Assassin's Creed Origins Curse Of The Pharaohs

I have loved playing Assassin's Creed Origins because it has been a lot of fun to play and just explore ancient Egypt with Bayek. I could not wait to play the latest DLC Curse Of The Pharaohs. This is set four years after the main events of Bayek's story and opens a completely new quest while exploring Thebes as well as a ton of new side quests. There is now an atlas feature that makes fast travel easier from the global map. The level cap has also been raised to level 55.

Fast travel is now easier on the map. 

The story has Bayek investigating a mystery about why dead pharaohs are walking around and if it's an artifact causing it. Curse Of The Pharaohs is so well done. It explores the mysticism of the time and themes that are relevant to the era. The combat is great as always and with a heightened sense of danger added when a pharaoh's shade rises because you can fight them, but they are a little more difficult than regular enemies. If you defeat one, they go back to the Land Of The Dead for a time. You get an alert when a pharaoh's shade rises and you can find out where they are by looking at your map. Be prepared for a challenging fight because they are designed to be challenging and after a certain amount of time they run away so you definitely have to plan out strategically to fight them in the open world. 

Bayek prepares to fight a pharaoh's shade. 

There are some nice rewards during your adventure. Some are from doing the Trial Of The Gods which offer weapons and armor. There is a very cool Warden's Oath armor set you can get with the Ubisoft club rewards just from participating in community events like Trial Of The Gods or the daily quests. 

Warden's Oath armor. 

The temples and areas in Curse Of The Pharaohs are beautiful. One of the places I enjoyed exploring was the Land Of The Dead. Steeped in ancient Egyptian spirituality and folklore, this was such an interesting place to explore and gorgeous. I read all the scrolls I found here because they were interesting and you learn a lot about the history and people not just in this area, but in the history of Egypt itself. 

One of the beautiful views in The Land Of The Dead. 

There are a ton of side quests in the Land Of The Dead also that play alongside the main quests. Bayek does travel back and forth often from the living world to the dead one. Sometimes it can be a little confusing to follow the main quests because they are not as streamlined as the quests were in Hidden Ones so it can be a little odd trying to do the main quests in the right order which detracts a little from the game, but not enough to make it a deal breaker. 

Bayek explores a temple in The Land Of The Dead. 

I liked the main story of Curse Of The Pharaohs a lot because it was interesting and exploring the new areas was a lot of fun. Sometimes taking a break from the main events and discovering new areas and looking around offered great views and I appreciated how much detail and thought went into everything. It really showed how much research was done to make everything just right. I was also thrilled that you get a new mount, a horse of Anubis. 

Horse of Anubis is awesome!

I liked Curse Of The Pharaohs a lot. The main story is interesting and well done. The ending felt a little rushed to me, but it was not a bad ending. The entire DLC itself is fantastic because of how great the gameplay is, the awesome rewards from quests, and the exploration of beautiful areas in the living world and the mystical one. I found the historical aspects incredibly fascinating as well as the closer look at the ancient Gods and the stories about them. Curse Of The Pharaohs is a lot of fun to play because it doesn't just offer an interesting story, it offers a rich tapestry of experiences immersing you fully into Bayek's ancient Egypt and allowing you to explore it to your heart's content. 

Another amazing view.

*Assassin's Creed Origins is available to play on the following platforms: PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One

Assassin's Creed Origins Discovery Tour Is Fun While Learning

The latest DLC installment for Assassin's Creed Origins is out and one of the things is the Discovery Tour. The Discovery tour gives you a museum experience within the game. Working with egyptologists it not only shares interesting facts about ancient Egypt, it also shows off historical items from museums all over the world. With 75 guided tours to choose from, you just follow the highlighted trail to several locations to hear historical facts from the NPC narrator about historic buildings, cities, and people.

Just follow the trail for a guided tour.

You can choose from a list of guided tours from your user interface menu. You can fast travel to these areas and start the tours. You can also choose from a variety of characters ranging from Bayek to Cleopatra to Julius Caesar in order to walk the tours. Discovery takes out the combat of the game and allows you to explore the areas in depth while learning about them. 

You can choose avatars like Julius Caesar to explore Discovery Tour.

I loved the Discovery tour. I have always been a big history nerd and ancient Egypt is one of my favorite subjects. It was interesting and fun learning about things such as what daily life was like and learning about how the city of Alexendria was built. I loved seeing the different artifacts from museums all over the world. I also found it interesting that they also gave insights into things they used in the game, what they changed and why, and showcasing various architect designs of the various areas.

You can see artifacts like this one with Discovery tour.

When a guided tour is ended, you can free roam and explore. This is really cool because you can observe things like how people made bread. It gives a lot of great small details that add to the experience. You can also take photos of things that capture your interest while on these guided tours.  You can take in beautiful scenery and sites. It was a lot of fun for me just taking pictures of things I really liked seeing like the city of Alexandria at night. 

One of the great views in the tour.

One of the most interesting things to me was learning about the history of  the architecture of historical buildings and learning about the city planning of Alexendria. It was cool learning all the ins and outs about that and how it was done. There are a lot of great maps of the city and various locations within the tour. 

Learning about the city planning is quite interesting.

Taking a break from the main game and checking out Discovery Tour is well worth it because it really lets you see just how much thought and research went into everything in the game. You have freedom to explore and have fun while learning about ancient Egypt and the historical figures that lived in it. 

One of the museum artifacts shown in the game. 

*Assassin's Creed Origins is available to play on the following platforms: PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One

Farewell, Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking has passed away at the age of 76. Think about that. He was only given two years to live and he lived well beyond those years. I am so bummed that we have lost a brilliant mind, but I'm grateful for how he expanded our minds with his passion and love for science. Farewell, Stephen Hawking. Rest well among the stars and thank you for the gift you gave us of exploring and thinking about the universe in different ways. We will miss you.

The Adventures Of Pirotess: Crafting With Weaver

Weaver was the next crafting job I tried out. Weaver is another job class that I enjoyed. To unlock weaver, you need to head to the Weaver's Guild in Ul'dah and talk to the NPC there. Once that's done you get the tools you need for Weaver, a needle and later on as your secondary tool, a spinning wheel. 

Pirotess at the Weaver's Guild.

Weaver is useful for crafting light cloth armor for caster classes as well as armor for crafting classes that enhance stats such as crafstmanship and control points. Lightning and wind shards are used for crafting on Weaver. This is why it's best to have the botanist and miner jobs unlocked so that you can gather the shards needed for crafting as well as other crafting materials. You can also buy some of the beginning materials needed from the Weaver's Guild supplier, but as you level and the recipes become more challenging, you will need to go out and forage. 

The weaver's guild will have some of the needed crafting materials.

As with the other crafting jobs, you will have a crafting log book giving you a list of items you can craft on weaver. You can go down the list and start crafting as long as you have the required materials. Once crafted, you get experience points for it and a check mark showing proof that you have successfully completed it. With some recipes that you have crafted normally you can use quick synthesis which lets you craft items in bulk. You will only get minimal experience doing this and you won't necessarily get high quality items from it and the chance for synthesis failures is a bit greater. It can be convenient if you need to make a certain number of items for quests or for selling on the market boards. 

List of items that can be crafted on Weaver.

Weaver has a set of skills that can enhance your crafting. Because I have been leveling Culinarian, I am able to craft food that also helps with my crafting such as baked onion soup which helps with my craftsmanship. Using food that enhances crafting is a great way to help crafting on weaver. Skills like Steady Hand and Inner Quiet can help make sure that your crafting is successful. 

Use your Weaver skills to help your crafting.

Light armor isn't the only thing weaver can make. It's a bit more challenging, but with craft enhancing food and armor you can craft furniture like beds, rugs, and stuffed toys. This is under the housing tab in your crafting log. Patience is a must for these recipes because the more difficult recipes will result in a lot of craft failures. Once you master it however, it gets a bit easier. Furniture also sells for quite a bit of gil on the market boards which is a nice way to add to your adventurer nest egg. 

A list of furniture items you can craft on weaver. 

At certain levels such as level 10 you get a quest from the guild master, Redolent Rose where you need to craft a specific item and turn it in. Completing these quests gives you experience points and at some of the levels you can choose armor for your weaver. You also get improved tools for your weaver as you level up. 

Pirotess talks to Redolent Rose, the weaver guild master.

Weaver is not just a useful crafting job, it's a lot of fun. I enjoyed making a variety of things for friends ranging from crafting gear to furniture for their houses. Making high quality items is a challenge, but the sense of accomplishment when I successfully did it was fantastic. Being able to make a few things for myself is also great especially when I'm having some adventurer downtime. Thanks for reading, everyone. I believe the next crafting job post will be for Blacksmith. See you at the next adventure!

Pirotess enjoying some crafting on weaver. 

*Final Fantasy XIV is available to play on the following platforms: PC and Playstation 4