Video Games | Nerdologists

Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Peder — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 17:40:19 +0000

Let’s talk about a new video game that I’ve been playing. I wanted to jump into this game for a little bit. I got the game two Christmas’s ago. But I haven’t really played much Pokémon before that. So why did I pick Pokémon Legends: Arceus to start, not really sure. It was the one that was available at that point in time. And I thought the story sounded interesting. But now that I’ve put a number of hours into it, in the past week, let’s talk about the game.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus

I won’t spoil much of anything here. But let’s talk about where it drops you into the world and generally what the story is. You are literally dropped back in time through a rift. You land on a beach and you’re in the past. The you meet Professor Laventon who vouches for you and gets you into a village and a team of Pokémon researches. So you need to go out there, complete missions, complete requests, and capture and battle Pokémon.

How Is The Game Play?

The game play enjoyable. I won’t say that it’s amazing, but it’s very fun as you go around doing what you expect to do. And I think that’s kind of the best thing to say about it. Are you capturing Pokémon, yes you are. Are you battling Pokémon, yes you are. And when it comes down to it that is going to be what you want to do in a Pokémon game.

The controls themselves are very easy to learn and master in the game. It actually gives you a lot of assisting when it comes to targeting. There is an element of the game of dodging that I’m not that good at. That is a me issue, not the game issue. The game gives you warning when something is going to attack. For me it is just remembering which button to hit, and I am not that great at it. It’s the one element of the game that really has timing with it though. So I think that it might be an area that some players will struggle like I do.

How Is The Story?

I plan on avoiding spoilers here. But that might be tricky to do when talking about the game. I think that the story is again solid. It is good enough that it keeps me generally engaged with what is happening. It also isn’t so much that I feel like I’m going to forget everything if I take a break. That is the challenge for me with a lot of games, I tend to play for a while and then pause and come back again later.

But the story is fun, and the characters you interact with are fun. I also like how it is building up this history for the game. I know they need to have a lot of history for all of the games that they have, but it’s a fun element to the game. When you start the game, you build the Pokedex. It isn’t something that exists already. That is generally your goal in the game beyond the main story is to build that up.

I find it interesting that they are doing an out of time story as well. You find yourself in the past, and that is unique as well. I think they could have just done a story where you are just really talented as a Pokémon scout/fighter for Galaxy Team. But to be from the future is a nice twist and gives characters other ways to interact with you. And it is good at making the story feel big because of that.

Final Thoughts on Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Pokémon Legends Arceus is a fun game. It’s also a fun game for me because I can play it while my kid if watching. Some of the other games that I just love either aren’t interesting to them, Balatro and Slay the Spire, or are a bit violent and mature, Horizon and Baldur’s Gate 3. And while I enjoy playing games like Mario Kart and Mario Party Jamboree with him, I think it is more fun, or just as much fun to play that type of game that is more of a game. Mainly, I find myself playing it even when he isn’t around.

The one more negative thing, and I suspect this is the case with all the Pokémon games, is that it does feel like you do a lot of the same things. You catch Pokémon and you battle Pokémon. You might say “well duh” but it is an element of the game that is just fine for me. It is something that I expect from the game for sure. But it being my first game, I find that it is enjoyable, but sometimes it feels like I’m doing the same thing a lot. Or I feel like I should grind some in order to get to the level where the next big mission is comfortable for me.

That said, I find this game fun. I wouldn’t keep playing it if I didn’t. And I think that it’s a very solid and enjoyable. And I suspect that when I am done, I’m going to go find another Pokémon game to play. Such as Violet which we own.

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Baldur’s Gate 3 – A Deal with a Devil?

Peder — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 15:16:20 +0000

What’s going to happen now that we have Karlach in the party? Join myself and my wife as we play through Baldur’s Gate 3. Nina the Bard and Kaerok the monk are on the road with their little tadpole helpers. So what adventures will they get up to and who will they meet?

Our Characters

Just a quick reminder on who we have in Baldur’s Gate 3:

Nina the Tiefling Bard who generally just wants a great story. But she wants to hear about them and not be taking part in them so much. But she has gumption to deal with what comes up.

Kaerok a stoic half elf (I believe) monk who generally is pretty straightforward but not mean in who he is.

Shadowheart is the character who has caught Nina’s eye so she’s paired up with Nina in the adventuring group.

Karlach the character who now Kaerok is going to be taking an interest in.

Streaming for Baldur’s Gate 3

We are going to be streaming every Friday (or most Fridays) at 9 PM Central for about two hours. So it is going to take a while but that is the fun of the game to explore everything, make new choices and see how the story unfolds. The best way to know when we go live is to subscribe to the Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. You can find that here. And then click on that notification bell.

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Baldur’s Gate 3 – Nina and Kaerok Meet Karlach

Peder — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 15:40:35 +0000

Thanks everyone for checking out our Baldur’s Gate 3 video and streams as they are happening. It’s been a blast thus far. We spend a bunch of time this session at the Druid Settlement with the druids and the Tieflings. But we end up meeting an important character to our story, Karlach, at the end. Join with us and see what adventures happen and how our story unfolds.

Catch up with our characters over on YouTube by looking for Malts and Meeples and meet the characters and experience our early adventure.

Our Characters

Just a quick reminder on who we have:

Nina the Tiefling Bard who generally just wants a great story. But she wants to hear about them and not be taking part in them so much. But she has gumption to deal with what comes up.

Kaerok a stoic half elf (I believe) monk who generally is pretty straightforward but not mean in who he is.

Shadowheart is the character who has caught Nina’s eye so she’s paired up with Nina in the adventuring group.

Karlach the character who now Kaerok is going to be taking an interest in. But right now it’s been Laezel and Wyll who have been traveling with Kaerok, especially for the story points when we meet with Karlach.

Streaming for Baldur’s Gate 3

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Baldur’s Gate 3 – Full Game Thoughts

Peder — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 11:49:05 +0000

It’s time, it took me a while but I finally beat all of Baldur’s Gate 3. Between board games and life I knew it would because the game is massive. And now I’ve already started another playthrough with my wife. The streaming issues, hopefully fixed for Friday’s stream, at least once I get the cable run for the ethernet connection. But let’s talk about the game. And read up on my initial thoughts here.

What’s Changed from Early On To End?

Firstly, I don’t think that a ton has changed. I think there are a few elements where I commend what they did also I wish they were a bit better. And I still love the D&D nature of the game. When I sit down, I play Dungeons and Dragons because that’s what Baldur’s Gate 3 is, and they kept it very true to that.

So really, generally, this is my favorite video game that I’ve played. I love some other games that I’ve played, like Borderlands and Dragon Age. Neither of those games, however, give you that big branching feeling in the story that Baldur’s Gate 3 does. I get to sit down, explore where I want to explore, make choices, and feel like there are real things that change in the game.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Act III Issues

Now, that isn’t to say that there aren’t issues with the game. And I think most of them crop up towards the end of the game. Not kind of the end of the game hurrah, but the final faceoff against the bad guy, or leading into that. Mainly that some elements of the game aren’t as smooth as they should be. But more so, the story isn’t as smooth as it should be.

By that I don’t mean so much the main plot. I think that there is one element where it really is not that well done. Mainly, it’s a move that doesn’t make that much sense for a character that you’ve interacted with. And I think with the massive branching narrative that they have, there are some choices that get locked in, in ways that you don’t expect, because of a choice made. I’m trying to be vague here, but it’s just enough story, let’s put it that way, that sometimes things happen that don’t make sense.

Does Combat Hold Up?

So this is another little nitpick of the game. Not a major one because I get what they are doing. And I still love the combat in the game. Turn based D&D style combat is what I’m there for. So it’s not really a nitpick with the combat, it’s a nitpick with the level cap. I locked into level 12 pretty quick in the game.

And I get that there is power creep and enemy scaling that would need to be done. But I missed leveling up every now and again. Even if they push it out and slow down the level from 12 to 15 so that you barely can make it to 15 by the end, it’d be fun to hit a level up more often.

I understand that there’d be a need to scale the enemies in different ways. Basically, you need them to put out more damage or have more health depending on where people are at. And the more you are a completionist, the more you need that in place. I am not a 100% player, but I find a lot and I easily was at level 12 before most of the big boss fights in the game. That made some of them fairly easy still. So the game could use enemy scaling and for me a higher level cap.

Baldur’s Gate 3 – The Story

Again, I want to avoid spoilers as much as I can. So this is going to be more general than everything. But I love the story in the game. I think that even with the hiccup of a couple of things either getting locked in or having an extreme result, it’s a great story. And you feel like your character gets to progress throughout everything that they are doing. That is a great element for an open world RPG like Baldur’s Gate 3.

I want more games like this. But I have been watching Neil Newbon’s stream of the game, he voices Astarion and he talks about how long it took to get this game out the door. And that is not without some of the issues that I mentioned. I understand why there aren’t many games like this, it is so much work. But also, I want more like Baldur’s Gate 3 in terms of options for your character, branching narrative, choices mattering.

Let me know what you think of Baldur’s Gate 3. How many playthroughs have you done (my wife is on her fourth)? And what games maybe give some of the same feel as Baldur’s Gate 3?

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Baldur’s Gate 3 – Meet the Party

Peder — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 11:34:40 +0000

We’ve kind of soft launched something new on the Malts and Meeples channel. I say kind of, because well there have been a few hiccups with it. But as I talked about before, we, my wife and myself, want to do a live stream/game play of Baldur’s Gate 3. So that is officially under way, though there is one video to upload still to wrap up character creation. But checkout the videos that are done thus far on Malts and Meeples.

Streaming Schedule and Issues

The plan is to stream every Friday evening on this, generally starting around 9 PM Central, though that time is going to be flexible because it depends on our kid. And we might also stream other nights as well. So be aware that it’s just going to pop up when it pops up.

And you’ll also see that chunks are missing. Right now the computer that we’re using keeps on dropping wi-fi connection. When it’s connected it’s working great, when not, it happens randomly. And there is no good reason for it, as far as I can tell. I can reconnect no issues, it might just be the machine itself is going to struggle. We have another machine that we can try as well, and the possibility to hardwire that one into the internet to avoid the issue. So next stream might start even slightly later than normal but with that fix in place.

Meet the Baldur’s Gate 3 Adventuring Party

So let’s meet the party as it stands thus far. We might go back and tweak and replay some, TBD, because of a choice that we made. But let’s talk about the party.

I play Nina a Tiefling bard. We went with the two character classes who aren’t party members in Baldur’s Gate 3. Bard being one where if you play Durge it’ll be in the party so you can play with them. But there isn’t an option for it across the game even then. So let’s play around with that one.

My wife is playing Kaerok a half elf or elf, I forget which, monk. Another character that there is no companion who is a monk. This one there is no way to work in a character like that. So if you want to play with a monk, you need to play one on your own.

No plan to spoil who we are romancing. That will unfold as we play our characters. But we both have a plan/idea where we think it makes sense for our characters to go.

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Balatro – Marathon Stream

Peder — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 11:26:45 +0000

I didn’t get a board game set-up yesterday, yes I will be coming back to the Slay the Spire board game. Instead I wanted to hop on early and just do a long stream of Balatro and on my profile for streaming just to see if I could get a win and what I could unlock. It took several runs, but I managed to get a win, see how it went.

Balatro – Unlocks Just In Time

So let’s talk about the unlock system some more. I think I talked about it in comparison to Slay the Spire before. But I like in some ways how Balatro gives them to you for achievements. They are basically saying, we want you to find different ways to win. If you do that, you’ll get more and new things. But not just different ways to win, different ways to play the game.

I tend to play the game where I go of a straight on some suit and see how I can support it with the jokers that I have. It works sometimes and it doesn’t work as well other times. But if I were to plan better I could also be stacking things like pairs, and and two pairs onto that as well because those become more common. In fact, my winning run would have let me really lean into that to get even more multipliers.

But it isn’t just what you’ve skipped that gives you unlocks. But also what you are doing well. If you get enough enhanced cards or enough steel cards, all of those give you unlocks of different jokers. If you play enough tarot cards that unlocks a new deck. And while unlocks do slow down as you go, it is now really shooting for specific things as you play that offers that new challenge. Or weird things, like I still need to buy more blank vouchers.

Do you like unlocks in this type of game? And how do you like to get those achievements or unlocks. Just for playing the game a lot or for doing specific things?

Upcoming Streams

On Monday I play small solo game plays. The schedule is, right now, going to look like gaming every other Monday. A chance to see people in person came up for Monday and as much as I like streaming, it’s good to socialize as well. And I might do more deck construction with Star Wars Unlimited on Mondays as well or pack openings. Right now it’ll be more Slay the Spire.

On Wednesdays, I play solo campaign games. I plan on playing a campaign game coming up. Right now I’m torn between two games. Well, more than that if you watched through the end of the video. And that is more of The 7th Citadel. I plan to keep playing through The Drums of Desolation for a while so join me for that.

And if you want to know when I go live, the best way is to subscribe. When you subscribe, click that notification bell and you’ll get an alert whenever I’m going to go live. Follow the link – here – to subscribe.

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Balatro – Game Play 3

Peder — Thu, 23 May 2024 11:39:29 +0000

I didn’t have time to set-up any streaming last night besides playing some Balatro. So it is time to jump back into the deck building, rogue like, poker playing video game. This one really does do a lot that I like as a game. And for Malts and Meeples, I am playing from the beginning unlocking everything. See how that went yesterday in the two runs that I played.

Balatro – Unlocking Process

Let’s talk a bit about the leveling up that you do in Balatro. It is in some ways like Slay the Spire and in other ways it isn’t. Mainly both of them allow you to unlock additional cards and kind of characters as you go.

Let me explain the character element first. In Slay the Spire there is The Watcher who is able to be unlocked. It’s a new character that changes up how you play the game. A lot of the elements, still the the same, but some are different. In Balatro you unlock new decks of cards. Again most of the game is the same, but some elements change up. So that is what I mean by that.

And then for the cards, in Slay the Spire you unlock character specific cards and relics to add to your game. That isn’t an element of Balatro that anything is specific, but you unlock more jokers as you go. So as I play, I find more and varied jokers popping up to tweak how I play my hand. It might push me to playing more pairs, straights, or flushes depending on what I get. So it is part of how I can craft that I want to do to generate points.

I like both ways of leveling up in Slay the Spire with it being more specific to a character or Balatro with it being general to future plays. I think Balatro does fall a tiny bit short in the leveling up area because no matter the deck that I play, I generally find similar strategies. You can see that in the game play, flushes were how I went and what made sense for me to play.

Upcoming Streams

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Baldur’s Gate 3 – Take a Number Combat

Peder — Wed, 01 May 2024 11:29:48 +0000

I don’t play a ton of video games. But sometimes a theme comes along with video games that makes me really interested. Baldur’s Gate 3 with it’s Dungeons and Dragons theme is one of those games. Not just because it’s Dungeons and Dragons, but because Baldur’s Gate 3 has a story to go with it and open world exploration, but not too open world. Let’s talk about what Baldur’s Gate 3 does and why it may or may not be for you.

What Is Baldur’s Gate 3

So, normally when I write about board games, this is the section on how to play the game. I’m going to touch on that some for Baldur’s Gate 3 here, but also, what is the game in general?

Baldur’s Gate is a role playing game on the computer. You make your character and take them through adventures having dialogs with the NPCs both in your adventuring party and outside of it, to explore the world and to try and solve the problem that you’ve been faced with. You also face off against enemies in combat.

As you progress through the game you also progress through levels for your character and party members. So you gain more hit points, improve stats, and unlock more spells. All of this is taken directly from Dungeons and Dragons as to how you progress.

And that is the majority of the game. It’s about dialog, combat, and exploring the world. All the while working through the story that of the game.

Is The Story Good?

Let’s start then by talking about the story. Baldur’s Gate 3’s story is engaging from the get go. The game drops you into the story and you just need to start running with it. I like the set piece that you start in, which is in the trailers, of the hells.

And it teaches you while still expecting you to play the game at the start of the story. If you fail to do some things that will impact your game going forward from the get go. It might not be the biggest things, but you might miss out on a whole character if you aren’t careful, which is pretty impressive to start a game.

The story continues to grow from there. I like how it progresses not at that quick a pace, so it gives time for side quests. But it progresses in ways that makes you think about the story before. You need to remember who the characters are and where you’ve met them before. Because, it will matter as characters come back again in the story.

How Does Combat Work?

I think that combat is the area that trips most people up. Cut scenes with dialog and picking options. That all is normal. But the combat in Baldur’s Gate 3 is Dungeons and Dragons combat. You get an initiative, you pick from a lengthy set of spells or you need to consider your combat moves otherwise. And you do that for your whole party. And the monsters work in that way as well.

I know from what I’ve heard that some people don’t like this style of combat as well. And it is not going to be for everyone because it is different. That said, I like it. I like it because I don’t need to be quick on the buttons. When I play a game like Dragon Age, I set them casting some spell or using some shot, and I just keep on eye on cooldowns for when I can do it again. Or I need to try and spam moves or button mash. But here, I take my time to figure out what I want to do and I do that.

Now, as you gain more spells, it might become overwhelming for the player in the game. And it helps that I know what the spells or moves are from Dungeons and Dragons. So I sit down and I see “Fireball” I know what it is going to do. If you are new to Baldur’s Gate 3 and to Dungeons and Dragons it is going to be a different experience for you.

Final Thoughts on Baldur’s Gate 3

Why isn’t there more, you might ask. Surely there are more elements of the game to breakdown. There kind of are, and there kind of aren’t. So much of the rest of the game I’d consider to be traditional in what you are doing. If I’m playing a game or have played fantasy role playing games, or even something like Horizon Zero Dawn, you know what to do in these sorts of games.

The big question is, does the game grab you with the story? And is the combat something that works for you. I think some people will love the combat. I think other people, it is going to be too slow or too overwhelming with everything. And because of that, there is going to be a learning curve that some people won’t want to do.

For me, I love what the game does. I love leveling up my characters and seeing everything that can happen in the story. And I like the check system, maybe the other thing I could have written about. But the classic Dungeons and Dragons D20 system brought over to a video game, and it works well.

Have you played Baldur’s Gate 3, do you enjoy it. And is it worth getting and playing the older Baldur’s Gate games?

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Video Games | Nerdologists

Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Pokémon Legends: Arceus

How Is The Game Play?

How Is The Story?

Final Thoughts on Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Top 5 Anticipate Video Games for 2025

Top 5 Anticipated Video Games

5. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

4. Civilization 7

3. Avowed

2. Lost Records: Bloom and Rage

1. Slay the Spire 2

Final Thoughts

Baldur’s Gate 3 – Spider Time

Our Characters

Baldur’s Gate 3 and Board Game Streaming Schedule

Baldur’s Gate 3 – A Deal with a Devil?

Our Characters

Streaming for Baldur’s Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 – Nina and Kaerok Meet Karlach

Our Characters

Streaming for Baldur’s Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 – Full Game Thoughts

What’s Changed from Early On To End?

Baldur’s Gate 3 Act III Issues

Does Combat Hold Up?

Baldur’s Gate 3 – The Story

Baldur’s Gate 3 – Meet the Party

Streaming Schedule and Issues

Meet the Baldur’s Gate 3 Adventuring Party

Balatro – Marathon Stream

Balatro – Unlocks Just In Time

Upcoming Streams

Balatro – Game Play 3

Balatro – Unlocking Process

Upcoming Streams

Baldur’s Gate 3 – Take a Number Combat

What Is Baldur’s Gate 3

Is The Story Good?

How Does Combat Work?

Final Thoughts on Baldur’s Gate 3