I kind of let this one really fall off after a strong start. I’ve already kind of touched on the various whys of it all. Mostly just a combination of being busy and the usual lack of motivation. I can’t say I learned anything new that varies from last year’s wrap up. I wish I could be more positive. I’m still pining for the days of old I guess.
Which also may be part of why I’m so jaded. I’ve been blogging for a long time. Like, a really long time. Since before Live Journal was a thing really, though it wasn’t really a “blog platform” just a bunch of hand-coded HTML files on Geocities.
I’ve probably talked about this one before too. When you get old you tend to ramble and repeat the same stories over and over I guess. There wasn’t even really a word for it, it was just “your website.” But I had found other sites doing dated updates and did that myself as well. In the end, all of my other hobbies, feed down to my one true hobby, which is writing. I’d like to think I’m good at it, but I’m probably not.
I love that meme. It’s my favorite meme ever. It really is, and trust me, I’ve seen sooooo many memes, and have a stupid useless archive of tons of random memes on a shared network drive. I don’t know why, but it’s there.
Anyway, this is starting to get rambly and turn into a Blogging Intensifies post and not really a Lameazoid post. It’s all SRS BNS over here on Lameazoid.com. None of this personal journaling style rambling on this blog, no sir.
And Barret completes the last of the 4 core heroes. Though now that I think about it, Aerith kind of doesn’t count does she? It’s complicated, she is kind of core to the plot but also she uh… Isn’t around as much… For spoilery plot reasons from a 25 year old game.
How about we go with Barret rounds out the core 3 heroes of Cloud, Tifa and Barret.
Barret is an interesting character in the game, he is a well meaning tough guy who leads the tiny rebellion group known as Avalanche. Not too smart though, he tends to solve things with violence. Tifa tends to be the brains of that outfit. Gameplay wise, I never care for him much. If I remember, he wasn’t great at magic in game and his weapon seemed kind of weak. Plus ranged fighters are boring in combat because they just sort of, step forward and shoot then step back. You only got 3 heroes in your party and one of them had to be Cloud, so of the what, 7 choices, I didn’t use Barret a lot once he wasn’t the only option.
It probably didn’t help that he was a big goofy bulky dude.
The figure is also appropriately big. He stands head and shoulders above Cloud, the next tallest of the four Final Fantasy VII Bring Arts figures I have. His proportions feel a little off though. Like maybe he should be wider or just a bit shorter. His legs seems really long. Part of this may stem from that, I believe, the primary influence for these classic design figures is the key art, not such the in game models.
Being a bigger figure though means he gets extra screwed on accessories.
And when I say extra screwed, I mean EXTRA extra screwed. His only alternate part is an open hand, and it’s not even for his gun arm side. Its not a big deal because Barret only has one hand, but it would have been kind of a nice extra. And I think the Remake Play Arts version has hands for both arms, but don’t quote me on that. Actually it may be guns for both arms.
As for the EXTRA extra screwed, I could not even get the extra hand to work. I tried, believe me, I tried, and maybe mine is a fluke, but I absolutely could not get the spare hand to attach to the peg. It also feels like it’s maybe, 25% too large anyway. If I could get it attached maybe it would look better, but as it is, it looks comically huge.
Also, I have found that the hips issue that Squall had has returned. It’s not “shake it and it falls off” but the hip joint pops off way way too easily when trying to pose him.
Which, and I know I am a bit of a broken record on this, is really sad given how much these Bring Arts run compared to similar Figma or Figuarts figures. If you are pushing a “premium priced” figure Square, make sure it’s “Premium Price Quality.”
Like this entire line, Barret certainly looks nice visually, but around the edges, there is a lot to be desired.
So, unlike Discovery, this show is a lot more serialized, which is much more Trek-like honestly. There is some loose callbacks within the seasons, mostly at the end of the seasons, but otherwise, each episode is mostly just its own mission or activity. Or more often, several missions or activities.
Unlike most Trek shows, this one follows the “lower decks” crew. As the name would suggest. There is a bridge crew that shows up, but they are not the focus. Instead, it’s, all those people running around in the background shots of every episode, doing God knows what, keeping the ship running. At least that’s the pitch, but the command crew gets quite a bit of screen time and characterization as well, particularly the Captain.
The show in general is kind of a huge love letter to Trek fans. It makes fun of a lot of Trek Tropes, but it does so in a very tongue-in-cheek way that makes it feel like it’s meant in a good way. Like, “We all know this is kind of dumb, but we are just going to not be serious about it.”. There are a lot of moments where the main 4 are literally stating, “We don’t know what is happening, that’s the senior officer’s job.”
The characters are all pretty likable as well. The two core heroes are Beckett Mariner and Brad Boimler. They are basically your traditional odd couple type, and best friends on the ship. Mariner is highly able and experienced but has a massive history of avoiding the rules and general self-sabotage, while Boimler is an overachiever who can’t really get anywhere because he constantly gets in his own way. The secondary pair of heroes are D’Vana Tendi, an overly eager Orion medical ensign and Sam Rutherford, an obsessed with his work Engineer.
In addition to all the nods and jabs at Trek over the years, the show also does a good sort of deconstruction of the “lower tier life” of any large personnel outfit. They do their job well, but they also get annoyed by all the going-in-blind nonsense that the people up top push down on them. It’s almost like “The Office in Space” in that sense. Though the leadership isn’t completely incompetent on Lower Decks.
The crew is part of the USS Cerritos (another joke because it’s named after a boring small California Town). They go around doing primarily “2nd Contact” jobs. Once Starfleet has met with an alien planet for First Contact, the Cerritos is part of a group that comes in and helps them get things set up. They also do a lot of standard “scan this rock” style missions as well, and getting into other trouble.
There are a ton of references to previous Trek Material ranging from straight full plot parody to random nods here and there. There have also been episodes devoted to basically every one of the original Treks, though the TOS now was technically part of Strange New Worlds. A lot of the popular main characters have made cameos as well, voiced by their original actors.
The show has its own running gags and plots too though. The Pakleds are the pseudo-regular villains for the Cerritos, for example. The Pakleds themselves are kind of a ridiculous joke of an enemy, mostly known for being absolutely dead stupid. There is an entire regular subplot about how Mariner is very capable but just doesn’t want to move up in the ranks at all and keeps self-sabotaging herself. Also, despite that the Cerritos is supposed to kind of be a screw up ship, they always manage to save the day like the “big boys”.
It fills a nice hole in the Trek world right now, which feels like it’s trying to do a variety of things to appeal to everyone. Discovery has its single-character deep drama. Strange New Worlds is more “traditional Trek” but still a bit more lighter in nature, Lower Decks is a full-on comedy, that still does a good job of making things feel appropriate for the in-universe world. Granted, it has its exaggerations, Riker’s cameo in particular kind of felt a little too exaggerated. But overall, it’s a good show.
I’ve shifted back to Fortnite from Overwatch, Maybe. Probably. Anyway, the newest Fortnite Season is a pretty sweet Marvel themed season with a Marvel BP, which is way more exciting than the upcoming Overwatch BP, which is, kind of hodge-podgey, sort of Ancient Egypt?
Also, no Venture Skin for like 3 more seasons. What the fuck Blizzard?
AnywayI’m not really here to discuss Overwatch or the Marvel season of Fortnite. What also dropped this season is the return of Fortnite Mobile. Currently available in the EU on iPhones and on Android Phones anywhere, through the Epic Launcher. This is key, because you have to go get the Epic Launcher from Epic’s website separate from the Play Store.
The question is, is it worth while to do so?
Frankly, probably not. I will say, I did not play a regular BR match at all. I played a few creative maps to test things out and to get the 100,000 experience needed to complete a few quests for items. I started on one I’ve been using as filler on PC for the daily creative XP, Rainbow Run, which is simply, running in a straight line, collecting coins.
I moved on from here to a regular Deathrun map. I have played a ton of Deathruns on PC, and they are definitely my favorite type of custom games. I will say, I managed to finish the 200 level Deathrun I picked. It was definitely one of the easier DR maps I have played, and didn’t have a lot of the more tricky jumps and traps I’ve encountered across a myriad of maps. But they do require some precision in jumping and moving. I also died way more than I normally do on these, something like 60 times in the 200 level map. For comparison, I usually die like 5 times max, even on maps I have never played, and I am pretty sure I have finished this exact same map on PC in like 20 minutes or less with 0 deaths.
I needed a bit more experience for my 100k after finishing this one and moved on to another Dr map. Pretty much the same experience.
Overall though, it kind of felt pretty weird and janky. Framerates and graphics were fine. The controls left something to be desired, and I wasn’t even trying to shoot anything while moving. I had a lot of deaths because there is a sort of, autorun that seems to randomly trigger, and I would run off the edge into a spiked pit a lot.
I also had an issue where I would randomly open the “ping” menu near the controls, which would interrupt other inputs.
It’s less critical, but the quests menu is opened by clicking the mini map, which wasn’t present on one of the map I played, making the menu inaccessible.
It’s also just weird. I’m not a huge fan of 3rd person or FPS games on mobile at all. I can’t see ever using this again unless they offer more drops, or there is a skin I want to log in and get when I otherwise can’t do.
This era of gaming is where things started to get a little more varied. This would essentially be the Playstation/Saturn/N64 era of gaming. Though I am not sure I have ever even seen a Saturn, much less played one. Playstation definitely dominated this era of games, but for my part, I stuck with Nintendo. I also started really pushing into PC gaming as well, but I covered all my PC history last year.
The Nintendo 64 was the first console I bought with my own money. I was working by this time, and had plenty of free flowing cash. I forget exactly which store I bought it from, but I can say I got a branded carry bad for free when I bought it. The first game I got for it was Cruisin’ USA. I had been playing a lot of Cruisin’ USA at the arcade and wanted to be able to play it at home too, which I did, a lot.
I imagine the system also included Mario 64. Some of the notable titles I remember really enjoying for the N64 included
Cruisin’ USA
Mario 64
Mario Kart 64
Mischief Makers
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Goldeneye
Man, Goldeneye was such a great classic game. It looks pretty janky these days with its blocky polygons, but it was so fun both single player and multi player.
But more notable maybe is Mischief Makers. I played the original, and it’s probably my favorite game on the system, but later I picked up a Japanese copy for fairly cheap while off at college along with a Japanese Dance Dance Revolution Disney Mix. These are notable if only because they were the first time I actually “modded” a console in any way. Granted, it’s an easy mod. Nintendo games are region free, but the carts are shaped differently. The US consoles have these notches inside to prevent inserting Japanese carts. I could modify the carts, or modify the system, since I had two cartridges, it made sense to just chop the tabs out of the slot in the system.
I don’t remember owning a PS1 until later, I want to say I did most of my Playstation 1 gaming on the PS2, which I will get to next post. My friend had a Playstation though, so we played it some there. Most notably, there was a weekend where I borrowed it though, he was out of town, my parents and brother were out of town, I had the whole place to myself, because I had to work. But when I wasn’t at work, I played through a very large chunk of Final Fantasy VII.
I didn’t have time to finish it sadly, not on the Playstation. Eventually I got a copy for the PC, and played through it there. In case you are unaware, Final Fantasy VII is highly regulated by gamers as one of the greatest games ever made. And it definitely had me hooked.
I am sure I played a lot of other PS1 titles, but I can’t really remember many besides Metal Gear Solid and Mega Man Legends. I kind of just skipped the PS1 Generation in a way, though I did play catch up a bit later.
Unfortunately for Nintendo, this would be the last console I would own from them for a while. I got way more into PC gaming and went with the PS2 and Dreamcast during the follow up generation, but that’s for next week’s post.
