Hello! First week in review! I expect this will be kind of messy because I am still finding my footing. Had some post-holiday hang out times this week with my sister and her husband visiting this week. I tried to lay off things that would require me to be down at my desktop, so that meant a lot more games on my Switch or the PS5. Also puzzles. Love doing puzzles during the New Year; it's a family tradition of ours. So far we've completed 2 1000 piece puzzles and my mother apparently did a 300-500 piece one (can't remember which) while no one was looking. # Games ## Hoyoverse I recently realized that I am the "gacha" person in an online community I'm in. I find it very strange because I wouldn't have given myself that moniker, but I have been playing Star Rail pretty consistently since release so I guess that counts for something. I briefly played Genshin and decided it wasn't my thing, but Star Rail came out as I was starting to re-evaluate turn-based battles as a form of gameplay I might actually enjoy, so I was locked in pretty quick. The fact that the trashcans in Belobog all had unique interactions is actually what pulled me in, and though sometimes it misses the mark, that playful attitude with the ideas of how a game should work and goofy dialogue prompts is something I really appreciate about it and a big part of why I stick around and started looking into Impact 3rd as well. But that's a topic for its own page. Here's where I'm at in both the Honkai games right now. ### Star Rail Honkai: Star Rail is on the cusp of its 3.0 update, which will be introducing Amphoreus. I haven't sat down to watch the live stream talking about it yet. On one hand: I kind of want to experience it blind. On the other: I already follow a bunch of people who play it so maybe that won't matter. Pulled for Sunday this last patch and then pulled for Jing Yuan so I would have a singular character who has a summon that his kit would benefit. I got Sunday, but failed the 50/50 for Jing Yuan. Ah, well. Slowly building up my team enough to make progress on endgame content. I'm caught up on main story stuff but I have a few random events or side quests I never finished (Clara's companion quest, the finales of both the tournament and band event quests, etc.). Started trying to do some of the Simulated Universe expansion stuff I haven't done yesterday; it's interesting to see the different takes they've done on this roguelike formula. Going back to Swarm Disaster feels kind of quaint compared with the godlike power I felt like the Human Comedy mode gave me. (Thank you for a way to farm planar ornaments that doesn't suck, Screwllum and Dr. Ratio.) ### Impact 3rd I've caught up with all the event stuff this patch. Marvel Snap Balatro is a fun combo, though I found the Impact-ified versions of Star Rail locations pretty weird. At least I got an outfit for Sparkle out of it! Similarly the auto-battles weren't the most revolutionary, but I do love AFK gathering energy and number go up so that mode was super satisfying for me. Also grateful for the random Duo event because it gave me enough missions completed to get Elysia for free without doing the Part 2 story and being utterly baffled. Annoyed with myself for buying one of the "battle pass" esque things forever ago because I wanted the S rank Valkyrie you could get for completing it not realizing you need to do multiple if you want to be able to unlock them. I find that pretty annoying, but I don't hate paying for the battle pass in concept since I'm already maxing it out most of the time anyway. Would happily fork over some cash if I ever have something resembling a stable income again. As for actual story process, by [Hoyostans](https://hoyostans.be/explore/honkai-impact-3rd/story-guide-hi3/) guide standards I am.. nearing the end of the first half of Phase 2 of Part 1. (Ain't that a mouthful). As for actually numbered in the game, I'm near the end of Chapter 16. It looks like A Post-Honkai Odyssey is coming up which I am SURPRISED by. I did a tiny bit of that (I think this was before I found the Hoyostans guide) and I would not expect that to come up in the game so soon. I think it might be a flash-forward, but even so that's wack. ## 1000xResist I heard about this game on Bluesky "before it was cool" so I feel sheepish it took me this long to get to it. I had to dip out before the end of chapter 1 to do something and then didn't come back to it but I returned to it and finished chapter 2 as well this week. I love the voice performances, and the pacing is incredible. <blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:rqxw46bnxqhdbdck3gc4bc6k/app.bsky.feed.post/3lell4w6rmk2i" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreidymdpsl73ldy4pmoghrx2lm54i4mct5jq5biyjcehal6iiapqlo4"><p lang="en">don&#x27;t you dare come back<br><br><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:rqxw46bnxqhdbdck3gc4bc6k/post/3lell4w6rmk2i?ref_src=embed">[image or embed]</a></p>&mdash; ValiantAMM (<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:rqxw46bnxqhdbdck3gc4bc6k?ref_src=embed">@valiantamm.bsky.social</a>) <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:rqxw46bnxqhdbdck3gc4bc6k/post/3lell4w6rmk2i?ref_src=embed">December 31, 2024 at 2:56 AM</a></blockquote> I enjoy the gameplay bits where you're just teleporting around a room or series of objects. It gives time for the last moment that occurred to breathe and have you think about what's going on; it builds up suspense for whatever's waiting for you at the end. Not sure where the story's going but I'm looking forward to seeing and learning more. It's an emotional journey. ## Mouthwashing I was trying to make a list of games to finish before the new year started (spoiler alert, I don't think I finished anything I wrote down) and this was written down as "Mouthwashing w/ friends". (When I told my group of "gamer friends") Truly miserable experience (complimentary!!) but alleviated somewhat by us doing voices for the characters. I don't think we've done that for a game since Danganronpa. (Actually we did Your Turn to Die but that was a smaller group and we never finished.) I don't know if I'll do a big blog about this game or anything but it definitely made me think about who I am in moments of interpersonal conflict. I think I might be Curly. And I need to do something about that. ## Warframe I first played Warframe in 2013. I was a baby and it was a bit much so I didn't continue playing. But apparently my brother-in-law likes it, and he's been playing it with my sister as a couple for the past year. So when they came over my sister booted it up on the PS5 and I decided I'd give it a shot. It's kind of like when I tried to play Destiny, but this time I didn't immediately hit a wall of expansions that my broke ass can't buy. It's honestly a lot of fun, though I might try and limit it to playing with them so I don't let it consume my life too much, haha. I've already maxed out my beginner gear; just threw in some blueprints to get a new secondary weapon since my kunai are not helping me out much. I ended my last play session by taking out the Mercury Junction boss (took like 5 seconds) so I just unlocked Mercury and two big new quests. I'm only level 1 or 2 still so I feel the need to grind a bit before I try doing higher level content; I tried to do some Solaris bounties and felt like I was weighing down the team I got matched with a little bit. # Closing Hope to have more pictures and more outside of just the games I'm playing next time. Not sure if I'll be able to keep the weekly posts idea up so I'll have to keep experimenting with what works best for this.