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Jun 24th, 2020 at 15:27:22 - No Man's Sky (PC) |
I had a friend who was STOKED about No Man's Sky back in like 2014. I followed it with mild interest. Hello Games' previous series, Joe Danger, never clicked with me, and I wasn't sure how they would go from a little stunt-based motorcycle game to one of the most ambitious games I'd heard of. Well, many years and a giant scandal later, I finally got the chance to find out!
To preface, I know there is a lot going on behind the scenes regarding the infinite procedurally generated universe, and I'm sure that is very cool and whatnot. You start off on a planet and quickly fly to another one, which I learned no one has ever discovered. I even got to name it (Nachtluz). I also got to name my eventual base (David's Turf KEEP OUT or I will throw durian).
I toyed around with No Man's Sky for a few hours and while it is certainly wonderful on paper, I was quickly bored and felt no real purpose in advancing further. On the planet on which you begin, you must fix your space ship. The game expertly teaches you its systems, first the basics like how to manage your space suit, repair tools, use tools, use your inventory, craft something from materials, and so on. You follow a mysterious signal to whatever planet was generated for you and proceed through the missions, which drip feed you new tutorial information. This is basically what I did for the duration of my play.
You're instructed to build Thing A, which you need to do Activity B. Once you do Activity B, you must build Thing C. To build Thing C, you need to collect Material D and Material E. Once you have these, you must build Thing F to combine the materials and form Material G. Only then can you build Thing C. Once you build Thing C, you are instructed to build Thing H and Thing I so that you can do Activity J. This requires Materials K and L. And so on.
In the process of this mindless, sometimes-enjoyable-because-it's-relaxing tedium, you start learning about some alien races ("knowledge stones" teach you alien words, for example), discover flora and fauna on your planet, explore the technology tree for building, and start learning to terraform and construct buildings. These latter bits I didn't know were a part of the game. You have a mining laser that drills into the earth. You use the laser on everything else to get raw materials too. You use those materials, or resources, to build shelter from weather anomalies, teleportation devices, and later an entire base to call your own. This is cool, but I usually don't care to build things in video games or to create my own spaces. This is probably why my real-life abodes are always so minimalist and, as many friends have commented, "looks like a serial killer lives here."
Occasionally space ships flew overhead. Are these other players? How DO you play with someone anyway? There's a more game to understand, but it does seem like the first few hours introduced me to the gist of the experience. I imagine that you go to other planets and essentially do the same kinds of things I have done on this planet, explore it and mine its resources. The story is really bare and, from what I've read, continues that way. I also wonder how varied the planets are. Are some very dangerous with many wild animals? Are some incredibly beautiful? Or do they all pretty much look the same with minor differences?
I could see myself playing around in No Man's Sky because it is pretty and relaxing and (at this point at least) mindless. If I ever sign up for Microsoft Game Pass again and it's still there, I might jump back in for a little while.
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Jun 22nd, 2020 at 13:52:15 - The Banner Saga 3 (PC) |
Done! Man, what an epic trilogy. This is probably the weakest of the three games, but it was fantastic still. I decided to import my save from Banner Saga 2, which I think made me a bit overpowered. Any character who was below level 8 automatically got bumped up, and I had several level 9 and 10 characters with great items from last game to begin.
The game picks up right where Banner Saga 2 left off. Rook/Allette's caravan has arrived in Arberrang, the human capital, and Juno, Iver, and Eyvind's caravan is off to reverse the spreading darkness. There are some notable changes in this game from the previous one:
1. You no longer manage caravans like in the other two games. There still are technically caravans, but supplies and morale are not things to worry about anymore. I did miss this, as the Oregon Trail element was one of my favorite things in the series. Instead, in Arberrang, you are playing politics and trying to keep the city from devolving into chaos. And this is the Banner Saga, so you know that it eventually devolves into chaos. The new caravan-esque mechanic emerges in the latter part of the game and involves you bouncing between your two groups. In Arberrang, you fight to control the city and fend off the attacking Warped (creatures turned by the encroaching darkness). Based on choices and how you fare in Arberrang, you are able to hold out juuuust a little bit longer so that Juno & Co. can stop the darkness. When you run out of days with Juno, the game bounces back to Arberrang, where you have another fight and make some more decisions to buy a little more time. I am unclear though what the consequences are for doing this indefinitely. Can you lose? I think I ran out of days three times, and each time, there was more to do in Arberrang. Would the city eventually have been overrun?
2. Since characters start at level 8 now, and some characters will max out stats and stat talents, they needed further progression past level 10. Enter "titles." You can give your most badass characters fancy names like "The Oath-Maker" or "The Wolf." There are a limited number, each character can only have one, and each can only be used once. That means you can't go around calling everyone "The Wolf" and using its stat boosts, which I think were +movement, +damage, and -aggro. Each title has 5 levels and they do some pretty amazing things. One adds 5 damage for every consecutive attack. I have an axe-thrower, Oli, who has a skill, "Axe Storm," that attacks an enemy x times in a row, until he misses, with a -10% chance to hit on each subsequent attack. So, first hit at 100% chance, next hit at 90% chance (+5 damage!), next hit at 80% chance (+5 damage!), etc. Oli could one shot anyone. He actually almost one-shotted the last boss (story continued in next point!).
3. Waves are the new risk/reward system here. In some battles, after you clear the battlefield, you'll be given the option to flee or fight. If you fight again, you can swap out characters to get some fresh ones in (this is why it's important to spread out leveling among a lot of characters!), enemy reinforcements will come, and you'll get more renown and possibly a powerful item. I usually fought again, but sometimes the waves keep coming at least three times! It's terrifying to consider losing on a later wave because you wasted time and your characters will all be injured (strength penalty until they rest). Okay so, back to the last boss story. He comes out during the third wave of the last fight. I actually screwed up and let a timer run out so I didn't get to send in reinforcements and a couple of my characters were in dire straights. I barely made it through. Anyway, the boss is this angry berserker who you control for much of the second game. He has an amazing ability called "Cull the Weak" that gives him an extra turn when he uses the ability to kill someone. In the second game, he was so strong I literally had completed entire battles with him in one string of turns as he one-shotted every enemy. Well, unfortunately he uses Cull the Weak against you now. He came on the battlefield with like 28 strength (A LOT) because I'd let some enemies cast too many spells that increase strength and he immediately killed one character. I could envision my party dying to his rampage. Well, after killing the one character, he walked into a trap and stopped (ha!). I knocked his armor down a couple times and then it was Oli's turn. He Axe Stormed him from 28 to 6 Strength. At 6 strength, you're pretty much neutralized. Someone else killed him off within a turn. It was awesome.
4. There are some nice new animations, cut scenes, and some voice acting this time around. This helps tell the narrative, which by the third game has gotten a bit bloated. There's a lot going on, and you really should play all three close together; the series is basically one long RPG. Because of some narrative bloat though, the game struggles to wrap up a bit. There are dozens of characters in several different spots. The game keeps hinting at this epic final battle with a giant serpent, but you never get to fight it. In fact, that's one thing I would criticize the series for, it's lack of real unique boss battles. Instead of another 4-tile enemy like a varl or dredge champion, it would have been cool to have a different kind of fight with a giant snake, with phases of the fight, a new ability to deal with, and so on. This third game does add more new enemy types, but the epic ending (present in narrative) was absent in terms of gameplay. I'm not sure I should have been able to almost one-shot the final boss.
The only other thing to note is that I suffered some crashes in my play through. It would get stuck on loading screens and I'd have to restart the game. One time it didn't save my progress and I had to complete a long battle again, but other times it did save. That was annoying. There was also a bug (present in BS2 too) where I think I duped an item somehow, and some characters wound up with items that I couldn't remove. That sucked because they were crappy low-level items. It made me not level those characters because I knew they couldn't equip anything really good, which is a huge perk of leveling in the game.
I wonder if there will ever be a Banner Saga 4. It wrapped up this story, but it's a rich, rich world that could easily spawn new games. I would totally play more. This is a phenomenal strategy RPG series that I am so glad I got to play and would recommend to anyone with even a passing interest in the genre.
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Jun 22nd, 2020 at 13:06:23 - Animal Crossing: New Horizons (NSW) |
Time to say something about this game / (pre-)pandemic phenomenon. I bought my girlfriend a Switch a couple months ago and she immediately bought this. "Ah neat," I thought, "I can see what all the fuss is about." She made an island and helped me make a character to live on her island. I squatted in a tent by the beach for a few weeks before doing anything significant. Now I have a house with a spare room and I owe like 300,000 bells (dollars) to Tom Nook, the local boss.
My girlfriend has enjoyed creating an amusement park area with some rides and getting and displaying stuff for her cool virtual house. Her favorite thing might be her big bug and fish collection though. She's got a huge area dedicated to displaying what she catches, and she won't give any of it to Blathers. Actually she hates Blathers. And some of the other NPCs. There was one (I forget her name) who she said was her girlfriend, I think because she always wanted to talk. Well, she figured out how to abuse NPCs by thwacking them with a shovel, and eventually reported the NPC to the staff and got her kicked off the island. Now we have a much cooler neighbor who listens to metal.
My favorite part has been catching fish and insects. It's quite relaxing. My second favorite part has been discovering the stalk market and using websites to predict when to sell for max returns. It's funny that my favorite parts of the game are things that my girlfriend doesn't care for too much (I manage both of our turnip investments and always give new bugs and fish to Blathers, much to her dismay), while her favorite parts of the game are things that I don't care for too much (my house is full of unorganized junk and, aside from contributing money to shared terraforming projects, I usually don't do much in the way of decorating).
I have yet to visit anyone else's island or to invite anyone to ours despite me knowing probably 50 people who play this, though my girlfriend has with a couple friends. I suppose I don't see the point. I mean, I see it, but I don't care about it. Except for those turnip prices. I would love to visit someone's island and sell my turnips for 500 bells.
Anyway, what an interesting game! I understand why so many people enjoy the series and am glad I've finally explored it a bit. In the end though, I would rather play my backlog of games I can actually finish. I've never been one for simulations. Animal Crossing feels like work. It can be relaxing work, but I feel like I'm slaving away for Tom Nook, who is constantly dangling some new carrot in front of me. There's always a new holiday or event going on, new bugs to catch as the seasons change, or some other such little goal to chase. I can only think about Ian Bogost's work on procedural rhetoric where he discusses Animal Crossing as capitalism training wheels. You learn about repaying debt and you learn to consume consume consume. That's stuff I try to avoid in real life, so why do I want to do it virtually?
Perhaps I'll have renewed interest in sprucing up my house, or my girlfriend and I will decide to build something together, or there will be some new event I really enjoy, or I'll take the dive to play with a friend. I am genuinely interested in exploring communication options in the game for scholarly reasons, and I've kept up with in-game protest news, but for now, I haven't played in a couple weeks and I'm fine with that.
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Jun 22nd, 2020 at 12:42:28 - INVERSUS Deluxe (PC) |
Also free in a multiplayer bundle and tried it with same friend. This is an arcade 2-d shooting game. It feels like a twin-stick shooter, but it's on a grid that looks like a Go/Othello board. Tiles are either black or white. You are a square and you can shoot in four directions. Other variously colored squares spawn and come toward you. Some are slower or faster, some also can shoot. When you shoot, the bullet passes through tiles in that direction and they turn your color. You can only move through tiles of your color, so you can shoot to block enemies and create paths for yourself. It adds a neat layer of strategy. When enemies die, they drop bullets. You can hold up to six bullets. If you charge your shot, you can shoot down three rows instead of just one. In the arcade mode, shooting enemies will kill nearby enemies too, creating chain kills.
Anyway, my friend and I played the two-player mode for half an hour or so. It's white-knuckle fun and you'll quickly encounter a skill wall where the game is exceedingly difficult. I got about half the achievements and called it quits. I doubt we'll pick it up again.
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