Final Fantasy VII (Original)

It's hard to know where to begin with this game, so I guess I'll just start from the beginning. The Final Fantasy games were never really on my radar. Final Fantasy VII (FFVII) was a huge game for the Playstation, and I first became aware of the series when it came out, but I never payed attention to any of the other games in the series that came out after VII and I never played VII. The main reason for this was the turn-based gameplay. I thought this style of game seemed lame compared to other games of the time, and thus never gave the series a chance. It wasn't until 2020's Final Fantasy Remake that I became interested in the series, and I didn't even play that until 2024. Remake appealed to me when the rest of the franchise did not because it got rid of the turn-based play. Plus, the game looked gorgeous, so I decided to give it a try and haven't turned back since. I have since played Rebirth and Crisis Core, and am currently playing FF XVI. I enjoyed Remake and Rebirth so much that I've already preordered the final installment in the FF VII remake trilogy that comes out next year. With that being said, I had to go back and play the original game to see how it compared to the modern versions. I wasn't disappointed.

What I like most about FF VII is that the game feels like an epic journey. In the nearly 50 hour campaign, you travel from cities to countryside, up mountains, deep undersea, and you even end up in outer space at one point. You visit so many different locations on your journey to get to Sephiroth, once you finally do catch up to him, you feel like you've accomplished something big. The locations you visit are interesting, providing areas to explore and people to meet. Along the way you also pick up members who join your team. The story is a bit convoluted, and I'm not going to try to explain it here (there are plenty of sites who offer a nice summary). The remakes do a better job of getting into the details of the plot, and had I not previously played the first two remakes and Crisis Core, a lot of the more subtle details (Cloud not being a former SOLDIER, for instance) probably would have went over my head. But the story, the characters, and the locations that you visit are what makes this game so great.

As for the turned-based play, I've actually come to like it. It eliminates button-mashing, which a lot of action games tend to emphasize, and you get to think about your moves and how you are going to spend it when it is your turn. I no longer reject games just because they are turn-based like I used to, which is a major shift in my gaming experience. 

I've only played a small handful of the Final Fantasy games, but I understand why this game is so popular. It has been my favorite in the series thus far. The story and locations are great, the gameplay is intriguing, and the characters are memorable. The music is fantastic too. It is an epic game that checks all the boxes. I'm glad I finally took the time to play it. Not only was the experience of the game great, but it introduced me to other Final Fantasy games as well as turn-based games. This is a must-play game in my opinion. 

Norse Myths and Legends

 

In school we always learned about Greek mythology, and I was never a fan. I think I would have liked it more if it were broken up into shorter, more digestible stories like the Norse mythologies presented in this book. Instead, we were presented with very old, large, and difficult to understand (for me, at least) stories like the Odyssey or Iliad. I always found these texts cumbersome to read and a bit confusing. After my scholarly assignments ended on the topic, I generally moved on from mythology and didn't pay much attention to it. It wasn't until I started watching the Marvel movies with Thor and playing the PS4-era God of War games that Norse mythology became visible on my radar. These movies and games are where the majority of my Norse mythology knowledge comes from, along with some side research and reading. Norse Myths and Legends is a collection of short stories about Odin, Thor, Loki, and other Norse gods. The stories are not all directly related, and can be read as individual tales if preferred. I won't summarize the individual stories here, but broadly the book can be summarized as seen below from ChatGTP:

The collection brings together stories from the Norse tradition, covering the creation of the world, the adventures of Odin, Thor, and Loki, the legendary dragon slayer Sigurd, and the final destruction of the gods at Ragnarok.

The stories fall into three broad categories:

• Tales of the Gods: The creation of the cosmos, the adventures of the Aesir, and their conflicts with giants and monsters.

• Sagas: Stories of legendary families, kings, warriors, feuds, and the consequences of honor and revenge.

• Heroes: Legendary figures such as Sigurd, whose victories and personal tragedies shape the heroic tradition.

Apple Arcade

 

I have access to Apple Arcade as a part of my Apple One subscription. The issue that I have with Apple Arcade is that it is the third gaming source that I have behind Playstation and Nintendo, and the fourth gaming source if you count Steam. That isn't Apple Arcade's fault, per se. However, it is important because as a gamer, I want to play the best games that are available and I'm not sure Apple Arcade can say that they have the best games available. Out of the 200+ games available, there are probably 15 or so games that I'm interested in. I'm actually OK with this ratio, but the trouble is out of those 15 games, I've either (a) already played them on a different platform, or (b) I have access to them on a different platform where they're better. NBA2K, for instance, is significantly better on the PS5 than it is on Apple Arcade. 

Apple Arcade has games available for Apple TV, Mac, and iPhone & iPad. Some games are only available on certain platforms, however, and I find this frustrating. For instance, I've been on a huge Final Fantasy kick lately, and Arcade has Final Fantasy I & IV. I do not currently have access to these games on other platforms without purchasing them. However, they are only available on iPhone or iPad. I don't have interest in playing these games on my iPhone with touch controls. If they were available on Apple TV or even the Mac, where I could play with a controller, I would be significantly more interested in the service.

So where does this leave Arcade in the grand scheme of gaming? I'm not really sure. I like the app and interface quite a bit. I think the game selection is OK but not great. I don't think it is all that appealing to serious gamers. I think it could appeal to people who enjoy gaming but don't want to invest in a console or PC for some reason. This includes people who enjoy gaming on their phones and tablets. For me, I'm a bit lost on what to do with it. I'd love to see it expand to more games on the Mac & Apple TV, where you could play on a larger screen and with a controller. I'd also love to see Apple TV get a Playstation Remote Play app (This has nothing to do with Arcade, but I bring it up as an example of how Apple could expand its gaming footprint.). For the time being, I will loosely keep an eye on the games that are available but likely won't participate in it much unless it gets upgraded quite a bit.

Red Dead Redemption (Second Post)

 

I decided to play through Red Dead Redemption again since it was re-released for the PS5 last year and was available on Playstation Plus. This is the first time I have played the game since it came out on PS3 in 2010. I remember enjoying the game, but I also remembering it being a bit buggy, to the point of locking up the PS3, which is an unusual situation for a console game. The PS5 version of this game looks and plays fantastic. There were no lock-ups or technical issues. This game is nearly perfect. The environment and gameplay are fantastic. The only slight negative I would give this game is that the gameplay, at times, is a bit repetitive. But that is being nit-picky, because despite this, the gameplay is so darn fun that it is very easy to look past this slight negative. The story is intriguing as are the characters you meet along the way. John Marston is a likable and memorable video game character. He's probably one of my favorite video game protagonists. I didn't particularly like how the government killed him at the end of the game, despite doing everything they ridiculously demanded. Killing agent Ross as John's son to end the game, however, was super satisfying. I want to acknowledge the soundtrack as well, which is supercool. Again, I really can't say enough good things about this game. It does everything very well and was quite enjoyable to play through again.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater

 

I have mixed emotions about the Metal Gear Solid (MGS) series. I was introduced to the series by the 1998 Playstation game Metal Gear Solid and loved it. I was blown away by the story, gameplay, and cutscenes. I had never seen anything like it at the time. Metal Gear Solid 2 was a big disappointment in my opinion, however, and I actually stayed away from the series for quite some time. It wasn't until 2008's Metal Gear Solid 4 that I returned to the series. MGS 4 was on the PS3, the same system that MGS HD Collection was released. My enjoyment of MGS 4 piqued my interest in the series again, so I decided to play the HD Collection. HD Collection featured MGS 3: Snake Eater, which was the first time I had played this game, which originally came out on the PS2. I remember enjoying the game quite a bit. Taking place during the Cold War 1960s, I really enjoyed the US vs Russia, spy-espionage theme and gameplay. It had double-crossing agents, and a theme song & title straight from a James Bond movie, and featured the most memorable ladder climbing scene in the history of video games. It also features a memorable group of villains who make up the Cobra unit. With names like The Fear and The Sorrow, it's honestly difficult to know if you should laugh at these characters or take them seriously. Their over-the-top, comic book appearance in the background of a mostly serious plot is part of the weird appeal of this game and series.

MGS Delta: Snake Eater is a recreation of the original MGS 3: Snake Eater. It features updated graphics and looks and sounds fantastic, but the gameplay is essentially the same as the original game from what I can remember. It's still a fun game to play, and worthwhile to play for the memories or if you're new to the series. From ChatCTP:

The story begins in 1964, at the height of the Cold War. CIA operative Naked Snake is sent into the Soviet jungle to rescue a defecting rocket scientist named Nikolai Sokolov, whose research could shift the balance of nuclear power.

Snake succeeds—until his legendary mentor, The Boss, unexpectedly betrays the United States. She defects to the Soviet Union, joins Colonel Volgin, and personally defeats Snake, breaking his arm. Volgin then uses an American-made nuclear weapon to destroy a Soviet research facility, making it appear as though the U.S. was responsible.

Snake discovers Volgin is building the Shagohod, a nuclear-capable mobile launch platform that serves as a precursor to the Metal Gear weapons of later games.

Snake destroys the Shagohod and defeats Volgin. During the battle, Ocelot secretly reveals himself to be working for American intelligence while continuing to play multiple sides.

Along the way, there are twist and turns as far as which side the characters are working on, as well as tie-ins to future themes in other MGS games. This is the first game in the series from a chronologic perspective, so it sets the stage for what happens in most other MGS games. Overall I find the story and setting quite intriguing, and is my favorite part of the game. It is a bit convoluted at times, and honestly you could have an entire website dedicated to this game series explaining the ins and outs. I'll spare myself the trouble of typing that up (I'm sure you can find that info on the game's wiki). 

The Witcher (Season 3)

 

After the character's back stories were finished in season 1, and the family gets together and bonds in season 2, we finally get to see the complicated political situation in The Witcher play out in season 3. I'll be honest, I didn't fully understand what was going on with all of the power players in this show until midway though season 2. With that being said, entering season 3 I felt ready to watch the major players battle for the continent and Ciri. From ChatGTP:

Season 3 follows Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri as they finally become a family. Unfortunately, nearly every kingdom, mage, and monster hunter on the Continent is searching for Ciri because of her Elder Blood, which could change the fate of the world. As they flee their enemies, they uncover a conspiracy that ultimately shatters the Brotherhood of Sorcerers and sends each of them down separate paths. Geralt investigates who is orchestrating the attacks on Ciri. The real mastermind is eventually revealed to be Vilgefortz, one of the most respected mages in the Brotherhood. The season builds toward the Conclave at Aretuza, where Yennefer hopes to unite the mages against Nilfgaard. Instead, the gathering erupts into betrayal. Vilgefortz reveals his alliance with Nilfgaard, and a massive battle breaks out between loyalist mages, traitors, Nilfgaardian forces, and Scoia'tael elves. Separated from Geralt and Yennefer, Ciri is transported into the Korath Desert. Rejecting Falka's influence but forever changed, Ciri eventually escapes captivity and joins a gang of young outlaws known as the Rats. She adopts the alias "Falka", signaling a darker and more independent chapter of her life. By the finale:

• Geralt is recovering and beginning his search for Ciri.
• Yennefer is rebuilding the Brotherhood of mages.
• Ciri has joined the Rats under the name "Falka."
• Emperor Emhyr publicly claims to have recovered Ciri—but it's actually Teryn, a magically altered novice made to impersonate the princess.
• Vilgefortz emerges as the series' primary villain, now possessing immense political influence and still hunting the real Ciri.

Season 3 serves as:

• The conclusion of the "found family" story for Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri.
• The fall of the Brotherhood of Sorcerers.
• Ciri's transformation from protected princess into an independent survivor.
• Henry Cavill's final season as Geralt of Rivia before the role was recast for subsequent seasons.

Season 3 has been the best season of The Witcher thus far in my opinion. It's had the most action, the most coherent story, and episodes where actions have direct and large consequences, most of which we will see played out in season 4. It is a shame to see Henry Cavill leave the show, as I enjoyed his rendition of Geralt. Liam Hemsworth will have difficult shoes to fill. Season 3 ended with some massive changes to the plot and characters, so hopefully the show can keep up the momentum it gained in season 3, despite Cavill's departure. 
 

The Witcher (Season 2)

 

Following the confusing, multi-timeline plot of season 1, season 2 finally has all of the characters on the main timeline, making it much easier to follow. Geralt takes Ciri to the Witcher headquarters Kaer Morhen to train. Monsters start appearing throughout the land, and Geralt investigates to figure out why Ciri is attracting so much danger. Yennifer, who loses her magic after the Battle of Sodden in season 1, makes a deal with one of the monsters to restore her magic in return for giving the monster Ciri. As the season progresses, everyone realizes how powerful Ciri has become, and that she could save or destroy the continent. Thus, multiple groups of people begin searching for her, including Nilfgaard, the Northern Kingdoms, mages, and the elves. 

While season 1 felt kind of like the video game or like reading the book, in that each episode was a separate story, it was important to give some background to the characters. Now that the characters are together in a cohesive timeline, season 2 allows the plot to move forward in a meaningful way, setting up the political battles and battles for Ciri that we will see in season 3.

Playstation Saying Goodbye to Physical Media

 

Last week, Sony announced that they would no longer be making physical discs for new games starting in January 2028. This was met with an overwhelmingly negative response. From a larger forest perspective, I get the negative response. Getting rid of discs also gets rid of the sense of ownership. It gets rid of the secondary used game market. It forces you to buy games at digital stores, which presumably makes Sony more money. These are just the negatives off the top of my head. I'm sure there are numerous other negative impacts this decision makes. From an individual tree perspective (I'm sticking with the forest and trees analogy), I'm not sure that I really care all that much.

Since 2020, I have purchased all of my games digitally. Over the past 5-10 years, I have purged (read donated) a lot of my CDs, DVDs, and game discs. I have posted about this process here and here. I absolutely get the concept of ownership that comes with having a physical disc. What I didn't like, however, was having a house full of bookshelves of discs and their cases. Plus, the ease of switching from one game to another (or one song to another or one movie to another) digitally is so much easier when you don't have to swap out discs. Once I wrapped my mind around having less clutter and improved ease of switching between media, I was sold on digital media. I've actually never used my optical drive on my PS5 to play games. I read that around 80% of games sold these days are sold digitally without a disc, and if this is true than the majority of people are already ditching discs.

The concept of playing old games on old systems is something that I understand on paper, but in reality I don't personally have any use for this, and I wonder how often people actually do this.  Don't get me wrong. I play older games all of the time. I'm currently playing Final Fantasy VII and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages. I'm certainly not playing them on Playstation 1 or GameBoy Color. Next to my PS5, I have a PS2, N64, and NES on shelves on my entertainment center. I have them sitting there as decoration and for nostalgia to great previous gaming eras. I couldn't connect them to my current TV even if I wanted to, since none of them have HDMI ports and my TV only has HDMI ports (I'm not saying it's impossible, but it isn't as easy as just connecting them with the cables that came with the system). The point is, I could have multiple old video game systems sitting around and figure out how to connect all of them to modern TVs (or have older TVs also sitting around), as well as shelves of likely 100s of discs and game cartridges, or I can just move on with the times and play the older games on newer systems. Yes, you may have to rebuy them, but I am OK with that given the aforementioned logistical struggles of playing older systems.

Listen, I get the frustration. I think it stinks that at some point in the future, we will no longer have gaming stores filled with older games and their discs. But for me personally, this will not affect how I play games. I've been disc free for 6 years and I haven't missed them. 

GoldenEye & The Sound of 007 - Part 2

 

The music in the James Bond films is iconic and classic, likely some of the most recognizable and well known tunes in the history of film. Amazon has a documentary of the music called The Sound of 007 which discusses the history of both the well-known orchestral songs and the title credits theme songs of each movie. While some of the title credits theme songs for the individual movies are quite good, I'm particularly fond of the big band sounds that the movies feature from the likes of John Barry, among others. One of the interesting things to me that the show revealed was that my favorite band Radiohead almost did the title credits theme song to the Bond film Spectre. Unfortunately, the song for the film has to be completely original, and the band had played the song at concerts prior to being chosen for the film, making the song unusable. The song is cool nevertheless, and can be heard on streaming services. If you're a fan of the Bond films, you'd likely find this documentary on the film's music interesting.

I've been on a big Bond kick as of late. In addition to this post, I had a previous post discussing the game GoldenEye and speedrunning. I have an upcoming post about Omega watches, which James Bond has famously worn, and the game First Light just came out, which I'm hoping to play soon. All of this got me in the mood to play the N64 classic GoldenEye. GoldenEye is one of the most famous and classic video games from the 1990s. I remember spending hours playing the game with my friends, our small CRT TV split into 4 screens as we played against each other. It's interesting because as I've mentioned many times before, I'm not a big fan of first person shooters, but there was something special about this game. This game was my introduction to James Bond and was the first Bond film that I watched as well.

The game's status as a legend is unquestionable. I'm not here to discuss that. What I want to discuss is how its gameplay holds up nearly 30 years after its release. My answer is that it holds up pretty decent. There are some things that early generation 3D games from the Playstation 1 & N64 eras cannot escape. The first is blocky, polygonal graphics, with unusual faces, trees that look like walls, etc. They were a limitation of the hardware of the era. The second major issue that I've found with a lot of games from this era involves the controls. I've been playing a lot of older games recently and have come across this issue on several of them. The out-of-the-box controls on the Switch 2 version of GoldenEye are terrible. The game is basically unplayable, and if they are anything like the controls from the original game, then I have no idea how anyone played it.   Luckily, there are guides online explaining how to re-map the buttons, making the controls not too bad. After you get past these two items, the game is actually pretty decent. The music rocks, the stages are fun, and in addition to the shooting action, there are plenty of other objectives that need to be accomplished to finish a stage, such as destroying controls for the GoldenEye satellite or using your Omega gadget watch (thanks, Q!) as a laser. The NPCs are not smart, and will run right towards you as you actively shoot at them, but again, a limitation of the era. The fact that a game this old holds up this well says volumes on how good it was at the time. It really is a special game, and worth a replay if you haven't played it in a while (this is the first time I've replayed it since the '90s) and have it available.

The Witcher (Season 1)

 

Had I not played The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt or read The Witcher: Last Wish prior to watching season 1 of The Witcher, I would have had no idea what was going on. Then again, I probably would not have watched this show had I not played the game. Season 1 follows the story of 3 main characters: Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri. Geralt's story feels very video game like, in that each episode has him doing a seemingly random witcher job, almost like a stage in a video game. We follow Yennefer's transformation from a weak farmhand to a powerful mage. Finally, we learn that Ciri's people are caught in a war, forcing Ciri to flee the comforts of her castle and become a person on the run. What makes the show a bit confusing is that each of the main character's plots are on different timelines, and each episode seems a bit random and unrelated initially. However, as the season progresses, the story arch of each character eventually converges, and as season 1 ends, we are left with all 3 main characters on the same timeline. The season 1 summary, from ChatGTP:

Geralt's Story

Geralt is a witcher—a mutated monster hunter who travels the Continent slaying creatures for coin. Early in the season, he becomes known as the "Butcher of Blaviken" after killing the bandit princess Renfri and her followers to prevent a massacre. Throughout his travels, he is accompanied at times by the bard Jaskier and struggles with the idea of destiny.

During a royal banquet in Cintra, Geralt saves the cursed knight Duny. As payment, he invokes the ancient "Law of Surprise," unknowingly claiming Duny's unborn child—Princess Ciri—as his destiny.

Yennefer's Story

Yennefer begins as a mistreated young woman with physical deformities. She is taken to the magical academy of Aretuza, where she trains to become a sorceress. To gain beauty and power, she undergoes a magical transformation that leaves her unable to have children. This sacrifice becomes a source of lifelong regret.

Years later, Yennefer meets Geralt when they become entangled in a conflict involving a powerful djinn. They fall in love, but their relationship becomes strained when Yennefer learns Geralt used a magical wish that may have bound their fates together.

Ciri's Story

Ciri is the princess of Cintra. Her life changes when the expanding Nilfgaardian Empire invades her kingdom. After her grandmother, Queen Calanthe, sends her away to find Geralt, Cintra falls and Ciri becomes a fugitive. As she flees across the Continent, she begins discovering mysterious magical powers of her own.

The Battle of Sodden

As Nilfgaard continues its conquest, Yennefer and other mages make a stand at the Battle of Sodden Hill. Yennefer unleashes a devastating wave of magical fire that helps defeat the invading army, but she disappears afterward and is presumed dead.

Ending

The season's various timelines finally converge. Geralt, realizing he cannot escape destiny, searches for Ciri after the fall of Cintra. After many near misses, the two finally meet in a forest and embrace, fulfilling the destiny that has linked them since before Ciri's birth. The season ends with Ciri asking Geralt about Yennefer, setting up the next chapter of their intertwined story.

Overall I enjoyed season 1 of The Witcher, although it is a bit confusing. I'm glad I had some background knowledge of what was going on. That knowledge, and episode reviews, helped me understand the story pretty well. I have Netflix for a limited amount of time, so I'll immediately be watching season 2.

Assassin's Creed: Unity

 

I've had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Assassin's Creed (AC) games. About half to two-thirds of the games I've played I've enjoyed, while the rest I didn't really care for. AC: Unity is a bit in the middle for me. I didn't love it, but I also didn't hate it. I liked it well enough to complete the game, though there were a couple of occasions during the campaign where I thought about quitting. I had read that starting with AC: Origins (or possibly Odyssey) the gameplay shifted from a stealth approach to more of an action approach. AC: Unity came out before these games and definitely has more of a stealth approach. I'm OK with either approach, although there were a few stages early in the game where if you were caught you failed the stage, without an option to fight off the enemies. I don't particularly like this situation, and this was one of the times I almost quit the game. Luckily, most of the time if you were caught you simply just fought off the enemies. A lot of the stages involved infiltrating heavily defended areas, and being stealthy was definitely an advantage, and I'm OK with that. Here is the plot summary from ChatGTP:

Assassin's Creed Unity takes place in late 18th-century Paris during the French Revolution. The story follows Arno Dorian, a young man caught between the centuries-old conflict between the Assassins and the Templars while France collapses into political violence.

As a child, Arno witnesses the murder of his father, an Assassin. He is later adopted by François de la Serre, the Grand Master of the French Templars, and grows up alongside de la Serre’s daughter, Élise, with whom he falls in love. Years later, Arno is blamed when de la Serre is assassinated during a party at Versailles. Imprisoned in the Bastille, he meets the Assassin Bellec, who recruits him into the Brotherhood after they escape during the storming of the Bastille in 1789.

Arno joins the French Assassins primarily to uncover who framed him and killed de la Serre. His investigation reveals that a radical faction within the Templar Order is responsible. These extremists, led by François-Thomas Germain, want to exploit the Revolution to gain power through chaos and terror. Germain manipulates key revolutionary figures and events from behind the scenes, worsening the bloodshed in Paris.

As the Revolution intensifies, Arno witnesses major historical events and figures, including the execution of King Louis XVI, the rise of Maximilien Robespierre, and the Reign of Terror.

The climax takes place in the Temple crypt beneath Paris. Germain possesses a powerful Sword of Eden, an ancient First Civilization artifact capable of unleashing destructive energy. During the confrontation, Élise ignores Arno’s warnings and attacks Germain directly. Germain kills her, but Arno manages to defeat him afterward.

I found 18th century Paris to be a bit drab. The city itself wasn't particularly interesting, and I found it a bit difficult to navigate due to the winding streets and surrounding tall buildings. However, I want to highlight the people and crowds. They were huge (seemingly in the 1,000s at times), and at times you had to navigate through these massive rioting crowds to accomplish your task. That part of the game was pretty neat, and impressive actually, because there were no noticeable frame rate drops. As usual, the modern day portions of the game did nothing for me. Luckily they were minimal in this game. The controls were a bit sluggish, something that plagues a lot of games from the 2010-era. I've listed my grievances with this game, but generally it was enjoyable. 

Grid Legends

 

I've been playing Grid Legends off and on since I got a Playstation Plus subscription in 2022. I enjoyed the game, but for whatever reason it was always the first game I dropped when I was crunched for gaming time or when a new game came along that I wanted to play. I finally dedicated time to play through the game on the Portal, and though I didn't finish the game per se, I played through all of the rounds that I was easily able to unlock. I've definitely dedicated enough time to this game for it to have its own post, and my thoughts are below.

The first thing to say about Grid Legends is that it looks fantastic. I don't typically spend a lot of time discussing graphics on modern games because in the era of 4K visuals with high refresh rates, and with the current generation of gaming hardware, most games look amazing. Grid Legends looks particularly good, however. It most definitely is an arcade racer, featuring 20+ cars on the track simultaneously with very close racing. Cars take damage, have mechanical failures with David Hobbs-style kablamos, and even flip and roll at times. All of this with over-the-top laser light shows and fireworks going on in the background. The frame rate remains smooth and the crashes are spectacular. Some of the best damage visuals I've seen. I remember a race I did recently at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, where it was lightly snowing. Seeing snow on a racetrack is rare, and seeing how it looked on this game was fantastic. 

Going back to the arcade racing style of the game, I think this is both a strength and weakness of the game. On the positive side, there are a lot of fun racing categories and secondarily fun cars to drive on this game. One of the more memorable races was a semi truck race on the IMS oval, in the dark, and in the rain. Are you kidding?!? The super trucks were a lot of fun to drive too. In addition to semis and trucks, there are GT cars, prototype cars, open wheel cars, etc. There's plenty of fun and oftentimes unique racing categories to keep the gameplay fresh. I generally enjoyed the arcade style of racing. At times I thought the controls were a bit less responsive than they should be, and the AI drivers can be particularly aggressive. Otherwise, the gameplay was fun.

The track selection is decent. The real track selection was great. I thought a lot of the fictional tracks were mediocre, but racing through the streets of downtown Chicago with the elevated train above was super cool. Overall, this game was a lot of fun and a nice break from the more serious racing games that I typically play. There was plenty of racing leagues and tracks to keep me entertained for a long time. The controls and aggressive AI drivers were a bit of a negative at times, but otherwise it was a fun game to play.

The Legend of Zelda - The Minish Cap (Game & Manga Book)

 

The Minish Cap (MC) was one of the few Zelda games that I had never played. Never owning a Game Boy Advance, I never had the opportunity to play the game until it became available on the Switch 2 via the Nintendo Classics catalog. I'll be honest, I had low expectations for the game. The cover art for the game is odd, and the idea that you wear a hat that looks like a duck seems bizarre. After playing the game, however, I'd rank it as my second favorite 2D Zelda game, behind A Link to the Past (ALttP). MC provides classic Zelda gameplay, with the fun twist of being able to shrink in size to perform certain tasks and interact with the Picori people. It's gameplay is similar to the gameplay in ALttP and honestly the story is probably a bit better. From Chat GTP:

The story follows Link, a young boy living in the kingdom of Hyrule, who sets out on a quest after a major disaster strikes during a festival. A mysterious sorcerer named Vaati shatters the sacred Picori Blade and turns Princess Zelda to stone while searching for a legendary power called the Light Force.

To save Zelda, Link teams up with a talking, magical hat named Ezlo, who was once Vaati’s mentor. Ezlo reveals that the Picori Blade can be reforged with the help of the Minish (also called Picori), a tiny, hidden race that only children can see.

Link journeys across Hyrule to find four elemental powers needed to restore the blade. Along the way, he gains the ability to shrink to Minish size, allowing him to explore hidden areas and interact with the tiny world around him. As he restores the blade into the powerful Four Sword, Link also uncovers Vaati’s backstory: once a Minish himself, Vaati became corrupted by his desire for power and transformed into a powerful wind mage.

In the final confrontation, Vaati succeeds in partially draining the Light Force from Zelda, transforming into a monstrous form. Link defeats him using the restored sword and his newfound abilities, saving Zelda and restoring peace to Hyrule.

In the end, Ezlo is returned to his true form, the Minish are honored for their role, and the reforged blade becomes known as the legendary Four Sword, setting up future events in the Zelda timeline.

A manga book for the game exists as well, which I read after finishing the game. The book does a good job of generally recapping the story, and the art if nothing else is amusing. This game has a particularly strong plot, and thus lends itself well to other media types. However, as with other Zelda games, a large portion of the game is centered around dungeons and discovery, which is hard to replicate outside the game. As with other manga books, the MC book mostly skips over these portions of the game. It's a quick read, and provides a nice general overview of the plot. It will be interesting to see how the upcoming live-action movie handles dungeons and the general exploration of Hyrule. 

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

 

I really enjoyed the first Super Mario movie, so of course I was looking forward to seeing The Super Mario Galaxy movie. I also think the Mario Galaxy games are some of the better Mario games, especially in the 3D category of Mario games. Thus, I was excited to see the theme of that game featured in this movie. Like most sequels, however, this movie was OK, but not as good as the original Mario movie (not the one from 1993).

I really enjoyed the throwback references to prior Mario games, especially Mario 2. Seeing Birdo and the rest of the villains from that game at the casino was amusing. I never played the Star Fox games, and thus his appearance in the movie didn't do much for me. I fired up Star Fox 64 and played the first stage. It aged as well as most games from the 64 era, meaning it was quite blocky. The characters were like bobbleheads when they talked, which was distracting. I didn't make it past the first stage. To be fair, I've never been a big fan of flying games.

Anyway, back to the movie. The other thing I appreciated was the scene towards the end of the movie when they were attacking Bowser's base. Mario and Peach are running down a pathway with rotating fireball objects in their pathway, just like in the NES-era 2D side-scrolling Mario games. It was really neat to see. Going back to Mario Galaxy, it was fun to see Rosalina (Brie Larson) and elements from that game in the movie as well. Just hearing Charlie Day's voice (Luigi) is amusing. The music in the movie was cool too. 

All of the nostalgia aside, the plot of the movie was just OK. Having Bowser (Jack Black) as baby bowser for most of the movie was a bold choice, and I don't think Bowser Jr. holds the prestige of a main villain the way Bowser himself does. Additionally, there were no ridiculous Jack Black songs in this movie to recreate the amazing "Peaches" song from the first movie. Overall, this movie is worth watching if you're a Mario fan and/or if you have kids. It's enjoyable, but doesn't quite pull off the same level of greatness as the original 2023 movie. 

Spider-Man 2

 

Spider-Man 2 became available on Playstation Plus and I almost immediately started playing the game. I really enjoyed Spider-Man the original game, as well as Miles Morales. The gameplay is nearly identical in this game as the previous two games. The biggest two differences is that you can switch between Miles and Peter, and the map of New York in this game seems quite a bit larger than prior games. The larger map is appreciated, though sometimes you do spend quite a bit of time going from point A to point B. With that being said, it is quite a bit of fun slinging your way around Manhattan. My only complaint with these games is that the action can feature quite a bit of button mashing. Oftentimes, you are facing multiple (20+) enemies at a time, usually alone (though sometimes the other Spider-Man comes to help out), requiring you to use all of your Spider-Man skills to survive, which requires a lot of button mashing. Because of this, I wasn't sad to periodically give up Spider-Man's skills to do a stage as MJ or even as Peter instead of Spider-Man. It was always a nice break from the button mashing, but ultimately this is a Spider-Man game, and I was always happy to return to Peter Parker or Miles.

The plot of the game was good enough. It was a little helter-skelter, and a bit psychedelic at times, but overall it was a good story. The game starts with you facing Sandman, but quickly shifts focus to Kraven the Hunter, who is in town to collect superheroes for experimentation. The focus quickly shifts to Venom, however, who first infects Harry Osborn. Later it infects Peter, and then Harry again. Harry as Venom becomes the final boss, and saving Harry from Venom becomes the final task. Harry-Venom causes a ton of chaos and damage to the city along the way. I'm not a very big fan of the character Venom, and would've been just as happy sticking with Kraven the Hunter as the main villain throughout the game, but maybe that's just me?

Beyond the button mashing, with the plot of the game being decent, the rest of this game is top notch. This is one of the best-looking games I've seen on the PS5. The audio and voice acting/dialogue is really good. At several points throughout the game I found myself chuckling at something that was said by one of the characters. I also want to applaud the duration of the game. I finished the main story in 10-15 hours. I did a couple of the side quests, but there were several more that I could have done had I decided to. But I was happy with the duration of the main story of this game, going to show that you don't have to have a 40+ hour main quest to justify a good game.

Art of Rally

 

Art of Rally is a game for me that came out of nowhere. It was released on Playstation Plus, and I was interested in the game partially because of it being a racing game, but mostly because of the art and animation. I don't follow rally racing, and rally racing on games isn't my cup of tea. Some of the races on Gran Turismo are rally races, which I do for completion sake, but otherwise I don't have a lot of interest in the racing genre. But the visuals of this game were so appealing that I had to check it out. I'm glad that I did.

The game looks exactly like what is seen in the picture above. It features cartoon-like and somewhat boxy graphics, but overall I think the game looks fantastic. In the era of ray tracing and 4K video with high refresh rates, it is somewhat refreshing to take a step back and appreciate the uniqueness of simpler graphics. The visual style is honestly what made the game initially appealing to me. 

Art of Rally focuses on the golden era of rally racing, and does so over multiple rally locations and stages. Each location has its unique look and feel, and as you advance the cars available change and become more powerful. The block-like people even run into the course, as seen below and as made famous in Group B rally races. The game is somewhat difficult. It features an above 3rd person camera, and the controls can be a bit tricky and frustrating at times. But if you stick with it (sometimes going slower is faster) and continue to grind away, you'll find that you will have success as the AI drivers also make mistakes. I found myself winning several rally events without winning a single stage, as a consistent 3rd place finish was often enough to win the entire event. 

This game has been the surprise game of the year for me thus far in 2026. It first released in 2020, and was first available on the PS5 in 2021 and I had never heard of it until it came out on Playstation Plus. This is surprising given my like of racing and racing games, and given this game was well reviewed. It took me just under 20 hours to complete all of the events in career mode, and I think is a game well worth checking out if you are a racing fan.

The American Revolution

 

This started with the Fallout TV series. I had never played any of the games in the Fallout series, but watched the first season (and subsequently the second season) of the TV series because of how well it was received. I really enjoyed the show (the second season was a bit of a step down, in my opinion), and decided to play Fallout 4 the game. Fallout 4 takes place in the Commonwealth in what is present day Massachusetts, including the city of Boston. The game features the Freedom Trail and other Revolutionary War sites, thus sparking my interest. We even traveled to Boston to walk the trail and see the sites for ourselves, and really enjoyed it. 

I started reading the Rick Atkinson book The British Are Coming and learned a lot, but got bogged down by the complex details of the war. The book is 777 pages on the Kindle, and I made it to about page 220. I'm most interested in the pre-war activities that took place in Boston, and the activities that took place at the beginning of the war. What I learned from this book was that this was not a war between what would become the United States and Britain. This was a war between those two countries, and also included France (and what would become Canada), Spain, Germany, and Native Americans (probably other nations as well), and took place over multiple states and countries. Because of the number of entities involved, and the sheer size of the location of the war, this is a complicated war to summarize, hence the length of Atkinson's book.

Around the time that I decided to quit Atkinson's book, Ken Burns' The American Revolution was debuting. I decided to forgo reading the rest of the book and instead switch to the documentary. The six episode series did a good job of summarizing the complexity of the Revolutionary War. Like the book, I thought the pace was a bit slow at times, but this was mostly because of my lack of interest in specific battle details. As the war progressed, it involved so many nations and was spread out over such a large area, it became difficult to wrap your mind around what was going on. I think this is partially why the United States won the war. After years of dragging on and on, the British suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Yorktown, and just like that the war was over. 

Each episode was approximately 2 hours long, making the entire series around 12 hours in duration. Despite that length, I was able to get through the series more quickly than if I had read the 777 page book. This isn't to discredit the book, however. Like most book-to-TV or movie transitions, the book is able to go into much more depth and detail, if you're interested in additional information. Interestingly, Rick Atkinson is featured quite heavily in the show as an author & historian, so I got to hear his viewpoints on many of the war's topics. With that being said, I was satisfied with what I learned about the war from watching the show. After finishing the show, I've become satisfied with my Revolutionary War kick. I feel like I've learned what I've wanted to learn about this piece of history.

GoldenEye(Era) 007 & Speedrunning - Part 1

 

When I first heard of the concept of speedrunning, I thought it was a bit of a dumb idea. I almost always try to get through a game as quickly as possible. Once I saw a few speedrunning clips, however, my attitude towards the concept changed. These people who do speedrunning are amazing, especially the people who are doing world record breaking runs. The first time I watched a clip of a speedrun was when a long standing record was broken on Super Mario Bros. after a glitch was found in one of the stages, where if you timed your jump perfectly you could traverse through bricks, markedly shortening the amount of time it took to complete the stage. After seeing this clip, my attitude went from speedrunning being kind of silly to it actually being pretty neat. I don't spend a lot of time watching clips or anything, but whenever I see headlines about a record being broken or a new approach being discovered on a game that I've played, I pay attention.

Amazon has a documentary on speedrunning called Running With Speed. The show discusses several famous speedrunners, as well as popular games in the speedrunning genre. One of the aspects of speedrunning that is particularly interesting to me is the fact that older games are some of the most popular for speedrunning. I think this is mostly because they tend to contain more bugs for the players to exploit to beat previous times compared to newer games. It is amazing to watch these players find new ways to beat a game more quickly years (or decades) after a game has been released. The other thing the show displayed was how much money the community is able to raise due to the popularity of speedrunning, which is pretty cool too. 

GoldenEye is featured above because it was briefly discussed on Running With Speed. GoldenEye is obviously a hugely popular and nostalgic game, one that I spent countless hours playing with my friends when I was younger. The game is so popular, in fact, that it has its own documentary on Prime called GoldenEra. The show focuses on the development of the game, its success, and subsequent games that tried to recreate the success of GoldenEye. GoldenEye was a game that was created by the right people at the right time under the right circumstances. There were a number of things that occurred, mostly by chance, to make that game successful. These circumstances were difficult to recreate, which is why subsequent games did not enjoy the same success. For me, Pierce Brosnan in GoldenEye is quintessential James Bond, the Bond that I grew up with (more to come on this in a future post). Seeing GoldenEye in Running With Speed and subsequently in GoldenEra got me motivated to play the game again. I haven't played it in 25+ years, but have access to it for the first time since the N64 days on the Switch 2. I actually have low expectations for the game, as a lot of games from this era have not aged well, but I may be surprised. More to come on my thoughts on the game in Part 2. 

Apple One & Home

 

We've been long term Amazon Prime subscribers. Due to increasing cost and perceived decreased benefits (along with some other things), we've decided to discontinue our Amazon Prime subscription. The reason I'm bringing this up here is because of some downstream ramifications that come with discontinuing Prime. When I first started subscribing to a streaming music service several years ago, I went with Amazon Music Unlimited, partially because of a discount that was received if you were a Prime subscriber. I'm not sure if we still receive a discount for Music Unlimited, but the decision to drop Prime got me thinking about switching music services as well. Generally I've been happy with Music Unlimited. However, like everything else it seems, the price keeps going up for the service. Additionally, and I'll get into more details on a future post, I had issues with the Music Unlimited app(s). We're heavily involved in the Apple eco system, and so I started looking into Apple Music. This escalated quickly as I discovered Apple One, a bundle package that includes all of the apps shown in the picture above. There are already a handful of shows on Apple TV that I watch, and there is another handful of shows that I'm interested in watching. Additionally, with Formula 1 switching from ESPN to Apple TV, there was additional incentive to pick up Apple TV again. I was already familiar with TV, but I decided to do a trial of Apple Music to make sure it would work for us. Apple News is part of the bundle, and so I decided to pay attention to it again as a potential source of news. After doing about a month trial of Music and News, I decided that it was worth switching from Amazon Music Unlimited to the Apple One bundle. On the one hand, the per month cost would go up. On the other hand, I like the Apple Music app better than the Music Unlimited app, I will watch content on Apple TV, and I'll use the News app daily. This is what I mean when I say that things escalated quickly. None of this was on my radar until one Saturday morning Sarah suggested we get rid of Prime. This decision, plus being heavily involved in the Apple eco system and the overall quality of the apps in the One bundle made the decision make sense for us.

What I plan on doing is having subsequent posts where I talk about (at least some of) the apps individually. Like I said above, I've been doing trials over the past month with the apps and have subscribed to the One bundle now for a little over a week, and so I have enough experience with them to have opinions and thoughts moving forward. The other thing I wanted to mention in this post was Apple Home. We have some lighting automation in our home, some of which is electronic (as opposed to being dawn to dusk with solar sensors). The electronic workflows were a bit of a mess, because of a mix of software being used. Some of the lights were running on Alexa, some on Belkin Wemo, and some on Apple Home. In January, Belkin discontinued support for their Wemo smart plugs, which were running all of our lighting timers. I decided that moving forward I wanted to run all of our smart home workflows through Apple Home. The app is readily available to me on all of my Apple devices, it is a nice looking and easy to use app, and Apple TV can be used as a smart home hub to help control your smart devices. Since my original go around with smart home devices, a standardized protocol called "Matter" has been developed, allowing for interoperability between devices made by different companies. This is a great step forward. For me, ensuring that my devices work with Apple Home is how I am going to standardize where I go to control my home workflows. The app is really nice, and the ability to use Apple TV as a hub is a nice feature as well.

Gran Turismo 7 in 2026: Spec III & Power Pack

 

Gran Turismo 7 (GT7) is truly the gift that keeps on giving. I've been playing the game since it came out in 2022, and I've now logged 200+ hours of gameplay. Free updates are what keep me coming back to the game. If it weren't for the free updates, I would've shelved this game quite some time ago. But every week the game has 5 featured races, and typically 1-2 of them are brand new. The featured races are only featured for a week, so every week I log into the game to check them out and complete the ones I've never done before. In addition to the weekly featured races, the game has an update once per month that typically adds a couple of new cars and races, and periodically adds a new track. These featured races and monthly updates absolutely keep me coming back to the game in 2026. Its continued support keeps me interested in continuing to play the game.

In December 2025 the game received a larger, paid update called Power Pack. My longstanding view on the Gran Turismo series is that they are great car games and OK racing games. GT7 is the best racing game in the series, and the Power Pack DLC focused on extended race weekend setups with advanced AI drivers, so I was interested in playing this. After finishing 8 out of the 50 races offered in the Power Pack, I would say this is a step in the right direction and I hope it is expanded on in Gran Turismo 8. When you look at major racing series such as F1 and Indycar, they have a well established weekend layout to their races where practice occurs on Friday, qualifying for the race occurs on Saturday, and then the race occurs on Sunday. The GT7 Power Pack recreates this format with a practice-qualifying-race approach to each event. I have extensive experience with these tracks, so I always skip practice. However, having the ability to qualify for the race is a very nice feature of a race event, and the Power Pack DLC is the first time in the Gran Turismo series where qualifying is available. The races in the Power Pack are arranged by category - American cars, European cars, etc. but are stand alone races. I'd like to see the extended race format offered in various championships in these categories. That seems like the most obvious way to expand this setup, so hopefully that is what we get in GT8.

I want to briefly mention Sophy. Sophy is Gran Turismo's advanced AI driver. It has been featured in select races prior to the Power Pack being released, but the Power Pack features version 3.0 of Sophy. Long gone are the days where NPC drivers are on a rail with no reaction to what is going on around them. Gran Turismo's non-Sophy drivers are generally good, and I do think the NPC drivers when incorporating Sophy are more realistic. I remember a situation where I was approaching the final corner of Laguna Seca, a very sharp and slow left hander, way to fast. The Sophy driver in front of me actually moved off the racing line to avoid being hit, presumably because it checked its mirrors and noticed that I was approaching out of control. Prior to Sophy, I would have likely hit the car and punted them into the wall. 

All told, the weekly and monthly updates keep me coming back to this game even 4 years after its release. The continued support (mostly free at that) is amazing, and it is encouraging that Sony continues to support this game. I would have quit playing the game a couple of years ago otherwise. While I don't think the paid Power Pack DLC is a must-buy for the casual player, I do think it is worthwhile for the more hardcore player. It demonstrates encouraging changes and technology to the series, that I really hope continues to evolve with the future release of Gran Turismo 8.