theBU3NO's dumb website

fairly emblematic

 2026-04-17 |  #🎮video games

i kind of don’t know how i skipped fire emblem

i loved advance wars and final fantasy tactics is in my top 10 for sure.

i guess i was a junior in high school by the time the first western version came out, and i was mostly mmo’ing and playing physical tabletop stuff at that point.

for the purpose of this post i planned on blaming it on how i’ve never been interested in anime, but i had been playing pokemon for years and i liked yu-gi-oh so that’s no excuse.

but let’s ignore that change of heart because i still want to talk about anime

it’s true that i was never interested in watching it, but defining a clear why is difficult. there’s a whole mess of shit that comes to mind when i think of anime in a general sense. most of anything i saw passively was either too childish, over-the-top cutesy, or exactly the opposite and creepy as hell. AND THAT’S FINE i’m just not interested in any of that.

then there’s the fandom.

ok i think it’s time to really go in on something. we’re only like two steps down and i’m just going to have to go deeper if i want to articulate an answer that i’m satisfied with. the problem with deeper is we’re entering the realm of subconscious feelings and fleeting images and i don’t know how to type those.

this is where i would usually abandon a topic. quick before stumbling around a genuine feeling. right on the cusp of an actual opinion.

i get so fucking pissed at those videos where someone roasts the way that someone else is cooking their rice.

if your ego can drive your body to audibly express that breaking spaghetti before putting it into the pot    actually     matters      fucking       at all? i think i might actually hate you.

the way i feel about that is a tiny bit like the way i feel when someone’s whole life and personality are defined by something like anime, or ford trucks or whatever. it’s just a gross little pang i feel in my soul.

i’m not saying that’s you, or that it’s common, OR THAT IT’S BAD. that guy just makes me feel some kind of way, and something about anime makes me think of that guy.

within the past couple months i’ve watched jujutsu kaisen, frieren, and dandadan, and i absolutely loved all three. i thought to myself: oh my goodness i like anime!

so i put on black clover, and fullmetal alchemist, and one piece, and thought to myself: ah nope, i don’t like anime, i just like the best shit.

i like the best anime, and the best videogames, and the best trucks or whatever.

so i picked up a fire emblem game the other day and knew immediately that it’s a thing for me. i’m starting with 7 or [untitled] or the blazing blade or whatever you personally call it. the box says “fire emblem” and it’s the first one that came out in the usa and i heard it has the bangingest tutorial.

there are heaps of other ones, including SIX that came before and never even released in the states. after 7 i think i’ll pick up the sacred stones, awakening, three houses, and engage.

i’ll play the really good ones, and i think i’ll stay off the subreddit

patch notes 4/15/2026

 2026-04-15 |  #🌐website #🎮video games

-marathon //it's just not happening. at this point for me to be interested in marathon they would have to be adding deathmatch lobbies and we know that's not coming. i think it'd be just swell though. you would still have to engage with the extraction mode to find the gear you like, but the stats would all be equalized since you're not dealing with the risk-and-reward mechanics. it's all reward baby.

+wardogs //i haven't been this hyped for some time now. 30v30v30 shooty faction pvp with an economy. every decision this game made is right up my alley. well it's not sci-fi but i probably would have hyped my ass of it was. a little planetside, a little battlefield, and the devs are saying all the right things as far as monetization goes. there's a player economy with all the risks and rewards you could desire. earn money on your performance, and spend it on gear to go again. i think they'll totally flop on balancing the economy and settle into it as time goes on. there are seasons of course, that magical replacement for the vertical progression treadmill.

-ashes of creation //oof. holy shit lol

+s&box //i forgot about this one for a while. i got in for testing a couple years ago but didn't really do much. this, uh, package? is an inevitability. i mean it's the sequel to garry's mod, it's going to be around for a long time whether it becomes the next roblox or not. then you've got the ability to ship games outside of it's own ecosystem to really make things interesting. this feels like some kind of moment to me.

^tetris attack added as all-time favorite

+fire emblem //see next post

some big ping is happening

 2026-02-14 |  #🎮video games

i don’t know what popped into your head after you read recently-viral-essay ‘something big is happening’, but allow me to share the wrong thing to worry about. let me tell you how fucked multiplayer gaming is.

i don’t know how the hell i’m going to lay out all these dumb thoughts, so let’s just start with the second thing i thought of, since the first thing i thought was actually man i hope universal basic income is coming pretty soon.

the second thing i thought about was, what would i even do with an ai, being an unambitious antisocialite such as myself? well i’d probably use it for some dumbass game.

no no i don’t mean make a game with it; i mean, like, what if it watched me play league of legends and told me what i should be doing? like you should probably go help your team with the dragon or whatever.

and so obviously this is the end of all recreation.

i’m mostly kidding of course

but really what are we actually supposed to do

one strand of this stupid ass thought-mop is how i think gaming, or at least specifically mmos and pvp, is in a meta solving crisis. well crisis is the wrong word, it’s just a fundamental issue. a fundamental issue with humanity and the internet perhaps. it’s probably just nature. you collect information and everyone figures out the best way to do something.

this is a good thing probably. it’s science. or maybe all that comes from awareness is misery. regardless this definitely makes games less fun.

next is cheating.

cheating is the deep pit for me. it is the inescapable arms race that ruins everything. it’s war, and it’s everywhere, and it’s getting worse.

it used to be obvious. everyone in the lobby saw it and they had the tools to kick them out. there was a certain eh, turing test quality to it.

now it’s true that the developers took the keys to the moderator cabinet away, centralizing servers and making matches, but the cheating is too subtle now anyway. we’d just boot everyone that’s any better than us or has a good ping.

for a little while i thought ai would be the answer. it could ignore the software, look past the hardware, and just judge the numbers. you reacted too quickly badbrony694206-7, kick rocks.

that’s just a number though, and no matter how many decimal places you add it will be figured out, and the speed limit will be set. and even at the speed limit they’ll still be driving a lot faster than you are.

i think both of these issues will get reduced down and multiplied to the masses, and it won’t be cheating. look at the overlays for teamfight tactics or hearthstone, or addons for world of warcraft. you can get so much additional information, you should get additional information to play better, you must get additional information if you want to compete.

oh yeah also gambling exists.

i don’t have any answers. this is just an essay on depression. i like competitive gaming, and i think it’s a fallacy.

emergency maintenance

 2026-02-06 |  #🌐website #🎮video games

+heroes of might and magic: olden era

this is not a drill, we have a strategy rpg with ranked pvp in late-stage development

i remember seeing HOMMOE quite a while ago and being like yeah sure. i loved those games forever ago. i just don’t get excited for something like that anymore unless it goes really hard on multiplayer or it’s like strategy game of the year. you usually either have to go full board game mode and simplify it down, or lean all the way into asynchronous play to accumulate enough descriptor tags to peak me up.

age of wonders 4 is a magnificent game but that series was never built for multiplayer. i’m not going to dive into all the details, but generally the turns in these types of games are just so long that you (if you’re trying to make your game playable with other humans) need to either let players do their turns all at the same time, or let them put the game away while everyone else is rotating through their actions. unfortunately this falls apart in various ways when you’re trying to have pvp or co-op battles. instanced combat putting more turns inside your turns complicates things even a bit more.

turns out these guys are going really hard on multiplayer. they have announced that there will be ranked multiplayer for all of their modes. that is just absolutely unheard of for a turn-based strategy rpg. i haven’t seen anything to back me up yet but that gives me a lot of hope. maybe they actually have the dedication to finally solve some of these issues and open up competitive play for this classic genre.

a couple other quick changes while we’re here

-lego party! //this one still looks great to me, it just didn't pop off enough societally for a full-price purchase

-light of motiram //lol sony straight disappeared it

i'm not gonna try highguard

 2026-01-28 |  #🎮video games

highguard looks cool and neat and interesting and innovative. it looks smooth. being the last game showcased at the game awards means absolutely nothing to me.

i’m just not interested in a 3v3 competitive shooter. that’s all there is to it.

well.. ok, that’s all there needs to be to it but of course there’s some bonus bullshit.

i’m especially not interested in a 3v3 competitive hero shooter

i’m especially not interested in a 3v3 competitive hero shooter where i have to farm at the beginning of each match and pray to rngesus.

i’m like, super-duper not interested in a 3v3 competitive hero shooter in a gigantic map with castles where all i can think the whole time is “damn i wish there were some more fuckin people here.”

i think i’m really just mad at myself

Highguard is a PvP raid shooter where players will ride, fight, and raid as Wardens, arcane gunslingers sent to fight for control of a mythical continent.

i took what they gave me and i dared to dream. i foolishly imagined that you might want more than 3 guys to capture a magical continent. i hopelessly fabricated a world where maybe like 16 folks could be involved in the battle with the 50 foot tall siege engine.

i say this a lot but i’m fully aware that 3v3 being uninteresting is a me problem. my preferences were shaped by tribes 2 and alterac valley and planetside. it just hurts when something goes from being ripped straight out of my dreams to just another next in the discovery queue.

i hope highguard is a good game and you enjoy it.

edit 1/30: guys they heard me and added 5v5. i’ll try it when we get to 12v12. good on them though that was real quick

patch notes 1/23/2026

 2026-01-23 |  #🌐website #🎮video games

-towerborne //once again i convinced myself that i will surely organize some friends to play this fun multiplayer game with me, and once again i find myself wanting. my favorite part about towerborne was that i could make myself green with long ears so i could role play a goblin

+total war: warhammer 40k //oh shit oh fuck oh shit. i was really into 40k as a lad. i was really against 40k as a chap. i think this game is going to be really fuckin good as a bloke

-destiny 2 //it's just run it's course. i think you can get a degree in destiny 2 studies at the university of phoenix. top notch game in general but they really ruined it for me with how disjointed all the story stuff was. i ==absolutely== despise that there's campaign content you can't even play. pvp was very very good but i justdon't have it in me to keep up with the gear. so when pvp is all i care about it just seems like i should be playing something else

+mahjong soul //ive become infatuated with riichi mahjong. i'm not going to write a tutorial but it's kind like anime poker. there's an ebook called 'riichi book 1' that i'm supposed to be reading but instead i'm just losing real badly and having fun anyway. now, mahjong soul specifically is the most popular riichi mahjong client. i don't like the gooner bait booba and upskirts but you just gotta live with that if you wanna play where the people are

-warhammer online return to reckoning //bleh gear grind meh player base, super fun if you are a chronic pvper that can deal with older games

-warborne: above ashes //lol. the best bad game i ever played. truly a moment in time i will remember forever. the pvp. the drama. i went to war those boys and i'm coming back stronger

+dawn of war iv //dawn of war 1 is my most played rts and the only one i actually went online to play against randos with. incredible game. dawn of war 2 was cool. dawn of war 3 was deedee megadoodoo.

-mechabreak //super cool combat, the modes available just didn't end up being my thing, also i'm pretty sure the progression was ridiculous but i didn't get far enough to find out

+league of legends //mm watcha say? i'm playing a lot of aram. league of legends invented queue anxiety but you can't deny that it's a good pvp game

+divinity //hell yeah

-repo //i would still play this, i'm just not actively hoping for it to come up

+twilight imperium digital //really cool board game that's just too girthy to fit, now in digital form so you can stick it anywhere

-reaper actual //i got excited when i saw the word planetside in the news. i got unexcited when i saw the words modern military extraction in the news

=marathon //arc raiders did this game nasty style. i'm gonna leave this on the list for now, just a slight balance adjustment. i got real inflated for a new bungie game but the air has been squeaking out. i'm completely in love with the art direction and the cyber easethetics and all that shit, and i'm 100% going to try it, i just have a suspicion that the zero dollars for the prerelease test they announced is all they're gonna get from me

-dune: imperium //i'm pretty certain this is one of the all-time best deck building games, i just get sleepy whenever i try to play it.

^root promoted to all-time favorite

-digimon survive //i'll probably still finish this game, maybe it'll get added to the all-time favorites. for now there's just nothing to be said about it

patch notes 7/10/25

 2025-07-10 |  #🌐website #🎮video games

-dune: awakening //the closer this got to launch the more certain i was that it was not going to be a game for me. or maybe just that this game obviously wasn't finished and wouldn't be worth $50 to me? cause let's be honest if it showed up in my library i would have played it for 30 hours easily. unfortunately i was looking at this game through the lens of an mmo pvp gamer, and those tags never came into focus.

+lego party! //just when i decide nintendo isn't for me, smg studio comes along and says they've got a replacement for one of my favorite series, mario party. i love a competitive mini action boardgamelike and i've only really had pummel party as a viable option.

-pummel party//speak of the devil. great game. this is mostly just a hopeful move as i'm imagining lego party will overtake this one until the next franchise bash comes along.

+outer wilds & +nier: automata //it's downright disrespectful that i just bought these two

+reaper actual //it's got some planetside 2 devs so i just can't help but be interested.

+shadow tactics //another game that i've known for a long time that i would enjoy if i just sat down and played it. only a couple levels in but i will finish it eventually. the controls are pretty hardcore and take awhile to get used to each time i return to the game. i'm looking forward to moving on to other games in the genre like desperados 3, commandos: origins, and shadow gambit.

+return to reckoning //a warhammer online private server. a really good classic pvp mmo with some amount of regular players.

patch notes 5/27/25

 2025-05-27 |  #🌐website #🎮video games

-marvel rivals //my friends are no longer playing this, and that's the only reason i was interested

^heroes of the storm promoted to all-time favorite //by far my most played competitive game, will always love it but there would have to be some pretty big news to keep my interest at the moment

-keyforge //great card game, my hype bandwidth is just taken up by others right now: hubworld: aidalon, warlord, and sorcery

-mario party jamboree //is it finally time? i think it's time for me to give up on my nintendo dreams. i just don't have the friend group or the finances to support a full-priced suite of games on a separate system. i love the parties and the karts and the wonders, but i routinely find just as much enjoyment from indie games at a fraction of the price on a device that supports multiple ecosystems. don't get me wrong, this is purely a me thing. i'm a budget gamer and a minimalist, and modern nintendo has just never worked out with my lifestyle.

+albion online //post warborne test drought. warborne is just absolutely made for me, but i definitely have concerns, especially the queue system, balance, and pay to win. i played so much for a month during the playtest and i still want more. albion is probably just to hold me over until the next test

i was going to have a separate page for these dumb little patch notes just for fun, but then i started writing stuff about each game i added or removed and it seemed like i may as well just post it to the blog. content! i’ve got a backlog of previous changes i’m going to put here, then i’ll make new posts for them in the future. i’m still going to do a link to a list of some of my all-time favorite games that i don’t want to keep on the list all the time.

this article is about avowed, surely

 2025-02-27 |  #🌐website #🎮video games

i don’t know. what do i have to write about? do i have an interesting opinion about anything? would my anxiety even permit me to post an interesting opinion online if i did?

this website is my mid-life crisis. i’ve spent nearly my whole existence being passionate – pretty much strictly about games. it just seems like i should probably do something besides only playing them. plus that whole human desire to leave something behind after i go – thing. i’m not buying my name on an ohio state university building at this rate but i can easily secure a spot in the wayback machine. man i wish i could find my old geocities page.

avowed was very ok. ok? listen. i’m not one of the great minds of our time. when i finish a book i don’t find that all the knowledge and morals have slipped to the tip of my tongue. i enjoyed the book or i didn’t. i may or may not be able to conjure two other works to call it a ‘cross between.’

i have thoughts, but i’ll not be organizing them into a viral youtube video essay any time soon. they’re just in there doing their thing. wispy spirits gliding around my subconscious; convincing me to stop and pet the dog; guiding my hand to help a stranger in need; whispering that the murderous fire paladin lady must die.

that one was a game reference in case you didn’t play it. anyway, i think the most telling data from my time with avowed goes as such:

basically the more i played the more i just wanted to get it over with. now i’m not immediately suggesting that this is a fault of the game itself. there are a few factors at play here.

i am, at the time of this writing, 39 years old, and i generally don’t have the same patience for a game as i did as a child. japanese rpgs are pretty much off the table at this point, though i did manage to complete persona 3 a couple years ago, a feat which to me is doubly impressive considering my usual sensitivities towards aging graphics. to be fair though – i can still farm and gather with the best of them if i’m gripped by a particularly satisfying mmo, especially if pvp is involved. i’d like to expand upon my ridiculous requirements to being interested in a game eventually.

shifting this more towards the positive, i quite liked the story, and my desire to reach the finale definitely influenced my behavior. it turns out that ignoring side-quests is safer and easier than skipping pages in a book.

i will refrain from discussing much of the game systems considering my blatant disregard of them. i liked the style of combat at first, remarking it as skyrim the arcade game, but eventually grew tired of it, noting how unnatural the enemy melee attacks felt, zipping them long distances around the battlefield with each swing.

in the end, i have no regrets playing the game nor with utilizing it’s difficulty slider. especially considering it only set me back 12 dollars for a month of pc game pass. in fact despite the matte review, i would play through it again, for example, to refresh my knowledge of the series for a new installment. the various crucial story decisions the game affords makes for a more personal experience than watching a collection of cutscenes like i might be tempted to do with a more linear game. i really might play it again on the highest difficulty just for that dumb achievement. it's not a bad game! i just didn’t end up with a lot of great things to say about it, and maybe that’s a me problem.

yeah, that’s it. thanks for your time.

screensharts vol. 1 - public display of affliction

 2024-04-24 |  #🎮video games #📷screenshots

heroes of the storm is? was? my favorite and most-played competitive game for sure. it’s just something special. this shot was from when something happened with a ranked season reset and it put me down in silver when i had been in high diamond and i had to crawl back up. this ended up being extremely challenging as i consider myself a player that was very good at filling in strategies and contributing to teamwork, making a team more than the sum of it’s parts, but without the raw skill or leadership to carry a team in the lower leagues.