Ever since day one

Shadowlands is now live and well, and I have had a little free time to start out my leveling. So far I have only been doing quests. I made it out of The Maw, made a quick stop at Oribos, and then off to Bastion. I'll have to try out some dungeons soon, but for now I'm just getting a hang of the story. I can't really say anything bad about it yet, the quests have been interesting and I like the look of the zones.

I don't really have much to say right now, I have been too busy with Christmas organizing to really have time for a lot of gaming. But soon I'll be done with most of the gifts and decorations, and then I'll try to relax and have time for WoW and other games. It sure is going to be a different Christmas this year with the pandemic and all, but we'll just have to make the best of it. Now I'll have to go, I'll make a longer post next time.

 

Stitches

So now we finally got a new release date for Shadowlands, November 24th. Of course this feels a bit early for me, but I guess any date would have been too early. I have been continuing on Loremaster, and I finished Eastern Kingdoms, so now it's only Kalimdor left. Now that we have this new release date, I am going to need to do some current content soon, if I want the pre-patch achievements. Also, I don't even think I could get Loremaster right now, since Shadowlands quests seems to have been added to the requirements already. So there is a lot to do at the moment, but Halloween is coming up, and I'll probably be busy the whole weekend.

Besides WoW I have also been playing some more on the Switch, the latest game I tried out was Rayman Legends. Seems like a cool game, there's some good old Rayman platformer action, but also a lot of new things to get used to. So far it doesn't seems too difficult, but who knows what the later levels will bring on... I also need to continue on Breath of the Wild, but I just haven't had time for that now, unfortunately.

I'll keep this very short today, I have a lot of things to do and at the moment I'm just sitting here. Hopefully next week I'll have time for some more gaming, even though I have a lot of work, and it's also my birthday. Bye!

Pizza, french fry

There is only a few hours left, and then we will get the Shadowlands pre-patch. I didn't really have time to do everything I wanted to, but that was expected. I researched a little bit, and it seems like nothing too vital is going away with the pre-patch, so I don't think I missed that much. I'll probably log on one more time tonight and take some screenshots though, it might be fun to remember what everything used to look like. Loremaster is of course not ready yet, but maybe I'll continue even during the pre-patch. Since Blizzard announced that Shadowlands will be delayed, it means I'll have a little bit more time. I have to say though, I am a bit more nervous right now than I have been on previous expansion pre-patch days.

I have been doing other stuff lately though, for example, I finally uploaded my second The Outer Worlds video. Good to have that out of the way, but not sure what to make next. I noticed I haven't really uploaded any WoW-related videos in a long time, so I guess that would be a good alternative. What I also randomly did last week, was boot up the Switch and start a new game of Breath of the Wild. Ever since the Switch died and we lost all our game saves, I haven't played that game, but I kind of thought it was time now. I'm maybe 5 hours in at the moment, and it feels pretty good. But I keep in mind that the same thing can happen again, with losing the save file, since I still only save my game on the Switch itself. Let's just hope I wouldn't be that unlucky...

Life is otherwise quite stable at the time, but it still feels like any small misfortune would throw everything out of balance and I would be back in the pit. Nothing I can do much about, just need to hold on and go forward. And play some games. Good games.

They never want it again

 I have only been focusing on Loremaster these last few weeks, and I finally got out of Outland and continued to Eastern Kingdoms. So far I have been progressing relatively fast, and the amount of quests in each zone hasn't felt too overwhelming. However, on Thursday we finally got the date for Shadowlands, and it's 27th of October. This is a little bit earlier than I was hoping for, so it puts a lot of pressure on everything right now. On the other hand, I am not sure there will even be any changes to Loremaster in Shadowlands, so I might be panicking for nothing. But it would be very nice to get it done now, because when the new expansion is here I'll obviously focus wholeheartedly on current content, and then Loremaster would be postponed by another year or two.

So I have currently no idea how this is going to play out, it will all depend on how much free time I'll have this fall. In any case, I am surely looking forward to the next expansion as well, and I need to get to pre-ordering my copy of the game soon. I'll leave this very short today, it's mostly just a small update on how things are going. See you soon. Here's a pic of Missy and her mouse friend, in the beautiful Eversong Woods.

Strawberries

This summer went by in a flash, and I haven't even nearly done everything I was supposed to do. I have mostly just been working all the time, while simultaneously trying to finish school. There has barely been any spare time, and instead of relaxing, I have only become more exhausted. But as of Thursday it seems like my school-related nuisances are finally over, so maybe I can enjoy this last summer month a little bit more. As one might suspect, there hasn't been much time for gaming during the whole summer, but I have been able to squeeze in a little WoW here and there. I completed all the story-related quests in BfA, and then I went on to continue on Loremaster. I'll be done with Outland real soon, and then it's Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms left. This makes it sound like there is very little remaining, but we all know how many zones and quests there are in those last two continents...

The reason why I picked up Loremaster again is probably upcoming Shadowlands. From what I have read so far there will be a lot of changes to WoW after this expansion, and I am afraid this would alter the Loremaster achievement in some way. That's why I would really like to have it before Shadowlands, even though we don't really have an exact date yet. The Beta opened a few weeks ago, so that means we are getting closer now. Rumors are saying maybe November. I'm just going to continue forward, and make this achievement my number one priority right now. There will probably be some other achievements or items that I would need to get too, let's see what I have time for. In any case the eight expansion of WoW is coming closer all the time, and it makes me both happy and sad at the same time.

I have some work that needs to be done today, so I'll keep it relatively short. Let's hope I'll have time to post again real soon. Bye!

Sara's Mask

This month has gone by both really fast and really slow, but I have made a little bit of progress with certain things. I finally have the Pathfinder part 2 achievement, so I can fly in BfA zones. My night elf priest is currently level 118, so I am very close to my third fully leveled character. The fact that Blizzard extended the 100% experience buff up until next expansion is really helping at the moment. One thing that I am not sure about is how leveling is going to be in Shadowlands. As far as I understand, all the old starting zones for different races will be changed to something new, and from level 10 and forward you can go to pretty much any zone from any older expansions for leveling, since the quests will scale to your current level. Also, the max level will be scaled back to level 60. I don't know what to think about this, it feels like a lot of changes at once. I mean, I have always been okay with some things changing each expansion, but this feels like too much maybe. I kind of get the max level scaling, because we are already at the eighth expansion of WoW and level cap is getting quite high. Don't know about the leveling thing though, it sounds like a lot of things from "old" WoW will disappear. But there's not much I can do about it, so I'll just have to go along with it and hope it's good after all.

I also finally published my review on The Outer Worlds, and uploaded one of the two planned videos. I also booted up this old game I used to play a lot as a kid, James Pond 2. It was released on a lot of different platforms, but I used to play it in DOS, so that's the version I'm sticking to. It is a really cool platformer, with very colorful and vibrant levels. I recorded some material from it, so if I have time I'll post a review and maybe some short video later.

Otherwise I have mostly been at work or doing school stuff, I still have a lot to do before I can graduate. I'm not sure how I'll be able to pull these last things together, but let's just hope for the best. Laterz!

Give me a reason

It's already been a few weeks since I finished The Outer Worlds, and I can say that it was a great game all the way to the end. It felt a little bit too short though, but I guess you can't have everything. I think it has a decent replay value, but for now I'll concentrate on other games, and also getting the videos and the review done. I might have time for that next week, let's see. I have also been playing WoW, I am very close to the Pathfinder achievement now, only need a little bit more rep with The Unshackled. I also finally managed to get my warlock to level 120, so now I have that out of the way.

I immediately started leveling my night elf priest, so now I get to see the alliance side of Battle for Azeroth. So far it has been quite interesting, and I don't think it will be too long before she is level 120. After that I am not sure which character to level, I have a few different options that I have to consider later. I also started playing another game, Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I got interested in it a while ago while listening to a podcast, and I really wanted to try it out. It seems like I got the wrong impression of it from the podcast, because it's not really what I thought it would be. It is very historically correct, that is true, but I did not expect it to be so very story driven. I had more of a "medieval simulation" in mind, where you just run around town doing normal peasant stuff. But I have been enjoying the game a lot, while at the same time being angry with it a lot. I still feel like I want to continue playing it though, so maybe there will be a review on it sometime, let's see.

I think the next few weeks will be quite full with school work, so I have no idea how much time I'll have for gaming. If everything goes as planned I will be done with school sometime in the summer, so I just have to make this last push, and then I can finally relax for a while. Here is a screenshot from Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

Insta-diva

I have had a very stressful month as usual, but there has been some time for gaming. Mostly The Outer Worlds, but also some WoW. In The Outer Worlds I am getting closer to the end all the time, and I have also tried to record some video material along the way. I am planning to upload at least two videos at some point, let's see when I'll have time to edit them. I haven't even had time to write my Super Mario Sunshine review yet, even though I finished that game months ago. I have, however, managed to upload all the videos that I had material for, so that's one positive thing I guess.

A few days ago I finally managed to loot that plate dress that I was grinding for in WoW, so now Missy looks more fabulous than ever. Now I can return to current content again, which means patch 8.3, Visions of N'Zoth. This patch was actually released two months ago, but I have simply not had time to dive into it before now, mostly because I have been playing The Outer Worlds so much. I did the first part of the introductory quest line, and now have access to the dailies in Uldum. I also did some leveling with my priest, Blizzard has added a 100% leveling bonus until April 20th(because of the Corona virus, ofc). This was really needed right now, I hope it will help me push through these last levels so I could finally have two level 120's.

Even though school is closed for now, it sadly doesn't mean I would have less schoolwork. I also work at a place that most likely won't shut down during this whole Corona thing, so while a lot of people have time to sit and play now, I don't. Well, I guess things could be worse, I shouldn't complain. Now it's time for bed, tomorrow is going to be a long day again. Bye.

The Unreliable

Last week consisted almost entirely of playing The Outer Worlds, and I am really in love with the game now. I managed to fix the crashing problem, and I didn't even have to re-install Windows. I was right about the fact that my new hardware was causing the problems though, but it turned out to be a pretty easy fix. My new CPU had multithreading enabled, and after disabling this function in BIOS, I haven't had a single crash occur. So now I can really enjoy the game, and not have to worry about saving every 2 minutes.

I really can't explain how cool The Outer Worlds is, and I really love the environment. The different planets I have been on so far have very varying and beautiful scenery. Right now I'm about 15 hours into the game, and after reading some reviews, it seems like the game isn't longer than 30-40 hours on Normal difficulty. In one way it's good, since I often drop longer games in lack of time/interest, but on the other hand it has turned out to be such a good game that I would have wanted some more content. Oh well, I suppose the replay value is kind of high here. Besides The Outer Worlds, I have been playing some WoW as well. I took a little break again from current content, and decided to hunt some new transmog gear. Everyone should know already that my DK doesn't wear any pants, only skirts or dresses, and plate versions of these are pretty hard to come by. Up until now I have had three different skirts to choose from, but now I have been hunting down a couple of other ones from old raids. There is one dress in particular that I really want, the Breastplate of the Lost Catacomb, which drops from the last boss in Heart of Fear. The drop rate is not very high here, so I probably have to run the raid many times before I get it...

I have had a busy week, and it continues until next week, so I'm off doing other things now. I just hope I'll have time for a little bit of The Outer Worlds tonight, or maybe on Sunday... One can always wish.

Every Day is Exactly the Same

For Christmas I got new parts for my computer, and I also celebrated with buying a new case. So now it's rebuilt, and looks and feels very good. There has been some problems though, whenever I play any games, they seem to crash at totally random places. WoW has been almost unplayable, since the crashes are so frequent. I also tried out Overwatch, and that one crashed in the same way. After this I started wondering if this was a Blizzard-only fault, so I played some Torchlight to kind of experiment. I got one crash, but otherwise I played many hours without any problems. Yesterday I finally decided it was time to start playing The Outer Worlds, and now I get crashes there as well..! They come at totally random points, so I have no idea what's going on. But very clearly, all of this has something to do with my new computer hardware.

I haven't really had too much time or energy yet to really get to the bottom of it, but I guess my last option is to try re-installing Windows. I really don't want to, it's so much work getting all of my programs re-installed and all settings back to the way I want them... That kind of operation would probably take an entire day, and I'm not sure when I have got that time. But I can't enjoy my games to the fullest at the moment, so something has to be done.

I am absolutely loving The Outer Worlds though, despite the fact that it crashes frequently. I just have to remember to save literally all the time. Very interesting and beautiful world, and cool characters. I personally think it resembles Fallout so much, that it feels like I'm just playing a Fallout game set in another timeline or something. I'm only a few hours in so far, so I'll give an update when I have played more. Have to go to work now, but when I come home tonight, I'll continue for sure.

Spare me

Now I have finally had some more time for gaming, and the first thing I did was catch up on the events in WoW. The 15th anniversary event has been going on since November, but only now I had time to start really looking into it. There are three "raids" that you can enter, where you battle old raid bosses from the past. I got the achievement for doing all three of them, but apparently they drop quite nice loot too. This made me a bit sad, because you can only do these raids once a week, so that means now I could only do them once before the event ends on Wednesday. If I knew about this in November I could have had the chance to get so much nice gear... Well that's too bad, I suppose I wouldn't have had time for it anyway. Also, after the last boss in the third raid(Ragnaros), I got a very nice weapon that totally replaced my old one: Sulfuras, the Extinguished Hand. It is scaled to BfA and is itemlevel 430, so I'm very happy with this one at least. Along with the achievement for these raids you also got a very cool Deathwing mount, the Obsidian Worldbreaker.

Then there was also a battleground achievement, where you can enter Alterac Valley of Olde, which means the way it was in Vanilla. Here you also get mounts, Frostwolf Snarler for the Horde, and Stormpike Battle Ram for the Alliance. For the achievement you had to run the battleground several times to gather 200 Timewarped Badges, I ended up going 9 times before I got it. The anniversary event also had some other features, like world bosses, but unfortunately I didn't have time to look into these any further.

So this was basically the start of 2020 for me, could have been worse I guess... I'm not sure if this is going to be a good year or not, but let's hope I have time for some games at least. Here is a pic of the Obsidian Worldbreaker mount.