Gaming Weekend: Mind the Grind Edition
This week I shockingly play more WoW, finally get around to the Mirror’s Edge demo, try Halo Wars’ demo, get sucked further into the Puzzle Quest trap, save the world yet again and rediscover a game I keep thinking I’ll break free of eventually.
One thing I didn’t do was play Flower. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to try it but I don’t understand why Sony doesn’t have the same policy as Microsoft for their downloadable games and mandate a trial download. I can’t say I’m universally happy with the game trials on XBLA (I’m looking at you, online-multiplayer-only HD Street Fighter II) but at least there is something there for you so you can make informed decisions. Unlike full game purchases that can be rented or are ubiquitously reviewed, some of these little games fall through the cracks. I think especially for something like this game that has some unusal elements, it feels like such a risk to drop $10 on something that you may not care for. I don’t know about you but my gaming budget is ultra thin these days and I don’t have the patience for stupid marketing decisions. So way to go, Sony. You just cost yourself $10.
Bitterness aside, here’s what I was up to this week.
- World of Warcraft
My Orc Warrior is up to level 47 and I feel like I’m getting to the point where I’m mostly interested in just reaching 60 so I can roam relatively freely through the Old World. I’m realizing in large part that my moment-to-moment enjoyment of the game is dependent on how much I like the zone I’m grinding in; currently I’ve selected The Hinterlands which I basically hate both in terms of quests and terrain/mobs so it hasn’t been a huge joy this last week to play. Contrast that with the Hillsbrad Foothills, Desolace (well, most of it) and The Athari Highlands all of which I spent a lot of time in and loved the game all the while. I also find that profession grinding is a curious thing because I understand how it is supposed to progress with you as you level but it seems like I’m either doing one or the other in this level range. I took almost two nights off of XP advancing in order to push Blacksmithing to 200 because the only reasonable item I could craft that would give a skill bump each time required a load of iron, which I had previously assumed as a lower-level ore and was selling for huge profits on the Auction House. Realizing I needed it, I had to go back to lower level zones and run through collecting Iron Ore.
I’m also looking forward to the next billing cycle (which is how I’m thinking of the game since I’m determined to cancel my account just before I burn out on it rather than let it sit there payed for but un-played) and realizing that unless I catch the leveling fever with one of my alts, I’m not sure how much longer I’ll stick with the game once I hit 60. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t intrigued by the expansion content but in addition to the subscription the two of them together amount to another $65-70. I could obviously spread this over a few months but I’m curious to know how much actual enjoyment they add to the game. Enough to keep me paying the fee for a bit? Or so much that I regret the purchase? - Magic: the Gathering
Since some of my gamer friends now work in the same department as I do, we occasionally take a lunch break to play a quick game or two. Even though I don’t have the funds to maintain an updated library of cards, I have enough to build a few decks and it’s a great lunchtime game: Rich enough to scratch my gaming itch but quick-playing enough not to get us fired for spending the whole day playing on company time. We’ve been playing mostly Tournament P-Type which is essentially long form sealed deck, where you start from an agreed-upon pool size (usually one starter and two boosters although for a while they were selling that amount of cards in special one-box Tournament Packs) and build a 40-card minimum deck and score your deck by the number of cards in it and the leftovers called the sideboard. You always play for ante in P-Type although when you win you can choose a card from the sideboard instead as long as it is of equal rarity (basic land for basic land, uncommon for uncommon, etc). Since your deck grows when it wins, your deck score increases as well. There are handicapping rules and some more specifics about handling ante disputes as well although we usually omit those in favor of friendly, casual games.
Mostly I’ve been playing with a white/red/green enchantment deck from the Ravnica block. It actually is a very effective design when it gets going since the block contains Magemarks which stack enchantments onto enchanted creatures. So a few weenies, a few low-cost enchantments and you have a cheap yet burly army. The problem of course is that you can get into a situation where you don’t have enough enchantments to beef up your creatures or you don’t have any creatures to cast those spiffy enchatments onto. Which, with my shuffling and luck, it precisely what happens almost every time.
I keep thinking eventually I just won’t have the patience for Magic any longer, but the truth is the core game mechanic is really just fun and while the cost structure built into the game keeps me at a respectful distance, I can’t help but dip in over and over, more than a little wistful at what could be. - Pandemic
The other game we play at work sometimes is Pandemic and we’ve gotten a few games in recently. The curious thing about Pandemic is that while it relies quite a bit on luck (that opening setup phase can define the course of the game and the configuration of Roles makes a difference too), if you get a group of experienced players together it starts to feel like there is no real sweet spot for challenge versus bad luck. With five Epidemics a veteran trio of players can win seemingly seven or eight out of every ten games. With six, the outcome feels almost entirely random based on what the roles are and how the setup goes. We even tried a two-player six Epidemic game and really had no chance at all.
It seems to me like there should be a mode in which you have to eradicate (not just cure) all the diseases as well. That way you can play three players but have the deck loss condition become a serious risk factor and make some of the early game decisions become less clear cut: Do we send the Medic sweeping through those last few cities to eradicate that color or do we hope we have a chance to get back to clear it out later so s/he can focus on something a bit more presently threatening? I guess what I’m really hoping for at this point is an impending release of the expansion. - Puzzle Quest
After replaying some of PQ on XBLA I decided that I’d played the couch version enough and what I really wanted was a handheld copy I could take with me and play in a sort of more casual mode. So I requested it from Goozex and got it rather quickly. I’ve played quite a bit of it since; it really is an excellent on-the-go game. I don’t know if it’s just because I played hours upon hours of the XBLA version but I struggle a little with the interface. The touchscreen thing is full of intriguing possibilities and I typically don’t mind using it when it offers something to the game. But in this case thre’s no real reason for it to be the only means of interacting with the game board and it’s a little sensitive so I’ve done a dozen or so mis-moves by being a little sloppy with the stylus. It’s not a big deal but between that and the fact that the suggest-a-move thing seems designed to set up the CPU for these devastating cascade attacks and wild 14-turn 4-of-a-kind combos but has no obvious way to toggle it off, I feel like it’s approaching the stripped down shareware version of the game I originally loved. For the time being its portability trumps its minor annoyances, we’ll see how it goes after a few more plays.
Demo Watch
I downloaded the Mirror’s Edge demo probably months ago but never got around to trying it so on a lark I fired it up and played through the tutorial and story demo. I have to say the game demos very well. I liked the sense that Assassin’s Creed gave during the free-running portions but I admit to being skeptical about that sort of thing in a strictly first person game. Mercifully the game plays much better than I expected it would and while I could tell that the combat portions could potentially get annoying (of course they couldn’t just make a fun game where you had to execute sweet parkour moves in first person without guns and stuff) it was enough to have me drop it on my Goozex queue.
The other demo I checked out was Halo Wars on the 360. My relationship with RTS games is similar to what I have with fighting games: I’ve played quite a lot of them, maybe even a surprising amount, considering that I’m no good at them and really can’t say I like them all that much. There is something about both types that appeals to me, but my frustrations with them don’t allow me more than a sort of surface level enjoyment that in a lot of ways is contrary to how I play all other types of games. With RTS my problem is generally that they boil down to prioritizing and organization games. Your key skill is the ability to manage and delegate enough so that you can keep a steady stream of backline infrastructure building while you macro-manage the assault and defensive campaigns against your foe(s). But I don’t operate that way: I always try to play the games such that I build the maximum allowable force with full upgrades and then leave my base behind and walk this unstoppable juggernaut into the enemy lines, crushing everything in my path.
Most RTS games allow this sort of approach to work for maybe five or six levels and then you have to start fending off skirmish waves while you’re progressing and you have to employ zerg rushes, calculate upgrades based on specific need, keep hero units alive but utilize their abilities… it becomes too much for my pea brain to process and I end up getting ground down until I can’t take anymore. Halo Wars isn’t really different in that it is still an RTS from the standpoint that I’m terrible at it and thus it feels like other genre titles I’ve played. I do admire the way they were able to shed the legacy of the keyboard/mouse control scheme and create something that is wholly comfortable in a console setting. I suspect your ability to gain abject joy from it will depend on how well you can divorce yourself from the pedigree of the past and to a greater extent, how much the subject matter entices you to play. I like Halo, I’ve enjoyed all the FPS games and think the backstory is relatively intriguing but I don’t know if yet another space war is enough to convince me to play a genre that exhausts me, no matter how well it fits into its intended space.