Today i played some more Uncharted, though, i really didn't get far (today was a busy day for me and i was exhausted)

I took a landscape shot of the monastery in this chapter. Looking at it from this angle i feel like you can really see how it's a video game level. All the parts fit together in a way that is perfectly crafted to be climbable and cater to Uncharted's whole "cover fire" game play, while still offering some level of immersion. It's something i love about video games. Some of them do an amazing job of hiding their video game "elements" while still utilizing it to their fullest.

I attempted the Ghost in the cemetery achievement again a few times. My current route has me following the ledge face, climbing the broken arch to stay hidden, and then dropping down to the other cliff face. Then a enemy will walk past to check out the ledge and I'll stay hidden. once he turns around I'll sneak behind him. That's where i currently get stuck, because I'm not sure how to sneak past all the enemies watching the gate (The location i need to open to get the achievement) without getting killed or my NPC companion stealth killing them. As much as I'd like to do this in crushing difficulty, i think I'll just have to save it for later and come back and do it on easy because it is brutal.

I don't understand the Nintendo Switch. How many do I need for a family of gamers?

They are a personal device like a gameboy.
There is a TV version for party games.
The games may or may not be shareable, even with the physical games.
Assume the ideal usage is during screen time on a weekend.

I have been avoiding buying one as I don't understand them. Thinking of getting them soon.

I assume one OLED for the family and then a portable per person, then one copy of each game per device.

How is this affordable?

Note: I set this game to display in 4K resolution, but it enabled a resolution scale and wouldn't scale larger than 1080p for some reason. After I beat the game, I realized I was in borderless windowed mode. Changing it to fullscreen granted the full 4K resolution. So these screenshots are all going to be 1080p instead of my usual 4K.

Death From Above takes place in the Ukrainian town of Nenatsk during the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. You play a Ukrainian drone operator who is captured by invading Russian forces. But you're freed by a little old lady whom the Russians took for granted.

You grab a drone and a bunch of grenades and set out to clear the region from Russian invaders.

You can customize your drone and its pilot. As per usual, I switched to a female drone pilot. I also chose a camo pattern for my drone with Ukrainian colors and a Ukrainian flag trail behind it. Not very good camouflage in real life, but colorful and fun for a game!

You set out to restore communications with your military unit. There's an antenna nearby, guarded by several Russian military members, so you move to engage them. You can switch between your pilot and your drone, and for the most part, you only fight with your drone. Your pilot can't pick up a weapon and engage the enemy, so you want to keep them tucked away somewhere safe. Your drone has some seriously good range on it though (and unlimited battery life), so raise it high enough in the sky so as not to be seen by enemy forces and go scope out the target area ahead.

You can also turn on thermal imaging to make people and vehicles show up easier. Good for finding those stubborn forces hiding in the woods.

An interesting detail is that every time you kill a Russian combatant, their body immediately sprouts sunflowers. The sunflower is Ukraine's national flower, and if you haven't heard the story, there was a Ukrainian woman recorded on video who approached an occupying Russian military member and offered sunflower seeds to put in his pockets, so his dead body would blossom sunflowers. (Source)

Once you restore communications, you receive a message from Special Forces HQ, asking you to clear out Russian forces in the nearby village. From this point, you'll receive messages from HQ after each mission, directing you toward your next mission.

Also, you'll see a wanted poster of Putin on the wall in this room. Make sure you improve the poster for a huge score bonus. There are several of these posters to be found around the map. Don't forget to deface all of them!

To take out enemy forces, you switch your drone to a bomb view, giving you a target reticle directly below your drone. In this mode, you can drop your grenades on enemies.

Also, you can ask troops to surrender using the drone.

I've only had one guy surrender to me so far, but I got blown away by a tank before I could accept his surrender. The tanks just sat there idly, unmoving. I didn't realize they were armed and ready to target my pilot as soon as she wandered close. Oops.

The Russian troops were looting washing machines from homes, but after you clear out the enemies, you can pick up the washing machines with your drone and drop them onto designated pallets for homeowners to reclaim when they move back in. It doesn't matter which pallets in an area you drop them on; they get beamed up into the sky every time you drop one off, as well as giving you a score bonus.

Once you take over a Russian command post, you'll find the FPV drone. It acts like a guided missile; when you launch it, it shoots rapidly in the direction you're facing and blows up whatever target it hits.

You have some control over its direction, but it needs space to make big turns and it has a very short battery life that will drain in seconds, so make sure you're prepared when you launch it toward a target.

I should mention that you have unlimited ammunition in this game. Despite blowing up the FPV drone on each use, it will respawn in your inventory after a few seconds. Also, your regular drone can only hold 6 grenades at a time, but every time you fly it close to your pilot, it automatically refills all your grenades. So go nuts and take down as many enemies as you can from a safe vantage point!

By the way, the soundtrack for this game is awesome! Starring all Ukrainian bands. You can download it on Steam. The title song, also called "Death From Above," was made and performed by the band Antytila. They have three versions of the song: an English version, Ukrainian version, and a 21-minute instrumental version. I've been playing this song on repeat for months now; it's my favorite on the soundtrack!

There's also the band Surface Tension, who released their single "Завтра (Tomorrow)," both the original song and an instrumental version.

The band Odarka Zyrko released their single "за тобою (Behind You)," also the original version and an instrumental version.

Finally, there's GO_A with their single "Kalyna," which is the Ukrainian name for the guelder rose. It's a prominent symbol in Ukrainian culture, showing up in a lot of their media. This is probably my second most favorite song on the soundtrack.

You can hear "Death From Above" playing on radios scattered all throughout the game. But in the first village you come across, if you follow the sound of music, you'll find the actual band jamming in a house! Sadly, you can only watch from a single window. I had to take 2 screenshots to get all the band members in there.

This game actually benefits Ukrainian forces in their ongoing war. The publisher, Lesser Evil, claims that 30% of their proceeds are donated to two organizations helping the Ukraine war effort: "Come Back Alive" and "Army of Drones." Once they've earned back their production costs, they'll change their donation amount to 70%, using the remaining 30% to continue improving this game.

So if you want to show support for Ukraine (while also experiencing what it's like to operate a combat drone in occupied territory), I highly recommend playing this game. It's only $10 on Steam, or $16.46 for the supporter's edition, which includes this rockin' soundtrack and more skins for your pilot and drone.

If I had anything to complain about, it's that the controls currently can't be changed. I'm used to using Shift and Ctrl to go up and down in helicopters in other games, but you use E and Q to fly your drone up and down in this game. It took me a while to adapt to their controls, and I kept getting them confused and dipping into enemies instead of flying away. Developers, please let us change the controls!

Also, the game is relatively short. The whole game takes place on a single large map, but you are directed toward missions in specific regions of the map. There are 8 missions in total (plus a secret warship mission!). If you rushed through it, you could probably beat the whole game in an hour or less. But you earn points toward your total score for every little thing you accomplish in game - every enemy you kill, every vehicle you destroy, every flag you raise or propaganda site you discover. Heck, every washing machine you return gives you a boost to your score. So if you were to run around doing everything you possibly can... well, it took me about 4 hours to complete, and I know I missed a bunch of stuff.

Your total score gives you a global ranking, which you can see on the main menu. I started last night at #5,549 (I had previously played the first mission then quit), and by the time I beat the game, I was #194 globally.

So long story short, this was an extremely fun game with an amazing soundtrack, if not a bit short on gameplay and clunky controls. I hope they continue to improve on it and make it much more enjoyable. Lesser Evil, on their Steam page, claims, "We are uncompromisingly anti-authoritarian, anti-prejudice, and pro-democracy. We publish video games with clear political or social intent and messaging. We publish games that take a stand." So even though it's a short game, it's meant to deliver a message against fascism. And I think it did a pretty good job in getting that point across in the span of its gameplay. Slava Ukraini!

Pocketpair goes on to say that Palworld has been claimed to infringe on three patents held by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company and that part of the damage is required as compensation.

The first patent is one that most had guessed to be part of the case, as 7545191 refers to the process of capturing and befriending Pokemon, which Palworld apes with its Pal Spheres. The other two patents that are included in the lawsuit, 7493117 and 7528390 haven't been found and detailed just yet, but they're likely also mechanics in Pokemon games that are replicated in Palworld.

Today's game is Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. I continued my crushing playthrough today. I feel like it suddenly ramped up in difficulty. I ended up stopping while trying to get the Ghost in the Cemetery achievement, which is sneaking through an entire section without being seen or killing. I've come to the conclusion that Sam (The player characters companion for this chapter) sucks, because every single run i've done he's gotten me caught or killed someone by sneak attacking them.

This screenshot was taken in the tombs of a section in Scotland. I really liked the lighting and fog of this scene, and the whole catacombs section is really pretty. It reminds me of The Last Crusade in it's catacombs.

The whole section is gorgeous too though, i'm hoping to nab a screenshot of the Highlands tomorrow to share with everyone because i think they're pretty. The team did a really good job of making the whole game look amazing.

Here's a bonus screenshot i took of the section right after, this one was a close contender for it because i thought it was gorgeous too, but the fog in the one i picked got to me first:

Hi

Sorry if this isn't the right place to post this. Basically I'm looking for recommendations for a game I can play against my 2 brothers. We live in different cities and hardly get to see each other but are we all into games.

We are all in our late 40s and haven't gamed against each other since way back when I had a few networked PCs in a squat where we played unreal tournament. I am well out of the gaming loop, i just finished bioshock a couple of months back, now I'm playing doom & death loop. I'm crap at both!

We were thinking we'd like to play a shooter just against each other, kinda like unreal tournament, or something we can do cooperatively. We are definitely not ready to go up against the kids online. Maybe doesn't have to be a shooter if it's fun to play together. Most of us have kids and none of us has loads of screen time.

One brother is on an Xbox One is on a PC One is on a steam deck with WiFi hotspot.

I'm grateful for any suggestions

Cult of the Lamb is a cute game about building, maintaining, and running a cult in order to overthrow the four Bishops controlling the Old Faith. But is there such a thing as a good cult...?

You play as The Lamb, about to be put to death by the four Bishops. They've eliminated all of your kind to prevent a prophecy of "The One Who Waits" returning. With your sacrifice, the prophecy will be impossible to fulfill.

As soon as the blade lands, you wake up in a strange land, in front of The One Who Waits. He's imprisoned by four chains. He says that the Bishops, in trying to keep you from him, ended up sending you directly to him. He claims that he will grant you life again if you would start a cult in his name. Your choice is either "yes" or "absolutely." No middle ground option, I see.

He gives you his Red Crown, which revives you and grants you the power to command the loyalty of your followers and strike fear into the hearts of your enemies. You awaken at the sacrificial grounds, renewed with life, and fight your way out, taking out some of the Bishop's cultists along the way.

On your way out, you run into Ratau, a former vessel of The One Who Waits. He was instructed to help you with starting your cult. He will pop in and give you advice and guidance from time to time.

He also instructs you to save a poor soul about to be sacrificed. The grateful sacrifice will be your very first convert.

From here, you learn how to build your own cult grounds. It takes some work! You can't just leave your cult members to their own devices; you need to check in on them, provide food and shelter, task them with jobs, and overall just ensure they're happy and loyal so they continue to praise and worship you.

The more loyalty they have, the more power you build and the larger you can build your cult. Placing a shrine in the middle of your cult grounds will give your followers a place to pray and grant devotion, a sort of currency that you can use to upgrade various aspects of your cult.

You will also need to build a temple in order to give sermons, enriching your followers and also collecting more devotion from them.

Cultists can be tasked with collecting resources, which are needed to build up your cult grounds. But you also need money and more followers, both of which can be obtained by fighting your way through the lands of the Old Faith.

You ultimately need to end the lives of the four Bishops in order to release your imprisoned leader, so working your way through each of their lands is your overall goal. But it takes time to build up a cult and gain power, so you will slowly work your way up to each Bishop. As you gain more followers, each of the four lands will open up so you can travel through them for resources, money, followers, and power.

Good luck in building a faithful following! And remember:

I don't think I'll beat that amount of dedication in a game ever again. I was a young teenager when I started playing this game which had eaten all my social life... Guess it is part of me.

Last week I felt some nostalgia and reinstalled the game after ~18 years without touching it. It's crazy that my character is still there on some server (even if no subscription was paid for all those years), more or less in the state I left it the last time I logged-out years ago. The guild has been erased, but the friend list is still there as a reminder of those past friendships, none of them logged-in of course...

Fun fact, my parents refused to pay for the game at that time, so I started playing on the account of a friend, from which I later bought the game second-hand. The login still contains his name, and I think that's the oldest login/password I have a trace for.

(Game is Dark Age of Camelot)

Tonight was Zomboid night. We inducted a Friend into our Zomboid Group, and have a possible 4th on the way. We started a new world with the group, and decided to take on the prison for fun (something none of us have ever done, at least on the preset difficulty). Me and my Friend who played Cable decided to make a new character and save Jerry and Cable for when it's just the two of us.

My new character is Huey Warner. He's a Doctor who had his license taken away after replacing a patients lungs with a Pigeon to see what would happen. That didn't stop him from practicing medicine though, and he has his own back alley clinic that he runs out of the rose wood church. Right now he's going through a bit of a Governor Arc right now and is only a little off his rocker and has only Amputated a few limbs from scratches from zombies (probably for the best though, don't want to risk that 25% chance).

While clearing the prison i ran ahead and got killed (you can see my last corpse there with the Hiking bag). My friends choke pointed the zombies through a doorway while i made my way back over too the prison. I put Huey in a Hawaiian Shirt and Khaki shorts. The lore reasoning is that the Huey that died wasn't actually him, it was a body double he swapped in last moment. He then took a brief vacation to Hawaii before coming back to help.