LadyCrimson

Still playing the mini-game known as Ansel ... I mean FFXV. But I'm running into the usual issue of finding it hard to motivate past the open world into the linear story sections. Like with a lot of games, it's always the start/middle I like to replay. Still, I need that high level save on PC, darnit. I shall have to force myself to muddle through the rest of the story. Once you're in post-game it's all rainbows and fun again. Just have to make myself get there. >.> This is why I rarely buy very old games on Steam. Unlike GoG they generally don't seem to be altered to run well on current versions of Windows so I'm always hesitant. I'm sure some work just fine but ...

The "fuzzy" blue part just makes me think of the cookie-monster.

If you get another black one in the new litter, can I have it? Yeah...me too. Hubby likes animals/pets but doesn't really want to have them - but he met me. I admit there's some nice things about not having pets (especially when one is allergic) and a break is nice once in a while but ... I dunno. Eventually, so far, I just end up having to get another bundle of luv.

This level of eye-candy is definitely appreciated by me. But y'know, I still have a thing for Mr. Grumpy-pants Xan - graphics aren't everything!

True in 1983 when song was released. Still true in 2003. Still true today (and not just in the "good ol' USA"). Maybe one day such a song will no longer feel relevant. One day.

Aranea - still cool. The more I think about it, the more I wonder why they put in these intermediate steps during camping, like making them appear (for 2 seconds) with food stuck to their hands or stacked up in the tent. Seems to be no point to it, just don't pop them into the scene at all, like they do in some other situations, since the player can't see anyway? (unless one is using a mod to cheat-view with Ansel.... )

^ Taking one's sweet time through a game is the only way I play. :D ...I'm mid-Chapt. 7 in my PC run of FFXV. It's progress I suppose. Later chapters go faster and faster since they get linear, only a couple more chapters and the rest will be speedy. Discovered using Ansel overmuch appears to supersede Prompto's auto-photo taking feature - he won't take/get any photos during any time when one is spamming the Ansel hotkey every second, for example. Ansel takes precedence/stops the game from taking its own pictures I guess. This includes Prompto's scripted photo "tours" - where he's supposed to take pics and show you the 3 results. Instead I got only one and it was a close up instead of the supposed to be far range (Ansel was set to a close range, guess the game took its cue from that). Haha. Good thing I don't care.

It was mostly cloudy/overcast in the first (fight started out blue-sunny and the clouds rolled in during the fight) and raining in the 2nd. ;P In truth that's probably one of the things I like about the game - the zillions of filters they use. The color never seems to stay the same for longer than a minute as the day goes by. Either because of area, weather, or time of day Including sepia dust-storms). Although they do often seem to prefer the overcast/hazy look. And the PC versions has a bit more yellow-green forest filtering certain times of day than the console had, which kinda annoys me.

What in blazes ... OH HAI.

Sorta.

Violet Evergarden via Netflix: Wow. Took me a bit to realize the main chr. was not human (an android/realistic robot?) and overall the series has a slow pacing and I did kind of skim some episodes. >.> But the emotional points made me blubber like a little girl. I've become a weepy old woman.

Tried eating a raw fava bean. Broke open the giant pod (sure is fuzzy in there), picked out the bean (really more of a kidney bean shaped huge pea), ate it. Not recommended. Bitter, made the tongue kinda tingly. So then the more recommended method: after deshelling them, parboil a pile for a minute or so and peel off the "skin" of the favabean. The minute of boiling removes the bitter, starts to taste a little nutty. Palatable. But what a lot of work just for a plateful of beans. Huge stack of giant whole favabean pods down to a small tupperware of finished product. If it was my only food source, it'd be a good one. But it's not, so ... yeah, no. Hubby's started on sprouting his tomatoes seeds now. He got several varieties this time, all from seeds (the pre-grown seedlings from the garden stores always seem to suck/be prone to sickening). Tomato sandwiches sound much better than a small plate of fava beans.

For just a micro-second I thought Katphood was killing Arcade from FO:NV. :D ...the sepia filter. I like sepia as an effect but when/if it's an entire game I start to get a bit annoyed. It depends how extreme it is tho. I don't care about bright over-coloring all the time, either, but anything that's "on" all the time becomes dull or annoying. I like a game to have a lot of different color palettes/lighting filters, like in real life. Only desert I've been to was mostly sand with green scrub, and thus felt more like being snow-blinded. Also, even in a desert or in war, on a clear mid-day, at least the sky is still blue-ish. If there isn't tons of air pollution at least. Sepia filters do not differentiate.

Hm. Come to think of it, my eyes no longer feel so worn out/bleary since playing XV on PC. At first the graphic improvement over Pro didn't seem "all that" but once I gave up on 60fps and put it on 4k it's been awesome. Every time I try to go back to the Pro to do something (on the same 4K tv) it looks so ... blurry.

I know why games may remove collision in combat, but it still cracks me up when, in non-combat, they have this huuuge "don't get close to me" collision space around them, but once combat starts, you get creepy/weird moments like this: Also: "There's a girl in the car! Do I look okay?" I still don't understand this whole "moogle" doll thing but I guess it's kinda cute? Aranea is cool tho.

Essentially true, but more RAM does help me actually run the game, in a way. >.> It was sucking up 8 system RAM just to run it (it's gone as high as 9). Then top it off with the 2GB that just running Wndows uses and I'd get close enough to the 12RAM that I had, that if I tried browsing the net or looking at screenshots with the game still open, it would sometimes crash w/out of memory errors. Ha. Ha. So having 24RAM was a must for me, for this one game. (16 would've worked probably tho) I think some run it with less than 12RAM (and no hi-res texture pack) and the game limits itself then somewhat but yeah...I wouldn't want to go there.

*watches that Tower of Time trailer" It looked pretty good until the very end and the seemingly rooted-in-place mega boss with a giant arm showed up. Which has nothing to do with overall quality of a game but I've never much liked/am so tired of bosses like those, any genre. So boring. Game does look interesting/looks nice outside of that tho. I may keep it in my radar.

After picking apart, tinkering with, and studying that original cheap 3D printer kit he bought (more hours of entertainment than most get from $300, I'd say), hubby is now ... building his own 3D printer. Printed some connectors/brackets, bought/cut frame pieces, starting in on the power supply/electronics. I think he was originally going to cannibalize some parts from the 1st one but now he says he probably won't. It actually looks pretty good so far. He still hasn't printed me a cat, however, so even tho he's really cute when he's industrious, he's still -1.

^ And then hubby gets home, sees I'm grumpy, we get food, he's making me laugh, talking about his garden, picking some TV to watch, all is right with the world again. I love my man.

omg, knew it was coming but still ROFL ....

My older sister is once again gallivanting across the globe in her "retirement", doing good deeds in underprivileged villages. She's great/fantastic and super smart, mind, but also one of those types that makes you feel judged/unenlightened for your much more ordinary life. My entire family is/was like that. "You need fixing," "Why are you interested in that," etc. They once ambushed me via a dinner invite that was really an attempt to guilt-trip/force me into some weird life-motivator seminar series (hubby was pretty ticked off with that one). I am a Gremlin parked with a fleet of Teslas. Not much in common, yeah. Thought it might have improved some but nah. After mother's legal stuff is fully done I think ... that is it for me. *feels depressed, grabs a blanket and turns on the TV*

SE at Pax East announced their plans for the 4 new FFXV DLC. Two, at least, which sound like separate but tied together alternate path/rainbows and kittens ending DLC's (Noct and Luna). Maybe including a redemption arc for the bad guy, judging by a "painting" they also showed. To all be released by summer 2019. Color me unimpressed. All this basically fan-service stuff, for paid DLC. http://www.ign.com/articles/2018/04/06/pax-east-2018-final-fantasy-xv-4-new-story-dlc-episodes-coming-in-2019 Also, level/mini-game mod tools not until Fall (weapon/clothing in early Summer). And a stand-alone version of Comrades so one wouldn't need disc/main game to play it (no word whether that'll be yet another separate purchase or they'll update it somehow....) I'll still love/play the main game, mind, and patiently wait for mod tools but yeah ... I think that's about the end of my interest in future content. It was a good run. And I still have the original game/Episode Ignis. :D

^ Vet trips - more traumatic for cat or owner? I say it's about equal. G'luck. ...Sitting a while on a wooden chair, in the garage, the sound of rain made me recall some kiddie rain-adventures - reminders of youth. ...Getting up again from said chair - reminders of not-youth. Still good times, tho.

Not a cat, but still adorable. Behind the cut-scenes: Ignis-vision.

There's this feature on another forum where if you highlight a certain part of a posts text then hit Quote, it only quotes that part of the post. I like that feature. As a general statement since I started playing a bit on consoles, the only thing I miss re: KB/mouse is aiming precision if it's an action game. That and inventory menus that were designed for KB/mouse vs. controller, but it feels like most games are designed with consoles eventually in mind these days so even in PC games those aren't always what I prefer anyway, anymore. PC game controls are becoming so convoluted that I often dislike it - 10 commands of Alt+F6 and Cntrl+9+a round of hokey pokey just to do what seem like simple things. I always liked the ability to reconfigure KB/mouse controls to almost whatever you wanted, to better fit your hand preferences but it's becoming rather ridiculous in the few games I've seen/tried lately - I prefer most things to be doable with single key presses or just the mouse even. I see 4 pages of KB/mouse "commands" in a game and my eyes glaze over.