PixlBit

Hey Pixlebeaners. 

I live!

Ranger reminded me that I should stick my head back in here and say hi. It’s been... holy cow, 4 years since I last posted on this blog? WELL THEN.

If you follow me on twitter you probably know that I live, but I don’t post about games very much on there so I shall remedy that shortly.

Part 1: Real Life has been a CHALLENGE, let me tell you.

After the elections life slowly started to spiral down a shit hole of shit.

Well, the newspaper job came to a quiet end shortly after my last blog post. After a summer working in that building with a gas leak, I found new employment at a greeting card company. The rest of my department at the paper was let go with the one remaining employee working on special sections part-time. 

The greeting card company job came to an end last May after budget cuts hit my department hard. I briefly worked at a print shop which was a goddamn nightmare and may have given me a bit of PTSD. I am currently unemployed and I am taking online courses trying to figure out what to do with myself.

My cat of almost 17 years, Q-Tip, passed away from cancer 2 years ago. (You may remember me talking about her occasionally.) Toward the end of her life, one day, she squeezed into the entertainment unit behind my PS4 the way she did when she was little behind my ps2. I think we were both pining for the old days. I still miss her dearly.

My father was diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer and that has been dealt with, as has his fucked-up knee. My mother had a stroke and then her brother had a stroke, (both recovered fine) and her eyesight is deteriorating. My sister got a divorce from her husband of 20-years, she moved out and they have joint custody of the kids. (The kids are currently in England for February vacation with there dad having a Harry Potter glorious time.)

So yeah, life.

Part 2: Real Life has also had some joy.

My friend/art group has been gaining steam and momentum. We started playing several D&D campaigns after my friends got WAY DEEP into Critical Role and dragged me in (I love those voice actors and enjoyed DnD prior to that, don’t know why it took so long to start watching. Oh wait, yeah I do, each session is 4 hours long!) and I have a solid group of townie friends. I’m DMing the current campaign and trying to schedule our next game session.

The art part of that art group has been busy, busy, busy! We did another pop-up art show in December as part of a town thing and it was a huge hit. There’s always art things happening along with the life-drawing stuff. 

I also had 3 cousins get married last year and took 2 trips back to VA for that.

Part 3: Fake Life aka Internet

I still write for Fandompost.com. In fact, I host a podcast about anime for the site called Fandom Post Radio. The one constant, but even that is in danger because of lack of revenue to keep the site running. I’d suggest checking the site out if you're into anime, we provide a mature, measured, asshole-free take on the medium which I think a lot of pixlebiters would appreciate. Also, the site does cover some video game stuff and comics, movies, etc. (There are also hentai reviews because, hey, someone has to.)

I migrated with the rest of the decent people to Resetera when the line was drawn on GAF.

Part 4: VIDEO GAMES

Yo, this is what we’re here for!

First up, if you have old Six Axis controllers kicking around you may want to check them. I had mine hooked up to this mac for a long time, and a long time it was sitting on a shelf just chilling. A week ago I noticed it had split its seam and the back was physically bulging. I took it apart and removed the bloated battery. 11 years appears to be the limit to those batteries, so watch out.

A quick summary of 2018:

• Monster Hunter Worlds 1/28 - Pretty cool but I hit a wall and then forgot how to play.
• Ni No Kuni 2 3/23 - Mediocre, but still completed it.
• Owlboy Ps4 4/10 - I should probably go back and finish this...
• Omensight Ps4 5/15 - ditto...
• Forgotten Anne 5/15 - same...
• Moonlighter Ps4 5/29 - Hit a fucking glitch and couldn’t progress, fuck it. (Addendum: they’ve apparently fixed this now and added some other things to the game.)
• Slay the Spire (early access) - this game is dope. (Addendum: out of early access. This game is still dope.)
• Yoku’s Island Express 6/2 - The best fucking game of the year. FIGHT ME.
• Chasm 7/31 - S’okay. I still need to beat it.
• Dead Cells Ps4 8/7 - Good shit.
• Battle Chef Brigade PS4 8/28 - Good.
• Donut Country 8/28 - Yes.
• Divinity Original Sin 2 PS4 8/31 - out early, sunk in 10 hours and restarted. Lol.
• Valkyria Chronicles 4 9/25 - I played the first 4 chapters and need to get back to it.
• Hollow Knight Ps4 9/25 - Good, but stuck, need to get back to it.
• Assassin’s Creed Odyssey 10/5 - Not grabbing me like origins did.
• Red Dead Redemption 2 10/26 - Why is the talk button the same as the draw button?
• Spyro Collection 11/13 - fan-fucking-tastic remake
• ThornBreaker: The Witcher Tales 12/4/18 - shit needs to get patched, otherwise good
• Dragon Quest XI 9/4 - oh god, this is the worst music and the lead has no reaction to anything happening around him and why is there a flamboyant gay stereotype...

 

What I’m currently playing:

See above. I’m still playing most of those games in some capacity. I need to play more RDR2.

Return of the flying horse. RDR2 #PS4sharehttps://t.co/Uvc5UPwUVy pic.twitter.com/cH3nZrLCHT

— Kate O'Neil (@Sonicbug) November 9, 2018

Also Odyssey, and Valkyria 4. Dragon Quest is ongoing. I recently ran a rebuild on my PS4 because it was sluggish and it auto-updated a ton of games. Sundered, which is a fantastic metrodvania, was recently updated. As was Dead Cells. 

I DID THE DREAMS BETA.

IT WAS AMAZING YOU GUYS!

Currently, Vane and Xing are in progress. Xing has some major game-breaking bugs, but once they get patched if you have a VR it’s probably a very impressive experience visually. I’m not playing in VR. I’m not sure how I feel about its narrative, and the poetry is clumsy and childish, but the puzzles are decent. Vane, likewise, had/has some performance issues and I need to see if that’s been patched.

I’m also still playing Guild Wars 2 if anyone is interested in joining me. The base game is free, the expansions are regularly on sale. 

That’s it. I’m still alive. I’m still gaming. I’ll try to remember to start posting here again.