PixlBit

Lots of stuff this week, but it all comes down to Farm Together 2, which will be my friend and mine's obsession for the coming weeks. 

Nintendo Music app:

I found a shoulder strapped carrying case for my Switch at Goodwill so I could bring it to my friend's place easily. In searching through new releases I stumbled across the Nintendo Music app and immediately installed it on my phone. What a great app! You can create your own playlists and share songs across social media. I love it and have been streaming it in my car. It's just Nintendo first-party titles but that's still a lot of music.

Cosmic Ark pickup - By playing the Activision owned Atari games on Retro Classics, I've gotten turned on by some new titles and one was Cosmic Ark, an Imagic game, and picked it up at my game store. Next month I'm doing a deep dive into Atari, and so I might pick up a few more. I'm looking hard for Crackpots. 

Blue Prince streamed on PC:

I tested out playing Game Pass on PC at my library. I discovered you have to use certain browsers to make it work right, but I got it working. I tried out point-and-click game Blue Prince and it streamed without lag. This is an interesting game because it has an interesting mechanic. You have a set number of steps to move through a mansion room by room. Each doorway has you choose what room is to follow. You have to find items to keep your steps up and find things to get to the final room and solve the story's mystery. Very cool. 

Oblivion fail: I followed the main questline for a while until I ran into a problem that really annoyed me. I had lost all my equipment infultrating a cult. You have to give your stuff to the first cult member to get in. I remember getting it back last time I played, but this time I couldn't find the stuff. So I just moved on with nothing but a dagger and my horse. Then I needed a lockpick to progress in the following mission and didn't have one, couldn't find a shop to sell me one in town, and just threw my hands up in annoyance. Do I really have to go find some cave of goblins to fight to get me some lockpicks to complete this simple mission? That's the thing about Elder Scrolls games. They are a bit like a RPG simulation where you can get lost or be without a key item for a quest. I don't want the game to hold my hand too much, but at least make it so I can't get stuck in a mission like that. I'll return though. I still love Oblivion. 

Loop Hero purchase:

I played this indie game on Game Pass a while back and now I bought it on a sale because I love it. It's an autobattler RPG, a card game and board game all in one (maybe a contruction game too). It's also a rogue-like and a little hard to describe (check out the vid). This is another game I wish I could get a physical copy for. 

Avowed obsession:

Avowed is a open world RPG like Oblivion but without the game ending annoyances that come from a lack of guidance. I was quite obsessed with it until Farm Together 2 came out (see below). I've logged 21 hours so far. It's a big game with amazingly detailed regions to explore. The battle system is real-time and very good. As a mage character, I weild a wand but also a bow. Spells are dramatically rendered and powerful. You can upgrade all your equipment in camp. There's also a huge amount of dialog and story in the game. I'm playing on story mode, so battles are fairly easy but not unexciting. I quite enjoy the story and all the characters and the vast amount of dialog you can engage in. Responses can also change events in the game and how people react to you. Thankfully, without some tricky persuasion meter minigame like in Oblivion. I really love it. 

Clicker Heroes: Just routine maintenance play here. I put in about 15 minuted each time before funds run out. When I return, the funds will be available again and I progress. 

Retro Classics frustration:

I do the daily challenges for gems to collect all the badges. I've been experiencing some lag though which seems amazing to me because I'm playing mostly Atari 2600 games. How does such simple games like Pitfall lag at all? My connection isn't that bad. But I've discovered some new games like the mini game within The Adventures of Willy Beamish called Super Space K'Noidtrix (shown above), which was an addition to the Sega CD version of the game. It's like a Tetris game meets a fixed screen shooter. I really like it. 

Farm Together 2, fully absorbing me:

This dropped on July 4th and my buddy and I got day-one. It's a $26 game. I've logged 300 hours into the first game and my friend has done even more. This sequel plays very similarly to the first one but has some new additions like a town to go to where you can set up shops and trade with the townsfolk. The tractors also have a auto mode now which is very helpful. We both played all day, about 10 hours, on Friday without stop. It's very absorbing. I like to optimize the design of my farm and build lots of fences and inviting spots for visitors, of which I got two. You can set the game for online play and allow drop-in drop-out visitors to interact as much or as little as you want with your farm. Man, I can't stop thinking about it as I go into my work week today. I've been looking up real small farm design layouts in order to reign in the chaos, because your farm becomes enormous after a while and it can get overwelming. So... enjoying the heck out that even though I want to return to Avowed. 

That's the week. What's next?