Time to Loot Journal: September 2023

I’m back! I mean- I also never really said I was going, but ‘go’ I did! To Fiji! On a ship! A pretty big one in fact. The family and I went on a cruise, our first one ever. We left Auckland Friday 22nd Sept and returned just yesterday, Saturday 30th Sept.

We were meant to have three days in Fiji, at various ports — but the trip took on a bit of an adventurous note with a rescue endeavour on the high seas. Sadly, it didn’t entirely go well for all involved. The detour involved skipping the first intended port in Fiji — Suva.

At least as a point for passengers to disembark. On the return home trip, a passenger became ill enough that we detoured back to Suva in order to get them into a hospital as soon as possible.

Those things aside, by and large, the cruise experience was good. I appreciated the time by the pool alternating between reading and swimming as the mood struck.

For those more action-orientated (in the sense of always needing to be doing things), there was plenty of that stuff on too. Events were running throughout the day and night. But I was just there to relax, and I definitely got my fill of that. It was really only the day before we got home any way that I started feeling ready to be home again.

But home I am!

So… How did I do with my goals?

Gaming Goals

Goals for September 2023

• Starfield — Publish at least two posts in the Starfield Series!
  Hopefully, I’ll get more than that, but going to start things off easy for myself and just ask for two.

I did this one!

• Starfield Chronicles: Part 0 — Getting the Game
• Starfield Chronicles: Part 1 — Taking Flight in a Borrowed Ship
• Starfield Chronicles: Part 2 — Becoming a Bit of a ‘Joiner’
• Starfield Chronicles: Part 3 — The First 20 Hours
• Starfield Chronicles: Part 4 — Venturing an Opinion

Part 0 was actually last month, but even factoring that, doubled the goal set. Go me! Uncertain how much more I have to add to this series from here, although I think at least one more as I did at last cave last night and install a mod collection…

• Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon — Simply don’t drop the game.
  Hah. Continuing the trend of taking it somewhat easy on myself…

Erm, this one I didn’t do though. I have, in fact, not picked up the game again since Starfield came out. Would I have without the extended absence? Maybeee. But I couldn’t hand on heart swear that would be the case.

I’m still interested, but unsure presently where it will fit in exactly.

Goals for October 2023

• Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon — Defeat Balteus
  Despite what I said about being unsure where to fit this in, I’d still like to give it a shot!

• Starfield — Complete the Main Story Path
  Time to zoom! I acknowledged in one of the Chronicle posts that my attention was starting to wander and finishing was becoming a now-or-never type deal. There is a very real chance that if I don’t shift tack to focus more (if not quite exclusively) on the main story, it will become yet another Bethesda game where I’ve never completed the main story. I’d like to avoid that if possible, even if it isn’t the best story out there!

Games Played September 2023

Starfield was essentially the only game I played on my desktop this month. In a way, somewhat impressive for me.

Everything else was at night before sleep on the boat, just testing out what worked well on my laptop. Hah.

I predicted my hours would ‘shoot up’ this month vs. August… Can’t say that really happened, although certainly I did play games for more hours, particularly if you factor in the available number of ‘at home’ days across the months.

I think October will see higher numbers again than September, particularly with Cities: Skylines 2 coming this month (Yay!!), albeit not til quite late in the month. Still… With how much contentment I’ve got just from watching people play, I suspect those last days of the month will still manage to boost up the overall considerably.

Books Read September 2023

I don’t recall whether I gave it much more than passing mention previously — but I hit quite a reading block for a while. It didn’t really start as a block. It started as simply opting to do other things at bedtime (my usual reading time) as a priority.

Those choices quickly grew a momentum of their own though, and then compounded with the fact I perhaps wasn’t entirely enjoying what I was reading at the time. Not because it wasn’t good, but rather because it wasn’t what I was in the mood for.

To short-circuit those issues, I decided to do something I only infrequently do — re-read a series I previously enjoyed.

And you know what?

It worked — really well.

Again, I don’t think I particularly covered it off — I certainly still haven’t done a review — but I went through Mark Lawrence’s Broken Empire series again. It can be a tough read, particularly throughout book one. The protagonist isn’t really one you can get behind and root for in this phase of the story.

But hoo boy does it take you for a roller coaster even so.

I finished that series, and then started on the subsequent series — The Red Queen’s War. I wouldn’t quite call it a ‘sequel’ series though, as it focuses on a different set of characters and encompasses much of the same timeline as the prior series. The deft weaving of the stories and events from one to the other is fantastic, and I think makes for one of my most favourite series of all time.

In any case, I finished the first book and got over 60% of the way through the second while away on the cruise, and I’m already hankering to get to the third.