The Thomp is Back!

As some of you may have noticed, The Thomplog has been pretty quiet lately.

The long and the short of it is, the Thomp has permanently departed the hot, arid Phoenix heat, and will hereby be delivering opinions on gaming via a new home in Kirkland, WA, outside of Seattle. It feels good to be back up North, with the water, the cool air, the cloud cover... all perfect ingredients to get in the mood for gaming!

That said, while I've been away, I've still managed to reserve some time to play. In fact, I've finished quite a few games since last posting, and look forward to writing some thoughts about them soon.

Until then, here's a quick look at what I've been playing.

The Last of Us

Status: Finished. Review coming soon.

This game was really quite an experience. Some of the most compelling character development I've seen in a game. Expect to see a review of this soon.

Metro: Last Light

Status: Finished. Review coming soon.

  Another dark, intense, story driven FPS from the team that brought us Metro 2033. I thoroughly enjoyed this game, perhaps even more than it's predecessor. Expect a review soon.

The Walking Dead: 400 Days

Status: Finished. Review coming soon.

Season 2 of Telltale's The Walking Dead will take place 400 days after the end of Season 1. This special transition episode is here to give us an idea of the happenings during this time, from the eyes of 5 separate protagonists. Expect a review soon.

Saint's Row: The Third

Status: Finished. Review coming soon.

In preparation for Saints Row 4, I decided I would give the highly acclaimed "Third" a try. Turns out it is insanely fun, and insanely ridiculous. Expect a full review soon.

Rogue Legacy

Status: Reallllly close to finished. Damn you last boss!

This game has damn near taken over my life since it came out. Super fun and super addicting. Looking forward to talking more about this game!

League of Legends

Status: It never ennnnnnds!

I'm ashamed to really say anything right here. Yes, I've been playing this game. Yes, I've been playing it a lot. Let's leave it at that for now.

Grand Theft Auto V

Status: Not started. Ready and raring for midnight release!

Super-duper stoked for this. There are 27 hours and counting until the release as I write this. This one looks bigger and better than ever with tons of new features and THREE main protagonists! Review will come eventually.

There have, of course, been other games I've been playing on and off, but none enough to mention here really. I've got a bit of catching up to do with these, but am happy to be back on the horse again. 

Until next time, Thomp out!

Thomplog Retrospective - Week of 5/13/13

The Preamble

Well, The Thomp has been dilly-dallying a bit as far as beating games goes, so I figure it's a good time for a good 'ol Thomplog Retrospective.

I've played some excellent games and some games I wish I had never heard of. Let's see what was on the docket this week...

League of Legends

That's right, that nasty beast reared its head up once more. Like most people, I'm sure, I harbor a certain kind of hatred toward League of Legends and its player base. A truer, more steadfast hatred than I hold for the typical competitive multiplayer video game.

Despite this loathing, I consistently get roped back in to the trap that is LoL. This game, while appearing fun on first sight, becomes the bane of my well being. This bit of Python is able to describe the cycle best I think...

 def thomps_evening_routine( time ):  
    game_of_lol = new GameOfLoL()  
    game_of_lol.exec()  
    if game_of_lol == "win":  
      emotion = "This feels amazing! I can't wait to play another!"  
      life_time -= time  
      return thomps_evening_routine( 30 )  
    else:  
      emotion = "That was horrible. I have to play another to redeem myself!"  
      life_time -= time  
      return thomps_evening_routine( 30 )  

It's a recursive algorithm that results in nothing more than me wasting my life. This is why I have, once more, uninstalled this toxic game and cast it aside.

Sanctum 2

I picked up Sanctum 2 on a whim over the weekend as I was reading good things and I'm pretty fond of a good tower defense game.

Sanctum 2 is an FPS, co-op, tower defense game. This has been a popular genre over the last year or two (Dungeon Defenders, Orcs Must Die! 2) and I have to say, I'm diggin' it. It's a nice mix between strategy and FPS action, and it allows you to play with your friends in a constructive manner (i.e. not blindly button mashing or shooting everything that moves).

I've only played this a few hours so far, and have yet to play with anyone I actually know in real life, but I'm definitely enjoying it. You can be sure you'll see more on this title once I've gotten to spend some more time with it.

GRID

I can't explain it, but there's something that draws me to driving games. I would love to try racing in real life, but it's an expensive and dangerous hobby. Thankfully, we've got video games for stuff like that!

I've tried a fair number of racing games over the past month, but GRID has come out on top for me. Massive car selection, fun sponsorship meta game, and tons of fast-paced action. GRID surpassed my hopes for a fun driving game, and with GRID 2 nearing release, they're practically giving away the first game. I would highly recommend this to any racing game fan that's on a budget.

Roogoo

As I mentioned in the last retrospective, I've been dabbling in some of the many indie titles that I've acquired through the plentiful "bundles" available to gamers today.

Roogoo is sort of a spatial and timing based puzzle game. I'm not sure how much I enjoyed the bit that I played, but I really didn't give it too much of a chance. It was interesting, but not all that fun. As all puzzle games do, I'm sure it gets far more complex as you go on, but as it stands, there wasn't enough to keep me going. Have a look at a video...

  

Zombie Shooter

In the same vein as Roogoo, Zombie Shooter is another indie title I picked up in the recent Bundle Stars bundle (Zombie Shooter and 3 other games for a whopping $0.98!).

Zombie Shooter is an action RPG in which you level up 4 basic characteristics, and blast your way through hordes of zombies using a wide variety of upgradable weapons. 

Detailed art, crazy amounts of zombie gore, and a ton of weapons to play with all contribute to Zombie Shooter being a fun and addictive little game. Here's some footage of one of the early levels (4, I think?)...

Neverwinter Online

Neverwinter Online is now in open beta and, as I mentioned on Twitter a couple weeks ago, this game has already taken a good deal of my time. You'll hear me go both ways on MMO's, but this one is pretty damned good. So good, I've already sunk well over 20 hours into it.

Meet Rodg. A half-elf Cleric, rife with resentment of the real elves that populate the world around him.

I'll likely write up a full length piece on NWO, so I won't write too much now. In short, the combat is a great (compared to any other MMO, at least), user generated content provides essentially endless replayability, and the co-op mechanics are really polished and well done. On the flip side, PvP seems wildly unbalanced, and there's a pretty fierce nickle and diming free-to-play model at work here ($5 for an inventory bag!?!).

Anyway, more on this later, it's worthy of discussion. 

Tomb Raider

I started Tomb Raider recently, sinking a good 3 or 4 hours in, but haven't gotten around to picking it up for nearly a week now. 

Meet the new Lara Croft!

This has nothing to do with what I think of the game; it is excellent in every respect so far. It's one of the most polished, visually stunning games I've played all year, and am looking forward to diving back in deep. This will be a main focus for me in gaming over the next couple of weeks, so you can expect to see a review on this one in the near future.

The Conclusion

Lots of gaming, but not much beating of anything. That's the way it goes sometimes, I suppose. But there's a lot coming down the pipe here, as you can see from this post. Keep an eye out for some reviews and more thorough first impressions of these games!

PAX East 2013 Cosplay!

I mentioned on Twitter that I'd post up all the cosplay pictures I took at PAX East 2013 this year, so here you go! 

I have to apologize for the quality of the pictures. While the camera on my phone is great, it tends to be a bit shaky sometimes, and the lighting was screwy in the convention center. At any rate, most of them came out fine, just not as good as they could have been.

The Pics

Taric and Lulu from League of Legends!

Chell from the Portal games!

You better know who these guys are...

Taric and Zyra from League of Legends. This was one of the more impressive cosplays I saw.

ZOMBIE!

Sort of tough to see, but great costumes!

Super elaborate costume of Atlas from Portal 2.
She needed help to walk around because she was on stilts.

Probably my favorite cosplay of the show: Geralt of Rivia and Iorveth from The Witcher 2. 

Nidalee and Pikachu.

Some Borderlands 2 cosplayers.

This Fiddlesticks was amazing. He had spring loaded stilts that he jumped all over the center with.
It was awesome.

Waiting in line for Transistor, The Kid from Bastion and Desmond from Assassin's Creed.

Some Machinima.com Mortal Kombat cosplayers.