Night Falls Fast

[pshaw_raven]

I conked out early last night. I'm enjoying getting some extra sleep, and the time change is messing with me, because it's so dark out early, it feels like bedtime. I ended up not running yesterday, but today I plan on wrapping my toes and heading out for a three-miler. I ordered some silicone toe caps, but they won't be here until Saturday or Sunday, because apparently there's a holiday this week or something.

I finished playing Axiom Verge 2 - well, I finished the main story. You can re-open your saved game and start from the shrine right before the final boss, and then go back to clean up collectibles and such. I apparently managed to finish with less than half the weapons and upgrades, LOL. I enjoyed the first game Thomas Happ made, and was really looking forward to this one, too, and it didn't disappoint me. My only complaint is that while I enjoy exploring and poking around, some of the exploration mechanics can make it difficult for me to figure out where I am. This game features the ability to leave the Breach at any point, and in some places you have to enter, leave, and re-enter the Breach to get to places in the Overworld, and I'm just left sitting there wondering where the hell I am. Yes, I can see the map, and no, it's not helping. XD

I picked up Little Nightmares 2, and a DLC bundle for the first game, which I plan to go back and finish next. I got a little stuck because I was achievement hunting, and replayed "The Kitchen" so I could get "Kitchen Hand." With the extra DLC areas available to me, I'm looking forward to playing again. I also need to finish up Bendy and the Ink Machine, but I'm very stuck on the last boss. Like, seriously stuck. I've watched numerous videos of people beating this thing, but I can't seem to get more than two hits in. It's one where I'm going to just have to embrace the grind and play every night until I get it.

I'm also in the middle of Okami and Transistor, both of which are really good, but they're so involved, I can't really split playing them with other games. I can go play Hades for an hour, and then come back to it a week later and just pick it up again. Okami requires more sustained focus, for me anyway.

My neighbors are having Jamie's mom over this week, and I got to meet her yesterday. I also got to watch the littlest child have a meltdown because he wanted to hold a brown beetle one of his sisters found. I also had to suppress the urge to be "that person" and tell them how they could make a little terrarium for the beetle and so keep it indoors as a pet. This is coming from someone who routinely kept roly-polies as pets, along with crickets and caterpillars.

Finally - and this is very important - there is a Red-Bellied Woodpecker at my feeder.

Comments

[theradicalchild]

I played Transitor, and it felt like a cross between Final Fantasy XIII and Parasite Eve. I had recently gone through Bastion again, though didn't like it as much as I did when I first played it.

I liked Okami as well, though didn't care much for the unadjustable text speed and gibberish vocals.

[pshaw_raven]

I understand why Okami is still like that, but I really wish that when they ported it to PC, they made some of the dialogue skippable. Especially things you've already heard before. Fox is sort of used to it because he played through multiple times on a console, but I'm ready to claw my own eyes out if I have to listen to Issun explain something for the twelfth time. I'm surprised someone hasn't come up with a mod for it.

I like Transistor, and I'll probably recurse through it again just for fun. I need to finish the game I'm on, because I stopped right before the last boss fight, wondering if I'd missed upgrades or something. It's also interesting to me to see Super Giant developing ideas on that game that they went on to use in Hades, which I've thoroughly enjoyed ... and also not finished yet, LOL.

[cdayzee]

I don't know what it is, but for some reason, this year it seems as if it gets darker way earlier than before. I swear, by 530p, it feels like 830 or something.

Do the toe caps work pretty well?

[pshaw_raven]

I'm with you - I don't remember the early darkness feeling so late. I assumed maybe I just needed extra sleep for different reasons, but it really feels like the middle of the night at eight.

The toe caps haven't arrived yet, alas. I've been taping my toes with non-stick gauze and coach's tape. It sort of works, but it's bulky, which causes more problems when I get my running shoes on. A lot of trail running blogs I've read swear by the toe caps, because they're soft and squishy, but not bulky. We're heading out today to watch some of the Black Friday shopping insanity, and I'm going to look for some water-based lube to put between the irritated skin and the silicone.

[cdayzee]

You'll have to let me know how the toe caps end up working. I've used other things in the past that have been given to me by podiatrists but as you said, they end up adding bulk & creating other issues.

Were shoppers crazy where you live? My husband went out early [6a] to get an item from a local store for our grandson & he also went to a couple other places, but he said every place was pretty much dead, which is a rare thing around here.