TE Video: coming Soon (January 2025)

A new year is just around the corner, and with is comes a whole new programming schedule! I’m really excited for all the videos I have coming up, and doubly excited for absolutely nobody to watch them! Yay for time well spent!

Urayama (PC) – On Jan 2, we kick off the new year with a Japanese indie horror by a new (to me) developer, Yamoto. While it’s a bit rough around the edges, I had a great time playing it, and I think it’s a fun watch. Even with my commentary.

The Knight Witch (PC) – The last three episodes of this series go up on Jan 6, 13, and 20 respectively. If you haven’t been paying attention to it up to this point… well, I don’t think anything I can say is going to sell you on it.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Switch) – Part 8 goes live on Jan 4, with new episodes each following Saturday. I’ve kind of given up hope that anyone will care about this series, but I’m still going to see it through. At least it’s been fun for me!

DEAD OR SCHOOL (PC) – A game I had little faith in when starting, that I came to truly enjoy over time. The first three episodes of this long, long series will air on Jan 9, 23, and 30. Truth be told, at the time of this writing I’ve recorded 15 hour(ish)-long episodes and there’s no end in sight. This bad boy’s gonna be running all year.

Can’t Revert (PC) – Another indie horror on Jan 16, but this one is bad. It’s a very PT-style “walk through the same apartment over and over as scary things happen” kind of game, but with an incredibly overused plot and a bad chase sequence at the end. Still, not the worst game I’ve played recently!

9 Years of Shadows (PC) – Another metroidvania to carry on after The Knight Witch ends, this one starts on Jan 27. It’s a little more of a standard metroidvania, but with a very cool element-switching mechanic and a tenuous link to Greek mythology. I really liked this one, and I hope this series gets even one person to buy the game!

Sammy Time

There are a lot of advantages to working from home, and my favourite is that I can have anything I like for lunch. Of course, I usually eat the exact same thing for lunch every day because it fits my nutrition plan best, but sometimes I get a little more adventurous.

To that end: behold! Grilled Cheese Madame!

Yes, it’s just a grilled cheese sandwich with a fried egg in the middle. And yes, I know that the fried egg typically goes on top of a Croque Madame. But I wasn’t going to put the pickle and the egg on top, you know? It’s much more photogenic this way.

Honestly, I’m actually kind of sad that I had no toothpicks on hand to skewer the pickles in with. I know that’s 100% a presentation thing, but… I dunno. It would have made me happy. Made me feel more “legit,” I guess?

The Grilled Cheese Madames were oh-so delicious, and I appreciate how much easier they were to make than actual Croque Madame. Not that I mind the effort-I actually quite enjoy cooking!-but I rarely ever have deli meats in the fridge, and bechamel sauce really doesn’t add that much for how much more work you have to put in (it’s not that much). As far as I’m concerned, Grilled Cheese Madame will do both in and out of a pinch!

Also, perspective is a funny thing. Those sandwiches are pulled almost all the way to the front of the plate, but you’d never be able to tell just by looking at the photo.

Month End Video Game Wrap-Up: November 2024

~ Game Over ~

Silent Hill 2 (2024) (PC) – Exactly what I want to see in a remake: very similar to the source material, but with lots of tweaks and surprises for veterans of the original. The combat is surprisingly fun (SH combat is usually ass) and the new puzzles are (mostly) pretty darn good.

Can’t Revert (PC) – It’s just like PT, except much less frightening. Also, makes flagrant use of the “bad dad” trope that’s so common in horror games. I had a few good laughs with it, though! There’s a let’s play video of it coming some day.

Peglin (PC) – GD Peglin is back for more…

Continue reading Month End Video Game Wrap-Up: November 2024

TE Video: Coming Soon (Dec 2024)

Oh, things have gotten wildly out of control on my YouTube channel! Over the last month, I’ve gained over 50 new subscribers, and videos are actually getting likes now!? Only problem is, the watch minutes aren’t adding up too quick. So I guess bots can like and subscribe now?

Also all my videos are on Rumble as well. But that channel’s not doing so well. Which is too bad, because the threshold for monetization is much lower there.

Anyway, here’s what’s coming up next month (for all the bots that care):

The Knight Witch – Part 5 goes live on Dec 2, and there’s a new episode every Monday. This one isn’t gaining much traction by any metric, but I didn’t expect it to. I don’t think many people know it exists. But it’s a really good game, it’s too bad it’s buried under so many other games.

Another Code Recollection – Part 12 goes live on Dec 5, and unlike The Knight Witch, this one will actually wrap up by the end of the year. However, this series is getting even less attention than The Knight Witch, which I find odd because it’s a story-heavy game, and at least in my opinion, those are the best games to watch let’s plays of. Oh well! *shrug*

Mario & Luigi: Brothership – Part 4 will air on Dec 7. While the first episode did pretty okay (50+ views), part 2 is still sitting at zero as of this writing. Ouch. I really thought there may be some draw, as it’s a new game with big name recognition, but I seem to have been mistaken. I’m honestly not even sure if I’m going to finish the game on-camera or not. But I probably will.

A Pop-Tarts Review – I’m planning at least one for December. I won’t tell you what flavour, but I will tell you that I intend on putting it up on the 25th. There will probably actually even be another one before that, but we’ll have to see how motivated I feel over the next couple of weeks.

Crunchy… AND poppy

I posted another Pop-Tarts review video out of nowhere yesterday.

Actually, it’s been sitting in my videos folder since August; I just haven’t had the motivation to take the time to edit it. But then I did!

One of my personal goals for 2024 was to post six Pop-Tarts reviews throughout the year. Not a terribly high bar to clear. However, we’re at the end of November and this is only the second. Either crunch time is here, or I decide that I don’t really care that much about this specific goal. I’ve crushed all the ones I really cared about, so this one, I think, could slide. But I still might try! Stay tuned to find out!

Words and Such

I haven’t really been in the writing mood too much as of late. I know, not a great business model for a blogger, but also… I do this for fun, not for glory.

In an effort to post something, here’s a point-form list of things that I maybe would have written more about in another timeline and that may be of moderate interest. I may still write about some of them at length, but probably not.

  • I’ve been playing the new Ys game in short bursts since it released a couple weeks ago. As you may know, I’m a big, big fan of the Ys series, and Ys X: Nordics is not disappointing so far. The first few chapters were a bit slow, but it’s taking off now, and I really like the two-member party system. It’s very unique, if a bit limited in options.
  • Work has been kind of insanely busy lately. Which is a good thing, because it helps to keep me on task. Also, it’s becoming more and more apparent to me how well-respected (and maybe even well-liked) I am within the organization. As someone who’s had low self-esteem for basically his whole life, it’s really quite nice to feel confident and dependable.
  • I bought a stupidly expensive alarm clock from Nintendo recently, and I don’t regret a penny of it. I never expected such a weird thing could bring me such joy. Will likely do more words about this at some point.
  • Went to see Venom: The Last Dance recently. I’m still not sure exactly how I feel about it or why (I haven’t given it all that much consideration), but I may have been kinda bored for most of the runtime? Definitely the least enjoyable of the trilogy, in my opinion, even though the climax and epilogue were satisfying.
  • After years of sleeping on the couch with the TV on just about every night, I’ve been sleeping in my bed like a normal-ass person over the last week. I’m not really sleeping much better (still waking up at least once a night), but I am feeling a little more well-rested, and my back is definitely thanking me.
  • A couple of co-workers have been singing the praises of the roguelike poker game, Balatro, so I decided to give it a whirl on their recommendations. I’m trying my best, but I don’t know if it’s right for me. Even the tutorial felt overwhelming. And here I was thinking that I was getting over my fear of roguelikes.
  • I was going to put a link to a relevant post in the paragraph above, but it turns out that I never published it. I guess that’s something I probably should do, seems silly to have written out a full 2000-plus-word post that’s just sitting in limbo. Actually, there are at least two of those…
  • Taking a more proactive role in managing both my eating and exercise regimens throughout the year has done wonders for my health, both physical and mental. It’s been a long road, but I’ve far surpassed my weight loss goal and I’ve been feeling fantastic. It would be nice to have someone, you know, notice, but oh well! External validation is for chumps, anyway.
  • I went on a short vacation with my family at the end of September. I don’t think I wrote a single word about it, but it was awesome. Nothing terribly exciting, but it was great to simply get away and be somewhere different for a while. And also to have that QT with the people who are closest to me, of course. That’s always good.