So very foggy
I stepped outside earlier tonight to run down to the gas station and was met with a thick, creepy fog. There’s something peaceful about the fog as well, in the way that everything around you fades away into the quiet night.
My copy of Puyo Puyo Tetris arrives tomorrow!
After seeing the quicklook on Giant Bomb and realizing that current gen consoles aren’t region locked, I immediately went over to Solaris Japan and ordered a copy of Puyo Puyo Tetris from Japan. As many were, I was a bit underwhelmed by the recent release of Tetris Ultimate here in the states, but was immediately sold once I saw the Japanese game. The game offers a unique style (very Japan) and a twist on the gameplay with the Puyo Puyo integration.
If you don’t know anything about Puyo Puyo, I invite you to check out Giant Bomb’s quick look, it’s quite entertaining! Can’t wait to play it after it arrives!
I had never imported any video game before, but Solaris Japan made it quick and easy. I was able to pay using PayPal, and after selecting the quickest shipping option the total came out to just over $60 which seems pretty reasonable. The game shipped quickly (the day after I ordered it I believe) and everything has gone smoothly so far. It’s scheduled for delivery tomorrow by DHL, so hopefully I’ll be able to pop it in and give it a try before heading into work tomorrow night.
Did you get all that? –Shin Megami Tensei IV
I don’t know what made me want to check out Shin Megami Tensei IV. I’ve never understood the appeal of anime and most of the time try to avoid everything that comes out of Japan like it’s the plague. There’s just a weirdness about most Japanese things that I can never wrap my head around.
Yet here I was last night playing one of the most strange and absurd video games I’d ever come across. I had never even heard of Atlus, the company behind the game. Heck I’d only heard the name spoken once before, and that was while listening to a Joystiq podcast in which one of the podcasters spoke of Persona Q (I think), and games with such weird titles as Etrian Odyssey and Shin Megami Tensei came up in the conversation. Maybe that planted a seed of curiosity?
Somehow or other, Shin Megami Tensei IV made its way into my GameFly Queue and recently arrived in my mailbox. I started playing it, and as much as I detest anime I felt a drive to see what the game was all about. It certainly starts off in a strange manner. Heck, I think the Final Fantasy games rest just barely over an acceptable level of weirdness, so the dialogue and scenes early in Shin Megami Tensei IV definitely rest below my usual tolerance level.
After an hour or so of gameplay, I’m still not quite sure what to think of the game. I think the travel system is a little weird (where you just select a destination from a list and magically teleport there), but I guess there’s a simplicity to it that may actually be appealing. The enemies I’ve encountered in the initiation cave were certainly interesting and the ability to have conversations with the enemies is appealing and entertaining (though the dialogue is off the wall strange).
The game feels like a mix between Pokemon and Final Fantasy which feels a little familiar while also intriguing. Collecting demons to fight alongside you feels fun so far, and I’m interested to see what other types of enemies I’ll stumble across as I progress. I have to admit I’m not very good at video games in general, so after I died a few times I was happy to be presented with the option to lower the difficulty (otherwise I probably would have already given up).
If there’s one major downside to the game so far, it’s Burroughs character / AI / whatever it is. Over and over and over again you’re presented with the same, annoying “Did you get all that?” after every explanation / tutorial item. I’m not sure whether it’s some sort of inside joke, but if not it’s incredibly annoying and downright lazy to repeat the same line so many times.
I’m hoping I can continue to enjoy the game, though I’m a little worried it’ll start to get more complex and I wont have the patience to try to understand everything. Until then I’ll keep chugging along.
Bogus Basin: Jan. 2, 2015
We headed up to Bogus Basin for the first time of the season on Friday for some night skiing. The sunset was beautiful, the snow was awesome and we had a great time!
I love the view from atop the Showcase chair, especially at nightfall. Showcase is my favorite run, and that’s pretty much all we skied Friday night. I brought up my GoPro and took some fun videos as well. Nothing fancy, just enjoying the snow and the mountain. Enjoy!
The Imitation Game, a wonderful film
Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.
On New Year’s Day we saw The Imitation Game, the absolutely must see movie that follows Alan Turing’s life and his secret work to crack the German’s Enigma code during World War II. Whether you know anything about Alan Turing or not, I highly recommend seeing the film. It tells a wonderful story about an amazing man and his struggles being both a socially awkward genius and a closeted homosexual. The pacing of the story is just right and the build up to the ultimate climax and breakthrough are amazing. The Imitation Game joins The Theory of Everything as not only one of the best films of the year, but also one of the best biographical films in recent years. I can’t recommend both films enough.
Alan Turing’s arrest and punishment (chemical castration) for being gay are an absolute outrage, and it’s hard to believe just how recently humanity has done horrible things to those who chose to live differently. Turing certainly lived an interesting life and I’m left wanting to learn more about it. I’m certainly looking forward to reading the biography the film was based on (Alan Turing: The Enigma, Andrew Hodges) and seeing him mentioned in Walter Isaacson’s The Innovators which I bought awhile back but haven’t started reading yet.
If Turing’s name sounds familiar you’ve probably heard it in the form of the Turing Test, the test meant to determine whether a computer can “think” enough like a human and fool a person into believing it is a human. You may have read that this past summer a computer passed the Turing Test for the first time.
Best of 2014, honorable mentions
If you haven’t yet seen my top 5 games of 2014, be sure to check that out. Now I’d like to throw out some honorable mentions that just didn’t quite make the cut.
A significant game that didn’t land in my top 5 is Dragon Age Inquisition. I absolutely loved the first two Dragon Age games, and I’ve enjoyed my time with Inquisition so far, but it just hasn’t grabbed my attention enough to merit making a top 5 list.
I’ve put maybe 18-20 hours into it so far, which overall isn’t a lot, and I’ve never really felt all that involved. It feels like the game is trying to accomplish too much, or at least more than I care to pay attention to and I never have any idea what’s going on. Also I’ve been annoyed by the insane amount of loot that appears in the game. If I want to pick up everything possible I find myself hitting ‘A’ every 20-30 seconds and picking up a bunch of items and then I have to go to the inventory screen and see if I picked up anything worth using. It’s just downright annoying, and at this point I’ve just stopped looting the enemies I kill.
Maybe I’ll start to enjoy the game more as I get further into it, but so far I feel like it’s been pretty mediocre at best.
Another game worth mentioning is Madden 15. I really wanted Madden to make my list, but I couldn’t squeeze it in alongside the other great games that made it. Madden 25 didn’t feel like much of an upgrade on the new consoles, but Madden 15 was a wonderful step forward. The game looks and feels amazing to play and is one of the best football experiences to date. I didn’t end up getting FIFA 15 this year, but I’m sure that’s just as good of an experience (I love FIFA 14 still!).
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is a refreshing take on the Call of Duty formula with the exo skeleton freshening up the online play and Kevin Spacey bringing an amazing performance to the campaign. I’d probably still be playing Advanced Warfare if I weren’t so swept up in the Master Chief Collection.
Diablo III Ultimate Evil Edition not only provides a great value by including the Reaper of Souls expansion but it also offers a revamped Diablo III experience tailored for current gen consoles. The game is a blast to play either via couch co-op or online with friends and strangers alike, and there’s more epic loot than you’ll ever be able to carry. It’s a great experience and one of the best co-op games of the year!
Forza Horizon 2 is an absolutely beautiful racing game that makes exploring the world just as fun as competing in races. The road trips that take you between each racing hub or a wonderful way to explore the world and see all the amazing scenery. The online multiplayer modes are a blast, whether you’re free roaming or playing the zombie attack mode. There are plenty of beautiful cars and a ton of road (and off road) to cover.
It’s strange to think Titanfall came out this year. It came out early in the Xbox One’s life (at least early enough so there wasn’t much else to play) and I was quite excited for it. Initially I was amazed by Titanfall and found it refreshing to play and a lot more enjoyable than the other shooter available at the time, Call of Duty Ghosts. Although I enjoyed Titanfall at the time, it quickly became lost in a sea of other releases and I haven’t given it a second thought since.
Last, but certainly not least, is GTA V. Rockstar put a lot of love into making GTA V a superb experience on current gen consoles. The world looks even more stunning than ever before, but they also added an entirely new experience with first person view. I haven’t used the view much, but it certainly changes the way things play throughout the game. I’m just in awe at how amazing the world looks and how fun it is to run around in it still.
A Video Game Life’s top 5 and Game of the Year!
Number Five: Civilization Revolution 2 (iOS)
Back in 2008 Civilization Revolution on the Xbox 360 served as my introduction to the wonderful strategy series that’s been around since 1991. The gameplay was incredibly addicting and winning battles was wonderfully satisfying again and again. One night browsing the app store in my hotel room in Hawaii I stumbled across a pleasant surprise when I saw Civilization Revolution 2 for sale. I bought it immediately and spent countless hours trying to dominate the world rather than sleeping. Revolution 2 plays great on the iPad and offers hundreds of hours of enjoyment for longtime Civ fans or newcomers alike. I’ll be enjoying Civilization Revolution 2 well into 2015 and beyond, and it certainly deserves recognition as one of the best games released in 2014.
Number Four: The Wolf Among Us
Telltale Games’ The Wolf Among Us took me by surprise this summer. I was never blown away by the Walking Dead games but decided to give The Wolf Among Us a try. I downloaded the entire season on the iPad this summer and dove right in. I was immediately blown away by the unique, dark world and the amazing characters within. The music and scenery during the introduction following the preface absolutely blew my mind and ranks as one of the most awe inspiring sequences in a video game I’ve ever experienced.
The mystery Bigbee gets wrapped up in kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the entire experience and every twist and turn made it so hard to put my iPad down. I burned through the episodes as quickly as I could and loved every minute of it.
Number Three: Hearthstone
Hearthstone is an incredibly well made, free card battle game. Blizzard took a chance and hit a grand slam with Hearthstone. The game features great artwork, animation and sounds along with easy to pick up, hard to put down gameplay that provides countless hours of entertainment. I feel like Hearthstone is quite easy to understand and get the hang of compared to other card battle games like Magic the Gathering, but there’s still plenty there for more seasoned players. Hearthstone is so hard to put down because no matter how badly you’re being beaten you’re never quite out of it. I’ve been on the edge of defeat and have gotten the right cards at the final moments and have battled back from that edge and onto an incredibly satisfying victory. There’s hardly anything more rewarding than experiences like that!
Number Two: Tales from the Borderlands (episode one)
Telltale games have had a big year this year. The Wolf Among Us came to a wonderful conclusion this summer and then this winter saw the start of two new adventures with Game of Thrones and Tales from The Borderlands. The latter has not only been my favorite Telltale game to date, but also one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had with a video game ever! The first episode is upbeat, colorful, energetic and absolutely hilarious from start to finish. I’ve never laughed so much while playing a game. I had a smile on my face from start to finish as I made my way through the exciting chapters of the first episode. There was never a dull moment and the conclusion to the episode had me dying for more. I can’t wait to experience the rest of the story! Tales from the Borderlands confidently lands at number two on my list because it was a refreshing experience with some incredible writing in a great world. I highly recommend it!
Game of the Year: Halo: The Master Chief Collection
This is sure to be a controversial pick for a variety of reasons. First of all, this is technically a re-release of games spanning from 2001 to 2013. Secondly, the game had an incredibly rocky launch, and was not ready to be released upon the salivating masses in November. It’s true, for the first three weeks I owned the game I was only able to play around 15 matches which is entirely unacceptable. That said, now that the game has been more or less working as intended for the last week or so it’s easily been my most enjoyable gaming experience of 2014.
Being able to jump into matches across four different Halo games with my friends from around the world with whom I’ve played the games with in the past. It’s amazing to see how much Halo has grown all in one package. We used to throw our cumbersome CRT TV’s in our cars and drive miles to a central meeting place, lug our TV’s downstairs, order pizza and play Halo for hours on end. To be able to jump into a game of Halo Combat Evolved or Halo 2 with the push of a button is awesome. To be able to play a match of Halo 3, 2, and CE in quick succession is equally awesome. The Halo 2 Anniversary remake is a stunningly beautiful way to relive both a great campaign and a great multiplayer experience.
I will easily spend hundreds of hours over the next year and beyond enjoying the Master Chief Collection. The last week of fun alone has already made up for the three weeks I was barely able to play the game I invested $60 in. From the start the Master Chief Collection was a bargain for $60. They could have easily charged $60 alone for the Halo 2 Anniversary edition, but instead they threw in three more games and gave us an unimaginable value. For that, Halo: The Master Chief Collection is crowned A Video Game Life’s Game of the Year! Congratulations 343!
New design
Hey there, just letting you know I switched up the design here a bit, hope you like it. Nothing special, but I think it’s a bit cleaner than what I had going on before and now I’m able to make full use of the sidebar.
Thanks for checking it out!
Xbox Live is down again
After about an hour of enjoying Master Chief Collection with friends we all lost our connection to the party and all of a sudden all of our friends lists went dark. They showed zero players online, and we were unable to invite each other back into the game and had issues sending messages even from the Smart Glass app.
We were all able to join Halo matches on our own, but coudln’t join each other’s games or parties. It appears as if Xbox Live is once again under attack and most of the social services seem to be affected right now (over the last 30 minutes or so).
We were having a blast playing Halo, and it’s frustrating to have our enjoyment interrupted once again by a group of “hackers” (the hashtag #xboxlivedown seems to show a widespread interruption). What a shame. I guess I’ll either try to play Dragon Age or just give up all together and play some 3DS to end the night.
Originally posted on my other blog, BoiseLife.City.
Bardenay is located in the Basque Block in Boise and is known for being the “first US restaurant distillery”. I ate there for the first time yesterday and I have to say I was quite impressed.
The first thing you’ll notice upon entering the restaurant is the amazing atmosphere. It’s clean, spacious and welcomes you in from the beautiful streets of the Basque Block. The floor is very open and the high ceilings and brick walls make for a unique environment compared to most other restaurants.
The next thing you’ll likely notice is the amazing smells! All of the food floating around the restaurant smells amazing. It was incredibly difficult to decide what to have for lunch because everything around us looked and smelled delicious!
As you take your seat your eye will probably catch sight of the beautiful distillery, shiny and tall behind panes of glass. It’s quite an impressive sight!
I finally decided on the Grilled Chorizo Sandwich, and I’m glad I did! It looked, smelled and tasted incredibly delicious! I had never eaten chorizo before and I’m glad the sandwich at Bardenay was my first experience because I can’t imagine anything tasting better. Served with a side of delicious sweet potato fries the lunch was great! It’s also worth noting the service was superb and the entire experience was wonderful!
I highly recommend Bardenay in Boise, where you’re greeted by friendly staff, a great environment and amazing food and drinks. Give it a try!
Gumballs Plays Games 