The Gaming Diary: Chapter 2

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

Started a fresh game on Dark Souls last week. I already hate myself for it.

Playing this one on the PC version. Since I lost all my HDD data when my first PS3 YLODd, and I recently got a new laptop, I figured I might as well try something new. With the DSfix graphics hack installed the game looks GORGEOUS.

I keep looking at Dark Souls but it just seems like an annoying trap. Should I go for it?

[raffa1985]

Just finished Pikmin 3 in around 15 hours (the last boss is a bitch), but seemed much less than that, i was given the impression that the game ended too soon, anybody felt the same way? However it's amazing while it lasts, this is the best Wii U game so far and one of the best releases this year too.

[Link41]

Major League Baseball 2K6 (360) - Just starting out and getting a feel for the game.

[BadEnoughDude]

Started a fresh game on Dark Souls last week. I already hate myself for it.

Playing this one on the PC version. Since I lost all my HDD data when my first PS3 YLODd, and I recently got a new laptop, I figured I might as well try something new. With the DSfix graphics hack installed the game looks GORGEOUS.

I keep looking at Dark Souls but it just seems like an annoying trap. Should I go for it?

It's an annoying trap but go for it anyway. It's brutal, but the effort makes the payoffs that much more rewarding.

Plus, the PC version is only $7.50 on Amazon right now.

[Seno]

Thomas was alone (PC) The narration really makes the game, it amazing how much personality its puts into a solid blocks of colour.

[Izret101]

Angry Birds: Seasons - going much faster than i had anticipated. Always a good thing

Awesomenauts - another one that is fun co-op

Call of Juarez: The Cartel - game is really meh and unbalanced IMO but co-op is fun.
Fable III PC - still need to get the keys....

[Sauza12]

I'm about 8 hours in on Kingdom Hearts:  Re:Coded.  I've been a bit apprehensive about playing this game due to the fact it wasn't a straight up Kingdom Hearts game, but it really is a lot of fun.  The different modes of game play in each world really do keep the game from getting tedious.  The Space Harrier section was soooo much fun.  Hell, they even made the turn based sections fluid and exciting.

[Duke.Togo]

Been playing Dragon Age: Origins. I played the game years ago on PS3, but Izret helped me out by selling me the Ultimate edition a while back, so it's fun to go back and play through. I had forgotten exactly how much dialogue there was, but I'm having fun with it.

[Link41]

Microsoft Solitaire Collection (Win8) - Just screwing around, kinda relaxing to play solitaire.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

Got this sweet mod for Mount and Blade: Warband called Brytenwalda. Changes gameplay pretty drastically (more realistic, more options) and the map is the whole of dark age Britain. There's even boats! Haven't figured out how to get off a boat yet, which is kind of alarming.

[GrayGhost81]

I'm on vacation so I finally got the break from Tales of Vesperia I've been talking about. I have been squeezing in some Uncharted: Golden Abyss on PSVita and it's actually pretty good. It wasn't developed by Naughty Dog but you couldn't tell. I like the game a little better than the console versions because I find the combat in these games to be hella tedious and the firefights in this game are really short.

[Izret101]

Wrapped up Angry Birds: Seasons. Finished up most of what i had left while i was at a few Dr. appts for my grandmother.

Turboed a bunch of ranking in Awesomenauts while i was out today too. About halfway done with that now. Hopefully tomorrow or the next day i will hit the level cap.

Waiting for WRC Powerslide to finish downloading again so i can start that up since someone i know is looking to do the online in it tonight.

[bombatomba]

Finished Saints Row: The Third.  Man, what a great game.  The ending mission had me rolling with laughter.  

Started playing Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition on PSP to pass the time.  Man what a battery hog.  I originally ripped the UMD to beat the near 4 minute loading time (!) for a race (2 minutes to race and 2 more after the race) but nothing can fix the battery drain problem.

[Sirgin]

So I've been playing WoW on a free 10-day trial. I played the free month earlier this year.

I don't have a maxed out character, it's only low level. To be honest, WoW feels like a great game ruined by item/stats inflation.

I'm currently level 44. Stats are still evolving linearly. That's good. The time it takes to level up doesn't increase, so why should I suddenly be that much stronger? Yes, it takes more xp to level up, but if every monster and quest gives more xp, then it's still the same xp relatively speaking. The gear I was carrying at level 20 maybe gave +7 stamina and +6 agilty. Now at level 44, I get perhaps +14 stamina and +12 agility. Great, fine.

Keep in mind that at level 44, I'm technically halfway to level 90. I look at my profile and I have 3788 health, 199 agility and 192 stamina. But look at a random level 90 player and he has 466163 health, 18255 agilty (266+18029 bonus ) and 22840 stamina. This is just bullshit to me. Games shouldn't work so that you become exponentially stronger by gaining a few levels. Of course they did this so that the new expansions are absolutely mandatory to be able to compete with others that have the expansion.

I guess this wouldn't look as stupid if the stats increased exponentially from level 1, but they don't. They clearly increase linearly the first 60 levels and then start to shoot up uncontrollably. Meanwhile, the time it takes to level up doesn't change much, so naturally that purple Demonic longbow of the undying thundergod at level 80 is outdone by a green Rusty old bow two levels higher.

It's stupid, because I have 3000 health, deal about 1000 damage and mobs have about 2500 health. At level 90 all you do is multiply those numbers by 100. But they're still the same on a relative scale. Deal 1000 damage to a 2500 hp enemy or 1 million damage to a 2.5 million hp monster? No difference.

Other than that the game is fine, still plays fine and has lots of content. Although the questing is quite tedious and I feel like I've killed 10 kobolt miners or collected 5 wolf bones a hundred times already.

EDIT: It also feels as if the economy is somewhat broken for leveling players. I have tons of gold compared to what I need at my level, which makes a lot of upgrades (e.g. journeyman riding) feel insignificant. This is obvious if you look at the money you get from quest rewards compared to what I can get for a stack of bruiseweed, or bronze bars.

[JSoup]

Two points on that, the time between levels does increase as your level goes up. You don't notice it as much below level 60 because you're playing rebalanced vanilla content (that is, you're still on the two main continents of Azeroth, the original areas of the game). To be honest, it's only slightly noticeable for Outland (first expansion, 60 - 70) and Northren (second expansion, 70 - 80), particularly if you're making regular use of the dungeon queue. It's only around Cataclysm (third expansion, 80 - 85) that people start complaining. This is because they wanted people to actually play the storylines, not just wait for a dungeon to be ready, so dungeons are not good for leveling past the first time when they still have all their quests intact. The current expansion content is the long grind, with there being an average of 13million xp between levels (and that's after the 30% decrease in needed xp for that range they added two patches ago).

As for the crazy stat boosts and bonuses, that's mostly due to the level 90s having fully modded, gemed and enchanted gear, with the possible set bonus. It really stacks up after a while. All the stat bloat is due to that. Off and on for the last few months they've been talking about implementing an 'item squish', which will being the numbers back down to a reasonable level without effecting playability. The need for this is strong, because, according to the current stat models, three expansions from now we're going to be finding basic green items with base stats in the millions.

You also have to consider that at level 44, you're technically at end game content levels for those areas (the original level cap was 40, then 50, then 60, all before the first expansion), so all the gear is centered toward that.

The item replacements are an issue, but one people don't bitch about too much because the majority of players have been playing for years. So, the replacements seem more reasonable, to an extent. As an example, at the start of the current expansion, my main was decked out in the best low level raid gear I could get. Right off the bat the new expansion offered me a replacement weapon that actually wasn't as good as what I had. It was some 30 quests later before I was finally given one that was amazingly better. In fact, most of my old raid gear stuck around until I was near 90.