This week I fell back on some of the old standbys. I played more League of Legends, but also played some other games I haven’t written about all that much recently.

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger: I jumped back into the game, and played through about half of the campaign. I really like the atmosphere of the game, portions look and feel like a comic book, and the story-line feels like some pulp western mag from before my days as a child. But the history behind the story-line is what is intriguing, playing an unknown or unmentioned character that lived through many of the old western stories, and killing some of the most memorable characters. Earning experience has been easy; being the Ranger, I’ve gone down the tree and earned the Inlaid Six Shooter (upgraded sidearm) and am almost to the end of the tree, where I’ll earn the Golden Rifle. Boss fights are challenging but winnable. I really don’t care for the duel system in the game. Having to coordinate your “focus” with the right stick is tricky enough, but then you also affect the speed of your draw with the left stick. Knowing exactly when to draw and fire to get an honorable kill is also nearly impossible, as I’ve made it through a few duels, and always seem dishonorable. But that’s ok, they needed to die, and I needed to live.

League of Legends: I have fallen back on old habits. I have been playing ARAM mostly still, and am having fun with that despite currently being on a three game skid. I still have more wins than losses in the mode over all though.

I noticed that my LP was going to start decaying in ranked, and despite the fact that it’s preseason, it has already been said that preseason performance will affect your early placement in the beginning of the 4th season. That said, I haven’t really been playing ranked (obviously), but didn’t want to drop back down into bronze (I had 0 LP), so I played a game of ranked, my first since some of the preseason changes dropped. I played support, and ran Sona as usual, though I had a slightly different build by the end of the game. The differences were mainly starting with the Spellthief’s Edge and later upgrades, and the use of a trinket for the first time. I decided to go with the scrying stone to help with the vision battle, as vision totems are no longer stealth and you can only place one at a time. The scrying stone allowed me to effectively clear out enemy wards time and again. However, not having the extra trinket ward meant I needed to rush a sight stone quickly. The game I played actually seemed like it would be a loss and came down to a final teamfight and push into their base. I was laning with a Quinn who was far too aggressive and thought I was an MMO healer, so she fed. Jax on the top lane was having trouble with Renekton, but our mid lane Xerath was getting fed, and I was simply not dying. I ended up taking out the bottom tower on my own, and had the most assists (25) of the game by the end. Good fun, and I enjoy the more active role I get as a support now, along with being able to build some AP without sacrificing my utility. For shits, here’s my Sona stats:

 

Defiance: I decided that since I didn’t know much about the lore of the game that I needed to watch the first season of the TV show version of Defiance. Having done so, I can say that I have felt more of an attachment to the characters, and have gained a better understanding of the lore of the game, and the overall world. The TV show was well done for the most part, my only issues coming from some cheesy dialogue (schtako = shit, and is way over used, in it’s many forms) and some poor CGI here and there. Overall though, the special effects were well done, as was the makeup and costume design. Some women (if there are even women who watch the show) might be offended by the fact that there is a lot female subservience, sexism, and of course, more skin shown by the women. There is also some brief girl on girl action between two of the hottest women on the show, but I’m definitely not complaining. Still, if you can look past any of these flaws, the show is enthralling, and I love the new universe that’s been created. This has motivated me to play the game some more, though I didn’t get any time in this week (I did patch up last night, but by the time it was ready, I was ready for bed).

Borderlands 2: I mentioned that BL2 was going to be on offer for free through Playstation Plus, and that was making me want to play the game again. It has been on my to-do list for quite some time, as I own all of the DLC but have played very little of it. I think had I loaded up my “main” (Siren) and played through some DLC I would have had a better time. But instead, I looked at the trophies I needed to earn, and decided that I should level up my Gunzerker first, as after he reached a certain level, I could get his class-specific trophy out of the way and never have to play him again (really don’t enjoy the class). But this was probably a bad idea, as I started to play and maybe thirty minutes in I was over it. This is partially due to the fact that I’ve played through the game more than once already, and I was never the type to play through with every class available, especially when the story is exactly the same. But being so close to the platinum for that game (and it’s over a year old, so I could have done this forever ago) has made me want to do things a certain way, but it would definitely be more appealing with more people. I will be going back to this, and this time I’ll try to bring someone along. Or maybe I’ll just join someone else’s game and get leveled that way. Without paying attention to quests. Either way, I want to finish what the game has to offer soon.

Normally I’d say something about what’s on the horizon at this point, but I don’t think I’m going to try and call what I’m going to be playing. Dyad is the new free game through Plus, but I’m not even really sure what it’s about. Due to expenses with my vehicle popping up and it being the Christmas season I’m not going to have money for sales or any other new stuff, so I’ll probably try and make some progress in the games above, but my finicky nature as of late keeps me from knowing what will happen. Until next time.