It’s been two years in the making, but after a few delays, Ark: Survival Evolved has finally come out of Early Access. Since I’ve been following this game’s development from the beginning, I think I’ve been on an interesting journey. Now it’s available on PC and consoles, which gives it a wide audience. Included in this release is the new $60 price tag. Luckily, I paid about half of that during Early Access, but I still think it’s worth it. There is a season pass available, too, which seems to be $30 at the moment.

Ark has always had something to look forward to, especially monthly content updates. Last year, Studio Wildcard announced Ark’s first DLC, Scorched Earth, for about $20. This drew criticism because the core game was still in Early Access. Ark was originally supposed to exit Early Access last year, about the time of Scorched Earth’s release, but it got delayed.

This year, Stuido Wildcard has announced the second DLC, Aberration. It will cost about $20, without the season pass. Apparently, you’re on a faulty Ark in space and have to survive in extreme environmental hazards such as radiation. There are mutated creatures, even humans, on this Ark. One such creature is show in the trailer and can fly and camouflage itself, it’s like a flying chameleon. There seems to be a vast underground and caverns. It looks interesting and is due to come out next month.

I’ve spent over 2,300 hours playing Ark. I started out on my own, then got invited to an official server. I met friends in the tribe and enjoyed my time there, but I ended up coming back to the single player game. I’ve been loving it since the beginning and more content is definitely something I look forward to. I remember how exciting it was to get all those new content updates, which were more frequent early on, but slowed down to once a month.

One of the things I’ve been looking forward to most is the game’s optimization. This game helped me learn more about my graphics card, the GTX 690. I learned that it was a dual-GPU card that worked by using SLI. Unfortunately some games are only able to use one of those GPUs, until they become SLI compatible. So, I had to research the game’s various video settings and figure out what would work best. I had to downgrade DirectX to double my frame rate and get some sense of stability, which came at a huge cost to image quality. In the end, I decided to buy a GTX 980 Ti and I finally got to experience those high quality graphics for myself. Optimizations have come, even GeForce Experience has updated and can now optimize the game’s settings based on your hardware. Those settings work well for me, although I had to make a slight adjustment.

Part of what I love most about this game is that it shares some aspects of games I’ve enjoyed in recent years, such as Terraria and Minecraft. You can craft a lot of items, upgrade armor, build, and tame creatures to help you. It can be scary and fun. There is a story, but it’s not extremely apparent or in your face. You can find out about by finding the various Explorer Notes left around the Island.

If you play online on an official server, it can take a long time to build up and tame creatures, which is why being part of a bigger tribe can be important. But, if you play on an unofficial server or single player mode, you can customize a huge variety of options that can help make your game play more pleasant.

Aberration news source:
https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/articles.html/ark-aberration-expansion-pack-announced-r542/

Ark official launch trailer:
https://youtu.be/5fIAPcVdZO8

So, I just found out that FFXV is coming to PC in "early 2018." I'm really happy about this, because this is one of the reasons I've thought about getting a PS4. I was hoping it would come to PC, so now I don't need to get a PS4 to play it soon. I don't mind the wait. It seems to be popular, from what I've read or "heard" about it. I did rent the FFXV movie and it was cool.

What do you think? Are you excited, too?

Watch the trailer embedded above to see the Nvidia FFXV tech preview.

Source:
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/final-fantasy-15-coming-to-pc-with-2018-release-da/1100-6452696/

I thought I'd bring it to your attention that Day of the Tentacle Remastered is the new free loot for Twitch Prime users. I loved Maniac Mansion on the NES, but I haven't checked out DotT. It's available until 8/9/17.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/next-free-amazontwitch-prime-game-now-available/1100-6452272/

If you haven't been paying attention, then there's some legendary news for Pokemon Go! A Pokemon Go Fest was hosted in Chicago in which many players came together for a chance to reveal a legendary Pokemon. Play.

From Gamespot:
"In order to make a Legendary Pokemon appear, players around the world will need to capture a certain number of monsters during the event's Challenge Windows. If the players at the event are able to defeat the Legendary Pokemon, it will begin appearing worldwide. Based on the recent live-action trailer that Niantic released, it appears Legendary Pokemon will be fought the same way as standard Raid Battles, so players will need to cooperate to whittle away its health and defeat it."

As it turns out, Team Mystic won that event and now Articuno and Lugia are available ever where. It seems you're able to get one by doing the new "raid" battles, but I haven't even messed with gyms yet, so I haven't tried raids. I thought I read that you could get lucky and get an egg from a gym and it hatches into a legendary. I also believe I read that you cannot leave a legendary Pokemon at a Gym.

Anyway...Go Team Mystic!!!!!! (That's my team!)

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/pokemon-gos-next-legendary-revealed-and-its-a-fan-/1100-6451932/

With the release of a new "reel" Blizzard announces the arrival of the Necromancer for next week. You can find more details in the link below. It appears that we still have a week before we can purchase the DLC. I was kind of surprised that it only costs $15. I was expecting maybe double that and I probably would have been happy to pay it. New Challenge Rifts are being added as well.

I've been looking forward to this since it's initial announcement. Since I've played through the campaign twice with each class, once for each gender, I feel some hesitation on starting a new champaign. But, of course there are new cinematics and voices, so I plan to start a new campaign for my new Necromancer character next week.

Are you going to dive in head first as well?

https://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20845159?cspNonce=sLelGMHg3D

Ark: Survival Evolved has been in Early access for two years now. Since then I've put in 2,270 hours, which speaks for itself, I obviously love this game! The second anniversary recently arrived and I was thinking of writing a post, explaining my story with Ark. I've played mostly in single player, but I did join a group on an official server and enjoyed that as well as I made new friends.

Ark is being released on 8/29/17. The devs stated that the three week delay is due to the process of "going gold" taking longer than expected. Feel free to check out details: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ark-survival-evolved-full-launch-delayed-new-relea/1100-6452126/

There's a special edition coming out that I'd really love to have. The only problem is that I already spent
The game now contains over 1,000 characters and official maps. The default map (referred to as The Island), Scorched Earth, The Center, and now Ragnarok, which is the newest addition, added yesterday. I can't wait to give this map a try, especially since there are Griffons.

So, if you've been waiting for Ark to leave Early Access, your wait is soon over. Even with a beefy system like mine, I'm still looking forward to the game getting optimized. There are places in-game where my frames go to die, but other than that, it's a great game, I absolutely love. There are plenty of mods, some of which I still use to improve my game's Quality of Life.

If you've been holding out on Ark, do you think the time is coming for you to grab it? I strongly recommend looking at the system requirements. I strongly recommend playing this on a beefy PC, but it will also be available for the XBox and PS4.

Ragnarok Release Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfaOogXlG3g&t=4s

Re-Logic has released a few spoilers for Terraria 1.3.6. Chippy Gaming has some videos about them.
“Confusing” spoiler: https://youtu.be/Wr5lRQuaUgw
Fancy Lighting: https://youtu.be/tl9_LoX082g
New Sprites: https://youtu.be/JMhaMTECy1Y
Corruption Furniture: https://youtu.be/WF1WamNH0ZQ
New Background: https://youtu.be/NkdPo61bSkU

If there ever was a time to buy a new keyboard, that time is coming. This update includes Razer Chroma support. It’s kind of an expensive keyboard, but they keys light up. I found it for about $80-90 on Amazon. I was actually thinking about this some time ago, since I often play in the dark and sometimes it’s hard to see keys when I need to.
https://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/razer-chroma-support.57662/

A couple of furniture sets are getting added in, too, including one matching the Corruption.
https://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/corruption-1-3-6.58131/
https://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/1-3-6-new-furniture-preview.57871/

We’re also getting a new female NPC. For more details check out the wiki and forums.

http://terraria.gamepedia.com/Upcoming_features

Named “The World of Color" update, 1.12 appears to be coming soon. As it pertains to the name, the game’s color palette is getting an overhaul.

Minecraft is finally getting some birds! Parrots are really interesting mobs. They will mimic the sounds of other mobs around them. They’ll also follow all mobs, whether they’re hostile or not. You can tame them with cookies. This is the addition I’m most looking forward to. I want the blue one, of course!

This update also introduces a new feature, the recipe book, which makes it unnecessary to look up crafting recipes. You’ll see it in your inventory screen. If you use it and select what you want to craft, it will put the required materials in the required order, so long as you have the materials in your inventory.

The achievement system has been updated as well. The game will also run on Java 8. There are plenty of other things in this update. To get a good feel of what’s in it, I recommend watching the video in this post.

For more details see the wiki: http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/1.12

Magikarp has always been a bit of a sad Pokemon. They’re almost completely useless, although they do redeem themselves when they evolve into Gyarados. However, that has now changed and Magikarp gets its own game called Magikarp Jump. It is free for Android and iOS. The point of the game is to raise a Magikarp and win jumping contests. The higher a Magikarp’s JP (Jump Points), the higher they are able to jump in the air. There are jumping leagues full of battles to win against other trainers.

To begin, the game gives you an introduction and takes you to catching your first Magikarp. Once caught, it will stay in your pond, which can be decorated. Food will fall into the water and you can tap on one to get your Magikarp to eat it. This will increase it’s JP, but you can also train it. Training doesn’t require input from the player, Magikarp will train on its own.

There are also other Pokemon in the game, which often offer support. You can obtain some by playing, but you can also use some of the game’s currency to buy new ones. I have a Pikachu and Piplup that I acquired by progressing through the game. I also have a Litten that I bought with in-game currency. When they get an exclamation mark above their head, I can click on them to get various bonuses. They also appear during jump battles and provide additional support.

Each Magikarp is limited by how high it can level up. Your first one can only get to level 11 or so. As you progress in the game and gain experience, your character’s rank will go up, which will allow you to catch Magikarp that can level up higher. Their higher levels allow them to have more JP. Once you reach a Magikarp’s max level, you’ll need to finish a league and (win or lose), your Magikarp will retire afterwards. Then, the game lets you catch another one.

There are a variety of random encounters that can occur. Some of them require your input. In one, for instance, you see something shiny and have to decide whether to get it or leave it alone. If you get it, it could be something valuable, like a diamond, or a piece of glass, which will take away some of your JP. I was told, by a friend, to be careful of a certain random encounter in which your Magikarp can be taken away by a Pidgey.

As with most free games, you can spend real world money to buy in-game items or currency. Perhaps this would help reduce the amount of time you have to wait for your training sessions to refill. I’ve only just begun, but so far I don’t see a real need to spend any real money on the game. It does seem kind of cool, so I recommend checking it out, if you like Pokemon.

A news source: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/a-new-pokemon-game-is-out-now-for-mobile/1100-6450325/

I’ve been looking forward to Breath of the Wild for years now, although it didn’t have an official title for a while. I was expecting a new Zelda game for the Wii U. We even had video of it and learned that it would be an open world game. I remember seeing Link in mid-air with time nearly frozen, in which he shoots an enemy with an arrow. I thought that looked cool. The game got delayed and a bit of an evolution by the end of it’s development. That evolution was the Switch.

I was interested in the Switch, but more more interested in BotW. I decided to buy the Wii U version of the game, instead of spending over $300 for a new system. At first, I assumed the lesser console (Wii U) version would suffer, but in this case it actually looks like the Switch version has some framerate issues. The game has been patched and I believe Nintendo has been working to resolve technical issues.

I didn’t hesitate to pre-order BotW, once I decided which version to get, but I did hesitate to play it. I bought the game for my son as a birthday present. I’ve let him play it and he’s made significant progress. I wanted give him time to play it and I figured I’d pick it up some time when he wasn’t playing it. He hasn’t been playing it lately, so I decided it was time to pick it up.

Luckily, this is a game that’s very amiibo-friendly. If you use just about any one of them, you’ll more than likely see a bunch of food and materials drop from the air, maybe even a chest. Link’s Smash Bros. amiibo does sometimes summon Epona. However, the most valuable for this game seems to be Wolf Link, he can join you in game and fight with you. You can play Twilight Princess HD and get Wolf Link more hearts. Get yourself as many hearts as you want or can and then use the Wolf Link amiibo to the Cave of Shadows. It will then save your character data to your amiibo, which can then be used in BotW. I’m actually interested in getting more amiibos, particularly from The Legend of Zelda, like Zelda and Ganondorf. They offer their own unique bonuses (at least in Twilight Princes HD and other games).

This game is cool, but there are definitely some spoiler-free noticeable things to point out. Weapons, shields, and bows break and can’t be repaired. There are new enemies and a variety of ways to get rid of them. Cutting grass doesn’t provide hearts or rupees, and there are multiple ways to use the environment to your advantage. There are plenty of materials around to harvest for cooking, which lets you make food to restore health or give some bonus, such as cold resistance.

Dungeons are now known as shrines. There are many and they are quite small compared to the Zelda dungeons we’ve come to know, love, or hate. In the beginning, it seems that the shrines give you what you need to complete them before you advance to the end. They are puzzle-like, but appear to be kind of nicely simplistic and not too greatly challenging. Some of the ones I’ve run into have also required me to use the Wii U’s Gamepad motion controls.

As for general combat, this game seems to be more difficult than other Zelda games. I’ve just started out and I’m not well equipped. I do have 4 hearts now, instead of 3, and I do have Wolf Link with me along with some of the runes I’ve collected, but I still get killed. The game isn’t shy about that, it even tells you while it’s loading to be careful and not rush head first into enemies without preparation.

Since rupees are now more rare, it’s hard to find enough to get well equipped. You can sell things, but apparently you want to save some things that you’ll need later for upgrades and such. I’ve been hoarding, I need to start selling more so I can get some armor. I just spent 80 rupees on some warmer gear, yet I still need a cold resistance buff where I’m at.

There are a variety of places to go and many ways of getting to them. You can fast travel, ride a horse, walk, climb, snowboard with your shield, or glide. You’ll need to tame a horse by sneaking up on it and mounting it, then pressing the button (L shoulder I believe) to calm them down. Once you’ve tamed one, you can register it at a stable (for 20 rupees I think). You can name it (except for Epona) and even have it stay at the stable. Otherwise, it may come to you if you whistle for it and you’re close enough for it to hear you. If you can’t find it, check the map for the horse icon. The solid colored horses appear to be usually superior to multi-colored horses.

I’ve seen videos of people that have talked about the game and many of them have 60-100 hours in and they still love it. So, I know there’s a lot to look forward to. Speaking of that, the DLC pack is available for about $20. One DLC is getting released “this summer” and another near the end of the year. I watched a couple of videos about it and I recommend checking some out. The DLC looks cool.

Gamespot created multiple videos containing tips they wish they knew before playing. There are now more than 5 of those videos and I recommend watching them. Each says it "may contain spoilers," but I didn't see any spoilers. You can find the playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpg6WLs8kxGNU6ZFGXaxjxjLGnF9BZi64 There is also a "spoiler-free beginner's tips" video here: https://youtu.be/-EaO2S4Lyvk

Dungeons 2 is available for free for a limited time via the Humble Store. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/grab-a-free-copy-of-dungeon-keeper-style-game-dung/1100-6449968/

Twitch Prime members have new loot to grab including Oxenfree, NBA2K17, and a "Star Wars: The Old Republic - Eternal Throne Ultimate Pack." There are only 3 days left to get Oxenfree and the Star Wars pack, but NBA2K17 ends on the 22nd.

I personally don't know anything about these games, but I thought I would bring it to your attention. You have to create a STWTOR account to claim the code, which I did. I downloaded the setup file, but that's as far as I've gotten.

I've downloaded other games offered by Twitch Prime including Punch Club (recommended by Jon) and This War of Mine. TWoM appears to be similar to Fallout Shelter, so I want to give it a try. It also seems to have some great reviews.

Login to your Twitch account (if you've already linked up with your Amazon account) and check out the notification.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/next-free-amazontwitch-prime-game-now-available/1100-6449967/

I was really excited about the Wii when I first found out about it. So, I was one of the many people who got it during a midnight release at GameStop. Twilight Princess was the first game I bought for it. I really loved it, too. I liked the motion controls, swinging to swing a sword, etc. My only disappointment with the game was that it didn’t look very great. However, the game got an HD upgrade is now available on the Wii U.

I decided to buy Twilight Princess HD for the Wii U, even though I still have my original Wii copy. I gave it to my son as a birthday present, along with other games. The cool thing about it is that it came with a Wolf Link amiibo, which I’m really glad to have because you can use it in Breath of the Wild, which is why I’m playing this game now.

I got Breath of the Wild for the Wii U, because while the Switch looks impressive, there aren’t any games that I’m particularly interested in, other than BotW. So, I decided to save some money and buy the Wii U version, instead of the Switch and I’m glad I did. The Switch version of BotW seems to have more issues than the Wii U version, which surprises me. I thought for sure it’d be a better game on the Switch because of the new hardware.

I’ve let my son play BotW for a while, while I played other games on my PC, but I recently decided to check it out. I played it a little bit, then found out that you can increase Wolf Link’s maximum amount of hearts by working on Twilight Princess HD. There’s a special cave for you to access with the amiibo in the game and it can store your info on the amiibo. So, now I’m working on Twilight Princess, so I can have a better Wolf Link as a companion.

I think this game needed an HD upgrade and I’m glad it got it. But, this version of the game isn’t as physically fun as the original. You can use the Wii U Gamepad or the Gamepad Controller to play the game. You can play it on the Gamepad or the TV. Since you can’t use a Wii-mote, the motion controls are a bit watered down. You can move the Gamepad to look around or aim, but that’s about as far as the motion controls go. Since I actually enjoyed the Wii-mote motion controls, this is disappointing to me, but the game still plays well without it.

I’ve noticed that other Zelda amiibos work with the game, too, which makes me want to get more of them. I have Wolf Link and Smash Bros. Link, but now I want to get Ganondorf and Zelda.

I remember my fellow Cheerful Ghosts talking about Fallout Shelter shortly after it was released. Since I didn’t own a smartphone at the time, I ignored this game. Then, last year during the summer, Fallout Shelter came to PC via Bethesda’s launcher. Gaming companies have been releasing their own game launchers, like Steam, and they’re getting numerous, but I love Bethesda, so I installed it.

I played the game for a little while. It seemed like a game that contained a lot of waiting. It’s easy enough to play and the game does a great job of teaching you how to play and providing some great tips. Dwellers can act on their own, but it’s up to you to manage them. Each dweller has their own S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats, each of which is good for something. For instance, you’ll want to put your dwellers with high Strength in your power production rooms. Perception is good for water production, while Agility is good for food production. Intelligence is good for the medical room that produces Stimpaks and the science lab, which produces Radaway. Charm is good in the Living Quarters where you can breed your dwellers.

You can “rush” rooms, hurrying their production of a resources. If it goes well, you’ll get a bonus and caps, but if it fails your dwellers in the room will have to deal with an incident. Before rushing, the game will tell you the percent chance of an incident, so if you find that percentage is high, then it’s not a good idea to rush the room. The room can catch on fire, or creatures can appear such as Radroaches, Mole Rats, and Radscorpions. If your dwellers get hurt, you can given them Stimpaks. If they die, you can revive them after the incident. If not taken care of quickly enough, the incident could spread to other rooms.

In the meantime, there are chances that Raiders, Feral Ghouls, or Death Claws could invade your vault. Once they get in, it’s up to your dwellers to fend them off. These enemies always work their way from left to right on each floor, going to the next floor if not defeated in time. If you have a Mr. Handy, it will fight them, too, if it’s on the same floor or you can drag it there. Mr. Handy can also help protect your dwellers during an incident. It can be destroyed, but can repaired for 2,000 caps.

Rooms can be upgraded and expanded. Most rooms can be three room wide and it’s a good idea to make your rooms three wide. This means that 6 dwellers can fit inside. More dwellers working in a room, means it can produce quicker. You unlock rooms by getting dwellers. Once you get closer to 50-60 dwellers, you’ll be able to build new, better rooms for resource production. I have three of each, I removed the old resource rooms.

There is a limit to 200 dwellers in your vault and having that many can be a bit of a nightmare, especially if you have not yet made every room. The rooms that train dwellers S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats are really good. You can train a certain stat in each room and rotate dwellers in and out. There’s also a Barbershop for customizing your dwellers, which I’ve made, but haven’t used. Also there is a theme workshop that lets you create themes. You’ll find theme recipe pieces on quests. It looks like the themes are Brotherhood of Steel, Railroad, Institute, and Minuteman.

There are a good number of quests to do. On most quests you can have up to three dwellers, but some quests only allow one, or have other various requirements. They can be difficult so it’s a good idea to bring your best dwellers with the best gear and the max amount of Stimpacs and Radaway they can carry (25) from the Vault. You can get a variety of rewards such as weapons, outfits, pets, lunchboxes (which can contain anything), junk, and more. If you fully upgrade the Overseer’s Office, you can have three groups out on quests at once. If your dwellers die and fail a quest, you can retry for a cost, or revive them and send them back home. I have a few certain dwellers I send out on quests. Many quests take some time to reach and get back from, but you can speed this up by spending Nuka-Cola Quantum, which is a very rare resource.

Speaking of quests, there’s a Bottle and Cappy quest line and when that is completed, B&C will occasionally visit your vault, raising happiness. While they’re exploring your vault, you can click on Cappy for caps or Bottle for caps or Nuka-Cola Quantum when they’re dancing. This is so valuable that I highly suggest doing this as soon as possible.

I like this game a lot more than I thought I would. I think this is about as much fun as another Fallout game. I’ve clocked 67 hours in Steam. I’m not sure how many hours I’ve spent playing on my phone or via the Bethesda launcher. I’m often surprised that this is a free game, you don’t always expect free games to be so good. You can spend real money to make in-game purchases, but I haven’t found that to be necessary.

I may have some more thoughts or tips to post here later.

I recently realized a gaming pattern of mine within in the last few years that continues even now. I think it started with The Witcher, but lately I’ve been playing a variety of game series. I started out with The Witcher, because the Witcher 3 was highly recommended to me. I decided to start at the beginning and make my way through. I later continued this pattern with the Borderlands and (most recently) Dragon Age series. This also reminds me of my gaming habits many years ago when I was playing other series such as Final Fantasy, Command & Conquer, Warcraft, etc.

I think this is interesting. It’s given me the chance to see and watch games evolve. Usually, I find the first game in a series to be a bit more difficult to get into and I don’t usually like them as much as newer games. The older games usually make me appreciate the newer ones more. That’s not always true though as my favorite Final Fantasy games were made around 20 years ago.

Of all the series I’ve played most recently, the first game in The Witcher series was the one I disliked the most. I liked the characters and story, but one particular sound in a town at night bothered me. Once I moved on to The Witcher 2, I was able to appreciate it more, but I was still left some what unimpressed. This succession, however, again made me appreciate The Witcher 3 more, which I loved. Now, when I play a game series, I often think of my experience with The Witcher series and I mentally compare the experiences.

Dragon Age: Origins was similar to The Witcher in that it was difficult to get into. In fact, it wasn’t until my third attempt at playing it that I finally made some progress and finish it. The combat system was definitely something I had to get used to. The graphics weren’t quite up to par with today’s normal, but they weren’t horrible either. In the end, I enjoyed DAO. I’ve seen some replay value in it, so there’s a chance I may play it again.

One of the things I’ve loved about the DA series is the ability to import saved games. I was able to do this for DAO DLC and for the next games in the series. Apparently, I was able to import my DAO save into DA2, which would reflect my DAO game play, including decisions I had made. Decisions seemed be a large part of DA2, I was often given choices about what to do and I saw the consequences of those decisions that I made. I thought that was refreshing and entertaining. Of course, DA2 is a pretty big visual upgrade over DAO, which was impressive, until I started playing Inquisition.

The visual difference in all the games in this series is obvious. DAI is so much better looking than DAO or DA2. It was released only a few years ago and it certainly still looks like a “new” game. I noticed that at least one returning character from DA2 even looks different. Honestly, I think the beauty of DAI reflects the beauty of the game itself. I’m only just less than 30 hours in and I’m loving it.

As DA2 offered a variation of the battle system in DAO, DAI does that for DA2. I agree with something Scrypt said in that DAI is a bit of a mix of the combat systems in the two previous game. In fact, there is a learning curve, even if you’ve played the other two games. That’s because combat feels more active. You can still pause combat and issue commands, but instead of right-clicking on an enemy for your character to attack, you actually left-click. In DAO, you only had to click once and your character would attack the enemy, but in DAI, you have to click for each attack, or hold down the mouse button.

There are recurring characters. I assume that they are there whether or not you’ve imported your save from DA2, but I’m not sure. The story seems pretty good and seems to be related to the events of DA2. The story doesn’t feel completely original though, because it’s basically much like Oblivion. Portals to a bad dimension spawn in the world and it’s your job to close them (you’ll find out why when you play). This game actually reminds me of Oblivion even more by various other things, including herb collection.

You could argue that the DA series is an open-world RPG, but to me, it seems DAI is more open. The world maps in these games doesn’t look very big, but you can choose where to go and what to do. Granted there are limitations, but the story doesn’t tell you to first go to one location, then the next, etc. You can do many things in whatever order you wish. In DAI you can even ride a mount around, which isn’t necessarily a horse. In fact, I recently killed a Higher Dragon and unlocked a mount that’s a dragon that acts like a horse. It’s shaped like one, but the head and coloration are different. There’s a lot to discover and do. You can also fast travel between campsites or the world map.

There’s a war going on in DAI between the mages and templars and the Inquisition is working towards peace. Apparently, at one point you have to choose a side, but I have not yet made that choice. There’s a war room in which you get to see the game map and both sides of the war. There are mission markers on the map for you to select a mission to work on. Then, you can assign one of your allies to a mission. Each ally (I think there are 3) has a specialization. One has connections, another is a spy master, and another is a military commander. Each will affect a mission differently and you can choose how to approach a mission. This is just a brief, basic description, there’s more involved.

DA is truly a fantasy RPG. It contains elements that are in so many fantasies and RPGs, some of which can be see in stories like Lord of the Rings. There are mages, dwarves, humans, elves, dragons, monsters, etc. There are different classes of characters, mage, warrior, and rogue. Mages deal with magic, warriors with sword and similar weapons, and rogues who specialize in stealth, bows and arrows, and other useful things such as lock picking. Like The Elder Scrolls, this series doesn’t force you to be a particular race or class. So, there’s definitely freedom and replay value.

While I experienced stability issues with DAO and DA2, DAI has never crashed. I haven’t run into many issues, the ones I can think of are a bit minor. One of the issues is so far my biggest complaint and that is the volume level. The game is too quiet. I’ve ensured that loudness equalization is enabled (in my Windows volume mixer settings), which definitely helps, but it’s still not enough. Perhaps that’s also because I’ve decided that this is a game that I should have my PC fans running at maximum while playing, since this it is so graphically intense.

So, once again I’m currently playing the last (for now) game in a series. It reminds me of the other times I played a series starting with the first game. Those first games aren’t usually all that wonderful, but I believe they help increase the enjoyment of playing newer games in the series. I’m thinking about checking out the Mass Effect series next.

If you like fantasy elements, open worlds, and RPGs, then DA may be for you. I would recommend playing DAO then DA2 and then DAI. I now see why one of my friends raves about this series all the time. It is good, even if it’s a rough start (with DAO), it’s definitely worth it (to me).

Feel free to add to the conversation here. Let me know if you’ve played DAI, what you think about it, or if this is something that might interest you. This, to me, definitely feels like a really good game and I can now see why it seems to be very popular. Unfortunately, it’s not yet on Steam.

So, I recently got my first Android smartphone. There are very few apps I’m aware of, Pokemon Go is among them. Since my son and I love Pokemon and it’s free, I figured I’d check it out. I didn’t know very much about it before getting in because I mostly ignored it before I had a smartphone. I just read that it seemed popular and there were some, even controversial, events related to it.

I initially thought I would join Team Mystic, because it’s the blue team, and so I have. When I first started, I couldn’t find any Pokemon even though there were some around me. “Research” provided the solution of turning off the AR camera mode. It’s a nice feature, I think, but isn’t compatible with all phones, some people just don’t like it anyway. I managed to catch some Pokemon around me, I’m not sure which ones. I made a lot of wrong assumptions, but over time, my knowledge has grown.

I didn’t know how to tell how great a Pokemon was until I found out about “appraisal.” The appraiser will say different things based upon which team you joined, but you can find that online. Each individual Pokemon has stats that are hidden and the appraiser can help you figure out which is strongest and how the Pokemon would fair in battle. If you’re looking for a “perfect” Pokemon, you’ll want to read more about IV or use an IV calculator. I have often overlooked these values in all the Pokemon games I’ve played. However, having “perfect” Pokemon does have it’s advantages.

Pokestops are cool and important for collecting free daily supplies. There are many of them in my little area and I usually stop for at least two of them once a week on my way out for groceries. I don’t play while driving, of course, I hand the phone to my son and let him take over while we’re out. On my own, I’ve found some hotspots, including a place where a lot of Pokemon spawn, because a lot of people in the area play.

I don’t do a lot of walking with the app, so I’m not making incredible progress with raising Pokemon and hatching eggs. At least two eggs have hatched and one of them was a really good Eevee. I may evolve it into Vaporeon, Espeon, or Umbreon. A friend has a book with some early information and I found out how to evolve Eevee. It involves renaming it and that information is best found online.

Right now I’m just trying to see what’s out there and fill in my Pokedex. At level 12, I don’t have what’s needed to take on or help defend a Gym, so I’m not in a hurry. Many of my local friends are in Team Insight, who is control of my nearest Gym. Still, there are a lot of cool things you can do, it’s not all too basic and simplistic. I think it’s fun and interesting. I also like how it has evolved our local communities.

So, is anyone else still playing? What level are you, what’s your best and favorite Pokemon? Do you have anything you want to share here?

Sources:
http://www.polygon.com/2016/8/23/12614406/pokemon-go-iv-calculator-appraisal
http://www.ign.com/wikis/pokemon-go/How_to_Evolve_Pokemon