Elden Ring on the PlayStation 5

Whelp, I've done it, Elden Ring for PS5 has been somehow, acquired.  Believe me, when I say, I am very nervous and scared about this game. This game, or this style of the game rather, is not necessarily my cup of tea if you will. I mean, It is a fantasy game, with monsters, and opened world, yes, I am all about that. But, I am more of a hack-and-slash, guns-blazing type of gamer. Games in which I need to be patient, strategize and think of every aspect of my charter's build, it's something I avoid at all costs.

That being said, there was something about Elden Ring that I felt compelled to want to play it. Not sure if it was the graphics, the hype around it, or what. The same happened with ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights on the Nintendo Switch, a dark fantasy 2D RPG, souls-like game. I learned to have patience, to learn my opponent's movements, and not attack hastily. The same will have to happen with Elden Ring, I suppose.

I have barely played the game, perhaps about an hour or so. My first impressions are, that this game looks beautiful, the graphics are outstanding, and the few monsters I have encountered are scary looking. Well, let's face it, anything in this game will scare me, most likely. The little I have seen of the world looks huge, and again, I have barely scratched the surface. The voice acting sounds very crisp, I also play with headphones so that adds some I guess. The story, so far it's a little vague but intriguing. Oh, and I have died a lot, like, a lot.

This game was not cheap, I better put on my pants and grind through it, I don't want to abandon it. I will take my time, one gaming session at a time until I figure it out. I have even been watching youtube videos like The Beginner's Guide to Elden Ring. I did abandon ENDER LILIES, back when I was playing it, I guess it was not so much of the difficulty but its Metroidvania aspect, which I got tired of it. Let us see how I fair against Elden Ring.

I know this has been going on for a while now, I mean, the last couple of weeks, everyone is talking about it. Talking about Musk and Twitter. Is he buying Twitter, is he not, bleh, bleh-bleh. Though I am not a fan of the guy, at all, the little trolly-jerk in me, way on the back of my head, wants the guy to own Twitter. Why? Just to see what happens. You know, what if? For purely entertainment purposes. I use Twitter, still. Do I love it? No. Does my existence as a human being depend on it? Heck no! 

So, go ahead, have at it! DOET!!

I wonder. Sometimes, it takes you a while to find the near-perfect writing/blogging workflow or setup. In truth, this can be applied to any creative or professional endeavor, but let us focus on blogging for now.  The moment I found my near-perfect workflow, it was the moment Ulysses added support for Micro.blog. That was all that I needed to commit to the app, and now, they get my monies every year for the subscription.

Now, sometimes, even the perfect setup can, eventually and for reasons, start to get a bit boring. Does that make sense? I think I am currently at that stage. I do enjoy using the tool (or tools) I am using at the moment and works perfectly. But every now and then, I have the itch to try something else, something shiny and new. And it is usually something I already have, something that I just haven't used in a long time and feel the need to tinker with it.

Then, there's the pros and cons process, I outright try the "new" thing, and then you start finding all these roadblocks. And because is not going as smoothly – or think it won't go as smoothly  – you quit and don't even try.

That is me. Usually. I don't even try.

Maybe is time to adventure out and try things and actually give them a fair trial and make an effort to overcome said roadblocks.

The worse thing that can happen is that it solidifies my current setup.

Previously on, Games I have been playing, our hero (yours truly) finished Horizon Forbidden West on the PlayStation 5 and was playing a lot of Streets of Rage 4 on the Nintendo Switch. Also played Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. This past week (or a few days) I got to pick from my very extensive and never-ending gaming backlog and purchased a new game, duh!

On the  Switch, Nobody Saves The World has finally come out. An action RPG, with some roguelike elements. This game has been a lot of fun so far. Your character can discover and transform between a variety of forms like a rat, a robot, or a knight. The more you use different forms and evolve them, you'd discover more forms to swap between them. Like any RPG you have many quests to complete. You've got dungeons and a fun story.

On the PlayStation, I am playing Need For Speed Heat. I know, everyone in the neighborhood is playing GT7 or Forza or whatever recent car racing games are out there, this game is from 2019. I have always been a huge fan of the Need for Speed series. This game, I picked it up back in 2021, on Black Friday sale, a few days after getting my PlayStation 5. Over the weekend I launched the game and, I have been racing my way through Palm City. I think the last NFS I played was Payback, In that one, you had three different protagonists and each had their different skills for different types of cars and race events. On Heat you are back at a single character but you'd tune different cars for different race challenges. Also, you have your daylight and nightly races. In one, you make your bank $, on the other you build your street-cred. And like every other NFS game, the cop pursuits are the most fun and stressing part of the game, at least for me.

I will eventually get around to playing GT7 and got my eyes on Elder Ring as well, but for now, this will be it. On the Switch, most likely my next game would be Chrono Cross, which I had in the queue before Nobody Saves the World but, oh well.

I can barely remember the last time I didn’t feel sick. It has been a constant struggle. If it is not a stuffy nose, it is the constant coughing, at least for me. When things start to get better, one of the girls gets sick. If one of them gets sick, eventually, everyone will get sick, in some way. Then there’s the constant paranoia about COVID-19. Getting tested and the smallest indication. So far, though, no one has been positive (knock of fake wood). But it’s a constant at this point, can’t catch a break, as they say. I don’t know if it’s the constant change in this crazy weather we are having, one day is nice and warm, the next day we get strong chill winds, next thing you know you’re getting snow and hot again. Or just is. And it is not just our household, grandparents are sick, uncles are sick (even the ones out of state), and the people in town.

Although this week we decided to change things up a bit, Marley had pinkeye (under control now) but had a cough all night, and Luna decided to have a fever last night, coughing and congested. And guess what? We think she's got pinkeye too!

As far as I can tell, I have my regular allergies symptoms and exhaustion, Annie as well, as neither of us could sleep. Marley only has her sore throat from coughing all night. 

Can’t wait for the day of no sicky kids and sleepless nights.

I have slightly updated my About page. 

This time I wanted to make sure I listed every RSS feed option available for my site, or at least the main ones. The everything feed, short, long, and photography posts. The Macro Feed, only for long posts, and the Photography Feed, which is basically my glass RSS Feed. I have also integrated the Glass feed to the Micro.blog's cross-posting.

I am aware that there are readers the might not fancy every little post. Fortunately, there are options :)

Nash:

Create like there is no metrics. There’s no followers. There’s no likes. There’s no comments. The only thing waiting for you is the canvas.  

Source: Create Like There Is No Metrics

A hundred times this! 👏🏻

For the longest time, when I first started my blogging adventure, I got hung up a little bit on the metrics. That was during the WordPress days. The same can be said for Instagram at some point. Gotta have those likes!

Later I learned that, well, it is still a work in progress, that way of thinking just gets in the way and creates friction. I think we have been trained to think of attention on the internet as a competition and the need for recognition and validation of everything we put out there.

Unless this is how you make your living, then I guess I understand the need for the metrics, the likes, the views, the downloads, etc.

(Now I feel like I am going down a rabbit hole of thoughts and feelings about this. Lots of buts and what-ifs)

For me though, I just want to create and put things out there for the fun of it, create for myself first, and even if only one person reads my post, I am good with that.

STYLE: Port Barrel Aged Belgian Style Quad Ale

ALC./VOL.: 16.3%

RELEASED 2019

From the creative minds of Tonya & Sean; This masterpiece has been aging in Port Barrels for over two years. Dripping with nuances of chocolate, orange, and cinnamon, the expertise and patience put into this beer pays off in every sip.