Gaming – Page 317 – A Pixel Nomad

Why Marvel Heroes Is Worth Your Time

Somehow, Marvel Heroes (which is now technically named Marvel Heroes 2016) doesn’t seem to generate a lot of discussion among fans of MMO gaming. To be sure, it stands apart from some of the classic themes and atmospheres associated with the genre. But it still caters to a huge community of online players and involves seemingly limitless characters from the biggest name in modern entertainment. And the truth is, it’s actually a pretty well-rounded game.

If you’ve been skeptical, as some are, that this can stand as a strong MMO and not just a fun shoutout to Marvel cinema, consider some of the following.

First and foremost, this is one of the more prominent online MMOs that actually falls into the ARPG category. That may or may not matter to you depending on your particular style and preference, but I think a post in a discussion on Reddit nailed why it works for Marvel specifically. Basically, it discussed how an RPG is all about “us” whereas an ARPG is “inherently more heroic” than the standard RPG, because of the ability to build up an individual character to take on a group. This works both for and against Marvel in a way. Part of the fun for fans is gathering a variety of characters they love from comics and films. However, the chance to take up a single favourite and build him to genuine superhero status is really appealing. The ARPG status of Marvel Heroes alone helps the game stand out, but it’s worth mentioning given the character and subject matter.

With all that said, a lot of the additional fun in Marvel Heroes is that it ropes in characters from Marvel who are meaningful to a lot of comic book fans, regardless of the films—and that’s unique in Marvel gaming. Generally speaking, fans of these more obscure Marvel characters have to go digging for chances to find them in video games. The jackpot options at Betfair have really been the best bet for a while, thanks to the platform’s tendency to use Marvel themes as a way of making casino content more interesting. Jackpot and slot machine titles revolving around Blade, the Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and others have been a bit of an oasis for folks who are tired of Avengers-only games that don’t live up to the splendour of the films anyway. But at Marvel Heroes, not only are pretty much all noteworthy Marvel comics characters involved, a lot of them are playable. It’s just a wonderful, rare collection of iconic characters rather t
han those created just for an MMO experience.

Perhaps best of all for a lot of regular MMO gaming fans is the scope of this game. I’m not sure it can be put any better than it was in a write-up at Ten Ton Hammer when the site gave Marvel Heroes 2015 its Game of The Year award: Marvel Heroes offers “an unparalleled amount of raw gaming fun, deep progression systems, and a seemingly never ending stream of meaningful gameplay updates.” In simpler terms, this game is big, deep, and constantly being updated either with new editions for each year (as now seems to be the pattern) or simply with new characters, upgrades, and areas. In a sense it’s a very fluid MMO, and that keeps it interesting no matter how often you play.

Marvel Heroes 2016 is also free to play, which means it’s very easy for you to give it a shot and decide for yourself if all of the above makes it a worthwhile game! But don’t just discount it because of Marvel fatigue—it’s actually a pretty impressive experience.

Legacy Family Woes

Last night I decided to relax with a little Sims 4 – and play my legacy family, the “Little’s”. When we left off, Emily was about to age to a young adult, and Jessica was quickly approaching elder status. Yep, my legacy family is still only on the 2nd generation. The “goal” is to reach the 10th. I’ve never made it past the 2nd before, I normally start a new family or I lose my save or something happens to the family. In the screenshot above you can see deceased Alonzo hanging out, having dinner with his wife. Even in death the Little’s are nothing if not persistent.

Emily got a job as a hungry artist. She spends a lot of time covered in paint. Jessica is still writing novels, but she’s contemplating retiring. Emily also has a boyfriend, but the relationship is a bit awkward because he’s not a young adult yet, he’s still a teenager. It means they’re restricted to hugs and watching TV together. She may have to move on to someone more her own age before too long. I’m hoping to see him age up.

I grew frustrated with their house yesterday so I removed the important items (Alonzo’s urn, Emily’s birth certificate) and I demolished the lot, then re-built something I enjoyed more. The rules of the legacy family state that they have to live on the same lot the entire time, but it’s perfectly fine for you to build and re-build the place. After all, families grow with time.

Besides work, neither Little has much free time. I know there are vacation days, but I rarely take them. I haven’t explored much outside of the lot, but I know with more game time that will change. Especially as the family amasses more money and it becomes less of a requirement to work. If I ever make it to that point.

The Sims 4 is still one of those games that I can play for hours and discover new things all of the time. Plus, it’s entertaining. Both Emily and Jessica had franks and beans as a dinner and the entire evening was filled with odious clouds of green toots that they would then waft towards each other, while giggling.

Sometimes, this game emulates real life just a little too much.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Field Photographer

When World of Warcraft came out with the S.E.L.F.I.E. camera, of course I thought it was one of the weirdest gimmicks added to the game in a long time. Your character poses as though they’re taking a picture of themselves, and you get to choose from a number of filters before taking the shot. There’s even an achievement for doing this in various locations, and that’s what I’ve been working on lately. You get the title “Field Photographer” if you complete them all.

When I talk about “other things to do” in an MMO – this is exactly what I mean. Sure, it’s fun to go around defeating the evil creatures of the world, but sometimes you just want to play the game and relax while doing it. Sometimes that means crafting, harvesting, doing houses (not in WoW), or flying around getting updates for random achievements that offer very little ‘progression’ to your character. These little advancements are what keep me gaming when I’m done my dailies, and they’re essential to my gameplay.

I believe I only have one or two more locations to hit before I’ve completed them all. I’ve posted all of the screenshots in an album over on Google Plus for anyone who wants to take a peek.

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

An Age of Games

These days there is not only choice about what sort of games we want to play, but also where we want to play those games. “Gamers” are no longer designated to just two locations, the couch (console gamers) or the PC. Now we can play games on our tablets, phones, and even our watches. How do you know what game you want to play? How do you decide what to try out next?

A lot of it comes from word of mouth. Other games we learn about on various platforms like the AppStore or Google Play. Sometimes you stumble into a hidden gem while exploring the various options available. A lot of games are free to play, making it easy to “try before you buy” and the only thing you have to invest from the outset is a bit of your time.

RTS, (known as real time strategy games) have only grown in popularity as gaming has become mainstream. In one such game you play as Lord of Stormfall and you have to raise your castle by gathering resources. As you grow stronger in power, you battle other rivals and defeat them. You can spend real life money on sapphires to purchase in-game perks like boosting resource production. There are even tutorials and guides so that you don’t get lost along the way, and a helpful wiki. You learn how to be flexible with your resources so that you’re able to adapt to each of the situations on the battlefield. In this way your army continues to evolve, and that’s how you rise in power.

When you start the tutorial you’re instantly brought into the game by the voice over explaining the basics through the tutorial. You’re told to start farming so that you can produce food for your army, and as you complete each task you’ll earn sapphires and other resources like gold and iron. Exploring around as your farm and mine are being built will show you that there are also daily login rewards. After you’ve got a few buildings you’ll be headed to your first battle, and if you’ve been paying attention to the tutorial you’ll emerge victorious! If not, don’t worry, you can keep building up your castle and try again.

The game has a lot to it and was quite a bit more involved than what I was expecting, which was a fantastic surprise. If you’re interested in trying it out or just want more information, you can find it here.

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

Collecting (steam) Games

This post is motivated from a conversation I had on twitter yesterday where one person was surprised that collecting games on steam was a thing. Sometimes I forget that we’re not all steam game players – there’s also the Origin game client, battlenet client, other clients I haven’t named, and then of course there’s console games. Even though I own 233 steam games I don’t consider myself a ‘collector’ of them because I don’t actively seek games out. They tend to be simple humble bundles, or games from good sales. At what point would I consider myself a collector? I’m not sure. If I went just by sheer number of games then sure, I suppose 233 is more than enough to qualify – but I don’t *feel* like a collector of steam games.

Looking over my stats was a bit of a surprise. 60% of the games I own I’ve never played. I think a lot of people who acquire steam games can probably say the same thing. We buy them and we either never play them or we play them for incredibly limited amounts of time. Why does this happen? Well, lets face it, our time is precious. If we’re not completely sold on a game and we bought it on a whim or it came bundled with another game, we may not have that urge and motivation to log in when we only have an hour here and there. Why would we want to play something we’ve barely even heard of when our comfort game is waiting just over there.

It’s much harder to get me to try something I’ve never heard of before or that I’m uncertain about. That’s not to say that these games are not also amazing to play, I have no doubt that they are, but convincing me takes some time. Then there’s the obligation we may feel to play MMOs that currently require a subscription. What about all of those early access games that we buy thinking “I’ll play it when it fully releases, this game looks awesome and has so much potential!” only that game never gets out of the early access stage and years later it’s still sitting in your steam library. Yep. I have a few of those sitting around too.

One thing I don’t do is feel bad about collecting games, even games I’ve never played. I think collecting things is human nature. Comic books, baseball cards, art, rocks, whatever. These are our hobbies, and we invest in them. Some hobbies grow in value over time – and some don’t. I don’t expect that my steam account will be “worth” anything if I were to pass on but I do know that getting a neat game makes me smile, and playing those games and discovering them can take me away from a pretty crummy day and brighten things up. Berating ourselves for getting a treat of any sort is a common practice. I think these treats are essential to our well being. Of course I do mean in realistic terms here, obviously if you have no source of income and you’re spending food money on video games there’s a problem – but if you’re working hard and want a game – even a game you may not play for long – that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Of course I do have a goal to try to play more of my steam games, especially those I’ve never played before. Just need more hours in a day.