Every time I contemplated doing a post I felt that there was more pressing things to do. Now that I have a somewhat simpler job, it feels that I can start to get back into posting up the GameLogs. I still haven't done the 2013 recap, but I'm happy to at least get something started. My main fear was looking back in 2-3 years and lamenting that my experiences weren't logged.
As with the last post, there's going to be a lot of stuff missed. That said, it's going to be more accurate than I could do a year from now, and that's the main rationale for getting these done.
Mighty Quest for Epic Loot (100h) - Beta Castle builder / Raider in the same vein as notorious. Picked up a couple of good tips for my game, but also a couple of things to steer clear of. Overall solid, but it feels like it's already had it's big promotional spike and it's not even released yet.
At the Gates (60h) - Closed alpha testing ..
Terraria (50h) - A big session to restart from scratch and get into hard mode, and a constant call to play
from Cam when I get home meant that this one keeps racking up the hours. Now up to 330 in total, but a lot of that would be it running in the background as a server.
Might & Magic: Duel of Champions (50h) - Card game that got more interesting with a bit more dedication to PvP, but hit the paywall eventually.
Banner Saga (48h) - Great little story driven tactical combat game. Kinda wished it had a top score on it more than the way it finished, but happy with the overall experience. A game where you really need to go with the flow.
Might & Magic X: Legacy (42h) - Good return to the good old days of tough M&M. That said I appreciated less the amount of linearity there was in the open world caused by the tight gating of difficulty. Don't remember it being that tight back in 4-6.
Warlock 2: The Exiled (46h) - Really plays well and hones the 'Expanding difficulty' maps into a gated experience. Makes more sense than all the map being gradually harder the further away from home you go. My pick out of the current 4X crop.
Endless Legend (23h) 3rd game in a brace of 4X strategy games released in May. Even though it's early access and has obvious rough patches, it seems intriguing enough to keep my attention more than expected. It has that X factor already, so polish can only enhance what could be a
Age of Wonders III (20h) - 59h on steam, bet another that was left on while the PC was playing up. Seems a little snow-bally for my tastes, and even though others were recommending the random games instead of the campaign, it still left a little .. empty.
Tiny Dice Dungeon (20h) - Nice little time waster on both phones.
Football Manager 2014 (20h) - 39h on steam, but I'm sure I left it on a few nights when the PC was playing up. Tried starting a couple of low tier games in anticipation of the world cup, but it's lacking something that it used to have. Even though the systems are slowly changing, it seems a little more like there's less to really get invested in. I might be done with the "start from nothing" approach and look toward just taking a team I actually care about and see what story unfolds.
Game Dev Tycoon (15h) - Nice little game from 1st time developers themselves.
Civilization V (15h) - New Venice civilization surprisingly engaging.
Starbound (9h) - Early access attempt at a grander Terraria. Lots of promise, but also lots of grind.
The Last Federation (8h) - From the creators of AI War and more importantly Skyward collapse, it takes the "Indirect grooming" approach to keep a chaotic system from imploding on itself. Works Ok, but the dev had made so many changes after release that it felt like a different game. Actually it felt more early access than most of the early access games I've played recently. That said, I really like the game for its Space Rangers feel.
Dungeon of the Endless (5h) - An interesting diversion from coming off the Endless Legend early access. I like the concept, but seems to be a crapshoot as to whether I make a level clear or not. Another one to fire up once completed.
Marvel Puzzle quest (5h) - Testing the limits of this Free to Pay game
Torchlight II (5h) - New co-op game with cam.
Starpoint Gemini 2 (2h) - Early access, but probably needed to be something to wait for. Hapy to load up again once released.
Path of Exile (2h) - Couple more games with Scott when he's over in Norway.
UnEpic (2h) - I know deep down it's trying to be roguelike, but I feel that all the minimalism misses out on the wanderlust.
Dark Souls (1h) - Press A the start?? No in-game menu to allow exit? Unable to tune the mouse? If I had an XBox I might be able to get into it, but I experienced a whole new level of frustration without even dying.
Magicka: Wizard Wars (1h) - Beta has been a little rough from an Aussie's perspective.
ToME (1h) - Couldn't get steam version to pick up my ToME account, even though it's been linked before. Played a game but quickly found that lack of perks provided by my account makes the game more grating than it needs to be. Shelved until another couple of updates.
