Spalls Hurgenson <[email protected]> wrote:
...

Book Addendum:

Heh. Time for a "What Have You Been Reading" (or maybe a CSIPGA Movie Reviews" thread?

Yes, but I am not doing books. I don't even read in games. ;)

I worked my way through seven of Ian Banks "Culture" novels. I sort of
ran out of steam before I got to the last book ("Hydrogen Sonata").
It's not that I don't want to read it (well, re-read) but I really
started yearning for something different. Bank's had his own unique
style but there's only so much of it I could take.

(oh, and with regards to movies, Star Trek Section 13 is as bad as
everyone is telling you. I can honestly say I enjoyed "Borderlands'
more... and that's saying something. It's not just a bad Star Trek
movie, it's just a bad movie all around; terrible cinematography,
awful story, tedious pacing, unexciting sets and set-pieces. As some
wag wrote, the only good thing you can say about Section 13 is that it finally put to rest the question about which is the worst Star Trek
movie. ;-)

I was going to watch it as a Trek(ie/er), but decided not to after
seeing all the negative reviews and ratings. Even its trailers were bad.
I have other better things to do like play games. Wait, I don't even
play enough games these days. :(
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* Fort Solis

Oof, I always like the idea of games set on Mars... but man, I've never
read you lambast something this hard.

Then you haven't been paying attention as 3/4ths of Spalls' reviews are negative! Here is my -- positive -- review from some months back:

To my mind Fort Solis and Still Wakes the Deep share very positive
qualities. Both have excellent graphics, sound, and voice-acting, along
with unique and detailed locations -- a Mars base in FT, and a drilling platform in SWTD) that provide an atmosphere and sense of immersion that
really pull you in, all in service of a story-based, horror thriller. But
how the two games achieve this couldn't be more different.

SWTD is more active and energetic, both in the pacing, the freewheeling
english isle language usage, and the physical puzzle solving,
well-integrated with the first-person perspective, in an exhilarating, more-or-less never seen before setting -- most players would probably pick
it first. But that is not a knock on Fort Solis, where the devs were going
for a completely different vibe: A moody, oppressive, human drama, in a
highly controlled environment with a closely-knit cast of characters. I very much wanted to see everything these characters -- and actors -- did, and explored everywhere to get 100% with all achievements (missed quite a few
with SWTD). In any case, both great games, and both fairly short, ~5 hours
for SWTD and ~11 hours for Fort Solis, and both highly recommended!

rms

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On 03/02/2025 05:00, rms wrote:

* Fort Solis

Oof, I always like the idea of games set on Mars... but man, I've
never read you lambast something this hard.

 Then you haven't been paying attention as 3/4ths of Spalls' reviews
are negative!  Here is my -- positive -- review from some months back:

To my mind Fort Solis and Still Wakes the Deep share very positive qualities.  Both have excellent graphics, sound, and voice-acting, along with unique and detailed locations -- a Mars base in FT, and a drilling platform in SWTD) that provide an atmosphere and sense of immersion that really pull you in, all in service of a story-based, horror thriller.
But how the two games achieve this couldn't be more different.

SWTD is more active and energetic, both in the pacing, the freewheeling english isle language usage, and the physical puzzle solving, well- integrated with the first-person perspective, in an exhilarating, more- or-less never seen before setting -- most players would probably pick it first. But that is not a knock on Fort Solis, where the devs were going
for a completely different vibe: A moody, oppressive, human drama, in a highly controlled environment with a closely-knit cast of characters. I
very much wanted to see everything these characters -- and actors --
did, and explored everywhere to get 100% with all achievements (missed
quite a few with SWTD). In any case, both great games, and both fairly
short, ~5 hours for SWTD and ~11 hours for Fort Solis, and both highly recommended!

I was going to add Still Wakes the Deep until I read the minimum specs
and my little old 1050 OC isn't really up to the job!

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Spalls Hurgenson <[email protected]> writes:

What Have You Been Playing... IN JANUARY 2025?

Finished Fallout: London finally. Well, one of the three endings. And
that took, by the game's reckoning 3 days, 11 hours 41 minutes total. Or
83 hours, 41 minutes. I guess I took my time with this but I don't feel
I did everything. My character is only level 42 and I think last two
level ups were in the rather combat heavy ending.

Story wise it was interesting, well told, even if it doesn't start off
that well. Kind of makes me want to see another one of the three endings
but I don't know how much replaying that would need. Also I guess it
means murdering off the other factions, one of which I actually
like. This was already annoying with New Vegas.

Gameplay is a tweak on Fallout 4. Different guns although I think some
are the same. Not much in the heavy department, I think I found one kind
of rocket launcher. Not sure if the light machine guns count as heavy
weapons or not.

Some different perks, mostly the same. Enemies maybe differently
distributed and animals/monsters different. Power armor not available
even though you can find fusion cores. Those are apparently useful in
some energy weapon. I didn't much bother with any of that, just bullets, pellets or a switchblade in the back.

So, all in all, quite happy with Fallout: London.

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Not a lot for me.

The Pale Beyond
---------------

It's a kinda resource/survival/choose your own adventure game set on a
ship on an Arctic expedition trapped in a ice sheet. I like the premise,
the different elements (that's unusually for me) and the 'serious'
cartoon graphical style. It all adds up to a foreboding atmosphere.

The problem I'm finding is the whole UI and what you're trying to do
seems very unintuitive. It's almost as though I've got to the stage
where I'm just randomly clicking on things to see what happens. I'm
really at a cross roads of do I go to the internet for some basic help
or just put it down as maybe not a game for me.

I did think maybe it was a me issue but then I thought, well I've played
Frost Punk, which has similar elements, and didn't have this issue at all.

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On 02/02/2025 19:14, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Heh. Time for a "What Have You Been Reading" (or maybe a CSIPGA Movie Reviews" thread?

I worked my way through seven of Ian Banks "Culture" novels. I sort of
ran out of steam before I got to the last book ("Hydrogen Sonata").
It's not that I don't want to read it (well, re-read) but I really
started yearning for something different. Bank's had his own unique
style but there's only so much of it I could take.

As I said recently I did recently read Look to Windward and I thought it
was ok but much prefer his contemporary fiction. I've taken a little
change this month so instead of fiction I've been reading The Conspiracy Tourist which is a travelogue by Dom Jolly (don't worry he's a UK
thing). As the name suggests it's about travelling to different
locations to engage with conspiracy theories/theorists. Quite fun really
and for somewhat darker reading I've got The Nazi Mindset: 12 Warnings
From History next-up on the list.

(oh, and with regards to movies, Star Trek Section 13 is as bad as
everyone is telling you. I can honestly say I enjoyed "Borderlands'
more... and that's saying something. It's not just a bad Star Trek
movie, it's just a bad movie all around; terrible cinematography,
awful story, tedious pacing, unexciting sets and set-pieces. As some
wag wrote, the only good thing you can say about Section 13 is that it finally put to rest the question about which is the worst Star Trek
movie. 😉

No movies so I'll do TV instead, SAS: Rouge Heroes. Rather enjoyable as
long as you don't get to nitpicky about the history.

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What Have You Been Playing... IN JANUARY 2025?

Just Abzu. they gave it away during the pandemic and it was the shortest >thing I had

2 hours long, nice! I think I can manage that, thanks!

rms

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[snip]

* Backrooms: Escape Together

Yeah, sounds like it's aimed at gen z, the sort of crap my kids played
when they were slightly younger.

Yeah, I'm of the opinion the original idea was cool, but all the extra
"lore" stuff they did to it ruined the original appeal.

Though I did watch the 5 nights at Freddy's movie with my daughter
recently and found it actually pretty good for a slightly higher than
low budget horror film. Which falls into that area.

Agreed, it felt pretty campy but overall a fun little movie.

SCP is kind of interesting to read random things off of but the videos
and games (all one of) I've played leave me scratching my head at what they're trying to accomplish as it doesn't seem to match the sources -
which tend to be funnier.

I used to be really into SCP.
[snip]
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

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