!
Digital RealmsLike with my personal channel, I had the best intentions to post regular updates this year... but we all see how that went. Plans to sit down and type a big update post have funny ways of getting delayed. *sigh* Oh well... here we are. Let us begin.
So in a bit of irony, just before COVID-19's world tour, I had gotten back into The Division 2. For those unfamiliar with the series, The Division takes place in a modern world that is dealing with the outbreak of a killer chimera virus, and societal collapse. The Division 2 is a lovely game to behold. Truly gorgeous. However, after sinking several months into it, it does get rather stale once you have explored everything, and have completed all the story missions.
Here is a quick rundown on what Division 2 progression is like:
1) Start the game at level one. Work your way through all of the story missions (and as many side missions as you please). During the course of this, you will hit level 30.
2) At level 30, a new enemy appears! They take over swaths of the map. You then play through modified versions of many of the same story missions again. After that, you get one more big story mission to cap it off.
3) Grats! You are at the end game of the base game. You will now spend the rest of your days farming for missing gear pieces.
Thankfully, an expansion called Warlords of New York came out. This takes you back to New York City (the setting of the first game), where you chase down and eliminate the antagonist from the first Division game. It was great going back to New York again, it is a lot more fun than DC as the environment is better and you have more vertical and underground locations to explore. The downside, is that it doesn't take long to complete the story missions here. And the writing for the end of the bad guy is kind of flat.
So after this, you get the "new" endgame activity which is "Manhunts". These consist of a team of five targets (four minions and one boss). Defeating them involves playing through the same missions, bounties, and control points that you have been grinding yet *again*. And its the same thing for every manhunt (there have been three so far). Lightly veiled story, and making you track through the same content again.
Needless to say, I'm taking a Division 2 break. It's fun, but I don't have a a regular group that I team with, and they don't have anything like the amazing Survival DLC that was in the first game.
Minecraft! So I was learning how to use Docker containers, and set up a Minecraft Bedrock edition server on my media server. The cool thing is that while my kids both play from their computers, the Xbox sees the server as a LAN game, and lets me join them. Which is cool, because Minecraft is a very relaxing, zenlike game. I'd rather be sitting in a comfy chair while playing it.
World of Warcraft! Earlier in the year, I was playing on my private server Wrath of the Lich King account, and brought my priest up to 72. And, I started playing on the retail server recently to prepare for the Shadowlands expansion. In two nights of casual playtime, I managed to get my main character caught up (I had never played Battle for Azeroth expansion). Now I need to decide if I want to continue with the story for BFA, or get another alt or two caught up.
