I know you’ve been waiting breathlessly for my next gaming update, so here it is.
Destiny, a sort of futuristic first-person shooter/massively multiplayer online (FPS/MMO) hybrid, was released on September 9 and I jumped in with everyone else. Gorgeous game. Rolled a titan and worked hard to level up, playing solo. That limited me to the PvE (player vs environment) half of the game, with the other half being player-vs-player (PvP) and group strikes/missions. I’m a poor player, with a slow, deliberate playing style that just doesn’t fit in well with a group of run-and-gun players. By the time I got the titan to level 27, the game was getting pretty repetitious and boring, so I decided to roll a warlock. Got her up to about level 10 and was ready to quit, so when Far Cry 4 released on November 18, I was more than ready for a new game.
Far Cry was a nice change after Destiny. It’s a huge open world, in beautiful mountainous terrain in the fictitious country of Kyrat; think Nepal/Pakistan/India. There are more things to do than I care to describe, but as in FC3, you capture radio (or in this case, bell) towers to open up areas of the map. You gather collectibles. You hunt animals to get skins for making gear. You gather plants for making a variety of serums/potions. You learn to ride and attack with elephants. You operate ATVs, cars, trucks, gyrocopters, hovercraft, boats, and probably more that I’m forgetting. You get a grapple for climbing cliffs. But without having gotten very far into the actual story missions, I’m tiring of the game. I’ve done a great deal of almost everything except the actual missions, which I find difficult and frustrating (especially since I was able to finish Far Cry 3).
When the grandkids got out of school for the holidays, my grandson (age 12) was given special screen privileges for the duration and was allowed to play Destiny for the first time. So I jumped back into that game and we played together via Xbox Live, doing PvP almost exclusively (his choice). He got to play an hour a day, maybe two. Then came the infamous Lizard Squad hacking on Christmas Day and it was another two days at least before we got to play again. Hope he enjoyed it as much as I did, although it was all I could do to keep up with him (and I was about 4 levels higher).
Meantime, for Christmas my son gave me Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (they’ve added a playable female character since the game’s release) and Dragon Age: Inquisition. Both are fantasy role-playing games (dragons, elves, magicians, swords, etc.) Repetition and grinding are killing my interest in Destiny, and difficult missions have stymied me in Far Cry (has me wondering if the game is getting harder or I’m just getting older … ), so I anticipate loading up one of the new games any day now. I’ll probably try Shadow of Mordor first, because I expect DA:I to run longer.
I do keep my hand in Ingress a bit too, though I decided months ago that driving around for hours to capture imaginary portals, only to see them recaptured a few hours later, was much too expensive for such a brief reward. (Recently, though, gas has dropped below $2 gallon here.) I have a “couch portal” behind my house so can collect XM (“exotic matter”) and then recharge a few portals each day without ever leaving the house. And yesterday, after realizing the submission and acceptance of 7 more portals would get me to level 10, I went out and photographed and submitted 11 new portals for consideration. Will be at least a few weeks before I get the verdict on those.
Anyway, for you gamers, that’s my story to date.
I think I’ll stick to my card game. This would drive me around the bend. A relatively short drive! o_O
Until you’ve seen or played one of these games, you can’t imagine how realistic and immersive they’ve become. Amazing compared to the board and card games I was limited to as a child.
I have seen them in action but they did nothing at all for me,not that I’m too old just that it all seemed rather pointless to me, and my chum playing the games was brilliant I’d love 1% of his nous. I’d soooner read a good book for my pleasure 🙂
And that’s why there are both game companies and book publishers.
You go Grandma. A lot of that went right over my head but I’m glad you’re having fun! 😀
I went back and explained some of the acronyms for you, but I’ve a hunch that won’t help much.
I love playing video games for about…oh, 30 minutes. Then I get bored. I’d rather read. But those 30 minutes are great fun! You go!
It’s the immersion in another world that keeps my attention, I think. It’s places to go and exciting things to see and do and discover without ever leaving the house. (These aren’t simplistic puzzle games like PacMan, Angry Birds, or Candy Crush.)
Yes, I know what games you refer to. My nephew loves it when I come over because I’ll play against him…but my interest only lasts half an hour, an hour tops. It might be because he beats the crap out of me…
I can barely keep up with my grandson. It’s embarrassing how poorly I play in comparison, but he’s so gracious about it. I can’t imagine a kid bragging to his friends that he plays with his grandmother, but he asks me to play with him (we’re a team, not adversaries). An hour with him does exhaust me. Even an hour alone can be tiring because the games are intense, require a lot of concentration, etc.
Wow… that is quite the gamer update. You certainly have not been napping your spare time away. Although I have no games similar to yours, since I am a ‘middle earth’ fan in general (want to move their someday) I may have to check that one out although as I have mentioned before, I lean toward the computer compatible games. And I am just plain terrible at those sword swinging, sword leaping and high-jumping kick games. 🙂
There are ample reviews and videos about any game, so you tell a lot about them before committing. I’m not sure how “Middle Earth” this one is, other than lots of swinging swords at orcs. This particular game’s unique new feature is that if you fail to kill an opponent, he’ll be stronger the next time you meet him. That will negate my usual tactic of learning every time I fail, until I finally manage to beat a particular opponent. Could be it will get too hard, too fast. We’ll see.
Words with Friends is about the extent of my gaming, and even with that I do tend to get impatient if I take too long to find a word to play.
But I think it’s great that you’re into this. We all have to look for new mind challenges. Mine of late has been learning “Joomla,” a content management software to build websites.
My impatience/frustration tolerance seems to get lower by the day and makes these games more and more difficult. I’m sure Joomla is a challenge, but at least you’ll have something worthwhile to show for your effort.