The Animals of Disney Dreamlight Valley

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Disney Dreamlight Valley is a popular game with lots of content. I had waited for years to play it. I have now spent most of my summer playing this game, and I loved every second. I loaned the game from the library, and unfortunately the DLCs weren't included.

 

 

Dreamlight Valley is a very addictive game. It was difficult for me to stop playing it. There's so much to do. After 180 hours of playtime I finally finished all the quests of the base game. Well, almost all of them.

 

 

 

Disney Dreamlight Valley characters

Disney has so many iconic characters, and not all of them are (yet) in the game. From the start Merlin, Mickey Mouse, Scrooge McDuck and Goofy are there. A bit later Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse and Daisy join the fun. Along the way the player unlocks more characters, biomes and realms.

 

 

What I personally hate that the Fairy Godmother is in the game, but there's no Cinderella. She happens to be my favorite Disney Princess, along with Jasmine and Belle. I'm sure she's going to be added to the game at some point. But is she gonna be free content? I doubt it.

 

 

My favorite character in the game has to be Nala. I must admit that I have never even seen The Lion King, even thought I have wanted to for literally decades. I especially want to see the original version, because there actor Jonathan Taylor Thomas is voicing young Simba. Yes, I used to be a big fan of Home Improvement. 

 

 

Nala in Dreamlight Valley is simply very adorable. Makes me want to see the movie. So thanks to this game I'm finally going to loan that movie from the library, luckily it's there.

 

 

Another adorable character is Frozen's Olaf, I fell in love with him too. That's yet another movie I haven't seen. I guess it would be easier to list the movies I have seen.

 

 

My favorite Disney movies are Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, and characters from those are in the game. I especially love Belle in this game, she's a quiet book nerd, just like me. 

I like Scar's negative attitude towards everything. 

 

 

Among my favorites is also Donald Duck, he's so funny in his anger. And yet also so polite.

 

 

But when it comes to Prince Eric... I want him for myself, so step away, Ariel. I haven't seen The Little Mermaid either. 

That is one thing missing from Dreamlight Valley, romantic relationships for the playable character. I suppose it's undestandable, it would be too horrible to steal spouses of well known and iconic characters. But I got used to romance in My Time-series, and it's hard to be without.

 

 

I don't like the game's latest addition, Peter Pan. I have always hated his misogynistic attitude, or his attitude in general. 

 

Dreamlight Valley's Cheshire Cat

Disney Dreamlight Valley is full of animals. From Lion King's Simba and Nala to Alice in Wonderland's Cheshire Cat. This cat is a bit quirky, and likes to cause mayhem and disappear. But I love him anyway.

 

 

 

Dreamlight Valley's Companion Animals

Squirrels (peanut), rabbits (carrots), turtles (seaweed), raccoons (blueberry), foxes (white sturgeon), crocodiles (lobster), sunbirds (flowers that match their feather color), ravens (5 star meals). Those are the companion animals of the base game, and listed after them are their favorite foods. You have to feed them so that they'll become your friends. Then you can choose to have them with you on your adventures. They also gather extra resources and backpack slots for you. 

 

 

There are also some special companions, such as Magic Carpet from Aladdin. 

The DLCs have even more companion animals. My favorite of them is the capybara, I wished to get one.

The Premium Shop also sometimes has companions, including cats. 

 

 

 

Disney Dreamlight Valley Trophies

This game lost me at trophies.

With better/more trophies I would have bought this game. Because of the lack of trophies I only loaned Dreamlight Valley from the library.

With implementing more/lot of trophies the game makers can only win. Every game should have at least story trophies, and a game like this could have soo many trophies. But no, Gameloft chose a different path.

Whenever I'm planning on buying a game I always check the trophies first. No platinum? Not interested. Not many trophies and/or all the trophies hard to get? I'll pass. 

 

 

Still I enjoyed every second of Disney Dreamlight Valley, and wished there were even more free content to play. This is a great game for Disney fans, and for those who love cozy games.

 

 

 

The animals of Far Cry: New Dawn

Far Cry: New Dawn (affiliate link) is a first-person shooter game which continues the story of Far Cry 5. It takes place in Hope County just like the previous title. The lenght of the game is shorter than many others in the series. The release date was February 15, 2019.

 

In general I don't like first person shooters, I never play them alone. But like many other similar games, Far Cry: New Dawn is a lot of fun with a partner in online co-op. There is no local co-op nor split screen option.

 

Far Cry: New Dawn Character Customization

 

You can choose the gender of your playable character, and the customization options even allow you to put a beard on a female, which is always a plus. For some reason my co-op partner made his character look like Keanu Reeves.

 

There are many kind of animals in this game, such as cougars and chickens. And there's even a horrible trophy called Master Skinner, where you have to kill and skin every type of animal this game has to offer, including cows. I still hate myself for doing that.

 

The dogs of Far Cry: New Dawn

 

There are lot of dogs in the game, and yes you can pet them, as you can see in the image below.

 

 

There's even a side mission called Man Eat Dog World, where you'll have to pet your future gun for hire dog Timber, and break out some imprisoned dogs. Prison Break!

 

There's a trophy called Sidecar Sidekick involving Timber, where you have to ride with him for 5 minutes. It doesn't need to be consecutive minutes, just 5 minutes in total. But what I hate about first person shooters is that you can't really see or enjoy the view of a dog in the passenger seat.

 

 

Boars?? 

There's a side mission called To Love a Boar, where you'll have to save a boar named Horatio. After this mission he will be available as a gun for hire. Once you pet the boar you'll unlock the trophy Save your bacon. We did this just in time for Christmas Eve. And the joke is that in my country we eat pork at Christmas... 

Far Cry New Dawn: Fly, You Fools! Trophy Guide

 

You first need to obtain the wingless plane, which you get after rescuing Nick Rye. After that you can access the plane from boathouses. Besides the plane you need dynamite. Throw dynamite in front of the plane and drive over it. You may need to try this a few times. To be honest it's easier to do if you have a co-op partner.

 

Far Cry New Dawn: Ethanol Truck

 

Here's a cautionary video how flammable ethanol can be.

 

 

 

And if you are looking for a guide for cattle location in Far Cry: New Dawn, you can click the link.

My Time at Sandrock Multiplayer: Guide

My Time at Sandrock Multiplayer on PS5

 

Finally, about six months later than promised, My Time at Sandrock multiplayer arrived to Playstation 5. To get it you need to download it separately from the Playstation Store, it is there named as Sandrock Online. It's free if you own the base game.

Chronically the multiplayer is set before the single player. Originally it was supposed to even have different characters, such as Howlett. But for some reason the players didn't like this idea, and so the NPC characters are the same in both versions of the game.

 

My Time at Sandrock Multiplayer vs Single Player Differences

There are many differences between My Time at Sandrock's multiplayer and single player, so even the most seasoned player might struggle at first. And most guides online are only focused on the single player, so it might be difficult to find the needed info.

There's no story mode in multiplayer. There are no main story missions, and no side missions. You only get commissions to build the town.

You can play the whole multiplayer experience solo. Having friends helping you would certainly be beneficial at some points, but I personally only play alone, and have managed just fine.

The game is cross platform. You can select to turn crossplay on or off. You can choose whether you want other players to be able to join your town.

The game saves automatically, there's no manual saving. You can NOT pause the game, which makes things even more hectic, and on fighting missions even more difficult when monsters keep attacking you while you are trying to use healing items.

In multiplayer you aren't forced to sleep. You won't collapse, and no one will carry you home. If you choose to sleep you get stamina and health points while doing so. 

The shops are open 24/7. You also have access to everyone's houses and rooms around the clock, so you can return commissions even in the middle of the night.

Yakmel cart rides are instant, and also free if you unlock an early skill for it (highly recommended).

Everything happens instantly. If you make a mistake, you can't go back.

 

 

There are things I wish I knew before I started playing the multiplayer. So here are some tips to get you started. 

 

How to get started

So what to do first, besides starting with those pesky commissions? Getting rid of the rocks which block the pathways in town is a good idea. And building the money tree and the sphinx cat right next to your workshop.

 

 

Bronze Axe & Bronze Pickhammer

You can buy these straight at the start from Hugo's shop Hammer Time, and they make life a lot easier. So no need to build these on your own. For Iron Axe and Iron Pickhammer, you get the recipe from Hammer Time, once you have leveled your workshop enough. And same applies also to better tools after that.

City Hall's Urban Planner

This is where you make the city projects, and I suggest you start doing them straightaway. I didn't. By doing these projects, you unlock many things to town, including the arrivals of many characters, such as Nia, Fang and Logan! So don't ignore the Urban Planner like I did.

There's a nice mission, where you have to make 80 pcs (!!) of rail road. No wonder why this is called multiplayer... Little help, please? I'm still doing everything solo, I couldn't trust a stranger with my town... In multiplayer you share everything with other players, including money. But actually this rail road mission sounds more daunting than it is. It didn't take me too much time to make these rail road tracks, just had to keep making lots of manganese steel bars with two civil furnaces. And for some reason I ended up having 39 extra rail tracks, who's gonna want to buy those?! (spoiler: Yan)

 

 

Commission Board

This is where all the action is, just like in the base game. You can get new commissions every morning.

Do note that there's also a whole other menu (on PS4/PS5 you press R2 to get it), where are personal commissions. I missed this for weeks ingame time at the start. Does it really matter? Well, there's a trophy where you need to do 100 personal commissions, so there's that.

 

Adopting pets

I'm sure you are very relieved to know that the pets are there from day one. Nemo, Macchiato, Banjo and Meercat. No sign of Coco or X though, until you unlock them.

The pet adoption system is different in multiplayer. In single player you need to befriend the pets to be able to adopt them, but that's not needed in multiplayer. Here you need to build pet houses for them, and once you have one in your yard the option to adopt will pop over the pets' heads. It really is much easier and less time consuming. Then you can send your pets to collect water and other things, just like in the base game.

How to build the pet houses? While standing on you yard choose home editing. You also need to level up your workshop enough for each pet.

 

Do you have to kill any animals?

When Vivi's commission required lots of Yakmel hair I really didn't want to start killing animals. Luckily you can buy them from Wandering Y Store, along with some other animal products. Also Vivi sells leather and other things. So check the stores before going for a murder spree. Who could kill those cute and innocent animals? Those angry birds can go to hell though.

Signing up for Festivals

There's a bit of confusion how to sign up for the events. For example I totally missed the first event of the year, Day of the Bright Sun. I simply couldn't find the box where to sign up. It was supposed to be at Martle's Square, but there was just the event store. So when the day arrived, I followed the airship, but it didn't drop any presents. I missed the whole festival, and therefore it didn't happen even for the other townsfolk. This is how important we builders are, the whole world revolves around us.

Only afterwards I learned online that you can only register for this event on the morning of it, so right before that happens. Darn.

So on the morning of the Dance-off I was scared. Would I be able to participate this time? I wouldn't want to miss all the events on my first year, just for the sake of trophies. So the first thing I did that morning was to go to the dancing platform, by the Blue Moon Saloon. And once again, there was no option to sing up. Once again there was just the Festival store. I was mortified, sure I wouldn't be able to participate.

But the Dance-off doesn't start until the afternoon. And when it begins you can just go there and start the dancing option from the booth. So no worries, no need to sing up beforehand. I danced and won and got the trophy, on the easiest difficulty!

 

How to get copper and bronze ore

Unlike in single player, in multiplayer you get these ores from The Breach. Before you can get there you need to clear the rocks blocking it.

How to get iron

You can get iron bars from the Eufaula Salvage, there's iron scrap which you can put to a recycler. To get iron (pyrite) ore you first need to unlock Gecko Station ruins by building the tram cart from Urban city planner at the City hall.

 

How to get granite

Then I faced another dilemma. I accepted a commission which required granite, but I didn't know where to find it. The answer is: Valley of Whispers. You know, the place with the gas. I spent one night there, mining granite, sulfur, spinels, sisal and even aluminum scrap. And yes, this is similar to the single player. You can get those things from above the gas, so no need for the protective suit. You can buy that suit from Tailor Made when you progress enough.

Gravity motor in Multiplayer

But then I hit a roadblock. Where to get gravity motors in Sandrock multiplayer? Once again all the guides were about the single player. I failed one or two commissions because I couldn't find this item anywhere.

I had to learn a whole new thing about this game, because I'm that stupid.

When entering any ruins you can choose multiplayer or singleplayer option from the menu on top of the screen. 

Multiplayer option only has 3 levels, and never saves your progress.

Single player has more levels.

You get gravity motors in multiplayer from Mole Cave ruins, but only by choosing the single player option before entering the ruins. Gravity motors can then be found starting from level 7.

Fiber mesh

Yet another dilemma I had, because apparently I can't read. Later in the game you have to make air purifiers, and those need fiber mesh. I thought the answer is fiber scrap, which can be found at least from the Bend. But no.

Fiber mesh can be found from Gecko Station ruins. In singleplayer mode it is available on levels 1-6, and it can also be found from Advanced tool boxes.

Can you romance in My Time at Sandrock Multiplayer?

Yes, you can romance and date characters also in multiplayer, and you can get married to them. You just need to unlock most of the bachelors first by doing city projects from the Urban Planner at City Hall.

You can NOT have children in multiplayer.

 

 

Can you marry Pen?

I got wondering is it possible to marry Pen in the multiplayer, because you can't do that in the base game. And if you have played it you know the reasons. But there is no story mode in online, so technically there shouldn't be any reason why you couldn't marry Pen. But... I doubt it's possible. I haven't unlocked him yet.

 

Gift guide

Here's a little gift guiden to some of the bachelors. What items to give them early on, when you don't have access to better stuff yet?

Qi likes data discs and power stones.

Unsuur likes rocks like spinel, gold, opal.

I noticed that Logan loves sharpening stones. You can buy them from Hammer Time. He also likes medicines such as Hemostat, you can buy them from Fang's clinic once you have build it. So I'm buying my way to Logan's heart? Yes please...

 

Logan in My Time at Sandrock Multiplayer

You unlock Logan by doing an Urban planner mission, where you have to kill some Geeglers. And if you are doing this solo/alone, expect to die a lot in this quest. Even if you bring along food and healing items. Remember that you can't pause the game to use them...!

 

Logan & Fang plushies

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Where to find Logan after you have unlocked him? He usually roams around the Eufaula desert, past the Gecko Station ruins. He can also be found on the bridge between Sandrock and the desert, Shonash bridge. Sometimes he does come to town. But most of the time he runs, fast.

To be able to get Logan as your lover you also need to build his Hunter Outpost.

How to unlock Fang

Like I have said when you start the game some characters haven't yet arrived to town. These include Arvio, Amirah, Venti, Nia, Pablo, Logan, Ernest, Pen, Grace and our dear doctor Fang.

 

 

To unlock Fang and X you need to build the Clinic to town, via City Hall's Urban Planner. 

 

My Time at Sandrock Multiplayer gameplay: The start of the game (Youtube)

 

Sandrock Multiplayer Trophy Guide: Iron Chef

Successfully made 10 different dishes.

I struggled to get this trophy, to the point of sheer frustration. After making way over 10 different recipes/meals I just wanted to give up.

But here's the trick how to get this Sandrock Online trophy:

Make 10 different meals in the main cooking tab, not the experiment (Test Tube) one.

I just bought enough different ingredients, and then went through the recipes, one by one, making one of each. And finally the trophy popped.

Sandrock Multiplayer Trophy Guide: Anti-Santa

Nab 10 gifts on the Day of the Bright Sun.

Like I said before, you need to register for this festival on the morning of it. It begins at 9 am, so if you wake up at 7 am, do absolutely nothing else. Run straight to the Martle's Square, and sing up at the box there.

For me the hardest part of this trophy was not knowing/remembering which button to use to get/take the presents. The answer is (on Playstation): triangle. △

I was only barely able to get this trophy, NPCs were so darn fast.

Sandrock Online: Pro Gamer trophy

Get 500 Game Center Tokens.

This trophy was buggy even in single player, and now it didn't pop for me in multiplayer, even though I had over 500 tokens. I was so frustrated because it was my last trophy to be earned.

There's a trick from singleplayer which worked for me: Put your game center tokens from your backbag to your item box, and/or vice versa. This popped the trophy for me!

Sandrock Multiplayer Paradise Lost challenge: Control Cat

I desperately needed help for this. I tried this online challenge three times, only on the fourth try I was successful. I simply couldn't get to the area were at least one of the panels is. Every way I tried to get there, there was always an invisible wall. At this point I thought the only way that would help me would be a video of how to do it, but there isn't enough info/guides about Sandrock Online... online.

But here's the trick how to beat Control Cat in multiplayer:

There are actually two cats.

To beat the first one, simply break the glowing panel in front of it. Then find a glowing blue panel on the backside of the cat, and break it. This kills the first cat.

Then you'll get access to the second area, and the second cat. The panels are on its both side. You first have to break one of them, then beat the blue panel on the cat itself. Then repeat on the other side. By then the cat has moved upstairs.

Here's a video how to beat Control Cat in Sandrock Online.

My Time at Sandrock multiplayer PS5 release date!

Christmas comes early for some console players of My Time at Sandrock.

Originally Pathea promised that the multiplayer would arrive to consoles in "summer 2024", but that didn't happen.

But now there's finally a release date of My Time at Sandrock online for PS5 and Switch, and it is December 19, 2024.

 

UPDATE: Pathea announced that PS5 wouldn't get Sandrock Online until December 23rd, but I was able to download it from the Playstation Store already on the 19th.

 

 

So the long wait is over. You can now experience the online mode in cross-play with Xbox, PC, PS5 and Switch players.

Do note that there is no story in online mode, you just build the city.

 

 

And if you ask me it's rather unfortunate that there are no extra trophies for the online mode.

 

UPDATE: Sandrock Online actually has 31 glorious trophies! You can check the trophy list for example here.

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The original Goat Simulator

I get commissions for purchases made through the links in this post, at no cost to you.

 

As a teen my biggest dream was...

 

"I am therefore leaving immediately for Nepal, where I intend to live as a goat." - Blackadder

 

 

My dream came true.

Originally the original Goat Simulator was only available for PC, and that made me very sad. But then in 2015 it came to PS3, and the price was only 9 euros. And that is a small price to pay for many laughs. 

Since then Goat Simulator has became quite legendary, and there's even a sequel, Goat Simulator 3. That's right, there is NO Goat Simulator 2.

 

What is the goal of Goat Simulator?

 

The word is mayhem. That's what Goat Simulator is all about. It's mayhem in an open world sandbox, and that is exactly my favorite game genre. And the best part is that you can't die in this game. Besides a goat you can also play as a an ostrich and a giraffe. Although I would have preferred cats and cows for example.

 

 

Why is Flappy Goat so hard? 

Flappy Goat is Goat Simulator's infamously difficult minigame. For the trophy The Flapmaster you have to reach 10 points in Flappy Goat. Believe it or not, I actually was able to do it on the PS3-version of the game. Then my spouse promised to do the Flapmaster trophy on PS4. And eight years later he finally managed to do it!

 

Goat Simulator 1 Trailer

 

Goat Simulator merch

 

Goat Simulator 4 release date?

Will there be another sequel to the series, Goat Simulator 4? As of writing this, the answer is unknown.

Will there ever be L.A. Noire 2?

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The answer is of course no. The studio no longer exists. We (I) desperately need more games like LA Noire.

Warning: This blog post has a big spoiler about L.A. Noire

 

 

Here are some old musings from my first playthrough of L.A. Noire:
 

I managed to get through the game on a Saturday night. Is that a good way to spend Easter? I would have liked to watch Breaking Bad on Easter, but the DVD box didn't arrive on Thursday, but of course on the next post day, i.e. Tuesday after Easter.

On Saturday night, one street crime was still undone, and it bothered me when I didn't know which Desk it was. In the end, there were two options left, Vice and Arson. I found it on Vice the next day.

I only had 3-4 crime cases left when I accidentally read a big spoiler about the ending of LA Noire. I had already been wondering just how low Cole Phelps can sink? Demotions after demotions. I don't know how upset I would have been if I hadn't known about his death beforehand, because even now it felt bad. And that way of dying was very stupid. The whole damn game for nothing? And if you play through those cases or the game again, then its going towards Cole Phelps' death all the time? Make it make sense.

Well, thinking rationally, wouldn't it just be fair that at the end of all games the playable character would die, when they die quite a lot during the game anyway. Only if you survived the whole game without dying once, then the character could survive at the end, that would be fair. 

However, the stupidest thing about LA Noire is that suddenly, in the last cases, you have to play as a completely different character than before. There was no sense in that game character change. Really annoying and pointless. Took me out of the game, so to speak.

In LA Noire, it's hard to kill people, that is, pedestrians. They almost always manage to avoid the car. The best way to kill them is when the person has already fallen to the ground, for example because they were startled by a madman driving on the sidewalk. ;) On the other hand, in LA Noire, the police won't come after you no matter what you do, so you can cause a mayhem in peace. If only you could. I also had to try to kill my police partner. When I finally managed to do it, it was instant game over of course.

 

Perhaps the funniest coincidence was once when I died while walking towards the door of my own car. Just a small touch from a passing car, and I died. A bit of the same thing, i.e. a mere touch was enough to cause the death of another character later. A bit of a contrast to that was when in one of the cases, while chasing a criminal on foot, some machine completely crushed Phelps into a pancake. I don't really understand those deaths by a light touch, I've been properly hit by a car many times without dying. I just accidentally rammed my partner twice with a fire truck, and he didn't die.

I also managed to drop into the void and die that way. So I found a bug in the game. I went through the house and the next thing the car dropped in a white void until he died and "officer down". Unpleasant, because right then I was going through the city along its edges and I didn't remember where on the map I was going. I was looking for cars at the same time, I always had to go through all the parking lots and cars, for the Auto Fanatic trophy.

That feeling and that moment when you find the last car and you achieve 100% game completion. In the words of Homer Simpson: I am not easily impressed. Wow, a blue car. Sky blue. I was also missing one newspaper for a long time, and it happened to be the very first one. D'oh.

But what to do next? 5 stars from every case? I'm still missing some trophies. I already started getting 47,000 dollars in damage for the Public Menace trophy, they say it's best done by driving the fire truck to the gas station fuel pumps a few times. I already destroyed two of them. I already got more than 32,000 dollars in damage with that other guy once, but I ended the case too quickly. All those destroyed cars for nothing. The second time I started doing the same thing, but the guy got hit by the car and died just then.

 

LA Noire is one of my all time favorite games, and I have played it through countless of times. The above text was from my very first playthrough.