MEMES! Everyone likes a good meme, right? That was this weeks theme of our Discord community event! There was a vote for the meme template and Gru's plan won!
Ahem ahem ahem! To all participants, Congratulations! To all non-participants, also congratulations! (and be sure to participate next week!)
Here are the WINNERS!!!
Winner of 1500 Points – DriedMango
By DriedMango
Winner of 1000 Points – Sylvia
By Sylvia
Winner of 500 Points – Sonic Punk
By Sonic Punk
Voting for the next event theme is going on NOW in the GGP discord, so check it out and cast your vote!
But here we are.
Dark and refreshed.
The old theme had about 25 errors on the console, 5 warnings, and 1 message. It also had a page load time of about 5-8 seconds.
The new page loads in about 750ms (less than a second). I do say that's a nice performance upgrade.
Since the old blog layout was mostly intended for WoW, it also had an absolute CRAPTON of labels which were more or less redundant. If this was a wiki I'd be using subcategories, but since we're not - I'm getting rid of a large chunk of labels and just replacing them with "WoW". It's mostly old content, so nothing super important. You can still find all the content in the archive on the right if you're keen. We may replace/remove a few more labels later, but for now, Welcome to the new layout! :)
(It's not done yet, due to the whole "whoops" that was supposed to go on the test page and not "live")
Obviously if you're reading this you'll perhaps check in on the blog once in a while - see nothing much is happening - or the 25 errors, missing images and broken CSS. You can thank google for that.
But as you could read in the previous post I've been a wee bit busy on game reviewing. Writing yes, blogging - not as much.
I've been working on some html fixes and making the site mobile friendly. I don't remember why I removed the mobile code from the template before - probably because I was lazy to support two styles, but I'm putting it back in. And, the site is getting a fresh new dark themed look. You'll see. It's been long overdue - not that it matters too much, as I doubt there's a huge lot of people still visiting here intentionally. WoW was the initial reason for the blog and I haven't touched that game in years.
It was fun, obviously. Made friends, had a good time. But WoW and Blizzard have lost most of my interest. I'll keep an eye on Diablo 4, but chances are I won't buy it at release either. My steam library has,. well, let's say it has grown a bit over the last two years.
Dark mode is hip and happening - plus it's simply less eye searing white. Skills and knowledge have improved over the years - so perhaps I'll find time and interest to spend more than a weekend on the layout. Maybe not. It'll be dark themed regardless, and some polish will be needed later.
For those who still frequent the site - I hope you enjoy the new look when it pops up. Chances are the old broken pages will remain broken - there's only so much I can do about those, and the blog was founded in 2007. Sheesh, yeah it's old. Some broken images are to be expected. As long as Google will keep us around, the text should all be perfectly readable however.
Pew Pew Pew Guns and ammo! That was this weeks theme of our Discord community event! As always there were some great entries. I love how I get to know new games thanks to these entries!
Ahem ahem ahem! To all participants, Congratulations! To all non-participants, also congratulations! (and be sure to participate next week!)
Here are the WINNERS!!!
Winner of 1500 Points – Xeloses
By Xeloses (I’m a little bit sad I can’t say “12 points to Xeloses!” but 11 points is still great!)
Winner of 1000 Points – Bae
By Bae
Winners of 500 Points – Alex Green & Smythe
By Alex Green
By Smythe (This guy cracks me up, I laughed so much with this entry!)
The next event will change things up a bit. It will be a MEME event! Voting for the meme template is going on NOW in the GGP discord, so check it out and cast your vote! I’m sure it’s going to be awesome, past meme events always were great! Sooo looking forward to it!
The theme chosen by the GGP community for this week was ✋ALIENS🤚 I expected some cuties👽 Or some nice looking space vehicles🛸… I kinda forgot that aliens used to be scary… But the entrants didn’t forget and posted some great screenshots. So thanks for the nightmares everyone…
Ahem ahem ahem! To all participants, Congratulations! To all non-participants, also congratulations! (and be sure to participate next week!)
Here are the WINNERS!!!
Winner of 1500 Points – Sylvia
By Sylvia
Winner of 1000 Points – BAE
By BAE
Winner of 500 Points – Storm
By Storm
Be sure to join us on the discord and vote for next weeks theme!
Welcome to the game that defined an entire subgenre of RPG games, the souls-like. Now available as a remaster. Enjoy stellar gameplay in 4k resolution at 60fps without third-party mods. Released in 2018 this version re-designed the 2012 masterpiece, with the DLC included. Developed by FromSoftware and published by BANDAI NAMCO entertainment.
This review was written by Nex
The vision
Imagine, an epic world filled with monsters, demons, giants, dragons, undead, and humans all ready to die by your hand… Imagine, exploring ruined cities, castles, forests, caves, pits of darkness, a library, or an ancient hollow tree… Imagine, controlling fire with your hand, or creating lightning spears like a god, or using poison arrows and watch enemies suffer from a distance… Dark Souls is an adventure like no other.
Character
In Dark Souls you can make your character the way you want. There are no class restrictions, however, certain equipment does require you to level up a bit. This means that you can start as a knight, then switch to a mage at any time. All you need to do is equip a staff and a spell you want to use. Starting classes differ in starting weapons and stats your character will have. It is recommended that beginners use a knight, as it has a decent amount of HP and starts with a shield and a straight sword.
Difficulty
Dark souls, well, FromSoftware games in general, are notorious for their difficulty. This comes in many forms. It’s gonna take some time to get used to the stamina bar. Unlike most RPGs, you cannot simply spam your most overpowered abilities over and over again. You gotta plan your attacks wisely. If you are not careful, enemies will swarm and overwhelm you in seconds. There are nearly 100 types of enemies in DS. Tactical decisions along with actual skill will separate scrubs from pros.
The main appeal isn’t the mob tho. It’s the bosses. There are 26 bosses in total, some mandatory, others optional. Not only are they usually massive and imposing, but they are also very deadly and will kill you in 2 to 3 hits. You don’t need to look past the first tutorial area to realize this. The asylum demon seems unkillable at first, but *spoilers* as you explore you come to a spot where you can jump and plunge him dealing nearly half of his HP bar as damage.
Sen’s fortress is an interesting area, cause it’s made like a 3d platformer. With pendulum scythes trying to knock you off narrow bridges and lizardmen shooting lighting at you, you will think this is harder than Super Meat Boy.
Equipment
Armor
In addition to raising your character’s statistics, you can improve your defense by wearing “better” equipment. Heavier armor provides better stats but lowers your rolling speed and invincibility frames. Lighter armor is significantly lighter (as its name suggests) but doesn’t provide nearly as much defense. Of course, if you don’t get hit you don’t need to worry about how much damage you will take. It’s up to you to choose what suits your game style. One final thing to note, you can mix and match and choose whatever looks best.
Rings
Another way to improve your character is to wear a ring. Dark Souls Remastered has 2 ring slots, but you cannot equip the same ring twice, nor can you use two of the same rings. Each ring has a different benefit, and you will use the ones that best suit the given situation. If you are going to farm, you will equip the ring that increases soul gain. If you want to fight bosses, you will equip either damage boosting or stamina recovery ring. The options are there, it’s up to you to find what works best for you.
Weapons and shields
Dark Souls weaponry comes in many shapes. You have two equipment slots, left and right hand. Each weapon has a different appeal in either hand. Most common for beginners is the right-hand sword, left-hand shield. However, you can use an axe, a spear, a lance, a halberd, or whatever weapon feel comfortable using. You can use it in one hand, or you can two-hand it for increased damage. This prevents you from using the other weapon/shield, but you still get passive benefits if the weapon has it (for example some shields increase your stamina recovery).
In addition to melee, you have the option of going range build. You can use a bow or a great bow if you want, or maybe you want to go spellcaster, in which case you need a catalyst or a pyromancy flame, or you can cast miracles, for which you need a talisman.
Best builds will require you to swap between several weapons. Some go better together, like STR/FTH or DEX/INT builds.
Story
You might wonder why the story is here. Well, that’s because Dark Souls doesn’t force its story on you. Yeah, there are some guidelines, but if you want to truly learn the story of Dark Souls, you will have to talk to NPCs, pay attention during the cutscenes and read item descriptions.
Multiplayer
While you can play single-player mode offline, one of the best aspects of Dark Souls is the online world. If you choose to play online, not only will you be able to summon people as friendly phantoms to help, but you will also be able to summon them to fight. PvP is different than PvE. There are some unwritten rules, like bowing before initiating combat.
Challenges
Dark Souls might seem like an unsurmountable mountain at first, but if you keep playing, soon you will find yourself rushing through areas crushing enemies on your path. People who play DS are incredibly skilled and always end up finding harder and harder challenges for themselves. Some of the most common ones are classic speed runs, no-hit runs, no-damage runs, soul level 1 runs, pyromancy only runs, and many, many others. If you want to check out this masterpiece and become the Dark Soul you will need at least a 64-bit processor and OS (Intel Core i5-2300 2.8GHz and Windows 7 64-bit), 6Gb RAM, GeForce GTX 460 1Gb GPU, DirectX 11, 8Gb of HDD space, and DirectX 11 compatible sound device.
Imagine, you enjoy playing Warframe. A 4 player short or long missions out in space. Shoot aliens and get the loot. Aside that, you enjoy digging for gold and other minerals just like in Minecraft or Terraria. Well, Deep Rock Galactic (DRG) is kind of the love child of Warframe and Minecraft in a way.
It combines the "up to" 4 players mission style and shooting aliens with a large, randomly generated cave system full of precious minerals. Best of all - the rough and easily irritated drunk dwarf sounds. "Now where is that damn mine cart?" or "(censored) I've got a pebble in my boot!". At random intervals as you are progressing through the missions really help bring the gruff characters to life.
The caves of Hoxxes 4 are full of aliens called the Glyphid, Mactera, Naedocyte and many more. You won't run out of targets to shoot anytime soon - but try not to shoot your fellow dwarves. Friendly fire is ON and it IS a cooperative game!
A little silly now and then
Deep Rock Galactic is the corporation and/or space station on which you arrive as a fresh dwarf. The space station has barrels littered around which you can kick (because you can) as well as bar for some classic ales and stouts. Try not to drink too much and get yourself killed. Management would not approve. Please also do not dance at the bar, you are not being paid the hour. Hopefully you are a better miner than a dancer.
The base game is fully playable with no restrictions. You can optionally get some DLC for extra character customization options. The total number of base customizations is quite large though, and many more may be found or crafted after discovering them in missions. You can customize your pickaxe, guns, sidekick and obviously your dwarf with dozens and dozens of options to choose from. Bigger beard, smaller beard, yellow red or orange beard. The list is very long.
Characters have fixed naming references to certain objects and characters. If you've got the beast master perk, you can tame a low level Glyphid grunt and it'll follow you around like a puppy. Your dwarf will call it 'Steve' no matter how many you tame, it'll always be called 'Steve'.
Then there's Molly the mule (or Mining Utility Lift Engine), Doretta the drill dozer (escort missions) and the mysterious character named Karl. Karl will often be named as though he was a lost dwarf. A legend, one of the first explorers now lost in the caves.
And finally Bosco, the robotic sidekick/miner/ninja which will help you on your solo missions. A very helpful little robot.
Four classes
DRG has four classes from which to pick and play. There is no restriction to which you can pick. So even if another player has already selected the Driller class, you are free to pick a driller as well.
Driller; As the name implies can drill rather than mine using his pickaxe. Has access to a flamethrower and explosives. Scout; A quick and agile class with a personal grappling hook and assault rifle. Also has a flare launcher to light up cave ceilings. Engineer; Can build stationary guns and recall them when needed. Can build platforms and wields a heavy gun. Gunner; The main DPS. How about 4500 rounds of depleted uranium in a minigun? That should clean out aliens nicely. Also has a zipline rope launcher.
Each dwarf has a set of basic gear which allows you to explore the (usually) dark caves of Hoxxes. Throwable flares which slowly recharge. A primary and a secondary weapon. Throwable grenades and a utility slot which makes each class unique.
So, while you're free to pick the same class as everyone it's usually recommended to build a balanced team. Having flexible utility will help speed up the mission, clear the aliens more effectively and allow you to mine more minerals than you would alone.
Missions and alerts
Currently there are a few different types of missions. Each with their own type of objective and gameplay as well as expected duration and rewards. A short mission will take you about 15 minutes, while a long mission can take as much as an hour of your time. There's no backing out mid-way if you want the rewards, so play your time carefully. Solo missions can be paused, multiplayer missions can not.
Mining; Go into the cave, mine X amount of Morkite metal. Egg hunt; Retrieve a number of alien eggs. Management may enjoy the taste. Refining; Liquid Morkite extraction. Build a refining rig and connect the pipes. (see the above image) Salvage; Another dwarf team failed their mission, retrieve their M.U.L.E.s Extraction; There's rare gems to be found. Similar to egg hunt but you have on-site cannons to help you. Escort; Guide Doretta to the center of the cave where a heartstone is waiting to be mined. Elimination; Find a number of giant egg sacs and kill whatever comes out of them. Basically a boss run.
And then there's deep dives. Deep dives become available once your first dwarf reaches level 25 (red bar) and is promoted once. The deep dive mission type is basically 3 normal missions connected in a row. Make sure you've got a good bit of time available. Deep dives have their own special rewards however, and are the only way to get certain customization options and overclocks with which you can improve your weapons.
Rock and stone!
Try to enjoy the scenery. Hoxxes is generally a dark and dangerous place, but it can be beautiful. Some caves are lit with bioluminescent plants, and these can take your breath away. Literally, as some of those plants will try to kill you.
Currently on update 34. The game is still receiving new patches with extra content and balancing and has an active discord community for cooperative team play grouping.
System requirements: 64 bit CPU and OS, 2.4 GHz dual core, Windows 7, 6 GB Ram, Nvidia TGX 460 or radeon equivalent, DirectX 11, broadband internet, 3 GB disk space. (Yes, it's quite modest)
Wow, another week has passed already! Did also feel so fast to you?
This week the community discord got visited by Angels and Demons! Some were creepy, some were kind (some even had pancakes!) And once again people voted for the ones they liked most 😇😈
Ahem ahem ahem! To all participants, Congratulations! To all non-participants, also congratulations! (and be sure to participate next week!)
Here are the WINNERS!!!
Winner of 1500 Points – JuKe
By JuKe
Winner of 1000 Points – Kriss ✠ Tone
By Kriss ✠ Tone
Winners of 500 Points – Xeloses & JapaniKatti
By Xeloses
By JapaniKatti
So you may have noticed that I sometimes choose to light out an entry that I feel deserves some extra recognition. The
reason for choosing the following entry is because it shows that Angels
and Demons CAN find common ground and sit at the same table thanks to
the power of pancakes!🥞
Another hand-drawn-pixel-style game this week. Children of Morta is a roguelite action dungeon crawler with cooperative gameplay. You and one close friend can duke it out against the hordes of corrupted enemies.
One unique selling point is the art, it is meticulous and detailed. You could say it looks like moonlighter, but you'd not be doing it any justice. Children of Morta is on a whole other level. See the Bergsons' house interior for example:
Roguelite not Roguelike
Children of Morta is considered a roguelite because every few levels you gain - all characters gain a "family trait" effect. Improved movement speed, shield effects, extra damage, you name it. Spelunky for example falls more in the roguelike category. In Spelunky your runs are randomized like in Morta, but you start from mostly the same level and power every time. In here your power increases as you can permanently improve your armor, health pool and many more statistics as you obtain morv (gold) to spend on the forge. You'll be forced to return to the house and enjoy the story as it unfolds, the woods around the house become more corrupted and more drama regarding the family members is explained. All fully narrated and very involving.
Every act you complete has the house itself change as new characters arrive or are allowed to join the fight. Various souvenirs are to be found in the caves as well. It's worth keeping an eye out for random events as some of these will give additional perks. Like a shopkeeper, a dog pup that'll give you a health potion, and a pack of robots.
Randomized
The caves and other areas are randomized every time you enter them, as is common for more roguelite and roguelike games. No run is exactly the same - and everywhere there's going to be monsters to kill, or treasure to uncover.
It's perfectly doable to finish the game solo - but the game supports 2 players. As all the family members have different playstyles it's highly encouraged to find a buddy to enjoy this game with. For myself I quite enjoyed the ranged characters. Mainly because you could prevent taking damage to yourself and thus get more morv and grow stronger. It may take an extra run or two solo, but you'll be able to beat the ruthless bosses within a few tries.
Bergson Multiclass!
Your first character will utilize sword and board. Straight up melee and shield in case of danger. A tactic that's satisfying to play and versatile. Soon after you'll unlock Linda and gain a ranged character. A combination both effective and deadly in 2 player mode.
Beyond those two you'll find a rogue, fire mage, two monks and a barbarian to add to your arsenal. As mentioned, it's worth leveling every member up at least a couple levels in order to unlock more family traits.
Runes and artifacts
Once you get further along in the story, you'll gain access to runes and artifacts. While runes are temporary, artifacts should last for the entire current run and can be swapped out with other artifacts if you happen to find any.
Once you reach level ~14 on a character, their runes become available to all other characters in the family. This means you could benefit from Lucy's (fire mage) whirlwinds as a melee character, and draw in your enemies closer to finish them off. Or various other strong combinations that you otherwise would not have access to.
Children of Morta was released 3 Sep, 2019 and is available on Steam.
Several free and paid updates/DLC are planned in the near future still, with Temple of the Endless having been released as recently as April 7th 2021. Online Coop mode is next on the list.
System requirements: 64 bit windows 7, 2.8Ghz Core CPU, 4 GB Ram, Geforce GTX 660 or equivalent, DirectX 11 and 2 GB storage space.
