I think I spent too much shopping deals Trying to attack my wishlist of games only to add double the amount in it's place. X_X. What a crazy time we live in. So I bought Super Bomberman R. I had to debate which version to get between Steam and PS4. Steam doesn't have all the extra characters (Like Ratchet, Jehuty, Snake, etc) it seems so despite steam being cheaper on the price tag. I went with PS4. After all characters sell games. This is an instance where I am in agreement with that statement.
I honestly haven't played a Bomberman game in ages. I only remember Bomberman 64, the Xbox 360 version which is a party game, and this one. I was generally sold when Ratchet and Clank was a playable character in the game.
My inexperience shows when I play. Against normal level AI I couldn't win at all. I'm generally suicidal laying bombs everywhere then killing myself in the process. I tend to walk into my own explosion lines. RIP. At the same time the AI seems amazing at dodging bombs. Maybe too amazing. Knowing that a bomb will explode at a specific time then narrowly dodging the 2nd one. I was amazed and pissed off. Especially when I noticed the AI had multiple bombs or full fire only to lay a singular bomb. WHAT?! JUST KILL EACH OTHER ALREADY!!! It's a bit of a downside when going against the AI if you die you have to wait it out till the match is finished. You can't skip to the end like in Xbox 360. I had to lower the difficulty to easy and reduce my opponent count down to 1 to win. Even then I had trouble. Yeah I fail as a bomberman.
Story Mode I'm just as bad. But it's enjoyable. It has an anime spin to it that even has lore. I spent a good 4 hours laughing it up during the dialogue. Why hasn't this been made into a TV show? You even get to play as different bombermen. Some have a special ability too. Whether it's suicidal or even works in single player is a different story. Ratchet has the ability to erase bombs and stun enemies with his gun. Solid Snake can turn invisible but you can't see where you are either so...Anubis (From ZOE) can switch places with an opponent. I have no idea what Dracula's ability is. So there's a lot of fun to be had. I've yet to actually try online mode. Assuming people even play this online.
I live for those cutscenes. I wish I had another person along for the ride to play this with.
Well the game I was dreading to play but got paid to play it. Maybe my dread was misplaced? I'm only roughly a 3rd of the way through the game now. So let me tell you my journey so far.
First off the person who paid for it I still ask. "HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!" After starting the game and getting things setup. I was slightly bored at the start. I did want to explore everything though. Skyloft seems like a nice place to live but as usual with Zelda locations the people have PROBLEMS! I mean I have a hard time determining if I rather deal with Pokemon NPC problems or these guys. Also the looks on a lot of characters...Why does everyone who's not important to the story look weird? Zelda's dad looks like he's had too much coffee (or been taking some illegal substances), Groose in certain scenes looks like he's been smoking some seriously good stuff. The people at the bazaar just creep me out.
The beginning stuff takes quite awhile being tutorials. Almost 2 hours. You could probably speedrun it. Actually from content I've seen pertaining to that the speedruns somehow glitch past that stuff altogether. Something to do with moving Link while on the title screen. Alright then. I had issues with the controls, More than the normal stuff even one problem that's lasted up to where I am in the game right now.
My first issue came about due to me not reading the instructions properly. While I want to complain that I rather have an actual instruction manual I just need to embrace that it's the year 2020 and pointless in-game tutorials are the way of the future. Anyway I couldn't fly my loftwing correctly. I thought I was doing everything right as from what I gathered through the tutorial was that I need to fly it like a hang glider. Or like Mario using the the Wing Cap in Mario 64. That's only half correct. What I didn't know was that I slowly lose altitude altogether and need to flick the wii-mote to gain extra height.
I'll just lay this out here right now. I hate just about any game that uses the Wii-Mote and/or nunchuck as it's only control option. It's uncomfortable, doesn't work like how I imagined it, and I don't have the space for it. I pretty much always opt for the alternative option when given. Unfortunately Skyward Sword doesn't give that so like with Sonic and the Secret Rings and Black Knight I just have to grin and bear it.
Anyway my main issue with the controls is an unexplained one. At random times my nunchuck just desyncs and suddenly Link is walking in a completely different direction (usually towards his death). I have to unplug the nunchuck and plug it back in. Wait a few seconds (or minutes) and things are back to normal. Why does this happen? No one else I see play this game has had this occur. I ran a check on my wii-mote and nunchucks on other games and they seem to operate perfectly fine. Is it the Wii-Motion+? Nothing makes sense but this does ruin my enjoyment of the game quite a bit as it'll happen at the most inconvenient times.
The only other issue is swinging my sword at times. But that happens rarely. Like against Ghirahim my sword wouldn't swing a certain way. It's like it's taking it's time to sync up with my movements. The 2nd time was against a bunch of Moblins. The 3rd time was against The Imprisoned where I just couldn't get that third slash in the right direction...I had to sheathe my sword the redraw it to make it go in the right direction. Honestly I would say in a lot of cases "waggling" the wii-mote does work. There are people that claim it doesn't but it's better than nothing tbh. I'm also glad that there's more than one way to skin a cat like in most Zelda games. I don't have to swing a sword. I can toss a bomb or shoot a sling shot. Thank god.
Dungeons so far have been pretty simple. It's generally a case of either "Look Up Stupid" or just examine the surroundings. I've been using Zelda Dungeon guide to make sure I don't miss anything. Since playing this game I have that feeling that years later someone will view the videos and go, "You should've done this." Although according to Zelda Dungeon I'm missing 2 Hearts and a goddess cube? The guide doesn't exactly explain everything too well. A lot of it works under the assumption you have a specific amount of rupees or items at your disposal.
Story, Characters, Stuff
If I'm to talk about story. Well I am tired of this whole destiny crap. It's my destiny to stop evil? You didn't really train me to do it rather just throw me the job. I'm not big on DESTINY being a story thing. I like it in older games. Newer ones it's like they couldn't find anyone else or didn't want to find anyone else. The story even says Groose has a role in this destiny. OKAY YEAH I'm going to believe the guy who's jealous of me and happen to follow me down to the woods HAS A ROLE IN DESTINY! Why not Fledge? Or one of those other guys? I'm also awaiting the explanation as to what exactly The Imprisoned is and why is it so dangerous.
Ghirahim is definitely a notable character that's clearly stealing the spotlight every chance he gets. Groose is rather annoying. Impa is rather cool as always. Zelda is the kind of girl I would do my best to get away from for a day.
The minor characters like the shop owners...They creep me out. The tool salesman always having a happy face then frowns when I don't buy anything. It's good to know he doesn't always smile. The fortune teller with creepy eyes. The item check girl who's so bored she thinks I'm hitting on her. To me they're only unforgettable cause they're so creepy. There's even Pipit's mom who pays me 20 bucks to dust her house. IT'S CALLED A BROOM! And I'm gonna need more money and some health insurance to clean your place. She should be dead from all the dust she's clearly breathing.
Meanwhile on the ground. The characters are more interesting. The Goron who's an archeologist being my favorite. Then you have the little worker robots. The Mogmas as well.
The most amount of charm I experienced in this game. Actually I wish this game and future Zelda's did more of. Was what felt like enemy introduction. Walking into a room with 2 Lizafos. I felt a lot of charm there. I wish that would happen with every enemy type.
See. 2 Lizafos see you and walk in ready to beat you down.
Fi is definitely annoying. I wish the game didn't have repeat things you already know unless asked. But I think I get what they were trying to go for. Essentially when something is repeated to you right away multiple times you remember what you're supposed to do a lot better. It's still annoying. Even worse when Fi doesn't give you any data on what your facing except basic info. How come Navi and the King of Red Lions can give you data on enemies but Fi needs you to kill enemies or die to enemies to get said data?
Anyway the only thing that sours my mood at the moment is my issue with the Nunchuck. The rest I don't have a reason to be like "THIS IS THE WORST GAME EVER" Not yet anyway.
First I need to apologize I pretty much deleted all the old posts. Mainly cause it was just cluttered up stuff with links to the youtube video just uploaded. I'm not even sure if people even view the videos. I was seeing a few views on each blog post but I can't confirm if those are just bots or someone being nice.
Anyway I need to start over or I should say go back. I did enjoy logging my adventures in whatever game I was currently playing. I lost that enjoyment when, well times changed and people stopped reading and wanted commentary and I was having trouble finding the time to actually even mess with my blog. I tried auto-posting using a service that basically post links of whatever youtube video I uploaded to the video itself. That seemed to just kill the views now that I'm looking at it.
Anyway changes. I going to try and apply changes to the Youtube channel that I need to do cause of stress and other things.
Video Release count down to 3 A Day At Maximum
Yeah that's essentially the main change. I was doing 3 - 5 a day. Trying to fill in those slots and even worse trying to make sure they're uploaded was way too much work for just one person. Especially when my Desktop can't render videos of 1080p fast enough. For the past few months I spent mornings or all-nighters getting videos uploaded for the day. It wasn't pretty trying to beat the time slots I set.
I also feel like my connection is being throttled by AT&T. The living situation changed and now we have another person living in the house. He uses the internet a ton just to watch Netflix, Hulu, etc. And it's usually left running for hours. I know that sounds like "Oh that doesn't take up much bandwidth at all." But it's hogging the connection that's already spread thin. Among phones, consoles, TVs, there's a lot eating the connection.
Removing 9AM (EST) Time Slot
I think that the 9AM(EST) time slot is the worst in terms of viewing my content. While I could blame this on "Nobody wants to watch that video." I debated for awhile that everyone's likely at work, school, or just waking up. It's probably best I remove this time slot altogther. I tried asking best times to upload videos by polls but it seems like people troll whenever a poll is thrown out. At least for me.
Really try to Livestream More
I want to try and livestream more. In all honesty that where it seems like everything is at. Not only that it should help with my anxiety of interacting with people. My problem is that at the specs my Desktop is at now. Streaming is almost outside the realm of possibility for me. I think everyone I watch streams at incredibly high quality. I can't really handle it for various games. So I ended up buying a headset mic for PS4 thinking maybe I can stream with that. Not sure how well that will turn out. But it's worth a shot. I've done a few livestreams already in the past few weeks.
COPPA and Youtube
This is where I was worried for a few months. After talking to Shai Samet from kidSAFE over the phone. He says my channel is pretty much safe. The FTC is really only looking for BLATANT violations of COPPA. While it is left up to the individual to determine what's "For Kids" and What's "Not For Kids" I at least got a better idea at my content.
There's the whole "Youtube should have a General Audience option". Yeah they should. Youtube hasn't really given a reason as to why they don't have that. There's a ton of crazy stuff going on with it and we just want answers. Right now just best to play it by ear.
Life
It's no surprise I deal with depression and was diagnosed with it. Dealing with it with no medication is tough. Generally I never really know how I'm feeling till the end of the day. I have days where I just can't move even though I should. Reason I don't have medication is cause I can't afford the medication or health insurance. The so called system that's meant to help people afford it. I don't make enough and I don't qualify for benefits unless something horrible happens to me (That or somehow age 30+ years and have a baby. Neither are possible).
The worst bit I would say something every year happens that's essentially a trial. Last year was my dog going through surgery, year before my other dog and cat died. Before that family issues. It goes on an on.
So I just somehow grin and bear it. I do thank the viewers, new and old for helping me out with that. I'm generally afraid to interact with people in real life considering previous experiences and what's going on in the world now.
Right now dealing with my dog who's pretty much been in surgery twice. The first time to amputate his leg. The 2nd to remove tumors. It was due to our old veterinarian's negligence that led to my dog Chance having his leg removed. Between wanting to charge extra money to check the growths on his body to just never checking at all and administering medication that didn't work. We had to change vets. Thankfully this new vet knows what they're doing. Chance went back into surgery recently cause of other growths on his body. We couldn't afford for those to be tumors and had them removed. Since he's already on 3 legs we can't afford for another incident where another leg is amputated since they'll just say to end his suffering. He would've had his stitches out yesterday but early yesterday morning he reopened one being strangely hyperactive. So we're waiting another 2 weeks.
That's a trial in itself. I don't want to lose another pet right now. Losing the other 2 was bad enough.
Games
Yeah there's a lot of games building up on the list to play. New and old. Many unopened. I'm not sure how I will tackle every single one. Especially when the list just keeps growing. What I want to do like I hinted at earlier is go back to logging my experiences here. That might be rough however. I'll figure something out.
