The Working Girl's Game Review: Lego Harry Potter (years 5-7)

So I finished this game a while ago and I'm finally getting to the review.

Game: Lego Harry Potter (years 5-7)
Genre: Platformer

System: Xbox 360

Developer:  TT Games

Story:
This follows along the story of Harry Potter from the Order of the Phoenix, the Half-Blood Prince and the Deathly Hallows 1 and 2.  Since Harry is only at the school for the first 2 years there are some more areas to explore as they travel around to find the Horcruxes.  If you're read the books or seen the movies than you're familiar with the challenges that Harry, Ron and Hermione face as they grow closer to facing Lord Vordemort.  There are some scenes that feel a little weird because they might be very small, or non-existent, in the books/movies but have some decent game play involved.

Story Score:

Characters:
The characters are the same as the books/movies with a small new ones thrown in.  There seems to be a lot more muggle characters to find than in the first game which is frustrating because muggles can't do any helpful magic spells.  One draw back that became very frustrating was that there was only one "key" character.  That meant that you couldn't access any of the key spots until you've found the character and unlocked it.  Since you don't get the opportunity to find that character token until about half-way through the story there's a lot of key boxes that you have to come back to.  The other thing I found while playing was that there was only about 5 characters that I actually played with.  There wasn't any reason to play with a lot of the characters that you unlocked.  And when you finally get to play in the Free Play the game seemed to pick the same characters every time . . . and quite a lot of them.  There seemed to be a lot of characters to choose from while playing in Free Play.  Too many in fact that is was annoying trying to pick the one character that you wanted.

Character Score:

Game Mechanics:
The spell wheel is the same as the first Lego Harry Potter but there's a new spell this time.  Aquamente allows you to shoot water at things and make them grow or fill-up a container.  The downside to this spell is that you can't see the places that you need to use it on unless you have that spell as your active spell.  If you do then water drop icons show up where you need to use it.  If you have another spell active you can't see those water drops.  It got annoying switching between spells and suddenly have to fight someone but have the water spell active (which doesn't help in a fight) so I just pick one character to have always have that spell active and then I would just switch characters instead of moving around the spell wheel for another spell I needed at the moment.  I found having to remember to check for water drops annoying and there were several places that I missed around Hogwarts that I had to go back for because of that.

There were waystations to move between Hogwarts, the streets of London and the campsites.  Sometimes it was confusing which waystation you needed to get to where you wanted to go.  I also had problems with the waystation to go to Hogwarts that is in the tent.  Sometimes it didn't want to work for me so I would have to go back to London and then take the train to Hogwarts which was a lot of running around just to get to someplace.

Game Mechanics:

Art Design:
There seemed to be a lot more details on the screen and things to look at while exploring around.  The art style was still the blocky Lego look.  I think there are way too many versions of the main characters.  Do we really need 11 versions of Harry (or some amount like that)?  While there was a lot to look at on each level the play area in each level sort of felt smaller than the previous game.  There just didn't seem to be a lot of areas to explore and look for things.

Art Design Score:

 

Overall Impression:
While I enjoyed playing this game I found it a little bit more annoying than the first one.  The thing with the Aquamente spell and the small number of characters that I ended up using because they would do almost everything in the level made it not feel as engaging as the previous game.  While it was nice to look at there also seemed to be more scenes included in the game that were not a big part (or any part at all) in the books or movies.  I know it's hard to get everything in either the books/movies into the game but this game felt a little more disconnected from the source material than the previous game.

Overall Impression:

Upcoming absence . . . maybe

I thought I would give a heads up a little early about something that's coming up in my life that might take me away for a while.  I am scheduled to have eye surgery on April 29th and I'm probably not going to be staring at a computer for a while after that.

After meeting with a corneal specialist it has been determined that I need a new corneal transplant and while they are doing that they can also put a new lens in my eye.  Fixing 2 problems at once.  It's good news and I'm excited at the possibility of seeing out of my left eye again.  There are a couple of things that make me nervous and the closer it gets to that time I'm sure I'll get more nervous but it's manageable now.

The first thing I'm nervous about is the cost.  My last surgery was at the end of the year and I didn't have to shell out too much money before I met my out of pocket maximum for the year.  Since this is happening earlier in the year I'll have to pay more because I'm no where close to reaching that maximum.  It sucks because I had such great plans for my tax refund but I'll get through this.

The other thing that I'm worried about is actually a good thing.  I'm worried about seeing again.  I know that sounds weird but after not being able to see really anything out of the left eye for 7 months and then (hopefully) being able to see things again is going to send my brain into overload and I'm imaging I'll have a VERY bad headache for a couple of weeks while my brain adjusts to the new inputs.

I've got my next game all recorded and I'm starting to edit it.  I'll start posting that game next week as tomorrow is my last video for Lego Harry Potter (years 5-7).  I'm not going to tell you what game it is but I hope you like it as it's my favorite game of that particular genre.  I've also finished filming the whole things so I know how long it will take to post videos.  It will run from next week through most of June.

Now I'm sure you're thinking that that would give me plenty of time to film new things (or finish up filming old thing) between the date of surgery and the end of June but like I said before I probably won't want to do that due to the eye strain of staring at a computer screen or TV screen for a while.  I'll try to film some things in games I have in progress but I also have to have time to edit what I've already got done.

I think I'm going to spend a lot of time thinking about what I want to do with my YouTube channel going forward.  I started the channel to force myself to finish games and it has certainly helped me to do that.  But unfortunately it's a lot of work to film, edit and post videos while working a full time job and trying to spend time doing my other hobbies. 

And there's the rub.  I haven't had a whole lot of time to do my other hobbies.  I can't remember when the last time I read a book.  I know I'm in the middle of one (The Book Thief) but with all the eye drama it's just been too hard to read at times.  I also like to cross stitch and I'm working on a large project for my dad.  I've told him that he can't die until it's finished and at the rate I'm going it's going to be another 15-20 years before it's done.  He turns 80 this year.

I guess what I'm getting at is that while I love to play games and make videos and post them to YouTube, I love to do other things as well.  I just don't have the time to everything that I use to before I started YouTube.  Every time I look at the analytics and what I want to do with my life I think it's not worth the effort any more at the expense of my other hobbies.  But then someone comments on a video, or I get a new subscriber and I feel guilty about walking away . . . especially with some games unfinished. 

It's a problems I'm going to be thinking a lot about while I'm out of commission for a month or so.  So even though videos should be going up while I'm out there might be a lag before other videos get posted once the next game is done.  If you can think of reasons to keep on posting . . . or reasons to quit let me know.

(and yes, I know I need to post a Working Girl's review of Band of Bugs and Lego Harry Potter (years 5-7)

What I've been playing . . .

Just to give you an idea of what I've been playing recently (some recorded, some not).  In no particular order.

Lego Batman (Xbox 360)
Lego Harry Potter years 5-7 (Xbox 360)
Voodoo Vince Remastered (Xbox One)
Final Fantasy IX (PS[on my PS3])
Gems of War (Xbox One and PS4)
Skyrim (Xbox 360)
Band of Bugs (Xbox 360)
Back to the Future (Xbox One)
Zombi (Xbox One)

Some of the games pending (which is a polite way to say I need to continue playing them again) are:

Dark Cloud (PS2)
Summoner (PS2)
Psychonauts (PS)
Halo Combat Evolved (Xbox 360 and Xbox One [part of Master Chief Collection])
Dark Souls (Xbox 360)
Rayman Origins (Xbox 360)

And the games that I can't figure out how to record them again:

Final Fantasy X-2 (PS3)
Prototype 2 (PS3)

I started playing the Lego Batman game before I thought about recording it.  I generally play a level as a warm up especially if I haven't played anything in a while.

I'm obsessed with Final Fantasy IX.  I think it's my favorite Final Fantasy game.  I follow the game on Twitch and I'm constantly watching streams of it.  I had to do that because my game disk has an error on it and won't let me get through the first 5 minutes of the game (I think I blogged about that).  So I bought a digital copy through my PS3 so I could play it.  Unfortunately I still can't figure out how to record from my PS3 so I'm just playing it for fun.  I love that game.

I started playing Band of Bugs because I missed playing a tactical RPG game.  I've loved getting back in to this genre even if the game is not that exciting (I'll have a review up once I've finished all the DLC).  There's something about having to plan your move AND your attack that intrigues me.

Back to the Future and Zombi have interesting reasons why I'm playing them.  I'm going to do another blog post about that specifically.  Can you figure out what they have in common?

Skyrim is a very interesting choice for me.  There wasn't any particular reason that I wanted to play that game specifically just that I wanted to play an intense RPG game to scratch a Dungeons & Dragons itch that I have.

Since December I've had a really strong desire/need to learn how to play Dungeons & Dragons.  I bought the Starter Kit, Player's Manual, dice (lots and lots of dice), miniatures and the paint the make them pretty (or at least colorful since I'm just learning how to paint them).  I talked with my brother dain and he said he was interested too.  We even got together and went through the first section of the starter campaign.  Since then, every time I try to get with him to play again, he blows me off.  You want to clean room instead of play D&D with me?  That's like a girl saying "I have to wash my hair" so she doesn't have to go out with you.

Since I wasn't getting my fix in real life I thought I would turn to my digital life to find the equivalent.  I was thinking Elder's Scrolls Online, Neverwinter, Oblivion or Skyrim as good choices.  With Neverwinter or Elder's Scrolls Online I felt like I had to be able to invest several hours of game time to it each time I played.  I wanted something I could pick up for a hour or just 20 minutes.  I've probably got about 10 hours in to Oblivion but I think I would be so lost if I tried to pick up where I had left off.  I wanted to start fresh and new.  So Skyrim it was.  The choice then became: on what system?

I have the original on the Xbox 360 and the remastered on the Xbox One.  I've played about an hour of it previously on the Xbox 360 and had 2 achievements (from 2013).  I could have played the remastered one but then would I be able to go back and play it again on the earlier (uglier) version?  I figured I would start over and play it again on the Xbox 360 and just take my time and enjoy it.  Once I've completed it there I might play again but on the remastered version and record that playthrough to post on YouTube.  At least I'll know what I'm doing and won't be fumbling around so much.

The other games that are pending and I need to play I'm just stuck in or frustrated with.  That's what happens when I play games.  I hit a block and stop playing.  Posting videos to YouTube is suppose to help me keep playing them when I do get blocked.  I think I need to work on that.

For those that I'm recording you can check my progress on my YouTube channel.  For those that I'm not recording you can check my achievement lists to see how I'm doing.  For those that don't have achievements I guess I could start tweeting about my progress.  I need to do more of that too.  You can find me at @PengwennGamer.  Is there any one of those games that you'd like to see me play more than the others?  Let me know in the comments.

The Working Girl's Game Review - Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4

It's been awhile since I finished this game but I've been so busy I haven't had time to write my final review of the game.  Well, here it is.

System: Xbox 360

Developer:  Traveller's Tales

Story:
The story is based on the movies which were based on the books and remain relatively faithful to both.  There are some creative ways in which the story is unfolded so that you are playing the main character instead of just watching what is happening around you.  It starts with the brief beginning of how Harry was placed on the doorstep of his Aunt and Uncle and grew up being tormented by his cousin Dudley.  But the real story of Harry starts when he gets to Hogwarts and learns to be a wizard.

As you play the story based missions you have interludes that take place in Hogwarts where you go to class to learn spells and can discover things around the grounds.  Not all areas are open for you at the beginning so you'll need to learn spells to unlock new areas.

While walking around Hogwarts can be fascinating and fun, it can also be very confusing and easy to get lost if you are trying to go to a specific place in Hogwarts.  While you are still playing the story missions Nearly Headless Nick will leave a trail of ghost studs of where you need to go next.  Once you complete the story missions those ghost studs go away and you are left to fend for yourself.  I had to go online to find a map of Hogwarts otherwise I never would have found my way around.

You had 6 levels based on each of the first four movies/novels called chapters.  I wish I could the story a full 5 penguins but some levels were long and tedious, while others seemed rush and short.  Inconsistencies in the flow of the story have me taking one penguin away.

Story Score:

Characters:

There are already built in characters to the story that are absolutely wonderful.  Bringing those characters to life in Lego form was interesting at times.  There are character tokens you find while playing the game and once found you can go purchase them so they can be used in the levels.  Some characters, Hufflepuff for instance, will only be able to access areas for their specific house.  In addition to the main set of characters in the books (i.e. Snape, Dumbledore, Tom Riddle, Draco, etc.) there are a lot of other characters who's real value to the game is only in finding their token and buying their character.  There is no reason to have them other than to pad the character token collectibles.  And boy are there a lot of them.

Some of the really interesting characters I wasn't able to unlock until later in my play through of the game.  I wish I had had those characters unlocked earlier because they were fun to play with.  Unfortunately that isn't the case for a lot of the high profile characters.

Because of how the character tokens are spaced out and who you might need for each level you will probably end up playing each level several times as you unlock a new type of character which will unlock a new thing in a previous level.  If you want to wait and get any many characters unlocked as possible before playing the Free Play modes it turns out to be a lot of grinding (and getting lost) in Hogwarts.  And even then you won't be able to unlock everything because some characters you find in Hogwarts are needed for the levels, but some characters you find and unlock in the levels are needed for Hogwarts.

The downside to the characters besides way too many to find and unlock is that they didn't offer up a whole lot of variety in what they could do.  The evil witches and wizards have the Avada Kedavra spell but that's about it.  Depending on which version of Harry, Ron or Hermione you pick you might not get one that has learned all the spells yet.  Trying to defeat a Boggart?  Make sure the character you picked has learned Riddikulus.  The easiest way to fix that is to always pick a character from later in the game.  This usually means you play with the same 4-5 characters for all the levels.  Not much variety there.

Character Score:

Game Mechanics:

There is one game mechanic that I absolutely hated.  And another one that was annoying a lot of the time.

The one that was annoying was the camera.  You couldn't always move it around to get a better view of what you were doing.  There are 4 banners in the front hall that you have to zap and they unfurl.  When they do you will get a gold brick.  You need all gold bricks to get 100% in the game.  I had all the gold bricks except this one . . . but do to camera angles and such I couldn't get Slytherian and Gryffindor's banner to unfurl.  I watch who know how many videos on how other people did it (who didn't seem to have a problem when I did) and still it took about 30 minutes of trying on 3 or 4 nights before I finally got both of them to unfurl.  To this day I still don't know how I did it when it failed all the other times.

That was the worst offender for the camera but it was so annoying in so many other instances.  It was almost enough to make me pull my hair out and quit playing the game forever.  I didn't, thankfully, but I'm really hoping it's not too much of a problem in the next Lego Harry Potter game (or any other Lego game).  

The one game mechanic I absolutely hated is partially my fault.  But only because the game didn't probably explain things to me. 

In the previous Lego games I've played you collect red bricks that you can then purchase which gives you modifiers that can make your game easier . . . or just plain silly.  Do you want your Stormtroopers to carry carrots instead of blasters?  There's a red brick for that.  Usually you find those in the levels that you play . . . not in the hub world.  For Lego Harry Potter things were different and the game never explained that to me.

All the red bricks . . . and I mean ALL . . . can be find in Hogwarts.  Now I mentioned earlier that you walk around Hogwarts in between story missions.  That's great and all but it doesn't explain that you have to come back and walk around and do everything again to find the red bricks to get the score multipliers, the extra hearts, the invincibility, etc bonuses that make playing the game so much easier.  I didn't realize this until I was through playing the Free Play modes for the first 2 and half movies.  Because I didn't have things like "Character Token locator" or "gold brick locator" there were a bunch of things I missed while playing through the levels for the second time.  Which meant I was going to have to play them a third time.  

Once I figured out I had to go back to Hogarts to find the red bricks and then buy them I had to spend a lot of time grinding in Hogwarts before going back to the levels.  Once I did go back to the levels things were so much easier when I had all my helps turned on.  I wish the game had told me that.

Another thing that was annoying, but avoidable, was that all the extra spells that you can buy, but don't really need, are put in to one slot on your spell wheel.  If you wanted to use a specific one, like Glacius to freeze people, you'd have to wait until it's icon popped up in the slot and hope you cast the spell before it changed to the next one.  Now, you don't have to use any of these spells as you play the game, but they are hilarious to see what happens when you do.  But . . . if you want to get all the achievements you have to use the Glacius spell to freeze a bunch of people.  Now you could have just bought that spell so it's the only one in the slot but it's a lot of gold and there's cheaper spells to buy and equip.  So if you have multiple spells it's just a matter of watching the spell slot and hoping you time it right.  Annoying.

Game Mechanics score:

Art Design:

There wasn't really anything too special about the art design of the game.  It was whymsy and magically and it fit the game.  How they transformed things into the Lego shape and design was interesting but not as rigid as other Lego games.  It fit the mode and humor of the game and was enjoyable to look at.

Art Design score:

Overall Impressions:

Other than the items mentioned in the Game Mechanics section the only other real problem I had was with a specific level.  The Tome Riddles Diary level where you go back in time and play with Tom as one of your characters and the level is done in a sepia tone theme it glitched out on me 3 times . . . in 3 different places.  It was really frustrating the first time.  I held my breathe the second time as I made my way through the part where it glitched only to have the game glitch again a little further on.  And the same thing again a little further past that.  I was afraid that I might have a game breaking glitch and would never be able to get past that point in the game.  It took several attempts but I did.  After that, whenever the screen would freeze for a bit I was worried that the same thing would happen all over again.

It was fun to play the game and made me immediately want to start playing Lego Harry Potter years 5-7 but I've decided to take a break for awhile.  The humor in the Lego games is spot on for the characters and sometimes that is enough to make up for the annoying things that happen along the way.  The game isn't ground breaking or revolutionary but if you are a fan of the Harry Potter series (movies or books . . . or both) it should be something you sit down to enjoy.  If you're like me and do stupid mistakes it should provide you with around 60 hours of enjoyable game play.  If you're better than me at video games (and everybody is) you could probably complete it in 30-40 hours.  If you do play it I would take your time and enjoy the experience.  It's worth it.

Overall Impression score:

If you want to watch how I played the game (very badly), here's a link to my YouTube playlist for the game.

December 2016 and beyond YouTube plans

I figured I should probably share my plans for the month here so you know what to expect on my YouTube channel.  Hopefully you're reading this and will go over there and check out some of my videos.

My plan for December is mostly finish up a couple of games I'm playing or at least get further along in them.  First up is Far Cry Classic.  I started that in November but got stuck part way through and was having a really hard time in the game.  I ended up playing Call of Duty Classic more so that game got finished but I'm still working on Far Cry Classic.  Since I've figured out the swapping guns issue and brightness (or lack thereof) issue I'm sure I can finish up the game this month.

I've also go some videos for dlc missions for Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  I've got those filmed already so I've just got to edit them and get them posted.  I'd also like to make more progress in Lego Harry Potter (yrs. 1-4) even thought I know I won't finish it this month.

I don't know if I can finish this game, but I'd like to get a few more videos from Halo: Combat Evolved up on my channel.  We'll have to see.  Maybe even some more Rayman Origins if I've feeling particular psychotic.

My plan is to finish or get more videos posted for as many Xbox (360 and One) as I can because I have a plan for 2017 which is just around the corner.  It will be here before you know it.  It doesn't help that I've been extremely sick the last couple of days and haven't had the chance to post anything.  I'm feeling better so maybe I can make up for lost time.

My plan for 2017 is to make it "The Year of the PlayStation".  Even though I will continue to play Xbox games, I think I want to focus on playing more PlayStation games.  They may be old.  They may be new.  They may be whatever.  I figure I have a PlayStation Plus or PlayStation Now membership (or whatever it's called) so I might as well use it.  I haven't logged in to my PlayStation account for months so this should be interesting.

Some of the current PlayStation games I'm already in the midst of will continue and hopefully finish sometime next year.  Those games are Psychonauts, Dark Cloud, and Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits.  I've already started recording a couple other PlayStation games and hopefully I'll be able to get those started and finished next year.  I don't want to tell you what those are as I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise.

There are a couple of Xbox games that I will be playing as well next year.  I told you I wouldn't stop playing those games.  A friend of mine suggested 3 different games and I've committed to playing them all.  Those will come up periodically throughout the year so keep on eye on what they are.  I've already started playing one of them and I guess if you're nosey you could check my achievements.  Unfortunately I don't think I've picked up any achievements in that game yet.  Almost though.

If you know of any PlayStation games (I, II, or III) that you'd like me to play, let me know in the comments.  I'm open to suggestions and if I don't have the game I just might have to go out and do some bargain hunting for a copy.  I love shopping for video games.

The May Day of all months

May was a particularly hard month for me this year.  I worked from home a lot, which would normally be a welcome treat, but I did it so much I started to feel stir crazy in my own home.  But that's not the really bad thing.

I took my dog Zoe to my parents house for Mother's day.  I brought her in to the house and then put her in the backyard while I went back to my car to get my Mother's Day present for my mom.  When I was coming back in to the house I heard a loud crash and a dog yelp.  Now, my parents have a dog named Coco but every parent knows the sounds their own child makes and I knew that sound came from Zoe.

Apparently she was running across their new tile floors and tried to change direction and slipped and crashed into a very heavy, very solid oak wood dinning room chair.  The chair come down on her tail and hurt her.  Except we didn't know that right away.  When I got in to see her, she didn't seem in pain or hurting.  She was running around the house wagging her tail like nothing happened.  That was until my mom came out of her bedroom and wanted to know if anyone was bleeding.

We course said no . . . but the blood splatters all over the walls told a different story.

I took Zoe outside and hosed her off as best I could because I could see a lot of blood on both her hips.  Once the water ran clear I checked her out and she seemed to be fine.  I left her outside and went back in to help clean up the mess.  There was blood everywhere.  She got blood through 2 hallways and 3 rooms.  Every time she wagged her tail it splashed across whatever surface was near by.  And not just at tail height.  There was blood splatter about shoulder height to humans.

It took about a hour of four people cleaning up the mess.  Then we sat down and had our Mother's Day dinner.  We decided that I should probably take Zoe to a vet to be checked out because that was a lot of blood, even though she didn't appear to be hurt. 

We let her back in and immediately she got blood on things again.  Outside she went.  She was once again covered in blood but we couldn't quite tell where it was coming from.  Her tail, obviously, but she had a lot of blood all over the rest of her.

After a crazy time trying to find an emergency vet open at 6pm on a Sunday night I finally get Zoe in to see someone.  The only place she got hurt was her tail but she had multiple lacerations on her tail.  They wrapped it up, pumped her full of pain medicine and antibiotics and outfitted her with a not so stylish Cone of Shame.  She was loopy and not happy about any of it.

After 4 vet visits over the next 8 days it was finally decided that we wouldn't be able to save her tail and that part of it would have to be amputated.  :(

One of the things I love the most about Zoe is that her tail is always wagging and you always know how happy she is by how fast she's wagging it.  Also, when I'm eating dinner and she knows not to jump up on me or get in my face she will sit very still except for the tip of her tail which twitches back and forth like it's saying "I can't hold all of my energy in so I'm going to let it out just through the tip of my tail".  Now that's gone.

She had surgery on the 18th and lost just more than half her tail.  She was feeling better but now she's pretending that the cone on her head doesn't exist and barrels in to everything like she doesn't care.  It's really annoying.  But I'm not going to complain because she's alive and feeling much better.  It could have been so much worse.

And it's kind of been worse.  Ever since the surgery she keeps ripping off the bandage that they've put on the nub of her tail.  She's not suppose to get to it with the cone on her head but she's figured out a way to use her knee to bend the cone a certain way so that she can just get to the tip of her tail.  She's ripped out 1 stitch and partially ripped out another one.  This has only resulted in more vet visits and vet telling me she's not healing up like she should because she keeps chewing on her tail. 

Because of this, they increased her nerve blocking pain meds which make her very sleepy.  They also gave me a sedative to give her if she starts going after her tail.  Basically I need to keep her in a semi-sedated state until our next appointment on June 7th.  It's been 4 days now and she's been sleeping almost the entire time.  When she is up and awake she walks around like a drunken sailor who would never pass a DUI checkpoint or an old woman who's joints are too sore to bend.  If you try to pet her you'll likely collapse her legs and make her fall down.  She's that out of it.  She's also taken to just stopping and staring blankly at whatever is in front of her.  Could be a wall.  Could be nothing.

As for me . . . well, I've been a nervous wreck ever since it happened.  I've been worried sick about her and it's been very hard for me to play video games or edit the videos I've already recorded because of how bad I feel.  On top of that, now I feel extra guilty because I have to keep her drugged up.  I feel like such a bad mommy. 

I haven't posted as many videos in May as I would have liked.  I actually had to resort to posting videos in a new game (Lego Harry Potter) because those were the easier videos to edit that I had already filmed.  I wasn't actually going to start that series until I finished Psychonauts.  Forget about trying to playing Psychonauts.  That game is really frustrating for me right now and I just don't have the energy to try, fail, die and try again.  Over and over again.  It takes a lot out of you and I don't have that much in the tank right now.

I am starting to find some mental energy to get back in to gaming.  I tired just playing things for fun.  It seems to have worked.  Overwatch helped with that.  We've still got a lot of healing left to do.  Hopefully everything will go well at our next vet appointment.  I can't wait for Zoe to get her cone off.  She's turned it in to a Weapon of Mass Destruction against me and my house.  I've changed my vacation plans in the middle of June because of her.  Whenever I think about how much of a hassle this has all been, I remind myself that things could have been much worse.  Let's hope that eventually things will get better.