Happy October, everybody!
September was a busy and memorable month for me. I wrote about some of it in a Life Update post a couple of weeks ago. I took a dream vacation to the Big Island of Hawaii, where I went parasailing, zip-lining, snorkeling, and volcano-hiking. I’m honestly not that adventurous a person most of the time, so it was pretty cool to spend so much time outdoors trying new things. I went with my boyfriend, who proposed on our anniversary while we were there. It was an awesome surprise.
Now that I’m engaged, I’ve been checking out wedding venues and starting a lot of wedding-related Pinterest boards. It’s all been really fun so far, and I’m so excited I found such a great guy to keep having adventures with. (Also to play video games with — that’s a big one for me!)
I love October because it marks the beginning of fall. I’ve decorated my apartment for Halloween and am trying to figure out what I’m going to do for the holiday and who/what I’ll dress up as, if I dress up. A couple of years ago I was Lara Croft, which was so much fun because she’s a character I really admire. It would be great to find a new character I like… maybe Catwoman, since I played as her in Injustice 2 this year! We shall see…
And now to the nerdy stuff!
Star Trek: Discovery — I was really excited about the brand new Star Trek show airing on CBS All-Access. You can read my review of the premiere here. The third episode really took me by surprise, and even though the show isn’t quite what I expected, I’m definitely enjoying it so far.
Cuphead — A couple of days ago I started playing the new game Cuphead, which has been on my most anticipated games list for quite awhile. It’s just as charming as I thought it would be. The retro cartoon art style, the throwback music, and even the story make the game feel totally unique. But if you’re expecting to play this game like you watch Saturday morning cartoons — feet up, relaxed, with your morning coffee in one hand — it’s just not going to happen. Cuphead is gaining a reputation of being hugely challenging. It’s all about memorizing levels and quick reflexes; I don’t have the patience for the first, and I kind of lack the second. I’m not sure it’s the game for me, but it’s been an interesting, totally original experience so far.
Destiny 2 — Now that I’ve finished the campaign, I may whip up a review of this one. It came out while I was still in Hawaii, so naturally the first thing I did when I got home from vacation was install it. I’m playing a Warlock who looks a lot like my last redheaded Warlock, and sinking back into the smooth shooting has been so satisfying. There’s just no other game that feels like Destiny.
The Walking Dead — October is the month we get to see the premiere of the new season of The Walking Dead! (MINOR SPOILERS TO FOLLOW, MAYBE?) This is a show I’ve had a love-hate relationship with over the years. I loved the first two or three seasons, stopped watching for awhile because I wasn’t crazy about the governor storyline — and then I picked it up again a couple of years ago with my fiancé. I used to enjoy the survival story aspect. I struggle more with the “war” aspect. I think it’s because I’m more of an optimist when it comes to survival stories; I think we’ll band together and help each other in that scenario, so seeing people with weapons ready to tear each other to pieces and steal from each other just doesn’t ring true to me. But Negan, the current “villain” of the show, is a disgustingly entertaining person to watch. So I’m getting back into it. I also love Maggie and watch every episode just to make sure she’s okay! I can’t wait to see how the characters I’ve grown to love manage to take Negan down.
What are you all doing and playing this month? Are you dressing up for Halloween or celebrating it some other way? I’m also in desperate need of some TV show recommendations, since I need something new to binge-watch! Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. =)
— Ashley
Robo♥beat 
I’m feeling a little depressed about Halloween, to be honest. This will be the first time in five years-ish I won’t have The Secret World’s Halloween event to be excited for, and small though that might have been, it was still the only real chance I’ve had to celebrate Halloween since I was a kid. Been vaguely tempted to log in and play a bit, since the game is still technically online for the time being, but I don’t know.
I’m also getting kind of feelsy because this month is (I think) the twentieth anniversary of my creating the universe my current novels are set in. It’s kind of staggering to think about. There will be a lengthy, rambly post about that on my blog sometime this month.
On that front, I’m nearly done the rewrite of book two, so I’ll finally be able to start on writing new stuff soon. Book three awaits.
Beyond that, I’m still playing WoW for a bit longer. I’m getting a bit burnt out on it, actually, but I figure WoW Token prices will shoot up again after BlizzCon, so I might as well grab a few more while I can still afford them. Later in the month the Age of Empires remaster is coming out, so I’ll be playing that for a bit. Gonna get my wololo on. After that I might revisit SW:TOR or ESO.
Regarding TV recommendations, you mentioned not having seen much of Star Trek: Enterprise, so maybe that? Could be interesting to compare and contrast with Discovery. There’s a surprisingly large number of nods to Enterprise on Discovery so far, even if they’re mostly small details.