Monthly Archives: August 2022

Blaugust 2022 Wrapping It All Up

Yay! The last day of August. I made my goal of 31 posts in 31 Days. I decided to take part in Blaugust this year because I was feeling very low, and hadn’t been able to write most of the summer. I thought writing here, far away from the real world, I could get over my writing block.

It has worked. I am back to writing on my regular blog, except…our Internet provider did some network maintenance, and I’m blocked from all gmail accounts and blogs attached to Google accounts. (Sigh). I had gotten disgusted with Word Press, for a variety of reasons, and had gone back to Blogger blogs. All for naught. Lesson learned. Don’t remove your various blogs on various platforms, you may need them again.

Some ideas for future posts here I jotted down:

But….I Just Don’t Understand What’s Going On!

When you have been away from a game for a long time, or never played it from the beginning, you can be so confused about all the little details. I want to look at these three MMOs in particular and figure out All The Things I Don’t Understand:

Lord of the Rings Online (been away way too long)

EQ2 I like it but it always seems almost arcane in it’s complexity, coming into the game way late in it’s lifetime.

Secret World Legends As I plunged into this game again, I kept thinking I should stop and see how to upgrade armor and weapons, craft, make sure I’m fighting efficiently. But I was just carried away bouncing from quest to intriguing quest and running over and swamping little piles of gnawing zombies to stop and look anything up.

Why Isn’t There A Wowhead for Every MMO?

No apologies. You’ll recall I said I was a dirty rotten cheater. Oh yeah. I want the kind of detailed guides and quest help for LOTRO and EQ2 in particular that Wowhead gives World Of Warcraft. Just freaking tell me how to complete this quest. Tell me where to even go for the quest. Maybe they’d branch out. They should branch out.

Those Old Game Inspirations

There were some early influences in my early thinking about games and their design. Once I started posting on the Galaxies forums and was trying to understand why they made the decisions they did, I read lots of blogs and sites which delved deep.

Terra Nova

Fires of Heaven

Quarter to Three

RPG Roundtable

Moar Thrilling Screenshot Saturdays

What’s not to like? Great games, great stories.

Blaugust has been a blast. Thanks for stopping by. See you in the Funny Papers.

The Blaugust List of Forgotten Things

Remember that first thrilling day of Blaugust when the month seemed as if it would stretch on forever, and you’d be able to play so many games, write so many intriguing posts? It was going to be your best blogging month ever.

As the month buzzes along, life intrudes, you’ve no time to play or do anything you’d want to share. But it’s Blaugust, and sometimes you just blow out the corners of the map and talk about whatever the heck you want. That is great! It’s so much better to read about the person behind the player some days, so you know who you’re adventuring with. Know thy companions.

That is an exceptional thing about Blaugust. It brings a huge variety of people together for these few weeks as companions, and as a community. You have my sword, my bow, and my axe!

These are the things I wished to share in that dreamy first week that I have not done.

Get everyone’s blog on my sidebar. I will still go back and add these. There were many new great voices this year. I am a fish and just use Inventory Full’s nice blogroll with snippets to read things most days. So I’ve enjoyed lots of new writers though I was a slug adding them to this blog.

No Dungeon Run Posts. Just did not have the time to run them.

Oof. I’ve fallen off the wagon leveling and writing about Shadowlands WOW. How can you enjoy the true torture of leveling through Ardenweald if I don’t whine about it?

No LOTRO play time at all this month.

Very little ESO and I didn’t want to write about High Isle till I got a bit further into it. I’m loving Blackwood though, and am glad I re-subscribed.

I meant to purchase the Tomb Raider Anniversary game and play through that. A game I did not get far in at all, originally.

Promptalooza-I did pick one of these out for a post but got nowhere. Maybe next time.

I really hoped to finish a game during the month as an extra challenge for myself, but Bendy, Bendy, Bendy.

What this really means, is, I have lots of fodder for upcoming posts. See you on the other side.

Blaugust 2022: Lessons Learned Week

I’ve been really pleased with this year’s Blaugust. I enjoyed writing every post. It has been fun. As I might have mentioned in the very first post, this blog is all about Play.

” To engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.” Oxford Languages

I play games for much the same reasons I read voraciously. To relax, escape, become immersed in other lives or lives I could never really live. To problem solve. To overcome challenges. To be the heroine I’d like to be. In my head, of course.

Writing about these things allows me to tell stories of my adventures. There are few things more enjoyable than having adventures and then sharing them. Thanks to those who have stopped by this month and read about those adventures, and also to those who have shared their own. Pure magic.

Blaugust Week Four In Review

My goals for the week were:

Post every day

Stay on the theme

Stay Motivated

Play something new from my Steam Library, and something old.

Listen to Podcasts and Watch some Streams (Not this week)

I hoped to squeeze in some Elder Scrolls Online and LOTRO play. (Not this week)

My Priest in TBC was supposed to do the Sunken Temple. (Not this week)

Finish Bendy and The Ink Machine (Nope, Boris is gone, and I’m trapped without him. I think only one save is showing up, so I might have to start again from scratch.)

We leave town on vacation Tuesday of next week, so the rest of the Blaugust posts will be pre-written. Luckily, slinker that I am, I came up with three post topics for the Lessons Learned theme for the final week. Writing them in my prescient way after I schedule this post.

Screen Shot Saturday Blaugust Finale Edition

As there are only four Saturdays in August, this is the last of the series. I certainly didn’t get in as much play time this week as I’d hoped, but I am really pleased with the games I’ve been playing. I usually am writing these the night before, and playing what I right about, so you get Friday night’s selections: Monster Bash and Half Life 2. I also hoped to make progress in Bendy and the Ink Machine, but it looks like I’m stuck and will have to return to a previous save.

Half Life 2

One of my goals was to advance in Half Life 2. I was able to play considerably more smoothly. I even got so I was shrugging off the constant rain of bullets from the local security forces.

This time I made it to the roof of the apartment building and made my bullet ridden escape along the rooftops.

Finally help arrived, as Alyx helped me escape.

Suddenly doors opened in walls at her behest, and we were snug and safe in Dr. Kleiner’s lab.

Time to grab that iconic orange suit and escape the city.

Ready for those head huggers now, but you have to be nice to Kleiner’s pet.

The escape from the city will be via a newly completed transporter. Alyx goes first.

Unfortunately when you get in, you’re sent to several other places, kind of, alerting the powers that be Gordon Freeman is in the city. Looks like you’ll need to make your way through the sewers. Your best friend Barney tosses you your beloved Crowbar.

The only thing better than a crowbar is a wrench. Once I had that crowbar in hand I wasn’t afraid of anything.

I did pick up guns that I’d wrenched away from the Insectile guys. Yes, I unloaded them on said Insectile guys. Even so, is there anything better than a crowbar to the noggin? Nope!

I might be a little twitchy with my crowbar. My first thought when I saw this man and his alien friend was to whack the alien. We’re friends, though, now, and he’s sharing his green something or other below.

So, yeah, so far I can do this on my own. I’m diving into those dark places with confidence. Running up on bad guys or putting plugs in them. I got this.

Monster Bash

My goal here was to complete the first level. Ta da.

I took a peek at level two which is much trickier, both in the jumps you need to make, and navigating through lots of skeletons and snakes. That level is going to take some doing.

Half Life, for Real this time.

It’s been a busy week. Soooo the previous Half Life pics and post were for Half Life 2, doh. We actually did not finish that one. Might have been the helicopters? I will finish it. I’m really liking it. I went back and changed my previous post to say Half life 2. Poof! Mistakes begone.

I purchased the real Half Life game for my Steam library, from 1998, and it does still look good, except faces are a bit blocky (while people still have them).

There’s my game! Down down to Black Mesa Research facility.

All of the perky little scientists hate their ties!

Gordon Works in Anomalous Materials so he needs that orange suit.

The test lab is impressive.

Things go bad quickly.

There’s an explosion as well, and outside the lab is death and chaos.

As I make good my escape, two of the scientists ask me to make my way to the surface for help. The first head hugger appears. Sort of innocuous looking in this older version, but he does quite a bit of damage before I run away, as I’m unarmed.

Next thing you know, I’ve got the crowbar! Muahaha. I head back to show that thing my moves.

It didn’t go as well as I hoped. I think it’s on my head and I don’t remember how to get it off. I hear little warbling noises…so yeah, Googling how to remove them.

Westworld Season Four: What’s The Buzz (Ep 1-4)

If you’ve watched the fourth season of Westworld at all, flies are prominent, and super gross, as flies like to be. My header picture had to be from the old film. I like the Jeff Goldblum version too, but the drama of this poster (she would scream for the rest of her life!) is too good.

I let all of the episodes drop before starting my binge. Sometimes it’s easier to see the whole season at once.

My alternate post title was “So many villains, so little time.” I can’t say how much I hate the Man in Black. In comparison, Hale is a sweetie. She’s just out for garden variety revenge. The Man In Black’s soul is seeped in darkness and sadism.

On the other hand, this season has an unexpected number of good guys.

Maeve tops the list, trying to protect Caleb and perhaps somewhat humanity. She’s smart, has abilities that help her control hosts and computer systems, almost anything electronic.

Nice upgrades, Maeve.

The new “Park” is set in the Gilded Age. It’s beautifully done, allowing you to imagine once more how amazing it would be if such a park were real. And, of course you’d hope that nobody went haywire and killed everyone.

Bernard is my favorite Westworld character. I’m glad he’s back trying to save the world.

Dolores is back to being a more innocent version of herself. There are four episodes to go, so of course that could change. She’s a writer for a video game company, writing parts for NPCs, who she feels an affinity for. Nice touch.

Forgotten City: A Mystery In The Ruins

One of my goals this month was to play a new to me game. Forgotten City was one of my Steam Summer Sale purchases. I’d read lots of good reviews.

There you are, waking up by a campfire and a girl says she pulled you out of the river. She seems pretty nosy, but doesn’t reveal a thing about herself.

You get to choose your body type, though, honestly, you’re just a pair of dangling hands, so it hardly matters. Hmm I hope I didn’t miss some way to actually see my character.

The girl wants you to go to the ruins behind you and look for another unfortunate she says she fished out of the river not long ago.

Before entering, the developers have a message for “content creators”.

I respect that, so will entirely avoid spoilery stuff.

There is also a note about multiple endings, which should be fun.

In the infamous White Hallway, it’s awfully dark in sections, so you’re given a flashlight. There are a few things to examine. There are many gold statues, in various poses. Quite a few seemed to glare in their eyeless way right at you.

Not quite a spoiler, but you’re given a chance to enter a portal, though you’re desperately warned against it. As if anyone would be able to resist a portal.

Here the mystery begins as you talk with various citizens. They all have a story to tell.

The graphics are sharp though sometimes when you turn your character, everything is a big blur. Despite the game telling the game rewards thoughtful conversation not brute force, little pop us keep telling you how to quick save and how to sprint. Maybe someone gets brutish after all.

Half Life 2: On My Own This Time

I’m not certain if poor Gordon Freeman is dead or dozing in the screenshot above. The guy you see is one of the insectile looking guards who are everywhere in City 17.

The game came out in 2004, but it looks great.

I wish the intro said Point Extraction instead of Insertion, because I’d love someone to pop in and get me out of this place already.

This game is from the heyday of my husband and I playing together, one providing the movement, one doing the shooting. I always got to be the shooter. Or whacker, if they’d only give me something like a crowbar to whack with. The reason I got this job isn’t my great aim or anything. It’s because when I play these, and something attacks me, I take it personally and just whomp whatever it is or, you know, just unload my gun on the thing. You survive more fights that way than you think. Can I really play this game without him? Wish me luck!

I’m hyper alert already and am in full panic mode, which is how I ended up so soon with the orange screen. How will I ever survive the head huggers?

I need to calm down, go slow.

I don’t remember much about the game, so it’s all fresh, really, as if I hadn’t played.

Not much time to play last night, so more progress for Screenshot Saturday.

Secret World Legends: Irresistible Zombies, Quaint Town

I spent a couple of hours playing Secret World Legends last night. It was frustrating at first because I kept getting booted from the game and had to log in again. Then it was all good.

It turns out my character is still in Kingsmouth. She was level 14, and was still back at the dread tunnels.

Not back in the tunnels! Worse yet, Frisky Cassandra lay in wait on the other side of the door.

I still had work to do in here.

The game has a great mix of combat and puzzles.

Fig A Smash the Hulk. It gets really dark at night.

Figure B Puzzles: One of the best quest ideas ever, the Captain’s Playlist.

There are so many side quests, and I can’t resist them. The atmosphere is spooky enough, but not scary for me as zombies and their ilk might normally be. Perhaps when I start dying, I’ll be fighting off the screams. I’m getting closer to creatures of my level, but combat isn’t challenging yet.

In the original game, I didn’t get far, just to Solomon Island. I’d love to get at least as far as my husband did (Egypt I think) before he stopped for some reason. The game is really enjoyable, maybe just what I need right now.