Destiny 2 Thoughts

I've been devoured by work most of the week, which is why I didn't publish anything M-W.

Since I feel very secure in knowing how publishers can market games to me, and how developers can gear design toward me, here's why Destiny was a slight disappointment for me, despite having a lot of positive aspects.

First of all, the lore and story was nearly incoherent. I had a vague idea of 'do thing or bad space beings do bad things,' but the story was too thin. The characters were even thinner. The game, for me, was nearly absent motivation.

That was doubly frustrating because the game's world seemed like a cool, fun place, but I couldn't really tell.

Word on the street is that Bungie gutted the narrative, but I don't think that's ever been confirmed. I could be wrong. By the time I heard it, I didn't really care why the narrative in the game was so bad, because I'd stopped playing.

Beyond that, I love it when publishers release storytelling material that's outside the game, like novels and comics. BioWare does it a lot, and it really enhances the experience for me. The Witcher, which was a series of novels before it was a game trilogy, fits this, too as Sapkowski's novels really enhanced my experience in the games.

But Destiny received none of this, and I never understood why. Activision is pretty much the embodiment of greed and monetizing the shit out of their properties, so I expected they'd pounce at the chance to make more off Destiny, but ... oh well.

Second, and this gripe isn't limited to Destiny at all, but the game really highlighted for me the need for the walls between PSN and Xbox Live (and Steam, for Destiny 2, where I'll be playing if I buy it) to come down. Players on both modern consoles and PC need to be able to freely play games together. It's utterly stupid that it hasn't happened yet, and there is no technical or technological reasons it can't happen.

If even fucking Squenix can make it happen with Final Fantasy XIV, then any developer/publisher can do it. Seriously.

If given the choice, I will always take the PC version, for a long list of reasons, but most of friends don't like playing on PC, which makes games like this nearly a non-starter for me. It'd be great if they could continue living like savage cavemen while I continue my life in the present day, but we could still play games together.

Third, I just have a really hard time playing and getting into console games. I have no desire to start a flame war here, but it comes to down to control over the experience, being able to play anywhere (whether anywhere in my house or anywhere in the world while traveling, or even at work while at lunch) any time, the mouse/keyboard combo, the upgraded visuals, never having to sweat backwards compatibility, and on and on. I play some console games, and I own both modern consoles, but they're more for A/V entertainment and for my kids to play games.

So, it's amazing to see the hype for Destiny 2. It became a favorite punching bag for the lemming locusts out there. Anything that be criticized, no matter how small, was dragged out and shat upon, en masse, by the negativity-obsessed so-called 'gamers.' It became fashionable to bitch about it.

Still, I know a lotta people that a) genuinely liked it, and b) genuinely tried really hard to like it. Bungie are good people, so I was glad to see fans actually like the game.

I liked a lot about Destiny. I thought, for a controller-only game, it controlled very, very well. I liked that Bungie attempted to do something different. I liked what I thought maybe the setting was (though I couldn't really tell.)

I'm glad people are giving them another chance, and I suspect that more people liked the first game than were willing to admit it, in order to look cool. I dunno.

Anyway, here's the new trailer for Destiny 2.



I'll be streaming more KotOR tonight. I need a cool name for the series. Suggestions are welcome.

I'll be on 8PM central time, and probably go for 90-120min. We'll see. I'm pretty tired and frustrated. It's been a week.

Anyway, if you want, you can get caught up on my KotOR series here or below:



And that's it. I hope to see you tonight, and let me know what you think of Destiny's past, and where you think it's going.

-Blaine

Happy Friday! 2017/3/24

It's Friday! Yay!

Last night was a great first stream for my brand new KotOR stream series. We'll be going again tonight at 2000 central time. We'll continue to explore Taris in an effort to find Bastila, and it's going to be great. Carth and I have made some great progress.

As a side note, the game hilariously defaulted my character's name 'Warm Kyja.' I have no idea why.

Check out episode one here or below:

I'm excited to keep this series going! Like I said, 8PM central, and we'll go 90-120 minutes. I'll be streaming from my Twitch channel and then pushing to my YouTube channel.

I'm also planning to hit up more Mass Effect: Andromeda and Torment: Tides of Numenera. I'd also like to get back to Horizon: Zero Dawn, and I think I'm going to just do an hour a night of that. It seems like that kinda game. And since it's trapped on a console, it's hard for me to do much more than that.

So, what about you? Whatcha playin'?

My in-laws are also visiting. They're great folks. This isn't the best weekend for a visit, though, since we just got back from two weeks on the road, and are still settling back in. I'm not sure exactly how this ended up happening, but it did. I've also got a lot of stuff to do around the house, so ... not sure what people expect from me this weekend. Oh well.

Oh, and Rogue One released on digital today, so I'll be checking out some extras, for sure.

Otherwise, I'm starting up the year's yard work and household maintenance, so that'll take up some time, too. Like I said, I'd planned to get back into the swing of things, but I also don't want to blow off my in-laws and make them feel unwelcome, and I need to get some max chill time. So, we'll see.

How about you? Whatcha playin'? What's on your weekend docket?

-Blaine

KOTOR TONIGHT

I love Mass Effect: Andromeda. I know, I've said it a buncha times already, but I actually think about wanting to play it when I haven't played it in the last 24 hours, and that's unusual for me. That's kinda my litmus test for whether or not I love a game.

Still, I'm really excited to start my KotOR stream series tonight!



It's gonna be really interesting having those two games juxtaposed for a while, since KotOR came out of BioWare back in 2002, and MEA, also from BioWare, just hit. One can actually see the basic framework for the Mass Effect series in KotOR, since that dev team went right into the first Mass Effect from there. It'll be fun playing those side-by-side.

A big part of the reason that I'm so excited for my KotOR (1&2) stream series is 1) I haven't played them in several years, and 2) KotOR rescued gaming for me. I'd been a JRPG guy up to that point, but Japanese dev, especially roleplaying games, had gone a direction that I was not digging, and KotOR acted as the lifeline that I needed, and it led me to a much larger world.



Also, Star Wars is one of the things in this world of which I am the most fond. The Old Republic setting, in particular, really resonated with me. It's thousands of years prior to the films, which unshackled BioWare from having to work in or around the film lore. They went to the comics and referenced the Tales of the Jedi series, which is FANTASTIC AND YOU SHOULD READ, and this gave them a great jumping-off point.

There's also a great KotOR comics series called 'Knights of the Old Republic' (imagine that), and it is nearly as good as the games.

When I play through the first KotOR, I'll be playing only with a few mods that let me set the resolution to 1920x1080. When I get to KotOR2, it'll be heavily modded, so that I can play something that resembles a completed game. It'll be modded to support 1920x1080, but it'll also have the cut content restored and finished, some of which I've never seen. This is going to be a blast!



The schedule, right now, is Thurs and Fri nights at 2000 central. I'll probably also sneak in some weekend sessions when I can. I suppose adopting a more strict schedule could help my regular viewership. What do you think?

While I'm playing, I'll be dropping some fun knowledge about the development, the in-game lore, and my own personal stories about previous playthroughs, how I first heard about it, funny tangential stories, and the like. You're gonna love it, I promise.

I'll be streaming on Twitch, and then pushing it to YouTube after each stream is done.



So, again, that'll be tonight at 2000 central time. We'll start from the beginning, and it'll probably be the first time that a lot of you see KotOR in a modern resolution. Also, for those that are interested, it is going to be a canon playthrough. Our KotOR 1 protag is going to be a male, and the KotOR 2 protag will be female. I'm also going to try and make choices within the bounds of the canon. Well, the canon within SWTOR, anyway. As you may know, Disney deleted the expanded universe, including all the excellent Old Republic stuff.

Regardless, I look forward to seeing anyone that wants to hang out and talk Star Wars or KotOR tonight!

-Blaine

It's Fashionable to Be An Asshole

I get it, man. There was that one tremendously well-written horribly negative review of that one game, and it was hilarious. That's always stuck with you. Not only was it a genuine piece of art, but it gained a lot of attention, and the writer was showered with praise. You wanna have one of those in your portfolio. I feel ya, dawg.

Combine that with the need for internet users to pile on and belong to that club that everyone's joining. Again, I understand. I've worked for years to break myself of that habit, and I'm mostly successful, but I may have piled on with the others on Sean Spicer. For the most part, though, I don't really try to belong anywhere. But I totally understand the impulse.

Here's the problem, though. Your shock tactics, when you try really hard to apply them to a product that may not really fit the mold, cost you credibility, and ultimately makes you part of the problem.

Let's take Iron Fist, for example. It's got problems.

Halt. I want to state now that I'm not linking back to any of the offending reviews because I don't want to give them clicks or views or any warm feelings.

Anyway, Iron Fist has problems. Totally. The first episode was not terribly enjoyable. It's got pacing problems, the action looks slow and weird, especially relative to the other three Defenders shows that are available right now, the bad guys are mindlessly BAD, and none of the characters really pop in any way during the first episode. It was bad.

And then, in the second episode, it starts to get better. I actually really wanted to watch the next episode right away. I didn't, because time is precious, but I plan to watch it tonight.

But, it has problems, at least two episodes in, and I'd guess that these don't totally go away. Absolutely address the issues, but stop trying to crucify it in an effort to make a name for yourself. You're a talented writer, but a lousy fucking reviewer.

What's interesting is that some of the extremely over-the-top negative reviews got their facts wrong. The writers were so hell-bent on writing a bad review, and more specifically, writing a gloriously bad review, that they either misunderstood or intentionally fudged facts that were specific to the plot.

Let me add, too, that I don't have a dog in this fight. I've never read an Iron Fist or Defenders comic, I'm a casual MCU fan, and thought Jessica Jones was the only absolutely amazing Netflix/Marvel series so far. I thought the first season of Daredevil was very 'blah.'

The action in the first season of Daredevil was extraordinary, D'Onofrio as Fisk was Emmy-worthy, the supporting characters were OK, but Matt Murdock is bland as hell, and the story was ... meh, as was the pacing.

As a side note, the most interesting part of the second season of Daredevil was The Punisher.

Anyway, what's most disturbing is the tone, in these cases, in which the writer conveys joy and excitement at being able to whip the product.

Hell, I saw some of this same behavior, to a lesser degree, with Mass Effect: Andromeda. In the reviews, at least. We saw the same orgy of hate regarding the animations stuff on Twitter and in comments sections, but the reviews, occasionally you'd come across that random outlet that, in the text, was really stoked to just take a giant shit on the product.

It's weird. I don't know if this is specifically American behavior, but it seems like we can't wait to murder our heroes. We can't wait to start hating what we once loved. I don't understand it, and it's actually a behavior in which I can't remember ever taking part, but I see it all the fucking time. It's a terrible habit, and I wish we'd stop pouring so much of ourselves into hating something.

What I would've rather seen in negative reviews of Iron Fist (which, based on two episodes, it looks like it deserves some criticism) is less hyperbole, more constructive criticism, and why you liked what you did, and why you didn't like what you didn't. Be chill.

Some day, you may get to review a licensed 3DS game that is an absolute turd, but until then, focus more on being reliable and trusted than jerking yourself off over a minor disappointment.

Also, I'm 12 hours into Mass Effect: Andromeda and very much enjoying it. I'll do a fuller write up on the early parts of the game this week.

Last, don't forget: I'm starting my stream series for KotOR tomorrow night over on my Twitch channel. I'd love it if you'd join me.

-Blaine

Aaand we're back!

Woof! I'm back home! What a whirlwind couple of weeks! Florida, as always, was amazing. I never thought I'd be one of those people that treasures going to Florida once or more per year, but I am, and it's rad. If you live in the midwest, and don't give a shit at all about 'going to the lake,' then maybe you feel me.

Maybe I'l try 'going to the lake' this summer. Hmm.

Anyway, I'm back. I'm returning to work on Wednesday. I'm taking tomorrow to play Mass Effect: Andromeda all day. About this, I am incredibly excited.

I know MEA's reviews have been all over the place. I'm surprised at how defensive I feel about that, and I shouldn't feel defensive at all. I worry, of course, that might impact whether EA allows BioWare to make another Mass Effect, and I'm also just soured that other people don't love what I love. I guess that's part of being human, but it's also a stupid way to feel. I shouldn't care at all what people think of something that I love, but I guess even I'm subject to the stupid behaviors on the internet.

Oh well. I just gotta suffocate that tendency. And it's not like I haven't seen in every single person that I know. We shouldn't care, we tell each other that we shouldn't care, and we all do. Oh well.

I really do adore the game. I played the length of the single player trial and had a blast. I liked the slow pacing and exposition. I get why the slow pacing might irritate someone under a deadline, or why that goes against the grain of modern gaming style, but it suits me just fine.

Anyway, I'm back.

And I went from no new games to play to Torment: Tides of Numenera, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and MEA all being slammed down on the table in front of me. It's a good problem to have. If I clear them all by the end of April, when I get Dawn of War III and Prey, I'll be just fine.

I'm also starting my KotOR stream this week ... I think. My plan is to start a new stream series with KotOR 1&2. I'll be streaming 2-3 times a week. I'll be rocking lotsa mods. Good times.

Tentatively, we're looking at Thursday and Friday nights on my Twitch stream, and then that'll be uploaded to my YouTube channel.

What kind of stuff do you all wanna see in the stream? Or hear about? I plan to drop some Star Wars Expanded Universe knowledge, and any fun development anecdotes that I can find, as well as fun personal stories that tie into it.

So, that's how the gaming front is looking. MEA will probably take top billing for me for now, but I'm also loving Torment and HZD. And I'm REALLY excited about the KotOR stream series I'll be doing.

That's it, for now. I need to get back to getting my ducks in a row. *HUGS*

-Blaine

Mass Effect: Andromeda is Amazing (so far)

I've played just a hair under two hours of Mass Effect: Andromeda, and thus far, it speaks to me more than the other three games.

That's quite a claim, I agree. I absolutely love the series. Allow me to explain.

In Mass Effect 1-3, you're Mr. Military Man (or woman) (Shepard), and you're fighting this HUGE big-ass Space Threat. You're fighting it over the course of three games. You're also helping a Quarian kid get off Omega, helping a widow decide whether or not to genetically alter her baby, and banging beings of all species. It's a great trilogy that's very dear to my heart.

In Andromeda, though, you're an explorer, and that's hammered home repeatedly in the first couple hours. Yeah, there's the requisite violence, but there's still an overarching sense of being an explorer. You're part of a team that's trying to establish new colonies, and you're scanning, and you're taking on all kinds of activities that are based around learning and expanding your understanding of this odd little slice of space.

It's a really refreshing change for the series. I'm all about it. It's a whole new game that takes place in the Mass Effect universe, and a very smart choice for the future of the series. None of this, so far, feels reheated or tired. I'm really enjoying the new direction.

All that being said, I fear some folks are going to be off-put by the fact that it doesn't feel like classic Mass Effect. Personally, I find the change invigorating, but so-called 'gamers' are notoriously hyper-conservative when it comes to games. While I'm as guilty of 'oh no, they're dumbing it down for the filthy casuals' mentality as some of them, I try to balance that belief with a more open, embracing perspective.

In this case, though, I see change happening for two reasons: 1) to keep the series fresh, and 2) an artistic choice to shift the tone to something more positive and uplifting; ME1-3 got REALLY fucking dark. While this game presents challenges, they're intriguing and full of mystery, rather than oppressively grim.

I've avoided the early impressions and streams. I really wanted to go in totally blind, and I'm so glad that I did. It was a breathtaking experience, free of biases and preconceptions, and it was all mine.

I actually took in the first hour and change by myself, in the dark, by the pool out back down here in Key West. Just the cool night air, the Hyperion Ark, and me. It was wonderful.

I love this game so far. I love the positivity, the hope, the intellectual challenge being put forth, the switch from a military man to an explorer. It speaks to who I am, someone that is passionate about science and someone that believes that the future of humanity depends on inclusion and the embrace of a dogged pursuit of knowledge and exploration. Maybe I'm reading too much into this game too early on, but I believe that Mass Effect: Andromeda is the game that we need right now.

I played another less than an hour today, and I'll probably squeeze in a little more tonight. After that, I'm pretty busy, and don't anticipate much time with the game beyond maybe a little on Saturday night, after we're back in St. Louis. Then, I'll burn whatever remains of my 10 hour trial on Monday, and then I'm marathoning on Tuesday, starting at around 6AM.

Have you played it yet? What do you think?

-Blaine

Another shout ... from Key West!

My fucking three-year old smashed my phone. I've been watching a lot of World Baseball Classic. I'm waiting for my replacement phone. I've been trying to figure out exactly when the new Mass Effect hits Origin Access. I've been researching for my upcoming KotOR stream series. I've been wandering Key West. I've been trying to decide what to do with my hair. I've been managing a kid that keeps having diarrhea. I've been reading. I'll post something more meaningful tomorrow.

- Blaine

A Quick Shout-Out From Florida

Holy shit, things really got away from me over the last 72 hours. Holy cow, since Wednesday lunch, I've been rushing from one thing to another, stopping only to try and make myself sleep for a few hours. This is the first moment I've had to take a breath. It's been fun, but it's been too busy.

I wish I had more time to watch PAX East. It's a huge bummer being so busy that I missed a lot of the cool stuff.

I've been watching as much World Baseball Classic as I can, and that's been riveting. I just wish it wasn't this time of year. It needs to be in the middle of the season. They need to pause for two weeks in July, kill the All-Star Game, and do the WBC instead.

Spring Training is great, though. I wish I was able to get more sleep, but it is what it is. I've already hit a couple games so far, got to check out the Natstros' new park, got to scout a lot of the Cardinals' hot prospects, and we've got the Kong flick on the docket for tonight, as well as US vs Dominicana, and then tomorrow, I'm hitting up Roger Dean again for another Spring Training game, then shooting down to Miami for US vs Canada. Then, it's several lazy days in Key West.

Anyway, it's been absolutely crazy, and I haven't even talked about the insanity of the travel to get here.

So, I'm gonna go chill out in the hotel for a bit, but I wanted to talk at you first. I'll be back by Tuesday. We'll see.

*HUGGLES*

-Blaine

AppDev + Next Stream + Vacation

That GameCon Application ...
Yeah, so I kinda went crazy with the Game Con app I talked about yesterday. I wanted to just sketch out some SQL tables and basic design, and decided to just start rapidly prototyping, and ... well, I was amazed at how quickly I pulled together a working application.

I now have it so that it'll present one or more live streams on a page dynamically, based on the schedule you enter into it. Also, I built out a system that lets me just enter some basic info, and it builds the schedule out for me. I just give it a basic panel/demo name, the date/time for start and stop, and what instance of a convention with which it's associated, and the application handles the rest, so it'll cut between streams on a single page, or show them side-by-side if they overlap a bit (which I'm going to refine).

It also lets me input an upcoming instance of a con via a web interface. I seeded the repeating cons via a SQL script, and then built an interface that lets me then create instances of those cons at will.

Then, within those cons, I can enter some basic info for panels or demos that I want to see, and associate them with a stream provider, and I stored the iframe info for each of those streams in data, and blammo, we have what we need to just fire it up and kick back. It's pretty sweet.

I'm almost disappointed that I'll be so busy with travel and vacation during most of PAX East.

I'm also looking at creating Xbox One and iPhone versions of this for myself. I may even stand it up on Azure (where the DB already is), so that I can hit it from the web whenever I want.

I also built out some very rudimentary calendar and con-specific pages. The calendar is very simple right now, and will need a lot of refinement. The con-specific pages ... I'm still thinking over what to do, but they're intended as a 'stream firehose' (no pun intended), so that you can get a look at what's live from everywhere right now at the con. The PAX one has five streams on it, and I've been tinkering with the embed code that Twitch provides to really make it cool. We'll see.

Anyway, more on this to come. Still no plans to provide it to the public, but if there's interest ... eh, we'll see.

Also, if anyone cares, I built it entirely with the new Visual Studio 2017, which is slick as hell.

My Next Stream
I'm leaning toward KotOR 1 & 2. I really adore those games, and I know a hell of a lot about the Star Wars universe. Also, it's been a looong time since I really played through the games, so that'll be fun.

Any thoughts? Objections?

I'd also play them heavily modded, so that they're in 1920x1080, plus any other neat mods I can find. KotOR2 will also have a shitload of restored content mods.

I'm gonna target that to start toward the end of the month. That'll give me ample time to do some research and a little bit of scripting.

I think I'll do what I did for the latter part of my Mass Effect series, and live stream via Twitch, and then shoot it to YouTube. We'll see. I may live stream on YouTube Gaming, but I worry about limiting my audience. Of course, there's less competition over on YTG ... we'll see. It'll probably be Twitch, but I'm gonna research and think on it.

VACATION!!!
As I've been blabbing out, I'm heading to Spring Training soon, and then to Key West. I'm very excited, as it's always the most relaxing couple of weeks of my life. And I'll wrap it all up with a few days of Mass Effect Andromeda. AAAHHH ... cannot wait.

Sunshine, baseball, family, Torment, creative freedom, and Mass Effect ... awesome.

I'll still be posting almost daily while I'm there.

Anyway, that's all for now. *HUGS*

-Blaine

Vacation Dev Thoughts

As I've mentioned, I'm on the verge of my annual Spring Training pilgrimage, and I like to fantasize about the things that are going to happen. I'm going to fake baseball games, which I love, I'm going to enjoy fresh fish and shrimp, I'm going to get away from the daily grind (though I do love my job), I'm going to get to spend time with family, I'm going to get to hang out in Key West after Spring Training, I'm going to get some gaming time, and on and on ...

... something else I like to do when I'm on vacation is ponder my next creative project. I'm eager to write something new, and I have a pretty solid idea for my next novel. That'll probably start to happen on the plane.

Otherwise, I'm considering finally building a web application that'll let me organize online attendance to conventions, and even handle the streams for me.

I used to go to a lot of cons, but I got tired of the hassle, and really like the online coverage, anyway. I've dabbled with a few ideas over the years, but I actually have a cool idea for an application that'll let me enter some basic info about dates, times, and streams, and it'll handle the rest. This won't be something that I'll make available to the public, but it'll save me a lotta hassle, especially with E3, where there's a bunch of disparate streams.

I also wanna add a feature that lets the user add games, and have it spit out news about those games during the con.

Side note - if you're never been to E3, and love video games, go at least once.

I started sketching out some SQL tables, and have a pretty good idea of what the code should look like. Maybe I could even have it up and running before I leave, and use it for PAX East. We'll see.

I'm also going to ponder my next stream series. I'm honestly really not sure what I want to do next. I think it'll be something smaller. Maybe something that will lead up to E3, and then depending on what's announced there, I'll launch a longer series, more like the Mass Effect series I just finished.



It needs to be something about which I'm very passionate, since I'll want to research it, and present a more professional experience. I'll probably script some sequences, too. We'll see. I'm also open to suggestions.

I've also been talking about another musical project with some old collaborators, but we'll see. I think that's a ways off, if it happens at all. To get all the right people, and give the right level of commitment, we'd need a few of us to become far less busy for an extended period. Ha.

I also think I'm not going to do much more with this blog than what I'm doing now. Just kinda thinking out loud. I occasionally consider doing more with it than what I'm doing, but I've got enough on my plate. This needs to be kept light and easy.

I need to pick one or two things, and then focus on that.

The 'Virtual Con Attendance' application should be straightforward, and fun. I make even make a mobile solution for myself, as well. Like I said, I have no interest in publishing it for public consumption ... probably. So, I think that one is definitely gonna happen.

The next novel ... I have a pretty solid start to it in my head that I want to start writing on the plane. I'd like to have that done this year. A page a day should get me to a complete first draft easily before the year's over.

I think this will be another part of what happens on my vacation. The 'creation meditation,' as well as some light execution on those projects.

01) design work on the virtual con app
02) a first chapter in the new novel (I don't write using outlines)
03) thinking about my next stream series

And that's plenty.

-Blaine

Travel Gaming

I'm a few days out from hitting the road (er, air) to travel for a couple weeks, as I do every March, and as I do every March, I'm contemplating my travel gaming setup.

All Spring Training pictures are mine, by the way.

Things To Consider
First, we're flying this year instead of driving, which is rare. We'll probably resume driving again next year, but we wanted a break from the Missouri-Florida drive for a year, and to be able to maximize time at Spring Training and Key West. I've seen way more of Georgia and Georgia drivers than I ever need to see again. It's a beautiful state with nice people, but FUCK, they cannot drive.

Less travel time means less setting up and breaking down of my laptop setup (which is my usual gaming setup anyway), which will be nice.

The laptop is too big to really use in the car, and is definitely too big to use on a plane.

I have a Vita and 3DS, but even when we drive, I don't play them in the car, as I like to do nearly all the driving myself. I have a hard time relaxing if someone else is driving. Yeah, I'm THAT fucking guy.

Vacation Time vs Gaming Time
I'm not one of those people that believes 'you're on vacation, therefore, you can only have vacation fun!' Yes, I'm in Florida, but I also have time away from responsibility and the daily churn, so you're fucking right that I'm carving time out in Key West to game. Besides, Torment just came out!

I also want to stop lugging extra shit around. The Vita is a nifty little machine, and the fact that I can remote to my PS4 with it (though my PC can do this, too) is super-rad. I hate the lack of R2 and L2, though, and the rear touchpad is totally unacceptable as a replacement.

The 3DS ... meh ... I just haven't ever fallen in love with it.

Though Bravely Default looks dope as hell.

And then there's my iOS devices. I've yet to ever really enjoy playing something on a phone, but that doesn't mean I'll quit trying occasionally. I've got a Phoenix Wright game on there (I LOVED those back on the DS), and a handful of Final Fantasy titles, which are also on the Vita, and which I also have on Steam. Man, if I could share saves across all those, that would be super-rad.

Honestly, ideally, I'll set up near the pool in the back of the house in Key West, and rock some more Torment.

Though, Mass Effect Andromeda is hitting early access via Origin Access during my last few days in Key West ...

The Plan
So, this trip is my annual pilgrimage to Cardinals Spring Training, which is the single-most relaxing thing I do every year. Some years, though, the trophy wife makes some noise about wanting to spend less time (or no time) traveling with the team, and instead wants to hang out down in the Keys, at one of my parents' houses.

While in Jupiter, most of my time is occupied by two things: baseball and dining. I love the food down there, and it's the only seafood I'll eat. Florida has utterly wrecked fish for me. I won't eat any in Missouri anymore.

Also, the kids and us are crammed into a hotel room together, and we have a bunch of family there, so I get very little mouse/keyboard time. Maybe this is an ideal time to convince myself that I should try a portable game again?

We're cutting my Spring Training trip a little short this year so that we can spend almost a week in Key West (*sob*), and that's where I plan to get a little more time gaming, though it will be outside. And yeah, I'll do shit with actual humans, too, but goddam, keep your judgment to yourself.

I would really like to finish Torment while I'm on vacation, if possible, but only if I can do it and have an immersive experience. We'll see. I absolutely love the game, but my understanding is that it's not nearly as along as what I've been playing lately, and that it's clocking in at around 30 hours. Like I said, we'll see.

We're back a few days before Mass Effect officially releases, but I've extended my vacation to the day after Mass Effect releases, so that I can have some time to spend with it.

And then, after a pretty crazy March (Torment, Horizon, MEA, Spring Training, Key West), we have a VERY quiet April, until Dawn of War 3 on 4/27, and then a super-fun weekend trip to South Beach in Miami, which also coincides with Prey's release. It's an awesome spring, after an absolute shit winter.

Wrapping Up
I just suck at portable gaming. I have both the 3DS and Vita, and just have a hard time bringing myself to play much on them. I played quite a bit on the GBA and DS, but at some point, I just stopped giving a shit. My gaming laptops have provided an amazing, if bulky, experience.

I'd like to enjoy the portable games a bit more. I've nearly given up on mobile gaming (cell phones). I'm glad that a lot of people find experiences that they don't feel are complete wastes of time, but I am not among them.

Oh, hey, look, it's a Dawn of War trailer!



-Blaine

And in the end ...

... so I had another post almost ready to go yesterday, but work and life get really busy occasionally, and my blogging tends to be one of the first things to go ... for now.

Anyway, I had a pretty neat pre-travel blog in the works yesterday that'll now be some time next week. Basically, it talks about my travel gaming as I prepare for my annual Spring Training travels. Basically, I go spend a couple weeks with my beloved Cardinals, soak up some Florida sun, get away from the Midwest winter hell, and it's all pretty great. I sometimes also shoot down to Key West for a few days, as I love that place.

During all that, I do find some gaming time. I'll talk about that more next week.

The Road to Andromeda
I finished it. I started the Mass Effect trilogy playthrough stream on 8/28 last year, and completed it last night, 3/2. WOW.

You can see the whole damn thing here.

It was a really interesting process, and honestly, it's kinda stupid, but I'm proud of it. It wasn't perfect, it wasn't quite what I wanted it to be, but I finished it, and I learned a LOT. And I had a good time!

The best moments were when chat would get really animated, and we'd have some fun discussions.



I'm still kinda reeling from it, and honestly, from a few personal and professional shocks (all good) that have happened over the last 24 hours, but it was really cool, and I'm going to do it again.

I'm not sure what series or game I want to stream/record next, but I have a few things I'm going to do differently.

1) have more set start and stop points, and more consistent lengths of time that I play
2) bring more fun 'behind the scenes' info to the table; research the section that I'm about to play a little bit more in advance, and have some fun factoids to throw out
3) bring more personal stories and humor; either stories from pervious playthroughs, or personal stories that I'm reminded of while playing; I have a pretty wild history from which to pull, and I need to leverage that more
4) a little more professionalism; I had too many instances of screaming child and/or background noise; I also want to get a green screen; I'll probably also run some cabling to my basement and set up a pro streaming thing down there; we'll see
5) get better with the graphics for my thumbnails and shit; I'm a goddam fucking professional developer; I should be able to handle shit like that (though my dear friend Marc makes them sooo well)

And I welcome any feedback ya'll have. I really wanna make this more fun for all involved, and I wanna grow my audience. What I need to do next time is make a fucking great first episode that can get circulated and really give people a chance to see that I'm not just another falsetto-screaming jackass that's trying to appeal to the millennials. I'm an older dude trying to hook older, more mature, more seasoned gaming enthusiasts, or just chill people that want a fun time.

I think with the above Mass Effect series, I had long stretches where I wasn't injecting enough of my personality into it, or where I was just REALLY tired. Both of those things will be addressed in the next series.

I also need to figure out how the hell to market this. I think that's where I'm really shooting myself in the foot.

I also wanna figure out if I should be streaming on YouTube Gaming or Twitch. I've gone back and forth. I think YTG might be good because there's so much less competition and I like the interface better (as a viewer), but Twitch has sooo many more eyeballs. I dunno.

Also games and game series I'm contemplating: KotOR 1&2, Dragon Age trilogy, Pillars of Eternity, The Witcher trilogy, a Telltale series, Jade Empire, and ... what else? What do you wanna see? I tend to shun games that I've never played before, for a couple reasons, but I won't say never. Again, what do you wanna see?

So, lots to think about and research. Please, let me know what you think, and what you wanna see.

Thanks, and happy weekend!

-Blaine

Torment is Torment

Torment: Tides of Numenera is a profound experience for me, and I wanna tell you why.

I'm going to, and it won't take long, but I wanna say something else first.

Not everyone needs to like the same things that you do, or that I do. In fact, that kind of diversity can make latent experiences seem fresh. I didn't come into cRPGs until waaaay late in the game, and now I love them, and I have a huge library from which to choose. Tastes also inform a lot about a person's perspective, which I find interesting, as well.

Also, beware something that only you love becoming popular. No, your original experience aren't at all tainted, but there's a framework in place that says if 'game x' or 'band x' or whatever becomes popular, then its next effort needs to try and appeal to an even bigger audience, and that's where it all falls apart. By trying to appeal to everyone, you end up being loved by no one. You might sell well, but there's not gonna be that person that really latches onto something you've put out there, really relates to it, and then carries it with them their whole life. Look at what EA has done to Dragon Age. DAO and DA2 were intimate experiences with personal stories and great pacing. DAI was ... not. Look at what happened to Star Trek. It went from a thoughtful, pondering franchise to a generic action movie trilogy. Yuck. There's no soul in any of it, and people figure that out after a while.

And don't get me wrong. I fucking hate 'indie fans.' The people that make it their goal in life to only listen to the bands you've never heard of, to swoon over yet another cheap-looking 2D platformer, or to only celebrate films with budgets less than the average income in small town Missouri. There are great big-budget mainstream experiences to be had, just as there are great low-budget experiences to be had.

Along those lines, I've really been enjoying Horizon Zero Dawn, still wish so much that it was on PC, but I adore it nonetheless, and I have many praises for it.

But, Torment ... goddam ... this thing reaches right into my soul and just masturbates it. It's a profound experience, and every time I wanted to try something I thought might break most games, or just wouldn't be an option, I could do here. I'm trying to talk around this, without giving away spoilers.

On a superficial level, it looks like Pillars of Eternity. It's the same engine, actually. This has a totally different color palette, plays very differently (Pillars is real-time, this is turn-based), and most of the mechanics are totally different. Perspective-wise, though, it's highly similar.

And it's really detail-oriented. This is not at all a game that caters to the ADD crowd (I have ADHD, by the way), which I appreciate. It challenges you to pay fucking attention, it has a ton of text, it has a lot of strategy, and it treats you like an adult. If you don't want to ever fight, you don't have to. If your skills are allocated properly, you can never fight. I've had a small amount of combat, by choice, but for the most part, I've been bullshitting my way out of conflicts. It's awesome.

The combat itself is great, but I'm trying to accomplish a specific goal in this playthrough, which I'll talk about in a separate post some other time.

The companions are rich, too. So are the conversations. The writing is great. Oh, and the lore. By the Maker, the lore is amazing, and sooo deep. I've been reading through the novellas, hitting the wiki, pulling out the map, and I still can't get enough. Also, if you're interested, it's based on the Numenera tabletop RPG.

So, seriously, check it out. Give it a shot. I've seen very little coverage on it relative to Horizon, which is absolutely deserving of adulation, but I really think people might enjoy Torment, if they try it. If you're not into cRPGs, it'll be an adjustment, but it'll be a worthwhile one.

Anyway, I'm gonna go play some more.

The Road to Andromeda
Starting tomorrow night, I'm finishing the fight, and starting the end of Mass Effect 3. Come hang out, shoot the breeze, and help me wrap this up. I'll be on Twitch at 2000central/2100eastern. The previous episodes are in a playlist here, and these will be added after.

So, any thoughts on Torment? Lemme know!

-Blaine