Looking at the games with gold for May; My usual claim'em and not play'em is in full swing. More so than other months. I've a lot of games on the go at the mo so my tolerance for fun faff's on the side is very, very limited whether they're free or not... 'First world problems'. The bane of so many free games on so many platforms from so many providers/stores......
Dungeons III could be a good game for me. It's a game that brings nostalgia for the Dungeon Keeper games. But I've already claimed it on another platform and not played it there so 99.99% ditto on that for Xbox.
The Lego Batman game isn't going to be played as I'm not into the Lego games regardless of theme...
Tropico 4 is a franchise I like the look of; And gameplay seems to be up my alley but even through I've claimed other editions of the franchise I've not played them. So if I have Tropico 5 and not played it (yet) then Tropico 4 really isn't going to get a look in....
Comanche 2020; A modern take (https://comanchegame.com/) on the classic PC games, which in the past did more than the original two real world prototypes ever did outside of their testing..... Still a good looking sleek and futuristic design even today(imho), it's a pity they never made it into mass production(shakes virtual fist at real world U.S. military budget decisions). Thankfully they existed in the games and now as a newer more futuristic version.
Having access to the game(via Xbox Ultimate), even in it's Alpha form has been nostalgic and enjoyable.
I'd played the older Comanche games, especially Comanche Gold(Comanche 3 with enhancements) back in the day. I liked pure sims (like Longbow) but I enjoyed the arcade style games better. So the franchise clicked with me over other heli combat sims. So seeing a new 'modern' take is interesting to me!
Target Assist ≥ Luck?
Playing the new game and blogging about it I'm even getting nostalgic about Gunship from my C64 days. It's even got me nostalgic for the Blue Thunder movie, the Airwolf TV series and to a lesser extent the Blue Thunder TV series.... Nostalgia and 80's TV overload!
This new version of 'Comanche' seems to be doing well. In the short time I've been playing it's already lived up to the franchise and my nostalgia driven expectations(at least for me). The changes and additions are not anathema to my nostalgia at all.
I'm in this game for the single player only; I've not tried nor do I have any interest in the Multiplayer angle(not yet).
It's an alpha version of the game yet I'm confused as I've seen the game listed as a full price release version for sale on console(PS4) from last year....
I've seen gamers using different HOTAS setups for controlling the game but for me and my arcade style, I'm perfectly happy with an Xbox controller.
The Biggest addition is the UAV system. It works well and adds an interesting element to gameplay. It may be an overused element(so far imho) but it's not as much of a detractor to game flow as you might think. Combat to clear enemies -> UAV to hack information/objective -> More combat. That cycle repeated is ok for me for now. Talk to me when I'm 20 missions deep into the campaign. My only real gripe with the system is that you can't recover your launched UAV's; A small thing I hope they do change. That side of things is too arcadey for me. This is still a game in Alpha so lots can and will no doubt change. I believe the next update as of blogging will include a massive UI overhaul.
Free is free and if not for access to it with Xbox Ultimate I'd not have played the game(not seen or heard of it till last week); There's the multiplayer demo but again it's not a side of the game I find appealing, but may be worth a try for anyone looking to 'get a feel' for the game-play and how the handling is. Good to have seen the game in single player action, good to know more about it; I'll not have it on a buy list just yet. A game to keep an eye on for sure.
Octopath Traveler has been a game I've been interested in for some time. It's been on and off my PC game wish-list a few times over the years. I like a lot of the games elements; The look/style and animations as well as the turn based combat. What made me hesitate most with it on the game wish-list front was the scale of the game, 8 characters in branching/crossing paths of 60 to 100 hours of gameplay. While I avoided in depth details of the game, that's a big game; A complicated time commitment. Games and time commitments on that scale are ones I've veered away from in the last few years.
Having a chance to play it on PC via Xbox Ultimate was interesting. It confirmed all I liked about the game but there are things I now know for sure that I do not like.
The starter area's/quests at the beginning of each character/class are close clones from one to the other. It's not the only area of the game that has 'similar' activities. With a game this big the last thing I wanted to see was such obviously similar repeated content. Never mind 'Filler'. If your into it then great; If your into games that do a lot of filler then even better... But seeing that the game needed that amount of hours to complete never mind be a 'completionist' with. No wonder I was skeptical then and biased against it now. I know I'd have had a compulsion to do/see 'all the things'. 'Do' the 'filler' for the sake of it. After so many similar games over a lifetime of gaming(Bethesda!) I know my best bet is to avoid it. I know I'm also missing out.
Each character is fun to see in game. A lot 'feels' familiar about the classes/jobs, actions/spells which is good. A lot that can be min/maxed if your into it. Enhanced with the graphical style, artwork, voice acting etc. It all works well......But familiarity breeds contempt. I still favor a hunter over a warrior like in WoW and other RPG's(most of the time); And just like that I found I wanted to spend more time as a certain class and avoid others. A hard balance for a game to cater to as many players play-styles as possible. This game does it well for what I liked; But I guess that all leads down to putting a character party together which is chopped and changed to your style as the game progresses. Not a bad thing overall, for the most part....
The old adage of the proof of the pudding is in it's eating is all to true here. As much as there is for me to like about the game; As much as the game 'clicks' with me. I can't get over two of it's game mechanics.
- The amount of repetition in the game, from surprise ambush filler fights that can ruin my flow, to 'samey' quests/missions.
- Text bubbles...... I found that even with the 'quick' text bubbles enabled, fantastically voice acted in both (English and Japanese) as they are; Are so time consuming and bland that I kept clicking past all the text and in doing so all the story and context/motivations(all of which I found to be 'meh').
With those two facts, frustration at repetition and skipping all text/story.... What really is the point of playing for 60 to 100 hours! The combat is good but it's not that good!
I'm not a hardcore JRPG fan so I can't be 'forgiving' never mind shill for it. Each to their own(again). Saying all this, it's my personal considerations to my play-style; Small quibbles I can't get past because they seem to snowball as the game goes on..... The more I played the less the game has clicked with me.
So I stopped......And uninstalled it.... It's not the only game I can play. I'm happy to have checked it out as far as I did and see it in the flesh myself; But dámn I'd have been disappointed to have bought this game blind(I avoided YouTube playthroughs).
Since the patch deployment/server maintenance was longer than the usual daily downtime, logging in after was a perfect time to take the trip back. I logged back about 10 minutes after the servers came back up.
Same alt, same ship and with the timing a lot less players in the systems.
Anthem on the way in was clear, no players at all.
Djimame likewise had no players to be seen.
Angur had one player but nothing on Dscan(ship wise).
Access had two players but again nothing on Dscan.
Exit had no players in system
Gateway had no players in system
Central Point had no players in system
Dead End had no players in system
My post downtime timing seemed to prove perfect timing. I warped to the Monolith in the system but it looked the same....
Again, a few more screenshots taken before moving on... Dead End remained clear so I jumped on to Central Point
Central Point still had no players in system
Promised Land had no players in system
New Eden had no players in system either
The wormhole wasn't as impressive to see post patch. Maybe the first time seeing it was always going to be the best. There was that special first time seeing it spark missing for sure but the aura 'felt' fuller with softer light and motion before. Neither is 'bad', both are different.
Before...
After...
The old version 'looks' further away, the new version 'seems' closer and more powerful....
It did seem to do an emit, pulse and retract animation to it's aura which was interesting. I'd not noticed it before so no idea if it's a new 'thing'(I presume it is).
This time round there were no Drifter npc's, nor the wormhole they were 'working on'.
This time round there was more player space 'I was here' junk. Really annoying getting decloaked by trash.
I took a look at the other 'celestials' in system.
The wrecked Jove observatory....
And the stations.....
So after that minor sightseeing and a still clear system I bailed on out.
The trip out was even more uneventful than the trip in, so not really worth mentioning.
I've been truly slacking with the game. Barely even keeping up to date with the last event never mind doing much to preempt the new DLC and it's launch event.
The 'Iberia DLC' is a good one. Good for it's new features and overall game enhancements and additions. I've been enjoying it and it's event.
That event has two conditions, that the external contract you do is to and/or from a unique city/town(only counts once) of the new DLC; And that the journey is over 200km.
I took my time and completed it quick enough.
Not as quick as some and seeing a tweet about the DLC not being out 24 hours but having over 30 million kilometres driven by players says a lot....
I've only been to real life Spain briefly, but the game looks the part. It 'feels' like the country. No every grain of dirt is simulated and things that are simulated aren't to scale..... Shocking I know(boat load of sarcasm). I'm getting more defensive of the DLC the more I read; I need to stop reading the negative Steam comments/reviews. Yes the DLC uses some of the same delivery area layouts. As a gamer I can spot 'map' similarities easily but guess what a lot of loading docks in the real world are the same...
Some of the most extreme, complex delivery area's are located in this DLC. If your looking for a challenge this DLC has it.
As with all things, the DLC can't be all things to all people. Purists will complain about the minutia. Generalists will complain about general things in general ways that are particular to them as specific players.
I'm a casual player who mainly uses a keyboard and mouse; On the odd occasion I'm lucky to get time to break out the steering wheel and pretend I'm a 'serious generalist'. Ultimately I'm enjoying the game and this DLC for what it is. New content in a game I really, really like.
One thing I did notice that has been commented on is a frame skip/stutter issue. This only happened for me 2 or 3 times and only on roundabouts. An a.i. vehicle jumped a millisecond ahead of itself. I found it an odd graphical glitch but not a game breaking one for it's rarity(hours of gameplay in the DLC). There's so much good in this DLC that I've no regrets about getting it on day one.
The plethora of new sightseeing landmarks make 'just' driving around a viable reward. More so than I found previously.
The game overall has improved, sound and visuals; It's great to 'just' be in.
As always my draft folder has a massive amount of unfinished Eve Online posts. I keep putting off posts for one reason or another; Generally my Eve time is mundane same'ol same'ol content. Hard to jazz that up. Otherwise posts are me waffling on about CCP decisions and then I go all Mystery Code venom. Which in turn takes everything depressingly negative. CCP are if nothing else consistently inconsistent(the business decisions not the Devs/staff).
So in trying to keep things positive there's been enough in-game activities over the last two weeks that I can waffle on now in a semi-meaningful way.
Can ya tell I'm a bitter-vet tho.....
A real life friend I've mentioned before(most recently), currently living on the other side of this real world planet has rage-quit, again, due to excessive ship losses from ganking......Mainly ganking. That's on top of some excessive ship losses due to late night and recreational substance, sessions. I've no hassle with a real life friend who wants to have a bear, cigar(or other things) and play poker but to add in Eve Online on top and try to concentrate... Well it's all a bit too much... You should hear it on comms. I laugh at it all. Fun is fun but when I look at the corp losses it's all him.... Which is a long term corp tradition at this stage. I can't blame him. When he gets a family free night and wants to fill it with all good things.... Fair enough.
Anyway....
A PvE (as if I do anything else) based Alpha character(yep another one) I'd used to do low level Abyssal's had been ignored for a good few months(no not that one); Till last week when I got to see how the more recent(time is relative) changes have 'affected' him/the game in this activity.
His once decently good solo Caracal proved woefully ineffective. From the first room I could see that both his DPS and survivability were weaker. His cap was drained faster and the incoming DPS was more than before(Before being a good 6 months). By room two the writing was on the wall.
Getting into room 3, what else was there to do but to try. It was a count down to failure.
Not a massive loss. Usually I'd have had at the very least a bit of a higher heart rate. Not this time. It was all very 'meh'. I folded his operation and reallocated his remaining 'abyssal' running setup and logged off. No more of that activity on that character. On to the next.
My game-play has been really confirmed to me as 'doing more with less'. In an underdog kind of way. I'd rather fly a Praxis and mess about with missions than hop in a Tengu or better. I've noticed a lot more 'leetism' in the game community circles on what 'should' be used rather than what can be used, never mind any 'fun' factor for a players personal choices(all else being 'put down'). Then again maybe it's bleed-through form Echoes players.... Maybe?
Anyway....
With all the recent talk and speculation on industry and industry ships..... The Orca was one I took another look at. I've had two on my main for a long long time. Years. A good while ago I was with a group(with 2 mates is a group right!) and there was talk and planning on roaming in Orca's. I think it's a common enough idea(like delonewolf here). It's a great ship with a lot of versatility. A true platform to do a lot from. Massive hauler to setup a base of operations, then when done move on taking everything with you. The idea for us never took off though. As with a lot of things, at least for me(asset hoarder!) when plans fall through or just doesn't take off I'm left with a lot of items. So it's sat in my hanger for a long time. Usually in any activity I setup a characters 'base' to do it and then it stays. Taking a look at the Orca now is a blast from the past. As old as it's fit was I've enjoyed bringing it and it's 'roaming plan' inc ships/fits more up to date. I had all I needed to do that on my main.... While I'll not scrap or sell I said may as well update it if nothing else. Overall not much needed to be changed. Still could be better but then again what isn't. It's is what it is now. Which looks like this....
Orca and it's fit/hauled items(#LootPinata).
Those on board ships being:
Mining -
Frigs -
T3 Destroyer -
T3 Cruiser -
Ships, fits and gear to mix and match, it all covers a lot of potential activities(all PvE, all industry, all the time).... . An interesting ready to go 'roaming' setup. I doubt I'll use it but the re-work of the gear/fits was fun for me. My main is currently using 500 plex for a months game-time.... No point in doing anything long-term.... Maybe in the future (like so much else!).
There's also been talk of in game landmarks getting real in game locations and visible elements to go and see.
Of all the places and 'things' to see, for me two were on top of the list. Visit the monolith in space and visit the New Eden system. Due to those two 'goals'(?) being thought of early on in my Eve life(yea well over a decade) they always seemed linked with being far away, too far away. I'd never really looked them up to see what was needed or where they were relative to 'modern' Eve me; Till this week. The talk of new in space sightseeing has 'forced my hand'. Turns out they were not so far away and not so unobtainable. Both are in the same section of space. The Monoloth in the Dead End system and a few jumps away the New Eden System.
With my main training I decided to take my 'main alt' for the spin. Clone jumped to a clean clone and got a Buzzard setup for speed(alignment). Going from Caldari Space I took him and parked in a station in Imya(last hi-sec system). Seeing only 3 other players in system and all of them in the same station as me, I undocked and jumped to Antem. I don't frequent low sec at all. I tend to err on the side of caution; But I was here for a reason and no better time than the present so onward I went. Maybe it was the timing a few hours after downtime but I was surprised there was no gate camp and only a handful of players in system.
Antem to Djimame was clear, Djimame had no players. It did have an interesting rock formation.
Moving on to the next system, Angus, I jumped through and was 14 km away from a Tengu on the gate. That gave me pause.
Not that there was anything I could really do but I did wait till the gate cloak timer had about 10 seconds to go. Then clicked jump for the next gate and activated my own cloaking device. With 3 more players in local there was no way to really know in time what I 'might' be jumping towards. I'm no Dscan genius and I didn't want to mess about in the situation. I just jumped.
Not even an attempted target lock as I warped away.... AFK?!?.......Maybe... Maybe I just wasn't worth it..... Just another daytripper in a Cov-Ops eh.
Angus to Access was clear and I jumped through.
Access had no players in system so I jumped to Exit which also had no players.
Onward form Exit to Gateway and again no players in system.
Gateway to Central Point brought me to a system which was indeed populated. 10 other players plus me. But nothing/no one on the gate or close on Dscan. I did think about bouncing via celestial but with not much else in system my mood was both Fk'it ballsy and lazy. Jump to gate.
Nothing on gate so into Dead End which had zero other players.
The Black Monolith was indeed on it's own beacon marker and I warped to within 20 km. I knew there would be NPC's by it and there were. They were sitting on the beacon and the Monolith was 20km away from it. I would have thought the reverse would have been the case but either way I was glad I warped at distance.
Pause cloaked for sightseeing photo's etc....
What I didn't expect was how fast it moved about in space, not just an immobile brick. Spinning as it moved but also moving about in space by the beacon. Really surprised by that.
Screenshots done, time to move on. System was still clear so I jumped back to Central Point. Which had a reduced player count, just me and two others now. Maybe I should have been more paranoid. Regardless I jumped on to Promised Land. Which gave me an Edencom warning on the gate. They have no beef with me so I jumped.
Promised Land had no players even with 3 Athanors in system(not busy now). Onward to New Eden!
Entering the New Eden system there were no other players, but it was a sight to see in person.
I warped to New Eden(the planet) which was an unremarkable barren planet like all others in game.
The beacon by it was interesting with an artificial(maybe?) generated wormhole... With Drifters. I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of lore re that. I was tempted to try and jump in but I didn't tempt fate; I've been lucky up to this point.
Like Mount Everest the amount of day trippers leaving jettisoned can messages is a bit off-putting(junk in space..... X was here, Y was here); Not a good thing when your trying to stay cloaked. The nature of the well trodden path I suppose. As for just leaving junk about; Besides those players that were in systems I jumped through(and now you), no one else knew I was there; I'd always prefer it that way.
