Worshiped the gods of gaming. Played a few. Here's the breakdown.
Super Paper Mario: I'm trying to unload a bunch of old games, but I want to play them first to see what I want to keep. I started with Super Paper Mario and I'm pretty sure it's a keeper. I played through Chapter 3 (that's 1-3) and really dug it. The ability to turn 2D into 3D at any time is a revelation. I don't think I've done that in a game before. This seems to be less an RPG than an action-adventure game. You level up, but you mostly battle in real-time as you progress through the levels a lot like a regular Super Mario Bros game by jumping on enemies and using Pixls to manipulate things in various ways. These are little ghost-like characters that hover around you and give you abilities like the first one lets you examine the environment and the second one lets you grab and throw objects. I'm always amazed by something in Nintendo games (here it's the 2 to 3D effect). They're so creative and often break new ground in gameplay.
Tales of Vesperia: I had to play it for Game Pass Rewards points, but I was very glad to revisit it. I started over and played it with as much auto-battle as I could apply. I'm curious how it works and if it works well. At least through the castle escape, it worked just fine. I eventually stopped, but I shunted it over to my external drive, which is now my backlog drive. Hopefully, I'll get back to it.
Farm Together: I basically just made more slow progress towards gaining all plots of land. I usually play until I find myself waiting more than 15 minutes or so for a crop to be ready to complete a quest. Then I make sure all my fields are planted and I leave the game until another day. When I return, a lot of quests will be done and I can start on new ones.
Forza Horizon 4: I finished the Super7 level 10 achievement but somehow couldn't get myself to leave the game for the rest of the time I had on Sunday. I did another Eliminator round and then started trying to collect car photographs for another achievement. I need 200 shots of cars and I ended at 182. I chased around online players on my map to see if they had cars I hadn't shot before; I did a few driviatar races to capture all the new cars at the starting line; I took photos of my own cars until I got to the Lamborghini Countach, which I couldn't stop driving. I have a new car love affair with that thing. This car was in production when I was in high school in the 80s and I remember seeing one once in my neighborhood. My memory was that it was a very loud car.
Finally, I've discovered the daily set on Bing on my phone, which I've begun doing regularly for rewards points. They are tied to my Microsoft account so go into the same pool of points I get on Xbox for both regular rewards and Game Pass Rewards. I'm shooting for at least 8k points a month and $10 in money for more games. So far, I've hit that mark the last three months. I think I'll easily get it this month as I'm already at 7k points.
Well, that's a weekend done. Another work week to complete ahead.
Wait, you can earn money by searching Bing? This sounds like the start of an ad.
I realize how this is manipulating me to use Bing, but at least it helps me hit my points goal for the month.
I have an auto redeem goal set up that gives me $10 every month for just under 9k points. It's not hugely challenging plus I like trying new games in Game Pass and doing a brief few quizes on my phone once a day. It's like my only phone "game" right now.
Oh, so it is about taking quizzes? Cool. I dig quizzes. And I too know those quizzes are just a data gathering scheme, but I don't really see the harm in Buzzfeed knowing how much I love pasta and that I am Ursula from Disney's Little Mermaid.
The quizzes so far have been on stuff like "facts about dogs" and things like that which don't ask your opinion about anything.
A lot of people bash on Super Paper Mario, but I really liked it.
I played Tales of Vesperia back on the 360, but I never finished it because it got too long and meandering. My favorite characters in Vesperia were the purple doggy and one lady named Judith. Not sure why I liked her, just did.
I wonder why they didn't like SPM?
I've started Vesperia several times now, but I always have so much on my plate, I can't get to finishing it.
I gotta get back to Vesperia on Switch. I've only beat one Tales game, Tales of Graces F on PS3. I love Vesperia though. I'd love to finish it.
I still prefer the fully turn-based battles in a game like Dragon Quest, but I like it.
I had Vesperia on 360, then I got the Switch version and finished that. One of my favorite RPGs.
I'm assuming the characters go to sea at some point. I always love switching from on-foot to just about any other means of travel.
Yeah, there is the usual sea and eventually air travel in the game. One of the achievements is to map out every square inch of the game world.
Ooo, I love mapping in games.
I like how you turned collecting the points into a game itself and you get actual cash. If you dump that back into Game Pass, you're getting an awesome service for $5.
Man the Countach is such a cool car. Growing up that was the Hot Wheel I always looked for. I think two years ago Hot Wheels rereleased that car along with other Lambo's in a set. I skipped the other cars and went straight that bad boy.
I know they're game now. You save some with the cash back, but the whole process gets you to think more about games, and that leads you to buy more. So it's not really saving me much unless I resist all the temptation that's sent my way by doing the points game. But, I find it fun, and I get to try out a lot of games I wouldn't otherwise look at.
If I see that Hot Wheel, I may have to get it.