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Updates stopped for this blog. Last post 20 August 2013.
Monday, July 08, 2013
It’s coming to the end of the holidays :(
Well, I’ve been busy completing and trying out new games. Here’s the list:
Tomb Raider
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Path of Exile (Act 1 to 3 normal)
Starcraft II: Heart of The Swarm
Company of Heroes 2
Dishonored
Ghost Recon Online
MechWarrior Online
Firefall
Hawken
The Secret World
Warframe
I might have missed out some games. Too forgettable.
Games I am still playing daily: World of Tanks and Navyfield.
Okay, so here’s what I’ll be doing. I’ll be giving a small write up on each game here on this list. I won’t necessarily be writing about how good or bad the game was. I’ll be writing about my feelings about the game, and my experiences with it.
Tomb Raider
Awesome stuff. Best game I’ve played this year, though you could argue that I haven’t played a lot this year. The story was bizarre and interesting enough to catch my attention and keep me going. The combat is punchy, and the game mechanics are slick. The graphics are beautiful as well, even with my crappy graphics card.
Something possibly odd about me is that I do enjoy a bit of linearity in games. When I say this, I mean it in terms of exploration and travel. I enjoy games that put you on a specific path, with specific waypoints on the map for you to follow. I do enjoy having conversational and game-changing choices, like those in Mass Effect or Dragon Age, so don’t think that I like a plain mindless game. In short, I like choices that I have to make, but I hate exploration that I have to do. I was never much of an explorer, and I’m very goal-driven when I play video games. In Tomb Raider, I can just follow the path laid out for me without losing much in the game.There are some optional stuff for you to do, so those who crave for side quests need not despair.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
While trying to complete this game, I was also playing with another tactics game on my PSP (Tactics Ogre). I was halfway through XCOM when I realized that turn-based tactical gameplay like this is just not for me. Tactical games with a squad, action points, movement tiles, etc, I’m just horrible at them. XCOM is the first turn-based tactical game I’ve played on the PC, but I’ve played many on the PSP. I’ve never completed a single one. I always end up stuck, and I eventually give up.
Fortunately, I didn’t get stuck on XCOM, but unfortunately, I got extremely bored. The pace of the game was too slow, the animations got extremely repetitive without any way of skipping them, and the chance to hit was disgustingly based on the random number generator (RNG). The RNG is so bad, it made me rage in the game.
What did I do next? I went looking for cheats. And I found them. I gave myself unlimited moves, god mode, teleportation, and I killed aliens with my mouse cursor. I zoomed past the sleep-inducing battles, only to complete a story which was less memorable than the cartoons on the Disney Channel.
Bah. At least the PSP tactical games had a good story and game mechanics. Just that it was too hard. How did XCOM get high ratings?
Path of Exile
Many call this the game Diablo 3 should have been. I’m not going to disagree. Path of Exile is a good game, and if you’re a fan of point-and-click ARPGs, you should be playing Path of Exile.
Check out the badass passive skill tree here. And those are just passives. Check out the active skill gems here. And any class can use those skill gems. Be a melee witch (mage), or a spell casting marauder (warrior), it’s all up to you.
Starcraft II: Heart of The Swarm
The heck is this? I always enjoyed Blizzard’s stories and lore, but this one really disappoints me. The ending is just so unsatisfying. It didn’t make me crave for more, and neither did it make me feel happy. It’s so… meh.
Well, at least the gameplay is still the same, which can be a good or bad thing.
Company of Heroes 2
Another disappointment. Definitely is not better than Company of Heroes 1. This post appeared on my Facebook newsfeed yesterday, and look at the comments. I guess I’m not the only one who disliked CoH 2.
The campaign is still okay, similar to CoH 1, in the sense that they give you things to do little by little. Things are slowly introduced to you, and full battle command is only given at the very end of the campaign.
But for skirmish battles, oh man, what happened to annihilate mode? It’s gone! And anti-tank infantry, they seem to be utterly useless now. The only real way to take down tanks reliably seem to be using AT guns or another tank. Infantry seem to only be used for early game now.
Also, the level of RNG seems to be higher in tank battles now. One shot can do absolutely no damage at all, and the next can take off half your health. What on earth is going on? Ugh.
Dishonored
Remember when I said earlier that I liked linearity in my games? Well, that is the main reason why I dislike games made by Bethesda. Bethesda games tend to have a lot of exploration required if you want to earn money, items, and upgrades. You have to scavenge for stuff left in cupboards, ruins, and other places. I hate doing that. While Bethesda games tend to be well-loved by the people, I’ve either not completed any of them properly (cheated), or not completed them at all.
However, Dishonored is the first Bethesda game that I’ve completed properly. I have to admit, I felt like giving up about 3/4 through the game. I just dislike having to poke through every corner of the area, looking for money, ammo, and potions. Maybe I should have just ignored all that scavenging and just went on with my game, but would I have been as effective if I did?
Still, the game was fun, and I really enjoyed how the stealth aspect of the game played out.
Ghost Recon Online
I’ve actually attempted to play this game about a year ago, but because Starhub fibre optic had severe disconnection issues with certain online video games, I couldn’t play this.
Starhub has finally got their shit together with the latest firmware update (SH_2.00B050), so my connection is great now.
Anyway, Ghost Recon Online is a pretty good shooter. Some of you might find it rather typical, since there isn’t really much that separates it from the other shooters already out there. However, I still enjoy the standard shooter with standard guns the best. I’ll elaborate more on the Hawken and Firefall write-up.
MechWarrior Online
Oh boy, the controls are weird, and geez, the view through my mech is terrible. I can’t see anything. I quit after one battle.
Firefall
This is a unique game. If you want to try out something new regardless of what it may be, give this game a shot.
It’s an FPS MMORPG, but I found the PvE aspect of the game extremely lacking at the moment. The little bit of PvE I could find were just dynamic events that appeared on the map, so you just go there, and do them. Quests just involved shooting at stuff, which is typical for a shooter.
I do believe that the core of the game is the PvP, which is rather unfortunate for me. Here’s the elaboration about “standard shooters with standard guns”. Firefall is not a standard shooter. You can jetpack around. You have fantasy abilities that involve poison clouds, AoE stomping, healing, and dashing around. I am terrible at these kinds of shooters. I can never hit anything.
Game isn’t bad, it’s just not my type of game.
Hawken
This is another shooter, but in a mech. Seems like a MechWarrior ripoff, but the controls and view is much better than MechWarrior Online. However, similar to Firefall, it has flying and dashing, which does not appeal to me. Matchmaking seems rather unbalanced as well, as I saw level 26 players in the same battle as me. Maybe it’s a lack of players thing, *shrug*.
The Secret World
I gave this game a go when it was free for one week during it’s first year anniversary.
It’s not too bad a game, but the user interface interaction with NPCs is terrible, and the game itself is definitely not as polished as Rift or World of Warcraft.
I did not play much, so I can’t say much. The skill wheel seems quite interesting though. It seems that you are able to wield two weapons, which gives you access to two different skill sets at a time.
I’m generally quite burnt out on MMORPGs, so my attention span with them are fairly limited. It’s going to take a lot to keep me playing one. Pretty much why I’m playing the games I play daily; they’re unique.
Warframe
This game is pretty cool. It’s a PvE shooter, so you do instanced missions, in a team of up to four players. I’ve always wished for these kind of games, but unfortunately, these type of games are pretty rare, and I’m not surprised. I have played these kind of PvE mission-based games, and after a while, the lower level missions tend to end up empty, so you end up soloing everything. It becomes a huge problem if the mission requires a team because it’s a special boss mission. Sadly, none of these type of games that I have played still operate. I loved these kinds of games.
End of Nations
I have been invited to the alpha for this game again. If it opens before it gets busy in school, I’ll give it a try. I won’t be able to say anything about it though, because games in alpha stages have a non-disclosure agreement.
—- End of write ups —-
I won’t be playing any new games until December, and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of new games to play in the first place.
Until then, I’ll just be play World of Tanks and Navyfield for the daily experience doubles. Bye!
posted @ 6:51 pm
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Monday, July 01, 2013
I’ve been trying out this game creator called
Construct 2, and I’ve been following a beginner course from the University of Reddit,
here. They have
videos.
So I’ve made a
new link on my blog, and it’s still a work in progress. It will most likely evolve into a side-scrolling shooter.
posted @ 6:51 pm
0 comments
