My gaming preferences are mysterious and ever shifting. Like a leaf upon the wind, one can never be too sure where they may land. … Which is to say, I’m very fickle and typically struggle to settle into any one title for any reasonable period of time.
Which let me tell you, can really make these games I’m playing posts a bit of a mission.
Often by the time I realise, “Yep — I’m playing this thing a fair bit” and reckon it might be an idea to add it to the sidebar, I grow suspicious of the fact that I will be done with it a day or two hence. Or that the act of officially recognising it might even somehow break the spell of game continuity.
But I’m going to risk it. I’m putting the cards out on the table and saying: Yep — I’m playing a boatload of No Man’s Sky at the moment. Not an outcome I expected when I first booted it up and tinkered around a bit. I didn’t really see much of a reason to consider it significantly improved over what I’d seen before.
Oh good. Doesn’t look like I’m on the menu today.
Turns out I was wrong. I’m glad I went back for a second look. I couldn’t even tell you now, only a few days on why I did though!
Not really any change otherwise this time around.
Changes to the Game List
Added
No Man’s Sky
Remaining
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
Final Fantasy XIV
Nearly Removed
Lost Ark
Removed
None
My Lost Ark account is still functional, I check in every once and a while. But I’m trying really hard not to get too invested in my characters. The risk of being banned is still ever present and I can’t imagine the pain of that happening if I actually reach end game and make significant progress with it.
To such an extent I almost wish the ban hammer had already fallen.
I half expect to find some Night Elves hiding in the bushes here.
For all others interested — we’re told that an NA release is in the works, and it looks like Smilegate recently even put out job postings for an English localisation team. But the next step on this journey is the Russian release slated to go into open beta late this year.
That release is rumoured to have a native English language option. It’s also suggested that the Russian release will be far ‘safer’ for foreigners to play, with laxer restrictions than the Korean release.
So my plan is to hold off and wait for this release before getting too heavily involved. But… I can feel that I’m very close to getting my boat in Lost Ark, and I kinda want it. So we’ll see. ;)
Looking back over the past month I’m left wondering… What happened? Where did the time go and what did I do? It seems like a lifetime ago that the health scare raised its head, and yet it was only a handful of weeks. The endoscopy is the end of this week and all going well will put this concern to rest.
Other unrelated sickness in the household has meant I’ve spent a week working from home, which I think lent itself to time blurring with the removal of a regular cadence of work and back, work and back to mark out the days.
Oh! Blaugust is coming though! Over the latter part of July I’ve been in a sort of warm-up exercise mode for it, posting if not every day then every other. It isn’t too late to sign up and jump into the Discord though. :)
Blog this Month
Published 18 posts this month. Up 8 from last. Second most posts in a month since I started Time to Loot (with first place going to February). My Blaugust goal is to hit a post all 31 days though.
I think I can do it — but we’ll see.
Life often has a way of sneaking up and inappropriately pinching your behind when you’re not looking after all. Someone should tell Life it’s 2019 and we don’t stand for that sort of carry on any more.
As for totals? This will make for 98published posts. Almost broke 100 a month ahead of prediction! I have to say, quite chuffed with getting this far.
I was right! The Heart of Rage post at last falls out of top spot. That was a pretty impressive run for it though I suppose. But now the Transport Fever starter guide has taken over with almost 4x the views this month than HoR.
Games this Month
Rank
Game
Hours
% Gaming Time
Change
1
Final Fantasy XIV
29.9
38.5%
↑2
2
Lost Ark
29.8
38.3%
New
3
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
4.5
5.8%
Returning
4
Stellaris
4.1
5.3%
New
5
Warframe
2.8
3.6%
New
6
Astroneer
2.5
3.2%
New
7
Devil May Cry 5
1.8
2.3%
Returning
8
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
0.9
1.1%
New
9
Celeste
0.8
1.1%
New
10
Parkasaurus
0.7
0.9%
New
July saw a total of 77.7 gaming hours, down 2.9 hours from June.
And in an almost complete flip from last month where the total active hours were way down from watching shows on devices other than the main desktop, this month saw an unprecedented high of 317.2 total active hours. This is up 141.1 hours over last month.
Much of the increase to total active hours comes from spending a little over a week working from home, plus some return to this device as a TV/Movie watching device.
For July, this means gaming made up 24.4% of the active hours, down 21.2% from last month.
Final Fantasy XIV
Talk about juuuuust eking it out for top spot. Less than 6 minutes difference between it and Lost Ark.
Final Fantasy will certainly still hold strong next month. But whether it will be #1 or #2 is anyone’s guess at this stage.
I’m still looking down the barrel of the vast majority of The Horrible Hundred to complete. But I’ll get there. I’ve just been horribly distracted by Lost Ark, and it’s all Mailvaltar’s fault. Don’t look at me like that, it is! ;)
Lost Ark
Perhaps rather cruelly, I first found out about Lost Ark some 4 or 5 years ago.
I’ve finally got a chance to dive in and try most of the base classes. And Oh my God, where has this game been my entire life?
The blend of MMORPG and ARPG is just so perfect. I’ve leveled two of the Warrior classes — Berserker and Warlord to nearly 30, and with a friend just joining decided to take a look at Bard alongside them.
Easy contender for top spot next month, but as I called out in the sneak peek — it’s by no means certain. Technically you cannot play this outside of Korea, so my account could be terminated at any point. It is going to be difficult in the extreme though to keep my mindset as one of testing and experimenting rather than dedicated though.
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
The last episode of the Fate of Atlantis DLC dropped this month, spurring me back into AC’s rendition of Greece where the myths are real.
I’ve started my way into chapter 2 of the First Blade DLC.
I’ve almost finished annihilating the Order of the Storm — Chapter 2’s addition to the Persian Cult — but I’m endeavouring to hunt a few final clues before the final engagement of the chapter. It is my hope that I can save this person rather than slaughter them. I don’t know if it’s possible, but it has been elsewhere in the story. So… Here’s to hoping!
The Others
Quite a hodgepodge here, as is my way. :)
Stellaris made a bit of a surprise return visit in the form of a 4 player game set in a small galaxy size, so that we could test out the recently released Ancient Relics Story pack which added archaeological dig sites that you could have your scientists work on.
Warframe saw a little bit of a revisit too after Tennocon. I still have much to do here, as even in this return I didn’t set foot onto Venus/Fortuna. I think I’m holding out for The New War and Empyrean to download into our hot little waiting hands.
Although I did discover today that there has been a little more added to the story of space mother (aka Natah)! It came alongside the Jupiter / Gas City revamp, and it is apparently quite telling of things to come in the New War story. I may not be able to resist doing that soon.
The rest on the list also make some degree of sense for me I suppose, but if you quirked a brow at Parkasaurus… Well. It’s a tycoon game for a start. I do also love those after all. But mostly, I have an 8-year old boy who still adores Dinosaurs. So this thing was about the best thing ever. For… *looks* …A bit under an hour. ;D
This one’s a little odd. Usually I have another game I’m adding when I do these posts. Not so this time. But I’ve been giving my games list on the sidebar the side-eye for a while. It is very much not accurate. Beyond even the point of thinking a game there might just hold out that little longer for a return.
Nope, they’re jumping straight into the ‘removed’ bucket this time!
Changes to the Game List
Added
None!
Remaining
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
Final Fantasy XIV
Nearly Removed
None!
Removed
Nioh
Transport Fever
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey saw the last chapter of its second DLC release just this past week, so I’ve spent a little extra time getting acquainted again. I still have the final two chapters of the first DLC to play through too, so there is a bit of life left in this one yet! :D
Otherwise, with Final Fantasy XIV taking more of my gaming time again it isn’t too surprising that other things are dropping out. Although that is only a part reason.
In the last journal I talked about how Nioh had been put on hold earlier in the month to allow my eldest son to catch-up so we could play it together co-op. Welp; that never happened. I could carry on with it singleplayer, but the momentum has been broken.
Then all the way back in the May Journal I noted that I would likely put a premature end to the Chasing Truck Fever series. I allowed for the possibility of carrying on with it in a more typical post format. But uh, clearly that didn’t happen.
This has been coming for a wee while. Ever since playing Sekiro, the urge to play Nioh again has been building. Making time for it has been another matter entirely. I have been playing a bit more this month than I did last month though. Although in case you’re wondering — no, you didn’t miss the first outing with the game. Well actually you did, I guess. But it wasn’t in the lifetime of this blog.
The last time I played Nioh would’ve been the tail end of 2017. I’d somehow missed the fact it had even gained itself a PC release, but jumped right on it when I found out. I pushed through level 2 (the ‘hell level’, for new comers apparently) and a bit beyond. I’d wrapped up through most of the second area in fact. With one, significant, exception.
Tachibana Muneshige — Invitation from the Warrior of the West: Invites you to an ‘honourable’ duel, then proceeds to cheat like nobody’s business. CHEAT I SAY.
This bugger was the true ‘hell level’ in my opinion. Stopped me in my tracks. This time through, already beaten him and on my way through the third region of the game. Even though it’d been so long since I last played, I’ve strugged far less with it this time around.
In terms of everything else going on (or not going on, as the case may be)…
Changes to the Game List
Added
Nioh
Remaining
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
Final Fantasy XIV
Nearly Removed
Transport Fever
Removed
Tomb Raider
Assassin’s Creed is in a bit of a holding pattern until the third chapter to the Atlantis DLC is out (or is to be imminently out), but the hype for that moment is still high so I’m content to hold onto it.
Transport Fever is a bit more tentative. I acknowledged in the last journal that I wasn’t really happy with how the series was going. I thought I might take to the more general, intermittent style posting, rather than attempting it as a continuous story. But since then I’ve hardly touched it.
And Tomb Raider? Well, it’s fallen onto the wrong end of the Making Time equation. I’m still interested in it, and would like to finish the series. But now will not be the time for that it seems. It’s below the waterline in terms of time available vs. prioritised list of things I want to play.
I have no doubt it will be back… At some point. :)
Well… May is a month that happened. While nothing as earth shaking as March, it was closer to home. In the respect that it was both to people I knew and to a degree it was from action I was executing. I’m talking about the restructure at work.
As a brief catch-up, I decided to take voluntary redundancy but that wasn’t the end of it. With the labour cost restrictions for the coming financial year… There was still headcount compression that had to happen within the remainder of my team. One in particular took it very hard and I haven’t as yet been able to place them anywhere else in the company. Nonetheless, I’ve been able to negotiate early release for those that want it and everyone is getting to a better place.
Still it’s not over though, and I’ve been offered a few interesting potentials to get me to stay. There is a lot to unpack mentally in this though, as I do in many ways still feel it is my time to go, and seek some change. In any case, enough of that. The point is — a lot on the mind this month which has kept me from really digging too much into games or blogging (from a reading or writing perspective) as much as I would like.
Blog this Month
For all that, I still managed to publish 12 posts. But they were rather heavily weighted toward the start of the month before things got hectic. Four posts in the first week of the month, then typically only 2 after that.
There are now a grand total of 71 published posts (including this one). It also marks the 6th month of posting! … Sort of. It’s hard to count January since I started so close to the end. Even so, I think I’ll take it. ;)
Well what do you know, all posts except for the Heart of Rage were actually from this month. I wonder how long before it falls from top spot though. I suspect it will last through next month, one after that I’m less confident about.
Games this Month
Rank
Game
Hours
% Gaming Time
Change
1
Transport Fever
9.1
31.1%
↑3
2
Final Fantasy XIV
9.0
30.9%
Returning
3
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
2.9
10.0%
↓2
4
The Division 2
2.4
8.3%
↓2
5
Battle Brothers
1.6
5.3%
New
6
Sea of Thieves
1.5
5.1%
New
7
Star Traders: Frontiers
1.5
5.0%
New
8
Production Line
0.6
2.1%
New
9
Absolver
0.6
2.1%
New
There was a total of 29.1 gaming hours this month, down by a whopping 68.6 hours from April. Not too surprising given the context of the month, but still! The total gaming hours is not much more than half the time I spent on just AC:O last month.
Total active time on the computer was 203.1 hours, down 65.7 hours from last month. Gaming made up 14.3% of the active hours, down 22.9% from April.
Transport Fever
I played through a few of the actual gameplay sections for the Chasing Truck Fever series (including one as yet to be posted).
If not for the series, despite still enjoying the game immensely I think it would have fallen a lot lower on the list in terms of time played. The series itself hasn’t been doing super well, which I suppose isn’t too surprising given the genre itself is a bit niche. May end up putting a premature end to it in that form, with my more general intermittent update style post.
Final Fantasy XIV
Final Fantasy XIV makes a triumphant return! … Well, it makes a return at least! Despite relatively few hours in it this month, there has been a lot of progress made.
I got my Choboco. Taught it how to fight. Learnt the way of the Bard. Completed another story dungeon or two, and made it to around level 36 or 37 now. As Mailvaltar correctly pointed out in comments though, this is still a long way off being able to participate in the new expansion content when it launches end of month.
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
I feel like dropping only two places in ranking doesn’t adequately tell the story of just how much less played it was this month. It was almost 19x less time spent.
I posted earlier in the month when I finished the first chapter of the first DLC. Since then I’d decided to wait until all chapters of the Fate of Atlantis DLC are out before continuing. If that isn’t this month, it should certainly be the next, as Part 2 came out a week or two ago.
The Division 2
I had some hopes for the raid bringing my interest back around for The Division 2.
I’m not to the point of uninstalling it, I definitely want to head back in for any additional story content they add throughout the year. But as something I regularly play, definitely done and I feel that would have been the case even without the additional context of the happenings this month.
The Others
Sea of Thieves
A few interesting titles to try this month. The XBox/Microsoft live pass thinger had a trial offer of 3-months for $1 — so why not? Gave it a go for Sea of Thieves.
There was a bit of fun to be had, but it didn’t really click with my friends or I in any meaningful way. Doubtful it will be returned to even with another 2 and a bit months on the trial clock.
Battle Brothers on the other hand, I like very much. I owe it to Syncaine for even being aware of its existence. Not quite sure how this one had passed me by for so long, but I expect when my gaming time starts returning to some semblance of normalcy it will feature more heavily. It’s a title that absolutely requires a bit of time investment upfront in learning to play, and does a very poor job of teaching necessary bits of information in the game itself.
Absolver
For Absolver… Boy am I glad I picked it up in a Monthly Humble Bundle rather than paying for it. At first I thought I might be able to click with it after all.
It seemed very responsive and I thought that the ‘lag’ issues discussed at the titles launch were either incredibly overblown or now fixed. Turns out neither was the case, there is simply a brief single-player only ‘tutorial’ section at the start. Once you’re through that, as an Oceanic player you just have no chance with half-second or more delays on input to response on screen.
Production Line I mentioned in the last journal as something I picked up alongside Transport Fever while in my tycoon craze phase. I gave it a bit of a try this month and it has a fair bit of potential. I haven’t picked up its DLC, ‘Doors That Go Like This’ yet, but I appreciate the name. Hehe.
And finally, Star Traders: Frontiers — it’s still early access and has if not weekly updates, then near enough to. It’s one I poke my head into again from time to time, but will await a 1.0 release before embarking on a full play through. Nonetheless, it’s already an amazing title well worth your time. :)
This month has been very light on gaming. Mostly, I think, due to the changes at work. As I mentioned in that post, there were unavoidable impacts to my team where a few positions had to be cut and I know for one in particular this has been quite a heavy and heartfelt impact. Part of it is down to longer hours at work sorting through the process, including looking for redeployment options for people in other areas of the business sure. But I also find that in situations like this I unconsciously choose to drift from gaming.
Which might be a bit of an odd reaction when you consider a large part of the reason for the hobby is as a destressor.
But in any case! Updates to the Games of Interest are afoot. As the title suggests, Final Fantasy XIV makes a return. It seems the seeds I planted in the minds of a few friends when last I was playing finally took root and sprung to life. It was a near thing though, with Elder Scrolls Online’s Elswyer expansion now out I was pretty keen to dip my toes back in there, too.
But we’re also super close to the new content of FFXIV’s Shadowbringer expansion. I’m nowhere near ready at level 35 and running through the Realm Reborn’s main story quest — a mandatory linear chain of quests which you cannot skip or otherwise short circuit by simply leveling past. *grumble*
Changes to the Game List
Added
Final Fantasy XIV
Remaining
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
Transport Fever
Nearly Removed
Tomb Raider
Removed
The Division 2
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
AC:O I’ve taken a pause on while the DLC catches up. Episode 2 of Atlantis just released the other day, so roughly 5-6 weeks until Episode 3 is out concluding that series and I’ll binge through the lot. ;)
Tomb Raider is holding on for now, as I still have a clear intent to go back and finish the second and third games — whether that intent will materialise into action in the context of limited time and an MMO back on the table though… We’ll see. ;)
Sekiro should come as no surprise to be removed. It had been holding on by a finger nail for a while. While I wouldn’t say I bounced off it hard like my very first encounter with a Souls game, it failed to grab me very firmly either. I noted during the April Journal that playing it made me want to jump in Nioh instead. With Nioh 2 starting to make more of an appearance that feeling grows ever stronger. Perhaps it will end up replacing Tomb Raider? ;)
I guess what might come as a bit more of a surprise is the removal of The Division 2. I gave the raid a try in the hopes it would revitalise the game for me. It didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, the raid is well constructed and the boss mechanics are actually interesting.
It was better than I expected, speaking frankly. But the decision not to raise the ilvl from the raid’s drops struck me as odd. Although I suppose even had they raised it, it would have been a short lived extension to the game. So! Making it official. The Division 2 is off my list for the time being. I expect I will want to visit again when more story content comes though. :)
Since last time, I rose to the top of the Mercenary food-chain. … Or so I thought. And more importantly, the Cult of Kosmos is no more. I will admit too, that I was legitimately surprised at how that whole saga played out. Even after collecting the majority of the clues, I still hadn’t suspected the person it ultimately turned out to be.
With those things done, I would consider all the main threads of the base game to be completed. There are dozens upon dozens of hours worth of additional side quest content available, but this is certainly more of a mixed bag when it comes to quality. I’ve done a fair share of it in my adventures throughout the ancient isles of Greece, but I have no real interest in actively pursuing the rest of it.
What I have been interested in, is finally getting to sink my teeth into the DLC. Technically I could have done it earlier. The game doesn’t require you to finish every (or really, any) thread of the main game to start. But without spoiling anything I can say that the story it presents makes a lot more sense should you wait.
Wait. Did I step back into The Witcher 3?
I was mostly excited by the prospect of digging into the game’s second major set of DLC, Fate of Atlantis.1 I was a bit more curious on the curious side about how I would find having to go through the first set of DLC, Legacy of the First Blade.2 It didn’t review very strongly at all.
I’ve avoided digging too deeply into said reviews for worry of spoilers, but from the few I did — the main complaint seemed to centre around Legacy using existing areas on the map to tell it’s story. I can kinda see this. If you had been waiting and waiting for this DLC to come, and had been exploring the map to extract every ounce of questly-value you could, and then received the DLC and it didn’t take you anywhere new… Sure.
A moment of quiet reflection on action and consequence.
That isn’t my situation though. I had it ready in full the moment I was ready for it. The area it covers was still largely new to me as the main story chain only ever briefly takes you there. So I was impressed. I’ve only completed Chapter 1 (of 3) so far. So to be sure there is certainly time for it to change my mind. But I really enjoy the story it has started to tell. I really enjoy the extension to the gameplay it offers.
Legacy of the First Blade is telling a bit of a darker story so far. I haven’t yet come to the point of controversy either. (Note: Clicking through to that will spoil the end of Chapter 2.)
I have to be honest and say that without the coverage of the issue, I probably wouldn’t even have thought twice about it on my own with the perspective through which I’m playing. Nonetheless, I applaud Ubisoft’s response to the criticism they received. It was a heck of a lot more than I expected.
I’ve had way less gaming (or writing) time this week. Seems to be a bit of a theme at beginning of each month actually, although I couldn’t tell you why. In any case, I’m OK with pacing the remaining content I have with Odyssey out a wee bit.
The first chapter of The Fate of Atlantis is out, but there is a 6 week delay between releases of the remaining chapters and I far prefer being able to binge my content, or at least have the option of setting my own pace. :)
April was a comparative breeze to last month. It seemed to go by so fast, too! Possibly helped somewhat by the extended break that Easter and ANZAC day allowed for by taking just a few extra annual leave days to bridge the gaps for a bit over a week off.
Blog this Month
I published 12 posts this month, settling into an average of 3 posts per week. This seems sustainable and will likely become the pattern I aim for. Looking back over April, there isn’t much regularity as to which 3 days I post, but I think that’s OK for now.
There are a grand total of 59 published posts (including this one), and at the current rate it’ll be another 4+ months before I hit 100 posts. However I have passed the 100 day mark. One of the very first milestones I knew I wanted to break through.
Heart of Rage tips still drives a large portion of the site’s traffic, with roughly 6x the views of the second most viewed post this month. But the significant drop-off I expected for this article last month is starting now. The overall hits for April are around half that of March where this article was performing like a monster.
In more positive news though, ranks 2 through 4 were posts from this month!
Games this Month
Rank
Game
Hours
% Gaming Time
Change
1
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
54.8
56.0%
New
2
The Division 2
16.2
16.6%
↓1
3
Tomb Raider
7.8
7.9%
New
4
Transport Fever
6.2
6.4%
New
5
Rise of the Tomb Raider
4.7
4.8%
New
6
Northgard
1.7
1.7%
New
7
Overwatch
1.5
1.5%
New
8
Nioh
1.3
1.3%
New
9
Far Cry: New Dawn
1.2
1.2%
↓6
10
Anno 1800
1.2
1.2%
New
11
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
1.2
1.2%
↓6
‘New’ does not necessarily mean the game is new to me (although it may). I’m not quite sure yet how, or if, I want to represent a returning game that has skipped some time from the list.
That was a total of 97.7 gaming hours, up only 4.2 hours from last month. Given there was a week off, that does surprise me a little! Although I suppose I did catch up on a fair few shows.
Total active time on the computer was 262.8 hours, up 21.5 hours from last month. Gaming made up 37.2% of the active hours, down 1.5% from March.
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
I’ve mentioned before, but this one coming in such a big way this month really took me by surprise.
It made a believer out of me for the inclusion of ‘Photo Mode’ in games. Something I’d been a little ‘meh’ on previously. Neither for nor against. I kind of want it in everything now. ;)
But most impressive of all, for me, is that it has carried me through to and even beyond the ‘end’. Since that post I’ve cleaned house of the Cult of Kosmos, got my way to the top of the Mercenary foodchain.1
I’ve made a bit of a start into the first DLC, with the rest to come. :)
The Division 2
The 16 odd hours I have on TD2 were fairly heavily front-loaded into the month. I’ve not really touched it in a few weeks.
I had expected to jump in with the release of the Raid, but that was delayed until next month. I’m happy with my gear setup with the context of what is currently possible already, so back to being ‘done’ until the raid arrives. Unfortunately Tidal Basin and the new gear tier from there didn’t provide much more play time for me. When next month the Raid is put into our hands on Live will determine how much time The Division 2 gets next month.
Tomb Raider (and Rise of the Tomb Raider)
The ‘planned’2 series for the month. I finished the first game of the rebooted series and made a start on the second entry.
Almost immediately I was taken by the degree of iteration and change that occurred between the entries even though they were barely 2 years apart. I still intend to finish these after I’m done with Odyssey, but we’ll see. I’ve also been on something of a Tycoon game kick lately, which leads into…
Transport Fever
Setup some basic inner citytown village horse and carriage loops, with longer paths connecting the depot to another village entirely.
I’m not entirely sure what triggered it, but recently I started to get a real hankering to play a Tycoon-style game again. I went on a bit of a YouTube and Reddit Prowl and ultimately landed on Transport Fever.
It is rather aptly named I must say, I went in ‘just to take a screenshot’ for this post. Almost 3 hours later, I’m finally back. At least I remembered to get the screenshot!
Transport Fever has a number of quirks to it, and a rather arcane (at first) signalling system for trains. So I’ve been immersing myself in a lot of YT Let’s Plays and Tutorial videos as well. I have a much firmer grasp on things now, but still learning some things as I go — like what the AI people preferences are when provided with options.
Transport Fever 2 has been announced, and looks beautiful but I was really wanting something to play now so still went with the original. Didn’t hurt that it was 70% off on Steam when I was looking. To go along with scratching my Tycoon itch though, I also picked up Production Line, but haven’t yet given it a go.
The Others
Quite a few games with less than 2 hours played this month. Overwatch and Northgard I spent some time playing with my brother. Overwatch for one of the events that promoted playing of an arcade mode where the skill cooldowns were (basically) eliminated. Made for some quite intense rounds, I will say. And allowed me a Play of the Game! As Moira! xD
Northgard
Northgard as I gave him a spare copy from the last Humble Monthly Bundle. We both really enjoyed it until we came to the realisation, too late, that you cannot save game for multiplayer.
If you can’t finish in the single sitting you just have to abandon. I remember this being a thing in RTS’ of old, but I never expected to encounter it in a modern title.
Ah well.
Nioh: Midway through the first boss fight. Ultimate form incoming!
Nioh I loaded for the express purpose of checking whether it cloud saves or not. (It does, if you were wondering.) Ended up starting a new game and played through the entire tutorial area and a bit of the first mission to refresh myself on the game.
Playing Sekiro actually made me want to go back and play more Nioh instead. It probably isn’t a good sign for a game when it makes you want to play something else instead. Nonetheless, I haven’t quite given up on it yet. That may come soon, or I might surprise even myself and make some time for it. It’s been known to happen!
Far Cry New Dawn on the other hand I have removed. I acknowledged even in the March Review that I was starting to drift from it a little. In the extra hour or so I played, I simply beelined the main story and made some good progress against it as a result.
From what I understand the FCND storyline is not all that long, so just given that I may go back and finish. Will have to see.
Anno 1800 is one I’ll be back to. Although who knows when. It is a beautiful game at times, and the beginning masks a fairly deep and detailed game once you start stepping through the civilian classes, eras of technology and more. I picked it up on Steam before it left that storefront, and then just had to give it a go. :)
