Updates and Changes – forever more

It’s been a couple minutes hasn’t it? Where did I leave you? I guess a few things have transpired since we last talked. Let us catch up.

I’ve been fine. I’ve been heavily invested in a few different activities over the past few months. I completed Shadow of the Colossus. Still a great game; as good as I remember it being back when I played it on the PS2. Controls just as clunky, but still a fun ride.

I picked up the Last Guardian on the PS4 and I’ve been spending a little bit of time in that – not as much as I’d like as I’ve been suffering from what feels like motion sickness while playing it. I don’t know if this has to do with frame rate or the colours and brightness, but at certain points in the game it just feels off. This has restricted me to only playing roughly 30 minutes per sitting and then forcing me to take a break. I’ve heard that the game does play smoother on the PS4 Pro, so it may well just be a weird frame-rate issue that my brain has a hard time processing. I’ll also be picking up Horizon: Zero Dawn soon, as I would love to dive into that game.

I picked up Watch Dogs 2, and thoroughly completed that game. And I mean thoroughly. Every side mission, 99% of the achievements – I didn’t dabble too much in the online functions so there is still one more locked away. I have the season pass too, so I’m waiting on some upcoming story content which is around the corner.

I picked up some smaller games as well recently, in Feist and Candleman. Feist was just OK; it is similar to Limbo but with a more vibrant colour palette. You play a little furry monster and have to scramble and jump across the levels, avoiding traps and other monsters trying to kill you. You can pick up sticks and rocks to defend yourself. I found the controls to be a little slow on the response, and the game overall was fairly short. The bulk of the achievements involve completing each level without dying, and completing the level under a specific par time. Candleman is a puzzle-platformer where you play as a candle in dark lit levels, and you need to find your way to the end of each room, lighting other candles along way, while ensuring your wax does not run out. It is a gorgeous game with beautiful lighting effects. Easy, fun game, with easy, generous achievements.

In the co-op land, with Illestrader, we’ve wrapped up Gears of War 4 and are currently plugging away in Astroneer (Early Preview) and Borderlands The Pre-Sequel. We’ll be picking up Ghost Recon Wildlands in the next few weeks. I do occasionally stream on Twitch, so you can catch me there/here: www.twitch.com/irogans.

I’m currently playing Deus Ex Mankind Divided, and after that I have Mafia III, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, Quantum Break and Far Cry Primal queued up.


On a completely non-gaming front, after Christmas, as an investment in my art, I purchased a Huion 22″ graphics pen monitor. I’ve always been interested in the Wacom Cintiq monitors, but could never justify the price point. So I went searching for alternatives, and came across the Huion. I love it so far, and it works well with all the applications I use, and for a fraction of the price. I even started up my long-desired webcomic – Stranger Than Friendship.

Its a comic about myself, and my best friend Illestrader, the games we play, and life in general. It’s been fun to do so far. Still in its infancy, however, I am trying to go for a once-per-week update schedule. I haven’t invested a whole lot of time into the website yet. I’m waiting till I have a little bit more of an archive before I start pushing it, and creating a domain. All things for this year.

I’ve added some photos of my recent work to the Arts gallery, and thats listed under the Stranger Than Friendship menu item now. I also started re-working on my Large Borderlands piece. Re-inking and re-colouring. Should be fun on my new tablet monitor.

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I drew this for #Camuary, in January

I think that pretty much sums up everything over the past few months. With the webcomic now, some of my time each week is dedicated that that, but I do wish to keep this side separate, and talk about games. Just gotta find the time to do everything.

-iRogan

 

NEWS – Happy Anniversary, Also Other Stuff :)

So today will mark my 1 year anniversary of the website. Kind of exciting, I wont lie. I definitely had a slow start to this blogging thing, and really only started to pick it up regularly a few months ago. So we’ll see how we’re doing one year from THAT date. But I am enjoying it, as it provides a platform to get all this video game knowledge, opinions, reviews, and news out of my system, and that’s all that matters.

I hope you are enjoying it as much as me.

With that, onto the news. Today we discuss May’s Xbox Games With Gold, Dead Island 2 delays, Watch Dogs 2, and Batman: Arkham Knight news.


May’s Game with Gold
First up for the Xbox One, we have CastleStorm: Definitive Edition. I’ll be trying it out, and will be discussing my feelings next week on What I’m Playing. Up next on the 360 we have F1 2013 and Mafia II. I’ve tries the F1 games and didn’t enjoy the experience.I felt the games we’re too confusing. Maybe too simulation. Required too much effort on my part. Mafia II, however, is a great game, and worth picking up. Might try another play through.

Dead Island 2 Delays
Deep Silver has announced that Dead Island 2 has been delayed till next year sometime. Nice and specific ;).

Batter Up!

Batter Up!

Xbox 360 Now Supports Larger Harddrives
With the latest update for the Xbox 360, the console now supports hard-drives up to 2TB of space.

Watch Dogs 2 Confirmed?
The announcement of Watch Dogs 2 looks like it might have been accidentally revealed be an employee’s LinkedIn profile. No comment yet from Ubisoft.

I really enjoyed Watch Dogs 1. It had a lot of good ideas and was the first open world game on the next-gen. Obviously there were things wrong with it, but a sequel is exciting all the same.

Batman: Arkham Knight Season Pass and Batgirl
WB Games has responded to the uproar their $40 6-month Season Pass announcement created, with some new details:

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  • New prequel story set in a new location will feature Batgirl as a playable character.
  • All new story missions featuring legendary super-villains invading Gotham City (new story arcs, missions and gameplay features)
  • Play as Batman’s key allies in narrative missions extending their storylines from before and after the events of Arkham Knight
  • Drive iconic Batmobiles from the 75 year history of the franchise on custom-built race tracks.
  • Additional challenge maps and character skins

Tomorrow we’ll discuss the news and new games. I think I’ll move What I’m Playing to Thursday, even though the alliteration doesn’t work, and the Review to Friday. This gives me a mid-week break to provide more, thorough, content, and wrap the week with a Review which I think is more appropriate.

As I’m always reminding myself: this is all a work-in-progress.

Nothing is True. Everything is Permitted.

-iRogan