LadyCrimson

I loved Grave of the Fireflies, but it's not a movie I have any desire to watch a 2nd time. I don't mind sad movies but GotF doesn't give me any personal motivation to suffer through the sad again. Once was enough.

^ Guess it does really depend on the game one is playing. I rarely use the giant "menu" pad in the middle of the ps4 controller in the few games I have for example. I didn't even realize that was a button, originally, just thought it was decorative empty space, lol. I do wish the Options and Share buttons weren't quite so tiny, it's easy to not press them hard enough to trigger, but other than that. And yeah...for me, any 3+ hour sessions, no controller is going to not cause me a little joint pain. :D I have to take breaks and make sure I exercise the hands and such. (edit-I also never have vibration on, talk about annoying to arthritis...) Hubby started having similar hand/thumb joint issues and has stopped playing/using the xbox controller at all and his hands are much larger than mine. He tends to get overly excited and grip very tightly tho. heh.

SE announces the FFXV Royal Edition with trailer. Essentially game of the year edition I guess, with some additional tweaks/content added. $50 includes base game, all the 1st Season Pass episodes, and all patched in features/new content. Or, if you already have the game/dlc's etc, $20 for just the new RE features. $20 seems a little steep but oh well, guess I'll be buying it anyway. This does not include the upcoming 3 new DLC coming in 2018. Also, for PC version, apparently a 1st person perspective will be added. Which I have no idea how that'll work with the game's crazy camera, frantic paced combat, but ok. By the year 2019, XV might feel more like a "complete" game than it did upon release. Maybe.

Re: controllers - not being a major console player I have little experience with a ton of variety, but I will say that the PS4 controller is much less harsh on someone with small hands and hand/thumb arthritis than the xbox controller. Xbox's taller profile and more rounded shape puts a lot more stress on the large connecting rotating thumb/hand joint, something about it makes you grip it harder or something. I'm definitely glad I bought a PS4 and not an Xbox, for that reason alone.

My mother has had several more small strokes last week and condition is deteriorating fairly rapidly now (not unexpected), and all the "visit her while you can" messages were sent to all extended family. My family relations was always contentious/not typical but Mom is the one I always had the best adult relationship with. She was cool. After she passes there may not be too much left re: family, for me. This year is not starting well on the personal grief level ... but such is the cycle of all life. I just have to eat more cookies and meditate out in the rain and hope when the time comes that I don't excessively wallow/do nothing but sleep for 3 months etc. ...and, dear hubby, I'm sorry, but I may need a new cat sooner than I thought. For me they are very helpful dealing with grief. Sitting on a beach somewhere doesn't help at all, but a cat in the lap does.

She did the only cover of this song that I actually liked quite a bit. This is her doing it by herself for some show or something, where I loved her charismatic energy - the polished studio track wasn't too bad either.

What? Nooooooooo.

"IT" (2017) I liked the first half or so, it felt very promising, but it semi-lost me in the 2nd half. That said I think it did pretty well at trying to shove half a huge novel into a 2 hour film and if I'd never read the book I probably would have liked it a lot more. But since I am someone who's read the novel maybe 12 times over 30 years, every tiny thing that's different really stands out/distracts (including updating the time period). I'll be curious how the adult-segment of the next movie fares. (edit: essentially TV version, imo, did better at choosing and depicting pieces from the book that gave it a flavor that felt more like the book - at least with the kids side of the tale) Things I'd pick bones with: --changing the "historian" role to Ben instead of Mike. I'd like to know the reasoning for that. Wait, maybe I don't want to know... --too much "R horror" and jump scares and not enough heart in the latter half. They tried but I didn't really feel it. What I want is Stand by Me flavor only with a creepy killer clown (which is how the book felt, to me, in a way), and I think the TV mini-series gave me more of that feeling. But the TV version was terrible when it switched to the adults. "Is that you in there Bev, or is that the clown??" Gah. If the movies can do better with the adult part, I'll be happy. --The rock fight between the two groups of kids was really anti-climatic and for the big moment of Mike appearing/joining the "group," was poorly done. TV series did a lot better with that. --Did the kids ever say "beepbeep" to Richie? I know I heard the clown say it once but I don't recall the kids ever saying it. Lost reference...or my failed hearing.

http://mikesrpgcenter.com/mm7/maps.html (MM8 wasn't bad either, but I liked 7 more overall) ...I'm trying to think of others where I loved their world/maps, but mostly what comes to mind is liking single-map levels from old strategy or building/management type games. Those favorite RTS maps you liked to play over and over, trying different strategies.

Hm. Oddly the game that comes to mind is Might and Magic 7. I loved exploring that game. Dungeons/mazes, dragon caves, stat bonus pedestals to find, teachers to find, treasure/ores, secrets, enemies all over, many towns, eventually flying. Skyrim was pretty but meh, I got bored wandering around pretty fast. In fairness I didn't get far, maybe some areas were better. FO:NV was ok but it too has the issue of many modern open world's where it just feels a bit empty/not much reward/things of gameplay interest for all the exploring. Everything too far spaced out so you're jumping/running/riding half the time for the sake of "realism." FFXV I love the game but even I will say the open world section needed more work. It can be very graphically immersive but also rather empty/unrewarding.

Was sifting through my almost-never-used-anymore YT account and found this small memory.

Nothing like spending a couple hours trying to catch some hard to catch fish in a game. Not hard to reel in, just very slow, and hard to get to bite lures in the first place - takes forever. In those two hours I caught three of the 30 or so missing from my "you caught these fish" list. Then I cast the line again and the game froze with Noct stuck in standing on a pier animation pose, with splashing fishing noises, but can't do anything control wise. First time it's done that while fishing in hundreds of hours. *turns FFXV off in a huff*

I think the only game I bought that seriously disappointed me, vs. just being "meh, oh well whatever", was Spore. I was expecting .... something completely different, is all. Bethesda games at this point I always buy with low expectations for my personal tastes and usually because I'm bored so what the hey why not. They usually have some fun to be had, but they don't generally make games that I find very engaging or immersive and thus I have yet to even come close to finishing one. I'm pretty sure I never even finished Morrowind's plot, and I played/enjoyed that one longest, for non-plot reasons. Edit: oh wait, I suppose release-Diablo 3 was a pretty large disappointment but I did play it for quite some hours despite that, mostly because I was trying very hard to like it.

Can't sleep, almost dawn, so here I am on the internet again. @Katphood - kittahs! I hate moving/uprooting, but sometimes a fresh/new start is just the ticket.

I like your chosen name.

It's funny how sometimes a little game you never heard of and just picked up on random store-run whim ends up a favorite beloved game, whilst that game you looked forward to for a long time and bought on day1 ends up being ... well, it's a common tale.

If funny counts as emotional impact, Overlords had me in stitches almost the entire time. Because ... minions. Whoosh whoosh whoosh. (no spoilers)

Typically/on average games don't hit my emotional core all that much. I think games in general is just a story-telling format that doesn't work for me in that regard most of the time or something. Not that I don't like the stories, it's just hard to get involved with them to any great degree. But FO:NV's Boone's PTSD almost made me cry. And in FFXV, it went darker than I was expecting, what with the sunny chocobo's and generic monster hunting, fishing, etc. beforehand. There's probably another example or two but most of the time my emotional impact of games is limited to amusement/laughter. I mean that in a good sense. I like funnies and the more I laugh while playing a game, the more I'll remember/like it. (edit - the humor I find is not always, I think, game-intentional, heh)

I'm just glad snails aren't giant sized and meat eaters.

"It's not safe out here. (Space) The ocean is wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid." CluckCluck, I say. ...and today I'm just aimlessly wandering around the house, missing my cat, posting on forums, watching the rain. I might allow myself to temp. gain back a pound this week via buying some chocolate cheesecake. I need some comfort junk food.

Shady won't be dirt poor there though. How about Iceland ? Iceland isn't really known for it's beaches.... But it does have the Blue Lagoon hot springs resort. Which to me would almost be better than a regular ol' beach. Always wanted to visit there. Or one of the other less resort-y hot springs they have, which actually would be more preferable if it was less people...one of the best hiking trips I was on had this small hot springs in the mountains, all by our lonesome, it was awesome.

These two pictures encapsulate why I love the main chr. animation in FFXV. They are all four different and recognizable in more than face/head, skintone, generic "weight" setting and different outfit/armor. I can immediately tell who is who from their different shapes, size, stances, hunched or straight shoulders or arm/leg positioning, and walking/running gait. Even when entirely covered up in the same firesuit I know who it is from their movements/stances alone. The effort made to make them visually individual is extraordinary and I love that aspect. XV may have a lot of flaws (story, mostly) and sometimes generic overall graphics but most of their animation work is lovely and for some reason I could watch it play out all day.

Noticed something called The Mountain Between Us for rent via Comcast and the preview made it look like one of those survive a disaster (two strangers stranded after a small plane crash) plots that I sometimes enjoy. Kate Winslet and Idris Elba too, sounded good. First half was all right. Then I began to realize it was really a romance film. Now I'm not against romance as a rule and often enjoy it as part of or even the main background of a story if they're well done (vs. say, most US rom-coms, which typically aren't). But it wasn't what I was expecting and the survival parts of the film were pretty silly after a while. Anyway, for what it was it was ok but my attention drifted a fair bit in the 2nd half. Idris Elba was still awesome tho.