Love/hate #21 Fable Remastered October backlog

I first played this on the Xbox, a long time ago. I played it again on the 360 and Fable 2 as well to completion (need to go and play that again at some point). I also got my hands on the Lost Chapters which nicely rounded out the game.

So far so good, everything looks similar with some nice added effects...

^ Good CHRIST some of these faces were uncanny valley material when I first saw them.

^ Being a good boy. There can only be two routes and it gets really tiring really fast being an evil character. They added a bit more variety to make it a viable and entertaining option but not much.

^ Again some of these faces...

^ So it begins the quest for delicious experience points...

^ Jesus

^ Was never a fan of the Archery in this game.

^ Aw yeee official Heroes

^ Well fuck you Deputy

^ I did almost every quest in the nip...

^ At least I beat Whisper at this quest for once, killed more Hobbes than her...

^ I think a lot of these failed boasts cancelled out my gains but it got easier as I went along

^ This is perfectly normal

^ Hey presto

^ I always take that guy along and never get him

^ Dang

^ Fine on their own, worse when there are two...

^ Boasting with my Trophies

^ Had to grab it early but it's useless without all the clues

^ She's a nice woman really

^ Good gods that's a child

^ My most meaningful interactions in this game are with the fecking Demon Doors

^ I got over the slaughter of our village, did you? Flashbacks much?

^ I swear to gods Maze

^ I do not remember this. Good craic

^ Lots of fishing too and visits to that first road

^ Eating Crunchy Chicks to open this door... so evil

^ This was all new to me. The Pimp Hat became part of my ensemble

^ The Grey Manor... more fishing

^ I kind of liked the new interface but it wasn't always the easiest to use... the hotkeys were handy though

^ Attracting random NPCs

^ I killed them

^ Theresa you could have intervened sooner

^ Well deserved...

^ His name is HITS.

^ Got it... eventually.

^ The most OP spell in my opinion

^ Killing the White Balverine

^ Didn't quite manage to beat the Fight Club...

^ Did it for the Cheevo...

^ I liked how the menu would update with your current look...

^ So specific

^ Lots of scarring...

^ Follow me, drink this, let me rob your store...

^ This will come in handy when I wed the Lady Grey...

^ The adventures of the Minecraft head (not sure what this is) apparently it was indeed a Minecraft reference

^ Couldn't beat this guy I think the last one... ARENA TIME

^ I didn't kill Whisper... this time

^ Oh it's on

^ Mother?

^ I have many houses...

^ I don't think I killed him either...

^ Achievement unlocked

^ I don't remember this... but good for her!

^ OP spell for the win...

^ Managed to rescue the hostages...

^ Donated so much gold to these feckers for that title

^ UGH

^ Apparently you have to lose at least once...

^ More poor doomed prison buddies

^ Time to feck him up

^ Dabbled in a few evil quests because they paid better and my karma was so high anyway

^ Minions hate this spell

^ Good gods silver keys

^ Oh that's the sword in the stone

^ Fear the Guildmaster

^ Lol Maze

^ Aw...

^ I won't kill you sister... in this playthrough anyway

^ Ridiculously hard if you're not ready for it

^ Serious face

^ I'm glad there was more of this dude.

^ A cool helmet to match my plate outfit...

^ Almost forgot I could get Avo's Tear instead of the Sword of Aeons or whatever its called

^ Fin... I'll return some other time and play an evil route and get the last handful of achievements.

NaNoWriMo 2018

I heard about it as early as 2009-2010. I thought about every now and then until I finally registered on the site in 2014, apparently. 2016 saw me create a book on it but not actually write anything (I deleted this and lost the badge, oh well). 2018 I said I'd give it a go, at last.

It was to be written longhand. I got really discouraged when I read that you had to validate your wordcount and I thought a damn I needed to be typing this, which I grew to hate. I like to do worldbuilding and TTRPG-writing in Word or Google Docs but not narrative writing. I like the flow of writing by hand, and I don't stop to edit every single mistake. This can really kill momentum, for me anyway.

Turns out you can validate by having a someone else count your words and I thought 'no way someone is reading this.'

Necut Six was the name of the novel this time. Main character A journeys to six points on the map of significance with a growing entourage. Main character B is under house arrest but is rescued by his estranged best friend and fellow VIP and they head off on a magical adventure. Main character C, brother of A and son of B would actually have to fight in the war while the other two avoided or tried to manipulate it. Poor bastard. He didn't even get any words written about him (yet)!

Word count by day:

1 1528
2 380
3 2549
4 697
5 -
6 1222
7 159
8 -
9 -
10 -
11 623
12-30 -

Total: 7158/50000

Not terrible! This is an ongoing project, a marathon not a sprint, and I quite enjoyed it. I burned out from matters completely unrelated to writing mid November after a series of events around the 9th to 11th. Forcing myself to write is not in my skillset, unfortunately for my wordcount. I often thought of going back but was really and truly burned out for most of November. All is well, just tired.

So that's my first actual proper NaNoWriMo attempt, I look forward to next year and having another go. I will continue with this bit of paper hopefully sooner rather than later. It really opened my eyes in a lot of ways, I can do this!

Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3 Heart Challenge (FAILED LOL)

I don't know how many time I've played this game. I only recently (2016 or 2017) tweeted that I had completed it 100% for the first time. Actually wait, I was missing a heart piece or two but damn close.
I still have the original file my brother started in 1999 (?) called 'Eoghan.' which has 138 deaths recorded on it! He beat the first three dungeons and got the Forest and Water Medallions but then moved out I think. I played it extensively between 2002 and 2004ish and EVENTUALLY found the way to the Fire Temple and the rest fell into place.

Since then I've probably played through it at least once a year for a decade but I had reached the point where I knew exactly what to do in every situation re: puzzles and monsters etc. Also I collected so many heart containers and whatnot that I could afford to play a bit sloppily. This would bite me in the arse when I decided to do a 3 heart challenge for the first time ever:

^ The original file, my 'all Skulltalas' Yapef file and my new 3 heart challenge file under 'My dude' after the meme.

^ Let's do this! I allowed myself three bottles with three fairies as 'lives' and would later get the Biggoran Sword and Epona but avoided getting the magic meter or anything until the very late game. Not sure what else... collected about 18 skulltulas just as I went along but not much else... oh I didn't allow myself to collect the Dungeon Maps or Compasses, which actually made things even quicker as I could bypass a few rooms.

^ Did not take enough photos as usual - phone pics suck. Note that all the settings of the TV are at 100, colour, brightness etc. It's almost pitch black without them and very hard to see...

^ I think this is just after I died the first time. The two Stalfos in the Forest Temple got me. Lost one of my lives but beat them after. I read a guide that warned this would be tougher than subsequent temples.

^ Beat Phantom Ganon handily enough, it seemed easier somehow to just reflect it back at him or maybe I was just fighting for my life(s) a bit harder. No shields no nothing to assist.

^ The dreaded Water Temple. This and the Fire Temple were actually GRAND I fudged up some of the puzzles here and lost time but who cares. One thing I missed was Farore's Wind whcih you get near Lord Jabu Jabu. I use it to rapidly return to dungeon entrances or in the Water Temple to the water rising and lowering devices.

^ The last of my screenshots. Did the Shadow Temple first and died the second time, the corridor with three skulltulas got me. I think I lost my last fairy  Then I lost my last life fighting Bongo Bongo himself. I had saved mid fight so went all the way back in and lost again! And I was thinking he's be the easy one and he was but damn it when he turned his hand into a fist I was screwed.

Once the challenge was failed I just bulldozed through the Spirit Temple, dying again outside it versus those green dudes and then topping up my fairy count again before ploughing through again. Died versus Twinrova, not against the Iron Knuckles that I feared would get me. Later still, Ganondorf himself killed me - one of his blasts you need to deflect aced all three of my hearts. Managed to beat Ganon without getting a game over but still.

So it was entertaining and different besides that. I always wanted to play the Master Quest on the Gamecube but never got the opportunity. I know it mixes up the puzzles so that would be fun to play. I'll try this again maybe a year from now or so and try not to be so sloppy. When you have over 10 hearts from a few dungeons and heart pieces collected I have no problem taking damage from traps and enemies  but when you only have three jesus you need to bring your A game.