The Professional Gamer - July 12, 2016

Hi readers!  I hope all of our American followers had a great Independence Day!  I sure did, even got a personal record for the 4 km race that I've been doing for several years.

Later in the week, I finished watching the first season of Gravity Falls.  I won't really post any spoilers, since I'm sure there are lots of people watching for the first time.  If you are watching for the first time, remember: trust no one!  The first season has been so much fun, and I've already started into the second season.  I've got a feeling I'll be finishing the series really soon.

I've made a lot of progress through The Lord of the Rings this week as well.  Gandalf has fallen in Khazad-dum and the Fellowship has journeyed into Lothlorien.  I think I've got less than a week to move on to the next volume.

In other news, I am a bike owner again.  Its been a long time since I had a bicycle and I'm excited to start using it for transport on the weekends.  Now, I need to get some accessories so that I can be safe and carry groceries and such as well.

Lastly, Pokemon Go has been released in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. so far.  I feel like I've had not a lot of time to play, but have still managed to rack up 6 km of walking and have reached level 6.  It's been fun to explore the real world, sometimes with friends, in search of magical creatures.  The server issues have been frustrating, but I'm sure that will all get solved soon.  In summary, its a lot more fun than Ingress, the previous game released by Niantec; and I recommend that you try it out if you think you would like an excuse to explore your neighborhood on foot and get to know some of the people who live near you.

That's all I have for this week.  I'll update you all later on how the Pokemon hunting goes.  Have a great week, and game on!

The Professional Gamer - April 25, 2016

This has been another week with a lot of commitments at work.  But, I've managed to spend a fair amount of time with virtual jobs this week as well.  I've spent a lot of time this past week playing Fantasy Life.  At this point, I'm trying get myself to master rank in all of the professions.  At this point, I've got about 4 professions to that rank, and should be able to get the rest in a few more weeks.

I've also been flying around a bit more in my Cobra MkIII in Elite: Dangerous, and am now within about 3 million credits of my goal.  I'm excited to be getting to a new ship, mostly just for the novelty of it.  I'm also looking to start doing a big trade loop through inhabited space, rather than doing a single circular loop.  I won't have the armaments of my current ship, but will be able to haul a huge amount of trade goods instead.

Finally, I've found some time to start fleshing out my homebrew D&D campaign.  We've had a long break from playing, but I am anticipating some playing time in the future.  And now, I have to plan some adventures for our Traveler game.

Have a great week and game on!

Titanfall 2 Announced(ish)

EA and Respawn have announced that they are going to announce Titanfall 2 on June 12th. And for this Announcement they have released the following trailer.

Right now we don't now much about the game, just that it is happening and it will be out for Xbox One, PC and PS4.

Fingers crossed that this time we get an actual single-player campaign. I really enjoyed the multi-player, but would get bored quickly. I also don't care as much for only multiplayer games. There is a reason I don't have Battlefront or why I have not played Call of Duty or Battlefield. 

The Professional Gamer - April 11, 2016

I feel like I just keep having very busy weeks, but I'm still managing to have a little fun on the side,  I've watched a little TV and played some video games.  Read on to find out what I've been doing.

First, I've watched a few more episodes of Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash.  The series has been slow going for a few reasons.  The violence is rather brutal and the character relationships are nuanced and requires a high degree of attention.  I'm glad that after some of the initial pain in the series, that things are going better for the main characters.  I'm constantly worried that everything is going to go downhill again at some point soon.

Some of you may be aware that Nintendo released their new social network platform Miitomo this past week.  I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it.  It feels like Nintendo has combined the typical social platform with a game.  Also, lots of questions.  Kinda like doing speed dating or a network event.

Speaking of Nintendo, I finally went back and finished my playthrough of Ocarina of Time on my 3DS.  I'd left myself at a point where I could basically have explored Ganon's tower and finished the game.  I don't recall what the circumstance that led me to leaving my save file in such a state.  I'm just glad that I managed to finish it now,

Lastly, I've been playing a little more Elite: Dangerous. I feel like I've got my ship fairly well equipped., since I was able to take down 2 NPC's without any aid.  Which is considerably better than I've had previously.  And, I'm about halfway to earning my next goal ship. Yay!

Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon Announced!

Nintendo has been having fun with the 20th anniversary of Pokémon. They have given away cards with a free level 100 Mew for the 3DS games. They have had the first Pokémon moviee on the official Pokémon site streaming. And now, during the recent Nintendo Pokémon Direct they have announced the next game in this massive series, Pokémon Moon and Pokémon Sun.

If this is not good enough for you, Nintendo is also releasing the original Pokémon games, Pokémon Red, Pokémon Blue, and Pokémon Yellow (Ok, that one is original-ish). These games are now available in the Nintendo eShop for the 3DS. A new feature in these digital versions will be access to the Pokémon Bank. These means you can go and catch the original 150, and then transfer them to Pokémon Sun or Pokémon Moon. Sounds like a completionist dream to me.

The Professional Gamer - January 11, 2016

Hello readers!  This week has mostly been full of adulting. Went to a chiropractor to try and reduce the tightness in my neck (seems to be helping), scheduled a dental exam and cleaning, and did some more yoga and pilates.  All told, I'm feeling pretty good about things.  

Some cool things happening this week.  Of primary interest, we had another Steven-bomb this week.  I haven't watched the Friday episode yet ("Log Date 7 15 2"), but I have enjoyed all of the new episode so far this week.  I loved learning more about Ruby and Sapphire, and seeing some more development of Peridot's character.

I also spent some time this week watching the last few episodes of Community.  I'm sad that the series is over, although the finale was a lot of fun.  Now I have to find another casual show to binge through during the week.  Any suggestions?

In roleplaying news, I've got about a third of my systems information input into a game wiki and have started inviting my players to make some stories about some of the inhabited planets.  I'm hoping that we can make this game a bit more of a collaborative, storytelling game.  This would be in sharp contrast to our typical dungeon delver / combat heavy type games, but would hopefully be a welcome change.

Finally, I'm still playing through Knights of the Old Republic.  I'm a Jedi now, running around with a blue lightsaber in one hand and a vibroblade in the other.  Future goal: duel wielding lightsabers.

That's all I've got for this week.  See you next time, and game on!