If you’ve been following my blog for the past month or so (probably a little more), you’ll know that I’ve been writing a playthrough for Shadow Warrior, which I picked up in a Humble Bundle a while back. I had intended on writing a separate post for each and every chapter, and for a time I was keeping up a similar pace on playing the game and writing about it. Eventually I just wanted to finish the game, but had other blog posts to write at the same time, so I just beat the game and saved all the screens for future posts. I ended up at Chapter 8 of 17 when it comes to the write up, but finished the game a couple of weeks ago.
Recently I had contemplated combining multiple chapters into single posts, just to finish the series, so that I could move onto the next game in my backlog. Unfortunately, I ended up having the computer issues I described a couple of posts back, so the saved screen shots I had piled up for the rest of the write up were lost. With that said, there really isn’t much more to say.
I loved the game. It combined old school FPS sensibilities with new school graphics and wrapped it in a sarcastic wit that spoke to me. The gameplay was fast and fun, the graphics were beautiful, and the story line was surprisingly complex despite being riddled with dick jokes. I’d recommend the game to anyone who has a dirty sense of humor and enjoys blowing shit up, in first-person. You can pick it up at various digital distribution sites for PC, and it is also available for PS4 (not sure about the Xbox, but I assume so).
A shot from the last level, where I had just beaten the final boss.
I will post this with the rest of the playthrough on the Ongoing Series page, and you can see the rest of what I had started over there. I’m not sure what the next playthrough will be, but my new computer has opened up some options as far as streaming/recording go, so I just may up my game and do some Let’s Plays or similar. We’ll see.
I have pretty much been plugging away at the same games this week, so rather than drone on about what I’ve done exactly, I will just be touching on the main points and calling it a day. Sound good? Okay then.
First up, League of Legends. Yes, I’m still playing regularly, though I haven’t played too much ranked. Still Bronze II. Someday I might get out of it, but I’m not that focused. Been having a blast playing the newest champion I purchased, Jinx, and working on my Mastery ranks for champions, which is a new system Riot introduced recently. Basically, the more you play a champion, you “level up” but it comes down to being fluff mostly. I think I’m at rank 8 or 9, because I have a handful of champions whom I’ve played, the highest being Jinx at level 3. If nothing else, it gives you some other meta to work on, which is alright by me, as I already play regularly.
Hell yeah! 4v5 and still carried! It helped they played a weird ass bot lane, but still. pic.twitter.com/jNhmkTk5aA
I had a great game with Jinx the other day, where our mid laner fed 5 deaths and then disconnected from the game. I carried hard, and we still won the game even in a 4v5 which is pretty difficult to do. However, they did have an off-meta bot lane that didn’t work out so well for them, which got me snowballing. It helps that Jinx is such a hyper carry.
Next, I finally finished Shadow Warrior. The final boss wasn’t too difficult but did take some time to take down. The story ended well, and my overall verdict of the game was that it was fantastic. I will continue my playthrough write ups, though I think I’m going to start combining chapters and get it done fairly quickly, because I want to move on to something else. That’s the big debate I have now. I have League as my MOBA of choice. Titanfall has been my mainstay lobby shooter. I have several MMOs I dabble in, but Shadow Warrior was my main single player game for the last month. Not sure what I want to move on to. I did buy Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel a couple of months ago in a sale and really want to dive into that, but I have plenty of other games in my backlog as well. Maybe I’ll do a poll. We’ll see.
I have toyed around with Sid Meier’s Starships here and there, and finally finished my first game. Of course, this was accomplished over a long period of time, despite only having a couple of hours put into the game. That’s because it’s really easy to jump in and jump out for ten minutes at a time and feel like you made some progress. As such, that first game gives me a good impression of the game overall, and I like it. It’s a very simplified 4x, but it still scratches that itch. The tactical combat is definitely the best part, but the diplomacy and micromanagement of your empire is still fun too.
Lastly, I’ve been plugging away at my Season 3 Hardcore Witch Doctor in Diablo III. I hit level 53 the other night and have bumped the difficulty up to Expert. I think I could actually handle Master but I’m doing baby steps because I don’t want to kill this character off, like most of my other seasonal characters. I’d like to get her to 70 before the season ends, if nothing else just to get the achievement. Here’s what she looks like currently, along with her build at the moment:
Alternatively, you can see the full build and stats stuff over on my Anook page.
As Chapter 8 opens, Wang is still making his way through the Zilla Corporation’s compound. This bit is less of a sewage management plant, and more of a rail yard and dock.
Shortly after the level starts I ended up either gaining enough Karma for a new skill, or perhaps I just hadn’t spent the points yet, but I decided to go into the mind tree at some point, for the extra base health.
The first fortune cookie of the level was particularly brilliant.
Another new enemy type showed up on this level. These bastards are tough! Not only do they charge straight up to you, but the do considerable damage with their dual-wielded katanas. Then right when you turn to face them, they go into stealth and run about, only to ambush you again. They take some hits too. Mostly an annoyance though.
The majority of the level shows that this facility is in some serious disrepair. There’s more of the same types of altars to be shattered to gain access to other parts of the level, secrets galore, and of course enough karma and ki stones for some more upgrades.
When the facility gives way to a shipyard area, a short cinematic is displayed, where you find Zilla’s favorite assassins, who have some choice words for wang. Turns out they are looking for the sword too, and want you to help them blow some shit up.
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In the same room, there’s a couple more fortune cookies to be found:
Dropping out of Hoji’s portal was a fun experience to say the least.
He didn’t seem to mind dropping Wang on his ass, but we were here on a mission, so a broken ass could wait.
Almost immediately, Wang is accosted by demons. This one liner is classic:
And this easter egg of sorts made me laugh as well. Angry Ninjas is an Angry Birds mod I’d like to see.
Burning through the facilities was an exercise in killing stuff, and hitting a series of switches that lowered the toxic goo out of my way. There were the typical shrines to bust to get through locked areas, and a new enemy was presented, which are these toxic green demons that shoot acidic explosive balls at you, and also try to suicide bomb you as well. Another new weapon was added to the arsenal in the shotgun, and after a while, upgrading it to hold 4 shells was a nice improvement.
Yeah, it’s been about a month since I’ve done one of my signature round-up posts, but with NBI planning and execution coupled with less time at the computer, I didn’t really have the material to pull one of these posts together. Because it’s been a month and I haven’t talked about much in the way of what I’ve been playing, there’s plenty of material for this post. The games at hand this week are: Titanfall, League of Legends, Diablo III, Shadow Warrior, Hearthstone, and Star Wars: The Old Republic.
I have touched on all of these games over the course of the past month, be it in a random post talking about one or the other, my Tweet round up post, or during one of the various NBI writing prompts. Titanfall has been in my regular rotation for this past month, and as a result I’m almost max level (sitting at rank 45 currently) and I’ve also had some success in the ranked play. I mentioned this in my last screen shot post for the #NBI2015Safari so I won’t delve into it any further. It’s still a blast to play, and with the jump-in, jump-out nature of the game, it’s right up my alley.
I’ve also been playing League of Legends regularly, but I have slacked off on ranked matched. I did promo back to Bronze II, and have been bouncing up and down ever since. I did manage to pile up enough IP to get another champion though, and picked up Jinx whom I’m planning to practice heavily for use in ranked matches. In the last patch, 5.8 there were some improvements to the visuals of The Howling Abyss map, along with a new summoner spell that works just like the snow balls in the Poro King game mode that was out this past winter. They also added in a new way to use up those tiny amounts of RP you might have on your account, with a skin boost. For 95 RP, you unlock a random skin for each champion on your team, and everyone gets an IP boost as well. When I bought one, the boost was 200 IP, and when one was purchased for me, the boost was 100 IP. Either way, it’s nice to be able to use the small amounts you sometimes end up with.
The newest patch, 5.9 introduced a rework for Ashe, some balance tweaks and new skins. There was also a teaser for the next new champion released recently:
We now know his name is Ekko, and he looks primed to be a top/jungler but I could see him fitting into other roles as well. Here’s what he’ll look like in game:
The Diablo III event that I was running this past Saturday basically didn’t happen, but that didn’t stop me from rolling a new hardcore Witch Doctor for Season 3 which started recently.
One thing I didn’t realize, was that there was an anniversary event going on as well, where each new zone that you enter had a chance to become a cow level. Yep, just like back in Diablo II. I didn’t think we’d ever see this, as Whimsyvale was supposed to be the replacement for the cow level, and there is even some dialogue at some point that says “there is no cow level.” That has changed though, and when I entered a rift with my Witch Doctor, I ended up being accosted by bipedal cows. Horrifying.
The rift guardian too, was a huge bovine, which an even bigger axe. He was taken down though, and throughout the rift I ended up with some pretty decent gear. My Witch Doctor ended up at level 25 before I decided I was done for the evening. She looks pretty fierce, doesn’t she?
I’ve also been playing through Shadow Warrior still, usually just a chapter or two at a time. Despite my write up sitting at Chapter 6, I’m actually on chapter 13. It’s been a great game so far, and I really do recommend it to FPS fans. I won’t go into too much detail, as more of that write up will be coming soon. But here’s a shot of the next big baddy I had to take down:
I mentioned it on the last episode of the podcast, but I’ve been playing Hearthstone again here and there, but not on my PC, no. My friend picked up a new iPad the other day, and since then the past couple of times I’ve seen her I ended up playing Hearthstone on it. I suggested she download it just so I could check it out, and she ended up getting hooked on it as well. Legend of Grimrock, another game I own on the PC was also available on the iPad, and I told her it was a good game as well, so she has been playing that too. Both games don’t require any sort of twitch skills though, and I think that’s why they run so well on the touch-screen device. Playing Hearthstone again reminded me that the new adventures came out, but I didn’t have enough gold on my account to pick one up. I’d have to do dailies for a while to get them, and while I’d like to, I also ended remembering why Hearthstone started to get on my nerves: fuckin RNGesus. Everything have random effects and it gets to a point where sometimes it feels like everything is out of your control, and that’s not something I really want in my card game. So who knows if I’ll ever actually get around to playing it anymore. Probably just when I’m visiting my friend.
Lastly, despite having ESO, GW2 and H1Z1 sitting on my hard drive ready to play whenever I want, I went and downloaded more games. First it was Marvel Heroes. I ended up hearing that some of my qualms with the game had been changed up, so I checked it out again. I still don’t like it. I’d just rather play Diablo, to be honest. Next, I downloaded Neverwinter again, mainly because I wanted to check out the dungeon creator stuff that we talked about on the podcast recently. Neverwinter just doesn’t sit well with me, or my computer for that matter. Something looked off and no matter how much I messed with the graphics settings it still looked funny. Which is weird considering the above mentioned MMOs run great and I believe they are all newer. So last night I downloaded Star Wars: The Old Republic. A bunch of people in the blogosphere seem to be playing it right now, and I remember enjoying what I played of it back when I first checked it out a year or so ago. Hearing about that XP bonus for story missions means avoiding all the sidequests and I think that might make it even more enjoyable, because I remember the story being the best part. I think I’m going to check out a different class though, because I remember the bounty hunter was getting sort of stale before.
Me Vs. Myself and I 