You Games-Meandering Bastard

Yes,Victor, you games-meandering bastard.

You’re playing or trying TOO MANY freaking games.

You have Borderlands 2, Dark Souls PC, X-Com: Enemy Unknown, and Morrowind (using the Morrowind visual enhancer) to tide you over on the non-MMO front.

Then you have an active sub to LOTRO, which you don’t play actively, and WoW, which you’re having trouble connecting to reliably.

AND you got a year’s membership to Pirate101?!

WHAT THE BLOODY HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!

Now you’re considering getting The Walking Dead and subbing to RIFT and getting the Storm Legion expansion? I mean, I understand wanting TWD, but you could never stick to RIFT!

And you want to go back just for the freaking housing?! What the bloody, bloody hell is churning around in your head?

*imaginary hairpull*

For the love of all that is finger-licking good, like fried chicken, curb your purchases, at least till November.

 

Signed,

Victor’s Meandering Mind.

More on Replayability: Borderlands and Dragon Age (and a Diablo II reference too)

So I’ve had a bit more time to think about the whole Replayability thing, and as some commenters in the previous article have pointed out, replayability ideally comes out more when one looks not only at story and characterization as underlying motivations to replay a game, but also at other aspects of the game, such as the gameplay.

While I can’t really wrap my head around all the angles just yet to make a definitive stand on my own, I can at least illustrate the point of replayability by talking about two games that have been mentioned here a fair number of times already: Borderlands and Dragon Age. Bear in mind that they are two different beasts altogether, but they are both games that I play, which is perhaps the most important common denominator in my mind (they both are enjoyable games worth playing).

Borderlands has the gameplay mechanics down pat. It is a first-person shooter with role-playing elements (such as randomized loot) which is very satisfying to pick up and play. For a solo gamer though, there’s not as much incentive to play through the game a second time because the story in itself is flimsy, and to some extent predictable, and nothing changes from playthrough 1 to playthrough 2 (as far as I know). Furthermore, you don’t really get to connect with any of the quirky characters of Pandora. You can’t even really connect with your own self, because you’re led through the story, forced to do most of the quests to get stronger to tackle on stronger baddies, and eventually make your way to the endgame with little deviation from that path.

Dragon Age: Origins, on the other hand, carries a story that allows characters to take subtle meanderings to learn more about yourself, other people, and the world you live in,  even whilst being slowly pushed along a specific path. Unlike Borderlands, Dragon Age isn’t a casual game in the sense that you need more than thirty minutes to get any sort of real tangible progression through the story. The story itself probably has a happy enough ending in the sense that you’ll either defeat the darkspawn or learn what brought it about, though I’m not entirely sure as I haven’t finished it yet.

Of the two, you can probably already guess which one I’m more partial to replaying. Dragon Age lends itself to my sensibilities more because of its solid story. Borderlands tries to appeal to the lootwhore in me. Between the loot lover and the story seeker, I’m definitely more of a story seeker to begin with.

Perhaps that’s the point of all this reflection. It goes back to what I said a few months ago about game mechanics and preferences: a game has to appeal to one’s personal set of preferences for enjoyment. Hack-and-slash (or shoot-and-loot) games are definitely things I enjoyed replaying a long time ago back when Diablo II was still the awesomest thing on Earth, but it seems my preferences have changed. Other people will obviously have their own ideas of what is worth replaying based on what they value most in a game, whether it be min-maxing, looting, story-seeking, or team play.

One thing I will say though about both games: just having decapitation attacks makes both games oddly satisfying, and worth coming back to after finishing them, at least for a little while.

More Borderlands Goodness: Claptrap Episode 2

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL4QNsaqnz4]

Claptrap is back! I’m a few days late, but apparently there’s a new installment of the Claptrap web series that advertises Borderlands. No Christian Bale imitations this time… this time, you just have a 100% irate Claptrap going nuts while directing an ad.

Anyway, still trying to figure out how to embed videos on WordPress Free. If you see a video above then all is well. If not, the link’s also found above for you courtesy of destructoid.

Sadly, the PC version that I’ve been salivating over has been delayed a week, but it’s not too bad, I suppose.  Just have to learn patience and delayed gratification.

More Borderlands Goodness: The Claptrap Web Series, Episode 1

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=876X30YznqE&hl=en&fs=1&]

Gearbox Software has come out with a new bit of advertising for their upcoming game Borderlands. If you remember the cute robot from my previous video post on Borderlands, then you’re in for a treat, because he’s the star of the Borderlands web video series.

Not to spoil anything, but basically, he mimics a very famous actor in this episode, and carries a potty mouth to boot.

Enjoy!

Two Games I’m Looking Forward To

Sorry for not posting, folks. I took up a position writing for MMeOw.net, and that’s also been eating up my time along with schoolwork, so I haven’t been able to post much. The Barriers to MMO Entry will be continued shortly, but an MMeOw version can be found at this corresponding link.

Anyway, today I wanted to discuss two games that I’m actually looking forward to playing, even if they aren’t in the general sphere of games I usually play. They’re hybrid games, combining RPG elements and Shooting elements to great, yet different effect.

First up, we have Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition. Now, Ilike the Fallout series of games for their general post-apocalyptic scenario, but also because the original Fallout was the only one I was able to play. Basically, I’ve been waiting ten years for a shot at another Fallout game, and got hooked, but never finished the story when I first bought it.

Why?

Because there was DLC. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the DLC for the game, so I had to wait for a boxed version to come out. Luckily, this will be a much better purchase than getting each one separately, so I’m excited to see what tweaks have been made to the game since I last played it.

That, and I heard there’s Samurai Armor. YAY!

The second game I’m looking forward to is a bit like the first: It’s called Borderlands, and unlike Fallout 3, which was an RPG where shooting mechanics were defined by the game’s RPG roots, Borderlands appears to be primarily a Shooter where the RPG mechanics determine the damage dealt by the weapon you have equipped and the skills you can use for your particular character.

The first image I had in my head when I heard about it was Diablo + GTA + Guns + Fallout 3 = Borderlands. I wonder how the reality stacks up to it though. I’m optimistic for this one, and would very much like to see the game succeed.

Anyway, enough about me. What games are you looking forward to in the near future?