Nov 17: Game-in

Well, I am disappoint.

I am partial to a good game. Oh yeah. When it comes down to preference, I’ll usually opt for a strategic/tactical type game. For a fantastic few years 4 dudes got together on Tuesday nights and played board games. Risk 2210 was a fave, Doom (the boardgame) also featured, but we progressed via Seano toward trading games. Settlers of Catan is an absolute classic, as is Puerto Rico. We tried out cooperative games like Shadows Over Camelot aaaaaannnnd I appear to be wallowing in good times – apologies for that!

My point is that I adore playing games. If there are no other games, they can be made up (IBM Conker Bin Challange for one – I believe Rowly remains Champ, and I still hold the Extreme and Distance Bin titles), but mostly I get my gaming rocks of virtually so to speak. Xbox 360 specifically. My preference is to tactical and strategic cooperative games. In essence, games where folk have to work together to achieve goals – the tougher the better!

Recently, Mass Effect 3 was the game of choice. It was a total surprise as the Multi-player Cooperative engine was basically tagged on the end of the game as what appeared to be a nominal after thought… Damn, what an after thought it became! Effectively, the dev team formulated the finer details by listening carefully to the forums and feedback from the users, and implementing gradual change to suit both their need to make money alongside providing a user experience that kept folks making micro purchases and recommending/playing.

It kept us playing for a while that’s for sure!

We all kinda fell for the gaming hype around the recent Bungie Release; Destiny. It proported to be a gaming experience akin to the Halo franchise, but with the open world and mission elements more akin to World of Warcraft…

It fails.

Actually, quite badly.

Don’t get me wrong, it all works. It looks good, the mechanics play well and the RPG elements are kind of there…. So what’s the problem? Well, it makes you do the same thing. the same missions, the same enemies, the same format….over and over again. It commits a cardinal sin of gaming for me – boring grinding?! No subtlety of tactic, no strategy. Go there, Shoot that, rinse and repeat… Snnoooooooooooooore!!!

Yep – disappointed because it looked like Bungie were trying to do something interesting….instead, they are trying to extract as much money as possible whilst giving up as little as possible in return such that you have to spend more money to continue the viable gaming experience. Sound familiar? Well, I suppose scarcity drives up value….

Not in this case for me. I’ve ordered a new game.

This one is from the folks that made Mass Effect 3. And it’s got Multiplayer Coop… Bioware did the job before, I’m hopeful they will do it again… I’ll let you know how Dragon Age: Inquisition works out 🙂

In other news, one of the ground floor detachment got busted when I arrived home from work an hour earlier than usual;

Downstairs Sweep: Incomplete!

 I don’t recognise this dude, slightly smaller than previous assignee’s, but just as effective I’m sure! Always good to know Spider Division is on the case 🙂