AxcaliBlog

Just on a lark, I checked to see if that horrendously cringe-worthy KoDT live-action series got released... There is... count it... ONE episode (which I will not link here). It was published in June of 2015 on the d20 Entertainment YouTube channel. Then nothing for over a year. The most recent upload is titled something for a TV pilot, which is of the quality we've come to expect from the people who were involved with The Gamers movies. Apparently two other episodes were produced but only available to backers, which, judging from there being 795 backers and only two people liked the update posts that announced those... were not well received. Wouldn't you know it... it's another Kickstarter that went completely off the rails. The backers and Jolly Blackburn are pissed . Yes, Jolly himself commented regularly on the situation. The level of vitriol in the kickstarter comments isn't nearly the toxicity level of Spoony's Patreon, but the passion folks are displayi

It's 8 days 'til the release of FFXV and I still have no clue when I'll be able to get a PS4. I was hoping for a good Cyber Monday sale, but it does not appear that will be happening. Nuts! Most likely it will be around March. Tax refund time. Here's a reminder to myself of games to get eventually: Watch Dogs 2 (Check. It's good.) Kingdom Hearts 2.8 (Check. It's great!) Red Dead Redemption 2 (Delayed til 2018. Sad face.) Quantum Break (Part of the Dec. Humble Monthly...so, soon.) Just Cause 3 (Perhaps not. I'll finish JC2 first) Witcher 3 (Check. Pretty good) Nioh? (Check. These souls type games... I dunno.)

Today I pre-ordered Final Fantasy XV Deluxe Edition from Amazon. Apparently connecting my Twitch account to Amazon gave me a discount on games, or perhaps it just made me aware of a discount I already had. In any case, come November 29, I should be getting the game, the Kingsglaive movie, and such in a bulletproof (maybe) case for around $80. Now I just need to get the PS4 to play it on, but I can burn that bridge when it becomes more feasible. (Perhaps I'll slow cook the bridge so it turns into charcoal first. Hmmm.) There were a few ways to go about this. Gamestop offers a limited edition PS4 slim with FFXVdx for $450, but when I saw the price of the Uncharted 4 PS4 slim bundle on Amazon for $300, the course became clear. I liked what I played of the first Uncharted. It's one I should get back to, but I've been playing Watchdogs lately instead. Updates: I played some of Soma, and like it. The robots are not frightening in the least. They try to unsettle you though wi

 I took a long refreshing break from Minecraft, finally decided to formally announce my disinclination to continue map development, and now find myself getting back into playing the game. When I tried to boot up my latest attempt at the Axpack, I found that it was a bloated mess that crashed, even when I disabled most of the mods. So Bolz'tuit.... I'm making another one. Something far more compact, focused, and stable. It will be centered around Mekanism because I love it so and it worked this morning as the sole mods in the pack. So, here's the outline: The Essentials Damage Indicators Voxel Map NEI WAILA Treecapitator Fastcraft Obligatory CodechickenCore (NEI, Enderstorage) BspkrsCore (Treecap) Mantle (Natura) RadixCore (MCA) OpenModsLib (OpenBlocks) BrandonCore (Draconic Evolution) Selections from the Best Mekanism Extra Utilities Open Blocks Minecraft Comes Alive + RadixCore Pam’s Harvestcraft Cooking for Blockheads Bibliocraft Ruins Ocea

It's been 11 years since Kingdom Hearts 2. A long time to be sure. It was 3.5 years between the first game and the second, but they released Chain of Memories in between.... so I didn't mind waiting. Over the next few years they released four spin off titles, then the HD remixes/collections of previous games. I appreciated them. I am looking forward to Kingdom Hearts 3 and seem to be in the minority of those who have not lost hope. Why should I be concerned about this. It's a game! I don't need it! I'm not entitled to it... Nomura and Square-Enix do not owe it to me or anyone. No one is being cheated. Let me express my thoughts in the form of code: IF it is competed and released, THEN I'll be happy to play it.  ELSEIF it is cancelled, THEN I will be disappointed,  ELSE it's none of my concern until one of those happens. I've seen people getting huffy about it. Why? How is not playing this game (or any game) right now going to negatively aff

Thirteen hours and fourty-eight minutes: the amount of time I wasted on Goat Simulator. Did I get my moneys worth? I don't remember how much it was at the time I purchased it, but if it was $5 I paid too much. This is a dumb game, and yes, I know the Steam page even says so. So forget about Mad Max. My new gaming rubric is to overshadow Goat Simulator. This... might be more of a challenge than my previous one. Speaking of, though Half Life 2 has just eked past DCUO and Starbound muscled in, pushing Batkam Arkham Origins out of the ranking, that looks largely the same. Most of the games 13 hours and below are ones that I've completed one playthrough (Tom Braider), or multiple playthroughs but is a shorter game (Portal, American Nightmare). I know it looks bad for a Fallout fan to have logged so few hours into FO2, but that's just on Steam, mind you. The actual number of playthoughs is like 6+. Crayon physics and Shoppe Keep are larks that I didn't get all t

A list to remind me what games I should be focusing on, for the sake of finishing some: Final Fantasy X (PS3) Dark Messiah (PC) Postal 2: Paradise Lost (PC) Earthbound (WiiU) What I'm actually playing, mostly because they are fun: Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (PC) Saints Row IV (PC) Games I can play anytime with little or no pressure to finish them, mostly because they're pretty open ended: Starbound Reigns We Happy Few Death Road to Canada Games I plan to install overnight so I can get into them once I finish something: Deus Ex: Human Revolution (although I have this one on PS3 as well... hmmm.) Soma  Resident Evil 4 I ordered some nostalgic cartoons which will be arriving shortly, The Tick (Seasons 1 & 2), Pirates of Darkwater, and Conan the Adventurer (Season 2). My kids got me into Gravity Falls, which is really good and surprisingly mature (in that it doesn't dumb things down for kids).

I mentioned that I am looking forward to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I like the games, but I haven't played many of the newer ones... and when I say newer, I mean the DS and forward. Intending to catch up some, I bought Skyward Sword and Windwaker HD, but there are so many I missed in between, I won't even attempt to catch them all. Thankful each is its own compartmentalized story with no continuity between them... well, after the first two. Here's the score: Zelda 1: Maybe 90% completed. The final dungeons kicked my butt. Zelda 2: Completed! Link to the Past: Completed! Links Awakening: 10% completed because I never owned it. Ocarina of Time: No idea... but I never became adult Link, which is probably not much. Majora's Mask: Never played. Oracle of Ages: Completed! (borrowed) Oracle of Seasons: Never played. Four Swords/Wind Waker/Minish Cap: Never played. Twilight Princess: 10% at a guess. Phantom Hourglass/Spirit Tracks: Never played. Skyward

Here are some games I look forward to both announced and expected. Kingdom Hearts III Of course it's coming out... eventually. Like they're just going to cancel the end of this awesome cash cow. I'm content to wait... that's what KH fans do. The series just fills us with so much hope! (Katara cry) Final Fantasy XV Looks really good! This is a system seller... and the anime, CG movie, and gameplay videos are all really appealing.( Edit : Having got my PS4, I have still not invested much time in this one. Funny that.) Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Iga does this genre well. Since there is no more Castlevania, we now call the genre "Igavania". Shadow Warrior 2 Heard it described as Shadow Warrior + Diablo 2. Sounds fun. ( Edit : Got it. It was fun, but grindy. I enjoyed it, but don't see my self doing a replay.) Saints Row V Not a peep out of Volition or Deep Silver on this one. Odd... gotta be coming though. Maybe they'll do the No Mans

Mad Max currently ranks #13 on Steam as having the most hours of play. I intend to knock it off the top 20. Rather than a buggy remnant of a quest I completed, I like to think it means metaphysically. It's right.... I should. I recently finished the game... all I cared to of it. I liked the game play... cruising around in the Magnum Opus (the game's customizable/upgradable car). Harpooning and blowing vehicles up was fun. Clearing camps was a slog because gathering scrap is arduous and the combat is a chore... or the other way around even. I got all but the last two areas cleared of threat and I have no desire to do the abysmally boring Mine Clearing missions to finish them up... frankly I have no incentive. Where the game lacked was the story missions. I saw in a game magazine sometime ago... in reference to the protagonist of Secret of Evermore. "It's hard to [care for] a character who doesn't [care]." Max gives little in the way of excrement. He jus

Repost from Facebook, originally written December 5, 2008. Notes (2016): My apathy continues unabated... I only occasionally check Kenzerco to check if it's still in publication. Kinda like how I check on Spoony monthly to see if he's done any work... the difference being that, amazingly, KoDT is still producing content. Ugh. Upon going to the Kenzerco website to verify that link, I was unfortunately reminded of the live action KoDT series that was kickstarted. If the Kickstarter preview was any indication, this is going to be painful. 

At the beginning of the year, I posted a list of movies I wanted to see. I'm adding some. Here is how it stands now: Seen Mockingjay: Part 2 - Liked it, it was a great conclusion, but these movies are heavy. Avengers: Age of Ultron - Liked and mean to purchase at some point. Hotel Transylvania 2 - I liked the first one better, but it was okay. Zootopia - Pretty good, but the racism subtext was more like racism obvious text. Unseen Warcraft Star Wars: The Force Awakens Captain America: Civil War The Wolverine X-Men Days of Future Past X-Men Apocalypse Insurgent (and Divergent before that) Maze Runner, both films Mad Max (maybe) Next week my pre-order of Batman: The Killing Joke will be arriving. I find it extraordinary that I've had to dodge spoilers, but I suppose it was inevitable that it be shown at San Diego Comic Con, and several people from channels I follow went to that. I want to go to a con in the future, when it's viable.

I'm off Minecraft now and onto other activities that seem less pointless. Such as: Arrow/Flash - After the DC Animated Universe glut (I purchased almost everything from the last decade or so and even the old Batman the Animated Series movies) we got into Netflixing these shows pretty hard. Humble Bundles - This is a great way to get games on a budget and support my favorite cause... Charity: Water . Last month I received Mad Max and have been enjoying that, as I am a fan of the Arkham style combat, open world games. Also picked up the Buffy/Angel/Spike comics by ADW this way. Streams/Podcasts - Mostly the Co-optional Podcast and Beyond the Black Rims . Occasionally I can catch the The Codec , but it's on at weird times, so I only see the email notification too late. This is the main way I stay abreast of gaming news. SmallBasic Programming - I've been experimenting with various coding things, in my attempt to make a game at some point. Here 's one of my projec

Since this post  (and this and that as well) I've been playing the pack and have been coming around to some decisions about what I want in it. I stand by everything in Mod Commentary Part 1 . Mods I'm Warming Up To Minecraft Comes Alive - I've tried it before and enjoyed it for the most part. Definitely gives you more attachment for villagers when they have a name and a unique appearance (and gender) and you can form bonds with them through presents, conversation, marriage, and childbirth. I prefer one mod to rule them all in this regard, and would rather not have other mods villagers reminding me of the default Testificates existence. Roguelike Dungeons - I know what I said, but dungeons are hard to find normally. Plus, most of the dungeons in recent versions have been not so ugly to look at. I moved into one. As for what lurks below, you can ignore or explore at your whim. I find them great places to just take over. Apple Milk Tea - Since getting into blood magic

Occasionally I load up my world from the previous Axpack... in the current Axpack that is. I love how 1.7+ is so accommodating in that regard. I cleared out the old place and moved it all to a new location. For now, I am habitating the hollow of a very large redwood whist creating the central tower of my future base nearby. The idea is a marble pillar with solar panels and windmills on top, and sends energy down through the center. Rooms dedicated to certain pursuits will radiate off the core. In my technically current world, my pursuits of blood magic is going well. For a while I had a crop of ender-lilies coming up at the old tower, so I moved the blood altar over so I could make slates while my presence kept those chunk updates happening for the lilies. Well, I got one ender core. That speeds the growth up quite a bit.  I hope to get more going and pick up speed with their production. I tried setting up a room to channel monsters from spawners into the old smeltery. Last

I finally broke down and added Thermal Foundation and Expansion into AxPack4... doing without the Pulverizer got to me. I also added in Artifice and soon after messily ripped it out again, after I'd generated a bunch of chunks of course. I was all prepared to come on here and say it didn't screw up anything, but when I logged onto my main world to verify that... well. There was alot of this going on... and quite a bit of this. Ooh... diamonds! It was then I realized I didn't have a silk touch pick, so I marked them on the minimap and went back to the tower to make TC silky jewel to attach to my spare pick. In the process I realized that I did not have an applied energistics computer to put all my crap in. Uuuuuuuuuuuuuugh.... UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHH!!!!! Like the smeltery in the beginning, this is a super tedious but obligatory process. Very flippin' tempted to just figure out the material cost, dump that in the bin outside my tower, an

The following is a repost from Facebook, where it languished, now to languish here. oh, but I updated it as bit as appropriate. It was originally posted in 2013 from the looks. Worlds 1) Gargoyles ! Man, that show rocked. We recently got the first two seasons, and it is as great as I remember. Apparently the 3rd season The Goliath Chronicles jumped the shark, so we'll pass on that one. Anyway, I came up with the perfect setting for them too.. The expanded Traverse Town from KH:3D was flipping huge and had lots of high buildings. They'd fit right in. Story wise, they were cursed as they were in the show, then Malificent moves into Castle Wyvern and having partnered with David Xanatos, raises it above the clouds. Due to the enmity with both villains, the gargoyles re-settle in Traverse Town.  2) The Duckverse ... you know, Ducktales and Darkwing Duck. Scrooge, Donald, and the nephews are in, so... I want to see Scrooges Moneybin as a minigame, Launchpad and perhaps Gi

A while ago, I discovered a great tower (actually the surface of a rogue-like dungeon... which now that I think of it, are not rogue-like in any way whatsoever), It was a better tower than the one I currently inhabited, so I went with my tower envy and moved in. Goodbye, old and busted... Hello, new hotness! Mekanism Cardboard boxes are the best for moving. Ground floor after unpacking. Second level - Ars Magica Lab. Third floor living quarters. Botania re-retup. The dang movers broke the mana pool without using the mana first. Pissed. I still need to move over the blood altar and either pack up the Ars Magica spell altar structure or build a new one out of better stuff. Oh, and aside from Minecraft, I played a bit of The Lone Dark yesterday. Found a key that apparently gives you a flash of your coordinates. So I spamily abused it, trying to find myself on maps I found online... it didn't help. After exiting the game I found that it had filled my des

Our phone woes have been remedied by a little box called a OBIhai (reminds me of Obad Hai, Grayhawk's nature deity) which was $50 to allow us phone calls through Google Voice.... for free. So we reconnected the internet, dropped the landline, and are looking into saying sayonara to AT&T entirely with alternate DSL providers. It's what they get for lacking grace. You don't value a customer and stick with them in hard times, you lose them. Something that annoyed me about seeing my adventure maps played on Youtube was the crappy attitude exhibited by some players. They cheated with abandon, complained about the requirement of reading to know where to go or to solve quests, and were generally ungrateful. It's as if being challenged or taking risks offended them. The coherent and thought-out story elements were dismissed as unnecessary dressing. Why do these people play? I really wonder. Is it just the minecraft aesthetic that appeals to them? To be doing something

This year has been too adventuresome so far. Stop it, 2016! Trouble with vehicles and bills. We are currently without internet at home. I researched a bunch of companies for alternate ISPs and phone providers, but the choices are AT&T or some form of satellite internet (which is not ideal for gaming) since we live in the boonies. Still, we can play on our home network, and the kids can do without Skywars and TF2 for a few weeks. Actually, the modded minecraft map we were playing on met with a terrible accident on account of a misfire with a Flan's mod explosive weapon. Lost several chests... and I did not have a recent backup, so I was unhappy. I think I may port the map into Axpack 4 using Worldedit. The custom pack we were using for that is experimental anyway, trying out Ancient Warfare, Immersive Engineering, Witchery, and various others. I've been considering adding Mariculture into Axpack 4, which requires Enchiridion, and is divided into a bunch of modules. I thi