Hey there, Massively Overpowered readership! It’s me, your friendly weekly WRUP host, taking a moment to be a bit more serious and talk about how much I enjoy being alive. Seriously, it’s just great. Breathing? Breathing rules, man, I don’t know what to tell you. I absolutely love the fact that I get to continue existing in a linear sense rather than taking a deathtrap to a destination and then exploding, getting set on fire, getting smote by the heavens, thrown into a parallel dimension, crushed, and then exploded a second time!
I know it’s been a challenging year for many people, especially me, but one of the other great joys in my life – beyond getting to experience it – is knowing that if for some reason I did get exploded, set on fire, smote by the heavens, thrown into a parallel dimension, crushed, and then exploded a second time, my co-workers would respect my wishes to have a very sad funeral and to not use any and all pieces that I wrote before those circumstances to fill otherwise blank spots in our schedule!
Bonus question: What’s your biggest “elite gamer moment” when you pulled off something really difficult and no one actually saw you do it?
​Andrew Ross (@dengarsw): Pokemon Go is probably getting all my attention due to the new event; I’ve slacked off on PvP but really want this season’s avatar mask, but may not have enough matches (or the skill) to earn it in time. Ah well!
The one thing I can think of was in Asheron’s Call 2, but it was a group effort and the server announced that I did it. However, there were no witnesses to the actual act, including my brother who was sitting right behind me. Basically, an event involved high-level mobs taking over the most popular high-level town, and the only way to despawn them was to solve a riddle and give an NPC the answer item. Problem was, the NPC was deep in the middle of said spawns (like in the top levels of Machu Picchu) and the spawn rate was too high to fight through, so we did kind of a death-train, with guildies trying to make a path for me to get to the NPC with what we thought was the answer. I was chosen because my character could sprint, feign death, and had a skill that could basically give me a life saving dice roll multiple times for a few seconds. It worked, but everyone else died way too far to see me to the end. Heck, the end happened so fast, I thought I’d died and we’d failed until I realized the screams were joy and not anger, ha!
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna.bsky.social, blog): I have Guild Wars 2 and Brighter Shores on my agenda this weekend, and I just bought the honse pack for Sims 4 (they got me, finally, with the BF sale). Hopefully I get to something. I have not been in a gaming mood lately, and I’ve been super busy, but I at least need to farm up my weekly astral whatevers in GW2.
Can’t really think of one that nobody saw, not that my brain thought was worth remembering, I guess!
Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes.bsky.social, blog): There is almost certainly going to be quite a bit of Red Dead Online in my future, as well as a bit more Final Fantasy XIV. Past that, I’m kind of leaving my options open. I think I’ll be peeking back into Black Desert or probably going into Enshrouded. I’m sort of undecided.
I don’t really have many epic moments, honestly, or at least none that come to mind. Particularly considering some of the better moments I’ve had in gaming have been with people around me. One of my proudest will forever be making a team member rethink Arrow Blasters in City of Heroes after they witnessed my performance.
Eliot Lefebvre (@Eliot_Lefebvre, blog): I’ll be traveling this weekend, so I don’t really have any particular plans for video games at the moment. Some will probably be happening but it’s not going to be my home, so I’m not in charge!
Honestly, it’s probably fighting the Tree Sentinel in Elden Ring way before I was supposed to. If you’ve never played the game, you start out seeing one marching back and forth between the tutorial dungeon and the first merchant in the game, mostly as a tutorial that you should not be fighting this boss yet. But as soon as I got my mount I figured I could get some practice in during mounted combat, so I just went in and took it out on the first pull. It was slow, but I made it… and no one saw it, since I didn’t really expect to win in the first place.
Justin Olivetti (@Sypster, blog): I mean, do you have to ask? I’ll be going nuts on WoW Classic’s fresh start realm trying to narrow down a trio of classes to a single main. I also would like to kick back with some Lord of the Rings Online: Legacy of Morgoth as time permits.
Sam Kash (@samkash@mastodon.social): Well I did it. I have fully, basically, completed my Prince of Persia: Lost Crown saga. I didn’t 100% it as there were a handful of secrets I didn’t go back and collect and I didn’t want to grind out fighting the bosses or puzzle challenges but I did complete the game on Immortal difficulty. The DLC boss was very possibly the most challenging boss fight I’ve ever encountered. More so than even Hollow Knight bosses. It was epic. So I don’t know what I want to play now. I’m thinking of going to the new Sea of Stars update since it added co-op. Oh and I might be able to play a little Throne and Liberty. I finally got through the tutorials and was digging it. But I think I’d enjoy it more if I could duo with my SO… So I’ve got to convince her to join.
Bonus: Dang I honestly think it was the fight I just mentioned above. It was crazy. Or maybe some of my Rocket League goals. That game lends itself to having moments like that though so maybe it doesn’t count. At least they feel epic even if everyone gets them from time to time.
Tyler Edwards (blog): I’m going to be focused on checking out the ZeroSpace playtest. Despite my ire towards their NFT pivot, I may also poke into the concurrent Gates of Pyre test, but that’s more of a maybe. ZeroSpace is the priority.
Bonus question: I’m not usually one to push myself super hard in games, but I do have some accomplishments I’m proud of in StarCraft II. I’ve beat all three campaigns on the highest possible difficult and gotten some crazy hard mission-specific achievements, including the hidden achievements for clearing the map on The Dig and The Devil’s Playground (both missions where you’re not supposed to even try attacking the enemy). I’ve also successfully soloed one or two co-op mutations on brutal difficulty after my teammate DCed. That’s the hardest thing you can do in co-op, though I grant I did it on a relatively “easy” mutation.
Every Saturday, join the Massively OP community and staff for What Are You Playing, our roundup of what MMORPGs and other games we’re hoping to play this weekend (with a bonus question or two for our amusement). Tell us what you’re up to! Go off-topic! And don’t forget to have fun!
