On July 17th I celebrated 13 years sober and I am in awe of my life today. Thank you to everyone in my life, you all help me everyday.

ALSO, on my 10th sober anniversary I started this blog so that means Metal Monday is now 3 years old! Wil. I know I don’t have a huge mega conglomeration of various media outlets under my empire…yet, but I want to thank everyone who reads.

Splitsie is at it again.

This time with a brand new playthrough of an Alpha build of Space Engineers 2. Giving me a look at the up coming sequel that will most definitely melt my computer when it comes out.

It’s already looking great and somehow already has mod support. Crazy ass community they’ve created over there.

The last last couple times I read Moby Dick I borrowed copies from the library. I decided, since I will read it again some day that I should get my own copy. The best part of having my own copy of a book is that I really get to feel the book. I am always very gentle with library books, for obvious reasons, but my true desire when I read is to fold the cover back, squeeze the book in my hands and bend pages to mark my place, highlight passages and write notes in the margins. I really love to devour books this way.

And for my 3rd time through Moby Dick, this is the perfect way to experience the book. I am digging so much of the foreshadowing, the mythological allusions and stylistic choices. Not to mention the multiple medium styles presented in the book. It’s also a lot easier to see just how immensely funny this book is this time around.

The main reason I started another read through is that I really want to read Charles Olson’s lit theory lodestone Call Me Ishmael from 1947. I started to read Olsen’s book but quickly realized that I needed a refresher on the subject.

Olson’s crit, from the very beginning is strange and feels surprisingly modern. It obviously is a template for how to write engaging crit. I’ll let you know what I think of it after I get done with Moby Dick.

The first Call of Duty multiplayer I ever played was Black Ops 2. The CoD franchise was already huge by that point I just never had the internet connection to play any of the multiplayers before Blops 2. Turns out, Blops 2 is considered one of the best CoD multiplayer by many of the series fans. This has lead me to an ever growing disappointment from subsequent CoDs. The multiplayer has just never been as good as as Blops 2, its just a fact.

Well, recently I’ve had the opportunity to put my money where my mouth is with the recent ports of Blops 1 and 2 for PS5. Is Blops 2 still enjoyable in 2026, after 10 years of constant Cod releases?

After playing almost 10 hours I can confidently say that, yes, Blops 2 is still the most fun multiplayer experience CoD has ever made. And it is not just nostalgia speaking. There are a lot of aspects lost by later CoD iterations that makes Blops 2 a better game.

First off, the speed of the game is balanced. The game is slower, there are limited sprints and jump shotting -through effective- is a high skill ceiling strategy as opposed to the jump-shot spam of other games. It makes the game feel more strategic and less like a crack induced sprint-die-repeat slog.

The the limited class/weapon customization is not only a huge part of the game’s balance but fewer options leads to more player fun. The pick 10 system allows for fewer moving parts to prevent players from making a truly broken class loadout so prevalent in the modern games.

Given the opportunity, players will min-max the fun out a game. The pick 10 system prevents this. Guns in Blops 2 can only have 2 attachments! It forces the player to choose! What a concept! Whether players admit it or not, its more fun to make tough calls on how to make your loadout.

Lastly, there are no skins. This is less an argument against monetization and more an argument for player readability. I usually play hardcore modes and knowing when I’m aiming at an enemy as opposed to a teammate is very important. It’s so easy to tell in this game. Factions look distinct. It’s great.

Ps. The music rules.

Though, this is most definitely the nostalgia talking.

Supposedly, these games have good single-player campaigns as well. I obviously never played Blops 1 and I didn’t touch the single-player in Blops 2 at all. Since Blops 3 however, I have played almost every Cod campaign because they are usually well made and fun. So I decided to go back and play the Blops 1 and 2 campaigns.

I’ve come to expect a certain level of rah rah fascism in their games and even full-on distortion of history for a more “The US is always a force for good” story.

But Blops 1 has the most ridiculous opening mission. First off you play as a member of a small clandestine CIA squad sent into Cuba to kill Castro. This is real history, the CIA was very inept at killing Castro, they tried to assassinate him many times. However this attempt is right at the opening salvos of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and ends with the player character killing Castro while he uses a hooker for a body shield (LOL). A NPC yells “death to Dictators” and spouts astonishment as the woman used as a body shield tries to kill your group.

“Mother fucker used her as a body shield and she still tried to kill me.” He says, flabbergasted.

Now, come to find out he was a Castro body-double (GASP!) put in place by the real, devious Castro. Did Castro have doubles? Possibly but the main use for this set up is so the the CIA can still look competent without actually completing the mission.

Another lie of this mission is that your squad is eventually backed up by American invaders from the Bay of Pigs. When in reality the invaders where mostly pinned down and captured not far from the beaches they landed on.

It’s full on American propaganda about an event 60 years ago. I couldn’t help but laugh. It’s almost camp.

I can put up with this, it’s just a dumb story for idiot dudes. I’m an idiot dude so I planned to continue my playthrough and laughing at their brazen lies. Then I got stuck in some geometry right as the game quick-saved and was hard locked from progressing. I’m never playing this game again.

The other day I became irrationally angry at the fact that most people consider Humanz to be Gorillaz worst album.

Sadly, I decided that most people are dumb.

** We Are Living in a ‘ChatGPT Flyer Pandemic’

** Folks who want the whole world in one gulp

** Jeffrey Epstein was at least aware of the concept of baseball.