GRW....

 

Crate rewards for the new challenges..... Interesting.

It's kind of an incentive.... Even if the items are cosmetic..... And I'll probably never use them....

With no opportunity for me to get back to the game till the weekend I may finish it off then......

Torchlight II....

I finished off the main run of Torchlight II. A casual experience on an Outlander dual wielding pistol toting character. A fun rpg blasting run.

Despite a hiccup in getting the game to run, I found the problem and haven't had any trouble since.

Well there was one other problem of my own doing in regard to a loss of a save game; disheartening but not a fatal blow.

I ran the game as a completionist, so doing the sidequests (there are not many at all). Maybe three or four per area with two-ish area's per act and four acts in all. That last act is really the second part of the third but it is it's own distinct area(no sidequests).

There are hidden area's and rooms but access isn't all that hard to find. One or two did need a google here and there(sunken lever.... the sunken lever).
With the end of the game I still had one side quest but I can live with that(Robot parts are random and I'm not that into the RNG game).

A good guide worth reading before really getting into the game is:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=484846879

Great game, not one your'll be spending a massive amount of time in unless you ramp up the difficulty. I can see how it would be a massive challenge. I've enjoyed my casual playthrough and I'll be creating one of the other classes(three more), just to see what the differences are, at least in the starter levels. But I doubt I'll do a full playthrough again fun as it was first time round.

While I could go on and waffle my socks off, the ol screenies will say more, plus the vid at the end...

Casual Carebear

STO....

Q's event dailies are ongoing but don't feel like a grind. I think I've said that before about another set of dailies or other events in STO. The game has a good balance of effort and reward.

The worst experience in retrospect to activities/rewards was WoW, specifically late BC doing 20 odd dailies on multiple characters.... And almost getting trapped in something similar at the end of the (Wo)Dreanor expansion, never mind everything in between... farms/garrisons etc... Which all moves on and your efforts are for no long term benefit. Legendary weapons, something something....

Anyway speaking of long term benefit, my level 11 captain, a tactical, agent of yesterday/name placeholder; Has ships/gear/reputation boosts and other items. Gathered form other characters and events all in his bank in preparation for the day when I feel the need to level a low level captain. That's long term rewards not bound by expansion. I like that a lot.

Not to harp on... But getting a conversion of currencies to use in the C-Store, being able to buy items that otherwise would cost real world cash, even as a free to play account has been and remains amazing. I can't even count the amount of zen I've spent on the game yet it's not cost me a penny. It's not like I've gone out of my way to do a big grind like wow, I set fleet missions on a character and it all works itself out... Set and collect. How more easy could it be.

Saying all that doesn't mean that the game doesn't have grindy elements. 'Imho' those grindy activities can be avoided with minimal effort and fun in gameplay. I've been doing the game as a solo player with no fleet so I think that all does justify saying it's a game that's balanced effort and reward. I can only imagine that with the efforts of a fleet group I'd have so much more in game.

As for showing a glimpse of the fun, here's some combat from the latest featured episode:

Casual Carebear

Games with Gold....

The four games for February have no real gamplay interest for me. I'll redeem them all the same but I doubt I'll download them.

Here are the dates:

Xbox One:
Shadow Warrior (February 1 to 28)
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India (February 16 - March 15)

Xbox 360:
Split/Second (February  1 - 15)
Crazy Taxi (February 16 - 28)

I may take a peek of AC:India.... Then again I never looked at AC:China soooooo.... Meeeeeh

Xbox

STO....

There seems to be a 1 day "flash" sale today....

30% OFF EVERYTHING IN THE “DISCOUNTED PACKS” SECTION OF THE C-STORE, ON ALL THREE PLATFORMS!

Domina....

The life of Domina goes on. I've had to replace most of my gladiators. Thankfully I did it at the start of the year, training most of them up with the regional qualification matches.

I've also done a lot of the chariot races. They are fun but very very random in regard to the A.I. I'm not sure that I'll keep the horse's/chariots as each take up a gladiator space.....

STO....

The last two days has seen me get the final marks needed to complete all of the main reputations. Just the competitive to potter through, and I'm not pushed about that at all.

I've run through the new Featured Episode a few times to get two of the shields, one for my current ship and one for the event reward. I also claimed three of the weapons enhancers for the new ship.

The dailies have been ongoing, just another 9 day's of missions will see enough vouchers to finish and claim the ship. With the event finishing late in February there is also no rush with that, sooner is still better.

GRW....

With the addition of the cosmetic loot creates to 'enhance' Ghost War there's a free version of each type of create for players. Getting something for free that would've otherwise had to be purchased is always nice. Here's what I got.....

Ghost War:

Spec Ops:

Hitman....

No great trial and error but three attempts at the method used by MrFreeze2244. I just decided to do it as suit only..... just because.

The only soldier that made things difficult is the one that "forgets" to return his access card and passes through the underground (from the shop). His timing can be annoying.

Casual Carebear

STO....

Good progress is being made in the rep department. No min/maxing here, just lots of rep splurging. The Lukari is the last main rep to do and then just the last two tiers of the competitive.

Not too bad overall. The winter event really helped as is having the third new Red Alert.

ETS 2....

So maybe I got back into the game and did one more delivery.... And a few changes to the 'ol truck.

BF1....

Peek-a-Boo.....

Hitman....

Another Elusive Target is due....

MrFreeze2244

STO....

The 8th anniversary event brings Q back with his dancing girls for the usual party crasher/omega particle dailies. A familiar set of daily missions, no complaints here. The particle daily grants 40 rep marks and the first time through the featured episode grants 400. That cuts the grind down. 

The featured episode is an interesting narrative if a bit mundane in practice. It has an interesting shield reward on completion.

The anniversary gift for today are two Enhanced Universal Tech Upgrades.

With all that's going on it's not passed my attention that the current lock box's are for the new show.
I'm no fan of it in or out of the game. Watching the series is face-palm inducing at the best of times.
And for the lockbox rewards the only thing that's caught my eye are the boots on the Mudd outfit. No way am I gonna get key's to even attempt to get anything from that set.

Domina....

Snack time....

STO....

The 8th anniversary official announcement....

https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/10774394-welcome-to-our-8th-anniversary

With the patch deployed and the downtime over the reward/event ship can be worked towards.

I also wonder what the daily gift will be....

Being away from home and with only a usb internet dongle for my laptop the download speeds are not amazing. I'll have to wait another few hours till I get home, properly patch the game and test out the event.

STO....

And the next freebie for the 8th Anniversary.....

2 Specialisation points:

ETS 2....

With the Festive deliveries no longer available I've leveled up my character enough to gain better contracts on par with the value of the winter event deliveries. That's not to say they are easy, delivering the presents was a much lighter cargo in comparison.

Overall I've been able to upgrade the garage to a large, buy and semi upgrade 3 trucks and hire three drivers(3.3/3.5/1.7). They have been skilling up well and the profits have been adding up. An interesting process. I'm glad to have gotten it this far.

In an effort to not buy a new "better" truck for my own use I ended up upgrading. Unfortunately I may have gone a bit over the top with the look(the two horns on top.....).

I think I'll be leaving the game alone for a while or until the next event (winter '18?).

To sate any need for ET2 I'll be continuing to watch youtubers like Daggerwin.

XCOM....

A youtuber I keep an eye on recently started playing the first of the newer XCOM games. This got me nostalgic for my old saved games. So a quick download and application of old saves brought me back into the war.

I have a good setup; Top ranked, armoured, geared and enhanced genetic teams of 6. Usually 2xSniper 2xHeavy and 2xAssault/Medic. A good mix of class's to mix and match a team with.

While I've beaten the game I do like to play on for a bit and enjoy having good teams to operate with. But that leads onto something else I do with games in a similar situation. I end up taking rookies, gearing them up in the massed amounts of old gear/equipment and send hem into the fray. Lambs to the slaughter but a challenge is a challenge.

It's been a while since I last talked about that in detail. I've not returned to the game till now. I doubt it would be real fun to try and level basic soldiers even with the academy buff at this end game state.

So my last save game has my main squads, on par backup replacements, lower ranked but capable "leveling" squad and a pink clad 'mess' crew..... 

Yea that wasn't micromanagement/complicated enough for me so on loading the last save I recruited a few squaddies and used them to mess about with.... Disposable mess about with. Using only older armour/weapons/gear. Save after setting them up and time to battle test for 'fun'.....

Limit Theory....

Interesting stuff....

DistantReachGaming

STO....

It's nice that Perfect World / Arc Games are giving away items for the STO anniversary before the specific anniversary dates/event.

Day 5 (6, 7 & 8) STO says:

"Friday, January 19th at 10am PT – Monday, January 22nd at 10am PT:

It’s everyone’s favorite holiday – free ship day! Head to the ships section of the C-store all this weekend, Captains, and you can get a T5 Defiant Tactical Escort Retrofit, a T5 Dhelan Warbird Retrofit, and a T5 B’rel Bird-of-Prey Retrofit, all for free!"

A gaming update.....

Games, so many games. I've got a long list. A list that is only seeming to get longer. What I consider to be my current active list includes some older games and others that were brand new with a season pass and all the trimmings.

My 'current' games:
Torchlight II
Coldwaters
Battlefleet Gothic
Aven Colony
Planet Coaster
Middle-Earth Shadow of Mordor
XCOM 2 (not War of the Chosen)
Divinity Original Sin 2
The Witcher 3 (GOTY)
Battlefield 1 (DLC; Updates)

The length and depth (Coldwaters pun) of some of those games are massive. Me being a competitionist doesn't help in the slightest. When looking at how long it would take to 'complete' the bigger games it becomes a daunting task to even consider starting.

Middle-Earth Shadow of Mordor,  between 21 to 76 hours of gameplay
The Witcher 3 (GOTY), about 160 hours of gameplay.
XCOM 2, 60 to 180 hours of gameplay.
Divinity Original Sin 2 130 to 160 hours.

Looking at those numbers makes me forget about the gameplay and completely scuttles(Coldwaters pun?) the fun out of the process.

The number of games I've considered complete but that are receiving updates/addons is also increasing. These add to the pressure. It seems much easier to go back to games I already consider as complete when they are still providing new content.

Ongoing games(Including MMO's):
Hitman (Elusive targets, Pro mode)
Everspace (Expansion)
Ghost Recon Wildlands (Challenges)
Domina (lots of game changing updates)
South Park TFBW (DLC)
Darkest Dungeon (Updates, DLC)
Kingdoms and Castles (Updates)
Euro Truck Simulator 2 (Updates)
Stardew Valley (Updates)
Eve Online (never ending updates/content)
Star Trek Online (never ending updates/content)

It's hard for me to cut the cord on a lot of games. I've dropped a good few in the last year. Given them a go, played and decided nah it's never gonna work. Not quiet sorting the wheat from the chaff but definitely culling the herd.

Of the four big time killing games I listed above the only game considered new and current in the gaming world is Divinity OS2. At least for now. That says a lot for my 'new' game progression.

While I like getting free games and games at a discount in a steam/gog or other sale, the last few month's has felt overflowing with offers. It's one reason I avoid the humble bundles. So much content at a low price; Almost too much content. If I can't get through the games I currently have then what hope of getting through an avalanche of games for the sake of buying cheaply in bulk no matter the organisation's cause.

Completion of games is balanced by the amount of time needed to complete the games in an enjoyable fashion. Enjoyment is key, why else play the games. Some enjoyment is better than others. My enjoyment of eve is born from being able to micromanage assets and not just a story-line.
I'm not sure there is a happy middle ground. I need to curb the ultra completionist in me. That will be hard to do, ignoring distant loot and side-quests isn't easy never mind whole game completion-ism.
Yet new games that spark interest or are a genre I like get added on and only increase the "workload".

I've already started to ignore the latest launches, if I can't play it right away why spring full price for a game and it's extras. Wait 6 month's or a year and pick up the GOTY edition at 75 % off. The biggest burns in that regard I feel are Xcom2 and The Witcher 3. Time in this new year will only increase that "I should have waited" regret list. But even with The Witcher 3 I originally got the base copy of the game on my xbox over two years ago and never really played it!

There is an element of being defeatist and maybe some games on the list will never be 'done' with. Maybe the next day I've got a lot of time I'll but a few hours into one and make a decision to go on or cut it....
I need to stick to the fun. It's what I've been doing and another reason I've got a long list (replaying older games new content. Completion for completions sake is not worth it.

This is an ongoing struggle with no simple answer.

STO....

Day 4 of the 8th anniversary.... drumroll..... 200 Mark Promo pack. Claimable from the C-store under promotions.

A nice addition and just in time for me as my main is indeed grinding away on the rep marks front.

STO....

Ha ha ha......no.