Archive for April, 2021

Resident Evil VIIlage: So Excited

Posted in Blog, Games, Resident Evil on April 24, 2021 by slateman

Resident Evil Remake in 2002, Resident Evil 4 in 2005 and Resident Evil VII in 2017. All were my games of the year and that doesn’t even include Resident Evil 5 which, were it not for that underappreciated Uncharted 2, probably would’ve won as well. It goes without saying that the eighth numbered installment is high on my radar of 2021 releases. After the first half-hour demo, I’m already sold – though I was buying this day one either way. Tomorrow will be the second timed demo and I endeavor to check it out. Again, it doesn’t matter; I’m buying it when it comes out in two weeks.

It’s one of those intimate relationships with a franchise you have when you get to my age. My experience with the franchise dates back 25 years – to when I was a mere 20 years old. In that time, it’s moved up to #4 on my best gaming franchises lists. In the end, REVIII is gonna be great. If all goes well, I’ll beat it in standard form before progressing to a speedrun. Of course, we’ll see, but I’m tremendously excited about this release.

Valfaris: Running & Gunning – METAL Style!

Posted in Blog, Games on April 17, 2021 by slateman

I’ve been keeping Valfaris on the backburner despite it checking a lot of the boxes of games I like. This old-school-style, side-scrolling 2D run-and-gun action game presents a stiff challenge to go with its retro-inspired look. While you genuinely know what you’re getting into here – an ultra-violent Contra clone at heart, the game’s soundtrack simply makes you want to tear into more foes after each disappointing death. I’m only a few hours in, but I’m thoroughly enjoying the consistent influx of power-ups, the satisfaction of improving and the pulsing rhythms of metal blaring in mine ears. This is definitely not one to sleep on and despite its high difficulty, it’s entertained me a great deal so far!

New 4×4 Record: 1:43.62!!!

Posted in Blog, Cubing, High Scores/Accomplishments on April 2, 2021 by slateman

When I broke my four-year-old 4×4 record last month, I was rather thrilled, securing my first sub-2-minute solve in the process. I was quite content with the accomplishment and immediately felt satisfaction and zero motivation to improve upon the time. However, as I’m on spring break right now, I’ve been tinkering around with the puzzle and it’s so spectacular! The magnets are just wonderful and as I was running through things, I noticed two things. First, my centers are done in about 20 seconds. Second, I’ve been getting better at edge matching. First, I match white edges and then move on to yellow. These high-contrast pieces are much easier to keep track of and instead of lining up several edges at once (like the pros do), I just wing one at a time and keep track of other edges which is actually more productive.

Anyhow, as I have noticed an improvement, I figured I go for time. My best average-of-five now resides around 2:07 with a new record a full 10 seconds faster than my prior record! Pretty damn cool, I have to be honest. I can’t see any huge change coming in the future, but I may keep trying. \m/

Following Day Update: I haven’t come close to my 103-second solve, but it was not for a lack of effort. In the process, I managed a 2:05.28 average-of-five. it’s hardly disappointing: 2:05 would’ve been my personal best before last month!