Assassins Creed Odyssey

Yep, I meant engraving.

Yey, the dreaded double post. But I REALLY want to talk about what I did because its been one of my favorite sequences in the game so far. So...

Lets talk about 'Dagger to the Heart'. By far my favorite side quest in the game and the story with Agrapio in the Albantis Islands I believe (Chalkis City).

So I get to a theater on the behest of Agrapio to investigate the shadowy organization known as 'The Dagger' (half expecting them to be releated to the Cult of Kosmos somehow) and the two proprietors of the theather who are clearly looking after a bunch of kids and having them as actors in their play. It has a good arrangement all around. They wanted me to go down and deal with a member of The Dagger who was having them spread propaganda for the Dagger but he was paying them...until he wasn't. The guy wants me to kill him, the woman wants me to talk to him.

So I sneak to this guy's house and am hanging out on the rafters above him and a few guards who also seem to be members of the Dagger. So, I kind of am hoping for a Cyclops Situation but since I have enough for the overpowered bow strike I know I can probably deal with the group. So I leap down kind of hoping that it will give me the ability to talk to him, but expecting the worse and sure enough the detection stuff flashes, time slows, and I launch an overpowered bow strike wiping out the entire group. A job well done, kind of wanted to kill him. And then the guys kid comes home. Now still not entirely sure there could have been a peaceful solution but I scrambled up away from the kid as he slowly realises that his father was all exploded.

So going back to the Theather and more of the Daggers men are there and the two propritors are at their feet. He gives me a choice to save one of them over the other as a 'play' in something right out of Arrow. Alexios is mad, I'm mad, and then the choice pops up, which I was caught off guard because its been the first timed choice of the game so far...not that I minded in this instance if there is ever a time to use a timed choice. But, I tell them that they are the ones who are going to die...its annoying but they kill the two proproritors in front of me, not that I was expecting anything else, and then I go through them like a hot knife through butter.

And I loved it. I mean with the whole thing from Markos and killing the guy without talking to him it is in the back of my mind that this could be my fault somehow, which is also cool. But for a side quest this was really an excellent choice. And it is one of those 'character defining choices' at least for me that I also like, like the Hawke choice who to follow in DA 2 for me. Its a choice that allows you to take a new direction with a character and define something which helps define there character from now on. Actually there are two of those in this quest. The other one being the whole bit with the family could lead the Eagle Bearer to not be so quick to murder murder anymore...but I don't think I will be so willing to not murder people.

Of course it did ruin muh immersion when going back through the theater the two propritor's bodies were still there in the middle...yet the kids had gone back to practicing.

Thats amusing. Oh well I almost prefer it that way. Poor patrons. Of course I don't think I had any indication they were there before the cutscene started

Oh I almost forgot. Also did "family values" the things I do for a good gag.

Now that I have my ship and some other features on it up to epic, I'm having fun on the high seas. I did have to pack a lunch and drinks for escorting that lady to another island 50 bazillion miles away. The ship is now allowing me to earn lots of $ with all the pirate ships I can attack.

I'm sure it was Alexio's idea...that guy is nuts.    To make myself feel better before I slaughter an entire fort, I'll "accidently" walk too close, so that the soldiers start attacking me and then it's not my fault we got into a fight (and they lost). 

Just for research purposes, I set the trap on the signal fire and then lit it and I blew up. 

So I came upon my youngest nephew in the study room, on term break, playing ... DOTA. I've seen him played this during school holidays through the years. None of the four youngsters of my bro showed a keen interest in games. At most, they would play some console games when they were much younger and that isn't even around any more and the boys will just take a spin through DOTA.

I was thinking of gifting him with The Witcher Thronebreaker since it has a story and isometric; they couldn't seem to take to FPS or TPS when I let them have a view of what they are.

Any way, I sat there and we chatted over stuff while I watched him play the game. I mentioned Thronebreaker. He had a look of gameplay at YT. Then he mentioned that he liked games with shooting, story and chars. Like Halo. He got me stumped. Say what? Halo? Apparently, he had played / watched the game at his friend's house. We discussed Halo and he mentioned that he liked the brief play he had with DAI with my computer some time ago and also mentioned Mass Effect. I was amazed he remembered. That was Mass Effect 1 I showed him so many years ago, in 2010 and he was just a kid then.

I suggested AC Odyssey. He surprised me again by showing some knowledge, just the tiniest bit. He watched some gameplay on YT and finally I put him at my computer and let him have a go. He likes it; he chose Kassandra as the protag. I would have bought him the game except that I doubt his laptop can handle it. It's not a game laptop but one that his dad bought for his business. I supposed I can let him play on my comp except that I'll be derived of it.

I would give him the information about MET and Andromeda (Andro is not ME to me and does not belong) if he asks but I wouldn't recommend Andro if he's looking for chars and story. If it's just shoot them ups combat, probably. I'm more likely to tell him to go play Unreal Tournament (Classic) if he wants a real challenge. Given what he has told me, he's more for story, chars, an immersive game world.

Heck, if we have a console, I'll get him HZD and GoW.

I doubt it.   If he said anything about it, it would be years later (if he ever play it). None of the youngsters are hardcore gamers, they're busy with their studies or working.  

So I actually didn't do too much yesterday. Just did a tomb, cleared out two more cultists. Next stop? Athens!

So good enough time to do some quick notes I figure:

It is really annoying about this game, though I suppose its thematic and apart of the staples of the series, that yoou can hit someone you aren't intending to hit so easily. Like battling a cultist and hit some random civillian on the backswing. "Whoops sorry". Or alternatively people who are obviously random civilians, by their clothes, deciding to engage you in combat with weapons and you kill them and get a huge bounty on you!

In the hints section it mentions you can combine the effectsof your powers and abilities to do even more special arrows. I did unlock flaming weapons last night, and figured out how to get at the second power wheel but using fire arrows with poison arrows..just the poison effect seems to work.

FInally with each new area you go to there is a shield on the map with two numbers on either side of the map...what are those?

Interesting: So how do you go about 'luring' cultists?

This is how I deal with just about everybody...mercs (oh, so many mercs), leaders, cult members. I can barely stay alive if I have to fight with my sword so I have to hide and snipe, run, hide, snipe, over and over. When I can't do this, I'm in big trouble.    So much for pacifist Alexios, with over 2000 kills and hundreds of assassinations. 

I've been on the Silver Islands and sided with T (whathisname) and not Kyra. I was going to romance Kyra but when I had to meet her on the high porch, my game would crash so that made the decision for me but I'm hoping this way, I can keep both of them alive. I'm now at the point where I'm forced to do the scripted  conquest battle and I can kill enough of the enemy to have that big brute "D" start smashing heads during the battle and come after me...thing is that I can't beat him with my hunter abilities because the setting won't allow it and  I'm not good with the sword but also, I'm level 46 and my legendary snake gear is level 40 but I don't have enough items to level my gear up. These islands have had probably 15 mercs after me and I've been killing them, although I often have a entire fort and 4 mercs after me at once. 

The entire questline on this island is a mess because there is no way to know how it's all going to blow up in your face ahead of time. I wish things would be clearer and that the things that happen made sense. 

Something I enjoy about this game is that I keep hearing voices from Skyrim, voicing soldiers, in this game. I've heard everything they've said now, lots of times, but I think they are pretty funny. They are just a bunch of doofuses and they make me laugh.