Welcome to April 2020.
It is perfectly okay to acknowledge that where we find ourselves to be weird because it is weird. I know I covered a fair amount of this weirdness a couple of weeks back and since then, there have been a number of changes not only worldwide, but statewide (for us in states anyway) as well. We are under non-enforced Shelter in Place orders, I have now been working from home for the past 12 days (12 business days mind you, whereas it has been 16 days since I came home with my work computer). There are days when things do not feel too different than when I was in school taking online classes when our cat Joey would sit on my lap draped over my arm while I try to work on the computer, Conklederp and I take walks around the neighborhood to get some fresh air and so that we experience more than the inside of our house. And then there are days when days just feel foreboding and mentally difficult to get through, even if the only difference between days is what we call them.
Over the last couple of weeks, and especially since more-and-more states have ordered people to stay indoors as much as possible, I have seen an explosion of people play more video games, and while I would love to have joined their ranks, I am even more grateful that my job has allowed me to be able to work from home. I do find that I have increased the amount of time I spend at home because my commute has decreased from 27-45 minutes down to about 15 seconds. I have found that it also has given me a little more time to spend on writing and planning out articles. I, of course, say that now but still feel like I am struggling to catch up with my self-imposed schedule of Monday, Wednesday, & Friday. Like today for instance.
With this increased amount of time that I spend indoors away from actually meeting up with people, I feel that there has been an increase in hanging out with friends online, which is a pretty great compromise to not hanging out in-person. This then means that we have increased the frequency that we play Dungeons & Dragons with our primary group, and we are starting a new group with a slightly different twist on things, and as that is going to start tonight (Friday, April 3rd), I am a little anxious with how this will unfold. But group gaming online has really taken off in our house these last couple of weeks. Two weekends ago, my sister The Kid organized a session of Cards Against Humanity with us siblings and also a round of Mansions of Madness between two separate groups. This last weekend we got together with some of our other friends to play some card games, called Code Name (I think) that was a lot of fun; we also found out that there is a time limit on Zoom as we all got kicked off. It is definitely something that is evolving with these times, but I am not against it entirely.
As for physical gaming, Conklederp and I got back into Elder Sign, which is kind of like Mansions of Madness-lite. It is part of the Arkham Horror universe, but instead of exploring a mansion, you are clearing out "procedurally generated" rooms in a museum. I did order the "Unseen Horrors" expansion which I have read makes the game a little more difficult and builds it out to be a little more engaging. But our last game against the Ancient One Yig, we were on the verge of losing before we had to stop due to general life-fatigue; we were previously (barely) victorious against Ithiqua, managing to banish the creature while doing battle against it.
In the realm of video games, I have been playing a lot of The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, which I feel like I can finally write a First Impressions article after about 50 hours. I've also been playing the usual games in my queue, being Pic-a-Pix: Pieces, and Fortnite (what with the Deadpool crossover currently going on) and I also (re?)started Breath of Fire through Nintendo's Super Nintendo app on the Switch after Beardsnbourbon was talking a bit about the game and since I had already started (spent maybe 15 minutes I think), I figured it would be a good time to pick it back up again. And I am still playing (when I can) Wolfenstein: The New Order on my ever-aging laptop (which I was planning on replacing this year, but may have to wait until next year?). I guess the one thing I have to say about the story there is that it is pretty engaging and I like the cast of characters, and I could see an issue that Wolfenstein-purists would have with this format since the basic premise of the original games is to infiltrate and steal secret plans, or to find a bomb, or that BJ Blazkowicz is captured by Nazis and has to escape, or he is breaking into a Nazi facility to find the Spear of Destiny, but with the main difference is that there is a whole host of people that Blazkowicz interacts with before, during, and after the mission.
I also just picked up The Sinking City Deluxe Edition for the Switch because it just went on sale and because I have been eyeing the game since it was first announced back in 2016. I have read that there are some performance issues across varying platforms and people will be quick to point out the graphical downgrades on the Switch port, but honestly, as long as the game runs and I am engaged in a Lovecraftian story of cosmic horror, then I think we will be fine. And if not, then I can always look to Call of Cthulhu (also on the Switch) which I was able to pick up for about 70% off back in December.
Stay safe out there people.
~JWfW/JDub/Cooking Crack/Jaconian
The Sounds of Automated Cronch
With this increased amount of time that I spend indoors away from actually meeting up with people, I feel that there has been an increase in hanging out with friends online, which is a pretty great compromise to not hanging out in-person. This then means that we have increased the frequency that we play Dungeons & Dragons with our primary group, and we are starting a new group with a slightly different twist on things, and as that is going to start tonight (Friday, April 3rd), I am a little anxious with how this will unfold. But group gaming online has really taken off in our house these last couple of weeks. Two weekends ago, my sister The Kid organized a session of Cards Against Humanity with us siblings and also a round of Mansions of Madness between two separate groups. This last weekend we got together with some of our other friends to play some card games, called Code Name (I think) that was a lot of fun; we also found out that there is a time limit on Zoom as we all got kicked off. It is definitely something that is evolving with these times, but I am not against it entirely.
As for physical gaming, Conklederp and I got back into Elder Sign, which is kind of like Mansions of Madness-lite. It is part of the Arkham Horror universe, but instead of exploring a mansion, you are clearing out "procedurally generated" rooms in a museum. I did order the "Unseen Horrors" expansion which I have read makes the game a little more difficult and builds it out to be a little more engaging. But our last game against the Ancient One Yig, we were on the verge of losing before we had to stop due to general life-fatigue; we were previously (barely) victorious against Ithiqua, managing to banish the creature while doing battle against it.
In the realm of video games, I have been playing a lot of The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, which I feel like I can finally write a First Impressions article after about 50 hours. I've also been playing the usual games in my queue, being Pic-a-Pix: Pieces, and Fortnite (what with the Deadpool crossover currently going on) and I also (re?)started Breath of Fire through Nintendo's Super Nintendo app on the Switch after Beardsnbourbon was talking a bit about the game and since I had already started (spent maybe 15 minutes I think), I figured it would be a good time to pick it back up again. And I am still playing (when I can) Wolfenstein: The New Order on my ever-aging laptop (which I was planning on replacing this year, but may have to wait until next year?). I guess the one thing I have to say about the story there is that it is pretty engaging and I like the cast of characters, and I could see an issue that Wolfenstein-purists would have with this format since the basic premise of the original games is to infiltrate and steal secret plans, or to find a bomb, or that BJ Blazkowicz is captured by Nazis and has to escape, or he is breaking into a Nazi facility to find the Spear of Destiny, but with the main difference is that there is a whole host of people that Blazkowicz interacts with before, during, and after the mission.
I also just picked up The Sinking City Deluxe Edition for the Switch because it just went on sale and because I have been eyeing the game since it was first announced back in 2016. I have read that there are some performance issues across varying platforms and people will be quick to point out the graphical downgrades on the Switch port, but honestly, as long as the game runs and I am engaged in a Lovecraftian story of cosmic horror, then I think we will be fine. And if not, then I can always look to Call of Cthulhu (also on the Switch) which I was able to pick up for about 70% off back in December.
Stay safe out there people.
~JWfW/JDub/Cooking Crack/Jaconian
The Sounds of Automated Cronch
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