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Jul 7th, 2014 at 14:39:20 - Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (360) |
I'm house-sitting this week and the guy has a few games I want to play...Unfortunately I just bought Blood Dragon in the Steam sale. My computer can't run it, but I grabbed it because it was $5 and I will have a new computer at some point. But...turns out it was a waste of money, not only because this guy has it, and I beat it in like 5 hours (3 hours 19 minutes says the game), but because it wasn't all I thought it would be.
If you've played Far Cry 3, you've played everything cool about Blood Dragon, except the blood dragons. Think of them just like the other ferocious beasts, except they're huge and have lasers. I know, I know, rampaging dragons with lasers are cool, but it boils down to the same thing as a tiger or a crocodile.
I also understand it was meant to be a spoof on the FPS/action/80s action genres, but it was...really dumb. They make fun of tutorials in the beginning, but force you to sit through one instead of doing something different. Basically everything they make fun of in the genres, they make you do in this game! Like, is it tongue-in-cheek? Did they not realize that making fun of quests and making fun of saving scientists, and then asking you to do those very same things in all seriousness really devalue the parody? And I love that all scientists are "nerds" and that instead of throwing a rock, you throw a D20, or a "nerd rock." Hilarious...let's keep up those gamer stereotypes.
The first joke was a gay joke...I thought that was going to set a very teenage immature mood for the game, but I'm happy to say that was the only overt gay joke. There were some other more subtle ones, and subtle penis jokes that I found amusing. I appreciate subtlety. Not very many women jokes, except the sex scene was bizarrely rapey. Was it funny that she started screaming "no! no! no!" in the middle of sex? I'm not sure.
I laughed at a couple random things...some patriotic jokes, some good ole references to the 80s and 90s. The sexy doctor character wants to inject the main character with some performance enhancing drugs and he responds, no, winners don't do drugs...which if you remember, always displayed on old arcade machines.
Story, characters and music were appropriately cheesy. I don't really know what I was expecting. I guess more than a 3-4 hour story for a $15 game that played almost exactly like another game I already played.
Ok but...the blood dragons were cool. It was fun to watch them rampage. The first time I got to corral one into an enemy base by disabling the base's energy shields was my favorite part of the game. The final mission was my favorite overall mission with the waves of "running dead" and one awesome thing I won't spoil. The visuals were also incredibly cool. It's eye candy for sure, very neon.
...I dunno. It just seems like an easy cash grab? Churn out some same old same old extra content with a fun skin on it and call it a new game. I mean...once I beat the short storyline, I can go do more of the same crap that Ubisoft is famous for...liberating bases, getting 10000 collectibles, hunting, doing 1000 random side missions like "kill this bird" and "save this scientist." Meh.
Back to BioShock Infinite.
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Jun 27th, 2014 at 12:35:32 - Assassins Creed III (360) |
I like that the game begins with a TWIST. Well, not begins begins, but after the first few hours, a fun one is revealed. A nice, fresh way to start this entry in an old series. Then, you finally get to play as Connor, the Native American guy with a hatchet you recognize from the box art and all the ads and trailers. Honestly, for the first few hours, I was like, “Is this the right game??” because I was playing another white guy.
So, BOSTON and the NEW WORLD! First impressions: Boston is bustling with activity, buuuut within 5 minutes of getting there I:
- chased after a thief, who dropped his stolen coin purse and walked away before I could tackle him. I couldn’t interact with him at all. Oh (disappointed voice), it was just scripted.
- took a gun from an outdoor shop. When nothing happened, I took a horse that was obviously not mine. Again nothing happened. Oh (more disappointed voice), no one cares if I steal things. Odd.
- the first female NPC I saw called seductively to me.
Off to a great start in Boston.
I think the way the game handles race politics is very mature and well done. This becomes apparent once you begin playing as Connor. But gender politics, good god. Women are poorly represented. This is painfully clear playing as the white man, and maybe it’s a commentary on the white man’s patriarchy versus the Native Americans’ (“savages,” right?) matriarchy. Like I said, the first female I encountered hooted at me. I don’t know if she was a prostitute or not. I haven’t seen any prostitutes or brothels. Having played so many games with them, I expect to see one. If I don’t see one, and I can’t tell who these women calling me are, or why exactly they are calling me, and especially if I can’t interact with them in any way, then I will be confused.
The second female character I encountered is an inkeep with her husband/boyfriend/lover. You walk in on them screaming at each other because he’s been cheating. She’s upset; he’s smug. Later on, a member of your white man party drinking beer around the table just grabs the female inkeep as she is cleaning and waiting tables (who squeals with delight) and goes mouth to breast, reminding me of sex-fuelled tavern scenes from Game of Thrones. No one notices or cares.
The third time that females come up is thanks to Ben Franklin, who, in an optional dialogue, spends a few minutes espousing the virtues of taking older women as lovers. By older, he meant old, like grandma. There were 7 reasons. Older women are more experienced, less likely to cause a fuss if you cheat on them (take a young wife and have an older mistress), they will dote and take care of you because their children are grown…and whatever other reasons. I felt gross listening to the conversation.
Those were my first three interactions with/about female characters. I found each of them over-the-top and unnecessary. I would be fine with the inkeeps arguing, but the rest of it, not really. I didn’t think Ben Franklin’s treatise was funny. I don’t want women calling at me seductively on the streets unless the fiction is set up for there to be brothels, and if that is the case, then not in the middle of the street in the middle of the day. And Ben Franklin, as far as I know, wasn’t a sleazy old man. And if you have a thing for older women, would you brag about it and offer a treatise on the subject to someone you just met? Completely weird.
Like I said, this mess is mostly in the white man part of the game. Connor’s mother is a strong character in some respects, though she just serves to birth him, die and fuel his determination. Race is better though. Connor, having never been to a big city, never encountered many white men, probably never seen a black man, doesn’t understand racism. His black Assassin mentor, Achilles, indirectly teaches him a bit about racism. Achilles can’t go shopping for goods. Connor has to do it for him. Achilles’s big house is attacked by white townsfolk. He seems to be disliked, which I figure is mostly because of his color. I don’t know about any other history with him, but given the context, I think that’s it. And Connor doesn’t understand why Achilles can’t just go in the store and drop a bag of coin on the shopkeep’s counter to purchase goods. Achilles doesn’t explicitly explain race politics in the Colonies to Connor. I wish he did, but I think (hope) that players understand the nuances of their conversations.
I’m sure Connor’s understanding will evolve, as the game is completely rooted in historical events of the period. The British are trying to quell the Colonists. The British are fighting the French for territory and control of the fur trade. The Native Americans are caught in the middle of it. The Colonists are revolting against the British Empire. So Connor will come to see his place in this struggle. I’ve seen Colonists complaining about the Stamp Act. I almost stopped the Boston Massacre (but those damn Templars still pulled it off!). It’s really neat playing through these historical events because this is all the stuff I learned over and over in school. And interestingly, the game is good about offering the BRITISH perspective on all of this, not just the American perspective that I learned about. The snarky tech wizard is still with Desmond Miles outside the Animus, and he’s the one who writes the little encyclopedia entries. He’s English, so he’s always dropping little enlightening tidbits about how the British felt or thought, or how the Colonists were not all great guys and so on. Very cool.
As for the gameplay…hmmm. More on this later but…same old same old? I get a hatchet now. I can hunt game. I can freerun through trees (this part is sweet). Fighting is even more fluid, feels great. Running around cities is the same. Climbing is a bit different, way way simplified. You hardly have to think about climbing anymore. Just hold R2 and up you go. I really hope it isn’t as mindless as this forever. I liked how in previous AC games, climbing buildings, looking for treasures and lookout points, were often big puzzles. So far, no puzzles. Oh and collecting 1000 pointless things is the same. Hopefully some pizzazz later on.
Meant to write some notes and create a full entry much later, but oops, here’s a full entry now.
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Jun 24th, 2014 at 12:17:42 - Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (PC) |
I woke up this morning thinking "I'll just log on Hearthstone, see what the daily is, maybe complete it, then log off. I'll do this all over breakfast."
Current Me looks back at This-Morning Me in awe that This-Morning Me could be so naive.
Way way way too many hours later and I still haven't completed the daily (win 3 games. ONLY THREE!). I won ONE game. ONE game in way way way too many hours. Given my success yesterday, I did not expect this result. At first I thought it could be that I was only playing ranked matches. Maybe there are a lot of more skilled folks on in the morning EST. Maybe I just got lucky a handful of times yesterday. Maybe, just maybe, I am a noob.
I finally stepped away from the rankings and spent my gold on two Arena entries. This is where I had my ONE victory. I got, like yesterday, a pack of cards and 35 gold (actually yesterday I think I got 40). Then in the Arena series where I lost all 3, I got some gold and some dust for disenchanting or crafting or something. I glanced at that, but crafting is obviously a ways off. So based on 3 Arena runs, it seems you need to win 1 to make it worth the gold, versus just buying a pack of cards. That is, if cards is a main motivation for you to enter the Arena, which it now is for me because I realize other people have some way better cards than I do!
After failing in the Arena, I switched to normal Casual matches, thinking that I would pick up the other two wins pretty quickly. Nope. I lost Casual matches one by one until I resignedly decided to go eat lunch and hang up Hearthstone for the day. I did figure out that you can close the daily you have and get another, which in my case was "Win 2 games with the Paladin or Warrior," so, basically the same thing I'd been not doing all morning.
In the end, what I learned today is to NOT chase the "Win x matches" dailies. Those are rabbit holes. I want that "Kill 40 minions" from yesterday! That one I can do no matter how many times I lose. I wonder what other types of dailies there are.
I also learned that the class rewards past level 10 are cosmetic, at least so far. I lost my way up to level 15 with my Mage and just got a prettier Arcane Intellect card. Then I saw at level 20, you get a golden Arcane Intellect card. The new one I got doesn't do anything different, and so I doubt the golden one does either. I don't care about prettier cards. I want more better cards. How do you get these? Just packs, is it? I read again something about getting Expert cards from Expert packs, but I still don't know what an Expert pack is. What types of packs have I been getting then? Basic packs? How do you get an Expert pack?
I did play around with the Rogue today. That's who I chose for the Arena. And when I won my ONE match, I decided to make a Rogue deck because the one in the Arena had some really neat things. Very different than the Mage, mainly in that the default focus seems to be on weapons and harassing individual cards rather than damage spells. Still didn't help me win any later games though, maybe because I'm not level 10 and don't have all the basic Rogue cards yet. I played with the Druid in the other Arena matches and got stomped. Not a fan of the Druid. And from playing other players, I think Priests look like my style too.
I also couldn't help noticing that 75% of my games were against Hunters. Do people just like the two-damage Hunter spell? Hunters also seemed to use a play style summoning a lot of beasts onto the field, so I'd sometimes get overwhelmed by numbers. This was often my downfall actually, so that I think one of my weaknesses is sufficiently handling large numbers with my own minions. I have built decks heavier on spells and abilities and so often don't have many minions to fight with. This can work really well unless the enemy pumps out a ton of minions. I seem to have this really strong point about round 6 or 7 where I pummel people until then, but afterward, I lose momentum, run out of cards, and end up losing. I guess I build my decks front-heavy with a lot of lower mana cards.
Anyway. Despite all those losses, I was still having a lot of fun. Funny thing about Hearthstone is that most of the games feel close. Some of my losses, I would have won on the next turn. That's definitely part of the brilliance of the game, making battles feel close. But at the end of the day, I still tallied like 1-20. No more chasing "win" dailies. No more chasing levels. See what other dailies there are. Find friends who play. Make it more social than fruitlessly competitive. Should be good.
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Jun 23rd, 2014 at 18:30:13 - Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (PC) |
Ah, Hearthstone. Bringing me back to Warcraft. P got me started when I was visiting him last month. I played some matches with the computer, unlocked a couple classes, and he and I battled a couple times. Haven't had a chance to sit down with it, but was motivated since chatting with some hardcore CCG players at a party Saturday. So here it is, 3 hours with Hearthstone...
I leveled the Mage up past 12. I stuck with the Mage more or less because that's what I'd been playing the computer and P with, so I had the most cards with it and was the most comfortable with it. I'm curious to play the others more, but the leveling system is enticing me with rewards (next at level 15!). I figure at some point I'll level all the classes to 10, which seems to be a landmark after which you are an Expert...not sure what that means. I think you get better cards, or Secret cards, or something. Just...more/better/complex.
When you level past 10, the tutorial prods you to go play other people in Play
mode or the Arena, and also says that you can play Expert AI matches. I tried one, and the AI was using Secrets...or Secret cards. So maybe those are Expert cards? I also played my free Arena matches. The Arena is pretty cool. You build a deck from random cards. I think you choose from random classes as well. I remember I had a Warrior, Hunter and something else available, and chose the Hunter. If there was some way to scroll and select different classes, I didn't notice. I saw those Secret cards there too, and really realized the difference between common cards and class-specific cards. The Hunter's cards are colored green. Looks like all class cards are color-coded.
I opened up 3 packs that I had gotten (1 from a quest to get to level 10, 1 from playing in the Arena, and 1 from...I don't remember) and saw more color-coding, and saw rare cards too. I see that packs cost gold, or real money. Going in the Arena also costs you. I won 1/4 Arena matches (you are eliminated when you lose 3 times), and got a pack and 30 gold. You get greater rewards the more wins you get. I am assuming that you always get a pack and that the 30 gold was my reward for winning a match. No idea how it scales. But, it's 150 gold for the Arena (guaranteed pack? + gold and other things[?] for wins) and 100 gold to buy a pack. So it looks like if you win 2 matches in the Arena, then it was worth the extra 50 gold. That is assuming the packs are the same type, like you always get a rare for purchased packs and Arena packs. I have no idea. Anyway, the Arena was more fun than just buying a pack!
I haven't figured out exactly all the ways to get gold. I see there are quests, which net gold. I don't think you get gold for winning matches. So I've done a couple quests, like get a class to level 10. There are dailies, which I'm not sure how I feel about. I learned from playing WoW that I have a love-hate relationship with daily quests, and I've generally avoided them like the plague in any game after that. I'll have to see what types are available in Hearthstone. Today's was to kill 40 minions, which I played until I completed. As long as I don't feel like I have to complete them, and as long as they aren't mindless, I'll be happy with them. But if I kill 40 minions in the course of playing for fun, that's great.
I like building decks. Endless fun and thought there. And there are a lot of new cards trickling into my collection. I've already played players who have developed specific types of decks or strategies. I'm sure it depends somewhat on the class, their unique strengths and cards, but I've seen people focus on playing taunt cards, nuking the hero, overwhelming with numbers, using hero weapons and specials...my current (probably horribly noob) deck is focused a bit on getting out cards that give + spell power, then using powerful spells to AoE minions or to hammer the hero. It's actually working pretty well. I've only lost twice in 6 Play mode games, and one of those losses was because I forgot to select my deck, so I had the standard Mage deck.
I've checked out the ranked matches too. They don't seem any different from normal Play matches except that you can gain/lose rank. I lost my first one of those, then won 3 so that I'm at rank 24, Leper Gnome (yay). According to the loading screen on Play matches, you are pitted against people of equal skill. Then of course the same is true for ranked matches. So what's the real difference? Just a higher stake in the ranked matches?
And that's my first real sit-down with Hearthstone. I'm a little overwhelmed when I think that there are 9 classes, but easing into it with the Mage feels pretty good. It's very familiar as a CCG and a Warcraft fan, so I think the sheer number of cards and classes is mostly what's overwhelming, but that the content won't be, and in fact isn't so far. Also waiting to see how far I get in ranked matches before people start schooling me.
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