Dare I say it, deepfakes have triggered an era of human questioning the actual reality of things right in front of your face. I am curious about folk you are truly off-grid i.e. no smartphone, no internet connection and purely using cash for stuff. Making one’s life inconvenience hardly seems worth the effort, but I still long for a Faraday Jacket.
Keeping my head up
I know how to do positive thinking, and affirmations and use mantras but when someone or something is so acidic it suddenly means nothing. Normally, it’s only someone close that can penetrate your heart so easily.
So what next?
Close off all emotional channels? Avoid any emotional contact.
Or head into pure escapism with HellDivers 2?
Finally, the sequel is out and I’m already 12 hours in at level 8. I’m with a regular squad but will probably need to add more to my friends list as my game time is badly restricted due to homegrown complaints.
Currently, PS5 is offline in on-site storage but hoping to get back on in 10 days.
Budget 2022 – Infections rising
Horizon Forbidden West is probably the most anticipated on my wishlist for 2022. I lost all my saved games for Horizon Dawn (Platinum trophy gained) and can’t be bothered to replay the titles, never did get a real chance to complete the DLC but hey ho.
Having finally got a PS5 I spend more time on actual gameplay which is good considering I have less than 5 hours a week available.
It’s time again to adjust my budget. 2022 sees my annual budget at well under $1000.
| Software / Hardware | Release date | Cost |
| Horizon Forbidden West | 18 February 2022 | $60.00+ |
| A Plague Tale: Requiem | unknown 2022 | $60.00+ |
| Tom Clancy’s The Division: Heartland | unknown 2022 | Free-to play? |
| Star Wars: Eclipse | unknown 2022 | $80.00+ |
| Forspoken | May 2022 | $60.00 |
| Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 | unknown | $60.00 |
| The Lord of the Rings: Gollum | unknown | $60.00 |
| VR Hardware | no target | $500.00 |
| Total | $880.00 |
The alert levels are:
• level 1: COVID-19 is not known to be present in the UK
• level 2: COVID-19 is present in UK, but the number of cases and transmission is low
• level 3: a COVID-19 epidemic is in general circulation
• level 4: a COVID-19 epidemic is in general circulation; transmission is high and pressure on
healthcare services is widespread and substantial or rising
• level 5: as level 4 and there is a material risk of healthcare services being overwhelmed
The Closer I get to You – Unforgiving and Brutal
I condensed my usual pace of gameplay over 3 weeks into 3 days of The Division because of the Global Event. I didn’t come across many players who hadn’t played the game before and It’s clear that The Division 2 will break sales records with millions of players jumping around DC for loot and kills.
Enough is enough already, so I fell back to my cut-off strategy of removing the disk and deleting the game to simply stop playing it. I haven’t even looked at others title for the past few weeks.
August gameplay
This month’s line up looks great with Mafia III (single player) and Dead by Daylight (PvP) free for PS Plus folk. I nearly bought Mafia III a few months ago when it went on sale but figured it would be free at some point for this 2-year-old title. Dead by Daylights format of 4 verses 1 has not been as popular as the all-out 100 player format or 4 versus 4 formats.
Anyhow for me, August is a PvP free month but I’ll certainly view my favourite streamers escapades and will be missing the past few days ShotGun onslaught up close and personal.
Cheesing it
Minimum effort for maximum gain is the basic formula for any investor. Specialist areas like Dark Web, Cryptocurrency and The Division attract mavericks running routines that do just that. At the moment, I’m investing a fair amount of time running easy missions (rinse and repeat cycles) on The Division Global Event to earn points to buy classified gear and it’s paying off nicely.
Cryptocurrency efforts have been thinned by real-life challenges and Dark Web is basically ignored for now. IRL the 90+°F daily heat wave is messing up my balance but I’m still going to focus on a Christmas escape to Florida this year, nuff planning needed.