Cashing in on those Sweet Holiday Deals

I managed to mostly contain my unhealthy impulse to buy all the things during the crush of Holiday themed sales.  (**Some of those "hot deals" aren't really that great anyway) It was stupidly surprising when I got a notification that almost everything on my Steam wishlist was on sale.  I decided to snatch Paradise Killer (by Fellow Traveler--who made Citizen Sleeper that I very much enjoyed) because it was only $7.99 and it has good reviews.  I haven't given it a whirl quite yet, but I plan to spend some quality time detecting in the near future.

What have I been doing with my holiday free time?  I finally finished up a monster playthrough of Assassin's Creed: Origins (base game + both DLC's) and realized that every time I finish an AC game I feel nothing but a huge sense of relief to be done with it.  I think I need a healthier way to play (I always have to do all the location goals and it makes things feel way more repetitive than they should) those games.  They're just too huge to try to do everything!  One of my favorite parts of the games are the afterlife/mythology themed content (which usually gets tacked on as DLC, but Valhalla has some in the base game).  It's always fun to see the creativity and beauty in those areas.

I've spent more time than I care to admit puttering around with Car Mechanic Simulator 2018.  There's something I find highly enjoyable about fixing up fake broken vehicles.  Just find a good podcast (I could definitely recommend a few) and enjoy the experience of making a rust bucket into a shiny, functioning vehicle.

Free is the best price.

There's one part of the holiday deals that isn't so bad--the free games!  If you haven't already (and it's up your alley), grab Star Wars: Squadrons free from the Epic Games store until December 1st.  As a kid, my brother and I consumed a great many of the classic Star Wars games including X-Wing and Tie Fighter, so Squadrons is the perfect opportunity to relive a modern version of those experiences.  I haven't spent a ton of time with it yet, but I did play a couple of missions and plan on playing through the story missions.  I don't know if I'll touch the multiplayer, but even if you just want to play the story, you can't beat free!  The major downside is one of my pet peeves--the Russian nesting doll-like system of launchers that is required.  Yes, you have to install and run it through Origin...and have the Epic store open too.

I hope everyone has had a happy and relaxing start to the holiday season!

There's Nothing Like a Nice, Comfy Simulator Game

I wrapped up the main story in Assassin's Creed: Origins and decided to take a glance at my Epic Games library.  I have a tendency to readily grab up any freebie games that I'm semi-interested in and then promptly forget about them.  After taking a gander, I decided to take a chance on Car Mechanic Simulator 2018.

Simulator games aren't everyone's cup o' tea--why play a game about boring real-life tasks?  Maybe I'm just weird and boring, but I find them oddly enjoyable.  I have no special interest in cars and most of my knowledge about them extends to detailed subjects like when to get the oil changed.  In Car Mechanic Simulator you are the proprietor of a tiny garage who is just trying to make a buck.  Clients call into your garage with a variety of automobile related issues.  Your job is to diagnose the problems and then fix them.  It's a pretty simple point-and-click affair and the main challenge comes from trying to be more efficient--as you gain experience you gain knowledge about what might be causing the problems and can address them more quickly (and without potentially dismantling way more stuff that you need to).  As you gain experience you also earn experience points that can be used to unlock improved diagnostic and repair abilities--you can install parts more quickly or unlock special tools that can help diagnose specific systems.  At certain points you can also unlock expansions to your garage that provide more space or improved facilities.

Periodically, special story cars will appear in your potential job queue.  Taking story jobs seems to serve to orient players with specific systems in the vehicle.  As you progress, more complex jobs appear that require you to work on the body of the car or the interior.  Each job also has a chance to provide a barn map or a crate of parts.  Barn maps unlock special locations where you can salvage parts and also choose to buy fixer-upper types of cars that require a lot of work, but have a potentially much higher resale value.

There have been a few minorly irritating factors--the tutorial at the beginning of the game is pretty useless--all it does is teach you about the tools in your garage and not anything about the vehicles or tasks you will be performing.  The in-game music is a bit much (you can choose from several different radio stations) and I would recommend turning it off.

Overall, for a game that I received for free, I'm having a pleasant time dismantling vehicles.  I haven't quite unlocked all the features and I would like to try to fully restore a car.  I feel like I've gained some minor knowledge about cars and how they work (I'm not going to be trying to take my own car apart any time soon!) and it's just nice to throw on a relaxing podcast.

If you were lucky enough to grab Car Mechanic Simulator 2018 for free, give it a whirl, it's an enjoyable simulator that's good for relaxing.  It's super cheap on Steam, only $4.59 right now (it's on sale!).

Adios Australia and Hello Ancient Egypt

Sadly, I've given up on Dinkum.  I was briefly excited when a new villager FINALLY decided to move to my town.  Things seemed to be moving in a positive direction as I was also able to unlock the plans for the repair bench...only to then realize that just having the bench is basically useless--you still need repair kits (something that I thought were sold at the general store...but are a specialty item sold by the same illusive character who I couldn't track down for the repair bench).  Even then, the repair mechanics for tools kind of suck.  One repair kit is fairly expensive--25,000 dinks.  Yeah, they do repair all the tools in your inventory...but why?  Why can't it just be simple and you can use readily available materials to repair the tools you use most frequently?  Ugh, I give up.  Weirdly, I found myself gravitating toward Assassin's Creed: Origins.  I've been in an AC friendly mood here lately for some reason--and I love Origins; in my opinion, it's the best of the RPG-style AC games.  Here's why:

1.) The Order

Every AC game has its giant conspiracy of very murderable baddies.  The baddies in Origins are sooo much badder than in Odyssey or Valhalla.  Sure, there are fewer of them, but at least each of them gets a bit of backstory that makes you understand why you should feel nothing but a sense of glee as you guide Bayek to stealthily stab them.  They kill kids, are corrupt, evil and all played a role in the death of Bayek's son.  I like the fact that Bayek gets a chance for a final confrontation in the Duat and you get the satisfaction of watching them all get dragged to their ultimate judgment.  Origins does revenge the best.

I love a good ancient Egyptian temple.

2.) Size isn't everything

I find Origins to be juuuust the right size--it's not as overwhelmingly huge as Odyssey or Valhalla.  Maybe part of it is the setting--personally, I think ancient Egypt offers up a variety in landscapes and biomes to be more engaging than the other games.  It just doesn't feel like it's overstuffed with too many map symbols and as a completionist I don't find myself wanting to do self-harm because I'm sneaking through my 5 millionth military outpost.

3.) Not too much modern mumbo-jumbo

There are some divided opinions in the AC world about how much of the modern story should appear in the games--some people like having the Layla/Abstergo/apocalypse/Isu/who the frak actually knows storyline.  I am not one of those people and feel like the modern stuff distracts from the story and I would rather have fewer interludes that pull you out of the ancient world.  Origins has a few moments, but it's minimally distracting.

If you're someone who hasn't checked out the Assassin's Creed franchise, I would encourage you to start with Origins.  It can be found relatively cheaply (and is totally worth the $12) and offers up, in my opinion, the best RPG-style AC experience.  Hours and hours of highly enjoyable stabbing right at your fingertips...what could be better?

Finally! A New Villager!

Even though I was on the fence about continuing with Dinkum, I decided that I would try to play it in shorter bouts and see if my experience improved.  It did!  A new villager (and fortunately one who sells something useful) finally decided to move to my island.  Rayne, the farm goods merchant, joined my town...now, population 3!  Now I finally have a source of seeds and can spend more time farming.

Finally!

I think I'm going to pop in and out with Dinkum and see if I can't attract some more residents--it feels like I'm finally making some headway.  I still think some systems could use some work--I'd like to be able to repair my tools (still can't!) and I wish visitors would stay for slightly more time.  I also built two houses that seem pretty pointless.

In between Dinkum sessions I've been replaying Assassin's Creed: Origins.  Origins is my favorite of the RPG-style AC games and I still think it's the best of them.  There's just something about Egypt that makes it so much more interesting than some of the other settings (namely dark ages England in Valhalla).  Plus, Bayek is a great character.