Go Lions!?

 Don't let the 49ers win please.  Thanks.

Day 1: Enshrouded

 I took the plunge and grabbed Enshrouded on Steam.  Here are some thoughts at initial glance (about 30 minutes of play).  Welcome to a new world heartlessgamer!

Straight out of the pot!

 The game dumped me out of a metal pot and off I went through a series of caves; well that is only if the player opts to go into the caves.  My first attempt was jumping off the cliff and enjoying my first "you died" screen.  I will have to break some habits from New World where fall damage is not a consideration!

Who knew you'd die jumping off a cliff?

 

 Once I took the subtle hint to follow the glowing sprite to the caves I hit the tutorial.  This sequence introduced inventory management, basic traversal, and combat. As far as introductions goes it didn't overstay its welcome and I left with what I needed to play the game.

 In short order I was off into the world.  While there was a quest to build my starting alter there were no guard rails preventing me from venturing off into the world.  Sure enough a goat caught my attention and off I went chasing.  I did double back and build my alter, craft a few items, and then placed a camp fire.

 I had nabbed some mushrooms and rabbit meat while venturing so I sat down to cook them over the fire.  Unlike other games with recipe screens and progress bars I was pleasantly surprised to see my character pull out a skewer and roast the food over the fire.  Even more surprising was burning my first mushroom by holding it over the fire a bit too long.  While neat to start I can imagine I'll get tired of cooking in this fashion later on.  Hopefully I can find a cook or get an automatic oven!

 After making my food was cooked I opted to run off to the next quest marker.  It took me through one of the games namesake areas cloaked in shroud.  The quest took me through the area and promptly handed me my second, third, and fourth deaths.  Wolves and other baddies are around the quest area and while they are only level 3 (I am level 2) they are not slouches and easily killed me each time.

 That is where my Day 1 ended after about 30 minutes of play.  I enjoyed the start, but felt combat was a bit clunky.  Dodge and attacks felt very unresponsive, but that may be an offshoot of playing New World which has a very responsive combat system.  I suspect that attacks/dodges get faster as well the higher level I get in the game.

 I see some promise in the game and it is a nice break from MMOs.  My oldest son is looking to play as well so looking forward to some multiplayer hijinks.  I also want to get into some building and get my "cabin with a garden". 

New World Cooking Changes? +Bonus Q&A!

 New World's 4.0.3 patch is coming tonight.  Check out the notes here and watch the breakdown video below.  Jump past that for some comments and wild speculation about cooking changes!

 This is a relatively small patch with various bug fixes, but hiding in the notes was a mention about future cooking tradeskill changes!

Legendary Fish

    To set the groundwork for Cooking Trade Skill changes coming next season, Legendary Fish will now require a higher Luck stat to catch.

 Let's speculate wildly!

 So what could be changing with cooking trade skills?  My initial guess would be removing some of the legendary fish from recipes that are needed for common consumables.  It was always a bit crazy that certain attribute foods required legendary fish while others required rabbit meat which is far more plentiful.

 That level of change is boring though so lets speculate further!  I'd love to see New World move into a model where buff food had a much longer duration and thus required more investment in terms of resources to craft the meals.  Or allow us to slot stacks of food that get auto consumed so we dont have to think about it when one wears out; it just keeps consuming until it's empty.  Thus they could be tied to gear sets easier and give more value to gear sets!

 One thing I'd also steal from Guild Wars 2 is "feasts" where a single player an set up a "feast" that other players can interact with to get a buff.  I'd prefer it be part of the housing system so folks have to enter a house and interact with something to get the buff.  This would help avoiding more spam in crowded towns and give additional value to housing which is underutilized.

 Another cooking change I'd love to see is getting rid of crafting skill foods.  It is dumb that you need to consume something that will last for an hour+ when you are crafting for just a few minutes at most even if you are doing large crafting requests.

 Interested to see where this goes!

 Wrapping up there was also a bonus community Q&A in the notes regarding server merges.  Summarized: we listened when you asked us not to merge, but still need to do some merges.  In the future we'll do less merges because we'll have more cross-server activities.  Which I agree with.  Enough said.

The Monday After Post (Packers 2023 Season Wrap Up)

 If I had a heart I'd be heartbroken.  The Packer's Cinderella season came to an end against the 49ers this past weekend.  Thus it is time to wrap up my thoughts on this unexpected season.

 Like many Packer fans I can admit this year's playoff run was unexpected and it felt like the team was "playing with house money". We squeaked into the play offs with the youngest team in the league in what was otherwise a "rebuilding years" so I am grateful for the extra games, but I am also disappointed in how it ended.

 To summarize the loss to the 49ers: missed opportunities.  For the majority of the game the Packers looked like the #1 seed and the 49ers looked like the intimidated #7 seed.  In the end though the Packers couldn't close the game out and unfortunately just as a missed field goal by New Orleans early in the season helped us make it into the play offs; a missed field goal is also what helped see us out of the play offs. 

 The field goal was not the only missed opportunity in the 49ers game.  The Packers had multiple trips to the red zone and came away with field goals or gave the ball back on downs (tush push is stupid; stop trying it).  The defense dropped multiple easy interceptions.  Last, but not least, Jordon Love -- for all the praise he deserves for turning it around this season -- regressed back to his early season form on the potential game winning drive and threw an unexplainable game losing interception (I am still baffled on what he thought he was doing).  We hadn't seen a WTF play off INT like this since Favre!

 The season ended on a heartbreaker, but the future seems bright.  The season was full of surprises from this team.  We got to see Jordon Love prove he deserve the starting spot after a rocky stretch early in the season.  The ownership of the Chicago Bears, including a season ending win-and-in game, remains intact.  Young players on offense earned their spot on the roster.  Most importantly: the team is playing as a team.

 If there are any red flags from the season they are the defense and special teams units.  I don't get how the Packers, over multiple decades now, have been unable to field a capable special teams unit.  While we had Mason Crosby reliably making kicks for years the rest of the unit struggled in the return game and punts.  Now the return game seems in good shape (mostly thanks to NFL rules changes), but the kicking game with a rookie kicker struggled and ultimately missed at the worst possible time in a play off game.

 As far as the defense I don't want to be too much in the "FIRE JOE BERRY!" camp.  Folks seem to forget early in the season when Jordon Love and the offense were struggling the defense kept us in many games we'd otherwise not have been.  Eventually the offensive struggles flip flopped with the defensive struggles and the defense struggled through the end of year and ultimately gave up the go ahead score in the last play off game.  With the full season in scope I am 50/50 on the defense.  I like consistency in coaching staff but also don't think Joe Berry's track record is that strong.  I would not be surprised with a change here.  Oh and I am still pissed they ever got rid of Mike Pettine who did nothing but deliver top 10 defenses...

 What started as a rebuilding year ended with the Packers going toe to toe with the best teams in the NFC.  Through the season the front office's decision to draft Jordan Love has been validated should he keep his current trajectory into future seasons.  The Packers are a team on the rise and the future is bright.

Final Thoughts Before Packers v 49ers

 

 The Packers shocked the NFL world last week sending the Dallas Cowboys packing and moving on to the divisional round to face off against the 49ers.  Here are some final thoughts heading into kick off.

 The story of the 2023 Packers is a story of nobodies.  If you asked the average NFL fan at the start of the year to name a Packers player they maybe could give you Aaron Jones or Jordan Love.  Past that there really was no one.  This is the youngest team in the league.  Not even fans did we know the players even if we maybe knew a few more of the names.

 And it is that team of "nobodies" that I feel is the strongest point in the Packers favor going into the game against the 49ers.  There is a lot to be said for a team that doesn't know who they are or what they are supposed to be capable of.  There is even more to be said for the team that showed up last week and declared they would not go quietly.  

 In fact this team of nobodies is becoming a team of somebodies and that should terrify the 49ers because the big question is who's night is it tonight to make their name known.  Last week it was Love and Doubs (we already knew Aaron Jones owns Dallas).  This week it could be any of the rest of the cast.

 Let's go.