MyNameIsAtticus

Today's game is some Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition. I haven't been in my world for a while so i decided to hop in and relax. I've noticed i don't really have a drive to beat the Ender Dragon, so i think that's really dampened a bit of my attention too it. I still enjoy sinking some time into it though.

I stopped to get some fish to tame the cat above, and while i was doing so it started to set and the game's soothing soundtrack started playing. I ended up putting the rod away and just watching. Maybe it's just nostalgia but watching that sent shivers down my spine, in like a good way. I felt all the stress of the day just kind of leave my body and i felt a lot lighter.

It brought back vivid memories of my childhood, sat around the Entertainment Center with my sister. We'd spend hours in Minecraft (creative mode specifically because we were afraid of survival) and just build the most mundane things with our creativity. It always felt so amazing even when the builds were so poor in quality.

I remember the very first world i built, i built this giant wooden house in a dessert, then built a cafeteria on top of it out of iron blocks. and finally on top of that I built a Travel Agency that specialized in trips to the nether (complete with a nether rail and everything). I decided i wanted a moat so i used TNT. Then i built a bridge out of emerald blocks. Finally i had a farm i put in the basement along with a room for my cats. I wanted to be able to see them so i put a glass sun roof in the floor of my bedroom.

Another memory I remember was when i couldn't figure out how to make a furnace (because of how the Console Edition's UI was). I tried everything, and my last ditch effort was too build a cobblestone U shape with a Dandelion in the center (for fire). Looking back I'm not sure why i thought that would work. But it's still a really fond memory. I'm starting to ramble a bit here about my childhood, but basically, watching this was nostalgic.

I went to check in on the village and i think their population went down, I'm not sure though. I'm thinking of building some sort of defensive barrier around the village to help keep them safe. I don't really do villager trading, but also I'd feel bad not trying to help out, so it's something on my list someday.

My final act for today was to check on Matheson (who is a black sheep i named after Richard Matheson, author of I Am Legend, one of my favorite books growing up and what i just so happened to have on my shelf when i looked at it for a name). I fed him some wheat before shutting it off. I figured i should feed the guy.

Today's game is some more Final Fantasy 7 Remake. I went ahead and went through Chapter 5. I'm inching closer too the point i remember stopping on the original PS4 version, soon i think i'll surpass my younger self. I remember the difficulty being really high, but now i'm wondering if there's something younger me missed (it's probably the feature to auto distribute points).

Where this difficulty was especially obvious was the boss fight with the crab mech thing. I remember really struggling with this my first time playing. This time? I wouldn't say it was easy but i got it on the first try. Though, now, i also am a lot got at managing resources, so i'm sure that's helping here. I wish i could go back in time and figure out why though as i am curious where the difficulty came from when i was younger. Maybe it's all a placebo?

During the section where you're walking on the tracks, i'm surprised i didn't have any near misses. I wonder if they scripted it where you can't get hit. I was really kinda tempted to just wait on the track to see if i got hit or not. Call it morbid curiosity.

I've noticed a bit of ghosting in the graphics, i'm not sure if it's an intentional effect as i only notice it in some areas (such as the heavy lit area above) or if it's some sort of upscaling (TAA or FSR irc can cause this sort of effect). It's not too big of a deal for me, i do wish i knew what was causing it though.

Today is some more Final Fantasy 7. I felt like sitting back down with it today and played through Chapter 5. As i was backtracking i bumped into this old lady in a argument with a soldier. I was trying to get a photo of it, but accidentally got one instead where it looks like the Old Lady is about to fight Cloud and the solider is either trying to talk her out of it or into it.

I got to the opening of Chapter 5 today. I'm not really sure what's up with it but everything has like a blue tint which is really throwing me off. Idk if it's intentional or not, but it's very noticeable.

My initial struggles with the combat i feel like suddenly vanished. Maybe i just needed a moment for it to click, but when i went into Roche's fight it felt fluid and really natural. I think before i was being too aggressive with it. With this fight i did a lot more dodging and blocks which helped. I also tread to keep tabs on enemies weaknesses which really helped.

On a similar subject of the combat, there's it's wielder, Cloud. I really like how he's starting to warm up to everyone. I was worried he was always going to be kind of cold and distant, so seeing this growth is nice. Also love seeing him try to be a good friend to Tifa, we could always use more people like that in the world.

I want to see if i can play some more of it tomorrow, i'll have see though. I'm not sure what my day will be like.

Today's game is Left 4 Dead 2. We found out a friend had a copy, so i got 3 of us together and we all played through the Hard Rain campaign together and had a blast. It was a modded game to really spice things up (and one of my friends is scared of Zombies, so this helps make it playable for them).

I usually play Solo, so that means i play on Easy mode. With 3 people i bumped it up to Normal. Let me tell you, that was a hard difficulty spike. We barely dragged through each level. For example the part where you wait for the lift was particularly tough because we all got wiped. Then as we were scrambling through the field i got pummeled by Hank Hill, One of my other friends were pinned by the Half Life 1 scientist, Coach was dead, and the only one alive accidentally set himself on fire.

Despite that all we had a good time. On the return trip though things were way easier. Maybe the AI director felt sorry for us, but there were way less Zombies and really the only issue was waiting on the boat. I accidentally got stuck on the lip though right as the boat was arriving. I thought i was done for because the boat clipped into me, but nope. It counted as being on the boat. Everyone else made it off pretty successfully. I took the blunt force of the Tank's attacks.

We talked another friend into picking up a copy so maybe if we're lucky we'll be able to snag a full party soon (friend pictured above as i was helping them configure their copy of the game). Having someone who can actually lob grenades would be great.

Today's game is Mario Kart 64. It was a long day today so i decided to kick back and just take it easy. So, this was my first choice. I did the Mushroom Cup mainly today. It was feeling like a Train kind of mood, you know? Sometimes all we need to really make a good day is a train.

I got first place in all of them. I did mess up a little on the first cup because i kept accidentally hitting Print Screen instead of F12 to take a screenshot and that would freeze up my entire thing, but i adapted quickly and caught up in first place by the second lap.

On Koopa Troopa beach i kept accidentally drowning Toad while trying to get screenshots though. I wouldn't be surprised if he lost a few brain cells from being deprived of oxygen. Sorry Toad.

While playing through this i realized the version in World is vastly different, i don't know if it's a bad kind of different or just a different kind of different. But it was something i noticed. I suppose if i didn't notice it's just different different, but who knows.

Anyways, i did the entire cup and came in first. Overall, relaxing way to spend my evening. It's fun to kick back and relax with a game that is very basic and fundamental like this. It's very low stress. I'd recommend it to anyone looking to try new ways to kill some time for the evening.

Today's game is Guilty as Sock. I had a friend suggest playing it, and i saw it was on sale. So a decent chunk of money later (bye bye money i was saving) and almost everyone in my friend group had a copy. We played a good hour of the game. Each match is around 10 minutes for us. It's a lot of improv though. It really brings me back to play D&D.

I'm going to stick to one case, and also give nicknames to everyone so it's way easier to follow. Our Attorney is Chef, our Prosecutor is Italy, our Journalist is Shoes, and then i was the judge. Our case was Italy was accusing Shoes of being a little too dirty minded after a heated match of Mario Kart and Italy told Shoes to go fuck himself (in a playful way). Shoes replied back "Is this foreplay", and so the court case ensued.

This also showcases my first point about the game requiring improv, very much you need to have a good idea of your group dynamic to have the most fun. In Jokes and Personal Friendships reign supreme here.

Shoes, being the journalist, got the propaganda machine running and ran articles to win the public opinion over to his innocence. The blonde man in the middle is Italy, and the resemblance to anyone is entirely a coincidence. A very ironic one though. He couldn't figure out how to change his character and was stuck like that.

They all presented their evidence, but it was all for nothing as the prosecutor ended up bribing Shoes to profess his guiltiness and i unfortunately had to give a guilty verdict.

That brings me to the second point about this game. If you have a reoccurring friend group with petty and lighthearted disagreements, this game would be great for you. Hop into a session and have everyone setup as roles, and let the circus commence. This will probably be how we settle minor and humorous disagreements between each other.

If i had to sum up this game, it's "Sue your friends but not actually sue your friends" + wacky shenanigans. I suppose it's nothing you couldn't do with discord, but having the sock puppet theme makes it all feel a little more less personal if that makes sense.

Today's game is Halo MCC. After clearing two games recently i decided to take it easy with some friends, so we played some PvP. And by PvP i mean we got our asses kicked in two rounds of Halo 3 Multiplayer. It was still a fun experience despite getting absolutely pummeled. I got this funny picture of my Spartan looking like they're saying uncle.

There was a King of The Hill match we did too where i pulled a move i thought was really smart and plopped a bubble shield down into a lift and followed it up so when i landed i already had some cover. I was quite proud of that one.

I followed up my landing with... throwing myself off a cliff. In my defense, i had this cool maneuver planned in my head where i circled around onto the point but i under estimated where the point was and missed the landing.

I redeemed myself though by capturing the point with the explosive crates. I dropped them on the enemies from above and bought us a good 20 points. I learned this one from Halo 2 Legendary.

We finished off for the night with that match. Even though we all lost both rounds, it was a good bit of fun. We can't win them all and losing just gives us a chance to get better, and plus i still had fun laughing and pulling off dorky ass moves with my friends. Today was overall pretty short, i'm taking night classes so that doesn't leave me a lot of time some days to get much gaming in, but i still enjoyed the little bit i did.

Today's game is some more Mario Galaxy. I finished it up today after gathering the last few stars i need. The last few levels were hell, it felt like there was a sharp difficulty spike. Nonetheless i persevered. After this? I might try Sunshine. I could never get into it, but i want to give it a try again. If i go on to Galaxy 2 it certainly won't be 40$. I think i'll stick to the original on Wii thank you, regardless of 4K or not.

The bowser fight threw me for a loop because i could have sworn it was like the fight in Galaxy 2 where you have to ground pound the orbs, just with one less wave.

Lava spire galaxy gave me some trouble too because the Lava rose way too fast for me too keep up. Luckily i nailed a good backflip and saved a ton of time on my 3rd try though.

The view from first person is beautiful in this game though. I really wish i had spent more time looking at it from other angles because it's really cool seeing all the parts of the world you may miss.

Anyways, that's the gist of today, did the last few stars i needed, struggled, and got my ass handed too me nearly by the Parkour more so than Bowser. I don't think i'll be going in to 100% it, or even just collect all the stars because i think completing the game took enough out of me. It was fun though, thinking back i though i beat the game as a child, but now i don't think so.

Today's game is some more Final Fantasy 7 Remake. I've did chapter 3 of it today (along with all the side quests). I just want to express how much i love the sense of scale. I'm playing on 1440p, so i can tell the background is a solid image, but despite that, fuck. The topside of the city still feels massive. I feel tiny compared to the thing. It really is cool to see.

I spent a while in photo mode just looking at the roof and looking around. It really is well done in my opinion.

While doing the drake fight, i couldn't figure out i was supposed to pull this lever, so i kept running around trying to figure out where to go. The thing is, thinking back on my first playthrough on PS4, i made this exact same mistake. So some things never change i guess.

I did the quest where you hunt down the cats to bring them home. There. are. so. many cats. I love this place. My only wish was that the cats had better quality of life than living on the streets. One day i hope. One day.

I met Johhny, which i liked. Poor guy got roped into this. I hope i get to see more of him. I did spy an achievement mentioning him so i'd assume this to be the case, we'll see though.

The final thing i did for today was the Dart Board minigame. I spent like 30 minutes on it, but only 6 darts later and i got it perfectly. Top of the charts and everything.

Today's game is some more Super Mario Galaxy. I picked it up to relax today and got down to 5 more stars to finish the game. I even got into the final area of the observatory. I'm officially out of areas i recognize, so when i entered the final Dome, i was surprised to find a green grassy field. I was hoping i could run around in it but sadly i was walked in. It gave me heavy Majora's Mask vibes though because it reminds me of the center of the moon where you get the Fierce Deity mask.

I got the red star too, which, i was expecting this to be another Wing Cap style level. Thankfully, it wasn't though. Don't get me wrong, Mario 64 will always be one of my favorite 3D Marios, but damn, does the Wing Cap drive me crazy. I always put it off for last just to avoid doing it.

I did Deep Dark. Not much to say here other than i love it. It's a good solid level and also a water level, which i'm sure is no mystery that i love it. The boss fight got a bit hectic, but i managed to pull through.

I also did the other Green Star. I think i need one more and then i'm done, i can't remember exactly how Galaxy 1's green stars work. I just know it's nowhere near as many stars as Galaxy 2.

I ended off with the second boss fight with King Kaliente which got me down to 51 stars. This boss fight also felt hectic but i managed without much trouble. I ended off there for the night and will pick it up again soon. It will be nice to have it off my list so i'm not juggling so many games at once.

Today is some more Final Fantasy 7. It seems i'm going to be taking this one chapter at a time for now. Which honestly, i don't mind too much. If i go through it too fast i might miss some details.

I spent today dorking around with the photo mode to see what i could do with it. I got some photos during combat that i especially like, such as this one of Cloud midway through his attack animation. I noticed when he's in that heavy hitting mode he always ends with this bad ass ground stab, so i got a photo of that.

I will say, i dislike how limiting the photo mode feels. There's like a total of 5 options with very minimal scale. I am happy to have it here rather than not, but man, i love having Photo Modes with features that let me go absolutely nuts with them.

An example is a photo i wanted to take of the flower. I wanted to get up close and do a Macro shot, but the photo mode wouldn't let me get close enough for it, so this is the best i could do. Still, cloud's mug is far from the worst thing to pair with a flower.

While exploring Midgar, i decided to put Cloud up against random people to see how well he blends in. The answer is not very well, he's got similar vibes to Mario in New Donk City in Odyssey. Still, this guy seems very amused by Cloud's presence so it's not for nothing.

Next i put him in a crowd of people. Safe to say, Cloud, i don't think you have a career as a Assassin's Creed Protagonist. Like no cloud blending skills whatsoever. That's okay though, he still kicks major ass with the sword.

Overall, i'm liking the Save the planet angle so far. I'm not going to sit here and explain it in depth, but it is very much something that rings true today, so it makes me a little happy to know that even when the game first launched there were people raising concerns about the Planet's health.

Once i got to the apartment i stopped, but i'm excited to play more. Hopefully tomorrow i'll be able to play some more. I'd like to have it done by the end of the month (not going to rush to meet a deadline though) as i'd like to replay Silent Hill 2 for the Season. I see everyone always have a yearly "Halloween game" and i want to try doing that with Silent Hill 2 because it thoroughly unsettled me just to exist in the space, and it's rare for a game to do that.

Today's game is Final Fantasy 7. I picked this up on Steam after borrowing it from my local library a few years ago and playing like 7 chapters on PS4. That poor PS4 barely held together while running it. It sounded like a Jet Engine. I nearly wasn't able to play this today due to my slow ass internet taking forever to download this though.

I really enjoyed my time with it the first time, despite being very mixed on Turn Base RPGs. I like the whole Realtime battle mechanic thing though. It kind of offsets the whole thing i have with Turn Base battles. Plus, it looks cool as fuck even if i do suck ass at it.

The boss fight with the Scorpion thing was hard. I feel like i'm missing something with the combat, maybe it's just naturally hard though. There's only one way to get better, and that's practice. Maybe i'll commit to trying to grind for the first time ever.

I particularly struggled with not getting hurt by the rockets from the fight. I could block them, but that still took some damage. Maybe i'm supposed to take damage while blocking? I'm not sure, so i'll have to figure it out as i go i guess.

I only did Chapter 1 due to how short on time i was with how long it took to download, but i plan on doing a whole lot more (assuming i don't struggle). The Scorpion Robot took a few attempts, so i'm assuming each boss will be a bit like that.