A return to Azeroth

     

     So about two days ago I started playing World of Warcraft again. For some people this game is super addicting (not for me) and for others they stay subscribed for like 10 years without really playing it too much. I'm super excited to be playing the game again after a two year hiatus playing other games that aren't MMO's. The main reason I quit WoW was because I felt the most recent expansion was boring. At one point I did try to replace WoW with another MMO called Starwars the Old Republic. Let me tell you right now that Swtor has some really good pvp! The stuns and crowd controls aren't as strong as they are in WoW so the actual lightsaber battles are actually super fun and intense.
     Anyways, I'm not big into stories in MMO's and I don't care for the whole Garrison and building my own base thing. I've always played WoW for pvp combat (player vs player). My first character was a Troll Fury Warrior and once I got him to max level (90 back in Cataclysm) I just pvp'd forever until I exhausted it. Then Mists of Pandaria came out and I wasn't impressed by the pandas at all. I thought of Mists of Pandaria as a let down. I messed around with a healing Panda Monk for a while but I eventually got bored and stopped playing. Then Warlords of Draenor came out and I had a lot of fun with the story at first. I was playing a Worgen Death Knight (my current main character) by then and I felt like I had really found my favorite character. I still like the Warrior class but part of the fun of playing WoW is trying out all the classes and leveling up all your toons (characters). What I'm trying to say is that the game can be fun and at other times it can get boring, and then at even other times it can be a total waste of time that takes up all your time if you let it consume you. We've all heard the countless stories of WoW players that play 12 hour sessions without eating and all the bad publicity the game has gotten over the years. Despite all that WoW is still one of the greatest games ever made and still the best mmo (massive multiplayer online game).
     Its great to be back in the world of Azeroth again. And I couldn't have picked a better time to pick it up again because the next expansion (called Legion) is coming out later this year. This next expansion is going to focus on Illidan's demon hunter people where you'll be able to play as a new demon hunter class. In addition, the level cap will be increased to 110. I can't wait for the new expansion but first I have a lot of work to do on my current toons.
     The main thing I've been working on so far is just having fun pvping in battlegrounds on my Death Knight. I know this won't really get me anywhere because the new expansion will bring new levels and new pvp gear but for the time being I'm having a ton of fun just playing battlegrounds, getting honor, and getting together the new pvp gear sets. It's just something for fun that I'll work on a little bit.
     The other thing I want to work on for sure is to level up my other secondary toons. I've got a level 90 Undead Rogue and 90 Troll Warrior just begging to be leveled up to 100. Getting those two to max level will be great because then I will be able to play with my old buddy from Wisconsin. He's a huge WoW freak but we haven't really been able to play together because my Death Knight is Alliance and he only plays Horde. Initially I started out playing Horde but once I saw that my brother and his guild played Alliance I decided to main a Worgen Death Knight.
     Lastly, I'll probably mess around with my even more secondary toons. I have a level 60-something Blood Elf Paladin, 40-something Night Elf Druid, 40-something Panda Monk, and a bunch of low levels like an Orc Frost Mage and a Toren Shadowpreist. As you can see, at one point I put a lot of time and effort into this game. Hopefully, as I play it more I can regain that fun spirit and atmosphere that it had when I first started playing. Its a great game and I'm glad Blizzard has been keeping it going for over 11 years. Who knows, I might even pre-order the next expansion just to get a free toon to level 100 and to get early access to the demon hunter class. I still plan on playing other games but I will definitely be immersed in this huge open world mmo. That is, until it gets boring again. If you ever want to play arena doubles or arena 3v3's add me my battlenet tag is Megaman with the #1597. Me and my buddies all play on the Emerald Dream server. I'll cya in Azeroth! For the Alliance!

Straight Ahead Vs Free Jazz

     I was just thinking about this. Straight Ahead versus Free Jazz. In some ways I feel that every single jazz fan is a straight ahead lover because it all starts with the original straight ahead recordings. Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane (early period), Thelonious Monk, Dexter Gordon, Duke Ellington, the list could go on and on. All jazz fans listened to straight ahead, and most of them listened to that before they ever heard anything from the avante-garde, or free jazz scene. Free jazz came from straight ahead, particularly from John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman. I feel like in order to appreciate free jazz and what it represents you have to understand and hear everything from the straight ahead guys, perhaps even go further back and listen to dixieland and big band stuff as well. I've always been more on the cutting edge of the free jazz scene when it comes to listening to jazz but recently I've been only listening to straight ahead stuff. It all comes back to that really. Free jazz takes a big commitment to listen to because the music isn't necessarily easy listening like listening to a rap, pop, or metal track (what other people my age listen to). Whenever I hear the screaming wail of an out of tune saxophone wrecking havoc at a free jazz concert (on youtube) I think about how that guy came up with that style and how it would've never happened without the greats that came before him. Jazz is all about the masters laying down the foundation for the apprentice. Nowadays, jazz is kind of bland and white bread because the masters are dead and/or dying and what has replaced them has been institutional learning from the University system. You can learn how to master your instrument at a school but you can't learn how to play jazz there. That's the way I see it. That's why today's jazz is so lame and boring. I still have faith in jazz though, mainly because of free jazz. Free jazz still has places to go and is relatively new in the development of American music. Its only been around since like the mid to late 60s. Anyways, where would we be without Coltrane going from straight ahead to free jazz. The whole musical universe of jazz switched back then and it was awesome. Free jazz is the heart and soul of current jazz in my opinion and I look forward to hearing new names and younger people come out of the scene. Lastly, if I had to say which is better I would say Free Jazz but only because its newer and more relevant in the current zeitgeist of jazz. 

Competetive Gaming Skills, Do you have them?

     I was doing my usual daily duties at work and I thought I should do a post about this. The idea that if you want to have fun and be a competitive gamer, do you have to be really good at gaming? My short answer would be no. My other answer would be maybe, and my final answer would be sometimes. Let me explain a bit what I mean. No because games are meant to be for fun and you shouldn't be stressing because you didn't make top 8 on the leader boards or something. Sometimes though you want to be great because that's just how you play games, you just have a competitive attitude and want to crush your competition. Sometimes when I play really well, it makes me feel great about my style and status as a player in whatever game I'm playing. This makes me want to keep playing in order to get better and better.
     I don't think you need to be a super skilled gamer in order to play competitive games and enjoy them. I know tons of people who are gamers and aren't the best players in the world (at their respective games) but they have a ton of fun playing games competitively with friends, and dare I say it, even in a tournament setting. I myself, am one of those people. I attend Smash 4 tournaments every week (have been for like 4 weeks now), and although I'm not a great player I'm having a blast playing and hanging out with all the new friends (Smashers) I've made. Its super fun. Also, I am getting way better at the game. At the same time there are some people who when they lose at games they don't have a good time and they get super salty. Salty is a term in the gaming community that basically means someone is butt hurt. Basically they're upset. I've had my moments of playing online games where when I'm losing I get a little salty and show it by expressing my feels in the in-game chat system. This only happens when I'm playing in team games mostly, but there are times when I lose in a 1v1 game that I get salty. All you can really do about it is to learn from your loss and do better next time.
     I consider myself a decent gamer overall. OK, at best. That might be selling myself short quite a bit. I'm actually super good at all the games I play. These include games like Heroes of the Storm, Smash 4, Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex-First Assault, and Project M. Basically I have some gaming skills for sure but I don't feel like I'm MLG (Major League Gaming) material or anything. I haven't done anything spectacular at a Smash tournament yet but I have high hopes for the future. I haven't beaten one single open world game on console or PC (currently working on a few titles in this genre; Fallout New Vegas, Skyrim, Bioshock) but I'm a multiplayer gaming fanatic. If the game has multiplayer I'll be playing it, learning it, and kicking ass at it. I'm pretty good at all the multiplayer games I play but that's only because I've put in a lot of time and effort into them. When I'm playing these online multiplayer games I get super competitive and always strive to do my best every time. The first step in order to 'git gud' at games is to put yourself in the zone. For me, this basically means to put everything else out of my mind and just focus on the game. If its a 1v1 game then you have to keep in mind that the other player is in the same position as you and you can always defeat them if you play your cards right. The hardest part of getting good at competitive gaming is when you're first starting and you're not sure if you're a good player. Just to get into the mood of playing a game that is just 1v1 an be intimidating at first. You just have to realize that its all just for fun in the long run and that it doesn't matter if you lose because you can learn from your losses.
      Sometimes people don't even want to put in the time and commitment to be good at competitive gaming so they don't even play those kinds of games. Keep in mind that when I say competitive gaming I meaning multiplayer games like mobas, shooters, fighting games, racing games, and puzzle games. My brother is a great gamer, probably the best gamer I've ever met. He can learn any game and do well at it given time. But he sticks only to single player games and doesn't ever play any multiplayer games. His main multiplayer game used to be World of Warcraft but even in that he stuck mostly to pve (player vs ai) and focused on running raids with his buddies. There are a lot of different kinds of gamers and some of them just aren't interested in the competitive side of gaming.
     For me, I've always been interested in competing in games. I have a dream one day of being some kind of pro gamer but I know that isn't going to happen because I don't focus on just one game enough to be super good at a single title. I prefer to play many different games rather than just focus on just one. I may change that attitude soon though because I want to become better at Smash 4 in particular, and I feel like I have to put more time into it to become great. I could see myself becoming good enough at Smash to place high at a tournament. I don't think being a pro gamer is viable at my age though (26) because that's not a real career in the long run. Something that I could do is writing for a gaming magazine, blog, or the esports community, or being a community manager or PR person in esports. I would be great at that sort of thing because I'm a big peoples person and people tend to gravitate towards me because of the way I am. I'm a very friendly, easy going, positive attitude type that makes a lot of friends very easily and stays friends with those people over the long term.
     To make a long story short, yes if you're a gaming whiz it will be fun and you will do really well. But, there might be a guy who's not even half as good as you are and he might be having more fun than you are because he's not taking it as seriously as you are. I've seen people at tournaments get super salty after losing, even getting to the point of yelling and walking right out. It's pretty funny but don't be those people. They give the gaming community a bad name, especially the guys talking shit on online games where there's a voice chat option. Sometimes just playing a game for fun is the best thing you can do. Honestly, I have to remember to keep that in mind and just remember its all just a game (you're only a pawn in the game). It's just entertainment to have fun. The competitive part is secondary. At the same time, I play to win.. I like to have my cake and it too.

In need of a music device

     Lately, I've been listening to a lot of different types of music. Music other than jazz but still listening to jazz too. I've been listening to a lot of 90s rap and hip hop, video game music, and Japanese pop music. Somehow it all really fits together really well. If you ever watch Twitch.tv streams you'll notice they tend to play this kind of music quite frequently. I'm a Twitch streamer myself but I haven't streamed for about a week because I've been sick. I'll be getting back to it soon though, check out my twitter at https://twitter.com/fig_land for when I'm live and feel free to check out the channel at http://www.twitch.tv/megaman1597, let me know what you think of the old broadcasts on there. Anyways, I found out recently that I like Biggie. To me Biggie was the coolest rapper of all time. His voice, his rhythms, his style, and his overall image and persona are just too cool. I feel like he had a lot of cold beats too. Everything was good. I've been thinking that saying since I don't have a smartphone with all my music on it that I need to get an Ipod or something and listen to music when I'm going to work, walking around to and from places, or just relaxing at home when I'm reading or something. So I'm thinking about buying an Ipod, probably a small storage space one because I don't want to spend too much cash. It would make life a lot more fun if I was listening to great tunes. My Itunes library has so much music! Even though I've heard all of it, I don't listen to it often, and it would be good to re-listen to some of those great jazz and metal albums. Bring on the Coltrane, Dolphy, and Ornette Coleman! 

Fire and Dice Smash Tournament 1/28/16

      Yet another tournament at Fire and Dice. Didn't play well in my tournament matches but overall in friendlies and in my general Smash play I have made improvements in leaps and bounds. One of the most important things that I learned today about Smash is how to tech. I can't believe I didn't start doing it until recently, it makes a big difference. I still have a lot of things that I gotta work on in my play and I'm hoping to improve by just playing the game more. Today I brought my good friend to the tournament and although he got knocked out 0 and 2 like myself, he did play a really great game as Roy against this Captain Falcon. Let me tell you about how my matches went.
     My first match I went up against this Jiggly Puff main that goes by Hbox, obviously in honor of Melee Jiggly Puff Hungry Box.. I played him last tournament as well and he beat me pretty easily. This time I was able to space with him and play the neutral game a lot better but I still lost both matches pretty easily. I did feel like I've improved because last time he took me out even more easily. I could see this kid going far with Jiggs as he improves and plays more. He has the best Jiggly Puff I've ever played and I haven't played too many good Jiggs so I kind of don't know how to play against her. She's one of those characters not a lot of people play often. I feel like he has that advantage going for him. It also doesn't hurt that he's a great player. I think the best I did was take a stock off him in one game, but that's about it.
     My last match was against this Fox player that was pretty good. Game 1 he two stocked me pretty convincingly. Game 2 I spaced better and played the neutral game and took the first stock. Then he came back with a vengeance on his second stock and KO'd me with a bunch of up-air Fox tactics. I feel like I know all of Fox's tricks because I used to play him but this guy's up-air combos were insane. Every time I was in the air I was in a lot of trouble and he usually hit me at least once. I've got to learn how to play against that because there are a lot of Fox players at this weekly.
      My friends' match that I really enjoyed was when he was playing as Roy vs this Captain Falcon. My buddy pretty much owned this guy until he switched to Dark Pit Game 2. My friend switched to Link and got taken out. Game 3 my friend switched to Shulk and ultimately ended up getting combo'd super hard, losing the set. It was a sick set and it was good to see that my friend, using the tag Death, won a game in a set at his first tournament. I didn't see his other set but he told me that he was up against a really good Shulk and lost.
      I've got a lot of bad habits I gotta get rid of to get better at Smash 4. Continuing to go to Fire and Dice every week has made me a better player. The Fox player I played against told me that I roll too much and that Zss is such a fast character that I don't even need to roll that much. So the first thing I gotta work on is stop rolling so much. In addition, I gotta learn how to punish more effectively with Zss. He also said that Zss has the strongest punish game so I should be using that to my advantage. Also, I need to learn how to space and play the neutral game more effectively. And lastly, I should be more patient. Sometimes I just blindly attack and the enemy player is just waiting for me to whiff so they can punish. So yeah, I'll work on not rolling so much, punishing more effectively, spacing, and being more patient when I play. When I'm playing, I don't always consciously think of all this stuff. Instead, I just sort of just play and try to keep those things in mind. I think the best thing I can do to get better is to keep playing a lot (for me that would be For Glory, with friends online, and with friends in real life) and not succumbing to what I refer to as autopilot mode. Autopilot is when you just play without thinking about anything and just doing random stuff, hoping to win. This might work on For Glory sometimes but in a tournament setting you have to really think about all your options and choose the best one to use effectively. I'll keep playing and I'll keep going to the tournaments. I'm having a lot of fun! And the people in the Smash community are great. They have been really open and I've made a lot of new friends. At the same time, I've become a much better Smash player. Today I played really well against my friends and then at the tournament I played really well against my friend and another friend I've met through tournaments. Practice makes perfect. I feel like all the bad habits I have have to be beaten out of me eventually until I just play differently. Eventually I'll become a heavy hitter, I just know it. 

Games I've been playing

     Lately, I've been kind of taking it easy and trying to relax. In other words I haven't been gaming very much and the gaming I have been doing has been light and minimal. I've been feeling super sick since last week. It's some kind of cold virus going around. This is one of the reasons why working in a public place is bad, you get sick from others easily. Also, I haven't been streaming because I feel like I wouldn't be up to the task being super sick and all.
     Today I did manage to get some gaming in though. It was a super fun day. I've been playing Heroes of the Storm and trying out some heroes that I don't normally play. I played Rexxar for the first time and I wreck with him. Rexxar is a monster tamer that has a pet bear that can attack enemies. It's a cool idea for a moba. They've probably already down stuff similar to this in League and Dota. Another hero I was messing around with is Falstad, this guy who rides a griffin. What makes him interesting is that he can fly across the map but it has a cool down. Pretty neat. Heroes is like my bread and butter game. I always come back to it even when I'm bored. I don't think I'm particularly good at the game, I just enjoy it, weather its at the competitive level or just casual. In fact, I don't think I'm good at video games at all. I only play games because its super fun and I enjoy it.
     After Heroes I tried out Xenoblade Chronicles X. I am so intimidated by this game! I literally had to figure out like everything about the game today and it was a bit overwhelming and I got irritated. I played for a good while and only completed a few quests and gained one level. I guess I should be happy that I've at least figured out the game more and have more of a feel for the game. I'm level 13 and I'm still lost and confused in this big open world JRPG. Its one of those games where the combat seems super easy but there's more to it than you think. You have to use your abilities at certain times, not just spam them over and over again. I'll have to learn more and keep playing it to truely understand whats going on. The thing is, I don't think the original Xenoblade game was complicated at all. It was a pretty easy to pick up games and I'd say it was even beginner friendly. Whereas Chronicles X is a lot more in depth. I guess that's a good thing. It means that the developers went out of their way to make the game more interesting. I can't wait to see what the game has to offer in the future.
     The last couple days I've been playing Diablo 3. I had a friend power level me through Season 5 for my Barbarian. It's been fun but the grinding part of Diablo gets old. Don't get me wrong, the gameplay is amazing and the game just keeps getting better and better but I still feel like its all just one big grind to get the best loot as fast as you can and to get the most paragon levels as you can. It's like a race between players as they all search for the best gear and get to the highest Torment levels. Apparently now the highest level difficulty is Torment X, which sounds like a cool name for a difficulty setting. All the updates in the game have kept the player base coming back for me. Blizzard is truly amazing. The one thing I don't like about Diablo 3 is how its mainly just a pve (player vs ai) game. I loved Diablo 2 because of the pvp combat, I didn't like leveling up a toon (character) and grinding to get good gear. I just loved fighting people and pking (player kill) them. I see great things for Diablo 3 in the future. This is just the beginning.
     Lastly, I played Smash 4 for a little bit today. I feel like I'm actually getting worse at the game because I haven't been playing. When I do play lately its just been doubles just messing around having fun as certain characters. I'm in the competitive scene in Smash 4 but I don't think I'm very good. I feel like I have to put in a lot more time and effort into practicing to truly become good. I think I can get a lot better by just playing WiFi For Glory. I just gotta find the time and put in the effort. There's so many games and there's only so much time in the day. The most important part of my day is when I'm deciding what to do and for how long. Smash doesn't usually enter my mind until the late afternoon. I better get on that Wii U and start training if I want to git gud! Anyways, that's whats been going on with my gaming activity. What games are you playing?

Heroes of the Storm Session

     Today I met up with a real life gamer friend of mine. We also play a lot online on battlenet. The main game we play together is Heroes of the Storm. This guy is so good, it's incredible. He's so good that when its just me and him on a team together in a pug we will pretty much guarantee win every game. We played a ton of games today over at his place and I think we only lost one game during the entire session. He plays on a desktop PC hooked up to a big flat screen. I was playing on his MacBook Pro, which handles gaming surprisingly well. So well in fact that there was very little lag, just the occasional lag spike here and there but very rare. It was awesome. It's a nice different playing environment for me playing computer games on a couch as apposed to sitting in a chair. I got to finish up all my quests and get gold. You need gold in Heroes in order to purchase heroes, otherwise you have to buy them with real money, which I don't frown upon, but I try not to do that like at all, ever. There were some good matches, that's for sure. I want to start a Heroes of the Storm team with my friend and play local tournaments and stuff. I think we would destroy people in Heroes. We're both pretty skilled players. I'm not as good as he is technically, but I'm a great well rounded team player. I focus more on healing but I can play pretty much any of the characters if I want to. I do pretty much play all the characters anyways, just to complete the quests. A quest could be something like 3 games with an assassin or a specialist for 300 gold or play 8 games for 800 gold. That kind of stuff. It's fun getting the gold because you're getting something for your efforts and putting time into the game. So yeah, Heroes of the Storm is super fun! Download the game if you haven't tried it yet. Its free to play and isn't pay to win like some other mobas. You won't regret it.

How I see For Glory

     For Glory is seen as a horrible thing in the Smash community. The main reason for this is that Nintendo's servers can be laggy at times. However, I've had some times where there was very little input lag and it was almost like I was playing against the other player in person. However, no matter how little the lag is, it will always be noticeable and different from fighting person in a lan (local area connection) context (in person). For those of you who don't know For Glory is the online mode in Super Smash Brothers for Wii U. I'm one of the few people that actually loves playing For Glory. Normally I don't play Smash 4 unless I'm with friends but today I decided to hop on and practice some unfamiliar characters on 2v2 For Glory and it was like I just couldn't stop playing. For Glory can be fun if you just bare with the negative aspects of it. Sometimes there are lag spikes that can change the momentum of battle, but it isn't always there.
     For Glory is great for me because I don't always get to make it to tournaments and practice in friendlies against people in person. Also, I can't always play wifi with my friends because I work different schedules from them. My last option is to just play For Glory. I always have players to play with and sometimes I get to face great players in 1v1 matches. One of the best players I've ever played against was a guy (a Ryu named Edwin) I played on For Glory and he actually let me train with him in a ton of matches and I learned a lot from those matches. I guess the best part of For Glory for me is that its endless and I can play anytime I want with no prearranged schedule like training right before a tourney or something. It's just great. Sometimes you end up playing some really good players and it surprises you. People are actually good on For Glory and I bet the Smash pros all play online. Another great thing is that nerves don't really get to you like how they do in a tournament setting. It's very relaxed and if you lose your matches, its all good because these are basically the same thing as friendlies. Although Smash 4 keeps a record of your wins and losses in a records tab, other players don't get to look at it and see how good you actually are. Smash 4 desperately needs a ranking system because sometimes you'll end up going against someone who is a complete beginner, which is rare because the game has been out for a long time. But yeah, there should definitely be some improvements on For Glory mode in the last updates in February.
     For starters, they should create a ranking system where high ranking players get to face off against equal opponents. Then, they should allow players to look at stats of players after the match real quick. That way they know if the player is someone good that they should keep playing, or just leave if they know they won't be able to put up a fight. Basically they should make For Glory like how real fighting games are. That's all I want for an online mode of Smash 4. Nothing fancy. Just something for our efforts for playing the game online. I don't know if you get anything really for winning in tournament mode because I've never even played tournament mode yet. Eventually I'll have to give that a try. I know that a lot of the pro players like to play that mode on streams a lot. So yeah, For Glory ain't all bad. Sometimes the lag is minimal and I have a great time tearing people apart online. It's great when you start beating someone badly in 1v1 and then they try playing their main over and over again, and always losing XD. It's a great time and I can turn it on anytime I want.
     In other news, I'm in the beta for this new first person moba (massive online battle arena) called Paragon. I downloaded it today so I wouldn't have to wait tomorrow because the beta is only going to be open from 6am-6pm. I've missed the first two beta tests just because I was out with friends but this time I'm focused on playing it. It looks stunning and it runs on Unreal Engine 4 engine. I feel like the future of gaming is Unreal Engine 4. Imagine young game creators today getting something like Unreal Engine 4 and just creating some of the best looking games that we've ever seen to date. That's the power of Unreal Engine 4. I'm expecting big things from Paragon, as its a super hyped up game at the moment. Its everywhere online and they want everyone to sign up for the beta. So look out for news about Paragon, it'll be interesting to see if it takes off in the gaming community. Lastly, I'd like to say that I'm going to keep up streaming but I noticed that my twitch page hasn't been getting any views even when I was streaming for multiple days in a row earlier this week. Knowing that makes me feel super discouraged but I'm going to keep it up. Stay updated on my twitter https://twitter.com/fig_land for when I'm live. 
     

Gate and Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans

     I've been keeping up watching all the latest cool new anime. I've been trying to keep it down to anime with very few episodes so I don't have to put too much time into it. I am most certainly not down to watch something like One Piece or Naruto-way too many episodes.
     Gate is a really solid anime I've just started watching this week. Basically a gateway opens in modern day Japan and all these warriors, warlords, orcs, and dragons come out trying to pillage and kill everybody. Of course, modern day Japan reacts to this with advanced weaponry and easily takes out all these invaders. Then, Japan goes through the portal, creates a base of operations, and sends in this otaku main character to become a peace negotiator and stuff. He's really dumb but he's actually a really high up soldier with a code-name. He does everything in his power to help the citizens of this other world, even taking on a fire dragon to protect a town. There's a cute blonde elf girl, a gothic lolita, and young mage girl from this other world and they're pretty interesting characters. This anime started off being all about war and killing, but in the end it really turned out to be more about drama and suspense. I'm super hyped because tomorrow the last episode will be available to watch on Crunchyroll! Basically at the part I'm at the Emperor of this other world is letting the peace negotiations go on, but it seems to me like he really doesn't want to give in and let Japan have everything. So I'm thinking in the last episode there's going to be something sneaky happening. We'll see. I'll probably write a full review of the anime sometime after I've seen the last episode. Check this one out its called Gate, and don't be mistaken by Stein's Gate, which has a similar title.
     I started watching Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans today because the last episode of Gate isn't out yet. I gotta say that I don't like the art style at all. It seems to be too much of a modern anime art style. Well, I mean of course its going to be that way because it was made in 2015, but what I mean is that everything looks like it was drawn with computers. I mean, it isn't bad and it probably won't stop me from watching more of the series but it just looks like all these modern anime all have the same art style. Everything begins to look the same despite the fact that they are from different artists and maybe even different parts of Japan. Anyways, the first episode was actually pretty good. Very drama and dialogue focused but it ends with a great big battle scene against mobile suits. It was cool.
     That's all the anime I've been watching recently. Let me know of any you think are worth watching. In the past I was watching JoJo's Bizarre Adventures but I've kind of lost track of whats going on at the part I'm at. Sayonara! 

Metal show and Dolphy

      So recently I've been listening to a lot of great jazz stuff. Mostly Eric Dolphy. Although last night I was at a metal concert. But my friend graciously dropped me off home around the third set because it wasn't my thing. For one thing, the music wasn't very good. I would go so far as to say the 2nd band sucked. I'm a much better guitar player than they were and their guitar tones were just terrible. Just a low end mucky mess of noise that hurts your ears. Honestly, I can't believe that there were so many people listening to such garbage music. There was probably around like 30-40 people in there. Not a lot in general but a lot for a local show on a Thursday night.
      But the 1st band was actually really good. The band was metal-core music but the guitarists were a bit more progressive than your stereotypical core kids. These guys were all kids, maybe a few years younger than me so they have a while to go to become better musicians. Right now though, I'm a better musician than they are, but that's not saying very much. But yeah, that first band was just super tight as a band and their guitar tones were really together. Both of the guitarists had great tones and they were playing together super well. I just love a good twin guitar team. One focused on rhythm while the other played lead. They pretty much stuck to that formula on all the songs. It would've been cool if they had like a twin lead guitar solo or something. They didn't have guitar solos, which was disappointing but I'd say overall they were a good band.  I feel like if you're in a band and you're a good guitar player, then you must always have guitar solos. Maybe not in every song because that's overkill but in general you should be displaying your talent and getting your name out there as a great musician.
      Now, not only did some of the music suck here. But there was a mosh-pit. And that is straight-up just not my thing. We didn't have any problems at first because when we watched the first band we just chilled by the front door. I was standing next to this short girl who was just watching the band from the side. It was great. There was a pit but none of the people could reach us because we were on the sides. Then, unfortunately my friend gets the idea that we should stand further in the back. We do so on the second set, and people starting moshing hard. This one guy that me and my friends know started crowd bashing (basically punching people in the crowd) pretty hard and he hit me a few times. I wasn't seriously injured or hurt but it was super annoying and just made the whole concert experience worse. If you don't want to mosh in the pit, you don't go in the pit. People shouldn't be able to attack random people from the crowd that aren't in the pit. That's just fucked up. Anyways, by then I was pretty disappointed in the music and just wanted out. I asked my friend to drive me home and that was the end of that metal concert for me. Although I would overall it sucked, that first band was still really good. I could see myself playing music similar to them, although I would be a lot more progressive and have more solos, maybe even more rhythmic motifs on the drums and bass. Their rhythm section was a bit dry. So it wasn't all bad. I think next time, I would definitely be down to go a metal show with them, but I'll just not stand anywhere near the pit.
      Anyways, back to the point of this post. I've been listening to a ton of Eric Dolphy stuff. Today I met this cool Korean guy that plays Smash 4 really well (a Rosalina main) and he told me that he played classical saxophone. I thought it was interesting that someone would choose classical saxophone over more jazz sax stuff. I mentioned to him that I love Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Eric Dolphy. He asked me if I liked Mingus and I said 'he's ok', something like that, and he seemed a bit disappointed in me at that moment. I gotta say that although Mingus is a great bassist and composer, I've never really listened to his work a lot. I think he was at his best working with Eric Dolphy, just because Eric brought that sense of instantaneous improvisation and unique timbre from the alto saxophone. He was just such an original that anybody he was working with would really stand out. The thing I like most about Dolphy is his saxophone tone. He sounds so original. He can swing hard like Charlie Parker but his solos have unique lines that really go places. Not only is Dolphy a great improviser, he's also a great composer as well. A lot of his original compositions sound like they'd be great songs to listen to in a fancy multi-million dollar home, or even the confines of a space station. That's how awesome Dolphy is. Also, Dolphy's bass clarinet playing takes you to the moon, it really sings and squeals in the best ways possible. Jazz music is just such a great adventurous music that I really can't compare it to jazz. Metal is so dumbed down, slow, aggressive, and loud. Listening to jazz after a metal show is like the new meta in a video game.What have you been listening to? Comment below.

Smash Weekly at FaD 1/21/16

     The weekly at Fire and Dice was stacked with great players tonight. I guess everyone was back from Genesis 3, where SoCal represented super well. I did not play very well tonight. I'm blaming it on mostly being sick. I have this hardcore cold where my throat and body feels super weak but I have no cold symptoms like coughing. I really just wasn't feeling it today and it showed in my gameplay. I only won one game of friendlies vs this Pac Man player. I'm pretty proud of that win though. It was awesome.....sugoi!
     My first match was against this guy I played two tournaments ago. Back then he used Mario and defeated me 2-0. This time he used his main (Fox) and just went ham. I fought back as well as I could but it just wasn't enough. He kept going for the up-airs when I was in the air and got me every time. I was pretty upset but when my friend told me that he's a pretty well established player I kinda just let it go and stopped thinking about it. I kept making a ton of mistakes and just doing them over and over again. I wasn't spacing very well. I feel like that's the biggest problem in my Zero Suit Samus play and I have a lot of work to do to make it better. Oh yeah, Game 2 I almost brought the game back with my Veria Suit Samus. Maybe I should take her up more in tournament when I lose Game 1? I was thinking about playing her in my second set vs this Game and Watch player but in the end I stuck with Zero Suit Samus.
     After I lost I went up against a Game and Watch player who didn't even have his own controller. He borrowed one from the venue. When I saw him do that I was expected for an EZPZ win. Boy, was I mistaken. Although this guy didn't own a controller he absolutely owns with Game and Watch. It was his first tournament and he played really well against me. Game 1 he beat me with a convincing victory where it wasn't very close. Game 2 was super close with both of us over 100%. Again, looking back on those matches my spacing was terrible and my overall maneuverability was just horrible. I think this is the main thing I'm lacking in my Smash 4 game right now. Just not getting hit, dodging more, shielding more, and not going go hard in the paint with the aggro style.
      Part of it is because I feel like Zero Suit Samus is a super aggressive character but also my whole style is pretty aggro heavy. Let's just say I have a lot of work to do. Part of it is that I play too many other games and need to focus on Smash 4 more if I'm going to start doing work in these tournaments. People will always be great players at Fire and Dice but I can surpass them if I train harder. I'll be like Goku in the hyperbolic time chamber! It was a good night even though I really wasn't feeling it. I went across the street to this Japanese Restaurant with this really good Rosalina & Luma player. The food was great, especially the fluffy white rice. It was also great watching some of the more established PR players play. Rich Brown vs Zenyou was pretty cool to watch. Rich's Mewtwo has transcended Super Sayian, that's how good he is with Mewtwo.
      Also, this isn't Smash related but yesterday I passed my drivers permit test! Now, I can legally drive with this piece of paper and I'll be legit once my permit arrives in the post. This is great! I can't wait to start practicing driving on our extra super old car. Eventually once I get the hang of cruising around I'll start driving to more Smash tourneys, Guitar Center, work. That will just be easier for me because in the past I've just been relying on walking and taking the bus. Having a car will just make life better.

Remembering MLK

     

      So today was MLK day and a lot of businesses and office buildings were closed or closed early. I didn't get to reflect on today until I got home from work just now. I have to say that MLK did a lot for America, and I wouldn't be where I am today without all the work that he did. At the same time though, I feel like black people have the short end of the stick compared to white people and even other races. I work in a public place and I have had attacks on my dignity because of my race. I never really do anything about it or tell my bosses because I just shrug it off and get on with my day. That's just the kind of person I am. Moving on though, MLK brought all these problems regarding race and even the Vietnam War into the mass media culture, and with his non-violence strategy he changed America. When the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed MLK was there with Rosa Parks. They changed America and American history for that matter. MLK is a true American hero.
     As I look back on this day I think about all the progress that black people have made in America. Its astounding really. Barack Obama became President! Who would have thought in a million years that America would've had a black President? Things have definitely improved for 'us' but I can't help but think about our future. We have a growing minority class in America and pretty soon whites will be outnumbered by minorities. It's interesting and I definitely think America will be changed by the time I'm in my thirties-forties. At the same time, we also have to look at the police brutality that seems to have taken over America. There were stories about black people and even kids getting slaughtered by police officers during pretty much all of 2015. It was truly fucked up how many blacks were getting killed, sometimes when they weren't even engaging the officers in a violent way. When I think about that I realize that the America I live in today isn't the one MLK wanted it to be. I believe one day we can get there. But until that happens, I'll just keep believing in the dream.

Update

     Wanted to do a little update on whats been up lately. The major thing is that I've been streaming everyday since like the 15th. I'm actually starting to really enjoy it and I think I'm going to be a streamer and stick with it everyday, with a schedule and stuff. I'm thinking my schedule will be before work in the early afternoons like 12 30pm to 4 pm monday-sunday. If I had a good constant streaming time like that everyday and spiffy up my conversation skills while gaming I think I'll have a much better stream. So far I haven't been getting many viewers (if at all) but when I told my friend he just said that's because I'm just starting out. You can't expect to be famous when you've only begun streaming. I think streaming could be something hard to do and do well but when I told friends about it they all said it was super easy. I feel like you have to work hard at it and really be an interesting person with a dynamic personality, especially when interacting with the audience. That being said, not all twitch streamers have that and they still have a good following and get lots of viewers. I don't know if I fit that above description but I do think I could be great interacting with the audience when there are more people that watch the stream. So far people have said the quality looks fine so that's good. I want to get into streaming more games as well, maybe starting Fallout 3 or some other single player games because it seems like it could be more dynamic focusing on a solo game and taking time to go over every little detail. We'll see what happens. Check out the old broadcasts I've got so far on twitch.tv/megaman1597. Check up on my twitter for when I'm live https://twitter.com/fig_land.
     Also, I've been training up in Smash. I've been playing Project M (a Super Smash Bros Brawl mod) on stream a lot and I think that's been keeping my skills up a lot because of reaction time and spacing. In addition, I've been practicing Smash 4. Not just online but also labbing it up against the computer and training mode. I've learned a lot more combos with Zero Suit Samus doing this and its relaxing to take it easy and work on combos rather than always playing 1v1 For Glory all the time. Today I actually played doubles only and I did very well. It seems that Zero Suit Samus is a great doubles character. I often go for the stun gun grab up-air into air combos like all the time and it punishes people really hard. I feel like I just learned that setup on Thursday. Usually before I always just stun gunned into dash attack. Not a bad option but the grab is definitely way better for Zss's move-sets. I want to start playing Xenoblade Chronicles X more at night after work but I'm always so tired that I usually just end up watching anime or amazon prime (prime and chill). I'm planning on going to every weekly Smash tournament at Fire and Dice for the next foreseeable future so I know I'm going to just keep getting better at the game. I feel like I've surpassed my friends already and they are great players. I play many games but I feel like I focus and have a passion for Smash. Its the only fighting game that I've always been good at. Now I've become even better. It's a great feeling and its great taking people out at tournaments. Just gotta keep improving and see the results at the tournies. I'm going to save up for a PC monitor with hdmi so I can plug my Wii U to my PC and stream it on twitch. I kind of want to do that because I feel like the twitch following for Smash is very low and doesn't get much attention. It needs more channels for sure. I'm hyped for Smash 4 this year.
   In addition, sometime soon I'll get the drivers permit and then I can start practicing driving. It would be great to get a car so I can travel to more Smash tournaments and Guitar Center but at the same time I don't want the costs of owning a car like having to pay big car payments and gas. But the plan is to get the permit soon and eventually my license not too far after.
     Music-wise, on Wednesday me and some friends are going to a metal show. I'm not particularly found about metal these days but I'll give it a shot. They might be some killer undiscovered great metal bands, you never know. I've always leaned towards the speed metal and death metal side of metal music but I think the bands we're going to be seeing are metal-core bands. Metal-core is a newer style of music that is very in at the moment. I'm definitely expecting a mosh-pit. 
     Lastly, life has been good. I've been waking up earlier, doing more, working hard, playing hard, and having a good go at it. Sometimes everything just falls right into place without any effort whatsoever. Sometimes it feels like writing for the blog is the most difficult thing I do. Everything else is easy-pee-zee. Thanks for reading, and all the best.

Streaming

     

     Over the past couple days I've been streaming a lot and its been a learning process how to get everything figured out, looking good, and sounding good. At my friends house he had everything set up perfectly and it looked good and sounded great. I just got my webcam today and I streamed quite a bit before work. Check out the content at twitch.tv/megaman1597. I already have a lot of new stuff on there from games like Super Smash Bros Brawl (Project M), Heroes of the Storm, and Ghost in the Shell. It's been fun but I haven't necessarily been getting the viewers. The first stream I did at my friends house got some viewers and somebody asked a question. I'll probably starting streaming other games as I figure out how to make everything sound good. One thing I learned is that the max bitrate that should be used for OBS is from 1500-2000. I had mine set at 2000 and after looking the videos I think I should go with 1500. You can see the game clear but it seems a bit choppy, the pixels and somewhat of a lag sometimes. Another thing I learned is that I had my mic volume too low. So next time I gotta set the mic volume to the highest and lower the music settings on all games that have music. I've got a lot to learn. Its been fun and I look forward to doing more streaming. Hopefully soon I'll have it polished so it looks and sounds much better than it is currently. Other games I'm interested in streaming are Fallout 3 and New Vegas, Skyrim, Team Fortress 2, Unreal Tournament 4 beta, Paragon beta, and Rivals of Aether. I have big plans and hope to become a good streamer. I'm not really sure what kind of streamer I want to be like if I should just do a lot of commentary all the time or be more laid back and just chill with music on in the background. I want to do commentary but at the same time I want to be able to chill, so maybe having music on sometimes wouldn't be a bad idea. I'll figure it out. Stay posted about everything on my twitter, https://twitter.com/fig_land.

Music I

     Lately I haven't been listening to too much cutting edge stuff. For the longest time I had only been listening to the most cutting edge free jazz out there. But now I've kind of reverted to the stereotypical straight ahead jazz kind of listener. I've been listening to a lot of Kenny Garrett for some reason. He's one of those sax players that I always fall back to whenever I just to listen to something and relax. He's a great player too but I've heard some of his work that is a lot more smooth jazz than I'd like him to be. I heard a few tracks of John Mcalughlin's new album and I was a bit disappointed. He was getting a lot of press in the guitar magazines because he's playing a lot of electric guitar now but those tracks sounded way too smooth jazz to me. Right now I'm just chilling listening to a Jimmy Heath pandora radio station. So it plays a lot of Sonny Rollins, Coltrane, Sonny Stitt, etc. All the main heavy hitters of straight ahead jazz. I feel like you have to really go out of your way to listen to more interesting jazz (free jazz) and sometimes you don't feel like listening to it because its much harder to listen to free jazz than straight ahead because of the lack of musical and rhythmic structure. But the last free jazz I was listening to was Tomeka Reid's Quartet with Mary Halvorson. It was really good stuff! Reid's cello playing is a breath of fresh air in the free jazz scene and she's an AACM musician from Chicago, pretty much my favorite jazz collective. I think very highly of AACM because of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. They pretty much changed how I see jazz music as whole. They showed me that anything is possible in jazz and that you can do everything, and do it well. A while back I wrote about a Steve Coleman record. It was good but it didn't catch my attention as hard as Henry Threadgill's work did. I'm in a free jazz group on facebook, check it out https://www.facebook.com/groups/342186855874771//. It's a great group and we have over 12,000 members. It's the biggest facebook group I've been in and I've learned a lot by listening to the music other people recommend. Although I have to say that the group is biased and mainly only post European free jazz musicians. I think there's still a lot of great free jazz musicians in Chicago and New York that haven't been discovered or been put on a big radar musically or socially among jazz musicians. The last CD I got was a rock album from a friend at work. It was a Dinosaur JR CD. It was a really good album but I just can't get back into listening to rock again after getting so deep into jazz. I'm just a straight up jazz connoisseur now and its great.

Smash Tourney at FaD 1/16/16

      I did really well last night at Fire and Dice's weekly Smash 4 tournament. I surprised myself, that's how well I played. This was a very light tourney with only 17 people entering. The people were good but they weren't good like Larry Laur or Zenyou, two great SoCal players that go to FaD quite often. Let me tell you about my matches.
      My first match was against this really good Ike player. I've played good Ikes in tournament before so I knew what to expect. This guy was great but in the first game I kept using Zero Suit Samus' somersault kick and took his two stocks with that move when he was over one hundred percent. It was really good stuff, I can't believe I got those hard reads both times after coming from deep off the stage. Surprised he didn't shield. Game 2 he kind of knew what to expect from me. I just ended up getting hit too much by dash attacks and just getting beaten by Ike's long reach and range. My somersault kick tactic didn't work anymore. He kind of knew my playstyle by now but he was still having a hard time. Another thing to keep in mind is that on Game 2 we played on Duck Hunt, which was making both of us whiff attacks a lot. Game 3 I went in and I played really well. But in the end he ended up killing me with a forward smash. I think he was at like 88%, it was a super close set.
      My next match was against this Captain Falcon player. I think he was using the tag Captain Gold because he went gold Captain Falcon costume. He was really good but I'm not sure if he was a regular at tournaments. I think he might've been more of an online player and he was just testing the waters at tourneys a little bit. His Falcon was really good and it gave me a little bit of trouble. Game 1 was really close. But Game 2 I just pwned him! It was great finally beating someone in tournament. I haven't done this since my first tournament and this was like my third tournament so I'm kind of experienced at this by now. His Falcon was good but I seemed to have a better understanding of the fundamentals of the game. Also, I was getting in a lot of the hard reads. He rolled a lot and I could expect and anticipate when he would roll in front or in back of me and punish.
     Because I won my second match I was still in the tourney. My third match was against this Jiggly Puff main. We played in friendlies earlier before the tournament started and I could barely even touch him, he was that good. He's just a young kid that has so much potential at Smash 4. He's better than Hungry Box at Smash 4, he's really good. His neutral game and spacing is just so good with Jiggs. It's like he's in the air all the time. I tried to do the same with Zss and do the same thing he was doing to me against him but it just ended up in a loss in Game 1. Game 2 I tried to switch it up and play patient and wait for him to mess up and then try to punish. But he just never whiffed an attack. He always hit me or always got away from my attacks. I could learn a lot from him but ultimately he ended up losing to this Mario player that goes by the name of SoCalGohan. Great name!
     SoCalGohan ended up taking the tournament. Free money for him basically. I don't think anyone there gave him any trouble. I saw him play this Shulk player, a Bowser main, a Ness main, and a Rob main, and he just annihilated all of them with ease. He did all the standard Mario stuff like the constant up tilts and head butt confirms but he was so good that he was improvising combos on the fly. It was great watching him combo the hell out of all those characters. It was great stuff.
     In the end I had a lot of fun. I did so poorly in friendlies that I didn't win a single game. However, I did learn a lot more about the game and I played really well in my tournament matches. I also made some new friends. It was fun. After the tournament ended I went to the bus stop to head home and while waiting my friend called me and picked me up because he was in the area at a poker tournament. We ended up chilling at his place. I brought my Wii U over and we played Smash 4 and Mario Kart 8 for a bit. I think he really liked Mario Kart because of the online mode. It was sick playing with him. Then we figured we'd play some PC games. And then I said why don't we stream.
     So we started streaming Starcraft. The stream went pretty well and it was cool having his webcam for the stream as well. Now, I'm getting back into streaming and I think I will keep at it and try to make something of myself as a Twitch streamer. My channel is twitch.tv/megaman1597, check it out when you can. I just finally got the settings just right on my computer to the point where it looks good (not blurry) and has good performance. It took a while messing around figuring out the settings using Open Broadcaster. I'll probably have to figure out more stuff when my webcam gets here. I'm going to try to get a new PC monitior (one with hdmi) so I can stream Smash 4. But at the moment I've been streaming Starcraft, Heroes of the Storm, and Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex-First Assault. Streaming is fun but I think I have to learn how to be more interactive, and talk more while I play, which can be a bit tricky in the beginning of learning how to be a streamer. Check out my twitter page https://twitter.com/fig_land for updates on when I'm streaming. Stay tuned for more content! 

Apocalyptic Wasteland

     

      2015 was like the year of Fallout. Nobody expected Fallout 4 to come out so quickly as it did and become one of the best games of 2015. I got my brother Fallout 4 for Christmas but I didn't buy myself a copy, partly because I wasn't sure if it was my kind of game. I never played previous Fallouts but when I saw how much fun my brother and pretty much all the rest of the gaming community was having I decided to give Fallout a go. I've been told to start playing Fallout 3 first but I decided on my own that I was going to play through New Vegas first. No real logic behind it, its just that I thought New Vegas seemed cool. The idea of a Vegas-like town in a nuclear wasteland just seemed super fun. So New Vegas is my first entry to the series and so far its been great. 

     The graphics on New Vegas run on ultra high settings on my PC so it looks absolutely stunning. I run some mods on the game using Nexus Mod Manager as well. I've been playing a lot of open world games lately (Xenoblade Chronicles X, Skyrim, and New Vegas) and its been very rough getting into them. I've been putting in time and doing the quests and trying to get farther but I just seem to get lost in the huge open worlds, or just simply can't find the person I'm suppose to talk to. 

     In addition, the combat system in Fallout takes some getting used to. You can shoot in real time but I suck horribly shooting in first person like that. The VATS system of firing is more my style but you have action points so you can't just keep shooting forever in that mode. So you have to play both styles in a way. It's interesting, I think Fallout 3 was like one of the first games like that on the Xbox360 when it first came out. I would say the hardest thing about Fallout for me is the huge open world, getting around places in the map (which I find to be a crappy map system), and finding people and/or things you need for quests. 

     The actual gameplay of the game is very smooth and lets you play anyway you want. It's a flexible game when it comes to the gameplay. Its just going around and doing things that I find annoying. But I'll stick with it. I find it to be a relaxing game and I was at it for a long while today. I made some advancements in some side quests and in the main story quests. So its been good. I wish I could say the same for Xenoblade Chronicles X. In that game I'm just straight up lost and confused like the first day I played it still. There's no real tutorials in that game but thankfully there is a manual you can read in game. 

     The coolest thing about Fallout is just the environment and the stories that the characters tell. I think of it as a nuclear fallout western game complete with laser guns, super mutants, and power armor. It's just amazing. That's why everybody is playing Fallout 4 and why there are tons of people streaming it on Twitch. My plan is to eventually beat Fallout New Vegas and then play Fallout 3. Then eventually because I'm sharing my steam account play Fallout 4 when my brother isn't playing it. 

     Also, I spent a lot of time playing Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex online. Its becoming my favorite twitch shooter. I like it more than Call of Duty now. Its just so fast paced and action packed for a twitch shooter. I'm also pretty good at it surprisingly. And I've also been playing Team Fortress 2. I even hopped on and play a bit by myself. Usually I only end up playing Tf2 with my good friend. 

     On a side note, I'm going to a Smash tournament tomorrow. Genesis 3 is coming up so a lot of SoCal's best Smashers are going to be competing in that. It's like one of the biggest Smash tournaments in California and I guess this will be the third one. I'm just going to complete at a local, at this place called Fire and Dice. It's a great place and I've made a lot of good friends that are great Smash players. They've taught me so much about how to play better and I've made leaps and bounds in my playing ever since my first tournament there, which I wrote about in the blog sometime back. I'm going to go hard in the paint with Zero Suit Samus. If I lose my first round as her then I will try Veria Suit Samus. Hopefully this time around I can beat some people. Usually the people at these tournaments are very good, but I'm at a skill level now where I'm about even with them. Pretty much how I am versus people on For Glory. I'm generally better than most people, even with some, and then there are a few who just annihilate me lol. I'm always trying to improve at Smash 4. I have a strong commitment to the game and my friends and I play every-time we hang out. Wish me luck!

Plans: Gaming and Otherwise

     So occasionally at work I get divine inspiration and ideas while toiling away in the salt mines. I came to the conclusion that I play so many games and so often that I should try to focus back on streaming. I did start it but I didn't really keep up with it but now I want to really do it, and be committed to it more. I'm going to get a webcam so I can be a true streamer. You know how people stream on Twitch and stuff but they're just playing the game with no webcam and just with a microphone. It's just not the same when you can't see the person. You don't get to understand their true persona and who they really are. It's just a whole lot more fun. So a webcam will help. Also, I'm thinking about posting Super Smash Bros videos online on a YouTube channel dedicated to gaming. I want to start by just editing Smash videos and putting hype music on them and doing a bit of commentary as well. 

     Sounds really fun. This is all really doable stuff and I wouldn't really be doing anything out of the ordinary from my regular life. I mean, I always play games so I might as well have an audience, try to make new friends online with other streamers and viewers, and just have a good time doing it. 

     Other ideas that came to mind is that I need to lose weight. It's easier said than done. A big part of it is that my lifestyle is a very languid and laid back one. The life of a gamer means little to no exercise. At least in the summer my friends and I went out to the beach and went hiking a lot. Now that its winter we mostly just go out to eat and just chill. I think I should make it a habit to start walking everyday, like maybe go out for coffee everyday as a reward for walking. For instance, I could walk to Starbucks from my house (a good workout), and get a coffee when I get there. And then from there I could go to work. And I could do this everyday. I'm sure if I started getting more physical activity I would shed some pounds easily. I think that's the biggest problem really, just not enough physical activity. So I'm going to start walking.

     The other idea that came to mind is that I need to get my drivers license. I'm going to the DMV on the 20th and take the written driving test and try to get my permit. The first time I went I failed but it was mostly because I didn't use any of my skips. It was on a computer screen and you were allowed three skips (basically three free answers) and I just completely forgot I had them and didn't use any of them. For some reason I felt like I could Rambo all the questions and get them all right. Next time I'll use the skips, and hopefully I'll be able to get the permit. Thankfully, I already have a car I can practice on but my folks will have to get me on their insurance for me to practice driving on it. I think driving will change my life because I'll be out more and doing more things. I'll definitely be driving to Smash tournaments and hanging out at Guitar Center jamming on guitars. 

      I was also interested in working on music, but maybe trying to work on electronic music stuff just messing around with music programs. It would be fun to orchestrate stuff on a computer with orchestral instruments. 

     This all just came to me today while I was at work. Good things do come out of work!

     

My FPS experience

I've been gaming a lot lately, doing what I usually do on the daily. I've been playing a lot more fps (first person shooters) games and I noticed I'm actually pretty good at them. Fps games can sometimes be a little tricky at first because there are just so many factors that go into shooters. Most of it just comes down to whoever is the more skilled player will take out the player who is less skilled than him. But in certain cases (like mine), I just usually end up getting lucky, and that ain't bad. I feel like a lot of fps skill is kind of based on luck because you can ambush people when they weren't on their guard and stuff like that. I was always terrible at playing Call of Duty, like on Xbox360, but when I switched over the PC I became much better. The mouse and keyboard is idea for aiming and looking down sites because it is more precise than a controller. When my brother got me CoD: Advanced Warfare I became really good at shooting games because I learned the play style. Also, it doesn't hurt than Advanced Warfare is a more tactical Call of Duty, nowhere near as campy as CoD: Ghosts. Eventually I became so good that I was always 1st or 2nd on the leader boards in every game.

     And then I just stopped playing. I felt like I'd exhausted everything in the game and eventually the whole Advanced Warfare community just stopped playing. Also, there were a lot of hackers on the PC version. It made for horrible games with the hacking so obvious that every time you spawned you would immediately die. That was how bad it got. I'm not sure if anythings been fixed regarding the game but I highly doubt it now that there's a new CoD game out called Black Ops III. That was pretty much the end of fps games for me.

     Until I met a new friend. He's super into fps games and he's pretty good at them. We started playing Team Fortress 2 and its been a blast. Its really getting me back into fps games because I'm realizing they are more fun with friends talking on discord. I got a really cool gun in Team Fortress that vaporizes enemy players in 1 or 2 hits. It's really fucking good! But I still have problems with the aiming system in Team Fortress 2. Perhaps I have to play with a higher sensitivity or something. It's a great game, probably the best shooter out there. At my friends house I even got to play Overwatch once. He coached me through a game and I played amazing well.

     And then when Battlefront III came out I was playing that for a while. I still am actually. I find the shooting in the game to be vastly different from any other kinds of fps games. I'm still at a loss at how to play this game really. In addition, I got Unreal Tournament III at Goodwill once and I've got it set up so that I can play on private servers online and still play the game online even though the original game servers are down. I used to be a beast at Unreal Tournament III on the Xbox360, back in the day. Unreal Tournament is another one of those fps games that you just have to play at least once. It's an amazing shooting experience, the best arena shooter.

      But when I got into the Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex multiplayer game beta I realized I'm actually pretty damn good at fps games. One part of why I do so well in GotS (Ghost in the Shell) is that the maps are designed in a way that you will be punished for camping or staying in one spot for a long time. Keep in mind that I only play team deathmatch because whenever I try doing the other game modes it takes forever to find players and I always just end up leaving the queue. So this game is all about running and gunning, basically the same tactics as in Battlefront III. The better you are at run and gun, the better player you will be. That's my basic tactic, just run, look for enemy players, then shoot. Run around some more and repeat. Somehow I've done amazing well with this tactic. I average like 20 kills a game and sometimes I even get more than that. Not bad for a game that's still in early access. I highly recommend this game by the way.

     The thing that this game has going for it is the name and the brand. Ghost in the Shell is a beloved anime and I can only imagine what kinds of things they will add to the game once its polished and released after beta. I feel like the graphics are meh and that the abilities of the Operatives (basically the same system as in Black Ops III, where you choose a hero and they have special abilities) don't really help you out in any significant way. Since when are shooters becoming like mobas? I find the abilities not that important because even if somebody is using their ability they can be taken out easily with a gun shot. However, this game shines in its game play.

     The first thing you notice when you play team deathmatch is that everybody is playing it as a team. Nobody is going out like little Rambo's like in Call of Duty. It feels like a tactical Counter Strike match where you have to disable the bomb. Everybody's moving in like a squad and not just going in death after death. They're using their head and playing smart. This has helped me learn to be more patient in shooters and not just try to shoot an enemy when I first see them. Sometimes you want to hide behind corners, wait for them to shoot and they have to reload, or just flank them by taking an alternate route on the map and just rushing them. This is all basic stuff to fps gamers but I had to learn all of this myself. I just got the hang of it recently and its been a blast! This Ghost in the Shell game has been my catalyst fps game and now I'm hooked.

     I'm going to keep trying to improve in Battlefront III, keep up with Team Fortress 2 with my friend, play Unreal Tournament III, and definitely keep playing Ghost in the Shell. The beauty of fps games is that you don't have to invest too much time into them for you to have a good time. You can be very casual with it and play a few matches before bed. I've only really been playing a bit here and there and its been very rewarding and satisfying. Nothing feels better than getting that headshot kill, double kill, and possibly even triple kill and being on top of the leader boards with the most kills. The number one fps game I'm looking out for Overwatch. I'm hoping that it comes out sometime later this year. But we don't really know for sure when it will come out. Overwatch is going to be a huge game. Even in beta I can see that it has so much potential as another great Blizzard game. Watch out for its release maybe sometime this year. Shooters can be a little hard to get into at first because it might feel like a steep learning curve, but once you get the hang of it you can just annihilate online. It's good, clean fun!

Undefeated in For Glory

     Today was a hard day at work. But its all good. Where would I be without work? I wouldn't have all this money and all this cool stuff. Anyways, today was awesome. I played Smash 4 after not playing for like a day or two and I went undefeated on For Glory for around 25-30 matches, something like that. It was insane! I've never played that well in friendlies or at a tournament. I might be getting a lot better especially because I was using like every character-not just sticking to my mains (Zero Suit Samus, Veria Suit Samus). I found out that I'm pretty good with the other characters when I play them and that maybe I'm focusing a little too hard just trying to be great with just Zero Suit Samus. I'm also pretty good with Diddy Kong and I was playing well with Ness too. I played a couple different people but some of them stood out. One guy played Greninja and his strategy was to run away from all me and try to counter me. He hit me a lot but he could never do more damage by just countering me than I was doing comboing all over him. Then the same guy played Sonic and he just ran around the stage and whenever I missed hitting him he would punish with upsmash. Pretty basic stuff. He only stood out because he was sticking to one particular strategy with those two characters. Everybody else was playing standard For Glory style, a lot of rolling and forward smash attacks to punish. I feel like even though I felt great going undefeated, I know it doesn't really mean much because For Glory players aren't very good. In one sense I get this and acknowledge it. But on the other hand, I have come across some great For Glory players that whoop my ass almost as bad as people at tournaments. So I guess its tomatoes and potatoes, if you know what I mean. A better example would be apples and oranges. I do think For Glory takes skill if the other guy is way better than you and you somehow pull off a win. Although you could say that you won out of lag, the real conclusion to me would be that you learned their playstyle and adapted to it in a harsh environment (lag) and managed to be the victor. Which takes a lot of skill in my opinion!
     I feel like I've been getting better and better at Smash. One of the things I have to do is work on my combos. I've got to learn how to string all my attacks together rather than just getting a few hits in here and there. So I'm going to lab it up in training mode and come up with combos. There are a bunch for Zero Suit Samus that everybody knows but I haven't really tried them because they seem a bit out of my league. I still consider myself kind of a beginner, only having played the Wii U version since September 25th. But I guess that's no excuse that I didn't 'git gud'. I'm going to git gud soon. It's part of my New Years plans to work on become a real heavy hitter in Smash, at least at the local tournament I go. Playing online isn't ideal because of lag (crappy Nintendo servers) but I don't have a lot of options because I work nights and all the tournaments are in the afternoons when I'm just starting work. The struggle is real. Work is preventing me from becoming a champion Smash 4 player. But without work I wouldn't have even been able to buy a Wii U to play Smash 4. Everything goes full circle. Such is the wheel of fate.

Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon

     Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon is one strange name for an anime. This anime is a harem which basically means that the main character is a guy and he's surrounded by all these girls who are fighting for attention and affection. Some people don't like this kind of anime because sometimes it can be kind of lame. But this show was awesome! The best thing about it is that its only 12 episodes, perfect for people who don't have a lot of time to put into an anime. I would say this is a great newer anime (from 2015) and I would recommend it to any anime fans out there. But first, what is this about? 

     As the name suggests, the show is about a platoon of young people (not quite kids, but not quite adults) who are studying at a school how to take out witches and stop magic from harming people. Basically its like Harry Potter except these platoons use guns, swords, and special magic things like the main character's samurai mecha armor and one of the girls uber guns that absorb blood from her body the longer she uses them. So there's some interesting ideas here and some of the fighting gets gory (a little blood, not too much). As far as plot lines go the show is pretty much all over the place. We don't really get if the Platoon is secretly like the best platoon in the entire Anti-Magic Academy. Because they take out all these magic baddies and witches yet they're labeled the worst platoon in the academy. Then suddenly everything changes when Kusanagi (the male lead character) gets this power armor that he uses a sword with (he uses a samurai sword in a world of magic and guns, comes from a samurai family) and the whole show changes. The platoon is able to tackle anything that comes across their path. The fights were okay but not great. They were short and often unsatisfying. But I still liked them because of the characters. That's where this show really shines. All the characters are interesting and you care about each of them. The platoon becomes like family. And yes it is a harem. So there's a lot of scenes where the girls are trying to hit on Kusanagi and they love his attention and affection. But I felt that this show doesn't have too much of that. I mean Tenchi Muyo, now that's a true harem. A better word to describe this anime is action and ecchi-basically playfully sexy or erotic, but not all-out sex or something vulgar. I found this element of the anime to be great! The show has a couple waifus in addition to them having great personalities and being interesting characters. In terms of cute waifus there's even a swim suit beach episode! One of the girls is a sniper on the team. Another joins the academy as the first witch. Another one uses special dueling pistols that absorb blood the longer used. And another one is the brains of the whole operation and handles technology stuffs. And then there's Kusangi leading the team into battle. And is always victorious. 

     The ending story arc of the anime is about Kusangi's sister. Apparently she has this magic power that can destroy the entire world unless she's always kept asleep. Sounds like something that doesn't make a whole lot of sense but do animes ever make sense? Back when Kusangi was a kid he could've killed her and that would've meant that the world would've been safe but he choose to run away. And now his sister asks for Kusangi to kill her so that she wouldn't have to deal with the suffering and the idea of possibly killing more people. In the meanwhile there's this evil wizard who's trying to kidnap Kusangi's sister and use her power for Valhala (some evil magic group, the main enemies). So there's a big fight and in the end Kusangi saves his sister. But at the same time its like for how long? And would've he have saved the world if he just killed her? He could've bring himself to kill her but they make it seem in the show when he's going back for her like he was going to kill her to stop her powers from destroying the whole town. Her power was a little bit weird. It was like these giant meats of flesh with eyes that could talk and attack people. And then there were these giant bats that had an eye for a body. Pretty strange stuff but it definitely fits in an anime about magic. There was a lot of sibling love at the end there. And a lot of love with and for the 35th Platoon in general. They rose together as a group and overcame every obstacle through teamwork and by "letting me carry half of your burden", Kusangi's best one liner to all the girls in the show. And they all fall head over heels for it. Came for the magic and fight scenes. Left having had a good time watching a guy and a bunch of girls develop and mature as a the 35th Test Platoon. 

Wii U Gamepad Repaired and Xenoblade Chronicles X

     

   
     So a while ago I sent my Wii U Gamepad to a Nintendo repair outfit. The repair outfit turned out to be someplace nearby in Chatsworth, thankfully not like in Japan or something crazy like that. I think it took maybe about 1-2 weeks I kind of lost track of time but it was pretty quick. The best part is that they fixed it free of charge because its still within the one year manufacturer's warranty. Lucky me that I just bought my Wii U in September.
     Now that I have the Gamepad back the first thing I did was start playing Xenoblade Chronicles X. I gotta say that this game looks amazing on the Wii U, probably the most graphic intensive game on the entire system. It also has the biggest open world out of all Wii U games. This is the quintessential open world rpg experience on the Wii U. The story is pretty awesome. Basically, some aliens attacked Earth and humanity escaped on a giant space vessel, only to run into more aliens and crash land on this planet called Mira. There are lots of fierce animals here and humanity has rebuilt using their skell technology (giant mech robots) and called their new home New Los Angeles. Xenoblade Chronicles X has some sick classic JRPG fighting mechanics similar to the original Xenoblade Chronicles game but what the game offers in cut scenes and character animations are very dry, probably a byproduct of a not very good English translation. The thing about it is that the first Xenoblade Chronicles game had a great English translation. All the characters sounded great, and I could understand certain feelings that their voice could portray. In this new Xenoblade game all the dialogue is pretty robotic and 'lacks feeling'. By lacks feeling I mean that the actors didn't do a good job emoting through the characters. Sometimes this happens. I don't know, maybe its just because I'm only level 8 and still in the beginning of the game, I'm not sure. I'm hoping that once the game starts moving along, the voice actors deliver a better performance.
     I can't wait to get my Skell but I don't think that's going to be for many, many hours into the game. Although this game doesn't seem to deliver in terms of voice acting, the graphics and overall story seems to be more interesting than the first Xenoblade Chronicles. Another reason why this game doesn't impress me so much is that your character that you created doesn't ever talk in the game. This was such a stupid idea! Mind you that they did this despite the fact that you can give your character a signature voice. What was the point if your character can't even talk? It's just another thing I don't like about this title. However, the gameplay is absolutely fantastic. Every battle is super fun and the mechanics are pretty much the same as the original Xenoblade. However, I find healing a bit harder to do. So far there is no dedicated healer and I'm not sure if this game features any. This is a great add on to my list of Wii U titles, which include Smash 4 and Mario Kart 8. I'll write more about this title as I get farther in the game. Until then, stay happy and stay gaming!

Got rank 13 in Star Wars Battlefront III

     So I finally got rank 13 in Star Wars Battlefront III! It should be noted that I refuse to call this game Star Wars Battlefront, to me it will always be Battlefront III because there already was a Star Wars Battlefront, and it was bloody amazing in comparison to this game. So I got to rank 13. Which means that I unlocked the jet-pack. I already bought it. But I didn't play anymore games after I got rank 13 because I'd had enough for today. I played a ton of games. Mostly blast (team death match) and heroes and villains mode (a team death match with only six vs six players using Leia, Luke, Han, Vader, Boba Fett, and Palpatine. Heroes and Villains mode is like the only reason I can say that this game is any good. I've even made a friend on Origin (the gaming client used to run and play this game) that I play Heroes and Villains mode with a lot. The premium game mode, aka Walker Assault is such absolute rubbish that I kind of just gave up on ever playing it again. I might try it again sometime in the future because it would be cool to test out the jet-pack on those big terrains but other than that I'm going to leave it be. Hooray for the jet-pack!

How I got into Mobas

     Thought I'd do a post about how I got into mobas (multi-player online battle arena games) and tell you a little about why there's such a buzz around these kinds of games. Okay, so mobas are basically top down games where you control one hero unit that levels up like an RPG character and has multiple skills and/or abilities. In some mobas you can buy items to enhance the stats of your toon (character). Mobas are basically the most popular PC games. Why? Because all of them are free to play. But that doesn't mean that people don't use real money on them. They all have in game money shops that you can use to buy heroes, items, and skins. The two biggest mobas are League of Legends and Dota 2. I tried both of those games and also some other ones like Strife, Heroes of Newerth, and a DC Superhero one as well but none of those stuck with me for some reason. For one thing in LoL and Dota I didn't like how long the matches lasted. Sometimes I would be in a game for 45 minutes, only for one player on the enemy time to get fed (get a lot more xp and level up higher than us, by getting tons of kills) and just completely annihilate us. Also, I didn't like how there were all these extra things you had to know about, like which items to get with certain heroes and so on. Don't get me wrong. League and Dota are great games, especially Dota because it has great graphics. But they just don't move at a fast pace and I get tired of sitting in the same match after an hour has gone by. It wasn't until a certain game came out in beta access that I became a true moba player.
     Enter Heroes of the Storm. Online it says the closed beta came out in 2015 but it seems like I've been playing it much longer than that, like 2014 or something. Basically Heroes of the Storm is amazing. It's been one of the constants in my life, just like washing up, eating, and going to work. Heroes is the first beta that I ever participated in and it was the best. The game has only gotten better with more maps and more heroes. Its easy to see why Heroes is such a good game and why I prefer it over League and Dota.
     For one thing, Heroes matches only last around 20-25 minutes. If things are a little too even you might possibly go to a 30 minute game but those are the rare games. Experience (xp, what gives your toons the ability to level up) is shared by the whole team collectively. So when you kill an enemy player you're getting experience for the whole team to level up, not just your own. This is a rare exception because in LoL and Dota you have to earn kills and get xp on your own. Also, there are no items in this game, just pure skill and characters from Blizzard's diverse gaming universe-from Starcraft, Warcraft, Diablo, and even some earlier Blizzard titles like Lost Vikings. Heroes feels like more of a team game than other 'serious' mobas. In this game you only solo lane until level 10. When you hit level 10 you get your ultimate ability and have to move around the map as a death-ball with your team, otherwise you will get picked off and die. Like I said Heroes has been a constant in my life ever since early 2015.
     I usually start every day off by getting up and getting ready for the day. Then I immediately play Heroes for a couple matches, usually enough to complete the quests in the game. These quests earn you in game gold that you can use to buy more heroes. You can also use real money but I've only used real money to buy hero skins (different costumes for your heroes, they have some bad-ass ones). Its hard for me to say that Heroes is my favorite game because I feel like I have so many other games that I'm playing that I like equally as much, like for instance, Smash 4. But Heroes is definitely my most played game. Every match is fresh, exciting, and anything can happen. I have to improvise all the time and decide what to do on my own as well as collectively as a team. I play with friends when they are online but usually I'm left to my own devices playing pugs (pick up groups), basically just playing with whatever players that are online. I use the in-game chat to come up with strategies and stuff so we can work as a team and not get ganked (ambushed) while moving around the map. It's good clean fun! The community sometimes isn't the best in Heroes of the Storm but I've come to expect that in a lot of PC online games. I have like 800 games played so far. I know that doesn't sound a lot but it is a lot because it just came out in 2015. I consider myself a veteran playing from the early days of beta access. I've come to play certain characters and classes exceptionally well.
     I focus on playing support most of the time. That means I'm usually playing a healer class making sure my team doesn't die. I usually main the medic from Starcraft Broodwar, Lt. Morales in most games. And when I'm not healing as her I'm healing as Uther, a paladin from Warcraft III. Morales is great because she's the best 'pure' healer in the game but she's glass-cannon (goes down like a wet paper nap, weak) and doesn't do much damage. Uther, on the underhand can take a hit or two but his healing has more cooldowns. The cool thing about Uther is that he has a stun that I use to get a lot of kills. Stuns are very OP (over-powered) in this game. If you stun an enemy player when you're whole team is there to attack them they are definitely dead.
     When I'm not healing I sometimes play tanks (characters that are meant to take hits and absorb damage). My favorite tanks are Johanna and Leouric. Johanna is a great tank. I think she's the best tank for beginners because all her abilities just work perfectly for new players. Leouric is a bit tougher to play but his defense is really good. He has some ok abilities but I feel like you have to get to know how to play him a bit before he becomes op.
     And to a less extent I play assassins and specialists. I started off playing Heroes as a Nova main, like pretty much every other player. Nova is just a super easy character to pick up when you first start playing the game because she's a sniper that can cloak and run and hide. But when you get to ranked matches you learn that she's a lot tougher to play at the higher levels of the game. And when I need to play specialists for a quest I almost always play Sylvannas. Not only is she a cute Undead Night Elf girl from Warcraft III she absolutely wrecks forts (towers, enemy structures to get to their core, the thing that you have to destroy to win the game). She's also not bad in team fights, having a cool ultimate called Wailing Arrow, that silences (stops them from using any abilities for a few seconds). It's very helpful at critical moments!
     Heroes of the Storm has gotten a lot of attention since it came out. The best thing about it is that it's free to play! Just like League and Dota. And just like LoL and Dota there are tournaments and stuff. Its not as big as like the 2 million dollar Dota or League prize winnings. But maybe one day it will be. I can see the game changing a lot over the next few years, putting in new and more interesting characters with different mechanics. If you have a computer and play PC games you should definitely download this game. You will not regret it. This game got me to really understand mobas and see them in a new way. They are actually good!