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| Copyright © Mark R Kelly 2026 |
As games go, I have a tendency to steer away from PvP orientated games, especially when it involves gathering items, equipment and loot, only to have it all lost and stolen when another player takes your character down. I find it about as appealing as a cold shower at 5AM on a snowy November morning.
But… and this is the surprise for me, ARC Raiders has captured something of a unique niche, primarily driven by player behaviour in solo PvE. The more positive interactions you have with other players, the more you help each other, and not take players down and rob them, the more you will continue to be placed into games with like-minded players – or so the devs at Embark would have us believe.
For the most part, it seems to work. For 98% of the time, in my 45 hours of playing experience, which isn’t bad at all. There is still that niggle of nervousness and edge of distrust when you encounter another player. This is made all the more suspicious when the encountered player doesn’t use voice or the built-in emotes to communicate, but rather skirts around you in total silence. Like a shark.
Regardless, I’ve enjoyed my ventures into Dam Battlegrounds, Spaceport, Buried City, Blue Gate and my least favourite, Stella Montis – which gives me shivers, mainly because it’s entirely indoors. Too many closed doors, with all kinds of nasty lurking behind them.
Gaming aside, the New Year has sidled in beside me without as much as a ‘hello’ – very anti-climactic, I grant you. I didn’t even have a chance to say farewell to 2025. It just slipped away as if it hadn’t even been there. Probably out of shame is my bet. Good riddance.
And so we turn to face a brand new horizon of another year. I hope and pray it’s not a repeat of all we’ve endured. But if I were a betting man, I would say we’re now facing a steep hill ahead of us. The climb will be difficult at times, exhausting for many, but so long as we pull together, we will get to the top as one.
New Year’s resolutions are garbage. Mere props that set us up for failure, give false hope with good intentions made from tissue paper, that tear and break with the slightest application of pressure – that being, dedication.
All we need is a clear mind, an achievable goal, grounded realism and expectations – wrapped in a desire for realistic change. It doesn’t have to be huge. Everything great started out with a simple step. Once you have momentum, a clear vision, and mind and body in unison, anything is possible.
So long as you view it as a life adjustment, and not as a ‘quick fix’ – which a New Year’s resolution is, let’s be honest – you’ll have a basis for a solid foundation from which to begin your positive journey.
In closing I’ll add this last piece of ‘advice’: never, ever, listen to those negative voices in your life, be they friends, work colleagues, family or even your loved one. The cold, hard truth is that some people are intimidated by others who show control over their own life, especially when it involves personal discipline. They look at you and are reminded of their own failings, so they will tempt you with the things you’ve given up, or try to get you to “take a day off”. When that doesn’t work, some resort to saying negative things. They will try to undermine you in order to make themselves feel better.
Pay them no heed. Take it as affirmation that what you are doing is working and others are seeing the results of your hard work and effort. Use that energy to drive yourself forward. And trust me when I say this: it will give you such power from within, you’ll wonder why you hadn’t done this sooner.
The simple answer to that question is that you weren’t ready.
If this is you, and you resonate with what I’ve said, then I wish you all the very best going forward with your life in your endeavour to be the best version of yourself you can be. It’s there, waiting for you. Embrace it. The power is yours – it always has been.
I leave you with Muse - "Uprising".
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