Posted by The last article I wrote for this little digital diary was almost a year ago at this point, and a lot has happened in that time. Since then I’ve worked as both a Movie/TV news blogger, a QA Tester on Call of Duty, and left both to start a new job in healthcare software. So I suppose I’ve been pretty busy, all things considered. Still, I always feel a bit guilty to leave this site hanging with no updates for an extended period of time, so I thought I’d pop in for a little update, get my money’s worth.
When I originally designed this website, I put a lot of time and a very small amount of knowledge into customizing it to my own preferences. Needless to say my tastes have changed somewhat, and the current version of the site is admittedly a bit basic. I’m interested in rebuilding it, or perhaps just shelling out for a custom theme that I can tweak a bit. That might require me to take down the site or rebuild it from scratch, at which point I may or may not bother to re-upload the old articles; it depends how hard I cringe when reading over them again.
Writing for a website about pop-media and working on a videogame full time killed my interest in doing my own articles and projects for a while, but as I move into a new role with the world looking a bit more normal, I’m planning to work a little more on my own stuff that will hopefully make it’s way onto this site in one way or another. No promises though.
In the meantime, here’s some quickfire opinions:
- Overwatch is still pretty fun, but it’s only gotten more complicated since I last played regularly. Mystery heroes is still the best mode in the game.
- Played Last of Us 2. Some of the best 3D animation I’ve ever seen in a game, you could swear some of the cutscenes were actual live-action footage. The narrative had a lot of really great moments, but it doesn’t really come together in the end, and the pacing gets pretty wonky in the latter third of the game. Still, I admire a story that takes big risks and falls short over one that plays its safe and leaves no impression.
- The remastered Crash collection was a good time-waster, but I can see why Crash never really stacked up to Mario or Sonic. As impressive as the animations and tech were at the time, the first 2 games are clunky and frustrating in ways that make them hard to recommend to casual audiences. The 3rd game is pretty solid though, and was the only one that sold me on the idea that Crash could have potential in the modern game industry. Might have to try Crash 4 at some point.
- Halo Infinite is looking real nice, and I’m very excited to play it whenever it comes out. As much as I wish the series had stuck to its guns with Halo 4’s more personal narrative and nuanced worldbuilding, Infinite really does look like a true spiritual successor to the original Combat Evolved and I’m hoping the campaign and gameplay are as pitch-perfect as the visuals. I’m also real happy to see The Banished get some love, as they’re easily the coolest addition to the universe since the original trilogy, though I’m a little bummed that Atriox doesn’t seem to be around.
- Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon was a lot funnier than I expected, and a really nice, bite-sized experience that you don’t get much of in AAA development anymore. I’d love to see more DLC’s that go really out there with their concept, and fewer that are just “the base game, but more.”
I’d say that’s about all for now. If you’re reading this, thanks for taking the time, I do appreciate it. I don’t have any immediate plans/projects to post in the near future, but I like having the option if and when the inspiration strikes. I guess we’ll see what happens.
Zoop 👉😎👉