Ghost of Tsushima

 

As if the PlayStation 4 wasn't filled up with enough great games in general already, as well as a bunch of recent samurai/shinobi based games that have impressed many, Sucker Punch ups their game highly with Ghost of Tsushima, the last hurrah of the PS4 generation.

Historically set during the Mongol invasion of the island of Tsushima, Japan, you play as Jin Sakai, who suffers from recent defeat, but is determined to fight back, recruit and overcome the army of invaders led by the ruthless and cunning Khotun Khan.

The breathtaking scenery as it's art style is mesmerizing, as it motivates to explore every inch and corner of this vast island, split up into three parts. Actually, back in 2016, I saw the island  from a distance during my ferry ride towards Fukuoki, but I did not pay it much attention then.

The Akira Kurosawa black and white mode is a really nice bonus that respects the legendary film maker too, as does the game in general with it’s mix of historial and fictional depiction of the Mongol invasion, while simultaneously being inspired by many of his movies.

Tsushima as an island is a great open world, or rather island, to journey through, as the game uses a clever and natural navigation in the form of wind guidance to show you the way, or alternatively, the island map will help out too.

Doing side quests and uncovering secrets in order to unlock new attack moves, better equipment and such is really worth doing too, as is exploring Tsushima in general. The soundtrack and setting felt very authentic and appropriate to me, and I played with Japanese and Mongolian voice acting.

Combat is addictive, satisfying and worthwhile to undertake. Being able to switch between 4 fighting stances, using a bow and several other projectiles, while being able to dodge, block and parry away, makes this accessible for the majority, with 4 different difficulties being available.

The cast of Japanese characters is compelling, and they are reasonable and likable enough, although the game barely has comedy in effect during this period of war. Numerous things can be done aside from the main quest, including learning new songs, chopping up bamboo, going into hot springs, petting foxes and following golden birds for more discoveries.

Ghost of Tsushima is a great finale towards the PS4 first party lineup, and the game also has a great emotional ending. It's one of the best open world games yet, it's highly successful in a critical and commercial way, and I also like the fact that the Japanese themselves are in love with it.

 Rating: 8.6

 

Get Equipped With Streaming

I finally did it, I decided to video myself towards a potential audience that might potentially grow and enjoy the way I will entertain and inform them through the way I stream, and what I show as content, primarily video games.

I started a Twitch channel and account named Flow Factory, and there I shall be streaming as quoted by myself; "Most of all, retro and modern, short and action packed, indie and AAA, challenging, horror, sequels, classics and new IP's. Maybe 1 multiplayer game at a time. PC for now, Sony, Nintendo and retro consoles in the future.

To support this, I have bought a HyperX Quadcast microphone, a HyperX Alpha headset, and a Logitech Brio 4K Stream Webcam. To channel it towards Twitch, I started using the well known Open Broadcaster Software, however I can also activate a year subscription for XSplit.

So far, I have streamed and beaten Mega Man 1 through 4, Furi, Katana Zero and Dead Space. With 9 followers as of this writing, it's a humble beginning. My experience so far has been a learning curve, as there is much to research, but I have also enjoyed doing the talking.

After being done with the stream, since from what I understand that Twitch will delete the streams in 14 days, I instantly upload them towards my YouTube channel, and also save them on an external HDD, for 2 backups. In that way, I can maybe give some light and life towards YouTube as well in so far as my own content goes.

Of course, while this is all new for me personally, there are millions of others who are used with streaming content. I intend to stream at least once per weekend, and maybe more if I feel like it. I will also consider over the longer run if I will be able to keep enjoying this, time and experience will tell.

At the very least, for now, Flow Factory will act as a supplement towards Flok Factory. Seeming as we are halfway through 2020 already, I may or may not pull the plug on this blog, or I could sustain it by combining blogging with streaming. And no, I am not interested in doing vlogging, yet.

Let's go stream something fun again, soon. And while doing so, I will do more research about equipment, tweaks, promotion, watch other channels and see how far this can go for me.

https://www.twitch.tv/flow_factory

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfvQLwgxxUzR6ELoTm_eIYA?view_as=subscriber

https://twitter.com/Flow_Rush

Ring Fit Adventure

 

During this worldwide Corona crisis, everything changed. Including the availability of a game known as Ring Fit Adventure. Suddenly, everyone wanted to stay fit inside while the Corona kilo's were stacking up, including mine.

As it has been sold out several times, fortunately I had the game in my possession back in late 2019. It wasn't until around June that I started out with it, despite hearing only positive stuff. As a spiritual successor towards Wii Fit and Wii Fit U, this game has reinvigorated the fitness genre.

The Ring-Con acts as your main fitness object where you will be able to use yoga techniques, perform motion controls and squeeze and pull with it to do more moves.  The Leg Strap acts as a supplement that will support your moves as it registers them back towards the Nintendo Switch's sensor.

It ships with an adventure mode which combines fitness exercises as attacks and navigation simlar to a rail shooter, while offering simple RPG mechanics to increase the joy. Through several worlds, you will collect more moves, items and abilities, while constantly thwarting up enemies.

Alongside that, Ring Fit Adventure also has mini games to let you play, including the recently added Rhythm Mode, letting you move along the soundtrack of the game, as well as some guest tunes. Mini games range from shooting up barrels, towards falling downwards and spinning up shapes of pots.

The game will also register and track your progression, while giving you fitness and health advice along the way. There is also an optional quiet mode available, if you don't want to disturb others nearby.

Ring Fit Adventure is best used to perform cardio and fitness exercise, while not so much for strength training. Depending on how old and fit you are, and what you define as fun, the game might be even more or less recommendable to you.

For me, it shows that Nintend has proved yet again that fitness and entertainment can be a fun combination!

Rating: 8.2

Life 3.0

 

Another recommendation I have now read as well, it shares a similar topic about the artificial intelligence boom or the singularity, with the previous book I have reviewed. Although I must say that I prefer this latter one, as it tends to be more varied and positive.

Life 3.0 depicts three major phases; the biological origins rendering and coming together as 1.0, the cultural developments of humans as 2.0, and the technological advancement which accelerates further as 3.0.

Before that, the book depicts an interesting hypothesis prelude where the fictional Omega Team, AKA the super intelligence that drives with it's own growth and thus takes over the world, asks the reader the question what it's post-goals would be after assimilating pretty much enough.

Max details chapters about AI getting more smart throughout previous decades, including famous chess and go players, and also goes through possible future outcomes as to how technology will shape employment, society and the rest of the established institutions and models.

While also wondering in how far AI weapons will we be able to develop, he has a positive outcome in general through his writings, because he argues that the goals of a so called artificial general intelligence will eventually align with those from humans.

He goes in deeper layers about goals and end-games in the last chapters, using consciousness, morality and meaning as major topics to accompany these goals. Lastly, he tells us about how much of a success the Future of Life institute has been so far, which wants to research and develop an AI safety program as a pre-caution towards the super intelligence happening.

Life 3.0 is accessible, thoughtful, provocative and luminous in the sense that it looks at the future with a bright view.

Rating: ***

Super Mario Maker 2

Bigger, better and ultimately more fun, this sequel brings the much requested slopes towards level
editing, and so much more.

Pretty much all of the content of the original return here, except that the many 8 bit costumes have gone away, unless I did not find them yet? Aside from Super Mario Bros. , Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. designed courses, there are also now Super Mario 3D World based courses, which acts as the most unique.

Each of the styles brings their own mechanics and physics towards them, and can be used with flexibility per stage designed, by simple transforming between them. Most of the assets between these 5 are shared.

A new single player Story Mode sees you rebuilding Princess Peach's castle while granting 100 levels that give a good introduction towards what you are able to make this time. After completing it, you unlock the hammer power-up, that lets you smash obstacles, and also create blocks.

With all of the DLC being available now, alongside being able to upload 100 different courses online, I can now also compose worlds similar to SMB 3 and SMW, where you can select which stages will appear per world.

Another interesting and potential fun feature is that you can make courses cooperatively and locally now, while online, you can play with 4 players simultaneously for user created courses. The types of courses range from standard and thematic, towards speedrunning, puzzle solving and Kaizo layers of Mario hell.

There was a time where I thought that the Super Mario Bros. 2 style was missing, but arguably, the Super Mario 3D World style acts as a successor towards that, plus a new power-up lets Mario and friends pick up and throw objects now, akin towards that classic style.

Super Mario Maker 2 is a worthy sequel, full of endless replayability, and I honestly don't see how they could top this for the foreseeable future.

Rating: 7.9