Nature I couldn't sleep last night so I was up for a while just looking at various monitors on Wikimedia and just taking them in. I bookmarked probably half a dozen pictures that I really liked, too much to share on a Pubski post, so here's this guy for now. Videogames The Outer Worlds is a treat. My first play through has been a blast so far and even though I'm working on learning the game mechanics, I'm really looking forward to a second time around. My only complaint is that unless I'm in the character screen, I never get to see my character in third person, which takes away some of my enthusiasm for playing dress up with armor. Team Trees Thanks to some big name donations, Teamtrees has already broken 10 million trees with two months left. At this point, they're gonna hit their goal and blow well past it. Makes me wonder what The Arbor Day Foundation will do with each additional dollar. More trees, or something else? I know in the scheme of things, 20 million trees isn't actually a huge number. Some years we lose billions of trees to droughts and fires and deforestation and similarly, there are government and private initiatives all over the world that have planted way more. Somehow though, this whole YouTube thing has caught people's attention, and I think that, in and of itself, is a huge positive.
Can we get a trickle of monitors in the Kaiju Review? You've got to work them in somewhere! I'm really excited to The Outer Worlds. I can't play it right now because of this and that reason, but if it has the same writing quality as Obsidian's other projects I'm sure it's a joy :) I agree about Teamtrees, though. Even if their direct environmental impact isn't as large as some other actors, it's fantastic to see an initiative like this take off. I've enjoyed following it, I'm curious to see what The Arbor Day Foundation will do as well!
Fun Kaiju Fact! Varan from Varan the Unbelievable is named after monitor lizards. Dude, the scripts for The Outer Worlds is a genuine treat. There's complex dialog trees with multiple outcomes, moral ambiguity, fun characters, on and on it goes. It's actually so fun that sometimes, I wish there was less shooting and more talking going on. As with Fallout, in this game, definitely read terminals and notes, because that's where a lot of the world building takes place and they do a great job. The parodying of corrupt corporate culture and entrenched bureaucracy is really heavy handed and very unrealistic at times, but its still enjoyable. I think my only real big complaint is that the game is a bit too over populated with enemies and loot (makes encountering both too common to feel precious), but, eh, if that's what kids are into these days, that's what they're into. All in all, it's a fun game.
This is made worse by the fact that the enemy AI is terrible. They either just sprint towards you or stand out in the open a few meters away. Then I just melt through them with all my easily found top-tier weapons and ammo (whilst my companions soak up most of the attacks). Or when a disguise fails in a restricted areas and you're spotted, you can just use the most basic speech checks to evade any trouble. The game feels so easy on the default difficulty. And all the higher difficulties do is up the damage enemies inflict. The enemy variety is also lackluster. Another gripe is that, excluding that first big decision you have to make, none of the in-world decisions feel that impactful. This is amplified by the fact that there always seems to be a way that you can have your cake and eat it too by pleasing all sides of issue. Don't get me wrong, that's cool in some scenarios. But I'm 15 hours into the game and have made multiple world-effecting decisions, yet all the opposing factions still like me. That seems a bit odd. Despite having spewed all that negativity, I am overall enjoying the game though. As you say, the writing is generally fantastic and the world it creates is enough to elevate the game. I especially love all the subtle interactions that happen between the characters. The gunplay, whilst not being anything to write home about, is also satisfying.I think my only real big complaint is that the game is a bit too over populated with enemies and loot (makes encountering both too common to feel precious)