Monthly Archives: April 2020

Exercise in Small Spaces

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I don’t like gyms.  I dislike waiting on equipment to be ready.  I dislike having to wipe sweat off things.  I dislike paying for the equipment thrice over.  I dislike the peak hours, and the MASS of people that show up for 3 weeks in January.  I dislike the folks that just stare into mirrors, or take up space to talk IG shots.  I really dislike having to travel back and forth.  There are benefits though, namely in classes and swimming pools.

Money

Many a year ago I got an exercise machine.  One of those all-in-one things that allowed me to do a bunch of exercises with a consistent resistance (something bowflex doesn’t really do).  I replaced that about 8 years ago now with a cage, Olympic barbells, and some dumbbells.  There’s a page on all that equipment.  It was less than $1000 to get all of it, and that was brand new gear.  I’m sure with some judicial used shopping it could go for half.  Figure a gym membership is $50 a month, and that’s ~18 months of membership to pay for it.  So the money part is pretty straightforward.

Space

The real issue is the room required.  I have this set up in my basement, along with a treadmill.  I’d say it takes up a 14’x10′ space.  Gives enough room for some yoga/stretching exercises as well.  Space is a premium for a lot of people, I get that.  Some would rather have a bar, or a pool table, or a wine cellar.  Some it’s office space.  Most people in apartments and condos don’t even have that option.

So maybe you don’t get a home gym.  Maybe you just get some basic equipment to run body exercises.  $50 will get you a pull up bar that fits in most doorframes.  A yoga mat & block are dirt cheap.  Resistance bands come in all sizes and store very easily.  There are way more body weight exercises than people realize, and that doesn’t take up much more room than a coffee table.  Beachbody’s Insanity program requires a tiny foot print, and it will beat you into the ground.

Time

Money and space are covered then.  Now it’s time.  Aside from essential positions, the general population has an insane amount of time on their hands.  My kids don’t have any activities, and my hockey is cancelled…. so that’s ~ 12 hours a week back into my schedule.  My commute is gone.  There’s another 5 hours (I have employees who commuted 90min each way, so they are looking at 15+ hours back).

Maybe you have kids who are driving you mad?  If they can’t go outside, then bring them into the exercise program too.  Of all the habits we teach kids, physical activity is one of the best possible ones.  I’ve done weight lifting sessions with my youngest, and yoga with my eldest.  They see me do something every day.

I used to have a stationary bike, swapped that for a treadmill.  For both, I’ve built a laptop stand that allows me to work and move at the same time.  A flat board usually covers the handles and provides a stable platform.  The hard part is finding the right elevation so your wrists feel comfortable.  Or if you’re on calls all the time, just use a headset and walk/bike while you’re listening.  Heck, nearly every machine nowdays comes with a tablet/cell holder to watch vids while you do your thing.

Just Move

Even moderate exercise has tremendous benefits.  The endorphins alone allow for a better mental space, as well as helping get most restful nights.  For those socially isolated, there are plenty of social media groups where people share their efforts, progress, and support.  Now’s the absolutely best time to start a new habit.

 

Final Fantasies

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By this point I’ve played all of them. Only 8 & 15 I have not completed, which gives you an idea where I rank them in the overall scheme.  I see the series more like generations of games, where the break in generations is a baby-meets-bathwater event.  And often, the first and last games per generation really do something special.

I see 1 through 6 as the early wave.  7 through 10 as the 3d wave.  And 12 through 15 as the AI wave.

Early Wave

The early wave was all about building a game with very limited resources.  Most people wouldn’t be able to play FF1 as it originally launched.  Hard to navigate, limited sprites, few saves, low forgiveness, and the annoying fact that you missed attacks if the enemy was dead.  It was remastered later on to add a lot of the more modern conveniences (like inventory management) as well as some extra content.  Solid.

FF6 took all those ideas and practically perfected them.  A massive roster of distinct characters with their own side quests.  Chocobos, summons, airships.  A musical score that still gets me going, and a storyline that was epic.

Each additional game in the early wave tried some different bits.  Group sizes, jobs (!), ATB vs turns, methods of leveling, and side quests.  They all had sprites.  Chocobos showed up.  The final battles were excruciatingly long.  Cid.  And each has been remastered/remade in the years since. You can play all of them on a cell phone.

3D Wave

I still remember popping in FF7 in a rented Playstation.  The intro cinematic just blew everything I knew of console games out of the water.  I’ve replayed it a dozen times at least, and each time it still feels like the first.  Sure, the character art required imagination and the translation was horrible, but the sheer scope of the game… wow.

8 brought in minigames.  9 was a throwback to 1-6 (and is one of my all-time favs), and 10 decided to bring in voice acting and a crazy stupid long end-game.  I am sure across the years I’ve broken the 1k hrs mark on FFX play time.  I can lightning dodge blindfolded.

AI Wave

Where the 3d wave changed how we saw the game, the AI wave changed how we played the game.  Gone was the concept of turns, and instead battle was active.  Computer power was good enough to always show enemies, so no more random battles.  Other player characters could be customized to act on their own, with a rudimentary (at first) AI system on behavior.  This optimization of gameplay meant that the difficulty spike went way up.  Enemy behavior became much more complex.

FF12 took the familiar steakpunk fantasy approach that worked wonders in previous settings.  The shift from FFX to FF12 was massive, and it’s only after years that people have come to appreciate what it did to the genre.  FF13 looked amazing, but its overall lack of complexity until the way end of the game makes it a rough one to recommend.  FF15 took the Ubisoft gameplay of open world minimap icons to another level, and a much more action oriented gameplay – kind of like Kingdom Hearts.  The story removed almost all fantasy elements, and was so poorly received that extra content was cancelled.

The MMOs

FF11 is pure eastern MMO, in line with Everquest’s need for group based combat and a super punishing death mechanic.  FF14 came back from a catastrophic launch to become the gold standard in western MMOs.  Nearly every issue that exists in WoW has been resolved in FF14.  I am of the opinion that the game is so refined, that it’s not possible for the genre to “grow” outside of it.

Overall Ranking

I said earlier that everyone has their personal ranking, and I’m no different.  And rather than rank on games at release, I’d rather rank on what you can get today.  Cause frankly, getting the original FF games is not going to happen.  So, from “worst”, to “best”.  No sequels.

  • FF8 – Both story and combat never clicked for me.
  • FF15 – Driving to pad time, and minimap quests were too much.
  • FF2 – Solid story, but the leveling mechanics were insane (had to use a skill to improve it)
  • FF5 – This one is hard to play since it feels like a beta for FF6.
  • FF13 – The “Press A” mechanic lasted WAY longer than it needed to.  The game is great once it opens up, but that’s after 8 hours of corridors.
  • FF3 – The job system and the Warrior of Light & Dark are in full force here.
  • FF4 – The story does it here and is the model for a lot of other games.  Cecil & Golbez make this work.  Trip to the moon too!
  • FF1 – The remake greatly polishes some rough ideas.
  • FF7 – When you leave Midgar and realize it’s effectively only a large dungeon…that’s when you realize what FF7 did to the genre.
  • FF9 – If you took the best parts of FF1 through 8 and put them in a single game.  It doesn’t innovate – it polishes.
  • FF6 – Kefka.  Ultros.  Shadow.  True character development and a polished system underneath.  The remake’s graphical adjustments are meh.
  • FF10 – The voice acting is really bad, and the story bittersweet.  Sphere grid and Blitzball are the standard which others are measured.
  • FF12 Zodiac Age – the bug fixes and job system dramatically improve an already amazing game.  Retrospective, the gambit system is an amazing development.

The Load

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I’ve been in what’s affectionately called a “war room” since Monday.  It’s a permanent conference call to monitor and address issues.  If you’ve never done one, then I hope it stays that way.

My part to play in this is the technical aspect, enabling contact points to a service line.  Also, ensuring that service line has the tools in place to connect. I am simplifying it at the higher level.  In more practical terms it means shipping thousands of devices to people’s homes (since that’s where they work from now), ensuring they all have the right features  and configurations, and that the “pathways” to connect function under load.  I don’t manage how many people, or what those people do.  Thankfully.

On Monday, my part saw 7 million people try to consume the service.  Based on standard volumes, that’s a near 5000% increase.  If my normal day was a bathtub, Monday was 5 Olympic swimming pools.  A few red lights went off and we were able to sort them out with some very smart people around the line.  The good news is that at the technical level, the system generally worked as expected.  The bad news is that there were wayyyyy more people calling than people able to take calls.  The next good news bit is that my clients had enabled other options than a phone line, and those services worked as expected.

It’s been 3 weeks of crazy days to prep for this, and it’s great to see that part work.  It’s an astounding amount of work in a short period of time, and I’m quite aware that this has taken a major toll on people’s health.  I know I’ve been having trouble just putting sentences together.  But that is a minor hiccup compared to what the people calling in need to deal with.  It’s been motivating to know that the end result is going to help millions of people in a time of crisis, more than enough to have people push well beyond what they thought they could do.

After having done this 3 times now in the past 8 years, I’m starting to wonder if I’m just a glutton for punishment, or a bad luck charm.  Few people ever see 1 event like this in their entire career.  Not out of the woods yet.  Still… it’s time for some rest.

Baking as Stress Relief

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I have fairly vivid memories of being a kid and sitting and watching my great grandmother baking.  We’d be at the cottage, go out and pick wild berries and she’d end up baking us a pie.  I’d have aunts baking patés.  Tarts.  Sugar pies.  Pêtes de soeurs.  Cookies as far as the eye could see.  My fascination with Lemon Meringue Pies.

When I grew up, I inherited my grandmother’s baking recipes – thousands of them.  Some slow efforts to get through that. I still have a Christmas habit of baking gingerbread cookies, and giving baking gifts to friends.

I bake when I’m stressed.  I know it’s a coping mechanism. The eating part is certainly fun, but it’s the act of making that’s cathartic.  I didn’t really clue into why at first.  Now I think I get it.

Baking is as much science as it is art.  You need the right quality ingredients, in the proper amounts.  Day of year makes a difference, as humidity can make a heck of a difference, so weight is often better for dry ingredients.  You need to mix them in the right order, in the right fashion or you’ll get different results.  Just dumping it all into a pot gives you lumps.  The actual baking part needs a good oven, with even heat distribution (oh boy does convection make a difference).  An extra minute of baking can make a soft cookie get a crunch.

The art part is the difference between a baker and a grandmother.  I have recipes that have no weights, just ingredients.  Others that ask for a fistful of something.  And let’s be honest here, there’s the love factor that goes into this that just changes the overall recipe.  Cripes, I’ve done the exact same recipe when I was in a good mood and a bad mood and got completely different results.  Just the other day, my bread didn’t rise a damn inch.

The main stress relief factor is time.  It’s not possible to rush baking. You can’t put 5 people in a kitchen and go 5 times as fast.  The oven is only so big.  Cooking at a higher temp will burn the sugar.  If I want to make Ginger Snaps, I know it’s going to take me 90 minutes from start to end.  That’s 90 minutes of zen.  90 minutes + where the house just smells amazing.  90 minutes where I’m not being bothered with anything else.

That’s likely why more people are baking now.  Sure, it’s harder to just go and pick up bread, but people have oodles of time to bake.  Even those working from home likely have 2 hours that is free from not commuting.  I’ve been doing 12 hour days for what seems 3 weeks now, still find some time to get it done (heck, making time).  I don’t have hockey 6 times a week.  Kid activities are cancelled.  All I have is time, and some simple ingredients.

Time to bake some love.

Boomtown and Batman

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WB has a good problem on their hands.  They have the best action melee combat system on market.  Spider-man comes close, but it’s movement based rather than physical.

If you’ve ever played a Batman game, you know what I mean.  Rarely are fights ever 1:1, instead it’s Batman vs 5-10 different goons, with different abilities.  At easier difficulty levels, you can just use your fists and generally get through.  Harder difficulties really do turn you into a walking swiss army knife of combat options.  You’re shooting batarangs, rope pulls, stuns, air attacks, flash bombs and a slew of other options.  While there’s an ideal path for each enemy type, odds are you surrounded by multiple and just creating your own dance of death.

Even goons with guns can be taken down with the right tools.  The last game in the series went a bit overboard on that, as you can’t really take out an entire squad of armed foes with your hands.  Still, the model works and it’s extremely fulfilling.

Shadow of Mordor takes this up another notch, what with the possession skill.  Most fights are against 20+ enemies, and it’s really not possible to take them all down without turning the odds in your favor.  You end up just dodging all over the place, like you’re high on sugar pops.  Still taking down an army, effectively solo, is a heck of a feeling.  Throw in a boss (or 3) and it’s a great endorphin rush.

Which brings me to Mad Max.  Early fights start off with 3-5 goons.  Then you get people who run at you.  Then some with shields.  Then some with weapons.  Then PILES of enemies at once.  There’s a gradual increase of difficulty as you go through, and in nearly all cases, it is predicated on your use of the Parry and Dodge buttons.  Parry yellow, Dodge red.  You can “move cancel” almost everything but a killer blow (ironically), so that makes for some stream of combat.  But there’s really no movement involved here – you just wait for people to attack, and hope they are near a wall for what is the only “invincible” takedown that doesn’t require a consumable.

You don’t really get more tools (shiv, shotgun), but you do get some interesting skills to help offset the enemies.  You can reverse parry an attack, using the enemy’s weapon against them.  You can break shields.  You can quickly execute.  Almost all of them require you to play defensively.

It’s an interesting twist, and one that has some merit.  The Dark Souls model of opportunistic attacks is certainly sound.  Mad Max uses a different toolkit to push that concept, and for the most part, it works.

 

 

Mad Max

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This one has been on my wishlist for a while now.  I heard some great things about it but I’d had enough open world games to play at the time.  I’m getting emails every day now about some game on sale, so I figured I’d get a deal and give it a go.

I am a fan of the film series.  That helps tremendously here, because the game makes next to no effort to explain the setting.  Not that we generally play these games for their story settings.  I’m not quite far in, but the bits and pieces that have been presented so far fit in really well with the world-as-seen-on-film.  Considering it came out around the time of the 4th film (which is frikkin’ amazing), the tie-in is obvious and probably in the top-3 I’ve ever played.

Open-world games walk a very tight line.  You want tons of things to do, but you want them to be meaningful.  Ubisoft put in character levels to help justify the crazy padding in the Assassin’s Creed series.  Mad Max has a lot of events, but it does a decent job in making them both varied and useful.  The base camps you’re clearing are all unique, peppered with some bosses.  There are secrets to find in each as well.  There are sniper nests / totems to take down, but they are mostly drive-bys and easy enough to manage.  The “discovery the world” points are hot air ballons, and rather than just push a button, you need to go through some minor (different) steps to get the balloon in the air.

The rough spots deal with scrap collection, which may or may not contain a piece of a useful recipe.  Means you only need to do a handful per mini-zone.  The absolute worst part is the minesweeping portion, which requires you to use a specific car and travel to the world without getting into any combat.

Given the setting, there’s a LOT of driving.  Thankfully it plays wonderfully.  Each vehicle plays differently, and your main ride has enough gizmos to make combat entertaining. There are some Death Races as well, which unlock different vehicles.  It’s ok to start, but really shines when you upgrade the ammo for your Shotgun and can take out enemies with ease.  The hunting of convoys is especially fun, as you need to take down 4-8 vehicles to get a hood ornament from the leader.  You end up doing a ton of laps around an area, using every advantage you can to survive.  Tons of fun.  It’s a really good travel system, making the world feel big without it feeling like it’s just big to impress.

Hand to hand combat is pretty much the Batman games, minus the crazy acrobatics.  So yeah, gold standard there.

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All the various activities help restore a local stronghold which provides boosts to your gameplay.  Either free healing, ammo, scrap (money) collection, or similar.  They also reduce the area’s threat, which unlocks upgrades for your car.  And raising your Legend status (character level) unless character upgrades.  So there’s some value in completing them, as much there is in doing the actual activity.

The downsides here are all nitpicky.  The minesweeping portion is horrible as you can only use 1 car, which has no upgrades, and you need to manually find the minefields.  Dodge and jump are realistic, meaning they don’t really move you that much.  It’s jarring and takes a fair amount of adjustment.  Collecting scrap I tedious (hold A to collect) and takes a stronghold upgrade to collect from destroyed vehicles.  But I am nitpicking here (except minesweeping, ugh).

I’ve unlocked the 2nd area (I think there are 4), I guess that makes it about 20% or so saying “complete”.  So more thoughts as I dig deeper.  What I’ve seen so far, yeah, I can see why this game was on many top 10 lists in 2015.  Probably would be in top 10 lists in 2020 too.