Well, we're definitely getting into the drearier days of Autumn*. It's
getting darker and colder and there's less green on the trees. But
that just gives us all more excuses to hang around inside and play
video games. Or - more pertinent to this post - talk about those games
on Usenet. Like, for example, listing out what games we've been
playing over the last 31 days. Hey, that sounds like a neat idea. We
should make that a 'thing' here in c.s.i.p.g.action!

Anyway, my games:

You can read this in a few seconds
------------------------------
* Untitled Goose Game (new)
* No Man's Sky (new)
* Halo 3 MCC (new/replay)
* Genesis Alpha One Deluxe Edition (new)


Yeah, you'd better take a seat for this
---------------------------------------


* Untitled Goose Game (new)
Pretty much everything about "Untitled Goose Game" is charming: it's
visuals, its sound, it's level design, its animation, all of it. It's
clever in its simplicity; there's no leveling, no grinding, no
crafting; it's just a misunderstood anatidae bumbling his way through
a world of grumpy humans. The interactions between the two species are
adorable and every new discovery is a delight. It's an amazing game.

I gave up on it three hours in.

Because while so much of this game went right, it's control was
frustratingly clumsy. Solutions to simple puzzles were made more
difficult than they should have been just because getting the goose to
do what I wanted when I wanted always took three, four, five times
longer than it should have. I've no patience for repetition, and my
irritation was ruining what should have been a delightful experience.
"Untitled Goose Game's" design was that of a quiet English village on
a summer day, but my adventure felt like Brixton on a rainy night. I
wasn't having fun in a game that was meant to be nothing but, and that
felt so contrary to the game's design that I just stopped.

Maybe it was just me. Maybe I've become inordinately clumsy, or I'm in
a mood, or I missed out on some important tip on how to move the
goose, or my mouse batteries were dying, or maybe I just should have
used a gamepad. The game deserves to be finished, but I'm afraid that
if I kept at it, the whole experience would be soured and I'd look at
the game less fairly than it deserved. I didn't want that to happen; I
wanted to remember it for its many good parts, not its singularly bad
one. So while I'm unhappy to leave the game incomplete, I think it's
for the best. I'll probably give it another chance one of these days;
hopefully I'll look back at what I'm writing today and wonder what I'm
whinging on about. Until then, I'll part as amicably as I can and hope
for sunny English skies.



* No Man's Sky (new)
"No Man's Sky" is really an amazing game. The sheer scale of it -
billions of stars and planets to explore - mean you can spend hundreds
of hours in this game and never even make it to the 1% mark.

I cashed out after two hours.

That I gave up so quickly after buying the game wasn't a surprise to
me. I knew what this game was. I'd followed it from it's pre-release
hype, to its rocky launch, to its impressive post-launch reclamation.
I'd read the articles; I had watched the YouTube videos. I wasn't
going into the game blind. The only surprising thing was that I had
actually, finally, purchased the game in the first place.

(That decision was largely due to my exhaustion at waiting for the
price to drop. Fuck you, Hello Games, for insisting the price of the
game is really $60USD that you are generously offering at 50% off.
I've looked at your store prices a hundred times, and the number of
instances where the price /hasn't/ been 50% off could be counted on
the fingers of a hand involved in a particularly nasty threshing
accident. You're ever-sale is a particularly scummy marketing tactic
and I'm calling you out on it!)

See, the thing about "No Man's Sky" is that its huge world and
procedurally generated planets and animals are mere frippery; they're superficial gloss on what is, at it's heart, 'yet-another crafting
game.' And I know there are a lot of people who enjoy that genre - as
evidenced by all the "Minecrafts", and the "Rafts" and the "Arks"
available on Steam - but I am definitely not one of those fans. I
tired of crafting in video games back when "Ultima Online" was new and exciting. Nothing in the quarter century since has reinvigorated by
love of that mechanic. Running around vacuuming up rocks and trees so
I can build better machines to suck up more rocks and trees just does
not excite me.

You can, of course, disable the crafting mechanic in "No Man's Sky";
there's a casual mode and a creative mode where you don't have to
worry about that nonsense. Unfortunately, removing that tears out the
heart of "No Man's Sky's" gameplay. Okay, there's some base building
and exploration, but neither are particularly satisfying on their own.
The setting is fairly shallow; the universe exists almost entirely to
be exploited. There's no real quest, no real characters, no reason to
jump from one planet to the next except to find more rocks and trees.

I'm not criticizing the gameplay. As I said, there are a lot of people
who enjoy that sort of game, and - for what it is - "No Man's Sky" is
an impressive creation. But I am decidedly not a fan of the genre, so
- like I said - I shouldn't be (and wasn't) surprised that my dislike
of the game was so immediate.

"No Man's Sky" is an amazing game, and a testament to Indie games
everywhere. I just happen to hate it.



* Halo 3 MCC (new/replay)
"Halo 3" is just such a disappointing game.

This is the second time I've played it; the first time was on the XBox
and I was so underwhelmed that I never saw any need to go back until
now. But curiosity as to what upgrades were made for the "Master Chief
Edition" finally made me reinstall the game. And while the visuals are
(ever so slightly) improved, it doesn't save what should have been an
epic finale to the classic sci-fi trilogy.

A lot of the fault, I think, lies with the sound design; there's no
solidity to the sound. Everything sounds flat. I'd accuse the PC port
of being the problem, but I remember a similar issue when played on
the XBox. The levels are terrible; the music often overwhelms the
speech, the sound effects lack impact, and the voice-acting feels
clipped and disjointed. It strips the game of all its emotional
weight.

This might not have been so noticeable had the rest of the game been satisfying, but it's equally hollow. The level design remains the
trilogy's weakest point; it is - perhaps - not quite as bad as the
cut-n-paste level design of the first, but it still reuses far too
many assets; too often I wasn't sure which direction I was supposed to
go because all the rooms looked alike.

The combat is equally poor. Weapons feel weak and inaccurate, and too
often I'd plink away at enemies unsure if I were actually hitting them
until they suddenly keeled over and died (melee combat was even worse;
I never felt like I was making contact with anything). It probably
didn't help that - though FOV could be changed - it didn't affect your
weapons; even at 105 degrees, my guns took up the same amount of
screen space as they did at the default 70 degrees, which made
everything feel more cramped than it should have. The lack of any
ability to sprint was also a sorely missed feature.

The story was perhaps the least offensive part of the game, but - even
then - the franchise was already pretty far up its own ass regarding
its lore. It's a shallow aliens-vs-marines space fantasy that
sometimes seems to think it's narrative is Shakespearean in depth and complexity. None of the characters are interesting - or even that
likeable - and I felt no attachment to any of them. It didn't help
that too often the game interrupted itself with annoying voice-overs
(either from Gravemind or Cortana) that fuzzed the viewscreen and
slowed movement to a crawl.

So I really didn't enjoy my time with this game. The only thing
keeping this from being the worst in the franchise is the existence of
"Halo 2". Even the awful "Spartan Assault" games are more fun. Do not
mistake me; there are Halo games I enjoy, but "Halo 3"? It definitely
ain't one of 'em. Not even close.


* Genesis Alpha One Deluxe Edition (new)
This game isn't what I expected, and that may have been the problem.

One of the many freebies I've collected, it's described as a sci-fi
FPS, and technically I guess that's accurate. You're on a futuristic
space-ship traveling through interstellar space, you have a gun, and
you see everything from a first-person perspective. But the game is
much more a survival/base-building game in the vein of Minecraft
(actually, it most closely resembles the game "Raft" in gameplay), and
the shooting aspect of the game is of secondary, or even tertiary
importance.

It's visuals have this under-saturated, over-bloomed pastel appearance
that look great in screenshots but in actual use I felt like
everything was always too dark, or too bright, and never had enough
detail. It was 'Eye-strain: The Game'. Artistically pleasing, but
terrible to endure for more very long. Models feel simplistic and the
whole thing has that aura of a low-polish Indie game (which I suppose
it is).

The gameplay isn't very exciting. The basic game loop is to build up a
very simple spaceship, "fly" to a nearby solar system (you don't
actually fly your ship, it just instantly warps to a new location),
and collect various resources. These resources will be used to either
keep yourself and your AI crew alive, or improve your ship. In
between, you'll shuttle down to procedurally-generated planets (of
which you can explore only a radius of about 100', and they all look
alike), fight off the occasional alien invader or raider, or assign
crew to different posts to maximize efficiency. None of this is done
in an entertaining way. The visuals are dull. The combat is dull. The
ship upgrades are dull. The planets are dull. The crew is mindless. If
there's a story, I hadn't encountered any hint of it. Oh, and in the
few hours I played, it crashed several times.

The whole game feels very much like an early Early Access title. All
the features and ideas in "Genesis" feel half-baked and incomplete. Conceptually, it's a sound title (even if it isn't really the sort of
thing I enjoy playing) but it isn't done very well. It's been better
done in games like "Raft" or "Valheim" or even "No Man's Sky", and if
you like the genre, go play one of those. Because "Genesis: Alpha One"
is disappointing in just about every way.

------------------------------

So that's my list for this month. Hopefully you all had more
satisfying experiences. But I guess there's only one way to know, and
that's for you to tell us...

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN PLAYING... IN OCTOBER 2022?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Steam's free weekend games like Arkanoid (retro version was a blast, the
modern one is pretty, and online is crazy), V Rising (though it would be
purely action RPG like Diablo, but it has the annoying grindings like collectiing resources, making, repairing, etc.), etc. When no free games
to play, back to old Skyrim! :P


Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

Well, we're definitely getting into the drearier days of Autumn*. It's getting darker and colder and there's less green on the trees. But
that just gives us all more excuses to hang around inside and play
video games. Or - more pertinent to this post - talk about those games
on Usenet. Like, for example, listing out what games we've been
playing over the last 31 days. Hey, that sounds like a neat idea. We
should make that a 'thing' here in c.s.i.p.g.action!

Anyway, my games:

You can read this in a few seconds
------------------------------
* Untitled Goose Game (new)
* No Man's Sky (new)
* Halo 3 MCC (new/replay)
* Genesis Alpha One Deluxe Edition (new)

Yeah, you'd better take a seat for this ---------------------------------------

* Untitled Goose Game (new)
Pretty much everything about "Untitled Goose Game" is charming: it's
visuals, its sound, it's level design, its animation, all of it. It's
clever in its simplicity; there's no leveling, no grinding, no
crafting; it's just a misunderstood anatidae bumbling his way through
a world of grumpy humans. The interactions between the two species are adorable and every new discovery is a delight. It's an amazing game.

I gave up on it three hours in.

Because while so much of this game went right, it's control was
frustratingly clumsy. Solutions to simple puzzles were made more
difficult than they should have been just because getting the goose to
do what I wanted when I wanted always took three, four, five times
longer than it should have. I've no patience for repetition, and my irritation was ruining what should have been a delightful experience. "Untitled Goose Game's" design was that of a quiet English village on
a summer day, but my adventure felt like Brixton on a rainy night. I
wasn't having fun in a game that was meant to be nothing but, and that
felt so contrary to the game's design that I just stopped.

Maybe it was just me. Maybe I've become inordinately clumsy, or I'm in
a mood, or I missed out on some important tip on how to move the
goose, or my mouse batteries were dying, or maybe I just should have
used a gamepad. The game deserves to be finished, but I'm afraid that
if I kept at it, the whole experience would be soured and I'd look at
the game less fairly than it deserved. I didn't want that to happen; I
wanted to remember it for its many good parts, not its singularly bad
one. So while I'm unhappy to leave the game incomplete, I think it's
for the best. I'll probably give it another chance one of these days; hopefully I'll look back at what I'm writing today and wonder what I'm whinging on about. Until then, I'll part as amicably as I can and hope
for sunny English skies.

* No Man's Sky (new)
"No Man's Sky" is really an amazing game. The sheer scale of it -
billions of stars and planets to explore - mean you can spend hundreds
of hours in this game and never even make it to the 1% mark.

I cashed out after two hours.

That I gave up so quickly after buying the game wasn't a surprise to
me. I knew what this game was. I'd followed it from it's pre-release
hype, to its rocky launch, to its impressive post-launch reclamation.
I'd read the articles; I had watched the YouTube videos. I wasn't
going into the game blind. The only surprising thing was that I had
actually, finally, purchased the game in the first place.

(That decision was largely due to my exhaustion at waiting for the
price to drop. Fuck you, Hello Games, for insisting the price of the
game is really $60USD that you are generously offering at 50% off.
I've looked at your store prices a hundred times, and the number of
instances where the price /hasn't/ been 50% off could be counted on
the fingers of a hand involved in a particularly nasty threshing
accident. You're ever-sale is a particularly scummy marketing tactic
and I'm calling you out on it!)

See, the thing about "No Man's Sky" is that its huge world and
procedurally generated planets and animals are mere frippery; they're superficial gloss on what is, at it's heart, 'yet-another crafting
game.' And I know there are a lot of people who enjoy that genre - as evidenced by all the "Minecrafts", and the "Rafts" and the "Arks"
available on Steam - but I am definitely not one of those fans. I
tired of crafting in video games back when "Ultima Online" was new and exciting. Nothing in the quarter century since has reinvigorated by
love of that mechanic. Running around vacuuming up rocks and trees so
I can build better machines to suck up more rocks and trees just does
not excite me.

You can, of course, disable the crafting mechanic in "No Man's Sky";
there's a casual mode and a creative mode where you don't have to
worry about that nonsense. Unfortunately, removing that tears out the
heart of "No Man's Sky's" gameplay. Okay, there's some base building
and exploration, but neither are particularly satisfying on their own.
The setting is fairly shallow; the universe exists almost entirely to
be exploited. There's no real quest, no real characters, no reason to
jump from one planet to the next except to find more rocks and trees.

I'm not criticizing the gameplay. As I said, there are a lot of people
who enjoy that sort of game, and - for what it is - "No Man's Sky" is
an impressive creation. But I am decidedly not a fan of the genre, so
- like I said - I shouldn't be (and wasn't) surprised that my dislike
of the game was so immediate.

"No Man's Sky" is an amazing game, and a testament to Indie games
everywhere. I just happen to hate it.

* Halo 3 MCC (new/replay)
"Halo 3" is just such a disappointing game.

This is the second time I've played it; the first time was on the XBox
and I was so underwhelmed that I never saw any need to go back until
now. But curiosity as to what upgrades were made for the "Master Chief Edition" finally made me reinstall the game. And while the visuals are
(ever so slightly) improved, it doesn't save what should have been an
epic finale to the classic sci-fi trilogy.

A lot of the fault, I think, lies with the sound design; there's no
solidity to the sound. Everything sounds flat. I'd accuse the PC port
of being the problem, but I remember a similar issue when played on
the XBox. The levels are terrible; the music often overwhelms the
speech, the sound effects lack impact, and the voice-acting feels
clipped and disjointed. It strips the game of all its emotional
weight.

This might not have been so noticeable had the rest of the game been satisfying, but it's equally hollow. The level design remains the
trilogy's weakest point; it is - perhaps - not quite as bad as the cut-n-paste level design of the first, but it still reuses far too
many assets; too often I wasn't sure which direction I was supposed to
go because all the rooms looked alike.

The combat is equally poor. Weapons feel weak and inaccurate, and too
often I'd plink away at enemies unsure if I were actually hitting them
until they suddenly keeled over and died (melee combat was even worse;
I never felt like I was making contact with anything). It probably
didn't help that - though FOV could be changed - it didn't affect your weapons; even at 105 degrees, my guns took up the same amount of
screen space as they did at the default 70 degrees, which made
everything feel more cramped than it should have. The lack of any
ability to sprint was also a sorely missed feature.

The story was perhaps the least offensive part of the game, but - even
then - the franchise was already pretty far up its own ass regarding
its lore. It's a shallow aliens-vs-marines space fantasy that
sometimes seems to think it's narrative is Shakespearean in depth and complexity. None of the characters are interesting - or even that
likeable - and I felt no attachment to any of them. It didn't help
that too often the game interrupted itself with annoying voice-overs
(either from Gravemind or Cortana) that fuzzed the viewscreen and
slowed movement to a crawl.

So I really didn't enjoy my time with this game. The only thing
keeping this from being the worst in the franchise is the existence of
"Halo 2". Even the awful "Spartan Assault" games are more fun. Do not
mistake me; there are Halo games I enjoy, but "Halo 3"? It definitely
ain't one of 'em. Not even close.

* Genesis Alpha One Deluxe Edition (new)
This game isn't what I expected, and that may have been the problem.

One of the many freebies I've collected, it's described as a sci-fi
FPS, and technically I guess that's accurate. You're on a futuristic space-ship traveling through interstellar space, you have a gun, and
you see everything from a first-person perspective. But the game is
much more a survival/base-building game in the vein of Minecraft
(actually, it most closely resembles the game "Raft" in gameplay), and
the shooting aspect of the game is of secondary, or even tertiary
importance.

It's visuals have this under-saturated, over-bloomed pastel appearance
that look great in screenshots but in actual use I felt like
everything was always too dark, or too bright, and never had enough
detail. It was 'Eye-strain: The Game'. Artistically pleasing, but
terrible to endure for more very long. Models feel simplistic and the
whole thing has that aura of a low-polish Indie game (which I suppose
it is).

The gameplay isn't very exciting. The basic game loop is to build up a
very simple spaceship, "fly" to a nearby solar system (you don't
actually fly your ship, it just instantly warps to a new location),
and collect various resources. These resources will be used to either
keep yourself and your AI crew alive, or improve your ship. In
between, you'll shuttle down to procedurally-generated planets (of
which you can explore only a radius of about 100', and they all look
alike), fight off the occasional alien invader or raider, or assign
crew to different posts to maximize efficiency. None of this is done
in an entertaining way. The visuals are dull. The combat is dull. The
ship upgrades are dull. The planets are dull. The crew is mindless. If there's a story, I hadn't encountered any hint of it. Oh, and in the
few hours I played, it crashed several times.

The whole game feels very much like an early Early Access title. All
the features and ideas in "Genesis" feel half-baked and incomplete. Conceptually, it's a sound title (even if it isn't really the sort of
thing I enjoy playing) but it isn't done very well. It's been better
done in games like "Raft" or "Valheim" or even "No Man's Sky", and if
you like the genre, go play one of those. Because "Genesis: Alpha One"
is disappointing in just about every way.

------------------------------

So that's my list for this month. Hopefully you all had more
satisfying experiences. But I guess there's only one way to know, and
that's for you to tell us...

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN PLAYING... IN OCTOBER 2022?

--
It's November! "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints." --Ephesians 1:18. A somewhat busy Halloween to pass out
after 9:31 PM PDT & wake up b4 3:30 AM PDT!
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Tuesday, November 1, 2022 at 10:26:34 AM UTC-7, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Well, we're definitely getting into the drearier days of Autumn*. It's getting darker and colder and there's less green on the trees. But
that just gives us all more excuses to hang around inside and play
video games. Or - more pertinent to this post - talk about those games
on Usenet. Like, for example, listing out what games we've been
playing over the last 31 days. Hey, that sounds like a neat idea. We
should make that a 'thing' here in c.s.i.p.g.action!

Short preamble this month Spalls, so I'll go over what I did on the
weekend. Watched a bunch of horror movies with the kids..

Zombieland #1, I don't think the kids got this one that much, still
full of laughs for me though. The zombies didn't bother the Daughter.

Pirates of the Caribbean #1, good as always, not great, but good.
Kid's enjoyed.

Nightmare on Elm St. #1 not the remake. This was fairly bad, nowhere
near what I remember of it when I saw it as a teen. Good special
effects for the time, but that's about all it's got.

Ghostbusters remake (the female SNL members one.) I hadn't seen this
before. This started off really rough, they could've chopped about 20
minutes off the front and had a much better movie. The Son walked off
before that though. It got slowly better, but a lot of the jokes fell
flat, and about half the 'actors' were flat as well. I still enjoyed
it and felt it fell on the barely good side. It had nothing on the
original, though.

John Carpenter's "Thing". Wow! It's been a long time, other than the computer and equipment this looked like it could've been filmed
recently. The Son commented on it looking new. It really holds up
well. The acting is all spot on. Amazing movie, possibly my favorite
sci-fi horror movie, at least up there with Aliens. Daughter didn't
watch, but caught a couple scenes and was scared, and didn't
want to go to bed, but she made it to sleep eventually.

* Untitled Goose Game (new)
I gave up on it three hours in.

I saw some of the gameplay, and this one of those games that looks
more fun to watch a playthrough then actually play the game.

Fumbling around with controls seems like it fits though, I mean how
difficult must it be for a goose to pick up things with its beak?

* No Man's Sky (new)

See, the thing about "No Man's Sky" is that its huge world and
procedurally generated planets and animals are mere frippery; they're superficial gloss on what is, at it's heart, 'yet-another crafting
game.' And I know there are a lot of people who enjoy that genre - as evidenced by all the "Minecrafts", and the "Rafts" and the "Arks"
available on Steam - but I am definitely not one of those fans. I
tired of crafting in video games back when "Ultima Online" was new and exciting. Nothing in the quarter century since has reinvigorated by
love of that mechanic. Running around vacuuming up rocks and trees so
I can build better machines to suck up more rocks and trees just does
not excite me.

While it looks cool, this is what I was afraid of, and why I never quite pulled the trigger. Glad to read your account and put it firmly on
the no-buy list.

I'm not criticizing the gameplay. As I said, there are a lot of people
who enjoy that sort of game, and - for what it is - "No Man's Sky" is
an impressive creation. But I am decidedly not a fan of the genre, so
- like I said - I shouldn't be (and wasn't) surprised that my dislike
of the game was so immediate.

I'm generally against crafting, though I did enjoy Minecraft for a bit.
That was somewhat more playing with the kids though, splitscreen
on Xbox 360. They seem to be removing splitscreen from newer
games, which is sad, as I find it a great way to play with the family.

* Halo 3 MCC (new/replay)

So I really didn't enjoy my time with this game. The only thing
keeping this from being the worst in the franchise is the existence of
"Halo 2". Even the awful "Spartan Assault" games are more fun. Do not mistake me; there are Halo games I enjoy, but "Halo 3"? It definitely
ain't one of 'em. Not even close.

I've never really played Halo, I tried when MS had them free with
their sub, and I subbed for Need for Speed, but I couldn't get the
first one to run. What in your opinion is the best one?

* Genesis Alpha One Deluxe Edition (new)
This game isn't what I expected, and that may have been the problem.

I just fired it up today as well, and though I never even made it to the
FPS part, it just looked like too much trouble to get to anything interesting and did look more crafting/building stuff. So to uninstall it goes.

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN PLAYING... IN OCTOBER 2022?

What I've been playing in October 2022.

TL;DR:
*** Hades
**** Earth Defense Force 5
* RPSLS

------

*** Hades
I got out a couple more times, but it's been very hit or miss with
far more miss. Progress has been very slow and is feeling very grindy
at this point. Rather than trying 'god' mode (built into the game as
an option) I packed it up.

------

**** Earth Defense Force 5
I finally got back into it after playing it a bit more. I've been
mostly playing alone, my daughter only asked to play once more last
week. I hadn't got as far as I thought previously. I'd only
finished the game with the Wing Diver character 2x - once offline and
once online on hard mode. Now I've Finished it 3x with Wing Diver
and 2x with the other 3. All offline Hard and Hardest, leaving only
Inferno and most of online.

I installed reshade with it so it looks considerably better, however
load times are much longer, about 30 seconds per mission.

I also broke down and installed one cheat, which extends your pickup
range when you want. At first I just used it at the end of missions
to pick up armor and weapon upgrades, Much more fun not having to
chase all that down trying to leave a monster alive so the mission
doesn't end and have to spend as long as the rest of the mission
playing pickup. It does rack up armor much quicker which does make
the game eventually easier. I then got tired of chasing down healing
during the mission and just left it on, but that was after I'd
finished the game the 3rd time with Wing Diver and 2x with Air
Raider, and 1x with Ranger.

Most of the way through my last run with Fencer, I had proved I could
farm the highest level DLC missions, and installed one more cheat
which upgraded all weapons to max, which to my mind wasn't really a
cheat, just a shortcut to grinding for hundreds of hours. While that
was a huge boost, I still had some trouble with a few missions.

I decided to leave Inferno for later. While online is fun, it's a
bit frustrating as the game is much much harder. To progress you
pretty much have to host, which typically involves a lot of waiting
around for others to join, and the game being so old, it's unsure if
people even will, or at least enough people who've farmed enough and
gotten good enough to beat missions. Or you can join someone else's
game, but usually those won't be at the missions you're trying to get
past, so just wasting your time.

------

* RSPLS
https://sites.google.com/site/justisaursdd/rspls
It took me about 3 hours to make that, which was actually way more
fun than playing it, which I probably only did for 5 minutes, mostly
when I was testing it. I've made a little progress on the next game,
but I'm again not really sure what I'm doing and think I need to find
something a bit more basic and structured. On the other hand
that it's making games may be what's keeping me somewhat
interested. There's so many games to play to distract myself
with too, which makes hours to try to follow it pretty low.

- Justisaur


ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 02/11/2022 00:56, Justisaur wrote:

John Carpenter's "Thing". Wow! It's been a long time, other than the computer and equipment this looked like it could've been filmed
recently. The Son commented on it looking new. It really holds up
well. The acting is all spot on. Amazing movie, possibly my favorite
sci-fi horror movie, at least up there with Aliens. Daughter didn't
watch, but caught a couple scenes and was scared, and didn't
want to go to bed, but she made it to sleep eventually.

I happened to watch that, again, a few weeks ago and yes it is a good
movie and still holds up well after thirty years. Alien I do put above
it as I think it creates a better feeling of dread and unlike a lot of
older sci-fi movies the old tech doesn't jar so much as the whole space
ship is a bit dilapidated anyway. Unfortunately the whole series went a
bit downhill after that, well sorta. It's not that I think Aliens was a
bad movie but instead that it was just another sci-fi action movie that
had a really different feel to Alien.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 01/11/2022 17:26, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

* Untitled Goose Game (new)
Pretty much everything about "Untitled Goose Game" is charming: it's
visuals, its sound, it's level design, its animation, all of it. It's
clever in its simplicity; there's no leveling, no grinding, no
crafting; it's just a misunderstood anatidae bumbling his way through
a world of grumpy humans. The interactions between the two species are adorable and every new discovery is a delight. It's an amazing game.

I gave up on it three hours in.

Because while so much of this game went right, it's control was
frustratingly clumsy. Solutions to simple puzzles were made more
difficult than they should have been just because getting the goose to
do what I wanted when I wanted always took three, four, five times
longer than it should have. I've no patience for repetition, and my irritation was ruining what should have been a delightful experience. "Untitled Goose Game's" design was that of a quiet English village on
a summer day, but my adventure felt like Brixton on a rainy night. I
wasn't having fun in a game that was meant to be nothing but, and that
felt so contrary to the game's design that I just stopped.

Maybe it was just me. Maybe I've become inordinately clumsy, or I'm in
a mood, or I missed out on some important tip on how to move the
goose, or my mouse batteries were dying, or maybe I just should have
used a gamepad. The game deserves to be finished, but I'm afraid that
if I kept at it, the whole experience would be soured and I'd look at
the game less fairly than it deserved. I didn't want that to happen; I
wanted to remember it for its many good parts, not its singularly bad
one. So while I'm unhappy to leave the game incomplete, I think it's
for the best. I'll probably give it another chance one of these days; hopefully I'll look back at what I'm writing today and wonder what I'm whinging on about. Until then, I'll part as amicably as I can and hope
for sunny English skies.

Similar to my feelings and I think part of that was the hype surrounding
the game. I probably will pick up playing it again at some point but I
do put it in the category of I wish I'd gone in cold so my expectation
levels were more reasonable.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Tue, 1 Nov 2022 17:56:21 -0700 (PDT), Justisaur
<justisaur@gmail.com> wrote:

I saw some of the gameplay, and this one of those games that looks
more fun to watch a playthrough then actually play the game.

I find it interesting that you say this as this is exactly what I
thought of the game when I watched a play-through of it on Youtube
awhile back. It was enjoyable watching someone else figure out what to
do but I had no interest in playing it myself.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN PLAYING... IN OCTOBER 2022?

I don't know what happened to October, it seems I've only played System
Shock 2. Or I think I tried Nethack, inspired by the recent postings on rec.games.roguelike.nethack but didn't stick with it.

SS2 has been a good experience. Things don't look awful with the mods I installed. It's scary as ever although I'm not too happy about how it
does that. Basically it spawns enemies outside your view and then those
enemies come at you. From a room you were just in, for example. So
there's the feeling that nowhere is safe and that adds to the tension
quite a lot. Then again, some areas don't ever seem to spawn anything.

Funny thing, I'm fairly sure I never finished my second and third
playthroughs of SS2 because I felt you needed to scrounge too much for,
well, everything. And there were so many rooms and the cargo bays were
huge and dark and scary and full of monsters. Today, those levels seem laughably small.

And boy, does it *not* hold your hand. I wandered around in the
Hydroponics deck for what seemed like ages instead of going in the room
near the elevator which triggers a message from "Polito" about toxin A
which is apparently mandatory to progress, even if you already picked up
the toxin elsewhere... Then I managed to miss picking up a keycard from
a corpse, twice. Happened in Engineering too.

I wonder about the pacing a little too. Operations deck, sector D felt
suddenly quite tough. I was fighting spiders and a couple of security
bots instead of one or two hybrids at a time. And then Recreation was
mostly easy again. Except no the hybrids are smokers who throw grenades
at you.

Oh well, on to the Command deck in November.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN PLAYING... IN OCTOBER 2022?

Just Plague Tale: Requiem! Enjoying it, mainly for the story and
graphics -- the landscapes are very nice to look at; right now I'm walking through the gardens of a Mediterranean villa and just admiring the view --
I've arrived at Chapter VIII I believe. As in the first game the story is divided into roughly hour-long chapters, which is so convenient if you're on any kind of schedule. It's on pc gamepass, and runs at max settings (I've turned off motion blur & chromatic aberration) @ 1440p on my pc.

rms

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wed, 02 Nov 2022 16:27:21 +0200, Anssi Saari <as@sci.fi> wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN PLAYING... IN OCTOBER 2022?

I don't know what happened to October, it seems I've only played System
Shock 2.

You say that like it's a bad thing. I can't imagine a better way to
spend an October than roaming the haunted halls of the Von Braun
dodging mutants and security bots.

(Sadly, and as I think I've mentioned before, my over-familiarity with
the game means I wouldn't last a full month; I'd probably finish the
game in just a few days. Relish your time spent with that game. It
won't last forever. ;-/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Tue, 1 Nov 2022 17:56:21 -0700 (PDT), Justisaur
<justisaur@gmail.com> wrote:

John Carpenter's "Thing". Wow! It's been a long time, other than the >computer and equipment this looked like it could've been filmed
recently. The Son commented on it looking new. It really holds up
well. The acting is all spot on. Amazing movie, possibly my favorite
sci-fi horror movie, at least up there with Aliens.

I agree. "Thing" survives the test of time because it isn't really
relying on its effects for its horror; it's the overwhelming sense of
paranoia that the movie projects that makes it so powerful. In fact,
if you watch the effects scenes seperate from the rest of the movie
they're almost... well, laughable in how cheesy they are. But despite
this, the movie remains a classic.

(I'm also a fan of the 2011 prequel, which - while definitely the
poorer of the two movies - wasn't so bad as to be unwatchable. It's
biggest sin was that it felt too much like a remake rather than
treading new ground. I also enjoyed the 2002 video-game. That too was
quite flawed, but it was trying something new with its 'fear' system
and I enjoyed being able to explore its world).

* Halo 3 MCC (new/replay)

I've never really played Halo, I tried when MS had them free with
their sub, and I subbed for Need for Speed, but I couldn't get the
first one to run. What in your opinion is the best one?

That's a tough one. It's probably a toss-up between the original
(preferably the remake just because nicer graphics are nice) and
"Halo: ODST". The first benefited from its novelty and simplicity of
story. The franchise hadn't yet developed into the massive
wannabe-epic it eventually became, and some of the four-sided battles
were quite fun. That level design, though; argh!

"ODST" had rather uninspired gameplay and drab visuals, but it's
anachronistic narrative and almost noir tone made it stand out for me.
It had some of the most memorable - and likable - characters in the
entire franchise too. Plus, it wasn't
yet-another-MasterChief-saves-the-day story, which was getting tired
even with the first game, much less four games in.

(A brief nod to "Halo: Reach" too. It had well-designed levels, good
characters and generally interesting tone and narrative. It's by far
the most /fun/ game of the series for me - if I had to play any of the
Halo games again, it would be Reach - even it isn't particularly
original.)

**** Earth Defense Force 5
I finally got back into it after playing it a bit more. I've been
mostly playing alone, my daughter only asked to play once more last
week. I hadn't got as far as I thought previously. I'd only
finished the game with the Wing Diver character 2x - once offline and
once online on hard mode. Now I've Finished it 3x with Wing Diver
and 2x with the other 3. All offline Hard and Hardest, leaving only
Inferno and most of online.

I installed reshade with it so it looks considerably better, however
load times are much longer, about 30 seconds per mission.

The "Earth Defense Force" franchise is one I keep wanting to try, but
then I flashback to PS1-era games that were similar (like "Incoming"
or even "Dynasty Warriors") and I write them off again. They're the
sort of game I have to be in a very specific mood to enjoy, I think.
Mindless shooting only entertains me so long; in the end, I want story
and atmosphere ;-)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wednesday, November 2, 2022 at 11:46:14 AM UTC-7, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Tue, 1 Nov 2022 17:56:21 -0700 (PDT), Justisaur
<just...@gmail.com> wrote:

John Carpenter's "Thing". Wow! It's been a long time, other than the >computer and equipment this looked like it could've been filmed
recently. The Son commented on it looking new. It really holds up
well. The acting is all spot on. Amazing movie, possibly my favorite
sci-fi horror movie, at least up there with Aliens.

I agree. "Thing" survives the test of time because it isn't really
relying on its effects for its horror; it's the overwhelming sense of paranoia that the movie projects that makes it so powerful. In fact,
if you watch the effects scenes seperate from the rest of the movie
they're almost... well, laughable in how cheesy they are. But despite
this, the movie remains a classic.

(I'm also a fan of the 2011 prequel, which - while definitely the
poorer of the two movies - wasn't so bad as to be unwatchable. It's
biggest sin was that it felt too much like a remake rather than
treading new ground. I also enjoyed the 2002 video-game. That too was
quite flawed, but it was trying something new with its 'fear' system
and I enjoyed being able to explore its world).

* Halo 3 MCC (new/replay)

I've never really played Halo, I tried when MS had them free with
their sub, and I subbed for Need for Speed, but I couldn't get the
first one to run. What in your opinion is the best one?

That's a tough one. It's probably a toss-up between the original
(preferably the remake just because nicer graphics are nice) and
"Halo: ODST". The first benefited from its novelty and simplicity of
story. The franchise hadn't yet developed into the massive
wannabe-epic it eventually became, and some of the four-sided battles
were quite fun. That level design, though; argh!

"ODST" had rather uninspired gameplay and drab visuals, but it's anachronistic narrative and almost noir tone made it stand out for me.
It had some of the most memorable - and likable - characters in the
entire franchise too. Plus, it wasn't
yet-another-MasterChief-saves-the-day story, which was getting tired
even with the first game, much less four games in.

(A brief nod to "Halo: Reach" too. It had well-designed levels, good characters and generally interesting tone and narrative. It's by far
the most /fun/ game of the series for me - if I had to play any of the
Halo games again, it would be Reach - even it isn't particularly
original.)

Maybe Reach then, as I'm more interested in gameplay than story.

**** Earth Defense Force 5
I finally got back into it after playing it a bit more. I've been
mostly playing alone, my daughter only asked to play once more last
week. I hadn't got as far as I thought previously. I'd only
finished the game with the Wing Diver character 2x - once offline and
once online on hard mode. Now I've Finished it 3x with Wing Diver
and 2x with the other 3. All offline Hard and Hardest, leaving only
Inferno and most of online.

I installed reshade with it so it looks considerably better, however
load times are much longer, about 30 seconds per mission.

The "Earth Defense Force" franchise is one I keep wanting to try, but
then I flashback to PS1-era games that were similar (like "Incoming"
or even "Dynasty Warriors") and I write them off again. They're the
sort of game I have to be in a very specific mood to enjoy, I think.
Mindless shooting only entertains me so long; in the end, I want story
and atmosphere ;-)

While there's a quite a lot of shooting, there's a bit of a story with the fairly frequent chatter and radio talk in the missions.

Atmosphere
is somewhere like 60-70's Japanese alien invasion/Godzilla movies,
perhaps updated a bit and with some sci-fi weapons. It's all pretty
cheesy, but it's fun and funny in bits.

A lot of the game isn't quite what I'd say as mindless shooting
either, there's a lot of tactics and strategy involved. What enemies do
you focus on first, can you get through shields without dying, do
you try to kite them. Also the strategy of what weapons to choose
which can take a lot of trial and error for different missions
environments and enemies. There's something like 500 weapons,
and they each have levels so newer weapons can be worse until
upgraded than older ones that are more upgraded. While there
are lines of weapons even among those there are differences,
like Thunder Crossbows - 1 through 3 can be fired while out of
energy while the others with names like W3 or ZD can't.

Working to keep the soldiers alive who you end up with some variety
of on every mission can be quite valuable too. If you're playing on
easy or normal they can take care of themselves fairly well, though
they do like to walk in front of you and take friendly fire, fortunately they're smarter than I am on the reverse and I can't ever remember
being shot by one. On hard and up it's possible to keep them alive,
but it requires a bit more effort, there are a couple missions with a
couple classes that was the best way to finish on hardest. You
can get kind of attached to 'Sarge' and his team too, who shows up
from the beginning and (almost?) every mission.

Yeah there's a bit not to like, it's a bit looter shooter and grindy,
though I'd say it's not until you finish the game once, as I never
really did any grinding until after that, and even then as I mentioned
there's mods/cheats to get rid of the grind or lessen it. It
certainly isn't needed if you dial the difficulty back if you're having
issues with some missions, and you get some of your pickups even
if you die during the missions. Some people might not enjoy the
over the top voice acting I suppose.

Spoiler for one of the funnier bits that's a meme now:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
There's these giant frog humanoids that the other soldiers
see and say "They look just like us!" and some other
comments about it.

- Justisaur

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Oh, and SuperHot's free weekend and it was short so I finished its main levels. Cool game! :D


Ant <ant@zimage.comant> wrote:

Steam's free weekend games like Arkanoid (retro version was a blast, the modern one is pretty, and online is crazy), V Rising (though it would be purely action RPG like Diablo, but it has the annoying grindings like collectiing resources, making, repairing, etc.), etc. When no free games
to play, back to old Skyrim! :P

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

Well, we're definitely getting into the drearier days of Autumn*. It's getting darker and colder and there's less green on the trees. But
that just gives us all more excuses to hang around inside and play
video games. Or - more pertinent to this post - talk about those games
on Usenet. Like, for example, listing out what games we've been
playing over the last 31 days. Hey, that sounds like a neat idea. We
should make that a 'thing' here in c.s.i.p.g.action!

Anyway, my games:

You can read this in a few seconds
------------------------------
* Untitled Goose Game (new)
* No Man's Sky (new)
* Halo 3 MCC (new/replay)
* Genesis Alpha One Deluxe Edition (new)

Yeah, you'd better take a seat for this ---------------------------------------

* Untitled Goose Game (new)
Pretty much everything about "Untitled Goose Game" is charming: it's visuals, its sound, it's level design, its animation, all of it. It's clever in its simplicity; there's no leveling, no grinding, no
crafting; it's just a misunderstood anatidae bumbling his way through
a world of grumpy humans. The interactions between the two species are adorable and every new discovery is a delight. It's an amazing game.

I gave up on it three hours in.

Because while so much of this game went right, it's control was frustratingly clumsy. Solutions to simple puzzles were made more
difficult than they should have been just because getting the goose to
do what I wanted when I wanted always took three, four, five times
longer than it should have. I've no patience for repetition, and my irritation was ruining what should have been a delightful experience. "Untitled Goose Game's" design was that of a quiet English village on
a summer day, but my adventure felt like Brixton on a rainy night. I
wasn't having fun in a game that was meant to be nothing but, and that
felt so contrary to the game's design that I just stopped.

Maybe it was just me. Maybe I've become inordinately clumsy, or I'm in
a mood, or I missed out on some important tip on how to move the
goose, or my mouse batteries were dying, or maybe I just should have
used a gamepad. The game deserves to be finished, but I'm afraid that
if I kept at it, the whole experience would be soured and I'd look at
the game less fairly than it deserved. I didn't want that to happen; I wanted to remember it for its many good parts, not its singularly bad
one. So while I'm unhappy to leave the game incomplete, I think it's
for the best. I'll probably give it another chance one of these days; hopefully I'll look back at what I'm writing today and wonder what I'm whinging on about. Until then, I'll part as amicably as I can and hope
for sunny English skies.

* No Man's Sky (new)
"No Man's Sky" is really an amazing game. The sheer scale of it -
billions of stars and planets to explore - mean you can spend hundreds
of hours in this game and never even make it to the 1% mark.

I cashed out after two hours.

That I gave up so quickly after buying the game wasn't a surprise to
me. I knew what this game was. I'd followed it from it's pre-release
hype, to its rocky launch, to its impressive post-launch reclamation.
I'd read the articles; I had watched the YouTube videos. I wasn't
going into the game blind. The only surprising thing was that I had actually, finally, purchased the game in the first place.

(That decision was largely due to my exhaustion at waiting for the
price to drop. Fuck you, Hello Games, for insisting the price of the
game is really $60USD that you are generously offering at 50% off.
I've looked at your store prices a hundred times, and the number of instances where the price /hasn't/ been 50% off could be counted on
the fingers of a hand involved in a particularly nasty threshing
accident. You're ever-sale is a particularly scummy marketing tactic
and I'm calling you out on it!)

See, the thing about "No Man's Sky" is that its huge world and
procedurally generated planets and animals are mere frippery; they're superficial gloss on what is, at it's heart, 'yet-another crafting
game.' And I know there are a lot of people who enjoy that genre - as evidenced by all the "Minecrafts", and the "Rafts" and the "Arks"
available on Steam - but I am definitely not one of those fans. I
tired of crafting in video games back when "Ultima Online" was new and exciting. Nothing in the quarter century since has reinvigorated by
love of that mechanic. Running around vacuuming up rocks and trees so
I can build better machines to suck up more rocks and trees just does
not excite me.

You can, of course, disable the crafting mechanic in "No Man's Sky"; there's a casual mode and a creative mode where you don't have to
worry about that nonsense. Unfortunately, removing that tears out the
heart of "No Man's Sky's" gameplay. Okay, there's some base building
and exploration, but neither are particularly satisfying on their own.
The setting is fairly shallow; the universe exists almost entirely to
be exploited. There's no real quest, no real characters, no reason to
jump from one planet to the next except to find more rocks and trees.

I'm not criticizing the gameplay. As I said, there are a lot of people
who enjoy that sort of game, and - for what it is - "No Man's Sky" is
an impressive creation. But I am decidedly not a fan of the genre, so
- like I said - I shouldn't be (and wasn't) surprised that my dislike
of the game was so immediate.

"No Man's Sky" is an amazing game, and a testament to Indie games everywhere. I just happen to hate it.

* Halo 3 MCC (new/replay)
"Halo 3" is just such a disappointing game.

This is the second time I've played it; the first time was on the XBox
and I was so underwhelmed that I never saw any need to go back until
now. But curiosity as to what upgrades were made for the "Master Chief Edition" finally made me reinstall the game. And while the visuals are (ever so slightly) improved, it doesn't save what should have been an
epic finale to the classic sci-fi trilogy.

A lot of the fault, I think, lies with the sound design; there's no solidity to the sound. Everything sounds flat. I'd accuse the PC port
of being the problem, but I remember a similar issue when played on
the XBox. The levels are terrible; the music often overwhelms the
speech, the sound effects lack impact, and the voice-acting feels
clipped and disjointed. It strips the game of all its emotional
weight.

This might not have been so noticeable had the rest of the game been satisfying, but it's equally hollow. The level design remains the
trilogy's weakest point; it is - perhaps - not quite as bad as the cut-n-paste level design of the first, but it still reuses far too
many assets; too often I wasn't sure which direction I was supposed to
go because all the rooms looked alike.

The combat is equally poor. Weapons feel weak and inaccurate, and too
often I'd plink away at enemies unsure if I were actually hitting them until they suddenly keeled over and died (melee combat was even worse;
I never felt like I was making contact with anything). It probably
didn't help that - though FOV could be changed - it didn't affect your weapons; even at 105 degrees, my guns took up the same amount of
screen space as they did at the default 70 degrees, which made
everything feel more cramped than it should have. The lack of any
ability to sprint was also a sorely missed feature.

The story was perhaps the least offensive part of the game, but - even
then - the franchise was already pretty far up its own ass regarding
its lore. It's a shallow aliens-vs-marines space fantasy that
sometimes seems to think it's narrative is Shakespearean in depth and complexity. None of the characters are interesting - or even that
likeable - and I felt no attachment to any of them. It didn't help
that too often the game interrupted itself with annoying voice-overs (either from Gravemind or Cortana) that fuzzed the viewscreen and
slowed movement to a crawl.

So I really didn't enjoy my time with this game. The only thing
keeping this from being the worst in the franchise is the existence of "Halo 2". Even the awful "Spartan Assault" games are more fun. Do not mistake me; there are Halo games I enjoy, but "Halo 3"? It definitely
ain't one of 'em. Not even close.

* Genesis Alpha One Deluxe Edition (new)
This game isn't what I expected, and that may have been the problem.

One of the many freebies I've collected, it's described as a sci-fi
FPS, and technically I guess that's accurate. You're on a futuristic space-ship traveling through interstellar space, you have a gun, and
you see everything from a first-person perspective. But the game is
much more a survival/base-building game in the vein of Minecraft
(actually, it most closely resembles the game "Raft" in gameplay), and
the shooting aspect of the game is of secondary, or even tertiary importance.

It's visuals have this under-saturated, over-bloomed pastel appearance
that look great in screenshots but in actual use I felt like
everything was always too dark, or too bright, and never had enough
detail. It was 'Eye-strain: The Game'. Artistically pleasing, but
terrible to endure for more very long. Models feel simplistic and the
whole thing has that aura of a low-polish Indie game (which I suppose
it is).

The gameplay isn't very exciting. The basic game loop is to build up a
very simple spaceship, "fly" to a nearby solar system (you don't
actually fly your ship, it just instantly warps to a new location),
and collect various resources. These resources will be used to either
keep yourself and your AI crew alive, or improve your ship. In
between, you'll shuttle down to procedurally-generated planets (of
which you can explore only a radius of about 100', and they all look alike), fight off the occasional alien invader or raider, or assign
crew to different posts to maximize efficiency. None of this is done
in an entertaining way. The visuals are dull. The combat is dull. The
ship upgrades are dull. The planets are dull. The crew is mindless. If there's a story, I hadn't encountered any hint of it. Oh, and in the
few hours I played, it crashed several times.

The whole game feels very much like an early Early Access title. All
the features and ideas in "Genesis" feel half-baked and incomplete. Conceptually, it's a sound title (even if it isn't really the sort of
thing I enjoy playing) but it isn't done very well. It's been better
done in games like "Raft" or "Valheim" or even "No Man's Sky", and if
you like the genre, go play one of those. Because "Genesis: Alpha One"
is disappointing in just about every way.

------------------------------

So that's my list for this month. Hopefully you all had more
satisfying experiences. But I guess there's only one way to know, and that's for you to tell us...

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN PLAYING... IN OCTOBER 2022?

--
Slammy hump day especially at night time with the colony. Finally, voted after 28 yrs. "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been
established by God." --Romans 13:1
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wed, 2 Nov 2022 10:37:57 -0600, "rms" <rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net>
wrote:

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN PLAYING... IN OCTOBER 2022?

Just Plague Tale: Requiem! Enjoying it, mainly for the story and
graphics -- the landscapes are very nice to look at; right now I'm walking >through the gardens of a Mediterranean villa and just admiring the view -- >I've arrived at Chapter VIII I believe. As in the first game the story is >divided into roughly hour-long chapters, which is so convenient if you're on >any kind of schedule. It's on pc gamepass, and runs at max settings (I've >turned off motion blur & chromatic aberration) @ 1440p on my pc.

I have to admit, there's a part of me that's tempted by Requiem. But
then I remember its predecessor and hold off.

It's not that I disliked "Innocence". Sure, it's gameplay was only a
half-step above a 'walking sim', and it's story was saccharine to the
point of tooth-decay. But it presented an interesting story with
(somewhat) likeable characters and I got a kick out of wandering it's semi-realistic portrayals of Plague-plagued Medieval Europe.

I just really disliked the addition of the supernatural aspect to the narrative. Guiding two youngsters* through the rat-infested streets of
France during a period of political upheavals would have been exciting
enough; having the boy suddenly gain magical control of the rodents
weakened the overall effect. (IMHO, as usual).

Which left the whole game rather disappointing. Interesting, sure.
Some good parts, sure. But anything I'd rush to replay, recommend, or
hurry to get the sequel? Not really.

"Requiem" may be a great game; it may fix everything I disliked about
the original. And eventually I expect I'll find out, once the game
drops in price or is given away free. But my experience with the first
means I'm in no rush to play it anytime soon, or pay a premium for the privilege.








* hey, /another/ Indie game where the protagonists are young children
and they can suffer incredibly gruesome deaths. What /is/ it with
Indie devs and their hatred for kids?!?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Well I've finally managed to actually play a game this month after
pretty much nothing for the previous two.

Road Warden
-----------

This one is an interesting one as I think it's got more too it than you
may think at first glance. So you if look at the Steam store page it
comes across as another digital choose your own adventure book. I
haven't finished a play-though yet but I think of it more akin to taking
a CRPG and then removing all that time consuming and expensive graphical
part and just having the dialogue tree with a little bit of combat. That
also means it's cheap and I got it for I think about £6 with -25% off.

The basic premise is that, as you may expect, you are the Roadwarden and
you travel from location to location trying to discover the fate of your predecessor while picking-up sub-quests. This is all done in text with a
pixel art representation and a music track. Now obviously a game like
this really lives on its text and for that it's really rather good, well
I think so anyway. A couple of things I do like are the descriptions of
the scenes are well done and allow you to get into theater-of-the-mind
and a minor, but, interesting one is instead of being given the option
of say take the sword it's I take the sword. A nice little touch I thought.

So overall I like the feel of it so far and the story is rather
engaging. If you like narrative driven, text heavy CRPG's then it's
worth checking out and it even has a demo you can try.

Arcane Quest HD (iPad)
----------------------

I really haven't played this much but it's rather easy to review it if
you know the boardgame Heroquest on the grounds that it's pretty much
that in digital form. So a complete top-down view turn based dungeon
crawler. The good thing though, it's free (I think there's a option to
make a £2 donations to the devs.). Don't let the free on mobile tag put
you off though as it's got surprisingly high production values and as
far is I can tell no ads or micro-transactions.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 03/11/2022 15:51, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

I just really disliked the addition of the supernatural aspect to the narrative. Guiding two youngsters* through the rat-infested streets of
France during a period of political upheavals would have been exciting enough; having the boy suddenly gain magical control of the rodents
weakened the overall effect. (IMHO, as usual).

I can't say I like children portrayed in story-based games as, and this
will sound bad, I don't really have any empathy for them. It doesn't
help that they then tend to end up with children in films and TV
syndrome - you have an actor that is ten years old speaking like a forty
year old.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Also, MORDHAU free weekend. Hard, but fun!


Ant <ant@zimage.comant> wrote:

Oh, and SuperHot's free weekend and it was short so I finished its main levels. Cool game! :D

Ant <ant@zimage.comant> wrote:

Steam's free weekend games like Arkanoid (retro version was a blast, the modern one is pretty, and online is crazy), V Rising (though it would be purely action RPG like Diablo, but it has the annoying grindings like collectiing resources, making, repairing, etc.), etc. When no free games
to play, back to old Skyrim! :P

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

Well, we're definitely getting into the drearier days of Autumn*. It's getting darker and colder and there's less green on the trees. But
that just gives us all more excuses to hang around inside and play
video games. Or - more pertinent to this post - talk about those games
on Usenet. Like, for example, listing out what games we've been
playing over the last 31 days. Hey, that sounds like a neat idea. We should make that a 'thing' here in c.s.i.p.g.action!

Anyway, my games:

You can read this in a few seconds
------------------------------
* Untitled Goose Game (new)
* No Man's Sky (new)
* Halo 3 MCC (new/replay)
* Genesis Alpha One Deluxe Edition (new)

Yeah, you'd better take a seat for this ---------------------------------------

* Untitled Goose Game (new)
Pretty much everything about "Untitled Goose Game" is charming: it's visuals, its sound, it's level design, its animation, all of it. It's clever in its simplicity; there's no leveling, no grinding, no
crafting; it's just a misunderstood anatidae bumbling his way through
a world of grumpy humans. The interactions between the two species are adorable and every new discovery is a delight. It's an amazing game.

I gave up on it three hours in.

Because while so much of this game went right, it's control was frustratingly clumsy. Solutions to simple puzzles were made more difficult than they should have been just because getting the goose to
do what I wanted when I wanted always took three, four, five times
longer than it should have. I've no patience for repetition, and my irritation was ruining what should have been a delightful experience. "Untitled Goose Game's" design was that of a quiet English village on
a summer day, but my adventure felt like Brixton on a rainy night. I wasn't having fun in a game that was meant to be nothing but, and that felt so contrary to the game's design that I just stopped.

Maybe it was just me. Maybe I've become inordinately clumsy, or I'm in
a mood, or I missed out on some important tip on how to move the
goose, or my mouse batteries were dying, or maybe I just should have
used a gamepad. The game deserves to be finished, but I'm afraid that
if I kept at it, the whole experience would be soured and I'd look at
the game less fairly than it deserved. I didn't want that to happen; I wanted to remember it for its many good parts, not its singularly bad one. So while I'm unhappy to leave the game incomplete, I think it's
for the best. I'll probably give it another chance one of these days; hopefully I'll look back at what I'm writing today and wonder what I'm whinging on about. Until then, I'll part as amicably as I can and hope for sunny English skies.

* No Man's Sky (new)
"No Man's Sky" is really an amazing game. The sheer scale of it - billions of stars and planets to explore - mean you can spend hundreds
of hours in this game and never even make it to the 1% mark.

I cashed out after two hours.

That I gave up so quickly after buying the game wasn't a surprise to
me. I knew what this game was. I'd followed it from it's pre-release hype, to its rocky launch, to its impressive post-launch reclamation.
I'd read the articles; I had watched the YouTube videos. I wasn't
going into the game blind. The only surprising thing was that I had actually, finally, purchased the game in the first place.

(That decision was largely due to my exhaustion at waiting for the
price to drop. Fuck you, Hello Games, for insisting the price of the
game is really $60USD that you are generously offering at 50% off.
I've looked at your store prices a hundred times, and the number of instances where the price /hasn't/ been 50% off could be counted on
the fingers of a hand involved in a particularly nasty threshing accident. You're ever-sale is a particularly scummy marketing tactic
and I'm calling you out on it!)

See, the thing about "No Man's Sky" is that its huge world and procedurally generated planets and animals are mere frippery; they're superficial gloss on what is, at it's heart, 'yet-another crafting
game.' And I know there are a lot of people who enjoy that genre - as evidenced by all the "Minecrafts", and the "Rafts" and the "Arks" available on Steam - but I am definitely not one of those fans. I
tired of crafting in video games back when "Ultima Online" was new and exciting. Nothing in the quarter century since has reinvigorated by
love of that mechanic. Running around vacuuming up rocks and trees so
I can build better machines to suck up more rocks and trees just does
not excite me.

You can, of course, disable the crafting mechanic in "No Man's Sky"; there's a casual mode and a creative mode where you don't have to
worry about that nonsense. Unfortunately, removing that tears out the heart of "No Man's Sky's" gameplay. Okay, there's some base building
and exploration, but neither are particularly satisfying on their own. The setting is fairly shallow; the universe exists almost entirely to
be exploited. There's no real quest, no real characters, no reason to jump from one planet to the next except to find more rocks and trees.

I'm not criticizing the gameplay. As I said, there are a lot of people who enjoy that sort of game, and - for what it is - "No Man's Sky" is
an impressive creation. But I am decidedly not a fan of the genre, so
- like I said - I shouldn't be (and wasn't) surprised that my dislike
of the game was so immediate.

"No Man's Sky" is an amazing game, and a testament to Indie games everywhere. I just happen to hate it.

* Halo 3 MCC (new/replay)
"Halo 3" is just such a disappointing game.

This is the second time I've played it; the first time was on the XBox and I was so underwhelmed that I never saw any need to go back until
now. But curiosity as to what upgrades were made for the "Master Chief Edition" finally made me reinstall the game. And while the visuals are (ever so slightly) improved, it doesn't save what should have been an epic finale to the classic sci-fi trilogy.

A lot of the fault, I think, lies with the sound design; there's no solidity to the sound. Everything sounds flat. I'd accuse the PC port
of being the problem, but I remember a similar issue when played on
the XBox. The levels are terrible; the music often overwhelms the
speech, the sound effects lack impact, and the voice-acting feels
clipped and disjointed. It strips the game of all its emotional
weight.

This might not have been so noticeable had the rest of the game been satisfying, but it's equally hollow. The level design remains the trilogy's weakest point; it is - perhaps - not quite as bad as the cut-n-paste level design of the first, but it still reuses far too
many assets; too often I wasn't sure which direction I was supposed to
go because all the rooms looked alike.

The combat is equally poor. Weapons feel weak and inaccurate, and too often I'd plink away at enemies unsure if I were actually hitting them until they suddenly keeled over and died (melee combat was even worse;
I never felt like I was making contact with anything). It probably
didn't help that - though FOV could be changed - it didn't affect your weapons; even at 105 degrees, my guns took up the same amount of
screen space as they did at the default 70 degrees, which made
everything feel more cramped than it should have. The lack of any
ability to sprint was also a sorely missed feature.

The story was perhaps the least offensive part of the game, but - even then - the franchise was already pretty far up its own ass regarding
its lore. It's a shallow aliens-vs-marines space fantasy that
sometimes seems to think it's narrative is Shakespearean in depth and complexity. None of the characters are interesting - or even that likeable - and I felt no attachment to any of them. It didn't help
that too often the game interrupted itself with annoying voice-overs (either from Gravemind or Cortana) that fuzzed the viewscreen and
slowed movement to a crawl.

So I really didn't enjoy my time with this game. The only thing
keeping this from being the worst in the franchise is the existence of "Halo 2". Even the awful "Spartan Assault" games are more fun. Do not mistake me; there are Halo games I enjoy, but "Halo 3"? It definitely ain't one of 'em. Not even close.

* Genesis Alpha One Deluxe Edition (new)
This game isn't what I expected, and that may have been the problem.

One of the many freebies I've collected, it's described as a sci-fi
FPS, and technically I guess that's accurate. You're on a futuristic space-ship traveling through interstellar space, you have a gun, and
you see everything from a first-person perspective. But the game is
much more a survival/base-building game in the vein of Minecraft (actually, it most closely resembles the game "Raft" in gameplay), and the shooting aspect of the game is of secondary, or even tertiary importance.

It's visuals have this under-saturated, over-bloomed pastel appearance that look great in screenshots but in actual use I felt like
everything was always too dark, or too bright, and never had enough detail. It was 'Eye-strain: The Game'. Artistically pleasing, but terrible to endure for more very long. Models feel simplistic and the whole thing has that aura of a low-polish Indie game (which I suppose
it is).

The gameplay isn't very exciting. The basic game loop is to build up a very simple spaceship, "fly" to a nearby solar system (you don't
actually fly your ship, it just instantly warps to a new location),
and collect various resources. These resources will be used to either keep yourself and your AI crew alive, or improve your ship. In
between, you'll shuttle down to procedurally-generated planets (of
which you can explore only a radius of about 100', and they all look alike), fight off the occasional alien invader or raider, or assign
crew to different posts to maximize efficiency. None of this is done
in an entertaining way. The visuals are dull. The combat is dull. The ship upgrades are dull. The planets are dull. The crew is mindless. If there's a story, I hadn't encountered any hint of it. Oh, and in the
few hours I played, it crashed several times.

The whole game feels very much like an early Early Access title. All
the features and ideas in "Genesis" feel half-baked and incomplete. Conceptually, it's a sound title (even if it isn't really the sort of thing I enjoy playing) but it isn't done very well. It's been better
done in games like "Raft" or "Valheim" or even "No Man's Sky", and if
you like the genre, go play one of those. Because "Genesis: Alpha One"
is disappointing in just about every way.

------------------------------

So that's my list for this month. Hopefully you all had more
satisfying experiences. But I guess there's only one way to know, and that's for you to tell us...

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN PLAYING... IN OCTOBER 2022?

--
"He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant ??? not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." --2 Corinthians 3:6. Cold and windy Thursday that was mostly quiet, but got a little slammy at night.
Finally, voted after 28 yrs.
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Well guys, it is like this...

I lost my wife of 29 years to cancer on the 11th of October. Lots of
trips to hospitals the last couple months before that, and then so
much stuff to organize and complete since then. I just don't feel
like having fun right now.

But I did manage to play a LFD2 map on the 30th and almost completed
it. I forgot how darn hard and demanding LFD is! I can't believe I
used to play it on-line into the middle of the night on expert mode
with people from other countries! Just don't have the touch any more.

Unreal Tournament 2004 with my brother who has always kicked my butt
and is still just being cordial when we play together on-line.

I have spent 400 Steam hours playing Elden Ring and I know I am near
the end but it is just not worth taking risks now for the rewards. I
am drained of energy and don't have the enthusiasm and motivation any
longer to complete it. Not with all I have to do now.

Sorry to be a bummer but maybe I will start playing games again soon.

-pw

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Sat, 05 Nov 2022 16:22:37 -0600, PW
<iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com> wrote:

Well guys, it is like this...

I lost my wife of 29 years to cancer on the 11th of October. Lots of
trips to hospitals the last couple months before that, and then so
much stuff to organize and complete since then. I just don't feel
like having fun right now.

But I did manage to play a LFD2 map on the 30th and almost completed
it. I forgot how darn hard and demanding LFD is! I can't believe I
used to play it on-line into the middle of the night on expert mode
with people from other countries! Just don't have the touch any more.

Unreal Tournament 2004 with my brother who has always kicked my butt
and is still just being cordial when we play together on-line.

I have spent 400 Steam hours playing Elden Ring and I know I am near
the end but it is just not worth taking risks now for the rewards. I
am drained of energy and don't have the enthusiasm and motivation any
longer to complete it. Not with all I have to do now.

Sorry to be a bummer but maybe I will start playing games again soon.

Well, that explains your absence; I was somewhat worried.

Words of condolence - especially from a stranger on Usenet that you
have never met - probably mean nothing to you, but I offer them
anyway. Losing somebody with whom you've spent a large portion of your
life - whether it is a spouse, a parent, a friend or a child - is
possibly the most devastating thing a person can experience and
hearing somebody say, "I've been there" or "You'll get through this"
likely sounds like hollow sympathy, regardless of how heartfelt it is
actually meant. I'll say them anyway, because however casual we may be
as acquaintances, it's hard to see another person go through that sort
of loss without wanting to help them through that rough patch.

That you feel no enthusiasm for the hobbies that entertained you just
a few months ago is perfectly natural and maybe it's an opportunity
for you to explore new pasttimes that aren't so entangled with old
memories. Or not; everybody is different and I really don't want to
presume by advising people on how to deal with their grief, except to
say that it's important to reach out to other people in your life who
will help remind you that you are alive. I'm sorry, and wish I could
offer more than words from afar.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Sat, 05 Nov 2022 20:06:43 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sat, 05 Nov 2022 16:22:37 -0600, PW
<iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com> wrote:

Well guys, it is like this...

I lost my wife of 29 years to cancer on the 11th of October. Lots of
trips to hospitals the last couple months before that, and then so
much stuff to organize and complete since then. I just don't feel
like having fun right now.

But I did manage to play a LFD2 map on the 30th and almost completed
it. I forgot how darn hard and demanding LFD is! I can't believe I
used to play it on-line into the middle of the night on expert mode
with people from other countries! Just don't have the touch any more.

Unreal Tournament 2004 with my brother who has always kicked my butt
and is still just being cordial when we play together on-line.

I have spent 400 Steam hours playing Elden Ring and I know I am near
the end but it is just not worth taking risks now for the rewards. I
am drained of energy and don't have the enthusiasm and motivation any >>longer to complete it. Not with all I have to do now.

Sorry to be a bummer but maybe I will start playing games again soon.

Well, that explains your absence; I was somewhat worried.

Words of condolence - especially from a stranger on Usenet that you
have never met - probably mean nothing to you, but I offer them
anyway. Losing somebody with whom you've spent a large portion of your
life - whether it is a spouse, a parent, a friend or a child - is
possibly the most devastating thing a person can experience and
hearing somebody say, "I've been there" or "You'll get through this"
likely sounds like hollow sympathy, regardless of how heartfelt it is >actually meant. I'll say them anyway, because however casual we may be
as acquaintances, it's hard to see another person go through that sort
of loss without wanting to help them through that rough patch.

That you feel no enthusiasm for the hobbies that entertained you just
a few months ago is perfectly natural and maybe it's an opportunity
for you to explore new pasttimes that aren't so entangled with old
memories. Or not; everybody is different and I really don't want to
presume by advising people on how to deal with their grief, except to
say that it's important to reach out to other people in your life who
will help remind you that you are alive. I'm sorry, and wish I could
offer more than words from afar.

*--

Thank you Spalls and very encouraging words! Kristin and I were not
only best friends but we did so much together like originating and
developing the first software for fishing, hunting, wingshooting,
dude/guest ranches and outfitters.

Plus right after we got married in 1993, she asked me where I wanted
to go on our honeymoon. I said, I taught myself how to fly fish at
age 16 and I heard about this place called Montana so how about we go
there? She said, Let's go! :-)

We ended up moving here in 1994 and the rest is history.

She was only 57.

Maybe I should boot up American Truck Simulator and try out the
Montana DLC that I bought.

But I did just buy Return To Monkey Island after reading a review in
the latest Max PC so maybe that will cheer me up!

Thanks so much!

-paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 06/11/2022 00:06, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Words of condolence - especially from a stranger on Usenet that you
have never met - probably mean nothing to you, but I offer them
anyway. Losing somebody with whom you've spent a large portion of your
life - whether it is a spouse, a parent, a friend or a child - is
possibly the most devastating thing a person can experience and
hearing somebody say, "I've been there" or "You'll get through this"
likely sounds like hollow sympathy, regardless of how heartfelt it is actually meant. I'll say them anyway, because however casual we may be
as acquaintances, it's hard to see another person go through that sort
of loss without wanting to help them through that rough patch.

They are the two that I found quickly went to actively annoying me
especially the latter. Yes I know I will eventually 'get over it' but
telling me that doesn't help where I currently am.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 05/11/2022 22:22, PW wrote:

Well guys, it is like this...

I lost my wife of 29 years to cancer on the 11th of October. Lots of
trips to hospitals the last couple months before that, and then so
much stuff to organize and complete since then. I just don't feel
like having fun right now.

But I did manage to play a LFD2 map on the 30th and almost completed
it. I forgot how darn hard and demanding LFD is! I can't believe I
used to play it on-line into the middle of the night on expert mode
with people from other countries! Just don't have the touch any more.

Unreal Tournament 2004 with my brother who has always kicked my butt
and is still just being cordial when we play together on-line.

I have spent 400 Steam hours playing Elden Ring and I know I am near
the end but it is just not worth taking risks now for the rewards. I
am drained of energy and don't have the enthusiasm and motivation any
longer to complete it. Not with all I have to do now.

Sorry to be a bummer but maybe I will start playing games again soon.

Really sorry to here that PW. Now normally at this point I should offer
some cliched platitudes but instead I'll just say life can be a real
bugger at times.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I'm so sorry PW. Take plenty time to heal, and come back to us when you can
:)

rms

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Saturday, November 5, 2022 at 5:07:06 PM UTC-7, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Sat, 05 Nov 2022 16:22:37 -0600, PW
<iamnotusing...@notinuse.com> wrote:

Well guys, it is like this...

I lost my wife of 29 years to cancer on the 11th of October. Lots of
trips to hospitals the last couple months before that, and then so
much stuff to organize and complete since then. I just don't feel
like having fun right now.

But I did manage to play a LFD2 map on the 30th and almost completed
it. I forgot how darn hard and demanding LFD is! I can't believe I
used to play it on-line into the middle of the night on expert mode
with people from other countries! Just don't have the touch any more.

Unreal Tournament 2004 with my brother who has always kicked my butt
and is still just being cordial when we play together on-line.

I have spent 400 Steam hours playing Elden Ring and I know I am near
the end but it is just not worth taking risks now for the rewards. I
am drained of energy and don't have the enthusiasm and motivation any >longer to complete it. Not with all I have to do now.

Sorry to be a bummer but maybe I will start playing games again soon.

Well, that explains your absence; I was somewhat worried.

Words of condolence - especially from a stranger on Usenet that you
have never met - probably mean nothing to you, but I offer them
anyway. Losing somebody with whom you've spent a large portion of your
life - whether it is a spouse, a parent, a friend or a child - is
possibly the most devastating thing a person can experience and
hearing somebody say, "I've been there" or "You'll get through this"
likely sounds like hollow sympathy, regardless of how heartfelt it is actually meant. I'll say them anyway, because however casual we may be
as acquaintances, it's hard to see another person go through that sort
of loss without wanting to help them through that rough patch.

That you feel no enthusiasm for the hobbies that entertained you just
a few months ago is perfectly natural and maybe it's an opportunity
for you to explore new pasttimes that aren't so entangled with old
memories. Or not; everybody is different and I really don't want to
presume by advising people on how to deal with their grief, except to
say that it's important to reach out to other people in your life who
will help remind you that you are alive. I'm sorry, and wish I could
offer more than words from afar.

Spalls is far more eloquent than I, so I'll just say he captured the
words for the feelings I have.

Ditto

- Justisaury

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Welcome back. My condolences. :( Lots of people, I knew, died recently
too. Bad year of deaths.

PW <iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com> wrote:

Well guys, it is like this...

I lost my wife of 29 years to cancer on the 11th of October. Lots of
trips to hospitals the last couple months before that, and then so
much stuff to organize and complete since then. I just don't feel
like having fun right now.

But I did manage to play a LFD2 map on the 30th and almost completed
it. I forgot how darn hard and demanding LFD is! I can't believe I
used to play it on-line into the middle of the night on expert mode
with people from other countries! Just don't have the touch any more.

Unreal Tournament 2004 with my brother who has always kicked my butt
and is still just being cordial when we play together on-line.

I have spent 400 Steam hours playing Elden Ring and I know I am near
the end but it is just not worth taking risks now for the rewards. I
am drained of energy and don't have the enthusiasm and motivation any
longer to complete it. Not with all I have to do now.

Sorry to be a bummer but maybe I will start playing games again soon.

-pw

--
Slammy Caturday night (too many clocks, packings, etc.). Let's stay with daylight saving forever please. A new quiet week? "He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect
when the times will have reached their fulfillment ??? to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ." --Ephesians 1:9-10. Finally, voted after 28 yrs. Winter is coming early. Boo to cheating Houston Astros.
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Sun, 6 Nov 2022 11:07:40 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

On 05/11/2022 22:22, PW wrote:

Well guys, it is like this...

I lost my wife of 29 years to cancer on the 11th of October. Lots of
trips to hospitals the last couple months before that, and then so
much stuff to organize and complete since then. I just don't feel
like having fun right now.

But I did manage to play a LFD2 map on the 30th and almost completed
it. I forgot how darn hard and demanding LFD is! I can't believe I
used to play it on-line into the middle of the night on expert mode
with people from other countries! Just don't have the touch any more.

Unreal Tournament 2004 with my brother who has always kicked my butt
and is still just being cordial when we play together on-line.

I have spent 400 Steam hours playing Elden Ring and I know I am near
the end but it is just not worth taking risks now for the rewards. I
am drained of energy and don't have the enthusiasm and motivation any
longer to complete it. Not with all I have to do now.

Sorry to be a bummer but maybe I will start playing games again soon.

Really sorry to here that PW. Now normally at this point I should offer
some cliched platitudes but instead I'll just say life can be a real
bugger at times.

*-

Thanks! As some of the rodeo clowns say here in Montana and other
states: "True Story, Right There" :-)

-pw

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On Sun, 6 Nov 2022 06:50:16 -0700, "rms" <rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net>
wrote:

I'm so sorry PW. Take plenty time to heal, and come back to us when you can >:)

rms

*--

Will do!

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On Fri, 4 Nov 2022 09:36:33 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

Well I've finally managed to actually play a game this month after
pretty much nothing for the previous two.

Road Warden
-----------

Bought it! $11. Probabably should have tried the demo first.

I don't know how you and Spalls find these seemingly obscure games!

-pw

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