The Bread Basket: Super Bowl MVP Lando Calrissian & Dumb Aztecs
By breadfan 1 Comments
January, being something of a dead month for video gaming, hasn't seen a dramatic change in my game rotation. I'm in some sort of weird limbo about what game to delve into next. I've got an increasingly growing amount of backlogged Steam games to play. Which let's be honest, this is a chunk of games that will probably never get played. The urge I used to have to just sink a ton of time into one specific game is becoming a rare coinsurance for me lately. Maybe it's some form of video game ADD. Who knows. Anyway, here is what I've been spending the most time with since my last blog post.
Madden 13
Madden 13 is something of a surprising entry into my now playing lineup. I've never been too big on sports games. Sure, I'd dabble here and there, but I've always gotten worn out after a few weeks of playing. That hasn't been the case with Madden 13, to say the least. I blame my journey down the rabbit hole on my sports-nerd friends, who put together an online league for us to compete in. The ability to play connected careers online is actually a ton of fun. Especially since our league consists of entirely user drafted teams. Think fantasy football drafting, but with the ability to actually play your team. With a heaping dose of friendly shit talking.
Anyway, I'm not going to go too into my Madden experience. Aside from the fact that I am currently dead last in my league. I mean let's be honest, it's an iterative series with little changing from year to year. With that said. The thing that I've been having the most fun with has been the addition of EA's Game Face. I've been goofing around making various players or coaches using this feature. And behold.
Crusader Kings 2
Yep. I'm still playing Crusader Kings 2. My Irish play through concluded fairly horrifically and I started up a new game playing as Scotland. Which began pretty boring at first, being in the same general location on the map, but this game has been going way better. Not only was I able to take control of the Kingdom of Scotland, but I eventually took over all of Ireland, and I am currently working on putting the nail in England's coffin. Thanks mostly in part to Norway and France weakening England for me to slowly make headway into an all out land grab.
Though my new empire may be neighboring my old Irish kingdom, this play through has been completely different. And with that an amazing realization hit me that both excites me and frightens me; there is an incredible amount of replay value in Crusader Kings 2, but I'm afraid of how much time I will end up sinking into this game over the coming months. At least until Europa Universalis 4 is released. During this go around I've had at least two, maybe three, leaders die from completely random in game events. One dude fell from a broken banister railing and another died in an inn explosion. Goddamn, I love this game.
I ended up buying the Sunset Invasion downloadable content pack and I was pretty disappointed. For those that don't know what this content adds, it randomly engages an all out Aztec invasion of Europe. That sounded like an awesome concept to me, but the execution is fairly lackluster. You are randomly prompted that a fleet of Aztec ships are making their way to the Old World. However, when the Aztec fleet finally arrives you are merely met with a massive invasion force. It more or less just creates an endgame where the Aztecs pillage their way across Europe and destroy everything in their path. I quickly reloaded an old save after coming to this realization and don't see myself ever playing with it enabled.
I do have the Game of Thrones mod installed, but I've been experiencing some crashing. I am looking forward to checking that out once I run my Scottish empire into the ground. I cannot recommend this game enough to fans of strategy games. The learning curve is pretty deep, but once you take the plunge it will have been well worth it. I'll probably take a break from championing this game, as it is probably making me seem like a crazy person.