¡Gabz!

Had another strange dream last night. I was involved in some kind of sports game and cannot remember which for the life of me. Then I was in a mall, it looked like a mall from back home in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. What I was doing there I don’t remember clearly either. However, something happened that I broke my iPhone, or part of it. Imagine as if the iPhone had a folding glass cover for the screen, like if you’d open it, it would look like you had a book 📖. Well, that covered broke. I was then calling my local Apple Store to schedule a repair. I knew I had Apple Care plus, but I wasn’t sure if I was over my “accidental damage claims” limit, and if I would have to assume the cost of the repair or not. I spoke with a lady, and she told me it was 280.00 USD for the repair, but they’d just make me pay 120.00 on front and the rest in installments. Not only that, but I remember saying “well, that is a lot of money”, then I said to myself, wait, the iPhone doesn’t have this, it is just a dream. Then I woke up, I felt relieved, turn around and went back to sleep.

I am wearing a case today, just in…. case 😎

You know The Legend of Zelda, even if you have never played a single Zelda game, it is somehow embedded in our nerdy-pop-culture. Just like Batman, even if you don’t like superheroes, at least the name should ring a bell.

I like Zelda, it has a big place in our pop culture and gaming community, I am familiar with its lore and aware of every game out there. Believe me, I even have a triforce tattooed on my arm.

That being said, I think I have only played a small handful of Zelda games in my entire gaming life. I very much remember The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures on the GameCube, I think I’ve played Ocarina of time, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D and Breath of the wild. Oh, and the one with the train 🚂 and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. So, not that many of them, and to be honest, I have probably finished all the way through, 2 of these.

But anytime Nintendo announces a Nintendo Direct, people go bonkers for Zelda stuff. They want all the Zeldas, all the remasters and all the new as well. That’s cool, I guess, but I guess the hype sometimes makes go meh!

Don’t get me wrong even if I go “meh!”, I get excited for new Zelda stuff. The last two Zelda games released on the Switch are in my wishlist, hoping that I will play them some day. And yet, they’re sitting there, and I’m not entirely sure why. Maybe I’m burned out off Zelda games?

Now I am sounding like a grumpy old gamer 😅

The one I am really eager to play though is Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, simply because I am a sucker for the Dynasty Warriors type of games. 😁

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on the Xbox One.

Normally, when I post one of these, it is usually within the first few days or at least a week after first starting the game. This one though, it is a hundred and forty hours after the fact.

It is no secret whatsoever that I am a huge fan of the Assassin’s Creed franchise. I have played pretty much every major title since the first one, and I am still a big fan to this date. For the longest time the Ezio Saga, if you will, had been my favorite until AC Origins. I am a sucker for Egyptian everything, so that was right up my aisle. And then Odyssey came out, and then that one was my favorite (😂). And now, Valhalla.

Basically, what I am trying to say here is that Ubisoft has found a way to make these games better and better, taking the good things about them and improve upon them. Making each iteration better and better, to me, at least. AC Origins I replayed that one at least 3 times, and so Odyssey.

In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, you take the role of Eivor Varinsdottir (male or female), A Viking rider in Norway and long story short, you set out to England, against the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Why, well because they can, and they will. If you have played Origins and or Odyssey, the game play and game mechanics are very similar. The same exploration sense of it, parkour and more parkour, leap of faith “eagle” (or raven in this game) vision. All the things that make and Assassin’s Creed and AC game.

In addition to all of that, you have the raids, basically as the word implies, you raid towns, military bases and Monasteries. By doing these raids you gain materials and supplies that will allow you to improve and buildup your settlement. By improving your settlement you get access to some perks which are somewhat necessary to progress in the game as you can upgrade your gear, stats and such. Raids are mostly besides the main story, they are sort of like side-boat-quests kind of thing. In this game, you can either travel by land or by water. I often choose to travel mostly by land simply because you can train your mount to be faster, with more stamina and to swim. So, once you can swim, well, you just go and forget you have a boat (or at least I did), until you want to go to town and do some raids.

The main story of this game it’s pretty huge, I believe people in the internets and some reviewers say about 70-80 hours, or something like that, full of good story telling, and lore My first play though was about 110 hours. The reason why is that I was having so much fun with the game that at any moment that I felt like I was close to the end, I would go out of my way and do side quests, which this game has a lot of the side quests. Some side quests can be, simple word events, like helping someone. Some others are cursed areas, and you need to lift the curse. There can be some secret missions, secret items, drinking games, and some dice game called Orlog, which I had a hard time understanding it at first, not going to lie. And all these side quests are scattered all over the map and the map its massive!

Often times I found myself just going around the map hunting for specific armor pieces and going into areas where I wasn’t supposed to, given my current level.

Now, I am not certain if this is going to be a little spoilery, talking about then protagonist’s dreams.

So, I guess this is a warning ⚠️ - ish

Anyhow, at some point in the game you visit some dreams, some visions you’re having. And they are very Norse Mythology driven or related and that was a lot of fun to play. Although I enjoyed playing it, I did not appreciate that part of the game on my first play through as much as I did the second time. In between play throughs I was listening to the audiotape Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman, and then I realized that most of the missions in that part of the story, where Nordic tales, somewhat adapted to fit that part of the game. They weren’t word by word or event by event, but I would say pretty close, and it was awesome to see an adaptation of those stories in the game.

So, yes as you may have gathered by now, once I finish the game I started a second save file. This time around I am focusing more on the main story line, not doing much of the side quests and whatnot. Making different decisions and different approach.

If you’d ask me “Gaby, shall I get this game?”, I’ll say abso-fucking-lutely”! If you are willing to put in the time that is. The game is a lot of fun, I got this game for Christmas and, in between the two plays throughs I’ve got about 130 hours. And just today, as I am posting this, they came out with a new update that adds more raids and missions to the game, so let’s see how many more hours I’ll be putting on this one (😅)

I believe the game now, the standard edition can be acquired or less than 40.00 USD, but if you’re like me, you’ll be spending way more on it as you can buy armors, weapons, and other goodies from the Ubisoft Store 😜

Marley comes around with the iPad

Mar: papá, can I get a new game?

Me: which one?

Mar: this one..

I download the game for her

Me: Marley, we need to go through the games you don’t play anymore and delete them so you have more sapace

Mar: showing me the iPad’s Home Screen with empty icon spaces , I still have a lot of space, see!

😂

Like all of us, I have my struggles with social media. The Facebooks, Instagrams, Twitter, and everything in between and/or related. A few years ago, I had it with Facebook, closed my account, and haven’t looked back ever since. I do still have my Instagram account though. Under the pretext that it is the less Facebooky way to keep in touch with friends. Which is utterly bullshit if you think about it, is still Facebook just with a different coat of paint. For the past few months, I have gone back and forth as to whether close it or keep it. I went through and unfollowed a bunch of accounts, just to keep it minimal and more manageable, that instant gratification has vanished. It didn’t fix the anxiety of having an Instagram account even by unfollowing others.

Today I have deleted the Instagram app off my device as an experiment, although, I kind of already know how’s going to end up. Like on other occasions I will find myself missing something to scroll through and will re-download the app.

Twitter, well, that is a different animal. I say to myself that I am okay with it. Twitter can be okay sometimes. I have been following a lot of accounts of pixel art artists, Indie games developers, and such. And so, most of my timeline is full of pixels and awesome art. But as we all know, doom scrolling is a thing. At some point, the pixels go away and all the shit that gives me anxiety or causes me to tighten and lock my jaw starts to pop-up. In other words, even Twitter is giving me anxiety nowadays, especially since the election. I thought it’d be all done after the election but as we all know, that is not the case.

I want to do the best I can to stay away from these two, although, I don’t think I will allow myself to delete all my Twitter apps off my phone, the same way I deleted the Instagram app.

This is an eternal struggle, and I hate it. I grew up not having any of these outlets and I was fine and happy. Ironically, as much anxiety these give me, wonder if I could be happy without them again…

Best console game:

Ghost of Tsushima on the PlayStation 4

In case you didn’t know I had played (and finished) this game, 4 times in a row. 😉

Nintendo Switch:

Streets of Rage 4

I love beat them ups, and I love the Rage series. This game was the perfect matchup between classic beat them up and modern.

Honorable mention: Y’s Origin

Album of the year:

EL ÚLTIMO TOUR DEL MUNDO by Bad Bunny

It was late in the year but I have listened to this album on repeat a lot

Movie of the year:

The Outpost (2020)

I feel like I didn’t watch too many new movies this year, for obvious reasons. The Outpost was a movie I was looking forward to seeing. Once I did I was taken into the story and the events. Many emotions arose from watching this movie and I enjoy it quite a lot.

Honorable mention: Mulan (2020)

That is all I can remember liking quite a lot this year.

This year was a thing, definitely a thing. We shall see how 2021 turns out to be.

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve turned on my Xbox One S. Yesterday I decided to fire it up and see what’s up. I kind of been meaning to, just because DOOM ETERNAL is now on GamePass so I wanted to check it out. To my surprise, I was offered their GamePass ultimate subscription, 3 months for ninety-nine cents. It was a very hard decision 😅.

I downloaded DOOM ETERNAL, STAR RENEGADES and STAR WARS JEDI: FALLEN ORDER. Star renegades is a game I have in my Nintendo Switch’s wishlist. Almost every indie game I have on the switch is included with GamePass and still, I buy them for the Switch. I don’t know why but i prefer to play these on the Switch. Anyway, I downloaded on the Xbox as a trial, kind of thing, I have played about a good 10-15 minutes and I liked it. Doom, I played for like 10 minutes and uninstalled it, it just didn’t click, not sure why.

Today I spent a couple of hours with Star Wars and so far I am having a good time with it. Feel more like I am playing a game like Uncharted, which isn’t a bad thing to say. Not like I am a huge fan of the uncharted games but seems similar.

Oh and also downloaded NEED FOR SPEED HEAT, I’m a sucker for the need for speed games. I haven’t played yet, I just figured I will be playing Star Wars for a wee bit.

🎶When it’s over, That's the time I fall in love again🎶

A few day’s ago, I finished the vidjia game I was so into Ys Origin. Now what? What do I play? First world problems right. I dislike this feeling of, finishing something fun and what to do/play next. There are a few games out there on my wishlist plus all the ones in my backlog. Some of the ones in my backlog I might have played for a while but they didn’t click with me thus, why they’re still part of my backlog unfinished. I revisit them and see if I can click and play them. I remember this happening with ASTRAL CHAIN. It wasn’t until I revisited it that it clicked and boy did I have fun with it.

A few games on my radar at them moment are Morbid: The Seven Acolytes and Star Renegades both on the Switch. They both are indie games, rouge-like. They also look a little difficult and I have been watching YouTube videos on both of them to see how difficult they really are 😅

I don’t want to invest in a game that then I’ll be frustrated playing. Best example of that is Blasphemous, love the game, the lore and the art but man it frustrates the hell out of me. And yet, I do revisit and try again from time to time.

Also I would like to play AC Valhalla but, I don’t know I kinda want to play games on the switch for a bit.

These days I am less and less interested in what used to be my go-to and favorite thing, technology podcasts. I still do listen to a few, like The Rebound, it's a fun and festive one — to me at least. In the end technology podcasts just bored me to death.

What I have been listening to a lot of are music-related podcasts, video games, movies, history, monsters, and mythology. Legends of old and historical tales. Or simply people chatting about stuff, not necessarily technology or any topics specifically but cool stuff that I can relate to.

Mythology and monsters are something that really fascinates me. The fact that these tales of creatures are out there is very interesting to me, same with mythology in general. It is like part of me wishes these creatures and tales were true a hundred percent (some of them), that these beings existed or do exists still.

Podcast Roll

• Chente Ydrach
• Core Intuition
• Don’t Be Crazy
• The Geek Legacy Podcast
• Geek Legacy’s Pixelated Podcast
• Hemispheric Views
• Lex Fridman Podcast
• Lore
• Micro Monday
• Mythical Monsters
• Mythology
• The Nintendo Shack
• PAL KEYS
• Project Human
• Questlove Supreme
• The Liner Project
• The Rebound
• Reply All
• Resistance
• Song Explorer
• Switched on Pop
• Tales
• We Have Concerns

I finished Ys Origin on the Nintendo Switch and what a fantastic game. I gave my first impressions a little bit ago when I first started playing. At the time I was aware of the game having three playable characters, but what I didn’t know was how different each of their stories is. I thought it’d be simply different perspectives of the same story but ultimately the same. Boy was I wrong! There is real character development here, each have their own back story, motivations and struggles. Each character’s story feels like a different game entirely. With Toal’s being my favorite one of the three.

I really enjoyed playing Ys, having finished all three arcs, There’s still some replayability, other modes to play and a “ NewGame+” kind of system. You don’t keep upgrades and abilities but they give you extra ep points that you can use early in the game for some useful upgrades.

Thumbs up 👍🏼 for this game.

Ys Origin on the Nintendo Switch

Enter the World of Ys and discover one of the greatest japanese A-RPG of all time.

If I got my facts correctly, this game had been around since 2006 when it originally released, or 2012 when it was initially localised.It is an action-RPG, think of games like Diablo and or Zelda.

I got this game back in October when released and it wasn’t until these past week when I finally got around it. Blame Ghost of Tsushima and Hades. I am somewhat familiar with the Y’s series of games. Possibly my first Y’s game experience was on the PlayStation 2, I think.

When this one was announced I was already sold. I am a sucker for retro style pixel art action-RPG’s and even more so for dungeon crawlers, which is the vibe this game gave me.

So far I got about 13 to 15 hours into this game and I am having a really good time. You start with two playable characters, each with unique skillsets and powers. Actually, there are three different characters but if I remember correctly you need to finish the game with the firs at two in order to unlock the third. The setting is simple, demons are attacking Y’s, there are these twin goddesses that protect Y’s and they have disappeared in this tower and it’s your mission to find them and rescue them.

And of course, there more to it. The entire game is you in this tower going up from floor to floor

The game is not too difficult, although, I am playing on the easiest setting. I am not for a challenge, I am for a good time and the story. Still the more you progress some enemies get a little challenging to beat. Boss fights are fun, they all have an exploit, it’s just a matter of finding it, and once you do, it’s... not quite a peace of cake but neither frustrating.

So far I am really invested in these characters and the story so far. Like in games like Diablo, there is some grinding, mostly in order to level-up and acquiring gems for upgrades but I think you can get by without too much grinding.

I love the pixel art and the music it’s amazing. I am definitely a fan of this game.

If you are into action-RPG’s, dungeon crawlers and pixels, I highly endorse this game 😎

Micro.feelings

I am truly enjoying the Micro.blog experience, and the community. But I’m not going to lie, sometimes I find myself missing Wordpress for some reason. I’m thinking because I had this Ulysses/Wordpress blogging workflow. With Mb is a litttle bit different when it comes to me composing and posting. Is this a thing? Would I be able to overcome it and not look back to WP?

Well, it certainly didn't take me two years to realize this, perhaps a month or two after this post was posted. Yes, I was able, I have never looked back to WP ever since. I am happy with my current blogging platform. As far as my posting workflow. iA Writer got their game together, Drafts has always been a good option as well. I would love to get back with Ulysses full-force but not until they get their shit together and give me the ability to post to Micro.blog 😤

Today, thanks to the magic of “on this day” I was reminded of my “fitness” progress at the time. It made me sad in some way, since I haven’t been active as I was back then, at all. I have been trying. I do good for a day or two and then I’m back and being lazy.

Today, in the back of my head, I knew I wanted to start again — try this thing again. Also in the back my head, was the devil, as we say back home, el Diablo es puerco (the devil is a pig). I really didn’t want to do anything, that little devil was telling me to take a nap, play video games maybe. Still I dragged myself outside and went for a two mile run followed by a few assisted pull-ups (gotta build strength back up).

It felt good, as it always does, it’s just a matter of keeping at it. Ignore el Diablo 😈.

Diablo, que tú no puedes conmigo

— El Diablo by Ray Barreto

It has been a hot minute since the last time I posted about the contents of my backpack. So I thought I would write about it, today of all days.

I am still rocking the Everyday Backpack by Peak Design. It has been over a year now since I got it and I am still very happy with it. It feels good to finally get to use it again now that I am back in the office. Its configuration has changed a bit since last I had posted.

The default is basically three inside compartments, I only have two setup now. The bottom compartment holds my Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III and the Olympus M.zuiko 45mm f 1.8 premium lens — always.

The top compartment holds, well, a bunch of stuff. Although I am yet to write much on it or at all, I carry a notebook with me at all times. Also in this compartment, you’ll find My Nintendo Switch and the Pro Controller, my work phone an iPhone 8, the iPad Pro 11” one or two spare face masks, an MK Scorpion Funko Pop figure, a pair of regular headphones for the Nintendo Switch, a pair of EarPods and my Powerbeats Pro. In addition to that, you might find some type of Tupperware constraining my breakfast for the day, usually oatmeal with peanut butter and a bit of brown sugar and a spoon.

On the top pocket, also located in the first-main compartment, I carry usually a small folding knife and my wallet.

On the sides of the backpack, in the inside pockets there are spaces for a lot of things but I usually just have pens, regular pens, and the Apple Pencil. Sometimes I may throw random things but I dot use these pockets as much. On the outside pockets of the backpack’s side, I usually stuck my coffee much in there as well as my key. On the other pocket, there’s usually a beanie hanging from it these days.