Sardoken

A rainy Sunday afternon, candelights, my wife, me… And a Netflix movie.

I was afraid to have seen most of the story in the trailer, but there’s more in this Stephen King inspired movie than just a few people getting lost in tall grass.

There are so many ways that this movie could have turned bad, but it didn’t. Instead of going non-sensical and heavy, the movie managed to keep moving in the same direction and led us to a satisying ending.

The casting was good, but Patrick Wilson, by showing another face than the mister nice guy from The Conjuring, was excellent. Even though, his acting skills were not able to top the real vilain of the movie: the monolith. Never a piece of rock had felt as threatening.

Certainly not my horror movie of the year, but probably part of my top list of 2019.

Soforah

And the award for best performance goes to: the tall grass… No seriously, the movie was pretty good, better than I expected after having read the bad reviews.

It was dark, cold and rainy last Sunday, we (my husband and I) had no game installed and felt like watching some TV. I remembered having seen the trailer for “In the Tall Grass” on Netflix and, thought why not watch this? So, a Stephen King story it was.

We lit up some candles and snuggled in the couch while the rain was tapping on the window, and people were getting lost in tall grass on our screen. The reason why I speak so few about this movie is that it’s more about the entire moment. It’s one of my favourites, and no matter the quality of the movie, it will always be bound to an unforgettable Sunday afternoon.

Soforah

This is by far my favourite horror series ever created. I remember how terrified I was after watching the first movie, I could barely sleep at night. Meanwhile, years have passed, and I’m still as terrified as the first time.

One thing I’ve learned is that no matter what weird stuff you may think is happening, NEVER set up a camera to capture these events. Especially not in your bedroom while you are sleeping. This is one subject that I find utterly disturbing. Add some haunted-, possession-like elements and you got my skin crawling.

Extra kudos for the beautiful houses in all the movies and the Christmas theme in the Ghost Dimension.

Sardoken

Paranormal Activity is my favourite serie of horror movies.

We recently re-watched them all, one movie each Saturday evening. While I remembered that we always had a good time watching them, I forgot how powerful they were.

Horror is very subjective to people, what frightens a person, may not scare another… On my wife and me, found footages are very effective. I think that they are only second to exorcism and posession movies. So, when those two themes are mixed together, in a nice californian setting, all the ingredients are there to make our perfect fright cocktail.

Welcome to the first edition of our weekly report, a serie of weekly posts narrating our adventures in Azeroth.

This week, we’ve been catching back on the main quest lines of Battle for Azeroth, we both completed the war campaign and the pride of Kul Tiras.

We’ve also unlocked the Void Elves and the Lightforged Draenei allied races. We honestly thought that the Void Elves would be our favourite, since we’re not really fans of Draenei… Well, it didn’t turn out that way, helping T’paartos completing his trial was hillarious. That got us wondering: where is he now? Hopefully, we’ll cross him again…

Then, we embarked on an amazing quest: the Dwarf heritage armour. There’s no secret here, we’re Dwarfs fans. Having us helping to restore an ancient Dwarf armour with the help of the furnace master was a total hit. We’ve been talking about it almost every day as one of our favourite quest ever.

It was also Nobelgarden and we went back to our favourite chocolate farming spot: Goldhsire. We both collected the 500 chocolates required to purchase the new toy (the Nobelgarden Heartstone) and the 5 new spring circlets. The funny thing with Nobelgarden is that we often see it as a chore that disrupts our questing, but, when we’re transformed as rabbits running amidst the chaos that is the egg hunt, we’re enjoying it very much.

Voilà, that’s all folks! More next week.

After a far too long break from WoW, we have finally resubbed… Only with a few twists:

• We’re back to the Alliance. During our time away from WoW, we’ve missed the Alliance the most, with its forests and its cosy inns. Also, Kul Tiras looks fantastic, it is perfectly on spot with our idea of fantasy;
• After many experiments with other classes, we’ve decided to keep maining our hunters. The deciding factor is the fun. On top of the many advantages of the class, our hunters are dwarfs and, if you’d know us in real life, you’d know that we’re all about dwarfs;
• The last one is a biggy: we want to keep away from the negativity train. While we didn’t stay away from WoW because of the negativity, we were certainly afraid to come back because of it. Honestly, the game is a total blast to us and we have so many things to do in it, that we don’t care if some parts are less fun than others. To that end, we’re trying to be more selective with the people we follow, that’s why we’ve started new Twitter accounts. Sometimes, a reset is all you need…

Oh, and our guild and blog are now called “The Sleeping Grizzly”, which is the name of the fictional tavern in our stories (you know dwarves and their taverns).

See you in Azeroth.

Sardoken

A few weeks before the holidays I started Rise of the Tomb Raider, I had so much fun that I kept on playing until the middle of our first week. I haven’t collected everything yet, but I can see myself coming back regularly to complete each map.

I was already a fan of Life is Strange, so I thought that I would give a try to Before the Storm. Even if the gameplay is reduced to simple choices without the possibility to rewind, the game was entertaining. I really love Chloe Price and it was pretty fun spending a few afternoons in her company.

Then, just like the rest of the world, I’ve bought Red Dead Redemption 2. I was so hyped, I almost bought a cowboy hat for the release. Thank god I didn’t… As it turned out, I’m far less into the Far West than I thought. I enjoyed the first chapter, then I ended up alone in that huge world, it felt empty, soulless. Ultimately I got depressed and I deleted it.

That’s when I started the best game of my holidays: The Witcher 3. I had already tried it on PC a year go… At that time, I was still in WoW and other games didn’t easily interest me. Anyway, I got completely hooked, to the point that I instantly purchased the first book of the serie, a comic book, an action figure and a Funko. Now, that’s a world I love! I can’t help it but fantasy is where it’s at for me. I’m ready to explore each corner of every map and to complete all the quests. I’ll be there for a while…

Soforah

I started playing Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles on Switch a few weeks before the holidays started. I had so much fun in this game that I couldn’t resist reaching 96% completion. Yonder is about exploring the island, Gemea. The more you explore, gather materials and craft, the more you advance in the storyline. I’ve finished it all, except for the quest that requires you to find all the cats and planting all the trees. I think that the completion of these 2 quests would take me hours of mindless running around and, while I like to wander, this is too much for me.

After that, I wanted to give a try to Victor Vran on my favourite portable console. I remember quitting this game on PC because of the clunky gameplay, I somehow thought that it would be better on console… I was wrong! This game is even worse on Switch and the Overkill Edition is disappointing. I gave up after one afternoon.

Instead, I started playing Octopath Traveler. This game is a jewel, it’s beautiful and fun. Normally, I don’t like turn-based games, they easily become boring to me, but Octopath is different. I haven’t finished it yet, but I will!

Sardoken & Soforah

On Halloween afternoon, we played a tabletop game, Mysterium. It was the first time that we played this one and, with it’s Halloween settings, it was perfect for the occasion. It was a great moment and we can’t wait to be the next time!

Diablo 3 for Switch was released on the 2nd of November. We went to get it that same day and we haven’t played anything else since. We’ve levelled two seasonal crusaders and we’re currently working on getting to the free set. The Switch is an amazing port for D3, probably the best. We even have more fun than we had with the original.

We also made a major upgrade to our office room. Soforah bought her first Playstation, a black PS4 pro. We’ve both purchased a Steelseries Arctis pro headset and a LG 4K HDR 27′ screen.

This year, our holidays were supposed to be made of walks in the park, video games, horror movies and no coffee. After a few days, we had bought a new Nespresso machine. On the second week, we got our first tattoos and, on the third week, we had our office turned into a gaming room. None of this was planned, but you know what? We had a great time!

Since it was our Halloween holidays, we had planned to watch only horror. Just as the year before, it failed. There was a time when horror was great, we could watch one movie after another and have a great time… Well, that time is no more, horror nowadays is supposed to seduce everybody, that’s why most of it is closer to a psychological thriller than a real horror. While there are a few good movies, there aren’t nearly enough to watch on a three week span. Here’s a list of the things we’ve watched and what we thought about them:

• Hold the Dark: the trailer was promising, mystery, snow, wolves and the super sexy Alexander Skarsgård. The reality was a boring, slow movie where, in the end, you have no clue what the point was. It felt like the movie was created by a drunk apprentice of David Lynch. Thank god for the snow;
• Apostle: this movie was so hyped by horror movie reviewers on twitter, we couldn’t watch it soon enough. Some scenes were creepy and pretty gore, but the movie was mostly too slow. Too bad, it could have been a good one;
• Big Mouth: we enjoy to start a day off with a cup of coffee in front of a cartoon. That’s how we started watching Big Mouth.We love the sense of humour, the hormone monsters, the shame wizard, coach Steve,… so much fun and so many great characters. Jeez, we don’t miss puberty;
• The Haunting of Hill House: another highly rated crap. Seriously, except for the minor jump scares, this tv-show is boredom itself. A psychological drama. The only horror in this story are the long and annoying chats about the characters’ pathetic life;
• Castle Rock: the fist few episodes were promising, but the eternal going back and forth in other timelines and dimensions got confusing. As for the episode about the mother’s Alzheimer, it had nothing to do with the story and could just have just not existed. Another disappointment;
• Fear the Walking Dead: while we liked the previous seasons, this one is a let down. The first episodes were great, with an awesome new character (John), but it had to turn into a slow drama soap again. Why did they have to bring in Morgan? He was boring in TWD, why screw up the spin-off as well?Could we, please have some real survival horror, instead of a debate about the meaning of life? Anyway, we’ll sure watch the end of season 4, some day, when we’re old and we have nothing else to do;
• Castlevania: another early morning cartoon. This one is more serious, but also very beautiful. We loved it so much, we’re keeping the second season for our Christmas holidays;
• The First Purge: finally a good movie! It was so badly rated that we were afraid to watch it.
  Well, we were glad we finally did. We always loved the franchise. We were surprised that the reviews were so negative though. The Purge always makes us think about what we would do if there would be a real one;
• Gotham: one of the rare super hero tv-shows that we enjoy. So, we kept season 4 for our holiday lunchtimes. Every day at 12, we ate our sandwiches and had our cup of coffee in front of an episode. One of the highlights of the day;
• Disenchantment: We fell so much in love with it that we’ve ordered a poster for the gaming room and Soforah made a cutout of Luci for our living room door.We’ll watch it again before the next season comes out, that’s for sure;
• Game of Thrones: by the end of the holidays, we were really in need of some good quality show. While we normally aren’t big fans of re-runs, Game of Thrones totally deserves it. It was like listening to a good song after spending an hour in a supermarket.

That’s it for all we’ve watched during these three weeks. One lesson we’ve learned is not to make an horror program based on reviews and ratings.

Each time a new expansion is about to hit, we ask ourselves the same question: “should we change our main character?”.

It implies that we aren’t happy with our actual mains… To be honest, we haven’t been happy with the Hunter in a long time. There are some great things about it, but the gameplay is no longer one of them.

Therefore, we’re always trying other classes in the hope to find a replacement.

We’ve tried many classes lately, both on live and beta servers, and the pattern has been the same for all of them: discovery – excitement – disappointment. For example, we would try a destruction warlock, get comfortable with it, reach max level, have fun completing quests, go in a dungeon and, almost directly, get bored with it.

After a few weeks hurting ourselves, we’ve finally found the right fit and, guess what, it’s the same class for both of us!

For Sardoken, the problem didn’t come from the class but from the role. He just doesn’t enjoy DPSing in dungeons… Healer was where the fun was when he started to play, 14 years ago, and it still is today.

For Soforah, the problem was that no other class could bring her as much fun as the Moonkin. Eventhough she found the Paladin and the Warlock interesting, the Druid is what makes her feel the most comfortable in dungeons. Nothing like a dashing cat to catch back the group, especially those Demon Hunters.

As for the faction, no matter how beautiful Kul Tiras can be, and no matter how crazy Sylvanas can go, we’ll stay faithful to our faction: For the Horde!

TLDR: We’ll switch mains in BFA but not for a class we’ve never played before, our druids will finally have the place they deserve.

Now, off to complete those last achievements before 8.0 is realeased.

After many Sundays (and when we say many, we mean many) spent killing Goblins, Pirates and Murlocs, we finally made it, we’ve lost our sanity (what little we had)!

Sardoken

Even if I’m used to grind, the last part of the achievement Insane in the Membrane took it to another level. Pickpocketing thousands of Murlocs on the Isle of Quel’Danas really took a piece of my sanity away.

I remember that Sunday afternoon when Soforah and I ventured to Booty Bay to see how hard it was to kill the guards… I don’t know how many hundreds of hours we’ve spent working on that title since then, but one thing is certain, I’ll wear that title until my last day in WoW.

Below is the video of when I completed the achievement, I wanted to make sure I’d never forget that moment.

Soforah

I remember how it all started, a few years ago, with killing thousands of Goblin guards in Booty Bay. It was quite the massacre and, for a long time, we couldn’t enter any Goblin outpost without being attacked by the green little fellows.

When I got exalted with the Bloodsail Buccaneers, I knew that there was no way back, I just had to get the title “The Insane”. I think that this was my greatest ambition throughout the entire game and, yesterday, we finally made it.

I think that Blizzard knew exactly what they were doing when they chose the name of this achievement. Pickpocketing Murlocs for 34 hours (yes, 34! I’ve kept track of time) took grinding to another level. I think that you must, indeed, be insane in the membrane to be able to complete it.

It’s by far my most favourite achievement in WoW, and I’ll be wearing my new title with pride until the end of time.

At this point, we can safely say that we’ve seen Legion in its final state. So, why not having a look back at all these things that kept us busy during the last two years. This is not a review, just a list of “we did/didn’t enjoy”.

General design of the zones

The Brutes: From Stormheim to Argus, this expansion was gorgeous. Of course, we have our preferences, like High Mountain and Mac’Aree, but all zones were fantastic to level and to quest in.

World quests

The Brutes: We’ve always been fans of daily quests. It’s a nice system that keeps you busy and gives you the feeling to work toward an aim, mostly the reputation with a faction. I remember, in MOP, Soforah and I were thinking that it would be nice if they could find a system to keep our interest in the dailies beyond the exalted status and, boom, they’ve made it with the emissary caches and the random rewards they contain.

Class fantasy

The Brutes: To us, one of the best things of this expansion. We wish we had the time to complete all the class halls. We’re actually sad that it won’t continue in BFA. We enjoyed every aspect of it, from the halls to the special mounts and the amazing quest lines.

Prestige and PVP quests

The Brutes: Eventhough we’re not PVPers, we enjoyed these quests. While the Tower Assaults are a quick PVE strike granting PVP experience, events like Black Rook Rumble really hit the spot by introducing us to some fast paced PVP content. We enjoyed each of this event and, sometimes, they were even the funniest things we’ve done all day. Also worth mentioning: the PVP brawls, also a ton of fun.

Fishing

The Brutes: There’s no secret here: we love fishing, and we are really happy that Blizzard has provided us with even more reasons to use our (gorgeous) fishing poles. Way to go Blizz!

Mythic dungeons

Sardoken: It became my challenge and probably my first source of end-game content. It’s exactly what I was looking for: an intense but short instance that would make me want to become better geared and skilled. Finally, all this work on my rotation and my ilvl is put to the test. I’m really happy to read that myhtic dungeons are gonna be pushed further in the next expansion.

The mage Tower

Sardoken: I’m a bit shared about this one. I enjoy a challenge and working toward an achievement, but the difficulty of the challenges doesn’t feel balanced. For example, the Resto Druid challenge is incredibly longer, harder and more frustrating than the Beast Master Hunter. So, we may all run around with our challenging appearances, but they really don’t mean the same thing.

Artifacts

The Brutes: We need something that gives us the feeling that each gaming session brings us further toward an objective and collecting the artifact power gave us just that. We don’t need to be geared instantly, we’re more of a “it’s the road that matters” kind of persons.

Story

The Brutes: Helping a faction with their own troubles, so they will help us in return isn’t a new thing, but helping Thalyssra to create a new source of Mana so we could overthrow Elisande and finally defeat Gul’dan was awesome. It really feels like a lot of work was put in the insurrection quest chain, and seing Thalryssa joining the Horde felt the same as when an old friend decides to join your team.

Treasure chests

The Brutes: It may seem trivial to some but hunting those hidden chests really adds a lot of pleasure to our exploration experience. Just one thing we’d like to see changed in BFA: don’t make us carry the treasure maps in our bags anymore.

Balance of power

The Brutes: The quest that almost made us quit: how dare they force us into real raids and mythic dungeons! Well, we were wrong. This quest is what made us use the premade tool, introduced us to mythics and was the greatest source of entertainment during our X-Mas holidays. Sorry Ion, we shouldn’t have doubted you.

Gating

The Brutes: While we understand why some content needed to be gated, it doesn’t make us hate it less. Gating broke our first run through the expansion. We enjoyed all the quest lines while leveling our Druid, once the gating was gone. Don’t do this again, please!

Professions and Obliterum

The Brutes: A complete fail! I can’t believe that they’ve managed to make engineering boring, and I’m not even talking about Jewelcrafting. Obliterum was inexistent to us. The only time that we wanted to use it to improve engineered goggles, it didn’t work. It has never been documented, why couldn’t engineers use it, it is a complete mystery to us. Cooking was horrible, I hate Nomi and I hope that he burns in his kitchen, just like he burned so much of my food!

(source)

Raids

The Brutes: Not much to say there. We don’t really raid enough to judge the mechanics. Design-wise, we enjoyed Emerald Nightmare and Tomb of Sargeras the most. We really didn’t like Antorus.

We also enjoyed

The Brutes: Pet battle dungeons, Hidden secrets, Timewalking raids, The deaths of Chromie, the Death Metal event at the DMF and micro-holidays. All small things that add so much to the game.

Conclusion

Besides gating, Legion was an awesome expansion, probably even better than WOTLK when it comes to gameplay. Good systems were improved and new ones were introduced to enhance our experience and increase the replayability. Good job Blizzard and congratulation to the man behind all this: Ion Hazzikostas.

It took us nearly 4 weeks to complete the achievement. We now walk around Azeroth with the most awesome balance artifact appearance.