Shadow of the Surgeon Simulator Too

After wrapping up Outriders, I was stuck with what to jump to next. I always try to have a few different games on the go. Usually a racing title that I plod through, a co-op game or three that I play with Illestrader, and then a lengthy single player story game, for me.

Outriders kinda filled two of those holes, but I found myself playing that game mostly single player as it was hard to find time to coordinate co-op sessions and I really wanted to see that game through to its conclusion.

In the racing game category I’ve playing Dirt 5, checking off the DLC races while I patiently wait for Forza Horizons 5.

Co-op, I’ve been playing The Ascent, Aliens: Fireteam Elite, Zombie Army 4, and recently tried Surgeon Simulator 2, as a new Game-Pass addition. Played through the tutorial and first level, and I’ll tell you… that game is not easy to grasp the controls. But it was a riot.

I’ll probably write up a separate piece on Aliens Fireteam Elite, as I have a few things to saw, but I want to progress further in the game.

Helloooo!

Moving on to single-player choices, as I have a few in the queue to say the least: Assassins Creed Valhalla, DOOM Eternal, Immortals Fenix Rising, and Watch Dogs Legion. Tip of the iceberg.

But the choice I ended up landing on was Middle-Earth: Shadow of War. 2017 sequel to Shadow of Mordor. And I really can’t explain what directed that pick. I can really only guess that it was because it was still installed on my HDD after all these years. I’ve always wanted to play it as I really enjoyed the first one. But there were so many distractions along the way. At the end. of the day I really just wanted a game where I could swing a sword and kill lots of enemies. Like just surrounded by them, hacking and parrying. AC Valhalla easily offers that but I just re-emerged from the AC depths with Odyssey not that long ago, well over 100 hours invested, and I honestly need a break.

Mordor: The Road

ME: SoW still looks good and plays well. I find the main character to be a little slower than before but that could be my memory. Slow walker that is, purposeful, methodical. But I just run everywhere and use the boost.

An interesting choice they made was to turn Shelob the Spider into a sexy human female for most of her appearances. Interesting choice. Not a complaint.

The Nemesis system is still a lot of fun as well, so I’m glad that made a return. I am still early on in the game, with lots left to discover, so I’ll check back in later with the results.

-iRogan

Outriders – Photos and Opinions.

Overall a very cool game. Same formula as Destiny / The Division. Supports 3 player coop, and you can choose beteeen 4 different player classes.

A decent length for the campaign. 30hours for me to complete 100% story and side missions. There is also postgame expeditions which are like challenge zones at a higher difficulty to unlock better gear.

It does get a little repetitive at times and lots of traveling back and forth between zones to turn in quests. I would have preferred the in-game map be better too, but it does have a handy gps-type waypoint to find your objectives.

All-in-all an enjoyable experience for a triple-a title that came to Xbox Game Pass day one.

Extra Life Update / Halo Nerd

I am getting very close to my 250,000 G milestone. My goal is to land on exactly 250K in November 2nd for the Extra Life Stream

Also, the Extra Life campaign is coming along swimmingly. Already nearing my initial goal of $500 and we’re just under 2 weeks till the big day.

And yes, I did just donate to myself to land on $343. Because I am a Halo nerd.

-IROGAN

My reasonable gaming plan for the next few months

Extra Life 2019 is around the corner, my goal for the event is to hit 250,000 Gamerscore. Not a huge number by any stretch, as some Xbox gamers have over a million. But it’s a number nonetheless. And it’s bigger than yours.

Currently I’m at 241,770G, and Extra Life takes place on November 2nd, so I still need to get another 8K before then. And then try to magically land on the number “250K” on the day of.

Luckily there’s also lots of games coming out still, before the end of the year. So I have to think this through strategically.

Presently I’m wrapping up Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which is my primary single-player game. I’ve been clearing some of the DLC stuff before wrapping the story campaign (because I find that if I finish the story, the chances of me going back in to complete extra stuff is unlikely , so this way I’m still in the game, but its not done yet). I should have this done by the weekend. (You’ve probably seen the in-game screen shots)

Gears 5 releases officially today. So I’ll start playing that campaign with Wayne this week. He’s gf free all week, and we both have Wednesday off. Should be fun.

After I finish Tomb Raider, I’m wanting to try something different, so I’ll be playing Celeste, which is a side-scrolling platformer indie darling that won game of the year. That’s only like 8-10 hours, right?

Remedy’s Control came out last week? I don’t know when I’ll have the time to pick this up and play it. Likely during a slow period. Not this year.

Also in September comes Borderlands 3 which I’ll be playing in Co-op with Patrick, and the next expansion for Destiny 2. On second thought, I’ll likely wait for a sale on the Destiny 2 expansion.

In October, Ghost Recon Breakpoint releases. This I’ll be playing in Co-op with Wayne, but considering I’m still waiting for him to get on The Division 2, not sure when / if we’ll get to this one.

Wait.

This is starting to sound like a list of all the games I WONT be playing for the next few months. That’s not helping my gamerscore.

In October is the release of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order by Respawn (Creators of Titan Fall). I think after I wrap Celeste, this will be my next big single-player game. I could hold off on this and play through something in my backlog of games (we all know I have a few – Assassins Creed: Odyssey, PREY, and Wolfenstein Youngblood). I do have to be conscious of my game budget now, what with Cillian in daycare. But if I hold off on games, they just get added to the backlog, and its a never ending cycle.

Now this is a moot point, and not Extra-Life or achievement goal related, but wrapping up the year in November is Death Stranding, Need for Speed: Heat, and possibly Doom Eternal. Death Stranding is a for sure as I do like me my Kojima games, and this is his first since being ousted from Konami. I’ll have to clean my slate for that. Need for Speed Heat… since it’s an EA game, I’ll likely wait for a steep discount or for it to be free in the EA Vault. Doom Eternal, I will wait on. It took me 3 years to beat the 2016 edition (not that it was bad), and from the gameplay videos I’ve seen, I haven’t liked the changes they’ve made to the sequel. Maybe I’ll wait on Doom Eternal, find out if the changes are that bad, or if I’m just being picky.

Now hopefully I can play enough games to unlock 8K worth of achievements before November 2nd.

-iRogan

Bird Game +

I don’t typically buy games for the achievements. But the last two have broken that rule.

First was Super Weekend Mode

This game takes about 20 minutes to get all 1000G. Quicker probably if I had played on easy from the start.

2nd game was Bird Game +. Took me 52 minutes to get 1000G.

Simple quick games like these. I do not mind throwing down $5 for easy G’s.

-iRogan