What I Played Today: February 11

Magician’s Quest: Mysterious Times, Mass Effect

It was a long train ride again today, so I played a bit more of Magician’s Quest today. There was a bit of running around, I learned some nonsense spell, got an invitation to hang out that fox girl again...long story short, it’s back in the envelope. I was just not feeling it, there was a lot of stuff that didn't make sense, a lot of things they didn’t tell me how to do so I was confused, and I just didn’t have the patience for it. So, hope that the next game I get sometime next week is more exciting.

So, time for something old. I’ve heard a good deal of great things about Mass Effect 2, and since I hadn’t yet actually played through the first one, it was time to tackle it again. Turns out I did not actually save my file, so I had to start anew. I went with the tech/soldier hybrid, because sniper rifles are fun and I die less that way, and dove in, half paying attention to the story because I’d seen it already, and I watched as that poor sap from the beginning gets shot before he does a thing. Poor Perkins. So easily spooked by gas bags.

I got through the tutorial level before I got bored, and I quickly remembered why I stopped playing. I find the combat system...boring. I’ll have to do a bit of tweeking with it, but man I didn’t enjoy having to kill the gith. The sniper rifle wanders more than a very offensive metaphor, and I couldn’t take more than three shots without being at death’s door.

I got back to town, and now I worry that I won’t be able to crawl through the two-plus hours of wandering around Emerald City. I remember there being a lot of talking. But...I’m sure I’ll pull through.

What I Played Today: February 8

Magician’s Quest: Mysterious Times, Final Fantasy XII

Tonight was a quiet night; I was supposed to do a small interview, but I found out my headphones are broken...well, rediscovered that my headphones are broken. Anyway! I played a bit more of the Magician’s Quest: Mysterious Times, finally got through the tutorials, which introduced me to the wild world of Mystery Time. That’s actually what they called it, Mystery Time. Hilarious.

I also got a note in class for the first time ever, which basically said that the pixels in the game were upset because I wasn’t a cool guy or something. The game puts a weird amount of emphasis on the relationships you have with the other villagers, which would be interesting if any of them were human. But having to use a “profess love” spell, the spell I learned today, multiple times on an anthropomorphic fox (I can tell, that vixen wants me), just seems awfully weird. Hopefully I’ll learn some spells that I can actually want to cast in the next few days, otherwise this is on its way back to the queue real soon.

I also, out of boredom, played a bit of Final Fantasy XII, most likely out of anticipation of FF13, which I getting increasingly excited about. The reports out of Japan initially were very enthusiastic, and the systems sound like it’s going to be great, very streamlined and with a neat combat system. But I wasn’t playing that tonight...

This is my second playthrough, although I didn’t beat it the first time, and I had gotten to the point where the game opens up and there’s a lot of leveling needed. That was...about a month ago. I tend to cycle through my old roleplaying games very slowly, just because they are so damn long, and once you’ve been through the story the first time, it is hard to care about it. Anyway, I made it through one zone...although I got the majority of my party killed with no support, so I had to run all the way to the next save point. Took me an hour apparently, and I only gained a level the entire time.

What I Played Today: February 6

Magician's Quest: Mysterious Times, Guild Wars, Flash Games

I had the day off and spent it inside, where I played a few games, most of them not terribly interesting. I’ll hit the highlights.

My most recent rental is Magician’s Quest: Mysterious Times. It is basically Animal Crossing with magic, as you arrive to join magic school, in a town populated by anthropomorphic characters. I haven’t gotten very far, mainly because there’s a less guidance than I would have liked, and I don’t really know what I’m supposed to be doing. The only thing so far I’ve done is been upset that those who rented before me named the school Hogwarts in a complete drought of unoriginality, and I wandered into a haunted house only to be spooked out almost instantly. Hopefully, I’ll make it a bit farther soon; I hear that there’s mini-adventures each week to be solved, so I hope I eventually find the right cues to discover them.

I also played a little bit of Guild Wars, an old standby that I’ve been playing for over four years. There was some holiday questing that needed to be fulfilled, so I wandered around the fish farms of the African-inspired realm of Istan looking for Christmas presents with Rudi the reindeer. It was pretty dull, truthfully, mainly because the only areas of the game that I haven’t seen way too much of requires more player interaction than I’m comfortable with. Most of the time, I run with a small cadre of robots. They are so well programmed that I could basically wandering around without actually attacking and be able to mop up most of the areas. That probably why I like Guild Wars so much, because of the fact that you can see most of the game either solo or with a group. That and the CCG-like quality of the skill system. (The cost also helps)

I also spent some amount of “bored time” playing a tower defense game online, the name of which I can’t remember and don’t feel like looking up. It involved some nonsense involving finding walrus statues. The only real thing that set the game apart was that the money you have after the round is over is put into a common fund, and the number of structures you can have each level is limited to a small number. Otherwise, it’s not that great; there’s a huge rash of tower defense games nowadays, and frankly I’m getting really bored with them. I don’t know why I play them so often.