Key

There are times where i'll find a game that's either free or very cheap through Steam, and I decide to get it and try it out. Sometimes my overall impression of the game is great, and other times I play a game for about an hour and lose interest right away. Fortunately, I find myself enjoying most of the games that I get instead of hating them, but there are still a few that I have gotten and just straight up didn't like as much as I hoped, this is what this section is for. So, to start things off, i'm going to talk about a game that I have heard of before, and it recently made it's way onto Steam, as a free to play:


Trove

This game looked really neat at first glance, and it didn't take long for it to download onto my computer, so I thought that was a plus. The initial start up was really quick and the servers didn't seem to be having too many problems, or so I thought. I found myself getting booted out of the servers multiple times in my tutorial, but I imagine that's mostly due to it being the first couple days of a Steam release. The gameplay, the graphics, and the combat were all pretty top notch for what it's worth, but what really brought me down about it is that there really isn't much difference in difficulty depending on what "portal" you choose. They have certain portals for different levels, but none of them really seemed too different. Sure, I died a few times on bosses and dungeons, but I still didn't feel like the difficulty was that much different from the initial tutorial, which by the way, it extremely tedious. I went into this game expecting an open world RPG of sorts, but what I found was that it was just Minecraft turned into an RPG, but more focus on the material gathering and crafting and less about the RPG. I think i've only gotten an hour into the gameplay of this game, and the first 20-30 minutes of that gameplay was specifically the tutorial and it telling me things I really didn't care for. Nice thing is, there was an option to skip the tutorial. I just wanted to get to the fighting and leveling up ffs. It does have a few things going for it when you first get into the game however. The class selection is pretty neat and much different than what i've seen done before:


Candy Barbarian

For instance, shown above is what they call a "Candy Barbarian" which I can only assume is just a typical barbarian class with a bit of humor thrown into it. Which I think is neat because it takes a new look on a pre existing class that most people know about.

I think for me, the humor aspect of the game is one of the reasons i'll end up going back to the game once they figure out the issues and fix the server stability and things of that sort. But overall, I was disappointed to find that they really stress on the crafting and building aspects and just make the RPG aspect seem like an "add-on" of sorts. Perhaps in time the game will get better, but for what i'm looking for, it certainly isn't worth putting my time into. Thankfully it is a free-to-play, so I don't feel like I wasted any money on it.

Key

Recently uninstalled from Steam

I'm sure i'm not the only person that gets this way. You'll look at your large library of games and you'll find few or many that just don't fit into what you are interested in anymore. I recently just went through my Steam library and cut it in half to better suit my interest. I'll share with you the game I decided to uninstall and a little bit as to why:

Amnesia: The Dark Descent / A Machine For Pigs - I already beat both of these games so I see no reason to keep them in my library and take up space on my hard drive.
Among The Sleep - Unfortunately, this game was nowhere near as good as I was hoping it would be, and I tried multiple times, and it still didn't do anything for me. Bad purchase on my part.
The Ball - It was fun for a while, but nothing spectacular or worth playing more of.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - I got this because I thought it be more fun to play on PC. It isn't.
Braid - I bought this because it was on sale, I played about an hour, got bored, and decided I didn't like it.
Brutal Legend - Same thing as Braid, played about an hour, found out it got boring and repetitive really quick.
Farming Simulator 15 - Why the **** did I buy this?
Five Nights at Freddy's - My interest in this game has gone from kind of liking it, to pretty much none. It's a great first game in the series, but I wish they had just stuck with this one and left the series alone.
Grand Theft Auto IV - Love this game, but I don't play it much anymore, so no reason to have it take space on my hard drive.
Ori and the Blind Forest - This is possibly the most disappointing purchase i've had in the last year or so, due to it being full of bugs and glitches that practically made it unplayable. Plus, I had put 4 hours into it, and it decided to delete my save on it's own. I don't feel like playing through it again and deal with the frustrating of bugs and glitches, unless they fix said bugs and glitches.
Risk of Rain - Played about 10 minutes, and hated it. Instant uninstall.
Silence of the Sleep - Genuinely a great game, but I got bored of it quick as I was playing this at a time where I wasn't too interested in playing other games. Once my interest got going again through other games, this one kind of fell on the back burner. I'd like to return to it again one day, but no time soon unfortunately.

While doing this, I also noticed how much money I wasted on games that I really only played a little bit of, and I decided to hold back a little bit on some purchases to get back into some games that I really want to try to finish. Plus, maybe it's just me, but there really hasn't been very many great games on sale through Steam lately. I'm hoping to see a change in that soon.

Key

I tend to take a lot of screenshots in game when playing games that I absolutely love. I don't really think there's anything wrong with doing that especially since that's what the function is there for. Sometimes i'll capture a screenshot that is just so stunningly beautiful that I have to share it. I'm sure i'm not the only one that thinks "man, this specific area in game would make for a fantastic desktop wallpaper".

Anyway, i've been playing Bioshock Infinite again because even 7 hours into the game, I still haven't beat it for the first time. I feel like i'm getting close, but to me, it doesn't really matter how long it takes me to beat the game, because I have found myself just standing around and looking at the environments in the game. This game in particular is so stunning and beautifully made that you really have to experience it for yourself to see what I mean. I've captured a few pictures throughout my gameplay and hopefully it does it justice, but it's nowhere near what you'd expect to see if you played it on your own. I'd go as far to say that it's easily one of the most beautifully made games i've ever played.


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The game itself is a lot of fun, and hard as **** in some places, so the beautifully atmosphere of the game allows you to sort of sit back and enjoy the scenery if you need to catch a breather.

LoathsomePete

Sad to hear you didn't like Risk of Rain. That is one of my favorite platform roguelikes from recent memory.

I think going forward you should take advantage of the new refund system implemented by Steam, or wait for Humble Bundle sales and the like.

As for a reason to keep Amnesia: The Dark Descent installed, there are custom scenarios you can download and play through. This one was my favorite

http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-great-work

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Key

I had no idea there was a refund system, but that's good to know.

And i've played a couple of scenarios for The Dark Descent, and some of them were fantastic. I'll probably reinstall it again when I feel the urge to play it again.

Key

I have just finished my first playthrough of Bioshock Infinite and as I write this, i'm still in shock with amazement. It's taken me a while to just sit down and get to the end of this game to see what all the hype around it is about, and i'll tell you right now, it's well deserving of all the praise it's gotten and the perfect 5 star rating that it has on Steam and other websites right now. Without spoiling too much, i'll just say that the ending has seriously left me speechless, and I have read that I won't truly understand the entire story until I play the DLC's, which I do plan to get, but as a game on it's own, the story, the gameplay, and everything were so well done that it really made for such a beautiful and possibly perfect gaming experience. For those of you who have played it, you probably know exactly what i'm talking about when i'm saying things like how the ending totally caught me off guard, and for those who haven't played it, what are you doing? Get this game and play it. I'm excited because now that I've beat the game for the first time, i've unlocked 1999 mode which is apparently a much more difficult version of the story. As it stands right now, I think i'm more interested in the DLC's as i've heard nothing but great things about those, and this is a game where i'd like to be totally up to speed on the story. Don't get me wrong though, the main game did a fantastic if not perfect job at telling a great story, but apparently there's still a lot more to figure out and discover, and I've always enjoyed that type of thing. As far as achievements go, I've currently got 25/80, but most of the achievements seem to have to do with how many enemies you kill with "so and so weapon" so i'm sure the more I play it, the more of those i'll unlock. Overall, fantastic game. Definitely deserving of all it's praise and definitely deserving of all the high ratings it's gotten. They really hit it out of the ballpark with this game, and i'm happy to have it completed and have been able to experience the main story for myself. Now...onto the DLC's!!

Key

In case you haven't heard, the CEO of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, passed away. It's rather unfortunate that i'm having to make a post about this since I just wrote a tribute post to Christopher Lee. But, I still feel it's necessary to at least make sure I talk about it.

I suppose there really isn't much to say other than the fact that there's now a hole in the world of gaming with such a genius mind gone. To some people, Nintendo isn't exactly on their radar at all, especially since most people have either moved onto Microsoft or Sony, but I've always had a humongous soft spot for Nintendo and I still support them no matter what. If it weren't for this company, I would have never been introduced to the magic of Pokemon games and the like. The Wii U is also one of my favorite game systems, mostly because it's easy to use and i'm not hugely into the other systems, being a PC gamer and all. That being said, there's so much to Nintendo that people don't give them credit for. Nothing short of consistently amazing games. I don't think there's really been a time where I haven't played a game by Nintendo and hated it, maybe i've lost interest in some of the games I have, but i've never really truly hated a game that they've released.

Anyway, I want to keep this short as I really don't have many words to say about it other than it's a tough loss to the world of gaming, and I hope Satoru realizes the wonderful mark he left on the world.



Rest well.

Key

Yes, this is continuing. I went to look at the first couple pages, and it seems like I never actually finished this part of my journal, which I wanted to do. So, let's continue on to the next game in the series:


I'm also aware of the existence of Pokemon Platinum, but I never actually got around to playing it due to my disappointment of Diamond and Pearl, so I won't be doing much talking about that one. However, i'll put the image of the game box art here.


With Ruby and Sapphire being a huge success for the Pokemon video game franchise, the fourth generation of the series was said to be even bigger, and it was. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl were both released in 2006 to be the mascots for the fourth generation of games. With this came a lot of firsts for the series. They were the first generation that had ever been released / played on the Nintendo DS, and it's the first generation that took advantage of the Nintendo DS capabilities. Graphically everything was better about these games than what the series had ever seen before. With that did come some flaws though, and i'll explain those briefly.

In terms of what I think about these two games, I can only really put it into one word: "disappointing". Yes, we got a great looking game and supposedly the story is really good, although I don't think I've ever actually finished the story for this one. Unfortunately, a lot of the new things overlooked the old mechanics which made the games feel "new and fresh" which isn't always a good thing when you are playing a game you've been used to for years and years prior. I found myself getting overwhelmed with the way the character moved and the design of pokemon as well. A lot of people complain about the design of the new generation of Pokemon which I both agree and disagree with. When it goes to the later series's in the games, like with X and Y and all those, the designs start to get back on track, but for me, I always felt like Diamond and Pearl had some of the worst designs for Pokemon, maybe that's just me. I also found that the amount of new evolutions and legendaries in this game alone really made the game feel like it was more revolved around catching legendary pokemon over anything else. I remember playing through the story, and I felt like I kept running from place to place, just to catch more legendary pokemon that really had no place other than sitting in my PC, and that's not what I like to do with my legendaries. I like to feel like I can use them in my team and enjoy their presence as being a strong part of my team, other than just being an extra number in my PC.

Now that the negatives are out of the way, the game does have it's positivies. Some of the new evolutions for pre-existing pokemon are fantastic. We've got pokemon like Roserade, Leafeon, Glaceon, Magmortar, Electivire, and all those. Very good move on the developers stand point because those evolutions really helped make some of the 1st and 2nd generation pokemon with no evolutions become much more useful and fun to use. The graphics like I said were pretty amazing for it being introduced on a new platform, and it did run as smoothly as it could, although I found that it did lag in some cases especially in Pokemon battles. But that's not really a big deal when you really think about it. I also really liked some of the music that was introduced in this game, and I feel as though the music is something that always gets better throughout each release. I've never really seen myself get disappointed with a soundtrack for a Pokemon game. For example:



^Fantastic song. Really packs a punch and makes you feel like you're doing something life changing.

Overall, Diamond and Pearl will always hold a special place in my heart for introducing what may have been a revolutionary call for the Pokemon franchise, because everything just got better as time went on with the other games. But, in terms of it being my favorite? It's not even close to being my favorite. I do plan to go back and playthrough it at least once, but everything just felt so scrambled and thrown into one big pile that it just gets confusing so quickly. For those of you that do enjoy this game, I don't want you to feel like i'm being too negative towards you. I just know that from my own personal experience, it's never been a great game for me to play.

Key

Note: I have nothing against either game I speak negatively about, nor do I think one is better or more superior. What i'm going to talk about is all based on opinion.

So, this is a small debate that i've seen thrown around the internet time and time again, and I honestly have found myself in certain arguments when it comes to this game. Some things I've read however are just completely out of whack, like "oh, Terraria is just a cheap knock off of Minecraft", or "it's just Minecraft but as a side scroller". Believe it or not, I actually used to think the same thing, but as time went on, both games got updated and more playable, and I came to realize that both games have their faults and positivies that make them their own individual games respectably.

To start things off, I started playing Minecraft back in it's alpha days, or as some people like to call it, "the simpler times." That's not exactly false. Back when Minecraft first started, it was very easy to get into and a lot of fun. You break down trees, you build a crappy house, and you get killed by mobs because you weren't prepared. Unfortunately, if you try to get into Minecraft today, it's a bit more difficult. I wouldn't say it's necessarily impossible, but if you were to jump into Minecraft right now, you'd probably find yourself getting screwed over much quicker than you would when it was in it's alpha stages, at least that's how I feel about it. Some of the updates that would make this happen would be the updates that effect the mobs specifically. They've made it to a point where the mobs are almost impossible to kill under certain circumstances. For example, if you're swimming in water and you see a skeleton, just kiss your items goodbye, because the skeletons now have a much smarter AI that'll make them shoot you over and over again to put you into your grave quick. Zombies are the same thing, when it's daytime, they now know to hide under a tree to get out of the sun so they don't die. Basically you could be running into a sea of trees, and all of a sudden, a zombie comes out and inflicts damage because it didn't burn away like they used to. Granted, I like difficulty in games, and Minecraft is definitely at a point where it is pretty difficult unless you play on peaceful, but I fear that it's getting to a point where the updates are kind of taking away from the original intention of the game. I know that naturally games are supposed to evolve, but with the way Minecraft has evolved, I just don't get as much enjoyment out of it. Of course, there are mods to fix that problem, and trust me, mods make this game a lot of fun.

Onto Terraria. Now, i'm probably a little biased because over the last 2-3 days, i've ranked up about 10 more playing hours into this game. I used to play this game all the time before I sort of got bored with it and left it to collect dust for a while. But, a friend of mine mentioned to me that they've been releasing updates for the game that make it much more playable than it used to be. I started playing it again on Friday night after hearing that and i'll tell you that unlike Minecraft, the updates to this game have made it so much more fun. The main difference between Minecraft and Terraria is the fact that in Terraria, the main concept is spelunking. You try to get as deep as you can while finding ores and materials along the way to make better equipment and to fight off bosses and bad guys. You do have to be a lot more careful in this game than you would in Minecraft because if you break one block without realizing there's an empty space below, you can find yourself dying quite quickly. The same thing can happen in Minecraft as well, especially when you're doing some blind mining just to look for a cavern or ores. I would say that the one thing Minecraft does have over Terraria is that when you die, you lose your items unless you have a mod that takes that away. In Terraria, when you die, you don't lose your items. Part of me wants to say that it kind of makes the game a little bit less scary because death isn't something you're too worried about. However, in it's defense, Terraria is a spelunking / cave exploring kind of game. I would much rather have my mind set on exploring a huge cave instead of having my mind on whether or not my next block removal will kill me thus losing my items. It definitely makes the game more enjoyable when you're not worried about losing your items.

Both games have their flaws, and both games have their strengths. If you were to come up to me now and ask me which one I would prefer to keep on an island, I'd probably have to go with Terraria. Unfortunately with Minecraft, I've found myself getting bored of it really quickly. Some of the things you can do in Minecraft seem to be all based on luck and you have to be able to find certain things at the right time, or you'll find yourself just sitting around waiting for said events to happen. With Terraria, there's a constant evolution going on, where if you keep moving, more things will come your way. You find more items, you find more weapons, and it's just a great way to spend 5 hours of your day, and being on an island by myself, i'd need to be able to waste my time until the sea washes me away and I die forever. I may have lost my life, but my Terraria world will live on for centuries. Again, both games are great for their own reasons, but Terraria is just a lot more fun and exciting.

Black Francis

Ive never played Minecraft but i agree with what you said about Terraria.

From watching playthroughs and having friends that played Minecraft it looks like building stuff in Minecraft is alot more time consuming than in Terraria and players are tempted to make a whole town and spend hours building stuff where as in Terraria is more adventure oriented and since it's in 2d i think it makes for a better platformer game.

Before buying Terraria i almost bought Minecraft but i figured Terraria would be less time consuming and a compressed 2d version of Minecraft but the game ended up being alot more than that.

It reminds me of playing an Nes game with modern sim elements and a spelunking theme.

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