First off, happy New Year! I’m excited to start a new year. Sure, last year had a lot of bad moments, and some big events seem to indicate that things may be shaky for awhile, for some of us. I don’t want to get into all that. On a personal note, I can at least say that I had a great 2016, full of travel and achieving new goals. I can’t wait to continue with that good stuff this year!
In December, I had high hopes to play a lot of video games. And I did — but I spent most of that time replaying Skyrim instead of tackling, say, Watch_Dogs 2. I’ll still play all those games, but I have to admit I had a blast kicking back with Skyrim last month. I would seriously plop down on the couch at 6 or 7 PM and just play until 2 in the morning, when I would force myself to stop because sleep is good too. You can check out some of my Skyrim video posts here — there will definitely be more of them as I continue playing!
I’ve also been playing through Dishonored 2. So far, I love playing as Emily as she tries to regain her throne. It’s a good story — much stronger than the first game’s, to me — and Emily’s powers are pretty awesome. I’d say I like them more than Corvo’s in the first game. My favorite (so far) is the ability to link enemies together, thereby chaining attacks so that hitting one of the linked enemies will domino to hit all of them. Very handy for stealth attacks, like when I enter a new room, spot a couple of guards having a chat, and link them before they even notice me. All I need to do then is set fire to one, and they’ll both go up in flames. It’s so much fun.
I also just wrapped up the final episode of Telltale Games’ Batman series. I’ll be publishing a blog post about it soon — but for now, I’ll just say I loved it. One of Telltale’s best series, in my opinion.
Having some time off last month, I’ve also gotten back into working out. My boyfriend and I have made a pact to achieve some fitness and health goals together this month, which will require me not to skip a single day of drinking my water, getting my steps in, and writing for all of January. It’s going to be a challenge, but I’m ready for it. I want to start 2017 off on a good footing, and hopefully make some habits I can keep for the rest of the year.
And I saw Rogue One! Twice, so far. I might try to see it in theaters one more time, but I’ll give it a couple weeks. Without giving away any spoilers, I’ll just say that the biggest impression I was left with is that Rogue One has an exceptional cast of characters. I am a huge fan of Felicity Jones, so I was excited to see her in an action role for a change. Diego Luna was also amazing in the film. Both of their characters have a lot of depth, as you learn about some of their internal struggles and their pasts. While a character like Rey in The Force Awakens is intriguing, something about Jyn Erso feels more passionate to me — and easier to relate to. I just really, really loved this movie.
The other big sci-fi movie I saw last month was Passengers, which had a lot more going on than I expected from the trailers. You can read my totally spoiler-y post about it here.
Other than that, this month — and really this whole year — I’m going to try not to make too many video game goals for myself and just enjoy whatever I end up playing. I’d rather focus on writing my novel and health goals, and then make gaming my reward or hobby — not something else to achieve, if that makes sense. I have a bad habit of buying too many games and never playing them all, or starting games because I want to try everything but never finishing them. This year, I’d rather go with the flow more.
How was everybody’s holiday season? And what’s everybody doing and playing these days? :)
— Ashley
Robo♥beat 
I’ve been addicted to both Watch_Dogs 2 and Overwatch still. I still need to continue Dishonored 2, Battlefield 1 campaign and Titanfall 2. I got reviews to do soon! Lol.
Oh nice! Looking forward to Watch Dogs 2 then, it’s cool to hear from somebody who likes it because I don’t think I know anybody else playing it! Most people I know are deep in Final Fantasy land right now. And yeah, I wanted to play so many games before the end of the year to write some reviews, but time got away from me haha.
I was do tempted to pick up FF15 during the christmas sale, but I know I had way too many backlog games to deal with lol.
Been doing a lot of Diablo 3 on PS4 in prep for the 20th anniversary update coming soon. Bought too many games for myself (Skyrim, The Witcher, Divinity: Original Sin, TES Online, to name a few, started some F2P stuff like Let It Die and I won’t even go into PC and handheld stuff. I need clones and a vacation!
Ooh, those are good games! I also downloaded Divinity: Original Sin a couple months ago but haven’t had time to get into it yet. Seems interesting. Elder Scrolls Online is also something I’ve been considering… Yeah, there are always just too many games! Enjoy yours. :)
Divinity is pretty darn cool. It’s got a nice sense of humor, the combat system is fun and it looks like a total time-eater in terms of quest options. TES Online is also a nice surprise – I’m playing solo, but have hopped on with a friend for some questing, which sped up an early quest by a bit. DIII has been keeping me busy to the point where I’m streaming once a week for a few hours on YouTube when I’m not otherwise occupied.
I only play Skyrim occasionally, but when I do I fall down the rabbit hole for a good couple of weeks. It’s good to know I’m not alone 😂
Haha yep, it’s such an addicting game!
I loved Rogue One too! I definitely think the best part about the movie were all the characters. I really loved every single one of them. Good luck with your writing and fitness goals! :D I actually wrote a post detailing my own hopes for the new year and it’s similar to what you have planned. Let’s do our best to achieve them!
Yay! Good luck with your goals too! It’s always nice to have a new year to make some goals and just hit reset. :) Maybe I’ll read this in your blog post, but are you still doing your fitness class? I seem to remember you doing self-defense or martial arts, but I forgot what exactly! That’s something I want to do this year that I didn’t mention here, take a class. The one I’d like to take first and see if I enjoy it is lyra.
I’m still doing my fitness class, which is kickboxing. :) I love how I feel after each class and I like being a badass. I would love to try other martial arts once I eventually get the extra money to do so. I’m glad you’re going to try out a class of something you might be interested in. What is lyra?
Oh that’s right, kickboxing! That sounds really fun and empowering! How long have you been doing it? I’ve only tried something like that once, which was a jiu jitsu class in college. Lyra is an aerial hoop class, it’s supposed to be really good for your core and general strength. I just have to get over my fear of falling out of the hoop first hehe.
Three years! I really do love kickboxing. It’s fun, active, and a great way to relieve stress. I always feel better after each class. Lyra sounds like fun! It sounds like the ones with the aerial ribbons, but with hoops instead, right? I bet it’s fun and a great workout. I’d imagine you would have to have really great upper strength, or it builds it at least. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it when you try it out!
Wow three years is a long time! That’s awesome. Yeah that’s right about lyra, they have the ribbons at a lot of the places that do the lyra classes but that seems harder to me! My coordination is just okay haha.
2016 was pretty awful for the world in general and my family in particular, so I’m not sorry to see it go, but I don’t have a lot of optimism the coming year will be any better.
Bleh, sorry, 2016 left me a cold as a parting gift, and it’s put me in a foul mood.
I already covered my holiday gaming activities in my last two blog posts, so need to repeat myself here. Now that I’ve cleaned out my backlog of single-player titles and don’t have a lot of other pressing projects, I’ve decided to reinvest in Elder Scrolls Online. I’m still kind of waffling on my feelings for this game, but I’ve decided I want to at least try to finish the main story and the Aldmeri zones. But first I need to finish Thieves Guild, which like everything in this game has turned out to be a lot longer than I expected (not that I’m complaining).
I should really be strong and just focus on my main, but thanks to One Tamriel I’m now also feeling a temptation to roll an alt — really it’s a minor miracle I’ve made it this far in the game with only one character. I could make a Khajiit magic-user and RP him as a rakish street magician…
No! Bad Tyler! Focus!
Also still playing a bit of StarCraft on the side, as I have for many months now. Hoping we get an announcement of another co-op commander this month. Stukov was interesting, but not exactly my style. Still crossing my fingers for Selendis as an air-focused commander at some point. The Golden Armada awaits!
Also watched the Netflix adaptation of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency over the holidays, which was… one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen, honestly. Nothing like the books, but kind of fascinating in its own way, and it grew on me a lot by the end. There will be a blog about it at some point. Next I think I might dig out my DVDs and rewatch Continuum from beginning to end.
Haha I know what you mean about creating a new character, I did that in SWTOR a bit, creating (if I remember right) three characters by the end of it without getting that far with the second and third! Interesting, I haven’t heard of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency before. I look forward to reading about it from you! Continuum is always a good choice. I’ve actually been watching season 4 and will continue to watch to the end of the series. I’ve watched the first seasons to death in the past, but started losing interest around season 4, so I figure it’s good to go back and focus on it more. Such a good show!
Altoholism has a long been my curse. I have five characters in TSW now, and that’s a game specifically designed to to eliminate the need for multiple characters.
Really, you don’t know the Dirk Gently books? I would think a big sci-fi nerd like you would be fully versed in all the works of Douglas Adams. Please tell me you’ve at least read the Hitchhiker’s Guide series…
Continuum is one of my all-time favourite sci-fi shows. It’s a shame it couldn’t have lasted longer, but at least they got to wrap it up on their own terms and give it a (mostly) satisfying ending.
Plus, I love how Canadian it is. It’s awesome how much of a sci-fi Mecca Canada has become. You know, not only is Dark Matter filmed in Toronto, but every single major cast member is also Canadian. In fact, Melissa O’Neill (Two) is a former winner of Canadian Idol. Blew my mind when I realized that was her — last time I saw her she was some shy, baby-faced teenager crooning on stage while Ben Mulroney told us to phone in our votes.
One time I passed a woman who looked a lot like Zoie Palmer (the Android) in the grocery store parking lot. Sometimes I wonder…
And I’m way off topic again. ><
Haha yeah, that’s true about Canada! I haven’t watched Dark Matter in a few weeks, I need to pick that up again. I had no idea about the major cast members all being Canadian. I just remember the Continuum cast being at the Canadian Comic-Con (if I remember right) and watching a panel with them thinking how cool Canada is to have such great sci-fi haha. Also I have no idea why I had never heard of those books. I have read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy but I am not well-versed in his works! I need to make a reading list for the year…
Admittedly, the Dirk Gently books aren’t quite as well known as the Hitchhiker’s Guide series. Definitely anything he wrote is worth reading, though. I’d even recommend The Salmon of Doubt (a random collection of unfinished works and non-fiction essays).