Week in Review - 3/9/2012

Civilization V

My addiction to Civilization V continued through the week. I trumped William the Conqueror and claimed the throne of England in the 1066 Denmark/Viking scenario. I won a close Diplomatic Victory with Alexander of Greece on a very large map that I barely explored. I also won a Domination Victory with Oda Nobunaga on an archipelago map where I simply took every Capital I came across and then promptly made peace and searched for my next Capital. I think the addiction has finally waned.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Genjo took on his first adventure today and came out breathing. He snuck into the Embershard Mine and freed it from bandit occupation claiming all their loot as his own. Does that make him better or worse than a bandit? I don’t know. There’s 17 hours left on the polls if anyone wants to vote on what he does next with the life I’ve given him. I’m really enjoying playing Genjo in this choose-your-own-adventure style because it adds an element of the unknown for me, and the pressure is on to keep him alive and thus keep the blog alive.

Final Fantasy IV - DS Version

When I wrote about FinalFantasy XIV this week and started thinking about summoners, my thoughts turned to my favorite character, Rydia. I realized at one point that I had never really given the DS version of Final Fantasy IV its due respect. When I got it in 2008, I played up until the Tower of Zot and never even beat this really unique re-imagined version of my favorite “Final Fantasy.” While I don’t consider it the definitive version, it brings something to the world and the story that you won’t find anywhere else and it’s quite fun.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

This is a picture of my current character, Anko. She’s a Ranger but I mostly think of her as a ninja. She specializes in Daggers and Bow, though occasionally I switch to Chakram when I need a more consistent ranged weapon that doesn’t need a refill cool-down. Anko is my second character and the more enjoyable of the two. I continue to progress towards some inevitable conclusion to a game I’m just playing to hack and slash. She hacks and slashes really well. I’m already thinking of building a mage to try the final un-played build in this combat system.

The Sims 3

Unfortunately, I plucked this picture from someone’s site, but this is the couple I’m currently playing in Sims 3. I recently re-installed the game on a new computer and decided to keep it simple. I’m playing the un-adulterated Sims 3 game without any other expansions installed. Weeks ago, I was playing the Martinez family in their (failed) attempt to reach their life goals. I imported their only son, Pancho Villa, into the game to interact with this new pre-made couple, Holden Wonzy and Gwen Glover. So far all that’s happened is an attempt to befriend Pancho, who is resisting.

 


Related Links
A Breton in Skyrim - http://bretongenjo.blogspot.com
My Sims 3 Profile - http://mypage.thesims3.com/mypage/Kirutaru

Week in Review - 3/2/2012

I decided a week ago that in March I'd begin posting a short Friday blog regarding games I'm currently playing and any thoughts associated with them. Originally, I wanted to add a "Games Played This Week" picture or widget in order to let people know the games I'm playing so they could inquire about them, or understand where I came up with the ideas for blog topics. I just thought it would be a good record to keep. Unfortunately, there wasn't always enough space in the article for the insert, or it was too distracting from the story I was trying to tell. It needs it's own space.

And so, TOP Gaming Week in Review column is born!





Civilization V

I read earlier this week that Civilization V is finally getting an expansion pack called “Gods & Kings” which will add religion and espionage mechanics along with new scenarios and civilizations. I’ve been playing the "Civilization" series since 1991, but I often overlook the scenarios. I booted up Civ V to correct that oversight. I finally beat the Mongolian scenario, terrorizing Asia with horsemen. I also conquered the New World (scenario) with France and united Polynesia! I’m currently working on a Roman Cultural Victory. I’m lodged deep in a war with Denmark over territory and fear I may be overwhelmed.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I recently read a blog about a player trying to emulate the life of a Non-Player Character (NPC) within Skyrim. It was so clever and fun to read that it made me remember how much role-playing you can do with a world like Skyrim. The blog ended abruptly with the death of the main character. It inspired me to try and play a realistic life in Skyrim (though not necessarily a drab, non-adventuring NPC life). I am chronicling this adventure in another blog called “A Breton in Skyrim.” Both links will be provided below.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

I’ve been playing Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning quite a bit since its release on February 7^th.  I did a review of this game Tuesday, so naturally I’ve been playing it this week. I’ve provided the link to that review below in case you missed it. I’d like to add to it, this game is HUGE. There are several of faction storylines to pursue and many battles to be fought. The game’s map appears deceptively small at first, but after a few hours of exploring, you realize it’s quite an impressive size world. You’ll be exploring it for many, many hours.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

This is the current MMO I am playing, so presumably I will log some hours every week. I just logged in to take this screenshot of my main character, Shikari. She is a Lv50 (out of 50) Consular Sage, specializing in healing, on the bridge of her ship that I dubbed Mjolnir. I have been neglecting this game most of the week due to working on “A Breton in Skyrim” blog project and a resurfaced addiction to Civilization V. I will provide a link to the review of The Old Republic I wrote several weeks ago.

Related Links
The Elder Strolls - The inspiration for "A Breton in Skyrim"
A Breton in Skyrim - http://bretongenjo.blogspot.com/
TOP Gaming's Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Review
TOP Gaming's Star Wars: The Old Republic Review

I'm also trying to get up a spreadsheet of my entire library of games. It's mainly for personal reference and online so I can access it anywhere (anytime I buy or sell a game), but since it's relevant and people may want to see it (?) I'll add the link. I'll make this more readily available on the site once it's all formatted to my standards.

TOP Gaming Library - Note the first sheet is blank. It's a placeholder for future expansion.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Review

 I’ve had somewhat of a rocky start to my relationship with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. I had played the demo prior to its launch and decided for various reasons that I’d pick it up as soon as it was available. That’s something I typically don’t do these days, but the game showed a lot of promise and had a lot of big names attached to it. R.A. Salvatore had worked on the story. Todd McFarlane had worked on the art. Ken Rolston had worked on the game design itself. I’d say of the three, you’re more likely to not recognize Ken Rolston, but he was previously the designer of Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and IV: Oblivion which is a big deal in video games. This all amounts to high expectations across the board for story, design and game depth. Unfortunately, I fear my own expectations were too high.

Amazing Visuals

I spent the first ten hours or so really disappointed with the story and characters of the game. When I play a role-playing game (RPG) I’m usually pulled through the game by a desire to know what’s going to happen next. This is not so in Amalur.  I often found myself simply not caring what happens next. The story was failing me, and the characters were typically bland and unremarkable. The lore and the story of Amalur are certainly interesting but their method of delivery feels rather forced and boring. I believe it’s because I’m constantly being spoon fed story via exposition, but very rarely just experiencing the story as it unfurls. Many of the story’s segues feel more like a “while you were out” memo, such as coming back from a quest to find the king had been kidnapped and I’m the only one left who can save him. The fact I was not being absorbed into the story the way I hoped led to another question. What was driving me?

Situations like this!

I was getting close to 20 hours on my gruff character modeled after a Viking warrior, and I thinking of starting a new character to begin this ride all over again from scratch as a lithe, stealth assassin. Clearly something was hooking me. Typically when a game is disappointing I can’t wait to just finish and check it off my list of games to beat, or get so bored and discouraged I simply walk away. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning on the other hand had me already thinking of my next character. This is when I knew something out of the ordinary was occurring. I know 10 to 20 hours is a lot to ask of a player these days, but I feel something magical happened to me in that time. While grumbling about how the story needs to feel more involved, I was growing addicted to the unbelievable combat system.

I was forced to admit that I absolutely love Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. I can’t seem to put it down. I find myself playing through, not caring about what happens next in the story, but what kind of awesome battles I may have where I travel next. I’m hoping beyond all hopes that any new Downloadable Content (DLC) provides more character combat abilities and more difficult fights. I found myself thinking early on that this was what the “Fable” series should have been delivering by now, rather than spending time developing hand-holding with ugly NPCs. This kind of fast-paced, timing-is-everything, skill-based combat system is exactly what makes an action-based combat system so much fun. It definitely raises the bar for other games in this action-RPG genre. 

Dodge that spear, man!

Because R.A. Salvatore, Todd McFarlane and Ken Rolston are all accomplished veterans in their fields it was easy to think that I was going to get something as well written as a book, as visually stimulating as a comic, and the depth of gameplay I’d come to expect from Elder Scrolls titles. Instead, I’m forced to remind myself that Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is 38 Studio's first game title to hit the public. While they didn’t pitch a perfect game, they have created something that is extremely fun and well put together. I hope that future content for this game adds more depth and particularly difficulty to the late-game combat with many additional combat-centric challenges. I also look forward to see where this series will go in the future and what other kinds of games they may make together. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning nails it when it comes to addictive, deep and fun combat and character customization.

-TOP

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I wanted to take a moment to announce something I started over the weekend. I call it "A Breton in Skyrim" and is a reader-guided adventure of realistic living in the game Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I have a few posts up and leave reader polls to see what Genjo, the Breton, will do next in his life.

He must eat and drink. He must sleep. These rules are enforced by a mod.
He walks most places, meaning he may not get as far as you'd expect in a day's travel.
The final rule is that when his time comes to die, so too will this blog project.

I make no promises about how often I'll update this site, but people seem to be reacting positively to it so I'll try to dedicate some time to it every week. Thank you for checking it out.

http://bretongenjo.blogspot.com

-TOP