Like the meme says, this is a good time for videogames to come out, when everyone is forced to stay at home.
Doom Eternal got a great score.
As did Half-Life: Alyx.
Two big problems with Half-Life, though. First, I think my computer is too old and slow to run it at all. Second, I would need to buy VR gear, which on the cheap side can be found for $200 but for a better experience costs $1000. They might all be sold out now, anyway.
So let's go with Doom.
Have to sign in through both Steam and then Bethesda; what a pain.
Also, even though my computer can run it, it really slows down to unplayable in some areas unless I turn down all of the video options to low and make the resolution smaller. And even the people with new fast computers have a big problem with the Steam overlay.
So before I even start the game I turn that off.
Here we go.
There are lots of secrets scattered around the map.
The game is definitely more designed for fun than keeping you in the experience. The secrets are often finding dolls of Doom monsters, which are funny and cute.
Unfortunately, 80% of the game is platforming, where you have to jump place to place. I'd rather be killing monsters all of the time. And some of the platforming parts are absolutely horrible, like this one. I died so many times and didn't even know where to go after I swung off of the second bar.
I eventually gave up and searched YouTube for a full playthrough so I could figure out simply how to advance. That seems like pretty bad game design.
The next area or item you have to interact with is usually glowing green, but sometimes it can be very difficult to see. Like I didn't see the green on this box from the other side.
There's a little green down there, but I died a couple of times figuring out where to go after that.
This was one of the coolest parts of the game; a boss steps out of a portal...
... and taunts you.
The Doom guy isn't scared, though.
You can shoot these barrels to blow up enemies. That's something I didn't realize until very late in the game.
There are multiple challenges to complete on each level, but I missed some early ones because I forgot about them. You can only pin 3 to your HUD, which isn't nearly enough.
The maps are pretty large, and if you get upgrades, you can see where all of the secrets are, which is helpful. Even if you don't know quite how to get them, at least you know they're there.
There are two things that will keep making enemies respawn, buff totems...
... and archviles. Monsters glow red when either of them is around. The problem is when the first archvile appeared, I had no idea he does that; the only thing in the game up to then that did it was the totems. So I spend way too much time running around looking for a totem until I gave up and went back to YouTube to figure out what was going on.
Very pretty stained glass windows.
Uh oh, I burned my finger cooking.
Some of the people we used to play poker with in LA started a home game on PokerStars. Since we can't play in person any more, this was a way to still play. And we could play from our home instead of going to LA. Good timing, because now I can sit in front of my computer with my burned finger in a glass of water and play poker with the other hand.
I called with 72 and won.
Aw, unlucky ending to the first game.
You can select an avatar, and they have the characters from PokerStars PowerUp. I miss that game.
We played again a few days later. Ogii was on the couch and I was at my desk. Although sometimes Ogii would try to peek at my screen to see my cards. So I had to keep an eye on her and switch to a different window if I saw her turning her head.
Top set; that's good.
Ogii's 72 didn't work this time.
Aw man, I folded to a flop bet. I would have rivered a set.
Ogii bluffed on the river and Kat, after taking forever, called her. Good try, though.
Three way all-in with three poket pairs.
I was getting pretty short, so I shoved. Unfortunately this person had aces.
Now it's just up to Ogii, and she got aces in this hand.
And aces again the very next hand for a double knockout.
Here she made a straight.
They were both all-in preflop and Ogii won.
And Ogii won the tournament!
Good job.
Back to Doom Eternal. These marauders are very difficult to kill, and there's supposed to be a bug where this one despawns if you climb up here, but it didn't work for me.
The maps can be pretty cool. Sometimes they're made out of giant demons.
Like this one.
A super sword that kills anything in one hit. It's very limited use, though.
Hummingbirds eating right at sunset, when the feeder isn't sure if it's day or night yet.
If we have to go to the grocery store, we try to go very early in the morning when it seems to have the fewest number of other shoppers. It gets much busier in the late morning or afternoon.
All masked and gloved up.
Still no toilet paper.
Oh, here's some on the end cap.
Ogii put up a sign on our front door to remind us to wash our hands when we come home.
This secret was very difficult to reach, even when you know where it is.
It's amazing how much detail there is in the game. This subway map switches between saying all the routes are delayed...
... to a map of the subway.
There are also a hologram spokesperson that talks a lot throughout the game. At first she's pretty cocky, but eventually she gets worried.
The game reminds you to unlock this weapon.
I had missed the keys to unlock it in a few stages, so I had to replay them.
Got it.
Unfortunately, it's quite bad. It might actually kill monsters fast, but it uses the same ammo as the BFG, which seems much better. Also, the max ammo you can have for those two guns is 60. The Unmaykr uses 1 ammo at a time, but the BFG uses 30. Once I actually shot the Unmaykr once, so I had 59 ammo, which meant I could only shoot the BFG once more instead of twice. Very annoying.
Throwing milk.
We split the leftovers into three since Ogii's brother is staying with us. Well, actually, we split them into four and give him two portions since he likes to eat a lot.
You can unlock different sections of the main ship to get different upgrades.
You have to use these energy cells you get in the stages.
One thing you can upgrade is your suit, although other than the map unlocks, the others didn't seem that useful.
There's actually full versions of Doom 1 and Doom 2 in the game. You have to beat Doom Eternal to play them, though.
Some of the backgrounds in the game look amazing.
Some of the battle areas have these yellow bars that stick out which you can swing on. I never really used them much, though.
This is cool. There is a giant smasher with spikes. If you shoot this button...
... it smooshes the enemies.
These challenges seem pretty much impossible. To perform a glory kill, you have to almost kill an enemy, then run up to them and press a button. However, both the tyrant and the archvile are very difficult to kill normally, so I usually use the super sword to kill them in one hit. Also, sometimes even if you use normal weapons, the stronger ones like rocket launchers will kill enemies without giving you a chance to glory kill them. Trying to slowly whittle down the health of these two monsters so I can do a glory kill seems way too hard.
An old gaming magazine had protips on how to beat various games. Someone made a fake protip for the original Doom, which said, "To defeat the Cyberdemon, shoot at it until it does." Which isn't a tip at all; that's just what you do. However, the Doom games since then have included it as a joke.
Killed the boss.
They look pretty with masks on; pretty ugly without.
What's an easy way to get Ogii to clean the windows?
Tell her the dirt on them will get in the way of her being able to see hummingbirds in the back patio.
Nice and clean so she can get good pictures now.
He has pollen on his beak.
When a lot go onto the same feeder...
... the will often fight.
Lists of foods to eat.
Oops, the final boss wasn't really the final boss. One more stage to go. Another thing that is still in the game is that monsters still fight each other before you show up. Fun to watch.
Also, you can hang back and casually pick some of them off with the sniper rifle or other big guns. Here I see a Tyrant, so I use a BFG. I didn't realize it wouldn't kill him in one shot and then he would see and start attacking me, though, so I had to quickly put my phone down and get to safety.
Onto the last boss.
You have to shoot his armor off and then shoot him. This was probably the most fun I had in the game because there's very little platforming; it's just non-stop shooting enemies.
I beat the game. It's dedicated to a programmer who died while the game was being made.
The credits are filled with photos of the developers. I love the funny ones.
Like this.
And this.
I remember the huge ads for the game in LA that covered entire buildings.
The post credits scene.
Is a demon playing with the Doom guy and a demon toy.
Until the Doom guy sneaks up behind him.
You can replay the game at different difficulties, replay it with remixed stages, or play multiplayer.
I collected all of the secret dolls.
And all of the weapons.
And now I can play the original Doom in the game.
I complained that Doom Eternal has too much platforming and not enough shooting monsters, but even in the original game you wander around a lot trying to figure out where to go next. But at least you're only lost; you're not both lost and dying while not having any fun swinging from pole to pole.
There's actually a photomode in the game.
There are a lot of features in it.
Including changing the depth of field.
Or making it a third person view. Unfortunately, you can't use it on your first playthrough of a level, only if you go back and replay it. Which many people might not do. Also, you can't take regular computer screenshots of the game as far as I can tell, and there's no way to alt-tab out of the game that I could figure out, so I had to use my phone to take pictures of the game.
From below the plane.
Replaying a few sections. This was funny. This gun keeps charging until it blows up the enemy. However, these guys have a ton of armor and are nearly impossible to kill from the front; you have to shoot them in the tail. I killed him from the front with the charge gun and it took forever.
The first time you fight the Marauder. He also has a wolf he sends after you.
The wolf is easy to kill with a stronger gun, but he's quite fast.
The photo editor in third person mode.
Companies are supposed to be able to start filing for the PPP loans on April 3rd, but almost all of the big banks don't have their programs up and running to do it. So a lot of people are going to the smaller regional banks instead. Which is ironic because the SBA said to try the big banks first as they're verified lendors.
McDonald's credit card system was down, so you had to pay by cash. So when I paid, I told them to just keep the change; I don't want to touch it after they did. They also didn't have any person protective gear on. The Burger King employees were doing much better; they had full masks and handed your food and credit card to you on a tray so you never got close to their hands.
I normally just use toilet paper to blow my nose, but since that's in short supply and we have a ton of Kleenex since I buy it in bulk for work, I put a box in the bathroom. Thankfully we even had a box that matches the color perfectly.
Walmart is limiting the number of people in the store.
By using shopping carts to corral them into line.
People are mostly doing a good job of social distancing.
They had some big packs of paper towels, which was the one thing we were getting low on.
A lot of the cloth has been sold to be used for masks.
Time for another online poker game.
I made quad 7s against AA.
I made another set, but there are a lot of flushes and straights possible.
Ogii flopped three of a kind but Elizabeth got super lucky on the river to hit one of the only two remaining kings to win.
A very nice river card for me.
Glad nobody else had a higher club.
All in preflop but she hits a ten on the turn.
He bluffed the river and I called correctly with ace high.
An unlucky flop for my KK.
We both got knocked out early in this one.
A pre-taped poker show. In the games with all women, the players seem to have much more fun and be much happier than the games with mostly men.
I remember I preferred the blue package (Martha White) chocolate chip muffins to the brown ones (Betty Crocker) when I was younger, but they seem about the same now.
Lots of plants and a little water bell in our front patio.