Weekly Game Update: July 3rd - July 16th, 2022
This time I’m doing a two week update cause ugh been so busy, busy, busy! I’ve had time to play games and do other things sure, but there has been a lot of draining stuff that needed to get done. Last minute wedding stuff and herding away kittens from cords are really the two big things. I am excited for the wedding (only a few days away!) but I’m really not good at these sorts of planning tasks. I feel like that will be really showcased in what I played these two weeks, because I really was not in the right brain space to enjoy a nice story-heavy JRPG. :/
Regardless, I did play some games, and I actually read some books this time! So let’s get into it!
Book Stuff
The Kaiju Preservation Society (John Scalzi) - DONE!
This was such a nice read after a long time of not reading much of anything! It’s a very popcorn read about this other Earth with Kaiju, learning about them, and how this society helps them out. The humour really won’t work for some people I think, but for me it was great. Really enjoyed it and I really want to check out other books by this author.
Fairest (Marissa Meyer) - DONE!
This is a side book in the Lunar Chronicles series, which is a series I started in 2019 and I still haven’t finished yet?? My habit of randomly starting and not finishing series can really be baffling to me.
There are so many things about this series that make it just super easy to quickly finish! This is a YA sci-fi series that’s been finished since 2016, only has 4 main books (and only 2 side books), mostly are under 500 pages, all have really large font and large margins, and the material itself isn’t particularly complicated. Sure the series does go into some heavier topics, but overall it’s a very breezy series.
Ok, putting aside my inability to finish series (and really projects in general, sigh…), how was the book itself?
So this one is a side book to the series that goes over the backstory of the main antagonist, the queen of the Lunars (a different kind of people that live on the moon). Antagonist backstory stories can be a bit hit and miss for me, as sometimes they can come across as “well sure they did all of those bad things, but it’s ok because look at how traumatic their backstory is!!”. I often don’t like those kind of stories, since the reason for their actions can be really dumb imo, and really doesn’t make me feel pity for the character.
Here, while yeah we go over how traumatic the antagonist’s backstory is, it really doesn’t come across like it’s excusing her behavior. It’s more of a “hey, just in case you’re curious, here’s the antagonist’s backstory”. So, yay for that! Unfortunately though, her backstory isn’t particularly interesting anyway. Do you learn stuff about her and some of the other characters? Sure I guess. Does it add anything to the main story? Not really. It really doesn’t feel like it was a necessary or interesting addition to the series for me.
Overall I’d way that while it wasn’t a bad read, it wasn’t hugely great either. It’s easily something you could pass on reading if you’re interested in the main series.
The Tea Enthusiast’s Handbook (Mary Lou Heiss and Robert J. Heiss) - 92/181 pgs
Yes, I’m reading a book about tea that’s really more of a reference book than something you’d actually read. Don’t judge me! I like tea ok? XD
Seriously though, I’m very slowly reading through this one since it’s really more of a guidebook than something you should actually sit down and read. I think it’s a really nice reference though! So far it seems like a very nice guide for someone who’s just getting into loose leaf tea or for someone who wants to explore tea the tea world and expand their tea horizons. Or just to learn a few tidbits here and there.
Currently I’m on the oolong section, which should be neat since I love oolongs yum yum yum.
Winter (Marissa Meyer) - 52/827 pgs
Finally I’m on the last main book in the Lunar Chronicles series! Only book after this is a side story collection, so this book will conclude the main story.
Not particularly far into it yet, but I think I’m enjoying it so far. Bit of a slower start to this book, but that’s fine with me. Only issue I’m having is that it since I read the previous main book, Cress, about a year and a half ago, I’m struggling a bit to remember some of the characters/events. I’m pushing through it just fine though, so I’m not too bothered by that lol.
Game Stuff
Added:
Last Call BBS (Game Pass)
DJMAX Respect V (Game Pass)
Road 96 (Game Pass)
Matchpoint - Tennis Championship (Game Pass)
Garden Story (Game Pass)
Overwhelm (Game Pass)
Paw Patrol the Movie: Adventure City Calls (Game Pass)
My Friend Peppa the Pig (Game Pass)
Escape Academy (Game Pass)
Powerwash Simulator (Game Pass)
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (Prime Games)
Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (Prime Games)
Star Wars Republic Commando (Prime Games)
Crash Bandicoot n Sane Trilogy (PS Plus)
Crash Bandicoot 4 (PS Plus)
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan (PS Plus)
The Last Guardian (PS Plus)
Days Gone (PS Plus)
Batman: Arkham Knight (PS Plus)
Infamous: Second Son (PS Plus)
Resident Evil VII (PS Plus)
Monster Hunter World (PS Plus)
Removed:
The Peacekeepers (Switch Online)
Going Under (Game Pass)
Pokemon Puzzle League (Wii eshop)
These were all duplicates. Haven’t actually played any of these yet ha.
Started:
Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4)
Finished:
Nothing…
Current Games:
Everybody’s Golf (PS4) - 18:54 (+1:13)
Soul Hackers (3DS) - 1:43 (No change)
Trails in the Sky FC (Steam) - 0:43 (No change)
Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4) - 26:13 (+26:13)
Game time total for both weeks: 27:25
Progress Updates
Everybody’s Golf
Not much that’s really new to update on, but I did finally get to rank 6! Getting close to the max! Leveling up is super slow at this point though ugh…
Soul Hackers
No progress :(
Trails in the Sky FC
Also no progress…
Horizon Zero Dawn
Well, if anything dominated my time these past two weeks, it was most certainly Horizon Zero Dawn lol. I actually wasn’t sure about it when I first started playing it, cause the intro/tutorial was long and boring for me, but once it picked up it’s been a decently good time. It looks nice, has a nice variety of characters, great scenery, and I love picking up the little random collectibles. Especially so since most of them have unique descriptions to go with each thing you pick up. Exploring the ruins in the game are also just so cool, and I like how the background lore stuff is implemented into the game. I was even more surprised by how much I enjoyed the lore stuff, since I’m usually not really a big fan of that kind of thing.
However, despite just how much time I’ve put into the game these past two weeks, it’s not a game that I’m head over heels for. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy it and it’s certainly not a bad game, but I feel like it’s just a fine enough game. I think a lot of that is because of the story and the combat.
The story certainly has good moments, but a lot of the time it's just whatever I guess. Most of the background lore stuff & reveals are interesting (although some of the reveals felt a little dumb or a little too predictable for my liking) but I didn’t care for much of it outside of those moments.
Combat is also just whatever to me I guess. I’m not bothered by it or anything, and I do like getting those one shot kills but I think I might like the game more if it didn’t have the combat at all. Just exploring and helping people out is just more of my thing I guess lol. I’m really glad I set the game to the easiest difficulty though, cause much higher and I think it wouldn’t work so well for me.
Anyway, I’m currently very close to doing the final quest! I’m going for the platinum (cause why not lol), so I’m doing a few other side quests first before tackling the main one. After that and the final quest, it’s mostly finishing up some collectible stuff which I’m honestly really looking forward to!
Backlog Update
Backlog: 1595 (+19)
Time to Beat: 34,903 hrs (+535 hrs)
Numbers go zoooooom! Lots of new additions from subscriptions lol. Those numbers are not going to stay down either since I plan on upgrading my PS Plus subscription ha. I don’t mind though, cause more options for me is always nice :)
And that’s it for this two week update! Phew that was a bit annoying to write. For next week, I am making no plans on getting much progress on anything in particular lol. There’s going to be a lot of finally meeting up with people and the wedding, so I’m just going to do whatever I have time and energy for lol. I think that’s it likely that I’ll beat the main story for Horizon Zero Dawn, but no worries if I don’t lol.