Lamenting My Bad Choices

In another stroke of pure impulsivity I have found myself purchasing a bundle of games that fall on the outskirts of the whole "genres I enjoy" category.  These bad choices are usually the results of some sort of Steam mega-sale and the latest spate is no exception.  It's not that I bought a bad game, it's that I bought a game that I'm horrible at and totally don't understand.  Tip for others:  understand exactly what you're buying and don't be dense!

What did I buy?  A bundle of Endless Legend games and DLC.  They're not the newest games, but they got really good reviews so I decided the sale price was probably worth it.  "But they're great games!"  I've never really understood the complex, hexagonal, super-strategic games that fall into the 4X genre--and yet I just bought a bunch.

So far I am seeing some things that I like.  The factions in Endless Legend have an interesting mix of sci-fi and fantasy inspired traits.  There is a race of insect-like creatures, some bizarrely creepy stone...things, a sublimely awesome floating lady-mage, mechanical magic monster mashups, and several others ranging from the traditional humanoid-like to the completely strange.  The choices are fabulous, but actually choosing is the hard part.

The Mezari.  I'm slowly killing them with my incompetence.

Once you've chosen your faction you are treated to a short introductory cut-scene that explains the origins of that specific faction.  I chose an outer-spacey humanoid race (for the sole reason that I liked their hair--a very strategic decision) that seems to lean toward more scientific-based options.  They left their world to live on the surface of the planet and with me at the helm they are doomed to a short, sad existence getting stomped into muck by the neighboring faction of bug creatures....but I digress....

Another feature that I am enjoying is that there are some RPG-like elements in the game.  As you explore and meet other factions you have the ability to complete quests.  Each faction has their own unique hero units that can either accompany troops on the battlefield or can be located in a city as a governor.  This hero unit has an equippable inventory and can be improved through spending resources to create new items or receiving items as quest rewards.  Your hero and your troops level up as you battle and explore.  Hero skill points can be used to unlock abilities that either make the individual unit stronger or allow for army-wide perks when locked in battle.

I have absolutely no clue what I am supposed to be doing.  The tutorial pounded it into my head that I should be constantly researching and building.  My small army roams around looking for ruins to explore and has the occasional tangle with roaming troops from other minor factions.  I've encountered a few of the major enemy factions and they are mostly indifferent--should I be attacking them?  Or making peace with them?  They seem to have plentiful resources and armies that vastly outnumber my own.

In the past I very briefly dipped my toes into the epic Civilization V pool before deciding that it was too complicated and slow paced for me.  Endless Legend seems like a slightly more complex pool filled with even more intricacies that I am trying to grasp.  Maybe 4X isn't for me?  I'm going to give it another go and see if I can make some progress toward victory. 

Does Age Make Gamers Less Competitive?

I hate to admit that I'm getting older and that I qualify as a non-typical/"older gamer."  The reality is that I'm no longer a teenager mashing buttons and screaming at the screen (actually I never really was.  We only had dial-up and I grew up in the still pre-historic Internet days of the 1990's.)  As an "older gamer" a couple of different articles about a study caught my eye.  The study isn't extremely recent and was published earlier this year but seems to be getting a lot of commentary and analysis.  If you want to see the actual article and the data attached to it you can read it here: "As Gamers Age" Study.

There are some interesting tidbits to pull from this study.  Here's a list:  (I love lists)

1.) According to the ESA (the fun-folks that do things like run the rating system for games) the average age of gamers is 35.  Yessss!!!!  I guess that means that I'm not old...I'm average!  This was surprising because I have a stereotypical view of gamers--teenagers or college age people who tend to be mostly male.  It's nice to know that the average gamer could be someone like me--working full time and gaming on the side.

MarioKart remains one of my favorite competitive games.

2.) Younger gamers prefer games that are more competitive and males tend to prefer them more than females.  This piece of information makes sense to me.  I loved to play competitive games when I was in college.  Not that I really played anything that was really all that competitive--mostly MarioKart.  Maybe there's something about identity formation and finding something that you're good at.  Or maybe it's just the urge to crush someone and prove that you're superior.  But.....

3.) The desire to play competitive games decreases as gamers get older.  For some reason this discovery seemed to really steam some people.  It's a study that uses a random sample....that doesn't mean that the findings apply to everyone!  Speaking solely for myself, I would agree with this finding.  I used to really enjoy playing competitive games like Team Fortress 2 or Half-Life 2:  Deathmatch.  Not that I made the leaderboard very often or had some sort of winning record.  It was more about the thrill of competing and trying to win.

Now that I'm average, I just want to come home and relax.  I don't want to listen to some irate, crazy yelling because they lost a game or yelling just to be obnoxious.  The games I seek out are the kind that I can play how I want without having to deal with other nutbags.  I like Eurotruck-ing and listening to the radio or cleaning up a level of Viscera Cleanup Detail to unwind.

I tend to agree with the findings in this study but saw a lot of people strongly disagreeing with the findings.

One other cool feature on their website is the ability to build a "gamer profile" where you fill out a short survey and it tells you where you fit in with other gamers who are close to your age.  Check it out and see if you're like other gamers or in a league of your own.

I Just Failed Humanity

"Thanks for Playing."  That's the crushing message that greets you after you've just led the Terran Federation to it's doom in Halcyon 6:  Starbase Commander.  I just learned that the hard way after ten hours of attempting to curb the Chruul infestation.  I'm a little sad--firstly, because I knew the situation was getting downright futile but also because I haven't felt that sting of defeat from a game in quite awhile.  That failure makes me want to jump right back in though.  Well played, game.....well played.

When I first saw Halcyon 6:  Starbase Commander pop up on the Steam top sellers chart I was surprised and skeptical.  Whenever I see pixelated games I am always a little wary--it's been done and it's been done to death (*this is where my brain should have kicked in and made me remember how much I genuinely enjoyed Stardew Valley).  Rather than think about my skepticism I decided to watch the trailer and see if this wasn't just some weird fluke.  Nope.  Not fluk-ey.  The game actually looked like fun--a perfect storm with aspects of XCOM base management combined with Final Fantasy inspired combat.  Since it was on sale I decided to snatch it up and then regret it later.  The regret never came and I've been having fun commanding my pixelated crew to their unfortunate deaths.

But where did I go wrong?  One of the very important skills I seem to have missed was the ability to multi-task.  Not only do you need a fleet of powerful ships to combat the Chruul in the region but you need multiple crews that can carry out tasks and work on your starbase.  My tunnel vision and enjoyment of blasting Chruul ships into oblivion meant that I sunk all my time and resources into one fleet.  By the time I cobbled together a second fleet things were starting to get chaotic.  New structures called "spires" were spawning many Chruul ships that I just couldn't handle quickly enough.  I had to take them down AND continue to collect resources and expand my base.  It was just too much.  I managed to barely fend them off but the crisis became dire when I realized I didn't have enough crew members to crew tier 3 ships.  An uber-Chruul ship was heading toward my base and I had no options for quickly cobbling together a fleet of tier 3 ships.  Once the Chimera arrived it immediately blasted my base into pieces.  Game over.

I've learned a few things from my failure that might help some others avoid the same fate so here are a few handy tips.

Tip #1--Colonies are important.  Don't neglect them or they will get destroyed and then you will lose the resources.  I lost all but one colony that was generating crew members.  It's important in the early game to establish outposts on those colonies.

Tip #2--Train more officers ASAP.  It wasn't my first priority and by the time I had another batch they were too low-level to do much good.

Tip #3--Use your re-rolls.  Having a set of officers with a wide variety of combination options is vital to success.  I did not use my re-rolls and ended up with some weak combat options.

Tip #4--Gather those resources.  Don't let them waste away on planets.  Make a plan for having at least one ship that is dedicated to keeping you supplied.

Tip #5--Build the next tier of ship hangars quickly and have enough resources in reserve that you can immediately start cranking out more powerful ships.  This might be a little bit of wishful thinking and is really difficult, but I think it's possible.

I plan to start my new and improved game 2 soon.  We'll see if I really learned any lessons from my first round of failure.

It's a Death March.

Sadly, the time for teachers and students to return to their venerable educational institutions has come.  For me this means a serious shift away from my summer schedule composed of waking up late and spending many quality hours emerged in whatever game has my attention--with some cat-walking sprinkled in-between.  My recent scant gaming hours have been spent delving back into The Witcher 3 for the umpteenth time.  I have an unnerving ability to be able to play the games I really love over and over....and over.  This time around I decided that I would try to do some things a little differently than in my previous jaunts into Witcher-land.

One of the major choices I made for myself this go-round was to suck it up and play on the highest difficulty level--the somewhat aptly named "death march."  As the name suggests, there is much dying, but not as much as I thought--maybe that's just the 475 hours of gameplay talking.  The name is very intimidating, but it's not vastly different mechanics than at the other easier levels.  Enemies hit harder--quite a bit harder, even the low-level ones like drowners and wolves--which means that your block/dodge game needs to be on point.  They also travel in much larger packs--you might have seen a pack of three drowners in normal, but now there's five or seven.  Contract critters really pack a punch and it's vital to be prepared to use signs, oil up your blade, chug a decoction, and be ready to throw a bomb or gulp down a healing potion.  Overall, I'm enjoying the challenge of learning and adjusting to fights where I could just rely on taking a few pops from the baddie at a lower difficulty setting.

The Wolf Set of Witcher Gear.   I'm not sure that I'm digging it.

I also decided that Geralt's ensemble needed to be different than in my previous games.  Geralt has successfully worn the garb of the school of the cat, the griffin, and the bear, but I've never decked him out in wolf gear (or the new sets from Blood and Wine).  The aesthetics of this set are...interesting.  I'm not quite sure that I'm completely diggin' it.  (I've only acquired the enhanced set so haven't gotten to see how the set fully fleshes out at the mastercrafted level).  Why is the jacket so short?  Is Geralt supposed to be a matador?  I suppose that for functionality that a shorter jacket would allow for more movement--it just looks kind of odd.

The armor design in The Witcher 2 and The Witcher 3 has been some of my favorite.  I love the fact that the items look functional and that there are details that make them seem real.  You can see where something ties or where buckles are located.  This may sound dumb, but I can almost imagine how it would feel--how the leather in the Griffin set would be hard but also provide some protection or how the padded jacket in the Wolf set would be lighter and springy.  I don't have those kinds of thoughts about other games--I just daftly believe that it makes sense (those crotch plates in Mass Effect look really uncomfortable).

Despite my loathing of trying to explore every single smuggler's cache or spoils of war marker in Skellige, I am forcing myself to loot them all.  Pimping out Geralt's gear ain't cheap--there's a runewright to pay for fancy new enchantments and getting your fancy Witcher gear to the grandmaster level will leave poor Geralt grovelling for a few coins.  So it's time to sail and reduce the population of sirens in the waters of Skellige.  I've only managed to sink one boat so far--which is a serious win.

Geralt will prevail in his quest to throw together enough cash to pay for all those expensive upgrades!

Smug City

I'm basking in the satisfied feeling of self-control as I have managed to keep myself from jumping onto a couple of recent releases that seem to be mostly a bust (for the moment at least).  It's so rare that I get to experience these feelings as I am the biggest sucker for hype and nifty, musically enhanced advertisements.  But I resisted the lure and now I can sit back and feel content that I've learned from my past mistakes and now share my scattered words of wisdom with others.

Wisdom #1--Iffith it Soundeth Unbelieveable-ith--don't believe-ith ith... (Don't Fall for the Hype!)

For the past year or so I had been keeping a side-eye on No Man's Sky.  Not hardcore tracking every Tweet or press release or new video, but just reading any articles that popped up describing the game.  On the surface it sounded like something that was going to be downright revolutionary.  Buuuuuut....there was always this part of me that was really skeptical.  How could anyone really find the time to make 18 quintillion unique planets?  Procedural generation sounds neato, but the reality is that it's still the same box no matter how many pretty colors you slap onto it.  For me, not jumping into this one was a great choice.  

Steam reviews seem very mixed between negative and positive reviews--many of the negative reviews are those who feel they were led to believe that certain things would be in the game that weren't.  I've been trying to ignore those and find the ones that talk more about the gameplay itself and it seems like many find the game very grindy and repetitive.  However, about 50% of the reviews seem to be positive with many people genuinely enjoying the game.  There's a chance I might still grab No Man's Sky in the future, but it's definitely going to be at a deeply discounted sale price.

One of the old pre-order ads from Steam.
Early release with pre-orders?  Ugh.

Wisdom #2--Don'teth Pre-Ordereth.

I am extremely guilty of not following this piece of my own wisdom.  If there's a game I really want my thinking is that I should just pre-order and get whatever ridiculous perk is being offered because I'm going to buy it anyway.  Ugh...so weak-willed despite the fact that I know I will almost always be disappointed.  Unfortunately it has become almost commonplace for big games to be released in a very poor state.  I watched from afar this week as the reviews for Deus Ex:  Mankind Divided started popping up on Steam.  And, lo and behold, there were several things that people were upset about--poor optimization, frequent freezes/crashes, and generally just the usual day one crap that seems to have become so standard.  It's really sad that this has become so standard in video gaming--when else would people accept a product that was faulty at release?

The reality of pre-ordering is that the developers already have your money so they don't feel that same pressure to deliver a product that is going to be perfect on day one.  Sucks for gamers.  On the other hand it has become almost completely unacceptable for developers to delay releasing something.  The backlash from pushing release dates back is nuts!  I would much rather have a developer push a release date back and have a playable, fun product on the very first day.  Being patient would save so many headaches.

(On a complete side-related note it seems like many people are upset about the inclusion of microtransactions in the single player campaign of DE:MD and day 1 DLC that seems at best shady and at worst very, very money grubby.)

Wisdom #3--Pre-loading is a load of crap-eth.

It...never...works.  NEVER!  There's the fake excitement of thinking--"oooh this is downloaded, I can pop right into the game the second it's officially out!."  It's a lie!  Don't fall for it!  What's going to happen is that you're going to spend a few hours downloading a bunch of encrypted files.  Then, on release day when you're feeling happy about your preparedness you're going to spend another few hours watching as those files are slowly, slowly decrypted.  Just wait and download after it's released.

So sayeth me.  Amen.  We'll see how long it takes before I break my own words o' wisdom--I'm guessing not long. ;)

My Dirty Gaming Secret

I have been feeling a bit ashamed of my gaming choices of late.  Not because they are dirty--perverts!  But because one of my recent mainstays is a game that most serious "gamers" would scoff at and decry.  Doesn't everyone have that one game that they feel just a little embarrassed to be playing?  World of Warcraft makes you feel like a huge nerd or you secretly enjoy those weird Japanese games (you know the ones I'm talking about....).  For me the big skeleton in my gaming closet is The Sims 4.  The shame!

As much as I am loathe to admit, I have played every single Sims game since the original came out.  Some people might be thinking..."why?"  There is something about shaping the lives of my little electronic minions that is enjoyable.  I can think up a fictional scenario and then watch it come to fruition through my guiding actions (which occasionally make a Sim pee their pants--yes, I have that power).  It's a bit like playing house or playing God or some weird combination of the two.

One of the gorgeous homes created in The Sims 4.
The homes I build look like the drawing of a kindergartner.

I grabbed The Sims 4 when it first came out in 2014 but didn't spend very much time playing it and actually ended up uninstalling.  Two weeks ago I decided that I should revisit it and see if/why my earlier actions were warranted.  It's true that the game hasn't changed much over it's four new reiterations, but I was immediately sucked back in.  The building tools have evolved to allow players the ability to create gorgeously detailed homes with curves, angles, swimming pools (with ladders!), balconies, fountains...and a plethora of other options.  The houses I create are generally boxy and ugly but are mostly functional.

But who cares about the building tools!  Everyone knows that the best part of The Sims is actually creating a new Sim.  The Sims 4 has given players the ability to shape and mold their Sim into virtually any vision they want.  Want to create a family of green skinned alien people?  Totally possible.  Want a family to only dress up in clown costumes?  That's weird, but it's your world.  As you pick outfits, design makeup, and create your ideal Sim you then get to the best part--playing with genetics.  At the click of a few buttons you can combine the looks of two Sims to create the offspring of your creations.  It's fun to punch that little random button and see all the possibilities.

Even though I only possess the base game, I have found that the number of possibilities--career and aspiration wise--create a wide enough range of skills and outcomes to keep me entertained.  My Sims are dishwashers, secret agents, astronauts, athletes,...they like to paint, fish, collect, make friends, or just be alone.

So, I've been having fun populating my little electronic world.  Don't judge.  I do have a few gripes though.  In The Sims 4 your Sims are fully autonomous--they make their own decisions and live their own lives when you aren't controlling them.  They make new friends, take new lovers (Vivian, you slut!), and age up all on their own.  I didn't realize this until I found that the Sims in one of my first new households were all ghosts after I hadn't played them in awhile.  If you're like me and don't like this feature you can turn off the full autonomy and the aging up of unplayed households in the options menu.

My biggest gripe is with the blatant amount of moneymaking DLC that is popped out for The Sims games.  There is DLC for new careers, for outdoor adventures, for the perfect patio, for parties, for new outfits, for fancy household items, and the list goes on and on.  You could easily spend hundreds on all the myriad add-ons!  It's a little ridiculous.

One of the bright spots that I haven't really utilized is the community gallery feature.  Players can download Sims, rooms, homes, community buildings and any of the other in-game features from a huge library created by others.  It's very cool and humbling to see what others have created.

I'm going to keep playing The Sims 4 even if I am a little embarrassed to admit it.  There are careers to master and genetics to manipulate in my little virtual world.

Grab Bag

Lately I really can't decide what I want to play.  I'm not playing anything new but aimlessly bouncing between random games that I didn't do justice to on the first go-round.  As a result of this unsettled play I'm just going to write some random thoughts about the games I have been playing or thinking about.

1.) No Man's Sky--Hype or Hyper-tastic space game?
Unless you've been totally out of the gaming loop you know that the highly anticipated and much delayed No Man's Sky was released on consoles (and delayed but soon to be released on PC).  The concept of the game sounds pretty amazing--almost limitless procedurally generated planets to explore.  What gamer wouldn't jump at the chance to have that at their fingertips?  Well...me, for one.  I have this really deep gut feeling that this infinite universe will be nothing but a beautifully empty repetitive grindfest that will get old really fast.  I've always leaned towards games with a strong story so I won't be buying into the hype.  It's just not for me.  I hope it turns out well for those who have been anxiously awaiting it's release.

2.) Fallout 4--A love/hate relationship.
Even though I have complained about how I didn't have great feelings about Fallout 4, it has still found a way to pull me back in.  The reality is that I can always find something new to do in the massive world of the Commonwealth.  Currently I'm on a quest to find all the bobbleheads--I only need two more!  I'm also enjoying the faction change to the Brotherhood of Steel.  Sure, they are a bunch of highly armored jerkfaces, but they have a cool airship.

This go-round I decided to ditch Dogmeat (sorry boy) and travel with Piper.  I swear if she complains about how something smells one more time...she's going to get a hot shishkebab to the face.  There is one person who is considerably less annoying, Preston Garvey.  The changes to make him request your help to sort out this or that random settler who got themselves kidnapped over and over is no longer an issue.

Sigh...I've gotta find those last stupid bobbleheads.  (And no, I won't look up a guide...yet.)

3.) The Witcher 3--Toussaintastic.
I love, love, love The Witcher 3 and am now really sad that I have finished the last piece of DLC for it.  If you haven't picked up Blood and Wine yet or are skeptical about it--don't be.  Unlike the DLC for Fallout 4 (which has horribly negative reviews on Steam), this DLC is meaty and full of content that will extend Geralt's adventures for many, many hours.  If you haven't bought any of the DLC you can wait for the upcoming Game of the Year Edition which should offer the complete adventure.

Toussaint offers the chance to play a more traditional type of hero and to play even more gwent.  Geralt gets the chance to be a noble knight, to rescue a princess, and to live in his own personal castle.  There is much monster slaying along the way and plenty of new locations to explore.

I'm actually thinking of starting up another game on the highest difficulty setting.  It would be my fourth or fifth game...yeah, I really enjoy Witchering.

4.) Mass Effect 3--Garrus + Shepard for life.
Almost every summer I find myself returning to the Mass Effect universe.  I have managed to play a Shepard who has had a romantic relationship with almost every option in the game.  The one big one that I had skipped up until now was Garrus.  What was I thinking?  Garrus is absolutely the best romantic option for Shep.  Go back and play that relationship from ME2 onward and tell me that you don't love it.

I think that part of the reason I avoided it was because there was just something really weird about the alien/human dynamic.  Plus, Turians are kind of weird looking.  But, as a character, Garrus has always been one of my favorites.  He's tough and has a sense of honor, but he is also flawed.  He gets frustrated with all the Turian rule following  and is kind of awkward.  That awkwardness is definitely endearing--the early stages of the Garrus/Shep relationship involve much worry about how it all is supposed to work...awkward talks about vids and figuring things out.

The one thing that really sold me on the Garrus/Shep relationship happens in the Citadel DLC in ME3.  As you enjoy spending time with your crewmates Garrus invites you to hang out at the casino on the Silversun Strip.  In the non-romantic options you find Shep trying to set Garrus up with a lovely lady Turian.  Forget that option even exists!  Now you find yourself in the bar and the music changes to a tango (I think.....) and Garrus sweeps Shepard onto the dancefloor where he reveals that he has been taking dance lessons.  It's completely silly to see two fairly serious characters dancing a tango in the middle of a space crisis--but it's totally worth it.  In all the time that the game and DLC have been out I can't believe that I missed this genuinely awesome relationship.

Now, to just hope that Mass Effect:  Andromeda is able to reproduce all those awesome characters and moments.  Fingers crossed.