back into it (and figure out the right mods and settings for me), and I’m still feeling a little bit of that overwhelming “fuck, there’s maybe too much shit to do”, but I’ll just chill with it for now.

Edit: LOOOOOOL. Legion already hates me and I haven’t even met (and killed) Caesar yet. Barely even started the main quest at this point, which I suppose is tradition with Fallout, to be fair.

It’s the same with “hack and slash”. Originally also referred to games like Diablo, but now we all use it to refer to stuff like DMC, pre-2018 God of War, Bayonetta, etc.