RPG Tourist

As noted before, there are many popular games I haven’t played for various reasons. We never had any Nintendo devices so no exclusives for that platform. It’s been Atari, Sony and PC. Due to constraints, I have missed quite a few titles published for the latter two. The most notable series are Assassin’s Creed, Uncharted, Tomb Raider, Mass Effect and The Last of Us. Of the first three series I have only played recent releases. I didn’t get very far into The Last of Us. The whole zombie thing put me off. I’m just sick of zombies in general. I quit watching The Walking Dead after season 3 or 4. I can’t even remember which. I can tolerate the feral ghouls in Fallout because they are just one of the unfortunate sideshows in the Fallout world. I feel slightly bad exterminating them because there’s so many sane, friendly NPC ghouls. I did enjoy A Thief’s End and Tomb Raider. Lost Legacy was a little dull until the second half. I always felt an urgency to follow the narrative. The env...

My desktop system is underwhelming to begin with but I have had some frustration lately that affected my gaming choices. My obsolete discrete video card died but due to the installed apu I postponed getting another card. I was halfway through Assassin’s Creed Black Flag at the time. Much of my library became unplayable. So I went looking for appealing titles with low system requirements. I had missed the popular Mass Effect series so nabbed that when a bundle of the first two games went on sale. I did finally get a new and powerful video card and erroneously believed that I could now play newer games. I could run games with higher system requirements but nothing released after 2015 thanks to a lack of RAM and the under powered apu. Within the limited titles I would actually like to play, I discovered that I already had PS4 versions of some of them. On the Linux side things were even worse. I still hadn’t upgraded Ubuntu 14.04 and there was no driver available beyond a very basi...

Inquisition did provoke me to contemplate my failings as a player. Origins provided a rich tactical system that I appreciated but I exploited it rather than apply battle tactics. I wasn’t tempted to replay the game just to experiment with the system. In fact, I rarely replay games. Once I have explored the map and finished the main story, I am usually done with the game. I don’t even care if I got all the collectibles and achievements. Even so I like games that have replay value. If I think I got my money’s worth on one play through that’s fine I guess. To be fair, the tactical system had to be adapted for consoles but I still think Inquisition forced me to engage with the system. Origins allowed me to be lazy. RPG’s in general seem less constrained than other genres and that’s what draws me to them. I don’t think I understand what role playing means in any traditional sense. I tend to play an aspirational version of me. It took me a long time to get bored with that but Inquis...

The following story contains spoilers.  I am Kaaras Adaar, a Vasoth Qunari which means I know beans about the Qun. I have gone from a mercenary to a potential messiah thanks to a magic ability gifted during a disaster I miraculously survived. Whatever suspicions of me linger have been overshadowed by my ability to close “Rifts”. I don’t have much choice but to join the Inquisition but I think I’ll make the most of it. I have recruited several companions. I ignore anyone I can't flirt with and flatter the daylights out of the rest. Except Cullen. There’s no way I am getting rejected by that guy. Cassandra seems to like my hard ass approach to problems. I don't have to intimidate all that much. Everyone seems scared of Qunari already. I have been staying coy about the whole Herald of Andraste thing. It wasn’t long before I had to make a big decision. Allying with the mages took everyone including me by surprise. Hardly anyone approved but criticism has been muted. I have this...

I’ll be going on a bit about the Dragon Age series now. I had a phase where I wouldn’t buy games on Steam unless there was a Linux version. My obsolete Radeon video card made this even more limiting. I was happy until the AMD proprietary driver broke Ubuntu forcing me to give up Opengl 4.x for the open driver. I started buying Windows games again and picked up Origins on sale. What a terrific blend of adventure, role playing and strategy. For whatever reason, I wasn’t expecting much from it. It’s an older game after all. The characters are so engaging. I accidentally fell into a romance with the delightful Alistair simply by being nice to him and couldn’t bring myself to break it off. Typically he ditched me in the end. How was I supposed to know I had to “harden” him as wrong as that sounds. The second Dragon Age is not available on Steam but I was able to play a demo. I debated buying the PS3 version but I got the PS4 version of Inquisition with DLC on sale instead. ...

Witcher 3 offers another great medieval world to wander through.  I played through the base game on PS4 and have PC versions of the previous games in the series. I read the first Witcher game has controversial content but I have no opinion on that because I got stuck early on. Skipping through cut scenes just to fail repeatedly upset me more than any potential misogyny so I rage quit. I am currently going through my abandoned games list on Steam so maybe I'll give it another try. I like games that have mature story lines and I think Geralt's character is well supported by his back story.  At least in the two games I played, I had some choice in how things play out. My Geralt is not a complete scoundrel but pragmatic. At the end of the day, he's always in it for the money. After so much anticipation, Yennifer met my expectations completely. I thought she is indeed the ideal woman for Geralt. My Geralt just let Yennifer be Yennifer, standing by her but not rushing to her ...

Fallout 4 is a really strange game. If it was business software it would be an office suite. We have the PS4 version with all the add on content installed but Animatron and no mods. Although I have finished most of the quests I am still on one character. I always play as a charismatic hacker anyway. When the tragic overwhelms the comical, I return to one of my sim settlements and fiddle with something like building a beach condo for my homeless companions. Settlement building can be comical, frustrating or overwhelming but it is engaging. Nuka World really defined how I felt about the game. I know opinion is divided on Nuka World but I loved it. I thought there was a New Vegas feel to it. Raiders should have been a player faction all along. That would not have fit into the plot very well but the story wasn't really Fallout 4`s strong point. I do give Bethesda credit for incorporating local Boston historical narratives. Institute members weren't convincing villains and...

The other day I read this article https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/zm9549/nuclear-war-experts-are-horrified-by-fallout-76 and it got me thinking about the Fallout franchise again. I have only played the last three installments published by Bethesda but I did play through the main story lines in all three. My feelings about the series have always been mixed. Overall the games are well written and designed. Some elements are better implemented than similar elements in Elder Scrolls. I enjoy the dark humour dispersed throughout dialogue, documents and computer terminals. I especially love hacking terminals. However the environment and the quests get to me after a while. I found Fallout 3 so bleak I couldn’t play it until after I had finished New Vegas. The nuclear devastation and the sorrow weighs heavily. Fallout’s factions and themes have sparked many worthwhile online discussions about morality and science. I have been watching some Fallout 76 game play video lat...

I call myself an RPG tourist because that’s my been my playing style at least since big 3D open world games came about. Unless things get too boring, I pick the most frictionless difficulty setting so that I can leisurely stroll about taking in the environment and the narrative. My desktop is inadequate and I can only play the most recent games on our PS4. Occasionally I document my progress or make dumb videos. YouTube Channel RPG Tourist's Red Dead Redemption Horseback Tour   Roleplaying a horse wrangler in Red Dead Redemption 2. Dragon Age Inquisition: I am Vasoth   Tales of an unlikely Inquisitor. Far Cry Primal   A Paleolithic mover and shaker.  Or maybe it's Mesolithic. Or transitioning. Or.. I'm not sure. Kingdom Come Deliverance   Medieval Bohemian Horticulturist and Man at Arms.