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Regularly Playing: July 2019 Edition

July 3, 2019 by Belghast

For those who have been reading this blog for some time you will know that I have a semi-monthly series that I call “regularly playing” where I attempt to update the sidebar on my blog. This is the second month where I am trying to do this at the beginning of the month rather than remembering to do it towards the end of a month. June was a pretty stable month as far as game playing, and effectively there is really nothing much changing in the mix. However I am still going to go through the actions of this post to keep myself in the habit.

To Those Remaining

I am completely in love with this game. I’ve written so much about it recently, but effectively this is as thought you had sat down immediately after creating Symphony of the Night and just kept going on and adding in all of the features you ever wanted in the game. The experience is flawless, and while I am hearing there are issues with the Switch port, I am too busy making my way through the PC experience to care. They have all the time in the world to fix that. I have gotten the “bad” ending, and now am trying to work on better endings.

I went on a brief binge of playing this game and then once again got distracted by something else. I want to return to playing on a more regular basis, but I am going to have to burn down some of the other games I am working on to free up the mental bandwidth. Bungie is doing a great job of stewarding the game into this new era and I am looking forward to some of the changes that are coming with the new expansion. The game is in a great place, so well worth checking out.

This is still very much in the rotation because I have more objectives to accomplish during this season. I’ve completed one conquest which can be seen in the above screenshot, involving collecting a 50 million gold streak. The next up is going to be doing a bunch of GR55s as multiple classes. I still have yet to master any set dungeons so I should probably knock that out soon as well. Essentially I got distracted but I still very much want the penultimate reward this season.

This game is effectively my night cap. I crawl into bed and spend 10-15 minutes playing this on my tablet before eventually closing the lid and going to sleep. Dragalia Lost lives in this weird place where it is just engaging enough to keep me playing on a regular basis… and not engaging enough to keep me playing it constantly to the point of burning out. In part the later part is in thanks to its mobile mechanics which favor short bursts of play rather than extended play cycles. Whatever the case going on two years I am still doing this thing.

I am playing nowhere near as much as this game deserves but I am still periodically logging in to move the needle forward. Right now I am deeply distracted by all of the other games that are on the market and calling my attention. I will return to you at some point when a lull happens to continue adventures in Morrowind proper.

I am completely back on my bullshit folks… and loving it. Just prior to the launch of Shadowbringers I found a way to get re-engaged and as a result I think the expansion thus far has been all the more meaningful. I am not sure what else I can really say about this that I have not already said in a bunch of recent blog posts. Final Fantasy XIV is a lovingly curated game experience, and I am enjoying the hell out of the ride.

This month I have not spent an awful lot of time playing, but it is still on the list of things that I dive into when I want something more quiet and contemplative. I am not entirely certain this one is ever really going to leave the proper rotation, at least not for the time being. The pace of magic sets being released really reinforces the need to keep popping ones head back into the game every so often. Yesterday Core 20 was released, so I need to pop in and check it out.

To the New and Returning

For the very first time in the history of this column of sorts… I don’t have any new games being added to the mix. I reached a point of stasis this month and for the time being it is a pretty great mix of titles to be engaged in.

To Those Departing

Once again… nothing to see here. I didn’t out and out stop playing anything this month but continued largely playing the same things.

Honorable Mentions

This one is sliding in as an honorable mention and not something new… because quite frankly I don’t think I will be spending any more time with the game. Wizards Unite released for mobile platforms and represents an attempt to capture the same magic as Pokemon Go… but with the Harry Potter IP. I feel like they have failed to do that, and as a result have created a fairly cumbersome and often times unfun experience. It is worth mentioning, but only just.

A lot of my bandwidth was taken up by watching the E3 coverage unfurl, and as a result I am giving it an honorable mention as well. It was not a great show, but there were several gems. The new Commander Keen game is not really ones of them, but I am just in part happy see ANYTHING to do with that IP. It was probably a toss up between Microsoft and Square for who had the best showing, and then everything else falls down significantly after that.

Regularly Playing: June 2019 Edition

June 4, 2019June 4, 2019 by Belghast

For those who have been reading this blog for some time you will know that I have a semi-monthly series that I call “regularly playing” where I attempt to update the sidebar on my blog. I failed miserably at the last incarnation, because the side bar never actually got updated. Additionally May was a crazy month with all of the weather issues and I never quite got one of these done. Instead I am shifting to a June edition where I attempt to start doing these towards the start of the month instead of the end of the month. I seemingly inhaled my coffee this morning so… lets do this!

To Those Remaining

I continue to truck along happily in Dragalia Lost and especially now that I have my Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 there is rarely a night that goes by that I don’t at a minimum play through my dailies. I’ve said this before but there is a release cadence of content that keeps me engaged and the fact that another character summon is just around the corner. The whole summoning process feels much better than that Wyrmprints have been completely removed from the mix. After playing effectively the entire time I have gathered up a good stable of five star characters that I have not even bothered leveling yet. I still sorta wish there was a switch version.

If you have read the blog over the last few days you will know that I am fully engaged with Diablo 3 right now. Last night I attempted to farm some more chests but sleep claimed me. I am however on a mission to get the Avarice Conquest and will get there sooner or later. I love Diablo 3 so much and while I fade in and out of its focus… I will always sooner or later return to it.

While I am not playing a ton of it… I am still very much engaged with Final Fantasy XIV and am looking forward to the upcoming head start on June 28th for Shadowbringers the next expansion. Pretty excited especially considering the drastic class changes that I think will lead to a more accessible environment. Right now the plan is to level the Samurai through the story quests and then level Warrior with Dungeon Finder given that Tank queues are a breeze. I’ve always done it the other way around and I think a lot of what leads to my burn out is trying to claw my way up to level as a DPS when I could simply go the easy route and level through the story.

While I am not playing it a ton I am still fairly engaged with Magic the Gathering Arena and the War of the Spark expansion seems to be pretty interesting. We talked a bit about this on the podcast but I am really wishing they would make it so that constructed is a format that is always available for play, given that is probably my favorite of the “event” types. It also serves as an amazing way to obtain cards from a specific set.

To The New and Returning

I did a lengthy post about this the other day but I am starting to play Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night which is as close as we will probably ever get to a proper Symphony of the Night sequel. While I only have the E3 demo version right now, I will be getting access to the full thing on my birthday… June 18th and plan on picking it up for pretty much every console that it will be available for. It is likely going to be a toss up between Switch and PC as to which version I actually play the most.

With the Season of Opulence starting I believe today… I’ve been poking my head back into Destiny 2 of late to try and reacquaint myself with the way that the game as a whole feels. I completely missed the Season of the Drifter because I was off doing other things, and the start of a new Season seems to be a good time to get engaged again. I still very much love the game but at this point am so far behind that I am not exactly sure what the most ideal catch up mechanic would be. This is the problem with Destiny as a whole is that there isn’t a painfully obvious way to gain a ton of light levels quickly.

I’ve also of late been spending a significant amount of time playing Elder Scrolls Online. A new expansion released and it has made me want to start playing again… in spite of not actually being willing to start the new content. Instead I am working my way through Vvardenfell… aka two expansions ago? The game is pretty great and ends up filling the same niche that Star Wars the Old Republic does… in that I mostly want to come in and gobble up a bunch of story content and then wander off.

To Those Departing

Grim Dawn

I know I will revisit this game again, but for now I am not playing it and it leaves the list. Based on screenshot evidence I seem to have stopped playing sometime mid April. Still a really great game and I expect to get the itch at some point in the near future… but being engaged with Diablo 3 again mostly pushed it off the table.

Marvel Future Fight

I played this a significant amount of time for a short period of time… and now find it really hard to get back into it. I feel like I hit the free to play wall where I have done as much of the content as I want to do before needing to spend a significant chunk of money. The grind set in and all of the things that would offer advancement require either a lot of money or a lot of time.

Mortal Kombat 11

Going forward I am going to try to filter titles like this off the list in part because there are a lot of things that I play furiously for a weekend and then never play again. Mortal Kombat 11 was one of these and while I fully expect to return to it periodically it isn’t really worthy of the moniker of “regularly playing”. Its still a really cool game and you should check it out especially when it goes on sale.

Outward

This again is another example of a game that probably shouldn’t have made it onto the list since I played it obsessively for a few nights and then never again. I’m going to start an honorable mentions section below for some of the games where I play in this manner because I have a few of them this month as well.

Star Wars the Old Republic

I came in… I gobbled up the entire Eternal Throne storyline and then wandered off once I started the content immediately following that. I have no clue why I suddenly stopped playing but I did. I expect honestly at some point soon to add this back to the list especially with a new full expansion on the way. I still really like this game and am happy it found its feet post launch. I would love more of the content along the lines of Fallen Empire and Eternal Throne because both were phenomenal.

Honorable Mentions

Again for those who didn’t read all of the blurbs above, this is a section I am adding in part because every month there are a handful of titles that I play furiously for a few days and then wander away from. They don’t really deserve the title of “regularly playing” but they are also worth noting.

While there is actually a game here I am not entirely certain if it is a game I want to play. This is something I have been poking my head in to check on since the backer alpha began. I had a few fun nights with it but more or less have consigned it to hibernation once again.

I have no clue how much of this I will be playing. I randomly installed it and started playing a few weekends back after watching a series of videos on it by Gaijin Hunter. It is a really cool game and I think it might be something that I could settle into as a bizarre “what if capcom had made skyrim” experience. Not quite ready to add it to the regularly playing list, will see if it returns by the end of the month.

I had a lot of fun with this game right around the time of launch and then I wandered away… and am not exactly sure why? I really need to get back to playing it and at least make my way through the main story. I get easily distracted when it comes to gaming and I am guessing me getting into World of Warcraft Classic beta was the shiny object that caused this one.

And… last but definitely not least… we have World of Warcraft Classic the aforementioned shiny object. This is coming in as an honorable mention and not a regularly playing in part because I have forcefully pulled myself away from it. This game launches officially in August and given the amount of time you need to spend leveling in this game… I don’t see a point in burning myself out before that point. We are completely nonsense and are going to be making an attempt at 40 player raiding again. I will give more information about this as time gets closer. However for now it claims a spot on the Honorable Mentions.

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.

Regularly Playing: March 2019 Edition

March 22, 2019 by Belghast

We’ve passed the official first day of Spring this week and with it will come a lot more engagement with the out of doors and less sitting at home and playing games. As a result over the spring and summer months this list tends to dwindle down to significantly fewer titles. For the uninitiated I do this thing where I semi-monthly update my blog sidebar and talk about the games that I am regularly playing. During the month of March I am being honest with myself and allowing several titles that have been holding on by a thread to drop down to inactive status. However anyone who has read my blog for any length of time will realize that I regularly revisit older titles when I am feeling nostalgia or otherwise restless. I am notoriously bad at keeping up with series, however this marks three months in a row!

To Those Remaining

Anthem – PC

anthem-screenshot-2019-03-16-10-19-51-68

While I am taking a little bit of a break this week because there is an upcoming patch landing on Tuesday that should increase drop rates, I am still very much enjoying Anthem. March more than anything has been about me championing the cause of this beleaguered game. There is so much that so many people dislike about it, but I am consistently impressed at how fast we are seeing patches being released to address these issues. At the end of the day it is player fantasy about me flying around in a Robotech style mech suit. It’s a good game brent.

Destiny 2 – PC

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You sir are hanging out by the slimmest of threads. In fact I didn’t have any modern screenshots so I had to pull back into the annals of the blog to find something to use. The Season of the Drifter appears to largely be a dud and I am not entirely certain how engaged this whole era of “No DLC” is going to be. I liked the story driven stuff, as limited as it was. I’ve popped in several times but have struggled to engage. As much as it saddens me, my time in Destiny may be waning.

Dragalia Lost – Android

dragalialost-jan

I swear Dragalia Lost is the poster child for how you do reoccurring engagement in a game… and I sorta wish that all of the MMO-lites that I enjoy would take note. In general you have roughly two weeks with an event going on, so plenty of time to earn whatever rewards you want without feeling pressured to play constantly. Then within days of the finish of one event a brand new one starts causing you to engage all over again. Because it is Nintendo and they purposefully limit that sort of thing… there really isn’t much in the way of excessive monetization either. You just have a pure diablo-lite experience with a character collecting gacha mini game. Sure it feels super bad when you waste your five star pull on a wyrmprint, but I keep coming back for more.

Pokemon Go – Android

pokemongo-2

Another game that is sorta holding on by a thread is Pokemon Go. If it were not for the fact that I was getting credit for walking from my watch… I would probably not be interacting with this at all right now. As it stands I spend most of my time hatching pokemon… and even then I have like 3 eggs ready to hatch and I can’t seem to be bothered to open the damned app and do that. However with spring and better weather I might be spending more time out and about and reinvigorating my use of this game.

To The Returning and Brand New

Baba Is You – Switch and PC

desktop-screenshot-2019-03-21-10-41-30-77

This puzzle game is so good, and I have not talked about it much yet since we are probably going to talk an awful lot about it on the podcast. However it is probably seriously in the running for me for game of the year honors… and we are only in March. You hack reality to help you get to the “Is Win” condition. It is one of those things that is really hard to explain but once you grasp it you find yourself thinking in “IS” statements. So part logic puzzle part programming language.

The Division 2 – PC

desktop-screenshot-2019-03-21-20-58-10-88

To be honest I was not terribly certain how I would feel about this game, but it has been taking up most of my game time since release. The Division 1 was a setting without any semblance of hope… and The Division 2 has lots of hope. Instead of helping out a government that is dying… you end up helping out the communities of survivors trying to struggle to make it in the post biological apocalypse future. Division 2 is everything about the first game but more finely detailed and expanded upon. This is what a game sequel should feel like.

To Those Departing

Assassin’s Creed Origins – PC

I more or less got it out of my system when I became frustrated with what exactly the ending of the game would entail. I have a feeling at some point in the future I will force myself to finish it, but for now… I am just letting it slide away.

The Elder Scrolls Online – PC

I know without a doubt that I will return to this game because I always seem to, but for now that just isn’t the style of game I am interested in for the moment. I seem to be enraptured with the whole MMO-lite emerging genre because I can drop in and out of them really easily and don’t ask an awful lot of me in the process. ESO is a game of excellent storytelling and questing, and I just haven’t been in the mood for that.

Final Fantasy XIV – PC

I am literally one dungeon away from finishing the Stormblood storyline and I could not seem to push myself across that finish line. For now Anthem and Division 2 have stolen my attention, but I am certain I will be returning at some point soon. However due to the rules of this game, I did not play it during the month of March and as such it is leaving the list.

Magic the Gathering Arena – PC

Another game that I did not expect to leave the list, but is doing so anyways. Still very much love this game and what they are doing with it… and will probably return soon with the upcoming patch that adds a bunch of additional functionality.

Monster Hunter World – PC

This one saddens me quite a bit, but I have not logged into Monster Hunter World in a really long time. Again this is just a problem of limited play time and Anthem and Division 2 stealing my focus. This will absolutely return to the list and potentially sooner rather than later given there is a high quality texture patch incoming on April 4th.

Summary

This was a month with a lot of movement, as I allowed things that were hanging on barely to slip by the wayside with the release of two back to back juggernauts. Most of the things that are falling off the list will return and probably soon. However for the sake of the way this post is supposed to work they are getting removed for the time being. This is absolutely the shortest my sidebar has been in a really long time.