And it’s over.

And I didn’t waste much time to start buying, but truth is, I was planning these puchase for a week now. I needed some fresh local multioplayer, so I got Streets of Fury Ex (PC) and BroForce (PC). Gave both of them a try with my friends yesterday. It looks as though Streets of Fury Ex doesn’t have much content. We finished the first campaign and unless some are hiddens, there seem to be only two of those and a playthrough of the first campaign with 3 players took us about an hour and a half.

BroForce seems to have a whole lot more of content.It may seems repetitive at first, but there’s some surprising depth to this run-and-gun game.

Less than a week to go

I’m sure glad this experiment will be over soon. I certainly wish I had something other than Awesomenauts (PC) that my friends will agree to play. I’ll be trying my luck with Streets of Fury Ex (PC) and BroForce (PC) and Phantom Breaker (PC), though I’m not holding my breath on the last one.

In the meantime, I showed FORCED (PC) to my wife and we’ve played it a bit. It’s hard and requires collaboration and communication. You know, the kind of collaboration and communication a couple should have after 16 years of marriage. Miscommunications kill. A lot. But hey, that challenge is fun actually.

Surprise from MangaGamer

Only two weeks to go, I wrote. No reason to quit, I wrote. Then I realized that the MangaGamer (NSFW) sale ends on December 25th and I see some interesting titles on sale.

Bah, I looked at the Steam holiday sale yesterday and filled myself a cart with over 60$ CAD of purchases and during this year, my wife bought Fallout 4 and Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (both on PC) and I am particularly looking forward to Skyrim.

I also made some cleaning up on my wishlist and the list of “followed” games. I think I have a better appreciation for games I will actually play compared to games I buy more as a matter of identity. I will still take risks on local multiplayer games as it is hard to guess which games will captivate my friends, my wife and my children and which won’t. I’m going to get some wrong, but those local multiplayer games we end up playing a lot are worth more than their price combined with the price of those games we end up not playing significantly.

I also realized that it still makes sense to wait for some games, but maybe not as much as I did, and occasionally, I should just shell out for a game I really want. I’m looking at you Dragon Quest VII on the 3DS.

Last stretch

There’s not even two weeks to go. At this point, there’s no reason to quit. Unless Steam ends its holiday sale before the new year.

I mentioned the Neo Geo bundle at Humble Bundle in my last post. Turned out that the hidden games were not the kind of games that interests me much. Ah well, that’s one fewer temptation.

Unexpected bundles

Humble Bundle is testing me with its current Neo Geo bundle. It’s lacking a Magical Drop game or Windjammer, but there are some yet unspecified games left in the bundle. Otherwise, it’s got some Samurai Shodown, King of the Monsters and Metal Slug. I hope to see these games sold somewhere next year.

I survived the Steam sale, hanging tight here

I didn’t buy any game during the Steam Thanksgiving/Black Friday sale. My wife did though and she picked up a couple of titles that are quite in my cross-hair; Elder Scrolls; Skyrim and Endless Legend. I’m sticking to my policy of not playing these game alone and since Skyrim is a single player and my wife will certainly not play Endless Legend in multiplayer, that means I’m waiting for next year. Which happen to be next month.

I must say I will be happy to go back to my regular schedule of shopping, but on the other hand, I have a much better appreciation of what kind of games I actually play, as opposed to games I buy and never play. It seems like it was simpler times back when I was mostly a console player.

On the console front, my plan to get a PS4 is indefinitely postponed. The only game I want, Dragon Quest; Woes of the World Tree has been released on PC. My wife speaks of getting a WiiU to get the latest Kirby game. I’m not seeing that happen yet. Our children are completely hooked-up on Terraria (PC) and they get crazy excited when I join them in their multiplayer game.

Personally, I am looking forward to the remake of Dragon Quest VII (3DS) scheduled sometime in 2016. I played the PS1 original but we lost our copy and the new one we got turned out to be too damaged on the last disc.

And I’ll be looking for a new MMORPG.

And now, for a real test of will

I’m looking at Steam’s “Exploration Sale”. I’d be buying some stuff for sure. Skyrim, Endless Legend, Way of the Samurai 4, bit Dungeon 2 and Chariot (all on PC) at least. I’d probably get the costume bundles for Awesomenauts too. I don’t find them worth the price, even discounted, but I’ve played so many hours of Awesomenauts that the developers and publishers deserve some more of my money.

But I have hardly more than a month to go. Hopefully, Steam holiday sale will last at least to January 1st.

Do you smell what’s cooking?

Smells like turkey. It’s the smell of Steam Thanksgiving/Black Friday sale. It’s one of those Mondays where there is an abnormally low number of titles on sale for the weekly sale.

Honestly, I’m so close to the goal and yet, I doubt I’ll make it. I’ll finish my current game of Warlock: Master of the Arcane (PC) and then will probably jump back into Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland (PS3). What’s good about Atelier, is that I can play those in front of my children without exposing them to and endless stream of violence. Oh, this cutesy game is not free of violence, but it’s only one part of the game, along with the frequent dialogues and performing all the alchemy that needs to be done.

After that, who knows. As far as next year goes, I was surprised to see Dragon Quest Heroes on Steam. I thought it could be the game to get me to buy a PS4. Well, not anymore.

I need a new MMORPG. New for me, new for others as well, preferably of the Anime style and with some good guild features. I’m looking at Devilian (PC) and got to look to see if it will have these features. It’s in closed alpha and beta (how does that works anyway?) for now and if it releases before the end of the year, I will be terribly tempted.

Warlock: Master of the Arcane

I’m short on inspiration. Started a game of Dungeons of Dredmor (PC). It’s fun for a couple of level.

Played some Final Fantasy: Four heroes of Light (DS). It’s simple but does not hold your hand. It’s not exactly challenging, but I had my party wiped out a few times. It’s not bad, but no so inspiring either. The job/class system is not nearly as rewarding as FF3 or FF5. I think I’m close to the end but can’t be bothered to go on, for now.

Started a new Sid Meier’s Civilization 3 (PC) game but I think I had my quota for this year. Almost 200 hours since last June, I guess I’m fed up.

So I started a game I really liked save for one big problem. That game is Warlock: Master of the Arcane (PC) and the problem is a seriously underwhelming AI. The highest difficulty setting is named “Impossible”. Well, it isn’t. Even calling it “Challenging” would be an exaggeration. Still. I had fun, for a couple of evenings and maybe some more in the coming weeks.

Holding tight, but now I’m eager for the year to be over with

I still haven’t bought any game for myself so far this year, but let’s say I’ve accumulated quite a wishlist on Steam. I’m also keeping an eye on MangaGamer.

In the meantime, I’m currently playing some Awesomenauts (PC) online. I often played bot matches, but now I’m playing for real.

I also wish to find a new MMORPG to play, one that was freshly released so that I may join early on and not be an outsider. I’m looking at Devilian (PC) which appear to be both in alpha and beta (whatever).

This year is getting a bit long now.