The more time I spend with the The Secret World, the more it feels futile in playing. Without going into specifics (which I will save for my review on Tuesday), the game plays around with the vertical and horizontal progression formulas that have been standard in MMOs over the last decade. While it’s a fun experimentation that gives depth (and some overlap) to character development, it ultimately cuts itself short. In other words, you could play 10 hours of The Secret World and get as much out of it as you would if you spent 100 hours in another MMO. I ultimately found a build for my character mixing assault rifles and chaos magic that focused on burst and frenzy attacks while stacking hit rating buffs to reduce glances. All of this before I discovered the Templars had a gladiator deck that mixed the two weapons for a more rounded character, rather than focusing solely on damage.
Fallout: New Vegas
I jumped into New Vegas, officially kicking off my summer of RPGs. As of this writing, I already spent 14 hours playing and just made my way into Novac. I spent about four hours yesterday researching builds that combined heavy weapons and melee weapons until I finally found something I like. This was, of course, after I went through the tutorial and was doing quests for the NCR at the Mojave Outpost. Thank goodness for PC console commands. With a few commands, I was able to switch around my specials and skills to the correct build as if I had begun with that build in mind from the start. Hopefully I don’t screw up too much that I have to use console commands again to undo any mistakes. I don’t want to use the console to give myself an advantage I wouldn’t normally have by playing the game as it is.
Quantum Conundrum
Despite the precedent, Quantum Conundrum is close to being my first disappointment of the year. The thing I loved about Portal and what made its puzzles appealing to me was the clear avoidance of using a timing element. With few exceptions, there was never a puzzle that relied on hitting the right spot on a wall at the right time, and those that did, usually were directly in front of you (so you couldn’t get the angle wrong) or were big enough that shooting a portal too far left or right wouldn’t matter. Quntum Conundrum doesn’t avoid these problems, it highlights them. In fact, the third dimension, slow-mo, relies heavily on timing based puzzles and platforming from one object to another. I have yet to finish the yellow wing (slow-mo) of the mansion, and I can only imagine the frustration the red (anti-gravity) wing will bring.
Game Deals
Green Man Gaming has a deal running only this weekend for 25% off any game when using the promo code 25OFF-ALLTH-EGAME. This means everything currently stock and any pre-order. That includes games like Sleeping Dogs, Hitman: Absolution, Darksiders 2, Crysis 3, Sim City, Metro: Last Light, and Battlefield 3 Premium (lowered to $37.49 from the retail price of $49.99).
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