Chapter 7 of Fallen Empire (Spoilers)

Last week was pretty awful.  I was sick for almost all of it.  I'm starting to feel better, I hope.  Maybe it is just a cruel joke though, and I'll be sick again tomorrow.  Getting old sucks,  I suggest you don't do it.  Anyway, I did get some time in for Chapter 7.  It turned out to be a decently long chapter, so it took me two play sessions.  I usually keep a session to an hour.

This one was all about tracking down the Lady of Sorrows, who could help us with the Gravestone.  She, of course, lived in the underbelly of Zakuul.  So there was much linear fighting in decent environments.  Noce to see some new scenery.  Turns out the Heralds of Zildog (ugh, what a name) are involved.  They are 'keepers of the peace',  and of course want us dead.

The big choice here was whether or not to take Senya or Koth in with us.  I chose Koth.  I just don't trust Senya, aka the Mother of the bad guys.  I still plan on dumping her if I get the chance.  Give me a soldier any day.

Long story short, we find the Lady of Sorrows and it turns out to be SCORPIO.  She's an AI/Droid companion of the Imperial Agent.  My agent has not gotten to her yet, now I really want to.  The really interesting part is that it is revealed that the Eternal Fleet is run by machines just like her.  So that's where she comes from.

Knights of the Fallen Empire is full of shady characters.  Lana, Senya, SCORPIO, Emperor, Arcann, the sister are all pretty untrustworthy. I really just want to take Koth and HK-55 and eliminate them all.  Koth isn't even that likable, he's just the lesser of all the evils.

Overall, it was a good Chapter.  I hope it is the model for what BioWare plans to release monthly.

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Vague Hype!

I've been remiss about pasting lately.  Part of it is illness related, part is Fallout 4.  Anyway, so the big psuedo-news of the day is that there is a SWTOR producer's stream coming on December 1st.  There will be some kind of BIG announcement.  They capitalized it, not me.  The tweet specifically mentioned subscribers, but who knows if that is meaningful or not.

That brings us to the problem of vague hype.  It's really only useful for angering your customers.  People's imaginations will run wild, then when the truth ends up being much more low key, rage!  a BIG announcement could really be anything.  Hell, it could be bad news.  Maybe the game is shutting down, that's pretty big.

It's too early to talk expansion, and that's the only thing I'd consider BIG (except for the game shutting down).  So yeah,  I really don't know what this could be about.  I'm going to go with some new subscriber incentive.

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Chapter 5 of Fallen Empire (Spoilers)

I managed to break myself away from Fallout 4 and get some SWTOR time in.  I'm still doing a chapter a week, which brings me to #5.  The Gravestone ship is almost fixed up, but Arcann's forces have found us.  We fight them off to give Koth time to finish repairs.  We are then join by a new character.

Sanya, a former Zakuul Knight, is helping us out.  She also hunted Koth after he disobeyed orders, which makes things interesting.  I'm not a big fan of hers, or Lana for that matter.  The big decision in this chapter was whether to accept the Emperor's help when Lana was in danger.  I turned him away, mainly because I wouldn't have been sad if Lana was lost.  She was ok though.

I'm not really a fan of force users like Sanya or Lana.  I much prefer the normal folks, like Koth.  So,  if it comes down to it they will be the first to go.  Sanya was giving some foreshadowing that I may have to choose at some point.  It'll be an easy choice, Koth stays.

We ended up escaping the planet and were confronted by the Eternal Fleet.  Turns out the Gravestone has quite a weapons system and dispatched a bunch of their ships before entering Hyperspace.  We ended the Chapter by approaching Asylum, a port where we'll be 'safe.'

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Fallout 4 Impressions - Spoiler Free

It's good.

I'm not a crazy Fallout fan, but I do like it quite a bit.  I think I played 2 and I definitely played 3. So far, this feels very much like Fallout 3, just newer.   That's a good thing, a lot of people liked it.  So far I have put about 3 hours into the game.  I've left the vault and done a little exploring.  There are a few things I like, a lot.

1)  Seeing the world before the war.  That was very cool, and really made the tragedy hit home.

2)  Crafting.  I never liked crafting in Fallout 3.  It is much better now.  I like finding junk, since it is easy to get that into usable crafting materials.  You can do quite a bit with it too, instead of just a few special weapons.  Most of my time has been playing with this stuff.  I modified my 10mm pistol to have a longer barrel, better grip, and a larger ammo clip.  Very cool.

3)  Building.  I just started to learn about how to manage a settlement.  It seems pretty awesome.  One of my tasks today is to clear out a gas station for materials.  I still don't know if there is a real purpose behind it.

I have barely even touched the main part of the game yet.  I think that's a good sign.

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Halo 5 Completed

I managed to finish up Halo 5 just in time for Fallout 4 to get here.  Yay!  I'm not a huge Halo fan, although I have played most of the games.  I do like the story, style, and environments.  Halo 5 was no different, which is what I was hoping for.  There are so many epic moments that don't even involve cut scenes.  That's what makes Halo for me.

I don't usually play multiplayer, but I kind of want to try out their new Warzone mode.  It looks like it could be fun.  If I only had the time.  I wonder where Halo will go from here?  They definitely will have more content, will it be a DLC or do we have to wait for Halo 6? Kinda stinks we may have to wait 3 years for the next installment.  If only good things came quickly.

It was a good single player experience, well worth the money for me.  On to Fallout 4 today!

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Chapter Four of Fallen Empire (Spoilers)

We left off with our craft crash landing into the Zakuul swamp.  HK-55 found some interesting debris, which when investigated revealed another crashed ship.  This chapter was mostly about getting information from Lana and getting to know Koth and HK-55.  It was actually longer than the previous sessions, taking me about 2 hours.  That was a nice surprise.

There were no major decisions,  just Koth impressions up for grabs really.  He's a soldier, I'm a soldier, so I think we'll get along.  It turns out the ship is legendary for defeating the Eternal Fleet a long time ago.  Interestingly, the fleet is controlled by mysterious bots and not Zakuul itself.  The Emperor just gained control.

What happened next was awesome.  There was an 80's work montage to fix up the ship, which some nice comedy from HK-55.  Check it out:




Once we got the ship up and running, I did some exploring.  I found a strange chamber and the Emperor appeared.  That's where the chapter ends.

This one was pretty good, mostly saved by the montage.  The Zakuul swap isn't very appealing.  It's nice when you look up and see the city, but that's about it.

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Variety is the spice of life

While SWTOR is my primary game, I am mixing things up pretty well lately.  I do a chapter of Fallen Empire every weekend, run a Tactical Flashpoint, and do heroics throughout the week.  That will likely change once I complete the expansion and I start doing alts again.  But it leaves me with a lot of free game time. So I am spreading it around.

I am still working my way through Halo 5.  I tend to do a mission a day on weekdays.  It's really well done,  even if I am a little lost.  I think I finished Halo 4, but I never did the DLC.  So there is a gap in my lore knowledge.  The game has some very epic moment which are not even cutscenes.  That's one thing I love about Halo.  I should be coming up to the end, just in time for Fallout 4!

I've also been playing with the STO Admiralty system.  It has some interesting variety, but there isn't much gameplay.  So I just end up spending about 15 minutes a day in there messing around.  I'd like to start playing for real at some point, but just haven't lately.

Thanks to expansion hype, I have been spending some time in Guild Wars 2 as well.  My Engineer (of course) is still only level 26 I think.  The zone exploration theme really supports short gameplay, so I hope in for short amounts of time.  GW2 does some things really well.  I love how easy it is to sell items on the Trading Post.  

ESO is on the outside looking in right now.  They have a new DLC which looks really cool, but I just don't have time right now.  I want to be playing more of this game.  Someday ESO, someday.

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Chapter Three of Fallen Empire (Spoilers)

This post will contain spoilers. We left our hero in dreamland, frozen in carbonite.  He was just released by Lana, the Sith.  My Trooper is not a fan of Lana.  He's a soldier who has been fighting the Sith for a long time, so being buddy buddy with one isn't going to fly.  Personally,  I don't care for her much either.  She seems rather bland.  I like my Sith with a megalomaniac personality.  If she happens to be one I lose, then I won't be too upset about it.

This Chapter was all about escaping the facility.  It wasn't a prison really, more like a trophy room.  We were being chased by Vaylin, the daughter of the Emperor.  She seems like a murderous psychopath, which is always fun.  She is also very powerful with the Force, putting Lana to shame.  We also met Koth and HK-55.  Don't know much about them yet.  Although HK-55 is funny, he has a nice Eeyore moment.

Vaylin ended up ripping the side off of a building to throw at us, which happened to be this Sun Reactor thing that then proceeded to go critical.  We could save the day, or just make our escape.  I chose to help, which opened up a small area where we had to shut it down.  Lana wasn't pleased.  Oh well.  This is my show.  Then we ran into some Zakuul Knights to fight.  I made Lana spare the one who got left behind.  Again, she wasn't happy.

Koth arrived just in time with the ship, Vaylin was about to destroy us I suspect.  Great cut scene with the ship's Gatling guns.  We escaped the city, but crash landed in outside in the swamp.  That's where Chapter Four starts.

This was another good entry.  The Zakuul city environment was fantastic.  Kind of like Coruscant, but a lot different.  I'm still really impressed with the quality of everything.  I'll likely continue my adventure next weekend.

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