June/July Gaming Check In

 

Ellie, Joel and the giraffes in The Last of Us

I did go back and finish The Last of Us on the Playstation 5 in June.  It was very well done and there is good reason it is considered a classic.  The only real negative is that there did seem to be too much killing in some sections, though some of that might have been because I'm not very good a stealth.  There were a couple of sections where I used the hint feature and I'm grateful to have it.

I've been looking for then next PS5 game and tried out Jedi Fallen Order and briefly opened up God of War but neither are compelling me to play.  Watch my daughter platinum Dredge. It was fun to watch pieces of it, but I think I've seen what I need to there.  I saw the preview for Lego Horizon and since both my daughter and I have enjoyed the Horizon games I think it would be a fun way to play together but it isn't available yet.  I downloaded Lego Hobbit and Lego Harry Potter as other co-op games but after playing Lego Hobbit with my daughter some I think we'll just wait to play Horizon.

Possibly the last of my Dragonflight Achievements

I decided to resubscribe to World of Warcraft early in the month thinking I'd like to try the Pandaria remix and see the last of the Dragonflight quests.  June was successful in both but I did a lot less of Pandaria than I expected.  After playing some I decided to go back to Kanter and work on finishing off the achievements above, all of which I enjoyed.  I played briefly on my Warrior and might work on the side quest achievements with him.  I did keep my subscription for July but have already cancelled it in August so I can't forget.  At this point I have a pattern of waiting until the first discount (as long as I have time) for the expansion and plan to do the same for The War Within.

After I finished Unicorn Overlord on the Switch, I downloaded both 13 Sentinels (from the same developer, Vanillaware) and Celeste.  Celeste definitely isn't my kind of game (I've never really played platformers).  13 Sentinels was fun but just not as much fun as Unicorn Overlord so I put it aside.  I haven't played Animal Crossing since starting Unicord Overlord so I think I'm done with that.  We'll see if something new brings me back to the Switch but I haven't played it for weeks at this point.

Really nothing is pulling me in right now on any of the platforms.  That happens but it'll be nice when there is something new (or old) that brings me back.

May Gaming Check In - Unicorn Overlord

 

Alain Crowned King in Unicorn Overlord

Hello!  I actually finished a game in May, Unicorn Overlord so most of this post will be about that.

I had seemed some good reviews of Unicorn Overlord over the last few months including a nice post from Tipa.  Then it went on sale just enough that I decided to buy a physical Switch copy.  I debated whether to buy it on PS5 but the graphics were fine for the Switch and I thought it might nice to use it portably.  It seems like it was a good decision since I was able to play pretty consistently and finish an almost complete experience in around a month.

I just wrote this whole post and it wouldn't save so now it'll be an abbreviated version.

Unicorn Overlord is a tactical RPG.  There are 70 characters you can recruit, six of which I missed (Nina, Hilda, Aramis, Gloucester, Gammel and Mandrin, for my records).  It is most like Fire Emblem of the games I have played.  The only Fire Emblem game I completed was Awakening and I would rate it slightly higher right now.

I played on story mode saw the 'True' ending out of three and tried two choices of the maiden, Scarlet, the pretty obvious expected choice, and Primm, a character I enjoyed.

I still need to finish the Last of Us.  I also have recently start Advance Wars, a Gameboy game I always wondered how it would play since I was into turn based strategy for quite a while.

April Gaming Check In

 

The Last of Us Part 1

I see I never posted in March but I haven't done a lot of gaming the last two months.  I had played about half of the Last of Us remastered for PS4 a few years ago and decided I'd like to play both parts since one of my daughter's really enjoyed it.  I figured if I was going to start over, I might as well play the PS5 version that was on sale.  I am now past where I was in my first playthrough.  It is welldone and you could probably see the difference in the image above in the earlier versions of the game but, fundamentally, it is the same game and it is probably difficult to justify paying again.  I'm sure the TV show was justification for both and the PS5 remake for Part 2.

I keep thinking I'm done with Animal Crossing but I still play it almost every day.  I need a recipe to be able to make a robot which requires 30 parts I've managed to collect from saving the shipwrecked captain among many other part.  The only way I see to get one of the recipes is from a rare island so I've been visit Katrina in hopes of getting good luck in belongings so I get a rare island in hopes that I get the star island that can have the recipe.  I don't have the recipe but I do have more rare ingredients for other recipes.  Reminds me a little of rare MMO drops.

I also purchased the Katamari Damacy remake for the PS4 thinking it might be something my non-verbal autistic daughter might like.  I haven't showed it to her yet but I did play it some myself.  I'm a little worried the use of both sticks might not be that easy for her but we'll see.  I had played it some back when I had my PS2 but never played it much.

Finally, I purchased a relatively new game, Unicorn Overlord, when it went on sale.  Tipa had recommended it and I did really enjoy Fire Emblem Awakening on the DS even if I didn't get into the other Fire Emblem games as much.  So far, I've been able to stick with it.  I debated whether to get it on the PS5 or Switch but opted for the Switch for the portability and as a possible replacement for Animal Crossing if I ever actually stop playing it.

February Gaming Check In

 

Blanc was a cute, fun game

Not a lot to report for February but I would like to keep this up.

I received Blanc for my birthday and played it cooperatively with my daughter who gave it to me.  It is a very cute, sweet game about a fawn and a wolf cub who have to work together to join back with their packs.  It was nice how they each helped each other and most of the puzzles were interesting but not too difficult (though I did look up a couple of hints).  Pretty short, but also not very expensive so worth it if you like artistic games like this and like to play cooperatively with someone.  It is nice to have finished a game.

I am still not playing World of Warcraft and still playing Animal Crossing.  It's possible the pre-patch for War Within might bring me back for a month or I might just go back to buying the expansion once it goes on sale.  I do like that they have a patch for which they aren't revealing much (10.2.6), but it isn't enough to bring me back.  I'll probably follow along to see what it is.

My current goal for Animal crossing is to build the Robot.  I had collected the 30 rusted parts from the pirate that washes up on your land but didn't realize I would need star parts that drop from a rare island you visit by taking the boat with Kapp'n.  I learned that you can guaranteed to get a rare island by checking on your luck with Katrina if you have luck with belongings.  So far I haven't been getting luck with belongings very often but I do find the gameplay loop relaxing so it's enough to keep me coming back daily and building up my bells and tickets.

I tried Millenium when it was free to play and, although it's not as obscure as most Paragon games, I decided after playing the demo, I'd rather just play Civilization.

On the Playstation, I've decided I don't like the Undertale minigame that determines your success and so I'm dropping it.  I got it for free with Playstation Plus extra and at least I have an idea how the game works.  I'm thinking about going back to the Last of Us since I got around half way through it.  I'm trying to decide if I want to buy the upgrade since it's been about a year and it might be better to start over anyway.  I'm not paying $60 for a game I already have but maybe I'll pick it up when it goes on sale.

January Gaming Check In

 

My Animal Crossing Birthday Celebration

As mentioned in my previous post, I let my World of Warcraft subscription expire this month.  I was able to finish the Necrolords quests on Kantro before it expired.  I just happened to see where you could purchase 60 Covenant renown so I didn't need to wait for that, just finish the different quests offered primarily by Baroness Draka.  I'm not sure why I couldn't start the quests until I was level 60 (seems like a poor limitation) but I went ahead and completed all the Necrolords ones and was level 63 at the end.  I considered doing more in Dragonflight (I haven't done many of the quests after The Waking Shores) but I had seen the main story and decided to leave it alone.  I'm guessing I'm done with Shadowlands even though I didn't see the Revendreth or Bastion storylines.  I might go back to Dragonflight before or after The War Within but I'm hoping they handle it better than Shadowlands once it comes out.

In other gaming, one of my daughter's was back from college and I started Baldur's Gate 3 with her.  We found Lae'zel and the Owlbear cub, two things that we missed in my plan with other daughter but neither group has left chapter 1.

For my birthday, one of my daughters purchased Blanc on the Switch for us to play together.  We played quite a bit in the first session.  I saw it is supposed to be pretty short so it'll be interesting to see how much we have left.  It'll be nice to finish my first game since Horizon Forbidden West.

One is never really finished with Animal Crossing New Horizons but I still think I'm close to being done.  I've now seen all the seasonal events with Christmas and New Years (I purchased it for myself at Christmas 2022) and even had my birthday celebration.  One of my daughters bought me some of the Animal Crossing Amiibos, and it has been fun to invite them to coffee and I might invite one to the camp when a villager asks to leave.  I would like to finish the art gallery but I'm not sure I'll keep playing like I have been (see my December post).

I believe that is all I'm actively playing right now.  I'd still like to finish up some games, particularly on the PS5 but we'll see.  I'm considering getting a Playstation Portal since I looks like a good way to play in the house without having to be in front of the television.

Happy New Year!

December Gaming Check In

 

Emerald Dream

Another post to help me keep track of my gaming.  I see it was approximately three months since my last post, maybe that'll be my new normal.  Then again, I'm playing World of Warcraft again, so maybe I'll feel compelled to write more.

So, after about a 10 month absense, I decided to resubscribe to World of Warcraft.  The main driver for me was that 10.2 (Guardian's of the Dream), the last major patch for Dragonflight was live.  It is also true that the announcement of the next three expansions starting with The War Within at Blizzcon made me feel more hopeful about World of Warcraft's future with Microsoft.

Going through the 10.1 (Zarlek Cavern) and 10.2 (Emerald Dream) content was pretty quick on Kanter and gave me normal flying which helped me get my Alchemy and Herbalism to max level (100).  Now that I have it, I'm not sure that I'll use it much but it isn't something I like to do with each expansion.

Once that was done, I wanted to get up to level 60 on Kantro, my warrior.  I was hoping to do it with the Necrolords Covenant in Maldraxxus but when I used Chromie time to set myself back there (it had moved me to Battle for Azeroth as the default) I didn't have any of the Covenant quests available.  It looks like with the Dragonflight expansion, they for some reason moved the Covenant quests to level 60 at which point it makes sense to be doing Dragonflight.  In any case, he was able to pretty quickly move from level 52 to level 60 in Shadowlands doing a few daily quests and has now moved on the Dragonflight.  Maybe I'll go back to try to see the other Covenant stories but it's doubtful.  Even though I've seen pretty much all the Battle for Azeroth stories, I'll probably use it to get to level 60 my characters in the 50s.  If I end up doing it before The War Within, which is doubtful.

I will probably get Kanter to level 11 renown with the Iskaara Tuskaar since I enjoy the fishing and cooking aspect but I'm not sure I'll extend when my subscription ends in January.

In other gaming, I've dabbled in different games on the Playstation 5, but nothing has stuck since I did Horizon Forbidden West and the expansion in the first half of the year.  I still have my daily Animal Crossing session (and out of my 162 hours on the Switch in my year end summary, 160 of them were playing Animal Crossing).  I'm doubtful how much I'll play in 2024 since I've now seen all the seasons having started in December 2022.

For any of you still reading my blog after all the gaps, I hope you have a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and a good year of gaming in 2024.

August Check-in

 

My Diablo IV Bear Druid with two Wolf friends

August is here which means Blaugust among those I follow.  I knew I was on vacation for the first two weeks of August and the first week I'd be away so I didn't have much inclination to join.  That said, I'm happy for the others who are still blogging and for Belghast for keeping this tradition going that I have participated in in previous years.

July saw the release of Diablo IV which I bought on release for the Playstation 5.  I only have a gaming laptop these days and I'm not inclined to update it often, so for new releases, my Playstation is my best bet (and it wasn't cheap, but it was much cheaper than a current gaming PC or laptop).  I played it with one of my daughters and we were enjoying it but ran into a difficult spike and one of the early bosses.  I'm pretty sure we could work around it but it's more difficult because we have leveled past where we are expected to be but don't have the gear that would match our level.  I also chose Barbarian thinking it would be a good companion for a more squishy character my daughter would choose, but I'm thinking most of the other options would have been more fun.  I've played gone past that in my solo play through on a Druid and just got my wolf companions so I'm sure I'll have more fun on that character.

I did make an exception to get Palia on my computer and even hooked it up to the TV so my daughter and I could play together more easily (by playing together, I mean one of us watching while the other controls the character).  My daughter plans to be an entomologist so 'Bug Scouts' was a big draw.  We caught our first bugs but haven't played much since.

At this point, I'm excited to get Baldur's Gate 3 when it comes out for the Playstation in early September.  I'm hoping my daughter will enjoy playing it with me since it supports 2 player co-op.  Besides Diablo, I'm still playing Animal Crossing but I think I've done most of what I want to do. I've dabbled in a few free or cheap games recently.  I got Oxenfree for $2 on the Switch and played it enough to get an idea what it was like but I'm not sure I'll go back to finish it.

Tipa and Wilhelm both reminded me it is nice to have a record of what they've been playing so I'll try to make these periodic posts to keep track of my gaming life.