Tag: Gaming

• FireFrei Continues! Gaming and Thrones!

  Last weekend was a peaceful holiday weekend. I got to complete my first playthrough of Undertale, of which I concluded in a Neutral/Pacifist route that sadly concluded with Mettaton taking over the entire underground as my character left to the surface; there’s something bone-chilling about that. The thought of a monster-crafted robot dictating over all of monster society in some obligated fan club felt so wrong. It’s like having AI taking over society and the collective are to bow to its whims or else.

  I also had the fun of playing with other players in jolly cooperation in Elden Ring NightReign. While it’s purposely designed as a multiplayer experience, the game has a narrative for all the characters available, as well as concerning the Nightlords. I appreciated how, upon diving in, I understood that FromSoftware respected its material enough to not jumble the timeline of the main game. What I mean by this is that the events happen after The Shattering War but before the call of the Tarnished to return to The Lands Between to mend the Elden Ring. I like this.

  I also managed to nearly reach the 1/2 way point of A Game Of Thrones by George R.R. Martin and the deeper I’ve gone into this first book from A Song of Ice & Fire, the more apparent it becomes that the show left a lot on the table as far back as Season 1. The meltdown with The Mountain in the tourney, the looming assassination plot towards Robert Baratheon and especially the major conversation between Ned Stark and Varys was an eye opener. The deeper I go in on this 1996 classic, the more I understand how much David & Dan left behind that would’ve added so much more weight to the story.

  Speaking of stories, I’m finally up to #7 in FireFrei editing. Now that I concluded transferring and editing #6, now my editing and writing can be closer together. This will definitely ensure that I have a tighter grip on my writing to have the novel ready. I think it also helps that I’ve been keeping livestreaming more in the passive lane as I prepare myself for this. This story needs my love and attention, as does the art for the final chapters and eventually the cover art itself.

  I also concluded writing a 2nd chapter for the story tentatively called Drafts. It’s refreshing to craft a story from a month to month basis with chapters only as long or short as my mind can allow. I cross my fingers that by October of 2026, I’ll have it concluded and then release it.

  12/02/2025

  a game of thrones, drafts, elden-ring, FireFrei, Gaming, george r.r. martin, literature, NightReign, ron322, Undertale, Writing

  ---

• 19 Days Left! Games I Loved Most from NES!

  22 days left from resisting food from my job and thus far, I’m doing pretty well. I haven’t caved to sandwiches, sodas, smoothies or store-made snacks. The worst I’ve done is buy 1 guava cheese danish the other day. Last night, I just had 2 Lenny & Larry cookies. That’s it. The best? Water throughout the shift and my gallon jug has been my best weapon! Sleep has improved, bloat not as bad. This is some willpower at work and I guess I’m “gittin’ gud” at this again!

  I promised on a recent post on Threads that I’d share my list of video games close to my heart. They’d be predominantly from consoles I’ve either owned or primarily played on.This is the blog.

  From the NES, my top games were Super Mario Bros. 3, Mega Man, Mega Man 3, Batman and Bionic Commando. I’ll go ahead and throw in the NES ports of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade games.

  Mario 3 was a game that I often got stuck on by Ice Land. That one cursed stage where you needed a Power Wing, Tanuki or Raccoon power in order to get it over with. It took me years and not until the Sega Genesis era did I, one day, get it done! Once done, the rest of the game was simpler to overcome!

  

  Mega Man was what it was. Before Elden Ring or Dark Souls, you had Mega Man. Once you understand Mega Man’s system of understanding a boss’ weakness to a specific weapon, you weaponize that to the upmost and the fight is yours. That principle applies to every FromSoftware game we enjoy on this day. Mega Man 3 is on this list because it was the one that had us meet Proto Man. The cartoon show got me intrigued with him even more. I enjoyed the high energy and variety in MM3 that was more than the 1st or even the 2nd entry. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it and Mega Man 3 shows how awesome it is.

  

  Bionic Commando was shooting and grappling. Not jumping made this game difficult to my memory but that grappling hook arm was special. Essentially you’re an American dude shooting off neo-Nazis. Talk about being ahead of its time!

  

  Batman was surprisingly awesome; from the music to the controls, it was fantastic. It did what Mega Man X on the SNES would eventually do — jumping between walls to get higher instead of just climbing stairs or ladders like Castlevania or Mega Man.

  

  The NES imports of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game was something special — especially when the horsepower required for a 1:1 console adaptation of the arcade classic was impossible. I will say this — giving us 4 arcade beat-em-up style games of TMNT was special and they were fun. Talking about this gives me flashbacks of the pizzeria that used to be behind my dad’s building back home in Brooklyn. It also hearkens back to the times I played NES in my late grandpa’s house in Puerto Rico along with my brother.

  

  Stay tuned for the next blog, where I cover my memories of the Sega Genesis years!

  07/22/2025

  Gaming, Life, memories, ron322, Writing

  ---

• Farewell, Elden Ring! Streaming Updates!

  Summer is very much here and then some in Florida. You know what else is arriving? The end of my time in Elden Ring. On my Youtube channel, I have the latest videos dropping weekly but I was going live exclusively on Twitch. I recently beat Consort Radahn for the final time yesterday before going to work and…it was special. No shield poke or abusing Impenetrable Thorns. It was X-Men style team effort. The Deflect Counter run was fun while it lasted but with a colossal Greatsword, it met its limit.

  This made me think about how, in life, there are things we enjoy but ultimately will reach its ceiling. Every tool or technique has its limit that can’t be broken. I was given that rude awakening in some boss fights. Godfrey was doable but eventually, I played range and dirty. Dragons or giants cannot be beat with deflects. You have to play dirty. Consort Radahn may have been given longer neutral recovery frames but his combo strings are longer. The colossal Greatsword also isn’t the fastest moving weapon. Thus the window for guard counters will leave you open for Radahn to crush you. Messmer was doable but you also had to move a bit, even with a team. Scadutree Avatar and Bayle, I found, to be impossible. Same applies to Elden Beast and Placidusax. Several others were surprisingly effective and thus victory was so sweet.

  Parting is such sweet sorrow and that’s how I feel about Elden Ring. I intend to write a short book about my journey in Elden Ring. It will be through the eyes of my created character. I also intend to add in it pictures of my adventures and conquests in there.

  I have other games to update my streaming and playthroughs on. I want to avoid being stuck in the sunken place. I’m making sure I finish one playthrough at a time. I’m not a variety streamer as I like to tackle one playthrough to completion at a time.

  I also still have art to edit for FireFrei. I pinky promise it’ll be out long before Winds of Winter or Dream of Spring. Hang tight 322 Crew — daddy’s got this!

  06/25/2025

  dark-souls, elden ring, elden-ring, fantasy, Gaming, ron322, shadow of the erdtree, summer time, update, video-games

  ---