gamerdad In between bouts of Fallout, I’ve taken as tour back through Middle Earth and I’ve been listening to this audiobook of the making of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. There’s quite a lot I didn’t know, but even more interestingly it has rekindled my delight in the films again and so I’ve been digging into those and some of the bonus content on my Bluray copies.

gamerdad As I continue my adventure thru the commonwealth slaying beasts and robots and ghouls and super mutants I’ve been trying to break some of my gaming habits, like the rainy day rule, that itch in the back of my head that begs me to be frugal with weapons and ammo rather than just having fun and using the big guns more often. I too often find myself saving up all my precious resources only to find that either I’d way over-prepared or just getting bored of some game before I ever used them. So sure, I was stomping around in my power armour launching missiles at robots, what’s your point. They make big explosions. As a progress note, I took the Castle this afternoon and now we’re cooking with gas.

gamerdad Another few hours and I moved into some deeper exploration and sussing out a few of the deeper missions of the game rather than just building my little empire. I found two more sets of power armor and started the robotics quest in earnest. I built myself a new companion in the form of a little orange robot with laser arms, named Frodo because I’ve been watching Lord of the Rings again and it’s a bit stuck in my craw. All that said my biggest challenge is finding interesting moments to grab screenshots without getting my arse blown away while I move my attention to the photo button.

gamerdad My adventures thru the wasteland continues this week. My build this time has been less of my usual tank and more focusing on the intellectual pursuits, ramping up my base building perks so that I’ve been able to build supply lines early in the game and really focus on the Minutemen story. That said, I’ve as already built out at least two sets of respectable power armors and have done some serious wandering and cleaning up some of the main thru routes.

gamerdad I’m not sure how much effort goes into rebuilding an eight year old video game’s graphical assets, but the folks at Bethesda thought it was worth doing to bring Fallout 4 onto current generation consoles. The free update for those of us who owned the original version and played hundreds of hours prior to the update emerged this week and I installed it to check out the fuss. Maybe it was lucky that after a playthru a few years ago, I’d started a fresh save less than a year back and only really made it thru the first few intro missions, and so I was able to upgrade that save and keep trucking thru the wasteland with a foundation of about 5 hours under my belt. My lack of a 4K tv probably means most of the value of the upgrade is lost on me, tho. Things do seem a bit crisper I will admit and the play seems smoother too, but to be honest I tend to be fairly old school about graphics having grown up in the 8 bit era and played (and loved) games in my youth that were often just line art or CGA 4 colours. Gameplay! That’s the whole point. I appreciate the free upgrade but there’s so much more to a good game than crispy visuals.

gamerdad My foray back into the Tt LEGO-verse has taken me into the vast and nostalgic Star Wars world. #ps5 As with any game it’s good to find the tools early on that support and multiply your efforts, so that I’ve literally dug into to upgrades like the stud multiplier and the bonus radars within the first chapters of my play is probably not surprising. And with all nine movies to work through, I’ve opted for the boring but gen-x approach of release order. Episodes IV and V are in the bag!

gamerdad

I crossed the 100 hour mark in #fallout4 about 18 months ago just before I quit playing. Quit is the wrong word tho. The game has been squatting in my mind since then, tho rather than jump back into my #oldsave in which I made a few questionable choices in my #characterprogression I opted instead to kick off a new run thru and focus on some of the things first that triggered big gains when I’d discovered them last time, but later on.

For example, three hours in I built my first supply lines between camps and #iykyk why that’s an early game #gamechanger

gamerdad Taking screenshots in VR makes no sense because what I think i’m looking at with my eyes and brain isn’t what is centered on the screen. So this fabulous view of a clever minigolf course is a little askew.

gamerdad Racing rally in a black pickup at midnight is about as close as I get to simulating my commute to work.

gamerdad I don’t have a “dream” car but a yellow corvette would suit me just fine.

gamerdad They’re just showing off with these PS5 ray tracing graphics now, but I’m fine with that.

gamerdad One false move at 200kph and suddenly you’re in the grass and driving simulating a six foot ski jumping competition.

gamerdad I raced well over 300km today and unlocked a half dozen cars and six new tracks. When this game comes to VR I’m definitely going on a road trip.

gamerdad This morning was all about driving and trying to unlock some more content in Gran Turismo 7, an effort that ultimately saw me driving my pink car on a 20 lap, 35 minute endurance race and winning some serious coin by a 2.8 second lead over second place.

gamerdad Odd slay and a trophy pose with the legs uprooting from the grass.

gamerdad Action shot about 10 hours ago in and a sunset to match the mood.

gamerdad I was going to post a cap with my guy and a big ole troll monster in the background but I actually slayed this winged beast and his friends so that seemed more legit.

gamerdad Elden Ring continues to be an effort of grinding my character. I tried to progress thru the gate and got bashed down in two hits. Yikes.

gamerdad Another hour grinding in Elden Ring trying to get a feel for the style but also break out of the raw noob rut that comes with a first time fresh playthrough.

gamerdad Death Stranding is an ethereal wander as a post-apocalyptic delivery guy carting cargo through the haunted wilderness.

Oh, and the haunted goo.

gamerdad I started this epic so-called walking simulator on Steamdeck prior to the holidays supposing it was supposed to be a meditative romp through an apocalyptic landscape. It’s that, but also a bit of an action RPG at the outset. Still trying to get my head around it.

Not exactly a Christmas game tho.

gamerdad Karin and I have been tag-teaming on this Disney lifesim that turns out to be both addictively fun and a huge time suck. It also has a major metro vibe for the male avatar and his wardrobe, so we can’t help but pose him up in some saucy screenshots.

gamerdad Started a new RPG called ‘Elden Ring’ and if you’ve happened to have heard of this one you’ll also have heard it’s blisteringly difficult. Good. But tough.