Posts

Showing posts from December, 2015

Ax's Favorites on Steam... Evidently

Image
According to Steam's recently played list on my profile you can get an idea about what my apparently favorite games are... perhaps the wrong idea in some cases. I present here my top 20 but not necessarily... with caveats. Also note, this is just what Steam has tracked. Fallout 3 No joke, and this doesn't even include all the hours I logged prior to owning it on Steam, which was probably another 200 hours to estimate conservatively. Also does not account for my children's play time. Plants vs. Zombies This one is a shared effort. At one time, the whole family was obsessed with this game. However, we haven't touched it in perhaps years. It'll take a long while before it's eclipsed. Garry's Mod Another family effort, I play it with the kids, and the kids play it on my account. Bethesda's Action/RPG Hits More Fallout and Elder Scrolls... I must like those. True. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance It was my obsession at the beginning of the yea

Top Games of 2015

Image
It should go without saying this is my subjective opinion based on what I have played in 2015 (not necessarily released in 2015), so don't go saying "you're wrong!", because I can't be wrong about what entertained me. Take that mythical reader! Oh, and since I'm coming up with these on the spot, they are in no particular order. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain I can say hands down that this is my game of the year. It just did everything right in terms of gameplay and story (despite the missing mission 51). The number of hours I've poured into it eclipses even minecraft at this point (at least for this year). It is a testament to Kojima's masterful storytelling that he was able to evoke real emotional responses to characters in this game. You form a bond with your soldiers on Mother Base and with your support buddies. I'd say how, but that'd be spoilers, you really must see for yourself... and experience the guilt (mission 43) and grief

Spark of Something

Image
I've made some decent progress in Botania... having created the Terrasteel Agglomeration plate, I believe that surpasses what I've done before. It set up a wheat farm on my hill for the seeds required, automated by MF Reloaded Planter and Harvester. To make things more interesting and to pursue a few mods I was acquainted with, I decided to add in Ars Magica 2, Dragon Mounts, and Mo' Creatures. Ars Magica is a magic system I dabbled in before but did not make much progress in. It seemed more interesting than Thaumcraft and more intuitive as well. I have the basics set up on my second floor. Dragon mounts allows you to create eggs that the titular flying lizards bring into being. There are several types possible, IIRC based on the environment the egg is hatched in. Mo' Creatures is a mod that adds a bunch more things that want to kill you, but from what I've seen it's not unbalanced. The hp on the monsters are reasonable at least. As a result, the lan

AxPack 4 Progress

Image
I have tested what I'm calling AxPack 4 for about a week now. A major snag with getting the mods to play nice was biomes o plenty having a tiff with Erebus over biome IDs, so I had to muck about in the config files. Something was borked, so I had to erase the configs folder, then uninstall both and add back Biomes O Plenty.  I don't know if Erebus will play nice now, but I don't feel like letting it back into the fold yet. Turns out Railcraft operates independently of Buildcraft now, so that's tidy. Actually, I didn't strictly need RC for the stated reason, Steel, because Mekanism's method works just fine. I've gotten into Botania but am dismayed that passive generation flowers decay and it can no longer be disabled in the config. The creator says it's to motivate upgrading to better flowers... fair enough. I am currently holed up in an Artifacts tower that I cleared. Troublesome clay golems in the basement. I actually ended up throwi

Axpack: The Next Generation

I've created several modpacks at this point. It's always a process of creating a base pack of my essentials and then progressively adding more as I think of them. They tend to be all over the place by the time I get finished with them, and by finished I mean I tire of my progression through it and quit playing. So, this time I plan to... plan out the modpack in an orderly manner with goals in place for each mod added. I want a relatively compact pack with not too many resources and perhaps some consistency with theme. Essentials See this post World Biomes O Plenty - I appreciate the variety on the overworld, Hot Springs especially. Railcraft - I do love marble... I mean quarried stone. Natura - An interesting nether is needed. Resources Just a note that I need to edit configs to eliminate any overlap. I don't want the same ore from different mods if I can avoid it. Tinkers Construct - Adds those Oreberry bushes. Might disable those. Adds Ardite and

Minecraft Mods Commentary (Part 2)

Below I have detailed some mods that I like, are good, but not required, followed by ones I can happily ignore, and then the ones I actively avoid. Always Nice to Have Chisel - I love variety. This adds many varieties of common and special materials, just for aesthetics. Bibliocraft - Furniture. Really brings a room together. Includes shelves for out in the open storage. Ender Storage - A chest and bag thats let you access the contents from anywhere. Iron Chest - Upgradable, progressively bigger storage chests. Twilight Forest - The new progression system is crap (don't tell me where I can't go!) but the interest this adds in great. Ore hills are wonderful resources balanced with danger, and the bosses are always fun to battle. Roguelike Dungeons/Ruins - I do like exploring. These provide the opportunity. Hardcore Ender Expansion - Makes the End interesting, adding incentive to explore. Mariculture - Makes underwater interesting. Natura - Makes the nether intere

Minecraft Mods Commentary (Part 1)

There was a time I despised modded Minecraft. The problem was that I was introduced to a modpack and expected to understand all parts of it immediately. There was no established starting point and perceivable progression. It was a massive chore to learn that involved many windows of the modpack's wiki pages open simultaneously. Later came questbook driven "tutorial" type modpacks, and those worked better. So after years of playing modded, I can't go back to vanilla without getting bored very quickly, Is this all there is? I could be using a quarry, but no... an efficient pickaxe'll have to do. The nether could be interesting for longer than 15 minutes... but isn't. So, having quite a bit of experience under my belt with mods, modpacks, and creating my own packs... I'll record some of my thoughts on how various mods measure up. The Essentials Damage Indicators - Perceivable consequence! I like to know how effective my hits are besides the vague feeli