Gaming | Greendale.tk

Gaming in 2022

The main thing I wanted to change in 2022 (and subsequent years, hopefully ;)) was to actually finish games, instead of playing one for a few sessions and hop on to the next one. The hopping can still occur though, in search for a game I actually want to get stuck in with and finish to the end. On the other hand, I do play a lot of ‘open ended factory / builder’ type games, but the goal in those should be to get to the endgame.

The first two games that I actually finished at the start of the year were Star Wars Fallen Order and Ruined King. Both excellent games. The jedi one will see it’s follow up later this year. I started playing not long after it originally came out, and for some reason moved on to something else. I decided to finish it now though, and it was well worth it. Fun combat and the story was decent as well, though the ending was a bit odd. After the darth vader chase (spolier!) and back on the ship the story just sort of ended.

My games of 2021

The games of 2021

The games I played will be done from memory since I didn’t take any notes or used any software to keep track of what I played. I should start doing that to keep better track of things, since human memory can be misguided sometimes :). And post here more often !

In the past, I split these up by platform, PS4, Switch and PC, but I hardly touched the consoles this past year. For PS4 I only bought one game in a sale, Ghost of Tshusima, director’s cut , sort of my goodbye to the platform. It’s supposed to be one of the best games for it, and it still looks pretty nice. So far I only played the intro, but I am still planning on playing it more at some point. I finally did cancel the subscription for the PS4. I haven’t touched any of the games that come with it for almost 2 years, maybe even more, so even though it is good value for money (although the games were getting a bit weak that came with it) if you don’t use it at all, it’s wasted.

The switch I played a bit more. Checked out Animal Crossing every now and then and listened to the islanders complain about me not being there. They should really stop doing that, it makes me feel bad and not play at all :). I did buy a few games, Bravely Default II and Legend of Zelda, Skyward Sword. Loved BDII, but stopped playing it after a while. I should pick it up again. Zelda is good too, but didn’t touch it for more than a few sessions. I think that was about it for the consoles. I also want to continue playing Octopath Traveler which I just remembered when writing this!

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Gaming 2019

The year started off a bit slow for me gaming wise. I think I was a bit burned out by it and mainly watched Netflix series, I rewatched Friends if I remember well. Then in Febuary the Civ VI expansion Gathering Storm came out. After watching a few marbozir videos, I decided to get it and it made me finally ejoy Civ VI. I had tried a few runs before, but never really grabbed me, it didn’t seem like a complete game. In my opinion Gathering Storm made it complete.

In may Total War: Three Kingdoms came out, it was nice, but I found the campaigns / games dragging on a little too long. Also sometimes you got into a stallmate of some kind and the game didn’t really go anywhere. It was cool to see a strategy game in the top 10 most played games for a few days or weeks though. And it is a very good game regardless of my gripes.

Anno 1800

Around the same time, by the end of April, one of my favourites for this year came out, the citybuilder / logistics game Anno 1800 by Ubisoft. I had a lot of fun with this game. The campaign was relatively short, though the story was decent. The sandbox mode is where it’s at. I usually disable the pirates too, since I don’t think the combat aspect is very good. It was more annoying than anything else to find your ships in ruins, because you overlooked a pirate attack.

The DLCs that came after the release, were nice as well, especially the first one Sunken Treasures. It gives you a very large new island in a new region to build on, and a vessel with a diving bell you can use to search for treasure. The second dlc, Botanica was a little underwhelming, bit short of content. The third one, the passage, was pretty big with a new region and a new story. Though I have to admit I haven’t played it much since I have the feeling I have pretty much seen and done most that the game has to offer. I have about 70hrs into it now. The first part of the game is the most fun part to me. Once you have eletricity and people that need it, you need to redesign your cities in order to be able to use the trains and move the oil to your power plant, which is pretty much a pain. All in all a great game and one of the best of the year for me.

The most Cynical Brit

In 2010 his Cataclysm videos, talking while playing the game, made him more and more popular. I am assuming he wasn’t the 1st let’s player, but he certainly made the genre big. And with this newfound audience he started the excellent WTF IS series.

In the early 2000sÂ he started to do shoutcasts for his beloved Starcraf 2 as well, he was easily the best SC2 announcer with Apollo and Day9. Easily being the best voice in Esports for a long time to come !

Apollo || Shaun Clarke on twitter posted some nice pics from the past :

https://twitter.com/ApolloSC2/status/999963278175621122

Sadly in 2015 TB tweeted the news that he was diagnosed with cancer. Strangely enough my dad was diagnosed with lymphoma not long thereafter, it was all a bit much. TB battled the disease well up till the point where the chemicals didn’t work any more. Last month, in april he tweeted it was pretty much over and he didn’t have long to go. On may 24th he passed away.

His passing leaves me with a big feeling of sadness. It’s not like a celeb you read about in the paper, this seems more personal and a more profound feeling of loss. Especially since he was still in his early 30s. TB you will definately be missed by many, he singlehandedly changed the game of youtube commenators / game critiquing, reviewing and shoutcasting to boot.

One of my fav series, TB and Jesse Cox play Terraria

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89fW4MTJvRs&list=PL56B73C4D478D9A49

2017 In Gaming Xbox One

Gaming in 2017 – XBOX ONE

To be honest I donâ€™t buy a whole lot of Xbox One titles, but there were a few this past year.

Here is the list :

Halo Wars 2
Fifa 18
Forza 7
Assassinâ€™ Creed

The main reason I boot up the Xbone One is to play a few rounds of Fifa 18 FUT. I play if on a somewhat low level but for some reason itâ€™s great fun to play a few games a few times a week and get the weekly reward, a few gold packs and a stack of coins. I think I only spent real money at the start, and bought some packs to get started. I made a premier league based team and a spanish one. Itâ€™s quite fun to see it improve over time.

Halo Wars 2 was released earlier in the year, now almost a year ago already. Havenâ€™t seen it mentioned much, and it wasnâ€™t played much on Twitch either. Itâ€™s a very decent strategy title though, great controls for the controller as well. The story is enjoyable as well, and itâ€™s gotten some DLC over the course of the year. You can also play it on Windows 10, but I found it more convenient to play it on the XBOX.

I didnâ€™t really plan to get Forza 7, but it was pretty cheap around Xmas I think, so I picked it up then. Itâ€™s got a lot of tracks and different types of contests, but it feels a bit too arcady. Maybe I should play around with the settings a bit, and make it slightly more realistic.

Asassinâ€™s Creed Origins was the last purchase of the year, already reduced in price for 39,99. The game looks wonderful, has plenty to do and a decent story. If youâ€™re looking for a vast, somewhat open world game, this one is pretty good.

Thatâ€™s it for the Xbox for 2017, itâ€™s a nice console, but I have to say that overall PS4 has more and better exclusives. Most of the Xbox One titles you can also get for PC, where they play usually better. The Xbox is in an odd spot in that regard. For convenience some titles are easier to play on the xbox. Just pop in the disc and off you go ;).

2016 The year of the turn based game

In an attempt to blog / write more, I figured I’d start with a ‘best games of 2016’ or more like ‘my fav games of 2016’. Since I don’t want to pretend I can decide for every one what’s the best game, nonetheless on a blog only a few people might read. As I was making the list, one thing struck me: there were an aweful lot of strategy games on it, which isn’t that surprising since I like the genre, but a lot of them are turn based. So let’s take look at that list :

– Xcom 2

– Darkest Dungeon

– Halcyon 6

– Steamworld Heist

– Civ 6

– Stellaris

– Master of Orion

– Mordheim: City of the damned

– Hearts of Iron IV

– Total war: WARHAMMER

Now I could be wrong and every year a whole bunch of turn based game come out, and I might have not noticed. In case I missed any good ones, let me know. Anyway, from that list I’d say XCOM 2 is my favorite. I even finished one game (which is rare for me ;)), loved most of the improvements from Xcom 1.

My number 2 would be darkest dungeon. Love the artstyle and the narrator. Unfortunately this one got a little spoiled for me, due to early access. Played it quite a lot when it just came out. Only just recently started a new run and a lot has been added since ! Halcyon 6 and Steamworld Heist, both indy games were surprisingly good. SW Heist has nice humor and a nice artstyle, the campaign lasts about 15 – 20 hrs, the game is / will be on sale often, so keep your eye out for this on. Halcyon 6 still gets great reviews on Steam, it’s a mix of FTL and Xcom with a 16bit like (pixel) art style. Fun game to play for sure.

Wish I played more of Civ 6, stellaris, HOI IV and total war(hammer). All good games that will only get better with DLC / expansions !Â I have seen a lot of Mordheim on twitch by tornis (http://www.twitch.tv/tornis). Very extensive game with a long campaign with several faction, the strategy seems to be top notch. I only played the tutorials and that already took several hours ;). Something to keep in mind when you’re interested in this one.

FTL – Faster than light

Have been playing quite a bit of this game again, ever since I started watching Lethalfrag on Twitch ! The advanced edition, released in April, added quite a bit to the game. I learned a lot from his stream, the game is not as impossible as I thought it was back in 2012 when I tried it first.

I made a video of my second victory, this time the Zoltan A ship. Since it’s rather boring to just watch it, I recorded some commentary. For the very first time. It’s rather weird to hear your own voice back and there are some odd pauses in between words, where I try to come up with something.Â AhÂ well it’s not too bad I hope ;).

Civ IV: Beyond The Sword

The new civilization IV: Beyond the sword expansion is coming soon. In preparation I played a few games of Civ IV warlords again and I must say, it’s still very good. Beyond the swords will add a lot of nice new features. Especially the corporations and improved new AI sounds good. I preordered my copy from gameplay.co.uk, and it’s usually delivered around the official release date.

Civfanatics – Excellent site with a load of information and a great forum
Beyond the sword – Official site
** UPDATE **
A very nice history and an interview can be found at Gamasutra