Keyrock

That game was jointly developed by Spiders and Cyanide. Given that Cyanide has continued with the franchise and Spiders has not, I'm guessing that Cyanide did the heavy lifting for that game. Continuing my Axiom Verge playthrough. I managed to "glitch" my way into another world that Elsenova calls "artifact", I call it Interlaced World. She warned me to turn back and leave the place. All I've found in there besides scan lines and horrible pop-in is 1/5 an Energy Tank Health Node and a gun upgrade that's proven completely useless so far. Maybe she has a point?

^ It looks completely safe to walk out on that ledge. Get it? Because there's a saf... No need to get up, I'll show myself the door.

I'm sorry to hear about your loss, Barty.

Totally NOT Metroid

Have some pictures from the Great Smoky Mountains. Sadly, it didn't rain so I didn't get to see the bluish looking fog that forms after rain that looks sort of like smoke, which gave the region its name. As an aside, I'm happy to report that I'm not as out of shape as I had feared. I made the half-mile, rather steep hike up to the tower at the top of Clingman's Dome without any trouble and no stops along the way.

Don't hate us because we're beautiful. Hate us because we're larger and wealthier than you.

Doing a bit of cleaning today, then relaxing and grilling in the evening. Tomorrow morning I drive west 3 hours to the Great Smoky Mountains. It's a gorgeous area that I haven't been to in many years, so I'm pretty excited.

It's looking like Spike Chunsoft might bring the entire Zero Escape series to PC, so I'm holding off on playing this so that I can play the series in chronological order.

I probably will. I want try openMW. If you aren't aware, it is a new engine for morrowind that pulls certain files from the core game (which you have to own a copy of), but upgrades graphics section of the engine. This means it could allow modders to make new models for the game that reach modern standards. Just imagine Morrowind that looks as good or better than Skyrim. It supports higher resolutions, they are trying to iron out engine bugs still remaining in the vanilla game, and they are supporting mac/linux/windows. Probably the single most interesting mod I've seen for Morrowind (save arguably tamriel rebuilt). Morrowind, even after 14 years, still has one of the most impressive and dedicated modding scenes. It's awe inspiring. Too bad Bethesda can't see it. I am also waiting on OpenMW to fully mature to play Morrowind again. It's getting close.

Make a game as good as Morrowind again? It would be nice. As for me, I'm playing Axiom Verge. It boggles my mind that this game is allowed to exist, let alone be sold. I can't believe this hasn't been cease and desisted into oblivion by Nintendo. I'm no expert on IP copyright laws, but this has to be skating on the very border of copyright infringement. It's so obviously Metroid, everything about that game is Metroid. I mean, I'm happy it's allowed to exist, I love Metroid and Nintendo seems to have no plans to make a proper mainline Metroid... maybe ever again. The last one was... Fusion, I think? (shut up, Other M doesn't exist. I don't know what you're talking about. Lalalalalalala. I can't hear you.) That was about 15 years ago. We may never get another proper Metroid game ever again, so it's really cool to have a clone this true to what it's copying. It's a damn good Metroid clone.

I scooped up Axiom Verge during the sale. It's insanely blatantly obvious that it's a Metroid clone. In fact, if this game were any more like Metroid, the developers would be sued by Nintendo. I'm honestly surprised that this was even allowed to release. About the only things differentiating this game from Metroid is the main player character being male and him not wearing the Varia Suit. Not that I'm complaining, since I freakin' love Metroid and Nintendo themselves seem to have no interest in releasing a proper 2D Metroid any time soon. This may well be the closest thing we ever get to another proper Metroid.

Not all Nu Metal was awful

I'm marinating chunks of pork loin in olive oil, lime juice, minced garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, and dill weed for kebabs on the grill later (I'll put onions, red bell peppers, and zucchini on the skewers too), along with corn on the cob. In the meantime, I'm drinking micheladas. Good times. Edit:

I got a new truck in American Truck Simulator, a Kenworth W900, and I gave the Peterbilt 579 that was my first truck to a driver I hired. I had to take out some big loans to be able to afford the truck as well as to upgrade my garage, but, from my ETS2 experience, I know that it's most efficient to take out a bunch of loans early on and expand your fleet to several garages and a bunch of drivers. The hired drivers won't earn much to start, but once they level up they will become a steady source of income to add to my own earnings, so it's in my best interest to reach that point as early as possible. Eventually the money constantly rolling in will easily pay back the loans. The money will work itself out over time, I'm mostly concerned about leveling up my driver so that I can get the good components and bling for my trucks.

Chili dogs and corn on the cob on the grill. Classic American summer time food.

Mostly American Truck Simulator. It's a great game for relaxing. I'm eagerly awaiting SCS adding the Peterbilt 389 to the game (they said they would eventually). Until then, I'll have to settle for driving a nowhere near as sexy truck.

I really want this game, but it is only for Xbone? if so its such a irony, game about totality being in hands of corporation which is restricting its use. Orwell would be pleased We Happy Few is coming out for Windows/Mac/Linux/XBOne.

My many year old cheap computer chair started to bite the dust (the base is breaking) and rather than buy another cheap chair I decided to invest in a really nice chair that will hopefully last me forever and ever. So, without further ado, my new computer chair: It's a Maxnomic Dominator Black, shown with the lumbar and neck pillows. I'm not a fan of the lumbar pillow, even though it is so wonderfully plushy, simply because I feel the chair has plenty lumbar support without it. I am a big fan of the head pillow, it is divine. The chair tilts, folds back far enough into a position you could sleep in, rocks, and the arm rests raise and lower, move forward and back, and twist into several positions. It's super duper comfortable and feels rock solid. I would highly recommend it if you have money to burn (it's quite expensive).

So, now that all the E3 presentations are over and I've had time for it to sink in: The Awkward Hug That Lasts A Little Too Long But Secretly Feels Good Award For Best Presentation - Sony. It's not even close, they blew everybody else out of the water. The giant lavish theater and full orchestra just to flaunt their money. The minimal talking by blowhards. Kojima walking down a friggin' light bridge. Game after game after game after game with no BS in between. The Wet Feeling Fart That Makes You Check Your Underwear Award For Worst Presentation - EA. While Ubisoft, as usual, was the most cringeworthy presentation, at least they try to be hip and fun, mind you, failing miserably most of the time. EA's presentation was just completely soulless. It was essentially a business conference with blowhards spitting out a steady stream of meaningless marketing buzzwords. Also, the majority of the presentation was spent on Madden and FIFA. Yawn. The Predator Handshake Award For Best Surprise - Prey. I mean, it looks like it is in no way shape or form related to the 2006 game, but damn that looked interesting and awesome. The Slowly Deflating Balloon Award For Biggest Letdown - Ghost Recon: Wildlands. It's not that the game looks bad, it's just that that is NOT Ghost Recon. In any way. At all. Like not even remotely close. Damn you, Ubisoft, must you turn everything into Ubisoft: The Game ?(Big Open world. Map littered with markers for useless collectibles and boring, meaningless stuff to do). They are determined to make all their major franchises exactly the same. The Holy **** This Looks So Interesting But It's A David Cage Game So The Dialogue Will Be Forced And Wooden And The Story Will Fall Apart Before The Halfway Point Like Always *sigh* Award - Detroit: Become Human

There was that one woman in the audience having orgasms every time it was mentioned tho

I am now officially tired of open world. I'm not suggesting that no more open world games should come out, but not every ****ing game has to be open world.

Well, SONY just put every presentation before it to shame, and I say that as somebody who doesn't particularly care for SONY. First off, grandiose theater and live orchestra. Second, and more importantly, they kept the blowhards standing on stage and bombarding us with worthless marketing buzz words to a minimum. It was basically just a solid hour of game after game after game after game. The other presenters should take a lesson from them for the future, that's how you do it. About the only misstep was ending on that boring as **** looking game Days Gone. I was mildly interested in it initially... then zombies, and my interest level immediately went to zero. It didn't even look like a particularly interesting zombie game, it looked pretty much as generic as generic gets. Still, overall the Sony presentation was superb.