The Mandalorian

 

The travels of a lone bounty hunter in the outer reaches of the galaxy, far from the authority of the New Republic.

A satisfying TV Star Wars series and a great start for live action variants, The Mandalorian takes place after Return of the Jedi but before The Force Awakens.

As a space western, the action and soundtrack are superb, and even though we almost never see Pedro Pascal’s face, he leads with persuasive acting, verbal and non. The supportive cast is solid too, including familiar faces such as Nick Nolte, Werner Herzog and Giancarlo Esposito.

The story is also interesting to follow as curiously, a baby Yoda is the plot device which lets all of the events happen. I am now also interested to know more about the lore behind the bounty hunters. I have spoken.

Rating: 8.0

The Witcher (2019)

Geralt of Rivia, a solitary monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts.

Based on the books created by a Polish author, and having played all of The Witcher games while beating 2 once and 3 twice including the expansion packs, I already knew who Geralt, Yennefer, Triss and Ciri were.

This TV series interestingly uses several timelines akin to Dunkirk(2017) in order to tell an overall narrative full of medieval conflicts, fantasy creatures and adult themes.

Henry Cavill leads wonderfully and faithfully, as he himself is a huge fan of The Witcher’s books and video games. It still feels somehow unreal that this franchise is getting bigger and bigger, but I am glad to have seen this in binge watch. The music is also very noticeable similar to the games.

Rating: 8.0

Panama and the Corona Virus Impact

 

After a financial 2019 drawback, I was saving my money and my vacation days, up until now.
Originally, I was gonna spend 1 week in New York with a mate of mine this month, but my ESTA got denied, ironically. Can you guess why?

Even if it got approved, we would still be blocked by what is now currently happening globally; the Corona Virus or COVID-19, because the U.S.A. decided to block international entry from Europe before I flew into Panama.

I knew that the outbreak was happening at that point in China, Iran and Italy, and it seemed that Latin America would not be impacted, but I was dead wrong. After walking through Panama City on the first day in just about 30 kilometers, the day after, everything changed.

As I took my Uber towards Miraflores Locks to check out the mechanics of the Panama Canal, the guards told us it was closed because of Corona. And soon after, all of the other tourist attractions closed, as well as nightclubs, swimming pools, gyms, parks and other points of interests.

In this chaotic confusion, because I was unable to discover on the internet or via Google Maps what was still open, I was still able to spend a day at Playa Veracruz, the beach, where I turned out to be the only one chilling out and having my back get sunburn there.

After this and the city trip, the Panama government and it's president kept introducing more stricter temporary rules, such as an active curfew from 9PM until 5AM, that only supermarkets, drug stores and some hotels would still be open, and worst of all, international flights would be entirely blocked for a month starting on the 23rd of march.

My very short vacation feeling then turned into days of stress as I was trying to reach out my travel agency and the air company, but they were unreachable because I was not the only one; atleast 250.000 other Dutch tourists around the world were stranded or were about to become so depending on the visited country.

At the very last moment, my dad back at home in the Netherlands, was finally able to speak towards someone of KLM, who managed to re-book my original flight(other bookings after that got either cancelled, or I was denied ESTA in U.S.A. , even for a transit spot).

Via transit in Rio de Janeiro in Brasil, I was able to escape the lock-down happening in Panama, or otherwise I would be spending at least a month or even longer, trapped in paradise in a hotel room, kind of similar to Dae-su Oh from Oldboy(2003).

I was only able to do a city trip in 1 day, and do 1 day at Playa Veracruz, that's it as far as touring goes. Luckily, I was also able to date 2 beautiful women; a Nicaraguan and a Venezuelan, and I had a wonderful time in different ways with both of them.

In overall, I underestimated the overpowering Corona virus, and as it consumed my vacation until it broke it down, I will promise myself that I will re-do Panama in the future, as well as Costa Rica, which I originally wanted to visit last Wednesday, but that country soon closed it's borders due to the virus too.

For now, I will have to stay at home in Holland, like everyone else, because my country is getting overwhelmed by the virus too. I just hope that a vaccine, a cure or group immunity will be able to help, and that secondary, I will get refunds of my failed bookings, and that thirdly, I will reset my vacation towards Central America.

Even More Mega Man Fan Games

  Mega Man Rock N Roll

Very solid soundtrack, controls and level design, challenging but fair, developed by one German guy, I am so jealous of this fan game! Only Mega Man Unlimited is better, and there are so many passionate fans out there. The Godot engine was used for this. The RM weapons were kind of meh, and there is no shop involved.

Rating: 8.3

 Mega Man Super Fighting Robot

Another Mega Man fan game, how does this one play out, and when will I develop and finish my own Mega Man fangame?(My “script” has been lying in dorment for years…)Super Fighting Robot has a weak plot like the majority of them, however there is a shop involved with useful upgrades, creative enemy design, and useful weapons from the featured robot masters!

Easier than the previous fangame, but I had a really good time here too! It even refills your 1ups per stage, so that I no longer had to suicide in order to restock with 2 lives again 😊

Rating: 8.1

Mega Man CX

A very silly parody of Mega Man, and games from 8 bit and 16 bits, Rockman CX is developed by a Japanese guy and lets you fight enemies such as Mario, Whispy Woods and Dr.Light(showing off as grandpa Ryu!) It’s definitely more of a hack with lesser controls than a fangame I can respect or take seriously.

Rating: 6.3