Well it's that time again; middle of the university term, settled back into the swing of the uni life and been out and about socialising enough in the past few weeks that I can blag my way out of social events to stay in and game. So what games am I focusing on?
I started off with The Witcher, playing it casually while chatting to folks on Ventrillo and IRC and keeping up with
the forums. I got to about mid-way through chapter two before the developers
announced the enhanced edition of the game will be released some time in May. While great news that they've decided to go back and work the English game into what it's really meant to be, it's also slightly annoying. So I've stopped playing The Witcher for now. Despite some quite critical reviews I actually found the game entertaining for what it is; essentially a cross between Neverwinter Nights and Two World and I guess, going back a bit, Summoner, which I loved. If you're looking for a laid back RPG then you can't go amiss with The Witcher, just wait for the Enhanced Edition.
I was hoping to get my teeth into some games that I've always meant to play but have never gotten around to play such as Baldur's Gate and the Fallout games. Word from last month's PC Gamer in the UK said that Baldur's Gate 3 is definately in the works, and I would like to play both the previous games before starting the third in the series. I was a big fan of Icewind Dale too, which was my first PC D&D game.
But alas, the MMO rope caught me and I have been dragged into playing Eve Online. While I've been "playing" the game for the past 4 months I've really only been logging in to learn skills. For those not in the know, Eve Online has quite a different levelling dynamic to other MMO's; instead of grinding in order to level up you simply have skills that take x amount of time to learn. Learning skills gives you access to new ships, modules for your ships, research, industry, manufacturing, weaponary, etc. etc.. It greatly reduces that feeling that "everybody is the same as me" that I've gotten in games like WoW and EQ2. I'd recommend it to anyone.