Worth a look...

An inside look at Square-Enix in a 3 part documentary by Noclip is well worth a look. Either as a Final Fantasy fan or interest in the way the company worked/works. I'm the later, I never 'got into' any of the Final Fantasy games.

STO....

July 18^th sees the mid season patch release. I'm looking forward to seeing the Endeavor System as well as the Ferengi Admiralty Campaign.

The patch will bring one of my favourite characters into the STO universe. With him in the Featured Episode it should be a good one.

Star Trek Online

GRW.... Title Update 5

 
With the latest patch that's just been applied, the over 7GB patch seems more hefty than it should be, again. But there is the new 'Tier' system.

I'm still making good progress and more or less having fun with all the characters.

I usually don't do the challenges as they only give vanity items that are 99% uninteresting to me. However out of curiosity I did the solo challenge for Season 2 Week 4. One task was interesting.
Kill 3 snipers within 1 second of each other. The solution was not a sync shot as my character needed to be the only one to do it. But a snatch and grab of three snipers, 'stow' them in a car and apply liberal amounts of C4 solved that one. Interesting and fun.

The community challenges are nice to get but I don't really help a lot for that cause. Solo carebear is solo.

The newest version of the challenges looks like something I wont' be doing anything with.

The new tier system is a better incentive to me to get back on my main.

 
The weapon upgrades are not necessarily needed but they are welcome. I'll be tempted to get as far as I can with the weapons this way and then up the difficulty to the next, max level. Extreme may be too extreme but worth a try if I have the upgraded tools.

My second solo character has also hit level 30 and progressed onto the Tier system, she will be able to finish off the game and level up in the tier system at the same time. Happy day's.

My co-op alt is lagging far behind the two solo characters. Fun is still being had but at this stage his progression is so messed up there is no hope of following a story line.

I've also gotten to a stage where I'm repeating a lot of missions other people are on. Not once or twice but I'm now at a stage where it's 10 or 12 times. Moving to other area's makes no difference but I guess the general community is moving at a slower pace so there is a lot of crossover. It depends on the group I'm with, if the interactions are fun then it's worth it.

STO...

With a few more event "missions" completed I've been rewarded with enough favours to get the Superior Risa Floater.

I can fly as fast as possible (jetpack wise) while doing the remaining dailies for the event ship.

GRW.... What Problem....

Star Trek Online.... The Kobayashi Maru Event!

An interesting event steeped with Trek lore....
https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/10548964

Eve Online.... The Agency

I'd not heard anything about this new system but I just saw a new video from delonewolf, he took a look at that new daily system. My ignorance of this new system is shown when I made my comment on the new STO system a few days ago. It's a pity that this new system in Eve is only looking like a single Event for next month...

delonewolf

STO.... 80%

80%, 5 more day's and I should be able to complete the research and claim the new ship.

With my improved interest in the Summer events I decided to take a look and see how easy it is to claim more favours. I really want to get best jetpack (floater), that takes 1000 favours.
As it turns out it's easy. Of the events I am better at the Floater event as well as the Horga'hn  and Artifact Scavenger Hunt.

With the bonus rewards of the timed events it is worth the wait. I have been alt-tabbing between other games and STO while I wait for the event to come around. Thinking I can now get the favours I need later today I 'invested'/'splurged' the 300 favours I did have and bought more cats. Pet's pet's all the way...

 I love the pet models but the pink cat with it's blank alien eye's is a scary looking freak!

 3... 2... 1... claws my arm off....

Hidden and Dangerous 2 back on the menu....

February last year I had tried a lot of my older games to see if they would still run. One I was sorry didn't work was Hidden and Dangerous 2. With the launch of the steam sale I also took a look at gog.com. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they now had H&D2 listed! And at a sale price as well. This version of the game also includes the expansion pack! I immediately clicked to purchase.

https://www.gog.com/game/hidden_dangerous_2_courage_under_fire

The gamplay still stands up even if the graphics have aged. For a game that's almost 14 years old it's not the worst in looks at all. The game drips atmosphere for me, but that may be the nostalgia talking.

I need to find my old saved games next.

A small playthrough from earlier in the year is worth a lil'look from a youtuber called Taff in Exile, for anyone interested in how the game plays.

Hidden & Dangerous 2: Courage Under Fire | Op Snowball | Part 1

Darkest Dungeon.... Build all the things....

I've decided to leave my Radiant run as a 'vanilla' run to continue to build up it's roster, gold and items.

I've made a lot more progress with the expansion in my normal mode run. I'd finished it's content a log time ago so had an excess of characters, gold, trinkets and crests etc. Which has been interesting in it's advantages. With all previous boss's dead and the darkest dungeon cleared I was granted all the blueprints in the game.

 
With my excess of items I was then able to build all the new buildings in one go. Engage smug mode. I still have the vanity building to do ... but I have to have something to work towards ;p

With only the one building left I'm curious if the 3 other blueprints I have left over can be used for something else.... Probably not....

Planetbase.... The Malnutrition shuffle....

Malnutrition..... The biggest PITA when dealing with the fine balances of growing a colony in Planetbase. I've talked about it before but damn it, it's frustrating to fix. The game is a challenge overall.

If one of your colonists eats 10 basic meals in a row they are then classed as malnourished.
When they have that condition it is as debilitating to them in the same way as a broken leg. Unlike a broken leg colonist, the malnourished do not seek help in the med bay to 'fix' their condition. 
They dont' work and they end up roaming your colony looking for a nourishing meal. This malnutrition shuffle is something  my colony gets at around 250 colonists. 250 then drops to 40 in the space of 20 minutes.

There is veg and meat being made but they are so malnourished they dont' work to move it to the canteens. There are about 30 robots to help carry materials but they dont' seem to help solve the problem.

Which all means reloading a saved game from 'before' things gets noticeable. This isn't a perfect way to try and fix it as you tweak one thing and 5 others things change. Not that there is one thing to change to fix this. At least with reloading older saves you can try and head off problems challenges early.

What is making me persist is the game achievement of reaching 300 colonists, getting near that mark and then being hit with a wave of starvation deaths makes me expletive filled.

There doesn't seem to be any quick fix or defined strategy to follow to resolve it. Any advice that is officially given is very vague along the lines of "streamline your colonists movement". An easy thing to say but when you've grown your base to a sprawling size it's hard to do.
Maybe I need more medics to help solve the problem?

Planetbase essentials: FAQ

The most common problems in Planetbase

STO... Sub Sale

It's that time of the year again, STO has a sale for the Lifetime Subscription, with 100 ($/€?) off.
The last sale wasnt' that long ago, last November. The benefits are good and would boost characters a lot. The free Zen each month being a big part.

I've thought about it before and if I played the game a lot more I'd have already payed for this. But I only play the game is short bursts or if there are events that give good benefits. If I was playing continuously....

Worth a mention again is a good review of the pro's an con's of the subscription types from Brent Justice:

  Star Trek Online - Should you Gold? or Lifetime? or Free To Play? - Account

I've got paying for Eve Online on my mind again, the bile in my system seems to have faded enough to allow it's contemplation. At €130 for a year or times two for both accounts (€260), I'm weighing the options that maybe STO is the better option after all. Maybe I should go all in and get the benefits in STO forever rather than access to the other game for a year.

Better off as viewable entertainment....

A game like those of the Dark Souls series for me are unfun frustration to play. Demo's are worth a try and I can get why people like and love the challenge of the gameplay. But some games for me are better off as viewable entertainment via streamers.

TheLazyPeon

Hitman....

The latest Elusive target was released last Friday. Hokkaido is an area I haven't reached yet (I'm being pedantic in completing area's and their challenges before moving onto the next). So with the Elusive target delayed on Friday I did one normal run to get some hands on experience of the level.

I had read that my go to Hitman Youtuber (MrFreeze2244) was streaming live his first attempts so I watched. 

The problem with this new target is that there were three possible people that could be the target.

His solution was worked out with a viewer in his stream. To poison one of the three potential targets then if the challenge completed you got the right person. If it didnt' complete and you got a "non-target" kill you reset and retried the mission.
Seems like a way to game a random mission like this but it worked, I shouldn't complain.

Having only done the area once I'd not unlocked anything but it was a good thing I did the normal mission once. The solution to killing the target required me to smuggle in the poison, completing it once opened up an area that I could use to bring it in.

I only saw that MrFreeze did a basic run video after I'd completed it myself, so my run was slightly different.

I went down the same pipe but waited for the guard to start his phone call, with his back turned I hopped up and subdued him from behind, then hid his body in the same locker as in the video.
I then went up the stairs and like MrFreeze turned off the fuse box. Subduing the chef, hid him and took his uniform. Instead of going back down the stairs, in and around I went directly into the restaurant, waited on the right hand side for the enforcer to walk away form the bar, then I ran over and poisoned the drink. Like MrFreeze I went back out the way I came in. I put on the guards uniform as I thought I needed it and waited up by the helicopter to extract.
Interesting run, it only took me two attempts to complete it.

I didn't even place in the top 1000 but at this stage being late to the party I'm just glad to get Elusive Target kills.

Thank you MrFreeze2244 for your hard work and dedication to the game's community.

MrFreeze2244's Elusive Target #25 - The Fugitive - Mastery Level 1:

 

STO.... The Endeavor System

The notes on the Endeavor system sound interesting. Very much an in game system that will allow for a lot of solo and group content on an ongoing basis. Am looking forward to seeing it in action.

If CCP made Eve with a lot more personal content they would get a lot more players. I would love for them to reimplement a version of the opportunities system. Or even daily "missions" like all their other games seem to have/had.

GRW....

I'm still not a fan that the DLC is completely separated from the main game. But I can live with it.

Re-creating my characters was also a pain but doable and once done I can again live with it.

I've been spending some quality time with all of the characters.

Solo main, solo alt & co-op main:

I took my main into the second DLC rather than continue with Narco Road.

 
I do get a laugh at the Magnum-Pi paint on the helicopters in Narco Road tho...

Fallen Ghosts is a much better addon by a long shot. IMHO. If your an avid GTA fan than Narco Road will please you no end. It's not for me right now. Fallen Ghosts has a better story and a great new enemy faction. 

Starting the DLC as a level 30 you have all the base game skills that a character can have, you then spend more on DLC specific skill's as you go. But I really really miss my 100% rebel skills. I really really, really depend a lot on the rebel spotting ability. I'm missing having the full versions so much.

Most of my game time has been done on my "Solo Alt". Doing the main campaign again. It's been interesting to be doing the missions from alternative angles. Not only in regard to having different weapons or knowing the game better; But getting to know the story and picking up on the little things I missed first time around. As well as hear the female voice acting.
It's also been cool to do a mission with relative ease that on my main had caused massive problems.

Different angles, different opportunities.

I can't fault the game for replayability, it's proving itself to me in that regard.

A picture says a thousand words... so here's 10,000....(Co-op below).

Doing co-op has, like always been a mixed bag. The other players you come across and the way they want to do things or interact can be fun, annoying, strange or all of the above etc.....

For my character I decided to reevaluate his main weapon again. Still keeping it within the 'special' named variants. So that means back to looking at these two:

I finally decided to change his main weapon to the more damaging SIG 556 Llama.  With the LMG being a bullet hose, I needed an accurate weapon with a more damaging single shot rather than another rapid fire weapon.

I've had some interesting games with others. Again you can't tell what happens from one group to the next or from the same group from one encounter to the next. It can all go sideways. With the game having text chat and voice comms it can be very very sideways.

I've have good and bad games. These recent game have mainly been good ones.

But this characters map is as messed up as ever, co-op is not a game type for those with any kind of OCD. There has been no story line following and no straight narrative. Then again I've been doing co-op in a join in and play along way. What can I really expect unless I start calling out the missions that are near for me, trying to rangle a random group is too much hassle, I'll stick to the tag along fun.

I do like his look in the cut-scenes

Not all vehicles have space to shoot from, sometimes you have to roll with what you got.
This one made me feel like a dog, all sway and no control, while I just look out the back window, funny moment in a fire fight.