The Mind Of OverlordTomala
Gaming

Logic and Proportion

Finished animating the intro to a video I’m working on! Celebrated the last bit of the evening by playing some more of American McGee’s Alice. I made it deeper into the Skool and found a recipe for how to become smallville. Also found a croquet mallet along my travels, so far that’s my second favorite weapon next to wield, with the first being the deck of cards.

I’m impressed with what extras they put into this version of the idTech3 engine. Having grown up with Quake III Arena it’s weird seeing characters with facial animation… perhaps John Romero should have ported Daikatana from Quake 2! :v

Gaming

Surprise Balduring!

Couldn’t resist doing a little more Balduring tonight. I have an extra day off tomorrow, and luck brought Yutram and I together to make it all the way to the Forge in the Underdark. We fought and won a battle that we were sure we would lose, even with a party of six. As usual I made a recording, should make for some nice footage when I get around to it.

I don’t think I’ve gone into detail about this particular character. She’s a high half elf Rogue Spellsword – loosely based on my Skyrim character, traveling with her best friend – a Drow Monk and any of the other characters that want to tag along. We were discussing future character ideas for different runs. One of our other friends got the game for his birthday recently, and it would be fun to make something to troll them with. 😛

Gaming

Toren: A Game That Aged Like Fine Wine

For a game that came out in 2015, the graphics are still lovely even in 4K! Plus the refresh rate makes it feel like this game has matured like a fine wine. I decided to play a bit of Toren during lunch today, and ended up picking up where I left off for my one hour of gaming. Toren supports cloud saves, so I’m hoping it’ll help me finish it. As beautiful as the game is I am reminded of why I took a long break from it; some of the controls feel a little clunky. Although I am doing better platforming certain areas that I kept fucking up on the last time I played.

If you’re not familiar with Toren, it’s a game where you play as a young girl. You’re alone in a tower, that is frequently harassed by a dragon with a petrifying shriek. So far I’ve only been petrified twice. Both times it was part of the plot though…

You end up dying and being reborn numerous times. The last time I played I only got to her teenage phase before calling it quits. Now I aim to finish this one once and for all. I was impressed with how well it ran on Deck earlier. I played for about half an hour, and it only used about 9 percent of the battery, the fans barely even kicked on. It certainly fits the bill for lunch time/evening distraction!

Gaming

Last Bit Of Weekend Wonderland

I thought about continuing my journey through Alice: Madness Returns, but ended up deciding to travel even further back in time to play the game that started it all. American McGee’s Alice. I never knew that it ran on idTech 3! The same engine Quake 3 ran on! What they did with it was impressive, for the era it came out in.

Made it to Skool before calling it quits. It feels a little janky to play, but I am getting used to it. I also played a bit of it on my Steam Deck earlier. It does a weird glitch where the game window is larger than the screen, it’s also upside down and backwards. Binding the alt and enter keys to one of the back paddles fixed it though, and it handled controller play quite nicely.

There’s something about the darker setting of Alice in this old engine that makes it even creepier than the sequel, in a good way. It gives it a darker, grittier feel.

Gaming

Crossing A River Of Glitches

We had fun trying to get through the river of darkness with six characters. Last night when we made my companions glitch out of existence. They were still alive, but they were invisible and immovable. When I summoned the boat it did the same thing to my friend’s companions. We ended up sending two of them back to camp, made our way across in the boat, and then regrouped afterwards. Other than that little snag it’s been fun playing with a party of six.

We called it a night after biting it in a battle we had no chance of winning. This is where our heroes will rest until the next upcoming weekend. It’s back to cycling other games to keep things fresh. I was actually thinking of doing a theme this month for my gaming posts. Since it’s Women’s History Month I’m thinking of prioritizing my playtime for games where there is either a female character, or games that grant the option to play as whatever you want. Baldur’s Gate 3 is pretty versatile in that regard, and it also gives me an excuse to binge the Tomb Raider Remaster if I so choose. 😛 She was the first woman I ever played in a video game, so it’s only right I give her some screentime. Of course, more lady protaganists have appeared since the 90’s! So you can guess that I’ll be covering them also!

Gaming

Back To Baldurin’

It’s been an eternity since we last played Baldur’s Gate 3, or two weeks… same thing.

We had issues for a couple weeks figuring out how to get mods working, and then once we got it figured out a patch broke the script extender used to play with mods. But eventually it all got ironed out in time for my weekend! So Yutram and I went down down down by the river for a few fun hours of adventure. It was fun as much as it was buggy. By default you can play with a party of up to 4, but thanks to modding we up’d the count to 6. It makes fighting slightly more chaotic, and tonight we learned that sometimes when initiating a cutscene it will leave two of your party members behind and render them unusable. We ended up having to backtrack to a slightly older autosave, we didn’t lose MUCH progress, but it was enough for us to call it a night.

Despite the bugs I did level up my character to lvl 6 and earned a couple achievements. We’re planning to go Balduring again tomorrow if everything lines up. It was soooo nice to finally be able to play together again!

Gaming / Hobbies / Open Threads

Friday Night Open Thread

I didn’t have time to delve into any animation tonight. Instead I sifted through last weekend’s Game Of Life recording, and it has some promising audio that might be worthy of animation. I have to do the second bit of audio sifting, but that will have to wait for another evening. I spent the last hour checking out Deathloop, and so far my only issue with it was a freeze the first time I started the game. Other than that it seems to run ok.

I only made it out of the first level, so far I have no complaints. The graphics look very nice,though optimization could be better. I was kind of hoping it would be like Prey where you could choose between two different characters, but it seems you only get to play Colt in Single Player while Julianna can only be played in Multiplayer… not that it really matters. So far I like Colt’s personality. Will definitely have to loop back around to play this again!

Gaming

Loaded Portal Reloaded

Knocked some dust off of Portal Reloaded tonight. I’m only a few levels away from finishing it, but tonight I only had time to beat one level and spent the rest of it pondering the next puzzle. I’ve made it to excursion funnels, so I’ll have to science out how to use them across space and time… or at least time with slightly less space.

Gaming

Lions & Statues & Adventure! Oh My!

The mod selection for Tomb Raider Remastered is already looking pretty good over at the Modders Nexus. Over the weekend I dressed Lara as a Succubus, today I made her extra buff. I also turned her to gold.

I’m kinda bummed that you don’t get an achievement for locking the butler in the freezer, but if you willingly turn yourself into a gold statue you get an achievement. THAT’S NOT FAIR!!!

I’m one lead bar away from escaping Palace Midas. That will have to wait for another night… or a lunch break. It’s time to give Lara a rest, along with myself. Another good night of rest and I should start feeling good again.