Vanity.

     Ever take a personality test? Nothing official, but a random thing posted on social media. I have. In fact, I've taken many. But on this blog, I want to talk about personality tests that refer to gaming. I've taken an alignment test, a race test, and a class test. My results have influenced my gaming experience, tabletop and otherwise.
     I found out that my ideal character is a chaotic neutral half-elf bard. I've taken this and included it into my RPG experience. Most of my characters have been CN Half-elf bards named GB. In at least one game, I have a party member named Gerard Barnaby; in The Temple of Elemental Evil, the face of my party is named Galen Burnwood.
     Some might say that I'm just in touch with my inner self. Others might say it's a matter of vanity.

RANT: Mini-games.

     I have to say it. I hate most mini-games in the middle of good games. This is where the action stops, and in order to continue, you have to press buttons or do some old throwback mini-game in order to continue.
     My first experience that made me rage-quit for a while was in the first Dead Space game. In order to continue, you had to shoot rocks coming for the ship while the shields were coming back online. Basically, you had to play Asteroids for a few minutes or not play Dead Space at all. It is horrible. I went online and many people said, and I agree, that it pretty much ruins replayability.
     My most recent experience with this bullshit is God of War 3. All the action and fun had to stop at the big string instrument thing. In order to continue, I had to play a music box puzzle. What I had to do was hit the buttons in a sequence, timing it just right, or I had to start it again. If I wanted to play Guitar Hero, I would play Guitar Hero.
     By the 50th try on these mini-games, I find myself screaming at the TV "Just let me get back to the real fucking game!"

Atlas Rises!

     "No Man's Sky" keeps getting better and better. I got it right after Hello Games released the Pathfinder update. Now they've released the update called Atlas Rises. It kind of messed up my game, so I restarted. It's fine by me, since I needed to reintroduce myself to it. I just hope that the progress I've made won't get messed up with any updates next year.

     Now I have mastered farming, bought a freighter (named it Gygax), and I have a small fleet of ships; thus far, I have two fighters (Dragon's Fang and Screeching Imp), a hauler (Thunderhorse), a shuttle (Pack Mule II), and an bug-looking explorer (Starhopper).

     In addition, I've completed the Atlas Path and the new Artemis mission line - something surreal and involved holographic messages with new aliens. Now both of those mission instructions say "The Universe is yours to explore, enjoy." That is a good thing, since the heart of "No Man's Sky" is exploring the universe, anyway.

     So, now that I've left the Euclid Galaxy and am now exploring the Hilbert Dimension, I find myself wondering what I would do if I were in charge of the next update. And I've come up with new ideas.

     It would be fun, interesting, but also infuriating, if they had an update that added more variety and realism to the star systems. From what I understand of the game thus far, when a new system loads, it starts with color of that star, then number of planets, then basic layout and environment of each planet is established when you scan and land on them. If I had a say in the development of the next update, I would like to see more challenging realism in the generation of each star system.
     First, establish the number and size of stars in each system, and therefore the Goldilocks zone. Binary/Trinary stars would be cool, actually, and would make interesting habitable areas. Different types of stars would have different temperature effects.
     Second, establish the number of orbiting bodies. Usually, this would be around 10-20. In addition, this step should make size matter. This includes adding gas giants and dwarf planets, as well as different planet sizes.

     Third, from size, the program would determine gravity, expressed in a G-number. Varying Gs have a variety of effects. The most obvious effect would be that jetpacks and launch thrusters would be more or less efficient; also, jumps would be longer or shorter. In addition, this would also have an effect on falling damage and habitability.
     Fourth, have the temperature vary, depending on the latitude. The worlds would be much less homogenous.
     Fifth, those which falls into that habitable zone, and where, would have a greater likelihood of habitability.
     If solar system generation were done like this, most planets won't be habitable, but they would be good sources of minerals and crystals. These types of worlds could have large, paraterraformed domes, like stations. Also, it would make finding a habitable world more rewarding to find, and players will want to spend more time exploring each one.

     Regardless of whether or not my ideas are implemented, I've been enjoying and looking forward to seeing more of this ongoing development, and chatting with others in posts about it.

Mastering being 47

     I've been getting back into the 2016 Hitman game. It's reignited my love of the series. I'm more of a cloak-and-dagger gamer. That is to say I have a love-hate relationship with combat, and mostly prefer subtlety and assassination.
     The "Hitman" series plays well into this style of gaming. Each mission is basically a puzzle. For instance, you have to kill someone who is somewhere in a compound. They are often surrounded by guards and/or alarms. Often, they best way is to make the assassination look like an accident, if you can't snipe them or get them alone with a headshot with a silenced pistol.

     So far, I've been replaying the Paris mission, "Showstopper", and the Italian one, "World of Tomorrow".
     In "Showstopper," a power couple, Dalia Margolis and Viktor Novikov, are major players in the fashion industry. However, the fashion industry is a front for their activities for an espionage group called IAGO. The best way I figured out is to start off disguised as a member of the tech crew for the fashion show; you grab the remote control for the fireworks; then you sneak into the maintenance shed to grab the silenced sniper rifle that you arranged to have smuggled in; after which, you climb the barge and set off the fireworks, causing your targets to come outside; then POP... POP.
     In "World of Tomorrow", I found out that it's best to assassinate the male scientist first, then the female scientist, then grab the keycard from the female scientist to make your way to the underground lab to destroy the virus they were working on.

     Now, I'm working on my mastery of the mission in Marrakesh, Morocco. I guess I'll have a drink and start that one again. Good night, fellow gamers.

New generation of console.

     It's late to say, but tax season has passed, and I finally got a PS4! Here's a brief overview of the games I have for it.

     I got the latest Hitman. They call it "Hitman: Season One". Hopefully, it means that there will be a next season. I've gone through it once, and I'm pretty happy with it. They got back to the basics of "Here's your target, have at it, 47." Whenever you complete a mission, you unlock different things which would allow you to complete it again, but with different disguises and/or weapons, and at different starting points. This system creates a greater replayability aspect. And the graphics are just great! Crisp, clear, and gorgeous.

     At the same time as getting Hitman, I got another game that I had been waiting for a long time to play. "No Man's Sky." You start off crashed on a randomly generated planet, then you gather resources to repair your ship, then you gather fuel to get off the planet, then you gather fuel to warp to the next star system. It goes on and on like that.
     While many have decried this gather-travel-gather-travel aspect as the downfall of the game. I find it to be what fuels the game. What makes the game rewarding is the fact that the game is running on an algorithm; every star, planet, and ship you encounter is randomly generated by a programmed matrix, creating the possibility of quintillions of worlds to discover. And it's relaxing to play.

     So, I got the fourth installment of the Saints Row series. I'll be honest, III was better. IV just got a bit ridiculous and over the top, which is saying a lot for a series that is designed to be a ridiculous and over the top version of GTA. It was a combination of "The Matrix" trilogy and "They Live". Your character is president of the US, and aliens invade. The remaining humans are kept alive in computer-generated dreamworlds. Basically, the series has jumped the shark with this one.

     I am very happy with the newest installment of Dragon Age, DA: Inquisition. Your character is the leader of a growing group called the Inquisition, which wants to unite various factions to prevent a blight caused by breaches into the Fade, causing demons to leak into the world of Thedas. I love it so far. I can send troops to complete tasks, which help me in the long run. After a while, you can align yourself with either the templars or the mages. I have a saved game ready for when I complete the main storyline with the mages, so I can do it again with the templars.

     About a month ago, I got the remastered version of God of War 3. I still haven't gotten around to playing it yet, but I hope it's as spectacular as God of War 2 was on the PS2. The added fact that it's on a console two generations newer should make even more beautiful. Beautiful and violent.

     In addition to opening my gaming experience to the latest in interactive stories, I found that I have been using my PS3 wrong all along! I should have hooked it up to the TV via an HDMI cord. I finaly did so, and wow! My games and TV experiences are much more crisp and clear! I wish I would have known about this years ago!

     I'm off tomorrow, so I have some adventuring to do tonight.

Elder Scrolls rants and raves.

     I just need to state this fact: Elder Scrolls rules! Now that I've said that, let me expound.

     I've started Oblivion. My character is doing O.K. He's a mage-thief (head of the thieves guild) and he has taken Sheogorath's place as the new Mad God. Sheogorath, BTW, is one of my favorite daedric princes. As of late, I have him exploring the Oblivion Gate just outside of Bravil.

     I have a new character for Skyrim! A mage, actually. And I'm not only surprised that he can survive with just magic, I don't even have him using weapons. Being bedridden for the past week, I've taken the time to make my mage the Archmage the College of Winterhold.

     There has been a lot of talk about an Elder Scrolls VI game. People on a gaming page were asked "Where would you want it to take place?" My answer was Valenwood. think of it: The Elder Scrolls VI: Valenwood.
     It seems that, after the frozen mountains of Skyrim, Valenwood would be a pleasant change. It has lush vegetation and great big city-trees that move. Definitely a great site to see, given the fact that the next TES game would be released on the latest generation of consoles.

     Dozing... Maybe I'll dream about the Shimmering Isles.

SimCity 2013.

     I finally got the newest version of SimCity, which was released in 2013. I've been addicted to it. Though it has some weird, glitchy shit going on with it, it's still the best version of the game so far.
     I like the fact that you can plant buildings, then grow them with additions and achievements. And would-be mayors can choose what they want their cities to specialize in. This could be mining, drilling, tourism, technology, or gambling.
     Like SimCity 4, this newest version allows you to establish multiple cities on a map. However, you aren't able to choose tiles or reshape the land. That would have been great.
     My play style is as follows: One tech city produces processors, then later computers and TVs. Another city is the center of education, which allows research for greater building upgrades. A third city would bring gambling revenue. Other cities would be bedroom communities (where workers live, and from where they commute) and industrial areas (to where residents commute).
     All in all, it's a good game. Sometimes hard to start, but still.