Category: Games

Last Epoch

So there I was, feeling like I needed to play something different. I can only do so much Warframe space ninja action at a time before I need something slightly lower paced. I’m at a tedious and frustrating part of my solo Satisfactory game and don’t want to hit burnout while also running a weekly co-op session for some coworkers. What else is on offer? Is it time to go shopping?

I very nearly wound up buying Baldur’s Gate 3 but decided that “try a D&D game again” probably wouldn’t pan out any better than any of the previous few times, such as when I spent a few hours with Solasta. While researching BG3, however, I bumped into mention of something else: A Diablo type game (of which there are, admittedly, quite a few) that isn’t by Blizzard and isn’t a Path of Exile game and isn’t part of the now-cursed Torchlight franchise, nor is it spawned from or closely related to Titan Quest/Grim Dawn. (OK, yes, I’ve clearly tried a few of these over the years. There’s an itch which needs scratching.) After reading a couple of reviews, I decided to use the last of the “gift card” money in my Steam wallet to pick up…

Last Epoch.

That certainly is a distinctive type of game interface, isn’t it? I have loot drops filtered so the lowest-tiers of rarity appear just as bits of light without the name cards to reduce visual clutter.
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28 April, 2025
Satisfactory: Team Building Exercise

I’ve been taking a bit of a break from my solo Satisfactory save, mainly because dealing with the logistics of nuclear power is a major headache when you have to build every last concrete foundation, conveyor belt, and hunk of machinery involved all by yourself.

Luckily, several of my coworkers agreed to join me on a new multiplayer save.

I didn’t even know there was a “huge helmet” option. It’s properly ridiculous, and I mean that in the best way.

Unlike with the two-year-long multiplayer save with the kids, I’m not trying to impose any sort of restrictions on how these guys build out their projects. Huge concrete slabs hanging in the air? Fine, cool, as long as we’re getting results. And with four sets of hands (minus one of our players in the most recent session) it’s amazing how much progress you can make. We’ve gone from “nothing” to “coal power and steel production” in about six in-game hours. Never mind the mountain of research we’ve already unlocked.

I’m having a blast, playing with people who are coming at the game from very different perspectives. We have one guy who’s roughly at my level of time spent really digging into the game, one who’s kind of a blueprint-based speed runner (I’m not judging here, I could honestly be better about using blueprints), and one who had barely touched the game at all before we started this run.

What will we achieve? Fun, if nothing else, I hope.

21 April, 2025
Satisfactory: Spiraling Into Control

To be clear: There are videos on YouTube which can show you how to do this, but I don’t like scrolling back and forth through a video to tease out the details of a process. If you’re like me in that regard, here’s a tutorial for making a single-track train spiral structure in Satisfactory.

Note that you can (and should) play around with materials and other design elements. Maybe you want sign-based lighting on yours? Sweet, go for it!

Let’s get started.
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16 March, 2025
Warframe: The New War

An Aging Game-Player’s Perspective

I just finished Warframe’s “The New War,” the monumental game-changing quest from a few years ago. I don’t have all that many thoughts, but I have some:
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23 February, 2025
Space Ninjas… Again

Early last year we finished up our long-running family game session of Satisfactory, and as a follow-up we decided to give Warframe a try. Out of the three of us, Spud (my son) is the top-tier expert with all the goodies and lore and know-how. Nyx (my daughter) was a dabbler who had played the game a bit but didn’t have a lot of equipment, let alone much of the star chart (playable locations) unlocked.

Me? I was somewhere in the middle. I’ve played the game off and on for years, giving up a few years ago when I realized I was never going to have the kind of skill at navigating 3D space in a looter-shooter game that it takes to really tackle serious challenges. But… given a dedicated team to run with, maybe I could manage to at least pull my weight more often than not? I agreed to try it out.

And now, here we are, months later.

I admit, the game’s grown on me… with certain provisos.
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12 February, 2025
Satisfactory: Logistics Floors Rock

It’s been an entire month since my last Satisfactory post, hasn’t it? Not that I haven’t been playing, it’s just that I haven’t done anything particularly noteworthy. I haven’t picked up any more strange bomb-shaped gifts, don’t worry! I’ve just been chugging away, making progress toward nuclear power.

(What’s that, you ask? What about the Turbofuel plant? Have I maxed that out yet? Of course I haven’t. Never mind, though! It’s time for the new and the shiny!)

To that end, I needed a factory that can churn out a sufficient quantity of something called an Electromagnetic Control Rod. Today I completed that factory… and actually put a roof and some walls & windows on it, even.

The details of the factory itself aren’t that interesting. What I want to highlight is the use of logistics floors.
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12 January, 2025