Crying not very Far

Far Cry 6 was free this weekend, so as I've played all the others, yeah, give it a go. Don't really feel like paying for it at the moment though, and no doubt I'll be able to get it for really cheap in a year, which might be the way to go.

I only played it for a short time to get to where I could co-op, but already I can tell you: it's more of the exact same. You liked Far Cry 4 and 5? Or 5 and New Dawn? Expect to do exactly the same thing here. You are actually a bad ass that is reluctantly drawn into a battle against an enemy force. We have installations to take out, lots of collectibles to find, and side missions...

However, I had one big small problem. The only way I could get the game to run was to shut down everything else on my computer. And even then, it wanted to play in a lower resolution that my monitor does. Even on the low end, this pegs out my computer. So... that's all I'm playing for now anyway.

Which is a general thing I'm facing. There are lots of new games coming out, from (yes, although it has issues) Cyberpunk 2077 to Ghostwire Tokyo to Far Cry 6 that I would like to play, but my computer can't handle it. Usually I upgrade when there's a new version of Windows to move to, so while Win11 has now come out, it's not really that prevelent yet.

And there are some parts of my computer I like. Mainly the drives, and I upgrade my power supply so I know that's good... all I really need is a new CPU and a new Graphics card ("all", ha!), but then I'll likely need a new motherboard, and maybe new memory, and would then need to reinstall everything.

I have to upgrade at some point. I do want to put it off for a while (lots of other things taking my money at the moment), so I'll stick to some older games (some of which aren't that old). [As long as no new Tomb Raider games come out.] It's not like I don't have enough games in my Steam Library or other places...

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What's in a Wordle?

I'm sure you've heard of Wordle by now. Big sensation. Got brought by the New York Times (so we are all expecting pay gating any day now). And of course there are lots of wordle-a-likes... and here are some of the ones I pay attention to.

Wordle - of course, the classic. I have a two word start that I usually use, so very rate do I get a two-er. Got a few broken streaks, but what you gonna do? I've stopped worrying about it.

Worldle - where in the world is... well, not Carmen Sandiego, but you? They give you a country outline, and you got to name the country. Every guess gets you a rating of how close you are and in which direction the country is. I admit, my geography is so bad, I use a world map. But hey, I view this as increasing my geography.

Heardle - can you hear me now? How's your music knowledge? Can you pick a song just from the opening sounds? I vary between "get it instantly" and "never heard of it".

But want more? Some more I'm aware of that I've attempted at times:

Semantle - guess the word going by how close your guess is semantically to it. I'm really bad at this.

Dungleon - guess the party composition. There are extra rules you need to work out, so if you keep at it.

Nerdle - guess the maths equation... I don't even know where to begin with that.

Scholardle - guess the academic word.

Heardle - (a different one) guess the word from its phonemic sound.

And then if one Wordle isn't enough for you:

Quordle - 4 of 'em!

Octordle - 8 of 'em!

Hexadecordle - 16 of 'em!

Sedecordle - 16 of 'em! (also)

Duotrigordle - 32 of 'em!

And finally:

Survivle - don't guess the word! (but obey the Hard Mode rules)

Letterle - guess the letter. Go on, guess it!

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Second Darksiders

Okay, sure, I went to the second game... and had a lot more fun! I don't know if I just got used to it or what, but the Easy mode (yes, of course I was on Easy) was possibly a bit too easy?

For example, in the Soul Arbiter's Maze... I did the last five levels (not rooms, levels) with no health potions. I may have been a little over leveled, but...

The whole experience felt better paced. Yes, there is still "you need to go do these things three times" bullshit again and again, but the major milestones were better placed so that I was often "I felt I've done a good bit, the game could end here, that would be fine".

One complaint is the boss fights: too many didn't have a gimmick, just "get in there and cut them up". Some of the gimmick fights, when they were there, were memorable, but there's like... three of them? Even major boss fights were just a DPS race of their health bar vs mine.

(Speaking of, I did the additional campaigns, and the very last boss fight I did sucked majorly, a mixture of homing boss shots and dodge mechanics sucking. The only reason I won was because I went and got more health potions.)

One annoyance: too many items. You have about five different armour pieces, two weapons, and other add ons. Upgrades were mainly "get a new item drop", so you are constantly checking your inventory to see if you have a better weapon. And then other upgrades cost money (which you sell the inventory for), or, for some weapons, by sacrificing items directly. And then there were skill points. Just too many things to track.

Now, I do have number three in the series (but not the fourth it seems). However, I understand the gameplay style is quite different so... not sure how quickly I feel about getting on that.

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The Man Bat

This is Emo Batman... although, to be honest, if you lose the voice over (yes, there is voice over), this would be a lot less emo! "Show don't tell" is a valid maxim and would work far better here.

The Batman gets called in as the Riddler attacks people. He is the only one who knows what riddle answers are, so that's just as well. However, there is a Huge Conspiracy to uncover, so there is that to deal with as well. Mix in corrupt cops, other people from the rogue's gallery, and there's a lot to be getting on with. The final end piece fight is a little unfortunate given the start of last year, but they would have been well into making the film when that happened... still, feels like they should have done something...

Which doesn't fully explain the three hour run! Or should I say walk. Because that's what every character does. Slow, ponderous plodding. Now, understandably the Batman (if the title insists so much, fine, I'll include the 'the'), who looks to be fitted out in padded body armour, but everyone insists on speaking slowly too. Even vehicle chase scenes feel like they are just slowly cruising along. Run, people, this is urgent!

Robert Patterson is fine as the Bruce Wayne. As are all the other actors. Colin Farrell gets under a lot of prosthetic and Jeffrey Wright is a great Gordon. Zoe Kravitz suffers a little from the Male Gaze, but it isn't too bad.

No doubt many people will go see this. I had a jump out for a pee break after two hours, let's see how long you go. No idea if there is a post-credit scene, didn't wait to find out.

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