Video Games

What do you do when you feel beaten down by a game?

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I kept playing through the same sequence in Ori and the Blind Forest the other night. There were times where I would make significant progress; there were times were I would explode in a ball of light instantly. No matter what though, I couldn’t make it through this particular sequence.

So I did the thing that I had long fought against doing, I lowered the game’s difficulty from normal to easy. Filled with stupid shame, I battered my platforming skills against Mount Horu once more. But changing the difficulty only made the enemies easier! The platforming was still stinking hard! I felt mad. I felt angry. I felt ashamed for lowering the difficulty. Someone with my level of video game experience, at this stage in my life, shouldn’t have issues like this.

In my discouragement, I realized that I was super tired. I could feel the wave of emotions wash over me from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. So much uncertainty… no one sure of what is going to happen next. I tweeted out asking:

What do you do when you feel beaten down by a game?

No answers. But I know the answer to this question: You Quit. You put the controller down. You try again another day.

I played Ori some more the next night. I breezed through the section that had been giving me trouble. My skills were intact! Weird to have a video game discourage me enough to confront my emotions. Thankful for the reminder that sometimes we need to quit, rest, and tackle things again another day. I will beat this game. We will get through this crazy virus situation, toilet paper shortages and all.

From Across the Net – “When Parents Feel Like We Are Mostly Failing Most of the Time”

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Appreciated this piece from Tim Challies. Especially liked his list of principles, he has been pondering, towards the end of the article.

As parents in this digital world, it’s like we have planted ourselves and our families on a beach. Though the water is rising, we have convinced ourselves that we can somehow hold back the tide. But inevitably it just keeps creeping higher and higher up the beach until our best plans, like feeble little sandcastles, are swept away. There seems to be a kind of inevitability about it, that before long we’ll all always be staring at our devices. In fact, it seems like our devices have wills of their own, and this is exactly what they want. They want to dominate our lives. They want to be our main thing.

You can read more here

Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash

On My Radar – The Red Lantern

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This looks fantastic! An adventure with Aloy (Ashly Burch), some doggos, and the wilds of Alaska. Check out the trailer below.

All I can say is if a bear does indeed try and touch one of my dogs, my fury will come forth as a raging volcano. A fury that will not just end with one bear’s death, but all the bears deaths… for all time.

From Across the Net – “Interview with GG| Developer: Charles Watson”

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This is funny, I was just thinking the other day that there needs to be a Goodreads for video games. I wasn’t sure if something like that existed. Thanks to The Reformed Gamers for this interview. Going to have to check the app out.

“I want Goodreads for video games”. And that was it. Being in the TRG facebook group as I was starting to get back into gaming, there were so many recommendations flying around that I couldn’t keep up with. No one likes spreadsheets so I wanted a really nice, simple app that I could use anytime. I started the first bit of Code on July 4th weekend in 2017 and released the app at the beginning of December that year.

You can read more of the interview here

On My Radar – Maquette

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I love how video games can bring about that sense of wonder. That moment where you are reminded of past game experiences. And then have your mind blown as those past experiences (Myst in this case) are layered upon new mechanics. Graceful Decay’s Maquette looks incredible!

I love the games Annapurna chooses to publish. Games such as:

From Across the Net – “Raving Reviews – Jedi: Fallen Order”

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My friend Joe, over at the RavingLuhn, wrote a review for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. I have yet to pick up this game again (it’s been a few weeks) after landing on the Wookie homeworld, Kashyyyk.

Fallen Order is one of the best Star Wars video games to have ever been released. It hits a lot of the high notes required to make a Star Wars game a compelling and memorable experience. It’s concrete proof that developers need to make expansive single player games in the Star Wars universe. And yet, on the backside of spending 35 hours to complete the game to 100% the experience feels a little empty.

You can read more here