Blogs / BobiRoka
Added by BobiRoka, 30-09-2010
Sorry it's been so long. It's pretty obvious why I haven't contributed
lately though. I didn't have a gaming capable PC for a while, which led to
such an apathy for all-things un-console, that I - without really
meaning to - started offending people left and right.
I've had time to reflect though and I think I'd like to rejoin discussion if you don't mind. I promise I'll play nice from now on. I accept PC gaming isn't dead - it's just plain different to what 'the man' would have me accept. Not all gaming has to be mainstream after all...
So what has everyone been playing? I can't be arsed to read through the backlog of threads. Myself? Well, it took me pretty much all summer to get through the May-time double impact of Alan Wake and Red Dead Redemption. I also played the free post-launch Alan Wake DLC, 'The Signal', which was really just a mash up of content from the main event. Fun though.
I eventually did cave in and buy a new GFX card in order to play Starcraft 2. VW and Mhore and all that lot had it - and I thought it might be a cool opportunity to get involved with some MP. VW gave me a trial key for it so I could see what it looked like, but having to turn detail settings down made me start to feel a bit sick so the credit card came out and a new ATI 5770 card (or something) was bought. It has 1gb video RAM and does DX11. That's all I know. Starcraft 2 looked much better post-installation.
Trouble is, I've discovered I have neither inclination nor time to play MP games. Plus, I really suck at RTS. I think it's just to do with the stress of it all. If I have a few hours at home to myself. The very last thing I want to do is anything at all that involves being instructed to do something. And to do it now. This is what I would feel Starcraft 2 would be like, ESPECIALLY in CO-OP. I've heard VW on comms talking with Mhore, and they always seem to be shouting at each other. And VW can't take his eyes away from the screen. And he's going to bed way past his usual 10pm bedtime. I'm sorry. That just sounds like a nightmare to me right now. When I get home, I wanna eat dinner, watch a TV show (one of the many I have queued up on my desktop) and then play a game on my own steam. Zero stress. Maximum immersion. I enjoyed the Starcraft 2 single player campaign, but the MP really isn't for me. Not now anyway, especially when there's tons else to play...
So I'm back on the Dragon Age now. Just finished my 2nd playthrough (this time on Xbox 360). I played the whole game on nightmare to compensate for the slightly fluffier difficulty level on the console. There's definitely a difference. Had no trouble with it at all, but did go through TONS more potions and had to save after pretty much every encounter or else a single wrong decision in combat could end up in party wipe. It is possible though and does provide a much needed ramp-up in challenge. Near the end however I had to drop it right down to casual because I plain ran out of potions and couldn't go anywhere to resupply. I went back up to normal as soon as I was able to resupply, and had no trouble with the final boss thereafter.
The main reason for playing Dragon Age again is because I intended to play the Awakening expansion pack released back in March. There was actually a Dragon Age DLC sale on Xbox Live a few weeks back, so I snapped it all up for half price. Playing Leliana's Song straight after finishing the main campaign at the weekend - not a bad standalone adventure. Probably lasted about 3 hours. Very slight, but what's there is of the same quality as the rest of the game.
Awakening is the real deal though. Imported my lvl 21 Mage/Arcane Warrior from the original campaign. It takes place in Arl Howe's former lands. Yes. You have lands and a title now: Warden Commander (assuming your main character survived the blight) and it riffs very well on the whole 'this is my land' - how dare these bandits operate here. There was a bit at one point where a smuggler asked me if I wanted in on their operation, so it was quite gratifying to tell him 'who do you think you're talking to!' etc. Bioware rule. So much. As well as the whole tone of the piece, there are some cool new skill trees relevant to all classes, some new specialisations as well as easily purchasable 'tomes' for any that you may have missed or were closed off to you in the main campaign.
And I'm still playing on 'normal' difficulty, cos the stakes seem that much higher at lvl 20+ and the puzzlier, conversational challenges are scratching that challenge itch just fine. It's also freat have 2 uber wizards in your party. Anders, a new companion character has all the ice spells, while my main toon covers the pyro :)
And I just jiggled my lovefilm acct to rent games as well as movies, so Heavy Rain just turned up. A Move controller purchase (they've patched support in) is now imminent...
That just about covers proper games speak for now, although there is one more thing I might as well let you guys know...
I went for news editor job at Gamespot a few weeks back, and actually went for an interview. I think it went pretty well, but I feel like I'm treading water a bit. I mean, I'm not a journalist by any stretch, but have been leveraging all the written work I've done around the web, including for this site, as well as NME etc. Who knows. I actually emailed the editor earlier this week to find out what was going on because they hadn't got back to me yet. Apparently they'll be in touch by phone shortly... so no idea what to make of that...
Anwyay... I'm back. Looking forward to any comments you may have on any of the above...
So what has everyone been playing? I can't be arsed to read through the backlog of threads. Myself? Well, it took me pretty much all summer to get through the May-time double impact of Alan Wake and Red Dead Redemption. I also played the free post-launch Alan Wake DLC, 'The Signal', which was really just a mash up of content from the main event. Fun though.
I eventually did cave in and buy a new GFX card in order to play Starcraft 2. VW and Mhore and all that lot had it - and I thought it might be a cool opportunity to get involved with some MP. VW gave me a trial key for it so I could see what it looked like, but having to turn detail settings down made me start to feel a bit sick so the credit card came out and a new ATI 5770 card (or something) was bought. It has 1gb video RAM and does DX11. That's all I know. Starcraft 2 looked much better post-installation.
Trouble is, I've discovered I have neither inclination nor time to play MP games. Plus, I really suck at RTS. I think it's just to do with the stress of it all. If I have a few hours at home to myself. The very last thing I want to do is anything at all that involves being instructed to do something. And to do it now. This is what I would feel Starcraft 2 would be like, ESPECIALLY in CO-OP. I've heard VW on comms talking with Mhore, and they always seem to be shouting at each other. And VW can't take his eyes away from the screen. And he's going to bed way past his usual 10pm bedtime. I'm sorry. That just sounds like a nightmare to me right now. When I get home, I wanna eat dinner, watch a TV show (one of the many I have queued up on my desktop) and then play a game on my own steam. Zero stress. Maximum immersion. I enjoyed the Starcraft 2 single player campaign, but the MP really isn't for me. Not now anyway, especially when there's tons else to play...
So I'm back on the Dragon Age now. Just finished my 2nd playthrough (this time on Xbox 360). I played the whole game on nightmare to compensate for the slightly fluffier difficulty level on the console. There's definitely a difference. Had no trouble with it at all, but did go through TONS more potions and had to save after pretty much every encounter or else a single wrong decision in combat could end up in party wipe. It is possible though and does provide a much needed ramp-up in challenge. Near the end however I had to drop it right down to casual because I plain ran out of potions and couldn't go anywhere to resupply. I went back up to normal as soon as I was able to resupply, and had no trouble with the final boss thereafter.
The main reason for playing Dragon Age again is because I intended to play the Awakening expansion pack released back in March. There was actually a Dragon Age DLC sale on Xbox Live a few weeks back, so I snapped it all up for half price. Playing Leliana's Song straight after finishing the main campaign at the weekend - not a bad standalone adventure. Probably lasted about 3 hours. Very slight, but what's there is of the same quality as the rest of the game.
Awakening is the real deal though. Imported my lvl 21 Mage/Arcane Warrior from the original campaign. It takes place in Arl Howe's former lands. Yes. You have lands and a title now: Warden Commander (assuming your main character survived the blight) and it riffs very well on the whole 'this is my land' - how dare these bandits operate here. There was a bit at one point where a smuggler asked me if I wanted in on their operation, so it was quite gratifying to tell him 'who do you think you're talking to!' etc. Bioware rule. So much. As well as the whole tone of the piece, there are some cool new skill trees relevant to all classes, some new specialisations as well as easily purchasable 'tomes' for any that you may have missed or were closed off to you in the main campaign.
And I'm still playing on 'normal' difficulty, cos the stakes seem that much higher at lvl 20+ and the puzzlier, conversational challenges are scratching that challenge itch just fine. It's also freat have 2 uber wizards in your party. Anders, a new companion character has all the ice spells, while my main toon covers the pyro :)
And I just jiggled my lovefilm acct to rent games as well as movies, so Heavy Rain just turned up. A Move controller purchase (they've patched support in) is now imminent...
That just about covers proper games speak for now, although there is one more thing I might as well let you guys know...
I went for news editor job at Gamespot a few weeks back, and actually went for an interview. I think it went pretty well, but I feel like I'm treading water a bit. I mean, I'm not a journalist by any stretch, but have been leveraging all the written work I've done around the web, including for this site, as well as NME etc. Who knows. I actually emailed the editor earlier this week to find out what was going on because they hadn't got back to me yet. Apparently they'll be in touch by phone shortly... so no idea what to make of that...
Anwyay... I'm back. Looking forward to any comments you may have on any of the above...
This story has been added to the following section(s): Action, Blog, Consoles, PC, Playstation 3, Role Playing Game, Shooter, Third Person Shooter, Xbox 360
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Welcome back Bobi
I took my leave of Dragon Age in the Deep Roads after sinking c.40 hours into it. Amazing how 90ish mins a night stacks up. Circumstances were conducive to it at the time but alas are no longer. I would like to finish it though.
I’m back to my once a week gaming sessions and am finding story heavy single player games a struggle for the usual well documented reasons. I’ve been mainly playing BF2142 since the summer, with an odd dash of L4D thrown in. I did go back to the Witcher for a while, completed ACT II and finally got to the Trade quarter, where I decided to leave it for a while. Do love that game and will head back in at some point.
Just recently I’ve been away from gaming for a few weeks; combination of family and work pressures leaving me little opportunity for anything else. Had an impromptu dip into BF2142 last week with Ebow which was great fun. Much intoxicants and swearing enhance a battle no end, however we were handling ourselves quite well and finished as top squad at least once. Satisfaction abounded
Tonight I’m back gaming for a full evening (Minirahs dependant) but have decided against more MP as what I really need now is solitude, calm and quiet; three things I haven’t had in weeks. I am going to play X3: Reunion, climb the mountainous learning curve and settle into some inter-stellar sandbox trading. If I have the kind of adrenaline injection BF is likely to mainline into me I fear I may tear someone into pieces tomorrow.
I completely bypassed Starcraft. I love strategy games but playing them MP is simply pointless for me. To be good at RTS online you need to know all the units of all the factions, otherwise you just die.
I saw this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbpCLqryN-Q
and thought “f**k that!”
At least with an team FPS you can enjoy yourself immediately by watching your team mates back, even if you don’t know the map.
I took my leave of Dragon Age in the Deep Roads after sinking c.40 hours into it. Amazing how 90ish mins a night stacks up. Circumstances were conducive to it at the time but alas are no longer. I would like to finish it though.
I’m back to my once a week gaming sessions and am finding story heavy single player games a struggle for the usual well documented reasons. I’ve been mainly playing BF2142 since the summer, with an odd dash of L4D thrown in. I did go back to the Witcher for a while, completed ACT II and finally got to the Trade quarter, where I decided to leave it for a while. Do love that game and will head back in at some point.
Just recently I’ve been away from gaming for a few weeks; combination of family and work pressures leaving me little opportunity for anything else. Had an impromptu dip into BF2142 last week with Ebow which was great fun. Much intoxicants and swearing enhance a battle no end, however we were handling ourselves quite well and finished as top squad at least once. Satisfaction abounded
Tonight I’m back gaming for a full evening (Minirahs dependant) but have decided against more MP as what I really need now is solitude, calm and quiet; three things I haven’t had in weeks. I am going to play X3: Reunion, climb the mountainous learning curve and settle into some inter-stellar sandbox trading. If I have the kind of adrenaline injection BF is likely to mainline into me I fear I may tear someone into pieces tomorrow.
I completely bypassed Starcraft. I love strategy games but playing them MP is simply pointless for me. To be good at RTS online you need to know all the units of all the factions, otherwise you just die.
I saw this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbpCLqryN-Q
and thought “f**k that!”
At least with an team FPS you can enjoy yourself immediately by watching your team mates back, even if you don’t know the map.
Yeah the Deep Roads is a grind for sure. For some reason it's the biggest part of the game. Or at least it feels like it. Once you get over that hump there's not a lot more to it... 2nd playthrough was about 65 hours, mostly on acct of my not reading every single codex entry...
LOL re: Korean Micro. It's an insane kind of game to try and play competitively. Mhore and VW are just complete and utter blizwhores though. And they're both extremely competitive power gamers. VW keeps asking when 'I'm going to man up and join in', but those guys are on it like every night. I just don't have the time to commit to playing at their level and I just know if I don't pull my weight they'll be on my case. There are challenge maps you can play SP to practise learning what units to use against others etc, but there's like, 25 units on each faction. There seems to be a very prescribed way in which you play as well: this unit counters this unit etc...
If I was back at Uni, or working locally and/or had more time in the evenings then I might consider it. Otherwise it just feels like a job. I'll have a nice relaxing immersive SP experience over that any day.
LOL re: Korean Micro. It's an insane kind of game to try and play competitively. Mhore and VW are just complete and utter blizwhores though. And they're both extremely competitive power gamers. VW keeps asking when 'I'm going to man up and join in', but those guys are on it like every night. I just don't have the time to commit to playing at their level and I just know if I don't pull my weight they'll be on my case. There are challenge maps you can play SP to practise learning what units to use against others etc, but there's like, 25 units on each faction. There seems to be a very prescribed way in which you play as well: this unit counters this unit etc...
If I was back at Uni, or working locally and/or had more time in the evenings then I might consider it. Otherwise it just feels like a job. I'll have a nice relaxing immersive SP experience over that any day.
Well that's it. I love squadding up with Ebow and zOm, but sometime you just need to do things at your own pace and not worry about the effect you're having on others.
I've been back on WOW making good use of the dungeon finder tool. In fact if it had that from the start I would probably have never quit, well not so early anyway. It's so nice to turn the game on for an hour and be able to do an instance.
Will probably get Civ5 in the next couple of weeks after the realease day bugs have been patched.
I've got X3 Reunion on the go when i have the time to spare. Seem to remember I'm now messing about with boarding actions.
One of my mates at work is all over Red Dead at the moment but may borrow it off him when he's had enough.
I've been thinking of having a look at StarCraft but I found the last realease of C&C very unsatisfying.
That's about it.
Will probably get Civ5 in the next couple of weeks after the realease day bugs have been patched.
I've got X3 Reunion on the go when i have the time to spare. Seem to remember I'm now messing about with boarding actions.
One of my mates at work is all over Red Dead at the moment but may borrow it off him when he's had enough.
I've been thinking of having a look at StarCraft but I found the last realease of C&C very unsatisfying.
That's about it.
Yeah not surprised u might be looking at civ 5 5thumbs. I've not hear a single bad thing said about it. Not sure if u know, but I was seduced by the console version, civrev, a while back and I absolutely loved it. Civ5 is defo on my list for sure. Be interested in any thought you might like to share here...
I suggest you wait until the first couple of patches are done before making this purchase. From experience the first patch fixes functionality issues while the second fixes game balance problems.
Quite a lot of commentary on the forum about how it is too easy but that will be from real hardcore deity difficulty players from Civ4. I never really got past king/emperor myself.
Civ forums - http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=375
Just click the through the advertising.
Quite a lot of commentary on the forum about how it is too easy but that will be from real hardcore deity difficulty players from Civ4. I never really got past king/emperor myself.
Civ forums - http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=375
Just click the through the advertising.
