This Month in Gaming (11/19)




I’m still trying to find my feet as far as this gaming blog goes. I still need to figure out a good schedule for posting, and determine how long posts should be and how frequently to post them, but I’ll figure it out as I go. I like the idea of doing a monthly round up of games I’ve played, and I think I’d like to do a weekly or bi-weekly post as well, but I have to figure out when to do it.

Hearthstone

I dove really deep into Hearthstone Battlegrounds this month, with two blog posts about the new mode, plus several hours of gameplay, testing strategies and heroes. I played a few games of Standard today, and it was as if I had forgotten how to play the actual game. Spells? What are those?! The changes they’ve made to the hero line-up has been interesting as far as the meta goes. Murlocs still suck though.

Pokemon Sword

We got Pokemon Sword in on release day, and I’ve spent a good bit of time playing that. Kiddo is Pokemon obsessed right now, so it’s been fun to play while she watches. I’ve seen a lot of complaints from gamers about how short the game is and how sparse the story is, but as someone who has only ever played Pokemon Red, Yellow, and Let’s Go Eevee (which are all basically the exact same game with different skins), it plays like a classic Pokemon game. I’m enjoying it. There’s more story going on than the originals, and I’m enjoying running around the world. I’ve played at least fifteen hours or so, and I have four badges (I think). I haven’t played in the last week because I’ve been playing other games, but I’m looking forward to playing more of it in December.

Ring Fit Adventure

I’ve been playing this game since it released in October, and I’ve played it 3-4 times a week ever since. I took this last week off because I hurt my ankle somehow and couldn’t do most of the exercises without making it worse, but I was able to play again today, finally. I’m up to World 07 now, and just hit level 50. I’ve been playing at Difficulty 13. It’s intense enough that it makes me sweat and a little sore, but not so much that it makes my heartrate skyrocket or make me want to die. I might up the difficulty again soon (I started at 11 when the game came out) as the exercises are getting easier and easier week to week. The story of the game so far is actually a lot of fun. It’s absurd and full of puns, with every fantasy RPG trope ever made, and I love it. There’s something extra fun about fighting a super swole dragon dude in order to save the world from his evil swoleness. Kiddo enjoys this one as well and often plays right after I do (on a much lower difficulty!).

World of Warcraft

I recently jumped back into World of Warcraft with the latest special event, Korrak’s Revenge, which takes players back to the original Alterac Valley battleground. It’s been a fun way to level alts with the 15% XP bonus from the WoW Anniversary token, plus all of the heirlooms I have. Everything is scaled to level 60 numbers and for every half hour spent in the battleground, you gain a level. I’ve been able to level up three alts already, my 110 Windwalker Monk, 110 Elemental Shaman, and 83 Holy Paladin. After playing nearly forty levels of Holy Paladin over the course of this week, I’m considering maining her in Shadowlands, when the expansion drops next year. She was my very first character I made, and she’s been wasting away n Northrend since 2009, when I got bored playing end content for Wrath of the Lich King. I mained Mage in Battle for Azeroth and still love to play Mage (I have two 120 Mages, one for each faction), but I wouldn’t mind a change of pace for the next expansion.

Anyway, Korrak’s Revenge has been fun. I main Horde, so we win 9/10 matches, if not more. I’ve played so many matches that I’ve gotten bored with the offensive push and have started focusing on defense. Yesterday, I played a match where I was able to defend Tower Point with the commander for a good minute or two before I finally died, up against 10 Alliance players. I’m not sure they knew I was in there for a while, but I was able to take out four players before they finally killed me. PVP as Holy Paladin is fun, and I love 1v1 matches. It’s always fun to win those as a healer.

Outside of Alterac Valley, I’ve been playing the Paladin Class Hall Campaign and questing around in Legion content between battleground matches. By accident, I found a questline where you have to go meet the Postmaster (literally the guy who delivers all of the in-game mail) and help him with deliveries, which involves a hilarious fetch quest to Icecrown Citadel, getting Invincible’s Reins and delivering them to Johnny Awesome at a hot spring resort, porting sacks of stone to an enraged Nexus-Prince, and sorting tons of mail in order to get the title of Postmaster, which you better believe is now my active title. I love little questlines like this. They’re random, but so much fun, and I applaud whoever developed this one.

My next highest level character is a Blood Death Knight which I may or may not try to level through the battleground event. I’ve played so many matches of Alterac Valley, it’s becoming repetitive, but maybe playing a different class will liven it up again.

Up next...

That’s it for gaming in November. For December, I'll probably stick with Pokemon Sword on console, and do the usual Hearthstone during breakfast and lunch, and World of Warcraft in my free time. I still have Baldur’s Gate on hold, probably to be continued once I’m done with Pokemon Sword. 

For the blog, I’ll try to start posting more regularly, and maybe have weekly wrap ups, in addition to my longer thinky posts about individual games.

What about you? What games are you playing this month? Any new releases you’re excited for? Let me know!

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