Words On Wednesday

After 80 hours of playing and almost 7 months, I finally got the platinum trophy on Final Fantasy XV. I enjoyed FFXV enough that getting the platinum trophy was extremely likely, if not inevitable. Most PS4 games that I start playing, I at least look over the trophy list. If they all seem reasonably easy, I’ll go for platinum. Just a few hours into FFXV, I noticed that the platinum shouldn’t be too hard, and it honestly wasn’t. A little time consuming, sure, but not painfully difficult. The main campaign took me right at 50 hours, at which point I’d already hit most of the highlights. All I had left was to gather the rest of the royal arms, grind out the remaining character skills, and kill the Adamantoise, mostly. Collectively, a bit, but individually, none of them were very taxing. Getting Noctis’s fishing skill to level 10 was probably the most frustrating. Fishing, as a mechanic, is fairly well implemented in FFXV. It’s just not something I care to do, especially as much...

Some merchants allow customers to receive digital receipts via email. Why can’t everyone? The Benefits of Digital Receipts Toys R Us is a surprisingly tech-savvy store chain. They allow NFC tap and pay, and you can even have receipts sent to your inbox instead of getting a paper copy. For me, this is amazing. First and foremost, it gives me something that I’m far less likely to lose. If I get a paper receipt, I usually just throw it in the bag with my merchandise. For items that I may need to return, I’ll put the receipt in my wallet. Either way, it usually gets lost or thrown away within a day or two. By opting for an email, I have a semi-permanent record of my purchase that I can’t exactly lose, and I can even search my email for later. Unless I delete the email, which I rarely delete emails, I have records of basically any purchase I’ve made at Toys R Us within the past few years. In addition to giving me a digital record of my purchase that I can easily find later, email re...

For quite a few years, I have collected shot glasses. Some people collect snow globes, some collect baseball cards, I collect shot glasses. How did I get started collecting shot glasses? Honestly, I can’t really remember. I probably picked up one from some tourist destination because it looked cool, rinse and repeat a few times, suddenly I’ve got a good many of them and it’s just become my “thing.” I’ve been collecting them at least since middle school, as I have a few from my 8th grade trip to Washington, D.C. Collecting shot glasses has its perks. For one, it makes souvenirs super easy. If someone tells me they’re going on a trip and want to bring me something back, I always ask for a shot glass. No need to shop around and find something they think I’ll like. If they pick up a shot glass, we can both know for certain that I’ll like it. Plus, they’re typically cheaper than other souvenir items like shirts and towels. One facet of my collection that is missing, however, is some ...

I grew up playing Pokemon. Starting with Pokemon Blue Version in gen 1, I’ve played a Pokemon game from almost every generation released to date. However, the most fun I’ve had in any Pokemon game was doing cooperative double battles in the Battle Tower of Pokemon HeartGold. HeartGold came out when I was a freshman in college, and I preordered it to pick up on release day. Generation 2 was always my favorite, with two full regions and a lot of my favorite Pokemon. Obviously, I was super excited for a remake of that generation. I played through the game like normal, finished all 16 gyms, beat the Elite Four, and took down Red at the top of Mt. Silver. I figured after that, I was done. My roommate at the time got SoulSilver, and he taught me about Effort Values, Inherited Values, and the Battle Tower. The main story of Pokemon was only the beginning. The real game starts once you can access the Battle Tower and breed up some powerful Pokemon. I felt like such a noob, but it was fant...