This week I’ve mainly been playing Baldur’s Gate on my laptop.
I mentioned last week that I’m enjoying this game a lot more now that I’m in
the frame of mind to go around the different areas grinding for Experience
Points, but first impressions of the game are a little misleading in this
respect, as there is really only one way you can go at the start of the game –
the Nashkel Mines is the first major dungeon – and if you don’t go there
reasonably quickly, certain party members leave you behind. I wouldn’t want to
have to handle the first part of the game without Jaheira’s healing powers! Now
that I’m well into the game, having cleared the Cloakwood mines – the second
major dungeon – I’m touring round the Southern part of the world map, trying to
tie up all my loose ends before I head to Baldur’s Gate itself.
 |
Apparently he gets much
better later on... |
The other thing to keep in mind was that while I was
initially willing to allow some of my party members to die, I’m building a
party around the six I have now that I’m happy with: The main character is a Paladin
called Roisin, who I’ve given a two-weapon fighting style. Imoen, of course, is
essential for her trap-finding skills and as her main weapon is her bow, she
also serves as most of the party’s artillery. I picked up Branwen in Nashkel,
and I held on to Jaheira as well – multiple healers in the party give it a
little more longevity, especially in the later areas of the game where you need
to cast several healing spells to heal a party member completely. Dynaheir is
my wizard, and she is at her most useful when her area-of-effect spells flatten
a combat encounter before it even starts. Finally, I have Rasaad, a monk who is
new to the Enhanced edition of the game I have. He can do a decent amount of
damage up close, but doesn’t seem to be able to take much himself – I had to
use magic items
to
bring his Armour Class down
to a reasonable level, and even then, he appears to get hit a lot and doesn’t
have a particularly high hit dice.
Nonetheless, I’m happy with the party I’ve got now and I’ll hopefully see it through
to the end!
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I mean, I'm assuming this is an updated
version of the Revenant... |
Elsewhere, I’ve been playing Doom on the PS4. I’ve had this
a while and I’ve just gotten around to playing it; I’m liking it so far! While
the graphics and gameplay have obviously been enhanced by increasingly good
technology since the 1993 originals I still play from time to time, the fast
and frantic game play is still there and makes for some intense, thrilling
battles. Hit-scan weapons are thankfully a thing of the past, but it’s a lot harder
to dodge projectiles unless you’re really on it with your strafing! I’m not
very far into the game yet, but it’s one I will come back to when I need a
cathartic shooting spree. I don’t have a PlayStation Plus account though, so
you’re unlikely ever to see me on Multiplayer.
 |
Has the same 7th gen problem of having
unnerving eyes... |
Finally, I downloaded and played Dark Void on Xbox Games with
Gold on the Xbox 360. This is an interesting game that looks like it’s going to
be a jetpack-based shoot-em-up, but then the main plot kicks in and it’s a 7
th-gen
cover-based shooter with some jetpack elements added later. It’s based just
before the World War II, where your plane crashes somewhere over the Bermuda
Triangle and you find yourself under attack from strange metal beings called
The Watchers. It’s alright; it’s tried to implement verticality into
cover-based shooting which was a brave move, and I probably would have liked it
a lot more were it not for the fact that I’ve just played through Uncharted 2.
I’ve heard that Dark Void was something of a let-down in its potential, but I’ll
try to beat it and see for myself!
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