It was a long week this week, it’s been way too warm, and that does make my motivation and energy basically tank. But well we just have to make the best out of it and things will hopefully look up.

Books

I finished off “Salvage Rights” this week, I also started it this week, and I think getting through it in less than a week is pretty good, concidering it was kind of a brick, a very enjoyable brick, but quite a think one anyway. It was hitting pretty much right in the vibes that I really enjoy from a book though, with good people working together and being kind to each other, so it was way less of a chore to get through than the last one that I read.

Starting off on “Ribbon Dance” with the first 50 or so pages read it does feel like this one is following in the same traces, so that will be good. This also is the last one of the Liaden books that I have, so I will have to start looking through the others that I have to see if I find something else that I will enjoy, there is something nice but still a bit daunting about looking for something new after you’ve been reading books that I’m quite sure I will enjoy for so long.

I’ve been reading big parts of this book outside when out on my walks, and it’s really nice to have a good view and some nice air around while reading, and it’s something I will try to do a bit more of again, there is something extra about sitting on a hill with a view, or on a bench by the river side reading that does make it even a bit nicer than just sitting in my normal cozy spot, or reading before bed.

Games

I rolled credits on “the Messenger” this week, and it’s an awesome game, it really was good, and what really sticks with me is just movement, movement just feels right here, and it just makes the game a joy to play, the bosses were hard, but actually manageable, and I wish other games was around this difficulty level, at least for me it was just enough, and they were usually fun challenges to deal with. I will play the DLC, and probably dip a bit into the New game plus as well, because jumping around in this one just feels right.

So with another game basically finished I’ve been floundering around, I do want to keep on a bit with Etrian Odyssey, but I just haven’t been that much in the mood for RPGs the last week or so, but I will get back to it some day or other, it’s just a really fun series of games, I just will have to play some other things until I get into the mood again.

I started a new save in “Children of Morta” which is a beautiful Action RPG which is fun, but after some hours I need a little pause from that as well, but I will come back to it, it’s a great game, but the slow progression and repetition of things just makes me kind of need some breaks in between, it also doesn’t help that I feel like ranged combat just is a lot more fun than the others, and you kind of have to level everyone around the same to keep on doing well.

Which led to me starting a new save in “Axiom Verge” as well, Kind of like with the messenger I did stop this one at some time because I just felt lost, and lost the motivation to keep going, and maybe I’m in a place to better enjoy it now, I got it in a double pack with II as well, so it would be nice to at least get through this one, it’s another metroidvania that leans even more on metroid than the vania, who knows maybe this is the time that I will get through it.

I also installed “Luck be a landlord” on my phone, I kind of needed a phone game, and most of the offerings are small microtransactioned to hell games, and it’s fun, I’m not sure if I’m getting better at it, but I did at least the first 4 or so difficulties, and it’s a nice little thing to have when I’m not in the puzzeling mood to play Baba is you.

Cauldron is also one that I started a bit, it’s a great podcast game that you can kind of play without thinking too much, and it’s colourful and cheery, but since it’s a PC game, it’s not something that I want to play too often, I just don’t have a comfortable setup for playing PC games.

So I’ve been touching at a lot of games this week, but I am not quite sure how much joy has been sparked, I think maybe I’ll get on with Axiom verge, but we’ll have to see what the week brings.

Podcasts

I’ve been in a pretty good place coming to podcasts this week, the culling of some stuff that I just wasn’t enjoying the last week, and adding some from the backlog of Video Game Podtimism to make up for it really was a good choice, I got through most of the ones that I added last week, and only skipped a couple that just wasn’t what I wanted to listen to. I’m down to 15 unlistened episodes on a Monday, and it’s not that often that is the case. So it might be that I need to add some more backlog stuff, but that’s a nice problem to have.

One of my favourite podcast plays also started it’s third and last season “The strange case of starship Iris” And it was great hearing the characters again, and it got me wanting to just binge it, but well, the episodes are not all out, so I just have to set it up so that I get it at good times, like when I’m out walking and actually paying good attention to it, because I think it’s worth that.