LadyCrimson

Yeah, I've been looking forward to that one. I thought it was going to release last month but it was this month, and then we bought Tiny Tina so not sure if I'll play it right at release day (which I think is tomorrow?). I'll definitely be buying/playing it soon, tho.

Haha. I remember Diablo 3 would tell you this, complete with a picture of a sad lonely looking old man (maybe Cain?) ... *google* ... this thing. ...probably became a meme or something.

Tiny Tina Wonderlands - We still have lots o' little sidequests or "completionist" type stuff, but we hit max clvl (40, currently) and went to do the campaign end boss. We killed him and the loot shower started ... and the credits rolled right in the middle of that. Not allowed to click out of/skip them. Fine, they've done that before, 5-7 minutes or whatever right. We waited. And waited. And waited. 25 minutes later we were still waiting. 30 minutes later it was finally over for me, but hubby's PC for some reason was 5 minutes behind showing them so we waited some more. When they finally dumped you back into the game, the loot shower finished etc, but .... ....way to kill the player's play-mood. By the end I was wishing I could have my chr. shoot all the credits as they scrolled endless by. Maybe you can skip it if you do it a 2nd time, but that was an overly excessive length for forced game 1st-time credits watching. >.> Like, after a few minutes of main credits a "press to skip" could have popped up then, with the "play credits" in the main menu to view later. We tried the end game routine briefly - similar to the Overworld instanced "encounter" mini-map sequences, with a new currency drop for item enchantments. Then we tried one of the short DLC's and while the areas were unique, it still runs like a small multiple-arena goal-gauntlet, with yet another currency to gather and the added factor that you cannot die/2nd-wind. If you die during the whole trip, you're put back in town and would have to start all over. eg, not much of an "endgame." At any rate, we still had a fair amount of fun overall, despite some later mild annoyances here and there.

Also - you can still cast spell/s (like a big, huge AoE, or anything else) while in "fight for your life", which makes getting a 2nd-wind a lot easier/faster. Just sayin'.

The (more demanding/newer) stuff I play it's mostly 50-70fps w/the 2080ti, which to me is perfectly playable, but I'd like the lower number to be more like 80+ for headroom and all of that. The way I'm going re: gaming, I could probably wait until the 50xx and it'll be even better. But that might require a PSU connected directly to the sun or something.

Yeah...no kidding. Tempts me to just get a 3080ti since they're "normalizing" now, for less power-spike considerations...with my reduced gaming desire that would get me some boost to/for 4k/60 performance (all I care about at the moment) for my uses and probably let me skip all the way to 60xx. Or longer, who knows. Then again, maybe I could wait/skip to then regardless. Edit: oh, the evga ftw3 Ultra 3080ti is now "only" $1100 on Amazon. Hm....will it get to $1000...

There are apparently large rats around here, especially in summer. Seen one a few times outside, eating my wildlife sunflower seeds and just scurrying around the fence. They physically look like a cross between a very large dwarf hamster and a squirrel when they're eating, it's quite adorable. Mostly only saw the very occasional tiny rat/mouse down South. Some people might see such and call a poison/exterminator or something. Me, just like with everything else, as long as I don't see them indoors, all I wonder is if I could trap/catch one and turn it into a pet*, because they are a lot cuter than the typical breed/ones they sell at pet stores. *edit - no I'm not truly "serious", but they sure are cute.

Yeah, those are a couple of my favorite episodes. It does take a while, but I loved how that anime slowly built up their chrs and their relationship, the small humor moments then the dramatics....in that action-anime story telling way, ofc. It's also one of those where the Eng. dub is overall very good. I've watched both dubbed and subbed and I don't really have a big preference, except to my ears I might slightly prefer the Eng. VA's tonal/inflection, slightly more OTP interpretation of Mugen better.

Tiny Tina Wonderlands - TLDR: I like the more concentrated maps and sense of idle discovery vs. lots of empty space designed for driving cars, re:map designs. It's tons better than BL3 by far, with plenty to do beyond the short main campaign and that Tiny Tina BL2 DLC flavor, but the lack of NG+ or lengthy replay value (eg, BL loot grinding obsessions) hurts it. Still, it's the type of game most might play thru once or twice initially and have quite a bit of fun for that first run or two, and many only want that anyway, so in my mind it was "worth" buying. But I think they should've release-priced it at $39.99-49.99 vs. $60+. Oh, and "normal" difficulty has been mostly a little too easy, so some might want to start off with the harder setting right off the bat. EditEdit: I think hubby and I have about 40 hrs. on our chrs - we are fairly slow players, however. We might finish "everything" in another 24+ hours. =========================== We are, I think, at the point where the next main quest/small area forward leads to the last boss fight of the campaign. So we're ignoring it and cleaning up other areas and the Overworld stuff as well. There are still quite a lot of side quests we haven't done and we haven't done the supposedly very short DLC missions that came with the edition we bought, nor the end-game rift-like grind. Two gameplay mechanics that I was disappointed in: ----While you can dual-class, you still can only have one Action Skill active/usable at a time. So if you dual class, you have 4 total possible Action skills and have to pick only one at a time. eg, if you're the spelllcaster class, you're unlikely to want to use anything but the one that lets you have two spells equipped (vs. Spell+ attack Action Skill), thus making the dual-class only for, say, a npc companion partner, or a few 2nd class skill bonuses that might synergize well, just like putting points in other trees in previous BL games. ----the whole "find all lucky dice"/luck chance bonus is credited account-wide. So you do not have to "find" them again with any new character you make, the spots they're in are just empty. I mean, once you know where most are, the fun of first-finding them would be gone, but I still find that a bit annoying, since they also acted like small loot chests which is nice for a new playthru. No other stat/puzzle/chr stat-record stuff carries over like that. I've seen no way to disable it for new characters.

Since we have room for one now, we found a store that sells used/refurbished (or whatever) gym/and higher quality home version of exercise machines. Because I still refuse to pay $3k-10k for such a thing. So we got this older Precor elliptical that's taller than I am for $675. Pros: both hubby and I felt comfortable enough on it despite our height/size difference, the motion is very smooth, it is VERY QUIET/build quality seems great, it doesn't make my knees hurt, and it has a spot to hold the tablet/phone. Possible cons: the lowest incline setting is still an incline (although I think I personally prefer that anyway) and the leg "stride" length might be a little short for some ppl's desires. The motion feels like a cross between a stair stepper and a stand-up cycling motion, if there was such a thing. We just want it for 20-30min. at a time sessions, nothing major. Anyway, for the price. even if it breaks in a few years, or it turns into a clothes hanger half the year, we won't cry about wasting thousands. More importantly, now I don't have to go outside, even more.

Tiny Tina Wonderlands - ---the Overworld map is a tad more integrated into the main questline then first thought. Nothing major but occasionally to reach the next "main quest" map you have to do a minor quest via the Overworld to gain initial access. --a lot of Overworld stuff is done in like random encounter maps (just a tiny instanced combat arena you have to clear to finish) or tiny bits in Overworld itself, but at least one (maybe a few or more?) of the quests open up a whole new giant map that has nothing to do with the main quest, with its own sidequests. We are enjoying that aspect a lot, because even if the main quest is kinda short, you still have plenty to explore/do. --all side quests seem to level up with you, so no outleveling them. But if you try to do only the main quest, you will be quite underleveled at certain stages as it seems to ramp them up at points. ---the biggest con for me is still that you're often standing still waiting for an npc to finish talking/doing their cutesy/meta joke routines before you can click on whatever it is to progress a quest. Can't hit spacebar to make them finish/stop talking. And ofc, too much meta sometimes. Other than that, I might like this BL - in terms of game and combat play+map design at least - almost the best vs. all the previous. BL2 is still the best plot/villain tho. Oh, and for anyone who doesn't like Claptrap, he's seemingly hardly in it. One side-quest had him, so far.

Beauty: Beast: You're a bobblehead on the "overworld" map bits. Also, I like my hat. "Well that's rather random."

I want to do this/have a car set-up like this. Hubby can just sit in the back.

Too true, these days.

I think fireworks can be pretty and I don't mind a singular show - I'll climb a hill to see a good city-done one - but I'll never get the obsession some have with them as celebratory thingies. I mean, different strokes and all that but doesn't do much for me. Especially ones that are largely just noise makers. And yeah, we get the constant for a week random pops and bangs as well, and then sometimes for a few days after the 4th too, no matter what apt./house/year. Cats don't like them either. Last night I did sorta feel like I was in the middle of a battleground, noise and smoke - not seriously, but you know what I mean - which was a bit surreal. Just not a common thing on that level in the West Bay Area vs here I guess. Edit: at least these guys were early do-ers and it was pretty much over at/before 10pm.

For some reason, recently, every time I turn off the TV, when I turn it back on, the PC doesn't always re-detect it as a 2nd monitor. Reinsert cable repeatedly, turn TV on/off, turn PC on/off, eventually one of those things work, but never know which one. Probably (hopefully it's just) the HDMI cable and not the plug itself - the weight of the cable might be a problem, hmm, pffft, annoying. Also, our new neighborhood apparently all love fireworks. I guess they're not illegal in this county (not sure if they're still illegal down south either, I don't keep up with such things). So around 9pm last night we had a very impressive 30 minute+ fireworks lightshow in the backyard. Two direct neighbors shooting off mega rounds of large sized blooming rockets in the air, plus other neighbors further away you could still see. It almost felt like they were competing to see who had the bestest. The noise was very loud and the smoke/smell overpowering. Hubby watered our dry, brown lawns for the first time (we were warned by one neighbor that this happens) just before, just in case. It was quite the display for neighbor fireworks, something I haven't seen since I was small kid in these parts. I took some video but I'm too lazy to upload it.

Tiny Tina Wonderlands - TLDR: If you liked/loved BL2 but were lukewarm or cool towards BL3, you might like TTW more. I created 5 of the 4 starting classes and played them through the early main quests (doesn't take too long), so these are early impressions. Overall for myself, I like it quite a bit more than BL3. BL3 left me feeling meh even from the start, and so far at least TTW is more "fun"/interesting as a BL game, early on. We shall see! Possible pro's: --the rpg stats (creating a character, getting 1 additional pt. each level up, separate from skill points), give character progression a better feel and the (eventual, so I hear) dual-classing sounds great/fun. --Casting spells is very fun. You will still be mostly guns - but I love it. The spells (and action skills) feel more powerful then in previous games. Feels like they're mostly worth using/building for vs. forgetting they exist half the time. --Melee power/potential has been boosted even more, across all classes. --plenty of things to search for/collect to gain boosts of stuff, vs. rush through the main quest, if that matters to you. Find all the gold dice to increase an area's loot-chance. Find poetry, find orbs, etc. --the "overworld" aspect is interesting with its own mini-quests/objectives. The random encounters on it are annoying but a lot of the time you can outwalk the trigger-npc to avoid the forces-you-in portal from materializing. Possible con's: --the "overworld" might, instead, annoy some. You can avoid/ignore it, for the most part, in favor of sticking to the normal campaign, although the entrance to the main town seems to be from there so I don't think you can avoid it completely. --inventory management (as always) plus some overlong npc dialogues, can disrupt the action pacing a bit and is always a bit taxing. --I hear the campaign is shorter than BL3 and it has no new game+/TVHM) - so max clvl is going to be lowish. There is a small end-game loop but one isn't likely to get 100's of hours out of endless replay. Most might try one or two dual-combo playthrus then stop. --if you can't stand Borderlands OTP non-stop jokes style and also can't tune such out, it's even more rapid fire and constant than ever. Just sayin'.

Hubby: "What's with all these ***** choices, I just want to get in the game, not think about choices!" Me: "Ohhh, a chr. editor in Borderlands!" ...you have to divvy up 10 stat points in creation, too (int, wisdom, str, etc). I bet he had fun with that. HAHA.

Bleach, Jujustu Kaisen (only since I just watched it ), One Punch Man, Attack on Titan. I initially thought the volleyball was basketball in a couple of those microsecond clips but I guess not. I (think) recognize some other faces here and there but I couldn't tell you what they were from or even if I watched any of whatever it is at some point. May just have seen commentators, VA-related or other type of clips.

Hubby's got an extra long weekend and we're contemplating buying/playing Tiny Tina's Wonderlands during it. A game I'll likely find a bit annoying/disappointing and wouldn't care to buy/play it solo, but where playing it with your spouse might make it relatively awesome despite that. At least it's several bucks cheaper for its Steam-release intro period. Also: Hubby drives/runs down to the other house to do some junk-yarding/deal with a neighbor/fence issue: I expected him to be gone overnight. Hubby calls me same afternoon: "I'm done, want to come home, leaving now." - eg he finished quickly and just wanted to get back vs. waiting until morning/better traffic to drive. Hubby later that evening: "Home is where the wife is." "Growing old together" ... yeah, I, at least, am loving it.

Finished Jujutsu Kaisen - still liked it. It's Shonen but bit less of that pre-teen boi flavor, and the few female chrs. they focus on are strong chrs. too. No cliffhanger ending but definitely needs that 2nd season. Based on some manga details they could probably (for my interests anyway) finish up some main threads in 1-2 seasons and then leave it alone. I also forgot ... I watched another short anime on Netflix a bit ago - Vampire in the Garden. I liked that one a fair bit too, for the more touching/story/chr. oriented anime, albeit still supernatural.

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