Sledgstone

Years later and The Walking Dead has ended. They really milked this series. Overall it was a great show but did drag out a bit in different seasons. I'll miss the show and I'll try watching the two spin off series because they have introduced new walker varients that are a bit smarter now (climbing, picking up objects to use as weapons like rocks).  I still have no interest at all in resuming Fear the Walking Dead because that show is hot garbage.

Season 3 was decent with the synth life versus the AI mastermind, but I would have preferred a terminator style war.  Season 4 was ok but felt so slow.. and thats the end because HBO cancelled it.  

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/hbo-cancels-westworld-1235255955/

3 years later and Google has killed the Stadia platform. It looked like it was failed to start just from their pricing model and game costs regardless of actual streaming performance.

https://kotaku.com/stadia-google-refund-cloud-streaming-assassins-creed-1849597014

If you haven't played God of War yet, I highly suggest it. Amazing game that lived up to all my hype and expectations.

It was a fun movie, they didn't stay true to the games at all with most of the plot coming from the fourth game but overall it was good special effects and kept a good pace with plenty of action. Although it did feel toned down with gun fights considering the amount of shooting takes place in the games. I'm guessing they did that to keep the rating family friendly. Tom Holland still looked way too young for the role imo.

I watched Morbius a couple days ago. Ehh. I found the movie kind of boring and almost predictable. I think what I'm burned out most on is that every super hero or anti-villain movie is the same movie but with different characters. Like for example, Iron Man 1 his enemy in the first movie was another guy wearing a mechanized armor. Doctor Strange 1, his primary enemies were other wizards, Wandavision, her primary enemy is another witch, Black Widow finally got her own movie, ends up fighting other black widows, Venom 1 he fights another symbiote, Venom 2, he fights yet another symbiote. Omg. Its the same thing the Arrowverse on CW was doing for a solid 10 years, I don't understand how the hell Green arrow and flash kept fighting other archers or other speedsters. And that brings us back to Morbius, guess who Morbius fights? another vampire creature with identical powers. wtf. Props for Spider-Man tho, in all his reboots he has never fought another spider-man guy.

Borderlands 3 is free until 5/26/2022 at 11:00 AM

https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/borderlands-3

https://kotaku.com/square-enix-embracer-deus-ex-1848866849

Quote

The Embracer Group, a planet-swallowing mass of video game publishers that already includes the likes of Gearbox and THQ Nordic, tonight announced a deal to purchase a number of storied studios and properties from Square Enix.

While the purchase isn’t final—this is just “an agreement to acquire” them until everything is signed off later in the year—the announcement press release says that if approved it will be a USD$300 million deal. For the $300 mil, Embracer will get hold of:

The studios Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal and Square Enix Montreal (the latter of which will presumably be in for a name change), numbering around 1,100 employees worldwide.

The “catalogue of IPs” owned and/or worked on by those studios, including Deus Ex, Tomb Raider, Thief, Legacy of Kain and “the continued sales and operations of the studios’ more than 50 back-catalogue games.” Also of interest: “Crystal Dynamics is actively working on several AAA projects, including the next mainline Tomb Raider game that will deliver next-generation storytelling and gameplay experiences.”

Wow. This is pretty huge. What I'm shocked about is the relatively small price tag of $300 million. Considering Sony bought Bungie alone for $3+ billion it make me wonder if Sony or MS even knew these properties were for sale. If they did, it would have probably caused a bidding war. Microsoft had a solid 1 year exclusive deal for the release of one of those Tomb Raider reboot games, I'm sure they would have bought crystal dynamics and tomb raider by themselves for more than $300 million.

That metaverse looks horrible. It looks like they are expecting alot of people to use the developer tools and create experiences for everyone since there is nothing to really do there now. But Meta taking 40%+ of all the revenue from the sales of those experiences seems extremely harsh. I don't think this will catch on. The price of VR equipment is a steep hurdle for alot of people and if they do make a browser version of Metaverse it'll end up being like a new version of all those crappy facebook games like Farmville, etc. since a browser version is limited to mouse and keyboard since it wouldn't have the necessary motion capture to play alot of VR style games.

https://blog.playstation.com/2022/03/29/all-new-playstation-plus-launches-in-june-with-700-games-and-more-value-than-ever/

PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now are merging into the new PlayStation Plus and the membership will now become a tiered system:

Quote

 

PlayStation Plus Essential

Benefits

• Provides the same benefits that PlayStation Plus members are getting today, such as:
  • Two monthly downloadable games
  • Exclusive discounts
  • Cloud storage for saved games
  • Online multiplayer access
• There are no changes for existing PlayStation Plus members in this tier.

Price* for PlayStation Plus Essential remains the same as the current price for PlayStation Plus.

• United States
  • $9.99 monthly / $24.99 quarterly / $59.99 yearly
• Europe
  • €8.99 monthly / €24.99 quarterly / €59.99 yearly
• United Kingdom
  • £6.99 monthly / £19.99 quarterly / £49.99 yearly 
• Japan
  • ¥850 monthly / ¥2,150 quarterly / ¥5,143 yearly

PlayStation Plus Extra

Benefits

• Provides all the benefits from the Essential tier
• Adds a catalog of up to 400* of the most enjoyable PS4 and PS5 games – including blockbuster hits from our PlayStation Studios catalog and third-party partners. Games in the Extra tier are downloadable for play.

Price*

• United States
  • $14.99 monthly / $39.99 quarterly / $99.99 yearly
• Europe
  • €13.99 monthly / €39.99 quarterly / €99.99 yearly
• United Kingdom
  • £10.99 monthly / £31.99 quarterly / £83.99 yearly 
• Japan
  • ¥1,300 monthly / ¥3,600 quarterly / ¥8,600 yearly

PlayStation Plus Premium**

Benefits

• Provides all the benefits from Essential and Extra tiers
• Adds up to 340* additional games, including:
  • PS3 games available via cloud streaming
  • A catalog of beloved classic games available in both streaming and download options from the original PlayStation, PS2 and PSP generations 
• Offers cloud streaming access for original PlayStation, PS2, PSP and PS4 games offered in the Extra and Premium tiers in markets** where PlayStation Now is currently available. Customers can stream games using PS4 and PS5 consoles, and PC.*** 
• Time-limited game trials will also be offered in this tier, so customers can try select games before they buy.

Price*

• United States
  • $17.99 monthly / $49.99 quarterly / $119.99 yearly
• Europe
  • €16.99 monthly / €49.99 quarterly / €119.99 yearly
• United Kingdom
  • £13.49 monthly / £39.99 quarterly / £99.99 yearly 
• Japan
  • ¥1,550 – monthly / ¥4,300 – quarterly / ¥10,250 yearly

• PlayStation Plus Deluxe (Select Markets) For markets without cloud streaming, PlayStation Plus Deluxe will be offered at a lower price compared to Premium, and includes a catalog of beloved classic games from the original PlayStation, PS2 and PSP generations to download and play, along with time-limited game trials. Benefits from Essential and Extra tiers are also included. Local pricing will vary by market.

I'll be sticking with PlayStation Plus Essential assuming I can still buy yearly memberships on sale for around $30-$40 like I've been doing since before the PS4 launched. I'm barely getting any use out of PS+ as it is with the games they've been offering for the last year so if I have to start paying a monthly fee I'll just cancel it instead.

In comparison to the PS+ Extra, I've recently used Xbox PC game pass which I got a 3 month trial for $1 on black friday weekend last year. I don't have an Xbox so I was only using the lowest tier of the PC version which I suppose is the Microsoft Xbox PC version of PlayStation Plus Extra. It is an ok service but with the amount of time I have to dedicate to gaming I was only able to play and beat 2 games in those 3 months. I'm glad the xbox pc game pass came with EA Access since I was able to play and beat Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. EA Access itself didn't appeal to me because on the PC game pass its basically 70% sports titles. I was also able to play and beat Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and that game wasn't nearly as good as the first. Both games retail for around $14 and $7 when on sale so I saved roughly $20 with my $1 free trial. But if it was to pay $10 a month for the service I would have been in the hole $9 compared to if I bought those 2 games instead. For me and my available time to play games a subscription service is not a savings to me. Theres alot of people that could benefit from a game subscription service and I'm glad its an option for them.

I will say tho, for people that have an Xbox console and a game subscription service is beneficial to them, the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate has console and pc game pass combined along with xbox games with gold free monthly games, and that is a far better deal that PlayStation Plus Deluxe for the same price of $14.99 a month. The Xbox Game Pass Ultimate also includes console and pc games that can be played from the cloud too kind of like Nvidia's GeForce Now streaming.

Ehhh.

Anyone that has a Playstation 5 can get GTA Online free until 06/14/2022. Unlike regular PS+ games that can be added to the account via a browser on the playstation.com site, this game is only available to add to your account from the PS5 console store.

https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/grand-theft-auto-v/

Grand Theft Auto Online

Get GTA Online FREE* only on PS5 console store.

*Offer available from March 15, 2022 until June 14, 2022. Download from PS5 console store. PS Plus required to play (recurring fees apply).

Holy crap, for roughly $1600 I'd rather buy a full blown gaming PC.

Damn that sucks. Any way they'll send you a new one? They should have insured the delivery.

I guess it was a good move by Sony, if Microsoft ever decides to make call of duty console and pc exclusive, they could do the same with Destiny. Although I'm sure there is a far bigger fan base for Call of Duty. Maybe Sony will expand the bungie studio and get them to start making yearly shooters too.

Oh man... they released the movie on HBO Max so I'm glad I didn't have to pay for tickets. I love Dune, but this movie was way too damn slow and it was only half the movie. I don't get why the hell they decided to try and drag out Dune into a Lord of the Rings style duology or trilogy. The special effects were top notch and the actors nailed their respective roles, but there isn't much to talk about if you've seen the original movie because they basically rehashed the first half of the original movie, except slower with extended scenes to fill an entire 2 1/2 hours. The best thing about Dune (2021) is the CG and costumes. I wish they'd have finished the entire movie.

The final season was good and I'm glad the show got a proper ending. Netflix did great.

I finally watched the second and third Matrix movies a couple months ago.. wow the plot and quality of those films dropped off a cliff compared to the first movie.  Its like they decided to make Nero the equivalent of Jesus while at the same time having the plot so chopped up that it must have inspired all kinds of theories about how Nero and all the humans must have been born repeatedly going thru a loop of man vs. machines and the machine powered city of Zion was powered and controlled by the machines just to keep the experiment going.. or maybe all of them were technically in another simulation that was making them believe they were living outside the matrix, like a matrix within the matrix. lol. So we get Matrix Resurrections last month and it was kind of boring to me. I know Keanu is getting old now, but he is still able to do action based on the recent John Wick movies, but the lack of him doing a bunch of kung fu battling really thru me off. 

 I'm still surprised humans can actually live in a real city outside the Matrix. In one of the sequel movies it looked like they were all too busy having a city wide orgy party to really care about fighting for the survival of humanity.

Season 4 was better than season 3. The third season had too much high school drama and constant fighting. The season 4 tournament was really good.

On 1/9/2021 at 6:16 PM, Sledgstone said:

at one point Daniel says to the wife, "I haven't spent enough time with Sam lately, I need to change that"... meanwhile his son was in 1 scene the entire season and they never showed him again. I think it's safe to say who the favorite kid is. technically the brother should have been home during that giant battle.. instead he probably ran away at some point and nobody noticed or even cared. He doesn't do karate, screw him.

My quote from season 3.. lmao! They literally threw this statement about who the favorite kid is right in the parent's faces.  I'm guessing the son will now start to learn karate so he can fight the other kid.

Alot of the movies and tv shows filmed during late 2020 and 2021 during the peak of covid are so obvious to me now. The minimal cast members, the lack of extras, filming in locations that don't need alot of people in the background. This trailer screams covid protocols to me... that and Silent Hill.  I don't know what they have planned with this haunted house or why their story brought them to this location, but at least Stranger Things writers aren't ripping off "Beyond: Two Souls" anymore. I was looking forward to seeing Eleven join the CIA and go on some awesome missions but I guess that wont happen, unless they decide to resume copying the game and they do that in season 5 which I still think might happen because they have to wait for the actors to age a bit more.

Twilight Princess was an awesome game. I might have to pass on buying a Switch and buy whatever the next Nintendo system will be and buy all the switch games I want to play on it. I'm tempted to watch a play through of BOTW but I'm still holding off because I want to play it myself someday.

On 12/31/2021 at 5:28 PM, Myk JL said:

Amiibos might as well be considered proto-NFTs.

That's actually a good point. I always thought of them more like beanie babies with a fancier scan-able tag.

Salt and Sanctuary is free until 12/30/2021 at 11:00 AM

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/salt-and-sanctuary

EDIT:

Tomb Raider GOTY is free until 01/06/2021 at 11:00 AM

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/tomb-raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration is free until 01/06/2021 at 11:00 AM

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/rise-of-the-tomb-raider

Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition is free until 01/06/2021 at 11:00 AM

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/shadow-of-the-tomb-raider

Congrats on making good money! When a truck breaks down do you just stay there on the side of the road waiting for the company to send a repair crew out or do they send another truck and load all the stuff onto the new truck and off you go to finish the job? 🤔

Vampyr is free until 12/24/2021 at 11:00 AM

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/vampyr

Edit:

Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition is free until 12/25/2021 at 11:00 AM

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/pathfinder-kingmaker

Edit:

Prey is free until 12/26/2021 at 11:00 AM

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/prey

Control is free until 12/27/2021 at 11:00 AM

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/control

Edit:

Mages of Mystralia is free until 12/28/2021 at 11:00 AM

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/mages-of-mystralia

Moving Out is free until 12/29/2021 at 11:00 AM

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/moving-out

10 hours ago, Myk JL said:

I expect I'm mainly going to use my Ayaneo as a Desktop Computer. I'm way more eager to connect a keyboard & mouse to it then connecting it to my TV.

I may eventually be uploading to the internet. Would that have any negative impact on a router or modem if what I'm uploading might be huge?

Not on the modem or router as long as both are relatively new in the last year or two as well as any ethernet cables you have connecting them to each other and to your PC or other devices. The majority of them, like the one I linked to can easily do "up to 3 Gbps Speeds, (2402 Mbps on 5 GHz band and 574 Mbps on 2.4 GHz band)" in all directions, downloading, uploading or transferring between computers or devices on the same network. The biggest issue with uploading is the maximum upload speed of your internet connection. Like I have spectrum internet 200mpbs internet. But even though that download speed is great for me, the upload speed for that tier of internet is only 10 mbps. Its horrendously slow for uploading. When I would upload video clips of gameplay to youtube, it could take a while. Thats how alot of the internet companies get upgrades is because people like to stream their games on twitch or youtube. Alot of those people will pay for the next tier or two higher account just for the better upload speeds. Generally 10 mbps upload is fine for most people since its all thats necessary for all the devices in that home to send out requests to websites, like a click, or typing in a website address or sending a couple pics in an email. But in terms of viewing streaming content, netflix recommends 10 mbps download for each tv streaming in HD and I think 30 mpbs download for each 4k stream. So if someone wants to stream their game online to twich, they should have a minimum of 20 mbps upload, 10 for regular use, and 10 just for that stream and even then there could be some potential pixilation. I wish Verizon fios would be available near me so I could switch to them. Fiber optic internet plans have the same upload speed as the download, so a Verizon Fios plan of 200mbps would be 200 mbps download and 200 mbps upload.