Locke and Awe

Works been light, and it’s been too hot lately to spend excess time in the shop without succumbing to heat stroke or fatal explosion. I’m not complaining though; I have a shit-ton of games to play.

First off; a friend gifted me Arma III Lite; it’s meager when compared to the full alpha, but is still fun to dick around with and hone skills in. My favorite moment so far is when I tried to carjack a guy coming up the road by shooting him through the windshield. He sped up and ran me over. That’s one soldier that ain’t comin’ home. Plus scuba diving? Fuck yeah. I shot a fish. It’s prettier than tits; and I’ll hop on the band wagon sooner or later.

Next up- Metro: Last Light. The original Metro is one of my favorite games because of it’s atmosphere(effectively capturing that unique Russian interpretation of the metaphysical and the atomic) and the books are also right fucking amazing. MLL does not disappoint(much) with it’s arrival. The only thing that’s really upset me at this point: 2nd playthrough, ranger mode, no killing. It autosaves me in a mine-cart gunfight scene where all I can do to keep my no kill rating is wait out the bullets and heal when I’m really hurt. I forgot to heal the first time. That’s okay, with 5 medkits this should still be easy. Load back in, I only have 3 medkits. Confused, I try reloading again. Now I have 2 medkits. I say ‘Fuck it, gonna have to do it with 2’ I get close to the end, but use the 2nd kit too early and die. I reload. My autosave is now me at the beginning of the scene with 0 medkits. ALLMYFUCKINGANGERANDTIME. Time to play something else.

Rise Storm Beta, the Pacific version of Red Orchestra 2. I love the gameplay; there isn’t an adequate way to describe the intensity of ducking a flamethrower blast that slags your squad commander and everyone else behind you, or getting slammed with a banzai charge out of nowhere. Of course; it still has the problem all Military role filling games have. The stupid dicks take the pivotal classes(Flamethrower, Squad Commander, Sniper) and waste the potential. Players like me use this opportunity to become godlike standard riflemen. The worst part of this game? The people. It could be the one guy who’s telling everyone to fuck off;he’ll play how he wants- even if it’s killing teammates, losing ground and costing his team the match directly. It could be the guy who thinks it’s funny to waste all of the artillery and calls for the round on nothing. Or it could be the hundreds of dickheads who do corny(and terrible for that matter) Japanese accents when the Japs win. We get it. You’re not actually Japanese, but you can make a stupid fucking voice like the other 10 people who just did. I mean seriously. If you’re going to go that route; DO A DECENT FUCKING ACCENT YOU VOCALLY RETARDED SEAL.

Next up; Reus. Reus is a God-sim of sorts where you control 4 large ‘gods’ and use their unique powers to shape and change the world. The only thing you can’t influence is the human race. Humans move into your nature, settle down, build things they find important, commit genocide against other humans…Y’know, normal stuff. You can kind of guide the humans by force; a la smiting their town with poison when they are a war hungry people, or smashing a project they’re making because it’s a fruitless endeavor. The more you do to help the humans, the more powers you unlock to evolve the world more. I luffs it.

So yeah. Gamin’ gamin’ gamin’

After launching several Munar landers into the Mun like thermobaric missiles; I finally got one to the surface in tact. Well, mostly in tact. It’s a rover/lander which is a huge science leap in my space program, but after a perilous landing process- the lander hit a bump and rolled. It busted off the solar arrays and battery line. The lander set up, but the rover aspect is completely useless without power generation. STILL. 2 THINGS ON THE MUUUUUUN

FUCK. So damn close to getting the prototype rover onto the mun. Twice. I’ve been struggling to put something other than my miracle lander up there…But I have failed. Though I have improved my rocketry skill exponentially.

Been dicking around with cheap steam games when I have the time. The updated Surgeon Simulator 2013 is my favorite snag so far, but I’m having a surprisingly good time with Receiver; which is…Well, shit for the most part. A shiny gun with the gameplay focused around it in a blander than hell environment with a Slender-like collection goal. For some reason, that is amazingly fun.

Work’s a bitch, but I still get to enjoy my nights. Been catching up on some docs and such I’ve been meaning to watch. Lot of interesting feeds coming out of Syria.

Zeno Clash II is out, I’m going to snag it on the sexbox. <3 that insanity shiz. Really doesn’t make a lick’a sense to me…But god damn. I fucking love it.

Random note: You ain’t sleepin’ boy.

So, lots of shit has changed in a snap of time. Biggest news, I now own the land I live on. I don’t rent it anymore. It’s put me up to debt in my eyeballs, but I own a home. serghndklgjsrhe;gserhekrjghserkhgerkFUCKYEAH! I’m thankful for my good friends who helped me sort the terrible mess out and guide me in paths I’ve not travelled. I couldn’t have done it alone. If I did do it alone, I would have ended up living on the street again, and giving my animals to someone who could give them a home. Glad to avoid that scenario.

Next order of business; Steam sharing. Some of you know I share my account with my brother, Mark. He stopped using it back when he was in college and I sort of inherited it. Well, now we’re both using it. Often. Because of this, I’ve been logging what seems to be freakish amounts of playtime. This is an exaggeration, as it is the culmination of our two playtimes. It also keeps me offline a lot. If you don’t know, if 1 account is active in 2 places- it finds a way to bumfuck one or both of you offline when it spans the Atlantic. I believe I have fixed this now by channeling my bumfuck straight to Mark, enhancing my own experience and allowing me more online play.

In other news, the courier business has kept spry through it’s initial 6 mo. phase, and is renewed at higher rates. That means more money to pay off my debt. Gotta start somewhere, right? This oomph is going to place me in the effective tax bracket next year, and I’m excited about it.

Things are coming together.

I’m losing faith in my friends, losing faith in my people. I lost faith in the generation long ago- but there are always diamonds in the rough. Now those people who used to shine so brilliantly barely reflect light off of their dull, idiotic surfaces. Critical thinking was like a one hit wonder or a flash in the pan. We’re just fucking stupid. That’s all I can take away from it; that we’re just dumber than hell, and learn little to nothing from history as it passes. We want to think we as sole individuals have every last thing figured out better than anyone could or will. Within minutes of learning about the Boston disaster; people are lining up with their fool proof theories of how it went down. Some of these are a simple as “THERE IS A MAN ON THE ROOF.” Problem solved. Man on the roof. He must’ve done it; it’s so obvious. “WHY HAVEN’T POLICE FOUND THAT GUY AND QUESTIONED HIM?” Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t aware you were privy to the how the PD was handling the situation and who they had taken into custody. Good call, you fucking genius you. “THE PHOTO IS CROPPED WHY WOULD ANYONE CROP THE PHOTO?” Boy, that sure isn’t a stupid fucking question. Why do you crop images? What are you hiding? Or…Could it be you crop images to better view your focus, make more compact or clean images? Nah, that’s fucking dumb. That doesn’t make a lick of sense. A G-man on the roof though, that’s pretty solid. That’s a currently relevant example. I’m just tired of hearing the same poorly stitched horseshit for the sake of nothing day in and day out. I’m tired of hating being around my friends. I can’t do it anymore. I care about ‘em, I love ‘em, but there ain’t a damn thing I can do to help them at this juncture. I need new friends.

I redownloaded Warning Forever last night so I could show it to Kelly and we could gameth olde school. Haven’t played it in- I dunno…Maybe 6-7 years? For what it is, the graphics hold up. The ships still look badass, the evolution of the ships is still crazy, it’s still a ton of fun. We took turns and surprisingly Kelly schooled me something fierce. I need to brush up on my bullet hell games.

Raz and Locke in the sky with diamonds

SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE.

The gaming continues, but grows somewhat annoying or stale with each endeavour.

Hotline Miami is more fun than I would have originally given it credit for, but my particular copy has no music for some reason, with no known fix. When the music is one of the big selling points of a game; it’s kind of important that it works.

DoWII is fun, I finally got around to playing the campaign as Chaos, and I’m having a good enough time. Though, one irk I have with the layout: In multiplayer, you can select the Tao; who aren’t in the story. However, you can’t select Necrons. Necrons are the shit. I want them.

10,000,000 is a unique take on the RPG/Puzzler, and is still probably my most fullfilling recent purchase.

Been playing some DayZ when I can, too. I played a round or so with my friend Scott, on both occasions we died. It was fun though. Most of the time, I’m playing alone though- and that’s bumming me out. We’ve got a specific namalsk server that works well for us, so I play there. Playing alone just isn’t the same though. I work to collect important things for the next time Scott is on while trying to learn the world better. It almost always ends with someone just murdering me(this last time, 2 cars came down the coast and just completely focused themselves on running me over. They killed me, and drove off without the loot. Against my own previous advice, I’m a little bitter at DayZ now.

WarZ is just bleh. I sit on my massive weapon stockpile and broadcast my location, telling people they can have everything if they kill me. Everyone is a pussy apparently, so no one dares try. Booooring.

Project zomboid has a newer update then when I last played it, but it still has serious problems. Like that the horde just randomly warps about the city so as to be close to you. Ex: After fortifying a second floor apartment, I went to go find food. Found food, came home- my bathroom has about 100 zombies is in that have no way of getting in there. They just appeared. That’s sort of game breaking, imo.