Entertainment
Well, I'm glad the Escape from Lion's Arch phase in GW2 is ending - I'm a little tired of that, even though it did allow quick completion of March monthlies with a large concentration of enemies, events, and counting as a "dungeon." I have plenty of materials for an ascended back piece, but not the skill for it yet. Heh. "Battle for..." starts tonight, and sounds like it requires some coordination (complete three events "simultaneously" to open the actual assault on Scarlet), which means it'll probably only be feasible during peak hours for the first week or so in a non-overflow server instance. Whee. It sounds like actual story closure is coming on the 18th rather than this week, though.
After the last anime series proved short and, while not bad, a little disappointing, I ended up getting into Log Horizon. Is "players are mysteriously drawn into an MMO for real" a genre of its own yet? This one takes shades of Maoyuu or Spice and Wolf by looking at the social aspects of such a change. Oh, there's some in-game adventure, and a lot of explaining of how such games work, but the series really shines when it focuses on how the "new" world differs from the game the players know and how they deal with that - establishing societal rules, mastering the craft system to invent new things, and interacting with NPC "People of the Land" who can't hold a candle in a fight to the respawningly-immortal PC "Adventurer's" but are established in greater numbers and have their own lives. The best things about the series in my mind is a sense of exploration. I'm reserving final judgement, though.
*editfacepalm* Well, gosh, the similarity is less surprising upon discovering the source material is written by the same author as Maoyuu.
I've set aside Dark Souls for a bit. I'm not giving up on it, but Sen's Fortress seems a bump in difficulty that I'm just not ready to deal with yet. The enemies there are notably tougher (at current weapon upgrade levels, I went from 1-2-hit kills to 5+) and dealing with traps at the same time is a hassle.
Thankfully, Shadowrun Returns added its Dragonfall campaign recently. The update fixes the checkpoint-only save system - awesome. Otherwise, the game itself feels about the same - a little "construction set-y" but perfectly functional. I didn't see much in the way of new gear, though there are a few items at least. The campaign itself is, overall, better than the original. There is more illusion of choice - several runs include a choice where one might way morals against pay against letter of the contract, though there isn't much in the way of lasting effect to those from what I can see (possible slight difference in karma/nuyen at the end of the run). There is more actual choice - most runs have an optional decking approach and charisma/etiquette can get you through a number of situations without a gun. The NPC runner team (you can usually hire others instead for runs) is pretty well-written in my estimation, with distinct personalities and solid back stories. If they had a romance option, they'd be almost Bioware-worthy. I haven't finished it yet, but it seems like a pretty good Shadowrun adventure so far.
It does raise a consideration on pacing, though. In the original campaign, the best gear (guns, decks, cyberware, spells, drones) all seemed to unlock shortly before the end. In Dragonfall, it sort of looks like the same thing is happening (as I chose not to bypass the design in order to import a character). The good of that means going through the game with a sense of progress and goals - looking forward to a new upgrade after earning a little more money or karma. On the down side, however, it means you really don't get to play with your shiniest of toys for very long. I'm not actually sure which is the better way to go on that, which is a much more general statement that goes beyond this game.
After the last anime series proved short and, while not bad, a little disappointing, I ended up getting into Log Horizon. Is "players are mysteriously drawn into an MMO for real" a genre of its own yet? This one takes shades of Maoyuu or Spice and Wolf by looking at the social aspects of such a change. Oh, there's some in-game adventure, and a lot of explaining of how such games work, but the series really shines when it focuses on how the "new" world differs from the game the players know and how they deal with that - establishing societal rules, mastering the craft system to invent new things, and interacting with NPC "People of the Land" who can't hold a candle in a fight to the respawningly-immortal PC "Adventurer's" but are established in greater numbers and have their own lives. The best things about the series in my mind is a sense of exploration. I'm reserving final judgement, though.
*editfacepalm* Well, gosh, the similarity is less surprising upon discovering the source material is written by the same author as Maoyuu.
I've set aside Dark Souls for a bit. I'm not giving up on it, but Sen's Fortress seems a bump in difficulty that I'm just not ready to deal with yet. The enemies there are notably tougher (at current weapon upgrade levels, I went from 1-2-hit kills to 5+) and dealing with traps at the same time is a hassle.
Thankfully, Shadowrun Returns added its Dragonfall campaign recently. The update fixes the checkpoint-only save system - awesome. Otherwise, the game itself feels about the same - a little "construction set-y" but perfectly functional. I didn't see much in the way of new gear, though there are a few items at least. The campaign itself is, overall, better than the original. There is more illusion of choice - several runs include a choice where one might way morals against pay against letter of the contract, though there isn't much in the way of lasting effect to those from what I can see (possible slight difference in karma/nuyen at the end of the run). There is more actual choice - most runs have an optional decking approach and charisma/etiquette can get you through a number of situations without a gun. The NPC runner team (you can usually hire others instead for runs) is pretty well-written in my estimation, with distinct personalities and solid back stories. If they had a romance option, they'd be almost Bioware-worthy. I haven't finished it yet, but it seems like a pretty good Shadowrun adventure so far.
It does raise a consideration on pacing, though. In the original campaign, the best gear (guns, decks, cyberware, spells, drones) all seemed to unlock shortly before the end. In Dragonfall, it sort of looks like the same thing is happening (as I chose not to bypass the design in order to import a character). The good of that means going through the game with a sense of progress and goals - looking forward to a new upgrade after earning a little more money or karma. On the down side, however, it means you really don't get to play with your shiniest of toys for very long. I'm not actually sure which is the better way to go on that, which is a much more general statement that goes beyond this game.
Comments
Post a Comment