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Dec 26th, 2015 at 10:45:03 - Child of Light (PC) |
Really cool RPG! The first thing you notice is how beautiful the art is. I stopped for screenshots several times throughout when I was particularly impressed with some background or another. This is a fairy tale, sufficiently dark and light-hearted at the same time. A cast of interesting characters with good back stories that motivate them to fight alongside you make the game charming and thoughtful. For example, your first companion is a jester who was left by her brother and the circus she wants to be a part of. She's sad about being abandoned, but you promise to help her find the circus. Later on, you find her brother. You expect this to be a happy reunion, but her brother is perpetually sad about life, has lost the circus, but does get excited to put his jester skills toward your cause of saving the world.
Everyone talks in rhyme. The entire game, it's all in rhyme...except the first jester you get, who humorously does not or cannot rhyme, and is always being corrected by another character. The rhymes aren't always clever or clear, but they work, and after getting used to this style of dialogue, the story becomes easier to follow.
Gameplay wise, Child of Light is different than many RPGs. It's a 2d sidescrolling game, no different there necessarily, but you end up being able to fly around, which gives nice verticality to all the environments. Check high, check low. There are a lot of treasure chests and things to find, so item hunters will be happy there. A big mechanic is using light via a little elemental character whom you control with the mouse (while controlling Aurora with the keyboard). You're in this world with "dark creatures" who dislike light, so you can move the elemental over them and then touch them to get a surprise attack. I got surprise attacks on enemies probably 98% of the time. That just means you begin earlier on the timeline. You also use the elemental to shine light on objects to create shadows and solve some (easy) puzzles.
So, engage an enemy and enter combat as normal in an RPG. You can have two characters out at any time, and the enemies can number up to three. There is a "timeline" and each character's portrait moves along it. When it reaches a certain point, you can input a command, then that character will take a specified amount of time (short, medium, long, etc.) to execute the command, then return to the beginning of the timeline. If a character is attacked while they are in this "casting" phase of the timeline, they get interrupted and bumped way back. If you defend, then an enemy won't knock you back and you'll go like 70% faster through the timeline until you act again. This becomes very strategic, trying to manipulate enemies on the timeline and interrupt their attacks while not being interrupted yourself. This is made easier by your elemental, whom, like outside of battle, you may use to blind enemies. Hover the elemental over enemies and hold down the left mouse, and they will slow down on the timeline. In this way, you can make enemies move slow or normal (in addition to all the spells you have to slow them down and speed you up), and can really master characters' movement across the timeline. It's fun.
The rest of battle is fairly standard. You have spells, physical attacks, buffs, debuffs, items, defend, blah blah. Child of Light uses a rock-paper-scissors system for what elements are strong and weak against others (fire is strong against earth, weak against water; water is strong against fire, weak against lightning; etc.) One of your characters is an elemental magic user, and I used him and Aurora for the majority of the game to exploit magic weaknesses. Oh, and you can also refill some health and mana during battle by moving the elemental over these plants from time to time. All that said, combat is generally very easy and becomes routine, although I never got to the point of tedious. Some of the later boss battles were a little challenging. I'm not sure I ever died.
There are standard skill trees. You go far through these because you level up constantly. There's also a nifty little crafting system. You get these things called oculi, little crystal fragments, and you mix and match them to create better ones, then equip those for various effects. I never really bothered equipping anyone with anything at all except diamonds, which increase experience gain. You find so many of these oculi fragments that it becomes a lot of management if you're equipping, unequipping, crafting, all the time. Just toss on +XP diamonds, craft diamonds, and go on your way.
SO, I recommend. It's not long. Took me 11.5 hours, and you can play in short spurts. I'm glad Ubisoft has been making some neat little games aside from their mega-hits. I've got Grow Home in my library, which also promises to be an interesting little experiment!
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Dec 19th, 2015 at 16:25:39 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC) |
Been playing lots of Skyrim the past couple weeks, and I think I've almost exhausted it. I've put in 79 hours according to Steam, systematically exploring Skyrim and doing quests along the way. I've worked most of the way around the map and basically have the lower left quadrant left. I've done some of Markarth and the only other hold is Falkreath. Tons of cool little stories collected over these 79 hours, but I am getting tired of all the "side" stuff and want to just finish up the main quest lines and call it. There must be hundreds of locations on the map. If you are trying to walk from A to B, it is inevitable that you'll find like 2 caves, a barrow, a watchtower, and about 3 other interesting things along the way. Needless to say, for the explorer, it can take a long time to get places!
I've still got the Companions, the Thieves Guild, the Dark Brotherhood, and then the main main stuff about the Dragonborn and the Stormcloaks. The Companions and the Thieves Guild I have to record for a project, which is why I've put them off. Anyway, I think I will do the Companions next, do my work in the game, and otherwise set it aside for a little bit and get through another couple games during the break, and pick Skyrim back up later.
I've gotten most of the achievements, except for those related to quest lines that I've mentioned, and a couple randoms like "Escape from jail" and "Get a 10,000 septim bounty in every hold" and "Have 100,000 septims" (I'm relatively close on that one, which is crazy.) My character is an absolute badass by this point. She's a one-handed sword and shield master, heavy armor master, high restoration and destruction, and I'm currently leveling archery for fun when I'm fighting easier enemies. Alteration is also over 50, pickpocketing is over 50 for the second time. I made that one Legendary (oooh, ahhh) which just means I got it to 100, and then reset it so I could keep using pickpocket to level. I'm not doing that for one-handed swords, blocking, or heavy armor because I need those to survive!
I will say that one of my favorite things is my constant stream of followers and companions who die in funny ways (falling off a cliff, splash damage from my fireball, stepped in the middle of a fight between a dragon, mammoth, and giant, etc.). One of my least favorite things is hands down the dragons. These were super cool at first, but now they are annoying. Dragons seem to spawn fairly randomly outside small towns and will begin terrorizing them, strafing fire breath and whatnot. When a dragon comes, you just have to deal with it or run away until it leaves you alone. They're not hard to kill, but they are tedious because you can't do much to damage them until they land. So you just mill about healing yourself and tossing the odd fireball at the dragon until it decides to land, then hack at it until dead or until it flies up again, and repeat.
I will also say that I don't use many of the shouts. Every now and then I'll use the force one that stuns enemies. Then I realized that I don't use the other shouts and I started trying to use the other shouts. One slows down time and isn't that useful because you slow down too. Another makes your weapon attacks faster, but doesn't work on enchanted weapons (and why wouldn't you have an enchanted weapon?) so that is useless. I dunno, I thought the shouts would be cooler, but they're really not. Meh.
Companions, here I come. Werewolf time!
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Dec 4th, 2015 at 10:53:58 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC) |
My husband is dead. Killed by a giant. We were married one happy week and went on many adventures together, him shooting fire and lightning, me protecting him with a raised shield. His name was Marcurio. He ran a small store in Windhelm and gave me my share of the profits (100 gold) whenever I asked. He carried my things and never complained. He loved me and I...well, he was a really useful follower. I hired a Nord woman whom I will call Brienne of Tarth to replace him, although there are no romantic feelings. Life goes on.
My horse is dead. Killed by the same giant. Or possibly a mammoth. I was busy looting my husband's corpse, reclaiming my valuables that I'd given him for safe keeping, so I didn't see. I'd owned Frost longer than my husband. Frost was a feisty horse, always attacking my enemies. He was protective, but his fearlessness got the best of him. While looting my husband's corpse, Frost's corpse skidded past me on the ground. I looked up, shocked, then looked left to see a giant and a mammoth charging toward me.
Of course I killed the mammoth (so the giant could watch his pet die as I'd watched Frost) and the giant (for revenge...and a quest). I now have a personal vendetta against all giants and am cross at the man who gave me the quest to kill that giant. That husband-killing, horse-slaying jerk of a giant.
What else notable has happened in Skyrim this week? Hmmm...
*I can kill frost dragons now, presumably tougher than regular dragons.
*I've found several new words of power for new shouts, although I haven't tried them out yet.
*I've unlocked the ability to steal equipped weapons, although I haven't found anything neat yet.
*I've learned how to mine ore. You have to have a pickaxe in your inventory and go to a mine. Presumably, it is the same with harvesting wood.
*My restoration spells now recover stamina too, so I'm able to power attack more frequently.
*My standing power attacks now have a chance to decapitate enemies!
I am poised to enter Winterhold, where the mage's college is. If there is a mage's guild, I want to join it. I'm very excited to learn some new spells and join a guild. I've avoided doing most faction/guild quests because I have to record the Companions and Thieves' Guild stuff for a project. Looking forward to Winterhold and beyond.
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Nov 30th, 2015 at 16:54:31 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC) |
On the eve of Fallout 4, I started Skyrim. That's just how I roll, 4 years behind.
I will go on record as being mildly obsessed with the game at the moment. It is wonderful. There is so much to do. I haven't gotten bored. I want to see what is around every corner, in every chest, in every cave. I want to listen to every NPC and help them with their problems. I want to join all the guilds and play with all the skills.
Here's where I stand so far: I'm an Imperial woman specializing in one-handed weapons, shields, heavy armor, and destruction magic. Although I just married a guy upon meeting him for the first time. He is a sorcerer's apprentice and casts destruction magic, and so I haven't used any in a while. I suppose with him around, I've turned myself into a meat shield: heavy armor, learned to block well, alteration spells to enhance my defense. I block, absorb damage, and hack at enemies, while my husband shoots them with lightning and fire. I am also quite adept at restoration magic. This all is a great combination, as I can solo well and engage in co-op with my AI husband well. Some enemies I like to stay away from and shoot firebolts at because they hit extremely hard (trolls so far are a good example), and other enemies, such as magic users or archers, are great to charge, stun, and kill with my sword. My character is extremely versatile!
In addition to all that, I cannot help but steal things in Bethesda games. My highest skill is pickpocketing (78), and I have a 90% chance to steal most anything. This strikes me as odd because my sneak skill is low. Stealing from NPCs is a matter of just staying out of line of sight. There isn't any necessity to sneak or be in the dark. Perhaps Thieves' Guild and Dark Brotherhood quests will change that, but I haven't joined either.
Today, I betrayed a man for a horse named Frost. Now I have a horse, and I learned that my horse goes to the nearest stables when I fast travel. I'm glad that I will not lose my horse. Yesterday, I learned how to not lose my husband. Followers and hired mercenaries return to where you found them if you get too far away, go to jail, and meet some other conditions under which they cannot follow. If you go find them again, you can hire them back without a fee. My husband better not charge me a fee or I will divorce him.
I stopped playing today outside of a small town where I may have tracked a man who got me drunk and stole something that he owed me. I noticed hostile NPCs, so I believe I will have to clear out the town next time I play. This is also right next to another hold (big town; there are 9 in the game), so I will be exploring that as well. I think it is the hold where you can join the Stormcloaks, which is the rebel faction in Skyrim trying to overthrow the Empire. Even though I am an Imperial character, I will join the Stormcloaks, in part because I agree more with the rebels in the story, and in part because I think it is funny to be an Imperial Stormcloak. Many Stormcloaks throughout Skyrim are wary of me because of my race. I like this about the Elder Scrolls games.
This has been a nice stream of consciousness. Some things I will say I dislike about the game include the menus. It's very console/controller friendly, and unfortunately this isn't great for a mouse and keyboard. Only in the menus though--the rest is good. This has consequences for the map and quest tracking as well. Quest tracking sort of sucks. First of all, you have so many quests, that tracking them all is an exercise in madness. I thought that the Clairvoyance spell would help. It sends a trail of light toward your desired quest, but it doesn't work half the time. If you have many quests, of course it doesn't know what to point toward. But even if you untrack all but the one you want, Clairvoyance will still lead you astray. The only thing I've found is to untrack them, then actually restart the game. Then Clairvoyance leads toward the correct quest. Several times today, I've follow the map markers to quest objectives (find an NPC for example) and there is just no one there. Normally, the marker moves with the NPC, or you can see the quest marker on the main game screen if you are nearby. It is a little annoying and is leading to me just ignoring things for now. Finally, the fact that you cannot be left-handed sucks. I am really bummed out over this. I want so much to hold a sword in my left hand and shield in my right so that it would be like me, but I can't. Your shield MUST be in your left hand. I looked for mods but there are none. Apparently it is a gargantuan task to implement this feature. Maybe in their next game. Does Fallout 4 have this?
Anyway. Skyrim is treating me well. I get lost in it. I can't wait to just utterly sink a day into it. I'm level 26 and am sort of working my way around the map. I estimate I've covered roughly 30% of the surface area, and of course there are things in that area I haven't found. So much cool stuff, aaah!
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