Waiting for Duviri: The Second Set

This second batch is much better than the first, and all could hold my interest if I give them a chance.

Riverbond

A Diablo style game, but in cute voxel format with silly and equally cute opponents to boot. Half of your treasures will just be different "skins" for your character with the other half being ridiculous weaponry like ice cream cones and laser machine guns. Despite most of the game play being mouse button bashing I ended up playing this for far longer than I should have. Bonus points for awarding XP upon dialogue completion too which encourages NPC interaction (even if they are just telling jokes). Better than I thought it would be and one I could easily lose a day playing if I start it up again. Apparently there's even a co-op mode?

Warpips

This is an idle game with a war theme, as there are very few opportunities for you to interact with the battle field itself (which sadly is a small set of repeating maps). Most of the time you will just be buying a variety of units to immediately go out into the field and deciding how to spend XP they gain - either selling for money, increasing the XP to money trade, increasing your max number of units or ranking up your troops. You win a map if your forces destroy the enemy base and lose if they destroy your base, then do some minor tactical overland decisions and choose what troops to bring for the next map and so forth. It's simple but it's also addictive.

Duskers

In the dark reaches of space are many abandoned derelicts and this game invites you to visit them with your drones to gather resources, supplies, and get terrified at silly red lines. This keyboard only game is mainly represented in a top down view where you can control your drones and get them to use their abilities. Maybe drone 2 has a power pack so it can power up a generator if it sits on top of it. Drone 3 might be able to tow stuff, like other destroyed drones back to your docking shuttle, and drone 1 might have the motion tracker that shows just how few doors there are between your team and the freaking monsters.

Oh, your drones can't really fight back and almost all commands must be TYPED in. Yep, while movement is the usual WASD you'll need to type "generator" to power up an area, or "d1" to open door 1 or "close d1" to close the same door before something horrible comes for you. It's mostly a puzzle game where you want to lock or herd the bad things away while you loot. Pretty unique and gives off that GTFO feel, the only downsides are the graphics are intentionally minimal and it feels more like work instead of being fun.

Epistory

Another keyboard typing centric game, this time focusing on a girl riding a giant fox across a beautifully rendered, bright fantasy paperscape landscape that slowly unfolds as you explore. Excellent narration and an interesting story got me hooked here, and while you use WASD to explore it is typing that unlocks chests, plants flowers and fights enemies. Very cool but while typing gets old kinda fast, its not as fast as the big exploration segments of the game - lots of beautiful but empty space traversal which is a HUGE no-no in my book.

May 2018 Status

Another month down and this top list just keeps getting longer as I add more ideas and sundry items that I really should get around to... Also I've still mainly been focused on killing my backlog. Priorities right? :P

    End the year with less weight (-1 kg from last month, running total: -1.2 kg)
    Complete NWO: Lost City of Omu (0/2, 1-2 weeks to go)
    +Learn 3 more songs (0/3)
    Draw 12 drawings of anything (0/12)
    +Make a parody comic (planning)
    Make board game 19 prototype (procrastinating)
    Complete web comic chapter 1 (procrastinating)
    Make a simple computer game (procrastinating)
    +Clean out computer games
    +Clean out wardrobe

Backlog Update:

FROM GIFTS
Sims 3
Loki (Abandoned. Mindnumbing.)
Overlord 2
Commandos 2: Men of Courage (Abandoned. Not user friendly at all)
C&C Red Alert (DONE)
C&C Red Alert: Counterstrike (DONE)
C&C Red Alert: The Aftermath (DONE)
C&C Tiberian Sun (DONE)
C&C Tiberian Sun: Firestorm (More of the same)
C&C Red Alert 2 (DONE)
C&C Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge (DONE)
C&C Generals (DONE)
C&C Generals: Zero-Hour (DONE)
Supreme Commander (Abandoned. Too slow)
Dawn of War II (DONE)
Universe at War (Done / Had Enough)
Sins of a Solar Empire (DONE)
Diablo: Reaper of Souls (Doesn't Work)
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty (Infinite Patching)
+Eador: Masters of the Broken World

GOG FREEBIE PILEUP
OxenFree (DONE)
Grim Fandango Remastered (DONE)
Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire (No. Prefer to retry Free UO)

COMPY CAN'T RUN (but I want to play)
Batman: Arkham Knight
Dying Light
Alien Isolation
Shadow of Mordor
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
+Satellite Reign

I thought I'd just put in some mini reviews with each of those "abandoned" items, most of which I did try my best to play but ultimately just found it not to my liking. The only exception, and the one I'll start with is The Savage Empire.

Ultima in Africa is a bit strange, but I was willing to try it until I heard that Official UO has become free to play. If I'm going to play any Ultima, it's definitely going to be UO and there's no way The Savage Empire was going to stand up to that.

The ARPG diablo clone Loki is up next, and while the game is functional (though very texty) it just dove head first into the realm of mind numbingly boring. Regardless of what on the rails quest you were on, it boiled down to enter new area, kill the hundreds of things in the area (and that's already sneaking past half the map). Rinse and repeat. Just... no.

Eidos' Commandos 2 should have been perfect for me. A bunch of specialists sneaking around in Nazi Germany should be great right? Yes and no. In theory it's good, but lousy voice acting paired with the most unfriendly user interface I've ever come across sent me packing quickly.

Supreme Commander is another RTS game, this one taking place on maps so vast you often needed to zoom out to almost see the whole planet to manage your huge array of forces. With epic music, decent story (from what I played) and nice combat (if you zoomed back in to see it) you might wonder why I gave up on this one, and the answer is simple: build time.

It's a case of hoping your dots overwhelm the enemy dots.

Even compared to the slowest builds in Command and Conquer, this game moves at a glacial pace. Watching two glaciers crash into each other is grand, but waiting for to build your glacier (army) and then getting them to travel across the map was hours of boredom. Ultimately I decided that I simply have more rewarding things to do with my time. :P

Deathtrap

Tower Defense meets Diablo.

Deathtrap is an odd nugget. You start out by picking a hero class (fighter, hunter, wizard) and then get a quick spiel of these magical islands which serve as the titular "Deathtrap(s)" that stopped monstrous hordes from invading the world. Those isles have long been abandoned though and now its up to you to stop the new invasion cycle by constructing your own death traps: like poison gas, fireball towers and gun turrets. It's also way more "mature" than say Dungeon Defenders.

While trap locations are set in that you cannot put whatever, where ever you feel like - there is a pretty good variety available to you which are strong against some monster types and weak against others. Also, before each wave is a "planning phase". There's no timer (that I've come across yet) so you have all the time to prepare the map how you see fit. You are also shown the paths each wave will take, and given a list of all the enemies + their strength and weaknesses + where they are coming from. With all that info it should be easy right? Not quite. :P

So many things to kill!

Each map has a variety of difficulties to choose from, and some have extra quests like kill this monster who isn't part of any wave. He's just standing over there - far from anything else. Oh, he's also invulnerable during the planning phase so you'll have to decide if you are going to hunt him or defend the portal. Monsters that get to the portal reduce it's HP, same as a player dying (insta respawn though, not like *cough*Insurgency*cough*). If the portal reaches 0 life then you lose. If you kill all the enemies, a chest appears and you get your Diablo style "shower of loot" and hefty XP and research points.

There's a ton of upgrades you can do between missions, to your skills, to each trap, to your equipment - you can even forge new gear though it's through a BS RNG method of having the materials then crossing your fingers you get the stats you want. Despite all of this, I found it really boring when playing solo. It's just tedious. It is way more fun played cooperatively, though you'll probably want to use Mumble or some 3rd party voice chat since it doesn't come built in with one. Though it does come with an editor if you run out of maps. :P

If you have a buddy or group that enjoy(s) tower defense to play with, then I give this two and a half monster waves out of five. If you plan on playing solo then give it a skip.

Batman: Arkham Origins

The summary version of an Arkham game.

In this prequel to the previous Arkham games, a large bounty has attracted a bunch of assassins to kill the Batman on Christmas Eve and the only presents handed out during the course of the game are painful beat downs to all parties involved. Much like the previous games, controlling Batman is for the most part extremely fun - even if he is adverse to swimming. The combat system plays pretty much the same with a few new variations (for me anyway) which is great. I also quite liked the expanded use for detective vision in solving the mini crimes that come up during the course of the evening.

Breaking necks for great justice (I'm sure he's still alive)!

The map itself is composed of reused, redecorated sections of previous games but feels a lot smaller possibly because you can also use the Batwing to fast travel around the place. This also makes for a short game, main story wise as you can finish it with probably less that 40% total completion (the rest of which is filled by challenges and collectibles). Then it uses the "Diablo" method of locked difficulties to tempt people to replay which for me is utterly moronic. What's the point if you already know what's going to happen?

The other thing I find irksome is again some hard to reach collectibles - specifically the ones that break the rules of the game just to make it challenging. Like, Batman will refuse to grapple to a specific spot because that would be too easy, you have to find a way to glide there. In my book, that's not just bad design - its moronic. What, Batman decided to be inefficient all of a sudden?

Those things aside, it is still a pretty fun game (single player wise) and I give it three and a half batarangs out of five. Keep in mind you can probably clear it in around two days. Obviously take this into consideration if you are purchasing it because there is no way in hell that something so short should be charged the same as Elder Scrolls: Skyrim for example (which has given me 333 hours of play).

I should also mention there is a pretty cool sounding PvP multiplayer mode over four maps where players are either Batman / Robin or gang members of Joker or Bane. Unfortunately you probably won't get to play it as you are required to have 8 players to begin, and simply put - not enough people are playing it.

One Finger Death Punch

Perhaps the epitome of "Keep It Simple, Stupid".

Got this neat little indie title as a present and while it has no real story and all the characters are stick figures it is surprisingly addictive. It's also nice to see tool tips that thank the player for playing and supporting the product, as I can't remember the last time I've seen that. Game wise, basically you go around a pretty big, multi-path map beating up everyone with your two button kung fu which is amplified by unlockable skills that activate after killing x number of opponents. I quite like that they have a pretty good (though small) sound track in the background and that each stage is quite small, the largest maybe taking 5 minutes, and easily repeatable if you fail or just want to get a better mastery rank.

Interestingly, mastery is counted via your number of misses so if you want to be the best stick kung fu dude each punch must connect. Difficulty wise there are three ranks which you will have to go through in sequence to unlock the next (the type I don't like, ala Diablo), on top of the Speed tracker between each stage shifts slightly to either increase the enemy speed (if you keep winning) or decrease the enemy speed (if you keep losing).

While there are differing "stages" like mob rounds, throwing weapon rounds, defense against throwing weapon rounds, boss rounds, surival rounds, etc. they all really come down to bashing something to the left or right. Repetitive? Yes. Addictive? Yes. The only time I've found new controls is in the funny final survival mode of "No Luca No". Overall I give it two and a half fingers of death out of five as it is a pretty enjoyable way to lose a few hours. :P

Guess who Luca is.

Firefall: First Impressions

[Post #19 of the Blaugust Challenge!]

Future Earth is being corrupted and invaded by another dimension in this Free to Play MMO which I've just started trying out, so while I don't have a full grasp on everything that's going on I do have a whole bunch of first impressions, most of which are negative. Let's look at what I think is -good- first: Most of the voice acting, background music and the bits of the world I've seen get a thumbs up (level 18 only so far).  Having drop ships and glider pads that let you fly about is also good. Using cover does increase your lifespan. Dynamic world events and random invasions are also cool.

Seems I'm the only one that rides the air bus.

And now for the bad. There is no melee. Your secondary weapon (which for me switches between an SMG or grenade launcher) never runs out of ammo. Outside the tutorial I also haven't been able to -not- use a battle frame. They are the mandatory dress code. Jump jets are cool, but this made it lazy for them design wise as there are pretty much no lifts and very few staircases in game, instead forcing you to use this "feature".

There is no way to change your chat channel without knowing the typed commands to do so. The speech bubbles over characters heads look clunky, as does the inventory screen. I'm quite used to having my "pack" open at all times so for me, having an inventory screen that eats up a third of your window is quite annoying. There is also no way to find out what instance of the map you or your friends are on. Instead, after partying up, you have to again know the typed command to get everyone in the same map channel or you will never see each other despite standing in the same spot.

When partied up, only the leader can accept quests. You can also only have one main quest and one optional quest active. This makes for A LOT time wasting travel back and forth travel to quest hubs. I can see that some are meant to be done sequentially which is fine, but there are many others that should be able to be picked up simultaneously. Also the quest locations are randomized which sounds good on paper. In practice the place where I hunt the bandit leader, escort some civilians to a picnic, hunt a nest of spiders, search through garbage, tag a nest of birds, and deliver cookies to girl scouts is all the exact same spot.

Items also have level restrictions. This is somewhat more passable in say, Diablo where your character might actually not be strong enough to wield a sword effectively enough or lack the magical knowledge to operate a staff. Here, where everyone is basically walking in powered exoskeleton armor a level 10 player can't use a level 11 shotgun because...? The trigger is too heavy?

Despite all that the explorer in me wants to unlock all the SIN towers at the very least so I'll keep at it a bit more, just to see more of New Eden.

Blaugust Bonus: I prefer my MMO's to be medieval fantasy. This is partly because I like linking the same character throughout all the worlds I visit and it makes it difficult to do that when suddenly there are laser blasters everywhere. Also I don't really get the same epic feel. Facing down a horde of angry enemies with a blood stained sword is more intense and rewarding if you survive as opposed to facing the same horde with a gatling gun and jump jets. It basically becomes a "meh".

Redshirt: Facebook in Space

Some games people call Diablo clones while others are labelled WoW copy cats. In this regard Redshirt is a lot like Facebook. Yes, there's the comedy factor of being on a doomed space station performing ludicrous duties parodying Star Trek but all your actions will be spent on the station's social network: Spacebook.

The aim of the game is to manuever and manipulate your social circles by making friends, hosting and attending events and sending messages to keep people happy to put you into a favourable position of saving yourself while everyone else dies horribly. Sleeping your way to the top is one valid path, but given that your friends are often killed in away missions (and then replaced by people that dislike you) I simply opted to work hard and purchase an exit ticket which is probably the easiest solution to the game.

Hope you really like this screen, it's where most of the action takes place.

While the music is pretty cool, there are very few moving parts given that most of the time you will be staring at the pretty stale Spacebook screen. As a concept it works pretty well, and people who enjoy spending a bunch of time on facebook (especially trekkies) will probably get a kick out of this game. I clocked up 6 hours on it before victory myself, however I have no inclination of playing it again since it is not really that enticing. Not really something I would recommend unless you are a fan of the genre. Redshirt - I give it 1 and a half out of 5 mangled body parts from the transporter.

Top 10 Reasons Why I Stop Playing Games

I'm sure everyone has their own version of this list but just for kicks I figured I'd put mine up here to hopefully give game developers some possible extra insight on such matters.

#10: My Friends Dislike the game

Especially true in MMO's, if our guildmates don't give your game the thumbs up it makes it a bit less likely that I will play it over something they do enjoy. Almost impossible to cater for everyone's likes but this is the first "flood gate" that usually stops games from even being installed on my PC.

#9: I Dislike the game

Even if my friends aren't playing, I still may go ahead and play your game regardless if I like it enough after testing or researching it (Age of Conan is a good example) - and if I don't like it but they do then I may still put up with it. Obviously if no one likes it, it becomes a no brainer. Reasons I dislike games not only stem from actual game play mechanics but can also be things that don't sit well with me. Payday is a good example there where you can only be the "bad guys" (not even a dark shade of gray). For that reason alone I will never play it.

#8: We Can't Play Together

Another MMO slayer. If we can't play together then odds are high that your game is just going to be looked over or skipped after the initial test run. Region/IP barriers are quite frustrating for a guild with members all across the world. Even non MMO's suffer from this. Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombies is a good example. The gameplay is great but trying to get into a session that no one drops out of is like digging through a stone wall with a plastic fork. Worse still is that the person that drops out cannot rejoin a session like in L4D2. Good game, but if I am asked to recommend a co-op zombie shooter Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombies would NOT be on my list.

#7: It Isn't Free

This is probably a unique one for me. You see, I've sworn not to buy games for myself anymore. I still buy them for other people and receive them from my family and friends so that's all cool, however I don't think anyone would ever offer to pay for an ongoing subscription fee for me which is the main reason that World of Warcraft and other MMO's that require or really push for it simply get ignored like the leeches they are. Afterall, the best things in life are free - right?

#6: I've Won The Game

This is an odd one to be on this list because as you might expect that's when most people stop playing games. However a select few such as Diablo and Path of Exile simply just unlock harder modes to the same story that you've already played. Unlockable difficulties has always been a gripe of mine as it just shows for lazy development. Let people play the hardest mode at the get go and I'll have more respect for you. As it stands, after I win once that's it. The end. Unless you have new content (or are that frigging amazing) it's uninstall time for you.

#5: Slow to Patch

Updates to the game are good but there is a limit to what I will deem acceptable. Mabinogi is actually an example for me here because it is notorious for having massive updates which like to fail, and then require a reinstall to repair. Well, I -could- go through all that trouble or I could play a different game that won't give me any hassles to play. Guess which one always wins out? Also having BIG patches (looking at you Warframe) that interrupts my other online gaming really ticks me off, so if I can't finish downloading your patch in the time it takes for me to have a shower then I'll likely NEVER patch, and toss your game into the void.

#4: Frequent Patching

Almost a continuation of the above. Patches are good, but patching every day or even every week just tells me that your developers are shit, don't test, and require to keep pushing out "fixes" which only make more issues to compensate on your unfinished, unpolished, turd of a product.

#3: You Don't Let Me Play It

Guildwars 2 is a unique beast in this category. While I did like to voice my concerns about various parts of it, it was still a game that I would play regularly until I suddenly couldn't because they don't send me the validation email anymore. Checking on their forums the only staff reply to the issue I found was "The emails are going out, check with your email provider." Well, I -could- do that OR I could play a game that lets me play it with no hassles? Anything that causes me hassles just makes me give the middle finger to the screen and move on to something more productive and/or enjoyable. I'm here to play, not talk to tech support.

#2: Work vs Play

Playing games is meant to be enjoyable. The line between work (unfun, unrewarding, repetitive activities) and play exists for everyone and some people can simply take more "work" than others. As I get older I find that "work" line growing more and more over the "fun, rewarding" section because I have less time than I used to. Our last Ultima Online shard really killed it for my brother when it decided to increase the "work" side waaaay too much. The result? Not only did the game get uninstalled but the CD and box was thrown into the garbage.

#1: New Shinies

Christmas time and my birthday are the usual times this happens (given I don't buy myself anything), but wow do I get inundated with stuff when they do! As with all things I will go poke and play with the new shiny games for a bit until I either finish them, or find my older ones more appealing after the initial shine has faded off. Not really anything developers can do to combat this other than make their game the best it can be. :)

Walking the Path of Exile

I was all set to bag out this obvious Diablo clone for being just that, and then I played it. It's a pretty decent game, and arguably better than Diablo in parts once you get past the limited character creation. I imagine it's because they put all their development into the character advancement screen. It definitely overwhelmed me the first time I saw it!

The game also features more skill options in combat, though for the most part you will still be breaking your mouse buttons while you not only level your character but each "skill gem" which means your fire ball or shield bash may not be as effective as the guy next to you. The self-refilling potions is a new one for me too. Instead of lugging around hundreds of health or mana potions, here you have a belt of five (of your choice) that refill as you kill baddies. Obviously you'll be swapping out the little flasks for the big ones that are more beneficial but does this also mean you'll be hoping each boss comes with adds (extra minions) to give you top ups? It's a little weird.

I think she's about to refill her potions.

 

The other thing I also like is the barter system they have, but can see where there is room for improvement. There's no gold in the game, instead NPCs trade you random bits and pieces to form little consumable things like weapon or armor improvement and scrolls of identi-*cough*-wisdom. The problem is that all the NPCs give the same tidbits which means players have found common items to use as currency. I would have preferred if each NPC (at least in the one zone) traded different goods from all the others, and possibly doesn't accept items of particular types but I guess that's an improvement for next time.

Really my biggest issue with the game is a little one. It is an ARPG, not an MMO. You have safe zone hubs where you can run into people, sure - but out in the ever changing, procedurally generated wilderness each instance is only for you or your party with zero chance of meeting anyone else (actually didn't DDO and GW1 do the same/similar thing just without the procedurally generated map). Even in Warframe if you play "online" there's a chance other random players will show up to help in your mission (which also has randomly generated maps), though only a maximum of 4 at any one time. I think it would be nice to be able to bump into others out in the wilds every now and then, but I guess that opens up the door to other issues.

Of course the real question is: is it good enough to keep playing? To that my answer is a solid yes.

Where to Next?

My brothers and I recently finished Diablo 3 (finally) and of all the enemies it was Belial, the half-way mark boss, that caused us the most trouble. Everything else pretty much got curb-stomped, the titular main baddie included. So what's next outside of Guildwars 2 where all the heroes will ignore Scarlet's threat to Tyria to return to the wacky world of the Super Adventure Box (I know I will) and the slow progress of Neverwinter Online's Fury of the Feywild (it decided to let me log in again)?

I'm not that bad, honest!

Well, there are rumors that World of Warcraft may be going F2P - if that's true then the guild would probably check out Azeroth if given the chance. Funny reading angry subscription players posting on their forums "Well, if it goes F2P I'll stop giving them money!" Yeah. That's the point. Whether WoW actually makes the switch is another matter. Also was somewhat interested in trying Granado Espada out upon stumbling on some of its awesome music again but caught myself thinking do I really need another MMO (which I'd probably play solo) right now? Instead I am just hunting down all the tracks to listen to.

What else am I looking forward to then? The Thief reboot for sure (which looks a lot like Dishonored), and to a lesser extent the next game in the Witcher series. I didn't actually play the first two but I watched my brother go through them and it was cool. Lastly I was introduced to some D&D cosplaying silliness which I found to be rather entertaining and funny: The Gamers: Dorkness Rising. Worth a look especially if you are or were a pen and paper RPG player. :)