Video Games

Press Start – Death Stranding

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I just happened to listen to The Reformed Gamers Podcast – Episode 99 – The Pro-Life Message of Death Stranding last week; Then I just happened to walk into GameStop yesterday with Wyatt.

“Hey dudes, how are you doing? Is there anything I can get for you?”

I smiled, “I’d like a used copy of Death Stranding please.”

“Death Stranding huh…”

The clerk opened a drawer and thumbed through it.

“Oh yeah, I’ve got a lot of copies of Death Stranding. Have you ever played it?”

I smiled again, “Nope.”

You could tell that he wanted to say more about the game… but decided not to. I was sure he wanted to talk me out of buying a copy.

“It is definitely a Kojima game.”

I’m about an hour into Death Stranding and liking what I’m playing/seeing so far.

Your Game is in Another Castle

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I have a bunch of games I want to play, but I keep end up watching another episode of Chicago Med or Kim’s Convenience instead. Nothing wrong with the games I have to play either. Sitting on my floor, beside my bed, are:

  • Brew
  • Wingspan
  • Pandemic Legacy: Season 1
  • Unsolved Case Files – Avery and Zoey Gardner

All board games have been opened and their instructions looked through. Just haven’t had the time to bring said board games to the table. As you can see with my above list, each of these games require an hour or more of play. Not too big of a deal. What is a big deal though is having to learn and then teach said games. Which sounds, quite frankly, exhausting! Or at least requires a good bit of steam that I just haven’t had.

On the video game front, I have:

  • Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
  • Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
  • Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
  • Plus some others I’m just not remembering right now.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla speaks to me. I haven’t been this captivated by an open world game since Mass Effect 2 or even Assassin’s Creed II. I’m hesitant to write about Valhalla lest the spell be broken. Know that I love this game. Love it! And I’ve probably played six or seven hours so far.

Super Mario 3D World speaks to me for an entirely different reason. The level design in Super Mario 3D World is short and to the point. No fluff, no filler. You could call this game the Captain Toad of Mario games. Wyatt and I have been battling it out to see who gets the most points. I’ve even been called a “Star Stealer”. I’m proud of that title.

Yakuza 6: The Song of Life… is a Yakuza game. I didn’t realize these are essentially old school adventure games where you break out into an arcadey fight from time-to-time. I’ve put an hour or two in and don’t know if I will continue. Just not feeling it right now.

Overall I guess you could say that I’m not playing board games but have been playing video games. Which is a change of pace. I’ll be playing Brew, Wingspan, and Unsolved Case Files (these are seriously good) soon. Unless I continue to pillage all the things in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

Pillage.

Plunder.

Raid.

The Day After I Turned 40

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I never know 100% what to write here. I go back and forth between writing about video games/board games and then about personal stuff. How many readers who read my stuff about video games want to know about our adoption journey? How many readers want to read about my thoughts on worship music?

Yesterday, I turned 40. I spent my day working. Came home after, ate dinner, went out for ice cream, and then I was on the phone for an hour and forty-five minutes with a family member. By the time I was done, I put Wyatt to bed (we went over his devotional, prayed, and he read for an hour) and soon went to bed myself.

Television makes a pretty big deal about your birthday. I mean, not your individual birthday but birthdays as a whole.

“Your birthday should be all about you.”

“Your birthday is your day, relax.”

I mean just the other night my wife and I were watching Season 3 of Virgin River. The first episode is all about main character Melinda “Mel” Monroe’s birthday. Through out the episode, her boyfriend, Jack Sheridan, is unsure what to do. So he schedules her a message, flies lunch (sushi) in via bush pilot, etc. Towards the end of the episode, Jack surprises Mel with tickets for a dinner cruise. She doesn’t want to go. What she has told Jack all along is that all she wants is a cupcake and a bath. So what does Jack give her? A cupcake, a bath, and Jack’s house catching fire? One could say that Mel got what she wanted and some smoke inhalation as a bonus. How sweet.

I am learning that being an adult, a now 40 year old adult, is about unexpected things that come up in life. Be it a phone call or your boyfriends house catching fire (and burning to the ground). Happy Birthday to me.