Eve mojo is still running on empty and we've got a nine day public holiday starting this weekend. However, that's not for the private sector who get two days off mid-week. Unfortunately for the wife I'm Government and she's private sector.
So I'm going to be spending a lot of time at the pub with a certain CFC pilot otherwise I'll be on the PC during the day. I'll play some Eve, but my TZ is sad lacking. Euro's will be at work, Yanks will be sleeping, and I'll be roaming solo. So, I need something new and exciting. Anyone got any suggestions?
What I will be playing:-
Eve Online - ofc
Titanfall - Nearly at Gen3.
Stronghold Kingdoms - Not really a game you play for a long session. Log on, check what has happened, set some things to go, log off.
Gnomoria - Dwarf Fortress Lite. Yeah, my kingdom is self sufficient and my defences are taking care of attacks. Getting a bit bored now.
What I have played and got bored of recently:-
Dwarf Fortress
Minecraft
Skyrim
XCom
FTL
Defiance
What I will be playing:-
Eve Online - ofc
Titanfall - Nearly at Gen3.
Stronghold Kingdoms - Not really a game you play for a long session. Log on, check what has happened, set some things to go, log off.
Gnomoria - Dwarf Fortress Lite. Yeah, my kingdom is self sufficient and my defences are taking care of attacks. Getting a bit bored now.
Dwarf Fortress
Minecraft
Skyrim
XCom
FTL
Defiance
Sim City
Banished
Starcraft 2
WoW (this was many years ago, just adding it here in case someone suggests it!)
What I would like:-
Something with exploration. That wonder of, I really have no idea what is here and what will happen next, ala Everquest in 1999!
Something with good levelling. I need that "Ding" in my life again. I want to see a scrolling XP bar as I kill stuff!
Something with violence. I like killing things!
Games I have looked at as possibilities:-
Elder Scrolls Online? Wow, that continues to get some really bad reviews. Is it really that bad?
Lord of the Rings Online? Appears popular.
Star Wars : The Old Republic? Again a lot of negative press about this.
Tropico 5 - Saw they had this in the local games store.
Anyone got any suggestions? LoTRO appears to be front runner atm simply because I haven't a better idea!
WoW (this was many years ago, just adding it here in case someone suggests it!)
Something with exploration. That wonder of, I really have no idea what is here and what will happen next, ala Everquest in 1999!
Something with good levelling. I need that "Ding" in my life again. I want to see a scrolling XP bar as I kill stuff!
Something with violence. I like killing things!
Elder Scrolls Online? Wow, that continues to get some really bad reviews. Is it really that bad?
Lord of the Rings Online? Appears popular.
Star Wars : The Old Republic? Again a lot of negative press about this.
Tropico 5 - Saw they had this in the local games store.
Anyone got any suggestions? LoTRO appears to be front runner atm simply because I haven't a better idea!
Star Trek Online, is a free-to-play MMORPG, so it has your leveling and "styleised" violence (it's Star Trek, ffs), a recent patch (Season 9.5) removed what little exploration there was in the game, however.
ReplyDeleteWant more gratitous violence... I suggest Fallout 3 or New Vegas, will do the trick. Still an RPG, so you get the "ding" when you level, exporation is a little lacking if you have played either a million times, though both *may* throw you a curve ball. As for violence, spec for melee weapons, and choose the Bloody Mess perk as soon as you can for a blood shower. /wink
- Philadunc
I've been trying out STO lately. It's got some really intriguing concepts to it and much of it is quite good. It does actually have good exploration in the sense that you're going to encounter something new to do every day for the first several months. It's also every bit as deep as EVE without being nearly so complicated for a beginner. It meets your other two criteria handily.
DeleteFrom yourr list, your are now FPS player, else I would say Borderlands 2. Killing + Leveling and Looting + in the first playthrough lots of WTF moments. I really can recommend that game.
ReplyDeleteDivinity: Original Sin - Old school Baldurs Gate style RPG. Housemate has this and has been raving about it.
ReplyDeleteAssassins Creed: Black Flag - think pirates of the Carribean but with assassins and really good naval combat. Very pretty game as well.
Bastion + Transistor are both good if you want a quick gaming hit with a really good story.
The original two Knights of the Old Republic games. Old as hell now, but kickass Star Wars games (could probably find lots of mods to fix up the graphics and stuff).
Mount & Blade series if you want some medieval style games with crappy graphics but amazing mechanics + gameplay.
Also I will second Bordlands 2. Great game to play with a few mates and it has some really funny dialogue.
I'll second the AC4 recommendation though it is single player. Lots of exploration options and they are all tinged with danger. You get to kill people everywhere you go and take their things. It might be a bit too easy for you though. The NPCs are spectacularly dumb. Other than that, I've been playing TESO. It's not ready for PvP prime time, though it's getting better. It does do quests and explorations well with your choices having a real impact on the world around you.
DeleteI'll second the AC4 recommendation, though it's single player and the NPCs are spectacularly dumb. TESO is not ready for PvP prime-time, but it does have exploration and good questing. If you have 9 days of play time, you could get quite a ways through AC4.
DeleteUnturned? It looks like minecraft. Is free to play, on steam. Made by a 16 year old I heard but he is adding and fixing things every day and listens to the players ideas. You could say it is minecraft dayz. Has single and multiplayer, with PvP or pve only options. It passes the time.
ReplyDeleteOr how about a good milsim and learn to fly a plane or chopper?
I would suggest trying Fallout: New Vegas:
ReplyDelete- levelling - check
- violence - check
- exploration - check
Add great dialogs, variety of ways to finish the game, complexity (yet of approachable type).
Hi! First visit to your blog...
ReplyDeleteI played LoTRO for years, and it has a lot going for it. The Burglar and Loremaster classes are pretty unique.
My daughter and I played SWTOR for a while and I really enjoyed the quest dialogues. I feel they added a lot to the game. The Smuggler story line was a hoot.
In addition to the other excellent games suggested by the other readers, I can also suggest Rift. It's a very well crafted game with and interesting backstory and some gorgeous graphics.
Kerbal Space Program
ReplyDeleteExploration - lots of places to go, and getting there is challenging. The Journey is just as important as the destination
Violence (well, not intended, but ships to blow up a bunch which can be amusing in its own way. Trying to design ships that destroy other ships is a different tangent).
Level ding - in a round about way. you expose a tech tree by getting stuff done. With first contract (V0.24), the career mode makes purchasing bigger space ship bits tricky, so you learn to be more creative with cheap stuff. Very interesting design decisions. As an engineer, this kind of stuff presses a bunch of pleasure points.
On the whole, slower pace, no immediate gratification, but real sense of achievement when you get something done.
Oh, and you learn a bunch about orbital mechanics.
I play both LOTRO and SWTOR and like them both. Oddly enough, I really, really like the crafting system in LOTRO.
ReplyDeleteBorderlands 2: Good leveling, exploration, combat, and humor.
ReplyDeleteAll of the Fallouts: Great leveling, Phenomenal exploration, Good combat, and good stories.
Wasteland 2: all the above.
No one suggested dota2 yet? :-)
ReplyDeletePersonally the borderlands 2 wastelands 2 would be my vote
Elder Scrolls Online is an excellent game - albeit one that you have to have the taste for. It plays to the strengths of the large portion of the internet gaming community that is NOT constantly whining and bitching about balance, content, or whatever (and it has content in spades). If you want PVP, that can be had as well, and it's going to get a revamp to counter some of the shittier player PVP habits that have developed.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't call it a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination, but the vast bulk of the complaints essentially amount to "why is this game doing something different?!?".
Probably a bit theme park for you and a bit too WoW but Wildstar has the best levelling "ding" that I have ever seen and a good feel of push button-get candy levelling that you could easily max out in a week long holiday. There's also the "exploration" path giving you tasks that involve poking into the nooks and crannies of each zone. That said, it is a bit too zone orientated rather than open world and might not be the exploration vibe you are looking for.
ReplyDelete"you could easily max out in a week long holiday" Its whats been wrong with every mmorpg since WoW all in one sentence.
DeleteAnother recommend for Kerbal from me, but if you fancy some man-face-shooty gaming with levelling, exploration and lots of green, you can do a lot worse than Far Cry 3.
ReplyDeleteSince you did not specify what genre you're looking for, I'm going to recommend Europa Universalis 4...
ReplyDeleteExploration: Not so much, but there are always some WTF moments when you see a one province AI state become a decent powerhouse in it's region, and the "if I do X, what will it cause in the world on the big picture?" questions.
Leveling: Getting another province or two is always kind of a Ding moment. Or killing a large army of a great rival, or capturing the last remaining province on the mediterranean coastline, etc.
Violence: Go on the warmonger path and you'll get a decent amount of blood on your hands.
Other than that, I can support the STO camp. The ground part is really meh (with some interesting ideas). But the space opera is quite good. Good enough depth, but not too much to learn. Several styles to pursue with different viable specializations in each. Other than some annoying limitations and convenience features, it's free. And those limitations are cheap enough to remove by cash for most ppl (cheaper than 1 month of EVE subscription). And it's SPACESHIPS!
Maybe the Anomaly series... They are good for a day or two at most, since they are short on the campaign side...
Exploration: Nope.
Leveling: You get new units/towers/upgrades by completing missions.
Violence: A lot. The whole game is about violating towers with your armoured war machines, or vice versa.
Your choices:
ESO: It's missing the MMO part. I'd rather play Skyrim if I wanted the ESO IP.
LotRO: Never heard a really good opinion about it. And it's monetization scheme is not for my taste (cash shop ads in your face).
SWTOR: Not that bad... Played it 1 year ago, but it was still not better than WoW in the WotLK times.
Tropico: My only experience is with the first one and I was sooo horrible at it...
im in the same boat man your kinda screwed till eq next. Darkfall 2 is ok but its still lacking. Everything else MMO wise is theme park crap or MOBA. KSP is great on the single player front. But the current crop of MMOs is just sad, has been for awhile now tho. thanks Blizzivision. .
ReplyDeleteDon't starve
ReplyDeleteIt's a personal favorite of mine
Have you tried either of the Guild Wars games?
ReplyDelete