The Boise Hawk’s sun blocking blimp

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

Last night was the second game of the season for the Boise Hawks, a class A team for the Colorado Rockies (previously for the Chicago Cubs). It was also the night they launched their sun blocking blimp for the first time.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/25219631/boise-hawks-plan-to-fly-30-foot-blimp-that-would-block-out-the-sun

We always sit on the first base side, so this sounded like a wonderful idea. In reality, it didn’t seem to do very much other than create something for fans to joke about. “That’s it?” was heard often around the first base area, but hey it was the first night so maybe they’ll get something figured out. It did block the sun for us at least once during the night, for about ten minutes or so.

Boise Hawks sun blocking blimp

It was a great night for a ballgame, regardless. I love local baseball and miss the variety I enjoyed on the East Coast, with the York Revolution and Harrisburg Senators being my favorites, while our (York’s) rival Lancaster Barnstormers reside just across the river. (There were also three MLB teams within driving distance…four I suppose if you count Pittsburgh…yuck!)

248361_10108926372504834_117886954865943077_n Boise Hawks 2015

The game was enjoyable to watch, and I just enjoyed being in the stands again. The Hawks, however, did not play very well. The pitching and fielding just were not up to par and the Tri-City Dust Devils drifted out of reach as the innings wore on.

11168015_10108927383229334_8682031854485223165_n 11089147_10108927383448894_8119704028446637796_n Boise Hawks 2015

Ultimately the Hawks lost 8-2 as the sun set and the crowd began to grow anxious for the first fireworks night of the season.

11215829_10108927384137514_2029552117506728978_n Boise Hawks Tri City Dust Devils 2015

11009352_10108927385130524_2575318016986037859_n Boise Hawks fireworks

The dark side of Twitch: Harassing female streamers

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

This morning I hopped onto Twitch while enjoying a coffee and bagel and popped into one of the top streams this morning, which of course was a League of Legends stream. I don’t particularly find League of Legends streams interesting, but I put it on just for something in the background.

This morning I witnessed first hand one of the most horrid and disgusting aspects of the Twitch community, and the internet connected gamer community. The streamer was showing cleavage, but it wasn’t anything extreme. She just happened to be larger than average, but she wasn’t wearing anything you wouldn’t see out on the town or in the mall.

The users in the Twitch chat, however, seemed to see the fact that this woman was attracting a large audience as something to take extreme offense too. They spammed the chat with insults like “You suck at gaming, slut”, “kill yourself slut”, “you’re a whore”, “no one cares about you, only your boobs”, etc. There were also those trying to rally everyone to either spam the channel or leave the channel, because apparently the female body is just too offensive to handle while watching a video game.

Now, I know that Twitch recently adjusted its guidelines to try to prevent ‘sexually suggestive’ streams, but I don’t think this particular streamer was trying to take advantage of the system. Even if they were, the chat reaction was entirely unnecessary and completely offensive. It’s something I expect to see on 4Chan, and it’s sickening even there, but not something I ever expected to see in something more mainstream such as Twitch.

I know this stuff happens all the time on Twitch, YouTube, Tumblr and elsewhere on the internet, but this morning was the first time I watched something like this happen live. It was appalling. I tried ignoring and reporting as many users as I could for spam and harassment but for every 10 I ignored 20 took their places.

I’m not quite sure what can be done to prevent these things from happening. The internet is a place where all kinds of terrible things are said on a daily basis and people don’t realize that these blurbs of text can and often do have real world consequences for those on the receiving end. This sort of behavior needs to stop. It’s not okay. We all need to appreciate each other and respect each other, whether it’s on Xbox Live, Twitch or anywhere else. It’s the human thing to do, and we all are human even if there’s a machine in between us. Act like it.

Loving Twenty One Pilots’ Blurryface!

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

I first really listened to the band Twenty One Pilots during Sirius XM’s Alt Nation broadcast of their Bonnaroo performance. I had heard their songs a few times before (mostly “Not Today”) but that was the first time I listened to them for an extended period of time and I was in love.

Since then I’ve been listening to their recently released album Blurryface every night during the drive into work and the album is amazing! There’s not a song on the album I don’t love, but particular favorites include “Not Today”, “Lane Boy” and “Goner”.

If you haven’t really listened to Twenty One Pilots I highly recommend giving Blurryface a listen. It’s great!

 

Bethesda’s epic E3

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

Fallout-4-release-date-571788

I just watched Bethesda’s E3 showcase from last night and I have to say I’m pretty impressed. The DOOM gameplay looked great and I’m all of a sudden excited to play it even though I’ve never been huge into the franchise. The guns, combat animations and environments just looked downright awesome and I can’t wait to shoot and chainsaw my way through that world.

The Elder Scrolls card game took me by surprise, but given the popularity of Hearthstone I can see how they’d want to try to cash in. I’m not so sure it’d be successful, as Hearthstone does what it does so well I don’t think there’s room for another fantasy card collecting game.

The Dishonored 2 trailer was pretty neat, and I especially like that they showcased the female character. I think it would have been better to make the game focus solely on the female protagonist, but giving the player the choice to play as either isn’t so bad.

The Fallout 4 coverage at the end was mindblowingly awesome! Everything they showed blew me away, and I especially like the way the game opens. Giving the option to play as either a male or female character again is pretty nice and having a voiced main character will certainly be interesting.

The mobile game seems pretty cool and I’m going to try to check it out later today. The Pip Boy companion app is also a neat idea, but the best part of the entire showcase was the November 2015 release date! Unfortunately I’ll be deployed this Fall, so I won’t be getting my hands on Fallout 4 until next summer.

Finally saw Mad Max and it was amazing!

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

mad max

I had been wanting to see Mad Max: Fury Road since it came out, but never got around to actually doing it. This evening we finally made it out to see the movie and I’m kicking myself for not seeing it sooner! Fury Road is probably the most explosive, action packed, edge of the seat thrilling action movie I’ve ever seen!

4 WE SHOULD RUN THIS ONE SMALLER AS INSET OR DOWNPAGE

I absolutely love the atmosphere of the movie and the dark and gritty wasteland is amazing. The characters are awesome and the action sequences throughout are absolutely brilliant! I was blown away again and again!

The soundtrack is awesome and the way it is represented in the movie is stunningly awesome!

Mad Max guitar guy

Mad Max: Fury Road is easily the best movie I’ve seen in 2015, and easily the most exciting action movie I’ve ever seen. I can’t wait to see it again and again! I’m just sad I missed out on the IMAX experience. If you haven’t yet seen Mad Max you need to drop everything and see it now! You won’t regret it!

MadMax-FuryRoad-ImmortanJoe

Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited is a bore so far

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

Elder Scrolls Online Xbox One

I participated in the beta for Elder Scrolls Online (for PC) and found it clunky and boring to play even then, yet I was still dumb enough to purchase the game shortly after it launched last year. I played it for a few days and found that my opinion hadn’t changed since the beta. It felt like it had potential, but ultimately I think the entire MMO genre is no longer enjoyable.

This week The Elder Scrolls Online launched on console, and again I had a desire to check it out. I found a copy at a Redbox (they’re finally starting to get Xbox One / PS4 games around here, though not very many) and decided to rent it, against my better judgement.

Redbox Xbox One

I just finished up playing through the first hour of ESO on the Xbox One, and was just as underwhelmed as I was when I first played it on PC. The opening to the game isn’t very strong at all, but I guess most MMO’s are slow to start anyway. Beyond that, I still don’t find the combat enjoyable at all, and none of the characters or the quests they’ve sent me on are interesting at all. When every single side quest in The Witcher 3 features interesting characters, environments and stories, it’s hard to play through dull MMO quests in a game like ESO.

The console version of Elder Scrolls Online doesn’t feature any sort of text chat, so instead communication is accomplished via voice. Voice chat is distance based, and players will begin to fade away as they get far enough away from you. This is certainly an interesting system, and something Destiny desperately needed (or still needs if you’re still into it). I will say the voice chat can be a little jarring, especially while wandering around in the wilderness and all of a sudden a voice cuts in. I’ve been startled by a random voice in mid conversation several times already, and I suppose it’s a nice way of making the game feel less lonely. At the same time I haven’t experienced any sort of meaningful interaction with other players, and all I’ve really done is run from quest to quest skipping through the boring conversations and dull conclusions to the quests.

In a nutshell I can say that Elder Scrolls Online is simply underwhelming. If you’re really into MMO’s then you may just be able to enjoy ESO, and it certainly plays well enough for a console MMO. I think my time will be better spent playing The Witcher and continuing my journey through Fallout: New Vegas, so I doubt I’ll play much more of Elder Scrolls Online.

Idaho’s First Panera Bread (in Nampa)

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

chipotle chicken panini

This past week Idaho’s very first Panera Bread opened in Nampa, and I finally made it out there this evening. One of the things that saddened me when I got stationed in Idaho was that there were no Panera Bread’s in the entire state! How could that be?! Well I can finally get my Panera Bread fix twenty minutes outside of Boise. Previously I could only get my hands on the wonderful Chipotle Chicken Panini while I was on leave back in Pennsylvania or TDY to somewhere like Florida.

I’m glad Panera has finally made it to Idaho, however I do hope they open a store in Boise before too long so I don’t have to make the drive to Nampa. Something is better than nothing at least.

The experience was a little hectic, this being the location’s first Friday evening since it opened. The restaurant was packed and the line was long and slow moving. It seemed everyone had a lot of questions as they made it to the registers to order, which I can understand as many might not have ever eaten at a Panera before. There was a staff member handing out menus to those waiting in line and answering any questions they had which was nice, however I’m not sure it made things quicker. This wasn’t so much the staff’s fault, it was more slow moving customers, but again this was all to be expected.

I’m sure I’ll be making many more trips out to Nampa for Panera Bread lunches in the near future. Now if only Yuengling could make its way out here!