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loteriart · 4 years

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Ten Tips For Launching Your Real Estate Investing Career

Eight Approaches for Getting Started in Real Estate Investing Introduction This article is just the fundamentals for getting started in real estate investing. This is not a how to content but an article that gives you some information about things to do begin. Everything in this article is tools that can be applied to helping any individual get started in real estate investing. I am going to give you my seven keys to getting started. Nothing is right or wrong though reflects the point of view of the author. Laws and legal practices vary from state to state, and laws can change over time. The author does not vouch for the legality of the opinions, nor is there any intent to supply legal advice. The author strongly encourages the reader to consult with professionals together with an attorney prior to entering in any real estate transaction or written agreement. The author is not a writer but he is a real residence investor. There will be grammar mistakes and errors, so do not be too critical of the grammar but focus your energy of what is being said. With that said prepare yourself to think a little differently and additionally expand your mind. Let's get started on an amazing adventure. The Seven Tips are as follows 1 . Desire 2 . Goal Setting 3. Learning What To Do 4. Attending a Real Estate Investing Seminar 5. The Billings Montana Market 6. Finding a Trainer 7. Your Real Estate Team 8. Just Do IT 1 ) Desire Before we get in to the bolts and finger nails of real estate investing in I want to talk to you about hope. If you are going to be successful at anything in life as well as real estate investing you have to have the desire to do it. Desire is defined as longing or craving, as for something that brings satisfaction and / or enjoyment. Desire stresses the strength of feeling and often implies powerful intention or aim. In real estate investing if you don't have a good desire to learn and grow as a human being and genuinely get satisfaction out of it, then real estate investing is going to be difficult to do. When I go out and look at a property it brings my family a lot of enjoyment. Every aspect brings me joy from speaking to home owners, figuring out how I can make a deal work, to purchasing the house and to finding a good homeowner or tenant for those house. Real estate investing may not be for everyone but real estate wasting can offer anyone the financial freedom we all crave pertaining to. If you do not have the desire for real estate investing that is ok, it could possibly still help you to live your dreams and help you to receive where you want to go in the future. Why is real estate investing an excellent avenue for anyone to live out all of their dreams? Let me consult you a few questions. Do you have enough money to do anything you want? Do you have everything you want? No debt? A nice house hold? Great Marriage? The freedom to do anything regardless of how significantly it costs and the time it takes? If you have all of these matters then you are one of the few people in America who does. Most people may be doing the job fifty hours a week and making just enough to pay his or her bills. In today's day and age most people are living pay check to repay check never really knowing if they will make enough paying the bills that just keep piling up. If you cannot match your monthly bills how are you going to plan for retirement or transmit your kids to college or have time to enjoy life. The response to all of these questions is becoming financially free. Now it will not be easy everyone will have to get off the couch in addition to out of their comfort zone. Real estate is proven to be one of the simplest ways to get your out of the rat race of the nine to all 5 and begin living the life you deserve to live. Everyone desires something different out of their life. Some dream of traveling the whole world, spending more time with family, volunteering, golfing, laying about the beach, giving back to the community, or anything that will make these folks happy. There are thousands of things that make people happy. Rendering it in real estate takes a person who has a strong desire to adjust their lives for the better and think big. Any individual can become a great real estate investor. It is going to take a lot of do the job and can be a struggle at times but in the end it will be the most amazing feeling ever. The people that make it in real estate investing most of have a few things in common. First they run the real estate investing business like any other business out there. Subsequently they get out there and network with anyone along with everyone. Some people might be like me and have a hard time actually talking to other people. If you are that is ok, anyone can learn how to become a people person, it just takes hard daily perform. You have to push yourself past your comfort zone. The third problem is that you cannot be afraid to fail. Everyone features failed at something but the most successful people outside their learn from their failures. The fourth thing might be that you have to put a good team together. I will go into adding a team together in a later chapter. The concept of positioning a team together is so that when you don't know one thing you have team members that know what to do and can help you utilizing questions. The can also make sure that you are not working yourself to demise. You do not want to be the person doing everything in your business. Going through everything is a receipt for failure. You have to put together decent people who you can trust and rely on. The fifth detail is that you need a mentor. Sixth and final will be desire to do it. No one can become successful at something if they won't want to do it and don't get satisfaction out of what there're doing. 2 . Setting Goals Having goals is one of the most prominent aspects of achieving what you want in life. You don't want to just simply have your goals up in your head you want to write them all down and past what you have wrote on the structure somewhere or in the bathroom mirror. You want to review the goals daily and read them out loud to your self. This way you remind yourself everyday why you are establishing your business. How should you start to write down you goals? First of all you should think big, and by big I mean BIG. If your goals are too small you will easily reach them and have nothing else to look forward too. You might want to start off by asking yourself the question if I had the money and time in the world what would I do, whatever would I buy, how would I spend the time, and how would I spend my energy levels. Are you starting to write these down? Well you should be. Take into account what you want, spending time with family, traveling the world, the best passenger cars, a castle, owning a small country, running for web design manager, having the biggest real estate investing business in your area or near you. Whatever your dreams and what you want out of your life, prepare it down. Some of my goals are becoming free, touring the world, having a Ferrari, having 10 vacation homes across the globe. Right now I am just trying to get you out of your comfort zone for thinking and let your imagination run. There are several methods of set goals. I have learned a lot of ways you can set you will goals and there is no right or wrong way. The perfect ways that I have found to set your goals is to break these products up into two categories. First your short term desired goals. This should be goals from a month out to all-around a year. The second is your long term goals these goals presently think big goals and what you see for your foreseeable future. For year one I like to first make a list of exactly what I want to achieve this year and I will give you an example of easy methods to do that. For year one you want to be very precise first you want to list what you want your income to be at the end of your year, next how much cash in the bank you want (this is certainly money in your checking account, not assets). Next you want to number how much you are going to give. Giving is a very important, this can be supplying to charity, giving of gifts to friends and family, presenting to your school or anything you can dream of. As long as anything you give brings joy to others who need it well over you. Next list what bad habits you have that you'll want to eliminate. Weather is be quitting smoking, spending a lot on junk, drinking too much, working too much, not paying out enough time with family, too much TV, not exercising and many more. We all have bad habits that need to be changed for use to grow as human beings. Under each of these bad practices list out some steps that you can take in order to give up them. If you bad habit is being lazy and not working out enough what can you do to change that. Well you can get a new gym membership or a home work out program. Commit your body you following through with a plan to work out 3-5 months a week. For you to change these bad habits you have to be fully committed and follow through with a detailed plan you place for yourself. After you have your plans in place you should start list of several things you want to achieve or do in the next year. It is start a successful business, spend time with family, travel to 2-5 places and so on. Now under each of these you should also write find plan on what you need and what you need to do in order to achieve these dreams. Finally you should take all of this information you have a write for page on what you see your life being over the next time. Doing this is a great exercise to really see what you want out of daily life. Goals Year One This is what I am going To Do This Year Source of income: $500, 000 Cash: $100, 000 Give: $20, 000 Bad Habits that will be changes: Over Sleeping 1 . Retire for the night at 11 p. m. 2 . Use a timer and even set it for 8 hours 3. Set typically the timer on the other side of the room Buying things that you don't need: - Going out shopping less 2 . If you have the urge to obtain something think to yourself is thing item going to guidance me to achieve my goals of becoming financially free? 3. Tell friends what you are doing, so they can help to eliminate you. What I want to Achieve: Start a successful Real Estate Shelling out Business: (you should write a detailed step by step plan in everything you need in order to achieve your goal) Travel: Where do I would like to visit? 1 . Gators football game (what I need to complete the work, money, etc) And last your own page about what you prefer to achieve using words like I will and only positive sayings. For long term goals you don't need to be as specific at this time, but you should list them and under them record a few steps or smaller goals that need to be completed before you are able to achieve them. With the long term goals normally think big. Another good exercise for long term aims is to make a collage of you goals. Put pics of the house you want on it, places you want to travel, a picture of this family, a number of what income you want in or everything else you can think of. 3. Learn Knowledge builds confidence not to mention destroys fear. If you are starting any kind of business you need to find out the ins and outs of that business. The best way I have found to learn regarding real estate investing is to read all about it. But knowing it you have to apply what you have learned. Learning and checking is just one step to take. There are thousands of books that can be found about real estate investing and everyone has something you possibly can learn from. You don't just want to read real estate investing books nonetheless. You also want to fill yourself with motivational and authority books. Every successful person that I know if a reader they usually all spend at least thirty minutes a day reading something that will probably teach them about improving their business or supporting themselves to become a better person. Some of the best books that I would certainly recommend reading are listed below. 1 . Rich Dad Very poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki (read this first as well as ready everything in the rick dad poor dad collection, great books to start with and will expand you mind) second . Be a Real Estate Millionaire by Dean Graziosi 3. Utilize your way to financial freedom by Preston Ely (this is an E-Book) 4. Four hour work week through Timothy Ferriss 5. The Attractor Factor 6. Quite short Sale Pre-foreclosure Investing by Dwan Bent-twyford and Sharon Sestrepo 7. Keys to success, by Napoleon Mountain 8. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Huge batch 9. How to win friends and influence people 10. Any Book by John C. Maxwell (he seems to have tons of amazing leadership books) 11. Getting Started in Realty Day Trading by Larry Goins 12. The E Myth by Michael Gerber 13. How to be a quick go real estate millionaire by Ron Legrand 14. The Power regarding Full Engagement 15. The It Factor 16. Things by Anthony Robins There are tons more you can read and yet these will give you a great start. You should also read books in negotiating, sales, motivation, and biographies on American internet marketers. I hope this list gives you the knowledge it has given me personally. If you learn and apply what you have learned from all these books there is no reason that you should not become very thriving. 4. Attend a Real Estate Investing Seminar Attending a genuine Estate Investing Seminar can be one of the best places to learn in relation to real estate investing from some very well known experts. There are certain seminars going on all over the country every weekend. If you live in an enormous city it will be very easy to find one. If you live in any town like Billings Montana you might need to travel a little solutions to find one. Now most of the best meeting cost dollars to attend them. Some range from five hundred dollars for two to three days and some can be up to $20, 000. There are a few i would recommend. Than Merrill is a great speaker to go take note of. I have learned a ton from him. You can find his enterprise online by Google searching him. Also rich pop poor dad has seminars all over the country. I attended one among their seminars in Billings Montana for only $500 dollars and learned a ton from it. There is also Preston Ely, Larry Goins, and hundreds of speakers out there. If you find an amazing book that you really enjoyed, then just simple seek that person online and see if they are speaking somewhere or perhaps offer a seminar close to you. Another reason I recommend going to a fabulous seminar is because they get you pumped up and encouraged. I have not yet found anything else that just becomes you feeling like you can do anything. When you get back collected from one of of these seminars you will have tons of energy and knowledge. Each and every time I get back from one all I want to do is going through and do a deal or ten. These seminars might also provide you with several opportunities to purchase amazing real estate investing devices, software or learning material at a fraction of the price tag. Believe me when I tell you all of the low priced seminars sell you something. But a lot of times what they are trying to sell is without a doubt some really good stuff. Another reason to attend a seminar is to network with other investors and build interactions with them. You can meet other investors who you can mate with on a deal, sell a deal too, individuals will provide you with deals and so on. You should have hundreds of business cards fabricated and try to give them all out. You never know how a whole lot one business card you hand out can make you. 5. Learn About the real estate market in your area Most real estate traders start their career off my investing around their current address. This is why I do my real estate investing in Billings Montana. You possibly can venture out when you have more experience. The reason behind this is because we experience more comfortable with the areas and know the areas healthier. It is also easier to get local real estate information that we demand. Investing in your local market is also cheaper to start out, there is much less travel costs, you can see what you are buying and it can provide you a feeling a comfort. First you have to decide which will part of town is the best place to invest in. This can be determined by particular real estate investing you choose to do. I have not gone over the forms of real estate investing but some include rehabbing (fixing up and also selling), wholesaling (finding deals and selling them to other sorts of investors), buying to rent, and there are a few others. They're the real estate strategies that I use for the most part. When viewing the market you need to see where other investors are shopping for their houses. Most of the best deals will be found in minimal to middle class neighbors hoods. By low When i don't mean drug infested war zones, what I mean will be blue collar safe neighbor hoods that might have rather older houses and houses that are not on the more expensive price side. Now you can find deals in the higher priced next door neighbor hoods but most will be in the low to mid income neighborhoods. When looking where others are selecting ask local realtors, other investors or appraisers. Once talking with investors ask them several questions such as the things neighborhoods they prefer, what type of houses they buy (3 bed 2 bath), and what they do (rehab, rent, wholesale). You should not look at other investors as contest but try and work with them. There are different types of markets which includes appreciating markets, flat markets, and deprecating markets. Appreciating markets are markets that there is no enough houses or perhaps very high demand for houses which causes the price of houses to move into. The reason there is a high demand for housing can be because of project growth, a very appealing area, or several reason. Even markets are markets that have no or very little development. This means that there is not a lot of demand; buy just enough to occupy every ones needs. Depreciating markets are where there is also a lot more houses than people to fill those house. The causes house prices to start going down. This can be because of a substantial employer leaving the area, a natural disaster or just over making. There is an old saying buy in a bust and market in a boom. In depreciating markets you can pick up numerous deals, while in appreciating the house prices are going to be much higher plus harder to find great deals. The deal will still be out there you just must know where to find them. Learning your market is another primary to becoming successful. Real estate Brokers and experts in your area could possibly be the best source of information for you. Learn to use them to find out how much market you are in. If you are in Billings Montana our company is in a pretty stable market. Billings Montana has not personally seen the ups and downs that other markets have experienced. I will really need to say that I have been noticing a little bit of a downward development but not much. Once the first time home buyer credit has ended with we might see a little more decline. Every market may vary by neighborhood, so make sure you know you market most certainly. I have seen the same houses just one mile apart reselling for totally different prices. 6. Find a Mentor Having a instructor to help you can be your biggest learning experience. Mentors can help you through any questions you may have, walk you step by step through the committing process, give you moral support, you learn from their verified system, and also network you with others in the business. Each successful real estate investor that I know says they will owe a lot of their success to the mentors they have and received in their lives. I have had one of the best mentors around, my dad. He is teaching me something new every day and forcing me to become successful. When trying to find a mentor I would suggest network with the investors at your local real estate investors golf iron meeting. There is a real estate investing club in Billings Montana that meets once a month. You can find information about real estate investing night clubs in your area by searching for REA or real estate investors team then your area in Google. When you go to the meetings check with who the biggest investors are. Then ask if you may get together with them sometime and discuss real estate investing. Question them if they would consider working with you to get their career looking. Offer your services as a bird dog. Bird puppies are people who go out find deals or leads with regards to deals and give them to other investors. A bird doggie gets from $500 to $3000 dollars depending on the put up. Make sure that you have a bird dog contract signed with the purchasers saying that if you find them and deal and they order it that you get paid a certain amount of money. Being a bird canine helps you to build credibility with the investor and they are more likely to trainer you if you have something to offer them. If you would like to contact others with a question go to my web site Big Sky Place Solutions LLC. 7. Your Real Estate Team Building a simple yet effective team can make your life as a real estate investor a lot easier. You may be only one person and cannot do everything or possibly be an expert in every aspect of real estate investing. Going at a venture alone can become one of the most frustrating experiences you will ever come across. Many people have become frustrated and quite real estate investing as they quite simply try and juggle too many things. Make sure that when putting an important team together you provide everyone with win-win chances. When someone knows that working with you is going to make individuals money they will put you as a higher priority on the list. But you have to prove it to them that you are bona fide. People to have on your real estate investing team include o Real Estate Agents ( find the top agent for volume of revenues in your area and other agents who work with real estate investors) u Real Estate appraisers (find an appraiser that has done a handful of hundred jobs or more and make sure they carry flaws and omissions insurance) o Real estate contractors (good rehabilitation crews that can get the job done in a timely manner, have 3-5 crews as well as on every deal get 3 estimates done. Wish for referrals from them and make sure they are licensed) o Real estate attorneys (every investor needs an attorney, they can help to protect your own assets, make sure you find one that works with investors) o A home management company (can manage your properties and will grant you leads on property they are managing that might come up just for sale) o Title companies (take care of the legalised process and make sure there are no liens against the place you are buying, choose one that does hundreds of closings the year) o Home inspectors(charge about $400 but will give a great inspection and could save you thousands in the long run) o And your Mentor All of these people can help you in various aspects of real estate investing. You might find that there are a couple others that are ideas to your business but this is just a list of a few. 8. Just Do it There is no better phrase out there then JUST SIMPLY DO IT! Once you have learned all you can networked with buyers in Billings and learned real estate investing strategies nothing left to do but get your feet wet. There is no more effective learning tool out there then doing a deal. Once you have accomplished that first deal you will know what to expect and find out that should be not as hard as you thought it would be. You will have learned everything you did right and what was frustrating. Take that feel and ask yourself what would have made it run smoother. Put on that to your next deal. Then the next deal could be easier and it keeps getting easier as you go. I'm going to say that every deal is different from the last but who what makes this business fun. You have to be creative and always keep regarding learning and growing with your business. The average person never purposes what they learn. Don't be average apply your understanding. When going out and doing your first deal act like you will have done 1000's of deals. The fastest way to transformation a habit is to act like it is true. Five house keys for success 1 . Specialized Knowledge 2 . Tools of any professional 3. Have the mindset of a winner 4. Guides 5. Money and the knowledge of leveraging it (you do not have to have millions to invest in real estate, there are many strategies out there to try other people's money, or no money at all) It is going to conclude this article about getting started in real estate shelling out. I hope this gave you some ideas about how you can get began. I didn't give you any strategies at this point but seek some in upcoming articles. These are simple steps you can use to start learning. If you read this article thank you for listening.

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breezethegame · 5 years

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Dev Log #1-ish?

Seeing how I missed like two weeks of mini blog posts, I’m deeming this one an actual “Devlog” (fanfare and such yada yada). I'm just going to call it a Dev Log.

So much has gone on the last few weeks that I’m struggling to piece it all together, so here is an attempt:

Computer Adventures:

So, I don’t haven’t built a dev machine from the ground up for years now, (maybe since college?) and typically just upgrade parts as I see fit (graphics card, ram, processor, etc).

Well, my motherboard has been giving me problems for close to a year now, where it occasionally decides “yeah, don’t really care about your boot device today”, as well as other miscellaneous things that required me to do things like removing the CMOS battery or main drive. I was also running out of upgrade options, so I got a bit fed up and decided it might be time to replace it.

I wasn't going to be cost-effective to get another LGA1150 board and CPU, and I try to build computers with future-proofing in mind. I was also looking to get a smaller case too. I already had a nice GPU (GTX 1070) that I got a couple years ago before cryptocurrency “did the thing” and graphics card's prices got ridiculous, so didn’t have to worry about replacing that.

Ultimately, I decided to do a "completely new" build.

I’ve been building computers for friends and family for many years, so I literally woke up the next day and said, “I’m about to build this thing blind”.

Well, kinda learned the hard way of the hassle of going at it that way (along with committing a couple noobish mistakes)...

Shopping Time!

Lesson 1: Double check store inventory before heading to a store that's 20 miles away

Well, I choose the nearest Fry's Electronics (it was Saturday, and I really wanted to get a machine built the same day). I get there and start looking for all of the cases and motherboards (severally disappointed that they only had one Micro ATX board in stock, something I was looking to get for the more compact build, but not as restrictive as a Mini-ITX, which they had several of). Impatient as ever, I decided I was going to pick it up.

While looking at other things, I hear another customer talking to sales rep, and the rep mentions that they don’t have a certain CPU in stock. After listening even more (I’m noisy, sorry), he mentions that they have NO Intel CPUs in stock. I decided that I had to get in on this convo.

He informs up that as of late, their store may receive like, 10 at a time, and also mentions that their other location doesn’t have any either (both of these locations are 20+ miles away from me in Dallas).

I also find out that they don’t have the specific ram I was looking for either (I ended up getting something a little pricier). He ends up informing me that the Micro Center 10 minutes away from where we were should have some CPUs.

So I end up at the Micro Center and they did have the CPUs, as well as a case that caught my attention. They also had a lot of other nice things too! Kind of wished I would have known to go to Micro Center first, despite it being much farther from home.

Building Time!?

Lesson Two: Get a head-start of figuring out your plan for wire management and how pieces will fit in your new case

I got home and was ready to build. I spent a lot of time trying to get the interior wire management together since it’s a much smaller case than my last one. I ended up spending a couple of hours getting it just right (I don’t intend to go back into this machine once it’s complete since I’m nearly maxing it out spec wise for now), before moving out to everything else.

Getting my old water-cooling radiator in was a bit tough (a very tight squeeze), but after that, adding in the ram, etc was a Breeze.

Hours went by, I installed Windows, software, etc…

I go to shut it down (after having done several restarts for the software installs prior), and it doesn’t want to power off. After 10 minutes of waiting, I manually power it off. Whatever, I’m super tired at this point.

The next day (Last Sunday), I’ve encountered several other smaller issues. Updating the BIOS didn’t help either. Great…

Okay, Building Time For Real

Lesson 3: Kinda make sure things boot up and work before you get too early to clean/tighten things down in your build

After taking the whole thing apart, I ended up swapping out that mobo for another of the same kind (since Frys didn’t have any others), but then ended up ordering different board on Amazon. So waited another day or so and the new board arrived (it’s now Tuesday evening).

I rewired/rebuilt the computer once again, installed the software, etc. I spent most of Wednesday day checking in with the team and catching up with emails and such. Then Thursday as I was beginning to do some work, I noticed that the computer was saying that my Windows wasn’t activated. I go to my Microsoft account to retrieve my key, and the page wouldn’t load to provide me the key and would only show the transaction.

Lesson 4: Make sure to keep your activation key(s) somewhere other than online/digital if you can

It’s super late and the option to speak to someone was obviously closed, but they had a chat option, so I reached someone through there. After back and forth for a while, and him remoting into the machine to check the activation status, he tells me that the key might not be showing up because it was an “upgrade”, so I would need to buy another copy of Windows 10 again.

Lesson 5: Tell "Aaron" from Microsoft no over and over, and don't fall for possibly sketchy things like sales pitches that come out of nowhere

I originally bought Windows Home and upgraded it to Pro on the same day back in 2015, so I told him that and he kept insisting that I buy Windows 10 again. I refused and told him that I wouldn’t and that I’d take care of this in the morning, and he then offered that I could pay a smaller fee to reactivate my Windows 10, but it would be a one time fee of like, $40. (I refused again).

When I go to end the remote session, he then informs me that he “Really wants to help me out” and ends up activating it anyway. (This whole thing seemly suspicious, I ended up recording it). I watched him activate Windows for over 10 minutes through some manual process (it's almost 2am, and I had work in the morning). He eventually finishes and thanks/apologies. Not sure why I even had to go through all that, but whatever...

I ended up spending Friday wrapping up installs and doing a fresh system backup afterward, before moving along with pulling down the Breeze project from source control, and reminding myself of where I left off…

Anyway, long story short, I tried to get a system built in a day, and it ends up taking almost a week!

Okay, but did you get any dev done these last two weeks?

Yeah, somehow!

Health Bar and Health System:

First thing the team and I did was evaluate a few things that are critical, but we’ve been bouncing back and forth on: The Health System

(WIP of a concept we're working on for his health bar)

The reason for this is mostly for game balancing purposes:

Is this a game that focuses on having Breeze (the player) overwhelm his opponents with an array of abilities (think Devil May Cry/Bayonetta, Kingdom Hearts, God of War?)

Or is this a game where Breeze must focus on finding openings to deal damage and avoid an onslaught of danger (think Hollow Knight, Ori, Megaman, pretty much most NES/SNES platformers)

Game design… is hard at times. Sometimes you think something will work well in theory, but when you get down into the specifics, you begin to question how certain things will balance out.

You’d think something like designing a health bar isn’t too trivial, until you realize that the Health bar represents the player’s health, and the player’s health influences the character’s survivability, which is then tied to other factors: what options does the player have to “survive” and what threatens that?

Anyway, not going to get too deep into that because I lack the PhD.

Basically, there was a bit of a rift in the UI design process that led to really evaluating game design items, and I’ve been working towards seeing what Breeze’s options are and how to limit them in areas, or how I can build the world and it’s inhabitants in a way that will make this all work out.

It’s not going to be something that will likely be answered quickly, but nevertheless, that’s Game Design™ sometimes...

Frame Data:

[Insert Craig of the Creek frame data meme here]

I used to have a really convoluted way of tackling this in which I would have events in the animation that if given an ID, it will look for a set of “Frame Data” and then look for a specific frame and then load that information up.

It would then pass that frame information into the active hitbox and if something is in it, math and physics and stuff would happen.

I didn’t change this up too much, but I did reduce the setup process by allowing you to just drop the FrameData right into the frame of the animation (no more extra array and ID lookup stuff!)

New Particles:

We’ve got new particles! There’s one for jumping/landing/dashing dust, as well as one for wall sliding.

In the last update, I added a feature that generates “points” at the edges of a character’s collider box (as well as other “checks”), so this helped in making sure that the particles are created in the right place. This was especially challenging with the wall sliding particle.

Also, with the wall sliding particle, I needed to implement a way to have a “looping” particle effect, as well as making sure the particle effect follows Breeze as he’s moving down the wall

Developing Sprite Model Sheets

We've got models sheets completed for just about all of the cast members, though, since there's several artists on the project, as well as animators (including I), I wanted to get some sheets together that would work as a base for animators to use, and to eliminate elements that aren't needed in the sprites (minor details that would be seen in promotional art or more detailed art in general), as well as get a proper size for the characters in-game.

Misc. Features

I’ve done various other quality of life code changes to make it easier to do certain things, like creating new attacks, making the screen pause/slow-mo when Breeze changes forms, and updated my Debugging Manager so that I can hide/show certain debug messages.

I’ve also been working on a RoomManager, and writing features to look handle what happens when the player enters a room (like starting a cutscene, showing UI, spawning things, etc)

I’ve also been looking into updating the game’s Music Handler, mostly for how to handle looping a song after it's intro plays, as well as finding ways to add effects to tracks!

Other Breeze things:

I’ve been working on getting shirts done through Teespring, and I would have loved to show off some of the shirts I ordered, but Teespring shipped them using DHL, and somewhere between DHL and USPS, my shirts have been sitting in shipping limbo for 5-6 days, despite being like a city or two away from me… Maybe tomorrow ~

Also, working on a couple of enamel pin designs! Haven’t figured out the maker yet, but designs are coming along nicely!

Quick Test Build Coming

So, a week or two ago, I planned on releasing a quick build for the Drop Tier backers and above. There was a lot of features and such that I wanted to get done... before my computer stuff happened. Our goal was to have one out before the end up March, so....

I’m going to release one anyway. Maybe tomorrow?

I’ll be creating a post for those in the eligible tiers once I’m done compiling/building it! Please keep in mind that this build will be very minimal and exists to test out controls/physics. I wanted to make a strong first impression, but I'll chill on the whole "striving for perfection" thing for now!

Also, I'm on vacation this week, so I'll be cramming on Breeze stuff this whole week to make up for lost time!

#Breeze in the Clouds #game development #Indiegame #patreon #Breeze #sodo

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years

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They are few and far between but on occasion you encounter detractors of DeMatteis’ masterpiece, Kraven’s Last Hunt.

One of the more frequently voiced of these criticisms I’ve personally encountered is the idea that Kraven got to win, that Spider-Man never got to settle the score.

This is simply a gross misunderstanding and shallow read of the story though.

Now is it true Kraven got to die happy and as far as he was concerned proved himself superior to Spider-Man? Yeah it is.

Is it also true that Peter had to live with the scars Kraven inflicted upon him, including PTSD and the knowledge that Kraven could’ve truly killed him had he so chosen? Yeah it is.

But nevertheless Kraven absolutely did not win. He lost. He lost BIG time.

Context time. From pretty much the opening pages of KLH, Kraven is painted as a tortured melancholic figure. We also learn he survived the Russian Revolution of 1917 and see clearly that he is a man of wealth who has managed to extend his life well beyond it’s natural limits via his jungle herbs, potions, etc.

His whole scheme, which he achieves, is to shoot Spidey with a drug that will simulate death for 2 weeks, bury him alive and in the interim not only impersonate him but outdo him at being Spider-Man, specifically by both outright murdering and defeat single handily a foe whom Peter could not defeat alone, namely Vermin.

He achieves all this and thus has restored his particular brand of honour and finally satisfied he kills himself.

Also throughout the story he refers to Spider-Man as ‘The Spider’ and evokes the idea that he is the personification of some larger than life Spider deity or creature, whom he also blames for destroying his family back in mother Russia.

For Peter’s part after he is buried alive and begins to regain consciousness the thought of his new wife Mary Jane compels him ‘back to life’ and to escape his grave. He emotionally reunites with MJ and after apprehending Vermin swings home in the bright daylight to joyfully reunite with her again.

KLH to the shallow reader can be deceptive since it jumps between different viewpoints for the four central characters, Spider-Man, Kraven the Hunter, Vermin and Mary Jane.

Whenever this happens we are very much in their heads. So it can be easy to misread Kraven’s happiness and contentment at the point of his suicide ad a victory. In fact this had the result of at the time making many readers believe that the story was glorifying suicide.

However the one and only reason that the suicide is framed that way is because we are inside Kraven’s head at that point.

But the reader has the benefit of having a greater scope and perspective than any of the characters in the story.

And with that greater perspective we can clearly see that Kraven...is nuts.

More importantly, because Kraven is nuts he is also...fundamentally wrong.

As far as his emotional satisfaction is concerned his entire plan hinges upon two factors:

a) That Spider-Man is some larger than life entity

b) That Spider-Man is a cruel hunter like him

Because of this perspective Kraven believed that he a mortal burying such a larger than life entity and outdoing him by brutally beating down criminals and Vermin was a grand victory.

Except...it isn’t. At all. Because Kraven is entirely wrong about who and what Spider-Man is.

Spider-Man is just...a man. And a compassionate and caring man at that.

He isn’t a hunter like Kraven, he seeks out criminals not to prove his mettle or for the thrill of the hunt. He does it to save innocent lives and protect people.

Kraven’s misunderstanding is continuously reinforced even by the fact that he constantly refers to Spider-Man as ‘The Spider’, as in he always omits the ‘Man’ half of his name.

Not only do we readers know who Spider-Man is from countless stories about him but the story itself outright states Kraven has got it wrong. In Web of Spider-Man #32/KLH Part 4 Peter has a fever dream where he is literally a spider and refers to himself as ‘the Spider’. In said dream he is killed but emerges as the human Peter Parker who goes on to state:

I’m Peter Parker. That’s all I ever was; all I ever will be...You’ve murdered a mask but you haven’t murdered a man...All these years you’ve misunderstood me. You thought I was something larger than life...Idiot! There is no Spider... There’s just me! Just a normal guy...

That’s right, the story literally calls Kraven an idiot. His entire victory is predicated upon...a huge mistake.

He kills himself for no reason!

But it goes deeper than that.

Kraven has wealth, power, a luxurious home, was lucky enough to survive a horrible purge of his people and live with youth and vitality long after he naturally should have died.

Peter in contrast is a man who is cash strapped, lived with plenty of strife and suffering and is all too mortal beyond his super powers. He is keenly aware that death could be around the corner on any day or that someday he might be unlucky.

In fact in ASM #40 (one of DeMatteis’ earliest Spider-Man stories btw) Peter states he isn’t afraid to die, being more concerned of what his death might do to Aunt May.

With all this in mind Spider-Man living with the knowledge that could have killed him isn’t really a victory for him. Hell, Kraven could have killed him back in ASM #47, prior to KLH probably the most famous Kraven story ever.

More than this though, Kraven by all accounts had the means and privileges to live a happier and more fulfilled life than most people, certainly Peter.

But he didn’t. He lived a longer, more empty life that he filled with meaningless actions that helped nobody. His entire value system was crooked because he himself was twisted.

Peter meanwhile lived a life of meaning. He made the world a better place, he was capable of doing more than beating Vermin down but actually helping him to heal as a person and ultimately live more happily and with more contentment than Kraven ever could.

This in particular is symbolized by his relationship with MJ. Kraven died mistakenly happy alone in the dark at the end of a gun, while Peter got to go on and live in the bright morning sun with his wife.

This was a point just reinforced in the sequel to KLH, Soul of the Hunter where we learn Kraven’s soul as a result of his suicide was stuck tormented in limbo, requiring Peter’s forgiveness to move on to the after life.

Kraven lost.

Kraven destroyed himself.

Spider-Man didn’t need to beat him half to death to balance the scales.

There was no score to settle because Peter won by just being himself and continuing to live on.

#Spider-Man #J.M. DeMatteis #kraven the hunter #sergei kravinoff #peter parker #vermin #mjwatsonedit #Mary jane watson Parker #Mary Jane Watson #mj watson

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thepacificationofhumanity-blog · 3 years

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WHAT IS RACISM? It is natural? Can you stop it? (Enjoy the free read) The following material is copyright protected content but you can feel free to share it as long as it is connected to the original post. The content is from the book “THE PACIFICATION OF HUMANITY: Exposing the ideological contagions” by Emmanuel S. John Chapter Nine DISTORTION More people more problems Many people struggle with the use of language and almost as many people struggle with the constructs of race. There may be a connection. We have become increasingly more intolerant of one another regardless of our viewpoints. People carry around more anger than at any point in human history: They are quicker to find differences than similarities. What if I told you that "stereotyping" is a natural occurrence in the human animal? That it is impossible for the human animal not to profile or stereotype? Some of you are doing it right now. Probably stuffing me into a little box labeled he's in "the ____ group!" Does my claim that we can't stop it surprise you? Would you automatically think I was going to justify hatred? No, you wouldn't dare suggest that stereotyping is unnatural while at the same time stereotyping me. That would be crazy! Relax, talking about it will not make us racist or make things worse for the whole world even though that is what you have been programmed to believe via the cultural bullies. What I am suggesting is that you've been tricked by something or someone for no other reason than to acquire your emotional support or allegiance to an ideology; maybe to distract you from some other issue of the day that they don't want you focusing on. Stereotyping at its core is a natural occurrence that is seldom about race. It's about a little, forgotten phenomena called "in-grouping and out-grouping." This Out-grouping occurs all the time. It occurs every second in nature and for this reason it is natural; it's an ancient survival tool that all animals use. Monkey tribes do it all the time. Antelope and other animals like zebras rarely pack together unless they're all at the watering hole. Some behaviorists even suggest that similar looking horses will group together. Ever heard "like attracts like" or "birds of a feather flock together?" How come it is natural for animals but not for humans, who said so? Are we just that much more advanced? It is a part of human nature and humanity to in-group and out-group. How come they don't mention this stuff in school or on the evening news? Ask yourself why they don't educate young people about this very human trait? The answer is simple; they are using our emotions about race to polarize us. It's not an honest mistake. We have purposefully been given half the story in order to fulfill an agenda; to win our allegiance and to gain our support on an issue. In Grouping & Out-Grouping If we put 10 people who are exact copies of one another in the same room they will still eventually sub-group according to personal preferences. If I had 10 black men born in Africa, into the same tribe, same IQ's, who ate all the same foods every day, with no media or favorite stores or music they will still sub-group. Some would be better hunters, some leaders, some farmers, some followers, some will like the color red while others will like the color blue. Many would argue together over all the above. Do you see my point? Hopefully that's simple enough. People naturally group together; social animals do it even more often. That is what social animals do because like attracts like. Man cannot separate himself from or intellectualize himself out of his limbic system functioning (the part of his brain where fight and flight reside, the survival mechanisms). Grouping is a part of nature. It is left over from the herd and pack mentalities we once had as cave dwellers just trying to survive. You can't outthink this part of the brain and you can't legislate it away. No matter how alike a group may start out, eventually some of the above tribe members will get together and plan the hunt and call themselves the hunters and others will manage the farming and call themselves farmers. The farmers may even start to criticize the hunters when they came back empty-handed etc. Then there is gender grouping; we all know that women and men group themselves up at parties. This is in-grouping and out-grouping and it is not a gender issue either. Racism does not begin with race; it's about out-grouping and in-grouping as a survival strategy; as a way to assess safety issues and limit threats. This part of the brain does not use logic, rationale or memory; only conditioning. Any suggestion that we have evolved past this would suggest that grouping is a product of logic, which it is not; it's instinctual. It is possible to be conditioned to hate or fear a particular group, but that only lasts as long as the conditioning continues: As long as people are still being reminded of their conditioning. A black kid taught to hate whites will eventually change his mind after some exposure to good white people and less exposure to haters. He is actually more likely to group up with people from the same socio-economic class before deciding on race; why, because this group will survive in a familiar way. Hence, sub-grouping is natural and perhaps even necessary. The more obvious the differences, the more quickly grouping or separation occurs. Out-grouping occurs with age, gender, height and race, but it's still only about grouping and not about hate. If I brought 4 men in from another tribe (same race) it could even start a war. War is a major sub-grouping event usually created by more obvious differences, but often only over competing ideologies and perspectives. The point here is not about racism. No matter how hard we try, it is impossible for any society that embraces different cultures into its ranks to not have cultural (group) separations. Unfortunately, there are people who ignore this simple truth. They believe that you can change and control your instincts. They are called ideologues. They make ideology reality and then demand that because they can think something is real that it must be real and that out-thinking nature is possible. We have to adapt to nature because we can't out-think it. Nature is not wrong it is natural. In the long run Nature always wins! Trying to ignore nature is a form of an ideological contagion that suggests out-grouping is wrong; an ideology most commonly spread by institutions of "higher" learning. These self-described intellectuals are the owners of the biggest echo chamber on Earth. Most of the really farfetched lunacies in society come from our college campuses where academics (People who don't usually have real jobs or live in the real world) live in their little bubbles of bad ideas that have been handed down and passed around from the prior generation of academic elitists and ideologues. They're protected from reality and nature. Academia is one of the most strictly regulated and controlled echo chambers in modern society. A place where is has become common practice to only hire other people to work in the system who pledge themselves to progressive liberal thought. Living in these ideological echo chambers makes them delusional (a form of mental illness) because they don't operate on reality or facts. They are very self-deluded people who believe that if enough people feel (Think) the way they feel (think) then it must be real. The ideologues are the people who literally wrote the books on "I feel that…" and "yeah, but no,,," Their numbers and their influence are so vast that they lend a faux credibility to their unproven ideals. These people are responsible for keeping hate and division alive because they bully everyone around them. No one is allowed to object out loud so their self-deceptions fester and grow. Their echo chamber even provides sustenance for the cultural bully. They perpetuate division by choice, so they believe that division is a choice and not an aspect of nature. PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE BOOK. I SKIP AHEAD IN THE CHAPTER HERE RACISM Real Racism The real definition of racism is of no interest to the Ideologues. In truth "Racism" only exists when a good, service or opportunity is denied because of race. Thinking about denying someone a job based on race is not illegal or considered to be committing an act of racism. For racism to exist the job must actually be denied for the reason of race; regardless of the rationale. Simple test; Am I denying this person something because of race. If you deny him the job for punctuality issues in the past it's not racism, no matter how many white people work for you. Speaking about another race in a negative manner is not Racism, that’s why they came up with the term "hate speech." The problem with the term "hate speech" is that speech is supposed to be free and that is guaranteed by the 1st Amendment. They have resorted back to the word racism because it still has a lot of emotion attached to it. The race baiters use race to coerce you into silence. They would like you to think that speaking about race is just as bad as committing racism. Many northern black voters have never been in the South, yet they are all sure that everyone "down there" is filled with hate for them. (Recall the emotional aspect of polarization and how the Nazis used unrealistic fear to motivate support.)(SEE EARLIER CHAPTER) The left-leaning ideologues would be in major trouble if the religious Northern black vote unified with the Black and White religious Southern voters. It would end the Democratic Party. For this reason they are desperate to Keep Hate Alive! Their real motive is to engulf you in their argument and to get you to join them in their redefining of the word. The less you think, the more power and control they have; in a perverse ironic way, this assimilation of blacks as democrats is a form of ownership and slavery to their cause. The origins of the word Racism is not as old as you might think (which should give you pause). Its evolution had nothing to do with people of African descent. Leon Trotsky’s 1930 work, "The History of the Russian Revolution" was the first time that the term was coined. The word came from a Latin transliteration of the word he used in that book. “Racistov” essentially meaning “racists.” Trotsky was the cofounder and first leader of the infamous Red Army. Interesting enough, he was a Jewish man in a pre-WWII Russian State. He co-led the 1917 revolution alongside Vladimir Lenin as Commissar of War in the new Soviet government. He helped defeat forces opposed to Bolshevik control. As the Soviet government developed, he engaged in a power struggle against none other than Joseph Stalin who had had him previously exiled. It had nothing to do with people of African descent and in fact, it was a reference to a notion that Jewish people were not Caucasian. That is the original meaning of the term. Trotsky was arguing that Jews were Caucasians; just like Russians. Jews were being denied equal opportunity and access. In 1970's America the term shifted to "Denying the access to a job, to food, to shelter, to opportunity; or to equal treatment based on race alone." The co-opting of the word was initiated because it was the same thing that was happening to the Jewish people in Russia. That is the original and still the modern, standard for defining racism. Did they teach you that in school? Of course not, it wouldn't serve their agenda so they are trying to expand it to mean more than it does. Words and Perspectives! (see earlier chapters) Every other non-racial factor entered into the decision to deny someone access to something diminishes the impact of racism. The race that is "in power" is not relevant; it does not require the racist to be white. Slavery is not necessarily racism either. There have been many cultures that have enslaved their own race. People in the Middle East were the first to hold slaves and usually of the same race. The Muslims were the first outsiders to enter Africa and enslave black Africans. Black Africans (not all Africans are black, but you knew that too right) learned that if they converted to the Muslim faith they could not be held as slaves. According to Mohamed, one Muslim is not allowed to enslave another Muslim; hence the birth of the Black Muslims. The Black American Muslim is actually celebrating a heritage of slavery by being Muslim. While the faith freed them from slavery, it mandated or enslaved them into the religion/ideology. All this occurred long before the US was even conceived of. This information is not hard to find. SHOCKER ALERT!!! The first person in the US to legally own another person was a black man named Anthony Johnson in 1654. He sued and won when a North Hampton court allowed him to indefinitely retain and keep a black indentured servant named John Casor. Casor had left Johnson's keeping to be a paid servant/employee of a white man. Johnson sued in court for the return of his possession, Mr. Casor. His victory created the landmark case for ownership of a human being in the US colonies in 1655. Mr. Casor and those who followed, were the first property that a black man could actually own; yep, another black man. You can be certain that social order deemed that if a black man could own a black man, then a white man could own one too. Why didn't they teach us this in school? I'll tell you why, because it doesn't fit their narrative or their agenda. Leaving out important facts like this is evidence that agendas are at work in the US public education system. This is revisionist history. Remember, polarization requires an emotional reaction with a solution in place for you to choose. (See earlier chapters) It requires a victim. The black man can't be a victim of the white man if a black man fought for it and set the precedent. Ideology is not routed in facts, but instead in the fantasy of how things "should" be, not how things actually are. In the worlds of the ideologues, the means to the end are not relative to the greater good of serving an agenda. If I get you FALSELY outraged, you then turn to me for more information. Bam!!! I then have control, power and trust. Many of the cities struggling in America today are actually run by black people yet they use racism as an emotional bone of contention or as an original cause for the problem. A black-run city can commit racism by denying Caucasians, Asians or Hispanic peoples certain jobs in that city government by simply favoring the black candidate over any others. That's real racism and it happens all the time, but no one says a thing and there is no law enforcement to stop it. If it's just their friend that they hire, then that is called Cronyism (no matter the race). Add a dose of racism on top of some cronyism and you will not be getting the best person for the job. Cronyism is a major problem in many of America's largest cities and institutions, including the Federal Government. Additionally, not advertising a job because you don't want another race to apply is racism (denial of access) and that is why many jobs in the form of government grants are required to be advertised for a set period of time. This, however, does not affect the hiring preferences. Ask yourself the following: Why are these major black run cities not required to hire based on population percentages to prove their fair treatment in regards to race and to guard against racism? White-run cities are required to maintain certain equivalents based on race. Why should cities like Baltimore, Detroit, LA, Chicago and even New York (and others) not reflect their populations in their hiring practices? If the candidate chosen is similarly qualified to the rest of the applicants and then race determines the choice that is Institutionalized Racism. The ideologues believe that if they can keep the populace convinced that racism is a White/Black thing, then no one will even look behind the ugly curtain of what real racism in America looks like. FYI - Choosing by religion is bigotry or anti-Semitism The person selected because of race suffers subconsciously regarding their own self-worth because they will always have to question whether their position was earned, deserved or instead token. While people being chosen for an affirmative-action position may like the money, they will always question their real qualifications; their own sense of accomplishment will always be personally suspect. Affirmative action robs each and every candidate of their real sense of capability, regardless of how qualified they are. In much the same way as when we elect a president who is black, he will always question whether he got the votes because he was the right person or because he was black; or even a little black. Any person chosen by race will still wonder if s/he could have attained the position if the playing field was truly equal. More than ninety percent of blacks voted for Obama, many came out to vote for that reason alone. They said it out loud; that was racist. Sure, they wanted to help elect the first black president but that is racist too, because they chose by race. Many said they didn't care; that they were voting for him because he was black and it was justice for them; rational to commit a racist act. He was chosen by race; quite openly I might add. Many white people also voted for him because he was black. They chose by race. Is that racism? Is there a difference to you? What if I voted for the white guy; not because I dislike blacks but because I favor the white guy? Suddenly something changes doesn't it? That is racism and this is critical thinking. It's all an act I chose the topic of race because it is a good example of how modern media and certain segments of society, including the educational system, seem invested in your belief that racism is only white to black, that is alive and well. They want you to think that it somehow rests in people's hearts and not in their actions. The fact is that racism was decreasing so dramatically that it became necessary to expand the definition in order to keep the emotional reactivity and victimization alive. Now, if you even "think" about race you're a racist. Convenient, but not true! While some of this confusion is ignorance-based the majority of it is intentional and usually brought on by people in the background who you never see. Spurred on and given life by people who work in safe zones and live in gated communities; the same people who grab their purses tighter and lock their car doors when they see a person of another race walking down the street toward them. Their often faux outrage about race is usually an overcompensation and an attempt to mask their real perspectives about equality. In fact, one might question their supposed need to represent the black race, as if the black race can't take care of or represent itself; that it needs them. Unfortunately, many people in power in modern society have been affected by revisionist history. Proof of Revisionist history is in the mere truth that you were not aware of some vital facts in the history of human ownership in America, in slavery or of the real origins and meanings of the word racism. Words, definitions and perspectives. I encourage you to become attentive to current efforts to revise history by entities that only provide examples of events that support only their agendas. What many people call "Racism" is actually bigotry and prejudice; not illegal. Hatred is not illegal. If it were we'd all have a record or be in jail! Trying to make hatred illegal makes about as much sense as trying to make love mandatory. Trying to stop hatred with legislation will only make more hatred as it breeds resentment. Trying to force love will only make it harder to find, because love is supposedly unconditional. Control is an illusion that most often results in catastrophe. Allowing people to be themselves always results in more Harmony! One more brief consideration: If a white man hates a black man he is called a racist, yet ask that same black man if he hates any black men and like any other race, he will confirm that he currently does or has in the past. I don't like all white people, so I don't expect people of other races to like all white people. I can dislike a Chinese man and not be racist. Just like Martin Luther King, I judge a man based on the content of his character. I judge character without pause and without caving into hateful labels and coercion. If you said, I hate that white guy, I certainly wouldn't suggest you are racist because you hate one white guy. I would not call you racist because you used the identifier of white. It's no different than that tall guy, it's descriptive not racist. I wouldn't think you hate all tall people, only that one. My point is that you have been duped!!! Played!!! You have been co-opted into serving an agenda you don't support. Are you mad yet? Yes/No? At me or at your school system? Good! In the next chapter I will explain how they did it to you and how to avoid it in the future. THEPACIFICATIONOFHUMANITY.com

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daleisgreat · 3 years

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Dale’s Top 31 Gaming Experiences of 2020

Welcome to the 2021 installment for my ranking top gaming moments and experiences of the previous year, regardless of what year the game was released in! Besides ranking my the games themselves, This encompasses all videogame-adjacent experiences aside such as movies, board games, accessories and hardware related items and possibly more! This will be a lengthy read so I suggest right now inputting ‘Ctrl + D’ to bookmark this page, and/or make use of a handy ‘read later’ app like Pocket. This year’s recommended background reading music is a soundtrack I recently got clued into from the MojoMenace community in the form of the score for Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst you can check out by click or pressing here. If you somehow manage to want more of these behemoth reads, than I will point you to my previous year-end recaps here: 2019 - 2018 - 2017 - 2016 To assist with this read, here are some in-article page anchors to instantly jump around to bookmarks on the rankings! CHAPTERS Part 1 – Rankings 31 through 25 Part 2 – Rankings 24 through 18 Part 3 – Rankings 17 through 12 Part 4 – Rankings 11 through 7 Part 5 – Rankings 6 through 4 Part 6 – Rankings 3 through 1 PART 1 – Rankings 31 through 25 31) The Worst Wrestling Game of all Time! For a project I will detail later on I had to relive the abyss of wrestling games that is WCW Nitro on the N64. It is a port of the PSone version, and it was as awful as I remembered first experiencing it two decades prior. If you want to experience broken controls, insufferable slowdown, and a flatout painful experience of a game, then Nitro is where it is at. Instead of playing the games, I will instead opt to link you to this clip of the PSone version because it has these so-bad-it’s-good FMVs of the wrestlers trash talking on the character select screen.

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30) The Remake Frothingly Demanded for Years….Delivered!

I was ecstatic to see the Final Fantasy VII fanbase finally get the modern-gen remake they have been craving for years. I only consider myself a mild fan because I started that game several times, and only progressed shortly past Midgar in my farthest attempt. Through Midgar is what the Remake covers though, and going by all the coverage I have seen, it looks like Square shocked the doubters and nailed it by expanding on that section of the original game with a ton of new content and storylines to flesh out that iconic setting and cast. I played the demo and loved the stunningly overhauled visuals and combat. One day I will play the full game, but for the time being I will be sufficed with my former podcast co-hosts’ cutouts of the cinematics for most of the game. 29) FMV-Camp Returns! A couple years back on a Game Informer stream they jokingly started playing a modern day Sega CD FMV-style choose your own adventure game, Late Shift. It was a throwback to those camply FMV games that dominated the SegaCD. However, this one actually had solid production values and all around acting for an indie release, and the Game Informer crew slowly got into it as it went along. Seeing them navigate through the first chunk of the game inspired me purchase it, and I finally got around to throwing it in this year and is it a breezy game to get through in under three hours. The storyline branches off in all kinds of directions based on your choices, so I played through it twice and got pretty different endings both times in this game that sees an overnight car park clerk getting forced into a heist job against his own will. The developers at Wales Interactive went on to make a couple more games in this FMV style like The Complex, The Shapeshifting Detective and The Bunker, and I feel they are on the right path with how much I got into Late Shift so I wound up putting all three of those other games on my radar!

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28) Hey, Watch me Ollie!

The emotional nostalgia burst that poured down upon me within minutes of firing up Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 was insane. Almost instantly within loading up my first two minute run I could tell the game just felt like how I remembered the awesome PSone game I played to death. Having almost all the memorable songs from the soundtracks of the first two games also incredibly helps. I believe it was intentional on the developers to have the very first song to boot up when playing being “Superman.” This near perfect HD remake/update of the first two games erases the poor attempt done on the 360 and PS3 several years prior. This would have ranked much higher if I had a chance to put more time into this. 27) Unexpected Carnage Following up on last year’s entry where I made the retro purchase of the Jaguar, I had one more session with Atari’s “64-bit” feline with my friend Derek. One Jaguar game I was eager to get some two-player co-op in was with its version of Total Carnage. It was the “bigger and better” sequel to Smash TV, another arcade classic I cherished. Never playing the sequel though I was eager to start it up with Derek, but only upon a few minutes in we realized this was a grave mistake due to the Jaguar port being rough around the edges and only limited continues allowed which resulted in us making very little progress. Before Derek left I remembered I owned Midway Arcade Treasures on the 360, which had Total Carnage in its line-up. We popped that in, and mercifully that fun-yet-brutal version of the game allowed infinite continues and we absolutely capitalized on that option and proceeded to knock out a huge chunk of the game. It mixes up the room-style gameplay of Smash TV and opens it up into levels that scroll up like Ikari Warriors and Mercs, but with that same style of over-the-top action. 26) Unleashing Destruction in the Streets and Rings

At the beginning of the year longtime friend Steve and I had a fun night planned catching a minor league hockey game an hour out of town, but of course a blizzard spoiled that for us by closing the highways. Luckily we had a back-up plan of meeting up for a game night that included marching through the entire tag team championship mode of WWF WrestleFest and all of the arcade version of Final Fight. Steve also had the arcade follow-up to Saturday Night Slam Masters that never received a home release in North America in Ring of Destruction that we tore each other apart in. Finally, I demonstrated FirePro Wrestling World to Steve, and we busted out our vintage favorite football game, ESPN NFL 2K5. It was a hell of a game night, and thank goodness for back-up plans! 25) And the Keighley goes to….

The last few years I have been looking forward more and more to the end-of-the-year videogame award show Geoff Keighley puts on. His annual award showcase keeps improving each year, and has a far lower amount of compromises that the decade’s worth of VGAs on Spike had to endure. Each year Geoff keeps getting closer to that sweet balance of acceptance award speeches, game trailers/reviews and special live performances. He stepped up bigtime this year for not having a crowd in attendance, and I was dreading throughout the show for any one of this virtual award nominees to have an audio or video snafu at any moment, but luckily everything worked out. There were some impressive game reveals too with an intriguing teaser for a new Mass Effect game focusing on the original trilogy characters stealing the show. I have seen a notable contingent criticize Geoff for lack of focus on awards, but it seems almost right where it should be. He tried going all awards the first year he had control, but it was overkill and an insanely long show. Sure, there are spots that can use some tweaking, but for the most part The Game Awards I feel are a worthy end-of-year award show for the industry I have been enjoying for the past several years now. PART 2 – Rankings 24 through 18 24) Online Gaming Therapy The pandemic undeniably made 2020 a rut of a year for everyone. I miss meeting up indoors and hanging out with friends and family as much as the next person. I was able to do some alternate social distancing outdoor meet-ups with friends and family during the summer and fall, but North Dakota’s winter put a halt to that. What has significantly helped has been doing more online gaming than I usually do this year in general. I will cite a few more examples as you read on below, but I want to highlight this so I can be thankful to have a perfectly viable way to still game with friends and family during the pandemic. I have played a lot of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! online with my dad and brother this year. I love my game show videogame adaptations, but one quirk I want to point out in the Xbox One version of Jeopardy is that it does not have the option to traditionally input responses, and instead offers three multiple choice responses instead. I would call blasphemy on this, but there has been so many releases of Jeopardy! over the years that it was actually kind of a neat alternative way to play the classic game show……this time! 23) Love for Videogame Coffee Table Books This past year has seen a surge in videogame hardcover tomes that have been an indulgence of mine the past few years. It started with Pat Contri’s “Ultimate Nintendo” line dedicated to reviewing all the games on the NES & SNES. I have Kickstarted two similar anthology books this past year focused on the Dreamcast and Vita. The Dreamcast book is still in production, but I already received the Vita book in the mail, and a quick flip through of it already indicates it is an exhaustive look at the Vita’s library.

There have been a couple other books that are less all-encompassing and focus more on showcasing artwork based on the system with supplemental interviews with developers who worked on it. The two I have on those are based on Sega’s Genesis and Master System consoles. These are perfect coffee table books for friends and family to flip through, and a nice refresher on history to see how others have perceived and rated the games I grew up with. I also took advantage of the recent Humble Bundle charity offering that collected nearly 100 videogame-themed eBooks for around the suggested $35 donation. I need to one day get a viable tablet or eBook reader for all these. Any suggestions? When Pat Contri sent out a tweet last summer seeking additional writers to help with the upcoming N64 book of his Ultimate Nintendo line, I sent in a resume with my credentials and shortly after trading a few emails was welcomed onto the team! It has been a trip and a half revisiting N64 games I have not played in decades or had yet to discover until this project. As of this writing I have at least a couple hundred hours into the N64 games I am covering! That blurb for WCW Nitro to kick this year’s rankings off is just a teaser of what to expect to see in my full review of it in the book. So yeah, this project has been keeping me busy playing a lot of N64 this year, and I cannot wait to see the book in physical form! Be on the lookout on Pat Contri’s online storefront to order the forthcoming N64 book, and to also order the past NES & SNES books! 22) BOOK-SHAKA-LAKA! Reyan Ali’s book I had on pre-order for well over a year about NBA Jam and the creators from Midway did not disappoint. Here is my quick take on it from my Goodreads.com profile review….

NBA Jam by Reyan Ali My rating: 5 of 5 stars I had this book per-ordered for a while. Based on the amount of interviews conducted going into it and combined with it taking four years to compile I had high expectations going in. Ali did not disappoint with a quick, but thorough history on everything that lead up to NBA Jam, its breakthrough success in the arcades, at home and with the NBA players on the road and the many ups and downs with the franchise and publishers at Midway and Acclaim in the years that followed. Interviews from developers and NBA players are featured throughout the book that help paint a picture on every vital aspect of NBA Jam and why it became a hit in arcades and has a lasting impact to this day. The back third of the book touches on the other various iterations of NBA Jam and eventually the downfall of the original creators at Midway. Even being a fan of the game since it first debuted, I came out of this book learning plenty of new facts and insight from the creators and its many fans that I cannot help but give Ali's NBA Jam my highest recommendation. View all my reviews 21) Bite-Sized Gaming

I chose this spot to recognize the smaller indie Xbox One games I would warm up with for about 20-30 minutes before diving into a longer game with. Most, but not all of them were featured on Game Pass. Hyperdot was an intense little puzzler that I was really into until my reflexes were not fast enough for the later stages to keep the dot alive by avoiding all kind of spherical traffic before time expired. Ping Redux tested my billiards/geometry skills in order to get a pixel from one end of the level to the end. Clustertruck I once again put way too much time into this year, but THIS year I felt like I made legitimate progress on my truck platforming skills and have made it into final world of stages and cleared all the bonus winter and Halloween stages! It is addicting and frustrating in all the right ways! Definitely do not skip past this one on Game Pass!

Top Run is the first runner I invested serious time into since Jetpack Joyride. I would say it is still a few notches below that classic runner though because the grind for unlocks here is a bit much, but the neon pixel graphics and head-bopping 80s-synth score keeps me coming back! Finally, Night Call is a fascinating narrative mystery game where you are a taxi driver forced into undercover work to track down suspects for the police by using casual passenger chit-chat as a cover for interrogation. Very cool art style, and diverse range of quirky, deep, mysterious and alarming passengers had me revisiting more for the engaging dialogue and narration choices more than the mystery at large. 20) Hadoken 2020 Welcome to the fighting game section of the rankings, well save for but one other game I shall touch on later. As usual, I played a ton of online fighting games with my longtime online fighting buddy, Chris. We revisited a couple classics in 2020 that we ignored for far too long since our last go around in Tekken 7 and Soul Calibur VI, and it was a lot of fun trying out the season DLC passes for those games I completely forgot I purchased. Both Namco joints are a blast, and I regret not playing more of them during this generation. I got a chance to briefly dabble with a few SNK vintage re-releases in the King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown franchises courtesy of many physical releases from Limited Run Games. I need to make more time to come back to these gems!!! Retro Fighters is an online game accessory company I associate with their specialty retro fight pads, and I got a handful of them this past year-ish for Genesis, Dreamcast and Nintendo 64. I found myself a big fan of all three pads, especially the N64 pad now having a more traditional two-grip feel instead of its….unique…three grip setup from Nintendo. If you are unfamiliar with these guys, definitely give their website a perusal for some excellent retro controllers!

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Finally, I want to shout out Street Fighter V receiving its last major update in 2020, the “Champion Edition” that launched its final season of DLC, and saved me a lot of time grinding for in-game currency to unlock all past and future DLC characters and stages! Only had a chance to go to SFV a handful of times in 2020, but they were memorable sessions, and caught on video too! I keep neglecting PS4’s share video and editing software and finally took advantage of it by uploading one of my battles with Chris on my YouTube channel you can check out by click or pressing here. Another night I got together with a bunch of the fine folks from the MojoMenace/SupertheHardest podcast community for an epic SFV night and even though there were a couple of well-tuned SFV vets on there that dominated, we all still had a blast that evening! 19) Driving Games 2020

2020 was a weaker year for variety of racing games played compared to previous years. There were a couple smaller indie games that were part of my rotation with the nearly graphically blinding Music Racer that turns driving into a musical rhythm game and I miraculously did not endure a seizure with. The awesome Outrun-homage, Horizon Chase Turbo, received continued scattered play from me throughout the year. Super Night Riders is a fun little tribute to Hang-On which I nearly 100% its small slate of courses with the exception of a final endurance track which combines all the tracks in one continuous run and if a few collisions are made it is thus impossible to recover from. I revisited that last race far too frequently before ultimately taking a break from it. Rock ‘n Racing DX was a game I repeatedly saw for sale nearly every week on digital stores, but I was weary with it looking like a watered down version of Super Off Road. After finally chancing it off a $2 sale I can now confirm it is a bad controlling version of Super Off Road everyone should avoid and its muted beats definitely do not rock. V-Rally 4 was a free Xbox Games for Gold in 2020 that I had a blast tearing up the virtual dirt tracks with in this rally-sim! Monster Truck racing games continued with the latest Monster Jam game, Steel Titans. Still not a five star driving game by any means, but nowhere near as buggy and a big step-up from Crush It, which I will give credit to experienced driving game developer, Rainbow Studios now being behind the series.

Retrowave on Steam hit all the guilty pleasure 80s neon visuals and synth-wave musical vibes I am a fan of, but its slot/timing based gameplay did not gel with me. I put a little time into Sega Ages branded update of Virtua Racing on Switch. This is easily the best Virtua Racing has ever played and looked, and M2 implemented a slew of quality-of-life features to make this the definitive version of the game. Hot Shots Racing I played a few times off Xbox Game Pass and it tries to capture the early polygonal look and feel of Virtua Racing. Very nice homage that all Virtua Racing fans should seek out! I also played many hours of six N64 racing games for the forthcoming Ultimate Nintendo book so be on the lookout for that with my reviews for both Top Gear Rally games, Top Gear Overdrive, Re-Volt, Rally Challenge 2000 and Big Mountain 2000.

Finally, the racing game I put the most time into in 2020 once again is Wreckfest. I continue to be impresses with developer Bugbear’s support for this title. In 2020 they launched a second season pass that they are still releasing new vehicle add-ons for as of this writing. They also introduced a new Tournament mode that has constantly updated Daily, Weekly and Monthly challenges that earn its own exclusive currency to be used for unlockable cars available across all modes with that accrued currency. The challenges have been fun and have a variety of wacky themes like winter season races going on right now, and options that have lawnmower vehicles launching killer snowballs. My brother and I have been regularly playing it online once or twice a month for the better part of 2020. A feature I find myself taking advantage more for racing games on Xbox One is using the Spotify app for custom soundtracks. I briefly dabbled with it before, but upon discovering the NFSsoundtracks website I have been using it a whole lot more. That website scours YouTube to recreate a plethora of past driving game soundtracks going back to the 8 and 16-bit eras. If a game has a licensed soundtrack, they will comprise a Spotify playlist of all the licensed songs that are available from that soundtrack on Spotify. So far I would say about 75% of each soundtrack is represented on Spotify, and it has helped exponentially reliving favorite scores from Road Rash, Demolition Racer and Burnout Revenge in modern racing games. 18) Retro Game Writing Frenzy

I doubled down on the amount of “Flashback Specials” I produced in 2020 where I celebrate systems on their milestone anniversaries by recapping my favorite games and memories of certain consoles. Some of them were mini-specials where I only had a limited experience with certain systems like the Saturn, PSP and Neo-Geo, while others were for systems I had well over a decade of hands-on experience with and thus many tales to recount which resulted in exhaustive pieces for the NES, PSone, PS2 and Xbox 360. That 360 piece especially did a number on me and went way longer than I anticipated…but I had a lot to say :D 2021 will see a lot of platforms having milestone anniversaries of their American launch, and I doubt I will have time to get to them all, at least with how I have been covering most of them in detail anyways. Part of the fun I have with these specials is busting out each retro system and hooking up and replaying several of my favorites to see if they stand the test of time like Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! and The Punisher on NES, or to spend some time on lost treasures I picked up and barely put anytime into like CastleVania: Rondo of Blood on PSP and both Rad Racer games on NES. Regardless, if you have been sticking with me through these endless pieces, than please accept my many thanks for indulging my memories and stories of my gaming past! PART 3 – Rankings 17 through 12 17) Shmuppreciation 2020

I was honored to curate the selection again for the annual “Shmuppreciation” celebration for the mojomenace.com community! Previous years saw me pick a different shmup each week to scorechase on for the NES and SNES, and for 2020 I thought I lined up things perfectly by picking five shmups (AKA shooters/space shooters) that were all going to be available on the TurboGrafX-Mini that was set to release in mid-March. Well, on March 11th the pandemic was officially declared, and it was already in full effect in Asia by that point where production of the TG16-Mini was scheduled so it was no surprise to see the announcement of a delay for a few months on the mini console. That did not deter the MojoMenace community however and we plugged away with our scheduled lineup. Some of the 2020 lineup I own and have an alright amount of experience with like Blazing Lazers. Others I had little to no experience with like Lords of Thunder, Super Star Solider and Soldier Blade. The surprise hit of the 2020 selections for me was Galaga ‘88/’90. I played my fair share of traditional Galaga over the years and always heard of the TG16 version, but never played it, and it amped up the traditional Galaga gameplay and graphics just enough to make it stand side-by-side with its equals of the day! It was gratifying to see it be a hit with the community and receive the most entries of all the 2020 lineup. 16) A Long Awaited Fourth Rage in the Streets

I have so much nostalgia of the original Streets of Rage trilogy. It was an unexpected surprise to find it available on Game Pass on its day one release. I put about four hours into that game over its first two days, and absolutely treasure those two days with it as I felt my skills organically improving as I picked up on combos and enemy hit patterns. The new graphic style felt like it capture the essence of its past while successfully evolving it to modern day 2D tech standards, and the same can be said for the all-new original soundtrack that lived up to the high pedigree established in the first two games, and then some! I wound up picking up the vinyl for it, and the soundtrack has been in heavy rotation in my playlists ever since. The only downside is after those first two days of playing it, I took a week off before revisiting and almost instantly found myself losing a few steps from where I last left off. It was then I realized if I desire to beat this game, I have to essentially dedicate a couple of days solely to it to where I can “get good” at it and plow through it in a sitting or two. I guess I can tone it down to easy, and if it was not a Streets of Rage game I probably would, but the thing is with how I am playing so far, yeah the game can get tough on the normal default difficulty, but it is a fair challenge, one that nails that delicate balance where I know dedicated practice will pay off in the long run. In the end, that is how I want my Streets of Rage 4 experience to be! 15) Ryo’s Rally Cry

Last year Shenmue III fulfilled my 18-year long anticipation for the latest adventures featuring Ryo Hazuki. In 2020, a series of three DLC packs were unleashed in the early months of the year. I was not expecting anything too extravagant because all three packs were bundled together for $9.99, and compared to season pass story based content in other games that typically go for double-to-triple that, I had a feeling it was going to be more mini-games than anything, and that is essentially what we got. The first DLC focused on Bailu Village with several treasure hunt mini-games hunting down tiny Bailu Chan collectibles, which was no fun at all, and after the first treasure hunt zone I referenced a YouTube video to blitz through the rest. They were worth going through because they unlocked stat boosts for Ryo to use in the several Battle Rally races that gave a final score based on time completed and number of enemies beaten throughout it. Those stat boosts made Ryo faster and stronger, so it was worthwhile to knockout more foes before the finish line, and that part of the DLC proved to be a fun type of challenge. The second DLC was a cruise ship full of casino-themed mini-games and a couple small story quests. To activate it was tricky because you needed to make about 15 minutes of progress in the second half of the game. Luckily, a new game can be started from the back half. The casino games are decent little distractions, and the only highlight of the ship was earning raffle tickets to use on a prize wheel used to unlock several extra slick costumes for Ryo.

The final DLC was a story DLC that is sprinkled throughout the back half of the game. It is a bit of a chore though, and nothing extraordinary. If you remember the Chan signs that use four tea cups arranged in certain patterns, then be prepared for a series of those quests that are only available after completing a few main story missions. It is mostly a lot of backtracking to find a rogue agent, and only leads to a couple simple fights, and the only interesting thing I got out of it was for one part of the several-part series of quests you go undercover on a dinner date with Shenhua with some intentionally campy lines. I would only recommend playing it if you were playing through Shenmue III for the first time and that way the quests seem like an organic series of side quests you stumbled across, because by the time the last part of this DLC was available, I already replayed my way through about 75% of the second half of the main quest that transpires in Niaowu. If you are wondering why Shenmue III is ranking a fair way into my rankings with my middling time with the DLC, well that is because of the astounding Shenmue III-themed releases I picked up from Limited Run Games in 2020. A few months back Limited Run had what felt like a Shenmue appreciation day and released a special edition of the game with all the lackluster DLC on the disc, in addition to bonus collectibles that I usually do not go for, but in this rare exception did. They also put out some absurdly priced vinyl options of the soundtrack. Shenmue III has a mammoth soundtrack, so big it took seven CDs and eight vinyls to cram it in. To get the complete vinyl set, it was for around $200-250, so I opted for the CD set for $50 and a special “best of” two record set for $40. Yeah….did not anticipate blowing nearly the price for a Switch on Shenmue merchandise in one day, but I managed to cut myself off before going too nuts. 14) Vinyl Love 2020 Speaking of that Shenmue III vinyl, this will be a good way to pivot to rank the videogame OST vinyls I procured over 2020. Data Disc released their curated Shenmue II record. It is like the one Data Disc put out for the first game in the series which is a hand-picked selection of songs on one LP. I recently listened to it, and at least Data Disc ensured to maximize their minutes with their selections. Data Disc also did a second printing of another Yu Suzuki classic with the OST for Outrun. Other highlights include a complete set of five records of the Tetris Effect OST from Limited Run Games. Many kudos to Limited Run for including an MP3 download code with their records, and it was much appreciated for that set, and as well for their Streets of Rage 4 score. I have heard mixed reception for the SoR4 OST living up to the lofty bar established from the first two games, but after listening to it many times on my record player and in my car, I can attest for it being a win in the series and is right up there with the first two games. I will give a couple last quick shout outs for the OSTs for The King of Fighters ‘98, Street Fighter III, Quake, Celeste B-Sides and Kentucky Route Zero comprising the remaining LPs I picked up throughout 2020. To this day I continue working out to DDP Yoga 3-4 times a week, and having one of the game vinyls on in the background is the ideal background jams for me while I stretch myself to pieces! 13) Pinball 2020 Longtime readers are familiar with ritual weekly habit of competing in the four table weekly high score challenges in Pinball FX3, and yes I am still continuing that tradition every Saturday morning where I will practice and rank up abilities on one of the four tables that is up in the weekly challenges, and then attempt to best the high score for each of the four tables. It never gets old, and it helps feed my pinball addictions. Props to Zen for their output of Williams tables, and I am about 50/50 for using their “remastered” versions with animated toys and additional graphics on the table, and appreciate the option to press a button to flip to the original design. I still popped in Pinball Arcade on PS4 several times throughout 2020 because I feel those are more accurate-feeling real life physics of those pinball tables, but Zen’s versions are a solid alternative. Plus they added one of my favorite tables, Champion Pub, to the PFX3 roster in 2020, now just give me No Good Gophers and I will rest happy!

In other pinball news, I also continue to throw in the rotation Demon’s Tilt, the awesome homage to Devil’s Crush/Dragon’s Revenge. I cannot get enough of those scintillating TG16 throwback visuals and its metal soundtrack! I only threw in the neon-infused visuals of Hyperspace Pinball off Steam a few times in 2020, and I just wish that game took off more and received some home console conversions. Love the bumpin’ soundtrack, trippy graphics and distinctive boss battles that keep me coming back to it. I need to one day dive into recent pinball/platformer hybrids Yoku’s Island Express and Creature in the Well. I briefly tried out the former, and yet to put time into the latter. Finally, in sad pinball news, the private pinball club I started going to I wrote about in last year’s recap, Fargo Pinball shut its doors last year after failing to sustain business a few months into the pandemic. The owners will still operate about a dozen machines they have on constant rotation at a local brewery however, so there is still somewhat of a local pinball presence to take in. For the two or three times I made it out to Fargo Pinball however, I was in pinball heaven. 12) Handheld Gaming 2020

Last year I wrote about in this section how I made serious headway into Mother 3 on the GBA by the end of 2019. So the first few months I spent wrapping up Mother 3 on my backlit-modded GBA. So that meant I beat it legit with no save states, and a lot of trial and error on boss battles. The only part I did not care for was an underwater maze to navigate through while keeping an eye on oxygen levels, but otherwise I very much enjoyed my time with Mother 3, and mad props to Fangamer’s companion guide for being the quintessential supplemental material to guide me through it. After finishing that, I put a couple hours into the Metroid-esque Scurge: Hive on GBA before throwing in another throwback in the form of GameBoy Color’s Turok 2: Seeds of Evil. A year or two back here I wrote how the first Turok on GameBoy was an old-school style action-platformer that won me over, and the sequel is more of the same, but with slightly more fleshed out levels, now color graphics, and a couple interesting shmup stages for variety! It had some old-school difficulty, so the Retron 5’s save states and cheats and I had to take advantage of in order to power through it!

Currently, I am ever-so-slowly working my way through a fan translated copy of Ace Attorney Investigations 2 on DS. I loved the first game in the series and how they mixed up the gameplay by taking it out of the courtroom and having visual avatars to control and visually maneuver around locations. I am currently on the third case of AAI2, and the translation successfully maintains the whimsical spirit of the Ace Attorney series and has an interesting twist where Miles is now having to side with defense attorneys against his will. I picked up two unique re-released retro handhelds this past year. Firstly, I picked up the Mario Game & Watch that was released to celebrate Super Mario Bros.’s 35th anniversary. Super Mario Bros. is the first game I ever played, and first game I ever finished so it goes without saying that game is quite special to me and having it in this unique handheld form is a saccharine treat! The second old school handheld I had to import from Japan in the form of the Game Gear Micro. For those unaware of this Japan-exclusive, it is a working Game Gear about 10% the proportion of the original model. Sega only made several versions of it in Japan, with each one having only a handful of exclusive games. I went with the one containing the Aleste collection that contains five Game Gear/Master System games in the acclaimed space shooter series, one of which is an all-new game designed with the Game Gear’s limitations in mind in GG Aleste 3. My cramped fingers were somewhat able to play the games on the Micro (make sure to get the magnifier accessory in order marginally make out the visuals), and it is a nice discussion piece, but I think I will put more time into these games in the future with the PS4 copy of Aleste Collection that came with the bundle I ordered from Play Asia. PART 4 – Rankings 11 through 7 11) Podcast Guest Hosting 2020 I guest hosted on three podcasts in 2020. I had what ended up being my final recurring guest slot on the penultimate episode of Your Parents Basement podcast. It was my 13th guest host appearance there, but I made sure to make it a clayyyysic one with our analysis for the dubious action-sports SNES title, Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball. I remember going into that episode initially tepid to start off our discussion for the game by admitting I could not figure out how to shoot the damn ball and had to look up a guide online how to figure it out, but was quickly relieved to hear all three YPB hosts had to do exactly the same! Also, there were some regular segments of the show where we all rate the game on a themed where entertaining shenanigans ensued. YPB has since posted one surprise end of year special since having their main series finale, and here is hoping to see them pop in again for more surprise episodes. I will be forever grateful to them for taking my suggestions at covering games I have been meaning to get out of my backlog for ages like Shadowrun, Metal Gear Solid, Crystalis and Earthbound. Click or press here to check out that YPB episode I guested on in 2020.

I was thrilled to guest host twice on the PSnation Podcast in 2020. While it is a Playstation themed podcast, host Glenn always specializes with healthy doses of retro gaming talk in each episode. In March I joined him in covering the FFVII Remake demo that just hit, and we of course had to inject a ton of retro gaming topics in the agenda too (click or press here to download). In November I came on again to anticipate the future by previewing the imminent launch of the PS5 and celebrate the past by dissecting 20 forgotten facts of the PS2 for its 20th anniversary (click or press here to download). While both podcasts were marathon recording sessions, I do not regret a minute of it as I always have a phenomenal time podcasting with Glenn! He recently announced they will be rebranding PSnation with news to come in the near future after a hell of a 14-year run, and I wish nothing but the best for him and his staff to see what they have in store! On a final note in podcasts, I have been continuing my occasional un-vaulting of select episodes from my long-deceased videogame podcast, On Tap. Throughout 2020, I uploaded about an episode a month to my YouTube channel, often having them coincide with a relevant anniversary or one of my flashback special articles. Some of the ones I uploaded this past year are all several parts of our history of comic book videogames episodes and most of our history of RPG videogames episodes. Also a couple of our movie review episodes where we analyze cult classics like The Wizard, FFVII: Advent Children Complete, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and both Tron films. I made a playlist of the 28 episodes I have un-vaulted as of this writing you can navigate to by click or pressing here. 10) Switching It Up

In early April of 2020, I had penned in a pretty epic vacation I was anticipating for quite some time, but as we all know, by April of 2020 we were a few weeks into the pandemic and those plans quickly went up in smoke along with everything else in the world. It may have been a good thing those plans got cancelled because that same weekend a water pipe burst at my home and that whole weekend was spent cleaning up the aftermath of it. It was a couple days after the fact of that ordeal and I was simply a mess, and needed some form of a pick-me-up. I was holding off on a Switch for three years by this point, and three years was about what I held off on purchasing a Wii U, PS4 and Xbox One, and so I convinced myself to get out of my slump by going out and buying a Switch. It helped big time! The first games I played on it were a couple of different SNES games I played online with my nephew Carter. We first played the original Super Mario Kart, and within seconds of starting a race he blurted out, “Dale this looks old!” He was not a happy camper, but we did manage to have a modicum of fun playing two player co-op in Brawl Brothers and Joe & Mac. Other notable Switch games I put some time into this year are Golf Story, Sega Ages Virtua Racing, Tetris 99 and Super Mario Bros. 35. I love battle royal Tetris and Super Mario Bros.! Golf Story is the ultimate spiritual successor to the beloved Mario Golf games on GBC and GBA. Also, I highly recommend playing with a pro controller in docked mode, and with Hori’s Split Pad Pro in undocked mode. Despite its bulk, I vaster prefer them more than the painfully tiny JoyCons. In 2021 I hope to invest significantly more time into my Switch! I have picked up many retro re-releases recently with their frequent sales that I must try out! 9) Wrestling Games 2020

2020 was a year like no other for me when it came to wrestling games. The first half of the year started off with me only playing FirePro Wrestling World, the first new wrestling game I put serious time into since WWE All-Stars. I played quite a bit of the PS2 and GBA FirePro games, but the thing that hooked me on the PS4 version was downloading hundreds of created wrestlers to replicate my all-era dream roster, and clearing all 50 scenario trials. I got up to the final trial where the goal is to win a match with a 100% fan approval rating. Thing is, in order to replicate, the opponent has to get in just as much offense and back-and-forth near-falls to make it as exciting as a televised match, and by doing that I put myself at great risk to lose…which happened every time. I vow to complete that final trial in 2021! Speaking of WWE All-Stars, I volunteered to review its spiritual successor follow-up, WWE 2K Battlegrounds for my friends over at PSnation. While it has some notable flaws holding it back from matching the fun arcade action of WWE All-Stars, 2K Battlegrounds still has a lot going for it and is at least worth checking out. Click or press here for my full review to get my complete breakdown of WWE 2K Battlegrounds. Finally, as I have mentioned earlier I have been covering a number of wrestling titles for the upcoming N64 book project. As you read above, it was a whole new definition of pain experiencing WCW Nitro all over again, but at least other games held up better than I thought they would. I finally was able to put major time into the four import N64 wrestling games and came out of those with a whole new appreciation of this era of wrestling games. Seriously, AKI’s six wrestling games on the N64 are arguably the best spread of wrestling games in videogame history, and I wish I can expand on it more, but you’ll have to check out the book once it is available for my final word! I promise if you bookmark this page I will edit this page with a link to its online store listing once it is available! 8) Breath of the Wild Progress 2020 Another year gone, and another year where I have yet to finish The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I have good reasons though! I was making headway steady play a couple times a month until about July. I finally conquered the fourth divine beast, and more importantly I finally reached all the towers and unlocked the complete map. I also moseyed around most areas of the map, even the barren Gerudo Desert, I spent a good chunk of this year in to ensure I did not skimp over any cool hidden areas, or Korok seeds…although I am sure I missed quite a few. A major nagging sidequest I put to bed in 2020 was completing the founding of Tarrey Town for Hudson after running countless fetch quests for Link’s former colleague.

The only major thing in the core storyline I need to do is finally make my way through Hyrule Castle to vanquish Ganon….but I have so many other side quests and DLC quests I desire to finish before properly completing the main quest! I made one attempt at completing the Master Sword Trials that have the beneficial reward of doubling the power and durability of the Master Sword, and while it was a brutal endeavor, the challenge felt fair and encouraging of me to put forth the effort to practice and become better like on Eventide Island! I would also like to unlock the Master Cycle Zero for Link, but that set of DLC missions is mammoth, and if I do get around to them, it would likely be after I finish the main quest. Anyways, I was making that routine headway and finishing BotW in 2020 seemed possible, but then I had to step back and put most of my spare game time onto my N64 assignments. I should wrap up my N64 work within the next few months, and plan on diving head-first to pick up where I left off in Breath of the Wild! That motorcycle shall be mine!!! 7) Year of the Mini Consoles I thought I was done buying the “mini” line of classic consoles with pre-programmed games by the end of 2019 after acquiring the Genesis Mini that went along with my NES and SNES Minis! That was not the case though as 2020 saw me add three more to my collection. The Neo-Geo Mini has been out for some time now, but Amazon had huge markdowns on them in 2020 with bundled controllers. For those unfamiliar with it, the unit is designed as a mini-arcade cabinet, but also has ability to plug into a TV via HDMI cable to play the pre-programmed 40 games that way too. It has all the many expected fighting games on there, plus a variety of other genre hits from SNK. I also picked up the Game Gear Micro, but you can see my thoughts on that a few rankings above where I go over my handheld gaming moments of the year.

Finally, I picked up the TurboGrafX Mini, which had to endure a last minute shipping delay by a few months since it was originally scheduled to ship in March right after the pandemic was declared. It is a hell of a collection, with a killer line up of American and Japanese games. Part of me was wishing there was an easter egg to unlock the English translated Sega CD version of Snatcher, but no luck! There is still an unbelievable lineup on here with two Bonk games, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, several classic shmups like Blazing Lazers and Galaga ‘88/’90, one of the Crush pinball games, and so many more! There was a couple I wish would have made the cut like World Court Tennis and Final Lap Twin because of their charming RPG story modes, and at least one of the FirePro Wrestling games, but what is included is still a hell of a package, complete with probably the best UI of any of the mini-consoles that is overflowing with TurboGrafX/PCengine fan service! So many people in America missed out on the small-yet-mighty TG16 library in America, and this is the best way to be introduced to it to the public! CGQ did an awesome launch stream that has footage of most of the included games if you want to know more about the platform!

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PART 5 – Rankings 6 through 4 6) The Year of Videogame Documentaries! If there was any upside to all the time spent locked down at home in 2020, it was that it helped everyone catch up on a lot of past and current shows on various streaming services or old school physical media. 2020 saw several videogame themed documentaries release, and not a single one disappointed which is why I am ranking this experience so high. Netflix released a six episode docu-series on pivotal moments in the early decades of videogames, titled High Score. It does not shed much new insights if you are up-to-speed on your videogame history, but if you only have a passing familiarity with the roots of videogames, or have younger members of the family who are curious than this is a good place to start because they have high production values, and fun animated sequences to keep your attention throughout. It does not cover the entire history of games in six episodes, but each episode serves as a nice refresher course on key moments like the rise and fall of Atari, Nintendo revitalizing videogames in America with the NES, the 16-bit Wars, popularity of fighting games in the early 90s, and id Software shaking up the gaming landscape with Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. Next up is videogame YouTuber (and heading up the N64 book I am contributing to) Pat Contri teaming up with Kevin J. James for the documentary, Not for Resale. It has an interesting theme about life as an independent videogame store owner and retro game collecting. It thoroughly covers a wide range of topics from this perspective of videogame retail, and I encourage you to check out my review of the documentary by click or pressing here. Another documentary I reviewed in 2020 for my blog actually first released in 2015, but I somehow never heard of it until 2020. I am talking about Nintendo Quest, and it is all about one man’s journey to collect the entire officially licensed American NES library in one month with only his own funds, and only by visiting stores and collectors in person with no online buying at all. It was quite the ambitious goal, and was a fun journey to watch to see if he could or could not pull it off. Click or press here for my full review.

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Next up is Console Wars. I devoured Blake Harris’s novelization of the 16-bit SNES/Genesis rivalry, and was stoked to hear it was going to receive the big budget feature documentary treatment. It took a few years, but it finally released in 2020 as a CBS All Access streaming exclusive. There is no shortage of vintage photos, ads, clips and commercials inserted throughout the interviews and narration that transported me directly back to the early-to-mid 90s! They could not squeeze in everything from the book into 90 minutes, but they still managed to hit a lot of major and minor moments from the 16-bit wars. Despite this being well-documented territory, this was a terrific refresher, and recommended viewing considering the surplus of major and minor players from that era they tracked down to interview. Insert Coin is an exclusive on Alamo’s streaming service, and is the ultimate supplementary piece to Reyan Ali’s book on NBA Jam I mentioned earlier in this list. If you do not have time for the book, make sure to watch this because they track down most of the major players at Midway/Bally/Williams to chronicle the rise and fall of the company, and touch on so many of its arcade hits. Yes, even Revolution X gets an entertaining scene with previously unseen production footage of band members’ voiceover recording sessions. I loved Cruis ‘n USA, and was a little bummed to see the ho-hum treatment of it in the doc, but if you have killer memories of the NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat, Defender, NFL Blitz, Smash TV and so many other Midway arcade classics, then you definitely want to check out Insert Coin! Pretending I’m a Superman: The Tony Hawk Videogame Story is available to buy or rent off YouTube. I have heard many good things about this doc, but I have sadly been neglecting it for many months, which is not right since I was an avid fan of the Tony Hawk games from their heyday, but want to give it props here because I have good faith that it will not disappoint!

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That is it for the traditional documentary features I have seen in 2020. For the past couple years I have provided a long list of YouTube links of my favorite gaming-related videos throughout the year. In place of that is a few documentaries I want to highlight here that hit in 2020 from a few YouTube creators. Norm Caruso, AKA The Videogame Historian did not disappoint in 2020 with several new docs/mini-docs, with the two that stood out the most to me being his exhaustive deep dive into Mario Paint and tracking down the original developer to interview for his look on the infamous MS-DOS versions of the early Mega Man games. I also am constantly amazed at the steady stream of shorter and lengthier documentaries No Clip releases on their YouTube channel, and the crapshoot that was 2020 did not slowdown their consistent output. I highly recommend their well-researched videos on the history of two prolific developers – Creative Assembly and Arkane Studios. EA received well earned high marks on their incredible remaster of Command & Conquer early in 2020, and No Clip released a coinciding video with many of the original and remaster developers on un-vaulting original material and digging deep to cram in as much unreleased or barely seen content in as possible.

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If you were a child from the mid-80s to the mid-90s, then you undoubtedly remember spending countless hours in school trying to master the original “souls-like” game, Oregon Trail. MinnMax released a comprehensive look at this classroom favorite filled with interview clips from the original programmers on how it came to be, and even tracking down Steve Wozniak for his reflections on this iconic title. Finally, I want to shout out this awesome DIY-spirited documentary celebrating NHL ‘94 that came out in 2020 and went to great lengths to pay homage to that classic hockey game by tracking down the primary head programmer, going to great pains for a very brief interaction with Jaromir Jagr and chronicling the current eSports scene of NHL ‘94.

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Sorry for the deluge of recommendations, but that should provide many hours of entertainment and videogame history to last you throughout 2021, and then some! 5) Acquiring my First Console Near Launch Since the Vita! The headline does not lie, the Xbox Series X marked the first console I purchased within the first couple months of a console launch since the Vita! After getting burned on launch window consoles malfunctioning on me with the PS2, 360 and PS3 I instilled a “wait three years after a console launch to buy it so the hardware is likely less faulty” self-imposed policy. I did exactly that with the WiiU, PS4, Xbox One and Switch. I was originally going to do that with the XSX/PS5 also, and I guess the thing that nudged me out of that edict was hearing multiple podcasts, website hardware reviews and YouTube content creators’ analysis of the system’s hardware, UI and overall performance in the opening weeks. The more I heard in the first couple weeks, the more the Xbox Series X sounded right for me. This is primarily because the UI/dashboard is nearly identical compared to the Xbox One, and that I can plug in my external hard drive I have been using for the Xbox One directly into the XSX after I complete my initial setup. After doing that it would be like I was playing on my Xbox One again, but with vastly superior hardware and faster loading times. I got a Samsung 55” Black Friday 4KTV special to finally upgrade into the 4K era and be properly ready for the 4K optimized games. My backlog was so huge that I did not mind the XSX did not have any major first or third party exclusives until two and half months later with the release of The Medium. Enjoying faster load times on games like Wreckfest and Borderlands 3 is more impressive than I thought it would be. I am also by this point well invested into the Xbox Game Pass ecosystem as I have elaborated on in previous year-end articles, and having all first party exclusives coming to Game Pass day one is another deciding factor on why I went with the Xbox Series X first. Now here is hoping this system does not brick on me or I am returning back to my self-enforced waiting policy! 4) Conquering the Lands that Border a Third Time!

Speaking of Borderlands 3, that was a terrific alternate method for me to hang out with my buddy Derek through these quarantine times. Several years back we gradually worked our way through Borderlands 2 over the course of a year, and we started up the third game around Halloween of 2019. It took a little over a year of playing only once or twice a month, but we finally finished the core campaign of Borderlands 3! Most of the gaming press bags on the Borderlands games for its style of humor, but to me it kind of rings familiar to Family Guy. Both franchises throw a lot of gags and jokes at you from all angles, and some of them hit, and some of them miss, and that is fine! Humor is subjective with about half of the jokes jiving with me, and that is A-OK because they all do not need to be LMAO zingers! The addicting co-op gameplay of Borderlands is what keeps me coming back, well that and the perpetual quest of finding all types of fun weaponry and loot I had equipped for far too long (rainbow-explosion grenades being my prime example here). I like the angle of Borderlands 3’s central hub being on a spaceship…even if its design is of the labyrinth nature that I frequently became lost in. The biofuel truck mission was an early favorite of mine and remained a running gag with Derek throughout 2020. The pair of primary antagonists here may not usurp the unforgettable villain that was Handsome Jack, but it was still a fun journey pursuing them and meeting their dad to detail their nature. Right now Derek and I are a good ways through one of the DLC packs for the game, Guns, Love, and Tentacles that is themed around saving the wedding of Wainwright & Hammerlock with the assistance of the mysterious bartender, Mancubus Bloodtooth! It features a refreshing twist on gameplay with longer levels, different vibe of scenery and a more challenging-but-fair difficulty. Needless to say, I am greatly looking forward to marching through the rest of the DLC packs throughout 2021! PART 6 – Rankings 3 through 1 3) Spooky Gaming 2020

You will see soon why my yearly installment for Spooky Gaming ranked so high this year. First off, I kept up my yearly tradition of playing the 360 launch game, Condemned: Criminal Origins on Halloween! I think that is at least three, maybe four Halloweens in a row now! Only made a little over an hour of progress though on a couple sessions due to not as much free time as I hoped and it took a bit more than I presumed to navigate through a couple tricky levels, but I pushed through a couple more chapters and one day promise to finish this! Two new spooky games released right around this past Halloween that were both must-buys for me, but regrettably have yet to start. Pumpkin Jack looked like a fun simple action-platformer with graphics and gameplay quality intentionally designed from the early PS2 days which looked like a fun early 2000s throwback from a couple streams I saw. The second game is the next installment in the “Dark Pictures” anthology, following 2019’s Man of Medan that received a rave recounting from my 2019 rankings! That game is called Little Hope and it has a similar structure to Man of Medan, where it follows a group of travelers stranded after a bus crash who stumble into a nearby mysterious/haunted small town that is full of secrets. I watched one stream of its opening scenes, and was delighted to see the narrative choice-based gameplay returns and will determine how many of the group members will remain alive by the end of the playthrough. I want to play this like I did Man of Medan in one sitting in an evening with Derek & Brooke in the midst of a thunderstorm! That will happen in 2021!!

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Finally, the highlight of spooky gaming season was surprisingly returning to Xbox One’s Blair Witch Project. I wrote here last year that I loved its atmospheric setting of looking through the same haunted woods from the movies for a lost child, but I unfortunately got stuck about an hour or two in while searching through the woods for my next objective. The woods were too dark!!! So this past Halloween season I booted up Blair Witch Project with the mindset of not even looking to make any progress and to simply put on the gaming headphones and take in that appropriately dark atmosphere of exploring the spooky woods for about 10 minutes before moving onto Condemned.

Well, something unexpected happened during those 10 minutes and I accidentally stumbled onto my next objective and quickly got absorbed into the narrative and could not put the game down! I loved how the character Ellis gradually starts to get wrapped up into the eventual supernatural surroundings that gradually get implemented and do not ruin that awesome initial eerie setting. The way the camcorder was used for gameplay to solve some puzzles was creative, and using the late-90s Nokia-esque cell phone for storyline bits was an unexpected nostalgia trip. Yeah, some of the use of flashbacks/supernatural enemies can be a little hokey at points, but for the most part it keeps up the suspense and thrills, and it caught me jumping on several occasions while playing with the volume blasting on those headphones. The last level pulls out all the scary, mind-bending stops, and was a ride that I had no idea when it was going to end, and even though the ending was a little middling, the ride on the way to that final destination was awesome and had me gripped in throughout. Blair Witch Project is currently on Xbox Game Pass, and is some ideal late night/Halloween season gaming that I highly recommend to all! 2) FINISH HIM!! Usually I would lump this in with my yearly fighting games recap, but my time with Mortal Kombat 11 rose well above the rest of my time with other fighting games that it climbed out of that group and rose to my #2 gaming moment of the year! For the first half of 2021, I had semi-frequent online sessions with my aforementioned fighting game buddy, Chris! Whenever a new DLC character from the DLC pass released every several weeks, we would usually meet up one of the following weekends and experiment away with the new member of the roster. If I really dug a character, I would then do repeated playthroughs of that character in the Towers of Time in order to unlock more costumes and other gear for that character. That wound up happening with both Joker and Robocop, as I had a ton of fun with both of those characters’ moves and fighting styles.

The announcement of the Aftermath DLC halfway into 2020 totally caught me off guard. It was a new storyline expansion DLC that lasted only a few hours, but continues the same best-in-class production values of fighting game cutscenes that seamlessly transition between fights. Best of all, it brings the DLC characters into the narrative to freshen it up, and is highlighted by Shang Tsung being your uneasy ally/rival throughout which resulted in yet-another killer MK storyline to take in, even if it was a little shorter. Oh yeah, NetherRealm Studios inserted the likeness and voice of the same actor who perfectly portrayed Tsung in the first Mortal Kombat film, Cary Tagawa. My nostalgia for that 1995 movie knows no bounds, so it was a thrill to have Tagawa return to MK11 for the Aftermath storyline. Another movie related surprise was new costume DLC for Sonya, Raiden and Johnny Cage that use the likenesses and voiceovers from their 1995 movie cast counterparts with Bridgette Wilson, Christopher Lambert and Linden Ashby all returning. I am so thrilled to see the games fully embrace the fandom for the 1995 movie, and doubly thrilling is that the new Mortal Kombat film set to release later this year that legit looks kind of promising based on the trailer and general buzz in the movie/gaming press. Another surprise update to MK11 was the inclusion of cross-network play. So that meant I could finally play against my brother on Xbox One! I was skeptical trying it out when my brother and I lined up a day to play that it would be a laggy mess playing on different systems against each other, but we played for about an hour with no problems, and all my costume and gear unlocks carried forward too! Countless thanks for the developers adding this support, and also many props to Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo for making it so to see it start to become a little more common to other online games in general throughout 2020! So yeah, this all added up to me revisiting MK11 more frequently than I thought I would with the nonstop support from NetherRealm Studios in 2020, and thus it more than earned its #2 ranking on my list, and technically my #1 video-game ranking because…. 1) Global Board Game Domination!!

Once or twice a year, dating back nearly 15 years I have met with mostly the same group of friends for marathon sessions of my favorite board game, Risk. That game is notorious for taking anywhere from two-to-five hours to finish in order to take over the world via smart strategy and lucky dice rolls! Every time we play, we bust out pretzels, beers, Chuck Norris shots and end the night playing PS3 Tiger Woods PGA Tour ‘12 until we get sleepy! I always look forward to these nights, and they are kind of like a second Christmas to me because it only happens once or twice a year. As awesome as these are, my technical prowess in Risk strategy and luck in dice rolls leave a lot to be desired over the years, and I am almost always the first or second person eliminated. Regardless of that, I want to give props to Mike, Jim and Paul for the decade plus of priceless Risk memories and moments. A couple years ago Mike moved and my brother Joe has been filling that fourth chair! We have played a couple five player games over the years, but our 2020 night (which luckily emanated about a month before the pandemic hit), saw Jim’s nephew Matt join us for our first five player game in some time. This was Matt’s first game of Risk and thus a learning experience and I had to be the spoiler to ruin his first game and wound up eliminating him first from the game. From there though it was still relatively early as far as the army bonuses goes within an average game of Risk, but a domino effect happened and I was able to capitalize on eliminating Matt and gaining his territories and within about an hour eliminated everyone else on my own!!!! I was in disbelief, and as much as I hate to admit it had somewhat of a brief emotional moment upon winning that game because in our 15-ish years playing, I have only won once before early on and it had to of been at least 10 years since that and I was not use to things going my way, and in that fashion to boot.

The way that game played out resulted in an oddly short-ish two hour game, so we decided to get another round in that night. Now that Matt had his warm-up round in, he had a better grasp of the game and this was a more traditionally close, longer game of Risk where the excitement was in the mobilization of armies and territories in those early rounds and to see who would make the first big attack move in attempts of expanding their territory. Hell yeah, I was all-in on this five hour game of Risk!!! Now as this round unfolded this will be very hard to believe, but I swear I am telling the whole truth that against all odds the same exact thing happened and I eliminated everybody and won the second game as well!!! I am still dismayed thinking about how well that night went for me in Risk, and highly doubt it will happen again! So for me, predominant loser and usually first one out in a game, to full on run the board and eliminate everyone in two consecutive games happens you damn well bet that night is going to be my best gaming related moment of the year!! THANK YOU!!!! I somehow achieved a degree of brevity this year, as last year’s insane best-of list went around 18,000 words, but I was able to….kinda….tighten my word count this year by clocking it at roughly 12,000 words!! My endless thanks for sticking with me all the way through as I recap my favorite (and worst) gaming moments/experiences of the year. Now, to keep up with tradition, after all that perusing and me rambling on for way too long…are you ready for a chuckle or two? Well, then, let none other than John Cena take care of that for you with the following embedded video to close off another best-of list. See you all next year!!!

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Previous Year’s Best of Recaps - 2019 - 2018 - 2017 - 2016

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david1152 · 3 years

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5 Tips for Your Residence Remodelling

Residence remodelling can become a difficult time with opposing tips, an overwhelming amount of choice, and also climbing costs. Nevertheless, when planned meticulously, it comes to be a pleasurable experience watching your house gradually get a new look. Here are some tips that will make your house improvement less of a headache as well as more of a satisfaction.Construction Services In London

1. Crosscheck the specialist: Obtaining the best professional will certainly set the tone for exactly how your entire experience goes, so make certain you find a person well suggested. If they have actually offered references, make full use of these, call them, and inquire about the professional. This doesn't suggest simply his job abilities but additionally how well he pays attention to the clients because you will be in constant call with him.

2. Strategy Ahead: This rule works well in any kind of location of life. Do not wait for the contractor to give you alternatives. Surf the net and talk with pals since the last thing you want is to end up investing a great deal of cash because you keep changing your mind.

3. Home Rules: Throughout your house remodelling, there will certainly be a great deal of strangers entering and out of your house that you can't keep an eye on. If you have any kind of policies such as not smoking in your house, make it known right from the beginning.

4. Information Matter: Make certain that every detail of the entire home improvement is removed in creating by your specialist before you start with the job or placed in your cash. There is nothing worse than entering into this traumatic time and after that learning that component of your idea isn't jotted down in your contract, so you have to end up paying an extra amount for it.

5. Tidy the Mess: It is very important that the restoration team tidies up each and every single day despite whether they will return as well as develop another mess or otherwise. In most cases, the restoration will create a massive amount of dirt and also if it is left untended to, it will enter your home heating or cooling down system. This can lead to any kind of amount of health issue.

With these ideas, you will discover it a whole lot much easier to undergo your house remodelling without losing your patience. The trick, as specified over, is understanding what you desire beforehand. When you know this down to the last detail, your renovation will certainly go efficiently London.

Couple Of Tips on House Remodelling

Residence improvement is not an easy task. It takes a great deal of hard work as well as preparation to execute a perfect remodelling. Besides that, a great deal of time and money is called for in order to see to it that a home improvement job obtains its intended purpose. All thanks to the internet, even inexperienced home owners can quickly find lots of house renewal ideas online. As the restoration project can set you back countless bucks therefore the house owner requires to make certain as to what it is that he intends to obtain.

Numerous points concern the mind of the individuals while thinking of restoring a residence and several of these consist of bathroom improvement, professionals, repairperson and contractors. Nevertheless, lots of things require to be taken into account prior to the restoration project starts. Home remodelling suggestions are essential for intending a home repair task. Among the most important points that a property owner needs to identify is the factors for renovating a residence. This assists in guaranteeing that the residence improvement project launches with suitable reasons and also thus, the outcomes of revival are ideal London.

Suggestions as well as pointers are essential during intending stages as they not only assist in saving some bucks yet likewise offer homeowners some alleviation. It is essential for owners to take down expected modifications thoroughly as well as the product required. Furthermore, it is a smart choice to take the recommendations of some professional before beginning with the revival procedure. An engineer or an indoor designer will see the troubles that or else might go undetected by the property owners. He will certainly suggest proper solutions for the problems and remove them during the renovation process.

Creating a building restoration is not just about exactly how it will certainly look yet likewise what products are to be made use of, when they are needed, making payments to sub specialists and suppliers and quality assurance. Complying with are couple of typical mistakes made by property owners while remodeling a home:

Not enough Planning

The success of your restoration task largely relies on excellent planning. A plan assists you in concentrating on the locations that need your attention.

Poor Materials Administration

Prompt product preparation is a huge task yet it can be really pricey not having the ideal products in the needed amount at the right time. In huge projects, you can seek the recommendations of a specialist to estimate the needed material London.

Slack Quality Control

Make use of a work-check-approve-work cycle at every stage of the renovation. The three most critical parts of the task consists of frameworks, foundations and solutions. The structures are the assistance on which the various part of style depends.

Poor Document Maintaining

Keep file, records and whatever well organized. Your financer needs evidence of completion at every phase as well as a summary of costs with the days, before issuing you the next repayment. If in case, you are not utilizing money service then record keeping is just a good monitoring.

Poor Subcontractor Monitoring

One benefit of hiring a builder as the job manager is that they have a great network of subcontractors. In a full home renovation, there can be 25 to 5 subcontractors. You require to have a well-planned system for handling, engaging, certifying as well as getting subcontractors.

Just How to Get Ready for Residence Improvement

Having any residence remodellings can be disturbing. We are not simply speaking about , but your house hold being interfered with. How can you prepare yourself for a home improvement and also decrease the anxiety?

This will greatly depend upon the sort of improvement or project you are taking on.

We are all watching the 'dimes' or 'cents' nowadays, this has been intensified by the ongoing financial environment. We might have been attracted to relocate residence not too long ago in order to update to a bigger residential or commercial property, or to gain more garden area. We now take into consideration carefully whether a house remodelling or refurbishment is a far better choice. Obviously, you need to research the housing market. Check out the area in which you live, the marketplace value of comparable residential or commercial properties to your own, triggered versus the cost of the remodellings you are planning. In a successful real estate market (ideally not as well away), you will certainly 'gain the incentives' of your improvement in economic terms, ought to you wish to market in the future London.

From a customers' perspective, what is a purchaser searching for in a residential property? Both major areas that buyers wish to see upgraded are the most pricey to remodel, these are the bathroom and kitchen. Adding an outdoors home entertainment area is also a marketing feature.

Living in your house while a remodelling is taking place can be a little stressful, so exactly how can you prepare yourself for your residence renovation and make the process as pain-free as possible?

Research study is essential, unless you are an expert in home refurbishing, I would seriously take into consideration hiring experts. Word of mouth is probably the very best way to choose that should manage the project. You might search websites such as ANGIES CHECKLIST which has an excellent track record. Request at the very least 2 quotes from various firms. Additionally ask to see instances of their work. Directly I would prefer to see instances of work finished, even fulfill a number of pleased clients, than rely on website testimonies. Consider that although you have utilized a company of specialists to do the job, they may sub-contract out to various other specialists where needed. Ask who is going to take on the plumbing or the electrics, find out a little bit extra concerning the people whom you are sharing your residence with London.

Take your time in choosing products, don't be rushed, making breakout choices might cost you extra in the future. Think thoroughly regarding the area you are renovating, what is its main function. That utilizes the space and how typically? What appearance do you want to achieve? and naturally just how much are you prepared to invest? Is there a bit a lot more in the budget in situation of the unforeseen taking place?

Keep a diary of events, take previously and also after pictures. Ensure you have call numbers for your contractor or consumer care center. Ask concerns. Keep reviewing the progress made. If you are not delighted with something, resolve the problems prior to the task relocates any better.

I also assume it is necessary to be on-site as the task starts to unravel. Know that is coming when at what time, how much time is the project going to take. Ask for an estimated date of conclusion. Do not pay the sum total of money prior to the task is finished and also you are thrilled with the results. A specialist contractor should have the finances to complete the renovation without requesting for project cash. Nevertheless, a tiny deposit serves to go in the direction of materials.

From a sensible viewpoint, we can't all remove on holiday and come back to an amazing designer space total with accessories and also flowers. So see to it if you are' living in' the task, that you can manage without this room working totally for some time. Professional service providers understand just how disruptive restorations can be as well as they will not leave you without running water as an example.

House Improvement to Produce Your Desire Residence

I always made use of to assume that relocating was the one of one of the most disruptive occasions to bring willingly into your life. I have since discovered a much more excruciating and taxing activity - RENOVATING. The word itself covers up the repercussions it really holds. One has visions of a little paint, perhaps altering a light fitting or 2 and also maybe placing in a wonderful contemporary shower room.

What you really obtain is weeks of countless dirt, an intrusion of individuals right into your home, an exponential increase in tea and coffee consumption, an up-close-and-personal encounter with personal belongings you neither had understanding neither demand of and also a significant boost in expense, which triggers capital crises. I have typically thought over the past weeks - why can't we just reside in a shack on the coastline, rest on the floor as well as just utilize one plate each?

While happy to delight in slightly hippy fantasies, I are afraid that in this life I will possibly not handle to shed my already various material properties in favour of a carefree breezy existence. The fulfilment obtained from residence remodellings is impressive and also I make certain that as soon as finished I will be happy to have put such laborious strategies right into activity as well as seen them through to conclusion. Yet completion seems fairly distant at this point!

I have actually found out some invaluable lessons throughout this procedure and also can only intend to pass them on to others to ensure that you can profit vicariously from them. This little checklist can conserve you plenty of troubles as well as much frustration:

1. Constantly have a look at recommendations regardless of how "straightforward" you believe the specific to be.

2. Do some research study on the products you plan to use: i.e. wall surface layers, exterior products and ideal technique approaches for applying and also installing your picked surfaces. This truly aids, as at least you know a bit about what you are talking about and also have a suggestion of what to anticipate quotes from contractors to be.

3. Obtain a specialist, objective point of view on tough problems. So usually a fresh pair of eyes can see the wood from the trees in half the moment that you have invested wrangling with the trouble.

4. There is greater than one means to skin a cat - use a little bit of savvy and attempt to deal with individuals who are prepared to be aggressive in resolving challenges, as they emerge. I have located that clever individuals deserve their weight in gold. Utilize them and also their experience to your benefit. Professionals that appreciate what you want can generally discover a method to provide it to you or a minimum of obtain close to the twenty-twenty you had London.

5. Understand that points will go wrong as well as try not to take the effects out on yourself, your companion or various other loved ones. Couple of things are completely incurable and most busted products can be fixed (at a rate). Learn about how to clean or fix installations must damage take place - particularly taps as well as baths. Buffing a bathroom is a crucial piece of knowledge - for acrylic bathrooms you can do it yourself with water paper to obtain scrapes out and acetone for persistent marks, or get a professional in to do it for you. Contact your distributor before you go ahead with this simply in instance. Sealant can likewise be removed from chrome taps with water not turpentine or thinners, as they damage chrome. Just water, a fine green searching pad and also some elbow grease works a reward.

My advice overall is to be cautious of the estate representatives' plug, follow your sensible idea pattern and conclude that if renovating your house had not been worth it for individuals selling the location it most likely won't just fall into place for you. However with persistence, preparation and also a lot of perseverance you will see your desires materialise. Occasionally things come out even far better than you anticipated and occasionally you need to endanger a little or even a whole lot, however this is all worth it, if you enjoy the trip and accept that the location is an operate in progress.

Perfect Residence Remodelling Suggestions

Every home-owner has distinct home remodelling suggestions. Remodelling of a home is considered as a job with various thoughts involved. Firstly, restoration of house includes countless type of home enhancement job. Remodelling of a house and residence remodelling are comparable terms and also can get quickly overlapped in a number of different locations. For instance, the renovation of a home may include fixing or upgrading your house to raise its facilities, functionality as well as energy-efficiency whereas the term house renovation is a lot more about upgrading decor, style, space, as well as fixtures.

Restoration of a home is available in many different plan sizes as well. Some projects can normally cause others. In this write-up, we have actually listed here terrific concepts that can be made use of for restoring your home. This will in fact pay you back over a period of time and also will act as a great financial investment in your home.

Doors and Windows- Among the most popular ideas that can be used while you are remodeling your home is to replace windows and doors since it isn't really affordable. If you upgrade these locations of your residence, you can easily increase your home's performance and decor. It is observed that these projects can aid the atmosphere in numerous ways. As a matter of fact, the green improvement ideas for home involve power saving. Ensure to set up double or triple paned windows as this will certainly assist optimize your objective in reducing warm loss, warm gain, air leakage, and condensation troubles. Often door replacement is thought about a good suggestion. It is observed that with flow of time, wood doors can reduce or swell.

Insulate and also Aerate - Roofing insulation is just one of the most neglected renovation jobs for house. The warm climbs yet mainly individuals do not realize that it keeps rising and can work its escape through the roof covering. Roof covering insulation can aid stay up to date with this warm inside your home. It can likewise straight influence the total insulation performance of most houses. One must ensure that they mount correct ventilation to avoid prospective timber rot and ice dams. Cellar insulation is the other essential great improvement idea for house. There are lots of resident that set up basement insulation in their cellar ceiling so that chilly floorings upstairs can be protected against.

Include Storage Space Cabinets and also Restructure - There are few individuals who like the concept of springtime cleaning, no matter the period or need. If your home is being overwhelmed by straightforward mess, the mental weight of trying to clean up your house can be rather frustrating. It is feasible to mount additional storage space closets as well as work with an indoor developer to rearrange the residence. They can supply you with a plan to comply with for stowing away your common home products in such a way to ensure that it helps you preserve a tidy home.

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