Weekend Roundup: Feral Zombies, Snarky Dragons and Sim Detectives
This was a holiday weekend, giving me three days of gaming time… which ends up feeling like not enough. Right when you’re on the cusp of getting all fired up for something, work comes calling the next morning. Even though I enjoy my job, I could have done with a 4 or 5 day weekend instead!
7D2D Alpha 11 Update
My sister has been super excited anticipating the new 7 Days 2 Die Alpha 11 patch, which she swore was going to drop soon. We’ve all been waiting on it, but didn’t expect to see it on a holiday weekend – especially since the devs worked right through the weekend to get a hotfix patch out. It was a good way to combat withdraw from no more Walking Dead episodes, at least.
So, our zombie swat team (made up of my sister, her husband, myself and Syn) got back into survival mode. And man, have they ramped up the difficulty on this game. We died so many times the first night just trying to learn our way around the new changes that we ended up restarting the day after under better conditions. Armed with a little more knowledge and a bit of good luck, we’ve finally got to the point of having a semi-stable and defendable fort. Or… at least, I hope we do – will be testing that out with the night 14 horde.
The game has updated with a jump to Unity 5 and some seriously amazing upgrades in the art assets. It’s come a LONG way from the game that we picked up during the Steam summer sale last year on a whim. I’ve put the most hours into this game than any other aside from FFXIV, and every patch continues to make it even more amazing.
The game now features a new leveling system that allows you to craft better quality items as you gain experience. This can really be felt in the starting levels, where poor quality tools and weapons wear out quickly and hit for less damage. Being a zombie killer, explorer, hunter, cook, gardener, crafting junkie and fort builder, this game gives me lots of areas to focus on and enjoy every time I pick it up. All it needs is fishing to feel complete to me!
FFXIV Progress
I’m still working on making progress with my characters in the FFXIV main storyline. This weekend, both Zuri and Tai made it through the Keeper of the Lake dungeon, which I felt was pretty challenging for me. I’m so happy to finally have my own little snarky Midgardsormr, though. So it was totally worth it!
I’m staying away from end of story spoilers, but I hear from FC members that the newest patch has some amazing cutscenes. I’m trying to keep moving forward the best I can, though I feel that Zuri’s ilvl could be a lot better. I haven’t run her through as many Crystal Tower instances as I have Tai, and I’m starting to feel it.
Tai’s been pretty lucky in World of Darkness drops – he got yet another from his first run this week, leaving only two more to find for the set. Zuri, on the other hand, has never seen a WoD drop. I’m still working on unweathering her ilvl 100 armor with sands and oils of time, actually. I had one good run of ST that gave me three upgrade drops that really helped this weekend, so it’s moving in the right direction.
We also continue to expand our FC, and help folks through content when needed, including first Labyrinth of the Ancients runs and the dreaded Arum Vale. Once folks finish up the storyline and wrap up their WoD runs (it’s nuts right now), I foresee folks getting a bit quiet until the expansion. Summer months tend to be a more quiet time internet-wide in my experience. We’ll see what comes of it, though.
Sims 4: Get to Work
It’s been a while since I’ve dedicated myself to some Sims 4 time. I’ve had a lot of fun with the new Get to Work expansion, and I’m very happy that I splurged to get it. I’ve hardly scratched the surface of the career and retail experience, and have so much I still want to try out!
For a while, I was playing my legacy Sim household instead of my Sygnus Sims families. But the cop/detective line was too perfect for me to not try with Tai’s sim. So I’ve been collecting clues, tracking down criminals, and doing all the fun things Tai would do to intimidate punks and crooks.
I haven’t spent enough time with it to warrant a full review yet, but I do know I’m going to try to squeeze in more Sims time when I can.
