It’s the Freakin’ Weekend! What are You Playing?

Today marks the beginning of my final weekend before the Fall semester starts on Monday. With that in mind, I plan on diving in to a few things to make the most of my free time before it becomes non-existent.

No Man’s Sky released this week, as I’m sure you know. I picked it up, played for about two hours, and was immediately turned off by its limited inventory and resource management survival game mechanics. I could have read more in to it, but I was really hoping it would be more exploratory from the jump and require far less busywork to do much of anything.

I land on a planet, I harvest materials, my inventory becomes full within minutes, I send overstock materials to my ship so I can continue to explore and farm materials, and sometimes I get attacked by procedurally generated space creatures or floating robot cops hellbent on conservation. Should I survive, I head to a vendor to unload materials and repeat the process while trying to upgrade my ship to venture further in the star system… to do this again.

I liked naming things after bad cat puns, and even immortalized something by naming it after my dad who passed away in May. Flying through space and seeing planets was cool, along with finding strange machines that would teach me words from an alien race within the galaxy. These are the things I want to do with my time. Not fiddle around with limited inventory space and harvest materials to recharge my mining laser or life support system.

It’s weird that the “game” portions are what’s getting in the way of my enjoyment. It’s not that I think it’s a bad game, it’s just not for me.

I’m still finishing up the JRPG Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force, since I’m determined to get this review up before school starts. I also received a review key for Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate for PlayStation Vita, so that’s what I’ll be jumping in to afterwards.

My to-go game lately has been Ultratron on Vita, which is a twin-stick shmup inspired by Robotron, but with a fun reward system that lets you collect money from fallen enemies and spend them on upgrades (bombs, drones, shields, etc.). It’s junk food that’s consumed in moderation and a welcome addition to my Vita’s overpriced memory card.

I’ve gotten back in to World of Warcraft a bit recently, which just opened up the ability to play its new Demon Hunter class for those of us who’ve pre-purchased the upcoming Legion expansion. It was a fun two-hour quest chain that slowly opened up new abilities for a class that begins their adventure at level 98 (the current level cap is 100).

So far I’m digging the double jump + glide combo, and their eye laser is one of the most satisfying area-of-effect spells in the game. It’s not a class I see myself playing extensively, since I’ve had 12 years to fall in love with most of the others, but I’m definitely more intrigued than I was with Mists of Pandaria’s Monk class.

I typically play a Demonology Warlock, a Moonkin, and a Shadow Priest in WoW, but I’m having a lot of fun with my Fury Warrior and Fire Mage as well, so it’s still up in the air as to what class I’ll be leveling first, or maining, come Legion.

What about you folks? What are you getting in to this weekend?