Playing to Explore

By -

I never really wrote about my time in Skyrim.  I played for about 60 hours, got bored, and moved on.  The most fun I had while playing came from the exploration.  The quests, battles, loot, character advancement, graphics, and everything else came together in an interesting package... but the exploration is what kept me coming back.  Sometimes I find that to be the most interesting part of single player RPGs and MMOs.

When a game can capture my sense of curiosity and make me wonder what I'll find around the next corner I'll come back and keep playing.  Now, I know that every game has limited content and that eventually, as a player, I'll be able to see everything.  But it's the sense of entering the unknown that truly matters.  That feeling in my gut that says, "Better be careful, who knows what's next?"

Usually games that capture my explorer side are few and far between, but I'm always on the look out.  Any suggestions?

Comments

  1. TeshApril 24, 2012 at 2:05 PM

    There's the obvious recommendation of Minecraft, which is still my current favorite Exploration game. Beyond that, Evochron Mercenary is sitting in my "to play" list, looking tempting. It looks like the sort of Elite/Privateer/Freelancer/X3 game that I'd like, with the ability to fly down and explore planetary surfaces in addition to the space stuff. I'm sure my hopes outstrip the reality, but I'm willing to explore it for a while and see.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Latest Board Gaming

By -
Image
Besides video games I also regularly play board games when I'm hanging out with people face to face.  My brother, my wife, and I end up playing a lot of 3 player board games, but sometimes we get other players involved too. I realized I haven't talked much about what I've been playing in the world of board games, so here goes: Ticket to Ride - We own 3 different base versions of Ticket to Ride, 2 expansion sets, and an extra map set.  We love this game.  This is the game that gets the most overall table time when I'm playing board games with friends.  It's super accessible but still holds fun for people who have been playing the game for a long time.  I recommend this as a great beginner board game for anyone. Masquerade - A hidden role game where roles are constantly switching hands.  You're limited in actions on your turn and can only take one action.  This means that a lot of the time you're not entirely sure what role you currently have.
Read more

S2E22 - E3 2017 - “Who doesn’t want to be a dinosaur?!”

By -
E3 Hype! E3 2017. Not comprehensive. Not VGNN.  Only talking about things we think are interesting enough to talk about.  You have video game news sites for the rest :) We’re talking about Press Conferences, if more news comes out throughout the rest of the week it won’t be here because we’re recording on Tuesday night! http://e3recap.com/ has been my friend Overall trends Esports being forced onto games that aren’t even out yet “Influencers” being put front and center BJ: torn on the current “influencer” boom. Feels like a bubble that’s totally disingenuous Shorter press conferences with less big game announcements Really hard to tell what is actually exclusive Microsoft “Console Launch Exclusive” Most of these press conferences would have been better pre-recorded as just a series of trailers instead of having a stage show, honestly. Updates on games we already knew existed.  This is what we get for so many years of announcing games way ahead
Read more

Games of the Year 2022: In Conclusion

By -
This running Games of the Year list has been an interesting experiment.  I decided to start this series right as we were shutting down the Geek to Geek podcast as a way to keep creatively broadcasting some gaming thoughts out into the world.  I learned a few things from sticking with it this year. The main thing I learned is... I just don't have as much desire to broadcast my thoughts out in public as I used to when I started this blog or when I started podcasting.  I still love to have in-depth discussions about current games and general geekery, but I feel less and less need to broadcast those thoughts widely.  Honestly, it's been over a decade of blogging and podcasting at this point.  It would be more surprising if my relationship with the media landscape hadn't  changed. Around mid-year I started trying to use Twitter as more of a microblogging platform to do very short quick-hit thoughts about games but didn't get much traction or conversation going which was wha
Read more