Greetings to you all,
I have been travelling some unknown (to me) gaming territories for the past few weeks. I am here to tell the tale of some of my adventures.
Taking a step away from WoW (retired) Rift (semi-retired) and GW2 (active) i was looking for something different or maybe a come back to my initial love of simulation games.
I believe i owned every single version of microsoft flight simulator and other Falcon series (do you remember that enormous manual? I used to love reading it). At the same time, car racing simulation also attracted my enthusiasm. Especially the F1 games. Watching the races on TV on a sunday afternoon (in Europe back then), and then replicate them on the PC later on. Anyway, enough with the nostalgia.
Lately, I have been getting new stuff from steam as it (dangerously) easy. I got myself a copy of F1 2013. After owning a copy of 2010, 2011, 2012, i had to continue the serie. But more importantly, i wanted to enjoy the multiplayers mode. for the past years, i have gotten the games several months after launch. I might say something wrong here but I think these games have a very limited multiplayers life span. it was always difficult to find races online, not to say impossible. so I was ready for the launch of F1 2013. I wasn't going to miss out on this one!
The game is lovely, new stuff came out with it like classic F1 cars that are very difficult to drive, better graphics ( they will have to stop making them better soon, if not the simulation will look better that the real thing), a plethora of new challenges but most importantly the introduction of tires management. This marked then end of running around flat out. Should you wish to do so, you may have to pit every three laps or so, making it impossible to win a race. After having taken my diver's lead soles off, i managed to get the hang of the game. It was time for me to show the world who is number one!
The world you say? hmmm... let's have a more appropriate view. Ok, Asia then....still too big? Japan then? that still gives me a hundred and twenty seven million opponents potential. It turned out that I may be the only poor sod in this part of the world playing this game or steam doesn't mix servers. It really felt like sitting in a dark room waiting, waiting and waiting. Being tired of waiting, I went on to play the challenges, did a few world championships and grew bored. I am pretty much retired of this game now. It is a good game as long as you can have fun online. There might have been the opportunity to play with peeps from the U.K, but the lag was disgustingly awful.
A game i had for a while is "Trials Evolution", i have had hours and hours of fun with this one. I discovered it while watching Mr Technical difficult channel on Youtube. Ride the bike on different courses, you don't have to steer the bike, just go flat out and deal with the terrain. This one goes on my list of the most played. It is definitely a relaxing game as you can play it without disturbing your brain.
Also in my library, F1 racestars, I got it free as a part of buying F1 2013 before its launch. it is also a fun game with entertaining graphic. the main point for this one is that it is family friendly. young children may be able to enjoy this game, if they are into racing game. I visit this one from times to times.
Some of the latest addition to my arsenal are:
Godus. After eyeing Sim city for a few hours and finding out that there were server trouble, and other things that were not going to go down well with my personality (and the history of the game) I have decided to go with "Godus". Godus, as its name indicates is a game where you get to play "God". your mission is to develop a civilization, by creating habitable lands for your followers. the game is only 40% complete at the moment from the developers side; but it is already great fun to play. You get to sculpt the lands the way you like it, there are plenty of challenges. Making a land look the way you want it and see your population happily developing is really exciting. The game goes from "Adam and Eve" stage to the space race. there are hours of fun to come. Check it out. for me it has earned its warm seat of my most played game.
Moving on. After the gigantic hype generated by Grand Theft Auto V; a colleague and I were talking about getting the previous version whilst waiting for V to come out on PC (none of us own an XBox here as we are not fluent enough in the local language to have an amazing gaming experience). seeing that GTA IV complete edition was only 10 USD down from 40USD for a limited time only; I jumped on the opportunity and bought copies for me and my colleague (note that i am writing this post from a secret hideout as his wife is now actively looking for me with her best friend ever...Katana;-). Is there any need to talk about this game? it is fun to play, different from the GW2 alike. Just one thing i would say, if you are stealing a car make sure you choose it wisely because some of them are really giving you the "land yachting" feeling and could get you sea sick right there at your desk. I can't yet say if it'll qualify for a spot on my most played list as it has only been a week; but i have a feeling it will make it there til GTA V comes out for PC.
The last but not least, this one has made it to the top of my most played list within hours. I am talking about Rocksmith2014. If you play the guitar or the bass (like me) at a beginner level, this could give you hours of fun. Why it did it for me? first it made me pick up that bass more often, from the three or four hours a week previously to a couple of hours a day now. When you know that practice makes...better in my case; then i consider it already a good move to have bought this game. Then, it gets me to play things i would have never even thought about playing. It got me out of my comfort zone. It might be the end of my learning plateau and I am now on a steep upward learning curve again. in the game you can learn a song from the library, get guitar lessons, play with a band that will follow your lead (ahh technology!) play some arcade game to develop your chops. All this is also based on a scoring system too, so you get achievements and rewards when completing missions. It is available on all platform, and you can play it even if you have never even seen a guitar in your life. I am almost tempted to go and get a guitar myself but my "Betsy" might get jealous. I am already wanted by an angry wife and a katana, i don't want my axe to have a grudge against me.
Looking forward now, i am looking at Call of duty...not the ghost version as it is not available in my region yet (Grrrr). However, i have mixed feeling about it...i am unsure that FPS could be my cup of tea. Anyhow, I am browsing Steam from time to time to see what's on.
If you guys are on steam, feel free to add me as friend: Barbarian Bear.
See you all later on today for Guild missions and WvW.
