I'm a little late for New Year's resolutions, but one I'd like to at least attempt this year is to write more. I spend lots of time writing down my thoughts about games, but I rarely ever post them online - this is where I'll try to change that!
The title for this...series?...is because a majority of my time for playing games/hobbies is over the weekend due to my standard, monday through friday, white collar job, (ugh). So let's get to it!
Spoiler warning just because.
Dishonored (X360)
If I keep up with this blog, a common feature will be games that have been out for some time. Dishonored was apart of Games With Gold a few months back, and I had some interest when it was released, just not enough to buy it. Lucky me it was free!
I knew very little about the makeup of Dishonored. For as much time as I spend on a video game website, I still make an effort to avoid most specifics for games I see myself playing at some point. I had heard it compared to games like Deus Ex, but it took me a few missions to really see how open ended it was. Initially I considered quitting, due to what I think was a bug, that prevented me from completing a mission non-lethally. One of my main problems with a majority of games is the focus on murder. I know, I know, Corvo is an assassin/body guard, but whenever there is an option of non-violence in games, I jump at it immediately. I only killed 5 people over the course of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and it was out of total necessity to continue making progress. Other than that, I loved that I didn't have to kill every enemy.
Back to Dishonored, apparently I had angered the gang that hung out at the Dunwall Distillery, so when I tried to turn in the non-lethal quest to them, the only options I had was to kill their leader, or leave the mission be. Any attempts at conversation led to me being attacked. Unless I majorly missed something, the fact an option was taken away from me, without me even knowing why, was extremely frustrating. I had almost walked away from the game entirely until I caught one line of dialogue in the same mission. My mission was to murder a friendly character's brothers for...whatever reason. It didn't matter really, much like the rest of the story. Since I could no longer complete the mission non-lethally, I was resolved to murder every person I could in the rest of the game.
This mission took place in a brothel. I didn't want to hurt the ladies, it wasn't their fault. But I did stab a few dudes. Unfortunately I was not stealthy enough, so I had set off the alarms. I made my way to where one of the brothers was hiding. I was planning my attack, considering crashing through the window and plunging my knife right into his neck, or sneaking around and...plunging my knife into his neck. While planning, I heard him say "I wonder if they caught the guy yet," or something along those lines. Looking through the window, I see that he is standing, almost waiting, for the door to open, while his lady friend is trembling beside him. The instances are scripted, but even the smallest shred of adaptability to a player's actions is so intriguing to me. I officially liked Dishonored from them on.
I won't summarize my whole playthrough, but my favorite thing to do was to use the Blink ability to teleport right behind enemies, stab them, and then Blink away. I got such a kick out of the speed with which I could dispatch guards, all without being caught. Dishonored had a really great feel, which is great, because the gameplay was all that kept me going. The story was very...meh.
Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
I have not yet completed this game, because mostly what I want to talk about is the difficulty. I've had a game going for over a year now, because I keep taking breaks after a punishing defeat in battle. I haven't played many tactical RPG's, so it is very possible I'm just not good at planning. I sort of forced my way through The Banner Saga, and Final Fantasy Tactics was so long ago that I don't remember.
Last spring was when I first started the game, and only now have I got back to it. I had hit a point in the game where the mission was so tedious, and I kept failing, that I considered putting my controller through my TV multiple times. The mission was just Welkin and Alicia, trying to sneak through a forest while dodging mortar shots. Seemed simple, but for some reason I was having a lot of trouble. I picked it up again, and I realized, this whole time, that I could save in the middle of battles. Yes, I'm an idiot. Yes, this changed the whole game for me.
I'm now making progress, and loving the game again, but I still forget to save at times and lose a good amount of progress. I will prevail, because I like the story and I really want to see it through, but man is this game rough.
Misc.
- For the past few months, my weekends have also included recording a podcast with friends. Here's the newest episode.
- Another resolution was to get back to drawing, so I purchased a cheap sketchpad for my PC so I can finally experiment with digital art. Someday I hope to contribute to the amazing Giantbomb fan art!
- I have taken the dive of trying to learn Game Maker by following the Tom Francis videos. If anyone is on the fence, I promise he explains things very clearly, as I had no coding experience at all. Who knows if it will ever go anywhere for me, but at least I can say I tried!
Thanks for reading and how was your weekend?
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