Origin's own distribution software looks a lot like Steam but like the Xbox Games with Gold gives older games for free. It's a promotion that isn't too bad as the games, while not the best, are not the worst either.
The game for free this time around is a repeat from about a year ago. I dont' mind as I didn't get to 'claim' it before. Medal of Honor Pacific Assault.
2004 was a good year for gaming: Half-Life 2, Rome Total War, Unreal Tournament 2004, World of Warcraft, Far Cry, Sid Meier's Pirates. There was a lot to enjoy and a lot of those same games I still enjoy from time to time to this day.
I do recall three main things about my original run of Pacific Assault.
Difficult enemies because they would banzai charge you after appearing quickly from cover (atmospheric).
That the game had a decent order system for teammates, if limited by today's standards.
The need for a corpman to heal you when your on the ground blacking out is interesting.
I'm still limited with my mobile broadband away from home so I wont' be downloading it yet. I dont' know how much I'll play this game, retro nostalgia may not be enough, but at least I've added it to the list and have the option later.
I've got a long Eve post waffling about my characters and their current Alpha states in draft but with the T3 changes coming in I'm going to waffle here about that.
The Fanfest presentation was interesting but with no hard changes really talked about there was a lot up in the air. The Rigs change was a good, positive opening bid to the changes.
I've not had a chance to watch the latest cringefest o7 show so I've yet to decipher any useful information they may say about the coming changes if it is even mentioned.
The latest Dev blog is an interesting read but with the focus group yet to weigh in I'm sure it's all subject to change. With Fossie at the helm I do have faith in the changes being balanced more or less for the better.
How that all works out in my reality is another thing. PVE solo use may be vastly affected for my lower skilled characters. Like my 20 Million SP Minmatar based alt. She had been using T'3 as her level 4 missioning mainstay. Realistically it's been about 2 years since I've done some serious missioning with her in a T3. But as all my characters are now Alpha shadows of there former Omega greatness it may be a "while", if ever I get to put them back in a T3.
What will directly affect my newer Alpha's are the changes they plan to the range of RLML. Specifically my Caldari characters and their RLML Caracal's. Living the dream could be over for them when the nerf bat strikes.
The updates keep on coming. I got this game a while ago and have been keeping up to speed on the updates, for the most part anyway. Bye bye Alpha version hello Version 1.0, the next big step to have been released and it adds so much.
I collected and played through a large selection of the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. I've waffled about them before. I've enjoyed the android version I talked about but never did buy any of the other adventures.
I may be a bit behind the times in regard to the FF resurgence and the new Android/PC versions. But reading this during the week peeked my interest on a pc version of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain.
There's even a version of the Sorcery books that look more playable, less calculation complexity for the player and more focus on the story. Hardcore fans are sighing with dismay I'm sure.
I'm not sure about the price of the game, €19.99 seems a bit steep. I'll have to find out more and make a decision.
Chatting with my wife about gaming brought about her interest in a game that's been out a while and still has a buzz about it. Stardew Valley. Sensing an opportunity I bought it as a surprise. I'll download and install it once she is out of hospital. Brownie points?!?
I'm writing this in an exhausted and sleep deprived state, with
dinner eaten I've got to do something while I wait for digestion to kick
in. Sleeping on a full stomach is not a good thing for me and I have a need to waffle so here I am..... with a lot of waffle....
My wife up until yesterday evening was still in hospital, after more than 5 and a half weeks all was worked out and her discharge was pending. With prescriptions, discharge notes and a letter for her job (stating in broad details her stay in hospital) completed, she was then officially released.
It's been a roller coaster ride that has at times seen one step forward
and two steps back but with overall slow progress. A few day's before her
discharge we joked about escape plans and knotting sheets together to
climb out the window. Not that security would stop you from
walking out the front door. Her mindset was that of mind numbing cabin fever. Illness is poor for the attention span so a tablet
and netflix wasn't a solution etc.
Unfortunately last night a few hours after being "home" in my mam's house, she had a relapse of her illness. Thankfully my Mam's house is a stones throw away from the hospital. Another trip in an ambulance, another stretch in an Emergency Department cubicle. I dont' begrudge it at all, I just wish there were more streamlined methods in place when dealing with the healthcare system. Maybe that's a type of "first world problem" and I shouldn't complain*, it's not like I need a 'go fund me' for hospital visits.
After her readmission I heard her acquiesce, that she would do anything
they wanted to correct it all to get her "out" sooner. Usually she is
asking questions about everything being done or being planned. Her
knowledge in medical terms is greater than my own. I may have worked in
and around hospitals for 90% of my adult life picking up terms and
knowledge, not to mention the way things work etc; But she is the one
with the acronyms like E.F.R. / E.M.T. gained from her "hobby". To hear her give up basically all will to question is unlike her and a true sign of how her headspace is.
All in all last night went well, she was treated and moved up to a ward. It looks like a shorter stay this time round which is good. Long term there is a continuation of the original plan, discharge from the hosp, clinic visits, leading to day surgery, recovery time, more clinic visits and then keyhole surgery.
With her return to the hospital I am keeping custody of a present her uncle gave....
* On a side note, waffling on an internet blog as I do, I noticed for the first time my own diabetic medication had a price on the box. Firstly it surprised me that it had a price on it and secondly it prompted me to check the cost of the same drug in the U.S. given the news headlines about health care recently.
I was surprised by the price being there as all diabetic medication is free for those that suffer with it in Ireland. The price on the box is €41.19. And a U.S. comparison website gave me a list of the drug by price per state broken down to the cheapest price per store/pharmacy. The cheapest price anywhere in the U.S. was $398.11. I was shocked but not surprised. The "cheapest" price included a coupon otherwise it would have been $479!
So on that note I decided to price all my medication, 2 diabetes tablets & a cholesterol
medication, blood glucose monitoring strips, lancets, and the total came to just over $1200 a month. That's more than my mortgage for a 3 bedroom semi detached house! Insane!
I would shudder to think what other costs would incur in regard to everything else I now take for granted and are free since my diabetes was diagnosed. Free eyesight tests, diabetic/dietitian clinic visits and blood tests.
I would rather have higher rates of taxes (comparatively compared) that shares in a universal health care system for all, than be completely cleaved out of it by a system that crucifies you once you fall from the narrow line of perfect health.
I'm sure to have raised a few heckles from anyone reading this and is American. I'm not America bashing. I'm comparing. Looking at the U.S. system from the outside as I am I'm sure to have missed a lot of nuance. Like coverage for employees of large companies.
Private health care here in Ireland for me is two fold, a few fully private hospitals/clinics like those in the U.S. where you pay through the nose for everything. And for the rest, being private in a hospital means nothing more than a single room, your still being treated in the same way as everybody else (private or not) on the same ward with the same doctors, nurses, drugs and diagnostics.
I'm glad to be privileged enough to enjoy such health care, glad I dont' have to choose between getting it and not. Definitely glad that it's not a profit milking machine. My father needed our health care system(two kidney transplants), my mother needs it, I need it and my wife now needs it. How can I complain!
It's been a while since I saw this gameplay and became interested in Dreadnought.
There seems to have been significant progress. It's now in an open Beta.
Another game I've not had much of a chance to play is Ghost Recon Wildlands. I was less than happy to see the first expansion's theme but I'm more confident I'll like the second's content. Again you have to recreate a character for the expansion, there is no import option. The new character will be starting this time at level 30 instead of 20 like the previous expansion, that's a skill boost at least. The expansion has a level cap of 35, the new skills being added sound like they will be good. The extra weapons won't hurt either.
It looks like I won't be back home for another few weeks so I'll probably miss out on the expansion launch. At least being a single player game that won't matter much. By the time I do get around to doing any of it as multiplayer people should know what to do.....
I've not had much of a chance to play the new season content. The last few weeks have only seen me log into STO twice. Quick chances to update fleet and officer missions.
As a young kid I never had a 100% complete collection of any action figure series. I was lucky to buy bits and bobs with pocket money here and there. Or get a boost to these collections for birthday's and Christmas. Least of the figures I did have were from a line called Eagle Force.
I recall only doing the briefest of searches in the past to find out what the gold figures were from.
The only reason I bring it up now is that I found those figures in a box of old toys when clearing out the back of my mam's garden shed. A few google searches for more information brought up a kickstarter for a new rebooted line of figures. Very interesting. While the return of my old figures is a big nostalgic trip, it is disappointing that the reboot kickstarter didn't return as a version in metal and of the same size as the original. Still nice to think they are back even if I don't partake.
Information is hard to come by but a youtuber Plasticjunky is worth a watch for info.
It may be a port of a 2010 PS3/360 game but it looks like it could be very good over the top fun!
Sega is re-releasing older console classics to PC on the cheap. From what I've read on the net it seems that it should be a good port. It a proven product so €20 on steam for the standard edition http://store.steampowered.com/app/460810/Vanquish/ seems very reasonable.
The last few day's has been thick and fast on the announcement of games front, lots to keep an eye on. The latest for me is Surviving Mars, a survival sandbox city builder. Quiet a mouthful but as it's being developed by the same people behind Tropico I'm sure it will be a winner.
I've had fun in Planetbase but time will tell if Surviving Mars beats it out as the planet builder of choice. I had to laugh at the end of the announcement trailer, the "best and brightest" as well as the "box" references are a clear digs at Planetbase.
Two bits of news peeked my attention in the gaming world
A Red Dead Redemption clone as an 'open-world PvP MMO'. The games website has a countdown to a trailer release in just under 14 day's. http://www.playwwo.com/
PC Gamer has given a good writeup.
The second game is one that first cought my eye back in 2015, Battletech, and seems to be a true return of a Mechcommander game. It's to be released later this year.
With the new version of Mechwarrior (http://www.mw5mercs.com/) also planned I'm liking the increase in mech tonnage floating around.
Last night saw me take a team into the Heard of Darkness. With only a few weeks left I had little more I could improve on to complete the NG+/Stygian run. The last patch reduced the turn limit before time ran out, which in turn made me push a bit harder to get a team ready. Besides I was looking for a distracting challenge and I've waited long enough to play it to it's conclusion.
Completing the game on normal was tough, the stress piled on fast before the final fight. The RNG gods were firm yet fair and I completed the run loosing two of the crew in the end.
The challenge complete and the achievements collected I've now taken my first steps with a fresh run set to Radiance mode. Even with one dungeon run done it seems to be a faster version. I look forward to it and it's alterations. It's a good run to do before the Expansion arrives. The entry for it on Steam has already been added to my wishlist.
Before I do a post about my current character happenings I thought I'd post something general about the game.
Ah Eve Online, the eternal struggle, the joy and the sadness, the pleasure and the pain, Eve giveth and CCP taketh away(*see Nerfbat/Balance pass's).
There was less said about the future of Eve this year than other fanfests and I found myself fast forwarding through a lot of the posted content on youtube. At least they are taking it slower to "think" things out.... I hope. I still find a lot of their coverage cringe-worthy, but that's just me. The new song for instance is imho the worst yet.
There are others commenting about fanfest in a better light(?) than I. I'm bitter and salty.
I do hate the way the new version of plex is being treated like gold press latinum. Gold from Valkyrie has made it's way to Eve Online for marketing purposes. For a games company that shoots for the stars, they really scrape the marketing gutter at times. At least Star Trek Online has their universe currencies and runs with them on Star Trek themes. Plex until now has never been associated with gold before. As a pilots license it seemed more authentic, but splitting it up could have been marketed better any other way than goldifiying it. Its a small thing in the grand scheme but it irks me as I feel it cheapens the game image. Another game you can buy gold for 'oh joy'. Some things are not worth copying from other games!
I do really, really like the new character select theme music from the latest patch.
I applaud the latest quality of life changes and improving the overall universe, graphics etc. For me the only thing I wanted to check on were the new sun models. Really nice.
With fanfest and Eve development turning a corner to the PvE isle I'm been even more facpalming than ever. A constant needle in my brain is that my particular style of gameplay within Eve, solo PvE, part of the silent majority, despised by those that revel and enjoy player assplosions, is being reshaped yet again in ways that it probably doesnt' need to be. Why CCP wouldn't really shake up null for some proper constant war justifications is beyond me.... no wait they are scared of loosing players or having people that already shout, shout louder.
CCP say they are for all gamestyles but they will have to do and implement a lot to get me back into the game in any serious way(x2). Solo PvE content, it's what all other MMO's do without batting an eye, yet CCP have to work so hard and develop new tools before they try to make it all work. Not that I am convinced it will work. They are going to try and please people by giving them a challenge, that never works out well. If only they would copy the best parts of other games systems and improve on them within Eve. They wouldn't be the first to do so. Saying Eve has dungeons dont' make it really so. And why they are calling logistics 'healers' now is hypocritical.
There are concerns that PvE is being turned down a more PvP route(again) and i think that there is
justification for thinking that, its called a lack of trust due to past
experiences. Burner mission anyone!
I dont' care that there are Blood Raider ship yards and capitals to shoot, time will tell what their Hi-Sec plans turn out to be. Proof is in the pudding but I'm not hopeful. I've ignored their other hi-sec content additions and trying to get into the incursion clique community is hard, harder still due to not having any ingame mechanic for doing it(real dungeon system anyone!). I dont' like the way chef
CCP thinks, works and implements what I'm supposed to 'like' the taste
of. I'm not the only one to be thinking along those lines.
Despite my inability to come up with a sensible or witty title for this post I've decided to drop everything I want to waffle on about in the title as well as the post, the flood gates are open....
I've found myself being a bit more random in some area's of gaming. No surprise given my mood/circumstances etc. etc. etc. Having more time to while away yet not wanting to be fully using a brain, with a mix of looking to be 100% distracted.
I noticed on Facebook (I forget the affiliate) a few day's ago that Saints Row 2
was free for a day on gog.com. I did claim it. Will I ever play this
game? Probably not. I got the third game from a friend and I played it
for about 20 minutes on the PS3 two years or so ago....
A link worth a share and a mull over: http://www.gamesradar.com/the-best-free-shooters/
It has me thinking again about CCP's non confirmed FPS. What it has to compete against in the Free-to-Play market never mind the paid games (Overwatch). The more I think about Dust the more I think about the newer version they demoed, the more thankful I am they didn't go with an arena shooter. It makes me think about what they could be doing. If CCP hadn't been so taken aback at the reaction the community had over that fanfest we might actually have a game the community would actually warm to.
There are a lot of games I just can't keep up with, the sheer volume
of changes, patch notes, tweaking and adjustments. Especially with the
likes of Star Citizen, BoredGamer does a great job of whittling down the information (like this & this) to what you need
to know. Even at that I can't get through all of his content. By the
time I do it's been replaced by more video's.
GRW had another 6GB patch. It contains one of the best quality of life changes in Ghost Recon Wildlands, when you mouse over a campaign save it now changes to show the character it belongs to....
I've been casting an eye on trying to complete my NG+/Stygian mode run. The final crop of top level characters do not seem capable of doing it so I've been levelling up a few more classes to try out in a final run.
With the release of the expansion in the next few month's I also want to try and do a quick run of the Radiant mode.... That might be a bridge too far.
It's been interesting to watch BaerTaffy He has been running a modded version of the game PBD, Pitch Black Dungeon and it has been kicking his ass. His return to the normal version in a stream has been a welcome return, but it seems that he is changing that to be a fresh Radiant mode run now as well. I'll be interested to see how he gets on in that run.
Cities skylines, a game I can tweak and make small changes without much thought. Set the time to 4 times speed and mentally disengage. Not much has happened here.
Star Trek online has had at least two updates in the last few weeks and since I don't have a proper internet connection I'm choosy about how I spend my data allowance. Like a child in a tuck shop trying to squeeze the maximum value out of that pocket money.
1.2 GB patch and then another for 800mb, STO has been less value per megabyte so it's lost out(patch the patch). With the new season out now may as well ignore the game for the next month as the patch for that will be another huge one.....
For anyone tempted by a sale on Zen you probably already new there was a sale on, I was in no way tempted.
I do seem to have a growing interest in my mind with regard to the summer event, and the ship it will have as it's main prize.
Star Trek Bridge crew is interesting but not a game for me. Max enjoyment means corralling as many friends as possible and I only know of one friend that has a VR headset. So if I bought one there would be two of us. This is not the game that "makes" me buy a headset. YOGSCAST Hannah did two interesting vids in the game:
Rome Total War has had a brief look in. A save from an older Brutii campaign was left at a battle where one of my armies was being attacked by multiple armies from the Scipii. It's been interesting to see how the A.I. reacts to various tactics.
What has worked is to square up my legionnaires with missile support in the centre and brace the storm as a rock on the shore line. It's worked for the most part.
Speaking of Rome I have played a few rounds of Domina, getting to know it's way's. Three full attempts and one where I lost the ability to complete the game due to very, very bad RNG. It's still fun and it looks like it will receive a lot of content tweaking.
Heroes of the storm 2.0 has given a lot of loot but I'm clueless with regard to changes, updates and whats makes 2.0 so special. Opening loot is nice tho.....
I did plan on more waffle going into my time with Eve Online but I think I'll do that as a separate post.... This one is long enough.
Two video's worth a share: TheLazyPeon 'Ashes Of Creation: MMORPG Overview "Why I'm Excited"'
Noah Caldwell-Gervais 'How Does Mass Effect: Andromeda Compare to Previous Mass Effects? [Spoilers]'
On a final note I'm liking the new version of Google earth, worth checking out.
You do need Google Chrome to use it. Pity but I'm sure that it'll be available for Firefox.... at some stage....
