I've done a lot of "research" into the issue I had and how to optimize the game and my video card. In the end, I didn't change very much. I made one change in the Nvidia Control Panel, which was to set that global setting to one display, since that's what I'm using. I also toned down all the settings one notch in the game, which produced good results. Then, I decided to experiment and see if there might have been one setting that messed things up. So far, it seems that having Shadow Quality at High rather than Very High fixes my issue.

As for your question, yes, this is mostly the original game with improved graphics and just a few additions. This version has Self Radio, the radio station that allows you to use your MP3s. It also has the Rockstar Editor, which allows you to record and share game play. As far as I know, the game hasn't received any DLC. Also, while there are no tools for it in the game, people have already created mods. One mod, that I saw, was the Batmobile.

I got all the gold medals in Flight School with Trevor. I did the Stunt Plane Time Trials, but decided getting gold was not important and just more frustrating. I ended up getting silver instead. I also went hunting with him, which is something I didn't do on the PS3. I learned a few things about that. One is to climb on the RV or use the ATV to avoid getting killed by cougars. Another was that in order to save your progress, you need to finish the day of hunting, which is only available during certain hours. I also started doing the Bail Bonds missions, which I didn't do before. So far, I've only done the first and I have looked online for help with that.

Yeah, Cletus gets you started on it. On the PS3, I did the intro mission where he shows you how to hunt elk. That's as far as I got with that. On the PC, however, I went to the hunting spot marked on the map. I did pretty good and achieved some good ranks and now have to do some harder things, like get a pic of a coyote and boar together. I also have to kill two elk with one shot, which I've done before, but died during the mission (damn cougars). It's really fun, actually, even though I most definitely do not go hunting in real life. I thought about recording a video because, while I was waiting on time to pass so I could go hunting, I saw a bunch of elk jumping all around the area. A few even died and I don't know if they had run into a cougar or just fell.

I recently learned how amazing Chop is. One time I switched to Franklin and he was playing in a field with Chop. The game tells you how you can throw a ball and get him to retrieve it. It also tells you that if you ride in a vehicle (like a motorcycle) that doesn't have room for him to get in, he'll follow you. Since Franklin had his green motorcycle nearby, I decided to take Chop home, which wasn't far away at all. Once I got there, though, I decided to get in Franklin's white car and let Chop in. This was a time, recently, when I was constantly visiting one of the hospitals (in Strawberry) so I could get a free helicopter. I have purchased the helipad, but still can't afford a helicopter and I need one to get at least one of the spaceship parts. Anyway, I got to the hospital and got out of the car, Chop did so, too. I then climbed the first ladder and Chop some how made it up there, too. I then climbed down, got in the car (because there weren't any helicopters there), and he magically made it off of the roof and inside of the car. Hahaha, I just thought that was funny. I have never tried out the app that let's you play with him on a tablet, but it's something I might try eventually.

I took another look into the "stutter" issue I was having with the game. I checked the Rockstar forum post that I linked in my original post. Someone said that they fixed the same issue by turning off High Resolution Shadows. So, I again had GeForce Experience optimize the game settings for me and when I got in the game I turned off High Resolution Shadows. Now I am running on those optimized settings except for that one I changed and the game runs much more smoothly now. One thing about the many settings in the game is that each has it's cost in VRAM and some seem like you really wouldn't notice a change anyway. That one setting I changed reduced the game's VRAM requirement by about a gig, I think, which is very helpful. The game does show you the VRAM cost of the settings you've chosen and how much your GPU has available. You can, of course, exceed the VRAM limit of your GPU, but doing so may cause the game to run less smoothly as the GPU will have to access your RAM or CPU to process the extra VRAM needed. I read about that some where online. Right now my settings cost about 5GB VRAM and I only have 4GB. Still, as I said, the game is running much more smoothly now. I'm almost done collecting all of the Spaceship Parts. I've also been using the Self Radio.

Funny thing happened recently. I've been grabbing the Scrap Letters lately. On my way to one of them, I ended up driving up a hill or mountain. When I got to the top, I got some air, meaning the car flew a bit above the top. While doing so, I ended up hitting a bird. I laughed, I thought it was funny.

Last night, I finished Story Mode. That was the second time I've seen the credits roll in the game, I had forgotten how long that is! Jumping back in the game, there was one mission for me to do with Trevor (I'm avoiding a spoiler here). After that, I didn't know what to do. I've spent a total of 79 hours in the (PC version) game. I've completed all the races (boat, car, and off-road) with the exception of the stock car races. I did two of those, once with Trevor and once with Franklin. I won different cars each time and I'm sure there are others to win as that check point is not marked as completed (with a green check mark). I'll probably go and finish those. One reason I didn't do that before was because I currently don't have many places to store the trophy cars. With Trevor's win, I stored the car in a garage I bought with him, which has room for at least one more I'm sure. Franklin's home garage currently contains the vehicle you get from collecting all the space ship parts and the one I got from his stock car race win. Michael's home garage contains a police car and maybe one more car.

I did finish Flight School with Trevor and got a gold rank in each, but it was such a pain that I decided I wouldn't do it again. I tried the stunt plane time trials, but again it was such a pain that I decided to just do them for fun and not worry about what rank I got. I think I got silver in all or almost all of them. Otherwise, all the races were rather easy. The stock car race wasn't one of the easy ones, but I didn't mind repeating those to win them.

I also completed the hunting missions with Trevor. Some of the challenges weren't as difficult as I thought. For instance, some of them require that you send him a picture of multiple dead animals. Well, you don't have to include all of them in one shot. You simply take a picture of one, save it, and then take a picture of the next. Once you have taken a picture of all the required animals, send the last to him and they will all be marked as complete.

I think I finished all of the Strangers and Freaks missions, except I realized I didn't do the Epsilon missions (Michael only missions), so that's what I'm working on now. I've thought about replaying all the missions to achieve a gold rank, which requires you to do certain things. I'm not sure if I'll do that, though.

After the Epsilon missions, I'll probably jump into GTA Online by transferring (really copying) my PS3 character to my PC. You can only do this transfer once and I'm fine with that. I spent very little time in GTAO on the PS3. I was very happy with the character I created, so it's great that I don't have to try to re-create him. As I've said before, I think he looks a lot like me.

That was how much time I put into the game, which included doing a lot of things. That was a bit after I completed story mode.

I have not yet run into any of the new Treasure Goblins. I noticed, by viewing my profile, that I've actually spent a lot of hours playing this game. Yet, I still have not had a Treasure Goblin open a portal upon its death. Although, this always happens with a Rainbow Goblin.

When I created my Wizard, I noticed he had an opening cut-scene kind of thing that basically introduced him. I don't recall seeing this on my other characters, certainly not with any of the more recent ones I created. I think this might have had to do with the new patch perhaps resetting some configuration. I tried to see the one for the Witch Doctor I created, but even resetting his quests did not show it. I found out, with a Google search, that the game skips cut-scenes if you've already seen them, even if that option in the configuration is not set. Thus, to resolve that issue, you can edit the game's configuration file and reset them. I did this, but still did not see the opening for my Witch Doctor.

All classes received some reconfiguration (as usual) and so I'm thinking, after I finish with my Wizard, of creating a new character for each class. One of my other reasons for doing that is because when I first played, and after not playing for a while, I didn't use most of my skills. After playing more, I began to use them more often. So, I'd like to go back and test them out, since I usually select the new skills that are available upon leveling up. While I'm tempted to delete and replace my old characters, I still have extra character slots available, since I upgraded to the Collector's Edition, so I may hold off on deletion for now. If I create new characters, as I intend to do, I think I'm going to create female characters and go through Campaign mode to see (or hear) the difference, since I've only created male characters so far. I'm also thinking I may select the Enchantress as a follower for these new characters, since I pretty much always select the Templar as a follower. That all is just to change things and see and hear the variations.

It is difficult to pick a favorite class because they all seem quite powerful and capable. I've enjoyed playing all of them. The reason I stated in this post that the Witch Doctor was among my favorites was because of his ability to summon companions, Zombie Dogs, and a Gargantuan. I found this to be very helpful. The Demon Hunter can summon a companion, too, which I enjoyed. The Wizard can also summon a Familiar.

Anyway, let me know if you're playing the game now that it has been patched again. Let me know if you've run into any of the new stuff. Also, feel free to leave your thoughts on the classes.

Yeah, I start out on Normal and increase it as I progress. If I notice I'm not really taking any damage, then that's a good indicator that I'm ready to increase the difficulty. My new Wizard is on Master or Expert now and I'm in Act II.

That's cool that you have a female character. In my event, I mentioned the trouble of naming characters, but the interesting thing is I think I have some good names for female characters, instead of the males. My (male) Witch Doctor is "TheDoctor," a Doctor Who reference, and my (male) Wizard is "TheWizard," a Black Sabbath reference. I'm thinking of naming a female Barbarian "Starbuck," in reference to the rebooted Battlestar Galactica or "Fang" from FFXIII. I also thought "Paine" from FFX-2 might be a good Barbarian, too. I think a female Witch Doctor could be named "Lulu" from FFX, but she would also make a good Wizard. "Yuna" from FFX might also be a good Wizard, or a Demon Hunter because of her gun usage in FFX-2. I'll decide when I get there, I guess. My first character, a male Barbarian, I named "GregoPeck." Then, I named my next one, a male Crusader, "Peck." After that, I named my male Demon Hunter, "Grego." Do you have the same issue, with naming new characters?

I remember you mentioning getting into that portal from a Treasure Goblin, I hope one opens for me some time. Just recently, with my new Wizard, I've run into two Rainbow Goblins, so with him I've visited Whimsydale twice already. I've run into maybe about five regular Treasure Goblins so far.

I'm curious if anyone here has found Leoric's Signet. The only farming I've done in the game was to get the Herding Staff ingredients so I could go to Whimsyshire, which I was able to do successfully. I'm tempted to try to farm for LS, but not sure if I want to spend the time to try, though it may be worth it. If anyone got it, let me know if you farmed for it or got it randomly. If you farmed for it, feel free to tell me how you proceeded.

I decided to try to farm for Leoric's Signet, but was not successful, and I eventually gave up with good reason. Most of the farming strategies I came across mentioned getting 5 NV (Nephalem Valor) point stacks and using MP (Monster Power) 10. I found out that NV and MP were removed from the game (before I started playing), so that made those strategies useless. I then had trouble finding any more recent strategies for this (a year old or so). I then found out that farming for Legendaries is better to do in Nephalem Rifts, which I tried. During that, one time trial, I ran into one of the new Treasure Goblins, I think it was an Insufferable Miscreant. I also found out that Legendaries can drop at any time and can scale to the level of your character. So, it seems Leoric's Signet is no longer necessarily a level 14 ring.

Therefore, I gave up on my quest to find it and decided to continue playing the game with my Wizard. I want to finish Campaign mode with him and I've just recently made it to Act V. I believe I am playing on Torment 1 and it is difficult. Since my Crusader is level 47 (or so), I don't know if I completed Campaign Mode with him. So, I may do that with him or or create a new one.

I think it's cool how I can still learn things about a game, even after having spent plenty of hours playing it. Yesterday, I finished Campaign Mode with my Wizard. Since I wasn't sure if I did that with my Crusader, I decided to delete the old one and re-create him. After I leveled up (to 2), I ended up hitting the "P" key for Paragon and found out that you can allocate those points right away. I thought you had to wait until you reached level 70 or 71 to do that. I guess that's only necessary if you haven't reached a Paragon level with any character before. I'm pretty sure they were effective right away because I ended up increasing the difficulty all the way to Torment 1, which is something I don't usually do in Act I.

I also wanted to replay the class since I know I initially hesitated to use class skills (1-4) and wanted to play again to see the progression of those skills. Also, when I created some of my characters, I'm sure I was thrown straight into the game without seeing their intro cut-scenes. Since I edited some settings in the configuration file, it seems that I get to see these when creating a new character. So, I may end up creating more new characters to do all of that.

So, I've gone through a few difficulty changes with my Crusader. A few times I realized my character wasn't equipped or ready for some of the higher difficulty levels (like Torment II and III). Fighting Belial sucked once he changed to his final form. That was the only time he really hurt me and that made me die a few times, so I lowered the difficulty from Torment I to Expert, which made that battle winnable. It wasn't just that I died a few times, but also because when you die you have to start the whole battle again, which became a nuisance. After the battle, I raised the difficulty back to Torment I and went to the next Act. My Crusader is currently level 67. My Paragon level is 99.

Jon, I found a really awesome Legendary Belt for the Crusader that is really cool, you should check it out (link below). It's orange ability says, "Punish gains the effect of every rune." I didn't know that ability existed and wow is it helpful!
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/angel-hair-braid

I'm not sure about that, the loot drop rates after the patch. I know that gets better with harder difficulty levels, but that's as far as I've noticed. I still want Leoric's Signet and the game has failed to deliver it to me. It has given me a Stolen Ring (link below), but disappointed me by giving me another one or two of them. I was also disappointed because when I was playing through with my Wizard, it kept giving me Legendary maces, so I have a few of those as well.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/stolen-ring

I finally got Leoric's Signet. It did actually drop in Act II by one of those Deceiving serpents. I finished with my Crusader (which really is an awesome class) and created a new, female, Barbarian and I found it with her. I also have two Liquid Rainbows, which means I've found three total in the game. I farmed for the first one to make the Herding Staff so I could visit Whimsyshire. They don't stack (Liquid Rainbow), which sucks because my chest is full. I decided not to sell Legendary items and I have bought all the slots available for the chest. I wish I could buy more. That doesn't mean all of my slots are full of Legendaries. My first slot is filled with gems, crafting materials, and some pieces of equipment since I ran out of room in the others. I also wish I had more character slots. I did get more when I upgraded to the Collector's Edition, but I don't think there's room enough to have one male and one female for each class.

I'll finish the game with my female Barbarian very soon and I'll probably start another female character (going down the list, which will probably be a Crusader). I may continue playing even more by creating new female characters to hear their dialog. There are still a few items I'm looking for like Cain's set pieces. I know there are also Keywardens that could drop keys needed for Uber boss fights or the Infernal Machine. Anyway, I thought I'd mention that I have two Legendary potions. I had to "research" how to use them. It's easy, just drag the Legendary potion to your health potion slot on the bar that contains that and your skills. Keep it in your inventory, though. They work like potions, but have added effects for a limited time, depending on which it is. The one I'm using adds armor. The other one I have gives you the ability to break through champion monster created walls, which I think isn't as great as the armor bonus.

http://www.diablowiki.net/Legendary_Health_Potions

Oh and BTW, my absolute favorite music in the entire game is the ending credits of Reaper of Souls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEmxhpLeeb0

I was wrong about the character slots I have available. I have one male character for each class (so that makes 6, I believe). I also have one female Barbarian and now one female Crusader. So that makes 8 characters and I have 7 more slots available. So, yeah, I have plenty. I don't know why I thought I didn't have enough. LOL

Let's hope not! Hahaha. You're welcome!

Nintendo has also recently announced development of mobile games. They've also announced that they're working on their next console, currently called "NX," though they didn't release any details about it.

I can't recall which roundtable it was, but Scrypt speculated that the game may end up being launched with the Nintendo NX. News has been released about a rumor that pretty much claims just that, so I'm impressed, Scrypt! The rumor states that both the game and the new console will be released at the end of the year. However, the game will also be launched for the Wii U. Check out this link for more details:

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-nx-and-new-zelda-launching-this-year-newl/1100-6435145/

Yeah, Scrypt and Adam, that's exactly how I feel, too. I don't want the second-rate non-maximized version. I guess we'll just have to wait a while to see if that rumor is true.

Cool, thanks for sharing. My thought on Hearthstone is similar. I was just beginning, as I'm sure others were, but I knew there would be other players more experienced than I was. The game tries to set you up with opponents that play similarly to you (I guess by tracking wins and losses). I played a bit and lost most games.

Quake 3 Arena was fun, but I still preferred to play against the computer. People really kicked my tail, which is ultimately why I don't like PVP, often losing. Man, I haven't played that game in forever!

That's cool about Guild Wars 2. I'm sorry I missed out on the sale, which was a steal compared to how much it is now.

That's cool, scrypt, thanks for sharing a different perspective. I haven't played WoW. I know I could play for free up until level 20, but I haven't tried it yet. I played FFXI a bit, but it didn't seem to be right for me as I tried playing solo, which didn't seem to be a very effective way of playing. My other MMORPG experience is with Ragnorak Online. I played it with a group of friends and I believe there was a PVP event once a week, at least. I joined in on some of these, different guilds fighting each other. My problem with that game was that people took my loot. I'd kill a bunch of monsters, as I had a powerful character, but I'd lose my loot to others. That was disappointing.

I haven't played any of the other games you mentioned, except for Halo. I played a bit of PVP at a friend's house and I most often got slaughtered, which is usually what happens when I play PVP. That is why I don't often enjoy that aspect of gaming. Back in the Doom and Quake days, I played more FPS games, but it seems I got away from them for quite a long time. I did just recently finish playing Half-Life 2 for the very first time.

That's understandable. When it comes to fighting games, I think it varies. The think with those is that I often feel like I'm just button mashing. However, it seems that sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, and that makes it a little more fun.

I don't really watch much of any kind of competitive play. I used to enjoy watching baseball, like when I watched the Braves play on TV when I was in Georgia. I enjoyed watching some basketball briefly with my cousin a long time ago. I did watch some football and basketball with my uncle and grandparents around Thanksgiving. These days, I don't really keep up with sports or anything competitive. As for e-sports, that is something I'm not really familiar with.

Yeah, I remembered that after posting that comment. I didn't get into watching that until my first year at Radford University, when my first roommate was watching it. Then, I met Edneecas, who also watched it and was a big fan of The Rock, I was, too. I still like The Rock and some of the other people, but haven't watched it in a very long time.

We're apparently in the same boat on that, with opposite sides of the perspective. I do have a general distaste for competition, that's very true. I attribute that to my personality and psychology. Just as some people are introverts and some are extroverts, obviously some enjoy competition, while others do not. Of course there are people in the middle ground of all of that, too.

Awesome! Feel free to post a reminder here, in case we forget.

As I've said, I'm not a competitive person by nature either. Most of my life I suffered from having a very low self-esteem and self-confidence, so playing competitive games with others more often than not hurt my already crippled ego. That said, when I'd win (which was rare in most cases), I felt really good.

When I played Smash Bros. with friends, I often lost. Since I've most recently played with kids (my son and his friends), I won more often than not. I was playing the new versions of the game (for the 3DS and Wii U), but I ended up quitting after getting frustrated trying to complete some of the challenges. That ties into one of my other forum posts about game difficulty.

I've barely played DoTA2, it came with my PC, which was an unexpected surprise. I don't seem to be interested in it very much. I have played Heroes of the Storm, which is similar, and I definitely enjoyed it more. I still haven't played against or with any other people, just NPCs.

FFXI was very much co-op, which gave me trouble because I'm so used to solo gaming. I did have friends in the game, but even though I joined the right server with them, I ended up being very far away from them. They said they were in Windhurst, so that's where I created my first (Hume) character. They weren't there for long, so I didn't run into most of them. One of them did find me eventually, but their (my fellow friends) home was with the other Humes, Bastok, I think. I did get very fortunate in finding a player that I didn't know, who helped me out very much and helped guide me through the game.

Now that two of us are joining Guild Wars 2, I think it's going to be a really awesome experience, since many other Cheerful Ghosts are there as well. I imagine there's going to be a lot of co-op in the game, which makes me feel good about it. Although I'm used to solo gaming, since many of us are going to be there, I'm sure my experience with GW2 is going to be quite different than my FFXI experience.

Thanks, everyone, for joining in this conversation and sharing. It's cool to see that even though we all share a lot in common, we also have our individual preferences and personalities. =)

This has become one of my most recent Cheerful Ghost experiences, that I've come to think of things for us to discuss in the forums and I'm glad many of you are taking part in that. I guess I'm helping keep the forums (and the site) alive and that feels good.

I haven't checked out any mods for any TES game. I do realize Skywind won't exactly be Morrowind or even a visually upgraded version, but I'm still hoping it gets completed and looking forward to it. The only TES games I've played are Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim and I think Morrowind is the more difficult one. I ended up buying armor at the beginning and it lasted me for quite a while. I was hoping and expecting to find something better. I can't really recall which races I've played because I've tried a few different ones at least. Some of the quests need certain skills, which I thought made it more difficult. I imagine eventually I'll try again.

I'm glad to see you and others (in other posts) rave about Morrowind and therefore have a strong like for it. Unfortunately, I don't like it as much as Oblivion and Skyrim (both of which I love absolutely). Perhaps that's because I started out on Skyrim. When I play Morrowind it's like I'm looking backwards at an older game with dated graphics. It's kind of like my Diablo experience. I started with D3:Reaper of Souls. I found the D2 Battle Chest at KMart a year or more ago for about $2. I picked it up and tried to play it, but came across that same "dated" hurdle. Of course, I don't believe every game has to have awesome graphics like Skyrim and I know those older games were/are great for the time they were released.

Ok, I'll have to check that out, hopefully I'll remember. Thank you very much for the mod suggestion. I'm running a year old Alienware PC, which I paid a lot for. So, I can play Skyrim on ultra settings.

Honestly, I can't say which I love more, Skyrim or Oblivion. Those games were love at first play for me. I can agree with you about Morrowind being a sandbox, since it has a construction set. Skyrim seems to fit that as well since you can craft houses. It seems to me that Morrowind was a bit more open-world and therefore the completion of quests seemed more open. Skyrim and Oblivion seemed to have more of a story to them and were more focused on those main quests, even though you could still run away from the main quest line and do others.

Thanks for understanding my point of view on those older games. I'm sure I probably would have appreciated them (Morrowind, Diablo 2, and others) if I had played them closer to their release dates. I'm also aware that Morrowind came out on the original XBox, which I have, so that is tempting to try. Many years ago a friend gave me set of CDs that came with something he got. Morrowind was included in that set (along with the construction set), but I didn't play it for a long time (less than 100 hours I'm sure). It was still a bit dated when I received it, I think. I did decide to get the game on Steam because I was missing the expansion packs.

Morrowind is kind of funny, in a way, because of one of the attribute that increases by jumping. So, when I play the game, I tend to jump all the time until that skill is maxed. Hahaha. I also spent a lot of time on the wiki researching how to complete many of the quests.

What is your favorite kind of character to play in Morrowind (race/class). I pretty much go with some kind of warrior type. However, it seems that this isn't a great idea in Morrowind because many of the quests seem to require magical skills. Since playing Oblivion, I've decided to play Imperial characters. Although, my first Skyrim character, on the PS3, was a Nord. My second, on the PC, was an Imperial and I therefore played the game differently than I had on the PS3 (meaning I allied with a different side).

I'm glad we're having this conversation and I hope others join in. Thanks for the comments!

I just got MSGO 3.0 installed and the game looks so much better! Thanks!

That sounds like a good idea, going with a Dark Elf. I've tried that race before in Morrowind. It seems like a good one since many of the quests in the game require magic. That was an issue I ran into a few times. Since I got the mod installed and tested, I'll jump back in and play as much of it as I can.

I was a bit aware of your opinion on this subject, but it's good that you spelled it out here. I was aware of how you felt about Starbound. I don't blame you, honestly. It was fun after a while, but then I hit a "ceiling" and it got boring. The newest update added more to the game, which I think resolved that "ceiling" issue. It gave purpose to exploring other planets and collecting things, which I thought was definitely needed. Still, it's incomplete, but I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops further.

I also knew that you loved Prison Architect. So, yeah, I can see how Early Access can be hit or miss.

So far my only disappointment (not including previously mentioned Starbound "ceiling") has been with Edge of Space, but it's been a while since I've played it, so I should give it another try.

I've been watching at least one person on YouTube play a few different Early Access titles, which has gotten me interested in them. Still, it's a bit of a gamble. That's why game demos are great, because you can try them out before deciding to buy them.

I agree, Travis, sadly it doesn't seem like many of them release demos, or at least that has been my experience. Luckily, Salt (an Early Access game I wrote about) has one. I wish other games would follow that example.

Along with playing the game, I've decided to read the developer's blog. I just found a great post about the graphical style of the game (see link below). While I noticed that the game looked similar to Wind Waker, it is mentioned as an inspiration to Salt in the post I just read. That's pretty cool. I remember when WW came out, it seemed to catch a lot of negativity from players, although i thought it was beautiful. When it came to Salt, I thought it was cool looking, but my first impression of the character model (pirates) wasn't a great one. However, now I really love it. The game is simplistic and artistically beautiful. I also really like the realistic looking water and lighting (such as the sun and moon).

I'm still very happy with the game and I'm looking forward to seeing what is added or changed in the future. It is expected to be completed by the end of the year. There are some questions that come to mind while playing the game. One of them is if things respawn, which they seem to do. I've seen islands with pirates back on them when I had previously killed them all. It seems that respawning takes place when exiting the game and opening it again. I think other things (like boulders) respawn, too. I also think some things despawn. For instance, once I was chasing a black deer at night towards the shore. It disappeared right in front of me into the sea. This occurred right when the night changed to day (you can tell because the chirping crickets sound change into birds).

I've spent a LOT of time on an island looking for things that I know are there, like the pickaxe on the spawn island. There are quests in the game and it seems as though I've only run into the one where a guy asks you to help him locate buried treasure on an island. There have been at least a couple of times where I spent a LOT of time on an island trying to find it. I always do find it, though. Still, I'm some what disappointed that this is the only quest I've come across and it's been given to me plenty of times. While these quest givers are "merchants," they didn't seem able to participate in the buying or selling of goods. I still haven't found any real merchants on my randomized seed.

Anyway, I hope some of you at least check out the demo. I think this game is worth getting and really cool to play and I'd love to discuss it with you.

Developer's blog about Salt's graphical style: http://saltthegameblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/friday-dev-update-closer-look-at.html

Thanks, JaBo! It is a cool game. I've spent 61 hours playing it so far. Some of the harder pirates (such as Pirate Battlemaster and Captains) seem a bit over-powered. There is an exploit that can be used to defeat them though as they won't chase you into the sea and you can therefore "kite" them. However, Bandages and White Flower Potions are greatly beneficial when fighting them, along with blocking (right-click w/ weapon). You can dodge, but that mechanic is a bit tricky to master, so I almost never do it. Dodging requires you keep your mouse focused on the enemy and jump with a directional button (WASD). However, you can jump backwards, which is a bit easier.

The game is all about exploration and doing so you will be able to find more things that will help in the tougher battles. I managed to buy a good sword from a merchant and I'm still using it. I also found some good armor at a ruins site, but then along the way I found better armor.

There are two different types of the compass in the game. The first one always points to the north (the red line), but on the face of the compass, "N" always is in front of you, so it can be a little confusing. I saw on Reddit that someone mentioned how the compass could be better, the developer saw that and created a Mariner's Compass in the game. I found one in the game and it is much better at showing you the direction your facing.

I should have included a video in my post, but check out the trailer on Steam's app store: http://store.steampowered.com/app/327860/

This is a game I definitely recommend, enjoy, and am looking forward to seeing how its development progresses. It's supposed to be finished by the end of the year.

Yeah, I thought I should have posted it to main. Thanks for promoting it, Jon. Good points, too.

I agree with you, too, Adam. If we think about video games as pieces of art, then certainly discussion of the game is open to interpretation.

I liked this video, that's why I shared it. I noticed some subtle hints to death when I played it (like the name of the town being "Termina"), but I didn't think too deep about it. The guys in the video do take a deep look into the game and show some compelling evidence to their theory.

That was really, cool, Adam! I'll have to check out more of their videos some time.