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Video Game Review – Far Cry 6

Before I begin I am fully aware of the current situation with Ubisoft and how the company treats employees. I hate that the CEO and Executives of these companies treat their employees poorly. It’s sad that an industry I love so much is marred by such a terrible work culture. In short I buy Ubisoft titles because I genuinely enjoy the work that countless talented people create. I support the artists, writers, programmers, musicians, testers, actors, designers, engineers, etc that make these games come to life. I stand in solidarity and support of all of Ubisoft employees, I want them to be proud of their games and work. They should be.

Just finished the game earlier today Nov. 6th. Very happy with the experience overall. I enjoy the chiseled gun play and entertaining characters of Far Cry games. The villains are some of the best in Gaming and media in general, Far Cry 6 featuring A-list actor Giancarlo Esposito, who famously played bad guy Gus Fring on the hit TV series Breaking Bad. He plays a very well written and perfectly acted Dictator. I had hoped him and the player had more verbal and physical interaction like in past Far Cry games, but every scene he is in has Gravity and cements why he is a Feared Dictator. Also notable is the beautiful world maps they create and let us subsequently destroy. I especially enjoyed the music in this game, set in Cuba. The Island scenery is lush and beautiful with active day night cycles and weather effects and lots of different local wildlife

I spent about 60 hours on the Main story and doing other side activities. I’m close to a Platinum trophy on PS5 and will probably go ahead and get it. Only a few super grindy requirements to get the Platinum, otherwise most of them can be gained simply by being thorough and playing the game normally. For for strenuous “collect all of …” trophies I will use YouTube sometimes, no shame. I just don’t have time in my life to search every little location on a map and so I miss some of the more random collectibles on my own.

Buy Far Cry 6 Season Pass Xbox ONE Series X|S Microsoft Store

The pacing of the game isn’t bad there are some parts that kinda drag. The mission structure is tried and true and sometimes a bit repetitive. I like mixing up my weapons and I alternate between stealthy and Rambo play styles to mix it up a bit in combat. In Far Cry games you can pretty much be way overpowered very quickly in the story. It’s up to the player to use the different mechanics and weapons to keep things fresh. It feels great clearing out a whole enemy base without alerting a single guard, however, If you go in with a silenced pistol every time and don’t spice up the action things will get stale quick. Use the companions, and gadgets, and sometimes let the guard hit that Alarm to call in reinforcements. The game is an absolute playground of destruction!

The progression system is kinda flat in my honest opinion. The game starts you off with a full tool box and kinda lets you create your own action. You can equip silencers and armor piercing ammo almost from the very start of the game in your first couple upgrades. And you can customize and fully kit out every single weapon except for special named weapons which come with predetermined perks and buffs. Once you get the (very basic) stealth mechanics you are pretty much A one man super Army. The stealth is satisfying and super useful to get through areas easily but sometimes there is more fun to be had in going in guns blazing. The star of Far Cry games (other than the characters and world) is the guns and gun play. FC6 doesn’t disappoint in the slightest. The guns look and feel amazing. They sound good and feel powerful when fully upgraded.

Player stats and perks and special abilities are gained by switching to different types of armor. There are 5 kinds in a “set” each set of armor together helps with a certain defense or skill set. For instance, The hazmat set helps against poison and gives you boosts against poisoned enemies. The “Fuego” armor set gives you defense and buffs against/with fire and explosions. Parkour Armor set helps you move around faster and quieter, etc, etc. There are a ton of different sets and you can mix and match the 5 different pieces of gear; head, torso, hands, legs, and shoes for basically customizing a play style or load out type. My one gripe is that you have to open the menu every time you want to switch gear or guns or any other equipment. Some sort of quick swap, at least for armor and worn gear, would have been super nice and require less time in the menus.

One of the newer features of combat is this multi-function backpack Called a “Supremo”. It can do things like shoot missiles, create EMP blasts to disable machinery, or other cool abilities. This back pack is how you equip “Gadgets” such as grenades, health kits, and C4. Each one can be customized for a different load out and you can switch between them on the fly during combat. I will admit I underused this ability in battle mainly because I was having fun and forgot about it. Honestly the powers are nothing super amazing. They are fun to use but not a game changer usually. Just another tool in your arsenal that helps you destroy or take down enemies.

The graphics are top tier, and on the ps5 the game ran perfectly and I had no issues with freezes or other major glitches. Occasional in game glitches but they are just kinda funny and not terribly inconvenient. The game ran smoothly for me over the course of 60+ hours. The enemy AI is decent when you are engaged, but pretty basic if you are playing stealth. It’s not the hardest game and is fairly liberal with health and player durability.

Far Cry 6 PC review: familiar messy fun | Rock Paper Shotgun — Gorgeous scenery and world.

Overall I highly recommend Far Cry 6 if you like shooter games in general. This is a top notch shooter! Great open world, entertaining characters and a Good story. Nothing revolutionary (pun intended) but a solid video game worth a play through, and not to miss if you already enjoy the Far Cry formula of games. As always, thank you for reading and I hope this was informative without spoiling anything.

It’s 2021, we are entering Post-pandemic life, half the year is over already, and we have a new President – so whats new?

We have a new president! I think the world is Genuinely stoked about that. The USA not so much.. Hopefully the US can begin to heal, however opinions are more important than facts it seems these days. Orange man baby is still running his mouth from the corner and he still has a chunk of the USA under his lying corrupt thumb. I don’t get it.. Well, I do to a degree.. our country is strait gullible, ignorant, and ultimately racist. A large part of our voting populace will believe anything they are fed online or on the TV. Many if not all of our high offices and institutions are plagued by white supremacy and institutionalized racism. We are more aware than ever before thankfully. I keep saying that 2020 was the year of perfect vision. It may not have been what we wanted to see but it is what we have to and were meant to see. We were shown that our society is a big facade, our healthcare sucks, our governments response to a pandemic is Shoddy at best and serves only to make corporations more money, and all the while our policing institutions have been blatantly murdering Black people and can’t figure out what the problem is.. I know its not that black and white but that is only a tip of the ice berg.. Long story short, 2020 was a hellish year all around and I am glad that 2020 is over.

I progressed a lot in my current career with cannabis, and subsequently the laws changed and now New Mexico is legalizing recreational Cannabis. Now as of a month ago I work for myself. I left Sacred Garden at the end of May for what I call visionary differences, but I mention some details below. I definitely didn’t like the 40+ hour work weeks plus the 10+hours of driving per week, or waking up at fucking 5 am. I liked the benefit of having money on paper. I got paid well, and was making more money than I ever have in my life by like four or five bucks. The grind was definitely heavy, I was more tired in general then I ever have been in my life. I didn’t have much free time, and my mental health was slipping into a funky depression. I was spending so much time every week for someone elses dream.. I realized the hard way that I am not happy doing that, and no amount of money makes it worth it. I quit over a personal issue with a tough guy shoddy maintenance man, we never had problems at work but he just talks to people like a bully and I wasn’t having it, and none of my bosses or managers could care less or backed me up. Fortunately for me I have a strong sense of dignity and self worth. I’m thankful honestly it gave me a very direct sign that it was my time to move on. I wasn’t learning anything and I was promised lots but nothing ever came to fruition and when I inquired it was like ” yeah right, we’ve never gotten a bonus,” or they told me when I started, “we’ll pay 100 bucks a month to help cover gas and expenses,” (never offered or paid me a dime for gas beyond my paycheck and gas was 300+ a month). Another one was “we’ll give you a raise at your review,” and then after a 3 month late, basically self given review, there was no mention of any added compensation yet the facility looked remarkably better than when I started. I could go on and on, that facility and the atmosphere didn’t let me do my best work although I left very proud of what we did accomplish. I left the facility in a MUCH better state than when I started And ultimately everything I was told or what enticed me to the job was never honored. I learned a lot but it was a lot of how NOT to do things. Otherwise I was just an overpaid team member with no official authority. I was hired as a “manager or assistant Lead”, yet i still had like 5 experienced growers who always knew better methods or do what they saw what someone in California was doing on Instagram.. Literally anything I ever said based on my experience was thrown our or ignored and then i would do what I was told.. something would mess up or be wrong.. then I would follow our SOP and still mess up even though I was doing what I was contractually ordered to do.. Ultimately it was kinda a waste of my time. I did however get ton of positive reinforcement that I could do my own facility and Cannabis business with success. Again 2020 was a year of vision and realization to me, and many others I’m sure.

We are steady cruising through 2021 and the world has somewhat come back to life. Music and events started happening back in May, and now just this past Thursday July 2nd, New Mexico has re-opened to max capacity. It feels so good to move forward. I am not naive and I know that we have a long way to go. I’m so thankful for all of the support and gigs I’ve gotten. I wouldn’t be who I am without my music community. I had gotten jaded with music over the past 18 month and barely touched anything music in at least that long. I was just feeling burned and sad that something that was such a big part of my life was no longer a thing for the foreseeable future. Many of us in the music and Entertainment industry had no idea when we would be able to do what we know and love again. It was very stressful as we learned what businesses and industries were being effected the most. This time last year in 2020 seemed hopeless and like music and events may never come back the way they were before. I’m so happy that is not the case. It’s been hard to shake the anxieties and stresses of the pandemic but it has felt SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good to see friends and peoples smiles and dance together with amplified music in social spaces… some things I, and many others, will hopefully never ever take for granted again.

So not much new except for a new president who is carrying the status quo. I voted democrat. I voted for Biden and Kamala, however I don’t feel their platform is aggressive enough on the progressive end. We need systematic change, not just throwing temporary solutions, but digging deep and rooting out the corruption, greed, and racism.. However the establishment is too embedded in greed and systemic racism to work any differently. I voted Democrat but for the first time in my life I wasn’t really proud or stoked to vote Democrat. I literally carried my party line to prevent the Orange Shit stain from taking office.. Biden should have won by a landslide and seeing how close it was does not give me hope for much of a progressive future. About half of voters still vehemently voted for Baby in Chief and still stand by his moaning that the “election was stolen” despite there being not ONE single piece of evidence that supports that claim. Even after he was gone and cut off from social media he continues to represent the absolute worst this country has to offer, and undermine American democracy.

My personal solutions that I came to, to help me move forward.

I have stopped paying attention to the day to day political stuff because it was literally damaging my mental health. FUCK social media. People act so differently online as opposed to real life. The hate and ugly that people (friends, family, and associates) displayed has made it easy for me to move forward with, and definitely without, certain people. I know going forward how, who, and what to spend my energy on. I hope others made these self discoveries as well. I stand firm in my belief that if you and someone you thought was a friend negatively disagree on basic moral and ethical subjects, that person doesn’t care about you or to understand where you come from. They usually just want to argue or debate. That person is probably not as good of a friend or community member as you may have once thought. I’ve been called more hateful things by family and people I know over the past 2 years than ever before in my life. I can thank orange shit stain for that. He inspired people to show their true colors and sadly much of those colors were out of touch, completely false, blatant lies, violence, racism, and general lack of compassion for others. yeah I can forgive and “still be friends” with lots of people, however I do not want to be friends with hateful, racist, blatantly ignorant with no desire to learn, and overall uncompassionate people.. I don’t have time or stress for these people moving forward. You, [readers] don’t deserve to stress about these types of people either, the choice is yours. I made my social medias a nicer and more peaceful place, now I try to only use them for business, promotion, and networking, more or less how they were originally meant to be used. I choose to remove negative and hateful people from my social medias. I choose to move forward with love and inclusion, productivity and community. These things helped me and might possibly help you

If you read my posts thank you and I hope you gained something or got a chuckle at least. Feel free to comment. I don’t entertain trolls or shit posters, I’ll remove negative comments unless they are constructive in some way that I can determine.

Pax out! Much love and music!

Video Game Review – Ghost of Tsushima

By far one of my favorite games of 2020 for sure and winner of several “best of” awards throughout the gaming industry. The style and authentic feeling story was a joy to behold and the tight sword play stay entertaining throughout. The story follows Jin Sakai through what amounts to a classic tale of revenge and family drama. It is an open world master piece that is made by a lesser known studio called Sucker Punch. What they did with the subject material and the visual aesthetic is simply brilliant.

Long story short, I devoured this game. I have always connected deeply with the ancient far east culture. I took a traditional form of martial arts as a kid and I got a lot out of it. I have taken the teachings of my karate training and fascination with the Japanese culture with me throughout my life. Not that this has any to do with the game but I connected deeply with the feel and vision of the game. This game let me live out my fantasies of being a samurai warrior. I don’t know why this time and setting is usually skipped in modern gaming unless it’s strategy games or the Dynasty Warriors series. There was Tenchu Stealth Assassins back in the day.. and Bushido Blade.. we’re talking old school PlayStation 1 here. like 1995. There may be some other great samurai subject games out there but those are some of the ones that come to mind and they aren’t even necessarily “Samurai” games like Ghost of Tsushima stake out to be. This game is literally a Japanese Samurai / Samurai movie simulator.

The main character is Jin Sakai. He is an honorable samurai from a noble clan who is forced to do less than honorable things to keep his homeland and his people safe. The games art style is where it really shines. This game is absolutely beautiful and it really shines in the aesthetic department. Sucker Punch used super rich contrast and color pallets so all of the scenes look like they could be a painting or out of a graphics demo. I am playing on the OG PS4 which at this point is like a 7 year old system but i was surprised how the massive world and depth of colors played well together. The game ran smoothly and loading screens were fairly short from what you would expect from a game of this sheer size.

Everything about the game was superbly Samurai. While I don’t know how historically accurate or true some of the conflict is, I did enjoy the various romps through the world and the side characters you meet tell interesting mini stories within the main narrative. I spent easily over a hundred hours in the game and I completed pretty much everything I am fairly close to a Platinum trophy.

The game has some repetitive elements toward the end stretch. If you are seeking trophies or achievements you will be doing the same things over and over. Luckily this game is absolutely beautiful so going to random locations and the far ends of the map are fairly entertaining in their own right. This is pretty standard in many large and long open world type games. There is always the first part where you feel overwhelmed and then you get side tracked from the main story and over level yourself then once you are bored of all of that you are like, “oh yeah there is still a whole main story arch to finish” That’s more or less what happened with me and this game. Some of the larger games of recent memory (coughs AC Odyssey coughs) have definitely dragged on. Like they could have been 20 less hours and still been phenomenal games.

Ghost of Tsushima drags a little bit for sure but it’s not as bad as some of the other games out there. It’s definitely worth seeing to it’s conclusion though. there are some memorable parts at least for me there were.

Once you beat the game, sucker punch released a free update that let’s you team up with other human players and fight gauntlets of demons. The art style is a bit different and the expansion kinda delves into the myths and demons of Japanese culture. At least it seemed like it to me. The art definitely looked darker. I haven’t played the expansion except for a couple of matches but I plan to once I get back into the game to get that Platinum trophy.

Overall this game is excellent and worthy of your money and time if yo like the open world style of game. It doesn’t do anything super new in terms of innovation on the formula but what they do with the world and the colors and the stories is absolutely superb. Not to mention a full multiplayer mode added on after the fact, Ghost of Tsushima is a no brainer and a must play if you enjoy anything Samurai or ancient Japan.

Video Game Review – Animal Crossing: New Horizons

I bought Animal Crossing ultimately because I needed a new game for my Nintendo Switch. Also I figured it would be something that my girlfriend could play and enjoy. She like to design stuff and organize things. Doom Eternal came out on the same day and I thought it would be a good counter to the ultra violence and demon shredding game play.

I was instantly hooked to the pastel colors and offset fixed camera view. It was, as I like to say, “as wide as a puddle but as deep as an ocean”. At around 200 hours of game play it is one, if not the most, played game on my Switch. Ultimately I didn’t know i liked to decorate and accumulate random accessories and clothing. I quickly found myself logging into the game at various times throughout the day as different times spawned different animals and events. It was the perfect addicting distraction during strange pandemic times as things really ramped up in seriousness.

The game is a colorful and cheeky life simulator which tracks time in real time. You log in in the day time and it’s daytime, when you log in at night it’s night time. There are benefits to logging in at various times throughout the day and night. Different events happen and characters roam at different times through out the day.

I really liked the slow pacing and super laid back vibe of the game it was a great counter to Doom after all. The two games even spawned a good crossover video.

The music made me feel like I was living the island life under crippling debt that I paid off slowly by hustling fruit, bugs, and fish to the local store owned by the islands overlord, a cheery racoon named Mr. Nook. Overall the game could be enjoyed in small chunks throughout the day or it could be dug into for several hours customizing your island with non interactive accessories and furniture. It’s a great game for people who like resource management and collecting things, as well as designers and simulators. My character looked like me even, I found a hair style that could be seen as dreadlocks!

The world instantly fell in love with Animal Crossing. I had never played the game so it was a fresh experience for me. My experience was genuine as I had no expectations and didnt know what to expect. I guess there were lots of little things long time fans didn’t like but I didn’t take much notice and I don’t really care to indulge critics. I like honesty but I don’t like negativity. I guess that’s an oxymoron but whatevs.

there are some truly delightful and eccentric character personalities. anything from nerdy introverts, to wannabe pop stars, to super bro macho type. I had this little bird character from the very beginning who was super into his workouts and fitness! He always yells CRUNCH at me when he is pumped up. He tries to get me to work out with him but I am lazy and have yet to join him.

There are tons of little quality of life things that I wish were implemented. The game is slow pace and it takes it’s sweet time. There is no way to skip lengthy dialogue that you have heard for the billionth time. There are certain aspects of the inventory management that I wish could be improved but it was never enought for me to stop playing. Just noticeable little things that bug oh so much.

Overall this game is a great game and worthy of hundreds of hours of your time. I enjoyed my first ever Animal Crossing game. I haven’t played in a while. Around the time fall rolled around I stopped playing as much. I recently turned it on to check the turnip prices but other than that I got to the point that I had pretty much seen everything and done everything. I was relatively disappointed in the various seasonal updates. They were pretty cool but nothing super engaging. The best updates were the ones that added mechanics such as the swimming and diving.

It’s good to know I have some friendly faces on my island should I ever feel the need to jump back on.

Video Game Review – The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

I played the Witcher 3 several years ago on my Xbox One. I never finished the main story but I absolutely fell in love with the story and lore of the game itself. Without a doubt one of the best modern RPGs I’ve ever played. I found the Witcher after I played through several hundred hours of Skyrim. I was craving more of that open world, exploration, discovery, and lore. I quickly realized that the Witcher is much more traditional role playing game in the sense that the main character has history and lore. It wasn’t till later on, that I discovered that “The Witcher” is a series of books that began back in the 1980’s by Andrzej Sapkowski. Obviously there were other games if this was The Witcher 3, but I had never even heard of them.

I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes high fantasy or Gothic / medieval fantasy lore. Geralt is a gruff and stoic character but definitely has a charm about him. Coming off of Skyrim it took me a fat minute to begin to appreciate the raw role-playing element that this game offers. You are Geralt of Rivia. People know who he is and he has a storied past. Much of which you can uncover and learn tid bits of throughout your journey.

This is a massive game. The first time I played I petered out around the 70 to 80 hour mark when I realized there was an entire different continent to explore and do missions in. This time I easily spend over 100 hours. I took my time and played lots of side missions except for the gwent card game side quests. I found the mini game to be incredibly random and kinda unfair. Either that or I just suck at the game and never put enough time into it to learn the intricacies. The Gwent card game was so popular that it spawned it’s own spin off card game.

Completing the game felt great. The ending was one of the better build ups and subsequent climaxes of any video game I have ever played. The game is 5 years old mind you and the amount of dialogue and original non repeated speech is worthy of accolades. It’s like playing through a movie in it’s writing, voicing, and depth of choice during interactions.

Admittedly the game can become a bit of a slog, during the middle part of the game when you are on the main quest line. Simply, this world is sooooo big and there are sooooo many locations to seek and side missions to do, it is very easy to get distracted. You could probably mash through most of the story in about 40- 60 hours. If you take your time and explore and do a bunch of the side missions and extra contracts you will easily tack on another 20-40 hours. Which was not a bad thing at all. I just had two distinct play modes when I turned on the game I would either be aiming to explore and do side quests, or I would just play story missions which were generally more involved and took a bit longer to complete. Using this method I was able to complete the game in bite sized chunks, while keeping up with the sprawling story.

Bottom line, I spent so much time with these characters that I actually grew to admire them and gave a shit about thier conflict. I wanted to see it to the conclusion that I never got when I had first played through it.

There were plenty of twists and turns in the story mostly basic fare but some pretty unexpected turnouts based on your choices in dialogue and physical actions against other characters. This was one of the things that impressed me most about this game, choices mattered. There were decisions made early on in the game that had an impact on the conclusion and subsequent build up to the ending. I have never played a game that took such care to include the consequences of whatever choices were made. This was special to me and definitely made the game stand out. Even during my second play through I made some different choices during a main mission that lead to a tragically different outcome than my first play though. It just made me feel all the more that my choices actually carried weight in this world and were permanent.

Another interesting thing about this game is that it keeps the character logs in real time. As you complete and finish or fail to finish missions the game updates the character bios which are told through the words of a Bard named Dandelion who is a friend of the main character. The bestiary acts in much the same way updating and adding information about the various enemies as you defeat them and encounter new weaknesses. Little things like this just add to the atmosphere which is the Witcher world.

There honestly wasn’t much I didn’t like about this game. The RPG style of game is my favorite and it’s easy for me to get absorbed by or into a character. The characters were storied and well written. Not many parts felt cheesy beyond what you may expect from a video game. The music was adequate there were some over world themes that were pretty good, not Skyrim good, but good enough that I didn’t get annoyed after playing for over a hundred hours. This is a long game and I am genuinely curious how many people see it to it’s completion. There are parts of the game that drag on a bit and if you aren’t thorough during the main chunk of the game then the ending gets held up by a bunch of missions that tie up all of the loose ends. I didn’t have to deal with much of that and I enjoyed the ending missions without much difficulty having leveled up and acquired good gear. If you like the high fantasy genre this is definitely a great RPG, probably one of the best I have ever played. Top 5 for sure.

What really inspired my 2nd play though was the Netflix show by the same name. I ultimately wanted to read the books before I watched the show but I figured the game would give me a good time in between. I randomly found the first book in hardback at the mall. I picked it up but have yet to read it. I will definitely write a review as soon as I do.

Definitely recommend this game for anyone craving a great immersive RPG experience with great lore and characters.

As always thanks for reading and I hope this was helpful. Feel free to comment. I’ll catch you on the flip sizzle.

Video game review – Doom Eternal

The newest entry in the classic Doom franchise. The god father of the first person shooter.

To be put simply, the game is about one thing, slaughtering demons. But This newest game takes the art of slaying demons and elevates it to an art form. A ballet of death, It is fast and brutal. The graphics are sharp and clean and every stage has a very different aesthetic so nothing really looks the same from level to level. There is no reload buttons or aiming down the sights. This game encourages and even rewards aggression. If you try to hide or take pot shots at enemies you will get over run by charging monsters.

I fondly remember playing Doom 2 on original PlayStation and Doom 64 on the N64. These were the more classic doom format with the pixelated demons and 2D sprites. Those games were dark, and filled with puzzles that tasked the player with finding colored keys and using switches and platforms to get through the levels. That basic structure is still here but This new game is much more detailed and has more modern movement options like a quick dodge and jumping. The basic mechanics of just laying on the trigger are still present and battles usually don’t stop till everything in the room has been defeated. Some enemies pop up through out the level but certain areas are literal death zones where enemies just spawn till you wipe them all out. The games music ramps up with heavy metal guitars and industrial drums gaining intensity. Once this starts you will die quickly if you don’t keep moving.

The core loop of Doom: Eternal operates on a pattern of shooting enemies to kill them, using the chainsaw to make enemies spurt a shower of ammo, burning enemies to replenish armor, and performing “glory kills” which reward you with a bit of health. The frantic pace of the battles means alternating between these functions at your will, or in some type of pattern. Most enemies have weak points that you can exploit as well. This makes each battlle a literal puzzle of deciding which enemies to take out first and with what weaponry, whilst keeping track of your health and armor and ammo. You find pickups for all of the above but the best method for keeping stocked and staying alive is by using all of the various killing techniques at your disposal. All of this culminates into a delectable dance of death and mutilation. shooting, stomping, tearing, smashing, burning, slicing, and otherwise annihilating anything that moves other than yourself. The speed and grace with which Doomguy decapitates lesser demons fits his persona. He doesn’t take his time and it often times is just a show of brute strength. After you fell all of the enemies in an area you have a sense that everything was just trying to rip and claw it’s way to you and you moved through them like a hot knife through butter.

I liked the care that went into this new game, for it describes the setting and how thing got the way they were. You can find pages of lore that explain why demons attacked earth and they give a bit of backstory to the Doom guy and kinda personify him. It’s not the clearest plot line or narrative but definitely interesting to read and explore. The main character of Doom has always just been a marine in a green suit but this game gives the silent protagonist a bit of backstory. There are tons of easter-eggs from previous games and other action titles as well. There are lots of collectibles which include models of the enemies and music tracks from other popular games made by the developer, ID software. Any fan of action games or doom specifically will definitely catch them during a playthgouth.

Between slaying demons there are some light platforming puzzles and some hidden items that you actually have to explore to find. Nothing was super difficult to get through and kept the pace nicely. There were no parts of the game (other than one particular enemy) that really get you stuck. The auto map pretty much shows you everything you need to see as well as any secrets. you just have to uncover the paths to uncover them. I thought the puzzles were thoughtful and didn’t detract from the flow of the game. Also the game gives you a fast travel function at the end of any level so you can teleport around and collect stuff that you may have missed during a chaotic fight or difficult area. Definite re-playability .

There is a multiplayer online mode called “Battle mode” which pits human players against each other in a 2 v 1 style match up. one player takes the role of the Doomguy and the other two players assume the roles of Demons who can summon other lesser demons and must work together to defeat doomguy in an arena type setting. These matches are fast and chaotic. I haven’t quite gotten the gist of this mode yet, or I haven’t practiced enough to really tell if I’m doing well or not, or even helping my team mate if we are the demons. I’ve lost an equal number of rounds as I’ve won simply because one of the players probably didn’t know what was going on quite yet. Still fun regardless and I will be eager to play this mode more or see if it progresses at all. Either way the battle mode keeps the same feel and frantic pace as the campaign action. It’s a nice break from the single player level type campaign.

This game has a lot of satanic and demonic imagery. People who are sensitive to this stuff may not like the environments and enemies, or even subject matter. However Doom is an unflinching action game from beginning to end. I highly recommend it to anyone who fancies a trip to hell to slaughter the minions of evil. A great game to mash through during quarantine. A classic game design in a modern format. A definite must play if you consider yourself even a casual gamer or fan of first person shooters.

Social Distancing – Thoughts and suggestions amidst the pandemic

With all of the uncertainty in the world today it is nice to have a place to dump my thoughts and writings. I’m genuinely more worried about the economic fallout than the virus itself. The virus is one thing and I can’t do anything about that. I’m super thankful and grateful for my job and being able to make money. I can more or less continue life as usual and not stress about the bigger implications. But I do worry because I care.

I was one of the people who didn’t really take it to seriously when it first started being a thing. I dismissed it as a bad flu or something that wouldn’t effect me. I got kinda stressed out at first but then realized that it is shutting down lots of businesses and work (some of mine included). I’m super thankful to have my day job still because I work at a medical dispensary. Haha Pot is now considered essential. Never thought I would see the day, but here we are.

Generally speaking, we are more introverted so the whole self quarantine thing is no problem for me. I’ve been enjoying the extra video game time and catching up on some of the chores and stuff that I have put off. I still have to go to work but my Unity Sound Co business is all but shuttered at this moment. Everything is cancelled or postponed indefinitely till there are more developments.

At first I thought it was something to do with the political spectrum but as I started paying more attention I realized it was an actual pandemic. I don’t like how our government is using it as a means to push agendas and what not.. I won’t get into it here. I had to take a break from the internet in general because of all of the conspiracies and other nonsense going around. Shit rots my brain. After overthinking about all of this shit and stressing a fair amount I realized we can’t do anything about this. Not a single thing. Stressing won’t help anyone because nobody has ever dealt with anything like this in modern history. Everything happening right now is entirely new. I started to feel less stressed out when I realized that all I can do is live day to day and plan a little bit ahead but not to far because we don’t know what the next week will bring. I’ve turned my thoughts inward and I’ve been working on making myself better and starting some new habits.

I know the world is messed up, but the thing that helped me was to bring it back in and be thankful for what I have and the spot I’m in. It’s not perfect but I am better off than so many people on the planet and I just want to express that I am thankful… I try not to take this life and it’s beauty for granted. This has helped me cope with the overall feelings of helplessness that seem to grip modern society. To often in we think that things could be better and we compare ourselves to others. This is all relevant but that doesn’t mean we should dump our time and focus into it. Being thankful and grateful for what you DO have is the start to breaking down that wall of expectation and wanting.

If you are reading this I encourage you to log off of the social medias and news networks. It’s ok to watch TV and play video games, or use your computer to do work or projects, but don’t over saturate yourself with all of the negative news that is going around. I feel there is a balance between healthy knowledge and being conscious, and unhealthy knowledge that is disruptive. I think now more than ever before in the history of our species we have an unhealthy apatite for the bad knowledge. Maybe not so much an apatite but we are distracted by so much information from so many sources sometimes it’s overwhelming because it’s all you see when you are logged into anything.

So, yeah I challenge you to pick up that hobby or finish that project that you let sit. Start a new healthy habit and try to refocus some of your time that you may be wasting by stressing about the state of the world today. Be vigilant and be cautious and of course be safe and healthy. We will all survive this but it will take us all working together. Always remember, we are making history, right now, today.

Much love and stay safe my friends.

Book Review – Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

If you like tales of survival and stories about real life events and acts of heroism, then Unbroken is a book for you. The book is written about a man named Louis Zamperini who’s fighter plane was shot down over the south pacific during world war 2. The author Laura Hillenbrand actually got to spend time with the family of Louis Zamperini and the man himself I believe. This fact makes this story all the more impactful because most of the facts probably came from the Veterans mouth, or those close to him.

The book takes you quickly through the beginning of Zamperini’s life, through his basic childhood and adolescence, but the story actually begins once he is flying missions over the South Pacific Ocean during World War 2. This is very much a story of survival against insurmountable odds and about perseverance. I won’t give up any of the main story but not much goes well for Louis during those years as a captured POW.
What I liked about the book.

The main character himself could be fictional but it makes the tale all the more exciting knowing he was an actual living person. I don’t know why I find that time period so fascinating. The World War 1 and 2 eras impress, and irk me at the same time. I have been fortunate enough to travel and tour some of the famous memorial sites throughout Europe and Japan both. The whole concept of a “World War” is a terrifying reality to our human culture. You can arguably say that those wars gave us the modern drive for industry and capitalism, and still to this day, play a big part in the world economy.

I enjoyed this book because it doesn’t stop once you start reading it. There aren’t really many slow parts so to speak. The book takes you on the full ark of his experiences during the war itself, and then continues on to detail the healing that takes place among the soldiers coming home from those conflicts. I can’t imagine having to go through some of the ordeals that him and his crew had to go through, or the sheer terror of being stranded on the open ocean. So many experiences happened to Louis Zamperini yet he stays sane and even grows from the experience. A true testament to the will of man and the unyielding drive that some can develop to stay alive.

I love stories like this but it may not be a good one for people who are sensitive to detailed depictions of torture and survival.

I enjoy anything to do with WW2 and that time frame. I believe everyone should know something about the era all of our grandfathers and grandmothers lived through.

Definitely read this book if you like tales of survival and details about lesser known facts about WW2. Unbroken is a thoroughly engrossing story of a man who wouldn’t give up. Some good lessons and humanity in these pages, I definitely recommend.

This New Year 2020

It’s been an interesting time in the couple years that I have been writing on this blog. It’s the third day of the year 2020 and our Dumb shit president is provoking war with another nation. I try to be positive but the state of our politics is fucking disgusting. We literally have an impeached president who just assassinated another world leader, and no one will hold him accountable. The politicians in America in the year 2020 have forgone any sense of common decency, compassion, or empathy. My country is controlled by rich white men and women who have no care for the average. War and profits are all they communicate in.

What’s far worse is that they have divided us to the point where anything is an argument. There is a war on reality and I hate to say that reality, yes reality, is losing. There are enough dumb and completely complacent people in the country that this sad state is kept afloat by their own disregard for what is really happening.

I completely understand why people feel helpless and ultimately hopeless. Every system in the world that we know seems to be against the average person yet it is the average people who help perpetrate the system with our own apathy and distraction.

There is a lot to be upset about and a lot to be enraged about, there are tons of ways to hate on the system and take negative action. That is just it. They want you to feel negative. They want you to feel hopeless and worthless. The powers that be are the ones that keep us unhealthy and in the dark. Distracted with technology and media.

I’m not writing just to lament and bitch about all of the bad… I know in my heart and mind that there is positivity and love in the world. I see it everyday. Life really is what you make of it. Gratitude is the attitude. All we can hope to do is move forward and up and be kind to each other. In the coming Year I want to be productive and not put too much energy into things outside of my own mental orbit. I can be a positive light and I can be a motivation to others.

Now in this year 2020 we have to put aside differences and come together in solidarity. Australia is on fire, the earth is crying. I hope for some kind of absolution but I know that will only happen when we as a people wake up and start loving and taking care of each other and our planet. I have hope honestly. Everybody, myself included, needs to step our game up and start living our best life for the future.

So for the new year and new decade, I hope I can be productive and steadfast in my goals. I want to be compassionate and willing to help others. I want to be forthright and make sure to communicate as good as I can. Most of all I want to not fret about the future but make it how I need it to be. For myself, and for other humans.

Video Game Review – Apex Legends

This is the first Battle Royal mode I have ultimately enjoyed. I played about 20 hours or so in Fortnite and genuinely found that game play is boring and repetitive. I watched a bunch of game play for the Player Unknown’s Battle Ground, and got the same feeling from that game. Just campy and ultimately too little action for me.

Enter Apex Legends. Made by Respawn entertainment, the company behind the Titanfall franchise. Immediately when I tried it I felt somehow familiar. The movement was fluid and the combat is mostly first person view. At first I sucked and admittedly didn’t like the game because of the time it took to see any action. Then I started to play enough to rack up some kills and really dive into the deeper mechanics of the game and the awesome characters with unique abilities.

I quickly found some favorite character abilities that allow me to feel useful without getting too many kills, but this let me learn how to survive well. One aspect I really like about Apex Legends is that it is automatically played in groups of three. This increases the survivability by great lengths. When I, or a teammate, goes down there is a good chance of being healed and brought back into the fight. Even if totally eliminated there is a secondary way to respawn a team mate so overall, right of the bat, I felt that I was getting more play time per match, thus more experience and practice playing the game.

The fact that everyone is placed in a team adds a factor or camaraderie, I want to do better for my team mates so I try to learn how to get better and when to be patient. Generally people are pretty nice and play together well. I have only had a few instances of shitty people but alas that is the internet age.. bound to meet a few here and there online.

The gun play is solid and the weapons behave consistently so you can really learn and get good using certain ones. Learning the different characters and how to use their abilities is also a lot more fun than the stale base characters of any other BR game mode currently out there.

Overall it is a solid game and I can see why it is popular. It is free to download, and you can buy micro transactions to unlock more cosmetic items.

There isn’t much I don’t like about the game for what it is. Therein lies the fault. I will not go as far as to say it is a full game. It feels like a game mode, forever more. The matches are too short and there is not enough depth to keep me playing for more than a handful of matches. Playing with friends and chatting makes it more fun for a bit longer but in the end it is a game mode and not a full game.

There is only one map. The maps in these BR modes are large and separated into different biomes or areas that contain different set pieces, architecture, and geography. They are basically a bunch of mini arenas within a large map. This gets boring after a while just like any single map, once you have seen all the locations and fought in different areas they all start to look the same in this game. There isn’t much variety in the map department. This is standard in most BR modes.

Now that this game is nearing several months old, the entry level skill gap is pretty high at this point. I often get melted by more experienced players right off the bat just because I am not fast enough or don’t know what to pick up first. The game is pretty unrelenting to newcomers. The game is entirely PVP there is no “single player” experience or story. So after a couple rounds and eventual wins … that’s pretty much all there is too it. Nothing grand happens when you win, you don’t get any wicked bonuses or anything… you just play another match.

So far critics have said that the skins and cosmetic items are underwhelming but i don’t really notice or care for cosmetic items. I will say that the season pass that they charged 10 bucks for is ultimately not worth it. The pass nets you a few cool skins and cosmetics but only after a grueling grind through 100 levels of crap rewards. I doubt I will be able to get anywhere near the end considering the levels for the season pass take more Exp than normal game levels. haha.. but hey you can purchase any levels you miss if you really want the rewards.

Overall a great Battle Royal mode. Nothing more, nothing less. I am sad that such a fad of a game mode has made it to become a major fixture of modern gaming. Just feels cheap. I like the bigger game modes and larger teams! Battle Royal game mode has infected some of the best shooter franchises, turning them into husks of their former selves,

In the end it is free, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes intense player vs. player action, or anyone who enjoys BR modes in general.