Due to a hectic week at my day job this week’s word count is a little lower than usual. Also, my partner and I are putting a lot of free time into a video project. I’m sure there will be some announcements/teases in the future ;)

YouTube Obsession

The last time CaptainShack ran a game on a heavily modded Star Wars: Empire at War, the series lasted almost 2 years. So, needless to say that when he recently started up a new campaign, I settled in for the long haul.

Since his last series the mods for the game have come a long way and the gameplay changes are adding a ton of new mechanics.

It’s really hard for me to to quantify this but I really don’t care for Star Wars stuff. Lore, movies, etc, I’m really quite ambivalent; But I love this series. I think, mostly for Shack’s gift of gab never becoming annoying or lore-mastery.

I will say I absolutely hate the comment sections of these videos. All of the back seat gamers imparting unsolicited advice and chastising Shack for whatever actions taken during the video. There’s usually a big uproar about Shack using the “pause” button. The pause button is feature in the game, that the developers expect the player to use. It is not a mod or a hack, it’s in the base game. Can you imagine being so socially inept, that you cannot tolerate someone playing a game differently than yourself? Or, GOD FORBID, not min-maxing every minute action. It has got to be the lamest way to exist.

Anyway, watch the series it’s great.

Reading

I love a good spy novel and Berlin Game by Len Deighton is an excellent spy-novel, even though large swathes of the text are just derivative of John Le Carre. This is hardly a problem. I wish more writers would ape Le Carre because no other writers (Other than his son) really do what Le Carre does and certainly not as well (Other than his son).

There’s a hopeless nihilism to Le Carre’s writing that Deighton captures beautifully. The feelings of futility and the personal and often bi-polar definitions of right and wrong that become even more blurred when in congress with reality.

MM

Issue #3 of the Pirate Point fan-zine is out! Filled with Queer stories of mech destruction across the BattleTech universe.

Apparently, the zine receives so many submissions that they are expanding to an another bi-annual fan-fiction publication: Outreach. So, if you have any BattleTech stories to tell get on it, the submission window for issue one closes on April 30th!

Playing

I briefly dipped back into now 10 year old game (omg), XCOM 2 because I had the itch to lethally out-strategize some alien colonizers. 10 years has done this game well, as it feels better now than it did then. I’m not sure if it’s just because it’s a great game or it’s because there aren’t any games quite like Firaxis XCOM games¹ 2.

Even less concerned about the strategic macro level than it’s predecessor XCOM: Enemy unknown, XCOM 2 is all about the micro squad battles. The battles always surprising the player with puzzle-like encounters and a swath of enemy variety, all with unique tactics, especially with some of the DLCs. Even though there are still plenty of XCOM Moments, most of the challenge comes from not knowing what encounter will be around the corner.

I ended up stopping my run short because I want to play the expansion, War of the Chosen, that I never picked up. So once it’s on sale I’ll give it a go again² .

MM

I also jumped back into Quasimorph since it received a huge update recently. And guess what? It’s still a fun game with even more interlocking mechanics.

The changes to difficulty options, player choice, and quality of life UI makes it real easy to get sucked into a “one more run” game hole. They also added a little more direction on the story paths which lessens the early game “what the hell do I do now?” malaise that can bore players.

I still haven’t finished a campaign because I’m waiting for the full release but I’m glad the development is still heading in a fun direction.

Other Notables

** What corporate thrillers tell us about the 90s economy.

** “I am not a public speaker,” Danielson says, apologetically. “I’m an eccentric researcher with social trauma.”

**

1  I’m aware of the Xman game that plays similarly but I also mean an ultra violent alien killing theme.

2  It went on sale before posting and I bought it :)