Articles tagged with: Videogames

I'm going back to finish videogames I started in the past but, for whatever the reason, didn't finished and feel should have. Some of them are classics, others more recent. In any case, I wanted to write today about Outcast, a 1999 PC videogame that I both had on CD-ROM and then grabbed digital (also to experience the nicely welcome 1.1 patch for modern PCs).

Outcast was a technical marvel when came out. You surely needed a beefed up PC, but videogames were one of my main drives back then so that wasn't an issue. The combination of voxel-based terrain, polygons for entities and buildings, the smooth particles and the great effects (the water ripples and effects were amazing compared to the likes of Quake or Unreal) made for a really nice looking title. But what really stood out was the setting and the attention to detail.

Stargate is one of my favourite films, and Outcast is "similar, but not the same": Military people visiting an alien planet, "gates", a quest to find a way back home, oppressors and oppressed and you, the hero, in the middle... The cool thing about a videogame is that it can provide the (usually illusory) feeling of freedom; sure quests, lack of key items and other techniques will stop you from really doing whatever you like, but in this title you really can go to any of the 6 islands (regions) if you dare. You have probably hundreds of NPCs to talk about dozens of quests per region (plus a few cross-region ones), primary quests, secondary quests, optional quests (at first I wasn't sure, but at the end of the game you even get some % completion scores)...

But the way the world is built is simply awesome. Even today, when some parts of the game engine are clearly outdated and feel even buggy, watching the talan (alien race workers, the good guys) go work, get scared and run if you shoot, call you out and many other behaviours, make everything look really alive. Some NPCs stay put, others do rounds, and others have more complex paths, so you can for example ask for where to locate a certain talan, and they will reply you sentences like "I saw him by the water near the crops far to the northwest of here a while ago". Sure, the voice acting varies a lot, and sometimes is quite terrible, but still to see so much dialogue is great.

The controls are terrible, you can get stuck in the scenery at a few places (saving is your best ally) and sometimes it is not totally clear what you have to do (hint: when in doubt, search for items like "keys" in the floor of relevant areas), but still I had a blast playing and finishing the game. I even drew island maps to mark the daookas (gates) and where they went.

While Outcast it is not advertised as an RPG, it might not have player stats/levelling, but to me it felt way more akin to role-playing than many other titles that do so.

Posted on 2020-05-09

As I live in Spain, currently with the COVID-19 pandemic we're in strict house confinement and I don't have the gaming PC, so I'm taking advantage of it to change my usual habits of gaming to try indie titles, play older games and play more the Nintendo Switch (which I do have with me).

These past months I've mostly redeemed myself by finishing the original The Legend of Zelda, I must confess I had to check a walkthrough at some points because the hints are not so good, but I agree it is impressive considering that came out in 1986. I tried Zelda 2 but I can't bear it.

I also finished Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, which I remember as having a great atmosphere, and it truly delivers. I just got a bit tired of so much shooting, but the sneaking, the running and overall the plot is great, such a good adaptation from Lovecraft main Innsmouth lore.

I'm burning out from playing Diablo 3 on the Switch, as the following screenshot can assert:

I played one season character, I played the Darkening of Tristram event, and I'm soloing with my necromancer greater rifts near level 55, but it is increasingly hard to find better gear for her and I'm not willing to grind loot too much. I might switch to another character to try to obtain some of each class armour sets, but the only thing I want (all the pets/minions) is one of the harder and chance-based tasks, so not willing to complete the collection.

I also played Diablo 1 a bit more, as the Hellfire expansion was included in GOG's version and I could make it run under Linux, but playing in hard difficulty mode is slow even with my level 43 character, so I've stopped (you feel the lack of variety in the levels after some runs).

Finally, what I am currently playing now is quite a departure from the usual... the latest Animal Crossing game for the Nintendo Switch, New Horizons.

I played a lot 3DS' **New Leaf game, so I remember most of the basics, but you can feel the supreme expertise of Nintendo in polishing and always improving gameplay of it's AAA titles; everything feels smotth, simple to learn, varied, helpful, intuitive... The game looks like having content and things to do for potentially hundreds of hours, and even the multiplayer is fun (visiting other's islands and trading fruits and materials with them). At least to me, it is the perfect calm companion for this confinement.

Posted on 2020-03-22

I'm going to try to keep doing a status update post each X months, as might be of interest to read some personal opinions of some videogames I play (my main hobby nowadays).

Switch videogames finished

• Zelda Link's Awakening: I must confess I didn't played the GameBoy original, but this remake is a wonderful trip into imagination and cuteness. The game is not hard (although later dungeons and map portions are best played on one go to more easily memorize the layouts) but feels like real-life toys (in movement, of course), plus great music.
• Oninaki: An action RPG published by Square Enix, more akin to an action Diablo 3 (combat has more depth) than a classic Final Fantasy, the game starts telling us the story of a Watcher, a kind of knight who can see and interact with the souls of the dead and travel between the normal world and the world of the dead. You also collect and "train" daemons who not only provide powerful magic attacks but also set your attack style (from swords, axes, or lances, to crossbows or a huge scythe). The gameplay might not be too varied but the story is quite interesting and you're encouraged to train all your daemons in order to unlock their hidden memories (tales of how they became a daemon).
• Diablo 3: I keep playing this game from time to time. I already have 6 out of 7 characters at 70th level (only missing the Monk class) and my account has paragon level 403. I now play trying to get all the minions/pets (random loots) and doing the "secret" set dungeons, because seasons are too tiring for just a few aesthetics (or a set).

PC videogames finished

• Dawn of War III: I finally finished the campaign. I had uninstalled the game out of fury due to a friggin' bug on the final boss, so I reinstalled it, restarted the level (hoping that after a few months the bug would be patched) and indeed it worked, I saw the souless, dull ending and whenever I have some spare time I'll reinstall the game for skirmishes and/or multiplayer games (the real core of the game). Campaign was terrible, clearly a patch to sell an otherwise clearly multiplayer-oriented title.
• Dark Seed: Not an RPG or strategy game, but a really old AMIGA graphic adventure based on H. R. Giger's artwork and ideas. Quite hard without a walkthrough but I wanted to finish it no matter how as was a childhood memory.
• Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus: A great turn-based strategy game with unit progression, about an Adeptus Mechanicus ship entering a remote system and awakening Necrons. I loved both the setting and the gameplay, I just don't totally enjoy that once you finish the game, everything starts over from scratch (including your unlocks, upgrades, etcetera).
• Final Fantasy VII (currently playing): One of my long time desires, to play again my favourite FF game. Sadly I am older and less patient now, and both the endless random encounters and some really slow progression fragments make me wonder how did I managed to have so much free time when I was younger to spend so many hours in the fights. But I'm determined to finish it again. And then maybe give a try to FF X (2nd favourite) or FF VIII (3rd one).
• Final Fantasy XII (on hold): I tried to play it. I really tried and have my savegame with more than 20 hours poured in. I love the gambits system, the pseudo-realtime attacks and strategy component of being able to see your enemies while walking, the progression system is so great and gives you a great degree of freedom... but the story is so dull and sometimes plain boring, and the English voices are bordering the a "bad" rank, that I've decided to stop it for a while.

Painting and Miniatures

I've done small bits of painting some necrons, but nothing relevant to show.

I've mainly spent time deciding which miniatures to get rid of and which ones to keep permanently, and then selling them. I still keep quite a few ones and have enough to paint for years, but at least I did this pending task and now can focus on painting.

Posted on 2019-10-27

I haven't forgotten the blog, but some relevant things have happened in real life that make harder to write content for here:

• Our role-playing group is mostly dissolved. Part of if no longer lives in Spain, and of those who live, it became so hard to be able to meet that even playing some boardgames became almost impossible.
• I am spending some days most weeks out of home, so I have way less available time to paint miniatures.
• I am in general dedicating less time to play videogames, so I try to rotate between genres, but RPGs usually require lots of commitment.
• I am reading, quite a lot more in fact, but I had a long stack of pending articles to read before being able to spend more time with books, and again, I have to leverage between books that could be reviewed here and from other areas (mainly technical, but not limited only to those).

That said, I have played quite a lot of Diablo III on my Nintendo Switch (I've got 5 level 70 characters, around 400 paragon levels, and one of the characters is already doing the set armour special quests). I also finished Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (awesome game, I'll replay it sometime in the future), and I am onto some Final Fantasy: I am playing FF-X HD on PC (finished it on PS2 on its day, but as I loved it wanted to play it again), I have installed and started playing FF VII on my laptop (but oh boy, the random battles do get annoying at first), and I tried really hard to finish FF XII HD... but despite nice graphics and the awesome gambit AI system (basically you can spend more time fine-tuning the combat behaviour of the characters than actually battling) the story is so dull and the voice acting so rough that I gave up. I have the savegame for the future but it felt so boring I am not sure when I'll continue. Not having the gaming PC with me all the time also doesn't helps, although enables me to divide by platforms. I am for example finally going through my PS3 exclusives.

About miniature painting I would love to spend more time, but in the short term I only foresee moving more old miniatures to my mother's countryside house after taking some photos.

About reading, I have started another Horus Heresy book and the 2nd volume of The Dark Tower so is a matter of time only.

And in general, my life is quite busy right now so no boardgaming or role-playing, we'll see if later this year that changes.

Posted on 2019-07-09

Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War is not only a series of videogames but also a comic book that I recently read, but also a 4-issues comic that ties in between the second and third installment of the mentioned games.

New to the scene Sergeant Olivarr and returning from the previous Dawn of war games, sergeant Tarkus, a fan favourite. Tasked with locating their chapter master, Gabriel Angelos, after he goes missing from a battle against the xenos threat of the ork greenskins. But with the Eldar also on the scene its not going to be easy as they make their journey to him, paved in bolter shell and blood.

Set after the events of Dawn of War 2, we learn that Gabriel Angelos has dissapeared while fighting with orks, and two sargeants are searching for him, Tarkus and Olivarr (a new character created for the comics). While trying to find him, problems will arise not only with the greenskins but also with the Eldar, setting everything up (more or less) for the third videogame. Other characters from the game series appear, and and there are glimpses of some of the units that the latest DoW features, but not as much as the cover images would imply.

The drawing and coloring is great, in all issues except for the third one, which is more plain and simpler than the others. There is action but the plot is quite simple and without any impressive twists.

Not a bad comic but neither impressive, even if you fancy the videogames it really doesn't adds much.

Posted on 2018-07-16