Saturday Morning Gaming: Sometimes There Are Happy Endings In Real Life Too

Jaybird

Jaybird is Birdmojo on Xbox Live and Jaybirdmojo on Playstation's network. He's been playing consoles since the Atari 2600 and it was Zork that taught him how to touch-type. If you've got a song for Wednesday, a commercial for Saturday, a recommendation for Tuesday, an essay for Monday, or, heck, just a handful a questions, fire off an email to AskJaybird-at-gmail.com

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17 Responses

  1. Brandon Berg says:

    no politics

    Why is the most mindless of diversions banned from Mindless Diversions?Report

  2. Marchmaine says:

    Discovered AutoChess (the standalone genre, not DOTA mod) and am on the fence whether I like it.

    Plus: Build a team (not a deck), synergies, RNG, adapt, every game is different, compete against other player strategies (not twitch)

    Cons: the above

    I feel like there’s one thing missing… like a penalty for squatting on a piece you can’t use… or a way to force upgrade something… or something, or maybe something.

    AutoChess (Mobile); Underlords (Mobile/PC)

    …And the obligatory one character in the new POE season… tried a Templar Frost/Staff Crit… switched to Maurader DW/Frenzy build.Report

  3. DavidTC says:

    I’ve suddenly realized I haven’t played a video game in like three months. Not because I decided not to, I’ve just been busy with other hobbies and some actual important things.Report

    • Jaybird in reply to DavidTC says:

      Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition is on sale at Steam for 90% off.

      Two bucks.Report

      • DavidTC in reply to Jaybird says:

        I actually saw that earlier, and considered it, but decided not to. I’d never heard of it.

        But you mentioning it made me look again, and the Wikipedia page said ‘Sleeping Dogs’ melee combat has been compared to that of Batman: Arkham Asylum: ‘ which basically sold me on it.

        So I’m getting it…who knows how long it will sit around before I play it, but I can’t really say no to $2.Report

  4. Morat20 says:

    Just wondering, anyone tried “Detroit: Become Human”? I’ve heard of it, and the bare bones description seems interesting — but none of my friends have tried it.Report

    • Anne in reply to Morat20 says:

      I haven’t played it but we watched an entire play through with my stepson and it was very interesting and entertaining. Good storytelling and nice graphics plus…CLANCY BROWN!Report

  5. blake says:

    I heard great things about Star Control, which came out in 1990, and Star Control II but I didn’t see it at the time.

    But! Back in 1986 there was a singleplayer space RPG called StarFlight where you started out with a blank-slate ship and bought various upgrades as you did little missions around the galaxy. There were seven or so alien races with a WIDE variety of threat level between them, and there was a mechanic by which you landed on planets and mined them for various items.

    To me, the thing that his game accomplished that few others do, is that the story was a mystery of a very intimidating and alien race which I think communicated only in binary, but the arc of the story made it so that by the end, the very mechanic you had been relying on took on a moral and ethical dimension.

    Well, worth checking out.

    (I don’t play much these days. Mostly Broforce with my youngest or Heroes of Might and Magic III when I’m alone.)Report

    • Jaybird in reply to blake says:

      Did you ever get around to Heroes V?Report

      • blake in reply to Jaybird says:

        I did. I…well, I didn’t *hate* it, exactly—unlike Heroes IV, which was the most crushing disappointment in my gaming history—but I think I actually played it a bit and…it’s fine. It doesn’t feel like HOMM to me, though, it feels like a modern episode of “The Simpsons”: The people who made it liked the original very much, but don’t really understand it. (My son and I played a fair amount of King’s Bounty at the same time, which was pretty good. I think that’s because it was it’s own thing and not a wannabe HOMM.)

        I have VI and VII as well but I’m also not a big fan of Uplay.Report

        • Jaybird in reply to blake says:

          I *LOVED* IV. The Stronghold had the most interesting creatures! But I understand that I was one of, like, four people who enjoyed IV more than III.

          When I got V, I was briefly disappointed by the return to the basic ideas of III, but came to prefer it (and the expansions put icing on the cupcake).

          But if you didn’t get into V, you didn’t get into V.Report

        • Jaybird in reply to blake says:

          And I loved V enough to endure UPlay for VI… but VI for me was like IV was for you. I played through the first couple of maps but it was a slog.

          I looked at screenshots of VII and saw that they hadn’t returned to form and didn’t even bother to get it.Report

          • blake in reply to Jaybird says:

            I did a little VII but I realize (on repeatedly playing I, II & III =)) that the thing I like about them is the epic feel. And I feel like, starting with V, the POV is very tight on the hero. I didn’t play them much, but I never feel the same sense of scope.

            You’re not the only one who liked IV, though! I know a guy…Report

    • Morat20 in reply to blake says:

      Starflight and Starflight II are old favorites. I believe GoG has them, if you ever want to play them again. 🙂

      I do recall finding the manuals for those games quite delightful as well.Report

      • blake in reply to Morat20 says:

        Reading the manuals was a HUGE part of the experience after about…IDK, 1979, and before the ’90s. I still have a bunch of ’em. Some of them were REALLY thick and had massive backstories. In the early ’80s, there wasn’t room for the story of an RPG so you’d get a book and be told to “read paragraph 79”.Report