First Impressions

Crusader Kings III – First Impressions

October 26, 2020September 14, 2020 by Rakuno

I don’t know what is with this year that every game I thought would be released next year is actually being released on this one. Crusader Kings III was one of those as I could swear it was going to be released in the beginning of 2021 but released this month.

Not that I am complaining. I loved Crusader Kings II despite being terrible at it. Mostly because of all the insane stories that were created as I played the game.

That meant that for Crusader Kings III my expectations were pretty high. I wanted enough simulation to make crazy stories as my dynasty tries to climb up the ranks of feudal european society while at the same time hoping the sequel would sand off a lot of the rough edges that plagued Crusader Kings II.

As of the time of this writing, I have about 19 hours played in Crusader Kings III according to Steam. Hence, this is more a first impressions of the game than a proper review.

For anyone that wants the TL;DR version it is this: If you loved Crusader Kings II, then this one is worth every cent. It is like Crusader Kings II with almost all the DLCs but better.

If you never played Crusader Kings II then you might want to wait for a possible free weekend or watch a YouTube video or stream of someone playing the game to see if it is for you. The game doesn’t feel like it has a near insurmountable mountain of a learning curve like its predecessor but it is still a very steep hill.

Solasta: Crown of the Magister Demo

June 18, 2020 by Rakuno

Steam is doing a pretty cool thing right now, the Steam Game Festival. The idea is basically that for a week they will make available demos of a bunch of upcoming games. It is a good way to check out the demos for some games that weren’t in your radar or for games that you are thinking of purchasing and just want to make sure you will like it.

It will be going until June 22 at 10 AM PDT.

Solasta: Crown of the Magister is one of those games that are part of this festival and wasn’t on my radar. In one of the Discord servers I hang at, a friend of mine suggested people to check it out and tell what their thought of the game. If you never heard of it before, like me, Solasta is a western fantasy RPG that uses the 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons rules.

To be honest I’d normally just snub on a game like this, thinking it is just another generic fantasy game, that is just using the D&D name to carry it’s sales. But since it was a request by a friend and I wanted to test the game’s claim of using the D&D ruleset I decided to check it out.

I am glad I did because it is a pretty good damn demo with lots of potential for the full game!

P.S.: I intend to check other demos from the Steam Game Festival and even write about them if possible. However since I have other commitments during the weekend I might not be able to publish the posts before it ends. So I recommend people to check the demos themselves.

If you are feeling overwhelmed with choices here are some that fellow bloggers posted about:

Steam Game Festival (June 16-22) at Nerdy Bookahs

Touch Type Tale Demo (Steam Game Festival) at Nerd Girl Thoughts

Madly in Love with Best Friend Forever Demo at Nerd Girl Thoughts

Three Demos That Didn’t Convince Me at Nerd Girl Thoughts

Stellaris – Federations DLC first impressions

March 21, 2020 by Rakuno

Last Tuesday saw the release of the Federations DLC for Stellaris. While others have been eagerly awaiting for the the release of other games I’ve been waiting for this DLC. And for good reasons too, as they not only they completely revamped the whole Federations system but they also made all aspects of diplomacy a lot more interesting. Plus a lot of other interesting bunch of stuff as par for the course. 🙂

But even though I knew everything that was coming with this DLC there were still a few things that confused me at first but I think I am starting to understand how they work.

Ring Fit Adventure Impressions

December 6, 2019 by Rakuno

I am at that point in life where I need to exercise if I want to get to an old age without too many health problems. Specially because I lead a very sedentary life and don’t have any sport that I particularly like to practice. The problem though is I dislike gyms. They make me uncomfortable and feeling out of place.

A solution I tried was to play Wii Fit U. In fact that was secretly part of why I bought it in the first place¹. Even that was problematic though because I end up in a cycle of exercising for a few weeks then stopping for months due to mood swings or changes to my routine.

I even tried looking at some alternatives like the demos for the Fitness Boxing and Just Dancing 2019 for the Switch but found them not to my liking. Even the Ring Fit Adventure was something I tried to ignore at first because I was afraid it would be another game that wouldn’t work for me. But then I read a review of it at Destructoid and in my typical impulsive way decided to buy it and hope for the best.

First impressions Stellaris

May 15, 2019 by Rakuno

Stellaris is one of those games I kept wanting to give a try but wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it. The reason for that is because it is developed by the same Paradox, the same company responsible for Crusader Kings 2. Now I love Crusader Kings 2 but that game has a very steep learning curve right from the start. My fear was that Stellaris would be the same and for a game like that I just need to be in the right mindset.

Since Steam had a free weekend for Stellaris I decided that this would be the time to find out if it was a game I wanted to play or not. After playing it through most of the weekend I can safely say: yes, I love the game. And yes, I bought it and all the DLCs. 🙂

Falling in love with Dark Souls

August 7, 2015 by Rakuno

The main character staring at the horizon — Praise the Sun!

I am not the type to be attracted to brutally hard games. I am just not the type of person to get a thrill off beating an uber difficulty challenge. It is just not how my brain works. But then I started to watch this Let’s Play of Dark Souls. It not only made me fascinated with the game, it almost made me a bit obsessive about it. Since it is a game I could potentially hate though I didn’t buy it right away, instead I was going to wait for a sale so if I didn’t like it I wouldn’t lose too much money. And it just happened that the latest Humble Bundle had Dark Souls on it. As you can imagine I bought that Humble Bundle and have been playing the game for the last few days. Much to my surprise I am enjoying the game a lot!

Expanding my MMO horizons: Landmark

July 8, 2015 by Rakuno

Although this is not my first time with Landmark (I did try it during the early alpha days) the gamechanged significantly that it is almost like trying a new game. I say almost because it is not too different from when one plays a MMO for a while then stops for say, 5 years, and returns to it. There is all that sense of familiarity mixed with something completely new and strange. And thinking about it now that may be the reason for me not spending as much time with it during the weekend as I did with Trove (which you can read my first impressions of here). But before we get into my very brief foray with Landmark, let me give the usual disclaimer.

DISCLAIMER: This is by no means intended to be an in-depth review. Consider it the first impressions of someone who just installed the game, with very little to no knowledge about the game beforehand. It is the impressions of someone that spent an hour or two playing the game and has probably very little clue of what he was doing.

Also, keep in mind that right now Landmark is on Closed Beta. That means the game will certainly change a lot until it is official release. That means that everything I write here now may be true to the game as it is it is quite possible (and most likely) that it will be a completely different experience when the game is finally released.

Alright. With that bit out of the way, on with the show!

Expanding my MMO horizons: Trove

July 6, 2015 by Rakuno

This weekend I decided to finally decided to buckle down and expand my MMO horizons a bit and play Trove. I also finally took the time to revisit to Landmark to see how is has been shaping up. The results of both of those explorations were… different than what I expected. So I will be making a couple posts about that. This one will be covering Trove. The next one should be in a few days and covering Landmark.

DISCLAIMER: This is by no means intended to be a in-depth review of either game. Consider it the opinions of someone who played the game for one to two hours for the first time and has very little clue about what he is saying. Another thing to keep in mind is that Trove is in Open Beta but should be released in a few days, on July 9th to be more precise. It is unlikely things will change radically by release but they will most likely add a few new things and certainly correct some bugs.

[EQ2] Tears of Veeshan – First impressions

November 19, 2013 by Rakuno

Tears of Veeshan, Everquest 2’s latest expansion was released last week. Since I was travelling I have only been able to check it out the in the last few days. I admit before the release I was a bit hesitant about it. Mostly due to the changes to gear stats and the promise that the questing would be less linear than the previous one, Chains of Eternity. That and we would have to do some work for Qho again! Well, after spending these last few days with it I am happy to say my worries weren’t warranted. 🙂