Tuesday 31 May 2016

Democracy 3....

One little click and it's all downhill....


No matter, I ended up getting assassinated on the next "turn".

Terraria....


About two weeks ago Terraria got an update that changed a lot. The changes are not immediately noticeable but they are great quality of life changes for the worlds within the game. Creation will be going through the roof. Full patch notes from the forum. I'm sad to say that I've not been back in the game for any more that a few minutes to check things out as far as I could with the materials I had and that wasnt' a lot.
compared to a RL friend that "really" plays the game and put in a lot of hours my main world looks very poor in comparison.

There are some hardcore players out there:



Wow....

My wow account has lapsed and I've not had any motivation to renew it. In fairness I think the rest of the guild has done the same. There are only one or two people that were logging in mainly for the sake of logging in as they still had game time. I'll see how the next few month's go and look into getting back into wow for the expansion.
I got to sell off a lot of things from my characters and made some extra gold on the last day of play.
What I was most happy about was the movie transmog items. The staff for my warlock's current gear/transmog looks "fabulous" *cough*...ahem.

 

Warframe....

With Dust 514 gone and lots of talk about the next version of that game I found myself looking to play another free game that was "similar".
I've previously played Planetside 2, and while being the closest thing to Dust 514, I found it a huge pain to play. Mainly due to getting spammed every spawn. Or having the game crash on me.
Battlefield 4 is still my go to game for fun guns and mayhem.
I still found I wanted a more sci-fi game, my searching brought me across two reviews for Warframe.

I've tried it and I have to say for a free game it does it's thing well.
The players base ship is massive improvement over Dust's warbarge system.
Could there be improvements, bigtime yes, as the reviews say. But the sheer joy I get out of rushing enemies with a sword and then switching to an assault rifle and shooting enemies further away is fantastic. I wont' be putting any cash into this game, but as a drop in joy creator it's been working well for me.

  
Those reviews:



Unravel


I'm not a massive fan of any kind of platform game. Some of those games can be fun. It really depends on the level design and story. Complex and fun is good, but they are not all like that.
It's the frustration levels that really get me. I don't want to play a game that frustrates so much that I then throw the mouse, keyboard or controller at the screen.
Having said all that I am interested in the game Unravel. I saw a trailer for it during it's launch and despite the look and the main character I never delved any further. I've given it a second look and although I haven't been pushed to purchase it yet I think it will sit on the back burner and grow on me. Time will tell.



Wednesday 18 May 2016

Fun looking game....

A review from Good Game on youtube well worth mentioning is about a game called Life Goes On: Done to Death. It's a fun looking game, a cross between lemmings and Monty Phyton.


Good Game review:

Since seeing this game review and the gamplay I can't get the film clip and remix music out of my head:
film scene:
 remix:

More Darkest Dungeon....

Town events in the latest patch (still in Beta) due to be out is looking to add some good content.
Here's a good reaction to a town event from BaerTaffy:


Fallout 4 update....

I've completed my third character in Fallout 4. Finishing off my Institute ending. And also doing the Mechanist dlc. I found the Institute ending: What a let down that was. No new info on doing that ending. I saw the same thing I've seen from the perspective of the other factions.
At least with the railroad you get an epic battle and a huge explosion. And with the Brotherhood you get to take your huge robot for a walk, an epic battle and a huge explosion.
There is a lot of crossover with the story arc's and the endings follow the same formulae by the institute ending in my view is a let down... maybe it just lacks the huge explosion that the institute provides for all the other endings....
More like you were always seeking out a rather bad ending to a story that was all about the journey.

I played this last character in a very slim-line way. No interations with the minutemen after getting them to sanctuary. No seeking out companions besides Codsworth. No side questing or random wandering. In doing so I had as little contact as possible with the railroad. So I have no idea what he is talking about in the screenshot below.

Depth of my involvement..... I did two missions so I could get a tactical advantage from them (ballistic weave), not deep at all.
Repeatedly..... This is the first I'm hearing of it.
Guess by whom.... No idea.

Anyway. Glad that I've seen all the endings in the game at this stage and all are ready for the next dlc. I may only take my "main" through the next dlc but that will depend on the dlc and any faction specific interactions. I've been avoiding any in depth info on farharbour but I think it is it's own standalone story.







Sunday 15 May 2016

Another One down....

Progress is slow. I am taking my time with the game. Building up higher ranked well balanced teams of characters.
All the while progressing the lower end of the scale and loosing the more afflicted and stressed characters to no provisioned dark runs leaving only one survivor to carry out the loot... if they make it.

Progress is still being made....

I like the new battlefield....

 
Battlefield 1 looks to be a better more "grounded" version of the genre. I was never into the future tech and left cod for battlefield. No going back in brands only in game time.
There is so little based on the first world war that battlefield should use that setting to great effect. The trailer looks cool, almost star wars battlefield cool, I hope they keep the standard battlefield weapon progression and classic systems.... rather than the let down that was the Star Wars version. Time will tell.


There is a good write up on digital spy:
http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/battlefield/news/a793244/battlefield-1-is-battlefield-5-after-all-and-its-set-in-wwi/

New version of EveMon....

Doing a rebuild of windows gave me the chance to re-download programs and mods when I saw that there was a new version of a program I use with Eve Online. I thought it would always automatically update but the new version seems to be a complete rewrite of the program. Nice to see a newer version.

Eve Forum link:
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=473734

Download link:
https://bitbucket.org/EVEMonDevTeam/evemon/downloads

EveMon dev site:
https://evemondevteam.github.io/evemon/


Fallout 4 journey....

I'll keep this post as spoiler free as possible.
I'm coming into the endgame of my third character/runthrough of Fallout 4.

The first run (female character) was very detailed, completed every quest and explored every building (almost), nook and cranny. It's one that I've put the most time into and completed as much as possible, including building up as much in as many places as possible. This run combined two factions against the "last two".
The second run was pro one of the factions I had previously destroyed and as a male character with a story line background that could identify with that faction I played out that role well. Very playable. While still keeping a broad playstyle in the "first" faction.

This next paragraph may contain spoilers...



The third even as a pro institute character on this run it is very hard to actually be pro institute in all decisions. Either the game comments (through NPC's) that the institute is wrong or decisions push you away from the institute.
One conversation even after pushing the conversation in as pro institute a way as possible ended up with the npc commenting negatively for me and broke my immersion, leaving me scratching my head on how they could come to that decision.
The main story line is a case in point in the way it pushes you to get something analysed by a specific faction.
I was able to completely ignore the first faction you meet after the initial "greeting" missions.
Even with some offputting comments or points, I'm glad to see these different angles.



Time does fly in fallout and I had a laugh reading an article from gamesradar.com:
http://www.gamesradar.com/what-four-hours-in-fallout-4-really-looks-like/?utm_content=bufferaa3e6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=buffer_grfb


There are a lot of really dedicated modders out there. One set of mods that was of great interest to me was the modded versions of player character quarters. They are the first set of mods that I've considered downloading:









I am the 85%....

I'm glad there is a well articulated statement on the state and direction of Eve Online:

http://nevillesmit.com/blog/2016/5/1/occupy-new-eden
And I'm glad I'm not the only one to think so:
http://evedogsbreath.blogspot.ie/2016/05/i-am-85.html



Thursday 12 May 2016

A real game changer....

Usually when you subscribe to an online game (or get on a mailing list) you get a lot of mail from the parent company (Eve and Wow are exceptions). Most of them are instant deletes but I got am e-mail today that really surprised me. Star Trek Online is going to consoles. Plural. Xbox One and PS4. That really surprised me.

I'd say that there is a lot of work being done in the background. A lot to be introduced by Arcgames before the console launches. That makes me excited to see what they will change and what way things will pan out.
The details so far are here on the main announcement page. The before and after image slider is really night and day with the new system.
I'm glad that there will be an improvement for pc users along with the newer console versions. I really hope that there will be a cross platform player base. Interesting times ahead!



Sunday 8 May 2016

Star Wars Supremacy/Rebellion....

With the recent Star Wars steam sale for May the 4th. I saw a game I had been unable to play on modern operating systems. With a nice % off I decided to take the plunge and spend that €3 on Star Wars Rebellion.
A quick download later and I was back in the game. I was a little concerned at it being the US version instead of the UK version I had previously played. Same game, different title and glad to say my memory of there being a bigger difference in versions was unfounded. I even got to load up my 15 year old saved games across to this new version!

Lots of detail for the micromanagement minded. And the plus of being able to forge an empire as the "Dark Side".
Loading up the last save I saw that I had done what I usually do with games like this, circle the wagons and build up overwhelming force.
Yea I seem to have gone out of my way to setup specific garrison/planetary & fleet defences. With the "special" characters spread out to bolster forces between those planets/facilities and fleets.
And with what looked like a nice collection of captured rebel leaders on my deathstar. Nice.
Some games can't pull off micromanagement well, but this does. And at that price to get it working again is a treat.
With organising an empire and having a set layout and overwhelming force there are always troops/ships and characters left over. Those "leftovers" were formed together to be the aggressive force outside my "borders". It's so like what I had done years later in Rome Total war.
Taking my time no don't to harass the enemy and pick them apart. All the while not really minding loosing some of the troops and lesser characters. Replacing things as I could.
I'll be having a bit of fun with relearning the game and seeing what decisions I made between the saved games.
One thing I know for sure is that the last save game on max game speed leads to information overload. To me more accurate notification overload :)
So far the game is living up to the nostalgia.

Here is a good play through by a Youtuber: Pravus Gaming

Friday 6 May 2016

CCP, The Mystery Code Misers!


With today being the new "capsuleer day" and free items to all, as well as seeing the added items new to subscriptions; I'm progressively getting more peeved off with the Mystery Code and CCP's non committal attitude with it.

Free stuff to celebrate another year of Eve.
Free stuff because you paid for an amount of game time.
With those two things CCP is proving that they can give free stuff to people on a regular time frame.

I paid full price for the collectors edition not once but twice. One for both of my Eve Online accounts. That may make me a gullible dumbass but I paid full price for two products nonetheless. Detailed here, the Second Decade Collector’s Edition items are explained but it's the Mystery Code that is a key selling point.
It was highlighted as THE best item to have. It promises to deliver in the future of ALL CCP games not just Eve Online.
The following extract from the end paragraph, explaining why the mystery code boils my blood:

"This is just the beginning of what the Mystery Code will unlock.  In the future, whenever we have big things happening—not just across the EVE Universe but across all CCP games—you will find a Mystery Code element to enjoy.
There’s much more planned we can’t discuss right now, but you can rest assured that as we continue our journey into the Second Decade with you, the Mystery Code will be your perfect traveling companion."
 
Exciting and compelling words. The more I read them the more they really do boil my blood because the reality is such a let down.

After reading that paragraph you'd think there was a ton of gifts heading your way. CCP is always changing and adding so much to EVE, it's expected you would get items with the changes.

Look at all the changes that have happened in Eve over the last year indeed year's since the mystery code has been out.
Look at the last batch of ships introduced into the game. Mystery code holders didnt' see a SKIN or a free ship.  How hard would it really have been for CCP to give for free a ship skin for one of those ships.

People cry out that it would take resources away from the progress of the game, well to that I say CCP should not have promised a product that says they would do that.

Dust 514 may be over but in it's years it never received any mystery code items (the code in the box set was separate from the mystery code items).

Gunjack has no Mystery code items so far that I'm aware of.

Will project Nova have items?

I am really interested to see if Valkyrie will get it's "token" item(s). If it does get something it will not be what was promised those years ago.

 
What is worse is that only through players poking on the forums does some light be shown, like this reply:

"Not at all Smile

The member of staff who was working on keeping stuff flowing with the mystery code has departed from CCP as of a few months back, and it hadn't been picked up yet.

It has now, and we'll see what we can put out for you guys next year.
"


There was a "flowing"? with the mystery code... "flowing"!?
Never mind the fact that the person left the company and nobody has been given the job, what a joke CCP! There was only one thing that needed ongoing care with the box set and it that ball was dropped! Shoddy!

The Mystery Code was the only part of the collectors edition product that they needed ongoing maintenance. I think they would have factored in that when selling the product.
I don't know of any company that would let a a role never mind a PR heavy role slide and disappear.
To take the people that supported them, who purchased the collectors edition looking for a second decade of ongoing adventure and treat them a little bit better for their loyalty not to mention the money they paid for the collectors edition.
CCP failed to do so and should be held to account for it.

Mystery code holders, as players, as customers expected CCP to deliver. When voicing what is expected as customers we are being shunned and looked down on as if expecting to get a proper, well managed long term product is a bad thing!

Not to harp on the subject but there are still people wondering what is going on with it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/44339y/on_open_discussion_on_the_mystery_code/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/47jra6/remember_the_mystery_code/

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=6413678#post6413678

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=6462046#post6462046 

Towards the end of this news post for 12th of Feb 2016 there was mention of the mystery code:


And again from CCP Falcon here:



Special items for special occasions..... Wow really... citadels not special enough?
Before fanfest you say.... still waiting and fanfest is well over.

A dev blog in French says that mystery code holders will get items on a regular basis. (thanks google translate).
CCP Falcon says it's not scheduled or regular. He says so much he might as well say nothing at all.

I'm really really disappointed and frustrated by CCP's dealing's with the mystery code holders.

Once again I quote CCP from the Mystery code description:

"This is just the beginning of what the Mystery Code will unlock.  In the future, whenever we have big things happening—not just across the EVE Universe but across all CCP games—you will find a Mystery Code element to enjoy.
There’s much more planned we can’t discuss right now, but you can rest assured that as we continue our journey into the Second Decade with you, the Mystery Code will be your perfect traveling companion."

CCP, The Mystery Code Misers!

My gaming update....

I'm finding the latest version of Eve to be as melancholy for me as ever. For a game that is what you can make of it I'm being frustrated more and more by the other players. They are of course doing the same things, doing what they want to do. It just so happens to cross my path and in doing so diminish my gameplay's value. I dont' go out of my way to interact with players I go about doing my thing. Maybe it's just the season. There seems to be more emphasis to help the killers than the sheep.
Maybe the game is not for me, but I've invested in it for too long. I think I've said that before. I want my value back from it. So I bunker down and accept it while moving on in game.
The latest patch like fanfest doesn't really have anything other than minor quality of life ui/game client improvements for me. Good but not good enough.
I was mildly irked to see an advert on the launcher regarding subscription item rewards:


Where have been my rewards for subing for the last number of years.
The inclusion of items with the sub makes the collectors mystery code hate I have for CCP bubble up in me. And has in turn made me really question what I get from Eve as a game. Luckily both by accounts are due for subscriptions in the coming month's, I'm glad I consolidated one account and closed it down. I'm really thinking of walking away from the game with the other two accounts now.

I wish CCP would unstick their collective heads from their rear's and make a game from point A to point B be done with it and then improve on it. If they continue to try and make the game the players want they will never really be finished with anything.


CCP are in a bad place, at least I think so despite them saying at fanfest that they are in a good place. They are trying to improve the game and change it up while finding themselves now having to contend with a number of other space games encroaching on their holy turf.
If star Citizen delivers later this year then Eve will have very little to draw people away from it. I think that's why they are really pushing the new player experience, trying to get the people they do draw in to stay. Time will tell what SC v Eve will bring.
I won't waffle on more about Eve.
A lot of people are still talking about fanfest and the latest patch/expansion, all well worth a read:
http://nevillesmit.com/blog/2016/5/1/occupy-new-eden



http://sandciderandspaceships.blogspot.ie/2016/05/the-85-and-roadmap.html
http://sandciderandspaceships.blogspot.ie/2016/05/biggest-problem-with-citadels-is-you.html

Evehermit has had a series of good posts:
https://evehermit.wordpress.com/2016/05/01/the-black-art-of-networking/
https://evehermit.wordpress.com/2016/05/01/when-a-review-is-not-a-review/
https://evehermit.wordpress.com/2016/05/02/occupying-the-citadel-patch-notes/
https://evehermit.wordpress.com/2016/05/04/blinkered/

For all those people that will be using citadel's there is a non CCP guide that seems to be the definitive guide. Why a game company would remove it's own game wiki and link externally is crazy no mater how good you think your community is.
http://eve-guides.fr/index.php?article=132

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I'm still really, really really enjoying Darkest Dungeon.

I'm playing it additively and putting a huge amount of time into it.

A good playthrough has been done by BaerTaffy and he is doing a new playthrough that shows the real fun:




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Dreadnought from gearbox caught my attention via a youtube "what is" video from the Unit Lost channel. Gameplay starts about 9 minutes in....




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Star Citizen to me seems to be stuck in development hell with not a lot ot show on the ground. It needs to deliver big this year.


A very good RL friend has invested a lot in the game but teh last year has seen him go from SC fanboy with a horrendous amount of cash put into it to the exact opposite, disillusioned beyond belief. Lets see what the persistent universe and Squadron 42 can do later this year... if it arrives.



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Star Trek's summer expansion is looking to be a lot different. Thankfully the overuse of time travel seems to be opening up a themed summer season. Travel back in time and using only items/ships "of the era" set forth and adventure. Sounds like a gimmick but it will be interesting. I hope it includes a lot of missions in it's chain and that there is a free roam (even if it is smaller) area of space.





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Fallout 4 is still up on my play list. I've been messing about with the new additions on my "main" character but is now really on hold. My second "alt" character is the focus of most of my gameplay. I'll be siding him with the BOS. In doing so I've really been forcing myself to take their side with things.

Farharbour is due out soon as well. That should add a lot of extra content.



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I've been doing  a lot more PVP in wow, with 99% of the guild afk for the summer and not much else happening it's a better activity to be involved in. I might have to make up a pvp music playlist and get the music thumping for my pvp again.