Blackened Saturday, Cyber Monday Awaits

So the sales got to me and I ended up spending more of my hard earned cash money. I ended up looking up sales online for Gamestop and I found out Fallout 4 was only $10 for pc! Great deal man. I hopped the bus and trekked out there to get it. I also ended up getting a sweet Darksiders 2 shirt for $2 at Goodwill. Talk about awesome!

A few days before I got Doom and an Xbox 1 controller. I've been putting in work in Doom and Fallout 4 as well as playing Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain on my Xbox 1.

Doom is not for pussies that's for sure. The game is graphic as all hell (literally) and has so much blood, it's pretty intense. The heavy metal soundtrack makes for hectic combat against demons from the pits of hell. Great game. I'm currently on the third level. They just introduced these stronger demons called hell knights that are tough. Sometimes it'll take me 5 shotgun shots to take them out. I gotta figure out a faster way to kill them as they are becoming more troublesome and numerous.

Fallout 4 is even better though. Both games are made by Bethesda and this is probably my favorite gaming company other than Blizzard. I'm a big Skyrim fan but I never made it too far in the series. After playing Doom and Fallout 4 I'm definitely going to go back and finish Skyrim-with mods. The mods for Fallout 4 are fantastic. There's literally so much you can do to change and/or break the game in ways devs never intended. The base game is great too. I'm only in the beginning of the game but I can tell that it's something that I'm going to put some time into. Super fun. It's much better than New Vegas, which was my only previous Fallout experience.

I'm definitely adding more single player immersion into my gaming experiences at the moment. At first I was a multiplayer only type of gamer but now I find myself wanting to relax and enjoy a story without playing with a bunch of randos (randoms in pubs-public games, as I mostly solo queue). It's good to enjoy something by yourself and enjoy the depth within the game.

Cyber Monday is today. Lots of people are going to be buying things online. Not me though. I ended my Amazon Prime sub because I didn't think it was worth the $100 a year and things just aren't that interesting on that site.

However, I am still interested in buying more games!

:D 

I might pick up Warhammer Vermintide because its only $15 on Steam. I'm also still interested in Battlefield 1 but I think I should wait on that. Even if the sale on Origin ends soon it will probably go back to $40 for Christmas sales or maybe even less by then, who knows.

Hope you all got something cool for yourselves. If you haven't get something nice today. You've earned it sport!

'Tis the season

Black Friday Loot

So I ended up going out with friends after a super hectic work day of 1pm to 1030pm on Thanksgiving. Glad the rush won't be back until Christmas, New Years, and New Years Eve. My friends and I went out to Best Buy and a few stores at the mall. I ended up getting some good loot. Everybody loves loot!

First, we went to Best Buy where there were so many people! I decided to pick up a wireless Xbox one controller there. My bro got an Xbox one a while ago and his request for me to able to play it was that I have my own controller. It's a plain black wireless one. Got it for $40. Could've gotten it cheaper online but I like buying my products in person and getting it right away sometimes.

Later, we went to the mall mainly to check out and lounge around at Target. There was a ton of people there looking to buy Apple products. I ended up buying Doom (physical box copy, PC version) for only $25! Pretty great deal. I heard great things about Doom's single player campaign so I thought this was a great deal. I was going to get Fallout 4 but my bro has it on his Steam account. All I have to do is share my account with his and I can play it anytime. Fallout 4 was only $20 there. Maybe I should've bought both! :D

Even later, (during Black Friday daytime hours) I went to CD Trader (my local record shoppe). There was a lot of new stuff there but nothing (rock or metal) that really peaked my interest so I decided to get an old jazz record. I went with jazz guitarist John Scofield's 1992 album Meant To Be which features Joe Lovano on tenor sax, Marc Johnson on bass, and Bill Stewart on drums. I'm listening to it right now. Scofield is a master of chorus-infused jazz guitar. All his lines have great happening rhythm. Even though he's white he's a brotha with a lot of rhythm. Haha. But that's a discussion for another post.

I'm glad I didn't go crazy buying too many things that I couldn't afford. There will be more things to buy in the next couple weeks. For sure I will pick up Warhammer Vermintide. I've been wanting to play that game for a long time. Think of it as a medieval Left 4 Dead in Warhammer universe fighting against giant rats. Sounds funny but the game is great. I also was interested in Battlefield 1 but we'll have to wait and see because Christmas will be here pretty fast. Better save up that money for my family and friends too.

The deals are still going on right now online and in stores. Check it out. Buy yourself something nice. You've earned it sport!

Black Friday Is Upon Us

Today is Thanksgiving! For me its a regular work day and I probably won't be able to eat any turkey until sometime after 10 pm. Rip.

Anyways, I wanted to talk about Black Friday and stuff. There's so much people could buy but money is always a limiting factor of course. I wanted to buy a drum machine rather soon but the funds don't look good for it. I can however pick up some great games on sale for good prices. I just found out that my bro got an Xbox one so I was thinking of getting myself a controller and perhaps a game. Not sure what one though. I prefer gaming on pc so I'm not really sure but my ideas were possibly Fallout 4, Call of Duty Infinite Warfare, Battlefiled 1, things like that. But these are all games I could get on pc.

My bro already has Halo 5 and Titanfall 2 so maybe I should just settle for just the controller and getting some pc games instead. I'm definitely gonna pick up Warhammer Vermintide ($15 on Steam) and possibly Battlefield 1 ($40 on Origin). That would be great.

I really wanted to pick up the drum machine this Friday and hopefully get some good deals but the money is just not right. Gotta save up and hope to buy it next week I suppose.

There's a lot of great sales for gaming right now. Just check out Steam, Origin, Humble Bundle, Amazon, and other online sites. Everybody is doing great deals. On Friday I will definitely check out Fry's Electronics, Best Buy, and maybe even Guitar Center with my buddies. Last year we got a good haul. My friend got a Wii U with Splatoon and Smash 4 and I got Star Wars Battlefront.


Happy holidays

Holidays Are Here But Not Quite Plus Gaming Decay And Band Update

Just wanted to do a little personal blog post tonight about the holidays coming up and life in general. Not everybody is a super big fan of the holidays but I think they are ok. For me the holidays begin at the end of this month, around Thanksgiving and then forward unto (darkness! :D) to Black Friday. For me Black Friday is a big deal because I always buy something awesome for myself that day.

This year I'm planning on buying Battlefield 1 from Fry's, Bestbuy, or Gamestop. My hope is that the game drops in price for Black Friday. I know its still a relatively new game but c'mon now its been out for a bit.

Also, looking forward to Thanksgiving. I'm only working four hours that day and its a early day shift so I'm looking forward to working and coming home early and hanging out with the family.

Christmas is going to be interesting. Last Christmases I got a lot of people at work stuff but I think this year I'm just gonna focus on getting my friends and family gifts lol. It got pretty expensive previous Christmases and this year I need to focus on the right gifts for the people in my inner circle.

Been gaming quite a bit as well. Sombra will probably be on the live Overwatch server in time for Thanksgiving, one could only hope. She will bring in a lot of interesting team plays to the game but she will also invigorate the game and get the casual players playing more again. As much as I love Overwatch I think I've been consumed by it in a way. I'll probably take a Sabbatical from it and play other games, write songs, and record them.

I've been trying to balance my home life effectively. I game in the early part of the day and practice guitar after, then I go into work. Sometimes I end up just hanging out with my friends and going to work but those days are like my weekends because I don't get weekends off.

My friends and I have a band but we have no name yet and we don't know any songs other than the Adventure Time theme song. The guys have a way to go with their playing but I was thinking about showing them some simple songs and seeing if they can play it all in time together. I'm thinking The Ramones or Black Sabbath, maybe both. That's the plan for this Wednesday. The other guitarist is new but he's getting the hang of it through my lessons but our bass player needs work on his timing as well as his general technique. In time I think they could be good musicians. Longer time will tell if they could become great musicians. We don't have a drummer yet but I'm thinking of using programmed drums until we get some songs and material going. Which should be pretty soon.  

So far I've just been showing them basic chords for the guitar player, rhythm and timing for the bass player, and a lot of technical technique things that would cost them a shit ton of money if they took lessons. I'm actually a great teacher. I think if I never go anywhere career-wise with music I'll probably settle for just being a teacher. I'd even be down to go back to college (probably community college) to get a music degree for that. Who knows.

After work every night I try to listen to new music-any kind but mostly jazz, classical, or metal. I write here for the blog most nights. I do it mostly for myself as a record of all the cool stuff I do and am into. I think its cool that I get a ton of views from all over the world, thanks for reading whoever you are! Its a terrific feeling knowing that my blog gets good traffic.

As you can see life is good. And that ain't not bad. 

Keep reading and if you like what you see feel free to leave a comment

Thanksgiving-Battlefront III-Legacy of the Void

     So Thanksgiving was just on Thursday, it was a great celebration with me and my folks. I hope it was a great experience for you all as well. I did work on Thanksgiving but thankfully it was only for a good four hours and then I was the hell outta there! Haha, but seriously, it sucks working on Holidays and I'm going to try to get off on Christmas and New Years. Check out that cool anime Starwars pic I found online, it's pretty cool. The idea of a female Jedi taking on Vader just gives me nerd chills man! Anyways, so work was aight and when I got home I just relaxed and played a few games and waited for dinner. Dinner was good. We had our "traditional" Chinese turkey that we get from a Chinese restaurant called A&W Seafood down on Reseda. It's a great place and they do a great job with turkey, cooking it in a way different style than the really really overly dry American way of cooking turkey for Thanksgiving. I really can't eat a traditional American style turkey anymore because this Chinese turkey just tastes so much better!
     Later that night around 11 30-midnight me and two friends went out and got some cool stuff for Black Friday. We ended up going to my old job-Fry's Electronics and Best Buy. We bought some stuff at Fry's. My friend got the Wii U bundle that comes with Splatoon and Smash 4 for $249. I got Starwars Battlefront III for $60. And my other friend got this fighting game arcade stick that was retailed $170 online on Amazon and stuff for only $30 because Fry's put it in the wrong spot on the floor so when they said it was $170 he showed them that there was like ten of them in a spot with a price tag of $30, and he was able to get it for that price because Fry's mislabeled and put their stuff in the wrong spots. He even said that the women helping him out was a little ticked off that he said that it was only $30 not $170. I feel like in a way he bamboozled Fry's but hey Fry's is at fault because they mislabeled their shit and put it in the wrong spot, misleading customers. I used to work at Fry's and I talked to a couple of my old friends, acquaintances, and employees. It was cool. It was good to see them still doing the same thing they were doing 2 years ago. I like when people have longevity in hobbies and work.
     I didn't play Battlefront III until the next day after it installed (took a while, even on my monster PC). But when I did get to playing it I couldn't help but feel that this game is just a Battlefield game with a Starwars skin. Don't get me wrong, the graphics and visuals in this game are stunning, especially on the PC version. But the game-play is simple, with mostly firing from the hip being the best way to shoot. All the guns look and fire the same red lasers, although at a different fire-rate. The game is so easy to play that I don't think it takes much skill to be great. I think Call of Duty or Halo is much harder to be great at than this game. I guess the first word that comes to mind when I think of Battlefront III is shallow. There's no campaign so there's no real story or point to all the fighting you're doing, its just mindless killing and shooting. I don't care about playing some no name rebel or empire trooper. I care about the actual characters from the movies, and possibly new characters that could have been created in this game. I wanted to return the game but I'm stick with it because I bought it at Fry's, and you can't return a game you already opened. And you can't return it through Origin because I didn't buy it online. I have two options. Never play this game again, or give it another shot, trying out more of the game modes that the game has to offer. If I had to rate this game based on what I've seen and played so far, I would give it a hard 7 out of 10, mostly just because of the visuals. The music is terrible and the game modes seem to get boring because there's only a small handful of maps. Also, they make you pay an additional $50 for dlc content that includes more maps and game modes. Thankfully, because I bought it at Fry's it actually came with the dlc somehow. Casual gamers will love this game because of how simple and easy it is to play. But for the hardcore fps guys, this game won't cut it for them.
     On Friday, other than trying out Battlefront, I beat the Starcraft II Legacy of the Void campaign. All I can say is 'my life for aiur!' It was a great ending to an epic space opera. The ending was a little cheesy with the chtulu like creature being the Xel Naga and it giving all its energy to Kerrigan, and she turned into this angelic-like being that was suddenly strong enough to kill Amon, a dark god that was the game's endgame villain. I enjoyed the campaign thoroughly and tried to get all the achievements. I think I'm at something like 50% achievements, which ain't good but it ain't bad either! I've always been more of multiplayer Starcraft player, I never even beat the original Starcraft or Broodwar campaigns. I heard those weren't that great anyways. What awaits me now for Starcraft is the Legacy of the Void multiplayer experience. I haven't gotten ranked or played any matches but I feel like Terran might be really weak in Legacy and I'm not sure if I'm ready to play a turtle race like Terran when Protoss and Zerg have such cool new units. So when I start playing multiplayer I might switch back to Zerg, which was my original race going back to Broodwar in middle school. I only switched to Terran at the end of Wings of Liberty because the guys in my clan on battlenet said it was the easiest race I could play with minimal micro and still do pretty well. I feel like they've been wrong but I actually fell in love with the Terrans, even though I don't consider myself a turtle-up kind of player. I'm more aggressive which maybe makes me feel like I'm more suited for Zerg. For the swarm!
     Music has been good as well. I've been practicing a bit, mainly trying to focus on playing songs rather than just improvising or learning chord voicings. I've really been listening to this guy Henry Threadgill, a great alto saxophonist, composer, and improviser. I really dig his new band called Zooid. All the cats I really dig and admire are sax players; people like Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane, Peter Brotzmann, etc. Even though I'm a guitar player, I'm a big sax guy. I might actually buy one someday. I had a buddy at work who was going to sell me his but its kind of been forgotten that I've mentioned it to him. I still want it. Maybe that'll be my Christmas gift to myself. Can you imagine me with a saxophone? Talk about bizarre.
     Its been good to get back to writing. It's been so long since the last post. I'll try to keep em coming, and get back to writing music stuff eventually. This blog was originally meant to only be for music but now its like a gaming blog. I play too many games, and eventually I'll have to stop because it gets in the way of guitar playing and playing music, my main love in life. But I digress. Peace out cub-scouts.