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The Corner of Randomness: Free-to-Play Games are good at Times

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I couldn’t even make it through the first month of 2017 before dropping the ball. Yeah, I missed posting an article last week. Life happened and some things just had to be missed. I’d tell ya not to grow up because adulting sucks, but you can’t stop the march of time.

I find I’m already getting busy. Lots of plans are now being put into motion for my photography business. This means a lot of time going to meetings, web work, planning, more meetings, making copious amounts of coffee, more meetings, and even more coffee. Self-employment might be a dream for some, but damn is it a lot of work. How Keri can do this while juggling family responsibilities…mad props to her.

With life becoming a sequence of task lists, gaming has taken a big hit. At one time, I could throw a day away by gaming it all away without much care other than some project on the house wasn’t getting done. Now, I can’t really blow a day off as it will mean a setback in this or that part of the business. This does suck, but I’ve also found a great way to deal with the guilt that I carry when it comes to new games. I spend my time in free-to-play games.

I know. F2P games?!?! WTF? Are you drunk? No. I am not drunk, even though I really want to be right now. This change started happening when my wife lost her job. I really wanted to play World of Warcraft at that time as the new expansion was so fresh and new. Sadly, money wasn’t there to do that. Thus, I jumped back into Guild Wars 2 because I already owned it. Sure, it’s not that free-to-play as you have to buy the game. However, it doesn’t carry the monthly fee like WoW does. You know, I am still playing GW2 and enjoying it.

Next came Warframe. I’ve always been curious about this game. The Steam reviews would have you believe that the grind was just too much. Unless I was going to devote my life to the game, I’d have to invest money into buying this or that to make the game fun. I said screw the reviews and downloaded the game anyway. You know what? In my limited amount of gaming time, I find I am loving Warframe. Sure, I’m not the most badass player there is. Yet, I’ve invested no money into it. I know I’m stuck with some pleb shit. That is okay. When I sit down to game, this is fun and takes my mind off life for a bit, and that is just fine with me.

Most recently, some friends have started playing Trove on PS4. I was pretty reluctant to look into yet another game. However, combine Minecraft with some adventuring, add in some MMO flavors, and mix it all together with a lovely visual palette and I’ll bite. Trove is a decent distraction. The grind here is a bit more evident and in your face, but as with Warframe I have yet to drop money on it. I just take my basic bitch toon out and grind out various dungeons in hopes better gear drops. The RNG struggle is real!

I know free-to-play games have a massively bad reputation for being terrible money grabs. I knew that both Warframe and Trove would be a lot easier if I would just drop a few dollars into them. Yet, I don’t feel the need to do that yet. The amount of time I get to spend gaming now is limited, and these games have provided a good amount of entertainment, yet they haven’t costed me a dime yet. At this point, that is a good thing. Sometimes, a free distraction from the stresses of life are all you really need to get from one meeting to the next.

Gaming Diary – Gears of War 4 Rage

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Gears of War 4

It’s rather ridiculous, I know, but I finally finished Gears of War 4 on Friday. I thought I would be elated. I wasn’t. I was outraged. I felt lied to, absolutely lied to. The same level as Halo 5 lied to.

Halo 5‘s problem was that their trailers, and even 343’s Hunt for Truth podcast, had nothing to do with the game. All of those scenes we saw in commercials were not in the game. Hunt for Truth set up Halo 5 to be about Master Chief on the run with the USMC out to bring him in or kill him. That is somewhat mentioned in the game, but the USMC is adamant that it’s kept hush-hush. That’s kind of in direct contradiction to the commercials including a colony-wide announcement that he was killed in battle. None of that happened. Master Chief also didn’t travel to a colony world that was attacked by a rising Guardian. Halo 5 was not a bad game by any stretch of means, but the trailers and commercials were incredibly misleading.

Gears of War 4 left a similar bad taste in my mouth. The commercials and trailers for the game included a flashback scene of Marcus with Anya and little JD Fenix (see image above). None of that was in the game. I interviewed the lead writer for Gears of War 4, where I asked how Anya could have a son when Karen Traviss’ novels repeatedly said that Anya was infertile. The response was that players would “gradually learn” how JD fits in with her novels, but it’s not mentioned in the game at all. Gradually could mean in additional books, comics, or games, but the fact that it was flat out ignored in the game didn’t sit right with me.

Other things greatly bothered me as well, such as JD’s irritability with Baird as soon as he showed up. That was also never explained. Perhaps it will be in future games or books, but JD’s attitude toward Baird really stuck out as strange.

If I hadn’t read any of the books or if I hadn’t seen any of the trailers/commercials for the game, I would most likely have a completely different opinion. I can say the same thing about Halo 5. This is exactly why I’m avoiding all information regarding Mass Effect: Andromeda. I don’t want to have any expectations. I just want to enjoy the game. I may avoid all trailers for games in the future when I can. I don’t understand why developers and publishers are deliberately misleading their audience, but it needs to stop now. If you have to trick the audience into being interested in your game, then perhaps that says something about your game. Food for thought.

Gaming Diary: Kingdom Hearts 3DS Guide Still Relevant

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Kingdom Hearts 3DS

I’m supposed to be slowing down on reviews so I can actually play games I own (the crazy talk), but when Tales of Berseria AND Kingdom Hearts 2.8 HD: Final Chapter Prologue drop in your lap, you can’t say no. I mean, it’s me. Me and Kingdom Hearts. Like I’m going to say no to that. If I said no to that, that’s grounds for committing me, because obviously I’m not right or I’m a pod person.

Playing both games with close deadlines wasn’t entirely a problem since KH 2.8 didn’t have much in terms of new content. It has three experiences: a port of Dream Drop Distance, a new game 0.2 Birth by Sleep: A Fragmentary Passage, and animated film Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover. Fragmentary Passage only took about 3 hours to beat, and the movie was only 80 minutes long. The bulk of the disc lies in the 3DS port, and it’s a VERY faithful port.

So what does this mean? It means that Dan Birlew and Rick Barba’s strategy guide came off the shelf and sat by my side during the review. I never did review that guide because 1) I’m a horrible person and 2) I really disliked the game. However, the game is vastly improved on console, simply because I can see everything that is going on. KH3DS introduced Flowmotion for quickly getting around and fighting, and this gave me a headache on the tiny screen. I do have vertigo, something that Portal triggered at the end, and trying to line up jumps while sliding rather quickly was murder on my sensory perception. I also loathed the Drop system. It is back, as I said, this is a FAITHFUL port. But since the larger screen wasn’t wreaking havoc on my inner ear, the Drop system didn’t add to my frustration.

The combat system is still the worst of all the games. I played Fragmentary Passage first, which had a combo of the first game and Birth by Sleep‘s menu system, and that was a mistake. It was amazing and incredibly intuitive. To go from that back to KH3DS was rough.

Prima Games has no plans for a Kingdom Hearts 2.8 guide. There’s really not much to the game anyway, as the only new guide needed is for Fragmentary Passage. Even then, the only reason why I’d need it is for finding all the treasure chests and completing the objectives. I’m sure the publisher will have an online guide for that reason soon.

As for KH3DS, take heart in knowing that the strategy guide Birlew and Barba wrote in 2012 still serves its purpose with the PS4 port.

The Corner of Randomness: I Am Slightly Lost

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Well, AGDQ 2017 is now over. They managed to bring in $2.2 million dollars in donations. I was pretty well glued to my computer for the entirety of last Saturday. Then Sunday rolled around and I had no idea what to do. I was facing con drop, and I wasn’t even at AGDQ. Thankfully SGDQ will be here before I know it.

It has been a pretty eventful week, however. Nintendo gave us a look at their new console, Switch. It looks nifty, but they lack enough launch titles to make me want to snag it at release. Though the new Zelda game looks like a damned good time! Of course, with anything exciting and new, the Internet had to get all hateful and negative. So many people complaining about the Switch. It’s sad when gamers can’t stop and just have fun.

Speaking of fun, I finally gave Warframe a try. This is essentially Destiny, but with more robots, swords, and plenty of grinding. It is a free game, so it does come with all the joys of spending money to remove portions of the grind. I have yet to spend any cash on the game, but I’m close to it. In the 15 or so hours I have played it, I have had a really good time. I almost question why I waited so long to give it a try. Oh right, because Steam reviews made it sound like it was going to be terrible.

When not hacking things up with my virtual sword of flaming hate, I’m either getting destroyed by big robots in Titanfall 2 or I’m plugging away at one of my toons in Guild Wars 2. I would be remiss if I didn’t stress just how fun Titanfall 2 is. I know it’s been said before, but this game is extremely entertaining. I know the first game caught a lot of flak, but this second attempt has shown that the devs listened to criticisms and made a vastly improved experience. My biggest complaint now is that it takes so friggin long to get into an online game. Hopefully more people will snag this gem over the summer so it’s easier to jump into more online matches.

Well, I do believe one of my new weapons is finally done building in Warframe, so I’m off to pick that up and go waste some more bad guys. The work of Vlad the Heartless is never ending.

Gaming Diary: First Tales Experience

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Tales of Berseria

I’m reviewing Tales of Berseria for PlayStation Lifestyle, and it’s really my first Tales game. I had that brief stint with Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World, which was horrible all around. Horrible story. Horrible controls. Practically hated it from the get-go. Tales of Berseria, on the other hand, has been pretty great from the beginning. It has a deep plot, asks dark questions, and has satisfying action combat. I’m not a fan of the anime-style cut scenes, but that’s just my personal preference. I’ve never really liked playing games that look like anime, even though I enjoy anime. I know it doesn’t make sense, but it is what it is. Never claimed to make much sense half the time.

I am extremely disappointed that there will not be a strategy guide for this game. We’ve reviewed a good number of Tales guides in the past, and it’s disheartening that Tales of Berseria won’t receive the same love. It makes me question the state of printed strategy guides, to be honest. I feel like not as many are getting produced, which I know is a reflection upon the stores willing to carry the books. If they don’t feel like a book will sell, then the guide companies won’t print them. It’s that simple. It doesn’t mean I’m not sad about it, though.

I unfortunately haven’t been able to play much else these days. Well, that’s not totally true. Last week was Awesome Games Done Quick 2017, and as Chris said in his Corner, it pretty much soaked up all of my attention. Now that it’s over, I’m have withdrawals. I think this means I need to start following speed running in general. I had no idea there were so many tournaments out there for it. I’ll never be a speed runner myself, but I love watching everyone else find all of these tricks to get through a game. I’m not nearly as impressed with speed runs via glitches, however, such as the speed runs for Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind or Oblivion. Finding a glitch where you can drop below the world and zoom to the end is not that exciting. I think that’s why I enjoy the older game speed runs so much more, like the NES, SNES, Sega, and early PlayStation games.

Just a few more months until Summer Games Done Quick. Here’s hoping I’ll find some speed running in the meantime to keep me occupied.

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