Gaming with Mike
A “role” playing game

 For a few weeks now, I’ve been thinking about roles.  Not a role as in role playing game but more like a position or job.  In robot games in particular.  The recent Mechwarrrior and Hawken games kicked me down this line.  EYE, with it’s variety of character builds, also got me thinking. 

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I’ve always been interested in robot games.  From Mechwarrior to Armored Core, I’ve played a bunch of them.  I’ve missed out on a great deal of more recent ones though.  One of the games I missed out on by not having a 360 (or not having access to one) was Chrome Hounds.  It was a mech game by Armored Core maker From Software.  Through a variety of mech builds, people were able to create various roles in a persistant online world at war.  Or at least that’s what I think happened.  I’m not sure about it so I’d appreciate it if someone would correct me if I’m wrong.

Anyways, I got to thinking that I’d like to try something like that.  Be a part of a team, rely on other people, and have other people rely on me.  I’m sure a lot of people do this in real life but it’s less fun that doing something like riding around in a giant robot.  But both Hawken and Mechwarrior make me wary.  Both games are free-to-play, a style of game that I feel is less about making decent games and more about getting people to spend money.  The majority of MMOs I tend to run across are more or less the same thing.

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So what to do.  EYE is an interesting choice.  I don’t know if there are any decent communities built up around that game though.  There’s also MAV, a robot game in the same style as Chrome Hounds but still in alpha.  I’ve tried it out a bit and it seems pretty interesting but time differences put the lid on any multiplayer.  So I’m not sure what to do.

The other day I picked up two games on Steam:  Kairo and EYE: Divine Cybermancy.  Kairo has just come out and EYE was on sale for something like five or six bucks.  Kairo is something I’ve been interested in for a while but was just too lazy to go and buy it on the creator’s site.  EYE, on the other hand, didn’t really catch my interest until I heard some interesting things online about it.  I had seen it in the Steam store but apart from nifty armor designs, I didn’t really think much of it.  But since Kairo is far easier to understand, I thought I’d talk about it first.

Kairo is a first person puzzler.  I’m usually not one for first person puzzlers but this one has an atmosphere and mysterious story and that is something that pulls me in.  Kairo doesn’t tell you the story by leaving you message capsules or hidden texts  but by leaving visual and audio clues in various areas.  I’ve only made it to what I think is the second level so I haven’t figured out exactly what is happening, or rather what happened, in the game.

The puzzles haven’t been too difficult so far but like I said before, I’ve only reached what I think is the second level.  Nothing really tells you how to do the puzzles in game but there are visual and audio clues as to how everything works in the room.  There are also other hidden things in the game.  I didn’t think there were any at first but I found one at the start of the second level.  I’m not exactly sure what will happen if you find them all but I’d bet something interesting.  On a similar note, I’m not going to look at what Steam achievements are in the game until I finish it at least once to avoid spoilers.

If I said that EYE is far less mysterious than Kairo, I’d be lying.  Both start with the player asking “Who am I and what am I doing?” but while Kairo places you in a world devoid(?) of NPCs, EYE drops you in and bangs you on the head with amnesiac hero trope and I’m ok with that.  But what is EYE?

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EYE is an RPG.  That’s the best I can give you.  It’s got a fair bit of FPS in there too.  There might be some sneaking and also some hacking as well but I haven’t been able to do either of those very well.  In fact, I don’t think I’ve been doing the FPS or RPG parts very well either.  But I think it’s mostly an FPS.  I know I said it was an RPG but I’m pretty sure it’s an FPS.  I’m actually not very sure at all.

It’s not a bad FPS at that.  I only really got to play the first intro mission and some kind of random thing a guy at the mission hub set up but it seemed solid enough.  The weapons are interesting and the enemies kind of remind me of Doom sometimes but I’m not sure how smart or varied the AI is.  During the one random mission thing I did, a lot of the enemies seemed to run in a straight line at me.

In the RPG department, you can assign attributes and buy perks with any money made on missions.  There’s not a whole lot of complexity to it but certain items and skills require a minimum set of stats so you’ll need to do a small bit of planning but nothing that needs checking a few dozen wikis and using a skill planner in advance.  The level cap is also fairly high so there’s no need to worry about capping out too soon either.

Ghost in the Shell omage

I can’t comment on the story though because I haven’t progressed in to the story much.  It feels kind of like the begin of Omikron felt in the begining where you tell you what’s going on.  Kind of like Total Recall I guess.  I’ve seen Totatl Recall and played enough Omikron to know that the main character in the past was a manipulative dick so I’m expecting something similar to happen with EYE.

All in all, I like EYE.  It’s quirky but it’s pretty fun.  I’m curious as to how it ends.  I’m curious as to how Kairo ends too.  Or rather the story behind the games.  I’m a sucker for the kinds of mysteries that both EYE and Kairo have so I’m fairly happy with both of these games.

Skyrim is dead

Long live Skyrim!

But seriously, I hoped there would be at least one more DLC before Bethesda moved on but I guess that’s not happening.  Oh well.  Fallout 4 though.  I’ve never been a huge Fallout fan though so I’ll probably wait until a sale for that.

Probably not going to go to this year’s PSO2 fan event.  Not with PSO2 in the state it is.  The past events were really fun and I’d love to go again but I can’t let myself do it.

Looks like no TESO invite for me.  Not surprising though.  I don’t live in the target area or belong to any sort of large guild.  Oh well.

I wasn’t really interested before and I’m certainly not interested now.

I wasn’t really interested before and I’m certainly not interested now.

In addition to legendary stuff, the 1.9 patch also adds a buttload of stutter to my Skyrim and that means I’m going to have go over the inis to check out what was changed.  But not tonight.  I’m going to sleep.  Because screw ini modifying updates.

What I’m playing

Since I haven’t done one of these in a while, here’s a brief run down of what I’ve been playing lately.

Oblivion

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Down to 15 gates left to close.  I’ve been collecting chameleon, magic resist, and magic absorb sigil stones for use on armor later on.  I also have been doing the arena because oblivion gates are boring.

Skyrim

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Pretty much the same thing as my last Skyrim post.  Walking around and trying to relevel all my skills.  I wish they’d have release this before Dragonborn came out though.

Euro Truck Simulator 2

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A lot more interesting that I originally thought it would be.  It’s so interesting that I thought I’d write a little bit more on it later so for the time being, just a status update.  Still haven’t bought my first truck but I have the money too.  Trying to decide between a Scania (?) and a Volvo.

Kinetic Void

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This is one of those Early Access games on Steam.  It’s still a really early build so there’s not a whole lot to do but there’s one thing I do really enjoy about the game so far:  spaceship building.  Lots of fun doing that.  I’ve only built some small fighters so far but I’m looking forward to trying out some larger ships.

Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity

Don’t have a screen shot for this one but I’ve been out collecting disks that I don’t have at level 30 yet.  Bullets in particular are lacking on my main so the one I’m after now is Long Range Bullet for rifles.  It only drops in the boss boxes of two specific missions.  I don’t need any drops from any of the monsters that spawn in those missions so it’s fairly boring.

Games I’m looking forward to

I was going to have a bit here about a few upcoming things I’d like to play but Tumbler is eating this bit so I’ll post it later.  And what the heck happend to my formating?  Bleh.  Alright, screw the formating.

Loaded up Skyrim today since the 1.9 came out and changed all my skills to legendary.  Because of all the enchanting I did on my light armor, it’s still at level 71 even after reseting to 15 and that’s just peachy.  It’s taking forever to gain levels though.  I don’t remember 80-81 being this steep a climb.  It shouldn’t be too hard with my equipment though.
I will say that Skyrim feels super sluggish now that I’ve been playing Oblivion again.  I know it’s due to the removal of any kind of running skill but I didn’t think the difference was so big.  Oh well.

Loaded up Skyrim today since the 1.9 came out and changed all my skills to legendary.  Because of all the enchanting I did on my light armor, it’s still at level 71 even after reseting to 15 and that’s just peachy.  It’s taking forever to gain levels though.  I don’t remember 80-81 being this steep a climb.  It shouldn’t be too hard with my equipment though.

I will say that Skyrim feels super sluggish now that I’ve been playing Oblivion again.  I know it’s due to the removal of any kind of running skill but I didn’t think the difference was so big.  Oh well.

There we go. The end result of the leveling and character planning I had in mind for Oblivion. She was able to make it to level 52 without resorting to going to jail to lower stats. I’ve also taken advantage of the felldew addiction from the Shivering Isles and the Oghma Infinium to max out all her stats but luck. There are still a fair number of skills that need to be raised to 100 though so I’m doing that now.

Equipment-wise, she’s invincible. She’s wearing her Dementia finery in the picture but her equipment gives greater than 100 reflect damage and greater than 100 resist magic so nothing call really touch her.

I’m pretty happy how this has ended up. It’s the first time I’ve gotten a charater anywhere close to being perfect in Oblivion and the second time I’ve ever started the story. I decided that I’d try and close all 60 oblivion gates this time around too so there’s a bit more playing to be had but if I had to quit now, I’d be satisfied.