Monthly Archives: April 2018

Ranneko Plays Channel Update 2018-04-27

I succumbed to temptation this week, rather than playing Shadowrun: Hong Kong as initially planned. I decided to play the literally just released BattleTech, after all I am working this weekend so I figured I could try to finish up Shadowrun: Hong Kong in a bonus stream on Thursday or Friday.

It turns out I wasn’t quite as close as I thought I was as it took 2 bonus streams to finish it out. Next week I will be streaming on Thursday rather than Tuesday, because the 1st of May is a public holiday here in Sweden and I have other plans.

The last week’s releases were:

Saturday, Sunday, Thursday: Pillars of Ranternity
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: ShadowRan: Hong Kong
Tuesday: Hint To The Breach

Twitch Stream: Tuesday 18:00 to 21:00 CEST playing BattleTech
Thursday 13:30 to 5:30 CEST playing Shadowrun: Hong Kong
Friday 13:30 to 4:00 CEST playing Shadowrun: Hong Kong

After the break, more about the videos that released last week!

Indie Wonderland: Slime Rancher

Monomi Park‘s Slime Rancher has been in the periphery of my awareness for a while now. I remember it being announced. I remember several of my friends jumping on the first Early Access opportunity, talking about wrangling slimes there was to do back in those times. I remember thinking it looked cute, and possibly fun, and as such I would probably want to wait with actually playing it until post-Early Access. And, me being me, I remember buying it only a few weeks back, way after the full release had gone out, and then immediately forgetting to actually launch it for way too long — the one thing I didn’t remember.

Do you think I might miss thinking ‘you know, I should get around to Slime Rancher one of these days‘? I worry I might miss those thoughts.

(Spoiler levels: Narrative, medium. Mechanical, medium-high.)

(Game source: Bought it myself.)

After the break: Slime Rancher. So soon after playing Dragon Quest: Builders, I worry what might happen if I play an ostensibly peaceful game full of slimes.

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Ranneko Plays Finished Recording Pillars of Eternity Channel Update 2018-04-20

I have finally finished up Pillars of Eternity, but that does not mean that the Let’s Play will wrap up any time soon. I recorded about 12 hours of footage last weekend in the process of finishing it and the videos going up this week are from an even earlier session. In an effort to speed things up somewhat I have decided to put it up three times a week. That means daily content for my channel for a while yet.

The last week’s releases were:

Saturday, Sunday, Thursday: Pillars of Ranternity
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: ShadowRan: Hong Kong
Tuesday: Hint To The Breach

Twitch Stream: Tuesday 18:00 to 20:30 CEST playing Shadowrun: Hong Kong

After the break, more about the videos that released last week!

Indie Early Access Land: Fort Triumph

Now, I know what you’re thinking, so let me get ahead of some dashed expectations real quick: No, this isn’t actually an Archer-branded video game. That’d be Fort Kickass, not Fort Triumph.

I know, I know. Let’s all take a moment to mourn what could have been: Oh, Fort Kickass the video game, you were too kickass for this world. But then let’s also take a moment to imagine what an inevitable trash-fire any licensed Archer game will inevitably end up being, particularly in the Year of our Luigi 2018. So maybe it’s for the best.

And then let’s finally look at the actual game for this week, Fort Triumph — ostensibly by ‘Fort Triumph Team’, who are definitely not putting all their eggs in one basket. That it took me three paragraphs of rambling to even get to naming their game in this review should probably fill them with a lot of confidence.

(Spoiler levels: Narrative, none. Mechanical, low-ish.)

(Game source: Distributor Steam key.)

(Time of writing: 2018-04-16)

After the break: My triumphant look at Fort Triumph, a game about kicking. And… tactics, I guess?

Ranneko Plays Daily Videos For More Than A Year! – Channel Update 2017-04-13

This week marks a year of daily videos, a fairly arbitrary milestone that has had almost no impact on my channel, but it brings with it a special state of the channel video too!

The last week’s releases were:

Saturday, Thursday: Pillars of Ranternity
Sunday: Heat Signature Challenge Run
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: ShadowRan: Hong Kong
Tuesday: Hint To The Breach

Twitch Stream: Tuesday 18:00 to 20:30 CEST playing Shadowrun: Hong Kong

After the break, more about the videos that released last week!

Indie Wonderland: Minit

You know how the equation of playing video games changes as you get older? I’m sure you’re familiar with the idea that there’s always a gap in the trinity of time, skill, and money: When you’re young, you’ve got time and you’ve got skill, but money limits your access to games. Get a little older, and money stops being an issue while skill still remains decent, but now all your time goes into — jobs, taxes, home ownership, whatever it is adults do. And get older still, into that mythical ‘retirement age’ that my generation will see, and you’re supposed to have time and money for days — but with your body’s upper skill limit slowly declining. I can’t really comment on the accuracy of all it, but as a man in his thirties, I can tell you that the number of hours in a day, and days in a week, and weeks in a month, no longer feels as daunting or as plentiful as it once did. I just don’t have the time into every new 40-hour release, alright! Sometimes I just want some games I can play between work, dinner, and whatever other plans I might have. Sometimes… all I have is a minute.

Now, I’m not saying that ‘JW, Kitty, Jukio, and Dom‘ had these exact constraints in mind when they made Minit, a game where progress is ostensibly measured in minute-long intervals. All I’m saying is that, for me? This might work out just fine.

(Spoiler levels: Narrative, low-ish. Mechanical, medium.)

(Game source: Patreon funds.)

After the break: Have I made it so that it will only take you a minute to read this review? Haha, nope! Buckle up.

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Ranneko Plays Lacking Information – Channel Update 2018-04-06

This week I picked up and then abruptly lost 2 subscribers. In addition my Hint to the Breach videos are getting disliked but no one doing so comments. At times like these I really wish there was a way to ask why.

YouTube already does this for things it cares about. When you click not interested on a recommended video, you are given the immediate opportunity to Undo or Tell Us Why. If only they did that for other metrics. As always raw numbers can tell you what is happening, but why is a harder question.

The last week’s releases were:

Saturday, Thursday: Pillars of Ranternity
Sunday: Heat Signature Challenge Run
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: ShadowRan: Hong Kong
Tuesday: Hint To The Breach

After the break, more about the videos that released last week!

Indie Shortieland: Roguemance

It didn’t have to be like this, you know. I could have played Lucas Molina‘s Roguemance, a game about procedurally-generated dangerous dating and love in a dangerous space-time, in the week after Valentine’s Day this year, when it came out. Or I could have played it three weeks ago, when I scuttled all my other social responsibilities to go on six consecutive dates — that would have been fitting. Instead, I play it now, for no other reason than… I just sort of felt like it, I guess. Which now that I write it out isn’t a terrible metaphor for love and dating either — if not necessarily one that says great things about me.

Anyway, this review will be of the shortie variety, for two reasons: a) Roguemance is a fairly compact game, mechanically and aesthetically both, and b) I didn’t discover that my usual screenshotting methods weren’t working until like two hours in. The former more than the latter, obviously: I would never let my personal failures and hangups determine how seriously I’m willing and able to engage in any commitment.

(Spoiler levels: Narrative, nah. Mechanical, lil’ bit.)

(Game source: Patreon funds.)

After the break: Good, now that we’ve got that sorted out, it’s Roguemance time.