Until Dawn

Posted by John Klein III on June 6, 2018
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games, Websites. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

I finally got Fallout 4 platinum-ed and I had Walker Dennis pick out my next game (a traditional I’m going to continue to do, as it was pretty cute) and he selected Until Dawn.

Thanks to PlayStation for hosting the launch trailer.

This was probably my most anticipated game that I receieved for the PS4.  My wife couldn’t find a copy of it to add to the Christmas bundle of games so she got it for my birthday in January.  I just was able to start playing it recently due to finally getting Fallout 4 out of my system, though I could easily jump back into that game but I think it is good to take a break from it.  A nice long break from it as it was all consuming.

I spent a lot of time looking into Until Dawn and it sounded like an amazing game.

What initially sold me what the Honest Game Trailer for the game –

Thanks to Smosh Games for hosting their own video.

Which, thankfully, by the time I saw this prior to Christmas, and by the time I started playing the game in May, I had forgotten most of the trailer though there were moments from that I couldn’t explain and I didn’t want to watch it again without spoiling myself.  What really really sold me on it was this amazing line –

 

Thanks to Tumblr user, sodiumcqueen, for hosting the above image.

Emily’s “Understand the palm of my hand, bitch” was a line that captured my imagination and I wanted it to become my new catchphrase and I desperately wanted to understand the context of the situation.  It is a very intense moment in the game.  She’s slapping Ashley in the above scene and pending on how you got there, Mike has a tough decision to make and Ashley has an awkward decision to make after that.

So the game takes place a year after Josh’s twin sisters had died and the eight friends have come back together the following year to hang out.  Things go horribly wrong almost immediately.  There is a psycho who starts terrorizing them but there is an even larger more deadlier threat beyond him.

There are three ongoing mysteries in the game:  What happened to the twins, who is the mystery man, and what happened in the mines in 1952.

The game has eight characters, four boys and four ladies.  The boys are Mike, Chris, Josh, and Matt.  You barely play Matt.  The ladies are Sam, Emily, Ashley, and Jess.  You barely play as Jess.  At least, I barely did, as Mike, her boyfriend, was not fast enough to catch up to her and she was the first character I couldn’t save.  My initial play, I ended up getting Jess killed, and like a real idiot, I got Mike and Ashley killed as I had Sam flip the switch way to early and I blew up the lodge instead of waiting one more time, so I had to replay Chapter 10 immediately to correct that.  Josh also died but I fixed that by finding the journal that makes him live so I lucked into that.

Once you beat the game, you can either start a new game, or replay a chapter and continue from that point forward.  I’m on my second playthrough now, where I try to keep everyone alive.  I’m in the middle of Chapter 6 and I got Jess to survive through Chapter 4 so I’m well on my way, Matt is still alive and Ashley and Chris are super scared in the basement.  I’m really loving this game.

Another fun aspect of the game, is you can turn on global statistics so you can see what option was the more popular decision.  Of course, I’m choosing the less popular ones to mess with the statistics.  The game out  August 2015, so the majority has long since spoken.

The reddit page for the game isn’t as active as it first was, I imagine, but there is a loyal group of people on it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/untildawn/

This is the website I’ve been using for the trophy clean up –

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/until-dawn/guide/

My plan was to initially do my first playthrough, with no guidance (which I did), then a playthrough where everyone lived, a global statistic playthrough where I choose the least popular option and another one where they all die.

I’ve decided to flip the last two, as I do enjoy trophy hunting, I’m not sure if I’ll get the platinum as collectible trophies (ironically) are my least favorite trophies.  Well, besides multiplayer ones, unless it is simply, log into multiplayer, successfully play the first one, or whatever Uncharted 2’s multiplayer trophies were, I was able to successfully do those two, and never went back to it.

Which were Complete One Cooperative Multiplayer game and Complete One Competitive Multiplayer game, thanks to

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/uncharted-2-among-thieves/trophies/

for having the answer to that question!

It appears most of the trophies I’ll end up getting with the everybody dies trophy, so that’s why I want to do that one third.  I figure, by that point, I would have most of the clues and totems so I’ll make the decision about finding those and getting the three collectible trophies by that point.  Which, if I’m looking at the guide correctly, would be the final three trophies and that already feels annoying to me so I probably will collect all of the clues, as I really do enjoy the story so it makes sense to get the back story of those three events.

Especially after my fourth fun playthrough with the choosing the least popular decisions.

There is a companion app that won’t work on my Samsung Galaxy S7, so that’s disappointing.  The companion app for Beyond : Two Souls also doesn’t work with my phone so I sent feedback for both of those apps but I doubt anyone cares this far removed from the game releases.

Another fun thing I hadn’t realized about the game is that they actually casted known actors for most of the roles.

Thanks to Gaming Since Gaming for hosting this video.

I keep referring (for myself) to the Wikipedia page, so here is that website:

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

Josh is played by Rami Malek, who I apparently saw in Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 but he’s probably well known from Mister Robot and the upcoming Freddie Mercury bioflick, where he plays Mercury.   He is also Pharaoh Ahkmenrah from the Night at the Museum films but I only saw the first one and I sort of recall the pharaoh character.  He was also in three episodes of 24, during season eight, the Freddie Prinze Jr. season.

Ella Lentini plays both twin sisters, Beth and Hannah.  I don’t recognize any of her credits.

Hayden Panettiere plays Sam, the main lady from the game.  We all know her from Heroes and Nashville, amongst a slew of other projects.

Brett Dalton plays Mike, the main guy from the game.  Who I immediately recognized and figured Mike was the psycho (he isn’t) or was going to betray the characters at some point (he doesn’t).  I thought that as he’s Ward from Agents of SHIELD, where that’s exactly what he does, on multiple occasions.  Heck, he even was a bad guy who was secretly good in the Framework, so he can’t be trusted.  I’m not a fan of Ward, at all.

Noah Fleiss is Chris, who was apparently in Storytelling.  Which I only really remember Selma Blair’s section of that film (the first half) and Fleiss is in the second half, and I only remember Conan O’Brien appearing in that story as himself.

Galadriel Stineman plays Ashley, who was in season four of The Middle, a show I don’t watch but that looks to be her biggest role to date.

Nichole Bloom is Emily, who I know her from Shameless as Lip’s college girlfriend, who I really liked.  Lip was my favorite character on that show until they broke him and I started losing all interest in the show but it took my like seven seasons to just give up on it.  She’s in Project X which Malek is also in so I might have to watch that, it was on my watchlist before but I never got around to it.  Stineman was also on Shameless, apparently, but she wasn’t on the List of Characters list so it must not have been a large role.  Bloom wore glasses on Shameless and that threw me off, so that disguise clearly works!  She was in seasons four and five of Shameless, better in four.

Jordan Fisher is in the thankless role of Matt, Emily’s boyfriend.  I mostly know him from winning Season 25 of Dancing with the Stars with Lindsay Arnold, and via that show, I know he was part of Hamilton.  He must have been one of the dancers in Teen Beach 1 and 2 as I don’t recognize him from those films.  He may have been on Teen Wolf after we quit watching it due to MTV’s messed up schedule around season three.  he’s going to be Seahawk on the upcoming Netflix She-Ra show which I hope is good.

http://he-man.wikia.com/wiki/Sea_Hawk

I don’t recognize that dude at all.  Like Bow, but a pirate?  I guess that is the motivation there?

Meaghan Martin is Jess, Mike’s girlfriend, who I’m hoping to see more of in my second playthrough.  She’s in both Camp Rock films, but I only got like ten minutes into and lost all interest.  It was at whatever minute mark where Demi Lovato is the chef’s daughter but she doesn’t want people to know she’s the daughter of the chef and so has to hide that fact.  Which is dumb so I quit.  Also, Demi is way young in the film and that felt weird.  Martin is also in the television series 10 Things I Hate About You and Awkward, which I’ve been tempted to watch Awkward but I haven’t done it.  Too many episodes and that was at season three, who knows how many seasons it is now.  I simply clicked the link and there is five seasons.  She also provides the voice of Namine in the Kingdom Hearts games, and Panettiere provides the voice of Kairi in those games.  So there are some crossovers but not many.

Larry Fessenden, who co-wrote Until Dawn plays the Stranger.  Apparently, he wrote, directed and editted a movie titled, Wendigo, that I have to watch now.

Rounding out the adult cast is Peter Stormare, as Dr. Hill.  I know him from Season One of Prison Break.  He’s been in a slew of films and television projects and heck, he was even the voice of Dregg in the 2012 Ninja Turtles cartoon.

I played TellTale’s first Batman game, and really want to play the second one once it is out on disc, so I was used to the play style.  You move the characters and interact with the environment via pressing X or by quick time actions using the square, triangle and circle buttons.  R2 to pick up things, R1 to get to the menu of clues, and L1 to put a little pep in your step.  I used that mostly during Chapter 10 as I knew what to expect.

It really is such a fun game and I enjoyed it so much!

I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as NyxRising Industries though.

I stumbled across their ten part series, The Blackwood Files, on YouTube.

Thanks to them for hosting their own video.

I saw the first episode, Until Dawn retold via found footage and I’m looking forward to watching the rest of the series and seeing how they incorporate everything.  The first episode is barely 16 minutes so pending on the length of the next nine episodes, I should be able to knock them out relatively soon.  I saw all ten episodes and these are all simply amazing.

You could probably safely skip to Episode 8, to get into the true elements from Until Dawn.

Then nine and ten are pretty amazing and super faithful to the game – all things considered.

Their portrayal of Chris could have been a tad better, but I like what they did with him and all of the other characters.  There are several Community references which I appreciated.  There is a fun silly bonus episode as well as a wrap party video that I would recommend.  There is also a three hour live stream video that I think I’ll pass on at this moment, as I spent a lot of time this past weekend in the world of Blackwoods Files.  I didn’t play the game as much, as this video series was satisfying that itch.

Looks like they do a lot of fun videos like this.

https://nyxrising.com/

So I’m sure their other video series are of similar quality.

The game is a PS4 exclusive so if you have the system, I highly recommend it.  I read on reddit that Sony announced the PS5 is a couple years away.

Lastly, another great resource for the game is this site –

http://until-dawn.wikia.com/wiki/Until_Dawn

I wish it didn’t have the black background to be more work friendly but maybe I shouldn’t be looking at the site at work, which I don’t do.  Lots of great information on there, especially their character pages.

. . .

A kind reddit user, jayderaine, introduced me to this cool website –

https://howlongtobeat.com/user.php?n=jackalsiii

As they were discussing in a thread how to chose which game to select in your backlog, and many said to based the decision off of the length of the game.  I hadn’t realized there was a website that kept track of how long it took to finish the main portion a game, and how long to fully complete the game.  Which is a fun thing to keep track of and so I took the less than ten minutes to select my current backlog and it wasn’t that bad.  Plus, I’ve been needing a quick guide to which games I own as there is usually two or three of them that I forget about.  So just for my own knowledge, here is the official list of games I have.

Physical Copy

Grand Theft Auto V

Last of Us Remastered

Uncharted Collection, I’m playing Uncharted 3 on it

Uncharted 4

Uncharted : Lost Legacy

Batman : Arkham Knight

Life is Strange

Fallout 4

LittleBigPlanet 3, I still need to buy the TMNT on there, as they are so cute!

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy

Inside + Limbo

Flashback Classics Vol. 2, I bought it for my wife’s love for Maze Craze.

LEGO Dimensions

Until Dawn

Fallout 4

Digital Copies

Thanks to the PSN Free Games, I got these added to my backlog

Knack

Beyond : Two Souls

Bloodborne

Bombing Busters

Clare : Extended Cut

Darksiders II

Forma.8

Mad Max

Mighty No. 9

Psycho-Pass : Mandatory Happiness, took me so long but I finally finished one storyline with the guy and now I’m playing it again with K for one more trophy and then I’m pretty much done with it.  It got really interesting towards the end.

Ratchet & Clank (2016)

TrackMania Turbo, I love how this game keeps track of me and the other 511 Montana racers.  That’s a fun statistic.

So a pretty decent back log of games.

Fallout 76

Posted by John Klein III on May 30, 2018
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games, Websites. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Like most people yesterday, I was pretty clued to reddit and Twitter.

My phone told me that Bethesda was going to make an announcement soon.

Bethesda’s Twitter page had this –

Their Twitch channel had this as the main item –

https://m.twitch.tv/bethesda/profile

So I followed that, on my phone, at the top of every hour.

reddit was the true hero yesterday.

This thread had the various fun events that broke up the live stream –

Here's all the little events that have happened during the stream so far. (Whisper guy, thumbs up, etc.)
byu/PM_ME_CODES_4_STEAM inFallout

with most of the actual discussion and time killing taking place in this thread –

Bethesda Softworks Twitter: #PleaseStandBy
byu/RebelLandShark inFallout

With it all leading up to this teaser trailer!

Thanks to Bethesda Softworks for hosting their own video.

It is a short trailer a minute and 34 seconds but it is glorious!

Lots of speculation going on, naturally, but answers will be given on Sunday, June 10, at 6:30pm, and you best believe I’ll be following that news that evening.  What we can tell is that it takes place in West Virginia, which could be super close to Fallout 3’s DC location.

From the Fallout Wiki –

fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Vault_76
Vault 76 was a controlled vault, so not one of the experimental ones.  Which is nice for them!  It was supposed to open 20 years after the great war so this could take place before Fallout 3, even!  The year would be 2102 and had 500 occupants.  It is referenced in both Fallout 3 and 4.

I’m so pumped as this could be my first Fallout game that I actually buy day one!  I’ve been super late to Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 and completely missed out on Fallout New Vegas, which I was hoping they were going to announce a remaster of that one just so I can finally play it.

Obsidian had this awesome tweet –

which was pretty fun and I’m sure they were getting questions galore.

The Call of Duty peeps apparently put up their own Please Stand By feed that is also pretty fun.

Apparently Bethesda did this way back when Fallout 4 came out, pretty much exactly the same way.  Two weeks before E3 and with a 24 hour tease before a teaser trailer.  So that’s all pretty good and fun for me.

Whenever I take Walker Dennis to Target for our quest for new Hot Wheels, we keep seeing a Fallout Wallet and these Fallout Shot Glasses –

https://www.target.com/p/fallout-shot-glass-set/-/A-52677207

Apparently the wallet isn’t on their website anymore but I wouldn’t mind the shot glasses now.  It felt silly before but I’m all about Fallout again!

When we got our new Galaxy S7 phones back in February, my wife had me look for a phone case for mine and I thought about getting a Fallout related one but didn’t find one plus I thought it would be silly to have a constant thing related to the game, with me at all times, but now I sort of regret not buying one.

The two I’m able to find now are not available and I’m just going to tell myself that was the case then too.  Maybe I’ll get a new one once the game comes out.

I’m currently playing Until Dawn and working on a post for that game but I wanted to get my thoughts about Fallout 76 while it was fresh and current.

 

What’s a Computer Commercial

Posted by John Klein III on May 23, 2018
Posted in: Fun With YouTube. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Thanks to Apple for hosting their own commercial.

This is a tad older but it was what started making me take note of which commercials were really starting to annoy me.  If only they didn’t run nearly as long as they do, they wouldn’t have such a lasting impression.

If you stream your entertainment a couple months ago, you would have been bombarded with this commercial.  It seems fine and dandy until literally the last couple seconds.  That nice lady simply asks what the girl is doing on her computer and that response.  What’s a computer?  Like girl, you know what a fucking computer is!

Irritates me so much!

Some streaming sites have no supervisor or anyone apparently watching their ads – or worst, are aware of the problem and are not going to fix it – like the CW app.  They will air a commercial, and then immediately air the exact same commercial.  Some will even air the same commercial thrice times!  Like, is no one watching this?  When I worked for KSWT (a CBS officiate) in Yuma, we watched that channel and knew which commercials aired if one aired twice, someone was looking into it the next day.  Maybe those streaming channels don’t have many different advertisers or someone has an exclusive advertising deal but that sure doesn’t convince me to purchase their product as I haven’t.  I guess they run the risk of free press but it isn’t positive press but if they aren’t talking about you, you aren’t doing it right, is the old adage.

AT&T Commercial : Lady Throwing Items Out of Window

Posted by John Klein III on May 16, 2018
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Websites. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Thanks to AT&T hosting their own video advertising their DirecTV service.

Add this to the growing list of commercials that I’m forced to see, forget, see again enough times to form an opinion on.

AT&T calls this commercial “The Break Up” and I would sure hope the guy downstairs is going to break up with this lady.  This lady who is just throwing his possessions out of the window.  Which I get in an 80s sense of humor but then she throws his guitar which is expensive.  Which I also don’t really care about but then she throws out their cable box and that’s the part that I find objectionable.

Not only is that highly irresponsible but extremely dangerous!  If he got hit by it, that’s assault.  It isn’t even funny in a small way.

I found this website :

https://directv.pissedconsumer.com/directv-commercial-where-woman-throws-mans-belongings-out-201803171213049.html

Wherein I’m not alone in finding the ad a poor use of television time.  It also seems counterproductive, I wouldn’t want to purchase or pay for a service that thinks this is a good idea to promote.

That’s not even dealing with the race issue, which I hadn’t really noticed while watching the video.  That doesn’t show African American women in a positive light.

I also don’t get how she already has digital cable after throwing the box away?  Did they already have digital cable so the box was no longer needed?

People are also commenting on what if it was the man throwing her stuff out the window and how that would have been received.  Probably not worst but it would have been different as I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it portrayed that way.  It is almost always woman throwing man’s stuff out – usually justified in more than a thirty second ad but throwing an electronic item out the window should never be allowed.  Like pouring bacon grease down any drain, it shouldn’t happen under any circumstances.

Who is this commercial directed towards?  Young women who just suffered a horrible break up?  That seems pretty niche.

Ancestry.com – Kyle Merker

Posted by John Klein III on May 7, 2018
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Websites. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Hulu has been playing this commercial for what feels like forever –

Thanks to Ancestry for hosting their own video.

I’ve seen it enough to where I wasn’t paying attention to it, to paying attention to it, to taking it for granted, to forming an opinion to now wanting to learn more about it.

My main thought was, how do you grow up German and turn out not to be German?  How does that work?  Your father tells you, you are German and that’s how you self-identify.  But who told him?  His father, who was told by his father?  So I thought of poor Kyle and his family and how at some point, someone must have tried to dodge their family history and said they were German and your life is the story you tell, so that becomes fact.

I finally had a moment of free time that I thought I’ll just google “German Ancestry Commercial” and I found this very helpful blog post –

http://www.kyleinexile.com/?tag=ancestry-commercial

Kyle has his own blog, which is pretty cool.  Of course, he writes about the experience and there are other posts about the commercial and his opinions on it being aired.  I like how one of them, he apologizes for being obsessed with it.  Hey, I completely get it, you are on television and probably seeing the commercial a bunch if he is using Hulu.  Might as well ride that 15 minutes as long as you can!

My wife has mention how much she wants to treat me to an Ancestry DNA test for Christmas, ideally, she wants to get everyone’s done, like our nephews and both sides of our family and really get this done.  Which we know how silly it would be to get our sisters DNA tested as it should be the same result.

What I want to do is get mine, my wife and our son’s DNA tested and see what story develops from that.  We can branch out from there.  I’ve been really tempted to get an Ancestry account started.  Especially when they were airing Who Do You Think You Are? but Ancestry is $44 a month for the full membership or $199 for six months (I wonder why they don’t do a year, besides it being $300 and that doesn’t look great on a website).  I wonder how that account works.  Does all of the hard work stay on there, but you don’t have access to it after your membership expires but you can renew it and just pick it right up?  I imagine that is how it has to be.

. . .

My father was adopted so I didn’t know anything about my grandfather, besides he named his son after himself – which is always bizarre to me.  What is even more bizarre is that my father named me after himself but I put a stop to that nonsense with Walker Dennis.  No reason to keep the legacy of a dude who didn’t even keep his own son and yet we are continuing the family name.  My father didn’t have an easy life, he still doesn’t, and his adoptive family were not a treat but they took in this boy and gave him some opportunities but besides a seldom reminder of how hard he had it, it isn’t like we talk about his family.  Real upstate New York farmer types around the Syracuse area.

We were filling in Walker Dennis’ family tree for his baby book and I asked my mother for some additional names, as it asked for more than just two generations – which is pretty cool – and she offers up my father’s mother’s name, which I didn’t even think we had that information.

My sister has since had a third child, Erin, that we have to update the baby book with.

 

Comixology April 19, 2018

Posted by John Klein III on April 19, 2018
Posted in: Purchases. Tagged: . Leave a comment

I’m not sure if these were free last week or two days ago but I’m pretty sure Marvel offers up free comics only once a month now instead of once a week.  I haven’t found an article that states this outright but I’m going to start tracking this.

These three comics are up for grabs!

Fantastic Four 570, Hickman’s first Fantastic Four Comic

New Avengers 1, bold new team! The original number one.

Spidey 1

Lego Dimensions : Knight Rider World

Posted by John Klein III on April 6, 2018
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games, Websites. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

My son and I are deep into season two of Knight Rider.  He’s a big fan of KITT Rider.  I finally came across the Lego Dimensions Knight RIder Fun Pack at GameStop.

Which, of course, he loved.

Which, also of course, started making me want to see how it played in the official game.  My lovely wife found the game on Amazon for $40, down from like $120 when it first came out, so for Valentine’s Day, we got it for him as a gift.  It was going to be an Easter present but I couldn’t wait that long, plus, I was hoping we could get some sets for Easter.  He’s really into Ghostbusters now so I’m hoping to get one of the sets for him so he can get Echo-1.

We bounce between Classic Knight Rider on the NBC app, Real Ghostbusters on Netflix and 2008 Knight Rider whenever he points to it on the NBC app.  I can’t get a feel for his routine when it comes to the new show.  I read that it gets the feeling of the classic show, after the 13th episode but we’re on the fourth episode so we’re never going to get there.

Luckily, I found this video when we got home from GameStop –

Thanks to HappyThumbsGaming for hosting the video.

That way, my son didn’t have to wait until we got the game to build KITT.  That would have been pretty unacceptable.  I knew there must have been instructions somewhere online for it.  The packaging tells you how to build Michael Knight, not like one couldn’t figure it out on their own.

When he was carrying around the box the mini-figures came in, he really wanted the other two versions of KITT that can be made with his pieces.  Which, if they were like three dollars each, I would totally buy so he could have all three running around.

One is Goliath, the truck Garth (Goateed Michael Knight) and another is an airship –

Still a super missed opportunity the show never had Garth drive KARR, probably would have happened in the fifth season.  Seems like an obvious choice but maybe too obvious?  Would have been a cheap episode to do as well, it really writes itself!

In the game, Walker Dennis really don’t like KITT not being in his proper build but we need him to be a truck sometimes (for tolling purposes) and a jet (for flying purposes).  So I usually transform him back.

Walker Dennis is really obsess with Bad KARR and wanting to see him in the game.

Thanks to kwingsletplays for hosting the video that contains the KARR storyline.

The game is super fun and as soon as it instructs you to place the characters on the gamepad, you can throw Michael Knight and KITT on it and paly from the very beginning.  It olds seven pieces and we have six with those two and Batman, Gandalf, and Wildstylez, plus the Batmobile so its pretty fun having all the characters on the screen at one time.

We haven’t played in a while but I’ve been having an itch to do it.  And it doesn’t take much time to swap one game disc for another, I’m just lazy about not wanting to do it.

As I couldn’t find any real information on the Knight Rider world, which makes sense as how many people were super excited to buy the fun pack but I wanted information and only really found the one FAQ.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/144665-lego-dimensions/faqs/72740/knight-rider-world

I could not find a comprehensive list of what characters were needed so I had to make one myself –

Knight Rider Expectations
byu/JackalsIII inLegodimensions

So the list breaks down like this :

(T)he requirements of the Knight Rider World. You’ll need characters that can or have access to the following – Dig, Intelligence, Deflect, Disguise, Mini Access, Diffndo Spell, Drones, Swords, Smash Red Demo objects, and the TARDIS

So the most important characters will be Hermione and Mission Impossible’s Ethan.  They will get you access to half of the gold bricks.

I also know at some point, you’ll need the Goonies pack and the kids are helpful towards some of the gold bricks too.

There is an air race that I can’t seem to get activated. I could when I had Michael Knight jump through it so maybe I need a flying character that doesn’t require a vehicle as KITT Jet can clearly get me up there but then nothing. Which lead to me really putting studs towards him.

So Hermione and the Mission Impossible set are on my short list, up there with the Doctor / TARDIS / K9 set.  I wanted the Scooby Doo one but then I ended up buying Walker Dennis a Hot Wheels Mystery Machine so he’s good now.

In game, I’m pretty much stuck on the Simpsons level, not stuck, just not made any progress but clearly I don’t have a lot of characters as I’m missing out on several items that need key characters.  I got KITT pretty powered up, having all three builds unlocked.  That was a high priority and I’ll probably stick to unlockables for the Knight Rider World to dedicate what I purchase next, except for sweet deals I come across, which I haven’t come across any.  I thought for sure it would be happening with the news that the game isn’t being supported anymore.

I’m hoping to buy a slew of items while they are on sale or on clearance before they become rare collector items.

As we like Arrow, I would love to get the Green Arrow figure for the game but he is a costly fellow, just like Supergirl, another one I would like to own.

My wife would like to get all of the Harry Potter folks and the Lord of the Ring sets, so those would be nice.  Walker Dennis wants the Ghostbusters ones as he’s all about the cartoon, Slimer, and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.  He really enjoyed the movie, not as many ghosts or Slimer as I remembered but that film really holds up.

Here is the page that contains all of the sets –

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

The ones we really want –

Story Packs

Ghostbusters

The Lego Batman Movie

Level Packs

Back to the Future, I’m a fan but my son would just want the DeLorean figure.

Portal 2, my wife and I loved that game.  I wished GLaDOS was an option.

Doctor Who, I really enjoy the idea that all 12 (13 with the War Doctor) Doctors are represented whenever the Doctor dies.  Shame they can’t update the disc to include the new 13th Doctor.

Ghostbusters, as long as we get an Ecto-1, one way or the other.

Mission Impossible, just because Ethan Hunt is required for several of the Gold Bricks in the Knight Rider World.

The Goonies, I like the film enough but we need the Skeleton Organ for one of the gold bricks in the Knight Rider World.

Team Packs

Scooby-Doo, for that sweet Mystery Machine

DC Comics, as I want my son to have a Joker to the Batman (that’s how they get you).

Harry Potter, for my wife

I wouldn’t mind a Teen Titans Go! for Raven and Beast Boy but they are not a high priority.

Fun Packs

The Three Lord of the Ring packs (Gollum / Legolas / Gimli)

The Lego Movie Bad Cop just for the police car.

DC Comics, I’ll want the Wonder Woman, Superman and Bane ones but I’ll be fine with Cybord and Aquaman too, especially if they are pretty inexpensive.

Ghostbusters, Stay Puft with Terror Dog (is that what they were officially called?!) and Slimer

Harry Potter, for Hermione Granger, I would just pass on the Team Pack, if it was up to me.  Which it is as my wife isn’t even watching us play and Hermoine checks a lot of boxes.  I’m sure Ron would have been planned for Year 3, if they were given the chance.

It looks like a big list but really it boils down to Doctor Who, Hermoine, and Mission Impossible.  From there, I’ll have to see which characters I’ll still need for the gold bricks.

. . .

I do like how they have a Powerpuff Girls Team Pack and a Fun Pack so you can get all three of the girls.  Tricky to not just throw them all in and just not have a vehicle but that’s how they get you to buy two of them.

Teen Titans Team with Raven and Beast Boy and the Fun Pack with Starfire would be fun, once we got the Lego Batman pack with Robin.  Without Robin, that team doesn’t quite come together in my mind.  Shame there is no Flash representative, especially with Supergirl and Arrow having figures.  I’m sure he would have been part of the third year.

Other fun ones would be A-Team for that sweet van and Back to the Future for the train.

. . .

http://videogamefan.wikia.com/wiki/LEGO_Dimensions:_Year_3

Here is what would have been part of Year 3.

Looney Tunes would have been nice for me but Walker Dennis doesn’t have any real conncection to them.  I should work on that.  I tried to get him into Tiny Toons but starting with the pilot wasn’t smart on my part.  I’ll try again if it is still on Hulu after we get done with Ghostbusters, if we ever do.  Season One has 75 episodes alone!  Though I’m ready to jump out once they become Slimer & the Real Ghostbusters.

Kong and Godzilla would have been fun, though I wonder how that would work in the levels themselves.  Probably just much smaller?

We probably would have eventually gotten all of the Arrow-verse sets.

Probably would have added the Hobbit to our wishlist.

Year Three would have been ambitious with Willy Wonka (for some reason?), Matrix, Planet of the Apes, Jaws, Jetsons, and the Flintstones.  I just found out that Hot Wheels made the Flintstones car so I have my eyes open for that.  I doubt I’ll ever see it while he’s still interested in Hot Wheels.  Which I hope he never outgrows that hobby.

Year Three would have been pretty fun!

Where’s My Dick?

Posted by John Klein III on March 30, 2018
Posted in: Fun With YouTube. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

You know when you are in a public restroom, and you unzip your pants and can’t find your dick.  That rare instance when my boxes move just an inch to the left or right and all of a sudden, a slight panic occurs.  Especially when there isn’t a divider between the urinals or even when there is one but your shoulder is clearly moving too much like you are searching for something.

I might be thinking about it too much.

Then there are dudes who would make a friend and start talking with each other by the sinks.  There isn’t enough space in here to be having conversations!  It is super awkward to walk by them and then asking them to move so I can wash my hands.  Something I noticed neither of you have done yet!

Oh, and if we make eye contact or nod at each other as we vaguely recognized each other, please please PLEASE wash your hands!  Like, dude, we walk by each other in the halls on a fairly routine basis.  The only thing I know about you is that our offices are nowhere near each other and you didn’t wash your hands that one (ideally) time.  At least do that thing where you just push the soap dispenser, turn on the water and count to three and dry your hands off.  Go through the motions, is all I’m asking.  Also, while you are going through the motions, just wash your hands.

I totally get that washing your hands means you might have to pee again in five minutes as cold hands or wet hands does something mentally where you feel like you have to pee again.

And these are grown professional men!  Even the general public are still professionals in some capacity.

Imagine going into a restroom and seeing a grown man peeing at a urinal but with his pants around his ankles, like how a toddler does it?  That would be a funny sight for maybe a second but it would make me feel uneasy about that fellow’s state of mind.  It feels like it should be a red flag.

Though I’m a loon for still being worried about being stabbed in a bathroom like Carter in Season Six Episode 13 of ER, Be Still My Heart

http://er.wikia.com/wiki/Be_Still_My_Heart

Thanks to YouTuber ecinajx19 for hosting the video!

Though, in my mind, that takes place in a bathroom and as the stabber leaves the bathroom, we see poor Lucy on the floor.

Like, I think about it all time when I’m entering a bathroom.  Some childhood fears one doesn’t simply outgrow or forget.

ER is one of the hardest shows to Google, something I’m sure they didn’t think about when they named it.

Whatever happened to Kellie Martin, I had a huge crush on her on that show.  ER had quite a few crush worthy doctors and nurses!

Apparently she’s done quite well for herself on the Hallmark channel, good for her!

Sherry Stringfield

I liked her when she came for Season Eight.  I missed out on most of the early seasons.

Maria Bello

Who I don’t remember being on ER, at all.  I was first introduce to her on the amazing Mr. & Mrs. Smith series with legend, Scott Bakula.

Alex Kingston

Who got way hotter on Doctor Who.  They did her character all types of wrong.

Maura Tierney

I’ve been a fan of hers since Newsradio and she just gets better every new project.

Parminder Nagra

Linda Cardellini

Who doesn’t love Cardellini?!

Ming-Na Wen

Apparently she was there during Season One but I didn’t see her until Season Six.

and of course, Kellie Martin!

That’s a pretty great lineup for any show!

15 seasons, and I’m sure I missed out on the first few and skipped out on the last few as well.  It was the 90s, you could sort of do that with these types of shows.

Which I remember, even at the time, thinking how much can one Chicago-based hospital handle with all of the disastrous that happened within its walls?  Without it being shut down, I mean.  After the second helicopter crash, I was pretty much done as my suspension of disbelief had finally found its limit.

. . .

On an episode of Turtle Soup, Ryan and Father Preston were talking about how they do that thing of using a paper towel to open the exit door of the bathroom and I’ve started doing that as well.  It makes sense too, why wash your hands and then touch the door that you just know other dudes are touching with unwashed hands.

So I catch myself having the same thoughts as I enter a bathroom and leaving the bathroom.  Funny how the ol’ mind works.

This remembers me of when I was a kid on a school trip and we were all taking a potty break and I saw an adult peeing in a stall with the door open and he used his foot to flush the toilet.  That was a real game changer that day.

TMNT Legends : Focus Meter Down characters

Posted by John Klein III on March 22, 2018
Posted in: Games, Websites. Tagged: . Leave a comment

There is a severe lack of information on TMNT Legends.  The main thing I was looking for was which characters cause Focus Meter Down.  Once a character’s Focus Meter fills up, it is that character’s turn.

http://tmnt-legends.wikia.com/wiki/Focus_Meter

That website is nice enough to reference that April and Movie Casey Jones have the ability to reset opposing character’s Focus Meter, or as the game calls it “Focus Meter Down.”

As I’m trying to get better in the game, a constant grind but I’m committed to it at this point, I was looking for a team that solely caused Focus Meter Down.  So I turned to my pals at reddit for assistance.

Which Characters can cause Focus Meter Down?
byu/JackalsIII intmntlegends

A reddit user, Sh3Si was a huge help in compiling a list!

The ones I remember are April (basic move), Spiderbytez (basic move), Casey Jones Movie (basic move), Creep (basic move), Slash (5th move AOE – Area focus down) and Larp Raph (2nd move, 5th move AOE – Area focus down). All Classic Turtles do guaranteed focus down on basic move BUT only against their respective class advantage.

and fellow user, Rockho9 added these two –

Bebop classic also has a focus down for his basic, and OG Donatello has one for his 2nd move

I knew April and Creep, and that’s when I had the thought that if I could get three more, I had a pretty decent team there.  I do like that these characters have the ability attached to their basic (first) move, so when I click the button when the game just does my fighting for me, it can happen automatically as the game focuses mostly on first moves.  When I have a character I’m trying to level who has an Area of Effect (AOE), that’s when I control the game as it just speeds up the process.  Having a team of more than one AoE character just makes me so happy.  As soon as I unlock a character or a move with AOE, I level that move as high as I can for the most damage.

April O’Neil
Spiderbytez
Casey Jones (Movie)
Creep
Bebop (Classic)

are not the worst team, I just don’t have Jones nor Bebop in the third tier yet so they are maxed out at level 30, whereas the others are at 45/44.

I do finally have a team of five that can get to level 46 – Baxter Stockman, Nick Raphael, Rahzar, Stockman Fly and Shredder, so once I commit to getting them to level 46 and higher, I can progress through the story mode, so I’m finally at that point.  I’m just letting the first one naturally hit 46 as once that happens The Gauntlet is going to be even harder for me.  It really isn’t a bad team, Stockman has two awesome AOE attacks, Nick Raphael is a beast now that he has his fourth tier move where he attacks back, Shredder has a decent AOE and he and Stockman Fly are healers so that’s to two healers in that party.  Rahzar has a move that gives him critical attacks, if his health stays up, which is pretty often and for a couple rounds.

I have Baxter to the fifth tier so he has all of his moves available now and he is platinum now so that’s pretty great.  Raphael will get within 15 days as will Rahzar, I’m not sure if they’ll get platinum-ed as that requires 10,000 T-Coins which is a lot of T-Coins (but I have those) it is the platinum shards I’m lacking but there isn’t any rush with that.

I’m almost got enough silver shards to take Snakeweed from Bronze to Silver, so that’ll be nice too.

Ludia keeps denying me Classic Shredder as a Tournament prize, it looked like they were heading in that direction with running all of the Classic Turtles, which finally gave me Classic Raphael (I’m still missing Michelangelo as it takes 70 DNA to unlock him), then they did Classic Bebop and Rocksteady.  So I thought for sure either Krang or Shredder was next.  Instead, this week, is Bunny Bebop, which makes sense as Easter is coming.  I’m set to get him to the second tier, so I’m not really complaining about that.  Bunny Rocksteady should be next week, which will get him moved up to the second tier as well, him or B.U.N.N.I.E.S. a variant of mousers, which will be nice as I haven’t unlocked that character either.  Hopefully from there, we get Classic Shredder but I’m doubtful.

I’ve definitely have stopped playing the game that much.  I barely play it in the morning, just making sure I get my one Tournament fight in, and at night, I blaze through the daily challenge to get the Nick Raphael DNA card and another Tournament fight as I really need to stay in the third tier of Samurai to get enough Bunny Bebop DNA, but staying in the third tier isn’t a problem for me as I have enough people to stay or get back into that tier.

March 2018 Free PSN Games

Posted by John Klein III on March 20, 2018
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

https://www.techradar.com/news/playstation-plus-free-games

So I took a day off to try the first level or first few levels of the new free games in the PlayStation Network (PSN) for March 2018.

The games are free until the first week of April, or at least, a few days into it.

Thanks to Playstation for hosting their own video.

Bloodborne

This is the one I put off until last, I’ve heard great but terrifying things about this game.  I already feel like the game isn’t for me, as I like a challenge but I also like a sweet reward from a difficult challenge but maybe I can get into this game if I keep trying.  I really like the feel of it, and I made a lady hunter as I’m just going to play as female characters if I can after not doing so initially with Fallout 4.

I failed to turn off the vibration setting, which I ended up having to with Fallout 4, it is so loud with no volume and the natural clicking of the controller.  So when the werewolf murdered me, the controller almost vibrated out of my hand!  So I was trying to click the option button to turn it off and it skipped a cut scene and I was in this very nice and bright meadow.  I’ve walked around and choose the axe and the pistol and found two locked doors.  I’ll eventually come back to this game.  No trophies but barely 10 minutes of actual game time.

Ratchet & Clank

I’ve heard how this game doesn’t really compare to the original PS2 games, and that it is an adaption of the movie that was itself an adaption to the first games.  For a guy who has never played a Ratchet & Clank game, I really enjoyed it.  I like a solid platformer and I played the first level with Ratchet and earned a decent number of trophies already.  I liked the humor and I’ll be tempted to watch the movie, if it comes to me.  I want to finish Knack first.  I do like how both of these games don’t have crazy long levels and save once the chapter is done.  That’s the type of saving mechanism I can fully support.  Nothing beats the ease of Fallout 4’s Option -> Quick Save or the even better Batman Arkham games of just opening a door and the game saves.  There is almost always a door somewhere nearby that I can backtrack to so that I can save.

Mighty No. 9

Most websites stated that it was a lessor Mega Man successor but I had a fun time with the first level.  One of the teams behind Mega Man created this game using Kickstarter and it might look cheap but I’ve really enjoyed it.  The first boss fight was surprising in how difficult it was.  I also got a few trophies for just playing the first level, so I liked that.

Claire : Extended Cut

This one, I played even less amount of time than I did Bloodborne.  I got to the first save point and decided that was good enough for me.  I don’t recall getting any trophies.  It had a nice spooky element to it but light on the story (thus far) so I’m not tempted to jump back in yet.  But I’m also not tempted to delete the game yet either unlike January’s Uncanny Valley that I couldn’t open a door and was just done with it.

Bombing Busters

This was surprisingly fun and easy-ish maze game.  I’m on the third one and it got difficult real quick!  It is so much easier to kill enemies before they started dodging.

I do like how all of these games had subtitles as the automatic function, that’s what I really need.  I was worried as a few didn’t have the option to turn them on and that just kills me as I need subtitles as I play at night when everyone else is sleeping.

Claire also has the unfortunately strike against it that it isn’t Catherine : Extended Cut, which I initially thought it was as Catherine sounded like a game I really wanted to play.  Also not helping Claire was that there wasn’t much written about the game so I couldn’t get any pre-hype for it.

So no games got instant deleted and I plan on getting into most of them.  I just want to finish the main storyline of Fallout 4, beat Knack and then I’ll get started on these.

. . .

Looking over the rest of the 2018 free games, Deus Ex : Mankind Divided was also an instant delete, I couldn’t figure out how to get down or through a door and I wasn’t loving the controls.

I’m still making my way through Psycho-Pass : Mandatory Happiness, I’m finally making choices in the game.  The main plot seemed interesting once I was dealing with actual cases but I also lose interest in it rather quickly.  I also don’t like how I have to press the PS button to go to the main HUB, press PS again to go back to the game, just so I can save it.  I like Nadeshiko Kugatachi.  From what I’ve read, she’s a new character and not in the anime but I also don’t think I want to watch the anime.  Maybe I should so I can get a better feel for it?  I also don’t recall picking the male character over Nadeshiko, but I’m sort of glad I did as I usually stop pressing X so I can read her dialogue and interactions.  Shion Karanomori is nice too, I like the edge she has.  I’m just trying to complete one playthrough and then I’m done.  I don’t need to see multiple endings or earn a platinum from it.

Batman : The Telltale Series, Season One, was simply amazing!  I read that Telltale isn’t producing as many high quality hits but Season Two is them back to form.  Once that entire five episodes is available as a physical copy, I’ll probably buy it.

RiME was fun, I got help on reddit regarding this one section in the desert with the giant eagle and I didn’t know I could make a jump due to the camera angle.  I made that jump, I did a lot of swimming and diving and finally came up for air.  There is this thin strip of land, surrounded by water, with a statue in front of it and a section slash exit to the left.  I have no idea what to do next as there are no hints.  So I’ve deleted it, as I’m clearly hitting a wall in that game.  It is in my library, so I can always re-install it, for free.

Grand Kingdom, was decent enough, the lack of a proper saving system killed it for me.  It really should auto save after each fight.  I was getting a hang of the game’s fighting system but I can’t just play and play a game.  I need to be able to exit or save a bit of my progress.

I have plenty of space on the PS4 so I’m not worried about space issues, yet.

oh, I forgot I got the PS4 for Christmas so I’ve also tried Darksiders II : Deathinitive Edition, and that was pretty fun.  My son likes me riding the horse.  It is very fantasy based and that doesn’t necessarily appeal to me.  I haven’t deleted it but I also don’t think about it too much.

Kung Fu Panda : Showdown of the Legendary Legends is the game I must have been thinking about instant deletes, hence the deep dive into the backlog.  I completed the tutorial and then started the game, I thought it was still a tutorial but it was a cluttered mess and nothing felt like it matter.  I’ve played Smash Bros. and those games still feel like they have substance.  I’m not much of a fighting guy though.

Forma 8, I should probably delete, I think I got as much out of it as I’m going to get.  I have no idea where to go in that game too.

. . .

PlayStation announced that come March 2019, the free games will be limited to PS4 games, which makes complete sense.  I sort of like the cross-platform Vita games but I also won’t miss them when they are gone.  I’m hoping that means we’ll get three PS4 games instead of two but still, we’re getting quality games that I feel I’ve already gotten my $60 worth and already feel committed to renewing my account come December.  Especially as I don’t want to lose these games in my library.

With that decision though, I do worry about announcements of a PS5 but people on reddit don’t think that will be hinted at until 2020, which seems like a good year for a new system.  Not like it matters to me, I got at least three years worth of games sitting on the shelf right now and downloading even more so as long as I don’t get the Yellow Light of Death, I should be fine.

Which I just Googled, and apparently PS4 has a Blue or Red Line of Death, so that’s not great!

I wished I was involved in reddit in the last three months as I do enjoy all the discussion threads relating to the games.  Though the non-proper-PS4 titles are not getting anywhere near the attention of Ratchet & Clank and Bloodborne, at least people would be willing to discuss those games.  And people did talk about them in the announcement thread so that’s good too.

Once the games get announced, I read a couple of the other announcement websites for a couple opinions but I really like TechRadar (though it is the only article I read on their site, and they just update the original one) and I also check out the Metacritic page and their respected Wikipedia pages.

This will be my deep dive into the previous games as I feel like I’ve written about them before but I wanted to do it just for the benchmark.  I may have also written the February one, in my mind, and never took the time to actually write it down.  Something I’m trying to stop doing as I really do miss writing.