Invalid characterset or character set not supported
Here, you'll find up to 20 of the most recent posts from the people who have the good taste to follow my blog. Only public results gleaned from the last 200 overall posts to HG Blogs will be displayed. If you see no results below, that means not a lot of people are following me, or my followers haven't been active in a long while, or they simply aren't sharing their posts.
We notice broken things because of all that isn't. |
I couldn't not come back here. World culture is doing as it does, galvanizing into groups who are fixated on values, behaviors or needs. That's a little vague. I'll say this instead: We're forming two groups. Those give a toss about others and those who give a toss about themselves. It's sobering to read about JoeTheDestroyer's divorce. As a child - and adult - I grew up with that threat always looming over my head, and I am fortunate that after forty years the relationship of my parents has taken a healing turn.
Please insert Life disc 2 |
I've taken some time away from this place, and now I feel the need to speak on it a little. Mostly, I need and outlet and maybe an attentive eye.
My wife and I weren't doing so good for the last several years. My dad and many close friends passed away between 2015 and 2021, tensions flared pretty much across the country in 2016, the pandemic hit in 2020, and I wasn't emotionally prepared for a lot of it. Losing my dad was made all the heavier by my refusal to engage my emotions because I needed to be emotionally stable for my mother, wife, and children. Not even a year later, a lost another friend to cancer, then my aunt, my cat, and several other good friends during the pandemic.
Now I'm on Campfire. |
I just won't give up. Hey, wait. That's good news. Who says that we don't need editors? We do, of course, to learn from. They also have their pulse on things we don't get with our heads in the clouds and fingers on keys.
My Super Mario Wonder review is the product of some good feedback from a skilled, professional editor and Hemmingway - the web app. See, it turns out that post-graduate writing and the average reader don't mix. Better to save that for my school essays. Which, by the way, I'm about a little over a year from graduating. Yay! (I mean that.)
https://www.campfirewriting.com/explore/65c3d6746b28161300589ee3
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:
Probably the last of this style of post. Not sure how I'll track it next year. |
COMPLETED
Man, only completed two games in this quarter, and then became unfocused and kept adding games...
13 Sentinels Aegis Rim (PS4)
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
Jerec buys a PS5, loses 2 months of his life to another Xenoblade game, and returns to Monkey Island |
It's hard to believe that three months has gone by since my last update. In that time, I bought a PlayStation 5. I now have all the current gaming systems (for the first time in about a decade, as I skipped the Xbox One last gen).
FINISHED
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Switch)
I started this game on release date, and pretty much played nothing else for 125 hours until this game was beaten. This was an absolutely incredible game. I love the characters, the journey they take together, and the way the circumstances of the world are revealed was just amazing. Eunie is the best character. Loved the battle system, the music. I did leave a few side quests unfinished, but I'll be dropping back into this later when the Expansion Pass is finished.
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)
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.
Things that matter because we want them to. |
Two more weeks. It's been six so far and apparently I'm healing slow. There could be a real, identifiable reason for that which I will be investigating. In the meantime I wear the Aircast boot for a little longer, but not when I'm at home. It's neat that we have something this useful, but not that it barely holds together in some places. Modern medicine is complicated.
I have a box of computer components which have little value to me. Video cards are annoying. You'll get the latest beast only to find yourself outpaced within a period of months or years. Progress is nice, but this is why consoles are comforting. The age of the Nintendo Switch does not diminish how much fun it is, and legacy hardware has always been one of the strengths of gaming.
So I'm still in the top 30 of reviewers? That's good, right? |
It may be premature to announce your return before you actually make the stage, but I'm doing it anyway. Honestgamers is still where I am most read. When I last posted here I was going on about writing and so on. I haven't stopped, naturally, but I have shifted focus.
I am working with an editor now. Pretty crazy, right? You guys get to hear it first. So, it's actually awesome and I'm learning a lot. It doesn't feel right to get into details, but I can talk about other things that have happened in my life.
Well...I had a slew of health issues and haven't been functional for a while. Lately I fractured my ankle, so I'm healing from that as well. Wait, wasn't I supposed to be talking about good things that have happened?