Background downloader is live!

 Good evening everyone!  I hope you've all had an amazing day so far and your taking things easy like me.  I haven't been up to too much today, just doing my daily tasks in World of Warcraft and just recently watched the PlayStation digital event.  Some new games got revealed and prices got announced.  I don't think i'll ever get a PS5, the only game that massively impressed me was Hogwarts Legacy.  I am hoping this one releases on more platforms other than the PS5 and XBOX.  

The Playstation event was good, just a lot of the games do not appeal to me

Waking up to seeing the background downloader on the Battlenet launcher got me feeling excited.  This to me means that the pre-patch will launch on either the 23rd or 30th September, this of course could be wrong but it's just my guess.  Once the pre-patch drops, I'll spend some time gearing up my priest and levelling allied races for the heritage armour achievements.  I have gathered a few new achievements over the last couple of days, most noticeable are the armour set achievements.  Right now I am currently working on Tier 5 with my priest, she just needs a couple of pieces to finish the achievement.  I'll then move on over to Sunwell to get the set from there.

My most recent achievements

I haven't had much luck in the mount department outside of 100% guaranteed drops via achievements.  I have started doing Dragon Soul as I have 3 uncollected mounts from there while running Legion Karazhan each week for the new Midnight model.  I'll hopefully have a bit of luck and get a new mount this week!

I mentioned that I would have a Portal Knight's review ready for today.  I am so sorry guys, I completely lost track over the last couple of days and still have to prepare.  I wont promise an exact day but I will get working on it!

I hope you all have a lovely evening and I'll see you all on my next post!

Money Monday

 Good evening everyone!  I hope you have all had an amazing weekend and that your Monday has been going well so far!  It is 23:20 at my end of the world and i'm currently watching crime shows on Youtube as I write this post.  I had another quiet weekend playing games n watching movies.  I've had a bit of an odd few days by waking up with a slight eye infection and now today I cannot hear out of my right ear, my body is falling apart guys!

I have had another good few days in World of Warcraft, I got two new mounts, some new achievements and managed to farm a good amount of gold doing world quests and selling some old things on the AH. Doing the BFA PvP achievements prove to be interesting.  The last one I had to complete was looting 10 bounties which I managed to do during the Nazmir invasion.  I had a lovely encounter with a multiboxer playing 15+ boomkins.  We formed a raid group but never managed to down this raid boss!  I've been working on some new achievements that are a bit more grindy than what I've done previously while also levelling up all professions to 150 for the all professions achievement.  Holy-moly enchanting, blacksmithing and engineering has been so expensive, I will be so glad once I have them all maxed out and do not need to do this again.  Some mats have gone down in price with folks trying to sell their banks before Shadowlands but some are still a bit pricey.

Finished up the BFA world PvP achievements and got this cool looking guy

Army of boomkins, wow these guys gibbed me before I could react

I do have plans to do another play-through of the levelling process on Shadowlands for the final time.  I have a feeling that pre-patch may drop on either the 23rd or 30th September and I will not step back in to the beta to let the hype ramp up.  

Outside of World of Warcraft, I have not been up to much at all.  I am still undecided on which game to play next.  I recently reinstalled Dying Light to play with my boyfriend, it's not my usual type of game and i'm not the best but it is a lot of fun to play.  I may just spend some time playing Stardew Valley and relax but I do also have the itch to play something else.  I'm sorry that I didn't have a review post ready for today, i'll have my Portal Knight's review up and ready for your viewing on Wednesday.

I hope you all have a lovely evening and I'll see you all on my next post!

Late night post before the week ends

 Good evening everyone!  I hope you've all had a fantastic day so far and you're all looking forward to the weekend.  It's a rather late post from me, I am currently watching the worst movie in the world and decided I better get writing before I forget and its Saturday!  The movie I am watching is called "I'm thinking of ending things", it is supposed to be a horror/thriller/drama but it is a load of rubbish if you ask me.  I just cannot see what the goal or aim of this movie was meant to be, i'm so sad I wasted over 2 hours of my time watching this lol but once I started I had to see it to the end.

I have had a great couple of days in World of Warcraft, I got two new mounts from the Legion reputation supplies.  I also have been working on achievements and set myself a new goal of which ones to do next.  I'll hopefully continue being lucky and finish up with all of the mounts needed from the legion supplies.  In terms of BFA, I just need a mount from the Nazjatar supplies and a toy from the Voldun supplies.

I have 2/3 of the elephant mounts now, fingers crossed for that last drop to come soon

Got this neat hippogryph Add caption

I'll be spending some time over the next few weeks to farm the Dragon Soul raid as there are three mounts to collect from there.  I'll also do some runs in Karazhan and Zul'Gurub with my alt army to see if I have any luck with mount drops.  Outside of mount farming I have decided i'll try to snag some gear for my priest as I intend to level her once my monk has reached max level in Shadowlands.  I would like to learn how to play discipline as I have no idea how the spec works compared to when I last played.

Recently the server group I play on got merged with three other servers, sadly it's not very noticeable other than some slight changes with the auction house prices.  I was hoping that they would have tried to balance out the factions as it was always a horde dominated group but now it is the complete opposite.  It looks like we will continue to have issues with recruiting if another couple of servers are not added in to the mix before Shadowlands.

I am so glad to announce I have finally finished Portal Knight.  I will not pursue any more achievements nor purchase the DLC as I really didn't enjoy the game at all.  It started off as interesting but quickly turned in to a tedious chore to play.  I will aim to have a review up for this game on Monday and will not be too harsh as others may find the game enjoyable and appealing.

I'm not sure what my new game will be as of yet, i'll definitely not be playing any block building games any time soon.  I'll be sure to let you guys all know once I have decided.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, let me know in the comments if you have anything exciting planned!  I have no plans myself at this time, I'm usually quick to make last minute decisions.  I'll see you all on my next post!

Wednesday evening shutdown

 Good evening everyone!  I hope you're all having a fantastic day wherever you are in the world.  It's been quite grey but warm here in Scotland.  I went out for a walk earlier and spent the rest of my day chilling with World of Warcraft. 

I have nothing exciting to share sadly, I've just been working through BFA and Legion world quests to get those reputation supplies.  I got two new toys from the Azeroth Champions and Zandalari reputations, I sadly do not have any screenshots as I intended to take them while writing but my server has now went offline.  Blizzard are merging the server I play on with a few others so it will be nice to see some more players in the world and hopefully the auction house is more active.

While the server is down, I'll be pushing myself through Portal Knights with Asmongold's stream playing in the background.  He is definitely one of my favourite content creators and I enjoy watching his stream when I can.  I'll most likely also do some crafting tonight and make a couple of new cards.  I am still not quite ready to share my creations with you all, I struggle with confidence issues and have been trying to be more positive and not think what I create is rubbish.  I have enjoyed creating the cards I have done so far so I think I have finally beat the motivation block and can quite happily pick up my supplies and get making.

Sorry today's post is very minimal, I have not had much time to prepare due to taking screenshots as I write if I have not taken any on the spot.  I'll hopefully have a more exciting post for you all on Friday.  I hope you have a lovely evening and i'll see you all in my next post!

Another day escaped my mind

 Good evening everyone!  I hope you've all had a fantastic weekend and that your Monday has been going well so far.  Apologies for not posting on Friday, time just escaped me and became Saturday all of a sudden.  My weekend has not been very eventful, just filled with a lot of gaming and some movies.  I have had the worst headache ever today so have spent way too much time sleeping.  I am currently running a bath and plan to spend my evening playing some World of Warcraft and possibly watch a movie or two.

I have had a fantastic few days in World of Warcraft, I got 2 brand new mount and completed quite a few new achievements.  I have been actively doing world quests in the zones where I still need a mount from the reputation supply bag, so far I have gotten 2 from the Legion reputations and hopefully more will come before the buff ends.

A flying carpet from Surumar

My first elephant mount on the Horde side, I really like this little guy

Outside of the mount hunt, I have completed a few new achievements since my last post!  None of them have been difficult, just time consuming.  I will be looking through my achievement tab tonight to figure out what i'll be working on next.  Oh, I forgot to mention, I also managed to get the egg that drops off pterodactyl mobs in Zuldazar so I am now able to start the dailies which will give me a mount and 2 achievements once fully complete.  I got it fairly quickly in this farming attempt, around 20 minutes compared to the 4+ hour attempt I tried in the past.

Ahhh... so many lovely achievements

As you guys know, I am currently playing through Portal Knights.  I am sadly not enjoying this game at all and feel like it has now become a chore.  I have been considering just dropping it completely but I did set myself a goal of completing games once I start them so I do not have a backlog of unfinished games sitting in my Steam library.  

I chose a mage as my character, this may have been a bad choice but I have no idea.  I feel like all I do is seek portals to unlock a new area, some of these are hidden underground and require a compass to find the exact position then dig down in hopes that I find the portal.  I have not came across any "story" quests and only side quests when reviewing my quest log.  I have had so many scenarios of where quest monsters do not appear at all, I read that the solution is just to refresh the world.  When doing this every single quest resets and the areas change slightly as if  a new map has been created.  This was extremely disappointing as I now feel the urge to go back and finish quests I've already done due to feeling I know have messed up my game experience. 

Starter home I build, I have made a much nicer one now

I also feel that after the first boss enemy, things have scaled to a point of being too tough for the nature of this game.  All of my equipment is the best it can be at this point in the game and the risk of dying is still stupidly high.  Maybe this game has been designed to play as a group for the entirety of the game but I chose to play this solo and feel like I'm being punished for this choice.  Some of the achievements are also at the level of what I have collected in World of Warcraft after months of playing, I definitely do not intent to complete any of these for Portal Knights.  The game started off great but I feel it very quickly lost its charm and direction.

*/Changing the subject before the depression of Portal Knights kicks in*.  Guys, I have started to have a WoW crisis.  I have been toying with the idea of going back to Priest for Shadowlands.  Priest used to be my main from The Burning Crusade till the release of Mists of Pandaria where I switched to Monk.  The reason for this train of thought is due to me disliking playing melee so I am pretty much locked as a healer or tank and feel I may be more of use playing as a healer or ranged damage.  We have more than enough tanks in our guild and I thought the flexibility at my end may be more of use for farming m+ outside of my usual group.  I have had this dilemma for almost a week now and think the best thing for me to do would be to level and gear both my priest and monk.  I have never really had a properly geared alt to play with actively so maybe Shadowlands is the time for this.  I'll keep you guys posted and let you know if I change my mind nearer launch time.

I hope you all have a lovely evening wherever you are in the world.  I'll see you all on my next post!

Happy Wednesday!

Good evening everyone!  I hope you've all had a fantastic day where ever you are in the world.  I have had quite a quiet day today, spending my time browsing the net and doing some world quests in World of Warcraft, taking advantage of the rep buff.  I have decided to set myself a new challenge of doing 200 crunches every day to see if I notice any difference by the start of next month.   I am halving the load, doing 100 in the morning and the rest in the evening with 4 sets of 25.  I started last night and already feel some exercise pain in my gut so we shall see how this goes!

I have been working on some new achievements over the last few days and also completed a few new ones.  I've been doing a lot of archaeology over the past week or so and I am now getting close to finishing 250 dig sites in the Legion zone and also 100 in the BFA areas.  I'll have both of these achievements finished tomorrow, I have been pacing this by doing 10 sites a day in each continent.

Some new achievements over the last few days

The achievements i'm currently working on

My mount/toy/pet hunting still continues, this week i'll be able to buy a new pet from the Stratholme pet dungeon which takes me closer to never needing to return to this place.  I sadly haven't had any luck this week in the mount department, hoping I get lucky in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms this week as there are quite a few mounts available in this rotation.

As mentioned in a previous post, I have been playing Portal Knight's on Steam.  I'm so sad to say that I am not enjoying this game at all.  The game started off as promising and fun but after the 7 hour mark I have found myself feeling bored and that playing has now become a chore.  I will see this through but will most likely not collect a lot of the achievements due to the demand of putting various hours in to the game.  By no means is this game awful, It just is not what I expected it to be and to become stale so quickly. 

Battling the first boss in Portal Knight's, a lot of adds and a step up compared to the monsters I have encountered so far

I'll be spending the rest of my evening by watching a movie and doing a little bit more arts and crafts.  I have been slowly finding love in this hobby that has been so difficult to pick up again.  I experienced a rough patch in life not too long ago and lost a lot of interest in doing anything really so most days can be a struggle to find motivation.

One of the craft brands I love will be revealing its Fall/Winter collection over the next week so i'll be excited to see if there are any products that i'll pick up.  They have their own blog site and post a lot of lovely creations every day (https://blog.lawnfawn.com/), do have a look as you may find it interesting!

I hope you all have a lovely evening and join me on Friday on my next post!  Sorry today has been a bit of a short one, haven't been feeling myself and have been so mentally and physically exhausted these past couple of days.

Review: Parkasaurus (PC)

 Good evening everyone!  I hope you've all had a lovely weekend and your day has been going well so far.  I've spent my weekend playing the Shadowlands Beta and retail World of Warcraft with a little bit of Portal Knights sprinkled in.  I have decided to start this week off with a review for Parkasaurus.

This is a game that has popped up in the recommended tab on Steam for some time but due playing Jurassic World Evolution, I wasn't quite in the mood to pick up another dino builder.  After seeing some notifications that the game came out of early access, it caught enough of my attention for me to check out some videos and see if this is a game i'd like.  The game looked like a lot of fun and very cute so I decided to give this one a try.  Let's get on with the review!

Parkasaurus is a dinosaur themed park management game where the player is tasked with creating an exciting park experience for their visitors while ensuring that the park is making a profit and all of the dinosaurs are well taken care of.  The story is very basic and by no means the man highlight of the game, some dinosaurs crash landing on earth and teaching humans how to make the perfect dinosaur parks so they can return home.

Image from my Steam Library, the one achievement I miss appears to be bugged

It can be a bit daunting jumping in to a new management game, having to learn how it works and navigating the menus.  Parkasaurus does a great job of easing the player in gently via the campaign mode as each level is broken down in to small learning experiences to get you started.  Within the first hour of playing you will be able to navigate all of the menus and start building parks with ease.  The campaign mode features a talent tree that offer various perks such as giving visitors increased movement speed at night, making them spend more.  You gain points by making progress in a campaign level, think of the usual star system that is active in most park/zoo builders.

Image showing the campaign mode world map as well as the perks you can unlock on the side

Each level gives the player different items to play with such as fences, buildings and dinosaurs.  You can unlock more by gathering hearts, science points and sending your team out to find fossils.  Hearts are gathered at the end of the day based on how many dinosaurs you have and their happiness level.  Science points can be collected by hiring a scientist and building them a work station to generate points.  Both of these currencies unlock decorations for your park, new buildings, fences and enrichment items for enclosures and some funky hats for your dinosaurs to wear.  

To unlock new dinosaurs, you need to find fossils.  Having 4 members of staff before doing this will give you more moves on the grid.  The mini game plays like minesweeper with no major risk other than losing the fossil if you accidentally click on a piece that has already been discovered.  Each dinosaur has a specific number of fossils it needs before you can get an egg so you may need to go to a few dig sites.

Digging up some fossils to add some new dinosaurs to the park

Even though the game has left early access, there are still some issues that need ironed out.  I had quite a few instances of staff being unable to reach a food dispenser in an enclosure and visitors not using paths to go further in to a large park even though there are enough rest stops and enclosures to visit.

One of the later campaign levels, I done a full rebuild and was rather happy with how things looked

In terms of overall gameplay, it is definitely a simplified version of other management builders out there and is a family friendly game.  The learning curve is small with enough objects and dinosaur breeds to allow you to make some big parks with lots to see and a lot of shops and decorations.  It is not challenging by any means so if you are looking for a challenge, this may not be the game for you.  I found Parkasaurus very fun and relaxing to play.

What rating would I give Parkasaurus? 8/10

I hope you've all enjoyed my Parkasaurus review and may be tempted to give the game a try.  I would definitely recommend this to anyone that is looking for something new to play as it will not dent your wallet and quite an enjoyable game.  

I am still waiting for a team that will make a pet shop game, could it be the creators of Parkasaurus or Megaquarium who deliver this dream?  Someone please make a good one!

Have a lovely evening everyone, i'll see you all on my next post.