Underneath my yellow skin

Category Archives: Fun

Monster Hunter: World, Dark Souls II, and asundry

Posted on by • 0 Comments
twice as much fun.
Tandem Bageljuice gliding!

I said last week I was nearing the end of Monster Hunter: World. There was plenty more to do as there is always a ton to do in MHW, but I felt as if I were running out of gas. I’m still playing, albeit more casually (in terms of time put into it). I took on the twin Tempered Bageljuices solo without even breaking a sweat. This is not a humblebrag–just the facts, man. I went in properly buffed. I have an armor/weapon loadout for each monster, which you can do when you have a-mill-and-a-half monies. I update the set whenever I fight the next souped-up version of the monster, and I try to make sure I have Divine Blessing Level 3, Health Boost Level 2 (prefer Level 3, of course), and Defense Boost Level 3 (or higher. I will forgo this for the other two, though). I’m very much defense-based, and I don’t mind if it takes me a bit longer to kill a monster than it would if I were more attack-based. I also had Fire Resistance Level 3 for this fight because the consensus is that Bageljuice does fire damage.

I buffed myself to the max for this fight. I drank my Mega Armorskin and Mega Demondrug, which are fucking amazing. I can’t stop raving about them. They buff your defense and attack respectively by a lot, and they last the entire quest or until you get carted. I got the Grimalkyne in the area, which are the trappers because the quest happens in the Wildspire Waste. Then, I boosted us by throwing a Hardshell Powder and an Attack Powder in the air like I just don’t care. I ate for defense, and then I went to tackle the two Tempered Bazelgeese.

One of the best things about this fight is watching the two Bageljuices go at each other, which they did four or five times during this fight. Not only is it epic to watch; they do significant damage to each other. I’m in the minority (of ‘the community’) in that I think Bageljuice is adorable. I love his podded face and body, and I just want him as a pet. Then again, I think the Nazgul, Dementors, and Ultralisks are adorable as well.

I thought time would be my biggest issue in this fight, but I didn’t even need half the time. My strat was to let the two of them fight each other for as long as possible before they both targeted me. Then, I’d Dung Pod one of them and attack the other. I had the Vitality Mantle and the Health Booster as my tools. The best part is that you can use a mantle and a booster at the same time. So, I’d plunk down the Health Booster, throw on my Vitality Mantle, and go to town on the one Bageljuice until the other one came around. The Health Booster lasts 60 seconds and has a 150-second cooldown. The Vitality Mantle lasts 120 seconds or until you get hit out of its protectiveness, and it has a 360-second cooldown. They are a great tandem, especially when playing solo. That Health Booster has saved my ass more times than I care to admit. Another way I use it is to wait until the monster flees, then plunk it down so me and my Felyne friends can fully heal.

Continue Reading

Monster Hunter: World limping to the end

Posted on by • 0 Comments
uppercut!
Best place to be with Xeno.

After several days off from playing Monster Hunter: World, I jumped back in, partly to play the Kulve Taroth Siege. I’ll get to that in a minute. I also wanted to do the weekly Limited Bounties because doing them all nets a Gold Wyverian Print when it’s all said and done. Basically, it gives you one free gem (at the Elder Melder) a week, which ain’t bad. The problem is, the Limited Bounties are like, “Hunt ______ Fanged Wyverns”, which can get tedious. I do them multi if I can, but that’s not always possible. This week, it was Hunt 3 Fanged Wyverns, 4 Radobaans, and 5 8-star Quests (Elder Dragons. Just call them Elder Dragons). I mostly did Nergy for the last one because I need another Nergy Gem, and Teo once because I need his as well, but I got no gems from those five hunts. Only two tail cuts on Nergy and didn’t get the tail cut on the Teo.

I tried the Charge Blade on one hunt, and I’ve lost my skills on that. It’s a shame because it’s a great weapon, but it’s one that needs constant usage. I forget the combos if I haven’t used it in a while, and, yes, I didn’t really need the combos for the Tempered Palolumu, but I felt like a newb when I couldn’t charge my shield or my sword. The problem is that I love my Switch Axe and am so comfortable with it. I’ve taken down almost every monster with my SA, and it feels like an extension of my hand.

Side Note: I’ve mentioned before my love of axes. It started when I played as a Pyromancer in Dark Souls (that seems like ages ago) and started with the Hand Axe, then I used the Battle Axe throughout most of that game. It’s pooh-poohed as a babby weapon, but I finished the game with it. As a result, I love axes. The first time I played tank in a Dark Souls game (DS III, second playthrough), I mained the Great Axe for most of the game. I really dug the Black Knight Greataxe during my tank run in DS Remastered.

I like axes, is what I’m saying. The Switch Axe felt the most comfortable from waaaaay back in the beginning when I tried all fourteen weapons, and it’s continued to be my favorite weapon. I know it’s not as flashy as other weapons or as fast, but it’s a solid weapon. Plus, you have the heavy-handed axe on the one hand, and the fast, slashing sword on the other. I think it’s hilarious that you can walk faster with the axe out than you can with the sword, but I usually sheathe before walking/running.

Continue Reading

Monster Hunter: World curtains closed–then opened again

Posted on by • 0 Comments
hey, boo, hey!
Me backing up The Seeker, my MHW boo.

One final boss. One last Elder Dragon to take on before closing the books. This was it. This was what I had been training for all my life.

::cue Rocky training montage::

Of course, by training, I mean mostly grinding out the other Elder Dragons and getting my gems, yo! I’m all about the gems. Still haven’t gotten a Teo gem, but to be fair, I haven’t fought him many more times this last week.

I mentioned last week that the grind can get tedious. I don’t mind fighting a monster four or five times, but twenty times to get one gem….I’m getting ahead of myself.

The last boss. The lead up to it is pretty epic, and it includes a lengthy cameo from my Monster Hunter: World boo, The Seeker. He’s a wyverian, which is this game’s version of elves. Not really. They have the elf ears, but it’s that they have dragon blood or some such. Or rather, wyvern blood. Anyhoo, The Seeker is a hottie and could get it all day errrry day. I’m just saying.

Let me backtrack a bit. The whole story of MHW is ridonkulous and doesn’t really matter, of course. The basic gist is (and again, remember this is not canon) there is a bunch of bioenergy burbling around everywhere, and everyone is mystified as to why or what is causing it. It’s Elder Dragons, bitches!!! They’re running wild and running crazy and…something, something, something. Then, once you beat Nergy, The Admiral (who is apparently The Handler’s grandfather?) booms at you about something or the other, he tells you that his old friend (The Seeker) is waiting for you because something, something, something.

So, I take off with shadow, The Handler, and The Admiral to meet The Seeker. We cross the River Styx in a properly  solemn and stirring manner, and it’s a nice setup. I’m not usually one for long cutscenes, but this one felt right given everything I’d gone through. I EARNED this. Plus, shadow looked so adorable in his Vaal Hazak armor (Vaal Set), waving frantically goodbye to The Handler. We go towards something, the ‘bioenergy’ that was fucking everything up, and this brilliant blue light emerges from a crystal-like area. As The Seeker, The Admiral, shadow, and I watch, something emerged slowly from it as if…yeah, that’s right. We get to watch a baby Elder Dragon being born. As it is being born, something falls on The Seeker (oh, no! Not my vidya game boo!), nearly crushing him. I make The Admiral take care of him (how, since I don’t talk, but apparently my intense stares conveyed my seriousness) while I take on the baby Elder Dragon on my own. Well, with shadow by my side, of course! I can’t do anything without my trusty Palico. I was a little nervous because I didn’t have another Felyne to help me, but there was nothing I could do about that.

Continue Reading

Monster Hunter: World and the beginning of the end

Posted on by • 0 Comments
i'm all glowy and shit.
Daora Entom in action as I fly high!

This week in Monster Hunter: World had me cleaning up house. It’s funny because it mimics how I work in the real world. I ‘grind’ before doing the real work (mostly by thinking hard about things) so it seems as if I make my decisions suddenly and rashly, but in reality, I’ve given it a lot of thought. It’s like swimming–most of the work is done below the surface.

When I last posted, I had just tackled Teostra and had two more Elder Dragons in this cluster plus Kirin (also an Elder Dragon) and the final storyline quest (final is not really applicable in this game, but it’s the quest that makes the credits roll). Before this, I’d been tackling one main monster a week, roughly, so I thought it’d be the same. I’d manage to do one more Elder Dragon, then farm the hell out of it so I could make all the armor and weapons out of it that I wanted. Plus charms that need the parts. I still needed the Teostra Gem, but I didn’t feel like fighting him any more, so I took a short break.

Next up was Kushala Daora. I love this Elder Dragon. She (and I call her she. Dunno if it’s cannon or not, though I found an angry post about how it’s an IT! Not a he or she!!!! Like, who the fuck cares? Why does it chap your hide so much that Kusha is called a she and not Nergy being called a he, for example? Nerds are the worst about this shit. For real. But I digress) is elegant and very Asian-looking (specifically Chinese, but probably meant to be Japanese), and if you don’t attack her, she ignores you. Once you attack her, however, it’s on! She’s called Kushala Daora,  Dragon of Steel, and she has control over the wind. Her most vicious attacks are wind-based (though they all inflict physical damage, which is odd), and she is covered in steel. That means you don’t do much damage until you break her skin, and her tornadoes are insane. The only thing I knew about her before going in was that she did a lot of wind moves, so I made sure I had Windproof Level 5 (max) before taking her on.

As usual, I rolled in all buffed out and with My Nergal Gash. I will take High Elderseal over high elemental damage any day of the weak. As I said earlier, it’s believed that High Elderseal means the Elder Dragons do their ultimates less often. There is no official word on it, but it seems to be true from what I’ve seen of videos with people who weren’t using Elderseal.

Kusha was fairly easy with the liberal use of Flash Pods. That is still probably the singular best tip I learned from Casey–bring Flash Pods and the materials to craft more whenever fighting a flying monster. Kushala is made almost trivial with Flash Pods as long as you don’t do it during her tornado phase. I wasn’t even close to carting once, and I did it in under twenty minutes. Of course, I did her multi several times, and I had to laugh because her gems dropped so easily. I have three, I believe, whereas I still don’t have one from Teo, and it took me twenty tries to get one from Nergy. I had a hard time getting two of Kusha’s tails, so that’s what I concentrated on when I did multi. I managed to slice it off three out of five times (I think I had Partbreaker), and I felt like a badass. I finally got the second one on the last time I cut off her tail. I needed them to make her Insect Glaive, Daora’s Entom. I’m mostly maining the Switch Axe, but her IG is so badass! It’s a squid, and it lights up when you use it.

Continue Reading

Monster Hunter: World and end game content!

Posted on by • 0 Comments
teostra is all about the fire.
Hello, Teostra. You look all fiery and festive.

Physically, I’m nearly 100% better. My sleep is all over the map, which is one sign that I’m not as sick. When I’m sick, I sleep a lot (seven to ten hours). When I’m not sick, I get roughly six. My natural biorhythms seem to dictate I sleep in the wee hours of the morning to late morning, but when I’m sick, I rarely make it past midnight. Once, I fell asleep around eight and woke up at four in the morning. My past pattern of sleep was go to bed around five or six in the morning and to get up at noon or one. Now, I go to bed around between one and three.

Anyway, Monster Hunter:World. I’ve been grinding away in the end game, and while I’m deliriously happy there aren’t any loot boxes, I have to admit repeatedly killing a monster over and over to get that rare part has gotten tedious. In the last post, I mentioned it took me twenty times to get the Nergy gem I needed to make the helm. Well, I’ll need another for the final upgrade to my Nergy Switch Axe, which means another twenty times fighting him, give or take a few. I have to remember to use my Lucky Voucher which will give me more rewards which will boost my chance slightly of getting a gem. I have to beat the final boss before getting the necessary materials to make it, so I can wait. Also, the end-game gear is ridiculously expensive to craft. The final Nergy upgrade is over 50K zenny (the monetary unit), which is a hefty chunk of change. I’ve gotten up to over 900,000 zenny (want to get over a million just for giggles), but then I made upgraded some armor and plummeted to exactly 700,000 zenny, which makes me nervous. I did one of the Event Quests, called Triple Threat Throwdown, that gets you a ton of zenny in one go if everyone is wearing the Bandit Mantle, and now I’m back up to 790,000 zenny.

PSA: If you’re doing the Triple Threat Throwdown, bring your goddamn Bandit Mantle. Maybe some people don’t have it yet, but it’s disheartening when I’m the only one wearing it. The Bandit Mantle causes gold shinies to fall off large monsters as you smack them, and they turn out to be shells that are only for trade-in. If all four people are wearing the Bandit Mantle, you can make beaucoup zenny in ten roughly ten minutes. Even when it’s just me, I can score 10,000 zenny or so.

I go back and forth on the grind. I understand and appreciate that the developers didn’t want to go the loot crate route, and I further understand that they didn’t want to make the rewards too easy to get. However, there is a point where the enthusiasm for the fight turns into heavy sighs of obligation. I will say that being able to meld important consumables at the Elder Melder (and gems. Although, rarely the gem I want. To be fair, though, I was able to buy an Odogaron gem to get the final upgrade to my Odo Charge Blade, Odium (which I have yet to do, but at least I have the materials for it!). I would tweak the formula so that the gem drops for the higher-tier monsters was slightly more often. I don’t know how to make it fair, though, and it’s not my biggest complaint about the game.

I mentioned before that taking on each of the monsters is a Big Deal (for the first time. Except for the Great Jagras, poor guy), and I have to be in a certain mood to tackle it. I’ve been feeling much better physically in the past few days (as I mentioned above), so I decided to tackle another Elder Dragon–Teostra. He’s the fire/blast dragon who likes to lurk in the lava areas, so I needed to wear a piece of armor with Heat Guard. It was mentioned in one of the videos I watched, and it’s a godsend. There’s a consumable called Cool Drink that lets you deal with the heat for five minutes, but I’d rather not have to keep an eye on that on top of worrying about everything else. So, if I wear one piece of armor that has Heat Guard (it only goes to Level 1), I don’t have to worry about it until going into Teostra’s lair. I think I remember hearing that you need both Heat Guard and a Cool Drink to deal with that shit.

Continue Reading

I fought the Nergigante and the Nergigante….

Posted on by • 0 Comments
get a room, guys.
Lovers’ spat.

I finally did it! Yes, I fought the Nergigante between last week’s post and this one, and how did I do? We’ll get to that in a minute. I also took on the Black Diablos, and I want to talk about her first. Diablos was my hardest fight in Low Rank. He was the first one to make me cart three times, which isn’t too bad considering that it’s at the very end of Low Rank. He’s tanky and cranky, and even though he’s considering a Flying Wyvern, his favorite move is to tunnel underground and pop up suddenly to crash into you and do massive amounts of damage. I actually had a harder time with LR Derblers than with HR Derblers, which really shouldn’t be the case. I knew Black Derblers was going to be even harder because she’s a female Diablos in heat (her description) which means she’s almost always pissed off.

I encountered her for the first time on another quest or expedition, and I followed her around a bit, but was having none of that. I’ve said that I admire people who can just jump into a fight. I was watching Pat of the Super Best Friends playing MHW, and he ran into the Deviljho in the wild. He just decided to fight the Angry Pickle and beat him. He was scoffing at how easy it was, but when he had the actual quest, it was harder. I just couldn’t believe he decided to go after the Deviljho without prepping–and won. Then again, he was playing on the PS4, and Deviljho didn’t come out until well after the original content was released. In other words, people had already beaten the game by the time they encountered the Deviljho.

Anyhoo, I was on another expedition and ran into the Black Derblers. She has no interest in me as she wanders around, probably because I’m just a speck to her. A gnat, really. I decided to attack her just to see what she was like. I did not plan on killing her, and *spoiler* I didn’t. She stunned me and then made me cart before I could get away. I don’t consider it a real cart because I wasn’t really trying to fight her, nor was I kitted out properly. I went back to HQ and got ready for the fight. I’m a rabid convert to saved load-outs now, and for Derbers, it includes a lot of Legiana armor and her Switch Axe. I update as I get further in the game, but I’m pretty sure I had the Legiana helm and vambraces. Actually, I probably had the Ingot Vambraces Beta on because it gives two levels of Health Boost, which is an extra 30 health total. Actually again, I might have been using the Axe Semper Tyrannis, which is made from Derblers parts. If that’s the case, then I had a different load-out because you need to shore up the -30% Affinity and use Free Element to ‘wake up’ the Ice element.  I think I used Leggy’s Switch Axe for this fight, though. Back to Health Boost. I really should get the third level because three levels is +50 (as opposed to +15, then +30). I know it might not sound like a lot, but my base health is 100, so right now, I have nearly a third more.

Ian was asking me the other day how I increased my health and stamina, and I rattled off a bunch of things I do. I realized I was ‘that gal’ now, and he even commented that I was really locked into the meta. I said it was because I watched a ton of Casey at IGN and because I knew what was important to me. Related note: I still don’t know the most optimal way to use the Switch Axe, but I get the job done. My point being, I get way into the weeds about certain things and not others. So. As to my build and buffs, from watching Woolie of the Super Best Friends play, I realized that I should buy the Powercharm and the Armorcharm from the Provisions Stockpile guy. They give an attack boost and a defense boost respectively. Then, you can combine a Powercharm with two Bageljuice talons and an Armorcharm with two Bageljuice talons to make the Powertalon and the Armortalon respectively. These give even bigger attack and defense buffs, and they stack with the Powercharm and the Armorcharm. So, at the cost of four slots in my item pouch, I can have +15 attack and +30 defense. Which, again, doesn’t sound like a lot, but due to the obscure logarithms that I don’t completely understand, they’re really good.

I usually have Diving Blessing Level Three which randomly reduces the damage I take by 50%, and it seems to go off a lot of the time. I try to have Defense Level Three as well because I’m all about the defense. As I’ve said before, I will sacrifice some offense for defense, but I’ve found a way to have both. I’ll get to that in a minute. I also use Mega Demondrug and Mega Armorskin before each fight because they give you a big boost in attack and defense respectively. Better yet, they last until the quest is over or you get carted. Fucking OP, man, especially since I can make them at the Elder Melder at a ridiculously low cost. I stack that with Demon Powder and Hardshell Powder. I try to make sure I have teammates around before I use all this if I’m doing multi so they get the benefits as well. I only have one Friendship Jewel, and I currently don’t feel like I can sacrifice more slots/skills to being a healer, but I could add a few more Wide Range skills if I wanted. Sometimes, I eat a Might Pill and an Adamant Pill as well, but I’ve not done that as much lately. Why? Because it seems like overkill, and I’m using up my resources at a rapid pace.

Continue Reading

Traipsing my way through Monster Hunter: World High Rank

Posted on by • 0 Comments
thanks, cat friends!
Grimalkynes help trap Bagel!

Still sick. Still dragging my ass around when I can bother to get off the couch. The weather turned cool today, which is a relief. Yesterday was hot, steamy, and gross, and, boy, am I glad I don’t live in the South. I’ve been playing a shit-ton of MHW since I last wrote about it, but I still haven’t taken on the Nergigante. Yes, I know I said I’d hoped I’d have tackled him by now, but I’m still enough under the weather that I didn’t feel I could commit to a fifty-minute Nergigante fight.

I took on Uragon, and he actually made me cart once. I was caught off-guard by one of his falling pods, and then I was stun-locked into oblivion. I find one of the important things about a hunt is to armor up correctly, and I hadn’t had enough fire resistance to withstand the one-two punch. The next time I took on Uragon (by myself), I was better kitted out, and it was easy-peasy. You may ask yourself why I took him on again by myself when I’ve been enjoying the world of multi once I kill a monster solo. It’s because of the opaque multi system, which while I understand mostly how to use it, there are still a few things that make me shake my head. For example, I like to play the story missions by myself. So, there’s no reason I need to play online for that. But, you’re not allowed to play offline in this game so I had to figure out that I wanted to start an online session just to play by myself. In addition, I wanted to make it private so not just anyone could jump into my game.

Fine. Dandy, even. Not a problem once I learned that. Except, when I tackled A Fiery Convergence (an optional quest in which I tackled Lavasioth and Uragon in order to get the Fireproof Mantle), I automatically selected one player, then departed for the quest. Once I got to the Elder’s Recess, I went to fire off my SOS Flare, but it was grayed out. I thought, “Hm. Maybe I need to eat first.” So, I did that and still the SOS Flare was grayed out. I realized at some point that it was probably because I set my session to one player, and I had to decide if I wanted to try it myself or abandon the quest and start again. I think I used a Lucky Voucher (which doubles rewards) for this quest or else I just decided to try it on my own. I could always abandon it later if it went poorly. Spoiler, it did not go poorly. I took care of both within half an hour and never was in any real danger. It was satisfying, I’ll be honest with you.

Next up was Azure Rathalos. I was nervous about him, I won’t lie. I took out a few regular Rathalos in multi so I could upgrade my Rathalos Axe II into the Rathbringer (love the name!) Axe I. I buffed myself out max for the Azure Rathalos fight, including Mega Armorskin), girded my loins, and waded into the Ancient Forest. To my surprise, I took him out fairly easily. Not as easy as, say, HR Diablos, but he still wasn’t as hard as I expected him to be. Immediately afterwards, I took on The Red and Blue Crew (optional quest to take down a regular Rathalos and an Azure Rathalos in the same quest) in multi because one, I wanted to clear the quest, and, two, because I’m still feeling punk, and I didn’t feel up to taking on the duo by myself, even though I had just downed Azure Rathalos.

Continue Reading

Spinning my Charge Blade in Monster Hunter: World

Posted on by • 0 Comments
give me your majestic horns, derblers!
DIABLOS (HR) MY NEMESIS WE MEET AGAIN

I’m still recovering from the sickness, and it’s been slow-going. It’s frustrating because I know that I have to take it easy in order to get better, but I’m impatient for it to just be done already. I did jump in my recovery last night to about 50%, which is up from roughly 10%. I can tell I’m getting better because I’m sleeping less, and for now, I’ll take that trade. I wish it weren’t so, but it is–I know I’m getting better when I’m sleeping significantly less.

One of the downsides to being sick is that I haven’t been able to make as much progress in Monster Hunter: World as I would have liked. I’ve mentioned in the past I’ve reached the point with Souls games, especially DS III, where I’m comfort gaming if I’m playing them. I don’t have to put much thought into it, especially since I summon for bosses*. MHW, on the other hand, still takes all my concentration when I’m fighting something new.

In my moments of feeling better, I fought my nemesis, HR Diablos, and took him down handily. Before I did, I took down a Low Rank Diablos for parts, and it was a piece of cake. I had to laugh to myself because I had been dreading Derblers, and it was easy-peasy. I had more difficulty with HR Anjanath, and that’s saying something. Again, I’ve done a lot of grinding, and I’ve built a defensive juggernaut. I usually have a Defense III charm, Diving Blessing Level 3, and I always have the Armorcharm and Armortalon in my item pouch. I use Armorskin before each fight, so, yeah, I’m buffed the fuck out defense-wise when I go into a fight. (I also have the Powercharm in my pouch and use Demondrug before each fight).

I also took on (and down) The Angry Pickle, who has been, by far, the hardest fight I’ve had so far. I’m still pissed that I had him down to flashing skull the first time when time ran out because of the stupid Handler story bullshit that takes up the first fifteen minutes. I got him the second time with one bogus faint (lag faint) in about thirty-eight minutes. It’s a slog, and it made me feel that maybe my offense isn’t where I need it to be at this point.

I’m still maining the Switch Axe at this point, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because it’s powerful, especially in Sword mode and surprisingly agile in Axe mode for such a big weapon. Bad because it means I always have to get up close and personal with a monster, which isn’t always ideal. I really want to pick up a ranged weapon, but I want one that gives me the option of melee as well. Which means the Gunlance. Which is one of the most technical weapons in the game. I already main three technical weapons–do I want or need to add a fourth? OK, so I just read that the Gunlance is still an up-close weapon, so do I want to tackle one of the ranged weapons? Also, Gunlance is a heavy weapon, not a technical one, so there’s that. The other two technical weapons are Hunting Horn (hahahahahah no) and the Bow. Which is amazing in the right hands, but just not mine. Most of the speed records are with ranged weapons, which is another reason I want to pick one up.

Continue Reading

Monster Hunter: World grinding harder and faster

Posted on by • 0 Comments
rathalos is having none of my shit.
Oh, shit. Rathalos is pissed!

Before jumping into Monster Hunter: World, I have to vent my spleen about casual games, which I’ve played for years. Before I was a ‘hardcore gamer’, I played Hidden Object, Match-3, Solitaire, and Time Management games. Big Fish Games is the Steam of casual games, and I have a membership there, which means I get one ‘free’ game a month. I should stop my membership, but I do enjoy a casual game now and again when I want to give my mind a break. The thing is, though, once I started playing hardcore games*, I noticed things about casual games that would not fly in the hardcore world. One, unskippable opening cut-scenes. Look. Devs. We need to talk. Cut-scenes need to be skippable, especially before I’m allowed to fiddle with options. The first thing I do when I play a casual game is go into the options and turn off all the sound. Why? Because I can’t stand the background music that usually plays, and the voice acting is usually atrocious. Besides, when I play a casual game, I usually have a video/stream in the background, so I want to concentrate on the latter. It’s different when I play a hardcore game because I want to be immersed in that case.

Two, the code is atrocious. There are so many more bugs in a casual game than a hardcore one, and I don’t know why. Theoretically, it should be easier to make a casual game than a hardcore one, but then again, the people doing the development probably don’t have as much knowledge. That’s just a wild guess on my part, but it makes sense. I’m playing a solitaire game that’s a murder mystery at the same time. I played the first in the series and noted a few major problems. But, because there aren’t many murder mystery solitaire games, I gave the second a shot. Well, it has the same damn problems. One, it randomly crashes. Or, should I say, not so randomly. It’s when I try to use a power up. After I click on the power up and use it, the game either freezes or I can click, but I can’t pick up any cards. Sometimes it simply freezes on its own. The other bug is that sometimes the gold cards you need to collect can’t be clicked. And, finally, at the end of a round after I’ve cleared every card, it won’t exit into the ‘you won’ splash screen.

This doesn’t happen every round, but it happens enough for me to be frustrated with the game. They are the same goddamn problems I had with the last game, and you’d think they’d fix them between games. Here’s another issue I have with casual games in general–they keep putting out the same shit. There’s one solitaire company that puts out the same game once a month or so with just a palette swap, a change in themes, and nothing else. They’ve wised up a bit and write game descriptions for a much more exciting game than they provide, but they don’t change the games at all. I’ve bought a few, and they’re good enough to pass the time, but they’re nothing to write home about.

It seems as if casual games are stuck in a rut. Devs put out the same game over and over again with a slight story change. Everything is paranormal, and there’s usually a family member who’s gone missing. I will say the Hidden Object games usually work fine, and they look good, but there’s no heart to them. I haven’t found one in a long time that had a good story or that really captured my attention. I know that’s not why I’m playing them, but I would like more than mind-numbing boredom when I play.

Continue Reading

Gonna make me sweat

Posted on by • 0 Comments

The full crud hit me on Thursday, and I’ve been slogging through it ever since. I spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday feeling like complete and utter shit. Today (Sunday), I woke up feeling a bit better, and I’m hoping it means that I’m on the tail end of this thing, or at least the legs of it. I’ve taken Excedrin Migraine (generic version) every day since then, and it’s helped stave off the incipient migraine.

Side note: I go back and forth about calling what I get migraines because there are a lot of people who are elitist about migraines. “Oh, you think that’s bad? I can’t get out of bed for three days and have to lie in complete darkness and stillness with a cold towel over my face the entire time.” “Migraine medication? How lucky that it works for you. It doesn’t help me at all.” I know there are a variety of migraines, but I’m still chary because I don’t want to have to listen to a harangue about why what I have isn’t a migraine. But, I know it is. I get nauseated, and everything starts turning gray. I feel as if I have a steel band closing around my forehead, and if I’m lucky to catch it in time with the Excedrin, then I’ll just feel the mild effects for a few hours as they slowly dissipate.

I haven’t been able to do much other than watch videos, go to Cubs, and play Monster Hunter World. I’m starting to get serious about the end game of MHW. I’ve allowed Nergigante to build up in my mind, and now I’ve freaked myself the fuck out. I still can’t get out of Dark Souls mode of thinking that each monster is a Boss (with a capital B), which means I dread each fight. It doesn’t matter that I don’t die against the monsters nearly as much as I die against the bosses in the Souls series–I still equate the two.

It’s hard for me to answer whether or not I’m still enjoying the game. I am, but there’s an accompanying sense of dread/resentment/obligation. There is just so much to do, and when I unlock additional quests, I’m more, “Oh, not more shit to do” rather than “Hell, yeah!”

It’s also hard for me to gauge how I’m doing because I only play solo. I’ve fainted maybe a total of a dozen times, and have failed a quest because of being carted three times twice (LR Diablos and LR Kirin, but as I have pointed out several times, one of the cartings on Kirin was because of a glitch/lag). I don’t think that’s so bad, but I don’t know because again, I don’t play with other people.


Continue Reading