Greetings! It’s been a while since I sat down and wrote up a recap of what I’ve been up to the past month. My time has been divided between work and a lot of video game-related things; either writing a few random posts here and there or more recently, I’ve been streaming some of my old favorites as well as brand new games on Twitch.
We’re also nearing the end of summer, which means the autumn season and Halloween are just around the corner. Last year, I made up a list of games that fit(somewhat, at least) the Halloween season and wrote up two posts a week throughout the month. For this upcoming Blogtober, I’ve been working on a list of games I think would either be fun to play through again or ones I haven’t played yet, old or new. I’ve begun preparing a little further in advance than last year so I can hopefully have a few posts ready to go once we begin October and not having to sit down and write up everything immediately after playing and posting within the same day. The ability to stream some of the games this time around is an interesting addition to the project.
Anyways…
Twitch
One of my resolutions I mentioned back in January was that I’d wanted to try out streaming or even just recording gameplay stuff. I’ve been streaming random games on Twitch every so often since around February, but since June I’ve been attempting to stream a few times a week. It’s been a really interesting learning process from set up to getting comfortable and building up confidence while playing games. This has been made far easier by our corner of the WordPress community, many of whom stream themselves and have been great in providing any kind of assistance with stream-related questions or just being there to hang out in chat. I’d like to extend a big “Thank you!” to everyone who has stopped by to chat or just hang out as I meander my way through the learning stage of the process.
I guess this is where I’m supposed to plug my Twitch channel? It’s twitch.tv/gamingomnivore for those curious as to what I’m rambling about…
Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate
It’s been a few weeks since I started my trophy-hunting quest in Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate. I had the idea a while back in the Later Levels Discord server to see if anyone else would be interested in picking a particular game and setting out to get the platinum trophy or all achievements and also writing up a post, or series of posts about their progress through the game. Solarayo from Ace Asunder was one of the willing participants in the challenge/experiment and has since written a number of updates about their playthrough of AC: Syndicate. A congratulations is also in order, as Solarayo has already completed both the game and acquired the platinum trophy! I recommend you check out their AC Syndicate posts as well as lots of other great stuff on their site.
Battletoads
My most recently-completed game would be the newest Battletoads game that was released on Aug. 18. I streamed my playthrough of the game on Twitch and managed to throw together a few paragraphs describing(or attempting to, most likely) my thoughts on the game. In short, I enjoyed the game and would put it somewhere in the “good, but short of great” category as I felt it abandoned what it did best(beat ’em up segments) in favor of an enormous shotgun-blast of random gameplay elements. For anyone curious to read my own shotgun-blast of random thoughts on Battletoads…
Games I’m working on this week
- Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate
- Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
- Control
- Spiritfarer
I’ll still be spending a large portion of my time playing Syndicate as I’m 2/3 of the way through the main story sequences and have gathered most of the collectibles, with only a few of the royal correspondence letters and secrets of London left. As I make my way through the main story, I’ve been trying to stay mindful of things like hijacking the police carriages and destroying 5000 objects as I travel the streets of Victorian London. This will make for slightly less(?) grinding out trophies after I finish up the main storyline. I’ve had a lot of fun playing through Syndicate and feel it’s definitely one of the more underrated Assassin’s Creed games, though much of this is likely due to some stagnation and player burnout by this point in the series. It was after Syndicate that Ubisoft decided to take a year off and not release another until AC: Origins in 2017.
I finally purchased and began playing through Uncharted: The Lost Legacy a couple weeks ago. I’ll go ahead and admit that I was a little skeptical about the thought of an Uncharted “side-game” without Nathan Drake, but I will gladly state those worries were unfounded as I’ve come to really appreciate Chloe and Nadine’s camaraderie throughout the game; I’d even go as far as saying I haven’t missed Drake and Sully while playing. Lost Legacy also has given every opportunity to show it’s definitely the smoothest, best-playing game in the Uncharted series. I’m rather embarrassed I hadn’t played this sooner…
An unforeseen development this past week was jumping back into another playthrough of Control. I purchased the Steam version of Control Ultimate Edition via Green Man Gaming for $27.19 only two dollars more than the season pass alone on the Playstation store. The game was one of my favorites of 2019, but I’ve come to appreciate the game more every time I play it. Making my way through the Ashtray Maze would also be one of my gaming highlights of this past year and I’m looking forward to seeing how the newest DLC ties into Alan Wake.
Another game I want to devote a little more time to in the upcoming weeks is Spiritfarer. The game was released on all platforms about two weeks ago, after Nintendo’s latest Nindies Showcase and has an interesting premise that I felt compelled to check out. The Steam description for the game states…
Spiritfarer® is a cozy management game about dying. As ferrymaster to the deceased, build a boat to explore the world, care for your spirit friends, and guide them across mystical seas to finally release them into the afterlife. What will you leave behind?
There’s a bit of exploration and resource management involved in the game as you usher your friends spirits to their final resting place. I don’t typically play a ton of games with resouce management elements like Stardew Valley or similar, but there’s such an interestingly cute, yet morbid charm to the game. Being immediately available on Game Pass Ultimate makes the decision to give it a playthrough even easier.
That’s all for now! What games have you been playing lately? Do you have any games that you plan to play as we change seasons into autumn? Let me know. Thanks for reading!
Gaming Omnivore 