Keyrock

It's pretty concerning that every time muh Boys face a good team we lose. Doesn't exactly bode well for the playoffs. Also, lol Antonio Brown.

I guess my GotY would be Metroid Dread. It didn't do anything innovative, even the EMMIs were just an evolution of the SA-X ftom Metroid Fusion. Still, it's clear the devs understood what made Super Metroid one of the greatest games ever made, the movement. The movement in Metroid Dread is sublime and thus traversing the rather large, labyrinthine levels is a joy. Plus, the maps are easy to understand and the game does a great job of nudging you in the right direction, so you rarely get lost. As a bonus, there are some really badass boss fights. The chozo robots and soldiers get recycled as bosses a bit too often, perhaps, but that's about the only nit I can pick with the game.

The Good Life has a ton of systems, way more than I expected. None of them are terrible, but none of them are terribly deep either and I'm not sure I see the point in having all this in the game. There are sleep and hunger meters, you can grow crops, cook meals, you have stats, there's a system where some people are cat people and some dog people and you can only get some quests if you are aligned with the right animal. On the one hand, I want to give Swery & Co. the benefit of the doubt because I'm not that far into the game. Perhaps all the systems and management busywork are the point of the game? Naomi is a New Yorker and, naturally, stressed out. Maybe Naomi learning to appreciate a slower, more simple lifestyle in the boonies is the lesson I'm supposed to take away from a game called The Good Life? On the other hand, I've played enough Swery games at this point to know that gameplay is always the weakest link. Nothing in this is as godawful as the combat in Deadly Premonition (in fainess to Swery he had no intention of putting combat in that game, the publisher forced him to), so there's that, but it's still busywork impeding my enjoyment of the story. I kind of wish Swery would just make point & click adventures (D4 was sort of close to that). The less clunky gameplay mechanics keeping me from interacting with wonderfully weird characters and bizarre, surreal storylines the better.

So far so good, but I only just finished the prologue. It's got all the hallmarks of a Swery game: Heavy David Lynch influence, bat**** crazy characters, a murder mystery under bizarre circumstances that's only the tip of the iceberg of weirdness. I could do without the sleep and hunger systems. They're not punishing, but why is that crap in this game? What does it add? Keep that garbage out of non-survival games.

Swery's latest bit of nonsense: Naomi seems to love the place.

Tyron Smith (lightly) practiced today for the first time in quite a while. No word yet on whether he will play againt the Cards. The important thing is that he's healthy for the playoffs, but it would be nice if he played at least one game before that to shake off any rust.

I like Pitch Meeting. It's the only thing Screen Rant puts out that I like, the rest is Collider-level hot garbage.

I got suckered into watching Matrix 4. Here's my short review: *fart noise* *plop* *flushing sound* Here's the long review: What a pile of ****! Horrible "fight choreography", awful dialogue, and the plot... Look, just because you go meta and reference terrible, soulless, uninspired cash grabs and poke fun at them doesn't mean that it's okay to make a terrible, soulless, uninspired cash grab, and that's exactly what this was. Worst of all, it's 2 1/2 hours long! They didn't even have the common decency to keep this garbage short.

I finished SMT V with the true neutral ending on hard difficulty. Not surprisingly, it definitely feels like this ending, which I'm assuming is the canon ending, was not intended to be achieved on a first playthrough, regardless of difficulty setting. The reason I think this is that the Shiva battle, which was an optional side quest only necessary for the true neutral ending, was much harder than anything in the end-game boss rush. Only hardcore MegaTen lunatics, like me, should do this ending on the first run. Anyway, I don't care about getting 100%, hence I see no reason to get the other 3 easier endings. The only thing left is to load up my save from just before the final battle and face the ultimate challenge, the Demi-Fiend.

Are we counting Superbowl The Big Game MVPs? Didn't Ray Lewis (allegedly) stab somebody? Somehow, he's still more likable than Rodgers. If our offense is back to playing like it did the 1st half of the year, and I'm not taking a beatdown of a depleted Skins team as conclusive evidence of that, and our defense keeps playing like it has the 2nd half of the year, then muh Boys would be one of the scariest and most complete teams in the league. Of course, we have a storied history of choking in the playoffs, so...

It's kind of crazy that as of right now the Raiders, Chargers, and Ravens are all out while the Fins are in. The AFC hierarchy has been shuffled so many times this season.

Rodgers is definitely winning MVP unless he takes a literal **** on the field in the next 2 weeks. I'm hoping Micah Parsons wins DPoY, but they might not give it to him because he's almost certainly winning defensive rookie of the year.

The NFC playoff picture is becoming clearer. The Packers, Buccaneers, and Cowboys are division champs, the West isn't yet decided, but given the recent struggles of the Cards, it's looking likely that the Rams will take the division. The Packers control the destiny of the #1 seed, they should get the bye. The wildcards right now are Cards, Eagles, and Niners. The picture in the AFC is much more murky.

I'm definitely also looking forward to that.

Bayonetta 3

Muh Boys just dropped 42(!) on Washington in the first half. Granted, half of the Skins are out with The Omicron and they're a crap team to begin with. Still, Dak and the offense are firing on all cylinders and our defense has been a legit top 5 defense for the last 4 or 5 weeks. Micah Parsons is one of the frontrunners for DPoY and Trevon Diggs is threatening the single season interception record, as well as a DPoY candidate himself.

Merry Christmas

If I remember correctly, Shiva in Final Fantasy is usually a lady and bears very little, if any, resemblance to the Hindu God of Destruction. In MegaTen Shiva is the Hindu God of Destruction.

Atlus only saw fit to give me 8 characters each for the first and last name. Also, I'm fairly certain I've had a character named Beefstick in a Final Fantasy game, so buggering off to play with Moogles is no guarantee of avoiding Beefsticks.

I defeated Shiva in SMT V on my 3rd try. I gained a bunch of levels since my first try to where I was only 2 levels lower and my demon crew was anywhere from 1 level lower to 7 levels lower. This was enough to where I could survive Shiva's strongest attack Tandava and heal myself... usually. I still had a couple demons die during the battle, but they weren't dropping like flies like in my first attempt. I'm pretty sure that takes care of all the side quests to open the true neutral ending, all that's left is to ascend the Empyrean and face whoever stands in my way. I haven't seen Metatron yet, so I'm guessing there's a good chance of him showing up.

You mean Sting in the last picture? Nothing, it's a design on his tights, it does look like he's holding a cane, though.

Since the year is almost over, what's everybody's favorite movie of 2021? Mine is Malignant. I wrote about it at length before, but this was one of my favorite horror comedies since Army of Darkness (though I'm still not sure if it was intentionally a horror comedy). There are 2 acts of mediocre and somewhat boring horror to get through before the movie goes off the rails in the best way possible in the glorious and absolutely bat**** insane 3rd act.