GameNotes January 28, 2020

Ath has spent her time doing daily quests in Uldum and the Vale.    I toss in rep for the Tortollans and the Waveblades when they’re up.

My Demon Hunter, now at level 118, is the next character leveling to 120.  I forget what a tough character she is.

Back to Classic, happily bouncing between characters, rather than doing what I “should do” and leveling one or two.   My Warlock is level 30 and needs a bunch of training, then back out to the Charred Vale for an everlastingly long wait for basilisk crystal scales to drop.  I need three more.  Should take a few days, given their low spawn and drop rate.

I got nothin’ this week but a few screenshots.

 

You can see why N’Zoth likes this guy.

 

I went in a Horrific Vision and all I got was this Eyeball Tunic.

 

My Demon Hunter pretending she’s home.

 

I finally finished up Stranglethorn Vale’s quests and there was the BEST pirate battle ever!

 

My Engineer enjoys her new ride without having to set foot into Mechagon.  Happy Gnome!

 

 

This looks just like Rose and Jack on the Titanic, right?

 

 

A Two Hour Quest (Sing It)

 

I just finished the questline to get the new Cloak, which keeps you from going bonkers.   How handy is that?  I started the quests last week and have been slowly doing bits.  So the two hours to get the Cloak, who knows what it would be in real time.  I may change my mind but at this time, without even entering an actual Horrific Vision, I’m saying I will not send another character through these.    Here’s the Cloak, (JMJ), it looks like the Pandaria insect guy cloaks which are awful.   Could it have been cool looking at least?    You can hardy see it, even.

 

GameNotes January 21, 2020

Elder Scrolls The Dark Heart of Skyrim trades dragons for vampires.  Extreme cold and vampires don’t sound appealing to me at this time, but I’ll wait to see more.

 

In World of Warcraft my Death Knight go to level 110 and I took her immediately to Boralus, super pleased to be able to skip the Battle of Lordaeron, in particular, and all the other cinematic and scenarios that keep your character from a pirate’s life.  She headed right over to Bridgeport in Tiragarde.  That was great.

 

Atherne, my main character, has been working in Uldum and The Vale in Pandaria on the new content.  From Uldum an ILevel 440 bracer was the reward.  Tonight when I logged in, I noticed it looked like my character had something in her hair.

Looking at her from the front, she had blotches on her face too. Purple.

It had to be the bracers.  Sure enough, when I took them off, the effects went away.  Grrr. I can’t stand unwanted cosmetic changes to my characters.  I began muttering about sitting this next expansion out.  I’ve plenty of characters to level, plus Classic, which will never be tainted by any icky changes ( so I tell myself).

Luckily today I find you can have these items cleansed by MOTHER.  If you have five Corrupted Mementos, of which I have none.  I’m on the lookout.

 

I settled for taking the piece off and putting my previous bracer on.  I can still kill everything I need to, so it should be alright.  We shall see!

Yucking it up in the Halls of Origination

 

Ye olde lever puzzle.  I ended up just running through till I got in the gate.  I cannot resist a lever puzzle.   There was also a block moving puzzle!  Lara must be nearby!

 

 

 

 

GameNotes January 14, 2020

 

I’ve been knocking out Achievements like mad over the weekend in World of Warcraft.  Tonight, just ahead of Uldum getting who knows what changes, I finished the questlines there with my Paladin, who I knew was farthest along.   There were a surprising number of cutscenes, but it was all pure Indiana Jones.  I had a hard time at first finding the quests to get started, but once I had one, I got more.

There were a few maddening sequences.  In one, you killed a Guardian and looted an orb from him, except the orb never dropped.   I did the sequence several times and finally just killed him outright, then I got the orb.

 

There were several where you needed to get mobs to 50% or 35% health, then use an object on them before they died.  Even unequipping my sword and trying to use my fishing pole did not work, one shot and the creatures were dead.   Luckily some canny character on Wowhead offered the advice to get a toy called a Soft Foam Sword.  This saved the day, and will surely help when I get to Outlands and Northrend.

You need the mob to be stationary (hello, camels, stop for a second!), then it takes a long slow swing.  You’ve got to be quick to use your object on them before they’re dead, because it took them way way down in health.  Still, I love my new foamie and will call it George.

 

What the actual…on this guy.   I couldn’t get him to stay down, his health popped back up and I finally ran out of his area and he went away.   He appeared as a dragon later and was flying around in a circle. He’d get hit by fire, fall, die, pop back up.  Very creepy.

 

Push, Pull

Now that I’m back to adventure games, I find The Grumpy Gamer’s post https://grumpygamer.com/verbs_verbs_verbs  really entertaining.    He’s definitely given the way you interact with objects a great deal of thought.   It seems to me most games either have an Interact key (E) or a hand that shows up when you can interact.

 

87 Games

Here’s a fresh take on the “best of the year lists'”  Stephen Totilo  from Kotaku   lists the 87 (!!!) games he played last year, arranged by what platform they’re on.   It’s fun to see the variety, and there are a few games worth jotting down and looking up.

https://kotaku.com/the-87-games-i-played-last-year-and-the-ones-i-recommen-1840979502

 

Manifold Garden

If I see the world puzzle now, I take note.  Here’s a look at Manifold Garden, Monument Valley on steroids.   The scope and twists and turns are boggling.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/356304/Designing_Manifold_Gardens_believably_unbelievable_world_and_puzzles.php

 

Lightmatter

 

Stay in the light, shadows are death!   This reminds me I need to get back to Alan Wake.

https://www.pcgamer.com/first-person-puzzler-of-lights-and-killer-shadows-lightmatter-releases-this-week/

It’s got a science fiction storyline, and is of course a puzzle game.

 

Luna The Shadow Dust

Also looking very interesting is Luna: The Shadow Dust from Lantern Studio.  It’s a point and click adventure/puzzle game that also makes use of darkness and light.

https://www.lantern-studio.com/

 

 

GameNotes January 7, 2020

Who would think I’d be sad to see the Wow Anniversary time go by?  I’ve never paid much attention to it, really.  It’s the Rep Grind.  I’m exalted with the 7th Legion and only have four boxes to go for Champions of Azeroth.  Then its a long slog for the Waveblades and the Tortollans.   It goes without saying Die Rustbolt, Die.

I’m turning my attention back to leveling the Blackwater Raiders characters to level 120 in defiance (defiance, I say!) of the upcoming 70 level Level Squish.   Why do they keep squishing things, really?  They’re like rats on a wheel sometimes, chasing numbers.

I’m also working on Achievements with Atherne.  As long as I’ve been playing, she should really have more.  Inching those up as well.  The idea is to start with BFA areas, then work my way downwards through the expansion areas.  Kind of a grand tour before it’s all squished irreparably.

We’ll get a look at the tone of things very soon with the next patch.

Classic mostly my Paladin still.   She’s the only one in a guild (the others poofed and I left one where the people weren’t as nice as they’d been at the start).   There seems to be a low level of activity though, and I rarely see the guild leader on, so this one may go the way of the brown mule as well.

Haven’t played any of my new things over the weekend, and have just been logging into ESO for the daily rewards.

It’s Darkmoon Faire Week.  I’m super excited for the Arcade games to come to the faire next time around (I hope).   Where might they set them down?  I miss healing the Carnies for the First Aid.  They were always so happy and grateful (sniff).

 

Screenshot Saturday

World of Warcraft

Oops meant to put this in the last post, but Frostfire Ridge! It has these little snowmounds that are either filled with yellow snowballs or a nice piece of armor.  Now that is how you give treasure, not just a bazillion garrision or war resources.  Where’s the joy in that?

 

My Classic Paladin poofed into a gnome.

 

I missed getting a ride, but this is a pretty great addition to Winter Veil.

My Merry Mount!

Still recovering from Mechagon.  Stormsong and the rest of Kul Tiras just look like a watercolor painting.

Our family guild in The Nexus.  The highest we’ve made it doing dungeons as a group is Wrath Dungeons.  Maybe we’ll go all the way this time!   We had an unusual group makeup, we somehow didn’t notice right off, two Death Knights and three Priests.  We made it through after a few deaths.

 

Bioshock Infinite

Hoping to get back into my newer games this next week.   Bioshock Infinite, pretty, but very wierd.

Knock, knock!

Welcome to the lighthouse!

The last guy through here messed up.

Follow the map

Do not enter this room, do not sit in the chair!

 

Dolt!

Let’s explore.

 

The Dazzling City in the air.

 

 

The Call of Cthulu

So you start off in a cell, and make your way around through utter darkness to find a way out.

You know you’re in trouble when you can’t even see your bloody hands.

Not quite all a dream, I think, but it turns out you’re a detective, albeit a drunken somewhat useless one.

 

So it begins.  I didn’t get too far, just looked all around the office once he wasn’t in the dank prison anymore.

 

Nancy Drew and the Silent Spy

I’m really enjoying this game though I had to back up to a previous save because I’d missed a few things.  It is hard to spend most of my time in games flying in and killing things as quickly as possible, then moving to games where caution, thought, observation and logic are required.   Interestingly, playing this has made me want to get back into Secret World Legends.

 

Here’s a deli outside of Nancy’s hotel.   You will want to remember the foods offered here, and the prices.

 

Need money?  Yes you actually do!   Also at the deli, you can make cookies which are mini-puzzles to get money any time you need more.

Still hungry?  This menu is loaded with food and more clues.  Right out of the Secret World, right?

 

There’s a fun target practice game with targets of varying sizes and speeds going by.

You can be on the leader board with the big girls if you’re good.

 

I’m not copying my actual drawing here, but I was proud I managed to draw a picture of the fireplace stones from an in game book, then look at my drawing and actually press the right stones in the right order.

Feathering My Nest: Christmas Garrison Decorating

I thought I had decorated more of my characters Garrisons for Christmas and Halloween (ya ya, called other things), but no. I am finding that my Atherne character is really the only one who can do the Grumpus, a 120 Gold Elite.  Everyone else’s characters have crummy item levels so the Grumplings just pound them.

Luckily Ath can just send others the Merry thingies they need, ho ho ho.  Slow but I do the love the decorations, and between turns, I’m sending everyone who has a garrison home to snuggle down and who knows, build new buildings, generally feather their Garrison nests.

Back to snoozing in her old bed.

 

Random Garrison NPC Glark Criswold.   He’s checking all the bulbs, seriously.

The annoying Grumpus