Mera'din

20.) Vampire the Masquerade: Night Road Basically a full on 'chose your own adventure' novel with stats that influence choices/success of choices. Straight up text with very few images. I enjoyed it well enough, but it was kind of hard to play sitting at my computer. Would have been better going with a mobile format I think. Had to put on background music from a different game to stay engaged too. Not sure this is quite my kind of thing. I can do visual novels since they tend to have regular images and music and what not. Mechanically, the game was pretty solid. Was basically like playing a TTRPG with limited choices with the way it worked. Seems like solid replayability too compared to similar games. Just hard for me to stay into it. Something with this writing quality/depth with more of the visual novel type of feel would probably be pretty good but this was definitely too bare bones for my tastes.

I finally bit the bullet on Audible a couple years ago. Have been doing audio books for a while longer than that but the convenience of audible and their selection of free stuff (especially now) was too good to pass up on Red Rising (and the rest of the series) by Pierce Brown. Probably my favorite books of all time at this point, and the narrator is ridiculously good. I never tire of listening to them and each time a new book comes out I usually end up listening to the entire series again. The narrator is so good that I've actually sought out other books specifically because he reads them, which led me to the Riyria books by Michael J. Sullivan, also fantastic so far. For the latter, there are two short stories that are free on Audible if you want to get a taste of the writing/narration style therein. They are titled "The Jester" and "Professional Integrity" and are pretty good standalone stories that don't require you to know the characters. I also second h2o's recommendation of Brandon Sanderson. He's one of my favorite authors and almost all of his books are a shared universe with an interesting backdrop. Especially if you go for a "more bang for your buck" approach like I do and try to get the most time out of your credits, his Stormlight Archive series books tend to time in at 45+ hours each and the next one comes out next month I believe. If you enjoy the "full cast" approach, they just recently did an audio drama version of 'The Sandman' by Neil Gaiman that I really enjoyed. Dream is played by James McAvoy and did an amazing job of it. The 'Locke & Key' audio drama is also very good. Other's that I found really enjoyable: 'The Rook' by Daniel O'Malley, 'A City Dreaming' by Daniel Polansky and 'Differently Morphous' by Yahtzee Croshaw (of Zero Punctuation fame, it's also read by him which was part of the draw for me). All of these are "Urban Fantasy" style books (magic/supernatural/fantasy elements in modern setting) and are relatively humorous/sardonic and are wonderful reads. If you've had the misfortune of seeing the TV show they did based on 'The Rook', please don't let it put you off of the book. That thing was a travesty and not a day goes by that I'm not still mad about how bad they ruined that story. 'The Traitor Baru Cormorant' by Seth Dickinson This one is more of a period fantasy (or "hard fantasy" as I've seen it described) dealing with colonialism and imperialism, but gets super interesting and has a lot of (for lack of a better descriptor) Death Note-like mind games played out on a national scale. There are two sequels (the 2nd of which just came out last month) that are also good, but are not nearly as stand out as the first and change the tone up a bit and bring magic into it. Audible is currently doing a sale too for Prime Day (so only goes through the rest of today) with a bunch of titles going for $6. I mention this, because Red Rising is on there and it is WELL worth that price if you don't want to use/don't have any credits available at the moment. Differently Morphous is also on there I believe if you're looking for something a little lighter.

Have a similar situation going on here now. My wife's sister-in-law has it. They live in South Dakota (so basically NO restrictions what-so-ever) and she has been going out drinking/partying with her friends every weekend like a jackass. Normally I would silently laugh from a distance for her getting what she deserves at that point, except my wife's parents are regularly over there watching their kids for them. Needless to say, we found out she had it, and within like 3 days my mother-in-law fell ill and she had been here just a couple days before that. Test came back positive today so now we've got our fingers crossed that none of us have it. I've already had to take about 5 days off work awaiting test results for false alarms over the past few months, so this is going to get pretty rough if it goes the wrong way. Mostly just worried about my wife's mom though. Her parents are well into their 60's so it could easily go worst case scenario with them. So far she seems to be handling it well though so maybe we'll get lucky.

At least Kasumi got more interesting near the end. Initially she just felt a bit like a sportsy Makoto clone.

That was actually kind of cool. That fan and heatsink are fucking enormous. XD It looks like it should be a fuck ton easier to clean out if it gets really dusty, at least at the surface level which is nice. The PS4 was a bit annoying to do that with (the PS4 Pro was pretty straight forward though so I guess they're learning?)

Early Access started for the game today. Has 6 classes, 8 races (with a variety of sub-races for each) and consists of the first act of the game. I got it but haven't played it yet. Was like 60GB and the wife wanted it on her computer first (she is the bigger D&D person so it only made sense) and our internet can barely be called "high speed" at this point so I had to wait. Character creator seems pretty damn impressive from what I saw of her making a character.

Apparently, as much as I dislike PvP, once in a while I'm still pretty damn good at it. XD

19.) Untitled Goose Game This was a fun little distraction. Good for a laugh. They just added a 2-player co-op mode so decided to grab it on sale and played it with the wife. Had a lot of fun though it was pretty short (beat it in a couple 2-hour (at most) sessions). Looks like there's more to do after you "beat" it which is nice since it seemed like there was a lot more you could do to fuck around in the game so will probably play it some more when we both have time to see what else there is to it.

I'd say it would definitely be worth a discount buy. Especially since by then there should be more to the story. XD There is a lot of love that went into this buried under the 'live service' bs. Even the "loading" elevators inside AIM instillations have great (and hilarious) conversations that I rarely hear repeat and still hear new ones despite the time I've put into it. Everything from discussions about their "hero" names, to Widow accusing Thor of stealing her hair ties. Really makes me wish this game could have been more like Spider-man.

18.) Marvel's Avengers Finally finished. Technically I finished a while ago, as the campaign wasn't overly long, but after the main campaign they had a bunch of side objectives that actually continue the story a bit so I waited until I finished that stuff. Last mission thing was actually pretty hard which was nice, but most of the post campaign stuff was a grind fest so it too a while. This game needs a LOT of work. They did some stuff right, but a lot of it is just uninspired. I can't help but think that two completely different teams worked on the game. One for the campaign and one for the "live service" multi-player shit because they are two entirely different levels of quality. Campaign was really solid if a bit short and had a lot of good stuff in it. The lore collectibles add a lot to it too. You can tell the people that worked on it cared a lot about the comics. There are even a number of individual SHIELD agents that have names and are actually established characters from the comics that appear a handful of times. They laid a lot of ground work for where they can take it next too which I liked and I'm actually interested in seeing what they do with it. The other half though is a ridiculous grind fest and what you're grinding for isn't even overly interesting. There's a few good character skins but most of them are ridiculously uninspired which is utterly mind boggling considering they have up to 60 years of comics to pull from for some of these characters. I get that Ms. Marvel has only been around for like 6 years, but making all of her "Legendary" skins be her in different super hero t-shirts is kind of a cop out. A lot of the others too are just one or two decent skins for their Legendary one that is then pallet swapped 4 or 5 times. FUCKING WHY? Granted, I haven't seen all of them yet, but I've seen enough to be annoyed. Thor seems like the one with the best options. At this point, I spend most of the currency I earn on the fucking nameplates because at least those have a lot of variance and stand out. Emotes are pointless since you can only equip one and probably the best thing, the takedowns, are only in the "hard currency" store (outside of ONE you can earn on the challenge card thing) and cost the equivalent of $12 so fuuuuuuuuck that. Once you hit max level too, the gear grind is one of the most ridiculous things I've seen in a game like this. It would be decently balanced if you could focus on one character, but to do the hardest thing in the game, you literally need to max out everyone or you're going to have a bad time because if you get downed by something during it, you have to swap characters and can't if they're not a high enough power level. I also find it kind of ridiculous that the current end game content is something you HAVE to do by yourself. So much for the multiplayer I guess? Not that I mind not having to play with people, but they seem to have their wires crossed with what they want from this game.

17.) Vampire the Masquerade: Shadows of New York This is a standalone expansion for Vampire the Masquerade: Coteries of New York. Basically a visual novel style of game with some slightly stronger gameplay elements than some have. I actually enjoyed it more than the first game. This picks up a few months after the original, from a different characters perspective and there's a set character you play as instead of picking one of 3. It's a Vampire from clan Lasombra which is one of the ones I find more interesting. It still had some of the same issues the first game had, but felt like it had a stronger ending that didn't jump at you out of nowhere. I apparently got the 'bad' ending though I thought it was a solid way to end it. Might actually play through again to see what the 'good' ending is supposed to be since it wasn't terribly long.

Been playing Avengers mostly. Campaign was legit fun, but shorter than I was hoping for. There's a ton of little stuff in the game that shows the effort they put in to get the characters right and all the little references and stuff haven been a lot of fun to find. Everything but Tony's combat quips anyway. XD On the other side of things though the game has TONS of bugs and is just all around iffy with the systems they have in place. The grind is real, and it might be too much even for me. Which is honestly worrying, because I LIKE the grind in games like this usually. They just put out a massive bug fix patch (which in turn created a bunch of new bugs -_- ) and said they're going to do some QoL stuff next so we'll see how that goes. Not sure how long I'll stick with this one, but I feel like I'll have got my money's worth from it by the time I'm done so it's fine. Also started up Vampire the Masquerade: Shadows of New York. It's a standalone expansion to the one that came out last year, 'Coteries of New York'. Basically just a visual novel sort of thing, but I enjoyed the story in the first one (despite the ending that came out of nowhere and felt like it cut the story short before it was supposed to) and this one has been even better thus far for what it is.

They've already announced that they're overhauling their game engine. Thank god. I'm sure this was in the works well before sale talks started, but the timing couldn't be more amusing. They've been needing to give that thing a full blown overhaul for years.

Really been wanting to watch it, but trying to clear my queue out a bit before I get it. Figured it wouldn't hurt to let a few episodes build up. Been hearing REALLY good things so far.

I am okay with this. She is an excellent actress. Smaller than I expected them to go for so wonder if they're gonna go the CGI route for her transformed.

Managed to get one this time. Was weird as hell though. Could only select the normal console (digital only button was greyed out), and when I went to check out, it wouldn't let me pick my normal Best Buy store for pick up and wouldn't let me even try to select just shipping it to me. Had to pick a store that's 90 min. away in another state to get it to go through. REALLY hope there's not a snow storm around when it comes out. XD

So much for pre-orders starting tomorrow. Fucking Walmart. Thought I almost had one with Best Buy (just had to confirm my order. Was in my cart, payment info accepted, etc.) and then it wouldn't progress past trying to confirm it and eventually everything went down and it disappeared out of my cart. Some cool looking stuff in that. Looking forward to the next God of War and am intrigued by FFXVI. Thought it was going to be some sort of FFXIV thing at first but then it showed some combat bits and I was like "Wait, what?" Must be the same character designer or something because the art style and designs were a lot like what XIV has.

But these disk drives are SPECIAL. Because of all the [buzz words]! Clearly, they must cost at least $60.

Yeah, same. I have what will be a 15 and 16 year old and they both are pretty big on keeping people out of their 'bubble' even before the virus so I'm not too worried about them overall. Still hoping a decent amount of people just aren't there though. XD Luckily we just built a new elementary school and the high school was expanded not terribly long ago so we have a decent amount of room to work with.

Ours are optional. Can choose to go back or choose to do distance learning on a quarter to quarter basis. 50% classroom capacity, masks required, etc. They're bringing all the subs in full time and hiring extra teachers on top of that. We're sending the two in high school back because they were absolutely terrible with the distance learning and keeping the 2nd grader home because elementary schools are going to be like hearding cats with the mask stuff and everything I imagine and he did great with the at home stuff. Only thing I don't like is they're using an external service for the at home stuff now and it doesn't necessarily teach what the school is teaching which seems annoying but shouldn't be a big deal for 2nd grade anyway so it'll be fine I guess. Would have been weird for the older kids though I think.

I watched it. It had an interesting premise so I decided to give it a shot before I dug into another series. It was nice to have something movie length to pop on and I ended up enjoying it. Watched a few other things over the past couple weeks too: [Un]Well - Documentary series on Netflix about the alternative medicine "wellness" industry. Each episode covered a different topic (everything from Essential Oils to Bee Sting Therapy to use of human breast milk for adults and more). It did a really good job of staying neutral on the subject matter, presenting perspectives for and against, people that were seemingly helped by the thing in question and people who were hurt or endangered by it and doctors and experts who supported it and ones who were against it sharing research and things like that. Was really well done overall. Teenage Bounty Hunters - Really didn't know what to expect going into this. Saw a trailer and it seemed like it could be a fun little distraction, or just absolute garbage. Was pleasantly surprised as it ended up being legitimately good. Deals with a lot of interesting subject matter and had a lot of great humor in it that I really enjoyed all around. Only thing that threw me off is I had a weird moment of mental dysphoria when I realized I was about the same age as the parents of the main character. High Score - Another documentary series that popped up on Netflix. About halfway through it. It more or less is about the the history of video games and has been a fun watch so far. First episode covers the arcade boom and the rise of Atari through to the near collapse of the home console industry due in part to E.T. and also talks about the first ever competitive video game tournament in the US, the Space Invaders US National Championship. Lots of interviews with interesting people some of whom I'd never heard of (such as the guy that originally invented the use of cartridges to swap games originally for a console I honestly hadn't even heard of). Second episode deals mostly with the rise of Nintendo and the NES, including segments about the creation of Nintendo Power magazine, their lawsuit with Universal Studios over Donkey Kong and the 1990 Nintendo World Championships gaming competition. Third episode went into detail about the creation of adventure games and RPGs and when graphics were first used for PC gaming and their evolution from text based adventures and vector graphics up through Final Fantasy. Also includes an interesting segment about the first ever LGBTQ-centric game, GayBlade that was made in the 80s and was thought to be lost to time and did not exist anymore Overall it's been a really fun watch and there has been some really interesting stuff I didn't know about here and there.

That seemed pretty fair overall. Pretty much what I expected it to be too. IE: Mostly enjoyable until the campaign is over and the grind starts unless you REALLY like that kind of thing.

I really can't get into those games. Really don't know why. I really enjoy the humor in them, but it took me like 5 attempts and 2 years to finally finish the story in BL2. Think I'm halfway through the first DLC otherwise. XD

I'd like to play something together that lasts more than 3 matches before someone rage quits. XD

I grabbed it on PS4 when it was up for $2. I figured I could at least enjoy the story since I had a bit of fun with the original, but I couldn't even stay interested enough to make it through the campaign.