The Professional Gamer - October 3, 2016

Hello readers! I've very much had a anime more than anything else; so, let's start with the one thing that isn't anime. In Elite: Dangerous, I'm continuing my work towards a Type 9 Transport. This work has generally consisted of booting up the game and looking for a good trading route; finding that the nearest good route is about 100 light years away; traveling to the target systems while trading and exploring; and finally, running out of time to play and going to bed. All of this means that I'm not making progress very quickly. However, I love cruising through new systems to pick up data about all the little planets and icy rocks.

First up on the anime docket: Food Wars! I watched the last episode on Saturday. The final episode offered a good conclusion to the series; giving some resolution to the main plot line, but leaving lots of room for the audience to imagine the future adventures of all the characters. In the end, I recommend the show for its over-the-top humor and delicious food ideas.

Next, I spent much of the weekend binge watching Sweetness and Lightning (Amaama to Inazuma). The series is not quite what I was expecting and had me periodically tearing up from the first episode. Sweetness and Lightning is a heartwarming, slice-of-life story about Kohei Inuzuka and his daughter Tsumugi. Kohei is a recent widower, and is worried about the relationship between himself and his young daughter. He therefore decides that he should start cooking for her so that they can eat dinner together. Kohei makes some more friends along the way and, in a way, forms a new family. The series is very lovely and emotional. And the acting (both voice and character animation) of Tsumugi is remarkably believable as a child. 

Last, I've started watching Himouto! Umaru-chan. This series is a few years old at this point, but I've just finally had the time to watch it. Umaru appears to be a perfect high school student: good grades, athletic, and pretty. But once she gets home, she transforms into a lazy, chibi gamer. The show is rather full some rather sterotypical tropes, but still ends up being a lot of fun. I'm about halfway through currently, but I doubt that my opinions about the series are likely to change much as I finish. It's worth a watch if you need a break from something with a high degree of emotional investment (like Sweetness and Lighting), or just generally want something that's a little silly.

That's all that I have for now. Have a great week and game on!

The Professional Gamer - August 22, 2016

Back to a relatively normal week at work, and I've had a bit more time to have fun again this week. Even with biking to work, which takes about twice as long as driving, I was able to make some substantial progress in video games. And I'm looking forward to some fun convention time in the next few weeks. Ready? Let's go!

In the world of Elite: Dangerous, I've finally saved enough money for my next ship. I'm at the point of spending the next hours or so cruising around the universe to find my new ship and all the equipment that I need to outfit it to my needs. I'm excited that I'll be increasing my earning potential, and spending some time in a slightly more manuverable and fun ship again.

Next week, I'll be heading up to the Fort Collins Comic Con with Crystal, where she'll be selling some of her art and comics and I'll be helping her out.  I'm also hoping to spend a little bit of time looking around the convention, meeting some artists, and talking about comics with other fans.  This is only the conventions second year, but hopefully everything goes fairly well.

With that in mind, I hope to see you all again next week.  Have a great time, and game on!

The Professional Gamer - August 15, 2016

Hello readers! This has been the week were I spent most of my time away from home.  In fact, I was in Hawaii to visit a project site.  But, I was away from most of games and media for the week.  But let's talk a little bit about what I did do.

Hilo reminded me a lot of my time in the smaller towns of New Zealand, just a little more tropical and with more palm trees.  But there are lots of tiny roads, including one lane bridges, and the underlying current of a Polynesian culture.  I was able to spend some time hunting for Pokemon while I was there.  And due to the different real world environment, I was able to catch a lot of pokemon that I haven't seen near my home.

That's all I've really had time for this week.  Have a great week, and game on!

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.