J's Journey

Klei you have done it again, from the makers of the Don’t Starve franchise we give you a single player, survival game But Oxygen not included ?, Oxygen not included is one of the biggest games out next to Among Us. Released on July 30th, 2019, You play the leader to a group of Duplicates and you and your team have found yourself in quite a situation. You realize that you are hundreds of feet below ground on a strange planet and must help your team survive, to do this you will need to master science, overcome strange new lifeforms, harness incredible space tech and keep oxygen flowing to survive long enough to make it to the surface. Where these duplicates come from and why are they called duplicates, we may never know but this game has made its way on my list of favorites for its innovative and creative gameplay, unlike other games it brings science, strategy and certain mechanics that help it stand out from the rest.

While helping your colony of rag tag Duplicants, dupes for short you must look after their health, hygiene and education. Researching different skills to help the colony better sustain itself, Making sure the dupes have a working bathroom helps too. This game can seem really complicated at first, with all the pipe running and wiring and machinery oh my, but you get the hang of it the more you play. Being an avid player of the game myself, I have used google a few times to figure out certain base building mechanics and chemicals you encounter while mining, researching and expanding your colony base, The further you explore the more you find, some dangerous while others are harmless. There are a wide range of animals to be found that you can farm as well as crops to grow, but we’re not in Kansas anymore so it takes some researching to get your dupes higher up the skill ladder so they can survive. Each dupe can get different skills which can be upgraded but like their skills their surroundings need to be upgraded too and as time goes on you will uncover all kinds of things, new beds, art decorations and better equipment.

The end goal of this game is to make it to the surface of the planet and find a way home, or another planet, by building a rocket ship and it won’t be easy with asteroids and other space projectiles raining down on you. This game challenges your brain while having fun, like any other game it will get frustrating but the dupes are there to help bring a few good laughs and learn quite a few things along the way. The one golden rule of the colony is to keep the dupes stress levels low as each individual dupe comes with a pro and a con, and some cons are worse than others. There are ugly criers, stress eaters, the weak bowel ones and many more. I learned that like the violent dupes whose stress levels when too high tend to break things, I myself when stress levels are high and are frustrated, have broken a few things too. In a way Oxygen not included has found a way to make us as people relate to the dupes, or maybe it’s just me ? regardless this game has found a permanent spot in my collection and I recommend it to anyone looking for a different type of survival experience.

Recently Mojang Studios brought forward their new update 1.17, this update is said to be released late summer next year. Previously Mojang had already done a Big update with the 1.16 Nether. The nether update came out June 23, 2020, this update was so big that no one thought that they would come out gun blazing with so many new ideas, with the holidays upon us.

In this 1.16 update they gave us, new biomes, new structures, new mobs and new blocks. They sold us on the idea of new netherite armor, Stronger than diamond and doesn’t burn in lava. Sounds good right ? There was so much to see and do now, that gamers were willingly going to the nether for the adventure. In total now the nether has five total biomes, the wastes which is the regular barren red landscape we know, the crimson forest which is home to hoglins and the gold armor might work for the piglins but these mobs will attack on site. The warped forest which both this biome and the crimson are home to giant mushroom trees which give you new wood variants. Soul sand valley, which sounds super cool, is exactly as the name suggests, full of soul sand and soil. It is also home to many skeletons and ghasts so be prepared and The basalt deltas, the place to be for all you basalt and black stone needs. This place however is very risky to move around in, you could fall in lava at any step and you have to watch out for magma cubes. These biomes brought new blocks such as gold, black stone, basalt and soul soil. Each with there own use in crafting.

New structures such as the bastion and destroyed nether portals were added giving players a new adventure, a new reason to be careful in the nether. As we know mobs such as zombie pigmen and skeletons are found almost everywhere but now piglins tend to be found in many regular spots now not exculsive to the bastion. Legend has it that the bastion is what’s left of their home, now the piglin and piglin brute defend their home and protect what gold they have left. Now the piglin are neutral mobs so they wont attack unless your not wearing gold and they also have a trading system.

1.16 had so much going for it that no one in the minecraft community saw another update coming at least not so soon, and then Mojang hit us with the biggest update anyone had heard of, 1.17. So much excitement surrounded the update, so many new things were being added and sneak peaked. The caves and cliffs update was originally a cliffs update, the mountain biomes were going to get a facelift, snowier snow and the addition of goats was all we knew at the time. Then it hit us out of nowhere and blew our minds wide open, The caves and cliffs update, now boasted of epic cave structures, beautiful mountains, new cave mobs such as the warden, axolotl and glowing squid which won the minecraft mob vote against the moo bloom and iceologer.

New mechanics such as archeology, allowing you to dig up artifacts and decorate pots of your own. New blocks such as copper, tuff, calcite and amethyst. New biomes such as lush biomes found in caves, specially marked by an azalea tree. This tree is unique as it marks the spot for a lush cave. Inside the lush caves are beautiful plants and vines and axolotl, like you’ve walked into a fairy hideaway. New items such as the spy glass, the lightning rod, the bundle, candles, flowers, amethyst shards and much much more.

The caves are going to be given an upgrade finally. Things always change so there’s no confirmation that it will look like this but if we have to wait a whole year lets hope it looks as good as Mojang says it will. Now players will be able to fly through caves with ease as it will be cavernous and spacious. Stalagmites and stalactites will be added making the caves more dangerous as they cause damage when they fall on you. So on top of the usual zombies, spiders and skeletons oh my, we have the warden, who packs a serious punch and causes your surroundings to go dark when you are near him and pointy rocks that could kill you yay, but all in all this update is gearing up to be huge. With all this coming so soon after the nether update, the minecraft community is full of anticipation for the new blocks that will aid in building even more amazing things and the items and mechanics that will make gameplay more enjoyable.

I think Mojang should take as much time as they need and buff everything out, considering the pandemic situation the globe is in, the minecraft community must keep in mind that the main reason for making us wait so long is because alot of work is being done at home. So it’s not the same as being in the office, but regardless we wait patiently like little kids on Christmas eve, for that caves and cliffs update that we hope is up to snuff.

Among Us is the hot trending mobile game that everyone and their grandma is playing, Released in June, 2018 it has not disappointed its gamers as it has now become the biggest game to play with the most downloads I have ever seen for a game that isn’t new. In this game you play as a cute little astronaut of any color of your choice in a multiplayer world, so you and your crewmates will go around the ship doing tasks except one of you plays as an imposter. There can be multiple imposters and the crewmates must find them before they kill everyone on board the ship to win the game. from the imposters perspective, they must kill the majority of the crewmates without being ejected to win.

There are three maps to play, each more difficult to maneuver than the last. The Skeld, The Polus, The Mira HQ and a map I recently heard of, The henry stickman map. Each of these maps nicely designed, bright cartoony colors and oh so many, many ,many tasks to do. It is never a dull moment in Among us, this game has become widely popular so much so that recreations and knock-off versions have been made from Among us in unreal engine to Imposter inside us, Werewolf among us, Murder us and many many more.

Among us has become one of the best games in the store, a great time killer and loads of fun with friends. Highly addictive, I have found myself many times playing for 3 hours and more, the fun never ends when you have to play detective and sus out your friends. Whose telling the truth and whose story doesn’t fly. Play the game and find out and remember keep your crewmates close and the imposter even closer.

The long awaited minecraft 1.14 Village and Pillage update came  April  23rd 2019, this is the biggest update since the aquatic update in 1.13 which brought us beautiful coral reefs, tropical fish, turtles and all that good stuff. Between these updates we got snapshots and those snapshots only made us want 1.14 more. 1.14 has not escaped its share of issues from 1.13 and even further back but it has brought some good things to the table. Blocks we had from before were expanded on further.

We got new slabs, walls, stairs and blocks. New sign colors, which makes personal building better as we have more variety. New flowers such as wither rose, cornflower and flower of the valley. The way dye’s are made has been changed and much more.

We got new furnaces, campfire, cartography table, loom, Lectern, storage and new ways to cut stone and the ability to disenchant and repair and item. making things like the anvil optional. The Villagers now use tables such as the smithing table, the fletching table, the blast furnace, the crafting table and the composter. Speaking of villagers they got a major no mega huge facelift and their homes got some renovation done.

The Villagers now match their biomes, their robes match the biome their from color and style. Although some bugs have revealed to me that you do get villagers in robes who dont seem to match the village their in hmm. Cats now spawn in villages and roam around so you can claim a kitty of your own. As we know their are desert villages, plains villages, snowy tundra villages and Taiga villages. Zombie villages were added, these look like normal villages but are empty during the day and their buildings are full of cobwebs. Their has been talk of Jungle and swamp villages but i don’t know, the jungle i can kind of see but a village in a swamp ? yeah not feeling it. A new trading system was added in the form of the wandering trader, this is a very very cool concept it just needs to be done right, him and his llamas come every seven or eight days and trades sometimes good sometimes worthless items for emeralds. The problem is the trades, i think he should trade rare items, at least items players could use and let the trades get better as time goes by. No one wants to buy stuff they already have or can get very easy. The villages have been updated to look better, and we all know they needed the renovation, they now match their biome and use materials found in that biome, kinda.

Snowy tundra as i call it now has villages which almost look like sideways boats for houses, its a long time coming but i’m glad their here, the tundra was bleak, just snow and ice far as the eye could see but now there’s a bit of  contrast there’s something to look forward to finding besides ice and snow.

New mobs were released, which i have to admit were needed the jungle biome was real empty for a jungle, food for thought i think there should be monkeys next. Pandas the cuter cousin of the polar bear, they are so adorable it hurts even the babies will make you melt i kid you not. these pandas are passive except for the hostile one that spawns rarely you will know it by the grey old guy eye brows. each panda has its own personality unlike the polar bears. There’s sick, playful, angry (eyebrows), lazy, worried, normal and the ultra rare brown panda i haven’t seen this one spawn in any jungle in my game but maybe you guys out there have. Foxes were an unexpected addition, they have two variants the normal red fox and the snow fox but i havent seen any snow foxes in my game, maybe im not playing it right anyhoo foxes can carry items in their mouth and they eat the new berries from berry bushes as well as feel the effects of poisoned items.

We had the Village now lets cover the Pillage, these pillagers spawn in a pillager outpost which i think is a cool concept, having a raid in villages once in a blue moon, spice things up. how raids work is that when a player kills a captain thats the guy with the banner over his head they get bad omen effect that cant be broken unless they go into a village. then a raid starts and a golden bell is rang, during this event the villagers run around for shelter and it lasts about 3 waves then thats it depending on your difficulty level it may be more waves. I play on normal and get 3 waves, you then become the village hero and villagers party basically and give you rare items and i mean rare, i got chain mail armor one not kidding, the rarest armor in the game found no where, im still not sure how you get that and their trade prices drop by half price.

The pillagers aren’t just pillagers, they have vindicators with them too hence the emeralds they drop. sometimes during the 3rd wave of a raid you will see a ravager beast being ridden by a pillager or vindicator. This beast has alot of health and will not hesitate to kill you on site, best thing to do is lead it to a golem and you and that golem take him down. team work makes the dream work.

like 1.13 and others before it, 1.14 doesn’t come as clean as we are led to believe, i ave seen countless videos of people talking about issues from way back in the beginning to now. World generation has always been an issue, the world takes forever to load sometimes i float on air, sometimes i see blocks fall through the map. The slow loading of the world causes game lag and in my case freezing up but freezing up is rare now in 1.14 almost non existent. since 1.13 the game hasn’t been able to load biomes properly sometimes you would see half a mountain or see straight down to a cave or mineshaft or stronghold.

Not cool dudes, and don’t give me none of that sigh business either, 1.14 needs some tweaks here and there,  a little renovation of its own. other issues include villagers not sleeping at night and iron golems sinking in the ground not sure what thats about but it needs to be fixed. can’t defend my village in the ground now can it, one major, ultra mega issue is teleportation, this has been a thorn in my side since 1.13, it was bad then and its bad now, before i couldn’t teleport at all and finding my way around minecraft biomes were sigh but now i teleport into walls, underground where i suffocate to death, teleporting in mid air to fall to my death and due to lack of map loading i fall through the map. I don’t even know how thats possible. teleporting in 1.14 is only possible in creative mode where since you can fly you can’t fall through maps and will always be above ground.

Minecraft has a good thing going and needs to take their time and work out their kinks, fixing the teleportation and world generating are the biggest things. The world should be able to generate smoothly, if the issue is our devices let us know what devices can and can’t handle minecraft. Multiplayer has been unreachable for me since servers don’t work, thats another big issue to fix, from research online i found that the amount of people are too much for the server to handle. I hope this can be fixed because i would like to experience multiplayer. since most of minecraft is still a bit bare mobs wise adding mobs like monkeys to the jungle or a new aquatic creature maybe a jellyfish or something since the oceans tend to be empty unless your in tropical waters. Make the mooshroom island a little tiny bit easier to find, some gamers have never found it in game unless they use seeds. The trade system is good but upgrading the wandering traveler will make him more useful and don’t have him spawn on top of buildings, i dont know why but many times he spawned on the roof of my house. i was on the ground and spotted him. player skins are only possible by mods and this shouldnt be in 2019, players should get at least 3 free skin choices steve and steves wife are ok but 1. its time steves wife got a name and 2. no one wants to play as steves wife or steve anymore. Minecraft has endless possibilities here and i hope they listen to gamers and fix these issues. beyond that i give the update 7 out of 10. its good and there’s definitely room for improvement.

 

The Story and lore behind this game is just so much and from what ive heard and read online. Things haven’t been put together cohesively yet and i feel the developers fresh stories for each character that is coming soon might change the story a bit or maybe not.

Our Story begins with Maxwell a magician travelling with a circus, He discovers a book from where we’re not told but we know finding random books that awake spirits ain’t good. He hires Charlie as his assistant and for a while everything’s coming up milhouse until Charlie starts noticing Maxwell’s weird behavior and he’s been MIA for a while. She visits his apartment and finds the book, weird writing on the walls papers with symbols and things shes never seen, Shadow hands attack her and Maxwell appears out of a no where, scared she runs out  she’s worried about Maxwell, she likes Maxwell so she leaves him a note telling him its been days since he contacted her and inviting him to come with her to the family cabin for a little R and R. Their last performance was where everything turned, things are going normal until Maxwell decides to pull a dark spirit out of the book as part of his act. He almost gets pulled into the book instead and Charlie saves him, the book flips pages and spirit hands pull Charlie and Maxwell into the book, into the Don’t Starve world. So we know who the first 2 victims are, coincidentally this incident lines up with an earthquake that happened that same day. Connected ? maybe. Sometime after this the travelling circus has an accident and Maxwell is thought to be dead.

Now at this point i must warn of spoilers, so if you don’t want to spoil the game for yourself go back now. Ok then, so to put things in order, we know about Robert Wagstaff Being the Founder of the Voxola company, they created the radios we can assume were used to contact and teleport each character. We know Willow our little fire starter was most likely the cause of the factory fire, she references it in the game and its a legit fit, she worked there after all. Robert Wagstaff disappeared that night and up till this point has been MIA. Maybe he put himself in the robot suit or maybe robot WX-67 is a legit robot.

Postcards were sent and not sent between Maxwell/William and Jack; but who is Jack ? We know nothing of him for now, we can assume its a brother or some family member. Jack writes that he’s glad to see William/ Maxwell in America and asks if he’s heard from mother, here we get insight into the twins, he goes on to say ” i can’t believe she hasn’t seen the twins yet”. This tells us that the only twins in the game may be relatives of Maxwell’s. Maxwell writes back but never posts it because by that time he’s in the don’t starve world or he hasn’t been found yet he talks about the book he found and that he’s trying to decode it and it has shown him terrifying new possibilities. The newspaper clipping is from the circus accident, Maxwell was believed to be dead but in his postcard tells jack he is very much alive and he is in the don’t starve world.

Wilson our slightly crazy gentleman scientist and my favorite character, have you seen his awesome beard.  Lets be honest cutting your hand and tying rats isn’t science. he is tricked by Maxwell through a Voxola radio to build the portal or Maxwell door; by the time he stops to think about what he’s done the shadow hands pull him into the don’t starve world. When Maxwell and Wilson meet, Wilson takes his place on the throne after feeling sorry and freeing Maxwell. Really you do feel sorry at first but lets be honest Maxwell is the reason we’re in this mess to begin with, Maxwell then becomes part of the don’t starve world. After a while Charlie appears and by the look on Wilson’s face he recognizes her so they know each other whether siblings or friends that much is confirmed, she frees him from the throne and takes his power. She then releases him back to the don’t starve world, but Charlie isn’t herself we can see her and her dark counterpart fighting over control until they merge into one, is this one totally evil or is a part of old Charlie still in there ? all we know is that she takes her place on the throne.

How the other characters got pulled into the don’t starve world is unknown, but we know voxola radios were involved and we know the newest characters will have a part to play. Winona for one i think is the key to alot of the story, people aren’t giving her a chance. Winona is Charlies sister, she worked for the voxola factory the same time as willow since clearly willow had something to do with the fire. Winona somehow comes to the don’t starve world to save Charlie, how she built a portal or even knew to go there is unknown. My guess is that after charlie went missing, she started tracking her down trying to find her sister and she probably knew she worked for Maxwell. They never said what happened to the book after Maxwell and Charlie disappeared but i’m guessing Winona found it in whatever was left of the building and used it to find Charlie. She’s the only one who came of her own free will.

The lore goes deeper than character backstory, ive seen videos of lore that talk about ancient Gods and Kings and Queens and a whole lot of head spinning, head scratching, confusing things but i feel that the developers will continue to expand on this story as time goes on so i’m going to be on the lookout because there’s alot of holes story wise to fill and i hope the developers do that in the upcoming refresh of characters.

Don’t starve together is a multiplayer sequel to Don’t starve and most of the story or lore surrounds Charlie. Hence the play on together; but i think this may just be part of Don’t starve story and lore in general.

Most of the mobs are the same, except the new additions to the Reign of giants DLC they recently added to don’t starve together. Such as the extra adorable lavae which isn’t hostile and serves as a light and heat source in the game. The lavae which is its mommy, are hostile and burn everything in their surroundings. They spawn from the dragon fly around summer and Hutch a cousin to Chester, like Chester Hutch can hold up to 9 items in his inventory and they each have different forms. Hutch can be a source of light and a music box; he also has a form that damages enemies when they attack him. Chester who ive recently found out has a shadow and snow form that he takes only on full moon with a certain item in each of his slots.

Don’t starve together i think is a fun option for playing with friends whats better than surviving the new form of hell your on alone surviving with buddies :). Each characters unique ability brought together can make or break a team so choose wisely.

Don’t stare shipwrecked is a DLC that i would love to try, In this game you get to not only look out at the ocean but travel it yay and of course everything in the ocean wants t kill you yay. Wouldn’t be a don’t starve game if something wasn’t trying to kill you right ? The monsters here a different except for tree gaurds they only differ by types of trees. The seasons are also different, we have mild season, dry season, hurricane season and monsoon season. each i’m sure is worst than the last but mild season sounds the safest so my advice stands do all gathering of resources while its mild. In this DLC we can play as regular characters but we unlock 4 new ones, Wilbur an intelligent monkey, Walani a surfer girl, Warly a french chef and Woodlegs a pirate. As for what role they play story wise in the game I have no sweet clue but im sure the developers will find a story for them in time.

Remember when i said the monsters could have their own blog, yeah scratch that these monsters from what ive read are way more than the regular dont starve game. To name a few we have Shark kitten, sea hound (you didn’t think you actually got away did you), Poison snake, fishermerm, poison mosquito, spider warrior, sealnado (i kid you not) and Yaarctupus and thats not even half of them. The world and its biomes are a new form of hell waiting for you with challenges and frustrations i can only imagine. You get Packum baggins another cousin of Chester so storage is always near only thing is he will eat any sea food you put in him so be mindful of what you store. Shipwrecked definitely brought something unique to the table, something fresh you get to explore tropical landscapes and sail the ocean all while surviving of course and find new friendly and not so friendly creatures who’d rather chase you down and kill you. It looks like a very challenging game and from what ive heard monsoon season is the worst, i look forward to what more the game has to offer story wise and in game play.

 

Don’t starve is a survival game not for the faint of heart, ive recently started playing and woo boy,  i don’t know if everything will fit in one blog but i sure will try to give you all the juicy tidbits and story and lore that ive found so far. Klei Entertainment has really outdone themselves i’ve never seen a survival game like this before and i thoroughly enjoy it.

So we play as adorable and possibly crazy Wilson up there, i just love him. So you get dropped into a world that looks almost normal with Maxwell appearing to rub salt in the wound, after he leaves you survival begins, no tutorial no help or hints just survive. eventually you figure out your not alone and everything on this new form of hell wants to kill you even the darkness itself.

There are also Willow, Wolfgang, Wendy, WX-78, Wickerbottom, Woodie and the secret characters that we unlock. What we know about these characters so far, Wilson is a scientist who built the portal that sent him to the world we find ourselves on in game, through maxwell contacting him through a voxala radio. I called the name of the radio for a reason we will discuss later. Willow is the fire starter or pyromaniac either way, she lights fires which can be useful and annoying. Wendy killed her twin sister and now her ghost follows her around and helps you fight enemies. Wolfgang was one of the members of the circus Maxwell rode around with until the last performance which i will cover later. he is the strongman of the group, WX-78 is exactly as we know him a robot with no soul or maybe he is a guy in a suit who knows. Wickerbottom looks like your annoying librarian but is one of the best characters in the game her knowledge makes her a useful character for gathering food, resources and killing enemies. Woodie is the lumberjack who occassionally turns into a werebeaver if its full moon or he chopped too much wood and he also carries a talking axe named lucy. The secret characters we know so far are Wes, the mime Webber the boy eaten by the spider and Wigfrid a fiesty redhead viking with a taste for meat. the others span across the different DLC’s such as Reign Of Giants and Shipwrecked and Hamlet.

The game i currently play is don’t starve Reign of giants,  i will be mostly covering that DLC, i will do another blog as a part 2 to this. So Reign of giants gives you 4 seasons in total autumn, winter, spring and summer; some worst than the last much much worse. Each season has its Giant counterpart, Winter- Deerclops by all means avoid this guy he destroys anything in his path so keep away from your base and if you dont have any good weapons or marble suit run just run. Summer- Dragonfly i have heard a little about this one and it is by far the worst she comes in summer where its already smoldering hot like you’ve been sent to hell then again maybe you have and burns down everything in sight and unless you have unlimited ammo for your fling-o-matics its useless. Between autumn and spring we see Bearver another one i hardly know much about other than the fact he is the most frustrating one of all since he comes from nowhere and eats ALL your food so all that gathering you did yep, he’s coming for it. from what ive heard he’s not too hard to kill and his drops are good and Moose goose a duck goose hybrid of some kind, Autumn is the most safe time in this entire game, i recommend doing all gathering of resources and food at this time.

It might be hard to believe but these hellish conditions and Dr morrow creatures can be survived with a little brain, strength and sacrifice even the most frustrating times can seem easy.  Besides the giants which dont spawn too often and if your lucky like me dont spawn at all is an arms length list of monsters just waiting for opportunity to eat you alive.  Hounds and Spiders and mormons oh my, these monsters could have a blog of there own, Hounds chase you down from day 5 i think and they are relentless, easy to kill once you get them one a time and have a log suit at least. Hound mounds are to avoid unless you have a log suit they spawn hounds but they drop good stuff. Spiders are to kill before there nest reaches tier 3 once its at tier 3 dont even look in its direction cuz most likely a spider queen is there an unless your lucky like me to get one in a marsh where the tentacles did most of my work thanks guys. be sure to have a marble suit. Mormons are just annoying they chase you and hit hard but can be killed and they drop food, Tentacles are only in the marsh and only come out when you stand in one place too long so keep it moving. Tree gaurd, this guy is like a badder version of the lorax, if too many trees get cut down an not planted back he comes to kill you. Eye bird is easy to kill just have a suit on an your good the egg is good for food. The darkness is Charlie, i know it sounds weird and horrifying at the same time, she will try to out your fire if your sanity is too low and the darkness makes your sanity drop fast so remember to light a fire.

Don’t starve really brings something new to the table, you get this huge world to uncover and enemies around every corner to look out for. This game is teaches you that its ok to make mistakes and you learn from them resulting in not dying next time around. Many people worldwide have different views on this game, this game is not bad by any means it is a masterpiece and if looked at from all angles rather than just getting angry for dying can make it a good experience. Survival games make your brain adapt to new environments and challenges, yes dying sucks and monsters can make you want to throw out your PC but beyond that tiny spec of frustration, anger and just sourpussness yes that is a word now. Is an amazing little treat for your brain, the environments, the graphics, the story and lore behind this game make it worth playing and your brain will thank you for it. So when your in a survival situation in real life and find yourself dominating even when you think you have no skills your welcome.

Recently i collaborated with two of my colleagues, In an attempt to bring our ideas together and i have to say it was successful. I brought the games, Danielle brought the coffee and Moretisha brought the soap and we even learned how certain natural soaps are good for clearing scar marks made by Bechets syndrome.

Coffee got me is a blog done by one of my colleagues, here we go on coffee filled adventures and try new exciting types of coffee from around the world. Bechets syndrome doesn’t prohibit you from drinking coffee but some medications can love make it difficult to enjoy coffee. I personally love coffee, My favorite is coffee Cubano, because i like my coffee strong and sweet like Cuban tradition but don’t drink very much of it because of the medication i’m currently on. We did this game with toffees that is really fun, we each tried to see who could get more coffee toffees. So two bags of toffees later here we are wrist deep in the most delicious toffees i’ve eve tasted. searching for the elusive coffee toffee, well not really elusive because Diana labelled them so thanks Diana :).

The Refinery cabin is a cool place  created by another one of my colleagues where nature and body products meet. Everything from face scrubs to soaps this cabin has it covered, its most recent product is a coffee turmeric soap, which not only smells nice and inviting. It’s good for your skin too, i recently tried some of the soap and i just can’t get over the coffee smell 🙂 it is so nice and it also can help with clearing away scars that bechets syndromes symptoms lave behind on the skin.

Turmeric by itself has very high anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties which are beneficial for people with bechets syndrome, since it causes inflammation of the blood vessels. This will help decrease that inflammation and the pain that comes behind it. My Time with these colleagues was well spent and alot of fun, from games with coffee toffee’s to coffee around the world and Natural sweet smelling soap. It is truly an interesting world out there with interesting people and I’ve already met two of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minecraft was first released in May 2009 as a developmental game, back then it’s name was “Cave game” exciting right ? but after a few name changes went from minecraft “order of the stone” (now that sounds like a movie name if i ever heard one) to the name we know and love minecraft.

Minecraft is a survival game, they spawn you into a world that you can partially control in the settings menu, for example the mode whether easy or peaceful and  bonus chests. I personally like peaceful mode for building since i can switch back to easy or normal when i’m done, gives me a chance to build in peace. Building is my favorite thing to do in this game because it is the perfect platform for creative minds like myself. You can build anything your mind can think up and the sky is the limit, I’ve done houses, boats, barns, shops, villages etc in creative mode and the fun doesn’t stop there. This game came at a good time in my life, the road of Bechets syndrome so far is a long, endless, tiring one. Medical expenses taking up most of my bank account and a treatment that is on a timer, sometimes it can be overwhelming.

prednisolone while it gives me my life back and the ability to do what i want, like most medications it isn’t good for long term use and I’ve been on it for quite sometime. Every now and again when i’m having a bad bechets day i like to come to this game, to build, explore and just immerse myself in this huge open world. After being spawned into the world, be aware of day and night because mobs spawn at night and being in the “sitting duck “state your in at the beginning with no weapons or food or anything until you make them; You will most definitely be killed, the mobs  in this game are annoying to say the least but they make the game fun and whether its zombies or endermen they can be killed some easier than others. Watch out for creepers, i hate creepers because they move like silent ninjas until their right up behind you and you turn around and “boom” bye bye player and when they explode they take half their surroundings with them so be sure to lead them away from your home.

Once you’ve established a home base and gathered the essentials you can explore the open world but try to make a map and compass first. This open world comes at a price, you can get lost and it is easy to get lost, especially in caves and underground mine shafts so leave breadcrumbs to help yourself. There is so much to see and do in this game that it never gets boring and every time i play i have hours of fun. I’ve climbed the highest mountains and swam the deepest oceans, I’ve discovered sunken ships and buried treasure, under water, jungle and desert temples, underground mine shafts and caves of all sizes. The list could go on Laura croft ain’t got nothing on me, its just that good. I used to find myself playing for 4 hours maybe more because i either got lost or discovered something new and wanted to explore it.

This game has some of the most beautiful, breath taking landscape i have ever seen, not assassins creed black flag level but its up there. The developers really worked hard on it and it shows, i’m always climbing to the highest points to see the view and it is worth it. Everything is well designed and looks like your in the real world, for example the jungle biome is so dense and thick its like your really in the jungle. Same feeling with the desert, plain, forest, swamp and snow biome. Once you’ve become an old hand at the game, you should be brewing potions and opening portals in no time; to my knowledge there are 2 portals 1 to the nether and 1 to the end where you meet the ender dragon, i think it’s safe to say this game has everything and the kitchen sink in it at this point.

This game still has a few issues with landscape spawning in and lagging but i think the developers will fix this soon, at least i hope so, last time i played i was nearing a sunken ship when my boat got teleported further back from it for no reason, lost my diamond sword and then it lagged and i got attacked by a drowned zombie (i completely forgot about them) all while trying to explore around a jungle biome.

Besides the issues this game is for now my favorite game to retreat to, especially when i’m feeling sick and mentally stressed it helps when i build because my brain gets a break from all the overwhelming thoughts and worries that come with bechets syndrome and its nice not to have a constant reminder in your head that your in pain today or you cant do this today because reasons. My focus shifts from how will i eat properly to i hope an enderman doesn’t spawn (since i haven’t successfully killed one yet). This journey has been a unique one and i hope you guys enjoyed it, Despite my life changing for the worst i never let bechets take me down and i hope someone somewhere will be inspired by my little blogs to keep going  and let nothing take them down.

 

Hello Neighbor recently released its full game and it has blown peoples minds, connections were made with the story line and The wacky crazy neighbor we met from the beginning is seen in a different light, i actually feel sorry for him. Hide and seek came out in August 2018 with a planned release in December 2018. Hide and Seek deals with the events of the Neighbor’s family that caused him to become a recluse. The game was released on December 7, 2018.

This sequel or prequel to the game focuses on the neighbors family and answers many questions left over from hello neighbors alphas and betas. besides the safari chapter we get four more chapters, each with there own representations, themes and puzzles. We cant forget the puzzles, my favorite part of this genre of games, we go from creating pressure in geysers to reach high places to outing fires and defrosting lakes. We go from safari hunter to robber to firefighter to zombie, barbie isn’t the only one who does everything.

We went from collecting toy animals to money bags and babies and brains. The fun never ends really. Each chapters cut scenes reveal more of the story and give us insight into whats going on, In the beginning it seems like child’s play, two children having fun playing hide and seek but we soon come to realize the deep dark truth that will come to pass as the game goes on. We go from playing and having fun to escaping to fluctuating emotions and things start coming together like a puzzle.

Hello neighbor never fully made sense, it had too many loopholes, too many unanswered questions and people were left wanting more. Months later we got our answers and it was darker and sadder than anyone expected, we learned that the neighbor had a family and things went from heaven to hell in minutes. In hello neighbor we play as a guy who gets evicted from his city apartment and moves to a neighborhood except our neighbor is acting weird, fighting mannequins, locking up a door like fort Knox. something is definitely rotten in Denmark. What we don’t know until hide and seek is that this crazy, wacky, off his meds neighbor is simply a man in mourning.

We see the neighbor and his family moving in, happy without a worry in the world then we join the children for hide and seek and watch as it goes from fun to tragedy. My theory which i shared on captain sauce, 8bitryan and KindlyKeyins game play videos is that sometime after moving in, the neighbor and his wife leave the children home to go somewhere, we don’t know if its the grocery store as we saw in alpha 3 or the beta levels i’m not sure which it was. The children realize time is passing and don’t know where their parents are, their worried but can’t really do anything except keep playing and hope they come home soon. After chapter 2 we see the neighbor come home and drop to his knees with his wife’s purse, we can tell by this that the wife has died, we know how she died through alpha 3 when we saw the accident and the waiting room scenes.

The next 3 chapters show us how they cope with her death, the neighbor is out of it, mourning. not really there for his children. The son is angry and sad, not sure how to move forward and the sister seems to be the strong one, we don’t see her cry but we can safely assume she is just as sad as her brother and father. We see her try to cheer her brother up despite his being mean to her. The last chapter isn’t really a chapter but more of an ending scene, it all comes down to this kinda thing. we see the brothers anger go to far and cause his sisters death by accidentally pushing her off the roof. we are then met by an ending scene of the neighbor burying his daughter.

The answers are clear when we take this information back to hello neighbor itself, we can assume the grave in alpha 2 is the sisters and the mattress and teddy in the basement is the brothers because we can only assume that he went cray losing his mother and sister. The neighbor not wanting to lose the only family he had left locks him down there and lives with what he has done, until we come along. The shadow figure that sparked curiosity could represent the brother, the missing children poster is his children because he would have to cover his tracks somehow, people who knew him would notice his children not around. All the things we saw in the alphas and Betas the hidden things, the things in the basement scenes were almost a vision of what was coming even though they made no sense.

Is this the end for hello neighbor and hide and seek for good ?  we’ll just have to wait and see. I couldn’t resist doing this blog, since the day hello neighbor dropped the first alpha iv’e been hooked on it like a bear to honey. The story line grew and myself and other fans wanted to know more, we couldn’t wait for the next alpha or beta to drop. Tiny Build and Dynamic Pixels did a great job on this one, granted we had our share of glitches and spaz out moments but the journey was wild and unexpected and full of surprises at each turn. I hope to see more games of this type in the future i hope this isn’t really the end for our wacky friend the neighbor.