The Last of Us is a game that I played when I bought my PS4, the first remaster I guess? Either way, that was my introduction to the series knowing very little about it going in...outside of the constant hype any time the game came up.

Fast forward to December of 2024 and I have yet to play the second entry. I want to play it. I started it, then GoW Ragnarok showed up. I started it again right before D4 released, left it behind. I went back to it again, then Shadow of the Erdtree came out. I had lined up for February-ish to give it another go and now I learn Elden Ring is not quite done yet...I may never actually play TLoU 2.

The year is 2024 and Hulu had the infinite wisdom to put The Happening on Huluween for spooky season. Now, I've seen this movie before. I was alive and aware of every second of the M Night craze regarding his movies, and I do remember being let down by most of the endings. Everybody who watches an M Night film knows what they are getting into; the endings are generally all twist and no turn, giving an immediate "oh shit" moment followed by clarity that often times immediately turns into incredulity towards what has just been witnessed and now processed.

This movie though, I remember being good? I know its reputation now and I remember the eye roll that comes with the ending...I know Marky Mark is in it. I saw this movie the year it came out (aka a long time ago). I also wasn't into the movie much beyond the initial viewing so was unaware of its public perceptionuntil I read a few articles about Hulu streaming it this year. Now I have this odd interest in viewing it again with an older, more developed sense of things. I have been modeled and hardened by 16 years of disappointment and adulting, I will essentially be a different person watching a movie with mental notes given to me by someone else. I am looking forward to this, a re-watch of a movie where I know the ending but don't remember the journey. This will be fun.

Soooo....this movie does kind of suck but I don't know, maybe not really all the way? The camera angles are bizarre in some indistinct way and the acting is hammy, almost as though everybody is over-acting just enough to make it seem like this is a 90 minute audition and nothing more. I like every actor in the movie too, this just is not any of their finest work. The writing is...not tight. Dialogue is a little stilted but everyone sure does seem to be trying pretty hard.

And yet...

There is a 'b-movie' charm to the whole thing. The entire premise of the story, in the beginning particularly, is pretty intense. The pacing isn't great but the setting is interesting and does evolve well, at least until the story begins to get closer to the twisting. Some of the individual moments, especially early on, are pretty impressive. It's a wonder Mark's eyebrows aren't still frozen in place. He said he jumped at the opportunity to play a role where he was a teacher and he even gets to literally say "I'm a teacher" so I imagine that was a fun day for him. I would probably say a 5/10, I guess...not bad and not good. The ending does the movie no favors; up until that point it was a better product than it is in totality. I did enjoy watching it enough though and I'm glad I did.

Hot dogs do indeed get a bad rap.

First of all, a prologue of sorts: I did grapple with the decision to buy this game or not. Being such a huge fan of video games it would have been impossible to not know what is going on over at Blizzard. I am also a huge fan of equality, so hearing those reports is disappointing to me since I grew up on Warcraft and Diablo games. When I hear and read those reports though, it makes me feel like avoiding the game on those grounds would also be disregarding all the hard work those people did to do what they love and make video games of high quality and incredible fun. So to those people: I hate that you had to go through what you did, but please keep making video games somewhere. You do great work. Now then...

When I first played D2, it was near the original release date in 2000 and it blew me away. My friends and I had played the original to death; we would even huddle around the computer and take turns playing as our Warrior since not all of us had rigs of of our own, we were pretty young. When D2 released, we were all in school and we did have our own machines so we each had our own characters and formed a party online. Now that it is being resurrected for newer hardware I could not be happier. I bought the Xbox version for my series X.

I have heard some complaints from the online community and reviewers about how the game is "Diablo II, again, and not much else." This, in my opinion, was the best decision Blizzard could have made. I was not a huge fan of Diablo III. Do not get me wrong, I have several max characters and I spent quite a bit of time with it, but I am not a fan of the way the game feels. The speed is all wrong for me; movement is too fast, attacks feel generic, skill placement has almost no meaning since you can just switch out whenever you want, the hit modifiers make it feel like an arcade game...I could go on and on. That is fine, but it is not made in the spirit of the first two games for me. I think a large part of that is the community itself; it was nearly impossible to find somebody online who was willing to actually take their time and explore the areas. Almost every time it was people pushing from point A to point B as quickly as possible, spamming overly powerful abilities that fill the screen with chaos and colors that are equally impressive and unnecessary. That is the furthest thing from what made me love the first two games, I thought the sound effects were even weak compared to the first two entries. I am not hear to talk about Diablo III though, and I will only mention it once more.

Diablo was a slow, deliberate game. Making treks further and further into the dungeons felt like a chore, it was supposed to. Progression was very slow and the characters were nothing but specialists. You could cross-class a bit, anybody could learn spells for example, but this was a risky venture since you could easily spread yourself too thin. It was not a masterpiece, by any means, but it set the standard for dungeon-crawling games at the time in a way that really resonated with people. The environment was incredible, the sound effects were top-notch, and the characters were vague but likeable. "What can I do for ya?"

Diablo II was an improvement in every area. Maybe it was just the people I played with; we had a four person group on our floor who played together exclusively and we all valued the same things; we even had characters we called the "Harshman Party" that we agreed to not play unless we were grouped up. We would explore every corner of each area, appreciating the environments and the little nuances of the maps. Finding little hovels that would sometimes have a useless chest in them while other times they would have nothing or an enemy would be camping out inside. Every now and then, you would open one of those chests though and an item in yellow font would pop into the air before landing on the ground....YES! The caves, tunnels and dungeons you come across that are not always required but totally worth completing...these were the things we grew to care for the most as we played. The quality of life improvements from the first game were noticeable as well and they helped to make this feel like a super version of Diablo instead of a different game leaning on the same system. This, we felt, was Blizzard's masterpiece.

Resurrected has added some updates to help make the game feel more modern, but for the most part it has changed very little from the original. I had grown tired of modern dungeon crawlers, for some of the reasons listed above but also because the pacing has changed so much in the genre. I attempted to get my wife into Diablo III, but every time she would attempt to go online and play through matchmaking, she would get paired up with somebody who had very little patience and just burned through the map while she explored an area or was in town comparing stats and items. Watching 'Quest completed' pop up while she was bartering for a bow or identifying items was not fun for her and I completely understand why. This is not something I enjoy either and it ruined the game for me as well; I quit playing online and just played locally or solo for a while before I just stopped playing altogether. This did lead directly to my playing Dark Souls however, so for that I am grateful.

Diablo II Resurrected has brought back a lot of those feelings; exploring the desert and the decrepit buildings, the forests and the jungles full of deadly enemies, traps, and wonders. I have already connected with several people who talk about the same thing: there is something about this game that makes you want to see everything it has to offer, to take your time and really let it all sink in. I have also gotten a kick out of swapping the graphics back to the 2000-era, but I would not recommend playing the game that way. The remodel looks and plays fantastic.

I am a Gauntlet Adventurer.


I strive to improve my living conditions by hoarding gold, food, and sometimes keys and potions. I love adventure, fighting, and particularly winning - especially when there's a prize at stake. I occasionally get lost inside buildings and can't find the exit. I need food badly. What Video Game Character Are You?

Today is a sad, sad day for me. Well, I guess the sadness starts last night.

I barely ever play(ed) my Nintendo Wii, especially after I completed Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Donkey Kong Country Returns. The only recent function the Wii served for me was Netflix, and that was only at night when I was falling asleep. I never really had anything against the Wii, in fact I used to cherish it as a possession, but as its lifespan wore on I grew disinterested in a quick way. I don't know why.

Last night, I fired it up to watch Netflix and nothing happened. At first I didn't even notice the orange light being absent from the machine's display, but alas it was not there. I tried everything to bring it back, but last night my Wii died on me. I don't how or why, and I can't believe how saddened I am over it. Now that I can't hear the chime the system makes when you press the 'A' button for the first time or see the little 'hand-glove- whipping around the screen as I navigate the menus, I find that I can only think about the chime made when you push 'A' for the first time and the 'hand-glove' on the screen. I miss it. I miss it badly. I never thought this would happen; I took the Nintendo Wii for granted, I believe.

What's funny to me is that I don't have any regrets aside from all the VC games that I didn't play as much as I should have and therefore should not have bought; I wouldn't go and spend more time with it or anything given another chance. I wouldn't play every game ever made for the system because in all honestly most of the games are not any good. I played every game that I wanted to play. I just miss it, and now that it no longer works I have a desire to play the Nintendo Wii. Not just any Wii though, it would have to be mine.

Today I'll miss the Wii, and maybe I'll even miss it for this whole week. That's not likely. What's more likely is that I'll spend today, maybe tomorrow, lamenting my loss and thinking about all the games that I wish I could play just one more time. I'll spend these days wishing I could hear that chime at startup one more time; I'll spend them wishing I could vote one more time on the 'voting channel'; I'll spend them wishing I was able to wave the controller at the screen like a fool one more time. But I can just keep on wishing, because I won't be getting it repaired or replaced...at least I have no plans to currently. Instead I'll lament for a while and remember fondly all the good times I had with the little white machine that had more potential than any other video game system in history.

Does anybody else get a little upset over the loss of a console like this? I never have before, but seeing the light on the Wii remain dark despite all my efforts to make it glow was a sad moment indeed.