July is a month I have been long awaiting, for a few reasons:
- It’s Camp NaNoWriMo, so I can focus on writing my novel again
- Final Fantasy XII is coming out on PS4, so I can replay it
- A ton of good movies are coming out
Plus, days off for 4th of July and all that good stuff. =)
Last month, I played some more Injustice 2, started making my way through Wolfenstein: The New Order, spent a lot of time working thanks to E3 madness, and saw the amazing and funny Wonder Woman movie. This month…
Novel Writing
On the writing front, I have been pretty bad about keeping to a schedule lately. I’ve had a lot of ideas, so in general things are going in the right direction — I just need to make time to write. I’d blame a super busy work month, but there’s never an excuse for not writing!
In any case, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) has a camp in April and July, which lets you group up with other writers online to encourage each other through the month. You set your own personal goals with this one. Mine will be to write seven hours per week. I’d say one hour per day, but I’m going to give myself the leeway to write a little extra some days and skip a day once in a while, depending on when I have time. Life happens, after all. But by the end of the month, with that much writing, I should feel like I made some good progress!
Final Fantasy XII
I don’t need another video game in my life right now. I’m wrapping up both Mass Effect Andromeda and Wolfenstein: The New Order, I’m playing some Nex Machina co-op with my partner, and I’ve started a new playthrough of Dragon Age Inquisition that I’ll be chipping away at for the next little while here. I also have Persona 5 on my list of games-to-play. And Night in the Woods.
But… Final Fantasy XII is one of my favorite video games ever, and one of the first I played. The characters and rich settings are so stuck in my mind. I remember battling through tedious dungeons just to get to that next beautiful cutscene and unravel more of the story. I was in love with Balthier. It’s just such a magical game to me, I have to play it again now that it’s coming to the PlayStation 4. It’ll take me some time, but hey, video games are meant to be enjoyed. I can take my time. =)
Movies
Summer is known for blockbuster movies, and the ones I’m most looking forward to are Spider-Man: Homecoming next week, and then Dunkirk and Valerian later in the month.
I’ve started reading Valerian (specifically the comic tied to the movie) to learn about the characters and world. I love that it’s fun, over-the-top science fiction adventure, but with that underlying young romance. Maybe unrequited, which can be even better.
What’s everybody else doing and playing this month?
— Ashley
Robo♥beat 
Final Fantasy 15. 12 is one of the few I’ve never played for some reason. Just came too late in the ps2s life and got skipped over for newer stuff I guess. Guess I’ll finally get around to it with Zodiac Age.
Yeah I might like to play 15 sometime, but I haven’t had time! I really want to replay 12 so I’m kind of prioritizing that over some other games right now. That’s cool you’ll get to play it now if you want to!
July should be a good one in terms of entertainment. For me Final Fantasy XII and Splatoon 2 are on my wish list of games. On the movie front, it is loaded. Spider-Man, Planet of the Apes, Dunkirk, and Atomic Blonde have me wanting to go to the theater every week.
Ooh I forgot about Atomic Blonde! That does look good. This is such a great month for movies. Planet of the Apes freaks me out a little for some reason though, so I’ll skip that one haha. Have fun with your games and movies this month! Nice to hear Final Fantasy XII is in your list too.
Good luck with your writing.
I’ve at last returned to WoW. Now that I finally have my wings back, I’m enjoying it a lot more, and I’m embarking on my main goal for Legion: to experience as many class stories and artifact quests as possible. Moving at a pretty good clip so far.
Also, the necromancer just got added to Diablo III, and despite my bitterness over the apparent abandonment of the story, I will probably play it at some point. I love necromancers in general, and the Diablo universe’s take on the archetype has always been one of the best. That said, I’m not sure I’ll get to that this month. WoW has a way of taking over.
Also plan to do a fair bit of reading this month. Current plan is my birthday treat to myself will be to go to the bookstore and grab Beren and Luthien and The Fatal Gate. Was also vaguely considering checking out some of the Andromeda tie-in books. Never read any Mass Effect books before, but given I was so impressed with Andromeda, maybe now would be a good time to start.
That sounds like a good plan for your birthday! I read Mass Effect: Revelation a few years ago and enjoyed it — it’s all about Saren and his history with Anderson. I’ve had a few book recommendations from you in my list for awhile now too! It would be interesting to see what books are available as Andromeda tie-ins.
Have fun with WoW and Diablo when you get to it. Necromancers are awesome, although strangely I don’t think I’ve played many games that feature them!
…I honestly don’t remember what books I’ve recommended to you. Hopefully you’ll enjoy whatever I told you to read.
Currently the one Andromeda book that’s out is about the uprising on the Nexus. I’d heard another one was due out around now, but I just did some looking and it looks like those reports were erroneous. The next Andromeda books are scheduled for fall and winter, apparently. I was mainly interested because it’s believed one may be about the Quarian Ark.
Necromancers certainly aren’t as common as I’d like. I think people are too hung up on the image of them as the bad guy. That’s what I like about Diablo necromancers. They did away with the whole concept of them being power-hungry loons. Diablo necromancers are a spiritual order (the Priests of Rathma) who have sworn to safeguard the world by upholding the balance between the forces of life and death. Very clever take on the archetype, I think.