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Looking For Quacks In The Pavement

  • Satisfactory: Release +1 Year

    Post tagged:

    I may wander off, I may restart time after time, I may abandon more saves than I finish… but I love this game as much now as I ever have. It’s gotten me through my diabetic years (and the pandemic years, both of which are ongoing) at least as much as any other piece of entertainment you could name, and moreso than most.

    This image uses one of the new screenshot Photo Mode filters added in version 1.1, the “Noire” filter in particular.

    Today marks the 1 year anniversary of Satisfactory’s version one point oh release. The reasons I keep coming back are varied and probably too many to count, but I’ll count some of them here anyway, in no particular order:

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  • Cruel Summer

    Post tagged: ,

    I only managed three posts in August. Whoops.

    Guild Wars 2 video game screenshot: Painterly image of several of the heroes looking at the game world after the battle against the undead dragon, Zhaitan. Only, the player character model has been replaced by a pink-feathered moa bird due to in-game shenanigans.
    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?

    Let’s catch up a bit.

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  • A Measured Quantity of John Wick

    The trick to inserting your established unstoppable badass into your spinoff film without weakening the lead character of said spinoff film is careful, deliberate measurement.

    So, yes, I watched Ballerina last night. And to get into my thoughts here I’ll have to spoil certain things about it. I intend not to give away all the movie’s tricks, mind you, because if you’re into the Wick-verse movies at all then I also can easily recommend this installment, so you should get to enjoy as much of it as you can as a fresh experience.

    Still image from the film "Ballerina" of the main character Eve, played by Ana de Armas.
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  • 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.

    Screenshot from the Murderbot TV show depicting a character (Ratthi) falling backward. Overlaid is a caption, itself a screenshot from The Onion, which reads, "Report: Average Male 4,000% Less Effective In Fights Than They Imagine."

    Just, for the most part, not exactly as in the original text.

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  • 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.

  • Astoria, 19 Years Later

    In a recent work “hangout” chat, I mentioned in passing that some day I’d like to get out to the Oregon Coast again. As someone who neither owns or operates a motor vehicle I’m reliant upon tourism services, twice-daily bus service, or the kindness of friends to see the ocean so it doesn’t happen very often. One of my coworkers noted in the chat that, in fact, they had an Astoria trip planned for late July and would I be interested in a lift to & from?

    Sure I would!

    Thus preparations began and so, yesterday, I went on a little tourism adventure.

    This model, available for viewing at the Heritage Museum in Astoria, Oregon, depicts a mockup of a dog-powered wheel used to churn butter. No, I am not making this up.

    Commence a lot of walking punctuated by museum visits and stone benches.

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