Thoughts on Halo Infinite and Forza

 Been playing a lot of Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 lately.

For the core part of Halo Infinite that is out right now, the game plays fine. Sure the event RNG might be sketchy at times, but that is RNG in that game mode. I have had no problems playing the game and am having fun in it.

The problem comes with the battle pass. It is such a grindfest to get levels, that it more or less makes you get the paid pass. The event going on right now has pretty short matches - about 10-20 minutes at most, and you get 50xp per match. To level, you need 1000, or 20 matches (not counting weekly challenges). That requires about 200-400 minutes of game time at most, not counting loading, to level up one level - and the pass has 100 levels. The weekly challenges do help - and the event specific ones seem to be really easy, but the event ones are limited, as you can't even max out the event pass in one go since it is divided up into 3 separate week events. The difficulty/RNG on the weekly stuff is varied. You can get one weekly to get 3 wins in a specific game mode in BTB (which is RNG since you can't select the specific game mode to queue). You can also get one weekly to just play 2 BTB matches... for the same xp. Just a small rant, but I feel like the pass needs more fine tuning. Obviously you want to push the paid experience, but it shouldn't negate the free version entirely.

On the Forza side, I have been seeing some posts about players getting banned due to some liveries. Some I can see, but others I hope they are just exaggerating. Other than that, haven't had issues aside from a crash or two. Horizon Arcade needs to be addressed though. It either needs to change how the groups are formed, or have challenges that scale down based on the number of people participating since it is almost impossible to get to and finish the third challenge in my experiences.

More Forza Stuff

 Been having a lot of fun with Forza Horizon 5, so a lot of my videos will be about that. I have also started streaming it, albeit in the wee hours and for not a long period. Hopefully I can change that.

I was going to stream pvp racing in that game, but it seems like there isn't a way in game to turn off the voices of other players. I think there is a setting for it on xbox's website, but that seems so odd. The setting is also grouped with text and invites, which is weird, since I just want to disable the voices, but I don't really mind getting invites. I guess I will just set it to just friends and hopefully that will mute the people in game.

Other than that, there is a ton of stuff that I unlocked and need to get through. That doesn't even count all the community made stuff. No idea how long this will keep me busy for, but hopefully it will be for a while.

On another note, I have been getting good feedback with my community posts on youtube. I just don't know if I should make more or keep it at around one a week because I want to do more but then again it might get too spammy. Hopefully I'll find a good balance.

Forza Horizon 5!

 I have been playing a bit of Forza Horizon 5 this past weekend, and it's been pretty fun. Surprised that there are already pretty good car liveries out there.

I had some issues starting the game, but I was able to fix them. For some reason it would crash on startup, but I found out that exiting Discord fixed it for whatever reason. Then I couldn't log into my Windows account, even though it said I was already logged in. I logged in by going through the use another account option and use the same email. Other than that, there was one more issue, but it seemed minor - that is the game saying I was disconnected, even though I was still connected to the internet. Might be launch issues or whatever. That being said, there seems to be a lot of causes for the startup crash on the forums, and there are a variety of fixes, from disabling antivirus / adding an exception, to exiting programs, to other stuff.

The game technically comes out on November 8, so hopefully there will be more people online, and that they will activate public lobbies, because right now I am just doing solo stuff. I have seen some people on the roads sometimes, but I wonder how much more 'lively' it will be when the game launches. I plan on recording more videos for that game, though I still have other games I want to try out as well.

I also wonder that the future has in store for content updates. I really liked the Lego update in Horizon 4, so hopefully one update will be something like that.

Branching out

 Over this weekend, I recorded my first unboxing video. Not only is this something that is completely different from what I have been doing on my channel, but it is also the first video that will be of 'real life' (compared to things from a video game). I really wanted to try it out in the past, but the things I ordered recently gave me an opportunity to try it out. It's not the best shot, since I recorded it using my phone, and I did what I could with space and stuff, but I think it was fine. I wanted to go for like an Ashens style, but I couldn't get the right angle to film it so I just went for a top-down angle. Hopefully people will like it! Maybe I will do more different things in the future, not just unboxing. Maybe more real-life things. At the core, my channel will still be about gaming and video games, but I feel like it's always nice to try something new.

On another note, I know that I haven't been posting as often as I would like. Hopefully I can get back to a rhythm of doing these weekly, instead of bi-weekly or longer.

I'm Able to do Community posts now!

 I can't believe it's only been about a month or so since I have been going back to the daily uploads. It feels like it has been longer. Anyways, Youtube changed the requirements on being able to make community posts, so now it requires 500 subscribers, where previously it was 1000. So far I have made 2, though I don't know how far the reach is. Hopefully I can get some engagement on there.

Work has been.... not as great. I messed up bad last week, and was given a warning about it, and then I messed up again this week, so I don't know what will happen. My supervisor said it will be ok, but I'll have to wait and see, and that is eating away at me. It was a moment of inattentiveness, and I own up to those mistakes, but I don't know why it has been happening lately. I know after the first time, it's been in the back of my head to not repeat it again, but here we are.

The stress from another source isn't helping as well. Funny enough, I never had an incident when I was working by myself previously. Was I busy? Without a doubt, but I feel like my stress levels shot up when 'help' was brought over.

Hopefully my supervisor is right, but I know I can't mess up again.

New hard drive and stuff

 Work has been really stressful lately, mostly due to the new 'help.' I keep having to fix the mistakes, when they shouldn't have been doing them in the first place. All it takes is paying attention but mistakes are still being made. I just wonder how long will it take for the person to get it together. I can go on a rant with all the mistakes that have been made, but maybe for another time. They also sent me another person recently, but I can't tell how well that person is yet, with only one and a half days working with him.

Gaming wise, I got a new M2 SSD! I added a few new games that I plan on recording. I'm at the final quest of FF14 ARR, and I wonder if I should record that or not. I want to finish it so I can get on to the FF15 event and get that one mount. Hopefully I can do that this coming weekend.

I am also planning on trying out Apex Legends and CoD Warzone. Will I be good? Probably not, but I wanted to try them but never had the space for it (especially Warzone).

The daily grind

 So far I am able to keep up with the daily uploads, which is a good thing. I feel like I can keep this going as a normal routine! I don't know how long Tales of Arise is, but I feel like it will be a really long journey. So far, I've been trying to get around an hour in per recording, and it seems to work for the most part. I am very early in the game, so I don't know if it will be neatly partitioned later on.

I think I am also getting better at Eternal Return? I feel like the players have been better in the Asia server though. It could be because I started out fresh on the NA server, that I was paired with similar experienced people, but now that I have a few games under my belt, it is pairing me against better people. I did find out that there are some characters that I am just not compatible with, like Bernice, though that could just be my luck.

Also starting to stream again on the weekends. Haven't been doing them for long, but hopefully that will change in the future. I want to stream more Guild Wars 2, since I want to finish the Ice Brood Saga before the new expansion hits. Also want to stream other games as well, but I think Guild Wars 2 will be my focus for now at least.

Tales of Arise!

 The game recently came out and I have been recording my playthrough of it. Because of this, I think I will try to go back to a daily upload schedule, rather than every other day (not counting the daily deaths from Friday the 13th Killer Puzzle). I have no idea how long Arise is, but it seems to be enjoyable so far. I might need to rebind some keys but it isn't too much of an issue so far - just different.

I also kind of want to play some Playstation 1 games. Probably some more DOS games as well, but there is a lot on my plate currently so we will see in the future.

New keyboard and stuff

 So the mechanical keyboard that I backed on Kickstarter finally arrived not too long ago (the Marsback M1). So far, it seems better than the Belle Delphine keyboard in terms of quietness. The switches for these are too sensitive though. I should have chosen another type of switch, but I think I only need to swap out the space bar. It is basically my first week of using this keyboard so I still need to get used to it, but I like the sound, the look, and overall feel. One downside was that I had to charge the keyboard before I could use it in wired mode, which is weird, but after I charged it, it was fine.

I have seen in the comments that people still haven't gotten tracking, and are overall not happy since they didn't get it yet. I feel like they should have communicated it better. They even acknowledged the charging thing in a comment, which could get buried, rather than on the page or on an update.

Sudden Happenings

 A few days ago, there has been a sudden increase of views for my Friday the 13th Killer Puzzle Daily Death videos. Even the older videos have been getting more views, which is weird because the daily deaths are daily, and I don't know how they would be able to go back and solve them. Don't know what's happening, but not complaining at all. Just observing things. I guess Youtube will be Youtube. The analytics to the more popular videos are interesting as well.

I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing.

Update

Apparently it's been a while since I updated.

I've finally replayed Resident Evil Village a few times to get those challenge points, and now I'm recording the 'knives out' challenge where you basically go through the game with only a knife, though there are some exceptions. After that, I plan on recording a Village of Shadows run. With all the point accumulated, it shouldn't be too hard, except for one or two sections I think.

I have also been going back to Risk of Rain 2. There are apparently new characters, and I tried at least one of them (Bandit). It seems pretty fun and interesting with the ultimate ability.

I also plan on recording other things, like Vindictus and Eternal Return. Also Supraland, since I want to visit the DLC.

Other than that, nothing really new.

Cleaning is tough

 Whether it is hard drive space or my desk area, cleaning takes some time.

I want to try some new games to record, but I am still in the process of playing through Resident Evil Village. I still have mixed opinions about that game, and I wonder if it will get better by the end. I think I'm near the end? Though in the last recording I'm starting to question who is who.

Also ordered some neat things, however I misjudged my desk area so I have to move some things around, which means to clean the dust. It does mean that I am probably going to get rid of my printer that I never really use anymore. I showed what I got on my instagram, though I'll probably post the before and after when I'm all done.

I thought I would be streaming more, but June had been a bust due to Covid for 2 weeks, and the heat wave we had (where all I had was a dinky fan and no sort of AC whatsoever). Maybe I will start streaming Final Fantasy 14 after I beat A Realm Reborn. I think I'm 4 quests away, so it shouldn't take too long.

Update

 Been trying to get back into a rhythm to get daily uploads again. Hopefully my day off on the 5th would help. I wanted to create more videos on July 4th, but I underestimated how late people would be lighting fireworks.

I don't know how much longer I have until I beat Resident Evil Village, but I feel like I am close. It started off pretty well, but there were some bugs/issues that I had to deal with and it felt really fragmented, at least 3 of the areas. I didn't feel this way with the remakes of Resident Evil 2 or 3.

I have also been trying to get back to Final Fantasy 14. Been doing a few quests a day, though mainly trying to get through the main story quest. I don't remember how my level got so high compared to the main story quest level lol.