I meant to blog about this newest Walkabout Mini Golf course back when it launched to the MetaQuest store, or rather, landed safely on Mars? Unfortunately, I got caught up in Diablo IV and real life, and set it aside. But here we are now—so let’s dive into the details!
Switching on the low gravity
That’s right, last month, the new Mars Gardens course hit WMG, and the VR community was all over it, as they always are with new WMG courses—because honestly, where else can you experience the full Martian mini-golf treatment for $4? (Seriously, if anyone knows, drop me a comment!) The course is a nice blend of stunning, polygon-embracing visuals (is that a nice way of putting WMG's graphic style) and intricate, challenging design. You'll immediately fall in love with all the slopes and curves that feel like some Martian cement-crafting genius put them together.
Ye' olde loop de loop . . . but on Mars!
But what really makes this course a standout is playing it in the custom low-gravity mode. The way your ball floats and drifts on those gentle slopes like it's floating through water is pretty great. In that way, the low-gravity physics really crank the difficulty up a notch. Hmm, if my body itself could experience low gravity while I played, might I be able to play better or worse? Probably worse. (Star Trek holodeck, anyone?)
Easy shot for sure . . .
As usual, you get both the regular version of the course and a harder, nighttime variant to mix it up. I haven’t tried hard mode with low gravity yet—I, mean, I’m decent at mini-golf, but I’d probably hit my stroke limit on every hole.
By the way . . . the music on this course is outstanding. Reminds me of mellow Minecraft music. It gives the whole course a really chill vibe. I think it might be one of my favorite WMG tracks yet.
Yet another easy shot . . .
As always, this game shines when played with friends. When it launched, my VR buddies from the Ruff Talk VR Discord group hopped on, and we had a blast. The course was pure fun, even though my headset ran out of power near the end (cue me scrambling to charge it while still trying to secure that sweet victory).
Oh yeah! Five under par, baby!
Hey dating crowd, I'VE GOT YOUR SCI-FI DATE PLANNED! Strap on a headset and pair a back-to-back WMG Mars Gardens and Tethys Station golf session with a classic Mars-related movie. Right? Play a few rounds, then watch The Martian, Total Recall, Mars Attacks, or maybe Red Planet. Bonus points if you hand your date a Mars Bar halfway through the movie (can you still get those?). BAM—perfect date night!
Trust me, your date will love it!
If VR isn’t your thing or you get motion sickness (or you're just an Apple user), did you know you can now play these courses on your iPhone? It’s true! I mean, I wouldn’t, because… Apple (shudders), but if you have an iPhone, dive in! It’s a great game.
I could live here. It'd be lonely in my mini-golf paradise though.
And, of course, I’m a bit late to the party (again), but you can bet I’m looking forward to the newest course that drops TOMORROW: The 8-Bit Lair! Maybe this time, I’ll get my reactions out sooner… or, you know, stick with my tradition of being $4 short and a month late.
So, first off, I've completed the story campaign of the Vessel of Hatred expansion in Diablo 4, and I’ve moved on to the endgame grind. What’s weird is that I didn’t even realize I’d finished the story until a couple of sessions later. And that left me feeling... odd.
The feeling is mutual, sir.
Apparently, I'm not alone in this. Others seem to share that anticlimactic feeling like I did. I read Belghast’s post the other day, and he was far more animated about it than I am. For me, the story just didn’t feel like enough. I expected to face Mephisto himself, not just his shard. But looking at it now, I figure we’re being set up for something bigger—maybe a future release or seasonal goal where we get the full Mephisto battle.
*sings* Here's . . . where . . . the story ends
What really stood out more than the story was the pacing of progression in the new expansion. I was leveling up like crazy—two or three times after finishing some quests. It felt great, but the cynic in me wonders if maybe the story got trimmed down somewhere, leaving us with a more straight-to-the-point narrative.
After finishing the story, Ormus from the Nahantu Council sent me into the grind—endgame dungeons and events to gain the trust of his people. Looking back, I thought I was gearing up for one final, epic battle that would test my build before earning my way into the higher Torment levels. But nope, it was more like, “Hey, congrats, you’re done!” No big test. No final boss fight. Meh.
Ormus likes to talk in third person
But on the upside, I stumbled into a pretty fun S-tier Spiritborn build. I’m running the Infinite Eagle Evade build, and it’s wild. You grab a unique staff (Sepazontec), and suddenly, every time you evade, you’re shooting out thunder-spikes and storm eagle feathers. And you can spam this indefinitely. So basically, I’m just endlessly cartwheeling around enemies, turning everything into a feather-filled storm of pain. It’s ridiculous and fun in the best of broken ways.
I do cartwheels, everyone dies . . .
Now that I’m past the story and into the grind, I’m not sure how long I’ll stick with this character. But for now, I’ll keep cartwheeling my way through Sanctuary. Maybe something exciting will shake things up.
Well, I can officially say I played Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred on opening day! My buddy, Dylan, and I made it to level 22 before he had to get his son from work and I had to get my son from Band Practice. Plus, to be honest, I was getting pretty sleepy at the end there.
Lafonda and Stingite . . . ready for Spiritborn awesomeness
We both decided to play the new class and go as bit purist with them. I'm playing a full poison-based Spiritborn and he went full fire-based Spiritborn. I don't know if we'll keep going that direction, but it's been pretty good so far for us. As it should be. We're only playing normal difficulty and just taking it easy and enjoying the story.
Poisoning everything around me
So far my favorite moments are those involving my giant poison centipede jumping out of the ground and spitting on everything. It's an epic-looking moment where minor enemies are executed on the spot, which feels super powerful . . . at least for now. Best of all, one of the abilities I use is named Stinger, which goes perfectly with my Stingite handle.
Speaking of this incarnation of "Stingite," I'm like half supermodel, half Aztecan warrior, and I'm here for the love affair.
So hawt
My only disappointment so far is that Dylan and I haven't established a role-playing accent to go along with our characters! The pure genius of our southern gentlemen, Montgomery and Leufroy, will probably never be topped.
I hope to talk a bit more about our adventures as we have them! So far, it's a thumbs up from me.
TLDR: My Blaugust wish has finally come true! As of this post, I've sold my house and bought a new one. WHEW. I can't tell you what a huge weight off of my shoulders it is to have this finished and over with. Seriously, what a crazy year it has been for me and my family!
If you're interested, sit back and let me just breakdown the timeline for you
~~
January 2024:
WIMO shuts down and all employees (including me) lose our jobs. They give us one month of severance pay. For the first time in 26 years, I had to start interviewing for jobs . . all the rules for resumes and interviews had changed. I began to lose weight and went through a pretty hard time resolving it all in my mind -- I did nothing wrong, it wasn't my fault, and I didn't know the future would hold this struggle.
I don't know if it was the stress or just bad timing, but I also ended up in the hospital from a kidney stone that resulted in an equally painful ER bill to pay.
Rocky sent me to the ER
~~
February 2024:
In a flurry of activity, I do everything I can to cut our expenses and get paperwork started so we can collect that $1000 a month in unemployment. Our family steps up, and a couple of personal angels step in with gifts of money for us so we can keep our family of five (and 2 cats) going.
I'm also attending a special class in the morning where we network for jobs, practice a 30-second introduction, and work on our resumes and cover letters. It's a free church-based opportunity, but actually it's really helpful and sets a good tone for my days.
I'm praying more than I've ever prayed and people are being very kind -- there are so many people I have already thanked in person for their kindness. I'm super humbled. My church is picking up the tab for our groceries. I'm in full survival mode.
gotta look the part with a fresh cut
~~
March 2024:
I've been submitting resumes like crazy with no response on anything. I apply for a Coursera scholarship through Rising Tides Ministry and start investigating Project Management. Lo and behold, a Project Management position becomes available at my old company back in Utah. I apply and get the job.
My father-in-law buys me a used car so I can drive to Utah and use it to get back and forth to work. I'm once again humbled and grateful to have such amazing family support.
My oldest gets married, and we plan an affordable but sweet wedding at our house.
the happy couple!
~~
April 2024:
My sister clears a pathway in my mom's house so I can stay there in Brigham City. I had always thought I could somehow stay there and work remote a couple weeks during the year, maybe I can clean the place up! I arrive in Utah by myself, get internet installed at my mom's, and I start work at my new job.
In Texas, we get our house on the market and . . . nothing . . . it's not selling and we're not even getting walkthroughs. We discover that it's a really bad time to sell a house in Pflugerville with an inundated market that has a 5+ month backlog of houses to sell.
Later in the month my good friend and real estate agent, Chrissy, walks through my mom's house in Utah. I've managed to make a small dent on cleaning and dejunking, but it's still bad in there and super overwhelming. She tells me that the mold in the house is dangerous and that I shouldn't be living there. She offers to let me move into her basement. I accept. Again, another miracle
Here's to driving 1000 miles away from my family!
~~
May 2024:
By some other miracle, my mom had never sold her house, even though she had been in a retirement community for 11 years. She had been dutifully paying someone to maintain her gardens and lawn, and my sister had been dealing with everything from leaks to other troubles that come from abandoning a house. It was full of junk that my mom didn't want anymore, save for a few precious things.
With Chrissy's help, we get an estimate for repairs on the house and my mom agrees to them. Meanwhile we start going through the house after hours and over the weekends trying to salvage those few precious things my mom wants.
The fixit crew comes in and cleans out all the junk and does a great bang-for-your buck renovation to her house.
We keep lowering the price on our house in Texas, but no luck
I started going to therapy during this month because it all had become a little too much for me to handle. I hadn't really had a solid night's sleep since January because of all the stress and being alone and separated from my family. I needed to get it all out. Of all the things my therapist helped me with, the most valuable was probably just the assurance that I was doing everything right for me and my family. I was doing my best given the situation.
A salvaged memory for myself lol
~~
June 2024:
School ends for my family and we pack up all our stuff and move the entire family out of the Texas house and to my mom's newly dejunked and renovated home . . . the same one I grew up in back in Brigham City.
My oldest heads to England to spend a month with their wife.
Back in Good ol' Brigham City
~~
July 2024:
My house just isn't selling in Texas. By this time we decide the best move is to take out a $20k loan and fix up the carpets, light fixtures, paint, and other small things around the house in Texas. We secure the loan and do just that.
Everything else is just working . . . we're staying in my mom's house in Brigham and making it work. All she's charging us is the cost of utilities to stay there. The commute to work is a killer though.
My oldest gets accepted to WSU and gets a job at Petco. Thankful for small victories!
Exploring the Brigham Mountains
~~
August 2024:
Even after renovations to our house in Texas, we just aren't getting anyone into our house to look at it so we do a big drop in price.
My wife gets a job teaching Head Start and we start getting that second source of income going, which is nice and needed, especially since I took a sizeable cut in pay.
We finally secure a contingency contract on a house, and between the contingency contract and my wife working in the right school district, it's enough to get my youngest playing in the high school marching band, which is exactly where we want him. Another miracle
Go Mellophone players!
~~
September 2024:
About halfway through the month, we get a surprise offer on our house . . . it's a cash offer that's a lowball below our already dropped price point along with asking us to pay off the $30k solar panels on the house. After six months of suffering, we take the deal. It's not great, but still doable, and so we make it happen.
Meanwhile we start to work out all the details on our house in Utah, and it turns out to be a match made in heaven. We sign on the house.
By the end of the month, I've sold our house in Texas and bought a home in Utah . . . the pains of it all have finally ended and now, it's time to move in.
Time to take the key to my new place!
~~
October 2024:
Here we are. I finally have a moment yesterday where I sit back in my office in my new home, that to be honest I'm unsure I'm going to be able to afford, and I have a zen moment where I feel "at home."
I don't know if the five people that read to the end of my long post here believe in miracles and blessings, destiny, or whatever, but I feel like I've been through the fire and came out on the other end a bit more humbled, a bit more empathetic, and definitely a lot more grateful to have so much support.
In the end, my story is just one from an epic list of stories of the effects from layoffs and studio closures that happened this year. Sadly, I have friends from WIMO that are still looking for jobs. It's been a rough year, and I've done what I can to make it all work. I couldn't have done it without all the support . . . or rather, I could have done it, but it would have been a lot worse on me and my family, financially and emotionally than it was.
All that's left is to get my middle son a job and build up some money so he can get back in college.
thanks for reading, and now in the words of New Order's song Regret, which turned into my theme song the past month:
I would like a place I could call my own Have a conversation on the telephone Wake up every day that would be a start I would not complain of my wounded heart
I was upset you see Almost all the time You used to be a stranger Now you are mine
