Morning folks. This is how my yesterday/today is going. Essentially I was supposed to go to a retirement party for the person who originally interviewed me. I left the house with plenty of time, and decided to swing by the pharmacy to pick up a prescription so I would not have to fight lines on my way back home. I rolled down the window and about halfway down I heard a snap, and a grinding… and my window glass fell down abruptly into the door frame. Suffice to say I did not actually end up going to that party, and instead rushed home to attempt to package up my car because it was going to rain. Thankfully my cardboard, trashbag, and packing tape monstrocity made it through the night without leaking. I just dropped my vehicle off this morning and then walked back home, and am hoping they can repair it quickly.
If this is all sounding familiar to you… I’ve probably talked about this before because it happened in October 2022, and early November 2023. I’ve dealt with this once a year for the last three years and I am super tired of it. You cannot fathom the paranoia I feel every single time I roll down the window. Basically I am taking it back to the same place that “fixed” it previously, because last time they ate most of the cost and will likely do the same this time. They are also specifically looking for a different product sku than they used last time. I use this place largely because it is around the corner from my home so I can drop a vehicle off and then walk right back home while I wait. All in all they do a pretty great job with most things, so I am hesitant to say this is entirely their fault. Bad parts are bad parts.
Last night I was lured by the sirens song of a new league in Path of Exile… even though it is technically just a special event league. Essentially they have created a scenario where the good Necropolis mechanic of allflames and rewards… is applied automagically to maps while keeping all of the trappings of the Settlers league. I have to admit while I hated the graveyard crafting of Necropolis, I really did enjoy the whole allflames/mirror thing each time you entered a zone. The only negative about this is… this is making the start of the game way tougher than it normally is. Not to mention I fucked up badly when I muled rolling magma with a witch… and leveled the gem meaning that I had to limp by until I could get some intelligence gear and a few levels on the would be chieftain. I should have leveled melee honestly.
There is some nonsense going on with the mechanics because they have determined the sets of monsters you face by zone… on what appears to be an hour long timer. This means folks will fine whatever the hot map is to run, communicate it over the various chat channels, and then you have an hour to make the most of it before it shifts to another zone. We had an event before with something similar to this, but so far this seems way more powerful. SirGog released a video that I embedded above explaining the mechanics a bit.
I’ve also been playing a bit of the Brighter Shores early access since it launched this week on Steam. It is essentially free to try, but supposedly if you want to access some of the content you have to pay for a $5 per month premium pass. This is a spiritual successor to Old School Runescape from the folks who designed it. I completely missed Runescape as a formative memory because I was at the wrong phase in my life when that game came out. I was playing Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, City of Heroes, and eventually World of Warcraft because I was gainfully employed and could afford the subscription. Runescape however seems to have largely been a thing with folks who grew up a generation later than I did and because it was a game you could play in your web browser without a subscription or the need of a proper gaming PC. So far I find it interesting, but also it seems way too needlessly grindy to hook me for long.
I am very much also still playing Veilguard. For whatever reason I was just not feeling it last night after the hustle of trying to seal my car against the impending rain… and pack up anything that might be stolen if someone happened to break in while the window was stuck down. Still enjoying the story but also in a phase where I need to burn through a stack of companion missions. I have no clue if I am near the end or if I am still very much in the middle. There is a ton of content and I am not entirely certain if I am going to take the time to do every side quest or not. After I completed the last story mission, every open world zone now suddenly has a half dozen quest markers waiting for my attention. It can be a little overwhelming and would rather than did a better job of drip feeding you these via a central hub… rather than needing to run out to a location in the world to pick them up. My MMORPG player mindset craves efficiency in design.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I am hoping that my vehicle gets fixed quickly. I had the super sad disappointment of waking up this morning and being absolutely convinced that it was Saturday, and then having to deal with the sad realization that it is only Friday.