Editorial: June 2017
Summer is almost upon us and, with a few lovely days in May, we were able to get out for a bit and get some sun on our skin. That didn’t stop us from finding time to play video games though! A massive thank you to all of our 324 followers for sticking with us – you guys are awesome and we’ve listed you over on our dedicated page to prove just how great you all are.
The WordPress community continues to create amazing posts and every time we look at our reader, we’re treated to something new and special. Here are some of the highlights from the past month:
Last month, Kim was…
Doing: solving problems and coordinating appointments
Feeling: a bit overwhelmed
Playing: Horizon Zero Dawn (still)
Writing: Arm yourself: video game weapons
The past month has been completely nuts. Despite our builder advising that house renovations would take between three and four weeks, here we are three months later still without a fully functional kitchen – and with several cupboards installed upside down (that would explain why the drawers won’t fit). There’s only so much KFC one woman can eat so my other-half and I have had to take matters into our own hands.
So with days of DIY and hospital appointments for my dad (thank you to everyone who sent well-wishes), there hasn’t been much time for video games unfortunately. The only thing I’ve managed to play during the past several weeks is Horizon Zero Dawn and, despite getting through over 70 hours of the game, I’m still only two-thirds of the way through the main storyline. Although I’m absolutely loving messing around in photo mode, I’m starting to get twitchy and feel the need to move to a different game coming on.
I’ve received a number of recommendations: Kona from Dimlicht from Game Cartography; Virginia from Daniel from Dan Talks Games; and Life is Strange from both James at QTX and James from Excalibur Games. If you have any advice about these games or title suggestions that should be added to the list, please do let me know!
Something I intend to play this month is Slime Rancher as part of the next Gamely Giving event. From 07:00 GMT on Saturday, 24 June 2017, Ethan’s Mini-Marathon will see us gaming for 16-hours live on Twitch in honour of the wonderful charity that is SpecialEffect. For every £1 donated, Ethan will place a block of TNT on a structure in his Minecraft world along with a sign showing the supporters name; he’ll then light it at the end of the stream so everyone can see how much destruction it causes. BOOM.
Coming up this month…
If we ever get a working kitchen, we’ll be adding some video-game-themed touches to the room (as well as cooking proper dinners rather than eating KFC) once it has been painted. I’ll share our ideas in a post later this week and you can let us know whether they’re cool or simply terrible.
Alongside that, it’s Father’s Day here in the UK on 18 June 2017 so they’ll be something dedicated to all the dads out there. There’ll also be another blog party here on Later Levels on 30 June 2017 so get your colourful leis and even-more-colourful cocktails ready to help us celebrate the summer.
Kim View All
Video game lover, Later Levels blogger and SpecialEffect volunteer. Big fan of wannabe pirates and fine leather jackets.
Thanks for the shout-out; much appreciated as always.
RE Life is Strange, I believe it’s a PS Plus game this month, so if you’ve got PS Plus, you getz it for free. And, let’s be honest, you can’t argue with free, right!? Plus there’s a nice element of serendipity to that, I feel.
I’m massively biased, for sure, but I don’t think it’s overly hyperbolic* to suggest that the world would be a better place if everybody played Life is Strange.
*It might be a bit hyperbolic, but whatevs….. 😉
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I downloaded Life is Strange yesterday so I’m all ready to go for this evening! And I’ve only got 2 episodes of 13 Reasons Why left to go – I have a feeling I’m going to be a quivering wreck after all this emotion.
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Haha. Like I said on Twitter, if Life is Strange doesn’t hit you right in the feelz, I’d see a Doctor, because it probably means there’s something dead inside of you.
(I won’t spoil anything, but there’s this one story arc that absolutely floored me, and I was very much a quivering wreck after it. 😉)
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I’ll get the tissues ready. Really tempted to stream it, so everyone can see the evidence if there are tears.
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Wow, you’re braver than I am.
Besides, I’m not sure people would’ve even been able to understand me through all the tears, snot and hysterical gulping had I been streaming at the time. 😉
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Oh no… is it really that emotional?! I’ll grab two packs of tissues.
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Thanks for the recommendation of the blogging post by Adventure Rules, I really learned a lot from it!
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Ian from Adventure Rules is a great writer – I highly recommend following his blog! 🙂
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Yeah I have, it’s fantastic!
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I also recently got “Life is Strange” and look forward playing/reviewing it, even if I don’t know when I’ll have time for both :). I played “Horizon Zero Dawn” on a friend’s PS4 and was pretty impressed (even without 4K) and I’m still thinking about getting a console (PS4 Pro) for that game, and also for all the others I’ve missed… remastered “The Last of Us”, the new “Uncharted”. Ah, just too many games. Some recommendation: “Wonder Boy: Dragon’s Trap” looks amazing. It’s also rather short (always good if one doesn’t have the time) ;).
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After spending so long with Horizon (and hopefully finally completing it this week), short is good! I’ve really enjoyed it but feel the need to move onto something else now. I’m looking forward to trying out Life is Strange – I’ve heard so many good things about it.
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And you’ll be on time for the prequel of “Life is Strange” ;). It seems it warrants quite a few playthroughs with decisions that actually matter. Very excited, too!
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Yes, the timing couldn’t be better. Looking forward to reading about what you make of it. 🙂
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