Category: Gaming

Off to Harathi Hinterlands

From Lion’s Arch, to Grndarran Fields, to Harathi Hinterlands – which is one of my least favourite zones. I’ve been making my way through the zone and completing hearts and events as I go, but for some reason the place just doesn’t appeal to me at all.

I did get enough mastery points to unlock legendary craft even though I have zero idea what that means. Apparently there are new recipes available, so I need to figure out where the NPC I need to visit is for that. I imagine in one of the cities.

Aside from that I’m still just taking my time and exploring. I’m really excited about mounts with the new expansion, and I’m content to take my time and meander around while we’re waiting for PoF to release. What is everyone else up to in game? Finishing personal stories? Living Seasons? HoT quest lines? Let me know in comments!

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Thoughts on Visual Novels

I love my 3DS, but I have noticed over the years that there’s one game category that’s sorely lacking from the games presented, and it’s a genre that I not only enjoy a great deal but one that lends itself very well to hand held devices.

Of course I’m talking about visual novels.

These types of games are still sort of new to mainstream Western gamers, sure they’ve been around but in very limited spurts as we wait for translations and development. It wasn’t until recently that Steam started carrying a greater selection, and even then a lot of the more popular ones are either created just for Playstation (think Vita), or stand alone on the PC. Even if you speak Japanese and don’t need to wait for a translation getting your hands on a copy here in Canada can prove difficult.

I’m sure Nintendo has a good reason for avoiding the genre, it’s not exactly “family friendly” which is what I typically associate with Nintendo games (I know there are exceptions) but I really think there’s a market for them that is being missed.

In the meantime I just live vicariously through my friends who own a Vita and the few titles that trickle down to steam – if you enjoy VN games don’t forget to support developers and let them know that you want to keep seeing them! I realize they’re not everyone’s favourite, but it’s important to support development so that we continue to get the content that does make its way to this part of the world.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Legacy Family Happenings

It’s been a long time since I peeked in on my Sims 4 legacy family (we’re only on the third generation and the goal is to get to the tenth) but they were still there, waiting. I’m not really sure what I was doing with their current home, but when I started up the game I didn’t like it at all, so the first thing I did was bulldoze the lot and start their home over again. Not a big deal as they were not moving and they still kept their important things, even though I’m only three generations in they’ve accumulated quite a bit of ‘stuff’.

EA has also revamped the purchase screen so I had a clear idea of what I own (and what I don’t). I’m missing a lot of the smaller game components these days, and it’s no wonder because they seem to publish them quite frequently. I never picked up vampires because there’s no easy way to deny them from your sim world – and I don’t have Parenthood, or a lot of the stuff packs like toddler stuff, fitness stuff, bowling night stuff. All of these packs add up, and to “catch up” as it were would be quite expensive.

That being said, I AM very excited about Cats & Dogs which releases November 10th. Pets?! Yes please! This was one of my favourite things in Sims 3, along with seasons which I’m still waiting for. Included in the game is not only pets and items that cater to the animals, but the veterinary career and the ability to create your own vet practice.

Yes please.

Have you kept up with the Sims 4 game packs, expansions, and stuff packs? Which one is your favourite? Are you looking forward to pets being released? Let me know in comments and as always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Slow and Steady

I love achievements. When I can’t figure out what I want to do in a game I can look at the list of achievements and usually find something that appeals to me. Since I’m playing Guild Wars 2 on a newer account that has very little completed, I decided to spend some quiet time chipping away at map completion.

As an example of how very little I have completed on this account – I may have four level 80 characters but they certainly didn’t get there from leveling the traditional way. Rather, I crafted my way to 80. I have 5% world map completion on my main – and of course I want to slowly change that.

I started out easy. I never know when I’m going to have to jump away from the PC so I wanted to begin in a city. I haven’t explored much of Lion’s Arch since the destruction (and rebuilding) after Living Season 1, so I decided that was as good a place as any. I had about 50% of the map already unlocked, waypoints visited and two vista. It took less than an hour to complete the rest, and gave me a nice 2% bump to my overall world map completion.

The best part is that it was completely relaxing and very immersive. I lost myself in the music of the zone, and just bounced around. It was exactly what I wanted to do with my time, and I’m really glad that I did. Was it character progression? Not in the traditional sense of the word, but I did get a little experience for getting it done (cities give very little, I’ve found) and again, it was fun and just what I needed. Next I’m headed to Gendarran Fields, where I have 12% of the map completed. I expect this one will take me a bit longer (hearts, so many hearts) but again it’s a fairly relaxing pace where I can just run around doing my thing and not have to focus too much.

Now I just have to find the time..

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

 

Do You Use the Wishlist Feature?

Just out of curiosity, how many readers out there actually use the Steam Wishlist feature? What do you use it for?

I tend to wishlist games I want but can’t afford at the time, or want and don’t want to spend money on, or want and just.. want. Sometimes an incredibly generous friend gifts one to me and I try to return the favour as often as I can (which isn’t nearly as often as I want, I can tell you that). I try to keep the wishlist up to date and as recent as possible, weeding out games that I don’t REALLY want and that I can’t remember why I actually wishlisted (probably had something to do with a steam sale guiding my hand). My wishlist is a mixture of early access games I don’t want to forget about, and older games that I’m just waiting to go on sale.

If we’re not friends on steam yet, we should be! You can find me there as Stargrace.