MyNameIsAtticus

Today's game is Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag. This is one of my favorite games of all time. I first played through it on PS3 when i was younger and have fond memories of it, especially the story. Though Unity will always have my favorite game play, Black Flags story will always be one of my favorites.

I went ahead and played through the entirety of Sequence 7 today. I even did some of Sequence 8. I got this fun photo of the sunset while capturing a fort shortly after that. It kind of reminds me of Pirates of the Caribbean with that scene where the flip the boat while sailing into the sunset.

After which i went and played checkers against the AI. I ended up in a tie after 40 minutes. I got a screenshot of this guy passed out on the table to commemorate my win.

Today's game is The Forest. A friend gifted it to me to play a few weeks ago and i finally got around to trying it.

Within the first day i took shelter in a shipping container because my friend ran off without me. I put a fire in it hoping none of the cannibals could see it. Midway through the night though i ran out of food and water and had to go search for some.

My trip ended up taking me too a few suitcases on the beach where i found some booze. I survived off of that and a chocolate bar and ended up walking towards my friend after some cannibals cut off my route to the safety of my Shipping Container.

After the long journey, i died immediately after getting there. It turned out the plane was literally right next to the Bay where my friend built his base and his sense of direction was ass. I ended up building a tree house to live in to keep me safe as the cannibals don't understand the concept of rope. I built a second tree house but blew it up with dynamite. You can see here the cannibal that i tried to blow up.

After this i started building a wall around my treehouse to keep me safe so i could work without being disturbed. Sadly i didn't manage to get any screenshots because i kept getting besieged by Cannibals in groups of 4. i built a lift though for emergency escapes and some doors on the fence. so i can safely say i won't be caught by surprise.

I had plans to play Left 4 Dead 2 with friends today, but those fell through, so instead i booted up Half Life Blue Shift, having realized i have never played it after reading all the rumors. I don't know what it is but i feel like it's easier than the base game. Barney also feels way more slippery than Gordan but that may just be me.

I saw the G-Man while in the opening, which i thought was fun. It's like seeing a celebrity IRL, except instead of being famous for a movie or something, they're an ominous blue suited man with a lovely voice,

I also swung by the Armor and picked up the pistol while trying to find my way around. The moment i picked it up i accidentally opened fire because for some reason the left trigger on my controller is the Fire button too. So i accidentally created a Parallel timeline where barney was fire for horrific trigger discipline.

In an acid filled room i also found what i'm pretty sure is an Ultrasound. I'm curious what the story behind this is, both from a lore standpoint and a developer standpoint.

In this same room, i encountered the biggest struggle for me with the Original Half Life games. Trying to figure out where to go. I kid you not, i spent 20 minutes unsure of where to go. Turns out, i had to blow up this gate with barrels behind it. I couldn't figure that out though because too me the barrels looked like Toxic Waste barrels despite looking back on it, me practically rubbing Barney's face up against the gate so hard he probably felt like cheese on a cheese grater.

After this i made it into a hallway with a lift. I ended up somehow fudging the jump and dropping Barney into a pit and killing him. After that 1 hour ordeal i sat Blue Shift down, realizing this was going to be more than an evening thing for me

Today's game is Super Mario 64. I've done the First and got too the second bowser level. I took this screenshot while climbing up the stairs to the first battle. There's something i love about these stairs and the bowser levels at large.

I also went to Jolly Roger Bay and tried to get that damn eel. I ended up drowning while trying to get to the surface and where i died was right before the top. It ended up looking like he was choking himself or drowning on air:

I also did the Penguin on the Snowy mountain. I think i can say i made everyone proud dropping it off the mountain (Though i took myself with it)

I also caught Mips and got this screenshot of him looking like his day was ruined. I surprisingly did it in record time and it only took me three attempts to catch the damn thing. I took him into Lethal Lava land with me shortly after this picture. I lost him while there but i imagine he's still there.

Happy New Years everyone! Yearly, it's a tradition for me to play Wii Sports on New years, so i got some screenshots for that tonight. I nearly wasn't able too as I lost my Wii U power cable and couldn't find it, but i didn't let that stop me and i hooked up my PS5 controller to Dolphin and played with it's Gyroscope.

Some of the games were playable. Not well though. Golf i had to do tiny little taps and it straight up trapped my Mii in a purgatory of Eternal Practice Swings. No matter what i did pressing A did nothing:

I moved on from Golf and to Tennis. it was a bit easier as The Gyroscope was super sensitive. The Miis went all or nothing with it. somehow though i still lost despite having every shot be a 100% basically.

Finally, Bowling kept taking a curve left at the very end. It took me a while to get the Angle Down but i eventually got it. I didn't get any hole in one's but i did get a spare.

I didn't even bother with Boxing because i wasn't sure how to handle the Gyroscope for the nun-chuck.

I think my lesson learned this year is that i should find my Wii U cables, and probably make that my new years resolution too.

Today i played Starbound. I picked it up for sale a few years ago for pretty cheap. Today i decided to boot it up and mess around in it, wanting something like terarria but not as open.

I have to say though, i forgot how tedious the opening missions are. You have to go mining for these specific crystals and then open a gate. My gate ended up being extremely far away too so my character got his steps in. I still love this game but i forgot how tiring that opening mission is.

When i finally got there i realized that i must have some mods leftover from when i last played with a friend. That was because there were these two robed guys i don't remember in the main game.

After looking at the gate i went on the hunt for the gems as i had only collected one at that point. That's when i stumbled on the House in the main screenshot and decided to rest there. I didn't want to be out at night because there were these annoying blue guys that kept running at me that i'm pretty sure were added by a mod.

Along the way i stumbled across this castle thing. These things spawn in the base game and i love renovating them into a base. If i ever end up picking this save up again i for sure want too turn it into a home:

I ended up getting caught outside after this, and i don't know if its a mod or the game is just difficult for me (i'm also playing with controller so that probably doesn't help) but the enemies kept wiping the floor with me and i was getting tired of searching for those crystals. So i ended up setting it down for the night.

Today's game is Red Dead Online. I got in with some friends today and we did some bounties for a quick bit. We did a 3 star and got a whole $13 from it because my friend killed the lady we needed to catch. After that we went and played some poker and this NPCs head erupted into flame.

My friend ended up getting dragged his own private poker game and i went and started a two person bounty without him. I stole a horse and rode it and my main one to the bounty before hogtying both guys and tossing them on the horse i stole and my personal one. My friend ended up driving the second horse outside of the bounty for me after he was terrorized by a hacker flying above him, he kept thwacking the guy to keep him from escaping for me. Then when i ran the first guy in my friend stayed outside and babysat the second guy until i picked him up. I got a total of $60 and 0.30 gold bars for it.

Today's game is Red Dead Redemption 2. I wanted to play some, but didn't want to do online so i hopped into story mode and messed around for a while and did a few of the Debt side quests. Todays is a screenshot of a small cat i got in strawberry.

And here's a screenshot of a big cat i got near strawberry:

After getting the big cat's pelt i took my horse to town to sell the pelt, and got it stuck in a pillar. I tried a ton but couldn't get it out (this was also when i took the picture of the house cat). I ended up saying fuck it and paid my $180 bounty and took a stagecoach. Here's the $180 idiot:

Before i left though i got this pretty landscape photo of the river in Strawberry. I like fishing here in online. It's very relaxing to fish there and pretty too, especially when it rains.

I did the Maneki-neko Statue side quest in Control today. It ended up taking all evening but it was fun tracking them all down. The first statue i found was actually the last one i was supposed to go to (the secret door). I ended up getting this screenshot too of the the final group photo for the cats:

there was also this one of the council(?) of cats:

There was ominous chanting the entire time and it was kind of creepy, but i also really liked the room because the Maneki-neko statues were so cool to me growing up.

I ended up wearing the ears because i put all that effort into finding and you bet i'm going to wear it:

I also stumbled into the Astral Bathroom on accident before i was supposed to do the puzzle. It was a bit surprising because i wasn't expecting it. I just rounded the corner and bam. Bathroom's gone abstract.

I finished Control today. I have to say that i'm incredibly disappointed in myself for sleeping on it for so long. The game is awesome and i can't conceive a reason why i had ever put it down. I love the amazing gameplay with all the OOP. They're the kind of originality i love Remedy for. I started the foundation DLC today and hope to finish it up tomorrow before starting AWE.

The story was also really good. it feels very large and messy, but in like a good way. Theirs a lot of things that we don't get answers for that i feel like it mimics real life. We'll never have all the answers to life; similarly (at least in this game) we'll never have answers to what the Hiss's goal is, what the Board is, etc. Sure we'll get bits and pieces (such as the suggestion about Alan writing the Hiss) but the lack of a full answer i love. Remedy did the same kind of thing with Alan Wake II which i adore.

Then there's the graphics. In the foundation DLC especially there's all this red sand everywhere and i love it. The particle effects are well done and everything:

Here's another example from The Foundation where the Hiss's fog prettily kind of wraps around them and everything:

Overall i really loved this game. I'm excited to beat the last few DLCs.

Today's game is Control. I've been wanting to finally finish this after beating Alan Wake II. Today, i 100% Silent Hill 2, and decided to pick it up and give it a try. I must have stopped at the worst time because i stopped right before the ashtray maze, and i finally understand why people love this game. I don't want to spoil it for people who haven't played. But it was super fucking cool.

The game also just generally is pretty, which i appreciate. The quarry reminds me of the Xen from Half Life:

The stars in the sky i love too. I'm a sucker for anything space so i was happy to see the stars.

I also played around with the Photo Mode with Jesse. Here's one i got of her pulling the switch:

I spent so long trying to time it right, i'm really happy with how it turned out.

Today's game is Team Fortress 2. This one's going to be a bit short, due to just not being able to get many screenshots for it. For years it's been an annual tradition of mine to play this game on Christmas Eve. Though I've stopped playing it for a while, it's fun to go and kick back in some matches and mess around, even with the communities unique qualities sometimes. This time i dragged a friend along for this year and we played a few swissmas maps and made our way over to 2fort to mess around.

I spent the entire session messing around with my friend and whoever i could drag into dancing with me. After that i jumped around as soldier and used the equalizer taunt to take out some snipers i snuck behind for fun. Then me and my friend i dragged along got into a feud and spent a good while trying to kill each other after autobalance swapped our teams. After that i played some Demoman and messed around with my friend in the Intelligence room before deciding to get off for the night early.