Zero Lives: 05/09/2022

~ The foundations of decay ~

Sep 6, 2022

Between working like crazy and hitting another slump, the past two weeks have been…hectic. So, apologies for missing two posts. Let’s get into it.

What I’m Playing

Destiny 2 - A new season has rolled out and Bungie is still firing on all cylinders. Not to jinx things, but it looks like the days of lackluster seasons like Season of the Worthy and Season of Undying are a thing of the past. Instead, even things like playing space pirates with former enemies are made exciting thanks to new activities with players leaping between spaceships and searching for buried treasure.

The “new” raid, a reprisal of the Destiny King’s Fall raid has been given a facelift and is the right mixture of challenging and rewarding. I had forgotten just how gorgeous and ominous the Dreadnaught was as it floated lifelessly in the ruins of the Awoken fleet and the rings of Saturn.

Marvel’s Spider-Man - I got it loaded up on the PlayStation 5 and was able to import my original save. I forgot how much fun it was to swing through the streets of New York. I don’t know that I’m going to do another complete playthrough as it was an insanely long game with a lot of filler content. But it should still be fun to boot up every once in a while when I need a break from something else.

PowerWash Simulator - My boy came over and asked me the most innocent and sweetest question, “Dad, do you know what PowerWash Simulator is?” Well, $25 for another copy and an install later, we’re having some quality time together cleaning vehicles, buildings, and all manner of grime-covered surfaces. I had mentioned earlier that I burned myself out on it, but spending time with my son made it feel like the first time again.

World of Warships Blitz - This was another of my son’s suggestions and one that didn’t resonate with me nearly as much. Regardless, I try to nurture his interests and spend as much time as I can with him. So we did some introductory quests, each picked a ship, and went about our conquest on the high seas.

What I’m Watching

Dead Meat: The Kill Count - I’ve been on a kick of watching recaps of horror movies. This and Cinema Sins allow me to binge terrible movies without having to invest the full 90-120 minutes required for each viewing. I had another slump last week and over the course of three days, these shows kept my mind occupied.

Neebs Gaming - This has been a longtime favorite channel of mine, even if all the games aren’t my favorite, they find a way to make them entertaining. In particular, the Seven Days to Die and Ranch Simulator series are an absolute treat.

Alien vs Predator - As I try to ease my son into scarier films and since he seems to have an interest in Predator thanks to Roblox, I thought we could give this film a shot. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t awful. It was a solid middle-of-the-road movie. The concept of why xenomorphs and predators coexist is established and makes sense. However, there’s a little too much focus put on the humans and it still baffles me why filmmakers think the audience has any vested interest in them. Even a single survivor is a survivor too many.

Alien vs Predator: Requiem - Holy shit, this movie is atrocious. After seeing the last movie on our list, we decided to give the sequel a try. Between a cast a thousand times more insufferable than the last and 90% of the shots literally being too dark to see what’s happening, I wish I had this 90 minutes of my life back.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre - I blame this on my foray into “classic” horror. Leatherface has always been the slasher villain that scared me the most. As such, I became fascinated with what about him scared me so. After listening to a few podcasts on the matter, I opted to watch the original film in the series.

Everyone is a liar and I have zero idea what scared me so much about this character. Even for a film made in 1974, the acting is atrocious and the cinematography is questionable at best. Halfway through I was just wishing for it to be over.