The Professional Gamer - August 22, 2016

Back to a relatively normal week at work, and I've had a bit more time to have fun again this week. Even with biking to work, which takes about twice as long as driving, I was able to make some substantial progress in video games. And I'm looking forward to some fun convention time in the next few weeks. Ready? Let's go!

In the world of Elite: Dangerous, I've finally saved enough money for my next ship. I'm at the point of spending the next hours or so cruising around the universe to find my new ship and all the equipment that I need to outfit it to my needs. I'm excited that I'll be increasing my earning potential, and spending some time in a slightly more manuverable and fun ship again.

Next week, I'll be heading up to the Fort Collins Comic Con with Crystal, where she'll be selling some of her art and comics and I'll be helping her out.  I'm also hoping to spend a little bit of time looking around the convention, meeting some artists, and talking about comics with other fans.  This is only the conventions second year, but hopefully everything goes fairly well.

With that in mind, I hope to see you all again next week.  Have a great time, and game on!

The Professional Gamer - August 8, 2016

Hello readers!  I've had another good week at my new job (including having an extra day off today, yay! for compressed schedule!).  And, I found out on Monday that I'll be doing some travel much sooner than I originally expected.  That is to say, I'm travelling to Hawaii this week to do some field work and help guide some construction activity.  It's going to be a super fast turn around and probably leave me exhausted from jet lag, but I think the whole thing is going to be a lot of fun.  Anyways, let's talk about the fun that I've had this week.

Another week means more episodes of Steven Universe, and they continue the pattern of being both fun and emotionally difficult.  I've yet to watch the latest episode, but it sounds like it will continue along the problem of emotionally difficult themes.  Avoiding spoilers has been rather difficult today.

With my day off today, I had some time to play Elite: Dangerous again, and I'm only about 10 million credits away from upgrading my ship.  My previous estimates were based on faulty data, which is unfortunate.  At least I'll only have to do a few more hours of trade loops to get everything together.  If it weren't for the travel this week, I'd be able to get it finished this week.  But, I'm really not that far from finishing it, and looking forward to getting in the next level of ship.

I've not had nearly as much time for Pokemon Go since I've been in an office most of the day, compared to that week that I had off.  But, I've still made a little progress and am now only a little way away from level 20.

That's all I have for this week.  I should be back by next weekend and able to put together another article then.  So look forward to that.  Have a great week, and game on!

The Professional Gamer - August 1, 2016

Hello readers! As I mentioned last week, I've started a new job this week.  So far, I'm enjoying it a lot, though the contrast of working with a small company versus the public sector is pretty stark.  Getting used to working within an environment that includes various types of support staff is a little weird.  At my old company, we had to take care of so many things on our own that having people to help feels strange to me.  On the other hand, I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with the technical work that I'll be doing.  I am especially going to enjoy the opportunities that I will have to travel.

I haven't had a lot of time for playing games this week, but I decided to spend it playing Pokemon Go so that I could combine my video game time with some out-of-doors walking time.  I've nearly hit level 19, which makes me think I'm doing fairly well.  And, I've got pokemon of high enough level to has some ability to perform at gyms.  I'm looking forward to continuing my journey in the upcoming weeks.

I've also watched a few more episodes of Gravity Falls, and am getting near the end.  I am still carefully rationing the episodes so that I can prolong the experience as much as possible.  Also, I have been watching the latest episodes of Steven Universe.  The latest episodes have been tackled some really tough material and been full of emotional and character payoffs.  Even though the viewing has been difficult, it has also been rewarding.

That's all that I have for now, have a great week, and game on!

The Professional Gamer - July 12, 2016

Hi readers!  I hope all of our American followers had a great Independence Day!  I sure did, even got a personal record for the 4 km race that I've been doing for several years.

Later in the week, I finished watching the first season of Gravity Falls.  I won't really post any spoilers, since I'm sure there are lots of people watching for the first time.  If you are watching for the first time, remember: trust no one!  The first season has been so much fun, and I've already started into the second season.  I've got a feeling I'll be finishing the series really soon.

I've made a lot of progress through The Lord of the Rings this week as well.  Gandalf has fallen in Khazad-dum and the Fellowship has journeyed into Lothlorien.  I think I've got less than a week to move on to the next volume.

In other news, I am a bike owner again.  Its been a long time since I had a bicycle and I'm excited to start using it for transport on the weekends.  Now, I need to get some accessories so that I can be safe and carry groceries and such as well.

Lastly, Pokemon Go has been released in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. so far.  I feel like I've had not a lot of time to play, but have still managed to rack up 6 km of walking and have reached level 6.  It's been fun to explore the real world, sometimes with friends, in search of magical creatures.  The server issues have been frustrating, but I'm sure that will all get solved soon.  In summary, its a lot more fun than Ingress, the previous game released by Niantec; and I recommend that you try it out if you think you would like an excuse to explore your neighborhood on foot and get to know some of the people who live near you.

That's all I have for this week.  I'll update you all later on how the Pokemon hunting goes.  Have a great week, and game on!

The Professional Gamer - July 4, 2016

Hello readers!  I hope you have all had another good week.  I've continued reading Lord of the Rings, but have also discovered that a great show that I've been hoping to watch is finally available on Hulu,  Therefore, I spent most of my evenings watching Gravity Falls.  

For those not familiar with the show, Gravity Falls tells the story of twins Mable and Dipper spending a summer with their Great Uncle Stan in a small town in the deep woods of Oregon.  Dipper finds a large book with a number "3" on the cover, and then begins to have encounters with all sorts of strange creatures and other phenomena.  The show manages a great blend of Americana and spooky campfire stories.  The animation is fluid and the characters are fun to watch in motion.  Not to mention the jokes are really funny.  I've watched a bit more than half of the first season so far.  Somehow, I managed to avoid most of the spoilers that were roaming wild on the internet; quite a feat considering that a large portion of my online friends were regularly watching Gravity Falls.  In summary, if you have Hulu, you should give Gravity Falls a shot.  

That's all I've got for this week.  Happy Independence Day to all of our American readers!  Have a great week and game on!

Loot Crate 2016 - Dystopia Unboxing

No, your eyes doth not deceive, I have actually recorded a Loot Crate unboxing again! This month was Dystopia, and with it a trove of treasures for after the end of the world!

The Professional Gamer - June 27, 2016

Hello readers!  I hope you all have enjoyed our coverage of Denver Comic Con this year.  We all had a great time.  Everything was comics and nothing hurt.  I've started reading and reviewing the comics that I bought, so keep your eyes on this space for more articles.

On top of that, I'm getting into my semi-regular reading of Lord of the Rings.  I don't really have a lot to say about it.  For whatever reason, I derive so much comfort from reading Tolkien's masterwork.  No matter what is going on in my life, it is a grounding to my youth.  

That's all that I really have for this week.  I'm taking a bit of an easier time this week, and recovering from Comic Con.  But, I'm planning to be back next week with some more discussions.  Have a great week and game on!

Flash Review - Rock Mary Rock

A short review for you all today.  Rock Mary Rock is a four part mini-series comic by Nicky Soh.  Soh had the first issue available for sale at Denver Comic Con, and will be selling the comic on his Etsy shop.  The comic centers on Mary, a young girl who find a magnificent vintage guitar in the basement of an old theater.  The catch?  The guitar is haunted by the ghost of 70's era rock star who died before he hit his prime.

Issue 1 introduces the main characters well.  Soh is very good with acting and expressing his character's emotions.  The character designs are very easy to read and I look forward to seeing how Soh makes them perform in the future issues.  The main characters including Mary, her grandmother, and Rock (the Ghost), all seem well thought out and fun.  The colors by Jeremy Lawson add to Soh's line work to form a cohesive style and feel.

Overall, I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of this series and more of Soh's work in the future.

The Professional Gamer - June 20, 2016

Hello readers!  I was having a bit of a busy week at work, which meant that I spent most of the after hours time with a somewhat guilty pleasure: Chopped.  Of the various cooking contest shows, its one of my favorites.  But, you didn't come here to read about cooking shows, so lets talk about some more geeky stuff.

E3 has come and gone, with a lot of discussion about the new Legend of Zelda title: Breath of the Wild.  The trailer is gorgeous and the play-through videos make it look like a whole lot of fun.  I'm setting aside some money to buy an NX and Breath of the Wild next year.  I'm really excited for a more open world Zelda game where there are more options about how to proceed through the game.  What are your thoughts on this new direction?

Speaking of The Legend of Zelda, I decided to spend about an hour today to finally finish Wind Waker.  For whatever reason, I never managed to finish it during its prime on the GameCube.  Thanks to the HD re-release, I have finally been able to finish it.  The final fight with Ganondorf is interesting and spoilers: unbelievably brutal.  I'm thinking about turning around and heading out again so that I can adventure in the blue tunic rather than the hero's outfit.  I really loved that crab shirt.

Also, I spent this weekend and Denver Comic Con, buying all of the indie comics.  Seriously, I bought a lot of comics.  I'm going to leave it at that, get some dinner, and enjoy some comics.  I hope you all have a great week, and game on!

The Professional Gamer - June 13, 2016

Hello readers.  This has been one of those weird weeks where I found myself not doing anything geeky, but can't really find the reason for it.  Let's try to recount what happened this week.  On Saturday, I went out for my birthday with family and friends, which took a large portion of the day.  On Sunday, all of the usual D&D crew was busy, so Crystal and I ended up working outside.  Monday evening, I went for a very long walk to help clear my head and work off a heavy dinner.  On Tuesday, our friends came over for dinner and we all watched Crystal play Skyward Sword.  Wednesday, Crystal and I decided to go out for dinner, since we had a pretty good coupon.  We spent several hours enjoying some beer and talking about everything.  On Thursday night, I went for a run by myself right after work, then went for a run with Crystal after dinner, which left me super tired.  And that brings us to Friday night where I am composing this article.  I'm with all the art crowd, typing away while they draw, paint, and color.  Maybe I'll play some FLT after this.

Anyways, let's talk about the future.  E3 starts tomorrow, and we are likely to be deluged with news of new games and products.  Personally, I'm most looking forward to Nintendo's press conference.  Even without discussion of their new console, getting some more info about the new Legend of Zelda title and Pokemon GO has me really excited.  

Further in the future, is Denver Comic Con which starts next Friday.  After helping Crystal run a table for the past few years, its going to be hard to adjust to spending the whole event on my feet.  I'm hoping to see some of the artists that I've met in past years, as well as meet some new creators.  I'm very likely to buy another print from Ukiyo-e Heroes, and maybe another book from Val Hochberg.  We'll have to see.  Not a lot of the names on the artist alley list are familiar to me, but I am horrible with keeping names attached to faces (and art!).  

Next week, I'm not likely to have an article posted at the usual time due to convention burnout, but will do my best to post some short comments and pictures for you all.  Have a great week and game on!