The Rise of the Digital Only Gaming World – Opinion

While a lot of people are buying into and even applauding the all digital marketplace that gaming is starting to go into not everyone is so thrilled. From consumer rights, to historical archiving, and more there are tons of drawbacks to what is being thrust upon us that don’t like what is coming in the entertainment world.

Consumer rights. People hear that phrase a lot in political and legal spheres but I don’t think it gets as much attention as it should for a lot of different reasons. The main reason being just lazy. It’s more convenient to be able to pull up a music streaming service, a streaming gaming service, tv/movie streaming service or to buy digital and then just access it without having to get up and switch a disc of some kind plus you save on space in your dwelling and usually a little savings in your pocket book. However, going digital gives over a HUGE portion of your consumer rights. Go read the fine print in whatever digital platform you buy a game, movie, or tv show season on. We all know that when streaming we lose access when we stop paying or if the contract for the intellectual property (From here out known as IP) expires. Most people don’t realize that when you BUY a digital copy of whatever entertainment item you get you are considered to be paying for a long term LEASE of the item. The owner of the IP continues to retain the right to revoke access to what you paid for without having to state a reason for it nor giving your money back. That’s right! You bought something but it isn’t actually yours to keep! Since it is also the age of the always on internet those same companies can go in and alter the product whenever they like. Taking out content, or changing scenes as they wish so that the original item you paid for no longer exists as you know it. If you buy a physical copy this is harder for them to do though not impossible. Also, with the always on internet gaming companies no longer put the whole game on the discs which means that even if you try and game without their input on something you paid for you can’t use it as it was in the past. Back before we as consumers started giving ground to the corporations and also demanding faster turn around on game releases it used to be that the whole game was in the cartridge or on the discs without needing release day updates/patches, or to download the rest of the actual title. This meant that a game sank or swam on it’s own. On one hand we wouldn’t have No Man’s Sky, Days Gone, or numerous other titles today be ultimately successful without the developers being able to fix their mistakes through the internet. But, we also wouldn’t be having the issues with consumer rights either. A happy medium would be for the entire game to be on discs even if it meant three or four discs for installs like happened in the past and then if there were glaring issues the patches and such could happen as needed. This allows for consumer rights to be respected, disadvantaged people with bad internet to not need to wait sometimes a day or two for a download, and the developers can still fix things as needed. There can still be DLC since that isn’t a needed part of a base game, etc. I myself am someone that insists on buying a physical copy of titles. I am growing frustrated with companies doing digital only releases however. The two that effect me the most currently are Baldur’s Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2.

I’m poor. So most of the time I have to wait on buying the next big title that I want to play. I use my local public library as a stop gap so that I can at least play it a little bit before I am able to buy it. The developers get their money because the library will buy multiple copies of a title that has a high demand…. but if the title is released digital only this is not possible anymore. This digital only future is going to turn gaming into a no poor people allowed zone again like it was in the beginning. Yes, I know that there are streaming services like Xbox Game Pass, etc. that people can pay for, but again, they won’t own anything but the console, tv, or pc that they are gaming on. They will also only have access to the title as long as it is allowed to stay in the streaming service library. I know for a fact that Xbox rotates things on and off. The cloud streaming for gaming is also still an iffy option especially if you are poor with budget level internet.

The developers state that it saves time and money to do a digital only release. If this was true then the titles would be cheaper coming out that way as well.. however, there has been no drop in price. In fact there has been an at least ten dollar increase in pricing almost across the board for bigger indie titles as well as triple A ones. On top of that the “Collector’s” or “Gold” editions have for the most part stopped having any physical items included with them unless you want to pay for the “Collector’s” stuff AND buy the base game separately in some cases. It made sense for them to charge one hundred dollars or more for a Collector’s edition when you got statues, maps, dice, etc. along with the physical game disc. Now they want to charge the same amount WITHOUT the physical extras and also without the physical discs with cases. If you know anything about the world of manufacturing then you know that game publishers are able to have things made in bulk at a discounted rate. If they aren’t confident in the game sales they can short the stock and then have more made if the demand is there. The problem is that a lot of games that they predicted as smash hits have bombed. They no longer trust the consumer to pay for what they are putting out. So, instead of I don’t know changing what they put out to please the consumer and improve the sales margins they decide to stay the course but lower their losses by going digital. This allows them to keep more of the money with less risk to them. It is however not good for the consumer since they get no benefits from it other than not having to swap discs. Being lazy is not a reward nor is it rewarding. I do realize that there are disabled gamers out there where not having to swap discs is a huge bonus for them. I’m not advocating for the complete abolishment of the digital marketplace. I am advocating for the games to be complete in both the digital and the physical world. For the gaming market to become consumer friendly once more.

There are gaming museums and/or gaming historical archives popping up here in the United States. Their mission is to catalogue as much of the history of gaming by having copies of as many titles as they can from the original Pong going forward. There are games that have been lost to time because the original source code, cartridge, etc. have been destroyed or lost. Companies are reluctant to give copies of the source code, games, artwork, etc. to these museums and archives because of the fear of the IP being misused or distributed illegally. Going all digital like they are pushing will make even harder for museums and the archives to catalogue gaming history going forward.

It really does confuse and frighten me a little that most of the same people that talk about how greedy corporations are that then these same people are trusting them to continue to allow access to things we pay for digitally. It’s either one or the other. We can either trust corporations to be nice to consumers or we can realize that we are nothing but numbers on a spread sheet for them and fight them for continued good treatment by getting guarantees that protect our rights without having to do class action lawsuits in the future to correct things. A good rule of thumb is that if you can’t download it to store offline or play it offline then you don’t really own it. As of the time of this writing the only digital only things that all me to completely download and do whatever I want with them are music mp3s and games that I buy from GOG. Everywhere else that I have knowledge of currently doesn’t allow for it… and that is a scary future for consumer rights.

Final Fantasy XVI – A Review

I am first going to talk about the things I liked in the game before I get to what made me ultimately quit and move on to other titles in my backlog.

The graphics are fantastic. The battle system is great and I liked that they added in accessories that allowed for simplicity instead of having to worry about memorizing all the different button combinations. The story in the beginning is great and I really got into disliking the mother for how she was treating her sons and manipulating her husband. I also loved that there was at least one Moogle.

Now, onto the dislikes. Please keep in mind that this is opinion.

The story gets complicated and branches off in a super weird way that is never explained in a way that satisfied me and doesn’t fit within any of the Final Fantasy mythos that I’ve experienced through either watching others play or playing myself.

The game play is chopped up into segments instead of being an open world like the previous title was. As such having a Chocobo was useless except in a couple of places since you fast traveled to the “main” area of the quest you were on and then could further fast travel within those smaller maps.

There are TONS of cut scenes and a lot of them feel unneeded when a simple conversation while standing next to the character you were talking to would have worked just as well.

Also, there isn’t a lot of explanation on hand in the beginning of the storyline to show things like the illness that magic causes… Clive never sees anyone dying of it or inflicted with it until much much later in the game so the player doesn’t know it is a thing even though all the characters act like it was always an issue. Also, it bugged me that they labelled the Phoenix as fire instead of healing AND that despite Joshua being the embodiment of it he was always sick… Also, unless you know the mythos of the bird in question his survival after the beat down he got.. and his appearance in the “past” doesn’t make sense.

Finally, I quit the game out of frustration and boredom. I really loved Final Fantasy XV. It is the first and only Final Fantasy to date that I bought and finished all the way through. I even bought all the DLCs for it, the collector’s game guide, AND the soundtrack. The changes that Square Enix had wrought made the game fun and engaging to me while in this latest installment feels over all like it went backwards. Once I quit Final Fantasy XVI I looked up the rest of the story and I am so glad I quit instead of forcing myself to see it through. A world without magic? In a Final Fantasy game? You know the fantasy genre requires mystical/magical mythos yes? So this game is a bubble in and of itself. That is unless they’ve decided to turn the series into a plain fiction setting and they are going to change the title going forward… then again it is rare that despite the numbering and shared title that the story lines actually work within the same world or origin. I should have stuck with boycotting it like I was going to when I found out that it wasn’t a continuation of the storyline from XV.

I do not recommend this title at all. We will see if they fix it in the next one.

Life Update – Sept. 29th, 2023

I’ve been dealing with a lot, but, nothing that I couldn’t handle in the long run. Both of my dogs passed away, we adopted two new ones, friends getting sick and/or drifting away from me, reading projects, physical therapy and more have pulled my interests in different directions.

One of the things that I am doing for myself however is reading a book, “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. This book is helping me learn how to improve myself everyday and to keep the habits that I want to form while reducing the ones that are harmful to me. An example is that I started working out everyday once I am done sleeping for the day. Due to my back and shoulder issues I have a hard time sleeping through the full eight hours that need. After five to six hours I wake up aching so I do my morning routine then lay back in my recliner and take a nap. After that is when I work out. At the moment of this writing I have only been doing it three days but I have noticed that the work out is getting easier already.

Part of the book takes the phrase “Fake it til you make it” and teaches the mentality behind it. You want to be a body builder? Work out everyday and tell yourself as well as others that you are one because you ARE taking the actions of a body builder by lifting weights everyday. You want to to be a healthier person in general? Make small actions to reflect that and don’t use word like trying, want, will be, going to be, etc. If you are taking the steps that others with that label do then you ARE the label as well. It’s been an epic lesson to learn and has been taught in other ways before that I just didn’t pick up on. It’s about thinking positive instead of negative. Changing your identity instead of just the outside habits… working from within to effect the outer part of yourself.

I can’t recommend the book more… truthfully. No matter what the goals you are looking for reach for the book will help! On top of that when you buy it new and email a copy of the receipt to the author he sends you a few extra pdfs to help expand and support information in the book.

The workout that I am currently doing is all weight lifting with free weights while sitting in a chair. This has helped a lot. I have been dealing with back issues since my early twenties due to an injury with my weight added on top. Recently learned that it is herniated discs in my lower back. This is the link from Live Strong that I use every morning to keep myself on task and doing the movements correctly: Full-Body Dumbbell Workout

The great thing about the workout link above is that you can do it with any amount of weight. I’m currently only lifting 3 lbs., but, I am a body builder just starting out. My free weight set goes up to 30 lbs. I am also going to be re-starting physical therapy so that I can learn more about how to stretch, flex, and body build going forward. I even have a wish list on Temu waiting for me to buy so that I can expand what I do at home to workout. I’m going to share another workout link that I will be using once I have the things in my wish list. Seated Total Body Workout for Overweight Exercisers now I know it says overweight people, BUT, I do believe that it would work with people who aren’t but also physically limited or just starting out on the working out journey.

Changing topics now. Our new puppies are awesome. We named them Charlie and Coco. My mom named Coco after Coco Chanel. Charlie I originally called Buddy, however, one day I called him Charlie and he tried to lick my face off so that became his official name. Coco is a 3 year old deer headed Chihuahua and Charlie is a 2 year old Cheagle.

I’ve been playing a lot of video games and re-watching my favorite TV shows in my down time. Please expect a series of game reviews to be posted soon. Specifically Final Fantasy 16, Cyberpunk 2077, and Generation Zero.

The link for the book is an affiliate link. So, if you are going to get the book please use that link for purchase through Amazon as I will make a little bit of money on it.

Opinion – The Winchesters Season 1

I decided to do a trial of HBO Max through my Amazon Prime. This was originally so that I could watch Fringe without having to switch discs or dig my set out of where I have them stored. I know lazy. LOL

However, this turned out to be a good thing because I discovered “The Winchesters” Season 1 was also on the streaming service. Last year I had heard bits and pieces about this show. That Dean was going to be telling the story of his parents before the boys were born, that it wasn’t a series set before the show “Supernatural” but a spin off that happens in at alternate universe.

The fact that this is a what if scenario has seemed to pass over a lot of viewers heads. I went to Rotten Tomatoes to do a review there. A lot of viewers were bitching about how young the actors are, how John doesn’t act like he did in the original series, how Mary doesn’t act like she did in the other show, how John wasn’t supposed to know about Hunting until after Mary dies, or how he was never supposed to know about his father and the Men of Letters.

People, People, People… Ya’ll need to remember a couple of things, well other than that this is set in an alternate universe, John Winchester and Mary Campbell didn’t just slide out of the womb as fully developed balanced people. They had to experience life, love, loss, and a whole host of other things to become the characters that we met in the original series. As I have watched the series (I haven’t finished the season as of yet) I have seen the connections, the paths that they are traveling that would see them becoming the people we met in the original series with some changes of course because this is an alternate universe.

The first few episodes were a little cringe worthy, but, as the character opened up and the plot developed it’s just become fun to watch. It’s not as dark as the original show, but, it doesn’t have to be. As I reminded people in my review on Rotten Tomatoes this tale is told by Dean Winchester. The same Dean that loves rock music, pranks, Scooby Doo, and can be super goofy when he is able to relax. Why would a dude like that tell a tale of his parents journey like he is reciting a Stephen King novel? Especially when the brothers had some super goofy and weird adventures when they were hunting even when they were trying to save the world?

I am glad they are handling John, Mary, Carlos, and even Lata the way they are. The story is set in a time within America that was a huge time for change. The culture in the States shifted massively in the wake of the Vietnam War. The fact that they are allowing John’s character to show even SOME of the issues a lot of vets had when coming back from Vietnam is awesome. It allows us to see him fighting to come back home mentally, see him work through the trauma and become a better man. When it comes to Mary we are seeing her working through what she wants in life. Have the same issue that her sons had at times when it came to hunting, leaving hunting, etc. A lot of people don’t like the obviously gay Carlos. My guess is they don’t like how flamboyant he is. I love how sassy he is and he isn’t actually gay. They have subtly established that he is bisexual though I can see why it would be hard for people to get that. I know of men just as sassy as Carlos that were actually straight. Now, Lata is a mystery. She is hiding something from everyone. She seems genuine, kind, caring, etc. But, there have also been things going on in the show that make me think that she isn’t what she seems so I am going to hold judgement over her character until the secrets are revealed.

I really do think that if this show is allowed to continue that it will grow and change into a very interesting series. I would love to see where it will go since we all know that Dean is born in 1979 and the current year in the show is 1972. That gives the show writers 7 years of adventures to work with. Who knows maybe something will happen to force Mary and John out of hunting. Maybe their minds will get wiped, maybe John gets hurt and Mary makes the deal with yellow eyes to save him before settling down, the possibilities are endless on what could happen. This may even be an alternative universe where the boys are raised as hunters and Men of Letters by both their parents.

If you haven’t watched it yet I say take a shot. If you didn’t get past the third episode then you need to try again with an open mind. There are some woke messages in the writing, but, it isn’t in the entire episode so far so it is easily ignored.

Movie Review – He’s All That

Let me just say before I dig into the review for the film. I am old enough that I remember when “She’s All That” hit the theaters. I was just 19 years old when it released. So, This review is from the perspective of someone that saw the original and understood all the nostalgia that is hidden in the new one. If you haven’t seen it then I want to say… What is stopping you already?!

Okay, the movie starts out fairly shallow. There are also things that remind me of another great movie, “Some Kind of Wonderful” (1987), but they aren’t super relative to the story as a whole. I think I only noticed them because I am a huge nerd. This a typical setup actually and was done in the 80’s as well in a movie called, “Can’t Buy Me Love” (1987). Though there are differences of course. This movie is mainly a redo of “She’s All That”, hence the title, with the roles switched and the situations slightly different.

Now, the main character is a good person and is in fact a better person than the “popular jock dude” from the original right at the jump. I think we see this because of the change in focus character for the sequel. In the first one you mostly followed the “loser” Laney with groups scenes and one or two scenes with the jock dude. In this remake you are following the “popular influencer chick” with group scenes and a few “loser contrarian dude” mainly to setup the plot and to help close up the plot in the movie. This change up simplified the formula quite a bit, but, also made some of the plot seem much more shallow as they had to change the conflict for the most part though it is established that the guy dislikes the ex-boyfriend of the influencer chick because he is a dick. Instead of the bet and then the original girlfriend being an issue like in the first one. They had one of the influencer girl’s friends be a traitor who decides to run against her and also start dating her douche of an ex-boyfriend. This was obviously motivated by jealousy by that friend but that isn’t explored as much except for a couple of long shots during certain scenes. If they had wanted to follow the plot of the original then the friend should have still been a jealous bitch, but, gone after Tanner Buchanan’s character, etc.

Over all the movie is fun, funky, goofy, and corny. It is a high school romance movie after all. What really made the film for me, other than how truly hot Tanner Buchanan is, is that they got a couple of the veteran actors from the first one to be in the film. Rachael Leigh Cook plays the mother of the influencer while Matthew Lillard plays the principal of the high school, though Mr. Lillard isn’t revealed until the end of the film. A few moments made me laugh or chuckle because of the references to the first movie. The two biggest being the song “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None the Richer playing at the prom with Rachael Leigh Cook teasing the audience about why the song seems familiar to her. Then at the very end of the film when everyone starts to dance Matthew Lillard’s character starts busting out some moves that Brock Hudson, his character in the first one, did as well. It was all very good-hearted.

If you are a fan of the original then I think you will get a kick out of watching “He’s All That”.

However, there are movies done recently that did the same type of makeover shtick a bit better. The first one to pop up in my mind is “The Duff”. Another with a self makeover, romance and highschool drama is “Easy A”.

I’m going to start putting a score at the end of my reviews to help people better understand where my emotional meter is on a movie and how much I liked it. I tend to be critical even when I like a movie or tv show.

SCORE: 7/10

Review: Netflix’s Wednesday – Season One (Spoiler Free)

I binge-watched all eight episodes of Wednesday Season One in two days. The series premiered on the 23rd of November 2022. I watched the first episode at midnight on the 23rd slept and did life things then finished the last episode at 5:00 am on the 24th. I made sure not to follow the hype on this show so that if it was bad I wouldn’t be too upset. I’ve been a fan of The Addams Family franchise since the old black and white which used to do reruns when I was a child in the 80s. Then the two movies in the 90s with Christina Ricci as Wednesday are some of my favorite comedy films. The second is my favorite of the two.

The television show isn’t as goofy as the original show nor is it on the same level as the movies from the 90s. However, this isn’t a bad thing. Tim Burton and Danny Elfman have given this show its own identity and mood. It fits the past work for both of them in other projects. Dark but lighthearted enough not to pull down the emotions of the viewer. All the gore fits into the storyline and isn’t over the top at all.

The design of the sets, costumes, makeup, and more are spectacular and bring a great blend of modern and classic to the show. I especially like how they worked in vivid punches of color into Wednesday’s typically monochromatic world.
The cast did an outstanding job with their roles. As someone who grew up with Raul Julia as Gomez, it is a little weird having the new version in this series. However, Luis Guzmán is growing on me so I look forward to the new season. If there is one that is. Since I have binge-watched the series so rapidly, and, it is the holidays here in the USA. I haven’t been keeping up with the overall take on the internet with how well this has been watched or received as of yet.

I’ve seen Jenna Ortega in other things the one that I love more than this new series is The Babysitter: Killer Queen. She is a phenomenal actress and I look forward to seeing where her career goes. Hopefully, it will be illustrious and busy!
The storyline (without getting into spoilers) is a typical coming of age with personal character growth, but, it doesn’t feel overdone or trite. For me, half of the mystery in the season was easy to see only a few episodes in but the other parts were surprises. They left enough open at the end to tie some things back in newer seasons without having to rehash them. The formula is great with enough bits in every episode to show there is an overarching storyline without overpowering the other things going on in each episode. It is a great balance that I hope they continue with for the rest of the show’s lifetime.

If you are the kind of person that liked or loved the original Addams family movies then I think you will love this series. Just give it to the third episode for it to really take off into the storyline and to get comfortable with the character dynamics. Try not to do what some critics are and be so cynical that you can’t just enjoy good entertainment for what it is.

Supernatural – Character Review/Impressions – Mary Winchester

Okay, I have been binge watching Supernatural from Season 1 forward for over a month now. I watched all the seasons before up to the last two. I just watched Season 12 Episode 3 “The Foundry” and felt the urge to vent about Mary Winchester.

Mrs. Winchester came from a hunter family. Generations of hunters raising hunters. She decided to rebel as a teen/young adult and wanted out of hunting. She met a dude (John Winchester) who she supposedly fell in love with. Then her parents are killed by a demon, the same demon she then makes a deal with just to get the supposed love of her life back starting the shit storm that ultimately happens to Sam and Dean. She never tells Mr. Winchester about hunting, demons, or the deal she made.

See here is the thing. If you truly love someone then you are also supposed to trust them with who you are, where you came from, etc. You don’t hide your past, your family history, or any demon deals that you made for their life. Mr. Winchester can be excused from that because he didn’t know that his father was a Men of Letters member since he disappeared before he was old enough to be told and then the chapter was killed off as well so no one would have come forward later to recruit him.

When Mary is returned to life as a reward to Dean and also Sam for convincing Amara (The Darkness) to turn away from hollow revenge and to give being a family with Chuck (God/The Light) another chance it was supposed to be a good thing. I understand that the new technology and such is jarring. But, Mary in the past always seemed like a smart girl. The kind of girl who would quickly catch on to things.

When she leaves the boys and the bunker at the end of the episode I want to scream at her. A mother doesn’t walk out on her sons. The fact that she makes it sound like she blames them for her issues then says that she loves them before leaving is such a bitch move. Leaving won’t help her get her head around the fact that she missed 33 years of her children’s lives! Asking them questions, letting them tell their life stories while all sat down drinking some beers or something would be better than just walking out like that! I also get the vibe that she is pissed at John for becoming a hunter and going after the demon while dragging the boys along. This shows that she didn’t really know her husband at all. Even I know that a Marine like John wouldn’t just let it go. Once a Marine always a Marine.

This base reaction to things taints her character for me. She is emotionally and mentally weak. I think she kinda always was. So unless something happens to her that makes her learn to be stronger she is going to always be a shitty mom to me.

Game Review: Saints Row (2022)

I am a big fan of the Saints Row franchise. I’ve been playing since the first one came out on the Xbox 360. It started off as a GTA clone but eventually established it’s own voice in the genre. The game story lines got bigger, more campy, and crazy as the series went on eventually getting to Ruler of the Universe and Time Traveler level of hilarity.

I decided to pre-order the Notorious Edition of the new Saints Row. I sat down and played it for hours last night.

The devs decided to reboot the franchise this year with Saints Row. Set in a completely new setting that reminds me of Las Vegas called Santo Ileso. As always you play as The Boss, but, in this one the Saints don’t exist yet. You and your roommates decide after some things go down (trying to avoid heavy spoilers) to start your own criminal enterprise… The Saints.

The story flow so far is slow. They made some of the game mechanics and features only unlockable through the story line instead of it just being there in the game already. Side jobs (side hustles) start off as only a few different types but expand as you play the game. Hidden collectables, dumpster diving, and the Wanted list are also there for distraction. Just like Saints Row 3 and forward you can collect vehicles as well by jacking them and taking them to your garage. There are hours and hours of things to do outside of the main story line.

I don’t like the healing method they are using in the game. In the old ones you got health pickups from killing the enemies. In this one you get one health boost (it doesn’t heal you completely) every so often. Even if you kill a lot of enemies it still takes longer than I would like to get ready, killing speeds up the timer, it can lead to some really frustrating game play where you are literally running and dodging around in circles just to keep alive while waiting for it to pop. Oh, and the default difficulty level is good for co-op. Not so good for solo because trying to aim the guns is frustrating as heck. It auto aims for the body and then fights you if you try to aim anywhere else which makes being accurate super hard. I looked in the settings and couldn’t find anything to tone down or turn this feature off. I would be aiming down sights and it would bounce from one side of the enemies head to the other at a nudge from the stick even if I wasn’t firing.

Co-op at the time of this blog is broken. My buddy and I ended up at a point right in the beginning section that just wouldn’t move forward. We tried it twice before giving up and completing it solo before teaming back up. We can’t see each other when we aren’t right next to each other because we aren’t highlighted in world for the other player. I can’t see him on the map at all to pin point his location if we decided to go explore different locations. Later on in the story line he was forcibly disconnected from me by the game right before a cut scene. This caused the game to almost freeze to the point that I thought I was going to have to close it all the way out and come back in. Then once the cut scene finally played through the game wouldn’t let him reconnect. After this we decided to solo play until the co-op is fixed. This feature being broken at launch when it was being sold as key to the game is frustrating. It also reminds me of Dying Light 2 which is not a good thing. My friend and I go out of our way to buy titles that we can play online together because that is the only time we get to hang out with each other even though we live in the same city.

Over all if you like the Saint Row franchise you will love this game… clarification. If you love the original game and the second one the most of all the titles then you will love this one. The story line is more toned down even with the comedy involved in it.

Movie Reviews: Resident Evil the Complete Collection

During my week, this week, I hurt my wrist. This means no gaming at least for a few more days as I write this. I am to the point in my healing where I can type and mouse with only a little if any pain but can not hold and manipulate a controller. This is major sad face for me, but, it gave me a chance to catch up on some things I’ve wanted to watch. I decided to buy on digital The Complete Collection: Resident Evil through Amazon Video. I had seen the first three films in the six film franchise already. I love the character Alice. The movies do become pretty cheesy as the franchise goes on, but, at the same time they don’t lose their entertainment value. When I watch action movies of any kind I am personally not looking for realism, a deep story, or anything like that. These movies give plenty of action with a bad ass female at the helm!

I will admit that I never played through the original titles to the game series that the film series is based on. I’ve only played Biohazard and The Village. Because of this I think it lets me see the movies in a less jaded view than fans of the games see them.

Through the viewing I noticed plot holes you could drive a truck through, and inconsistency with the storytelling. Most of these were caused by gaps between films, casting issues, scheduling, etc. Most of these from what I understand are closed up within the novels so I will have to read the series someday soon.

The acting is good in the films by the main actors for each film and even some side characters were well done. You can tell that some of the actors actually studied the characters they were to portray in the movie. I didn’t like who they chose for Leon, but, it wasn’t my call and he did okay.

I recommend to anyone to watch this series if you like movies where the good guys win no matter what happens to them. Just keep in mind that this is all loosely based on the game series and seems to deviate a lot by the end from what I understand.

Life Update – July 13th, 2022

Well, my dating life fell apart. Either dude just got bored or he was always an asshole. I have no clue. After a lot of weird dramatic supposed situations he just stopped talking to me. When I messaged over a week after his last communication that I was deleting his information he just gave me an okay. For a guy that harped hardcore on communication it was certainly hypocritical for him to just ghost me like he did. That is all I will say about that. I am continuing to look for a life partner. I don’t need someone in my life. I just want someone to share the journey I am already on with.

Other than my love life being shit things have been okay. My sister from another mister is going through some hardcore shit. I have confidence in her making it through this trial, but, it is going to test her resolve something awful. She and I had a text conversation that I think helped her a little bit. I also am sending her a gift that I think will help give her a reminder every time she sees it that she can do this.

My workouts are going well. I do them every other day because I do a list of songs on the Hard difficulty now. Adding up the run time for the songs in the list I come out a little over thirty minutes. By the time I get to the end of it all my shoulders will have gone from that good burning pain that lets you know that you are hitting the threshold and getting a good workout to numb which means I went passed that line. My arms start to get hard to control once I get to that point. Some of the songs I do are Rollin’, Don’t Cha, Party Rock Anthem, Alone, Crab Rave, Ghosts n’ Stuff, Angel Voices, etc. When I go from song to song there is less than a minute in-between. When I take the VR headset off I’m dripping sweat down my face, down my legs and my body is just ready to rest. I run the risk most days of dropping off into a nap once I am able to sit down and my feet stop doing pins and needles at me. My workouts aren’t without problems for me. I haven’t talked about it but I have bodily health issues more than just my weight. I’m asthmatic. I am heat sensitive. I have arthritis and/or tendonitis in my feet/ankles. I have a bad back from an old injury in my early twenties. The most recently I dislocated my left shoulder while I was sleeping and it took a month for it to pop back in on it’s own since my PCP didn’t want to touch it. While all that was going on I ended up spraining my right shoulder. Those are both still recovering. Most recently I messed up my left knee somehow. It’s healing slowly but steady and at least I can walk on it without pain most of the time now compared to a month ago. I ignore all this in order to do my workouts because I am a stubborn bastard and want to build muscles, lose fat, and be healthier. I’m saving up right now to buy the components for a resistance strength building setup with a bar, carabiners, bands, etc.

Anyway, other than that I have been reading fan fiction and the next book in the Jack Reacher series “Die Trying”. I might change it up and start the series over reading in chronological order instead of published order. It’s what I have decided to do with the Ender’s Game series which I also just started re-reading. I signed up for the libraries summer reading program and already earned a free book from their next sale. My next goal is to try and earn the summer reading medal. I came into the program a couple of months behind (it started at the end of May) so I might not make it but I am going to at least try since I have until August thirty-first.

I played through the Guardians of the Galaxy video game. It’s a decent game but I didn’t really like the game play loop. I was compelled to finish it because of the story line. I borrowed it from my local library. My next game borrow is Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. After the disappointment for me that was Borderlands 3 I stayed away from spending cash on the next title in the franchise. I’m hoping it is more like Borderlands 2 then 3. We will see later on tonight or this weekend.

Between all the reading and game playing I’ve been running errands, going to medical appointments, working out, and I started to watch Supernatural from the beginning so that I can catch up with the last three seasons of the show since I missed the entirely.

“I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.” – Plato