Grasping for Entertainment
So... yeah...
I've been eyeing some games recently, but the ones available at the moment give me pause. As mentioned, I like the idea of Star Control Origins, but I'm not sure it lives up to it. I think it's something I might pick up discounted down the line. I've also been looking at Insomnia: The Ark, which seems like one of those second-tier enjoyable-but-technically-hindered-by-small-dev-studio games that may be worth playing, but will definitely be more worth playing after it has seen some patches. So that's at least two new releases that I feel I should hold off on.
With the reviews (and my general enjoyment of the previous installment), I think I'm down to dive into Assassin's Creed Odyssey on release, though that doesn't come out 'til the end of the week. It seems like a pretty safe bet in terms of overall quality as well as a lot of play time.
I dipped a toe into the second LFR wing of Uldir in WoW over the weekend, and that was a clusterfuck. First (and this might feel different if going in via the non-LFR version), the layout of Uldir does little to distinguish which wing is which (to the point the map level I zoned in on showed four exits, but no bosses), making getting around confusing. Then we have the unclear motivations of the raid to begin with - this is some titan containment facility on Zandalar and... uh... Brann's looking at it, I guess? Horde might be more invested, but not me. The first wing has a very coordination-heavy encounter, which is exactly the sort of thing that can wipe LFR groups. And I don't know if it's player error or raid design, but when I zoned into the second wing with two of three bosses down, we pulled trash and wiped a couple times in a row. Yeaaaah, I bailed on that run and am considering if there's anything in there I really care about at this point, having already reached ilevel 350 when the LFR drops start at 340.
And, in searching for something to watch, I queued up The Beyond on Netflix. The pitch of a scifi movie where cyborg astronauts return from a mission ahead of schedule sounds like it could be interesting. The movie itself is less so. There are a few interesting ideas of transhumanism and first contact with aliens, but the documentary format is slow and makes it hard to really get invested. The astronauts don't even really launch until about the last third or quarter of the movie. Very meh overall.
P.S. Ah, right. Pathfinder: Kingmaker was another game on my interested-but-maybe-not-yet list. I don't really feel like an isometric party RPG right now, but also the comments seem to mention a lot of bugs and major encounter balance issues. Those are the sorts of things that, again, may get better with some time and patches.
I've been eyeing some games recently, but the ones available at the moment give me pause. As mentioned, I like the idea of Star Control Origins, but I'm not sure it lives up to it. I think it's something I might pick up discounted down the line. I've also been looking at Insomnia: The Ark, which seems like one of those second-tier enjoyable-but-technically-hindered-by-small-dev-studio games that may be worth playing, but will definitely be more worth playing after it has seen some patches. So that's at least two new releases that I feel I should hold off on.
With the reviews (and my general enjoyment of the previous installment), I think I'm down to dive into Assassin's Creed Odyssey on release, though that doesn't come out 'til the end of the week. It seems like a pretty safe bet in terms of overall quality as well as a lot of play time.
I dipped a toe into the second LFR wing of Uldir in WoW over the weekend, and that was a clusterfuck. First (and this might feel different if going in via the non-LFR version), the layout of Uldir does little to distinguish which wing is which (to the point the map level I zoned in on showed four exits, but no bosses), making getting around confusing. Then we have the unclear motivations of the raid to begin with - this is some titan containment facility on Zandalar and... uh... Brann's looking at it, I guess? Horde might be more invested, but not me. The first wing has a very coordination-heavy encounter, which is exactly the sort of thing that can wipe LFR groups. And I don't know if it's player error or raid design, but when I zoned into the second wing with two of three bosses down, we pulled trash and wiped a couple times in a row. Yeaaaah, I bailed on that run and am considering if there's anything in there I really care about at this point, having already reached ilevel 350 when the LFR drops start at 340.
And, in searching for something to watch, I queued up The Beyond on Netflix. The pitch of a scifi movie where cyborg astronauts return from a mission ahead of schedule sounds like it could be interesting. The movie itself is less so. There are a few interesting ideas of transhumanism and first contact with aliens, but the documentary format is slow and makes it hard to really get invested. The astronauts don't even really launch until about the last third or quarter of the movie. Very meh overall.
P.S. Ah, right. Pathfinder: Kingmaker was another game on my interested-but-maybe-not-yet list. I don't really feel like an isometric party RPG right now, but also the comments seem to mention a lot of bugs and major encounter balance issues. Those are the sorts of things that, again, may get better with some time and patches.
The Dragon Prince (done by some of the folk behind Avatar: the Last Airbender) has been getting good reviews
ReplyDeleteThat's on my mental "to watch" list, as well as the most recent season of Voltron. I haven't quite felt like diving into either just yet, but I'm sure I will at some point.
DeleteHeh. I did start up a new run of The Long Dark as something to play on the side a few days ago. Almost immediately, I was mauled twice by a moose (which was a new thing around the last time I played) before I first got to shelter. Lovely way to start off a survival game with two instances of the stamina and capacity-reducing "broken ribs" status! Plus there have been changes to the cooking system that took a little work to figure out. For all those disadvantages, though, the run's actually gone pretty well since, including finding a rifle and clawing my way to semi-stability in a lake-side ranger station. I may be able to hole up there with fish and firewood until the ribs heal and then move on. ... Or Friday might come and I may start AC Odyssey. Either way.