I waited for Forza Motorsport to come out on Xbox Gamepass. I resisted the urge to pay for early access and I'm glad I did. I have mixed feelings about this game. Anyway, I'll talk about those in a separate game log post. For now, here are some screenshots from the game.

You are given three cars to pick from at the start of the game. I chose to go with the Subaru STI S209.

Been awhile since I played Minecraft with my kids. A few days ago, my son found his Minecraft “Guide to Farming” book once again and he wanted to try out the ideas in the book. So we fired up the game and built some small farms in Creative Mode. We got to enjoy the sunrise in the game as well. (Note that I'm using a texture pack here, I think it was called “Full Of Life”, or something like that.)

The Subaru WRX is my choice for checking out barn finds in Forza Horizon 5. It has All-wheel Drive, which is great when you need to get off-road. And since it is not an SUV, it still retains great driving dynamics on the road. It is also the closest I can get to a Mazdaspeed3, since they no longer allow you to own and drive one in the game.

Prior to getting a WRX in the game, I was actually driving around a Durango SRT to check out barn finds. Not a bad vehicle, but I like the WRX better specially when cornering.

Out for a drive in the Subaru WRX to check out a barn find.

I started playing Minecraft with my eldest son at his request. I previously played it solo before and never really got into it. But playing split-screen co-op with my son, is a totally different experience. I underestimated how much fun it can be playing it with your kids.

This is a look at the entrance to our first shelter in the game. This world we are playing in, was created a year or two ago, when I first played the game solo. This shelter was previously just made up of dirt blocks for walls and a fence gate for a door. When I had my son join me in the game, we found out how fragile our shelter was against Creeper explosions. So our first mission was to upgrade our shelter to be more sturdy. So we mined some Cobblestones, figured out how to turn it into Stone and upgraded our shelter with Stone walls and a Wooden door. Apparently in higher difficulty, Zombies can break down a Wooden door, but we were playing in “Easy” difficulty, so that's not an issue.

The beautiful night sky in Skyrim. Not sure why I never noticed this before. Probably shows how much of a Skyrim noob I am. But anyway, I was making the trek to Ivarstead when I looked up and was amazed at what I saw. So amazing that at one point I didn't notice a pack of wolves bearing down on me while I kept looking up 😄

I'm feeling the excitement for the start of a new Premier League season. So, here are some video game screenshots from PES 2021 to go along with it.

PES 2021 is probably the best looking football video game I've ever played. And when I say that, I mean both in terms of graphics and player animations.

And the ball. You have got to see how the ball moves in this game. I played FIFA 22 for a bit by the way, just to see what I'm missing. The ball physics in FIFA 22 just doesn't compare to what you get in PES 2021. The ball physics in PES 2021 makes the ball one of the stars of the show. It makes it move and bounce in a scarily realistic manner. The ball physics is definitely one of the best features in PES 2021.

These screenshots by the way were taken during my 2023-2024 Master League season. I play Manchester United and have new players in the team (in case you wonder why I have Manolas and Marquinhos on my team). I'll explain more about the lineup changes I've made in a future game log.

Manchester United's stadium is rendered beautifully in the game

Pregame cinematic – A game against Arsenal, which is one of the licensed teams in the game. I mention “licensed teams” because...

Couple more shots of the Mazda FC RX-7 in Forza Horizon. This time the screenshots were taken as the sun went down in the game. It's amazing how far we've come in racing video games. We used to only have static weather during game play. Now we have dynamic weather and even the passage of time in a racing game. Coming from the 8-bit racing games I used to play when I was a kid, today's games are pretty awesome!