Tuesday 4 September 2018

Friday 10 August 2018

Blaugust Reborn!



Over the last few years (except 2017), myself and a community of fellow gamers have taken on a challenge set by a fellow by the name of Belghast (a veritable legend in our little community.)
This challenge involved posting a blog post every day throughout August. I took part as a best I could and when it was announced it was returning for 2018 I both jumped for joy and groaned inwardly at the same time. I knew I wouldn’t have time to take part given my new work schedule, damn, I’ve barely posted at all this year. I jumped on the community Discord server and announced that I would remain on the sidelines.

 Then I read the post by Belghast about the year. He spoke of burnout that posting daily causes and as a result the dwindling of the gaming blogging community, something I’d experienced first hand in previous years. As a result, the rules were made a little less rigid, posting daily was no longer a requirement to take part, so I decided to jump in. I might only write this post and nothing else. Then again, this has somehow inspired me to try out streaming again and I may post some video content as a result. I’ve recently jumped into No Mans Sky again so might  share something about that. I also have some games to review, so that might end up here too.

Either way, Blaugust has dragged me back in and I’m delighted. Oh and I must update my blog roll, so I am looking forward to checking out other participants and hope you will too!



Monday 7 May 2018

How PUBG reintroduced the excitement of multiplayer gaming

I've not been a fan of first-person shooters for some time. As age got the better of my reflexes somewhere around the 4th Call of Duty, I put down the controller and stuck with MMOs and roleplaying games.

When H1Z1 first created it's Battle Royale mode, now known as King of the Kill, I dabbled but wasn't good enough to compete against others, often biting the dust somewhere in 50th place. Recently this game genre has found new life in two big titles, Player Battlegrounds Unknown (PUBG) a realistic army sim and the cartoon-styled Fortnite. The latter is just too silly for me and I don't like the building element that's incorporated, but recently PUBG was released on mobile platforms and I grabbed it on my ipad.


I was instantly hooked. I found the controls easy to use and was soon gunning down enemies and making the top ten (out of 100 players) every time. I've found myself playing at least one game every night and the introduction of daily awards has only fuelled this. This week, however, I've found a new element, something I've not felt since early days in LOTRO, running dungeons with friends, their ability to friend and repeatedly team up with other players.

Notably, I've become battle buddies with two Italian guys, Antre and Davido, whose mastery of English is just enough to let us communicate. I love it, not only because of the fun of playing with others but hearing them scream at each other (and me) in Italian is hilarious and educational. So a huge shoutout to my brothers-in-arms, who have reignited this old gamer's passion for multiplayer FPS. Long may it continue.