A Self-Proclaimed Dreamer

     At the beginning of this year, I set a goal for myself that I really wasn't sure if I'd be able to complete. I really wanted to take down a good Soulslike game, since I've never been able to do that. Before I go any farther, I guess I should explain the term "Soulslike," which basically means that it follows the conventions of Dark Souls and other very challenging games like that. The main guideposts in this RPG sub-genre are that you lose all of your currency when you die, and once you get to save points, all of the enemies will respawn. I'm happy to report that I've already been able to achieve my goal, thanks to a game that came out a few years ago, Lies of P. This game does a pretty awesome job of taking a classic fairytale story and twisting it slightly to create the world of a creepy Bloodborne-esque steampunk setting, and one that was pretty difficult, though maybe not as rough around the edges as most of them are. This a really cool game, and ...

 Hey friends, I'm a little behind the times when it comes to TV shows a lot of the time, and today I'd like to talk a little bit about a show that I started a long time ago, but also one that I've not finished until recently. "Ted Lasso" follows an American College Football coach (with a love for barbecue sauce) across the pond when he's called to be the new head coach of a Soccer team in England, despite the fact that he knows nothing about the sport. This won't be a full review of the show, but I do have a lot of thoughts about these characters and the way that the story of this series works out. It's a fantastic show, though due to all of the bad language and let's say, "adult issues," this is not for younger kids. It says that in the warnings before an episode plays on Apple TV+, but I'm always worried that people won't follow the advisory ratings. With all that out of the way, let's talk a bit about this series. Good thin...

     A few years ago, an unexpected game won the coveted Game of the Year award at the Game Awards. It that didn't come from a major developer, but from a fairly small studio, Hazelight, and published under the EA Originals banner. This game was It Takes Two, and while it went up against some pretty tough competition, such as Psychonauts 2 , Metroid Dread , and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart , it took home the big trophy of the night. That game had so much creativity, it didn't know what to do with it all. The game is full of sequences that completely change the gameplay style, add some crazy new mechanics, and then quickly move along to the next idea. It was something really special that we hadn't seen before. Sure, some of the mechanics had been seen, but very few games would jump from one to another in such crazy ways. I'm talking about this a bit today, because as of March 6, Hazelight Studios has put out their latest game. Split Fiction is another experience ...

      Hey friends, as I strive to recount all of the experiences from my trip to Disneyland, I appreciate your patience. I started off thinking I could do it in one, and this is the third. Honestly I wouldn't be too terribly surprised if I wrote some more about it in the near future! It was a great experience and I'm so excited to be talking about it again today! Space Mountain is beautiful at night, but I didn't have a chance to ride it this time! There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (but not in California)!     The last area on this tour of the first park that Disney built was Tomorrowland, and this may be the area that is the most changed from the Magic Kingdom. Two of my absolute favorite attractions, the People Mover (or Tomorrowland Transit Authority), and the Carousel of Progress just aren't at Disneyland anymore, which was a real shame, and something that I had to prepare my family for. Because of that, I have to deduct 200 coolness points from this ve...

      Hey friends! Last week, I really intended to talk about all of Disneyland, at least what I saw, but it ended up being a much larger order of business than I thought it would be! I'm not giving each individual land its own part this time, like I did with Magic Kingdom, but I do at least need to make it two different posts capturing all of the cool stuff that I saw while I was there. Today I'm continuing my writings about Disneyland with a walk around Fantasyland and Mickey's Toontown. I didn't see everything there was to see in either of these areas, but I rode a lot of the attractions from both of these areas. There's always more time to talk about Disney Parks, especially since I haven't been to one since 2019, so let's get back to it today. Is This the Real Life? Is This Just Fantasy(land)?     Fantasyland was really interesting here at Disneyland, especially comparing it to the one in Magic Kingdom, which I'm much more familiar with. I've al...

 Hey friends! I'm really excited for what I'm talking about today! I have now been to Disneyland and while I wasn't sure how long we would be able to stay (after driving about an hour and a half from San Diego where I've been staying, in addition to the 3 hour time change that was still hitting pretty hard), we ended up staying until the park closed at Midnight! Today I'd like to give some thoughts, mostly about new things that I hadn't experienced before, though I may have to give some impressions about what I'm thinking about Disneyland attractions that also have a version at Walt Disney World. I hope you'll enter this original park with me, as I talk a little bit about Walt's original vision, as well as some thoughts just about the use of "innovation" in the parks. Let's Start From the Top!     This trip marked my first time going to a Disney Park since they swapped to the Genie+ and Lightning Lane model, and I will say that it worke...