zayalive - Tumblr blog

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A Long Time

it has been a while since i've updated my blog. from where i left off, i still had to complete the red dead redemption ii story as well as finish that 100% grind. since then i have not only done both of those, but i have gotten all the achievements for red dead online as well. i honestly enjoyed most of the online experience besides the hackers. it took a grand total of 263 hours to get all the achievements in the game. it was definitely a grind, but i haven't experienced a 100% that wasn't a grind at least somewhat.

after red dead redemption ii, i wanted to check out max payne, as i've heard so many good things about the series. remedy seems to make quality games, and i'm a big rockstar games fan (duh) so i thought it would be a perfect fit for me. i started max payne, and so far i'm liking it. the face models and death sounds are really funny to me though, but i look past it. so far i've enjoyed the narrative, and aesthetics the game offers. i am hoping to finish my playthrough in the near future. i will say i'm either bad or the game is pretty difficult.

beyond this, i had set out to finish up getting all of the grand theft auto iv achievements. as of writing, i have just gotten them all. every time i go back to the base game, it's such a treat. easily one of my favorite games ever.

these shots are from my time finishing up the ballad of gay tony achievements but i just love how orange this game can be.

my ultimate goal for gaming in 2024 is to play/replay all the rockstar games titles in preparation for grand theft auto vi. i cannot express how excited i am for this game. just a day or so ago, jason schreier reported that rockstar are forcing employees to go back to the office for five days a week as they are entering the final stages of the game's production. my heart goes out to the developers on this one, but i can't help but be a little giddy. it's been such a long road (hehe) to this game, and we're finally almost there. trailer 1 felt so surreal to me, everything looked amazing. my favorite parts were the ped density, the motel scene, and then the store robbery scene that ended the trailer.

that just about sums up my gaming adventures over the course of the month i've been absent, it's been fun!

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Little gif version of my pfp that I made

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[Breaking:] New Fortnite skin idea

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10 posts!

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man.

as a side note, the jump in graphics is so wild

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rdr2 progress update 4

a few days ago i set out to finish "duchesses and other animals" as well as legendary fish, and MAYBE legendary animals if i was lucky. i managed to do all. i also bagged three achievements, those being "artificial intelligence", "it was THIS big!", and "hobby horse". i played blackjack which is what earned "hobby horse" to edge out a little more of the 100% as that is the only thing i was missing. finally i decided to knock out finding 48 weapons for the 100%. yesterday was all about challenges. i finished out master hunter, sharpshooter, survivalist, and weapons expert. whenever i had time i made sure to progress the "skin deep" and "zoologist" achievements as well. today i plan on progressing the story as well as hopefully knocking out the gambler challenges, although i have heard those are extremely fun and totally based on skill and not luck. through natural progression of the story i should get the most of the remaining percentage, or at least it will allow me to finish certain things such as herbalist and horseman.

this journey has been amazing to say the least, besides the occasional annoyances, it's actually been a pleasant experience. i blew through the story and never went for 100% the last time i played, but i'm so glad i did this time. now it's time to finish it out.

i reloaded a save and spawned at this spot, and i HAD to take these pictures. so gorgeous. these filters just worked really well here.

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different day, same red dead

in the past couple of days without an update on tumblr, i have managed to do a lot while hardly doing anything at the same time. this is due to the side missions i am tasked to endure. yesterday i finished up hunting request 4, as that's all available for now. i did some etc things like a shop robbery, where i only got a bounty of 50 cents, LOL. i spent around $1.5k or more buying premium cigarettes for those cards, and with that i finished those sets and shipped them off. i earned the "pony up" achievement from that, and now i'm sitting at 16/51. as well as an achievement, that bumped me up to 60% game completion. i got 22/30 dinosaur bones as i can't get the rest currently. finally, i started the dreaded "duchesses and other animals" side mission. i got 4/6 parts done, and am around 94% done with part 5. today i set out to complete part 5 and 6. if i have any time left in my day after this (crying), i will starting working on the legendary fish for the "a fisher of fish" side mission. HOPEFULLY i can get through both, but i imagine i will look back at this thinking i was extremely naive. beyond that, i might try to peck around at the challenges, or maybe knock out the legendary animals.

this game has beautiful fast-travel scenes, it's free screenshots

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red dead redemption II progress

today was a struggle to say the least, but i did make progress so i guess it balances out. i never reported on yesterday's progress so i'll hit that first. i got all 20 dreamcatchers, and inched a couple of the challenges, and that's pretty much all i did. i checked the rock carvings progress and i misread it, thinking i had finished them already. not the case! today however, i realized they were unfinished so i grabbed as many as i could before i forgot that i needed to complete a side mission to get the last one. that's all sorted now, and i got the achievement "collector's item" for my troubles. after that, i knocked out bandit 10 and explorer 10, i grabbed all the corresponding special equipment from the trapper as well.

i started the long struggle of "hunting requests" from the lovely ms. hobbs which i just absolutely ADORED doing. i mean who doesn't enjoy reloading a save, begging, on your knees for a cardinal to spawn for nearly two hours? i'm now on hunting request 4, and that's where i called it a day.

to lay out all the data:

challenges

gambler 2

herbalist 2

horseman 9

master hunter 4

sharpshooter 6

survivalist 5

weapons expert 3

collectables

?/144 cigarette cards

dinosaur bones

3/5 hunting requests

graves

missions and events

55/107 missions

3/6 gang hideouts

compendium

8/10 fish

4/6 gangs

31/48 weapons

2/5 legendary animals

miscellaneous

play a game of blackjack

complete a store robbery

took this today, i just love this game

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🤍

buds

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documenting red dead redemption II

continuing my 100% game completion save file today, where i plan to find the rest of the 10 rock carvings and the 20 dreamcatchers. i am using jimbatron's guide from the gtaforums to keep me on the rails. he recommends doing as much as you can before the epilogue, as certain things line up in certain ways, and whatnot. before logging on i am sitting at 54% game completion with 73.7 hours so far. i am trying to stop and really "smell the roses" on this playthrough, while also getting that glorious 100% game completion stat. i played the story, and dabbled in the online mode (rip) on my xbox in march of 2020. i spent around 32 hours on there, the story had me hooked and i couldn't stop. i stopped at 78.1% game completion. according to the rockstar social club tracker, i am well on my way to surpass my xbox stats by the time i finish the story, as i'm just a tad over halfway done with chapter 4.

besides being on a kick to 100% my favorite games, i have also dabbled into the world of achievement hunting! i will touch on that in a more focused post surrounding it but the reason i bring it up here is because well of course i'm doing that with red dead redemption II. sitting at 14/51, i am in for a long grind but it will be worth it. although i am NOT looking forward to that online grind, especially on pc.

below is my favorite picture i've taken during the story missions.

i mean look he's just the best

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things to see

i post about video games, music, and collecting said things. besides that there might be the occasional rant, vent, etc post from me. if that sounds remotely interesting to you, consider following? i have a twitter, i rarely do actual things there besides like and retweet things.

https://twitter.com/zayalive

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*dated september 2023*

i am here to post more things individual to me! this time, it's my top 25 video games. i am honestly not remotely content with this list and will update it around september of this year, and make it a tradition going forward. i never realized how hard it actually is to put this out on a chart/list. i always knew what i held dearly to my heart, but god when it came down to it, i had to REALLY think. imagining how this list will look by the end of this year is currently challenging. this chart is in no order besides grouping series. certain games will ALWAYS be on this list, most definitely the red dead series, and grand theft auto series. those are masterpieces, or damn near. red dead redemption ii is 100% the best game i've ever touched. the first redemption game i still highly regard to be one to stand the test of time. i have a fondness for fallout, there are many things to love, and things to not love, and that's all i'll say there for now. grand theft auto iv has one of the best stories i've played, and it's so played out but the VIBE of that game, the darkness, grittiness, it's great. san andreas is one of my childhood games, i owned so many copies because i was a stupid child. moving onto guitar hero, i still remember my first experience with it at my sister's, i remember getting my first copy of the game from fred's of all places. i mainly play clone hero nowadays, and am mostly average. i play expert, still have never got past that ttfaf intro. i got into wwe pretty early on in my life like most of these games, being able to watch the show weekly and hop in the games after school was special. cozy survival crafting is definitely one of my favorite things ever, and it's funny to call terraria cozy but it is to me LOL. i will never EVER understand terraria hate, how can you hate something so good? i have fallen out of love with minecraft over the years to the (in my opinion) underwhelming updates and odd direction the game has taken. with that however, the new auto-crafter and trial chambers look so sick. i want to say i got into stardew valley in 2018 and have loved it ever since, still haven't gotten through the beginning of ginger island though, maybe someday. ever since extremely late 2017 or early 2018, my main game has been fortnite: battle royale. at one point, i wanted to go pro and make a living streaming, but sadly i am NOT built for that. i've always loved zombies, first experience was probably like season 2-3 twd, and been hooked ever since. project zomboid was such an insane experience in february of last year. such an eye-opener. easily the best zombie game ever made. 7 days to die is also a great game, the impending doom you feel every week is fun and refreshing from what i normally play while still have that survival crafting i love. i grew up on tony hawk games and wasn't sure which ones to put but these were the standouts, and i didn't want to load the list up with a ton from one series. i remember spending all my savings as a kid on saints row: the third and i still wonder if that was a good decision or not. i have played tons of call of duty in my day, although i stopped at ghosts, and have dabbled in and out ever since. black ops is easily my favorite, the campaign, and multiplayer, agh. zombies even. modern warfare 2 is a classic and one i cannot ignore. ghost looks cool. i have played HELLA sims 3 in my lifetime, yes i have played the sims 4 and i can confidently say the sims 3 clears with ease. i dumped crazy hours into the console ports and the pc as well. around this final stretch of the list is where i really struggled so i went for nostalgia with atv off-road fury 2. that series and mx vs atv were definitely a blast to 10 and below me, and might even be today. i'm not quite sure. if anyone actually finishes this, i am sorry, for i am the rambler.

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free feeling

i now understand the hype around posting things. airing out my dumb opinions and takes to absolutely nobody is really fun, i feel so free to just exist

me rn

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*i registered my last.fm account in october 2021*

this is my top 100 topster. looking at this, i realize i need to listen to more music! most of the stuff on here i definitely still listen to, but some not so much. i find it interesting there's a double entry for travis scott's rodeo, as sometime last year he updated the album to just be "Rodeo" and used the classic cover. another thing i find interesting or surprising is the fact albums like kid cudi's insano, and 21 savage's american dream make my top 100 considering they dropped this past week. quite a few albums appear for just a couple songs, most notably don toliver's life of a don. as of the time writing this, i have had "Swangin' on Westheimer" on repeat for nearly four or more solid hours. i can't get enough of that song. for the record, i did listen to the album in full when it released, but as of now my fav is 100% that one. growing up, i didn't listen to a whole lot of musio on it's own, or really on my own. i mostly experienced music during car rides or while playing video games, notably grand theft auto, guitar hero, tony hawk, and wwe. i am so thankful to grow up around games like those, one of those reasons being the soundtracks. i'm no music snob or anything of the sort, vast majority of my taste is extremely surface level, and i'm fine with that. things are *usually* popular because they are at least somewhat good, right? point is, i never got out of the box of liking rock music as a kid, but i'm expanding my horizons. it's so embarrassing to admit i found my favorite artist through fortnite, but i'll be the big guy and admit it. i think it might be obvious who that might be so, i'll leave that there. in 2024 i plan to listen to many new things, and hopefully find new stuff for my playlist. there is probably a decent bit i forgot to touch on, and i'm sure my formatting on this post is absolutely abysmal but hey, maybe not. my big playlist is below.

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an unofficial official start to tumblr, pretty much doing this for documentation purposes but we shall see