A Casual (Carebear) Gamer: April 2024

Two and a half(plus) real wold weeks that've been 'real world busy'; But also where the act of playing games for enjoyment was more a 'need' to me than blogging about it. Till now.... Besides all else having two corrupted hard drives and gameplay was indeed 'most needed'.

Gaming stuffz of interest worth sharing on....

Fallout - Where To Start? from Many A True Nerd

FALLOUT SHOW CONTROVERSY RESPONSE, AN OPEN WORLD RPG RETURNS & MORE from gameranx

April updates on campaign to stop game destruction from Accursed Farms

10 Addictive HABITS ONLY Gamers Will Understand from gameranx

Elite Dangerous goes PAY-2-WIN from TheYamiks

Two takes for the 40k recent changes of 'interest'.

The quick take from The Critical Drinker: The Battle For Warhammer Has Begun

The longer take from Luetin09: 40K - NO ONE NOTICED THIS FOR 10,000 YEARS? | Warhammer 40,000 Lore/Discussion

Star Trek matte paintings via https://twitter.com/captpanofsteel/status/1785915099388969047

Iconic nostalgia for me. Great to see them all....

Onto my own 'gaming'(lots of screenshots)....

The open source remake of the 4X real time space strategy game Open Imperium Galactica (Open-IG) has had more updates. Even after getting the original game from GoG; Open-IG has so many modern game tweaks and updates that it's an interesting kind of 'remaster' version bringing love to the game. I've waffled before about the game on this here blog so not to get too into the weeds with it but well worth a look. A definite blast from the past with modern improvments.

Main page for information for Open-IG: https://www.facebook.com/OpenImperiumGalactica

Downloads from Github here: https://github.com/akarnokd/open-ig?tab=readme-ov-file

No Plan B nearly made it onto my buy list; I'm 90% sold on it so it's on the wish-list for now.

GFX47

Chorus is a game I've picked up. Way more RPG than EVERSPACE was to me and so far I've been really liking it; More than Everspace(much as I liked that).

Fargone is another new pickup in the last week. A single player zombie 8-bit ish game that isn't as 'easy' as it's looks may make players think.

Splattercatgaming has been keeping his eye on this game and I on his videos of the game. It's his latest vid that prompted my own purchase. A Punchy 5 Dollar Zombie Apocalypse RPG I Keep Coming Back To - FARGONE

Despite what I've said previously about not getting BattleBit Remastered, I did pick up the game with it's ~~current~~ last sale... The general hype about the game may have died down but the gameplay seems to have improved; So long-term it's seems a better game so now 'worth it'. With luck it'll continue to improve and gain a broader long-term player base.

Back into Fallout 4. No surprise given the TV show. I've 3 main save playthroughs which I've waffled about a lot over the years on this blog. So a revisit to each has been had. Not much other than pottering about till the new patch hit and with it the new missions. Which all lead to me picking up the Steam version of New Vegas. So that's on the 'to be played' list as well. Sometimes sales can be 'good'..... Right?

So.... I've gone through each save(BOS/Institute and the do everything mainly good save); But none needed any regard to each saves 'role'. Makes no difference at all; The new missions are regardless of old content decisions,/choices or play-style. Good additions but if your hardcore BOS or not won't matter etc.

Stardew Valley has seen me game on with my pottering. Mainly doing the Wallnut room tasks in order to gain gems to buy the items I'm after in an island finalization kind of way. Nearly there.

On Star Trek Online CasualSAB had an interesting vid on How to Setup Keybinds in Star Trek Online

The next expansion and event is coming. The Demon Slayer Event! An event that offers rewards that are both sides of the coin for me. ship weapons great but melee weapons... Not so much. Anyway the event itself should be somewhat interesting to do... I hope.... kind of.....

MC Stu

The Star Trek Online Wiki's Twitter(X) has posted an article from 2010's Star Trek Magazine about the Iconians introduction to STO which was interesting to see:

https://twitter.com/trekonlinewiki/status/1785899784668082356

My gameplay is as usual all about events, endevours and whatever for fun in the moment.

Mainly on Xbox more than on PC as there's a lot more that 'needs' doing.

Yea maybe there's not that much more that needs doing beyond 'dailies'; Not when my time is used to give my second Xbox KDF recruit her Orion Boff's; And then 'set' them up. It's a good game to faff about in for lots of reasons.

Eve Online's gameplay for me is more same'ol same'ol; Despite what the 'Meta' is doing or whatever wars are going on. Skill training, PvE, P.I. casual carebearing. Guess I wouldn't have it any other way.

I'm still pretty much generally ignorant of the general on-going's of the 'story' of the universe.

https://www.ccpgames.com/news/2024/the-upwell-consortium-offers-capsuleers-the-power-to-seize-their-dreams-in

Even if he is more PvP than PvE, and more multiplayer than solo(I am so far out of his gameplay demographic), Captain Benzie had a good vid on what is coming: Revamping Nullsec With Equinox!! || EVE Online

Capsuleer Day XXI is here for a month of login goodies. If the end of the month still see's the weekend pack available I may 'splurge' and use that on a few characters to claim the goodies. Time will tell.

I didn't tale part in the sales, but I was tempted. OZ_Eve did a good video on the pro causes to it. 2 for 1 extractor sale - The Oz Report (Apr 19th, 2024) - Eve Online Market Insights

That said a sale is only a sale if you already wanted these..... Which I kind of did but I'll be more long-term and not do anything this time round.

While I'm glad I can have my own version of gameplay in Eve Online I'm not sure I am happy at the direction of the game via CCP's 'vision' or should that be monetization... When it comes to CCP I find my paranoia is real.... 99%... maybe.

EVE Online

Planet Crafter has seen me do a whole lot more. With the 1.0 release I've very much 'finished' the game. Seen all the endings and all the new content.

In a push to both finish the narrative and gameplay changes I didn't for once take my time. Doing much with mammals was pointless as my Terraform index was already complete.

The new areas as I've waffled previously do look good and I'm glad I got my base tear-down done.

That's not to say the mammal system isn't interesting. It's more complex than any DNA manipulation previously but to me if felt too late to be meaningful. I've no motivation to play to such levels in my other saves. Again maybe with my wife in co-op but even there we both haven't reached the need to play the game together. Maybe more subconscious but the ends does not seem to justify the means.

Animal pics first.

The endings are cut-scenes seeing you in a pod(that you make) to reach a pickup ship form the corp or smugglers. All pretty 'meh' for an end considering the long journey and emotion over the years of gameplay.