Immortals Fenyx Rising - Demo....

On Normal the demo, at least for me, was really enjoyable. While it may have a lot of similar elements to a Nintendo title; It is it's own game. I really like the game, it's style and mechanics. Puzzles, platforms and epic fights. This is one of those titles that does it all in a way that I can get with. That and the humour.

It's a game I can play with keyboard and mouse but I felt is better with a controller.

My main problem is with it's various editions and their prices.

3 versions(for pc) that I can see. Normal. Gold (season pass, dlc extras) & Gamestop exclusive Shadowmaster edition. Which does look really cool.

While I'd heard the hype about how good it is; Playing the demo was the real test and it passed with flying colours(pun intended). 

The hype may be real but the prices and what you get..... Makes me want to wait 6 months/a year and pick up an all bells and whistles game of the year edition(or whatnot) on sale for €40! It'll happen!

Great game from what I've seen in the demo. I like it and I can promote it.... If you've no hassle with buying it on Ubi ... Or Epic.... Or for full price or for it's current 33% off price(still expensive)..... Then fair enough.....I'll stick with the 'if it's good it'll still be good a year on' mentality. I've a bunch of games in my back catalog so that waiting isn't a problem.

ETS 2....

....And the Hauling Hope personal event goal is done.

There were only two slight knocks that damaged fragile cargo runs. Nothing is more expletive filled than a 240 km trip that ends by the fragile cargo being damaged when it tips off the gate of the delivery point. The other 'incident' happened midway through a trip when I went over railroad tracks, on a hump in the road, which made the trailer 'jump'(yea I may have been slightly speeding).

Overall I was successful in getting shorter journeys to minimize the pain. As well as for sanity reasons. Fragile cargo, not my favorite. Still it's done. I'm glad it was only 7 deliveries.

Bomber Crew....

There's a sense of completion with my 'main' save in Bomber Crew that I'm happy with. I've taken my time with the campaign progression. Doing extra missions to gain all the  gear, upgrades, experience, research, training and currency to allow it all to happen without to much restriction. It's a game I've really, really enjoyed the more I 'got into it'.

With the end of the campaign, the enemy aces all destroyed etc. Achievements came naturally as the campaign progressed; So much so that I have all but two. I felt the game was complete. 

Here's the caveat. It took a few tries to redo the last mission and get all the crew back alive. I admit I copied the save folder, I would overwrite it if the end mission wasn't going the way I wanted. 

I could do the mission and get it done successfully; My problem was getting all the crew back alive. Technically it's 'save scumming' and while my enjoyment of the game up to that point didn't need it; My fulfillment of the game did need all the crew to survive the last mission for a happy ever after(Memphis Belle style rather than Space above and beyond). 

Getting them that far after so much effort and luck was good. I needed them to all survive the last mission. A very subjective thing but a challenge nonetheless that I wanted and needed to do and did. Granted the plane was shot to bits, two engines missing, the crew injured but alive...I got them all home.

I've since created another crew to mess about with rather than go back into the first save. Again that's a me thing.

Getting the campaign done was all I wanted from the game. But now that the main game is done I've an urge for more and the USAAF DLC is looking a lot more appealing than a second playthrough.

I can let this crew off into the sunset. I'll have to see about another in a B-17.

Star Trek Online....

So much has been happening in game that it's been like a whirlwind of content. Or more accurately a constant stream, one thing after another that's bordering on fatigue. All of my own making. I've chosen to do and participate in it all and included alts. Since last time, I've been trying to do as much of it as is possible. PC and Xbox. 

On Xbox the Red Alerts finished...

And the 'current' main event is ongoing. Synth Wave is still a PITA to go through.

I'm still a bit bemused at the number of players in the TFO that keep getting killed; And as with the PC version the number of players in general who spend cash on the game but are less than effective. I'm no meta master by a long shot but experience shows my 'free' event ship and fit to be far better. 

Most of my STO time outside of the usual daily character maintenance has been unexpected gamepaly with my wife. After years(?) of 'give it a go'... she has.... 

I choose to tag along on my Discovery character as he was around the same level. Not that that really matters in STO with auto balancing for group content; It all levels out. Old alt habits die hard.

The 11th anniversary is ongoing and has provided daily rewards.

The event for the anniversary is broader than previous years in what you can choose to do to complete it.

There's also the removal of most ship restrictions across faction lines. Which really opens things up.... I've no stake in that nor any consideration on how it effects the 'health' of the game. I'm sure the meta heads are spinning in very pro and con ways.

The new recruit event is also active concurrently and again a broader take on the 'recruit' character mechanics. A far cry from the lack luster Discovery characters. Which in retrospect seems appropriate.

While I created a 'nu' KDF character to have a look'see I was surprisingly ok with the custom options of these nu in game Discovery Klingons.

I've never been one for story/dialogue but at least there isn't that much different from the normal KDF starter tutorial. It's a shade streamlined and more helpful than I remember.

I think I'll be deleting the look'see character.I did go ahead and delete a previous KDF character and recreated her, an Orion science KDF character to take advantage of this new recruit event. 

I've no idea when I'll play the character, never mind work out a best route for gaining all the 'recruit' specific rewards.

As for the daily gifts, they are worth while. Although I've seen some say that the free T5 ship token is underwhelming and should've been a T6 choice instead.

Speaking of which I was happy to choose a T5 I'd never have gotten otherwise. Plus it's a boon to my wife's character. I've no idea of stats but maybe they chose a T5 reward because the majority of players are hamstrung with the gap between the last free level 40 ship and aiming for a T6. I prompted her to get the T5 Avenger(which I choose a while ago in another giveaway); Maybe a Dyson ship would have been better? Maybe, maybe not, no need to over-over-complicate things. I went for the T5 Andorian Khyzon Escort. A ship I always liked the look of. Maybe my distance game meta osmosis kicked in(a few years to late).

It's been fun to fly. I took the best of the rest fit from the winter event ship and changed a few bits. I've been messing with and have been enjoying it. 

It may not be tanky but it's really fun.

The 5 free lockbox keys didn't' give anything of note. 

The Experimental Upgrade Token is always a good thing to get. I've 3 unused now.... I need to get back to seeing which ships need them more.

The free Kor Uniform..... meh, but maybe something may be of use on a KDF tailoring trip.

Free Bank and inventory slots are again nice to get.

They've been also doing a lot of updates to FDK content (graphics etc); Always nice to see and get even if I'll probably not see or notice much of it.

So much content so little time, the journey goes on!

STAR WARS Battlefront II....

Multiplayer in this game has lost it's sparkle for me. Which happened quicker than I expected. It can still have an awe factor just by being what it is. Yet nothing about the game modes 'does it for me', not in a long-term way. The visuals and soaring music scores can only do so much for so long. That brings me back around to the complaints I had before. Tactics go out the window when the overpowered ridiculousness of it all kicks in.

I've since completed both parts of the 'main' campaign.

I was happy with the main story and its ending but felt it was sullied by the jump in time for some recent trilogy tie-in blather. It's like the main story ending was stretched out and it's epilogue hijacked. Maybe that's just my dislike of the most recent trilogy of films coming though.

So after getting the ending cut-scene for the main campaign story, you get a blank screen 'decades later' then a splash loading screen with some minor text to say the journey goes on....in Multiplayer.... "Whatever".

Then you get the jump to the new time-frame setting of the aforementioned 'latest' film trilogy; For a much shorter 'quick', tidy things up 'campaign'. Which again(for the most part) does that job well.

Overall the campaign is good. Being the hero's of the original trilogy were perhaps the best parts, the comedy value from Han, Lando and the ever suffering character Shriv being the highlights.

I'm glad I didn't pay for the privilege; So maybe I shouldn't be to picky about it all. It may be a mile wide and an inch deep but it's a worthy Star Wars story.

Apparently 19 million people claimed the game; No wonder there was no shortage of multiplayer matches.

However the novelty has well worn off and there are other games to play.

ETS 2....

With so much going on in games running events etc; I've been doing a lot and also it seems missing some things. I hadn't heard of the latest event in ETS 2. Though there was a tweet to join the Devs which I ignored as I thought it was 'just' a normal dev stream.... It wasn't till I saw a retweet that it took my attention.

So another game and another event(Daily tasks are pilling up fast along with so many ongoing games).

At least I've started. This one will be a challenge for me with it's fragile cargo condition. The shorter the route the better.

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order....

Via Xbox Ultimate I've gotten the chance to play Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order. I've been mulling over why I don't like it. I like Star Wars..........Or rather the older the Star Wars movie/content, the better and more I like it(for the most part). Movies are top of that descending food chain and some games were very much of their day, as is this one. It's not a foolproof way of consideration, but it does cover the most ground to convey my likes.

So Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order, on Xbox One proved to be slightly glitchy for me. A lot of background and enemy NPC pop-in. It still looks good and played well.

However the main reason I don't like the game is the platforming. I get it's a better mechanic for this game; Jedi using the innate force senses and all is fine; Story, or as much of the story as I saw was 'fine'. I've seen reviews that delve further into the game and if it was't available to play via Ultimate I'd not be bothered with it..... I'm still not bothered with it. Again, caveat, that's not to say it's a bad Star Wars game; It just seems to have a lot of game-play mechanics that are 'not my thing'.

So much platforming, wall running...... for he sake of it in games these days....

Still once EA Play is available for Ultimate on PC I'll give it another try; The platform change may make the difference.

Battlefield 1....

Spot the unpopular theme of the week/month....

....Quickmatch Conquest for me.

Bomber Crew....

The base version of Bomber Crew was a free giveaway with Humble Bundle last week. I'd heard of it but never looked into it, never mind think about buying it. I recall a bit of hype about it and good reviews when it first came out. Getting it for free now seems the perfect chance to take a peek. 

Although I've only scratched the surface it's a good game. There's fun in it's crew management as well as makming sure they can carry out tasks in the air. No wonder there's so much DLC and a Sci-Fi space version. 

The cute factor hides tough enough gameplay mechanics if your not paying attention. It can be forgiving as well so there's give and take. 

Upgrading the plane and crew's gear is a driving factor that includes plenty of visual customizations. Like my Flaming Flying Pumpkin....

A game I'll be pottering about with for a while yet. Easy to play but I need more time to master....

Open the bomb bay doors.... Never mind being under attack..... Target the enemy fighters.....Close the bomb bay doors.... Why are the bomb bay doors still open!!!

A Casual Carebear Gamer