Gill Grunt from Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure. It is the water elemental figure included in the starter pack of the game.
It is mid-week question time once again:
- What games are you playing this week?
- Would you recommend those games to other Border House readers?
- What games have you ranting?
- Are any of those games listed ones that you want to see covered on the site?
This past week I went back to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and ended up spending a lot of time dealing with my inventory and crafting new armor instead of completing any major quests. I have a lot of fun crafting new materials and naming the items (like my Chakram of Awesome Elemental Damage). I also got Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure this weekend. I can see how that game can become very expensive quickly. The starter pack includes figures with 3 out of the possible 8 elements. To finish the game’s main quest you can just use those figures but to unlock all of the areas you need a Skylander of each element. I imagine a lot of people end up buying at least one Skylander of each element but since there are multiple figures it can add a collection side to the game. Finally, I went back to The Witcher for a few hours. I did some side quests in the first large town but I have yet to get back to the main story line.
So, what have you been playing this week?
This week is mostly playing the Guild Wars 2 beta via their handy YouTube client.
I actually decided to resume playing the Witcher, as well. Mostly I just played a bit to try to remember what quests I was doing (hadn’t touched it in around 9 months), and I plan on trying to finally finish it in the next few weeks (and then I’ll play the Witcher 2).
I went back to Lost Horizon, and played that a fair bit. I am more than halfway done, I believe, and once I finish that I’ll move onto Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.
Lastly, I started up Adventure Bar Story for iOS. So far, it seems cute, and reminds me a lot of Recettear–you run a store, but in this game, it’s a restaurant featuring foods cooked from monsters you’ve defeated.
I’m currently playing the shallow yet enjoyable Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing. I am suffering from post-Mass Effect 3 depression and needed something jolly to remind me of the halcyon days of Sega. It’s doing the job, but why anyone thought a racing game needed ‘missions’ is beyond me.
After that, one of either:
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution (started, will restart)
- Bioshock 2 (same)
- El Shaddai (same)
- Batman: Arkham City (has survived unscathed thusfar)
Replaying Dragon Age with new Warden, female dwarf commonor, and having tons of fun.
Also started to dabble a bit with Lineage II since it got free to play etc. At times it’s overwhelming and at others addicting. Wish I had chance to put some actual pants on my poor dark elf though.
Would be playing Lost Odyssey but disc four (even post-clean) is awful at actually working. I found out it is still under guarantee whereI bought it, though, so I shall return it!
In the meantime, I have been playing Art of Fighting 2. It is not a good game, so I’m not sure why I’m bothering. Nostalgia? Some level of affection for the characters?
Was actually out of guarantee, apparently. Bah! They gave it a clean at the shop, but it has made no difference whatsoever. Looks like I shall not be finishing this until I can find it in another shop for £3 or less…
Gave Star Trek Online a spin and tried really, really hard to like it. Ultimately, the review here at Border House was accurate. I spent about 7 hours on it despite this, and when I realized that I deleted it off my machine immediately.
After that, I’ve been in one of those “what’s the point?” anti-gaming funks. Anyone else get those occasionally?
Hah, I certainly do get in ‘anti-gaming funks’! Normally after playing an RPG for a while without saving, then dying suddenly, or playing a fighting game in one player for two hours. Then I’ll have a “What am I DOING?!?” moment and avoid games for a few days.
Oh, definitely. Especially when I’m playing more than one kinda lousy game, it’s very easy to think that there are more valuable things to do.
My brother keeps pestering me to try Star Trek Online, but…meh.
I’m in the middle of one of those funks myself. I’ll look at a game case, or even get so far as to boot up a game, stare at the start screen for a minute or two, and then exit out again. The sense of ennui I feel looking at my CoH character menu is worthy of song.
Not sure if I’m just not feeling any of my games right now, or if it’s guilt regarding household projects I need to be doing. Possibly it’s both.
Guilt is certainly a part of it for me. I’m frequently depressed that I’m too busy working for money, to make any progress on the things I actually want to do, like my writing or comics work. It’s hard thinking that, and then realizing you spent several hours playing a game you didn’t even like. I think there’s value in entertainment and a balance can be struck… but I think I need to enforce some rules about the quality of the game.
Yeah, exactly. I was going through some of my old files recently, thinking of how much more creatively active I was just a couple years ago, and how that’s dried up, and how much I miss it. Add that to the realization that I’ve been joylessly level grinding in a game that lost my interest five levels ago, and it’s just…ugh.
I think you’re right about setting standards for a game’s quality, too. There’s just no time, and no mental energy, for a game that isn’t really good.
My “What’s the point?” anti-gaming funk started the night I beat ME3. It was luckily short-lived because of amazing Skyrim. But i hate when I don’t want to game. It makes me kind of sad.
Skyrim’s one game I don’t feel any guilt about played a ton. Between us, my wife and I have about exhausted it… but I’m sure it’ll grab me again in a month or so. Oblivion always did.
Yeah, I get them too now and then — usually either because my mental health issues kick into overdrive, or because I’m too pissed off with gaming-related issues. It has gotten better since I discovered more “indie” games, though. The big industry can pretty much kiss my you-know-what by now, “even” Bioware (I hate and despise the dialogue wheel, for example, there is just no way I can RP or even just really get into my character if I am not in control of what she is actually saying).
I have started a new fort — more a hole in the dirt at this point, still — in Dwarf Fortress 34.06 which was released late last week, and it sure has grabbed me again. It is on hold for the moment until I can decide what I actually want to do with it, though — I can’t just play by the seat of my pants but need a more or less elaborate plan for what the finished place will eventually look like (though I’m not nearly as creative as many other players).
Beside that, Orcs Must Die! still has my attention. I’ve flailed, gibbed, stumbled, cursed, cackled and slaughtered my way through most of Nightmare mode but am slightly stumped how to survive the Finale with its seemingly endless legions of sappers, which I hate with a passion. I’m also working on the short DLC campaign on Warmage difficulty; getting 5/5 skulls on the Reverse Tower eludes me due to the par time. Best attempt was one measly second over the par. Pah!
There is a part of me that freaks out a little when I don’t feel like gaming, because I worry it’s a sign my depression is on the rise (the whole “no interest in things you used to enjoy” check box).
I need to check Dwarf Fortress out–it sounds interesting!
I’ve been playing a lot of SWTOR lately, mostly duoing with my sister on her agent and my bounty hunter. It’s a really fun game to duo in, and our characters are both ridiculously badass hot blue alien chicks. But with the NPC companions around too, I’ve noticed we’re eyeing up the love interests in pretty much the same way we criticised each other’s boyfriends when we were younger. “Yours is a freak!” “Yeah? Well yours looks as though he’s 12!” All it would take is for one of the NPC love interests to keep talking while the TV/ holo is on and it’d be just like real life
Started up a new ME3 playthrough, but put it on hold in favour of completing a couple of other Shepards that are currently unfinished. I’ve also been playimg multiplayer ME3, which has been a lot more fun than I ever imagined.
I also played a free mobilenphone game called “Choice of the Dragon” and liked it a lot! I’ll probably replay it soon.
I’ve mainly been playing Le Blob 2, which is colourful and charming and mainly what I needed given continuing health issues. The only real downside to it, which is actually pretty frustrating, is that it has the most uneven checkpointing I have ever come across. Sometimes you go into a new 2D area, fail, and end up back at the beginning of that area, which is fine. Other times you end up several areas back and have to replay the last half hour to get back where you were. Similarly at some points it saves your collectables and other times it doesn’t – it’s hugely inconsistent. If you can see past that, though, it really is a lot of fun.
I’ve played a few more hours of ME3 and it’s okay but somehow just isn’t really gripping me. I suspect it’s mainly me me that’s the problem rather than the game, but also the game has been really streamlined down to ‘have a conversation, cut-scene, run-and-gun, conversation, cut-scene, run-and-gun, repeat to fade’; there’s no real variety in the gameplay (no real puzzles for example.)
It isn’t really gripping for me either. The only bits I found enjoyable and ‘gripping’ were the parts spent with the companions, having little quasi-cinematic friend chats and the lovely romantic scenes with your LI. The rest of the game is very… lite on content. The entire bulk of the game’s sidequests/other activities, is just going around and scanning planets and playing Hide And Seek with Reapers. And doing little nothing missions to the multiplayer maps to find an item or hack a computer. That’s it.
Would be nicer if we were able to explore more planets and be dropped into enemy warzones that are raging around the galaxy. We really don’t get to be part of anything of that sort. We get told a lot, but not shown.
FINALLY finished my second playthrough of Bastion. Felt bad leaving Zulf, but better about choosing not to hit the restart button.
And then did some grinding in Torchlight? Finding purple/yellow equipment in ANY game is a good, no-brainer activity.
Bastion has never really left me, I loved the game. First time I played I left Zulf and did a restart, second playthrough I did the opposite; felt so meaningful as the characters flew towards a new future. It is the first game I’ve played twice, and I’m so glad I did.
Skyrim!!!! My mage is now Archmage, and I just got invited to join the Dark Brotherhood!!!! Huzzah!
Also, I might have resubbed WoW. What a bad idea.
I’m still playing Grandia. I think I’m getting close to the end now.
The gameplay is fun, but the characterization sucks. The main character is still a jerk, and the other PCs get pushed around as the plot demands, without regard to their established backgrounds.
I’m doing the Chrono games. I finished another run through Chrono Trigger a few days ago, and I’m now about 2/3 of the way through Chrono Cross. I replay Chrono Trigger on a more-or-less annual basis. It never pales.
I’m playing Avadon atm.
I was really clenching at the character choice options; paraphrasing the class names a little, the white characters are the knight (‘blademaster’) and the sorceress; the characters of colour are the shaman and the ninja (‘shadowstalker’). The knight and the ninja are male; the sorceress and the shaman are female.
However, that amount of rockiness notwithstanding, the sheer amount of text in this game goes a very long way to ameliorate the stereotyping; whilst as a white British anglophone I don’t have a fantastic bead on how the cultural representations are, I’ve only been playing with the shaman and ninja right now and haven’t spent time in all of the Pacted lands, but the characters have depth at least and aren’t purely tropebound.
Again, it’s not a branch of ableism I’m really immersed in but there is one character with a (burned? I think?) hand called ‘the Claw’; he gets actually a pretty good shake of characterisation as villains in the game go, but the focus on his hand got pretty voyeuristic sometimes imo.
as far as I’m aware, romance never comes up and nobody is explicitly trans* (therefore everyone is implicitly straight and cis)
Half a step back, on an emotional level for me, it really drew me in: I’m trying to play very, very Lawful Neutral and I find myself really hating myself for some of the decisions I make, especially with regard to the effects on my team. The story is actually fantastic and characterisation compelling.
Gameplay-wise, it’s a pretty fun tactical RPG; it’s usually fairly well signposted what to throw your disposable items and debuffs at and the skill trees are fairly tight and fun to use. A few bugs which are annoying, like if you try to use a skill but can’t reach the person you’re aiming it at due to a status effect, you lose your turn in a buggy way.
Finished the Eurocorp missions for Syndicate Wars. Not a particularly dramatic ending, but then there’s not much room for a typical ending in the Syndicate line.
Reinstalled Might & Magic 8. It’s interesting because most of the folks who parse as “monsters” in other RPGs, such as minotaurs, trolls, vampires, and liches rate as “potential player classes or RPCs” here. Nothing like rescuing the dragon flightleader’s egg, either.
Downside? Sexist objectification is alive and well. Not much in the way of males* looking particularly ogleable, but good luck avoiding females* in impractical clothing, statues, etc.
*These terms used as I’m talking about multiple species, not all of which are humanoid.
I’m waiting for the Age of Decadence demo to finish downloading. I have some reservations about it based on interviews with the lead developer, but as a fan of a genre most publishers have written off as dead (turn-based western RPGs), I can’t afford to be very picky. And from what people have been saying about the demo, it sounds like it has a lot of things that are right up my alley: challenging tactical combat, heavy emphasis on non-combat skills, meaningful choices for the player to make, and backgrounds akin to the origins in the first Dragon Age.
I’m dragging my feet with ME3, not because I’m not enjoying it, but because I’m dreading getting to the end, though I have no clue what it is. I’ll be thoroughly grumpy if I’ve been Cerberus brainwashed and working for the Illusive man all this time. So dipping into Skyrim frequently, it’s like an immersive balm. In-between that, Bejewelled 3 and (gulp) Draw Something on my mobile.
I finished ME3, very good game overall with an ending that was a disappointment. I might be a little dense I admit but after 5 years and three games my main argument is that I had very little clue about what actually have happened in the end when I was actually watching it. Later after watching it on Youtube and reading about it, it makes more sense and I think it wasn’t that bad ending to the story (despite some serious plot holes and surprising conclusions) but it was definitely poor ending for ~100 hours of gameplay.
I also agree with what Deviija said a little above, I played three action RPG last year: Witcher2, DeusEx:HR and Skyrim and while I don’t think these are better games in comparison and especially in the narrative aspect are utterly trounced with ME3 having vastly superior writing, characters and voice acting and yet somehow these games felt more fresh then ME3. These three games have something up their sleeve, there is something more to them while for ME3 there is none: side quests are joke, exploration is none existing, just spectacular vistas to see for the first time, combat is satisfying but often it seems just like a interruption to the story then element of any importance. Maybe ME3 is expanding to broader audience but somehow I feel like Bioware is falling behind their competition.
Late, but the last thing I played was Journey.
I’ve been looking forward to this game for so long! It’s nice. Very beautiful. I’m really hoping there’s something more to it than “touch red streamers, move on to next level and touch more streamers” soon. That was sort of the basic concept of Flower, but I think Flower built on itself and had a minimalist momentum that this game doesn’t really have so far. Maybe it’s a lot more fun online?
Or maybe I’m just in one of those joyless funks Chris Lowrance is talking about.
I’ve gone back to the original Mass Effect for one final run through all three games. The difference between ME and the later games is quite stark. I’d forgotten how much I liked exploring uncharted planets (I’m one of the few people who loves the Mako) and how big space feels in ME1. In a lot of ways it feels like the road not taken, ME2 & ME3 are good games but they have strayed from the path of ME1.
Finally got around to giving ME3 a whirl and so far, I can give it a resounding ‘meh.’ It’s odd, because I feel like the game should be pulling me in more than it is – the cinematic cuts are great (and I love how they’ve been integrated into the actual gameplay), I love the convo’s with my Shep’s LI, and mildly annoying ‘one button to rule them all’ mechanics aside, the gameplay is light years beyond ME1 and much, much smoother than ME2, and I didn’t even have any problems importing my Shepard. So, basically, all my gaming sweetspots are covered. But… I don’t know, maybe the ending controversy has poisoned the well, but I just can’t seem to immerse myself into the world. It doesn’t help that it appears that MP is necessary to get the ending I want, and I hate MP.
And, shallow side note, but wtf happened to EDI?! And Diana Allers? I mean, she’s fine as a character, but why is a war correspondent wearing a weird pleather minidress aboard my battleship? If nothing else, she looks really cold. Like, to the extent that everytime I see her I’m like ‘Oh, she looks so chilly, why isn’t there an option to offer her a spare hoodie? Or hot cocoa? Something?’ Basically, the ‘sexy’ clothing choice is awakening weird latent maternal instincts, which is doubly odd considering she seems to hit on Shep everytime I talk to her. Not too sure how I feel about that.
Non-ME related: messing around in EVE a little bit, feeling very, very noobish. I’ve also been playing one of those Nancy Drew adventure games with my niece, and it’s actually pretty fun. Classic adventure mechanics. It’s a a little beyond her capabilities (she’s 6) , but she loves the story, so I do the point and click while she dictates. Thus, a lot of aimless wandering and very little progression, but it’s been really enjoyable watching her get into it.