I am not a HardCore Gamer #51 (9)

It has been another fairly solid week of gaming with a huge surprise that came in a form of NBA 2K17 which I got after trading some of the older games I or my son would not play anymore. I don’t know what exactly but something keeps me in hoops mojo so it was low risk purchase as I paid no money and I know it’ll hold trade in value fairly well until K18 comes around.

As always with NBA 2K, there was huge patch and huge install but after all of that there was huge of everything and I felt overwhelmed as normal when playing this title. I decided to take it slow and try to evolve My Career mode first before perhaps setting up a custom league with the Bulls of the 90s and some other teams from that era… Time will tell.

Dust District- known for its huge piss up parties! Yo!

Good timing really meant that Madden 17 got very little love this week. I played my last game of third season in HPL League and I could use the off season (with 6-10 record I didn’t make the play offs) time to get better at basketball.

The star of the week continues to be Dishonored 2 and as I’m playing High Chaos with Corvo and Low Chaos with Emily I start to see how certain areas of the game change according to my actions.

Corvo- early sketch by Sokolov…

I wish there were more games that face players with some moral choices that actually affect the gameplay (a bloodflies filled apoartment in Corvo’s play through was an easy walk in Emily’s as there was simply no annoying bugs thanks to no kill approach…). There were others bits and pieces in the gameplay that varied between these two approaches  as well as different means to finish a chapter and playing one alongside the other gives me that greater sense of getting to know the characters and the story with a lot of optional tasks to complete. I’m going to miss Emily and Corvo once I finish the game… That’s for certain.

Can’t tell what’s occurring here really.

Mobile gaming took a huge hit this week partly to the uninspiring weekly events in Gems of War that saw me struggling to assemble a competitive team so I barely played PvP but did some Treasure Maps for extra goodies.
I also got my first Mythic Troop so it wasn’t all that bad really.

Yay. First Mythic card!

I spent a bit of time on NBA 2K17 companion app getting stressed out with the face scan feature that finally work (do it in daylight people) to some extent plus I’ve been earning some VC there.
CBS FF Manager has been checked in twice a day, getting closer to unlocking tier 5 current players finally.

Weekly trophy count stands at 17 bringing 2017 total count to 70

I am not a HardCore Gamer #50 (8)

Even doctors get sick. Life’s harsh for everyone and as I was nearly half way through my journey to hospital, I found out my appointment was cancelled. There, so much for getting up at 4am to get ready…
I knew this week will be messed up as travels to the hospital usually take a lot of energy out of me so gaming was on second plan this week; still I got some of it done regardless.

She isn’t watching anymore rrwally but shhhh…

The main offender has been Dishonored 2 as I really got pulled into the story and the atmosphere of the game. I’m evolving two stories simultaneously with Corvo having the first run of a mission to get a feel for it; this is high chaos run so I’m not bothered much about stealth and I’m trying to gather information that will allow easier run with Emily where I’m aiming at ‘Shadow’ and ‘Clean Hands’ trophies. Depending how well I manage with some of the collecting items trophies I might play the game third time in -no powers mode- but at the moment we are somewhere in a middle of the story with Corvo and not far behind with Emily somewhere around chapter 5 and the Royal Conservatory.

Clockwork soldiers. Easy to deal with when in hibernation.

I must say that Madden 17 was fairly neglected this week as I haven’t touched my offline franchise and only played HPL League games and collected some items in MUT for some season stars cards although I’m not sure why I still bother since I barely played any solos or H2H in this mode. Ah, we all have to have some craziness in us lol.

On mobile platform there was Gems of War struggles as this week, weekly events were uninspiring for me so I struggled with putting a team together but finally I managed and I levelled up a bit some cards, kingdoms and hero classes and my guild seems to be stable with 11 members, 8 of which take part in playing regularly. I’m stuck at finding fresh blood there though…
I have also carried on with CBS Footbal Franchise Manager and got myself to level 25 which unlocked ‘Showdowns’ which reward some nice things once player win some games. I think I’ll carry on with it as it is like twice a day, check in job taking up 30 mins or so.

And the trophy count this week comes to 10 for a total yearly amount of 53.

What games got you going this week?

I am not a HardCore Gamer #49 (7)

Ah… I sniffed another platinum trophy and I might try to get a run for it and this unfortunately saw me restarting Emily’s side of Dishonored 2 story as I realised I made few kills in first mission and I’d not be able to get the “clean hands” trophy that requires to go through the game without killing. Emily will also go full “shadow” trophy no matter how many times I’ll have to restart after some spots me. With Corvo I’ll try to cover trophies that require some kills and the such and then, once I gone through both playthroughs I’ll see if there’s chance for me to try to aim for the platinum.

Some NPCs in Dishonored have tough choices to make.

It’s been a quite a decent week of gaming for a change. I am at 4th chapter of Dishonored 2 with both characters and I’m enjoying the ride even though some considerable amounts of restarts are required.
The game looks really great, feels really cool and plays nicely regardless of the way one plays. There’s plenty of things to collect, many ways to approach objectives and a cool story developing so, yes, it finally felt like I was doing some serious gaming.

Enjoying a bit of music from some street performers.

I have also put some decent amount of time in Madden 17 where I got my offline franchise going finally. The aim for the first season is to give all the teams, except the Colts, the wins/losses they experienced during the season (bar the two ties that there’s no way of awarding) and play Colts’ schedule mainly via Play the Moments and see how well I compare to real world coaches and managers when getting the Colts through the 2016/17 again.
After the season concludes it’s a case of looking into the future through FA and draft for which I still use the scouting tool developed by a very clever gamer whose blog can be found here, worth a read really if you enjoy Madden 17 and like to build your teams. Phew… As I said, quite a gaming week and I still managed a bit of mobile gaming.

I have also redownloaded NBA 2K16 as I fancied a bit of basketball action and there’s not much room in my wallet to get the current installment of the game. Again, if the year was longer I’d probably end up buying 2K17 but as things stand, I very much doubt I’ll have time to invest myself heavily into another sport title.
And as always, there was some mobile gaming done, the usual suspects with Gems of War giving up some time to console gaming that resulted in less financial contribution into the guild. I’m still yet to get any of the mythic level cards but I’m not having much luck. I have levelled 2 kingdoms to 10 level but I’m not sure what class of cards to invest levelling into as I’m usually just picking cards from the weekly events to play during a week.
I’m still on CBS Franchise Manager but that’s just twice a day check in really not a game.
Next week I have a ‘big’ appointment in a hospital and there’s hope that I might find some solution to my troubles but due to the uncertainty in regards of the treatment effect, I’m not sure how (in)active I’ll be in the world of gaming. Time will tell. What games are you gals and guys playing currently??

And as per usual it is time for the weekly trophy count: This week I have added 8 trophies for a total of 43 trophies

I am not a HardCore Gamer #48 (6)

Well… Year seems like a lot but I just realised it really isn’t. In about 6/7 weeks MLB The Show 17 will drop in on us and if I have money to play with, me and my boy will get the game and the relearning of baseball will resume and it seems like it was few weeks ago that I was whacking home runs on the Show 16… And hey, I have started my offline franchise in Madden 17 and the aim is to play mainly Play the moments mode and focus on building a long lasting team but I can’t see myself getting through at least 10 seasons as… Well, one year is not much of a time for serious gaming unless you’re a like really hard core gamer fully commited to get to spend every wake hour playing games… Well. I’ll try my best but among health issues, family life and other stuff that needs to get done and things will getting quickly tricky and tiring…

Simple Concept od matching three of one kind mixed with card collecting game.

Anyways… Another ‘off’ gaming week here but with some light at the end of the tunnel which started flickering towards end of the week. Between constant issues with Madden 17 de sync while trying to play online league games and some Gems of War PvP there was a new mobile game that I came across and I also immeresed myself in Dishonored 2 and i realised that having two saves, one for Emily and one for Corvo, and having the story developing along is a viable option therefore the plan is to go high chaos with Corvo and then return to the mission with Emily for some stealthy action knowing the mission and critical areas where I might fail. This way I might finish two playthroughs in one go. So to speak.

One of modes of CBS Franchise manager includes playing pro teams.

The other mobile game I came across was Franchise Football Manager by CBS Sports. It’s a pay to win or wait to play type of a game but it only takes like 30 mins a day to progress through the games that are available and i can see that it’ll take ages to build a decent squad but why not? It’s a bit of management fun although I hope to have something done on Madden 17, that I could perhaps share here once I got my offline franchise through a whole year…

No idea what I witnessed here but I blew all the candles as it is my “thing”

Anyways. That’s that from me really. This week has not been great in trophies as I only collected 4 trophies for a total amount of 35 this year.
How has your gaming been going on recently?

I am not a HardCore Gamer #45 (3)

One eventually needs to get going in the right direction but one also has to think about 167 or so various things to consider so… again, it’s been fairly slow week in terms of gaming.
I attended the draft at HPL and grabbed myself few decent rookies and we are set to start third season on Madden 17, we have a solid group and I think I should try to get into play offs this season but the time will tell.

The offense based on A. Luck and CM chemistry mainly.

Beside the league games and team management I have also spent some time in MUT, where I completed few solos and sets relating to TOTY and I finally got my team to ovr 92 as seen in pictures here.

Defence built around Seattle chemistry, featuring my best card, 97 ovr (boosted) Chancellor.

I have also unloaded loads of bronze cards for badges and I’m going to clean my folder now and see how many elite badges I’ll get. I think as far as regular visits and collecting stuff on MUT, I’m done although I’ll pop in here and there sometimes. Perhaps to put my team to test in H2H or something. I have also thought of taking part in some tournaments and signed up for ESL Gaming maybe in the future I could compete for prizes and such…

One must not forget the special teams. (I wasn’t pleased to get Tucker as a reward card).

I completed first run through This War of mine and unfortunately I didn’t make it through. On the 27th day Cveta, Irena and her niece were all gone. Pavle died few days earlier in combat…
Luckily it’s only a game so I set myself my own story with one of my created characters and I’ll see if I can make it through and also try to get platinum trophy for that game.

The stories behind characters of my first play through of ‘This War of Mine’.

The 2nd go is hopefully my main play through in attempt to obtain the platinum trophy. I have had a cheeky sneaky peek to see what they are and I think I can achieve them by playing smart.

This time I am in charge of guiding Marko, Jonny Poo and an old fella, whose name I can’t remember, who’s there with his grandson.
I have set the length to 40 days and chose a rather easy set of game settings and I’m going to see how I manage the second time running. So far I’ve reached the week Mark and everyone’s alive and most of them are ok.
The mobile gaming saw me further evaluating Bridge Bandit and I came to a conclusion that I’m not that serious about bridge at the minute to invest money into the app. I mean Bridge Bandit seems like a really great and innovative way of learning/ playing Bridge but I don’t think I’m that into it as I first thought.
So basically Gems of War remain my main mobile fun and I’m plodding about slowly but this week I haven’t found much enjoyment in colour matching world.
I’m not sure where I’m headed next week as far as gaming goes but I hope to finally start Dishonored 2 once the upcoming update comes to ps4 on Monday.
As far as the trophies are concerned I have got 5 more this week, all of them coming from This War of Mine and my total in 2017 stands now at 15.
Keep on playing guys!

I am not a HardCore Gamer (aka Game Week Load) #38

There has been a considerable progress and some regressive scenario this week. The progress has been the amount of time I’ve spent playing Madden 17 (little); the regress was and still is a thumb injury I sustained when fixing my son’s tablet. I mean it’s nothing huge but I keep ripping that injured part of skin off and so it keeps on bleeding and being all silly sensitive. I’ll live, I promise.

With little Madden time it resulted in more time spent on Gems of War and Skyrim plus some self learning on excel that chips in my gaming time. Let’s see where I got this past week…

Andrew Luck finds TY Hilton for a beautiful TD.

I barely touched MUT in Madden but I suppose when December gauntlet drops I might get back to it, the new set of Team heroes isn’t really great so most of the time spent on this title was in my franchise with the HPL league. I’m on a 3 game winning streak, that includes two games against humans and a game and a half without my star QB who got injured and will miss two more games.
All in all I’m very pleased with the progress I seem to have achieved with football tactics; so far this season I am able to generate turnovers while limiting my own ones and kicking game has been solid too. I struggle with running and run defense.

Remains of dragon number 5 and Lydia.

As far as Skyrim goes I’m doing well on the front of miscellaneous quests as I have completed over 50 of them but progressing main story or side quests is a bit trickier as I get distracted by new discoveries and locations that usually lead to more miscellaneous stuff but I think that this week I have finally managed to get a better grasp on the game itself and even worked out the soul trapping business.
I still have a long way to fully develop my character the way I want it but I’m not 100% sure I know what type of character I would like. I’m intrigued by the fear/calm stuff as well as rising the dead but I’m not sure I am able to handle the game this way. Majority of my skill levelling goes into archery, alchemy, armor (I get hit a lot!) and speech but I’m trying to involve more and more other ways of trying to get through the game. Still I’ve got plenty of time.

Skyrim sightseeing offers plenty of breath taking sights.

The last game that took my time away has been Gems of the War on android which I kind of hooked myself into. I mean it’s basicly a bubble crash game but I like the guild, the hero levelling and perks that keep the game in sort of progressing theme. The guild is getting stronger, most people getting involved into the tasks so the rewards are plentiful too. At times I feel a bit guilty that as a guild master I don’t spend as much time/ resources as some other members but that’s just my screwed up idea of community gaming I think.

Anyway, recently I have been invited to join this lovely movie/ gaming/ pop culture community and I started contributing there too. If you wish to go and have a look please feel free and if you would like to know what I think about Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 500P headphones which I got for my birthday as a late gift my somewhat quirky opinion can be found in this little post.
I hope you gals and guys have had a great week filled with some cool gaming stories. Until next week!

I am not a HardCore Gamer (aka Game Week Load) #37

Ahh… Another week is slowly passing by and I’m failing at being disciplined to a certain degree.
The MUT curse is alive and well as it “forced” me to finish the ultimate season solos, which I was going to do once a week as they were first given to us before EA released the last 6 or so in one bunch for the completion of mid season master.
At least now I think I’m done as I haven’t touched any other solos really beside the daily ones that give thanksgiving food (I doubt I’ll collect enough to upgrade the Hilton card though).

As pictured above it is my Ultimate Season offensive chemistry from the ultimate season I have completed that eventually started awarding some elite cards so I’m going to keep that set for funsies, especially that I have also put a defensive chemistry from the ultimate season solos which is pictured below.

The EA advertised that chemistry as a wanted one due to +2 speed and acceleration but I think with the flooding of so many cards this set is somewhat a big miss.
Anyways, enough talk of Madden. I’ll only add that my first two league games were simmed so I don’t know how well my team plays when I’m controlling it. One game I was warned and given a chance to play that dude’s CPU but I took my chance for last minute apperance by the fella. The second game arranging was a mess from the beginning and eventually I told the commish to sim it as I went away into Skyrim world…

Mammoths and their Giant.

Speaking of Skyrim… I’m still not getting very long sessions clocked in as I have been getting distracted by some new things which includes learning some solid basis for excel as after using the scouting tool for Madden made in excel I reminded myself how much it can be to use excel. The thing is last time I was able to use it including some formulas stuff was like 15 years ago so I decided to shake off some rust for which I allocated some of my gaming time.

Nevertheless, I still managed to slay two dragons (I took screenshots of their skeletons but then -quick finger accident deleted them- so no photo proof here 😉 ).
I have completed several miscellaneous quests as these pop out all over the place preventing me from getting busy with main story. I don’t mind though as it is my most common way of going around the games like that.
I also bought a house in Whiterun but now I gotta find a steward to decorate it. Gotta find that girl looking for a parent so I could adopt her. I would also love to find some salt mine as I usually run out of salt when cooking stuff…
Yes. Yes. I know it is not the main objective but with poor combat skills any means of keeping that health bar full is welcomed.
I’m pretty sure the journey will finally blow up fully and immerse me to every available second to spare. In the meantime I can remain to be seen as a steady average person playing games as opposed to a maniac with red eyes…

At the end of a day I usually jump for some bed fun with Gems of War but I think if I want to improve my game there I should read up a bit about the classes, magic, manas and how to get the most out of my cards as recently I noticed I started to struggle against humans in PvP and at times in kingdom’s quests.
The guild itself is doing well as we have couple of huge contributors in terms of coins, trophies and completing tasks. I’m actually amazed I managed to gather some people that are actually commited to a common goal.
Other than that there’s nothing much else to report I plan on increasing my Skyrim time, putting some effort into excel and carry on with Madden and Gems of War as usual, perhaps with less MUT madness.
What has kept you busy this week in your leisure time gals and guys?

I am not a HardCore Gamer (aka Game Week Load) #35

The week got started aggressively from… more Madden 17 game play, thanks to November gauntlet dropping on us…
I swear that EA has it all sorted to at least Super Bowl. They’ll not allow people like me to walk away from MUT peacefully until then at least. Sigh…
As soon as the November Gauntlet was completed and I collected 90 OVR Phillip Rivers I was welcomed with Most Beard promotion, quickly followed by new chemistry solos that covers all types of chemistries awarding you with yet another set of special players and God knows what else and it finally starts to break me up a bit as I realise I really gotta let go off the mode as EA won’t stop pushing new content and I won’t manage to keep up with completing the sets, solos, challenges and what not. Sigh…

Anyway, this week I have spent some middays at the auction house trying to pick up reasonably priced cards to complete some of the heros sets that Grant 87 OVR players which now can be traded for an 88+ (5 players for 1 though) so it got me a bit going and I spent around 100k and got my team upgraded in few positions.
As far as CFM mode goes, the first season of our HPL reached conclusion this week and we are about to do some drafting this weekend but at the time of writing I don’t know when it happens.
I hope to attend it and find some good players out there and leave the MUT behind a bit but we will see.

Anyways the biggest event of the week was getting Skyrim for my birthday and I have started a journey through the lands and I quickly got confused as the game is so similar to Fallout but the controls aren’t and it just puzzles me why the same company decided to have different controls lay out for their games.
The game itself gave me some mixed feelings and after several hours spent with it I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Perhaps next week I’m going to have a bit more to say…

Plenty of beautiful bones from Bozyszcz’s first killed dragon.

In a meantime I’m quite busy ‘doing some grocery shopping’ making sure I’ve got enough salt for cooking some basic foods as I’m not very skilled at combat and health potions run out quite quickly as the opponents can be quite nasty (or perhaps it’s just me).
At least I can fast travel which feels so strange after playing survival mode on Fallout 4 and needing to walk everywhere. I hope to get bit more engaged with this game and decide what type of character I want to build but it’s a bit too much to embrace at the minute.

Rest of the gaming time was put into Gems of War and I just continued earning some good to complete guild tasks. I find some of the quests quite hard and at times I really struggle to put a competitive squad of players.
I think the game requires a bit more strategic planning as to where and when to use mana and when to swap cards for different colours or skills they have. Still much more engaging version of candy crush saga 😉

What games have taken up your time this week gals and guys (I’d not be surprised to hear “Dishonored 2”- I decided to wait up (plenty of Skyrim to play through and get the game perhaps on black Friday or other funky sale).

I am not a HardCore Gamer (aka Game Week Load) #34

In not so gaming related news, my first World Series live watching session is over. And I’m really tired… (Ah I used to stay up all night watch NBA finals, go to school carry on like nobody’s business and go to sleep the next night and now… Eh… Getting old and unwell sucks.

In more gaming related news I promised myself to finally ease off on MUT and I pretty much completed most of the objectives and solos that earned me few cards including one enraged one elite, SS Collins and two elite Most Feared one’s with single chemistries; 91 WR Hopkins and 88 HB Henry. Some of the cards are worth over 100 k coins but… I’m still playing this mode and I can not start my own offline franchise. Sigh.
In the online one at HPL my season reached the end with 4-12 record; my rookie safety won Rookie of the Year award and Pro Bowl appearance so there’s at least some success. The experience he earned is going to be well spent on making him a proper stud and with his age of 22 I’ve got few years to make him a star.
I’m hoping to attend upcoming draft and put some excel tool created by one fella to work and see if I can find some hidden gems.

Sparkling new Vikings stadium. Thing of a beauty.

Speaking of gems… Gems of War slowly became my little go to game and my guild has grown to 8 players now, most of which contribute stuff daily. That’s really cool, shame no one uses the chat there but hey.
I can sometimes lost myself in it for an hour or so, especially on these bad days when the pain bothers me more than usual.

Lords of the Fallen has been completed although I’m assuming I missed quite a few side quests since they’re not tracked there it is easy to forget. I managed to gather over 20 human skulls and several human tattoos for them to be stashed away as I forgot the locations of the quest givers.
The game’s been ok but lack of difficulty settings nearly put me off it, as much as I like challenges at times I wonder if I really gotta beat them. That was the case with this game. It turned out I had to get it done and somehow I have actually managed. Phew…

And that would be all really. Next week I should really go back to Fallout and finish the DLC off but I’m also thinking of getting Skyrim for my birthday so… things might get hairy. Time will tell and in the meantime let’s enjoy everything that surrounds us all, from big to little things.
Until next week.

I am not a HardCore Gamer (aka Game Week Load) #33

I know that Skyrim Limited Edition has just been released and I know that I should feel ashamed that I haven’t played the original title on PS3 or XboX 360 but I’m not a Hard Core Gamer so I might finally get to it but in the meantime the usual business had to be continued so the World could rotate peacefully in right direction.

This week some time was taken up by my health issues so my gaming time was reduced although it didn’t really matter as things started moving in right direction very slowly but at least.
Anyways the main offenders this week have been Madden 17, Gems of War and Lords of the Fallen. I mean to go back to Fallout 4 and F1 2016 but somehow I don’t get around these titles.

Madden presented us with the regular stuff plus all the Most Feared extras that got some more extras and eventually I started realising I really haven’t got the time to keep up with all this MUT content.
I mean it’s great that there’s so much to choose from as it gives many options to either the hard core followers or the casuals but for me who is kind of in the middle. I’d like to have some well thought through team as the hard core lot but would like to be involved as casual and with all the content I struggle.

The plus of this solo challenges is that I have gotten a bit better on the defence usering linebackers or safeties and it slowly starts showing in my online league where I actually won another game and was very close to win one more but my receivers were dropping the balls all over the place.
So that’s that. Lords of the Fallen was kicked to the side because of the MUT but I proceeded the story a bit more and challenged and beaten up next Boss and this time I have used my own tactics to do so I’m very hopefully for Skyrim and Dishonored that my controller skills have improved.

The journey with Gems of War has continued and I decided to save up and create my own guild as the one I was part of wasn’t very active.
I have found that I struggle with the quest part of the game and I seem to be escaping it via playing PvP or doing treasure chest challenges.

Other than that I don’t think my gaming this week was really used up fully but it just gets like that. I’m thinking of getting Skyrim and Dishonored this autumn/winter so gaming might become quite a hard task to achieve with so many games I currently enjoy…
Ah First World problems here….
Stay healthy people and keep gaming.