Why I Quit Duolingo

My longest streak on Duolingo ends here. Find out why I've decided to sever ties with the language-learning app, and why it's for the best.

Believe it or not, I'm okay with learning another language. That was how I had discovered Duolingo, because I wanted to learn a different language. 

However, its in-your-face gamification - the weekly challenges, and trying to raise your XPs (or points earned from completing lessons) - has become repetitive. It's an addiction that keeps you trying to outshine other users. It becomes a game of who can earn the most points in learning a language, rather than its initial purpose of helping people learn a language.

My Experience

Using this app, I was dabbling in a few different languages, including:

• Spanish
• Dutch
• Hebrew
• Korean
• Latin

However, I found myself spending more time with the Dutch language (You'll notice that part of my name "vrouw" means "woman" in Dutch).

Unfortunately, my experience eventually went downhill when I saw that the constant need to rank high in the so-called "Leagues" each week was growing on me. I didn't like it. It was tiresome, repetitive, and not wholesome in the least. Rather than growing in my learning, I was addicted to the gamification that the app had to offer. That's not why I had come to the app in the first place. I wanted to learn a different language.

Calling It Quits

So, one day, after hitting Day 1,142 on the app, I decided that enough was enough. I made the conscious decision to uninstall the app from my Android phone. Upon seeing the "Uninstalling" message on my phone, it felt like a weight was lifted from my chest. That obligation of keeping up with the app daily was gone. 

Post-Duolingo

So, what comes next? 

Well, there are other ways to learn another language. In fact, there are alternatives to Duolingo like Babbel, which I might check out later. Plus, there are other resources like books, shows, and other types of media. While consistency is key when learning a new language, it's still important to keep in mind why you're learning a new language. You don't want to turn it into a game of who can score more points learning a language. Otherwise, the lessons you'll learn will go in one ear and out the other.

YouTube's Video Playback Settings: How To Turn Them On And Off (With Pictures)

Ever wondered how you can prevent videos from playing back when you don't want them to? Check out this simple guide!

Source: YouTube

YouTube has many videos to choose from. But have you ever found it annoying for some videos to play automatically as you browse through the site? Or just don't want to get confused by videos playing automatically?

Good news! You can turn playbacks on and off! Here's how:

On Desktop

To turn playbacks on and off on desktop:

• Go to the top right-hand corner of the YouTube homepage.
• Click on your profile picture (the circle). This will produce a drop menu.
• In the drop menu, click on "Settings."

• On the left side of your screen, look for "Playback and Performance," and click on it.

• Scroll down, and you'll find the text "Browsing." Next to it, you'll see a little switch along with the label "Inline Playback." Here, you can switch it on and off.

On Smartphones

To turn playbacks on and off in the YouTube app on smartphones:

• Repeat the first three steps that you would do on the desktop version.
• Next, tap "General."
• Then, tap "Playback in Feed."
• From there, you'll have the option of leaving playbacks on, turning them off, or having them on when you're somewhere with Wi-Fi.

On Tablets

Unfortunately, the tablet version (e.g. iOS) of the YouTube app does not give you the ability to turn playbacks on and off. Whether that feature will be added in a future update or not is uncertain.

So, there you have it! 

Playbacks don't have to be a burden when browsing YouTube. Remember: You have the power to enjoy YouTube however you like. 

Have fun!

Fortnite: Damaging Players With Clingers!

Want to learn how to take out opponents with clingers on Fortnite? This guide will show you the tips and tricks of using the recently unvaulted clingers!

Source: Epic Games

A clinger is just one of many items that you’ll come across on Fortnite. Clingers are destructive no matter who or what they come into contact with. That means, when used correctly, you can use them to get closer to a Victory Royale!

Finding Clingers In Fortnite

First, you’ll need to find some clingers. 

Like any other items and weapons in Fortnite, clingers can be found either lying around on the island, or you can find them inside chests. Plus, like any item or weapon, it's first come first serve.

Once you find a clinger and place it into your inventory, it’ll give you three rounds. 

Just keep in mind: You’re only allowed to carry two clingers which give you six rounds. So, be sure to plan your inventory accordingly.

Using Clingers

Using the clinger is similar to how you use firefly jars and grenades. You aim at a target and then throw it. A blue line will show you where the clinger will most likely land; so, be sure to use that line for accuracy.

Now, throwing the clinger at your targets can be tricky, seeing that other players will have weapons of their own (especially guns), and will want to take you down first. So, make sure that you’re quick in aiming and throwing the clinger at your opponent. Once the clinger has successfully landed on your opponent, it won’t be long before they get hit with a rude awakening. 

Here’s a video of how it’s done right:

Source: Kanga (YouTube)

Tips and Tricks!

Can’t get close enough to where you have a clear shot at your opponent? No problem! Here are some tips and tricks on how to make the best out of using a clinger in Fortnite:

1. Find Civilization

Believe it or not, there is much opportunity in a town or establishment. Plus, you might find some "camper" opponents in some of the buildings. 

Aim the clinger at the object (e.g., a house, a gas station, etc.), and let destruction handle the rest. While that method won’t take out your opponent entirely, it’ll still knock out some of their health. 

2. Fight Fire With Fire!

Or, chances are, opponents might be near something like a gas pump, a gas tank, or anything flammable. If you see any of these nearby along with the opponent, aim your clinger at those for an even more destructive takedown! You’ll find plenty of these in a town setting or some other form of civilization on the island.

All in all, the clinger allows you to be creative in how you use it. If one way doesn’t seem possible, then it allows you to improvise. Once you establish your own techniques for the clinger, it’ll be one of the most prized weapons in your inventory!

Rainbow Six Siege - 1st Live Stream!

Check out my 1st live stream on Rainbow Six Siege!

Rainbow Six Siege: Extract Hostage BASICS (PS4)

Today I give you my first commentary on Rainbow Six Siege on the PS4. ENJOY, allemaal (everyone)!

SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE VIDEOS!

1st Commentary on Rainbow Six Siege COMING SOON!

 

Tune in to my YouTube channel, as I start making commentary videos on Rainbow Six Siege!

SEE YOU SOON! : )

Confessions of a Budget Gamer

 Hoi, allemaal! Ik ben de gamer_vrouw! (Hi, everyone! I'm the gamer_vrouw!)

Budget gaming. It's a phrase that really speaks to me. 

From my understanding, budget gaming refers to being a gamer and not having enough money to buy the most expensive gaming merch, consoles, and games. In that case, budget gaming has you waiting for game and console prices to go down (go on clearance, or be on sale), so that you can actually buy them.

I'll put this into more perspective:

Throughout my life, I found myself "waiting" to get consoles and games that I've wanted.

• The PlayStation 2 came out in 2000, I believe. I didn't get my hands on it until 2016 for Christmas.
• The Nintendo Switch came out in 2017. I didn't get my own Switch until summer of 2020.
• The Playstation 4 came out in 2013. I didn't get my own PS4 until spring of 2021.

So, in the recent years (between 2016 and today), was it worth the wait?

Well, sort of. 

Saving for games and consoles was nothing new, when I was growing up. My parents did their best to provide for me - they would pay bills, work, and put food on the table. And, I was careful with what I wanted for birthdays and Christmas; so, if I wanted a game or console, it had to be something reasonable in price. Luckily, Christmas of 2006, I was fortunate enough to get a Nintendo Gamecube from family. (Needless to say, I was pretty content with a Gamecube.) Plus, the Nintendo DS was often good on the wallet (whether I've saved up for it, or if it was given to me by relatives).

In hindsight, being a budget gamer taught me to save money for things. In the three scenarios mentioned, I had to work and save my own money to get the games and consoles that I've wanted for so long. In 2016, I was unemployed; but I've managed to find a PS2 online that was cheap and in great condition, along with a good video game for it. In 2020, I started working as a remote freelance writer, and I had eventually saved enough money for a Nintendo Switch (despite the console shortage that happened during COVID-19). And, early this year, I was able to save money on a PS4 and a game for it.

As for the Playstation 5, well, prices are still outrageous, especially with the darn scalpers online trying to sell the console for $1,000 or more! It hasn't been a year yet, and the PS5 is still expensive, due to the shortage of consoles. Wow! First, the Nintendo Switch, and now the PS5 experiencing shortages? Funny!

Now, I'm not rushing to get a PS5, mainly because my PS4 already done a lot for me. I can still play a lot of games on it; so, I'm good. Plus, this vrouw isn't going to spend over $1,000 for a friggin' console. Seriously...

But anyway, this post reserves as a testament of how budget gaming doesn't have to be a curse. It's all in good faith, and it's actually made me be wiser about my money. Hopefully, the gaming industry will get it together and make games and consoles budget-friendly.

Until next time...

Ik ben de gamer_vrouw! (I am the gamer_vrouw!)

Dag! (Bye!)

Rainbow Six Siege - CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF THIS GAME!!!

 Hoi, allemaal! Ik ben de gamer_vrouw! (Hi, everyone! I'm the gamer_vrouw!)

Source: Ubisoft

Rainbow Six Siege is something to behold, especially on the Playstation 4. In fact, I'm playing this game pretty much every single day!

The premise?

Source: Ubisoft

The game follows a team of operators that thwart the operations of a secret terroristic organization. Similar to other 1st-person shooter games like Modern Warfare and Call of Duty, you can fight the bad guys solo, or team up with other players online to do so.

Source: Ubisoft

You play as different characters (or what they call "Operators). Each operator has their own abilities, weapons, and accolades. The operators are divided into two groups: Attackers and Defenders.

• Attackers are operators that go into combat with enemy attackers, whether you're eliminating them, rescuing a hostage, or disabling a bomb.
• Defenders are operators that protect a hostage from waves and waves of enemies.

So far, the Attackers I'm currently using are Ash, Thermite, Thatcher, and Sledge. (Well, I really like Thermite and Sledge, because their weapons and grenades are very useful.) As for Defenders, I currently have Smoke - he's my only Defender so far in the game (and there's a reason for that).

Source: Ubisoft

Now, the game has various modes, especially in the tutorial section of the game (which helped me a lot when I had first started playing this game). However, the available modes are the following:

• Elimination - Where you eliminate enemy shooters
• Extract Hostage - Enter an establishment (i.e., a house, a building, etc.) to rescue a hostage from the enemies, and take them to the extraction point
• Disarm Bomb - Enter a place and disarm a bomb while enemies are coming at you
• Defend Hostage - Stay with a hostage inside a room, and try your best to barricade the place and defend the hostage from waves and waves of enemies

Of all the above scenarios, I found myself mostly great at the Elimination and Extract Hostage solo matches. Though, being good at the Extract Hostage scenario was a surprise to me, because I never thought that I would be great at that to begin with. I honestly thought I would be the worst hostage rescuer ever - but I've somehow won more solo matches in that mode than Elimination mode! (Can you imagine!)

(20 enemies in that solo match!)

(22 enemies, in this solo match!)

As for the other two modes, Disarm Bomb and Defend Hostage, those are my weak points. In fact, the way I see it, those two modes are best played with a team, rather than play them solo. In that way, you'll have more than one pair of eyes, as you get ready for enemies to come after you in the game. (But more power to those who have actually won solo matches in Disarm Bomb and Defend Hostage modes!)

So, it's been nearly a month since I've started playing this game, and it's so addicting! I started playing this game on my birthday this past June, and it's amazing to see how great I've gotten at Rainbow Six!

And guess what? I heard that Rainbow Six Extraction is coming soon: January 2022, I believe. I can't wait to check that out soon!

Anyway, back to Rainbow Six!

Until next time, ik ben de gamer_vrouw! (...I am the gamer_vrouw!)

Dag! (Bye!)

"The House of the Dead" Remake Coming to the Switch!

 Hoi, allemaal! Ik ben de gamer_vrouw! (Hi, everyone! I'm the gamer_vrouw!)

Courtesy: Forever Entertainment/Nintendo

Back in the day (Yes, I'm actually saying that, because I'm not a kid anymore), I would visit the arcade section of the Mayan Palace 14 movie theater. I remember playing many arcade games, including the 1996 first-person shooter The House of the Dead.

I remember spending so many quarters playing that game - I even went as far as getting past the first two monster bosses! (How many quarters was that? I don't know. LOL!)

Anyway, The House of the Dead was one of many nostalgic games that I've played in my youth. However, most recently (yesterday, April 14, 2021), I learned that the game was being remade for the Nintendo Switch - or, as IGN puts it a "zombie facelift."

Courtesy: IGN

I watched the minute-long trailer, and I was amazed. Not only was I amazed, but a flood of nostalgia took over. Those days of feeding quarters into an arcade machine, reloading the attached gun by shooting outside of the game's TV screen, and taking on waves and waves of monsters and zombies …

So, now that I've seen the trailer to the remake, there are many questions that I have so far:

1. Will players have to use the Joy-Cons (the Switch controllers) to simulate the game's traditional gun peripherals, and have them aim the Joy-Cons outside of the screen to reload?
2. When should we expect this remake? (Release date?)
3. When can consumers pre-order the game (at the very least)?

Now, neither Nintendo or Forever Entertainment has announced a release date, other than posting that the game will be released sometime in 2021. But I'm hoping that The House of the Dead Remake is well-polished and bug-free before its release, so that fans like myself are happy for the anticipation. (Besides, we don't want another Cyberpunk 2077 incident.)

But until then ...

Ik ben de gamer_vrouw! (I'm the gamer_vrouw!)

Dag! (Bye!)

Immortals Fenyx Rising - Gods and Monsters in An Open-World Game

Courtesy: Ubisoft

It's thanks to my finally buying a PS4 that this blog post on Immortals Fenyx Rising exists!

Hoi, allemaal! Ik ben de gamer_vrouw! (Hi, everyone! I'm the gamer_vrouw!)

First and foremost, I had managed to get a Playstation 4, so that I can play more video games (besides Nintendo Switch and PC). While I have created a list of games to try on the PS4, Ubisoft's Immortals Fenyx Rising was one of them. Yes, it took me two issues of Game Informer (Issues 331 and 332), along with the trailers and gameplay videos on YouTube to realize that I NEEDED to try out the game myself. 

At first glance, the game looked good, and sounded good. An open-world game with third-person combat, colorful graphics, and a story of epic proportions? I needed a break from Fortnite for a good while. Little did I know that I was going to get my money's worth with Immortals Fenyx Rising.

Upon getting a PS4, Immortals Fenyx Rising was (and is) the very first PS4 game that I've ever purchased in my life. The video game slid out of the Amazon packaging gracefully, as I held it in my hands. The video game box looked gorgeous in detail to where I could make out the drool coming out of the gaping mouth of the cyclops on the front cover. Upon opening the box, there was the game disc (which felt quite nostalgic to me, seeing that I had grown up with computer games, a Nintendo Gamecube and a PS2), which was a much-needed break from some of the games that I've bought digitally for the Switch.

*By the way, I was tempted to buy Immortals Fenyx Rising for the Switch, but wanted an excuse to buy a PS4.*

Once I had set up my PS4 (playing God of War beforehand), I pop in Immortals Fenyx Rising and boy, was I amazed!

The visuals were stunning up close - from the skies to the vegetation to the ruins of Greek temples. Despite not being as detailed as games like God of War, it was more serious in detail than, say, Fortnite.

Plus, while I'm not too crazy about the game's storyline (despite the comic narration from Prometheus, with constant commentary and interjections from Zeus), I'll give you the premise:

An evil titan named Typhon, who was locked away for conspiring against the Greek gods, is finally able to escape his prison, and take out his wrath on the human world. In his vengeance, Typhon manages to place a powerful curse on the other gods by locking away their essences in different parts of Olympus. As a last resort, seeing that many of the gods and heroes are under Typhon's curse, Zeus consults another god named Prometheus, who tells him the story of a mortal named Fenyx (much to Zeus's dismay of Prometheus's storytelling, in general).

Now, here's the interesting part...

When we first see Fenyx, players are tasked to customize the look, gender, and clothes of Fenyx. In my case, I wanted Fenyx to be a girl with short black hair, along with some scars on her face.

Now that Fenyx is established - no matter how you customize him or her - the story continues. Fenyx survives a shipwreck, and he (or she) learns that everyone on the island has been turned into stone by Typhon, including his (or her) brother. So, seeing that he (or she) must save his (or her) brother - along with other people on the island - Fenyx eventually enlists the help of the god Hermes (By the way, I won't spoil how Fenyx meets Hermes - You'll need to know some Greek mythology to be like "Oh! Okay, I get it!").

In this open-world game, Fenyx is tasked to free the other gods from Typhon's curse, and fight off Typhon's minions and creatures on the island. As you progress in the game, you'll be able to upgrade your gear, your weapons, your health and stamina, and so on (which you can do once you unlock the Hall of the Gods).

Plus, every so often, you'll be tasked to enter the Underworld through volcanic entrances. 

Now, the Underworld - which I had coined "Planet Underworld" - is interesting. 

Let's just say that if you're good with puzzles, and you have the patience to try and solve one, then Typhon's Underworld is the place to be. In my case, there were plenty of puzzles that took serious thought and patience to solve, which is a good thing, because that's what puzzles are supposed to do: make you think and have patience with what you're doing. For me, this was nothing new, since I've played iOS games like Fireproof Games' The Room series, which also had puzzles that made you think. Anyway, completing the courses and puzzles in the Underworld are mandatory, since they help you progress in the game, especially when your character is called upon to save the Greek gods.

So, that's all I have for you on the game SO FAR. All I can say now is that I want to play more of it. Believe it or not, there was a point where I had checked the saved game data in the "Save Options" menu, and it said, "12 hours" (almost 13!). 

(Well, by now, it grew to around 16 hours of gameplay. To be fair, I played four times within a week of having this game. So, I would say, I had spent at least 4 hours playing at different intervals within a week. That's crazy!) 

All I can say is that whether it says 12 or 16 hours of gameplay, I guarantee you that this game is addictive. 

From the open-world experience, to the gameplay itself, it's easy to get sucked in, and not put the controller down.

So, until next time ...

Ik ben de gamer_vrouw! (I'm the gamer_vrouw!)

Dag! (Bye!)