A Month in Gaming
Again this is more a case of two months in gaming. Furthermore although I was quite active in July, I was less so in August as the Blaugust 2021 Festival of Blogging event consumed the lion share of my leisure time. The majority of my gaming time is usually mid to late evening. Although Mrs P and I do many activities together, there are times when she will want to watch something I don’t, be engrossed in a book or out with friends. These occasions present sizable windows of time to focus upon a video game, which is especially useful for the MMORPG and RPG genres. However, I often have to choose whether to use this time exclusively for gaming or some other recreational activities such as writing. Another foible of my video game time management is trying to arrange things so I can undertake recurring, daily quests in a game early in the morning. I will often tackle such content in Star Trek Online, as soon as I get up.
Role-playing Games. I regret to say that my flirtation with GreedFall ran out of steam in July. This is no reflection upon the game itself which is interesting and enjoyable. It simply got usurped by Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. I was so frustrated trying to play this game on the Nintendo Switch that I purchased it again on the PC and was able to play through the content far more easily with a keyboard and mouse. I completed the main story in the game and passed on the subsequent busy work side content. Enthused by the joys of playing a quality RPG, I moved straight on to the PC version of Days Gone. I really like this game as its setting in post-apocalyptic Oregon is quite unusual and it has a very similar zombie vibe to that of Left For Dead 2. This is another example of a game that I play with keyboard and mouse for PVE content and then a game controller when using a vehicle. Unfortunately, I haven’t had time of late to focus on this game due to the blogging event.
Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games. I returned to The Lord of the Rings Online and started working through the last two content updates, Wildwood and Blood of Azog. As the former was level 45 content it was an absolute breeze to clear and it did wonders for my Virtue Traits. The story was inventive and this new area certainly compliments Bree-land as a region. Although I have a liking for any Dwarven driven stories in LOTRO, questing in Azanulbizar is a slog and too much of the content is of a grinding nature. Hence Star Trek Online has received more of my attention these last two months. Developer’s Cryptic continue to ensure that there are regular new events to undertake and goals to work towards. I’ve also raised another two alts to level cap, although I did use a boost for one with interesting results. I even felt bold enough to experiment with a “cannon build” on one of my KDF vessels, although it requires competent flying to use effectively.
Odds and Sods. Having bought a new game controller I have started playing Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout once again. It is fun in short doses but I still worry about the fact I’ve not yet in over a year, won a Crown. I also find it curious that I find it more entertaining collecting the various outfits and emotes than playing the game itself. I also returned briefly to Call of Duty: Warzone to see what the state of the game is. The patch for the latest season was once again ridiculously large and took hours to download. Upon playing a solo Battle Royale game, I found things were pretty much exactly as I left them. I still don’t like the changes made to the map and some weapons continue to be overpowered and therefore ubiquitous. However, having been away from the game for so long, I found myself playing against new players and it proved to be a far more equitable experience. As for the next few months I have nothing major planned. The next announcement I’m awaiting is the release date and cost of the next LOTRO expansion. Hopefully I can return to Days Gone in September.
