A Little Mobile Gaming

I don't have anything new happening on the PC gaming front--I've decided to revisit one of my strategy favorites, Against the Storm, largely to see what has changed since the last time I played.  I've barely dipped my toes back into the storm cycle but I'm already intrigued by what I've seen.  I also purchased a DLC pack featuring a new playable race (frogs) awhile back and hadn't touched it.  In the future I'll report on all the new changes (and the frogs!).  So, for this week, I thought I'd talk about a couple of my personal mobile favorites.

I know that people have a tendency to cringe when mobile gaming is brought up.  Let's be real though, you probably have a couple of games lurking on your phone that you like to pop open from time to time.  My personal mobile gaming style tends to be games that are convenient for times when you're stuck waiting for something--the types of games that can be played in short bursts and that can be quickly closed with no feeling of losing out.  Currently, I like to spend my short lunches (we get 30 minutes--and that counts one of the few bathroom breaks I get throughout the day) managing my Fallout Shelter vault.  I originally played Fallout Shelter when it first came out and basically reached the limit of what was available--my vault was maxed out with inhabitants and there was literally nothing else to do.  Luckily/smartly the game has been expanded so that there doesn't feel like there's much of an end to it.  

Fallout Shelter includes cute pets!

When I originally played Fallout Shelter all you could do was manage the production in your vault and send dwellers out to explore the wasteland.  Now, there are questlines where you can send your dwellers out to accomplish certain goals (after a navigating a build full of combat scenarios) for rewards; there's an entire crafting system for weapons and outfits; there are collectible pets that are not only cute, but provide buffs for your dwellers; there are collectible themes (from the Fallout series) that can be used to decorate your vault; and, in true mobile gaming fashion, there are plenty of opportunities to interact with ads to earn rewards (of course...but they're actually not too egregious).  The game has totally changed since those olden days!

One fun aspect of Fallout Shelter has been the crossover content with Amazon Prime's Fallout series.  You can do quests to unlock special characters from the series.  There are also outfits, pets, and themes associated with the series!  

This new and improved Fallout Shelter is perfect for short bouts (and also longer ones when you're trying to manage all your junk and items).  I don't turn on notifications or anything (not like I can just up and play whenever), but like to try to complete quests during my lunch break or after work.  If it has been awhile or if you enjoy Fallout and are looking for something fun for your phone, give it a go. (*You can play it on PC through Steam...I'd recommend mobile though) And just a disclaimer--yes, there's the normal micro-transactions and whatnot, but it isn't pushed on you very much.

My other favorite is THE stereotypical mobile game--Candy Crush.  I love a good match 3 and Candy Crush is one of those never-ending types that manages to be challenging enough to be fun.  There are plenty of in-game competitions, challenges, and events to keep you engaged.  It's much more egregious when it comes to ads, microtransactions, and all the normal mobile gaming sins.  It's great for short bouts when you just want to play a level or two (and some are ridiculously easy and can be completed in a few minutes).  Popping all those little candies is just so much fun though!

Have a great weekend and enjoy some gaming time (even mobile!)!

Reduce, Reuse, Replenish in Terra Nil

In a world where big, existential problems can feel impossible it's nice to be able to dissociate a little bit.  One of those problems is climate change and the human caused impacts on Earth's environment.  Sure, I can take personal steps to do things to help, but that just feels so little.  Just imagining being able to fix these major problems is some serious escapism and is exactly what Terra Nil does.

What is it?

Steam uses the following tags to describe Terra Nil: relaxing, nature, strategy, puzzle, and (somewhat inappropriately) city-builder.  I would agree with all of those except the city-builder one.  Terra Nil challenges players to restore the environments on a planet that has been heavily damaged by human-caused pollution.  The goal is to use your limited resources to restore certain biomes, climate conditions, and animals to various regions of a ruined planet.

How much playtime can I expect?

Like most games it can vary depending on how thorough you want to be.  If you simply want to accomplish the baseline goals to pass a mission it could be ~10 hours.  If you want to try to accomplish all the goals (go for 100%) you could probably push it over 20.  It's not a long game, but it's also not overly short either.

Pros:

+ Terra Nil is definitely deserving of the "relaxing" tag.  The music and laidback gameplay offer up the perfect opportunity to de-stress while gaming.  The most stressful part is when you realize you've messed up and have to figure out how to correct your mistakes.

+ The gameplay is relatively simple to understand and is the right level of challenging to keep it engaging but not too stressful.  Your dropship initially grants you a set amount of resources and your goal is to use those resources to place various structures to help replenish the environment.  As you reach certain goals you gain more resources that can give you a bit of a cushion to push toward meeting additional goals (such as climate goals).  Before you leave each map you have to remove any trace of your activities by recycling all your structures.  Ultimately each map wants you to meet a set of climate goals, restore certain biomes, and provide habitat for certain animals.

+ Multiple biomes with their own plant life and animals.  There are temperate, tropical, and arctic zones that each have their own challenges.  On arctic maps you must clean up the polluted snow first and then work to restore the environment.  It's fun to see the different plants and animals in each zone.

+ Each time you finish a level there is the ability to "appreciate" the restored environment.  The regular UI disappears and the camera pans and focuses on your restored area.  It's a cool feature that lets you have a bit of time to enjoy the fruits of your virtual labors.

A screenshot of a completed map.

+ Along with the "appreciate" function, there's also a fun photo mode that will take a full screenshot of your restored map and save it.

+ You can easily restart a stage or entire mission.

Cons:

- The gameplay is fairly easy to understand, but there are parts of it that aren't explained really at all.  For example, when you place certain structures there are numbers that pop up that can be either a green + or a red =.  Sometimes these numbers appear and sometimes they don't.  I assume that they are showing how many grid squares your structure is covering (and the negative numbers represent overlap or ineffective placement).

- You can "undo" one move/placement (per item placed--say you place something somewhere wrong, you get to use one undo).  In some ways this provides extra challenge, but in others, it's kind of annoying.

- There are many different kinds of structures but you don't get much time to get used to them before a new set is introduced.  It would be nice to have at least a couple of maps to get a feel for how to place/utilize items.

- At the end of each level there's always this awkward part where you need to satisfy the needs of the various animal species that appear on your map.  Each group of animals has a little informational chart that depicts what they need to reach "happiness," but it's another thing that isn't explained particularly well.  The information in the chart isn't terribly helpful--you mostly figure out that you want each animal to be in the green part of the bar chart.  Making this happen can require using a special structure that allows you to relocation animals to different parts of the map.  Passing levels requires getting a certain number of animal species to the "happy" level.  There's a lot of trial and error involved in getting it right.

Recommendation:

Terra Nil is a relaxing experience that is oddly satisfying.  Seeing the beauty of the environments you just restored is a nice feeling.  Unfortunately I think certain parts of the game are poorly explained and suffer from a lack of information.  Ultimately though, you can succeed and have a pleasant experience.  It is fairly short but does have some replayability in the form of going back to 100% the goals on each map.  I'd grab it on sale.

Yakuza Holiday

In a week of absolute insanity (tariffs on!  Tariffs off!  Sheesh.), there was one highlight--the release of the "Ichiban's Holiday" DLC for Dave the Diver!  I almost forgot about it amidst all the craziness (and, I don't think it has been particularly well advertised).  I played through it this weekend, so here are my thoughts.

What is it?

A short crossover DLC for Dave the Diver that features characters from the popular Yakuza series.  I am not familiar with Yakuza, but I know there are some folks out there who are big fans and will enjoy seeing some of the characters (and possibly some aspects of gameplay) related to the series.  It cost $6.99.

How much new content/playtime can I expect?

It's pretty short, so unfortunately, not a lot.  There is some downtime between missions/events, but the DLC is basically 1 mission and then a post-mission celebration/sushi bar scene.

Kasuga shows up with a mysterious guest.

Pros:

+ Even though the DLC is on the short-side (the real questions folks are likely to be asking themselves is whether they should spend $6.99 for a small amount of content), what does get added in is enjoyable and adds to the weird randomness of gameplay that is central to Dave the Diver.  A central part of the mission turns into a Street Fighter style fighting game where Kasuga and Cobra team up to fight their way through a horde of dolphin poaching pirates.  It's fun (and doable even if you immediately forgot the controls and just button mash your way through it like I did) and adds something novel to the gameplay.

+ If you are someone who is a fan of the Yakuza series you'll probably enjoy (and recognize) the characters who make appearances in the DLC.  There are several and a few tidbits related to the stories in the series.  There's also some karaoke...which is apparently a part of the Yakuza series.

+ New items!  Unfortunately it's nothing diving related, but instead are more cosmetic.  There's a new phone charm for Dave's phone (it's cute) and the addition of a cocktail shaker for the sushi bar.  Now Dave can mix up some fancier drinks for the patrons of Bancho Sushi!

Cons:

- As mentioned above, it's short.  Many people might balk at paying $6.99 for very little additional content.  If you don't want to pay that price, give it a wait and it will likely go on sale in the summer.  A lot of the DLC content has been crossovers, so they are definitely going after fans who might be more likely to shell out additional coins.

Recommendation:

$6.99 seems a bit steep for what you actually get, but as a big fan of Dave, I was happy to spend more time diving in the Blue Hole and running Bancho Sushi.  The new content is fun and throws in some new gameplay and there's definitely plenty there for fans of Yakuza.

It's a Good News/Bad News Kind of Thing

This week has really turned out to be a mixed bag for me.  I've basically finished playing through Two Point Museum (apparently you can just keep playing your museums forever and gain more stars--I still haven't discovered/unlocked all the exploration locations, so that's a bit of a reason to keep playing) and have been trying to puzzle out what to play next.  Weirdly, I've gone back to an oldie that I felt compelled to play--SteamWorld Dig.  Here's the good/bad that I'm feeling at the moment.

(The above video from Paul's Hardware lays out the GPU pricing insanity)

Let's start with the bad news and just get it out of the way.  I've been hoping and planning to build a new PC this summer and it is shaping up to be one of the absolutely worst times for a couple of reasons.  The first reason is the GPU nonsense that is currently happening.  Both NVIDIA and AMD released new generations of GPU's--you would think that would be great news; new, faster, better hardware!  Unfortunately actually getting your hands on one of these GPU's--or, even worse, one of the last gen GPU's--is an absolute crapshoot.  Both NVIDIA and AMD releases were immediately sold out (and ridiculously scalped) and stock has been very meager with little news about when to expect it to start rebounding.  So why not just buy a last gen CPU?  In anticipation of the new gen, they stopped producing the last gen and people started grabbing up all of those GPU's too.  As a result, the prices on older GPU's is absolutely insane--you're talking a 125% plus markup over MSRP on some GPU models!  Plus, with the announcement of new tariffs (including a 34% increase on the already 20% tariffs on China) it means that this might be the most expensive time to build a new PC.  Maybe I'll just have to keep my 6 year old PC stringing along...this means I'm definitely not going to be playing anything new, but that's okay.

It's always nice to end on a good note, so now for the good stuff.  On April 10th, a new DLC for Dave the Diver is releasing!  It's a crossover story (which they seem to be doing a lot of...and I don't hate it!) with Yakuza and features characters from the series.  I'm not familiar with Yakuza, but I do love me some Dave, so I'm definitely looking forward to scooping it up and spending some more time exploring the Blue Hole with Dave and crew.

At least it's spring and the weather is starting to improve.  Happy gaming (and maybe some outside time) to everyone!