Reid Main

Looks like America wants to repeat the last 8 years. Buckle up everyone!

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero

I played a ludicrous amount of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 on my Wii and have vivid memories of using the Wiimote to mimic Kamehamehas and Spirit Bombs. I'm sure I looked like an idiot but I felt like a god. Perhaps it was naive of me to think that after 17 years a sequel would at least improve on what made the previous game enjoyable. But unfortunately that is not what happened with Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero. Everything about this game is designed to frustrate the player and waste their time, not be the power trip that all Dragon Ball fans wants.

The most insulting aspect is the story mode only has two difficulties, normal and lower. In normal difficulty the enemies will routinely dodge all of your attacks and hit with you seemingly uninterruptible combos. I know the tryhards are yelling at the screen right now screaming that I just need to "git gud", but may I remind you we are playing a fucking Dragon Ball game here. The vast majority of us just want to kick the shit out of our enemies and mimic the awesome fights we saw in the anime. If the developers actually wanted this to be a hard game then they should have added a "hard" difficulty. But I found myself constantly bashing my head against the same fights over and over again with absolutely nothing to show for it. What makes this even stupider is that if you drop down to the lower difficulty you cannot experience the full story mode because to access certain content you need to win battles on the normal difficulty. Again, I want to be very clear we are playing a Dragon Ball game here, not Dark Souls. I am not looking to be challenged. I want to transform into a Super Saiyan and beat the ever living shit out of Frieza or Cell.

Honestly, the worst thing I can say about Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is that it doesn't even matter I played it. The game is just empty calories and I have already forgotten about it. 17 years from now I'm not going to be thinking back about the cool battles I got to recreate and the "what ifs" I experienced. I'll probably be thinking about pulling out my old Wii and firing off some more Kamehamehas with my Wiimote.

Brotato

I was looking for a game to play on my Steam Deck while listening to a podcast or watching a YouTube video. It probably surprises no one that I landed on a very similar game to Vampire Survivors called Brotato. While it has the same core premise (pick a character, kill waves of enemies, level up weapons, survive) there is something about Brotato that just doesn't hook me in the same way that Vampire Survivors did.

I think the issue mainly steams from the randomness of the weapons and power-ups. In Vampire Survivors I am always able to formulate a plan that I feel I can execute. But in Brotato I need to just roll with whatever weapons I'm offered and a lot of the time they don't synergize with one another. After several levels the enemies start outscaling me and my only option is to die and try again. I wrote something very similar about Peglin in September. I'm not against trying new things but developers need to find ways to make the player want to try them rather than forcing it on them using randomness.

Buffalo Wings

I am now finding myself planning a weekend trip to Buffalo.

Predictions for Trumps's second term

I wanted to throw out some of my predictions for Trump's second term so I have something to reference in the future. I realize that some of them already look like they have come true but until Trump actually takes control in January nothing is etched in stone.

• Elon Musk is named Secretary of something.
• The Federal Reserve will be forced to cut interest rates by at least two percent.
• Inflation will increase to double digits.
• All sanctions will be removed from Russia.
• At least 30% of current government employees will be fired.
• The Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) will be gutted and coverage will be reduced by 40% at minimum.
• Mass deportations will result in a drop in unemployment, but not an increase in wages.
• Bitcoin will spike above $150,000 USD.
• At least two Supreme Court justices will be appointed, most likely due to forced retirement.
• A constitutional amendment will be put forward to remove term limits.
• NASA budget will be significantly reduced (at least 50%) and most will be reallocated to SpaceX.
• US national debt will eclipse $50 trillion.
• Ukraine will be conquered and Russia will move onto other ex-Soviet nations.
• The United States will withdraw from NATO.
• China will Blockade Taiwan and then invade.

Review November Goals

• ✅ Play Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
• ✅ Clean that damn oven.
• 🙅🏻‍♂️ Program something.

December Goals

• Read Wind and Truth.
• Publish "Games of the Year 2024" articles.
• Publish "My most anticipated games of 2025" article.
• Publish article about how to set-up a headless Raspberry Pi.
• Play Astro Bot.
• Play Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.
• Patch all of the holes in my house's walls.
• Hook up thermostat to Home Assistant.
• Replace all fan switches with timers.