What I Played and Watched This Week (11/1/2020)
I'm still trying to finish The Expanse, and I have until this upcoming Friday to finish it. I have started season 4 so I'm not worried about being able to get that done. Other than that I've played some Star Wars: Squadrons, Hades, Hearthstone, and Mini Metro.
The Expanse (Mild Spoilers for Seasons 2 and 3): The show really turned it up to 11 after the midpoint of Season 2 and kept it going all the way through season 3. That season and a half was everything I wanted from the show all the way through. The politics between Earth, Mars, and The Belt. Along with the inter-belt politicking between the disparate factions inside the OPA. I had previously complained about the Protomolecule, but it's become pretty clear that the Protomolecule is a core feature of this story and has definitely become more interesting than it was in the first season where it was just a mad science experiment. I am curious about the Origins of the Protomolecule, but I also don't know that any actual answer will be satisfying.
I've only watched Episode 1 of Season 4 so far and I'm not sure how much I'll like it if the story is going to be mostly set on this new world. It does appear that there will be some more political intrigue, but with less of the characters we've met throughout the other 3 seasons, I guess I'll find out soon enough.
Hades: Because of my The Expanse binge I hadn't played Hades in a few days. So when I went back to it on Saturday I was TERRIBLE at it, I did a few runs and only made it to the final boss once and did not kill him. This week I realized that even though I've gotten 7 clears but none of those are with the sword. I made 2 escape attempts with the sword this week and they both went poorly, clearly I'm missing something with that weapon.
Hearthstone: I've realized that I keep playing Hearthstone, but I never actually have anything to say about it when I write these posts. So while I spent an evening playing Hearthstone I thought a little harder about why the hell I was doing it.
Part of Hearthstone's appeal to me is that I don't need to give it undivided attention while I play it, would I do more winning if I paid more attention? Undoubtedly, but that's fine.
Some more thoughts about the current state of Battlegrounds: With elementals being the new addition to the pool of minions they are available in every game and even though I try not to always go Elementals, I can't seem to help it. I'm probably just overvaluing the new minions because they're new. I'm excited for Elementals to no longer be in every game so I can remember how to make a comp with other types of minions.
Losing in Battlegrounds also tends to feel significantly worse than winning feels good. It feels like I either win without having to think too hard (because I'm just winning by so much) or I place in the bottom 4 feeling like there was nothing I could have done or feeling like I was "1 turn away from turning the corner". Twitch Streamer/YouTuber Sylsssa had offered some advice for people in my specific situation, to summarize she said that I am probably playing "too greedy", but I can't seem to not do that for some reason.
Star Wars: Squadrons: I played a few rounds of Fleet Battles this week to grind some currency to unlock the new Mandalorian-Themed items. My A-Wing is currently rocking a Baby Yoda bobblehead. In the time since I last played Squadrons people have gotten very good at that game, I did a bit more along than winning. It's still very fun to fly around in Star Wars spaceships.
Mini Metro: I had, for a while, been playing the Mini Metro daily in the evening before going to bed, but I’ve recently started making it part of my wake up routine since it gets my brain spinning, but it’s not too hard or time consuming. It's still good, and I'm excited for Mini Motorways to come to Steam in May! I got 4th place on the Daily on Thursday, that was pretty neat. They have also added 2 new maps to the game 6 years after the game was first released, which is also neat.