The Subaru WRX is my choice for checking out barn finds in Forza Horizon 5. It has All-wheel Drive, which is great when you need to get off-road. And since it is not an SUV, it still retains great driving dynamics on the road. It is also the closest I can get to a Mazdaspeed3, since they no longer allow you to own and drive one in the game.
Prior to getting a WRX in the game, I was actually driving around a Durango SRT to check out barn finds. Not a bad vehicle, but I like the WRX better specially when cornering.
Out for a drive in the Subaru WRX to check out a barn find.
I started playing PES 2021 in the middle of 2021. I was a like a year late because I was still having fun with PES 2019. I did give PES 2020 a try, but it had too many glaring issues that I couldn't get past. PES 2021 on the other hand, which is really like a patch plus a roster update applied to PES 2020, is a much improved game. So much so that I actually stopped playing PES 2019 to really give it a try.
For my first Master League season in PES 2021, I decided to play Manchester United and used the club lineup. This meant that I had the players that were really part of United's roster at that point in time. That didn't last though as I quickly made changes to the lineup to better suit my play style.
So for my first Master League season with Manchester United, I decided to replace H. Maguirre with K. Manolas as my main CB. Honestly, H. Maguirre in this game is just too slow. If a speedy opposing player gets past him, there's no way he is catching up. And when you have a slow CB playing against fast wingers from elite teams like Liverpool and Manchester City, there's just no room for error. Manolas on the other hand is an awesome defender. Strong enough and fast enough to play against elite strikers in the game.
I also got Kostic to play LMF. This was because I was trying to play my preferred 4-4-2 diamond formation. And in that formation, I was playing Rashford at LMF, which he was having trouble with. Actually, I was having trouble with Rashford at LMF. With Kostic at LMF, that allowed me to move Rashford to SS, where he was much more of a threat and was less prone to getting injured.
I started playing Minecraft with my eldest son at his request. I previously played it solo before and never really got into it. But playing split-screen co-op with my son, is a totally different experience. I underestimated how much fun it can be playing it with your kids.
This is a look at the entrance to our first shelter in the game. This world we are playing in, was created a year or two ago, when I first played the game solo. This shelter was previously just made up of dirt blocks for walls and a fence gate for a door. When I had my son join me in the game, we found out how fragile our shelter was against Creeper explosions. So our first mission was to upgrade our shelter to be more sturdy. So we mined some Cobblestones, figured out how to turn it into Stone and upgraded our shelter with Stone walls and a Wooden door. Apparently in higher difficulty, Zombies can break down a Wooden door, but we were playing in “Easy” difficulty, so that's not an issue.
The beautiful night sky in Skyrim. Not sure why I never noticed this before. Probably shows how much of a Skyrim noob I am. But anyway, I was making the trek to Ivarstead when I looked up and was amazed at what I saw. So amazing that at one point I didn't notice a pack of wolves bearing down on me while I kept looking up 😄
I'm feeling the excitement for the start of a new Premier League season. So, here are some video game screenshots from PES 2021 to go along with it.
PES 2021 is probably the best looking football video game I've ever played. And when I say that, I mean both in terms of graphics and player animations.
And the ball. You have got to see how the ball moves in this game. I played FIFA 22 for a bit by the way, just to see what I'm missing. The ball physics in FIFA 22 just doesn't compare to what you get in PES 2021. The ball physics in PES 2021 makes the ball one of the stars of the show. It makes it move and bounce in a scarily realistic manner. The ball physics is definitely one of the best features in PES 2021.
These screenshots by the way were taken during my 2023-2024 Master League season. I play Manchester United and have new players in the team (in case you wonder why I have Manolas and Marquinhos on my team). I'll explain more about the lineup changes I've made in a future game log.
Manchester United's stadium is rendered beautifully in the game
Pregame cinematic – A game against Arsenal, which is one of the licensed teams in the game. I mention “licensed teams” because...
Couple more shots of the Mazda FC RX-7 in Forza Horizon. This time the screenshots were taken as the sun went down in the game. It's amazing how far we've come in racing video games. We used to only have static weather during game play. Now we have dynamic weather and even the passage of time in a racing game. Coming from the 8-bit racing games I used to play when I was a kid, today's games are pretty awesome!
The beautiful Mazda FC RX-7 in broad daylight. While I prefer the look of the FD RX-7, there's something beautiful about the more simplistic lines of this car.
After taking a long break from the game, I've recently come back to Ghost Recon Wildlands. This is a wonderful game if you like military shooters and an open world. It's kinda like The Division, but with more realism (no spongy enemies here) and the option for AI teammates.
This game requires patience and strategy, something you'll needs lots of once you get deeper into the game. That doesn't mean it's a bad game. It's just built different. Maybe even built for a different time (even if it only came out back in 2017). New games now are all about instant gratification. This game is more about delayed gratification, if that even makes sense. This game is more like Metal Gear Solid, where you spend a good amount of time planning your moves, then executing them perfectly. It's more like Chess instead of say Tic Tac Toe.
This review gives a good look at what makes Ghost Recon Wildlands great.
For someone who spent most of his time playing Fallout 4, switching to Skyrim was a breath of fresh air. You go from desolate wastelands, to striking scenery like these.
This first screenshot was taken right after you exit Helgen, which is where the game tutorial takes place. At this point, you've already seen a dragon, engaged in melee, range or magic combat (depending on your preference), and you're basically just itching to get out into the world to see what kind of story you can write.
Another day goes by and I've got another blog up on the net. This one is focused on the topic of video games. For someone who was getting exhausted at the number of websites I had to maintain, I surprised even myself with this one.
Anyway, this is not my first attempt at one. Back when I was first trying out Write.as, I was actually trying to replace a gaming blog that was built as a static website. And for awhile back in 2019, I had two blogs on Write.as: a journal and a dedicated gaming blog.
For one reason or another, I decided that I did not need a dedicated gaming blog. So, I moved all video game related posts to my journal. New posts on the topic of video games showed up on my journal. I even created new series — “Game Clips” and “Game Screenshots” — dedicated to video game content. That worked out for awhile and I was happy.
But as everyone knows, “The only constant in life is change.” And so here we are. My use of my journal and the content I want to show up in it has changed over time. And so I once again have a need for a dedicated gaming blog.
Out for a drive in the Subaru WRX to check out a barn find.
This first screenshot was taken right after you exit Helgen, which is where the game tutorial takes place. At this point, you've already seen a dragon, engaged in melee, range or magic combat (depending on your preference), and you're basically just itching to get out into the world to see what kind of story you can write.