Belghast, Author at Tales of the Aggronaut

Gratitude and some Gaming

May 3, 2019 by Belghast

First off let me start today’s post by saying how much I appreciate the outpouring of support that I have had over the last couple of days. I’m sorry that I have not responded to each of you individually… but I just haven’t been in a great place to be able to do that. My focus was trying to get through the last couple of days which also had the added bonus of being super stressful on the work front as well. Each time I saw a message come through it helped, and I wish I had been able to really be sociable and such. I had mostly been staying off social media the last few days apart from making a few random comments here or there to take my mind off things. What makes the whole experience weird is we have had a ferret playpen in our living room for at least the last ten years… so now that we have cleaned everything and removed it… there is a visible void that will take some getting used to.

To add to the pile of woes that are happening… I spend a lot of time on the sofa with my laptop remoted in to the machine upstairs. We were eating dinner and I had to get up to check on the printer upstairs that was reporting to be out of paper. I had pre-emptively filled it and apparently did not get it jostled just right for the sensors to notice. As soon as I had gotten settled in and was about to kick out the leg rest… the handle that does this broke completely. Now the handle itself had broken some time back as it was plastic and not exactly the best idea for a part that would get a lot of constant use with a certain amount of force applied to it. This time the pulley or spring or whatever ties the mechanism to the armature under the chair came loose and now the remainder of the broken lever flops freely. This is part of a sectional… and the manufacturer apparently no longer carries the design anymore… which lead me to research a replacement part. Apparently these handles are pretty standard and I managed to track down what appears to be a replacement and a new cable to boot just in case that actually snapped as well. So there is a project on the stack for the weekend.

As far as gaming goes… I am still playing quite a bit of Marvel Future Fight via Memu Android Emulator each evening. I largely just burn down the daily objectives similar to how I usually play Dragalia Lost. I apparently did not notice this last night or this morning when I took the screenshot… but I appear to have 3 heroes that I can unlock now because I had gathered enough biometrics while doing other things to get over the initial 10 threshold. I’ve since swapped out Agent 13 to Luna Snow another one of the Netmarble created champions because the team bonus between her and Sharon Rogers is pretty nice. More or less Sharon Rogers is the primary champion and Captain America and Luna Snow are just walking buffs. At some point I want to spend some more time playing Iron Hammer which is an interesting Amalgam character of Ironman and Thor first seen in Infinity War #3. Whatever the case playing a blend of Ironman and Thor is pretty sweet.

I am also still spending a lot of time playing Dragalia Lost because the Fire Emblem event is still going on, and should have the next story block released today. Both the summon changes and this event went in at the same time… and it definitely feels like I am getting to summon way more often and without the worry of getting shitty wyrmprints the whole experience feels better. I am still getting a lot of crap summons, but have managed to gather up several really nice ones over the course of the event so far. Marth is my jam and the character I play the most in Smash Bros… so I was super happy to get it here as well. It reminds me that I really should return to playing some of the Fire Emblem mobile game at some point. It is still weird to me how much mobile gaming I am doing these days… but the whole playing from bed thing is a way bigger pull than it used to be.

As far as non-mobile gaming… I played an awful lot of Lumines yesterday because zoning in on a puzzle game was an excellent way to forget about the world for awhile. As a PSP owner I loved this game on that platform, and was super happy to see when it got remastered and re-released on the Nintendo Switch. This is one of those games like Tetris that you can just blank out while playing and move into pure muscle memory territory, or at least that is generally how I play puzzle games. The more I think about things the more I fuck them up… so if I can just reach a point where I am reacting automatically I am not psyching myself out. The only real question is… how do you pronounce this game? I heard someone in a video the other day call it what sounded like “Lou Mines” whereas I have always called it “Lumin Es” sorta like Luminous chopped off with an Es at the end. The fact that the game has always had a sort of shiny flair element above the I made me think this, but hell I could be wrong. Lou Mines just does not sound right however.

Goodbye Shiloh

May 2, 2019 by Belghast

Last night was a rough night, and one where we didn’t get an awful lot to sleep. First off I am super thankful that we have an amazing vet that is open extremely late, and was wiling to stay there as long as it took us to finally reach the decision. When you reach the point where you are capable of taking action… there is still an awful lot of second guessing yourself but from the moment I got home there was not really a time when she was not regularly having seizures. Before I left yesterday I had tried my best to stabilize her and she was resting relatively comfortably in one of her beds. When I arrived at home that was very much not the case.

So this morning we are going to remember Shiloh in happier times, napping in her toy box or bouncing on the bed. It is weird how we quickly reach a point where we think things have always been this way. The photo above was taken in July of last year and she was still her happy and bouncy self, seemingly unaffected by the fetters of age. So what seemed like something that had been going on for years was in truth a fairly rapid decline over the past year. The nurse last night remarked that she was one of the oldest ferrets she had ever seen come in to the vet… that also specializes in exotics. So I guess we stole a lot of good years that we might not have gotten otherwise.

While Bella that we lost in 2017 was “my” baby… I still very much loved Shiloh so this has been hard to go through. The experience also seemingly traumatized the cats… one of which only came out of hiding after we got back from the vet. It isn’t really over yet however… because at some point I have to go pick her back up… so that I can bury her beside her cage mate Bella. I don’t have much of a post in me this morning but I wanted to at least give an update since so many people offered support yesterday.

Depressing Real Life Shit

May 1, 2019 by Belghast

This is one of those moments where I don’t exactly have something that I feel like would make a good blog post. Last night I was in a weird place where everything felt wrong. It was the entertainment version of rummaging through your closet because nothing quite fits. If you are blessed with excellent genes and have never had to deal with this… then awesome go you. However if you have been fat your entire life you are pretty much in a constant state of frustration and flux. Last night I had the gaming equivalent of this going on with nothing much seeming like a good idea. I even exited out of SWTOR in the middle of a solo flashpoint because I simply was not feeling it… I have no clue what I will log into when I reconnect. It would be weird if things just picked up from where I left off… but I fully imagine that won’t be the case.

In part a lot of last nights frustrations were caused by the fact that I slept extremely poorly Monday night. Again it was a fits of restlessness thing where I could not seem to find the right orientation of pillow, bed, body and blankets that made things conducive to falling asleep. I know I drifted off at some point after 12:30 so somewhere closer to 1 in the morning probably, which when you get up at 5:30 means that was not much in the sleep department. It was bad enough that I kept having thoughts of “well I might as well get up and do something rather than just lay here”, but never quite reached that point. As a result last night I was nodding off on the sofa around 8 pm… which mean’t that I ended up going to bed around 8:30… only to be woken up at 4:30 by the ferret going through what sounded like a very painful set of seizures.

She is end of life, and we have pretty much just been trying to do whatever we could to make life easier on her. However while sitting down to write this morning… I’ve been interrupted because she went through another round. So I am prepping myself for coming home tonight and finding that she has passed on. Ferrets are not long lived animals… especially not with the modern state of Ferrets largely all coming from the same mega breeder. Effectively almost every ferret that you see in the United States comes from a place called Marshall Farms in Upstate New York, and “mill” Ferrets tend to have a lifespan of somewhere in the vicinity of eight years. Shiloh best as we can tell is somewhere in the 10-12 year old range depending on how old she was when we got her… and since she was a rescue it is hard to properly gauge that. She is the last of our ferrets having had four over the years… and probably legitimately going to be the last one that we have because it is rough loving an animal so prone to dire complications.

I’ve got an awful lot of crap on my mind right now that is not gaming related, because Shiloh is not the only end of life animal we have in this house. Allie has been fighting hyperthyroidism for awhile and we have reached the point where there isn’t much of anything that we can do. She has started pottying in places that she should not be… which means every night is a constant clean up process. Thankfully she is doing so in a way that is easy to clean up… but it is one of those constant grind sort of situations that just wears you down. Having gone through several animals at this point in this state… I know what the answer will be… that they will ultimately suggest that we put her down. I am just not sure if I am ready for that, because she still snuggles with me every night and still has the loudest purr… so I am trying my best to make the end of her life as good as possible. Allie has always been “my” baby, and I guess as long as she is still actively seeking attention I am going to try really hard to keep giving it to her.

So yeah… this ended up not being a game post at all. I’m tired and just sorta want to crawl up into a ball and forget the world exists… but gaming has not been granting me that escapism that I crave.

Regularly Playing: April 2019 Edition

April 30, 2019 by Belghast

It has taken me until this morning to actually get around to writing one of these, but by god it is still april so it still counts in continuing this streak of posts. I am notoriously bad at actually keeping a series going, which is weird considering I did the whole daily posting thing for over three years. For those who are just tuning in once a month I attempt to true up my sidebar and talk about the games that I am actually regularly playing during a given month. Some months there isn’t much net change and then other months we basically wipe the slate clean. This is going to be on of those first types because a lot of things changed this month. Without further stalling… lets rip the band-aid off.

To Those Remaining

Dragalia Lost – Android

I cannot believe that of all of the titles I was playing last month… that this is the only one that is still kicking at the end of the month. Dragalia Lost has been going strong for me pretty much since release, and in part it does well with me because there is always another event just around the corner. Right now we are in the middle of an event that crosses over characters from the Fire Emblem series that came along with a big patch that changed the way that summons work. No more useless Wyrmprints and now we can simply buy the ones we need from a vendor. I play this every night before bed and at a minimum do my daily activities until I reach the point where I am just about to drop the phone… at which point I plug in the charging cable for the night and go to sleep. It has become a part of my routine, which means it is probably here to stay for awhile.

To Those Returning and Brand New

Diablo 3 – Switch

This one never stays off the list for very long, which is in part why I am generally so hesitant to remove it when I eventually do. There is a new season coming up and I fully expect to get re-engaged with this title during that time. As to which platform I do it on is another decision point. Right now my usual partner in crime does not have the switch so more than likely we will be teaming up on the PC. I do however kinda want to make my way through a switch season and try to earn a bonus bank slot in the process. I wish to all that is holy that I could just link my switch copy to my PC copy so I could sure rewards. Cross play is a thing that is needed more than probably any other innovation in gaming.

Final Fantasy XIV – Console

Another game that does not stay off the list for terribly long is Final Fantasy XIV. I am not fully engaged with this game at the moment, but I did come back and finish all of the story content. Since then I have been languishing a bit at trying to find something to draw me to the game and hold me there. Most recently I have started working on beast tribe quests because who doesn’t love mounts. I know I will return in full with the expansion because I always do… but for the moment I am struggling to find purpose.

Grim Dawn – PC

I am not entirely certain if this game has ever made one of these lists but I have played it off and on since its initial early access release on Steam. It only took me until recently however to actually fully engage with the game and find out how damned good it is. This would be my replacement for Diablo 3 entirely… if it were simply better at providing interesting multiplayer options. That said I greatly enjoy what the game does give me, which is a largely single player experience that lets me pour my mind into it and watch fountains of loot explode around me as I do. If someone was looking to get into an ARPG… this is now the title I would probably point them towards.

Magic the Gathering Arena – PC

A brand new expansion has released and as a result I am back engaged with Magic the Gathering Arena. War of the Spark promises to add a ton of new planeswalkers… 36 in fact… and have the final conclusion of the whole Nicol Bolas storyline. I was nowhere near as engaged with Ravnica Allegiances because none of the guilds included were really my jam apart from Gruul and maybe Orzhov. Whatever the case I never really got super into what was happening and faded away from the content for a bit. With War of the Spark however I am back in full and enjoying the experience… and at the same time starting to do some direct duels with friends with the prospect of playing some weird decks in the future.

Marvel Future Fight – Android / PC Emulator

I have been playing an excessive amount of this game lately, and it shocks the shit out of me. Firstly this journey all started after being nostalgic about the Marvel Heroes ARPG by Gazillion and looking to see if anyone had managed to come up with a private server option yet. In one of those threads someone mentioned that Marvel Future Fight on mobile devices was the closest that we had to that game… which lead me to download… and the rest is more or less history. It feels weird for me to be playing a mobile game in place of other games… because that is a barrier that I never quite crossed before even with Dragalia Lost. Mobile games were something I only did when I did not have ready access to other platforms… this I am playing on an Android Emulator with WASD controls like a traditional PC game. The free-to-play-ness can be really annoying at times, but I am carving out whatever enjoyment I can get from it until this whim passes.

Mortal Kombat 11 – PC

I’ve been having a strong itch to play some fighting games and I think it was brought on largely by the advertising about Mortal Kombat 11 making me nostalgic about my arcade rat past. I am also dabbling a bit with Street Fighter V and some other games… but more or less MK11 is the only one I am playing often enough to add to this list. I even went so far as to pick up a Fight Stick as I talked about yesterday. I’ve missed fighting games… and while I am nowhere near as good as I once was… I want to regain at least some of those skills. I will never be competitive… but I figure I can still eek out some enjoyment.

Outward – PC

I played this obsessively for several nights in a row and want to return to it. I wrote at length about how this game reminds me of the way that Everquest used to make me feel. I’ve been distracted by other games but I am adding this on the list if for no other reason than to remind me to return to it. It is a very interesting title and one that I want to explore some more.

Star Wars the Old Republic – PC

This is a title that I was not expecting to add back to the list anytime soon… but Star Wars Celebration caused an upwelling of Star Wars nostalgia leading to me playing some of this. When I last played I had finished the Fallen Empire storyline, and coming back I picked right back up with the Eternal Throne. Now I am working my way slowly through some of the post Eternal Throne content, of which there are several patches worth and several new areas that have been added to the game. So far I am really enjoying myself and it is making me want Ammo to do another “Belghast” this time my Jedi Guardian in the armor set above… that I scrounged hardcore for at release because I loved the look of it. The storyline in this game is still really damned good and it does a pretty good job of scratching that KOTOR itch.

To Those Departing

Anthem – PC

Oh Anthem… what a fraught mess you are. I spent most of April waiting on the sidelines for a supposed “major” patch to land and fix all of my woes. It never came, or at least not in the ways that I wanted it to. Ultimately Bioware made a game that is different from the game that they intended to make… and has yet to realize this. The other stance is that they could be trying to change the game fundamentally to become the game they intended it to be. Whatever the case… they built Mass Effect Multiplayer with Flight and Diablo 3 loot… but with a high end drop rarity rivaling World of Warcraft Legendaries or Destiny Exotics. That rarity more or less worked in those games because every drop was curated. Diablo 3 and Anthem however with random affixes you get a lot of shit items so you need to get a lot of drops to allow you to sift through them to find something workable. I likely won’t play the game again until the loot is raining down around us… if the game survives that long. I am hearing that matchmaking is already a ghost town most of the time, so here is hoping they can make significant enough changes to allow those of us who left to return during year 2 and see the greatly changed and improved game.

Baba Is You – Switch / PC

Super cute game and still probably on my list of best games for 2019… but after the initial desire to play I sorta floated away from it. I am sure I will return at some point but it doesn’t really need a spot on the list for the moment.

Destiny 2 – PC

No clue why on this one… but I am just not feeling Destiny. There isn’t a firm reason other than the fact that I log in and log out almost immediately. From what I hear the game is in a better state than it has been in a really long time… and I am sure at some point I will make my return and obsess about it once more. That said I am just not into it so I am letting it slip off the list.

The Division 2 – PC

Again I am not sure why… but I never latched onto this one as hard as I thought I would. For awhile I was using it as a methadone for Anthem… and then I stopped using it at all. I am sure at some point I will cycle back around to this one but I might simply be “looter shooter”‘d out for the time being.

Pokemon Go – Android

This one ends its very long streak. I still technically crack it up every so often, largely to hatch eggs… but I had four eggs ready to hatch and I let that notification go for two weeks before actually doing anything. It is a perfectly fine game, and if I engaged with some sort of a community I would probably get into it more. I am trying to increase the amount of activity I am doing as a whole now that it has warmed up so it might have a resurgence. That said… my TicWatch tracks my activity without me actually having to open the app so I admit that was a nail in the coffin for this game. Out of sight and out of mind… you had a good run PoGo.