I’m so happy it’s November, guys. November is always a great month for me. For one thing, it’s the beginning of fall — which comes a little late to the Bay Area where I live. It’s also when one of my favorite holidays occurs, since I love reconnecting with family and doing a little cooking for Thanksgiving. It’s also a tradition to start decorating for the holidays this month. And writing like crazy during NaNoWriMo. So, here’s what I’m up to these days…
Over the weekend I started playing Assassin’s Creed Origins. It’s easily my most-anticipated Assassin’s Creed game ever, because of the ancient Egypt setting. I was a huge ancient Egypt nerd when I was a kid. In fact, my mom recently moved to a new house, and in cleaning out and packing up my old bedroom, I found a heap of books on Egyptian history and King Tut. That’s why I couldn’t wait to explore this setting in such an immersive way.
So far, Origins is extremely fun and very pretty. I’ve barely scratched the surface, so it may be way too early to judge, but I feel that the story hasn’t grabbed me in the early hours the way most Assassin’s Creed games do. Fortunately, that’s balanced by the fact that this one is so open-world. Which can be both good and bad, for me. We’ll see how far I make it with this game — for now, I’m enjoying the exploration of this gorgeous place.
I’ve also been watching CBS’s new Star Trek series, Discovery. While the first episodes had me on the fence, I found it entertaining — just not quite Star Trek-y. Fortunately, the series has picked up, and last week’s episode — which involved the return of a very entertaining bad guy, a really cool time-loop, and lessons in getting outside your comfort zone — was the best one yet. It kept me invested and guessing the whole time. The deep-dives into both the main character’s emotional life and time travel were perfectly interwoven, too. Or maybe I’m just a sucker for a little romance. If you have to watch just one episode of Star Trek Discovery, make it this one!
Finally, this month is National Novel Writing Month, which I like to jump into every November. It’s just so crazy how fast it creeps up on me every year! I’ll admit I’ve been so busy with personal stuff, wedding stuff, my-mom-moving-to-a-new-house stuff, and Paris Games Week work stuff that I haven’t prepared for NaNoWriMo at all. But I’m excited to participate again all the same, so I guess I’ll just wing it this year and have fun.
What are all of you up to this month? I’m always interested to hear what games you’re playing, shows you’re watching, and anything else big in life. =)
— Ashley
Robo♥beat 
Hey you! I’m glad to hear the positive report on Star Trek Discovery!
I’m going to say that I’ll be attempting NaNoWriMo, but I suspect I won’t be able to put in the time. We’ll see.
Good luck to you, as always
Are you enjoying Star Trek Discovery too? Good luck with NaNoWriMo! It’s always good inspiration even when we don’t finish it. :)
Oh, we’re not watching it, because we’re too cheap to buy CBS All Access. (Yes, I know it’s not all that expensive, but we’re making a philosophical stand.)
I’ll try to watch it when it becomes more available. Go Star Trek!
It’s almost time to buy a big new pile of Black Friday games and only play 1/4 of them!
Haha that’s what I’ll be doing too!
The big thing for me this month is BlizzCon, which starts Friday. It’s about 99.99% certain the next WoW expansion will be announced. I got myself a big bag of popcorn for the opening ceremony, and I’ll be blogging up a storm.
I hope it’s something cool. Right now I’m thinking it will be another faction war expansion, which I really don’t want because that story is beyond played out at this point, but that seems to be where most of the evidence is pointing. I hope I’m wrong. A lot of people are also thinking Azshara, but we’ve been thinking Azshara was next for the better part of a decade now, and I refuse to get my hopes up again.
That said, ironically, I’m feeling a little burnt out on actually playing WoW right now, so I let my sub lapse. Picked up a Norse mythology-themed Diablo clone on the Steam sale (Vikings: Wolves of Midgard), and I’ve been playing that. It has some polish issues, but overall I’m having fun. When I’m done with it I was thinking I’d finally return to SW:TOR and get caught up on the story.
It’s funny you thought the last Discovery was the best yet. The other blogger I follow who’s covering Discovery, who has been a huge fanboy for the show so far, *hated* it. He tore it apart in his review. For my part, I enjoyed the episode, but I can see a lot wrong with it. Overall the show’s growing on me, though I still don’t like what they’ve done with the Klingons. Stamets is awesome, though.
Finally, I’ve finished my rewrites, so I’m back to work on new content for the first time in years. Wading through book three, which I am finding very emotionally exhausting. I suppose this was always going to be the hardest one to write.
Ugh, how do I manage to get such long comments out of such an uneventful life…
Enjoy Blizzcon! That’s funny to hear someone hated this last episode of Star Trek! I haven’t read any reviews yet, although a friend also loved the episode and felt it was very Star Trek-y too. Now I’m curious to hear others’ thoughts… Also I agree about the Klingons, and Stamets being awesome! Good luck with your writing as well and congrats on finishing rewrites. That’s great.
I just started Assassin’s Creed Origins tonight. I mostly wanted to play it for the setting. I’m a real sucker for Ancient Egypt as well. Seems more RPG-ish than the last AC I played.
Ooh have fun! I’m curious to hear what you think of it. That’s awesome you are into the ancient Egyptian setting too!
It’s crazy how we speed through the year by the time September rolls around, isn’t it? I’m still diligently going through Spirit of Justice and currently obsessed with Stranger Things 2. Kinda wish I had the time to binge watch the whole thing! But I suppose savoring each episode is the way to go too. 🙂
Oh yeah, I’m watching the new season of Stranger Things too! It’s good to take it slow and savor it. I’m doing the same thing. :)