LadyCrimson

Temps are why California is perfect for someone like me. Live in the fairly temperate zones, but have almost every climate/environment within short or at most half a day driving distance. Because there are tons of environments I love to visit for a day or two, but utterly refuse to live in. Especially as I age and seem to feel extremes in either direction more and more. Irritating.

I love a good open world, or at least a lot of open-ish sections, whether rpg, arpg, sandbox. But there has to be some kind of motivation for me to want to explore it. I don't care if it's hidden shinies to be found, crafting materials to hunt for/grind, looking for the perfect flat place to make a home, beautiful scenery etc. just something. Plus there is a limit on how "huge" I want the world to be. I don't want to literally spend an hour running through empty repeated terrain tiles going from one town to another with maybe a couple wolves or tiny cave encountered during that time. Doesn't have to be chock full of stuff every 10 feet either, but gotta pace things. After Morrowind I just found Beth's games to feel lifeless and dull. Even with all that world to explore, I felt like there was little purpose for it, and the "I wonder what's over there" motivation only lasts so long, so I would get bored fast. Types of open worlds like Beth or similar make me think of ProZD's classic bit:

Morrowind had a plot? ...I do vaguely recall being asked to join a faction... But yeah, I agree with Ametep - Beth games are more for that open world/exploration, crafting, experimenting with "stuff" gameplay, not main plot/story. I mean some may/could argue that but ... that's my opinion. Oh and mods/customization at this point, ofc.

But did you get/like the dog? Surely you give a few cares for the adorable dog? ...there was this point very early in FO4 not long after you get your first mechsuit contraption. Main quest said something about meeting someone in a town/vault. I found the place, entered, looked around for about 10 seconds, then turned around and left. I never went back and the rest of my time in FO4 was building forts, and randomly exploring what I could whilst playing with/dressing up that dog. I eventually forgot there was even supposed to be story/questline. But FO4 was a pretty good post-apoc. pet and fort-design simulator. Edit: oh yeah, I never used the mechsuit again. I left it on the side of a road I think.

Apparently having fast fiber 'net makes uploading to YouTube a faster than light process. I remember when it would take 15-20+ minutes to upload 100MB videos or whatever. Now it's 2GB in like mere seconds. Thankfully the house we bought also has ATT fiber available. Going back to "low speed" after you're used to uber would be stone knives and bearskins. One day I may have to be moved into a "retirement" hospital care place and I will complain endlessly about their terrible wi-fi until the nurses get fed up and take all my toys away.

When you think you're done with a game and then ... "hmm, wait...this has...POTENTIAL." Guys, I've been up all night, dying of laughter. Four Do's destroy everything (and they cast heal on each other). And it's workable in a new playthrough (Cheat Engine table), even in the sections where you haven't picked him up officially, yet.

Just to report: I did finish Tales of Arise. I also finished every side quest and post-game thing. There really isn't much post-game specific content at all, actually. I think technically it's just one multi-dungeon run and one other gauntlet. Which I suppose was a little fun but the thing is it's so Monty Hall and required almost no effort (on Moderate). Since main story won't get you anywhere close to max-lvl, you expect post-game is going to have some grind if you want to hit that, right. Nope. No grind at all - you just get all of them in one giant fast boost - which isn't a bad thing in of itself but point is what's left is so short and the elevation is so rapid it feels anti-climatic as heck. (edit - this post-game rushed feeling design is likely partially a side-effect of the XP system, which = almost zero XP gained once enemies are a few/several levels below your chr. lvl). NG+ does not change enemy scaling or anything like that. You can up the difficulty setting if you want and it's nice if you want to carry over the enemy encyclopedia stuff or maybe outfits, but if you carry over gear, proficiency, skills etc. then ... utterly pointless. Not sure what I want to do now. Since I could skip all cut/skit scenes/have foreknowledge, starting completely over would be much much faster and I could try it on Hard or Chaos, but ... not enough motivation. Outside of occasionally firing it up to giggle at Full-Auto combats, I think I'm done with the game, unless they add more content DLC. I do think Normal/Moderate difficulty is pretty well balanced for those that want lower stress but occasional challenge. I've tried it on Hard occasionally and that increases sponge and damage taken - ppl used to Dark Souls/Sekiro would in the long run probably still find Hard too easy overall and you don't unlock Chaos until later. (the patch that added Unknown difficulty, not sure if you can pick that from get go or not).

Like series from the world over, k-drama's still often have trouble with sticking the landing, so to speak. Plus plot or conflict contrivances can be frequent - how much I overlook such all depends how much I like main/side characters or general mood and presentation. I often like those things better vs. modern US series. And while I don't live there, I've heard that yes, electronic locks/keypads is pretty common for a while, maybe particularly for apartments. Not 100% or anything, but common enough. If you're interested in something less totally singular relationship-centric: Hospital Playlist is pretty popular, but I only watched a few episodes. It's an ensemble cast type of series (bunch of long-time friends who are all doctors or hospital employees), a great well-known cast/chr. stories, but sometimes ensemble cast is too many "stories" for me. It seemed solid tho. Anyway, once you find some actors/actresses you like just look them up and try watching some of their other series.

*plays a game* "Hm volume is a little low, let me turn that up." *Turn game off, sit in darkened, silent room for a minute* "...maybe I'll watch some TV." ...I swear, even after years, it gets me every single time.

Unless something goes horribly wrong, I guess we're moving in a couple months. Excitement won't come until six months later when I've adapted to a new place/arrangement and am feeling confident that we're not going to decide to just turn around and move right back here again for some reason. That said ... the yard is much bigger with more suburb neighbor separation - even with the pool and covered patio you could still build a giant garden and workshop structure (doesn't mean we will...) and there's somewhat more living space, plus still easy river park access, so it's cool. I guess.

Samurai Champloo has the same director of Cowboy Bebop, for anyone unaware - it was the next anime series he did after Cowboy. You can see a similarity in chr. animation style and other aspects here and there. Likely why ppl told me to try Cowboy. Champloo fit my personal tastes 200% more, is all. I really like the soundtrack they used during some action scenes, one in particular. And yeah, the overall sound/music mixture was interesting.

When you're talking about 100's of thousands of dollars and people want to quibble over $5k more. Petty. Then again, if we go "nope," are we being petty? Pfft.

The agent we're using likes us because we're the types who actually don't want the "upgraded/flipped" houses. Ppl ripping out perfectly good, solid cabinetry etc. and replacing them with cheap pressboard things from Home Depot because they're more modern-popular visual design. Stuff like that. We actually like a lot of stuff from the 60's/70's, maybe even prefer it. I don't even like granite counter-tops - not that I mind if they're there, but that kind of stuff doesn't enter into any equation re: whether I'd buy/live somewhere. But yeah, hubby being a sort of "handyman" helps a lot. He doesn't want to deal with extreme work like bad foundation/structural stuff but electrical, little plumbing, blank slate backyards, even bashing out (or adding) a wall. I only put a foot down if he starts to over-estimate what he'll actually do/change, because then it's not about whether he can (he could), more that 10 years later it never happens. >.>

After I saw and loved Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop was an anime lots told me I should watch. Wasn't my thing or something, didn't watch it very far. That said, I did mean to give it another, longer chance, but like with many things never got around to it. That trailer is at least a little amusing and John Cho is usually decent. ...I wonder if Netflix would do a live-action Champloo. I'd guess it's not avant-garde (or whatever) enough. Then again, since I loved that anime, I probably wouldn't want them to, I'll just stick to my blu-ray of the anime. I also have never figured out any current actor who I might see/like as Jin. Mugen would be a little easier.

I found this cute/charming, interesting, and occasionally lightly amusing. Since it's Firefly related I'll put it here.

Another episode of Squid Game. ...I'm liking it, well acted and produced etc, but it's kind of depressing and I don't feel like binge-watching it (maybe an episode or two at a time at most). I've liked plenty of similar plots before, probably just not in the mood for this type of show right now. But anyway, if you don't like dystopian feeling social desperation horror and visceral violence, I'd stay away.

Despite Gorth's posting, I feel like I missed a turn and entered the Twilight Zone etc.

Sorry, but ... hahahahaha! ...FoV at 10. ...hmm, I wonder if that's how hubby sees me half the time?

@Raithe I had a white cat once that would've loved to sit on your lap while you were wearing that. That's very cool tho, looks fantastic. ========= Saw two houses on Sunday. Both had a pool. The 2nd one was a larger lot, more of a blank slate, house was fine. Reminded us just a little of the house we rented in S. San Jose that we liked a lot. May need some $$ of fixing up a few concerns but nothing major. They'll probably get multiple offers but we'll put in the asking price, cash, offer. Never know. If we don't get it we won't cry. There's always another one. Anyway...it's weird how I can make fun of our current/main house, calling it a postage stamp and all, but after 12-13 years (I think?) it still feels like home. Point being, it makes it a lot easier to look at homes because (since we're not looking at 3 million dollar homes) I'm never "I want this house so bad." It's more like "this could work, I'm fine with it." Although even before buying anything ever, I think hubby gets more worked up/invested then I ever do - he's a lot pickier and has more "wants", whereas I start wanting to simply toss darts at houses to decide so it can just be over. *shrug*

Decreasing the FoV to 30-35 (Cheat Engine mod) vs. the default/locked 70, gives you a great chance of getting a combat close-up that is NOT from an always-the-same 3 second Boost Strike or other cutscene bit - vs. the .5% chance of the camera randomly swinging in close as it turns, for a fraction of a second, at just the right moment...my interest in the game just increased a little again. Not that one should play normally this way - 55-60 FoV minimum or it's really wonky trying to run around when not in combat. But for screenies it's great! So instead of combat frequently looking like this boring (to me) distance It's now much easier to get something more like this, without cropping. Aerials were the hardest to get at all, before. It's not a photo-mode, but it's better at least. *happy screenshotter camper* FoV that extremely close up does make you extra aware of the character's height difference tho, since the camera is always pinned to a center spot. So no good for non-combat pics of outfits, lol.

If you end up liking that series, I'd also recommend One Spring Night, also on Netflix. A couple other possibles: Chocolate and My First First Love (sappy title but...) And yeah, a lot of k-dramas on the lighter or heavier romantic side sometimes have a lot of their version of slapstick (sometimes hilarious, but sometimes cringe), either as main or some side character subplots. Some of them are an oddball mixture of slapstick, romance, and super tragic circumstances or a serial killer plot all in the same 16 episodes. >.> Farther back in time you go, the more "teen comic book or soap-opera melodrama" you may encounter (Boys Over Flowers is infamous in this regard) and their tv cinematography will look cheaper and rougher looking. K-drama's have evolved a lot in the past 10-12 years.

I was similar (I say "was" because I hardly read anymore so a bit out of practice). I reached a point where if a novel wasn't at least 500+ pages I wouldn't buy it. Note that I am not quite that fast reading non-fiction, because such does not create "movies" in my head (where I no longer consciously see words on a page anymore). I still read such pretty fast, but not quite fiction-novel fast. But reading fiction is more of a visual experience for me and trying to get through such 10 pages or a chapter at a time would drive me insane, just like someone pausing a film every 5 minutes - or worse, only watching 5 minutes of a film per day - would drive most people batty.

Flavor and texture wise, they're more like a combination of egg coated french toast (no syrup/sugar, obviously) and cornbread or corn tortilla. Hm, side note, I should try pan-frying them. They're round, very thin, slightly spongey circles about the same size as a typical cheese slice (except they're not square...) or maybe a street taco shell. The company makes bigger sizes and calls them cauliflower pizza crusts I think. I already use raw riced cauliflower stir fried with meat and sauces, it's great and I haven't missed rice at all since. If you want a calorie/physical amount reference, I eat about 1500-1600 calories a day lately, more or less. If all I did was eat these as is out of the package (no cheese) I'd have to eat 30 or so to reach that. I like them, but not that much.

I am not sure, but I think I was pecked to death by a 50 foot rooster. ...the costume quest I wanted needed more than one sidequest to make it pop, but I got 'em. The cutscenes were hilarious too. ...any outfit showing off Dohalim's 8-pack abs are all right by me. (they all get a version of the themed costume) Hmm...I feel like there may not be tons to do after post-game, doing all this stuff before then. I'm sure a few things, just not a lot. NG+ sounds rather pointless (nothing changes), outside of wanting to try the uberuber difficulty and taking over your gear/skills etc. to help out if you wanted. Not interested. I wish there had been more visual enemy variety. Just like with most costume stuff, a lot of them are basically reskin/recolors. I suppose the very end could change my mind a little bit, but overall I'd give the game maybe ... a 7-7.5 out of 10? Something like that? Great visual presentation most of the time, good first half, a pretty decent and visually fun combat system (even if I suck at it), some pacing/chr./dialogue issues and that too long back third. Not anything that will be considered a classic or must-play, but good enough to waste time in. The combat Ai has been interesting to tweak around with. The chr. AI can act really strangely/differently, or even sometimes "break" depending on settings and what skills you define they can use/not use. It doesn't feel consistent across all players. If you sorta want to solo, you could put the AI on "Do Nothing" or "Heal only", something like that, and all they will do is dodge and/or heal, leaving it up to you. But that changes the enemy AI as well - they get a lot dumber, especially adds. It's either purposely oddball or just simply broken in some ways.

Welcome to my world.