Eve Online....

Both my "main" Alpha accounts (PvP and PvE) are doing nothing but skilling up alt haulers that don't need those skills to haul. I can't get into any activities with them and when I do start I seem to almost immediately stop.

Eve Online overall has been distilled down to an inactive wait.  I've shelved everything else bar those two accounts and my older trial Amarr character.

I've finished off that Amarr Alpha's rep grind. All I need to do is wait for his skills to max out and then finalise his gear and ships and that will be another finished book on the shelf.

Overall I've got a PvE character I could be working with. A PvP character I could start doing something with. And on the long finger (long long long finger) three alphas I could run as ninjas.
As I've said before it comes down to time and effort but more and more I need to get the motivation to actually try and put time and effort in. That's a me thing as much as the game itself.

_____________________

The Agency is not worth doing, the rewards are no incentive, you can make more profit running level 3's for the same amount of time than doing anything the agency would want you to do.

The in development video showed whats being worked on. Like most things it's hard to keep all the people happy all the time (like me). The constant polish and graphical work is always welcome. It's always nice to see a better looking game.  Quality of life changes? I'm sure they will be good. There is nothing else that affects my game time let alone anything that would make me want to pay for the privilege.

The Tech 3 cruisers still worked out well fit wise but not having a paid character to fly and test makes me wonder how they would work in combat but I'm not wondering that much.

Pirate shipyards and a new pirate capital etc.... Not for a solo carebear so I've no interest.

Moon mining again an activity for the big player groups in Eve, or high end subbed solo players... I don't care about it.

Exo Planets... I dont' care about the activity and can buy the reward skins off the market.


Alliance tournament.... again big group stuff that I've never had any interest in watching ./ignore

Captains quarters are going and I hope they will be back in a form that really means walking in stations.

_____________________

delonewolf has some interesting video's worth a watch.

EVE Online - it's not PLEX, it's extractors 

EVE Online - the updated agency

GRW...

It's become slow going to gain the points to count down to tier 1.

I have two Tier boosters that last an hour each, I'll plan some activities that maximise those but otherwise the casual nature isnt' doing enough to level with speed anymore.

New Challenges may help in the future....

Darkest Dungeon....

After an initial scouting run into the 3rd and final part of the Crimson Court, I'm stuck getting back into it again. Not because of any lack of ability but because I can't get an invitation to drop that allows me to enter it.
All I can do is proceed to do normal run's and hope a group will appear with an invite.

I think I still like jesters, despite the "nerf" that has happened.... I've not seen any decline in his abilities. I've never run a finale jester... maybe that's where they hit the stats....

Star Trek.... In name only

Such a pity the new series is crippled by corporate needs. One I'll be ignoring for sure... Well I'll probably watch it for the sake of it but I'll not be considering it as Star Trek.... If that makes any sense....

At least there is hope in something with intentional fun in The Orville.

Worth a watch to make sense of Discovery (I will not use it's initials) so far:

Midnight's Edge

BF1.... Apt Timing

I took the time to complete the trial version of the main campaign in BF1. While I still have a few hours left I've been enjoying the Multiplayer side. I saw a new apt video on Machinima worth sharing:

Battlefield 1 Bootcamp - What Really Grinds My Gears! (BF1)

Battlefield 1....

I was tempted to try a PC trial version of Battlefield 1. Straight up although I've played a few hours I won't be getting the game, that's not to say I haven't enjoyed my time. I'll play out the remaining time of the trial or at least most of it. But it is expensive to buy. The game, add on's or season pass and then a few other DLC/content shortcut packs and your talking well into the €150 ish range.

Unlike my time in BF4 I'm late to the BF1 party, so as a newborn noob, a newborn trial noob at that; I'm massively behind in the gear curve. I can confirm that by the large exotic, perked up range of weapons I've been killed with.

I've been in a wide range of matches, wins, defeats and some fun one on one moments. Shooting horse mounted enemies with a machine gun is extremely satisfying. What strikes me as a real winner is the change of platform, all my other Battlefield games have been on an xbox 360. This PC trial allowing greater numbers of players per match as well as a proper way to accurately control aiming makes me wish I'd have gone to PC with more of the BF shooters. That's a whole other story that would fill volumes.

Battlefield 1 is a great game, in looks and gameplay balance. Despite my being a newborn I wasn't as frustrated as in other games when getting one shotted from behind. I've been getting decent games, or at least it feels that way. For once I felt more drawn to the multiplayer side before the solo campaign.

I also like the way they have integrated the main menu to have a tab system to switch between the different games, BF1, BF4, Hardline etc. Again this is the first of the PC version(s) I've seen so it may be an old feature but it is one I really like.

If I end up getting this game when it's cheaper it may be too late as the next version of BF will be out and the playerbase will have moved on.

On a side note it's interesting to me to see that BF4 on the Xbox has no players where BF 2 still has a large enough playerbase. Snipers with arti binoculars in BF2 must have been the real winner ;-p

Darkest Dungeon....

This is getting rediculous, gold no longer has any value....

No Man's Sky....

If there is an update in the next few week of two I hope it gives players valuable changes/updates/content.... It's been a long time since I've been in the game, but I can't keep up with any of the cryptic B.S.


https://www.vg247.com/2017/07/10/no-mans-sky-arg-hints-that-an-update-is-on-the-horizon-for-august/


http://steamcommunity.com/app/275850/discussions/0/2333276539598701850/


http://steamcommunity.com/app/275850/discussions/0/1291817837636739052/?tscn=1497655114

Kyle Culver

GRW...

Season 3 did indeed start with the three witches as a challenge. Thankfully once the patch was out and the season started I was able to complete it in one go.

GRW....

With my recent chopper flight control up's and down's no longer being an issue normal gameplay has resumed. I've not come across any further "quirks" since the install file verification.

My main has done a lot less than before so has only progressed a small way on to Tier 26.

A reward of facepaint is lost on my style of characters.

My favourite region in the game is the salt flats in the North West corner of the map. It has it all. Small bases, large bases, patrols and convoy's. Koani my happy hunting grounds.

My secondary character based around SMG/LMG weapons has completed the main campaign.

The last few missions let her level the tiers quite quickly but I doubt I'll be playing further on to Tier 1 with her. If I get my main there it will be an effort.

Yet again I've enjoyed seeing the game campaign from another angle. Being set with an P90 she has needed to be more of an infiltrator, low and slow to win the day.

I was glad to have maxxed out the perk/buff's tree's.

Like my main, my second character has now "parked up" on the salt flats of Koani.

My third character is a true ongoing mystery even to me.
10 levels away from the max of 30 never mind entering the Tier system.

Set as a pure co-op character I've not done a lot in anticipation of using my main in co-op instead. That hasnt' turned out to be true as co-op with my main is a P.I.T.A. Doing things solo is both faster and efficient with regard to time, tier upgrading and resource gathering. So my grey man is back to being 'THE' co-op character. Just to mess about with and 'enjoy' the co-op 'fun'/'madness' etc....
As such I decided to bin the idea of him just using the special preset weapons. A nice idea that had worked till now but practicality is making me choose the G36C Assault rifle and the HTI sniper rifle.
Both weapons have very basic upgrades and I'm in no way shape of form going to hunt down the best parts I would like. 

The USG Pistol was the only one I actively searched parts for, waaaaaaaaaaay back when I created him first. 

 
So what he has is all he has got until he joins in a game and happens across upgrades. Maybe it's more pain than it's worth but at least with both a silenced assault and sniper rifle he will be more use as an active member rather than hanging back as backup when things "go loud".

STO...

I've seen a lot of custom characters in Star Trek Online. People seem to favour the 'alien' race and have them be either very very tall or extremely short. It does be comical.
There are also those that theme their characters, role players to a tee.

Today I saw a character that was pure awesomeness personified. Usually I wouldn't mention another characters name but I doubt that this player would mind any attention/mention. Count Dracula. Briefly seen by the bank and while I didnt' get to offer a whisper, I did get an image.....

LMAO.... Kudo's, Count, Major Kudo's!

Darkest Dungeon....

With taking down the Viscount I've been doing a lot of short veteran dungeons to quickly run the turns and allow a lot of disease removal and quirk treatment.
For some reason I found the first Crimson Court boss a lot harder to kill than the second.
The RNG favoured my crew this time round.

A few more turns should see my roster in peek form to face the Countess.

Kingdoms and Castles....

Kingdoms and Castles is a simple, no frills, medieval city builder. The levels of difficulty are more pronounced beyond the first level as there are invaders that pillage and plunder your land. That first level of difficulty is a 'Peaceful mode' in all but name. Time enough to learn the game and then move on to endure those invasions. The game has no complex 500 level tech trees but there is enough variety to make a difference.

  
While I was attracted by it's fun looks, the combination of simple gameplay and price didnt' hurt either. It's another cheap (€9.99) game on steam and gog.com. I've been more into games that allow quick fun game sessions of late. This game fits that bill nicely where Planetbase, Cities Skylines or Banished would require a lot more time and thought.

I find it funny that the games comments section is filled with commenters/trolls complaining about the lack of complexity. I think they are missing the point.  

The developers also seem to have a set plan of updates large and small which is also a selling point.

A good review worth a watch:

Flickering Myth

GRW.... Back in action....

My frustration with latest patch had been mainly with the changes to the helicopter controls. Despite altering the settings to use the older 'classic' controls the game was or seemed stuck in between the old and new settings. For example turning off mouse control in the flight settings made no difference, the helicopter could still be affected via mouse movement.
So in playing the game ignoring the choppers I started to notice other settings not saving or working properly. Hud options were missing, turned on but not showing like the intel indicators, XP/tier gain etc. With a lack of talk on the net about these problems being widespread I decided to verify my game install. After verificatrion low and behold I was able to fly in classic mode the way I did before the patch.... Frustration eliminated.

War....

With Dunkirk (2017) being hailed as the new summer blockbuster I thougth I'd mention a film and a docudrama that do a better job of depicting the events and telling a story you will remember.
With director Chris Nolan talking about a story that needs to be told I didn't think he would rip off "pay homage" to the classic movie as much as he did. What really struck me to comment on this new film are the similarities between this years new movie and the older 1958 classic. With Dunkirk (1958 film) being by far a much more well balanced movie.
The docudrama I'd like to mention is Dunkirk (TV series), a three part BBC docudrama covering the battle and evacuation. Which funnily enough casts a then little actor called Beedict Cumberbatch.

I own both the older film and docudrama on DVD, history/war nerd/buff that I am. I won't be owning the new 2017 Dunkirk on any format.
 

 P.S.

And for anyone still reading this and interested an episode of the documentary series War Walks by Richard Holmes about Dunkirk is also worth a look....

Darkest Dungeon....

Unlike some streamers I've been watching I have only just met the Fanatic in combat. The streamers would only have one or two cursed hero's and they would have to fight the Fanatic. I've been running full cursed groups run after run and not seen him. Until now. It's an interesting fight but thankfully I got some good RNG, heals and DPS against him to make it through without a loss.

 Part of the rewards for the fight are some vials of precious, precious curse cure.

I've already used one on a hero from my "normal" roster that had to fill in for a cursed crew member. Yes I've been keeping my rosters separated. Makes sense to me. This way I dont' mind if all my crimson court crew get cursed, par fro the course. But if my older normal roster do need to fill in and get cursed, there is a way out. And it's been used.... I do need to be careful...

The fight goes on....

It's been strange to not need heirlooms or gold. I have more than I need. So going through dungeons I still have to fight the urge to hoard, to remind myself I don't need gold, jewels or crests. My priority is on what money can't buy, blood vials, trinkets or scrounged resources (food, tinder, torches).
 
The bank does make for a very interesting numbers game.

Squad....

The last three years has seen me make a comment about Squad. For some reason I found it amusing that the old posts could be ordered by year. First in 2015, a few weeks later in 2016 and most recently April this year when they did a free weekend. As I said then it's one worth keeping an eye on. Also the frequency I'm posting about it seems to be increasing... Interest is rising.
What brings it to mind again now is a recent video from the AngryJoeShow.

 AngryJoe Plays Squad! [Alpha Impressions] 

WoW....

Things to do at 3.a.m when neither myself or my wife could sleep.....

3a.m.

4a.m.

An hours entertainment, two new level 10's never to be seen again....

I did find it funny how limited her account was since her game time ran out. My account still has a week or so left to it. It's playable for free but it's limited in everything. No trading between players was a big one noticed. Talk about returning to grass roots.

GRW....

Heli, o heli, where art thou my 'classic' heli. The 'new' controls are definitely designed for console game owners or those that play the pc version with a controller (very weird).

I've been changing lots of options again.. After turning off the controller option and turning the heli sensitivity down to 10% the heli in 'new' mode is so arcadey it makes me want to vomit. Making the controls 'classic' does nothing to change the way the heli works and it's frustrating as fffffffffff**k.
If only it would return to the way it was. It's so bad that it's a disincentive to playing the game.

Of the game I have been playing my main is observing some strange post patch activity. Like trucks getting stuck in the road. They may be easy pickings but still....

My second character, my smg/lmg play through is stalled as heli's are the best way to move and I dot' want to spend 20 minutes driving somewhere. Heli's in their current condition .... well you get the point. Insert profanity here, here, here and here.

The Witch Easter Egg in the game is interesting, both in the locations and what it may be leading to. Not to mention the "hilarity" of how to fly a helicopter in classic mode when it feels like frustrating 'new' mode, mumble, mumble.... Did I mention that before.....

Getting to see the witches hut, seeing the birds fly away, activating the three alters where they land and then trying to do the sacrifice.  

I say trying because at the max game difficulty due to the Tier system, the sacrifice one shots me when I get near.... flashbangs more flashbangs..... all the flashbangs..... He must have earplugs and special sunglasses....

 
Good video's done by Carbon Meister are a condensed version of the community information, worth the watch....

Ghost Recon Wildlands - 3 Witches Sacrifice Ritual!