Diablo 4

今年期待的游戏除了塞尔达就是Diablo 4了。D4可以联机,demo的时候试玩了一下感觉还不错。Demo的暗金掉率很高,xw那会儿一两天就配了一套德鲁伊的变熊装打得很爽,动不动就双手往下一拍大喊“Pulverize!” 所以可能我们对D4的期待度还更高一点。

然而这俩游戏发售日几乎撞车。塞尔达又太神。于是我们选择了先玩塞尔达,直到我通关封盘xw打到懒得打。在D4发售一个来月之后我们终于开始玩D4。D4很好的一点是一上来就支持跨平台联机,我用PS5因为省事且不累肩膀,xw为此还买了个mini gaming PC因为她喜欢用那些可以远程需要鼠标操作的角色。于是我们的野蛮人+Rogue就踏上了屠杀妖魔鬼怪的征途。

D4手感不错,有点当年玩D2可以纯欣赏砍小怪砍半天的意思。技能树相比D3来说做了简化,有几个明确的build思路,我甚至觉得掉落装备的属性也是倾向于在用的build的。好处是比较简单省心,照着游戏设计意图去拼一拼就能搞个八九不离十;坏处就是就是少了点自己探索配装的乐趣了。

半开放世界加上动态难度的设定还是挺好的,想乱打可以见怪就上,只想走主线也可以骑马一路冲。场景和剧情都做得挺好看,但D4这种游戏打着打着也就不太介意这些了只盯着血条在看。

两人团战还是比较有趣的,可以搞一些配合,场面也不会混乱到只能瞎打。xw很长时间都是在搞一套陷阱尸爆流,我早期用一些吼叫技能加buff,后来感觉配合最有效的技能还是用铁链把怪拉到陷阱上。

野蛮人的几个build里旋风手感最好,在敌人堆里穿来穿去,生存力强,但输出一般;出血流看起来很酷炫,但团战有点墨迹,往往等怪出血的时候队友就去打了;双挥看起来很简单粗暴但反倒是我感觉明显强力好用的流派。双挥打眩晕的敌人可以不耗能量,又可以延长狂暴时间以致于几乎可以一直维持狂暴状态。

D4吸取了上次D3的教训,首发当天服务器没崩太厉害,以及做了一些endgame内容。对于我们这些休闲玩家来说endgame内容还挺多的,够打一阵子,通关之后很长一段时间还会有种一直有进展的感觉,可以升级,有paragon点数,可以挑战更高等级的地牢,60/70级会解锁sacred/ancestor装备有点像怪物猎人的上位和G级。至于到了80级还有没有东西可打我就不知道了,以我们的速度要打到那儿还得几周吧。。其他还有一些杂七杂八的内容类似Helltide,world boss之类,可以减少一些重复感。

Diablo 3就是作为一个长期游戏来运营的,今天看到新闻说D3刚刚公布了最后一个season,即将落幕了。D4应该也是这个打算。想想当年D3刚出来的时候打了一小阵就没东西可打了,一年之后出了DLC再玩体验好了不少。D4这次出来的完成度还算不错,虽然还是有一些不足但也还可以忍。希望过个半年一年会做得更好吧。

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Rented a Tesla for a road trip

Car rental hasn’t been the same since Covid. It was sold out everywhere for a while, then the price basically doubled. When planning my Montreal-Quebec City-Tadoussac trip, I found most car rental agencies at the Montreal airport were sold out, so the remaining options were either small agencies for ~$100 per day, or Turo. Turo had some interesting options including a Tesla Model Y 2022 for about $160 per day. I always wanted to try a Tesla on an actual road trip, so I took the plunge. It’s also the first time I rent from Turo.

The pickup process surprised me a bit. The owner (or more like a car manager?) was waiting for me at the airport arrival curbside when I landed. I don’t know how he managed to park there for so long, lol, but it couldn’t be more convenient for me. He also gave me a brief of the car. Definitely felt more “white glove” than a usual car rental.

The fun began when I started driving. I’m not really a fan of car “performance”. But man there are so many configurations to fiddle with, on a huge screen and as a phone app! It felt more like a huge tech gadget. The single-pedal driving control took me an hour or two to get used to, but was not a problem at all. It was really nice to use phone as key, and to have lights/wipers all automated. As a rental I didn’t have access to autopilot, but I probably wouldn’t really trust my life on it yet…

Now, on charging. For the first two nights in Quebec City, I stayed at a hotel with two Tesla chargers in the parking lot, so it was very easy to fully charge the car overnight. The third day I drove from Quebec City to Saguenay then Tadoussac. I didn’t charge the car during lunch at Saguenay, and took some side trips and stops along the way. So when I finally started driving to Tadoussac, an 800-person village, I found the battery would drop to 1% when I arrive, and the car warned me to stay below 95 km/h to “reach the destination”. There were no charging stations whatsoever until Tadoussac. So I turned off AC and used cruise control to maintain the speed constant… when we rolled into the first charging station, there were no charging poles! Later on I found Tesla navigation located that non-Tesla charging station a few hundred meters off. We drove to the second charging station in the village and found two charging poles, but the power plug doesn’t fit the adapter I had in the car! I called the car owner, he assured me I could at least use a usual power plug to slow charge… I then asked the hotel front desk and found there was another charging station right across the road at where I parked, which couldn’t be found on Google Maps.. thank god this one worked with the adapter I had. It was slow but enough to prevent the car from becoming a dead weight… I parked my car there charging. Two hours later someone unplugged it… I guess they need the charging station more.

I used Tesla superchargers a few times on the way back. It was impressively fast, 20 times faster than the one that saved me in Tadoussac. The locations of superchargers also seem to be nice so you have something to do while charging. One of the chargers we stopped at was at an ultra-modern SPA hotel. We appreciated the hotel design and had a great lunch there.

A notable shortcoming I noticed while driving was the loud tire noise. It wasn’t unacceptably loud, but was definitely louder than SUVs and some sedans. The car doors also felt a little flimsy when shut. Overall it’s a fancy car, but doesn’t feel high-class or luxurious.

I was a little surprised to find Tesla doesn’t work with Apple CarPlay or Google Maps. Tesla navigation was ok, and shines at planning charging stops. But it’s not as good as Google maps. It located a third-party charging station wrong for me, and sometimes gave dubious directions with “unnamed roads”. I also couldn’t “add a restaurant along the way while checking their detour time and reviews” like what I often did on Google Maps.

Summary:

  • Pro: feature-rich
  • Pro: power
  • Pro: driving range is pretty good (400km)
  • Pro: supercharger was nice, and cheaper than gas
  • Con: tire noise
  • Con: no Google Maps or Apple CarPlay
  • Con: charging requires more planning and forces some idle time when stopping for charging, and it becomes a challenge in remote destinations

Verdict: I’d consider a Tesla if I’m staying at a hotel with chargers. For road trips to remote places, I will stick to gas for now.

Hegemony: Leading Your Class to Victory

家里近期的桌游新秀是一个唤做Hegemony的真实系桌游。我们注意到这个游戏有一年多了。那会儿在BGG上这游戏有一些讨论,上了热榜。之后我便隔三差五看看进度,但没想到从设计定型到制作发售要这么久的时间。几周前终于拿到了开了两局。

Hegemony是一个很“寓教于乐”的游戏,主旨便是模拟现实经济模型。游戏盒子里除了规则书还附赠一本小册子,是三篇正牌经济学者教授们为这个游戏写的讨论政治经济学以及如何影响此游戏设计的小论文。一下子就把这游戏的调性拔高到了我不曾见过的高度。。

游戏中四位玩家分别扮演工人阶级、中产阶级、资本家和政府。每个阶级能做的事情都有所不同,以不同的方式得分,最终以分数定胜负。

  • 工人阶级主要要做的事情是去其他几家开的公司上工,赚钱满足温饱,并通过满足进一步的医疗/教育/奢侈品等各种需求来发展壮大。工人阶级觉得被压榨的太厉害可以罢工,失业率太高可以游行示威,还可以组织工会来获得政治影响力,是一个很强大的势力。
  • 资本家要做的事一言蔽之就是赚钱。主要活动是开公司,雇人,生产各种资源再卖掉。赚的钱会计入资本(capital),主要靠资本积累来得分。
  • 中产阶级是前两个阶级的混合,既需要去各种公司打工,又自己开小公司雇人。收入和交税都要算雇员和雇主两类。得分方式和工人阶级更相似一些,主要靠发展中产阶级群体。中产阶级的现实社畜感很强,“加班”是标准动作之一,政治倾向全面中立于是往往不太关心政治。
  • 政府的玩法有点NPC感,只有四人游戏才会带这个角色,三人玩的话这个角色由自动规则来承担。政府玩家的目的是通过提供福利,解决需求等各种方法来讨好各个阶级,获得自己在各个阶级心中的“合法性”(legitimacy)来得分。在政治倾向方面不同于有恒定目标的其他三个阶级,政府每回合都会有随机的目标,真正的墙头草。

玩起来的感觉其一是比较复杂,但玩个一盘之后第二盘就还能玩得比较流畅了。其二是现实感很强于是现实生活中的一些认知不可避免的会带入到游戏里,比如想不想要免费教育免费医疗,现实生活中的立场是一码事游戏中的利弊又是另一码。其三是政治因素很强,玩家之前合纵连横的政策投票对战局的影响是潜移默化但是非常强的,于是嘴炮说服他人向对自己有利的方向投票是这游戏的核心技能之一,光靠算分是不够的。

相比Roots这个近年来有名的非对称游戏来说,我觉得Hegemony的基本思路有点类似,以两个主要势力的对抗为主轴,工人阶级和资本家就相当于Roots里的猫和鹰,加入一个打酱油的浣熊/政府。中产阶级这个势力设计得比较讨巧,把两个主要势力捏合在一起,捏得不错,又让桌游玩家很有代入感。

迄今为止才只开了两盘。大家都很好评。我预测这游戏在我家靠着xw的热衷程度会持续一阵,但题材过于hardcore加上复杂度高随机性低,还有我个人不太喜欢的政治要素,估计不会有Ark Nova的热度那么持久。

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塞尔达传说:王国之泪

前天通关了,Switch记录了145小时。收集了大约130个神庙,地下开了一多半。本来通关之后想像前作那样继续收集完神庙,然而收了两个突然觉得有些重复,就放下了。等DLC出来再说。

本作能在旷野之息这种定义一个世代的神作之后做出一个令人满意甚至惊喜的续作,难度超乎想象。尤其是还是出在同一代主机上受到性能制约的情况下纯靠游戏设计和内容推陈出新达到这种高度,真是奇迹一般的作品。

以下剧透: 塞尔达传说:王国之泪

这一代一开头主打怀旧感,大师剑回旋斩先热热身。然后在初始空岛也是熟悉的配方,找几个神庙拿到初始能力,爬高下低都是同样的手感。几个能力刚拿到的时候会有点这玩意儿到底能有多大用的疑惑,老玩家会觉得有点太像前作。还好初始这段并不长,从初始空岛一跃而下之后,好玩的部分就开始了。

个人感觉本作最好玩的部分是前三分之一左右的旅程。很快就通过神庙和遍布地图的小谜题发掘出各种能力的基础用法,有些神庙还会有一些进阶的小挑战让人稍微动动脑子。把各个能力用在各种地方带来的小发现小惊喜层出不穷,把各种东西融合到武器上看效果,时光倒流敌人扔出来的石头和天上掉下来的“电梯”,各种地方用通天术,还有各种游戏里给你提示好的组装机械,不停地会让人觉得“还能这样”,以及“这样行不行?还真行!”。

中段的四大神殿做得中规中矩。个人觉得风之神殿做得最好,谜题藏得比较巧,跳进暴风眼的设定也很有意思。火之神殿主打一个乱七八糟的感觉,瞎撞一番倒也就解掉了。水之神殿分成完全隔开的四小块儿感觉有点偷懒。雷之神殿城里的剧情相对有趣一些,神殿本身谜题偏简单。

前中期的地底探索是很有意思的。视野严重受限加上遍地gloom的地下探险一开始给人一种很强的压迫,跟已经比较熟悉的地上探险相比刺激感要强很多。不过地底探险的激励并没有特别强,很长时间都属于可做可不做的部分。我前中期去探访了不少空岛,但地下就没怎么开,毕竟如果不是很喜欢自己造机械而是只是为了解谜过关造机械的话,一两节电池也就都能搞定了。到后来我做多一些机械了才感觉到电池多一些还是有用的,才去开了一些地下来采矿。

本作主打的要素之一机械建造我其实并没有很感冒。一方面我是觉得居然做了这么多符合物理规律的零件可以随意组合真是太牛逼了,另一方面我自己基本上是遇到谜题就依照提示拼一个东西解一下,除此之外并没有太大兴致自己瞎拼。看网上的各种神奇建造视频也就是看看就得,打人马我还是更喜欢自己拿刀砍。。

我对本作的抱怨一个是解谜深度不足,一百多个神庙走下来几乎没觉得有什么需要想上两分钟的,普遍都是教学篇难度。相比之下前作好多神庙都卡个一小会儿然后解了之后觉得很爽。另一个问题就是内容太多以至于重复度有些高。那些十字空岛旁边带个Flux Construct让你搬运宝石的任务有复制粘贴的感觉,很多cave也是基本一样,搬运呀哈哈的任务也有些没什么太大意思。相比之下帮人扶牌子那组任务倒是还好,每个牌子都有点少许不同可以琢磨一下怎么能做一个针对这个牌子的简洁解法。

抱怨归抱怨,王国之泪还是一个大神作,配得上是Switch的收官大作。不知道塞尔达下一代是不是还是沿着这个思路继续做,又能再怎么突破毕竟上天入地都已经做完了😂 可能又要再等五六年了吧。

EBC – 游记

在写完两篇信息帖(12)之后可以写写流水账游记了。

大约一月份的时候xw计划四月底要去trial,于是我便开始找这个时间段可以爬山的地方。考虑了一堆选项,一开始比较倾向秘鲁,但是秘鲁出了抗议这茬事把马丘比丘关闭了。于是选择了遥远的尼泊尔。在路上有人问我为什么来EBC的时候我通常回答是because I turned 40,也有点在这不惑之年做点疯狂的事的意味。