Typha Tales

Welcome.

When I last endeavoured to set up a space to write down my thoughts solely on one subject, it was back in 2005. I believe that was a good 12-18 month period where Azeroth had me under its spell. Since that time, I’ve not felt or even wanted to contain my thoughts on a sole topic. 12 years on and that itch seems to be wanting a scratch.

My writing has previously lead me around like a puppy on a new lead. I’ve tangled myself into and out of topics without ever settling into a real rhythm. With each new root struggling to take hold, my own enthusiasm would wither away until the fresh sprout of a new influence caught my eye.

Yet I believe that it’s never the destination and always the journey that makes writing enjoyable. And so here I am, writing the first post for Typha Tales.

The Long Dark?

My experience with The Long Dark began with the early access on XB back last year. But when I sold that console, my belief was that I’d never get to experience the full 1.0 release. I own a PS4 PRO and it’s the only gaming outlet that I own. Sad not to play the game again, sure but maybe they’d be something similar one day for PS4? What I hadn’t expected was for Hinterland Games to announce a PS4 release! It has certainly made my 2017 that much better for gaming variety.

The game itself? Well it’s a thoughtful, meditative experience on survival in a ‘quiet apocalypse’. No zombies, no walkers or vegetables growing out of folk is a massive plus for me. Wildlife and humans trying to survive in a very, very cold environment!

Wintermute is the start of the story mode to The Long Dark. If you don’t already know, the story component wasn’t available in early access and there are very few details on it before release. Sandbox is the free roam, exploration and survival mode that those in early access having been playing. There are various difficulty settings(Pilgrim, Voyager, Stalker and Interloper) to this mode but I found all of them to be challenging. I loved the experience on XB but didn’t have the chance to experience the last Sandbox update, Faithful Cartographer(see video below).

This was a fairly large update; the UI was changed and many of the models and sounds were improved. There’s still no indication of how the survival mechanics will be used in the story mode or how much of the map will be used and if all the locations used in the story will be part of the Sandbox(I’d imagine they would be, here’s hoping!).

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Thanks for taking the time to read this intro. Please feel free to ask questions in the comments section. I’m by no means a TLD expert but I’m always looking for others opinions or information on the game. Expect to see updates on my experiences here as the game goes live from the 1st August.