🚀 go-pugleaf

On Fri, 02 Jun 2017 01:17:35 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallsh...@gmail.com> wrote:

>Well, it's been a busy month for me, although you wouldn't be able to
>tell it by my playlist. Although I only played three games this month
>- not the fewest I've ever played, but far below average - one of
>those games hogged so much of my time that it's a wonder I found any
>time to play any other games. Plus the addition of some fun new
>computer hardware and, oh yeah, real life and I'm amazed I managed to
>squeeze everything into one month.
>
>Anyway, it's the end of the month (well, slightly past but as I said,
>I've been busy) and we all know what that means. I tell you guys what
>games I have been playing, you guys tell us all what you have been
>playing. Maybe we share our thoughts on those games too, or maybe not;
>it's all good. Anyway, let's get right into things.
>
>--------------------
>Short and Sweet
>--------------------
>
>* Fallout 4 (new)
>* Lego Star Wars - The Complete Saga (replay)
>* Minecraft (replay)
>
>TL; DR 
>----------
>
>* Fallout 4 (new)
>If pressed to give a final opinion on Fallout 4, I would probably
>respond by saying that - while it has excellent production values - it
>was a game I ultimately did not enjoy playing very much. But this
>statement is very much at odds with my reported play-time on Steam: I
>invested over 100 hours into the game. It's an unusual discrepancy
>that I have struggled to understand myself.
>
>Certainly Fallout 4 is not without is merits. Its large open world is
>beautifully detailed and Bethesda has well-utilized the updated
>Creation (nee Gamebryo) engine to crank out their best renderings yet.
>The texture detail in some areas is simply stunning. The game-world is
>far more open than Bethesda's earlier titles; while you still
>encounter a load-screen when entering the larger dungeons, many
>smaller areas that once would have been separate maps are now part of
>the overland map, giving the whole game a much more cohesive feel. The
>map is stuffed full of things to discover, and - like all Bethesda's
>games - the biggest thrill is walking across the world and discovering
>a new area to explore. Like a jackdaw to a shiny object, I was
>constantly distracted by the lure of some new dungeon or ruin to
>discover, and rare was it that I'd cross the wastelands on some quest
>without numerous detours because some new "unexplored area" icon
>appeared on my mini-map. 
>
>Unfortunately, this was the only real joy I received while playing the
>game. The individual quests - always a weak point of Bethesda's games
>- I found uninteresting, with particular disdain for the main quest.
>The procedurally generated "Radiant" quests were exceptionally poor,
>especially when they were auto-assigned ("Rescue the town from
>imminent attack" and saddled with a time-limit; the latter was an
>egregious sin as it took me away from the freeform wandering that was
>game's strength. The game's new mechanic - the base-building - was
>encumbered by tedium, limited options and fiddly controls and after
>establishing a few homes for my braindead followers I largely ignored
>it. Many of the older mechanics - unfulfilling combat, dry dialogue
>options, uninspired AI, and cumbersome crafting - still suffered from
>rough spots that have haunted Bethesda's games since the start.
>Individually these issues didn't harm the game too much, but the
>continued lack of improvement in this area was disheartening
>
>I think that if I had to put my finger on Fallout 4's biggest problem,
>it would be that it was such an unadventurous sequel; except for the
>addition of the base-building, it added very little new to the
>franchise.  Most disappointingly, it took absolutely no chances with
>the setting. In many ways the game felt little more than a re-skin of
>Fallout 3, both in terms of gameplay and setting. Once again I took
>the role of a bad-ass (albeit easily diverted) vault-dweller facing
>off against the same bunch of mutants and wasteland factions. Oddly
>enough, the increased level - while pleasant to look at - made the
>game actually that much less immersive, since its increased realism
>only brought into contrast many of the inconsistencies of the game's
>world (like, if the war was over 200 years ago then why are there
>still-fresh corpses from the war all over?).
>
>It was the lure of discovery that kept me playing as long as I did,
>but the payout was rarely worth the effort. Like an addict, I kept
>scouring the wastes - adding tens of hours to my overall play-time -
>in hopes of finding some redeeming and exciting set-piece but instead
>was reward with an unending sense of ennui. When I finally did come to
>the end of the main quest, I found I had little desire to keep playing
>beyond that point. This is a distinct divergence from my experience
>with other Bethesda titles, where I would happily play and re-play the
>game; with Fallout 4, I was happy to have finally come to a concluding
>moment so that I could abandon it without guilt or worry I might be
>missing something.  I'd seen enough to realize that even were I to
>play another hundred hours I still wouldn't discover anything that
>would make that investment worthwhile.
>
>
>
>* Lego Star Wars - The Complete Saga (replay)
>"The Complete Saga" includes Legofied retellings of the first six Star
>Wars movies; I played through the first trilogy and considered that
>sufficient. 
>
>The most interesting part of the game for me was seeing how far the
>developers have come; these early games feel primitive both in
>presentation and gameplay when compared to their later adventures.
>They are extremely repetitive, with only a few set-pieces that offer
>any differentiation from the platforming in combat introduced at the
>very start. Geared towards a younger crowd, neither the combat nor
>puzzles were especially engaging. It was only the appeal of the source
>material that kept me playing as long as I did.
>
>I don't regret the time I spent on this game, but it's best played in
>short sessions and even after only a few short hours, I've gotten my
>fill already.
>
>
>* Minecraft (replay)
>Minecraft is one of those games that has more or less established a
>permanent foothold on my hard-drive, but it's recently not been a game
>I've played with for any length of time. In part this was because -
>after having 
>played and built in its endless realms for hundreds of hours - I had
>sort of burnt out on the game, but equally because technical issues
>kept me from even starting the program. Well, whether it was the
>installation of a new video-card, new drivers, or reinstallation of
>Java or the game program, the latter problem unexpectedly solved
>itself and now - after a two year absence - I've plunged myself back
>into the game once more.
>
>The joy of the game for me was never its survival mode or its
>multiplayer component, but rather the game's "creative mode" where I
>could build to my heart's desire. My particular fetish was always for
>reasonably realistic fantasy/medieval structures, many of which I
>would then share with the Minecraft community. I find little more
>pleasing than to meticulously build and detail a structure, working
>around the shortcomings of the Minecraft toolset. It's a pleasure that
>I expect will keep me occupied for many weeks to come.
>
>--------------------
>
>See? Only three games. I feel so ashamed. I'll try to play more games
>next month, honest.
>
>Anyway, that's me. What about you? 

I played several games, but did not spend a lot of time on any of them
(busy with work and other hobbies):

- Rising Storm: Vietnam.   I played the beta and it felt in pretty
rough shape, and I was a little worried Tripwire had screwed this one
up.  The final release is a great tactical MP shooter that rewards
teamwork and discourages "lone wolfs".

- Bit Blaster XL.   One of the things that always amazed me about old
school arcade games, is how much fun even minor variants of the
original formulas can be.  In other words take a basic game like Pong,
Space Invaders, Asteroids, PacMan, Donkey Kong, DigDug, etc. and
create something with similar mechanics but with seemingly minor
differences, and it still feels like a fresh game.  This doesn't
happen with newer, more elaborate productions, where reuse of an old
formula gets tired quickly.  Bit Blaster is just an asteroids clone at
heart, yet it feels fresh (and is a lot of fun).

- NBA Playgrounds.  I used to love Dr. J vs Larry Bird One On One (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Zi6udU5BE) on the Atari 8-bit, and
this is kind of an updated version of that.  I'm not a fan of
basketball per se (I never watch NBA on TV or really give a crap about
it), but there is something about a one-on-one (or even 2 on 2) games
that makes for a good video game.  And this one is good.  My only
gripe is that its geared more toward people who are into the NBA, have
some sense of recognition for specific players, care about individual
abilities of those players, etc.   I don't want an RPG in a game like
this, I don't want to have to unlock shit, etc., I just want it to be
my skill vs the other guy, particularly in online matches.  Creating
characters based on their real life counterparts is something that
caters to actual NBA fans, but gets in the way of someone that doesn't
care about all that.  All of that said, it's actually a very well
executed game and the closest thing I've seen to my old favorite hoops
game.  Issues I had were primarily that I had to play quite a while
against the computer before I could "unlock" the ability to play
online, and when I did I was up against people who were already far
more practiced than me, which did not turn out well for me.  I'm
apparently not as good as basketball games as I am shooters, give me
an AK-47 and my opponent will think twice before yanking the ball out
of my hand.
I do wish someone would do a proper remake of Dr. J vs Larry Bird.
Just a half-court, vertical perspective, doesn't even need to support
online as long as it captures the simplistic fun factor of the
original.  Meanwhile this game is about as close as you'll get.

- Quake Champions (beta).   Fun!  It's Quake alright.  But, how
interested I can remain in an arena shooter these days is up for
debate.  Part of what made the original Quake magical was what the
modding community did with it.  This was the birth of TeamFortress and
similar spin offs, and I doubt anything like that will be possible
with this title.  I'm not sure if I will even buy it, because
apparently it's going to be a freemium offering (offering a free to
play model where it takes longer to unlock each champion), and I doubt
I would be able to carve out enough time in my schedule this day to
really play all champions or even care about their abilities.  I do
love the occasional twitch/arena game, so I may jump into it
occasionally for that.  I actually found Doom (2016) mutliplayer to be
a bit more addictive, but Quake Champions might be a good option for
the occasional twitch fix.