Howdy there, my Casual readers. So this has been a long time coming; I realized I forgot to make a gallery post last month. Really, it wasn’t that I forgot, it’s that I had no idea what the fuck I was going to publish. Nothing had really caught my eye and I just felt the days getting shorter and shorter as work grew more and more wearisome.
It felt like all I could do was playing video games and commiserate on the irregularity of life with my friend Davos. Our game of choice during the past few months was Anno 1800.
If you don’t know what Anno is, it’s a series of city-builder and resource management games with limited real time strategy elements published by Ubisoft. Okay that’s a lot jargon: think of game where you build a town, provide resources to the citizens through production and trade routes, upgrade them through social classes, and then tack on naval combat to take control over rival territory.
My favorite element is the city-building, but it’s the logistics of resource management that adds the flavor and makes it less straightforward. Also, most city-builders revolve around traffic management and I hate traffic management. The most Anno 1800 ever has to say about traffic involves the efficiency of warehouses loading carts. Pro-tip: just build another warehouse.
That’s basically three games in one. But the point of this post is not a review. The point of this post is this:
Look how beautiful this game is. It’s incredible, stunning, astonishing. You name it, there’s a superlative for it.
After playing the latest edition of the Anno series for over 200 hours and this particular multiplayer campaign for over 60 hours, I can finally take a moment to just enjoy the sights and sounds of the game. One of the best features is the day cycle, which allows for either a rolling timescale or for players to just set the lighting to a dawn, day, dusk or night ambiance.
They also recently just released a new piece of DLC; the “End of an Era” cosmetic pack full of night lights and other ornaments to give the cities more visual pop in the evening. The DLC is supposed to celebrate the end of Anno 1800 and the upcoming development/release of Anno 117 (yeah, the series is basically title-year).
I look forward to the next edition of the series and will likely play that one as well. I’m keen to get the DLC and share more photos, but that will probably happen closer to the release of Anno 117.
I hope you enjoyed this month’s edition of the the Casual Camera. I know I’ve promised month after month of short stories, I’ve just been working my ass off looking for a more stable job. In the meantime, I’ve got some poems being prepared for next week. I’m hoping to have something set for the new year.
Until then, I appreciate your support. If you can leave a like on WordPress, that always helps.
The Casual Ramble 