Assorted Goods

Anno 2205 – good, but not great

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So, Anno 2205 came out.

As these things go, it costs a shitload of shineyz at launch. So I waited for the reviews to come out. Consensus was “if you like the building and planning of past parts, but weren’t into fighting, diplomacy and trade so much, this is your game”. Naturally, I screamed “SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEYZ!” at the screen. I didn’t regret it, even if there are some things that mildly annoy me at times. Which is nice for “screaming bloody murder at my screen”, as my flatmate found out the hard way. Why, you might ask: because if you a) split combat from the rest of the game, map-wise, and b) make combat missions fully optional, then you really should not have your NPC reminding the player every x minutes about it. Especially not in the highly passive-agressive manner as some of the culprits. But let’s start from the beginning.

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Life is Strange

Life is Strange – a post-mortem

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It’s over.
I really do not want it to be over. And filling the hole this game left wont be easy.
But that’s how it is, and I cannot thank dontnod enough for creating this magnificient piece of work. The world would indeed be a poorer place without it, and I am not saying this lightly. It truly is one of the, if not simply the best ride I ever had in gaming.

There are spoilers below. I wont call names, but some things are by neccessity of the discussion quite obvious. Consider yourself warned and DO NOT READ ON IF YOU PLAN TO PLAY THE GAME!
Seriously, don’t. I got spoilered-by-accident yesterday by the title of a linked yt-video in fb. Even minor spoilers can drastically alter the perception of the game.
You have been warned.

Continue reading Life is Strange – a post-mortem →

Assorted Goods, Mobile Gaming

On Random Destructive Events. Also: Fallout Shelter

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PSA 1: I finally got a job.

PSA 2: I still didn’t manage to play Ep. 4 of Life is Strange. Next weekend. Hopefully.

PSA 3: The Great War mod-Let’s Fail didn’t happen, and wont. As a total conversion, it took over the “machine guns don’t work” bug which, well, bugged me towards the end of Empire. The Great War becomes semi-unplayable without working machine guns.

And now – drumroll – the promised content:
Random Destructive Events in simulation games suck, and I can prove it. At least I will rant about it.
I recently picked up Fallout Shelter, the mobile spinoff of the famous postapocalyptic RPG-series, in which you build your own vault, tend to the needs of your dwellers and fight off random dangers. Continue reading On Random Destructive Events. Also: Fallout Shelter →

General

PSA: Things Happening

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Alright.

First of all, if any one of you happens to have a job to offer within the space sector, tell me. I’m getting desperate here.

In blog news: I finally shall do the long announced Life is Strange-post. I’m writing this to build up some pressure to actually do it. You may pester me. It might even work.
In other gaming news: I finally came to terms with the fact that I wont ever finish Arkham Asylum. I rage-quitted after repeatedly failing to win the final fight, and to retry after quite some time would be pointless. Hello there, Arkham City. Depending on how much this will annoy me you might expect more or less content.

Also, I decided to (finally) try the Great War for Napoleon: Total War.  And I intend to Let’s Fail it.
It works, as in “I installed it and it starts”. I took a look around and I have no idea what’s going on. The game starts in early August 1914, with two turns per month. There’s an extensive techtree, a whole lot of buildings I’ve never heard of, and in general a whole load of new content. We’ll see how it works out. Also, I have a long standing problem with Empire (of which Napoleon is an expand-alone) regarding machine guns. If this carries over, this thing will trainwreck even harder than I could manage by inability alone.
I will do the Russias, I have no idea when I will start, nor how the update schedule will look like. Summer is coming.

At the movies

Ex Machina – Thoughts on AI

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For commentary on the movie itself, especially the story/ending, have a look at what Film Crit Hulk did. Spoilers run rampant over there. Here will be some, too. The focus will be another.

First of all: putting a newly emergent/created AI into a body, especially a bipedal body. Unneccessary and – assuming a malicious entity – stupid. Ex Machina did it for story reason (as did Chappie and many other works of fiction). A more realistic scenario would be an AI emerging from the internet (which would lead to another dimension of questions) or being created in a controlled environment. My following thoughts assume the latter.

Also, I personally don’t think that a sentient AI would actually wipe out humanity. Wiping out fully-conditionable, self-replicating, self-sufficient maintenance units would be a very special kind of stupid.

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Life is Strange

Life is Strange: Unreflected Fandom-ism

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Warning: contains spoilers.
Also: horrible food-analogies.
Also: absolutely unreflected just-finished fanboy praise.

Disclosure: I never before played a Telltale-esque episodical  like The Walking Dead or any other choose-what’s-happening-next make-your-own-adventure-game-thingy. I first-timed a sort of game that’s been out there for years.
Also, this post is, as I’ve already said, not very reflected. I’ve been hit over the head with a colourful brick of awesomeness – repeatedly – and I have to get this out of my system. This is praise, not a review or a LP.
Horrible food-analogies will begin after the break.
Continue reading Life is Strange: Unreflected Fandom-ism →

General

A General Update

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So, what is going on here? Right: nothing.

But what’s going on in general? Read and learn.
First of all, I’m still looking for a job. It still sucks. But there’s another interview coming up Thursday. Also, I finally started going to the gym. Let’s see how long this lasts. And I’m now a proud owner of a so-called “smart phone”. Why? To get rid of my netbook for yt and e-mail and a calendar while travelling. This thing has three more cores than my old netbook, and every one of them is faster than the one in there…

And now for the things you’re here there are several things I currently play or have played in the recent past.
Continue reading A General Update →

General, Valkyria Chronicles

PSA: Valkyria Chronicles

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It has recently come to my attention that SEGA moves quite aggressively against usage of its content on youtube. The last thing I currently want is trouble for using their material, which is why I decided to scrap the Let’s Play.

I haven’t got any material in the queue to overcome this sudden silence, but the blog will return eventually – there WILL be some kind of review for the Chronicles, for example.

Lessons learned for the VC-LP: it’s rather hard to make an interesting series based on such a game. Most of it was story retelling with the occasion fit of WHAT THE F*** ARE YOU DOING AND WHY? The battles are fun to play but a chore to retell, and I don’t think the retelling was all that interesting. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, but know I know.

As of now (chapter 8), I still recommend Valkyria Chronicles – grab a copy and see for yourself.