Dem Pillars, Man!

Fuck me. For about a month or two now, my life has been so good, if somewhat uneventful and boring. With the exception of my occasional adventures on Everquest 2 and Warframe with friends and family, I had pretty much quit online gaming. I didn't even play games for my job anymore. I got into Wasteland 2. I played Shadowrun Chronicles solo. Other than that? Fucking walks. You know, outside, where the bears are. Enjoying sunsets with Claire, going out for dinner now and then, taking a deliberate long walk to the supermarket instead of ordering shit online. I have reasons. :P

First of all, I'm tired. I'm tired of competing and chasing after virtual shit in online games. I had all the very best stuff in Warframe, so they added even better stuff, which takes an eternity and a half to max out. So I went after that. So now they added raids, which reward you with even better shit, which takes even more time to max out. I'm done. I'm not gonna uninstall the game or anything, but I'm done going after the very best stuff all the damn time. Fuck it. For what? Waste countless hours of my life chasing after pixels, which will ultimately lead to even more boredom once I obtain them, because I'll have "nothing left to do" until they implement even more overpowered gear. It never ends. And it's so very pointless.

I'm still highly competitive on CoD, but it's not like that required any real skill or talent.

And I'm tired of games, which tell me that all my efforts as a solo player are worthless and I can only have all the coolest rewards if I join a raid group. I don't want to raid. I've played Molten Core back in the day when it required 40 people. It sucked. 40 man raids sucked in Wildstar, so guess where they went. Having to coordinate 20something people still sucks and is about as exciting as organizing a staff meeting at work and making sure nobody falls asleep during your power point presentation. It's the same shit, but on a larger scale, with more people, which inevitably provides more opportunity for the group to fuck up. Yay.

And you know what? Carlton is fucking nice. I never thought I could become this boring, but I actually enjoy sitting outside with Claire, just talking to each other, watching the clouds, that kinda shit. I can't wait to take Hugo outside again. Our monitor lizard. I don't refer to my Penis as Hugo. But the world is conspiring against me, wanting me to go back to being a gaming hermit who shuns oxygen and sunlight.

Hey, virtual outside still counts, right?

I had to review the subscription-free version of Elder Scrolls Online and those bastards at Zenimax actually made the game fun. I think their community manager still hates me because I bashed the shit out of their game after its less than stellar launch, but I had nothing but high praise in my re-review over at Gamestar. I'm already hating my future self for being unable to resist looking at the comments section, where people are gonna tell me I've probably been bribed into giving it a good review score or something. Frankly, I can't really blame you if you've played the game at launch and then quit like I did. I was fully expecting the whole thing to suck and... well, what do you know. If you already own it, give it another go. It's pretty great now.

I've started to master the fine art of stealth on there. I'm using mostly heavy armor, I do have a shield for tanky goodness, but I get sneak bonuses for playing a cat, so it's actually possible to sneak up on enemies whilst wearing a set of full plate and... man, it's the tits! Sneak up on a guy, charge a heavy attack and BAM! Instakill! I love how versatile the characters are on there and how much you can do with the character progression system.

Also, I have an eyepatch!

Playing ESO alone wasn't soooo bad. I mean, sure, family won't see me on Everquest 2 as much, but they know how to reach me and I'm one poke on Facebook away from leading them through dungeons or helping them with quests. But then Obsidian just had to release Pillars of Eternity and apparently it's one of the best RPGs of all time and in every way as good as Baldur's Gate - and then some. So now I have to split up my precious play time between that one and ESO. And then there is the new DLC for Dragon Age: Inquisition, which I'd be playing right the fuck now if it wasn't for ESO and Pillars. Gotta prioritize now. Play ESO when family is on, play and beat Pillars when I'm on my own, then grab the Inquisition DLC. Thank fuck I finished Ori and the Blind Forest in time.

I hate to say it, but absolutely everything I love about Everquest 2 can also be found in ESO - just ten times bigger and better. Except housing, but... meh. That has never been on my list of most wanted features in any game and I'm pretty sure Zenimax have been working on a housing system for quite some time. I'm only guessing, of course. *coughs*

-Cat