Category Archives: Games

My 1.3 Tactician build.

On the run.

Love my roadie jacket!

How do you like my airmaxes?

900+ hours. I’ve well and truly clocked the Division, and it’s looking like the game is dying, as I have less and less “friends” online to play with. It’s been real fun though, and like anything I choose to get into I think I’ve gotten good at it, but unlike other things I’ve been obsessive compulsive about; gaming is different in that there’s nothing to show for all I’ve put in.

Do what you love, sure, but I can’t help but feel a bit of guilt and general imbalance in playing games for 8+ hours a day. Maybe it’s because there’s less to share in comparison to other hobbies of mine (say for example making music or taking photos), or maybe it’s because it’s a bit further outside of the art realm?

Gaming is a beast. You grind, hard, and sure, some people have managed to make a living out of it (I’m amazed at the quality of the videos the gaming youtubers create, namely MarcoStyle and Skill Up), but it’s not for me (I’ve got to get back to the real world!).

PS: Can’t not mention the community workings around the game. Reddit, specifically The Division Reddit has been an integral part of enjoying the game. I’m a Reddit noob, but seeing the games developers utilise Reddit, youtubers, a community manager, and Twitch over Facebook, Instagram and everything else we do with Zen has been an eye opener.

Came in a sexy black box.

Box in a box! Lovely on Sennheiser to include a carry case!

Tight details. When you lift the mic up it mutes the mic, very nice!

I’ve been using a Gamecom Plantronics gaming headset recommended to me by the staff at EB Games, but people in The Division have been complaining about feedback since I started using them, and if the volume knob on the headphones isn’t up all the way sound comes out from the left side only, which leads me to think they’re rubbish, so since I’ve upgraded my controller I thought I’d upgrade my headset too, this time I went for a brand I know!

I’m still playing The Division (“zengarage” on Uplay), and I’m still using an Xbox controller on PC (even though I’m a die hard keyboard and mouse guy). The Xbox controller I had been using was on it’s way out (my player was stuck moving forward which made aiming hard and going through menus annoying too). I’ve stuck with the same, but upgraded to the Special Edition Lunar White Wireless Xbox One Controller. It looks nice, but more importantly it feels amazing! That tiny bit of texture on the back of the controller makes a world of difference.

Ved and I were just starting to ween off The Division. I’ve been lost in this game over the past few months (understatement!), but the developers have released an update for the end gamers, “Clear Sky” an Incursion (incursions are extra challenging missions designed for teams) and Ved and I decided to have an old school LAN Party (minus the stinky socks) to see if we could beat it.

Too right we beat Clear Sky first go, which had our team pretty damn chuffed!

I’ve been playing The Division for the past 3 weeks solid. At first on Playstation (zengarageau) where I grinded to level 30, and for the past 2 weeks on PC with Ved (as Enki_333). I’ve now surpassed my Playstation character on the PC, and amazingly I’m using an Xbox controller on the PC setup which Ved’s lent me. I’m a die-hard mouse and keyboard first person shooter guy, but it looks like I’ve managed to somehow move with the times! I surprise myself!

So the game, it’s not all I hoped it would be, but there are a couple of things about it that have really surprised me; one thing is proximity chat in the Dark Zone. Basically, when you’re close to someone, or a group of people, you an hear each other talk. Simple, but this blew my mind and now when I’m running past people I’m communicating with them, saying G’Day, or yelling sorry if I’ve accidentally shot them during a cross battle. What’s more amazing is having a stranger befriend you, kill enemies with you, loot with you then turn around and shoot you down to steal everything you’ve looted. It’s real and it’s vicious out there!

Add to this a quite complicated, adjustable and layered character building system in which no 2 characters in The Division universe are likely to ever be the exactly same and you have one pretty amazing game.

So yeah. I’ve dropped the ball on life, LOL! Sorry (but not sorry!) to all the people I need to catch up with and all the things I have to do. I’ll be back in the real world soon!