Author: Michael Durr

Okay, so I am way past an intervention.  No relief from work and only because I forced myself to do something besides work (or sleeping what little I can)…I even find myself dozing or daydreaming when I don’t have to worry about my job every single second.  Of all the things that COVID robbed from our world, I think it really robbed many of the people reasons to enjoy their lives.  I enjoy my family certainly, but it’s hard to not look over my shoulder.  Before COVID, I planned for the future but I didn’t sit there and wonder if I would have one.  I don’t worry about getting the disease (in fact I’m pretty sure I had it when right before this whole thing started and mass chaos ensued).  I would like things to be normal again but I think people’s mindsets have to be normal again.  Right now, I don’t see that happening and I’m not entirely sure that it can get back there either.

This is really why I barely can blog, never mind actually write something creative (and certainly not like I used to).  Sure I have little flashes of creativity when it comes to my book reviews (you can see those on the right of this page).  I mean, I got a wonderful edition of Beastmaster 4k from Vinegar Syndrome around Christmas time.  Did I do a review like I normally would have?  NOOOOOOOO.   I mean that movie is probably in my top 50-75 movies of personal favorites.  I have another “special” on the way from Imprint (Australian) for Breakdown, a well underappreciated Kurt Russell movie.  I might just have to force myself to do that one, it would help to ease this horrible feeling inside of me.

On the gaming front, I am currently playing Murdered: Soul Suspect and I just finished the Church.  I had a lot of issues in the beginning especially with dispatching demons but I am slowly getting better.  The whole fighting demons thing really feels tacked on but I guess they were afraid of it being labelled as a visual novel with a ridiculous amount of collectables otherwise.  I like the story aspect of it, but the gameplay does have issues.  The other problem I find with this game is that I’m afraid if I don’t play it everyday I’m afraid it will become one of those games that I drop and never finish (see Invisible Hours).

I am messing with Skyrim as one would have guessed, I’m actually level 31 currently and have pretty much cheesed my way to that level by sneaking, pickpockets, conjuration (bound sword), and anything else I can easily do.  In classic Skyrim fashion, I find myself messing with miscellaneous objectives rather than main or side quests.  I have told myself that once I get to level 35, I will probably force myself to do either the main quests or at the very least Civil War.  I want to live long enough to see the true “end” of Skyrim.  The 360 version, I did get to the end of Civil War and Thieves Guild story line and level 47 I believe.

We do have a new crop of Games with Gold.  Both of the Xbox One games are hugely uninspired, we have a run of the mill first person shooter and then a game about Llamas.  Really?!!?  They might as well just offer Goat Simulator.  The Xbox 360 games are a little better, I’ve actually almost bought Port Royale 3 several times when I saw it for $5 or so.  Metal Slug 3 is a good game but unfortunately it’s also extremely hard.  At least I’ll download the 360 ones.  It’s months like this when I wonder if they are just going to abandon Games with Gold and rely on Game Pass for freebies.  Doubt it, but stranger things have happened.

I am a little late to the party, but here are the Xbox Deals with Gold as well.  The last couple of weeks I had picked up some of the Pinball FX Williams packs since I did not have them and they were having a decent sale.  This week there are a couple more of Pinball packs but unfortunately I have them both.  Onto other games in this sale, I thought about Azkend 2 for a brief second with its attractive price point but do I really want another “Bejeweled” game?  No…no I do not.  I do also see sales for the Scott Pilgrim and Yakuza remasters but 20 and 25% respectively are not going to quite cut it.  I really wish the Yakuza one had a nice boxset, I really like them and the first 2 on Playstation 2 and the most recent Like a Dragon on the Xbox One.  This would have filled in a nice gap.  I’ll just wait for a better sale I reckon, probably in the 50 to 60% range.

On the 360 side, it’s the usual Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Rayman and Tom Clancy games that are on sale every month or so.  No new price points either.  Well, I guess that’s it for me,  I do plan to write something next week since Breakdown will be arriving and it would be nice to do a movie review again.  We’ll see what happens, enjoy.

I am starting to think I need an intervention.  This year was supposed to get a little better, instead I find myself working sixty to sixty five hours a week and Friday which used to be light and I could finish by noon, I’m now working until 8pm (like Monday thru Thursday).  I take breaks for lunch and dinner but its really to save myself from exhaustion rather than a good time to relax and enjoy a meal.  I seemingly have a short fuse and yell for no real reason at all.  Of course since I’m working from home most of the time (I do go in the office occasionally), only my wife and son seem to hear it which isn’t really fair to them either (especially when its not directed at them).  My little moments of happiness are usually contained in little boxes from the post office, regardless of what they actually contain.  Or Saturday which is the only day I can find myself not thinking about my work.

I’m sure there are people reading this thinking well at least you have a job, especially one that enables you to take care of your family, keep a house over your head and even run a meaningless website.   But I feel drained, devoid of life and I feel like I’m just trying to find an ending instead of a beginning.  I want to be able to update my website a couple of times a week and now I can barely manage to do it every two weeks.  At this pace, I’m not sure I can manage to rationalize my website once the next three years are up.  I would have to check when the next three years is up, I would venture to say its the end of this year or next.  Which is kinda sad since all I ever wanted was my own web page and I knew the exact domain I’ve always wanted. (And I currently own it)

On the gaming front, I have been sticking to easy games.  Skyrim has been pushed to the side temporarily.  I’ve beaten a Neo Geo Game (Burning Fight), finally finished Broken Sword V, beat a recent Game Pass entry in Donut County and working on an Artifex Mundi game (Eventide: Slavic Fable).  None of these games really have any challenge to them except for a few fleeting moments.  After I finish Eventide, I’ll probably go back to Skyrim or try to find something a little more challenging.  It’s just I get in ruts and catching up on a few easy games or getting through my backlog of wrestling sets me straight, albeit for a little bit anyway.

In the last week, we did have the Games with Gold announced.  I even did a double take when they mentioned the Indiana Jones game because I honestly do not remember when it went backwards compatible in the first place.  I never was much for the Gears games but it was nice to see especially when I already owned the Resident Evil game (from a collection sale that happened a while back).  As far as for the rest of the month, Dandara looks to be some good fun and I always wanted to get around to the Lost Planet sequels.  An excellent month to be honest and I’m not sure we will see 5 games ever again.

We have some Gold sales too looking through the recent Xbox news.  However, I’m seeing a lot of the same games even for the Xbox One as this screams somewhat of a lackluster sale.  Also be careful, if you are looking at the 360 sales and are in the US.  There are a couple of games that even if you recognize the name aren’t on sale (or even available) here and only in the UK.  It is probably a good week to dive into the backlog which is what I’ve been doing lately.  However, it is worth nothing that if you have Game Pass, there are some games certainly worth installing and playing through, especially anything in the Yakuza series which I’ve always been a fun of.

My only concern is how long those games actually going to be offered on Game Pass.  That’s why most of the time, I tend to play easy games or games I know I can get cheaply if they are no longer part of the service.  Anyway, hope you have a good week.  I’m fairly sure my week will be long and I’ll look forward to those moments when I can play a game or have a real conversation with my family.  Enjoy.

Immediately you might notice that I have changed the title of this column, and you might also have noticed that it’s been two weeks.  I do apologize for that but work set in, I got fed a few new projects and my depression and the feeling of burnt out returned.  I barely want to even watch anything I normally do at this point and to prove my point I am way behind on wrestling…I need to check WWE Network, but I’m probably about 3-4 weeks behind.  I miss NXT and NXT UK.

I have watched a few movies and series in the last couple of weeks.  Me and my wife did binge a couple of things on HBO Max (finally using that subscription) including the Flight Attendant (very good, quite surprised me) and the Undoing which I think my wife liked more than I did.  Not that I don’t like Nicole Kidman or Hugh Grant (in the right roles) but it didn’t quite leave me satisfied.

On the movie front, I watched Bad Times at the El Royale and loved it.  Seriously, Jeff Bridges was fantastic, and honestly I don’t have a bad thing to say about any of the characters really.  They all fit nicely, and there was a few good twists and turns too.  Saw Peabody and Sherman, didn’t care for it, but my son liked it.  I’ll ditch the disc and keep the digital code on that one.  By the same token, I saw Long Way North, enjoyed it a great deal and my son could care less about it.

Last night I started a movie named Blind Date (1984) and its not very good so far.  Yeah, it has a lot of pretty girls (including Kristie Alley in her prime), but the story is not there for me at all (maybe it will pick up).  I just hope it doesn’t end up as bad as White Bird in a Blizzard was (I literally turned that off half an hour in).  I do find as I get older, my tolerance for bad movies is starting to get thin (especially now that I don’t have to write reviews for them).   I just have so many movies unwatched that I need some way to get through them.  I also need to find a more reliable way of getting rid of them as well once I’m done with the okay to terrible ones but that’s an ongoing issue in this COVID world that we are living in.  (All of the swap shops with the exception of a few random book stores have closed up)

On the video game front, I have only been playing Skyrim.  As far as recent events, I am level 13.  I’ve already abandoned the main quest (again) and started to do the Thieves Guild quests only to stop mid-stream and switch to College of Winterhold since I never messed with those due to an early glitch in the 360 version that I could never overcome.  Now keep in mind, my magic is absolute shite but its not like when it comes to Skyrim I can’t just think ways around various scenarios.  At least for a while anyway, and worst case scenario is that I just keep improving my skills which I have never found gets me in too much trouble when it comes to this game.

If you are looking for a cheap game this weekend on your Xbox, feel free to check out the sales:

https://majornelson.com/2021/01/11/this-weeks-deals-with-gold-and-spotlight-sale-191/

Ignoring the 360 games because if you don’t have Bound by Flame and Mars: War Logs by now, seriously you don’t pay attention to any of the sales at all.   There are a few interesting Xbox One games to look at here.  Once upon a time, I actually reviewed a game called Stranger of Sword City which never seems to go on sale and can be had for a mere $10 now (it’s normally $40).  It’s pure Japanese Dungeon type RPG but it’s done pretty well and will keep your attention for a quite a while if you are into those type of games.  There are also a lot of board games here including Monopoly and Boggle.  I somewhat want to blow $4 just to play Uno again, but I probably should just pick up a deck of cards and try to teach my son again, actually that’s probably a much better idea.

As with most corporate professionals, I suppose I could spend $3 and some change to play Doug Hates his Job but no thanks.  By the way, be sure to pick up your free Games with Gold this month.  Dead Rising is now available along with Breakdown for the original Xbox.  Also, even though its not advertised, Frontline: Fuels of War is also free as are two pieces of DLC for that game.  So be sure to pick all of those up since you paid for your subscription anyway.  I’ll probably be trying to find a few minutes this weekend to play some more Skyrim though I am tempted to also try Torchlight III which just became available on Game Pass.  Have a great weekend, and enjoy.

Peggle 2 as I predicted is ticking me off.  It’s not that it is too hard or taxing my fingers, it’s just the headaches have returned and I’m begging for it to be over.  I only have half a dozen objectives left and then I can call it quits but I’m trying to do so before the New Year.  Then I can put it away for a very long time unless the DLC goes on sale for a $1 or something (which hopefully isn’t for six months at least)

I did play Skyrim for a hot minute over the past week, pick pocketing and sneaking my way to level 5.  Once a thief, always a thief.  I think I shot a few arrows too, it’s amazing how fluid this game is on Xbox One X.  I don’t think I ever want to go back to Xbox 360 for that particular game even if I have a ridiculous high level save there.  I have no idea how long it will take me to get even close to what I was on the 360 version but playing it here and there seems to be the best idea.

I did get a few games for Christmas including Control Ultimate Edition, Cyberpunk 2077 and Cloudpunk.  Obviously, I’ll wait on Cyberpunk as I see no reason to throw myself into bug hell.  I do have confidence it will turn out to be an amazing game (and I pity those who jumped off the bridge so quickly and got refunds), but I also believe that it will be about six months before we get there.  Control and Cloudpunk are already pretty well vetted and mostly bug free so I imagine I would play one of those first.

If you are looking for sales, then be sure to visit the following link for this week.

https://majornelson.com/2020/12/28/this-weeks-deals-with-gold-and-spotlight-sale-plus-the-countdown-sale-2/

There really isn’t much to be had that’s new (since this is the last week of the Countdown sale) on the 360 side.  A good point of interest is that the DLC for ArcaniA(not backwards compatible) is on sale.  The Raven DLCs (also not BC) are also on sale if you never got around to finishing those.  On the Xbox One side, there is as usual tons to go through but I’m kinda taking a look at Bear with Me which for the complete collection is under $5 now (and I do have Microsoft Rewards to burn).  On the retro end but updated for Xbox One, I do want to make a quick mention and remind you that Doom 64 is still only $1.49 for the rest of the week.  It’s normally only $5 but at that price, it’s easily worth the nostalgia trip.  Have a great New Year week and Enjoy.

Still playing through Peggle 2, I’m about 40 optional objectives away from completion.  And it’s started, the I’ve played this level five times and can’t quite get this objective.  Which is what I didn’t want to happen because the headaches started.  So, I will probably be using the bug to get through the rest of them fairly soon.  As mentioned previously, I did the 360 version 100% clean and hated myself for it.  2020 has been a messed up year and I really don’t care how I finish certain games and Peggle 2 is certainly one of them.

2020 has been such a messed up year that last night I finally decided to start Skyrim on Xbox One due to game pass.  Now keep in mind, I actually own the Xbox 360 Legendary Edition, the Xbox One version w/steelbook, the giant three hardback set of the “Histories”, two different hardback guides, the hardback art book, the signed by the composer 4-cd soundtrack set, and I even have a freaking Skyrim blanket that I got on Gamestop clearance a while back (which my son has claimed and uses to turn his figures into “Venomized” versions of their former selves, I’m not making this up).  So you would think I play the game all the time.  Well I did for roughly about 3 years off and on from 2012 to 2015 on the 360.

However, I had never played the Xbox One special edition.  I knew it would be a time suck, I very well knew it could be the only game I could touch for the next 6 months without batting an eye.  But I did it anyway.  Playing it on the Xbox One came so naturally, even after not touching it for 5 years, I could still pick locks with little to no effort.  I played a Dark Elf (cause I almost always play Elves given the opportunity) and had fun getting through the first quest.  And true to form, I even pick-pocketed the guy that was guiding me (hey I needed arrows!).  Like I didn’t miss a step.  I need to work on my sword play, but then I always stuck to stealth and arrows when I played the 360 game too.

Anyway, I could go on for days about Skyrim.  You want sales, we got sales.

https://majornelson.com/2020/12/21/this-weeks-deals-with-gold-and-spotlight-sale-plus-the-countdown-sale/

Actually, I already participated in the sales.  Got Life is Strange complete edition and then went over to NewEgg and got codes for Sleeping Dogs, Life is Strange: Before the Storm (deluxe) and Shadow of the Tomb Raider (deluxe) since they were about 50 to 60 cents cheaper than Xbox store counterparts.  Much like Skyrim, I know I’ll play Sleeping Dogs again.  Life is Stranges were bought because I have the limited editions and don’t really feel like opening them up if you catch my drift.  Shadow of the Tomb Raider looked fun from the gameplay video I saw.  There really isn’t much from a 360 point of view as all of the titles have been on sale before which is unfortunate considering that a large portion of the BC catalog doesn’t go on sale, ever.  However, be sure to take a look and hope you find something that you are wanting.  Have a great Christmas Week/Happy Holidays.  Enjoy.

To be honest, I did not do much video gaming this past week.  You would think with the holidays coming around I would have a little less to do.  Actually that’s the far opposite and I’ve been feeling about as stressed when it comes to my actual job more than ever.  I hope it smooths out in the coming year because I’m not sure I can keep up the pace for very much longer if you catch my drift.

Anyway, I did play a little bit of Peggle 2 as I try to complete optional objectives and 100% the Xbox One version (minus the DLC which I have no interest in).  I’m hesitant to start another game before the end of the year and try to focus on and see if I can complete anything that’s open (like Broken Sword V).  But as I mentioned I have very little energy, even on the weekends because of the overwhelming stress.  It’s frustrating.

We do have some sales this week however, but not too many.

https://majornelson.com/2020/12/14/this-weeks-deals-with-gold-and-spotlight-sale-190/

The Xbox One sales are smaller than usual and the Xbox 360 is virtually non-existent except for Call of the Juarez and the almost usual Bound by Flame, Faery and RAW (last of which is not backwards compatible).  Spiders (who put out Bound by Flame and Faery) do know how to make a good RPG so don’t be put off by the near bottom barrel pricing.  Have a great rest of the week and enjoy.