The blog of Luther M. Siler, teacher, author and local curmudgeon
Did I end up spending most of my free time this weekend playing Nioh 3 again?
Yes. Yes, I did.
Did I end up beating the DLC?
Yes. Yes, I did.
Did I then realize that they’d added a third difficulty level, and I haven’t beaten the second yet, so I have some work to do before the second DLC comes out?
Sigh. Also yes.
Nioh 3: The gift that keeps on giving.
So I think I mentioned a bit ago that the first Nioh 3 DLC dropped?
I’ve been focusing on reading after work (and, well, lesson plans) and so I just really got a chance to dig into Hell Rising for the first time today. You can pretty much jump straight into the DLC content from wherever you want, so Idid that, and got through the first area without a whole lot of trouble, and most of that was related to not remembering details of the controls and some bad habits that Rise of the Ronin taught me. The controls are mostly the same between the two games, but there are some definite differences and Nioh is much harder and button-mashing will get your ass killed. Unfortunately my main weapon in the game is the talons, which are a super-fast weapon that, well, tends to be button-mashy.
Anyway, I died in a few places where I shouldn’t have, but no big deal. Got to the first boss. Held my own for maybe a minute. And then the fucker one-shotted me, and not with, like, a massive special attack that I didn’t see coming. No, I missed a dodge and he knocked me into next week with a regular sword strike.
I forgot that the DLCs in previous games may have said that they were accessible at a certain level, but what they really meant by that was be this level, but also have completely beaten every available difficulty level of the base game, and be really good at it, because it’s going to get even worse when DLC 2 drops.
I have not beaten every available difficulty of the base game. I platinumed the initial difficulty level, but New Game +? It is to laugh.
I, uh, have some work to do.
Yeah, so I’ve bought Shadow of the Erdtree twice today. Shut up. My son asked for it, and there’s a whole rant on how fucking stupid buying digital items from Microsoft is, and I’m downloading the Goddamned thing right now for my PS5.
So … see you in a week, I guess. Who knows; I’m still stressing about the build I’m going to use. Christ, I pick the stupidest things to blow up my anxiety with.
I haven’t ordered the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC yet.
I … what?
I put something like 130 hours into Elden Ring. My Let’s Play series is a hundred and ten episodes long. I completed every mission I could find, got the Platinum trophy, all of the endings, everything. Played the absolute ever-loving shit out of that game and enjoyed Goddamn near every second of it.
And they’re releasing a lengthy DLC on the 21st, which by all indications is amazing. And I haven’t bought it, I don’t think I’m going to buy it, and I’m not excited about it. Right now I should be planning on staying up late on Thursday night so that I can get started immediately, just like I did with the actual game. I stayed up late to record the demo, for God’s sake.
What the hell is wrong with me?
There’s been a consistent theme in my life over the last several years of this creeping anhedonia, where I just … stop doing things I used to really love doing, or stop enjoying things I used to enjoy. I effectively don’t watch anything any longer. No movies, no TV, nothing streaming. There’s a new season of The Boys, which I’ve enjoyed. Not gonna watch it. The Acolyte? Not gonna watch it. I’m done with Star Wars. I’m done with Marvel. I’m only still buying comic books because my weekly trip to the comic shop is my only reliable in-person interaction with human beings I’m not related to or work with; I can’t stop shopping there unless I move or die. I could literally just come home and put them in a box and never read them and I wouldn’t miss a thing.
You’re never going to catch me complaining about reading, but it’s literally the only thing I do for fun. That’s weird, right? I read books and I write here. Dassit. Those are my hobbies. The honest truth is I think I could sell my PS5 and my Xbox and I wouldn’t miss them. And I’ve been a gamer my entire life.
I don’t fucking get it, and I don’t like it.
(And, to forestall this: Yes, I recognize that I’m basically describing a textbook case of clinical depression here. And while I’m on Effexor, that’s an anti-anxiety med, not an antidepressant, and I don’t think the two overlap much. But I have no other symptoms of depression, including the not exactly minor detail that I’m rarely actually feeling depressed. This is a mental health issue, don’t misunderstand me, but I feel like the most obvious answer is not the right one.)