Games I’m playing update.
The most notable item is our Clash of Clans… clan is on a ten war winning streak, which I believe is our longest since the change to war matching to match win streak clans with others on a streak. The key has really been that we are getting three stars on the bases we should (all TH9s and below), while also doing well (2-3 stars) on TH10 and TH11 bases. We have had many close wins, even against clans with more engineered bases, but when we clean up all but a few of the top bases, that makes it very difficult for the other clan to match.
CoC is due for a larger update ‘soon’, and I’m curious to see what it is. Hopefully its a big new feature rather than just more stuff to build/upgrade, but we will see.
In Clash Royale the first new season ended. I managed to finish in Challenger II on both accounts, which I think is somewhere around the top 5%, if not higher. It’s nice that both my golem/graveyard and my royal giant decks work in ladder, though I fear the RG may see another nerf soon (which would be perfect timing as I’m just about to max him to level 13…).
Right now between the clan battle mode, and the clan chest, there is always something to do in addition to climbing the ladder, which is very nice. It’s just a really fun game right now, and very easy to pick up and play a game or two between whatever else is going on.
Aria and I are out on Elder Scrolls Online. It’s just not fun. Same tired questing structure, meh combat, odd and unappealing character progression, and the whole nonsense with the one-world scaling. Up next I’m going to have her take a shot at Grim Dawn, which I’m still very much enjoying as a co-op game with a buddy, though our limited time windows means we aren’t progressing all that quickly (lvl 33 right now).
I tried Dragon Age: Inquisition, and regret the purchase. It’s basically what I feared it would be, plus the graphics dip into uncanny valley territory, along with silly stuff like the insane blood splatters and hair shining like the goddamn sun half the time. Maybe its a style thing, but I honestly don’t understand how people put Bioware and Bethesda in the same sentence when it comes to RPGs on the PC, because I think Bioware titles reach a C level of quality at best, while Bethesda puts out instant classics like Skyrim.
Finally, I still cranking away with industry in EVE, and the more I dig into it, the more fun it is. My selection of blueprints is growing, which means I can react better to what is happening on the market in our capital, and this in turn means I have to expand what I look for in terms of materials and sourcing them. Importing from Jita is always an option, but often times better margins can be achieved from buying locally, even if it means a bit of hauling.
Also yet another Incursion has spawned in Delve, so the ISK printing machine that is the Incursion SIG is back up and running. This is good, as I’ve stopped carrier ratting until the UI change for fighters is live, as currently its too much of a hassle to constantly mouse over the fighter HP UI to see when the next 12m ISK fighter is going to eat it.
Hardcore Casual 
Can you list your decks? I need to switch mine up (from a bit of boredom) and wouldn’t mind seeing a few from a seasoned vet =)
Sure.
RG (12), zap (12), tombstone (9), minions (12), poison (5), baby drag (5), guards (5), knight (12).
Golem (6), electro (2), fireball (9), musket (9), minions (12), log (2), mini pekka (9), graveyard (3).
For the RG deck, baby drag, guards, poison, knight, zap can all be swapped switched out to similar cards IMO. RG+minions is very effective as a first drop, and I find tombstone to be awesome vs RG, hog, giants, and even golems.
For the golem deck, everything but golem/graveyard can be adjusted, though I find mini pekka is a must to counter hog/rg/giant without a building. Electro helps vs inferno drags and towers, log is good for removing swarmy or goblin gang.
That Royal Giant deck has brought me some joy after a frustrating period of being fairly stuck, thanks!
Bioware
1998 -2010
baldurs gate
neverwinter nights
star wars: Kotor
mass effect
dragon age origins
mass effect 2
2010-2014
Mass effect 3
Dragon age 2
2014-2017
Dragon age inquisition
Mass effect andromeda
Bioware basically started out great, but started going downhill after 2010 and really went to shit after 2014. Even so, many people remember the older games fondly which is why it has a good name.
Bethesda on the other hand had a more mixed reputation and is recently performing better. (The great. Elder scrolls games, Fallout 3 were all good games but also well known to be buggy and of varied quality dependent on what you were doing in the massive map. The games were good, but had (very) rough edges) Since 2010 with Fallout NV, Wolfenstein New Order, Skyrim, Dishonored and 2016 Doom, they made great games. (Although Elder Scrolls Online breaks their quality streak)
Bioware has a great name for the classics it made while Bethesda just recently managed to rehabilitate their name and become known for great games. Nothing unusual to me here.
Personally, I worry for both of them since they massively rely on their IP, and it is going to get repetitive if they keep going. Bioware probably killed off both their Dragon Age and Mass Effect lines with their recent clunkers. I suppose Bethesda can milk out a fifth Fallout or a 7th Elder Scrolls. At least Bethesda still has Dishonored which is relatively fresh.
ESO wasn’t made by Bethesda, just published. Zenimax (?) I think made ESO.
But you are right, Bioware in the early days was awesome, so if that is what people are judging it by, fair enough.
Yea, you are right about ESO, Zenimax made it.
But Mass Effect Andromeda was made by Bioware Montreal, which is also a different studio from the original Bioware (Edmonton).
It doesn’t really matter to me, if they publish it under their name under their IP, they are responsible for end product quality and get to share in credit and blame.
If I can make a recommendation, check out Starsector. It’s an indie, and the development is slow, but the game play is really fun, and it is due an update “soon” which should add more content which is currently the main thing lacking. A common description of it is Star Control crossed with Mount and Blade.
Looks interesting-enough, but Sci-Fi mixed with it being so early means I’ll keep an eye on it rather than jump in now.
I liked dai and swtor. I know I know stone me now. I came into rpgs via wow after 21 years of hard core strat games (panzer general, civ, ufo. you get the gist) since then I went back and started exploring other great rpgs everything from witcher 3 to knights of the old republic (spolier its a a single player swtor with worse graphics and an annoying death mechanic).
Maybe its cos I never had the history of growing up with baldurs gate et al? was always a wargamer not a roleplayer. Would you care to elaborate on why DA I is a bad game and why I shouldn’t enjoy it? perhaps its even worthy of a blog post? For myself I enjoyed it quite a bit and Im currently romping through paradoxs tyranny: another game that people on the internet don’t seem to like, but I’m not sure why…. its paradox. They always make great games with so much potential that they release half done and let their fan base beta test it and pay for the privilege for the next 3 years buying patches. Its the Gillette business model and it works.
I can’t really do a full post on DA:I as I only put in a little bit of time with it, but it just didn’t click with me (on top of the graphic issues). It felt very generic and annoying with its combat (clearly intended to be played with a controller rather than mouse/keyboard), and even early on it had other signs of annoying systems (needless gathering/crafting, armor/weap design that was way over the top at level 1).
Its certainly better on my ps4 then on my pc. Its all but unplayable on the pc (at least for me). the crarfting/gathering, yeah it you want to over power the game thats the way to go. level 3 master work crafting is like being able to wear level 80 icc epics at level 40. It can be ignored though. My first run through I did on normal mode and ignored the crafting totally, just geared with drops. I enjoyed the story, the lore, the world. I only started crafting for my nightmare run so I could have the ps4 achievment, but then I was cherry picking anyway and doing other unfun things like chest farming. My interest here certainly in your post would be why it was bad and where it was done better. You have an alternative insight thats sometimes revealing. (thats not meant as ideal flattery btw: your opinion of gevlons leage of legends tallies with my own, though we differ on swtor).
You mentioned Tyranny, so I’m assuming you have also played Pillars of Eternity? If so, that’s more the style of RPG I enjoy, along with the Skyrim/Fallout style. DA:I feels too much like an offline themepark MMO in a lot of ways. I can tolerate a crafting grind or imbalance in an MMO because of the social aspects, but why go through that offline? MMO combat doesn’t have to be amazing because you are going to be doing it (hopefully) for hundreds of hours, but it should be good in an game I’m going to play for 50hrs or so.
Also have you played Dragon’s Dogma? IMO just based on graphics (they fit better) and combat (more actiony depth than what I saw with DA:I), its a better game in a somewhat similar style.
I never played pillers. I picked up Tyranny because Im a die hard hearts of iron fan who was exploring paradoxs catalogue of alternate games. I’m takinh its good then? I’ll google dragons dogma and give it a go.
Pillars uses the same engine as Tyranny, and is made by the same studio. It’s very, very good, though the DLC is more combat focused rather than story, so I passed on that.