Gaming Lately – End of July
I haven’t been writing individual reviews of games lately because my time has been dedicated to a couple games in particular for the last few weeks: Guild Wars 2 and 7 Days to Die. I haven’t forgotten about my Steam challenge, and plan to continue it (I have played games I haven’t written about yet!). I’ve also taken a little break from FFXIV for the time being — after logging in to run dailies almost every single day for months, I think that’s fair. I plan on returning to that, too when I get the itch.
So what are the two games I’m playing lately doing right?
Guild Wars 2
I have to applaud GW2 for turning around the Living Story problems from Season 1. I like how the story is broken into bite-sized chunks that let me pick it up and play it for a while. I like how exploration is woven into story. I like how the new area continues to unfold, providing the open world content that I enjoy. I like the idea of the hidden locked chests and the treasures they offer — I’ll be making my first ambrite weapon today! Hope I can snag one of those new kites.
I like achievements being optional on additional play throughs. And so far, I like the attention of detail the story has provided. It pushes a lot of buttons for those who enjoy the lore, like me. I won’t say the quality is high literature or anything, but it’s been an enjoyable ride. I’ve relaunched my character RP blog and even Syn seems to be enjoying her play through as I go through a second time with her.
As long as they keep the story compelling and on track, I’ll keep looking forward to logging in and playing.
7 Days to Die
Steam says I’ve put 136 hours into this game — more than I’ve put into most single player games ever. I don’t see myself stopping soon, especially given that Update 9 promises an infinite random world generator.
My group started out playing on a privately hosted server. We’ve moved up to a public PvE server, and seen how the multi-player aspect changes the game completely. Depending on the server, that’s not always a positive thing. But in this case, it’s a good server with mostly good people, so we’ve had fun building and blasting zombies in a fairly safe environment.
I joke to say this game is for guys who like to seem macho while crafting and building (at least in the PvE environment). You hear chat peppered with things like “Nice fort!” “Cool tunnel.” “Come check out my new tower.” and such. Of course, these things are only manly because your fort or tunnel or tower has to have the defenses to withstand hordes of zombies.
I’m not sure why I find the idea of manly crafting funny, but I do. And that’s not to say this game isn’t for women (we have three girls on our team), but well… the manly crafting thing is just a joke. Okay. Nothing serious meant by it. 🙂
Anyhow. Survival, salvaging, zombie fights, resource gathering, crafting, fort building, interior decorating, tower defense… yeah. I’m enjoying this game immensely. Considering it’s still in alpha state, it’s only going to keep getting better.