I have been making some good progress through Mass Effect 3, but it is also true that my attention has been diverted in a number of different directions, in the meantime. I am planning on paring that back down some and continuing on Shepard's quest very soon.
The Steam summer sale happened recently, and with that my backlog swelled again to even greater volume. I have knocked a few off the pile, though. Quickly and dirty reviews:
Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior - fun and fairly unique melee-focused combat featuring a number of historical warrior types. Did I uninstall this? What was I thinking? I want to go play more right now. The downside is that there doesn't seem to be much balance. Samurai appear to be the best class overall, by historical rankings in the leaderboards. Pirates look to be bringing up the rear. Cool game, but I'm not sure how much potential there is for a serious competitive scene.
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams - a great platformer with a gorgeous presentation, and quite difficult, too. There don't seem to be a huge amount of stages, but the ones I saw--up through the first boss fight--are large and feature a number of secrets. There is also the fact that each exists in two states, happy fairy land and dead Halloween land. You play as two girls, one at a time, shifting back and forth from girl and world to girl and world. Recommended for platformer fans.
Garry's Mod - I don't get it. I guess it's kind of a meta-Minecraft in which you can construct not only worlds, but game types, as well. I messed around a bit with dropping objects into the world, and I saw that there were a ton of people playing original game types on various servers, but I didn't join any. I tried to get onto something running some sort of Fallout: New Vegas roleplaying thing, but it was taking forever to connect, so I cancelled and quit out. This seems like a deep, deep hole, and I don't know that I want to jump down it.
Goat Simulator - Finally a game that Mia appreciates. She's three years old, today.
Wizorb - it's 8-bit-esque JRPG Arkanoid.
I also returned to a number of games for a bit more, and even finished off the Bioshock franchise, as it exists now, with the second part of Infinite's Burial at Sea expansion. It was good, and did a decent job of elaborating on the events of Infinite and connecting them to those of the original Bioshock. Not that that was really necessary, but it was a nice touch, I thought.
I let Mia check out some World of Goo, Peggle, and Hearthstone while sitting on my lap. She seems think they're variously OK for up to about 5 minutes before bombing off to do something else.
I made a tiny bit more progress through Half-Life 2. At this pace I'll finish itup sometime in 2016, making this one of the more extended contiguous (to my definition) playthroughs I've ever done. It's a great, great game, though. It feels great to play. Maybe I just don't want it to end.
I've kind of reached a multiplayer FPS crisis. That is, I don't know if there is a game for me in this genre. Battlefield has evolved to something I don't really care for. Call of Duty has never been my thing. Counter-Strike seems like the best game out there, but after about 15 or 20 minutes, I feel like I'm done for the day. Matches seem to last longer than that. Plus, Counter-Strike is extremely skill-intensive, and I'll never be that good. I need something more casual, I think. Maybe Borderlands or the upcoming Destiny or another co-op game, like the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer, is more my speed these days. I've tried the Left 4 Dead games, but they just don't seem to take, either. They're incredibly intense and repetitive, and like with CS, I want to bail out after just a short time. The aforementioned multiplayer in Mass Effect 3 is pretty good, maybe I'll stick with that for the time being, while I'm playing the campaign, anyway. I should also play the Payday series, which I do own.
Going forward, I guess I'll try to focus on ME3, though I am awaiting Diablo III's 2.1 patch and the Destiny beta. We'll see how that goes.
Showing posts with label Bioshock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bioshock. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Flying the Black Flag
I have just begun to consummate the yearly Assassin's Creed affair, this time with the pirate Edward Kenway. I only put in abut 90 minutes so far, but the broad strokes are of course, very familiar. I'm looking forward to seeing how Edward's story plays out, and exploring what appears to be the goofy extra-Animus conceit of the series, going forward. General impressions of this year's game, the sixth fully-fledged adventure in the series, are much more positive than they were for last year's AC3, which I enjoyed a great deal, constant readers might remember. One black mark that game had, though, was that the primary protagonist, Connor "Ratonhnhaké:ton" Kenway, was always so serious, and just not much fun. He was no Ezio Auditore, that is for sure. Edward, Connor's grandfather, appears to be much more of swashbuckling rogue out to make a fortune and have a good time doing it.
Beyond that, I've just been playing the Spelunky and Hearthstone circuit, for the most part, while advancing my way through Dragon Age II.
I did duck into a couple more DLC modules, 400 Days for The Walking Dead, and Burial at Sea Episode 1 for Bioshock Infinite. Both were enjoyable, featuring interesting new content with the familiar mechanics of the parent game.
I also played, and subsequently decided to be done with (for now), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Battlefield 3. CS:GO is fun, but man, I am bad, and I don't care to put in the time to get any better at it. I'd play more BF3, sometime, but BF4 is already out, and I'd just as soon pick that up and start on it. Which I will, at some point, no doubt.
Beyond that, I've just been playing the Spelunky and Hearthstone circuit, for the most part, while advancing my way through Dragon Age II.
I did duck into a couple more DLC modules, 400 Days for The Walking Dead, and Burial at Sea Episode 1 for Bioshock Infinite. Both were enjoyable, featuring interesting new content with the familiar mechanics of the parent game.
I also played, and subsequently decided to be done with (for now), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Battlefield 3. CS:GO is fun, but man, I am bad, and I don't care to put in the time to get any better at it. I'd play more BF3, sometime, but BF4 is already out, and I'd just as soon pick that up and start on it. Which I will, at some point, no doubt.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
F.A.T.H.E.R., I have returned to Dunwall.
Right around the time I was starting to flag in the Anno 2070 campaign, it wrapped itself up. The rogue AI F.A.T.H.E.R. was destroyed. The ten missions I played through were introducing new gameplay elements right up to the very end, presumably in an effort to teach the player the majority of what they would want to know to take on further challenge missions or to play online with others. Like I've mentioned before, I'll never play the game with others, but I may get back around to it for some of the individual challenge missions and the Deep Ocean expansion campaign. It is a pretty neat game, though a few aspects of how to accomplish this or that task could use a bit more clarity. It's got really haunting, melancholy music, too.
Over the weekend I was sort of clearing my plate for The Knife of Dunwall, the new Dishonored DLC missions where you play as Daud, another character from the main game, another of The Outsider's chosen, and the true assassin of the Empress. Daud is one of Corvo's targets late in the game, though you can choose to let him live, like with all the rest. I killed very few people in my play through of Dishonored, and none purposefully. Playing Daud, though, I am killing everyone. The story seems to set up the possibility for Daud to be redeemed, but that won't happen in my world. No, Daud may offset some of the consequences of his actions in one way or another, but he is still a murderous assassin, and will see a fitting end, I'm sure.
The DLC is three full missions, if I'm not mistaken, which is a fair portion of content when you consider that the main game is only nine--ten, if you are generous. There is supposed to be a further mission set later that should push the total up to 16 or so, main game included. If you never got around to playing Dishonored last year, now would be a great time to go back and get caught up. It was my number 3 game of 2012.
While I was clearing my plate for the Dishonored DLC, I replayed the first hour of BioShock Infinite, played an hour or so of Half-Life 2, which I will at some point actually finish, and played a game or two of Dota, even. On my agenda currently is playing the Knife of Dunwall. After that, I'm not so sure.
I've been reading The Martians, by Kim Stanley Robinson. It is a collection of short stories and companion piece to his Mars trilogy. Some of them seem to exist in a parallel universe where the initial "First 100" colonization mission never occurred, or at least not until much later, and characters on that mission stayed behind on Earth until much later. I just finished a longer story, novella length, called Green Mars (which is also the title of the second book in the trilogy proper), which seems like it might kind of be the centerpiece of the collection. It was the story of an expedition of climbers going up Olympus Mons over a couple of months, and it was pretty great. It makes me want to try rock climbing.
Over the weekend I was sort of clearing my plate for The Knife of Dunwall, the new Dishonored DLC missions where you play as Daud, another character from the main game, another of The Outsider's chosen, and the true assassin of the Empress. Daud is one of Corvo's targets late in the game, though you can choose to let him live, like with all the rest. I killed very few people in my play through of Dishonored, and none purposefully. Playing Daud, though, I am killing everyone. The story seems to set up the possibility for Daud to be redeemed, but that won't happen in my world. No, Daud may offset some of the consequences of his actions in one way or another, but he is still a murderous assassin, and will see a fitting end, I'm sure.
The DLC is three full missions, if I'm not mistaken, which is a fair portion of content when you consider that the main game is only nine--ten, if you are generous. There is supposed to be a further mission set later that should push the total up to 16 or so, main game included. If you never got around to playing Dishonored last year, now would be a great time to go back and get caught up. It was my number 3 game of 2012.
While I was clearing my plate for the Dishonored DLC, I replayed the first hour of BioShock Infinite, played an hour or so of Half-Life 2, which I will at some point actually finish, and played a game or two of Dota, even. On my agenda currently is playing the Knife of Dunwall. After that, I'm not so sure.
I've been reading The Martians, by Kim Stanley Robinson. It is a collection of short stories and companion piece to his Mars trilogy. Some of them seem to exist in a parallel universe where the initial "First 100" colonization mission never occurred, or at least not until much later, and characters on that mission stayed behind on Earth until much later. I just finished a longer story, novella length, called Green Mars (which is also the title of the second book in the trilogy proper), which seems like it might kind of be the centerpiece of the collection. It was the story of an expedition of climbers going up Olympus Mons over a couple of months, and it was pretty great. It makes me want to try rock climbing.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Tears
Read that title any way you like and it'll still be appropriate for Bioshock Infinite. I came away from the game pretty high on it. It is not without flaws or questionable decisions relating to the mechanics or the narrative, but most aspects of Infinite are head and shoulders above what a lot of games possess. I liked it a lot. I'm not sure what else there really is to say about it, other than I really liked Elizabeth as a character, and that people are right when they say that not a lot is ultimately made of the themes that the game seems to so boldly set out to take on near the beginning. Where the Vox Populi and Daisy Fitzroy in particular end up going is kind of mystifying. These are a good sort of criticisms for a game to have, though. Some semblance of an attempt was clearly being made to stretch boundaries, and I will applaud that, at least.
I have been playing more Anno 2070, too. I am nearing the end of the base game's story campaign, but after that there are still a ton of one-off missions to do, an expansion campaign, a free-play mode, and even multiplayer (which I will probably never touch). It's a great game to chill out with.
I've neglected Dota 2 for a few months, being busy and focusing on other strategy-oriented games, but I was able to get in the other night and play a good game as Slardar. There is a new guide system that lets you browse character guides created by the community and bookmark them for use while you play. Suggested skills and items from the guide will be highlighted within the UI while you play, which is a pretty cool feature. I wonder if it won't cement many cookie-cutter builds in the community, though. Regardless, it is handy and anything that can be done to make the game more newb-friendly is probably a good move, overall.
I have been playing more Anno 2070, too. I am nearing the end of the base game's story campaign, but after that there are still a ton of one-off missions to do, an expansion campaign, a free-play mode, and even multiplayer (which I will probably never touch). It's a great game to chill out with.
I've neglected Dota 2 for a few months, being busy and focusing on other strategy-oriented games, but I was able to get in the other night and play a good game as Slardar. There is a new guide system that lets you browse character guides created by the community and bookmark them for use while you play. Suggested skills and items from the guide will be highlighted within the UI while you play, which is a pretty cool feature. I wonder if it won't cement many cookie-cutter builds in the community, though. Regardless, it is handy and anything that can be done to make the game more newb-friendly is probably a good move, overall.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Aww, Come On!
This is just a placeholder, since Google/Blogger has somehow broken their list functionality.
I just wanted to add Proteus to the Pile and Moby Dick and The Last of the Mohicans to the Booklog!
While I'm here, I'll just make a note that I've been playing a lot of Starcraft II, Anno 2070, and Bioshock Infinite, lately.
I ended up doing an Uninstall on Monday Night Combat--wow, I expected more from that game. tsk tsk.
Gravity Bone, the Blendo Games game included with Thirty Flights of Loving, was pretty cool, though. I'd like to play all of the Citizen Abel series that these two are a part of, but I'm not sure if they are all released to the public.
I just wanted to add Proteus to the Pile and Moby Dick and The Last of the Mohicans to the Booklog!
While I'm here, I'll just make a note that I've been playing a lot of Starcraft II, Anno 2070, and Bioshock Infinite, lately.
I ended up doing an Uninstall on Monday Night Combat--wow, I expected more from that game. tsk tsk.
Gravity Bone, the Blendo Games game included with Thirty Flights of Loving, was pretty cool, though. I'd like to play all of the Citizen Abel series that these two are a part of, but I'm not sure if they are all released to the public.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Loose Ends: The Tie-ening
Well, I did finally finish Bioshock 2. It was a collection of levels strung together with some semblance of a plot, and an interesting mix of weapons and plasmid abilities. That was all middling to good fun, but I question the decision to include the little sister protection mechanic. It slows down level progression with a situation where the player is forced to be reactive to oncoming attackers, and to concern themselves with fortifying and defending an area from splicers while a little sister extracts ADAM goo from corpses in the environment. Rapture is a pretty unique and interesting environment, still, which is good because the city and its design aesthetic are half or more of the fun of Bioshock.
More remarkable than Bioshock 2 itself is its DLC standalone expansion, Minerva's Den. In that, a wholly separate 2-3 hour Bioshock campaign, you are again playing as a big daddy (Subject Sigma, now, as opposed to Delta in the main game), on a mission to Rapture Central Computing to help Dr. Tennenbaum (a side character in Bioshock 1 and 2) bring up to the surface world the powerful experimental computer that runs all of Rapture, called the Thinker. Minerva's Den is like a more condensed version of a Bioshock campaign. All of the weapons, plasmids, and gene tonics are there, but the progression is sped up dramatically--it all takes place over two and a half levels the size of the ones in Bioshock 2, where there are more like six or seven. There are loads of new art assets and environments, as well as new weapons and plasmids not found in Bioshock 2, proper. I thought the story was much better, as well, and benefiting from a shorter run-time and thus less padding.
So, with Bioshock 2 off the pile for good, Max Payne came to mind. I had completed the first few hours last spring and set the game aside, not really sure if I wanted to play any more. Well, I'm given to understand that it's a pretty short game, and because it is very simple but still fun enough, and has a cool film noir sensibility, plus the fact that a Max Payne game is seeing the light of day this spring, I figured I would hop back in and work toward adding another skull to the pile. If it goes well, I might even play Max Payne 2 sometime in the next.... while.
Prior to a couple of weeks ago, I would have ranked both Dead Space and Batman: Arkham Asylum higher in my list of half-finished games to polish off, but I went and sold both of those; I had PS3 copies of each, and I've decided I'd rather own and play both on the PC, instead. With Batman, it's no big deal, since I was only a couple of hours in (though I will need to repurchase the game next time it's on sale on Steam), but with Dead Space I was about halfway through the game, so that's a significant chunk of time lost. Fortunately, I thought it was a pretty good game, and on my second time through the first half, I can make different decisions about where to spend my upgrade points.
I had a very nice session of Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising this past Sunday. The baby was soundly taking an almost three-hour nap, and the wife was similarly asleep on the couch behind where I sit at my PC. I was lost in the cacophony of war coming from the shitty iphone earbuds I use at my PC, owing to the fact that I don't want to wear my noise-cancelling Sony headphones in case I need to hear something my wife says to me or the baby crying in the other room. Anyway, it was great. I played through three or four straight missions, killed tons of Chaos Space Marines, and collected much wargear in service to the Emperor of mankind.It was glorious.I hope for a recreation of that experience this weekend, sometime.
Oh, I began this post with the intent to discuss the betas I have been playing of Diablo III, Dota 2, and Tribes: Ascend, but those will have to wait for another day. I still need to write that Guild Wars post, as well.
More remarkable than Bioshock 2 itself is its DLC standalone expansion, Minerva's Den. In that, a wholly separate 2-3 hour Bioshock campaign, you are again playing as a big daddy (Subject Sigma, now, as opposed to Delta in the main game), on a mission to Rapture Central Computing to help Dr. Tennenbaum (a side character in Bioshock 1 and 2) bring up to the surface world the powerful experimental computer that runs all of Rapture, called the Thinker. Minerva's Den is like a more condensed version of a Bioshock campaign. All of the weapons, plasmids, and gene tonics are there, but the progression is sped up dramatically--it all takes place over two and a half levels the size of the ones in Bioshock 2, where there are more like six or seven. There are loads of new art assets and environments, as well as new weapons and plasmids not found in Bioshock 2, proper. I thought the story was much better, as well, and benefiting from a shorter run-time and thus less padding.
So, with Bioshock 2 off the pile for good, Max Payne came to mind. I had completed the first few hours last spring and set the game aside, not really sure if I wanted to play any more. Well, I'm given to understand that it's a pretty short game, and because it is very simple but still fun enough, and has a cool film noir sensibility, plus the fact that a Max Payne game is seeing the light of day this spring, I figured I would hop back in and work toward adding another skull to the pile. If it goes well, I might even play Max Payne 2 sometime in the next.... while.
Prior to a couple of weeks ago, I would have ranked both Dead Space and Batman: Arkham Asylum higher in my list of half-finished games to polish off, but I went and sold both of those; I had PS3 copies of each, and I've decided I'd rather own and play both on the PC, instead. With Batman, it's no big deal, since I was only a couple of hours in (though I will need to repurchase the game next time it's on sale on Steam), but with Dead Space I was about halfway through the game, so that's a significant chunk of time lost. Fortunately, I thought it was a pretty good game, and on my second time through the first half, I can make different decisions about where to spend my upgrade points.
I had a very nice session of Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising this past Sunday. The baby was soundly taking an almost three-hour nap, and the wife was similarly asleep on the couch behind where I sit at my PC. I was lost in the cacophony of war coming from the shitty iphone earbuds I use at my PC, owing to the fact that I don't want to wear my noise-cancelling Sony headphones in case I need to hear something my wife says to me or the baby crying in the other room. Anyway, it was great. I played through three or four straight missions, killed tons of Chaos Space Marines, and collected much wargear in service to the Emperor of mankind.It was glorious.I hope for a recreation of that experience this weekend, sometime.
Oh, I began this post with the intent to discuss the betas I have been playing of Diablo III, Dota 2, and Tribes: Ascend, but those will have to wait for another day. I still need to write that Guild Wars post, as well.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Duodecim?
2012. The year the world burns. In the fires of a gamepocalypse. Gameageddon has gotten off to a running start here, at 9 Parsecs.
Momentum of motivation had me roll right into Fallout 3 not long after finishing Fallout 2. I have 30 hours on my save, thus far, and I've gotten to a decent stopping point in the main quest thread, searching for my character's father. He disappeared from Vault 101 all of a sudden, and not caring for the way the Overseer runs the place, my character Nanashi set out to find him, braving the capital wasteland beginning to uncover the truth of her place of birth in the process. I'm sure that I'll eventually track down dear old Dad, and in Fallout fashion, a greater goal will be set, through the pursuit of which I'll leave my mark on the ruined wreckage of Washington D.C., and the people who live there. I'm already excited to get back to playing more.
Speaking of playing more, I need to finish BioShock 2 once and for all. I'm guessing that I'm around a third to halfway through it, and fairly lost as far as the plot goes. Or maybe the plot just isn't that good. I don't like how the antagonist Sophia Lamb was retconned into Rapture history and cast up against Andrew Ryan. Retcons in general suck. Regardless, the game is a lot of fun to play, what with the plasmids and different weapons and environmental factors to take into account while fighting splicers, Big Daddies, and Big Sisters. I want this one off my plate. I just need to set aside some time to polish it off between everything else I'm playing.
I don't believe I've written about it yet, but a helpful Call Of Podcast listener wrangled a couple of Diablo III beta keys for Lonesteban and I. I love the Diablo series, going way back to the days of the 50MB overnight download for the first game's demo. Diablo III is almost by default my most anticipated game, but it's always seemed so far away that it was only on the periphery of my mind. Well, not any longer. I've been having a blast playing the beta so far. The only thing I don't like is that it ends after a few hours. Even that's not so bad, since you can take your character and do boss runs ad infinitum. Eventually you will hit the level cap and get so much amazing loot that you can't even wear it all, though. Then you can try another of the classes. I maxed out a monk first, and I'm slowly working a wizard through, now. I'm trying to take my time, because there are special beta-only achievements that I'd like to get (and hopefully they'll carry over on my profile into the full game), but they were inactivated with the last update to the beta. I'm hoping the next update will be rolled out soon, and they'll be re-enabled.
The monk is awesome, and the wizard is just as great. I honestly don't know which I'll roll with first, once the final game is out. The other classes don't really interest me at this point, but I'm sure I'll get around to them at some point. If I have one concern for Diablo III, it's that it doesn't look like there is much point to ever creating more than one character of the same class. In Diablo II you had a lot of different choices to make in terms of skill choices and point distribution, but Diablo III does away with all of that in favor of a system that lets you re-spec your character at any point. I guess Hardcore mode will kind of negate this issue, but unless you play Hardcore, you will presumably be able to level each class to cap and not really have any reason to start more characters over at level 1. We'll just have to see how the final product ends up.
Elsewhere, I've begun Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising. It was time. I don't think there is anything else strategy-related on my plate besides my stalled Starcraft: Brood War game, only just begun. It was also the last Dawn of War II expansion on my pile, since I had dipped into Retribution a bit, already. I'll eventually finish this and then play Retribution to completion before going back to the original Dawn of War and its expansions. And hell, one day I'll finish Brood War and start Starcraft II, also. No rush; I figure I've got at least 50 good years left in me, hopefully more. Giving up fast food and working out more should help with that. All for the games, all for the games. Anyway, about Chaos Rising--I was able to import my save from the base Dawn of War II with my squad fully leveled up and kitted out. Right off the bat it seems more difficult than the base game, but I guess that's to be expected. Even a real-time strategy noob like myself (though I did beat Starcraft) didn't have much trouble with the original. I've really gotten into the Warhammer 40,000 universe over the last couple of years, and I really like the genre-meld of Dawn of War II.
Speaking of 40K, I started the Space Marine campaign over again just for fun, and also tried out the multiplayer and Exterminatus ("Horde") modes. That's a real good game, all around. I got flattened repeatedly in the versus multiplayer, but I had a good time in Exterminatus, and I'll probably play more of it over time.
Another quick hit--SpaceChem. I completed the challenge level In-place Swap, after staring at it and mucking around for 2-3 hours. I'm still only on the third or fourth planet in the game's story mode. I wonder if I'll ever be able to complete it. This is a really hard game, but it's so great at the same time.
Something else I've begun in the last few weeks is Guild Wars. I don't have the time and presence of mind to go into it very much right now, but I like it. It's old, and it's mechanics somewhat tired out by the rest of the genre, but it has its virtues. I'll write another entry on Guild Wars at a later date.
Yesterday they released a demo for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, and being a big fan of RPGs, I wanted to check out this one, a new IP from a new studio (kind of), and from EA, no less. I'd say my overall impressions are positive, despite not liking the art direction, UI, voice acting, or what I've seen of the story thus far (admittedly little). The combat is well done for an RPG, and about to the level of an action game. The game runs really well and looks great (in terms of image quality) on my PC. The problem is that I just don't have anywhere near the amount of free time I would need to get around to playing this somewhat safe RPG. It plays it too safe, I think; there's nothing slightly off-kilter or European about it to get me interested. The premise is only interesting in the superficial parallels to Planescape: Torment, and the art style is just off-putting. I could set that aside, because the graphics are nice, otherwise, but go look at my RPG pile. I wish Amalur had a little bit more of its own identity.
Momentum of motivation had me roll right into Fallout 3 not long after finishing Fallout 2. I have 30 hours on my save, thus far, and I've gotten to a decent stopping point in the main quest thread, searching for my character's father. He disappeared from Vault 101 all of a sudden, and not caring for the way the Overseer runs the place, my character Nanashi set out to find him, braving the capital wasteland beginning to uncover the truth of her place of birth in the process. I'm sure that I'll eventually track down dear old Dad, and in Fallout fashion, a greater goal will be set, through the pursuit of which I'll leave my mark on the ruined wreckage of Washington D.C., and the people who live there. I'm already excited to get back to playing more.
Speaking of playing more, I need to finish BioShock 2 once and for all. I'm guessing that I'm around a third to halfway through it, and fairly lost as far as the plot goes. Or maybe the plot just isn't that good. I don't like how the antagonist Sophia Lamb was retconned into Rapture history and cast up against Andrew Ryan. Retcons in general suck. Regardless, the game is a lot of fun to play, what with the plasmids and different weapons and environmental factors to take into account while fighting splicers, Big Daddies, and Big Sisters. I want this one off my plate. I just need to set aside some time to polish it off between everything else I'm playing.
I don't believe I've written about it yet, but a helpful Call Of Podcast listener wrangled a couple of Diablo III beta keys for Lonesteban and I. I love the Diablo series, going way back to the days of the 50MB overnight download for the first game's demo. Diablo III is almost by default my most anticipated game, but it's always seemed so far away that it was only on the periphery of my mind. Well, not any longer. I've been having a blast playing the beta so far. The only thing I don't like is that it ends after a few hours. Even that's not so bad, since you can take your character and do boss runs ad infinitum. Eventually you will hit the level cap and get so much amazing loot that you can't even wear it all, though. Then you can try another of the classes. I maxed out a monk first, and I'm slowly working a wizard through, now. I'm trying to take my time, because there are special beta-only achievements that I'd like to get (and hopefully they'll carry over on my profile into the full game), but they were inactivated with the last update to the beta. I'm hoping the next update will be rolled out soon, and they'll be re-enabled.
The monk is awesome, and the wizard is just as great. I honestly don't know which I'll roll with first, once the final game is out. The other classes don't really interest me at this point, but I'm sure I'll get around to them at some point. If I have one concern for Diablo III, it's that it doesn't look like there is much point to ever creating more than one character of the same class. In Diablo II you had a lot of different choices to make in terms of skill choices and point distribution, but Diablo III does away with all of that in favor of a system that lets you re-spec your character at any point. I guess Hardcore mode will kind of negate this issue, but unless you play Hardcore, you will presumably be able to level each class to cap and not really have any reason to start more characters over at level 1. We'll just have to see how the final product ends up.
Elsewhere, I've begun Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising. It was time. I don't think there is anything else strategy-related on my plate besides my stalled Starcraft: Brood War game, only just begun. It was also the last Dawn of War II expansion on my pile, since I had dipped into Retribution a bit, already. I'll eventually finish this and then play Retribution to completion before going back to the original Dawn of War and its expansions. And hell, one day I'll finish Brood War and start Starcraft II, also. No rush; I figure I've got at least 50 good years left in me, hopefully more. Giving up fast food and working out more should help with that. All for the games, all for the games. Anyway, about Chaos Rising--I was able to import my save from the base Dawn of War II with my squad fully leveled up and kitted out. Right off the bat it seems more difficult than the base game, but I guess that's to be expected. Even a real-time strategy noob like myself (though I did beat Starcraft) didn't have much trouble with the original. I've really gotten into the Warhammer 40,000 universe over the last couple of years, and I really like the genre-meld of Dawn of War II.
Speaking of 40K, I started the Space Marine campaign over again just for fun, and also tried out the multiplayer and Exterminatus ("Horde") modes. That's a real good game, all around. I got flattened repeatedly in the versus multiplayer, but I had a good time in Exterminatus, and I'll probably play more of it over time.
Another quick hit--SpaceChem. I completed the challenge level In-place Swap, after staring at it and mucking around for 2-3 hours. I'm still only on the third or fourth planet in the game's story mode. I wonder if I'll ever be able to complete it. This is a really hard game, but it's so great at the same time.
Something else I've begun in the last few weeks is Guild Wars. I don't have the time and presence of mind to go into it very much right now, but I like it. It's old, and it's mechanics somewhat tired out by the rest of the genre, but it has its virtues. I'll write another entry on Guild Wars at a later date.
Yesterday they released a demo for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, and being a big fan of RPGs, I wanted to check out this one, a new IP from a new studio (kind of), and from EA, no less. I'd say my overall impressions are positive, despite not liking the art direction, UI, voice acting, or what I've seen of the story thus far (admittedly little). The combat is well done for an RPG, and about to the level of an action game. The game runs really well and looks great (in terms of image quality) on my PC. The problem is that I just don't have anywhere near the amount of free time I would need to get around to playing this somewhat safe RPG. It plays it too safe, I think; there's nothing slightly off-kilter or European about it to get me interested. The premise is only interesting in the superficial parallels to Planescape: Torment, and the art style is just off-putting. I could set that aside, because the graphics are nice, otherwise, but go look at my RPG pile. I wish Amalur had a little bit more of its own identity.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Few And Far Between
That is how my gaming sessions feel these days. Even with with great expanses of time between these entries, I don't have a lot to write about having played.
I made some progress through Bioshock 2 a couple of weeks back. It's a pretty good game, like the first. It lacks the punch of the first, though, and so ended up being kind of maligned and overlooked upon its release. It's very much the sequel that no one asked for. I remember 2K making noises like they would be able to mine Bioshock well past 5 games; I'm not so sure that's the case, anymore. Perhaps they will, if they count Infinite and the series re-invention it looks to be.
I also played a short bit of Fallout 2, which is nominally the RPG I'm playing right now. I need to get back and finish this one up so that I can finally start Fallout 3 sometime in the next 12 months (maybe). I actually also have been playing a little bit of Dragon Quest IX, which I picked up out of boredom and curiosity. It's a Dragon Quest game, which is pretty much 'nuff said. I enjoyed those two and a half hours or so, so maybe I'll pick it up again soon. We'll see.
The game I've played the most of over the last couple of weeks is a multiplayer shooter called Section 8: Prejudice. I'm playing the PC version, though it is available on the PS3 and 360. I wouldn't advise playing those versions, though; there's barely anyone playing on PC--I shudder to think how empty the game would be on the consoles. It's very good, though. It plays kind of like a cross between Battlefield and Halo, and it looks a hell of a lot like the later. Sure, it's kind of generic in a lot of ways, but I really like it. Its one unique aspect is how you drop from orbit into battle, meaning that you can choose just about anywhere on the battlefield to spawn into, as long as there are no AA guns to kill you on your way down. It looks like you can even land on guys to kill them, but I haven't been able to pull that off, myself. Check the game out, if you don't mind playing in games where about half the players are bots. I got it for $6 on Direct2Drive (again, I can't say I'd recommend the $15 console price, as I'd imagine it's pretty dead over there).
Last, and probably also least, Warhammer 40K: Kill Team. I picked this up on PSN last night because it was only $10 and I like 40K stuff, and I'm excited for Space Marine. It should have been a $5 game, I think. It's pretty mediocre. I don't dislike it, especially, but it's pretty mediocre. I got stuck at a hard part in the first mission, too, and couldn't power through it before I got tired and wanted to go to bed. This is parenthood, I suppose.
I made some progress through Bioshock 2 a couple of weeks back. It's a pretty good game, like the first. It lacks the punch of the first, though, and so ended up being kind of maligned and overlooked upon its release. It's very much the sequel that no one asked for. I remember 2K making noises like they would be able to mine Bioshock well past 5 games; I'm not so sure that's the case, anymore. Perhaps they will, if they count Infinite and the series re-invention it looks to be.
I also played a short bit of Fallout 2, which is nominally the RPG I'm playing right now. I need to get back and finish this one up so that I can finally start Fallout 3 sometime in the next 12 months (maybe). I actually also have been playing a little bit of Dragon Quest IX, which I picked up out of boredom and curiosity. It's a Dragon Quest game, which is pretty much 'nuff said. I enjoyed those two and a half hours or so, so maybe I'll pick it up again soon. We'll see.
The game I've played the most of over the last couple of weeks is a multiplayer shooter called Section 8: Prejudice. I'm playing the PC version, though it is available on the PS3 and 360. I wouldn't advise playing those versions, though; there's barely anyone playing on PC--I shudder to think how empty the game would be on the consoles. It's very good, though. It plays kind of like a cross between Battlefield and Halo, and it looks a hell of a lot like the later. Sure, it's kind of generic in a lot of ways, but I really like it. Its one unique aspect is how you drop from orbit into battle, meaning that you can choose just about anywhere on the battlefield to spawn into, as long as there are no AA guns to kill you on your way down. It looks like you can even land on guys to kill them, but I haven't been able to pull that off, myself. Check the game out, if you don't mind playing in games where about half the players are bots. I got it for $6 on Direct2Drive (again, I can't say I'd recommend the $15 console price, as I'd imagine it's pretty dead over there).
Last, and probably also least, Warhammer 40K: Kill Team. I picked this up on PSN last night because it was only $10 and I like 40K stuff, and I'm excited for Space Marine. It should have been a $5 game, I think. It's pretty mediocre. I don't dislike it, especially, but it's pretty mediocre. I got stuck at a hard part in the first mission, too, and couldn't power through it before I got tired and wanted to go to bed. This is parenthood, I suppose.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Making This A Thing Again
Blogging has really gotten away from me lately. I blame my job. I hardly have time to trawl the RSS feeds or NeoGAF anymore, much less wax on and on about games. Fortunate then, that I haven't been playing a hell of a lot new or different in the last month. I think it really only amounts to four games.
Bioshock 2 was the last Resolution pick I managed to get to. I played a couple of hours, and was really enjoying it. All the hullabaloo surrounding the original game was about the plot and all it's significance and this and that and zzzzzz.... did everyone forget how much fun it was? Bioshock 2 is here to remind you. I'm excited to go back and play more, and what's more, the Minerva's Den DLC was recently released for the PC version, which I'm playing. I'll probably have to pick that up--again, as I bought it for the 360 version before catching a RROD to the console's face.
I also finally got around to finishing up S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Now that's a great open-world shooter. It's got some light role-play elements to it as far as choosing which missions to take and choosing who to ally yourself with, and it's got a great big expansive world to run around in and tons of dynamic stuff happening everywhere you go. It's also steeped in atmosphere unlike what you get with many other games.
Also steeped in its own very specific atmosphere is the PC adventure game Blade Runner. A Call Of Podcast listener was kind enough to send me a copy of this hard-to-find gem, and it's quite a find. If you can get it to run on a modern system, it still looks pretty good, and of course the sound is excellent and very reminiscent of the movie. Again I only got to play it for an hour or two, but I was instantly hooked, and mean to get back to it as soon as possible, perhaps when my next game relenquishes its hold on me.
Yes, the long-awaited sequel to The Witcher is out, and I have played it. I have completed it, and gone back to play more. It's good. Very good, in fact, and I'll write more about it, and in detail, in my next entry, due soon-ish.
Bioshock 2 was the last Resolution pick I managed to get to. I played a couple of hours, and was really enjoying it. All the hullabaloo surrounding the original game was about the plot and all it's significance and this and that and zzzzzz.... did everyone forget how much fun it was? Bioshock 2 is here to remind you. I'm excited to go back and play more, and what's more, the Minerva's Den DLC was recently released for the PC version, which I'm playing. I'll probably have to pick that up--again, as I bought it for the 360 version before catching a RROD to the console's face.
I also finally got around to finishing up S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Now that's a great open-world shooter. It's got some light role-play elements to it as far as choosing which missions to take and choosing who to ally yourself with, and it's got a great big expansive world to run around in and tons of dynamic stuff happening everywhere you go. It's also steeped in atmosphere unlike what you get with many other games.
Also steeped in its own very specific atmosphere is the PC adventure game Blade Runner. A Call Of Podcast listener was kind enough to send me a copy of this hard-to-find gem, and it's quite a find. If you can get it to run on a modern system, it still looks pretty good, and of course the sound is excellent and very reminiscent of the movie. Again I only got to play it for an hour or two, but I was instantly hooked, and mean to get back to it as soon as possible, perhaps when my next game relenquishes its hold on me.
Yes, the long-awaited sequel to The Witcher is out, and I have played it. I have completed it, and gone back to play more. It's good. Very good, in fact, and I'll write more about it, and in detail, in my next entry, due soon-ish.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
My 2008 GOTY
Every site/podcast out there chooses theirs, so I thought I should, too. I'm going to limit this to 2008 games that I actually played in 2008, as opposed to older games I played in 2008 or 2008 games I haven't played yet. You have to draw the line somewhere.
I don't think I ever named a game for 2007, though, so here's that one first: BioShock. Honorable Mention goes to Halo 3.
Without further ado, my game of the year 2008 is: Metal Gear Solid 4. It was completely awesome, and as good a cap to the series and wish fulfillment as could be hoped for. Who could forget Metal Gear on Metal Gear battle, or Snake's agonizing crawl through that microwave tunnel? Unbelievable, I loved it. Pretty good control scheme, even!
Honorable Mention goes to Gears of War 2.
I didn't actually play that many 2008 games in 2008...
I don't think I ever named a game for 2007, though, so here's that one first: BioShock. Honorable Mention goes to Halo 3.
Without further ado, my game of the year 2008 is: Metal Gear Solid 4. It was completely awesome, and as good a cap to the series and wish fulfillment as could be hoped for. Who could forget Metal Gear on Metal Gear battle, or Snake's agonizing crawl through that microwave tunnel? Unbelievable, I loved it. Pretty good control scheme, even!
Honorable Mention goes to Gears of War 2.
I didn't actually play that many 2008 games in 2008...
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