Today, according to my self-imposed schedule of video gaming fun times, was a “free choice”.
I spent most of it playing more Mary Skelter 2, so rather than bang on about that some more for now, I thought I’d reflect a bit on the week that has just gone by.
On the whole, I think this experiment has mostly been a success. I still have some lingering concerns about whether it is practical to apply this model when you’re playing very long games such as Mary Skelter 2, but I’ve managed to squeeze somewhere in the region of 15 hours of that game in this week across three days (one of which was just an evening) so I’m starting to think it might not be a problem.
Continue reading Gaming on a Schedule, Day 7: What have we learned? →
And so, we return to my current “Big Game”: Idea Factory and Compile Heart’s excellent Mary Skelter 2, which I’ve been gradually ploughing through for quite some time now.
I really love dungeon crawlers. Something about the way they work just speaks to my brain. I think it’s the inherent satisfaction of gradually uncovering a map and discovering things.
In a good dungeon crawler, you’re always moving forwards and finding something new, and it’s satisfying to uncover a chunk of map even if all you discover is a complete dead-end.
Continue reading Gaming on a Schedule, Day 6: More Mary Skelter 2 →
I must confess, it was tempting to spend my entire “retro” evening playing more Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition because it’s technically not breaking any rules, but after making it through some exhaustingly tough levels, I felt like I needed a bit of a break! And so it was off to the “retro room” upstairs with me, to bust out something on a piece of real hardware.
I quickly settled on LHX Attack Chopper for Sega Mega Drive, a recent acquisition that I’ve long been curious about. There was a surprising number of polygonal flight sims on the Mega Drive — mostly distributed by Electronic Arts through their “EA Air Force” brand — and while I was never expecting them to match up to equivalent sims on home computers, I’ve always wanted to give them a go.
After trying LHX Attack Chopper for a bit this evening, I’m keen to pick up the others if I can find them for a reasonable price.
Continue reading Gaming on a Schedule, Day 5: A spot of retro chopper action →
I love Final Fantasy XIV. For a good few years, it devoured a significant part of my gaming time. In fact, the reason I stopped playing was primarily because it was taking up too much of my gaming time, and I wanted to be able to devote some time to other titles.
You could say that one of the chief motivators behind this Gaming on a Schedule experiment is the fact that for quite some time now, I’ve wanted to go back to playing Final Fantasy XIV, but in a way where it doesn’t dominate my entire gaming time, and where I can still enjoy other titles.
Other folks don’t seem to struggle with this too much, but I’ve had some difficulty.
Continue reading Gaming on a Schedule, Day 4: A fresh start with FFXIV →
I am, if it were not already clear, really enjoying Mary Skelter 2. It’s a really solid dungeon crawler with some great characters, well-designed dungeons and some absolutely magnificent use of the concept of “risk versus reward”.
It is long, as modern dungeon crawlers tend to be, but what I have found with it is that once I sit down and play, time absolutely flies by. It’s not uncommon for me to play what feels like a little bit, only to save my game and discover that several hours have passed.
This is good, because it means that I can make solid progress in it without it feeling like a drag. And this is partly the reason why I wanted to set some specific time aside for it each week.
Continue reading Gaming on a Schedule, Day 3: Making progress with Mary Skelter 2 →
I really enjoy simulations, which is why I wanted to set aside a day in my schedule to take the time to enjoy them. But I’ve come to something of a conclusion in more recent years: I’m not very good at knowing what to do with a completely free-form sandbox.
I’m not sure I ever was — though I did play a lot of SimCity and SimCity 2000 back in the day, and I played both of those in the sandbox mode rather than diving into the Scenarios — but I feel like this part of my brain has started to have real trouble in more recent years.
To whit, I was super-excited for the (now not particularly) new version of Microsoft Flight Simulator that came out in 2020, but after picking it up, I found that I haven’t actually spent that much time with it in total. Relatively speaking, I mean; I’ve still put 40+ hours into it to date, but compared to dedicated propellerheads that’s nothing.
Continue reading Gaming on a Schedule, Day 2: Adding some structure to Microsoft Flight Simulator →
All right, here we go! It’s Monday, so, according to my experimental schedule, that means it’s time for a “smaller game” of some description. And while it also technically counts as “retro”, Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition’s release today made it an obvious choice.
I love Rise of the Triad. Always have done ever since I played the shareware version The HUNT Begins back in the ’90s. Someone in our group of friends at school acquired the registered version via some illicit means, too, so I also played a bunch of Dark War back in the day, too.
I have since atoned for my sins by purchasing multiple copies of Rise of the Triad whenever it has become available on modern digital distribution platforms.
Continue reading Gaming on a Schedule, Day 1: Rise of the Triad Ludicrous Edition →
Let me tell you a couple of things about myself — the me that exists as of 23:35, July 27, 2023.
Firstly, I have a brain that, when presented with a sufficient number of options to freely choose between, refuses to make any sort of decision whatsoever and simply shuts down, melting into an unproductive goop and causing me to stare at a wall for a good half hour at least before finally being able to achieve anything.
This situation, which is not uncommon, is colloquially referred to as “analysis paralysis”.
Continue reading Should you enjoy gaming as a hobby to a schedule? →
The best of overlooked and underappreciated computer and video games, from yesterday and today.
