How is it June already? Why is it June already? I mean… I do typically feel that the first half of each year goes by quickly, but still…
It is a time of fairly mixed feelings, too. Yesterday marked the first anniversary of my mother’s passing. But the family also got together to celebrate my nephew’s 5th birthday. It also isn’t too far until us three siblings are living in different cities — with my brother heading to Australia, my family heading to the South Island, and my sister staying put here.
My brother is likely to move first, with my family going to our new house in early July. The build is nearing completion, and we’ll go for a final inspection end of June.
So yeah; definitely mixed.
On the gaming front though…!
Gaming Goals
Goals for May 2024
- Cities: Skylines 2 —Update myImpressions of the Game.
It has been almost 6 months since Cities: Skylines 2 came out in its, frankly, atrocious state. There has been a lot of work done, that is undeniable. But… Is it enough? Is it ‘better’ than Cities 1 yet? Time to find out, I guess, and update my impressions here in the process.
Still haven’t done this one. But I have a reason this time! Colossal Order posted to let us know a patch is coming in early to mid-June which will overhaul the economy. At this point, it seems foolish to update my impressions only to have to turn around and do them again shortly afterwards.
- Dragon’s Dogma 2orHorizon Forbidden West— Play another 10+ hours.
I don’t think I’ve ever given myself an ‘or’ goal before, but here we go! The freedom to choose either one, and play it for another 10-hours or more. The idea being here to ensure I’m getting some value from at leastoneof these titles given I jumped into both at full price. A further 10-hours in DD2 means a total playtime of >=21 hours, and for Horizon Forbidden West, 12.6 hours.
Another negative. I probably should have replaced the two titles with Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Ghost of Tsushima (PC), although the first of those two really came out of left field for me.
I’ve owned it a fairly long time now but only picked it up again as part of covering it for this month’s Humble Choice collection. It has since taken over anything else I might’ve planned on playing, but no regrets there!
Ghost of Tsushima launched on PC with a fairly irritating bug that meant the button input for standoffs were not reliably being registered. End result being, you would just stand there and take an attack from the enemies rather than having the opportunity to weed out (depending on your skill investment) a few of them before the fight even started.
I wouldn’t call it a game-breaking bug by any stretch — you could just choose not to engage in standoffs, but it annoyed me enough to put it aside. (There has since been a hotfix for this issue though, so yay!)
Goals for June 2024
- Yakuza: Like A Dragon — Finish it!
I’m up to Chapter 12 (of 15) at the moment, so I reckon this should be achievable. That said, it does appear that the part I’m up to is going to require a modicum of classic-JRPG-style grinding to do the next story section; a first for the game so far. I don’t think it’ll be much though. And I’m looking forward to jumping into Infinite Wealth; the next major game in the series!
Annnd I don’t really know what to set as a second goal this month. I have no clue yet whether I really will jump straight into Infinite Wealth (it is still very expensive; plus I may feel differently about jumping immediately into it by the time I finish this one). It’s also possible I might jump into Tsushima… Or Red Dead Redemption 2… Or Cyberpunk 2077… Or something else entirely. xD
Games Played May 2024
| Rank | Game | Hours | % Gaming Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yakuza: Like A Dragon | 25.5 | 37.4% |
| 2 | Warframe | 11.4 | 16.7% |
| 3 | Diablo IV | 8.3 | 12.2% |
| 4 | Ghost of Tsushima | 4.1 | 6.0% |
| 5 | Wuthering Waves | 3.0 | 4.4% |
| 6 | Genshin Impact | 2.8 | 4.1% |
| 7 | Tiny Tactics | 2.6 | 3.8% |
| 8 | Everspace 2 | 2.3 | 3.4% |
| 9 | Travellers Rest | 2.0 | 2.9% |
| 10 | V Rising | 1.9 | 2.8% |
| 11 | Hellblade 2 | 1.9 | 2.8% |
| 12 | Phoenix Point | 1.4 | 2.1% |
| 13 | Dwarven Realms | 1.0 | 1.5% |
I gave Diablo IV another shot again, given the Season 4 launch focused on revamping much of the loot experience. It is undeniably better, but still didn’t manage to grab me. It borrows a lot from Last Epoch’s approach to crafting, which is smart as it is a great system.
Maybe next season I’ll give it another shot.
I also gave Wuthering Waves a try on the recommendation of a friend. I tried to give it a fair shake, but it consistently gave me the feeling of ‘The Genshin Impact we have at home’. Having said that, the combat is without question superior in Wuthering Waves; it’s just… everything else. Quality of the voice recording is especially poor and distracting.
Overall, I spent 68.2 hours playing games in May.
Other Stuff
Still been working my way through The Splinter King, albeit at a slower pace since started spending more time gaming with Yakuza: Like A Dragon.
Still enjoying it though — I mentioned last month too, but the series has definitely won me over.
TV wise? I’ve been watching Dark Matter on Apple TV; it hasn’t blown my socks off but the premise still has a great deal of appeal and after the slightly slow-burn it started with, I’m curious to see where the season wraps up and what they do with the ideas covered so far.
I also finished the current (and final) season of Star Trek: Discovery. It was OK — I think the storyline of the final season wasn’t bad, and I was there for the jaunt across the universe. But in the extended wrap-up of the final episode, I also discovered that I didn’t much care for the character tidy-ups they were spending time on. The extra time could’ve been better spent — in my opinion — on how to resolve the core conflict of the season (trying to avoid giving any sort of spoiler).
Not really sure what might be next on my watch list at this point!
