PixlBit

Just a day and half of gameplay this week 'cause work, like, gotta work when they tell me to. But, I still got to a lot of stuff even though I'm trying to get more focused. To do that I looked up the top Xbox Series X games on Metacritic. Elden Ring was first with Hades second. I'm waiting for a sale for Elden Ring, so I downloaded Hades, which is on Game Pass, and I've played it before and liked it. I'll try and go deep with it this time. 

Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch): I got the wrong game from the library. They boxed Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes by accident. I fixed it on Wednesday when I was at work, but now I have to work Thursday, so I'll have to wait until next week to play Three Houses. Why did they name these two games so similarly? The library keeps the cartridges seperate from the boxes to avoid theft so you have to read the tiny text on the carts to choose the right one when someone takes one out. It's way too easy to mistake one for the other. I actually played a bit of Warriors Three Hopes before I realized it was the wrong game. As soon as I started hacking and slashing I was like, "what the heck?" and realized this wasn't the strategy game I wanted. It seemed good though. I wanted a thinking man's game though, not an action man's game. 

Into the Breach (Switch): Got my butt handed to me again on the first island. Am I doing something wrong? Was I supposed to add more forces to my four man army before entering the breach? Next time I'll look at the menu screens at deployment to see if I missed something. Darn this game is brutal. 

 Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (Xbox 360): I tried to get the achievement for avoiding all the lasers on a level's boss battle but there were so many, I don't think it's possible except by some bit of luck. So I moved on a few levels before I got to one with another achievement attached. This was the Molekin Mines level. I had to break all the rocks and did so. I finished the level and the boss and moved on for the day. 

Lego Lord of the Rings (Xbox 360): I decided to resurect my "play all lego games" challenge and returned to LotRs to get achievements after I had already beating the main story. This has an interesting but a bit confusing open world design. I got a side mission in the Minas Tirith and went to Osgilliath to find the item, which I did, and returned it to the quest giver. Then I hunted for a quick achievement and found one. I had to defeat Gollum with Gollum. Easy peazy. Getting everyting else in the large Middle Earth world is going to be a chore though. It's fun to explore the world of Lord of the Rings though. 

Terraria (Xbox Series S): Had to play this for Game Pass rewards points yet again. I don't much enjoy this on console. I think it's clearly designed for PC and would be easier to play there. So I just dug a trench for a few minutes to get the 400 resources asked for. 

Pac-Man Museum + (XSS): Played Pac-Man because I'm taking a deep dive on the year 1980, my personal experiences and media I experienced back then. It seems as if PMM+ has somewhat fixed the lag that was so annoying in the Xbox version of this collection. I had an easier time playing, but I'm still terrible at this game and only got a few screens in. I am considering looking up the known ghost patterns, but I'm kind of not interested. My favorite game of 1980 was Intellivision's Sea Battle. I want to find a way to play that again. 

Forza Horizon 5 (XSS): Played this again, gladly, for a MS Rewards quest. I needed one achievement and got it by accident when I tumbled down a cliff in a Jeep while hunting new roads. It was for getting a task done in each of the four seasons. I'll leave the "all roads" achievement for another time. I noticed that the Hot Wheels DLC had dropped for FH. I almost bought it right away but I'll wait. Too much to do, plus MS might ask me to play this again for achievements later on and I want to save something for that. I love FH5 though. Want to play it more. 

Farm Together (XSS): 

Constructed 13x13 fields in anticipation of unlocking laborers later on. This is the area they can sweep on their own, automating watering and harvesting of crops, animals, trees or flowers. I am not wasting a lot of time waiting for crops to grow like last time though. As soon as I have more than 30 minutes to wait, I plant a bunch of long term crops like wheat and leave the game until another day. I'm taking my time. I have a long way to go to finish that last achievement I never got. 

Gems of War (XSS): Trying to finish the campaign tasks for the week but didn't quite make it. I hope the overall progress doesn't get reset in a few days when the current Event ends. If so, I'll have to calculate whether it is possible for me to get to 1000 stars in the term of the monthly Event. They really try and incentivize playing this game every single day. I draw the line on such things. 

Microsoft Solitaire Collection: I find it odd that you can adjust difficulty on Klondike Solitaire (that's the traditional way to play it) but it is possible. I try and win as high a difficulty as possible but losing has me put the difficulty down a notch for next time. Then back up again if I win. The rewards are greater the higher the difficulty. I really hate Spider and Free Cell versions of the game though. They are both frustrating to me and strategically difficult. I don't always want a tasking game experience on my phone, quite the opposite. 

Well, that's a lot for just a day and a half. I'm trying to narrow my interests in games, but it's hard in today's environment where we have access to so much. Remember 1980 or any year before 2000? You could go to an arcade with a dozen machines or so or stay at home with your two or three games. I practically have the whole history of gaming at my fingertips now. A dream back then, and fun now, but also kind of a burden.