Finished a few things this month, the first of which was a resurface job on the pool. It wasn't in bad shape, but since I'd drained it I figured I'd go ahead and apply a new layer of epoxy. The canopy made all of this considerably easier, although epoxy in an enclosed area has some disadvantages.


The main game ended as you would expect, but the dlc was quite a surprise - a huge open world with... buggies:


They're done up in the same way weapons are; they are upgradeable, customizable, and have to be frequently repaired. It's implemented pretty well though, things last long enough that you're not constantly foraging, but you probably don't have the materials to keep them in tip-top shape.


Driving is quite a lot of fun, it's like Dirt + GTA. The overworld probably hits the sweet spot of driveable/impassable terrain. That is, I run into trees occasionally, but also feel the rush of snaking through a forest when I should really be on a road.


Passenging is fun too, but it means you miss out on driver xp :( and sidearms really aren't great on the move.


There's a decent-length main quest and a few sidequests. Honestly I felt the map could have supported more game, but I'd rather it be underutilized than abused with fetch quests.


The final mission is an abomination. I come from an era where there were no save points, but here having to redrive the entire map because a sketch parkour mechanic drops you off an i-beam... infuriating. Then there's an ultimate choice at the end. One would expect the decision doesn't matter and you have to fight the/a big boss regardless. Nope. Play along with the antagonist, kaboom, roll credits.


They threw in a couple semi-raid bosses. The combat in the game isn't particularly complex, so it's pretty much a straight fight against a lot of hp, but it's a neat change of pace with some useful rewards.


Clearing out hives isn't quite as challenging as it could be. But they're pretty striking, visually.


Couple of quick raids, some train cars and a compound of baddies:




I finished out my second playthrough of Andromeda. I guess to sum it up, I don't regret playing the game, but I have no desire to pick it back up or try any dlc. It was a pretty cool experience, but fraught with crappy quests, development laziness, and moments of extremely atrocious dialogue. Pretty, though.



With Dying Light all cleared, J and I are doing some zombie slaying while we look for a new adventure.



Since the reviews have been rave, I thought I might give Persona 5 a go. Unfortunately they disable the ps4 screencap feature, because one of the most striking features of the game is the art style. The game is a series of cool ideas/features juxtaposed with tired ones:

• Combat is jrpg-vanilla. Its saving grace is the hold-up (as in stick-up) feature where if you knock all opponents down, you can do massive damage, demand a bribe, or take their special abilities.
• The game is story-driven, but as usual for animes it's about a group of high school students with special powers. It's like Death Note but less clever.
• It's dialogue-heavy, with a very good adaptation to English (and/or original script). The conversations are not painfully verbose like some rpgs, but it does the Mass Effect thing where your dialogue options have no impact on anything (and some times not even the following sentence).
• The game takes place in a smallish world that you can travel freely in - this is actually a nice change from the sprawling landscapes of Skyrim and Fallout. But you'd think with such little level design and tight control over the environment, more stuff would happen in it. Of course, I'm probably twenty hours into a 100+ hour game, so maybe things will change.

In general Persona is pretty fun, the most compelling thing is that I really have no idea where the plot is going. I hope it's not just seven unrelated dungeons and a few minibosses.



With summer travel, the board game group has switched up between:

• Mage Knight - fun lightweight rpg with mostly coop-ish modes. Hexes, magic battles, deckbuilding. It's a great hybrid of other game styles.
• X-Wing - getting our dogfighting and geometry on.
• Game of Thrones - the game where you're either losing or about to lose.

I shot some birthday photos of Lil'J.