Monday, January 27, 2014

Denver Food Adventure: Karl's Deli



Went to Karl's Deli (no web page to link to) and tried their pastrami sandwich. The pastrami was pretty good, the lettuce, onion, and tomato was fresh, and the sourdough bread was good. This sandwich, however, costs $9. And no, I didn't go for an expensive sandwich, as their cheapest was $8. Sorry Karl, it's a good sandwich, but it's not worth $9.

Friday, January 24, 2014

Games That Surprised Me In 2013

This isn't a list of games that came out in 2013, but games I played in 2013. Games in which I was surprised at just how good they were.


Intrusion 2

Fighting giant robotic snakes? Oh yeah!


Picked this up in a Humble Bundle. Hadn't heard of it before, and the video I saw for it didn't terribly impress me. But as I played it I started to have a lot of fun. But once I started sliding down a snowy mountain, sledding on a piece of wreckage from the mecha jet I just destroyed, all while trying to fight giant robotic snakes that are falling down from the sky, I knew this game was awesome! The game itself is much like Contra: pick up different weapons and ammo, and shoot enemies in any direction you can point your mouse in. There's also a few different things you can ride at times. The most fun though are the larger-than-life bosses. Their design, animations, and attack patterns are the sort of over-the-top fun I love.


Thomas Was Alone

Simple, yet beautiful

Another game I picked up from a Humble Bundle. You're a block in a blocky world, making your way to the other end of the level. This alone isn't that exciting, but what made this an amazing experience was the narrator. With his wonderful voice, the emotion he puts into his lines, and the script, these simple blocks become living characters that you gain an emotional connection to. I was greatly invested in the outcome of these characters, excited to hear each and every line the narrator delivered.
For a platformer with simple blocks, this game was surprisingly fantastic.


Legend of Grimrock

Protect me, gate I could squeeze through!

Do I even need to tell you that I got this from a Humble Bundle? Wait, I just did....
Most of the RPGs I play are JRPGs, where characters and stories are the driving factor to the game's progression. The only story in Legend of Grimrock is that you're some prisoners that were thrown into this dungeon. You make your own characters, which have no background story, no lines of dialogue, not even an explanation for what you did to get yourself thrown into Grimrock. So it's surprising to me that I still enjoy this game, finding myself coming up with imagined conversations between my four characters.
The battle mechanic is very interesting, as all four of your characters are in a square formation, and to fight you just have to click on their hands when near a monster.
There's also a lot of secret passages and hidden doors in this dungeon, so I end up looking closely at every...single...wall. And still it's loads of fun.


Dust: an Elysian Tail


Actually bought this one off Steam when it was cheap. Initially heard of it because the awesome Chris Niosi did the voice of a small character. The promotional video for it looked cool, so I gave it a try. One thing I was surprised at was that every line of dialogue is voiced, and voiced well. The story itself is actually kind of cliche, but the characters themselves are great. Fidget, as seen above, has a lot of lines that just makes me smile. And the artwork is simply beautiful! And the battle mechanics are loads of fun as well. Not a very long game, but a great one nonetheless.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Denver Food Adventure: My Favorite Muffin

I've been going to this place several times now, and I love it. It's like going to a doughnut store, but for muffins!

Taken by MattGoswick, or so says Google


There's a lot to choose from, but so far I've tried the apple pie, cranberry orange, cherry cheesecake, and peach muffins. The cherry cheesecake is my favorite muffin so far. It's pretty much a slice of cheesecake with cherry pie filling on top, in muffin form. Mmmmmm...I may or may not be drooling right now....

They also have some bagels, which can be made into breakfast sandwiches. They're pretty good as well, better than what I tried from Einstein Bagels (sorry Einstein Bagels, that's just not what an onion bagel, or a sausage patty, should taste like).

My Favorite Muffin will be getting my patronage for the foreseeable future.

Denver Food Adventure: Jump Start Burrito

I love breakfast burritos. So I was looking forward to trying out Jump Start Burrito, but was sadly disappointed. It had the things I like: eggs, potatoes, cheese, and sausage. It also had some green chiles. They offered some sort of sauce to be added, but my logic is that if something doesn't taste good as-is, then it won't taste good by spending money on extras.

So what was bad about it? Unfortunately I don't have the skills to properly say why. The taste was just not that interesting. I would describe it as a "meh." One obvious thing though was that the tortilla was dry, with a part of it crunchy even. Tortillas shouldn't be dried out.

So far my favorite breakfast burritos are the ones from Sonic.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Denver Food Adventure: Juicy Burgers and Dogs

New city, new adventures in food. Here we go...

Promo picture. In other words, what the food vaguely looks like.


Juicy Burgers and Dogs: A burger joint that only has one location, the ideal place for me to check out. When I first went there I just got the Chicago Dog, which happens to also be their cheapest thing (if you exclude drinks and sides). It was good. It tasted just as I expected a Chicago dog to taste like. My only beef with this was...its lack of beef. It was probably the skinniest hot dog I've ever seen.

The second time I went there I got the "Cheddar Char Burger" and onion rings. I think it was good, but I can't quite remember. Why can't I remember? Because what I do remember was HOLY COW THIS THING IS LITERALLY DRIPPING WITH FAT!!!

Photo from Yelp by someone called Lori P.

It was likely the fattiest burger I've ever eaten. If I ever get a clogged artery I'll probably blame it on that one burger. Plus I forgot to ask them to cook it "well done", so some of the meat was pink and I couldn't help but wonder if I was going to get some sort of deadly disease while eating it. Then again I'm still perfectly alive. To their credit, though, it was indeed a juicy burger. Oh, and the onion rings were fine.