2021 in Film

Posted by John Klein III on December 31, 2020
Posted in: Film, Websites. Tagged: . Leave a comment

We’re entering into 2021 and it has to be better than 2020, right?

As always, I will look to see which movie titles jump out at me.  All dates are subject to change.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_films_of_2021

January

Chaos Walking is finally coming out.  A movie I recently saw the trailer for and was reminded the movie has been delayed quite a bit.  The Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley, alien planet where your thoughts are heard by everyone.  Sounds interesting, but I’ll wait until it is streaming somewhere.

Our Friend, has Jason Segel in it, so I’ll eventually watch this.  I keep meaning to check out Dispatches from Elsewhere on AMC.

February

A non-Disney, but still a musical, version of Cinderella is coming out.  I’m not that familiar with Camila Cabello, but I feel her being cast as Cinderella is very telling of what type of film this will be.  Idina Menzel, James Corden, John Mulaney, Miniie Driver, and Pierce Brosnan are in it, so it will probably be pretty fun to watch.

French Exit has Michelle Pfeiffer so that’ll be a movie to watch.

Dog has Channing Tatum co-directing and starring.  It will be a comedy.

Flora & Ulysses is coming to Disney Plus, and it has Alyson Hannigan, Danny Pudy, Kate icucci, Bobby Moynihan, and Ben Schwartz, so should be a fun family film.  I’m not familiar with the book at all.

oooooof!  Tim Story is bringing a live action / animation mix Tom and Jerry to HBO Max.  This is going to be like those Alien / Predator films that should be 80 percent the title characters, but won’t be.

The Russo brothers are co-directing Cherry, starring Tom Holland, based on a movie I’m not familiar with, so this promises to be good, with just those three being involved.  Full disclosure, I haven’t read a book in maybe two years, which I really should get back into the habit of.  As if I was Whoopi Goldberg.

Nobody has both Bob Odenkirk and Christopher Lloyd, so I’ll add this to my list of films to look out for.  Which I have now done.

March

Coming 2 America, a sequel 33 years in the making.  Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, John Amos, Wesley Snipes, and James Earl Jones, yes please!  Also proving any movie can get a sequel.

Disney’s latest animated feature, Raya and the Last Dragon, comes out!  I’m so excited!  And maybe it is coming to Disney Plus as well?  I love how Warner Brothers just threw it out there that all of their movies are coming to HBO Max on the same day.  That’s a service I can fully support.

The King’s Man is the prequel in the trilogy, and I have yet to watch a single one of these Kingsman films.

Typing about prequels, The Many Saints of Newark, the prequel film to Sopranos is actually coming out.  David Chase is co-writing it.  Leslie Odom Jr. is in it, so that’s fantastic.  Vera Farmiga is in it too, so that’s nice.

Morbius may be coming out, so that the BluRay will be out in time for Halloween.  Will he be in the upcoming third Tom Holland Spider-Man film?  The cast of that film is a dream coming true!

Another series I have dodged, Boss Baby, adds another film to its franchise, Family Business.

April

No Time to Die, the 25th film in the James Bond series, and most likely Daniel Craig’s fifth and last one.  Such a great title.

Peter Rabbit 2 : The Runaway, I saw the first one, so I’ll eventually watch this one.

Bob’s Burgers : The Movie, H. Jon Benjamin getting that sweet movie money!  Odd that Bob got a movie before Archer.  It is a musical too!  Fun!

Mortal Kombat is braving its face gain!  Coming to HBO Max as well!  For some reason, I thought this was the fifth in the series, but it is only the third.

A Quiet Place Part II reminds me that I really need to watch that first movie.

Edgar Wright brings us Last Night in Soho, with Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, and Terence Stamp!

The Asset reteams Michael Keaton and Samuel L. Jackson.

May

Hopefully, Black Widow, actually comes out!  We have to get these Marvel films back on track.

I saw, Rumble, thought it would be a WWE Royal Rumble movie, knew it wouldn’t, was about to move onto the next film on the list, but then I saw it.  WWE Studios, say what?!  It is an animated movie, and I’m hoping it is a fun romp.

The graphic novel, Marry Me, which I haven’t heard of, gets a big screen adaption.  It will star Jennifer Lopez, who will be providing the soundtrack for, Owen Wilson is being let out of movie jail for this.  Sarah Silverman was the name attached that peaked my interest.

Godzilla vs. Kong is finally coming!  I have to yet to see either creature’s latest films, and I should really correct that.

Free Guy is probably my most anticipated movie that isn’t being produced by Marvel.  A Grand Theft Auto mixed with Fortnite movie starring Ryan Reynolds?  I was already trying to figure out how to preorder movie tickets when I first saw the trailer.

Saw is getting a ninth film in the franchise!  This time with Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson, so it should be getting good again.  I have not seen a Saw film since maybe the third one?

F9, the latest Fast and the Furious film, another complete franchise I have yet to see any films of.

Curella continues Disney’s need to create live action films based off of beloved animated series.  In a twist, this is a prequel, starring Emma Stone.

June

Sylvester Stallone stars in a new twist on the superhero film, Samaritan.

Ghostbusters : Afterlife hopefully comes!  We are really anticipating those sweet Lego sets that ought to come from the film’s release.

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights is coming out, and hopefully Roku and Amazon will have finally add HBO Max to their streaming TVs and devices by then.  So annoying!  My wife and I will probably watch this a slew, simply based on how often we watched Hamilton.

Venom : Let There be Carnage ends the month.  Since when was Andy Serkis set to direct this?   I feel like that should really step up the film, right?

July

Top Gun : Maverick finally comes out.  Jon Hamm is in it, and I realize I sort of forgot about that guy.

Minions : The Rise of Gru comes out.  Sequel heavy year, but that makes sense, as the movie industry has to make up for lost time.

Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings should be great, and I can’t wait to see a trailer.

The Forever Purge is the fifth and final installment of the Purge franchise.  I should watch these once it is all said and done.  Anyone know if they ever dealt with the events that lead up to the first Purge?  I really could go for a documentary set in the that explains that first year and how bad things must have been.  Like, there is no way Congress okayed this, but if they did, what made it all possible?  Was the first two years like the worst?

I’ll believe Tom Holland’s Uncharted is coming out once I see a trailer, and once I see an article that states it is coming out “this Friday.”  Until then, I have my doubts.

So they actually were making the LeBron James Space Jam movie?  Titled, New Legacy.  Coming to HBO Max, which is nice!  And, yes, Lola Bunny will be part of the cast.

J.K. Simmons will be in Chris McKay’s The Tomorrow War, along with Chris Pratt, and Yvonne Strahovski.

M. Knight Shyamalan is being let out of movie jail again with Old, based on a graphic novel, Sandcastle, by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters.

Disney’s latest film based on one of their rides, Jungle Cruise (that does not even sound familiar), is coming out, starring Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, and Paul Giamatti.   People really like the Rock in a jungle setting.

Everyone’s other favorite Old English story, The Green Knight, is getting a modern update.

August

James Gunn’s reimagining of The Suicide Squad is coming out.  Should be pretty fun from everything I have seen.  Coming to HBO Max, so that’s fantastic.

Hotel Transylvania 4?!  For some reason, I have seen all of these.  I really thought we said everything we needed to say with the 3rd one.

Deep Water, an erotic thriller starring everyone’s dream boat, Ben Affleck.  This makes sense.

Jennifer Hudson will be Aretha Franklin in Respect.  Surprised they didn’t go with R-E-S-P-E-C-T as the official writing of the title.  Forest Whittaker, Marlon Wayans, Marc Maron, and Mary J. Blige also star in the film.

I forgot I wanted to watch The Hitman’s Bodyguard with Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson.  Well, a sequel is coming out, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard – which I already fell in love with the title.

There’s going to be a PAW Patrol movie, a franchise Walker Dennis completely avoided.

Candyman is getting a direct sequel and not a remake, so I’m all about that.  Though I’ve never seen any of the films.  I imagine it will work like Halloween and ignore the films in the middle that they want to ignore.

Peter Jackson has apparently been working on a Beatles documentary this whole time.

September

Jackass 4 is going to be a thing.

Resident Evil gets a reboot, probably to be more in-line with the tone of the actual games, and tie-in nicely with Resident VIIIage.

Kenneth Branagh continues to adapt Agatha Christie books with, Death on the Nile.  The film stars Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Gal Gadot, and Armie Hammer.

My Little Pony is getting a sequel film.

October

Dune will finally coming out.  Well, Part One anyway.

Addams Family 2 reminds me that we kept not watching the first film.

Halloween Kills is a sequel to the 2018 Halloween direct sequel to the original Halloween film, and the 12 entry into my favorite scary franchise.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon wrote a movie together again!  The Last Duel will be directed by Ridley Scott and stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck will be more in a supporting role.  Adam Driver will be dueling Damon.

Snake Eyes will get his spin-off film from the G.I. Joe franchise, yet another series that I have not watch any of the films of.  There are only two other films, I thought there were like four of them.

November

Marvel’s Eternals finally comes out!

I was literally having the thought yesterday about how no one under 25 probably even knows Elvis or his significance, and here comes Austin Butler (Elvis) and Tom Hants (The Colonel) to bring the King back.

Clifford The Big Red Dog also finally comes out.

Mission : Impossible 7 comes out, and I’m way behind on this franchise, like, I’m sure the last one I saw was the second one.  Hayley Atwell has joined the cast, so it should be pretty great.

There are a few films were directors are releasing two films, which makes sense as I’m sure there were films already completed and were waiting for theaters to open.  Ridley Scott is directing a story about Guccio Gucci, staring Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, and Robert De Niro.

December

Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story finally comes out as well!

December 17, Spider-Man 3 featuring every single person!  Probably my most anticipated film of the year!

Matrix 4 should be interesting. NPH joins the cast.

Sing 2 comes out, making it five years since the original, but I’m sure Walker Dennis will still want to watch it.

So not a bad year of films.

Playstation Plus in 2020

Posted by John Klein III on December 30, 2020
Posted in: Games, Websites. Tagged: . Leave a comment

We have enjoyed another year of PlayStation Plus.  For $45, we received nearly $300 in games, $297 from how I did the math.  Plus Call of Duty WWII and Just Cause 4 special vanilla editions.

Thanks to Finder for listing all of the titles :

Complete list of free PlayStation Plus games (updated monthly)

.  .  .

January 

Uncharted : The Nathan Drake Collection

Goat Simulator

Walker was obsessed with Goat Simulator for so long and I got to finally play Uncharted 3, a perfect month.

February

Bioshock Collection

Sims 4

Firewall Zero Hour

FZH is strictly a VR title, so I didn’t get to play it.  Sims 4, I was a tad obsessed with for two weeks and I got a few hours into the first Bioshock game.  Not a bad month.

March

Shadow of the Colossus

Sonic Forces

I really enjoyed Sonic Forces and I can see myself getting back into it once I’m craving some Sonic Action.  I killed two of the Colossi and thought I experienced enough of the game.

April

Uncharted 4 : A Thief’s End

DiRT Rally 2.0

I forget how unforgiving Uncharted games are, and I got to Chapter 10 or 11 and died in a middle of a gun fight and was reset to a way earlier segment and I sort of was just done with the game after that.  Same thing happened with my attempt at playing the first Uncharted game.

DiRT Rally, I played for a few nights and earned maybe five trophies and experienced enough of the game.  It was me, not the month.

May

Cities : Skylines

Farming Simulator 19

Oooof, to this month!  Arguably the worst month for Plus this year.  I did not take to Cities : Skylines and I enjoyed a smaller farming game more than the bigger budget Farming Simulator 19.  A month not for me.

June

Call of Duty : WWII

Star Wars Battlefront 2

I’m not the biggest first person shooter guy, but I enjoyed both of these titles.  Probably more Star Wars than CoD, as that’s where my interests lean.  I should play more Star Wars Battlefront 2.

July

NBA 2k20

Rise of the Tomb Raider : 20 Year Celebration

Erica

My favorite month of Plus!  I fell in love hard with RotTR, sparking me buying the films and two games (the 2013 game and Go).  Eric, I earned the Platinum with and finished four playthroughs to complete.  NBA 2k20 was enjoyable enough.  I got my character to the Suns and like 2k19, that felt enough for me.  I really wish there was a Prelude like 2k19 had, as it just had a nice introductory feel to it.

August

Fall Guys : Ultimate Knockout

Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered

I was obsessed with Season One of Fall Guys, and then Season Two happened, and I did not take to the new season and playing for both me and Walker Dennis, sort of drained the enjoyment from the game.  Season Three looks fun, but I keep resisting going back to the game.  August is also when Marvel invaded Fortnite and sort of changed my gaming habits.

September

Street Fighter V

PUBG : PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

Street Fighter V, I pretty much just wanted Guile and all of the outfits I could unlock, without paying for anything, and that felt good to accomplish.  I liked how PUBG was a more realistic looking Fortnite, but I just enjoy Fortnite more.

October

Need for Speed : Payback

Vampyr

I did not get that far into Need for Speed : Payback, I had to drop the difficulty as I’m not that good at racing games.  Vampyr, I probably could go back to and get a few more missions done, but I experienced enough of it.  I just got to the hospital and met a few patients.

November

Bugsnax

Middle-earth : Shadow of War

Hollow Knight : Voidheart Edition

Bugsnax is the PS5 version, so hopefully one day I can enjoy it.  Shadow of War just felt like I was fighting constantly, instead of a nice blend of exploring and fighting, but I experience enough of it.  Hollow Knight I could probably play a few more hours of, at least beat the final boss.  I believe I tried twice and it was late enough to go to bed and just did not go back.

December

Worms Rumble

Just Cause 4

Rocket Arena

Worms Rumble was very enjoyable the night I gave it.  Rocket Arena I could play more of.

oh how I wish Boone was a lady, and how I wish Zik was purple.  I do like how there were like 20 costumes, but none of them turned Zik purple.

Just Cause 4 was enjoyable enough, but I didn’t take to it.  I died during an escort mission and felt like that was enough for me.

.  .  .

28 titles!  Which is four more than I thought we going to get, and one of those is even a PS5 game!

So my Top Ten Games would be :

  1. Rise of the Tomb Raider
  2. Fall Guys
  3. Goat Simulator
  4. Uncharted 3 (through the Collection)
  5. Erica
  6. Star Wars Battlefront 2
  7. Sonic Forces
  8. Sims 4
  9. Street Fighter V
  10. NBA 2k20

I went down the list and wrote the ones I really enjoyed and got to 9, and threw in NBA 2k20 so all of the July titles were represented.  Uncharted 4 was amazing, and I probably could drop the difficulty down for that title, but it bugs me when I have to do that.

Of the 28, I only really finished Rise of the Tomb Raider, Fall Guys Season One, Street Fighter V, Erica, Uncharted 3, and Goat Simulator.  Some of them, you don’t really finish but experienced everything the game had to offer.

Hiding in a Snowman Challenge in Fortnite

Posted by John Klein III on December 23, 2020
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Walker Dennis is a huge fan of this Fortnite YouTuber, LazarBeam.  LazarBeam makes all types of meme challenges in Fortnite, and Walker was inspired to create his own challenge.  Walker’s challenge was to see if he could win a match by hiding in a Sneaky Snowman for as long as he can last.

I’m pretty proud of his commitment to the challenge as well as how he modified the challenge to include enlisting a bodyguard when possible.  We were only going to capture the videos when he outlasted more people than the previous video.

Attempt 1

Attempt 2

Attempt 3

Conclusion

I am so very proud of that final video.  It was a lot of fun to join him and play along with him.

Hopefully we get a set of headphones for Christmas and we can really step up our production value with these videos.  Though I do follow quite a few Fortnite YouTubers who do not provide any commentary, and are purely gameplay, and I don’t mind at all.

December 2020 Free PS Plus Games

Posted by John Klein III on December 9, 2020
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games, Websites. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

The PS Plus Titles for December 2020 are – Just Cause 4, Rocket Arena, and Worms Rumble!

I haven’t played a Worms game since the late 90s, and it is no longer turn based, so it will be interesting to see how the game has evolved with the times.  Worms is our PS5/PS4 crossplay title of the month.  Really showing Bugsnax how to do it!

I have no connection to Just Cause or Rocket Arena.  I heard Just Cause is a zany open world game built for destruction, so that should be fun for a night.  Rocket Arena, I have only seen PlayStation Access stream it the one time.  I thought there was a lady with a pet dragon, so that is up my alley.  Most likely, it was a lady with dragon wings, but I will take representation where I can.

.  .  .

PS Prices

PS Prices lists three versions of Just Cause 4 – Reloaded, Complete, and Gold.  Hard to tell which version we are going to receive, or if they make a special vanilla version that does not come with any of the additional content.

Rocket Arena is typically $30, but has been as low as $4.99 in the past.

Worms Rumble is a brand new game, starting at $15.

So our total savings for December $20, and I’ll act like Just Cause 3 is a free game, just like Call of Duty : WWII.  Bugsnax is a $25 game.  So adding to our total of $252, we have a savings of $297, nearly $300 worth of games for 2020!

I simply do not get people who complain about PS Plus.  I get those people who are lucky enough to buy whatever games they want, but then I’m not sure why they subscribe for Plus then?  For the off chance a game they don’t own makes the list?

.  .  .

Here are the subreddits I follow reactions :

PS4

[PS Blog] Just Cause 4, Rocket Arena, and the upcoming release Worms Rumble are the December PS+ Titles. from PS4

PlayStation Plus

Worms Rumble, Just Cause 4 and Rocket Arena are your PlayStation Plus games for December from PlayStationPlus

PS4Deals

PS+ Free December 2020 – Worms Rumble, Just Cause 4 & Rocket Arena | NA PSN | Available 12/1 from PS4Deals

.  .  .

My YouTube Peeps :

Ash with Playstation Access :

Adam of Playstation Grenade :

Ben of Platinum Chasers :

.  .  .

Here are the links to PlayStationTrophies.org’s guides for Just Cause 4 and the trophy list for Rocket Arena :

http://mail.ps3trophies.org/game/just-cause-4/guide/

http://mail.ps3t.org/game/rocket-arena/trophies/

.  .  .

I earned my 35th platinum with Dementrios!  A pretty fun game.  I followed a guide the entire time, but it is a fun and relatively short game.  Six chapters, so did it over a course of six nights.

.  .  .

I played a night’s worth of Hollow Knight and Shadow of War.

Shadow of War, was nice enough.  The combat is a little repetitive and I was feeling like all I was doing was fighting all of the time.

Hollow Knight, I found to be more enjoyable.  I got stuck on the first real boss, I tried it twice, then my night was pretty much done.  I meant to go back to it, but other games have gotten in the way.

.  .  .

I did play a night’s worth of Worms Rumble, and had a pretty fun night.  I was not very good, but I got to level 5, and enjoyed the three modes.

.  .  . 

Walker Dennis and I are super obsessed with Fortnite.  Chapter Two Season Four ended and Season Five has begun.

Here is Walker’s final match in Season Four :

In hindsight, I overlooked having him view all of his gliders and emotes, but he came in third, and missed the end of the match by a minute.

Walker already won a match as the Mandalorian for Season Five, which is very impressive.

We have also gotten better at making videos and using ShareFactory on the PS4.

Season Four was Marvel them and Season Five is Bounty Hunter theme, with new original characters in the Battle Pass.  So I am not as tempted to go beyond level 100.  I am only trying to level myself up once a day or night, and I’m mostly dedicated to getting Walker leveled up as I am starting to view it as more of his game.

Though I still super enjoy it, but I’m starting to really commit to just buying him any skins or items that look the most interesting.  But I also want the Battle Pass for myself so when we do play together, I have access to the cool new stuff.

For myself, I bought Monks, an adorable sock monkey.  Now if my beautiful wife wants to play, she has a skin she can use.  I super regretted not buying Monks when she was available back in October, but I was super hesitant to purchasing her or any skins.  Now, I am more tempted to buy skins, but not to go crazy on just any cool looking ones.

Walker was super sweet and bought me the Kratos set, which was awfully sweet of him.  Sweet, but not necessary.  I rather he saved his V-Bucks for when he really wants something.

We are super anticipating Winterfest 2020 or 14 Days of Fortnite, whichever branding they go with.

So yeah, when I get a chance to game, I’m playing Fornite all of the time at night.  Still not burnt out on it, and super enjoying myself.

November 2020 Free PS Plus Games

Posted by John Klein III on October 28, 2020
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games, Websites. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

We have our first PS5 game added to the November 2020 games!  That game is Bugsnax, which some people guessed as it was not available for preorders.  Those are some clever detectives there!

For the PS4, I have two games coming off of my wishlist, so I am pretty excited about that.

Middle Earth : Shadow of War, the sequel of Shadow of Mordor, two games that take place between The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings.  I asked and it sounds like it is okay if we have not played Shadow of Mordor, we can jump right in.  Though the Wikipedia page implies it takes place right after the first game, but maybe it will just be a puzzling first 30 minutes and then the new adventure kicks off?  Like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, if I take to the sequel, I will make a point of actually buying the first game in the series.  Apparently, like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, we can play on Easy, as there are no difficulty related trophies.  There are three missable trophies, so I will try to get those taken care of, as quickly as I can.

Hollow Knight : Voidheart Edition, is the second PS4 title, and I am super excited to play it.  I understand the game is very hard, which is why I would never buy it myself, but I would like to see how how far I can get into the game.  It is a Metroidvania style game, so parts of the game are going to be blocked until we find means to unblock those paths.

Do not worry about missing out on Bugsnax, it is a Plus title going through January 2, so you have time to enjoy it, if you are one of the lucky folks who are getting a PS5 this year.  I am hoping to get one next year, but we will have to wait for that.  Also, if you claim it now, when you get a PS5, you can play it then, so always always claim the Plus titles.

Also, in February 2021 (feels like so far into the future), we already know the PS5 game is going to be Destruction All Stars, so that is nice.

.  .  .

PS Prices

Bugsnax is a brand new title, so like Fall Guys, we will have to wait until November 3 to find out its price.

Shadow of War is typically $50, but has been as low as $10.  I see there is a Definitive edition, but I suspect that is not the version we are getting in November.

Hollow Knight is typically $15, but has been as low as $8.  The Voidheart Edition is the only edition of the game.

So that brings our total for the month to $18, add that to our total of $234, plus Call of Duty : World War II, brings our new total to $252, plus Bugsnax will be added when I do the write up for the December games.

Game of the Year Edition for Shadow of Mordor is only $6 right now.

PS Store

Here is as good of a place as any to complain about this.  Anyone enjoying the latest down grade to the PS Store website?  It used to be super user friendly, and now it seems purposely not.

If you get to the website through the PlayStation App, it still has the old format.  Let’s hope someone forgets to update that.

Shadow of War has a few offerings :

Definitive Edition for $60

Desolation of Mordor Story Expansion for $20

4K DoM Cinematics for free, so I’m downloading that now.  Maybe one day we will have 4K.

Blade of Galadriel Story Expansion for $15

Outlaw Tribe Nemesis Expansion for $15

Slaughter Tribe Nemesis Expansion for $15

Story Expansion Pass for $25; which only includes the story DLC – Desolation and Blade.

4K Cinematic Pack for free

Expansion Pass for $40, which includes all expansions for $15 more.

From what I have read, people really enjoy the Nemesis system.

Hollow Knight has no additional DLC to purchase, which is refreshing.

.  .  .

People on Reddit are very excited about this month, which always great to see.

PS4

PlayStation Plus Collection details revealed + your November PlayStation Plus games from PS4

Playstation Plus

Bugsnax (PS5 only), Hollow Knight, and Shadow of War are the November 2020 PS Plus games! from PlayStationPlus

PS4 Deals

November 2020 PS+ Free Games | PS5 Bugsnax, PS4 Middle-earth: Shadow of War & Hollow Knight Voidheart Edition | PSN from PS4Deals

Also, added to the PS5 Plus Collection is the Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy and Black Ops 3, both games I already own, but that would be nice to have Crash digitally.

.  .  .

My YouTube Peeps :

Ash with Playstation Access (who has been a real treat)

Adam with Playstation Grenade

Ben with Platinum Chasers

.  .  .

Here are the links to PlayStationTrophies.org’s guides to the games :

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/middle-earth-shadow-of-war/guide

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/hollow-knight-eu/guide

I am probably going to start with Hollow Knight, as I can already envision myself heading a progress wall.  Then I will give Shadow of War a chance.

.  .  .

Not much in a way of updates on other games I have played.  I have made no additional progress in Vampyr.  I have been playing Fortnite like a dman fool!

Ghostbusters came to Fortnite!  I gifted Walker Dennis the lowest left one, and I treated him to the photon pack and the Ecto-1 glider.  I had full intentions of not buying me anything as I’m holding out for Psylocke coming back to the game.  But when I was trying to gift him the photon pack, I bought it for myself, and so I ended up buying the guy to the highest right.  I do appreciate that they didn’t just release the eight Ghostbusters from the films, but went with more generic people.  I know that doesn’t work for most people, but I liked it.  Walker wanted Venkman and I was probably going to go for Egon.

Walker and I won another Duos, so I uploaded that video.  I trusted it was only that match, but it added our nonsense ahead of the match and a previous match.  The one to watch starts at the 24:37 mark.  One of the weekly challenges was to heal each other with the bandage bazooka.  I hadn’t realized it was a team challenge, so once he earned it, I had earned it as well, so the video towards the end has a lot of that going on.

I am hoping to get a pair of head sets for Christmas, so we can at least add commentary to our videos (hopefully that isn’t too hard to figure out), but I think the match was pretty interesting to watch back.  He’s gotten so much better at playing Fortnite.  I was Mystique and he was Wolverine.

Later tonight, Walker should be earning Silver Wolverine and starting his gold track and I just earned Silver She-Hulk last night.

If we don’t win, we typically do come into the Top Six or so.

From what I saw from the Week 10 Challenges, we should be able to knock out three of them so that we each can earn Mystique’s alternate costume.

If you are looking for a Fortnite creator to support, I highly recommend AdamAru, of PlayStation Access fame.  He’s a good guy.

Playing Need for Speed Payback and Vampyr

Posted by John Klein III on October 22, 2020
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I have now played the first few missions of both Need for Speed Payback and Vampyr.

Need for Speed Payback looks amazing.  I was playing on medium difficulty and got stuck in a race that I simply could not win.  I figure I was never going to win it, and so I dropped difficulty to Easy, and was able to win the race.  I raced a few more races, got the gang back together, and we are in a middle of the desert.  I unlocked Multiplayer, and did five races, earning one trophy there.  The game is pretty nice, I was concerned about the balancing of story and racing, but the story is essentially cut scenes, then we’re back to racing.  Or one of my concerns, was that there was going to be tricky driving, outside of racing, but it really is a racing game with story elements.  Will I come back to it?  Maybe, but I’m not imagining a scenario where that could happen.  Maybe if VUDU ever has the film on sale?  Which I can already imagine that movie being like six minutes of story, an elaborate racing sequence, some story, some fancy racing, until the end of the film.

Vampyr, I will say was my favorite of the two.  Dr. Jonathan E. Reid wakes up finding himself to be a vampire, and something horrible happens, and he is trying to figure it all out as he goes.  We find a nice doctor who recognizes Dr. Reid and invites us to work at his hospital.  Which I met Milton Hooks at the hospital and I sort of dig that guy.  He is voiced by Mark Monero, and I really enjoyed his voice.  Hooks operates the ambulance at the hospital, and I found his wallet.  Monero was one of the soldiers in Doctor Who “Flesh and Stone” where 11 and Amy meet the Weeping Angels.  Good episode.

I ended my last session meeting a guy whose wife died, so he is raising his two children.  He hurt his arm, and that is why he’s at the hospital.  So I will keep playing and figure out what else is going on.

The story takes place in London during the Spanish Flu, and the way they refer to the epidemic keeps reminding me of our current times.  I am so thankful we have modern medicine.

The fighting mechanics are pretty nice, I mostly just like swiping at people, and been avoiding my pistol.  So far, I haven’t killed anyone who wasn’t trying to kill me.

Nathan along with Dave, made a helpful tips video for Vampyr that is worth watching.

.  .  .

 I earned my 34th Platinum with Erica!  It took me six playthroughs, and I really enjoyed my last two playthroughs as I got to make whatever choices I wanted, until the very ending sequence, then I had to follow the prompts to unlock the endings.  So it was nice to see different dialogue options and events play out.

.  .  .

I was sort of running out of free time so I made the pretty easy choice of stop playing Fall Guys.  They were about to add Sonic and the character cost 10 crowns for both halves, and neither Walker Dennis and I had that many crowns.  I was not going to do the work of getting seven crowns each, and the thought of having to level up two people at the same time, it was killing my buzz.  So dropping Fall Guys opened my morning for just relaxing and exercising, so I have no regrets.  I did win my first episode of Season Two, which gave me the trophy for seven wins and for winning with a different finale pose, so that felt like a good time to stop.  Plus, I was no good at the new maps, getting more and more frustrated over everything.

.  .  .

What game have Walker D and I been playing the most of?  Fortnite.  We’re those people.  All it took was adding a slew of Marvel characters for the relative cheap price of eight dollars.  Walker has Iron Man, and even has played more to unlock Silver Groot.

I am on the Tony Stark track, I am three days away from earning him, and ten days away from earning Iron Man.  Then I feel like I will be dead with check ins and such.

There is a challenge to complete 60 weekly challenges to unlock Logan, so I will probably commit to getting him for both of us.  I believe I am eight challenges away and Walker is nine away from owning the outfit.  Looking at the Week 9 Challenges, I feel like we should be able to get most of them completed, if not all of them.  If not, then we have Week 10 to get some more challenges.  Also, now that we are in Week 9, Mystique’s alternate outfit as an option and thus far, we have all of the alternate outfits for the other characters minus Mystique and Wolverine.  Walker has come such a long way at getting good with the game, and we have won at least seven different duos together.

Fortnite has started their Halloween event, FortniteMares.  I love the title and the new map is intense and now if you die, you become a shadow, and get to keep playing, which is pretty fun.

October 2020 Free PS Plus Games

Posted by John Klein III on September 30, 2020
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games, Websites. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

The October 2020 PS Plus Titles are :

Need for Speed Payback and Vampyr!

I knew Resident Evil Biohazard was not going to be an option as it is currently on sale, but I really thought Days Gone was going to be the scary game of the month.  I am excited to pay Vampyr, as it has been on my list and it is from Dontnod who brought us the Life is Strange series of games.  I am hoping Need for Speed Payback is fun and for Walker Dennis’ sake, can just be a game where he can drive around to his heart’s content.

.  .  .

PS Prices

Need for Speed Payback is typically $20, but has been as low as $4, for the base game.

Vampyr is typically $40, but has been as low as $12.

Which is a grand total of $16, which doesn’t seem amazing on paper.  But combine that with the $218 in savings plus Call of Duty : World War II, that brings our total to $234!  Which is truly incredible!

PS Store

Like Street Fight V the month before, Need for Speed Payback as a slew of DLC.  None of it free.

$30 Deluxe Edition

$4 Aston Martin DB5 Superbuild

$10 All DLCs cars bundle

$10 Deluxe Edition Upgrade (which is a nice concept).  Comes with the Story DLC, a NOS color, License Plate, Leaderboard Icon, 5 shipments, 5% rep bonus, and 10% discount on in-game content, plus the Platinum car pack including six cars.

$5 Fortune Valley Map Shortcuts

$2.49 Range Rover Sport SVR

$2.49 Alfa Romeo Quadrifogilo

$8 Speedcross Story Bundle (so two more dollars, gets you everything else from the Upgrade – decent deal)

$2.49 Infinity Q60 S

$2.49 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2

$4 Pontiac Firebird Superbuild; if it looked as slick as KITT, it would be an instant buy, but it doesn’t.  It looks great, but the front is all wrong for what I would want it to be a substitute for.

$2.49 MINI John Cooper Works

$4 Chevrolet Range Rover and Alfa Romeo

.  .  .

Vampyr on the other extreme only has a Hunters Heirlooms DLC for $3, two weapons : Paulinus Aurelianus’ sword, Dragonbane, who was a mythical founder of the Brotherhood of Saint Paul Stole.  The other being Carol Eldritch’s pistol, Baker, who was the secodn leader of the Guard of Priwen.

.  .  .

Reads like most of the comments are stating how it is a pretty average month of games, but most have high hopes for November now.

PS4

Need for Speed: Payback and Vampyr are your PS Plus games for October from PS4

Playstation Plus

Need for Speed: Payback and Vampyr are your PS Plus games for October from PlayStationPlus

PS4Deals

[NA] October PS+ Games : Need for Speed: Payback and Vampyr from PS4Deals

.  .  .

My YouTube peeps :

Nathan with PlayStation Access :

Adam with PlayStation Grenade :

Ben with Platinum Chasers :

Adam also makes some amazing Fortnite videos, if you are interested.  I have been enjoying his tracking of the map every week, since we’re still playing Fortnite like crazy.

.  .  .

Here are the links to PlayStationTrophies.org’s guides to the games :

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/need-for-speed-payback/guide/

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/vampyr/guide/

I will probably not go for the platinums for these games, but I will at least knock out the four easy to get multiplayer trophies for Need for Speed, as those are my favorite kind.  Just attempt to play ten races, beat your own speed once, and do a daily challenge.  I will attempt to play the game proper, but once I hit a difficulty road block (pun intended!), I will probably be done with it.

Vampyr has collectibles and requires two playthroughs, one being a No Kill playthrough, and I can’t see myself playing it twice, so I will probably just play like I would naturally, and see what happens.

.  .  .

I have been playing Fall Guys on Walker’s name, as he really wants to create his own Batman with the limited suits he can muster.  I finally earned him a fourth crown, so we are waiting for the superhero top.

It isn’t Batman, but it has a cape, and that’s good enough for him.  It costs three crowns, so now we are simply waiting for it come back around in the store.  Hopefully for Season Two, they add a third row to the shop.  There are pants too, but that would be another three crowns, so the priority is top first, and then we’ll see.  It is pretty cute though.

Hopefully if they ever do more license suits like Batman, that it costs Kudos and not Crowns.  I know the Portal and Gris suits have been crowns, but those are a lot more specific, whereas everyone will want Batman.  At least do a Crown version and a Kudos version.

I finally spend five real dollars on the game for 12,000 Kudos, as they added a white duck to the game, after I just said the night before how they should add a cute yellow duck.  Plus, I’m well pass level 40, so no free money was coming my way.  Walker Dennis had enough on his account, so he bought it too.

.  .  .

So I start every morning playing Fall Guys, and I start my gaming night, either finishing Walker’s leveling up, and then straight into Fortnite!  So I level Walker up once, then I level up myself after that.  It takes longer for my name, plus, then I can move onto another game while still logged in as myself.

Walker just earned the Groot screen saver, and next is the Rocket Raccoon icon, then it is the Rocket Raccoon buddy for Groot to run around together on the map.

Fortnite just turned three years old, so getting all of those challenges done, really got him caught up to where I am in the Battle Pass.  I just earned Storm’s emoji and next is her trail blazing, the part before the glider comes out.  I am two challenges away from earning 80s Storm, but I am not sure I will be able to accomplish those as the weekly challenges are becoming a tad difficult.  The two easier ones are to eliminate Iron Man three times, and get three eliminations in the Woods.  I have now defeated Doctor Doom thricely, but from the few attempts at Iron Man, he seems much more difficult.  Wolverine is finally coming up on the Wolverine Challenges this week, so hopefully he isn’t too difficult to earn.

I also got both of us Red She-Hulk, which is fun.

I have been regretting not participating in the Deadpool battle pass, but I am not sure if it was ran like the current Marvel one.  I couldn’t justify the $20 for Captain America this time around, plus Walker said he would really want it as well, so I really couldn’t justify the $40 for two Captain Americas.  I have made peace with him wanting Batman and buying the suit for him, and not doing the same for myself.  If they ever release a Riddler, that one, I may have to spend real money on.

Thanks to the Battle Pass, we have earned V-Bucks, but not enough to warrant any cool purchases, and I will definitely be saving those V-Bucks for actual characters instead of weapons or dances.

.  .  .

The game we are currently playing together, and is Walker’s new obsession, is Portal Knights, again.  But this time, he is player one, and the game is finally clicking with me.  Or I am just more committed to figuring it all out.  We have two dedicated homes; Dusty Junction, a pleasant desert island, and North Point, a deadly winter island.  Dusty Junction is the second island you visit, and Walker has really put a lot of time into turning one of the mines into a home, and it is super cute.  North Point is a place where I have built essentially a war room of upgraded Workshop, Alters, Anvil, Furnace, and chests galore.  I found out that if we built an Arcane Compass, it directs us to where Portals are.  Though it is hard to determine if we have to build down or up, but I default to building down to mostly success.  Sometimes it is just right around the corner on the surface, and those are always nice surprises.  We both have iron weapons, I play as a Warrior and he is a Mage.  We defeated the first worm boss and are trying to get to the second one, but we skipped over the key island for the second one, so we have to go back and figure out which island’s portal gets us there, but we also haven’t found the second grandbeast’s portal either, so we have time.  I am having a hard time getting yellow shards to activate the portals, but it has been a real blast locating the portals and figuring out the locations.  I really do like mining for gems, and building my staircases either downward or upward.  This time around, we are building actual bridges to take us across gaps, so that feels good to be opening up the islands.  We just have direction that we didn’t have the first time we played it, so the game is a lot better now.

.  .  .

I finally completed my fifth playthrough of Erica, so I am two hours away from earning my 34th Platinum, and I meant to go straight into my sixth playthrough.  Well, I did start one, but kept dozing off in the beginning, so I turned it off that night.

Then Rob with PlayStation Access released the Weekly Store video :

Wherein he describes a new game, Genshin Impact.  It is a free RPG, which are two of my favorite things!

I am not that far into the game, and I am committed to playing it until I have earned at least one trophy.  It looks pretty great, it reminds me a lot of Omega Quintet, which also reminded me that I had to go back to playing Omega Quintet as well.

I probably only played for about an hour or so, but I am really enjoying it.  It looks great.  I chose the lady twin, whose names are Lumine and Aether.  We have the option to changing their names, but I looked it up to see if they had canon names, which I am glad I did as the brother clearly had a defined name.  There was a moment where I was going to name her, Kristie, and be done with it, but there was a thought I had that I was pretty sure she had some fancy other worldly name, and she did.

https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Bows

I am very much still into Archers, so I looked it up and the game as three of them.  Amber, Fischl, and Venti.

The game started off as a mobile game, so there is a wealth of information out there.  Except for where the chest is located on the heart shaped rock, as that’s one of the trophies, and once I recruited Amber, I was going to go to that chest for trophy, but no one has written about the location yet.

That website is pretty great, but nowhere does it reference where we recruit the characters, so hopefully I can get a chance to recruit those two before I move onto another game.

Right now, I have completed one of the three temples, and going to the second temple, it looks like I will be recruiting at least two more characters from Amber’s Knight clan.  I chose her temple first as I wasn’t sure if I was able to lose her, but I didn’t, and we’re definitely moving together to the second temple.

Gacha Gamer has been releasing a slew of helpful videos relating to the game, including this handy tier list.

He comes down pretty hard on Amber, saying she is in the lowest tier, but I have been enjoying her a bunch.  We have met Venti, but only in passing, and I have yet to see Fischl.  I want a team of Lumine and the three archers.

Gacha Gamer also has two great tips videos, but they made no sense to me prior to playing the game, so I would recommend playing for a bit to get familiar with the mechanics, and then watching those videos.  That helped me as I had a better frame of reference then.

There are 18 characters, and I believe we create teams of four; which seems like a lot of options, maybe too many, but it is a free game, so they are probably providing a lot so we spend a lot.  Though I haven’t needed to spend any money yet, so hopefully the other two characters are not behind paywalls.

.  .  .

That heart shaped trophy is titled, Unswerving, and YouTuber, Nier Zero has a video up for it!

Thank you!

I believe Kaeya is one of Amber’s friends I am about to recruit.  Looks like a lot of effort is going to be put into getting this trophy.  At least I know it won’t take ten minutes, just four.  Though I wonder if we could just swim there?  From the comment section, it looks like we need a co op partner to have the chest appear, so hopefully I can log Walker in real fast and get the chest.  Also from the comment section, the second player does not get the trophy.  I wish the map section was in the beginning of the video, but it makes sense to show it at the end.  I may have to set another trophy as my goal.

Actually, the Beloved of the Anemo Archon trophy appears to be much easier and I know right where it is!

Thanks to YouTuber R o b for hosting the video!

I was totally tempted to climb that statue last night too!  But I opted to not do so as I was way into seeing where the story was going, but I will go there immediately after starting the game.  I’m pretty excited!

.  .  .

Looking back, I do not believe I updated everyone that I finished the 2013 Tomb Raider game.  It was such a great game, Rise clearly took everything that worked there, and just made it better.  I found all of the tombs, and most of the collectibles.  Multiplayer is dead, which I thought for three dollars, I would have found a like minded player, but I play super late at night, so the chances are pretty low.  Shadow of the Tomb Raider is still new enough where the lowest price is $20, but if it ever dips below $10, I will definitely buy it.

VUDU and all of the other streaming services continue to refuse to stream 2018 Tomb Raider, so I keep checking on that.  I recall there is a Need for Speed film with Aaron Paul.  I can only imagine it is not very good, but I wonder if it is at least an enjoyable . . .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need_for_Speed_(film)

130 minute?!  ooof, that seems like a lot of time, I wonder if it would have done better with a shorter length.  I will see if I can stream it anywhere, and if not, add it to my list of films to check every Friday morning.

PS5 Showcase

Posted by John Klein III on September 16, 2020
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games, Websites. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I’m sure that Playstation will trim the hour of pre-show silence to make the video more viewer friendly.

We got a second proper glimpse of the PS5 and along with some games!

First up, was Final Fantasy 16!

Thanks to IGN for hosting the video!

This should make Rob from PlayStation Access very happy and we will probably lose him for a month when the game finally comes out.  This reminds me that I still haven’t played Final Fantasy 15 Royal yet, nor have I bought it.

Truth be told, Black Friday 2021 is probably the soonest I will get a PS5, but one can only hope for it to be sooner.

.  .  .

Second up was Miles Morales : Spider-Man gameplay!

Thanks to IGN for hosting the video!

This game looks amazing!  I can only imagine the Tinkerer is like the Act 1 villain, right?

Game takes place one year after the conclusion of PS4 Spider-Man.  Which I figured Peter would have gone with Mary Jane for the summer, and the game takes place more like a month or two after the previous game, but I imagine they write Peter out of it in another friendly way.

.  .  .

Then there were some other games shown like Call of Duty : Black Ops – Cold War and Resident Evil VIllage, but my interest in those games are not that high.

Fortnite is a launch title!

Thanks to Playstation for hosting the video!

Walker Dennis and I have become a tad obsess with Fortnite in the pass few weeks.  I even stopped my Tomb Raider playthrough last night just so I can play even more Fortnite.  He is close to unlock Jennifer Walters and I am close to unlocking Groot, so that’s pretty exciting.

He is eagerly waiting for either Batman Day (this Saturday) or the DC November Event for Batman to come back to Fortnite, as he’s all about Batman at the moment.

.  .  .

Then arguably the biggest thing that got me excited was the PlayStation Plus Collection!

Thanks again to PlayStation for hosting their own video!

This I need more information about.

The Verge has a pretty good article regarding it :

https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/16/21440388/playstation-plus-collection-ps5-ps4-games-titles

18 Titles are going to be part of the collection, availabe on launch day :

God of War

The Last of Us: Remastered

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

Battlefield 1

Monster Hunter World

Fallout 4

Final Fantasy XV

The Last Guardian

Ratchet and Clank

Infamous: Second Son

Days Gone

Bloodborne

Detroit: Become Human

Batman Arkham Night

Mortal Kombat X

Persona 5

Until Dawn

Resident Evil: Biohazard

I have God of War, Fallout 4, and Until Dawn physically, but I would love to get them digitally.  I am really hoping these work like current PS Plus titles, where we can download the games through the store.  I really want it to work like how my Vita titles were just waiting for me once I was treated to that system.

Of the titles, I own most of them through Plus, but there is a slew of them that I do not have access to right now.

Battlefield 1, Monster Hunter World, Final Fantasy XV, The Last Guardian, Infamous Second Son, Days Gone, Mortal Kombat X, Persona 5, and Resident Evil Biohazard

So half the titles at nine.  That is a crazy amount of savings!  I imagine these are all coming to Plus in the next few months as well.  At least four of them, I am willing to bet.

Hopefully Plus doesn’t increase too much more than $60, but my amazing wife is usually pretty great to renew my subscription as a Christmas present.  After I helpfully provide her the link to it on Amazon during Black Friday.

.  .  .

We also finally know how much the PS5 is going to be!

$500 for the physical PS5 and $400 for the digital version is amazing!  Especially $400 for digital, I would totally be willing to give up physical and kiss my physical PS4 discs good bye for that price.

Plus, I will be keeping the PS4 and moving it to Walker’s room, so it isn’t like we’re trading one in for another.

It is going to be tough knowing November 12 is coming and the PS5 is going to pass me by this holiday season.

.  .  .

Then Sony Interactive Entertainment’s president and CEO Jim Ryan showed a quick clip of Ragnarok is Coming, which sounded like God of War 2 to me.

Thanks to IGN for hosting the clip!

Also, it is clearly God of War 2.  I don’t recall seeing the initial logo.

Looking for it, I had already forgotten about the Harry Potter game.  Looks interesting.  I will have to ask my wife about what she knows about the lore of Hogwarts from 1800.

Such a great presentation!

Are you buying a PS5 on release day or even this year?

Playing Street Fighter V and PUBG

Posted by John Klein III on September 10, 2020
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I feel I have played enough of both Street Fighter V and PUBG to write about them.

I achieved my main gaming goal with Street Fighter V in as much as I finally unlocked Guile for 100,000 in-game fighting points.  I did not spend any real money to do so, and that feels pretty great.  I had to resist spending four real dollars unlocking the rest of Guile’s suits, and another four dollars to unlock his special 30th anniversary outfit.

It looks pretty nice, but does it look four dollars nice?  Not to me and my tightly kept PSN wallet.

After unlocking Guile, I completed a Survival run, on Easy, and finished his character story chapter, which unlocked several color alternative outfits.  One of them was Green and Orange, so that was good enough for me.

I still pretty much jumped and kicked my way through my 30 plus online matches, but figuring out how to Sonic Boom was pretty satisfying.

.  .  .

Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) is a pretty fun game.  I am not sure where all of the criticisms came from.  Did I find weapons immediately?  No, but did I find at least something usable within five minutes?  Yes.  I feel like I’m better at Fortnite, but if PUBG had a duo split screen, I would probably get a lot more out of it.  My very first round, I got to ninth place without shooting a single person, so I earned the Pacifist trophy.

Then I proceeded to get eliminated pretty often without ever really getting a chance to fire at anyone.  So I figured I would give squad a chance, let someone else do some heavy lifting, and in doing so, I earned a slew of trophies!  I healed my partner, I killed at least three people, I got to put one of those victim’s clothes on, and outlasted my other teammates.  I don’t have a microphone, but she was a great partner and was guiding me through everything.

I tried a few more solo rounds, but I think I experienced the game enough, and pretty much achieved my two goals of not killing anyone enough to earn a trophy, and then its opposite, of killing my first person, and that felt good enough.  I never did come across a crossbow, but the chances of that were pretty small.

If they add split screen, I’ll jump back in with my buddy and really give it a shot.

The maps are used, and really played into my style.  Which is to pretty much, find a good weapon, like an assault rifle, and then move deeper into the safety circle, find a nice building, and just patiently wait.  No one ever came into my hiding space, and I was always killed as I was moving to the next area, but that is what happens when you get closed to the Top 10, usually the players with my skill are picked off relatively quickly and easily, but I was able to stealth my way around the map.

My problems are clearly that I’m not good enough for it, and I am sort of tempted to play at least 100 rounds or jumps out of the plane, and maybe I will after my next gaming goal has been achieved.

.  .  .

Which my main gaming goal right now is to get to level 40 in Fall Guys!  I am currently level 38, so I am so close and so I am only really playing Fall Guys at the moment.  Even if I did earn level 39, I am 15 good episodes (at least 15 fourth rounds) until I reach level 39, then I’m just going to stick with it until I earn 40.  Which would unlock a new celebration option, which when I equip it, and win an episode, I would earn a trophy.  So at least, I want to earn level 40, and then maybe try a round every so often afterwards, but I feel I would be able to turn the game off for a good bit.

They changed their store policy, where it used to changed at least twice a day.  So I would check it once I woke up, and once again when I could play again at night.  Now the store doesn’t change except for once, so hopefully they go back to the twice a day, or at the very least, add a third row of items to purchase.  Usually I see the row, and don’t want anything.

What I do want is the black face mask, and the pink face mask.  The black one costs a crown, which I had none to spare the last time it was listed on the store.  I really want all of the face masks, as I really like completing my bean with a full and proper look.

I have not earned the “buy 50 items” trophy yet, and since I am close to finishing the season, I am realizing I have all of this Kudos to spend, and so I have been buying any complete top and bottoms that the store offers at the same time, as well as any color combinations that don’t cost crowns or are less than 3,000.

I did buy today the egg pattern, and the hatchling top and bottom which cost 9,000 kudos for the complete outfit.  A tad much, but it went well with the egg pattern, and I already had a yellow and white coloring, so it looks pretty cute.

So I will use this outfit for a fair bit going forward.

I sort of have no desire to use the pirate pattern once I earn it, so I’m mostly looking straight ahead of earning level 40.

Thanks to IGN for hosting the season two trailer.

It looks very whimsical and I am excited to get at least a purple dragon costume.  Season Two does look like fun, and I will definitely look at the Season Pass items to see what else I would like to earn.  It looks like they added some more working together rounds, so that should be interesting.

Maybe that dragon is a tad more blue than I remembered, but who knows.  I saw a pink dragon and an orange dragon, so if blue is as close to a purple dragon as I can get, that will just have to be enough for me.  October 6 is the last day of Season One, so it will be interesting to see how they end One and start Two.  I would imagine they will get new face mask colorings, so I would want those as well.  But I can also see myself just feeling like I have ran the course with the game.  Pun very much intended.

I would still check in once in the morning and see what has been added to the store until October 1, but if I miss something, I won’t be too torn up about it.  Unless I miss out on a turtle costume, then I would be pretty devastated.  Hopefully it is one of the outfits that only cost one crown for both the top and bottom, as I barely have seven crowns right now.

There was a moment on evening where I was stuck in a forever loop of See Saw -> Slime Climb -> Fall Ball -> Finale, that was nice as it meant a quick turn around, but those games are pretty exhausting.  And that is when my team won Fall Ball.

I learned a nice trick with Slime Climb, when at the two yellow rods, just walk onto them and then jump to the solo rod, then immediately jump dive to relative safety.  I was jumping after centering myself on the first yellow rod, but that was just causing me to fall off of it instead of now I am in more control, which is nice.  From there, I can pretty much make it to the finish line on my own.  My hardest part is the two moving pillars below, usually due to the amount of people also trying to make it pass it, and then these two sets of yellow rods.

Another thing I am being annoyed by, is the force Fall Ball as the penultimate round of a game.  Like, the game machine must have a team round, and so if I end a round with 10, 12, 14, 16, or 18, I pretty much know it will be Fall Ball.  Maybe not 18, but 16 for sure.

Another instance of seeing how the machine works, if a round finishes with 15 or 17 qualifiers, I will most likely get Tip Toe, wherein five or seven people will need to be eliminated to force a 5 v 5 Fall Ball game.

I really miss playing Rock N Roll as a teams match, but I only have played it once in like three nights of playing.  A lot of the matching game, thankfully that is only three rounds, as a fourth round would probably eliminate me every time.

Still a fun game, and I usually can earn 98 fame points each episode I attempt, but there are still a few where the first round or the second one can be surprisingly difficult with either obstacles or being grabbed, but I usually feel pretty confident with any of the rounds.  Unless it is a team challenge, but even then, I do my part, but sometimes, like with Fall Ball, I am placed on the wrong team.

This is another game where if they added split screen, I would get even more enjoyment out of it.

.  .  .

Which means I have put Tomb Raider Definitive Edition on hold for a bit.

Funny thing is is that I got to the same point Rob got when Kim was guiding him way back when the came first came out.  I did not mean to, but then I opened the door at the end of the video, was extremely tired, and turned off the game once it saved.  Then the next morning, I earned my 38th level in Fall Guys, and realized I just want to get 40 and not being obsessed with it.

Tomb Raider is great.  Either I am not far enough in the game to start collecting furs, or that is not a feature like it was in Rise of the Tomb Raider.  I have completed my first optional tomb (not shown in the PlayStation Access video), but it did not stop me from proceeding, so I did it.  No guides, just looking around and figuring it out, so that was pretty nice.  I also have killed more than five wolves, so that earned me a trophy as well.

I was able to upgrade my ax, and I still have one more category to unlock.

I am really enjoying the game, and the island is full of mystery and I can’t wait to really start exploring.  I mean, I clearly can wait, but I do think about the game quite a bit.  I probably will stop Fall Guys after leveling up to 39, and spend the next night playing Tomb Raider, then right back to Fall Guys.

September 2020 Free PS Plus Games

Posted by John Klein III on September 3, 2020
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

The September 2020 PS Plus Titles are :

Street Fighter V and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, or PUBG, for short.

The games are out now, I’m way late on this post, and more on that far below.

I haven’t played a Street Fighter game since Street Fighter II Turbo, or one of those branches of II.

PUBG, is one of those 100 person battle royale games, and from what I’ve seen, was the originator of the genre, but then Fortnite blew it would of the water.  From what I have read, PUBG works better as a PC game than a console game, but I will give it a fair chance.

.  .  .

PS Prices

Street Fighter V is typically $20 but has gone as low as $8 for the base game.

PUBG is typically $30, but has gone as low as $9.59.

The Plus titles games total running value thus far is $180, plus Fall Guys is a $20 game, brings the running value to $218, plus plus, Call of Duty : WWII.  So we’re doing pretty great and it isn’t even October yet.  I am going to be a tad annoyed if Man of Medan is the free title for October, but I would love to get it digitally.  I have decided, as Man of Medan has gone on sale so many times, to just wait until Little Hope is a $15 game.  Plus, it has online co-op, like Man of Medan, so the platinum will evade me again, and that’s just irritating to me.  Also, I would want it digitally as well, so waiting is the route I will be taking.

PS Store

Street Fighter V has a slew of DLC!

There is a free ShareFactory theme and a free Shadow Falls Cinematic story level, that I had to download additionally.  I am at 80% completion of Act 1, and it is pretty nice.  For the story mode trophy, that is for the individual characters and not the cinematic story.

There are three pages worth of avatars, each for 49 cents.  I treated myself to the Guile one, the proper one, not the 8-bit one, as I don’t need two avatars.

There is a $25 Champion Edition Upgrade Kit, that gets you everyone released, so that’s pretty nice and is the way to go.

$20 Capcom Pro Tour : 2020 Premier Pass

$20 Season 4 Character Pass

$15 Capcom Pro Tour : 2019 Premier Pass

$10 Capcom Pro Tour : 2018 Premier Pass

$10 Season 3 Character Pass

$10 Capcom Pro Tour : 2017 Premier Pass

$10 Season 2 Character Pass

$10 CPT Premier Package

$10 Season 1 Character Pass, it has gone on sale for $5 in the pass, and I was tempted to wait for the sale, until I was told I could just complete all of the characters stories.

So the $25 Upgrade Kit, really is the way to go for anyone who is downloading the base game.

.  .  .

PUBG also has a free ShareFactory theme.

Like Fortnite and other Free to Play games, PUBG does offer exclusive and free Plus items.  One of the biggest complaints I have read regarding PUBG being a Plus title, is that most people thought it was a F2P title, and realizing it isn’t.

So there is a Drop Pack free exclusive that I have downloaded along with the theme.

$10 Challenge Costume Pack

$15 Payback Costume Pack

$5 500 G-Coin package

$9 1,100 G-Coin package

$18 2,000 (+300 Bonus) G-Coin package

$45 5,000 (+1000 Bonus) G-Coin package

$90 10,000 (+3500 Bonus) G-Coin package

So that seems like things are pretty expensive within the game.

.  .  .

Most of the comments are that PUBG should be free to play and it doesn’t run great on console and Street Fighter V’s biggest complaints is that bulk of the characters are behind paywalls and the online matches can be super laggy.

Here are the subreddit reactions :

PS4

PS+ Games for Sep. 2020 are PUBG and Street Fighter V from PS4

Playstation Plus

PS+ Games for Sep. 2020 are PUBG and Street Fighter V from PlayStationPlus

PS4Deals

September’s free PS Plus games: PUBG, Street Fighter V | NA PSN | Available 9/1 from PS4Deals

.  .  .

My YouTube peeps :

Rob of PlayStation Access

Adam of PlayStation Grenade

Ben of Platinum Chasers

Ben made a good point about how both games have nearly impossible platinums to earn as they take hundreds of hours of an investment to earn all of the other trophies.

.  .  .

Here are the links to PlayStationTrophies.org’s guide to Street Fighter V :

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/street-fighter-5/guide/# [playstationtrophies.org]

I will never been good enough to get into the Gold Division of the online portion of the game, I can barely maintain my Bronze status.

Here is the trophy list for PUBG :

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/playerunknowns-battlegrounds/trophies/

I’m hoping to earn the Solo victory trophy, but hopefully I could get carried to the Squads trophy, if I can get into a group with randoms.

I feel like I could maybe earn the Reach the Top 10 without killing anyone trophy, Kill a player by any means, I do like bows in games, so I’ll try for the Kill 10 players with a crossbow, if I can find one in the field, loot 50 items, Equip a ghillie suit for the first time, which I imagine is random where that would be.  I hope my first trophy in the game isn’t jump from the airplane 101 times, but I guess it could work a a backup plan.  I would hope I could revive a knocked-down teammate, wear the outfit of a dead player sounds like something I could do if I stumble across one.

Unlike Fortnite, PUBG doesn’t have couch co-op or split screen, which Fortnite and Rocket League has, so I won’t be able to get Walker Dennis into the game so we could potentially win a Duo.  So I’ll try the game and see what I can do with a few rounds.

I really hope Fall Guys gets split screen at some point soon.  Maybe for Season 2?

.  .  .

Since the games have been out, I have played Street Fighter V quite a bit.  I really want to unlock Guile, who is part of the Season One DLC.  Someone on reddit was nice enough to explain that all I would have to do to earn the in-game currency of $100,000, is to finish the story mode with all of the characters, which would take about an hour.  So I have done five characters’ stories, and really enjoying how quick they are.  Once I have Guile, I will do a few more online matches, and maybe check out a few other trophies, and call it good.  I rather not spend the $10 and get all of the characters from season one, if I can avoid spending real money.

.  .  .

Walker Dennis and I have been playing Duos in Fortnite as the Marvel Universe has invaded and I gifted him the season pass, so he’s running around as Thor, hitting things.  I figured, I would try to get to level 62, and earn enough in game credits to get the season pass to pay for itself, but I’m barely at level 14, and not seeing myself earn enough levels in time, but I’m also okay with not earning it.  I mostly would want Storm, Mystique, and Wolverine, and those are very late game.  I believe I could spend $25 or so and get everyone, but that seems like a lot.

Walker really wants Batman, and in November (once the Marvel event is over), DC comes back around for their event that will include both Joker and Poison Ivy, so I will probably be having to buy those characters too.  Hopefully Batman and Catwoman come back for the event as well, as he really wants to play as Batman, as he’s all about Batman right now.

We have won Duos four times now, so we’re becoming quite the team.  I mostly shoot people as he runs support and hits things with his hammer.  He’s level 7, so he’s doing his fair share.

.  .  .

Fall Guys, I have been earning some trophies.  I have won three episodes, so that feels pretty good.  I’m hoping they release a turtle costume soon.  I’m at level 34, and I really want that blue mask as the Level 35 reward.  Season One is the only season I will ever fully commit to, so I really want to reach level 40, and I should do it in the next 30 days.  I have plenty of time.  I really want every face mask they have, and I believe I only failed to buy the black one, so hopefully that comes back into the store.

Injustice, when Street Fighter V was announced, I picked up Injustice again and have completed the Joker portion of the story and next up is Green Arrow.  Not sure when I will get back to it, but I am inching my way through the story mode.

Sadly, Chadwick Boseman lost his battle against colon cancer.  Like most people, I’m sure, we watched Black Panther, and then I tried to play another level of the first Lego Marvel Superheroes game.  Then I remembered Walker saved over my 100% completed file, so I ended up just playing a level with Tony and Cap getting Tony’s Iron Man suit back.  Just having to redo everything killed my buzz to keep going forward, but if I do a level here and there, I’ll eventually get the game beat again.

I earned my 33rd platinum with Lara Croft Go!  It is currently only $2, so well worth your time.  I followed a guide and earned it after seven nights, of doing one chapter a night.  I preferred it over Hitman Go, but I’m sure that has to do more with me connecting to Tomb Raider more than Hitman.  Apparently there is a Deux Ex Go game, but it hasn’t come to PS4 yet.  Once it does, and it is $2, I would be tempted to buy it, but that’s probably not enough of an incentive for Square Enix Montreal to port the game.

Hyper Scape, I had attempted to play the game a few weeks ago, and just didn’t click with it.  PUGB was announced as a Plus title, and we were getting decent with Fortnite, that I figured I could commit a night or two to at least getting one kill in Hyper Scape.  Then I got two kills, in two different games!  I killed someone with an assault rifle (my preferred gun in Fortnite), and once I had that trophy, I committed to earning the melee kill trophy, and got that in my very next game.  Then I promptly deleted the game.  I keep running out of space on the PS4, and really could use an external hard drive.

Ratchet & Crank, VUDU finally had the Ratchet & Crank film on sale for $8, and I immediately bought it.  That movie is literally the first hour of the game, and I can only imagine the last 30 minutes of the game.  So I played one full level of the game, and on a planet to help Ratchet’s former boss’s brother on a water planet with another story planet waiting for me.

Metal Gear Solid V – Phantom Pain, I finally did enough to earn D-Dog as a companion!  Which felt great, until the very next mission required D-Horse, and I haven’t gone back, but that was my main game for like two weeks.

.  .  .

There is an Essential game sale going on right now and the original 2013 Tomb Raider game is only three dollars, so I bought that immediately.  I’m really hoping to make it my next game I play once I have sampled the September games.  It is all I think about!

.  .  .

On August 27, 2020, my mother-in-law, Leslie Brannman, passed away.  She was an amazing woman and I could not have had a better mother-in-law.  She really was an incredible woman.

https://helenair.com/news/local/obituaries/leslie-brannman/article_4d8fcd24-8b7a-538d-b9be-ec290a86b41a.html

Leslie E. Brannman, age 74 of Helena

She will be dearly missed.