This past week I actually played a nice smattering of games, but one stands out as a big ol’ surprise I didn’t see coming.
More on that in a moment.
I’ve been playing a crap ton of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and trying to collect as many butterflies as possible during a limited-time event. I’ve never felt like Pocket Camp has pushed microtransactions on me, and never felt like the wait times were unfair.
Until this event.
For the event, you had to grow special dahlias, butterflies would come only to new dahlias, and you had to catch them to complete “quests.”
The catch rate was abysmal.
You could ask Lloid to catch them for you (in exchange for leaf tickets), and this is where I started to feel wary.
At any given time, you can have up to 20 flowers growing in your garden. I can recall one time I had 17 butterflies available to me to catch, and out of those 17, I caught 5. The rest I somehow failed to catch (you could set it to catch them all at once). Those numbers stayed about the same no matter when I tried to catch them. My catch rate was far below half, but I refused to spend leaf tickets just to have Lloid catch them for me. I know I missed out on limited-time items, but I wasn’t going to spend real world money to obtain them.
It’s the first unpleasantness I’ve experienced in Pocket Camp, so I’m more than willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to a learning experience for both developer and player. We’ll see how the next event goes.
I played a little Fortnite: Battle Royale this weekend and it was nerve wracking and not terribly fruitful. I’m still not familiar enough with the interface to even begin to play as well as I’d like. I’m actually considering getting the base game just to familiarize myself with the menus and building mechanics.
I also took part in the Monster Hunter World beta, and found myself not enjoying it at all. I felt the movement was clunky, the minimap confusing, and the interface a bit overwhelming. Those are to say nothing of the almost hilariously bad matchmaking system. Instead of any sort of normal matchmaking (click on player, invite, done!), you had to enter an alphanumeric code on a particular screen consisting of both upper and lowercase letters and numbers. It was almost laughable. Not to mention, you got to choose a Palico, but if you play with others, you don’t get to see your adorable kitty friend.
The game just wasn’t for me. I thought it looked beautiful, but I had zero fun while playing it, and that tells me to take a pass on this one.
So, after all my (and my regular Destiny crew’s) frustrations with Destiny 2, I’ve ceased playing it until Bungie can make some sweeping changes for the better. My friends had apparently made the same pact with themselves, and we all assembled in a party chat to discuss it while playing other games.
We found out one of our regular team members had started in on The Division, and immediately it made me wonder about all the changes and updates I’d heard The Division received since launch. My friend Degan and I played that game hot and heavy for a solid week when it released (I checked my playtime and we apparently put in almost 90 hours during that week or so), then became so frustrated with certain aspects that we both traded it in. When we heard our friend Skiffles had picked it up, we both considered going back.
I went to GameStop on Saturday and picked up a used copy for under $15. I downloaded the nearly 23GB update patch (!!!), and, yesterday, Degan and I hopped on to the Division for the first time since that launch week.
And it was great. Seriously, it was so much fun all over again.
At one point Degan said, and I’m going to have to paraphrase here: “If you’d told me right before Destiny 2’s launch that I’d be playing The Division again now instead of Destiny, I’d have thought you were crazy.”
Indeed. Yet here we are.
As usual with games like this, I felt completely overwhelmed at the systems, tasks, and interface when jumping back in. I wandered around my base for a while and tried to remember what I did and what I was even supposed to do or why.
Oh, that glorious confusion.
This week I’d like to (for real) continue Dead Rising 4. I’ve been side tracked several times now, but I really would like to get into it more. I’d also like to finally wrap up What Remains of Edith Finch, preferably without barfing. And I have a feeling there will be a lot more of The Division in my near future. I’d consider buying the season pass, but it’s still $40 and I’d rather wait until a price drop, though the game is nearly two years old; I’m surprised it hasn’t dropped already.
What will you be playing this week?
Categories: games
Rebekah Lang 
I had the exact same reaction to Monster Hunter World. I played for about an hour, and just didn’t enjoy anything about it. Hopefully the people that are excited for it are happier with it than I am.
Do the prices of DLC/season passes ever drop? Look at Mass Effect – games have been out for 6+ years, and it still costs you $80 for all the DLC.
I don’t know what I’ll be playing this week… I haven’t touched a game since I finished Assassin’s Creed Origins – been too busy watching Replay episodes in my spare time. Maybe this week will change that. I’ve got a couple of big names loaded and ready to go.
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I actually wondered if Souls fans (like yourself) would enjoy it due to the combat and mechanics. But I also hope the fans out there enjoy it.
I’m starting to wonder! It seems like if the game is heavily discounted, the DLC would follow suit. Apparently not.
I hope you enjoy whatever you decide to play.
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From what I’ve seen DLC and season passes can sometimes be at a discount during year end/holiday sales or during publisher specific sales. I got the season passes for the Dead Rising 3 & 4 not too long ago around the end of the year during a sale.
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I’m hoping that happens sooner than later or I’m just going to cave and buy it anyway. But I agree, I’ve seen them on sale on the publisher sales and various PSN sales.
Nice! It’s always nice to get something you wanted anyway at a discount.
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Hey Rebekah! Don’t you hate when betas don’t turn out like you want them to? That’s why I don’t base my final decision on a beta. I did that once before & got burned. Also, I saw the sequel to the Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies this past weekend. I’ll probably be playing either more COD’ MP, TT’ Batman; I’ll get into Deus Ex: Mankind Divided; bought it during the PS Plus sale for January. Have you played it; any early commentary?
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I have had a weird relationship with betas, honestly. I feel like they should be an indicative slice of what can be expected of the finished game, yet so often they don’t seem to be.
How about you?
What did you think of Love Never Dies?
I played a couple hours of Deus Ex when it first released and I just didn’t jive with it. Hopefully I was in the minority.
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I agree completely with you on betas; they are either “hit or miss”. For me, they have been a huge miss. Period!
Love Never Dies; it was different in a good way. It stayed away from the story of Phantom of the Opera; in that, it told the “what next?”. Also, the musical score paid homage to the original. ALW intertwined fan favorites from the first into the second. If you listened closely, you can hear notes, harmonies, etc. from the first. The orchestra was phenomenal. The leading actors who played the Phantom & Christine Daae were awesome. They really brought the characters to life.
When I get into Deus Ex; I’ll be sure to give my thoughts.
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Isn’t that interesting? For me, largely, they’ve been misses, too. In fact, I wrote my piece today because of your question!
I’ve actually heard the score for LND years ago, but I remember very little of it. Where did you see it? That’s exciting.
I hope you enjoy Deus Ex. That intro is just super tutorial heavy and if you don’t like stealth, you probably aren’t going to have a great time. :/
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I’m still playing Doki Doki Literature Club and I also started Little Nightmares. Doki Doki is…creepy in multiple ways. Little Nightmares is an interesting game with a Limbo/Inside feel to it which I’m enjoying as well.
I’m sorry to hear that Monster Hunter World wasn’t very good. I was looking forward to it, but I haven’t tried any of the betas and I was kind of hoping that the co-op and gameplay was smoothed out with it being on console. It feels like one of those games that is best with a group but those weird hurdles make me not want it as much. I’m excited for Dragon Ball FighterZ though and I’m looking forward to picking that up later this week.
I’ve noticed that Ubisoft has had a recent track record of really supporting their games that seems to go largely unnoticed. Rainbow Six Siege launched pretty rough too and they spent the time and effort improving it as well and it’s now one of the bigger multiplayer games in terms of concurrent users and popularity. It’s nice to hear that’s carrying over in their other games as well. Enjoy your gaming wherever it leads!
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I really want to play that, too! Is it processing intensive? Or do you think my non-gaming laptop could run it?
Also, I’m excited to start Little Nightmares. I can definitely feel the same oppressive vibe from it as Inside.
I really wish I’d liked the beta for Monster Hunter World. There were just too many things I don’t jive with for me to ignore. I do hope people enjoy it, though.
I think Dragon Ball FighterZ looks like it could be so good! I’m not super into fighting games but I hope this one does well.
I do like that about Ubisoft. I mean, sure, they release games in the first place that aren’t quite…finished or smoothed out, but they do seem committed to fixing them. I think about AC: Unity or, like you mentioned, Siege, and then The Division, and it makes me glad Ubisoft doesn’t just leave a mess. I like that they see things through, even when they weren’t as everyone expected.
Thank you! I hope that for you, too!
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Doki Doki isn’t very graphically intense. It’s primarily a visual novel so I’m pretty sure a lower end PC can run it. I’m playing it on my laptop which is about 5 years old. One bit of warning: take their caution message seriously.
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That’s good to hear! I have hope!
Interesting. Okay. I will take them seriously.
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Not sure when I’ll get into DEM (Deus Ex). I’m really not sure now that I know it’s a stealth based game; can you change the settings? Thanks for the heads up on the stealth.
I saw LND here at the Playhouse; it’s a performing arts center in Cleveland.
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Quick update: I played a few minutes into DEM; not my cup of tea. The layout is too confusing, imho! I’ll pass on it.
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Aww, I’m sorry it didn’t click with you, either. :( It just felt like it was too much information too quickly to parse it properly and get the hang of the stealth. Then again, stealth is not my strong suit. :)
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