Last week I talked about rediscovering X’s Adventures and the fact that he is currently doing an adventure in Minecraft Hardcore Mode. I also talked a bit about how I thought it might be fun to do the same thing given that I had no clue Hardcore Minecraft even was a thing that existed. Since then I have started recording clips of me playing Minecraft in Hardcore mode and uploading them to my YouTube channel. They are pretty low production value because I am recording them directly from OBS and then uploading them more or less uncut. If you are interested in listening to me ramble while trying to sort out how Minecraft works, then this may be your jam.
As of this blog post, there are three parts to the series and each of them are in the neighborhood of 30 minutes. It seemed like 15 minutes wasn’t really enough time for me to actually accomplish much of anything. Seeing as I am not exactly doing this thing to get internet famous and really for my own personal amusement I am sticking to that format. The funny thing about this video series is that I don’t believe I have ever used my name aka “Belghast” as a seed for a Minecraft world. Turns out that seed is really solid because it put me really close to a village.
I need to sort out what exactly I want for a goal, because right now I am more or less going through the same routine that I have always gone through. Initially it was a hunt for Wood, Coal and Shelter and that evolved into a search for Iron. Which will in itself lead to a search for the bounty hidden without the bowels of the earth like Diamonds and such. However I am not entirely certain what my goals SHOULD be. An initial goal was to get a full set of armor, but past that I am going to have to sort out what my long range goal needs to be. I could in theory hide within mines for any number of videos because that is something that is relatively safe to do.
However I somehow doubt that watching me hollow out the innards of the earth is exciting content. I have various projects that I would like to complete, but the challenge with that is a lot of them are going to require large chunks of time to do them. My fear at doing “offline play” and then showing the results is that since this is Hardcore Minecraft… one death means the end of the run and should probably be something that is recorded. I’ve done a few things offline now, but they are simplistic like building some proper stairs or organizing my inventory. Something like “Let’s build an inside garden!” would take significantly more time and also with that brings forth significantly more dangers. I might be able to do the safe indoors tunneling work offline and then do the final bits while recording.
I will have to figure out exactly how to make this work. For now I have been releasing a video each day, but I somehow doubt I will be able to maintain that schedule for very much longer. It isn’t like I have an awful lot of viewers right now, but what are some projects that you would like to see tackled? It seems like a double edged sword because there is a certain act of discovery from not having played in so very long and not fully understanding how the world works. However that also means I don’t know a lot of things that might be interesting to go after.
The post Bel Bungles Minecraft appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.
It has been a pretty wild ride for me and Dragon Age Inquisition. I remember when it initially released I had a pretty negative reaction to it, not in the least part because I ran into some significant technical difficulties. The negative opinion might have also been brought on by the fact that I had an awful lot of things on my plate. Warlords of Draenor was ramping up and that was an expansion I absolutely was serious about raiding in, as well as the fact that we were still very much actively raiding in Final Fantasy XIV as well. The combination of all of these left a pretty sour taste in my mouth, but I think a bit part of the experience was the fact that narratively it set me on a path of playing someone I considered to be the bad guys of Dragon Age 2.
As such it might come as somewhat of a surprise when I now tell you that after finishing Dragon Age Inquisition over the weekend, that I am pretty certain that it is now my favorite in the series. This game does more for the overarching cosmology of the setting that any of the previous games. It answers so many questions that were left hanging as well as creation all new mysteries to leave us waiting a fourth outing. Additionally to bring up a point raised on the podcast this weekend, Dragon Age Inquisition shows you a world worth saving. Ferelden during the blight was a miserable place, and Kirkwall similarly seemed to be horrible place as well. It isn’t so much that Orlais is that much better but you do get to see that the outdoor world of Thedas truly is breathtaking.
The real charm of Dragon Age Inquistion and the thing that ultimately won me over to its side… are the characters. In every other Bioware game there are always going to be one or two characters that by the end of the game I hate with passion. My friends have had to listen to my rants about these characters for years. In Dragon Age Inquisition there isn’t a single character that I did not come to love in the end. They all evolve over the course of the missions and the two of you grow together so that in the end you can look back on your time spent together fondly. I could not have said the same in those early hours with this game, but after over a hundred hours spent on this one play through I regret that the journey is over.
One of the more interesting things about Inquisition is that it has given me a new found respect for Dragon Age 2. The only problem is that now I cannot view my adventures in Kirkwall as anything other than the opening story arc of the Inquisition story. It makes me want to go back and play my way through it again because the events of Kirkwall play so directly into the events of the Templar and Mage war that I feel like knowing where it is going will give me a better appreciate of that story. I enjoyed Dragon Age 2 when I first played it, but it is a more cloistered experience than Origin or Inquisition. It is telling a smaller tale and as such it doesn’t feel like you had quite the same epic sweeping adventure. That said if you never played the second game I would absolutely suggest it as “required reading” for inquisition, because there will be plot points that probably land a little hollow. There wasn’t really a direct continuation of the story in Origins, but it feels like Inquisition takes place moments after the events of the second game.
So there we have it. The fifth time playing this game absolutely was the charm. I am looking forward to the next outing so much and I am hoping that maybe just maybe we see it before the end of the year. However given the lack of details and the still very early state the Game Awards Teaser appeared to be… I fully expect it to be a 2022 release. After experiencing the main story and DLC content I can say without a doubt that I am happiest with the way that Inquisition wraps things up. As such it is bumping Dragon Age Origins out of the way for my “favorite Dragon Age game” slot. Unfortunately this also bumps down Dragon Age 2 a rung, because it is still an overall worse experience than the first game but still one very much worth playing.
While I am apparently on this redemption arc for Bioware games kick, I am trying the OTHER title that I have never successfully made it thorugh. KOTOR and KOTOR2 originally released on the Xbox and I did not get to play either of them until the eventual Windows releases came out slightly afterwards. I loved Knights of the Old Republic when I played it in late 2003 and was absolutely rabid for a sequel. So when KOTOR2 The Sith Lords released in early 2005, I made every attempt to play it but encounter so many bugs that ultimately halted that experience. Similarly when it was finally released again through Steam in 2012 I gave it another attempt… but still largely found it to be a buggy mess. So here we are nine years later and an intricate series of third party patches applied… and things seem to mostly be going fairly smoothly.
It is a MUCH slower gaming experience than the more recent Bioware titles that I am used to. However I am starting to get into the swing of things. This is an era when this sort of third person RPG experience was not a “solved problem”. Interesting thing of note… sometimes Tam and I discuss when exactly mouse controls flipped so that what was inverted Y is now standard Y. Apparently it was sometime around the release of this game, because I ultimately had to flip the Y axis in order to get a control scheme that was more comfortable overall. The other interesting thing of note is that this exists in a world before “Quest Tracking” really existed and as such I find it interesting how there are no real waypointing going on directing you towards your objectives. I guess it was a different time in gaming, but I am getting used to it and hopefully can make it through the experience this time.
Now I am curious. Do you have any games that you bounced off and would like to return to? Drop me a line below. Also feel free to contest my proclaiming Dragon Age Inquisition the best Dragon Age game.
The post The Best Dragon Age appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.
It has been a pretty wild ride for me and Dragon Age Inquisition. I remember when it initially released I had a pretty negative reaction to it, not in the least part because I ran into some significant technical difficulties. The negative opinion might have also been brought on by the fact that I had an awful lot of things on my plate. Warlords of Draenor was ramping up and that was an expansion I absolutely was serious about raiding in, as well as the fact that we were still very much actively raiding in Final Fantasy XIV as well. The combination of all of these left a pretty sour taste in my mouth, but I think a bit part of the experience was the fact that narratively it set me on a path of playing someone I considered to be the bad guys of Dragon Age 2.
As such it might come as somewhat of a surprise when I now tell you that after finishing Dragon Age Inquisition over the weekend, that I am pretty certain that it is now my favorite in the series. This game does more for the overarching cosmology of the setting that any of the previous games. It answers so many questions that were left hanging as well as creation all new mysteries to leave us waiting a fourth outing. Additionally to bring up a point raised on the podcast this weekend, Dragon Age Inquisition shows you a world worth saving. Ferelden during the blight was a miserable place, and Kirkwall similarly seemed to be horrible place as well. It isn’t so much that Orlais is that much better but you do get to see that the outdoor world of Thedas truly is breathtaking.
The real charm of Dragon Age Inquistion and the thing that ultimately won me over to its side… are the characters. In every other Bioware game there are always going to be one or two characters that by the end of the game I hate with passion. My friends have had to listen to my rants about these characters for years. In Dragon Age Inquisition there isn’t a single character that I did not come to love in the end. They all evolve over the course of the missions and the two of you grow together so that in the end you can look back on your time spent together fondly. I could not have said the same in those early hours with this game, but after over a hundred hours spent on this one play through I regret that the journey is over.
One of the more interesting things about Inquisition is that it has given me a new found respect for Dragon Age 2. The only problem is that now I cannot view my adventures in Kirkwall as anything other than the opening story arc of the Inquisition story. It makes me want to go back and play my way through it again because the events of Kirkwall play so directly into the events of the Templar and Mage war that I feel like knowing where it is going will give me a better appreciate of that story. I enjoyed Dragon Age 2 when I first played it, but it is a more cloistered experience than Origin or Inquisition. It is telling a smaller tale and as such it doesn’t feel like you had quite the same epic sweeping adventure. That said if you never played the second game I would absolutely suggest it as “required reading” for inquisition, because there will be plot points that probably land a little hollow. There wasn’t really a direct continuation of the story in Origins, but it feels like Inquisition takes place moments after the events of the second game.
So there we have it. The fifth time playing this game absolutely was the charm. I am looking forward to the next outing so much and I am hoping that maybe just maybe we see it before the end of the year. However given the lack of details and the still very early state the Game Awards Teaser appeared to be… I fully expect it to be a 2022 release. After experiencing the main story and DLC content I can say without a doubt that I am happiest with the way that Inquisition wraps things up. As such it is bumping Dragon Age Origins out of the way for my “favorite Dragon Age game” slot. Unfortunately this also bumps down Dragon Age 2 a rung, because it is still an overall worse experience than the first game but still one very much worth playing.
While I am apparently on this redemption arc for Bioware games kick, I am trying the OTHER title that I have never successfully made it thorugh. KOTOR and KOTOR2 originally released on the Xbox and I did not get to play either of them until the eventual Windows releases came out slightly afterwards. I loved Knights of the Old Republic when I played it in late 2003 and was absolutely rabid for a sequel. So when KOTOR2 The Sith Lords released in early 2005, I made every attempt to play it but encounter so many bugs that ultimately halted that experience. Similarly when it was finally released again through Steam in 2012 I gave it another attempt… but still largely found it to be a buggy mess. So here we are nine years later and an intricate series of third party patches applied… and things seem to mostly be going fairly smoothly.
It is a MUCH slower gaming experience than the more recent Bioware titles that I am used to. However I am starting to get into the swing of things. This is an era when this sort of third person RPG experience was not a “solved problem”. Interesting thing of note… sometimes Tam and I discuss when exactly mouse controls flipped so that what was inverted Y is now standard Y. Apparently it was sometime around the release of this game, because I ultimately had to flip the Y axis in order to get a control scheme that was more comfortable overall. The other interesting thing of note is that this exists in a world before “Quest Tracking” really existed and as such I find it interesting how there are no real waypointing going on directing you towards your objectives. I guess it was a different time in gaming, but I am getting used to it and hopefully can make it through the experience this time.
Now I am curious. Do you have any games that you bounced off and would like to return to? Drop me a line below. Also feel free to contest my proclaiming Dragon Age Inquisition the best Dragon Age game.
The post The Best Dragon Age appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.
Featuring: Ammo, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen
Tonight we talk about a few things that have been on the list for a while along with some new fresh topics. First off Kodra talks to us about Nerts and the world of competitive solitaire. From there Bel talks about how Dragon Age Inquisition has won him over and how he thinks that it might be the best Dragon Age game so far. Ash talks about Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and how it also might be the best Warriors game to date. Thalen shares with us Nick Knacks on the PopArena YouTube Channel and its exploration of classic Nickelodeon television. We also debate what we consider our Golden Age of Nick. We dust off a topic that has been on the list for awhile where we talk about whether or not it is the time for World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV to go Free to Play. This leads into a general discussion of MMO mechanics over the years and lends its way to some talk about Guild Wars 2.
