2020 might compete in the Most Pivotal Year in History Award, but it had its fair share of surprises. I had the time to attack start to finish several games. I reused the commute time to play. Below is the list that I compiled using the new GOG Galaxy app, that tracks games even from other stores.

The list of movies I’m going to skip this time, since it would not fit into a single post.

Games

1. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (9★★★★★★★★★): I loved this game, setting and its protagonist Cassandra
2. Dishonored (9★★★★★★★★★): unique story, gameplay and visuals (1)
3. Hellblade Senua s Sacrifice superb visuals and premise
4. Half-Life 2 (8★★★★★★★★): amazing game, even today (1)
5. Prey (8★★★★★★★★): these guys from Arkane Studios also know how to write and make all characters relevant
6. >Observer_ (8★★★★★★★★): super weird setting that caught my attention
7. Rise of the Tomb Raider (7★★★★★★★): messy story, despite the good gameplay loop
8. Dishonored Death of the Outsider (7★★★★★★★): while it have the same not the same
9. Farcry 3 Blood Dragon (7★★★★★★★): hahaha some over the top jokes
10. Virginia (7★★★★★★★): lovely story
11. A Way Out (7★★★★★★★): I’ve played with my girlfriend, together.
12. Frostpunk (7★★★★★★★): I tend not to like rougelike or crazy-difficult, but this one surprised me
13. Shadow Warrior 2 (7★★★★★★★): hahaha some over the top jokes (again)
14. The Council (ep 1) (7★★★★★★★): amazing premise and the first episode is nice. I heard that the other episodes are not great
15. Tacoma (7★★★★★★★): passive, calm and nice story
16. Ape Out (7★★★★★★★) die and repeat
17. Assassin’s Creed: Origins (6★★★★★★): beautiful but boring and another AC messing story
18. Framed (Collection) (6★★★★★★): interesting premise
19. Metro 2033 (Redux) (6★★★★★★): the amount of DeusExMachina moments is off the charts. the same for best friend companions that dies in the very next scene. (1)
20. The Red Strings Club (6★★★★★★): weird
21. Bioshock Infinite (5★★★★★): I really did not like the story and not the gameplay (1)
22. Realpolitiks (5★★★★★) interesting take on politics and economics simulation
23. Farcry 5 (5★★★★★) beautiful but boring and another FC forgetting story

Finished in 2018-2020 (before pandemic)

1. Doom (9★★★★★★★★★) (sort of: a bug near the end broke the saved game)
2. Thomas Was Alone (8★★★★★★★★): once I decided to restart and go to the end, I enjoyed so much the humor
3. Gorogoa (7★★★★★★★):
4. Hollow Night (7★★★★★★★): difficult as hell
5. Quarantine Circular (7★★★★★★★): the same creator of Thomas was Alone. The same humor
6. Sexy Brutale (7★★★★★★★): great premise
7. The Line (7★★★★★★★): classic whada fuck moment on gaming history
8. The Turing Test (7★★★★★★★)
9. Rime (6★★★★★★): samey
10. Shadow of War (6★★★★★★): (sort of a bug near the end broke the saved game)
11. Captain Spirit (5★★★★★): lack in every aspect from its sister game Life is Strange

Not finished yet (for one reason or another)

1. Gunpoint (8★★★★★★★★)
2. Ori and the Blind Forest (8★★★★★★★★)
3. Rome Total War (8★★★★★★★★)
4. Shadow Tactics (8★★★★★★★★)
5. The Quiet Sleep (8★★★★★★★★)
6. Baba Is You (7★★★★★★★)
7. Bad North (7★★★★★★★)
8. GRID 2 (7★★★★★★★)
9. Offworld Trading Company (7★★★★★★★) (campaign)
10. Subnautica (7★★★★★★★)
11. Superhot Mind Control Delete (7★★★★★★★)
12. Everspace (6★★★★★★)
13. Sunless Sea (6★★★★★★)
14. FAR: Lone Sails (5★★★★★)
15. The Pillars of the Earth
16. Hand of Fate 2
17. Kentucky Route Zero
18. Detection
19. Else Heart Break

Continuous playing

1. Scythe (9★★★★★★★★★): the award-winning board game
2. Ticket to Ride (9★★★★★★★★★): played online with family and friends
3. Democracy 3 (8★★★★★★★★): always in Vogue
4. Imperialism 2 (8★★★★★★★★)
5. Hidden Folks (7★★★★★★★): success with small kids and non-gamers alike
6. Offworld Trading Company (7★★★★★★★)
7. Stelaris (7★★★★★★★)
8. Surviving Mars (7★★★★★★★)

In preparation of the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077!!!

Hello World. Testing the new site!

For the N’s time, I migrated the blog to a new blogging system. This time, I’m using Hugo.

Hugo is a class of CMS’s that generate static sites. Just like compiled and interpreted programming languages, the whole site generated beforehand and the result is uploaded to a server.

The main advantage using this method is a substantially faster site and zero attack surface form the CMS. The main disadvantages are the less user-friendly interface and big building times.

Let’s dig into theses issues:

Faster Experience

Since all the pages are now static and pre-made, the only variable it the server latency to delivery the files. The page does not need to be built on the fly for each user, which can be tremendously slow. And it also waste CPU from the server, rebuilding it time after time after time.

Most CMS’s have some caching system to mitigate this issue. They first check if the page have been already built. If so, serve it. If not, build it and save the result. The problem lies on implementing a CDN and/or a technique to invalidate the cache to force a rebuild (in case the content was altered by the author).

More Secure

Since it does not compile the page on the fly, it eliminate the security issues inherited form the language. It also does not access any type of database. There is no admin page. Event DOS attacks can be much more robust, since the CDN can migrate the traffic to another server easily.

User Interface (Lack of)

Well, Hugo uses the developer-driven approach that requires the user to use an IDE and compile the whole site. It does not offer any type of interface in which you can drag and drop widgets. It’s is definitively not WYSIWYG.

If you are seasoned to programming tools, you will have not much problem. It will be very familiar. For a non-tech savvy mom blogger, Hugo is a no go.

Build Times

Even to see a single post that you just wrote will take time. Like compiled programming languages, the site have to be built before you can check on it. Hugo have an automatic service that propagate the incremental changes and it really fast, so iterating the content will not slow you down.

It will take even more time if you have some extra processes implemented, like resizing images.

But the process to rebuild the entire site might take a while. Thankfully, for the production the whole building process can be delegated to CI/CD tools. Using GitHub or GitLab, they will automatically build the site on each commit.

The process of writing this post, the very first on the new platform, was quite nice. But I’m in the perfect spot of product requirements and technical skills

Anyway, I’m going to try to post more content in the following months. :)

This title-provoking book tries to tell a very important lesson: not everything is worthy of your attention and worries. Most of the things that make us worried and down could be easily avoided if we maintain a strict rule of not giving a F.

It’s kinda a Buddhism in the modern blogger language. Like the book, Buddha says desire leads to suffering. So you must clear your mind of all desires, not giving a f*ck about stuff. Especially material stuff.

The first third of the book is pretty nice. Is a bit thought-provoking, giving you a sense of perspective on your life. I liked this part very much. I believe that it’s worth a reread from time to time. The second and third parts direct the same philosophy towards more practical aspects of life, like relationships, love, and work. There the advice becomes a bit too narrow and full of must-do and must not do kinda lists.

Overall, I liked the book. It’s that kind of self-helping book that shakes a bit the status quo and makes us reevaluate our lives.

I love dogs. Since kid, I always wanted to have dogs around. I’ve had two when I was a kid. The two died in a bit tragic situation, but I kept loving them.

This year I decided to give it another try. This time, I would be alone. No mother or brothers to help me out feeding, nursing and taking out for a walk. This time, it would be like I’m a single dad.

I had my preferences of breed, of course. I live in an apartment, so it would be advisable to get a smaller specimen. In Rio, a furry one would suffer without mercy. A smart, training-lover that would get beer at the fridge would also be a great plus.

But I did not want to buy. I would rather adopt one. But to find one that fills all the checkboxes is hard. But I waited. Eventually, a friend of mine told me such story:

She already had a dog, called Lancelot, but she felt that the dog was too alone. Without a friend, Lance was developing a non-social behavior. She decided to adopt one. She got a small 1.5 month-old cub and named her Guinevere. Lancelot and Guinevere were supposed to live happily ever after.

But Lance got annoyed. All that grumpiness from an adult dog was not getting along with the chaotic way of life of a cub. Lance was spending most of the day up in the bed, a place he could jump over, but the poor Guinevere could not reach. From there, Lancelot kept his god deserved peace.

My friend told them she was planning to give Guinevere back. I immediately seized the opportunity to ask the little lady for myself. It was my chance right there. She agreed.

I was going to pass by her place a couple of days later to get the new daughter. I was super anxious. I could not wait for it. Eventually, I went there to meet for the first time my little Guiné. Guiné is a reference to the African country, Guinea. It is a perfect match. Guinevere was super-duper black. Despite a single pawn and her belly, Guiné is pitch black.

I loved her. Her super energetic behavior. Her looks. Her tongue, that did not stop to lick me for a moment. Since then, I am a dad. I try to give it her deserved love without over do it. She is a dog.

In the same vain of critically acclaimed Limbo and Inside (review pending :P), from Playdead Games, Little Nightmares, from Tarsier Studios offers a great action puzzle adventure, full of mysteries.

The game, unlike the mentioned ones, are played in a 2.5 world. It’s mostly 2D, but there are some things that require the Z axis. To be quite frank, it is partially one of the problems with the game. More of that later.

The story is a bit clearer than the Playdead games, but it still is a clueless journey. All these games offer a minimalist approach for storytelling. One can argue that it is a valid and logical choice in a situation where you are alone and running away from danger. However, the lack of exposure let the players in the darkness most of the time. You might eventually discover whada heck is going on, but chances are you will play-throughout the game without know much.

In a scale, Inside is mostly undecipherable, Limbo is an understandable (due to the simple boy runs premise) and Little Nightmares might have the most clear story.

The giant grotesque figures are super creepy, but after some deaths, they do not offer the terror that one might except. They fall mostly in the range of stranger than from pure evil that want you dead.

The controls caused me several problems. I was expecting to use the game pad, but the analog joystick was too imprecise, especially during running. I was often falling into the void because I was running towards the camera instead sideways. I had to change to mouse+keyboard scheme, which was weird for such a game. Ironically, the 2.5 feature of the game was not that important. It mostly could be replaced to a tracked walk towards the Z axis, making the game essentially a 2D.

The visuals are amazing. It totally delivers the premise of uncanny familiarity and strangeness. The awkward feeling that you know something is not right is present here. Your character is relatable. Its fragile nature makes the whole adventure more epic.

Because it has a chapter-like story. One could try to replay its best parts to manage to get achievements or contemplate better the scenarios.

Note: I like the game so much that I was compelled to try it’s 3 expansions. Nice.