Dishonored 2 has something that should become industry standard.

No save sub-menu or anything! Ye gods...

Bethesda's games have been doing this for a while but we finally have a new convert. Another game that has a two step quicksave! Pause, hold down RT, and poof! quicksave. I love that and I love this game... so far. The dialogue is pretty painful. I mean there sure is a lot more telling than showing and it's a little jarring at times. "I should bring up the minutia of Corvo's background!" No you shouldn't, random guard. Not unless you have a point to make and I'm not gonna hold my breath on that one.

Dishonored 2... so far so great.

Since Steam has already turned on the PC version, I was a bit surprised to see it run so well on my rig as it does. Everything stylistically and mechanically you liked about the first has been retained. Spectacularly so. The haggard faces, the Lovecraftian steam-punkyness, best stealth money can buy, it's all still there. The only complaint I have is in the narrative department, it feels kinda rushed and a couple main actors are less than stellar.

Still having a great time choking guys out, though!

Wake up, go to work.

Just another day, right?

It's a beautiful day to defend democracy.

By god people, do your duty.

A non politically motivated video:

Here's a clip from a movie I love. It has absolutely nothing to do with what the current director of the FBI did today. At all.

Busiest weekend I've had in months.

Just 30 more hours...

Crash Bandicoot is now a motor mouthed exposition machine.

You never forget your first and and thus Crash will always have a place in my heart. While it is kinda neat that both Spyro and Crash are in their own animated series together (if I told my 8 year old self this would happen he would flip. His. Sh*t.) it's also... pretty damn awful. It's like he's just reading his own wikipedia page and is steering right towards the sand trap that claimed Sonic 15 years ago. In other words, he's more product than character now. You can see why Naughty Dog severed ties with Universal so quickly.

STILL! That's Mark Mothersbaugh's original theme tinking away in the background and I won't deny that put a big goofy grin on my face.

Hold on, I'm not done...



Ok. Now you can go.

Have you listened to... SPONTANEANATION?

As an amateur podcast guest, please hold your applause until the end of the blog post, I'm also mildly addicted to podcasts. If I'm driving, I'm listening to podcasts and at about 4 hours of driving time a week I've got time to kill. Since the death of my beloved Superego, Paul F. Tompkins has made his own improvised sketch radio show to ease the pain. It's much more informal and under produced which isn't necessarily worse... just different.

It's still funny as hell and I dare you to find a comedian that's this funny just talking to himself. As improv comedy goes you're gonna like some more than others but I'd say the hits outweigh the misses for the most part. Though I'd keep an eye out for any episode with Brandon Johnson or anyone from the Superego crew.

Do have a listen.

Happy Halloween!

Best day of the year!

Chamberlain and Chance #45

eehhhhh....

Chamberlain and Chance - Not so fast, Nintendo

Dear God, let this end.

I don't want to brag or anything but I own many plaid over shirts

Because everything will be fine on November 9th! Probably.

Civilization VI is a perfectly average game.

I'm spending an effectively reasonable time with a game that has absolutely no sway/grip/sleeper hold on my free time whatsoever. It's fine. This game is... fine.*

*I'm fibbing. 

 

So Civ VI is uh... pretty... good...

I mean I don't HAVE to keep playing. I can stop anytime I want. I just don't want to right now. Ok? Get off my back! Damn.

Baxter RIP: 2012-2016

Look, it was my sister's first.

I lost a close friend today. Baxter, my yoga ball. Due to a surgery I had I can only do crunches with a decent sized pocket of air between me and the ground. I don't have washboard abs or anything, but I like what I've accomplished and I have a giant purple yoga ball to thank for that.

My first weekend in 8 months...

I... can take a road trip! *HACK!* *WEEEEZzzzE*

I've had a terrible work schedule for almost a year. But now, after pretty much bribing a co worker, I have two consecutive days off for the first time in months. Permanently! Or at least... semi-regularly! God, I'm tired.

I didn't suck at Overwatch for a whole 18 seconds!

I don't know who made this, but thanks!

I say "sh*t" at the beginning because in the 26 hours I've spent with it I've only gotten POTG once. Thanks for the upload, Chance!

Time for a change...

I've recently gotten a job waiting tables that pays... oh, 2.5X  what I'm used to. That's not, "hey I've got more beer money!" It's more "Hey, I can get an apartment twice as big as this rat hole!" So naturally I upgraded my phone and, horror of horrors, my old Jakobs case won't fit. Guess I'll have to find a new o-

There. There it is! That was fast...

These Violent Delights...

So it's not the next great big thing... but it's still really good though, right?

Westworld Review: Tin Men and Wire Trees.

I got one question for you, would you want to follow an act like Game of Thrones? No. No you wouldn't. It's the biggest hit in HBO history and one of the most beloved shows of the past decade. If you go into Westworld expecting to be grabbed like Thrones,  you're probably going to be disappointed. You need to dial back your expectations a bit.

The characters aren't as witty, the themes are more heavy handed, and there's a few dull main characters to sit through. In fact, after watching both episodes I had kinda written them off as a "7". An inoffensive but lacking "7". But seeing as I might have been a bit too intoxicated on the first viewing, I watched them both again. It's weird, but I liked the show almost twice as much the second time around.

Even when he's just showing up for a paycheck, he's more compelling than any of us could ever hope to be.

I began to understand character motivations clearer, the script was smarter than I gave it credit for, there's a good mystery swirling behind nearly every main plot line, and then the biggest thing clicked for me: this is all about video games. All of it.

All the engineers talk about are guest choices, interactive plot lines, and the logistics that keep them strung together. This is the first main stream/big budget... anything exclusively about game design. I'm not kidding around, almost half the show is about how the park works. I.E. philosophical discussions of mechanical souls and reworking the "Hosts" dialogue trees for new "narratives." Once I finally wrapped my head around that, my geeky little heart almost burst.

But there's more to it than that and I'm not just talking about the scrumptious vistas, robot shootouts, dust choked saloons, and uh... the scalpings. There's quick visual jokes like hosts breaking when a fly lands on them and the recurring theme of milk. Seriously, milk comes up. Like a lot. Also all the well worn Blade Runner stuff is acted and presented well enough so you won't cringe. I honestly can't tell if  all the Host facial ticks are cgi or not, because some of those misfit robots are so well acted that I could be convinced it's all in the performance. That "meet my maker" scene in particular was a barnstormer.

So yeah, I'm on board for now. Ed Harris is a spectacular Man in Black (and he looks like he's having one hell of a retirement party) Evan Rachel Wood is playing the girl next door at the moment but will probably be a Sonny-esque liberator. She's also great. Jeffrey Wright and Mr. Hopkins are... well at least you know what you're getting with them.

For better or worse, this is the most interesting thing on TV right now. Outside of politics*, anyway.

I'm a "skim" man, myself.

*;)