Late creator week - Live music 2025-2026

 

For creators week (long past), I am listing the concerts attended since Blaugust 2025, concerts I will attend and concerts I'd like to attend.  I hadn't seen the insert video from YouTube function in blogger.  I'm guessing this is a new feature?  I included a picture I took from every concert I attended as well so you are getting a lot more than my normal one picture per post (and no AI :)) and a link to the playlist.  Also included Spotify links for those who prefer that. This took much longer to put together than I expected but I'll barely get it in before the end of Blaugust.

Sadurn

Sadurn is the band I'm most excited about. I discovered them on Spotify and had never watched a video.  For those who perfer videos, I found the official one hard to watch so I added the live version. I love this song.  She went on a break from her album that came out four years ago and has her new album coming out later this year.  I was able to see her at a house concert with about 40 people.  She played most of the songs by herself with one person accompanying her for the last two or three songs.

Sadurn - Icepick

Icepick on Spotify

Sadurn Setlist

Lucy Dacus

I included Lucy Dacus last year but hadn't seen the concert.  It was great, but almost the opposite of the 40 person Sadurn concert with 2700 people at the Durham Performing Arts Center.  I chose "Lost Time" even though there isn't an official video and I didn't like the live version because there was a great moment with this song.  A fan passed out small pink pieces of paper for people to put over their phone flashlight during this song and the picture above is from the screen in the building, superimposing her reaction to the picture of the crowd with the lights.  It was a really nice concert and a nice moment that made the large, seated setting seem a little smaller.

Lucy Dacus - Lost Time

Lost Time on Spotify
Lucy Dacus Setlist

Slow Pulp

Slow Pulp was the opening act for Lucy Dacus but I had listened to and enjoyed many of their songs, including all the ones they included on this set.  As you can see in the picture above, they were somewhat swallowed by the set and I'm sure they'd be better in a smaller venue, those I'm not sure that there are great vibes between the band mates here.  Including probably an older song I enjoy.

Slow Pulp - Falling  Apart

Falling Apart on Spotify

Slow Pulp Setlist

The Beths

If Slow Pulp didn't seem to have a lot of personality, The Beths were just the opposite.  They are from New Zealand, but seem to play the US pretty regularly.  I was a little disappointed with newest album The Straight Line was a Lie compared to Expert in a Dying Field but the concert was great.  I've included my favorite song from the album below but almost every song from Expert in a Dying Field is great.  Fun video by the way.

The Beths - Til My Heart Stops

Til My Heart Stops on Spotify

The Beths Setlist

Bad Bad Hats

Bad Bad Hats haven't had a new album recently but they were nearby celebrating the 10 year anniversary of their first album.  Fun band and Kerry has a lot of personality and it was nice to be able to chat with her as a bought some gear from them after the show.  Picked the first song of theirs that I saved on Spotify.

Bad Bad Hats - Walkman

Walkman on Spotify

Bad Bad Hats Setlist

Mentions - Paul Simon

I don't think Paul Simon needs any introductions but it was amazing how he performed.  Going because my wife's favorite artist and not sure when we'll get to see him again.  Above is a picture of him performing with Edie Brickell which was definitely a bonus.

Paul Simon Setlist

This is taking much longer than I thought it was so I'll make the rest shorter.

Concerts I will attend

Phoebe Bridgers

I must admit I am mainly going because 1 missed seeing Boy Genius and Phoebe is the last of the three for me to see and she's playing close to home.  Including my favorite song from her new album.

Phoebe Bridgers - I Can't Wait

I Can't Wait on Spotify

Only mentioning Sadurn, who is mentioned above because I have tickets to see her with the full band and just as her new album will be released (two songs out now).  Also, will be seeing Indigo Girls, another of my wife's favorite bands though I also saw them over 30 years ago when we both lived in Austin Texas.

To close, a few songs for bands I would like to see.  They all performed in the area but not when I could go and not particularly close by.  Maybe I will get a chance in 2027 and maybe I will post next year.  Who can tell!

Remember Sports - Bug

Bug on Spotify

Adrianne Lenker - Sadness as a Gift

Sadness as a Gift on Spotify

Courtney Barnett - Mantis

Mantis on Spotify

Julia Jacklin - The Hardest Thing

The Hardest Thing on Spotify

Re-introductions

 

I hadn't looked in several year, but this blog was started 14 years ago in May 2012.  If you look at my introduction, you'll see I was looking for a way to play MMOs casually and I guess that is still true today.  I started with the first Newbie Blogger initiative, initiated by Syp or Justin Olivetti of Massively and Bio Break.  When I just went looking for the image above, Google first reference was at Tales of the Aggronaut from back in 2012 when Belghast posted about it.  That seems meaningful in this year we are celebrating Belghast and Blaugust, Belghast's initiate to fill some of the role that the NBI played back in 2012-2013 among other goals when he started it in 2014.

I started playing MMOs with the World of Warcraft beta, joined a guild, and was there for go live in 2004. I never was as dedicated as some players and my time went up and down over the years, including some full stops, but at one point I decided I wanted to find a way to play casually that made me comfortable and I thought there were likely other MMOs that would meet that need better than WoW.  I tried Star Wars the Old Republic when it came out in 2011 but I didn't play it for long.  In 2012, when NBI start, I decided to use this blog to get some recommendations and document that experiment.  What I have come to accept is that, at least for me, MMOs require a larger intial investment and, since I already made my investment in WoW, it works better for me to play it even though it does require a subscription.  Now I just use my blog as a periodic journal of what I'm playing and my reactions to it.

I'm not sure when I started reading Bio Break and Tales of the Aggronaut and TAGN and Inventory Full but I am pretty sure I have read every post they have made over the last 14 since I started blogging. It is something I enjoy for a few minutes every day. It is a one sided relationship, with me reading their writings, but their thoughts have become part of my day-to-day life and now part of that is missing with Belghast's departure.

Belghast would talk about how sometimes he would post without publishing about them.  As someone who read every post through subscription, I read them all.  I haven't been publishing my posts for a while since I'm not posting often and they are generally just for myself now, but I do think I'll publish this one as a tribute to what I have gained through reading these bloggers and lost with Mark's absense.

Blaugust begins and July Check In

 

Zul'Aman working towards completion

Happy Blaugust!  I likely would have skipped this year except, like many, I would like for Belghast efforts to encourage blogging to continue after his death.  I started blogging with the earlier Newbie Blogger initiative and, even though this primarily for me now (maybe it always was), I believe blogging is a great forum for sharing similar interests.  

More about that later, but I'll start with my July gaming check in.  I was able to have a few World of Warcraft Midnight sessions and have now made it to level 84.  Yes, that's just under a level a month since the Midnight release in early March but I'm not concerned about getting maximum use out of my subscription.  I do want to complete the main questline and get to level 90 on my main.

After that, we'll see.  Reading Shintar's post about completing the Midnight Professions achievement makes me think this might be a reasonable goal.  I would have to level several alts, but not that many levels except for my miner, since my main will do the gathering for herbs, fish and cloth.  He's level 73 and then I have one other alt in her 70s and another 2 alts in their 50s.  Inscription might be an issue since she's only level 30 and I've never tried to level inscription, but at least the herbs shouldn't be an issue.

I hope everyone enjoys Blaugust.  More about my goals and background in future posts.

May/June Check In

Silvermoon City

 Yes, it's well into June but I started this post in May.

Three months since my last check in and really not much to report.  I have made a little progress in World of Warcraft. My house is now level 4 (thanks to my guild's endeavor more than me) and I've reached level 82, leveling up with the main quest sequence.

I just haven't been very motivated for gaming recently.  Still playing Logic Town daily and mindless games on my phone.  Now, with the World Cup on TV, I've been spending a lot of my free time on that.  Also, just generally tired recently.

Just wanted to provide myself a quick update.  I'm sure this will change with time.

February Check In

My House in World of Warcraft

 

My monthly post has now gone three months, partially because there hasn't been a lot to post about in my time gaming.

World of Warcraft added housing in December and I joined on the first day to grab my plot.  I acquired enough furniture to get the house to level 3 and then pretty much stopped playing.  I still have catch up to do to finish the end of the World Within Story and the Midnight pre-patch has arrived, with it a new set of quests along with the ability to level my alts more quickly to level 80.  We will see how much of it I get done before Midnight arrives in March.

The major change in my gaming life was the addition of a Playstation Portal for Christmas.  This is allowing me to play all the Playstation games I haven't played without needing to be on the television.  With many games available, the one I ended up playing first was Unicorn Overlord, which is one of the last games I finished on the Switch.  Since it's turned based, it's ideal to play remotely since performance isn't an issue.  I've been playing both from the Cloud and with Remote play from the PS5 and both work well.  There were some cloud performance issues during a storm but otherwise it's been great.  I completed the game after more than 100 hours and only had three achievements to reach my first PS5 or PS4 platinum.  One just took a few seconds (unlock all the unit slots, I only used 8 out of 10).  The last two were treasure hunt related so I looked up what would be involved and decided to visit one of the five nations daily until it's done so I'll probably be done within a week.  The achievement for 10 treasures unlocked after the first nation and I finished the second nation today.

I have also started playing Claire Obscure, a birthday present in January, but I'm only at the beginning.  It'll be interesting to see how it works on the Portal.  I also played a little of The Last of Us Part II and it seemed to work ok on the Portal as well.

November Check-in: Slow going in K'aresh

 

Begining K'aresh in September

It has been two months since I have finished Undermine(d) and I have finally gotten through chapter 3 of K'aresh and acquired the Legendary Cloak. At this point, I'm thinking I have too much hope for what Housing will offer on December 2nd and, although I look forward to completing the War Within, it is more of a waypoint than a destination.

It initially I was intending to alternate between my main character, Kanter and alts that I have.  I did this a little but there doesn't seem to be much experience benefit between levels 70 and 80 and there will be a faster way to do it with the patch on December 2nd.  I still might try to get two more alts to 70 so I will have 4 alts that I can pretty quickly get to level 80 and have access to most of the professions.  I'll be interested to see how they tie professions in with housing.

I've been looking for something else to play on my Playstation and Switch and nothing has been motivating recently. I briefly started Unicorn Overlord again but a replay didn't capture my attention either.  I am still playing Logic Town daily, which I'm enjoying and I may try to find another similar game, possibly Einstein's Cats, that I can enjoy in short sessions.

So on to December!  Unless I'm very motivated by some change in my gaming, my next post will probably be my first impressions of World of Warcraft housing.

World of Warcraft Undermine finished

 

On to Ghosts of K'aresh

So a couple quick notes on the new area.  What does it mean to have a apostrophe after a single consonant.  Is it pronounced ka-aresh? Or do they just think it looks cooler to add an apostrophe.  Second, the first quest is the normal learn the area and do menial tasks quest but at least they are honest about it in the quest text.

As I mentioned in the last post, Undermine isn't my kind of zone, urban areas being one of my least favorite types in MMOs.  I must abmit I'm glad for it to be behind me though I don't think the execution was bad, it just wasn't for me.  I'm not very good about taking screenshots but I believe I took only the one for my last blog post and, looking back, I'm not sure there were any great opportunities.  For atmosphere, I like all the other War Within zones better.

One quick call out for how they handled the raid. I really like the addition of Story mode raids with the War Within.  I think it is a good thing that the raids and dungeons don't just exist by themselves but in the context of the greater story and now with follower dungeons introduced with Dragonflight and Story mode raids with the War Within, casual players like myself can experience them without having to worry about skill or gear or insults or people rushing past the story.  Yes, if you want better gear you should participate in the true raids (though now Delves are another solo option) but I don't care about the gear.  I'd rather see it within the game by myself than watch a video, the only option we used to have if we didn't want to participate with others.

End of Blaugust, More World of Warcraft

 

Undermine, not my favorite kind of zone

Blaugust is ending tomorrow so I'll make this my last Blaugust post.  My goal was to post twice a week except for the week I was on vacation.  I probably missed that by two posts but I'm fine with 5 posts which is the Bronze award.  That's all I was expecting though it would have been nice to have one or two more posts like I planned.  I had two posts related to the weeks including a music post that I thought about doing for a while and was nice to get done.  This has been the first year that I've been going to concerts in a long time and there have been great ones within about a three hours drive though none of the bands I want to see have been local.

I did the next set of Undermine campaign quests which reinforced that I don't particularly want to spend extra time in this zone.  I don't think I've done any of the dungeons or raids so I'd probably like to do them either as they come up in the campaign or at the end just to fill in the story.  Undermine as a zone is fine in terms of quest density, I would just rather do quests in an area that seems more rural than urban.

I went back to Kantro to do some more quests and realized he isn't getting any bonuses right now other than the 5% of having a character at level 80.  I moved him to the zone where I plan on seeing some of the quests I haven't seen rather than repeating the campaign quests and did some mining which gave him some experience and will allow him to level his blacksmithing.

As a final World of Warcraft note, I really am looking forward to housing.  I think I only paid full price for one expansion after Burning Crusade, but early access to housing will get me to do it even though I realize it won't be fully implemented.  I've been in the same guild since beta in 2004 it has to be close to my 21st anniversary.  The original forum has been down for a while and the guild itself is pretty quiet both online and in the Discord but I still feel a lot of fondness for it and I'm hoping it can be a way we can feel more connected.

I hope everyone who participated had a great Blaugust.  I've only really added two blogs to my regular reading at this point, but I will still try to look at some of the new ones and add them to my list.

Blaugust - Creator Appreciation, New Music

Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On

I've been away on vacation for the week, but since I was only planning on posting twice a week, it hasn't really impacted my Blaugust schedule.  For three years or so, Spotify has gotten me to listen to more new music and this year, I've even gone to three concerts and have two more on the calendar.  I'll be posting music from 2025 for artist I've either seen, I'm going to see, or I'd like to see.  I'll include Spotify links and YouTube links for those like Blagpuss who don't use Spotify.

MJ Lenderman (and This is Lorelei) - Dancing in the Club

MJ Lenderman's new album came out in 2024 so I'm using this This is Lorelei song that he recorded.  I heard the original song and thought the lyrics were clever but didn't care for the music.  This version is so much better.  I saw MJ in January and it was a great concert.

https://open.spotify.com/track/2aFkH4wK9nZbgtmlq411f2?si=e564bedadb144229

https://youtu.be/7BUI9S6PEiI?si=GH94zex1DArX-VVX

Horsegirl - Well I Know You're Shy

Blagpuss included Switch Over in his blog, so I thought I'd include this one here.  The whole new Phonetics On and On album is great and they played the whole thing along with a few other songs at the first concert I was able to see with my youngest daughter earlier this year.

https://open.spotify.com/track/2t1PBeyHtPyGaHvxh3lLoY?si=d4d4ed8c9c5d447a

Unfortunately, no official YouTube version of this song

https://youtu.be/HkdLtb6Rg-I?si=7Sir4e1t0tr7xgBP

Julien Baker and Torres - Dirt

Boygenius was definitely my band of 2024, so I've been happy to listen to more of their songs both together and separately.  Was able to see Julien Baker and Torres at a great venue earlier this year. 

https://open.spotify.com/track/4joCdZ76bt2OQTqYMbizJI?si=22b2a3ccef864382

https://youtu.be/z9p13VpD3Aw?si=QkDiHBBaF7VAgvBv

Lucy Dacus with Hozier - Bullseye

Interesting so many of these songs are collaborations.  Forever is a Feeling is another great new album.  I love Lucy's voice and look forward to seeing her next month.

https://open.spotify.com/track/6hwzlorpMDQsHtIhwoNPP9?si=cf63e095157a4e4b

https://youtu.be/j8Hudcruuwg?si=4gPGFl8NdAS3RP9X

The Beths - Metal

The new album comes out in a week but three songs have been released so far.  I thought Expert in a Dying Field was both a great song and great album and am looking forward to the new album and seeing them live in October.

https://open.spotify.com/track/6KF6TkyYpEWKg6BZ3OYJz7?si=3b5c722ce41d420e

https://youtu.be/YrVEgP0LkDA?si=32cSTKKRKsZy8xGc

Wet Leg - mangetout

Blagpuss introduced me to Chaise Longue and that was definitely my song of 2022.  The new album is more mature but true to their sound.  There were several songs I considered but the clever use of a name for snow peas for which I wasn't familiar but this song over the top.  Though they are touring, no concert near enough to me.  Maybe they will add somewhere closer later.

https://open.spotify.com/track/5UW4tA4j23YL6kDfRw3rWT?si=3b85480909794883

https://youtu.be/ye1_CSuv5NM?si=2qCZjs47AULumpYV

I hope you enjoyed something new to you!

Blaugust Who am I? and more World of Warcraft

 

Xal'atath scheming as a dagger that my priest used

Yes, I am still amused by the fact that my priest in World of Warcraft was using the main villian of  the War Within as her weapon in Legion.  One time I'm glad I played as a Shadow Priest, even if she is one of my alts.

Before I get back to World of Warcraft, this week's theme is to introduce yourself.  I'm not very interested in introducing myself more broadly (and, it's a little disturbing what people could probably find, if they tried; I'm not at all interested in testing AI like Wilhelm or Bhagpuss).  For blogging, as I mentioned in my earlier post, this blog started as a way to figure out how I could transition to being a casual MMO player.  Over time, it has become two things for me.  First, it is a way to keep track of my casual gaming, sometimes MMOs, but often non-MMOs on the PS5, Switch, PC or even on my phone or tablet.  Generally these are covered in my 'Check In' posts that I try to do most months, but every once in a while I will include a post about a specific non-MMO that I'm either playing a lot or have finished.

The second thing I enjoy is posting about my MMO experiences.  I find the experience of MMOs more story-like and you end up building your own experience which, to me, is more fun to write about than other games.  Not necessarily more fun to play, just I find blogging about my MMO experiences fun and therefore I'm much more likely to post regular, maybe weekly posts, while I'm playing an MMO as opposed to the monthly posts about other games.  Also, although I enjoy having interactions with other bloggers, this is really for me.  Relatively early on it was about the larger blogging community but for most of the life of this blog, probably at least the last 10 years, it's really been about me enjoying writing about my gaming experience and very little beyond that.

Speaking of my gaming experience, I am continuing to alternate between experiencing the new content with my hunter, Kanter, and level an alt, initially Kantro my warrior.  My last session saw me finish off the Lorewalker Xal'atath questline on my warrior.  The Lorewalker quests can be done for characters as low as level 10, but since I wanted to level my warrior first, I thought I'd play it with him.  This was probably a mistake.  I only gained about 75% of level from the full questline rested and I think it would have been much more on a lower level alt.  However, it was a nice casual experience and I went from it to the War Within introductory questline and the beginning of the campaign quests, gaining another two levels in the process.

Depending on when it happens, I'll likely skip the introductory quests on my next alt but it was last December when I did them and didn't remember everything over the 8 months.  Just finishing the introductory quests and the campaign quests up to the first delve was a good couple of hour session and netted me two levels, as I mentioned, plenty fast enough for me.  I'm not interested in chain running dungeons or other ways of fast leveling and part of the reason I like having alts is to be able to use the different crafting professions.  Doing campaign and side quests gives more opportunity for gathering.

Speaking of which, I need to figure out where my hunter, Kanter, is on his professions for my next session.  I also believe I'm about ready to start the Undermine(d) campaign.  That'll will probably be next time.

Return to World of Warcraft for 11.2

 

Kanter helping with what's left of Dalaran

Post 2 of Blaugust

Just a quick note that I'm not interested in the rainbow achievement for Blaugust.  My goal is twice a week or 8 posts during Blaugust.  That'll be at least 7 more posts a month than I have been averaging and plenty to keep up with my gaming.  What I've discovered is that I like regular posts while I'm playing an MMO but otherwise, 1 to 2 posts a month is usually enough for me to feel like I'm keeping up with my gaming time.

When I first started this blog, I was looking for an alternative to World of Warcraft since I didn't think I was playing enough to keep up.  What I discovered over time was that, rather than finding a new MMO, if I wanted to play casually, it was easier to just change the way I played World of Warcraft.  Instead of joining at release and joining in some raids with my guild, I would join after release, once it has calmed down and gone on sale, play until I felt like I was ready to stop, then join again towards the end of the expansion, finish up the story and advance some of my alts.  Depending on the expansion and how much time I have to play, there have been a few variations, but it has played out pretty much that way since Pandaria.

For The War Within (WoW 11), I played through the early game in January, enjoyed it, but didn't feel any compulsion to work much on end game activities, including crafting, something that I typically like to keep up with.  With 11.2 announced for August 5th (tomorrow!), I thought it would be a great time to catch up on what I missed in 11.1 and play through 11.2.  Another motivation for me is that I'm very interested to see how housing is implemented.  I've always thought it would be something I'd like to work on but I didn't have the motivation to actually play far enough in the MMOs that had it to see (EQ2, FFXIV).  I'm still in my guild from WoW day 1 but it is now very much a casual guild and I'm hoping it can be a way for us to reconnect as well as an outlet for my enjoyment of crafting.

So I joined back on July 26th and have had three sessions so far, I little more than the One Night a Week that motivated the name of this blog but certainly in the spirit of keeping it casual.  I've decided to alternate between playing the new content on my first character and, what has always been my main, my hunter, Kanter, and leveling an alt.  I've gone through the Arathi and most of the Dalaran content.  It's been a nice solo jaunt of side content.  The Arathi content filled in some of the story with Faerin while the Dalaran content has been mainly revisiting npcs from past expansions.  I'm expecting the Undermine(d) (11.1) and Ghost of Karesh (11.2) stories to be more involved but it's been a nice easy way to get engaged again.

For my alt session, I decided to start with my warrior, Kantro.  He is usually my second choice because he is the miner in my alt group and if I want to craft with my jewelcrafter (priest) or my engineer (mage), I'll need to ore from my miner to help.  Based on something from another blog (Aywren maybe?, I should try to remember these things), I decided to use the Lorewalking quests for leveling.  I didn't make a full level after finishing the Xal’atath scenario but it was fun, particularly since I had experience part of her story with my Shadow Priest, Kantra, during Legion.  Given the slow pace of experience, I'll probably go back to the War Within zones for Kantro and let either my priest or mage do the other Lorewalking quests.

Welcome to Blaugust 2025!

 

Welcome to Blaugust!

Welcome to Blaugust 2025!  

I started this blog as part of the first Newbie Blogger Initiative (NBI) back in 2012.  That was a precursor to Blaugust that Syp ran for a few years.  More about me later but the reason I started blogging was because I enjoyed reading the blogs of people like Syp and Belghast who blogged primarily about MMOs at the time and I was in a transition in my MMO playing at the time and wanted to use the blog as an outlet for my thoughts and find a new way to play MMOs less frequently without giving them up all together.

This year I, like many I expect, would like to show Belghast that was he wrought has helped others and can exist independent of his having to drive it.  My thoughts and prayers are with you, Belghast, and I hope this year's Blaugust can bring you a little happiness in your sorrow.  Take care, Belghast and I hope all participants can enjoy the ride!

July Gaming Check In

 

Library DLC for Logic Town

I didn't post anything for June because I haven't been gaming much.  I have plenty of games, just nothing that is calling to me.  I keep considering resubscribing to World of Warcraft, but again, it doesn't seem like there is anything motivating me right now.  I will definitely be interested once housing becomes available.  I may just wait until then.  I'll be interested if it is in the Midnight pre-patch or if it waits for the expansion.  They might make it available if you preorder which would probably get me to do just that while I usually wait until an expansion goes on sale.

I did purchase the four available DLCs for Logic Town when it went on sale with the Steam Summer Sale.  I've been playing it most days, have already finished 2 of the DLCs, and find it a relaxing when to spend some time.  I'm not great at it and I'm sure there are people who cheat at the daily challenges but I'm glad Krikket made me aware of it.  The DLC doesn't have a huge amount of content but it's cheap, I enjoy it and I'm getting a lot of content out of the daily challenges.

May Gaming Check In

 I usually put a screenshot here but with my limited game playing, I may just leave it off.

I have been playing Logic Town daily games most days.  Thanks to Krikket for making me aware of it and giving me a goal to get better.  I don't have any trophies in the dailies, but I enjoy them even though I often frustrate myself with mistakes or messing up the controls (the difference between select and de-select is how long you hold in the mouse button).

I did play the intro to Tactics Ogre on the PS5 and when I came back to it, realized I have to learn how to play and I wasn't in the mood.  The fights are quite long.  I guess maybe Unicorn Overlord was similar but they seemed faster and they were certainly easier at the level I was playing.  I also played the intro of Arceus, Pokemon Legends, but didn't feel compelled to continue.

I'm sure I'll eventually play Civilization VII again.  I've thought about resubscribing to World of Warcraft but the leveling event I was eyeing only lasted two weeks and didn't seem like the right time to pay for a month's long subscription.  For now it's just phone games and Logic Town and that's ok until something interests me again.

March Check In: Civilization VII and Logic Town

 

Last level of Logic Town Story Mode

I spent 40 hours of Civilization VII (mostly in February) but haven't finished my first game though I am at the end of the Exploration Era.  I'm sure I'll go back to it eventually but decided I want to something simpler so start playing Logic Town

Krikket on Nerd Girl Thought. had been talking about Logic Town and it sounded like something I'd like to play.  It was on sale for $2.50 so I bought it and started playing.  I have 42 hours of play time that completed the story mode plus they have daily games that I plan on using now that I've done the Story Mode and there are four expansions that I can pick up when they go back on sale, so I definitely feel I got more than my money's worth already.

In the music space, I saw M. J. Lenderman in January, horsegirl in March and plan to see Julien Baker win April.

February check-in: World of Warcraft and Civilization VII

 

After The War Within Campaign

I'm officially on my next break from World of Warcraft The War Within.  I was just able to finish the campaign questline and the prerequisites for the Earthen race.  I enjoyed the quests and I'll try the delves and solo dungeons when I join again but didn't play for several weeks which shows it's time for a break.

I preordered the standard version of Civilization VII from Gamestop and so was able to start playing on February 11th.  I decided on the standard version because I thought it would have enough content to keep me busy until the DLCs went on sale.  I started a game as Catherine and Greece on a relative low difficulty and I've been enjoying my time so far.  Playing a relatively passifist side focused on science.  Just started the exploration age so we will see how that goes.

January Check-In - Holidays and Back to World of Warcraft

 

False sun in The War Within

Publishing my January check in on February 2nd because I haven't done this for December or January and I'm still hoping to have a February check in late in the month.

I had a two plus week break over holidays and thought it might be a good to time for World of Warcraft if the expansion went on sale.  Sure enough, it went on sale the day before my vacation started so I was able to get some play time in that first week.  However after that things go busy and I have played that much.  I have gotten to level 76 and I'm on the third of the four zones so I'm hoping I can complete the campaign and get to level 80 in the next week and I already plan to take another break after that.

In other gaming, I was given The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and Persona 5 for Christmas and my birthday.  I've played them both some but I'm not currently.  I expect I'll go back to them later this year when I'm in the mood.  I also was accepted into the Stars Reach Playtest recently.  I downloaded it and logged in and did a little teraforming to show that I could but that was all.  I don't think I'll play it more but maybe news for Wilhelm and Bhagpuss will inspire me to play. 

The reason I decided to cancel my World of Warcraft subscription in February is that Civilization 7 is coming out on February 11.  I was reading the different takes on reddit, but for me, as a player since the original Civilization (if not in 1991 soon after), I'm willing to pay for the game at launch but I know I won't have a lot of time for it.  Therefore, it makes sense to just buy the base game and wait for sales to purchase the DLCs and inevitable expansions.  I don't have an issue with the model.  It is expensive to makes games like this and I want them to keep improving on it and providing more content.

November Check In - World of Warcraft Alts

Back to Dragon Isles with Alts

I decided to subscribe back to World of Warcraft for a month for the 20th anniversary.  I thought it would be a good time to level some alts that I stranded during Battle for Azeroth.  There is a 10% experience buff and I visited the celebration in the Caverns of Time only long enough to get the extra 10% buff from doing a few events there.  I wasn't sure the 12 hour buff would be that helpful but the timer stops when you aren't logged in and it was more than sufficient to get my Priest from level 50 to 60.  I was surprised how much it helped to advance tradeskills and since she is my tailor, I was able to get some useful armor and bags out of it.  I also advanced my Warrior from 54 to 60 and have started my Mage who is still at level 40.  Being an engineer/enchanter I don't have the same incentive as I did with the tailor (bags) or gathering minerals with my miner Warrior.

The Warrior was extremely quick to get the six levels but even the Priest felt fast leveling to 70.  I did the initial quests for Dragonflight, got chose Thaldraszus since I had most of the side quests there undone.  I did the initial tailoring and jewelcrafting recipes and went and did the Chromie quest, one other quest at the anniversary celebration and the history question which was enough to get me the buff.  By the time I had done the initial tailoring quests and made a few bags I was at level 64.  I started to do the main quests in Thaldraszus but realized I had done them before and switch to the side quests that I needed for the Sojourner achievement.  I was at level 69 and there was only one left but I didn't have the prerequite for it. I then found a side quest close to the Tuskarr village in Asure Span.  I was on the last quest when I hit 70 and decided I'd like to finish the quest chain but the miniboss was difficult because he increased difficulty with your level.  I logged off not having decided what to do but when I was away I realized I had level 70 armor I forgot to equip.  Once I equiped it, he was managable and I finished the chain.

I only played a little Octopath Traveller II.  Now that I have the first few characters and know I am limited to 3 in the party, I'm less inclined to get the last few.  It was good for when I was sick but knowing how long it will be, I'm not sure I have enough incentive to keep going.

I have quite of bit of time off between now and January 3rd so I'm hoping to get some gaming, including some with my daughters.  My middle daughter likes bugs so we tried to new Diablo IV expansion with the centipede but the centipede doesn't seem to be a companion like the druid has, more like a temporary special attack.  I'm hoping The War Within goes on sale and I can see some of that as well.  I hope anyone still reading has a great holiday!

October Check In

The Disco Zoo Office (End game)

There wasn't a lot of focused gaming in October.  The only game I played consistently was Disco Zoo on my phone.  I had 'finished' it previously but, as part of the 10 year anniversary, they came out with two new areas which meant 14 new animals and the need to do two more rewinds to see them all.  At this point, I've done the two rewinds and am primarily working on the space coins so I can get the space animals while alternating in the last of the non-space animals I need.  I've gotten to the point where I'm building up enough money I'm never going to spend it all but that's fine, it's one less thing to worry about.  If you had played Disco Zoo before, it's a great excuse to play it again.

I started playing God of War again on my Playstation after finishing Plague Tale Innocence.  I was actually surprised that starting back from where I left off more than a year ago wasn't an issue but it didn't stick.  I may still go back to it again because it is fun and I know it's a great game but we'll have to see whether I can ever focus on it.  I'm ok with that as well.  The only other thing I've done is play a few free games to get the Playstation Stars.  I played Doki Doki Literature Club a lot longer than I expected to and I'm interested to see at least some of the twists I know are coming but, again, no promises.

I was sick for a few days and needed something I could play in bed and decided to buy Octopath Traveller II on sale for the Switch.  I had a great time while I was sick but it is a long game and haven't had focus now that I'm well.  I am hoping I'll get back to it but I'm not sure I'll be able to focus enough to finish it without a longer time, possibly during my Christmas vacation.

For November, I'm thinking I'll resubscribe to World of Warcraft for the 20th anniversary event without buying the expansion.  I can use it to see some of the content and I heard they've added some things to make leveling alts faster so it could be a good way to use the Dragonflight content to level them to 70 so they'll be ready for The War Within when it inevitably goes on sale.  That's another possible item for my Christmas break.  I'm also interested in the new Dragon Age game.  In September I briefly played Origins on my laptop but I wasn't able to stick with it.

If anyone is still reading, I hope all is well in your real and gaming life.  I'm hoping these monthly posts will help me remember what I've been doing gaming-wise if I ever want to look back at it.

September Check In, Plague Tale Innocence

 

Plague Tale Innocence team

Not a lot of gaming in August or September.  I am feeling some envy of those playing World of Warcraft the War Within but not enough to pay full price.  I know the price will go down soon enough and there isn't anything I need to do early (though my guild doing some minimal group content is something I'll likely miss out on).  I was also interested to see the Civilization VII announcement.  I got enough hours from Civilization VI that I might go ahead and buy it on release.  It is one of the few games (with World of Warcraft) that I'd rather play on PC than PS5 or Switch.  I tried the Switch Civ VI and it felt awful.  I have played every Civilization game including Alpha Centauri so I'm confident I'll enjoy this version as well.  I'm not sure how much it'll push my Dell G7 with and NVidia 1650.  We talked about getting my daughter a computer, so it might be a reason to get an upgrade and give this to my daughter.  It is almost exactly 5 years old, but it is still doing pretty well.

I am very glad I was able to finish Plague Tale Innocence.  I thought the setting was very well done and I don't think I've seen any other games set in the Middle Ages like this one.  The mix of realism and magic was well done too and I liked the use of the rats in the gameplay and they were suitable creepy.

One minor quible was with the difficulty.  The length was great (it took me 21 game hours) and it seems like a game that one could very well Platinum but I'm not inclined.  The ability to make potions and upgrade your equipment reminded me of The Last of Us but, in order to make the game easier, I probably used more potions than better gamers.  Because of that, I didn't have some of the components that would have allowed me to upgrade my sling and I believe that led to one of the later levels to be significantly more difficult.  I'm ok with rewarding exploration (I would have done more if I had to do it over) but because of the overlap between potion and upgrade materials, it ends up punishing you for using potions which feels like making it easier for those who are good at the game.

Otherwise, I thought the difficulty was pretty good.  There were a few areas where I looked up hints (and was glad for the built in hint system) and a several levels I had to repeat a few times but nothing illogical or unfair.  I know it's an older game at this point, but I am glad I finally got around to playing it and the PS5 controls were very good.

Now, I have no idea what I'll play next.