Tag: video games

Fallout: Initial Reflections

The Portly Politico12 Comments

I was talking to a friend recently who recommended I try out the original Fallout video game, which first hit computer screens in 1997 (when yours portly was a doughy lad of twelve).  I missed Fallout and Fallout 2, only dipping into the series with the release of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas.  I never played Fallout 4 or the doomed Fallout 76, the latter I had hoped would do well because it takes place in West Virginia, which just seemed cool to me (I’m still waiting for a Fallout game in the Southeast; West Virginia is the closest they’ve gotten so far).  Suffice it to say that, as much as I love this franchise, my experience is limited to the two games in the series that are arguably the finest entries (F:NV being the widely-accepted best installment in the franchise).

But what of the isometric origins of this series?  I’ve always wanted to dip my toes into Fallout and Fallout 2, but even having grown up in the era of late 90s/early 2000s gaming, some of the controls and interfaces of that era have aged poorly.  Even yours portly has become soft and indolent with the various quality of life improvements abundant in modern games.

That said, clunky controls (and, goodness, Fallout controls are clunky, until you get the hang of them) can’t stop this pudgy dynamo.  So it was that, a little over a week ago, I took my first serious foray into the game that started it all.

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Open Mic Adventures LXXXIX: “White Boy Summer”

The Portly Politico2 Comments

Yours portly released a new album recently, Heptadic Structure.  It’s an exploration of pieces in 7/4, 7/8, and 7/16 time.  Each piece is twenty-one written measures, for a total of 149 measures across the seven pieces.  Math is fun!

You can listen to and/or purchase the album at the following links:

However, I’m deviating my plan to feature the tracks from that album for (at least) one week, because I am super excited about another album I have coming on Friday, 2 August 2024.  It’s called White Boy Summer, and while there are quite a few of my more experimental and modern classical pieces on the release, the title track is a straight-up banger—so much so that I wanted to feature it in today’s edition of Open Mic Adventures.

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Stardew Valley

The Portly Politico12 Comments

One of yours portly’s goals for his long, indolent, decadent, self-indulgent, succulent summer break is to play more video games.  I am happy to report than my reversion into perpetual childhood is progressing nicely, as I’ve already logged nearly twenty hours (rough estimate) in Stardew Valley so far.  This week I am also running my annual Minecraft Camp, so I’m pretty much getting paid to play video games with kids all morning.

Stardew Valley is a farming sim game released in 2016.  It draws heavy inspiration from the Harvest Moon series (Story of Seasons in Japan; Wikipedia offers a good overview of the legal reasons for the different names).  In addition to farming—planting, watering, and reaping crops; raising livestock; clearing land for cultivation; upgrading and building farm buildings—the game encourages exploration and relationship-building.  Your character can spend all day fishing, for example, or exploring a network of caves (with monsters and loot!).  You can chop down trees, plant new ones, hang out at the saloon, romance the local singles, donate artifacts to the museum, and on and on.  You even have the opportunity to rebuild the dilapidated community center—or throw in with the big box chain store in town and bulldoze it.

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Lazy Sunday CCLXV: Disco Elysium Reviews

The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

A bit of tedious housekeeping before launching into today’s installment of Lazy Sunday:  I give this series, as well as several others, Roman numeral designators.  It is a bit unwieldy, but unnecessary unwieldiness is, after all, a hallmark of this blog.  What is portlier, I ask, than a bloated inefficient numbering system?

That said, I tend to make mistakes with Roman numerals.  It’s easy enough to do, especially as the numbers enter the triple digits.  I decided to check to see if I have been accurate in my numbering, and I have not.  It seems I got off track somewhere in the 140s(ish).  It occurred to me to check when I labeled this edition “CL” (150), as I thought, “wait a minute—didn’t I hit that milestone a long time ago?”

So I undertook the tedious task of renumbering all of the titles for past installments of Lazy Sunday on the list below, and changed from a bullet to a number for the list, to give myself an additional safeguard.

What I did not do was go back and change the title of each individual blog post to the correct number.  That would take an inordinate amount of time.  I may go and correct that eventually, but, goodness—what a dreary task!

So we’re starting fresh today, with CCLXV, or the 265th installment of Lazy Sunday.  That means in one hundred more Sundays (assuming I don’t skip any—gulp!), we’ll have year’s worth of Lazy Sundays to enjoy.  Maybe I could publish The Lazy Sunday Daily Devotional?  Ha!

With that, let’s get on to the posts!  To celebrate Ponty’s review of Disco Elysium (that’s an affiliate link, so I get a portion of proceeds from any purchase made through it at no additional cost to you), I figured I’d feature our respective reviews of that legendary game.

Go play some video games!

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

  1. Lazy Sunday – APR Pieces
  2. Lazy Sunday II – Lincoln Posts
  3. Lazy Sunday III – Historical Moments
  4. Lazy Sunday IV – Christianity
  5. Lazy Sunday V – Progressivism, Part I
  6. Lazy Sunday VI – Progressivism, Part II
  7. Lazy Sunday VII – Deep State
  8. Lazy Sunday VIII – Conservatism
  9. Lazy Sunday IX – Economics, Part I
  10. Lazy Sunday X – Economics, Part II
  11. Lazy Sunday XI – Walls
  12. Lazy Sunday XII – Space
  13. Lazy Sunday XIII – Immigration
  14. Lazy Sunday XIV – Gay Stuff
  15. Lazy Sunday XV – Work
  16. Lazy Sunday XVI – #MAGAWeek2018
  17. Lazy Sunday XVII – #MAGAWeek2019
  18. Lazy Sunday XVIII – SubscribeStar Posts
  19. Lazy Sunday XIX – Music
  20. Lazy Sunday XX – The Laziest Sunday
  21. Lazy Sunday XXI – Travel
  22. Lazy Sunday XXII – Reading
  23. Lazy Sunday XXIII – Richard Weaver
  24. Lazy Sunday XXIV – Education
  25. Lazy Sunday XXV – Techno-Weirdos
  26. Lazy Sunday XXVI – Small Town Living
  27. Lazy Sunday XXVII – Bric-a-Brac
  28. Lazy Sunday XXVIII – World History
  29. Lazy Sunday XXIX – The New Criterion
  30. Lazy Sunday XXX – Trump, Part I
  31. Lazy Sunday XXXI – Trump, Part II
  32. Lazy Sunday XXXII – Festivals
  33. Lazy Sunday XXXIII – Virtue Signalling
  34. Lazy Sunday XXXIV – The Desperate Search for Meaning Series
  35. Lazy Sunday XXXV – Corporate Grind
  36. Lazy Sunday XXXVI – Best of the Reblogs, Part I
  37. Lazy Sunday XXXVII – Best of the Reblogs, Part II
  38. Lazy Sunday XXXVIII – Best of the Reblogs, Part III
  39. Lazy Sunday XXXIX – A Very Dokken Christmas Series
  40. Lazy Sunday XL – Christmas Carols
  41. Lazy Sunday XLI – Food
  42. Lazy Sunday XLII – 2019’s Top Five Posts
  43. Lazy Sunday XLIII – Music, Part II: More Music
  44. Lazy Sunday XLIV – SubscribeStar Saturday Posts, Part II: The Search for More Money
  45. Lazy Sunday XLV – Techno-Weirdos II
  46. Lazy Sunday XLVI – Man Time
  47. Lazy Sunday XLVII – Winning
  48. Lazy Sunday XLVIII – Culture
  49. Lazy Sunday XLIX – Family
  50. Lazy Sunday L – The Best of Lazy Sunday
  51. Lazy Sunday LI – Just for Fun
  52. Lazy Sunday LII – Democratic Candidates, Part I
  53. Lazy Sunday LIII – Democratic Candidates, Part II
  54. Lazy Sunday LIV – Coronavirus
  55. Lazy Sunday LV – Animals
  56. Lazy Sunday LVI – Movies
  57. Lazy Sunday LVII – Christianity, Part II
  58. Lazy Sunday LVIII – Spring Break Short Story Recommendations Recap
  59. Lazy Sunday LIX – The God Pill Series
  60. Lazy Sunday LX – Music, Part II: Gigging
  61. Lazy Sunday LXI – The Tuck
  62. Lazy Sunday LXII – The South
  63. Lazy Sunday LXIII – Holidays
  64. Lazy Sunday LXIV – Grab Bag
  65. Lazy Sunday LXV – Rioting
  66. Lazy Sunday LXVI – Video Games
  67. Lazy Sunday LXVII – Phone it in Fridays, Part I
  68. Lazy Sunday LXVIII – Phone it in Fridays, Part II
  69. Lazy Sunday LXIX – Phone it in Fridays, Part III
  70. Lazy Sunday LXX – Phone it in Friday, Part IV
  71. Lazy Sunday LXXI – Road Trips
  72. Lazy Sunday LXXII – Forgotten Posts, Volume I
  73. Lazy Sunday LXXIII – Forgotten Posts, Volume II
  74. Lazy Sunday LXXIV – Forgotten Posts, Volume III
  75. Lazy Sunday LXXV – Forgotten Posts, Volume IV
  76. Lazy Sunday LXXVI – Forgotten Posts, Volume V
  77. Lazy Sunday LXXVII – Rural America
  78. Lazy Sunday LXXVIII – Space, Part II
  79. Lazy Sunday LXXXIX – SCOTUS
  80. Lazy Sunday LXXX – Big Ideas
  81. Lazy Sunday LXXXI – Education, Part II
  82. Lazy Sunday LXXXII – Universal Studios
  83. Lazy Sunday LXXXIII – The Mountains
  84. Lazy Sunday LXXXIV – Halloween Hijinks
  85. Lazy Sunday LXXXV – Elections
  86. Lazy Sunday LXXXVI – Questions, Part I
  87. Lazy Sunday LXXXVII – Questions, Part II
  88. Lazy Sunday LXXXVIII – Questions, Part III
  89. Lazy Sunday LXXXIX – 100 Week Review
  90. Lazy Sunday XC – Questions, Part IV
  91. Lazy Sunday XCI – Questions, Part V
  92. Lazy Sunday XCII – Christmas
  93. Lazy Sunday XCIII – 2020’s Top Five Posts
  94. Lazy Sunday XCIV – My Favorite Things
  95. Lazy Sunday XCV – The Best of Lazy Sunday
  96. Lazy Sunday XCVI – More Movies: Movie Reviews, Part I
  97. Lazy Sunday XCVII – More Movies II: Movie Reviews, Part II
  98. Lazy Sunday XCVIII – More Movies III: Movie Reviews, Part III
  99. Lazy Sunday XCIX – Romantic Music
  100. Lazy Sunday C – Valentine’s Day
  101. Lazy Sunday CI – Obituaries, Part I
  102. Lazy Sunday CII – Obituaries, Part II
  103. Lazy Sunday CIII – Begging
  104. Lazy Sunday CIV – Time
  105. Lazy Sunday CV – Grab Bag II
  106. Lazy Sunday CVI – Adventures
  107. Lazy Sunday CVII – Easter
  108. Lazy Sunday CVIII – Spring Break Short Story Recommendations 2021 Recap
  109. Lazy Sunday CIX – Pillow Talk
  110. Lazy Sunday CX – Inspector Gerard Reviews
  111. Lazy Sunday CXI – Bric-a-Brac II
  112. Lazy Sunday CXII – Responsibility
  113. Lazy Sunday CXIII – Short Stories
  114. Lazy Sunday CXIV – More Movies IV: Movie Reviews, Part IV
  115. Lazy Sunday CXV – Memorable Mondays
  116. Lazy Sunday CXVI – Delays
  117. Lazy Sunday CXVII – More Movies V – Movie Reviews, Part V
  118. Lazy Sunday CXVIII – More Movies VI – Movie Reviews, Part VI
  119. Lazy Sunday CXIX – Summer Camps
  120. Lazy Sunday CXX – Animals, Part II
  121. Lazy Sunday CXXI – MAGAWeek2021 Posts
  122. Lazy Sunday CXXII – MAGAWeek2020 Posts
  123. Lazy Sunday CXXIII – Murphy
  124. Lazy Sunday CXXIV – Bible Posts
  125. Lazy Sunday CXXV – More Movies VII – Movie Reviews, Part VII
  126. Lazy Sunday CXXVI – Joy, Part I
  127. Lazy Sunday CXXVII – Joy, Part II – Music
  128. Lazy Sunday CXXVIII – Civilization
  129. Lazy Sunday CXXIX – Friends, Part I
  130. Lazy Sunday CXXX – Friends, Part II
  131. Lazy Sunday CXXXI – Friends, Part III
  132. Lazy Sunday CXXXII – Milestones
  133. Lazy Sunday CXXXIII – Inspector Gerard
  134. Lazy Sunday CXXXIV – Friends, Part IV
  135. Lazy Sunday CXXXV – More Movies VIII – Movie Reviews, Part VIII
  136. Lazy Sunday CXXXVI – More Movies IX – Movie Reviews, Part IX
  137. Lazy Sunday CXXXVII – More Halloween Hijinks
  138. Lazy Sunday CXXXVIII – Friends, Part V
  139. Lazy Sunday CXXXIX – More Movies, Part X – Movie Reviews, Part X
  140. Lazy Sunday CXL – More Movies, Part XI – Movie Reviews, Part XI
  141. Lazy Sunday CXLI – Thanksgiving Stuff(ing)
  142. Lazy Sunday CXLII – More Movies, Part XII – Movie Reviews, Part XII
  143. Lazy Sunday CXLIII – More Movies, Part XIII – Movie Reviews, Part XIII
  144. Lazy Sunday CXLIV – More Christmas Carols
  145. Lazy Sunday CXLV – Christmas Cheer
  146. Lazy Sunday CXLVI – 2021’s Top Five Posts
  147. Lazy Sunday CXLVII – More Movies, Part XIV – Movie Reviews, Part XIV
  148. Lazy Sunday CXLVIII – The Gemini Sonnets #1 and #2
  149. Lazy Sunday CXLIX – The Gemini Sonnets #3 and #4
  150. Lazy Sunday CL – The Gemini Sonnets #5 and #6
  151. Lazy Sunday CLI – More Movies, Part XV – Movies Reviews, Part XV
  152. Lazy Sunday CLII – Romance
  153. Lazy Sunday CLIII – Behind the Songs, Part I
  154. Lazy Sunday CLIV – Behind the Songs, Part II
  155. Lazy Sunday CLV – Péchés d’âge moyen Posts
  156. Lazy Sunday CLVI – More Son of Sonnet
  157. Lazy Sunday CLVII – Ponty’s Posts, Part I
  158. Lazy Sunday CLVIII – Ponty’s Posts, Part II
  159. Lazy Sunday CLIX – Scrambie Eggs
  160. Lazy Sunday CLX: Fine Arts Festival
  161. Lazy Sunday CLXI: Easter II
  162. Lazy Sunday CLXII: Spring Break Short Story Recommendations Recap 2022
  163. Lazy Sunday CLXIII: Friends, Part VI
  164. Lazy Sunday CLXIV: Friends, Part VII
  165. Lazy Sunday CLXV: Friends, Part VIII
  166. Lazy Sunday CLXVI: Friends, Part IX
  167. Lazy Sunday CLXVII: Friends, Part X
  168. Lazy Sunday CLXVIII: More Movies, Part XVI: Movie Reviews, Part XVI
  169. Lazy Sunday CLXIX: More Movies, Part XVII: Movie Reviews, Part XVII
  170. Lazy Sunday CLXX: More Movies, Part XVIII: Movie Reviews, Part XVIII
  171. Lazy Sunday CLXXI: Frederick Ingram, Part I
  172. Lazy Sunday CLXXII: Frederick Ingram, Part II
  173. Lazy Sunday CLXXIII: MAGAWeek2022
  174. Lazy Sunday CLXXIV: More Movies, Part XIX: Movie Reviews, Part XIX
  175. Lazy Sunday CLXXV: More Movies, Part XX: Movie Reviews, Part XX
  176. Lazy Sunday CLXXVI: More Movies, Part XXI: Movie Reviews, Part XXI
  177. Lazy Sunday CLXXVII: School, Part I
  178. Lazy Sunday CLXXVIII: School, Part II
  179. Lazy Sunday CLXXIX: More Movies, Part XXII: Ponty’s Worst Films, Part I
  180. Lazy Sunday CLXXX: More Movies, Part XXIII: Portly’s Worst Films, Part I
  181. Lazy Sunday CLXXXI: More Movies, Part XXIV: Ponty’s Worst Films, Part II
  182. Lazy Sunday CLXXXII: More Movies, Part XXV: Portly’s Worst Films, Part II
  183. Lazy Sunday CLXXXIII: More Movies, Part XXVII: Ponty’s Worst Films, Part III
  184. Lazy Sunday CLXXXIV: More Movies, Part XXVIII: Portly’s Worst Films, Part III
  185. Lazy Sunday CLXXXV: More Movies, Part XXIX: Ponty and Portly’s #1 Worst Films
  186. Lazy Sunday CLXXXVI: More Movies, Part XXX: Midweek Myers Movie Reviews, Part I
  187. Lazy Sunday CLXXXVII: More Movies, Part XXXI: Midweek Myers Movie Reviews, Part II
  188. Lazy Sunday CLXXXVIII: Video Games II: Ponty’s Picks
  189. Lazy Sunday CLXXXIX: Even More Halloween Hijinks: The Musical
  190. Lazy Sunday CXC: Cozy Time
  191. Lazy Sunday CXCI: Veterans Day Posts
  192. Lazy Sunday CXCII: Myersvision, Part I
  193. Lazy Sunday CXCIII: Thanksgiving Week Posts
  194. Lazy Sunday CXCIV: Solo Cover EP, Part I
  195. Lazy Sunday CXCV: Solo Cover EP, Part II
  196. Lazy Sunday CLXXVI: 2022’s Top Three
  197. Lazy Sunday CXCVII: Review[s] of A Christmas Carol (1951)
  198. Lazy Sunday CXCVIII: The Worst of 2022
  199. Lazy Sunday CXCIX: More Movies XXXII: Portly’s Best Films, Part I
  200. Lazy Sunday CC: More Movies XXXIII: Ponty’s Best Films, Part I
  201. Lazy Sunday CCI: More Movies XXXIV: Portly’s Best Films, Part II
  202. Lazy Sunday CCII: More Movies XXXV: Ponty’s Best Films, Part II
  203. Lazy Sunday CCIII: P​é​ch​é​s d​’​â​ge moyen Picks
  204. Lazy Sunday CCIV: Arizonan Sojourn, Part I
  205. Lazy Sunday CCV: Portly’s Best Films, Part III
  206. Lazy Sunday CCVI: Ponty’s Best Films, Part III
  207. Lazy Sunday CCVII: The Beach
  208. Lazy Sunday CCVIII: Walks
  209. Lazy Sunday CCXIX: Paintings
  210. Lazy Sunday CCX: Arizonan Sojourn, Part II
  211. Lazy Sunday CCXI: Hono[u]rable Mentions
  212. Lazy Sunday CCXII: Easter III
  213. Lazy Sunday CCXIII: Spring Break Short Story Recommendations 2023
  214. Lazy Sunday CCXIV: Ponty and Portly’s #1 Picks
  215. Lazy Sunday CCXV: Myersvision, Part II
  216. Lazy Sunday CCXVI: Myersvision, Part III
  217. Lazy Sunday CCXVII: Myersvision, Part IV
  218. Lazy Sunday CCXVIII: Myersvision, Part V
  219. Lazy Sunday CCXIX: Myersvision, Part VI
  220. Lazy Sunday CCXX: Myersvision, Part VII
  221. Lazy Sunday CCXXI: Intergalactic Nonsense
  222. Lazy Sunday CCXXII: Stories
  223. Lazy Sunday CCXXIII: Original Music, Part I
  224. Lazy Sunday CCXXIV: Original Music, Part II
  225. Lazy Sunday CCXXV: MAGAWeek2023 Posts
  226. Lazy Sunday CCXXVI: Greatest Hits Recap
  227. Lazy Sunday CCXXVII: Ponty Week 2023
  228. Lazy Sunday CCXXVIII: D.C., Part I
  229. Lazy Sunday CCXXIX: D.C., Part II
  230. Lazy Sunday CCXXX: TJC Deep Cuts
  231. Lazy Sunday CCXXXI: Weird Piano Music
  232. Lazy Sunday CCXXXII: Cinema
  233. Lazy Sunday CCXXXIII: Monarchy
  234. Lazy Sunday CCXXXIV: Sandwiches
  235. Lazy Sunday CCXXXV: Skeletons
  236. Lazy Sunday CCXXXVI: Myersvision, Part VIII
  237. Lazy Sunday CCXXXVII: Myersvision, Part IX
  238. Lazy Sunday CCXXXVIII: Festivals II
  239. Lazy Sunday CCXXXIX: Two Cryptid Tunes
  240. Lazy Sunday CCXL: Ghostly Doings
  241. Lazy Sunday CCXLI: Veterans Day Posts II
  242. Lazy Sunday CCXLII: Indie Musician Rants
  243. Lazy Sunday CCXLIII: 2023 Releases
  244. Lazy Sunday CCXLIV: Civilization Series
  245. Lazy Sunday CCXLV: Chapel Lessons, Part I
  246. Lazy Sunday CCXLVI: Chapel Lessons, Part II
  247. Lazy Sunday CCXLVII: Christmas Concert Reviews
  248. Lazy Sunday CCXLVIII: The Best of 2023
  249. Lazy Sunday CCXLIX: Best Ponty Posts of 2023
  250. Lazy Sunday CCL: Best Myersvision Posts of 2023
  251. Lazy Sunday CCLI: YouTube Roundup Roundup I
  252. Lazy Sunday CCLII: YouTube Roundup Roundup II
  253. Lazy Sunday CCLIII: Firefly Dance Tracks, Part I
  254. Lazy Sunday CCLIV: Firefly Dance Tracks, Part II
  255. Lazy Sunday CCLV: Firefly Dance Tracks, Part III
  256. Lazy Sunday CCLVI: Days Off
  257. Lazy Sunday CCLVII: Murphy Vids, Part I
  258. Lazy Sunday CCLVIII: Food II
  259. Lazy Sunday CCLIX: Four Mages, Part I
  260. Lazy Sunday CCLX: Murphy Vids, Part II
  261. Lazy Sunday CCLXI: Ultra Laziness
  262. Lazy Sunday CCLXII: Mothers
  263. Lazy Sunday CCLXIII: Four Mages, Part II
  264. Lazy Sunday CCLXIV: End of School Events

Ponty Praises: Disco Elysium

The Portly Politico25 Comments

Disco Elysium is quite possibly the best video game I have ever played.  It is certainly the most unique.  I knew it was something special after only an hour of playing it, and while I have not started a new game since finishing it—“beating” is probably not the right word for Disco Elysium—it is a game that could reveal fresh layers through dozens, perhaps hundreds, of playthroughs, even if it only consists of one “main quest,” as it were.

I’ve never played a game that more accurately reflects the way my own mind is structured, and the way that I think about and dwell upon certain inane details.  I don’t have a “Thought Cabinet,” per se, but the notion of fixating upon and ruminating about an idea to the point that it worms its way into your psyche feels true to my experience.  As dear old Ponty will point out, the game has a way of seeping into your mind and, therefore, your life outside of the game.

I don’t want to give too much away, as Ponty delivers a brilliant and detailed review, so I’ll turn the controller over to him.

With that, here is Ponty’s review of Disco Elysium:

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TBT^2: Zelda Game & Watch

The Portly Politico4 Comments

Summer is tantalizingly close.  Today is the last day of exams, which means there’s just graduation and a couple of days of work next week until yours portly is basking in the limitless freedom of summer.

As last week’s edition of TBT discussed, my thoughts are increasingly turning to video games.  I don’t have nearly as much time (and, if I am honest, inclination) to play them as I used to, but I am getting the itch to lose myself in some fantasy worlds for a bit.  Even with my workday slowing down, this week has been surprisingly busy, which only increases my yearning for digital realms.

Two years ago I spent an inordinate amount of time playing the Nintendo Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda handheld console (that’s an affiliate link, by the way, so if you purchase anything through it, I get a portion of the proceeds, at no additional cost to you).  It is a nifty little unit; I ended up landing a scorching deal on it, but even at the inflated current price of $52.60, I’d recommend it—highly!

I cut my teeth playing Zelda games, and this little unit includes three of my favorites:  the original LoZ; the enigmatic sequel; and the Gameboy exclusive Link’s Awakening.  Beating LoZ II is probably the pinnacle of my video gaming achievements.

With that, here is 25 May 2023 “TBT: Zelda Game & Watch“:

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TBT^4: SimEarth

The Portly Politico27 Comments

May.  It’s the superfluous final month of school.  There’s not enough time to cover any new content, but too much time to launch right into exam review.  The result:  an odd limbo in which neither students or teachers wish to dwell.  It’s the time of year when everyone is in on the game of modern education—we’d all be better off doing and being somewhere else, but we’re still going through the rituals of an industrial-era factory.

Naturally, with summer looming, I’m getting the itch to do some gaming again.  Since finishing Disco Elysium a few weeks ago, I have not played any game deeply.  I did purchase Planescape: Torment, the spiritual ancestor of DE, but only managed to get in about an hour of playtime.  One of my students asked me earlier this week about Stardew Valley, which I played religiously for about two weeks in probably 2013.  That’s a modern classic I want to dust off soon.

As for the ostensible subject of this post, my forays into SimEarth have been nonexistent since those halcyon days of May 2020, when America’s love affair with The Virus was in full swing.  Being cooped up in the house got me nostalgic for the classics, but I need to revisit the planet simulator soon.

Big plans for the summer.  If I play all these games as planned, my eyeballs might fall out.

With that, here is 11 May 2023’s “TBT^2: SimEarth“:

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Myersvision: The Last of Us (TV Series)

The Portly Politico8 Comments

Dear old Audre Myers e-mailed Ponty and me a couple of Sundays ago recommending the HBO Max series The Last of Us, based (albeit, I suspect, somewhat loosely) on the video game of the same name.  I’ve never played either of the two TLoU games, but I am quite familiar with the controversy surrounding the sequel, which went fully woke.  It is a classic scenario:  a hugely successful cultural phenomenon gets hijacked—willingly or otherwise—by the Cultural Marxists and becomes a pitiful version of its former self.  The Cult Marxists hope to trade on the popularity of the intellectual property or franchise by shoehorning their bizarre beliefs into it, thereby reaching a massive audience before everyone sours on it.

It’s a fundamentally vampiric, parasitic relationship:  the healthy host rapidly loses whatever cultural cache it enjoyed, becoming an insufferable, withered husk of its former self.

I was not surprised in the slightest that Ponty reacted so negatively to Audre’s request that one of us review the show.  As an avid gamer who (it seems) enjoyed The Last of Us video game and despised its woke sequel, I knew the suggestion would touch a nerve.  Poor Audre had no idea; I hope Ponty wasn’t too hard on her!

So, I proposed that Audre write a review.  I’ll check out the show when I’m able, but she is the queen of television reviews around here.

With that, here is Audre Myers’s review of the television series The Last of Us:

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Chasing Pokémon at the Egg Scramble

The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

My sweet niece recently forced me to download Pokémon Go to my cellphone in that self-serving way that women do when they want something:  she wanted me to be able to send her gifts, and to have another phone on which she can play the game (to be clear:  she does not have her own cellphone; she plays on her mom’s phone).  Being the agreeable and easily buffaloed uncle that I am, I obliged.  We downloaded the game and merrily went about catching Pokémon, the lovable little monsters from the smash hit video game franchise.

A week or two later she texted me (again, from her mom’s phone) asking me to be her friend in the game.  I was teaching a piano lesson.  After about fifteen minutes, she wrote, “I’ve been waiting on you for quite awhile. 😠”  Again, being the agreeable and buffaloed etc., etc., I hastily figured out how to accept her little request (it’s harder than it should be!) and we started sending each other little presents in the game.

That was the extent of my Pokémon Go-ing for a few weeks.  I grew up playing the Pokémon games and loved them—I still do!—but I didn’t think much about this little mobile app that seemed to have reached its peak in the first two or three months following its release in 2016.

Then Spring Break hit and, while yours portly kept fairly busy, I still had a good bit of downtime.  I also found myself taking a lot of walks with my dad.  While he’s technically retired, he still works part-time as the town administrator for a small town here in South Carolina, and conducts a great deal of his business on the phone while walking the dogs (perhaps the most Boomer work habit conceivable; they love being on the phone as much as us Millennials hate it).  That got me looking for something to do with my hands while he dictated life-changing decisions to bureaucratic functionaries, so I pulled out Pokémon Go.

To read the rest of this post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.

SubscribeStar Saturday: Disco Elysium

The Portly Politico3 Comments

Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

I recently picked up the “final cut” of Disco Elysium during the Steam Spring Sale at the amazing price of $9.99 (it usually MRSPs for $39.99).  It’s a game I’d heard about since its release in 2019, but always with an air of mystery around it.  It’s a roleplaying game, yes, but totally different from the typical fantasy-inspired roleplaying worlds of, say, The Elder Scrolls series or even the sci-fi roleplaying of Cyberpunk 2077 or Starfield (Ponty’s promised a review of CP2077, and I am quite excited to read it).

There have been non-fantasy roleplaying games before, to be sure, and even those that take place in the modern-ish world.  Disco Elysium, however, is unlike any other game I’ve ever played, roleplaying or otherwise, and after just a few hours of gameplay—and having not even solved the first case yet!—I love it.

It also turns out the game can be had on consoles—and much more affordably than the default Steam price.  Amazon has it on the Nintendo Switch ($25), the Playstation 4 (marked down $16.90 at the time of writing), and the XBox One ($24).  If I’d known it was on the Switch I likely would have got for that console (and may still do so), but I think the game is meant to be played on the PC.  That said, I can tell it’s quite console-friendly based on the controls.

What sets Disco Elysium apart from other games, I think, is that most of the game is dialogue—with your own mind.  And not just one, unified mind, but your character’s entire nervous system.  It is probably the closest simulation I’ve ever experienced to what goes on in my mind, although I’m not a drug-addled 70s-style super cop down on his luck.

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