Video Game Round Up

December 14, 2016 by Adam in Adam's Games

I've been slowly playing Witcher 3, which is slowly wrapping up.  It's generally been pretty great, and I'm sad to see the series finally end.  Still, it's a good send-off, and I'm savoring it while it lasts.

The Jackbox games are a mainstay at our house.  Sam continues to work on his own video game, which is fun to help him with.

I've been spending a fair amount of free time learning things - Angular 2, advanced security concepts, and so on.  My brain does get full and need distractions occasionally.

Jackbox Games

November 13, 2016 by Adam in Adam's Games

We continue to play the Jackbox Party Pack 3 games, often bringing in various hangers on like Isa and Flynn.  This is probably the best of the party packs, as all the games are well polished and high quality.  My favorite is still Tee KO, but Fakin' It turned out to be well loved by the kids.  I had fun playing Trivia Murder Party, though I have an unfair advantage against the kids with my wealth of pointless knowledge.

I keep working through the Witcher 3 DLC. As Sam pointed out, it's mostly an interactive story with some light combat and roleplaying, but the stories are generally compelling. I think I have a little more time with the first DLC and then it's off to the next one which is considered the best of the two.

More Tee KO

November 06, 2016 by Adam in Adam's Games

We played more Tee KO tonight after dinner with the kids.  My shirt won - the art was Duncan's and the phrase was Joanna's.

Still Witchy

October 31, 2016 by Adam in Adam's Games

In between the usual housework and family activities, I played a little more Witcher 3.  It's generally been pretty good, with interesting stories leading me through the DLC.  I just stepped into a painting, which seems to be a recurring theme with computer role playing games.  This marks the third time I've done it.  Still pretty, though.

The Floor is Zombies

October 12, 2016 by Adam in Adam's Games

Sam and I played the latest zombie game Dying Light together over the weekend.  It's a lot like Dead Island, but with some added parkour where you can run around on rooftops.  It was kinda cool, but both of us came to the realization that the co-op wasn't very good and it wasn't enough to maintain our attention.  We gave up after a couple hours and asked Steam for a refund.

Drawful 2

September 26, 2016 by Adam in Adam's Games

We have such a good time playing Drawful, that I picked up Drawful 2.  It's basically the same game, though you can use two colors and the interface is a little more polished.  There are quite a few more social features, though most don't really matter to me.  The one cool thing is that it's easy to show off the drawings from a game, such as those we played here.

Emma is particularly good at this game, and her sketches are always well-done and hysterical.

Co-op!

August 21, 2016 by Adam in Adam's Games

Sam has been pulling me into assorted co-op games lately.  First it was Rust, where we roamed the desolate countryside as naked people, being repeatedly killed by bandits.  Now it's Divinity: Original Sin, which we played about a year ago but he's developed a taste for again.

Somewhere in there was Lethal League, which is a lot like pong with more crazy characters.  Emma ended up being surprisingly good - she won more games than she lost, I think, though she eventually got bored of it all.

DOOM

July 18, 2016 by Adam in Adam's Games

I have fond memories of DOOM from back in the day.  I used to haul my computer over to my friend's house to hook up our coax network and play multiplayer DOOM.  Later when I was teaching at Omnitek, we pushed out the game to all the computers in the classroom and I'd play with the other instructors at lunch. 

So, when the sequel was released, I was pleasantly surprised that it maintained that sense of crazy, chaotic fun.  The start of the game immediately drops you into the demon-slaying action and it doesn't let up for any length of time.  The best parts were the giant arena fights, facing wave after wave of enemies, running low on ammo and health and trying to survive until the end.  I finished the shortish campaign today, enjoying it immensely.

Firewatch

July 09, 2016 by Adam in Adam's Games

I've been slowly working through my steam summer sale games.  I got stuck at a giant robot demon in my Doom game, so I switched over to the indie game Firewatch.  It was short and very story-driven - you play a troubled man who goes to man a fire watch tower for a summer.  It's pretty good and the artistic style is very pretty.  You get a disposable camera and see at the pictures you took at the end of the game when the credits roll.

Finishing Up Dark Souls 3

June 22, 2016 by Adam in Adam's Games

Well, I finished the last of the Dark Souls games.  The end was kinda interesting, if terribly mysterious.  Some game endings are an accumulation of all your decisions throughout the game.  Others are a "pick the good/evil/neutral ending" sort of thing.  This one was more of a "fumble randomly into a choice" kinda thing.  I beat the final boss of the game, noticed an option to summon the Fire Keeper, clicked it, and that was the end.

It was a pretty game, and there were some cool aspects, but I think I'm ready to move on to something else.

The Souls . . . So Dark

June 05, 2016 by Adam in Adam's Games

I've been playing Dark Souls 3, the last of the series.  The plot tends to be somewhat vague, more of a dream-like exploration with very tough enemies and lore hidden in the descriptions of items.  It's known for being exceptionally difficult. 

I've been playing a sorcerer, which is quite different than the typical knight.  Initially it was tough, but once I got the spell to make myself invisible, most fights became incredibly easy as enemies flailed about unsure of where I was.  Boss fights are still the exception, as they can apparently see through my invisibility.  Still, I'm towards the end of the game and feeling exceptionally formidable.  I think I have a couple more boss fights and then I'm done with the game.

The scenery is exceptionally pretty at times, if a little on the bleak Gothic side.  Once I finish this up, I have some short narrative games I'd like to play that I picked up at the latest Humble Bundle: Her Story, Cibele, and Read Only Memories.  It's a good time to be a gamer.

March Game Update

March 02, 2016 by Adam in Adam's Games

I seem to have one or two games I'm playing in the background.  I finished up the latest Tomb Raider, which was technically solid if a bit uninspired.  I've been playing Child of Light with Sam, which has beautiful watercolor backgrounds and excellent art.  With Emma I've been playing Never Alone, with her as the little Inuit girl and I'm the spirit fox.  They're both fun coop experiences.

As for me, I'm playing a quirky Swedish game where you can write code and hack any object.  Last night I was trying to hack a door combination by trying every possible combination.  Sadly it didn't work, but I'd like to try some other commands and see if I can sneak into forbidden places.

Fallout 4's End

January 16, 2016 by Adam in Adam's Games

Well, I won the game, or at least finished the main quest line.  Fallout 4 is an interesting creature - doing some parts wonderfully and failing at others.  It really isn't a role playing game, but more of a story that you shoot your way through.  I suppose the Bioshock games were similar, with few opportunities for choice along the way.  Still, the exploration was wonderful, especially in the early parts of the game.  Two thirds of the way through the game I felt pretty invulnerable, which I think is part of the design.

There were also a few too many auto-generated quests, which ended up being boring after the first couple.  The irony is that during the dramatic end sequence, I got another one given to me.  It was awkward.

I've got a few side quests I'll be finishing up, and then move on to Undertale, which some people absolutely adore.  I've played a little of the indie pixel game, but haven't quite decided how I feel about it.  In a little over a week, the next Tomb Raider game arrives, which I'm hearing good things about.

Drawful

January 10, 2016 by Adam in Adam's Games

In contrast to Fallout 4, the other game that's getting a lot of play in our house is Drawful.  It's a quirky game played with phones and tablets and the computer.  Basically people get a short phrase, draw it, other people type in what they think it is, and then they vote among everyone's choices.  The best part is trying to interpret these crazy drawings, poorly rendered on tiny screens, and see what people come up with.

Fallout 4 and Red Dresses

January 09, 2016 by Adam in Adam's Games

It turns out that while a red dress is great for convincing others, it's not so super when it comes to battling the creatures of the wasteland.




I'm generally enjoying Fallout 4, though it's pretty light on the "roleplaying" in an RPG.  The best part is really exploring a quirky post-apocalyptic world and seeing the sights.  There's not that much in terms of deciding how the story turns out so far.  There are some classic RPGs coming out in the months ahead, so I'll make due until then.