Thoughts and Ramblings of Dan Burridge

It has now been just over a year since my last post , I am not good at this blogging thing, am I? What better time to try again than near the end of the year. A lot has changed in the last year, although I think I might do a full-year roundup in December, meaning I have a good excuse to make sure I at least make another post this year. Recently, my time has been spent assisting with the creation and admin duties of a Discord server for Tabletop Role-playing Games. This is spurred by the fact that we are part of a community for Mystery Quest , a channel all about TTRPGs and playing different games from just the usual like Dungeons and Dragons. We wanted to create a space for people to look for games. In that time, I have played several other systems, from Call of Cthulhu to MÖRK BORG and the One Ring 2nd Edition and added many new systems to my physical and digital collections. I have also found a real passion for Blood on the Clocktower, and in the few times I have run it have thorough...

  I have long wished to move away from using a Windows based operating system. Over the years I have tried many Linux distros from Fedora to Ubuntu to Mint to Arch (btw). I never settled for too long on any of them although they weren't truly at fault. It's not you it's me... Fast forward to 2025, I have played some games on my newly acquired Steam Deck and as I shared in my previous blog post  my partner has been playing on it a fair bit. Meanwhile I prefer the full desktop experience, with slightly higher resolution and smoother frame rates. My day to day device is my MacBook Air, a M4 base model which is more than enough for daily use such as browsing, writing, and watching YouTube videos, and although macOS has its annoyances and quirks I have mostly enjoyed using it for my basic daily purposes. Now let's talk about my desktop. Desktop Specs: CPU: Ryzen 9 5900X RAM: 64GB DDR4 3200 Corsair Vengeance LPX GPU: Asus Radeon RX 7800 XT TUF Gaming OC Motherboard: ASRock B4...

Over the last six months or so, I have turned on my desktop PC probably no more than once a week. Part of the reasoning behind this lack of desktop PC use is the summer heat. The Ryzen 9 5900X CPU I have in my desktop runs like a blast furnace sometimes, and I certainly do not want the additional heat when it's already 30+ degrees Celsius. My daily driver has been a MacBook Air M4 base model instead, which has been perfect for writing notes for tabletop RPG sessions and editing the occasional bit of footage for a project that's underway. Jess, my partner, enjoys a handheld experience over a desktop or a console one. So it seemed like a good time to get a Steam Deck. This occurred after seeing my friend and co-host playing Baldur's Gate 3 on his LCD Steam Deck. I was amazed at how well it was running while plugged into a TV. Seeing this made me want to try one out too, so I purchased the 512GB OLED model. Having now been using it for the last few days, I can say that it'...

Hello world, it has been a long time since I did anything in relation to this domain (dburridge.com). It's probably been even longer since I last wrote a blog post. In recent months I have been reinvigorated by writing for now two D&D campaigns. The second of the two campaigns started today as of writing and publishing this blog entry. One campaign is an online one and the second campaign is an in person one. I love playing tabletop games in person, it really adds a layer of interaction you don't get with online play, although I am lucky to have an awesome group for my online campaign, which helps a lot. What can you expect from this blog? Honestly, not too sure at the moment. I hope I can make use of it a lot more than I have ever bothered with previous iterations of my blog. My blog entries will be a mixture of nerdy things from my latest computer upgrade all the way to my passion for fantasy, writing, and all things D&D. Until next time. - Dan :)

Recently, I have been putting a lot of thought into what I want to achieve in 2024. I have been working hard these last few weeks writing for my fantasy world of Aetros and planning a new campaign set in that world that I will be running soon for some friends. I have never finished a campaign as a Games Master before, and I want this new campaign to be different. But what else do I want from 2024? I have already begun trialling ideas, such as releasing a homebrew PDF on my Ko-Fi, the Skeleton Race, written in response to my changing game systems from 5th Edition D&D to Pathfinder 2nd Edition and then back to 5th Edition D&D. Aside from the first homebrew release, I want to do more. Extraordinary items, weapons, armour, one-shots, campaign settings I want to do it all! Alongside writing, I want to make art to accompany my written homebrew. I have never been comfortable with art and consider my ability to draw sub-par at best. So my goal for 2024, as we reach the end of January, ...

I started playing Videogames from a young age, and I was lucky to have many of consoles of the time. Through trading in my old goods to buy the latest and greatest - something I regret to an extent today as I now have to spend even more money rebuilding my collection from the 90s and early 2000s. So without further ado, here are 4 Games That I Grew Up Playing. My First Love - Final Fantasy VII I fell in love with the Final Fantasy series when the first game came out in 1997. “But Burridge, Final Fantasy VII is the 7th main series game”. Yes, echoey voice, you are right. However, we did not get a Final Fantasy game in the PAL region until Final Fantasy VII’s release in 1997. We did get Final Fantasy Adventure and Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, originally titled Mystic Quest and Mystic Quest Legend respectively in the UK. I was introduced to Final Fantasy VII by my brother after he purchased it at release in 1997. After he'd finished it or got bored of it I got to have a play, and I fel...

Even though this game is titled "Final Fantasy XVI", it is not the 16th game in the overall franchise. There has yet to be a game like Final Fantasy XVI in the history of the series. Final Fantasy XVI is a departure from previous entries in nearly every aspect. It has the excellent music that Final Fantasy is always known for, mixed with action combat and a dark and gritty storyline. This Final Fantasy is also a series first for being rated 18+. For this review, I will keep my comments centred on the first couple of hours that can be played via the demo while sometimes dipping into later content from the entire game. The game's initial hours are cutscene-heavy, which can be a turn-off to some players as they'd prefer to get into the action instead of watching a movie. Final Fantasy XVI does also struggle with having a middle ground for action. It's either 0% or 100% action, with no in-between. One moment you are buying potions and enjoying the peace; the next, you...

Oldschool Runescape (originally just Runescape) is a game I grew up with. I spent many a lunchtime at secondary school playing with friends. I even went over to a friend’s house often to play it with him and his brother. The shenanigans we used to get up to. Ranging from simple things like levelling skills together or running away from people in the Wilderness were always just a fun time and one that will stick with me for as long as I live. I would phone in to gain membership due to lack of bank cards at the time. So what did I love about Oldschool Runescape? What made me play it day in and day out for years? That’s what I am going to dive into with this blog post. What is Runescape? Runescape is an MMORPG that is developed and run by Jagex, a UK-based company. In 2001 it was released in beta form. This version would later become known as Runescape: Classic. What we now know as Oldschool Runescape, or Runescape 2 was released in beta form in 2003. This version would be the most played...

Please keep in mind that this blog post is My Initial Thoughts On Pokémon Scarlet/Violet. Yesterday, the 18th of November 2022, I started playing the latest Pokémon game to grace our consoles. That being Pokémon Scarlet/Violet. So everything I write about the game is from my experience playing the Scarlet version and from playing for around 3 hours. Beginning Upon beginning into the game, it greets me with a familiar introduction to it, with someone explaining the world of Pokémon and the region that will be my playground. From the initial view of the Paldea region, it’s vast, especially if compared to older entries within the series. Enter my character, sitting at his desk reading a magazine. The room layout is identical to older games, with a TV, some books, a bed and a console of the game’s generation. Going downstairs, I meet my character’s Mom. I learned I am a local school student after transferring to the region. However, I am told I must wait at home until some items come that ...

If someone told me — even last year — that in 2022 Microsoft was going to be buying Activision Blizzard or that Boris Johnson’s days as Prime Minister might, finally be over (wishful thinking) I would have probably have passed it off as wild speculation. However, here we are in a world where at the very least the former is happening for definite. I will not pretend to understand anything about Business, or politics for that matter, but I know that Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard for $69 (nice) billion is huge! I am interested to see how things change with the company as we lead up to next year when the deal is reported to close. I am sure Tom and Myself will be discussing this on episode 18 of our Podcast! NFTs have become a huge thing at the moment, and not only do I not understand why but I also really don’t like them. The damage they do to our environment being one of the big reasons for my dislike of them. The hexagonal avatars that Twitter introduced have made it easy to get ...

Oh my! It has been so long since I last looked upon this site. For a little while I forgot I had it. Reading over the old content again made me smile as I remembered a lot of fun times at EGX 2016. I have since had fun at EGX 2019 too, although that seems like a lifetime ago since that event happened. So what has been happening since I last posted here? A lot! First, I completed 2 more years of University however, during the COVID-19 pandemic I ended my studies after completing 1 foundation year course and 2 years of a Computer Science degree. COVID completely finished off any remaining energy I had to go on and complete the final year. I did still attain something for my time there though — a Diploma of Higher Education which I am still happy and proud to have achieved. Secondly, my computer specs remain largely unchanged — thanks chip shortage! My current specs are as follows: Intel i7–8700K @ 4.7 GHz Motherboard: MSI B365M PRO-VDH Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 RAM: Corsair ...

While going through my Google account and checking some things out in my Adsense panel I noticed that I had an unused Blogger blog. I realised that the domain pointing to it (blog.dburridge.com) is still something I own and can set up, so I have now done so, and the blog is back! I intend to make use of it more this time. Since my update, now over one year ago a lot has happened. The computer and its specs I mentioned in that post is no longer with us, it has been upgraded yet again! The specs for those interested are as follows: Intel i7–8700K @ 4.7 GHz Motherboard: Gigabyte z370P-D3 Graphics Card: GTX 1060 6GB RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4–2400 Power Supply: EVGA Supernova 1300W P2 Platinum Modular Power Supply SSD 1: 240 GB SanDisk SSD PLUS SSD 2: 60GB Kingston V300 HDD 1: 1TB Western Digital Blue HDD 2: 1TB Western Digital Blue It also has a new case now: NZXT S340 White/Purple Midi Tower Gaming Case. I intend on upgrading the GPU soon, along with replacing my 2 1TB mechanic...

Tomorrow the remaining components of my new computer, Phoenix, shall arrive. I shall now reveal the specs for this rig. CPU: Ryzen 7 1700X @ 3.4 GHz (Boost of 3.8 GHz) RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4–2133 Motherboard: Asus PRIME B350-PLUS CPU Cooler: Cooler Master TX3 EVO GPU: nVidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB The Ryzen CPU will make short work of streaming, recording, editing and rendering videos. I am very much looking forward to getting it built. Next Tuesday I have an exam but apart from that and work I have a pretty light week. Due to said light week I intend on streaming next Thursday, 8th of May (Once I’ve gone off and voted in the general election, of course) I am not sure of what game it’ll be yet (probably multiple) and I am also unsure on times but I suspect it’ll be for the majority of the day. I will post more information once I can plan out my day and get a better idea of what times and games I will stream.

So on Sunday I made a post about the busy year that I had upcoming between now and July 2017. One or two things I missed or have changed since then so I will point them out now in this post. First I mentioned that my YouTube channel would be taking a back seat during this time as I would focus more on this Blog and my Twitch channel. Well while this is still true I have been able to record some stuff which will be seen over the next couple of weeks hopefully. Secondly, I never made mention on when I was starting the schedule I posted in Part 1. I cannot give a 100% accurate date however I am hoping that I can officially start it around the 5th of December. This is only a rough estimated date but it gives me time to see how my workload is going to plan out. Finally, today I am sending off my UCAS application so I have begun my journey to University. If all goes well, which I am very much hoping they do I will be 24 when I go to University. Of course in this day and age going to Universi...

Well it’s been just over a week since I last made a post, sorry about that! So life is beginning to start getting very busy. I have my job to obviously go to 5 days a week. While I do not do much more than 23 hours a week I then have my coursework to deal with and attending college 3 days a week. I was discussing the idea on my stream the other night of going into streaming more than I do YouTube. This came about after my recording drive bit the dust so for now I have no footage to edit. I have a nice new SSD to record to before transferring to the 4TB drive that I used to record to. However because it has died in action I have no footage to use, nor anywhere to store newly recorded footage, which means I would have to edit as soon as I record which for the most part just wouldn’t be possible. If I were to stream once or twice a week I should be able to keep it consistent and not have to worry about editing any footage after. For the last week I have streamed 4 or 5 times which is a lo...

Image by freepik So I haven’t really been following VR much since its conception it just didn’t fully appeal to me as a wearer of glasses, let alone the fact I am so used to sitting at a desk, or in bed playing on my PC/Laptop/3DS/PS4 etc. Yesterday in one of my classes Human Computer Interfaces or HCI for short we were discussing Augmented Reality or AR for short and VR. I have never used VR so I couldn’t tell you my experiences with it but in some ways it excites me, yet also scares me a little. It excites me because I like the idea of being able to put on a headset, put my on headphones and head into a game world for true immersion. I like the idea of running around Skyrim, or Fallout either exploring things in more intricate and personal detail or simply to go hunting for bears or something. It sounds amazing, and I am totally down for that! Also it means exercising from the comfort of my own home without the problem of self-consciousness from people staring and judging. However I ...

Hey there everyone, So in yesterday’s post I mentioned EGX. Well this is true I am going to EGX which will be my first ever convention that I have attended. I am over the moon to be able to attend and incredibly excited! I will more than likely be Vlogging while I am there so I will have some footage to share with you all when I am back. Since I am there for the whole weekend I intend on meeting some friends who I have known only through the internet for the past couple of years so I am incredibly excited to finally meet them too! I’m also hoping to meet some other Youtubers because that’s just great for networking! I suspect I’ll be spending a lot of time in the Square-Enix booth just because of a few things: Final Fantasy 15 World of Final Fantasy Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age Kingdom Hearts 2.8 That Dragon Quest building game thing (because why not?) Yup! I suspect I’ll be posting a video/blog on my thoughts for Final Fantasy 15 after playing the actual game. If the Demos are any...