What I Played Today: November 3-10

MAN I was busy. There was a conference at work and I didn't feel like it and whatever, so...highlights!

I somehow ended up playing Assassin's Creed 3 for a good twenty minutes. It was kinda dumb, I don't remember what happened. Maybe I'll just YouTube what happened to Desmond.

A lot of Rune Factory 4, I'm creating a lot of stuff, and I think I need to complete the second dungeon before anything really interesting happens.

I ended up playing a CCG based on Might and Magic, as if that is still a thing that people still give a shit about. It was decent.

There's a new game called Desktop Dungeons, and it's a rogue/puzzle game, and it's pretty neat, if dumb and hard. You've got to take it slow.

I played a lot of You Don't Know Jack, because trivia is fun. Also something called QuizUp, which is also trivia. I'm the best in Tabletop Games in Minnesota, assholes.

Swords and Potions 2 continues to be a thing I do.

And I finished Analogue: A Hate Story on a whim. I did not see the last twist coming, because I'm a stupid. But yeah, good work. I like this kind of thing. Hurray this.

What I Played Today: May 7

EVE Online, Assassin's Creed 3, Civilization 5

Oh my god this epic quest arc is going on forever. I have lost the plot a long time ago, and I have absolutely no idea why I am doing any of this. All I know is that I'm pulling in a ton of ISK doing these quests. Give me that ISK!

I tried to play Assassin's Creed 3 multiplayer, and then I got into a manhunt game against four star-ranked players who appeared to be playing together with Skype chat and everything, and then there was me and a level 7 who stabbed an NPC right out the gate. I did not even feel bad for quitting that game, that is bullshit.

So I played Civilization 5 for a while to chill out. Started over, I was Austria this time. The leader has the ability to just buy up city-states. That's a neat ability.

What I Played Today: March 26

EVE Online, Assassin's Creed 3, Guild Wars 2

I continue to explore in space. I need to upgrade my weapon, or get drones, because I cannot fight some of these dummies. I did go to this one exploration zone, and then another guy showed up shortly after and stole all the stuff while I was busy fighting these guys I was having trouble killing. Well, at least he didn't try to kill me.

Also new missions and stuff abound in Guild Wars 2. I tried to care! It was hard! I didn't make it!

And a few rounds of Assassin's Creed multiplayer. I think I got second once? I just know that the domination mode, while mildly interesting, is still kind of bullshit. We didn't need this goddamn mode, video game. Nor did we need capture the flag. Keep it simple, stabbing dudes!

What I Played Today: March 24

EVE Online, Assassin's Creed 3

I've finally outfitted my little exploration ship with all the trappings, although I had to abandon my mining laser. I've got to figure out a better way to outfit my spaceships. All spaceships can't do all things, after all, I should try to work on having an exploration ship, then depending on what I find, a back-up mining ship and a back-up combat ship. You know, in case I find something as awesome as a HAUNTED SHIPYARD again. (It turns out it's filled with a bunch of asshole drones that almost killed me.) But I did find some neat salvaging sites, which had a bunch of stuff that was actually in demand on the market, made a cool $2M ISK.

But enough of that. I was watching some videos online and it reminded me that I liked Assassin's Creed multiplayer, so I played that for a bit, and it was pretty great! I still like this game a lot! Hurray this game! I am rusty and only placed a few times, never getting first, but man, still fun. Why did I stop playing this?

What I Played Today: January 10

Werewolf, Assassin's Creed 3

There has been a fiver sitting on the BGG forums for over two weeks now, so I decided to join in and help get that moving. After some waiting, we finally played. I was the hunter, and I got tricked early on by the sorceror when he called a wolf hit on the seer. We spent a good ten minutes with all five votes on one person, which I could see a seer with a hit doing, so I switched, then I died at night, and then the bad guys won. Our villager was trying to play open sorceror the whole time, but the wolf wasn't fooled. Oh well.

Also spent a fair amount of time getting my grips in New York in Assassin's Creed 3. I hadn't really had time to explore it before now, so I figured I would jump off some buildings, collect some more assassins. Recruiting the New York assassins is actually harder, since you have to do three sets of missions three times instead of just two sets, and one of the sets I had to do was just awful, in which I have to defend a farmer from like a dozen jerk lobsterbacks, which spikes my suspicious level in an area completely devoid of ways to get rid of them. I was just...so sick of running away from dozens of soldiers. I don't want to fight them, I just want them to leave me alone.

Anyway, recruited two new assassins, adding the options to lure and ambush people. There was a really awful line read during one of the recruitment missions. Also, half of New York has been burnt to the ground. That's all I got to say about Assassin's Creed 3 right now.

What I Played Today: January 7

Dance Central 3, Assassin's Creed 3

I am finally getting over my dance ego and downgraded to Easy in the story mode of Dance Central 3. It makes it managable, at least, although I still had to try to crack the 80's dance craze a good ten times. Stupid backstep. So now I'm in the 90's. Backstreet's back, all right. (Did...did Backstreet go anywhere before that song? Because that is the earliest song of theirs I remember.)

Then it is time to start playing Assassin's Creed 3 again! Why the fuck not? Let's get over the disappointment and play this goddamn game. So dicked around on my homestead, and the missions there are getting stupider. They had me herding pigs and sneaking around a girl's campsite to figure out what she wants instead of, you know, walking up and fucking asking her. Stupid French Canadian.

What I Played Today: Thanksgiving Weekend

Harvest Moon: A New Beginning, The Walking Dead, Hotline Miami, Analogue: A Hate Story, Assassin's Creed 3, Persona 4 Golden, Persona 3 Portable

It was a long fun weekend! I will talk about it at GREAT LENGTH! I wasn't even trying to make a pun! Because that's not that funny!

Anyway, let's start with some handheld nonsense, which I played throughout. You've heard about these before, Harvest Moon, still working on that. Almost through the summer. I've managed to please the insane mayor who thinks I need to spend over $16,000 of my own money just to install street lamps around the city. Come on man, you know there is only one place I can get iron. Is this a racket? Are you shaking me down, man? Anyway, he gave me another list of demands, this guy, but it's the only way to unlock more houses, so there we go. Also some barber guy moved in. Sure whatever.

A little bit of Persona 3, heading for that perfect run, killed the first full moon shadow. I can't believe how easy this game is, especially considering:

Persona 4 Golden! Okay, so, it's still Persona 4, like, the first...um...eight hours is pretty much identical, with the addition of Marie, the new character that they keep talking about (she lives in the Velvet Room and is mean), and a huge incredible improvement to the actual gameplay. Big plus number one: less random nonsense. You now get to pick what card you want during shuffle time, and you get to choose what skills get inherited when you fuse personas. This is huge. It is so easy to get a nice little running crew, which is needed, because combat is pretty tough. They adjusted cost of elemental spells (you know, the spells that you are always using) so it's more expensive, and the first level benefit for your party member's social link is no longer the nice but broken "they will die for you." This is all little stuff, and I don't know why I am telling you. There are other little things; books are different; you can now go out and wander the streets at night, like a hooligan. (I like that you can only sneak out if Dojima's not home, otherwise he will yell at you.) Apparently the general store lady turns it into a pub at night? Wacky. ANYWAY, I like this package a lot. They did a lot to really pump up the game, even the textures look better. This was almost worth it.

I also played some Assassin's Creed 3 multiplayer, because I can. Good enough?

The rest of time, I was on Steam, getting caught up in the sale. I hear Hotline Miami is pretty good, and I played the first couple of levels of that, but I got stuck at the third level where there's this huge open lobby and some dudes with guns right off. How am I going to do this, guys? But yeah, good style, pretty fucked up, nice.

I also have had visual novels on the mind, so I played one that I bought a while ago and have been afraid to play. Analogue: A Hate Story. In the story, you play a space explorer investigating a derelict colony ship. Judging by the logs provided by the AI you run into, apparently society reset to that of Joseon-era Korea (maybe?) in which women were treated just absolutely awfully, and a girl with a terminal illness who was in cryostasis (who remembered when society didn't suck) gets woken up and forced to marry the emperor. It's interesting, written well, good interface. There was this weird gamey part that distracted me though, so I didn't get very far.

And the rest was The Walking Dead. I played through the whole thing, and man. If were not aware, The Walking Dead is an extremely depressing adventure game, in which you play Lee Everett, convicted murderer, who was on his way to jail when the zombie apocalypse happened. He finds a young girl named Clementine and commits to assisting her, and then a bunch of really fucking messed-up stuff happens. It just reminds me how much I am glad that zombies aren't a thing, because I would have no idea what I would do. But good character writing, good arcing, really interesting fast decision-making moments, you should all go play it if you haven't. Just...be prepared for a bunch of tough decisions. 

What I Played Today: November 20

Assassin's Creed III, Harvest Moon: A New Beginning

I went on a wacky binge today! I managed to walk away with five games! Three of them I wasn't expecting at all, so that's pretty great. Apparently buying Hitman: Absolution when I did also netted me the first three Hitman games as well. And of course I bought Persona 4: Golden. Why wouldn't I? Who do you think I am? I totally pasted on that goofy screen protector and changed my Vita wallpaper.

But I didn't play any of that. Saving up. Instead I spent a lot of time on the farm. A new person has moved in, because I built them a house, and it's...a newspaper delivery lady. Who looks 12. Okay, so I guess they're required to toss in their shitty lolita option in all these Japanese games because the concept of romance in Japan has its weird tropes, but man....why is she the second bachlorette to move in? Where are the other four? What is the hold-up? Why does it take so long to get more people? Don't give me realism, I just build an entire house in a day, and someone moved into it immediately. Why am I even complaining about this?

In Assassin's Creed III, Connor is a bit of a blowhard. He is not nice to anyone. And they keep introducing me to people as if I'm supposed to have any idea who they are. Some general who chomps on a cigar and has floppy hair? I still have no idea who that Christopher Lloyd guy was, haven't seen him since. Did he get shot? Is he dead? Also spent some time picking up some almanacs, and it doesn't make me visit Ben Franklin again, which is too bad, I want to see what that dude is up to. Instead it gives me one of his inventions to craft. Great, more stuff for the kinda pointless crafting system.

What I Played Today: November 19

Assassin's Creed III, Comedy Night

I played a bit of Assassin's Creed multiplayer, apparently the event is live. And man, is it a big old boring goose egg; the event is, "Hey, play team games, there you go." That's it. Meh, what can I say? I stabbed some dudes. Apparently there are people earning prestige levels already. That was quick.

Also, I heard about something stupid, an indie game in which people just get onto an virtual stage and tell comedy at each other. That is a dumb dumb idea, so of course I bought it. It was a dollar. Comedy Night. Of course, nobody was actually using at as intended, so....yeah, no clue.

What I Played Today: November 13

Thunderstone Advance, Lemonade Stand, Assassin's Creed 3

Played a fairly long game of Thunderstone Advance, in which things started off slow and we had a ton of trouble killing stuff. Mostly because the spells and villagers were worthless, so there were only about five cards worth buying. Also most of the monsters were just huge jerks. Some breached, killed some things in the village, and then fled to the back of the dungeon. Come on, that's ridiculous. Anyway, I may have won if I didn't accidentally misread one of the treasures I got, so I had to trash a lot of cards I didn't want to. Whoops!

Also a quick game of Lemonade Stand, in which the winner won by taking advantage of a cascade of dollar cards. Another player and I had a really good day, best day possible, when the third player threw down his dollar that was going to screw one of us really badly. So...I played a card to counter in case I got hit, and then the third player drew a card that REALLY screwed me, cutting my profit in half, and then he got hit with a bad card, and it just went poorly from there. Stupid cutthroat game of selling lemonade.

Played about three games of multiplayer, I did alright. There was this really great moment in which I had two dudes chasing me, they were super close, and I just make a loop around a pillar. They both miss their target, both stabbing a civilian, I stun one of them, and then bail out of there. It was pretty awesome how dumb those guys were.

What I Played Today: November 12

Assassin's Creed 3, Harvest Moon: A New Beginning

More Assassin's Creed, spend a fair amount of time taking care of the homestead, building that up. Some stupid Quebecois jerk is falling in love with the hunter lady, so we get to watch that play out at a goddamn glacial pace. "Hey Connor, do you know what Myriam likes?" What the hell do you think, Frenchie? Just get her some damn flowers, which is, of course exactly what he does. There is this goofy, nonsense scene in which Connor walks up to the outhouse, and he's all like, "Hey, you in there?" And the guy is like, "Oh hey, one minute." Haha! It's funny because he was pooping! How does he not know what that little building is for? Surely he has seen an outhouse before and knows not to go rapping his fist against the door if he doesn't need to use it.

Also sailed my ship around a bit. Still not sure how I feel about it. I'm not sure why I am doing these things. That is, in fact, a big problem I'm having with Assassin's Creed 3. I am not supersure why I am doing any of this.

Also farming in Harvest Moon. No one else has moved in yet. Come on someone. Come join my crappy town.

What I Played Today: November 11

Assassin's Creed 3, Cook Serve Delicious

Decided to dig myself in a big old Assassin hole. Played a lot of multiplayer, and then got to work with single-player, going through the story mode. It is...alright? It just feels really rushed, and it keeps on expecting me to recognize people that I definitely do not recognize. Who is this Christopher Lloyd looking motherfucker? Why is this guy being a huge jerk to me one second and then immediately wants to bail out his ass the next? Screw you buddy, you were being a jerk. And it just moves along at a steady clip showing you that Connor was present at pretty much every event you remember from the nation's early days. Goofy. It's goofy. Also, when do we get to shoot Charles Lee in the face already? How can the rest of the patriots see this guy and not assume that he is a villain? He has crazy eyes!

Also played a couple of games of Cook Serve Delicious. It is pretty intense now that I have five serving slots. And goddamn soup, son. Soup.

What I Played Today: November 10

Persona 3 Portable, Harvest Moon: A New Beginning, Assassin's Creed 3

I stayed in bed ALL DAY. So a lot of handheld gaming; off and on between Persona 3 and Harvest Moon.

In Persona 3 the majority of the time was spent kicking so much butt in Tartarus (made it all the way to the highest floor possible already, then screwing around building up my money stock and waiting for these kids to get tired already. I must have hit a bug or something, because it took...at least two hours, and considering they are supposedly doing this in the "hour" between days, that seems off. But I finally did the right thing and am now moving along; although there is another trip to Tartarus on the schedule. UGG.

In Harvest Moon, just trucking along. Have a cow now, I pet it and feed it. My vegetables are coming in nicely. Got a good little surplus growing for when I need to start worrying about building more buildings. A girl finally moved in; apparently if I'm nice to hear she'll give me blueprints for tools? Maybe she can just give them to me now. What is she waiting for? Why do I have to bring her flowers? That's sexist, game. Also met the Harvest Sprites, who continue to be little jerks. For some reason they don't want to provide me with the music sheets that will give me access to different parts of the world. I have to find them.

Also played Assassin's Creed 3 multiplayer until the sun came up. I'm not proud. Well, I'm a little proud, I was doing pretty well. But I'm finally a high enough level that I can buy a lot of the stuff I want (about time I unlocked blender), although they seemed to be priced in such a way as to make buying Erudito credits (real money credits) very attractive. I don't want to complain, but can we please put some kind of stop gap in place with the whole freeium gameplay elements in full-priced games? It just seems...really greedy. I already threw down my sawbucks for the regular game, and I'm probably going to buy the season pass, don't throw up another price gate.

What I Played Today: November 7

Assassin's Creed 3

Played some of that multiplayer. Multiplayer is pretty great! I finally played the last mode, Artifact Assault, which has been simplified to a simple dumb Capture the Flag. Ug Capture the Flag. I am starting to like the area control aspect where if you're standing in the enemy's territory, you're a target, but if you're in your own area, you're an assassin. That's kinda nice. I just don't like that they slimmed down all the options. Actually nevermind that. Chest Capture sucked. Screw Chest Capture.

What I Played Today: November 6

Thunderstone Advance, Assassin's Creed III

Someone has been begging me to play Thunderstone Advance with him, because I had been badmouthing Thunderstone the original. I went along with it, because yeah why not, and it plays pretty well! The game is balanced a lot better, and there's more chances to draw cards in the dungeon, making going in the dungeon not awful. The original always just felt more like a numbers game, so some hoping that you draw well is fun. Also, some guy is holding the Thunderstone, instead of it just sitting there for whatever idiot comes by to grab it, so that's a lot better.

Then I went home because people started talking politics, so I played Assassin's Creed 3 instead. I hung out with a really angry Frenchman. He was pissed. Then I dicked around in the wilderness. I don't know, the game just seems so big, and while the fast travel is okay, it doesn't make it easy enough to get from place to place. It's just taking this game more than a little while to feel like an Assassin's Creed game, because the setting is so different.

What I Played Today: November 2

Assassin's Creed 3, Dungeons of Dredmor

I'm make pretty good progress in Dungeons of Dredmor. I murdered a whole Monster Zoo! Screw Monster Zoos! (I'll probably just run into another.)

Also, multiplayer Assassin's Creed, it looks as if I'll have everything I need by level 20, so...hurray! I'm still pretty good at this, I like being good at things.

What I Played Today: November 1

Assassin's Creed 3

More of this! I will be brief, so that I don't have to break this up. Mainly, we meet Sam Adams, who I make endless beer jokes about, and he helps Conner, and then Conner goes onto a ship for their ship mode and I'm not sure how I feel, because there is a ton of the screen that is filled up with useless information. I mean, 75% of the screen is taken up by the ship, and you really don't have to pay any attention to your ship. Anyway, sure, interesting idea, at least.

Also, apparently Conner gets to build up my own little wilderness, and he runs into a lady hunter who got hurt, and carries her in his manly arms and somehow she doesn't immediately fall in love with Conner. I don't know what Conner did wrong. Heck, I'M in love with Conner after watching him carry her.

What I Played Today: October 31

Assassin's Creed 3

Multiplayer is pretty great! Still the same business, but some interesting changes, like how the stun is now the X button as well, so you don't have to press a separate button to stop an assailant. Problematic if you're used to the old way, but a good change overall. I rocked in some team games, and did okay in some solo games. I'm really interested in the Wolfpack mode, which appears to be a cooperative mode, so...everyone who also bought this game, play it with me.

SPOILERS ABOUT THE SINGLE PLAYER AHOY!

What I Played Today: October 30

Assassin's Creed 3, Dungeons of Dredmor

I continue to play Dungeons of Dredmor, and it continues to be entertaining. I am slicing straight through everything, and I finally figured out how the General Winter ability works and it really does require me to wear the Ushanka all the time, otherwise I might die from my own ability. But hey, easily done, helms aren't that exciting anyway.

But enough of that, Assassin's Creed 3 is out! First, to speak to the multiplayer, which I still love. They gave it a bit of a UI upgrade, and they did something I really didn't expect. Apparently Abstergo has gotten into the entertainment business, and the multiplayer is now in universe a multiplayer game, which is all layers of meta. But the new character models are cool, and I love this game, so...hurray.

Also, because this game is newish, details of the single player campaign will be hidden for now, but click if you're willing....