rikard.me/blog/020.txt                                Sun 29 Dec, 2024


                      Games I played during 2024


I notice that I play a lot less games the older I get.  I get bored of
the games I play, and the urge to try new stuff just isn't there
<anymore, and I find myself playing the same old games over and over
again.

World of Warcraft is one of those games.  I originally started playing
it in 2005 when it came out in the EU.  I used to play on my brother's
account, during the few hours of the day that he wasn't online.  I've
not played it consistently since then, and I've taken a lot of
breaks, but since Battle for Azeroth I've been playing it more or
less every day.  That's also been the case with the latest expansion,
'The War Within'.  The only content I really interact with is PvP,
arenas and such.  The previous expansion, 'Dragonflight', turned
gearing in PvP from a nightmarish chore into what it should have
always been: an easy grind.  Getting gear is not a fun or interesting
part of PvP, killing noobs is, and the fact that it's so easy to get
into PvP now with the new gearing system is amazing.

TWW expanded on this system and improved it in many ways.  You no
longer need to have precognition as an embellishment, it's simply a
gem that you socket now, letting you have other powerful embellishments
instead.

While there still are a lot of frustrations in the game, what we have
now is such an incredible improvement from how things were in
'Shadowlands' (the expansion before 'Dragonflight'), that it almost
beggars belief.  I really hope that Blizzard keeps this momentum up,
and don't let PvP stagnate completely.

Since Holinka left, we haven't really had much communication in terms
of PvP, so we don't really know what their thoughts or plans are; I
guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Another game I played a lot of this year was Neverwinter Nights.  This
is a comfort game for me.  Like WoW, it's something I played a lot of
when I was a kid, and getting back into it this year felt like coming
home, or tasting a food that you haven't had in ages.  This year was
the first time that I actually explored the game's community content,
and I'm really glad I did because it made me discover my new favourite
RPG: 'A Dance with Rogues'.

It's probably one of the most infamous modules for NWN, and there
probably are good reasons for this.  While the adult themes are very
heavy and prominent, it doesn't necessarily force that on you, it's up
to you, the player, to chose whether to engage with it or not.  You
_can_ play as an incredibly sexual character, but you can also not.
The princess in my first playthrough was a very reserved, stoic
character; someone who had fallen from her position of royalty but
would not resign her dignity in her new life.

I was honestly stunned, time and time again, playing this module.  I
never thought a community made campaign could do so many things so
right, from dialogue, to quest design, to story; it really is perfect
(bar a few scuffs here and there).

I played both the original version which came out almost 20 years ago,
and the remastered version which came out in 2020.  The second part
have yet to be remastered, and I really can't wait to try it when it
is.  ADwR is a game that I will come back to again and again.

Warlockracy on Youtube did a great review of the game a few years ago,
and I really recommend you watch it: youtu.be/wAKwOAC1wEs

I haven't really put a tonne of hours into anything other than this.
I got back into Satisfactory in November, and have been playing it on
and off.  It's a chill game, but it's not something that has me locked
in for hours and hours at a time.

I started playing Core Keeper with a friend.  It's a fun game, but
probably not something I will replay unless there are some major
content patches to it in the future.  It's similar to Terraria, but
more in the style of Stardew Valley.  There are some cool things you
can do with automation, but it's very bare bones, and I hope this is
something they expand on in the future.

There aren't any upcoming games that I look forward to, and none of
the big releases this year have really caught my interest.  I guess
the only thing I know I'll try out is Obsidian's 'Avowed', a first
person RPG set in the same universe as their 'Pillars of Eternity'
series.  The gameplay does look kinda boring from the few videos I've
seen, but Obsidian usually manages to compensate this with their
writing, so it's a game I'll be checking out for sure.

At least I know for sure I'll be playing WoW in the new year.