Amazon fail....

No guarantee with Pre-Orders.... Interesting....

WoW.... Back again...

 
After my last wow gaming session where I found and refined classes to play I ended up letting my account lapse. Until yesterday when I got back into the game. My wife and some guildies "doing stuff" in wow made me want to return to the action.

So with a bit of questing and a dungeon I got to level up my lock to 102, I hope that I dont' get caught with a levelling grind.
I'm still eager to test out my feral druid.

Time will tell how all this pans out.

Eve Online.... CCP did it again....

The Eve Vegas stream was a bit hard to watch at times due to the quality of the sound/lighting and general production value (guy at the back with a phone??). I only got to view a small portion toward the end. News wise there wasnt' anything really new. The amount of dev blogs in the last few weeks has given the info. The first day stream: Day One

I did roll my eye's when I read CCP's blog, when they said they would be reducing the cost of SKIN's.  I have read that some people think the reduction is for a sale but the paragraph in the blog does not mention a sale.
"While we are on the topic of SKINs: with Ascension we will get a massive drop of SKIN prices in the New Eden Store with drastically lower prices. Some representative examples of what to expect:

Astero Sanctuary for 400 AUR (~75% down from 1540)
Hulk ORE development for 250 AUR (~90% down from 2390)
Revelation EoM for 400 AUR (~90% down from 3445)"

While that sounds good, and it is for anyone looking to buy SKINs once they are cheaper. It is however a big F.U. from CCP to anyone who ever bought a SKIN up to now. Another example of CCP screwing over their player base. I have never bought a SKIN off the store/NEX but if I did and I read that I would be peeved wtih CCP. There is so much they could have done to cushion that blow but as usual they dont' even see it as a fault.

The new release is being delayed by a week (Deployment of EVE Online: Ascension Postponed Until 2016/11/15) for some polish. I wonder if that is due to the early stream they allowed a twitch streamer to do which highlighted some faults.

I do like the new Aura voice/interaction, I wonder how much the new 2.0 version will replace the original, bit by bit or all in one go.... With luck all in one go.

The new trailer was also shows and is as usual good quality.

Johnny Pew did a review (EVE Online - Preview of the new New Player Experience) of the new character sheet from the SiSi test server. I found it a bit odd that even the UI colour has been closed off from an Alpha, that's a bit extreme. Makes me wonder what else they haven't mentioned that's been disabled for alpha clones.

A good writeup of the day: http://nevillesmit.com/blog/2016/10/29/ascension-looking-good

BF4.... BFF's....

It's been a while since I caught up with the BFFs video series. Two of my favourites in the new series:

I've been both sides of this:

Crashing a wrecked ship....

Strange happenings with No Man's Sky/Hello Games tweets/accounts/emails, I don't' think anyone will really know who (in house or hacker) said what when....

Fallout 4.... What is seen can not be unseen....

No Man's Sky.... Screw this....

I am one of the unfortunate few that has been trying to find/squeeze the last bit out of the game. Even knowing the spoiler worth spoiling. I thought I'd push hard and fast over the course of a few gaming sessions to get to the centre. I now find myself frustrated in that one goal.

Progress means nothing....

Progress in the game really does mean nothing. The longer you grind for the mats the worse you make it for yourself. Doing is the undoing when playing this game because the more time you spend in it the more wasted your time is. There has been a lot of talk about the game being about the journey. I've been in other games that I can say I did for the journey but none were like No Man's Sky, the others at the very least gave back in some small way. NMS just takes, takes your time, takes your efforts, takes the fun out of playing with not a hint of reward.

Procedural generation my ass, they should have made the seed greater for random generation because I've been seeing the same thing all over the galaxy.

So yes the one goal I had that made me go on was self imposed. I wanted to get to the centre at least once. To say that I had done it. But that goal has become so tortuous I have thrown in the towel. At this stage I feel a lot like Sisyphus, but unlike the Greek gods Hello Games wont' even reward my toil with one roll of that boulder up the hill. Screw it.

The last worthless wormhole:

I find the Duo who "monitor" my progress. Funny how they can zip a space station around the galaxy.

I ask for the shortcut help.

Oh look 'another wormhole'.

I undock and find that wormhole in space. I'm 162713.2 Light-years from the centre.

I go to the wormhole.

I enter the wormhole

On exiting the wormhole jump I see that it has moved me 781192 Light-years!

So I look at the map. Seems I'm now 161005.7 Light-years from the centre. Not quite the shortcut I was looking for.

Maybe I shouldn't have taken that left turn at.... If only there was a pot of gold at the end of the wormhole.

Battlefield 1....

Another review worth sharing from the AngryJoeShow....

Bethesda....

It's a bad move by Bethesda to stop early preview code for honest review. Good Game Pocket & boogie2988 have commented about it but the best comments are from TotalBiscuit.

Speaking of Space Crusade....

Speaking of Space Crusade....

Nostalgia Nerd

Star Trek Online.... Looking better.

The new expansion/update/patch has come out and the new graphics are in. Those changes are noticeable on login and do vastly improve the game.

Seeing the new systems that the console ports spawned is now giving back to the PC version. I've liked almost everything I've see so far. One downside is the blinding brightness of some effects, but that is a 'known problem'. Overall everything is a lot more detailed and looking at the game now it seems to have a greater depth and that's for the better.

The changes are large and small. Some of the small changes include some cleaner icon or markers in the UI that vastly improve the look and feel. Seeing the game and the changes have totally put my mind at ease as I was concerned with some of the before and after images that were shown previously.
It really is a great overall update. Like the image below. My main weapon never glowed overall like that, nor did I ever notice the three tubes glow and pulse like they do now. Granted the image was taken in a cave and it was dark but still that's a big change from something that never looked that noticeable before.

The other big changes I like are to do with the Kit's & Kit modules. Kits now only give passive skill increases. Much needed as they are a lot more versatile (imho) now.
Another very welcome addition was the 12 extra bag slots given for free to all characters!

I've only scratched the surface of changes and I look forward to seeing more on how the game has been improved.

Everspace.... Update v.0.2.0.29432

I've been playing Everspace on and off over the last while.  It's an enjoyable game and one that you can jump into for quick bursts of fun.

I thought that the keyboard and mouse option was a better control method but I've taken to using an Xbox360 controller recently, I've grown attached to playing the game with it. The only other game I've used the controller on pc was with Transformers: Devastation, another game I will have to get back to at some stage.

The new patch deployed today has added and changed a lot in the game.

I'm happy that weapon drops in space seem to have increased, at least in my view. The patch does say the drops are more random with stats. It all seems more balanced now and allows for more 'tactical' choices.

The new difficulty options are now a nice addition. I've found that the drones that usually defend stations/platforms are now a lot more deadly. Nothing means danger like 5 drones swarming you with a hail of fire. Staying on the normal mode I have found that the enemies are more deadly, like the drones, but my survivability has also been increased. I've been getting away from situations or tight crapes and not dying as much as I did previously.

 I'm looking forward to the games further development.

Eve Online.... Thoughts on the new, New Player Experiance stream

CCP seems to have given a twitch streamer called 'fintarue' a preemptive look at the New Player Experience. I was lucky to see the stream announcement pop up on the launcher as I was about to close it.

The way the NPC dialogue is spoken is in true role playing PVE style per faction and I like that. Rather than an active lip synced AI head it shows the portrait with "static".

 
I'm a bit confused about the way you "become" a capsuleer, the new intro seems to place you in a crisis and are only granted access to the ship as everyone else is dead. I just found it a bit "off" for the storyline... from my perspective at least.... I mean what the heck is a basic ship with a civilian fit doing in the middle of a warzone. Never mind the fact that they state you are an untrained pilot who hasn't gotten through flight school. I thought that this NPE was going to be the flight school. But it's all part of the new lore and NPE storyline. They don't even say you were along as an observer.Later the tutorial Aura says that you will be allowed through a stargate and that that is rare, as if as a civilian you wouldn't be allowed... news to me if so. I would have thought the universe ran on civilian work and traffic using stargates.

I may be nit picking big and small but this version of the NPE needs a lot more work.
There are times when the verbal instructions make sense like using the W,A,S,D keys to "fly" but they dont' say that you need to be in first person mode.

It was funny to see the streamer break the starter mission twice by blowing up an item before he was instructed too, screwing up the Aura mission instructions....

With just over two weeks to release I'd have thought that CCP would've play tested this themselves a lot more. But for all the other more basic instructions it seems to do a good job. Not that far removed from the single mission, wall of text tutorials of old. The more things change the more they stay the same.

I don't see how this version of the NPE is any "better". The new storyline serves only to muddy the more instructional tutorials which seemed to have a lot more information on what to do as text than the new spoken script.

I do hope there is a future option to skip the tutorial as it is now a lot more "in your face" than it has been but a skip option for "vets" would be a good thing.

I've not watched the end of the stream as I write it is still going on, I'll have to catch the end at a later time.

Roll on further dev blogs and feedback.

Cities Skylines.... It may be time....

I may, may, start using a mod to get a proper handle on the games traffic. On later stages of the game traffic can be a nightmare.
Traffic Manager: President's Edition looks to be popular.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=583429740

It's such a pity that the game itself doesn't get some good updates that incorporate these types of mod.

Space Hulk Deathwing....

I've always been interested in Warhammer 40K. With such a range of lore I know I'd have gotten lost in it if I'd really dived into that universe. 40K computer games that have caught my interest is rare for me, the last one that peeked my interest was Battlefleet Gothic, a bit far away from the boots on the ground view of this new game, Space Hulk Deathwing. I never thought the Space Hulk game of the 90's was worth the effort.
The last game I played that controlled a squad of marines was the older game Space Crusade, a good 'ol  C64 game, based on the same name board game. Yes that long ago.

I think I first saw the the new game about a year ago on a youtube game review at some gameshow. But what I saw today reminded me of the game and but it back on my radar. What really seals the deal is the way this game is heading from development to reality, best expressed in the Space Hulk: Deathwing - Rise of the Terminators trailer:

Watching that trailer for the first time made me giggle. Even now when I watch it I'm smiling. I know it is a choreographed set piece but it does peek the interest and makes me want to know more.

This game is on the radar. Time will tell.

Gamescom 2016 trailer:

Space Hulk Deathwing First Gameplay Trailer:

Battlefield 1.... Campaign reviews are in....

I decided not to get the game in the end, if I was I'd have gone for the option with all the bells and whistles including the season pass. That was too expensive.

There does seem to be a lot of variation in the reviews coming through on the game's single player campaign. No surprise really. This variation is best shown in two video's that were put our during the week.

The first I'd mention is TotalBiscuit's review (WTF Is... - Battlefield 1 Single Player Campaign ?) is very unforgivably analytical in my opinion. More analytical than I thought would be needed, single player campaigns for games like this (BF/COD) are always short and usually only played once if at all.

The second is Good Game Pocket's coverage (NichBoy Plays: Battlefield 1). That video does show a first play reactionary playthrough. With less time to form a longer opinion of the overall game's SP mode it does show the average reaction (I like the COD comment).

For all the talk one way or another I'd favour the Good Game first play review because it's what people in general would think, feel and consider of the game. I've played battlefield games in the past and always 99% of the time has been the multiplayer player. That this game has a single player mode is great and a better single player mode than others never mind the likes of Star Wars Battlefront which had none.

Is it perfect no. Is it worth a playthrough yes I think so. Would I be over analysing it as in the first video, no, like I said the single player campaign is short and would be played once before moving on to the MP. So I'm only going to experience it once and then be off.

I've no plans to get the game at the moment. If I do it will be the base game during a sale.

I mentioned in a post a while ago my experience is that the longer a BF game is out the fewer players there are.  This is especially true if you opted to buy the extra content/expansions. BF4 today shows me no players for any content beyond the standard MP maps.

The multiplayer is the driving force of this game's abilities and it does look fun.

 The Best Weapon In Battlefield 1! from FRANKIEonPC

Eve Online.... Their last plug....

The last 24 hours of the "sub and get some gifts" has begun. I'll state my protest again to this CCP cash grab "reward ploy". The Last Chance To Claim Your Celebratory Rewards! announcement also linked a Fozzie post regarding the new SoCT destroyer to get crowd feedback.

As it turns out I think that both of my pre-Alpha accounts are going to be classed as full paying accounts even though they were free 60 day codes. If that is true then I'll have the ships and trinkets for my old "mains" and keep at least one Gnosis for my missioning alt. Works out well and I won't have spent a penny.

I wonder how the Christmas rewards will be shared out or if there will be any divide between the clone grades. Then again there isn't anything, really important in the Chrimbo gifts never mind anything else.

Eve Online.... News, thought's, idea's....

There has been a lot of news from the world of Eve Online, not to mention the other CCP games in the last two weeks. Gunjack 2 and Valkyrie in particular with the PS4 VR launch.  I love the trailer for it.

I've found myself playing catch up on a lot of Eve news, or what I do hear I am ignoring altogether as it's not relevant to me.
 The latest This Week in EVE #126 lists a lot and while most was of little interest (to me) there were some that I had to click on.

It's that time of the year again and the attacks from Blood Raiders now seem to be a "seasonal" thing. Good for some player content but for me I think I'll be ignoring it. Especially now that I'm only playing with the pre-Alpha characters.
I'm really not a fan of this open event, random player to player interactions. Too much chance or luck involved. CCP again doing their ...PVE improvement by adding PVP.... thing, no thanks.
At least with the likes of the WoW event in game you gather together to put out the town fires, kill the boss and then all loot a prise box that goes into your own inventory, that once opened has random drops for you. 
how much better would Eve be if there were "intelligence" of a blood raider attack (hourly?) in a system, a fleet of ships in waves or maybe one elite ship attacking a cloning facility in space. Once defeated you are allowed to "loot" a can or as if by some form of magic get cargo delivered to your inventory or home station to open and loot.
I'm just narky over CCP making PVE into more PVP.

The end of POS towers seems to be getting closer, with the new array and structures being deployed. From what I've seen of the new structures I'm never likely to operate never mind make one for myself. At least with an "old" POS I was, and did use. I think this needs further study and research on my part but maybe I just need to use NPC stations instead since the queue's for using them were removed a while back and pay fee's and taxes instead of fuel and build costs.
I still wish there was a a slightly larger mobile depot that had some smaller end, limited production process's. Now that I think of it I'd like to dock or at least tether to it.... But maybe medium structures are "it". There does seem to be more thinking about something smaller, more personal to use. Wouldn't it be funny if such a structure was hi-sec deploy able only.

Something new is coming.... Specific ships for Alpha clones....? Wouldn't that be "fun". Nah CCP wouldn't do that.

The dev blog on the new character sheet is also of interest. I'm still not 100% sure I like it but I'll need to get a hands on feel for it first. Unlike most people who seem to complain about seeing your animated character on the top of the new sheet, I like it, brings your character to life instead of just the portrait screenshot.

One thing I really, really, really need to do is to capture some images of my (old and new) characters skill queue's. The new Alpha clone state will only have the old style 24 hour skill queue. I am presuming that all skill's queued up after that or after the longest "current" skill in the queue that runs 24 + hours over it will be removed. I'm no Skill min/maxer but I did do a bit of work on the skill queue's at the time I set them up so to lose them now would be a pain. Screenshots and API key to the rescue.

The new New Player Experience dev blog is an interesting read. While I won't be trying it out on the test server I will create a new alt to try it out once it hits the main game properly. They are calling it Inception so all I can think about are the movie meme's. 

 The details of the new player experience all sound good and I'm interested to see how it all works out. I am particularly interested to see the new Aura dialogue in action, something I've not see/heard in the game since I tried my very first trial in Eve.

I've been getting a lot of disconnections from the Eve client due to my current lack of proper broadband while away from home. Usually all I would get from a failed client logon would be a sad face emote. This time around it seems there are Dino's behind it all.....

I'm still trying to gather more current information on Faction Warfare for my Minmatar pre-Alpha alt.
I still think I need to get into a faction warfare corp/alliance. this has rung more true the more I read. The more I read (like here & here) the more I see that anyone involved in Faction Warfare who is an Omega/current player will be 100% more overpowered than any new Alpha. CCP really is leading new alpha clones into PVP first, lambs to the slaughter via the large wolf pit.

Blast From the Past.... Privateer 2 The Darkening

I was always a fan of space combat games. Wing Commander 3, 4 and Prophecy. Freespace 1 and 2.
So it was no surprise that I picked up Privateer 2 The Darkening. Out the same year as Wing Commander 4 but unlike the rest of the franchise Priv2 was set in it's own separate self developed corner of that universe. The Tri-System Confederation. Same universe yet separate from the other games. I like that idea.
I never played the first Privateer game, after playing the second game I doubt I'd play the first and see a lot of similarities. In my view I am better off having skipped game 1 and just gotten straight to the second.

Like the Wing Commander games Priv 2 is heavy on the FMV scenes for both the UI and storyline. While I don't mind the way it was done I can see how a lot of people would hate that aspect today.
It just seems to have been the trend at the time and even today I have no problem with it.
I don't know how they got so many good actors to play hammy roles/scenes. Some stand out more than others for better and for worse.

 Spoiler!

I even like the small video loop animations that dot the space ports on each planet.

Looking back on the game I do have a lot of nostalgia, a person who had no connection to the game today would probably discount the FMV and most of the gameplay out of hand. Maybe I'm being too harsh on modern gamer expectations. For me at least there is still good gameplay to be had.
And Nostalgia. Memories of old fights. Of protecting a cargo run to make some money to upgrade my ship or it's gear or to progress the storyline.
At the start you of course are only given enough credits to buy the cheapest of the cheap.

I do recall a scene where you are looking for a character who has information to unlock a part of the storyline/memory of your character, only to see that important character removed from the equation. Now it was a bit of a slog the first time round to get to that point, and I remember watching the scene, seeing what happened to the character and I said aloud the F bomb and then my on screen character in the scene dropped the same F bomb. That cracked me up.
Maybe it was the time I played it, the first time and I was immersed. That immersion has created the love of the game and the nostalgia I have now.
What I like most about my recent trip down memory lane is something I had forgotten. The way the NPC's react to you in space combat, they taunt you. Not in a Wing commander "child friendly" way but as an enemy and an adult. And then just before you destroyed their ship they change to a begging for life plea or screams as they are killed. It's your choice in weather or not to kill their escape pod.
I also like your computers voice, complimenting your skills or saying that you've received collision damage.

There is an almost sandbox nature of the game. NPC military/police, haulers and pirates doing their own thing. Much like the way the rest of the universe feels, alive yet separately devoid in an almost sterile way, you need to know where to look to see that life in action. Like a serene pond before you throw a stone in the water. Not that you can change or affect the universe. The gameplay is a solo and personal storyline.

I find it funny how modern day reviews are less then happy about the game. Could the gameplay/UI be improved, yes but it's a 20 year old game. It was patched after release to fix issues and hasn't seen any love since the gog.com repackage but a repackage isn't any additional development love. What do people expect. As for me I took it as it was at the time and as it is now is an extension of that plus nostalgia.

The game is available on gog.com, https://www.gog.com/game/privateer_2_the_darkening
And despite people saying they have problems running it I have to say I've had no issues with it so far on any aspect. Even the FMV video's aren't as interlaced as I remembered them to be.

This game was the first time I saw Clive Owen as an actor. The next time I saw him in a film was during the first Bourne movie in a very "ah yer man from Priv 2" moment.

Eve Online.... My New pre Alpha's.... pt5

I'm still falling behind with my Minmatar Faction Warfare preAlpha. I did get to update his skills but like my Missioning preAlpha his extra skills will require about 2 months extra in training time. At the half speed of the Alpha clone that will be doubled to 4 month's each.

Just over two years ago I tried to get into Faction Warfare. It never really happened. I recall getting killed by the enemy factions in faction warfare, getting killed by my own faction not to mention the ugly kills that came at the hands of Gallente "allied" pilots. There is a lot more happening with faction warfare under the hood than there is on show. I still think I have a good alliance to try and get things going. What I am very of is a large time commitment. However I do know the longer I dither the longer it will take to know what is what and start doing it properly.

So yet again I've been spending most of my time on my Caldari Missioning preAlpha Alt. Doing....
Mining:

 Producing:

 

 Pondering the viability of the Hookbill. Cheaper to buy on the market than to grind LP for...

And in general ship spinning when between missions.

At least I can say that I'm not paying for it. With almost half the isk gathered for a Gnosis I may get one fit it out and fly (literally) through missions with great ease. then the challenge will be to get into level 4 missions and that may take a corp/alliance. I think Level 4's are not available to Alpha's....

Maybe I need the Minmatar alt to shake things up....

Spock....

Leonard Nimoy's autobiographical book "I am Spock", is a book I've had for a long long time and yet have not read. Last weekend I got a chance not to read but to listen to the man himself do an audio version of the book.
I've always liked his voiceovers and no surprise his audio book is very listenable (Unlike Bill Shatner who is woeful in his versions). I may yet get around to reading the book itself to flesh out the stories.
What I wanted to share here beyond the great audio book was an image from one of his anecdotes. It's something I'd not seen before and I think is worth sharing.... for a laugh. Not to promote alcohol but to prompt anyone who reads this post to go and read or listen to the story behind it.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/I-Am-Spock-Leonard-Nimoy/dp/142335835X

In searching for further information on the audio version to link here I found the full thing on YouTube. Unsurprising really. I wont do a Spock logical pun... What isn't on YouTube...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D--apk8O2Xc

Cities Skylines.... Compromiseville pt3

I think I've reached the natural end of my mess-about city. It's expanded in a sprawl that is unsustainable. As I said before I've been very careless in zone location and neglectful of higher level services. This has lead to problems with pollution, healthcare and of course traffic. Always the traffic....

If I do "mess" again I might start over with a new city and try to keep it small. 
Still there are a few cities I've done that may need attention to prosper further. I might have to return to the proper playthrough's. They have other more subtle problems that are a whole other kettle of fish.