Monthly Update: September 2020

Ring Fit Adventure!

I finally got back the three Joy-Cons that I sent off to Nintendo back on June 26th.  I was thinking that there might be an article in this, but it really boiled down to Nintendo sending me a reminder that I hadn't sent in my Joy-Cons for repair (10 days after receiving the first email confirmation that I would send them in with a UPS shipping label) along with a new shipping label and I sent them in using the original label, which apparently confused them to the point that I had to two online chat sessions with people who were actually supportive of the situation I was in and confused as to why it was even happening, and one phone call to find out what was going on beyond the chat sessions as they could not tell me any more.  [brEatH] I probably could have raised a stink about the Joy-Cons being MIA for nearly two months, demanded that I receive some type of compensation in the way of eShop credit, but I did not want to be that guy, especially since it looks like all three were replaced.  So that is really it.

And since we got the Joy-Cons back, Conklederp and I can now/finally play Ring Fit Adventure, which we got back nine flipping weeks ago.  By the time of posting (Friday, September 4th) I will hopefully have played every day since Saturday frequently play but haven't the last couple of days since it's been 90+ degrees which is hot when your house doesn't have AC.  I will most likely put up an article sometime this month because even though I only play for 15-20 minutes at a time, I still end up pretty sweaty and in need of a shower, which is a great feeling after not having been to the bouldering gym since February; granted our gym(s) is/are open under specific circumstances and have pretty strict regulations for each person climbing, but it is still something that Conklederp and I feel uncomfortable about.  So doing an activity that is essentially exercising to a video game, or the gamification of exercising, is a pretty great way to get even just a little bit of exercising in.

Last month, I did pull up The Witcher III: Wild Hunt again after finishing INK, and needed something else that was a little bit lowkey.  By lowkey, I mean something that I could easily jump (back) into without the stressor of starting a new game from the queue (The Outer Worlds, The Banner Saga, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus) and even though it had been over a month since I had visited The Continent (just after I had sent the Joy-Cons on their merry way) and it was good to be back.  For a bit anyway.  I am 100% certain that there are people who would poo-poo the way I play The Witcher III, partly because I could give two shits about Gwent (I am at a point in the game now that my Gwent deck is severely underpowered and will have my ass handed to me in the first round with little to no hope for redemption), I am not trying to romance everything in the game with ovaries, and because it is not currently on my Top Games of 2015 List because I could not tell you five games off the top of my head that came out in 2015.  Oh and Fortnite started a new season (Chapter 2 Season 4 for those of y'all keeping track?) which, apparently, is just straight-up Marvel-themed?  Which is a bit of a departure, but good for business I guess.  I imagine next season is going to be entirely DC-themed?  Maybe Season 6 will be Konami-themed?  Whatever.

But as far as finishing games go, I have been quite happy with my list/queue of games that I am slowly ticking off; it is not a list of every game I have played, just the games that I have that I had not played or finished as of whenever it was that I created this list.  Ticking off Old Man's Journey (technically finished in July but only posted the article in August), Golf Story, INK (article incoming), Apocalipsis: Wormwood Edition - One Night in the Woods, and recently Mother Russia Bleeds (which I will get to next week) made me feel somewhat accomplished, but then seeing games that I started but never finished (like Color Zen, Mekorama, Hollow make me a little sad).  This past Wednesday, I reinstalled Goetia which I had started over a year ago, then put down and since forgot what was even happening, so I have restarted that game again and have my copy of "The Lesser Key of Solomon" for reference because, at least for now, it looks like the devs actually did their homework and did not just google demonology and title their game with the first result.  My only fear with Goetia is that because it is a point-and-click puzzle game, that I am going to make some of the puzzles a lot more complicated, get stuck, and have to look up solutions, then feel bad about it all.

And because I know y'all have been wondering how our little excursion in Ravenloft has been going, let me tell you.  It has been going (sorry).  We recently had a run-in with the lord and master of the lovely estate where we nearly had our asses handed to us, one character was killed off (b/c it was their first character and they didn't really know how to approach so they came back with a new one, but the death was unexpected and done in spectacular holyfuckwegonnadie fashion.  We also recently gained a new player to help compensate for Conklederp having to leave the game, leaving our party tankless and healerless.  In the middle of Castle Ravenloft.  Obviously no ill will to Conklederp for having to step out as she has said on numerous occasions that she would rather not have to stop if not for the sake of self-care.  I also accidentally had Lurien (a Halfling Wild Mage Sorcerer) have a wild magic surge (rolled a 2 after casting a spell, which caused a wild magic surge) and ended up casting Fireball centered out from me while in a semi-small room, wounding our already wounded group.  But we are alive, and somehow made it out of the castle, alive to fight another day (or night as it will).

And then yesterday, somewhat out of the blue (at least for me), Nintendo put out a Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary Direct showcasing a number of Super Mario games that will be coming out on the Switch later this year and early next year.  What surprised me the most from this was that I was pretty excited for some of their announcements, considering how little I actually play Super Mario games outside of the Mario Kart series and anything published before 1995.  I could probably write an entire article about the things I was excited by and why, but by the time I got around to publishing it (Friday, September 11th), it would seem a bit out of date.  Such is the way of video game news I guess.  So I will just say that I am excited to download and play Super Mario All-Stars either later tonight or sometime this weekend.

So happy September everyone!



~JWfW/JDub/Cooking Crack/Jaconian
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