Month: February 2025

Posted in Fallout

Fallout 76: Raidin’ with the Raiderz

Posted on by Syp

Yeah, that’s an ominous sign right there. Literally. But into it I go, for my quest objective is smack in the center of a bunch of super mutants.

I am still overwhelmed by how MANY locations there are in Fallout 76. It scratches that exploration itch so nicely because it feels like there’s always somewhere new to find and something different to see.

Such as… a giant Asian-themed palace? West Virginia is a nutty place, yo. This was a strange locale, as I was expecting all sorts of resistance. But inside were just a scattering of Scorched, and all but one was bugged so that when I attacked, they froze and didn’t move or attack back. That’s not very sportsmanlike!

By far, my favorite perk is Mysterious Stranger. He appears fairly frequently when you use VATS and acts like a combat companion for 10 seconds or so. It’s welcome firepower often when I need it.

I finally finished up a long chain of quests for the Raider robot Rose, stumbling upon her namesake and not getting much in the way of rewards — just the start of the next chain. Huzzah?

I came across this foreboding, half-open Vault 96. Something tells me that a lot of terrible things are inside. And yeah, I’m going to head in. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, yes? Sadly there wasn’t much inside of note — one big room, lots of ice, mention of genetic experiments. That’s it.

Those clouds heading south look… foreboding. I don’t think I’ll be heading there yet.

If I have to end up picking one of the two factions to follow, I think I’m going with Raiders. It’s the atypical choice for me, and so far, they’re pretty interesting. Why not?

Posted in Lord of the Rings Online

LOTRO: Done with Legacy of Morgoth… for now

Posted on by Syp

The good news is that I’m *just* about done with the expansion. But between me and the finish line is a final quest hub (in a cool little town squeezed between two cliff walls) that looks to be pretty quest-heavy. That’s not actually a problem, because I could use some more time to reflect on what I want to do next in the game. I have plenty of choices — and characters — but no clear, overriding direction.

I think I’ve found the loopiest NPC in the game. I’m weirdly more engaged in his nonsense quests because of it. And there’s a nice touch that when you do get him his pet rock and turtle, they appear at his feet and stay there.

I’ve got both a level 140 Lore-master and Captain whom I’ve traveled with for a long time that I’d like to see complete their journeys. So my tentative plans going forward are to take one of these (for now) through the latest two expansions while getting back to my completionist Burglar for some lowbie leveling on the side.

Being now TWO expansions behind with both my 140 Captain and Lore-master feels like more of a pressing weight than any lowbie I have. I can’t explain why, but it does. Maybe it’s because I just did all of this and it’s fresh in the mind how long it’s going to be to do again. I have been on such a long — years-wise — with my Captain that I’d hate to completely ignore her. I did clean up her inventory and get her ready to go again.

Checking in with my Burglar and a wolf that’s down for playing Monopoly. Can’t come back to an abandoned character without engaging in the ritualistic “I’m sorry” practice of making her a new outfit. This one’s certainly different — a bit weird and a bit fierce.

Now we’ve got the official 64-bit server release date of March 5th, with name reservations on the 3rd and transfers on the 4th. That’s going to be a crazy packed week, even if everything goes smoothly — and that’s no guarantee, knowing SSG. Other than just showing up on those dates to put my characters into motion for the transfer, there isn’t much I need to do right now to get ready, so it’s time to play the waiting game.

Posted in World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft: Love and lightning in a time of warcraft

Posted on by Syp

Now that I’ve wrapped up all of the campaign and side quests for The War Within so far (on my DK), it’s up to me to choose how to fill up my time. Since I’m going to lose all of my keys when 11.1 arrives, I’m trying to run a quick set of bountiful Tier 6 dungeons every day. More or less. T6 because I can do those fairly quickly at my gear level without slowly inching my way through the space. Still get decent rewards, too, as I’m mostly going for gold, pets, mounts, and cosmetics right now.

One project that’s been wayyy on my backburner for WoW is to take a single character — main or alt — and completely max out every expansion’s engineering profession. Maybe a Gnome, since one might as well lean into the wacky gadget side of things. I don’t have a clue how long this project would take, but I suspect “a whole lot at this point, considering.” I do have a Mechagnome Hunter who’s level 73 and been neglected, that might be a good candidate. But before taking the steps to do this, I think I must do some serious research and figure out if it’s something that’s worth investing this much time.

Or… I might just keep doing engineering on Classic as I slowly move up in expansions, which seems like a more sane pace? We’ll see.

Yet for a good while now, the Hunter in retail WoW feels incredibly dull and unengaging to me. I’ll fiddle with one for a bit, but then gravitate over to the modern Warlock, which feels more punchy, impactful, and strategic in pet deployment. It’s hard to explain, because it really is a “feels” issue, but at the end of the day, for me, the Warlock has it and the Hunter does not. Happily, I have both for whenever I want to flip-flop.

Maybe it’s my imagination, but this bird looks so irked that his flight headquarters has been turned into a Valentine Botique. I don’t blame him. While conceptually I have no objections to Valentine’s Day, the decor is always super tacky and looks like it would give any viewer diabetes.

Our guild threw a huge party on February 14th, not only for the holiday but for the guild’s 10-year anniversary. We had fun swapping secret gifts and taking boat rides up and down a scenic river.

It was pretty cool to hear about our guild’s history, after which we got goodie bags, played trivia, took photos, had a transmog contest, and threw a parade. Good times.

Out of my “Core Four” characters, my Shaman is the most neglected by far. She’s got horrible gear, as I barely got her to 80 before ignoring her, so she needs the most love. Going to see what I can do this week with timewalking and other gear shortcuts, but in all honesty, I should’ve gotten started on her a while ago.

I’ve got a lot of projects lined up for my warband, actually — the problem is finding the time.

Posted in World of Warcraft

WoW Classic: From jungles to wastelands

Posted on by Syp

Hey kids, remember when Star Wars Episode I pod racing was a thing? WoW Classic remembers! WoW Classic keeps on remembering. Perhaps WoW Classic should forget?

So yeah, I’m level 37 and doing a bunch of those Shimmering Flat kill quests. Boring but lucrative, so no complaints here. And no complications, either. It also helps to restock on my meat supplies for the raptor. I also came out of the first batch of quests with five more gold in my pocket. Every copper counts when you’re saving up for a mount!

In my opinion — which is the right opinion — anyone who criticizes Hemet Nesingwary as cringy or cruel or a figure who harkens back to colonial exploitation can just get off their high horse and realize that you have killed far more virtual animals than Hemet and his crew ever have. You’ve caused several species to go extinct, all because you wanted a 0.04% drop rate item. You have no qualms against being the Harbinger of Death itself until this guy asks you to go on safari with him. I’m on Team Hemet all the way. He totally rocks that beard and monocle and embodies all that is man.

Good news: I got my engineering skill up to 142 and crafted my first pair of goggles. Not only is it nice to have a head piece with some stats, but I’ve always felt these goggles set you apart from all of the non-engineering players running around. It’s a club thing.

Other than the unbalanced classes, the thing that bugs me the most in WoW Classic is the sparse and sometimes illogical flight masters in each zone. STV is a particular pain in the tuckus for how it has just one flight path for Alliance at the southern tip. Every time I have to go here, it’s quite the jog from Darkshire.

If your life has too much color and excitement, Desolace is the answer to that. Drab upon drab, centaur upon centaur. The only upside of this grey zone is that it’s relatively easy to traverse, has a lot of mobs to kill and quests to do, and is a great place to harvest mining nodes.

Posted in Lord of the Rings Online

LOTRO: At the end of the road (once again)

Posted on by Syp

Even as I push further into the most recent new zone in LOTRO, my interest in playing is ebbing somewhat. Sometimes, new content is a little exhausting in a way that retreading old territory isn’t. I don’t exactly know why this is the case, but I’m not going to push myself past a point of daily interest. When the merges happen, I expect a bump in my personal engagement. And I can’t wait to see the new deed log for myself.

The canyon layout of Urash Dar both helps and hinders navigation. Because so much of the map is impassable cliffs, the playable space is fairly limited and confined to valleys. But it’s still a bit of a pain to get around, with few paths and widely spread out stable-masters.

The worst offender was a quest hub that was up on top of a cliff. How to get up there? Well, when I got to the general area, I saw a very long ladder hanging down. You’d think that was it, but no, the game told me that I couldn’t use it (yet). So I’m looking around in confusion and had to go to the forums, where an exasperated dev was like, “Guys, there’s a path over to the west there, I didn’t think I had to point it out” and I’m thinking, oh yes you did, because this is non-intuitive design and the quest said nothing about a semi-hidden mountain trail.

It does feel as though this last zone is speed-running the plot of this expansion after dragging its feet for so long. Suddenly there’s a huge battle with fire and orcs and a GIANT BLOOD WATERFALL. I think I missed a story beat along the way.

And just like that, I’m pretty much done with Legacy of Morgoth! The main campaign is done, and all I’ve got left to do is mop up a few outposts in this zone (unless, of course, there’s a whole ton more quests to unlock along the way). Meanwhile, I’m going to stand here and breathe in pure sand from this storm.

You know that old video game trope where there’s always a secret tucked away behind waterfalls? MMO devs absolutely cannot resist doing this at least once in their games — and sometimes many times. At least LOTRO’s got a pretty cave grotto here to enjoy.

This made me smile pretty broadly. Love it. He’s also got like 100 quests, so snap to it, youngster!

Posted in The Sims

The Sims 4: Settling down in Oasis Springs

Posted on by Syp

With all of the recent buzz over the 25th anniversary of The Sims, it’s been like a siren’s call for myself and many others to head back to this franchise. I wasn’t super-keen on shelling out $40 for the first two games right now, so I booted back up The Sims 4 with that old determination to make a cute little house and enjoy playing a small family.

I started in a fresh world, where I made two roomies: Iona and Jake (and their pet fox Ty). Iona’s a career-driven super friendly lady, while Jake is happy to hunker down and work on his novel. You know, if he had a home. Right now, they’re on a completely empty lot.

Here’s the start of their build in Oasis Springs. I’m going with a tiny home to get some bonuses (and for the challenge), so that limits me to 64 build tiles. Upon doing some research, that’s a pair of 3×3 bedrooms, a 3×3 bathroom, and everything else being the main living space. I have no idea if I can cram everything in here, but I’m going to try!

Second day of working on this. I haven’t put a lot of decorations or moved stuff around much, as I was concentrating on getting in the essentials and figuring out a basic workable layout. I hope this works, I’m going to have to see if the Sims can move around in it without navigation errors. I’m also sticking to my starter funds — no cheating! — and I want to keep 1,000 simoleons in reserve for food and expenses. I decided to splurge on that high-tech trash can that actually makes you money over time instead of buying any more decorations for now.

There’s this “blast from the past” event that’s going on for the anniversary, so why not partake? Free stuff for the taking!

The pair moves into their house, and Iona immediately snags a job moving into the secret agency field. Jake? Jake’s a bit of a homebody, so I made him a freelancer who’s going to try his hand at writing for a living. I do regret making that fox, because that thing will not shut up. Yip yip yip yip yip

Jake’s proving to be a natural with the guitar (thanks, tiny home bonus!), going so far as to keep practicing when global superstar Judith Ward came to visit.

Posted in Lord of the Rings Online

LOTRO: Gandalf, I like what you’ve done with your beard

Posted on by Syp

Right now, I’m gunning 100% on Legacy of Morgoth in Lord of the Rings Online. Not only is it all new content to me, but I really want to get one character fully done so that I can start working on some of my other high level alts. I feel real bad for neglecting them considering all of the journeys we’ve had together so far. But this first.

I found out that, yes, we will be able to transfer our Treebeard characters to the new 64-bit servers, and so I logged onto that server for the first time in about a year to check out my roster. I guess I was a lot more busy there than I remembered! There’s three mid-level characters available to be dusted off, and even if I don’t play any of these, the transfer is still going to net me more cosmetics, housing items, and housing writs. I have 250 wardrobe items on that particular server, so I’m really looking forward to regaining those!

Dear LOTRO, I know I’ve said this before, but I would totally leap on the option to move into a cute little cottage with a high number of hooks inside. No idea how possible that would be, but a small, well-furnished home is more interesting to me that these larger spaces.

I really like some of these new furniture sets that add a ton of stuff to a room with a single housing hook. It really fills up some of these spaces and gives you extra housing hooks with which to use. In the meantime, I slotted as many pieces of furniture that I could into my plot with the hopes that it all gets shoved into housing storage overflow with the transfer. That’s better than clogging up my inventory right now and should give me some breathing room to sort it all out later.

This pleasant fellow put up a nice fight. I felt bad for him, really. He’s got all these sharp spikes way too close to his face and has a skull and chainmail right over his tender bits. I probably put him out of his misery.

Done with the third zone, on to the fourth and final one of this expansion, Urash Dar! It’s nice to see the blue sky and greenery again, for sure, and the zone is interesting in that it’s a lot of impossibly tall rock faces with steep valleys cut between them. So it looks like I’ll be following these corridors to and fro to various objectives.

I honestly wasn’t expecting to see Gandalf & Co. show up at this late point in the expansion and unload all sorts of exposition and the main threat of Legacy of Morgoth. Essentially, it’s a slumbering army/superweapon that’s waking up now that Sauron is defeated. This poor guy is never going to retire.

Posted in World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft: Ping-ponging between alts

Posted on by Syp

Running a set of weekly timewalking dungeons for that sweet 600+ gear is what’s keeping my toes in World of Warcraft retail right now. I am quite enthused for Patch 11.1 but don’t feel much of a desire to play until then. It’s never a bad thing to take a much needed break, after all!

I actually changed over from my Warlock to my Shaman for this leveling and gearing. Despite once being a strong contender for my main going into this expansion, she got left behind at level 73 and forgotten for a while. But now I’m working on powering her to 80 while giving her gameplay style a nice try.

The afternoon I started writing this, I lucked out big-time and got into a timewalking dungeon group led by this vastly OP Fury Warrior who pretty much one-shot everything in every dungeon. We chained a good eight dungeons together, back-to-back, and blasted through them in under an hour. That propelled me right to 80. Which was nice, but it didn’t convince me to play her much longer than that.

So what I think I’m going to do going forward is focus on a maximum of two characters per MMO that I play. For retail WoW, it’s going to be my Death Knight and Druid. I have a bit of catch-up to do on the latter, but not too much. I’m getting her into these Timewalking quests for the good gear and cleaning up her quest log.

I heard that we’re going to lose all of our unused coffer keys when 11.1 arrives, which is a bummer since I have dozens of them. I keep accumulating them faster than doing delves, which is mostly because — while I like delves — they are time-consuming. I’ve been trying to chew through my keys on Tier 6s, and even three delves take me about an hour with my current gear. I may have to accept defeat on this front.

February’s trading post wasn’t for me. I don’t generally like the Valentine’s aesthetic whenever its used as decoration or outfits, so I didn’t hold a lot of hope here. There’s some of that (most notably an interesting broom/flying bike that I didn’t get) and some Lunar New Year transmog. But I decided that nothing here fit with my characters, so I socked all my tender away for March.

I was really glad to see Blizzard start to talk about housing, even if just with a general design philosophy and concept art. Honestly, it sounds as though they’re putting a lot more thought and work into this than I expected, and I was gratified to see the studio state that this is “evergreen” content that will grow over time and expansions. I’ll tell you what: When this hits the game for real, my Classic characters are going to be seriously jealous.