Gaming Weekend Highlights: H1Z1, Sims 4, FFXIV, More!
I continue to throw a bit of variety into my gaming sessions this week, mostly working on single player games. I wanted to do what I call “gift week” this week (since Saturday is my birthday). I thought it was only fitting that I spend some time playing through games that were gifted to me by other folks. These games are also on my Steam challenge list of want-to-play. So, that’s part of what I’ve been doing.
Here’s my roundup!
FFXIV: Crafting to Heavensward
I continue to take a break from dungeons and heavy content in FFXIV, letting myself wind down a bit in this time leading up to Heavensward. I still try to log in every day to take care of FC stuff (we just celebrated our first year birthday!), but most of my concentration has been on doing crafting dailies. While this is by far not the fastest way to level crafting, I know, I just want to casually make progress on all of my crafting and gathering classes at once. This is a good way to do that.
This weekend, I bumped my botanist, miner and goldsmith up to level 40. The rest of my classes are hovering in the high 30s with nothing below 37. Pretty happy with that progress, though I can’t be certain I’ll have everything to 50 come expansion. That’s fine, though. I have a feeling the gap between 50 and 60 is going to take quite some time, and I’m in no rush.
H1Z1: The Return
I’ve been keeping an ear out for all of H1Z1’s updates lately, and was very pleased to see the new female avatars appear in game this week, along with grouping and a server wipe. So, when my zombie hunting troop decided to play H1Z1 for the first time since January (I believe), I was happy to come in and check out all the changes in the game.
The game is much, much improved. There’s actually loot now, which allows us to actually play the game, rather than play a berry-picking simulator. I was able to actually try out the crafting system this time, since tools, food and weapons weren’t impossible to get like they were the first time we played. I successfully made a wood shack, learned how to make storage containers, and am generally having a lot more fun than I did the first time (sans bears).
I’m still not sure what good grouping actually does in the game, though. You can’t see members of your group on the map (don’t know if that changes when you find a compass because none of us have one). But I’m glad that grouping is at least a thing that’s being developed.
I’ll write up a more in-depth post about this later as I have a feeling we’ll be playing this a bit this week.
Sims 4: Get to Work
I’ve been spending a lot of my gaming time binging on Sims 4, playing through all of the new career tracks from the Get to Work expansion. I’ll probably write a full article about this, too, as I have a lot to say about this expansion… and probably will have more once I finally get to the retail portion of the game.
I maxed out the detective career, have made it pretty far in the doctor career, and finally started playing the scientist career, which I saved for my KiNa/Kip character in particular. Oh, man… I’m having a blast with the scientist career – it’s absolutely perfect for Kip! Not only does he get to geek out creating inventions, but he can use this ray gun he crafted to mind control his co-workers into doing things. The best part? When he successfully mind controls people, he gives the HAHAHAH evil laugh (and gets a Mwahahah moodlet), just like he’d really do.
So, that, amongst contacting aliens… getting abducted… and simmers know where that leads. Yeah. It’s been an interesting ride this week. I’m trying to figure out how to weave it all into my Sygnus Sims storyline in the future. So much content to write about!
Divinity: Original Sin
This was a Christmas gift (thank you!), so it’s been on my I-need-to-try list for a while. I’ve spent some time with it, but not enough time for me to feel like I can give it a really good writing-about. It’s been a long time since I’ve actually tried to work through a long-form single-player RPG, so I’m feeling pretty rusty.
From the outset, though, the game surprised me at character creation by allowing me to create not one, but two, characters to start with. I knew it was a co-op game, but I didn’t realize that I’d be creating half my party from the outset. This actually enthralled me, and I promptly rolled the tank/mage combo of a Leona and Ben. Best choice ever… as I love how the characters banter between each other.
I’m only a few hours in, but I’ve already been tasked with a quest to save time (and hence the world) itself. So, I’d say things are looking pretty epic. The game is sure placing a lot of hopes on a rusty gamer like me, though. I’m glad you can save anywhere you want, because choices you make stick with you. And when the game warns you not to dig things up, you should probably listen.
This is definitely a game that’ll get a Steam Challenge post later, once I have a stronger feel for it.
Analogue: A Hate Story
This was also a gift game (thank you!), and the first visual novel I’ve ever played. I did play through to the end of the story (or, what the game considers being 94%), though the game has several different endings that I went and looked up later.
What can I even say about this game in just a few paragraphs. It really can’t be done. There’s too much to talk about and too many conflicting feelings I have walking away from it. I laud the game for excellent design and clever methods of storytelling. But I can’t say that I liked the story… and I don’t think that’s a bad thing! In fact, the more I thought about it afterwards (it’s a good sign when the game makes me think about it afterwards), the more I think that I wasn’t supposed to like this story.
Now whether I was meant to dislike the characters (which I did), I’m not so sure. But I laud the game for giving me that moral choice. I, of course, being a softie took Hyun-ae with me at the end… but if I were to do it over again, I’d leave her butt there on the ship like she deserves!
Anyhow… probably a full Steam Challenge discussion for this game later! It deserves a full article.
Neko Atsume
The Japanese cat app that a lot of folks online are talking about made itself at home on my iPhone this weekend. It’s a cute, low-maintenance cat collecting game that I passed on to my sister.
While it does have some freemium elements to it, they’re not so overpowering as to be off-putting. It’s kinda a phone-zen sort of thing, something to check from time to time throughout the day, just to see which cats have come to play with stuff and what they’ve left you.
Upcoming
This week, I’m looking forward to a long three day weekend to celebrate my birthday! I know I’ll be hitting up H1Z1 some more with the zombie troop as my sister is also on vacation from work this week. Along with that, I’d like to delve into more Divinity, try Project Zomboid (another game gift), and keep spinning stories with Sims 4.
I have a lot to write about, as well. Happy to be trying out a lot of Steam games lately. That keeps the inspiration flowing!