Games Reviews
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FF14: FishFest latest event guide
Read More »Final Fantasy 14 players joined avid fish lovers in Eorzea this past weekend to celebrate FishFest. This festival was first created by Eorzean Museum Network, and many FF14 players put forward a lot of good ideas for this water-themed event, making this event even more exciting.
As long as there are fish panels, educational venues, dance shows, competitions, and scavenger hunts, I believe many players will be interested in this event.
There are different locations and events in multiple worlds of North American Data Center. But the main venue for this event is still located at Eorzean Aquarium in Malboro.
Players’ recognition of this event can be seen from the turnout rate this time. So even putting in a lot of time and effort to prepare for the festival is worth it. FishFest has been in the works for 10 months. In fact, the earliest group discussions on related activities started in June-July, and most of the work was completed in October-November.
Fruity said that the original intention of FishFest event was actually to hold a large-scale global event to encourage players to go fishing. But after Fruity tried his best to persuade, it didn’t treat it as a global event, and just went online in North America.
In fact, this event was very good. Although there were numerous players gathered in different places, there was no sign of losing control during the event. All staff are wearing clearly turquoise wetsuits, which will make it easy for players to know who to turn to for help.
At the same time, share reminder messages about event locations during player chats, give players enough FF14 Gil rewards after completing tasks, and use Party Finder to bring players together to complete tasks. This kind of community spirit and contagious teamwork are the highlights of this event, which left a deep impression on many players.
Many players have never tried similar activities at first and often feel at a loss. But don’t worry, you’ll be doing it with some experienced players. The staff will also distribute bait and consumables to players in need, and provide guidance throughout the process, teaching everyone which bait needs to be used in which area and which fish species are most suitable.
Since Aquarium is often packed with players, it’s no surprise that every game is packed. An average of 30-40 players will take part in each Fishing Train, and most will try to use their aquatic-themed mounts to create a great fishing area.
This time, Ocean Fishing voyage will send a total of six boats. I believe that no matter you are a novice or a veteran, you can return with a full load. Fishing Train is usually busier on weekends, even reaching 90 players.
Esprit’s dance performance will be another highlight of this FishFest event. These performances are all water-themed and include pirates, sea shanties, your favorite aquatic Disney songs and more. Even Cytube echoes this theme.
The pirate-themed detailed sets also amaze players, who enter only to find themselves trapped in a pirate vault before finding their seats. There’s a Splatoon number starring Callie and Marie, but Shenpai is one of the main characters.
The troupe has put a lot of effort into every performance, not even letting go of every detail. All performers’ costumes, dances, facial expressions and stage special effects, songs can be perfectly matched. The water effect is from the side of the stage, with Calamari Inkatation 3mix painted expressions. Also, Shiny from Moana has a lot of glowing weapon abilities. You can also follow their amazing FishFest results on YouTube.
There were also two great panels on FishFest over the weekend. Ocean Fishing (Savage) by Tyo’to Tayuun and A Realm Reshelled by Innis’a Bvalvah bring more knowledge about molluscs to all players. If you have time, you can learn about them carefully.
Fruity and Eorzean Museum Network are planned. FishFest 2024 patch has also been confirmed. The team will use this player feedback on the event to refine next year’s new patch. Of course, there are many other activities that players are looking forward to, and Fruity also said that there are many other plans in progress.
Fruity said that Aquarium and EMN plans have been launched for a year, and players have high expectations for him. As for EMN’s first EU-only event, including the upcoming aquarium’s anniversary event in May, specific dates have been confirmed. Although the specific content has not been determined, it is already a rough plan for the team in 2024.
In addition, players’ enthusiasm and support for FishFest 2023 is an important reason for it to appear in front of more players. Fruity said that next year will provide more activities for the community. I hope players can continue to like this game.
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Elden Ring: Why Is Stormveil Castle Still Popular In 2023?
Read More »Elden Ring has always been full of mystery. On the day after the one-year anniversary of its initial release, Elden Ring fans began digging through almost every From Software title, trying to find clues about when DLC would be released.
Although a year has passed, players’ evaluation of Elden Ring is still the same as when it was first released: scary and mysterious.
Even when the player enters its first level, “Real”, it’s not that easy. You need to have a giant ogre with a British accent knock your head out with a shillelagh. If Elden Ring players beat the gatekeeper Margit The Fell Omen, they will find that they are not at their best in the game’s obscure and belligerent patch, so they will become even stronger.
There are plenty of players who agree that Elden Ring’s first dungeon, Stormveil Castle, isn’t just one of the best monster-filled castles that From Software has ever made. More importantly, it is also a milestone in horror monster-filled castles games.
This also shows that From Software has always adhered to the most successful game design formula, and did not abandon the original design concept because of the company’s elaborate Dark Souls.
But they disappointed many players when they played the first public beta of Elden Ring. It’s desperation to see a shift in design philosophy, and none of the dungeons feel strange to the player.
Although the huge world structure in the game can still shock players, the howling of wild beasts is accompanied by the harsh natural environment, and the horror factor soars instantly at this moment. But the lack of any From Software-related level design makes players feel a little disappointed.
However, Stormveil, now hidden behind a berserk Brit, has renewed interest among players. He wants to use the player’s Tarnished skull as its Golf ball.
When the player enters the castle, he sees the crumbling walls of the castle and sees the top and bottom of the castle. I believe that players’ doubts about Elden Ring will be cleared up. It does not mean these expansive open worlds to replace the original design, but rather to be the thread that connects them to each other.
When you first choose to explore and approach the gates of the castle, the castle gates are closed and the walls stand tall and intimidating. You’ll see a janitor lounging by, and he’ll ask if you want to open the gate for you. But it will also tell you that if it does, it will tear you to pieces by a ballista fire.
Just when you are hesitating, it will give you another suggestion. You can climb the broken wall in the castle by going back, and sneak in through the gap in the bevel.
Sure, that’s good advice, but it could also be an obvious murder plot. Any bird with a blade on its foot could kill you as soon as you tried to climb the broken castle walls, and even the crumbling road could kill you at any moment. And the janitor can use your dead body to build stairs without breaking a sweat.
This kind of complex level combining "trap" and "path" is usually one of the characteristics of Elden Ring. There's a lot of running and jumping involved as the player climbs up Stormveil's walls. The jumping ability introduced from From's oddball Sekiro will greatly improve the player's ability to avoid hazards in hidden spaces.
Of course, you can also stick to some off-the-beaten-path trails, and the occasional hordes of Soldiers and Trolls will become your threat. But there will also be some multi-limbed dude spiders out there to wipe out almost all Stormveil.
Whenever you can break through the enchantment and complete the task, Elden Ring Runes rewarded by the system will also drop at any time. Whether it's rewards, safer paths to avoid danger, or the game's terrifying secrets, players continue to dig and explore.
Elden Ring has always been good at building castles, from Demon’s Souls’ iconic and decrepit Boleteria Palace to a gilded spires of Dark Souls’ shining Anor Londo. But Stormveil is very different.
Here, your Tarnished will have a full expanse of medieval living space, passing through a church and library, all the way to a courtyard full of soldiers. Here will be the last threat for you and the castle master Godrick The Grafted. When you're up against swarms of flying birds with knives and dynamite strapped to their feet, you know it's going to be a tough challenge.
Something lurking beneath the castle will hint at the player and drive the quest forward, and only by completing the quest can it can reward the player, which is the spirit of Elden Ring.
What’s unique about Stormveil is that it’s not the best savage maze in the various “Legacy Dungeons” in Elden Ring’s sprawling map. It’s an exploration-focused castle.
Relatively speaking, Stormveil is actually a test patch for the more elaborate royal capital Leyndell. It would be the same trick to create a richer, unique living space. At the same time, larger palaces often hide the dirtiest secrets in the deepest part.
Stormveil represents the balance that Elden Ring has done in the past and the present. There is no wilderness of From’s style here at all, but full of majestic and magnificent architectural landscapes.
Stormveil also showed their unique design concepts to many designers in the industry, and combined some wonderful game moments, gameplay and the wider natural world to further improve and create more innovative storylines and game effects. Therefore, many players still love Elden Ring after a year.
In addition, if you want to quickly clear Stormveil Castle, it is very necessary to accumulate equipment in the early stage and practice upgrading. You can also do it by getting enough Elden Ring Runes on IGGM.com. Here you can also get 5% off with the code “CSCCA”, try it out.
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D2R Ladder Season 3 Rookie’s Guide: About Amazon Class Build
Read More »Amazon level is the highest level in D2R, and it is also well known as a super destroyer with powerful abilities. In the game, it can easily defeat the opponent through super strong damage output. Of course, this setting will continue to be maintained in D2R Ladder Season 3. However, if it is set by normal standards, the profession will become more dangerous. The following is also a discussion of related situations.
With this rookie’s guide, we explain to you the setup and secrets of Lightning Fury Amazon, the most powerful building in D2R Ladder Season 3. At the same time, it will also introduce you to the skills, equipment, and related mercenary suggestions that you can obtain.
D2R Ladder Season 3 will be updated with the most powerful Amazon version on February 16, 2023, and it has made some patch notes.
Pros And Cons Of Amazon Version
As said before, if the player wants to deal effective and maximum damage to a single enemy, and hurry to the next target, Amazon will be your best choice.
Relatively speaking, the advantage of this class is that its ability is stronger than most of the skills that can quickly break through the defense and destroy almost all enemies. What players love most is that this class is very easy to learn, even a rookie can quickly master it.
At the same time, there are some shortcomings behind his powerful skills. The main reason is that the number of times its skills can be used is limited, and its abilities are repetitive. The most important thing is that its skill action time is relatively slow compared to other professions.
The main reason its damage skills repeat is that its powerful gear deals damage to enemies primarily through lightning. Because of this, this class will have a hard time dealing with enemies immune to Lightning damage in the late game. But fortunately, players will learn that this drawback can also be easily circumvented by using the correct equipment.
Best Build In D2R Ladder Season 3: Lightning Fury Amazon
Players will achieve Sunder Charms through Lightning Fury Amazon’s settings. It can completely eliminate the problem of you having difficulty dealing with Lightning damage immune enemies late in the class. This will make enemies more vulnerable to the elements and you, but at the same time, make yourself more vulnerable to Lightning damage.
In order to solve this problem, players can use some items to weaken the enemy’s Resistance to our Lightning damage, such as Flickering Flame, Metamorphosis, Rune Master, Executioner’s Justice and so on.
At the same time, it can also improve our damage skills and defense. If you want to quickly increase the damage value and immunity of your occupation, you can achieve it by obtaining enough D2R Ladder Items to improve your game experience.
For these, the developer has also made more detailed considerations for the optimization of Lightning Fury Amazon build in D2R Ladder Season 3.
Which Mercenary Is The Best Partner For Lightning Fury Amazon Build?
The ideal partner for Lightning Fury Amazon setup in D2R Ladder Season 3 would be Desert Mercenary hired by Geiz. While you increase the physical damage value of your Lightning damage by using the equipment Might Aura, the Jab attack will also increase your own immunity to enemy Lightning damage. These gears will be a great helper and an important part of your successful Lightning Fury Amazon build.
Infinity Giant Thresher is also one of the gear you may need. It has the ability of Conviction Aura, which can quickly increase your damage ability, and at the same time greatly reduce the enemy’s Resistance and Defense against your attack. This Conviction Aura ability can destroy most immune skills, including but not limited to Lightning immune skills.
Until you know and have the best minimum gear combos in this guide, you’re going to have a hard time keeping your Mercenary alive. However, you can put Healing Potions on Mercenary’s portrait or use shift + 1/2/3/4 to feed potions directly to the injured Mercenary, so that Mercenary can improve its own resistance to damage from Thawing and Antidote Potions.
If your Mercenary dies in battle, you can also bring them back to life by talking to a Mercenary NPC in either scenario. However, the consequence of this is that every Mercenary you revive will increase the corresponding cost, and the highest limit will be 50000 D2R Ladder Runes. Therefore, please consider carefully when using or resurrecting Mercenary.
Other Ways Amazon Builds
Although Lightning Fury Amazon has advantages in terms of damage skills and combat modes and is easy to use, the simplification of its skills is an unavoidable fact. The developer has also made some solutions to the problem that many players want to try some occupations with unique elements and different types of skills. The developers will try to break down some of the best skills of D2R Ladder Season 3 Amazon Builds, resulting in different types of Amazon Builds. for example,
- Lightning Strike Amazon
- Freezing Arrow Amazon
- Poison Javelin Amazon
- Multiple Shot Amazon
So far, I have basically introduced the series construction of D2R Ladder Season 3. Of course, keep in mind that the style of the game and the classes you like will outweigh better class builds, even lesser builds can be used. Hope you have fun.
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Wild Hearts Reviews: How Was It?
Read More »More often than not, you can tell at a glance that Wild Hearts is similar to Capcom's Monster Hunter series of games. Both games are about players working together or individually to find and defeat monsters in a large open field. Players can obtain different accessories by defeating different monsters to craft better weapons and armor.
Omega Force studied the genre closely in Toukiden series before developing this game. These two games also happen to represent Capcom's best sellers in addition to, however, the poster child for the monster hunting genre.
Wild Hearts is not just a simple copy of Omega Force. The many familiar elements contained in the game, as well as the unique game identity created by Karakuri system, allow Wild Hearts to be quickly distinguished from its games of the same series by players.
In the Wild Hearts novels, Karakuri is just an ancient technique conjured up out of thin air by hunters. With this technology in action, it can be used as a fast-paced production system. Whether the player is in combat or not, it quickly opens up your available options and listens to a variety of different functions.
When you start with Basic Karakuri, you start by crafting a wooden box that will bounce you into the air when you climb up to the appropriate height. You can only stack up to three of these crates at a time. This is a technique that will come in handy as you explore space.
But it's another feature that really comes into play when players battle the various monsters in Wild Hearts, like the Kemono. When you're using these crates to jump and transition through blows, or use the height you get from bouncing to avoid area-of-effect attacks that spew pools of lava or poisonous clouds.
Whether it's as a springboard to dodge when the player is attacked, quickly jumping towards Kemono, or as a Springboard that allows the player to pass through gaps in large obstacles and kill monsters right on top of them. Most Karakuri have both functions.
Stacking these Karakuri is quick and easy, so you can quickly put as many pieces of equipment as you need into each battle.
Building wooden boxes and jumping to avoid danger in thrilling battles will become second nature to players. Doing this is as important as knowing how to choose the best weapon for you in each battle.
After that, you can also unlock various Fusion Karakuri, which can be used to form different combinations of Basic Karakuri to create more sophisticated devices.
For example, players can stack nine wooden boxes in three rows to form a solid barrier to block sudden incoming ejections or Kemono's tracks. You can also kill monsters in the air by summoning Gigantic Bouncing Hammers, Powerful Bombs, and Blinding Firework Cannons.
Obtaining a huge monster through a device created out of thin air is undoubtedly a huge advantage for players. However, the existence of various tools did not weaken the tense atmosphere in the game.
Every player needs to use Celestial Thread to build the device. If you run out, you can also get it by other means, such as cutting down trees or finding rocks, and extracting it by killing Kemono. These conditions also require you to think carefully and have a sense of strategic thinking when using Karakuri.
However, it also encourages you to work with others, pooling everyone's resources and building a larger wall to protect your teammates. Anyone can use this fence to carry out airstrikes, or to help others continue their activities when they run out of Celestial Thread.
Co-op play can be used in many ways, whether you're just throwing in a few friends at a party and it's possible to keep going. You also have the chance to revive each other, which makes Wild Hearts'multiplayer more accessible than Monster Hunters.
You can join fellow hunters by searching for active hunting sessions, or create a hunting session of your own, which makes it easier to cross-group with others.
If you're playing the entirety of Wild Hearts alone, the game's difficulty will climb dramatically. The first is Kemono known as Deathstalker. It is difficult for players to harm it.
Only by carefully observing its strengths and weaknesses, finding and killing other monsters, and upgrading and making its own weapons and equipment can it defeat this monster.
Of course, if you want to quickly upgrade to obtain these weapons and equipment, you can also choose to obtain Wild Hearts Gold to quickly upgrade and improve the game experience.
But if you can get the help of other players, it will be completely different, and it may be easy to kill monsters. If you don't like to play games with other people, you will probably be put off by the sudden difficulty.
Therefore, it is difficult to recommend Wild Hearts to players who like to play the game alone. However, this is also one of the charms of cooperative games. It's more cooperative than other monster hunting games.
When you're not building Magical Gizmos to help you hunt, you can also randomly choose one of eight weapons to help you deal damage to monsters.
These weapons range from the Katana to Hefty Maul to the hand cannon, each with its own stats, including different weapon specs that allow you to deal damage to monsters when certain requirements are met.
For example, when you use a samurai sword to attack a monster, a meter will appear, and only when it is filled can the Unbound mode be triggered to quickly damage the enemy.
At the same time, Karakuri Staff can also change into five different forms, including a staff, polearm, shuriken, double blades, and the building-sized juggernaut blade. And Bladed Wagasa is an umbrella that can be used for air strikes.
No matter which weapon you use, the character action in Wild Hearts will always thrill you. The weight of each weapon swing, the quick counterattack and escape from danger, all make the player feel like they are there.
Killing monsters certainly feels exciting, but the accompanying orchestral music adds a spooky vibe that also helps keep players in awe of each battle.
Plus, there's a lock-on system that's handy for targeting enemy bodies, but the system has a bit of a lag and often lets monsters flee because obstacles block the line of sight, which is more annoying than anything.
Wild Hearts is set in the fictional region of Azuma, an idea that comes from thinking about feudal times. Each location has its own unique style. Some of the beauty was worth seeing, but most were let down by low resolution and blur early on. Even though Wild Hearts looks great, performance-wise, it's pretty average.
Unfortunately, if PC settings do not meet or exceed the system recommendations, the player's game screen will often freeze during the entire game.
This situation is difficult to ease even by lowering the graphics settings, because it has almost the same picture performance at the highest and lowest settings.
Omega Force said that these problems have begun to improve and fix, so they hope these problems will become a thing of the past as soon as possible.
The core of Wild Hearts game doesn't stray too far from the theme of Monster Hunter series, but it's still surprising that the central mechanics around which the entire game revolves are still original.
Karakuri system enhances every part of Wild Hearts, including combat, co-op, airstrikes, and more. Some technical shortcomings hinder his development, but Wild Hearts is still a popular game and continues to enrich the genre.
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Elden Ring's co-op mod made the adventure new again
Read More »While not perfect, the co-op mod is the best way to re-experience this tremendous RPG.
On what had to be our 10th attempt at Elden Ring's first major boss, Godrick the Grafted, the big guy froze. A friend and I were using the Seamless Co-op mod (opens in new tab) and Godrick, despite having a literal fire-breathing dragon-head for an arm, decided to surrender. My fellow Tarnished got roasted a second earlier so it was just me and Godrick the Frozen. Cautiously I swung at him, ready for his brain to turn back on. It never did. I slashed away the last half of his health bar and sent him back into the ether. LEGEND FELLED. The mod may have broken him, but we were also several attempts in and just wanted to move on. A win is a win.
The Seamless Co-op mod solves all of the problems with Elden Ring's awful multiplayer summoning system, but it also introduces a slew of new ones once you're playing with it. Sometimes they're funny: my friend got to see my character ride an invisible horse a lot of the time. Sometimes they're useful: when one of you dies, the enemies don't reset, so you can cheese harder dungeons. And sometimes they're legitimately game-breaking: your ability to lock-on vanishes in the Radahn fight, which essentially prevents anyone who plays a spellcaster from doing damage at all.
The mod sits right in the middle of being unplayable and glorious. As Ted Litchfield wrote in his early impressions (opens in new tab) of it, it's simply the best way to play Elden Ring with a friend. Nothing could be worse than the normal method where you have to set a multiplayer password, drop a summon sign, wait for your friend to find it, and then be summoned in long enough to defeat the area's main boss. In the Seamless Co-op mod, you set a password, have your friend open their world, and then you can join them for as long as you want. You could play the entire game without ever getting kicked out.
On top of that, the Seamless Co-op mod lets you both ride Torrent (normal co-op prevents any horsing around) and, as part of a recent patch, you both can summon spirit ash allies anywhere you want. In some ways, playing with the mod is like playing in New Game+. There are some challenges here and there, but you have enough tools to barrel through however you want. Because my friend was new, I let her lead the way through catacombs and castles. She experienced all the little tricks FromSoftware plays on you with ambushes and puzzle-like combat scenarios. And, if things got hairy, I could assist using what I've learned from my own playthroughs.
New rules
The best moments with the Seamless Co-op mod are when things go very wrong. When the challenge is at its highest, the mod changes how you approach the game. Normal enemies are extremely susceptible to getting staggered when two of you are beating them up. We found this out rather quickly in the early parts of the game, so to keep things interesting we took on the toughest enemies. The patrolling Tree Sentinel in the opening area is a little more manageable when you have two people taking swipes at him on horseback, but he can still pulverize you in a single hit. For that fight, I equipped the talisman that kept his attention on me while I tanked him on the ground. My friend played the role of DPS and wore him down while he was distracted. It took us a few tries, but once she landed that final blow it felt like beating a raid boss in an MMO: going in with a plan and adapting on the fly based on the enemy's behavior.
We also decided to skip most of the optional catacombs and dungeons until we absolutely needed an upgrade or item they offered. This method kept us rune-starved enough to make some of the fights a genuine obstacle. For Castle Morne, we had to take turns pressing forward as one of us got killed, utilizing the fact that enemies don't respawn unless someone rests at a grace. The player that ate it can run back with a small penalty to their stamina regeneration. There were times where I intentionally bolted into a group of enemies and dispatched the most powerful one. I'd likely die in the process and leave my friend with the job of staying alive as I made my run back.
Under these new self-imposed rules, you're forced to come up with strategies that differ from the singleplayer game. By myself, I crept through dungeons and learned where enemies would appear. I'd wait until they were separated from the pack almost like a stealth game, or I'd pull them back to a safe spot. Wrong moves would be the end and I'd have to try again. In co-op, the goal is to cycle between each other long enough to make it to the next grace. To my surprise, Elden Ring works well as a gauntlet if you have someone who finds it equally thrilling to think on the fly.
Road trip
While not necessarily unique to the co-op mod, re-experiencing Elden Ring's open world with a friend who hasn't seen any of it before is a delight. It's like watching someone play your favorite game for the first time, but you get to be right there with them.
I completely forgot until the door locked behind us that Gatekeeper Gostoc traps you in a dark room with a brutal knight at the beginning of Stormveil Castle. Nothing is more scary for my friend than when something like that happens and we're both panicking. The same thing happened when she led the way toward a group of enemies in the middle of a swamp in Limgrave and the gigantic dragon flew down and barbecued her and everyone else. I've always said that Elden Ring's open world is basically made to emulate the popular Dark Souls memes (opens in new tab) where some person or animal gains a health bar and dramatic choir music starts. With persistent co-op, you can stumble into all sorts of problems, which is really what Elden Ring is all about.
The Lands Between also remain absolutely stunning to look at. I thought some of that would be lost while playing with a friend, but there have been several times where we've both crested a hill or came out of a cave and stood there looking out over the landscape. With two people, you have the time to appreciate the day/night cycle and how it can create the sort of imagery you'd usually see in staged screenshots. I desperately wanted a photo mode when all I could see on my screen was our silhouettes as we galloped across the grassy hills of Limgrave, or when we stood in the middle of the Radahn's battlefield, soaked in the crimson rain.
The Seamless Co-op mod's biggest weaknesses are in the most scripted sequences, which end up being the main Shardbearer boss fights, like Radahn and Rennala. You can't respawn at a Stake of Marika near them, so on top of AI and mechanics not working, you have to do the full run back. I imagine as we get deeper into the game there will be fights that might verge on being legitimately maddening. But we're halfway through and the worst we've had to deal with was the lock-on issue and one of us not correctly receiving runes as a reward for downing a boss—thankfully minor bosses are easy enough to farm souls from to alleviate that.
Otherwise, the mod is like playing on a new difficulty mode. It's still Elden Ring, but with pockets of new challenge that in-turn create new surprises. The mod's creator continues to update it as FromSoftware rolls out new patches. It's possible that at some point most of the bugs we encountered will be fixed. When that happens, I'll have zero caveats when recommending people to give the game a shot with a co-op partner. I wouldn't go so far as to say Elden Ring is purely better with friends, but it's easily the best way to re-experience it if you know someone that is willing to join you on the journey.
You can download Seamless Co-op from Nexus Mods (opens in new tab).