Sunday, February 16, 2020

Virtual Tourist - Assassin's Creed - Black Flag 2/16/20

Morning, all!

I haven't done one of these in a while. Between YE chaos, added work chaos, and the coming release chaos, somethings I've had to let slide. (Though it's over a year since the gall bladder surgery, I'm still not back to normal.) :(\

Anyway! Here goes!

Assassin's Creed - Black Flag

This is the first time I've tried playing one of the games in the franchise since the first one. Back then, I had to stop because even though I could close my eyes during synchronization, the baud rate in the white room of the prisoner in modern times was so low that even though nothing was moving, it gave me horrible motion sickness.

I am happy to say that this addition to the franchise does not have the same problem. I can even enjoy the beauty of the synchronizations as they got slowed down a bit. (Just don't have Edward drink alcohol. Talk about side effects. I won't do that again!) Lol.

The vistas are gorgeous, and the longer you play, the more options of stuff to do or equipment you can use open up. But some of the mechanics are clunky or get in the way. A decent tutorial on combat would have been nice - I still have trouble. :P (The same goes for ship combat!) But overall, hubby and I are enjoying it.

Our time vessel is Edward Kenway - a man desperate to gain fame and fortune. He wants to prove to his estranged wife and her family that he did not make the wrong decision by striking out on his own. Now that being a privateer has been outlawed, he's going to become an outright pirate.

Assassins Creed - BlackFlag

Eventual intro! Pictured here is the Port of Havana.

Assassins Creed - BlackFlag

Edward and a mysterious man have survived the destruction of the ship they were on. Things turn a little weird here. The strange man is injured, and he asks Edward to help him get to Havana. The mysterious man has clothing fitting the Assassins Creed members, but seemingly he is a traitor and is working with the Templars. Somehow these two end up not coming to an understanding, and the wounded man speeds off like a gazelle, and Edward has to catch him. (I did say it got weird.)

Assassins Creed - BlackFlag

From what I understand, the game has no way to remove the UI for pics. A pity, because as you can see, the visuals are lovely. :)

Assassins Creed - BlackFlag

After catching up to the assassin, Edward takes his coat, message, and goods for himself. (No hidden blades yet, so cutlasses are for us arrh!) I loved the rainbow with the waterfall!

Assassins Creed - BlackFlag

Edward does a lot of swimming. In a heavy coat to boot! :P Even his crew will make fun of him for it. Lol. There's also an achievement. :P

Assassins Creed - BlackFlag - Havana

Havana without the logo. So nice!

Assassins Creed - BlackFlag

The ever-present hawk leads us to the synchronization spot. Havana has multiple of these as it is a large city. 

Assassins Creed - BlackFlag

There are cats, dogs, and parrots you can pet in the game! There's even an achievement for petting dogs. Too cute!

Assassins Creed - BlackFlag

While some items are repetitive in their look, there's plenty of excellent detail. Shafts of soft light from small fortress windows - how nice!

Assassins Creed - BlackFlag

Here is a lovely view of several ships leaving the harbor. Look at the gorgeous water! Isn't it amazing?

I hope you have a great week!

Obligatory Promo Section!

Yep, I gotta have this since a book is pending release. I am hoping to share the cover soon!

Don't forget the Kindle and Nook versions are currently on pre-order at a discounted price.

You can find sample chapters here.

Don't forget the free ebooks to help celebrate the release and to thank you for your help in getting the word out, doing reviews, whatever you feel like - Cross-eyed Dragon Troubles and Inner Demons.

Thanks again!!!!!!

Saturday, February 15, 2020

Alien Redemption on Pre-Order for Kindle and Nook!

Greetings, all!

Turbic Station - Alien Redemption

I'm reaching out to let you know that Alien Redemption is up for pre-order on Kindle and Nook!

The release date is 2/28/20.

Not only that, but both are currently discounted to make the offer even more enticing!
Just click on the icons below to see the reduced pre-order price. :)

Kindle - Amazon

Sample chapters are available as well, so you can get a taste of what to expect. :) Click here.

The Holiday - Alien Redemption

Don't forget that Cross-eyed Dragon Troubles and Inner Demons are currently free at Smashwords to celebrate the release of Alien Redemption! Just click on the cover below to get there. :)

Cross-eyed Dragon Troubles

Inner Demons

It would be awesome if you would leave reviews, inform others, or forward the blog post around. I would appreciate your help!


Thanks so much! :)

Sunday, February 09, 2020

Mini Movie Reviews 2/9/20

Morning!

Yep, I fell off the face off the earth for a while again. Being in the accounting field, the months of Dec to late Feb usually mean a ton more work than usual. Year-End catch up and clean up, a more-in-depth audit, more reports. Ugh. It hasn't helped that we lost a person in our department and that they had a small layoff last week. Chaos as usual! Whee!

Mini Movie Reviews!

Birds Of Prey and the Emancipation of Harley Quinn

Birds of Prey (and the Emancipation of Harley Quinn) - This was a BLAST! The ads were very misleading in several aspects. Since Margot Robbie was the best thing about the Suicide Squad film, I was both excited and reticent about a movie where the character Harley was the lead. I know there's a lot of stuff out there saying this is a man-bashing film, which isn't strictly wrong, but it's about so much more than that. It is about dependent women, becoming independent. My hubby thought this movie was as fun as I did -- tons of explosions, fights, comical moments. I'd gone to see it thinking it might be a dud, and came out knowing it was one of the most fun movies I'd seen in a while. They did so many fun things. They even did a super cute, animated origin recap for Harley, which is pretty close to canon. For purists, a lot of the characters portrayed will not be precisely what they should be, but there is enough there to get you through. Ewan McGregor was a blast as Black Mask. Harley's egg sandwich sequence was a riot.

It's a popcorn film. It's not meant to be taken too seriously or looked at too closely - though I felt they covered their bases very well.  Not for kids, though. Adult subject matter/violence. But such a ride! (I had not seen rollerskates combat in a long time. Good call!)

Rating: 3.75 out of 4 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Full Price of Admissions)

Weathering With You

Weathering With You - Loved this film. Take some tissues with you! Both hubby and I needed them for this one. Lol. It is a neat mixture of paranormal, ancient legends, and modern times.  It has super cool visuals and is quite emotional. The film had a really neat premise. We enjoyed it a lot!

Rating: 3.75 out of 4 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Full Price of Admission)

1917

1917 - Unfortunately, though I had been desperately wanting to see this movie, I can give no review. We had to leave after twenty minutes. It wasn't the horror of trench warfare that made us go, but their choice of camera work. I hadn't realized it during the previews, but this movie got filmed with shakycam. :( So I got motion sick watching it. Once they were out of the trenches, it was more than I could take. Waaaahhh! Curse you, shakycam!


Dollittle

Dolittle - this was a cute film -- lots of lovely moments for the kids with the animals. Several of the animals had definite personalities, though not all of them were highlighted or had enough screen time to get to know them. The voice and accent they had Robert Downey Jr. use was grating. It did not sound like him at all. The special effects, especially the animals, were excellent. But for some reason, the movie just went along; it had no real fire to it. So while worth seeing, it is not something you should rush to do.

Rating: 3.25 out of 4 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Matinee) 

Happy viewing!

Saturday, February 08, 2020

Q1 2020 Alien Redemption Release is Coming!

Alien Redemption - Alien World

Alien Redemption is almost here!

Yep, better late than never. :P End of February is the current target date. *fingerscrossed*

Sample chapters are up! Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and Chapter 3. Give them a look!

Zumaya Publications has assigned the cover to Charles Bernard! YES! Love, love, love his work!
I am super looking forward to seeing what he does for the cover. Squee!

I've been fortunate enough to have him assigned to do several other covers of mine. Check out his fabulous talent!

Cross-eyed Dragon TroublesInner DemonsIn the Service of Samurai 

Awesome, right?

I hope to do a cover reveal soon! Also, to celebrate the impending release of my first science fiction novel, the reprints for Inner Demons and Cross-eyed Dragon Troubles ebook versions are FREE through the end of March 2020!

All I ask is for help spreading the word about Alien Redemption. If you can, I would love to see reviews/tweets/pics/FB posts on what you thought about the two free books or the upcoming release of the new novel. Whatever you can do would be fabulous!

Without your help, I am nothing. So thank you in advance!

The Free Books are at Smashwords - available in ePub, Mobi, lbr, PDB, and their online reader. (Let's celebrate!)

Cross-eyed Dragon Troubles at Smashwords

Inner Demons at Smashwords

Thank you!!!

Alien Redemption - Rocket Punch bar
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