I have finished Fallout 3. It's finally done, as done as I set out to be with it. I was kinda hoping to have some kind of boss battle against an Enclave controlled Liberty Prime, but I guess boss battles aren't really a thing they even tried to implement. Technically, the final boss in the original story is a guy you can easily headshot with VATS but I wouldn't say it was intended to be that. The most striking thing to me in hindsight is how small the world felt. I'm sure this was considered huge when the game released, but it felt rather compact to me. In a good way, as I was still able to remember the moments I lived through when I passed by old locations. I'm surprised there weren't more quests though! In total, the game has 17 side quests that are actually being tracked like quests, which is a ridiculous number for a game like this! A lot of places just exist for existence's sake and there could have been more to them.

But overall, I had a very good time and I'm glad I gave the game a second attempt!

I also finished the story mode of Bleach: Rebirth of Souls! I didn't think I'd ever spend 50 hours in a story mode of a FIGHTING GAME, but here we are! And I'm technically not even done yet, I still have to go back and do some extra challenges that unlocked to get the last of the secret stories.

In Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, I fought Malfestio and reached 4-Star in Village. I was wondering what the confusion status was going to look like in this game and it was in fact the worst case scenario I could imagine: he reverses your controls! I hope they bring him back to a modern game, though. There aren't a lot of birds in Monster Hunter that are genuinely just birds!

So now I have to tackle a lot of 4-Star quests that repeat previous monsters before I want to move on to new things. Last time I played, I suddenly felt a lot more comfortable with the controls for some reason. I guess I finally learned to play more patiently. When simply turning around is this much of a commitment, just swinging once and retreating just works a lot better.

And then there's this little hidden gem absolutely nobody else is playing right now called Ocarina of Time. I avoided all gameplay footage as soon as the gameplay demonstration left Kokiri Forest. I've seen enough and wanted to experience the rest myself. And I am blown away!

I love how faithfully they brought back all the silly background characters, like Beard Guy. And how the citizenry naturally transitions between day and night. I've been going out of my way to find all the little things from the original game and unless it broke the fourth wall, it's still there. I went all the way back to Zelda with the Keaton mask, but she no longer references Star Fox. I get it, but it's a shame! But there are a lot of good changes: Dampe's graveyard game is no longer awful, for example. And there are very tiny things, too. Like the block to open the boss door in Dodongo's Cavern no longer landing flush with the wall so you no longer have to pull it out before pushing it. Okay, now I'm starting to sound like a crazy person...

One of the things I was most curious about were the Redeads. And, well... holy shit. I have no other words.

But the coolest thing I didn't even know about is the game being able to pick up sounds through the microphone (which I don't even know where it is) to let you play ocarina songs buttonless. I'm just whistling them and the game actually recognizes them! Except the Sun's Song. That one always takes a few tries.

I'm generally very slow at playing games nowadays, but I have a feeling I'll be at least almost done by next week. I am twelve again!

I don't like either option, but it's still an improvement. It's snappy enough that I could get used to it, but I'll miss the Bang Bang Gang.

I finished the Broken Steel side quests in Fallout 3. They weren't particularly deep, more of a glance as to what's been happening with "the thing you made happen in the ending". I should be finishing the game off for good next week.

Progressed through the final arc in Bleach: Rebirth of Souls. As expected, the appearance of the Visored was very underwhelming with most of them missing. They did finally show up in a drawing, but were immediately ignored again.

I also had my first, really challenging battle! There are usually some AI patterns you can exploit, but fighting Kyoraku as Stark without losing any of your Konpaku (Soul Points) is bonkers. Stark uses his own Konpaku for his finishing blow when awakened, so you have to do the battle in your base form, which is not great. And they really captured the spirit of Kyoraku's Bankai, too, changing the rules of combat all the time.

It's one of the abilities I was most curious about and they made it work! The Hot Potato effect is the most stressful! It basically makes both combatants invincible, but hitting your opponent passes the bomb to them and whoever has it when it explodes takes all the damage that was built up!

Fought Gypceros in Monster Hunter GU, not much to say about him. I'm starting to think my Charge Blade is too mechanical though. I charge all my phials, I use all my phials. Rinse and repeat. I need to make it more organic to actually use my Guard Points. It's just that as a Switch Axe user of many years, the very idea of guarding anything is still very foreign to me.

Next up is Malfestio, who I've been very curious about. You don't see many birds in Monster Hunter that are straight-up birds! I can only think of Aknosom, who was one of my favorites in Rise for that exact same reason.

I finished The Pitt in Fallout 3. I didn't even remotely play it the way I was supposed to, but I still enjoyed it. It's tied with Point Lookout as my favorite, actually. Point Lookout really should be my favorite but its main story did not interest me at all. The only thing left to do is the Broken Steel expansion and I recently learned it only contains 3 main and 3 side quests, so I'm close to being done period. I was expecting a little more from a story expansion, but I'm curious to see what happens. There is something I'd like to see for the finale, but I'm not going to say it out loud to jinx it.

I finished the Hueco Mundo Arc of Bleach: Rebirth of Souls. One last story arc to go! I still can't believe how long Story Mode is. It's so long, I think I'm actually going to reach level 99 just from it alone! It doesn't really mean anything, the shop hasn't added anything new in a while, but it's weird.

I hunted Khezu in Monster Hunter GU and I'm starting to really feel the heaviness of the old games. Dodge rolls really aren't a thing, especially since you can't roll backwards. When Khezu starts to charge his electric attack while I'm attacking, I will take the hit. There just doesn't seem to be anything I can do. My only options are rolling forward, left or right, neither of which will do anything for me. So in return, I'm playing much more patiently, but my hunting times are still fine, so I don't think this is necessarily bad? The difference between a monster's enraged and tired state is also much bigger than in modern games. Angry monsters get so fast, it makes me feel even slower than I already do!

This weekend, I'll tackle Gypceros. It's a shame I never got to experience his trick blind, it would have been funny.

I wonder why those codes took so long to find, when F-Zero X already had an Unlock All code. But as someone who unlocked all AX content legitimately twice, I am very happy nobody else has to do it anymore. It's painful!

Rome hasn't collapsed in a day.

I finished the Visored Arc in Bleach: Rebirth of Souls. The Visored got so shafted by this game, it's the first thing that really stands out as very negative to me. I knew only one of them was playable, but only 3 of them appear at all in cutscenes? That's going to make their appearance in the big battle near the end underwhelming!

I'm done visiting all remaining locations in Fallout 3, so I went to The Pitt DLC. It's been funny, you're supposed to infiltrate the place as a slave but I'm the savior of the wastelands with all skills maxed out, so I'm just killing all the bad guys I'm supposed to be careful around!

In Monster Hunter GU, I fought Daimyou Hermitaur, Lagombi and Royal Ludroth. The third one made me realize there might be a room in the Misty Peaks that lags the game a bit, as I've noticed my inputs being eaten a couple of times. It's my favorite area so far and I hope it gets remade for a modern Monster Hunter, but I was worried the tall grass aesthetic of that one room might cause problems.

There's not much left in 3-Star, so I will begrudgingly tackle Khezu next. He's annoying, but he unlocks himself for the Meownster Hunters so we can start grinding that Pale Extract he's hogging! After that, it's time for Gypceros.

Splitting up The Acclaimed was a death sentence for them both. Huge props to Caster for getting the 'Let's go Max, you're the best wrestler alive' chant over and turning face in the process, but it was never going to go anywhere.

And I really want a liberated Sheamus to fight Moxley!

Capturing works exactly the same way it always has. Trap Tools combined with either Nets or Thunderbugs. I think you are indeed missing something that should be obvious, but let's be honest: menus have never been the series' strong suit.

It's interesting to hear about that side of Monster Hunter Wilds. I have 230 hours on record and I have never touched any of that. You're playing a very different game from me, it seems!

I'm still finishing off the map in Fallout 3. Turns out, the qualifications for a place to be marked on the map are a lot lower than I expected! A lot of them are areas I've passed by in the past because there simply didn't seem to be anything worth looking at and, well... there really isn't. But it's on the map! I have two more areas to visit, but I'll have to navigate the metro systems to get there...

I finished the Soul Society chapter in Bleach: Rebirth of Souls. I said last time the story is way more detailed than I expected, but I had no idea how far this would go. Apparently, the developers had so much fun with it they added one-off comedy segments the way the Anime would to stretch for time. There's absolutely no reason to dedicate any time to a board game tournament between Captains but I have no choice but to respect how audaciously stupid it is!

In Monster Hunter GU, I fought Nibelsnarf and Iodrome. Nibelsnarf is interesting, but I have to conclude that I will never be friends with any monster that spends a significant amount of time diving through sand. Get up here and fight me! Iodrome was as expected, a Velocidrome that poisons. Not much to say here. This weekend, I'll tackle Daimyou Hermitaur. In preparation, I looked up how to detonate Barrel Bombs because the last time I tried to just hit them, I took a lot of damage myself. I'm pretty sure in New World games they can't damage you, but I also rarely used them. I assume breaking that shell is going to be difficult without them, though.

GotY editions are usually bundles with DLC nowadays.

It lives!