Holiday Break

Since I don't wish every other post to be "Didn't do anything today." I'll keep updating this post with some little things I've done and found, but I'm generally spending the time with my family and friends.

Also, Steam's Winter Sale begins on the 22nd, and alongside it the Steam Awards voting.

Games played:

• Planetside 2 - Still as good, pointless, and grindy as ever.
• Pillars of Eternity - I played this for about 4 hours, and while I have nothing inherently bad to say about it, I guess it's just my personal preferences that caused me not to like it.
  My main problem would be that it's highly complicated. Sure, the complexity adds depth, and this seems to really be a RPG in the sense that you shouldn't always try to take the "best" and easiest route, but this is not really how I've learned to play games. With so many factors to consider, I could either bore myself with trying to find the more optimal combinations, or disregard them and take the first option that seems both reasonably good and fitting to the story I'm weaving. (As I assume the game intends I do the first times.) But again, that's not how I play games.
  Further, neither the lore nor combat gripped me, and it seems that even later on it's mostly just "hit stuff until something dies". And to my friends, from whom I got this as a birthday gift, sorry I didn't like it.
• Paragon - Checked in a few months after leaving because the game was being overly simplified and the developers were impossibly incompetent with balancing some things. To my utter surprise, it had actually gotten worse, so I'm probably not going to give it another chance.
• Heroes of the Storm - Well, this still helps me remember why I don't like team-and-round-based PvP, but it's decent enough that I played it for a while. I'm actually quite happy with the direction of the updates that have been made in the year I was absent, aside from the fact that ~70% of the new heroes are Assassins.
• Long Live the Queen - Did one more playthrough, and I'm still amazed at how many different paths there are. If I don't resort to guides, there's content for another 20 hours easily.
• Typoman: Revised - So, this is a puzzle platformer with a theme of the world being composed of letters. The concept's nothing special, really. Platforming is quite standard, and the puzzles seem to mainly be figuring out in which way you should rearrange the letters given to you each scene.
  And well, it's nothing good either. In addition to there being nothing special about the platforming, the implementation of it is below average. Your character feels unresponsive and it's difficult to say where exactly you can stand. The puzzles aren't all that well thought through, as it's often unclear why the intended word is correct, while the one you made is not.
  So, in conclusion, I don't see much of a reason to play it, and I quit fairly quickly after one of the puzzles bugged out due to me dying at a wrong time.
• And also a little bit of the following: Nord Invasion, Mini Metro, Prismata

Other:
Death Note - First half was amazing. Other half was rather bad in comparison. Still good overall.
Saya no Uta - Don't even look this up. I trusted vndb's popularity ratings and thought this was a good read. Big mistake.

Games found:
Astroneer - Already very well known, but launched just a week ago. Looks like it doesn't have much content yet but people like the style.
Art of War: Red Tides - Seems to be a 3v3 PvP game that looks like an RTS, except it's a lane pusher where players choose the composition of their waves at the beginning of each wave. It's F2P, so I guess it can't hurt to try.

19.12.16

Streamed like 8 hours of Civilization VI today. I promised I'd finish the game, but darn do some of the new features annoy me.

Let's start with the fact that the minimum distance between two cities is still 3 tiles. While I felt that was a tad low, it wasn't too outrageous in the previous installment. Now, however, every single district and wonder consumes a tile, which leaves oh-so-little space for regular tile improvements.

Now, add to that that the districts and wonders nearly always want to be on or next to some specific tiles and other districts and that you can't remove these once built, and you're left with either frustration at misplaced buildings, or having to plan all the buildings you'll ever potentially construct right at the beginning of the game.

Further, the decisions between keeping those great tiles that are producing you lots of resources, or instead putting wonders or districts over them are not pleasant ones to make. Do they add strategical complexity and/or diversity? Maybe. Are they fun? Not at all. And I'd say that's the case with the entire build-your-buildings-on-the-actual-hex-grid system.

Endless Legend (which currently holds the spot of my favorite TBS) does this district stuff much better, although that is due to the restriction of one city per (fairly large) area and because most tiles don't actually have any upgrades to be constructed on them.

Other than that, Civ's UI is still annoying, but that's a problem that can be fixed with relative ease in comparison to the problems mentioned above, which may just plague the entire installment forever.

18.12.16

Finally got around to trying some Obduction. It's about what I expected - Move around, click stuff, experience story, move around more and click more stuff to experience more story. There was also an abundance of dedication to the visual side of the game, with graphics settings ranging to, uh, very high values, and the space bar being bound to taking screenshots.

I'm not sure if it's a good game for people who actually like these kinds of games because I don't understand what they see in these. Definitely not my cup of tea though, and I don't know why I ever thought this was a good idea.

Other than that, a few more hours of Factorio, and then a few hours trying out the alpha of Breakaway.

Breakaway is Amazon's (yes, they have people making games now) new MOBA, which plays kind of like a mix of Paragon and basketball. Hit people, carry the ball to the opponents' base, buy some items, build buildings. Familiar concepts in a not-so-familiar combination. And while the idea's not bad, I would say the game is.
The game feels both too fast and too slow at the same time. Once you get moving, you're pretty fast, but anything that hits you stuns you for a brief moment. Stack those brief moments, and you're very quickly stun-locked.
So it feels kind of frustrating to be on the receiving side of damage, but it also feels rather frustrating to be the one attacking. Attacks are slow, and you're forced to stand still while attacking. Projectiles also have a pretty slow travel speed, so those players just zip past and you miss a lot, if not most, of your attacks and abilities.
Possibly something that gets better as players gain experience, but too many games were won by just some guy juking attacks and carrying the ball alone, possibly while the rest of the team kept the opposition mostly stun-locked. I also saw two cases of a bot being awarded MVP, and that probably says something bad about the game.

So I won't be trying it out during any of the next tests, should they occur, unless I hear it's gotten tremendously better. It's just an exercise in frustration right now, with an occasional laugh about how stupid some scenarios that happen are. Maybe the other two of Amazon's game projects will fare better.

Possibly starting an extended game of Civilization VI as the next game. While I've played it a little, I haven't really gotten a feel for the whole game, and I've never really played it up to the very end. I'll try to this time, no matter if I get bored mid-way.
But since the holidays are approaching, it might mess with the timings of that.

17.12.16

It's been forever since I got my friends to play anything with me, so after having mostly completed out exams for the time period until New Year's, we spent several hours on Factorio.

16.12.16

OneShot is a game that appeared on Steam some while ago. It wasn't released nor even in early access at that time, but it caught my eye for some reason and I put it on my wishlist regardless. Then I forgot about it. Fast forward until a week ago and Steam notifies me that a game on my wishlist released. And now, one week after the release, as per usual for when I pre-evaluate games, it looks decent enough that I'll want to play it. It's tagged as a casual adventure, but it's much more well received than the usual RPGMaker game, so I have hope it'll be good.

15.12.16

Nothing but exams and per-preparation for the next semester. Maybe games again tomorrow, but no promises.

14.12.16

Nope, nothing today, sorry.

13.12.16

Has it really been 2 weeks since I added the last game to my list? Well, in any case Shadow Tactics is some sort of real-time tactical stealth game, which is a combination that makes me skeptical, as neither RTSes nor stealth games appeal too much to me, but I'll probably at least give it a try someday, as it's very well received so far.

Also, I don't remember adding it to my log, but apparently I had Obduction on there. Exploration? Puzzle? Sci-fi? I'm skeptical already, but since I once thought I might want to play this, I'll honor my past judgement. Expect something tomorrow.

12.12.16

Oh how the days blur past in these rushed hours...
A couple more Shenzhen puzzles completed, but otherwise nothing noteworthy.

11.12.16

Too many hours of serious thinking in a row make my head hurt for obvious reasons, so I'll play some non-thinking-oriented games in parallel.

Gave Heart&Slash a brief 30 minute try, and it wasn't any good. It's a 3D hack-and-slash game, but both the audiovisuals and the gameplay were on the poor side. It's not flat out terrible in any way (running aside, I literally thought my game was glitched by how fast I was moving, and then they told me there was a sprint button...), but rather bad than good in all the ways.

So, no.

10.12.16

Well, tried participating in Ludum Dare for 6 hours, and reached a conclusion that given the amount of time I have this weekend, the speed at which I can make stuff, and the bare minimum I dare call a game, I wouldn't manage to make a game by tomorrow night.

I really need to familiarize myself with Unity (or some other game engine, but I feel like sticking with Unity for the time being) more. Not being in the middle of my exam period would also be nice.

So instead of practicing making games, I'll continue to waste my time on playing them. I really like Shenzhen I/O so far. It basically feels like TIS-100, in that, aside from hooking different parts up, all you do is write pseudo-assembly code. But it's a huge improvement, because it adds a bunch of nifty little additions you can hook up to one-another, which, together, give oh-so-many possibilities, from music players to touch screen games.

Actually, I'm not sure if I'd even bother writing my concluding thoughts when or if I finish this game. There's not much to talk about, as the game's very straightforward in what it is. You're given a manual. You're given a bunch of different parts. You're given a task. Read the documentation on how to handle the I/O on those parts, connect them, and write the code to complete the task, then move on to the next task.

The quality of the puzzles, as well as the rest of the game is great. If you like solving coding puzzles on a highly limited instruction-set, -amount, and memory, as well as spending a bunch of time thinking, not doing, then this game is great. I do, so I really like it, and I might eventually post any fun things I manage to make in the game's sandbox.

09.12.16

And once again I find myself conflicted between adding too many games for myself to try out or potentially missing something I'd like. And as usual lately, I've taken the second path. Hopefully one day I will actually complete my backlog and can try out new games as they come out, without worry of not being able to play them all...

In any case, Dungeon Souls released, which has been on my list for a while.

I also reinstalled Heroes of the Storm and Paragon, despite my better judgement. I'm telling myself I won't play them, but honestly, I don't know. Not yet, at least.

Instead, I went to play Shenzhen I/O. It's funny, really. Not the game, but that between playing games and programming for schoolwork, I also program games, and program in games. Will update on how Shenzhen is though.

08.12.16

Nope, nothing today.

07.12.16

I haven't forgotten to search Steam's new releases. But there really has been nothing noteworthy in the past while. I'm not really complaining, because my backlog will last me a metaphorical infinity, and it's nice to know it's not growing while I can't be there to trim it down.

And even though I should have perhaps done other things, I finished ICEY this evening. It was definitely something a little different. I definitely don't wish to reveal any further details about this aspect, but it reminded me very heavily of The Stanley Parable. It is most definitely not as intricate and well-made in that aspect though, but enjoyable in its own right.
But it is almost equal parts, if not more, an action game. You probably won't enjoy this if you're not going to at least moderately like both sides of the game, as you can't really ignore either. And the action part is actually rather well done. The combat feels fast, responsive, and rewarding. Perhaps overly spammy, and not all too difficult with the correct cheese tactics (which are boring and time consuming, but hey, you don't have to use them and just run on easy mode), but I really liked it.
The entire thing might take about 4-8 hours of your time, depending on how much you want to complete, and how good you are at progressing. The voice acting is also entirely in Chinese, which kinda bothered me, but you have subtitles in English, which luckily aren't badly translated at all.
Overall, it wasn't really super great in any of its parts, but neither were any pieces bad or missing. The variety was refreshing, and I guess I would recommend it, just don't expect too much from it.

06.12.16

About an hour of Prismata and Planetside 2. But I don't feel like I have enough time to properly start a game yet. Slow time of the semester...

05.12.16

A few games of Prismata today, but it's likely I won't have any time at all on most days in the next 2 weeks at least.

Whenever I do get time though, expect some of that mysterious ICEY game. (It doesn't even have a howlongtobeat page, but it's possibly around 6 hours, so perhaps enough to fit on Thursday / Friday.)

04.12.16

Since I'm already making these posts that do not pertain to any specific game I've been playing, here's another one. (tl;dr at the end)

So I figured I'd start with a new game today and pulled another VN out from the metaphorical RNG hat. Now, normally, this wouldn't be a problem and I'd just go and give it a try. But this time, I figured that maybe this is not the best way to go about things.

The problem starts with the fact that visual novels are, as the name says, novels, not games. Of course that point can be argued, less so in the case of kinetic visual novels (which, in my opinion, are usually the best ones), but making decisions and having differing actions happen based on those decisions makes them games, no? No. I think that anything considered a visual novel has too little "gameplay" (if it can even be called that) to consider it a game. Of course, there are always cases that blur the line between the two, and that line can be in different places for different people. I'd label things like Long Live the Queen and Danganronpa under games, even though they're conceptually the same as visual novels - mostly reading, but you can make decisions and have different actions happen based on those decisions. (They're good games by the way, would recommend. Especially the former.)

Now, having established my opinion on them not being games, the question arises whether they're suitable material for this blog. I don't really talk about books I read, nor anime I watch, so why should I discuss VNs? And honestly, I kinda think I shouldn't. The only argument I have is that "other sites focused on games categorize them as games, and discuss them as if they were". Well, that, and that perhaps clicking is a little bit more involved than staring at a screen for 20-25 minutes straight or at two pages for a total of 2-3 minutes before switching to the next episode/page. But I respect my own opinion and the reasoning behind said opinion, and therefore stand by it - no VN discussion on my blog meant for games.

And that would be great and all, but it still leaves one problem - content. I try to write every day, because ideally I should have some sort of material for mostly every day. I try to surround my life with entertainment, which is mostly in the form of video games, but since a good story scratches the entertainment itch just as well as a good game, I'd have far longer periods of time where I wouldn't be playing anything. So from that perspective, why not extend this to cover the other forms of entertainment I enjoy as well, even if just in passing? So, yeah, I'll... make minor adjustments based on this decision.

So, moving back a notch in the topics, the way I've selected visual novels to read so far has been the same as I've done for games. See if something looks interesting, then try it. This differs from how I select other stories, like books or anime, where I just pick something that's popular and well received instead of reading what it's about. (And sticking to the fantasy genre on books, because realistic things tend to be boring for my taste.) Now, I can't do this with games. Possibly because I'm too much of a snob in that area, which is most likely the result of playing too many of them. But visual novels have a very nice database of them, so I can just (mostly) start from the top, and perhaps I'll eventually develop a more refined taste on them.

Except that... it seems a prerequisite for being good is to be lengthy. From the 14 highest rated ones I checked, 11 are >50 hours, and 3 are 30-50. Now, let's put the former into perspective in terms of books. So, you know those thick 600-page giants? Well, those aren't even close. Stack 5 of those, and you'll be at the minimum length these VNs could be. So stack 2-3 more on top of that pile that's nigh too heavy to carry already, and that's an estimate on how long they are. But wait, there's more. Most of those are a part of some multi-episode series, each of which is as long. So, take that giant intimidating pile, and add 2-4 more piles of similar size next to it. Or on top of it. But you'd probably reach the ceiling before they'd fit. And that... is how much reading there is. Now, while I love lengthy stories if they don't get dull, I don't really have that kind of time. So I'm kind of conflicted if I should just start reading, and see where one of them takes me, or pick some of the shorter, <50h ones that don't have a mass of prequels and sequels.

tl;dr: VNs aren't games, so I'll refrain from now on from discussing them as much, but will in turn just as briefly mention any other forms of entertainment I've been enjoying. Also, the best VNs are way too long.

03.12.16

Played some more Battlerite, and my opinion on it hasn't changed. Other than that, a lot of the day went on Planetside 2.

Starting next week and until Christmas, I'll have two tests/exams per week, so I'll be shorter on time than usual. I'd want to partake in Ludum Dare next weekend, but I probably won't if I'm too exhausted from studying. But if I do, expect more info on that.

02.12.16

It was actually yesterday that the Battlerite free weekend begun, but I just got to try it today.

I was, again, expecting a bunch from this game, as it had been generally quite well received, and I really loved the idea of a MOBA without the lanes, and the creeps, and all that stuff. I had also just recently quit Brawlhalla, which had been my main source of PvP for the past months, so I really wanted to like Battlerite, and for it to be my new go-to PvP game.

Perhaps you can already tell from my tone of writing, but I did not. In no particular order, here are things that bugged me:

Really long downtime between such short matches. Characters aren't unique enough. Combat feels washed out, not impactful. Maps are boring. It really feels like there could be a little more to it then just fighting.

Maybe it's a little bit of nostalgia from the games I used to play, so I remember them as much better in comparison, but I don't currently see any reason to want to keep playing Battlerite. The victories didn't mean much to me, nor did losing or my teammate bashing me infuriate me in the slightest. I guess I just didn't care because I wasn't really trying, and that's generally unlike me in a PvP game - I'm very competitive.

So I'll try again at F2P launch, but until then, I guess I'll just spend more time on my backlog and other stuff.

But gosh, now I really want to reminisce about the PvP games I used to play.

Starting with Brawlhalla, which I quit just a week or two ago. Despite being upset for the majority of the time playing it, which is the main reason I quit, I just couldn't pull myself free at times, even though I acknowledged I was upset and not really enjoying the game.

Matchmaking was quick, the matches were really fast-paced, skill-based, I didn't have any teammates to blame for my losses, so I could constantly focus on improving. The entire feel was great as a beginner, and after 200 hours.

But yeah, I quit mainly for the reason mentioned above. (The other being that a fair bunch of the game was built on being able to execute mechanically complicated combos that didn't require any thinking once you learned one. Furthermore, those combos changed from patch to patch, requiring re-learning.) Overall, this really solidified my assumption that team-and-match-based PvP games were always going to be frustrating, which is why I'm hesitant to pick one up unless it really, really fits me.

Before that, I played a month or two of Paragon, but it was fairly traditional mechanics-wise as a MOBA, just dumbed down and worse in comparison to the giants I could always go back to.

Other than that, I've always played Planetside 2, but definitely less actively in the last year or so.

Planetside 2 is currently the only decently good (and properly released) PvP MMO I know. It's been very slowly declining for over a year now, possibly for almost 4 years, ever since its launch, but it still has a decent amount of players for all its purposes.

I have over 1000 hours in it, and it's losing the magic. Sure, it's fun to go in, shoot stuff, participate in battles near unparalleled in size in comparison to other games, but there's no overarching goal. Kill to kill. Fight to capture a continent, just so another one would open up and reset. The cycle continues, and ultimately no one achieves anything.

But then again, that's also the case in any round-based PvP games, where the aforementioned cycle is several tens of times shorter. I guess I'm really just looking forward to something with the depth of EVE, and the action of a MOBA. Darn fairytale, I know, but maybe Crowfall will be half-decent.

I'm not even that big of a fan of FPSes, but still, the fact that there's no rounds, no fixed teammates, and an open-world means I can experience all of the action with none of the frustration. Winning and losing don't exist in the traditional sense, and you're free to do whatever the hell you want, as long as you can.

Sometime during that, I played Heroes of the Storm, which I quit just a tad more than a year ago after about 400 hours and when the matchmaking wasn't really living up to my expectations anymore. (Apparently something to do with there not being enough players at the higher MMR levels.) Still possibly my favorite PvP game in terms of combat, and I often consider going back to it, but I don't genuinely believe I'd enjoy myself anymore.

A very rough estimate for League of Legends is that I stopped playing 2 years ago and have 500 +- 200 hours in it. I just straight out switched to Heroes of the Storm when I got closed beta access to it, and never looked back. The last hitting, long matches and a laning phase, as well as the quick kill times, didn't really suit me. HotS also has an amazing variety of characters to play, not to mention the maps, and the different objectives.

If anything, that's the PvP game I'd go back to, but still, I'm afraid it won't be worth it.

Blizzard makes games with really consistently good quality, at least lately. Now, if only they did something from a genre which I really enjoyed, like an MMO... Oh, wait, there's WoW, and I am guilty of blaming it for the delaying the search for what actually makes a good MMO, as well as ruining MMOs, for a good 10 years.

01.12.16

This ain't even funny. Where did yesterday go? I swear today is the 1st of December...