What I've been playing lately

Just a quick post about what I’ve played over the last few months.

Fallout 3 Very Evil Very Hard run

It’s so much fun to be evil in this game sometimes. I started up FO3 multiple times recently and just could not get into it. I always do the Moira quest but it’s all starting to get boring. So I set the usual goals (all Bobbleheads, do all major side quests/DLCs, 100 in each skill, 10 in SPECIAL etc) and attained some of them.

The only evidence I have is this video.

I did not complete any of the DLCs, I definitely did not get 10 in all SPECIAL stats. I did get a few skills to 100 as 'Very Hard Pete'. My only real rule with this playthrough was to be as evil as possible and not to use any unique weapons.

So naturally I did the enslavement quest and poisoned the water at the end. There's not a whole lot to say other than that Very Hard difficulty does add quite a bit to this game. I've played it to death over the last 15 years (but not as much as FO4 or NV) so yeah.

Fallout 4 Unarmed Survival Mode

This was the pinnacle of Fallout 4 Survival Mode. No guns, no melee weapons. Just my fists.

It was terrifying at first, so bad I had to quit and come back a few weeks later to finish it. I started the file in late November and finished February 2nd so there was a bit of a gap there somewhere.

As usual I had my SPECIAL one below where I wanted it. For example, the excellent perk Rooted is Strength 9 so would need to go to Mass Fusion to get the Bobblehead for that. Though starting with 8 is pretty damn hench for an Unarmed fighter.

Because I was so helpless at the start, being forced to run into gunfire, there were a lot of deaths early on and hence me walking away from it in December 2023. I picked it back up mid January 2024 and finished it by the start of February.

There were way way WAY more bugs this time around? I am on record as saying FO4 was very stable for me in the past and I had over 400+ hours logged. Much of that is 70 hour Survival mode playthroughs. This was the worst I had ever seen it. That above is just an example. The entire Cabot House/Charisma bobblehead was locked for me because Emogene Cabot wouldn't come out of her room. With no console access, I could not fix it.

Who needs a shitty swatter when you have BLADED KNUCKLES? There is a dearth of Unarmed weapons in this game but the bladed knuckles I found very early in Concord (knuckles and modded them myself) and they served me well. I also used boxing gloves for a short while and the power fist briefly but the real winner was the Death Claw Gauntlet.

I threw caution to the wind more combined with my general knowledge of where beds are in the Commonwealth so I could save regularly enough. By the time I had Blitz, ballistic weave on my clothes and the Gauntlet it was won for me. I was able to one-shot Mirelurk Queens and Supermutant Behemoths for crying out loud.

As usual, Hangman's Alley was the epicentre of my operations. I unlocked most of the settlements if not all by myself BUT due to possible glitchy-ness I wasn't sure how loyal they were, were they loyal to me or the Minutemen?

I sold this ghoul into slavery and then rescued him afterward. Then murdered his parents. May have been a somewhat evil run.

Level 72. I would finish around level 100 ish.

I made it my goal to defeat the Synth army in the Institute. I failed! Someday.

I did the entire Nuka World DLC then promptly murdered all the raiders.

I didn't want to side with the Institute. I didn't want to side with the Railroad (again). I was going to go Minuteman but it would have taken forever for me to re-conquer all my settlements. Which I already owned! So I said fuck it, BOS one more time.

So it took a while but eventually it was time to break into the Institute. Which I had already clawed up.

Father was dead already so his corpse was moved to here. Weird.

Verdict: fun, fine, marred by glitches. Idk what happened, maybe I need to re-download the patches I got for it. I probably won't play for another year, maybe longer, it's so done for me.

Final Fantasy VIII REMASTERED (first time in years)

This was one of my favourite FFs of all time, going back to the mid-2000’s when I first played it. Even without a speed booster, you can finish this game in 20~ hours and experience most of it. I used the 3x speed booster judiciously, life is short. I only played the REMASTERED version with the yassified sprites because there was no need to install a mod to play the original (excellent) OST.

I had a few goals - get all rare cards/all cards in game (mostly achieved, still haven’t bothered to do since I achieved it a few years back). Kill Ultima and Omega weapons (just killed Ultima). Beat the game (yes). Get all Guardian Forces - usual story, all but Doomtrain. I had some of the items but didn’t bother getting Remedy+ sorted or 2 more Steel Pipes/Malboro tentacles.

Still holds up just fine. I never understood the Junction/magic draw hate. I spent maybe 30 minutes at the start of the game drawing 100 Fire, Blizzard, Cure, Thunder from assorted enemies.

Draw GF from bosses as you go. Level up the various ‘refine’ abilities and get magic from items.

Killing 20 Tonberries was somewhat tedious but easy as usual. Drawing 100 Triples and whatnot from Odin while being timed was stressful but so worth it.

I had Encounter Half and then Encounter None from Diablos so I ran from monsters otherwise or just fought bosses. Was not too verklempt about not levelling Squall - he was level 12-14 by end of the game.

I flew between the Island Closest to Heaven and the Island Closest to Hell multiple times to draw powerful magics, spent maybe a mindless hour on triple speed doing that and watching all my junction stats become god-like.

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What's next? FF12 Zodiac Age deserves a replay, it's only been 5+ years. I only played that once on PC, and maybe 2-3 times on the PS2. Hard to believe how far the FF series has come - in 2019 only a few were available. Now you can play almost all of them.

Anything else? I need to play something new. Witcher 3 maybe. As for re-runs, would not mind doing Resi 1 Normal mode and higher, or DayZ. Zombies! Something with zombies.

Next post will either be a repost of something from Substack or something original.