Once again on the trail of the Tetrahedrons, Umang travels to the world of Na-Tiexu. There he fumigates a cave while standing inside it, finds the most complicated way possible to shell a pistachio, and wonders why everyone is so eager to “help” a random person collect sacred artifacts when there’s a rebellion underway. Just another day in Aura: Fate of the Ages.
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The Paleogamer Plays – Aura: Fate of the Ages – Part 4
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Let’s Play! – Aura: Fate of the Ages – Part 3
Continuing his explorations of the world of Dragast, Umang finds that discovering the tetrahedron of Dragast is only the first half of what he needs to do here. To finish, he has to visit a blacksmith who forges batteries from fire and steel, manipulates a puzzle composed entirely of red herrings, solves puzzles just to call an elevator and wonders why no one besides him has ever heard of handrails. Yes, another exciting adventure in Aura: Fate of the Ages
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The Secret World – It’s an Adventure!
The latest beta weekend for The Secret World has just ended and while I’m still quite excited for the game I’m starting to have some worries as well. Specifically, while the game is close to what I’ve been looking for I’m not sure that most people playing are looking for the same thing I am. The Secret World is a game based on exploration, investigation and discovery. Yes, there are combat missions. Yes, there are missions where you have to “go to location x and kill y of critter z”. But the main story missions require thought and investigation. Based on what I saw rolling past in the chat window, I’m not sure most players realize that. I easily saw hundreds of requests for “What is the solution to (some mission)?” It isn’t clear if the players in question had tried to solve it on their own and failed, but a number of them were rejecting hints and demanding the solution. They are trying to power through the content just to get their characters leveled up. They’re looking for end-game content. The problem is that in this game the game isn’t about the end-game. As the cliché says; it’s about the journey, not the destination. The beauty of the investigation missions is that the solutions to them aren’t in the game! You have to do real research yourself to solve them. While some players will welcome this challenge I think it is frustrating a far greater number. This isn’t an
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Let’s Play! – Aura: Fate of the Ages – Part 2
Continuing the walkthrough for the game Aura: Fate of the Ages, Umang arrives in the world of Dragast and meets a guy too busy working a puzzle to tell him more than to shut the door. And the puzzle is only missing two pieces. He then meets the creator of Dragast who apparently knows everything that isn’t a secret but won’t tell him anything useful, forcing Umang to figure out everything on his own. Along the way he finds the worlds most versatile statue, thinks nothing of letting a random guy out of jail, maybe summons Cthulhu by solving the same puzzle twice, complains about tedious backtracking and finally finds the tetrahedron of Dragast, only to find he has half the world yet to explore. Just another day of adventuring.
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Let’s Play! – Aura: Fate of the Ages – Part 1
In this first part of a walkthrough for the game Aura: Fate of the Ages, we meet the unlikely named Umang as he is sent to the valley of Ademik (or possibly Ademika; no one seems quite sure) to continue his lessons from the slightly less unlikely named Grifit. Grifit turns out to be missing, so Umang must decipher the use of a bunch of strange machines in order to find the way out because someone forgot to tell him about the back door. Along the way he gets to complain about numerous OSHA safety violations, wonder why overly elaborate machines are better than simple combination locks and wish that he had a can of WD-40 along with him. And that’s before he finds out about the rebellion.
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Skyrim – First Thoughts
Skyrim, the latest game in the Elder Scrolls series, came out last Friday and I’ve spent most of the last few days playing it (to the detriment of my NaNoWriMo output). I feel like I’ve barely put a dent in the game world but already I can tell this game is going to solidly in my top games of all time and may even knock Morrowind off the top of the pile. In best Elder Scrolls tradition, you start Skyrim as a prisoner. It is 200 years after the Oblivion crisis (the plot of the previous game) and the Cryrodillic Empire is falling apart. The northern province of Skyrim has entered open rebellion against the Empire and the Imperial Legion has just captured the leader of the rebellion, one Ulfric Stormcloak. Unfortunately you were in the wrong place at the wrong time and were captured by the Legion. One Legionnaire realizes your innocence and protests but his commander orders that you be sent to the headsman along with the rest of the prisoners. Fortunately (for you anyway), just as you find yourself on the chopping block a dragon appears and attacks the town. You and the other prisoners escape as chaos breaks out. As you make your way through the burning village you can join up with either a fellow prisoner (one of the rebels known as the Stormcloaks) or the one Imperial Legionnaire who defended you. (Quick, who wants to tag along with the people who just tried to
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Return to Mysterious Island
A walkthrough of the game Return to Mysterious Island
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Syberia
A walkthrough of the game Syberia
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Dark Fall II: Lights Out
A walkthrough of the game Dark Fall II: Lights Out
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Let’s Play – Precursors – Parts 7 & 8
Treece finally makes it to orbit, only to find that everyone there is shooting at him as well. After blowing up some raiders, he escorts a freighter to the middle of nowhere, finds that the Empire has a very low threshold for success, intercepts a few smugglers and finds that even cheating won’t let him win a race. Just a typical orbital jaunt in Precursors!
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