Video Games

[Mori Chu]

I just don't see how people beat Slay the Spire on these high "ascensions," like A20 they call it. It cranks up the difficulty to absurd levels. When I play that way, I get absolutely wrecked. I feel like I'd need to get a Ph.D in the stupid game just to play it at that level. A bit much for me.

[Kryptonic]

Balatro FTW!

[AmareIsGod]

I just don't see how people beat Slay the Spire on these high "ascensions," like A20 they call it. It cranks up the difficulty to absurd levels. When I play that way, I get absolutely wrecked. I feel like I'd need to get a Ph.D in the stupid game just to play it at that level. A bit much for me.

I am stuck on A14 with The Ironclad and A19 with The Silent. A9 with The Defect and A11 with The Watcher. You definitely aren't alone. It really ramps up the difficulty!

[Mori Chu]

I can't even beat A5. At some point it makes the game too painfully difficult and picky, where any small mistake ruins the whole run. I am not sure that I find it fun. But that's okay, the harder modes can be there for more hard-core players!

[AmareIsGod]

I can't even beat A5. At some point it makes the game too painfully difficult and picky, where any small mistake ruins the whole run. I am not sure that I find it fun. But that's okay, the harder modes can be there for more hard-core players!

Dead Cells and the Boss Cells after you beat the base difficulty. Balatro has these too, just like Slay The Spire. It's entirely why people love roguelites so much. I'm stuck on BC4. I'm at about 1,100 hours but still toss hours at it every couple of weeks. The Daily Challenge is really cool too, competing against leaderboards.

But I get where you're coming from. My best friend hates roguelites and has good reasons.

[AmareIsGod]

Been hooked on Tactical Breach Wizards lately. It's like XCom mixed with Into the Breach and Mario + Rabbids games. Plays great on PC and the Steam Deck.

[Kryptonic]

What's everyone playing? I have a huge backlog I need to work through between my Destiny 2 and Balatro grinds. Have a long drive coming up and bring a controller with me and work a Dead Cells grind. I'm pretty tapped on Vampire Survivors, which is usually my long drive go-to. E

Echo Point Nova is pretty good and need to sink some more time into that. It's so DANG FAST and that's an understatement. I think there was a setting to turn down the game speed and may mess with that.

[Superbone]

I just made a major discovery last week. I'm very close to my final body transformation goals after almost 4 years of working on it since the heart attack. I've been strength training consistently while attempting to eat at a caloric deficit. I'm down over 70 pounds and almost to my final goal. However, my cardio workouts have been inconsistent. I have an elliptical that I've used off and on but it's not a lot of fun. The fitness influencers say to get 10K steps in every day but I just can't get myself to do it. That's like two hours of walking. Plus...Arizona. Can't really go outside for half the year. So, I started thinking about alternatives and something came to mind...

VR

I started looking at VR fitness apps and two seemed to rise to the top from my research. FitXR and Supernatural. Oh, yeah, I have a Meta Quest 3, btw. Well, I tried Supernatural and fell in love with it. I had forgotten how wonderous VR could be. You are standing in these incredible landscapes with the sounds and water moving. Anyway, they have awesome workouts with great trainers. They have basically two styles of workouts. Boxing and Flow. Flow is like Beat Saber with two "bats" but instead of flicking your wrists, you're supposed to keep them straight and use more of the full body. Plus, there are lots of squats and side-to-side and lunges.

Anyway, I'm having a blast and have played for five days straight now. I'm getting in great sweats and you can even hook up a heart rate monitor to track your heart rate during workouts. I'm just using the chest strap that came with my elliptical. This is the secret sauce to get me moving while having fun doing it. It may even allow me to up my calories while finishing stage one of getting to my goal body fat percentage.

[Superbone]

Oh, I should say that Supernatural uses a subscription model. It's $100 a year but I think well worth it from my time with it so far. They keep coming out with new training weekly with lots of great music of all genres. Even jazz! They have lots of featured musical artists too. As you can tell, I'm blown away. Oh, and they also have a great and active Facebook group. Lot's of people that have been into it for years so you can see that it has longevity.

[Kryptonic]

VR is something I'm still wanting to get into but have been waiting for the refresh rates to get up above 144fps. I've been spoiled at 175fps and once you hit that, it's really rough going back. Yea, I know.. I'm a snob lol.

[Superbone]

VR is something I'm still wanting to get into but have been waiting for the refresh rates to get up above 144fps. I've been spoiled at 175fps and once you hit that, it's really rough going back. Yea, I know.. I'm a snob lol.

Gotcha. For me it's all about the wires or lack thereof. As far as I know, Meta is the only VR so far to accomplish this. But yeah, I can't wait for the technology to keep blasting off as I'm already rather smitten with it. Nothing like actually existing in the world with everything life size around you in every direction. I hope we experience anything close to Ready Player One or the like in my lifetime.

[Mori Chu]

I just made a major discovery last week. I'm very close to my final body transformation goals after almost 4 years of working on it since the heart attack. (...)

Congrats to you, Bone! Happy to hear about your achievement and success on your health and fitness. I know it's a difficult and long journey, and it took a lot of work to get where you are now. And ever since your attack I have been rooting for you to be in good health and wellness, so it makes me really happy to hear it.

I myself am trying my best to stay healthy despite raising four kids age 7 and under. I am not far off from my desired weight, but everything else is off; not enough sleep, exercise, or general calm and quiet moments to rest. Feel frazzled and burnt out most of the time. Trying my best to find time to get in a walk or bike ride or weight session, or a healthy nap, whenever I can; my body really needs more of it. Hopefully it will get better as they get a bit older! Can't put a price on good health.

[Mori Chu]

As for video games, I have a big recommendation for you all: Blue Prince. It's a first-person story-driven rogue-lite puzzle game. The story is that your rich uncle has passed away and has left his old mansion to you in his will, but in order to claim it, you must visit all 46 of its rooms. But the house has only 45 chambers; where could the 46th room be? Many of the rooms have mysteries, puzzles, clues, notes, and information in them. But as you enter each door of the house, the room on the other side is different than it was yesterday! What is going on? Why does the house keep changing every day?

As you open each door of the house, you get a choice of 3 options of what you want the next room to be. So each day you make a set of choices that leads to a certain house layout, maybe finding certain rooms and clues. Then at some point you reach a dead-end and go camp outside for the night, wake up the next morning, go back to the house which has reset itself, and try again. So it has that rogue-like concept of repeated runs where you mostly "start over" with a few small permanent power-ups retained but most of your stuff wiped out. And mainly you are gathering info, taking notes, learning about what is going on, trying to progress further next time.

No combat, not a lot of fast/twitchy reflex moments. Mostly about using your brain, thinking, taking notes, experimenting, and just try, trying again each day to see where the house leads you. Super fun game if you like mysteries, puzzles, and a gradually unfolding story that plays out through your gameplay and exploration rather than long cutscenes.

My wife and I are co-playing through it together on Xbox and loving it. Reminds us a lot of Outer Wilds in terms of the exploration and retrying and interesting story and clues. It's also on PS and Steam.

[AmareIsGod]

Thanks Mori! I'll have to check it out! I just got an incredible new monitor in my office. LG 45" 5K2K OLED Ultrawide. It has an 800r curve that is so immersive and works great when I work as well. The text and everything is so crisp.

[Superbone]

I just made a major discovery last week. I'm very close to my final body transformation goals after almost 4 years of working on it since the heart attack. (...)

Congrats to you, Bone! Happy to hear about your achievement and success on your health and fitness. I know it's a difficult and long journey, and it took a lot of work to get where you are now. And ever since your attack I have been rooting for you to be in good health and wellness, so it makes me really happy to hear it.

I myself am trying my best to stay healthy despite raising four kids age 7 and under. I am not far off from my desired weight, but everything else is off; not enough sleep, exercise, or general calm and quiet moments to rest. Feel frazzled and burnt out most of the time. Trying my best to find time to get in a walk or bike ride or weight session, or a healthy nap, whenever I can; my body really needs more of it. Hopefully it will get better as they get a bit older! Can't put a price on good health.

Thanks, man. And I can't imagine how tough it is with so many youngins running around. It was hard enough with two so I have an idea. But yeah, my best advice to take the best care of yourself as you can through it all. If you don't take care of yourself, you can't take care of your wife and kids. Prioritize sleep and sneak in those naps. Also, try to keep consistent on the exercise even if only a couple times a week.