Weekly Roundup 01/22/2012

It’s been more Dark Souls and The Old Republic this week, which are the two games I’ve been playing for a while now. I did also wrap up the game of Civilization V that I started last weekend, however. I was testing out the recently added Sejong of Korea, and I have to say, I put him right up there with Gandhi as one of my two favorite leaders to use. I generally like going for a lot of science, and the bonuses Sejong gets to science are immensely powerful. Also, as with Gandhi, I’m rewarded for getting a lot specialists in my cities (which I like a lot), though in a slightly different way. It’s basically happiness vs science, and while unhappiness is an annoyance Gandhi lets me avoid in order to focus on whatever I want (like science), I’m pretty sure playing with Sejong ultimately led to me launching the spaceship faster than ever. You can power through the tech tree if you play your cards right, which is pretty awesome.

So long Dark Souls, you've been great.

So Civilization V continues to be hella fun, though it’s also a game that I pick up and play only every now and then. Who knows when I’ll play it next; could be days, weeks or months from now. Otherwise, the biggest result of the week is that I finished my second playthrough of Dark Souls. I’ve always considered one of the truest marks of a great game to be how fun it is to play through a second time. This is often the best, most direct way to determine just how much of a game’s original appeal is due to flash, and how much is due to substance. While there’s nothing wrong with playing and enjoying a game that’s flashy and entertaining, there’s something to be said for games that have some real genuine substance to to them. That is, if the core gameplay itself is strong enough to warrant revisiting without having to rely on graphics or story (stuff that, while great, can wear thin after you’ve seen it once), then you have something pretty special.

Dark Souls, for me, is such a game. A lot of it comes down to personal taste, but I’m honestly impressed by just how much fun I had during my second playthrough of this game. In some ways I even enjoyed it as much as my first playthrough, which is telling. While there weren’t as many surprises to be found the second time around, there was a greater understanding of how the game works, which opens up a lot of room for experimentation. I couldn’t be more pleased with how well my second character turned out; I tanked my way through the game’s toughest encounters in exciting fashion. The last few boss fights were especially crazy, and I made liberal use of the Iron Flesh spell to tank them even harder. All in all, it was a blast, and I feel more confident than ever that Dark Souls was one of the best games I played from 2011.

Get angry!

The only other thing I played in the past week was a little more of The Old Republic. Specifically, some friends and I started some Imperial characters a little over a week ago, the idea being that we only play these alternate characters together. I’m the tank of the group, currently a level 12 Sith Juggernaut. We did the first flashpoint over the weekend, and some of the story stuff ends up being pretty hilarious when you’re in a group. I’m playing my character to be as evil as possible, which means I grab Dark Side points whenever I see them and generally try to kill everything that moves. There was one great moment where both my friends wanted to take this guy captive, and I wanted to kill him. I won the roll, and the dude died by my hands. Then when we returned to our boss he made a comment about how it was “a pity” that we couldn’t have brought our target back alive. We all burst out laughing. That’s the kind of stuff that can set TOR apart from other MMOs that I’ve played. I’ll write more about TOR and the way its story manifests itself next week, as I’ll likely be playing mostly that for the next little bit. That’s all for now though, until next time!

Currently playing: Star Wars: The Old Republic