Return to Arrakis

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Sometimes things happen really quickly. We had been commenting recently that, at some point, we wanted to give Dune Awakening another go. For me, it landed at exactly the wrong time… right before a Path of Exile league. One of the big turn-offs was the real-world upkeep aspect of the game, and the fact that I needed to log in periodically to refill the power packs on my base so that it would not deteriorate. All of that said, I had a lot of fun while I was playing it and learned a lot of things about the game itself that would make a restart feel so much better. Saturday night, after the podcast, I logged pretty quickly, and then when I got up Sunday morning to edit said podcast… I noticed a chain of messages in our games of the moment channel. Essentially, Tam had made good on the plans and reactivated our private server, and as such, Sunday morning after posting the show, I was back in the character creator building a new desert dweller.

This time around, I went with a Swordmaster and landed on a look that felt more “me”. While I generally play fairly lily-white characters in games, I can’t bring myself to do so in the Dune universe. It is just too unrealistic that anyone who has spent any amount of time in the desert would not have a lovely bronze complexion. I went Swordmaster because it has this bum rush type ability that seemed like it might be really useful early in the game. I was a Mentat previously, and the whole floating turret thing was cool, but felt like it took too much planning and setup for it to really be useful for very long. Swordmaster, on the other hand, has a ton of perks that improve how well you can survive in harsh conditions, which seemed like something I care way more about. Ironically, though I find myself using a rifle way more often than I am using a blade, because if I can keep things at ranged I can generally whittle them down pretty quickly. I desperately need a shield belt, though, so I need to stop stalling and do the quests that I believe unlock it.

One of the huge benefits of playing this already… is that I understand the flow of the early game a bit better. Nothing that I do in the first two zones is likely to have any permanence. I am already on base number three, and instead of building grand constructions… I am building essentially what is needed. I am also not too torn up about leaving resources behind, and carrying only the things that are actually more challenging to acquire, like the fremen materials. Right now, I have a small base situated vaguely between the Imperial Testing Station and the shipwreck, so that I can comfortably farm both of those. My first goal was to gather up enough blue materials to craft a Sandbike, because ultimately, I will need that to transition up into the next zone and start mining iron. I do want to finish doing the various contracts I have before moving upwards, though, because it is not like I am in an extreme rush. Thinking about Dune Awakening characters like Minecraft, or even ARPG characters, helps immensely because I know I will probably reroll again at some point in the future and wipe the slate clean again.

Another thing that I have noticed this time around is that I am way more willing to move around during the daytime. I think during my first playthrough, I was scared to death of being stranded out in the sun for any length of time, and as such, I spent too much time waiting for nightfall, where I felt like I could move around more freely. There are always shadows about, and you can get to the safety of them pretty quickly. It is highly unlikely that you will ever truly be stranded, and in a worst-case scenario, you build a temp base. I’ve even gotten way more comfortable crossing expanses of open desert during the day if I can figure out a way to hop between shadows. Daytime has become the time I farm resources that are easy to get, and Nighttime is when I set out on more serious adventures, like crossing between complexes of rock. When I play next, I plan on heading over to the ship wreck and farming some materials there, and maybe pushing past that to knock out the kill quest for the Trooper at the first city.

The highlight of yesterday was that I have my sandbike ready to roll, which is going to make finishing up everything that I want to do in Hagga South that much easier. Essentially, once I get ready to make the migration to the next area, I will load up some basic materials and then find a safe place to cross the gap. I really should have put in a proper two-wide door into this base instead of having to try to navigate my bike out of a normal door. It works for now, but is more fiddly than I would have liked it. Oh well, these are things that I can fix in the next base, because I know I will be starting over once again just around the corner. Essentailly I am building these 2×3 foundation block huts that have a second story. It gives me plenty of room to put a few power generators down on the bottom floor and all of the necessary machines on the top floor. They are not architectural marvels, but they are efficient… which feels like is way more important while you are still roaming around the map prior to getting your ornithopter. I know Tam already has a decent base in Aluminum territory, so once I get up there, I can rely on that somewhat. I think it will be important that we build bases in decent spots so that we can each utilize the other bases as a bit of a network.

The thing that I marvel at most about this game is its sound design. Moving around the desert feels amazing because you are constantly aware of the sounds and movement of the worms below you. Additionally, combat noises feel really good, and the ever-present threat of the Sardaukar at night keeps you on your toes. It feels like the world is the real enemy that you are fighting against, though, and it is living and breathing and always waiting for you to slip up. All of that said… I am starting to get to the point where I am willing to take more risks because the worst thing that can happen is that I have to start over. Progression goes much faster once you know what you are doing, so the idea of losing everything is no longer as daunting as it once was. Sure, there are some key progression moments… first sandbike, first dune buggy, first ornithopter… but those are also things that other players can help you with. I am sure if I got desperate, I could get someone to craft me Sandbike bits again.

The other big thing that I noticed is that it feels like the world has way more resources than it used to. Even the patch that just dropped seems to have added a bunch of nodes that were not there yesterday. For example, my current base did not really have much copper around it, but this morning when I logged in, there were four nodes in the same valley that I built the base in. Essentially, it seems like the game is way more forgiving than it was at launch, which only serves to make me willing to be a bit more reckless with resources. It felt like, at launch, I spent a lot more time struggling to reach a point of sustainability, and I am not having any of those issues now. So I am not sure if they eased up on how fast you lose water, but that definitely feels a bit easier than it was before. Maybe I just rushed my way to the stillsuit faster this time.

Essentially, I am enjoying my time back in Dune Awakening, and we will see how far I can get before Path of Exile 3.28 drops.

Mixtape Mondays: Willowy Weary Wise

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Good Morning Folks! This is an exceptionally busy morning for me. I have a pretty early doctor’s appointment and will have to fight road construction to get there. So as a result, I got up quite a bit earlier than I had normally been getting up, largely so that I could roll this post out without issue. This week represents the third week in this new series of Mixtapes, and the twenty-sixth in total since beginning this series during the pandemic lockdown. If you are tuning in for the first time, Mixtapes are really important to me on a personal level. I’ve always loved the art of constructing just the right mix of music for the right mood. There are a lot of things that have inspired me to make mixtapes in the past, but I think part of this is that I mourn the art of crafting albums. There were so many musicians that I grew up listening to that fully understood the way an album flows… is more important than the individual songs on it. While I am entering my “Cancer Boy” era, I am finding it more important to do little things that allow me to stake a creative claim on the world, and this mixtape nonsense is just a small part of this.

26 – Willowy Weary Wise

These mixtapes start for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes they are inspired by lived experience, other times are built around a specific song, and in the case of today’s mix, are a bit of a remix of someone else’s playlist. On February 6th, my friend Mallow shared a playlist on bsky, and given that I like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, I clicked through and gave it a bit of a listen. One of my favorite things about social media is when you find out one of your existing friends has relatively “drift compatible” musical tastes. Collectively, there is a lot of really great stuff on that list, but I was floored by how well a very specific block worked together. Namely, how Red Right Hand, Down by the Water, and Tear You Apart flowed together perfectly and set a very specific tone for the entire outing. Individually, they are all great songs, and I have been a massive fan of PJ Harvey since she was thrust into my life initially with 50Ft Queenie. So that gave me the tapestry with which to weave another mix, and I anchored that block in the middle of a fifteen-song mix designed to exploit that same sort of feeling. The mixtape itself was named in honor of Mallow herself, since I am effectively copying her homework for my own creation. I am hoping you will enjoy my own spin, and also check out her own playlist, so you can see two different takes on the same idea.

Track List

  • 01 – Dead Souls – Nine Inch Nails
  • 02 – Cirice – Ghost
  • 03 – This Corrosion – The Sisters of Mercy
  • 04 – People Are People – Depeche Mode
  • 05 – Bela Lugosi’s Dead (The Hunger Mix) – Bauhaus
  • 06 – The Killing Moon – Echo & The Bunnymen
  • 07 – A Girl Like You – Edwyn Collins
  • 08 – What’s A Girl To Do? – Bat For Lashes
  • 09 – Death Don’t Have No Mercy – Delaney Davidson
  • 10 – Red Right Hand – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
  • 11 – Down By The Water – PJ Harvey
  • 12 – Tear You Apart – She Wants Revenge
  • 13 – Black Wings – Tom Waits
  • 14 – Glory Box – Portishead
  • 15 – Stay – Shakespears Sister

Listen To It Yourself

This represents three weeks in a row that I have released a new mixtape on Monday. I know that I will probably not be able to keep this up indefinitely, especially as my whole “Cancer Boy” journey ramps up. However, I do like that this gives me at least a small amount of creative control over my world. Similarly, I am trying to arrange a time to sit down and record with “The Librarian” and do what will honestly probably be the most revealing and personal episode of “Bel Folks Stuff” that I have ever done. I kind of love that I have given them this ominous-sounding moniker at the same time they are themselves struggling to decide their own identity going forward. I have a few nuggets of playlists floating around in my head, or at least anchor songs that I want to build around. One of the big self-imposed challenges for me is that I do not want to use the same songs that I have ever used before in a playlist, and similarly, I do not want to repeat the same musicians more than once in the same playlist. For example, this week I might have gone with the Ghost version of Stay, but went with the original to keep from violating my own self-imposed rule. These mixtapes are yet another way I am trying to declare that I still live and am still trying to be a creative human.

As always, you can see the full list of mixes over on my archives, and in many cases, I release the new mix a bit early there so it is staged and ready for Monday morning.

Mixtape Mondays Archive

AggroChat #557 – Recovering Antiquities

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Featuring: Ace, Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen

Hey Folks! We have the entire crew this week but have a bit of a rolling start without Tam as he was finishing something up in Star Citizen.  We begin the show with some talk about Relooted a game about recovering antiquities and returning them to their rightful homes.  After that, we discuss Destiny Rising and how it appears to be in maintenance mode lately.  No one had it on their bingo card, but we talked a bit about the drop of the Warlock class in Diablo II Resurrected and how it is also coming to Immortal and Diablo IV.  Tam shares his thoughts about playing Warhammer: The Old World and how it is not exactly the game he thought it was going to be.  We discuss a bunch of rapid-fire topics from the recent Sony State of Play event, and then Kodra dives into Thinky Games and Shape of Dreams.  We discuss the failed state of Highguard and 2XKO and what it means for multiplayer games in general. Finally, a quick blurb that we are all looking forward to Horizon Hunters Gathering, and they should give us all keys to test it.

Topics Discussed:

  • Relooted
  • Destiny Rising Decline
  • Warlock in Diablo II
  • Rank and Flank: An Older Era of Minis Games
  • Sony State of Play
  • Thinky Games
  • Shape of Dreams
  • Failures of Highguard and 2XKO
  • Horizon Hunters Gathering

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Demonology for Fun and Profit

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Good Morning Folks. I have to be blazingly honest here… I did not have it on my punch card that we would be getting an expansion for Diablo II this year. However, we got exactly that as part of the Diablo anniversary celebration, and it was a shadow drop, meaning I have already played a bit of the brand new class in Diablo II, the Warlock. I have to say it is pretty freaking awesome, at least in the early levels, it feels wildly overpowered. Granted, you can only really have one minion so far, but I am sure that changes over time. You summon up your demon goat buddy, and he proceeds to lay waste to everything around you, while you bop things over the head with your floating weapon. I think the floating weapon thing is honestly a really nice touch because it differentiates this class from other classes that start out feeling like they are shittier versions of the Barbarian… looking at you, Druid.

What is wild about this is that the Warlock class is coming to three games in the Diablo franchise. It’s a bit of a bummer that Diablo III is left out of the love here… but I feel like probably it and Diablo 1 both got dropped for the same reason, they do not have a shiny new client built with modern development technology. We already have the Warlock in Diablo II, but it is coming to Diablo IV at the end of April and to Diablo Immortal in June. Not that I give much of a shit about Diablo Immortal, but I will probably be playing whatever season coincides with the April 28th start date of the Warlock drop in Diablo IV. I will always be down for more Minion gameplay coming to games. So far, at least it feels pretty solid, and it has actually made me want to play some more Diablo II Resurrected. Generally speaking, D2R gameplay is way too slow for my tastes these days, but it might be fun to do at least a full playthrough on the Warlock.

In other news, we got a new Lunar New Year event in Destiny Rising, so maybe it is not entirely out to pasture fully. I lack the cultural significance of all of the stuff that coincides with Lunar New Year events, but they often are big deals in Japanese and Chinese games, and so far, that seems to be the case here as well. Essentailly the normal Frontline events are being replaced with new encounters with the red and gold fireworks themes. Doing these earns points towards the larger event that is going on, and will ultimately also earn you pulls for the reworked version of Ikora. I played three rounds or so of Frontlines yesterday and had a reasonably good time doing it. This is mostly a pretty chill activity and is exclusive to Jiangshit Metro, aka Space China. Is it massive and new and exciting? Not really. However it is something and I have to give them credit for it.

Yesterday evening, we got a new State of Play event from Sony, and probably the biggest news for me personally was the upcoming release of Death Stranding 2 for the PC. Sure, I have a PS5 and could have played this game at any point I wanted to, but I greatly prefer playing open-world games with a mouse and keyboard whenever possible. The PC release of the first game dropped during the height of covid lockdown, and it was extremely poignant as we were all adjusting to a new way of life, much in the same way as the characters in the game were. I’ve never been a massive Kojima fan, but I did really enjoy the quirky lore of the world in this series and look forward to seeing more of it. I may have also developed a crush on Fragile, and am interested in seeing more of how things progress in this world. Troy Baker’s character in this series is also completely batshit crazy, and I am interested in seeing just how over the top he is in this version.

Next up, we have a really freaking cool-looking Castlevania game from some of the folks behind Dead Cells. Not that I necessarily have much to say about this, other than the fact that I will be playing it when it drops. At least based on the trailer, I would guess this is more in line with Castlevania 1 and 3, and not a more role-playing game experience like 2 and Symphony of the Night. I tend to prefer the Castlevania RPG games where you level up and collect gear and such, but it does not mean that I don’t appreciate the more standard platformer style games. It might be a bit more modern platformer than I would like, but we will have to see how it plays. Games like Silksong tend to require a level of manual dexterity that I no longer have with a controller.

We also got more gameplay of Control Resonant, and while I still mourn the fact that we are not playing as Jesse… I love this weird shared universe and will be here on day one regardless. I am really looking forward to just how kooky the world is going to be, given that we are apparently playing with gravity and surfaces. It seems like the corruption of the Oldest House has spilled out into the real world, and I guess New York is suffering as a result. I love the visuals, so this should be a heck of a lot of fun.

Lastly, we got another video update on Tokon Fighting Souls, and while I am not as big a fighting game player as I once was, this game looks like a lot of fun. I am all on board with playing Magik in a fighting game. I am super pumped that Steve Blum is doing the voice for Wolverine as well. I hope that means he will be doing the voice of Wolverine in the game that Insomniac has been working on as well. Anyways, it should be a lot of fun, and will likely look beautiful in blazing 4k on the 65-inch television that I picked up not too long ago. At some point, I really need to hang up a curtain rod so I can put up some blackout curtains over the awkward round window in the livingroom.

There was honestly a bunch of other interesting stuff announced yesterday, so if you have the time it might be worth watching it in the background while doing other things. Either that or, at a minimum, hitting the PlayStation YouTube channel to see if there are any trailers that stand out to you. After showings like this, it really hits home just how far Microsoft is falling behind in this race. They conceded the PlayStation 4 generation, and as a result, lost the generation when everyone shifted to digital purchases. It is going to be nigh impossible to claw their way back from this, especially when Sony keeps dropping banger exclusives left and right. I will probably never be a console-first player, but I doubt I buy another Microsoft console because I have barely used my Xbox. Going forward, I will probably have a Sony console, a Nintendo console, and then my PC for everything else.

Anyways. Was there anything you were super pumped for in the State of Play? Have you been playing the Warlock in Diablo II Resurrected? Drop me a line below.