Don’t have much to write… with a full day of work and plenty of to do’s I had to fulfill today there wasn’t much time for sitting down. Although, I did take a few minutes out of the evening to play a little Ghostrunner!
I plan to go into fuller detail on the game, but I want to play more before blowing my digital load of words about the epic awesomeness that is indeed Ghostrunner. I wanted to end the night with the scent of watermelon and go cybernetic parkour ninja, with a side of chamomile tea to help me get to sleep for yet another coma inducing day tomorrow.
I discovered over the weekend that my Acer VG270U P isn’t capable of HDR over DisplayPort, and if I switch to HDMI I can get HDR at the cost of the framerate. I didn’t know this at the time of researching, but this monitor has DisplayPort 1.2, which is incapable of true HDR output. I just figured since this was advertised as a 2020 gaming monitor that it would have DisplayPort 1.4, or at the very least 1.3.
It’s sad given this monitor is barely half a year old. I’m thinking I’ll put it back in its box and store it for emergency use, like if I have a monitor die and need a backup. This just gives me an excuse to go shopping for a 4K monitor I guess. 😛 Unfortunately I’m finding that the monitors are, like many other electronics at the mo, are being scalped for a profit because we live in a world of assholes with too much money. I’m not sure how long it will take me to track something down, but I figure with the 6800XT proving itself on the 4K proving grounds it would only be right to get a matching monitor. Then I can start delivering 4K content for YouTube! 😛
We had a few inches of rain today, made for a relaxing day of breakfast tostadas, all of the tea in the universe, and couch gaming. I’m continuing to excel at Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night, and just general goofing off in anything else. I played some Hades too, and tested a bunch of other games just to see how much of a load I could put on the system. That 6800XT is a real beast of a card in 4K! I’m kinda wishing I went 4K when I replaced my monitors earlier this year, ah well… I can enjoy 1440p for now, and I can always chill in the living room for a theatrical experience!
I wonder what my next 4K adventure will be… DOSBox? 😛
What actually happened: 4K Gaming in the living room until bedtime.
DAMN YOU NEW VIDEO CARD!!!!!! We upgraded the Home Theatre PC with an AMD Taichi 6800XT, and that can’t simply go untested! It was a glorious evening of 4K Gaming, and not being limited to 60fps! I might have to do it again tomorrow night. The weekend cometh, and my limbs could stand some breathing time on the couch.
I’ve had a couple friends inquire if I would be grabbing it, and I probably will a sale or two from now (but inevitably it will be a yes). I don’t have time for multiplayer gaming anywhere near like I used to, mostly due to my work hours. That, and the toxic behaviour found in multiplayer games these days has encouraged me to stick to single player gaming when I have my alone time. The only thrill I get from dealing with an internet asshole is not having to hold back, other than that it just because tiring, especially after a long day of dealing with assholes in person.
I will get it though! I’ve seen gameplay of it, and from feedback I’ve read it does get good stats under Linux. It might even be fun enough to stream, when I actually stream!
I’ve got a few work buddies that I like to swap gaming stories with at work. There’s one that I share a lunch with a few days out of the week; I told him about my adventures through Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night! I even shared a few of my screenshots with him from the comfort of my tablet. I inadvertently introduced him to the series, and after playing Yakuza Kiwami he couldn’t help but buy the entire series on his XBone. He spent the weekend playing Yakuza 6, and even revisited Fallout New Vegas for a time. I also got another one of my co-workers into Yakuza series recently (on PlayStation in his case) — again, not intentionally. I just have really weird influential powers. Still, it is nice to talk about a game with someone and actually have them know what I’m talking about! Even if we all hail from different platforms.
We may come from three different gaming realms, but one thing we can all universally agree on is this:
Goro Majima has to be a Daedric Prince! He’s everywhere and he never fucking ages.
I don’t have much to write about tonight. I had a good breakfast bowl, a robust tea, and tore into some of my to-do list, and my headphones arrived for wireless musical entertainment while conquering my real life side quests. I also worked on setting up a small 3D stage for a future project, nothing really worth mentioning as of yet.
That said, next Saturday there will be a video! It’ll be nice to break the silence on my YouTube channel, if only for a little while!
As promised (to myself) I immersed myself in more of Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night, continuously pressing on through challenges and evil demonic beasts (as seen above). If you haven’t treated yourself to this game yet, it’s a metroidvania type that takes places in late 1800’s anime-ified England. You play as Miriam, a young orphan cursed to be a Shardbinder, a being who is slowly being consumed by demonic crystal because of an alchemists curse. She can consume other shards, granting her numerous abilities throughout her journey.
Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night has a fun cast of characters; Tonight I met Todd, a poor soul cursed to roam the halls of this demonic castle as a Killer Barber, a demon that typically cuts more than just hair (and wears high heels for some weird reason). In order to release him from this strange and unusual curse I’ll need to find different hairstyles on my journey, and then impart my knowledge to him so that I can get him one step closer to humanity, and one step closer to achieving the perfect look:
This was the last hairstyle I obtained before calling it a night. I also unlocked a French Braid, and of course lots of weapons and cosmetics. 😛
You too, can harness the power of alchemy to make the perfect french fry! (or chips, given this is Anime England).
I’ve also been doing a lot of Alchemy, and stocking up on potions to ensure that I can escape certain situations… and also feed an old lady who keeps rewarding me with extra swag. I made her these chips and she gave me designer sunglasses as a thanks… late 1800’s Anime England is weird.
Zangetsu (not to be confused with the Bankai).
My biggest challenge was defeating Zangetsu, a super powerful fire samurai, voiced by David Hayter himself! There’s no hiding that dummy thicc voice from me! 😛 It took me awhile, but I finally learned how to defeat him; though something tells me that I’m not quite through with him yet, and not because he’s also a playable character now! I guess at some point I’ll have to take control of him, he looks like he could be fun to play.
Before and After Modding
In order to improve my experience I ventured over to the PCGamingWiki and found a fix for jagged 3D models that appear during NPC chat and the status screen. On the left is what it looks like without the mod, and on the right is with the mod in place. By default, the game is set to render these models at 1080p even if you’re running at a higher resolution (1440p in my case). This mod upscales the models to 4K for a less jagged look. The mod can be located here.
All in all, from the 7 hours I’ve invested into this game thus far, I can say that if you like Metroidvanias you should definitely consider this one (assuming you’re like me and haven’t played it already). It has stunning visuals, excellent voice cast and it’s a fun kind of grind with a gripping story… or perhaps it’s the month of Halloween possessing me to have a good time. 😛
