Happy New Year!!

 Athbhliain faoi shéan is faoi mhaise duit!!

My Gaming....

The gaming journey is ever-ongoing; A hobby that ranges from 'lite' to obsessive.

I did this list in 2018,  this list early in 2019 & updated again in late 2019. Gaming in 2020 is still an all consuming hobby; So with 2020 all but done, here's another blog post to update these lists.

Completed/ 'Considered Done' or Cut(from gaming or the wish-list):

VirtuaVerse - Had me interested but on it's release hasn't pulled me in to buy, it's cut from the wishlist

Foundation (on and off again title for the wishlist) Off now but fun watching it here.

Radio Commander(With DLC), here and here.completed

Farm Simulator 17 (oddly addictive, even for me, farm yard organisational micromanagement) on and off but no longer list worthy

Minecraft (on and off, plus the new changes) patches will bring this back....very on and off - Just faffing about(list limbo on and off like so many others).

Totally Accurate Battle Simulator (t'was but a fun faff!)

Rebel Galaxy (my post here)

Hordes.IO (My post here was positive but the novelty wore off as the grind set in.)

RUINER (good game but not holding my long-term interest)

Missionforce - Cyberstorm (from gog - my post here) - revisit and nostalgia done, on and off but not list worthy

Phoenix Point (Epic store again) Reviews say it needs a lot of work yet! (They are right)

Dawn of Man (On again / Off again).on and off for sure Blog worthy but not list worthy..... 

Surviving Mars  -  Faded away....

Divinity Original Sin 2   -   Cut....

Battletech   -   done   -   really done.

Dead Cells - Bad Seed DLC etc  - Done and Done....

Besiege (fun is fun but a very short term game for me)

8-Bit Armies

Overcrowd A Commute 'Em Up

Poly Bridge 2   -   Another game faded over time.

Cold Waters - Dropped.

Mechwarrior 5 Mercenaries (10th Dec'19 but on Epic) Reviews say it needs a lot of work yet.....So maybe by the time it hits Steam! - Well it hit the MS store and Game pass ultimate but it's a no from me... Post is here.

Domina (on and off or until the next patch, "Bleed on!") Beta and potential expansions make this on and off again.... Another for blogging, not for listing.

Darkest Dungeon has seen a resurgence on and off over years - with my thinking about the second game.... Darkest Dungeon©: The Butcher's Circus was fun for a hot minute. Nothing to prove anymore. - And then back on, see currently playing.

Assassin's Creed Origins - Done.

Crying Suns - The journey goes on - The journey got done.

Space Hulk Tactics  (mentioned here)(On PC through Xbox Ultimate) Purchased on Steam, from good sale but had enough!

And these 7 games all dropped from the wishlist - explained here.
  Praetorians - HD 
  For the Warp
  Starbase
  Sociable Soccer - Apple store pfft!
  Command & Conquer Remastered Collection
  Post Scriptum
  Hell Let Loose On and off the wishlist again...

Elite Dangerous (Free from Epic)

Frostpunk? depends on gameplay via ultimate - tried on PC via Xbox Ultimate

John Wick Hex looks good in trailers but delayed with the Epic store.....til Dec 2020 - bad reviews re animations. Even on sale price game isn't 'worth it'.

Tetris® Effect Connected  (PC via Xbox Ultimate) - Cleared area's(completed campaign), done world challenges etc.etc.etc.etc. 

Currently Playing:

Two Point Hospital (done but some DLC and events are ongoing)  - Here and again here and research projects as ever.

Euro Truck Simulator 2 - Road to the Black Sea(events like here and here / extra (Beyond the Baltic Sea DLC) - Waiting for Iberian DLC now(Euro Truck Simulator 2 - Iberia). Great game(8 min review of 2020 content) 

Hitman 2 (this may take a little more time(inc Legacy Pack)depends on enthusiasm(it waned)) - back again..............................On the very long finger with a hint of being dropped altogether.

EA PLAY ON ULTIMATE  - https://acasualcarebear.blogspot.com/2020/12/ea-play.html

Gunjack - Nearly done.

Stardew Valley - Patch 1.5 adds so much more!

Darkest Dungeon - NG+ save

Fights in Tight Spaces - Prologue "Demo"

Ongoing Online Games:

EVE Online (ish)

Star Trek Online (very, very, very, very, very ongoing(*), and then some). As well as on Xbox.

Battlefield 1  (I got some game.... & here.....& here...... Bit more here and here) and here Oh yea!

Started but on the long finger:

(the uphill gaming struggle is real!) 

Yes, Your Grace - But no 'serious playthrough of it yet....

Beat Saber - Just bought

Democracy 4 - Just bought

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw - Just bought

Genesis Alpha One - bla bla bla Epic - Out on Steam now but needs to be cheaper; Got it at half price..... Kind of wondering why I got it now....!?!

The Witcher® 3(plus all the DLC's etc) Waiting to put 1000 hours into it.... when I get time....never?

XO- waiting for more updates

UBOAT  - waiting for more updates

An Xbox side-note - Xbox One - Whole other ball game....
I still have slow progress in Red Dead 2 and Far Cry Primal, with a side of World of Tanks, Star Trek Online with some random Hitman 2 and Battlefield 1 fun). Oh and Aragami as well.



WISHLIST(of interest):

(In no particular order)

Subnautica: Below Zero ('waiting' for 'full release' or sale....maybe both)

Journey To The Savage Planet (Epic store exclusive  but Steam in 2021)

Beat Saber - (See currently playing above)

Democracy 4 (dec 2020 sale?) - (See currently playing above)

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw - was another epic exclusive. - Due late Sept 2020 sale price Dec 2020? - (See currently playing above)

Fights in Tight Spaces - (Steam 2021)

Hitman 3 - Undecided but is another Epic deal but Steam in 2021. - Very Meh about this one.

The Last Night (still waiting, so much up in the air).

Maneater - yet another one on epic store first - steam TBA?

Massive Galaxy - 2021? release date

They Are Billions (sale, no, a better sale price please? OR free with EA Play on Xbox Ultimate?)

Star Citizen.............. Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh still waiting? lol, Vaporware!!!!!!!!!!

Euro Truck Simulator 2 - Iberia - waiting for DLC delayed release date.....

Evil Genius 2: World Domination - Epic store first(sigh) - Steam 2021

12 minutes - steam 2021

Torchlight III - mixed reviews, even on sale price, am undecided......Very undecided....

Starmancer - release date? 'Soon'

Mini Motorways - 2021

They are Billions? - depends on gamplay via EA Play via Ultimate - may buy to keep

Need for Speed™ Hot Pursuit Remastered - am still unsure?

Astrox Imperium - Interesting to watch on youtube but not 100% sold on playing.....

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition....maybe?

And I call myself a 'casual' gamer....

....at least once....

Fights in Tight Spaces....

Fights in Tight Spaces; A really interesting game! Especially now that John Wick Hex isn't as smooth a game as (I) expected! I've not played JW Hex but from what I've seen it's a bit disjointed and that jankiness is off-putting. Fights in Tight Spaces, once I'd seen it, I wanted to play it and as it's prologue is free I did. It has ticked all the boxes wish-listed it. 

Fights in Tight Spaces combines a lot of 'cool' mechanics(rogue lite, card, turn based puzzle, secret agent, fighter). Combine all that with the visuals and music; It all works for me. Heartily recommend it and as the Prologue is free.... Give it a try!

Games main Steam page(release 2021): 
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1265820/Fights_in_Tight_Spaces/

Free Prologue(to try now): 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1478070/Fights_in_Tight_Spaces_Prologue/

Here's some of my gameplay:

A Casual Carebear Gamer

Day's of Unlockable's....

The last few days has seen some new games purchased, as well as a lot of the 'winter' events in games come to a conclusion.

New games:

Democracy 4, Rebel Galaxy Outlaw and Beat Saber; though I've barely scratched the surface of them so far.

As well as DLC for Two Point Hospital. The Culture Shock DLC. Which should be interesting.

The DLC, at least in my head can't be disassociated from Duke Kaboom. 

Unlocked events:

ETS 2 had the bulk of it's winter objectives done, personal and community. 

Two Point Hospital is 50% done on it's current winter project. 

The first unlock reward 'ice fountain' is at least to me a bit underwhelming. It's a bit big to use in the majority of my hospital server rooms.

Over on Star Trek Online I'm still pottering away as I really like that event.

This years reward ship has been claimed on both Xbox....

.... And on PC.

It's a better ship than I thought but I'm sure that my best of inventory fit is an abomination to those out there that are leetist stat savvy.

Still it's a fun ship to blast about in.

Last but not least, and not a winter event but here it is anyway...... Tetris Effect got it's December update which finally add's VR. 

For me VR does nothing to boost my Tetris Effect experience. It comes off as an impractical gimmick; Pity as it was the last thing I was hanging on to see in the game....

Unreal Tournament....

Going though some old software and saves I came across a zipped folder of my original Unreal Tournament install(from 1999/00's). Which still works on a Win 10 PC(same one I mentioned here a few years ago). 

A real blast from the past to see the old local stats being processed for matches from 2003!

Nostalgia got the better of me so I did a few matches, as I used to do against bots. Still a fun game, even with a bot match. 

I may have only hit a returning stride halfway through the first match but here's the full first match:

A Casual Carebear Gamer

Euro Truck Simulator....

Euro Truck Simulator, yea the first one. 

https://eurotrucksimulator.com/

Curiosity and a google search brought me to the v1.3 demo (a version build from 2009 it seems). 

The demo is timed (1 hour) and ran under Windows 10 with no problem for me.

There's some nice options to alter in game for 'modern' systems.

Having only known ETS 2 it was a strange feeling to be sitting in the first game and have so much that was both familiar and not(game manual). I really was surprised at the looks. Not just that it's an over 10 year old game(it is of it's time); But that so many in game assets are familiar from seeing them in ETS 2. ETS is the real DNA of the second game. More so than I would have thought. ETS a proud parent indeed.  

However no 'licensed' trucks to see here, the in game names have been changed. Like a lot of other games alternative names are used to mimic out of game brands(Scania = Swift, Volvo = Valiant, Mercedes = Majestic). Not that it really matters for gameplay.

Options in the game world are bare-bones compared to ETS 2, like the menu's; Functionality over form. Still not a bad thing. Again the base DNA of ETS 2 shows through.

ETS 2 may do a lot more than just a custom paint job but all things start somewhere. If there was no 'change' option for paint colours in ETS it would have been a bigger deal in ETS 2.

While there's so much that's familiar there are two things that stuck out to me about the trucks with an ETS 2 eye(and ear). 

On the minus side(a big one for me) Truck physics are like driving a top heavy wet sponge on ice; Controlling them is an understatement in overcompensation. Takes some getting used to, even after 40 minutes I was put off by it(yet I wanted more).

On the Plus side. The trucks have some basic yet great sound effects. The working clunk and shuffle of the trucks in action; Like the pneumatic's hissing a few seconds after stopping. It's all more pronounced and good to hear. I need to readjust ETS 2 audio to bring those out more.

From the basics to the advanced looking back at ETS and knowing ETS 2 there are two sayings that are very true going between the games. 

          - The more things change the more they stay the same. 

          - If it ain't broke don't fix it(enhance it!).

Driver progression....

The job points at depots and the UI are basic, functional and so familiar. 

Otherwise I can see what was and why it was added or 'upgraded' in ETS 2.

Like the map and a lack of GPS..... Driving via road signs for directions.... All the time... shocking! Almost like it's a real simulation or something...... I jest, I jest! :) 

The more I've played the demo the more I've seen and appreciate it and what was taken into ETS 2(really is more than people know). P still turns on the wipers. L still toggles lights. Indicators, Parking break and Horn, they all activate the same way as ETS 2. It's easy to see how things in ETS 2 have developed/progressed. Jobs still work the same way(mostly). Sleeping, refueling and repairing all act the same way in ETS. All familiar but a little different.

For an 'older' game it's visuals aren't off-putting. Picture is worth a thousand words....

If it wasn't for the handling of the trucks I'd be spending more time with the demo and probably consider getting the full game on this winters Steam sale for €.99 cent. ETS, good to see, if not to stay. If the demo wasn't timed I think I'd potter about with it some more, maybe even looking forf a mod or two. I've not tried resetting/reinstalling it and it's really not that important to me. Not even the full game on sale is now tempting. So like I said, glad to see and be in for some retro show and tell but back to ETS 2 for me. Time for me to stop waffling now.....

*EDIT(14-04-2022)

SCS have updated the old ETS 2 trailer with a 2022 version! ETS, ETS 2, a long way traveled, more road to go!

SCS Software