I'm not one for "New Year's resolutions", but I am one for overly ambitious projects.
For 2023, Project365 is "One New Game Per Day".
Given that I have 634 unplayed games in my Steam account and {mumble} unredeemed bundle Steam keys, there's a reason my unplayed collection is tagged "Pile of Shame".
I'll pin this to my profile, and give a brief summary here each day (or x, if I miss x days due to work or stuff).
I'll play 15-30 minutes of (at least) one new game I've never played before (or played less than 15 minutes of). I'll give every game at least 15 minutes, even if I hate every minute of it.
I'm also open to suggestions; if you reply to this thread with a game, I'll schedule it, or tell you what I thought of it.
One of the things that's come up is that I have a bunch of games that I've played once, and not touched again.
October 14, 2023 - Day 286 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 306
Game: Blade & Soul
Platform: NCSoft Launcher
Release Date: Jan 19, 2016
Installation Date: Mar 17, 2022
Unplayed: 576d (1y6m27d)
Playtime: 15m
Blade & Soul is a third-person martial-arts oriented MMORPG.
Originally released in 2012 in Korea, an English edition was released in 2016.
Because I'd opened the NCSoft launcher a couple of days ago for the Lineage II review, I thought I'd knock this one off as well.
It looks OK, but it's an MMORPG, which means that graphics and gameplay are pretty much just a starting point.
Graphically, it's built in Unreal Engine 4, but it doesn't have that "Fortnite" vibe that so many recent UE4 games seem to have. Gameplay seems OK.
However, to justify whether or not to start a new MMORPG becomes about more than "how does it look & play", but:
does it have a sizeable enough playerbase that you'll be able to play through zones with other people?
is it P2W (ie. "Pay To Win" - or spending more money on the game means you can buy your way into in-game Godhood over lower-levelled players, and gank them mercilessly)
how many other MMORPGs are you also playing?
And:
no
yes
umm, too many.
Ultimately, it doesn't offer me something different that I can't find in one of the other half-dozen MMOs that I've already started playing and lost interest in.
On top of that, I played World of Warcraft for over a decade, and burned out on both WoW and MMPRPGs.
I realised a few weeks ago that what I really missed from my WoW days wasn't the gameplay so much as the shared experience of running end-level content raids with friends, all meeting up on one night, and fighting our way through a dungeon together (specifically, Molten Core, Karazhan, Naxxramas, and Icecrown Citadel all hold dear places in my memory.
Starting a new MMO where I don't know anyone, and the only people I could raid with would be PUGs and randoms? Just not for me.