Kingdoms of Amalur: This is a
hugely impressive crpg
and well worth trying but after playing for a couple of weeks I began
to feel something akin to mmorpg burnout. I am going to take a break
from the game.
Far Cry 3: The original Far Cry is one of my all time favourite games. I was very disappointed by
Far Cry 2
but when 3 won many accolades my hopes were raised once more. Despite
the hype my first impressions were not that great. I didn't hate the
game like I did 2 but it certainly wasn't love at first sight. The main
plot is quite forgettable and the game-play seemed to lack any real
challenge. The game does have a breathtakingly beautiful huge open world
but at first I didn't see the point of it. It is only when I adjusted
my perspective and began to explore the world that the game began to
make sense to me. The world is choc a bloc with fun things to do.
Hunting games survival games, racing games, target practice and many
others pop up all over the landscape. Best of all the quality of these
mini games is uniformly high. I have started playing every one I come
across and I have yet to get bored. Far Cry 3 seems to have as many side
quests as Skyrim and that may be a fairer point of comparison than a
traditional linear shooter. Even the main plot is really just an excuse
to tie together a series of entertaining missions. I have just
completed one which involved setting fire to a series of marijuana
fields with a flame thrower while a pounding reggae beat plays in the
background. The fact that my character was getting giddy on the fumes
just added to the fun. The lack of challenge stems from the fact that
the game showers you with weapons and loot from the very beginning of
the game. Within a very short while you will be well enough equipped to
take on anything the island throws at you which renders the whole
collecting and crafting aspect of the game rather pointless. The fact
that loot is so plentiful removes any sense of desperate survival which
should be part of the main plot. None of this impacts on the many mini
games however because they generally equip you with a fixed loadout be
it a knife, a bow, a specific gun or even grenades to accomplish your
objective.
Baldur's Gate:
I have never played Baldur's Gate even though I have played many of
Bioware's later games. Nevertheless Baldur's Gate and its sequel BG2
remain huge my memory, huge in reputation and also huge in physical form
because they came with hefty manuals that apparently had to be read
from cover to cover to play. I guess I always intended to check out BG1
and BG2 some day and never quite got around to it. Well
Gamestop have a D&D pack on offer for less than €4
which includes all the Baldur's Gate games, Icewind Dale, Planescape
Torment and the Temple of Elemental Evil. Any one of those titles is
worth the price so I snapped it up. There is a similar deal available
for the Neverwinter games but I already have those.You can get DRM free
versions of these games from gog.com (for a higher price) but the
Impulse client that Gamestop uses is actually quite pleasant and
Baldur's Gate installed and worked first time with no hassle on my
Windows 7 64 bit machine. If I am honest I don't have time for this 100
hour+ game but I did start a character last night. It only took a few
minutes for me to see beyond the blocky graphics and to begin to get
sucked in. I am probably going to have to read that chunky manual (in
pdf form nowadays) because BG uses an earlier version of D&D rules
than I am familiar with and things like armour class and attack bonus
all seem to work in reverse with armour of 0 being better than armour of
10 for example. At least I can finally say I have used the infamous
THAC0. I finished the prologue and my fledgling mage had begun her
adventures in the world proper but for some reason I was unable to save
progress at the end of the session. I have a save from about half an
hour earlier so don't know if this is a bug or a feature but hopefully I
can figure it out on my next attempt.
Comments