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This Week In Gaming #5

Feb7th
2016 Leave a Comment Written by Saia

This week was pretty busy which didn’t allow for as much gaming as usual, though, I still game-hopped.  A lot of the time I did have wasn’t spent on super deep/meaningful games since they were short and didn’t require any brain power.

Here are the games I played this week: Plantera, Clicker Heroes, The Witness, XCOM 2.

Plantera

  • A couple people I follow on Twitter shared some pictures of this and I thought it looked cute so I decided to pick it up.
  • I knew it was a “clicker” game but still thought there’d be more to the game than there was.  There’s not really much to do once I’ve built all the items.  Then it just becomes a level grind to upgrade your plots.
  • I’ll probably play until I get a certain achievement and then not touch it again.

Clicker Heroes

  • Buying and playing Plantera reminded me about Clicker Heroes so I checked up on my progress.
  • Apparently you can join a clan in this game!  Yay for teams.
  • Though there isn’t much interaction in the game there’s a ton that I still don’t know anything about.  Souls? Ancients?  Guess I’ll have to look that up if I spend any more time playing.

The Witness

  • As mentioned last week, this game is amazing.  We finally “beat” it.  I put that in quotes because we saw and achieved End Game but there are still a lot of puzzles left to do.  A LOT!
  • After seeing the end it’s left me with a feeling of … WTF?  I was expecting the end to tell me about the world the game exists in but instead it only left me with more questions.
  • The way they did the end credits was brilliant.

XCOM 2

  • This is my first XCOM game.  I bought it on a whim.
  • I am loving it!  I’ve finally gotten to a point where I feel somewhat comfortable that I know what I’m doing.  I expect a twist to mess me up though.
  • I started making characters after people I know … what could possibly go wrong?!
  • I’m going to be playing this game for some time, I can tell.

As mentioned, not a very game-heavy week, but got some good gaming time in regardless.

Have a great week!

The Witness, Uncategorized, XCOM 2    , , , ,

This Week In Gaming #4

Feb1st
2016 1 Comment Written by Saia

Man, time flies!  Another week already over and now both Saturday and Sunday have somehow disappeared!

This week I played: Blade & Soul, Crashlands, Minecraft, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Hearthstone.

Blade & Soul

  • After some deliberating I’ve finally settled on Blade Master for my main character.  I’ve gotten to the point where I’m learning more moves and combos for combat but it still feels very smooth.  Trying to remember all them is going to be interesting.  At least I can look them up in my skill book.  It’s amazing how combos and blocking actually make a difference in mitigating damage.  I also didn’t understand how important that was until my ping went sky-high and I was missing combos and blocks so much I almost died.
  • Speaking of combat, I finally unlocked the skill tree and can now start customizing how I play my character.  Super exciting!
  • One of my complaints is the inventory system.  I understand that it’s a free-to-play game and they put restrictions on you in order to make money but I think the starting slots are extremely limited.  I think just expanding it by one more row would be a good balance between the free players and those that want to drop some dollars in the cash shop.

Crashlands

  • I’m slowly making more progress on my home and I’ve got a new pet!
  • I’ve been pleasantly surprised by two bosses now and I love that I get a statue for defeating them to add to my house.
  • I am very much enjoying this game and can’t wait to see what else is in store!

Minecraft

  • We’ve moved from our semi-temporary base that was more about function to a more scenic location.  I was given a space to call my own and have mostly designed it how I want.  The only thing missing is actual furniture.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

  • I was chatting with a friend who said they’d recently gotten back into SWTOR just to play through all the stories.  We talked about how good the story was in this game and it made me realized how much I wanted to see each class’ story.  So I started up a brand new Jedi Knight!
  • Little did I know that rolling a character on a separate server from my original one is that the Legacy wouldn’t follow.  Nor will the completed story for my Imperial Agent count towards the new server’s story achievements.  That’s a bit of a bummer.  If I end up sticking with the game to complete every story, I might look into paying for a server transfer.
  • Sadly though, it really feels empty in this game.  I barely see anyone in chat, or out in the world.  Maybe it’s just because I’m not a higher level and people are hanging out elsewhere?  I’d like to think that, but I doubt that’s the case.
  • I’ve chosen to go down the Guardian path of Jedi Knight and I’m having a blast.  The moves my character makes in combat make me look so awesome!  There was even a moment in the story where I punched a dude out and I actually shouted at my monitor that I was a badass … it was a great moment.
  • Quite a bit of time has passed since I last played and I’m getting thrown a lot of information on all the things they added.  There’s a good number of them and it’s almost a bit overwhelming.  I’m going to have to set aside some time to read up on all the new systems.

Hearthstone

  • Every month I faithfully play a bit of Hearthstone in order to make sure I’m rank 20 for that sweet sweet cardback.  This time rank 20 was accomplished with an aggro Shaman deck that, when all the pieces come together, I can easily beat my opponent by turn 4.  Which is nuts!
  • I also completed the most recent solo adventure, League of Explorers.  Blizzard does an excellent job providing really interesting battles and I had a lot of fun throughout the whole campaign.
  • There was also a small amount of time spent in this week’s Tavern Brawl.  Gotta get those packs!

As January comes to a close I also want to briefly mention one of the games I played that didn’t make it into a blog post, as I’m writing this after I’ve made my list for the week.

The Witness.  What a delightful game.  In the beginning, I didn’t really like it as much as I was told I would.  I was constantly comparing it to The Talos Principle, and it wasn’t winning.  As the game went on however, I found myself on a little bit of a high every time I completed a puzzle and unlocked something new.  The game became solely about the puzzles and I stopped thinking about anything else.  Fantastic.  Wonderful.  I highly recommend it if you enjoy puzzle/adventure games!

See you next Saturday!

Blade & Soul, Crashlands, Hearthstone, Minecraft, Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Witness, Uncategorized    , , , , , , , ,

This Week In Gaming #3

Jan23rd
2016 Leave a Comment Written by Saia

I was in a bit of a strange mood this week.  Couldn’t really figure out what game I wanted to play which meant I jumped around more than normal.

Here are the games I played this week (in no particular order): Minecraft (modded), Diablo 3, Renowned Explorers: International Society, Darkest Dungeon, FF:XIV, Blade & Soul, and Crashlands.

Minecraft

  • I wanted to see what kind of interesting home I could design so this weeks goal was to go out and explore the different biomes in search of all the types of wood.  Once I chose the two types I thought looked good together I had my friend add it to his ‘automation farm’.  I now never have to worry about gathering resources and can just focus on building!
  • A couple of the mods on the server also assist with customization and I still haven’t fully delved into what I can do with some of these new tools.
  • Even with all these tools though, I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be playing.  Minecraft just really doesn’t hold my attention for very long anymore.

Diablo 3

  • Season 5 started last week and I decided to go with Witch Doctor!
  • Some people might call it cheating but getting powerleveled in Diablo is a fantastic thing for me.  I’ve already leveled up each class the default way (campaign/story mode) and have no desire to do that for each new season.
  • Along with that, they’ve introduced the rebirth mechanic (which allows me to take a character I already have and transport it to the new season starting back at level 1 and my gear will be mailed to me upon reaching level 70).  This will greatly help the clean-up I end up doing at the end/start of a season to make sure I don’t hit my character limit.
  • Between those two things I can focus purely on getting the gear I want to play the build I want.  It’s great!

Renowned Explorers: International Society

  • I bought this game during the Steam winter sale and finally got around to playing it.
  • After the tutorial mission and a quickly failed attempt, I thought I was starting to get the hang of the game.  I had made it past two missions (which really isn’t a lot) with flying colors!  Then I started a 3-star adventure and got my whole team killed on the final encounter.
  • I still don’t fully understand the emotion ‘combat’ system which is putting me at a disadvantage when trying to move forward in the game.  That doesn’t mean I’m not enjoying myself.  I really like that art style and the goofy nature of it.

Darkest Dungeon

  • The game is now officially released!
  • I decided to start a new campaign now the game has fully launched to make sure I didn’t miss out on any of the new content that was added since the last time I played.
  • I’m still blown away by the amazing detail and thought that went into every aspect of this game.  The art, the dialogue, the voice actor, the theme, and even how harsh the game can be.
  • I love this game and even though I’m still learning how to survive the missions I know that this will be a game I keep coming back to.  I highly recommend you check it out!

Final Fantasy: A Realm Reborn

  • Still chugging along!  I got two more levels this week and a promotion with my grand company.
  • I’ve decided to just focus on the main story and hunting logs.  While running to and from quests I’ll keep my eye out for Fate’s that are around my level and near where I’m headed in order to make sure I’m getting as much XP as I can.
  • I’ve still got 10+ levels to go before I’m max level but I’m in no hurry and am still enjoying my time in the game.  It’ll be nice when I hit story that I haven’t done before (as my first character made it to level 40) so I can be a bit more invested in what I’m doing.

Blade & Soul

  • I wasn’t really interested in this game.  It seemed to me like another TERA and with Black Desert Online also releasing soon I didn’t want to play yet ANOTHER free eastern style game.
  • Then a couple of people I watch on Twitch started talking about it and I figured, why not at least give it a shot.  It’s free!  (And yes, this is one of the main reasons why I play so many games.)
  • I’ve rolled a Summoner, Blade Master, and Destroyer.  The Destroyer I’ve leveled the highest at level 10 with the Summoner coming up second at level 8.  The Blade Master I just started.
  • I really enjoy the feel of melee combat and after only a couple levels I think I like Blade Master over Destroyer.
  • Even though I think I like melee better, I made the most adorable character for my Summoner.  I’ll have to share some pictures next week when I get a bit further in the game!

Crashlands

  • The game released ON my birthday this week and I purchased it as a gift to myself.
  • Originally, I thought this was going to be more of a survival game but it turns out, it’s less about that and more about everything else the game has to offer.  The writing is also fantastic.
  • The first night I played, if my internet wouldn’t have gone out, I probably would have played until the wee hours of the morning.  My second session wasn’t as fun because I somehow ended up not having enough materials to craft anything and spent most of my time just wandering around and gathering.  The next time I played though, I started unlocking a lot more things and was always making progress towards something.
  • I have to say, even though I’ve only played 6 hours (only), I really enjoy it.  The exploration, crafting, and questing are all fantastic. And the pets! Oh man, the pet system is awesome.  I need to hatch at least one of every mob I possibly can.

Check back next week with another post on what games I’ve been playing!

Blade & Soul, Crashlands, Darkest Dungeon, Diablo 3, Final Fantasy: A Realm Reborn, Minecraft, MMO, PC, Renowned Explorers: International Society    , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This Week In Gaming #2

Jan16th
2016 Leave a Comment Written by Saia

This week I found myself a bit more distracted in choosing games, and it was hard to stick to ones I was already playing.

The following are the games I played this week (in no particular order):  FF:XIV, Minecraft (modded), Dwarf Fortress, Lethis: Path of Progress, and Slime Rancher.

Final Fantasy: A Realm Reborn (FF:XIV)

  • I didn’t spend much time in Final Fantasy this week.  Just enough to get another level.  I meant to log in multiple times and then, I don’t know, I just didn’t.  I will have to remedy this next week!

Minecraft

  • A few friends of mine started up a modded Minecraft server and I hadn’t played in a while so I joined them.
  • It’s been an interesting experience seeing all the new base Minecraft stuff that’s been added since I last played as well as all the things that the mods add.  It’s also been a bit overwhelming.
  • I feel a bit lost on what I want to do and haven’t really accomplished much during my time back.  It’s been mostly spent wandering around or organizing the base my friend has made.  Though, we DID kill the Ender Dragon.  That was definitely a good time.
  • One of the weirdest things coming back was remembering the ratio of coal:items for smelting … what a odd piece of information to store!

Dwarf Fortress

  • So even after going through the guide I mentioned last week, starting a new fortress hasn’t been easy.  It’s amazing, when not following a guide, how much stuff there is to remember and do in a timely manner.
  • I’m enjoying the challenge though and I’m sure my fortress won’t last much longer if I can’t figure out the military part of the game!
  • I still see myself playing many more hours of this.

Lethis: Path of Progress

  • Quill18 live-streamed this recently and it sparked me to go back and play again.  I had purchased the game a while back and played through all the tutorial missions plus a few of the campaign ones as well.
  • Originally, I just jumped into sandbox mode, not having played that before.  I found though that I didn’t really know what to do other than slowly expand.  And I do mean slowly.  Maybe I was just playing too safe but trying to keep the population/workforce balanced seemed to make the game crawl due to monetary issues.  I think it was that I wasn’t setting up a tax office early enough to help offset the spending.
  • Eventually I decided to just continue with the campaign missions which gives me goals to work towards.  It’s been fun remembering how to play and even more fun trying to find the best city layout for efficient pathing of service people.

Slime Rancher

  • My game purchases are heavily influenced by watching other people play or talk about them.  In this case, Etalyx was the catalyst behind this purchase, which I bought the day it was available.
  • There is something calming about collecting slimes, the food to feed them, and managing the farms.  The art style is perfect for this game and I find myself smiling frequently.
  • At this point in the game (it’s still in early access at the moment) ranch management can get quite tedious.  I can easily spend a whole day collecting from my various farms, then adding that food to the auto-feeders, then collecting the plorts from the auto-collector, and then selling those plorts for money to further expand my ranch.  If I want to stay on top of all that there’s not much time to go out exploring to collect new and different slimes.
  • The space in which we’re allowed to build (pre-designated ‘slots’) doesn’t feel at all large enough to be able to house multiple types of slimes AND the food to feed them.  I think it might be time to start experimenting by combining slimes!
  • I’ll probably only play a little bit more of this so I can save most of my experiences for release.  Definitely a fun game!

Come back next Saturday to see which games I ended up wandering to!

Dwarf Fortress, Final Fantasy: A Realm Reborn, Lethis: Path of Progress, Minecraft, MMO, PC, Slime Rancher    , , , , , , , , ,

This Week In Gaming #1

Jan9th
2016 1 Comment Written by Saia

Happy new year everyone!

Lately, I find myself switching games almost daily.  I miss talking about what I’m playing so I thought I’d start a weekly post generally chatting about the games I do end up spending time in.

Here is what I played this week (in no particular order): FF:XIV, Dungeon of the Endless, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, and Dwarf Fortress.

Final Fantasy: A Realm Reborn (FF:XIV)

  • Thanks to some new, awesome friends I made through Twitch I started a brand new character (on a new server – Behemoth).  This time choosing Archer as my starting class.  The difference in speed of leveling with a DPS class versus the healing class I started before (Conjurer) is extremely noticeable.  I’m already level 30!
  • Our little group was also able to set up a free company (FF’s version of a guild) and have even managed to make friends in the game already!
  • I’m still out-leveling my main story quests.  I wouldn’t normally consider that an issue, except when you have to complete those quests to unlock instances, mounts, certain skills, etc.  They become mandatory at that point.  This is a pain because you end up running between the 3 main zones in a haphazard mess of travelling.  So much time chasing quests instead of being able to go from quest hub to quest hub.  I know that once I’ve done my main story quests on Archer, any other class I want to level can just grind out EXP, but since I’m not at that stage, it’s a bit annoying.
  • Lastly, this week I learned about the Fantasia potion that allows you to change your characters appearance.  I also learned that you get one (on each character you make) for the 30-day veteran’s reward, which I have!  I even created a couple character looks, saved them, then Tweeted out a poll since I liked them all.  I’ll be switching up my look this coming week for sure.

Dungeon of the Endless

  • I’ve wanted this game for a while and finally picked it up during the Steam Winter Sale.  Though I haven’t played it a ton, I’m really enjoying it.  After my first few attempts only getting to floor 2 or 3 (to escape you need to reach floor 9 or 10), my latest attempt is going much better!  I’ve still got a few more floors to go before I “beat” it though.  And even beaten, there’s different ships, characters, and even an endless mode!
  • I know I have so much left to learn about this game.  What’s the best strategy for powering rooms?  Which characters are good for fighting, defense?  Which defenses/offenses should I be using?  So many questions to learn the answers to!
  • What I do know, is that this current party I’m working with isn’t long for this world.  I lost a member on the last floor and the monsters are getting so much tougher and there are so many more of them than I’ve ever had to deal with!

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

  •  Early last year, I decided to buy a new Nintendo 3DS.  I had a couple games in mind but the boyfriend said I really need to play a Zelda game.  I’ve only ever watched him play.  I went with A Link Between Worlds.
  • I had played the game for a couple hours when I first bought it, then never really returned to my 3DS.  So when I went to continue the game I was completely lost.  I had a red ‘X’ on my map but that was about it.  With no journal to hint at where I was in the game I ended up having to find a walkthrough of the game just to jog my memory and point me in the right direction.
  • Once I figured out where I was I jumped right back into things, even finding a new dungeon to explore!  I like the game, but I’m not hooked like so many others are with the Zelda titles.  I’ll slowly work my way towards completion and then make my decision on whether or not Zelda games are for me.

Dwarf Fortress

  •  By far, the most time I’ve spent gaming this week, has been dumped into Dwarf Fortress.  I think I can officially say I’m addicted to this game.  And I’ve barely scratched the surface!
  • I found a guide/walkthrough that Peridexis Errant created (who spent a lot of time making it thorough yet easy to follow) to help newcomers get their feet wet.  It’s been a fantastic journey following his step-by-step guide and watching the game come alive.
  • One of the main things I hear people mention about the game is how the controls are so weird/off-putting.  I will admit, I would much rather have a mouse to use instead of 99% keyboard controls.  You CAN use the mouse for certain things, but I’ve found that since I’d have to switch from mouse to keyboard and back, it’s much easier to stay on the keyboard controls.  But!  Play for a while and these controls will be second-nature.  Then it’s just all about the game and how complex and deep it is.
  • I can’t wait to finish the walkthrough and start my own civilization of dwarves and start failing learning more!  I’m definitely going to be spending hours and hours in this game.
3DS, Dungeon of the Endless, Dwarf Fortress, Final Fantasy: A Realm Reborn, MMO, PC, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds    , , , , , , ,
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