Video Game Tuesday: Good Games to play in Quarantine

This week for Video Game Tuesday I’m back with a list. It’s some Good Games to play in Quarantine!

Skyrim: This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has ever heard of this game but if you’ve got a fairly decent PC Skyrim has nearly endless potential for gameplay with it’s countless mods that have been released in the nearly 9 years since it first released. Even if you don’t have a PC Skyrim is full of fun things to do for those in Quarantine. Whether it’s collecting every piece of Cheese in the province of Skyrim or just following the story you’ll have plenty to do.

Bonus Suggestion:

Morrowind: If you are feeling really adventurous you can load up Morrowind, it’s been out for 18 years and it also has plenty of mods to use. Thankfully this game should run just fine on almost any PC that’s been made since 2010. I do suggest getting a mod that increases your run speed though. You do move very slowly in that game.

Tales of Berseria: I’ve always loved the Tales of games, and Tales of Berseria is the best of the bunch. It’s got an amazing story, fantastic gameplay, excellent graphics and musical score. Frankly this is a must play regardless, but you might find this to be a very fun game to play if you need something else to do and prefer JRPGs over Western RPGs.

Persona 5 Royal: Sadly this game is only on the PlayStation 4, but Persona 5 Royal is a great game that has a fantastic story and while less action oriented than most RPGs, it’s still a very fun game.

Minecraft: Like Skyrim, Minecraft on the PC has plenty of mods, and is literally endlessly replayable, although some might get bored eventually.

No Man’s Sky: This game has come a very long way since it first released and has gotten very good. If you want to explore a nearly endless galaxy full of planets and moons to land on, No Man’s Sky is the game to play.

That’s it for this week’s Video Game Tuesday.

 

Video Game Tuesday: Strategy Games

This week for Video Game Tuesday I’m back with a look at some different types of games and the bigger differences between them and the common features. It’s all about Strategy Games!

Strategy Games?: There are two main types of games that come to mind when you talk strategy games at least to me. There is the RTS, or Real Time Strategy, and TBS, or Turn-Based Strategy. They are very different in how you play them, and while there are some common strategies between the two, how you go about them is completely different.

RTS?: So RTS games are games like Starcraft or Command and Conquer. These take place in real time with you giving orders and building armies and bases to destroy your opponents. Often the biggest skill that professionals in this kind of game look for is APM, or Actions Per Minute. Getting 100+ APM consistently is generally a good thing and means you may be cut out to try becoming a pro if you so desire. If you can’t do that you’re unlikely to be able to ever compete at a professional level. I think I remember getting 100+ apm for brief spurts of time in some games of Starcraft 2, but I never considered myself ever cut out for the pro scene. One because I dislike competing immensely, and two because even getting 100+ for those brief times is already rather incredible with my physical disability.

TBS?: Games like the Civilization series are a good example, these aren’t always as action or war oriented, and sometimes you can even play a game and win without ever getting into conflict once, at least with AI opponents.  I tend to prefer these sorts of games, although I’ve not played too many strategy games in general with more in the RTS category, although those are mainly for the custom game maps and types that you could create in games like Warcraft 3. Angel Arena is still one of my favorite custom game types, beating over any DotA clone easily.

So what are some similarities between the two?: Well in both games the key to success, at least to me, is to always increase your production capabilities. This means increasing the number of your base or cities as the game progresses to constantly produce units that you may need to fight off an opponent quickly. In RTS games this means quickly building your worker units and getting a steady supply of resources as your first steps. Once that happens you can start building up your fighting force while constructing your base. In TBS games this is still the case, but it’s more about buildings and land improvements at least in the Civ series.

In addition always upgrading your units with tech upgrades as much as possible is always a key to winning, if your units can launch more powerful attacks than your opponent, battles will quickly turn your way even if you have the same amount of troops in a battle.

What’s different?: Well in RTS games speed is always going to be a priority, can you attack your enemy before they get a defense going? If so you have a quick victory in sights and can probably clinch a fast win. In TBS games, it’s more about location and choke points. If you can block your enemy from getting resources or funnel them into one area you can easily defend your bases and prevent them from overwhelming you.

That’s it for this week’s Video Game Tuesday. What are some of your favorite strategy games? What type are they? Leave a comment below!

 

Video Game Tuesday: Mods and Achievements

This week for Video Game Tuesday I’m covering a topic I’ve been thinking about recently. It’s all about Mods and Achievements!

What?: So I’ve been thinking about how most PC games when you install a mod automatically disable any achievements so you can’t earn them when you use mods. I personally think that it really depends on the mods used because some mods are not at all impacting gameplay at all. Some are just for fun, like replacing Skyrim’s Dragon’s 3D Model with Macho Man Randy Savage, which is both disturbing and hilarious. Others are game breaking mods that make you a god, literally in some cases, and completely break all game balance. That’s just how it is with most games.  But should installing a mod at all automatically disable achievements? I tend to think no, firstly because most achievements in games are pretty easy to get, and just require you to perform certain actions in a given scenario. World of Warcraft allows for tons of mods, like Deadly Boss Mods and they don’t disable achievements upon installation. Of course mods for World of Warcraft are much more restricted compared to a single player game like Skyrim, because it’s a multiplayer game and you can’t make a mod that automatically plays the game for you. That would be outright cheating and everyone knows that.

But mods are cheating!: Are they really though? I mean just changing the 3D Model of a Skyrim Dragon to look like some WWE star isn’t really impacting your game. If anything it’s a hindrance because you’re laughing too much and get roasted by the Dragon. There are also plenty of difficulty mods that up the difficulty of the game in question and allow for players to really have to work for progress.

They’re still cheating!: I mean we could go over this all day, and I’m too lazy to do so. But think about this, is a mod that improves texture resolution or heightens the difficulty really cheating? It’s not in my book, and even developers would be hard pressed to say that they are in my experience.

Mod’s can enable achievements!: Yep there are mods out there to do just that for many games that disable achievements upon mod installation. Skyrim and Fallout are key examples of that.

That’s it for this week’s Video Game Tuesday. What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below!

 

Retro Game Friday: Battlefield 1942

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m covering the first entry in a series that is incredibly popular now. It’s Battlefield 1942!

Plot Synopsis: Look up World War II.

Gameplay: This was a pretty revolutionary game at the time, as it had a massive amount of players that could play in a single match at one time. 64 players was pretty amazing. As for the rest of the gameplay it follows the now standard Battlefield formula of capturing locations and holding the majority of them to slowly whittle away the enemies spawn tickets which let an enemy respawn upon death. 1942 also allowed players to pilot various vehicles ranging from Jeeps to bombers. This made the matches get really insane when you had all 64 players playing.

Art: The art has aged poorly, but that’s to be expect of a 3D game.

Music: I don’t remember a whit, I was having too much fun gaming with my friend online.

Overall: It’s might be worth a try if you can get a free copy, but I’m pretty sure the servers for online play are down now so it’s not really worth spending any money on this.

For those who like: FPS, Military Games, World War II, Vehicular Mayhem.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Video Game Tuesday: Player Run Economy Basics

This week for Video Game Tuesday I’m covering a topic that I find most players of online games don’t get. It’s all about Player Run Economy Basics!

What’s a Player Run Economy?: It’s anything that isn’t run by a computer program built by the developers of the game. Things like Auction Houses and Market Boards.

Why am I covering this?: Because I find that a lot of people are jerks or just plain stupid when using these features.

What should I be doing? Well first off only undercut by only 1, in the case of a monetary system like WoW I’d say only by 1 silver at the most. In games like Final Fantasy XIV I’d do it by one Gil.

But I’m Lazy! I don’t want to take the time and trouble by doing that!: Tough, you’re ruining some people’s enjoyment every time you just thoughtlessly ruin the economic balance by just tossing some random number onto the price of the item.  Some people just live to become virtual tycoons, even if there is no way to actually impact the real world with said money.

But (Insert some dumb excuse): Look everyone wants to make money, it’s part of the human psyche that we are greedy bastards each and every one of us. If you can’t play nicely you’re going to get burned eventually and get burned badly. Wether some virtual tycoon tanks all your postings earnings or you end up buying something to try and sell for more only to never recoup the losses.

So what else should I be doing?: Well I also see people posting items below the price that they are sold to NPCs, which is all kinds of stupidity in and of itself. Stop doing that, instead buy it from the idiots who do and sell it for a profit to an NPC.

That’s it for this week’s Video Game Tuesday!