FFXIV: ARR (Beta Phase 3) Impressions

I am impressed, Square Enix really did overhaul the shitbag that was Final Fantasy XIV 1.0. What can I say, it’s actually decent; At least on par with any other run if the mill new MMO on the market if not better. I am pretty torn on this game though. I really do want to buy A Realm Reborn, but I am unsure if I have enough time or interest to regularly play an MMO nowadays, even casually. I was going to preorder ARR but after hearing pretty awful things about the launch servers and experiencing many many bad launches myself, I think I’ll hold off then reassess how much I need ARR in a week or so.

  • Questing: The quests are a mixed bag at least early on (unsure if that remains true through high level zones). Plot line quests seem decent enough but everything else feels like leveling filler. It’s your standard fare quest hub grinding x and gathering y.
  • Character models: Probably the best character creation system that I’ve seen. It has a lot of options without overwhelming players with sliders. You can also save and import character blueprints which is a nice and seldom seen touch.
  • Performance: It looks great and runs smoothly on my machine. Leagues better than the FFXIV 1.0 beta. No comparison. Very few technical issues. I don’t think I experienced any noticeable frame drops or lag even in busy cities or FATEs
  • Interface: ARR actually has a functional and clean mouse & keyboard optimized user interface. It is intuitive to use with Bo interface lag; You can even move and scale bars and other UI elements.

I can’t say if the game will be handled any better or if they are going to stay true to the supposed 3 month content release cycle, but we will see.

My Sims 4 Wishlist

A preview video and a few new features have been announced this week (news here). The Sims 4 Create-a-Sim looks really slick and way less cumbersome than having a hundred sliders. In a perfect world, I would love a game that’s a blend between The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 as both games had various elements not present in the other. Here’s my wish list for The Sims 4:

  • Hair customization: I can see why height is a huge point of contention for technical reasons relating to sim animations but, why can’t we have more hair customization? I would love for example, CAS sliders for hair length, bangs, curliness, etc (all factoring into genetics as well). Having a small handful of hairstyles makes everyone in the town look the same after a while.
  • Actual businesses: Less rabbit holes, specifically, the ability to run businesses ala The Sims 2: Open For Business. I am really surprised that this feature hasn’t yet been added into TS3 via an expansion pack…
  • More distinct personalities: The Sims 2’s trait system helped a little bit in terms of actually adding personality but sims as a whole still behave pretty similarly. I would love to have dynamic traits and habits that develop over time as well as the ability to set relationship related goals (perhaps a CAS option) instead of relegating that to traits. Have these goals factor into the AI behavior. The AI should actively seek to fulfill goals
  • Better town customization tools/more flexible neighborhoods: After 5 or so expansion packs, older neighborhoods start getting a little crowded after adding in all of the new lot types. I like playing only one or two neighborhoods; It’s fun expanding them, adding families, and watching the town grow. It would be nice to have the ability to build and modify neighborhoods extensively within the game client instead of having to load a separate tool. It would also be nice to be as to expand existing neighborhoods with new regions (like adding a downtown area TS2 style without the loading screens).
  • Better family trees: At minimum it would be nice to enlarge the window to viewable families. Ideally, I would like to be able to export Gedcom files as well as click on portraits to view information, memories, and sim statistics.
  • Apartments a la TS2: Apartments that aren’t just glorified rabbit holes. The apartment buildings obviously, should have the ability to hold multiple households. Individual apartments should be able to hold multiple households via a roommate system.
  • Per household/per sim story profession options: It sounds kind of sad, but I want the ability to shove a dozen sims in an apartment complex and not have them move around or do anything. I also want the option to keep certain lots “in the family.”
  • Sim hot-switching: I want to be able to click on a household and start playing it without having to load the town editor etc etc. The one playable household per neighborhood design doesn’t work all that well for my style of play.
  • Better pathing…
  • Seamless aging 

I know this one will never happen but: More features added into the base game. We almost literally have the same expansion packs being released for each game…

Missed Connection…

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Dear ‘Valdus’, I apparently came across your StreetPass twice while I was on vacation in the midwest. The second time was in the Milwaukee airport on this past Tuesday when we were preparing to fly back home. The first time must have also been in the Mikwaukee airport on the previous Tuesday when we were flying in. Same itinerary I guess? What are the odds of that happening?

The Steam Summer Sale

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Another Steam sale came and went. I was planning on sitting this round out in lieu of me realizing that I haven’t even downloaded or touched approximately 50% of my existing Steam library; But I mean, literally every single game I had on my wish list was on sale, so you know how that goes. Overall, I did manage to make it through the sale with my wallet relatively unscathed. My haul is as follows: Metro Last Light, Saint’s Row III, & Puzzle Quest 2. Futhermore, I have even managed to not only download all three games but even play them for more than 5 minutes.

  • Metro Last Light: Of all games on sale, Metro Last Light was the only one that I was intent on purchasing if it went on sale for enough. Very immersive, really liking its aesthetic as a whole. Fuck the spiders :// I think though, it is best played as a stealth game rather than a straight up guns blazing shooter. If there’s any real criticism that I have about this game so far, it is that the AI leaves something to be desired to say the least. Sneaking through an area without being detected was as a whole, more engaging and more challenging than repeatedly clearing rooms by funnelling the AI around a corner and straight into my sawed off shotgun (they would just literally walk into it one by one until there was no one left…), but to each his own.
  • Saint’s Row III: Possibly the greatest game ever, more-so because the campaign fully supports LAN co-op. I really like the fact that doesn’t take itself seriously and is way over the top. It’s like GTA, but so much funnier.
  • Puzzle Quest 2: I guess am kind of obsessed with Bejeweled type games. If it involves matching colorful squares into groups or 3 or more, I will probably buy it.

As a sidenote: I have mixed feelings about Steam’s new trading card gimmick. I guess it’s something new and interesting to do/porn for completionists and people who enjoy collecting things. I did manage to sell a couple of duplicate summer sale cards for piddly pocket change and then in return, purchase remaining cards that I needed to complete the badge and earn a level up. So as a result, I am now level 11. Yay  I guess?

BioShock Infinite

Not so much gaming lately, but of the games I have picked up, BioShock Infinite stands out as one of the best and certainly most interesting games that I have played in recent memory. I didn’t know too much about BioShock Infinite other than it had received high remakes all around, as it was kind of an impulse purchase. I guess personally speaking, I enjoy playing most game types of more when half the game isn’t spoiled by trailers, previews, etc. If at all possible, I would highly recommend playing this game with a fresh perspective, before the Internet spoils it too much (though I guess it’s a little late for that).

Thematically and narratively, BioShock Infinite offers depth that is seldom seen in a game. A lot of the story is told without explicitly being said. The environment is littered with clues and puzzle pieces; Not only the voxophones (be sure to listen to these as they explain much of the story), but details placed about Columbia; A pristine 19th century classical American city contrasted by ugly dark undertones. Elizabeth is a good companion who is around just when you need her and not when you don’t. Which is nice, otherwise BioShock Infinite could have been the most irritating and longest escort mission ever. I am pretty sure that she is explicitly programmed to never ever stand in front of you during combat or in the line of fire. She cant die in combat and her pathing is pretty solid as well so you don’t really have to worry about her.

The actual gameplay the weakest part of the game in my opinion. BioShock Infinite is extremely fun to play, but not mechanically groundbreaking in any way. The weapon choices for example, were decent in that they were sufficiently varied, but the upgrade system was sub-par and the gunplay was so-so for a triple A game. The vigors were also introduced too fast during the later half of the game. The first 2 or 3 or so were fine, but past that I swear that new vigors were basically shoved in your face at the pace of about 2 or 3 per hour of play. The gameplay isn’t bad by any measure, but it feels pretty average, which is kind of an shame because the weak gameplay elements were the difference between a very good game and what could have been an exceptional game.

I think a contributing factor to the original BioShock’s appeal was how unique it felt in regards to the narrative and environment were integrated into the gameplay experience as a whole. BioShock infinite treads on the same ground, but it does so gracefully. Highly recommended.

Jay Wilson on the Diablo 3 Auction House

Regarding this article and this statement:

…that only a small percentage of players would use it and that the price of items would limit how many were listed and sold.

I do appreciate the admission of fault, no matter how late but, what? How could you not have expected absolutely everyone to use the auction house, especially when everyone has been bitching about it from day 1? Low hanging fruit theory states that players will more likely than not, take the path of least resistance to upgrade gear. In Diablo 3’s case, that is the auction house, as it is the easiest if not the only way (good luck with actual drops) of obtaining high level upgrades.

I mean, this game is so centered around the gearing treadmill that just about everything that you do is influenced by how well equipped you are. D3 almost forces you to use it.

HearthStone, WoW, & BioShock Infinite

HearthStone: Hah Blizzard the Gathering; My prediction was right on the money. I was expecting either a CCG or a mobile game since Blizzard, if i recall correctly, either outright stated or implied that the new title would be relatively minor. I was hoping that it would be a crossover between all of the major Blizzard franchises instead of just Warcraft, but it is what it is. All jokes and unreasonably butthurt comments aide, HeathStone is certainly new and actually looks fun in my opinion, but that is coming from someone who likes card games and the like. I guess popular speculation states that Blizzard is likely testing out the F2P model with HearthStone.

WoW: After about 8 years and change, I ended up canceling my WoW subscription last week. Panda time was fun, as was playing with most of the old crew again but I just haven’t really had/felt the need, interest, or time to login to the game enough to warrant $15 a month. Quit permanently? No, of course not. Come next expansion pack, I am sure that I will be back for a few months. But honestly? I think I am mostly done with all MMOs until something significantly different is released. The genre as a whole just feels really outdated.

BioShock Infinite: It’s funny how the games I haven’t been giving much thought to are the ones I end up buying and visa versa. Popular positive internet opinions drove me to impulse buy BioShock last night. I have also heard that it is a very spoiler sensitive game, so I wanted to buy it before I end up spoiling it for myself on Reddit.

More on SimCity

Hmmm, I wrote this bit earlier:

Is there even anything noteworthy coming out in the near future?

On second thought, it’s actually been a fairly release heavy quarter so far. I know that Crysis 3 came out at the end of February and aside from SimCity and the new Sims 3 expansion, I had totally forgotten about Heart of the Swarm among other things. I think I sill have an $18 credit on my Battle.net account from selling some crap-ass item on the D3 RMAH. That credit if present, will likely be applied to the expansion at some point. As far as everything else, we will have to see as time and money permits.

Just to continue beating the dead horse: I am uncomfortable with SimCity’s multiplayer focus which to be honest adds very little to the game in my opinion. It is nice being able to build on the same region with your friends, but interaction between players is pretty minimal. When you are forced to start removing features to allow customers to play a singleplayer game (with marginal success at that) you should probably a few items to reevaluate. But that said, I did purchase SimCity with full knowledge that it had always on DRM, so as long as the servers work, whatever.

Overall the gameplay itself is incredibly intriguing and addictive, though the AI can use some work to say the least. The crap-ass traffic AI and what not are really the only serious points of contention that I have with Simcity, which in theory should have been corrected with the most recent update. The traffic issues were bad to the extent that they make the game almost unplayable past a certain point. I mean, absolutely everything boils down to traffic at some level: Trade deliveries, fire/police services, happiness, and so forth. I do really like being able to create a working supply chain within and between cities though. If I recall correctly, this particular gameplay element is new to SimCity.

SimCity Impressions

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Against my better judgement (always on DRM), I purchased SimCity off of Origin. It is to say the least, kind of sad that I never really expected to be able to play this game on launch because of the expected massive server fail, particularly for a title that is and always has been a single player game as a whole. As a general rule of thumb, I try not to pass judgement on an MMO based off of launch performance but Sim City? Isn’t this supposed to be the game that we play when the Internet is down?

I will try to evaluate this title as a new game or more accurately, a series reboot rather than a true sequel to Sim City 4 because from for everything that I have heard it really is most definitely not a true successor to Sim City 4, and if that is what you are expecting, disappointment will be had. But that said, aside from a fairly slow initial download (“processing large files”), I was able to connect to the west coast US servers without any queuing, play as well as resume my saved games without any problems for the entire evening.

The smaller city sizes do feel fairly restrictive. Within one evening’s worth of play, I was able to build across the entire map. The trick now, will be to grow via optimization in place of map expansion. Despite the DRM hoopla and what not, SimCity is an extremely engrossing and fun game to play.

Edit: Not so much luck tonight! It took us about a half hour to successfully create and then join a game together after many failed attempts at relogging into our Origin accounts, readding each other etc. We were actually able to play for about an hour and a half until we got booted again. Poop.
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FTL: Faster Than Light

I keep meaning to post about this game. Even though I purchased FTL some time ago and have since set it down for the most part, it’s one of the more fun titles that I have played in recent memory. I’ve actually known about it for quite some time; It was a Kickstarter if I recall correctly. In addition to a huge chunk of my Steam friends constantly playing FTL, I am pretty sure that I read or heard about it on most of the gaming sites, podcasts, and streams that I follow. And yet, I still managed to blow this game off completely until it went on sale a month or two (or three) ago.

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FTL is a rogue-ish resource management strategy game set in space. You are tasked with delivering a critical message to the Federation fleet, which will take you across 8 sectors. Each sector contains a number of star systems to jump to; All the while the nefarious rebels are nipping at your heels. Ignore the fact that graphically, FTL looks like it probably belongs on phone or something, that really is not important. While it isn’t exactly the prettiest plate on the shelf, it’s one of those games that is hard to put down. Game content is largely based on randomization. What each sector contains, what you get from each encounter and what each store has in supply is pretty much up to the RNG.

FTL is hard proof that losing can be fun and it better be because you will lose quite a bit in this title. It’s well worth picking up and probably one of the best deals in terms of play time per dollar.