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Here, you'll find up to 20 of the most recent posts from the people I follow. Only public results gleaned from the last 200 overall posts to HG Blogs will be displayed. If you see no results below, that means I'm not following a lot of people, or the people I'm following haven't been active in a long while, or they simply aren't sharing their posts.
Taking a short break |
Just letting everyone know I've got a lot going on in my life right now, so you're probably not going to see me super often over the next few weeks while I figure myself out.
But I shall return.🫡
More Mega Man, another horror adventure, and a tour of some tropical islands (Not StarTropics, sadly...). |
Mega Man X4 (PlayStation)
Finished and reviewed. I restarted the game recently to see if I could finish it with Zero, and my mission was a success. This one is the best since X2. Sadly, the next two games are downhill. I'm not sure about the last two, but I haven't heard much good about them (although X8 does have a positive review on this site, so there's hope).
Mega Man X5 (PlayStation)
Finished and reviewed. Meh. Too many eggs in one basket, and level designs range from good to crap. It woud've been a better game if it weren't all over the place...
Mega Man X6 (PlayStation)
A look back at this years time sinks... |
Murderously! |
Here's where I'm at right now:
Some notes:
-1000 Heads Among the Trees replaced 2Dark for a couple of reasons. For one thing, I just don't feel like playing 2Dark. Not that I will never get around to it, but it just... I don't know... 1000 Heads is also unique enough that I felt it belong with this group of games.
-Downfall is somewhat of a placeholder that may be kicked out if I'm able to finish Dead Space 2 before next October. Currently, I only have about nine more reviews to hit, which means I'll have to play through nine more games.
-Football Game is another placeholder, but one that I feel fits here. Fran Bow, The Forest, and Final Doom remain potential usurpers.
Five more titles have joined the frenzy |
Previously confirmed:
Absence (PC)
Blood Breed (Switch)
CALENDULA (PC)
The Note (PC)
Warships on the Halloween Night (PC)
And now:
Bloodwash (PC) - Part walking simulator, part '80s splatter movie throwback, all awesome. Who's murdering people at the 24-hour laundromat? Why it's... a naked masked person...
Doom II (Clasic) (Switch) - Do I really need to tell you what this is about? I'll at least mention that it comes with the original Doom II release, plus Master Levels in one handy package.
Garten of Banban (PC) - A first-person dealy where you inspect a sinister kindergarten to discover that you've wasted time playing a fraction of a full game, and you now need to buy all of the other portions separately to get any answers.
The first five games revealed... |
Yes, I'm still eventually doing AlphaMurderthon.
Yes, I'm doing a separate OctJOEber this year.
No, I didn't do squat last year because I was busy with work. Unlike the previous year, I actually have some stuff played and reviewed and I will post it here come October. Here's what to expect so far:
Absence (PC)- You wake up in a bathroom in the middle of the woods and somehow end up in a sewer running away from a pre-made asset monster. The horror!
Blood Breed (Switch)- A marriage of PlayStation-era survival-horror and '80s VHS films where you outrun a masked killer, avoid his sadistic traps, and bump off the occasional minotaur.
A funny thing happens when you buy almost no video games for a few years... |
I like video games, but I've not done a great job lately of buying the ones I want. Going back several years, I've told myself, "I'll get that eventually," and then I haven't. The trend kicked in hard in August of 2020, when I made a conscious effort to focus more on writing my fiction, but the neglect had already started ahead of that.
Anyway, I've now fallen WAY behind. So I decided to make a new wish list, which I'd not done in a long while, and I limited myself to 52 titles (one for each week in a year) that I'm most irritated about not yet acquiring. Here it is:
Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key (Switch)
Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream (Switch)
Bayonetta 3 (Switch)
Blue Reflection: Second Light (PS4)
Bravely Default II (Switch)
Now with more surreal RPGs |
I'm still here, I'm still writing. However, work is kicking my ass pretty soundly. I was able to get my crew's population up, only for it to dwindle again, which has led to the occasional 12- to 14-hour days and not a lot of energy for anything but light gaming and sleeping. And sometimes reading.
Where reading is concerned, I got through a handful of books recently:
Loaded with new games, since I've finished most everything I was doing back whenever I last did this. |
Things I'm playing at the moment. In alphabetical order.
Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection: So, when PlayStation Now and Plus merged, one of Sony's selling points was that Ubisoft was moving a huge portion of their library over to it. Included in this eventually was virtually the entire AC series. The first game never came over and Valhalla was there initially, but got removed. Hopefully, the rest of its 3950720394 games that all have come out in roughly a decade remain there for the foreseeable future because I'm really digging the experience.
Many rumps were booted |
It's that time again: The Year in Review! I played a lot of great stuff this year, with the occasional spots of meh-ness. Honestly, it felt like a long year. I'm looking back on this list and thinking, "Man, that was this year?" Honestly, Gato Roboto and Football Game feel like two years ago at least.
2021 OMISSION
I have so many games in my library at this point that it feels like a total waste to not play them at least occasionally. Yesterday, I did! |
Ever have one of those random days where you just feel like playing old video games? I have them periodically, but usually I don’t act on the impulse because I have other things on my agenda. Yesterday, I ignored my other agenda and got down to some gaming. I thought maybe I would play and review a game, but none of yesterday’s sessions reached the point where a review is imminent. So instead, I’ll talk about them here.
First up, I had been wanting to finally play the first Shantae game for a long while. I’d purchased every game in the series (and even backed one of them thanks to a Kickstarter campaign) when my finances were in a better place. The series is so clearly up my alley, and yesterday was my moment to finally dip my toes in that water. I… wish it had gone better.
No money for Steam sales, I guess... |
I am a notorious physical horror movie hoarder. I call myself a collector because that sounds better. Every year, I hit movie sections at pretty much any store that carries movies and isn't grossly overpriced, while also ordering a bunch from websites like Arrow Video, Vinegar Syndrome, Kino Lorber, and Scream Factory. This year's haul is tremendous and will probably take me until next October to fully polish off. What did I land this time around?
After Midnight
Annabelle Comes Home
The Asphyx
Baba Yaga ('70s giallo)
The Battery
The Black Belly of the Tarantula
The Blob ('80s)
Body Melt
Body Parts
The Cabin in the Woods
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh
Cannibals
Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman
Cinderella (South Korean)
The Cloverfield Paradox
The Convent
A list of things to expect |
Yes, I'm still alive.
Yes, work has been a lot.
Yes, I'm still playing games. It's just been difficult to balance work, playing, family, horror movies, and writing of late while also getting sleep.
No, I haven't touched that swarm game I'm supposed to review. I will eventually, though.
Yes, I've finished Rise of the Third Power, and it is awesome and will be reviewed soon.
Upcoming reviews:
Crowd Evolution! (Android)
Rise of the Third Power (PC)
Valdis Story: Abyssal City (PC; rewrite)
Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories (PS2; rewrite)
Ys I & II Chronicles+ (PC)
Since it's been something like four months |
I do suck at things like blogging.
Elden Ring continues to be the late-spring, all-summer project. Up to about 170 hours into its world and still loving it -- even if the voices in my head are telling me to get to the end of it, damnit! Took advantage of the patch 1.06 addition of an NPC to invade in order to get to Mohgwyn Palace without doing online invasions or finding the teleporter in the Consecrated Snowfield. There, I'm close to the fight with Mohg and have done everything in that blood-covered place other than this one blood lake area with a bunch of those damn giant bird monsters. Main reason I didn't go there was because after beating a bunch of enemies, I found out this place is level-grinding heaven and I didn't want to risk losing all my runes.
I just thought I'd give you all my take on the impending 3DS/Wii U eShop closure, since no one asked... |
Over the years, I have made very clear my passion for Nintendo games. The NES didn’t introduce me to the medium, but it came close. Mario Bros. was the first game to truly capture my imagination and make me the gamer I am today, before I had even heard of Nintendo. My obsession with the media has expanded to include games on all sorts of consoles, from Sega and Microsoft and Sony, but I always pay slightly closer attention to the big ‘N.’ Which is why it always bugs me when I find myself at a virtual precipice, looking over a kingdom’s worth of games that are about to disappear from the marketplace in one huge event.
I've just published the first entry in a new series that I think some of you might like. |
I don't post often here about my fiction because I'm mostly here to talk about video games, but sometimes I make an exception. Today is one of those days, as I've just released the first book in a new urban fantasy series for which I have high hopes.
Death and the Shifter introduces Molly Coyle, a young private investigator working in Salem, Oregon who recently died but now has been revived as a reaper who works for Azrael, an angel of death. Alongside her trusty talking feline companion, Fuzzy, she must hunt down and execute various deserving targets. Her first potential victim is a wolf shifter. But as you might expect, things don't exactly go as planned.
Hunting down that ring. |
Let's see. There was the attempt at Nioh which is on hiatus. I'd say potentially permanent hiatus, if not for the fact I've purchased its DLC and that means it's a bit too much money invested for me to just give up. I loved it initially, but as time went on, I found it to be repetitive with a lot of side quest missions that just weren't fun at all. I didn't like how, every time you went to a new land, you had to start collecting Kodama again in order to heal more that 3 times for free before needing to burn through your stock. The boss fights tended to annoy me -- I think the last handful I fought (Giant Toad, Ogress and Okatsu) were all road blocks for some time (at least the first two; Okatsu wasn't that bad) and whatshisname in the burning building level was no better. I love FRO
A few reasons why |
Just wanted to make a small, quick post about it in case anyone is confused.
Quick, short reasons why:
-I've had the name since the very, VERY early 00s on various sites, message boards, and online gaming accounts, but I just got tired of using it. Also, from my experience, it's very easy for people to make fun of the name when they see it for the first time. ("Hey, it's Pizza Hut!" "Oh, hey dickbutt!")
Or Games I'm Playing Right Now |
Lots of horror, as usual |
I don't know if it's just me, but this list feels short. I mean, in comparison to the total number of different games I played this year, this catalog feels like nothing. I blame Wild Arms 3 for soaking up so much of my time, but also my own lack of scrutiny for buying so many blah Steam titles. Thankfully, I still ran into a respectable handful of decent games, and that's gotta count for something...
Honorable Mentions: Games I Didn't Play Enough to Qualify
Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark- A solid quasi-FFTactics that fell out of my favor because it just wasn't quite what I was looking for at the time I started it. I can see myself going more thoroughly through this one down the line...