What a Great Game

In Stray, you play as a cat and as such, you can do many cat things.

It’s been a while. Too long. I haven’t been writing here much and that needs to change. I think my main block is finding topics of interest to write about. I’ll have to look into how the pros do it maybe. Anyways, let’s talk video games. Specifically a game that was a big deal when it was released back in July: Stray, AKA “The Cat Game.”

I don’t buy new games often, and the last game I bought at or before launch was Cyberpunk 2077. We all know how that game turned out. I did enjoy the game, but it was a bit disappointing that it felt like an Early Access title and I just paid sixty bucks for it. Stray, on the other hand, showed me that new games can be great on launch day.

Okay, so I’m a cat guy. One of my roommates is an old tuxedo cat with several pseudonyms including Turkey. This game piqued my interest when I noticed it in the video game news. “Wow,” I thought, “A video game with a cat as the main character, that’s pretty cool, I’d play that.” The game was released on July 19th and I totally forgot to pick it up. It was like thirty bucks and I figured it would be well worth buying it at full price. I picked it up off of Steam a few days later. Let me tell you, it was worth every penny.

My first impressions of the game is that it was damn near perfect. It hit almost all of the targets for me: the atmosphere was amazing, the sound, graphics, everything just hit the spot. The cyberpunk aesthetic is definitely there with all of the neon lights, slums, and sentient robots. And the best part: You get to play as a cat. Maybe this might sound lame to some but it makes for a great adventure as you leap from platform to platform among the buildings. Plus you can do other cat stuff like sleep, scratch carpet, and meow. It’s pretty sweet.

After just a couple of hours of playing, I fell into love with this game. It was so much fun to experience a semi-open world game through the eyes of a cat. The game has quite a few puzzles to figure out and while they aren’t particularly difficult, they are fun to figure out. The game is a little short in length although it does have a bit of replay value if you want to 100% the game. 

I did read a few articles that noted that the PC version suffers with some graphical stuttering and I did notice a little at times on my rig with an RTX 2060 but I didn’t find that it detracted much from the game and recent patches probably have already corrected the issue.

This game probably won’t appeal to hardcore gamers so much though; this is a game that is meant to be played slowly and enjoyed. It’s an experience and not a competition, more akin to an interactive art exhibit than something like a football game. 

So there it is, my take on Stray. I’ve been playing some other games lately as well, so expect more content soon. Until then play some games and refurbish your SNES! Ha! Maybe I’ll get into that some other time. 

The Weekly Ramble

Each week I think really hard and ramble on about a topic of my choice

This week I’m going to ramble about a game I enjoy. For some reason or another (probably getting older) I have been enjoying city-building/strategy games. A couple months back it started when I played a few games of Sim City which I found on this neat 120 in 1 SNES cart I bought off of Amazon. It has its fair share of stinkers but there are some gems in the rough on there as well as some forgotten titles. Kind of makes me want one of those FXPAK pro carts but those are a little out of my budget for the time being. Anyways, I’m not talking about the SNES, so back to the topic at hand. 

So I played some SimCity for a bit, then I remembered I had Cities: Skylines! I went back to my PC and fired it up, had fun for a good minute and progressed quite a bit with some strategy advice from different sources. Both are great games if you enjoy being the Mayor of a city and planning a city, designing a city, etc. Surviving Mars I believe is by the same devs as Cities and is quite enjoyable as well. Maybe someday I’ll get back into that one. Okay, let’s get to the game I originally was getting to. 

The game is one of my favorite modern titles. I’m stuck in between retro and modern games at the moment. I would get into why, but I’ll save that for another time. The game I really have been enjoying lately is a city-building survival game by 11Bit Studios that released on Windows in 2018 and PS4/XboxOne in 2019. The name of the game: Frost Punk. 

Frost Punk: Let the cold begin!

Frost Punk is one of those games I like to fire up and play when the weather here in the great state of Minnesota, USA gets below zero degrees Fahrenheit. That crispy frost sound it makes when the temp drops really puts that chill in your bones as you play. The aspect of surviving the cold is only one of the challenges of this game though. There are many decisions you will have to make as the Captain of your new settlement.

Before I get into the game any further, I just would like to say that 11Bit is one of those studios that makes games I enjoy for some reason. I have another game by 11Bit, This War of Mine, and if anything, 11Bit does a great job of pulling your emotional strings by the end of the game. The decisions you make in the game will come back to haunt you by the end if you survive. It really makes you wonder what it would come to if an apocalyptic situation like Frost Punk really were to happen. This War of Mine on the other hand, was based upon an actual conflict of the past: The Siege of Sarajevo. 

Building a new home in Frostland is tough. Can you survive?

In Frost Punk you can play several different scenarios, the main one being A New Home. You play as a group of Londoners leaving England to escape the Deep Frost. You start near a huge coal-powered steam generator. The generator provides much needed warmth to your people and will be essential for your survival. Round up some coal and fire it up. Your people will thank you. 

Along the way you will be presented with different challenges such as feeding your people and providing them with healthcare. Each decision you make will raise or lower hope and/or discontent among your people. If your discontent gets too high, or your hope too low, your people will give you an ultimatum. Guess what happens if you don’t meet that ultimatum. I won’t spoil it for you here. 

Tough decisions are to be made during the game to survive the Deep Freeze.

Late in the game (if you can survive that long) the decisions get tougher as the temperatures get lower. Towards the end of A New Home, the temperature drops to an insane low. If you don’t prepare properly, you’ll perish. If you do, you will survive, likely with a cost. You have survived, but was it worth it?

You and your people made it. The city survived. Was it worth it?

That’s my ramble for the week. I just wanted to highlight a game I enjoy. Frost Punk is definitely a challenge to survive but it seems like it has just that right amount of challenge that won’t make you rage quit. Well, that’s enough rambling for the week. Join me next week for another Weekly Ramble!

The Weekly Ramble

For me, it’s sometimes difficult to see giant leaps in technological innovations these days. The leaps and bounds of technological advances since the end of WWII seem to have turned into hops and skips. That, or I am missing something or looking entirely in the wrong place. When gadgets such as smartphones receive an update, the changes seem minimal, usually a screen that is more crisp and a camera that can capture more pixels than the last one. A hop I have noticed recently seems to be the folding screen. Big whoop. Although I do think the tech is cool to make it work, it doesn’t seem to be anything more than a hop in advancement. When it comes to a choice of gaming devices, the choice is up to the user’s preference in exclusive titles for each particular platform. All of the hardware performs pretty much at the same level and it is pretty much a matter of software preference these days. Even when it comes to software, changes seem minimal, especially from an end-user standpoint. I hear things about Windows 11 now and again and some pundits say it is basically Windows 10 with a face lift. Overall, the changes I see today seem minimal, especially in consumer-level devices and software. What will be the next big thing that will amaze me?

Apologies for my opening ramble, but sometimes I wonder if technology will make or break us in the future. About five or six years back, I remember thinking that self-driving autonomous vehicles were right around the corner, I thought we’d have them by now! Even today I see articles where Elon Musk states that 2022 is the year. I’m highly skeptical of this, no doubt. One of the reasons I can’t see this happening is I would think the infrastructure of our roads would need to be modified somehow in order for autonomous vehicles to work properly, especially in inclement weather like heavy rain and snow. Again, my research is a bit minimal on this, so I may be missing the details.

Rambling aside, there are many makers out there that are using similar technologies that these self-driving vehicles use to make devices that can help the visually impaired. I remember seeing this article a while back about such a device. It is called the Cane-Eye. It uses several different technologies, including an Xbox Kinect sensor array, to assist the visually impaired. I’d like to see more tech like this at a level that is affordable to the end-user. 

As a dabbler with Raspberry Pi computers, I have gained interest in making certain devices. Recently I’ve been into LoRa, a new type of WAN that can be used in many IoT applications and other projects. One such project that caught my eye was the Ripple project, a neat communicator project that uses the LoRa network to send text messages among users on the network. Something that could be handy when other networks are inaccessible. However, I pulled a boner and got the wrong hardware. I’m no expert in this type of thing, I know a bit of a few programming languages, nothing extensive, and I have little idea if this would even work with the Ripple project. Maybe? I sure would like to know. I have fiddled with these devices a bit and they do seem to work with the debugging software. I as of yet, have not been able to connect them to the Pi Zero as the Zeros I bought came without the I/O pins soldered. So another project for me is to learn how to solder those pins onto the Zero board. That or buy some new ones with the pins pre-soldered.

Phew, that was a rush!

As I write this, I wonder if I should make something of these ramblings. Perhaps a series to keep my mind fresh and exploring things. I’ll call it the Weekly Ramble for now, sound good? Good. That’s all I have for today, thank you for exploring. Catch me again next week.

Retro Trip – Bionic Commando

Bionic Commando. Overlooked gem? This retro trip points to yes.

I dug deep into the vault and pulled out a forgotten gem of a game to retro trip with, Bionic Commando. Bionic Commando is one of those titles for the NES that appears to often be overlooked by many gamers but has gained somewhat of a cult following over the years. A retro remake was made in 2008 and a modern reboot of the series followed, but the series just didn’t seem to have the mass following that other Capcom franchises like Mega Man and Street Fighter have had over the years. 

You can’t jump in Bionic Commando, so get used to swinging.

Bionic Commando is kind of an odd game at first. It’s an action platformer that is unlike any other. You aren’t able to jump, your knees are seemingly locked. Instead, you use your bionic arm to swing and climb your way through different stages to destroy the main system at the end. This mechanic makes certain areas quite challenging at first before you get used to the art of swinging. Once you figure it out though, it becomes natural. Along with the other game strategies, this is a game that is beatable by those with the gumption to fight the ultimate evil at the end, Master D (aka Hitler resurrected if you’re familiar with the JP version). Do so and you will be rewarded with the story’s conclusion and some sweet end credits.

There’s Master D. Look familiar? Yeah, it’s Hitler. Power up and kick his ass.

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Run into an enemy convoy and fight your foes in an overhead view.

While most of the game is presented via a side view, there are points in the game where you will encounter an enemy convoy. These events are presented in an overhead view much like another Capcom game, Commando. Side note: Super Joe, the soldier you are tasked to rescue, was the hero of Commando. Just a fun fact for all you retro fans. 

Overall, this game ranks up there as one of my favorites. It has a fair amount of challenge with non-linear progression to mix it up a bit. It even has a few secrets to keep the replay value up there. The story is pretty good as well once you dig into it a bit as the game translation seems a bit off and a few key statements seem to be left out, but nothing was game breaking as far as that goes. Find yourself a copy and give it a shot! It’s a good game for a great Retro Trip!

Mission accomplished. Super Joe is safe.

Retro Trip: The Legend of Dragoon

The Moon That Never Sets. I’m having a hard time setting this game down after picking it up and replaying it.

I recently found a good stack of my old PlayStation games I had collected over the years. A few I remembered playing back in high school, spending tired-eyed nights with those classics. One of them I remembered being good and enjoyable but twenty years of wear and tear on my memory has fragmented it a bit and now I don’t remember much from the game. So I fired it up and decided to give it a solid replay. The game: The Legend of Dragoon. After playing it for a bit I soon found out that I was going in for a hardcore Retro Trip. Let’s dig in and take a look:

The game so far has been pretty awesome. I’ve been cruising right along through the game, enjoying it the whole way. It is a little linear as it lacks an open world map like the Final Fantasy games, but I kind of welcome that and it doesn’t bother me all that much. I get lost easily in open world games. Go figure.

The story so far at times was a little generic, sometimes a little corny, but all in all so far it has been pretty solid for me and I have been enjoying it. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll get angry and cheer on the good guys. Just what you’d want from a good retro RPG.

I do like the different style of gameplay Dragoon uses during battles. Some characters have moves called “Additions” that require you to press a button at a certain time in a quick time event style. This does take a bit to get used to if you’re conditioned to just mashing a button for battles in turn based RPGs. I’m going to have to say that while this QTE system is welcome, it does require some ridiculous precision to get it perfect and it can be frustrating at times. Overall though, it kept my attention during the battles and added a bit more immersion into the game. You actually become a part of the battle instead of mindlessly mashing a button.

The graphics, I’m going to  be honest, don’t hold up strongly today. The pre-rendered backgrounds looked nice but are kind of dated by today’s standards. The character’s polygonal models looked a little aged by today’s standards as well. I can’t really rag on the graphics too much though. The animations and cut-scenes were fantastic considering the age of the game. I also thought the various magic spells and Dragoon transformations were very impressive visually, all things considered. 

I just finished the first disc of the game not too long ago and I’m having a great time replaying this game I almost forgot about after about twenty years. Pop this RPG in and you’ll be in store for a Retro Trip indeed! 

The Last Week

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Video games and coffee last week. A good combo, no?

Hey everyone! I’m back with another Last Week entry. I had originally meant to shoot for getting this post in on Sunday, but hey, things come up. Last week I played a bit of Dead Space and I’ve been going on a real PlayStation era retro trip that I’m trying hard to shake off. I’ve also been working on getting Neofeud finished, I’m to a point where I’m so close to the end I can taste it! I’ve also decided to focus on finishing Cyberpunk as a priority over my Elder Scrolls games. I also have to highlight this keto coffee drink I’ve been drinking lately. Let’s take a closer look at last week:

Last Monday I fired up Dead Space for a quick session. Unfortunately, as I feared, I saved it after I accidentally used all of my medpacks. It was purely my mistake, I was using an Xbox 360 gamepad and kept pressing X thinking it was the reload button. I quickly depleted my medpacks and was playing hard mode after that mistake. I also realized that you can smash the green boxes by using your kinesis power. I facepalmed and realized it would probably be best to start over. In my defense, the game shouldn’t allow you to use medpacks if your health is completely maxed. Just a thought. I’m probably going to speed through a new game save up to the point I was at. It sucks but it happens.

Friday night I switched it up from Friday Night Fights and had a Friday Night Flashback! I found a bunch of my PlayStation games recently and decided to play Fear Effect. I had bought the game years ago but never really had the time to play it until I dug it out of the closet. I had a pretty decent gameplay session – I died a few times, beat some bosses, and actually made it to the second disc of the game! I had a pretty good time streaming the game and am pretty excited to continue it for the next Flashback! I might put off Friday night fights for a bit to finish this title, we’ll see! 

I didn’t do any games or streaming over the weekend. My wife and I went on a nice hike through one of our fine State Forests though. We both have been on a mission to get more movement into our routine. The forest was great. We basically just hiked the trails to get a feel for the area and we also saw some deer tracks and trees that appeared to have some beaver gnaw marks on them. The forest floor was a little moist from all of the winter melt and the recent rain, so our shoes were caked with mud when we returned to our vehicle. Other than the mess it was a good time!

As far as keto/low carb goes, I’ve been working on a few products to take a look at but I do have one for this week!  I’ve been on a bit of a caffeine kick lately so unfortunately I’ve been drinking some energy drinks like Red Bull. I’m not really a huge fan of the carbonation and extra ingredients all of the time so I wanted to switch it up a bit. I like coffee and a lot of keto coffees tend to be a bit high in calories, around the 100-200 calorie range. I was looking around at my local grocery store when I eyed these KITU Super Espresso coffee drinks. These were only 35 calories and tasted pretty darn good. It has a modest ingredient list, is sweetened with monk fruit, and is 99.9% lactose free! Give it a shot if you need a low calorie, keto friendly boost! 

That’s it for Last Week! I’ll have another Last week rounded up before you know it! Stay tuned!

The Last (Two) Week(s)

I’m not sure what all happened over the last two weeks. Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Wow. Late again. The last couple of weeks were kind of a blur for me. It seemed like everything was on repeat, kind of like the movie Groundhog Day. I do remember that I said I was going to take it easy from gaming and get some exercise in, and I did! I went on some walks on my break at work and took some photos of some interesting things I found. I’m starting to get back into an exercise routine by walking regularly and I hope to incorporate some weights and some bicycle rides once I get a bit more conditioned.          

Friday, Feb. 26  I played some Greatest Heavyweights for Friday Night Fights and finished the game by defeating all eight of the game’s Greatest Heavyweights. Muhammad Ali was the final boxer I had to fight to win the Greatest Heavyweights title and I was victorious! I thought it was a bit too easy though. I basically used the same two punches against several opponents, a few failed to even cover their face, which I took advantage of quickly. Maybe I should have set the difficulty higher, but then again I never explored the options to even know if the difficulty is adjustable. It was a great game though, probably one of the best boxing games on a 16-bit console. It’d be great if Sega made a modern remake though. 

Saturday the 27th I continued my In Medias Res series with Cyberpunk 2077. I did a couple of side missions and moved forward with a bit of the story during my gameplay session. I finally got the pleasure to meet Panam in the game! We got involved in some crazy caper and I think I actually cut my session in the middle of a mission so the next episode should be fun! 

The other goal I remember having was to do a couple of posts about keto/low carb products. I didn’t quite make it to two posts, but I did highlight a couple of products that my wife and I tried over the past few weeks. One of them was amazing, the other a huge disappointment. So, one post, half complete. I have a few ideas for the coming weeks, though, so if you’re following a keto/low carb lifestyle, stay tuned for more. 

I found Knockout Kings 2000 in the stash of PlayStation games that I discovered in the closet, so I gave that a good play session for Friday Night Fights last week. I had a pretty good time with the game, it was a lot more technical and challenging than Greatest Heavyweights. One thing I do kind of miss though are the taunts from that game. There was a good amount of bonus content on the disc along with several game modes. I played a quick Classic Fight before I moved on to Career Mode. I had a pretty good time and won a few fights but also lost a few. This game might be a staple for Friday Night Fights in the future. 

 On Saturday I thought about continuing In Medias Res with Cyberpunk, but I wasn’t feeling that type of action. I wanted to sit back and have a chill stream and not have to really actively play too much. I had a good play session into Neofeud about a week back, so I decided to continue playing that. Being a point and click adventure, it was a perfect title to just sit back and chill with. I thoroughly enjoyed my session: the various references in this game gave me a good laugh and the story was pretty engaging if not extremely trippy. I’m looking forward to the conclusion of Neofeud. I’m sure it’ll be great.

That’s it for the last week! I’ll be posting my next last week this weekend! If that makes sense.

The Last Week

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Last week was a pretty stressful week for me but the gaming was pretty good. I tried to pull myself away but I ended up playing a couple of unexpected titles. Here’s what last week looked like:

Sunday I streamed a bit of FrostPunk since I was in the mood. It was still freezing cold outside and there was no way I was going out anymore than necessary. It went okay, I had a few technical difficulties and I also came to the realization that two monitors is almost a minimum requirement nowadays.

Tuesday I decided to play a quick session of Neofeud to get a feel for the game and to basically play the intro. I only played the game for about twenty minutes and felt like I was in for a trip. I’ll be firing up that game again sometime soon.

For Friday it was another episode of Friday Night Fights! I continued my career as the Purple Pugilist and fought Mike Dixon for the title. The title bout almost seemed too easy as I drove Dixon to the mat. After the title match came several challenge matches against some real-life greatest heavyweights like Joe Louis and Evander Holyfield. Those fights seemed too easy as well as I sent every boxer I fought kissing the canvas. I’d really like to see a modern reboot/remake of this game for something like Steam. The game is really good but the AI just didn’t cut it for me. I shouldn’t have been able to beat everyone with just two punches.

Saturday I continued Cyberpunk 2077 for my In Medias Res series. I did a few missions and died a couple times, but overall I had fun. I can’t keep myself away from side missions in these open world games! Let’s hope I can pull through and focus on the main mission eventually and finish the game!

I realized for a minute after evaluating my week that I intended my blog to include a variety of topics but lately I’ve focused heavily on gaming. I’m going to try to step away from gaming a bit this week to include a couple of posts on some of my other interests. I have a few keto/low carb products that my wife and I have tried that I’d like to share my thoughts on. I also hope I can get outside for some fresh air and exercise as the weather improves. Maybe I’ll even snap a few photos, who knows!

That’s it for now, as always I’ll be back with the games for Friday Night Fights on Friday and In Medias Res on Saturday. Until then, stay healthy and game on!

This Week in Gaming

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I had a pretty exciting week playing some solid titles. Today was a bit of an off day though.

Hey everyone! This week was a pretty exciting week for me! I played some old games, some new games and most importantly I had a lot of fun! Let’s take a look at my week:

First, I’ll just share a bit of gaming news that I’ve been seeing out there. There’s been a lot of games with anniversaries: Super Mario Bros. 3 celebrates 31 years, Zelda celebrates 35 and I’ve been seeing a lot of Super Metroid floating around on the internets (the original Metroid celebrates 35 years as well). In other gaming news, CDPR, the developers of The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077 was hit by a ransomware attack in which the hackers have reportedly sold stolen source code on the dark web. There’s a ton of other news I could go over but these are a couple of things that have stuck with me this week.

What have I been playing this week? Well, I’ve been trying to balance some retro games along with a few modern titles. Sunday I played This War of Mine, a title by 11bit studios from 2014. It’s a wartime survival game that requires strategy and tough decision making. It’s also a very tough game for me to play. 11bit really knows how to pull those emotional strings. Frost Punk is a lot like that too. Both are great games that will punch you right in the feels.

I had to take a break from getting my soul crushed, so for Monday Night Retro I played a game I hadn’t played in a while but knew I could finish: Deja Vu for the NES. I jumped into it and then realized I had forgotten quite a few details in the game. I ended up continuing the game on WedNESday and successfully finished it. Okay, full disclosure, I needed to use a guide to fill in some of those blanks that were missing from my memory. Sometimes you just need that one sentence from a text-based guide to pull you through.

Friday was Friday Night Fights! I played Super Punch Out!! for last week’s FNF and the game was harder than I remembered! For this week’s FNF I continued Greatest Heavyweights for the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive. The last time I played I made it into the top ten rankings and this week I climbed up to number two! Next week I’ll take on the champion, Mike Dixon, for the belt!

Today I tried to start on my new In Medias Res series where I play a game from my library and just load up a save and play. My goal is to complete a couple of games within this year, but today I was having an off day. I fired up some Dead Space to play and something with my gamepad was going wonky. I did some troubleshooting and found out it was my retro gamepad that was plugged in causing issues. I played another session with my XB360 gamepad for a bit and realized I was a bit too fatigued from the night before. Next week I’ll have to wrap up FNF a bit early and rest up for Saturday’s stream.

As for new games I’ve picked up, Neofeud is a title I’ve seen floating around on my twitter for some time. It was on sale, so I decided to give it a shot. It’s a point and click adventure set in a cyberpunk world, both of which piqued my curiosity. I’ll be sure to fire up that game soon and share my thoughts.

That’s it for this week! I’m thinking about making this a weekly post where I recap games I’ve been playing over the week. As for what’s coming up next, I’m going to be taking it easy until next Friday for Friday Night Fights. I’ll probably be working on some other things though so stay tuned!

NES A to Z – Z: Zoda’s Revenge

It’s taken me way too long to play this game. It was pretty fun during my gaming session.

I remember way back in the day I had been given a Nintendo Power subscription for Christmas. I remember there was an issue with guides for both StarTropics and its sequel, Zoda’s Revenge when it was released back in 1994. These games looked and sounded great but they were a couple more titles that eluded me back in those days. By a stroke of luck, the randomizer chose Zoda’s Revenge for the letter Z. The game was a great Action/Adventure game where you play as Mike Jones, a young man who acts as the hero and main protagonist of the game. It had a few RPG style elements as well. I remember playing the original Star Tropics briefly at one point, but I never got very far and never beat the game (another game I may need to explore again sometime.) The graphics and sound were good, controls were solid, and most of all I had a lot of fun playing the game during my session. It’s another game I would definitely return to for some extended play sessions in the future.