Ink for December 11th, 2021

It's been awhile....again. I have yet to fulfill the promises I made to myself to get back into the habit of daily blogging, or even semi-daily, since the last time I posted.

Between then and now, it's been a combination of busy work days and being distracted by good video games. Sometimes, a busy work day leads to me spending a few hours playing through something and escaping from everything for a bit. There's an idea I have for the latter, which I'll explain later in the post.

Nothing much has changed otherwise between August and now—I'm still doing well, work's been busy for the past couple months (as usual for this time of year), and so on. There is a major thing that might help in getting me back into blogging more frequently...

The photo's a bit off center because my desk is a mess...

This was an investment that was worth the wait—both in Apple in announcing the new MacBook Pros and the week that it spent sitting in Memphis. The long, story short as to why I decided to purchase this was mostly due to the battery service warning on my previous MacBook followed by Big Sur, which I installed in case they didn't announce them. Any time I booted the laptop, if the battery percentage was under ninety percent, the screen would black out upon login and I needed to plug in the charger so that I could use it—the computer was fine if I left it in sleep mode overnight. These issues did not occur with Mojave, but many of the programs I used would no longer be supported if I stayed on that iteration of OSX. 

This laptop gives me peace of mind in many ways with the most relevant thing being the battery. It lasts around three to four days before I need to plug it in and the MagSafe charger now has a braided-cable instead of the dangerously thin cord that could easily bend and break. Not only that, but iFixit's teardown of both models reveals the batteries are not so much of a nightmare to remove and replace compared to previous models—especially the one I used before*.

On the software front, everything feels much more stable and smoother than before. I haven't put the M1 Pro chip through its paces yet, but it does feel like a huge leap from my 2015 MacBook Pro. I have a good feeling that this new laptop will stick around with me for a long time to come. 

Moving on...I had this thought in October regarding video game reviews since I mentioned I considered doing a review of Axiom Verge and it's sequel. I spent the previous month falling in love with a game called Eastward. When October hit, it was a combination of Metroid Dread and Disco Elysium: The Final Cut, and in November, it's Shin Megami Tensei V. 

I feel like I can still do a review on both Axiom Verge titles, but make it more personal by incorporating what drew me to games like those—known as Metroidvanias in the gaming sphere. I'll need to give them another spin later in the week just to refresh my memory and remind myself as to how I felt while playing through them.

However, I thought it would be cool to cover other games in the same way I review books for Goodreads. I'm going to leave a poll on Twitter, shortly after I post this, but I wanted to ask you all what games I should cover.

Should I cover Eastward, Disco Elysium, Shin Megami Tensei V, or should I take a look at a game you suggest, good or bad? Comment away with your suggestions! 

Until next time, have a wonderful weekend!

*The linked teardown is for a 2012 15" MacBook Pro with Retina Display, but I don't think there were any staggering differences between it and my mid-2015 model to warrant another. I may skim through YouTube to see if they did a video teardown of the latter and update this post accordingly.