I thought I’d start trying to do a regular blog on the games
I’ve been playing in the week. I normally only do it when I’ve beaten one, but
in many cases that takes ages and I rarely play a game to completion these
days. That significantly reduced the output of blogs, and while I don’t intend
to write so much that it becomes more work than fun, I thought I’d make an
effort to describe the games I’ve been playing in what little of my free time
remains available to me!
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| Haven't quite achieved this level of grandeur yet... |
First up, earlier on in the week I had a go at Civilization
IV on my laptop. I bought it as it was at the top of the list of Rock Paper
Shotgun’s 50 Greatest Strategy Games. Now, 4x strategy games haven’t always
agreed with me; I find the lack of personal involvement in what I’m doing takes
my head out of the story of the game somewhat. But I have recently been
enjoying turn-based games a lot more and this certainly gives me the time and
space to think about what I’m doing. I’m playing as the Americans at the moment
and I’ve put an hour or so into the game on the second-to-bottom difficulty.
I’ve enjoyed my time with it so far and I hope I continue to do so; it’s an
enjoyable enough game and arguably the best in the series (not that I’d know,
having not played another Civilization game since the first. There was a
version on the Nintendo DS at some point that I finished in a single evening
but I’m not sure that counts!)
In the Roleplaying group we continued the Dungeons and
Dragons Eberron campaign in which I’m playing a Halfling Monk called Corrin.
I’ve never played a Monk before and it’s an odd experience; they’re great at
combat and rubbish at everything else. That takes me out of the game on those
occasions where we’re not in combat, but at the same time I really like being
good at it! Combining the multi-attack damage output of the monk with the
mobility of the Halfing means that I can very easily set up flanking moves
(yes, they are a thing in 5e!) and potentially inflict the most damage of the
party so far!
The adventure our GM is running, Murder in the Dark, was
clearly designed as an introductory adventure to the Eberron setting and I’m
not sure I’m enjoying the way it’s designed. Without wishing to spoil, it was
quite obviously written for certain aspects of the adventure to work out in a
certain way, and it does grate somewhat when you were always going to lose the
macguffin item in order to advance the plot – I can see why it has to be done,
but it doesn’t feel very organic! But then again, it’s on the players and the
GM to make a good roleplaying experience and I have been enjoying the game, on
the whole. I just wish it wasn’t at the end of a full and very long day at
work; then I wouldn’t be so tired while I was doing it!
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| This bit is cool. I want one of those boards! |
Also I had a go on Shinobi III on the Sega Megadrive
Ultimate Collection on the Xbox360. This is a game I owned during the time I
owned a Megadrive, so I’ve been playing it for a long time indeed, and I still
find it enjoyable even to this very day. I’m not quite as good at it now as I
was back then – I can no longer beat the game on the hardest difficulty – but I
can take a certain amount of pride in knowing how to do all the special
attacks. The dive kick, for example, makes the game a lot easier to play, as
does knowing the functionality of the Ninjitsu techniques. I got to the fifth
stage this time, but got frustrated when I died due to falling down a hole – a
silly mistake, and one I knew would cost me later on – so I gave up and went
for a shower.
I might have a bit more time next week, so we’ll see what
that brings. See you soon!
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