Am I having fun, or just being obsessive?

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you’re not quite sure if you keep working on something because you like it or because you feel compelled? That’s me and my recent return to Neverwinter on the PC. I spent a year away and now I find myself logging in a couple times a day to knock out a daily grind quest for one of the campaigns or check in on my crafting tasks. And I think I’m enjoying myself, but am I really?

Do all the things!

Summers are freaking crazy, aren’t they? It doesn’t help that I know enough people with July birthdays that we collectively have a full week of daily birthdays. But it’s a time to get out and do things and be social. Here in the Pacific Northwest, it’s all about complaining about eighty degree weather (you guys, it’s soooo hot out!) during our two weeks of sunny days. And that’s just been July so far.

City of Steam – first impressions of a browser MMORPG

Originally posted at Dorkadia.

There are most likely far more MMORPGs on the market today than I could possibly have even heard of. Some of them are good and some of them are bad while yet more are abysmally brain scarring. So what makes City of Steamworth turning my critical gaze upon? You don’t have to download a thing to play it. City of Steam is a 3D MMORPG that is played entirely in your web browser. That’s pretty remarkable in my experience (though please do leave a comment if you know of others), but is it a good game? That’s going to be pretty dependent on who’s playing, but I’ll give you a run down on my first impressions.

Murdering gods the old fashioned way; with 16-bit graphics

Last week Zeboyd released Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 on Steam. Being a working guy, I waited until the end of the week to pick it up with the bundled copies of Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World. I don’t think that I could actually be more pleased with a title, especially at this price point. If you’re unfamiliar with the previous games in this franchise, they’re definitely worth a play through. This 3rd installment is a complete departure mechanically and visually, but the incredible writing and witty banter of the characters remains completely intact and is a shining example of why writing is vastly more important than flashy graphics in the RPG genre.

Firstly, let’s hit on the differences between this offering and the previous two. The biggest of these is the absence of the player created character. Your garden implement wielding protagonist will be sorely missed, but is replaced by a couple new entries that are equally well written and provide pointed commentary peppered with poignant comedy. Mechanically, the active battle system (of which I was never the biggest fan) has been replaced