(( VaginaPagina ))

I have gotten to play things on the shiny new PS5 that I got for my birthday!

My most recent system prior was a PS3, which for me still feels so ~modern~, in part because I also got that one fairly late (I think the PS4 came out within a year) but... it's not so much a current system at this point, haha. I still had a handful of games that I played periodically, but hadn't had a chance to play anything newer. Until now!

(I really, really like that the PS5 is backwards-compatible to the PS4, because it opens up the potential game library even more!)

So here are the handful of games that I have now played:

- Persona 5 Royal
Persona 5 is probably the most recent game that I got to play on the PS5. I got relatively far through one playthrough, but I wimped out right before The Betrayal, because I knew it was going to happen and it made me sad, haha.
I have periodically gotten the urge to play it again, but I generally only get through the first Palace before I wander away, and then when I come back, I feel the need to start over again.
Persona games in general, and certainly 5, are a bit of a struggle for my general perfectionism/completionist tendencies. There's just so much in order to maximize your stats, and max out all the confidants, and catch all the personas, pokemon-style... and trying to ensure you do all of the above makes for an extremely rigid play experience (it's possible with a guide, but means that you HAVE to do everything in a very exact way.) I need to just let myself have fun however I want, even if it means I miss things or don't max everything out. That can be what a New Game+ is for!
(I really did enjoy this game, and I'm interested in the additions that came along with Royal. The new character that was introduced even in the intro interests me.)

- Untitled Goose Game
This is so fun! I love how creative some of the puzzle options are, for what's ultimately fairly simple gameplay. The goose is adorable, and it's just so damn fun to get to run around and be an absolute menace.
I've made it through the first three areas, so there's one left to go. I do see this having replay appeal, just for having fun, even after knowing the puzzle solutions.

- Silent Hill f
One of the games I have been most upset about being unable to play. I avoided basically any spoilers, until the day after I got it when accidentally tripping over one, alas.
Turns out, I've gotten really bad at survival horror games, lol. I need to practice, haha. This used to be my genre!
I haven't gotten terribly far - just through the first chunk that happens in town, and then the first shrine level. I love the setting - Japan in the 1960s - and the monster designs so far. The puzzles have so far been fairly simple, but feel suited to the franchise. (Though when I was your age, if we wanted to write down a puzzle clue, we had to bring our own paper! The protagonist wouldn't just write it down in her journal for you!) That said, I do really love the journal - the art in it is lovely, and I like having something more than just the map to flip through and look at in-game. I like that those entries are revealing in terms of the protagonist, as well. I do wish the journal kept track of the notes that you find, and am surprised that it doesn't seem to.
Part of me already wants to restart in the hopes of doing better, because wow, I'm not good at it, but I should probably just power forward and save the getting-better-at-it for future playthroughs, since again, multiple endings means I'll likely want to replay anyway.

- Fallout 4
My playing this game immediately hit on an annoying bug on the very first screen of the game itself. Character creation. This is apparently a fairly common bug, across all platforms, and has been a known issue since the game was released. We haven't been able to patch it in more than a decade, now? Come on. Luckily the easy fix did fix it, and it's hopefully not going to reoccur, but still.
I'm still very much at the start, having just left the vault. I do really wish for a plot other than "find my beloved kidnapped family member", because I fundamentally am not interested in that as a character motivation. (Didn't care when it was finding my dad in 3, though at least that had the fairly funny "now I'm Liam Neeson's daughter trying to rescue him for a change" thing. I care about a thousand times less about wanting to rescue my baby, sorry. Hate babies. Don't care. Stay gone. Come back, Courier 6 - I'd much rather go on a revenge quest against the person who interrupted my delivery and failed to murder me!) Sure, this is "rescue my baby, and get revenge for my dead spouse" but... idk, it still falls flat.
I am leaving my PS3 accessible to basically be a dedicated Fallout: New Vegas machine, but I will keep playing more of 4 and see how I like it. (I've heard not-great things about the story and writing, but have also heard that it is still quite fun, and it certainly plays like a Fallout game, which IS sometimes just what I want.)

- Hades
The only game I bought new, haha. Everything else we were able to pick up used at a local game store.
I am also very much not good at this game in the slightest yet, but I am having so much fun. I'm early yet, still in Tartarus, Meg has kicked my ass immediately both times I've made it to her, and I managed to beat one miniboss once. So... not great.
While I've watched the main plotline all the way through with Taylor playing, this is my first time playing it myself. I am impressed all over again at the design itself, in terms of how information and mechanics are introduced. I love how different each run feels, while also still feeling like you are improving and progressing. It's also a bit freeing to NOT have the option to save or reload - there is no "doing it wrong," because dying over and over and trying again is the whole point. I have yet to feel "bad" about losing a run (minus a few, "ugh, why did my dumb ass step on a spike trap" things), so even when I kind of suck, I feel okay about it, haha.
I'm excited to try and get all the character plotlines completed, even though I know it takes forever. We went through the conclusion of the main plot, but I want to resolve the Achilles/Patroclus plot, the Orpheus/Eurydice plot, and the Zagreus/Thanatos/Meg line. (Love when a game gives you multiple romance options, and also apparently allows a poly option.)
I'm guessing this is the game I'll be playing the most, at least for now.

- Skyrim
A much-played PS3 game, ha. I have not played the shiny new PS5 version yet, but Alex has, and he's very happy with it! He said he really likes the graphics upgrade (and tbh, I was still pretty pleased with how the PS3 one looked), and he's hit a few of the new quest lines, which is novel and a lot of fun. He's been having a great time.
I will eventually start up a new game, because it is a lot of fun. As is frequently a problem, I end up starting over when I want to play, getting through the same early-game stuff as always, wandering away from it, and then feeling like I need to start over again the next time I want to play... over and over. It's been a long time since I made it to some of my favorite areas and plotlines (and the fun DLC questlines), because I never get that far!

So... that's where I'm at. I'm trying not to let games absorb all my free time, but so far I've been happy with an hour or two of playing each night, while also still getting some other stuff done. Though that's in general been that issue to overcome: feeling like I should be doing something "productive" instead of "just" playing a game. But I'm allowed to have fun, dammit. And I am!

(It's not just the "Denver Zoo" anymore, ha.)

The Monday before my birthday, Alex and I went to the zoo. :)

It was a really pleasantly warm day, so it was great for walking around!

Less great for walking around was how much pain Alex was in. He was unfortunately hurting pretty badly, but we made it through most of the zoo, and did stay until closing! Just sucky that it did make parts of the day a bit less enjoyable for him.

One thing we hadn't done before was ride the train, ha. It's a mini railroad that takes you on about a five-minute loop around a bit of the zoo. It was just a few dollars to ride, so we decided to do it, haha. It was fun!

As always, took too many pictures, so I'll split it into three posts. This one for the birds and mammals, and probably one for fish and frogs, and one for the reptiles.


Both tigers were out. This is the bigger, male tiger. He was enjoying his pool!

Eleven more:

Flamingos! They're fun to watch. The one running through the water was chasing others around for a bit.


The tiger was rubbing his face on the edge of the pool and looked just like a housecat. But big.


Lookit the kitty!


We wandered by at the right time for one of the elephant demonstrations.


Will lay down for some veggies.


While the event hadn't officially opened yet, they had set up most of the lanterns for their "Glowing Wild" event. There were several really neat displays! This was clearly one of the most dramatic.

(The lanterns are clearly by the same company that did the ones we saw at the lantern festival at Four Mile park last year. Very cool! I bet they're really neat after dark.)


Lemur! :D


Closeup lemur! :D Mmm, broccoli.


Fancy crane in the aviary.


This little duck apparently wanted to come fight lots of peoples' legs. Including mine.


Sleepy flying foxes!

We did hang out all the way until closing time (4:00, which felt very early, especially post-time-change.) We did skip a few areas, or kind of had to breeze through them, but we saw most of what we hoped to.

As we were heading toward the exit, we both got free pretzels, since they'd be thrown out at the end of the day. Score!

As we left the elephant passage area, Alex remarked that he wanted to see an elephant actually use the bridge. You always walk under it, but we haven't ever seen any of the elephants using it.

And immediately...


Alex summoned him!