It’s the Freakin’ Weekend! What are You Playing?

Friday! Video games! Let’s talk!

Brad is not back yet. Hang in there, bud.

As for myself, I’ve had a mixed work schedule of nightshifts and dayshifts. So if I start slurring my words don’t go thinking I was day drinking. It’s just a lack of sleep.

Image via steamcommunity.com

Remember when I said I needed a break from this game? Well, that didn’t last long. After buying the DLC I jumped right back into the game. I’m finding the new enemies even more daunting and relentless than the originals. It also reals like the game runs better in that the graphics are smoother but the game seems somehow even more glitchy. There are even more physic problems of walls apparently not being walls since enemies constantly shoot and run threw them.

Even with the technical issues, I’m in for another run through this game. They added a lot of content and things to do which makes it interesting to play again already.

I finished the campaign. It was ok. It felt like another mediocre Call of Duty campaign. Not too much to say about it other than that.

Image via store.steampowered.com

After putting hours into this campaign, I have absolutely no idea what is going on. The previous game’s campaign at least some cohesion to it that this one sorely lacks. There are so many jumps of who is working with or against who that I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be thinking. In a way it feels like different people wrote different parts of this game and never talked to each other then in the end somebody blindly stitched them together into this calico tapestry of a game.

If I’m not playing any games this weekend, I’ll be sleeping.

What about you, folks? Any gaming plans this weekend?

Paul Novak

Owner, Proprietor, Typer of Words, Gamer, Jester

A self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing on the western side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet.

It’s the Freakin’ Weekend! What are You Playing?

Friday! Video games! Let’s talk!

Brad is still out and miss him. Let’s all wish him well.

Hopefully the holiday was good for all. It was way too hot in my part of the world to do much. It was probably above 90 by noon. I stayed indoors all day and listened to the fireworks since I didn’t even try to go outside to see them.

Image via steamcommunity.com

I finished the game! XCOM 2 is finally in the finished pile! It was a long, arduous journey but I made it.  There were at least three separate occasions when I thought the game was over, expected to see the final cutscene, only to have it throw more at me to do. The final mission was likely the most stressful part of the game. No spoilers but if you get towards the end, make sure all your best soldiers are healed and available, just saying.

The War of the Chosen DLC was on sale in the PlayStation store and I purchased it. I will not be playing it for some time, however. That last mission took a lot out of my mental capacity as far as gaming goes and I’d like to play something different before diving into another play-through.

Image via store.steampowered.com

At about two hours long, this game was a nice little introduction to what is coming in Life is Strange 2. It is much like the other Life is Strange games not only with its graphics and controls but also the story. Since it is so short I won’t go into any details but would encourage anyone to play it. After all, it is very short and free.

What better way to step away from XCOM 2 than to play a Call of Duty campaign, right? I figured these two games will be nothing like each other and so far I’m right. I’ve never played CoD BLOPS since the original was first released and the third game is currently free on PSPlus so somehow my warped mind put together that I should pull my PS3 out of storage and play BLOPS 2. Yeah, I don’t get it either but that’s what I’m doing.

What about you, folks? Any gaming plans this weekend?

Paul Novak

Owner, Proprietor, Typer of Words, Gamer, Jester

A self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing on the western side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet.

It’s the Freakin’ Weekend! What are You Playing?

Friday! Video games! Let’s talk!

Brad is taking a break and I was super busy last week but this week… I’m here for ya. Hi, how are you? Come here often?

Leading into a mid-week holiday is a weird place to be. Holiday stuff on the weekend? Or just weekend stuff then holiday stuff on the actual holiday? Either way all good.

I’ll be doing some family stuff on Saturday which will be an all day affair. That means no video games until Sunday this weekend. Oh, the sadness.

If you follow anything I say or do, first of all – thank you, you’ll be familiar with the love/hate/hate/love relationship I am having with XCOM2. I’m probably about twenty hours into it and I just don’t know when it will end. Even though I’m enjoying the game and have hit a certain stride with the combat, the slowdown or lull in the story is starting to bring me down. It just isn’t developing anything story wise that feels meaningful. The game has become a circular pattern of go do a mission, get some more stuff, do one objective, get some more stuff, go do a mission and so forth. I really want to know what the end of the game is here. I’m not sure if I’ll want to buy the DLC for this game or not yet.

Not only can the game’s RNG be unforgiving the glitches don’t help. The game is over two years old and still has problems. I can live with the framerate drops since is a slower paced game but I hit a glitch that was uncomfortable. The NPC’s at my base failed to render and the only audio I had during missions was footsteps and gunshots. That feeling of abandonment hit me and I was sad. Yet, I persevered and successfully save scummed through a mission to restore these things but man, what a way to go about things. Maybe the game isn’t in the forefront, or never was, but it was very unsettling to play through this game this way. Still, I plan to continue putting time into it.

Image via store.steampowered.com

If, and I mean if, I get any additional time this weekend I want to check out The Awesome Adventures of Captain Sprit. With it being a lead into the next Life Is Strange game it certainly has my attention but given my obligations and plans for this weekend combined with Life Is Strange 2 not releasing until September this may get the old back burner treatment. However, I hate to do that because then I’ll either forget about it or just not play it and I don’t want that to happen.

What about you, folks? Any gaming plans this weekend?

Paul Novak

Owner, Proprietor, Typer of Words, Gamer, Jester

A self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing on the western side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet.

It’s the Freakin’ Weekend! What are You Playing?

Brad is out of town but games will still be played. Sorry Brad but we hope you are having a good time whilst we continue gaming.

This weekend is Mother’s Day. Don’t say I didn’t remind you about it. Get your mother something nice. Maybe do something she has been asking you to do but you keep putting of. If you live to far away send flowers or just pick of the phone and give her a call. She’d love to her from you. My siblings and I decided since our mother really didn’t want anything we would cook her a nice meal.  We’ll be making prime rib accompanied by horseradish carrots. Don’t tell her about it though, it’s a surprise. If I hear that she finds out about I’m coming right back here and straightening all of you out for spilling the beans.

As for games, I am still into God of War. I’ve finished the campaign and most of the realm tears. For some reason I am now going through all of the Valkyries. Even after turning the difficulty down I am struggling. Maybe age is a upon me and my reaction time is lacking, or I just suck at playing games(highly possible) but some of these fights are ridiculous. When I had it on regular difficulty, I kid you not, one of the fights was over in about 15 seconds and it was not because I won. The Valkyrie hit me with one attack, jumped into the air, landed on me, then stomped me to death. It wasn’t pretty.

But speaking of pretty, God of War added a photo mode. If you haven’t played or even seen this game, let me tell you, it’s beautiful looking. I don’t know how they shipped this game without a photo mode but I’m glad they added it and I look forward to seeing what people do with it. Horizon Zero Dawn also went through this progression and people were able to be creative with what they photoed.

Final reminder…. It’s Mother’s Day weekend. Put down the game, for just a bit, and do something nice for your mom.

What will you be playing???

Paul Novak

Owner, Proprietor, Typer of Words, Gamer, Jester

A self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing on the western side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet.

It’s the Freakin’ Weekend! What are You Playing?

Friday! Video games! Let’s talk!

With Brad out enjoying the upper west coast I’ll be posting for the week.(Send me a post card… or maybe just a picture of a postcard that is a picture of Seattle)

It’s a holiday weekend and likely almost everybody will be spending time with friends and family. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be time for gaming. Perhaps there could be some gaming with the aforementioned friends and family?

As for my plans, well… they aren’t that exciting. I’m on-call for the holiday and really won’t get to do much(I know, I’m making you jealous). What time I will have available will be spent on some single player stuff, that way if I get interrupted by work it won’t be a big bother to my game progress. I’ll be playing things like…

Star Wars Battlefront II – Stop rolling your eyes at me. The shooter aspects of the game are well done and it is Star Wars after all. My hopes are that the Resurrection story piece they added will somehow, some way make the story at least feel more complete if not better. My expectations are low but I’m going to give it a chance.

Far Cry 4 – This game has been sitting on my shelf for months and I just can’t get myself to play it much. I spent a couple hours a few weeks ago on it but just couldn’t stick with it. The main story was good but I didn’t like all the side stuff, it just felt like the game was constantly distracting me. This is my test to see if I want Far Cry 5 when it lands next year. So far, not so much.

Life is Strange: Before the Storm – This is the first order on my gaming list. About two weeks ago it was on sale on Steam and I decided to buy it. By all accounts I have to agree that this game should not be as good as it is… but it is. The final episode just released a few days ago and I’ve forced myself not to play it yet just so I have it for this weekend. I want to see how they wrap this up but I don’t want it to be over.

What will you be playing??? Is there something on your wish list that you’re hoping Santa gives you???

Paul Novak

Owner, Proprietor, Typer of Words, Gamer, Jester

A self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing on the western side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet.

It’s the Freakin’ Weekend! What are You Playing?

Brad is out of town enjoying a well deserved vacation, so I’ll cover this for him.

It’s a long weekend for me, took Friday off work since I’m on-call for work on the Fourth of July. To me that is a good excuse to stay home and play video games. To that point I bought The Last of Us: Left Behind, Knack, and Arcade Series from the PS Store sale. All that set me back was about $13. For some reason Knack was the most expensive at $5. I started playing it and boy oh boy is that game bad. Makes me wonder how they justify a second game of this. But I’ll keep playing it, maybe it gets better… maybe it gets worse.

I wasn’t done buying games for some reason. After waking up around noon, I drove to the local GameStop to buy more. That trip got me  Rise of the Tomb Raider 20 Year Collection, Far Cry 4, and The Last of Us Remastered. I played Rise of the Tomb Raider on Xbox One, so I didn’t really need to play it but I really enjoyed it so some how in my maniac sense of a mind it was justified. The Last of Us is one of those games that I disagree with people on how good it actually is because I think it’s bad. After all these years I’ll give it another chance. Somehow having bought the DLC, Left Behind, justifies buying the full game even though I already own it and played through it on the PS3. That means that the only game I bought at the store that I haven’t already played is Far Cry 4. I don’t even try to justify this one since I got burned out on Far Cry 3 and haven’t touched the game since.

O’well… I’ll have time on my hands on the holiday and next weekend. That gives me plenty of reason, or excuse depending on how you look at it, to spend lots of time on these games.

What will you be playing???

 

Paul Novak

Owner, Proprietor, Typer of Words, Gamer, Jester

A self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing on the western side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet.

Dude’s Chronicles 9-22-2016: A Friend Returns

 

 

That’s right!

Entertainment!

I haven’t watched anything but football, college and professional, all week. That’s it. No shows, no movies. I haven’t even gazed out the window to see what was going on.

Games!

Whilst the anxious wait for 1.4 continues, Massive keeps putting out a lot of information but I keep thinking to myself “none of this is set in stone”. I hold a lot of hope for this as do others but the realist in me has to check my expectations.

What is here and what is real is The Rise of Iron. I’ll say it’s pretty good. It could have been longer but I would liken it to the length of The Taken King. Could have been longer but I enjoyed it and still don’t feel finished with it. From the posts picture, I obviously completed the Gjallahorn quest line. Nice to get the weapon quicker than I did in the original game. Now I have to lock it so I don’t delete it like a dumbass and have to buy it two weeks before they nerf it.

I’ll be playing some of each game the rest of the week. I want to keep my feet in The Division and I have two Exotic quests(Thorn and Khvostov) to do in Destiny. Just wish I had more time.

News!

• Rise of Iron Raid! – Yea…I won’t be high enough Light Level to try it and I won’t have the time. sighes
• Battle.net no more – It’s just a name change, remain calm. Blizzard is just trying to get everything under the Blizzard name. From what I understand, no functionality will be lost. Again, remain calm.
• The Division PTS is live! – Early responses are positive. If any community will break a game it is the PC community. That is why I am ok with it not coming to consoles as we had many less issues than PC did.
• Gears of War 4 trailer – I try not to get excited about trailers but I really want this game to get the bad taste out of my mouth that Judgement left.
• For Honor’s beta was huge! – That’s great! So was The Division’s. So was Destiny’s. Those games were arguably broken at launch. I hope Unbisoft learns something from past experience and does a better job. The game looks great but it is not a game I have interest in playing. Nonetheless, I hope it does well and people enjoy it.

I’ll try to post next week but I will be out of town for work reasons. Reasons which I am against but hey, if you want to pay me to waste my time hundreds of miles away instead of at work…ok. Well, it’s not a complete waste…just not best value. You know like eating Taco Bell.

Paul Novak

Owner, Proprietor, Typer of Words, Gamer, Jester

A self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing on the western side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet.

Dude’s Chronicles 9-15-2016: Running Late

 

It was a busy day, heck…it was a busy week but here I am. Better late than never.

Entertainment!

• College football – Not a great weekend of game but still good watching. I’m conflicted that Pitt won but Penn State lost.
• BoJack Horseman – I’ve watched the first five episode and I’m not sure about this one. It has moments when it hits but a lot of lulls when it doesn’t. The plan is to get through the first season and then make an executive decision as to continue with it or not.
• Captain America: Civil War – Very interesting and well done but I question where it leaves the Marvel Universe at this point. I know all of this has payed out in various comics but the movies don’t necessarily follow said comics.

Games!

The Division keeps creeping toward the much vaunted 1.4 update. It was a bit of a let down to have the Public Test Server delayed but the last State of the Game gave a lot of information about what they are trying to accomplish. I, like many others, hopefully wait in anticipation but bear a cautious eye.

So far patch 2.4 is a bust for me in Destiny. My thought was I would finish out my Titan and Hunter alts, get them to a 300+ Light level and be sitting pretty for Rise of Iron upon its release. That plan got crushed when Bungie nerfed the rewards system so that my 297 character no longer decrypts engrams above that Light level so that now I get 240-ish gear from engrams. Way to kill my enthusiasm Bungie, thanks.

News!

• South Park game delayed – Insert statement of shock.
• The Last Guardian delayed – Insert statement of shock.
• Destiny Private matches are live! – So, now I just need to find enough friends help me grind out those weird match base Grimiore scores?
• Sony nixes Fallout 4 mods – Kind of thought this was a big deal when the game was announced and now Sony is just not going to let it happen? I read a couple of articles on it and I just don’t understand Sony’s position. If it were a technical or performance issue I would understand but it just sounds like they don’t want players to have unlimited control. This seems odd since PC and Xbox are ok with it. What’s up Sony?

Do I sound salty? It’s been a rough stretch and yes I’ve gathered some salt in this roll of late.

Paul Novak

Owner, Proprietor, Typer of Words, Gamer, Jester

A self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing on the western side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet.

Dude’s Chronicles 9-8-2016: I’m Back, Again

Sorry for not getting a post up last week. With the holiday and a few personal things happening something had to give and that something was this chronicle.

Entertainment!

• College football – I didn’t get to watch as much of this as I wanted to but I enjoyed every second that I did see. Great to have it back and looking forward to the pro’s starting back as well.
• The League: Seasons 6 & 7 – This show was always hit and miss to me. It tried to take gags too far and it felt forced most of the time. The finale really missed the mark in my book. Probably never going to rewatch any of this series.

Games!

Still playing The Division but it feels like everybody is kind of coasting until the 1.4 update is closer.

To bide some time, I played some Destiny. Managed to get my Titan from a Light Level of 216 to 287 in a few hours but the pace slowed greatly from 287 to 295. I tried playing a few other times but apparently there have been some issues with PSN and it just did work in my favor. I did relent and pre-ordered Rise of Iron.

News!

• PS4 Pro – Ummm…what? You can stream 4K content but you can’t play it from disk? I’m really confused by why Sony made this console iteration. Unless there is something I am missing there isn’t much reason to buy this, much like the Xbox One S. If you don’t already have the console then it seems ok but I don’y see any reason why I would ‘upgrade’ to either console.
• PS4 Slim – …and I quote “I’m really confused by why Sony made this console iteration. Unless there is something I am missing there isn’t much reason to buy this, much like the Xbox One S. If you don’t already have the console then it seems ok but I don’y see any reason why I would ‘upgrade’ to either console.”
• Super Mario Run – I clapped when I saw this. This is one of the smartest things Nintendo has done of late. They are truly embracing mobile gaming without going overboard.
• Ark: Survival Evolved – People are made about paid DLC for ann early access game that they already paid for? Hmmmm…. The smart ass in me wants to say “just release the game already, why try to get the bugs out of it when everybody else launches broken game?” but then I dial it back a bit and it seems kind of wrong to release paid DLC for something that is not even a finalized product.

Time to get ready to watch football.

Paul Novak

Owner, Proprietor, Typer of Words, Gamer, Jester

A self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing on the western side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet.

Dude’s Chronicles 8-25-2016: Humid and Salty

Image via quotesgram.com

It’s not as bad as the picture above but it is pretty lousy.

Entertainment!

• The Fast and The Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift – These movies aren’t good. Sorry, they aren’t but I enjoy  them nonetheless.
• Gotham: Season 1 – This series seems fairly interesting and a slightly different take on the Batman story. I wish there were more episodes available on Neflix since I’ll never actually watch this when it airs. Not because I don’t want to see it, just that I don’t sit down to watch shows on a regular basis.
• Indie Games: Life After – The follow up to Indie Game: The Movie, it was far less interesting and felt like one of those sequels that just didn’t need to happen.

Games!

The Division continues to be the land of salt. Massive is being a lot more upfront about the fact that the game is not good at this point. I appreciate their honesty and I’ll appreciate it even more when they actually fix the game.

It’s such a bad scene that players are being salty with each other. I was playing an Incursion the other day and the group just wasn’t working right. We wiped several times and one player got his salt shaker out. He essentially told me that I was running Smart Cover wrong. How you do that I have no idea. He didn’t say my skill power was too low, which would have made more sense. That group quickly disbanded, thankfully.

News!

• PS4 Slim rumors – Do we need this? Do we want this? I don’t, on either count. I’m not even that excited about Neo. Maybe these are the same thing. No real facts and Sony doesn’t have much to say about it yet.
• The Division delays expansion – Wait, fix the game before expanding it??? Brilliant! Looks like it will be a while before Survival releases due to Massive wanting to concentrate(and rightly so) on the 1.4 update to fix and balance the game.
• John Carmack a thief? – Apparently Bethesda says that Carmack took some of it’s intellectual property with him when he left for Oculus. More ugly legal battles for the gaming industry.

Did you notice? I remembered to change the date on this post before posting it. Yeah me!

Paul Novak

Owner, Proprietor, Typer of Words, Gamer, Jester

A self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing on the western side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet.