It's not unusual!
Yeah, I bet you never thought you would see me again, huh? HA! I showed you!!
I know I have been horrible at keeping anything even remotely related to a scheduled blog, but I am getting better... I promise! I remembered to do one this YEAR!
All kidding aside, it has been a long year thus far, but I would like to think largely a good one. I have been keeping myself busy with work, the band (who changed its name to Chaotic Playground, when we lost our singer), and I have a new computer that is actually up to speed on all these fabulous games I have been playing.
Belenos Geode and Anastasia Merrimox, Skyrim style.
For example- this one... Skyrim. Just about everyone reading this should by now know of Skyrim. Yes it sucked me in too.... for months. Of course when I found out how to mod things, the first thing I did was take my character Belenos Geode, and couple him with my other main- Anastasia Merrimox. Now whether I play as Bel, or Ana, the other half of the couple is a permanent follower.
Well that is one way to get me back down the aisle...
So I figured I would make it official. I found that temple of Mara in Riften, and promptly made them husband and wife. I have always said that the family that slays together, stays together.
Art Imitating Life?
Anastasia Merrimox has been featuring prominently in most of the games I have been playing lately, including Guild Wars 2. In Sims 3, I created her there too, and not surprisingly, she is also married to Belenos in that game. I, of course, have an ulterior motive as to why Ana features so highly. She is modeled after my real life girlfriend of almost a year now- Stacy.
Stacy Merrison and Drew Bolton- Key West, July 10,2013
Yes folks, I have been trying to turn Stacy into a gamer, but so far the best I have been able to do is play Words With Friends with her lol. I'll get her yet though!
Anastasia City... looking good, looking good.
When not running around with my virtual partner, or even my real life partner, I have also been making cities in the new Sim City. It will also not surprise you to hear the names of the cities as Geode, Stardust, Shrike, Merrimox, Anastasia City, to name a few.
My ride, notice the blondes?
I have also been spending a fair bit of time in War Thunder, flying my F-4U Corsair in historical battles to wrest the Pacific from the Japanese, and Europe from Nazi Germany. I have to admit that this particular game has definitely scratched my aviation itch for some time to come, and made me a bit more comfortable about PvP... which I still have yet to do in Guild Wars 2.
For some reason I just cannot keep away from the dark side...
I even decided to get back on board the SWTOR bus, since it went free to play, and have been working on my Sith Inquisitor- Anat'Alya the Twi'Lek.
But all things eventually come around full circle. Guild Wars 2 has been my main video game squeeze, and it continues to be so today. So yesterday I decided the time was right to do what I had been putting off for almost a year now... To finish my personal story on Bel Geode, and KILL ZHAITAN!
If you have never done the end of the personal story, then spoiler alerts abound. Number 1- it is a dungeon... meaning you need a five person group to pull it off. I am still not sure how I feel about that, since it is a PERSONAL story, and a bit disorienting to see someone else star in the role you should have, but hey... I can live with it. I only needed to do it once.
Number 2- Destiny's Edge guild plays a pivotal role in this, so it is best if you have done all the previous story mode dungeons as you were leveling up. Otherwise you may miss out on some of the inside jokes that ArenaNet spent so much time crafting in the characters' voiceovers.
Number 3- Plan to spend at least an hour of your time in there! Especially if you have never done the personal story version, I imagine you will want to watch the cutscenes... And there are a LOT of them!
Number 4- There will be a fair bit of downtime in the middle of the dungeon... while on the airships (yes plural). Use the time wisely. Hopefully you go in there with your build already specced out, and ready to roll.
Number 5- There is a lot of surreal beauty to see, even with dragons and assorted undead trying to kill your ass! Just the fact that you are actually airborne, on massive airships, over a ruined yet well modeled nation of Orr is enough to make you lower your weapon if only for a moment and say "Wow!"
And then THIS sucker shows up and has to try to ruin the party. Well I should not be too harsh on him, after all, he IS the guest of honor now. Were it not for him, none of us would have reason to even be in Orr, let alone get a bickering guild crucial to all the racial storylines back together!
Now I am going to level with you folks... Number 6- This is as up close and personal as you are going to get with big bad mofo Zhaitan. You never actually go mano a clawo with him. A dragon this big can only be brought down by one thing...
INTENSIFIED FORWARD FIREPOWER!!! With half an airship left, but a full complement of Pact made weapons, you do have the power to kill this behemoth, and it will take all of your 5 person team (plus Destiny's Edge and the other various NPCs on board) to shoot him out of the sky for good.
Thus, we get to spoiler number 7, the most important one to note- ZHAITAN DIES! Yup, he dead... I say you, he dead... Never to rise again... The rewards are pretty sweet, and you have the satisfaction of knowing you are officially DONE with the personal story... No more needing to hang with Trahearne, you are free and clear to explore Tyria as you see fit, on YOUR schedule... And with good reason. ArenaNet's living story has been changing the face of the continent on a biweekly basis almost. There is still MUCH to do in Guild Wars 2 after Big Z croaks.
...Including FINALLY getting to dance with Eir Stegalkin.
It only took 11 months.....
So where do I go from here? Well... I have been playing with FRAPS, but have not yet had the confidence to upload anything to youtube. I know I still have a ton of SWTOR stories for Belenos to go through, and may decide to revisit that saga... I also thought about doing Skyrim stories, but let's face it... that game is even more immense than some of the others.
Who knows... I am open to suggestions.
For now I bid you adieu, it is time to spend some more time with my beloved Anastasia Merrimox, and her real life counterpart. ;-)
Ahh, amoré...
