May will forever be my favorite month. And this one
has been a roller coaster ride.Talk about a month for changes. Shoot, May always
has been, from graduating high school, getting out of the Navy, getting
married, and now a major upgrade to a new PC and discovering I’m getting a job
change. And not to mention, eschewing wintry weather and spring rain for the
onset of summer. It was always my favorite time as a kid, and now if I squint a
little bit and tilt my head, I can for brief moments still capture that
experience.
Back 4 Blood on PC: Turtle Rock, who developed Left 4 Dead are back in fine form with this L4D rehashed with a ton more bells and whistles. It’s a great zombie shooter with friends. And the new card deck mechanic is the perfect cream cheese icing on a baking competition winning cake. The set pieces are wonderfully designed, taking Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2’s memorable backdrops and taking them to next generation. Weapons are variable and pack a punch. The game is a little pricey, but it often goes on sale. Pick it up so we can play!
Nothing Like it in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869 by Stephen Ambrose: Were Stephen Ambrose my history teacher in high school, I probably would have chosen a much different career path in my adult life. I’ve read so many of his books, and they’ve all been stellar reads. Though I’m not such a fanatic that I pull over on country roads and jump out to photograph trains rumbling by lonesome railroad crossings, I do enjoy playing railroad sims and railroad strategy games. I’ve always had a soft spot. So, of course, this book resonates with me on numerous levels. Did you know people in the 19th century thought if you travelled over 60 mph, you would die? And despite not having dirigibles or GPS or any other way to convey topographical information at the time, the railroad was built so true that today while driving over US Interstate 80 out west, you can see the original transcontinental railroad the whole way? It never disappears from view. What a testament to this amazing feat of human engineering.
The War of the Worlds on 4K Blu-Ray: Made in 1953, the estate owners of H.G. Wells was so impressed with this film, they offered George Pal the rights to any other of Welles’ properties to make another film. (He chose The Time Machine.) Discerning from the film’s commentary, this was Gene Barry’s best (and favorite movie he ever did.) In my opinion, Stephen Spielberg’s 2005 remake was the much better film, not only due to the use of digital effects and this generation movie making techniques, but the script as well. But given the time, this was a hallmark movie, winning an Academy Award for Best Special Effects. The technicolor is striking on 4K, and definitely well worth a watch, if even for its historical significance.
Fallout on Amazon Prime: We all know video games made into movies flat out stink. (Doom and Wing Commander anyone?) But Fallout is a glaring exception. Clearly an expensive production, this is a video game movie made with heart. I’ve still got a few episodes left, but this show has prompted me to reinstall the original Fallout and try yet again to beat the game and put it to bed. At first, I was taken aback that the main character was a female. Yes, I’m biased, I grew up in the generation where every video game hero was a man, and over 90% of gamers were male. I think it’s cool that the demographic has changed, and I embrace that numerous girls I’ve spoken with these days are gamers. But casting the protagonist as a woman in this show just works so well. She’s truly a character that has grown on me. Aaron Moten, who looks like the love child of Denzel Washington and Cuba Gooding, Jr., is excellent in his portrayal of Maximus. Good movies and good books have inspired me to do many things in the past, but rarely, if ever has a movie about a video game inspired me to have a crack at playing a video game.
Hunt: Showdown on Steam: My buddy, Gene Clifford, and I were down and out in this game when I encountered the enemy face to face who torpedoed us into the losing battle. I could hear him through his microphone talking to me, explaining he was having difficulties hearing me, and that he would help me if I promised not to shoot him. Fast forwarding a bit here, but he and I (and my entire Discord crew) are friends with him and his clan now, and we often play this fantastic looter shooter together. I have learned more in the past few weeks playing with Balky Bartokomous than I have in the whole three years I’ve played the game. It’s not often our group can go in and clear the map of all people AND dispatch the boss monsters. With its eerie southern Louisianna setting, and creepy moonscapes, and the foolproof audio intrinsic mechanic, this game proves it’s a great time to be a PC gamer.
Saving Private Ryan on 4K Blu Ray: The last time I watched this I swore off it, claiming I’d been “watched out” on Saving Private Ryan. My grandson just turned 14, so I thought, “Yeah, he’s mature enough now. He should watch it.” So, I sat through it one more time with him. And yeah, it was worth it. His attention was on the movie the whole time. This makes probably the 11th time I’ve seen it over the years, and it’s right up there with my all time favorite war movies. I take away something different each time I watch it. This time, it was John William’s great soundtrack. It’s just patriotic enough to make you feel like a proud American and for doing what we collectively thought was the right thing to do in the 1940s. And even the parts of the film in which there is no music are done so timely. It’s an OST masterpiece.
Maxwell Audeze headset: This month I decided to make the move to a wireless headset. And boy, what a move! This headset is audiophile caliber with planar magnetic drivers. It truly takes my HD music selections to new heights. It’s fun to simply listen to old songs I’ve heard dozens of times and hear new elements I didn’t even know existed. Admittedly, these things are heavy, and I walk around the house looking like I crawled out of the driver’s seat of an M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, but these things are the shizzle.
I9-13900K: My AMD Ryzen 9 3900X served me oh so well, and still has plenty of life in it, but it was time for an upgrade. My last two builds were custom built boutique rigs I had built for me. Despite years of building my own machines, I’m pretty much done with that. Too many DOA cards and bloodied knuckles all for what, a savings of a hundred bucks? Nope, not worth it. Don’t get me wrong. Every gamer should build at least one of their systems solely for the experience of doing so. Each time you glance over at your own personal beast, knowing you built it, is a feeling unmatched and only those who’ve done it will know what I’m talking about. But I’ve been there, done that, and thrown the t-shirts away. I get as much satisfaction being able to push a button and it boots up perfectly out of a store bought box. Speaking of, mucho kudos to Indianapolis’s MicroCenter for doing such a great job. I had initially gone with the Intel I9-14900K, but it runs hotter and pulls more power for a mere 6% gain. Not worth it. I instead went with the last gen I9-13900K and saved $200. You’ll always hear me extolling the virtues of 1440P resolution, which I still maintain is the sweet spot for PC gaming. I’m just not quite ready for 4K yet, and won’t be for some time to come. I went with a GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super, which is overkill for 1440P but not a true powerhouse card for 4K and I feel it was the perfect choice. This thing looks like it was lifted from the sleep chamber on the SS Nostromo out of Alien.
Fallout on PC: Like I aforementioned, it’s been rare that a book or movie impelled me to reinstall a PC game, actually, it’s a never. Seeing as how the Amazon series was so good, I had to reinstall Fallout and give it another shot. Fallout 3 was the only one in the series I ever beat, though I’ve tried to play the original Fallout three other times in the past, but never got very far. One roadblock was the clumsy interface, but not so much the interface, but the fact I just didn’t know what I was doing. Now that I’ve discovered how easy the interface actually is to use, it’s flowing much more smoothly. And I’ve set the combat and story to Medium, so this fourth attempt should be an all systems go.
