Star Wars: Rebellion playthrough over!


Three sectors left and as I have to get Fallout 3 going, I decided to just go rebel base hunting instead of taking over the planets that were left. Found it eventually and blew it up - game over.


So now I'm all free to go post-nuclear!

I have never been a Nintendo person. But I keep seeing a lot of games coming out on the Switch. I thought Nintendo was going to get destroyed as collateral damage in the console wars between Microsoft and Sony. Like Sega was (I used to have a Dreamcast). But the Switch really seems to have been a huge hit for them.

Something of a change-of-page for me, in that the video linked below documents not play of TpF1 but rather another railroad game I play, Trainz Railway Simulator 2019 (TRS19). It must be said that I am a TRS19 notice, thus you see me driving the loco/train via the game's 'simple' controls rather than its elaborate "realistic" control scheme. As to what you see, it's me assembling a freight train at Helston, UK, then departing Helston station. I meant to end the episode slightly sooner than what's seen here, but totally forgot to remove the unneeded final minute or two while editing. In any case, here it be, warts and and:

TRS19: Cornish Mainline and Branches, Helston Delivery Run, Part 1 - Shunting at Helston (YouTube Video)

Whether the series continues much further is debatable. At the moment I struggle mightily to master shunting at the train's first stop, Nancegollan, with no success. One failure after another. Be that as it may, I'll at least document the ride between Helston and Nancegollan. That's part's a piece of cake, so long as I maintain concentration, which isn't always the case.

So are you that guy in the blue shirt in the corner of the video? This one has a much 'busier' HUD than the other train game.

Nintendo seems to have found a niche for themselves with handhelds and their exclusives (Legend of Zelda, Mario, Super Smash Bros., Pokémon, Animal Crossing).

Ya know, having owned this game the better part of a year now, I still don't understand the need for that 'avatar.' I'm sure there must be one. It's likely for some mode of play I don't engage in. We can choose from a selection of 'driver' portraits, male and female. I never bother, regardless of what mine looks like any given session. As to clutter, yeah, the HUD is more cluttered than in TpF1. TpF has an extensive HUD too, but it's generally kept out of the way except when placing structures, roads, track, etc, buying trains and other vehicles, and creating routes. With TRS19, as I current use it, being a train-driving game, the HUD needs to be ever-present. With 'realistic mode,' the 'driving wheel' is replaced by five sliders for diesel and electric locos, six for steam. I believe parts of the HUD can be disabled if you want to drive by directly manipulating in-cab levers, knobs, etc. via mouse, but I'm nowhere near good enough to attempt that. The other 'big' train/railway simulators arrange their HUDs differently, but at heart must convey the same info. (The most 'modern' simulator is Train Sim World (TSW), which has more of an RPG feel to driving, plus neat graphics. I actually own it, thanks to a heavy discount, but have done absolutely nothing with it except take one driving tutorial.)

So are the heads there because there is a co-op mode? Is there Train Deathmatch? That would be awesome!

Whoa...I bet you nailed it! TRS219 indeed has a 'multiplayer' mode. I've never bothered with it and forgot its existence until your reminder. No, no death-match, though poor driving skills can derail trains. For some unknown reason I've not yet done that. Wait! I have. Drove a steam loco onto a turntable once. Didn't notice that either its front or back wheels were slightly off the table. Once the table started turning unpleasant things happened. Then there was the time I drove a train off the end of a spur, misjudging distance while backing.

Sticking with TRS19, I played Driving Tutorial 9 this morning, which adds Dynamic Braking into the mix. I remain utterly confused over when to use it rather than the Train Brake. Stopping/slowing a moving train is harder than bringing up to speed for sure! Three different braking controls to master. (There's also an 'independent/locomotive' brake which, so far as I can tell, is used primary to stop a loco without cars/wagons attached.)

Just played Windows chess game number 18000 on level three.

I dabbled with chess several years during my teens. Became quite decent at the opening game. But even during those more-mentally-alert days I couldn't see far enough ahead to plan successful strategies.

I may be able to if I could be bothered. As it is I just play it while watching youtube and if something goes bad I retrace a step or two

On the plusside though, it happens less and less. I may actually be learning generally what not to do. It's not too hard as long as I try and keep pieces covered at all times. I was obsessed with chess in my teens and read several books on the subject. Quite good fun.

Khajiit plays chess like a big dumb barbarian, lol. Had a buddy that this one used to play with on the regular. Won some, lost more.

Thinking about making a serious run at a KotOR playthrough.

I have been thinking that lately too. I am in a Star Wars mood for a while now.

I honestly wish Fallen Order looked more interesting. That game was in serious need of a character creator.

I barely noticed Fallen Order. It looked utterly un-inspired to me, right down to the protagonist.

I would love to play a Star Wars game with Dr. Aphra as the Progatonist. Or the crew of the Ghost (different missions using different characters). Or a 3d isometric, squad-based, strategy game where you have a team of Rebel Commandos going through various missions. Like Fallout Tactics in Star Wars. Or an RPG version of the same like Pillars of Eternity in Star Wars.

Indeed. It’s really a shame we can’t get better *new* games in the franchise. Oh well, luckily we have some real gems in the older games.

I bought the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and pre-ordered Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered, I only hope No Russian mission is in the game.

In TRS19 I've failed several attempts at shunting in Nancegollan Cornwall, UK. Took my first stab at the game's steam locomotive 'realistic-controls' tutorial. Not a pretty sight. I somehow bluffed my way to its end, but am about as far as one can be from being able to abandon 'simple-controls mode.'

TpF1 wise, I've done no 'playing,' but uploaded a Scenic Excursions episode that's been 'in the can' at least a month:

Transport Fever Scenic Excursions ep40 - ConMat for Chesham (YouTube video)

My plans to 'film' an entire TRS19: Cornish Mainline & Branches, Helston Freight Run session (in segments) seems more and more unlikely. Try as I might, I've not been able to successfully complete the Nancegollan shunting assignment. Can't for the life of my figure out what I'm doing wrong. My stumbling block is the very last shunting operation, reclaiming that part of the original train that continues on to the next stop. As I back to couple, in looks as if the loco and first boxcar derail at a turnout. The session then terminates without my input. I've studied and studied it, and can't see how my turnout settings can be causing this. Yet I almost have to be overlooking or misunderstanding something, don't I?

At any rate, there will be, at minimum, one further video on this session, the rather simplistic drive between Helston and Nancegollan. I'd have to work at it to get this part wrong.

I'm beginning to think TRS19 Nancegollan shunting is glitched. I've tried and tried and am never able to perform the final shunt. Yet I find no logical reason why what I'm doing fails. Come to think on it, if this 'is' glitched it'll be the third session from this same DLC that has become unfinishable. When bought, those other two now-glitched sessions worked fine. This one might have too, not that I'd know, I didn't attempt playing it until recently.

On a different and more positive note, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is now in alpha. I've watched videos of it by several YouTubers. Looks to be a solid improvement over its predecessors (duh!). Here's the video I enjoy most so far. Rather than follow standard M&B practice, this fellow begins by having his character travel from city to city participating in arena combats. Nice change of pace, and shows off the combat system (among other things).

YouTube video Mount & Blade II: Bannerload "A Knight's Tale", ep1, First Blood YouTube video

Am even more convinced that Helston Freight Run is glitched, preventing the session's continuation beyond a certain point. Either that or I'm screwing up something during the Nancegollan shunting process that causes mission failure. The game can sometimes be frustratingly vague on exactly what we're supposed to do. Nancegollan shunting 'looks' to be relatively straight-forward, but I'm not 100% sure this is indeed the case. In any case, I'm dead in the water for the time being.

Speaking of which, Part 2, a simple drive between Helston and Nancegollan is now available for view:

(YouTube Video) TRS19: Cornish Mainline and Branches, Helston Freight Run, Part 2 - Helston to Nancegollan (YouTube video)

Bonus footage: Visit to Helston Railway Cornwall - 5 May 2019 (YouTube video, not mine)

*

Since my PC died; the only games this laptop is capable of playing is Oblivion and Fallout 3 (and games made previous to those two games).

So last night I pulled out an old Fallout 3 game and jumped in where I left off = just in time to follow Liberty Prime across the bridge; and then (after saving Project Purity and coming out of the coma) started the "Broken Steel" DLC. Had just escaped the Car Tunnel after stealing their relay info when I shut it down for the night.

I had only ever played through "Broken Steel" once before; (when it first came out) so everything was really feeling fresh still. (as opposed to "Anchorage," which I have played hundreds of times and could go through it in my sleep, lol).

Three things really struck me last night:

1.) I can't aim a gun to save my life anymore!!!

I've always preferred shooting off the hip in FO3 (rather than using VATS); but last night I couldn't hit people right in front of me! I had to reload my (6 shot 44) three times to take down two enemies! And I think I accidentally shot more B.O.S. allies than Enclave enemies!

It wasn't totally my fault, they kept running in front of me and into my line of fire! However; my eyesight may need to take some blame too. In power armor they all looked alike; so ... several times when shooting at a power-armor-shaped figure in that dark car tunnel I got closer and noticed they were B.O.S.

I hope we can't actually take down our team; because I literally did lose every one of my B.O.S. teammates in the last room before the relay station. Did I do that?

2.) I Couldn't for the life of me remember how or where to climb up that hill to get the secret "Off the map" experimental Gaus gun on that table up over the playing area. I remembered it being somewhere near where Liberty Prime is killed; (or maybe near his head?) but ... that was the extent of my memory of it. I will have to look that up. Not even sure if I can go back in there again and access that area since I left it.

3.) Several times I noticed my B.O.S. Allies were losing health; and I couldn't for the life of me remember if there was a way to help heal them! Is there a way to get them Stimpacks or something in combat?

Anyway; it was fun. I love Fallout 3! I hate starting so late in the game though; so thinking about starting a new game.




*

Sounds like you're golden


Tonight though I played some NES. I was in a food coma and needed to lay back in front of my TV instead of hunching over a keyboard

Games I played were Bubble Bobble which I played up to level 57 as usual. After that I had the urge to pop in Action 52 due to watching James Rolfe's review of it as the AVGN. I just love that crappy, crappy game cartridge!

I need to get Chips Challenge on this laptop,

You do!

I'm still doing Morrowind and one of the NPCs kept getting stuck, so I did the console command to bring the character in front of me. I didn't know it made a copy of the NPC.

So now the Ahemmusa Ashlanders have twin wise women.

I think you are supposed to use the "Placemeat" instead of "Placeatme"

Another TpF video, a revisit to the Dunwich goods delivery line, now with British motive power:

(YouTube Video) Transport Fever Scenic Excursions ep 41 - Goods for Dunwich, REVISITED (YouTube video)

As of yesterday, episode one of the above series has just under 650 views! I suspect that as folk stumble onto my latest series entries they are curious enough to want to explore the series as a whole. Only, they never go beyond ep01. For good reason. Its track-side scenery is rather primitive and often sparse. I need to do something about that. I'm certainly not going to remove an episode with so many views. What I ought to do is create a new ep01 that will serve as an introduction and also direct people to bypass those early 'sub-par' episodes. Current ep01 can be renumbered as ep01a or similar. I ought to do this pronto, but suspect I'll drag my feet for weeks if not months.

In other gaming news, there is no further gaming news, as my slump continues.

Does the Dunwich line deliver a copy of the Necronomicon, complete with page 751?

I needed to look that up, and luckily found a reading of that page on YouTube, with the text typed out in the video's description. Too bad I'm not a modder. I'm sure there's a subtle way to slip it into the game, so that a viewer would have to be paying very close attention at all times to notice it. Hmmm....I wonder if Wilbur Whateley still resides in the city? I've not thought to look for him in months. At one time he caught the train at Dunwich Suburbia Station. Whether he still does so I know not, assuming he continues to exist at all. There's every chance he vanished when I added a Population Limiter mod to the game a while back.

Is Population Limiter code for the library's guard dog?

Decided to pick up No Man’s Sky again between KotOR sessions. As one might recall, this game was the poster child for not preordering, as there was a big controversy about it being devoid of many of the features the devs claimed it would have. I bought it anyway because of the novelty of being able to seamlessly go from the ground of a planet to outer space to the ground of another planet, but I quickly got bored with it as there wasn’t much you could do with it. Several big updates later, this game has really grown. Many of the features the devs originally advertised has made it into the game and it’s actually quite enjoyable if you like exploration and survival games. There isn’t a lot of combat but you can be attacked by hostile alien animals and if you get on the bad side of the other space faring species you can be attacked by their starships. You can engage in dogfighting them or simply try to get the hell out of dodge. I was attacked by pirates in a new system I was exploring/relieving of natural resources and I was able to jump to my original system without having to fight (your starting ship isn’t the best but you can buy upgrades that make fighting more viable, or buy a better ship if you’ve got the cash). An interesting game with something for every sci-fi fan.

I actually liked No Man's Sky when it first launched and I think I still have it on my old PSN account. I love landing on the worlds with rings on it .

NMS 1.

NMS 2.

NMS 3 .

My gaming slump continues. What little I play is confined to Trainz and even less to Transport Fever. I recently developed a bit of an urge to return to Daggerfall Unity, but it's not (yet?) overwhelming. Speaking of Trainz, I've another video episode, a short branch-line passenger run to the holiday town of St. Ives, Cornwall UK. Its text narrative contains (at least) one error, I incorrectly state that trains no longer stop at Lelant Saltings.

(YouTube video) TRS19: Cornish Mainline & Branches, St. Ives Passenger Run (YouTube video)

To complement the above, I provide a modern day video (not my own) of the real life St. Ives run, in which it can be seen that Trainz does a decent job of immolating reality, especially considering that the games session is set some 80-90 years ago.

(YouTube Video) A Driver's Eye View Along the St. Ives Branchline (YouTube Video)

I mean, I liked the game’s concept, there just wasn’t a whole lot to do. It’s definitely a better game now though.

Ringed planets are also my favorite! Too bad those that I’ve discovered are hellholes.

I think in my space travel I've visited two ring worlds that where safe but baron.

Over the past couple weeks or so I finally addressed some of my backlog, and all 3 games I played through/finished were FPS.

AMID EVIL - Inspired in large part by Quake and Hexen (the latter of which I have never played, this game featured magical weapons against a wide variety of enemies. I had done the first level or two last summer, but then got caught up in other stuff, just finishing it only 2-3 weeks ago. It was a great game, although I think they could have broken up a few big levels into a couple smaller ones as some of them got a bit convoluted. There were 6 "episodes" with 3 levels followed by a boss battle. After those were finished, you went through another 3 levels to get to the final boss. A few other gripes here and there, but overall it was well worth the playthrough.



Ion Fury - Built on a much-upgraded BUILD engine, this 2018(?) game took inspiration from its engine's predecessors, predominantly Duke Nukem 3D (which I have also not played). In fact, the protagonist, Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison, was a major revamping of a cut character with that nickname from the Duke Nukem days. In personality and quips, she is much like a female version of Duke Nukem. It was neat to play because I have never played its closest analogs (except for, like, 5 minutes, of the original Shadow Warrior), but of course, what matters more is fun. And fun was doled out in spades. A bit long, perhaps, but a great game.



Black Mesa - At long last, this re-imagining of the original Half-Life in a heavily-upgraded Half-Life 2 engine finished its 15/16-year development cycle just a couple months ago, releasing the end levels of the alien world Xen. The ambitious mod--back in 2012, I think--was given Valve's blessing to be sold on Steam despite the fact that Valve did not develop this Half-Life game, a very unique situation. Crowbar Collective had made a ton of other development additions/changes over the years, but the major thing that was missing was Xen. While I had only been waiting since 2015, lots of other people had been waiting for much longer.

And wow, did Crowbar Collective deliver. Long development times can often lead to disappointment, but not in this case. The atmosphere, art style, music, etc. all converged to make an incredible experience. The Xen levels took so long in part because they made it about 5x longer than the original. Valve didn't have the technology to really make Xen shine back in 1998 (although I still love it), so Black Mesa had a lot of room to sort of imagine what they thought Valve would've done with improved technology. While there is still some charm that new Xen just replicate from the original and there are some aspects of the old Xen's atmosphere I still prefer, there is no denying that Black Mesa's Xen is far and away a significant improvement in almost every way over Xen in the original Half-Life.

It's nice to have such a satisfying conclusion to the remake/reimagining of my favorite FPS of all-time. Kind of hard to believe it has been finally finished.

Windows Chess Titans

Level: 3
Matches played: 18324
Matches won: 17002
Stalemates: 830

Is there a higher difficulty? I think it’s time you moved up!

It goes to level 10, but since I play while watching youtube I don't bother to move up.


Also, just like Lisa Simpson I'm rather a big fish in a small pond

With that kind of win/loss ratio I’d say you could move up and be just fine!

Nah, I reverse moves from time to time. I justify it by the fact I don't concentrate on the game and just play while watching videos.

I decided to go back to the OG Fallout. Yep, the one that started it all. For some reason, the Classic Version was running faster than the one that was supposedly for new systems (although finding out that I had a Hi-Res patch already in the files that I could just simply download seems to have gotten the newer version running better for me). This morning, I finally killed some pain-in-the-[censored] deathclaws in the Boneyard as part of a quest in Adytum. Overall, I'm enjoying it, but there are certainly some irksome qualities about the game.

Ooooh ok!

Launched Minecraft last night for the first time since 2017! My avatar confined himself to his Hill Fort, a nostalgic tour lasting close to two hours. While there, he harvested all trees the fortress's extensive tree farm, which took over two Minecraft days, planting saplings to replenish the farm afternoon, then properly storing all harvested items...wood, excess saplings, apples. (He slept at a building next to the main farm each night.)

TpF wise, I published a new opener to my long-going Scenic Excursions series, displacing original ep01, which remains in the lineup as ep01b.

Transport Fever Scenic Excursions ep01 - Series Introductions, Fuel for Dunwich: REVISITED

New ep01's description is a bit of a mess in that I wrote way too much text to fit into YouTube's 5000 character limit. (Believe it or not, I type out video descriptions beforehand in my PC word-processor.) I didn't feel up to rewriting the entire text, so simply stripped out sections with little regard to what that does to the flow (such as it is).

I'm playing Resident Evil 2 Remake on the Xbox One X. So far I love it and Mr.X in this game gets the Nemesis upgrade! Holy Hell did they up the creepy factor with this guy, once he makes the scene it's a game of cat and mouse till you get the magnum and then he becomes a push over.

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection. Playstation had it as a free "Stay at home; play games" promotion.

I am not normally very adept with platformers- (a function of.... less-than-youthful reflexes, plus never having played many of them when my reflexes were youthful.) But still- a fun change of pace, that does not require "level grinding". And, unlike most games, where I avoid spoilers, I am happy to use the IGN walkthrough to find all the MacGuffins.

Just bought KotOR II for $2.49 on GOG for the May the 4th sale!

The 4th is with you!