Armada, by Ernest Cline, is about Zack Lightman (that name's words are almost Luke Skywalker) who plays the MMO space shooter Armada. Zack's father dies suddenly so he becomes obsessed with his dad's interests in 70s and 80s gaming and pop culture. Eventually, as a teenager, he finds his dad's journal outlining a conspiracy and from there the plot thickens.
Good morning Pixlpeeps and happy Friday! I have to say this week went by fast and even though my little piece of Southern California was teased with more rain, we didn't get a drop but the temperatures dropped from being 15 degrees over normal, to a more manageable below normal temperatures. Most likely it will go back up after this weekend but I'm not ready to get back to the summer heat. Anyways how are you good people? Anything fun planned this weekend? Let's get started with this week's Quick Hits!
Update: Before you read this...
This is basically a rant about how I think the new Ys 8 feels a bit slower somehow in comparison to the older games and also compared to new Toukiden which I feel are very similar. My impressions of Ys 8 come from the latest demo on JPN store and I noticed in a trailer video that there DOES seem to be some kind of super sprint ability for the character, so I might have a bad impression from the demo. Also consider the game demo is in Japanese so its possible I didn't notice a sprint feature. Either way, it's late! I'm tired! Play both games! I'm making a bid deal about nothing. They are both great! But if you've played older Ys games, what do you think of games new fuller 3D style?
I finished up Tales from the Borderlands today. The last chapter has you doing a few more button presses, which is good. I seem to detect certain scenes as new to me from the last time I played. I know I made a few different choices this time around. I was getting a kick out of the end of chapter breakdowns and any choices I made that were in the minority. I think I made more low percentage choices compared to other players this time around. I suppose that might account for a few different scenes and a slightly different progress through the story. These choices don't change that much but at the end you can choose your team against the final boss and different choices result in some different scenes. The end is always the same, though.
The gaming top 5 is something I am doing for NWP, but since '98 is also the year I started buying CDs, I'm going to include some musical favorites as well. Maybe movies, since I was always a huge movie buff.
I... didn't get a new Bicycle. I just have the the Queen song stuck in my head.
This is a collection of short stories written by different authors. Some have written other Halo books. Others are, or were, employees at Bungie directly involved with the Halo franchise, and there are more still.
I played the first two chapters of Tales from the Borderlands on XBO the other day and, oh boy, what a difference from the Xbox 360 version. The XBO version ran perfectly smoothly, no frame rate drops or anything. I enjoyed it so much more. I'm noticing things now in the game I didn't notice before because I was so distracted by the technical problems. I now realize how these issues can so badly effect the experience of a game; the whole pacing of the story was ruined on Xbox 360. I didn't even play the last episode on 360 for over six months because I was so annoyed by it. I'm glad I bought this for XBO. It's exactly what I had hoped for, an error free experience.
I'm playing the Toukiden 2 demo on PS4 and it reminds me a lot of Ys games. It really doesn't feel like Monster Hunter, more like Dragons Dogma honestly, although I think from the demo I think DD is a better game. So far it's very hack n slashy and on the easy side. A little too simplistic. Does the game get deeper? So far the bosses just come down to cutting down their health and not much strategy like a MH game? Its okay, but I'd say it's monster hunter light. Did anyone play the first game and how does it compare to MH?
MvC Arcade ... maybe ... I mean I've played it since cause movie theaters exist, but I THINK I actually played it in '98.
Good morning Pixlpeeps! It is a very windy day here in what is usually sunny Southern California. I had my hands full yesterday so I wasn't able to write my usual What I Am Playing blog while eating breakfast, but today it is a different story, and I am ready to give an update on what I have been playing. Sound like fun? Let's get started!
Over the past month I came into a little money and went on a little spending spree. I probably boosted my collection by about 80 physical games and around 30 or so digital on various system. I also managed to snag a back-up Vita, a New 3DS, PS Vita TV, PS4 VR, and a Retrobit Generations. I've also boosted my Skylanders collection quite a bit as well. I've recently cut myself down to 1 day a week at work due to health reasons, so I currently have plenty of free time to enjoy my new goodies.
The trend of highly anticipated things releasing around my birthday receiving mixed reviews and performing below expectations continues this year as Mass Effect: Andromeda receives 7.7 from IGN and a 6 from GameSpot, and an overall score of 75% on Metacritic thus far. By no means is that bad, but when you release a game in the wake of Horizon: Zero Dawn and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, both of which have had massive commercial and critical success, it's not great either.
I began today's gaming by playing Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel solo for a while and avoiding the final boss fight with the Empyrean Sentinel. I went to play the Holodome DLC instead. It's just a large arena and you have to survive five rounds and then one more crazy hard round. I just did one because I dislike arena fights unless I have friends in there with me.
So after seeing not so positive feedback for Mass Effect Andromeda I decided to cancel my preorder. Im gonna hold out a bit before spending 60$ on it. I decided to instead get Toukiden 2. I played the first on Vita and enjoyed it a lot. Its pretty much similar to Monster Hunter, its a Action RPG where you hunt monsters or in Toukidens case Oni. There is a demo out now on the PS4 and maybe the Vita? Im not sure about the handheld verison.
I just got to the final boss in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel today. I fought it once but it's clearly going to be a tough battle that will take some time, so I stopped for the day.
I think I'm about half way in the main story for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. I've been doing side missions along the way. I like doing all the side missions. It's not a completionist thing, I just like hearing all the stories and being sent to all the locations in the game. However, I did start to get hung up on trying to open all the chests that require 40 moon stones. I did five of them and thought the sixth one was going to be the last for an achievement but there are actually 10. I went for this last time I played the game and got to within one of getting it. This time, I backtracked three different times to open moon stone chests that I had found but didn't have the moon stones when I found them. I finally realized I was getting really obsessive about it and just stopped. Maybe I'll come across that one I never found, but it's not important. The story, the environments and listening to all the dialog are my main interests.
Good morning Pixlpeeps and Happy St. Patrick's Day. Yes the one day where I actually wear a lot of green (by a lot I mean a green baseball cap, and matching sneakers). Today is also week two of No Meat Friday so hopefully I can find something to eat that doesn't involve the words “Tofu”, and “burger.” I might hit up the local casino for dinner because its two for one seafood night, and crab, shrimp, and clam chowder is on the exempt list (WOOOOO!) I also hope there is a trip to the local mom & pop for me so I can add to the music library. As I type this I am currently ripping an audio cassette audiobook. I do like audio cassette books because I can say “Books on Tape” but also there are tons at Thrifts and usually they are cheap, and the sound quality isn't bad. The drawback is I have to rip them in real time, and this is where I miss high speed dubbing. Anyways let's get started with Quick Hits
When a brand-new game console comes out, I like to write a blog about the console that came before it, and talk about my favorite games on it. So now that the Nintendo Switch has been released, I’d like to honor the Wii U and go over my favorite games for that system (not in any particular order).
Since NWP is going back to '98 for Chrono Crossing, and it's also the year I started visiting CD Warehouse, and my birthday is a week from now (somehow relevant I guess), here's this list of singles I remember from that year or hearing later, whether I liked them or not (based on Wikipedia's probably-not-complete list):
Started Pre-Sequel today. My first impression (on this second playthrough) is that it is way less aggro than Borderlands 2. Enemies say less ultra violent things. There's even an option in the settings to tone down the gore. I don't think that was in B2. The game is a little bit less chatty overall. However, it still makes me chuckle frequently. I can't help thinking about the difference in developers in this regard. 2K Australian toning down the violence from the Gearbox, based in Texas, USA, developed B1 and B2. My friend Mark perfers B1 and B2 over Pre-Sequel, but I like it just fine.
Watched La La Land with a friend yesterday afternoon (I'm still awake) and it hit my feely feels harder than any of the Oscar Best Picture Nominees of 2016 I've seen thus far (see my previous blog for details). This is because it reminded me of the dreams I had as a kid of working as actor/director/writer in Hollywood or a stand up comedian and the fact none of those dreams have been realized.
I'm talking the years 1977-1979. These were my pre-teen years and the beginning of my education in everything nerdy. I saw Star Wars; I played Advanced Dungeons & Dragons; I watched Star Blazers (or Battlestar Gallactica, if you're not into anime); I read The Silmarillion; I went to arcades and played Space Invaders and Asteroids; and I played handheld systems by Mattel Electronics - Baseball being the one I owned. But most importantly was the Atari VCS (later the 2600) I got for Christmas, the first really succesful home video game console.