Wuthering Waves for Mac is available

 If you've been watching my blog, you've seen that I've played Honkai: Star Rail, Genshin Impact, Seven Knights 2, and Solo Leveling: Arise on the computer (and on phone occasionally), plus a number of handheld-only games.

I saw that Wuthering Waves was available for Mac and I want more games on Macs, as Windows seems to be going in the wrong direction again, for me.

I'm a bit less enthusiastic about buying from the Mac App Store instead of Steam.  I'd rather have my games available on every platform, including Mac, Windows, and Steam Deck/Linux.  Occasionally, something I bought on Steam will suddenly have a Mac version, but that is happening slowly.

 My M1 MacBook Air (from 2020) has 8 graphics cores, so it's decent for what it is, but hardly great.  I ran Resident Evil 7 on it and it was smooth but not great.  It's the same with Death Stranding and Divinity-Original Sin 2 and others.  Baldur's Gate 3's minimum requirements are much higher than my machine has,  so I haven't bothered.

In any case, I recently changed phones, so I updated my Mac and my watch to the latest operating systems to match.  Performance is down.

 Regardless, Wuthering Waves seems to be very close to Genshin Impact, Solo Leveling: Arise, and Honkai: Star Rail with some changes.

This feels like a combination of the other three.  It's an open world-type of game, so it's like Genshin Impact, but it occasionally requires testing to ascend, which makes it similar to Honkai: Star Rail.

As with Genshin Impact, I've gone all over to activate the various devices for Fast Travel.  This makes certain that I can go quickly and heal quickly, when necessary.  Unlike Genshin Impact, there are more than a few of these devices.  Additionally, some of the devices can add to the maps on your Terminal, i.e., your communications device.

After about a week, I'm at Union level 31 and my main character, Rover is at level 54, on the way to level 60.  As well, his weapon, Red Spring is at level 50.

 I've got ten other Resonators.  I started with Baizhi, Yangyang, and Chixia.  Since the start, I've got Verina, Lingyang, Yuanwu, Sanhua, Youhu (who comes in Convene regularly), Taoqi, and Calcharo.  Going through the first set of acts, I've seen most of the characters appear.  Are three 5-star characters good?  Calcharo happens to have great abilities, while the other two are like 4-star characters.

It's important to keep on top of achievements in Maps, Pioneer Podcast, Guidebook, Trophies, Data Bank, and even Store and Quests.

There is a lot of climbing and just like Genshin Impact, the characters will climb when you're not wanting that to happen.  There is a lot of fighting, also, as with any gacha game.

The characters speak good Japanese.

I haven't spent any money on the game.  I'm not even sure what I'd buy, if I felt the need.

 Obviously, at Union level 31, I'm making some progress.  Some of it is easy, but there are difficult tasks and I've had to go through some of them three times.  However, compared to Genshin Impact, it feels so much less difficult.  I was at AR 43 when I de-installed that game and I never felt as though I was making progress.  I never got to the point where I had access to Inazuma.  In WuWa, I haven't made it too far outside JinZhou, except for Mt. Firmament, which I'm trying to solve now.

Update 2025.04.17: This morning, I hit Union Level 40, so I did the ascension test and finished it first time with Rover (Spectro), Baizhi, and Calcharo. Now, my main character can go to level 70.  As well, I completed the ascension on his weapon and that can go to level 70. That's desent progress for a few weeks' time.

Update 2025.04.27: Got to Union Level 45 today.  I guess the training wheels are being removed now.  Two days later, the new (1st anniversary) version will arrive.  Working on the weapons and finishing some quests, so I'm feeling a bit more prepared for what will happen.  I'm still struggling with main quests.  As well, a few confrontations seem to be far above my level, requiring characters at level 90 or higher, rather than my level 70. 

Update 2025.04.29: The anniversary update is complete.  The "Cubie" rubbish isn't endearing to me.  Who would allow them to spend money on that, instead of a proper update?

I suppose I should try to embrace the ridiculousness and try to win some stuff. 

Update 2025.05.01: I embraced the ridiculousness.  I got through level 5 and then, it wanted me to finish two Main Quests that I can't finish with level 70 characters and level 70 weapons.

Panasonic Lumix 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 is here

A couple of days ago, I ordered the Panasonic 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 OIS macro lens.  At US$300 off US$1099.99, it was a decent deal and 10% from that made it a better deal.  It's native and weather-sealed and with the small aperture, it's lightweight and will do just fine for photographing at a distance.

 It should be better made than my micro Four-Thirds Olympus 40-150mm (80-300mm equivalent) f/4.0-5.6 but the actual exposure won't be much different and that lens isn't weather-sealed.  That was surprisingly good for a refurbished lens at US$99.  The 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 had better be really good since it's new.

Do you see much of a difference?

 

I wouldn't mind a travel zoom, but the only one that is weather-sealed and will work is a Canon EF-mount L-series lens for about US$1500.  The Panasonic 28-200mm f/4.0-7.1 has a fair number of "it's okay", which says that I won't like it.

I've been fighting with a Viltrox L-mount to EF-mount adapter and a Tamron 180mm f/3.5 macro lens.  It could be as new as 2014 or as old as 2004.  The combination does not seem to focus to infinity and I'm not sure what is the problem.  It seems quite reasonable otherwise.  As a lens from that time, with an 82mm filter size, it focuses reasonably well, but about as quickly as any macro lens I've used.  When trying to photograph the moon, it will focus the whole distance, much like most PDAF-oriented lenses on CDAF.

I took the 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 out for a while.  It's not that heavy for what it is.  Coming from micro Four-Thirds, it's heavy.  My Four-Thirds equipment was about the same.  This lens has a 77mm filter size, which is still compact for 135 Format, where 102mm or 105mm filter size is not that surprising.

It seemed to focus quickly, although when photographing a flower that was close, I was not certain about the focus, so I tried a second time.  It could have been my eye sight.  It has Optical Image Stabilization and it's compatible with Dual I.S., which should make it seem super steady.

 

 Everything turned out very well.  I only changed the photos for size and to export them as JPEG files.  The starry sky photos are a bit difficult to see the detail, but they were photographed handheld, with the Dual I.S. able to handle the shake.  Obviously, the water tower was photographed at two different locations about 300 feet apart and at different focal lengths, but they worked out very well.  I was thinking about my Olympus ZD HG 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 where I photographed the mechanism of a wind turbine and the part numbers are legible.  That had a maximum equivalent focal length of 400mm.  Trying to find something weather-sealed isn't available at this time for L-mount, unfortunately.

Generally, if you buy the "regular" lenses, you can't expect much.  This "regular" zoom lens wasn't inexpensive, unless you're gauging the cost by Leica standards.  (I really wish that I could buy that 90-280mm f/2.8-4.0 but that's used car territory.) This lens has a good range and you'll need that deeper Depth of Field for photographing at long distances.

 Its macro abilities are okay, but there is no close range switch for the auto focus, just the full range and 3 metres to infinity. I would prefer the 3 settings switch.  I may still fight with that adapted Tamron 180mm f/3.5 macro lens on occasion but for everything else, the 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 is a winner.

I was looking at a few video reviews from four years ago when the lens was being released.  The one thing that hit hard was the sharpness differences from 70mm and 300mm.  My experience on micro Four-Thirds Panasonic lenses was that they all seem to suffer a bit on the long end.  This one has been good for me, but I'm sure that it is technically a bit weak at 300mm.  Does it matter if I get the shots I want?  No, it doesn't.