RunRickyRun

Any excuse to post this: (context - Norm appears at the ESPY sports awards after OJ had lost the civil case and all his sports trophies were being seized as collateral)

I love Codemasters (been playing their racing games since TOCA around 1998) but they are suffering a bit from having to pump out a yearly game so I would wait before purchasing F1 2024. The 2022 was a disaster by all accounts. WRC (the rally game) is really good as well but there were a lot of issues at launch. I will probably pick up a wheel from Cex at some point. Currently playing Dirt Rally 2 in VR on PC. There's nothing like rolling down a Greek mountain in a rear wheel drive monster - just surviving is an achievement!

Bannerlord. I deliberately avoided it before Xmas as I knew I would be hooked. It's a great game and accessible to anyone thanks to the difficulty settings. I leave 25% damage on for my own character so I can do my best 300 impersonation. The main quest is annoying so would recommend Sandbox mode after completing the tutorial and the early story missions.

I haven't played in 5 years but from what I remember SP is limited early in the game so I would prioritise physical attacks as much as I could to enable me to grind longer.

The Hunter : Call of the Wild is a great hunting game. It's a few years old but still looks great. The mission structure is decent and the scoring system keeps you tense while you track that elusive diamond.

I have been mostly playing Crusader Kings 3 on PS5. It's really good sequel and a decent port to the console. There's a few bugs so I would not recommend playing on Ironman (1 save file) as the game sometimes eats them. Currently trying to revive Zoroastrianism in Persia which involves a lot of inbred rulers - just how ck should be played

It's great. I think there is potential for multiple playthroughs but spaced out.

Crusader Kings 2 might fit what you are looking for. The map is big but you can focus on you little corner of the world as the systems are quite deep. I barely zoomed out from the British Isles in my first playthrough. With DLC you can choose your starting point, whether that be starting as the Kingdom of Wessex fighting off the Viking invasions or as a Plantagenet monarch claiming his rightful throne in France. It's free on steam and you can subscribe to over £100 of DLC for £4 a month. It's one of my favourite games of all time.

Good to see you Levi!

Freddy got Fingered. So bad it's great.

Not sure if Bindunne but this is a great film.

https://www.youtube.com/c/yovo68 Not boring though, unfortunately.

Two Age of Empires 2 players just finished a 60+ hour match (97 in game hours). They ran out of resources and decided to stay on until one of them quit or was disconnected. Rubenstock, one of the players, is best known for perfecting a strategy of deleting the initial Town Centre and then building a new one next to your opponent's base so he's always fun to watch.

Discounting remakes and ports, there's nothing that really jumps out - not even an indie darling that I haven't got around to playing. Age of Empires 4 looks like it is fun and it's surprising that they didn't completely mess it up, but there doesn't seem to be any reason to play it over Aoe2 DE unless you are already bored of that game. Loop hero has been ported to the switch and came out this year so will look to pick that up as that could be a contender. Best game I've played this year? Return of the Obra Dinn. a 5-10 hour game where you play as an insurance adjuster trying to piece together what happened to a crew of an abandoned ship. An unforgettable experience.

Bought Surviving the Aftermath which is a colony management sim from Paradox. It plays like Tropico but with a Rimworld theme. It's a bit dry and a bit too comfortable. I turned the difficulty to max as I wanted a hellish experience but around 10 hours in and there hasn't been any significant roadblocks. It seems I am more in danger from mismanaging resources than any existential threat. Considering the setting, the events are very dull and consist of making a single choice then reading a dialogue box. I don't know if this is a Paradox thing where most of the interesting stuff is left for DLC but I will continue until I either fail miserably or complete the game. Anyone interested should really play Rimworld - it's one of the best games of all time.

I would buy the rights to every Scooby Doo episode that features Scrappy Doo and then burn the original film reels.

Looks amazing! I would recommend browsing Youtube for some painting techniques. I think the key will be sealing the model so the paint doesn't affect the wood. Eric's Hobby Workshop has some brilliant builds and covers how he seals his models and paints them at the end of his videos.

RIP Norm Probably best known for getting fired from SNL for constantly making OJ Simpson jokes during and after his trial. He has one of the best archives on Youtube and someone I regularly watched during lockdown.

Concentrate on taking out the Minotaur first. He has a predictable and telegraphed attack pattern so you should be able to learn how to dodge his attacks. I ignore Theseus at this point and dash around like a madman to avoid his throwing spear attack (having dash on LT helps). You'll probably take a few hits but it doesn't matter. Make sure you have the amulet that gives you bonus damage when you get below a certain health threshold. Use your cast as a debuff for extra damage, I tend not to upgrade my cast to a different ability because I find the debuff more useful. Try and get another debuff on this the cast as having 2 or more debuffs on a character gives you bonus damage. Once he is defeated then you can concentrate on Theseus. I go for the direct approach and rarely hide behind pillars. Only use one dash to get in close so you have at least one dash to get away. He will use a spinning attack when up close. He telegraphs the attack with a white outline then lunges forward for the attack. At this point, get the hell out of Dodge. He will normally lunge towards you so as soon as you get the tell, dash behind him (usually in the direction you are already facing) and you should be able to avoid any damage. Learning this pattern will come in handy in the next fight. If he gets close to the edge it becomes harder to read the pattern so you can lure him into the middle by manipulating him to dash attack towards the middle. This comes with practice though. TLDR : Watch this guy

Which weapon did you use? I got there with the gun. I also favour the gloves for the total glass cannon build.

Divine Dash is your friend. You can almost guarantee getting it by picking the Athena mask. Combine it with Hermes' ability to give you more dashes and you're nigh on invincible. Stopped playing because the endgame wasn't as fun as Dead Cells. May go back in time but would like them to give you the option to ramp up the difficulty but earn all the rewards for the 'easier' difficulties at once. Otherwise it's a bit of a slog - a really fun slog mind you but would prefer hitting my head against a brick wall like in say 4 boss cell Dead Cells.

One of the best videos I've ever watched and I didn't even play Wow!

Interesting - a bullet hell 3rd person rouguelite! Looks right up my alley but alas, I don't have a PS5. I will probably pick up when I do get around to purchasing one - it gives me Risk of Rain 2 vibes.

Rogue is available on steam (Link). If you've ever wondered what inspired the slew of "Roguelight" and "Roguelike" indie games that fill the pages of Steam then this is it and available for only a couple of quid. It's still enjoyable to play today and has a lot of depth but don't expect to complete it, ever. I didn't even realise there was a win-state until the internet, wrongly believing the object of the game was to collect as much gold as possible before a troll would inevitably kill you. If the lack of graphics put you off then I can heartily recommend the Atari ST version which is very pretty. It's easy to pick up and run on an emulator.

There's a major bug on day 3 but hopefully this will be patched in the next day or so. I started a second playthrough whilst I was waiting and spec'd into intimidation and physical violence - very satisfying!