Prime Picks For September

After yesterday's massive post (Almost four thousand words; took me pretty much all day to write.) I am not in the mood for another epic. Luckily, here's Amazon Prime Gaming to do most of the work for me.

It's ironic that almost as soon as I decided to stop covering each month's free games because the scraper had clearly reached the very bottom of the barrel, someone at Amazon decided to do something about it. Not only has the quality of the games returned to something not too far off what I used to expect but the quantity has increased considerably and claiming the numerous titles that come from somewhere other than Amazon has been made a lot easier.

Dealing with that last first, for quite a while the majority of the giveaways have actually arrived as codes to be redeemed at a third-party website, usually either Good Old Games or the Epic Store. To get your games that way you obviously had to have an account with the outside company as well and you needed to link it to your Amazon Prime account. 

As far as I remember, until last month you also had to log into that other account every time you claimed a game, navigate to wherever codes could be redeemed there and paste in the code Amazon gave you to get your game.

Now, you don't. 

I'd already opened GOG when I realised that, when I'd claimed the game on the Prime Gaming website, not only had the code appeared but Amazon had generated a direct link to my GOG account. All I had to do was click on it to go straight to a Redeem screen with the code already entered. One click and the game wasadded to my GOG library. All done in a moment.

Games claimed via Epic now work that way, too. It's surprising it took so long. (Unless it'sbeen like this all along and I never noticed...) Not only does it make the whole process significantly quicker and easier but from Amazon's perspective it also has the benefit of keeping the customer firmly within their ecosystem. 

Sending someone to a competitor's storefront, where they might see something they'd buy, always felt like a strange choice. I don't think it's going too far to say that in my case it's mostly Prime that's been reminding me I even have accounts with Epic and GOG. This way, the chances of me actually stopping to look around when I get there to see what I might be missing are minimal.

So much for the back end. What about the games?

I am not going to go through them all. There's a lot this month. If you care to see them, they're all listed on the Prime Gaming blog along with the dates when they become available. By my rough count there are twenty-eight free games to claim for your permanent collection and about a dozen you can play on loan at Amazon Luna, assuming you live in one of the "supported" countries.

Highlights include three Borderlands titles (They must have been hoping the movie was going to be a lot more popular than it was.), three Lord of the Rings titles (Ditto the second season of the TV show.) plus a Hobbit game, a Tomb Raider title, LEGO Indiana Jones, Greedfall and Kerbal Space Program. Not all of those would be my picks but at least they're games and IPs I've heard of, which was far from the case a few months ago.

It's also very encouraging that when I went to Steam to harvest the links (Isn't it revealing that even in a post about Amazon giveaways, the natural thing to do is provide links to Steam?) I noticed pretty much all of the games I'd chosen had good to very good reviews. Also, just about all of them were on heavy discount, which I don't imagine is any kind of co-incidence.

The games I claimed were:

LEGO Lord of the Rings - I really don't like LEGO as a base for other IPs. The aesthetic does nothing for me. This looked like it might be a decent game in itself though, so I thought I'd get it anyway. It's odds on I'll never play it but what the hell.

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor - I seem to remember reading a few people talking positively about this one. Probably too action-oriented for my tastes but again, why not? It's free.

Borderlands 2, Borderlands the Pre-Sequel! - I have never played a Borderlands game but I've always thought the series looked interesting. There's a third title due later in the month. I'll grab that as well. I also must be about the only person on the planet who thought the Borderlands movie trailer looked more interesting than the one for the Fallout TV that released in the same week. I still want to see the Borderlands movie more than I want to watch the Fallout show even now but then I have Madam Web in my watchlist. There must be something wrong with me.

Greedfall - I've seen this one mentioned all over the place. It does look to be right in my wheelhouse. Likely to be the first of the bunch I actually fire up and play although when that would be is anyone's guess. I'll have to finish Solasta first for a start.

Eternights - This is slightly out of my comfort zone but I thought it looked worth a shot. It's a "dating action game, blending a love story with adrenaline-driven combat", plus everything happens on a timer, which sounds like a car-crash combination to me but the screenshots are pretty and the actual gameplay sounds like something I might enjoy so, once again, what the hell. I could probably do with stretching myself a little.

I also claimed a couple of titles I seem to have missed from last month

The College Atlas - I don't even know for sure what genre this is but it looks very odd. It's described as a "pen and ink adventure" and it looks like the adult coloring books that were popular a few years ago. Took it out of curiosity more than in any expectation of actually playing it.

Spells and Secrets - Harry Potter without the license, basically. I don't even like Harry Potter all that much but tactical combat and puzzle-solving using spells sounds fun.

Later in the month I will definitely claim Kerbal Space Program, about which I have only ever heard good things and the third Borderland giveaway, Tales from the Borderlands.

LEGO: The Hobbit is a possible and there are a couple of others I might think about but I'd want to take a closer look at them first. There's no link to the upcoming titles in the blog and I'm not interested enough to google them for myself so I'll wait until they appear on the slate.

Finally, for anyone who wants it but doesn't already have it, which is going to be no-one reading this, and also for anyone who hasn't already bought it when it was incredibly cheap in a sale and thinks it ought to be free anyway, well now it is: Black Desert, that is. Last one to drop in September so set your calendars.

As the Prime Gaming blog warns, though, "Please note: The Black Desert offer is not available in select regions." I can't help but think it would be nice if they'd said which regions but then what can you expect for nothing?

Free To A Good Home - Or Any Home, Really...

Since I mentioned it yesterday, I suppose I ought to do something about it. Collecting all those freebies, I mean. There comes a time, though, when logging into multiple games you have no real intention of playing, to collect items you don't particularly want and are never likely to use, starts to feel a bit... crazy?

Not that any of that applies to the giveaways in EverQuest II, of course. They're all either practical or pretty and I'm sure I'll get some very good use out of each and every one of them. Definitely.

They come in two sizes - the one-size-fits-all Milestone Celebration Crate currently being handed out for free to every character under all payment plans and the deluxe Milestone Celebration Subscriber Crate that's reserved for paying customers only and which comes one per account.

I won't go through the contents in detail - there's a comprehensive breakdown on the official website complete with all items and applicable restrictions - but I will mention a couple of things. 

The per-character crate is auto-gifted to each character as you log them in but the Subscriber crate has to be claimed. All the contents of the latter are Heirloom, though, so it doesn't matter much which character on the account grabs it. All the contents can be handed around as appropriate later.

The giveaway runs until September 23rd so you have a while. I'm not entirely sure I'd say it was worth logging in if you aren't subbed and aren't playing at the moment because the freebies for F2P are far from essential... although the Toyger vanity pet is very cute and probably does count as essential for cat-lovers. 

The bow isn't particularly special and I don't care for the illusion much but there is an advisory to that last. I actually don't like illusions at all and have them switched off but I always forget that when the game gives me a new one, which is why I clicked this one on to take a screenshot and of course nothing happened... except something actually did.

I got smaller. A lot smaller. It seems that even with illusions toggled off, the Milestone Guardian Illusion shrinks you to the size you would be if you could see it. Since being really small is something of an obsession with some players, this might be a very welcome side-effect. I don't know if it's intended - I'd bet it isn't - so it might get nerfed but for now it's a handy way to shrink your character while keeping your original appearance.

As for the Subscriber pack, I would strongly recommend anyone who's paying for All Access at least logs in once to claim it. It's a good one. 

There's a very nice set of fancy wings that also act as a flying mount. They come in a choice of light and dark but you can only have one or the other. The dark ones look a lot better in my opinion but I guess if your one of those people who have to make your character light up like a magnesium flare you might disagree.

There's a set of cosmetic armor which I didn't have the space to open (Oh, don't. Just...don't.) without shifting it through the shared bank to someone whose bags aren't completely full. There's also no illustration on the website, which seems odd. I might log back in and get a screenshot of it before I post this. [Edit - I did not.]

There are also some item unattuners, which people always seem to appreciate. I hardly ever use them but I think I'm in a minority there.

With considerable irony, the final item in the pack is a 66 slot bag. That would have solved my space issues - for about five minutes. I was very excited when I saw it because, as the name of this blog might suggest, inventory management is a bit of a thing of mine. Well, inventory, anyway. Managing it, not so much.

After the initial excitement faded I started to wonder whether 66 slots would actually be an upgrade to any of my six character inventory slots. EQII is insanely generous with storage space. I counted the available slots per character once and it goes well into four figures. Even character inventory, the stuff you lug around with you, easily passes five hundred slots.

I checked and the new bag does actually beat two of the six I have equipped, albeit one only by a couple of spaces. I have two 88 slot bags, a 72, another 66, a 64 and a bog-standard 48 slotter that is now going to go to someone else. 

The new bag also doubles as an appearance item, a papoose with two "adorable" panda cubs peeping out. I don't really like those much. The pandas, that is. The bag itself is OK, especially the rolled-up umbrella down the side. It's a moot point anyway because you can either have your backpack showing or your back item, not both, and I vastly prefer those new wings to the pack. 

So much for the freebies that I wasn't going to describe in detail. At least that gave Lord of the Rings Online time to patch. 

The giveaway there is not all that interesting for casuals like me because the big ticket item is a new instance tuned for max level players. There's also a vanity pet and a "Portrait Frame", which is a thing I had no idea existed in LotRO. I associate those almost entirely with Eastern F2Ps. You need to use a code in game to claim all of these and the offer ends on 25 September.

Proving yet again that procrastination always pays off and a lot more interesting for occasional players is the news that the excellent mini-expansion from a while back, Before The Shadow, is now free to all. You don't have to do anything for that one. It's just there for everyone automatically. 

If you don't remember it, it's the one that added two large, new starter zones, which was why I bought it when it came out. I never even got to the end of the first zone so I could have waited until it went free, as it was always, inevitably, going to do. That'll teach me.

There is, however, a free mount to go with that offer. Two actually, one for freeloaders and a second for paying customers, although free players can take the VIP mount token and stash it for the day much wished for by Standing Stone when they decide to subscribe. 

Again, you have to apply a code in game for that one, something I am going to go and do right now... and it turns out the Azure Steed is the grown-up version of the Azure Pony I already have. Not sure if that's a hobbit thing. It's account-bound anyway so it can be handed on to someone who needs it.

Of course, what I really need in LotRO is that 66 slot bag...

The final update and login for me this morning was DCUO, where the freebie on offer was a crappy set of  dragon horns. Oh, sorry... "Archdragon Horns". That makes all the difference. I imagine someone is going to get all excited by the chance to have a couple of ugly protuberances grow out of their head but it won't be me. Still claimed them, though.

There are some much nicer cosmetics in the same free offer but for those you actually have to play the game a bit and I wasn't up for that today. I have parked in the relevant instance so the wings and baby dragon pets may one day be mine. The stupid horns are only available until 9 September but the good stuff stays on the instance vendor indefinitely, so no rush.

The giveaways in LotRO and DCUO are part of Daybreak's Year of the Dragon, a celebration of fifty years of Dungeons & Dragons, which does seem a tad random until you remember they also publish and, I think, own Dungeons & Dragons Online through SSG, who run both that and LotRO... or something. Who knows any more?

It seemed a bit odd I hadn't heard about similar giveaways in the EverQuest titles too but it turns out that's because I hadn't been paying close enough attention. I had to ask Gemini for the details, something I do quite often these days because it is quite often actually faster than just googling, believe it or not, and reasonably reliable so long as you check the sources. It seems I was only just in time.

The free gifts in both games are less than spectacular: a dragon statue for your house. They're available for no cost in the cash shop. You just have to log in and "buy" them but you'd better get on with it because both offers end tomorrow. If you don't have time for that, never fear! It seems there will be something else for free in both games for September. 

I logged back into EQII to pick up my dragon statue because I spend a lot of time in various houses there and I'm sure it will fit in somewhere. I long ago gave up trying to maintain my houses in EverQuest, though, and I don't propose to start again, so I passed on that one.

After all of that, I was pretty much done with logging into games to get free stuff. I'm sure there are lots more games on my hard drive that would like to shower me with gifts if I'd only log in but there's only so many hours in the day and I've used up all of those I'm willing to spend on it right now.

Tomorrow though...

Amazon's August Foretold

It's nearly the end of the month and that means... well, mostly disappointment these days, if it's Amazon Prime Gaming giveaways we're talking about. The glory days of anticipating a chunky package of exciting new, free games I might actually play are long in the past.

The sad caravan limps onward all the same. It's possible, although exceedingly unlikely, you may have spotted the post from the official Prime Gaming Blog when it popped up on the blog roll to your right, telling us all about the joys we can expect throughout August.

In case you didn't and to save you scrolling down to find it now it's slunk off into the dark depths of the link forest, let me summarise: 

• bunch of games you've either already played or never heard of... blah blah blah...

• bunch of crap you don't want for games you no longer play or never played to begin with... blah blah blah...

• bunch of games you won't be interested in, that you can play for a month in the cloud, if you live in the right part of the world...blah blah blah...
  

• and something really weird for Call of Duty... at least that's new, I guess.

Hmm. Maybe I should elaborate. Just a little.

There are nine free games for August which is quite a haul, at least quantitively. Qualitatively, it's not so impressive. The tentpoles are probably PayDay 2 (plus DLC) on 3 August and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 on the 17th.  

We had SWTFU in July (So close with that acronym, LucasArts!) so I guess we could have seen it coming. It looks like Prime subscribers are going to get the entire LucasArts back catalog in the end. I didn't claim the first one so I'm hardly likely to bother with the sequel.

I don't actually remember PayDay coming up before, though. That might be new to Prime, which makes it seem strange they're starting with the second one. Then again I know absolutely nothing about the franchise so maybe there are reasons. Or maybe we did get the first one and I was so uninterested it didn't register.

If you want to talk late to the franchise, though, let's just think about the game that's coming on 10 August: Farming Simulator 19. Nineteen? Nineteen!? Are you seriously telling me there have been eighteen Farming Simulators before this one and it wasn't enough? 

Nope. It sure wasn't. We're up to #22 now.

Before we go any further, here's something odd. Amazon has started to flag up the delivery method for free games to make it clear whether you need to jump through any additional hoops to get them. Both PayDay2 and Farming Simulator 19 are flagged as coming via the Epic Games store. 

I'm wondering now if these games are free on Epic anyway and Prime is just telling us about it or whether only Prime subscribers can get them for nothing by way of linking their accounts with Epic. 

If I wanted either of the games I guess I'd find out in a few days but I don't and I also don't care enough to try claiming one just for science, so I guess we'll never know. Well, not until they do it again with something that interests me, anyway.

The rest of the games are a right old mix. Blade Assault arrives also on the 10th, followed by Foretales and Driftlands on the 17th and In Sound Mind and Summertime Madness on the 31st.

Foretales looks mildly intriguing. It has animal characters, at least. I'll probably claim that one. The rest I'll pass, thanks, although I'll note that In Sound Mind does have and "Overwhelmingly Positive" rating on Steam, so it might be worth grabbing if you're into that sort of thing.

The canny counters among you may have noticed that only comes to eight free games and Amazon said there were nine. That's because they're counting the PayDay 2 DLC “The Gage Mod Courier” as a separate game. Cheeky!

The four titles coming free to Prime members via Amazon's cloud gaming platform Luna in August, provided they live in the USA, Canada, Germany or here in the UK, are Batora: Lost Haven, SteamWorld Quest,(Which I've played and finished!) Smurfs: Mission Vileaf and Ys VIII: Lacrimose of Dana, although the press release does make reference to a "slate" of games coming on 1 August. I guess we'll have to wait and see what the others are, if any.

Finally, there's that Call of Duty offer I mentioned at the top. I don't play CoD. I've never watched anyone play it so for all I know, stuff like this happens all the time. It certainly does in Fortnite.

For August, Prime is giving away a Warzone Rat Pack bundle that lets you... cosplay as a rat. Seriously, it's a super-creepy, badly-stitched, whole-head mask in the shape of a cartoon rat. It's not unique to the offer - it was already in game - so I'm guessing Call of Duty isn't exactly the dour, militarist sim I've always assumed.

Still not gonna play it so I don't need the head or any of the rat-related decals that come with it. It was interesting to learn they exist, though. 

If there's anything of interest buried in the rest of the in-game giveaways, I'm sorry but you'll have to check for yourselves. I can only do so much and for this month this is it.

I Am Always Touched By Your Presents, Dear : EQ, EQ2, DCUO

SOE made a practice of recognizing real-world (mostly American) holidays with in-game bonuses, giveaways and general merriment. Daybreak Games have been doing their best to carry on that tradition. The upcoming July 4th celebrations offer good reasons for current and lapsed players to log into all of DBG's MMOs.

EverQuest has a 76% bonus both XP and faction and rare mobs have a 76% higher chance to spawn. See what they did there?

EQ2 has double XP and double currency, specifically the Ethereal coins that send all active players into a summer frenzy every year. (Incidentally, don't ask me why that link goes to the French version of the EQ2 website. It just does!)

Those bonuses apply to all players, free to play and All Access alike, but AA Members also get the benefit of a 25% reduction on everything in the cash shop. I already splurged on tracking scrolls.

Double XP weekends are relatively common but these both do a bit better than that, although weirdly not quite as well as each other. The EverQuest offer runs from 12:00 PM PT on Saturday, June 30, 2018 until 12:00 PM PT on Thursday, July 5, 2018, which I wish I'd noticed sooner. The EQ2 version started and finishes later, 12:01 AM PT on Monday, July 2, 2018 until 11:59 PM PT on Sunday, July 8, 2018.

For DCUO Daybreak have chosen to focus on paying customers. There's nothing, so far as I can see, for F2P players but July 2-8 is something they're calling Member Appreciation Week. Maybe it's the Bizarro World version of Developer Appreciation Week, which I don't believe has happened this year, or at least not yet.

Whatever it is, it comes with a very attractive giveaway, a free CR 170 Character. If you wanted to buy a CR170 in the store it would cost you $45, apparently. I don't claim to be fully up to speed with DCUO's combat rating system but I believe that's akin to the recent giveaway of  Level 100 characters in EQ2.

What's more, you can apply the boost either to an existing character or a brand new one. I made a new one. I tried to call her Atomic Kitten but of course that was taken.

This has been a public service announcement. We now return you to your normal scheduled programming.