Tuesday, November 10, 2015

I've Got To Get My Gaming Groove Back

I did bring most of my XBox 360 games with me on this job, intending to replay them. In practice, that hasn't happened. I got a decent way into Deadpool, mostly just to rack up enough points to finish upgrading his weapons, but the first time I actually died, I put it away. I've been playing specific levels of Metro: Last Light, but just to unlock particular Achievements (mostly relating to making it through levels without killing anyone).

I did play the two parts of Fallout 3 DLC I hadn't finished previously, The Pitt and Not of This World, last week, but I'm not sure how much my heart was in it. Especially The Pitt. I earned a meeting with the leader guy, and was, I suppose, meant to find some way to procure his special cure for the toxins that destroy everyone's lives there. But once he revealed he knew that was why I was there, I pulled out some motorized saw thing called a Man Opener and just killed him. Then his wife came at me with a gun, so I did the same to her. Then I stole their now-orphaned kid (who is also the source of the cure). It's a little atypical of me. I'm normally try to handle things more diplomatically, or at least consider that approach, but I was already unsure about the people I was working for (very pushy, very ungrateful considering that once again, I'm doing all the damn work), and just kind of wanted it to be over.

Not of This World went a little better, mostly because I had the stealthsuit this time, and I used that as much as possible to just avoid fighting anyone. Not so much because I objected to killing the aliens - they have no qualms about dissecting or experimenting on humans, so turnabout's fair play - but because they take so damn long to die. That was why I gave up the last time, and given the number of them I snuck past, I doubt I would have made it much further this time if I had to cut a path through them.

The strangest thing I noticed is it feels like certain things in the game have reset themselves. I can't find my buddy Fawkes anywhere. The sheriff of Megaton is back, even though I was pretty sure I accidentally got him killed when I told him about the guy who wanted me to detonate the nuke in middle of town. I couldn't find that sole survivor of Greyditch I was previously criticized for not helping out (again, because apparently saving him from painful death at the mandibles of giant, napalm spewing ants wasn't enough).

It reminds me a little of Fable 3, where certain people were dead or really hated me when the story concluded, but after awhile, they came back to life or got over it. It's disconcerting.

I have, with some reservations, started a new game. I'm already grimacing each time I run up against some Speech or Repair issue I can't manage because my skill scores are so low now, and I know I'm going to miss that stealthsuit, pretty much all the time. I did, however, manage to escape Vault101 without killing the Overseer, which I hadn't done previously. Which was nice. Not because I care about the old man (he was prepared to kill me just because my dad left the Vault), but I hated that doing so poisoned my character's friendship with Amata, his daughter. That's been averted, at least. Hearty handshakes and congratulations all around, then.

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