Field Report #22 - Let's Play Something

Woah, hold up. I aint dead, I just dug myself into another project for a while, but now I am back here again to give you a little update on what's going on!

First things first, the reason I have been a bit silent on the blog front (although not for the first and probably not the last time) is simply because I finally got around to do Let's Plays like I wanted. Not just collaboration co-op Let's Plays, but my own ones. I don't need to say much about them I think - I'm having a lot of fun doing them obviously, the quality is so-so as I am using a table top microphone and suck at editing, but just as with my blogging I do it because it's fun and if someone else has some enjoyment out of it that's a nice bonus. Go check them out if you're interested!

So now that I've nerded down into Let's Playing and got that show on the road basically, I am back with motivation to blog. My problem at the moment is that the few moments of free time I have during the day go to gaming, and Let's Playing combines itself a bit better with that than the blogging does. Both the blogging and the reading have been a bit neglected since I became a parent, apparently gaming is the top of my prio list, just after my son obviously. I am not lacking ideas for posts fortunately, at least I have that. I think about things to write about every day and scribble little notes in my note book that I always have handy. It is simply a matter of finding some time, and when I have the time it also has to coincide with motivation. But enough about that! What games have I been checking out in this new year?

I finished off Fallout and started Fallout 2. I was a bit disappointed stumped with my experience of Fallout, it seems that what I remembered of the game from watching friends play as a kid was pretty much all there was to it. In case you haven't played it there is some spoilers inc here now. I pretty much just ran around on random and managed to solve the water chip quest and then also randomly ran into the Super Mutant Military Base well before I was ready for it. I had to reload my save many, many times to manage to escape out of that area, but that also meant that once I got the quest to go there I knew exactly where it was and finished that fairly easily. I probably lucked out, but still felt like the game was extremely short. I was still eager to try out Fallout 2 however.

I see this screen a lot... - fallout.wikia.com

Turns out I've played it before, albeit not far. I recognized the initial cave and probably played a bit outside of Arroyo. I didn't like the time limit given to you in Fallout, so I am glad you're a bit more free to explore in Fallout 2. So far I absolutely love it, it feels like Fallout 2 is everything I missed in Fallout. There is just more of everything that made Fallout fun, so many quests and places to discover. At first I was very careful and barely dared talking to anyone for fear of them either killing me or me just screwing up some option or quest. As I've played on however I've decided to just play a more of a "meh screw it" style, where I just move along and if shit happens, it happens. I can't be bothered to worry too much about missing out on some content, but feel like that's where a replay will come in handy later on instead. Shortly put - I've come to terms with not getting everything on my first playthrough, and this is yet another level for me in my gaming evolution. I feel like many modern games not only spoonfeed you how, when and where to do everything, you can often feel safe that the game won't screw you over. Fallout, and most other RPGs from this time are not as nice. If you accidentally kill the guy who was part of a quest that would've given you an awesome armor, you are shit out of luck and without that armor (unless you reload obviously). But I like that, it gives me more satisfaction when I actually succeed with getting or finding something.

I'm glad, because before I probably would've just been angry that I missed out on something. I remember how angry I got that I missed a secret summon in Final Fantasy X, when my then-bf found it. I got so angry in fact that I stopped playing the game, since everything would be harder for me because I didn't have that one summon. Ridiculous, I know. Fallout 2 has proven to be the perfect teacher of "let it go" for me, because there is just no way to perfect that game without cheating. I am not beyond cheating! That is exactly what I would do normally as soon as I feel like I've missed something remotely useful. Fallout 2 doesn't even make cheating easy, as the quests are so intricate and ellaborate that even when I tried to read up on one of them I found myself more confused than before. That is when I decided to stop worrying, just do shit and see what happened. And I love it. Thank you Fallout 2 for teaching me that I don't need to find everything to have a good gaming experience.

It's so cool, they even play it in WoW! - blizzplanet.com

I've also been trying out Hearthstone, so far only very shortly however. I can not believe the hype around it, I mean it seems to be huge around the internets. My twitter feed has been going hot with talk about it, and so before the open beta I was very eager to get to give a try, especially since I am quite a big fan of card games of any kind. So far I am not wowed though. I realize that the most fun is probably in the pvp, which I haven't tried yet - I even read a review of it that pretty much summed up my thought so far of it, saying that the initial impression isn't all that great but that it quickly grows on you and then firmly sinks its claws in you. I will probably get back to you with a more proper review on it, I have already written down a pages worth in my little note book with thoughts on Hearthstone so hopefully that is a blog post that'll get written. At the moment I definitely feel like I need to give it more playtime before I can give it a just judgement however, so I'll get back to you on that.

I've started playing Chtulhu Saves the World as well, it's a cute and simple little indie RPG. It's very generic, but I don't think it's trying to be anything else and it has a lot of humour and heart. It's perfect to kill those short moments of free time and has an interesting battle system actually. It's also something I might write a little review of some day. I probably should stop half-promising all these things!

That's pretty much what I've got rolling at the moment, not counting the games I currently Let's Play - Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (which is a ton of fun!), Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (classic point & click, I love it) and Bioshock (I'm really looking forward to trying Bioshock 2 as well).

Although this was just a boring update post, I am hoping to get some other posts up in a near future (there I go with half-promises again). Like I said I have a lot of ideas so it's just about writing them down really. Maybe even within a month this time!