Time to Loot Journal: October 2022

October is over. I can scarcely believe we’re already in November. It’s now only a matter of weeks until our company turns out the lights, shuts the door and tells everyone to disappear for a few weeks. Some people object to the enforced time off, but hell, I love it.

Having said that, there is still so much more to get done first!

So it is likely going to be a bit of a manic dash from here to the end. That’s OK though. The light at the end of the tunnel makes it all worthwhile. No idea what I’m going to play these holidays yet though… Hmm.

Looking Back

One Year Ago

• I decided to refresh my Java skills — and I’m struggling to believe that was a year ago. Holy moly. I got to the snoozefest that was packages, thought to myself, ‘I’ll come back to this later’ and then just never did. It might be time to admit… My days of meaningfully being hands-on with code are behind me. … Well; unless I go back to it again over this Christmas break. That’s possible.
  
• Amazon launched New World to the masses — I didn’t exactly fall in love with it though and put it aside rather quickly. I know it has had some form of expansion / mega update recently but nothing quite grabbed me strongly enough to give it another shot just yet.
  
• Imposter Factory (aka To The Moon 3) came out — This one was less about evoking strong emotions and more about providing some answers to existing open questions. I enjoyed it, but felt that for myself at least, the first two carried more resonance. … Are we there yet for a To The Moon 4 though? :D

Two Years Ago

• Conceded defeat and put RTX 3080 in for RMA — Although as it turned out, despite there being plenty of cause to believe RMA was the only recourse at that point, the issue turned out to be entirely unrelated. But hey, at least as part of the RMA process I got the improved power socket mounts.
  
• Wife broke her ankle on a bushwalk — two years later, the aftermath of this is still being felt. She is back to full time work, which is fantastic, but also still needingly weekly physio and hydrotherapy sessions to help manage the pain.

Gaming Goals

October’s Goals

• XCOM 2: Start a new campaign!
  All the way through the succession game, I’ve had a bit of an itch to play more than the game has allowed. But I’ve been reluctant to do so, from a desire not to play without mods or, worse, to risk corrupting our current game with mod data inadvertently. But! I think vanilla XCOM 2 is actually pretty OK after now having played it a while. So, I’ll just do that. :)
  
• Cities Skylines: Start a new blogger city!
  Scratching another itch and following on the theme of new beginnings. It seems oddly appropriate as a theme, as I do feel quite refreshed and ready to start again in a more normal fashion upon completion of Blaugust.

Two months in a row now I’ve carried these goals, and two months in a row I haven’t done a thing with either of them. Now I find myself in a position of being torn between not wanting to let these things go just yet… And… Knowing I have games that I am playing I could set goals for…

Maybe I’ll meet somewhere in the middle, and do one of each…

November’s Goals

• Do just one of my previous set goals!
  Doesn’t matter which one. Cities or XCOM, whichever fancy takes me first. Just get one of ’em done!
  
• God of War (PC) — Finish the main story.
  I finished God of War back when it came out on PlayStation. It was amazing then, and its still amazing now. I hardly ever finish games. I don’t even remember the last one I finished twice… But I intend to for this, in advance of playing God of War: Ragnarok when that’s out in a few short weeks!

Games Played October 2022

The above graph somewhat amuses me, as almost everything on the left side was ‘pre-Overwatch‘ and… well, obviously, Overwatch itself was… I guess not post… But post-commencement?

The only exception breaking this rule is God of War, which I started playing only over the last couple of nights. It has been awesome re-experiencing the game and I absolutely cannot wait for God of War: Ragnarok. Although… I will… If I don’t complete this replay in time!

Books Read October 2022

I almost can’t believe it myself — but I finished the first (of three) books contained within this volume.

I haven’t quite gotten around to writing the review yet, but it’s coming! … I think! I don’t want to make the same mistake as I did with reviewing the Riyria Revelations series of reading too far ahead and feeling less than certain about specifically what memories were from what book. Hah.

… Still …

It hasn’t stopped me entirely from reading on ahead, and so far I’m liking The Heroes a fair bit more than Best Served Cold.

It’s set in the North for one. And it isn’t a story entirely revolving around revenge for another. Well… Not so far. There are some potential angles for this to take centre stage still, but it seems it’ll be a less direct approach to it if so, give some room for additional cleverness.

The Blog

Gaming hours low, few posts. Gaming hours high? Also few posts, as it turns out. I published 5 posts over the month of October, same as the month before.

After I hit publish on this post, Time to Loot will have 598 published posts.

Most Viewed Posts

1. Transport Fever: Things I Wish I Knew When I Started
2. Book Review: King of Ashes by Raymond E. Feist
3. Book Review: Queen of Storms by Raymond E. Feist
4. Deathloop Early Impressions
5. RimWorld Expansion Teas- ANNOUNCED!

I didn’t speak of Overwatch very much in this post, but nonetheless, it was referenced, so:

Inform: (As this post mentions or talks about an Activision Blizzard product, or the company)

While I have chosen to break my self-imposed exile from Activision-Blizzard titles, I still feel it important to acknowledge the troubled status of the company, so you can make your own decision.

Activision Blizzard has become subject to multiple sexual-harassment lawsuits. Of note, in particular, is that it has been alleged that Bobby Kotick (current CEO) has not only been aware of, but also attempted to suppress word of, such incidents — even going so far as to intervene to keep a perpetrator hired with the company.

Even so, support for a long-term boycott was never clear cut, even amongst those affected.