🚀 go-pugleaf

>What Have You Been Playing... IN MARCH 2017?

    Life is Strange EP1
Coming off the massive undertaking that was playing through FO:NV, I felt 
like trying an adventure game, and the highly rated LIS seemed a good 
choice.  In this game you're a teenager walking around, interacting with and 
observing your acquaintances; listening to (or eavesdropping on) 
conversations and choosing your response is engaging -- just as The Walking 
Dead was initially -- but there's more:  The hook, if you will, is that 
should you notice something you'd like to change -- say a poor bird hitting 
a window, or an errant football causing an accident, or, perhaps you make a 
disappointing response to an interlocutor -- you *can* change it and rewind 
your action for another choice.  Very intriguing, and the plot makes you 
feel involved in this gameworld.  I've only played the first episode, but 
look forward to starting the next asap!

    The Division
Sense of place, atmosphere, immersion:  The Division has these in spades, 
you really feel like you're in post-apocalyptic New York in this game.  The 
wintry setting, realistic volumetric fog, east coast accents, masterfully 
mixed audio, real buildings and places all modeled on the real metropolis. 
The gameplay consists of lots and lots of skirmishes, sometimes quite 
intense, picking up the loot left behind by fallen enemies, similar to 
Borderlands e.g., and using it upgrade your own weapons and skills to deal 
with the next group who level up right along with you.

I stuck with the solo campaign, and luckily for me it's well-done, with full 
mo-capped voice-acting by quality actors with a pretty well-written script. 
By deliberately refusing to engage in the MP aspect I tossed out a good 
amount of gameplay mechanics and cooperation that the developers were aiming 
for, but for me that was a good choice.  Without a mic and a group of known 
players, the one or two coop MP missions I played didn't offer anything of 
worth beyond the enjoyment I got from the SP campaign.  Once the main 
campaign is over, all of the present DLC is fairly repetitive random 
mission-based with no story content, so no loss in never entering the Dark 
Zone from my perspective.  But sharp as a tack shooting in a fully-realized 
gameworld make The Division a big winner for me!

    Homeworld Revolution
I'm not quite done with this title, but whoa, this is a way, way under-rated 
run&gun FPS shooter, that I am enjoying the heck out of.  From a somewhat 
slow start that at first had me thinking the plot would dribble to a tired 
boring ending, I've become steadily more engaged with the world, the 
gameplay mechanics and parkour movement, the fun weapons and missions, and 
the excellent pacing.  This is great stuff, and I'll make sure to praise the 
devs that in whatever forums I can.  Fuck the Norks!  KPA out, USA in!

rms