I’m Back and Ready to Go

It’s good to be back. But it was also good to spend the last month relaxing and not having to ponder what the next post would be or what needed to be uploaded. I’m so thankful to be in the place where I have the power to decide when I want to work and how I want to work. From grade school to college to the workplace, many (if not most) of us have been trained to constantly operate according to someone else’s timetable. As a result, many of our achievements are based more on what someone expects or requires of us rather than something more internally based. I’ve lived that life and I can empathize with its struggles. That is why I appreciate each day that I decide what I wish to accomplish for myself. For August, my goal was to take some time away from producing content and return rejuvenated and with a fresher mind.

There is nothing like gaming when you have the opportunity to enjoy it. No worries about game captures or what would be a good idea for a future video. It was great. I was a huge sports fan growing up and my dream was to be a sports announcer. When I first started doing it, I was excited and pumped. But over time, as I did it for a living, it became a job. Soon I found myself just wanting to attend sporting events as a spectator without being a part of the event crew. Eventually, I lost interest in sports announcing. I don’t want the same thing to occur with gaming which is why taking breaks is vital. Having worked in environments where I had to always obtain permission to take a single day off while weighing the consequences of that decision in light of my job security, it feels so wonderful to be able to do what I did last month. And the only permission I needed was mine.

I indulged in plenty of gaming last month and must have played more than 30 games throughout August. As I stated in a previous post, my gaming habits have no rhyme or reason. It comes down to what I want to play on any particular day. There are the games that I regularly come back to such as NBA 2K14, Battlefield 2, Star Wars Battlefront II, Fire Pro Wrestling World, and my collection of Call of Duty games on the PS4. Every week, I make time for these titles no matter what other games I’m playing. And why not? I love basketball. I love wrestling. I love first and third-person shooters.

What were the other games I played this month? Here’s a list:

It had been a while since I last played Skyrim, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and Dragon Age Origins. Those three games are precious jewels in gaming they will never become outdated to me. They are games that you can easily lose yourself into, like an engaging novel. If you enjoy games that present you with vast worlds with a great deal to see and do, these three games receive my highest recommendations. Even though Dragon Age Origins is not open world like the other two, the highly interactive nature of its game world makes it feel larger than life. If you are on PC, all three of these games have tons of mods that will further expand your gaming experience.

Scarlet Nexus, NEO: The World Ends with You, Life is Strange, Wildermyth, and Orcs Must Die 3 were all recent purchases that I am enjoying immensely. I love the use of the environment to put together combo attacks in Scarlet Nexus, the battle system setup with a button corresponding to each character to easily chain together attacks in NEO, the random storytelling and graphical style of Wildermyth, the fun tower defense gameplay of Orcs Must Die 3, and the rewinding/time changing ability in Life is Strange. Out of that particular bunch, I’m really digging Scarlet Nexus the most.

After some time away, I returned to Fire Emblem: Three Houses. The game is simply a masterpiece on the Nintendo Switch. It is a shame that PC and other console owners are not able to experience it. Three Houses is easily my favorite game on the Switch with Astral Chain in a close second. I have nearly 90 hours of gameplay in Three Houses and it is one of the few games that I have played where grinding is enjoyable. As long as the game is, there’s no way I’m probably going to replay it again with a different house in the future. Yet my current playthrough has been delightful.

Lastly, I’ve finally completed Halo: Reach and Wizard of Legend. While I view the very first Halo as a bit underwhelming, Reach (the prequel) was an outstanding experience. The campaign drew me in and the Spartans fighting for survival against the Covenant in the events leading up to the first Halo game made for a great story. I sat on this game for over a year because I had wanted the entire Halo: The Master Chief Collection released so I could play through all of the campaigns without restriction. Wizard of Legend is an underrated indie gem developed by Contingent99 (two-person team) with tons of spell options within a rogue-lite dungeon crawler experience. Its levels are procedurally generated so it has some decent replay value. It has an old-school feel to it with its pixelated art style and fast-paced combat.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read these posts. The fall is almost upon us, which means we are now getting the last push for game releases in 2021. It’s hard to believe that the holiday season will be here before we know it. But, we have to get through September first. Happy End-of-Summer Gaming.

-TVGA
admin@videogamersadvocate.com