The Mind Of OverlordTomala
Gaming

Now Leaving: The All Mother’s Embrace

After taking down my first Sawtooth last weekend – I wanted to see if I could expand my horizons (no pun intended). This game has the perfect blend of stealth and chaos, and Aloy is an absolute badass!

So far I’ve cleared the proving, learned how to control machines, and have embarked on my mission as a Seeker. It was a fun evening, with mood lighting to match. I even burnt some game themed candles I bought off Etsy with some leftover birthday money, just to make things a tad more immersive. I needed a good palate cleanser after the disappointment that calls itself Shadow Warrior 3. I still plan to pace myself going through this, as I do with many other games. When and if the sequel is ever ported to PC I’ll consider upping my game time. Until then – it’s back to bouncing in between different games.

More images can be found in my Mastodon post.

Gaming

Shadow Warrior 3: First Impressions

A couple of sales ago, I decided to take the plunge on Shadow Warrior 3, and am I ever glad that I did!… I’m almost an hour in, so I can’t fully judge the game just yet, but what I’ve played and witnessed so far has been a real downgrade from the other two. The gameplay has been oversimplified compared to its predecessors; gone are the days of pressing certain buttons to perform sword techniques, your blade has been banished to your right mouse button!

For Shadow Warrior 3 the developers switched from their in house Flying Wild Hog Engine to Unreal Engine 4, and while it doesn’t look terrible it does seem to lack the detail that the previous games had. Gameplay also seems to have more of a classic linear approach… kind of underwhelming when you’ve played the previous installments. There is also more cutscene than the other two games combined, though they do at least look nice… I would of happily traded them in for the combat system from the previous games though. This installment in the series is giving me Serious Sam 2 vibes.

From what I’ve read it takes about 7 hours to complete the game, so I’ll be sure to take it slow as I do with most of my library. 😛 Maybe I’ll warm up to the game after a little more play time? I’ll write more about it as I progress. So far I’m not really feeling it, hopefully it picks up.

Gaming

The Proving Has Been Proven

We had a nice summer day of about 25C today! It gave me the perfect excuse to take a break from my desk so that I can take care of other things… like fixing buttons on a shirt, indulging in some kashmiri green chai while doing some e-shopping for my pantry, and Horizon Zero Dawn on my Steam Deck! I survived The Proving after some trial and error (with a side of fucking around).

I got about an hour of play out of it, which seems to be the norm with Unreal Engine games – especially the graphically intensive ones. I wonder how long it’ll be before I play it again? It’s one of those games that I keep meaning to get back into, but can’t seem to in my endless sea of entertainment. Still, the small break was nice. 🙂

Gaming

My Digital Weekend

Finished another chapter in Neon White! Also scored some gifts and advanced the storyline a bit. I wanted to have a little fun before going crazy in SFM a bit later with this piece:

I’ll start putting the video together tomorrow, should be pretty easy – should have it wrapped up and ready to can tomorrow! Then I can move onto the next thing… what might that be, I wonder? 😛

Tonight when Yutram showed up the stars were perfectly aligned for us to venture into The Wonderlands! We completed a couple of quests, were cursed with eternal fabulousness and gained a few achiev-o’s along the way. I’m hoping we pick back up on these adventures again, we were gone for so long that we forgot what needed to be done! 😛

Gaming

This Story Continues Another Day

My desktop is tied up doing some SFM rendering, so I spent some time playing Lost Ember on my Steam Deck! I managed to make it to Chapter 4. Went and did a little swimming, and also found more shrooms and artifacts!

Please Don’t Sue, Nintendo.

I can safely say that Lost Ember runs for about an hour on Steam Deck before having to plug it in to charge. Understandable considering that it is a very GPU intense game. Not sure if I’ll continue the journey tomorrow, or if I’ll switch to a different adventure! It’s my weekend, and I have all kinds of entertainment options!

Gaming

Another Evening, Another Chapter

Just finished Chapter 2 before calling it a night. I learned about tunneling, found a few more mushrooms and relics, and uncovered more memories.

With many more waiting to be uncovered, once I find some time. Tonight I spent a little extra time on animating my current project. I should have it ready to render in a day or two! I might work on it over the weekend just to get it finished up, it’s that close!

Gaming

I Found Lost Ember

Doggo

Today during lunch I pulled out my Steam Deck and visited the world of Lost Ember. A world of beauty, lost souls and a mysterious past waiting to be unraveled. The game starts with an explanation of this universes life/death cycle, claiming that if you did everything right in life, your soul would ascend to The City of Light. If not, the soul is reborn as a wild beast.

The Tale of a Wolf and a Soul turned Spirit Guide.

You play a Lost Ember that was reincarnated as a Wolf, and you help a soul that turns out to be your Spirit Guide. Together you’ll wander the land uncovering your past life, among other collectables scattered throughout your journey.

Unraveling the past.

As you explore, you start to learn more and more about yourself, and if your soul can be redeemed. It kinda gives me Aer: Memories of Old vibes, in the sense that you have a large area to explore, and memories scattered throughout. The added bonus is being able to become other animals to experience different perspectives:

Bird’s The Word

Unlike the average Lost Ember, you possess the ability to transfer your soul to any living animal. Become birds to fly throughout the sky, or become smaller animals to get into small areas, or burrow underground. So far I’ve only been a little over 5 different animals, and found a few shrooms and artifacts. Definitely a cozy vibe type of game. I’m gonna be savoring this one for awhile! After all, I’m only on Chapter 2 and I always appreciate a good story at the end of the day. I have high hopes for this one!