Tag: Personal

It’s Been… One Week

.Reading time 5 minutes.

Since we did this last and as it can be with establishing new traditions or in this case re-establishing an old one we’re here again on another Friday to look at some interesting things in the gaming world from over the last week.

First up is one that I just ran across today with a lot of other people –

A Chinese indie developer by the name of Game Science Studio has taken everyone a bit by surprise with this very early look at their game Black Myth: Wukong. Ostensibly based on the myth of Sun Wukong also known as the Monkey King, a trickster god from Chinese lore who features heavily in contemporary stories all around the world today. Everything from movies like Forbidden Kingdom with Jackie Chan and Jet Li to video games like DoTA and League of Legends have characters based on the Monkey King. The trailer itself demonstrates a wide range of abilities by the player character like his ability to take different forms, supernatural strength and command of the elements. Souls-like gameplay aside one of the more shocking things are the graphics including the environments and animations that are simply amazing. I have yet to see any information on when or where the game is intended to be released but if it’s on console it’s probably a safe bet that it will be on the upcoming generation.

At any rate, its got my Jade Empire whiskers wiggling and with my recent enjoyment of Ghost of Tsushima still fresh this seems like an excellent next step in games based on eastern history and mythology.

I can’t honestly tell how I really feel about this, either warmly nostalgic or the that tingling chill up your spine from childhood trauma, either way Battletoads 2020 has officially landed.

Love it or hate it this game series helped birth one of the most storied developers in gaming history, Rare and with it a bevvy of beloved titles.

Last time I mentioned looking forward to checking out Lovecraft Country and I finally got around to watching the first episode this week and I have to say, if you’re not hooked in the first five minutes or so, I can’t help you. Lovecraft for me, and probably for a lot of people, has always been a little bit about trying to find sanity in insanity. Watching characters try to keep a grip on anything that connects them to a world they once knew while desperately trying to come to grips with a universe that is relentlessly mad. I love it, I really do. It hits that sweet spot that monster-of-the-week shows like X-Files fits into with a healthy dose of The Outer Limits to really bring the weird. This style of story intertwined with the perspective of life as an African-American in Jim Crow America and the fact that it is produced and directed by Misha Green and Jordan Peele makes the whole package even better.

Also there is apparently a companion podcast called Lovecraft Country Radio. If you liked the first episode then probably a good bet you’d be into that as well. I know I thoroughly enjoyed the companion podcast to Chernobyl when I finished that so I’m looking forward to doing so here as well.

Overall it was a great start and I can’t wait to see more.

On a more personal note I still have a couple of mini’s to paint and I’m hoping to get to it finally this weekend in between playing a little more of the Avenger’s beta for the last weekend that it’s open. I’m still having fun with it and I think I’m happy with my decision to play it at launch. I’ve got a few other posts in the works and I’d like to get a second one out before the weekend is over but we’ll see what happens.

Short and sweet today, I hope you’ve had a good week and enjoy the weekend ahead.

Stay safe and happy gaming or whatever it is you choose to unwind with.

  • Anthony

It’s Not Friday But the Week Is Over

.Reading time 7 minutes.

Once upon a time when the end of the week rolled around I tried to do a wrap up of a few things that piqued my interest but didn’t really necessitate an entire post on their own. I scrolled around last night and today to see if any tasty carcasses had washed up on my news feed that I felt like commenting on but alas, not really. I don’t really feel the need to talk about the whole Tik-Tok controversy or Avowed supposedly being a new, denser Skyrim.

So we’ll take it slow this week and just talk about a game which has kept me coming back for a couple weeks now–

Ghost of Tsushima

It’s rare these days, at least for me, to run into a game title that there is little to no controversy about. It’s teased, it’s released and the general consensus is that it is excellent and we all move on. No real surprise in that games both terrific and terrible tend to fade from the topic of discussion much faster than ones which are inherently divisive. Ghost of Tsushima has to proved to be one of the former for me, it’s great.

What else can I say?

Not much unfortunately because I feel like it deserves to have something said about it, even repeated by those who have enjoyed it. To let the developers at Sucker Punch know that they succeeded in the best way possible, in my estimation, because people are too busy playing it to be picking it apart. I do not believe the title itself is revolutionary either in it’s mechanics or story although it does provide a few key improvements on certain RPG staples like it’s Divine Wind feature. We’ve all become painfully familiar with things like quest and objective markers in games as they are nearly ubiquitous as a design inclusion. They help you move smoothly from place to place in the game by never letting you get hung up or confused on what there is to do. Ghost of Tsushima dresses up these usually unimaginative HUD elements as the non-proverbial wind at your back as you run or gallop across the landscape. Admittedly it is a small thing and yet it adds so much to the overall seamless feel of the game world and how we interact with it.

The one thing I did want to touch on specifically was a particular mythic quest which are a small handful of long and somewhat difficult missions to unlock additional powerful equipment and abilities. Based on stories and bits of information you hear in certain locations around Tsushima by a musician named Yamato. One of these in particular I finished the other day was called The Six Blades of Kojiro which is a series of duels you fight all over the island. It’s hard for me to articulate exactly why but this series of battles was one of the most engaging things so far in my twenty plus hours with the game. Each one a beautiful set piece and challenge to overcome coupled with small bits of dialogue between Jin and his opponents. In the overall scope of the game the encounters themselves are brief but still manage to stand out even among some truly great story duels that are not optional.

I think for my money that is where Ghost of Tsushima truly hooked me by taking the time to give me these intensely personal moments amidst the ever mounting, almost comical, mountain of bodies left behind as Jin and I march north to confront the Khan. After all that I still find myself leaning forward and scooting to the edge of my seat when a duel comes up.

Like I said at the start there really isn’t much to say in general about the game, I could spend a long time nitpicking or trying to find the tiny nooks and crannies that haven’t been loved on by everyone else but there’s no point. If you have the time, money and, ability to play this game you should. Even if it doesn’t end up being your favorite of the year or even top five, although I can’t see why it wouldn’t be, for one reason or another I have no doubt you’ll at least enjoy what time you do spend with it.

When it comes to spending my own money that is all that I can really ask.

I don’t know what next week is going to bring but I figure I’ll leave you with some mini-painting progress pictures and what is up next for those.

First up is another set of stormtroopers although the bases are still unfinished, I haven’t decided exactly what I want for the flocking but it’s on the to-do list. Suggestions are always welcome, do we want some jungle terrain, desert, forest or god forbid… snow?

As far as what is coming next I figure we’re probably past due for some good old father-son bonding time.

Given the lightsabers and the uniqueness of the models I’d like to really focus on small details and lighting to make sure I do them justice, I have a few ideas that are just untested so we’ll see what happens.

I bit the bullet and bought my copy of DOOM so I can sit down and watch it, make notes and start cutting footage I need for the post. It’s still a bit down the road but the prep-work has started.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you all have a good rest of your weekend!

Talk to you again soon.

  • Anthony

Upcoming

.Reading time 3 minutes.

I recently renewed my blog and as such figured it was time to start clearing out some of my old drafts and maybe picking up a new post to work on. Of all the things I’ve put up on this blog I think one of the ones I’m most proud of is the first review in my Games on the Silver Screen series for Mortal Kombat. I got to do a lot of fun video editing and gif making for the post and it was a real learning experience even about the movie itself and everything that went into making it. The biggest surprise of which was that it was actually a financial success at the end of it’s run. As such I think it would be fun to pick a new title to go over and it may as well be one that I have actually not seen yet, so let me introduce what I’ll be watching probably more than once over the next week or two…

Surprisingly this actually dovetails quite nicely with the fact that I’ve been playing through DOOM Eternal and Almost Human with Karl Urban is back on Prime. Even though it only has one season I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys near future cyberpunk stories, overall a solid show that really deserved a longer run.

In addition to this I’ve picked up mini-painting again and I think I’ll try to take some nice progress pictures of what I’m working on and write a sort of general post with things that don’t really merit their own long form article. As far as mini-painting goes I’ve been working on my Star Wars: Legion figures but the recent release of Warhammer 40k 9th Edition and a slew of new models has been really tempting me. I don’t think I’ll crack just yet but honestly it’s been brewing for years and just seems inevitable at this point. Regardless of whether or not I’ll ever even get into fully playing it some of the models just look like they would be super fun to assemble and paint.

At any rate, first up is DOOM and we’ll play what comes next by ear.

I hope everyone has been staying safe and keeping themselves physically and mentally healthy, as much as is possible these days.

I think that’s all I have for now but I’ll be back soon.

  • Anthony