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Weekend Gamer Update: Memorial Day Weekend

Windows 11 Pro Product Description Instantly productive. Simpler, more intuitive UI and effortless navigation. New features like snap layouts help you manage multiple tasks with ease Smarter collaboration. Have effective online meetings. Share content and mute/unmute right from the taskbar (1). Stay focused with intelligent noise cancelling and background blur. (2) Reassuringly consistent. Have confidence that your applications will work. Familiar deployment and update tools. Accelerate adoption with expanded deployment policies. Powerful security. Safeguard data and access anywhere with hardware-based isolation, encryption, and malware protection built in. Read More MicroSoft That’s because I just bought the Microsoft Office Professional 2021 lifetime license for $30, after reading about it on C-Net. The article referenced Stack Social, which I’ve never heard of until today. …

It’s Memorial Day Weekend, which means I have this Monday off and it’s a long weekend for me. As usual with these holidays, there are a lot of sales and deals all across retailers. I’m planning on going to a few Half-Priced Books to take advantage of their 20% instore purchases. The problem with HPB is that their stocks are limited and are vastly different from store to store. You never know what you are going to see, day to day, store to store.

Best Buy is selling a lot of Bluray for under $10… but the cool thing is that the new Pixel 7a is being sold for $450, the first sale price since it was launched on May 10. That was fast! Even though it’s a $50 savings, it’s still not enough for me to want it. I’ve already committed to buying the upcoming iPhone 15 Pro Max, so I need to set aside roughly $1,200. I was never an iPhone guy, until I started using the $25 unlimited data/phone service from Visible. Now, it’s impossible for me to break away from the Apple ecosystem.

Anyway, over at Stack Social, I just purchased Windows 11 Pro for $40. This is the full product key, not an “upgrade” key, meaning you could use it on a freshly built computer. I just basically upgraded my Windows 11 Home on my current computer.

For most people, Home is just fine for everyone. There are some differences, such as local accounts and Hyper-V and some extra security options (as well as more faster updates), but for the most part, I personally didn’t need to upgrade to Pro… But the sale price was so good (it’s normally $199), that I couldn’t pass it up. As of this writing, I don’t have buyer’s remorse.

When Windows 11 first launched in late 2021, video gaming was a problem with stutter and lag… but it was related to driver issues for video cards. Now that it’s been out for a few years, there are no issues with gaming. Since I started using Windows 11 Home in Nov 2022, I have been impressed with its performance over Windows 10.

Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition

Speaking of games, Epic Games is offering Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition for free. You guys know I love Fallout, so naturally, I’m going to encourage you guys to get it for free. Of course, I already own this on various platform (GOG, Steam, Xbox, etc.), and you can usually find it on sale.

This is the Ultimate Edition, which means all the DLC are incorporated in this game, so there’s a ton of great content to go through.

Of all the Fallout games, New Vegas is one of my top three. A lot of fans did not like the game when it first came out, but over time, I believe they’ve turn around and would agree with me that it’s a great game. The game is 13 years old, and it could benefit from a remaster or remake of the game, in my opinion.

Also, ROG Ally Update: On the day that it was available to pre-order on May 11, 2023, I overreacted and immediately ordered it from Best Buy. It was at a location and a time (noon-ish) and at Best Buy, that I normally don’t buy from online, and at such a high amount, that the unusual activity alerted my bank to issue a stop on my bank card. I had to basically go to the bank and told them that I did purchase the ROG Ally. Unfortunately, the bank already put a stop on the payment. That’s fine, I suppose I’ll just have to go to the physical store on June 13th to see if I can just buy one at their store. It kind of sucks because my local Best Buy closed this year, so I need to travel to another city to visit a Best Buy now. You know, all this could have been prevented, if ROG Ally would just make it available at all retailers… meaning if I had purchased it from Amazon, my bank would’ve just allowed it.

I suppose it’s probably better this way. Now that I’ve seen early reviews, it’s not exactly “twice as fast” as they’ve been claiming. The truth is, it sounds like the ROG Ally is about the same as the Steam Deck… the only difference is that the ROG Ally runs Windows 11 out of the box. Basically, once I get the ROG, I’m calling it my ROG GOG because it’ll be my GOG and Battle Net machine. I just cannot wait to play Diablo IV on handheld.

Yours,

Weekend Gamer

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vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

The Last of Us

Read More The Last of Us As for The Last of Us, I'm in the middle of the game right now. It's hard. The clickers are impossible to kill, basically one attack will kill you right away. Having said that, the play style is a lot more fun than Beyond: Two Souls ....

The Last of Us
hbo.com

I love the video game The Last of Us, probably my personal Game of the Year in 2018 for the PS3. The game was so good, that I re-purchased it for the PS4. I probably would’ve have bought the PS5 version if it wasn’t so hard to find the Sony console. I kid, I saw one at a retail store, but am waiting for a “slim” or new version. I absolutely hate the look and massive size of the current PS5 console (I think it’s ugly).

I love the game, I know the story well, so I’m very interested in this HBO Max’s television show based on the game.

I just saw the pilot, and there are some sequences that are straight out of the video game. Of course, the show made some changes to the story, like adding more store to Joel’s daughter. It’s weird, but the show cast a girl that doesn’t look (or mix race?) anything like Joel. As for Ellie, they also cast the girl from Game of Thrones… and she doesn’t look anything like the girl in the game. Personally speaking, I would have preferred they casted someone who looked like Ellen Page. I get it, they cast people who can act, but it’s just my personal preference to have them look exactly like the characters in the game.

I think whenever they lifted the scenes from the game, I’m very happy. It’s when the show decides to change things or add stories and characters that has nothing to do with the game, that’s when I’m not interested. There’s enough from the game that I think the pilot does a good job in setting up the story.

As for the story, if you’ve never played the game, it’s about how this fungus destroyed the human race. It’s somewhat based on real life fungus that would take over ants and control them, like puppets. Anyway, this random girl, Ellie, may hold the key to saving humanity, and it’s up to Joel to transport her across the country. It’s a simple story, I don’t know if they can stretch it out to more than one or two seasons.

Here is my fear: I haven’t played the sequel to The Last of Us, but I’ve heard fans absolutely hated the game. According to these gamers, they made Joel into a bad guy and everybody revolted against it. So my fear is that fans will absolutely hate Season 2 or something. I don’t know, I haven’t played the second game, so I’m reserving judgement.

I am excited enough that I may re-buy The Last of Us for the PC when it is available on Steam (which I previously mentioned will be available Mar 3, 2023).

Update: Now that I’ve seen up to Episode 3 of The Last of Us, I thought I would share my opinion on what I’ve seen so far.

Of the three episodes, I think Episode 2 is by far the best. That’s because it’s so close to the game, that I’m really happy how it turned out.

I hated Episode 3, because it had nothing to do with Joel & Ellie. For whatever reasons, the show creators devoted a whole 70 minutes to two random characters Bill and Frank. Look, it’s a beautiful love story… but it didn’t really fit into the grand story! I wish HBO Max would have made this episode a “special”, I wouldn’t have an issue with it. Instead, I’m spending so much time with Bill & Frank, and it’s all for nothing! Maybe they could have cut the time in half and devote half the episode to Tess?

In the video game, you do meet one of these characters, but it’s a totally different story. In the game, the two hated each other.

Of course my opinion on Episode 3 is in the minority… as the whole world seemed to love this episode.

I’m hoping Episode 4 goes back on track and we can see those deadly fungus creatures and more action.

The show is doing so well that they’ve already announced a Season 2!

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Prime Gaming: Dishonored 2

Read More GOG As you know, I’m a huge GOG (Good Old Games) fan and was very excited about the news of GOG Galaxy 2.0 in June 2019. I have been using the GOG Galaxy …

I always forget that Amazon has their weird Prime Gaming (over at gaming.amazon.com).

Every so often, Amazon actually just gives away games - providing that you are a Prime Member (which I have through my brother’s membership under the family extension). I guess it’s just one of the perks, such as free video stream of some of Amazon’s library (including their own funded shows such as Reacher and Jack Ryan).

Recently, for the Christmas holiday, Amazon is giving away Dishonored 2 for free via Prime Gaming. But the best part is that you do not need some sort of Amazon launcher, the free game will be redeemed through GOG, which is the gaming platform that I had championed for years.

I do actually own the Dishonored series on Steam, so I have played a bit of it. I’m not a massive fan of sneak games… and so I didn’t really give Dishonored a chance. It’s just a nice way of saying that I didn’t really like the game.

Speaking of GOG, currently they are running their own Winter Sale, which rivals Steam’s Winter Sale. Unfortunately, due to GOG’s stance of DRM, some Triple A games, such as God of War, can’t be sold on GOG.

While you’re over at GOG, they’re giving away Worms Revolution Gold Edition for free.

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

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vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Humble Bundle

Read More Humble Bundle Game On: Humble Bundle I already own at least five of these games (on discs and digital), but I couldn't resist paying the average price to get these games again. When I donated, they gave me a breakdown of how ....

I’m currently a Humble Bundle subscriber since September 2022 when I got my Steam Deck. I previously joined for one year, starting April 2019 to April 2020, because it was a great way to building up your Steam library without paying too much. The only downside is that you don’t actually know what you’re going to get.

It’s a good deal, but unfortunately, because you don’t know what games you’re going to get - you may end up getting duplicate copies (if you previously own these games).

Anyway, there are some great charity Humble Bundle going on this month.

The Essential Content Creator Bundle

First, I wanted to spotlight the The Essential Content Creator Bundle, from Magix. You get six software (one of the software ProDAD mercalli v5 is only good for two years), but the clear stand-out product is the video editor VEGAS Pro 18 Edit. This is a $250 software that you can get for $25. For $25, it’s worth it just for Vegas alone.

Just a little background, but I used to use Vegas when it was own by Sony, it was one of the best video editor that rivals Adobe’s Premiere. Sometime in 2016, Sony sold it to Magix.

I own Vegas Pro 14 and I recently tried to install it on my new Lenovo Legion PC and it wouldn’t register unless I de-activate previous installations. Keep that in mind if you intend on installing the software on various computers.

When I installed it on the new computer, last month, I contemplated on actually paying $150 to upgrade to Vegas 18… but I decided against it because it’s just too expensive. I’m glad I waited, because now I can upgrade to Vegas 18 for $25.

The other amazing deal is the Black Friday Encore: Lone Wolf & Cub and More by Koike from Dark Horse. If you missed the Black Friday deal (like I did!), here’s your second chance. For $18.00 you are getting over 7,000 pages of Lone Wolf and Cub. That, by itself, is an amazing deal. You also get Kazuo Koike’s other works like Crying Freeman and Samurai Executioner. I’ve own most of Koike’s works, so was happy to see they’ve included some books I’ve never read before.

I started reading Color of Rage, and it’s a hoot. It’s about two prisoners who escaped from a slave ship. One of them is a ronin and the other is a black man. The two travel throughout Japan helping people and trying to survive. It’s about racism, it’s about a stranger in a strange land... it would make for a great television show.

I’ve been reading the manga on my iPad Pro 12.8, and although it looks fine… the battery life is terrible and reading for an extended period time on a glossy LED screen is not recommended. I’ve been giving a lot of thought on buying the new Kindle Scribe (10.2 inch) or the Boox Nova Air Color (7.8 inches) to read comic books. They’re both e-ink, but the Boox having the ability to display in e-ink color (which is what I need if I want to read digital color comics).

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

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vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Upgrading the Steam Deck to 1TB Internal SSD

Read More Steam There’s no more waiting… You can now buy Steam Deck, right now, without reservation. According to steampowered, it’s been more than a year since it was first announced, but due to numerous supply chain issues and …

I had a little trouble trying to get a hold of the Inland 1TB m.2 PCIe NVME 2230 SSD at Micro Center over the weekend. Unfortunately, due to the Black Friday sale, the store was a mad house! I could not get any help, could not get anyone to open the secured glass display to sell me the SSD. I had to basically give up, and rescheduled my shopping on a week day (when it’s not so busy).

The good news is that I finally bought the Inland 1TB SSD and installed it on my Steam Deck.

A couple of things to address. If you’re on Windows, you need to unzip the Steam Deck recovery image. The file that you download from steampowered is in a bz2 file format ( steamdeck-recovery-4.img.bz2 ).

I didn’t have a Windows application that can unzip the bz2 file, so I downloaded Bzip2, but it did not work. I’m on Windows 11, so perhaps it’s not supported. I had to download 7 Zip, over at 7-zip.org, which seemed to work for me. I am assuming other software, such as WinZip, would also work.

Rufus

Steam recommended Rufus (rufus.ie), which is what I used to write the IMG file… however, in the past, I have used Etcher (balena.io), which I think has a better user interface.

You’ll need a USB memory stick, at least 8GB in size. I had a free 32GB stick that I got from Micro Center a few years ago that I used to create the Steam Deck boot drive. I think perhaps I will permanently use this 32GB stick as sort of a recovery backup.

Because the Steam Deck only has one USB-C input, you will have to get a USB-C adapter, or if you have the Steam Deck Dock, you can use this as well. Once you have the USB Memory Stick plugged in, you need to hold the Volume Down and Power Button at the same time. When you hear the bootup chime, let go of the Volume button and you’ll see the Boot Manager on your screen. Use the EFI USB Device option.

Using the trackpad and trigger buttons, you can pick “Re-image Steam Deck”, which will perform a full factory reset and replace it with the stock SteamOS.

Warning: It will seem like forever when it’s reimaging the Steam Deck. Once it install the original Steam OS, it will want to update to the latest version. This, again, will seem like it takes forever. Let the Deck do its thing. If you think you are stuck on a installation screen, you can hit “B” and then “A” and try again. This happened to me during the update process.

Now that I’ve gotten my Steam Deck back in action, complete with a 1TB internal storage and 1TB MicroSD external storage… I’m ready to move some games from the slower external SD card to the internal storage. This will seem like it takes forever… again, just have a little patience, it should be able to move your games to the faster NVME storage.

Since it’s a fresh Steam Deck OS, I had to re-install Decky Loader. If you want to install this, you have to turn on Developer Mode (System -> System Settings toggle Enable Developer Mode). Now you should see Developer option, go there and under Miscellaneous, enable CEF Remote Debugging. Reboot.

Next, switch to Desktop mode (Power -> Switch to Desktop). Launch the terminal (“Konsole” under System). Set your password, type in “passwd”.

Copy and paste (or type in):

curl -L https://github.com/SteamDeckHomebrew/decky-loader/raw/main/dist/install_release.sh | sh

Reboot and click on on the Quick Access menu (the “…” button). Find the Plug In icon and Find and install VibrantDeck. Set your Saturation to 250 and now your Steam Deck looks amazing.

I also had to install my custom Pip-Boy startup video. Head over to GitHub for the instructions:

curl -o - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BunnyStrike/deck_revealed/main/boot_videos/pipboy/install.sh | bash -

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

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vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Vestron Video: Earth Girls Are Easy

Read More Vestron Video Here is a Bluray series that I love: Vestron Video Collector's Series. When they first came out in 2016, the retail prices were very, very expensive. Normal prices were $40 (and that didn’t even include digital copies!), so I …

One of the Bluray that I recently purchased during my Black Friday purchases was Earth Girls Are Easy, number 27 in the latest Vestron Video Collection.

I remember actually seeing this film in the theaters, thinking how strange it was to see stars Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum together again after seeing them in David Cronenberg’s The Fly remake. What I didn’t know then, and what I found out listening to the commentary of this film, was that the Davis and Goldblum were actually dating at this time.

The other funny thing was that Earth Girls Are Easy was supposed to star writer/creator Julie Brown (based on her music EP Goddess in Progress). The studio executives thought it would be better if they had a “real” star in the film to draw in a crowd. Better yet, since Davis and Goldblum were a two-for-one deal, they could double their star power, so they gave the lead role to Davis.

They did give the role of Davis’ best friend to Julie Brown, who had originally written the role as a gay man.

Not much of a story that you can base on a few songs… but it was a fun little weird comedy about aliens picking up on Earth girls.

As with all first-run Vestron Videos, they come with a nice slip case and the price is decent ($13), and it comes with a digital code. I highly recommend picking this up if you’re a Vestron fan or just a fan of those late 80s comedy.

The next Vestron release will be a Silent Night, Deadly Night collection. It’s number 3, 4, and 5, which means that Vestron didn’t distribute or released the first two Silent Night, Deadly Night films. I’ll also be picking this up when it comes out. Thankfully, you can find them at Walmart or Best Buy easily… but there’s always Amazon if you don’t live by either retailers.

VESTRON VIDEO COLLECTION

	01 Chopping Mall (1986) Concorde Pictures September 27, 2016		02 Blood Diner (1987) Lightning Pictures September 27, 2016
	03 Waxwork (1988) Waxwork II: Lost in Time (1992) Vestron Pictures/ Electric Pictures September 27, 2016		04 Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993) Trimark Pictures November 22, 2016
	05 C.H.U.D. II: Bud the C.H.U.D. (1989) Vestron Pictures November 22, 2016		06 The Lair of the White Worm (1988) Vestron Pictures January 31, 2017
	07 Parents (1989) Vestron Pictures January 31, 2017		08 The Gate (1987) New Century Vista Film February 28, 2017
	09 Wishmaster (1997) Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999) Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell (2001) Wishmaster: The Prophecy Fulfilled (2002) LIVE Entertainment Artisan Entertainment March 28, 2017		10 The Unholy (1988) Vestron Pictures June 27, 2017
	11 Warlock (1991) Warlock: The Armageddon (1993) Warlock III: The End of Innocence (1999 ) New World Pictures / Trimark Pictures / Tapestry Films July 25, 2017		12 Slaughter High (1986) Vestron Pictures October 31, 2017
	13 Gothic (1987) Vestron Pictures January 30, 2018		14 Class of 1999 (1990) Lightning Pictures January 30, 2018
	15 Beyond Re-Animator (2003) Lions Gate Entertainment July 24, 2018		16 Dagon (2001) Lions Gate Entertainment July 24, 2018
	17 Maximum Overdrive (1986) De Laurentiis Entertainment Group October 23, 2018		18 Shivers (1975) Cinepix September 15, 2020
	19 Little Monsters (1989) Vestron Pictures September 15, 2020		20 The Wraith (1986) New Century Vista Film July 20, 2021
	21 Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1991) Vestron Pictures August 17, 2021		22 Dementia 13 (1963) American International Pictures September 21, 2021
	23 Steel Dawn (1987) Vestron Pictures October 26, 2021		24 Candyman: Day of the Dead (1999) Artisan Entertainment January 18, 2022
	25 Dream a Little Dream (1989) Vestron Pictures March 15, 2022		26 Extreme Prejudice (1987) Carolco Pictures May 17, 2022
	27 Earth Girls Are Easy (1988) Vestron Pictures November 8, 2022		28 Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out! (1989) Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation (1990) Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker (1991) International Video LIVE Entertainment December 13, 2022

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vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Fantasy TV (Sep 2022)

Read more Television and Fantasy TV.

Read More The Sandman The next big title to be given the Netflix treatment will be Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman… it’s currently in development. Everyone is excited about the adaption, and hopefully it will bring the story to a bigger audience. … Constantine The new episode of Constantine is probably the best show so far! The best ones are the ones that is based on the comic book, and this new episode, the whole setup is quite similar to Mike Carey's Hellblazer: All His Engines. .…

The Sandman
netflix.com

It breaks my heart, but I don’t love the Netflix adaption of The Sandman.

I realized that the television show wasn’t meant for me, but for a wider audience that is not all that familiar with the original comic books. You see, I own all the original comics, starting with #1 when it first launched in 1989, when Vertigo Comics was in its infancy. I own all the spinoffs titles (including Death: The High Cost of Living, and various Specials). I am a superfan, when it comes to the Sandman.

So, that’s the problem. I’m just too close to the source material, it is hard for me to accept the new changes… especially, when I think it brought absolutely nothing to the story.

They followed most of the story correctly, making some minor changes to give the Corinthian a bigger role, and overall, the story still follows the books.

What I had a problem with is all the gender and race swaps. I know, I know, most people aren’t bothered by this… but when you are used to a character to look a certain way, you just expect them to look the same on screen.

The biggest changes were Death is played by Kirby Howell-Baptiste, a black actress, and John Constantine is played by Jenna Coleman, a woman, Rose Walker is played by Kyo Ra, a black actress, and Lucien, an old male elf librarian is played by Vivienne Acheampong, a black woman.

I know a lot of people argued that it doesn’t matter, but to me, it just didn’t feel like the Sandman from the comic books. I just wondered why they made these changes? For example, if they changed Cyborg, a black character, into a white character, wouldn’t it upset you? Another example, when they decided to make Snake Eyes from G.I. Joe to Asian, I wasn’t happy about that either. I would be upset if they changed Storm Shadow, who is Asian, to another race or gender. Another example, I was really upset that they wouldn’t show Constantine smoking in the Constantine television show... and yes, I was upset that Constantine was not blonde and English in the Keanu Reeves movie. To me, I just don’t like it when they make changes to the characters.

What The Sandman got right, such as The Corinthian, or Desire (maybe they could have gotten both a male and female to play the part!), or all the serial killers… they got it right! I’ve no complaints if they get things right.... Cain and Abel, they look like they’re from the bible. Even Fiddler’s Green looked the part, complete with his costume and glasses. When the show gets a character right, I’m going to praise it.

I guess, when it comes down to it, for someone not familiar with The Sandman, you are going to have a good time. You’re going to love the story of the Sandman, which combines the first two Sandman arcs, Preludes and Nocturnes and The Doll’s House, into 10 episodes. I think the story still holds up.

Also, don’t miss the bonus episode, a two-parter Dream of a Thousand Cats and Calliope, which are both excellent adaptions. No complaints here, the cats looks like cats, the muse looks like a muse.

Read More Game Of Thrones The Seven Kingdoms come to life in a way like no other as the Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience kicked off its all-arena twenty-four city North American tour at the Xcel Energy Center in St . Paul. .…

House of the Dragon
hbo.com

With bitterness of the last two seasons of Game of Thrones still fresh in my mind, I wasn’t looking forward to the prequel House of the Dragons… or as the kids are calling it, “Hot D”. Going into House of the Dragons, I realized how much I love the original Game of Thrones (Seasons 1 to 5). That’s because the story and writing is strong, as it’s based on George R.R. Martin’s Blood and Fire book.

The good news is that the book has a definitive ending, so if they are adapting this book, they won’t run out of material, unlike Game of Thrones, where the showrunners were just making it up as they go along (and it shows how poorly they understood the characters).

In many ways, House of the Dragons is making me fall back in love with the Westeros world. Since the story takes place over 150 years before Game of Thrones, there are no familiar characters.

We are introduced to the ruling House Targaryen. The king Viserys Targaryen is facing a problem of not having an heir to his kingdom. He chose to named his daughter, Rhaenyra, as sole heir to spurn his brother, Daemon. This sets up conflict within the Targaryen family.

I think the best part of the show is Matt Smith, who is straight up an evil man. To call him evil might be wrong, he’s more like a big jerk. Smith does such a wonderful job in portraying Daemon, that every time he’s on screen, he dominate. All the other characters are boring compared to Daemon.

I’m only three episodes in, and knowing that HBO has already green-lit a second season, I have a good feeling about this series. I haven’t read the book, so I’m very much looking forward to how the story unfolds, and who will live and who will die, playing the Game of Thrones?

PS, I don’t like how House of the Dragons re-used the theme song to Game of Thrones. I wish it was a different theme song, so that it stands on its own, rather than being related to GoT.

Read More Lord of the Rings The Banner Saga, a game by Stoic, released on Tuesday, January 14th, is one of the best games I've ever played. The graphics is hand drawn and reminds me of Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings and pre-CGI Disney animation. .…

Rings of Power
amazon.com

Yes, I do have Amazon Prime, and no, I haven’t wanted to watch The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power show from Amazon. The show is based on the The Lord of the Rings and its appendices by J. R. R. Tolkien.

One of the main reasons I am avoiding this show is that the diehard fans are ridiculing the show for its terrible writing and that the show is changing race and gender from the books. As someone who was not happy that they gender or race-swapped characters on The Sandman, I fully understand why these fans are upset that the Rings of Power show is getting their characters wrong.

I don’t know the whole story, but I think part of the problem is that Amazon only has rights to some books, so they can’t touch anything that appears in the Peter Jackson movies. They might have to make up characters or introduce a new race that was not mentioned in the books. For example, since the Hobbits didn’t exist in the time that Rings of Power takes place, the showrunners used a race called the Harfoots.

I haven’t read the books, so those kind of things probably wouldn’t bother me, but seeing as so many fans hate all the changes to the books, I am avoiding the fantasy series for now.

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

State of Play: G.I. Joe: Classified

Product Description G.I. Joe is a highly skilled, on-demand, special operations force of men and women from around the globe. These extraordinarily talented heroes are selected for their elite abilities and tasked with defending the world from Cobra, a ruthless criminal organization bent on total domination. With unwavering courage and steely determination, the brave members of G.I. Joe are prepared to seek out Cobra in any environment on the planet. From hostile jungles to ice-clad arctic peaks…wherever there’s trouble, G.I. Joe is there. This Heavy Artillery Roadblock figure comes ready for action, with multiple points of articulation for high poseability and character-inspired accessories, including a heavy artillery blaster. And with custom artwork by Mike Thompson, the G.I. Joe Classified Series Roadblock package will make a mark on shelves. Read More Hasbro This year, Hasbro wanted to update the toy line to 6”, giving these soldiers updated looks and additional details you can’t see on a smaller figure. The first wave is solid, with Snake Eyes, Duke, Scarlet, Roadblock and Destro (the only Cobra in the wave). ....

I previously mentioned how difficult it was to find and collect G.I. Joe: Classified toys. After their disastrous Target releases for their Exclusive line, Cobra Island, it made fans, such as myself, completely giving up on collecting the line. Last year, as part of Hasbro’s effort to win back the fans, they put back production on the the early Cobra Island figures as a “last chance to own these figures”. I knew I shouldn’t have, but I caved in and ordered the figures I was missing (however, to this day, I’m still missing a Major Bludd figure…)

Anyway, now that it’s two years in since I started collecting the Classified Series, I know for a fact that I have not seen any figures on store’s shelves, except for the Snake Eyes: Origins movie figures. The movie, and action figures, proved to be unpopular with the fans. Of course, I bought the figures, to add to my collection… but if it wasn’t part of the Classified line, I probably wouldn’t have cared either.

Recently, I got roped back into collecting the Classified Series when Amazon had some new figures in stock: Alley Viper, B.A.T., and Heavy Artillery Roadblock. I believe the reasons why I was able to get the Viper and BAT is because fans were cancelling their pre-orders. I truly believe this, as it would’ve been one year in pre-order (and Hasbro was already announcing figures for 2023). I do not believe I will see these figures (or any future figures) in stores, so I am forced to buy them online.

As for Roadblock, fans were fed up with seeing him re-released. This Amazon Exclusive figure was the fourth version of Roadblock: The first Classified figure, a Cobra Island version, and finally a re-colored of the first figure. If you ask me, the Heavy Artillery Roadblock is really the figure that everyone was asking for… it’s his classic look.

Anyway, remember how impossible it was to buy the Target Exclusive Cobra Island? I will bet you it’s going to be just as difficult to get the upcoming Target Exclusive Tiger Force. Pre-Orders have long sold out, but I’m hoping to just randomly find them in stores (I doubt it… but I can always hope).

Storm Shadow and Spirit

To me, the Classified Series is incredibly popular, I just don’t understand why Hasbro just doesn’t produce more figures to satiate the demand. We’ve seen Mattel get a lot of Masters of the Universe on the store shelves, which I love. I just wish Hasbro would do the same.

Update: Yes, I was able to get the new Storm Shadow and Spirit. Very happy about the details on the Spirit figure, it’s simply the best version of this character in toy form, no doubt about it. Again, I’m not sure why Hasbro is limiting these toy’s release, because as of this writing, they're “sold out” and you are forced to pay double the price from scalpers.

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Target Super Clearance Day

Read More Target I just bought the Razer’s Kishi Controllers (for the iPhone) on clearance from Target for $15. This is a massive saving, considering when it was originally released, it was $50 or more. …

You know, just the other day, I was complaining about the lack of good deals on Amazon Prime Day. Forget Amazon Prime Day, it’s all about the Target Super Clearance Day for me. I’ve never seen so many 70% off yellow clearance tags. Of course, limited to stock on hand, but I did find some really amazing deals.

Sure, I didn’t need all those extra things in my life, but I couldn’t pass up these deals. The prices are Black Friday level (even better in many cases).

I don’t know how long the sale will last, but I am assuming it’s only for a few days, if that. I know that several Targets in my area are doing renovations, so I think they just want to clear out inventory.

Some things I bought for 70% off:

Target Exclusive 4k Discs for $11 (normally $36)

Some 12” vinyl for $9 (normally $30)

Mego Action Figures for $5 (normally $20)

Various Cable Guy Phone Holder for $8 (normally $30)

Various McFarlane Action Figures for $5 (normally $20)

Various Headphones for $15 (normally $50)

Razer Keyboards and Accessories for as low as $8 (normally $30)

Some gaming controllers for $5 (normally $20)

There were more 70% off products (like all the phone cases), but I had no interests in them. Tomorrow, I will visit another Target store to see if I can find more deals.

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

Target Clearance

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Weekend Gamer: Prime Day

Read More Video Games I take that back, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is on sale, and it’s a game (three games actually) that I’m interested in checking out the new “remaster”. It’s currently on sale for $35 on Amazon, …

Every year Amazon Prime Day comes and go, and every year, there’s never anything good! This year, the two-day event is taking place July 12 to 13, and promises “epic deals on top brands and small businesses.”

Having scrolled through countless items, the sales and discounts are just not enough for me to want to buy something. Most of the sales are 10% off, to me, that’s not enough for a product I don’t need now. Some items that never goes on sale, such as Apple products are slightly discounted - for example the new Apple Watch 7 is $309 (normally $420) and Airtags 4-Pack are $85 (normally $100).

Undoubtedly, the biggest deals are on Amazon’s own products: the Echo Show (not the new models) and their Fire Tablets.

If you’re already a member of Amazon Prime, Amazon is giving away some free digital games, including Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. Originally when this re-mastered game came out in 2021 for a full $60… but since then the game is heavily discounted (as low as $20 on Xbox), and, if you have Xbox Game Pass, the game is “free”. Many gamers interested in the game, including myself, have already bought it. Still, getting another free copy from Amazon Prime is a nice bonus.

There are a few catches in redeeming the Amazon Prime free games. Some games requires you to have an account with a third party, for example, Legacy Games or Origin account. Personally speaking, if I don’t already have an account, I just won’t redeem them… but there are others that might sign up, just to get some free games.

The other catch is that Amazon is promoting their streaming game service, Luna, so some of their “free” games requires you to sign up for their gaming service (which I won’t do).

So, even though I poo-poo the “sales” of Amazon Prime Day, I have to admit that it is good for everyone. That is because Amazon’s competitors, such as Best Buy, are also reacting to Prime Day, with their own sales, which they are calling Black Friday in July.

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com