Rocket League

Date played: December 1st
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 7/10

I bought the new DLC pack that came out for Rocket League, they call it Chaos Run. It's a set of two new cars and matching accessories. It coincides with the release of a new map called Wasteland. This one is special because it actually has a slightly different shape and surface than the other maps. The walls are banked a bit differently and the boost pads are not exactly in the same spot. It's very minor, but in a game like this, where every match is played on the same field, it makes a huge difference.

The new Wasteland map and one of the new cars

Unfortunately, I only got to play half a match on the new map, but I liked what I played. The new cars are rough and tough vehicles that fit the look of the Wasteland map. I tried out both of them and liked them both, but I preferred Grog, a large truck of sorts.

I don't know what it was last night, but I was paired up with some really fucking awful players. No, these weren't new players, they were all pro's and veterans. And when I say awful, I mean it. One of these motherfuckers was so bad, he was flying around like an idiot, doing everything he possibly could to touch the ball, regardless of where it was, where it was going or which team he was on. It was awful. The silver lining is that I managed a couple of amazing individual goals, since no one else was able to really help.

Fallout 4

Date played: November 30th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

Playing detective is fun! I picked up two side missions from Valentine's office. One of them brought me back to Faneuil Hall, where I had fought Super Mutants before. They were back, but I'm stronger now, so it was a lot easier to clear the place. I reached the roof where I found the clue I was looking for, a golden grasshopper with a note. The note led me to a nearby graveyard where I dug up and old grave and completed the mission.

The next one was a real fucking creepy... I had to get the missing man's house key by speaking with the town's bartender, then investigate the house, where I found a facial reconstruction receipt. This led me to a surgeon's fucked up surgery room where he had chopped up the man in little pieces for no apparent reason. The surgeon then committed suicide... I was rewarded with a bunch of money, so I decided to spend some of it on the house that's available in Diamond City for 2000 caps. It's a nice place, but I'll stick to my settlement in Sanctuary.

Boston is a very important city in American history. It's basically the birthplace of the modern United States, so of course, it's filled with historical buildings. As a way to visit these buildings, there's a thing called the Freedom Trail, which is a little path on the pavement made of red stones. The mission I chose to do next tasked me with following the Freedom Trail to it's conclusion. It was kind of tricky to do, since a lot of the roads are destroyed and there is a lot of rubble and debris along the way, but I followed it carefully. Along the way, there were sewer covers that had special markings on them, each indicating a number and a letter.

The Railroad

At the end of the trail, I entered a very old church, cleared out a few ghouls and headed to the basement where I found a plaque that I could spin and select letters. I had taken notes on the markings, so I was able to crack the code and enter the correct combination. Mysteriously, it spelled "RAILROAD" and opened a secret door.

Inside the secret door, I was greeted by three heavily armed people. After a short conversation, where I told them that I thought Synths should be treated with respect, as humans, the group revealed itself as the Railroad. They are dedicated to protecting Synths and want to destroy the Institute. I like their approach a lot, but I bet the Brotherhood of Steel won't like it too much... They say they can help find my son, if he was taken by the Institute, so I agreed to do some jobs for them in exchange. I have to meet one of their members at an old highway near Sanctuary Hills now.

Fallout 4

Date played: November 29th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 10/10

Fallout 4 is such a huge game... I love every little bit of it.

I played a lot again last night, starting with Marowski's chem lab. It turns out, it was a secret door on top of the fish packing place. It was pretty boring up there though, I only found a few guys in hazmat suits and some chems.

I decided to continue south to meet with the Minutemen who had been standing by to retake the Castle, also known as Fort Independence. The place is a real fortress, though it's walls have seen better days. It was completely infested with mirelurks, so we proceeded to kill them all. That's when a gigantic mirelurk queen showed up and attacked us! She wasn't easy, but I killed her with my hunting rifle and some grenades. Fort Independence is now one of my settlements. I kind of regret building in Sanctuary, since this place is so fucking cool, but I guess I could move my stuff one day. It's not that complicated, but quite time consuming.

The Minutemen have a nice big radio tower and they started broadcasting quest locations. The first led me to a small settlement that was run by robots. Supervisor White, a robot with an adorable British accent, asked my help in repairing a nearby water treatment plant. The place was flooded, and guarded by Super Mutants. Mirelurks ran amok inside. I had to work my way deeper into the plant by activating water pumps that drained out the area and gave me access to new sectors. In the end, I was able to turn the treatment plant back, providing clean water to the settlement.

I describe the events of the kidnapping to Valentine

I went back to Diamond City and met with Valentine again to continue the investigation. After describing the kidnapper, Valentine was convinced that the man responsible was named Kellogg, a high ranking soldier in the Institute. We broke into his old house in Diamond City and gathered some clues, including some special cigars. Dogmeat, my loyal companion, sniffed at them and followed their scent through the wasteland. After a long trek together, we reached a small fort that served as Kellogg's headquarters. Inside, I fought an real army of synths, some of them very powerful.

My laser pistol was my main weapon here, as it deals good damage against these metal creatures. I picked up a few armor upgrades along the way too, including some synth armor. Finally, after a series of battles and puzzles, I reached Kellogg and confronted him in person. It seems that Shawn is "a bit older" now, though it's not really clear how old. Kellogg wouldn't give me any info on the Institute though, so I fought him and killed him, along with his synthetic henchmen.

He dropped an absolutely amazing .44 pistol, Kellogg's Pistol. Combined with my gunslinger and luck perks, I'm starting to become a real crit machine. I'm now also able to bank crits for awesome burst damage potential...

Rocket League

Date played: November 28th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

Me and my brother join forces on the faceoff

I played a few games of 2 vs 2 online with my youngest brother and as usual, we won a lot. In fact, of the 6 or 7 matches we played, we lost only one game... We make a great team. I end up either being the guy who picks up the big passes or the abandoned balls, or sometimes, I'm the one slinging the ball from one end of the field to the other. I even managed a sweet aerial goal from the middle of the field! I always enjoy Rocket League, but it's even better when playing with my bros.

Fallout 4

Date played: November 28th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

I didn't really do much that was special in Fallout 4 yesterday, but I didn't have much time to play either. I started by scavenging and fighting inside an engineering lab of sorts where a man had been building a robot that brews and serves beer. I fought some raiders here, as well as a few mole rats, before I found the special robot. I activated it and escorted it to Hotel Rexhall in Goodneighbour. I sold the robot to the hotel and it now tends bar...

This fish packing plant is infested with ghouls

My settlement in Sanctuary is starting to be packed with people, so I decided to build a secondary settlement for my followers to stay, like Strong, Cait and Piper. I chose Starlight Drive-in since it's not too far and has lots of wide open space. I put a shack, a water purifier, some turrets and some sleeping bags and moved all my fighters here.

I'm not trying to find a way inside Marowski's chem lab, a follow up to the drug trading mission I started in Diamond City. Inside a fish packing plant, I fought ghouls, some of them really strong, to find the entrance, but I didn't find it yet. 

Rocket League Championship!

Date played: November 27th
Platform: PS4 / PC
Session fun rating: 10/10

WOW!

I hosted an amazing Rocket League championship at my house, taking full advantage of my gaming room. 11 people, 2 PS4's, 2 TV's, 6 controllers and hours of fun! We played Rocket League all night, doing 2 vs 2 mostly, each TV welcoming 2 players. I know there's 4 player split-screen, but having twice the screen size makes it so much easier to play.

We warmed up with a few matches, all of them really intense, then went into a 4 team round robin where each team got to play against every other team once. We gave 2 points for a win, 1 point for an overtime loss and no points for a loss. The top two teams would then duke it out in an epic finale. 3 of my brothers were here, so we split up the teams so that each would have one Allen brother and one friend. I was paired up with my friend Dre, who has a great playstyle that meshes well with mine.

This is the life baby. This is the life.

We lost our first match, but won the other two. We ended up with a three-way tie, so we made another round robin with each of the three remaining teams. We lost another match here, but we still got into the final match and won the tournament! In one of the matches, we were very close to elimination when we managed to score a tying goal with 8 seconds left on the clock! It was very exciting, and one of my brothers even decided to announce the match. You can watch part of it here!

In the semi-finals, our team had an incredible match where we won 8-0, completely dominating the other team. It was unusual because every other match was extremely close, with most games ending with only 1 or 2 goals difference. I gave out little prizes at the end, trophies and crowns for the first and second place teams.

We even took a little break to play a few rounds of Nidhogg, which proved very exciting as well. This was easily one of the most fun nights I've had in recent memory and I really hope to do it again sometime in the future. Nothing beats the excitement of playing video games with friends and family, in person. 

Rocket League

Date played: November 26th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

Tonight, I'm hosting a Rocket League party at my house, so I bought the other DLC car pack that features some sports cars. Of course, I had to try it at least, so I booted up Rocket League, went into the garage and made a badass looking car using the Takumi body.

The Takumi is a slick looking car, but it looks even better when I'm scoring with it!

I played three matches and won the first two. In the first match, I was pretty damn good, scoring 4 goals and dominating the field. I was still pretty good in the second match, scoring a few goals and setting up good plays. The third match was rough as fuck though. I was matched up against some highly skilled players and we lost 4-2. I really like the way the Takumi car and the new items that came with the pack. I can't wait to play with my family and friends tonight!

Fallout 4

Date played: November 26th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

I didn't play much in the last few days, life being what it is. I started by visiting Hancock to apologize for raiding his storage building. He decided that he wanted to see the world instead of lead his city, so he joined my crew. I still use the dog as my companion, so I sent Hancock to my settlement.

Then I decided to play one of the main story missions last night. According to the citizens of the Commonwealth, the best way to find a missing person is to hire a detective and the best one in town is supposed to be Valentine. However, when I got to his office in Diamond City, his secretary informed me that he had been kidnapped, so I had to go rescue him.

Detective Valentine

This led me to Vault 114, a weird vault built right in the middle of the city, the facilities re-purposed from a subway station. The place is now occupied by the Triggermen, old school gangsters with tommy guns, suits and stylish hats. I fought my way through the grunts and found interesting information about the purpose of the vault. Vault 114 was meant for the aristocrats, the decision-makers, the rich people. The trick is that the overseer was to be a person that resents authority. According to some of the audio tapes I found, they picked a conspiracy theorist with a terrifying lack of intelligence...

Anyway, I eventually found Valentine and freed him by killing his captors. I was surprised to see that Valentine is not exactly human, he looks like he's some sort of cyborg, or robot, though I didn't get more information from him. As we exited the vault, we were confronted by the leader of the Triggermen and his crew, but I convinced them to let us go... Valentine agreed to help me find my son, so I must meet him in Diamond City.

Fallout 4

Date played: November 23rd
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

The Silver Shroud continues fighting crime! It seems that I garnered the attention of a gang due to my recent actions. So I hunted down two of their leaders, confronted them as the Shroud and killed them, leaving my calling card behind at each scene. I even confronted my first random Deathclaw. It took a few chems, some healing items and lots of bullets, but I took it down with my pistols! It was during one of these assassinations that I found a special hunting rifle that adds plasma damage to each shot... I quickly went back to base to slap some upgrades on it. It didn't disappoint... along with more skill points into rifles, I'm finding my long range combat options to be better and better all the time.

I tested out my new gear by clearing out Faneuil Hall for a Brotherhood of Steel quest. The famous building has been infested by Super Mutants. Again, there's some great text to read in the terminals, detailing the arguments between the historical preservationists, the merchants of the hall and the building managers. I got killed a few times here because the mutants loved to throw a slew of grenades at me, but I made it through after a few attempts.

Then I met Bobbi No-Nose in Goodneighbour, a sly ghoul that wanted to hire me to be part of her digging team. She clearly had something to hide, but I had heard she pays well, so I agreed to help her. The first step of the quest was to help Mel, a robotics engineer, escape from Diamond City jail. Thankfully, I already had picked up the key to the cells when I was exploring earlier in the game, so I just opened the door and freed him.

Bobbi No-Nose

Back in Goodneighbour, we started digging under the city using a custom made robot built by Mel. The objective was to break into a strongroom built under Diamond City to steal supplies and weapons. As we dug through, I had to fight some high level mirelurks, some of them pretty tough to beat, though my trusty 10MM pistol can fuck shit up real quick.

Unfortunately, Bobbi No-Nose is a two face lying bitch. She led us to Hancock's supply depot instead where we were confronted by Hancock's security crew. I put on my charisma gear and convinced Bobbi to leave without fighting and was rewarded with a high end minigun!

Fallout 4

Date played: November 22nd
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 10/10

Holy fuck, I played a LOT of Fallout 4 yesterday...

Honestly, I played too much to even talk about everything I did, but a few things did stand out. For example, I found the town of Goodneighbour. That place is even cooler than Diamond City, though it's smaller and less structured. It's basically a town of misfits, drug addicts and other people on the fringe of society. The town is run by a ghoul named Hancock, after the famous American.

There are tons of opportunities for work here. For example, I cleared out the Boston Library of attacking Super Mutants. In another mission, I entered the Combat Zone, a melee battle arena run by Raiders. I even got a new follower out of it, a rough young lady. I climbed a very tall tower, filled with deadly Super Mutants and managed to recruit an open minded Super Mutant to my ranks. I investigated a feral ghoul filled comic book shop. I used a weird memory den device hosted by a sultry woman and relived the moments where my husband was shot and my baby was taken inside the vault. I cleared out a chemical weapon research facility, filled with psychotic Raiders.

All of that was a ton of fun, and I picked up some nice upgrades along the way. For example, my hunting rifle is now fitted with a .50 caliber receiver, resulting in a lot more damage and a thunderous roar every time it fires. I upgraded my rifle skills, so that I have a good long range option in addition to my pistol expertise.

In all this time, nothing beat the amazing Silver Shroud quest line. A ghoul living in Goodneighbour asked me to retrieve a costume and some props for an old radio and TV show called the Silver Shroud. This cheesy hero protected the city with his machine gun, a slick trench-coat, a badass hat and hideous, cliche dialogue.

This led me to a television studio infested with feral ghouls. I fought my way through, but the real fun here was reading the terminals as they told the story of how the show came to life, then lost it's soul to focus groups, actor's whims and script arguments... It was well written and entertaining to read. I picked up the costume and props, then headed back to town to give the ghoul his stuff.

The Silver Shroud gets the girl...

He had more plans for me though, and convinced me to "be" the Silver Shroud in Goodneighbour. I listened to radio signals to get my assignments, put on the Hollywood gear and doled out justice. I even used the amazing dialogue options that let me say things "as the Shroud". My character used a little accent and stayed in character at all times. Shit, I even flirted with the beautiful singer at The Third Rail, the local bar. Enough that I brought her back to my room at the hotel for the night...

Yoshi's Woolly World

Date played: November 22nd
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 9/10

I had an urge to play a platformer, so I booted up Yoshi's Woolly World and played through a few levels, including the first world's boss and it's special stage. The first level I played was pretty tame, with nothing too crazy going on, until I entered a rainbow door and was transformed into a gargantuan, screen-filling Yoshi! He can just smash his way through everything as if it were butter. It was a very satisfying little sequence.

Giant Yoshi is fun to use!

The boss level featured a lot of swinging yarn balls that had to be used as platforms. There were some tricky jumps in this one, and the difficulty is definitely rising pretty quickly. This level featured the return of the little bouncy dudes with no arms, from the original Yoshi's Island. Those little fuckers are a bitch to deal with, but are also useful as a tool, since they can be jumped on to get to higher ground. My daughter calls them twins because they usually come in pairs... The boss was a giant version of these dudes. I simply had to avoid his attacks, hit him with eggs then gradually disrobe him by pulling at the fabric of his pants. Hilariously, once defeated, his face became crimson-red from shame, and he ran off.

I had managed to get all the flowers from all levels, so that unlocked the secret level. This thing was actually really difficult... I had to jump and flutter between rising and falling waterfalls through most of the level. I managed to clear it and get all the collectibles, but it wasn't easy. I played one level from the next world, a desert. I got to ride undulating sand dunes, transformed into a cool motorcycle and enjoyed the new visual style of the second world.

Fallout 4

Date played: November 21st
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 10/10

Most of my time was spent following a Brotherhood of Steel quest line. I followed various distress signals by tuning in to them on my Pip-Boy's radio, then checking the signal strength to hone in on the distress beacon. This led me to various dangerous areas. In the earlier parts of the quest, I fought ghouls and a few raiders, but it wasn't long before I was fighting Super Mutants.

Super Mutants can be very difficult, depending on their equipment and level. More than once, I had to fall back to heal and use line of sight to my advantage to survive. I've also taken to using chems when fighting difficult enemies. I got addicted more than once to Buffout, Jet and other useful battle drugs. Jet works really well with my little .38 pistol since it lets me just fill the enemy with bullets at high speed. After finding all the dead bodies of the Brotherhood soldiers, I found a holotape that gave me the coordinates for a small bunker at the Northern end of the map. I found an old Brotherhood soldier there who had been living on scraps for years. Using my charisma, I convinced him to rejoin the Brotherhood, then reported back to Paladin Danse.

I decapitate a Super Mutant from above

As part of the Minutemen quest line, I went to assist some farmers. Their son had left to join a nearby raider gang, the Foundry. He brought a family heirloom, a sword, with him as a tribute to the raiders My job was to bring the sword back. I fought dozens of raiders inside their foundry until I reached Slag, the leader of the group, and the farmer's son. I convinced the kid to go back to his family and fought Slag, who was equipped with Power Armor. I killed him, got the sword and brought the kid back to his family.

Back in my settlement, I was starting to have a lot of power armor laying around, so I decided to build myself a new building dedicated to managing my power armor. I built a large metal building and placed my 7 power armor frames around the room. I put most of my pieces on the frames. Then I decorated with a bar, some stools, a radio and a jukebox, as well as a small bed and some good lighting. 

Star Wars Battlefront

Date played: November 20th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

One of my brothers came over because he needed some help for a presentation next week. After we did that, watched a movie and ate delicious delivery chicken, we gave Star Wars Battlefront a whirl. I had pre-ordered the game, since it looked fucking awesome, and I recently spent a lot of time playing the beta so I knew I was going to enjoy myself, but it was even better than I expected.

We started by playing the tutorial. I let my bro do it since he never played before, then we plugged in a second controller and played the four training missions. We flew X-Wings in a canyon to fight TIE fighters, raced through the forest moon of Endor on speeder bikes, piloted AT-ST's for the Empire and finally, we destroyed our enemies while playing as Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine.

Now, I know I've said this in previous posts, but Battlefront is one of the best looking video games I've ever played, no question. It looks absolutely stunning and runs at a very smooth frame rate. It is a modern technical marvel! It also sounds wonderful, with all the familiar Star Wars sounds well represented.

After the training missions, we tried out the game's survival mode. There are 4 planets in the game, Tattoine, Sullust, the forest moon of Endor and Hoth, each with it's version of the survival mode. We faced 15 waves of increasingly difficult enemies on Sullust. It wasn't easy... we fought dozens of Stormtroopers, some were even equipped with jetpacks, stealth tech, shields and grenades. We also faced a few AT-ST's and TIE fighters. We survived, barely, but we survived. It was lots of fun playing with my brother in co-op.

Darth Vader

When my brother left, I tried out two multiplayer modes, Blast and Supremacy. Supremacy is a very cool 20 vs 20 mode. There are vehicles, heroes like Luke and Vader and lots and lots of action. The objective is to capture 5 control points sequentially, similar to some modes that were in older Call of Duty and Battlefield games.

In my first game, I absolutely destroyed everything in my path, completing the match in second place on my team with 38 kills and 17 deaths. I even got a chance to play as Darth Vader. I flanked the opposing team with him and caught about 5 Rebels by surprise. I then killed a few more by attacking head on. I was really fun to play this mode, I'll definitely come back to it.

Blast wasn't as much fun. It's just basic team deathmatch, but I found that the spawns were kind of weird and it was often difficult to figure out where the action was. The fight was on the forest moon of Endor, so the massive foliage also made it harder to get my bearings and learn the map. I'm sure I'll do better once I learn the map, but I struggled to get kills here. 

Fallout 4

Date played: November 19th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

Well, I built a mini shopping mall in my settlement... I'm spending way too much time building shit in this game, considering the benefits are minimal. But it's FUN! I built a medium sized wooden structure with lots of room inside. I picked up the medic perk at my last level up, which let me build a high end clinic in my settlement. I added a trader and a weapons merchant as well. On the second level, I built a little bridge that leads to the roof of another building, and I built a little shack on top of it. Inside, I have a chair, ottoman, sleeping bag, table, radio and a great view facing South. It's completely useless, but I think it looks fucking cool!

My shopping mall and rooftop shack

I did play the actual game a bit. I completed two small quests for the Brotherhood of Steel, one of which had me clear out a tunnel filled with ghouls. I encountered a new type of ghoul, a Glowing One who are much tougher than normal ghouls. I also cleared out a building where Super Mutants and Raiders were fighting. I picked up a new combat shotgun and improved my weapons and armor a little bit as well. Next time I play, I will focus on completing missions and avoid messing with my settlement...

Fallout 4

Date played: November 17th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 10/10

There are so many quests! I continued exploring Diamond City, built inside an old baseball stadium. I managed to talk to everyone there and found a whole slew of quests. The city is really interesting, with tons of little details.

One of the more interesting quest lines is about a man whose alcoholic wife who is fucking the bartender. The husband asked me to intimidate the bartender in exchange for money. I then persuaded the bartender to leave the wife alone, but I needed more than his word... Somehow, this led me to interrupting a drug deal in a nearby street. I killed the drug dealing gang of ghouls and obtained the location of their chemistry lab. The bartender killed a prominent resident of Diamond City in the process, and decided to leave town. When I got back to the city, the father of the murdered resident confronted me, but I managed to put the blame on someone else, who I now have to kill.

Fallout 4 is full of these little quests that grow and grow with every step. Another involved another bartender who is friends with the announcer of Diamond City Radio, Travis. The kid has some confidence issues, so his bartender friend wants to stage a fight that Travis would win to bolster his self-esteem. I helped stage the fight, but shit went wrong rather quickly and one of the hired attackers was killed. This led to the kidnapping of the bartender, so me and Travis raided a nearby brewery to save the guy.

My .44 pistol is awesome

The game has quality writing, so it goes a long way to make the events more interesting. I did a few more minor quests. I collected some baseball memoribilia in a mirelurk infested swamp, I gathered a bloatfly gland, cleared out a shop filled with raiders and found an irradiated plant. I also upgraded my equipment quite a bit, mostly my armor, but also a few guns. I now have a missile launcher and a very cool .44 pistol that deals very heavy damage. The .44 is slow and ammo for it is scarce, but it's been great against powerful enemies. Finally, I spent more time at my settlement, this time, to equip my settlers with decent equipment. 

Fallout 4

Date played: November 16th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 10/10

I reached Diamond City, the jewel of the Commonwealth!

In the whole time I played, maybe 2 hours or so, I didn't fight a single enemy. I met some interesting characters and explored the first few sections of the city. I met Piper, a woman who fills the role of "reporter" in the wasteland. I also met the town's mayor.

There's definitely some weird shit going on. I learned about the Institute and it's synthetics, or "Synths", as the residents call them. Basically, it's similar to themes seen in Blade Runner and the Alien movies, where robots become indistinguishable from humans. Apparently, there have been people that have gone missing very often, and the Diamond City authorities refuse to investigate further. The assumption is that the Institute is replacing humans with Synths. There's also suspicion that the Mayor is cooperating with the Institute.

Diamond City

I gave Piper and interview, and then she agreed to join me. I sent her back to my settlement and put her to work. I talked to the citizens in town, though I haven't been everywhere yet, since this is easily the biggest city yet, and I doubt there will be a bigger one later in the game. Now, I know I've said this before, but Fallout 4 is fucking enormous. There is just soooooo much to do, it's really fucking awesome. I picked up a ton of new quests in the town and I can't wait to complete them, though I want to continue exploring the city first.

At level 19, my skills and perks have been progressing pretty well. I picked up the Local Leader level 2 perk, which lets me build shops in my settlement. So I built a big shack that I want to use as my shop hub. This took quite a while, as I even decorated with fun stuff like a Nuka-Cola machine, a Jukebox, some ceiling fans, lighting and other stuff. I powered the place, set up a simple trader shop and assigned a settler to it. I'm having a bit of trouble fitting the shops inside the building I built, so I might have to start over, but thankfully, wood and steel are plentiful, so it wouldn't be a big problem.

Gridblock

Date played: November 16th
Platform: Android
Session fun rating: 7/10

I saw a lot of chatter about this game on Twitter, so I decided to give is a shot while I was watching hockey. Gridblock is a puzzles game. The objective is place blocks of various shapes, similar to Tetrominos. Once a line is made, either horizontally or vertically, that line is cleared. Scores are based on how many lines were cleared.

It's a very simple concept, and like all great puzzle games, it's very difficult to master. There's a lot of ways to approach any situation, especially since blocks are given in sets of 3, allowing for many different approaches. I liked what I played and I'm sure I'll play it again whenever I have a few minutes to kill.

Fallout 4

Date played: November 15th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

My gunslinger continues to roam the wasteland. I completed a lot of small quests for the Brotherhood of Steel. These missions are all fairly short and simple, but they reward me with good EXP and some cash. It also helps me have some structure and direction during my travels. I fought ghouls, raiders and even a few Supermutants while clearing the designated areas.

I also spent some time clearing out a few settlement locations, though I never intend to use them as more than a fast travel point. Back home in Sanctuary, I made some minor changes to my house and settlement. I planted more crops, installed a few more defenses, decorated a bit more, upgraded my power armor and organized my inventory a bit.

I hunt bloatflies with my shotgun

My travels continue taking me closer and closer to Diamond City, the biggest city in the Commonwealth. I guess it's Boston... On my way there, I entered a random building and was ambushed by a real horde of Supermutants. Those dudes don't fuck around... I can' definitely kill them, but in this case, there was one of them that was armed with a mini-nuke. Making that shit go off inside a building is real bad news, so I died multiple times trying to clear out the place. I gave up, and will have to come back with a better plan some other time.

I found a shack near the river where a man had set up his home. By collecting clues in his house, I gathered that he and his cow had been attacked repeatedly by bloatflies and other dangerous, mutated insects. Reading his diary, I discovered that the man had lost his silver locket in the lake, a memento of his late wife. He dived into the lake to retrieve it, but drowned... I dived into the lake, found his corpse and looted his safe key. I then emptied his house of all it's valuable possessions...

Fallout 4

Date played: November 14th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

I didn't have much time to play yesterday, but I still managed to do a few things. When I loaded my game, I was still in the robot town, so I continued speaking to the robots there. I found the base's director and, using my natural charisma, aided by some sweet charisma gear, I convinced him that I had the authority to reactivate the town's systems. This turned the robots friendly and created a few shops and such.

My hero in her charisma gear; a wig, a dress and some fashionable glasses!

Now that I have the Gun Nut perk, I went back to base and played around with weapon upgrades. I also renamed my good weapons to make it easier to sort my inventory when it's filled with stuff after a long voyage in the wasteland.

That's when I decided I should join the Brotherhood of Steel to get some easy missions. I was surprised to see that they had multiple missions to offer me, so I tackled a few of them. The ones I picked asked me to clear out a few areas of feral ghouls, a subway station and a super market. Both were very easy, I just used my upgraded pipe pistol to do most of the work. I can't wait to get back into the game and play some more.

Xeodrifter

Date played: November 14th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 7/10

As I patiently waited for my daughter's dance class to be done by playing some Xeodrifter. I found the second bosses of the first two planets. I got a few gun upgrades, some health upgrades and two new abilities. I can now run, which lets me speed over dangerous pools of lava. I can also turn into a rocket to go up very tall corridors.

The run ability is really cool

The bosses use the same design once again, albeit with different colors. Their new abilities were deadly, but I dispatched them after a few tries. This game is pretty damn hard sometimes, and quite unforgiving, but I still like it a lot.