As you can imagine, my gaming time has been greatly curtailed since opening the store. Even when I do have down time, I’m so mentally exhausted, that I’m more apt to catch up on TV shows or watch a movie. I have done a bit of gaming here and there – whatever can be done in small spurts and without formal grouping.
Indie Gaming
MMOs are my games of choice. I play just about every Triple-A title when it releases. In most cases, having pre-ordered it. When I don’t have one of those to play, I look into console titles that the whole family might be interested in playing together for a spell. So while I’ve known of Steam, there’s been no occasion where it fit my gaming preferences and hence never checked it out.
I was recently introduced to being a Steam consumer via gifted games from Sarzan. I received three games. I tried them all but only one really resonated with me. I think there’s a wee bit of disconnect between what he thinks I’d like for sure and what he thinks I ought to like. *smile*
FTL: Faster Than Light is a space combat RPG where you do missions to help save the universe. You can manage and upgrade your ship and crew. I liked the game well enough. However, the heavy mouse-click nature, it seemed more suited to a mobile device like the iPad. I didn’t feel the graphics and atmosphere were compelling enough for me to be sitting at my desktop playing. If I could play in bed on my iPad, I’d have enjoyed it more and played it longer.
Tomb Raider, while a very popular franchise, doesn’t resonate with me at all. In fact, it’s one of the few console action games that my family never opted to try. Its present day, current affairs environment doesn’t pique my interest. Wha? No magic, swords or alternative universes? Decidedly not for me. I did try for a bit but couldn’t get into it.
Third time was most definitely the charm. Bastion is an action RPG with magic, swords and mini worlds to explore. There’s a cute story taking place with snarky voice over commentary that’s very endearing. I’m not really into action RPGs but when the environment is right, I’m in. I’ll suck at it but I will enjoy it all the same. I’ve had my share of only-one life-left-heart-pumping-keyboard-pounding-and-me-screaming boss encounters. Whew, someone pass me the smelling salts.
Each time you clear a world and return with a crystal, you can upgrade your Bastion with new facilities like a forge, armory, alchemist hut, etc. I only have two more crystals to find aka upgrade plots to fill. It’s also great game to play in short spurts – less than 30 minutes a session, which suits my current schedule to a T.
Big thanks to Sarzan for the gifts and introduction into Indie games on Steam.
GW2
An enjoyable, explorative ride to level cap is all I expect these days. It appears I’ve outgrown the circle-jerk end game. No matter how they disguise the treadmill, I don’t seem capable of doing it for more than a few months. Even my son, who is a diehard GW2 PvP and WvW fan, has grown weary of it and is logging in less and less.
I LOVED the ride to max level in GW2 twice. I had fun maxing out the crafting professions I’d selected. I giggled through amassing a nice cache of gold. The daily quests entertained me for a while along with doing all of the instances at least once. But 11 months later, I NEED SOME REAL DINGS AND NEW ABILITIES. I want to be in Tyria. I adore the Mesmer and Guardian that I rolled but really couldn’t continue doing the same old stuff. Even with the sprinkling in of new events, it’s not enough.
Bottom line, I don’t need any more Skill Points, Karma or Gold. I need more levels, completely new zones, mobs, crafting recipes, abilities, armor sets not skins, weapons and traits. If it’s 11 PM on a week night and I can’t get to sleep, I may log in for 30 minutes to do a Daily or slay some dragons but that’s about it now. Oh yeah, player housing could get me back but not Guild Halls.
Pre-Ordered FFXIV ARR
My next fantasy MMO title will be Final Fantasy a Realm Reborn. I’d planned on playing FFXIV 1.0 but it went “hells bells” before it even launched. The kids and I have played a couple of FF titles on the Xbox. I was excited to try the MMO but the reviews were so negative that I cancelled my pre-order. GW2 hype was also ramping up at the time and was another game I was definitely going to play, so I let FF 1.0 pass me by. That turned out to be the right choice.
I’ve heard good things about ARR. No, it’s not ground breaking or innovative. It does however, based on all accounts, provide a solid MMO experience in terms of questing and instances. The vapid level grinding seems to have been toned down, the crafting looks decent and it will have player housing. It’s looking like just enough to keep me entertained for a few months.
In Other News
Working 6 days a week is kicking my ass. No surprise there. Things at the shop are coming along nicely – new customers and merchandise each week. I’m doing minor floor layout changes but nothing big right this year. For now we’re focusing on expanding current customer base and attempting to sell out the summer stock before it’s time to change over for fall/winter. I finished the new website and I’ve started blogging – very sporadically at present. Little steps, little steps, so much to do with so little time.
Bastion is fantastic -- I recently finished it. There are multiple endings, and it's the first game to have moral choices that actually made me stop and really consider which one I should pick.
And the music is great, too!
Posted by: Pai | August 14, 2013 at 09:17 PM