2015 has been an tumultuous year. I made the decision not to carry on with my Open Uni studies, I've moved to a new city and most of my gaming has been redirected at the PC, although my girlfriend and I have recently purchased a PS4.
The games that have really dominated my year have been Elite: Dangerous and Gauntlet. Not sure you can find too polar opposites in the realm of gaming, but they've both grabbed me in totally different ways.
Gauntlet has such satisfyingly simple arcade hack'n'slack mechanics and the diversity of the procedurally generated dungeons and challenges means it's almost like a daily crossword, just pop on spend 15 - 30 minutes beating it and then come off again. There's something meditative about it, almost.
Elite: Dangerous was released at the end of 2014 and over this year it's grown and grown! Update after update has come out and a few weeks back Horizons came out, which has been a major turning point for me. Even though I've loved popping on, particularly with friends, I've found it hard to stay gripped by Elite. Since Horizons has come out I've felt more and more compelled to play and thoroughly enjoy just running around on my own. I think just having another environment and a few more types of mission has made a significant difference.
In the world of smaller indi-game titles, I was looking forward to Skyshine's Bedlam, but I'm not sure it lived up to what I hoped; they are still changing and updating it though. And I've been a late comer to The Banner Saga. What a phenomenal game! It's been out for a while, but I really didn't expect it to be as gripping and exciting to play as it was.
I haven't played as many boardgames this year as normal. I made a custom deck for Talisman, which was a big hit, and reminded me that games don't have to be played exactly as they are, particularly games like Talisman where there are loads of expansions and stacks of cards. Also, I purchased XCOM: boardgame with birthday money and even though I haven't played it much, it's a really keeper and I've enjoyed every game of it! Over xmas I played a couple of games with my brothers, which highlighted that the game really is best with 4 players, but 3 is just about doable, but it loses a little something.
Probably the most exciting thing about this year though is that I've started brewing beer! My friend and I have recently started a second batch and I'm hoping 2016 will be all about the beer brewing!
So the things I'm looking forward to in 2016 are working on my own recipe for a Best Bitter, getting stuck into Helldivers, which I got for xmas and is insanely fun, maybe getting involved with a gaming group in Carlisle and/or finding some gaming buddies up here.
Oh, and I wrote more on my blog this year than any of the previous years! Hopefully next year I'll be even more active.
Thursday, 31 December 2015
Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Proper game reviews coming! Maybe...
This blog has always been more of a personal mind release, but I'm considering starting to write some proper reviews for games. I want to always try and keep them short-ish, but maybe I'll then start seeing if people like what I'm writing.
Recently I played through the Banner Saga and with Elite, Star Citizen and some other newish games I have in my pipe line, I might give it a go. So, if you do have a rare glance at this blog, please keep an eye on it as there maybe more meaningful content soon!
Recently I played through the Banner Saga and with Elite, Star Citizen and some other newish games I have in my pipe line, I might give it a go. So, if you do have a rare glance at this blog, please keep an eye on it as there maybe more meaningful content soon!
Star Citizen universe is in open alpha
It's nearly unplayable, but it's out, so you can experience it for yourself!
To be fair this is just a tiny slice of the persistent universe that Star Citizen will be releasing and is acting as a testing ground for them to optimise, add new content and get feedback. I've popped in twice now for very short periods as the framerate is horrendous and the gameplay is very buggy. But, it is working for some people and even from what I saw the feel of it and the mechanics that are in there are very cool. It has a hand crafted feel to it and the space stations are interesting to walk around.
I don't think it'll be too long before I should be able to jump in and have a proper explore, but for now I'm going to be patient and see where it goes.
To be fair this is just a tiny slice of the persistent universe that Star Citizen will be releasing and is acting as a testing ground for them to optimise, add new content and get feedback. I've popped in twice now for very short periods as the framerate is horrendous and the gameplay is very buggy. But, it is working for some people and even from what I saw the feel of it and the mechanics that are in there are very cool. It has a hand crafted feel to it and the space stations are interesting to walk around.
I don't think it'll be too long before I should be able to jump in and have a proper explore, but for now I'm going to be patient and see where it goes.
Planets!!!
Elite Dangerous: Horizons is out and it's blown my mind! Every time they update the game it just gets better, but this is the start of season 2 content, which includes landing on planets without atmospheres - atmospheric planets will be coming later.
The transition between space and landing onto the planet is near seamless. The interface showing the strength of the gravitational pull and the classic aeroplane heads-up-display pops in very naturally and shows you all the relevant information.
I've only done a couple of landings so far, as I haven't had much time to play it yet. The couple of landings I've done have been fairly rubbish, pretty much just going nose first into the planet, severally damaging my ship in the process. But I have survived and been able to have a run around in the SRV (it's a buggy...), which looks very much like the buggy from the beginning of Aliens.
In the write up and Q-and-As that have been happening over the last couple of days the devs have stated that this next season of updates will focus a lot more on gameplay and content, as opposed to this last year where each update was mostly bringing in more ships and more mechanics. So I'm really looking forward to this and I have little doubt that the "depth" that players are craving will continue to be alleviated, but at an accelerated rate.
No doubt I'll be writing more about Elite in the not too distant future. Oh, and even if players didn't buy the update for Horizons, the updates are making every aspect of the game better, so it's worth coming back if you haven't played for a while!
The transition between space and landing onto the planet is near seamless. The interface showing the strength of the gravitational pull and the classic aeroplane heads-up-display pops in very naturally and shows you all the relevant information.
I've only done a couple of landings so far, as I haven't had much time to play it yet. The couple of landings I've done have been fairly rubbish, pretty much just going nose first into the planet, severally damaging my ship in the process. But I have survived and been able to have a run around in the SRV (it's a buggy...), which looks very much like the buggy from the beginning of Aliens.
In the write up and Q-and-As that have been happening over the last couple of days the devs have stated that this next season of updates will focus a lot more on gameplay and content, as opposed to this last year where each update was mostly bringing in more ships and more mechanics. So I'm really looking forward to this and I have little doubt that the "depth" that players are craving will continue to be alleviated, but at an accelerated rate.
No doubt I'll be writing more about Elite in the not too distant future. Oh, and even if players didn't buy the update for Horizons, the updates are making every aspect of the game better, so it's worth coming back if you haven't played for a while!
Wednesday, 2 December 2015
Elite: Horizons beta is up!
And annoyingly, I don't have access to it! However, I do have access to the 1.5 beta, which is really whetting my appetite for Horizon's release, later this month.
I've been looking at videos from other players who are on the beta and landing on planets and the bases and new scavenging, trading and combat opportunities look like a lot of fun. The planets look gorgeous and the transition from super cruising through space, to coming down to the planet is impressive. I had been sceptical how they could realistically do it, but using the little shudder for a second or two between orbital cruise and planetary flight doesn't seem too intrusive on the "seamless" transition.
Another big aspect that many people have not talked much about, which I am looking forward to, is yet another expansion on the mission types. I noticed on the mission boards at stations that there are now bounty hunts which require you to intercept your target between a certain time. There are also missions where you need to look after cargo until further notice, which look very interesting and generally seem to have quite high rewards.
Basically, Frontier are filling out the game even more, as well as adding another dimension to the game. I haven't had much urge to play Star Citizen since purchasing it, but I think once I get access to their mini-universe I'll feel more tempted.
I've been looking at videos from other players who are on the beta and landing on planets and the bases and new scavenging, trading and combat opportunities look like a lot of fun. The planets look gorgeous and the transition from super cruising through space, to coming down to the planet is impressive. I had been sceptical how they could realistically do it, but using the little shudder for a second or two between orbital cruise and planetary flight doesn't seem too intrusive on the "seamless" transition.
Another big aspect that many people have not talked much about, which I am looking forward to, is yet another expansion on the mission types. I noticed on the mission boards at stations that there are now bounty hunts which require you to intercept your target between a certain time. There are also missions where you need to look after cargo until further notice, which look very interesting and generally seem to have quite high rewards.
Basically, Frontier are filling out the game even more, as well as adding another dimension to the game. I haven't had much urge to play Star Citizen since purchasing it, but I think once I get access to their mini-universe I'll feel more tempted.
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