Something Old and Something New

I honestly thought I'd made a blog yesterday!  Shows you how out of it I can get.  At the same time, I'm not surprised.  This bug just won't die, and I'm starting to get really frustrated with it.  But I'm sure many of you think you know a better reason why I didn't get a blog up, and you'd be half right.

GETTING THAT WORK DONE

I actually got a decent amount of work done on project yesterday.  I've still got a lot of work on the main big one, which I'll discuss more in the future, but I think it's going well.  Still, I don't think it will be ready when I want it to be, especially with this bug and recent releases.  So I'm going to finally be running out of 40K content to cover.  So I'll probably be covering broader gaming topics in the future, and might even go into Combat Patrol.  I do also still plan on doing that "What I Got Wrong" article.

So you almost certainly know that Baldur's Gate III came out for PC yesterday.  As soon as I got up and gotten comfortable, I immediately setup the download.  But with the day one patch, that was over 200 MB, leaving me plenty of time to do some work while done.  However, I eventually needed to take a break, and the download wasn't done.  And I had some YouTube vids I wanted to listen to for research.  So I wanted something to relax to for a bit that would still let me split my attention.

And I'd just happened to have downloaded something else recently that I've been meaning to play.

LOOKING FOR THOSE SURVIVORS

I hadn't played Vampire Survivors or any of its clones yet.  But I have Game Pass, which means I have access to it.  So I decided to finally give it a try.

And yeah, I think it's a ton of fun.  I actually kept playing it after Baldur's Gate III finished installing.  It's actually kind of crazy how thematically similar the two games are.  Both are incredible call backs to classic games that are now being redefined in our current era.  But while Baldur's Gate is evolving and refining its formula, Vampire Survivor redefines it.  And the interesting thing is that it does so by taking away one of the most crucial systems in video games.

If you've never played the game, Vampire Survivor is a throw back to classic horde style Arcade Games of the past where wave after wave of enemies comes after you.  From watching gameplay, the game looks at first like it's reinterpreted these classic games by combining a twin-stick shooter with Rogue-like systems.  Not even the first game to do that, right?

Except it's not a twin-stick shooter.  There's only one stick.  There isn't even an attack button.  The only thing you can do in Vampire Survivor is move your character.

And it's crazy how much of a difference that makes in the game play!  It makes you completely rethink how you play a game.  Instead of focusing on wiping out the incoming enemies, instead you're focusing on planning out your build and determining the best paths to your objectives.  Every so often you encounter an enemy you really want to kill, and then you'll start focusing them down.  But the way you do so is completely different from any other game.

And there's so many other clever things they've done.  Instead of getting points or experience automatically, you have to pick it all up.  And the waves, of course, get more powerful as the time goes on.  So you have to balance making sure you're killing enough enemies and picking up enough XP with making progress through a map.  And then, of course, you have the items and builds and the recipes, plus old school style unlocks.

Yeah, I got addicted really quickly.

THE MAIN EVENT

After dinner, I finally sat down to enter a new Baldur's Gate adventure!

And wow, it felt like coming home.  For all the improved visuals and cutscenes, the new version of D&D, the new turn based combat, the modern dialogue systems, it still feels like a Baldur's Gate game to the core.  I'm still enjoying exploring, meeting the new characters, putting my party together, and, of course, planning my way through the RPG systems.

For my first character, I've of course gone with trying to make an Erdrick.  I'm using a Paladin with the Oath of Devotion in this game, as I have in prior games.  What took me by surprise though, is I also got to make a Morrigan for my game too.  I haven't met her in game, let alone figured out what her purpose was, but that was a delightful surprise.

Since the game has only been out for a day, I'm not going into even the tiny slice I've played so far.  For now, I have five characters at my camp, and have completed my first dungeon.  It's quite the cast, so far, and I can't wait to see what secrets this rogues' gallery is hiding.

But that'll be it for now I think.  I'll probably talk about the game more in the future.  I'm going to try and get some more work done before The Sword Coast calls again.