No, I'm not dead

[Starfox]

Long Time no see.

Where was I?
Around. The truth is that a few months ago I got kind of fed up and bored with the gaming scene as a whole. So I decided to retreat. Then came some health issues which are not completely resolved yet and left me quite drained. Then some life complications due to the little thing going on in Ukraine. It's amusing how a war on your doorstep can turn things even more shitty than 2 years of covid. So thanks for nothing P. Then another batch of complications due to some self-important idiots (those tend to become more and more common in our societies)

That doesn't mean I'm done with gaming but I really needed the break. A whole lot of things happening on the scene didn't sit well with me (some still doesn't). However some new games gave me back some confidence that things can get better and that some deep pocket people always in search of their next $$$ fix won't find a definitive way to ruin it for everyone else albeit they may very well try their hardest.

What is The foxhole status
Well, The Foxhole will remain for at least the coming year (until December 2023). everything is paid up so it will keep running, unless WWIII happens, of course at which point all bets will be off for pretty much everyone 

That's it for now. Really just a little post to let you know that I'm not dead and I keep an eye on things 

Oh and happy Halloween to you 

[Doc_Brown]

I myself have been around more often of late because I'm on a career break (quit my job and have been living off my savings for awhile).  Ironically, I haven't gotten nearly as much gaming done as I had intended to, which means I'm still woefully backlogged.  I can't comment on the current state of gaming as a result, since the things I have been playing are several years old.  But at least that means there's always the classics.

[Starfox]

Which is amusing enough is that I bought a new computer last February and then it mostly ran classics that didn't even begun to stress 1% of its capabilities  Originally I had bought the thing in anticipation of Starfield then some unpalatable news came. First a gameplay video on Xbox Series X  with a very shitty framerate (that alone wasn't a good omen) and the inevitable "We're going to delay the game for 6 months" and maybe more... Delays are good say the optimists, it gives more time to fix bugs, to polish things... Come on, we all know Bethesda. More time generally only means more bugs that will never be solved. That said; Bethesda is not completely Bethesda anymore... it's Microsoft behind and Starfield being the first title issued by Bethesda under Microsoft, they certainly doesn't want a repeat of Fallout 76 so they are possibly responsible for the delay which shows the confidence they have in the current state of Starfield.

Anyway, that doesn't mean that some recent games have not been good, it just means that one shouldn't look at the big AAA publishers for the good stuff. A recent game with which I had quite a blast was Stray for example.

But yeah, during my break it was also mainly classics. Cannot beat what works. And also a lot of watching others playing games on Youtube  Exchanged with nice people in the process so that's a plus.

[Doc_Brown]

Stray's on my list too, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.  On the other hand, one of the issues I'm dealing with is that I've just accumulated too many games at this point.  I need to start culling the list down to a manageable* level, and Stray seems like exactly the kind of game that won't make the cut.  Which is to say, not a bad game by any means, but if you're limiting yourself to the best, most deserving titles, well...

*Manageable meaning being able to go back and replay the games I've kept from time to time.  Too many games, and it feels like you'll never have time to get back to them all while still having time to try new games as they come out.

[Starfox]

I abandoned the idea of a "manageable backlog" a long time ago. At last count I have around 600 games on Steam and a little less on GOG -- although I already played most of the games on GOG, they are just updated running versions for new systems of games of old. The curious thing is that Steams tells me i have not played only 40 of the games I bought, which I'm sure is BS since I have not even installed a good third of them...

A testament to the reliability of Steam statistics?

As for Stray, to be honest it would still be on my wishlist if a friend didn't kinda pushed me to play... well, she didn't twist my arm or anything and I was happy with the experience.

[Silver Sorrow]

Welcome back, fellow zombies. I've been absent because -- *spins Wheel Of A Million Reasons* -- ah! "Issues." Well. That's specific, isn't it? Let's just say I've been to a lot of doctor appointments in the last several months.

Anyway, I've been looking into a new computer myself recently...mostly it's about understanding what I need versus what I want. I want cutting-edge, of course. And I want Windows 7 back (not gonna happen). But...what I need? That's actually more affordable. And just like you guys, I don't really need a lot of horsepower for what I've been playing lately.

Honestly: there are very few upcoming games that I am even remotely interested in. The newest game in my to-play list? Stray. Oh, and Return to Monkey Island. I just haven't gotten to them yet. Other than those, most new games are geared towards mobile gaming, multiplayer, or Souls-freaks (or all three at once). Those of us outside those demographics are left in the very lonely dark and cold.

Other than that, I've been catching up on ARPGs like the not-exactly-new Grim Dawn and some real oldies like Dungeon Siege. On the FPS front, I also picked up Shadow Warrior 2 on GOG to see if it hard-locks in the same place as the Steam version.   Bright Memory Infinite is somewhat recent, but I haven't taken a close look at it yet.

In the miscellaneous category (read: something I can play while eating my lunch) is the most basic version of Clue/Cluedo (which for only $34.99, I can open up a world of limitless possibilities! Translation: a bunch of reskins of existing crap), which is okay in a mobile-game-ported-to-PC mentality.

Speaking of that, I finally bought Torchlight 3 on sale, and...well, the best thing I can say about it is that it's very shiny. Not a lot of fun, really. Someone described it as "the devs took all that was good about the first two games and threw them away."

More engaging but still not all that fun is Grim Dawn, which is...okay, it's interesting, but not really player-friendly. I think it appeals mostly to smug morons simping for the devs. If someone even remotely criticizes the game, there's a nasty "git gud!" backlash; and god help the poor schmuck who questions the devs...RIP. 

The problem with the game is that the devs think the concept of an in-depth tutorial (or even a lukewarm explanation of the various features) is considered hand-holding and thus: anathema. It's not as touchy stat-wise as games like Pillars of Something Or Other and Icegate Diablo (whatever), but I feel like I was just tossed into the game with very little in the way of information.

And then there are the things that ARE touchy and not very well explained, which...never mind. Point is: the game could've been realized better, and the entire community can disappear up its own ass for all I care.

Dungeon Siege came out in 200mumblemumble, and I liked the first one, mostly. I actually don't remember much about it beyond the opening act. Then I got the first real town and the game threw a bunch of new companions (aka, meat shields) at me, which I resented bitterly. It's currently on the backburner.

All this makes Stray and Monkey Island look oh so much more interesting. Who needs Starfield when you can play as a cat or a Mighty Pirate who can hold his breath for 15 minutes?

[Starfox]

And I want Windows 7 back (not gonna happen).

I can confirm that. Win 7 is dead and gone, sadly. New games are not even claiming to support it anymore. Win 11 is not that bad but it comes with a lot of features most people don't need (I have no idea who request those things anyway; or does a MS dev just pick randomly a little piece of paper from a basket blindfolded and say "hell yeah, we're going to add that feature to Windows today, nobody will ever use it but who cares? It feels smart!")

Newest AAA game I played is actually Deathloop. I don't particularly like time loops in games but it was developed by Arkane and I like Arkane games in general... Arx Fatalis, Dark Messiah, both Dishonored and Prey were all good fun to me. Deathloop... is definitely another beast. I like the game with its Dishonored/Wolfenstein influence and it's 60s design, what I really don't like is the complete absence of any save system worth its name, even when you play the single player part. And when I mean "absence" I mean that it's not even checkpoint based.

Picture this: a loop lasts for one day from morning to evening. This day is divided in 4 periods (morning, noon, afternoon, evening). The game save once at the beginning of each period then if for any reason during the period you die (you're allowed a couple of deaths without consequence) or you quit the game (for example you have something urgent that needs doing, which is often my case these days) you are forced to restart the period you were in from the start without any of the things you had discovered or learned, or gained. The problem comes from the fact that the exploration of some of the places in the game can last up to a couple of hours or more, especially at the beginning of the game when you don't know what is where. Imagine loosing two hours of play because of a crash (never happened to me mind you but some people reported problems) or being forced to play two hours just because you cannot quit the game without loosing your progress.

So why the stupid save system? Because of the multiplayer... it's really the only reason. There's this system where friends or anyone (if you so choose) can invade your game to prevent you from doing what you're doing (and if you think the idea is familiar, it's because it comes directly from another Arkane game that never saw the light of day but that you may recall from the mid 2000s: The Crossing). In that setting maybe the lack of save feature makes sense. But you can also play the game as single player only without any other human interfering, however instead of including a proper save system for that situation, they keep the lack of save.

In a general way, developers should realize something they possibly lost along the way, it's that people, especially gamers of a"certain age", have other things to do than just play games all day long. Devs maybe don't realize that because it's their job and they are literally paid to do that all day, but most of us aren't. I care for my mother currently so it's easy in a game with a proper save system to hit the quicksave key or to make a hardsave when the need arise. It's impossible in Deathloop... either you let your computer run the game for as long as your task will take, or you loose all your progress for the period you're in.

That aside, it's a fun game, not the same kind of fun I had with Dishonored or Prey (that both featured a solid save system -- one can see a pattern there) but still... It's not that I dislike or hate it, I hate the inability to save whenever I want and the absence of any checkpoint after a major task or discovery or puzzle solving is performed. And this lack of save doesn't serve any real purpose in the single player setting of the game.

Another time loop game I've played during my "absence" was the Indie "The Forgotten City" (which was previously a mod for Skyrim but eventually evolved into a standalone game based on the Unreal engine) and here's a time loop game even I can get behind because it's very logical in its approach and offers four different endings based on your performance at discovering the truth and investigating then using the numerous clues of the game by exploring and talking to characters. And you can save at any point... what a shock! 

[Lord Mantrid]

I find myself playing 7 Days to Die whenever I'm not grinding through the Fallout 76 seasons. Fallout 76 is still the worst game I've ever played every day.

I was gifted New World in the beginning and I enjoyed it a bit, but its been month since I've played it. I initially refused to buy it because I knew all my Discord friends would play for two weeks and then abandon it. Eventually a friend of mine on there bought me the game so I'd be forced to play it. I'm glad I didn't drop any money into it because like I had predicted, they all stopped playing by the end of the month. It happens every. single. time

I'll be one of the first people to buy Starfield when it comes out. I'm sure I'll be angry for the first couple of months, not unlike any other Bethesda IP, but per usual I am a glutton for Todd Howard's punishment.

I'm done with the Scoreboard though, so if anyone needs me I'll be on 7Days or maybe even Space Engineers. I had a dream the other night that my dad and I were in a space ship, but it was his Cadillac Escalade. I sure hope there's a mod for that.

Edit: For those of you who are interested, I put my discord name in my profile where the ICQ thing is. Might be a good way to stay in touch when all hell breaks loose in case the server doesn't get reupped. Also, please everyone enjoy all the trash I've spent money on in my IMDB page. This is my life now apparently.

[Silver Sorrow]

I've been hating Grim Dawn. Not all that fun, a few questionable design choices, and a dev-simp fanbase whose posts I read in the Simpsons' Comic Book Guy voice.

I'm actually stuck in the MQ because I took the friendly route with a bunch of cannibals (hey, my necromancer doesn't discriminate), and now to progress, I have to kill a shitload of their sworn enemies because I don't have a high enough reputation with their faction to get the miscellaneous trinket that will allow me to move on with the goddamn story. I'm so far along now that I'm tired of the thing and just want to finish it, but no. Rep-farming is now my life, apparently.

(Some might say "do bounties!" Yes, very good Poindexter...but I'm only at "Friendly" status; the Bounty Table only opens up at the next Rep level, which is a long ways off.)

Grim Dawn's save system is also highly stupid as well. No manual saving at all. I wonder when games took a large step backwards, feature-wise?

Anyway, I've also been dabbling in The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, one of the dumbest names for a game ever. A far better sense of humor than the appropriately-named Grim Dawn, but far more irritating in that it really, REALLY wants me to play online every time I launch the game.

What part of "I HATE PEOPLE!" do these games not understand?

What else? Uh...well, there are plenty of games I *say* I'm gonna get to, but sometimes just slumped in front of a monitor and staring at my screensaver is all I really want to do. I live a full life.

[bobdog]

Yes, I still draw breath!  My last 3 years have been ... challenging, work-wise.    My events business lost all of its clients in 2020 due to the pandemic, spilling into 2021, so I had to shift gears from inside expos to outside festivals and concerts. With no clients, I had to self-fund everything, and hope I'd make it through. I did pick up a new non-profit client, and am now in our third year working with them to create a successful "Bacon & Beer" festival. I've also got to put on some concerts with national acts including Gin Blossoms, Vertical Horizon, Spin Doctors and Great White. Add in a BBQ festival and some smaller BBQ competitions through the Northeast U.S., and I'm doing OK. Check out our website www.GreatEventsUSA.com for a teaser.

My daughter graduated from Drexel University (Philadelphia) in 2021 and immediately got a job in her field of film and television marketing. She's now all the way in Hollywood CA, working for a marketing company that is considered one of the best of its kind, with clients including Disney, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Paramount, etc. After 18 months, she's on track to move up a position to an Assistant Editor, on the way to her goal to create trailers for movies and shows. Pretty proud dad here.

Gaming wise, I honestly haven't played as much as I could have wanted -- life was just too stressful figuring out the next paycheck for a long long time. But some I really liked: Apsulov End of Gods, Brothers A Tale of Arms, Deliver Us The Moon, Ghost of a Tale, Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice, Lightmatter, Mafia 3, Moons of Madness, Sherlock Holmes Devil's Daughter, Someday You'll Return, Strange Brigade, Superliminal, The Evil Within 2. There are 3 times as many that I didn't like or find memorable. Am currently playing Fallout 76 -- it's not as good as F4, but it's decent enough.

Best wishes for a great 2023 to all of you!

[Starfox]

Hiya bobdog!

Great to hear from you after all this time. Happy that things are turning out well for you and your family. The pandemic was a roller coaster.

Best wished to you and to all, considering that I haven't been posting since the beginning of the year.

[Silver Sorrow]

Welcome back.

[Demonic chuckle.]

I'd like to share some optimistic news of my own, but I'm too bitter. So I'll make something up.

After the double-wide rolled off the blocks and cartwheeled down the hill into the power station causing a city-wide blackout which resulted in an untold number of deaths, I loaded up my trusty 1984 Subaru hatchback with whatever survived the explosion and made my way to--

You know what? That actually sounds a lot more interesting than what really happened last year.

- All kinds of things die if you spray enough Raid on 'em, so hooray for science.

- My 48-year relationship with my gall bladder ended in November. I do not miss it in the slightest.

- I was informed that, given my family history, I should've had a colonoscopy when I turned 45. They are eager to correct this oversight. I am less so.

- My dentist needs a new Lamborghini.

- I kind of "wrote" a "novel." It's horrible, but it did give me ample experience for my next project: an even more horrible sequel. I have very low hopes for it. "It's abysmal!" says the New York Times...

- I'm thinking of becoming a racist. The problem is that I hate everyone equally, so I'll need to work on that. Maybe I'll just call myself a human racist.

- Et cetera.

See? I exist to prove to others that, hey, maybe their lives aren't so bad after all!

Wait...the Spin Doctors?!?

[Doc_Brown]

Yes, I still draw breath! 

Our most prolific poster lives!

My daughter graduated from Drexel University (Philadelphia) in 2021 and immediately got a job in her field of film and television marketing. She's now all the way in Hollywood CA, working for a marketing company that is considered one of the best of its kind, with clients including Disney, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Paramount, etc. After 18 months, she's on track to move up a position to an Assistant Editor, on the way to her goal to create trailers for movies and shows. Pretty proud dad here.

Lucky.  After I got my degree I spent the next several years flailing ineffectually at what I wanted to do with it, ultimately giving up on the idea (as a professional pursuit, anyway).  I eventually moved to Tucson and stumbled into a great job at the university, and was perfectly content to call that my career, but a few years back new management came in and ruined everything.  I put up with it as long as I could, ultimately leaving to take a lengthy career break.  Which leads us to...

- I kind of "wrote" a "novel." It's horrible, but it did give me ample experience for my next project: an even more horrible sequel. I have very low hopes for it. "It's abysmal!" says the New York Times...

Funny you should mention that.  Several years ago I took up screenwriting just for fun, and found that I not only enjoyed it but felt I was pretty good at it.  A big part of my career break was about really knuckling down and focusing on my writing to see if I could actually make anything come of it.  I submitted a pair of scripts to a coverage service at the end of last year, and while the response wasn't what I'd hoped it would be, it also wasn't terrible.  As things stand I'm looking to get back into the working world part-time so I can devote an equal amount of time to my writing, since it's not like I can just stay unemployed forever.