Two Games I'm Excited For

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May has been an interesting month so far, because I'm usually aware of all the games I want to get well before they come out. But in these last 14 days, I've been surprised by not one, but two games that look really cool that I was completely unaware of until just a few days ago. They are...

PORTAL KNIGHTS

I've been saying for a while that I want a game with Minecraft's level of customization and randomization, but a more structured quest. I want to be dropped in a world that is big enough to explore, but small enough to keep me on task. I want to be given concrete objectives to work toward, with a real sense of progression, rather than Minecraft's goal of "just exist." I want to be forced to use the digging and building mechanics to survive (building bases, defenses, etc) but not forced to stay in one area for too long. Portal Knights has all that, plus things like random events and boss battles. Also, the combat is way better than Minecraft's.


and, Player Unknown: Battlefields

Basically, it's The Hunger Games meets Battlefield. 100 players are all dropped onto a roughly 5x5 mile island. You can choose when and where to jump out of the plane and parachute to the ground. You're completely unarmed, so you have to start looting buildings for guns and armor, and also vehicles to get across the island faster. Another plane will fly over and carpet bomb random places on the map. After a few minutes a weird forcefield thing will begin to converge on the island, effectively shrinking the battlefield (if you're caught in the field, it slowly kills you). This continues until only a small portion of the island is accessible, thereby forcing all the remaining players together for a final showdown. The last man standing wins. I like it because, from the few videos I've seen, there's a ton of suspense because an enemy player could be literally anywhere. You might go for half the match without seeing anyone, but you'll still jump at every sound and peek around any corner just in case.

So what you do guys think? Got any thoughts on these games?

Portal Knights looks decent enough, though I hear it's kinda easy (tends to go along with games of this type that are in full 3D), and a bit too simple overall. Granted, it's not finished yet, but something tells me it's still going to be that way later on. At least in Minecraft, you can simply give the game better combat and structured goals (though it DOES already have some... the dragon, the water temples, and a couple of other endgame things) via giant modpacks really easily, and you'll have boatloads of content. This one sounds like it's kinda low on that, which isnt too surprising.

Though at the same time, it also kinda makes me think that I could just play Terraria, which offers all of that stuff. Fun combat, structured progression (end goal being to defeat the Moon Lord, and it's a complicated task to get to him, involving many bosses and dungeon-ish areas), and a HUGE focus on exploration, with a squillion items and enemy types.

Still, I might try this one for the heck of it, seems it might still be fun, though the low difficulty might kill my interest after a time. If I do that I'll probably wait until next week though.



The other game, no interest in that.

That sounds more like Battle Royale than The Hunger Games. Very awesome movie, if you haven't seen it yet.

Instead of carpet bombings, IIRC, they would pick random zones, and if you just happened to be in the wrong one, the metal collar around your neck would explode =)

All right, so I picked up Portal Knights on release day, and... it's boring. So much potential, and it's freaking boring. It tries to be Minecraft but with a more structured quest, which is something I've been wanting for a very long time, but it failed to keep my interest for more than a couple of hours. The combat is better than Minecraft's, but that's not saying much. Basically, you just swing your sword around like a maniac, but at least its more action-y than Minecraft. The mining is slow and tedious, and the worlds are too small for them to hide anything worthwhile beneath the surface anyway. Building is clumsy because the controls are a lot slipperier than Minecraft's meaning that it's way too easy for the aiming reticule to go somewhere you don't want, and put a block there by accident. It doesn't even have Minecraft's atmosphere. When I play Minecraft, it literally feels like I've been dropped into a new mysterious world. Portal Knights feels like a string of video game levels, and that didn't entice me to want to explore or anything. If it hadn't cost less than half what most new releases do, I would be pretty pissed off. Instead, I just plan on trading it for something worthwhile ASAP.