The Gaming Diary: Chapter 2

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

Kinda stopped playing everything as I'm like to do. Go through these phases of intense gaming then get sick of it.

Have reverted to playing lots of Candy Crush again though. Almost caught up to the last level though (and I haven't spent a dime)...Not sure what happens then.

[Necrosaro]

I'm honestly getting sick of current-gen games. They just feel like more of a chorefest than anything else.

I went retro-game hunting recently and managed to find a copy of Shining Force CD in pretty decent shape! Never had the opportunity to play this game back in the day, so I'm excited to see what I missed back then. Is this essentially the Game Gear Shining Force Gaiden games compiled in one? Because that's what I hear from Shining fans.

Yeah, I've kinda been on a retrogaming kick lately.

[Izret101]

Finished playthru 2 of Flashback.

Started playthru 3. Hopefully the final one.
The more i play the more glitches i run into. I went from thinking this game was somewhere between decent and bland to one of the worst games i have played.

[Link41]

Ghostscape (WP7) - Finally going back to do my speed run.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

Gonna check out this WoW patch since they gave me a free week.

[Sirgin]

Gonna check out this WoW patch since they gave me a free week.

Been playing some WoW myself because I got a free week just a few days after I did the 10-day trial.

The thing that's been annoying me lately is that leveling (lower levels) is too fast. Example: I'm trying to do the dungeons with the random dungeon finder. It usually takes me about 2 runs through a dungeon to get all the quests done. Often I'm in a team that rushes so hard through the thing I barely have time to accept the quests.

But leveling is so fast, it's annoying. A handful of daily quests + a random dungeon of two? BAM, level up. The problem is that once your level is too high for a dungeon, the random dungeon finder cuts you off from it. So I've been trying to do "specific dungeons" for the ones I'm about to be cut off, but that leaves you with endless queueing. And if you go random dungeon, it's almost always the highest level dungeon you've unlocked.

Also, I didn't know about the random dungeon finder until some time ago, so I can't go do Ragefire Chasm and a bunch of other low level dungeons that way.

I'm also finding myself questing in zones that are way too low level for me. At the stupid rate I'm leveling up, I should be skipping 2 zones every zone I finish, just to stay in a zone that is "appropriate" for my level. I should've probably skipped Arathi Basin, North Stranglewood, Cape of Stranglewood and god knows what else and straight go to a 45+ zone? What's the point of offering this much content if I'm forced to skip through 50% or more just to keep the game challenging? :/

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

Gonna check out this WoW patch since they gave me a free week.

Been playing some WoW myself because I got a free week just a few days after I did the 10-day trial.

The thing that's been annoying me lately is that leveling (lower levels) is too fast. Example: I'm trying to do the dungeons with the random dungeon finder. It usually takes me about 2 runs through a dungeon to get all the quests done. Often I'm in a team that rushes so hard through the thing I barely have time to accept the quests.

But leveling is so fast, it's annoying. A handful of daily quests + a random dungeon of two? BAM, level up. The problem is that once your level is too high for a dungeon, the random dungeon finder cuts you off from it. So I've been trying to do "specific dungeons" for the ones I'm about to be cut off, but that leaves you with endless queueing. And if you go random dungeon, it's almost always the highest level dungeon you've unlocked.

Also, I didn't know about the random dungeon finder until some time ago, so I can't go do Ragefire Chasm and a bunch of other low level dungeons that way.

I'm also finding myself questing in zones that are way too low level for me. At the stupid rate I'm leveling up, I should be skipping 2 zones every zone I finish, just to stay in a zone that is "appropriate" for my level. I should've probably skipped Arathi Basin, North Stranglewood, Cape of Stranglewood and god knows what else and straight go to a 45+ zone? What's the point of offering this much content if I'm forced to skip through 50% or more just to keep the game challenging? :/

At this point it's all about endgame content. For years people have said the game starts at the level cap, and that's really the direction blizz took it. They constantly add things to make leveling 1-60 faster.

[Sirgin]

At this point it's all about endgame content. For years people have said the game starts at the level cap, and that's really the direction blizz took it. They constantly add things to make leveling 1-60 faster.

I do not like that way of thinking. Especially in a game where you'd think they (blizzard) want people to play it for a long time. I'd also think you'd burn out more quickly if you rush to 90 in a month, then do the endgame content for a month or two and quit. The way it is now, leveling feels almost trivial. I'm trying not to level, really, and yet I've gone from 45 to 51 in the blink of an eye. With little daily playing time, too, for a game like this. If I'd actually play content "optimal" for my level by skipping zones, I could easily level 3x faster too.

It almost feels as if Blizzard wants players to buy all the expansion packs asap, but surely there's more money to be had in the actual subscription?

Btw, what's interesting is how the pet battles xp isn't this skewed. It actually takes some time to get your pets to level. Mine often only level up once or twice in a zone. Getting my team to 25 feels like it's going to take some time.

EDIT: Maybe I feel this way because I used to play Runescape back in 2004-05. Now that game had many faults, but atleast the leveling took ages. It was a massive grindfest. But atleast getting a skill to 99 felt like a proper achievement.

[SirPsycho]

I was more into pvp back in the day when I played. I could never understand the appeal of grinding the same dungeon over and over again hoping to get a certain item to drop, or grinding a raid for points to trade for worse gear than the bosses drop.

At least the pvp grind was always different. You never quite know how actual people are going to react or even if they're any good. All those scripted, overly tested pulls and boss fights though? They always seemed boring to me.

It's no wonder I quit when I started actually trying to do all the pve content after my first major guild disintegrated.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

At this point it's all about endgame content. For years people have said the game starts at the level cap, and that's really the direction blizz took it. They constantly add things to make leveling 1-60 faster.

I do not like that way of thinking. Especially in a game where you'd think they (blizzard) want people to play it for a long time. I'd also think you'd burn out more quickly if you rush to 90 in a month, then do the endgame content for a month or two and quit. The way it is now, leveling feels almost trivial. I'm trying not to level, really, and yet I've gone from 45 to 51 in the blink of an eye. With little daily playing time, too, for a game like this. If I'd actually play content "optimal" for my level by skipping zones, I could easily level 3x faster too.

It almost feels as if Blizzard wants players to buy all the expansion packs asap, but surely there's more money to be had in the actual subscription?

Btw, what's interesting is how the pet battles xp isn't this skewed. It actually takes some time to get your pets to level. Mine often only level up once or twice in a zone. Getting my team to 25 feels like it's going to take some time.

EDIT: Maybe I feel this way because I used to play Runescape back in 2004-05. Now that game had many faults, but atleast the leveling took ages. It was a massive grindfest. But atleast getting a skill to 99 felt like a proper achievement.

You don't understand how much endgame content there is. There's TONS. Gearing up for raiding, gearing up for PVP, achievement hunting, mount collecting, reputation grinding, and on and on. The game starts at 90 until it starts at 100.

Today I've been working on getting geared up enough to see the new raid. The newest patch introduced an island with epic loot laying all over the place, so I'm not too far off.

[Link41]

Plants vs. Zombies (PSN) - Finishing up with Mini-Games, then back for my second playthrough of Adventure mode.

[techwizard]

been playing even more battlefield 3 than usual, trying to grind through all the various medals and weapon unlocks, etc, before battlefield 4. i've unlocked every attachement for every weapon and vehicle, i'm also going for at least one service star on every weapon, only 7 left to go (5 pistols, IGLA, and Stinger). all 75 assignments are done, and all origin achievements. All ribbons have been earned at least once, and i have nearly all the medals (50/57). Co-op is finished, but 3 of them i haven't beaten on hard, so i may go back for those. single player is done. the only thing i don't care about are the dog tags, because those get ridiculous.

[Izret101]

Ascend: Hand of Kul - Absolutely loving it so far. Free to download XBLA game. Only downside is having to listen to random people talking in game. I haven't scoped out options yet but there might be a way to turn that off.
Super old preview trailer:


3 versions of Pac-Man Championship Edition DX Plus (please please please make a new one with an even longer title)

Tetris Blast (or something) on the phone. Another freebie. Ties in with the Facebook version of the game. Not sure if it can be played in either location and things carry over. Also fun.

And the Sims

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Tetris Blitz sir. Ascend looks like fun - any co-op?

[Izret101]

No. It is fake MMO like Fable III (orbs) in this game they are ghosty looking.
You can see there are other players(obviously far more than actually show up) but you have super limited interactions with them. They are in different plains of existence so you can curse them, bless them or send your enemies to beat the shit out of them (assuming you have the right consumable spells).