Welcome back to Beyond Reading!! Today I have Brooke Banks from the blog, The Broke Book Bank.
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Nonbookish Habits Guest Post: Where I Rave About Fav Video Games
When first asked about guest posts about non-bookish habits, I honestly didn’t think of gaming as one. Not only is almost everyone a gamer these days, whether it’s console, PC, apps, or browser, but there’s no doubt books reign supreme for me.
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My tastes in games come from my love of stories, which all began with books as a child. My favorite games growing up were Sega’s Lion King and Jungle Book. On the computer, it was Majesty all day every day. I still have all of Paradox’s Majesty related games on Steam. I’ve lost days to them.
I love books for how I can become absorbed and become part of the story. The games I play have all that in common.
Skyrim: Needs no introduction. I basically stole my roommates PS3 I played it so much. Good thing he was cool with it. I read all the books. I collected them. Abandoning books because I was overloaded made me feel so wrong. I HATED when my books didn’t line up or look right. I loved the main story and all the side quests. I became a hero and at the end of the day went home to a kickass library I can only dream of. Plus, of course, DRAGONS!! And Shadowmere! **wistful sigh** I may need to break this out again…
Torchlight 1 & 2: Another one I lost days to playing. If you want an Action RPG, you can’t go wrong with this series.
Guild Wars 2 & Final Fantasy: A Realm Reborn: My latest and greatest MMORPG loves. The only reason I stopped playing A Realm Reborn is because of the monthly subscription. I’d go back in a heartbeat if i could but…Guild Wars 2 doesn’t have that problem and my friends play it. So torn. MMORPGs are big different because while I still demand a good story, I get way involved with crafting, hobbies, and PVPing. It’s so fun to become un-sober and slaughter some fools with friends. 😀
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Alice: Madness Returns: Gory, creepy, violent fantastic adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. The ending? OMFG. Plus, there’s replay value. Not only for badges/trophies, but I loved seeing stuff I missed the first time. That’s something I’ve never been able to do with books (I get bored re-reading.)
Never Alone is amazing. It does everything right. My only problem is sucking at platformers.
Never Alone is an atmospheric puzzle platformer developed in collaboration with the Iñupiat, an Alaska Native people, drawn from a traditional story that has been shared across the generations.
You’ll explore awe-inspiring environments, perform heroic deeds and meet legendary characters from Iñupiaq stories — all narrated by a master storyteller in the spoken Iñupiaq language.
Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! Awesome app game I first found in a Humble Bundle. I’ve never had the opportunity to play a tabletop RPG and the barrier for entry is impassable for me now, but Sorcery! brings all the staples with a fantasy story in a single player campaign. I’ve drained my phone playing this and will tons of replay value. Bonus: no mess or set up, which is huge when you’ve got a kid and four cats to destroy everything.
Desktop Dungeons has much of the same going but my lord, is it hard! Or maybe I just suck. But I love building my town and killing monsters…even if I don’t always clear the dungeon.
Gems of War is another app, but this a collectible puzzle battler. I’ve been playing for over a year, never had to buy gems to get my cards or level them up, and I’m level 230. I can go on slaughtering sprees and am pretty awesome at PVP if I don’t say so myself.
There’s also Adventure Time’s Puzzle Quest and The 8th Gate as similar app games I play occasionally.
I’m also a huge fan of the very fun murder mystery puzzle games, Blue Toad Murder Files. I have The Enigma Express hidden objects app and played the episodic game on PS3 and PC.
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Hidden Object Games: I love these. They’re ultimately simple with great puzzles and stories. It’s not a time sink and an easy way to relax. My favorites are the Drawn series, Grim Legends, Grim Tales, Midnight Mysteries, Dark Tales, Fright…you get the idea.
The few times I’ve played first person shooters (FPS) it’s will friends while drinking. And I’m terrible at it. It’s hilarious. At least until they’re tired of carrying me, then it’s time to call it a night.
Books do take up a lot of time and reviewing more so. When I’ve played more time intensive games like WOW or Guild Wars 2, that’s all I did. Ultimately, I burnt myself out. My depression/manic depression means I roll in waves. There are times I do nothing but one thing. Like for months I’ll eat the same food. Then all of a sudden, I don’t want it. It’ll be months/years later before I pick it up again.
Before I’d say “except for books” but really, it’s stories I’m always after. It’s nice to know there’s at least one constant.
I always play the LEGO video games with my nephews on PS4 – current obsession being Star Wars: The Force Awakens!
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These are new to me, I play mario and a lot of dungeon crawlers with my hubby
I'm more of a Call Of Duty girl myself, I used to love being a gaming chick that could hold her own with predominantly male players but it became too much after a while. The comments, crude taunting, threats, most online male dominated games are a gathering for misogynists it seems. Nowadays I prefer the puzzle type games but that gory Alice has me intrigued. Thanks for sharing ladies, really enjoying these guest posts.Lauren <3
Thanks for featuring me Lauren!
Thanks everyone, I'm glad you enjoyed it! <3
Diva Booknerd,
If you play Alice, let me know how it goes. 😀
Hah! Hi Brooke! My husband just seconded this entire list. Now I tend to be a SIMS girl, because I might be just a bit of a control freak….anyways, great list!
These games are new to me- but I have always loved video games. I don't always have the latest ones though. Mine are old- but I love them. One of my favorites is Xena- but it is because of the story element too. 🙂 Great post!
~Jess
I didn't even KNOW Skyrim came from books!!! My hubs played that forever!! My son LOVES the hidden object games but they seem to only be scary ones out there, esp. on Big Fish Games' website. My fave was Malgrave Manor b/c they made it for the Wii 🙂
Me? I have no coordination what-so-ever so I play MarioKart and Super Smash Bros with my son as much as I can. As a family, we all play Yo Kai Wibble Wibble b/c it's just dumb fun to compare our progress 🙂 Plus, we love the whole Yo Kai world!! We're such suckers for anything Nintendo and related!!!
I'm totally in awe that you can game all the games you do!! Can have some of your talent? 😉 Great guest post!!
I'm a horrible gamer, but I like playing the LEGO games 🙂
I've got some real talent in Tetris. That's as far as my gaming chops go. That's probably not gaming. lol.
I am not a gamer, but do like the ones with storylines my kids play and I like to read and watch them play 🙂