written by Blain Newport on Tuesday, 11 May, 2010
I've been focusing on the Witcher Let's Play a lot. It's a huge game, and I want to move through it expeditiously. Honestly, it was probably a fool's errand to begin with, but I'm a fool, so wattaya gonna do?
I could stop. One subscriber has already complained and will likely unsubscribe. But I'm a bit too invested at this point.
The Witcher Let's Play is already my longest, and longer than Heart of Evil and Gunman Chronicles combined. Plus the best part is how the ending takes the decisions you've made and brings them back on you.
I'm trying to spend more time with each installment, making more observations and being more ruthless with my edits. The thing that kept me interested in the game was the sense of exploration, so I should probably keep looking for opportunities to let the viewers guess at what's going on and what might be coming next.
But that's more work for me to do in private. I suspect the last thing any text starved readers of this blog want to hear about is me brainstorming ideas to improve the quality of the thing that's depriving them of content. :P
What needs to get written is Big Baby's War Journal, a record of my month in Champions Online. I've got some pictures and video and a few short anecdotes to share. I should write them before I forget them, but The Witcher generally feels more pressing.
There's also been a lot of Borderlands (co-op and solo) going on. Borderlands is comfortable, but rarely exciting. I think I actually prefer the combat in Titan Quest, once you get enough abilities to make it interesting. We may try TQ later.
And when I got tired of Borderlands I blew through Stranglehold three or four times. It's popcorn for the mind.
Oh, and I also took a trip through the original Devil May Cry again. It's still good. It's still challenging, even on normal. And as much as I rail on trial and error, the fact that many of the boss fights in DMC are trial and error didn't phase me because I learned something almost every time. I should probably be more specific in the future when I criticize "trial and error" design failures in games.
None of these comfort foods really comfort anymore, though. I don't feel like I'm getting anything vital from games right now. Outside of The Witcher and Co-op Tuesdays, it's probably time to give it a rest (at least until Super Mario Galaxy 2 comes out).
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