I am still heartily enjoying my Xbox 360, so have missed the Xbox One, Playstations 3, 4, and 5. I see the graphics get exponentially better, but the gameplay doesn’t seem to do anything for me. I liked in the room Co-OP as a kid, but am not the least bit drawn to online multiplayer, so the bulk of the last 10-15 years worth of gaming has whizzed by me without a care in the world. I’m not the demographic they are after. No problem. I do look longingly as things like the Nintendo Switch that still builds platformers, and single player self contained campaigns that don’t need DLC. I’m old now. I want the whole finished product in my hand at the time of purchase. The Switch lite is calling out to me. Just a little bit. But I know if I get one I’ll either spend just about every waking hour with it to the detriment of everything else in my life, or I’ll use it two or three times and put it away, where the batteries will corrode and ruin the whole thing inside of 18 months. There is no inbetween. I used to lose days at a time with Fable (1, 2 & 3), Diablo 3, Space Marines 40K, and a couple others. Having kids meant putting that stuff to bed so as not to be neglectful. But now my oldest is nearing double digits in age, I think the tech draw might make a come back. I just don’t know about the nearly $1,000.00 price tag for the unit, additional controllers, and an early stable of games to play. Disks and not downloads either. We can see the shenanigans going on with streaming, no way that Ish doesn’t burn the gamer crowd too. So physical media it will have to be.
I miss the old school platformer type games. I did enjoy Halo as a run & gun fps, but now it seems like everything is a sand box, or open world, or requires 100 hours to git güd. I’m not about that – son. I want to flow in, flow out of a saved game with ease, and not need to manage overly complicated skill trees, inventories, maps, directions, mission details and what not. I want to move from the left side of the screen to the right, bounce, jump, punch, or kick some shit, and carry on as the screen scrolls forward a bit. Like old school TMNT, or Double Dragon, or Fists of fury, Alex kid in shinobi world, pac man. Simple but fun. That’s not to say that I won’t enjoy a brief foray into something more complicated. I just know that if/when I do, I may get too distracted by it.
Oh well. Those are my Monday morning musings for today. Are you all looking forward to week nine of the summer break? Wow huh. Time flies! Although this one is just a little longer with the holiday Monday next week. What a strange, long, and short summer it has been. Work was consistent this summer. And I feel like there will be a good amount of projects coming in the fall aswell from other clients to finish the year strong. I don’t have any foresight into 2024 as of yet. But I feel as though this year will likely have been just as strong as 2022. Which is terrific. Amazing even.
Never did get out to see Oppenheimer, but I am reading “American Prometheus” upon which it was based, so that’s cool. Long form, indepth, and as nuanced as one could make it, I suppose. It’s good. I’m enjoying it. The question of his CP (Communist Party) affiliations takes up much of the beginning of the book. Sympathetic to the cause, certainly, an on the books die-hard member? I should think not. I’m interested in the time spent at Los Alamos. Those few years are what I’m interested in reading more about. The demon core tragedy took place at that time too. I read Robert J Sawyers Oppenheimer alternate history book last year and it was a fantastic read too. Very interesting. The whole physics, chemistry, & math wizz thing goes right over my head. But it’s interesting to see how others, much smarter than myself, synthesize, and iterate answers to such complex problems. By all accounts Oppenheimer was a great ideas man, not so good on the detailed follow through. I love that. Fascinating. To be able to understand the big picture well enough to know things will work, but not know those finer details down to the third decimal place, is astounding. Incredible. Like I said, those folks are much smarter than i am.
Was thinking of taking my oldest to see Barbie but that didn’t materialize. Then I had hoped to see the new animated TMNT movie with both kids in tow. But the youngest has expressed zero interest in the franchise, nor the ability to sit through 90 minutes of a movie she’s never seen before. Given how expensive everything is I don’t fancy spending almost $100.00 but for three 3D tickets plus food & snacks for her to NOT watch the film, or negatively impact the viewing experience for my eldest daughter or myself. Not cool. So now we wait for Bluray/DVD to get released and we can sit and watch it over and over on multiple occasions. I’m good with that.
All the best out there. Ciao Bella!
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