Category: Video Game

Warframe

Published July 3, 2017 by Leprekawn

So there I was, enjoying some Anime on Netflix and the weirdness inherent in some sci-fi anime reminded me of a game I played once.

In Warframe you’re some kind of weaponized space-ninja/warrior from a bygone era awoken to the future. You use super powers and various guns and swords to vanquish hordes of not-quite humans who are doing nefarious things.

Still with me? Good.

What I like most is that nearly anything can be earned from running missions, regular events and crafting. With the exception of some cosmetic items, you can earn even some of the exclusive shiny-gold things one would normally expect to be exclusively cash-only. Though there isn’t a plethora of loot to acquire so we’re spared the idiocy of gloves and belts on our inventory list.

So what does that give us? Shooting, crafting, and some quests. I enjoy it for it’s particular spin on sci-fi though it’s not particularly deep with story and on occasion I’ve spent some time reading the wiki so I can glean some of secrets that are metered out in small quest-sized doses.

Appendix 1a: It’s free to play, if you enjoy Action Shooters like Borderlands or The Division then I couldn’t recommend this more.

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Community

Published February 22, 2016 by Leprekawn

I play a lot of MMO’s. If not in quantity, then variety. I’ve played Star Trek Online, World of Warcraft and a host of others not mentioned in this blog or in passing conversation.

I don’t mention them because they all do several things the same. Theme Park mmo’s are like that. Much the same with little changes here and there.

I made a run at various games a year or two ago. My objective was to find a group of people to play with, the bigger the better. I hung out with a guild of over two-thousand members at one point, learning that while this did provide some of what I wanted it didn’t meet other needs and so through this year I came to the objective to find two specific things. 1) a game that would let me play how I wanted to play (harder than you might think) and 2) A smaller but higher-quality group of people.

I’ve met both those goals with Elite: Dangerous and it still continues to be a solid game I can just log into and enjoy. I took a serious run at DCUO (which I’ll talk about later) and a couple of other games only to discover a firmly entrenched player base that felt it necessary to tell me how to play the game.

Coming down the road is a community supported, community built resurrection of City of Heroes under the name City of Titans. I was sad to see CoH go and the more I read into the saga the more confusing and weird it felt. City of Titans goes into Beta mid 2016 and releases this winter and I’m stoked. I’ll be covering it here in much detail and sure to link places you can see it streamed and recorded.

That the community has achieved much in rebuilding our beloved game after these last few years is quite remarkable. I can’t wait to see it released upon the world for all to enjoy!

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Elite Dangerous: Horizons – Dune Buggies in Space!

Published December 22, 2015 by Leprekawn

I wasn’t sold on Horizons when I first heard about it. I’m looking forward to fighting torrential storms and blinding blizzards when landing on planets. The airless moons they give you now just don’t compel me. I found more than a few people who found that hard to grasp.

That being said what was a pretty game got a lot prettier. Few things compare to staring across a rocky expanse at the star as it’s rising over the horizon, to throwing your buggy over a crater wall and bouncing along in low-gravity as you chase down sensor phantoms.

Just watch those landings.

Elite Dangerous: Horizons

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Armello

Published December 22, 2015 by Leprekawn

Sometimes tag lines are hard to write. What do I say about a thin in five words or less. or more.

The review sold me with “Studio Ghibli meets..” I bought it on that alone. What I got was a board game with a distinct art/story style I find familiar. You play as one of several animal heroes, the king Lion having been corrupted, and are tasked with taking the crown in one of several ways. It plays like so many board games while being excellently polished and animated.

For the quality, 20 bucks is a steal and you can get it on Steam.
Here’s the Link

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Windward – Ahoy There!

Published October 27, 2015 by Leprekawn

My latest favorite is Windward. For years I played Sid Meier’s Pirates! and would just sail around plundering Spanish galleons with little care for the plot. That alone amused me far longer than it should have with simple controls for firing your cannons and sailing against and with the wind.

Flash forward some years and we have Windward. Immediately I was caught by the Steam sale advert video. The game looked beautiful and it is. Gameplay is simple, you sail to and from towns while trading goods or running Quests and you’ll loot floating crates and barrels that have one of the commodities: Gold, Stone, Wood and Gunpowder Each commodity has it’s use though you’ll amass far more than you’ll likely ever use. Combat is almost automatic, as you sale upon an enemy ship your cannons will fire and you have a selection of manual use abilities that feature some targeting.

The world is generated when you start the game, though your progress is saved to a character name you create. I’ve sailed in single player games and Internet games with 30+ players all with the same progress as I learn the ropes. It features some easy internet sharing, so I can create a game and have my friends join me. I can even redraw the map, supposing I don’t like what it generated, I can mold the map borders to my liking.

I find a lot to like in the design, it’s very peaceful and easy to play for 5 minutes or 5 hours. This is easily my favorite game this year!

Windward

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Battlefield 4: Why am I dead again?

Published October 13, 2015 by Leprekawn

I was hanging with Katie of katieplays.com who sometimes streams her antics via Twitch and some of her friends when Battlefield 4 went on sale. 18 bucks for Premium and I had all the hot content and priority queueing. Between this and another blog I was (and still am) reading, September went rather quickly.

Battlefield and it’s kin, amuse me for the strategy and the action. Like a digital football. But I’m an MMO player, I like progression and advancement. BF4 provides an excellent instant-action venue for it’s gameplay. There’s always a server up you can join, “shoot some dudes” and have a pretty good time. And yes, there’s a level system, there’s a progression of unlocks as you move through the game. But aircraft are something of a joke and too often you get a map dominated by some excellently skilled players in helicopters. But for what it provides I would easily recommend BF4 for anyone looking for a modern combat experience. This isn’t a refined simulation, on the contrary it’s quite arcade-like.

That being said, I got about two weeks into BF4 when someone brought up Planetside 2. Planetside 2 brings just about everything BF4 brings but it’s persistent. You can spend hours fighting over a tower or a hillside as the sides fighting ebb and flow trying to seize territory. In BF, we’re talking about matches. Lose the round? Oh, well better luck next time. Planetside will have you taking and losing and retaking structures in the ever present war. If the fighting here is too intense or too quiet you can redeploy to another region for more war. Or if you’re feeling like flying around the map and look at the scenery, you can retreat away from the front lines to putter about.

Planetside 2 is made by Day Break Games (or at least supported by them). Also in their lineup is H1Z1 which is on my docket for October. I’m enjoying the roam and scavenge survivalism. It’s something I like about Fallout and i’m eagerly awaiting Fallout 4 in November. H1Z1 has it’s moments of brilliance. Radios you can loot, let you join a global voice chat. Make a compass to get general direction with crafting. Some usual crafty stuff. There’s a character wipe tomorrow morning so I’m likely to spend some hours Wednesday learning my way through the world.

I’m planning a play of H1Z1 for Halloween. A LAN party if I can get the volunteers, a streamed solo session if I can’t. I’ll link here when I have better information.

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Where did August go?

Published September 10, 2015 by Leprekawn

Mobile gaming. In my new paradigm for gaming, I’ve allowed mobile games to have some of my money. So I’ve been through Puzzles and Dragons, Fallout Shelter, a very sparing amount of Alphabear and most recently Dragonvale and Crusader’s Quest.

PAD is among my favorites for it’s puzzles. It gives you a collection system for gathering various monsters, doesn’t require any cash investment and the gameplay is among the best features. At once “Bejeweled” but with adventure elements and your turns aren’t timed so you’re working to make awesome combos. Limited Time events, a calendar rotation of special dungeons and a normal progression that will keep you challenged for months, PAD ranks as #1 on my “got time to kill on your commute” list.

Also, if you’re the research intensive gamer as I am, here are two sites that can help you get a grasp on what you’re looking at.

Puzzle and Dragons database

PADherder

In fact, here is my updated PADherder page, a wall of trophies if you will.

PAD on Google Play

PAD on iTunes

Crusader’s Quest is my newest addiction. Gameplay so reminiscent of old Super Nintendo style that I’ve found it wholly distracting. Coupled with minimalist gameplay, its easy to pick up for a single area and then put it down again while you stand in line or wait for the bus.

on Google

on iTunes

That’s it for today. I picked up Battlefield 4 recently, Premium Edition is on sale at roughly 20 bucks. Some of my other friends are playing, notably Katie of katieplays.com and we team up for hijinx and mayhem as occasion allows.

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ESO, done? Neverwinter, next!

Published July 29, 2015 by Leprekawn

I finished the main plot in Elder Scrolls Online. Not really dramatic or thriller stuff but certainly interesting from a game perspective.

Neverwinter is next and I have what sounds like a good week or two ahead of me just, to finish leveling and plot. On top of a list of other objectives for collecting hench-persons and bags there’s a plethora of user-created content that has my eye.

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Summer, the bane of performance computer gaming

Published July 27, 2015 by Leprekawn

The heat wave has passed and my computer is once again reasonable to use during the day. I’ve cycled into maintenance tasks in Minecraft. I’ve reached the crux of the mods I’m working with and i’m up to farming beans (magic beans) to hybridize and build out my supply of Thaumcraft Essentia.

I spent several days hanging out with Katie of katilimade.com where we talked about Pathfinder, WoW and EVE Online.

I suspect we’ll have more coverage ideas on this blog in the nearing future. I’m planning a brief jaunt into Neverwinter with dropping some money and playing some content. I haven’t topped level cap there yet. I topped ESO and completed the first-run plot, so I’m story-complete as far as I’m concerned. Though I’ve toyed with the notion of running the other faction stories just to see how they compare.

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Published June 8, 2015 by Leprekawn

I have the worst luck. Off traipsing across the countryside in Minecraft semi-aware of my own mortality looking for rare flowers and roots. I’d actually found several when I fell into a watery hole I couldn’t escape.

..I nearly threw my mouse across the room. That’s the hazard of a wireless mouse.

In other news, I’m trying to organize a guest blog about Witcher 3. We’ll see what happens.

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