video games on Ryan Grier

Astro's Playground

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 21:00:00 -0400

I’m a fairly recent PlayStation 5 (PS5) owner (last Christmas). Astro’s Playroom is almost the perfect game. It’s free, easy, and short. It’s also delightful.

I played though this game over a few days and loved it. I got all of the puzzle pieces and artifacts. I didn’t get all of the trophies and don’t plan to.

This game comes with all PS5 consoles. If you can get a PS5, try this game out.

That is all.

'The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past'

Wed, 11 May 2022 20:00:00 -0400

I have a video game backlog that is about a mile long. So many new games to play, so what do I do? I play a game that came out in 1992, 30 years ago.

Last week, I finished playing through The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for about the 40th time. Not really, but I have played through the game a number of times.

I first played The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past in 1992. I fell in love with it immediately. I still play through the game from time to time.

Most recently, I’ve played through this on my Nintendo Switch through Nintendo Switch Online, which is an online service that allows me to play old games like this.

I think this game came out at the right time for me growing up. I had played Zelda games before and after this one. But this one stuck with me.

I don’t profess to be amazing at the game. I’m not. I die a lot. It’s more about the experience of the game. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past fits like a glove. I’m able to pick up the game and feel like I’m a teenager again. It’s great.

I’m conflicted on what I should play next. So many games. Too many games. Maybe I’ll play a new game. Or maybe I’ll play The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds on the Nintendo 3DS which is the spiritual successor to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

We’ll see…

Some of my favorite things - 2021 Edition

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 14:30:00 -0400

I’ve consumed quite a bit of content in 2021. Here are some of my favorites. Not all of these were released in 2021, but it’s when I enjoyed them. So I’m going to count them. And since I’m making up the rules here, I’ll allow it.

Books

In 2021, I read 43 books. I liked most of the books that I’ve read. I couldn’t put down either of the following books.

Favorite

My favorite book that I read this year was Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I really like his books and this was no exception. It’s a great Sci-Fi novel.

Runner Up

It was hard to chose a runner up. It was really close between any of The Expanse novels that I’ve read. But I think my runner up is Press Reset by Jason Schreier. It’s a great look into the video game industry when things don’t quite go as planned.

Movies

I don’t watch as many movies as I used to. I really enjoy watching movies, but I am alone on this in my house. So I try to sneak movies in here and there. Sometimes it’ll take me a week to watch a movie. I was able to talk some family members into watching these two movies though.

Favorite

Dune was such a good movie. I only watched it once, but can’t wait to watch it again. The movie also has an amazing soundtrack, which I have listened to multiple times (including The Dune Sketchbook).

Runner up

No Time to Die is a great ending to the Daniel Craig Bond movies. The Daniel Craig Bond movies are the only Bond movies I’ve seen, but I’ve enjoyed all of them. This one was no different.

TV Shows

We watch more TV Shows than movies. But we end up watching older shows like The Office, Seinfeld, Friends, etc.

Favorite

Wandavision was a bit of a slow start. Once things got going, they didn’t slow down until the end. I spent a lot of time reading the Wandavision subreddit theorizing about what might happen next.

Runner up

Ted Lasso (Season 2) was a family favorite. I think we watched the entire season over a weekend. We’re all looking froward to season 3.

Video Games

Along with movies, I don’t play as many video games as I used to. And I’ve actually gotten pretty bad at them. But I did play a few video games this past year.

Favorite

I both played and finished Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. I have a thing for Star Wars content. This was probably the best Star Wars game I’ve played in a while. I hope they make a sequel to this game. I had a lot of fun playing though it.

Runner up

Metroid Dread. I have a special love/hate relationship with this game. It’s an amazing game. But I am terrible at it. I died hundreds of times. I persisted and made it to the end boss.

I really enjoyed how Metroid Dread made me better at the game the more I tried (and died). I never finished the game though. I got to the final boss, got frustrated, took some time off and have probably forgotten everything I’ve learned while playing.

2022

2022 is just hours away. I have a backlog of content. I hope to make another list like this next year.

General Update: March 2021

Tue, 30 Mar 2021 22:00:00 -0400

It’s been a busy month. I’m not even sure where the month went. I figured I’d post a general update on what I’ve been up to.

Development Updates

I’ve been super busy at work, working on a new (to us) property. I’m not sure if I can announce what that property is yet, so I won’t. Once it launches, I’ll probably post an update here with more info.

As far as personal projects go, I’ve shipped a large update to Beer Style Guidelines. This update includes the Brewers Association 2021 Beer Style Guidelines. The release notes are here. I love updating the app with new guides as they come out, but I always forget how much work it is. I do a fair bit of testing the guide out before I release it, but I just know that I’m going go missing something.

This last few weeks, I’ve been really busy working on a few server components to another update to Beer Style Guidelines. It’s not ready yet and users shouldn’t notice any difference in how the app works. But this new set of server components it building towards some future features.

Gaming Updates

I haven’t been playing many video games this month. I’ve been so busy with the development updates above, it doesn’t leave a lot of time for playing video games at night.

I’ve dabbled in a few new games, but nothing has really hooked me. I think if a game hooked me, I’d find a way to play the game more.

Some of the games I’ve started:

I probably spent the most time playing LEGO Harry Potter Collection. I love LEGO games, they aren’t usually hard, and I can let my mind wander a bit while playing through them.

I stared Gears of War, but didn’t make it too far in. I’ve played through this game a few times, years ago. I have a lot of fond memories playing through these with my brother. But I just couldn’t really get into it again.

I finished the Pikmin 3 demo, but not sure I’m ready for the full game yet. I love the early game of Pikmin games, but I always get to a point where I get frustrated with the games. It’s probably because I’m bad at video games. I’m still debating whether I want to get this game or not.

I tried Hollow Knight. I’ve heard so many good things about it. It made me realize (even more) that I’m bad at video games. I couldn’t even get past the first boss (False Knight) before getting frustrated and giving up. I feel like I should keep at it, but I am just so bad at this game.

Book Update

I’ve read a handful of books this month. Looking back at the list, it was more than I expected. I listen to most of my books. It makes it much easier to enjoy books while I go for walks, runs, or while driving in the car.

In March, I finished these books:

Bossypants by Tina Fey
Into the Dark (Star Wars: The High Republic) by Cladia Gray
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Graphic Novel Adaptation by Alessandro Ferrari
Lead Developer: best practices and tips for lead software developers by Jeroen Leenarts

Bossypants was a fun, quick read. I like Tina Fey and the work she’s done. This book was written during her time working on 30 Rock (which was a great show). Tina is also an Eagles fan, so that helps immensely.

I am a big fan of the new Star Wars: The High Republic content that’s been coming out this year. It’s an entirely new era being discovered in Star Wars. I’ve been keeping up with the novels and comic books in this ear and have really been enjoying them. I listened to about half of this book in a single day during a long road trip.

I really enjoyed the art style in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Graphic Novel Adaptation. The graphic novel adaptation gets the bulk of the story across from the movie and the (non-graphic) novel adaptation. I still enjoying reading comics on my iPad. Although, I only really list the graphic novels or omnibuses on my list of books I’ve read.

The Lead Developer book was an impulse read of mine. I saw it promoted by some iOS developers I follow on Twitter, so I decided to buy it. The book is a good first version. There were a handful of typos throughout the book, but I could easily see past those. But the book does give a good overview of what a lead developer’s responsibilities are and some practical tips on how to survive as one. This is a relatively short book that I read in 3 or 4 sittings.

Wrapping up

This has been quite a busy month. I didn’t even cover the movies and TV shows that we’ve been watching. Maybe I’ll cover that in a different post, maybe not.

I hope to provide more frequent updates on the site. But I’m not always great with that.

Super Mario Odyssey

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 20:30:00 -0400

This past weekend, I finished playing through Super Mario Odyssey on the Nintendo Switch. The game flew by for me. I hadn’t even realized I was near the end of the story, and there I was.

There isn’t a lot to the plot. If you’ve played any other Super Mario games, this one has a very similar plot. Princess Peach was kidnapped by Bowser and it’s up to you to rescue her. It’s not very imaginative. But playing the game is a lot of fun.

Once you’ve finished the game, you can go back to all of the worlds and attempt to collect Power Moons. I did not collect every Power Moon in the game. I’m not sure if I’ll even go back and play through more. I had just enough fun playing through the main storyline. It was the perfect amount for me.

It was a very fun game. It also wasn’t too difficult to get through the main storyline. I’d recommend this for anyone who enjoys 3D Super Mario games.

I also have Super Mario Galaxy on the Nintendo Switch. I never played through this when it was out on the Wii. I’m not sure if I want to play through that or look for something else to play.

'Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order'

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 19:30:00 -0400

I recently finished playing through Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. What a good game.

I really enjoyed the game quite a bit. I bought the game when it first came out but kept getting distracted from it. This was my third attempt at the game. I finally finished it.

I played through the game on “Story Mode” which is the easiest difficulty. I used to play games on the hardest difficulty, but in the last few years, I just want to experience the story and not struggle with gameplay.

This game takes place a few years after Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith . I won’t give away any spoilers here. But it was neat to explore a whole new storyline in the Star Wars universe. This game has a new set of (main) characters. Along with some villains that were introduced in Star Wars Rebels (an amazing TV show).

There’s this great Uncharted vibe to this game. You get to explore and solve puzzles in a variety of environments. I loved the Uncharted games, and this game feels similar. The story is also good, but I’m not sure if it’s because of the game’s story or because I really enjoy the Star Wars universe.

I would recommend this game to anyone who likes Star Wars and environmental puzzle games. But who am I kidding? If they are into those types of games, they’ve probably already played Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

I’m not entire sure what I’m going to play through next. I’ve dabbled in a few games, but nothing has really grabbed me yet.

Pokémon Sword

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 21:00:00 -0400

This past weekend, I finished Pokémon Sword. It was a good game. I bought the game at launch and haven’t really gotten into it until a few weeks ago.

The storyline was interesting and being able to take another Pokémon trainer from nothing to champion is always fun. Plus collecting all of those Pokémon along the way is a nice challenge. I’m glad that I finally played through the game. If you’ve played a Pokémon game before, you’ve got the general idea of what this game is about.

I have purchased both of the DLC expansion packs (The Isle of Armor & The Crown Tundra). The Isle of Armor is out now, but I haven’t started the content yet. The Crown Tundra doesn’t come out until later this year.

The game has had quite a bit of backlash against it because the developers did not include all of the prior Pokémon in the game (like other games have done). This wasn’t a huge issue for me. I’ve only ever tried to complete a Pokédex once and it just wasn’t worth it to me. It would be nice for them to have included all of the prior Pokémon, only so that I can transfer them to the game from Pokémon Home/Bank.

I’m relatively new to Pokemon games. I’ve only been playing them the last few years. I’m not some diehard fan who’s been playing since the first game. I do enjoy playing them. Besides this game, other Pokémon games I’ve played through include: Pokémon Black, Pokémon Black 2, Pokémon X, and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire. It’s really not a lot.

I skipped both Pokémon Moon and Pokémon Ultra Moon. I own them both, but for some reason, I never played through them. I do need to go back and play them. I think I need a short break from Pokémon games before I do so.

I’m not sure if I’ll play the first Pokémon Sword expansion or Moon/Ultra Moon next. Like I said, I think I need a short break before diving back in.

'The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild'

Wed, 19 Aug 2020 21:30:00 -0400

![Photo by Ryan Quintal](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1566577134624-6f6cc4bb272b?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&auto=format&fit=crop&w=2100&q=80"Photo by Ryan Quintal")

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was the game to get when the Nintendo Switch launched. It was the first game I bought when I got my Switch. People love this game. It appears on so many “best games on Switch” lists that I see online.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. I just don’t like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I’ve tried playing it on three separate occasions. Each time, I’ve tried and failed to get into it.

This (above) was as far as I got in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

I’ve gotten as far as freeing two of the four Divine Beasts. But I’ve never gotten further. Something just stops me from continuing it. I think my main problem with Breath of the Wild is that the weapons can break. I don’t like the idea of breaking my favorite weapon(s) and not having a backup, or any weapon at all. I don’t know why this bothers me so much. Probably because it’s just such a departure from other Zelda games. But I hate this mechanic where weapons can break.

There are parts of the games that I really enjoy. The world is huge and you can explore anywhere. The differing temperatures throughout the world are a neat addition. The crafting was also interesting. The puzzles and dungeons are fantastic.

It’s not that I don’t like The Legend of Zelda games. I recently played through The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening on the Switch and absolutely loved it. In fact, I enjoy most of the The Legend of Zelda games available. I wish they would remake more of them for the Switch, like they remade Link’s Awakening.

I’ve got so many other games that I want to play, that I just can’t justify spending any more time on it. Life is too short to play games you don’t like.

Currently I am playing through both Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order & Pokémon Sword. They are both a lot of fun in different ways. I’ll have to write about them once I’ve finished them.

'Hearthstone: Knights of the Frozen Throne'

Sat, 25 Apr 2020 10:00:00 -0400

This is another post about Hearthstone and beating another Solo Adventure. I’ve done these sort of posts before for various solo adventures (One Night in Karazhan, Blackrock Mountain, The League of Explorers & Curse of Naxxramas). This isn’t the most recent adventure, I’m really behind on completing these.

Knights of the Frozen Throne was a little different than other adventures. Instead of beating the entire adventure on Heroic, you need to beat the final boss (The Lich King) with every class in the game.

It took me a while to find the right decks for all of these classes. All of the guides out there, are very outdated and I’m more of a netdecker (finding capable decks online) than able to create my own. Some of these decks may also be outdated now. I’ve been sitting on this list for about 3 months now. I believe some of the cards in these decks have been nerfed by Blizzard since I used them. I’ve been generally lazy about blogging, otherwise I would have posted this sooner.

My reward for beating this adventure is a Prince Arthas hero skin for the Paladin class (seen below).

Below are the decks that I used to beat the Lich King with each class in the game (except Demon Hunter).

The Lich King

Druid: Easy First Try Lich King Druid (substituted Kel’Thuzad for Arfus, Sub Feral Rage for The Lich King)
Hunter: [budget] Rexxar vs. The Lich King (substituted Molten Giant for Arcane Shot)
Mage: The Lich King Echo Giants Mage Deck
Paladin: FTP Paladin - Lich King Solo Mission
Priest: Lich king (one shot)(Big Priest)
Rogue: Standard|Lich King|Mecha’thun without Doomsayer…
Shaman: Lich King Shaman Mecha’thun Deck
Warlock: Lich King Warlock Mecha’thun Deck
Warrior: Lich King - Warrior Mecha’thun Deck

I went through these classes in order above. You can see from this list (specifically near the bottom) where I started to lean heavily on the Mecha’thun card and mechanic.

The Mecha’thun mechanic states that when this card dies “If you have no cards in your deck, hand, and battlefield, destroy the enemy hero.” This just means you need to burn through your cards, get Mecha’thun out onto the battlefield and then kill him. If you can set it up, it’s a very easy win.

There are a few more solo adventures available since The Lich King. They are mostly dungeon run style adventures. I think I am going to jump forward to take care of the latest adventure (Galakrond’s Awakening) before going back to these. I’ve heard that the adventure is fairly easy to get through. I’m planning on going through that and documenting the decks I’ve used.

Stay tuned…

On Quitting Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes

Mon, 28 Oct 2019 13:30:00 -0400

I recently called it quits on Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes. I had been playing it for almost four years. I know I’ve posted about this game before.

This was a game that I had liked for the longest time. However, over the last year or so, they’ve started making some decisions that really didn’t sit well with me.

I mostly enjoyed the Player vs environment (PVE) content. Raids, combat missions, even Territory Battles. I enjoy playing against the game/environment (rather than other people). This is how I feel with most games. The latest content in Galaxy of Heroes felt like a re-skin of old content and they just cranked up the difficulty exponentially. It felt like more of a chore to play it without any sense of Pride or Accomplishment (a jab at this reddit comment from EA - who also makes Galaxy of Heroes).

What I really enjoy are new raids and there hasn’t been a new one in well over a year. And the last raid was just so-so.

I was a fairly competitive player. I usually stayed in the top 30 in Player vs player (PVP) squad and fleet arenas daily.

I was not a Free-to-play (FTP) player. I did spend money on the game. Not a ton. But enough to feel like I was helping show my support to the game. I know that sounds weird. But it’s technically a free game and I wanted to help support a game that I played every day. So I would purchase things here and there. I wasn’t a whale by any means.

Over the last year or so, the developers have made staying competitive really hard. They’ve essentially put these huge paywalls in front of getting the latest/greatest characters in the game. It’s been like that for a while now. Previously, you would only need certain characters unlocked at a very minimum “gear” level to obtain them. If you were smart and read the tea leaves, you could unlock the necessary characters needed. Now, you need the characters unlocked and at an almost maxed level to have them. That’s very unrealistic to do without spending a ton of money. The window to unlock these new super power characters has also shortened from week-long events to weekend-long events.

Now these new character events do come around again. So I could wait for the event to return. I did that with the first of these character events (a Darth Malak event). I didn’t have the necessary characters at a high enough gear level to even enter the event. I did manage to unlock him the second time around. But I came up with an even better idea for the latest of these new character events (a General Anakin event). Why not just stop playing altogether? That’s exactly what I did.

Two weeks ago, a friend and I decided to quit.

I am so happy that I did. It felt like a huge weight was lifted off of my shoulders. I’m no longer checking the game every few hours for new guild orders or free energy. My dinner time hours are no longer occupied by trying to climb in both PVP arenas for the daily payout.

I should have done this sooner. I’m not sure I was really ready to though. I’ve finally had enough.

I have no plans on going back to playing Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes. The game was fun while it lasted. But either I’ve fundamentally changed, or the game has. I feel that we are no longer compatible.

So. What am I doing now to occupy my time? Not a whole lot of new things. I’m just enjoying not having this extra weight on my shoulders. I’ve been reading a bit more, playing a bit more of Hearthstone (single player only) and working on my side project.

It’s really been a refreshing change now that I’ve quit. I am so glad that I did.