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 On 07/30/2014 at 09:46 PM by Michael117 See More From This User » |
Go-go-gadget summer-pup!
It's the end of July, the summer semester has ended, and your monarch returns to you. I suppose socialization is now in order. The small-council begs me to participate in this statecraft. I could have their heads if I wished it, but the pups still soothe the tyranny in my heart.
I'm a cold-blooded autocrat at heart, why can't the council just let me be who I really am? Is it too much to ask if I want to find my spiritual center, ride off into the sunset, and slaughter indigents? The world can be so oppressive sometimes. A monarch knows.
School
We had our final exam today and the summer term is finished. I had a high B going into the final and I'm hoping I did well enough on the exam to get an A for the class. It was a pretty easy math class and served as a refresher since I was out of school for so long. Once I was warmed up it was a lot of fun by the end. The good stuff started when we got into quadratic equations and inequalities. The quadratic formula, the formula for finding the vertex of a parabola, completing the square, complex numbers, and general factoring are all pretty fun. They sound nastier than they are, once you get a little practice with them it all comes together elegantly.
Algebra and geometry have always been a lot of fun. There are cool formulas, several methods to get the same answer to the same problem, and I think growing up playing video games stretched my brain in ways that make them seem like puzzle gameplay. It's actually kind of fun and not just dry words on a page. Under the hood, every video game you've ever loved is just numbers and letters, placed with intent. There's a lesson to take away somewhere in there.
We have 19 days off now, and fall semester begins August 18th. During this little break I'm going to binge video games and try to finish New Vegas.
What I'm playing
Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition - I started playing this a while ago but there's tons of good content so it's taking a very long time to finish. I've put 110 hours into my character so far, made it deep into the main quest, chopped down a huge list of side-quests, and completed one out of the four story DLCs. Maybe during the break I can finish the whole thing finally.
The writing overall is a lot better in New Vegas. The main quest and all the factions are much more interesting and allow for better role-playing by far. Fallout 3's main story only had you partnering up with the Brotherhood of Steel to fight the Enclave. Fallout 3 is still a fantastic game. The main story had a couple bright spots, and great side quests, but the story was pretty contrived and didn't have the sharp adult humor and weirdness of Fallout 1, 2, and 4 (New Vegas). As solid and remarkable as Fallout 3 is, New Vegas is the true successor to Fallout 2 and has the moxie and structure to prove it. It would be a real disservice if Bethesda called the next Fallout game "Fallout 4", because 4 already exists, and it's really good.
New Vegas' main story allows you to interact with a wide selection of interesting factions that each have their own place in the main quest. They have their own side quests, they contain some weird ways you can manipulate alliances, and strengthen, sabotage, or outright destroy individual factions. You can work to either better the plight of a group you're a subordinate in, or be alpha as fuck and crown yourself emperor, with plenty of options in-between. There are more endings to the game than you can shake a stick at.
I'm not quite taking the emperor route, but I'm still going the ambitious route and coveting a great deal of firepower for myself, convincing some factions to support me in the process. And killing a lot of indigents along the way.
What's on the horizon for your monarch?
If I can finish New Vegas before break is over I might get back into Dark Souls 1 or 2 and deal with my New Game++ and New Game+ playthroughs respectively. I should see what all the patches have done since I last played. Maybe read a bit, play guitar, and get better sleep, then come back in a few weeks with another hot pup pic. Sounds like a plan!
Mastodon rules
I have to get back to playing New Vegas. I love Obsidian games. KOTOR2 is one of my favorites of all time, and I just appreciate the depth they bring to games where so many others are often two dimensional.
I've been playing through Mass Effect again. About a third of the way through 2. Great game also.
That's awesome, Matt! I started a second Mass Effect playthrough a couple years back and still need to see it through to completion. I really like the loyalty missions in that game for each squadmate. Those missions tend to be pretty good.
Glad math class went so well, Michael!
Making a mental note to listen to Mastadon tomorrow at work...
Thanks, Travis! Mastodon rules 
Mastadon,pure auditory might! Kneel,peasants! ~Metal God
Glad you did splendidly on your exams,bro! And "summer pup" is radical like Rush from Mega-man!
Thanks Ben
I didn't see that till now but you're right, pup looks a little like Rush!
New Vegas is a really good game. I played it once through when it came out back in 2010 and havent gone back to it....I think I may play that for my next full-on game playthrough. That first playthrough I ended up (SPOILERS AHEAD) killing Mr. House as well as choosing the NCR side. I'll keep House alive this time and choose Caesar's Legion this time.
And it is good to see a post from you, my Liege.
Thanks DJ! If you end up playing New Vegas again I'd love to see your blogs on how it goes. The more Fallout-talk the better lol.
In this playthrough so far I've killed Mr. House, but I haven't really made clear enemies out of NCR or Legion. I've installed Yes Man into where Mr. House used to be, and I've activated the underground robot army to fight for me later. I got the tribes on the Strip to like me and support me, and I'm trying to get the Boomers to support me and fight for me. I'm hoping that I can muster up all the firepower I need to fight both the Legion and NCR and create an independent New Vegas. I'm not sure what to do about Brotherhood of Steel. I don't think they support you if you go the independent route do they? I may have to kill all the Brotherhood of Steel people too lol.
I ended up killing all the Brotherhood...I think they tried to make me some pawn in a bunch of fetch quests? I could be wrong.
I installed the game, but ended up (for some hare-brained reason) scrolling down to the very bottom of my list of games...and started playing Outland, of all things. I cleared up the first world and made it to the Underworld's Witch boss....but decided I'd save that for tomorrow, I think.
As soon as I start my playthrough I'll post for sure!
Good luck in your studies Michael.
Good ol' Mastodon. I went around the end of June to a Metal festival where Mastodon was playing, and though I sadly couldn't see them, I still decided to buy one of their albums.
Thanks Alex! Which Mastodon album did you buy?
Blood Mountain. I wanted to start with Leviathan, but they didn't have it.
Awesome! I think my favorites are Leviathan and Crack the Skye, definitely grab those whenever you get the chance
Fallout New Vegas eh?
Don't forget this
Oh yeah, I remember that article now! I've been coming across tons of power fists and melee weapons in the game. I have all the most powerful ones stocked away in my weapon chest at my home in the Lucky 38 or whatever that main casino is on the Strip. I should whip some of those power fists out and beat some raiders down.
Actually planning on diving into New Vegas once I finish The Witcher 2 - two massive RPG's to finish back to back, why did I do this to myself haha! I have played a bit of New Vegas, and I am loving the faction/reputation system and the overall "Western" vibe!
Sounds like you're knee-deep in rpgs, Justin lol. Once I finish New Vegas I actually still have playthroughs in Witcher 2 and Dragons Dogma Dark Arisen that I haven't finished yet. I really don't want to buy too many new games until I can start knocking off these big rpgs I started and haven't finished. I still have a long ways to go in Witcher 2 I think, I barely started. Almost done with Dragons Dogma.
Dammit, school's not over for me, man! I still got mucho pages to write today!
Still?! What's your schedule like, when does your term wrap up, Joe?
I got my rough draft in today, my final paper is due this upcoming Thursday.
New Vegas is roughly 19 billion times better than Fallout 3. And Fallout 3 was already awesome. What are you playing it on though? Because there are some fucking awesome mods for this game.
Unfortunately I'm on console for this playthrough. My PC is down and the laptop I'm using right now can't hack it. I figured console Fallout is still better than no Fallout, I love Fallout too much to complain lol. Much. The load times, Blake. Please god the load times, and every time it crashes I have to turn off the xbox and reboot the thing, with each step along the way taking a small eternity.
There's a twitch streamer I regularly follow that streams tons of Fallouts 1-4, and she's doing a playtrough of New Vegas right now with a variety of mods including the JSawyer mod. It's pretty cool. I'd like to see some more because I've only seen JSawyer stuff in regards to New Vegas.
Hahahaha. Load times are shit. I played some games on my xbox, and jesus christ, it takes like a year. Compared to pc, where skyrim loads so fast I can't read the loading screen text. Console gets through like screens of text.
And yeah. New Vegas is pretty broken. I played it on Xbox 360 first, and you're right, xbox 360 fallout is better than no fallout, which in turn is better than PS3 fallout. Bethesda hates playstation lol.
Got that new Mastodon album and loved it. Here's the music video they did. It's pretty funny. Lots of DnD type stuff going on here.
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