No recordable footage to be had this time around, nothing worth even including any affiliate links to products I’ve used.

Instead, I’ll simply repeat the title: I caved.

See, Oculus Quest (and so many others) was having a Halloween sale. And I bought stuff. Stuff I probably wouldn’t have bought had it been full price, even though “full price” wasn’t necessarily much more expensive than the sale price.

Namely, I bought Synth Riders (which, after playing the tutorial, looks like it might be even more of a workout than even Beat Saber once I really get into it), I’m leaning towards buying Uprising for it (as the only DLC song I spotted that I’m actually familiar with, courtesy of having first heard it during the previews for the 2009 reboot of V) amid whatever songs I use to experiment with its custom ability, and…. I bought FNAF Help Wanted.

I kept dithering about that last one before I finally decided that, since I already have a few horror games that I paid $10 apiece for, my real objection to paying the full $30 (40 if I buy the Dreadbear DLC) was paying that much all at once for a genre that’s low in my list of interests. But eventually I accepted that, content-wise, I’d really be buying a few games all at once, so how is any different if I’m willing to give it a try? Now I just need to avoid caving in to a certain someone’s demands that I play it when he wants me to–I’d like to at least have the option to record my reactions, maybe even track how it affects my heart rate–and while he’s had me watch him often enough that I won’t truly be going into this as a “new player” with no idea what to expect, if I do end up recording I’d like to authentically play it as close to that role as possible.

Kinda wish I’d bought Paper Beast while Steam was having their sale. I had to fight, while typing out this post, to get over the “only buy things on sale even though full price isn’t much higher” and finally convinced myself to just buy it now rather than putting it off again in the hopes that it’ll go on sale again someday maybe.

(Though for sake of merely trying different ways to connect my Quest to PC, it occurs to me that I already have multiple VR games to choose from, most of them Indie, free, and acquired because I admired the graphics as portrayed by the assorted app pages. As well as Skryim VR, which I bought before I even had a means to play VR, because I planned to eventually have that option and because hello! it’s Skyrim!)

And then the final thing I caved on was buying a new foam padding for my Quest. The “guest” in the house just got himself a Quest 2, and while helping him to set it up he had me try it on for a few minutes. Not “try it on to make me jealous” from my side of things (though given his tendency towards bragging, I wouldn’t put it past him to see it that way) but so I could see the screen long enough to connect it to the computer so I could watch him play.

And while I’d never before noticed that the pad on my original Quest was uncomortable, I noticed a considerable difference in the feel between that and the padding on his Quest 2. After looking through the paperwork I found what kind it it uses and did a little digging to find one made for my own model; once I get the VR Cover brand one I ordered from Amazon, I’ll also get to see if the advertised difference in pressure makes any difference to my tendency towards collecting red marks. And maybe one of these days I’ll also figure out how to get this halo-esque strap attached!

In other news, I’m still on the lookout for a riser (or riser and monitor arm) that will get me some additional airflow for my computer with needing to plug in more stuff. While I need a new computer, getting the current one to not need to blow the fan so loud and so often when I’m gaming is at least the cheaper option, if not a suitable long-term option.

And finally, the one sort of exercise game I did make progress on, Zombies Run!

Unlike the “5k per day” I was anticipating due to my progress with the 10K episodes, I’ve managed to finish the full 20K (ish) of Jeffro Complex in only three outings.

That leaves the New Canton 20K and (checks app) 5 normal missions if I hope to finish out the season before the weather keeps me off the road like it did back in February. After that, maybe I’ll rerun the New Adventure “Negative Space” at least once (five bodyweight episodes, two “running”), since I’m absolutely certain I’d seen a notification or blog post (that I can no longer locate) saying that SixtoStart has begun adding story-themed supplies to the NA stories that you could collect for Abel. I’m trying to find a list of all available supplies, though, just so I can tell if I’m missing anything.