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i want to move very BaDly.


On 02/02/2016 at 09:57 PM by Julian Titus

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Hey, Day two! I can't remember the last time I sat in front of my PC two days in a row to write something. Hopefully this BaD month will help me get back into the writing groove. I thought long and hard about what I wanted to write about today, and had planned to focus on why my output ground to a halt. Something happened today that I wanted to talk about first.

I've talked a bit on Nerds Without Pants (and on this staff blog) about how I was coddled by my mother. I was very sickly growing up, and she just got used to taking care of me. That extended into adulthood, and my "failure to launch" was epic. I lived on my own for a few years before my mom retired when she had to relocate to Houston, but once she retired and moved back to Austin we began renting a house together.

I'm not proud of that, and I'm not writing about it because I think it's something good. But Austin is expensive, and I wasn't making a lot of money. My mom was now on a fixed income and really couldn't afford a nice place on her own, so it made sense. Fast forward 8 years, and I was still living with my mom. It was comfortable, even if her strict religious views stifled a lot of my personal growth. But that's not what this is about.

My mom is gone now. She was taken from me in a hellish car accident. I've been living in our house for the past six months, and the place feels empty and, to be honest, kind of scary. I feel like she's here, and she's not happy with me and the way I'm barely taking care of myself. Even with all the organizing, pre-packing, and throwing stuff out I've been doing, the place looks run down. It's time for a change of venue.

Things have changed a lot for me recently. I have a better job, and I am finally in a financial place where I can take care of myself, albeit as long as I watch how I spend my money. My lease on the house is up at the end of May, and it's time to look for a new place.

Today, I checked out a brand new apartment complex, just 15 minutes away from my office. My current commute is between 45 minutes to an hour, so right away that's a huge help with gas money and personal time. I like the idea of living in a new complex, too.

I freaking fell in love with this place.

It's slightly outside of my price range, but when you factor in the fact that I am debt free for the first time in my life, the actual monthly bills end up coming to around what I'm paying now. The key difference is the sheer sense of peace that washed over me when I stood in that apartment. That's a feeling that I haven't had for six months, and I am not a good enough writer to accurately describe what was going on in my head.

I have another place to check out tomorrow, but I was very close to signing a lease today. I haven't done much living in my 35 years on this little blue planet, and I am ready to rectify that.

Oh, and vidya games! I started Rise of the Tomb Raider over the weekend. I don't have much to say about it yet, but it takes everything I loved about the 2013 Tomb Raider and builds on it in the best ways. I thought I would want to wait longer to start it, because I just finished Tomb Raider Definitive Edition a few weeks ago. I can already sense myself getting sucked in all over again, and the game is bloody gorgeous! Easily the best-looking game I have played to date, and I think that includes the Final Fantasy XV demo.


 

Comments

Ranger1

02/02/2016 at 11:35 PM

First off, let me say that I'm sorry to hear about your mom. Second, I think moving to that new apartment complex is probably the best thing for you right now.

Julian Titus Senior Editor

02/03/2016 at 09:20 PM

It really is. I've been living out of boxes for 8 years, and I'm ready to set up the place where I live the way I want it to be.

AnonymousJ

02/03/2016 at 01:09 AM

Sorry to hear about your mom.  In addition, I'll just post this "The key difference is the sheer sense of peace that washed over me when I stood in that apartment."

That should tell you all you need to know.  

Julian Titus Senior Editor

02/03/2016 at 09:19 PM

You're right, and I thought about that a lot today. I went with that complex and didn't even try another place. It just felt right.

Super Step Contributing Writer

02/03/2016 at 01:20 AM

Well, if you stay in Austin, you'll fid plenty of ways to live life to the fullest. I'd love to live there myself, though I am also in debt and not making a million dollars.

I look forward to playing Rise of the Tomb Raider on PS4 later this year.

Michael117

02/03/2016 at 02:23 AM

I'm so glad things are starting to coalesce into this new kind of paradigm where you're more comfortable in a new environment, feeling more secure in your job, and looking forward to new possibilities. Press on, enjoy the good days, and weather the bad ones.

I enjoyed Rise of The Tomb Raider so much that I wanted to go back and play some of the previous Crystal Dynamics games in that franchise to see where they've come from. I played through Anniversary, the remake of the original TR and I liked it quite a bit. There was one tomb that I really hated and don't ever want to play again, but the game as a whole was really cool and controls pretty well, looks nice too considering it's kind of old now. I finished that one a couple weeks ago and I've been playing through Tomb Raider Underworld recently and I think I like it even more.

It's fun to trace the tech, animation techniques, and design sensibilities in the newest TR reboot games back to these previous games that Crystal Dynamics did. You can play these older games and totally see the things they took forward into the reboot games, and it's helping me to appreciate the new design choices they made for the reboots games, and all the new tech they created for them. I'd be interested to hear what you think of this but to me they basically seem to have been creating these pretty solid, fun, and underappreciated Tomb Raider games for years, and somehow when they made the jump to the 2013 remake they really upped their production value and refined their design into something that's finally broken through to a bigger audience. Anniversary and Underworld are really awesome, but these two newest Tomb Raider games have really delivered AAA action adventure games that can hold their own against the very best the industry has to offer.

Julian Titus Senior Editor

02/03/2016 at 09:24 PM

I unabashedly love Underworld. I thought the locations were really inspired, and I loved the use of Norse mythology. That stuff is woefully underused in video games. I didn't get to play the other two Crystal Dynamics games, but I agree: they have been building from what was a solid foundation with Tomb Raider Legend, and I was upset that Square Enix was not happy with the 2013 game selling a million units in its first month after Underworld sold less than that over its lifetime.

Now, if only they would let Crystal Dynamics use some of this tech and design for a new Legacy of Kain game...

Also, good to hear from you! Feels like you haven't been around.

Also, also, does the fact that you played Rise of the Tomb Raider mean you now have an Xbox One?

Michael117

02/03/2016 at 11:39 PM

I just finished Underworld tonight and I really enjoyed it! I liked the use of Norse mythology too, especially the very end when you see what the Midgard Serpent really represents and what Natla's plan is. I liked that story quite a bit.

I ended up playing Rise of the Tomb Raider on 360, and I was surprised with how good it looked and how well it ran on these last gen consoles.

Thanks! School's been really busy but I've been lurking and listening to the podcast and seeing what people are writing for BaD this year. I finally wrote a blog a few weeks ago to update everyone on how school's been going and what games I've been into. It had been a really long time since I'd written a blog but it was pretty fun and it kind of comes back to you like riding a bike.

KnightDriver

02/03/2016 at 12:26 PM

Living close to work is always a good idea. I'm living about 5 minutes from my work.

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