Noble Gamer

November 2020

I haven’t been able to get an RTX 3070 or 3060ti yet, but did get a 5600X with new mobo and RAM - Such an upgrade from 3570K! If you want to get in on online hunting for GPUs or CPUs, check out the distill.io browser plugin that’s basically a fancy F5 & page update detector with unlimited local use and a limited number of email notifications - Just don’t hammer bigger sites more than once a minute like Best Buy or Newegg, or else you’ll get locked out. Anyways, the new CPU not going to boost my max FPS since I’m on 1440p most the time, but it will prevent some FPS dips when CPU bound like at 1080p or when playing a sim game. Gonna swap out the RAM though because every other time it boots up or unsuspends, the DRAM light turns on - I really do not want this to be a mobo issue. Hope to get a new GPU from Microcenter getting there before they open. I was on the fence about a 3080, but deciding against it since because of the price difference and it would go beyond 100+ FPS that I want to target for most games.
See my updated build here.

At the end of the year, I will have my own best & worst game lists out of everything I’ve played this year, and a priority list of games I hope to tackle in the new year. My nominations for the BLAEO awards are below though if your curious what I’ve played from this year’s releases.

On-Going Games

Half-Life 2

Tower Unite

91.5 hours
177 of 459 achievements

Played another new racing track that I enjoyed. Also tried getting a few new stuffed toys from the claw machine, only got one of them, and some repeats. A nightclub opened in the Plaza area which has a great media playlist mechanic and audio visualizations, and more importantly has billiards tables off to one side that I really enjoy playing.  I hope the billiards visually looks less janky though in upcoming hotfixes.

Half-Life 2

Divinity: Original Sin 2

31.8 hours
2 of 97 achievements

Finally picked this up again with my friend this weekend, who used this to break in his new 4K TV. We've come across another castle, but this one had puzzles outside. The battles are getting crazy, and we're having a tough time finding resurrection scrolls the further we venture away from the core of Fort Joy. We should probably head to a town to get (read: steal) some.

Completed

Half-Life 2

Subsurface Circular

2.8 hours
13 of 13 achievements

Interesting short narrative driven story game told entirely with robots on a subway. Easy to 100% without playing through the entire thing twice thanks to the ability to jump to chapters.

Beaten

Half-Life 2

Fallout 4

175.4 hours
36 of 84 achievements

I stuck with the railroad through thick and thin, which evidently makes it not possible to be neutral with the Institute even if undercover. Overall it was worth playing through, as the world building stories were decent even if the main storyline wasn't grand. I wanted a vast post apocalyptic world to mindlessly collect & kill stuff in with some story, and I got just that. Its no F:NV story, and I encountered more bugs than that or FO:3, but they didn't screw over my overall experience.

Half-Life 2

Slime Rancher

29.7 hours
34 of 57 achievements

The desire to make your slime farm better and find more slimes is a core gameplay loop that works great for me and oddly addicting, though the game might not be for people who are not at all into collecting creatures.   I rarely play or enjoy any kind of farming games, but this is the most enjoyable farming game since the original SimFarm.
My only minor gripes have to do with what is or is not shown on the map, and teleported.

Playing

Half-Life 2

EVERSPACE™

24.8 hours
8 of 33 achievements

The essential space combat roguelite. Great sense of progression within and between playthroughs. I've gotten to Sector 5 a few times but I've always come across a big armada type ship or a swarm of stuff I cant handle. The final sector after 5 is no exception. Just have to strategize better with different power ups. Thankfully each replay allows me to buy pilot or ship perks with $ as well.

My BLAEO Game Awards 2020 nominations

My nominations were pretty limited because most of the games I play are more than one year old, as I’m one of the /r/patientgamers, and I don’t feel like nominating a game that I haven’t played.

- Game of the Year: Risk of Rain 2, SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game: Unrailed
- Best Free to Play Game: Split or Steal
- Most Value for Money: Risk of Rain 2
- Best Game Under $20: SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE
- Most Addictive Game: Unrailed
- Prettiest Game: AVICII Invector (Dec 10, 2019)
- Best Soundtrack: AVICII Invector
- Best Early Access Game: Mad Tower Tycoon
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem: Mad Tower Tycoon

Next Month’s Games

Won’t Play

Found some more games I was either stuck on or haven’t touched that I’m confident I very likely won’t ever play:

Half-Life 2

Crypt of the NecroDancer

7.4 hours
0 of 44 achievements

Loved it when I played it, but got stuck. Guess my rhythm isn't great and only got me so far.

Half-Life 2

Hacknet

7.8 hours
4 of 11 achievements

Got most of the way through the main story, and part of the way through DLC, but didn't want to look up anymore solutions.

Half-Life 2

Override

0.5 hours
3 of 43 achievements

Online fighting game with meh controls and meh single player mode.

Half-Life 2

Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages

1.9 hours
1 of 175 achievements

2D story heavy ship shooter is unique but isn't my type of game. I'm having a lot more fun with space games like Everspace. 

Half-Life 2

Silent Storm

0.6 hours
no achievements

Sentinels is supposed to be better and hopefully not as aged as this one was when I played it for a bit. 

Half-Life 2

TERRORHYTHM (TRRT)

1.0 hours
22 of 57 achievements

Another rhythm game that's great on paper, but my rhythm can't keep up with it.

Half-Life 2

The Escapists

18.7 hours
0 of 37 achievements

How to escape eludes me no matter what map except for one.  I'd rather play the sequel anyways.

Half-Life 2

Retool

1.6 hours
1 of 8 achievements

Its an ameteur version of Volume with weaker story & narration.

Half-Life 2

Dark Future: Blood Red States

8.3 hours
5 of 36 achievements

Mad Max on rails with time manipulation seems cool on paper, but there's not enough about the gameplay that doesn't make it interesting for me beyond one "season".  The world's story is told through various text between hitting the road, but I wasn't familiar or into the Warhammer universe lore that its based on.

Half-Life 2

Anomaly Warzone Earth Mobile Campaign

2.0 hours
0 of 39 achievements

I'm not playing a mobile version/campaign on PC.

Half-Life 2

DiRT Rally

5.0 hours
0 of 170 achievements

I'll play the sequel instead. 

Half-Life 2

Don't Starve Together

5.3 hours
no achievements

The original was enough survival for me. Doing that along side other people is too much for me.

Half-Life 2

F1 2015

6.8 hours
0 of 45 achievements

I'll play 2018 or 2019 instead.

Half-Life 2

Galactic Civilizations I: Ultimate Edition

0 hours
no achievements

I will play #2 or #3 instead.

Half-Life 2

Republique VR

0 hours
no achievements

I don't have VR, and I have a ton of other things I would prioritize over purchasing VR, like even having a GPU that could support it. Note that this is a separate game from the normal/original version.

Half-Life 2

Stronghold Crusader HD

4.3 hours
no achievements

I'll play Extreme edition instead.

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This comment was deleted over 3 years ago.

Noble Gamer

And gratz on new GPU

I got a new CPU, not a GPU. I’m still trying to get a new GPU.

I was referring to “Silent Storm: Sentinels” as a newer game that I would rather try instead of “Silent Storm”. They might be part of the same base game though - I forget.

Good luck with getting a job and a GPU upgrade!

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This comment was deleted over 3 years ago.

Vito

Oh, I was initially planning to upgrade my PC too during Corona times … but then new Hardware was announced so I waited … and then everyone had the same idea and everything was out of stock in no time xD Gratz on getting at least some parts :)

BATTLETECH is an awesome game, I was a fan from the moment I started it and the main menu theme played. I hope you enjoy it too! Looking forward to reading about your best & worst games of the year. I, too, had the problem that I played almost nothing from this year to nominate for the BLAEO awards…

Thanks for the heads-up on getting all achievements in Subsurface Circular. It’s always a pleasure not to have to play through a game twice just for some achievements!

Noble Gamer

Thanks, I’m happy with my 5600X. Hope to make a trip to Microcenter soon to get a RTX 3060ti or 3070 - We’ll see.

BATTLETECH is a game that I played for quite a while after launch because I love BT/MW, but I stopped half way through the campaign when I learned that the game would have several DLC coming. So I have waited to get back into the campaign with all DLC until my winter time off, because I know its going to be a time suck with each mission taking me about an hour on average.

Subsurface Circular can be done 100% with only replaying the final chapter if you handle all the middle bits “correctly”, but I had to replay parts of least 2 of the 6 other chapters to revisit some achievements that I evidently skipped over.

Vito

Yeah, BATTLETECH is really taking a long time to beat! I haven’t played with the DLCs yet, but I hope I’ll find the time some day to hop into it for another round!

Good luck with your hunt for PC parts, I hope you’ll manage to get the 3060i or 3070 :)