Building off of my 2024 In Music post, and referring to Metal Storm’s release list, here’s what I’m looking forward to in 2025.
10 Jan: The Halo Effect – March Of The Uheard
24 Jan: Wardruna – Birna
07 Feb: Dream Theater – Parasomnia
07 Feb: Saor – Amidst The Ruins
25 Mar: Arch Enemy – Blood Dynasty
TBA: Blackbraid – Blackbraid III
Spring: Vintersorg – Vattenkrafternas Spel
Despite getting into FromSoftware’s titles late: 2018 with the landmark Bloodborne, I’ve completed surprisingly-few of their titles. This spring I started Elden Ring anew and with it being my GOTY 2022, knew precisely what to expect.
Except, this playthrough was just as good, if not better than the first. And during this new descent into The Lands Between, its long-awaited and massive, sprawling DLC, Shadow Of The Erdtree was anounced. Thus, dozens of hours were added to my second playthrough.
And here, at the end of it all, I feel much as I did back in April of 2022 upon completion of the base game originally. Succinctly, Empty is the only word to detail this sensation.
After my first run through this game, I was confident placing it in my top-20 list of all-time best games. Halfway amidst my second playthrough, it was firmly entrenched in the top 10. It was here where my passion for this game expanded. Looking up item locations, reading Reddit threads on build suggestions, watching lore videos – my fascination deepened. Seeking out every grace, every item, talisman, boss, hidden area…it all became addictive. And THEN….the DLC hit.
The expansion itself, in my humble opinion, places it in contention for the best game of the year, but the Best DLC award is a shoe-in, not only for 2024, but forever. It never felt tacked on or half-baked. The lore was embedded in the story and revelations cleared up concepts from the main story. NPCs had purpose. Bosses were both impressive and impactful. My sense of wonder and exploration and awe never ceased. It assisted in completing what was already a perfect package.
It was then that the game crept up in my list. Leapfrogging God Of War (2018), Uncharted 2, DoDoPachi: Dai-Ou-Jou, it was now facing Metal Gear Solid 3 and Portal 2. Surely it’s not superior to them!? Top 5 ever???
Stuck on the final boss, I went up into clean-up mode before seeking out a method to defeat the Mighty, BS Radahn. “Oh, I missed that talisman and I should equip that shield.” Almost every part of this game is utterly fun and joyous. To be clear, its vague story is best digested in video form. Granted, some bosses were frustration machines. Losing a quarter-of-a-million echoes is a challenge. But after completing the DLC 100%, I went back to visit some main-game missed items. I exhausted NPC dialogues. And after all that…I started NG+. At this point, I raced through, slaying everything and hitting upon all NPC interactions. The draw of the adventure was intoxicating. The familiarity gave me a foundation from which to start, but I kept encountering things I hadn’t yet done in almost 300 hours of playtime. I knew the boss patterns. I was overpowered enough to blaze through much of it which kept the entire experience moving along swiftly. I devoured story videos, wiki entries again and find that’s part of the draw of the whole Soulsborne experience.
Much like my initial playthroughs, I just don’t want this to end. Dwelling in the Lands Between, exploring all of its corners and poring over each breadcrumb of lore makes me truly wonder how high on my favorite games list this title is. Ultimately, something will supplant this on my current-gaming agenda, and it’s likely that title will be Astro Bot in mere days. However, as an experience, I can only claim Bloodborne, the fellow FromSoftware title, to be a legitimate adversary and competitor to the crown of greatest ever. Today I feel confident bestowing upon Elden Ring #2 on my all-time list. I’m all-but-certain a new playthrough awaits me at some later date – starting from scratch with years of walkthroughs and guides and videos to aid me on the adventure. I’m in no rush for time to pass, but I look forward to this future date knowing what a delight such a day will be.
EDIT: I tried a different solution for the 2/3 layered renditions. This guide is not complete and it’s flawed.
I got a 4 and 5-layer Pentahedron and opted to grab 2 and 3-layer versions. Here are some algorithms for the smallest version to help before I move on to the higher-order puzzles.
Step #1: Get White & Yellow Centers
This puzzle is red-white-green clockwise unlike a standard puzzle, so get that on white on the bottom and move on to the top.
If you have two swapped, keep the correctly-placed center on the left. With a triangle pointing at you.
F/ U / F / D’ / F /
Step #2: Finish white Layer
Put the proper white piece above its correct location and do the standard 3x3x2 algorithm. R / U / R / U’ / R. This is an easy, familiar step.
Step #3: Last-Layer: Corners
We’re going to start our last layer with corners first. If you need to swap two of these, put the correctly-placed corner triangle pointing at you and:
R / F / U /
R / F / U / R / F
Step #4: Last-Layer Centers
If you end up with a pair of incorrectly-positioned centers, keep the solved side on your right and perform this lengthy algoritm.
L / R / U / R /
U’ / R / D / R /
U / R / U / R
Need to verify this all. Then I’m moving to the bigger puzzles.
At this stage of the game, more than 10 years into cubing, I collect based on looks and solves together. Some puzzles look great but I just know that a solve is a lot of work or that it’s not particularly fun. While helicopter puzzles look great, they aren’t often too difficult and so I figured I’d take the plunge with this one as part of a very-large purchase. The solve isn’t too bad, but I did need help on the later steps. Enter Twisty Puzzling’s tutorial. And here are the steps to solve this guy!
WIP: More To Come!
Step One: Solve the bottom face
This was intuitive and I got my white face situated pretty easily. Moving things around isn’t hard when you have plenty of free space to deposit things temporarily. This step situates the white face and the entire ‘layer’ above it all the way up to the long, edge pieces of each helicopter wing.
Step Two: Start building the bottom middle layer
This isn’t much of a layer, but here you’re going to want to maneuver these numbered pieces into place. I’ve numbered them in this photo in order of sequence. Some of these are intuitive, but keep moving around to the right of the puzzle. If you need to rotate one of the three-colored centers, just see the orientation on the top layer. If it needs to rotate clockwise, then spin it around the top layer counter-clockwise and vice versa. Move things out of the way as necessary here and as you get to the very end, use intuition to figure out the final pieces.
Step Three: Build the top middle layer
Now that you have the second layer done, your focus is the top-middle layer. This will include the higher three-colored pieces and the two petals to the left and right of them. You can do the centers (those three-colored pieces) first or build these all on the top layer and bring them down. So far, nothing too difficult.
Step Four: Position Petals
After orienting the lengthy center slices, now you move the petals around in a convenient three-cycle. In this photo, the pink on the right will swap with the off-white on top which will swap with the grey to the far left. The standard up, up, down, down here is intuitive and can be used to align all these nicely and swiftly.
Step Five: Position Corners
This three-cycle will move corners counter-clockwise from left to center to right. You will begin by moving the top-left piece to the left section, performing the algorithm and then undoing.
So, if we go left, front, left, front – then swap the right piece down – then front, left, front, left and fix the right.
I assume there’s a mirror version of this, but for now, that’ll do it. L / F / L / F / R / F / L / F / L / R is your three-cycle.
Step Six: Orient Corners
I’ve been quite enjoying Steam’s indie offerings as of late. Not that fantastic entries weren’t available in recent times, but for some reason, my patience for PC gaming has increased and after being simply obsessed with Balatro (after my second 100+ hour Elden Ring run), I’m now firmly entrenched in Minishoot’ Adventures! It’s simple and light and precisely what I need. Looking forward to continuing this adventure and the prospect of more in the future!!!
It’s another case of, “I never knew I wanted a game like this,” yet here we are and I’m enthralled, utterly, with Balatro and its mechanics.
It’s simple but deep and full of game-breaking strategies – all of which are designed to be so broken. After a bit of time just messing around, I started trying to win and…to my complete surprise, today was the day! Armed with the powerful Triboulet joker and four kings of hearts, I beat the eighth ante, earning a whopping $260k on one hand! It was quite silly, really, but that is the point. I’m having such a blast with this stupid game.
Ba
40 hours. (1 March update: 60 hours / 26 March update: 90 hours) After completing the title at a hefty 120 hours, I’ve now clocked another 40 and have no intention on stopping any time soon.
Despite arriving late to the FromSoftware parade, I’ve since beaten (and written heavily about) Bloodborne and later Dark Souls III. I got far into Sekiro (final boss) and both Dark Souls Remastered and Demon’s Souls. I feel confident in saying I understand the formula. And while I’ve written about this as well already, returning two Elden Ring two years hence has bought me right back to where I was in early 2022. I’ve got a few games I’m interested in playing: Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Rollerdrome, maybe more Lies Of P. But, there’s no reason to. Elden Ring is just that damn good.
In fact, as I return to ranking my top-20 favorite games again, I find this game moving up…and up…and up. I can’t be certain, but I think it’s a top-10-ever game at this moment. From its sensational allure of discovery to the phenomenal art design. From the honed gameplay loop to the enticing sense of wonder. Its sound, the visuals, the adventure: it’s second to none. I just can’t say enough about this game and even without DLC, it remains one of my favorite games of all time.
Now, with Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth coming out, perhaps my passion will fade. But just like the first time I played this masterpiece, I’m really in no rush. Simply incredible.
Ys Books I & II came out on the TurboGrafx-CD in the spring of 1990 when I was 14 years old. In the near-35 years since, I’ve played almost every iteration of the franchise: on consoles, on portables, both numbered entries and side stories. I didn’t beat them all; some I abandoned, others I completed, but I simply loved returning to the world every few years.
Since then, communities have exploded, translations and special editions have expanded, but my adoration of the series never wavered. I loved Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, despite it being ranked lower than Ys VIII almost universally. But all that will matter in the the autumn of 2024 is that Ys X: Nordics will have an English translation on the PS5 and I couldn’t be more thrilled. My expectations are always tempered for Falcom’s storied franchise, but I endeavor to have fun, see Adol in yet-another new light and to enjoy three-and-a-half decades of one of my favorite series ever.
I still haven’t written up my best of 2023 yet, despite my listing being done, but for now, just a look ahead to the music in 2024. As always, for my purposes alone. Thanks, also as always, goes to Metalstorm’s upcoming list.
09 Feb: Chapel Of Disease – Echoes Of Light
23 Feb: Borknagar – Fall
01 Mar: Ministry – HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES
01 Mar: Bruce Dickinson – The Mandrake Project
08 Mar: Judas Priest – Invincible Shield
22 Mar: Alestorm – Voyage Of The Dread Marauder
05 Apr: Korpiklaani – Rankarumpu
19 Apr: My Dying Bride – A Mortal Binding
15 May: Kerry King – From Hell I Rise
31 May: Exodus – British Disaster: The Battle Of ’89 (Live At The Astoria)
21 Jun: Alcest – Les Chants De l’Aurore
21 Jun: Cavalera Conspiracy – Schizophrenia (Re-Recorded)
07 Jul: Amorphis – Tales From The Thousand Lakes – Live At Tavastia
02 Aug: Blind Guardian: Somewhere Far Beyond – Revisited
09 Aug: Hammerfall: Avenge The Fallen
16 Aug: Dark Tranquillity: Endtime Signals
23 Aug: Dimbild – Dunkelglöd
30 Aug: Wintersun – Time II
20 Sep: Kanonenfieber – Die Urkatastrophe
11 Oct: Andy Gillion – Exilium
25 Oct: Iotunn – Kinship
01 Nov: Brothers Of Metal – Fimbulvinter
22 Nov: Opeth – The Last Will And Testament
06 Dec: Night In Gales – Shadowreaper
Wish List
What am I hoping to see this year? Just some ideas, though other than Moonsorrow, don’t know how much I care.
