BioWare Effect

I love Skyrim.  No, that's not a typo.  Stick with me here.  Skyrim and the other recent Elder Scrolls games are my all time favorite games.  I love just about everything about them.  I have played Skyrim for more hours than I'd like to admit.  But there is one aspect of the game that is really lacking: companionship.  Think of some epic tales of adventure.  Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Toy Story, etc.  What do they all have in common?  A group of characters each with their own motivations, their own personality, their own history, all working together in different ways to achieve the same goal.  How boring would it be if Luke just tried to take on the Empire by himself?  Or if Toy Story was only about Woody?  In this sense, it's strange that you are so alone in The Elder Scrolls.

Slim City, A reboot on the wrong foot and other puns

I swore I wouldn't do it.  "I will NOT get this game!" I repeated.  I kept saying over and over again that EA is evil, they ruin my favorite franchises (see Mass Effect), they gouge me for money constantly with failed promises (see any EA sports release in last five years), and they've burned me before (see Sim City Societies), and they're evil (see Satan). "I'm not going to get it.  I'm boycotting EA forever! I'm only going to buy their games used from now on." I repeatedly spewed to my co-author Brian.

But I made a promise to an old friend many months ago when I was still naive in believing the new Sim City would meet the hype.  I promised that I would buy it and we could co-op a region and trade and do mayor stuff together.  I was willing to break this promise and save my $60 but decided a free game from EA might sway me enough.  I convinced myself that accepting their free game offer on Origin would allow me to gouge them back a little bit, so I checked the retail prices on each of the free offerings and downloaded the most expensive one, Dead Space 3 (going for about $40) at the time and took my Sim City with it.

Am I disappointed in the game?  Yes.  The maps are small, the cities are isolated, it's a bit too easy, and the multiplayer aspect is a bunch of smoke and mirrors.  The simulations aren't always logical, the sims themselves aren't simulated people but more like simulated marbles, and the overall AI is terrible.

The multiplayer component is lacking in several areas.  Exchanges like gifting can lag for up to twenty minutes in my experience and the game sometimes assumes you're sharing goods and services that you had no idea you were sharing.  It's still cool to see a friend build a city alongside you.  Maybe Maxis and EA can improve upon that in future patches, updates, or DLC.

Have I still logged over 20 hours in less than a week?  Yes.  It's fricking gorgeous.  The tilt-shift makes it look like Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.  You can see distant cities your friends are making in your region, the buildings can be modified for your city's needs, and there are a couple distinct city types you can build.

While the game has been previewed, reviewed, previewed again, and then rereviewed into the ground, it's safe to say I'm not hitting on anything new at this point.  But I will say, if you go into the new SimCity experience expecting SimCity 4 with better graphics and curvy roads then you will be disappointed.  This is still a city building simulation but it's improvements lie more in aesthetics than actual big city simulation.  I guess it can be more accurately described as a neighborhood simulation but building massive cities was never my goal in Sim City anyway.  Simply building something believable and real is my ultimate desire and I can still do that with this release.

Game Journal 2013 - Spec Ops

My second game completed in 2013 was Spec Ops: The Line.  I had played the demo for the game when it first came out, and while it seemed like a decent game, it also seemed like it was just going to be a third-person CoD clone.  I passed on the game, and didn't give it a second thought until I saw some people talking about it on Reddit.  I inquired about the game, and was told the story line was straight messed up, and that I needed to play it.  I was also informed that the game was on sale for 75% off on Amazon, so how could I say no at this point?

Game Journal 2013 - Far Cry 3

I have this problem as a gamer.  A problem that I think I share with many other gamers.  I have a habit of buying a game, playing it for a short time, and never finishing it.  Sometimes it's because I hit a difficulty wall that turns me off of the game.  Sometimes something new and shiny comes along that pulls my attention away.  Sometimes I buy 12 new games during a Steam sale, and by the time I beat one of them, some new game has come out that makes me forget about the other 11.  For whatever reason, I seem to end up with a pile of games which I have only partially played, or haven't even touched.  So I decided that 2013 was going to be the year that I actually started finishing my games.

Cranking on the backlog: Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga

“Saga” is one of those words thrown around a lot in the video game community.  Defined as a long story of heroic achievement, I suppose most adventure games and RPG’s fit the bill.  Sagas, epic sagas, legends, legendary sagas, etc., the list goes on and on.  Every franchise wants their game’s backstory to become a saga, a tale of the ages; something that is still relevant long after the game becomes outdated.  Very few franchises can capture the essence of a saga in a single release and by putting the word in the title, Larian Studios, the makers of Divinity II, had a lot to live up to.

I believe they did.  

I’m at least 40 hours in and have no idea how close I am to finishing.  And that’s only forty hours into the game itself as I’ve no doubt logged many more hours more in dying because this ancient Xbox 360 game’s autosave feature hates me and everything I stand for.  The game autosaves in random locations and is not based on time or progress.  After playing more recent 360 titles, I’ve become so used to the game autosaving itself that I forgot saving from a menu was even a thing.  This game slowly reminded me after I managed to lose a few hours of my life from dying without saving for a while.  It’s a lesson I refuse to learn apparently as it just keeps happening.  If you’ve ever wanted to see a grown man rage-quit and cry himself to sleep, peek through my window while I’m grinding away at this game.

As America's favorite diabetic Wilford Brimley might say, "You save your Divinity, and you save it often!"

That aside, the game has its pluses.  You can wield a sword, bow, or cast magic and even turn into a dragon at times.  All of these things are way cool and fun to use in the game.  The armor looks pretty bad-A, you can customize your character to look pretty awesome, all of the NPC’s are somewhat unique, and the missions, even the side missions, rarely grow dull.

The frustrating parts of the game stem from the aforementioned basically non-existent autosave function and the occasional difficulty spikes that will have you kicking and screaming.  The controls for the game also take a bit of getting used to as each button on the controller face is an action.  You can assign actions to each of the four d-pad buttons and to each of the four action buttons.  You can only press them for a second when performing an activity as holding them in for longer than a second activates a menu that allows the player to assign actions to the button.  Because of this there are no build up attacks or attack variation, only quick button taps.  You can only strengthen attacks by leveling up your character, which isn't so bad and not hard to do.

This is my first attempt at a Divinity title as I never played the first installment but I do appreciate what they tried to accomplish.  The game has a charming sense of humor but stops short of taking it too far.  It has a deep lore and focused storyline while still nearly achieving an open world feel.  But as I said before, it’s a saga and sometimes feels too long and grueling.  I thought I had beaten the game twice already only to unlock more missions and a different section of the map.  If you’re into that kind of thing, this saga might be a nice one to travel back in time for if you can tolerate the early generation graphics and have something soft to punch repeatedly after you forget that the autosave feature is out to get you.  The game still goes for around $20 most places.

Image credit:  lisisoft.com

Pushing Up DayZs

I am one of those who have recently got swept up in the DayZ craze. Unfortunately for me, it was before the 40% off sale on Steam. But I don’t begrudge the extra $10 or so that I had to pay. Even though I got about 12 new games during the Steam Summer Sale, I’ve barely touched any of them because I’m so caught up in DayZ. I’ll attempt to put a finger on why.