RPG Tourist

Ubisoft still has me in their grip. Recently I got fed up with Odyssey’s Alkibiades and attacked him which caused him merely to run off. I lost him in a rocky elevation. I shouldn’t have been surprised he is adept at climbing. This caused me to return to Origins. It took a bit to get reoriented. The map looked quite barren compared to Odyssey but there was still much to complete including the final DLC. There were multiple unassigned ability points. I had to relearn controller assignments that I never completely grasped in the first place. I want to save my game constantly even though it strictly auto saves. I often forget I’m not immune to fall damage or that I have no health replenishment abilities. I kind of hope no one avenges me. Avenging fallen players is silly idea that doesn’t appear in Odyssey but I have done it a couple of times. I have mostly been determined to fully exploit tools and abilities. Things don’t always work according to plan but that’s all part of...

A while back I mentioned the Mass Effect series. It’s been a while so my memory of the three games I played is hazy. I skipped Mass Effect 3 because it’s not available on Steam. I like the Star Trek vibe of the series. However, I was most excited to finally be able to import a save file into the next series installment. Not many games allow for this. This led me to race through the first game in anticipation of playing the second. I selected male Shepard for his classic military demeanour. Series one Shepard was mostly a boy scout eschewing romance and opting for the most diplomatic decisions. Harsh choices and an unanticipated story conclusion had an impact on his character going forward. Game two veers towards X-Files in space. I liked the game play improvements Bioware made but I did not understand the morality system at all. Events did not turn Shepard renegade but he was much more neutral and less selfless. This turned out to be a mistake and his disengaged attitude ...

Warning: Minor Spoilers I just finished the family story quest line in Odyssey but still have two major quest lines to finish not to mention add ons. The map is not yet fully explored and is still cluttered with incomplete objectives. Still, I feel I’ve given the game a fair enough shake to compare it to my Origins experience. It’s clear that the same development environment was used for both games but Odyssey leans heavily towards RPG and Origins leans slightly more to sandbox. The maps are equally stunning. If I had to recommend one over the other, I would pick Odyssey for it’s game play improvements. Systems are so similar you could almost describe Origins as a game length tutorial for Odyssey albeit a very entertaining one. Both games offer loads of optional content but Odyssey offers more incentives to engage with that content. This is due to more elaborate equipment and naval options. Origins usually rewards some coin and XP plus a purely cosmetic item or a weapo...

Recently I listed off all the Assassin’s Creed games I am playing concurrently despite the fact I have never played a game from the franchise before. I’ve completed Origin’s main story missions and the Hidden Ones DLC and have now moved on to Odyssey. Seeing that Odyssey rolls Black Flag and Origins together with a heap of Witcher 3, I may never have to return to any of those games. It depends on how long Ubisoft spews content. Right now Odyssey looks like a completionist’s nightmare but forturnately I am not one of those. Ubisoft has taken a really interesting turn with Origins and Odyssey. They have moved away from multiplayer completely to single player with limited shared social features and mostly cosmetic microtransactions. Even loot boxes can be purchased with ingame currency. No luring children towards controversial forms of gambling here. No siree. Origin’s stand alone discovery mode goes even further to buff up video games’ tarnished reputation. This looks like...

We’ve finished both seasons of Westworld. By the end of season one, William’s hat is definitely black. We also learned that we have been following William’s story on two separate timelines and nothing is as it seems especially the ever menacing Robert Ford. Once the AI characters achieved self awareness the discomforting violence became incessant. The series began to feel much less like a video game and more like the sci-fi horror film that spawned it. The message is clear this time though. Corporations are evil. By the end of season two there were hardly any redeeming characters left and there were only five or six maybe to begin with. The multiple timelines became so incoherent I needed to consult an online wiki. But due to the nature of the technology will any character truly die? We did get treated to some philosophical questions. Are the AI really autonomous? Just when we think they are the puppet master reappears. Hector is the only AI character that ever becomes unbound...

Right now I’m watching Westworld and I feel compelled to talk about it even though I’m only at Season 1, Episode 8. It quite obviously draws inspiration partly from popular video games. It may be the best adaptation of a video game that doesn’t exist ever. The image of Yul Brynner in the original movie still burns in my memory. I remember the movie itself as a sci-fi horror though. This series seems to be about NPC’s come to life. The writers do a great job of illustrating NPC game mechanics in the first few episodes but I was glad to move on from Dolores’ part mundane part horrific loop. I identified with young William right from the moment he picked his off white hat. I was also filled with dread because I know that Westworld will inexorably darken that hat. Otherwise I’m enjoying the scenery and the plot twists. I’ve read that the author Michael Crichton was disappointed that audiences seemed to misinterpret the original Westworld’s message. This time the real v...

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...