I only managed three posts in August. Whoops.
Let’s catch up a bit.
(more…)Category: Geekery
-
Cruel Summer
Look. The Box o’ Fun transformed me into a moa bird, then we triggered the post-battle cutscene, and… well, this isn’t entirely my fault okay? -
Murderbot: All Systems Reread
Now that I’ve had a few weeks to let my feelings about the televised adaptation settle, I did a re-read of the novella which started it all: Martha Wells’ All Systems Red. Part of my motivation to do so was to put “faces” to characters, and another part was to consider the questions of adaptation. Mostly, though, I read it because it’s a damned good book. There’s a reason this series is so beloved, after all. And a lot of what hooked us with the first installment did, in fact, make it into the TV show.
Just, for the most part, not exactly as in the original text.
(more…) -
Blasted Epoch
I decided to take a bit of a break from Satisfactory. Yes, again. The news of Titan Quest 2 hitting “early access” made me consider getting back into Last Epoch (they’re both what’s called an “ARPG” for whatever reason) so I looked around for information about Last Epoch’s upcoming “season” event.
What I found instead was the news that the game’s studio was sold to Krafton, the folks behind such hits as PUBG, the debacle that is the Subnautica 2 situation, and the gen-AI hot mess that was InZOI.
Oh.
Well, Last Epoch was fun while it lasted but y’all might as well uninstall it if it’s on your hard drive because it’s about to be hyper-monetized and micromanaged into oblivion.
And the alternatives aren’t great: Diablo products are of course from Blizzard, with all the baggage that entails. The aforementioned Titan Quest sequel? THQ, thus Embracer Group, which is a non-starter for reason I don’t have the stamina to delve into right now. (If you know, you know. If not, you have a new research project now, don’t you?) Torchlight? I think it’s a mobile game now or something, and Torchlight 3 was a cruel joke. My experiences with the Path of Exile game family aren’t great. Which leaves me with… playing old games for nostalgia value.
All I wanted to do was spend a quiet Sunday afternoon having some fun. Instead, I’m even more depressed. Feh.
-
Warframe: Sobek It Hurts
I haven’t been playing Warframe all that heavily lately, mostly just doing Nightwave dailies to progress that reward track and leveling up weapons for mastery. Along the way I’ve slowly accumulated items called “Riven Slivers” which can be turned in to receive something called a “Riven Mod.” That’s basically a mystery mod (item which enhances a warframe, weapon, or other piece of equipment) with randomized stats (usually a mix of some positive and one very negative) that is locked to a given named weapon (any variant thereof).
Earlier this month I got a Riven Mod, and once I revealed its assigned weapon, I was kind of annoyed: It’s for the Sobek, the “normal” version of which is a kind of middling shotgun. I already have a stack of shotguns in my arsenal, do I need another? Probably not, I decided.
Then I noticed this was my 2nd Sobek Riven Mod. Huh. (Mind you, one cannot equip more than one Riven Mod on a weapon. So having two is just pointless… maybe. Kind of. Put a pin in that.)
Immediately afterward during my next mission in the Saturn system, a Kuva Larvling showed up (as they do) and the weapon it offered me if I chose to make that Larvling into a full Lich was…
… yeah, the Kuva Sobek. I guess the game absolutely wanted me to add a Sobek to my inventory. So I went ahead and kicked off the Lich hunting process, more out of a fit of pique than anything else, if I’m honest. But hey, mastery progress is mastery progress, a weapon’s a weapon. It’s all good, baby!
Let the game of interplanetary Mastermind begin!
(more…) -
Satisfactory: So You Want A Huge Nuclear Power Plant
For some reason, when I got to the point of wanting to replace some of my early power plants (coal, maybe some regular-fuel) with nuclear power, I decided to build the biggest plant I’ve ever made in the game, solo or multiplayer. This is my “1.0” save, started when the game officially left Early Access last autumn.
I ran the numbers and decided that 4 uranium fuel rods per minute feeding 20 power generators was exactly the right number to aim for.
What the hell was I thinking?
Please allow me to offer some advice if you want to follow in my virtual footsteps. I made some mistakes; perhaps my hubris will be partly absolved if I can help others avoid them.
(more…) -
Murderbot, The Prestige TV Show
It takes a lot to convince me to fork out for adding a streaming service to the roster nowadays, considering I long ago cut D+ and whatever they’re calling HBO’s service this week out of the budget. Especially when the service in question is tied to the “fruit logo” financial ecosystem.
But dagnabbit, I really love the Murderbot series of novels & novellas from Martha Wells. And everything I read & watched about the upcoming show convinced me to give it a try.
Am I happy with my purchase? Oh, goodness yes.
(more…)