Growing Through Blogging

One of the most daunting tasks in blogging is making a schedule for writing and sticking to it!  Personally, for me, I am a night owl and most of my writing is done late night after the family has found their pillows.  I’ve been blogging a lot over the last few months, as well as spending a lot of time on my fantasy novel which takes most of my brainpower and writing focus.

Outside of the fantasy novel I’m working on, and the increased writing schedule here on the blog all my content has been with my podcast; All Things Geekery that my co-host and I do twice a month.  Podcasting was just the next step for my co-host and I as we had both wanted to get into it for a long time.  I’ve still got a huge passion for writing and always will, but my focus has changed on how that content is published and driven.  Which is all based around the outlets I’ve chosen to create material in like WordPress, Podcasting, Twitch, Writing etc.

My love for writing started when I was a kid and has continued through my adult years and blogging was where this crazy journey really changed things for me.  Blogging is such a great way for writers to grow and connect with an audience or just have that creative outlet for the pure enjoyment of writing. This outlet gives us a way to go in-depth with our topics unlike most social media outlets, aka micro-blogging outlets like Twitter.  I’ve enjoyed blogging for years and it’s given me a place to hang out with others in my little corner of cyber-space.  If you’ve spent any time at all blogging or writing, you know it can be tough and at times brings some stress with it.

So with that being said, here are just a handful of tips I’ve learned over the years which I hope help you all in your writing adventures.

1. WRITE THOSE IDEAS DOWN

You never know when a good blogging idea is going to pop up, so hot those things down!  I personally go old school and use a Moleskine journal for my blogging ideas along with sticky notes, which I use different colors for different topics.  It may sound like madness but it works for me and helps keep me organized for my writing schedules. Especially now that most of my writing is going towards my book.

2. BACKLOG & SCHEDULING

Learn to schedule posts best you can and how they fit into what you want your writing life to look like. If you have time and can do it, schedule posts throughout the week and keep a backlog of posts if you are trying to hit a specific number of posts per week or month that you can quickly choose from.

3. GUEST BLOGGING

Find you some blogging friends that will allow you to do guest blogging, and or co-blogging as that’s a great way to market your content and grow each other’s sites.

4. STOCK UP

You never know when an idea will hit and you’re looking for an image of sorts to show off this lovely idea you want to blog about. Browse through images you want to use for your blog posts and keep a stock in a folder for future posts.  This will help with the last-minute search for an image, though lately, I’ve been making my own depending on the topic.  See what works best for you and your schedule.

5. MAKE A LIST & CHECK IT TWICE

Make yourself a list of items to check before you hit that publish button.

6. BREAK IT UP

Break up your posts into multiple parts if they are running long. This will help keep the reader’s attention and hopefully coming back to check out those next parts.

7. CHAT IT UP

Use those comment sections as it can be a gold mine.  Watch for questions and good topics for conversations and even potential notes for future posts.

8. DON’T SWEAT IT / DON’T STRESS IT

Life happens and if you are like me well then blogging is a hobby, so don’t stress if you don’t make those post counts you wanted.  The best thing to shoot for is consistency but when you can’t don’t sweat it.  I try to post twice a week but that doesn’t always happen.

9. REFURBISH THAT CREATIVITY

Don’t fret about reusing previous posts or topics either.  You don’t want to repost the same exact post you’ve already used, but when you are in a crunch and the creative juices aren’t flowing, then maybe an older post will kickstart things again….rework that thing and use it!

10. LEARN TO HAVE GRACE

Give yourself some grace. This is a journey that should be filled with fun and moments of learning, but also filled with mistakes and curveballs!  When you find that crazy typo or sentence that makes your eye twitch, or just doesn’t make sense at all…..”DON’T WORRY” Learn from those mistakes and let those moments become part of the journey, part of the fun and something that makes you want to become better.

These are my bread and butter items I use whether I’m writing a small blog post, or working on my novel series.  Hopefully, these few items will help you along your writing/blogging journey as much as they have helped me!

Writing A World Of Fantasy

Doing something a little different for today’s post!  I’ve been putting a ton of time into plotting, world-building, and just getting that much needed time into writing on my novel series, so I wanted to share some fun tips I’ve learned along the way about writing in the fantasy genre.

Writing a fantasy novel is great fun – you can literally let your imagination run wild.  It’s a little different when writing a novel set in the real world as unlike books set in a reality where you can use real-life as examples, you’ll have to invent everything in your new fantasy world.  Do you enjoy writing, are you working on a fantasy novel, or have you had the notion to start one?  I hope the next few minutes while reading this helps you no matter what stage you might be in for writing a novel.

One of the best things you could do to kickstart things is to read as many classics as you can find!  No matter the type of book you begin writing this will give you a good idea about what works and what doesn’t.  Remember though that reading other people’s works is something to help with idea spawning and relax your mind.  You must take note not to simply copy the ideas you’ve read from any of the good old classics or other pieces of work you find.  If you find yourself dealing with elves, halflings, and orcs whilst being a reluctant hero on a quest to destroy a powerful item, it’s probably best to scrap it and start again. It is true that all stories are a combination of those the reader has encountered over the years. But, you should always try to find an original angle and it certainly should not be obvious what the source material was. Reading the classics will also allow you to discover how well-crafted characters interact with each other as the story progresses.

Tip 1: Use established myths and legends as the basis for your fantasy world. Think about what your fantasy world might be like.  Do your studying and find out what your world and culture are mostly like….Is it Celtic, Roman, a medieval world or a blend of multiple cultures with your own twist on it? Once you’ve chosen, go and read about the myths and legends that relate to those cultures. The mythological creatures and characters and their stories will give you a great basis for your new world.

Tip 2: Get to know your imaginary world – you need to be able to describe it in detail if you are going to convince your readers, for the duration of the book at least, that it exists. Be thorough and detail everything you can possibly imagine about the world you are creating.

• Physical – what does your fantasy world look like? Think about and make a note of:
  • the color of the sky
  • what other planets can be seen from the surface
  • whether the air is breathable
  • what the plants look like
  • what creatures live there
  • whether there are seas
  • what the landscape looks like
  • futuristic world or something older
• Residents – decide who lives in your newly formed fantasy world. You should spend time thinking about how they look, what they eat, how they move, whether they need sleep, how they speak to one another etc…
• Society – what kind of society exists? Do they need money to buy things? Is there a complex system of politics they follow? Do they have a police force, a king or president? Is there a religion?
• Special powers/magic – Do the residents have any special powers or use magic? If so, what are they and why do they exist? Does everyone have the use of them or only certain people?

Tip 3: Make your characters believable. This is one of the most essential parts of the book if you want to hook and keep readers interested in the story. A great way to achieve this is to apply logic to every character in every fantasy world you create. This means creating a set of rules that apply to the world and the character. The rules can be based on either real life or they can be simply invented by you.  Remember if you are creating the rules of the world, don’t let a BOX hold you back from being creative.  Sometimes creating our own ways is just the push we need to make that next step in our creative writing.

Tip 4: Make sure you keep careful notes of all the details you invent for your new fantasy world. This will help you maintain continuity throughout the novel. There are many ways of doing this, some writers like to have a set of cards with the details on, others set up spreadsheets; so play around with different systems to find one that suits you the best.  I personally use a book mapping chart I created in excel that helps me track all major parts of the book I need.  I hope these few steps help you get started, or give an idea of what steps to take next in writing your new fantasy novel!

Remember, have fun!! That is the first and foremost thing I can say when writing… Have Fun and lots of it!

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Review

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Let’s talk Destiny 2’s latest expansion Shadowkeep for a bit seeing how it launched just over a week ago and the community is quite busy with its current activities. Shadowkeep hit the market with one goal in mind and that was to make its place known it was a place for the hardcore community that’s been with the franchise for years.

Bungie came in with some extremely important changes to the sandbox and made heavy focus around customization, the MMO/RPG mechanics, high-end loot, and giving you more control over building that perfect killing machine.  Shadowkeep is doing so many things right and moving Destiny 2 in the absolute right direction and setting the bar high for the future of the game. We’ve seen a massive change in the game over the last few years especially with expansions like Forsaken, as Bungie seems determined to set things right and produce the game they really wanted and Shadowkeep is by no means an exception to that.

Everything this time around is super complex with the new customization system they’ve introduced for your Guardian.  Bungie has made a ton of tweaks on everything that has helped streamline the end experience on things such as armor, the menus and quest tab, the additional progression systems and how they provide more rewards and the customization options for those hardcore Guardians. For us veterans of the game who truly enjoy the “GRIND” of improving our Guardian and chasing that end game loot and experience then I’d say Bungie nailed it.

That’s not to say there aren’t still hurdles and walls to climb because there are and on of the biggest is for new players entering the game for the first time, or even a returning player who has been out for some time.  The amount of material that has been given for someone new in the game to learn and process is absolutely overwhelming such as the leveling systems, upgrade methods, power grinds, currencies and all the tidbits in between. Shadowkeep ultimately is the right direction for the game but only makes that problem of where do I start if I’m a new person worse…..I’ve been an avid passionate player of Destiny since the alpha days of Destiny 1’s launch so I’ve grabbed a hold of this crazy train and won’t be letting go anytime soon.  But for a new player, I can see where it would be harder to jump in at this point and time and know where to begin or what to do.

Destiny’s new armor system is absolutely amazing from a customization standpoint and downright almost MMORPG like in a way.  It ultimately gives us gun-slinging, alien killing, nerds another level to geek out on while making the perfect killing machine of a Guardian.  The new armor system brings a level of accomplishment and satisfaction the game has been missing for a long time but also has a level of complication to it, but not all additions in Shadowkeep make the game feel more complicated.  Take the new finishers that were added which are just a fun way to execute an enemy and give it some flare.  Finishers also provide a nice tactical benefit like damage resistance during the animation and the ability to instantly kill enemies at a distance, since most finishers have a large range.

When I jumped in for Shadowkeep’s campaign I instantly fell in love with the story as we get to walk alongside an old veteran of the game, Eris Morn.  The story has us visiting Earth’s moon once again to stop a terrible evil that has been unleashed which turns into a story of suspense, and some extremely action-packed moments.  With the moon being Shadowkeep’s main setting most of us veterans should feel right at home, but things definitely don’t look the same since the last time our Guardians were on the lunar surface.  We first spawn in to see massive gray craters that have been split open, revealing these green ominous lights and rocky hills that have formed all over the surface.  Along with the Hive doing their evil magic tricks around the moon, we now have ghostly phantoms located in every corner looming around and even calling out to you for missions which brings a fresh vibe to the new/old zones we all fell in love with from Destiny 1.

Though Shadowkeep’s story has some amazing chapters and great moments that engage you as a player, Bungie is setting everything up for the much larger story still to come.  We have a couple different story timelines all happening at once which honestly is a great change for me personally as you have the main overarching campaign with Eris and the Darkness, but you also have the Season of Undying storyline with Ikora at the heart of things along with an old enemy friend the Undying Mind. I’m still hoping some of the planned upcoming content like the new dungeon will pull some loose plot ends together a little tighter. Bungie has definitely made a great position for themselves to unveil this huge overall story plot across multiple years and I hope we keep getting content just like Shadowkeep through it all.

Shadowkeep also has a massive endgame list of activities to be had as well along with the new raid Garden of Salvation that just launched a few days ago, and the Vex Offensive which is one of the best events Bungo has ever made. Bungie has definitely narrowed the available sources of “powerful drops,” which dropped like candy before Shadowkeep and helped you level up, but now the systems are more focused on new content and the staples of Destiny which are Strikes, Crucible, and Gambit and that true endgame content. The new artifact system is a great addition that also makes understanding that endgame goal and power level just a bit more hardcore and confusing in a way.  Again, Bungie is adding all this content in for a true RPG experience and honestly has done a fantastic job bringing the new systems into place.

Shadowkeep truly is all about the “GRIND” so for the faint-hearted who don’t enjoy repeating activities or chasing that endgame, this expansion is going to be a rough place for you to have enjoyment.  The good news here is that the content Shadowkeep does add is largely great, even if it feels like there’s too little of it, and Bungie has a content calendar that promises more coming in the future, all of which is built into the $30 cost of this expansion.

The new raid, Garden of Salvation sends us back on a quest to take on the Vex once again and it looks to be packed full of new mechanics, puzzles, secrets and more. Along with the raid we now have a new Vex themed event called the Vex Offensive that I became a huge fan of.  It’s a new arena-style event that is quick, fast-paced, and a decent loot grind for a team of six guardians looking to have some fun killing the milk infused aliens. Shadowkeep as a whole has done a ton to improve Destiny 2 and has given it’s fans a massive taste of what’s coming in future expansions and content updates.  There is a massive grind at the end of that campaign and story so get ready to pull out those big boy pants and grind that endgame content.  This will make things a bit tougher for those new Guardians coming in for the first time because of the added complexity that truly caters to the hardcore Guardians that like the grind game. I’m excited for the direction Bungie has brought things and has set the story up to develop over the next few years.  I truly am excited to see where and how Bungie can continue to roll this crazy train out and what they have in store for all the Guardians out there.

Lost in Space Season 2 – Announcement & Official Trailer

We won’t have to wait much longer for Netflix’s Lost in Space Season 2 as it was just announced at New York’s Comic-Con it’s coming to the streaming service on December 24th, 2019.  Netflix also released the first trailer for season 2 shown below.

It feels like ages have passed since I finished watching that last episode of Season 1 thinking I can’t wait for Season 2 but that wait is coming to a close very fast.  Season 2 is going to take place seven months after the events of Season 1 wrapping up, and this season is going to have some major plots to work through.  Everyone is a bit older, hopefully wiser, and somewhat battle-scarred from the previous tasks they went through.  So I’m sure we are going to see some of the coming of age drama and the kids taking on a bit more of a grown-up roll.

Netflix also revealed a new cast member is joining the crew for Season 2 which is JJ Field playing the character of Ben Adler, the “Chief of Advanced Systems and Artificial Intelligence”.  This new character seems to have a big tie into the overall larger plot of the story unfolding as a clip shown during the panel had Alder telling the Robinsons of another AI, called Scarecrow which will tie the story together from the mysteries the Robinsons uncovered in Season 1.

Netflix wasn’t shy about showing new things coming to the show as they also previewed a clip of the Robinsons turning the Jupiter into a “Space Sailboat” to cross a sea on one of the planets they’ve landed on.  It looks like Season 2 will see the Robinsons exploring multiple planets in the five-planet system they discovered at the end of Season 1, and also find out more details about the origins of the mysterious Robot and where it truly came from.   I’m sure throughout the 10 episodes of Season 2 we will see more surprises and mysteries that the Robinsons will have to uncover and of course get themselves out of those tricky situations they are oh so good at.

 

The Beauty & Challenge of Writing Fantasy

Since I’ve been back to a more frequent schedule of writing both on my novel and here on the blog I wanted to take a look at some of the challenges of writing fantasy, scheduling time for it and doing what you love.

First of all, I just want to say how much I love epic fantasy, both as a reader and as a writer. To me, this genre is unmatched in the way you can make anything possible, with no boundaries on your creativity or imagination.  This type of freedom in writing opens up so many possibilities but also brings in a lot of challenges as well.

I think everyone who has put a pen to paper or their fingers on a keyboard has run into the issues of staring at a blank page and thinking about all the things you could put down on the said page. It’s hard because once you start writing, you can and will be constrained at times by what you write on that page.  When that light bulb moment kicks in and the initial idea becomes a reality for you it’s like a thrill ride honestly.  Not really knowing where it’s going to take you, or what is coming up around the corner can be exciting and frighting all in the same moment.

For me, one of the biggest challenges and joys of writing comes with the creative freedom you have over the story and how it’s being told.  Ultimate possibilities are within the power of your fingertips and absolutely no one can tell you what should or shouldn’t be done when writing.  There really isn’t a rule book when it comes to this stuff, as you as the author can invent entire worlds filled with culture, history, and whatever you want it to have.  The challenge though comes in once you start writing those ideas, as it must be consistent across the story just as things would be in real life, but you have a different set of rules you can play by per-say.

Another challenge you will probably encounter is around world-building and unfolding the history and creation in the story itself. I tend to immerse myself in the process, inventing names, cultures, beliefs, trying to envision them all in my head. This is extremely challenging and time-consuming, but once you have that idea solidified like you want it is very rewarding and freeing.

Building characters is also another challenging place when writing. It’s hard to stick to one point of view when writing an epic fantasy novel, so finding a balance between points of view to that character’s personality and connecting them with the audience can be tough.  I’m working on my first novel right now and it’s been a long enjoyable, tiresome, exciting time but the challenges have been overwhelming at times.

Overall I wrestle with myself a lot and the world I’m creating as I will spend hours trying to make things perfect before they ever hit the page.  Unfortunately this has caused a lot of unwritten things that probably could have been written badly and fixed while editing.  I began book plotting which helped with this madness and over the last few years has kept my mind somewhat straight on where the story needed to go…..and allows me to visually see the overall plot, sub-plots, and timeline.  When I began seeing things tie together, I simply could not believe what I was reading honestly.  I was kinda shocked that things were making sense and that what I was reading was working.  Ultimately, seeing this epic story, set in a made-up world come together is my reward.  Having that sense of freedom and joy while writing is hard to explain but for everyone out there who has experienced it and managed to push through the challenges knows how rewarding writing can be.

Keep pushing through those challenges, have fun with your writing, and pursue those dreams as the process of learning and seeing your world come together is so worth it.

All Things Geekery Podcast S3E16 – We Need The Bread

In this episode, we are going to discuss the imminent release of Destiny 2’s latest Expansion Shadowkeep.  We first do a brief recap of the current state of Destiny. Then we will discuss all the new places, items, and changes that we know are coming with Shadowkeep.  Finally, we will discuss our hopes for the expansion and where we think it will take Destiny.

Click to Listen: S316 – We Need The Bread

Show Notes

Current State of Destiny

• • There is sooooooo much stuff to do –
    • All Exotics quests are still valid,
    • All Pinnacle weapons,
    • Stories are still valid!.
  • PVE – Best state its been in since D2 release
    • Last 3 recent RAid still very valid and prove for a good challenge,
    • Major events – Black Armoy, Gambit Prime, Reckoning … will have you grinding for a while
  • PVP is in a rough place –
    • Supers dominate mid to late game –
    • Certain weapon types are just not used (scout rifles have been really weak for a while compared to others) – Sidearms are also another example

What is coming in Shadowkeep?

• New Light – All previous content to Shadowkeep will be free to ANY person that downloads – will have access to seasonal events
  • PVP all playlist –
  • Strike playlist but only direct access to year 1 strikes
  • New story content, exotic quests, raids
  • Everyone will start and get their light boosted to 750
  • Battle Pass – will have loot for both free players and season DLC buyers season pass buyers

Armor 2.0

• • Mods will be infinite and expanded to have many more options
  • Most mods will be tied to your element that your armor is
  • Transmogrification ← this will single handling causing farming for ALL previous armors to start again and make them viable
  • Make the Guardian look and feel how you want
  • Farming for Legendary Mods – behind difficult legendary quests

Back to the Moon

• • Some areas will seem familiar but will have been transformed some since we last saw the moon in d1
  • A Crimson Fortress has been built by the hive and nightmares of our past will be there to haunt us
  • Season Artifact – Possibility to go to unlimited power level
  • Finishing Moves! – Kill enemies with style!  Will also provide benefit to the user(finish enemy to spawn heavy brick)

New Raid

• • Heading back to the black garden to stop the vex

PVP Directories getting a rework

• • Glory rate will be achieved via Survival(Ya no more Countdown)
  • Quickplay will be changed to Classic Mix – Control, Clash, and Supremacy
  • Control only Playlist

Our thoughts on the future of Destiny after Shadowkeep

Be sure to subscribe to the All Things Geekery Podcast with any of your favorite podcast apps. Stop by and drop us a review so we know how we’re doing.

Thanks for listening, and we can’t wait to hear from you!

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Godzilla: King of the Monsters Review

Godzilla: King of the Monsters quickly sets the tone that it won’t be the same thing we’ve seen in the past. 2014’s Godzilla rebooted the classic king of monsters for modern audiences, but the latest portrayal of the iconic monster gives us huge monsters everywhere within the first few minutes of the film.  If you came to see monsters, then you came to the right spot as this film is loaded with a more classic outlook on Godzilla and other monsters from the past.

This film was well written and directed in my opinion from co-writer and director Michael Dougherty who you might know from an interesting horror film released on Christmas a few years ago called Krampus.  Dougherty has an eye for suspense and building a story, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters wasn’t short on drama, action, or suspense by any means.

Monsters everywhere in this film! Besides Godzilla, we get to see classics like Mothra, Rodan, and the Hydra King Ghidorah but this time with a little more classic thrown in that takes you back to their origins.  As for Godzilla, as we saw at the end of the 2014 film, he is clearly set on the side of hero and ready to do battle to help protect humanity. If you came to see an award-winning film loaded with Academy Awards and the best acting you’ve ever seen then this isn’t the film for you.  This is purely an action-packed monster film loaded with HUGE monsters destroying everything they touch.  The human interaction between the monsters is well done in most scenes, between the moments of fear to the occasional understanding that Godzilla is here to help.  All in all the actors pulled off a fun and exciting movie that was a blast to watch and fun to see what the director had around each corner.

We came to see Godzilla kick some monster butt, and this film delivered on that more so than any other to date including a massive monster battle including an exciting, final battle between all the monsters.  King of the Monsters keeps you engaged with its story, monsters, explosions, and more…..and if you are a Godzilla fan then this movie is everything you could have possibly hoped for.  The film looks absolutely amazing with its impressive beasts, to technology it brings.  One major thing King of the Monsters did was to give the audiences MONSTERS and a lot of them as the 2014 Godzilla film was a bit lacking, but I’m excited about the next installment…..that is if they pursue the little hook they left at the end of the film.

Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House: Season 1 Review

One of my favorite series on Netflix over the last few months has definitely been The Haunting of Hill House.  If you are a huge fan of the novel from Shirley Jackson written back in 1959 then you need to see this adaptation of the popular horror novel.  One of the best parts about this show is the drama it brings to the screen, but also a level of terrifying moments that truly dig deep into the roots of the horror genre.

Following the Crain family and the ghosts of their past in 10 emotional packed episodes left me with needing to see more of this show now.  The show starts with the Crain children, who, after growing apart, are tragically brought back together after one of the siblings dies. The Haunting of Hill House is loaded with a timeline you have to keep up with pretty close as each timeline is impacted throughout the season.

When the kids are young and still living in Hill House, they continually get visions of ghosts, zombies, and a tall slender man, but these visions follow them into adulthood, but most of these ghosts they face seem to be of their own making.  There’s a complex theme throughout the story concerning the house’s complicity in all of the kids’ failings as adults. This is where the show begins to take a really scary turn as things begin to manifest in the adult’s lives, and the plot really begins to thicken with a rich story.

When the story begins to expand on the children’s lives, Hill House and their father the scares kick off big time.  In the flashbacks with the children, the directory used an amazing slow camera pan technique that really added a dark feeling to the overall story. While the children are the main focus of the narrative for Hill House, a family tale of ghosts and curses wouldn’t be complete without Mom & Dad.  Hugh and Olivia Crane are introduced early on in the show but with a twist that unfolds throughout the entire season.  Carla Gugino plays Olivia Crain, and Hugh Crain is played by Timothy Hutton which the two made a great pair and delivered some amazing performances.

Olivia like here children are affected by the house, but you also see a woman who is losing grip on reality which could be due to a troubled marriage, and stress of raising her five children.  The director did something brilliant through the telling of the story and how things unfold to create a doubt in your mind as the viewer.  You truly aren’t sure if what you are watching unfold on screen is because of a crazy family with mental issues, or if this family truly is seeing ghosts and have been living in a haunted house.  Personally, the Haunting of Hill House has been one of the best Netflix original horror series released to date.  Season 2 can’t get here fast enough to continue the unfolding of America’s most haunted family and haunted house.

Beyond: Two Souls – Review

Beyond: Two Souls has been a roller coaster ride of a game – This interactive drama has been hard to focus on the story and also understand what on earth is going on at times.  Beyond felt muddy with its plot and the level of story packed into this one game was insane.  Honesty this game should have probably been broken up into a series, with a better plot layout and understanding of what the ultimate goal is.  This game overall lacked consistency in its story and character development for the most part.  Really the only thing that had somewhat of a consistent story flow was the main character Jodie Holmes.

Jodie’s story is told in chapters out of chronological order across a span of 15 years of her life.  Jodie is a little girl when the game starts, but you move into her being a teenager and a young woman, and then back to a little girl.  Jodie has a spirit in-game called Aiden that you can control depending on the circumstance presented in the game and portion of the story.

With the story hitting multiple areas of Jodie’s life and timelines across multiple ages the story get’s confusing fast. I always felt that I was never really caught up with the story or narration that was happening on screen which was disappointing.  Personally, I feel the plot was not well written as even if the story was told in order I feel it would still be confusing.  I so wanted this game to be engaging with a deep story and character development that would draw you into the plot, but this was far from what actually happened.

Every once in a while the story did have some amazing moments that sparked a little hope for me in what was coming at the end.  One thing that the voice actor Ellen Page who played Jodie did was bring an emotional connection for the audience to care for Jodie and connect with her.  The rest of the cast seemed to struggle in bringing the level of emotion, and connection it took to really play the lines well enough for you to care for any of the other characters that were unfolding in this story.

Overall the game just had too much missing for me to really enjoy the gameplay and story.  The systems put in place in the game were simple to use, and the interaction you had with items and people in the world seemed very streamlined.  Using your ghost, Aiden, seemed to be pretty streamlined as well.  You can switch to your ghostly companion which gives you a first-person view and allows you to move through walls, ceilings and even possess certain enemies.  You can’t always switch to Aiden so you had to wait until specific moments in the game before you could use him.

Combat in the game was ultimately disappointing, with a system that felt very clunky and hard to use due to the lack of time you had to make decisions.  Whether dodging, blocking, punching, kicking, I found myself doing the opposite of what I wanted to do most of the times including moving in the wrong direction even though I was moving the thumbstick in the correct direction.  Honestly, the combat was almost pointless as Jodie could get completely mangled, and die in multiple different forms and it wouldn’t ever feel like the story was really affected…..as Aiden would always be there to heal her and get her right back to where you left off.

Beyond’s choices you end up getting to make just never felt large enough to me as though you are just a passenger on a story you can’t actually be a part of.  You can choose how Jodie responds in conversation throughout the game, but those choices just felt small and that the story is going to go on no matter how you play.  To me, a dramatic story-based game like Beyond should have large and small moments that suck you into the story and make you feel as though your a part of the outcome.

Beyond is an absolutely beautiful game with its scenery, well crafted landscapes, and the story was good enough thanks to Ellen Page and her voice acting.  Overall though this game seemed like more of a well-crafted game cinematic that you get to be a viewer of but not actually have any impact of what happens in-game.  Playing beyond was overall an interesting experience for the story, but it was not a good game at all due to the sporadic plot, lack of engagement that made it feel like you were part of the world, and lack of character development.

Stephen King’s IT – Chapter 2 Review

We’re back with more of the creepy clown Pennywise and the Losers Club kids who are now all grown up.  IT chapter 2 feels a bit disconnected to me with issues bringing the story to a solid close at certain points, but still has that creepy make you jump factor. Overall it has solid performances from the actors, but by no means out does it’s 2017 hit of chapter one.

With the constant flashbacks throughout the film, it gives a very broken feeling to the overall story and doesn’t have a smooth transition like chapter one.  The first half of IT chapter two rushes a bit as it introduces all the adults of the Losers Club.  Yes, all the kids are now adults, and they have come back to kill Pennywise once and for all!

After you get introduced to all the adults of the Losers Club, the speed of the overall story slow down a ton and you get a flashback of the young Losers Club in a clubhouse scene that wasn’t part of the first film.  The young actors may only play smaller supporting roles in chapter two, but just like the first film, they did an absolutely amazing job!  Even though chapter two focuses on the adult Losers Club, the characters to me just didn’t have the same impact that the kids did in the previous film.

All of the adult Losers Club, however, did have a natural chemistry on screen together that didn’t feel manufactured from a script.  They all had a genuine affection for one another, just like they had all been friends for most of their lives.  Each of the adults has their own unique fears they are still facing having survived the onslaught of horror from the first film.  I just wish the story would have been pulled together in a more seamless way instead of so sporadic as it jumps around way too much between the flashbacks, and I think drops a lot of the meat of the story.

A lot of the film does focus on the adults splitting up on a mission to go find items from their childhood that they need to take on Pennywise.  This is where we begin to see a lot of flashbacks from their childhood, which bring new scenes from that summer they met Pennywise in the first film.  IT chapter two has a long runtime of almost three hours and it can feel like a three-hour film at times as well.

IT chapter two had a ton more CGI than the first film did which was disappointing as it didn’t feel as nostalgic as the first film did.  The CGI wasn’t the best either and really pulled away from the enjoyment of such an epic horror classic. On the plus side, the film had some truly amazing scary moments that made up for some of the sporadic plots.

Overall I really enjoyed the film but was also disappointed as I was wanting more of that feeling we got with IT chapter one.  Even with the great performances from all the adult and teen actors, the overall story and use of flashbacks, and the fact they just never seemed to really find a good footing to land the plane took too much away to give this story it’s epic finale it deserved.