Climbing Out of a Hole After a Loss with Lots of Games

We’ve had a rough go of things this past week. Our pup was diagnosed with bone cancer last month and given 6 months to live. Despite our best efforts to help with treatments and numerous doctor visits, the cancer spread aggressively and claimed our poor friend. I tell you this because I feel the need to justify why I’ve felt withdrawn from blogging, gaming, and everything else this past month (in addition to having traveled for work and being busy). We’re those weird animal people who consider animals family members, and love them as much as people — often more. I’m starting to come out of that hole, and glad games are here to help.

I’ve had some time to dabble in a few things. I want to briefly comment on them here in this conglomoblog then expound upon them in their own entries.

Nintendo Online

The long-awaited Nintendo Online service for the Switch is out now. I picked up the $20/year version. With it comes the ability to continue playing games online — a feature now restricted to the Online service — as well as an array of classic NES games on the Switch’s version of the virtual console. There are also cloud saves and that phone app no one will use. I think it’s a fairly limited program and the price is perhaps justified only by the virtual console.

Super Mario Party Switch

Graev and I both picked up Super Party Party. I’m having fun playing solo and with my wife while waiting for Graev to finish playing Valkyrie Chronicles 4. Once he does, we plan to play online together. I think that’s ultimately where my biggest gripe with the game comes in… there’s no real online play, just mini-game shenanigans. I’m also really displeased with the control setup because you have to use a single Joycon to play. Yes, that means no handheld mode or pro controller, which are both the best control beauties of the console. We’ll write more Super Mario Party soon.

Minecraft

Our family has a Minecraft realm we all play on together. It’s the version you can play on any device like an iPad, Switch, PC, phone, etc. It’s nice to play on the game and be able to play together. My mom is actually the Minecraft guru in the family now. She plays literally all day. Literally. I get the questions like, “why is my iPad battery dying so fast and why is my iPad so hot?” It’s because you just played 10 hours of Minecraft, mom.  Our realm is pretty cool. We have a huge Ewok village, a wizard tower, a boat house, a mansion with 3 floors above ground and a massive underground basement with game rooms and armories. We have an underground tram connecting it all. This game continues to amaze me with its connectivity.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

I’m a fanboy of the franchise, but I wasn’t madly in love with Origins like so many others. I feel like it was bridging the game inadequately between old and new. Well, Odyssey is that ‘new’, and rather than bridge it they’ve gone straight to this great new formula. Odyssey is extensively more RPG than past entries. There’s an inventory with gear, conversion trees, talents, consequences for your actions, world-wide changes, a huge world to explore, and more. I’m very pleased with the game thus far, and will definitely write up more to talk about how this not-so-assassin AC plays out.

WoW

I’m still plucking along quite well in WoW. I found my groove. My guild is still in early Heroic Uldir and I haven’t passed a Mythic 10 yet. I think my best was an 8 or 9. My alt is on +5 I think. I just play dungeons when I feel like it, and do the world quests on my guys when I feel like farming the AP. At this pace, I should be capable of playing indefinitely. The key to this success really is having like-minded people to play with who are simply all about playing at my exact same speed. My past WoW mistakes have all come about because the groups I play with are too mixed in their mindsets.

I’ll be easing my way back into this now that