From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action


We're definitely in summer now. Normally this is a reason to rejoice
but recent years? The heat is just too oppressive! The house is cool
enough --barely-- but some days I really dread firing up the PC (and
all its monitors) because its thermal-output is just enough to tip the
balance. Can't go outside, can't play computer games inside; what's a
person to do? ;-)

Thank god there's Usenet. No, wait, that's on the computer too.
Aarrrgh!

Wait, wasn't this a thread about computer games?


#


Superbrief
---------------------------------------
* Drain Sim
* Civilization IV
* Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered
* Yes, it's those fucking Truck Simulator games again



Maximum Verbosity
---------------------------------------

* Drain Sim
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2963800/DrainSim/

At its most basic, "Drain Sim" is another in a long line of workplace simulators, and a lot of what you think of when you consider games in
that genre is true of this game too. You know: average visuals using
lots of purchased assets, fiddly controls, a simplistic gameplay loop,
a middling level of polish and subject matter that many would find uninteresting. "Drain Sim" has it all. Superficially, there's nothing impressive about this game.

Except, you know, the fluid dynamics simulation that makes all the
water so splishy-splashy and fun.

Because, outside that, there's really nothing to get excited about
this game. Start with a tiny bit of cash, buy your basic tools, take a
job, get cash to buy more tools, repeat ad nauseam until you finish
the game. In essence, it's not really much more novel than "PC
Builder" or "Farm Simulator" or that damn truck game I always play.
It's the water effects that make this game notable.

Arguably this makes "Drain Sim" more tech-demo than game, but
whatever: it's fun to play with the water effects. Unclog a drain and
the water starts going down (if the drain is big enough, it'll even
create a whirlpool). Bust a barrier and watch the water flow from one
room to the next. Or build up a barrier to keep the water in one place
while you clean out the area next door. It's not the first game with a
robust water-simulation ("Hydrophobia" beat "Drain Sim" by 15 years!)
but that doesn't make it any less neat a toy to play with.

"Drain Sim" is still in early access, and although the core game is
solid it does still feel a bit experimental. Like I said, the main
gameplay loop is nothing special, and more upgrades and ways to
manipulate the water would be fun. The difficulty/balance isn't quite
tuned in either (the game, on the whole, lacks any real challenge).
Presumably these are areas the developers are working on. I'm not sure
I care, though. I got what I wanted from the game and, having
splish-splashed with the game for some 20 hours, I've had my fill.
Even if there are new upgrades, I'm not sure I'm interested enough to
replay the game to see what's been added. But that's okay. The price
was right and I had fun. I'm fine with what I got.



* Civilization IV https://store.steampowered.com/app/3900/Sid_Meiers_Civilization_IV/

I always play Civilization games with great trepidation; when I start,
I honestly feel as if I were about to start juggling knives or
something. The games are just too damned addictive for me to launch
myself into them lightly. That is because I know I will very quickly
get caught in to the 'just one more turn' loop, and before you know it
I might lose hours... or days. It's why I so rarely even install the
game (the last time I played "Civilization IV" was in 2022), and when
I do then I make it a hard-and-fast rule that I will only play one
campaign, and then the game gets uninstalled.

So it was quite the surprise when I finished my match after only a few
hours. Was that all I got?

I'd love to say I won so quickly because I'm just that good, but
really it was all about the RNG. I was dropped in a very favorable
location and the AI mostly ignore me until I had already built up a
sizable empire. I was able to then hold them off long enough to win a
space victory. But this meant that my win was quite rapid, rather than
the long drawn out struggle I'm used to.

Still, rules are rules, and I dutifully quit and uninstalled the game
right afterwards. And it's not like the game didn't enrapture me like
it always does. I was very quickly locked into the normal time-killing game-loop where the rest of the world is ignored. Had I been less
lucky, I doubtlessly would have been locked into the game until 4 in
the morning, as I too often am. Even as it was, I still lost most of
my afternoon and evening to the experience.

Still, I can't help but feeling a bit empty, like I was cheated out of something. And it's not entirely because the game ended so soon
(although it's mostly that). It's also because the game itself was
hollower than I remembered. That's mostly because I often confuse what
features are included in which game (like, for example, the neutral
city-states which only were introduced in "Civilization V"). Do not
mistake me; I still think "Civilization IV" is one of the better games
in the franchise, with great game-play balance, tone and overall
features. But even if I don't like how the mixture of ideas always
works in the sequels, still I often like those ideas. A number of
times when playing, I went to do something (such as tailoring the
civics) only to realize that function wasn't yet enabled.

So the end result was that when I finished, I left wanting more --a
longer campaign, more involved combat, more diplomacy, etc.-- even as
I knew I dared not go looking for it, and it wasn't in "Civilization
IV" anyway. I loved my time playing the game, but I can't help leaving
it feeling a bit disappointed.

Oh well. Maybe next time I give the franchise a try --probably in
2030, if past history is anything to go by-- I'll give "Civilization
V" another try.



* Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered https://store.steampowered.com/app/1817070/Marvels_SpiderMan_Remastered/

I forget why I was motivated to install this. It's not that it's a
game unsuited to my tastes, but Spider-Man has never been my favorite superhero, and I'm always so hesitant to dive into an open-world game.
They're just such time-sinks. Still, I'd heard good things about the
game, and zipping through a well-detailed Manhattan had its appeal, so
after a quick 80GB download, I started playing the game.

And quit two hours later.

It's not that there's anything wrong with the game, not really. It's
fine. But boy-oh-boy, does it live up to the tropes of open-world
games. Collectibles everywhere, and procedurally-generated
mini-quests, and every main-story mission has you zooming from one
side of the island to the next. It's just so time consuming and I
couldn't make myself stick around much past the tutorial missions.

Which isn't always an obstacle to me in this sort of game. I've hundred-percented less well-made open-world experiences, after all.
But those usually had some other hook that made me persevere despite
the tedium. And for whatever reason, "Marvel's Spider-Man" just didn't
have that hook. Maybe it was the subject matter; as I said, I just
can't get into Spider-Man (or, generally, comic book super-heroes in
general) the way I might were I playing as a goon-with-a-gun. Maybe it
was because the traversal method --Spider-Man's icon web-swinging from
building to building-- just never felt entirely natural to me (it's
probably better with a gamepad, but I was playing with
mouse-n-keyboard). Or that the combat --with its ever so-many combos--
wasn't something I wanted to deeply engage with.

But whatever the reason, I just wasn't feeling that addictive dopamine
rush as I played the game; rather, I stared at its giant map with
dread and wondered how long I'd have to tolerate the game before I
finally saw the ending. And that just didn't seem the right attitude
to keep me playing.

So I stopped and uninstalled.

I absolutely believe this is a great game. I think all those reviews
praising this title are well-deserved. If you want to live the
Spider-Man experience, this is probably the best way to do so. But
it's just not what I wanted from a game. I'm not a fan of melee, I'm
not a fan of the character, and I much prefer a more directed game
experience. This is a terrific game. It's just not for me.



* American Truck Simulator https://store.steampowered.com/app/270880/American_Truck_Simulator/

Yeah, again. But it's like I've said before; this game is my
lowest-common denominator title; it's what I play when I can't be
bothered to play anything else. It's just too easy for me fire it up
and kill a few hours driving down the highway, and leave the
experience relaxed and satisfied from a job well done.

Still, after so many months of playing it, I don't have anything new
to say about the game. I don't even have a new expansion to gush over.
So instead, I'll mention that I installed a new mod. It's called the
"Ultimate Graphics Mod ATS". This one adds some improved rain effects;
better rain-drops on the windshield, some improved sounds and road
textures, much improved skybox textures. It's nothing amazing but
they're still noticeable changes. It's not perfect (there's a bug that
makes the rain invisible looking out my side windows, for instance,
and the lightning effect is laughably small) but overall it gives the
game a more realistic flair. Will I keep it installed? I'm not sure,
but for the time being it's a nice change from the ordinary.

Meanwhile, the core game remains the same; an addictive Zen-like drive
across the country dutifully hauling cargo down the US Interstate
Highway system. A great, must-play game for everybody? Definitely not,
but it gives me what I want from a game and that means --sadly-- you
can expect to see me maundering on about it for months and years to
come. Sorry-not-sorry.



* Eurotruck Simulator 2 https://store.steampowered.com/app/227300/Euro_Truck_Simulator_2/

Yeah, I played this one too. You can grab the introduction from ATS
and plug it in here too; everything I said about that one applies to
ETS2 as well. The only reason it ranks slightly lower in my
'likelihood to play' list is that the map-expansion mod I use (which
adds vast new territories to the base European map) is extremely
sensitive to game-updates, and it's such a chore to keep the game and
mod working well together. So much so that more often than not I just
decide not to bother and play ATS instead. But this month (at least
for a while), fortune smiled upon me and the game, and I drove across
Europe for a while. At least I did until the developers released the
newest patch.

I added a new mod to this game too (actually, both mods mentioned this
month were applied to both games, but since I needed something to
write about for each game, I split my descriptions to one-per-game).
The mod in question this time is "Real Traffic Density" and it does
exactly what it says on the tin; it gives the game a more realistic
and varied level of AI traffic on the road. The traffic in the default un-modded game is pretty light (often, even on highways there will
only be five or six other vehicles on the road with you), and this
often robbed the game of verisimilitude... not to mention challenge.
The mod adds more cars and trucks, which makes the world seem more
alive. Strangely, despite the fact that I normally hate driving in
traffic, it does make the experience more fun. Although maybe I could
bear if the mod toned down the spawn-rate of AI cars just a smidge.
Sometimes it feels like just a bit too much of a good thing. But
overall, this mod is definitely a keeper.

ETS2 doesn't get quite the same love from me as ATS anymore, but I
still enjoy the variety of its roads and locales. Sometimes those
differences can be quite annoying (e.g., the too-frequent
border-checks in the Balkans, or the seemingly endless toll booths in
France) but overall there's more spice to driving in Europe than on
the US highway system; every country is different. And if it ever gets
too frustrating, I can just take a job that has me hauling cargo down
the efficiently designed German autobahn; that always lowers my blood
pressure. So I regret to inform you that this game too will likely
re-appear in this monthly round-ups many more times as well. Except
I'm still not really sorry about that.


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


So that's my playlist for this sweltering June month. Hopefully the
weather becomes more tolerable and I'll actually be able to go out and
enjoy summer-activities in July. Or at least won't roast the house
with a thousand watts of computer horsepower. But that's all besides
the point. What we really want to know now is:

What have YOU been playing... IN JUNE 2026?
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

What have YOU been playing... IN JUNE 2026?

I had trouble deciding what to play this month; at first I installed Remember Me -- which I do want to get back to -- but that style of action-adventure felt like it would take more mental energy learning combat mechanics than I was up for (that slight hump that always occurs in a new game); while The Room, which I'm half way through, felt too static. What I wanted was a focused adventure game, not too fast-moving, with good
atmosphere and production values, and

Alone in the Dark (2024)
just ticked all the boxes. Exploring a haunted mansion, with simple but visceral combat, straightforward puzzles, great atmosphere -- provided by
very decent graphics and enveloping sound environment, drew me in quickly.
The highlight though was having top-tier voice-acting, speaking well-written and witty lines: The game is fully voiced throughout, including every note that you pick up, all spoken with understanding and proper pacing. I am so pleased with the production values in this game. You also get two parallel campaigns to play, one each with the detective and his client, in their
search for a mysterious uncle inexplicably gone missing, each with unique spoken lines and environments, and I enjoyed playing both, so as to enable
and see all five separate endings. Very satisfying.

This month I plan to return to Remember Me & The Room, and start my next unplayed Resident Evil game (RE7), or alternatively Doom Dark Ages for some action.

rms

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

July already? USA is almost 250 yrs. old! :O Um, I have been playing
mostly the same games, but I did play MechWarrior 5 game's free weekend
on Steam. It's not bad, but it got grindy.


Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

We're definitely in summer now. Normally this is a reason to rejoice
but recent years? The heat is just too oppressive! The house is cool
enough --barely-- but some days I really dread firing up the PC (and
all its monitors) because its thermal-output is just enough to tip the balance. Can't go outside, can't play computer games inside; what's a
person to do? ;-)

Thank god there's Usenet. No, wait, that's on the computer too.
Aarrrgh!

Wait, wasn't this a thread about computer games?

#

Superbrief
---------------------------------------
* Drain Sim
* Civilization IV
* Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered
* Yes, it's those fucking Truck Simulator games again

Maximum Verbosity
---------------------------------------

* Drain Sim
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2963800/DrainSim/

At its most basic, "Drain Sim" is another in a long line of workplace simulators, and a lot of what you think of when you consider games in
that genre is true of this game too. You know: average visuals using
lots of purchased assets, fiddly controls, a simplistic gameplay loop,
a middling level of polish and subject matter that many would find uninteresting. "Drain Sim" has it all. Superficially, there's nothing impressive about this game.

Except, you know, the fluid dynamics simulation that makes all the
water so splishy-splashy and fun.

Because, outside that, there's really nothing to get excited about
this game. Start with a tiny bit of cash, buy your basic tools, take a
job, get cash to buy more tools, repeat ad nauseam until you finish
the game. In essence, it's not really much more novel than "PC
Builder" or "Farm Simulator" or that damn truck game I always play.
It's the water effects that make this game notable.

Arguably this makes "Drain Sim" more tech-demo than game, but
whatever: it's fun to play with the water effects. Unclog a drain and
the water starts going down (if the drain is big enough, it'll even
create a whirlpool). Bust a barrier and watch the water flow from one
room to the next. Or build up a barrier to keep the water in one place
while you clean out the area next door. It's not the first game with a
robust water-simulation ("Hydrophobia" beat "Drain Sim" by 15 years!)
but that doesn't make it any less neat a toy to play with.

"Drain Sim" is still in early access, and although the core game is
solid it does still feel a bit experimental. Like I said, the main
gameplay loop is nothing special, and more upgrades and ways to
manipulate the water would be fun. The difficulty/balance isn't quite
tuned in either (the game, on the whole, lacks any real challenge). Presumably these are areas the developers are working on. I'm not sure
I care, though. I got what I wanted from the game and, having
splish-splashed with the game for some 20 hours, I've had my fill.
Even if there are new upgrades, I'm not sure I'm interested enough to
replay the game to see what's been added. But that's okay. The price
was right and I had fun. I'm fine with what I got.

* Civilization IV https://store.steampowered.com/app/3900/Sid_Meiers_Civilization_IV/

I always play Civilization games with great trepidation; when I start,
I honestly feel as if I were about to start juggling knives or
something. The games are just too damned addictive for me to launch
myself into them lightly. That is because I know I will very quickly
get caught in to the 'just one more turn' loop, and before you know it
I might lose hours... or days. It's why I so rarely even install the
game (the last time I played "Civilization IV" was in 2022), and when
I do then I make it a hard-and-fast rule that I will only play one
campaign, and then the game gets uninstalled.

So it was quite the surprise when I finished my match after only a few
hours. Was that all I got?

I'd love to say I won so quickly because I'm just that good, but
really it was all about the RNG. I was dropped in a very favorable
location and the AI mostly ignore me until I had already built up a
sizable empire. I was able to then hold them off long enough to win a
space victory. But this meant that my win was quite rapid, rather than
the long drawn out struggle I'm used to.

Still, rules are rules, and I dutifully quit and uninstalled the game
right afterwards. And it's not like the game didn't enrapture me like
it always does. I was very quickly locked into the normal time-killing game-loop where the rest of the world is ignored. Had I been less
lucky, I doubtlessly would have been locked into the game until 4 in
the morning, as I too often am. Even as it was, I still lost most of
my afternoon and evening to the experience.

Still, I can't help but feeling a bit empty, like I was cheated out of something. And it's not entirely because the game ended so soon
(although it's mostly that). It's also because the game itself was
hollower than I remembered. That's mostly because I often confuse what features are included in which game (like, for example, the neutral city-states which only were introduced in "Civilization V"). Do not
mistake me; I still think "Civilization IV" is one of the better games
in the franchise, with great game-play balance, tone and overall
features. But even if I don't like how the mixture of ideas always
works in the sequels, still I often like those ideas. A number of
times when playing, I went to do something (such as tailoring the
civics) only to realize that function wasn't yet enabled.

So the end result was that when I finished, I left wanting more --a
longer campaign, more involved combat, more diplomacy, etc.-- even as
I knew I dared not go looking for it, and it wasn't in "Civilization
IV" anyway. I loved my time playing the game, but I can't help leaving
it feeling a bit disappointed.

Oh well. Maybe next time I give the franchise a try --probably in
2030, if past history is anything to go by-- I'll give "Civilization
V" another try.

* Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered https://store.steampowered.com/app/1817070/Marvels_SpiderMan_Remastered/

I forget why I was motivated to install this. It's not that it's a
game unsuited to my tastes, but Spider-Man has never been my favorite superhero, and I'm always so hesitant to dive into an open-world game. They're just such time-sinks. Still, I'd heard good things about the
game, and zipping through a well-detailed Manhattan had its appeal, so
after a quick 80GB download, I started playing the game.

And quit two hours later.

It's not that there's anything wrong with the game, not really. It's
fine. But boy-oh-boy, does it live up to the tropes of open-world
games. Collectibles everywhere, and procedurally-generated
mini-quests, and every main-story mission has you zooming from one
side of the island to the next. It's just so time consuming and I
couldn't make myself stick around much past the tutorial missions.

Which isn't always an obstacle to me in this sort of game. I've hundred-percented less well-made open-world experiences, after all.
But those usually had some other hook that made me persevere despite
the tedium. And for whatever reason, "Marvel's Spider-Man" just didn't
have that hook. Maybe it was the subject matter; as I said, I just
can't get into Spider-Man (or, generally, comic book super-heroes in
general) the way I might were I playing as a goon-with-a-gun. Maybe it
was because the traversal method --Spider-Man's icon web-swinging from building to building-- just never felt entirely natural to me (it's
probably better with a gamepad, but I was playing with
mouse-n-keyboard). Or that the combat --with its ever so-many combos--
wasn't something I wanted to deeply engage with.

But whatever the reason, I just wasn't feeling that addictive dopamine
rush as I played the game; rather, I stared at its giant map with
dread and wondered how long I'd have to tolerate the game before I
finally saw the ending. And that just didn't seem the right attitude
to keep me playing.

So I stopped and uninstalled.

I absolutely believe this is a great game. I think all those reviews
praising this title are well-deserved. If you want to live the
Spider-Man experience, this is probably the best way to do so. But
it's just not what I wanted from a game. I'm not a fan of melee, I'm
not a fan of the character, and I much prefer a more directed game experience. This is a terrific game. It's just not for me.

* American Truck Simulator https://store.steampowered.com/app/270880/American_Truck_Simulator/

Yeah, again. But it's like I've said before; this game is my
lowest-common denominator title; it's what I play when I can't be
bothered to play anything else. It's just too easy for me fire it up
and kill a few hours driving down the highway, and leave the
experience relaxed and satisfied from a job well done.

Still, after so many months of playing it, I don't have anything new
to say about the game. I don't even have a new expansion to gush over.
So instead, I'll mention that I installed a new mod. It's called the "Ultimate Graphics Mod ATS". This one adds some improved rain effects;
better rain-drops on the windshield, some improved sounds and road
textures, much improved skybox textures. It's nothing amazing but
they're still noticeable changes. It's not perfect (there's a bug that
makes the rain invisible looking out my side windows, for instance,
and the lightning effect is laughably small) but overall it gives the
game a more realistic flair. Will I keep it installed? I'm not sure,
but for the time being it's a nice change from the ordinary.

Meanwhile, the core game remains the same; an addictive Zen-like drive
across the country dutifully hauling cargo down the US Interstate
Highway system. A great, must-play game for everybody? Definitely not,
but it gives me what I want from a game and that means --sadly-- you
can expect to see me maundering on about it for months and years to
come. Sorry-not-sorry.

* Eurotruck Simulator 2 https://store.steampowered.com/app/227300/Euro_Truck_Simulator_2/

Yeah, I played this one too. You can grab the introduction from ATS
and plug it in here too; everything I said about that one applies to
ETS2 as well. The only reason it ranks slightly lower in my
'likelihood to play' list is that the map-expansion mod I use (which
adds vast new territories to the base European map) is extremely
sensitive to game-updates, and it's such a chore to keep the game and
mod working well together. So much so that more often than not I just
decide not to bother and play ATS instead. But this month (at least
for a while), fortune smiled upon me and the game, and I drove across
Europe for a while. At least I did until the developers released the
newest patch.

I added a new mod to this game too (actually, both mods mentioned this
month were applied to both games, but since I needed something to
write about for each game, I split my descriptions to one-per-game).
The mod in question this time is "Real Traffic Density" and it does
exactly what it says on the tin; it gives the game a more realistic
and varied level of AI traffic on the road. The traffic in the default un-modded game is pretty light (often, even on highways there will
only be five or six other vehicles on the road with you), and this
often robbed the game of verisimilitude... not to mention challenge.
The mod adds more cars and trucks, which makes the world seem more
alive. Strangely, despite the fact that I normally hate driving in
traffic, it does make the experience more fun. Although maybe I could
bear if the mod toned down the spawn-rate of AI cars just a smidge.
Sometimes it feels like just a bit too much of a good thing. But
overall, this mod is definitely a keeper.

ETS2 doesn't get quite the same love from me as ATS anymore, but I
still enjoy the variety of its roads and locales. Sometimes those
differences can be quite annoying (e.g., the too-frequent
border-checks in the Balkans, or the seemingly endless toll booths in
France) but overall there's more spice to driving in Europe than on
the US highway system; every country is different. And if it ever gets
too frustrating, I can just take a job that has me hauling cargo down
the efficiently designed German autobahn; that always lowers my blood pressure. So I regret to inform you that this game too will likely
re-appear in this monthly round-ups many more times as well. Except
I'm still not really sorry about that.

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

So that's my playlist for this sweltering June month. Hopefully the
weather becomes more tolerable and I'll actually be able to go out and
enjoy summer-activities in July. Or at least won't roast the house
with a thousand watts of computer horsepower. But that's all besides
the point. What we really want to know now is:

What have YOU been playing... IN JUNE 2026?

--
"By the grace given me I say to everyone of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you." --Romans 12:3. Nice "winter" Tues.
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

It's not the first game with a
robust water-simulation ("Hydrophobia" beat "Drain Sim" by 15 years!)

I enjoyed Hydrophobia, what they finished anyway. Still has one of the neatest UI elements I've seen in a game

* Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered

Bummer it's a time waster. I got S-M Miles Morales with my PS5, does
that have identical gameplay?

rms

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Wed, 1 Jul 2026 17:55:15 -0600, "rms" <rmsmoo@moomoo.net> said this
thing:

What have YOU been playing... IN JUNE 2026?

I had trouble deciding what to play this month; at first I installed
Remember Me -- which I do want to get back to -- but that style of >action-adventure felt like it would take more mental energy learning combat >mechanics than I was up for (that slight hump that always occurs in a new >game); while The Room, which I'm half way through, felt too static. What I >wanted was a focused adventure game, not too fast-moving, with good >atmosphere and production values, and

Assuming you mean the 2013 game from Capcom. I remember bouncing off
this one when I tried to play some years back. I recall enjoying the
game's overall concept, and its futuristic Paris but I think I was put
off by the controls, some of the puzzles and the weird combat combo
system. I don't think I stuck with the game long enough that I felt it
even deserved a mention in these monthly write-ups. It's one of those
games I always felt deserved another chance, though.

Alone in the Dark (2024)
just ticked all the boxes. Exploring a haunted mansion, with simple but
visceral combat, straightforward puzzles, great atmosphere -- provided by >very decent graphics and enveloping sound environment, drew me in quickly. >The highlight though was having top-tier voice-acting, speaking well-written >and witty lines: The game is fully voiced throughout, including every note >that you pick up, all spoken with understanding and proper pacing. I am so >pleased with the production values in this game. You also get two parallel >campaigns to play, one each with the detective and his client, in their >search for a mysterious uncle inexplicably gone missing, each with unique >spoken lines and environments, and I enjoyed playing both, so as to enable >and see all five separate endings. Very satisfying.

Fine, you convinced me. Installing now.


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On Thu, 2 Jul 2026 00:03:51 -0000 (UTC), ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) said
this thing:

July already? USA is almost 250 yrs. old! :O Um, I have been playing
mostly the same games, but I did play MechWarrior 5 game's free weekend
on Steam. It's not bad, but it got grindy.

Ooh, which one? MW5: Mercenaries (2023) or MW5:Clans (2024)?

Of the two, I think I enjoyed Mercenaries more. Partly because I'm
just a freebirth Inner Sphere fanboy, but also because the narrative
in Clans was just so terrible. Plus, the latter game had bossfights.
In a mech-simulator. Bah!

But grindy? Yeah, regardless of what game you played, I'd agree to
that. Mostly because the AI is so braindead that the developers
decided the best way to challenge the player was just to throw a dozen
or more opponents at you. It was perhaps more noticable in MW5:
Mercenaries because there was such little variety in the mission
structures too. When your mechwarrior game starts feeling like a boomer-shooter, you know you've gone wrong.

I still think "Mechwarrior 3" was the best of the franchise. I wish
they'd update that one with better visuals (and getting it to more
easily run on modern hardware) without touching any of the gameplay.
Nightdive Studios, are you listening?


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Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thu, 2 Jul 2026 00:03:51 -0000 (UTC), ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) said
this thing:

July already? USA is almost 250 yrs. old! :O Um, I have been playing >mostly the same games, but I did play MechWarrior 5 game's free weekend
on Steam. It's not bad, but it got grindy.

Ooh, which one? MW5: Mercenaries (2023) or MW5:Clans (2024)?

Mercenaries.

Of the two, I think I enjoyed Mercenaries more. Partly because I'm
just a freebirth Inner Sphere fanboy, but also because the narrative
in Clans was just so terrible. Plus, the latter game had bossfights.
In a mech-simulator. Bah!

But grindy? Yeah, regardless of what game you played, I'd agree to
that. Mostly because the AI is so braindead that the developers
decided the best way to challenge the player was just to throw a dozen
or more opponents at you. It was perhaps more noticable in MW5:
Mercenaries because there was such little variety in the mission
structures too. When your mechwarrior game starts feeling like a boomer-shooter, you know you've gone wrong.

I still think "Mechwarrior 3" was the best of the franchise. I wish
they'd update that one with better visuals (and getting it to more
easily run on modern hardware) without touching any of the gameplay. Nightdive Studios, are you listening?

I don't think I ever played #3 and #4. I did briefly play MW2 back in the 90s. --
"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 'I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.'" --Jeremiah 17:9-10. 2 mo days!
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
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Fine, you convinced me. Installing now.

Remember the Prologue https://store.steampowered.com/app/1938800/Alone_in_the_Dark_Prologue/

rms

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On Thu, 2 Jul 2026 15:31:00 -0600, "rms" <rmsmoo@moomoo.net> said this
thing:

Fine, you convinced me. Installing now.

Remember the Prologue
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1938800/Alone_in_the_Dark_Prologue/

Click. Added.

I've actually started this one (you thought I was kidding about
installing it in the last post? Hah on you! ;-). I wasn't aware it was something of a reboot of the original. I really got a kick out of
seeing that frog in the intro!* It's nice returning to Decerto
mansion, although it looks like the story is going in a different
direction. I think. Honestly, I don't remember very much about the
plot of the original game.

I haven't gotten too far, but the game definitely does 'creepy' fairly
well. Wandering through the (mostly) empty halls of the mansion (and elsewheres), you definitely get a pervading sense of encroaching doom.
None of the intended scares made me jump though. But the creepiness is
enough.

There's a bit too much wandering, though, which makes that creepiness
wear on you. 'Just get to the monsters already!' If the game continues
like this, I probably won't re-play it with the second character
though.

But so far I'm having fun.





* the original 1992 game's intro also started with a frog hopping
across the road, and the 2025 game emulates this... with significantly
higher visual fidelity, obviously.
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On Thu, 2 Jul 2026 21:25:39 -0000 (UTC), ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) said
this thing:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thu, 2 Jul 2026 00:03:51 -0000 (UTC), ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) said
this thing:

July already? USA is almost 250 yrs. old! :O Um, I have been playing
mostly the same games, but I did play MechWarrior 5 game's free weekend
on Steam. It's not bad, but it got grindy.

Ooh, which one? MW5: Mercenaries (2023) or MW5:Clans (2024)?

Mercenaries.

Like I said, the better of the two, I think.

Its mission structure is remarkably similar to that of the 2023
"Battletech" game (a top-down action/strategy title in the same
universe). It probably didn't help that I played "MW5: Mercenaries"
shortly after the "Battletech"; doing that really emphasised the
grindier aspects of both titles.

I still think "Mechwarrior 3" was the best of the franchise. I wish
they'd update that one with better visuals (and getting it to more
easily run on modern hardware) without touching any of the gameplay.
Nightdive Studios, are you listening?

I don't think I ever played #3 and #4. I did briefly play MW2 back in the 90s.

Ah, "Mechwarrior 2". It's vision of the Battletech universe had such wide-ranging effects on the franchise. And the hype for the game was incredible. The actual game wasn't quite able to live up to its
promise. But it still had its moments. It was one of the first games I
played with 3D acceleration (ooh, textured polygons!) and I bought my
Microsoft Sidewinder 3D joystick pretty much just to play that game.
And that music! I /still/ listen to it to this day (with its pounding
beat emulating the footsteps of 100-ton battle-robots, it makes for
great music to walk to ;-)


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On 7/1/2026 9:09 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

We're definitely in summer now. Normally this is a reason to rejoice
but recent years? The heat is just too oppressive! The house is cool
enough --barely-- but some days I really dread firing up the PC (and
all its monitors) because its thermal-output is just enough to tip the balance. Can't go outside, can't play computer games inside; what's a
person to do? ;-)

Thankfully I've got a fairly new AC unit, only 2 or 3 years old and it's
able to get COLD!

It hasn't gotten that hot here either, well the last 3 days it got to
around 90 in freedom units, but it's still been cool in the mornings.

Which brings me to my outdoor activities, which ammount to watering the
small pot of strawberries and tomatoes every day, and lots of yard work
or at least as much as I've been able.

With the cooler and wetter weather this year, unfortunately the plants
love it and my allergies are in full bloom, so I wish I didn't have to
do anything outdoors.

What have YOU been playing... IN JUNE 2026?

What have I been playing? I quit playing DS3 around the 20th, going back
to reading, Katalipsis a story about a lesbian squid girl and her harem
(it's much better than that sounds.) I just started Dungeon Crawl Carl
which 3 of my friends read and loved, I'm not terribly impressed
*shrug*. There's been at least one fully belly laugh per book though,
and I get the references people make to it now, so two wins.

I don't remember beyond that, but let's look at the all the launchers... Steam: Weaponized (Demo,) hmm, nothing on GOG , and I can't tell on
Epic, but I think I played Warhammer 40k Speed Freeks, and
KinnikuNeko:Super Muscle Cat.

So TL;DR:
***** Dark Souls 3
** Warhammer 40k: Speed Freeks
* KinnikuNeko:Super Muscle Cat
** Weaponized (Demo)

/Verbose mode:

***** Dark Souls 3
Well I finished the game, then went on to the DLCs. I crushed sister
friede, which took me 100+ tries last time, but was either first or
second time this time. Of course I learned how to fight her last time,
and I had summons this time. I crushed Demon Prince first or second
try. Then came Midir, I fought him and died once and said "Meh, I don't
feel like fighting him again" and gave up on the DLCs, as all I had left
was Gael and Midir, and there wasn't anything else to do while waiting
around to be summoned.

I did do a lot of aiding people during that time, which I discovered why
I wasn't able to summon or be summoned until late game was because I had
left a password on the last time I played. So many hours wasted waiting
for multiplayer when I could only get people who had the same password. Amazingly I did get one person at pontiff. I'd found I'd set the
password to 123, so common enough.

** Warhammer 40k: Speed Freeks
It's a fighting/'race' game. Fun, but ultimately shallow. While you
can race, it's much more fun and probably as or more profitable toward
winning to fight. Sort of like a very limited mario cart only everyone
has weapons all the time, and there aren't any power ups except those
you get after the races, even then I'm not sure there's any power ups,
just different powers and cars you can earn to swap out of. It's a
fully multiplayer game but there's not enough people playing, there's
only one game going in each region, which I found connection to takes
too long (I waited 10 minutes before giving up.) but you can (after
much fiddling around) play solo against bots.

* KinnikuNeko:Super Muscle Cat
It's a semi-typical platformer, only you're a muscle cat/cat. It
probably deserves more than 1 star, but that's my opinion on it.

** Weaponized (Demo)
A sort of asteroids clone, only a lot more sophisticated, and you can
bounce off the asteroids. You get a health bar, and fight lots of
aliens, and get upgrades. Somewhat fun.
--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'
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On 7/1/2026 4:55 PM, rms wrote:

Alone in the Dark (2024)
  just ticked all the boxes.  Exploring a haunted mansion, with simple but visceral combat, straightforward puzzles, great atmosphere --
provided by very decent graphics and enveloping sound environment, drew
me in quickly. The highlight though was having top-tier voice-acting, speaking well-written and witty lines:  The game is fully voiced throughout, including every note that you pick up, all spoken with understanding and proper pacing.  I am so pleased with the production values in this game.  You also get two parallel campaigns to play, one
each with the detective and his client, in their search for a mysterious uncle inexplicably gone missing, each with unique spoken lines and environments, and I enjoyed playing both, so as to enable and see all
five separate endings.  Very satisfying.

Oh this reminds me, I watched Memoria do a full play through of Silent
Hill F. It almost made me want to play it, but weapon degradation, and
one particularly obnoxious puzzle that I still don't understand how it
was solved (beyond random guesswork) even after watching it, that also
results in fighting things every time you get it wrong (which she did
10-15 times) which results in weapon degradation, I decided I'd rather
just watch her play the rest of it.

It's the first time I've enjoyed watching someone else play a game and
didn't watch just for 'research'. (Barring people just playing things
for goofy reasons.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikt28qUCpVw

(warning 2&1/2 hours long, and there's 7 episodes.)
--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'
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On 7/1/2026 6:30 PM, rms wrote:

It's not the first game with a
robust water-simulation ("Hydrophobia" beat "Drain Sim"  by 15 years!)

  I enjoyed Hydrophobia, what they finished anyway.  Still has one of
the neatest UI elements I've seen in a game

* Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered

  Bummer it's a time waster.  I got S-M Miles Morales with my PS5, does that have identical gameplay?

Yes, though I enjoyed Miles Morales much more. Perhaps because I played
it first. MSM is a little clunkier though, but it's pretty much the
same game.
--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'
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