June 2014 - Tales of the Aggronaut

Finding a Franchise

June 30, 2014 by Belghast

Dolly the Donkey

Since I didn’t really have a place anywhere else this weekend to post this, I figure I will lead off this mornings post with it. Meet Dolly the Donkey, she and the other donkey Carl are freaking adorable. I’ve never been a huge fan of horses, but there is just something cute about Donkeys. They are kind of like the corgi of horses, and these two are super good natured. While they were obsessed with their food Saturday when we were visiting a friends ranch, on previous times they have been all too happy to come up to the fence and have their heads scratched. Nothing miraculous or spectacular to see here, I just wanted to post a picture of this awesome animal.

The last time we were out there was for a end of school cookout, and at that time they had these adorable kittens. You could pick one up and it would just collapse into a fit of purring in your arms. We already have three cats, but there have been multiple times in the past we have had four. The neighbor down the street has this adorable kitten, and off and on throughout the summer I have had to go down and feed their animals for various reasons. So in the following weeks I had almost talked myself into getting a kitten. However Saturday when we actually went to visit again, they were all sweet and adorable… but I just wasn’t feeling it. All I could think about was the glorious mess that having a new kitten is, and the fact that I would be woken up at all hours of the night as it was off exploring. I passed for now, but it may or may not be my final answer.

Finding a Franchise

So all of this time while playing the game, I kept thinking in the back of my head… why had I not played this game before now. I originally thought it was a pretty good product offering considering it was released in 2012, but apparently I was looking at the wrong date. 2012 is when the last version of the game was released that rolled in both Divinity 2: Ego Draconis and the Flames of Vengeance expansion. This game was actually released back in 2009, which makes it all the more impressive. The problem is that it launched in a really tightly packed crowd of new releases. Apparently this released opposite both Mass Effect 2 and Bioshock 2, which probably accounts for why exactly I had not played it before. I was simply too busy with those two games to give much of a damn about anything else. The thing is… that is kinda sad considering just how good of a game it is.

What is awesome about this experience is that it feels like I am discovering Fallout of Elder Scrolls for the first time. Divinity is apparently this extremely storied franchise that I have not played at all. At this point I have played Divinity Ego Draconis for over eight hours according to steam, and I feel like I have just barely scratched the surface. I have only just now left the very first area of the game. I would imagine that Divinity 2 is at the very least going to be a 100+ hour game for me, in the amount of detail it already has and how much I am finding myself backtracking to unlock past content. The whole game reminds me so much of if the original Fable and Guild Wars 1 had a love child, because it seems to embrace the best qualities of both of these titles. The further I get into the game, the more enjoyable the content and the various puzzles are. This game is currently the king of jumping puzzles for me… in that they are challenging but not so frustrating that you want to throw the controller across the room.

Disappointing Skills

The only real complaint that I have so far is that the skills that you unlock with your talent points, feel like they are not that exciting or powerful. As a result you can see in most of the screenshots I only actually have 2 to 3 attacks unlocked. I’ve found it far more beneficial to dump my mounts is sword and shield proficiency and lockpicking. Both of which I have managed to max out currently, and both of which make the game so much more enjoyable. Essentially the magical attacks for the warrior archetype are just “ho hum”. Right now I have a whirlwind attack that knocks the enemies back sometimes, and a charge attack that I can use as a gap closer. Neither one hits nearly as hard as a standard basic swing attack. So I guess my problem is that it feels like I am wasting points if I continue to dump more into either of them.

The only one I find myself really using much is the gap closer, because all of the ranged type enemies absolutely love running away and attacking from a distance. Overall however the combat has been really fun, and there are several special abilities that you can perform based on a combination of movement and jumps along with your swings. Nothing extremely powerful, but it can make a huge difference when fighting extremely tough encounters like the couple of Trolls that I managed to take down so far. The game can be brutal, and this is definitely one of those games where you want to save often as there have been more than a few occasions where I screwed something up permanently… and had to reload from a previous stage. One of the more interesting things about the game is that you can mindread NPCs when you talk to them… you should do this every time because in some cases you will not get a second chance.

Gorgeous World

This game is very obviously no Skyrim…. but it also predates that game by a years time. For what it is, the game is extremely pretty and runs stable for me with absolutely everything cranked up. In 2009 I am sure this game was a sight to behold, and was probably among the prettiest titles on the PC. I still have no clue at all why this was not bigger news here, and why it managed to skirt under my radar. I mean I knew the series existed, but quite honestly I never picked the previous games up on steam because they confused the shit out of me. The first game is called Divine Divinity and the second game Beyond Divinity… I kept looking for a game just called “Divinity” because I hate starting in the middle of a series. I am not exactly sure when I purchased Divinity II but I am guessing it was a flash sale and extremely cheap for me to try and start in the middle of a series.

Now however I have both Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity waiting to be played once I have reached a point where I feel like I am done with this game. Additionally I went ahead and picked up Divinity: Original Sin the new game for when I finish with those. I have a feeling that this franchise is going to become a favorite for me. Honestly I think one of the things that kept me from picking up the game in the past is the Gothic series. That game series looked so amazing and was apparently extremely popular in Europe, but each time I have tried to sit down and actually play it… the games have felt like complete crap. So since this is also a European title, no matter how cool it looked… I kept remembering my continued disappointment with Gothic. I guess there are probably a few other games out there that I should give a second chance, because there are likely more diamonds in the rough that simply did not get the press needed to make them a great success.

#Divinity #DivinityII

Divinity II: Directors Cut

June 29, 2014 by Belghast

Old Time Rock and Roll

Something interesting happened this weekend, I was hit with a critical case of nostalgia. This all started while playing Wasteland 2 the other night, and seems to be continuing on today as I search for more games to give me that classic PC role-playing game experience. I said yesterday that I was in a bit of an existential funk, and that seems to continue. While I like the concept of playing Wildstar and Elder Scrolls Online… for whatever reason right now they are just too fast paced for my current mood. Essentially I am needing games that are a bit more prodding and deliberate, and preferably without other players bothering me. I am going through one of my retreating phases, and I right now I just want to be lost in my own little world.

Divinity II: Directors Cut

I’ve had this game in my steam inventory for quite some time, but for one reason or another I never actually fired it up. I had heard really good things about the Divinity series and the other night my friends Tam and Ashgar were off playing the brand new Divinity: Original Sin. So when I cranked this game up I was expecting a Baldur’s Gate esc game along the lines of the original Divinity and Original Sin. What it is instead however is something more akin to Knights of the Old Republic. The control scheme is a behind the back pseudo action combat setup that still somehow manages to feel old school at the same time. The controls are a bit prodding at times, but this is not exactly a high action game that allows you to dodge out of combat here and there to avoid enemies. Instead there are minor flourishes that you can do here and there to improve your success, but for the most part it is stand up fighting.

The character creator is adequate, as I was able to create something that I liked, however there really are not a lot of options. Essentially you can be blonde or brown haired, and with a few different facial and hair choices for each color. This allowed me to create something I liked enough to make me happy, but there really is not a lot of configuration available. Thankfully in Divinity: Original Sin the newest game they seem to have fixed all of this and given players a bajillion different options. I would say the customization is “passible” if only because it allows me to give my character long hair and a beard, which is “close enough” to the Belghast appearance. The limited appearances makes me really glad the game is not Asian inspired, because I am pretty sure I would not have been able to create any character that I could stand.

The game utilizes a silent protagonist with text dialog options for most of the interactions, and quite honestly I am happy with this. I always find it jarring when my character has a voice that is not my own. So if I am given the option of a well voiced character, or a silent one… I will almost always choose the silent one. These games are about me inhabiting the space of the character, and not about watching the lives of someone else. So in a game like Uncharted… I am watching a movie unfold in front of me that I am not a part of, this type of game however… it is all about the character being an extension of me. The dialog is charming at times, but nothing I would call spectacular. But then again I am not really playing this sort of thing for the dialog, I am playing it for the overall adventure.

The game is several years old at this point, but it still looks extremely good. This is no Skyrim mind you, but the world definitely looks believable and something I don’t mind spending a significant amount of time in. Occasionally there are some really nice vistas and lighting effects like this one that I find really nice looking. During some of my screenshots I was running on the default settings, but once I cranked everything up to max the game started to look extremely beautiful. The visualization options like the mini-map and where we are supposed to go for various quests is pretty much non-existent. The end result means you need to pay attention to the dialog and spend a good deal of time wandering around in order to figure out how exactly to complete each of the quests you are given by townsfolk.

I’ve not really played enough to get a good handle on how exactly character progression will work. However when you first start the game you are set up as a Dragon Slayer, and as part of the ritual that gives you the powers of a dragon… it also wipes your memories, giving you a clean construct for picking a brand new path for your character. You essentially have the choice of following the path of the melee warrior, the ranger or the mage. In the first town you can freely switch between them, but once you leave the village your choice is locked. There is thankfully a little testing ground that allows you to try each of the combat styles and see what fits you the best. I of course went with the melee warrior, but I feel like the ranger would probably be extremely fun as well. Mage on the other hand… felt odd because there was a significant cast timer on each of the attacks.

Admittedly so many times with these Steampowered Sunday games, I play it for a little bit but then never return to it. I don’t think that is going to be the case with Divinity II. This honestly seems like about the perfect game for my current mental state. It feels the right speed, and I can cocoon myself in this fantasy world and explore it without the need to feel like I am letting anyone down in the process. So while I have taken a break to knock out my morning blog post, as soon as I finish writing I am going to return to clearing the goblin camp I was working on when I paused the gameplay. Right now on the summer sale this game is only $8 for the directors cut, and so far I am loving it. If you are looking for an old school Knights of the Old Republic style adventure, then it might also be the game for you.

Enter the Waffles

Last night we had an odd recording of AggroChat as has happened before in the past, we had two of the original cast otherwise busy this week. I butchered the hell out of the explaination, but thankfully I was corrected. Essentially this week Tam and Ashgar are off to visit Kodra and to somehow have an intervention to replace his current machine, that we have not so lovingly referred to as a toaster. That said I feel like maybe that is a disservice to toasters everywhere, as they seem to be far more functional. As you’ve listened to our podcast in the past, when Kodra goes robot on us, it has nothing to do with his internet connection but is instead his machine freaking out. Here is hoping operation replace Kodras machine has been a success. In the meantime that left us down two people for the podcast and thankfully we had replacements all too happy to step in.

This is the first show to include Warenwolf, another one of our multi-year old chat group, also lovingly referred to as Waffles thanks to Mumble pronouncing his name oddly a few times. In addition to Waffles we are joined by Dallian once again who is the best fill-in guest ever, and pretty much is just now our regular “5th man”. We talk about the Steam Sale, Wasteland 2, Saints Row IV, Lego Minifigures Online, Wildstar, and Warlords of Draenor alpha among other things. We ran a bit short this week due to some technical difficulties causing chunks of the show to get edited out, but I hope you will all still enjoy the results. I believe next week we should be returning to our regular format.

#AggroChat #SteampoweredSunday #DivinityII

Desert Rangers

June 28, 2014 by Belghast

Taco Bell Salad

As strange as it sounds, one of the meals we used to eat all the time when we were watching our calories is Doritos Tacos from Taco Bell. Each of them is pretty filling and only 170 calories a piece, and come in a variety of flavors now so it feels like you are eating way worse than you actually are. For some time now I have had this idea of taking them and turning them into a Taco Salad. Finally last night we actually did just this. The idea is that you essentially dump out the contents of the tacos, crunch of the shells and them mix it all together with some form of a binding liquid. I prepared my wife’s with four packets of Taco Bell hot sauce, and then did mine with some low fat ranch dressing.

The end result was really damned good. Like amazingly tasty, and it felt and looked pretty much like a Taco Salad. The only downside was it was a colossal mess to crunch the shells. You know you your fingers feel after eating a bag of nacho cheese Doritos? Well take that and multiply it by 100 because the shells themselves are not entirely dry as they’ve had taco fixings inside of them. I need to find a better way than using my fingers to crunch them up, and if so them bam I have a brilliant fast food “hack” that was super tasty. Three Tacos made a plate full of Taco Salad and was only 510 calories, I can totally live with that. It inspired me to try their breakfast this morning, and I have to say it is in no way near as manageable. In fact their breakfast seems like they ran an experiment of trying to cram as many calories into as little food as possible.

Desert Rangers

Earlier this week my friend Warenwolf mentioned something about playing Wasteland 2, and as a result I decided to check and see if I had access as well. Sure enough, when I dug out my forum link from the kickstarter project I had a steam early access code waiting for me. Last night I intended to just pop in for a moment and check the game out, and wound up playing over an hour. Now I knew of Wasteland, but I never really played it when it was originally out for the PC. That predates the bulk of my PC gaming, and I was still heavily a console gamer at that time. That said I was a massive fan of both Fallout and Fallout 2, and since Wasteland was the logical predecessor to those games I knew I had to get on board with this project. In truth other than the fact that the original fallout runs pretty lousy on a modern PC, I can still play it for hours. So far pretty much everything about this game is true to that genre and is a modern update of what feels like a classic game. There is an over arching storyline that you can follow, or you can simply wander around the wastes looking for trouble. You cannot however wander indefinitely as there is an interesting movement mechanic while you are on the overmap. Each step you take consumes water, and you have a finite amount of this. Every so often you can find an oasis here or there that lets you refill your canteens, but this keeps you from going too far off the beaten path. Luckily if you follow the actual quest line it leads you to find a large number of Oasis spots that you can always fill up at along the way.

Just like in Fallout as you wander around the world map you will come across random encounters. The interesting thing is that each time you come across one of these you have the chance to either fight or run. So far being the warmonger I am… I have fought all of them and it has been the source of much needed ammunition and medpacks. Overall the combat is not super challenging, but it is tactical in nature. Cover rules apply, so since I have a handful of ranged characters I try and place them behind a rusted out car hull or something similar and for the most part this allows me to whittle down the enemy forces. Another strategy I have found works amazingly well is to simply wait out the enemy. They seem to be willing to come to you most of the time, allowing you to set up from a defensive position and gun them down as they run towards you.

The game allows you to assemble your own team of rangers to meet anything you might encounter out in the wastes. For this first playing I chose to go with some premades so I have Pill the wasteland punk combat medic, Cold Eye the sniper, Bear the Native American tracker, and Big Bert the punk with a spiked bat and essentially my groups only front line fighter. So far it seems like I assembled a fairly balanced team. The only thing I am really missing is the ability to pick locks, but up until now I have only actually encountered a single locked object. Cold-Eye has a mechanical repair skill, which I figure will come in handy eventually. So far I am absolutely hooked, and looking forward to seeing the finished version. From what I understand it is pretty much fully functional, just missing some polish. Definitely glad I backed the kickstarter.

Hail to the Chief

I logged into Wildstar for a bit, but really was not feeling the MMO thing. I am in somewhat of an existential funk when it comes to online gaming right now. I am going through one of my periods where I just want to play by myself, and not be bothered with other people. These usually last a week or two and then I have recharged and can be my charming self again, but while it is going on it is probably just best for me to play mostly single player games. Since I had so damned much fun the other night playing Saints Row IV I decided to fire it up and attempt to make some progress. The problem with me and big sandboxy games is that I never actually get anything accomplished. I have been wandering around the simulation picking up code fragments and knocking down Zin shield beacons reclaiming sections of the map. Last night I actually made an attempt to complete some of the quests.

SaintsRowIV 2014-06-27 21-18-53-685

The major accomplishment of the night was getting to the top of this tower. This is the granddaddy of all jumping puzzles I have ever encountered. The tower itself is so high that the game lets you save at various warp points up the tower as you try and ascend it. I admit it took me probably a dozen tries to get all the way to the top, and when I was up there my vertigo was going absolutely insane. The last bit of the climb freaked me the hell out, and I am just glad it is over. That said it was pretty cool because I actually feel like I accomplished something difficult. In addition to this there was a whole sequence of events that introduced me to the various minigames including Fraud where you throw yourself in front of cars for money, and one where you rampage through the simulation on a zin battle tank. I only managed to get bronze rating on fraud… but damned near got gold on my first try with the battle tank. I guess my inner rampage pays off sometimes.

I actually progressed the main storyline a bit and in the same fashion as the Matrix, unplugged forcibly and woke up on a Zin Battlecruiser butt naked needing to escape from the vessel. I can apparently take enough time to find a gun, but not enough to take a uniform off of one of the zin soldiers and wear that. I will admit the whole naked escape sequence thing was pretty funny, and it makes me happy I went so insane with the various tattoos. Like I really went crazy when I found the tattoo shop as you can see in the above picture. I feel like this is what I like the most about Saints Row, is that it is really similar in nature to Grand Theft Auto… but does not take itself seriously at all. In fact if there is a way to poke fun at your character, the game is going to do it by putting it in ridiculous situations. The fact that Saints Row is in essence a parody of a parody makes this the video game equivalent of one of the “Scary Movie” franchise movies.

Saints Row is one giant running “dick and fart” joke, but it works and while it is extremely lowbrow it is insanely fun to play through. Even if you don’t normally go in for that sort of thing… I think there is something in Saints Row for pretty much everyone. If this goes back on sale before the end of the Steam Sale… you should totally pick it up, because it is well worth the $10. I am also happy I went ahead and picked up all of the insane DLC, because some of the costumes are just great. Last night I was rocking the “cloud” outfit from FF7, but I have zero clue where to find the sword that goes with it. Instead I was running around swinging the “anal probe” weapon. At the end of the night I had just gotten out of the “matrix” and had not really explored the “real world” much at all, so I figure next play session I will do that. This game makes my inner thirteen year old extremely happy.

#Wasteland2 #TacoBellSalad #SaintsRowIV

Grinch Stole Steam-mas

June 27, 2014 by Belghast

Changing the Game

The first Steam sale that I can remember was back in 2008 during the Christmas break. It was a truly magical event where we saw entire publishers catalogs neatly packaged for a specific price. I remember picking up everything that THQ had released to date for something insane like $20 and I was completely hooked. The deals were just flat out unheard of at the time, and I opened my wallet and gobbled up a ton of things that I had wanted to play, but never bothered to pick up. From that point on there have been multiple tiers of interest in a game for me. There are always going to be the games that I will preorder happily so that I can play day one hour one, but these are getting significantly fewer in number.

There is a slightly larger group that I am willing to pick up when it goes on sale for the first time, meaning that first time steam drops the price for a daily deal or a weekend special. There is a significantly larger group that I am interested in when the price gets below $10. Then there is another batch that I am willing to pick up if the price ever lands below $5. Finally there is a group that I have no interest in whatsoever even if they were giving it away for free, and these mostly are made up of the sports games out there. All the while I know in the back of my head, the game is just going to keep getting cheaper each successive Christmas and Summer steam sale. Essentially the amount I am willing to spend on any game is now reduced because I know something like steam exists.

Grinch Stole Steam-mas

The only problem is this year it all feels so formulaic. In part this is because the games we see for sale this year, we also saw for sale during the Christmas 2013 sale, and the Summer 2013 sale, and the Christmas 2012 sale, and the Summer 2012 sale… etc etc. The awesome and horrible thing about steam is that the catalog never depletes. They still regularly offer deals on games a decade old, and while these are generally pennies on the dollar… you can only see the “FATE collection” on sale so many times before you stop giving a crap about it. Over the last few years it has felt like the Steam sale was less an insane deal on games, and more this event that everyone wanted to participate in. There were “games” to be played and “party favors” to collect, and a universal sense of loss of money as folks indulged in picking up all of those games they had been waiting for.

The problem is this year it just feels tarnished. I still instinctively check the page each time a new set of games goes on sale, and for the most part there hasn’t been anything that really excited me in the daily sales. I am not sure if this is a side effect of me just being more accustomed to preordering the games I really care the most about, or if it is a cumulative effect that over the years I have cherry picked most of the good things from these sales already. This year the thing I have really indulged in so far is using this opportunity as a way to pick up the various DLC associated with games I already owned, since while the games go at a significant discount, it is usually the DLC that goes for pennies on the dollar during the steam sales. I used this opportunity to pretty much unlock everything that was available for Borderlands 2, and at the same time freak people out as it spammed my steam activity thread.

You can tell the magic is pretty much gone, when there are multiple flowcharts floating around the interwebs showing users how to get the best possible guaranteed deals from the sale. The base rule is to never buy anything unless it is on a Daily Deal, Flash Sale or Community Choice. Daily deals of course change out around Noon Mountain time I believe, and then Flash and Community Choice swap out every 8 hours. Then at the very end of the event, on June 30th this time around… there is usually an encore sale featuring the best deals of the entire run of the sale. This offers a last chance to pick up some of the more popular items. Since there is this formula however it takes almost all of the excitement out of the process. Once upon a time it was super exciting seeing what new wonders would go on sale each day, now it feels like you have guess what games will be big sellers based on the past performance on the store.

Soured the Milk

The thing is, it isn’t just steam that has destroyed my willingness to pay “full price” for anything. PlayStation Plus is this amazing program where you pay $50 a year and get 2 games a month for each of their three platforms (ps4, ps3, vita). Over the course of my time being a subscriber I have gotten 150 games through the program. This coming month we are getting Strider for the ps4, a title I would have eventually bought…. but was holding off just on the off chance that it might be a free title thanks to the PS4s currently limited software library. Sure enough it is this month and my waiting paid off… and the thing is, that is really way Steam and Playstation Plus and even Games With Gold has taught gamers. If you wait long enough you will get whatever it is that you wanted for next to nothing… or maybe even free. Sure this gives publishers a longer tail on the revenue stream, letting them make some profit off of games that have already cycled off of the store shelves, but it also lowers the total value of ANY title in the process.

At this point $60 seems absolutely outrageous to me to pay for a game regardless of platform. If it is something I am really amped to play, I might do it… but very rarely am I willing to pay that for something that is not an MMO. $40 is really the sweet spot of where I start to be interested in a title, but it isn’t until it gets to $10 or so that I am starting to be willing to pick it up “just because it looks interesting”. Essentially all of these programs have turned games into a commodity for me that I know will lower significantly over time. As far as console gaming goes, I have purchased mostly used games for years… and even then I am not willing to pay the type of prices that GamesStop, Best Buy or even our local chain Vintage Stock has to offer. Most of these places drop the sticker price by $10 and call it good. In order for me to snap up a console game, it has to be at Pawn Shop prices, so $15 bucks or so.

Gaming Altruism

The Steam Sale has taught me to buy a lot more games… but has lowered the total price I am willing to spend on any single game. The funny thing is… this also has caused something completely different. Every now and then there is a title that I believe in so much, that I am willing to buy additional copies and give away to my friends. So this week Borderlands 2 was like $5 and one of my friends mentioned that they had never played the game… so BAM! I purchased it and gifted it to them, because like a really good book… I feel like that is a game that everyone should play. This happens quite often in our little community. Over the course of the week, I gave away several different games… but at the same time received several back from totally different people. The prevalence of this happening has increased significantly over the years I have participated in the steam sale.

So while the total price given per item is less, there are several titles that get bought over and over to give as gifts. A few of my friends keep a stock in their steam inventory of titles that they loved to give out to someone who hasn’t played them yet. This has turned the whole process in a different direction for me, and when I see something like that happen it just makes me smile. Games are to me like Books are to my wife… and just as there will always be a “must read” book that you have to share with everyone you know, there will be a “must play” game. I am just happy to be in a place in my life where I can be generous like that without much issue. It has always made me happy when I can turn someone onto something cool, be it a game or a song or even one of my favorite movies. It is this act of sharing our favorite things that makes the internet such an awesome place to be. Maybe in spite the formulaic nature of the steam sale, there is still a little bit of magic left in that old top hat.

#SteamSummerSale2014