Synth Saturday: Constellations Chapters 31-40 by UnwelcomeStorm

This week for Synth Saturday I’m back with the fourth set of chapters in Taylor and Sunny’s antics. It’s Constellations Chapters 31-40 by UnwelcomeStorm!

Plot: This set of chapters continues the past arc’s set of shenanigans and while it doesn’t top the Hot Springs incident it still has it’s hilarious moments. Though my favorite is probably Danny’s reaction to intruders. Still it has it’s serious moments, but overall it’s just some lighthearted fun, which is why I’m covering this Fic. We could all use some light heartedness at the moment I think.

Characters: We don’t get to meet many new faces, but Legend does show up albeit off screen mostly. I think it’s a missed oppurtunity to see him do spit takes at Sunny’s antics, but I guess Storm wanted to wait for the full Triumvirate for that.

Overall: A fun set of chapters, though not as great as the previous set it still lightens your mood considerably.

The Year 2020 has sucked

I interrupt your regularly scheduled Video Game Tuesday with a post that has me complaining about various things. The Year 2020 has sucked!

Yeah so what?: Well we are well into the last 6th of the year, and I’m seriously hoping that as of the writing of this (It’s August 29th, so sue me I like to write well in advance) that things have calmed down.

I’m going to guess they haven’t though, but that’s because I’m a pessimist and fatalist who rarely if ever sees the bright side of things. By the time you are reading this the US Election season is going to be in full swing and I expect that to absolutely suck. I hope we get rid of the Cheeto of a man that has so ruined so much of my country’s international reputation next month, and at least we’ll all be voting from the comforts of our homes, I hope. Seriously I’ve voted from home every year since I turned 18, and it’s been that way in Oregon for the entirety of my life, and it’s never not worked out just fine and dandy for everyone. There has never been voter fraud and we get some of the highest voter turnouts in the country because of it. You can fill out the ballot on your own time without being at the polls surrounded by strangers who don’t care about you except that they want you to hurry the hell up.

We’ve all missed various events, and lots of people have died. I haven’t been affected directly by COVID-19, nor has any of my family that I know of as writing this, but it still has caused me to miss out on a trip to visit the other half of my family down in California. I hope, but not realistically expect, that I’ll be in Cali sometime soon, but we’ll see if that works out. We’ve lost some of our best and brightest due to various illnesses other than COVID-19 though, like Chadwick Boseman who played T’Challa in the movie Black Panther and did one hell of a job of it.

We’ve all been stuck at home for various periods of time, with working from home and learning from home becoming our new normal. As of this writing it’s looking like school will be fully distanced learning here in Oregon for the next school year, which is going to suck for a lot of kids. However it is the safest way to curtail the spread of COVID so I hope people don’t complain about that too much. A school opening up and doing full in person classes is just asking for trouble, and our leaders know this, well at least most of them do.

Speaking of Oregon as of this writing the protests are still going on nightly in Portland, which is frustrating for many of us Oregonians. It’s for a good cause for the most part, but the fact that they turn violent for little reason is just aggravating at this point. I used to live in a tiny studio apartment during my college years that was only a block or two from a clothing store that sold fur coats, it had protests going on daily and it was incredibly difficult to work on my projects when that was going on.

That’s it for this post, sorry that you all had to listen to me complain. I hope most of my concerns aren’t well founded and proven to be just pessimism, but we’ll see by the time this post goes live won’t we?

Retro Game Friday: BattleTanx

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m covering a game that I have been meaning to cover for a long time. It’s BattleTanx!

Plot: The plot of BattleTanx is pretty much nonsense, a plague kills 99.99 of all the women in the world and the rest are held up as feudal ladies that are the leaders of all the various gangs that come after the world went to crap. If you are looking for a really deep story, this isn’t going to satisify you.

Gameplay: Thankfully that wasn’t the point, and the gameplay was. The gameplay is purely Tank vs Tank combat in various locales across the US, such as Chicago, and New York. It was pretty fast paced and fun to play, especially with a friend or two. This also included destructible enviroments, though you could say that took up much of the power that was used in the game. Still it was fun to play as a kid, even if it was a bit violent. Still what kid doesn’t like explosions?

Art: The art has aged incredibly poorly since it was first released, but given that this was released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64 that isn’t too surprising.

Music: I honestly don’t remember much of it. I was too busy talking with my friends while we played.

Overall: A fun game, and if you get the chance to play it with a friend or two it’ll entertain you for a bit, but not too long since games have improved greatly since this was released.

For those who like: Tanks, Explosions, Action, Drama.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Synth Saturday: Constellations Chapters 21-30 by UnwelcomeStorm

This week for Synth Saturday I’m continuing Taylor and Sunny’s adventures. It’s Constellations Chapters 21-30 by UnwelcomeStorm!

Plot: This is a really fun set of chapters, and is pretty freaking hilarious. It’s probably the best set of chapters yet in the story and is completely insane in a very good way. The plot progresses very nicely and Taylor and Sunny get up to a bunch of shenanigans.

Characters: We get some more interactions between Lung and Taylor, which are always fun. The rest of the cast is equally as fun in this set of chapters.

Overall: A very fun set of chapters, and definitely worth reading.

Video Game Tuesday: Oddball Uses of Gaming Tech

Hey all I’m back with a fun Video Game Tuesday. It’s some Oddball Uses of Gaming Tech!

PlayStation 3s in Hospitals: These were networked PS3s used for their processing power, it was cheaper to buy these consoles than other PC hardware for hospitals. The only way I know about this is because my Dad sold technology to hospitals for his job and he remarked on it at dinner one night.

Simulating Fake Crowds: Yeah you’ve probably heard about this, or seen it on TV if you watch sports, but various TV providers are now using game engines to produce fake crowds for sporting events and other things due to COVID-19. It’s going about as well as you might expect, which is to say as well as a flaming trash can. Don’t look too close at the crowds, or you’ll notice how utterly fake they are.

That’s it for this week’s Video Game Tuesday. What are some of your favorite oddball uses of gaming tech? Post them in a comment down below.