ETS 2....

Trucking is trucking. The larger the organisation you have the longer it takes to be a micromanaging nit picker. Even for me the task of redoing all trailers for all garages was too much. I didn't want to spend game-time selling hundreds of trailers only to then setup a company trailer template(x6+). Then go buy and locate each trailer individually for each garage(6-12 times for 170 garages). ETS 2 is a company management sim but there are some large task time savers still missing!

So my time in game boiled back down to more generalised management and setups as well as more achievement hunting.

Of course there were snags along the way.

In doing a lot of consolidation faffing about I found 2 trucks that had 'disappeared' which was nice.
Specifically, when I'd changed home base for my character I left a truck behind but had then sold the building it was in. The game puts that homeless truck in the nearest open slot making it 'lost' to me. Guess I did that trick twice. I've got a lot of garages. No great loss as both were 'expendable', with no real expense/upgrades or special features. Still nice to get them back due to the hours and distances they had clocked up(again a me thing).

Easy to see I'm into the micromanagement when I have a fully upgraded garage with 5 top of the line, favorite, personally tweaked trucks as a HQ.... But a small garage with 3 no frill trucks as my local 'current' DLC workhorses.

I used to do that a lot with racing games. On my left the large pristine garage with the supreme collection of 50 high end cars and an army of mechanics to pamper them..... On my right the small shed with the handful of cars that are driven into the ground as I giggle.

Fun is fun.

Two Point Hospital....

Still such a disappointing level of interest in the latest projects last nodes. Today only saw an increase of 93 (8 hours on a Saturday (Ireland time CET -1) evening/night; When the bulk of European time zone players 'should' have been on. The numbers went from 2437 to 2533 of the 3000 needed). Slower than watching paint dry. Tortuously slow.

It's no-ones fault if the game is out of favour and the playerbase is all but gone but that should be recognized by the devs. If an event like this is not completed and pushes the community too far that's not a good thing to put on show. Not good either if the devs allocate the last 'prize' out of pity to the community; If that happened no-one would do anything thinking the devs will just give it out anyway.

I can't find any details of these events being shared across platforms. Would be good to get the entire Two Point community doing these. Especially now that console players outnumber the PC players in activity.

Still this is a long bank holiday weekend, all is not lost........ yet......................................

AdventureQuest 3D....

Yesterday I took a look at a game, AdventureQuest 3D.

TheLazyPeon did an entertaining and informative first impressions on it. His vid is well worth a watch. It was enough for me to take a gander at the game.

I like the art style.

As well as it's sense of humour.

Travel forms are fun, if a limited consumable.

At least most things can be an applied cosmetic, so it's all on for showing off.

It's got so many hints of many other MMO's that its got a familiar and comfortable feel.
I mean the first town I got into as a human looks like a cross between Goldshire and Stormwind from WoW!

All said and done I think I only spent about 30 minutes in the game. Not a fair amount of time to offer real praise or to completely slate it.

I like the idea of a multi platform/platform switching RPG MMO. It's a game that covers a lot of MMO bases while not taking itself too seriously. It's fun to play without the need to be serious about it. If you do get into it and take it seriously I have a feeling it's gonna both destroy your soul and take your cash as it does so.

I think a player needs to be self aware about sinking cash into this game, one that's not really worth it(imho). I'm sure there's dedicated devs behind it but for me there are better games out there for that. Then again I think most triple A games aren't worth constant paying cash for; That doesn't include subscription based MMO's. A whole other tangent.

This game is free to get into; If you like it and have disposable income to dispose of, well different strokes for different folks. Once your having fun it's all fair enough.

There's a lot to like about this game. I'm sure as it's developed it'll be even better. I'm not sure it'll get any more complex; That might be the curse of cross platform, the lowest common denominator is king.

This game is what it is, without spending cash ... A fun little faff (imho). It's free and fun and not spending a lot of time in it was enough for me. Plus the 'install' size is tiny.
For me this was fun to try and but not to stay. If I'm going to even pay on a limited bases and grind I'd rather do it with a WoW sub and I'm so far from that.

On a side note it's the first MMO I've come across that has given me a random name and then said it was an invalid name.

Yes the random name generation gave me this name.

Then disallowed it. I can see why.

If it had actually allowed that autogen name I'd probably have spent more time in the game.

WoW has a lot to answer for....

On another side note this game has me thinking of returning to try out Hordes.io again. So many updates since I last posted about it. Hordes.io is a more quirky, more meaningful(I think), mainly PvP game.... I'd still not spend cash on that either so yea different strokes for different folks.

Hmmmmm Albion Online is also another free option I might try....

Two Point Hospital....

I've a feeling that Two Point Hospital is now in a stage of it's life akin to an aging rock star that can't fill a small theater.......

The latest global/group project has been stalled for days. Painstakingly so. The task is a basic one so the any player with a few hours of game time could help contribute.

I've seen reddit posts with players trying to whip up support.

On a side note I've been miffed at the negative near review bomb comments of the game. I've been miffed at certain things in the game but that's games in general. These things happen as nothing is perfect. With nearly 280 hours in game and lots of content I've not yet touched; It's weird to me to see someone with 2, 3 or even 10 hours of gameplay giving a 50 point personal view on what the devs should have done. I'm guilty of doing stuff like that as well but not on a public forum to the devs faces. Just this blog... My own little echo chamber. I don't have the pretentious ego to stand up on a 'real' public stage after 1 hour of gameplay and give a lecture. I do try and be balanced with a side of personal preference and state as much. Much better to faff about and post a blog with personal views and opinions(my waffle proviso). Anyway. One thing in a lot of the comments is that Two Point is repetitive(build hospital rooms, hire staff, cure patients), which I crack up laughing at. Imagine if you will a game, with guns, guns that need you to constantly shoot bullets with. Then have a reviewer/commenter complain that every time they are in the game they need to do the same 'shooting' mechanic in game. 'So repetitive'. Then they leave a long comment/review about how the game sucks because of it's repeditive shooting and 100 things the devs need to change. Talk about 'can't see the forest for the trees'.

 

Which inevitably brings me back to my problem. With luck the project will be completed this weekend if/when more players get time to turn up and do it.

Two Point Hospital....

Training, cash, more training, several missed targets due to the odd % below the needed mark made the third star a longer then needed win. Just takes time to get the cash to train the staff to cure the patients and then win the wave with a decent hospital setup. Bit of a grind but I'll take it.

Good to get REMIX v2 done.

Games with Gold....

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse looks like a great game, interesting mechanics and enemies. Games like it are very hot or cold for me. Sometimes I can embrace them (Dead Cells) or become frustrated by them (Meatboy). Free is free and a claimed game always has future potential.

Coffee Talk - A game that only came out last January.... But to good reviews.
I've never really been into any 'visual novels'. Given I could never even read quest text in mmo's without skipping....... I doubt I'll be playing this game.

Barista simulator with a side of barman intrigue chat......

Destroy all Humans, a real blast from the past. A game and a franchise that never 'did' anything for me gameplay wise. It always struck me as a not so funny/quirky Mars Attacks try hard. Not for me. Another claim and no play.

Sine Mora - Another interesting looking game. A shoot'em'up up with some good looking style. Quick blasting fun.

Sine and Shantae are both games I think I'll try when I claim them so not bad.

Battlefield 1....

The 50th Mashup video has been a long time coming. Not least because the last few months has seen me super faffing about with the game, the footage captured and trying to piece together something 'fitting' for a 50th vid... All to no avail. So back to basics. Literally. I had a great game in the last week that typified my Battlefield 1 experience. Action speaks louder than words.

The long:

A Casual Carebear Gamer

& the short of it:

Horizon Chase Turbo....

It's been a game I've neglected for a while(a year since I last posted). I've seen and read about it's updates/special events but I never really got back to it(currently 75% off on steam). The last week and some insomnia proved motivation enough to faff about with it again. A new mode for beginners was introduced as a free dlc. I'd not seen or taken part in it before so it proved easy fun given the circumstances.

The game is still as fun as I remembered from the start; This new 'easy' content is super easy. What threw me so far was a new(new to me) track in Greece, Santorini. Not that I didn't win, just the track textures make me cross eyed....

A Casual Carebear Gamer

XO....

XO; While still a game in 'early access', it is 'available'. As much as I'm itching to really play it I've kept my distance.  No need to hammer away at a game only to have it reset progress after an update.

It's a game in a similar situation like UBOAT; It's been getting some really great updates and it's been hard not to dip my toe. Worth putting on the back burner for my own sanity. Still tempting tho....

Silent Hunter III....

Silent Hunter III is a game you can really have a lot of fun with. A good part of the game are the anywhere save points (bar when in combat). A save before an engagement can let you 'test the waters' so to speak; And to push the limits and see what you can try and get away with. Or aim for perfection. When all fails you can then revert to that last save and act like nothing happened.
It's handy to save and then do a convoy attack, do the attack and then save once it's done. You can reload and redo this process and keep the best run save. That really is gaming the system and it's a lot of 'work'; But if there's fun and motivation then why not.

The last two patrols, getting back into the game this year have been plagued by allied air-power.

More now than I remember from 'back in the day'. While it's good/enjoyable/doable to defend yourself against one or two planes; once you get spotted it's like you face off with waves if ever increasing reinforcement numbers. Now the A.I. isn't the best but in large numbers they are a pain. My preferred defence is to dive to periscope and quietly move on. However given the amount of attacks and my 'aggravation' at those planes I wanted to see how I could push things.

Very defendable as it turns out but at the cost of hull.......

A Casual Carebear Gamer

Time to reload.....

STO....

Today saw the final daily needed for this second round/event of the current campaign. So I got to claim the Kidd drones.

Doing the TFO has let me see the random players out there; And a lot of well equipped players there are.

I've not used the new drones in combat/ground but I'm sure they will be better than the previous (equipment rep)drone which was useless to me and fragile like glass in a fight. Indeedy these drones should be better then the original grenade I had equipped.

Still there's something not right with this picture....

I'm looking forward to the summer event. A new ship is always good as well....

Two Point Hospital....

The struggle is real. The second map is just as much of an uphill struggle as the first. An exercise in management and balance.

Thankfully if you miss a timed objective it's replaced with a non timed multi-objective version. Still it took time to get there in the end.

'Somewhat Impressive' eh ... Don't care, level is done!

Two down, one to go.

Given what I've heard form my wife the third map has wave based objectives. Not the worst given the right preparations.

The superbug project goes on. I've been enjoying it a lot. It's also easy to see that more of the objectives get completed during the European time zones then the U.S. Tis just interesting to see it on a global scale.

Mechwarrior 5....

I gave Mechwarrior 5 one more try before uninstalling it. I guess that last part gives away what I finally thought of it. Welcome to my echo chamber.

I think my disappointment from my enthusiasm and expectation for this new mech game had gotten in the way of me liking it. It does have it's good points. A good aesthetic. I just expected more and better from it so my disappointment is larger than perhaps it should be if I was being more 'objective'. Lots of gamers will see this as their first mech (PC)game; Egged on by the rose tinted glasses of older game hype recalling 'back in the day'. Not to mention Mechwarrior Online.

I still can't help but think of this game as the Mechassault of it's day. Not a bad game, maybe even a good game. A take on the franchise in it's way. The same formula but skewed in a different form from what came before it. A bit too different from what I want. So I'm biased from the start.

The more I played the more the little things 'got to me'. So I restarted the campaign from scratch again, just to see if that made a difference. See if I'd missed something or could pick up on some nuance that would make it 'click'. It didn't.

Mech's, no matter the size still feel like hovercraft to me. The boulders you trod over do break if they are big enough but don't effect your stride. Not until they are so big(like a mountain) that they halt your progress entirely.

There being no way to alter the company logo... Only the name... In an escape from a system where your hunted... You can't change the logo..... Only the name of your company. Bugged me no end.

Mech shutdowns are only a software reboot and nothing to do with heat. Even on a cold snow covered rock you'd think there'd be more heat dissipation....I complained about that before in my last post. Feels like I might as well get out and blow on it for greater effect.
It's a big part of mech management so it's another splinter I can't ignore. A shutdown used to last longer and had meaning for heat clearance. This current system smacks so hard as an Online carryover. Yea it really got to me.

This is only compounded when you need to destroy a base, each shot of my lasers overheating my mech, yet each shot only doing a few % damage. Took forever! That's not fun gameplay.

Looking back at Mech 2 combat it still feels a lot more 'impactful' than Mech 5. Mech 5 is too fast....
It's easier to now see the Mechwarrior Online influences in Mech 5. Mech 5 shouldn't be akin to a first person shooter. It should be World of Tanks!

Then again maybe this is all gone way to 'arcadey' and I should take it as such.... No thanks. There is a balance that should have been struck! It's a missed opportunity in my book. "a lesser son of greater sires".

I'm an old dog and this new trick goes too far. My immersion in this game never happened.
It's a lot of small things but they take me out of the game more and more....
Am I taking it too serious?! Maybe but as I said I expected more from the game. It's been a long wait.

It could've been so much more. All franchise rehash/rework and no vision in so many area's. Like I said, disappointment.

Two Point Hospital....

Two point has seen a few updates in the last few days. R.E.M.I.X. V2 and a new Superbug project.

While I've jumped headlong into the new project I've steered away from the new REMIX.

The new project has me hopping between maps for specific objectives and in doing so going back to old hospitals I've not been back to since I started the game. Just as the first version had me doing.
The project objectives are easy to do so I usually end up hanging around the old maps upgrading/changing and tweaking the old hospitals; Next thing you know an hour has passed in an area of the game that didn't need to be faffed with. Yet fun is fun.

The first star on the first of the v2 REMIX is a slog to get through.

All in all it was as finicky as I thought it would be.... Doing it to get it done rather than because it's fun.

My main motivation to push through was via wife competition. She's finished them all... I'm eating dust.

One good thing that came from all that was another career goal.

I'll have to see about the rest of the REMIX v2 maps..... I was looking forward to them but now they are here I'm not in the right mood/head space to be powering through maps I've already done.... and at the same time enjoy it.

I'll have to see......

ETS 2....

I've continued to potter about with the latest addition to my dlc collection for the game - Road to the Black Sea. As well as going back to some Italia content. There's still a few very attainable steam achievements that are fun to hunt/collect. Like the discovery(touring) of specific DLC's cities or pass through all the border crossing points of the countries(Black Sea DLC).

I'm no aceivment junkie but there is motivation in getting some that are 'easy'; Or at least seem to be.
There's a lot of detail to cover in ETS 2 never mind the DLC content. Even with just over 150 hours in game I've overall only done about 40% of the content(including DLC). Then again being efficient goes out the window when 'fun' and 'faffing' is involved. As a casual gamer it's no surprise that I don't have the hours in game that constant playing of (only)ETS 2 would bring. So I don't have the gamepaly coverage of every detail.

Some achievements do need a lot of work from my perspective.

In the course of doing a delivery for one such achievement, on the last turn of a country road, I clipped the trailer on the roof of a building. The truck and trailer were sent spinning into the air landing in a field across the town!! Something new for sure.

Given that most fields can't be entered, they can't be escaped either. After a long run the call had to be made to abandon the job and get repaired. Demotivating to say the least but these things happen.

Repair, refuel and rest followed by a save and an exit from the game. Ready for the next journey but not just yet.

VirtuaVerse....

VirtuaVerse(Steam and GoG) caught my attention a while ago so I wish-listed it and kept up to date on twitter about it's progress etc. Some great pixel art/animation and music. Lots of detail put into this game. Yet now it's released I'm looking at it and it hasn't pulled me in to do a buy. I guess I'm no longer in the mood for the point and click text adventure game type(cyberpunk or otherwise). I think I was more interested in it as the prospect of The Last Night (3 years wait on that one) faded. But as a game genre I wasn't even tempted by Disco Elysium so it's not 'just' this game. It's

Time to remove from the wish-list. Maybe I'll change my mind in the future, time will tell.

The main youtube for the game has a one hour loop of gameplay going....

Theta Division