Another week down, and it’s time for the round-up of my gaming endeavors once again. This week I spent my time in the same games I’ve been playing for a while, as I have yet to complete Demon’s Souls, I’m still waiting on the Steam Autumn sale which is rumored to start on Wednesday, and the other titles are on-going affairs. When that Steam sale gets under way, I’m hoping to either snag a copy of Dark Souls on the cheap, or something else from my wishlist that I haven’t picked up yet. Perhaps I’ll get luck and both Dark Souls games will go on sale and I can get both of them. That would probably take care of my gaming regimen for the remainder of the year, if not longer.

If you missed my post from yesterday, you’ll wonder if I’m still planning to play any MMOs or if I’m done with the genre again. Honestly I can’t answer that question. I’m on a day-to-day basis with it. I really do want to dive headfirst into an MMO and have it hook me, compelling me to play day in and day out, but there hasn’t been one to do that in nearly a decade. I am still interested in playing more Guild Wars 2, or even more Rift, and am still interested in playing a couple of titles I haven’t tried yet (Secret World and ESO). I’m just not willing to shell out the cash for them in the mood I have been in. Nor am I really feeling playing more than an hour or two here or there in the games I already have access to. I would be more likely to dive into the new Everquest title even if it was just a cut and paste of EQ or EQ2 with updated graphics, if that meant there was a playerbase there that made the world feel alive. The ghost towns of those games that I once loved are just a sad reminder that they are beyond their prime. I think I will still dip into GW2 and perhaps Rift here and there, but I’m uncertain if I will ever play to cap or get thoroughly invested in either. I played GW2 a little this week, leveling my Thief from 12-15 before being taken on a little tour by Jeromai, where she showed me a “jumping puzzle” where I earned a couple of chests worth of semi decent stuff.

We also ran through the Black Citadel to Lion’s Arch, and then jumped into some sPvP and I was sorely disappointed with that experience. I suppose with a group of people I know it would probably be pretty fun, as we’d be a little more coordinated, but we just ended up getting matched up against people who live in that mode, and decimated over and over. It is also just like any battleground PvP mode I’ve ever played, despite everyone being on a similar level because of there not being gear discrepancies and shit like that. I think if I put in quite a bit of time to practice and learn I’d probably perform better, but at that point it was not a fun learning experience. I think WvW would be more appealing, but I still haven’t done much with that. I’m hesitant to join Jeromai’s guild just because there’s the likelihood that I won’t play much. As much as I want to enjoy myself in the current crop of MMOs, I just don’t. It makes me angry, but I can’t help not being able to recapture those feelings. I’m weird like that though, because it’s likely that I’ll have the urge to play more soon enough. Can I just have a new MMO that appeals to me please?

In League of Legends, the preseason started, and with it came a slew of changes in the new patch. More are to come I’m sure, but I gave a run down of the patch notes in these posts:

Preseason 2015 part one
Preseason 2015 part two

I’ve been playing Summoner’s Rift almost exclusively, which is odd considering I avoided it for most of the 2014 season. Still, I have been having a blast playing different roles and checking out the new items and features added in. I saw Kalista in action last night, and she does look like she’d be fun, though the person controlling her wasn’t very good. We also had someone feed and then rage quit so that match was a wash a few minutes in. I have fallen in love with Maokai and can see why he was such a popular pick in Worlds. Not only is he ridiculously tanky, but has good sustain and does some decent damage with very little ability power. He’s one tank that doesn’t get nothing but assists.

In Awesomenauts I’ve been sticking with Scoop for the most part. I find that the ability to take more hits but still put out decent damage and make plays that benefit the team is better than just being the DPS. I guess you could say that Scoop is the equivalent of Maokai, as he has decent sustain with life steal and his self-heal, does good damage with his abilities, and the snare on his hammer can allow you to make plays for the team. It’s odd because when I started my MOBA career (for lack of a better term), I was drawn more to the carry and brawler types, whereas now I’m more into the support classes (including tanks). They are under appreciated because they don’t usually have a high amount of kills, but the assists that they earn and plays they can make that benefit the whole team are more appealing than just being the guy with 20 kills. Half the time those 20 kills came off the backs of the tanks and supports anyway. So anyway, I have managed to get into a higher league than ever before. If you take a look at my history with the PC version of Awesomenauts, I have been in league 3 the entire time. I managed to break through into league 2 just a couple of days ago, and actually placed higher than this screenshot, though still within the same league.

My rank is still lower than I’d like, after having been in the top 900 range on the PS3 version of the game, but I’m still pleased with the progress. I have noticed that the games have come down to being a lot closer affairs now, where it looks like I’m going to lose early on, but then we manage to turn things around. Sometimes that goes the other way too, but it’s been more challenging that’s for sure. I’m not sure if I’ll ever make it to league 1, but I don’t think it will be happening this season, as there are only a few days left to go. Perhaps next season I can push it up a bit.

Lastly, I’ve been plugging away at Demon’s Souls. When I left off, I had just beaten the Flamelurker, and had moved on to the Dragon God but hadn’t defeated him. It turns out that I am retarded. The entire time I’ve been playing the game I didn’t realize there was a sprint function. Press and hold circle, and viola. Previously I had though it only functioned as the roll button, which is the case if you just press the button quickly. Sprinting made getting to the second spear very easy, and from there the Dragon God was forced to the ground, where I could go give him a few pokes with my spear, defeating him and earning a silver trophy in the process.

That meant the 2nd world was completely cleared, but I still had work to do in the first world. I ported back in at the Tower Knight archstone, and started the process of clearing the level and gathering all of the treasure. I managed to do that in a couple of tries, and made it to the next boss, the Penetrator.

He seemed super difficult on my first try, but I knew there were a lot of souls to be earned on the level, so I farmed a bit and am sitting around soul level 40 now (EDIT: I’m actually over soul level 50, upon looking). My 2nd and third tries to down him were still unsuccessful but by then I had figured out his pattern. Beating him was actually really easy after that. Just have to be light on your feet is all. After him, there stood a new challenge, 3 black phantoms barring my path. I managed to kill one quite readily, but the 2nd one with a tower shield and spear has done nothing but destroy my equipment over and over. He also doesn’t seem to want to let me get behind him, so I don’t seem to be able to land many attacks without him blocking. A couple of hits even while blocking and he destroys my equipment. Repairing it is super expensive, so I’m not sure how I’m going to advance. Perhaps just kill him with the broken stuff and then go repair? I’ll figure it out. I think I’m nearing the midway point or perhaps I’m just over that now. The game does take a while to get through but I’m determined to see it to its end. Can’t wait to dive into Dark Souls. But yeah, that’s what I’ve been up to this week. Until next time.

#stateofthegame #roundup #mobas #demonssouls