Completely forgot Cradle of Filth did a cover of Devil Woman. Incredible. 💚
Category: Journal
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📂 Journal
Completed Horizon Zero Dawn Platinum trophy
Horizon Zero Dawn platinum achievement for getting all trophies in the base game
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📂 Journal
God of War
I had such a great time playing God of War.
I very quickly got drew into this world and felt myself being channelled through Kratos’ immense power. For a large percentage of this game I was Kratos. I think this was due largely with how the game never once took me out of the immersion. I don’t remember ever seeing a loading screen, save for the initial loading of the game.
The relationship between Kratos and his son Atreus was an emotional and thoroughly entertaining one to see unfold. I went into God of War without knowing anything about any of the previous games. So Kratos’ character was completely new to me; any references to previous events, or any moments that he goes against any previous perceptions of him, would have been lost on me unfortunately.
I kinda wish now that I’d held off and played those earlier games first now.
But nonetheless, this game still hit me right in the feels at multiple times.
There isn’t any prerequisite to have played those earlier games either, as the story is self-contained, and is really about a father and his son going on this journey together — both literally and figuratively.
More widely speaking, I think the game is about family and parenthood in general — about what it means to be a family and what we would do for them, and what we would be prepared to give up to see our children safe.
The First 3 Captures
The World is stunning
The world in God of War is so beautiful. And the sense of scale it has is just breathtaking.
I can still remember the first time I saw the world serpent and just how massive it was. It’s body can be seen wrapping around most of the lake of nine (the game’s central area). Whilst it’s head can be seen out in the distance, blocking a portion of the sky off.
There is a variety of areas that must be passed through in order to reach your ultimate destination: Mining caverns through mountains; Wide open expanses of water to be fully explored; dangerous forests and ruined temples; and the highest peaks in all of the realms.
The game lets you decide at many points whether to continue along the game’s main story or go out and explore. I chose to explore a lot of the time and am glad I did. The world has many secret areas to discover and puzzles that when solved, will give you items that will greatly help you on your quest.
I found the inclusion of a “realm within realms” which you must run through when “fast travelling” between areas was actually really clever. As a developer I can imagine this being a neat way of loading in the next area whilst running this small path.
The combat is insane
The combat in God of War is mental to say the least. Your main weapon is the Leviathan Axe which can be thrown and then summoned back to your hand at will — exactly like Thor’s hammer.
Not only does Kratos’ Axe open up a whole manner of creative ways to take out enemies, but it is used often in the puzzles you will encounter. It has the ability to freeze what it touches, which can be used in certain places to gain access to otherwise inaccessible places.
Not only is there Kratos though, but his son also. By pressing the “square” button you can command Atreus to fire an arrow in battle. You can leave him to fire as he likes, but you’ll find that there are many opportunities to create clever strategies when using both characters to their fullest.
As you gain XP you will be able to unlock many skills for both Kratos and Atreus, as well as upgrade and enchant armour to help you in battle. I wont lie, I found all of the different fight moves a little intimidating. In fact, I found myself button-mashing through most encounters of more than three enemies.
I found the difficulty challenging too (in a good way). I started the game on “normal” but had to downgrade it to “easy”. And even on easy the game was a challenge for me. I dare say if I’d committed the time to learning the moves that are possible and getting them in as muscle-memory I would have found it a bit more easy-going.
In Summary
If you enjoy action-focused games with a deeply emotional tug, then you need to play God of War. Every person I’d spoke to before playing it told me about how good it was and that it only gets better as you progress — and they were all correct.
Not only does this game get increasingly good the further through the story you get, but I have a feeling it will get better with age too.
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📂 Journal
The House on the Strand
Selected Quotes
I remembered that the tide had been out, the stretches of flat sand exposed, the row of bathing-huts, lined like denture in an open mouth, forming a solid background to the golden expanse.
from The House on the Strand — Chapter OneThe small, pane-less windows gave little light, the aperture tight closed by oiled parchment, while the lighted candles standing on the trestle table at the bed’s foot threw monstrous shadows on ochre-coloured walls.
from The House on the Strand — Chapter Six
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📂 Journal
2020 — Review of the year
Disclaimer — this post is still in a bit of a draft state. I have published it, however, as it is New Year’s Eve 2020 and if I don’t do it now I will probably forget to do it.
What an absolute bloody shit show this year has been. I’ve been super lucky when compared with most and still it’s probably been the most terrible year I’ve experienced.
Inept and corrupt Government; complete idiots who think wearing safety masks are against their civil liberties and more besides.
I thought I’d start a new tradition of reviewing the year just passed and looking towards a plan for the new year to come.
Work
I began this year working at a Birmingham based web agency called Substrakt. And although I enjoyed most aspects of the work, and 100% of the people, the job just didn’t end up being the right one for me.
From there I moved to another Birmingham based agency, Eastside Co — this time focusing on the Shopify platform. And despite having a great welcome and on-boarding, have decided that Shopify is not a platform I want to be focusing my time and energy.
At the time of writing I have recently handed in my notice and am planning to start at a new company come February time. Really looking forward to seeing what the future brings there.
Music I’ve discovered
I have fallen in love with an American metal band called Skid Row — more specifically their excellent album “Slave to the Grind”.
I have learnt to actually enjoy a couple of songs by The Killers. The two songs I have come to love are “The Man” and “Shot at the Night”.
Eminem’s album “Music to be Murdered by” is incredible and the recently-released Side B album is growing on me too.
The music of Low Roar was an obsession of mine thanks to the excellent PS4 game “Death Stranding“. My obsession was compounded when I was working at Substrakt as I would have to take my work laptop to and from work in a large laptop / travel backpack.
Sam, sam – He’s our man
Sam Porter Bridges from Death StrandingBooks I’ve read
This year I planned to read 12 books — 1 per month. However, I failed miserably and only manage a few.
I kicked off the year with George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Next came my trying to read Dune, but stopped reading part way through. Not sure why if I’m honest.
I also tried to read Stephen King’s It, but I just couldn’t get my head around the shifting character points of view in a police interrogation scene near the start. Need to re-try that one.
I read a classic horror book this year — Bram Stoker’s Dracula. And I loved it. I read it because it felt like it was one of those bedrocks of horror that I should read in my life. I’m glad to say that I really got lost in that one. I definitely plan to read it again soon.
I have just (literally 1 hour before writing this) finished Stephen King’s Duma Key. One of the longest books Ive attempted, only surpassed by Clive Barker’s Gallilee some years ago. I really enjoyed the journey and characters of Duma Key but couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed by the closing chapters. To be honest I don’t think “disappointed” is fair to say. I think it was more like me just expecting a huge explosive ending, when in fact the ending was more low key. But I can’t really fault the book as a whole — it was a journey I enjoyed being taken on.
Films I’ve watched
I have been digging into Italian Giallo films more this year and even got round to watching the remake of Suspiria. Absolutely insane and incredible in equal measure.
I finally began watching the Friday the 13th film series (only the first 2 so far). Loved part 2 and looking forward to continuing this journey soon.
I really need to be making a note of the films I watch next year too. As I can only remember the ones I’ve written about on my site.
The New York Ripper and Rosemary’s Baby were stand out films for me that I discovered in 2020.
Games I’ve played
I have come to the decision that Horizon Zero Dawn is my favourite game of all time — at least until Forbidden West comes out. I finally played through the story of The Frozen Wilds DLC and found to be a glorious addition to an already perfect game. At least perfect in my eyes. I really must write up a post about that game.
Before the DLC, I conquered the game on Ultra Hard New Game plus, and really would have the game any other way. I am still working on getting 100% completion for it and its DLC content.
The Last of Us part 2 was the stand-out new release for me this year. And despite having to big twist spoiled accidentally the night before release — yes I managed to not hear anything up until then — I still enjoyed it for the dark, brutal, often tough-to-endure story that it is.
I have replayed Death Stranding and took my time, almost doubling the play time from my first play through.
I made a meme
2020’s Governor to 2021’s Negan — A Walking Dead meme I made Next Year
Like many people I have some goals for the coming year. I want to buy my own home with my lady. I want to be move organised and more goal focused, which I’ve actually been working on in the latter part of this December 2020. I should thank Carl Pullein for this organisation boost as I am implementing his TIme / Sector system — it seems to be working for me so far.
I want to read at least 12 books this year. I have written out the 12 I want to read and in which months. Only this time I am determined to actually pull through with it. I am starting on January 1st with Daphne Du Maurier’s The House on the Strand.
I will be dedicating more time to building up my Junji Ito Manga site. Writing a lot more on there and building out the tag pages too.
Along with writing the posts on the Junji Ito site, I will be aiming to write a lot more heavily on this site also. As well as keeping better track of what I watch, read, hear and play.
I want to see many more Films this year too — specifically classic horror.
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📂 Journal
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📂 Journal
Setting up my own labs
I’m going to begin setting up my own “labs” area to play around with various web technologies.
For the longest time now I have been holding myself back quite a bit by only really learning technologies around current roles at the time and for my own personal site. This has mainly revolved around Laravel and to a lesser extent WordPress.
Whilst I will continue to love both of those projects, I do want to start pushing myself to learn things that are completely out of my comfort zone.
I will also begin writing more about my learning, discoveries and new things that excite me in web development — something I haven’t done for a long while.
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📂 Journal
I’m so addicted to Death Stranding right now. Just the feeling of packing my truck full of lost cargo, planning a route, and driving around various people to deliver is soooo relaxing. This game is such a meditative experience.
