Did you play any Goragoa? I’m interested to hear what you think of it.

No, but I might as well. Thanks.

Well the game has its answer.

I look forward to playing, probably over the holiday break.

Nice.
Believe it or not, I’m STILL on chapter 3, but I think I have more hours in it than IGN’s reviewer put into the entire game. I’m in no rush to unlock the things that will remove the challenge and planning that goes into each long-range delivery. I haven’t even used the Anti-BT gun.

Maybe I’ll get to chapter 4 before the year is through. :P

Well, to get the highest ranking (Legend of legends) in the deliveries (particularly time focused and recovery ones) you absolutely need all the tools at your disposal. If you wanna go for those trophies you’ll never get there without all the toys. Mules later on get guns, and top time rankings are very tight.

I've gotten dozens of LoL rankings, I pretty much exclusively run Premium deliveries.
That said, I've never been a chaser of things on my first playthrough; I finished NieR: Automata two years ago, and I'm barely now going for the bonus endings so that I can sacrifice my save file to help another player (how's that for Strand-type cooperation, Kojima?). I hear good things about the game's tools and gear later on, but eh, I'm having a ton of relaxing stress (I guess you could call it fun?) just playing the game with the bare minimum and my wits.

Then keep doing what you do. I’m the kind of guy who would rather use the sticky gun to reel in packages than plunge the depths of a hole with toxic gas :-p

Nice.
Believe it or not, I’m STILL on chapter 3, but I think I have more hours in it than IGN’s reviewer put into the entire game. I’m in no rush to unlock the things that will remove the challenge and planning that goes into each long-range delivery. I haven’t even used the Anti-BT gun.

Maybe I’ll get to chapter 4 before the year is through. :P

Well, to get the highest ranking (Legend of legends) in the deliveries (particularly time focused and recovery ones) you absolutely need all the tools at your disposal. If you wanna go for those trophies you’ll never get there without all the toys. Mules later on get guns, and top time rankings are very tight.

I've gotten dozens of LoL rankings, I pretty much exclusively run Premium deliveries.
That said, I've never been a chaser of things on my first playthrough; I finished NieR: Automata two years ago, and I'm barely now going for the bonus endings so that I can sacrifice my save file to help another player (how's that for Strand-type cooperation, Kojima?). I hear good things about the game's tools and gear later on, but eh, I'm having a ton of relaxing stress (I guess you could call it fun?) just playing the game with the bare minimum and my wits.

I need to get back to that game. I’m still at the start of episode 5.

Nice.
Believe it or not, I’m STILL on chapter 3, but I think I have more hours in it than IGN’s reviewer put into the entire game. I’m in no rush to unlock the things that will remove the challenge and planning that goes into each long-range delivery. I haven’t even used the Anti-BT gun.

Maybe I’ll get to chapter 4 before the year is through. :P

Well, to get the highest ranking (Legend of legends) in the deliveries (particularly time focused and recovery ones) you absolutely need all the tools at your disposal. If you wanna go for those trophies you’ll never get there without all the toys. Mules later on get guns, and top time rankings are very tight.

Pro tip: if you shoot the Bola around a mule’s head or neck they will be knocked out rather than just restrained.

Maybe I’ll get to chapter 4 before the year is through. :P

Regarding the memory chips:

I was actually able to find all of these on my own. Unlike most games where collectables are about aimlessly wandering around looking for them, in Death Stranding you have ways to find them:

1. Scanning reveals them if you are close by
2. Watchtowers reveal them if you are not close by
3. Other players leave signs so check your map. 'Memory chip', 'X Marks the Spot', or 'Here!' signs usually mean a chip is there
4. Emails give you clues about where some are. Some are really specific, and others not so much.

So find all the ones other players mark, and build watchtowers to find the ones that aren't. And please leave signs when you find one :-)

Did you play any Goragoa? I’m interested to hear what you think of it.

I've heard this is a decently long game (like 50-60 hours or even more)

If you don't mess around or do anything cool it's shorter than that, but it's a good estimate for someone who is actually going to explore the world. I messed around a lot and I finished the story in about 70. Yes, I played it a lot in the past 11 days…

If you toss a blood grenade at a BT boss, then switch to a normal gun and start shooting through the mist, the bullets will get coated in your blood and do damage to the boss. Like, you can wreck if you use a shotgun this way.

I just started Episode 5 the other night. I’m going to play Jedi Fallen Order over the next week then go back to Death Stranding.

I just have to mention, because it feels increasingly rare these days:

After nearly 20 hours, I have not encountered a single bug. Literally nothing. The game has not hiccuped a single time as far as I can tell. For a game with a lot of systems (not too mention the online aspect), it feels remarkable.

You mentioned before you were spending time getting 5 star connections. I hope you aren’t doing that prematurely, because as you go on you get really cool toys that make the deliveries go way more efficiently if you utilize them well.

After nearly 20 hours, I have not encountered a single bug. Literally nothing. The game has not hiccuped a single time as far as I can tell. For a game with a lot of systems (not too mention the online aspect), it feels remarkable.