Hello everyone,
It’s been a while again since posting – must get back in the habit of posting more regularly. I keep saying that don’t I :-). Things have been occurring since the last post. Bit of healing maybe, bit of hanging in there until we all get a chance to relax over Xmas. It does feel a bit like we’re getting a little wrung out lately. I’ve definitely been feeling that on this end and a good number of the people I interact with seem like it’s sinking in on them as well. Perhaps it’s plague related stuff … we have fatigue over being cautious mixed in with disbelief at people just forgetting that it’s still a thing.
Oh wait – forgot something … Thumbnail pic !
Game wise, I feel like I’m between games at the moment. Sometimes, I’ll look at the games list and think I want to play some of them … but I don’t want to put the mental effort into learning them. Car Mechanic Simulator is cool and cathartic but I’m not sure how long I’ll continue with it. I have enjoyed my time in there though.
The mods are fun though. I think one thing I’d like to try is another driving simulator type game. You can drive the cars in Car Mechanic Simulator around the track but the driving model is poor* and the driving is limited to a single race track, a drag strip and a test track.
*Or the Jaguar E-Type might have been undriveable because it was fitted with upgraded everything giving it way more power at the rear wheels than it could handle :-D.
I’ve been looking at the Truck Simulator games. I actually own the base American Truck Simulator, courtesy of Humble Bundle way back. Never played it. One thing I like in games is progression, where you can build up your character as you go or build up your empire … or build a fleet of starships. Or trucks. With the entrance of Thunderdwagon 2 :
This is the ship that completes the fleet in Elite for me … I own them all now and have used them for a genuine purpose, even if that purpose was swiftly cut short when the gameplay loop involved got boring or the ship proved inadequate for the job. In this case, the ship was built to dash in to damaged burning space stations and pull as many people out as possible. Hence the meme of the ship resembling a ship you may recognise … That gameplay loop is deeply unsatisfying though (and doesn’t pay much), so I’m back to mining again.
But apart from a Fleet Carrier, that is the end of that gameplay objective for me in Elite, unless I reset the save again and start afresh.
Other stuff – I mentioned the Cricket T20 World Cup … turned out I didn’t actually watch the final there. The wrong teams got to the final and the team that won it definitely did not deserve to. They were poor throughout, including getting murdered by England in the early stages. Perhaps there’s a bit of sour grapes there, because England got knocked out in the semi final due to a statistic I’ll get to. Mind you, England started strong and I think they were running out of steam towards the end with a few injuries taking key players out of the tournament.
Statistic ? The toss was key to the tournament … mostly because at the halfway point in the later games, the dew would come up and soak the ball making it an uneven contest. You want to have a chance at being surprised by the result … I had a sinking feeling for England’s semi because New Zealand won the toss and bowled first. Same happened for Pakistan’s game and the toss determined the order for the final too. All 3 games went with the toss. 30 games out of 45 were won by the team who won the toss. In Dubai, 12 out of 13 games were won by the team batting second with conditions in their favour.
That’s not something that makes for a tournament I’m interested in watching. The better side should win, not the side that was lucky with the coin toss at the start of the game.
Cricket’s another sport that has trouble actually, especially in England and Wales. At the moment, that’s a very well publicised case of racism at one county but the stories are coming out at the other counties as well.
I’ll make one thing clear there – I love cricket. I love to see people enjoying cricket. It doesn’t matter who they are, the colour of their skin, their ethnicity or the religion they follow. I just want to see people enjoying playing that game I love. And it turns out that too many people are turning away from playing the game due to the attitudes of those already there. That kind of attitude takes a lot to root out. It has an insidious approach as well. When I was learning the game myself, my idol was a fella called Devon Malcolm.
He was a tall, beefy fast bowler of West Indian descent. Couldn’t bat, bowled really fast (if a bit erratic). Wore glasses too for a while. I wanted to bowl like him. And he was one of a long line of players following people like Philip Defreitas, Gladstone Small, Syd Laurence, Chris Lewis, Alex Tudor and a bunch of others who’s names aren’t coming to memory right now. (I had a quiet migraine yesterday – no real headache but definite brain fog – not quite right yet)
When I saw Yorkshire playing at the start of the last season, they were all white men. And I knew back then that there was a problem. They’re based out of Leeds, with that area being a heavily BAME populated area. Even by averages, there should have been at least one BAME player in the team. And yet there were none. I think we know why now, with Yorkshire being the centre of the racism scandal hitting the English game at the moment.
I hope it sorts out. It needs to. I’m not that bothered about it making England a better side by having these guys to choose from, I just want to see more people enjoying playing the game. Oh and the more great players to see, the better the games are. I want to be guessing about the results all the way to the end, not see “Team A won the toss and bowl” and know the result from there.
I think I needed to get that particular rant out for a while. It’s not just colour though. It’s about sexuality and religion as well. I am in that privileged position of being a white straight guy. I don’t like it. It means that others are being dismissed because they’re different. Our differences make us stronger. They make us interesting. The most interesting character I saw on the series Another Life was Zayn.
The most fun character on the new Cowboy Bebop was Faye Valentine. I think the actress had a lot of fun bringing that character to life. I’d thoroughly recommend giving that show a look by the way and then watch the anime as well. It’s a quirky silly daft show set in space with a definite trend of smooth jazz style running through it.
Oh and it’s totally polarised the opinions about it as well, which amuses me.
Summary and other stuff :
Lego Space Shuttle is complete ! Need to arrange taking some decent pictures of it. It’s a chunky unit, big enough to take 5 pocket dragons in the back.
Cowboy Bebop is silly stylish fun, go watch it. Another Life is another one definitely worth watching. Paramount need a kick up the backside for taking ST Discovery off air days before it was to be released.
Internet spaceships good … disappointing implementation bad.
Racism – ugh.
Boats – yay. I’ve been watching a channel called Aquaholic. It’s run by a guy who takes a GoPro camera on to boats and does tours for us. They’re pretty special now, although we are talking multi million pound yachts here. It may be reawakening the thoughts about living on a Dutch Barge. Wonder if you could make those properly seaworthy ? One thing needed there is a radar and those go on the roof. That conflicts with barges needing to be able to fit into tunnels and under bridges.
Stream watching is good. Currently got Fuzzyfreaks on the laptop and Fallenshogun on the desktop. They’re good people to listen to. May they be able to continue entertaining us for as long as they can.
Last one – new job happened. Same organisation, different part of it. I’m learning the new basics at the moment but it’s in an area that I’m already very familiar with. It’ll see me getting out and about more too, which is great. One reason for switching is the trips in April and May reminded me of something (that I can’t put here) and this new post gets me closer to those. There are other reasons too but those aren’t going to be written here. Let’s just say healing is required …
Games can be pretty good for the healing. Whether it’s bringing the cars back to life, or flitting into an alternate universe where you can go from port to port as a space trucker.
I like being a space trucker :-).
Stay safe everyone, be well.