Continuing Fallout Tactics with the Redux 1.3 mod.

Now on the third mission, I finally figured out how to get new missions (yeah, there was one guy I needed to talk with in the base).

I earlier complained how damn hard the game is (in Insane difficulty level), but happy to say it was mainly just the first mission. That mission was a real bitch as your three characters were low level and couldn't hit shit with their shitty weapons, while enemies could kill them with one hit. Lots of save-reload-save-reload, until you got lucky... That first mission took ages for me.

After the first mission, I went to wander in the wilderness, fighting random encounters. I picked enemies that do only melee fighting, and used the "shoot at the enemy, and run away" tactic to them. That allowed me to do a tiny bit of damage to them, without me gettting damaged in return. This allowed me to level up several times and I also got hold of better weapons (XOR assault rifles?) that can shoot at better ranges and do more damage, and the game became considerably easier in the process.

So the second mission went much faster, now I finally felt I could actually fight the enemies successfully. And after that second mission, only then I realized that gee, I can even recruit more members to the team! So now I have six members (instead of the initial three), all have at least their small weapons skill at 100% or more, assault rifles etc., so the third mission is going ok now.

I am enjoying the game now much more than in the beginning. One or two of my team members I am thinking of teaching to be heavy weapons experts (as I read somewhere that going all long range snipers is not a workable solution for some of the missions, even if that is what I'd really want to do), and maybe one or two as sneaking melee fighters as well (I was already able to take down two guards from behind with such a sneaky flanking attack).

Yeah, enjoying it. Just goes to show you need to give games a proper chance before dropping them.

I am unsure what are all the things that the Redux mod changes (ie. how different it is now from the vanilla game), but what I especially like with the mod is that it warns me which perks etc. are useless so that I don't waste a perk pick for an useless perk. For some perks it mentions in the description that it works only for the main character (so you shouldn't pick it for any of the other team members), for some it flat out says either the perk doesn't work in the game (a glitch?), or that it is totally useless for the game (like that perk which makes it easier in Fallout games to find secret places; apparently Fallout Tactics doesn't even have such secret places to be found, it was an useful perk only in Fallout 1-2).

I played (and finished) the game one or two years ago. I think I was also playing some kind of mage type, I think it was a full mage (not a battle mage) as I think I used only staffs and/or knives as weaponry.

Then again, as weapons seemed to break down so easily in the game, at some point I just started fighting with my fists barehanded, as then I at least didn't have to care about not breaking my weapons. Sure I made less damage then, but in the end it usually just meant I had to hit a few more times. And after I levelled up enough, even my fists seemed to become pretty good weapons.

I think later I came up with staffs that lasted much longer, and also The Staff was unbreakable IIRC, so once you can use that as a weapon, no need for bare hands anymore.

Try to find an elevated place (not floor), like a table or a bed or something. I recall that if you slept on an elevated block, then the enemies would not usually disturb your sleep. Of course, not all dungeons necessarily have such elevated blocks, but most do I think.

IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 with HSFX Mod (best Aircombat Sim in my opinion)

Dragon Age Origins (nice and epic RPG)

I just read a couple of days ago from news about the prison arrangements for Anders Breivik (the Norwegian mass murderer). Apparently he lives in solitude away from other prisoners, with a gym, a TV, a gaming console, and a PC... without an internet connection (so that he can't spread his nazi propaganda online).

I just kept thinking that if I was Breivik, how happy I would be if I had all my GOG game installers on an external USB hard drive (which I do, in fact). Then I could easily install and play all those games without having to rely on an internet connection, which I don't have.

It would still be a bit of a problem because without internet I wouldn't have access to e.g. FAQs or walkthroughs for various games, or asking for help on online forums in case of technical problems. Maybe it would be a refreshing experience though, having to discover and finish games without any external help at all. Especially point&click adventure games where I very easily check some walkthrough to get past hard parts.

I wonder if Anders has a GOG account, and whether the wardens download and bring his GOG games to him?

Too old skool.

Dark Souls II and... It is a let down compared to Demon's Souls and Dark Souls... Difficulty is not a mean, but an end in this one... Seems unfair and punishing beyond any other reason than, being "hardcore", and that's not the philosophy of the first two... Anyway, still a somewhat "good", "rewarding" experience somewhere there but covered in frustration and too much careful advance for rough punishment by traps,, ambushes and gang kills... I do try to git gud to see it through, but I understand how the main head of this series project was not at the helmfor this entry, and really it shows. Not a fan of this one so far, especially eerie ambiance is missing.

God damn the Dutch >:( Ever since I invaded their best buddies the Koreans 1500 years ago, they've still not gotten over it. And for some reason they are on super good terms with everyone else, because a war against the Dutch eventually means a war at least against the Sumerians, Arabs and Spanish as well. Even the Koreans reached the end of their patience with them as they continuously used Korean territory to move massive armies to my borders. So much so that the Koreans declared war on them. End result was Korea conquered from two sides, with the Spanish taking the west and me, the Greeks, taking the east.
Thankfully the Zulus have had enough sense over the centuries to avoid senseless wars half a continent away. Up to a few years ago that is, when the other super power, the Incas, convinced them along with the Americans to turn on me.
I don't have a friend in the world :( At least the Incas only have one source of rubber, and it's along the coast, so I'm going to bombard the hell out of that area to make sure they can never control it for long. That should keep their military in check. They don't have any oil either that I can see, but the Americans do in a small inland desert. A carrier and a few squadrons of bombers should be enough to make sure they never get to use it.

Can't wait until I can build a spaceship and leave this dump. And it will be a dump after I get my hands on some uranium.

civ 3 complete. Way better than I remember. Not as good as IV, but still excellent. (bombard mechanics work a lot better than in IV)

Ghost of a Tale. Fun and extremely frustrating at the sametime.

HL 1

Just killed the giant thing in the thing.

I'm playing that too! And this time I'm not doing too terrible. :D

I'm still playing TES:Arena.
My battle mage is now level 18, and have collected 6 parts of the staff of chaos. It is said that the staff consists of 8 parts. so seems like almost finished the main quest.
Now I'm exploring for the 7th part of the staff.
The dungeons are quite huge. I use spell for breaking walls to short cut a bit. also the open spell effects riddle doors.
Even I'm a mage, I usually fight monsters with melee weapon, first use a custom shield spell, then fight them with Ebony Dai-Katana. :D

I didn't know that. Thank you for the info.it's much help.

The Book of Unwritten Tales. Awesome.

If you are a Battlemage, a custom attack spell will be cheaper than a premade one with the same parameters. (Caution: The reverse is true of healing spells, so hold on to that Light Heal spell. Also, note that the situation is reversed if you are playing a Healer.) You can regenerate spell points by resting, using Potions of Restore Power, or (especially useful later when enemy spells become commonplace) with by absorbing enemy spells.

One other thing: Don't pick up the scroll at the end of the stone keep more than once. In the newest version of the game, the scroll is known to re-appear when you re-enter the dungeon, and picking it up can cause strange things to happen. (If you want to see this abused, watch a speedrun of the game; note that the speedrun doesn't spoil any dungeons past the stone keep.)

Anyway, I have started to give Battlespire another go. Having Cure Health, Rapid Healing (makes Cure Wounds twice as effective), Regenerate SPs, Spell Absorbtion, and high SPs and Wounds (what the game calls HP) is *really* helpful, to the point where Critical Weakness are not a problem. This character can wear medium armor, but still can't use weapons (Hand-to-Hand is really good in this game for various reasons, especially if you max out STR).

I am still running Cookie Clicker in the background (428.597 nonillion cookies baked all time).

I've been playing Sims 4 as of lately ( about to boot it up ), kinda bummed out I can't get The Movies game to run at all kinda wish the game was on here

Mass Effect 1. The first four-ish hours were a complete chore to slog through, but it actually does get better. It's got every single one of the standard Bioware flaws, but at least the combat is decent enough, not great but decent, and the story eventually does start picking up. I've got one weird issue going on, the textures for hair and outfits go blurry when in cutscenes, I have no idea why it's happening but it is slightly distracting.