October 2018 – Page 5

Spectacular Failures

October 15, 2018 by Belghast

One of the things I greatly enjoy about Monster Hunter World is that failure sometimes looks amazing. Success or fail, when you end a hunt you get a screenshot. This is one of the many failure shots from Xeno’Jiiva that I have from the weekend. However this one is actually well after I had beat the fight the first time, but was forced to keep farming for parts. Often times the best looking shots come from colossally failing at an encounter. This one is from when multiple people fighting Xeno and not noticing it was about to explode… so three people got carted at exactly the same time ending the hunt.

Immediately upon downing Xeno’Jiiva for the first time I shot ahead to 29, the next level cap. This is something that happened last time as well given that I did a lot of grinding and hunting while capped at the previous level. I immediately turned around and got into the hunt for Double Bazelguese at which point I lept ahead to 41… once again something that happened before since I did a lot of hunting while avoiding trying to fight Xeno. Now I am slowly working my way up to the next cap of 49… which is Tempered Kirin… something I am not looking forward to at all.

That said I am slowly watching back up to where I was when I stopped playing the PS4 release. All of the grinding of Nergigante and Xeno’jiiva was to be able to craft Extermination’s Edge the long sword I had been using prior to the restart. I talked the other day about crafting the Diablos hammer, and the recent event let me craft Wyvern Ignition another “end game” weapon. Similarly over the weekend I managed to craft the Fiendish Tower the final form of the Deviljho lance, giving me a forth end game weapon.

Right now my mission is to craft another item that in theory will be an end game weapon. I’ve been farming the hell out of High Rank Rathian because I need an excessive number of Spikes and a Gem to be able to craft Royal Burst. I’ve seen so many people using this Gunlance, so in theory I figured I would craft it and try it out. Wide Range weapons seem to be en vogue, however what I am reading is that you cannot get wide shelling 4 without getting a lucky drop from Kulve Taroth. Instead I am going to give a shot no pun intended at normal shelling. From there… the next missing is probably going to be to farm a bunch more Deviljho so I can turn the stage one Sword and Shield that I crafted into the final form by gathering up yet another Gem. From there… I need to sort out what Charge Blade and Switch Axe that I want to work towards. Basically… this is Monster Hunter for me… hunting monsters, making weapons… hunting more monsters. Regardless I feel like I am in a pretty great state for when the Kulve Taroth event comes in November.

Reading Challenge #72: Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

October 12, 2018 by Grace

This is a novel that has permeated popular culture through movies adaptations that don’t always closely resemble the original work. I tried to go all the way to the true original and read it in French (I’m trying to learn the language), but sadly I just didn’t have the vocabulary to handle this book in anything other than English.

It is quite densely packed with the scientific understandings of the day. Sometimes these were quite wrong, while others were accurate. The one that surprised me the most was the mention of how fossil fuels like coal are limited resources, and one day humanity was going to have to figure out what to do when they run out. It’s something that has been understood by scientists for a long time, but it was almost shocking to see it in a novel this old! This was counterbalanced by some truly unfortunate notions about facial structure, race, and intelligence. I can’t be surprised, given when this was published, but it is still never fun to encounter racism pretending to be science.

The story is basically what it says in the title. It is written from the perspective of Axel, nephew and research assistant of Professor Liedenbrock. It details how the professor found a scrap of text, written in runes and code, that claimed to show the way to enter to the center of the earth. The professor, a geologist, becomes obsessed with finding this passage and reaching the earth’s core. He drags his poor beleaguered nephew along with him. They have to travel from Germany to Iceland in a rush so they can arrive on the correct day to see the shadow of a specific mountain point out the correct tunnel.

Throughout the story Axel is constantly trying to counter his uncle, both to try to give up on the voyage and return home, and to try to challenge his theories about the nature of the earth’s interior. The majority of the book is fairly dry description of their voyage and the environments they see. Mostly it consists of darkness and rocks. This still presents some perils, as the explorers face running out of supplies, and failing light sources.

Although various adaptations tend to spend lots of time focused on encounters with dinosaurs and early humans, in the text these events are rare and brief. It helps keep the tone from becoming too ridiculous or silly, but it also leaves the story feeling a bit unexciting. In fact most of the action in the book is strangely passive, as our protagonists are buffeted by high winds on their underground sailing excursion, or forced up out of a volcano at the story’s climax.

TL;DR: I enjoyed this look at early science fiction, and would recommend it for anyone who is interested in the roots of the genre. If you are only going to read one 19th century sci-fi novel, though, I would look elsewhere for more excitement.

Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

Rating: 4/5 stars

Next up: The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Reading Challenge #72: Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

October 12, 2018 by Grace

Whoops. I read this book for my challenge back in August, but never wrote up my review. Better late than never! Let’s talk about Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, first published in 1864. This is a novel that has permeated popular culture through movies adaptations that don’t always closely resemble the original work. I tried to go all the way to the true original and read it in French (I’m trying to learn the language), but sadly I just didn’t have the vocabulary to handle this book in anything other than English. It is quite densely packed with the scientific understandings of the day. Sometimes these were quite wrong, while others were accurate. The one that surprised me the most was the mention of how fossil fuels like coal are limited resources, and one day humanity was going to have to figure out what to do when they run out. It’s something that has been understood by scientists for a long time, but it was almost shocking to see it in a novel this old! This was counterbalanced by some truly unfortunate notions about facial structure, race, and intelligence. I can’t be surprised, given when this was published, but it is still never fun to encounter racism pretending to be science. The story is basically what it says in the title. It is written from the perspective of Axel, nephew and research assistant of Professor Liedenbrock. It details how the professor found a scrap of text, written in runes and code, that claimed to show the way to enter to the center of the earth. The professor, a geologist, becomes obsessed with finding this passage and reaching the earth’s core. He drags his poor beleaguered nephew along with him. They have to travel from Germany to Iceland in a rush so they can arrive on the correct day to see the shadow of a specific mountain point out the correct tunnel. Throughout the story Axel is constantly trying to counter his uncle, both to try to give up on the voyage and return home, and to try to challenge his theories about the nature of the earth’s interior. The majority of the book is fairly dry description of their voyage and the environments they see. Mostly it consists of darkness and rocks. This still presents some perils, as the explorers face running out of supplies, and failing light sources. Although various adaptations tend to spend lots of time focused on encounters with dinosaurs and early humans, in the text these events are rare and brief. It helps keep the tone from becoming too ridiculous or silly, but it also leaves the story feeling a bit unexciting. In fact most of the action in the book is strangely passive, as our protagonists are buffeted by high winds on their underground sailing excursion, or forced up out of a volcano at the story’s climax. TL;DR: I enjoyed this look at early science fiction, and would recommend it for anyone who is interested in the roots of the genre. If you are only going to read one 19th century sci-fi novel, though, I would look elsewhere for more excitement.

Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
Rating: 4/5 stars Next up: The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

The Grind Loop

October 12, 2018 by Belghast

The other day Mailvaltar asked question in a comment on another post about whether I think Monster Hunter World can be enjoyed by someone who generally dislikes grinding. Ultimately the core loop of monster hunter seems to be… take down big monsters in an epic boss fight, carve off items with varying degrees of rarity, take those items to craft new gear… to enable you to take down bigger monsters. The degree to which this becomes a gear collection game is entirely up to you, because I believe almost every single monster is beatable in the gear you start the game with… it just becomes significantly more challenging as time moves on. However even with better gear… there are going to be times you fail completely like the glorious screenshot above of my death. Ultimately I got swiped by Black Diablos, which dizzied me… which then lead to a full force charge for the rest of my health. Given that other people had fainted at various points during the hunt… my failure was the one that kicked us out of the fight.

Each monster fight tends to go somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes depending on a bunch of factors, so one of the aspects of the game that no one really talks about… is that you need to be able to shake off the fact that you just spent 30 minutes of time and have relatively little to show for it. Every so often the stars align however and you get exactly what you need. When that happens it feels phenomenal… during this single Black Diablos hunt I managed to pull 2 Black Spiral Horn+ aka the thing I was hunting for one more of… a Wyvern Gem as well as the Non-Elemental Boost Decoration that I ultimately needed for the hammer I had been working towards. Basically this final Diablos hunt gave me everything I had been questing for to try and assemble the final form of the Diablos hammer.

So what did I do once I got my hammer all kitted out? I immediately shifted focus to working on parts from Deviljho. For me personally it is the grind…. the hunt for parts… that keeps me engaged in the game. The boss fights all feel great (or at least most of them do) and are definitely a reward in themselves. However it is the acquisition of gear that is always my guiding force in any MMORPG. It is why I grind in Diablo 3 or World of Warcraft… and ultimately why Monster Hunter World clicked with me initially. It is a gear driven game where your personal skill advancement means often times more than the gear you are hunting… but the ability to build complex mixed sets with just the right bonus traits keeps me moving forward. Building a set of gear sorta feels like building a really good deck in Magic the Gathering.

So last night I spent my evening either hunting Black Diablos or Deviljho… and it was a pretty glorious evening. Is this mechanical loop right for most people? Probably not… however I enjoy it greatly. Were it not for the release of Battle for Azeroth at almost the exact same time as the PC version of Monster Hunter… I would have likely been doing this since August. As far as Deviljho stuff… I am largely down to just needing to get lucky enough to loot one of its Gems, which admittedly is a common place you end up with crafting gear. The Gem seems by far the most rare of the item drops, and seems to only drop when you no longer need it. I have a stack of Odogoron and Wyvern gems… but am not actively working on any gear from either… though at some point I guess I will make the Odog Scythes and Blunderbuss. That said there are still a ton of Deviljho weapons I eventually want to craft. For example I think it is one of the better Sword and Shields out there, and that is a weapon I want to shift into playing more of.

The funny thing is… I have the patience to constantly be grinding for loot drops… but somehow lack the patience to move the quest line forward. I am still stalled out on Xeno’jiiva because it is generally one of the awful feeling fights in the game. I might snag my friend Exale and con him into running it with me at some point over the weekend if for no reason other than to just speed the process up. You have to do a lot more dodging when you are the only player in the arena with Xeno. I think Monster Hunter World is an amazing game, and especially since it is on steam… if it goes on Sale I highly suggest you check it out.