June in Review and July Goals

It feels like I did more in June than I did in May, but let’s look at the results, shall we?

Still no FFXIV sub, so that was out. No matter, I wasn’t looking at it as a high priority anyway.

I didn’t quite finish my TSW goal of clearing Shadowy Forest quests, but I did complete one more quest hub, so I’m inching closer. It was the first time I’ve had to actually change my build specifically for a mission, so I floundered about in frustration for a while before I realised what was going wrong. 

Tried playing Long Live the Queen but I was on skype at the time, and it didn’t play nicely with LLtQ in fullscreen (which is how I like to play it) so I dropped it…and then completely forgot about it for the rest of the month. Oops.

Hearthstone was a debacle. I made it to rank 10 fairly easily, then spent the rest of the month consistently underperforming, and ended at rank 13. That experience was an inspiration for my last post.

While I did, in fact, end up buying the Humble Bundle with Shadowrun: Hong Kong in it, I didn’t play any Shadowrun. Instead, I finished Alan Wake, Cibele, and made some progress in Torchlight 2. Also put some time into Diablo 3 seasonal hardcore mode with my friend.

Goals for July

I am currently revelling in the 4th anniversary event in TSW, soaking up massive amounts of AP via Guardians of Gaia fights. So, since the event only lasts another week, the goals are to complete at least one more deck build – for the outfit, naturally! – before the event ends, and then close out the Shadowy Forest quests in the latter half of the month.

I’ve given up on ranking goals for Hearthstone, so this month I’ll just be playing enough for dailies to get done, with the occasional arena match. 

I just started The Blackwell Legacy, so I aim to finish at least three (but ultimately all five) of the series by the end of the month. Likewise, I have started a game of Sid Meier’s Pirates! which I may just cruise through (see what I did there) at a leisurely pace. So the goal there is just progress.

More Diablo 3, of course. The main goal with that is simply survival. See how far we can get before we die. I have two cheat death abilities on my wizard, and they’ve procced a couple of times on Torment IV, so I think we’ll be staying there for a while until we get some better gear. And if we do die? On to Torchlight 2!

Given the time I’ll be putting into TSW, I don’t think I’ll make it back to FFXIV this month. Perhaps August will be the month of my return.

Franz Ferdinand – Matinee

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May in Review and June Goals

Aaaand the accountability train pulls in to another station. Choo choo!

Looking back at my May goals, I find that I just narrowly missed a clean sweep of failure. I found that it’s hard to do FFXIV goals when you don’t have a sub active, and the best I could get to in Hearthstone was rank 9, despite it being by far my most played game for the month.

At least I made progress in TSW! Kinda. I updated to the latest patch! >_<

I forgot about Long Live the Queen, unfortunately. Ah well, it is an evergreen goal anyway.

I did actually start playing Grim Fandango, but I got stuck in the Petrified Forest where the game locks up at a certain point every time. So, that was an abandoned project. However, on a whim I loaded up The Swapper and enjoyed it so much that I finished it in a few sessions. Just scraped in for my May goals!

The month to come

Let’s see if I can find the dolla dolla bills to renew my FFXIV sub. If I do, I’ll be looking to get my Arcanist to 30, get as far into the MSQ as I can, finish the Arcanist class quests, and do the hunts I need to be promoted in my Grand Company.

TSW goals remain unchanged: finish up in Shadowy Forest and tackle Carpathian Fangs.

Another tilt at Hearthstone legendary rank. Only in Standard, I dusted all my non-standard-legal cards so Wild is out.

I am reeeeeeally tempted by the current Humble Narrative Bundle, mainly due to Shadowrun: Hong Kong. If I pull the trigger on that, I might go Shadowrun crazy this month! Otherwise, I’ll be looking at finishing up at least 2 bigger games from my Steam list.

Oh yeah, LLtQ replays each week.

I am SOOOOO glad I don’t have a handheld or console to make the to-do list even longer!

Killing Heidi – Weir

The Shape Of My 2016 Gaming

Like Murf, I don’t really go in for the new year resolution thing, but I do have broad goals for the year and laying them out early is sort of the same thing, so here we are.

I will need your help, though.

MMO Gaming

Well it looks like FFXIV has its hooks in me for a while, so I think that’ll be my main MMO for most of the year. I just got to the stage where I can unlock other classes on my little Lalafell, Menashi, and I signed up for three of the crafting classes. That was enough to give me a glimpse of the depth of the rabbit hole, so I reckon my main task will be to restrain myself from becoming too caught up in it and thereby burn out. Patience, Grasshopper.

The goal for TSW is to catch up to current story content, and then duck in occasionally to keep the flow going. Should be easy enough with my lore post project keeping me honest.

Wildstar and LOTRO, I might have to keep my goalsetting to a minimum. Perhaps monthly progress goals is the way to go there. A couple of levels here, a zone completion there…nice and easy. Same with Devilian, maybe. We’ll see.

That’s the current MMOs dealt with, so what about the upcoming titles? I won’t have to worry about Star Citizen releasing this year, same with EverQuest Next. Those were the two major MMOs I was looking forward to. I’ll keep an eye on Crowfall and Camelot Unchained (the crafting classes made me perk my ears) but I don’t expect a proper release in 2016.

The Asian imports, hmmm. I don’t think Blade & Soul is going to grab me, but I might give Black Desert a try. Likewise, I am quite interested in Lost Ark Online, it seems to be an improvement on Devilian in all ways.

Steam Gaming

Okay so last year, mostly due to my illness, I didn’t get through many big-name games in my library, and I don’t think I played any new release. I did, however, make up for that with quantity, in the form of shorter and lesser-known, (mostly) lesser-quality games. This year I want to reverse that. Instead of quantity, I want to focus on quality. I want to finally experience as many big name games as I can this year, whether big in scope (like Tomb Raider) or classics (like Grim Fandango).

Here is a list of the games I have available to me which I think might fit that category. Please, let me know if I’m being too generous by including something I shouldn’t. Also, cast your votes as to the top five you’d recommend. Alphabetical order, no biases here!

1. Alan Wake (+ American Nightmare)
2. Batman: Arkham Asylum (+ Arkham City)
3. Bioshock 2
4. Blackwell Series
5. Broken Sword 1-3
6. Brutal Legend
7. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
8. Costume Quest
9. Crusader Kings II*
10. Crysis 2
11. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
12. Dragon Age: Origins
13. Endless Space*
14. Europa Universalis III*
15. F.E.A.R. (+ sequels)
16. Grim Fandango Remastered
17. Half-Life 2: Episode 2
18. Jade Empire
19. Just Cause (1 & 2)
20. L.A. Noire
21. The Last Express Gold Edition
22. Mafia
23. Mass Effect (1 & 2)
24. Metro 2033
25. Planescape: Torment
26. Red Faction: Armageddon (+ Guerilla)
27. Saints Row The Third
28. Shadowrun Returns (+ Dragonfall)
29. Sid Meier’s Pirates!*
30. Thief Gold
31. Titan Quest
32. Tomb Raider
33. Total War (Medieval II, Rome, Shogun 2)*
34. Walking Dead Season 1
35. The Witcher (1 & 2)

*- the goal for these would be to get in at least one proper playthrough/campaign.

I think a reasonable goal is to finish at least ten of these before the year is out.

Evergreens

I intend to continue to put time into Hearthstone, and the main goal is to stay on top of dailies. I want to get to legendary rank at least once in the year, though.

Doubt I will go back to Heroes of the Storm, unless I get some rank-climbing buddies. Or they change the ranked format to shorter seasons. Something has to change, that’s for sure.

Purchases

I reeeeally want to make progress on thinning out the library this year, so my goal is to only buy games to complete sets (e.g. Mass Effect 3, or Broken Sword 4 & 5). But there are so many quality titles out there, I just don’t know how I’ll be able to manage it. I think the key will be how much more concentration I have as I get better and can function more normally. That should let me stay focused a lot more, and thus get through the games faster. That, and the self-discipline in FFXIV I mentioned earlier.

Good luck to me!

Cheers!

NSFW

Missy Elliot – Work It