A weekend of running, surfing, and sun is not complete without restorative video gaming sessions. J and I recently started co-oping Far Cry 4.


The game is pretty like Assassin's Creed IV, but trade the Caribbean for the fictitious Himalayan land of Kyrat. And the xbox 360 for ps4. Nicely-detailed, 3d-looking mountains for starters. Water, fire, lighting, and focus effects cannot go without mention.



The game has ample depth elements for a shooter: xp and leveling, nice guy points, abilities, inventory. Things unlock as you focus efforts on the variety of main and side quests, so if you want the suppressed sniper rifle you can work specifically for it.

I'm not especially impressed with the abilities (other than, of course, riding elephants). Things like chained takedowns and stimulant injections just don't have much impact unless you're really going for it.


The weapons are varied but pretty standard. Some can be upgraded with scopes, suppressors, and large mags. There are other fun things like explosive arrows and c4. The map is scattered with gun and mortar emplacements. Mortars are especially fun, similar to UAVs in Call of Duty.


On the plus side, I haven't set a proximity mine since Perfect Dark and... well... WING SUIT!!!


The plot is nothing new: the protagonist finds out about his father in a world where the peasants are rising up against the evil, murderous, drug trafficking, uber-baddie Pagan Min. Interactions are pretty good even if they don't lend to any particular depth.



The vehicles. Woo. All the toys you could possibly want to get around the remote environs of not-Nepal. Here's a decent cross section, and I'm maybe at 25% completion:



The co-op is great. Which is important because it's the reason this game rose to the top of the queue. Your co-op partner plays as Hurk, the redneck fish-out-of-water fighting for a just cause, or just fighting. Together you drive and fly around, capturing bases and getting stuff.

Teamwork can be super-useful, whether it's marking enemies at an outpost for the ensuing takedown or airlifting your buddy to the top of the tedious-to-climb radio towers.

The fun of working together is somewhat overshadowed by the knowledge that only the game host will collect full rewards from the activities, but the guest does not come away with nothing.



There are one or two glitches in the game. And I mean more substantive than the above-depicted spoon-driving (can this be a thing?). I've been stuck underneath a hang glider and inside a bridge. More frequently, online play has simply choked. One time J couldn't see the car I was driving.

Royal rainbow!

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Saturday was the fourth Blind Lady Ale House Cape Run. Our crew constituted the majority of Black Team, though we made sure Darth Vader and Jon Snow felt right at home. Kafka put in a solid effort, dragging Derrick and I to a pace in the mid-7s.


I missed it last year but was there in 2012 and 2013.

I have been pingponging between not liking the towel bar selection at the hardware store and not trusting the quality of what I found online. The latter was kinda stupid considering where I source most things I evantually got around to putting in an order.

Three Jado 020s, two for the master bath, one for the guest bath. The form-fitting foam was a nice touch, all sniper-y.



It also occurred to me to get coathanger hooks for the showers since I frequently have water gear to hang. One Delta Lahara for the master, one for the guest.

The desk lamp I was using in my new, high-use study was pretty inadequate. After some looking I found a floor lamp that would behave, in some ways, like a ceiling fixture. On the subject of ceiling fixtures, I found a decent deal on a directional light for the media room (to replace the omnidirectional one). Now having the overhead light on doesn't result in a bright reflection in the tv.