Video game talk, anyone?

I haven't played it. I never "got into" Homestar Runner, so my sole experience with that world of stuff was playing "Trogdor" in Guitar Hero 2.

However, I promise that if I do play that walking simulator, I will return with my full, in-depth review.

Nearing the endgame of FF7R. I was thinking of picking up Tales of Arise next, but given the surprisingly positive reviews of Guardians of the Galaxy I might get that instead.

The PS5 is great, have to say, but it's great in ways you tend not to notice--faster loading times, 60 FPS, etc.--until you go back to playing a less powerful console. One very marked and obvious improvement is remote play, which works nearly flawlessly. Probably 75% of my playing time has been via my laptop, while C plays Persona 5 Royal on the PS4*. Oh, and the DualSense is a legitimate delight to hold--as in, beyond the haptic bells and whistles, it's one of the most tactilely and ergonomically satisfying controllers I've ever owned. My only quibble is that the glossy-finish clear plastic buttons feel a little cheap relative to the DualShock 4.

*Yes, she's playing Persona yet again. The woman's obsessed.

Still playing Shadow of Mordor. I am greatly enjoying learning how to take advantage of some of my better abilities with time. I've had several very long but extremely fun fights over the last few days, and last night I reached the second half of the game (and a new area, Nurn).

One captain had to be brought out by blowing up his grog supplies inside a Stronghold, as he loved explosions. He showed up with a bodyguard, who I made quick work of with arrows, but then discovered that the captain himself was immune to both stealth and ranged attacks, and in my attempts to fight him I ended up drawing so many uruks I couldn't maneuver, so I raced away to regain my stealth. I then tried drawing him toward other explosive sources (campfires and barrels) and damaged him a decent amount, then released some caragors to wreak havoc...BAD IDEA! He was enraged by caragors and fully healed himself. Finally, I figured out a strategy - Headshot random uruks near him to pull him toward me, occasionally diving down to stealth drain and refill my arrows, while pulling the mob toward explosives that I would detonate from range. I got the captain down to just under 1/2 health, then got lucky and found him in a corner of the camp away from the mob and finished him off with stuns and flurry strikes!

The second one required me to rampage through his stronghold, killing 20 uruks within a few minutes to draw him out. This on its own took me several attempts as I had to fight my usual desire to sneak and snipe and dive into melee. Finally he arrived, and he was heavily armored, immune to ranged (but not to stealth). I kept dive-bombing him and fleeing to the rooftops over and over, using explosions and morgai flies and caragors to thin the herd until I was able to duel him out in the open.

The variety in captains/warchiefs is great. I love when I'm in the middle of a giant melee mob and suddenly two captains show up and announce themselves, only to get murdered two minutes later.

To finish off the first half of the game, you end up drawing out the Hammer of Sauron, a former man with a giant mace that resembles a bone-built version of Sauron's metallic weapon. You fight him out in the open in the midst of a mob of lesser Uruks that you use to build up your combo meter to do executions on the Hammer, while dodging his extremely powerful attacks that also occasionally kill all of the uruks nearby so more can run in from farther away. I threw in some arrow shots but realized he gets pissed and ranged-blasts you for that. I had to flee and find a healing herb once, but managed it without dying.

SO MUCH FUN!

Checking out the Lost Ark beta tonight, will share any Juicy Secrets/Hot Takes here

Okay, just when I thought the gameplay was going to start getting stale in Shadow of Mordor, I received the "brand" ability!

I can now secretly brand uruks to support me, and then signal them all at once to set my own ambushes?! HOLY SHIT that is awesome!

My favorite "bad" moment in the second half of the game so far was when I was fighting a mob and a captain showed up in the middle of it named "Uruk the Friendly" or something. He was very polite, and immediately fucking murdered me because he also had an ability that blocked my "Last Chance" ability. He then APOLOGIZED for killing me.

So naturally, as soon as I received the "Death Threat" ability, I sent one to him, boosting him to an Elite Captain with a mob of guards.

Now that I also have Brand, I may attempt to convert him to my side instead of getting my revenge as originally planned.

It's been out in Asia for quite some time--this is just the beta for the Western localization servers. It's good! Probably not for everyone--the art style is EXTREMELY Korean MMO, but the Diablo click/hotkey combat is dope and feels satisfying when you group up a bunch of enemies and turn them into balloons full of tomato juice. Basically, imagine Black Desert crossed with Diablo 3 and you're there. I'll definitely pick it up at full release in March.

metrod dread amiibi

I ended up converting the Friendly guy to my side, along with 80% of the captains in Nurn. I'm stuck at 87% Completion on the game, with two of the stealth missions I need to figure out how to complete successfully (one where I have to kill defenders without setting off the alarm in a stronghold, and the other where I have to brand a bunch of archers without being spotted at all.)

I beat the two stealth missions I was "stuck" on. Turns out I was worrying about the bonus objectives when I really didn't need the extra 50 points of XP for each, so I beat them by doing the main objective only.

Nearly done now. Two hunting targets, a couple main missions, and a handful of other side missions and I'll be at 100% (I think)!

EDIT - Beat the game! Quite a fun ending! Made me want to go buy Shadow of War right away (but I won't, yet.) I like that all of the Captains/Warchiefs I branded earlier ended up killing all of the Talons of Sauron for me while I fought the lesser guys.

when the chaos is happy

This weekend I reinstalled two previous MMORPGs and played a new character to level 20 under the Free to Play models - World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

WoW was utterly fucking boring. Minus a few changes in the early areas of the game, and automatically getting new spells as I leveled, this game is OLLLLD now. It really, REALLY needs a fricking graphics update more than just "slightly better character textures/models now".

SWTOR was, by comparison, at least still kind of fun. Also dated, but it's ten years old to WoW's 17-18. The improvements in the game seem minor, except for one difference - the one starting dungeon for level 10 is playable solo now, and they give you a "combat droid" to accompany you on it, and it's actually fairly fun that way.

I will probably continue playing SWTOR again. The only way I will go back to WoW is if Mrs B wants to.

how about those game awards

Awww YISS! Shadow of War on sale on Humble for 80% off! *snag*