The Honeymoon Adventure - Day Two - Calgary Zoo Three

Yes it has been a little while since last we heard of the honeymoon story, but with all the time on my hands, why not continue telling you of one of the greatest adventures I've ever had? Let us continue our adventure through the Calgary Zoo with part 3.

The last piece of our adventure took finished at the end of the Canadian Wilds. Now we travel into Destination Africa. At this point in the day, it had been wet out earlier and was beginning to get rather rainy. What a great time to head inside to see some creatures in the warmth of not being rained on continuously.

Meerkats, just like Timon in Lion King!

The journey into Africa was pretty cool I must say. Being a person with not much interest in travelling around the world all that much, going to the Zoo is a pretty cool place to see animals you would never be able to see otherwise.

I had a turtle once, but this is an actual tortoise pretty sure we don't naturally have tortoises around here.

I mean sure, you could look up pictures online or even videos on YouTube, but let me tell you, it's just not the same as seeing the creatures in person actually living and breathing in front of you. They let this tortoise out of his enclosure to walk around among the public for a while to get a little bit of exercise. Carley was super excited about seeing him so close up and following him around for a little while.

Carley was captivated by what we saw next.

It was at this point we saw one of Carley's other favourite things ever. For anybody who knows Carley, you probably know she really likes turtles. One of the first things I gave her when we started dating was a box which I had made into a turtle because she told me how much she likes them. But there's another creature she also likes a lot which isn't mentioned as often.

Yes, Giraffes are actually real creatures, and yes they are actually super tall.

Surprise! Carley really like Giraffes! I'm pretty sure she could have continued to stay there and stare at them for a few hours, but unfortunately there were still many more animals to see before the end of the day.

I bet you never would have guessed these hippopotamuses were right under the water next to the giraffes.

Can you believe how big those things are? Not only did I find it amazing how big hippos are, but apparently they're quite good at hiding in plain sight as well. From above the water, you couldn't even tell that they were there! The only reason I found them was because I walked down the steps up to the glass in attempt to see if there were any fish or anything in the water. To my surprise, there were two giant hippopotamuses hanging out having a good snooze.

Ooh, look at the big kitty!

Next on the animal tour was The Lion King. Alright, we didn't watch the movie, but instead we saw real live lions wandering around. I wouldn't want to run into one of these without a wall between us. I'm wary of house cats, but this seems a little bit too big to be living in someone's house. I have heard that Lions are not actually all that fast and don't tend to chase down their prey quite as much or as far as other predators in Africa... but as a human being, I still don't think I would want to see one of these coming in my direction no matter how far away it is.

If you've never watched Zaboomafoo, then you're totally missing out.

After the lions we got to see a bunch of pretty cool Lemurs. They had like five different types all in one enclosure which pretty much felt like you were walking into some sort of tree-house type thing. While we were there we learned that Lemurs are actually really smart and we were warned not to stay too long on the platform which was the only entrance into the enclosure. The workers told us the platform was electrified at night, but during the day it is not, and the only thing keeping the lemurs in the area during the day was that they didn't realize the platform was not electrified during the day, hence why we weren't supposed to stand around on the platform too long. In retrospect... I should have taken pictures of the entrance into the area as well, it was very cool and unique. I guess to see it, you'll have to go visit the Calgary Zoo on your own.

The last mix of creatures in the Destination Africa area.

I didn't manage to get any pictures of Ostriches or Zebras... because there weren't any to be found while we were there. We did go through one last building which included gorillas, alligators, and even an aviary of birds! I do love birds, but I didn't bother taking any pictures of them because birds just don't sit still for very long. At this point we decided to stop for food in the area where it was pretty much a fast food cafeteria.

Honestly some of the best fast food I've ever had.

I never thought I would be making the claim that fast food at a zoo would be some of the best food ever, but it seriously was pretty good stuff. Nice big drinks and well-made food. Also a very seemless and easy way to go through and order food, then pay at the end of the line after receiving the food you've ordered. It was a very nice experience and I would happily go back and eat there again. The only downside to the large drinks is that because they, along with many other places in Calgary, have started using paper straws... which get a little bit soggy after a while of sitting in liquid. But hey, if that's my only complaint about the place, then I'd say it's pretty great.

That covers the African part of The Calgary Zoo. Come back next time as we continue into one of the most beautiful gardens I've ever seen and then into Eurasia.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

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Age of Wonders -- Keepers Scenario 6 - Part 9

A quick livestream to finish off scenario 6 before moving on. I know I need to (want to) do more livestreaming and I promise it will be coming soon. I think the biggest problem keeping me from livestreaming more often right now is the anxiety of going through the process of advertising and making commitments and then WHAT IF I LET EVERYBODY DOWN??? That's definitely something I need to get over though. Honestly, I should probably just do more streams where I don't put myself through the torture of advertising beforehand, but rather I just turn on the stream and go.

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This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
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- On Twitter

~ DaemonVirus

=== PC Game Review -- Human-Powered Spacecraft - Story Clicker - 8 / 10 ===

Human-Powered Spacecraft is a game I got on sale on Steam for $0.59. In my never-ending quest to play through all the games I've acquired over the years (or at least try), I sometimes find new ones that are on such a good Steam Sale, that I just can't refuse them.

I'm honestly really not usually a fan of clicker games. I've wasted so much time trying to kill time on my phone with clicker and other idle games that it's really hard to come up with good reasons to get new ones; especially ones you have to pay for. While browsing through Steam, I came across this little game on sale and thought I'd go ahead and give it a try because I really liked the art-style and it looked like something a little bit different than what I had experienced before.

There are multiple different "levels" in this game where more and more upgrade options are unlocked at each stage with a different "goal" of progressing to the next stage. It isn't really anything huge to talk about; click, make money, upgrade, click, make money, purchase whatever the game wants you to purchase to start the next stage.

You end up having a couple ship problems including a fire, asteroids, and aliens sucking energy from the ship, finally concluding with a rogue computer trying to enslave you into forever powering the ship by peddling to generate electricity. The only real challenge to the game comes at the end when you have to figure out how to use the electricity-sucking alien to help you fight back against the rogue computer system.

That's... really the whole game. I have nothing else to tell about it. It's not an endless clicker where the game keeps on going forever and ever, there's a bit of a story to it. It's just a nice and short experience. I would love to be able to say this game is a good value, and at a sale of $0.59, it's very hard for me to say that it isn't, but when I seriously think about how much this game cost vs how long it entertained me, the $:hour ratio actually isn't that great. The total gameplay time for me was maybe an hour at most.

Verdict

Gameplay: As you may expect from a clicker game... you click and upgrade.

Sound: The music and sound design is very nice, I don't have any complaints about it at all. Right from the get-go I was sucked in by the great music rather than being driven away by annoying sounds and awful music.

Art: I like pixel art as a graphic style. I imagine pixel art must take quite a bit of time to design and draw and I think it has a lot of character that's simple, yet pleasing.

Replayability: You can't. Really... once you've beaten the game once (which took maybe an hour of gameplay at most), I don't know why anybody would want to subject themselves to that sort of pain and tedium again. It was fun to play once, but I have absolutely no desire to do so again.

SCORE: I really wanted to give this game 5/5 because I did find it more enjoyable than all the other FREE clicker games out there, but unfortunately it was too short for me to be happy with the end result. 8 / 10 will be my final score for Human-Powered Spacecraft.

~ DaemonVirus

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Sidetracked Development

Hey everyone! We've had a little bit of a... development last week and now not only am I super far behind on blog posts from months ago, but I'm also incredibly sidetracked from where I want to be right now. All is not lost though! At this point, I need to keep myself busy and what better way is there to do so than by resetting myself and getting back to work?

So for a little bit, my posts may be jumping around a tad more than usual with some being current events and some being past events, but I'll be sure to keep all the proper pages updated so that correct timelines can be followed for anybody who wants to read from start-to-finish all in one go. Now that I'm done with the most important final class I have (which means I can officially apply to have the certificate I've been working towards for the past couple years), I can finally put more focus back into the blog that I have loved so dearly since it began.

Between work and child-entertaining, I've got a lot to do, but I think I can fit in a little bit of time for those important hobbies that keep be sane. I have a plan, a vision, a goal, a desire, to make this into a wildly successful site along with everything else I do and I can only make that happen with YOU.

Don't be afraid to keep up with IntroNerdedLiving, there's something for everyone here! I'm always looking for suggestions no matter where the comments are done. Please like, share, follow, and whatever else you have time to do if you enjoy anything that I do on this here blog. You can look forward to the continuing story of our honeymoon trip, game reviews, YouTube videos, and more!

Whether you tell me in person or via text, it means a lot to know that people read and keep coming back to read more.

Stay tuned for the next edition of IntroNerdedLiving. ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== PC Game Review -- Ancestor's Legacy - Real-Time Strategy - 8.5 / 10 ===

Hello everyone, welcome to my review of Ancestor's Legacy, a real-time strategy game for the PC. I was lucky enough to get this game free for the weekend during a time when I actually had enough time to put into it to gain a proper opinion of it.

The first thing I would like to mention, is oh my god, the artwork is absolutely STUNNING. There's something about hand-drawn artwork that really catches my eye in games; that's not to say that artwork is what makes or breaks game, but rather good artwork in a game is the icing on the cake. Yeah, it's weird that I would start with something that isn't all that important in the grand scheme of things... but artwork like this really isn't seen often enough in my opinion.

So let's get into the meat of things: The first thing we're greeted with when starting the game is a pretty sweet fight scene that makes you think you might be playing some sort of third-person fighting game, weirdly there's like no context to this which is a bit confusing right off the bat. Then it transitions into a bit of a tutorial on how to command units and how to start playing the game.

So at this point, we've seen a guy killing people, gotten a bit of introductory gameplay, and we're thrown into some more beautiful artwork with a nice narrated voiceover telling us the story of what's going on and why it's happening.

Now we get into another tutorial scenario where we learn more about the mechanics of the game. So what's this game all about? Ancestor's Legacy is all about squad management; we're not dealing with massive groups of units doing tons of different things all at once. With a maximum squad limit of 10 squads, we're maybe fighting over two, POSSIBLY three different locations at one time.

The gameplay relies heavily on a combination of unit counters and terrain management. All foot-squads have the ability to make two different types of traps; either a trap which slows enemies down and makes them unable to run away, or a trap which instantly kills some of the units. Much of the gameplay revolves around managing what looks like fields of wheat or tall grass where the players are unable to see into unless they have at least one squad inside the field. Some squads have the ability to spot traps at the cost of not auto-attacking, though in my experience the traps are only effective in certain situations which realistically are NOT in the early part of the game.

When not fighting around fields and trees and traps, there is a struggle to be had over what I would call "village points" which are points which must be captured which then earn resources as the game goes on. These points are quite important in the early- to mid-game, though I could see how they would fall off in the later game if there's a buildup of resources and not much fighting because both forces don't engage to the point of death. Without more time in the game it's a bit hard to say really.

From what I was able to experience, the single player campaigns are well done and well driven... but after only a short time, I started to feel like the whole experience was quite slow. I'm sure there are many more fun scenarios to play with much more things going on, but honestly I found myself getting very bored of the campaign mode due to how slow it was waiting for units to move across the map, especially during the end-game where you know you've won the scenario but it's now a matter of actually finishing off the enemy units.

It was at this point that I decided I would make my overall judgement on the game based on the multiplayer aspect as that would obviously have to be the part of the game which would need to hold up over time to make it work the purchase. As fun as single player games are, why wouldn't a person want to test their mettle against another human player to see if they have what it takes to out-smart and out-maneuver a real live opponent? Now I didn't exactly have the experience to get myself into a bunch of live multiplayer games (though realistically, I do play a lot of RTS games.... so I don't know why I would be uncomfortable with dying and learning to play a game like this...), so I decided to test my excellent prowess against a poor soon-to-die computer AI opponent... this was an awful idea.

If you watch the livestream footage of me playing this game, you'll get a very good idea of how I was feeling throughout my experience. One one hand, I did enjoy the competitive skirmish multiplayer sort of thing... but on the other hand, I have strong feelings against it.

I first decided I would play as the Slavs who are supposed to have strong archers including horse archers, which sounded like a pretty fun time to me; my opponents I would set to the Saxons who I had been playing against in the campaign mode, so I figured it would be a bit of a familiar experience that I wouldn't be playing against all sorts of new units that I hadn't seen before. I also decided each side would start with a hero... unfortunately after bashing my head against my opponent for probably at least two hours I finally had to give up based on... the Slavs, who only start with basic swordsmen in the early game are much too weak against the Saxons who start with access to slingers as one of their first units.

As it turns out, having a ranged attack is quite important in the early portion of the game because on the low amount of resources available in the early-game, constructing traps is much too expensive as an attempt to fight back against the enemy. Let me explain it this way: One group of swordsmen get pelted by the ranged slingers until they get in range, the slingers then run away unobstructed because there's no ability to keep them in place. As the Slavs, if you make another group of swords men... you'll then find yourself in a two squads of swordsmen against two squads of slingers, which as you may guess, means you're getting hit from afar even more than before; once again, if the swordsmen engage the slingers, the slingers run away with little more than a scratch. Alright, so that didn't work, instead I would try making the trap which would cause the enemy squad to be unable to run away; in the early portion of the game, this means either the enemy squad STILL gets to run away because one group of swordsmen isn't enough to kill the opponent fast enough before they regain their ability to run away.... or they miss the trap altogether. Oh... and then there's the problem that you're also now one squad of swordsmen against TWO squads of slingers, meaning one group can run away while the other happily throws their rocks at your group futilely trying to chase them down.

Okay, so let's try a different strategy: I then decided to try starting out with one group of swordsmen to assist the hero capturing the first village, then going straight into horse archers! This was probably the closest strategy to really being effective, but once again the Slavs fell behind in power because of the extra resources required to even get into a fighting position. No matter how hard I tried or what I did... going after different villages first, trying to avoid the enemy, trying to harass them... it all turned out the same; the Saxons pulled ahead each and every time in every scenario I attempted.

Could it be that I'm just playing the faction wrong? I tested this theory by switching factions with the computer AI and continuing to play on the same map. This time I played as the Saxons and had my enemy as the Slavs; yeah... the game lasted a little bit longer with the computer playing the Slavs than when I was playing them, but the sad reality is that at no point did I actually feel threatened by them. The Saxon faction didn't just feel overpowered in this matchup because I was playing the wrong way, it was in fact because the Slav faction just has such a weak start in comparison that they really aren't all that threatening at any point.

Verdict

Gameplay: I'm still torn on how I feel about Ancestor's Legacy, but I do think there's a lot of potential to it which is why it's still on my wishlist to keep an eye on and see how it progresses.

Sound: Sound design in this game is great. There are lots of good sounds for each unit including voices, movement, and fighting. The bit of single player experience I got was fully voiced over for the story bits which made it very nice to listen to.

Replayability: The campaign felt slow to me and got very boring quickly. I would work through it if I had the time, but probably not all in one go. The multiplayer (vs AI) experience was a much more fun game mode, though I did find (after MUCH experimenting), that I had quite a large concern that the different factions may not be well-balanced.

Bonus: A little bonus in this game that isn't found in other games is the ability to go into a third-person sort of view where you can see very well designed fights with each unit in the squad doing their own thing. This is a much higher level of detail than what I have normally found in other RTS titles which some people may find to be quite an enjoyable addition.

SCORE: I've given this a lot of thought and I am in fact giving Ancestor's Legacy a score of 8.5 / 10 due to being a very well-designed game. I do have my worries about it which is why it's not getting the highest score, but it does have a lot of promise which could be easily patched into balance with future updates.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

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Age of Wonders -- Keepers Scenario 6 - Part 8

We're so close now I can taste it. Maybe we'll finally finish all the hours we've planted into this scenario and be able to move onto the next one without having to restart once again! :D

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This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
- On Twitch
- On Twitter

~ DaemonVirus

Age of Wonders -- Keepers Scenario 6 - Part 7

We're getting so close now, I can feel it. Aren't you excited? Soon we'll be moving on to another scenario and before we know it, we'll be at the end of The Keepers Campaign. Then we play through the other campaign and finally we can retire the Age of Wonders campaign series.

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This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
- On Twitch
- On Twitter

~ DaemonVirus

How Time Flies

Every once in a while I find myself taking a step back and realizing just how time flies by and life gets so busy. There's so much I have to do and so much more that I want to do; how can a person fit everything into such a short amount of time?

Today I find myself somewhat disappointed for putting my blog on the backburner. So many stories and experiences and thoughts I find rushing through my head that haven't yet been given a chance to be shared with the world. On one hand, I suppose that's a good thing that I was able to have that break because now I feel like I've hit somewhat of a muse that I've been missing previously.

I suppose what I'm looking forward to coming up is the end of my school courses. While they've been fun, I think it really is time to buckle down and complete them. Yeah, that may mean some of my other projects won't get as much attention as I would like. It may even mean I cannot spend as much time with the family as I would like, but once I'm done... I don't have to worry about it anymore. It will truly be such a load off my mind and a weight off my shoulders to not have to devote so much time to working through these classes. I suppose what I'm saying is that I'm about to start a strict diet of textbook material for a while until I can be confident that I know what I'm doing.

So don't be alarmed if you don't hear from me for a bit... though I still fully intend to get back to making blog posts more regularly and continuing to try to stream more often. Perhaps it is a strange thing to many people out there, but live streaming... even if I were to be reading a book or working through schoolwork... something about it seems to motivate me to work harder and to be better and more proactive in other parts of my life. I don't know how to explain it really, but it's there in my mind working away, breaking down the wall that builds up stopping me from getting the simplest things done on a day-to-day basis.

I'm not going to go into detail about everything I have to do and everything I want to do, you'll see the results of all my hard work as things are completed. I can say my primary goals at this time include performing well with my new job (which I absolutely love), spending quality time with my family, and getting back up to date with the real (not gaming) blog posts that I know you all love.

I look forward to continuing to entertain you all. Don't forget to follow the blog, Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch so you don't miss any of the coming action!

As usual, you're all fantastic and I look forward to hearing from you when time isn't flying away from you too. ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Mobile Game Review -- Crossy Road - Arcade Clicker - 4/10 ===

Today we take a look at the mobile game, Crossy Road. I've been a little busy recently with starting my new full-time job and still working on school at the same time... along with being a little bit sick. It can be quite difficult to have enough energy to keep going when there's so much going on, so sometimes I pick simpler and easier games to play in my spare time.

If you're looking for an simple game to pick up and play where you can learn to be better every time you play while being reminded of the good old days of playing Frogger back in 1981, this game is for you! The controls are really easy to learn, just tap on the screen and you hop forwards; moving to each side and backwards can be done by swiping in the proper direction; if you are faced with a solid object or any situation where hopping forward would block the character... you'd better figure out which way to swipe to fix that before hopping forward, otherwise you're not going to move anywhere at all.

Something I'm not really a fan of when trying to be awesome at a game is RANDOMNESS. Now of course randomness is important in the replayability of a game, but there's a level of randomness in some games which is just silly; I'm talking about the type where due to uncontrollable factors, you've run into an impossible to beat situation. Does that come up in this game? Yes... sometimes you end up stuck with no holes in traffic to pass through while the ever-moving camera swallows you up or forces you to jump to your death into oncoming traffic. HOWEVER, for the most part, this isn't too much of an issue. Because it's so easy to get into a new game and because many situations are avoidable if the player is able to think and react fast enough, I don't mind the amount of randomness in this Crossy Road.

Reasons to come back to this game and keep playing after having played for... a while? Challenges I suppose. I believe a new one starts every day or every few days where a preset character and level is put forth into the world for many players to attempt to see if they can be the best at getting the furthest into the level. Based on the player's rank at the end of the challenge, they are given some sort of reward such as a special character.

I really enjoy the fact that different characters in the game don't really have an effect on how the game is played. Different characters change the setting of the game and the aesthetics, but nothing changes other than that.

I suppose the real downside to this game... is that nothing really changes. Once you've figured out how to play it reasonably well... there isn't really much left to do. I mean hey, if you can consistently get to 200 hops, then you get to keep seeing pretty much the same 200 hop idea every single game you play. What happens when you get further than 200 hops? You see more... of the same... thing.

While I believe Crossy Road is probably a one-week game at best, there is one bonus thing that really truly made me want to play in the first place; they have a version of Crossy Road at Ruckers which is basically the same game without the ability to move side-to-side or backwards. Surely this results in more randomness than I am comfortable with seeing as the game makes its decisions to move to either side on its own, but there's still a chance to play really well and get really far into a level which results in quite a few tickets.

Verdict

Gameplay: Fun and easy to pick up, but the gameplay gets quite repetitive incredibly quickly.

Sound: The sounds a basically what you'd expect; sounds of traffic driving past and honking their horns, water rushing as you jump across logs, trains running across tracks right before your very eyes.... but no music.

Replayability: No game is EXACTLY the same twice... but after a few plays, there isn't much change to the game with each new play.

Bonus: There's a version of this game made for earning tickets at Ruckers. If it wasn't for the cost of buying all those tokens just to play the game this way, I would be playing it ALL THE TIME.

SCORE: After some consideration, I have decided to give Crossy road 2/5 because I was super excited about playing it after experiencing the arcade game at Ruckers... but then I quickly lost interest after only about a week of having it on my phone.


~ Kyle Welykholowa


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The Honeymoon Adventure - Day Two - Calgary Zoo Two

We continue our adventure through the Calgary Zoo!

When last we met, we were wandering through the Canadian Wilds, today... I bring you a little bit more of that, because I haven't planned out each post to be about a different area. Maybe if I had taken an equal number of pictures in each area... but I didn't do that either... I HAVE DIGRESSED!

Little Prairie Dogs at the zoo... so many holes!

Past the Wolves we saw Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs who were having a fantastic time being harassed by the mutant black squirrels in the area; the squirrels were running in and out of the prairie dog holes stealing their things and playing with the prairie dogs. It really was quite a sight and I'm a little bit sad that I wasn't able to get any good pictures, but I was able to get a short video of one of the squirrels.

Seriously, these squirrels are actually a mutant strain of gray squirrels which escaped the zoo back in 1929 and now run rampant throughout the area. They're very beautiful to see and they seem to be quire the troublemakers. Luckily I was able to get a very short video of one of them jumping around seen below.

Look up on the edge! There's a little black squirrel jumping up and over!

On the other side of the trail was something a little bigger than little prairie dogs...

TEDDY BEARS! Okay no, a little bigger and more real than that.

There were quite a few bears in there actually; black, brown, and even a white one hidden in there somewhere. We were lucky enough to come back to the bear area later on in the day to see them doing training with one of the bears. They explained to us how the training with the trainers is good for the animals because it helps them if ever there was any sort of emergency or situation where someone would need to be in control of said animal or the animal would need direction. The example they gave us was when half the zoo ended up being flooded a few years ago, their animal training really helped them keep the animals calm and direct them to control the situation.

Whoa, that's a BIG cat!

The last awesome creature we saw in the Canadian Wilds area was a Cougar! How crazy is it that there are wild cats that big possibly outside in our backyard? I think it's bad enough when I see a house cat wandering around outside because I don't know if it's going to be friendly, or if it's going to try to scratch me up on the sidewalk... what would I do if I ran into one of these on my way to check the mailbox?

There are so many animals living just outside the walls of our houses, but it's so hard to imagine them because we spend so much time inside staring at our screens we forget about the beauty of being outside and enjoying the fresh air. Learning about this stuff is truly amazing and I hope as we progress into the future that it isn't the only way we are able to learn about these things.

Fun Fact: I heard the results of a survey recently where about 90% of Canadians felt happier when surrounded by nature... and about 75% said they find it easier to stay inside.

Let me know in the comments below what your favourite outdoor activity is.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

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