The Next Town Over

Last night was a rough night. I got unceremoniously startled awake by our youngest cat at two in the morning and struggled to get back to sleep. While I have never been diagnosed with having a panic attack, I had what I can only deem as one. It felt like my heart was beating out of my chest even though both my blood pressure and heart rate were in the normal ranges. On top of that I could not get my mind to shut off.

This morning I have to go into work, which in the time of largely unchecked COVID-19 spread is always stressful given that there is no legitimate reason why I should need to do this thing other than for “face” with my management. On the way into work I have to drop our eldest cat at the vet for a glucose check, and if she so much as gets a hint of the cat carrier being around she freaks out and often pisses all over whoever is carrying her. Basically my brain went into overdrive running through the worst possible scenarios of how my morning was going to go… all the while ensuring that my day was going to be shit due to sleep deprivation.

A few weeks back I shared my concerns about how successful this console generation launch would ultimately be, and last night it seems some of those concerns were at least warranted. The reluctance of both Microsoft and Sony to reveal pricing and start pre-orders made me think that in both cases supplies for 2020 would be exceptionally limited if for no reason other than the constraints of ramping up production during a pandemic. Last night emails went out to Sony account holders, but I am not exactly sure what determined getting one versus the many folks who did not. I am wondering in my case if it was tied to PlayStation Plus access, because I have long considered that just part of the cost of owning a PlayStation console.

The email is not a preorder notice… but instead a notice that you can now register for the opportunity to preorder a console. The verbiage contained within the email and on the registration page goes a little something like this.

There will be a limited quantity of PS5™ consoles available for pre-order, so we will be inviting some of our existing consumers to be one of the first to pre-order one from PlayStation.

Sony Playstation 5 Pre-Order Registration Email

If you did not get one of the emails you can register through the page on PlayStation.com. I signed up because I had avoided purchasing a PlayStation 4 Pro in part because I was planning on upgrading to the 5 this year. I’ve squirreled away some cash for this purpose and have already prepared the spouse for this expense. In theory once the pre-orders open I will pop in and try and reserve a unit, but I do feel like I will be racing the bots.

When you submit your registration you are asked to provide your PlayStation ID, which is likely there to try and stop bots from scooping these all up to scalp for a premium. That said I would not be surprised if those same craigslist/ebay flippers are now instead creating a number of bogus PlayStation accounts, since you can do that without owning a console. It does however make me wonder if they are going to prioritize this system somehow, so that the first wave is to folks who have verified ownership of a PlayStation 4 and an active PlayStation Plus account or something along those lines. It will be interesting to see how this system plays out.

The majority of my game time last night was spent snuggling with cats on the sofa and playing some more New World. This time I started the game in a vastly different location than I did during my first test, and as a result getting to other territories seems considerably easier. As such I have popped over to the next settlement that the quest chain sent me to. However the quests I am being given are still sending me back across the border for various objectives.

I’ve leveled to 17 so far, and I believe the highest I had gotten in the previous test was somewhere in the vicinity of 25. My first time in the game I was picking abilities from all over the place and as a result I created something that felt very uneven to play. Now that I have focused largely on the defensive tree for sword and equipped a full set of heavy armor I feel considerably more sturdy than I was previously. As a result I seem to be able to take encounters that are significantly higher than my level, and have successfully defeated packs of 23ish mobs that aggro’d onto me while exploring.

Last night I found myself however switching things up and starting to level healing staff a bit. I found out that it seems weapon experience is gained by whatever weapon you last damaged the mob with. So I can whittle something down with Sword and Shield, and then swap quickly to Healing Staff and get that last hit in allowing that weapon to soak the benefit of the full experience. As a result I have poured on some very quick levels and at the very least now have that AOE pulse heal which comes in handy for recovering from a rough encounter.

One of the biggest frustrations that I have had so far in combat is really a two fold problem. Firstly I really hate how hard it can be to get a tag in on a mob when there are multiple people fighting it, as instead you end up registering hits on the players (and since I am not flagged it is effectively damage that just poofs). The second frustration is how seemingly random the aggro table seems to be on mobs. I would be interested to see how the formula actually works because the game seems to be fairly unacceptable to trains, aka where a large number of disengaging mobs chain onto a new target. I noticed this happen a few times in the previous test and I have seen it happen to me a few times here to a lesser extent.

All in all though, I am still really enjoying myself. As Bhagpuss said in his comment yesterday, if it released tomorrow I would likely happily play it in production while they stomp any residual bugs over time. I did not at all expect myself to enjoy the game in the way I have, and I am interested to see how it shapes as it nears release.