Capn Terry Sees a Cave

So there I was in Kentucky where I decided to visit Mammoth Cave. I am not sure why they call it that as there were no mammoths except for my tour guide who should lay off the brisket. 

I tied a string around my… waist… so I could find my way back out. My tour guide said that wasn’t necessary but he’s a moron so I’m happy I did it.

The cave was deep, dark, and damp just like my inner-most thoughts as I lay in bed staring at the ceiling. The dampness is due to all of the sweating.

I scratched my name into a rock about 2 hours in if anyone wants to go looking for it, they asked me to leave after I did that so I followed my string back to the entrance and off to the airport I went. 

Luckily I got to take some pictures, here is my favorite. 

Whoops,...it's 2019.

It's been awhile. The SWS is still going strong under its many changes and years later. We play PUBG and some Red Dead 2, sometimes. The camping trip is soon!

Looking forward to another year getting together to see how long we can withstand each others immediate proximity. Food, beers, and cigars are on the planner.  No longer are we "roughing it," gone is Bane, the little popup. Now we have a Airbnb house! This trip will be a change of pace, with fishing and the campsite activities are now taking a back seat. We have a day of brewery tours, instead of jumping from fishing hole to fishing hole. Gather the Growlers! Fishing and general tomfoolery the remainder.

One week and we will be heading to the house and celebrating (and withstanding each other)  another year on this annual tradition. Yay!

SWS out.

Two men enter, one man leaves...Mad Max The Video Game. One Less in the Backlog Review!

Damn it's good to be back! I haven't finished a game in months and I then, I shirk all responsibilities for a two week period and finish it. Feels good.

I love Post-Apocalypse, the failure of society and the last strings of civilization in an uncivilized world. Mad Max, Fallout, Water World, Book of Eli, The Road, and the shows that are, and something else; Revolution, Walking Dead and Falling Skies. I was excited to learn they were making a Mad Max game and guess what? It's not bad.

Another SWS camping trip in the books...CAP'N TERRY TO THE RESCUE!

The SWS trip was once again started out as a rough ordeal, as it usually is does. My 27 year old pop up is showing her age again. I finally got around to replacing and repacking my wheel bearings that were in dire need of work. Finishing the work, I seemed to have not tapped the dust cap on hard enough and needless to say, it had gone missing by the time I was to pick up Rage. Driving around I found a quick replacement and slammed that bitch on!

Rage and I quickly loaded the truck up with wood, in the pouring, you gonna get soaked rainstorm and we hit the road. That rain miraculously was not a hindrance to the rest of our weekend outing.

After a day of bad moods and no fish, everybody on the SWS camping trip finally caught something. No, not venereal disease. That first day was rough after the camp spirits were down after a day of not catching a damn thing. CAP'N TERRY TO THE RESCUE!  He searched out some new holes and new adventures for the SWS that second day. Not those kind of holes. Nearing the end of the journey for the day we found a nice bend, with fish! CAP'N TERRY threw his hook in the water and wouldn't you know it, out comes a rainbow, trout. I caught a brookie and a brown, that of which I had never caught before. Ranvier pulled a big ole sucker fish, and was the biggest catch of the weekend. Everybody was in better spirits after that.

Homebase

CAP'N TERRY

Pretty butterflies

Brook Trout

Brown Trout

Sucker...the fish, it's a suckerfish.

SWS OUT.

In the Summertime when the weather is fine...

Hello fellow SWS readers, I hope the start of the new year has treated you well. We are just around the corner of the summer season and another SWS camping/fishing trip, very soon.

Again, we will be staying at the Pikes Peak State Park, with Mr. Beer, Fire-roasted foods and some good times on the stream bank trying to catch one of those elusive fifty fish that are in that fishing hole. ;) Good times.

On the games front, we are truly lacking a good night worth of laughs and comrades, like we used too. I know we all have lives to live and not the free wheeling men of our youth. I am hoping though a game comes down the pipeline that once again brings us together like the good ole days. Fingers crossed it is Red Dead 2, but we will see.

Until the that night comes again, here's to you and the rest of the SWS in your further adventures.

SWS out.

I don't think, I have ever, played a more beautiful game than Unravel. One Less In The Backlog!

Guys, if you have a heart and love glorious visuals and, have the ability to pay attention to the small minute details, you will love this game.  Unravel is merriment and poignant.



You are Yarny,  a small little creature made from red yarn, whos' journey is to recover the memories of the past.  You use yourself, the yarn, to swing, climb, pull, tie off and proceed though the memories and recover the pieces.

Unravel is a platform puzzler, and its has some great physics puzzles.  There is still the drag this here, and it challenges you to get it there. With Unravel, there's a catch, you can only use you, yarn. The yarn is the tool that you have to complete the puzzles, when there is nothing left of you, you can't continue. Many times you have to stop and figure another approach that allows you the yarn to finish. Checkpoints have wrapped nails/screws/branches of yarn, where you refill, well, yourself.

The visuals are so great! You play in the foreground throughout your adventure and they are astounding. The backgrounds are the best when they come to the forefront without warning and simply make you stop in awe. Unravel is told by it's visuals and it's no wonder they are so great. And, I can not forget how the soundtrack tells the story just as much as the visuals do!

The game play and puzzles are challenging and mostly unique. How do you get here, where to put this, here is the piece I need?  Damn, I am out of yarn, stop back up, reassess. Once, I will admit, I did cheat and YouTube a solution. I had the answer, but the sequence I did it in was wrong. After an hour of diddling with the puzzle, you understand. Some of the puzzles are platformed, timed jumps and quick reactions. These derail my puzzle solving skills and slow the game down. BzzzztBzzzztJumpBzzzzt, CRAP! I missed the jump. Couple of tries and you get back on track. Overall the puzzles are not that complex and the solution can be seen in a few minutes of fiddling with the environment.  I will say, the set pieces where you must do the unexcepted for a wrapped creature of yarn were the most enjoyable moments of the game and I'll say just it at that. ;)

I can't state enough how quietly great this game is, many people see the the platform puzzler as a deterrent for playing all the way through the game. When I finished the game I had gotten a rare achievement, only 6% of playing Unravel got it. 6%.  The silent narrative of this game is the best part, yes, you have to play the puzzles to proceed, but the story is most endearing.  This game is played best with a driven urge to finish, uncover the story, and absorb it with some quiet self reflection.

GOOD INU.

SWS out.

New battle...field, old memories. One Less In The Backlog Review!

Golly gosh, gee golly it's been a long time since I had actually completed a game, this feels strange. The autumn over-expenditure has yielded some great experiences and some that I haven't even played yet. Battlefield 1 was highly acclaimed and I conned people into to buying it, or so I am told. It was bought with Titanfall 2 another game that will be a hold over until time is freed to play.