Week of 07 May 2023
I have to say, a week removed from my last entry and my opinion of Redfall has brightened! It probably has to do with the fact I’m not scouring every inch of the map for extremely-hidden collectibles, or grinding revives for Trust with a dummy account. Now that I’m actually playing the game as it was intended, it’s actually far more fun. Still doesn’t feel like a first-party console-exclusive AAA game, but I think that’ll change enough over the next few months to maybe save it from obscurity. Anyway, most of this week was wrapping up my business in the game’s first half, Redfall Commons. I managed to get most of this done over Sunday and Monday, and progressed to the second map through the point-of-no-return. The first Vampire God, the Hollow Man, was pretty annoying to fight. I just felt like he was putting out so much damage himself and swarming me with weird memory-shadows that I died a few times; probably more than I did the whole game up to that point. And then an Angler in the dreamscape woods afterwards also harangued me plenty. I managed to grab the remaining collectibles around Burial Point when I arrived, and then a few miscellaneous achievements here and there. Sadly, IRL took a turn on Thursday for the worse and my gaming was cut drastically short while I sort things out. But, I did manage to progress my second, pickup character beyond the Hollow Man fight and into Burial Point, as well. The first split where having a second character/playthrough is necessary actually occurs right after this first Vampire God fight. I also apparently completely missed an optional boss in the first area, so I also took her out quick, too, before moving on. The fight the second time was much easier as I took advantage of the Stake Launcher, which… I kind of keep forgetting exists. WAY easier. I’ll keep that in mind going forward…
Achievements unlocked: 48 (+18) | Completion: 73%
I’m not sure their insurance is gonna cover damage caused by “ancient vampire blood magic”.
I finally got around to finishing Just Dance 2022! I was absolutely killing it back in February of last year, on my way to make this by far my quickest modern Just Dance completion. But… then my IRL fell apart. I tried to keep on it remotely (using the Just Dance Now app) but my health also started suffering and I of course stopped working out altogether. When I went back home, I tried to get back into the swing of things but blow after blow just kept me off-kilter. Then my knee started acting up, then my hip, and despite my best efforts I just couldn’t work through the pain (not to mention the serious lack of motivation). But, lately I’ve been trying to get back on the health wagon and slow progress had me feeling up to jumping into the game on Saturday! It only took a whole two Megastar songs to level me up over 100, finally earning me my final achievement in what may be my final entry in this series. I’m tempted to do the newest version, but dancing with my phone in my hand just doesn’t strike the same as using Kinect. Without that support, I just don’t have the same excitement for the series. Guess we’ll see… I could always go back and do the Xbox Series-version of Just Dance 2021, which started the use of the Kinect-less experience. I don’t know.
Achievements unlocked: 32 (+1) | Completed
