Homeworld 3 is getting closer to release. Still a few months away but a lot of super promising footage is always good to see. Like from TheXPGamers who showed the playable demo. I've not played it, for no other reason than I don't want to jinx it..... Funny as that sounds. A kind of wait and see with fingers crossed that it is going to be all things to all players. Also I don't want to spoil my actual game-time on it. You could say I've got high hopes for it.
Death Stranding 2 has seen a lot more footage shown. The recent trailer shows 'a lot' but I've got even more questions than answers now. No surprise really. The trailer is even more Kojima than I'd expected. Kojima keeps upping the ante on peak Kojima and then blowing that away.
Xbox news is scheduled to be all the talk in the coming week. Xbox exclusives on other platforms otherwise known as releases; So much up in the air with announcements and direction for software and hardware. gameranx hit the mark in talking about all the what-if's. Time'll tell.
Subnautica's next iteration is being talked about. I've high praise for the first game; I've waffled maybe too much about it on this blog over the years. I'm no fan of the second version, Sub Zero lost the spark and made the game's 'special' very generic; At least in my view. Time will tell if the 3rd game will hit the mark; Least it's not early access till 2025. Plenty of time to swim in all the information to come.
Palworld may be the new big thing but Palia seems to still be getting some acknowledgement. It's just not got lon-term gamelay longevity for me. Good to see it on other platforms; A game I'd recommend trying. It's just not for me, I'm still more Stardew.
Steams NextFest is always a good way to see more demo's. Makes me wish demos were done more in general.
I'd seen and been interested in Underspace but in playing it's demo I was put off in ways I'm not sure about. I'd thought it was going to be more like Astrox Imperium; But seeing it in person it just felt 'off'. The more voice acting and character animations I saw the more I was glad that Astrox Imperium didn't have so much. There's a lot to be said in that less is more.
Stellar Settlers got a demo which I tried out as well. It's good and interesting but there was again that bit of 'something' that didn't draw me into the game. Maybe with more polish overall it'll be more playable(to me); But then again this is what demo's are for, testing and feedback. Not like ye olde days. Demo evolution is demo evolution.
The BoatCrew Demo was less polished than I thought it would be. The gameplay was there but it needs the polish. Glad to have played but like the other demos I'll be leaving this on the backburner till it's ready or I cull the wishlist.
Star Trucker was the star of the recent demos. What a game. Euro Truck Sim 2 in space with a Rebel Galaxy Outlaw graphics aesthetic and vibe(just without the gunfights). Like the other demos there were issues that I'm sure will be worked on but it's perfectly payable. For me the 3 main problems were the amount of over the top damage your truck would take from even the smallest bump or scrape. The consumable usage felt way over the top as well, change a battery and 2 minutes later it's like I needed to change it again etc.. The last problem was the lack of an autopilot for docking; Something that would swing your tuck/cab 180 and 'just dock'; Otherwise each docking up feels like it's an Apollo mission. I'm a trucker not an astronaut(Jim)!
The 'skill tree' is interesting.
.jpg)
That said the repairs system is 'easy' and all the details of the game mechanics are a good to interact with. I might complain about the need for an autodock etc. But the doing of it's systems really makes your interactions visceral; That they are useful and feel good in accomplishment.
I'm waffling but it's a game with little details that matter to the immersion. Stack some supplies in your cab's back cabin and then you loose gravity they'll be floating around doing nothing for a players ocd stacking of said boxes. Never mind that happening but you need a new consumable item among the mess to stop something worse happening.
.jpg)
As are the types of jobs. A game for for those logistically minded. Mostly casual, mostly.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Breachway is another demo that has received an update this NextFest. And with it more lil patches on patches to update as players play and comment. I'm second guessing myself when I said last time that my only issue with the new demo was that there were no longer spacesuit dudes floating around the hanger when your docked up. With one of the last updates it was the first thing I noticed... Spacesuit dudes! Maybe I just wasn't paying attention.
.jpg)
Planet Crafter will be receiving a new update besides Multuplayer. Proceduraly generated areas accessible through portals. Interesting form of long-term random gameplay elements to keep players going without altering the main map areas of the game. Looking forward to it.
Darkest Dungeon has seen my return to the ways of old. Still clearing up the rota to get heroes fully functional; So I've been using disposable low end 'heroes' to pass the game turns. That said some have been surprising. Like a Hellion who couldn't do one point of damage, yet didn't take any damage either. Or an Antiquarian who had a positive check and became the sole survivor on two consecutive runs! RNG can be so interesting at times.
World of Warcraft hasn't had me give it much time. I've taken to my tank again. Not in any real way, not to even level him. But I do like doing the follower dungeon on him. I was a good tank back in the day but this expansion has very judgmental pick up groups who are only egged on by being OP at the end of the expansion. Little by little my own gameplay. So I'll build him up semi incognito and with luck do more in that newer guild when/if I move him over.
Euro Truck Sim 2 has implemented it's Valentines event. I've been slow to get started and do these trips, but plenty of time to complete them yet(ends on Sunday the 18th Feb).
.jpg)
.jpg)
It's good to see the reworking of older maps and scenery. The latest, Switzerland, is really 'nice' to see.
The Winter event ended and the blog about it's completion stats were interesting reading.
Star Trek Online hasn't seen as much game-time as the previous week. Slow but sure character by character 'refinement' of ships, captains and Boff's goes on(on PC)
While I do keep up on the background info on the games development/management etc; There's too many unknowns from my point of view to give comment on such stuff. That said there was interesting info given about the next yearly campaign. Instead of picking a reward, all 3 will be granted. Good for players, as for the long-term game, again, too much to read into that I'd rather not comment. Maybe not quiet head in the sand but more a 'me' wait and see thing. MC Stu has a much more informative video - Big Updates Added to Event Campaign 2024 - Star Trek Online
An expected recruit event, this time a KDF event is incoming. I've seen other videos from STO creators on the youtubez say it's pointless to create more than one KDF recruit. I get what they say but at least in my limited view there are still perk points to be gained from such a new character, even after getting the account unlock bonus(from your first KDF unlock). Besides I'm an alt junkie and a new KDF recruit with a transponder purpose = play-ability. Or am I missing something. Doing the Unforgettable on the transponder not give perk point rewards per character? 
Incentive is incentive and the Alt-aholic that I am will do for the Endevours alone..... Not like there will be a lack upcoming events to help that along either.
.png)
I'm an altaholic that's usually themed around expansion/ship/faction. Even when it's simple like creating my KDF Ferasan captain in a Caitian ship I'd claimed(Cat Carrier). A cat in a cat carrier, that alone was enough to create the alt.
Anyway the KDF recruit event being back, even if there is limited use in claiming the perk points from the transponder I think I'll 'have' to claim a 'specific' character(again), just to do the endeavors on. It's probably the only way I'll do more than trip over getting Endeavors by accident(PC and Xbox). In for a penny in for a pound...
.jpg)
.jpg)
It was good to see CasualSAB do a how-to video for a combat log parser setup. 'The more you know', I do prefer SCM. It's good to see these stats even for someone like myself who isn't into high end DPS chasing; But 'just' to see by the numbers improvement in builds. How To Setup a Combat Parser in Star Trek Online
The Xbox(console) issues with zoom level on ship view seems to be 'fixed; But it's made a new problem, at least for me. When I'm back on ground after a (space)TFO it's defaulting to an over the shoulder view. Not nearly as bad as the ship view issues but it's STO being quirky.
.png)
That said on PC there seems to be issues with rubber banding and 'lag' like issues. I've not seen nearly anything like that(but I'm not near 'super' enough in DPS to 'cause' issues).
There was a post on the official STO twitter, but I can't find the specific post; But I do have the link it linked to...https://thomasthecat.tumblr.com/post/104098611005/guide-to-understanding-power-and-weapon-icons-in. All about the iconography of STO. Which was a lot more detialed than I think I've ever given the game credit for. I've MSPaint mashed the individual images into one for convenience. Really interesting.
.jpg)
.png)
.png)
.png)
Eve Online has had it's end of life deadline for using the old launcher and unavoidable implementation of the 'new' launcher. Of which I am not a fan of. It's usable but annoying. Need to be relaunched and reclicked because it didn't like launching a character the previous 3 times etc etc. It's slowed down my Eve flow considerably. It has options for launching characters and accounts etc but in my lil 'ol opinion it wasn't needed at all. Vanguard is the only reason it's been implemented. I'm not sold on that 'game' as I've said previously. Anyway it appears that there were a wide rage of happenings after the launch day. For me there was a wide range between installs across 2 PC's and a laptop. The Laptop defaulted to defaults and is now, as my older, older laptop used to be, potato-esce mode. So the lower limit of the game requirements are yesterdays hardware that used to work fine.
.jpg)
My main PC also set itself to defaults and reset absolutely everything. Talk about excessive expletives form me. Everything got reset and even the saved profiles did nothing to restore my preferences. Given the number of accounts/mains and alts it took a long while to put things back. Not that there's anything to save or stop things defaulting again. I don't trust a thing about it all. As for the other PC it had two of my 'main' Alpha alts, both had their old settings(even when they on my main PC didn't). So game-play in the last week has been a tweaking of window layouts and preferences here, there and yonder.
Otherwise it's same ol'same'ol.
.png)
.png)
All the reset of settings had me for the first time thinking of deleting alpha alts I don't really need. Jury is still out.
.png)
No comments:
Post a Comment