AxcaliBlog

Games Kingdom Hearts 3 (Done: Wonderful) Bloodstained (Update: Excellent IGAvania)  Spiderman (Done: Excellent.) Resident Evil 2 Remake (Update: It's very good.) Prey (Found this one at Fred's for $7 but was a bad disk. Bummer. Refunded it. Will seek it out again later. Update: Bought a good disk, started a game and then stalled.) Kingdom Come: Deliverance (Update: Played it briefly. It's not bad, just difficult.) Spyro Trilogy (Edit: After several chances to buy it cheaply I have never done so. Clearly I am not that into it.) Movies Ant-Man & the Wasp (Seen: Good) Venom Spiderman: Far From Home (Great!) Avengers: Endgame (Excellent!!) Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grunkapuffalow (Bought, but fell asleep during it.) Shazam (Enjoyable) Aquaman (Seen: Good) Captain Marvel (I don't know this character, but will give it a shot. Update: It was okay.) Detective Pikachu (for as little investment as I have in Pokémon, the trailer still looks entertaining. ...

The limitations of internet service in the boonies becomes more apparent as gaming moves along, possibly to the rumored digital only, horrific idea of gaming as a service. If consoles go that direction, I will be a dedicated retro-gamer. I have a DSL data cap of 150 GB, and it's $10 more per 50 GB increment we go over. Since we're a modern family, each of us with our own device, console streaming, two computers, and tablets, we eat through it. Not only that, but our download speed works out to 0.3 MB/second. We get by watching Netflix and YouTube with relatively few interruptions, but not concurrently with downloads. Downloads, if they occur at all, are done overnight. Game Download Commitment - I have to really want to play the game, I don't download it. There is no "Guess I'll try this game." and get bored, delete and forget it. A game download is a commitment relative to the size of the download. Each game is evaluated by whether it's worth the data ...

The other day I spent a few hours in an ineffectual, anguished fugue. When I was done, I picked myself up... and sally forth. Kind of like that Jake Johannsen comedy show, you get to the last one and are like "Ok, where are my pants?" I'll post that routine, but I'm not telling you where that part is within it. Just watch the whole thing. It's not that long... Time to get back to the plan. I had this posted on my office cabinet to remind me of things that enhance dopamine production.So here's the list: Meditation (Prayer, Listen to Music [Classical "Jim is Now a Blind Cave Salamander", Power Rock ("The Touch"/"Dare" Stan Bush), my usual Metal]) Sleep - Get enough. I have valerian (the herb, not the movie or the books it's based on, though I think I did fall asleep during it. Not that it's a boring movie... I dunno if it is or not, since I was asleep.) in case I need some chemical help in that regard. Exercise - I c...

At the end of KH:0.2 "A Fragmentary Passage" you basically get a peek at some of the beginning scenes of KH3, where Yen Sid basically tells Sora "You're level 1 again. Go grind out some levels in the Olympus Colosseum." It lets us know that the predictable structure remains true. The Colosseum will be on the far side of the first ring of explorable worlds, which means a choice of one of two worlds before you get there.  Overall the goal is to unlock Sora's power of waking so he can restore the hearts connected to him: Roxas, Namine, Xion, Aqua, Terra, and Ven. The pattern laid down in prior games is like follows: Starting World - (Destiny Isles/Twilight Town) Hub World - (Traverse Town/Hollow Bastion) First Circle - Three worlds, so initially you choose one of two to access the third on the far side. These worlds gradually introduce game elements and the thematic elements. KH1: < Olympus Coliseum, > Wonderland, Deep Jungle KH2: < Be...

Went to McDonalds and used their WiFi to download Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Their internet was at least 10 times the speed I have at home. It took 4 hours. From the sound of it, it may have knocked McDonalds out of their computer system though. Ooops. Well, I drank about $10 in coffee and had a burger at lunch, so I ended up paying for the privilege of downloading it anyway, but at least it was a better use of my time. The game is good. Very much the way I remember the first chapter going when I played it at a table-top. It occurs to me that I have a few RPGs of the type that I didn't get into. Good ones, most would tell you. Tides of Numenera; Divinity: Original Sin, Pillars of Eternity... didn't click with me. For that matter, I didn't even finish the first Dragon Age. I don't like to exert the eyestrain on discerning the tiny writing games have these days. Either that I'm just too dang lazy to read. I picked up Red Dead Redemption II. It is a beautiful game that...

Get it? The Pledgestone from Slayers? No? Fair enough. At this point I've pledged to a few games on Kickstarter and post-Kickstarter projects. NES Maker was released. I downloaded it and have not touched it since. At some point I'll be getting a game flashing device and re-flashable game cart.  Bards Tale IV came out a few weeks ago, I downloaded it (29 GB... took four days on my connection), and it looked like blurry Morrowind on my laptop. A few days later a patch was put out on GOG... 26 GB. I did not and will not be updating.What I played of it was good however. Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Redeemed on Steam. Have not downloaded. See reason below. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - Delayed until 2019. Shrug. Another thing to look forward to. Iga knows best what'll make the game the best it can be, so no complaints here. I pledged at the $100 level, so will be getting some swag with that one. I don't think I'll be backing Kickstarters in the future. Red ...

You know, it helps your mental well being to have things you look forward to. Fact. I could go get a Switch right now, but I'm putting it off so I have something big to look forward to. What games will I get when I do? Mario Odyssey of course. I see no particular reason to get Skyrim again, but may see a compelling reason in the future. I'm also satisfied with the WiiU version of Breath of the Wild. Maybe that's why I'm putting it off... I need more titles for incentive. I may get Bloodstained: RotN on the Switch so I can support Iga and Nintendo in one gesture. Really must pledge to that. Other games may include Kingdom Come Deliverance. I will need to see more game play before I decide on this one. I've heard it doesn't have a favorable save system, one that allows you to lose hours of work potentially, and the very prospect of that annoys me. I demand save anywhere... my time will not be wasted. I am currently playing Watch Ducks 2, having purchased th...