Isolation Gamification

Well here we are about five weeks into our social distancing regime to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I've been playing more video games lately, to help pass the time. It's not so much that there's more free time, since I am working more or less the same hours from home, or even that I've slowed down other leisure activities significantly, I've just taken some of the vast amounts of time I'd spent reading and painting and playing 40K and diverted that into gaming, instead.

The most significant play totals have been in going back to Elite Dangerous for a week or so, and also in returning to my XCOM 2 campaign, as a kind of refresher and point of comparison to XCOM: Chimera Squad, which was unexpectedly announced last week, and is coming out tomorrow.

I had the urge to fly through space some, so I went and concluded the expedition I was on in Elite, doubling my net worth. The next step will be to get a Guardian tech piece for my frame shift drive, to enhance my jump distance for the future. I want to go farther, faster.

My return to my suspended XCOM 2 campaign (still my first) has brought a lot of good momentum to that effort. It feels like I'm on the upswing of a campaign that could turn out to be a winning one. With enough missions turning out positive enough results early on, and smart tech advancement, I could maybe pull it off. We'll see.

I also told friends I'd play Diablo III season 20, and The Elder Scrolls Online with them, and so I have dipped back into both of those, as well. I have been having a good time with both, so I might put in a little more time with them soon.

Otherwise, I've been keeping up with Ring Fit Adventure since getting that for my birthday a couple of months ago. It's pretty decent as an in-home workout, and has a mildly interesting JRPG style adventure to work through, as well.

I've also put a little more time into Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, and that is one that I really do need to get back to. Especially considering its being a spiritual successor to one of my all-time favorites, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

There was also a little time put into Magic: The Gathering: Arena, but not much to speak of. I think I'm still doing the tutorial stuff.

Actually, I've spent more time by far playing both sides of tabletop games of 40K that I've been setting up, using my two armies, White Scars Space Marines and my Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard) Planetary Defense Force for Icthyos Rho VIII AKA Tundra Bastion. That is a fun and interesting excercise, and very good practice for learning all the unit and weapon profiles and various ins and outs of the game rules in a stress-free, time-unconstrained environment. It's also incredibly mentally taxing, and takes many hours to get through a large game. I'm currently working on painting up a few new units before I do that again.