Tag: Games

With the Corona-19 virus curbing my outdoor activities I decided to have another go at playing Fallout: New Vegas on PC. For this play through I bought the game anew from GOG.com. GOG has done an excellent job of fixing most of the bugs, crashes and other problems that continue to plague the version of the game available from Steam. One intermittent problem that remains, however, is an an infinite loading screen. When this happens the actual game will not launch and game play cannot continue. Very annoying.

A simple work-around for this problem is to start a new game. Note that you’ll want to retain any saves you may have to this point. You’ll wake up Doc Mitchell’s house where you’ll once again be guided though creating your character. It doesn’t matter whether you create the same character or not. When Doc Mitchell is done with you and you’ve regained control of your character create a hard save at this point. Now, next time you encounter a loading screen that goes on forever, restart the game and load that save. Once in the game you can simply reload one of your old saves.

Good hunting!

Diablo 3 is likely game that needs no introduction to you gamers out there, but for those of you that may have been off world for the last six months, Diablo 3 is an action-oriented role-playing “hack and slash” game by Blizzard Entertainment, released in North America on May 15, 2012 and selling ~3.5 million units in its first 24 hours. After a playing ~100 hours of Diablo 3 with a Barbarian class character I think I’ve come to grips with how I feel about this game – and it ain’t good.

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.” — Rita Mae Brown

“Why can’t I complete this game?” I asked myself repeatedly as as my progress, along with my enjoyment, came to a sudden halt in Act III of the game’s infamous “Inferno” level. I clearly had all the game mechanics down pat by this stage of the game, deftly dealing pain and suffering to the “minions of hell” over the previous 12 levels. Different skills needed perhaps? Well, the game is unquestionably flawed in this respect, insisting that the further you progress in the game the narrower your skill selections must necessarily lean towards the defensive in order to survive, particularly if you’re playing as the Barbarian class. But okay Blizzard, I get it, this is war and sacrifices have to be made, right?

Ah then, perhaps my gear is inferior in some way? Yes, yes, clearly time to upgrade. Oh wait, damn, I’m out of gold. I must have spent it all repairing my equipment after all of those untimely deaths. Let’s see, what are my options? I could replay some of the earlier acts of the game for several hours and hope I have enough gold to start upgrading my gear, or I could do what any self-righteous gamer would do when confronted with a first-world problem as vexing as this: slink off to Blizzard to spend real money to buy more in-game gold.

There we are, all decked out in my new armor and weaponry. Success! Wait… no, still dying. “Of course! Better gems to buff my…”

Then it dawned on me. Blizzard has no intention of letting me finish this game. Rather, their goal for me is quite simple really – to spend money in their “Auction House.”

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” — Anonymous

The signs were all there. Equipment and gem crafting that requires you to “train” the relevant artisan by paying them not only an escalating (and princely) sum of gold for each level of better training, but also to furnishing the artisan with “Pages of Training” and “Tomes” (think recipes) in order to craft the higher level weapons, armor and gems. Alas though, these items seldom dropped as loot for me.

All of this effort might be made more tolerable if you actually knew what you were crafting in advance, but Blizzard hides weapon and armor attributes behind obscure terms like “+2 Random Magic Properties” so you don’t know what you’ll actually end up with until you’ve spent the money and resources to craft it. Imagine trying to purchase a pair of pants online when the only description of it is “Two Randomly Placed Buttons?”

Like to remove those gems that buff your armor or weapons and replace them with better ones? Sorry, just removing them will cost you 10k gold. Fancy expanding your stash storage with 14 extra slots? Sure, 100k gold please. Out doing some dungeon crawling and decide you’d like to change your current skill set to do something about the baddies that are clobbering you, well, okay, but suffer the loss of your “Nephalem Valor” buff; you know, that really cool one that gives you a boost to gold and magic find, and increases the number of drops from bosses. And your reward for getting your ass repeatedly kicked by bosses that are frankly way tougher that they should be? Drag that sorry ass back to town and spend in excess of 25k gold to repair your equipment.

“Experience is one thing you can’t get for nothing.” — Oscar Wilde

The bottom line is this: Blizzard designed the game in way that leaves the gamer little choice but to return again and again to them to purchase in-game gold so that you can waste countless hours (and even more money) in their Auction House trying to achieve a goal that will always be just out of reach – completion of the game in Inferno level.

“Why all the complaining iceflatline. You played for over 100 hours and had fun didn’t you?” The truth is I did. 95% of the game I spent in coop mode playing with my Son, and we had a blast.

I’m complaining because Blizzard has created what amounts to nothing more than a an online store with a game wrapped around it. And it saddens me a little and worries me a lot to think that this is where game development might be heading. Call me naive but I still think game design should focus on providing the best possible experience for the gamer. In this case that’s an even shot at completing the game at its highest difficulty level for the price for it.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think good game development and incremental revenue via micro-transactions are mutually exclusive goals. But when games are deliberately designed to remove choice and present insurmountable challenges for the sole purpose of generating more revenue, well then we gamers have been scammed. And the game industry, and more importantly, the gamer will suffer as a result.

Blizzard has every right to design their games in anyway they chose. And gamers have a every right not to buy it. I can confidently say that I will exercise that right the fullest extent possible when it comes to future Blizzard games.

bought the Steam version of Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and played as a female Nord warrior named Amenia. I spent over 275 hours in Skyrim and finished my experience at level 52. I used a series of custom made warhammers throughout the campaign, and my traveling NPC companion was Lydia, another Nord warrior. Here’s a few quick thoughts on the game.

Pros…

The Look – With Skyrim, Bethesda’s introduces us to its new “Creation” engine. I played the game on a Intel Core i7 2600K CPU and MSI Radeon 6950 GPU with all settings at max and it looked absolutely fantastic – far better than than the Fallout 3 series based on their previous Gamebryo engine.

The Expanse – Sweeping vistas, spacious skys…, whatever. This game is big, crazy big. Wandering through its vastness reminded me each time I departed Whiterun, my “base camp” for most of the campaign, just how open this game feels and how insignificant I was. It’s really the world of Skyrim itself that’s the star of the show.

The Quests – Skyrim offers hundreds of quests, generally sorted by where they are assigned or by which faction assigns them. The Daedric quests were among my favorites, and just evil enough to make me reach for my moral compass each time I did one.

The Combat – The first-person combat has significantly improved over the Oblivion and the Fallout 3 series. Mechanics of swinging melee weapons was noticeably better; movement much more fluid.

Cons…

The Draugr – Perhaps one knock on Skyrim is the limited variety of enemies in the various “dungeons.” Take the Draugr for example, undead Nordic warriors who were once residents of Skyrim. You couldn’t sling a dead…well, Draugr without another hitting one. They seemed to be present in every cave and cranny I entered. While the Draugr Lords were challenging, particularly in numbers, the rank and file ones were little more than hammer fodder.

The Dragons – Um, yeah, about those guys. Perhaps my years of playing D&D tainted my view of these mystical creatures, but at least there you knew you were going to have your hands full when you met one. In Skyrim? They go down like chumps. Very disappointing.

The Decision – Nord or Imperial? In truth, I’m not sure why Bethesda created this quest line. It had no bearing on the main quest and no matter which side you chose, was immaterial to the outcome of the game, or with your interaction with the locals. Again, disappointing.

Tips…

Ever use a bellow? – Sure you can buy your weapons, and maybe you’ll happen upon a nice one, but the best ones are those you create and enchant yourself. I recommend pumping skill points into Smithing and Enchanting early and often.

I recently bought Fallout: New Vegas for PC and played as a female character, who, as it turned out, was quite adept at melee combat. I played for ~130 hours, exploring over 60% of “New” Vegas, and finished at the level cap of 30. I used a rusted version of the venerable Super Sledge called “Oh Baby!” for for much of the campaign and, with few exceptions, my traveling NPC companions included Boone (a sniper with a chip on his shoulder) and Ed-E (a flying robot with a keen appreciation for LASER technology). Here are my quick thoughts on the game overall.

Pros…

After the bombs – I’m a sucker for any game, movie, etc. that takes place in a post-apocalyptic dystopian world. While there is plenty to do and see and plenty of characters to interact with, Fallout: New Vegas retains that feeling of loneliness you’d expect in a world gone radioactive.

Don’t get lost – Wide expanses? Um… yeah. One of my favorite aspects of the game is just how open it is. This game, even more so than it’s predecessor Fallout 3, has so many places to visit. It absolutely demands you explore it – all of it.

Now where was I? – If you pursued only the main quest line this would be a ~30 hour game and you’d miss 75% of it. That’s a bit like going to Disney World and only riding the Monorail. Boring. One of the more satisfying aspects of the game is the sheer number of side quests this game offers. You can’t sling a dead mutant Gecko without running into some faction that has a problem only you can solve.

Cons…

Have I met you before? – If you do a lot of exploring in this game you’ll soon find that places start to look mighty familiar. I guess with a game this size it should be expected that Obsidian would reused game assets occasionally. But many were used a lot – caverns, caves and vaults come to mind. Also, some of the outdoor areas looked so much like Fallout 3 you’d swear that any moment you would crest a hill and gaze upon the Pentagon.

God mode – Bethesda took a quite a bit of heat when Oblivion players found that the creature levels scaled with their character’s level. Gone was that feeling that you were the biggest bad ass in the land when you got to higher levels. In Fallout: New Vegas however, that is not the case. In fact, the balance seems to have tilted decidedly the other way. At around level 17, for example, there wasn’t anything, save for the Deathclaws, that I couldn’t absolutely destroy. It became very unchallenging.

But wait, there’s (not) more – One of the things I enjoyed most about Oblivion, Bethesda’s other open world RPG franchise, was the ability to continue to play even after the main quest line was concluded. I probably spent another 75 hours in the game exploring all of the nooks and crannies I missed. Be forewarned that is not the case in Fallout: New Vegas. Once you settle the ending one way or the other, the credits will role and you are booted unceremoniously back to the launcher. Fortunately, the game does provide a warning… sort of… towards the latter stages of the game. Problem is, that warning is anything but intuitive – it’s deceptively subtle, nothing truly indicating that *this* is the point of no return.

Stop bugging me – Seeing NPCs walking like zombies through bar counters or creatures floating in air is nothing new to those of us that have played Oblivion, Fallout 3 or any other game that uses Bethesda’s infamous Gamebryo engine. However Fallout: New Vegas brings buggyness to a whole new level, plaguing an otherwise stellar game. PC gamers especially are used to dealing with a certain amount of “issues” – a price we play for a superior gaming experience. But Fallout: New Vegas seemed to excel at frequent stuttering, slow downs, and freezing, and those were the not-so-bad glitches. There were quests in this game that I absolutely could not complete because the game would crash to the desktop at the same point every time. Several times I actually wondered if I should give up on it entirely.

Tips…

Bug killer – I found the Fallout Wiki and the Segment Next site helpful in fixing bugs. Shutting off my PC’s antivirus program seemed to help too. Save often.

I love you man – If you’re going to play as a melee character, and let’s face it, who doesn’t enjoy swinging a big-ass maul made out of rebar and cement, or a sword made from a guard rail, then I strongly endorse Boone and Ed-E as your traveling companions. Boone’s awesome sniper abilities will compliment you well, and Ed-E will hover near you until blaring his battle anthem and blasting any enemies with his LASER.

Magellen – If you only pursue the main story line you’re really doing yourself a bad. As soon as you leave Doc Mitchell’s house, solve Goodsprings’ problems then hit the road.