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Cold And Windy Friday
Apr. 10th, 2020 11:17 pmSure as hell didn't feel like April today, that's for sure -- it was HOWLING outside for most of the day! Ended up being a "hot chocolate in the afternoon" kind of day, which I wasn't expecting post-March, but here we are. As if coronavirus isn't enough, we have to have New England Weather on top of it? *grumbles*
Well, the weather outside may have been frightful, but I got plenty done indoors, including:
-->Taking some time this morning to get my Victor Luvs Alice queue sorted straight through next Tuesday, answering a friend's message on FF.net, and starting a write-up for next Thursday's AU Thursday post, along with some ideas for future Thursdays.
-->Taking a quick peek at the newly-updated work database thing (it's -- fine); fortunately it was damn near silent otherwise work-wise, yay! What you want when heading into the weekend.
-->Watching an OXtra and an OXBox video each -- a list about games that tricked you into believing a boss fight was over sooner than it really was (with the winner, in my opinion, being Kid Icarus Uprising, which tries to trick the player into thinking the whole GAME is over sooner than expected), and a list about awful launch titles for consoles (mainly games that had awful controls -- and not just motion controls, though two of those made the list. Also, apparently the Kinect can look at your blood to measure your pulse? I dunno, that's what Andy said and it's kinda disturbing!)
-->Watching two videos from "Vein Pursuit" that I'd missed earlier because I was only looking for the actual episodes -- I discovered them when I looked up to see if they were all together in a playlist so I could share the link to same for Song Saturday. They were, and there were also videos introducing the cast (Outstar I already knew as my main source of Bloodlines content on YouTube; the others are all either employees at Hardsuit Labs or Paradox, the two companies working together to make Bloodlines 2), and expanding on the characters (Outstar had a whole backstory for Veronica about being a poor immigrant who learned how to be tough and make good, moved to America to make her fortune -- and got embraced by a Ventrue in the LaCroix era of Los Angeles, leading her to become an Anarch. REALLY makes it a shame that she was seriously considering going back to the Camarilla in the actual campaign!). So that was all very cool to watch, and put me in the right mindset to finish off Bloodlines.
-->Speaking of which -- finishing off Bloodlines! I took a minute to get Alice's stats with and without armor, and with and without all her stat-boosting objects (even without artificial boosts to certain skills, she's become quite the powerhouse!), then moved into boss fight time! I actually did pretty well against the Sheriff at first -- and then the cutscene of him transforming into the Chiroptean Behemoth glitched out, so I had to reload. Didn't do QUITE so hot the second time, but thanks to lots of blood and Blood Buff, I survived until phase 2 of the fight!
Where I proceeded to get messed up royally by roaming Gangrel, the Behemoth's sonic attack fucking up my screen and making poor Alice move at a snail's pace, and my own flamethrower (looks like spending some of my last pennies on a final canister WASN'T my greatest idea). But, on the flip side, do you know what drops in the final fight so you can use it in a last blaze of glory against the Behemoth and his minions?
THE SHERIFF'S GIANT SWORD. I was absolutely STUNNED when I saw the handle sticking out of the ground, sparkling for attention, and got the cursor on it to show what it was. I'm sure this is a new feature of the Plus Patch, because I do NOT remember this from the first time I played, but I am HERE for it. Alice definitely grabbed that thing and laid the pain on everything attacking her. I don't know if, mechanically, it's actually any better than her Tal'Mahe'Ra blade, but it was just FUN to swing around and use against its owner. XD
Anyway -- eventually defeated the Sheriff with the help of giant spotlights and my Dragon's Breath shotgun, then had my final confrontation with LaCroix -- throwing off his Dominate attempts, slicing him up with his letter opener, and then dropping the key off for him so he could blow himself up, before walking away in a blaze of glory flipping off the Anarchs. A fitting end to the playthrough, I feel. :D
-->Writing up my resultant notes, including how the finale went down in Alice's universe (she handed over the key because she thought the accursed sarcophagus was empty and wanted LaCroix to wallow in disappointment, and she only left after staking Jack because, once she figured out he was the actual reason behind her misery, she was pissed) and her stats both with and without items and armor (obviously this isn't going to translate one to one with what happens in the story, but it's a good reference for her slowly growing in power). My timeline is complete, more or less! Now to keep working on the story and see where I need to insert padding and where I need to tighten things up.
-->Watching the latest episode of Atop the Fourth Wall, which featured. . .good Frank Miller comics?? O.o Yes, a Patron of Linkara's got him to look at some of Miller's early Daredevil stuff, which was intense and dark, but actually not badly written? I mean, you could see some of Frank's bad habits (leaning hard into the neo-noir narration, one of the main women characters is a drug-addicted porn star), but it was still an engaging story, and one that took Daredevil to the absolute lowest lows before he managed to claw his way back up again. Not perfect, but a hell of a lot better than we usually get from Miller on this show!
-->Also watching another video from Kevin where he plays a bunch of bad Steam games to entertain us during the quarantine (a lot of bad walking simulators where it's hard to die in this one -- though he quite enjoyed the bad shooty-mcbangbang game Manhunter; might even get its own video in the future!), and another video from Gray where he played a town-building simulator in what looked like a rural Russian setting and proceeded to torment them with terrifyingly high taxes and fishing spots set as far away from the town of YEET as possible. And then he took everything away just to watch everyone either move out or die, becaaause, Gray. XD
-->Got my Valice Multiverse queue sorted -- very quiet, struggled a bit to find a third thing to throw in there. But it's done, and that's the main thing.
And now it's time to finish answering what's in my inbox before heading off to whatever Friday night has in store for me. (I assume the Writing Thing, but I can't be 100% sure). Tomorrow shall be a Sims-themed day -- hopefully I can patch and play the game without issue, but I definitely will be watching my Sims-themed videos on YouTube. And probably downloading more custom content to add to the game shortly. :p Hey, I just lost the third game from my rotation -- even more important now to keep Sims 4 fresh! *nods* Night all!
Well, the weather outside may have been frightful, but I got plenty done indoors, including:
-->Taking some time this morning to get my Victor Luvs Alice queue sorted straight through next Tuesday, answering a friend's message on FF.net, and starting a write-up for next Thursday's AU Thursday post, along with some ideas for future Thursdays.
-->Taking a quick peek at the newly-updated work database thing (it's -- fine); fortunately it was damn near silent otherwise work-wise, yay! What you want when heading into the weekend.
-->Watching an OXtra and an OXBox video each -- a list about games that tricked you into believing a boss fight was over sooner than it really was (with the winner, in my opinion, being Kid Icarus Uprising, which tries to trick the player into thinking the whole GAME is over sooner than expected), and a list about awful launch titles for consoles (mainly games that had awful controls -- and not just motion controls, though two of those made the list. Also, apparently the Kinect can look at your blood to measure your pulse? I dunno, that's what Andy said and it's kinda disturbing!)
-->Watching two videos from "Vein Pursuit" that I'd missed earlier because I was only looking for the actual episodes -- I discovered them when I looked up to see if they were all together in a playlist so I could share the link to same for Song Saturday. They were, and there were also videos introducing the cast (Outstar I already knew as my main source of Bloodlines content on YouTube; the others are all either employees at Hardsuit Labs or Paradox, the two companies working together to make Bloodlines 2), and expanding on the characters (Outstar had a whole backstory for Veronica about being a poor immigrant who learned how to be tough and make good, moved to America to make her fortune -- and got embraced by a Ventrue in the LaCroix era of Los Angeles, leading her to become an Anarch. REALLY makes it a shame that she was seriously considering going back to the Camarilla in the actual campaign!). So that was all very cool to watch, and put me in the right mindset to finish off Bloodlines.
-->Speaking of which -- finishing off Bloodlines! I took a minute to get Alice's stats with and without armor, and with and without all her stat-boosting objects (even without artificial boosts to certain skills, she's become quite the powerhouse!), then moved into boss fight time! I actually did pretty well against the Sheriff at first -- and then the cutscene of him transforming into the Chiroptean Behemoth glitched out, so I had to reload. Didn't do QUITE so hot the second time, but thanks to lots of blood and Blood Buff, I survived until phase 2 of the fight!
Where I proceeded to get messed up royally by roaming Gangrel, the Behemoth's sonic attack fucking up my screen and making poor Alice move at a snail's pace, and my own flamethrower (looks like spending some of my last pennies on a final canister WASN'T my greatest idea). But, on the flip side, do you know what drops in the final fight so you can use it in a last blaze of glory against the Behemoth and his minions?
THE SHERIFF'S GIANT SWORD. I was absolutely STUNNED when I saw the handle sticking out of the ground, sparkling for attention, and got the cursor on it to show what it was. I'm sure this is a new feature of the Plus Patch, because I do NOT remember this from the first time I played, but I am HERE for it. Alice definitely grabbed that thing and laid the pain on everything attacking her. I don't know if, mechanically, it's actually any better than her Tal'Mahe'Ra blade, but it was just FUN to swing around and use against its owner. XD
Anyway -- eventually defeated the Sheriff with the help of giant spotlights and my Dragon's Breath shotgun, then had my final confrontation with LaCroix -- throwing off his Dominate attempts, slicing him up with his letter opener, and then dropping the key off for him so he could blow himself up, before walking away in a blaze of glory flipping off the Anarchs. A fitting end to the playthrough, I feel. :D
-->Writing up my resultant notes, including how the finale went down in Alice's universe (she handed over the key because she thought the accursed sarcophagus was empty and wanted LaCroix to wallow in disappointment, and she only left after staking Jack because, once she figured out he was the actual reason behind her misery, she was pissed) and her stats both with and without items and armor (obviously this isn't going to translate one to one with what happens in the story, but it's a good reference for her slowly growing in power). My timeline is complete, more or less! Now to keep working on the story and see where I need to insert padding and where I need to tighten things up.
-->Watching the latest episode of Atop the Fourth Wall, which featured. . .good Frank Miller comics?? O.o Yes, a Patron of Linkara's got him to look at some of Miller's early Daredevil stuff, which was intense and dark, but actually not badly written? I mean, you could see some of Frank's bad habits (leaning hard into the neo-noir narration, one of the main women characters is a drug-addicted porn star), but it was still an engaging story, and one that took Daredevil to the absolute lowest lows before he managed to claw his way back up again. Not perfect, but a hell of a lot better than we usually get from Miller on this show!
-->Also watching another video from Kevin where he plays a bunch of bad Steam games to entertain us during the quarantine (a lot of bad walking simulators where it's hard to die in this one -- though he quite enjoyed the bad shooty-mcbangbang game Manhunter; might even get its own video in the future!), and another video from Gray where he played a town-building simulator in what looked like a rural Russian setting and proceeded to torment them with terrifyingly high taxes and fishing spots set as far away from the town of YEET as possible. And then he took everything away just to watch everyone either move out or die, becaaause, Gray. XD
-->Got my Valice Multiverse queue sorted -- very quiet, struggled a bit to find a third thing to throw in there. But it's done, and that's the main thing.
And now it's time to finish answering what's in my inbox before heading off to whatever Friday night has in store for me. (I assume the Writing Thing, but I can't be 100% sure). Tomorrow shall be a Sims-themed day -- hopefully I can patch and play the game without issue, but I definitely will be watching my Sims-themed videos on YouTube. And probably downloading more custom content to add to the game shortly. :p Hey, I just lost the third game from my rotation -- even more important now to keep Sims 4 fresh! *nods* Night all!
