2013

Long Live the Queen

stargrace December 14, 2013 2 Comments

You are a fourteen year old Princess who just lost her mother, and you’re being trained to become Queen, one day. At least that is what you hope. As you play through the story you learn that you’re not very good at anything at all, especially not the things you need to be good at.

Long Live the Queen is a game rich with story, and a lot of skills that influence that story. You go to classes during the week and decide where to earn your points. There are a lot of different sections to learning to become a queen. Each decision you make influences your mood and you’ll gain a bonus or a penalty towards that skill depending on where your mood is at. It is no good trying to learn expression when the last thing you want to do is talk to people!

The story progresses along and you will either fail or succeed at different situations based on those skills. An evil Duchess may come to live with you and to welcome her to the castle you decide to trip her – except if you’re anything like me you’ll fail your flexibility roll and then trip over your own two feet instead while your father (the king) looks sadly on.

I don’t want to give away the story, but so far I’m having a lot of fun with it. It is much more involved than Magical Diary, but no less hilarious in some of the choices you get to make. It becomes a bit absurd if you keep in mind that the “princess” is supposed to be 14 years old, but since I am not a kid playing the game, I just chalked it up to humor. These games where I don’t have to worry about hack and slashing my way through dungeons, and can just enjoy the richly detailed world laid out before me are some of my favorites, and I’m so glad I’ve been exploring them.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

P.S. The fact that this game plays “Long Live the Queen” as the opening song made me giggle to no end.

Gaming

Dear Esther

stargrace December 13, 2013 No Comments

Dear Esther is probably one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played. I know it’s hard to categorize it as a game because lets face it, you don’t actually DO anything except wander around desolate locations playing through partial story snippets, but it is a game none the less, and one that I really enjoy. I listened to the dialog as I walked along exploring, wondering if I could get into the little nooks and crannies I found, wondering what the story was of the island, what the sadness was about, how I would have reacted. Feeling, in other words. Yes, this is a game that is all about feeling.

Everything from the graphics, to the music, oozes out a story that you get to piece together and think about.

You can check out some screenshots from the game I’ve posted on my Steam profile (under the username Stargrace) or if you follow me on G+ I’ve posted them there for people to view as well. There were moments during the dialog that I just stood still and listened and looked around me thinking because I found the situation profound. It’s incredibly rare that a video game has that sort of effect on the player, and I’m very glad I gave this one a try.

Of course, these types of games are not for everyone (just one of the perks of us all being different types of gamers) but if you’re looking to get away from combat and the constant wars that go on in video games I would highly suggest you give it a try.

Gaming

Lets Talk Lists #WoW

stargrace December 12, 2013 1 Comment

I read a post over at Tales of the Aggronaut that made me think about creating my own WoW Bucket List of sorts, things I want to accomplish in game (slowly, over time, these are not all easy tasks). Of course I created one and it includes the following things:

Level a team of pets to 25 (11/25 Progress)
Collect the following pets: Ashtone Core, Azure Whelpling, Black Tabby Cat, Chrominius, Harbinger of Flame, Stitched Pup, Untamed Hatchling
Earn the Loremaster achievement (2/6 Progress)
Collect the following mounts: Raven Lord, Deathcharger, Sea turtle
Finish Hemet Nesingwary: The Collected Quests (2/3 Progress)
Finish What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been (2/8 Progress)
Earn 25 Exalted Reputations (20/25 Progress)
Earn Champion of the Frozen Wastes (Progress Kel’Thuzad and Malygos)
Earn Glory of the Hero (Progress: Share the Love, Zombiefest, Experienced Drake Rider, The Incredible Hulk, Ruby Void, Amber Void)
Collect 200 pets

I also marked where my current progress with each item was, how many tasks to the achievement I had earned, and over time I’m sure I’ll add (and subtract) to it. I love lists (who doesn’t!) and I’m looking forward to having some goals in game to work towards besides the usual suspects (gear, etc).

I’m hoping this weekend I can hit up some older raids in an attempt at getting pets to drop, but we’ll just have to see how that goes. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

Pets and Guild Levels #WoW

stargrace December 11, 2013 No Comments

Yesterday WoW added a new patch, 5.4.2, that allows players the ability to shop from their store in game. I have no issue with this and think it’s quite neat, not to mention that to kick it off they put almost all of their pets and mounts on sale by 50%. That means I was able to add two pets to my collection guilt free. I already own a small handful of the cute little critters, so deciding which two to purchase wasn’t too hard. I eventually went with Lil’ Ragnaros who can also be used as a cooking fire, and the Cinder kitten because it was just too cute not to pick up.

Dragon Flight also managed to ding level 21 thanks to some alt leveling, I know experience is quite easy to come by these days (you get 60,000 experience per quest no matter what it seems) but considering the guild only has three members, I’m still tickled. We unlocked faster flight paths, and at 22 we’ll unlock greater tradeskill skill ups. I’m looking forward to reaching level 25 and being able to mass resurrect.

I’m hoping to inch my shaman closer to 90 this weekend (maybe even reach 90, dare I hope) as well as work on some pet battles and raids. I should also be able to master pandarian cooking, but we’ll just have to see how many white turnips I can collect.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

Choices, Choices, and more Choices #WoW

stargrace December 9, 2013 1 Comment

A few other bloggers have mentioned just how much stuff there is to do in WoW lately and I completely agree, especially if you have been away for a while like I have. I only have one level 90 character and I would like to get at least a small handful of my alts up to 90 before the next expansion. I’ve slowly been leveling my shaman who just reached 87 yesterday. I also have a 85 paladin, druid, and an 86 warlock not to mention my newly created 15 warrior, a level 2 rogue, and a level 24 monk. Oh, and a horde deathknight that I believe is level 67 or so.

There’s pet battles, collecting new pets, working on crafting, collecting recipes, and achievements just to name a few things I’m interested in. I’ve done timeless isle enough that every alt has a full set of gear – except my main – I can not for the life of me seem to get a cloth robe to drop. I’ve gotten everything to drop, multiples of most of it and not a single chest piece for the priest.

I managed to finish all but one “way of” for cooking, the last one requiring about 250 white turnips before I can complete it, so I’ll be farming for a little while first. I could try to buy them all from the broker but I would rather collect them myself. Once that is completed I can move on to completing my recipes and factions.

I’ve also been working on Shado Pan faction, and I still can’t ride a serpent mount yet (faction required). Faction grinding is the reason I left WoW to begin with, but it hasn’t been bugging me yet since I’ve been back, in fact I quite like the process since it requires no thought (and that’s what I was looking for). Whether or not it will continue to hold my attention has yet to be seen, but in the mean time I’m having a lot of fun.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Long Live the Queen

Dear Esther

Lets Talk Lists #WoW

Pets and Guild Levels #WoW

Choices, Choices, and more Choices #WoW

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