Sun, Garden, and The Witcher 3 on remote play!

    Being able to play outside, in the garden, when the sun is high and the temperature is hot, with a frozen beer at my side, always intrigued me.

    First reason is that this way I can enjoy a bit of the "outside" people always talk about, leaving my Hobbit Hole for some time.

    Second reason are my dogs, who can enjoy the garden more than they usually do, while I can still devote myself to my favorite hobby.

    So, during this sunny week end, I brought out the "solution" described in my previous post "PS4 and PlaystationTV marry Power Line Adapters", as shown in the attached photo.

    A very long extension cord provided energy to the whole thing, and the remote play on PS4, through the PlaystationTV, worked perfectly, with only some very minor connection drops.

    Sunlight is a major issue, because it strongly limit visibility. Still, increasing both game and TV brightness, make the game playable. I'll try to find a solution to this, even if I already know there aren't that many: anti-reflection film for PC and other device can perhaps better the experience, so I'll try out one of them.

    The Witcher 3 is a great game for remote play, as it doesn't need an incredible precision in controls: differently from Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, I found the play experience to be almost like I was playing directly on PS4.

    Speaking of this, this title is very attractive, big, and masterfully directed. Still, I must admit it has a bunch of things I strongly dislike:

    - Controls: Let's face it, the "action" side of this game is pretty sick. Controls, movements, attacks and the like are clumsy, woody and inaccurate at best. CD Projekt RED clearly haven't improved this side of their development skill, as both The Witcher 1 and 2 had the same problem!

    - Fast Travel: I think the sign posts system is a bit annoying; being forced to reach one of them to use the fast travel is just a waste of time. The ability to open up world map and directly select a destination sign post would, imho, improve exploration.

    - Food: Food heals so few it hurts, and you're forced to bring tons of them with you, if you want to rely on it. I strongly dislike this (going around with 50 meat chunks, 60 hives etc etc just sound wrong to me). I think it would be better to have the food heal more, perhaps over longer times, in order to limit the carriage. I understand the developers want perhaps to force the player into using alchemy, but still food works bad for my taste.

    - Quick Items Slots: Dunnow if later in the game you gain more, but the two item slot I can use so far is a bit limited. 2 potions or 2 kind of food (or a mix of the two) is not very much. Something like four slot would be probably more enjoyable.

    The game is still a precious gem, and one of the best titles for PS4 so far, but my vote for it is around 8/10, perhaps 8.5/10, mostly because it's pure gameplay aspect is definitely clunky.

2 new children, brothers and friends!

    Meh, I just noticed I haven't made any post on the two new guys who share my home! I adopted them from Arzignano's shelter, around 3 months ago, which is a long time without putting something about them on my blog :) !

    Povia is the biggest of the two. I'm so sorry it was given such a nasty name in the shelter, but that's it, he is used to it, so I kept it, even if he is Anakin for me (you know, black, missing a limb, somehow self centered and possessive/protective). He is a beautiful belgian shepherd who was hit by a car during his life on the road, and had his left front leg amputee. Neverthless he still is a force of nature: he runs like a bullet, fast like the wind and jump without a problem to great heights; sure, he become tired and winded quickly, but the athletic prowess he shows, even with the handicap, always leav me breathless. He search cuddle and contact alot, and always try to keep attention on him, especially when you try to give it to the other dogs. It's a pity my other two furred babies are a bit scared from his size compared to their, while playing, so Povia is often left a bit aside during games, and he suffer for this, even if I play with him. When he jumps on you, giving his only frontal leg to attract attention, or just sit doing the same, he is absolutely irresistible :)

    Cedric is much smaller. Smaller than Ennoia, in fact. He is stocky and strong, a little bit chubby, with short legs and massive feet which face outward. He is clumsy and not athletic at all, but has a lot of strength and loves to play with Ennoia. He also play with Povia often, but gets tired quickly, since Povia mouth is bigger than his head, so there is little to do ;). I kept the name he was given at the shelter, too, although he is Obi-Wan for me (brown and white, good-hearted, positive attitude and pretty quiet, but always ready for action). You can't say he is beautiful to look at, but is incredibly nice and fun, and has a set of attitudes (as he sit down, how he looks at you, how he search for cuddling) that can not steal some smiles.

    So, they're my two new joys, even if now I spend a capital for food, veterinary and the like and al the three of them can become quite an hurricane in the moments of maximum activity :)

Goodbay 2013, welcome 2014?

    Whoa, the last month has been pretty intense!

    The new year has brought a lot of new features and changes, some good, some bad. My parents are breaking up, unfortunately, after many years of marriage, and the question is not solving easily. Inevitably, I'm also catched into this affair, as a member of the family. This event has blocked my move, as the house where I had to relocate will instead be occupied by my mother, and I'll move in to the one where she lives today (which is much larger and more beautiful, to be honest ...!). She also decided to stop working at our store for some time, which made job more complicated for those who remained.

    I also bought a new car. Oh well, my first car to tell the truth :). Some photos soon in a separate post!

    Moreover, I'm partecipating to a very cool project in the RPGs world, as translation revisionist for the Italian version of FATE Core. Additional info in a future post.

Vegan Salami

    So, even 2013 is gone. This year I spent a rather quiet New Year's Eve, along with my girlfriend and all our beasts. We have finally begun to keep Enny, Kiro, Nobu and Giget
ta in the same rooms, finding that they bear each other better than we expected. Apart from a few sporadic attacks from Gigetta, some typical feline romp here and there and canine mutterings by Enny, cohabitation seems quite possible!

    We had dinner with the simple vegan dishes you can see in the pictures. To drink, sparkling wine Ferrari for her and beer for me!

Kiro + Nobu + Enny

Ferrari + Beer

Pie

Tara the fugitive!!

Little Tara!

    Yesterday (Monday 25 november 2013), during the usual walk with Ennoia, me and my girlfriend came across a breton dog who, clearly confused and afraid, wandered on the streets of my small town.

    Many people have tried to close up to the animal, giving up quickly as their approach was not working. Someone managed to give him a caress, someone else made ​his dog play with the stray one. But no one has bothered to try to understand what he was doing around, alone and restless, without a human with him.

    So, following him for a while, we were able to approach and calm him a bit, and I stayed with her (we realized that she was a female) while my partner went to retrieve a leash to be able to lead the animal to the local police, as there was no identifying mark on her collar.

    The dog proved to be clean, well maintained and very quiet, and she followed us, without any problem, to the police office. Here the cops, after keeping us waiting 45 minutes outside in the cold, heroically managed to recover the device to read the microchip and to contact the owner (ironic mode on...).

    The surprise was great when we found out that the pet's family is my relative!! The world is small, isn't it, especially in towns like the one I reside in!

    In any case, great was the joy in seeing the dog, named Tara, wagging his tail with happiness, excited at the sight of her owner came to pick her up.

    A small misadventure ended well for everyone!

Ennoia ready for the rain!

    Here is Ennoia wearing her new anorak!

    To be honest, she does not feel very confortable with that thing covering her body, but, hey, it's warm and keep water away from her coat, so she definitively should take her time to get used to it :P!

   
    One thing is sure: she's a true poser!

A Sunday with cats

    This sunday I spent some times at my girlfriend place, where Kiro and Nobu, the two black cats you can see in these photos, kindly posed for some shots!

    Are not they incredibly photogenic?

A present for my girlfriend!

    Christmas is coming, and my (for now) girlfriend is fond of cats.

    For some months, each time I stumble upon a nice image of these animals, I download it and add to a huge collection dedicated to her.

    She likes the idea to use some of these image to make enlargements and hang them in her home.

    Since she often can't decide which one to choose for this purpose, I settled to build an "handmade" present for her, creating a large collage of cat's photos (80x50cm) to be printed and displayed like a painting.

    You can see the result (of which I am quite proud ^ _ ^) in this post!