My name is Brad Root and I'm a software engineer, music aficionado, video game junkie, and occasional unicyclist.
In my spare time, I build open source software, and write about my experiences as a programmer and conscious human being here on this blog.
With the exception of the ongoing Black Friday coupon code that gives you 40% off, the most sure-fire way to save some money when buying Meta Quest games is to use Meta-Dog, which compiles and distributes 25% off referral codes. This cuts into Meta’s 30% take from the app sale, so don’t feel like you’re taking money away from the developer using these referral codes!
Diablo Immortal came out a few weeks ago. If you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, this is the free to play mobile Diablo MMO that was announced to great fanfare years ago. I wasn’t planning on playing it at all, despite my love of ARPGs, because MMOs turned me off … Diablo Immortal
I got an Xbox Series X last week. I’m not entirely sure why, as my PC is perfectly fine, but they went in stock at Walmart and I already pay for Game Pass Ultimate, so… why not?
I’m glad I did. It can run some recent games better than my PC can, and it runs them on my living room television at 4K in HDR which makes a very big difference. I’m not a fan of Windows in any way, and gladly the Xbox software doesn’t feel like Windows at all.
I haven’t owned an Xbox since the original, and this feels like an appropriate leap forward in time (all 21 years of it): Quick Resume, Game Pass, a fully digital game library, … this feels like the future of gaming for sure. I love my PC, but at the same time we’re at a place with technology where a console is finally beating out the PC in terms of ease of use and graphical power. Though, in some respects, that’s due to cheating: Microsoft is assuredly selling the Series X at a huge loss.
I’m rapidly approaching 100 hours in Elden Ring. It’s impossible, due to its popularity, for me to say anything remotely original about it. I will repeat something I said elsewhere: Elden Ring is video game methamphetamine: soaring highs (“It feels so great to kill shit!”) to crushing lows (“I hate this fucking game and I hate myself and I hate everyone else”) back to soaring highs again.
In comparison to the MMOs I have been playing for the past two years, and even other recent games like the Final Fantasy 7 remake, it is genuinely refreshing to play a game that hasn’t gotten all the difficulty buffed out of it to ensure that even the dumbest gamer could play it without suffering from bad feels.
That said, at times I become extremely mad and doubt I will ever beat it. Then I’ll go somewhere else in the game, do some exploring, and come back and conquer whatever it was that was making me mad and it feels really good. For a first timer to the Souls formula, I’m having a great time.
Paradise Killer, one of my all time favorite games, with the all time best game soundtrack ever, is out today on next gen consoles. It’s a bit like an open world Phoenix Wright and Danganronpa, but significantly more interesting in just about every way.