wiz8 playthrough part 1

content/articles/features/animalcrossing-newhorizons.md

@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ tags:
     - 'Animal Crossing New Horizons'
     - 'blog'
     - 'Animal Crossing'
+    - 'Playthrough'
     - 'feature'
 howlongtobeat_id: 68240
 howlongtobeat_hrs: 60.5

content/articles/features/wizardry-8-playthrough-blog.md

@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+---
+image: "/img/games/Wizardry8/wiz8.jpg"
+date: 2021-02-07
+title: Wizardry 8 Playthrough Blog
+played_on: 'win98'
+game_genre: 'RPG'
+game_release_year: '2001'
+game_developer: 'SirTech Canada'
+game_platform: 'pc'
+game_name: "Wizardry 8"
+summary: "Wizardry 8: the Adventure Blog! I've been keen on replaying the whole game for old times sake - on a 'real' retro Win98 PC. After _finally_ convincing my friend to install the game, we were ready to go through it together/alone, since it's a single-player adventure. In the same fashion as other adventure blogs on this site, I thought it would be nice to do a short write-up after making a bit of progress. "
+tags:
+    - 'Wizardry8'
+    - 'Playthrough'
+    - 'feature'
+---
+
+<a name="top"></a>
+
+### Report Content
+
+- <a href="#intro">the Introduction</a>
+- <a href="#monastery">The Monastery</a>
+- <a href="#arnika">Arnika Road/Arnika</a>
+
+### <a id="intro"></a>Introduction
+
+I love [Wizardry 8](/tags/wizardry8) - I really do. I've been bragging about the game for years now to anyone willing to listen, and lately, I've been keen on replaying the whole game for old times sake - on a "real" retro Win98 PC. After _finally_ convincing my friend to install the game (he was looking for a big timesink. You've been warned), we were ready to go through it together/alone, since it's a single-player adventure. In the same fashion as the [BG2 Solo Blade Report](/articles/guides/bg2-solo-blade/), I thought it would be nice to do a short write-up after making a bit of progress. 
+
+So, after spending the necessary hours being stuck in the character creation sheets - I really couldn't choose - this is the party I've decided to go for:
+
+{{% dualscreens "/img/games/Wizardry8/playthrough/" "wiz8-party.jpg" "The starting party." "wiz8-inventory.jpg" "My Samurai doesn't let down." %}}
+
+- Ninja: _Muesli_, Felpurr
+- Lord: _Mielie_, Rawulf
+- Bishop: _Christina_, Faerie
+- Samurai: _Sharptooth_, Dracon
+- Mage: _Santa_, Gnome
+- Gadgeteer: _Wooly_, Mook
+
+I originally wanted only four characters as experience points are precious and I like specialized classes in this game. But, since I'm playing for the first time with [Christan Coder's Mod v2](http://www.jeffludwig.com/wizardry8mod/), I thought a full party would be a good idea. I've played the vanilla version and with Flamestryke's New Mod v1.1. For this playthrough, a more balanced mod (Flamestryke's new items are crazy!) sounded good. I couldn't party with my favorite samurai/dracon, ninja/felpurr combo so what the heck. On to the adventure! If this is your first playthrough, read [the classes guide](/articles/guides/wizardry8-classes/) or [my wiz8 general tips](/articles/guides/wizardry8-tips/) (old but still relevant). 
+
+<div style="text-align: right;">[ Date: 06/02/2021 | <a href="#top">top</a> ]</div>
+
+### <a id="monastery"></a>The Monastery
+
+
+Right, our ship crashed. Correction: it was shot out of the sky! We're stranded on a foreign beach, at the entrance of a building that we later identify as a monastery. Let's get to it! Conveniently, a chest lies there waiting for us, stocked with random weapons and armor. Lovely. After trashing twenty or so crabs and fetching the _Cherry Bomb_ and Axe on top of the archipel, we carefully venture inside. Three green slimes greet us, but are no match to the blades of our Samurai and the shurikens of our Ninja. The starting weapons of some classes are quite powerful. A couple of dead rats and bats later, we encounter another version of the slime: a _Noxious Slime_. This time, the thing spits at us, and we can't reach it as fast as we'd like. The result? A dead Gadgeteer. Of course, I forgot to save my progress. A few curses later, I pressed _Start New Game_ again. Sigh. 
+
+Next time, I'll keep my fingers positioned on top of `Q` (quicksave) and occasionally `CTRL+Q` (quickload) - and hopefully will not mix up both hotkeys. A second try did help with the slime, but my mage got overconfident, trying to cast a higher level _Frost_ than he'd probably be able to handle. *BOOM* - backfire. Shit. This time though, I knew what to do: `CTRL+Q`!
+
+{{% dualscreens "/img/games/Wizardry8/playthrough/" "monastery-slime-death.jpg" "Noxious Slime: 1. Party: 0." "monastery-backfire-death.jpg" "Great, spell backfire: another death." %}}
+
+After a business meeting with **Gregor** in the main hall (the deal fell through), we were well on our way to grab the _Safe Key_ by plucking at the skeleton head of the statue - that is, after getting rid of Gregor's little helpers, and they know how to bite (and gang up on us). I hope your party formation is in order! Okay, so we now have `6` portions of resurrection powder: three from the safe and three from the hidden waterfall place, after "sleeping with the fishes" near the iron bridge. I couldn't remember where to get the key for the "dangerous weapons", according to a cryptic Rapax note, but after a few minutes, I thought it must have been near Arnika itself. 
+
+So, nothing much left to do than to clear out the Upper Monastery Floor - and meet another enemy type: bandits. We spot a shiny piece of samurai armor equipment, but it's sealed shut behind glass. Hmm... Should we "microwave" it, like how we got the chip for Wooly our Gadgie? It turns out that there's a key that unlocks a door in the Silent Room, where we can ring the monastery bells. Crank it all the way up and all the glass in the entire building breaks! Oh-oh... Luckily, the Higardi Monks have long been gone, and all that is left for us to do is to read their boring administration, grab all the spellbooks we can get our hands on (including a soon-to-be important note), and get the hell out of here. 
+
+{{% dualscreens "/img/games/Wizardry8/playthrough/" "monastery-key.jpg" "The Monastery Safe." "monastery-messenger.jpg" "A mechanical messenger." %}}
+
+Christina our Bishop is as crappy as can be expected from an untrained low-level Bishop. I already shiver when I think of the many hours of "exercise" (casting _Knock Knock_ in the Arnika vaults) I used to put into such builds. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do that this time. Anyway, when entering a side chapel, suddenly, in a flash, a robot appears! Oh no, wait, it was waiting for us but it _disappears_ in a flash. We were impressed. But what to make of it? It seems that there's a race going on, a quest to "**ascend**", and for that, we need to be as "smart as the cosmic lords". How do we do that? By getting three important artifacts! The flags on the walls hint towards these, but other than that, there's not much here. We grab a few more unnecessary potions, Wooly's first gadget, spot more hidden piles of stones for Wooly's Omnigun, and get going by opening the front door. 
+
+### <a id="arnika"></a>(The Road to) Arnika
+
+To be continued!

content/articles/guides/bg2-solo-blade.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 image = "/img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg"
 date = "2008-04-30"
 title = "BG2 Solo Blade: A Report"
-tags = ['Baldurs Gate 2', 'guide']
+tags = ['Baldurs Gate 2', 'guide', 'Playthrough']
 keywords = ['Baldurs Gate 2 solo blade', 'BG2 solo blade', 'solo blade', 'blade guide', 'bg2 solo blade guide', 'bg2 blade kit', 'bg2 blade']
 aliases = ['/articles/bg2-solo-blade/']
 +++

content/articles/reviews/titan-quest.md

@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ Okay, so the game looks good - or looked good in 2006. It's fully rendered in 3D
 
 ## Gameplay
 
-Your character automatically targets enemies (on the console) as long as you keep that button pressed - as with [Diablo III](/articles/reviews/diablo-3) and [Torchlight II](/articles/reviews/torchlight-2) I also played on the Switch. However, in those games, actually _re-targeting_ is easy. Not so in Titan Quest: while attacking, you can try to move your character, which reveals a blue cone that should aid the player with choosing a target. In practice, the thing never works, or works after three seconds, when my character ran towards the wrong guy, and ended up getting killed. This is particularly frustrating in Act II tombs, where "Dark Crystals" spawn elemental-wielding skeleton mages at a rapid rate. The trick is to get rid of the crystal, which also makes the summoned skeletons go away. However, in a crowded place such as that one, trying to target a single pillar, is simply an inpossible task. I threw with my controller on several occasions because of this. 
+Your character automatically targets enemies (on the console) as long as you keep that button pressed - as with [Diablo III](/articles/reviews/diablo-3) and [Torchlight II](/articles/reviews/torchlight-2) I also played on the Switch. However, in those games, actually _re-targeting_ is easy. Not so in Titan Quest: while attacking, you can try to move your character, which reveals a blue cone that should aid the player with choosing a target. In practice, the thing never works, or works after three seconds, when my character ran towards the wrong guy, and ended up getting killed. This is particularly frustrating in Act II tombs, where "Dark Crystals" spawn elemental-wielding skeleton mages at a rapid rate. The trick is to get rid of the crystal, which also makes the summoned skeletons go away. However, in a crowded place such as that one, trying to target a single pillar, is simply an inpossible task. I threw my controller on several occasions because of this. 
 
 There is nothing wrong with auto-targeting on a console, but another problem I had with Titan Quest was the skill tree. While it looked amazing, and the system is classless, meaning you can mix and match however you like, in practice, most skills are passive. That means, you'll be receiving damage/attack rating/defense/etc bonuses from spent skill points, but you won't be receiving many new moves that gets mapped to a button. 
 

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