Tale

I recently bought Stray. I'm trying not to buy new games at full price, but the tag on this was pretty reasonable. It's charming.

I went to pick up my dog's ashes from the vet today. I cried more today than I did when we put him down. He was a very good boy. I really wanted that vet to tell me it was just arthritis. I could help with that! I was helping with that. Bought a bunch of rugs to help steady his footing so he could walk. I was going to build a ramp so he didn't have to struggle so much coming in from the yard. But that's not all it was. The Vet made a recommendation. And now I miss my friend. My brother. I'm so glad for all that time I spent trying to help him, though. I'd carry him out back and put him on the lawn, tell him I loved him and he was good. I'd go out with him with a treat and make sure he walked around to keep his strength up. I'd make sure to play with him the few times he managed to stand up inside. I got quality time like that. But damn do I wish it meant more than even that.

If they don't know how to make my Manhattan "up" then the whole trip will be wasted.

I'm going on a cruise on Monday to Alaska. If I never post again, check the news for reports about drunken man falling off a boat.

Still watching the 8 film Spider-Man collection. And I have something controversial to say. The Andrew Garfield Spider-Man films are the best of the lot. He's tragic, but perseveres, his chemistry with Emma Stone is great, and all of his villains are interesting aside from Green Goblin. The Green Goblin in 2 is Venom in Raimi's 3 level garbage. Or a bit worse.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga This will be my first time experiencing Rise of Skywalker. Never saw it in theatres, never plan to see it. I have my own petty issues with that whole trilogy. But I'm kind of looking forward to seeing it through a Lego game lens.

Death Stranding Director's Cut So far it's the same game I played back in the day on PS4 when it first came out. None of the new stuff has been particularly noteworthy. But it's still kind of a great game. Sadly all the tension is sucked out of it being on a second play. Just grenade the BTs into next year and the Mules are quite vulnerable to being punched in the face. But even where the tension fails, the atmosphere excels. And it's great to just see a city appear as you crest over a hill and the music comes on. More open world games really need to do that.

Apocalypse was such a disappointment I didn't bother with Dark Phoenix. And I say that as a fairly big fan of the films. Days of Future Past even makes up for Last Stand. But Days of Future Past is where the franchise ends, if you ask me. On a related note, I'm starting a Spider-Man marathon. Never owned a Spider-Man movie before, never even watched a Spider-Man movie more than once before. But once I got out of No Way Home, I knew I had to buy the whole kit and caboodle the second it was available. And now it is.

Machine Uprisings never survive. They're a joke. They don't have a good economy and they have pretty pitiful fleets. It's the damage they do to the planets that sucks. I had three titans and a colossus by the time they took over half my empire. Set three of them to a planet, set the fourth to chase after the one 2 star fleet the machines had, and it was all but over. It's just going to be tedious as heck to rebuild all those planets. I don't remember them ever being good. I may have never been on the receiving end before, but I have constantly tried to help them survive their uprising. It always fails. One time I had a Machine only federation, but they got upset when my allies started a teensy little purge and refused to join us. Then died shortly after. You can pump them full of resources and they won't do anything with it.

Stellaris My first time playing spiritualists in a long time. So it's my first time seeing the Machine Uprising since back in the days when that was a crisis. Anyway, it ruined my empire. Half my planets lost pretty much all their buildings and my people are abandoning due to not having places to live.

You guys make me glad I don't subscribe to anything showing the new Star Treks. I've never seen anything beyond the clips Redlettermedia showed of season 1. I'm watching Maniac on Netflix. It's interesting. I'm not engrossed by it, but I don't hate it. That's a win for Netflix. Jonah Hill plays a Schizophrenic who thinks the pattern is trying to lure him into a drug trial to save the world. Emma Stone plays a stoner who just wants the drugs. Meanwhile the drug trial seems to be some weird drug ****tail and AI computer that's going to help them with their traumas. Because of course a comedy has to help everyone overcome their traumas and find themselves.

I can really only abide cheating when it's funny. Like in cards and for money. The bit about not liking her teacher saying retard is interesting, though. I thought the word was dead a few years ago. And then I end up in my current job with someone who calls people that all the time. It's basically this individual's only insult. It's still out there and in use by adults.

Destiny 2 might be taking up too much of my gaming time. I think I need to cut back and do some of those cyberpunk indie games. I've got Anno: Mutationem and Lacuna on my plate and am pretty excited to give check them out.

I put 7 hours into Maneater. It's genuinely fun. But I realized 7 hours in that I'd seen all the variety the game had to offer, despite being only halfway into the story. I guess it's one of those wide and shallow type open world games. So back to Sam and Max: Beyond Time and Space.

I played my way through Halo 5. I have Gamepass, so I thought I'd try it on Cloud gaming. It deserves its bad reputation even though it actually improves on some stuff from 4. I don't hate the Prometheans here and I even like their weapons. But everyone in it is simply dull. This wouldn't typically be an issue in a Halo game except they're constantly talking. Nobody has any personality, but the game is trying hard to build up this squad dynamic and not really succeeding. It's just Locke barking orders and everyone else making obvious commentary. The issue from 4 where the writing lacks any subtlety at all is still ever present. Which is sort of matched by the encounter design following the Doom school of throwing way too many enemies into an arena. Every level has to have like 3 or 4 BIG SPECTACLE FIGHTS. And it felt like every other mission ended with the floor falling apart under you... Because that's a thing people are doing. Got to have scripted destruction of the environment around or the player might stop and enjoy something.

Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe should come out... eventually?

So Sam and Max season 2 is out in remastered form. It's amazing how I still enjoy these after all these years.

Finished off Halo Infinite's campaign and immediately uninstalled it. It wasn't bad, but it's like 30 minutes of memorable storytelling at the end and several hours of absolutely nothing leading up to it. It'll be a good launching off point to make future installments. It feels like they just kind of had to finally make something after years of delays, so they rushed out a small map with a thin story. Year 1's always kind of stunk for Destiny as well. But that's means it's a year off before the meat comes and there's no incentive to do anything until then.

I got a promotion a couple of months ago at work. Barely a pay upgrade (partially due to the fact that I was already being paid more than people who were above me due to experience), but the work load... I've heard people talk about getting promoted and finding themselves having less to do, but I never thought I'd see it. I've spent the last decade of my life feeling overworked or anticipating regular crises and now I fear I may only feel that way two months out of the year. I enjoy the work, too. It's payroll data entry, but there's just enough playing with poorly designed computer systems and basic algebra to keep me from falling asleep when there's actual work to do.

I bought both Witch Queen Deluxe + 30th anniversary and Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous. Why am I wasting money on games I'll likely not play for several months? Because there was a discount, of course. I am a weak man.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. I love me some Ace Attorney. It's the main reason I bought two generation of handheld consoles. Maybe it's getting a bit tired all these years later, but they're still fun. It was always a VN first and a game with puzzles second, but it really feels like it's leaning more towards the former than ever. It keeps dropping new case mechanics only for them to be entirely scripted for drama. This might not be a bad thing. Just a way of keeping the story fresh, I suppose. And then maybe they'll become relevant mechanically in later episodes. Also I finally gave up on Doom Eternal. Was playing DLC1 and decided that fighting way too many waves and the occasional Marauder made the whole thing an unfun slog. And so I wrote a negative review about it on Steam to which id software responded. Let me repeat myself. The game developer that got me hooked on video games, that is only 25 minutes away and that I once applied for a job at, responded to a review where I called the latest installment in the franchise that defined my childhood "overdeveloped." There's no way in heck I'm reading that response. It would only break my heart.

The writing mostly. There's a few I've played for fun puzzles, but they're a shocking minority. Like The Room games. Or Obra Dinn. Great puzzles! End of list. But Monkey Island, various Telltale narrative adventures, and the like. It's always plot, characters, or being funny. I played through a great couple of games called Puzzle Agent. Telltale before Walking Dead, like a Canadian Professor Layton. Puzzle's right in the name! I don't remember a single puzzle. But the game was funny and charming.

I pre-ordered 12 minutes because I'm scatterbrained and will probably forget it came out if I don't see it in my library. Also because I'm impulsive. I also bought Dusk + Amid Evil. This is mostly the impulsive thing. Tried a couple levels of Dusk and it were fun. I'm just craving environmental storytelling and a game that doesn't require an entire evening of commitment.

Forgotten City was pretty cool. Exploration, mystery, and time loops are my jam. My one complaint is how small it felt. But if they make another game like it that's bigger, I'll definitely snatch that up.

Hinterlands had a hint of a story. It's the only area where the war is actually going on. And can apparently progress forward. But that's completely gone by Act 2. I think one other area had a story, the one with the lake you could drain. Or that one with all the ghosts or skeletons that's pretty much nothing but a linear dungeon. Those are the only fond memories I have from the open world.