I honestly didn’t know why I bought it in an indie “pay what you want” bundle around a month ago, but knowing absolutely nothing about the publisher of this game or the devs, I’m inclined to love them for this wonderful equestrian-gastronomic typo.
Steam
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.
Game Juggling and Frustration Management
My previous post mentions that I’ve basically been hopping from game to game to find enjoyment, but I think it’s time I learned to do a bit of game juggling.
Currently, I have a six-month subscription to EVE on a new account, and at the same time, I will be enjoying Gulid Wars 2 and The Secret World and what they have to offer, slowly but surely. I don’t want to make any of them a main game (unless I think all three are my main game), but all of them provide something different and appealing for me.
EVE: Internet Spaceships and Sandbox goodness
The Secret World: The lore and mythos is intriguing, and Investigation missions are boss.
GW2: Free-to-play fantasy with action combat and potential longevity.
I’ve never really tried to multitask gaming before, so if you folks have any ideas on how to best juggle games, let me know!
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On another note, I’ve been dealing with some frustration regarding my connection to the Internet recently. I had trouble patching and playing certain games, and more recently, certain sites, like MMORPG.com (my workplace, basically) and Steam’s Store pages (Missed the last few days of the Steam Sale as a result) do not load properly, making it difficult to actually read or click anything.
I’ve been managing the frustration by focusing on other activities, but I’d just really like for my connection to be stable so my browsing and gaming can go back to normal again.
Appreciating Minecraft’s Effect on Indie Gaming (Without Playing It Much)
Despite the many merits of Minecraft, I dislike the current state it’s in because it’s too sandboxy for me. Without any clearly defined goals set for myself to push through, Minecraft’s effect wasn’t that strong on me. I ultimately get bored playing the game after less than 30 minutes.
That said, disliking the game doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate what Minecraft’s effect on me was.
While it could be said that my first Indie game purchase was Torchlight (Torchlight is, in fact, the first game I ever purchased through Steam, and my second Steam-enabled game after The Last Remnant), Minecraft was what really brought independent game development to the forefront of my game-loving mind.
Minecraft’s popularity and media coverage made many gamers take notice of independent developers and their many offerings, whether it be a storekeeper’s RPG in the form of Recettear, a roguelike like Dungeons of Dredmor, or a FPSS (First Person Santiy Survival) thriller such as Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
Indies these days allow for exceptional gameplay experiences that do not necessarily require a high price to enjoy. Indeed, with Humble Indie Bundles and Royal Bundles available to the public these days, getting into the groove of loving low-cost, high quality gaming is proving to be a steadily popular choice among the discerning gamers out in PC and Xbox 360-land.
Even now, Minecraft is probably the biggest example of what indie gaming is, but since there’s no formal definition for what an indie game is, I doubt it actually holds the title of biggest indie game in a person’s heart.
That game probably goes to whatever awesome game is out at the moment. It’s a fickle way of thinking, perhaps, but it also means there’s a lot of love to go around. While The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Saint’s Row: The Third are going to be the AAA hits I look forward to playing in the near future, it’s the indie games that’ll keep me company when the money is tight and gaming urge is strong.
Who knows? Minecraft may even get randomized quests for fun before 2012. At least, I hope it gives me a reason to play it again. I could use a good excuse.
On The Dungeon Siege Bundle of Theoretical Awesomeness
The Dungeon Siege III Bundle on Steam is theoretically awesome.
You get three games for the price of one, and can basically play out the (somewhat meager) story that comes through in the first and second games.
Of course, it’s never really that simple, as you’re playing two rather old games, and it’s been nearly six years since the second Dungeon Siege game came out.
Here are some factoids on what you will not get if you go purchase the Dungeon Siege III bundle, like I did.
1. You will not get multiplayer. This is stated prior to anyone even thinking of purchasing the game.
2. You will not get the expansion for Dungeon Siege II.
3. You (possibly) will not get to play Dungeon Siege I on your brand spanking new computer, though this appears to have been remedied somewhat, if the Steam forums are any indication.
Personally, I want to see if Dungeon Siege 2 is any fun to play, but that’s just me.
More Than a Bard’s Tale: Magicka Impressions
The world of Magicka is a rather twisted one, it seems. The main bad guy of the game, from the way the story is presented, appears to actually be more of a prisoner than anything else, chained at the end of the world by a council of wizards who wanted to keep the “bad guy” from developing a super-powerful spell that would, essentially, create peace across the land.
Your first task as a magician? Why, to stop by the farewell party the other magicians are having without you. They even finished the goat cheese before you could get there!
Magicka obviously doesn’t take the game world and setting too seriously, which is refreshing to note in this day and age where every game world you’re in is ultimately in peril. In the world of Magicka, the world has been in peril at least thrice in the span of one magician’s lifetime! They have a horrible track record of maintaining the peace, probably because they chained up the guy who wanted to develop a spell to end all strife.
I digress, of course. Let’s get to the meat, bones, and other choice exploding bits of this game. Once you’re able to find your way out of the magic academy to take on enemies, you’ll realize that combining spell elements together to create flaming balls of butt-kickery and icy death rays is a good idea. Compared to single-element attacks, your damage increases far better with spell element combos, such as fire and arcane, or my favorite, cold-arcane.
My run so far consists of the first three chapters of the game, all done solo, as the game’s multiplayer is a bit buggy at the moment. The game doesn’t care how many people you’re playing with though, because it still promises to give you tense moments of running and casting and bomb-avoiding and dying. It’s just more possible to die (hilariously, perhaps) due to friendly fire with more people in-game.
The game isn’t perfect though. There are points of game slowdown on the rig I’m running, which can run other games without a hitch on relatively high settings. The spell system, while fun to play, appears to reward unbridled use of offensive element + arcane combos, as they create death rays that pump up damage quickly, allowing you to take down single opponents faster and reposition. Fireball damage is a bit weak as well, though it hits far more people.
Much like any magician though, I’m sure that more time spent playing Magicka will result in the game casting its spell over me. I only hope that spell is a healing light and not some infernal death ray come to smite me for not coming up with better words to describe the game.
PS3 Version of Portal 2 Comes With a PC or Mac Version Too!
Breaking news folks.
Destructoid has just reported that the PS3 version of Valve’s upcoming game Portal 2 will allow players to not only play with PC and Mac gamers via Steam functionality (a first!), but also to play on the PC or Mac as well.
According to Valve, anyone who purchases Portal 2 for the PS3 will also get a free Steam play copy of Portal 2, which will work on the PC or Mac.
Feel free to check Destructoid for more details, and save up some cash for the PS3 version, why dontcha?
December – Willpower = Monetary Losses, Many Games, and Lots of Love
December was a rather tumultuous month for me for a variety of reasons. In addition to school, I was looking for a new job and was constantly rebudgeting my money to compensate for a lack of willpower due to various personal events happening in my life.
For once, I gave a digital gift through Stargrace’s Secret Santa. I bought a copy of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and I’m hoping MMO Gamer Chick, the fine blogger who received my gift, enjoys the numerous hours of immeasurable terror it brings.
On the side of my personal purchases, I had an active sub to World of Warcraft. In addition to this, I bought Mount and Blade and its Warband “expansion.” I spent some money to alleviate some personal depression, but it ended up making me feel worse, so I actually went and purchased even more games to try and forget the guilt I was feeling, and my inability to say no to a good deal sort of killed my budget severely. MMO Gamer Chick, who happened to be my Secret Santa, also gave me her gift, which was a Steam copy of Borderlands, which I’ve played quite a bit.
As Christmas neared though, some unexpected gifts came in. People started giving me money, and I started saving it up, only to realize that I wanted even more games because of some rather intriguing deals and my own lack of Willpower. I purchased Just Cause 2, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Team Fortress 2 within the past two weeks. I also unsubbed to WoW, and replaced it with a sub to Darkfall in order to make an attempt to resurrect Blackrod LeDouche.
Finally, Longasc from Twitter enticed me to purchase Guild Wars with some healthy talking points on Twitter, and because of some luck on my end and some assistance from Ardua as well, Steam had the Trilogy on sale and the Eye of the North expansion was available on the NCSoft Store for 10 dollars. Total damage: a little over 35 dollars for the full package, once I finish installing the Guild Wars Trilogy.
Right now, I’m not sure if I’m really happy or not, but one thing I do know is that I’m loved, not only by my family, but also by the friends I have here at home and also those of you online who comment on my tweets or read my blog. To all of you, it means a lot.
To all of my friends online, I just want to say thank you, and Merry Christmas. Much love to all of you, and cheers! 😀
Mount and Blade Warband Key Issue Looks to be Resolved
Well, folks… it looks like the Mount and Blade key saga has come to a close.
After sending in a ticket to be sure that my issue was addressed with regard to the CD Key issue, I fired up Steam an hour ago and noticed that it downloaded something for Mount and Blade Warband. As I thought, it was a fix to allow players full access to their game.
I played the game for an hour and everything seems fine now. No ads when exiting, and no demo version notice when starting up the game.
All well and good then. Just restart Steam, and you should be good to go. For more information on the game though, feel free to check out my impressions piece written a few hours ago. Cheers!
Mount and Blade + Mount and Blade Warband Steam Sale Gives Wrong Key?
Just wanted to let the folks who are enjoying the Steam sale a heads up on the one deal I decided to take part of. Personal experience, along with some confirmation from the Steam and TaleWorlds Forums, has arrived at the conclusion that Steam may have screwed up the delivery of game keys for Mount & Blade and Mount & Blade Warband.
When activated, Mount & Blade Warband requests that you activate the game using a serial key that Steam should have on hand for your copy of the game. The key I got, however, is a 5×5 input key (25 digits), whereas the actual key required by the game is a 4×4 input key (16 digits). Your purchase, therefore, relegates you to demo status for the game until such time as when the folks at Steam can resolve the issue for all the gamers who purchased the game (or the bundle packs!).