Friday! Video games! Let’s talk!
Another Friday is upon us and hopefully all of you beautiful readers out there will be enjoying some video games tonight during the blood moon. Bloodborne, perhaps? Seems fitting.
I reached one of my pre-expansion WoW goals this week and reached exalted with the Nightfallen, thus unlocking the new Nightborne allied race. Unlike most races, they begin the game at level 20… which isn’t a huge bonus, really.
I like their character models a lot, though, so I made a new Shadow Priest to replace my old one (male Undead). The current lead-in story quests being added each week to explain the events in Battle for Azeroth have only taken 30-45 minutes, so there’s really nothing else to do until August 14th anyway.
Since Blizzard recently introduced level scaling and a stat squish, the process of leveling feels incredibly slow now. I have a full set of heirloom gear (gear that can be purchased and upgraded with gold that grants up to a 45% XP bonus) and it’s still taken me nearly 18 hours to gain 28 levels (20-48). I really like being able to quest out an entire zone without quests “going grey” (meaning I’ve out-leveled them and they no longer award XP), and I really think this slower leveling system will provide new players a more engaging experience, but as someone who has been around WoW for 14 years and has already leveled every class to its maximum level (sometimes on multiple occasions), it’s an absolute slog.
I spent about three weeks unlocking a new race only to spend three times as long as before to level them up. I’m playing with my girlfriend and we’re having fun, so I don’t mean to come off as disappointed or bored. It’s just an odd thing to implement on a 14-year-old MMO. Some veteran folks seem to dig it, as it’s a callback to the “old days” when an entire day would be spent working toward a single level gain, but that was only fun for me the first or second time around. Not the 20th.
With WoW being my primary focus, I haven’t gotten much time in Octopath Traveler this week. I’m in no hurry, though. I have two more Travelers to recruit and I’ve really been enjoying myself, but yeah. No rush.
What about you, folks? Any gaming plans this weekend?
Cheap Boss Attack 
I’m playing through The Banner Saga 1 and 2 so I can enter part 3 fresh. I’m also slowly making my way through Trespasser in Inquisition. It’s buggy as shit on PC and I rage quit. I’ll most likely continue playing it tonight. I want Octopath Traveler, but I probably won’t be able to buy it until December. Madden is at the top of my list right now :).
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I like SRPGs so I always thought I’d be into Banner Saga, but I ended up buying 1 on PS4 on sale and then 2 I got for free on Xbox One. I want it all in one place so I can transfer save data, so I may wait until the trilogy is on Switch and on sale, and then pick it all up at once.
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The trilogy is on the Switch :). All three games will cost $65 though. I own them on PC and I have no plans to double dip because that would mean playing through all of them again. Your progress carries over from each game so I highly recommend playing all three of them on one platform.
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Oh, I thought just 1 and 2 were on there. It’ll have to be a good sale, though.
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I read the description last night. If you own parts 1 and 2 you’ll get part 3 for 40% off. Still not a super great deal, but at least you won’t be spending $65 anymore…
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Something I like to play on my Vita when I don’t feel like big screen games is “Volume”. I could best describe it as “Metal Gear VR Missions”. The goal is to sneak from point A to point B, preferably without being seen by the guards. The layouts of the maps, placing and number of guards, and different types of tools at your disposal add great variety to this stealth game.
Plus you can instantly reset the mission if you mess up.
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I really liked Volume and actually reviewed its Vita launch a few years back. It was a rad futuristic take on Robin Hood, I thought.
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Horizon Zero Dawn and Crash Bandicoot again. Possibly also something else. I feel like playing something else in between but don’t know what. I am mainly playing Horizon but a few Crash levels/attempts put in every so often.
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HZD is really good. Enjoy!
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I’m loving it. I’m spending so much time just exploring or taking screenshots but I love it. Hoping to get a bit further with the story this weekend.
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Oh yeah, I took soooo many screenshots lol. It’s beautiful. Have you checked out The Frozen Wilds stuff yet? That place is jaw-dropping.
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It is a beautiful game. I haven’t done any Frozen Wilds stuff yet but will be.
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Many people avoid MMOs due to the time commitment so I am surprised to hear that casual friendly Blizzard have made the level grind slower. This weekend I am playing the Lost Child. I think I am on the last dungeon now. Maybe I can finish a dungeon crawler for once, as this one has easy combat. Some of the puzzles are tricky though.
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It’s definitely a baffling choice.
I don’t dislike dungeon crawlers, but I rarely finish them. They wear me down pretty quickly with their difficulty spikes and repetition.
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Well, they gotta keep extending the life of this thing somehow!
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I’ve been silent on these of late. Well not today!
I’ve primarily been playing the second Nonary Game, VLR. Man it is super long XD
Probably going to do some Gungeon with my buddy who just got the game on my recommendation. He actually got me back into the game, which I hated when first came out, but I knew he’d like it. They fixed a lot of my problems and the game now is super fun.
Past that… just the usual Hearthstone XD
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I think I’d really dig the Nonary stuff. Seems up my alley.
I almost grabbed Gungeon on Switch but I’m kinda burnt out on the whole roguelike thing. I was super into Nuclear Throne at launch and that game broke me lol.
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Nonary games are a good time. Just wish VLR didn’t take 40 hours… it’s really long. Enjoy it overall though.
Fair enough. I get the same on stuff. If you can still get Gungeon on sale I’d say it is worth it but note the game is tough and will take some time to even beat it once, mind you multiple endings, and still haven’t at 10 hours in even once.
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But 50% offff!
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Finished Divinity Original Sin (good stuff) and now I’m taking a breather from games that demand attention and playing The Sims 4.
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Do you remember what your final play time was in Divinity?
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No, but it was many many hours.
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Oh, and speaking of the Sims 4, I don’t know if you’re into watching other people play games, but Giant Bomb did a whole series in Sims 4 where they created the entire staff and put them into a single house. Then drew their names and a method of dying at random and tried to kill them off in that way one by one. It was fucking amazing, even as someone that isn’t into the game.
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Oh! Cool. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks.
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Kratos giving me arthritis
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Must stay away from WoW… haha. I haven’t played it since mid Warlords of Draenor and I get the urge to go level up my hunter and druid to see the new content. I just don’t like the subscription fee. It makes me feel like I’m wasting money if I play other video games.
But yeah, I’m still playing Mass Effect Andromeda and really liking it I just finished Liam’s loyalty quest and I’m about to move the main story along by hitching a ride on the Moshae’s shuttle on Aya. Excited to see what happens next!
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“It makes me feel like I’m wasting money if I play other video games.”
^I still feel this way and I hate it.
Andromeda was awesome. Peebee’s loyalty mission had me cracking up at the end. Who are you romancing?
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Yup :(
I haven’t done her Loyalty mission yet. Can’t wait to see it, haha. I’m not romancing anyone this playthrough. If I’m going for the Platinum Trophy (haven’t decided yet) I’m going to romance 3 different people while playing on Insanity difficulty next run through! That should be amusing :D
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I bought Hollow Knight a few minutes ago for whilst I’m away so I may start on that. I’ve been playing the Titanfall 2 campaign a bit as well which is pretty good fun.
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TF2’S campaign was excellent.
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I did Cause and Effect last night and loved it. My wife even commented on how cool it looked and the fact the “puzzles” looked really creative.
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I’ve been delving into Warhammer: Gladious, a 4x game that’s not a very good 4x game, but it is a very good wargame. Quite a lot of fun so far
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As someone who hasn’t played very many, if any strategy games, I actually had to Google what 4X was, haha. Enjoy!
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I’ve been replaying the Serious Sam games as of late. Kind of excited to see if any more Serious Sam 4 news comes about. I’ve also been enjoying BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle. Which I just posted a review for.
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I went to Target after work today and bought Octopath Traveler. I should be mad at all of y’all for being bad influences, but I’m super hyped to pop it in my Switch and play. I also bought the Final Fantasy Ultimania, because it was in the book section, which I always go to, and i can’t be trusted with credit cards *shrug* I also picked up a $20 Switch card to maybe buy some of the games on my wish list there. There’s this weird little game called Baobabs Mausoleum that I demoed a few weeks ago with a Thimbleweed Park vibe to it. There have been a LOT of demos lately, and a bunch of stuff on my wish list is under $10 so I might do a mini shopping spree.
I think WOW is good for your soul. It just seems like a go to game when you need to chill. It is weird they implemented that new system though. Why fix something that isn’t broken? I think devs underestimate or wrong estimate what new players want or what will bring in new players. Also…it’s not like the old school gamers are going anywhere any time soon. I mean if I could leave the planet I would’ve already. It’s a weird phenomenon. Not that I understand business, but I don’t know.
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Woo! One of us! One of us! I hope you enjoy it. I have been, but WoW life is… time consuming. At least, I’ve *made* it time consuming because I decided I wanted to play a fancy new Shadow Priest with one of the new races I unlocked instead of just playing the level 100 I already had collecting dust. Soon, though. If you can’t decide on which of the 8 stories to play first, I highly recommend Cyrus. He has some super powerful magic and can take down a lot of enemy elemental weaknesses early on. Ophelia is also really great to have around because healers and holy magic stuff.
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I played through Olberic’s story until I found Primrose and started hers. He’s who I started with in the demo and I am a creature of habit lol. I’m also impressed with the English voice acting. A lot of times I’ll go with the Japanese (which was the best idea for WOFF. Tama, oof….), but it’s excellent in this game. I love it. I like that it tells you the danger level so I know what to avoid. I love that WoW is still relevant after what decades? It’s gotta be the longest running MMO by now.
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