Tag: computer games

Christmas soon

~ e.v. ~ 2 Comments

My mum keeps asking me what I want for Christmas. I’m really struggling to think of anything at all. I keep googling variants of “best gift ideas” and… I don’t know, I don’t think she’s going to buy me an iPhone or a £700 projector (????) and there’s only so many phone chargers and USB cables I really need in my life. The people who compile these lists are even less inspired than I am.

All I’ve really come up with is a miniature guitar amplifier, which seems like a better idea the more I think about it. I don’t play mine much since getting Monty because my setup is to plug into my PC and use a software amp simulator… but I don’t spend much non working time sat in front of my PC anymore, so the only time I really play is a few minutes here and there when I’m thinking (!). I think it’s a pretty good idea actually.

In nerd news:

First: I have decided to put Linux on my desktop PC. It is currently running Windows 10 and nagging me to upgrade to 11. I have 11 on my laptop. I can’t bring myself to install an operating system that puts adverts in my start menu. Especially when it costs over £100 for a license. I mean, wtf. So, Linux here I come. It’s been a while. I need to read up on the modern distributions but I’m thinking Manjaro at the moment.

Secondly: I have been a bit addicted to Vampire Survivors and Brotato on my Steam Deck. They are such simple games but so engaging. Vampire Survivors is interesting in the sense that it could reasonably be created by one person who has a strong grasp of programming, a weak grasp of art and a medium grasp of music… i.e me (actually I’m being unfair, the music is amazing).

So of course… I decided to make my own game. Yep. I have been playing around with Godot (game engine) and have been quite pleased with how quickly you can put things on screen. The problem I will have is the art side of it, but it’s all a learning experience. I have some vague ideas as to how to make it not just a Vampire Survivors clone, but we’ll see how it evolves.

Again…?

~ e.v. ~ 2 Comments

I woke up on Monday with a sore throat, and then as soon as I started eating breakfast my stomach announced it was upset too. Three days later and, yep, it’s definitely a virus of some kind. So far it’s not been too bad. My stomach is still a bit iffy but not terrible, and the sore throat has progressed to a bit of a cold but nothing much. Is it COVID? I don’t know, I don’t have any tests. The first time I had COVID it started with an upset stomach a few days before other symptoms appeared and the second time (in January) it started with a sore throat. So… maybe? Not that it makes any difference either way, except that hopefully since I had it relatively recently I’ve still got enough immunity that it won’t be too bad this time.

In computer game news, I finished Shadow of Mordor. I enjoyed it a lot and as it’s a long time since I last played a big budget computer game I was surprised by how polished it was. Maybe that’s just the standard now, but it I felt it was really well made. It also prompted me to start watching Rings of Power (the Amazon Lord of the Rings series), as the stories kind of overlap a little bit. Except that in the game Celebrimbor is a force to be reckoned with, whereas in the TV show he looks like a geography teacher.

I thought I’d have a break from Lord of the Rings before moving onto Shadow of War, the sequel. In the mean time I went with the Mad Max game. The Mad Max game is conceptually quite similar to Shadow Of Mordor (in terms of gameplay mechanics), but I’ve been underwhelmed by it. It feels like they made about 80% of the game really well but didn’t think about the final 20%. The writing is immature. It’s been a very long time since I saw Mad Max, so maybe this is in, but the first person you meet is called “Scrotus” and it doesn’t improve from then onwards. Almost everyone you meet is an angry psychopath who in the kind of lawless reality depicated would have been killed for being a total liability to themselves and everyone around them. Overall, though, the game is very polished but repetitive and not all that fun. Even just playing in short bursts on my Steam Deck I’m feeling bored by it. The driving feels nice, but wandering around on foot is dull.

I might try Subnautica next. People keep telling me that it’s amazing.

Coach

~ e.v. ~ 2 Comments

It’s interesting how the verbs ‘coach’ and ‘train’ in the context of sports both mean something similar, and, as nouns, they are both public transport vehicles. I wonder what’s going on there.

Anyway, the more interesting thing is that I now have a running coach! I thought I was making progress with my balance but then I had a series of very unbalanced runs and my knee starting feeling a bit funny again, so I was going to go to the physio… and then it occurred to me that what I really need is someone who’s going to watch me regularly and give me feedback on how I’m moving, which you don’t get in a physio’s office. Conveniently there happens to be a parkrun regular who’s a professional coach and I know someone who’s been to her group sessions who says she’s very hot on running form. I sent her an email explaining it all and asked if she’d be interested, and she is!

So I’m with her for three months, and I get a weekly one to one session, a weekly group running session and a weekly group strength/mobility class. I did the first group running session last week. It involved a lot of agility work which I’ve never really done before and then a few intervals. On Monday I had the first one to one, which consisted of her filming me at increasing paces so she can analyse it and see how I’m moving. Last night was the first strength session, which included a lot of running drills. On Friday she’s going to assess my strength and mobility in her gym and then she’ll come up with a plan…

In other news, I took advantage of the recent sale on Steam to load up my Steam Deck with games! Even though I’m going to have even less time to play them for the next three months…

I also got a bunch from Humble Bundle choice for £8.99. I now have a big backlog to work through. I’ve played a few minutes of Fallout 4 and had to laugh when I tried to explore the town instead of going to the fallout shelter (vault) and was prompted evaporated by a nuclear explosion. But, to my surprise, Middle-Earth Shadow Of Mordor has really grabbed me. It’s an action adventure thingy that’s really well made and works well on controllers, and I’m enjoying sword fighting orcs. I think the Steam Deck might be my favourite purchase of the last decade. Other games I nabbed were Lego Star Wars, Star Wars Squadrons, The Outer Worlds (big RPG, but mixed reviews), Factory Town (low expectations but might be fun) and Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate, which is possibly the stupidest concept I’ve seen for a game (in a good way).

Also in very unrelated news, this Huw Edwards thing is terrible! The Sun ran a story accusing an unnamed person of soliciting child pornography citing the victim’s mother, but included enough information that it was quickly discerned to be Huw Edwards. Then the “victim’s” lawyer released a statement saying it was nonsense, and now the police have said that there’s no evidence a crime was committed and won’t be taking it any further. Now Huw Edwards is in hospital because of the effect to his mental health. I hope that he sues the Sun out of existence, but it’s a poor reflection on the country in general that people actually exchange money for these newspapers.

Decking

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I am enjoying my Steam Deck, actually a lot more than I expected. I suppose I expected to think it was neat but not really know what to do with it. And that was so for a while, but then I installed Fallout New Vegas on it and it just clicked. It’s fun. I installed lots of mods to make it a more varied experience than when I last played it (10+ years ago) and I’m enjoying it, but it’s very hard now.

I hadn’t realised this but the Deck has a gyroscopic sensor in it, and you can configure it to act as a mouse movement. What that means is you can be in first person view, hold down the left button to activate it, then spin around and it rotates the camera as if your character is also spinning around. It’s a bit gimmicky but it impressed me. You can also use it for fine aiming. Aiming in general is done with the right touchpad, which you control with your thumb. I found it very hard to use initially but after some practice it feels a bit more natural. It’s nowhere near as easy as using a mouse though, which is one reason the game is so hard.

In totally unrelated news I need to fill out a tax return this year. I made a small amount of extra income last tax year and should legally declare it. …All I can say is I wonder how much tax intake HMRC loses to people who should be declaring side income but don’t want to deal with the hassle of it and the silly test of “we know what these numbers are, but we want to make sure you’re going to put them in right”. There should just be a field saying “I made a bit of extra money on top of all the stuff you already know about, let me just put the number in here and adjust my tax code for next year thanks”. It’s not like they are opposed to fiddling about with my tax code, they do it an average of twice per year for the last few years. I know because I’ve just gone through all the paperwork!

Ibuprofen day 3

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I’m getting pretty depressed about not being able to run. Or rather, not being willing to run. I was doing OK until this weekend, but then it just kind of hit me. I think that all the free time I have is a bit of a shock and I don’t know what to do with it, so I just mope and feel sorry for myself. That doesn’t help.

It’s been a week and a half since I last ran, which feels like an eternity. All I can really say is things feel better than they did two weeks ago, but not 100%.

I don’t know if it is necessary to wait for 100% before running again, and I don’t know if I will reach 100% without actual treatment. Probably I just need to be patient for a couple more weeks, but since this has been lingering for a few months now, is weeks a realistic timescale? I don’t know. The uncertainty is frustrating.

In an effort to distract myself I started trying to play computer games again, because browsing Reddit doesn’t really seem like a hobby. I find computer games don’t really engage me and I just get bored, except sometimes, one really does engage me and it sucks me in for weeks. I started a new Rimworld colony and it’s going pretty well. I built a few rooms, planted a few crops, built a wall around my crops to stop the elephants eating them, protected my cat from being attacked by a snake, and fended off two raids. My colonists are a bit depressed because their bedroom floors are made of soil, but they’ll be OK. When you crash-land on a new planet you have to lower your expectations a bit.