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This game really makes me want a high-end gaming rig so I can play it in whatever ungodly resolution is in these days.
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Jul 29, 2020 18:12
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Megillah Gorilla posted:That run-up to Daytower was just stunning. I loved all the little oases you could see at the bottom of the valley. My theory on this is as follows- - He's drunk and Aloy doesn't like that but is unsure how to comment on such an issue properly. - She's close to Olin, finally, after making a journey that would take months IRL, even on mech-horseback and another sidequest means another delay. God knows how long before her current lead will disappear, she has to find Olin now. - The Carja civil war isn't her war, far as she knows. She doesn't want to get involved.
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Jul 29, 2020 21:16
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This game's writing keeps topping itself.
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Aug 5, 2020 18:13
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Bright lights, big city After another heat-induced delay (it was 105 over the weekend  ) I managed to get audio done this morning. We spend some time exploring Meridian, picking up a couple sidequests and finding all the weird "merchants." They don't really sell you stuff, but they're the ones you hand in collectibles to and they'll give you rewards so it's not just collecting for the sake of collecting. I probably shouldn't have done this at night but I just kept the recording going after we smashed Olin's door and floor in. Meridian is a pretty big place. I mean, it's not the Citadel but for a place built by folks who were probably still in the early bronze age as far as tech it's fairly impressive. We meet a Banuk who's not housebroken, a decent priest, and a weirdo. I guess a noble too. Not like Aloy's gonna give a poo poo about Carja social standing. There are some notes scattered about to read. Other than that there isn't a whole lot to do. We can go to the Hunter's Lodge but there aren't any bars to hang out in. After our character drinking constantly through the last 4 games this is somewhat of a letdown. Aloy would probably be a hoot drunk. That or stab someone's face off. It's definitely well-designed and while I appreciate they didn't just give us a hub with 4 areas it almost seems like they got carried away during the design process. There's a lot of unused space. We'll see it in all its daylight glory in a bit.
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Aug 5, 2020 23:19
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The Interesting Eyewear episode. Palas' glasses always bug me a bit because they look weirdly normal if old-fashioned, like they wouldn't look out of place in Edwardian England or something. Vilgund, on the other hand, now that looks cool and suitably like it's been repurposed from random machine parts. It's a shame that he's kind of a jackass while Palas is just a misinformed nerd.
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Aug 6, 2020 00:50
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For the record, I would like the collectible merchants better if they shut up once you gave them all their items. But they keep on trying to get your attention regardless.  SP missed a few things in Meridian. First, there's the Temple of the Sun in one corner of the lower level, I forget where exactly. There are a bunch of Sun Priests chanting there and off to the side is the first Sun Priest we met in the game, Reverent Irit. You may remember him from Mother's Heart, he almost got bombarded by tomatoes. His conversation isn't nearly as amusing here, but he will identify the Priests' Sun Ceremony for Aloy. She says it's beautiful even if she can't participate. Irit will also direct Aloy to find Mournful Naman, the Priest who has a side quest for us, if we haven't met him already. Two of the pilgrims Naman wants us to help are standing near him- the Banuk and the Utaru. We can talk to them for more information on their backstories and their tribes. The Utaru is actually the only representative of her tribe in the game- maybe we'll see more in the sequel. They're big into agriculture and pacifism, not much more to say about them really. I read somewhere that Meridian was originally the opening area of the game and only later did they move things to the east to start out. Good move, I think. Looking forward to when we actually visit the Hunter's Lodge.
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Aug 6, 2020 01:22
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achtungnight posted:I read somewhere that Meridian was originally the opening area of the game and only later did they move things to the east to start out. Good move, I think. Huh, interesting. And yeah, that's a wise choice. It's big enough that I think it'd feel more overwhelming to start there without a decent chunk of gameplay beforehand. I also think the stark Utah desert plays a lot better as a setting in contrast to Colorado, rather than starting there.
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Aug 6, 2020 01:32
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Crab Hooey A respite in the weather means updates without risk of death. It's a balmy 92 today. Nothing really of import in this video, just some open world shenanigans. We complete another Tallneck and gently caress up some critters in the process, then hide from a Stormbird. While I was heading to a destination I accidentally started Crabageddon. I feel I've shaken some of the rust off my combat skills since I murder about 18 things and don't die. We get phat loot. Another bandit camp gets cleaned out and we have another disturbing conversation with Nil. I think the next thing we're doing is helping Erend, though I could be wrong. The stinky thing about LP'ing this is it's drat fun to play and I don't like to just do 1 thing and then put it down so I end up with 2-3 hours of footage at a time and when I finally get 'round to cutting all the episodes I've forgotten what I did. #FirstWorldProblems. Also we're wearing a new armor, the Carja Blazon. Personally I think it's the most aesthetically pleasing armor in the game. We were too broke to afford the heavy so we're running around in the medium for now.
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Aug 10, 2020 00:22
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I'm amazed Youtube let that music choice slide by without a mute.
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Aug 10, 2020 16:52
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Cooked Auto posted:I'm amazed Youtube let that music choice slide by without a mute.
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Aug 10, 2020 17:59
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Yeah I've had that happen to me as well. It's always annoying, especially when you have a really good idea for a video with a specific music track. Only to find it's blocked somewhere due to copyright issues or license claims.
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Aug 10, 2020 18:11
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The music track should have been on the crab fight, though.
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Aug 10, 2020 20:23
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Tallnecks are great for stomping or EMPing animals and getting them to drop their skins and bones. I’ve gotten numerous parts that way when hunting failed. Alternate Dialogue- If you turned down Nil’s help clearing the first Bandit Camp, he will insist on helping you clear the others where you meet him nearby. Of course it’s still possible to solo them- just don’t talk to Nil first. The first time I cleared the camp in the video I didn’t know he was nearby and never found him before or after. It messed up some continuity later but I’ll talk about that when & if we hopefully visit a place he mentioned. Can’t say I ever dealt with that many Shellwalkers at once. Glad you got some good loot out of it.
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Aug 10, 2020 21:26
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Zopotantor posted:The music track should have been on the crab fight, though. I've been doing grinding/farming off camera so we have all the money and materials to buy pretty princess dressup outfits and weapons. It occurred to me that since I'm not doing anything spoilerish, it might be fun to stream it and we can talk about combat mechanics and stuff while I occasionally blunder into messes and get myself royally hosed up which is always good for a laugh. If folks are interested I need to do a couple things and make some dinner, but I'll be on at 6 MDT, so like an hour and a half. I'll come back and post again with a link to Twitch so people will know it's active.
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Aug 10, 2020 23:26
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I'd watch that live, but I have to work tonight. Ugh. Please preserve the footage and post later for the unfortunate (like me). Thanks.
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Aug 10, 2020 23:37
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I should like to watch a stream!
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Aug 11, 2020 00:25
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achtungnight posted:I'd watch that live, but I have to work tonight. Ugh. Please preserve the footage and post later for the unfortunate (like me). Thanks.
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Aug 11, 2020 00:28
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Ok, here's the link: https://twitch.tv/mosquitojones I have the AC off right now, if it gets too hot I'll turn it back on and mute myself unless I'm talking.
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Aug 11, 2020 01:00
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A tip for if you're grinding materials, you can still shoot off parts of a dead enemy with Harvest arrows to get multiple of the material as long as you haven't searched the body yet. The first hunting grounds have a large number of the deer machines with six blaze canisters on their back, stealth kill them and shoot off the cannisters with harvest arrows and you'll end up with 24 blaze from a single enemy. Plus you can force them to respawn instantly by accepting a challenge. A stack of 50 blaze sells for 200 hundred shards. I spent an hour grinding there and got enough shards for every weapon and armor on Ultra Hard. You can use lancehorn spawn spots for chill water, longleg spots for sparkers and scrapper spots for metal vessels with the same method but they take longer to come back. Echo shells you can find a lot from the boxes for completing the 1st hunting ground challenges or shellwalker crates (shooting them off with harvest arrows doesn't multiply the contents). Otherwise you can use the harvest method on stormbirds or behemoths but I found that slower as stormbirds are finicky to kill and my method with behemoths was always use corrution arrows to set the pair against eachother which blew off the cannisters. TheKirbs fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Aug 14, 2020 |
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Aug 13, 2020 23:49
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As a quasi-stand-in for a player character Nil ain't so bad. Shellwalkers are a bit of a surprise to me. I didn't really expect the weapons they have.
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Aug 15, 2020 02:45
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Yeah, shellwalkers are like "haha look a crab! I'll just- JESUS CHRIST" Get stuck in a group of them and it's pretty much  except electricity.Memory failed me and we aren't helping out Erend next. Video will be up tomorrow.
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Aug 15, 2020 19:31
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In my mind, Aloy has canonically found and now regularly listens to an old recording by one of the ancient ones' most esteemed bards, Cyndi Lauper
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Aug 15, 2020 20:59
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Rho Rho your boat Sorry 'bout the delay, I got distracted Sunday and it's been record-breaking hot the past week with no end in sight so I finally just gritted my teeth and did it. Except the first time I did commentary I was about 30 minutes into the video when I realized it wasn't recording so I had to start over again  To top it off I can't edit audio with the AC on. All in all it was a good 2 hours and by the end I was a sweaty delirious mess. I suffer for my art. Also for some reason YT took for-loving-ever to process it.Doing another cauldron. This one's layout is somewhat different and the critters inside are much worse than the first one we did. Meet the Ravager, a nastier version of the Sawtooth. They have cannons like the Thunderjaw which can either result in a lot of fun or a fast death depending on what happens in the fight. We can now override a lot of things that are a pain in the rear end so it's a good payoff. We also read the log and someone is or was trying to haxx0r in. Tallnecks have logs too, but theirs are mostly "tried to ping satellite nobody home." I'm supposed to be up for work in 5 hours so enjoy. Not sure what's next on the agenda, I'll cut a new episode tomorrow during work (hooray for telecommuting). This may be Erend's quest, I don't think I did anything else significant plot-wise in the last batch of recording.
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Aug 21, 2020 09:54
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I appreciate how the game made every Cauldron a bit different. I also like the Ravager Cannon more than the Thunderjaw Disc Launcher. Rapid fire and screaming are two things that go together well, whether it's screaming from player mania or enemies in pain.  I should mention- Ravagers also have an area shock attack that Sawtooths don't. Sometimes they spam it and can mess up your day.
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Aug 21, 2020 13:11
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I love how alien the cauldrons are. Like someone dropped a magic nanomachines, son crystal and it just grew and grew. And speaking of the "magic torches" school of game design - magic loot crates. Why are machines storing ridge wood and healing items in their little pyramids? 
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Aug 21, 2020 15:59
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I think the game lore does give a reason to why the machines have organic matter lying around.
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Aug 21, 2020 16:49
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Yeah, I just got to the part about blaze being the blood of the cauldron and all the machines collecting it. But we haven't really had an explanation for what blaze actually is? But, I guess that's what the 'herbivore' machines are doing? Taking plants and living matter and turning it into fuel? I know all life feeds on other life, but there's something about machines doing it which is creepy as hell.
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Aug 21, 2020 16:56
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I don’t think we ever get an explanation for what Blaze is. My imagination has it as ethanol fuel- plant based liquid, supports fire weapons, used as fuel for this Cauldron- but I could be wrong. If I’m right, though, that makes Grazers oil pumps and Bellowbacks tanker trucks in a way. Kinda cool.
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Aug 21, 2020 18:58
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I figured that Blaze and Chillwater were a naphtha variant and liquid nitrogen, respectively. And that yes, the Grazers and Lancehorns harvested and processed the material, and Bellowbacks transported it. Having finished the game and dlc last night, I am now contemplating trying to track down every little piece of lore I missed just so I can spend more time with the game.
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Aug 21, 2020 20:17
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I thought Melee resistance helped against robot dinosaurs attempting to chew on you.
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Aug 22, 2020 03:54
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The Lone Badger posted:I thought Melee resistance helped against robot dinosaurs attempting to chew on you. 
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Aug 28, 2020 20:56
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Running Erend's Taking care of Erend's quest, but first we hit a couple of vantage points and clear out a bandit camp. I also show off fighting tramplers and the harvest arrows. They're a godsend if you really really need a particular crafting material (for me that's almost always blaze). Or if you need shards then farm up a fuckload of spark canisters or whatever and then sell them. We meet Erend and take a look at the site of the massacre, except it looks staged and there are some very obvious cart tracks and a shitload of blood leading away from the area. Like, seriously, your scouts didn't notice the giant ruts and gallon of blood every few yards? No wonder Ersa took her best men along, which means they could probably find the rear end on a goat. We follow the trail up to that giant satellite graveyard only to find Oseram, not Carja. They are not interested in a nice conversation so we take care of things the usual way until 2 ravagers show up and wreck my poo poo. Thanks Erend! The replay goes much better and we deduct that maybe the whole thing is a setup and Ersa may not be dead after all. We can meet Erend back at the palace in Meridian when we're ready.
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Aug 30, 2020 22:08
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You'd expect the name Idiot Army for a hacker group to be ironic, not descriptive. I guess in this game it's both? Yes, I'm a turd emperor- thank you, whoever sent me that weird pop-up just now. The Hollow Fort Bandit Camp was once https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesa_Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. That's according to some fan wikis of the game I've found, anyway. Click the name for more info on our current world's version of the place. It's one of the harder camps, IMO. I liked the music you played for clearing it. The Vantage Point near Meridian is one of the more interesting in the game- for what it doesn't include. Look at the past window and you'll see- or not see, rather- the Spire. So that means it was built after the apocalypse. But by whom and why? That we don't yet know. The Shadow Carja's name, for those who don't know, comes from the Carja religion. It's something you have to piece together, but apparently there's a duality in everything. Good must be matched by evil, right by wrong, sun by shadow. Both sides can have the moral high ground from certain points of view. Hard to accept at first, but I guess it has some correlation with real world politics. A certain Batman villain might appreciate it. Great detective work with Erend, Aloy. But like SP said, you gotta wonder how they missed so many obvious hints something weird is going on.
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Aug 30, 2020 23:38
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achtungnight posted:The Hollow Fort Bandit Camp was once https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesa_Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. That's according to some fan wikis of the game I've found, anyway. Click the name for more info on our current world's version of the place. It's one of the harder camps, IMO. I liked the music you played for clearing it.  I was looking forward to getting there because it's the moment I completely fell in love with the game, I've worked there before and it was a real "wait a minute, is that..." moment in the game before I looked it up. It was a cool moment realizing it's not just one or two famous buildings in the game, it's a whole bunch of weirdly specific real-life places. I love it.From the video today, I'd forgotten about the harvest arrows. I don't quite know how I feel about them, it's an interesting choice to tie them into weapon use rather than another general skill perk. I'll give them more of a try next time I play, that does seem like a pretty substantial boost in resources.
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Aug 30, 2020 23:58
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Captain Hygiene posted:
Harvest arrows are handy but aren't game breaking or anything. There's very little need to grind for bunch of copies for any one particular resource.
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Aug 31, 2020 00:14
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I've only played it on babby mode so I didn't get too much into the upgrade system, I want to try a harder mode so I wasn't sure how resource collection might change in importance.
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Aug 31, 2020 00:26
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Captain Hygiene posted:I've only played it on babby mode so I didn't get too much into the upgrade system, I want to try a harder mode so I wasn't sure how resource collection might change in importance. I guess you need to shoot more arrows at robots in general on the higher difficulties, but the only time I was seriously lacking in a resource was echo shells in my very first play though when I was using tearblast arrows a lot, including a bunch of situations where they didn't help me at all. The crafting recipes themselves don't change at all based on difficulty.
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Aug 31, 2020 00:40
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Skwirl posted:Harvest arrows are handy but aren't game breaking or anything. There's very little need to grind for bunch of copies for any one particular resource. Mainly to buy all the weapons and armour on harder difficulties where the prices become insane and to fund the DLC heavy weapons which are hungry beasts to put it lightly.
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Aug 31, 2020 21:36
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Didn't have issues with running blaze supplies until I got the dlc weapons in a rather eye opening speed. Still didn't use harvest arrows and that was a mistake after seeing their effect.
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Sep 1, 2020 02:19
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Yeah, I'm feeling really
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Sep 1, 2020 02:52
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