Yeah, let’s just rip into that collector’s edition of Mortal Kombat X! Sorry the audio is slightly off. This is the first time I’ve used OBS to record like this.
The Corner of Randomness: Curse You LEGO
For those that might not know, I take pictures. I take an absurd amount of pictures of various toys living life out in the human world. This addiction started with my LEGO minifigs. Needless to say, I have a terrible LEGO addiction and so the announcement of LEGO Dimensions makes me both happy and worried.
The amount of LEGOs I have stored in my basement, combined with the amount I carry with me on photo excursions, borders on obscene. I decorate my house with various themed sets, mainly during Halloween and Christmas. I have a LEGO R2-D2 on my desk. I also have no issue dropping a Benjamin on nothing more than a handful of minifigs. I also enjoy the LEGO video games. They are just stupid fun to me.
So this announcement has me excited and oh so scared. I love that this is following the likes of the Skylanders and Disney Infinity, and Amiibos to some extent, types of games. What I dig the most is that instead of just being some paint figure you place on the “portal” type device, you build the figure, and the portal for that matter, as though it were a real set. This makes it more customizable and oh so true to the brand.
I am scared because I fear I’ll be bankrupt by the end of the year. I am afraid my wife will divorce me when I drain the bank account to buy up all that this game has to offer. I worry I will not remotely be able to keep my addiction in check. I guess I could always sell a kidney to fund this first run of figures and such. NAH!
I look forward to seeing what further news LEGO kicks out as the release date for LEGO Dimensions draws closer. I already have a feeling this is an instant buy for me. Hopefully, I will be able to keep my addiction to these friggin’ tiny plastic blocks in check. Yet, I highly doubt that is even possible for me.
The Corner of Randomness: Debating what to Play
Why must you be so addicting?
If you listen to the SGR Coffee Break, you know I am immensely addicted to Elite: Dangerous. I can now add Pillars of Eternity and Bloodborne to that list. When I want to sit down and dive into a game, I don’t have any shortage of quality time sinks. While these all will be continuous contributors to my Stack of Shame, it also causes a problem. That problem: WHAT THE HELL DO I PLAY?
Don’t get me wrong, I am pleased with the amount of greatness sitting on my plate. I even look forward to adding dessert thanks to Mortal Kombat X. However, this also causes me to spend a hefty amount of time debating what game I want to play. I mean, Pillars of Eternity is a game I swear I’m only going to play for an hour or so, and then five hours pass. Bloodborne isn’t a game you don’t devote your full attention to, or the game will eat you up and spit you out and not even shed a tear for your rage broken controller.
There are days it actually takes me more time to figure out what I want to play than the time I then spend playing the game. This only becomes more complicated if there is a stream on that I want to watch as now I have to consider the game environment in which I will visit. This is probably why Elite: Dangerous gets so much love. I can just sit and mindlessly mine asteroids with little to no worry.
I fear the only solution to this “WTF do I play now” question is to probably start flipping a coin. Or just completing one game befo……right, I can’t even finish that sentence with a straight face. In the end, having too many great games to play is a blessing and a curse. Can anyone clone me and mind link to my clone so we can play different games, but I still get the experience of playing? If you can do that, you’d probably be stupid rich! Until that time comes, I’m just going to sit here and stare at my heap of games and try to figure out what I’m going to play while sipping on this coffee.
The Corner of Randomness: The Digital Download vs Physical Media Debate
The addiction is real.
For the longest time, I’ve been a physical media person when it comes to console games. Well, I must now confess that I have broken that habit thanks to Bloodborne. I had no intention of doing a digital download for this game, but excitement got the better of me. Curse you excitement…and streamers!
However, this wasn’t a spur of the moment decision. I have been teetering on the edge of digital downloads for console games for some time. I did my research to learn I’m not saving any space on my PS4 hard drive with physical disks. I never keep my game boxes, so it’s not like I’m trying to show off my game collection. Downloads have drastically reduced in size thanks to compression technologies getting better. I mean, Bloodborne requires 24 gigs of space, but only required a download size of 5 gigs. That’s a big savings when it comes to my stupid data cap that the cable company feels they need to impose on me.
Then there is my contributing source of ‘Stack of Shame’ titles: Steam. I have long questioned why I am fine with buying a game on Steam, but not on Xbox Live or PlayStation Network. Is it because I joined Steam way back when it first came out and I have just grown to accept it for my PC gaming needs? Meanwhile, I’ve always associated physical media with console games since starting out on the Atari 2600?
I admit that the fear that my most recent PSN purchase is now in the hands of Sony. At any point they can just send a signal to my PS4 and kill my new game. I can’t just load a disk in and play it whenever I want. Yet, at the same time, this is also true for my ComiXology library, Steam library, and Nook books. Yet, the fear that Sony can take away my toys is very real.
I should also note that I almost never loan out my games, therefore that is a non-factor for me. I also never trade my games in, so I don’t even think about trade-in values. I know I can “loan” Bloodborne to a friend with game sharing, if that is ever a thing I need/want to do. So the two big advantages I’ve read about with the whole digital vs physical debate is not even a thing for me.
Will I continue to buy my games on PSN? Probably not all the time. This is especially true for collector’s editions as I like all the books, soundtracks, statues, and toys that tend to come with those. Yes, I do feel dirty for this recent action. Yet I got a game I wanted and I never left my house. I mean, it’s cold outside. It’s scary out there. I have to deal with people. I’d have to change out of my pajamas, and who wants to do that? That all seems like so much work now. I’ll just wash away my fears by dying over and over and over and over again in Bloodborne!
The Corner of Randomness: Happy 16th Birthday EverQuest
The addiction was real!
This week marks the 16th birthday for the original EverQuest. I have so many fond memories of this game. Sixteen years ago, I had just built my first 400 MHz Pentium computer, complete with a 3dfx Voodoo graphics card, 56k modem, and 64MB of RAM. Yes, just let those stats sink in for a moment. Broadband was not even a thing yet and man did waiting for a few hours for a patch to pull down because your girlfriend kept picking up the phone and disconnecting your modem suck. However, I waited it out and fell in love with my first MMO experience!
I remember working at Electronics Boutique and my manager and assistant manager couldn’t stop talking about this game. They were sharing stories of how they were exploring the world and finding all these cool mobs. They complained about having to do corpse runs after they died and they didn’t want to lose their gear. This new “raiding” thing sounded pretty kick-ass. I listened to their tales for a few hours while I sold countless Pokémon cards to various kids. By the end of the work day, I picked up the game and raced home to install it only to find I had some patching to do. Talk about buzzkill!
Eventually, the patching finished and I logged into a strange world. I rolled a Gnome Cleric and immediately got lost in my starting city known as Ak’Anon. Within mere minutes, I fell off a bridge and couldn’t get back to dry land. Eventually, a GM (Game Master) helped me out, gave me some gold and wished me luck. I eventually found my way to the city entrance and stepped out into a big, and beautiful, world. It was the hook I needed. It was new. It was intimidating. IT WAS AWESOME!
Over time, I found a guild. I made some great friends. I quested. Hell, this game took over my life. I’d get up two hours before I’d have to leave for work just so I could do some crafting. I’d race home after work and login and play until the wee hours of the morning. I lost so much sleep, but to this day I still think it was worth it. I mean, I still remember slaying my first dragon and praying to the gaming gods I’d get something special.
As my game play hours skyrocketed into numbers that shall not be mentioned here, I would follow my guild to other games such as Dark Age of Camelot, EverQuest 2, Guild Wars, World of Warcraft, and various other MMO type games. Sadly, just like the drug it was, nothing would capture that initial awe that was EverQuest. Sure, other games were fun, but after that first taste, it was nothing more than hopes and dreams to relive that high that I originally had. To this day, I still play the occasional MMO, but they all still pale in comparison that that first dip into the EverQuest pool.
EverQuest, thank you for the countless hours of fun. Thank you for making me excited to get my first broadband connection so I could play you with less lag. Thanks for making me appreciate not having to call up guildies, drag them out of bed, and force them into the game to help me recover my corpse. Thank you for the countless memories that you helped create! EverQuest, this beer is for you!
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- Next Page »