Understatement of the year right here, lol

As usual, I'm mostly playing Spider Solitaire Online (four-suit), due to being able to do so while listening to YT videos whose visuals aren't critical to enjoyment. But I still fire up TSC every so often, as these image captures attest.

You might like Well There's Your Problem. It's the engineering disaster podcast - which is in itself a disaster - with slides. Its basically a podcast, but the episodes are also on YouTube, where they have slides showing sometimes pertinent details, sometimes not.

The thing I think you will like about it is that the hosts are all giant train nerds. So they have a lot of train-related episodes. They did about 9 hours on the Penn Central. They don't just talk about the disasters in their episodes. They also spend a lot of time in the lead up, explaining how these things work to begin with. Like, what is a train? How does train go? How do you stop train? etc... I suspect you will really like that.

What an odd coincidence!

Some weeks ago, on either a YouTube independent-news channel or a diet/health channel, I left a comment. Someone commentated on my commend, saying that he/she found my channel-name (Decrepit Productions) intriguing, so checked it out. Seeing that it nowadays consists mainly of railway/train videos, the responder asked if I was familiar with WTYP. I ignored the comment for weeks, and to the best of my recollection finally responded to it a day before your post here.

The answer to both of you is yes, I am familiar with the channel. I'm not a subscriber, but have watched a number of its railway-related videos, and a few others.

I am in the middle of their bonus episode on steam locomotives. It has been very informative. But 3 hours! It is a long one.

I also recently watched their episode on the F-104 Starfighter. That was a good episode. I keep thinking Acadian ought to watch it. That plane had a hunger for the souls of pilots, it killed so many of them. Though it seems to have been more a case of how it was used, than how it was actually built.

Conan Exiles . A very complex game but it's filling that itch that made me enjoy Elden Ring and it's not to difficult to play.

Is that a multiplayer game?

Oh yeah you can play co-op, online or solo. Just watch out for the sandstorms in this game they're nasty!

I like the Conan short stories and of course the movie Conan the Barbarian with Ah-nud. What platform are you playing that on?

I'm playing Conan Exiles on PC via Xbox app.

Third/final set of captures from an Edinburgh to Newcastle passenger run on East Coast Main Line.

Really nice screens!

Wow, these look like real pics instead of screen shots! That is Awesome!

(link) Yet more TSC goodness(?), featuring a recently acquired locomotive. (link)

I took a cue from Dark Reaper and am now playing Conan Exiles. Co-op but restricted to just Buffy on PC. I was pleasantly surprised by how fun and deep the game is how adjustable it is (especially in the private co-op mode) as far as tweaking everything on 'our' server to our liking. I figured it would be simply a survival/hack&slash but it is so open as to lend itself to anything you want. Buffy is quite enjoying the rpg aspects of living her life in this harsh but beautiful world. Her small size, blue eyes and bouncing blond ponytail translate nicely but she is a human. She's fascinated by having small, round ears.

I'm loving Conan Exiles, it's just a nice chill game that fills that itch and the best part is, though you CAN beat it the game excels on you not beating it until you want to, but until then it's just a matter of exploring, fighting, building and role playing in the world of Conan.

Not sure if this is relevant for the thread, since I'm not actually playing it, but it is about a game so I'm posting here.

Lately, I've been putting on some World of Warcraft ambience on YouTube when I'm doing busywork of various kinds. And honestly, it's kind of a weird feeling. It's been years since I've last played, but I did play for a long time so there's some weight to all that memory, particularly when I look at stuff from the pre-Cataclysm zones.

And man, Cata still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I think some of this has to do with how so many of the zones I'd adventured in seemed to have actually gotten worse. Ashenvale was gorgeous. Don't think the volcano in the middle helped. I get it, though. It's a game based on, well, war. So patching up the zones and making them nicer wouldn't give people much reason to adventure through them. But that didn't make it less disappointing for me.

It also makes me think of how the game's priorities changed over the years. In Cata and after, the zones felt much more streamlined in a way that I didn't like. You'd start off in Quest Hub A, start the zone storyline which would then take you to Quest Hub B, C, and then finish up at D. Now this did a good job of showcasing the entire zone and adding some narrative. I know the plan was to make WoW feel more like a single-player RPG because, well, that's how most people played it.

But ultimately the zone storylines all felt pretty similar to each other, so they blurred together. There being a big storyline for each zone also had a deadening effect. It made assumptions about your character's personality, which was kind of a big deal if you were on an RP server and cared about that sort of thing.

Pre-Cata WoW was much messier. A zone might have a storyline, but more often than not it had a bunch of regional storylines that didn't necessarily connect. Heck, sometimes there'd be quests that you had to go way off-track to find.

I loved this, though. I liked revisiting zones with different characters and actually finding stuff I'd missed the first time around. The fact that any given zone had so many different subplots made the world feel so much livelier. It also gave more room for the imagination. Rather than having everything spelled out for you, you could speculate and infer how these strange places might work. It also gave more opportunities for role-playing. If a quest didn't fit your character's personality, you could usually just not do it and pick a different one.

And yes, I know WoW Classic is a thing. But my nostalgia isn't enough to return to WoW.

It's the opposite for me when it comes to Deus Ex. My nostalgia with that game is so huge I could never return to it unless it's suddenly 2003 again

----------------------



I have found the last secret area of the second map in Wolfenstein 3D!

Last year (I think) I found a secret area on that map which brought me up to 75% found secrets. I searched for the longest time all over the map but came up empty. I wanted to find it because I had 100% of kills and treasures and wanted to complete it. So now I've continued trying to find that last area and this morning I did it.

It wasn't even a hard place to find as it was a poster I needed to push and not part of a long, plain wall like that other secret I found. Guess I had just ignored the posters thinking they were too obvious so the devs wouldn't have put another secret on one of them.


So yeah; now I get 100% on everything on the first two maps!

Oh, I get that! Last time I played it was sometime in the mid '00s. Great as it was, I'm kind of reluctant to return (even though it's generally regarded as having aged pretty well). Haven't even played any of the prequels. Or the sequel, though I haven't heard much good about Invisible War.

I was sort of hyped at the time about the sequel but it got delayed a few times iirc and I ended up never getting it. Replayed the original instead which was a great choice. I did play it again as late as 2011 and it still held up just as good as ever. Though I don't think it would work for me at this point in time and now I simply relish in the memories

Duke Nukem 3D


Yesterday I finally found one of the bigger smaller secret areas; the starship Enterprise's deck! Located in the map called Warp Factor (of course) it's a bit tricky to find as you trigger a hidden door to open from elsewhere and if you don't find the door in time it closes as it's on a timer.

The other secret maps and areas I've talked about I've found myself, albeit with some help from the game itself at one point as the hidden exit opened up itself for me accidentally and didn't close. This new one I had to look up on youtube on how to do it. But still, a neat find

Good game!

I'm still playing Conan Exiles, It has its Dark Souls moments but at least it's more balanced.

(link) A few captures of my most recent Train Simulator purchase, acquired yesterday near the end of a too-rare Caledonia Works sale. (link)

(link) Second image set from a chronological depiction of a recent Train Simulator stopping passenger service QuickDrive from Bournemough Central to Swanage, the train consisting of LSWR T3 No.563 hauling four MK1 coaches, on the Dorset Coast (England) route. (link)

Otherwise, the entirety of my PC gaming has consisted of daily dosages of one-to-four free-to-play online Crossword Puzzles.

Well I tried to play Starfield on my PC but it won't play on it. Looks like I'm either going to have to upgrade my graphics card or stick to No Man's Sky or Everspace on the PS5.

I haven’t even tried on my PC. I know it won’t play it. Sad Khajiit.

As is usually the case nowadays, my gaming is largely confined to free online Crossword Puzzles. However, here is an image-capture thread showing off (link) visual highlights from a recent short Train Simulator practice session with a recently acquired British steam loco. (link)

(link) Another image set from one of my TSC drives (link)

I'm playing Farcry 6 on my PS5, feels like Tom Clancy's Wildlands.

(link) Some dramatic late-afternoon skies in my most recent Train Simulator Classic screenshot compilation. (link)

Started yet another playthrough of Star Wars: Rebellion last Friday. Empire as usual, focusing on three out of six sectors. Things are going fast and I already have Sesswenna sector on my side with the second sector soon to follow.

I'm still playing Conan Exiles. Here's my little town I made .

Wow, you really do have a town there! Nice job.

Thanks .

Part 2. Now we're making Iron and leather armor! We're still not ready to take on anyone as iron though better then rock, still isn't the weapon to take on bosses or tough enemies. Yay grinding!

What Buffy really liked was the MASSIVE range from which she could snipe with a bow. The only weapons she used were a bow and a sabercat.

Is Buffs in Conan Exile??

She does indeed have a presence in Conan Exiles. And Diablo II. 98% of her time is in ESO though. She sorted out time travel and travel between worlds years ago.

Part 3. Some exploring and recipes collecting.

Consolidating my positions in Star Wars: Rebellion. I'm maniacally building TIE fighters ASAP whilst replacing shipyards and construction yards with the Advanced versions as they become available. Most important at this point in time is just to keep what I have which is why building thoise TIE fighters is so essential; they make up the bulk of my defenses. Don't wanna lose anything by a takeover.

Also I have just begun building up my fleets as it will become necessary to fight back once the rebels assault the systems that are not defended.

1 2 skip a few pt.13. We head into the Volcano for what the game's wiki says is the final boss but a push over. This boss glitches out sometimes and the only challenge is trying to stay cool from the heat, pro tip: have a couple of blocks of ice with ya.

Star Wars: Rebellion


I now safely own the three sectors I started with and have even expanded onto a fourth sector with a pretty big fleet. Not the final iteration but it'll do for now. I have even started producing TIE Defenders!


Also; Palpsie has been abducted by the rebels. Some might consider that a downfall..

That can't be good for the Rebels .

I hope I won't have to pay the price for my lack of vision...

I just bought Resident Evil remake 2 and 3 for my PS5, I already have Resident Evil 1 remake and not sure but I might get Resident Evil 0 if it's still on sale.
I might---MIGHT do Let's Plays of them in the near by future.

Star Wars: Rebellion


I keep consolidating my power in the three sectors and advancing in the fourth, not much else to say. Palpatine is still missing. At this point in the game the most important thing is to simply keep what I have, meaning strengthening my defenses with mostly fighters so I don't get overrun.
Two things of note as of today; I have finally researched the Imperial II Star Destroyer as well as the Super Star Destroyer!! Won't commit to building the latter yet though. Not until I start on my Main Fleet build. But the model 2 Star Destroyer is well under way.


Just thought of something. Years back I always used to conduct sabotage missions everywhere early in the game. It was an arduous task, quite annoying but also very rewarding. Nowadays however I don't do it at all and I struggle to see what I do different. Sabotage missions used to be necessary but not now. Why??

I think I've beaten Resident Evil Zero on the GameCube once, not sure if the PS version's the same or altered slightly. Chris's path in RE1 can change depending on if you let Rebecca "tag" along or not or if she dies or lives. Anyway a couple of days of rest then I'll begin Let's Play Resident Evil Zero! Yeah we're going in order.

Nice, Reaps!


Although I will probably not watch as closely as I did back in 2016 I think it was. Back then I didn't have a job so I could watch every episode at breakfast. A luxury I don't have now. Although, Christmas is coming up; two weeks vacation...