Baldurs Gate 3 is fun! Who would have thought, the game everyone said is good, is, in fact, good.

My standards for RPGs are so low that the main story being competent has me really impressed. I think the parasite is a great hook to bring together characters from different backgrounds, with different goals and moralities. There are many reasons for your character to do a quest, like for investigating the goblin camp. You could go there to save the emerald grove and Halsin (altruistic), to recover the Songbird and get the parasite removed (self-interested) or to destroy the emerald grove and side with Minthara (evil).

Mechanically, I like how much common sense applies. If you grease a surface, then it becomes susceptible to fire. People in metal armour are susceptible to lightning. Pushing someone off a chasm kills them.

I really like the nudity, it’s the best nudist representation I’ve seen in a game. I get to play as a naked sorcerer, with 15 AC thanks to my draconic bloodline, and it’s just not an issue. I really like that it’s an option. I also like that genitals are not tied to body shape, but I do wish there was more body customisation options.

Now that I’ve finished studies for the year I can sit back and continue my 19 years long colony in Rimworld. As we prepare to receive our 100th colonist (soon will be born) we received a pretty big mechanoid raid which we defeated without losses, now I realized how important good melee colonists are and how vulnerable to melee attacks some mechanoids are too! Later on a big pig humanoid raid tried to breach my walls but ended up getting crushed by my artillery.

We’ll celebrate the arrival of our 100th colonist with a party and a parade which will display our colony’s military might. Also work on a secondary colony continues. I have selected a place far from my main colony that is just a big mountain. A bunch of colonists with mining, farming, construction, cooking and medical skills were sent to build a massive underground burial ground that’ll contain dozens upon dozens of sarcophagus in which dead enemies, neutrals, allies and colony animals will be buried and laid to rest. Once the work is complete a small number of colonists will stay there in rotative periods to act as gravekeepers and for general maintenance. I’ll have to think about a way to deal with infestations though, that colony’s wealth will skyrocket soon enough.

I plan to stick with this colony for many years, until it either corrupts itself or the urge to play version 1.6+ becomes unbearable. The performance is not very good either, 300 mods take a toll on my tps… every day at 4am, 10am, 4pm and 10pm the game freezes for a moment. For now it’s tolerable though.

I am addicted to Europa Universalis V despite the fact that’s its unfinished and broken beyond belief.

Convinced a partner to play factorio with me so now I’m on my like 50th playthrough and I can’t wait

Im playing Stellaris and listening to lofi music while drinking green tea (I love the Stellaris OST but after many hundred hours it does get a bit samey)

Started playing Death Stranding 1, just doing the first mountain bits.

It’s an interesting game, and honestly refreshing to see a post-apoc setting where humans came together and put in the work to care for each other… though I’d like it to be a little grungier (pre-apoc humanity was close to a techbrotopia), and the plot and characters are hm, realistically nonsensical. “Die Hardman”, who wears a skull mask, is actually a mild mannered manager type, etc.

Funniest moment so far - found a schematic for a bike that references the show Ride with Norman Reedus, and sometimes when you ride it, the player character (Norman Reedus) will say “man I feel so fucking cool, it’s like I’m on Ride with Norman Reedus”.

Still mostly EU5

Also decided to revisit black ops 1 campaign because blops 7 release made me nostalgic. As expected, it is an intensely stupid, american chauvinist slop where most of the plot points make absolutely no sense if you know any history. At least the shooting is fun

Slowly getting through deltarune but mostly focusing on a writeup on the 43 games I completed this year that nobody will read

Just started Vagrus: The Riven Realms. All the complexity of a Paradox 4X game, plus all the reading of Baldur’s Gate 2! If anyone has played it, very open to suggestions on how to do this.

Last week @context@hexbear.net broke the news (to me, anyway) about the Dwarf Fortress seige update, so I’ve been playing Dwarf Fortress. Spent some time messing around with the world-gen parameters, rolled about a dozen worlds, and found one I’m alright with (suitably deep). Along the way I tried a sinister embark an immediately got wiped out by nauseating muck. I also tried a volcano embark and discovered I was right on top of an active Kobold camp - which was cool, but impractical.

There was an ongoing vampire problem which cost three lives. It turned out to be the Mayor, who has now been arrested by the Captain of the Guard and thrown in a dungeon where she can enjoy the craftsdwarfship of my metalsmith’s chains for eternity. She only received a 400 day sentence though (she’s immortal you idiots!) and is still the Mayor, so I walled it off. Hopefully the chuds don’t re-elect her.

The Fortress is up to about 85 residents with a stream of monster hunters passing through to visit the underground caverns. A few of them turn up dead now and then but my idiot Dwarves are still happily wandering to all extents of the underworld to gather cave spider webs so it must be Human stupidity. I was able to have my militia commander take a squad out to do recon in the caverns and they discovered a cave leading down to a second cavern level. After doing recon in the second level, I was able to choose a spot where I can build a “Great Hall” in-between them, spanning multiple Z layers with overlapping facilities and balconies. I’m planning it out to fit all 11 guild halls, plus a library, tavern, hospital, and dorms - but in a way these fit the architecture and aren’t just extra rooms dug out when needed. Since about 30% of the caverns above are underwater, I’m trying to incorporate an underground waterfall and river as well.

No seiges yet, but I have ample steel and a small castle on the surface built from bauxite blocks.

Replaying Shadowrun: Dragonfall. I’ve never had much luck with physical adept builds compared to a shooty-talky elf of somesort, but I’m having fun with my axe + chi casting troll.

I am currently completely consumed by ARC Raiders. Yeah I know it has some gen-AI bullshit but it’s so goddamn fun. I love loading up with just bandages shield chargers and defibs, running around with proximity chat and my flashlight always on RPing as a Sperenza (the fictional underground city refuge of the last humans) EMT.

I’ve been getting my shit absolutely rocked in tarkov. Still occasionally trying to figure out how to conquer France as the British in EU5.

more time stranger with fiancée
also tried some return to moria, it’s surprisingly ok, though i do have a high tolerance for survival crafty games

Been no-lifing Total War Three Kingdoms. Like I posted last week, I got a RX 9070 XT so I can run whatever I want now at 1440p. I haven’t played this one much since launch, but I’ve been doing non-stop Nanman campaigns. My first one with Zhurong ended quickly while I was just messing around and figuring out mechanics again.

I then tried to play King Mulu, but I made the mistake of attacking non-Nanman factions early on to consolidate a commandery. This pissed off the Han Empire, Liu Bei (who had taken over most of the Eastern part of the map), and just about everyone else. That’s expected eventually, but the problem is that Nanman get bonuses for every other Nanman faction they conquer or annex and can’t unlock parts of their tech tree until that’s done. So I was left with little tech, underdeveloped regions, and not enough money to fight 5 factions at once. It would have taken 3 times as long to continue this campaign than to just start over.

This time, I went with the classic Meng Huo, very aggressively expanded (battles every other turn) into the other Nanman regions with my OP starting elephants, made use of multiple smaller armies instead of a doom stack, and used ambush bait (one small army sitting in the open, a bigger one in ambush stance waiting for the enemy to attack them). All the Nanman factions are mine, I have 6 armies roaming around, and I have so much surplus food from my building trees that I bribe whoever I want to leave me alone for a bit by giving them 20 extra food per turn. I have 34 surplus when most other factions have 7.

My eldest sons are set to inherit my kingdom should I perish, but Meng Huo is still only like 36 and probably isn’t dying any time soon. They were born before he married Zhurong, so I might make my youngest son or daughter my heir when they come of age to roleplay being a father with a favorite. One of my sons married a Han vanguard character, so I’m starting to show them the ways of my people and expand the family tree.

Everything about the franchise is coming back to me, essentially. I’m on Normal battles and Very Hard campaign, since I found that to be the best balance in most other titles. I might actually try a Legendary campaign sometime soon though after I finish this one and get all the achievements possible for the Nanman. Hard battles and Very Hard campaign might be the best actual balance. It’s very easy to beat the AI by stacking spear/javelin infantry exclusively, along with whatever ranged unit, because the Han factions favor cavalry a lot more and they also counter other Nanman elephants. A single poison dart unit also destroys infantry morale if you can circle them behind. I won an almost impossible siege defense with just my garrison by circling them out the back and firing darts into everyone. Saved the day.

I think I prefer the older style of battles from games like Rome 2 that emphasize stuff like fatigue a lot more, because especially as the Nanman, I usually win by just making everyone flee 3 times, meaning they don’t recover and I can mow them down. Battles are over very very fast. Like 5 - 7 minutes fast. I could play Records mode instead that is supposed to be a little less Dynasty Warriors, but it disables pretty much all general skills and makes the rest of the game less interesting diplomacy and roleplaying wise.