Monthly Update - Time

.. or lack of it.

I can't stick to a weekly update on this blog so I'm going to try for a monthly update instead. Uploading gameplay videos to youtube seems easier than writing for this blog at the moment!

I'm still playing World of Final Fantasy when I can, near the end of the game now. Just got to focus on leveling up my group to tackle the last boss fight.

The Cogna Missions in the game were very frustrating with silly mini games you had to complete in order to advance. Whoever had this idea needs to be fired!

I've collected some good mirages now especially Gilgamesh who is very strong.



Will hopefully get some time during March to complete the game.

What else have I been playing? Back on Destiny again the game I can never stop playing it seems, this time playing with the boys to help them complete the Rise of Iron content & reach that max light level.

 

The Division & Elder Scrolls Online are the UGVM PMG games of choice both enjoyable & equally frustrating in their own unique ways.

A hardware upgrade to the PS4 Pro so I can get those extra few frames per second in glorious 1080p (I've not upgraded the TV just yet to enjoy 4K).

The usual post Christmas clearout of games I have no time to play has resulted in much fewer games on the shelf now with only Final Fantasy XV, Lego Marvel Avengers, XCom2, Firewatch & Abzu to play. I won't be buying anything new (famous last words) until I have completed those, Mass Effect Andromeda can wait.

Mobile gaming is still the usual Clash Royale, I got up to the dizzy heights of 2877 trophies nearly on the border of arena 10 before coming back down to rest on 2755. Lost Cities & Carcassonne are still played in small doses along with the odd turn of Pokemon Go.

Tiny Rails has had an European update so I am back on the train driving across Europe to purchase stations, carry cargo & passengers. Also still enjoying Reigns currently in the year 1553 with my longest term being 67 years with Gerald the Writer.

Played a little bit of Crashlands on the iPad but in truth if I have any free time for gaming I tend to be on the PS4.

Until next month, keep on gaming.

Tiny Rails (iOS) - Completed

I've been enjoying Tiny Rails the past couple of weeks, you start off a small train company & slowly expand to cover all of America & Canada. Collect your passengers & cargo to deliver them to their destination.

There are various train engines you can unlock throughout the game by completing objectives. I went with the Behemoth engine you get for completing the game. The carriages I have all match the engine so I get bonuses for cargo & passengers. Each station you visit require a certain cargo which if you deliver gives you gems you can then use to fast track your upgrades (these have a time limit to unlock).

Europe will apparently be added in a future update but once you have completed the campaign story there is not much else left to do except complete the cargo wanted for each station to get 100%, that is not for me I have enjoyed the time spent playing with Choo Choo trains.

The very very late weekly update - the world of gospvg

Currently I am playing Lego Star Wars The Force Awakens & World of Final Fantasy on the PS4. We (daughter & I) completed another two chapters on Force Awakens at the weekend, there are some nice puzzles in the game that require a bit of thinking & she still enjoys playing mainly as BB8.


World of Final Fantasy is my main game at the moment, you play as two characters who collect mirages (think pokemon) & meet the various character, locations & lore of the many previous Final Fantasy games.

Since my last update where I had completed Dragon Quest Builders I have also played and completed Tales of the Borderlands & Rise of the Tomb Raider. I've not uploaded any gameplay videos of either game which is a shame because both games have some great moments but I was just focusing on playing them with the extended xmas break.

Tales of the Borderlands is one of the better telltale games, even I had started to get bored with the formula & Rise of the Tomb Raider is more of the same just looking more prettier, some nice set pieces & thankfully less gruesome death scenes than the previous game.

I have added some new sections to the PWB box with Shelf, which lists all the game I have yet to play in the hope it may stop me purchasing some more! & Pre-Ordered which I don't think will ever have that many games because I rarely pre-order games.

Edit - Completely forgot about iOS gaming!
I am still playing the usual in Carcassonne, Lost Cities, Clash Royale & Pokemon Go.

Reigns is my latest enjoyment on iphone. You are a king, how long can you survive whilst keeping all parties happy. It has simple swipe the cards to say yes or no to your choices but each choice will have an effect on one of the parties you are trying to manage.

On the iPad it is either 8 Ball Pool, Rodeo Stampede or Crashlands which is a sci-fi survival game, Your ship has crashed, mine, craft & build your way off the stranded planet.

The not so weekly update - Still playing

I'm still playing Dragon Quest Builders, just completed Chapter 2. The final boss destroyed part of my original town so I rebuilt it into a wooden castle.

Completed Everybody's gone to the rapture, did not like it. 3 hours walking simulator which they could have made a 90min movie & I would have enjoyed it more.

iOS nothing new just the usual. Got to Arena 8 in Clash Royale now, it's tough but I'm still doing ok with my Giant, Dragon, Prince & Hog Rider deck.

Weekly Update - Dragon Quest Builders

Started Dragon Quest Builders this week, it's a J-RPG heavily influenced by Minecraft, mining for resources & then building from those or crafting them into new items. The quest like structure gives the game a purpose & keeps you moving forward to ultimately battle the evil dragon lord.

I completed Deus Ex Mankind Divided which ends with a to be continued plot line so I fully expect to see another game next year using the same engine. I enjoyed visiting some of the locations especially the Complex, did not really try out much of the new skills apart from remote hacking which was very useful. Don't have the time for a New Game+ playthrough so it's completed.

On No Man's Sky I completed the Atlas Path which rewards you with nothing noteworthy & decided to just watch a YouTube video on the journey to the centre. I feel a bit let down by Hello Games on their lack of communication on what they plan to do with the game if anything so for now I am done.

On iOS I started playing a new game called Oz Broken Kingdom on the ipad it takes the Wizard of Oz story and adds a new twist to it with turn based battles & character upgrades. It has a campaign mode & arena battles with the various obvious upgrades & time based unlock features you expect from most free 2 play games. So far I have not hit any paywalls.

I managed to get a legendary Sparky card on Clash Royale from a free chest !

It's very good you need to let it charge up but it does some serious damage when it attacks.

Next need to save up another 8000 coins to upgrade my bomber to level 10 & then focus on the giant.



Not buying anymore PS4 games on release this year (famous last words) will enjoy Dragon Quest Builders, X-Com 2 (which Abbas has taken with him for now) & the many digital games I own like Telltale Borderlands & the others I can't remember.

No PMG this week but I do really need to get back to playing some Lego Star Wars & Destiny.

Weekly Update - Back to gaming

Managed to finally play some video games, a fair bit of Deus Ex Mankind Divided completing quite a few of the main quests. I think I may even be near the end currently in London trying to stop another terrorist attack. I had a conversation with Abbas during the week about the game & he said it was more of the same. The developers have played it safe with the game & the story-line does not seem that big compared to the first game but the gameplay is excellent. I can now use the new abilities & remote hacking is very useful. Should hopefully have the game finished this week in time for Dragon Quest Builders or XCom 2.

Claptrap boys finally completed Diablo 3, yeah it's crap I did not enjoy it. We started The Division yesterday completing the first few missions & making it to the main base. It's not bad much more enjoyable than Diablo 3, the inventory management can be a bit of a challenge with modding etc

Clash Royale I finally have 800 archers to upgrade her to level 10, managed to save up 8K to upgrade her this morning. Hopefully this will be the push I need to get into the next arena.

Frustrating how every player now has one or more legendary cards which are way more powerful and ruins the game.

Finished with Capitals hardly anyone is playing it now so after 291 games I'm done.

It's been a fun game but I can't start any new games with anyone because the game crashes.

Weekly Update - Gaming, what's that?

It's been a bad few weeks for gaming, just not had any time to sit down and play any Deus Ex, No Mans Sky or even much Destiny. It's been the odd few minutes on the mobile only playing another round of Clash Royale or another turn in Carcassonne, Disc Drivin or Lost Cities.

A recap (more for myself to remember) on where I am on the various games. I left No Man's Sky on the Atlas path collecting Atlas Stones, I have 9 I think but will wait for Abbas to come back from Uni to collect the 10th.

Deus Ex I had just completed the Rucker main quest & returned to Prague. Destiny I've completed the main campaign, now have a stack of side quests & the grind to increase my light level.

I did start a new game on iOS called Wordlings, it's another letter/words game with different modes & powerups to get you even higher scores. It's perfect for a few minutes of gameplay which is all I seem to have at the moment.

XCom2 arrived in the post but I'm not starting it until I have finished Deus Ex & I placed a pre-order for Dragon Quest Builders because my daughter enjoyed the demo.

Downloaded the PS+ freebies for this month in Resident Evil & Transformers Devastation. Both good games & looking forward to playing them at some point.

Hopefully will finish of Diablo 3 with the Claptrap Boys this evening so we can move on to starting The Division.

Weekly Update - 350 Light

Not had much time for gaming the last week so only really managed to play some Destiny with Hakk trying to get to that 350 light target.

Currently I am on 341 light with 350 Gauntlets, Chest, Boots & Artifact. I don't have any 350 weapons with 340 being my max on Primary & Heavy weapon. We tried to get to the top of Felwinter Peak to collect a Siva Cluster, I gave up after a few attempts but Harry carried on & finally managed it. I will need to ask him for directions so I can collect that cluster.



Not had time to return Deus Ex, No Mans Sky or Lego Star Wars Force Awakens. I did try the demo for Dragon Quest Builders which is Minecraft Jap RPG style & it's not bad. The third person camera is a bit fiddly when placing blocks but not a hindrance. I won't buy it at the moment because I have XCOM 2 coming soon & need to finish what I own before buying anymore but it is on the shopping list.

On iOS, Pokemon Go I am now level 22 after using a lucky egg. I'm taking a break from the game for a while now because it's become a bit of a grind. Clash Royale I seem to have gotten the hang of Arena 7 now with 2143 trophies & now slowly getting enough cards to upgrade my commons to level 10 & rares to level 7.

I finished last in the Carcassonne league & got relegated. Blocking is a tactic I need to ensure I use again because I'm always on the receiving end.

Plan for the next week some more Destiny, back to No Mans Sky & Deus EX.

Carcassonne Super League - Season 3

It's been nearly a year but Season 3 is live !!

Some basic rules for the games, only the base pack to be used no expansions packs or hardcore/kid mode to be activated.

Three matches to be played 2 x 1vs1 matches & one three player match. Points to be awarded 2 points for a win & 1 point for finishing 2nd in the three player match.


Using Platinum league as an example, the matches to be played as below.
3 Player Game - Bushtopher vs And1976 vs Gospvg
2 Player Game - Bushtopher vs And1976
2 Player Game - Bushtopher vs Gospvg
2 Player Game - And1976 vs Gospvg

Send me the match results via Twitter, RLLMUK, UGVM or the comments section on this post.

Platinum
Bushtopher (4 Points)
and1976 (3 Points)
gospvg (2 Points)

Results
Bushtopher (99) vs and1976 (75) - Bustopher Wins
And1976 (122) vs gospvg (117) - And1976 Wins
Bushtopher (90) vs gospvg (73) - Bushtopher Wins

3 Player Match - Gospvg (99), And1976 (93) & Bushtopher (87) - 2 Points to gospvg & 1 point to And1976

Bushtopher wins the league & gospvg is relegated.

Gold
Lufferov (4 Points)
Satsuma
Arkham24601

Results
Lufferov (105) vs Satsuma (100) - Lufferov wins
Lufferov (124) vs Arkham (95) - Lufferov wins


Silver
Kerumba (3 Points)
Altashheth (2 Points)
StatusJones (4 Points)

Results
Kerumba (77) vs StatusJones (75) - Kerumba Wins
StatusJones (87) vs Altashheth (57) - StatusJones Wins
Altashheth (142) vs Kerumba (111) - Altashheth Wins
3 Player Match - StatusJones (69), Kerumba (66) & Altashheth (53) - 2 points to StatusJones & 1 point to Kerumba.

StatusJones wins the league & is promoted, Altashheth is relegated.

Bronze
JohnDarv
makingupnumbers (2 Points)
Garwoofoo (2 Points)

Results
Makingupnumbers (100) vs Garwoofoo (85) - Makingupnumbers Wins
Garwoofoo (99) vs John (90) - Garwoofoo Wins

Copper
Dr Watson (4 Points)
Carldjcross
lewismistreated (5 Points)

Results
Lewis (97) vs Dr Watson (68) - Lewis wins
Dr Watson (116) vs Carl (96) - Dr Watson wins
Lewis (129) vs Carl (114) - Lewis Wins
Dr Watson (87), Lewis (82) & Carl (69) - 2 points to Dr Watson & 1 point to Lewis

Lewis is promoted.

Weekly Update - "I feel I can do this forever"

I am pretty sure I will forever be gaming. Although not had much time during the last week, blame Netflix & Gotham Season 2 for taking up most of my free time but I did manage some more Deus Ex visiting a rave club & Golem City which is maze of stairs & floors.

No Man's Sky had another update which promptly crashed my game yet again. Can't believe after so many patches I am still getting crashes?! I'm still on the atlas path collecting these stones. I'm assuming at some point something must happen with them?

Destiny Rise of Iron came out yesterday, I teamed up with Hakk & Gus to complete the main campaign missions. Took about two hours you have a new enemy type in splicer, the final mission was pretty tough & I'd almost say impossible if you are not playing in a fireteam. Once you have completed the main campaign, you then get access to lots of quests from the social area Felwinter Peak.


On iOS new updates to Carcassonne with three new expansions. Information on the update below, I'm playing a few games with the new expansions & the Abbot seems to be the most useful so far. Looking into kicking off a new tournament soon.

Abbot
The Abbot is a new game piece you place on Cloisters or Gardens (a new tile feature that will magically appear on some existing tiles). You can recall the Abbot at any time during the game, scoring points without needing to finish the Cloister or Garden first.


The Old River
This was the very first expansion ever to be published for Carcassonne. Introduced at the SPIEL 2001 toy fair in Germany, it remains a true collector's item.


German Cathedrals
The newest mini expansion comprising six famous German cathedrals. So new it's not even available in print until mid October.

You can place a meeple on a German cathedral to score points. Roads connected to a German cathedral score bonus points.

Pokemon Go introduced a new buddy pokemon system for receiving extra candy so I have gone with Pikachu.

I've also finally caught a Rhyhorn & a Venomoth so have perfect stats with 74 seen & caught.

Clash Royale I just seem to be hovering between arena 6 & 7 currently on 1951 trophies & just about keeping my own.

Still playing Capitals  & enjoyed a 3 round knockout against HaggisHunter :)

Weekly Update - Robbing Banks, Destiny God & the Millennium Falcon

I've still not gone back to Lego Star Wars, Doh!

But I have been spending quite a bit of time hacking, breaking into banks, sneaking around & shooting enemies with my stun gun. Carried on with the main quest now that I had completed all the available side quests. The control scheme really needs a quick option to be able to access the map.

I spent quite a bit of time robbing the bank & it's corporate vaults for some nice loot.



Tried out the PS+ games, Journey of course is excellent but Lord of the Fallen is a dark souls type affair in which you fight big bosses, die & repeat. Badland is a  port of an iOS game which I got bored of within a few minutes. New PS4 firmware is out which let's you now create folders & filters the library to show you what you have installed vs purchased.

I had an amazing session in Destiny PvP by finishing 1st !!
That will be a one off feat never to be repeated again.



On No Man's Sky I have being flying around repairing crashed ships to upgrade to a 48 slot beast which my daughter has named the Millennium Falcon.


I've also got the Theta warp drive installed & have been jumping star systems to collect atlas stones.

Got back to playing Diablo 3 with the Claptrap Boys, no idea what is going on with the story but we have completed Act 4. Hopefully nearing the end so we can start The Division soon.

iOS? Made it to arena 8 now in Clash Royale but still no legendary cards. Managed to capture a few more rare pokemon in Parasect, Meowth, Machomp & another Bulbasaur. Current stats Caught 72 & Seen 74.

Fingers crossed hopefully back to some Lego Star Wars this week.

Weekly Update - Gold !!

Straight to No Man's Sky what else?

I love it ! Finally found a planet with some gold !

Hallelujah !!

I'm still plodding along naming star systems after my history tab & planets after games. Altered Beast was a bit toxic but gold !

I also completed Walking Dead Michonne, It's a nice three episode series albeit a bit too predictable.

Not much to report on Pokemon Go, finally caught a Jynx but I missed out on catching a Venomoth so now have another pokemon to find and catch.

Had a decent run on Clash Royale now up to 1900 trophies.

Short & sweet for this week. Not played much Destiny for a while will wait for the new content to arrive until then focus on finishing off Lego Star Wars.

Weekly Update - PinkyPinkSam

I've been spending a bit of time with my daughters creating content for their shared youtube channel, thanks to twitch it's very easy to record gameplay & then upload to youtube. The video above shows some Towerfall Ascension gameplay but we have also made videos on Tricky Towers, Goat Simulator, Minecraft & a Let's play series on Lego Star Wars The Force Awakens.

They enjoy making them & I'm happy to help out when I can.

I've gone back to playing Pokemon Go thanks to a few days out at locations that were covered in pokestops I now have over 200+ pokeballs. Finally caught a Jynx & only missing a Rhyhorn. Current pokedex stats are 66 caught & 67 seen.

With the girls wanting to play Clash Royale with their cousins & not knowing everyone in the UGVM clan I decided it was safer to make a new clan where the kids can all play together against each other. This will disadvantage me in the number or donations/card requests but I'm ok with that, it will give the kids a chance to catch me up & level up their towers & cards.

Had a good session with No Man's Sky yesterday I've now jumped to my 2nd system spent a bit of time in the space station, found a nice small yellow ship I liked but it was 10 million, I think I read somewhere that if you dismantle the upgrades on your current ship the new ship becomes cheaper.

Yeah, well that does not work, I went out of the space station & got attacked by pirates. I quickly upgraded what shields I could with the dismantled materials & legged it to the nearest planet. Got to a trading post and spent some credits upgrading my weapons on the starship.

There were three planets on gospvg - acorn electron but they were all pretty dull so I built another warp drive & went to the next star system. I got a notification about some anomaly in the galaxy which I have ignored for now.

Got to gospvg-atari ste, planet quartet & lemmings were boring the usual emeril & aluminium deposits. I then landed on planet dungeon master & it said the sentinels were hostile? What are they hiding I thought, I could not find anything so flew to the nearest trading post & saw these glowing white balls that had a green exclamation mark on them? Picked one up and my wanted level shot up to three & sentinels appeared out of nowhere including a dog-like creature. I just ran into the trading post praying they would not follow me inside. I forget what they are called but they are worth 27K each !!

Created a save point & called it a night. Will return to planet dungeon master soon to collect some more of these orbs. I need 10 million to buy that small yellow ship I want & get rid of my current tank.

Space battles (once you have the equipped shields & weapons) are really good fun.


Last but not least completed episode 2 of Walking Dead Michonne, it has some moments which really shock you & make you squirm a bit. One more episode to go which I should complete at some point this week.

Pokemon Go - Gotta Catch Em All

I'm impatient I have the app running via a US download & it's good fun walking around capturing pokemon. I had to restart the game again because it takes over full access if you sign in with a google account so I created a pokemon account to start again.

Charmander is my pokemon of choice, I don't want to cheat to get a Pikachu, I will earn mine !!

I've traded in duplicates to the professor & currently have 10 pokemon including Psyduck, Drowzee & Poliwag.

I also have 4 eggs which I need to hatch, these take time you have to place these in an incubator & walk around to make them hatch.

Luckily at home I have a few pokestops (useful for collecting more pokeballs & items) & a gym fairly close. At work the same a couple of pokestops & two gyms.

The lunchtime walks are now more interesting stopping & collecting pokemon on the way round the science park.

Gotta catch em all !!

Disc Drivin - Amazing Jump

Still playing with Luffers on a regular basis, he is really good at jumping even in tight spaces !!

iOS Update

A quick update also on iOS gaming, I enjoyed playing Football Chairman Pro for many hours & currently I'm enjoying Hero Emblems a JRPG puzzle quest style game & Mekorama which is a Captain Toad like puzzler.

I'm also going to go back through all my hundreds of iOS purchased games to make sure I have played all those hidden gems that I downloaded & ignored. So I have started with Helsing's Fire which has you battling vamparic creatures with light & tonics.

I'm always also playing my favourite turn based games like Carcassonne, Lost Cities, Capitals, Fluxx & Disc Drivin.

Never Ending Games

I've decided to quit playing Clash Royale & Galaxy of Heroes. The grind in Clash Royale was just too much & the constant needs for character shards or shortage of gold/materials in Galaxy of Heroes was just beginning to bore.

I also did not see an end point for either game which is the main reason I stopped I'm not a fan of never ending games.

Give me a good campaign I can enjoy & by all means add a multi-player section that I can dabble in but once I am done with the campaign I am usually finished with the game.

I am sure time plays a huge part is this because the older I get the gaming time I have seems to decrease. I've only managed 2 hours this week playing Helldivers with the Claptrap Boys which by the way is a fun co-op game.

Need to find some time to finish off Batman, I'm at a difficult driving section near the end which I have tried on a few occasions & just cannot complete.

I'll leave you Limahl

New Game - Galaxy of Heroes (iOS)

I've started playing Galaxy of Heroes recently on the ipad, you collect Star Wars heroes (Light/Dark) and battle through campaign missions & various PvP modes.

Getting new characters is all down to luck in a pack or a lot of grinding for shards to unlock them. The two good characters I have at the moment are Ima-Gun Di who is a tank type class & Talia who is a healer.

Lara Croft Go (iOS) - Completed

Now that I have an iPad of my own that the kids cannot nick I have gone back to playing some games on it.

Lara Croft Go was my first choice, it's a turn by turn based puzzle game that has you obviously searching for treasure whilst avoiding pitfalls & either escaping or killing creatures like snakes/lizards.

I only managed to get stuck on one level for a while until I figured it out but the majority are pretty straight forward & fairly simple. There is also a Hitman Game which use's a similar play-style which I have not yet played. There is a new Monument Valley style game called Dream Machine which I will start next but for now back to Batman.

Draw Something - Gameboy

I've not played Draw Something for a few years but my youngest is enjoying the game lately & wanted someone to challenge. Thankfully my account was still valid with all the colours that I purchased previously.

One of my recent better drawings was the Nintendo Gameboy, guess the game?