Month: May 2025

Posted in Elder Scrolls Online

Elder Scrolls Online: Better put on my Wealding goggles

Posted on by Syp

I have to admit — I’ve been really grooving, in a casual way, this spring return to Elder Scrolls Online. I know that the playerbase is skittish and worried, and I can see their point, but when I simply play the game, that all washes away. I’m having a great time going through stories, seeing the sights, and checking off boxes that I’ve never checked.

Sometimes I think that blogging is its own gaming style. Not for everyone, mind you, but for some types of us that feel more fulfilled in gameplay when we get to share it with others and pontificate on it through writing and screenshots. It also gets me to slow down a bit, to take in the scenery and think about the story, as I’ve got to turn around and relay it to you, the reader.

I do wish I felt more excitement over the new Seasons of the Worm Cult or whatever it is. I feel it’s a really bad move on ZeniMax’s part to abandon the expansion model, because I should be getting really pumped up for a new chapter right about now. But hey, I’ve got plenty of older content still to enjoy, so no skin off my nose.

I liked this one quest where I had to go into a town that was overrun with vampires trying to convert everyone. It’s a great story hook, but unfortunately it wrapped up too quickly. Oh well, any opportunity to torch and dismember vampires, I’m there for it.

While it doesn’t happen a lot in ESO, I do appreciate that this game isn’t afraid to end a quest on a bittersweet note. Or even a bitter one. Not every story is going to resolve well, and it feels false when MMOs try to wrap everything up in sunshine and roses.

Sometimes I’ll just stop in the middle of a quest to take a picture of some photogenic vista. ESO really is a game built for tourism in that regard.

I’ll tell you this: All-green is never a good color scheme in fantasy or scifi. Think “poison,” “corruption,” and “mold.” Also, the giant tentacle eyeball isn’t a good sign either.

Posted in Palia

OK Palia, let’s try this again!

Posted on by Syp

It’s been a good year since I’ve last dipped into Palia, mostly because I’ve been waiting for this life sim MMO-thing to flesh out a bit and head toward release. And while it’s not launching (yet), it did just launch its Elderwood expansion zone, which has many players — like myself — drifting back into this game’s orbit. And it felt like this game was performing better than I remember it being back in late 2023.

Probably the main struggle I have with these life sim games is that the gameplay loops are really broad and initially confusing. There’s so much to do, it seems, and it’s always unclear what is the best use of my limited time. Choice paralysis and all that. But really, it comes down to one thing at a time — pick a goal and pursue it. Follow quests if you don’t have anything better to do. Or just randomly roam and pick up materials. With these kinds of games there may be a lot of choice, but there’s also no rush.

It’s so weird that I normally avoid fishing in other MMOs, but in Palia it’s pretty much my default activity. I think that’s because it’s so chill and a generally good moneymaker. I like to go down to the public dock and see if I can’t get a boost by fishing next to others, then see what the ocean has for me.

I am kind of intrigued about the story of this world, which sounds like some post-apocalyptic future — albeit a cheery one populated by a bunch of purple elves. Finding out what happened to all of the people of earth and why the place still looks as good as it does will keep me motivated, I think.

Posted in Saturday Siesta

May’s Saturday Siestas: Dread Delusion and Equinox Homecoming

Posted on by Syp

As I mentioned previously in gaming goals, this month I’m trying a new experiment. I’m taking every Saturday off from my normal MMOs to free up time — and challenge myself — to play something different. Maybe this could be another, old favorite MMO, or a new one, or a game from my backlog, or whatever. The only rule here is an entire day where I can’t touch LOTRO, WoW, or ESO.

May 3: Dread Delusion

I went into this first Saturday Siesta feeling a mixture of excitement and nervousness. There’s nothing like telling yourself “you can’t play X games today” that REALLY makes you want to play them. But it’s also a liberating feeling to force yourself to diverge from the routine and take a different path, even if for a day.

My choice for this day was to check out Dread Delusion, this very odd and retro-styled indie RPG that I’ve been hearing about for a couple years now. I love me some weird fantasy, and one set in a world that looks like something that studios would create around the turn of the century felt refreshing somehow. The graphics took a bit to get used to (although I do love the chunky old school style), and the initial questing went slow but good. Solid. Odd stuff, and I like almost all of it other than navigation at this point. Strangest quest was a guy who voluntarily gave his life to a giant man-eating mushroom so that his village would prosper from its bounty.

May 10: Equinox Homecoming

I’m not normally an early access guy, but I couldn’t help but nip at this unusual MMO with a mixture of The Secret World storytelling, Twin Peaks atmosphere, cozy vibes, and… horse riding? Sure. Why not?

After spending a few hours with it, I can say that this is *very* early access — the graphics are glitchy, some cutscenes completely MIA, and the game locked up on me once — but it’s also pretty charming. I got a kick out of riding a horse up and down paths on this lovely island, and the taste I got of the adventure game-like story made me curious for more. But I’m going to have to shelve this for a while until the devs add more content and shore up what’s already here, because this is too rough for me to play for long.

Posted in Lord of the Rings Online

LOTRO: Distant lands beckon

Posted on by Syp

And almost suddenly, my Lore-master boarded a ship bound for Umbar. The first and only other time I did this, I was excited at the unknown. This time? I’m a little more nervous knowing exactly how much content is ahead — and how long her journey will be. Sometimes it’s a curse to know the future in that way. I have to put the crushing pressure of it out of mind and focus on the present.

Another interesting effect of having gone through all of this is knowing that the Shield Isles are actually some of the best parts of the Umbar region (so far). I really, really love what the devs did with this archipelago, and I can’t wait to see the new Midsummer Festival island they’re building.

The new Update 44 story is “fine,” but I’m having a hard time caring about it. Maybe because it feels like treading water until the next expansion kicks in, like this is a prologue that you know isn’t going to resolve anything, so no matter what you do, you’re not going to walk away victorious, only progressed.

I do get a chuckle out of the fact that here I am, 150 levels and countless zones and quests later… and I’m back to helping out with farm chores. It ALWAYS comes back to flower picking and farm chores in this game. Sauron would’ve won if he was a better gardener.

Is it weird or foolish to be rotating between three characters instead of focusing down on one at a time? I don’t think so, even if collective progress between all three is pretty slow. After all, I have one at the cap, so everything else can be done at a more leisurely pace without having to worry that I won’t have a character ready to do the newest content when it comes out.

Anyway, my Mariner continued to plumb the full depth of Waterworks’ quests. She’s damp, growing mold, and oh-so-ready to be done with this region. The swimming alone makes it more tedious than it should. And hey, about two minutes after writing that sentence, I realized that I was, indeed, finished. Maybe I should write these wishes down more often?

I feel that the older LOTRO devs got lazy with Moria in Zelem-melek, because instead of giving you hubs with cookie crumb quests leading to each, you get the vague instruction to go exploring and find some quests… somewhere. Sigh. To the wiki I go! That’s what I was meant to do, yes?

Posted in Lord of the Rings Online

LOTRO: I’ve got worms so bad…

Posted on by Syp

It looks like there’s a new bad guy rising with the latest LOTRO patch, and I already feel sorry for him. I’ve helped to topple Sauron — what does he think he can do with a piddly little army that doesn’t even include uruk-hai? I’m going to carve through his forces like butter and then watch him squirm while begging for mercy. MERCY DENIED. Hell hath no fury like a Hobbit late for dinner.

LOTRO brings out the humor in its quest text more than you’d think, especially if you skip past these without reading. Rarely are they laugh-out-loud, but I do find that some of them bring a wry smile to my face.

My Mariner continues to futz about in Moria’s Waterworks, carving through the impressive amount of hostile wildlife there. This zone makes me think — not for the first time — that I wish LOTRO had water mounts to skim across such pools. Is making boats really that hard? I’d settle for a ski-doo.

She recently hit level 56, so she’s starting to outpace the content. That’s actually good, since I can breeze by mobs I don’t need to kill and quickly dispatch the ones I do.

Over on my Lore-master, I’m assembling a crew to head to the Shield Isles. I’ve already decided that I’m not going to keep up with my “epic story only” approach — once I get down to Umber, I’ll go back to doing the full raft of quests in each area. It simply feels wrong to me to zip by them. Hard to explain, but that’s unsatisfying to me.

Posted in World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft: A FOREgone conclusion

Posted on by Syp

I really thought I’d be done with WoW for a while, but it wasn’t long until I genuinely wanted to go back — so maybe I simply needed a week or two break from it? MMOs are funny like that sometimes. I’m keeping my focus on my Death Knight, doing a handful of weeklies but mostly mopping up side quests and clearing maps. That approach will keep me from falling down too many grind-holes, if that makes sense.

And yes, I went a little nuts this month with the “critter country” theme. How could I not? Couple mounts, a full fox outfit, some ninja turtle accessories… I was quite the Spendy
Spenderson.

When you run delves, bring a friend. Or two. Or 10. ATTACK!

Is there anything more touching, more romantic, and more chaotic than a goblin wedding? Especially when it’s catered by the mob? I’m rooting for these two, I really am. The vows were suitably funny, and I got to beat up a bunch of wedding crashers during it.

I kind of really love that WoW added golf. With explosives. It’s not the most elegant version of the game, but it’s amusing and offers a tiny bit of strategy. Also bombs.

While not unexpected, it was great to get official confirmation that Legion Remix is in the works for later this year. Pandaria Remix was a highlight of last summer, and that wasn’t even an expansion I liked all that much. I am a total go for another trip through Legion, especially with extra cosmetic rewards. I’m leaning toward a Gnome Hunter for it, but I’m not married to that idea.

In the meanwhile, I’m really exploring the idea of actively pursuing zone completion on a character — every zone, every quest/campaign. Obviously, that’s a huge goal, but it would get me out of this expansion, rack up some nice transmog, and hopefully unlock a ton of housing stuff for the fall.

Posted in Retro Gaming

Retro Gaming: Day of the Tentacle

Posted on by Syp

It took me a couple weeks to accomplish, but I finally crossed off a long-standing item from my gaming bucket list: I finished Day of the Tentacle.

This was one of the big LucasArts adventure games that I’d never played, despite it being hailed as one of the great classics of the industry. I did do Maniac Mansion several years ago, which was the prequel to this, so I was at least a little prepared going into it.

Day of the Tentacle once again centers on the weird goings-on of the Edison Mansion. In this case, sludge from Dr. Fred’s machine ends up mutating Purple Tentacle into a monster with dreams of world domination (which he begins to enact in various cutscenes). Horrified, Dr. Fred sends three of the troublemakers from the first game — Bernard, Hoagie, and Laverne — back a day to turn off the sludge machine so that this would never happen.

However, the time machine porta-johns (just go with it) break, stranding each of the three in a different time zone. Bernard is in the present, Hoagie 200 years in the past with the Founding Fathers, and Laverne in a tentacle-dominated realm 200 years in the future. The three then have to figure out how to fix the machine and reverse the situation, all while flushing items through the semi-broken johns to each other.

While there are no death scenes — LucasArts adventure games weren’t as bloodthirsty as Sierra’s — this is a fiendishly tricky game. Objectives are nested in many other objectives, and a lot of out-of-the-box thinking is required to solve these puzzles. Fortunately, the whole game is very humorous, so it’s never a bad time experimenting, talking with other characters, and exploring the three time periods.

Overall, yeah, I can see why this is a classic. I played the remastered version but kept the original graphics on, as they were plenty detailed and expressive. It’s very much a cartoon world, and that makes for some fun exaggerated moments.

Posted in Elder Scrolls Online

Elder Scrolls Online: Go West Weald, young man!

Posted on by Syp

As I continue to explore West Weald in ESO, I have to say that the delves in this zone are no joke. At least, they seem far bigger and more complex than a lot of delves that I’ve known in the past. But I don’t mind, because they’re almost always visually interesting. Here, I explored Fyrelight Cave, a place of beasts, sunlight shafts, and a woman hiding from a prearranged marriage.

And of course, there’s a troll under the bridge. He didn’t ask me any questions three as he died, though.

I’m still only rocking two companions at this point, which is a shame because I absolutely love what they add to the game (mostly chattering companionship). I’m hoping to snag a couple more sometime this summer, but it’s a thought to reserve a few for whenever I roll up a new character on the rumored higher difficulty setting.

One thing I haven’t accomplished yet is finding a good guild fit. I lost my old ones in my absence — can’t remember their names — so I’ve been trying out a couple of the more interesting messages that come across zone broadcasts. It’s hard to explain what makes a good guild fit, other than you simply know it when you find it. So I keep hunting around until I do.

I helped a Bosmer couple rise above some family squabbles and join in matrimony. I guess it’s a good ending, even if it means more elf babies in the future. And at least their village was really dang pretty, so I didn’t mind romping around in it.

There was a really well-done quests about a keep under attack that I had to infiltrate, help, and protect. It ended with a surprising jump into an Oblivion plane for a final showdown of sorts. I kept thinking that this sort of large-scale instance would normally be any other MMO’s dungeon. Here, it’s just another mission for the solo player to experience.

Posted in Lord of the Rings Online

LOTRO: The inner beauty of Middle-earth

Posted on by Syp

You know, for a long-abandoned underground kingdom, Moria sure kept the lights on. I know, magic crystals with a 500-year half-life or something, but I like to imagine that after the Dwarves left, some poor goblin janitorial union had to shuffle around and replace the bulbs every so often. And they got no thanks, that’s the kicker.

Spiderwebs and bones don’t evoke much of a response in me when I see them in MMOs, but if you start plopping fungus and spores all over the place, I feel like I need a strong clean and a brisk brushing. But it’s probably too late. I’m infected. I’ll turn into a delicious mushroom that a hobbit will eat once day.

I’ve been spending more and more time with my lowbie River Hobbit Lore-master. I guess I know it’s serious when I sat down to create multiple outfits for her so I can switch between them as I work on fully completing zones. She’s still on the Shire, though. That place is a beast, content-wise.

OK now I’m just being artsy-fartsy. Ignore me — or praise my photography brilliance. Either/or.

Every time I hear someone putting down LOTRO because of the graphics, I’m like… OK…? We must be playing different games, because the one I’m in is often breathtaking and so wonderfully detailed. Even a swamp from one of the game’s oldest zones can be quite striking.

I continue to take a little time here and there to go through the new Update 44 quests with my Minstrel. I’m in no great rush, as there aren’t that many of them and I don’t want to run out and then lose a reason to log in with this character. The fall’s expansion is so far away, after all.