Game Room Ver. 4.0 Update

I know it's been a while so I just want to provide a quick update in regards to my new Game Room. I have been at the new place for about two weeks now and there is still a lot of work to be done. I have to clear the space slated to be my new Game Room and the pace has been a slow and steady. I have setup a temporary area for my Personal Computer and display so that I can enjoy my primary method of gaming while I get everything done. I hope that I can have everything up and running by the end of the month.

Review: Tetris Effect

Tetris Effect (2019)

Developer: Monstars Inc. and Resonair

Platform: Personal Computer

Induction Date: 05/27/2020

I've inducted plenty of titles from the Epic Games Store recently, thanks to their Epic Mega Sale 2020 event. One of those games is Tetris Effect by Monstars Inc. and Resonair. I feel horrible now for waiting this long to get this game - though I don't have that irrational hate for EGS where the game is still being sold exclusively for the Personal Computer, I used to have an irrational attachment to Steam, but Epic's generous discount scheme has convinced me otherwise. Tetris Effect is the most exciting new game I have played in recent memory and I have played too many over these past 5 years that couldn't hold my interest. Tetris Effect changes all that. It's an unexpected masterpiece and it's definitely one of the best games ever made.

Seagulls, dolphins, and perhaps humans. Don't we all deserve the ability to live freely?

X-Box One Controller... Update?

Though I don't use it as often anymore ever since Valve allowed every compatible controller full customization access on Steam, I remember the Steam Controller receiving plenty of firmware updates. I don't remember any other controllers that receive such a treatment except for the Vive Controllers. I remember thinking, wow, this controller is really, really awkward to use - the XYAB input placement was horrific - but it's so special that it can receive firmware updates! So I was playing Borderlands 3 on Epic Games earlier using my comfort device, the X-Box One Controller, and I noticed that my character couldn't just stand still where he would keep drifting to the right continuously until I snap the left stick a bit. I have had bad experiences with X-Box 360 controllers before where this problem occurred and went through 3 controllers on that system. At first I was like, oh crap, time to switch to the PlayStation 4 controller but then I went online for a solution. I was surprised to learn that the X-Box One Controllers do get firmware updates. I suppose since I don't have an X-Box One, which would have updated the controller when you connect to the console, it would be easy for me to miss this. Apparently, one can download the X-Box Accessories app from the Windows 10 Store to get this accomplished. I learned something new today. Did it fix my problem? No, Microsoft controllers are just built bad apparently. I'm glad I didn't buy the overpriced elite version.

My controller did need a firmware update. The thing is, Microsoft just wants me to buy another one.

I Found Myself Here, Again

It was 2 years ago when I had to move to a new place and in the midst of this pandemic, I will be moving to a new place again. There has been a lot I had to deal with over the past couple of months: a death in the family, a change in the way the world works that affects both me and my darling Yoshi, and some personal, persistence turbulence and stress. The pandemic in itself didn't impact me as much as others. I am used to spending most of my free time to myself but Yoshi definitely struggled with it in the beginning. I had to cut down on her walks and instead, spend more time playing with her at home. I think that's best for me and her. Better safe than sorry as the saying goes.

Into the boxes they go. I wish there was an easier way to transport these.

As with the previous move, packing all my physical games can take a lot of work. Like, a LOT of work. For one, I have way too many of them. Yes, I said too many. This is because I wish they would all magically transform into digital games. I have also added more physical games and collectibles since the last move, oh brother. It sure is fun to collect all these games but you never know that there is darker side to the hobby if you only lived in one spot. The good news here is that I will be moving to a larger place and my virtual reality setup will be much much better. The bad news is that I am moving to the countryside where the Internet connection may not be the best. I couldn't believe that the wiggly tentacles of Google Fiber haven't reached the place yet. Damn you, Google! I plan to finish moving by the end of June. Wish me luck, I really need it, and I look forward to showcase Game Room Ver. 4.0 soon after.

How PSO2 Became POS

I have been waiting for the release of Phantasy Star Online 2 on the Personal Computer forever. It took Sega so long to bring this game to North America (almost a decade actually) and it was so painful when they only released it on the X-Box One last month. I was an avid fan of the original PSO on the Dreamcast and the original X-Box so I was very excited to download the game yesterday, hating myself a bit for not downloading it sooner.

Some phantasies are just mere fantasies.

As if the wait for the game's release all these years wasn't horrible enough, the game came with a launcher and of course it had to download a huge mega patch before I could even play the game. Once that was done, I couldn't start the game because it kept nagging me about changing a privacy setting on my X-Box Live profile, something that no other X-Box Live game had ever asked me to do. I didn't even change anything, I merely went to check on my profile when the game actually allowed me to pass through the main menu. All this time, the game was running in windowed mode, a small one that is on top of my 4K resolution desktop so I hurriedly make a new character to get to the actual game so that I could access the game's settings only to discovered that the fullscreen toggle was actually in the launcher. So, I quit the game and changed the setting in the launcher but then when I started the game, it wouldn't load. The launcher just disappeared and nothing was happening on screen and no activities were showing in the task manager window. I restarted the computer and clicked the game from the Windows tile and nothing would happen except for a white line that was seemingly stuck forever in the game's tile. One time, I just sat there waiting until the launcher suddenly showed and the same thing would happen, when I started the game from the launcher, the game wouldn't boot up. I had enough at that point and I deleted the game.

I went to check the reviews from other PC users and apparently, it's a common thing. The game just wouldn't work for a majority of people. I also noticed one disturbing trend - the game would leave a huge chunk of file behind after it is uninstalled and when I checked the installation folder, after going through hoops just to change user permission for it because Microsoft thought it was so very necessary, the game left me with a 130+ GB of hot dung. It seemed like every time I tried booting up the game, the client was redownloading the patch or something. It's obvious that Sega didn't do the proper test runs for this launch. I cleaned up the mess and vowed to never touch the game ever again. Well, at least not until it gets a proper release on Steam or the Epic Games Store.