This looks like an awesome movie and it's coming out at the end of the year! I saw other smaller trailers for it, but this one added to that. It seems to explain why a modern group of military soldiers are fighting monsters we see in the Monster Hunter games. It didn't make sense, before this trailer, why modern weapons were being used, but now it makes sense. You do get to see some people using weapons that we're used to seeing in Monster Hunter games. One of the main characters, for instance, is using dual blades. She's one of these modern soldiers, but it seems she switches from modern weapons to Monster Hunter weapons. There are other characters we will see wielding other Monster Hunter weapons. I've read a little bit about this movie and how the production team worked with Capcom. This has been in the works for about a decade, I think.

So let me know what you think of this and if you're planning on going to see it (despite the COVID situation). I feel like this looks like something I most definitely want to go see as I've enjoyed playing Monster Hunter: World. For those of you that own a Switch, you should also be aware that the Switch is getting two new Monster Hunter games (lucky!).

Command & Conquer (C&C) is one of the very first real-time strategy games. It was released in 1995, although Dune II actually came out a few years before it. C&C, however, made vast improvements and additions to the genre and was perhaps most famous for its full motion videos (FMVs). The acting, music, and gameplay were all great and lead to a very successful series that lasted over a decade. This success led to the game actually being retitled as “Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn.” After the success of C&C and it’s expansions, a new game was released called Red Alert (RA). RA takes place in a different timeline in which Einstein creates a time machine and removes Hitler from history. This put the Allies against the Stalin led USSR. Like C&C, RA was followed up with some expansions and sequels. I still own the soundtrack to RA that I got many years ago. I’ve really loved pretty much all C&C/RA music.

Most recently, some of original developers of the games decided to create the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection. They actually found old tapes of the FMVs and were able to remaster them, making them look much better. You can check out Jon’s post (link below) to see a video about how this collection was made, it’s worth watching if you’re a C&C fan.

One of my first reactions to the collection was that I was surprised that it’s priced at only $20. Maybe, I was expecting it to be a little more expensive. However, Limited Run Games did have other, more expensive, copies you could get that came with a lot more extra material, such as the music on a USB drive. I still think $20 is a great price tag for this collection.

The first bug I actually ran into may have been changed by now, but it was difficult to disable subtitles. For some reason, you had to click around the button instead of on the button. It’s been quite a while since I’ve done this, though. I ran into another bug that was actually just a typo in the description of a photo from the bonus material.

The games didn’t just get a graphical overhaul, but the music and other elements were overhauled as well. One of the interesting graphical features is that you can press the Space Bar to switch between the classic and remastered graphics. This gives you a nice view of how the game has been remastered. The collection includes bonus material that is unlocked after completing a mission. Most of it is just videos showing green screen takes of the actors, which I didn’t find to be very valuable. However, you can also unlock bonus music tracks, which I found to be much more valuable.

Speaking of the music, I ran into what I thought was a bug. You can go into the game’s Jukebox, which you can find in the audio options on the main menu or in the menu during a game and create a playlist. It has some good options such as including or excluding original or remastered tracks, bonus tracks, C&C tracks, or RA tracks. One part of this confused me and that is the shuffle feature. I assumed this meant that the game would play a random music track if this was enabled, however this wasn’t entirely correct. What happens is that after adding tracks to the playlist, the game then shuffles them around and then seemingly saves that playlist. It then plays the exact same songs in the exact same order in pretty much every mission. This seemed to persist for almost every mission, although I think it actually changed some times. You can easily switch tracks w/ the “-” and “+” keys, though.

Just like in the original, sometimes there are often multiple areas you can select for the next mission after completing one. In the original games, this meant that you’d probably miss out on one, but this collection has a Mission Select menu option. Once you finish a mission, you can click on the “Main Menu” button. The game will then tell you, pretty much, that your progress is saved and you can select missions from the main menu. This way, you can play every mission. It’s very handy and helps expand campaign gameplay. You can also unlock the secret missions for both games. I couldn't remember how to do this, so I just used Google to find out how.

I was working on Steam achievements, but ran into another issue, which may just be something I was doing incorrectly. One of the achievements requires you to play 10 multiplayer matches, but includes “comp stomp,” which I presume to mean you versus the AI, pretty much like the Skirmish option. However, I couldn’t get this to start and am waiting to hear back about what I may have done wrong with this.

After finishing the C&C part of the collection, I started playing the RA part. RA included a new snow environment, which I liked very much. It also included new units including spies and naval units. One thing I liked was that if you lose a naval unit, the game will specifically tell you, “naval unit lost.” After switching from the first game to RA, I immediately began to notice how it was an improvement over the original game. For instance, in the original game, it was difficult for a tank to shoot at an infantry unit and it was just easier to run them over. However, tanks seem to have gained anti-infantry accuracy in RA. They also seem to have gotten a speed boost. You may also hear the male voice of EVA and think “oh, that sounds like Jarvis from Iron Man,” but I can tell you that they are not the same actor. They most definitely sound alike (to me and some others) though.

If you liked C&C and RA, I would definitely suggest picking this up. I enjoyed being able to play these games again, especially after being remastered. I (along with others apparently) would really like to see more of the C&C/RA games get the remastered treatment. I have these games on a DVD collection known as "Command & Conquer: The First Decade," but the earlier games aren't completely compatible with today's modern PCs as they were designed for 32-bit CPUs. However, with a bit of research and some extra steps, you can get these games to work and stay stable. I've been able to get Tiberian Sun working and am playing it again.

If you have thoughts you want to share about this, please feel free to do so in the comments!

Check out this post by Jon: https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/4466/the-remarkable-story-behind-command-conquer-s-remastering

Since the last two posts have been about Minecraft, I figured why stop there? Check out the embedded video by xisumavoid to see what's in the next Minecraft update called the Caves & Cliffs Update. If you want to stay up to date with Minecraft news, his channel is definitely one of the best Minecraft channels to watch. This update enhances cave generation and adds a couple new biomes and blocks to them, including copper. There are also two new mobs you'll find in them, one is hostile, while the other is friendly. The former is blind and can only detect your movement. There are new blocks that will detect movement, even allowing for "wireless" Redstone. The latter mob can be collected in a bucket and can help you when you go exploring those Ocean Temples since they are aggressive to the mobs located there.

Some time ago, the community voted on adding goats to Minecraft and they're included in this update along with enhanced mountain generation. Goats have good climbing ability and strong knockback. The next mob that was voted for is the Glow Squid, so we'll see that in the game eventually.

This update is set to release Summer 2021, which I think is a bit of a bummer, but understandable during these pandemic times. Also, Mojang has a website where people can give feedback and others can vote on that feedback. I know this is part of how the cave biomes became part of this update as I noticed it was one of the most popular suggestions. You can give feedback and see more at: https://feedback.minecraft.net/hc/en-us

If you want to read more about this update and more head on over to the article Mojang posted regarding this year's Minecraft Live: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/minecraft-live-the-recap

In case you missed yesterday's big news that possibly crashed Twitter, Minecraft is joining Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as the next DLC. The trailer looks really cool. I don't own a Switch, but I've played all the other versions of Smash Bros. and have enjoyed the game since the first on the N64. I think it's kind of crazy how many characters have been and are being added to Smash Bros, though not necessarily a bad thing. I think having Minecraft in Smash Bros. kind of speaks to just how big and popular Minecraft is. This DLC has been in the works (including "talks") for about 5 years.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/twitter-crashes-and-reacts-to-super-smash-bros-ultimates-minecraft-steve-reveal/1100-6482817/

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/minecraft-in-super-smash-bros-planning-began-five-years-ago/1100-6482854/

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/super-smash-bros-ultimates-next-dlc-fighter-is-minecraft-steve/1100-6482813/

Nintendo has just recently announced Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and it's coming in November. This is one more reason why I wish I owned a Switch. Nintendo has acknowledged that they're working on a sequel to Breath of the Wild, but this new game is actually a prequel as it is set 100 years before Breath of the Wild. The original Hyrule Warriors game on the Wii U was probably my most favorite game on the system. I really enjoyed it. Hyrule Warriors is a mix between The Legend of Zelda and Dynasty Warriors games. If you haven't played the latter, basically it's an action war game where you control one character battling a whole army. The individuals in that army are weaker than you, but as a collective, they're a bit more challenging. Each character has their own moves. There are also a variety of weapons. In the original game, you could use Amiibos to unlock stuff, too. Again, I really enjoyed Hyrule Warriors and I'm so very surprised to see this announcement. Check out the embedded video!

Let me know what you think about this and if you're going to get it. Have you played the original Hyrule Warriors or the DS version? Have you played a Dynasty Warriors game?

I just received the 100% completion achievement for Red Dead Redemption 2, so it’s time to write about it. This game is great. It is pretty much exactly what I wanted in that it was a deep game that had a lot to do and took a long time to complete. It made time disappear quickly. It was one of those great gaming experiences I was wanting. I decided to grab it while it was slightly discounted during Steam’s summer sale. There are three versions of it. The most expensive version comes with additional content for single player mode and Red Dead Online. The one that’s a little cheaper only comes with the additional single player content, while the cheapest version comes with none of the bonus content. I decided to get the middle one, as I’m not really interested in Red Dead Online. I didn’t really enjoy Grand Theft Auto Online, so that’s why I’m not interested in RDO. However, there was a weapon you can unlock in the game if you do a certain treasure hunt on GTAO, I did that.

If you’re not familiar with the series, this is actually the third game in the Red Dead series that started with Red Dead Revolver, which I’ve never played. It was followed up by the very successful and great Red Dead Redemption, which I now intend to replay to piece the two games together. Basically RDR is like GTA, but a Western version of it, so horses instead of cars. I really loved the horses. I only ever had an Arabian breed as my main horse for a long period of time, but there are lots of other breeds you can get. I found out early on what the best horses were and how to get them. There’s a white Arabian you can tame near the bigger frozen lake up North. In this game, you’re pretty much a gunslinger named Arthur, who’s in a gang. I personally think the story is fantastic and emotionally moving. I won’t give away spoilers, but even when I discovered a spoiler, I was still quite affected by some of the events of the game. It’s interesting that I love this game so much, because I’m not into guns, hunting, and thieving, but this game puts them together and does a really great job of it.

Unfortunately the game is not without it’s flaws. The majority of issues I saw were minor, but visual as some object didn’t render properly. I visited one character who had a floating candle in front of him. I decided to share that with Rockstar tech support/customer service and it seems to have been fixed. However, this wasn’t the only bug I spotted and shared with Rockstar and about half the time I found their representatives to be quite unhelpful as though they hadn’t even read my ticket. Eventually, I pretty much gave up on reporting these issues as I had a few bad experiences with them. This I find to be unique as most other companies have excellent tech support customer service representatives. The game did not always do well with the Steam overlay, so I disabled that after a while. Sometimes, after using the overlay’s web browser, the overlay/web browser would stay on screen even though I had told it to close or tried to close it with TAB and SHIFT. This in turn made me rely on ALT-TAB to look up things on the Internet and keep track of that 100% completion checklist I was working on. Unfortunately, sometimes this caused the game to crash. Sometimes the game would stutter for a few seconds, but this was uncommon and didn’t last very long. I think perhaps something else was going on with my PC, but perhaps I’m wrong. Still, it was uncommon enough to live with. Other than that, the game ran smoothly, extremely well. I was impressed! In fact, the game’s benchmarking tool ran a lot smoother than GTAV’s, which made me think about how they’ve optimized the engine. I thought RDR2 ran better than GTAV, but after playing the latter again for a bit, I noticed that it doesn’t render the same way in-game as it does in the benchmark. In the benchmark, things pop in on screen instead of naturally gradually, maybe it’s that the view distance is short, but I didn’t see this in RDR2, except in one area later in the game.

There is a lot to do in RDR2. The story is set in chapters. Chapter 1 gives you an introduction to the game’s controls and mechanics. There are only a couple of missions, before it moves on. Once you’re in Chapter 2, the world opens up, but not completely. There is one area you cannot go until much later in the game. Even if you avoid the law, you will be killed by “invisible snipers.” In a way, this is disappointing that a big part of the game is locked, because it prevents you from completing some tasks, such as studying all the plants in the game. In Chapter 2, it’s a good idea to do some of the story missions to get you started. One will open up a fence, which is someone you can sell stolen goods to, who also accepts wagons. Another will take you on a hunt for a Legendary animals. These are rare single animals in the wild you can track, kill, and trade in their carcass or pelt to the trapper and get another material you can take to the fence to create a trinket. Trinkets give you a permanent bonus, so it’s a good idea get these as soon as possible. Otherwise this is a perfect time to go exploring and doing a lot of non-story things. The game will tell you about some of these things, for instance there are Challenges where you need to do something to complete and when you do, you’ll rank up and eventually complete it. When you complete Challenges, the trapper will have new improved equipment unlocked that you can buy. This equipment often does things like increase ammo capacity and reduce maintenance needed for your guns. Having a completed set of this equipment will unlock a bonus to one of your stats, depending on the equipment. Stats in the game include health, stamina, and Dead Eye. The latter is kind of like V.A.T.S. in Fallout, it slows down time and allows you to aim and shoot. It can even highlight the areas on the animal or person you want to shoot for a critical hit. Although the full part of this feature isn’t unlocked until later in the game. It’s a very handy skill, one of the most important indeed. You’ll want to keep your Dead Eye bar filled as you may be wanting to use this often. You can replenish it with food, tonics, or getting kills without using it.

Hunting and fishing is an activity you can do, which I enjoyed even though I don’t hunt or like hunting in real life. Non-Legendary animals come in three qualities; poor, good, and perfect. If you kill a perfect animal with a critical shot that doesn’t damage the pelt, then you can get a perfect pelt from it. These are often needed for crafting different materials and also an optional hunting quest you can do. You use your Dead Eye ability to slow time and it will show you trails of animals that you can track and follow. No matter what animal you kill, you’ll get some meat from skinning it. You’ll want to set up camp often as sleeping restores your stats and it allows you to cook and craft items. You can then later eat the food you’ve cooked or found while you’re in a gun fight. There are herbs you can use as seasoning that will give the meat you cook certain advantages; like one will give you a bonus to health. However, I very rarely used any of the meat I cooked nor any of the food items I picked up in the world. Still, I enjoyed looting everything.

When you complete a story mission, you’ll be given a bronze, silver, or gold reward for it. These pertain to hidden objectives within the mission. If you complete all of them, you get a gold reward. I’m not sure if there’s anything related to getting gold in every mission, but it seems like a lot to do. This isn’t that different than GTAV’s missions.

There is really a lot about this game to talk about and it’s kind of hard not to find spoilers if you’re looking for information on something. I wanted to work on the 100% completion achievement, but by finding out what I had to do for it, I ended up meeting some spoilers. Although that didn’t change the game for me, I still enjoyed it very much.

I definitely recommend playing this if you’re into this kind of game or if it sounds like something you’d be interested in. It’s not too incredibly flawed and I got really attached to the characters and my horses. This is a game that will keep making you want to come back for more and play it all that you can, or at least that was my experience with it.

Oh, I also recommend using the keyboard and mouse controls instead of a controller. Even though this game was born on consoles, it translated quite perfectly to the PC’s keyboard and mouse. The mouse aids in aiming and guiding your horse or looking around. My only recommendation would be to change the Dead Eye key from the mouse scroll wheel button to CAPS LOCK as it can be tricky to trigger in it’s default setting.

So, what do you think about this? Have you played this game or RDR? Does Red Dead Online appeal to you? What did you think about it? Let me know what you think. If you want to talk about spoilers, I could create another post so we can do that.

The History Channel is one of my favorite channels on YouTube, I've been watching it a lot lately. Anyway, I stumbled upon this video and thought I'd share it here. Surprisingly, I did learn some things. A lot of this I knew about, but it's pretty nice to watch a documentary on the history of something you've experienced most of your life. If you're like me, it will take you down Memory Lane. So, give it a watch!

What do you think about this video and the history of video games? Do you have a long, fond, and memorable history with video games? Feel free to share your thoughts!

If you're a PC enthusiast like me and you play some video games that are quite demanding of your hardware, then chances are you're probably interested in keeping an eye on the temperatures inside your PC, particularly for your CPU and GPU. This is important, because these components can get very hot and without proper cooling, they will not last very long. Monitoring temperatures is actually easy with MSI Afterburner, but the software is capable of so much more!

This recommendation is based upon a comparison between MSI Afterburner and EVGA Precision X1. Amazingly, you MSI Afterburner doesn't care what GPU you're using, it will work with it. It doesn't matter if you have Nvidia or AMD. However, if you want to use Precision X1, you're going to need an Nvidia GPU.

Both pieces of software not only help you monitor GPU temperatures, but they also help you with controlling fan speeds and overclocking. Overclocking isn't something I'm into, though I've dabbled with it a bit. It does seem, to me, that MSI Afterburner is actually better at this than Precision X1. With the latter, you pretty much just have to stick some what random values in and try to see if you can find the correct values that work before a game or software crashes. It's pretty much guess work. However, MSI Afterburner has an icon in the top left-hand corner marked with "OC" and a magnifying glass. Clicking on this icon will let you scan and test values. So, it can help you automatically overclock your GPU, where as Precision X1 requires much more manual work.

MSI Afterburner also has a lot more features and settings than Precision X1. Even if you're not overclocking your GPU, MSI Afterburner is still the better piece of software to use, in part because it not only helps you monitor your GPU temperature, but also your CPU temperature and your FPS. If you go into the software's settings, you can set up a hot key to enable or disable the OSD (On-Screen Display). You can also configure it with a variety of options. Unfortunately, even though Precision X1 has a similar OSD, it does not work in every game. In fact, I can't even recall which games it actually works with. However, I've never had a problem with MSI Afterburner's OSD not working.

It's ok to have both programs installed, but not recommended to run both at the same time, so be careful with that. MSI Afterburner has a lot more features and configuration settings than Precision X1. It may be a bit more confusing, but there is box that will pop up when hovering over each setting that will help you understand it better. Both pieces are software are free, but it is MSI Afterburner that seems to deserve a very strong recommendation.

I've embedded a video from JayzTwoCents which is a guide to overclocking your GPU. He uses MSI Afterburner and Heaven Benchmark. If you're interested in getting more performance out of your GPU, you may also want to check out another one of his videos here: https://youtu.be/cqshaJTI8FQ I think he has even more videos on these subjects, so you may want to check out his YouTube channel, I strongly recommend it, it's my favorite for PC enthusiasts.

Do you have thoughts on this recommendation that you'd like to share? Do you overclock your hardware? Do you monitor temperatures and FPS? Feel free to reply in the comments section!

I've been playing Red Dead Redemption 2 a lot since I bought it during the Steam Summer Sale and I absolutely love it. However, it's not a perfect game. Though, what is? I've spotted some bugs and I thought I'd report them, so that they'd hopefully get fixed. This isn't the first time I've stumbled into bugs in a game. My experience, however, has changed a bit though.

One of the best ways to report a bug in a game is to capture video of it. Then, you can upload it to YouTube and send the video's URL along w/ the bug report. This I think kind of helps eliminate confusion during the bug report process and it also proves that you are experiencing the issue. You can create the video on YouTube as an "unlisted" video, meaning that only the people that know the video's URL can access it.

Windows 10 has the XBox Game Bar that you can enable for your games. You can use it by hitting the Windows key along with G. With it, you can see FPS, how your hardware is being utilized, take screenshots, or capture video. However, I've recently come to the conclusion that for capturing video (at least for RDR2) this software is inferior to GeForce Experience. While GeForce Experience seems to be primarily used to "optimize" your game's settings based upon your hardware, the software also comes with features quite similar to the XBox Game Bar, which you can access via Alt-Z.

I noticed that while trying to capture video with the XBox Game Bar, it would tell me something like it could not work with the game and to try setting the game to borderless window mode. I'm sure I managed to use it though, I play all of my games on full screen. Capturing a screenshot with it wasn't working out well, either, it didn't take a screenshot of the game. Yes, you can use Steam to take a screenshot, but the Steam overlay web browser is very problematic with RDR2, so I've disabled it. GeForce Experience did not have the same issue as the XBox Game Bar. It gave me no such error.

I like that both pieces of software exist and that we can capture video and screenshots of the game's we're playing. I'm sure it really helps developers see issues in action. It seems as though one of the bugs I reported for RDR2 has been resolved.

Anyway, I just thought I'd put this recommendation out there. If you're using an Nvidia GPU, then GeForce Experience is, in my opinion, the best software to use when capturing video. I think it's quite user friendly.

As a side note, if you want to edit your video, you can actually open it with the Photos app in Windows 10. It will play the video, but there is also an edit button near the top right-hand side. I was able to use it to trim my video captures. So, if you're looking for a free (if you own Windows 10) way to do some basic video editing, check out the Photos app.

Do you have any suggestions you'd like to share that are similar to the ones in this post? Feel free to reply in the comments!

You've got to see this, it's brilliant! Every Star Wars movie has the wrong title, here's how each movie should really be titled (making the titles actually obviously relevant to the plot). This will only take one minute of your time, it's a MUST see! Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. I think this makes a whole lot of sense!

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/every-star-wars-film-has-the-wrong-title-heres-wha/1100-6480401/?utm_source=gamefaqs&utm_medium=partner&utm_content=news_module&utm_campaign=homepage