To add a bit more discussion to our weekends we’ve decided to start a new segment on the blog that will run every Saturday morning called Keen and Graev’s ‘Weekend of Gaming’. We’ll tell you what we’re playing or doing that’s gaming related. We hope that you’ll find it interesting, perhaps informative, and want to share what you’re playing with us.
Keen
This weekend is packed full of great games. My first priority is to finish up my StarCraft 2 Campaign. I’ve already begun to play some multiplayer matches and I can’t wait until I can start working on a solid win ratio to unlock some portraits. The campaign is full of replayability which only makes my desire to finish it stronger so that I can start again. There are parts in the campaign where you have to make choices about actions you take and these choices change how missions play. Great stuff.
I’ll also be playing Mount & Blade. This game has really taken me by surprise. I ended up playing for something like five hours yesterday. I love medieval combat (I’m one of those guys who would dress up like a Knight and go to renaissance fairs if I had the time) and being able to play out giant battles is something currently unavailable in any other game out there.
To round off a nice weekend of gaming I’ll be playing World of WarCraft. My Paladin is floating around 4900gs and I can get him a few easy upgrades. This week’s raid is Marrowgar, which is tough since that’s ICC. Our guild is going to try an ICC 10 alt run which should give me plenty of opportunity. If I can find any time at all to squeeze in a 25-ICC then I’ll take my druid for the badges and perhaps a few upgrades. Since the Lich King was slain by my guild there really isn’t this huge drive to get better gear. I just like having fun and enjoying the content.
Graev
I beat the campaign for StarCraft 2 already. I liked it a lot and decided to go back through and play again. I’m not playing on Hard Mode this time because I’m just going back through to get all the achievements. Once I get the achievements then I’ll move up.
I’ll also be playing some multiplayer as well.
Other than StarCraft 2 there’s Mount & Blade and Hydro Thunder Hurricane. Hydro Thunder is a game we mentioned in our Game Watch this month. It’s a kick back to the old Hydro Thunder arcade games and it’s really worth the value on XBLA.
This summer is turning out to be a great one. We’re already looking at a summer poised to be the first without a slump in three years and there’s still a few months of game releases ahead of us.  Tell us what you’re playing this weekend or planning to play this summer.
yeap. I’m doing SC2 campaign and LOTRO for the wekend. Got my SC2 yesterday. Fun stuffs. Are you going to create a forum for SC2?
I just did Wintergrasp for the first time in WOW. It is pretty cool. 🙂
@Maezer: I was thinking about it, but it would be under used given that we don’t have a map community for it (Yet?). I think we’ll just keep the StarCraft discussion in general board for now.
If anyone wants to friend me, my friend code is 555.
I’ve been playing League of Legends (just started recently). Very nice art style and seems pretty well-balanced with a wide variety in champion choice.
As a side note, I’m very impressed with the F2P model and hope it stays the same going forward.
Have you tried it?
Yeah, I played LoL some back in its beta. I thought it felt somewhat cheap in quality compared to HoN. I don’t doubt that it has changed since then, though.
I just finished the SC2 campaign on Thursday and have been too busy to start up a 2nd playthrough – but tonight I have time and will break it out – get some more achievements and try to finish all 29 missions in the campaign. I can very easily spend the entire night working on that, so I’m amped up and ready to go after having to stare at the box on my desk for the past 3 days.
En’taro Tassadar, Executor! : D
Can you really have the statements that you:
1. Played a video game for 5 hours yesterday
2. Would do something, but don’t have time
in the same paragraph?
Definitely. I prioritize things and the lower they are on my list the less time they have due to trickle down. If I have 10 hours to play then I’ll allot a certain game priority. When I’m done I’ll go down the list, etc.
In other words, I play what I want for however long I want. If I’m having fun then I won’t stop to play something else.
And although I may have played a game for 5 hours, there is still a limit on my time that I have to play games.
Getting close to finishing the campaign. I’m having trouble with the one where the this wall of fire is coming, and you have to move your whole base. For some reason I’m just not getting it.
Has anyone tried playing against the AI? Is it like playing a real player, or am I wasting time with it. This is my first RTS, so I’m pretty bad at it right now.
I find the AI to be tougher than real players. Real players make mistakes that I can exploit and computers always seem to have instincts that make it seem like they know exactly what you’re going to do. It’s harder to counter a computer with perfect response times.
@Chris: The computer’s strategies and skill levels were derived directly from the multiplayer beta. Blizzard looked at “medium” skill players, figured out their average APM (Actions per minute) and then capped the “medium” AI at that APM, and implemented some of the various strategies they witnessed on b.net. They did the same thing for all the various AIs. Unfortunately, I find the medium AI to be laughable. They don’t seem quite aggressive enough until the higher difficulties.
Regardless, playing against a medium or hard AI is a good way to bone up and practice strategies that you want to break out against real people.
Hard and up are where I start to struggle. Below that it’s like the computer just doesn’t do enough to win. Graev and I tried 2 hard computers and they rocked us.
Thanks for the advice on the AI, I appreciate it. I’ve been doing pretty good on medium, every now and then I’ll get caught off guard.
I went into my first real match in the practice league last night; I made the mistake of making thor’s and tanks, the other player had a huge army of marines and smaller stuff.
Needless to say I need more practice.
@Chris: Not a problem. If you’re playing Terran are you walling off right away? I tend to go 9 depot (at your ramp) 10 rax 13 refinery 15 orbital. But you should get your walloff up ASAP – if the enemy gets a scout unit in to your base you’re not walling off fast enough. That will go a long way to fending off early ground units, as you can defend against a small force with just a couple marines.