Thought I’d write something about what games I’m playing right now, and what I have on the backburner. Ordering of these is pretty rough and mostly by level of interest of amount I’m playing it.
EVE Online
I’m an old-time EVE Online player, originally started in 2003. However, over the years I’ve taken a few years off here and there, including the last break which was at the start of Incarna. I decided to come back because some friends of mine resumed their accounts, and I read about a lot of the changes that had happened during my leave of absence. It’s taken me a few weeks, but I’ve got myself mostly sorted out, and I’m running around high-sec doing incursions and missions and stuff like that. Don’t know if I’ll ever get back into nullsec stuff, I don’t think I have the time.
Kerbal Space Program
I’ve had this recommended to me, and picked it up the other day. KSP is awesome, for people interested in that sort of thing. In essence, you assemble rockets / space stations / landers / rovers from out of basic components, and then launch them into space. You can plan all sorts of space missions - from orbital rendezvous through to landing on the Mun (moon), and even on other planets. Good fun, and it never gets old when a rocket fails catastrophically.
The Last of Us
Released by Naughty Dog, the same company that brought us the Uncharted series, The Last of Us is a post-apocalyptic third-person shooter/adventure with a great story and emotive, believable characters. I’m only playing this in small doses. Its R rating and high gore means it’s not appropriate for me to play this while the toddler is awake, and when she’s in bed the TV is usually appropriated for something else.
A-10C Warthog
Previously discussed at length. I’m not playing this a whole lot right now due to other things happening, but this is still on my list to be continued with.
Rift
Since this went F2P, I gave it a go. However, to be blunt, I’m not that impressed with it. I can’t help but compare it to Guild Wars 2, and it usually comes in lacking. I’m mostly just playing this with my wife when we feel like it, and other than that, it’s pretty low priority. It is free though, which is a really big point in its favor.
Defiance
I grabbed this when it was on sale on Steam a while back. It’s supposed to be a Syfy/Game fusion experiment. As a shooter, it’s pretty mediocre. As an MMO, it’s also pretty mediocre. The graphics are acceptable, and the gameplay is entertaining, in a mindless way. The lack of a levelling system makes it very accessible, but also leaves me feeling that there’s no progression at all. It’s OK if you want to shoot stuff for a bit and not think too much about it.
Guild Wars 2
Played this quite extensively already. It’s on low priority - mostly gets played now when my wife wants to play together. I’ve got max level characters for Ranger, Elementalist, Guardian and Mesmer. I prefer playing the Elementalist, it’s a lot of fun.
Star Citizen
It’s not even out yet, but I’m excited for this. If you’re a fan of the old Wing Commander / Privateer / Freelancer series and space combat in general, you have to check out Star Citizen. I’m also interested in X: Rebirth, but EgoSoft seems to be dragging their feet terribly, and to be frank, if SC is coming anytime close to XR’s release, EgoSoft should rename it to X: Stillbirth.
Elite: Dangerous
Again, also still being developed. I was a huge fan of Elite back in the day, and this is being made by the same guy. Definitely looking forward to this one, although obviously Star Citizen is the gorilla in the room for space sims currently being developed.
DOTA2 / League of Legends
I’ve put these two together because they sit in the same genre. I’ve wanted to learn a MOBA for a long time, but never really found the inspiration. Now with DOTA2 having a tutorial mode, maybe I’ll get around to it.
Starcraft II - Heart of the Swarm
Not a huge fan of the Zerg, but I’ve played through the SC2 original campaign, so was thinking of doing HotS when it comes on sale.
Some of the issue with the above two games is that I find myself increasingly unwilling to engage in PvP-only games, and particularly team PvP games. It’s not that I hate losing or anything like that, it’s just that I want to play on my terms in my own time, and not feel that I’m letting anyone down by just dropping out because of RL concerns.
And for that reason, I tend to find myself gravitating towards games that can be played single-player or alone, or that support drop-in / drop-out gameplay.