I finished playing this first game in the series the other day and just wanted to share some thoughts on it.
First of all, the remaster was beautifully done and I loved the fact you could hit a button and play the original version of you wanted.
Replying the story was great, most of it I remembered and some of it I recalled once I’d got stuck in. Other elements came as somewhat of a surprise as I had genuinely forgotten them. Things like how hadn’t hard the Flood are to kill. What a pain in the arse the Warthogs can be to drive at times.
I didn’t even bother keeping count of how many times I died! I was playing on normal and damn, that was challenging at times.
I’m so glad I finally got into this again and I’m looking forward to diving into the second game next week!
I’ve been playing a lot of GTAV online recently as part of working on my self-care. Gaming for me is an escape for me. It’s one the few things that turns my brain off from everything going on around me.
With GTAV I used to play it a lot but my anxieties would get to me. Mostly I’d just drive around robbing convenience stores, stealing and selling cars, and occasionally working for another player as bodyguard or associate. I had a Motorcycle Gang clubhouse but rarely did anything with it. When I would do the missions I’d get very frustrated when another player would thwart my efforts. And after a while it felt like it was becoming toxic to me. I was literally driving around doing nothing in the game. So I deleted it.
A few weeks ago Stefan from Stefan’s Daily Gaming mentioned playing it so I loaded it up again. Unfortunately we’ve not been able to make playing together happen, yet. But I’ve got a few plans for when it does happen.
The first few sessions I didn’t really do a lot, but then I had my day out at Broadstairs and that realisation that fear is ruining my life and I started doing more. I’ve bought a ID counterfeiting business via my motorcycle gang and have done a couple of the Survival challenges. I used to never do anything like that. The one time I did I got a little shit talking from the other players, and that put me off. Now I don’t think I’d be as delicate to it, but I also think I’m not going to be doing many of these missions with strangers. I think I just need to find my people on there. With Stefan I think it’ll be good. We’ve done a fair bit of gaming together and I think we’ll work well together.
I do love how beautiful this game is ☺️
I would like to have peeps I play with on there. You see others doing it and I think it would enhance the experience. It’ll make earning cash easier as well as some of the contacts for example need at least two people and even the ones that don’t an extra gun would be handy. You can recruit players in game to work for you, with a Motorcycle Gang they start as Prospects. I’ve had next to no luck with this, but I will persist as I want to expand that experience of the game.
At the moment I am building funds so I can expand my empire. I have something that’s beginning to look like a plan building. I’ve done a little reading online for tips etc. and I’m beginning to get an idea of where I want to put my money. I’ve just got to earn it first, and I’m not buying funds from Rockstar. I’m not necessarily against that, but its not for me. A) I don’t really have the budget to spend on games outside of my Xbox Game Pass each month and B) I want to earn my money. I don’t want shortcuts. I want to hustle and earn my wealth.
I did what’s called a ‘gang attack’ which is where you face off against twenty or so NPCs, and used my armoured car as a shield! 🤣
Now, other players do bother me. Some, I think they’r recalled Griefers, although I prefer trolls, are just out to ruin others enjoyment. I can understand trying to screw up someone as they’re trying to transport goods. You earn cash and RP (Respect Points) in doing that. It’s the ones who’ll do that, and then spend the next ten minutes just trying to kill you. These people normally have vehicles which are hard to destroy, like military grade fighters, when all I wanna do is get back onto another money earner. I even had one troll message me on Xbox (not even the in game messaging system) bragging about a gaming chair and calling me a noob. Firstly, I’m not sure what the chair has to do with it, secondly, I’m nearly level 100 on the game, so although I’m not a gifted gamer calling me a noob wasn’t accurate, and thirdly I’m not rising to that bait. I’m past that. I haven’t got time to get in a dick waving contest over a video game. If you’re someone that gets pleasure from ruining someone else’s enjoyment then you really need help. I’ll also not back down. I’m not quitting a session due to someone trolling me. Stuff that, I’ve given into too many bullies in my life, and I’m not going to do it anymore. Especially not on a video game.
I’ve made a few missteps cash wise but I’m on a decent road to recovery with it and am getting close to instigating my next major purchase.
I know I’m not the most gifted gamer, but some things in the game I do well. I’ve found I’m pretty damn good on a motorbike (which is shocking cause in real life I’ve never been on one), but I do feel exposed and would rather be driving my armoured sports car. Especially in a session where there’s a lot of hostility going around. I will admit that when I’m in those sessions I tend to be a little more passive and not as pro-active when running my MC (motorcycle gang), but I think I’ll change that. Loosing a payday or dying in game isn’t the end of the world. I’ve not found anything on this game that can be lost and not recovered one way or another.
I feel like I’ve made a commitment to build something in this game. To be successful in it. It’s not going to be easy and I’ve got to keep a strong nerve and not quit when it gets hard.
Since writing this post yesterday morning I have added a nightclub to my growing empire and I think this is gonna help me step up a level.
Last night I took the night off from writing and relaxed a little, and played some Xbox. Today I managed to get a couple of hundred words during my lunch break and over 600 words tonight for a total of just under 900 words for the day.
Definitely not my best day but I’m happy with it, it’s 900 words I didn’t have at the start of the day. One thing I’ve noticed as I’m writing longhand is that I’m not crossing out large sections of words. When I’m typing I’ve gotten in the habit of deleting sections I’m not happy with, even when I used to write longhand I’d cross out sections and re-write them. Now though, I’ve written parts that I want to change but instead of crossing them out I’ve just made a note on the page to cut that part or re-write for the second draft.
Where I’m writing longhand I’m finding I’m no feeling like I’m under any where near as much pressure as I have been when I’ve been typing a first draft. I don’t know if this will be how I go forward in the future but as long as it’s working now then I’m going to stick to it.
I’ve been really brutal with Earth, After Liberation today and cut out about 3000 words, which takes it up to about 5000 all-in-all thats been cut. I’ve still got a lot to do on it, from connecting pieces up which are now a little more disjointed then they were and re-mapping all of the chapters so it actually makes sense.
Once I’d finished carving that up I read through a short story I wrote in March/April time and made some alterations before printing it off and red-penning it. It’s now with my grammar checker and once she’s done with it I’m correct any mistakes and get it off to a Beta reader or two 🙂
Over the last week i’ve managed to make some decent progress on Earth, After Liberation and at times I even think I might be able to get this draft done before NaNoWriMo starts but we’ll see what the next few weeks bring.
Tonight I have spent a little time getting prepped for NaNo over at the site and reading through a few notes I’ve already got for my story this year. What I’m planning to do is write the sequel to Earth, After Liberation (which I wrote during NaNo2013) and then next year I’ll write the third part of the trilogy during NaNo2015. I know the tone I’d like to set for this years novel and I know how it’ll start and what the final scene is going to be. I know the rough course of the story between these two points but until I start writing I can’t say how it’s going to go.
Today didn’t go quite as planned though, I was hoping to get a good early start today but I was out celebrating a dear friends birthday last night and didn’t get home till close to 2am, and then laid in till almost 11am. I didn’t get started till gone 12 but still managed to get a fair bit done.
I know I said I wasn’t going to update here daily about my attempt to work for one hour a day no matter what on my writing but seeing as today was the first day I’ve tried it I just thought I’ll let y’all know how it went. It went quite well, I managed to get twelve chapters of Earth, After Liberation read through in an hour and fifteen minutes, which I’m quite chuffed about. During that time I did pause the timer and grabbed a drink or replied to a comment on Facebook and then just stated the timer again and got going once more. I didn’t have the TV on or any music or the radio on in the back round, I literally just cracked on which proved to be very productive, not only in getting a lot of pages worked through but I’ve figured out how to make Earth, After Liberation work a lot better. I’m going to have to cut a lot, re-write a lot more and add even more but I can see quite clearly in my head how it needs to be structured.
Now though, I’m going to play some Xbox and chill out as I’m back at work tomorrow but I’ll be making sure I get my hour in no matter what. As I’m reading through Earth, After Liberation on screen I’ll probably get the hour made up in the evening but once I’ve done this read though and I have a paper copy printed I’ll be able to be a little more flexible with when I’m working on it 🙂
I’m back off to work tomorrow, my week off has come to an end and its back to reality. I’m quite looking forward to it to be honest. Time off is all good and well but it does not have any real strength if it is never ending. This week has been good. Batteries are re-charged. Some quality time has been spent with Tracie and some Xbox has been played. Not much writing, reading or editing has been done though but I think that’s been a good thing. I did got some done tonight. I think not working on the WIP much this week has helped because I was a little unsure how to advance with a section that needs a total re-write. Tonight I started on that and it is looking quite good, when I continue tomorrow night I’m at a point where it will (hopefully) be easy to continue where I’ve left off tonight.
I’m coming to the end of my little bit of time off and I can safely say that I’ve pretty much done nothing 🙂 aside from Monday when me and Owen had our little brain storming session. I’ve done a little editing and I’ve thought through a lot of ideas that have been jumping up and down in my head for a while.
Most of the week I’ve spent with Tracie, although there has been a lot of Xbox playing too. I’m not a big gamer but when I do I’ll blitz it for a few days, a week at the most but then I most likely will not go back and play on it again for 6 months or so.
Aside from that I’ve had a chilled out week, but come Monday I’m back at work and will be cracking on with my WIP 🙂
After a few days where I’ve been feeling like I am constantly on the verge of falling asleep whenever I sit down I’ve decided to ease off the writing side of life and have a week, maybe two, just taking it easy. I had a burn out moment earlier in the year and it got to the point where I almost fell asleep as I was driving. I’m still going to be scribbling down any ideas that I have but I’m not going to be starting my main project for the first part of the year till mid January.
What am I going to do instead of writing/researching/editing? Well I will be sleeping lol No I’m going to be reading a little, watching DVDs. I’ve got series 2 of The Walking Dead and Series 2 of Rome to watch as well as The Women In Black. I’m also going to be playing a little Xbox too.
This time will also give my mind a little breathing space to compute some bits and pieces of the stories that I am working on at the moment.
I had a lot planned today. I was going to write two or three blog posts and do a little planning for NaNoWriMo and maybe a little editing too and then some well deserved Xbox, but my Grandad was rushed to hospital at about 1 this afternoon so we spent the afternoon down A&E, but thankfully it’s nothing serious and he’s home 🙂 So I’ve only managed to get the Movie Monday post done (I am about to play a little Xbox though 😉 ) So that’s been my day. NaNoWriMo is just a few days away so I will be focussing on that a little as well as getting The Space Watch sorted too. A busy week ahead.
Peter Germany's World 