Another Update

 It's been a while, but not really much has happened.

I have been playing a lot of Axiom Verge lately, so other games are in the backburner. I want to keep continuing those, but I guess we will see after I finish Axiom. I also want to finish Lost Ruins since I feel like I am getting really close to the end.

I also want to start Sonic 06, as well as go through most of the games I got in recent bundles - mostly indie stuff, but it's just finding the time.

There is also a convention coming up soon, so I should try and record ahead of that so I don't get behind the following week.

I wanted to do more Gran Turismo 7, but I read about what they did in a recent patch (as of this post). I don't know if they will revert it, or just keep the rates as they are now, but we will see.

Other than that, it has been mainly Guild Wars 2, Lost Ark, and Forza Horizon 5 as my main games. I'm getting closer to End of Dragons in Guild Wars 2, albeit slowly. I am also slowly getting to level 50 in Lost Ark. Forza Horizon 5 has been mainly about the weekly stuff. I have 2 achievements left before I 100% that game in terms of achievements, though one of them will probably take a long while and many attempts.

Lost Ark is pretty fun for me

 Is it P2W? Most likely. Though I am not in a position yet to see it since I am still at the beginning for the most part. It just feels refreshing for a game that has already been out for years, and there are a lot of things to collect. Some grindy, some just exploring.

Also at the time of this post, Next Fest is happening on Steam. Going to try a few demos and put those videos out starting next week, so some of my weekly stuff will be paused, even though I recorded some already. There are some repeats from last time that I saw on the page, and some I am not that interested in, but I will try to get a variety of genres.

Also Vampire Survivors is pretty fun. Though I hear it is based off an Android game, so I do plan on trying that out in the future as well.

So many new games

 I have been thinking that I should slowly start to put 2 (3 if you count the daily solutions) videos out a day, with all the backlog I have. It doesn't really make sense to do a few at a time. I was also thinking of streaming some - and I have. I started with Cuphead for the time being. Seemed pretty well received. It is very challenging, but I haven't found a reason to rage yet. Lot of RNG I noticed.

I want to release 2 Shovel Knight videos a week, since I recently started that as well.

When Lost Ark drops, I think I will stream it to both twitch and youtube. It will be the first game I streamed to both at the same time since Duelyst I believe (or it could be Paladins..it has been a while). I have not seen any guides or anything, but I feel like I should. At least a beginner's guide on what to do or not do.

I also still need to finish the Ice Brood Saga in Guild Wars 2 before I start the new expansion.

TLDR, so many games to play, so little time.

Update on stuff

My work has been pretty hectic. With the corona going around and all, the manpower has been not great. Last week we got bombarded with shipments, and this week is the same. However, we don't really have the space to put anything. Usually we would ship out stuff, but due to one reason or another, that has been slowed down as well, so we have been slowly amassing all these shipments without a source to unload them. But I guess it is what it is.

Youtube wise, I'm thinking of trying to add more videos to my schedule. I have been getting a lot of feedback on my Bitburner video, but I don't know what I would do in future parts if I were to continue it. I also want to play other games, but only having one day free to upload them (since the other days have other games already in progress) seems kind of like a jam. I picked up a few games recently that I want to try out, so maybe I will do some double uploads on some days. 

I also want to stream more - I have been trying out Dead Cells again and it is pretty fun. One downside of having the Twitch interactions enabled is that you have to have at least one vote before it can continue.

That being said, I am torn on wanting to either record or stream some games. I want to do the Halo collection, and maybe the original Doom/Duke Nukem series.

For now, I have taken a break on Halo Infinite multiplayer. The game is solid, but I feel like I will burn myself out if I grinded the pass every week. I do want to max out the main pass eventually, but I feel like with how they give xp now, I can have a break here and there. I might have stopped right before the second week of the Fractured Tenrai event so I missed out, but eh.

New Year, New Game.

I have added another game to my schedule - Inscryption. It felt like I haven't played a card game in a long while, and I decided to try it out. It seems to have good reviews and so far I am enjoying it.

I have also made a tier rank for something in Guild Wars 2. It is only a portion of it, due to the time length, so hopefully I can put all parts out before the new expansion. If not, then I'll just post them whenever on my free day of the week.

Other than that, it's a new year and hopefully I will pass 1k subscribers soon! I have been uploading more shorts, and that has been getting views, so I hope that is helping.

Somewhat of a schedule

For the most part on my channel, I have series that I am actually planning on finishing on through. Not 100%, but story-wise from beginning to end, and there will be a video a week on each. I still have room to play random games for 2 days, but I'm trying to actually beat my games than test them out. I believe one of the two days will most likely be Forza Horizon 5, but it isn't really set in stone compared to the other 5 days.

Monday - Yakuza 0

Tuesday - Lost Ruins

Wednesday - Axiom Verge

Thursday - 1001 Games and More CD

Saturday - Threads of Fate

I have no idea how long these games will take me (especially the 1001 games cd), but they haven't frustrated me much and are quite fun so far.

Of course, everyday there will be a solution to Friday the 13th Killer Puzzle's Daily Death as well.

Halo Infinite's multiplayer is a bit better now

 Is it perfect? No. The weekly challenges still feel like it would take some time to get through. For this week, I have 1 more weekly left before the ultimate, and I only have a day to complete them - and I have been playing for about an hour a day at least. At least there are no ranked challenges.

The addition of the multiple game modes has been great. I don't know if BTB is still broken or not though since I haven't tried it yet. It is still annoying that a lot of the challenges still rely on the normal quick play RNG - oddball, area control, etc.

Out of the new modes, I think I like tactical slayer the best right now. Straightforward and no pickups. Everyone has the same weapon and the same health.

There are the occasional graphical bugs, but multiplayer is a little bit better for now.

Halo Infinite's multiplayer is currently frustrating.

 This all stems from the challenges.

The xp gain to level up the pass seems nice and all, but the weekly challenges hasn't improved. I have heard that the game lists will change, but I don't know when that will be implemented. BTB queues have been buggy ever since the single player launched - which I doubt they will give people free swaps if they have a BTB challenge in their weekly queue (like me).

It is bad enough that an entire mode has issues, but the weekly challenges need to change, or at least the ability to queue what you want. For the last 4 of 6 matches, I have been sent to the *only* One Flag CTF map out of 17 possible map choices. It doesn't help that I have a weekly to just play one Oddball match.

I feel like because of these challenges, people are dead set on not doing the objectives, unless it helps them to progress that. It could also explain the mass number of people leaving at the start, or just afking to get through the match.

Hopefully this will be resolved, both the BTB and how challenges are, because right now multiplayer feels more grindy than it needs to be.

Forza has been updated! (and other Halo/update stuffs)

 The main gripe about Forza Horizon 5 has been fixed (for me at least). The recent update had a ton of fixes, one of which is the scaling of Horizon Arcade! I was able to complete all 5 of the different types of arcade modes. Though there was a weird timer that says the time remaining for the mini challenges was many hours long.

I also finished the weekly challenges for Halo Infinite and wow what a grind it was. Luckily they are changing the playlists (I believe), so that would cut some time off with the weekend challenges. It took me many matches to get a specific one that I needed. It didn't help that some of the challenges required multiple wins in a specific type. It just felt like unnecessary bloat and grind. The ultimate challenge was fine I thought. Though it seemed to give me Stronghold and Oddball as the majority of the types when I had that challenge up.

I downloaded the Whiteboard app to keep track of what I recorded so far, since I do them on the weekends. Thanks to the recent holiday, I am a few days ahead, and hopefully I can keep it that way.

For today's upload, it seems like there was a claim on the video for some reason. I did the thing to trim it out, though I don't know if it'll finish processing by the time it is scheduled to release. Who knew that a mobile game would have an ost that could get claimed.

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.