PixlBit

Dear readers, this is what I played today.

Tales of Berseria:

     Underwelming. Thought the graphics would be better. Reminded me, in graphics, gameplay and mechanics of a PS2 JRPG. Old manual saves. You never even see the save file in games anymore. I felt like I was going back in time. Fine anime cut-scenes. Couldn't take the melodrama, though. I'm too stressed right now. The battle system is active but I like turn-based a little better. There's lots of moves you can make; but mostly, I just tried to mash buttons and then block - hard to block, though, when you're mashing buttons; however, there is some system. You can arrange combos in just such a way, if you want, and then try and execute them. I didn't do that quite so much, but I only played about three hours. Just as I was about to leave the prison level, I died and then decided I'd had enough. The game is very feminine at the beginning. I mean, of course, the main character is female and the game deals with her interests. I felt a little strange playing the first part as a male, but then you get badass demon abilities and start fighting, and I felt at home again. Like my friend said about anime: the women are always crying and having tea, and the men are always powering up for a fight. I guess that's the way it goes - darn hormones. 

Zoo Tycoon:

Some campaign levels are difficult. Had to play one many times over before I got it right. There's a time limit and you have multiple objectives. The one I worked on today was about buying endangered baby animals and taking pictures of multiple species of an animal type, like: three different lions, tigers and bears. The problem I had was getting enough money because those babies are expensive. I looked for the cheapest ones but most were over 10K. So after a few tries, I had to focus on building my Zoo first to get the money and then work the baby buying and species photos. Eventually I won, but it tired me out. I hate time limits. They make me nervous. 

Borderlands 2:

My level 36 Commando jumped in with Mark's level 50 Gunzerker. I could do absolutely nothing but die. With level 50 to 52 enemies, I couldn't do hardly any damage and my shields just dropped at the slightest stray bullet. Well, I hunted for stuff instead and found some vault symbols and a bunch of chests. Of course, all the gear was level 50, and I couldn't use any of it. I saved the best stuff to use later. Then I raised a level fairly quickly on the power of Mark's killing. It's called power leveling. And that was the day. 

Postscript:

You know, about business sims, since it was the game Hamurabi from '68 (my year of obsession for February) that led me to Zoo Tycoon: I hate the economics of these games. It all comes down to number systems. All I wanted to do was design the zoo and take care of the animals, and I'm inevitably steered to being made the business director. Oh no! Not me. I'd rather be one of the zoo's janitors than manage the business stuff. 

May the BaD be with you.