A Green Mushroom

Gauntlet (2015) was free through PS Plus in December and I finally got around to trying it out. It's an example of the basis of all Hack and Slash games.  It makes sense since Gauntlet itself was one of the main origins of the entire genre. This one has been updated and modernized a bit, but it's a hack and slash game at it's core. I played a few levels of single player to see what it has to offer and quickly realized that this game is truly made to be played with friends in local co-op.  I'm going to keep it installed for the next time I have some people over who would be interested in local co-op.  It's not that great single player but with friends it could be so much fun.

I tried to go back and explore some endgame of Fallout 4 with my character who had completed the story.  It wasn't as compelling as it had been when I was pushing through the main story.  So I did the thing that made the most sense. I started using console commands. Player level 35?  Let's just crank that up to 300.  Then activate every perk. That was fun for a night. The next night going back to it and I was kinda over the normal loop of exploration in the game.  So I turned on god mode.  Want to know the best part of god mode in Fallout 4? Infinite Ammo. I basically spent an entire night charging into groups of enemies wildly firing the fat man.  If you haven't played Fallout 4 the fat man is a handheld mini nuke launcher.  I don't think I had fired it the entire time I played the game because I only ever had a couple shots of ammo for it. Running around and firing off fat man mini nukes all over the place was a ton of fun for ...

I'm still catching up on some of The Force Awakens tie-in novels that slipped past me in the months leading up to the movie. While I basically read every adult novel of Star Wars as it comes out, I skip over most of the young adult or early reader books.  Generally this has served me well, but occasionally there's a Star Wars young adult book worth my time.  It turns out Before the Awakening is one of those. It's a book broken into three parts, one for each main character in the movie. Finn's story is all about his stormtrooper training, relationships with his squad, interactions with Captain Phasma, and his first deployment.  It's really good backstory. Rey's story covers a few months of her scavenger.  It explains where her mechanical and piloting skills come from as well as giving some more information on how she views the world. Poe's story ties in most directly with it basically leading right up to the point where the movie starts.  We lea...

I have a confession to make.  I'm playing a dumb, grindy, exploitation, micro-transaction, f2p, mobile game. If you couldn't tell from the title of the post, that game is Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes. It's so out of character for me in most ways.  I really like engaging and unique mobile games.  I typically can't stand this low-input waste-away-the-hours  check-back-frequently type of game. But this one is Star Wars.  And it's grabbed me. At the bare minimum I've been doing the daily quests every day.  Most days I've been checking in a few times throughout the day. I'm upgrading gear, giving my characters new moves, unlocking new characters, leveling them up.  All the things you would expect from this type of game.  It's actually not that far off from a game like Final Fantasy Record Keeper.  Except that it's Star Wars.  Apparently that makes all the difference to me. In the global arena ranking I generally hold my own and ...

After trying out Final Fantasy IV: The After Years over the past couple days and bouncing off the game I thought I'd try the other iOS Final Fantasy that I've been putting off, Final Fantasy Dimensions. This one is a little different.  All the other Final Fantasy games I've played on iOS were remade, remastered, and ported over to the system.  They were mostly the mainline Final Fantasy games and they were really good. Final Fantasy Dimensions is the first Final Fantasy game they made specifically for mobile... and it's not very good.  The controls aren't nearly as responsive or intuitive as all the other mobile Final Fantasy games I've already played.  You can tell this was one of their first attempts at the platform.  It just feels rough. Not to mention a story that starts off overly heavy on exposition and with some pretty bad player guidance.  It makes for a lot of frustration right off the bat. This is my second time really trying to get ...

I needed a break from Voyager after flying through the last couple seasons, so I thought I would sample a few other things from my "to check out" list. Parks and Rec After hearing about this show for years my wife and I finally sat down and watched a couple episodes.  It took a few for us to get the style of comedy they're going for but now we're into season 2 and it's getting really good. Galaxy Quest After Alan Rickman died I heard this movie mentioned everywhere.  It's essentially satire and comedy about Star Trek.  It's ok, but not fantastic.  It's obvious that it's a late 90s movie.  I'm probably never going to rewatch it but I'm glad I watched it once. Stargate Universe This one was the biggest hit of the show sampling for me.  I watched the first episode and already I'm interested in the characters and the overall premise of the show.  If I wasn't specifically doing a sampler I would have immediately...

After having Final Fantasy IV: The After Years on my iOS devices for awhile I figured it was time to actually try it out.  The structure of the game is broken into "tales".  Different characters are highlighted in each tale but ( according to howlongtobeat.com ) altogether they add up to about the length of a typical JRPG. This game is the same world and lots of the same characters as Final Fantasy IV.  It's a direct continuation of the story, only years later.  One of the main character's is the son of Final Fantasy IV's main characters. It really feels like I'm retreading old ground when I'm playing The After Years which is probably what some people want, I'm just finding it boring instead.  I don't think I can force myself to push through and find the fun in this game. Although I want to try all the spin-offs from the Final Fantasy series, I feel no desire to force myself to play through a spin-off if it isn't engaging.  Where I re...

I picked up Steamworld Heist when it suddenly appeared on a bunch of "game of the year" lists in early January.  I had been interested in it since I loved Steamworld Dig but for some reason the release date (near the end of December) had totally slipped my mind. If I would have played this before the end of the year it would easily have been in my games of the year post. Steamworld Heist is a 2D sidescrolling turn based strategy game with skillshots and trajectory skills.  It's awesome. You all know I love a good turn based strategy game, and this is a great one.  It follows the aesthetic of Steamworld Dig but beyond that similarity it is it's own game.  Steamworld Dig was a dig deeper and upgrade your character sort of game.  Steamworld Heist is all about being a ROBOT SPACE PIRATE . Maybe I should have put that up at the front of the post. YOU ARE A ROBOT SPACE PIRATE!  It's so much fun. The progression mechanics of acquiring new gear and ...

Typically I like to review season by season once I get into a show.  With Voyager I actually didn't realize I had finished the first season until I was half way through Season 2.  It looks like the first season was shorter than typical and the second season was longer, so this will cover them both.  There was no clear break point or big season finale for the first season, they just kind of flowed into one another. This is such better Star Trek than my attempts to watch the other shows.  Those quickly failed when I got bored or frustrated with some part of the storytelling or production.  Voyager still holds up, even the first season which is from 1995. There's a bit of crossover with the other Star Trek shows to launch the pilot of Voyager, but after the first episode the crew is lost and alone in the Delta Quadrant.  In Star Trek terms this means they've mysteriously been sent to the other side of the galaxy and it's going to take roughly 75 years ...

I grabbed Pokemon Omega Ruby before heading out on my last trip and finally got around to beating it the other day. Every once in a great while I get the craving for a Pokemon game and this one did the job just fine.  It has Pokemon, gym leaders, a story, the Pokemon League, and everything that comes with a Pokemon game.  It was fun to play through fairly quickly. The thing that I noticed most of all is how much extra stuff  they've added to Pokemon games over the years.  I can see how it would be nice if you're going to devote hundreds of hours to Pokemon to have all these side activities, but I'm just in it to play through the game once and then move on.  When I was really into Pokemon as a kid it was with the original two generations of the game.  They were just about Pokemon, leveling up, and beating the game.  I guess that's still all I want. These modern incarnations of Pokemon have so many side activities it's almost overwhelming. ...

In trying to dig into Star Trek from my younger days I decided to pretty much tackle the different series in order and see if any of them stick. While TNG's late 80s / early 90s production values and pacing didn't hook me I still appreciated the acting and the stories. Deep Space 9 was next up and it failed to grab my attention on any front.  The production quality is similar, if not a bit better, but the acting and the premise just aren't as interesting as TNG.  Star Trek is typically about exploration but Deep Space 9 is about a space station that stays put in one place. The most interesting thing about it is that it has crossover episodes with both TNG and Star Trek Voyager.  It bridged the gap between to two and that's pretty cool.  Thinking back about it, there was some form of Star Trek on TV for a long time from the late 80s all the way to the early 2000s.  It's weird that it's been off the air for so long now. Anyway, with DS9 I tried the fir...

Lately I've been spending a bunch of time with interactive fiction.  It's had a modern resurgence and it's kind of what I always wanted from choose your own adventure books. iOS is a great format to read and interact with these pieces of fiction.  I've already recommended 80 days a few times, but I've also played/read a bunch of the "Choice of" games that are all published by the same company.  They vary in quality but generally they're fun. This one, Choice of Robots, is about AI and robotics and what choices you would make if you were one of the first AI inventors.  It has big concepts about consciences and responsibility.  Not to mention some cool looks at future technology and what it could do to the world. I really liked it. I highly recommend checking out the "Choice of" series of interactive novels on iOS if you've ever liked choose your own adventure stuff at all.  They have a ton of different interactive fiction avail...

Lately I've been picking away at the Hearthstone single player adventures.  They're really fun, especially the newest one with the League of Adventurers.  The single player adventures give a new way to experience the game and they're not afraid to break typical rules.  It's cool to see. After finishing up the normal mode I jumped into the class challenges.  It surprised me to find that these are actually my favorite thing in Hearthstone so far.  You're presented with a match up of a predetermined class vs a boss and given a pre-made deck.  It's everything I want from this game. I like having a balanced playing field where the decks are fun to play against each other.  This mode provides that. It makes me realize how much I just hate the deck construction.  I love piloting a fun deck but I hate spending time trying to create my own decks.  I wish there were more modes in Hearthstone with premade decks.  I know that if there...

I remember being a fan of Star Trek The Next Generation (TNG) when I was little.  Based on when the show was released I probably didn't watch most of it until it was in syndication, but it's possible that I watched the last few seasons as they came out. It's been on my list to get back around to checking out as an adult.  I finally did and it's not a show that's sticking with me very well.  I'm not feeling it. I can tell the show is really good in some ways after findings it's feet after the first few seasons.  But it's just so... early 90s.  There was a way they made TV then and it just feels like it.  It's a product of it's time.  I can't quite get over it. In shows like this I really miss an overarching storyline.  I guess I take it for granted now that most shows have one, but back then almost every episode was self contained and it was rare for big changes to carry over week to week. This means it's easy to watch any rand...

I had a lot of fun with this playset.  So far I've played through all four available Disney Infinity 3.0 playsets and this one has been my favorite. The Force Awakens set comes with Rey, Finn, and the playset piece itself.  I love the look of the characters and I also ended up grabbing Poe Dameron and Kylo Ren as well.  I wanted all of them!  They just looks so cool! The gameplay is very similar to the Rise Against the Empire playset which covered the original trilogy, but that's not a bad thing.  It follows the events of the Force Awakens through the use of basic exploration, traversal, and combat. Really, this is an excuse to have another way to interact with the newest Star Wars movie.  And more than that, it's a way to introduce my kids to the new characters.  They love playing in the Disney Infinity 3.0 toybox mode where they can run around and swap characters freely.  They were super excited to see that I got new characters they co...

Before The Force Awakens I started re-reading my way through the old Star Wars expanded universe which is now called Star Wars Legends.  I was moving at a decent speed and then The Force Awakens released. I love Star Wars Legends, but now all I want to know is what happens next in this canon version of Star Wars.  Legends is still cool and will always hold a special place in my heart but I've completely lost my motivation to re-read through it again. I feel like I'll revisit Legends again sometime in the future but now isn't the time.  I'm too excited about the new reality of the universe that The Force Awakens has presented.  I want to know more about that.  I don't need to drag myself into what could  have happened. There are more canon novels and comics coming out all the time.  So, I'm putting my Legends exploration on indefinite hold.  I'll explore the new canon Star Wars expanded universe as it releases and outside of that I'll hav...

The Perfect Weapon is a Star Wars novella that left me wanting. It does a decent job of painting the picture of a life as a mercenary or bounty hunter on the edge of the law while the pacing and action are decent enough. My problem with the novella is that it all seems to be leading up to finding out what is so important that is contained in a box the main character has to retrieve.  And (spoilers) in the end she gets the box but doesn't open it. It's a frustrating end to the decent story that led up to it. Instead of adding a unique little facet to the Star Wars universe this novella doesn't really add anything.  You're safe to skip this one.

After writing up my Buffy Season 1 impressions I dove into season 2 hoping to see the series really come to life.  But after hitting the half way point in season 2 I realized that the week to week 90s-ness of the show isn't for me. There are too many filler episodes and tons of episodes that don't move the overall narrative arc forward.  I know Buffy isn't really a horror show but it's setting is definitely "horror" for lack of a better word.  That genre/setting has never appealed to me and the monster of the week formula quickly got stale. But I could see the core of the show and there was still something there that I liked.  The core cast and central story arcs are good.  So I googled "best buffy episodes" and "essential buffy episodes", consulted a bunch of lists, and then kinda mashed them together in my brain. Then I started skipping. Sometimes just a couple episodes at a time and later almost entire seasons. But I really...

Besiege is a fun little sandbox right now.  It has a handful of levels and lots of cool parts to assemble. Oh, and the point is generally to destroy stuff. It's still in alpha and it's obviously not a fully formed experience yet, but it reminds me a lot of Kerbal Space Program.  You're given some tools to build a vehicle or machine with, a task to complete, and told to go for it. After that it's all experimentation.  I'm not nearly as good as videos and gifs I've seen of other people playing the game, but I will admit that it's fun to mess around with the tools provided. If you see this one for cheap on a Steam sale like I did then it's probably worth your time to grab it.

I've been listening to the Story Wonk podcast series lately.  They do story seminars and pop culture analysis in podcast form and they're amazing.  After listening to their entire backlog of the general pop culture podcast The Lightbulb , their Harry Potter series Dear Mr. Potter , and the Star Wars series Story and Star Wars I still wanted more. I saw that they had a Buffy The Vampire Slayer podcast series called Dusted   going through the entire TV show episode by episode.  I had always kind of dismissed Buffy since it was before my time but I figured if these two people think it's worthwhile to cover the entire series then there must be something there to check out. The first season of Buffy is rough but I can definitely see the core of a series that could become good.  The setup to kick off the series isn't bad but then it's followed by a lot of "monster of the week" type episodes that don't hold up as well.  The episode about Angel halfwa...

In the last month my Wii U started having an issue.  It stopped playing nice with the external hard drive that I've had hooked up to it from day 1. I wish I never had to buy an external drive, but the "big" storage version of the Wii U that I bought is only 32GB.  That's like nothing in today's modern gaming landscape. I'm purely digital now with my gaming, I just don't buy physical media anymore, so it was the obvious choice to pick up one of Nintendo's recommended external drives.  Unfortunately, external drives are the only place I've ever had problems with digital gaming... and this has turned into the same thing. Now, the Wii U will randomly decide not to mount the external drive.  I could buy a new one and re-download all of my game that aren't on the internal storage (most of them) or I could just deal with it since the Wii U seems to be at the end of it's lifespan. All signs point to the Nintendo NX releasing next year.....

It just occurred to me that I don't actually know that many games releasing in 2016 that have a firm release date.  I can't really anticipate a game for 2016 when I don't even know if it's going to release this year. And no, a release "month" or release "quarter" don't count.  That means the company doesn't actually know and it could change with no warning.  It happens all the time. If those counted then I would be super excited for Final Fantasy XV, Star Fox Zero, No Man's Sky, Zelda for Wii U, For Honor, Mass Effect Andromeda, and the remastered version of Final Fantasy IX.  I'm still cautiously optimistic that these will release this year, but until we get firm release dates I'm putting them to the side. The only two games that I'm really excited for with actual  release dates in 2016 are Fire Emblem Fates and Firewatch. Fire Emblem Fates is the first Fire Emblem game after the amazing success/modernization of t...

Happy New Year! What are you looking forward to the most in the new year? I'm so excited to see what Disney does to continue the Star Wars fandom after the launch of Episode VII.  I really want to see what direction they take the anthology movies since the first one is due out this year! I'm also really excited for more information about the new Nintendo console, currently codenamed NX.  All signs and rumors point to a launch sometime this year.  More and more it seems like it's due to be a hybrid between a traditional console and a handheld system.  I'm super intrigued to see the final design. Not to mention that Nintendo is going mobile!  This is the year that Nintendo starts rolling out their smartphone games and getting all their separate systems and services rolled into one.  They have an amazing brand with a fantastic catalogue of games.  If they do it right they could explode onto the mobile scene unlike anything before. Although my 3D...