LadyCrimson

Yesterday/today I haven't felt much like gaming so instead I've been browsing through the entire collection of Ebert's film reviews that are archived on his site. I rarely visit the site anymore since his passing - with no single voice there anymore the site is boring - but I'm glad they've kept his archive up. I started on the very last page (there's over 450 pages with multiple reviews each page) and have been slowly making my way through a lot of them. It's an interesting re-walk through some of film's history, so to speak. I still miss Ebert a lot. I think I only agreed with his star-conclusion maybe 65% of the time but his rating wasn't why I read his reviews. Only film reviewer I like these days is still James Berardinelli. His "ReelThoughts" essays are often interesting reads as well.

The true meaning of "dressing up a pig?" It's adorable. I read you can capture pets or something, I assume that's one of them.

Oh I didn't notice this earlier. I ended up becoming a little weary of thinking inside the Palico editor and ended up making him a little ordinary. I still want to make some kind of wacky colored one. I might make a 2nd character just for that. Wasn't too happy with my female avatar's face outside of the editor. She has these very weird cheeks inside the game that aren't apparent in editor. Maybe a helmet will cover up her face before long. Not sure if that's just going to be the case regardless but I'll have to try again. I hear you can't change their actual faces later, just hair/makeup and clothes or something. I haven't gotten very far in the game, yet, which I expected. Trying to "git gud" with the weapon combos and even targeting (pressing down on the stick didn't occur to me at first...) of a new game always gives me conniptions so I don't play for too long at a time initially. :D I have a feeling I'll be using the free-roam a fair bit, just to enjoy the world without the timers.

Goshfurrrnit, I WANT ONE. Forests look pretty nice.

I think I'm getting console-controller elbow from having the forearms bent inwards to hold it.

If you've never played the Batman, go for it. Even if you don't get much more than a few hours in, at least you'll know more if you like it enough to finish it one day. :D

So is there something wrong with my audio or are the npc's supposed to keep lip-flapping while no voiceovers occur (just the subtitles)? Not a big deal in a game like this, just looks/feels weird. Had to turn the brightness setting in-game waaay down (I don't have HDR on either) for certain scenes/lighting to not be all washed out (seems to be a common thing). Dino's/monsters have fabulous detail, looks fantastic on 4k. I could actually do with less "story", at least this beginning stuff. Drags on a bit too long in the start. I liked that they had short example videos of what combat with different weapons would look like, in-game. Overall, a nice beginning/intro. Now to beat down some monsters with my lowly katana. *cracks knuckles*

Monster Hunter World: Character Editor: hmm, nothing too special in here. Bambambambam, choices made in 2 minutes, done. (funny you can have bearded ladies) Palico Editor: omg they're all so cute, should I have pointy ears, rounded ears, flattened ears, solid color, patterened, realistic colors or wild purple/pink colors, omg a kinked tail, sooooooooooo cuuuuuuuuuteeeee. 15 minutes later, still stuck in this screen.

Ok, I'm kidding. In terms of trailers that got me really excited when I first saw them, Diablo3 was one. Loved the music too. Their cinematic trailers are often delicious, even if they have nothing to do with actual gameplay. lol.

@Keyrock - yeah, I understand that from videos/twitch I've seen. I don't expect to play MHW with serious dedication but I'm hoping the crafting aspect will keep me motivated. I like that kind of busywork. Regardless, it looks pretty, combat looks fun (at least for short bursts, to me) and of course, kitty. Something else to do now and then between FFXV and while waiting for their Royal Edition. Can't play with the chocobro's all the time. Most of the time, but not all.

Fell asleep around 3pm yesterday, woke up at 5am. >.> Guess I was tired. Waiting for MHW to download.

The most likely thing that will keep me from playing MHW too long is if the combats eventually become these 10-20 minute fights all the time. I don't mind long combats if it's special bosses or whatnot but if it's like that nearly every fight I usually get bored/tired. The ingredient finding/crafting aspect looks decent tho. And you're not alone. At some point a forum upgrade must have made the quote system terrible, I haven't liked it for a while now. I use the BBCode view if I want to edit out nested quotes but it's still a pita.

Been watching videos of Monster Hunter World trying to get a better handle on what type of gameplay it is (besides bashing monsters, I mean, hah). Seems like at least minimally enough there for me to have a chance of getting into it. Think I'll buy it. I expect to die a lot until I figure out the controls and monster patterns. Mostly tho, I want to hang out with that cat-person companion. Because.

Dead Island (too bad the game sucked). I'm not sure which I found more affecting, the original or when IGN reversed it to be in chronological order. Borderlands 2 Doomsday trailer (too much fun).

For me it's less escapism per se as it is just ... like I said, I can't shut my brain up a lot of the time. I'm one of those people who can't "relax." Chronic depression since a child - I'm not bipolar but there are still ups and downs that have me either sleeping all day or mind-jittering like I've had 20 pots of coffee (the latter is why sometimes I'm here babbling inanely on the forum). Without something to really focus my attention I go mad, one way or another. Reading was helpful because it makes my brain focus on imagining/painting the picture the words represent so I form movies in my head, but it only works if I read non-stop (reading a novel a chapter a night does not work at all). Photography helped a little because I have to focus on technical things like light, angle, and with digital cameras, editing if I feel like it. Games help because I focus on the obsessive tasks of leveling, hunting, combat techniques, building characters towards being uber, designing cities, fast paced decisions, analyzing data, etc. Games in terms of just stories or lore don't usually work very well because unlike books I don't have to imagine the world/faces/places inside my head, it's all drawn out so to speak so my attention wanders a lot. Same with movies/TV. I loved Baldur's Gate, it was probably the first "serious" CRPG I played that was less action oriented than some others. But even there my focus was stats, tasks, builds, self-found humor/amusement re: chrs and battle situations, erasing every dot of the map black space. I don't even remember the plot at this point, tbh. Heh.

Aha! So that's why that 3D printer was so cheap. It's a DIY thing. So many parts to put together. Hubby might have it done by this evening. This morning ... missing my cat. Missing my mother. Avoiding the grocery store again but darnit I'm out of caffeine. Standing by the wall heater with wild bed hair with a cup of coffee stolen from my hubby's pot, feeling grumpy.

*looks up 2017/2018 median Vancouver home prices* ...sounds about the same as San Francisco, which went over 1 million US recently as well. SF Bay Area as a whole is lower than that (600k?) but it's still just nuts and the lower priced places are tiny or run down or in undesired spots. Our postage stamp 980sq. ft. 3bd/1ba single-family, which we bought for around $575k 9 years ago (just before or just as the major US crash) would be over a million now, which I find absurd for a 9year period that includes a long market crash. Even during the height of the crash it never went below $500k. Lack of housing for population continuously wanting to live here for some unfathomable reason = bidding wars between the richer people, inflating the value in seller's/market's minds. ...salaries for higher paying type jobs tend to be inflated in metro, but if you're not in one of those lines of work, then yeah, good luck affording a decent home in large metro areas these days for most/the average worker. You save up and if the economy depresses, try to jump in before the banks start to tighten up. Or have mom and dad help and co-signers etc. ...even the rent around here is nuts (probably $2500-$3000ish for 1bd/1ba). I often wonder how all the service/retail workers manage. It's one reason ppl want the minimum wage raised a lot, but then of course service prices would skyrocket, meaning even less living affordability, etc. Endless conundrum.

Hubby: "I just spent too much and bought an expensive geek item online." Me: "Geek item?" Hubby: "A 3-D printer." Me: (envisioning thousands) "And what is 'expensive?'" Hubby: "$300." Me: "Oh, is that all. ... You and I have very different ideas of expensive. **Seen our monthly groceries expense lately? Inflation? Y'know?" I had no idea you could get 3d printer for so cheap. I wonder what kind of quality you get for that. He wants it because he's always wanting these little "parts" that no one makes anymore so now he can experiment with making them himself, or something, I guess. It'll be cool to see one in person tho, vs. just videos. Maybe it'll get me more excited about them vs. just vaguely interested in their far-future potential. As to hubby - well, let's just say even if he won a huge lottery, he'd still complain about having to spend more than a buck-fifty on almost anything. **edit: I hope that doesn't come off as snobbish. I just mean in relation to our income. It's no longer $3.50/hr like back in the 80's...

Good. Stick to what makes you happy. I still play FONV and Bloodlines more than anything while fitting in bits of other games when I feel like it. Have no use for the majority of new releases, AAA nor Indie, the art of Cuphead being the lone exception. Oh and ... yeah, I know. It's just that sometimes I feel like I'm so out of the loop, not knowing anything about anything, being years behind, nothing to say since I'm not familiar with what most are playing. And all the spoilers you have to avoid. Or learn to not care about spoilers (which is mostly the way I went).

Had a convo about mini-games within games (most of which I can't stand) which reminded me of Might and Magic's Acromage. One of the very very few such mini-games that I ever liked. Yes it cheated sometimes I think but what AI doesn't. I'm reinstalling Might and Magic 7 right now just so I can play Acromage. Maybe I'll play the whole game a bit too, if my back doesn't mind sitting at a desk for too long.

--I still miss Win98. Not because it was the best thing evah, but because ... I understood it. --I'm used to Win7 now but it's where I stopped being a "computer" person because I became fed up trying to keep up with such things. I have it set up and leave it alone and rarely do anything deeper but play games/edit pictures/surf the net on it now. Most anything else is a mystery. --I still haven't built a new rig because I don't want to deal with Win10. Everyone, including my husband who knows me best, says I'll hate changing to Win10 100x more than I hated changing to Win7 and so... --maybe if I overclock my old i7 to 3.2 and stick more RAM on the mobo. --in a few years I bet more games will be Win10 only, plus there's the DX thing. --I could build new rig just to game on and keep old rig, but that never works long term because one gets fed up switching and transfering files and all of that constantly. --I could just give up PC's entirely.

Guess it took more than 2 years. Yet another common tale. ...the scenery does look nice, can I just be a wandering ghost and fly around looking at all the pretty? ...still think the 1st person melee perspective is ugly and awkward as all out, and I don't just mean in this game. For me, 1st person is for guns and snipers. Seeing 1/3 to 1/2 of your weapon and occasionally an elbow flailing around with a slightly fishbowl look to gazing at your opponent always bothers me. When I hold something in my hand, I can see my entire arm and the entire thing I'm holding. Also, my legs, my feet, my torso, etc without having to even bend my neck. Not seeing that - plus no peripheral vision representation (widening field-of-view into ever more fishbowl is not peripheral vision) - makes no visual sense to my brain in most games and I can never really get into it. ...combat doesn't look "fun" to me. Technically interesting and more realistic I'm sure, just not "fun" the way I define fun. Not putting it down, just not my thing I guess. ...the visuals and animations look pretty good (npc soldiers, armor, talking to folks, details on walls, paintings, etc) ...seriously, is there a sandbox-observer mode? I'd probably just like that. Running around, taking screenshots, waiting for rainy days (are there rainy days?). Although not for $60. Maybe $30.

Watched the first episode of "Counterpart" on Starz. It's a bit of a slow burn episode, setting things up, lots of visual/observation and reaction shots vs. dialogue keeping things mysterious with little explanation. But J.K. Simmons is masterful at a dual role. Every gesture, tonal inflection, shoulder slump, walking style, head movements, all differentiate between the two different but same selves and it's awesome. They should just call it the J.K. Simmons is Masterful and You Know It, Show. Once there's a few episodes available on-demand to binge, I'll keep watching. I'm not sure yet about the series as a whole/the plot but I'm not sure I care. I'm here for Simmons.

I have a habit of watching TV for 15-30 or so minutes every time I eat, and the past few days I kept seeing ads for the "last role/performance of Daniel Day Lewis" and thought he'd died, which made me a little sad since I knew he wasn't super old. Then I finally looked it up - guess he's just retiring. They could have worded it better.