So my buddy Maelkoth gifted me a couple of games via Steam lately because he’d gotten the Steam codes as part of a bundle of games and two of them were for games he already owned, and he thought they’d be games I would like, so he gave the codes to me. Which was quite nice of him.

One of them is Kingdoms of Amalur : Re-Reckoning.

It’s a fairly decent open world first person type RPG in the same spirit as Skyrim and countless other, lesser games.

Like Elder Scrolls Online. But we’ll get back to that in a bit.

So far, the game is pretty good. The story is interesting, the graphics are lavish and pretty, and holy batshit, Fatman, is it loaded with content.

There are quests everywhere. And for the most part, I am happy with that. I love it when a game has lots for me to do.

Especially in an RPG, because that means that every one of those quests will involve me doing something good that helps somebody.

And I love me some happy karma quests. Doing good and helping people all the time would be the ideal life for me.

Too bad it only exists in video games.

And wowsers, did they not skimp out on the special effects. Spells crackle, magical weapons glow, combat animations are superb.

But it does have one big flaw and that’s difficulty level.

It lacks it.

Seriously, things are way too easy. There’s loot everywhere, the enemies aren’t very tough, and you level up fast.

And that’s on Normal difficulty. I’d hate to see how it plays on Casual or Story.

It’s bad enough that I am considering starting over at a higher difficulty level.

The other game he gave me is Pathfinder : Wrath of the Righteous.

It’s an ISO/overhead RPG in the style of Baldur’s Gate, Pillars of Eternity, etc.

And so far, it’s pretty damned good. Tried it out this morning and I am loving it so far.

First thing I had to do was make a character, or choose one of the premade ones.

I am congenitally incapable of using someone ELSE’s creation when there is the option of creating my own, so I chose to generate my own.

What can I say, I always choose the option that allows for the most self-expression.

So I choose to make my own character and almost immediately regret it because wholly moley are there a lot of things to choose and a lot of options to choose from!

But there was a gem to be found in all that hubbub : I could be a kitsune!!

Anthropomorphic, naturally. So my character is an anthro fox! Just like Fruvous!

And that sexy, sexy Robin Hood from Disney.

Getting to be a fox makes any game like three times better in my books.

You start at a merry festival, brought in on a stretcher by someone who found you injured by demons outside the city walls.

And it was all so peacefully medieval that I dropped my guard while trying to figure out what I was supposed to do, exactly.

So when the demons attacked and started killing everyone, I was shocked.

Should have seen it coming. This is why we can’t have nice things, people.

So now my character, a fox who’s handy with the crossbow, has joined up with some other characters he met on the way and we’re off to quest to kill the fuck out of the horribly demonic Lord of the Locusts who’s behind all this crap.

Just another day on the job when you’re a hero. Sigh.

Problem is, I now have two pretty good games to play and I have to decide between them when I wanna play something.

Pretty sure Pathfinder has the edge. Amalur is OK but flawed. Pathfinder is better.

And ESO? They’re out of contention entirely. I was already getting burned out on it, this just put the final nails in its coffin.

Turns out you can burn out on a game, even while playing brand new content, pretty fast when you spent 1600 hours playing it a long time ago.

Huh. Go figure.

More after the break.

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It’s Friday, I had therapy!

Yeah, I know it doesn’t scan.

So I shared the gist of my recent ego tripping with Doctor Costin today.

In doing so, I ended up developing the ideas further, so I thought I would share here.

Basically I am abandoning all humility. Fuck that noise. I am goddamned amazing and to hell with anyone who expects me to pretend I’m normal.

I’m not normal. I’m a freak, and proud of it. I am a wild mutation of the standard cultural genome and said mutation has produced a one of a kind person with an incredible set of skills and the big big personality to really make them work.

Plus I have this astounding level of humility.

My new approach to life is to have the biggest ego I can get away with.

Because why not? I have some reason to think highly of myself, and Lord knows being self-loathingly humble hasn’t done me any good.

I figure, stay humble enough to stave off potential delusions of grandeur.

Other than that, go hog wild. Push it as far as I can. Walk around thinking I am God’s gift to the creative arts and dare the world to prove me wrong.

And I am going to take my brand new brashly optimistic POV with me when I go looking for freelance work again.

I already found that when I am applying for jobs on UpWork, I am suddenly Mister Confidence. I am just going to do that on purpose now.

Ya know, the evidence that I am a lot more extroverted than I ever thought before is really starting to pile up.

I will always be, fundamentally, an introvert. Someone who favours low stimulation levels and who finds social engagement draining instead of energizing.

But my constant craving for attention is not an introverted trait. Neither is my love of performing in front of an audience, or how I want to rise high and shine bright.

Turns out that whole thing is more complicated than I thought, Go fig.

I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.