I am not a HardCore Gamer #44 (2)

The stress and hardships of the Wastelands have finally got to Bertha. While she was occupied in a undercover mission for DIMA in Nucleus, Bertha’s radiation levels reached her in the ugliest of fashion of an EXIT save being lost and teleporting her back days earlier after all this efforts. She sat down and cried silently but there was no one to hear it.
On the more serious note, getting through this gameplay on survival turns out a bit too harsh for me and the dying, replaying parts is a bit too much at the minute so I think I’m going to take a break from Fallout 4 for a while and perhaps come back later to it.

Twas a summer to remember, my friend!

I think it is high time to get stuck in Dishonored 2 I got for Xmas from my son but before I do that I think I’ll have a slight detour towards This War is Mine, a little game that keeps to the Fallout scenery.

It was just the three of us, Pavle, Katia and Bruno and over 20 days later Maria and Bruno are sadly gone but Pavle was lucky enough to meet Irene and her little niece. Whilst the war continues and the winter is ever so close let us not forget Katia and Bruno.

Katia. Let us drink coffee in your memory!

Ah, Katia. That crazy coffee lover who could talk herself out of any issue; she pushed it once too many times at the garage and got shot, she made it home and was pushing through it like a good old fashioned camper but eventually her body gave up on her. We buried her under the tree.
Bruno was gone shortly after. He just given up one day and died as a disease was eating him from inside. He never moaned but then, he also wanted extra food so Pavle didn’t feel as sad as when Katia kicked the bucket.
And shortly before he died Pavle and co we visited by a man with a woman and a girl. It was Lydia with her aunt Irene. They were Pavle’s last hope of surviving so he let them stay…

Ah. The grumpy smoker. Hopefully he now has enough smoke…

With my health woes continuing it was actually really handy that I had no games to play in the HPL League as we reached the play offs (well, I didn’t really with 6-10 record), so Madden 17 got very little love this week. Ihave done some bulk buying and set completing but nothing much more. Just waiting for another draft where I hope to get some help on the defensive side of the ball.

Since it was another week with little energy, I have managed to push my Gems of War progress, including completing another kingdom quests and getting few more member to my guild as well as obtaining couple of legendary troops. Not a bad week here actually.

Bridge Bandit, a unique way of learning and playing Bridge.


There was some new stuff too (beside installing Dishonored 2) and it turn out to be another mobile (android) experience, this time resulting in me checking out Bridge Bandit a cool app for those who love or would like to learn to play the very strategic card game known as Bridge.
I’ve always s wanted to learn to play Bridge (I mean the bidding process is the hardest thing to grasp) but never had enough people to get going but finally, after the strange moment of wanting to play some card games I stumbled across the Bridge Bandit and all of sudden I needed to be back to Bridge.
So there, the app has few modes beside the traditional way of playing (against humans and/ or AI), including Mini mode, where one learns some simple way of bidding and trying to meet the contract, and Blitz mode where one plays three hands of Bridge. There’s plenty of options, the user interface is near and slick but it comes at a price of over £5 per month or over £42 a year. Luckily one gets 30 days to evaluate and possibility to earn some more by inviting friends, or having the app make a facebook post. I’m still early in the phase of trying it all out but it is looking really good.

And now it is time to count all these trophies I hunted this week and I can say there have been 3 trophies this week for a 10 total in 2017. How have your gaming been going lately gals and guys?

I am not a HardCore Gamer #43 (1)

2017 in gaming sphere in my world started as the 2016 finished; rather lazily, sluggishly and with very little gaming actually done. Part of the slow start has been my health that limited my pool of energy. That’s life and not much I can do about it besides manage it as best as I can.

Anyways… The games that welcomed the 2017 were Madden 17, Fallout 4 and This War is Mine. I’ve promised myself not to start Dishonored 2 until I’m done with Far Harbor and Nuka World DLCs from Fallout 4 but with the unexpected release of This War of Mine for free on PS Plus things got a bit more complicated and I’m not sure how I’ll squeeze it all in.Anyways, Madden 17 seen sporadic action really. I’ve only played two league games (my game is improving, I think) and spent little time on MUT, completeing some solos and sets.
Fallout 4 meets me past the introduction of Acadia members and Bertha is now on voyage towards Children of Atom. I’m glad I went back to get Nick to accompany me as his story is only adding to the taste of the journeys through the creepy island.
I’m actually amazed how much stuff Bethesda managed to cram into this DLC and I wonder why I didn’t get going there earlier… Hey better later than never.

This War is Mine dropped on me suddenly and I was pleased to see it free to grab for PS Plus members. I had thought of getting it before but never had the funds or the time. Now I have no choice other than play it and see how well I can manage.
It’s nothing fancy, graphic wise, although the way it is done seems cool and eye pleasing. The mechanic are fairly simple and the objective is clear: Survive.
I have played through few days so far and I have already managed to get one of the characters shot and I also robbed an old couple. Ah the choices…. It still appears to be a nice game with a lot to offer for those who like making choices.

Since my health has been failing me I got to play a fair amount of Gems of War and I also managed to get a couple of members into my guild. The weekly events that boost cetain classes definately made me try to choose other cards and build teams around variety of classes/ genres.
Other than that there haven’t been many more fireworks; I have also decided to try to include a count of trophies I amass through the year. An idea that I got from reading blog of 1 Broke Gamer Girl. I’m not sure I’ll remember to do it weekly but I’ll try.

Weekly Trophies Count

Trophies obtained: 7

Trophies total 2017: 7

I am not a HardCore Gamer #42

Well, I hope your 2016 has treated you well and that 2017 will not be worse than last year and it delivers to all of you on grounds of family, health, friendships, personal growth and of course, gaming!
This last week of 2016 has turned out rather anti gaming as with the Xmas spirit and all of that I sort of was engaged in other things and I barely managed to get any gaming done making the future gaming harder as there’s already some sizeable (for me) back log creating…
Gaming wise gift from Xmas resulted in a copy of Dishonored 2 which I’m dying to start playing but first I gotta finish off Far Harbor and Nuka World from Fallout 4.. Sigh…
I like exploring all these virtual places and it really takes me a long time to get through this all stuff but I did manage to drag Nick Valentine to Acadia and that’s where I am now really.

I have ticked off some Madden play through my league games and a bit through MUT. I have also done a bit of Gems of War but as I said this week has been not a gaming one really.
In 2017 I think I’ll look into Witcher III as I got a loads of books by Sepkowski, Polish writer, the series that inspired the game. Funny thing, he started becoming popular as I was about to leave Poland and never got a chance to read his stuff, now I do, just in English 😉 I also got cool book with art stuff from the game so I think that will be one of my resolutions. To play Witcher III. Oh that’s all.

I wish you all to have a great fulfilling year 2017 that brings joy across all parts of your lives, including gaming. Keep well!

I am not a HardCore Gamer #41

No more -aka Game Week Load- phrase in the title. With Xmas spirit in full swing it was time to retire that bit for good and save on those precious digital letters.
Even though I’m not huge on Xmas the ever so busy spirit that hits people this affects me to some degree and it reflects in rather lazy and lousy week of gaming.
I got sucked into MUT on Madden 17 with the Ultimate Freeze thingy. The solos were nicely spaced out in time and there weren’t many to do at once- 8 released every other day- so I gave it a go and since I started I had to finish, sigh…
I have also completed few of team of the month hero sets and spent all 50 badges on 95 ovr Kam Chancellor and my team rating reached 90. I’ve done my league games and sadly I am struggling everywhere but I did sneak a win against cpu as the owner of the team didn’t have time to play. Never mind.

It’s the second week in a row I skipped Skyrim in favour of Fallout 4 as I really would like to get on with finishing Far Harbor and Nuka World add ons before moving on.
I’m really pleased with the size of the map and additional quests that are there to be found but my son recommend me to bring Nick to accompany me through the main path of quests there so I’ve headed back to the Commonwealth to invite Nick to join me but the thing is, I don’t remember where I saw him the last time…
The struggles of surviving on survival carry on, especially at the Island it is noticeable when I accidently walk into some ugly looking creature but so far I managed mainly thanks to Cait who would just go all nuts at the enemies giving me some room to breath. 

That was some party to remember!

Sadly, she eventually got too busy with Trappers and I couldn’t assist her due to low amount of power core juice so she left me, wearing the greenish Vim Armour. So there, plenty of blood, swearing, shooting and sadly redoing stuff due to sudden deaths have been my main theme for Fallout this week.


I haven’t put a lot of time and effort into Gems of War and with the trend of losing members despite my efforts to gain new members I’m slowly getting a bit frustrated as we, as a guild, can never finish many tasks and I suppose the members that leave my guild land in bigger ones.
Well, it’s been a bit topsy turvy week and the next looks to be the same. I expect to at least finish the Far Harbor or at least advance it by a chunk or two. I know I’ll be spending a lot of time with my son playing his new Skylanders Imaginators reading some books and playing some board games as Father Xmas dropped the goodies to us.
For all of you that travelled with me through my weekly gaming struggles and for those who didn’t, I wish you all, peaceful, healthy and fulfilling Christmas with plenty of what you wish for under and around your Xmas tree. Merry Christmas people!!

I am not a HardCore Gamer (aka Game Week Load) #40

This week has been so odd so far that I’m already putting a first draft of my blog on a Thursday. I think it’s due to the fear of Xmas spirit arriving soon than I found myself in some sort of gaming depression of a nostalgic nature.
There was Madden 17 played, mainly games and franchise’s stuff in the HPL league. I have touched a bit of MUT but it wasn’t a lot really and quite a chunk of the time I spent on auction house trying to grab cards cheaply to complete few team heroes sets and doing few Ultimate Freeze solos as another program arrived to MUT. Sigh…

What hasn’t yet been played this week is Skyrim and it’s mainly due to a weird stubborn wish I felt recently about completing the DLC stuff for Fallout 4. I think I’m not allowing myself to fully immerse my character in the Skyrim world until I can fully get the post apocalyptic world of Fallout out of my head.

Those who read this column (if there are any) know that I have played second play through on a survival difficulty as Bertha Burps. She came back this week only to really die a lot as I struggle immensely at the moment.
I actually thought of really calling it a day with Fallout and never fully exploring Nuka World and Far Harbor due to so many deaths and so few beds in between to save that little progress I made but I think I’ll try to soldier on for a bit longer and maybe I’ll find my Fallout Mojo…

Cait and her complex issues travel along Bertha.

I mean I managed to get to Far Harbor eventually after so many deaths and successful ressurections and I’m quite happy I did as the atmosphere of that fairly big island is really cool, especially if it is played at night, and having the sound outputted through my Ear Force headphones.
Given the price I paid for the season pass, just the two DLCs with new areas (Far Harbour and Nuka World) would be enough really, the rest is just icing on top of the post apocalyptic cake.

Cait used to work as a model for a holiday agency before she went a bit weird.

I’m getting to a point of struggling after completing few quests, I gotta start scrounging for a bit as I’m in need of repairs of my and Cait’s power armours (it took me a while to figure it out how to make it wear it but eventually my gray mass succeeded). Doing it all in survival mode adds that element of extra caution which at times results in some cool creepy actions. I’m really enjoying this add on and Skyrim will have to wait a bit longer.

None knows what occurred here…


The last bit of gaming world belonged to Gems of War on my android phone. I’m still enjoying the game but I have slowed down a bit as I’m struggling to come up with some cool teams and I kind of got bored with my undead team but I keep it as I’ve got a decent success with it.
I wish I had more luck with recruiting people to my guild but I think it’s not going to be a great feat, especially that it is kind of part time game for me, just a bit of fun when I’m too tired to roll on a console…
What games have you, gals and guys played recently?? Are you expecting new titles comes Xmas day?

I am not a HardCore Gamer (aka Game Week Load) #31

This week appeared somewhat chaotic when it comes to gaming. I haven’t managed to touch Fallout 4 last week and pretty early in the week I realised I might not touch it again. Perhaps a little break won’t hurt but with Skyrim and Dishonored 2 just around the corner (I’m hoping to get both titles this year) I might have issues going back to Fallout and finish off the remainder of DLC stuff I had started with Bertha.

Anyways. This week saw me struggling almighty on Lords of the Fallen, carrying on gingerly with F1 2016 wanting to have a bit of break from MUT in Madden 17 but having problems with it as EA released the Journey set of solo challenges with 160 games to complete. That’s on top of the regular content. I can’t really see myself starting my own franchise soon coz it’ll all be too watered down so something will have to go…
It’s bloody annoying and pleasing at the same time as it requires completion that needs time but also rewards with packs and some coins for those not willing to pay real money for extras. So… There… Additionally I unlocked 500 VIP challenges as it turns out I must have played at least 500 solos/ games on MUT. All of the challenges are on all- Madden difficulty so that’s a set I won’t finish for sure lol

I also started a new mobile adventure thanks to my son who sometime ago had played Gems of War on PS4 and the title sat there and I had a look at it once then I found out that the game us available on android so I gave it a go and I actually like it. (I think every one likes the kind of -move bubble here to have three together- games). I can’t say a lot about as I only completed one kingdom’s set of quests but there are guilds, and PvP upgrading weapons, troops, and so on… 

Of course collecting new things, levelling up and so forth. All the games are pretty much the same… Fallout, Madden, Dragons Age… Joking here a bit.
Coming back to Gems of War I know there are microtransactions but I’m not sure how not wanting to spend any real money hinders your progress while enjoying this little mix and match game. I guess, time will tell.

Lords of the Fallen proved to be one of these game I hate to put down but I also hate to struggle playing. I think this kind of type of games was always keeping me away from RPG genre for so long as I never felt confident enough in this hacking and slashing but hey, here I am struggling like that:

I’ve spent a huge chunk of my playing time getting through Lords of the Fallen and I’ve enjoyed most of the time but dying has led me to some swearing and increased blood pressure. I think I might actually finish this title, unless I’ll get across some boss that is just too much for a mortal creature like myself.

I’ve also had some short stints on F1 2016 where I continued my development of a set up for Spain GP in quick race mode with full practice and qualifying. It’s been ok, I’ve made some progress although I realised that my current skill sees me competing against medium level AI as hard was just a little touch too much. Hey, I’ve gone rusty.

It’s such a shame that previous games had so little features in option menus and gameplay wise as they’d work so well for league racing and on individual level too with plenty of customizations. Codies needed this extra years to get where the game should be in 2011 (not talking graphic wise- just ideas about custom options)…

I think next week should see me doing what I’ve been doing recently but one must never assume they know the answer…

I am not a HardCore Gamer (aka Game Week Load) #30

So here. Another week has sneakily passed us by. Cheeky!
Damn EA finally put better prizes for the solos in the October Gauntlet so I had to complete it. I just had to. The best reward from 6 Pro Packs, 6 All- Pro Packs and 3 Legends pack wasn’t some great combo of elite players. No. Twas FO card of dude name I don’t remember now. The gauntlet also awarded 3 elite packs giving me one elite player each and completing all gauntlet resulted in 89 ovr Peppers. Not bad but still, damn EA, made me play MUT even more lol

I have also finally beaten the darn 49ers solo from week 1 of Ultimate Season and ticked off week 5 too. Since the rewards have been better and I earned more coins, some of that went onto completing the hero sets and my team has finally reached 85 ovr. I think I should try some H2H events, especially that rewards got better with a tiny con of tickets cost which returns itself back in the end.

There were also HPL League games but I’m doing really poorly and it is down to lack of practice playing ‘real’ games as opposed to these MUT cheesey solos.
Anyways… I have also popped in F1 2016 and Lords of The Fallen.

With F1 2016 I finally decided to run a full weekend sim and get a grasp of the game finally and with Lords of The Fallen it was a matter of being nosey and wanting to know what’s the freebie from PS Plus is like. Unfortunately I quickly realised that I am not a hard core gamer as I seem to have got stuck with the first bigger creature fight so… Early days with both these games and I can’t promise sticking with either titles but just Madden day in and day out started getting a bit too much.

As far as F1 is concerned I think I’d like to get in a groove of at least preparing some car set ups as well as doing some one off racing without bothering with career.
Lords of the Fallen might cut into my Fallout 4 slot to some degree unless I won’t manage to get through this annoying boss fights.

I am not the biggest 3rd person view games and I find the controls slightly clumsy and very ‘heavy’ and the first boss fight sent me to the net to find some tips and the second was pretty much the same. I tried and failed and this occurred few times until too many swear words started leaving my mouth and I ended up on the net searching for clues… Ah the gaming struggles. Not to mention that I ‘committed’ most of my Fallout spot trying to figure out how to defeat that bugger…

I am not a HardCore Gamer (aka Game Week Load) #29

And another slow week in my little kingdom of not hard core gaming. Quite a different though as I spent a good chunk of weekday gaming time messing about with train simulators of all sorts; starting from Train Simulator 2016, going through Maszyna 16.08 and ending somewhat on MSTS that I got going using Open Rail free simulator available online.
My son’s desire to drive the current stock on our local route drove me to finding dusted MSTS and some add ons CD’s as TS 2016 offering was a bit pricey. Since MSTS wouldn’t work on our Windows 10 I got help from Open Rail simulator. And of course there’s plenty of nodding involved, in my case just following tutorials. In the end I got what was needed, except the current livery which I’d need to make myself which I doubt I will do as it’d be an overkill really.

Anyways. Rest of my time that wasn’t committed to trains got spent competitively playing Madden 17 and lonely playing Fallout 4.
Madden 17 was the usual Draft Champions mode mixed up with some solos inside of MUT and my league games, which I nearly gave up on due to some horrendous lag which I think I now got on top of.
I finally led my team to a sweet win 30-14 and I also nearly had a magic comeback from 21-0 but came out short with the game ending 34-27.
Online experience can be frustrating as due to lag the new kicking mechanisms mean that there will be plenty of missed kicks. Not much I can do about that unfortunately. I’m still without my own franchise, somehow I can’t get it set up and I wonder if I ever actually do that. Time will tell.

And as far as Fallout is concerned it was a week to forget really. I completed 2 out 3 Nuka quests outside of the park in the Wastelands and ended up nearby the Vault 88 so I popped in there as I am still not finished there with the introductionary quest and given the large amount of vicious enemies, I might end up getting stuck there for a long while, unless I decide to leave V88 in this half finished state until I’m more committed to getting through the game itself as recently it’s been a bit of a struggle to get going.
The summer’s gaming laziness seems to be dragging a bit too much this year. Perhaps I’ve got that little bit older…

And that’s all what there is to it really. A week that hasn’t really resulted in things to finish the way they have but hey, there’s another week ahead of us and there is always hope at the end of it. Stay well folks!

I am not a HardCore Gamer (aka Game Week Load) #28

Another week is coming to an end and there’s been x amount of activities going on around the world. Some of the action came from my household and some of it was related to gaming. Yay! There was some fiddling with OpenBVE, an open source train simulator, as my son is, safe to say, pleasantly obsessed with trains. I had to find some London Underground routes for him to drive around as well as some rolling stock. 

There was always some digital card collecting entertainment provided by NFL 17 Huddle and GridIron apps. The Huddle one sometimes crashes and refreshes very slowly but at least you ‘get to play’ your cards on the game day. As far as console gaming is concerned there was more of Madden 17 and Fallout 4 on the menu.

EA, came out with the rush uniforms and also included them in MUT so it meant more solos and more collectibles needed to get new shiny things. Since I dig the Colts rush uniform I kind of made sure to do all the daily solos to collect needed items and after buying couple more collectibles and few days of playing the solos I finally got the uni but the Madden Fever carried on.

 Since I had nearly 20 tickets for entering either Draft Champions or Salary Cap ranked modes I decided to spent the tickets as at the end of the day I was guaranteed at least a pro pack. Thanks to two people quitting on me and some perseverance I actually managed to string together 6 wins without two losses and reached the top rewards for it. Since it all happened on Friday evening I also grabbed myself some FND badges. That was cool.

The uncool face of Madden was the connectivity and ridiculous lag which nearly made me quite the HPL League as my last game was pretty much unplayable for 3/4 of it but I soldiered on and finished it and my team is 0-4 so far. Yeah. I suck and I know it well.

I am yet to start my own CFM but I can’t get organised to get going on my own against the AI. And that has been most of the gaming time this week really. Once the weekend arrived I finally managed to switch off and jump into the Fallout 4 world.

Bertha’s escapades across the Commonwealth have stalled recently by quite a lot. She has left the Nuka World to help out the amysment park’s factions in completing some random tasks. One of them involve collaring a poor soul in GoodNeighbor but her charisma level might be preventing a successful accomplishment of said quest.

So there, Bertha life got quite complex and busy and the fact I’m not good at fighting it gets even harder at times. One of the encounter with Super Mutants took me an hour that involved few re runs as I kept on dying. Due to the location of one of the randez vous I was able to pop in to Vault 88 just to see how things are there and I realised I’m still yet to fully complete the introductory quests relating to the vault. I was welcomed by bunch of hungry and angry folks as simply I hadn’t thought about making the Vault 88 a nice and an organised place.

And that was it really. I’m yet to do many quests involving a re run of the mechanist with Bertha and a proper look at Far Harbor as I never ventured there. As far as Fallout 4 is concerned I can see myself still playing it in 2017 with the current time commitment. It’s not an end of the world though.

Next week I’m hoping to finally got my own CFM going on Madden 17 and use it to learn to switch my usering onto linebackers to improve my skills. I will also continue with Fallout 4, my card collecting apps and perhaps some trains with my son on our exhausted PC.

What games keep you going nowadays folks? Leave me some comments to get the discussion going. Until next read!

I am not a HardCore Gamer (aka Game Week Load) #27

More of the same here really. Except that huge heat wave that apparently broke UK’s record for the hottest day in September in like… ever. Luckily our PS4 have had an easy week really and somehow it has managed not to overheat and melt. This week Madden 17 and Fallout 4 were yet again the stars of my show. I’ve managed to download ‘Lords of the Fallen’ but with all the Nuka- World excitement and Connected Franchise Mode which I finally have had a taste of I can’t see myself starting a new game but then never say never!

The ever evolving line- up of my MUT fantasy team in Madden 17

Madden 17 was the star of the week despite my slow realisation that MUT is not going to be as much fun as it used to be as I find earning coins and contracts to be harder than previously. I mean this mode is really ‘pay to win’ one but this year the EA has made it that little bit obvious.

Trying to build a fearful defense in MUT mode.

Luckily there’s Franchise Mode and this was the culprit that even got my Fallout time a bit disturbed. I’m a member of an online league and we finally got going so it was nice get to see new additions for CFM such as practice squad, practice drills that actually make you earn your rewards accordingly or formation subs menu which seems like a blast. I’m 0-2 in my games so far but the game provided me already with some thrills and excitement. Happy days ahead I think.

As for Fallout, I haven’t made a lot of progress yet as after initially sniffing around Nuka World I proceeded with the initial quest there and met the leaders of Nuka World factions and then I decided  to claim some territories but several deaths later I have had a change of plans and decided to first complete the faction relevant quest which brought me back to the Wasteland.

There’s always place for some random craziness in Fallout 4.

At least I could go back to Red Rocket to pick up Ada to take her for another journey which sadly didn’t last long as I forgot to stock up on repair kits so Ada came back home after some encounter with a crazy dude blasting bullets from his machine gun. I met up with one of the Nuka World gangs and helped them, I also found the target to collar in The Third Rail but due to low charisma I’m yet to put a collar on her.

Bertha Burps wearing OverBoss’ unifo…erm… power armour.

Lastly, I realised how many original quests I’ve still got to finish so I actually did venture out there and started getting busy really. I’m not sure why I went after ‘The Gilded Grasshopper’, perhaps the location was close by to my recent quests but I’m pleased I have gone for it (and completed it) as I realised I somehow missed it during my first play through. 

Hopefully it’ll look nice in my cabinet of Wasteland findings. Once I make it… lol 

All in all it was a fairly productive weekend session of Fallout although I know I must progress my character a bit further and hopefully faster as I’m only on level 39 and I still have a lot of the original story to cover and I’d like to finish it at some point of my life. lol

Ah… Digging around cementaries is such a relaxing hobby.

What about you guys? What games have you played recently? What games you want to finish? What games you can’t wait to get?