Posts

Ale and Tale Tavern Game Thoughts

Has it been so long since I've written here? Im writing but now im working on a story. I've been playing games in my down time and one that has my interest, and disdain, is Ale and Tale Tavern. I currently wash dishes as part of my job which would .are you think Id hate these games but theres some kind of madness thats soothing in them. Repetition in games can be relaxing and comforting, so I make an effort to buy all the Medieval tavern sims I can find. It doesn't hold a candle to my current favorite Tavern Manager Simulator but it has itw own perks, and flaws. Both games have you running a tavern. The difference between being Ale and Tale is multiplayer. Would be nice if I have someone to play with. Ale also also tasks you with delivering food and hunting monsters for ingredients. A nice twist but you only have your axe to defend yourself. Zombies can sneak into your tavern, or maybe spawn there, and other monsters can kill you during your deliveries. It also bugs me that...
Post a Comment
Read more

A good writing day

I tried something different yesterday. I gave myself two things, I gave myself an assignment and I gave myself some pieces. I figured that if I go to a certain place, this place being the library, and body double with someone, this someone being my mom, that I could get some wriring done. And I was correct, I got almost two pages in within an hour and a half. It felt good being this sharp. I had an idea in my head and I had pieces, little bits of plot and story that I had taken notes of on my phone. It was better than working on my Cain story in which I have almost no idea where I'm going. AI certainly didn't help. I'm not at the level of Stephen King where I can snatch concepts out of my mind and put them on paper. I don't have that kind of imagination. What I need is a few pieces to keep me going, almost like the parts to an outline. I don't know if this will always help me but I'm going to give it a try. The interesting thing is that I'm excited about thi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Finishing Annihilation

I've read books about subjects I could care less about that have somehow wormed their way into my subconscious and even if they haven't gotten me to love the subject matter, they have at least gotten me to appreciate it. Jeff VandeMeer's "Annihilation" is not one of those books, I'm sad to say. The book flip flops between being insanely interesting and utterly boring. VandeMeer seems to be an expert on biology, or at least interested in them. I follow him on Bluesky and he posts about plants every now and then, a subject I find dull and uninteresting. But the inclusion of some cosmic horror mixed in with the story and the fact that the book got a movie release, made me curious. I have to say that reading Annihilation was a slog. I didn't feel drawn in and I'm not sure if that's my fault or the writer's fault. The pacing is fine, the writing is good, and the mystery behind the story about a woman who's more in sync with a cosmic horror event...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thoughts on Quake

I picked this game because of the ties to Lovecraft but the only connection from the game to the lore is the Shamblers and the final boss Shub Niggurath. Quake is hailed as a landmark in the gaming world as the first 3D shooter. It hasn't aged well by my standards and I had several issues with the game. For starters, all the levels look more or less the same. Gray and brown castles are your domain and will remain your only location. There's a little variety in the pre levels where you fight armed soldiers but I think this is weak attempt to connect Quake to Quake 2. The sequel took almost nothing from the first game and replaced the eldritch horrors with cybernetic monsters. I actually played Quake 2 before the first one and it's a markable improvement. For startes, Quake has a limited weapon loadout.  You have your standard shotgun, the super shotgun, grenade launcher, missle launcher (which uses the same ammo as the grenade launcher), nail gun, super nail gun, axe (in cas...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Jaunt has been bugging me

I can't put an exact finger on it but Stephen King's The Jaunt has stuck a finger in my conscious and has stuck in there for the past week. I've read the story a couple of times and something about it doesn't sit right with me. Set in the twenty fourth century, a man named Mark Oates explains how the Jaunt came to be to his two kids. As they wait for the next trip to Mars, Mark details how the Jaunt was discovered and selectively skips the horrible experiments that were done to perfect the travel system. The Jaunt is a teleport system, like a jump from point A to point B through a doorway. The jump is preformed by sedating the passengers so they don't experience the long jump through eternity from one door to another. Of course, it wouldn't be Stephen King without a horrifying ending. After the tale, the family takes the jump only for Mark to discover that his son has held his breath causing him to experience the full Jaunt.  It's not a bad story, in fact it...
Post a Comment
Read more

Writing Updates, Reading Updates and Playing Games

I've spoken with my writing friend and she assures me that I no longer have a short story, this Cain story is a novella. I'm cursed with Stephen King's disease where everything I write turns into a novel. I suppose that's not too bad, novels make the money. But I wanted to hone my skills with Cain as a short story. Cain has taken a lot out of me and for now, I'm focusing on a story about stairs that kill people (based on the death of H.R.Giger). I also want to finish my Annihilation book. I'm not writing it but reading. It's...ok, I suppose. Not what I expected out of a Cosmic "horror" book. Jeff VanderMeer's work on the Southern Reach happening is facinating and boring at the same time. He writes about plants and natural enviroments, things I couldn't give a crap about. And he doesn't go out of his way to make you care about these things as if it's a metaphor for the protagonist. Throughout the book, the biologist, our protagonist,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Romantasy Attempt

Today was a rough day. My back was hurting as soon as I woke up. Not a good start to the day when your body knows it's going to be in pain. So I spent the day angry and confused while keeping it to myself hoping that I wouldn't explode onto someone. I kept some of the madness down by handing out a humorous fairwell card for my supervisor. I seemed to be one of the only two people who got the joke. I thought it would be more funny but people don't seem to have a sense of humor. I'm at work and I feel the anger taking me on more and more. I pray, I plead, I give up and throw an internal tantrum. When am I going to grow up? I guess I got to the point that I marked my maturity with my job position. What would I be happy with, a desk job at an office? Is that what my mind is expecting? I always thought I would change once I became an adult but that never happened. I'm still me, still the same kid, just taller. I went home cursing God because I knew that he wouldn't h...
Post a Comment
Read more