Giving Up and Letting Go of Un-Fun Games

This seems like it might be straightforward, but it's not.  If a game is un-fun should you keep playing it?  The answer should obviously be "no" but often we keep playing games we're invested in.  Or we put down a game and tell ourselves, "I'll come back to that soon." but we never do.

I feel like these games have a mental weight.  For me they definitely do.  These type of games will be in the back of my mind in some sub-process of my thoughts until I explicitly tell myself that I'm done with a game and I let it go.  But it's a hard thing to do.

Sometimes it feels like failure.  What if you've only played 30 minutes of a game?  What if you've played 40 hours?  What if you're right near the end?  All of these are valid jumping-off points but they all carry different feelings and can lead to guilt.  I know I feel it.

One of the best ways I've found to let go of these games are to write about them.  If I can get my thoughts down on the page I can get them out of that sub-process constantly running in the back of my head.

So, let's do that today.  I'm owning up to two games that I keep saying, "I'll come back to that soon."  For me, right now, those games are Bloodborne and Majora's Mask.

I thought Bloodborne would be a good game to play while riding my exercise bike.  It was intriguing for a few days but after that it has been nothing but frustration.  I haven't touched it in over a month.  I've been playing Destiny again because Bloodborne wasn't clicking with me.  Today I'm letting go of it.  I know now that Bloodborne isn't for me.  That's ok.  It can be for other people but I don't need it in my mental RAM anymore.

Majora's Mask is harder to admit.  I love some entries of the Zelda series but find that other ones fall flat for me.  I loved Majora's Mask the first time I played it, but this time I'm finding it more of a chore.  I remember enough that the fun of exploring the world is gone but I don't actually remember enough to complete the puzzles without a guide.  I end up using a walkthrough to solve puzzles that I mostly remember to get to story beats that I definitely remember.  It's still a good game, but it's not a fun game for me right now.  And that's ok.  I'm letting it go too.

How about you guys and gals out there?  Do you have any game that's mentally weighing you down?  Do you want to let anything go and get it out of your head?

Try it.

It might help.

Board Gaming With a New Group

It's Thursday!  Typically on Thursday night I have a standing business meeting with a couple of my friends/colleagues.  Lately, we've been trying to build extra time into the night so that we can fit in a board game as well as work.

It's been awesome!  These guys are all gamers, so they're always up for learning a new game.  I'm loving it.

So far I've gotten to introduce them to Lord of the Rings LCG from Fantasy Flight Games and Ticket to Ride from Days of Wonder.

Lord of the Rings LCG is a co-op card game where you play together against the quest deck.  It can be very challenging but I've had a fantastic time every single time I've played it with a group.  It's not the most simple co-op game but it's also not the most complex.  It's truly a nice middle ground on the complexity scale which is why it was perfect for this group of guys.  I knew they would pick it up fast, and they did!

Ticket to Ride is low on the complexity scale, but it's still one of my favorite games.  Even the most complicated version - Ticket to Ride Europe - you can teach in less than ten minutes.  If you pick a simpler version like Ticket to Ride America it's easy to teach in five minutes.  The best part of the game is that there's enough depth that it's held my attention across multiple versions and more times on the table than I can count.  I introduced these guys to Ticket to Ride Europe because it's my favorite and I knew they would be fine with the extra rules and conditions.

I'm hoping to get more games on the table with this group soon.  A couple of my favorites that I'm most excited for are Small World and Citadels.  After we get a nice sampling I'm going to see what they'd like to dig into more and see if we can get a regular gaming session going.

As I said earlier, we don't have time for gaming every single week... but it's turning into more of a regular thing.  And I love that.

Games for Traveling

I'm traveling a bunch this week.  I'm probably in the process of getting ready to leave right as this post goes up.  There's going to be lots of time in airports and on planes for the next few days.

I'm trying to figure out what games to play.  I always go loaded for bear when it comes to electronics and traveling.  I'll have my 3DS, Vita, iPhone, Nexus Tablet, and Kindle.

Should I revisit old favorites or dive into the games that remain untouched on my 3DS and Vita?  Should I download a bunch of iOS games to play try out?  Look through my forgotten folders of iOS that I like but never play?  Should I just give up and read a book on my Kindle?  Should I read comics on my Nexus?

As of writing this post I'm really not sure what I'm going to end up doing.

I ended up grabbing the Mario Edition of Puzzle and Dragons.  I also have Persona 4 Golden sitting untouched on my Vita.  Those two games are top of mind for me, but I know I have some other untouched games on both systems too.

Ugh.  I have no conclusions here.  I'll definitely let you know what happens after this travel wraps up.

Destiny Expansions

So... Destiny Expansions.  I guess I have them?

The second expansion, House of Wolves, released last week.  I was browsing the PSN store and checking it out when I noticed a button that said "Activate Expansion Pass".  I clicked it and the PSN store said that I now have both expansions.

Apparently what happened is that I bought the digital deluxe version of the game when it launched, but the expansion pass didn't activate automatically.  And then I forgot about it until last week.

So now I'm the owner of both expansions and I don't quite know what to do with them.

I only recently got back into Destiny by playing it almost every day while on my exercise bike for the past month or so.  When I started playing it while exercising I started a new character (a hunter this time) and that character is now level 23.

The problem is that to get to any of the expansion content for the first expansion I need to be level 24.  To get into anything for the second expansion I need to be 28.

I own both expansions but I can't play either of them until I get a random loot drop that is better than the stuff I have now.  I suppose I'll just keep playing while I exercise and eventually I'll get a loot drop that I need.

Valkyria Chronicles

I tried Valkryia Chronicles in my massive Steam backlog playthrough earlier this year.  It was one of the few games I liked that I played in my backlog, so I made a mental note to come back to it.  Now that I have gotten back around to it I'm having a lot of fun.  It's scratching the Strategy RPG itch that I've had lately.  Valkyria Chronicles has been satisfying in a way that the Final Fantasy Tactics games just haven't quite been.

If you didn't know, Valkyria Chronicles is a ported game from PS3 to PC.  It just released on Steam in the past year.  I picked it up during one of the big Steam sales.  Although I played it on PC I used a controller the whole time, and I would highly recommend it.  The game plays great with a controller.

Valkyria Chronicles does some Standard tactical combat stuff but it also does some really cool tactical stuff too.  When you move a character you jump behind them into a third person shooter view and start free roaming.  When you stop to fire at an enemy you actually aim your weapon.  One of my favorite parts of the game is the Command Point (CP) system.  Instead of every unit taking one turn during your round, you are given a certain amount of CP and you can use it as you see fit.  It's typically enough to activate each unit once, if that's what you want to do.  But, more interesting, is being able to activate the same unit multiple times by spending more CP on them.  It adds an amazing layer that's a ton of fun to play with.

Based on how many chapters are in the game I'm about a fourth of the way through it.  Unless I hit a roadblock of difficulty I think I'm going to keep working on this game slowly until I finish it.  It's really hitting the spot.

Puzzles, Dragons, and Mario?

There was a free demo for the 3DS Mario version of Puzzle and Dragon on the eShop so I grabbed it to see what the game was about.

I've never played Puzzle and Dragons before, but what I found was a game somewhere between a Bejeweled, Puzzle Quest, and Terra Battle.  If you're not familiar with those games, it's basically a game where you're trying to match 3 or more gems of the same color in a row or column.  Every time you start moving a gem it shifts all the others it travels through in order to get to it's final destination.  The game quickly becomes more about bumping other gems around rather than concentrating on the gem you're dragging.  Moving the gem around is timed, but you can freely move it as much as you want and as far as you want within the time limit.

You end up trying to bump as many gems into combos as you can within the time limit to set up massive damage.  You have a team of characters sitting above the gems, and those team members correspond to gem colors.  When you match up gems of their color they will attack.  So, line up 3 or more red gems and all your red characters will attack the enemy.

I had fun playing the intro level to the Mario version of Puzzle and Dragons but I got demolished in the expert level.

I felt like I must be missing something so I grabbed the regular Puzzle and Dragons on my phone and started to play (since it's free to play).  After less than a day I'm already bored of it.  It's completely designed to make you start running into roadblocks so you need to pay to play adequately.  Once I reached that point - and it only took a few hours -  I deleted the app from my phone and moved on.

Then I went back to the Puzzle and Dragons Mario Edition and tried the expert level again, thinking that maybe my newfound skill would help me.  It did not.

Now I'm kind of caught in a dilemma.  The core gameplay of Puzzle and Dragon isn't bad for a puzzle game, it's actually kind of fascinating.  The thing that turned me away from the game is the freemium/F2P structure... but the Mario version won't have that.  But apparently the Mario version gets very hard and that can be just as frustrating.

I'll probably hold off while I wait to read some reviews on the Mario version.  I'm glad I played around with these games a bunch, now I know what people are talking about when they mention the craze that is Puzzle and Dragons in Japan.

Thor: God of Thunder

Thor: God of Thunder is an awesome run of comics.  I want to tell you about it but I haven't done much writing about comics in the past.  I'm going to try anyway.

By picking up a Marvel Unlimited subscription earlier this month I've been able to dive into the entire Marvel backlog of comics.  Without having to worry about price I've been exploring all kinds of comics.  I give a new series an issue or two to grab me and then I either read the entire run or I move on to something else.

Thor: God of Thunder has been one of the best runs I've read.

It requires no previous knowledge about Thor or the greater Marvel Universe.  This is a huge plus for people like me who are just starting to get into comics.

The run comes in at about 25 comics, which is also a plus for me.  Long enough to tell some big story archs with weight behind them.  But not too long to overstay it's welcome.

Thor: God of Thunder actually covers Thor in three different time periods of his life at the same time.  They all weave together to tell a cohesive story on a galactic level.  There's Thor as a young god before he got his hammer, Thor as we know him (the Avenger), and old Thor who is one of the last gods.

The first arc of the story involves a God Killer.  He goes around to all the deities he can find and wipes them out.  Thor tries to track him down and end his killing spree.

There's a lot of depth to this series and if you have Marvel Unlimited I highly suggest checking it out.  Look for Thor: God of Thunder (2012) in the app and you'll find it.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

After my disappointing stint with Final Fantasy Tactics I thought I would go back to some of my early Final Fantasy roots and dig out my copy of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.  This is my all time favorite Game Boy Advance game and it's one of the Final Fantasy games that I've put the most time into.

When I booted up the game for the first time I already had two separate save games on the cartridge, each with over 50 hours played in them.

I started up a new game and after the intro missions it all came flooding back to me.  I have such strong memories of playing this game.  It's really good!  The general battle structure is similar to Final Fantasy Tactics but it gets rid of the deal-breaking annoying features of that game.

I love Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and I've beaten it multiple times.  And you know what?  After a couple hours with it I realized that I don't feel the need to beat it again right now.  It's a great game but I've already finished it in full on many occasions.  I don't think a long enough amount of time has passed for me to dig into this one again.

I'm going to put this game down with fond memories, knowing that I'll pick it up again some day in the future.  It really is a fantastic game.  But playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance reminded me that I have never finished it's sequel, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2.  So that's the next game I'm diving into.

Final Fantasy Project Article List

Star Wars Lords of the Sith

I just finished Star Wars Lords of the Sith and it was excellent!

It's a novel in the new Star Wars canon.  It's about the Twilek struggle on their home planet of Ryloth and how the Empire interferes with them.  But that's more the backdrop than anything else.  What this book is truly about is the relationship between Darth Vader and the Emporer.

Through the eyes of both Vader and members of the resistance on Ryloth we get to see the events unfold as an assassination attempt is made against the Sith Lords.

This is one of the more interesting looks at Vader's character development that I've ever seen.  It does a good job of having Vader deal with his past as Anakin and in the process we, as the reader, get to learn more about the Dark Side of the Force.

I'm not sure how to talk more about what I liked in this novel without ruining some of the plot.  But, it's an easy recommendation if you're curious about Vader, the Emperor, or the Dark Side and want to learn more.

It looks like so far they've done a consistently good job with media in the new canon of Star Wars.  I'm still adjusting to having the old Expanded Universe wiped out, but if things continue like this I'll be happy.

The Force Unleashed II

I picked up The Force Unleashed and The Force Unleashed II last a few weeks ago in the Star Wars Steam sale.  After messing around in the original game for awhile I moved on to the sequel.  It's a better game by far.

I had much more fun playing around with it.  There are a ton of extra abilities and powers that are unlocked from the very beginning of the game which make it fun right away.  The controls are also tighter and the level designs are more interesting.  In all respects this seems like the superior game.

I don't think there has been a long enough amount of time since I last played it.  I remember the game really well, so it wasn't as exciting as last time I played it.  And unlike when I picked up the original The Force Unleashed last week, this one doesn't have DLC that I had never played.

So I'm done with The Force Unleashed II after playing with it for a few hours, but I'm leaving it on a happy note.  There's still a really good game here and I know I'll revisit it eventually.  And now I have it in my Steam library thanks to a great sale!

Starting SWTOR, Abandoning SWTOR

I've said in the past that one of the only things that would get me into SWTOR is if they made it possible to only play the story while ignoring the grind.  About a week after I said that on Twitter one of my friends pointed me to the announcement that all storyline missions would get a 12 times experience boost starting May 4th for the summer.

So I had to try it out.

I was immediately drawn in by the Star Wars aesthetics.  I love the universe and the lore so much.  And then I was almost as immediately let down by the MMO-ness of the game.

Apparently all my time with Final Fantasy XIV had tricked me into thinking that I enjoyed the MMO genre again.  That's not true.  I like Final Fantasy XIV, but it does a lot of things that separate it from the rest of the genre.  SWTOR doesn't do anything like that.  It just has the Star Wars IP going for it.

I tried to just play it like a single player game.  I did love the original Knight of the Old Republic single player game and this is supposed to be a true follow-up to it.

I got a Bounty Hunter to 25 before giving up on the character.  The story wasn't grabbing me and the planets I was on were very dull and uninteresting.

I asked some people I trust on Twitter about other class quests and I decided to give Sith Warrior a shot.  It was much more fun!  I liked the story a lot more than the Bounty Hunter, but after getting the Sith Warrior into the mid-20s the MMO-ness of the game wore on me too much.  I couldn't do it anymore.

So I'm done.  I gave SWTOR a good try.  I got two separate classes over a third of the way through their individual class quests and the game still didn't hook me.

Now I know that Final Fantasy XIV is an exception when it comes to MMOs for me.  Not the rule.  This makes me much less likely to try going back to other MMOs in the future.  Instead, I'll bide my time waiting for the Final Fantasy XIV expansion to come out.  At least now I know.

Revisiting Destiny and the Level Gap

I've been playing Destiny some more.  It's my current exercise-bike game.  I'll play it for an hour or two at a time while I'm doing my exercise for the day.

The gameplay still hold up really well.  The core of the game is just superb.  The gunplay, melee, grenade, and super power balance is spot on.  It's amazing how great they made it.

Now that I'm almost done leveling up my second character through the story I'm noticing some of the same issues creeping up.

My main problem with the game is that after you hit level 20 there is no clear progression track if you're a solo player like me.  I don't have time to organize groups of people to do the hard mode strikes or the endgame raids in Destiny.  The matchmaking works just fine for normal strike missions, but it falls apart after that.  And there is no matchmaking at all for raids.

I currently have a level 26 Warlock and an almost level 20 hunter.

Tons of information about the new expansion came out last week, and while some of it looks like it would be perfect for me I don't think I can play it.  The content starts at level 28.  My highest character is level 26.  There's no clear path for me, as a solo player, to get two more light levels.  So, an expansion that would be a day one buy for me (because of the new co-op mode) has become a never buy.

The Destiny team needs to take a note from the way MMOs typically do expansions.  They always seem to give returning players a clear and quick way to dive into the new content.  If Destiny had that, I would grab the new expansion for the co-op mode alone.

Summer Drought

Video games traditionally have a summer drought, and we're currently staring it in the face.  There are still a few releases trickling out this month that I'm excited out - mainline Splatoon - but the rest of the release calendar looks pretty bare between now and September.

This always happens, but I seem to forget about it until it hits each summer.  Summer is the time when people have the most free time but it's also the time of year where people spend their days outside.  Less people are inside playing videogames.

It makes sense that publishers would hold back big releases until the fall when they can start tying them in to the Holiday release season.

That means that this is the perfect time to settle in and work on your backlog.  Or hunker down with a game that you're having fun with and experience everything it has to offer.

I know I'm planning on getting into my backlog again.  I also want to keep working on my Final Fantasy Project by investigating more of the spin-off games.

While game releases are winding down the movie hype cycle is in full swing.  All the summer blockbusters are coming!  I'm looking forward to those.

And it's summer!  I'm going to get outside with my kids and play.  I also love sitting on my porch reading, and now is the perfect time.

How about you, dear readers?  What's your summer plan?

Final Fantasy Tactics

I don't like the difficulty curve in this game.  That's my initial impression.  I loved the first few missions of Final Fantasy Tactics, but then I ran into a brick wall as far as difficulty was concerned.

I should mention, I'm playing the remastered PSP version of this game on my PS Vita called Final Fantasy Tactics War of the Lions.  Just another reason to love my PS Vita.  It plays so many classic Playstation games.

Despite the difficulty curve that I ran into, Final Fantasy Tactics is a good game.  All the underlying systems are solid.  I can see how it's been a huge influence on all the tactical RPGs that have followed it.  And the story is great.  It's a conflict on a grand scale, but the main character is right in the thick of it.  It seems like Tactics delivers on the grand scale conflict in a way that Final Fantasy XII failed to do.

In some ways the game is starting to show it's age.  It has unskippable story sequences which suck if you have to retry the same battle multiple times.... which you will have to do.  And the reason you will is because this game has permadeath for it's characters.  If you character falls in battle and you don't revive them before that battle is over they are gone forever.  These characters that you've poured hours and hours of effort into are just gone.  So, you'll reset to your last save and try the battle again.  And again.  Until you can perfectly execute it without losing a single unit.

I don't like this at all.  It's my single biggest complaint about the game.  My time is precious to me these days and if I'm just banging my head against a wall without making progress I get frustrated.  I have been able to consistently win battles one my first try, but I typically lose a character or two.  Then I have to redo the battle over and over until I get it perfect.  It feels like a waste of time.

Despite the really cool underlying systems,  the steep difficulty curve and permadeath combine to make Final Fantasy Tactics a very frustrating game for me.

I've seen so many people say that this is their favorite Final Fantasy.  It might very well have been mine too if I discovered it in my teens when I had all the free time in the world.  But I feel like I'm ready to give up on the game.  I'd rather play a tactical RPG without permadeath.  I hate it as a mechanic.  It's punishing and not fun at all.

I haven't completely written Final Fantasy Tactics off, but I'm very close to it.  Next time the game frustrates me I'm going to be done with it.

Final Fantasy Project Article List

A Return to Hearthstone

Hearthstone is now available on phones!  As a result I've played it more in the last few weeks than I have in the last year.

It's a great fit on phones.  They already have the touch controls perfected from the tablet versions of the game, they just had to make some minor adjustments for smaller screen sizes and the game is good to go.  I actually think the phone version may be the best version of the game since it can always be in your pocket.

My problem now is that I'm really struggling with not having modern decks.  I don't have any of the expansion content and most of my good decks from when I initially played the game  just suck now.

It's frustrating because I really want to get into it again, but I either need to spend a ton of time earning gold to unlock cards or drop a bunch of real world money on the same thing.  If there were a core pack of cards that I could buy for a flat fee to catch back up I would do it.  But I can't really justify spending the amount of real world money I would need to spend on random cards in booster packs to achieve the same thing.

I'm not sure what to do at this point.  I love piloting a good deck, but the actual acquisition of cards and deck building aren't appealing to me.  It looks like I have a long and slow grind ahead if I want to make my decks viable again.

Right now I'm just having fun messing around with it on my phone but soon I'll need to decide if I want to make it a daily activity and really try to build my card library back up.

Marvel Heroes 2015

A bunch of my digital friends have been playing Marvel Heroes 2015 as a side game, so I thought it would be fun to check out.  It's mostly the fault of Belghast and the Aggrochat crew.  Since I play Final Fantasy XIV with them and listen to their weekly podcast they can definitely influence me to try out new games.

I've never really liked diablo-ish clickfests.  But, maybe I just wasn't playing them in the right setting.  Putting a superhero skin on the game makes it much more appealing to me somehow.  I'm actually really liking the game.  It's not going to become my main time-sink ever but it could consistently become a fun side game.

My biggest takeaway after a few days is that Storm kicks ass.  I tried a bunch of the free starter heroes, but Storm's huge AOE damage ability is super fun.  She's most definitely my main character now.  But, the good part is they have tons of heroes to choose from.  If you have a favorite from the Marvel Universe you can probably play as it.

The game is also free to play, but I haven't paid anything so far.  It seems to be completely viable to play through the game without paying money as long as you're happy with only having a couple heroes.  If you start buying more heroes or costumes then you're going to end up dropping real world money, but it seems to be completely optional.

It's free and it's on Steam.  If you have any interest in a Diablo style game in a Marvel Superhero setting there's no reason not to check it out.

Star Wars The Force Unleashed Bonus Levels

I picked up Star Wars The Force Unleashed on Steam last week since they were having their big Star Wars sale.  I already owned this game on 360, but since my 360 is long dead I figured I would add it to my PC library for $5.

I played the first couple levels and reacquainted myself with the game.  Then I realized I didn't particularly want to replay it right now.

But, then I noticed that the Steam version has bonus scenarios that I never had on 360.  So, I fired those up and had a good time.  They are definitely alternate reality scenarios, but they're all the more fun for it.

Want to hunt down Luke Skywalker on Hoth as Darth Vader's secret apprentice?  You can!  And it's super fun!  You can really tell the developers had fun with these extra scenarios.

After playing through those extras and now knowing that I have this game back in my library I definitely feel I got my $5 worth.  I love Steam sales.

White Mage to 50!

I got my second class to the level cap in Final Fantasy XIV!  I now have my Bard and also my White Mage at level 50!

Healing has been really interesting because I've never played a healer in a MMO before.  I suppose I've probably fooled around with some at very low levels but I've definitely never taken one to the level cap in any MMO.

It's amazing how I'm basically playing a different game when I'm a healer.  My job is to keep my party alive during crazy boss battles.  That's often easier said than done.  There's more pressure to perform than when I'm playing a DPS class, but less pressure than when Tanking.  It's actually hitting a sweet spot for me.  I can do tanking and DPS just fine but tanking is a bit too stressful to be fun.

Now, when I'm running level 50 content I have options!  I can change up my playstyle for whatever mood I'm in!  It's also really nice to be able to help out members of my Free Company easier since I can now fill multiple roles.

Not to mention one of the best parts of being a healer... super fast queue times!  I barely ever have to wait for a group to form.  Healers are in great demand!  Where I would typically wait 15-45 minutes in the group finder as a DPS class now I generally find a group in less than 5 minutes.  It's amazing.

Getting another class to endgame was my second major goal in Final Fantasy XIV and now that I've finished it I truly feel ready for the expansion to launch in June.  I'll probably slow down a bit while I wait for the expansion but I still plan on puttering around in game regularly.

Final Fantasy Project Article List

Marvel Unlimited

I need to stop saying I'm not a comic guy.  I bought a month subscription to Marvel Unlimited and I'm loving it!

For those of you that don't know, Marvel Unlimited is a subscription service where you get access to the entire Marvel back-catalog of comics.

I was convinced to buy into a month subscription because Marvel just put their old Star Wars comics onto the service.

I started poking around in the Star Wars comics on the service and I was severely disappointed.  They're old... they don't appeal to my modern tastes.  Then I thought I'd dive into the classic superhero comics.  They were super boring too.

So I just started clicking on comics I had never heard of and reading the first issue of different series.  That's when I started finding diamonds in the rough.  Apparently I like non-traditional comics.

Runaways is an amazing series about teenagers who discover that all their parents are supervillains so they run away from home together.  Then they slowly discover that they also have powers and abilities.  It's really good.

Then I found Mary Jane.  The comic, not the other thing.  It's all about high school from Mary Jane's perspective.  Spider-man is in the comic, but very rarely.  He's definitely not in every issue.  And it's SO GOOD!  Something about the high school drama in a superhero world is really working for me.

Dear readers, I guess I'm not a fan of traditional comic books, but can you recommend anything else in the Marvel backlog for me to check out?  I'd really appreciate it!

Star Wars Clone Wars Season 1

I finally finished watching Star Wars Clone Wars season 1.

For those of you who don't know, the show is set in between Star Wars Episode II and Episode III.  It details many of the events of the Clone Wars.  It has some of the main movie cast like Anakin, Padme, Obi-Wan, and a bunch of key Jedi but there are a bunch of unique characters too.

It's been a really slow burn for me.  Some of the episodes were great!  But, a lot of them were lackluster.  I liked the episodes that felt like they tied into a larger narrative, but there were just as many that were one-offs.

Everyone I've talked to says the series gets really good once you get a few seasons in.  So, I keep trudging through.

I'm generally enjoying it but it seems like I can only watch and episode or two at a time.  It's not a show I can marathon through.  If I knew the point where the show really starts to pick up I could probably push through just to get there.  I'm not sure when that will be.

I'll keep picking away at these episodes when I have time.  I see a lot of potential in the show.  I just need to see how the rest of the series unfolds.

Roleplaying

Our group weekly topic this week is Roleplaying!  I haven't really done much of it honestly, but I wish I had gotten into roleplaying more.  I haven't ever been worried about the stigma associated with it, I just haven't had a good opportunity to dig in.

I've only tried DnD a few times for probably less than 8 hours total.  My brother did some DMing for my family and we all seemed to like it.  The problem has always been scheduling.  It's hard to find time for a group of people to sit down and game on a regular basis.  It's only gotten more difficult afte having kids.

I'm hoping to try out more DnD and attempt some other role playing systems once my kids get a little bit older.  I think they'll have fun with it, and it gives me a great excuse to get into the hobby.

The main thing on my roleplaying radar at the moment is Thornwatch.  I'm really excited for the Thornwatch roleplaying game from the Penny Arcade guys!  I love their work, the world they've created for the game, and the things they're doing to streamline playing and DMing.  I think I'm going to try to DM Thornwatch for some people once the game is eventually released!

I'm actually going to PAX for the first time later this year and one of the main things I want to check out while there is Thornwatch!  I'll definitely report back when I do.

As always, it's time for the Friday link-up!  If you're reading in a RSS feed click through to see the majesty.  Drop in any link from the past week that you thought was exceptionally good!

An InLinkz Link-up