Splatoon Kit

Photo info: Apple iPhone 12 mini, 4.2mm, f/1.6, 1/60 sec, ISO160
“Splatoon Kit” Cedar Park, 2024

My new favorite weapon in Splatoon 3 is the Tri-Stringer and Inkline Tri-Stringer. I find it so fun to play a backline support weapon! And with the Toxic Mist sub-weapon, it’s really satisfying to shut down the enemy’s forward progress. I hope my team appreciates it. The kill count may not be very high, but it’s a decent inker and effective way crowd control weapon to help get the win. Plus I think it looks pretty cool.

Splatoon 3 Splatfest

Photo info: FUJIFILM X-E4, 25.4mm, f/4.5, 1/100 sec, ISO2500
“Splatfest” Cedar Park, 2022

I enjoyed the Splatoon 3 pre-release splatfest event today. I tried out a couple of new weapons and checked out the new stages. Very cool! And I love the new squidling and octoling characters. They look awesome! I can’t wait for the game to be released next month. I am still going to try to master the splat-roller, which is super-fun.

Enjoying Dragon Age: Inquisition

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2, 1/100 sec, ISO640
“Dragon Age: Inquisition” Cedar Park, 2020

A couple of weeks ago, I received a notification that Dragon Age: Inquisition was on sale, so I quickly bought it and installed. Several years ago I played Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II and finished both of them, which is rare for me with video games. I really enjoyed those two games. When the third game was released, my computer system was too underpowered to play it, so the game slipped off my radar. That was a full six years ago, and in that time, I have upgraded to a more powerful computer which has no trouble running the game at high detail, and I am absolutely loving Dragon Age: Inquisition!

The class/professions I choose for my characters vary, but for years my go-to race/gender in whatever fantasy RPG I play is a female elf. I think they just look the coolest (except in the Elder Scrolls games). This time, I went with a rogue-assassin for class, and I am having so much fun. I tend to play ranged characters (archers or mages), so playing a melee class is new, but I haven’t looked back.

What’s also great about playing a rogue as opposed to a mage is that the armor and weapon design is really cool. Dragon Age has always excelled in this respect, and it’s neat that the armor, weapons, and your character’s customizations all make it into the cutscenes. It’s like magic. I guess I’m old enough to remember when cutscenes were generic and not dynamically generated so this game design is still really neat to me.

What makes Dragon Age so fun for me is not so much the story, but the interactions with the other characters that you pick up along the way. You can have up to three companions in the group (and can switch up the line-up pretty much anytime) and while adventuring, they often have conversations amongst themeselves. Since each character has their own extensive backstory and distinct personalities, it’s fun to listen in on what they say to each other. It also adds to the plot and backstory. so I pay close attention to these conversations. I really love this aspect of the Dragon Age franchise.

Anyways, I think I am still pretty early on in the game, but things just keep getting more and more interesting with the plot. It’s so good. If you have never played Dragon Age before, I highly recommend picking this classic up!

PC Gaming – Civ VI

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/125 sec, ISO800
“Civ 6” Cedar Park, 2020

I took advantage of an offer from EA Games to “buy” Sid Meier’s Civilization VI for free a few months ago, and finally got around to playing it. I was actually looking for a distraction from game 6 of the World Series since baseball can be so stressful to me, and so Civ 6 was finally booted up.

What a fun game! I’ve always enjoyed turn-based world strategy games like Age of Empires, but never really got into Civ before. The graphics are excellent, especially running at 1440p on my newish monitor. My computer isn’t the newest, but everything runs smoothly, with no lag and no crashing (so far).

I’ve only just scratched the surface of the game and I can tell there are many different ways to play. But what I like about it is that it seems like a nice game to pick up now and then and try out different scenarios, or even have multiple games going at once. Speaking of games, the Dodgers won, and the World Series drought from 1988 is finally over! 😀