Every August is pretty hot, this one has been no different. The pool has been nice, particularly after having a couple of eucalpytuses removed. I've gotten some gaming in, hiding from the sun and crowds at - well - pretty much everywhere since LA and AZ and NV are extra hot.


I think the entire household has had a good summer. Camps are way more fun for rising kindergarteners and Dani aged in to Kids' Day at work. Cousin Jack came down for some beach, pool, and Legoland with Mom and Dad.


I've only managed one session of E33 but by all accounts it is an excellent game. It's sort of like a Final Fantasy or Persona game but very, very French; an extremely artistic postapocalypse, cutscenes that are absolute cinema, and an oppressive sense of impending doom. It's very French and very refreshing.


I'm told the game isn't super long so I guess you build out the skills and attributes fairly rapidly. Combat, at this point, is turn-based attacks and timing-based defense that I am fairly terrible at (even after a couple of Soulslikes).



I finished the main quest of Hades II. In line with what Derrick told me, ranged weapons provided the most reliable path to victory. Hades II offers a lot of endgame challenge stuff but I'm okay calling it here. While the conversations didn't especially hold my interest, the epilogue was heartwarming.



Me and J ran through the Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned DLC. I think the highlight was Mancubus, the spooky hotelier. Some of the quests were solid and chuckle-evoking but far too many of them had lengthy and uninteresting monologues. My other main gripe is that traversing the map was cumbersome, despite the presence of unlockable shortcuts. Most importantly, Pickle shows up and is quickly (perma?-)killed.

Bloomreaper

Borderlands raid bosses have traditionally been scaled for parties of four and J and I tend to avoid matchmaking. With good loadouts and some luck or cheese ledges, we've vanquished some of the series' raid bosses but others remained out of reach. Bloomreaper seemed rather challenging on our sighting run but after optimizing our builds we managed to learn how to stay alive in each phase and safely burst down its health bar.

While jumping and grappling aren't my favorite mechanics, I'm pleased that BL4 has a raid boss where defense through movement is possible. More than a few Borderlands raid bosses had unavoidable attacks that could only be survived via abilities or certain equipment combinations.

Loot

I came across my first BL4 pearl - second ever - back in May. It turns out they aren't terribly infrequent on high UVHM levels. But are they good? I recall commentary from the BL2 days that pearls were inferior to high-tier legendaries, depending on build of course.


After Herald I picked up a Screwstonian, fortuitously in radiation and Jakobs trim. The DPS is good but it's particularly useful for crowd control by way of creating gravity wells where some of its bullets land.


I have to give a shout out to the Space Laser attribute of one/some(?) legendaries. It's a secondary ability that after a quick charge does big damage in a small AOE. The mobility of enemies makes it not especially useful but J did almost oneshot a boss with it. I do wonder about Space Laser builds and if the cooldown is per weapon.

Main game, takedowns, and bounty packs

Max Sky was a solid sidequest.

After quite a few hours of play time, we still have some sidequests and challenges remaining in the main game. We submitted to the Gearbox/2K cash grab and bought the season passes for both flavors of DLC, mainly because I bought the giga edition when I re-purchased BL4 because Sony makes trash disc drives.


Ted, Jon, and I have started a Frosthaven (early access) campaign a few years after completing Gloomhaven. I queried some AI about the major differences between the game, it indicated that players found Frosthaven combat to be easier than Gloomhaven. Our experience has been the opposite. It's not unplayable and you can change the difficulty, but on normal in early game it is certainly no walk in the park.


Currency has been split into gold, alchemy resources, and crafting/building resources. While it seems like a zero sum change meant to reinforce the base building mechanic, I like that it means I don't need to shy away from potions because I'm saving up for that Emerald Helm of Headbutting.


The characters/decks have some very creative - sometimes frustrating - play mechanics. Learning how to master these (or retire the character asap) is a rewarding experience.


We finally replaced the 18-year interim master bedroom light with a chandelier. Jes and Mom did a scouting run and found some candidates at Arhaus, which is like a less-posh RH. I like the style and illumination but the assembly was absolutely not what I'd expect of an upscale chandelier.

	Rush B	�
	From your teammates in Counter-Strike (pic unrelated)

From Kilroy

From elsewhere