Time to Loot Journal: August 2020
Whoa– Lookee dere! That there featured image is something other than a Cities: Skylines screenshot for the first time in… *checks* …a while! It’s breaking a four-month stretch of Cities. It’s from Control which I’ve just picked up over the weekend and have now spent almost 8 hours in already.
I do feel a little bad about picking up another game of this nature whilst Death Stranding still sits on my shelf staring at me forlornly. … But not enough to stop playing. I think I’ll be finishing this one in fairly short order. It’s not an overly long game to begin with apparently, and I’m consuming it at phenomenal pace. It’s very difficult to put down. AND I’ve just been informed it shares a universe with some of Remedy’s earlier games, such as Alan Wake. I’m a huge sucker for crossovers and tie-ins, so looking forward to uncovering more of that.
Anywho…
Gaming Goals
August’s Goals
Build a Blogger Community City in Cities: Skylines
Specifically, to count this goal ‘achieved’ I stated the need to have hit a milestone with ‘city’ in the title.- Play more Death Stranding!
OK, not a terribly specific goal. But I think that’s OK for now. Maybe another two acts? (Although I don’t have any idea if they vary wildly in length, they might!) Hmm. Perhaps I’ll just aim to — at a minimum — double the length of time I currently have the game. That shouldn’t be hard as it’s only 4 hours or so!
Yesss! This month actually hit the Cities: Skylines goal I first set for myself a little while back, and carried over the months. Having become a six part series, it now officially beats the length of my next longest (and last) attempt at a series by two parts.
I did not however hit the goal of doubling my time in Death Stranding. I played it a little more to be sure, but emphasis on the ‘little’. Then… Well; Elite Dangerous and Vermintide 2 re-entered my sphere of awareness and… Yep. Gaming time gone. THEN, as mentioned, Control this last weekend… Death Stranding just hasn’t had a chance. So for now, gone but not forgotten.
September’s Goals
- Finish Control
Well, it’s a simple and clear enough goal at least! Finish the main story and the DLC story.
And I think that’s all I’ll set. I could do something additional around Anddul. Or perhaps set some engineering goals in Elite Dangerous (I really need to get started on this track!!) And no doubt I’ll do some or all of these things as well anywho, but Control will be my goal. :)
Games Played in August
| Rank | Game | Hours | % Gaming Time |
| 1 | Elite Dangerous | 51.0 | 55.9% |
| 2 | Vermintide 2 | 16.3 | 17.9% |
| 3 | Control | 7.8 | 8.6% |
| 4 | Guild Wars 2 | 3.7 | 4.1% |
| 5 | Risk of Rain 2 | 3.3 | 3.6% |
| 6 | Death Stranding | 2.7 | 3.0% |
| 7 | Cities: Skylines | 2.6 | 2.8% |
| 8 | Remnant: From the Ashes | 1.5 | 1.6% |
| 9 | Parkasaurus | 1.3 | 1.4% |
| 10 | Planet Zoo | 1.0 | 1.1% |
Quite an upswing in gaming time again this month, with a return to Elite Dangerous leading the charge through the early- to mid- parts of the month. More recently than that it was Vermintide 2 and even more recently again is Control.
I’d still really like to forge ahead with Vermintide 2 to the higher difficulties. Possibly even get into the ranked Winds of Magic levels, despite the god-awful ratings that DLC received when it first came out. Apparently the worst of the issues were sorted in Season 2 and we’re now into Season 3 — but I’m not sure the sustained interest of the friend group is there for that and I most certainly have no interest in doing that via quickplay with randoms.
Otherwise?
A bit of this- a bit of that. I picked up Planet Zoo while it was on sale this weekend too. I’ve only done the tutorial before Control swept me away but I can already tell I’m going like Planet Zoo a heck of a lot more than either Planet Coaster or Jurassic World, so that’s a plus!
Overall 91.2 gaming hours over August, not far off 3x as many as last month. Quite a reversal from the last three months of declining hours, too.
Suffice to say, gaming has made quite a comeback. Perhaps blogging will follow?
The Blog
Including this one, just 9 posts published in August. The lowest since I started in Jan 2019 and.. uh, that 9 was done in the last 10 or so days of the month.
Even so — I figure if I can just keep going, then the rest doesn’t matter so much. I’ll find my rhythm again– or I won’t, and this is it now. But if I keep on going then that’s all that really matters and certainly provides the chance for things to pick-up again later on. :)
For now…
Most Viewed Posts
- Remnant vs. Dark Souls
- Deep Rock Galactic: The Solo Experience
- Humble Choice: July 2020
- Transport Fever: Things I Wish I Knew When I Started
- Humble Choice: August 2020
With the final Remnant DLC — Subject 2923 — out, interest in the title remains high even though that particular post was written well before this final DLC came out. For what it’s worth to anyone looking, it seems this is the DLC we’ve been waiting for.
Unlike Swamps of Corsus before it, this one adds to the campaign itself and gives us more story. Set a year after the main story of Remnant wraps up we head to the original Ward where Dreamers were researched and a gate opened.
The irony of it dealing with ratmen when Vermintide 2 has taken over the gaming time that Remnant otherwise would’ve had isn’t lost on me, either. ;) No doubt I’ll get back to finishing this one though and soon.
