One of the best early access projects and comfortably one of the best ever titles of the genre. It was great fun and value a few years back - I played a 1.0 beta game a couple months ago and it's full of improvements and refinements.

Happy anniversary! I didn't have an account back then but I caught up with Blues News and Planet Quake every time I logged on to the internet as a student back in the mid 90s. It's bonkers to keep going for so long.

Doctor Who might be making a splash (the reach of BBC's promotion is pretty big, and there's an extra stir this time round casting a women as the Doctor for the first time) - but I've tried watching recent episodes a couple of times, and didn't think much of it. I think that's because it's very mainstream, and I suspect aimed at younger people than me. The dialogue particularly struck me as bad in the pieces I caught previously, I remember getting caught up in the buzz for Peter Capaldi getting the role, and when I tuned in I remember distinctly thinking that he was way too good for this!

The best collection of overhaul mods I know of for XCOM 2 right now is the 'Better' set of mods by DerBK. It's very well designed and extends and rebalances all areas of the game, has new enemy variants and combat AI and so on. I'd recommend Llamachomp's steam collection to get the full set, together with the UI and QoL mods which are compatible. (Probably take out the voice pack mods which he just uses for goofiness when he streams.)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1503780399

I was going to recommend Linux too, it's awesome on a second computer if you don't need specific Windows applications. Ubuntu is the obvious choice but I've been extremely happy with Solus OS the past year.

I was fighting with Wine only this week, trying to get Eternal Card Game running on my shitty laptop with Solus OS. Thanks to Steam Play it Just Works for me now.

For what it's worth I recommend Eternal as a poor man's Hearthstone or Magic substitute. The free to play model is the fairest I've seen and you can absolutely build and progress playing solo and spending no money. You can play your custom decks in a solo arena mode, and after a couple of runs you have enough gold for the draft mode where you keep the cards you pull as well. I've had a blast the past few days.

I've caught about 10 hours of Wreckfest streams, the multiplayer is an huge bundle of straight up fun. The physics and collision engine is superb and probably would have passed as a simulator a few years ago. The single player and destruction derby modes work just fine but aren't really the best of the game.

The MP actually has quite good variety, from tracks that are mostly racing with a bit of barging, from figure 8s and looped tracks that are set up to facilitate as much destruction as possible. Vehicles shatter apart and the destruction is amazing. There are some whacky vehicles to throw in the mix so you can be a lawn mower trying not to get crushed by school busses and combine harvesters if you want. People are starting to kick out workshop mods as well so there should be variety from a while to come. If you fancy an arcade racer smash-em-up it's an instant recommend.

Bah, Posh was only ever good as a clothes hanger. Sporty was the hottest and the best singer. They had to put a crappy shell suit on her to be fair to the rest of the band!

Yeah this argument is especially unconvincing. Access to streaming is universal and genuinely equal opportunity. There's no decision maker holding down the females and making sure the males get more exposure and money. It's open to everyone, you can put yourself out there and if people like your entertainment enough they donate. Compared to more traditional sources of income there is very little infrastructure or organisation getting in the way, you have extremely undiluted exposure to the market.

I caught some of this being streamed last night, I think this might be a bit of a dud. I saw some mediocre environments, generic possession and stealth gameplay around a maze, some dark and smeary graphics, and some dodgy voice acting on a generic seductive demon woman with a terrible script.

Awesome post scheherazade. I think I basically agree with your perspective on all of that.

Oh, and it turns out Tencent are one of the main players developing China's Social Credit System: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System#Implementation

Here's the new share: https://app.companiesoffice.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/1887410/shareholdings

20% shared between 3 GGG guys now. It's been a while since I played this too but I always supported them as a homegrown success and PoE is still the game I played more than any other. A quick scan of the forum and subreddit shows pretty widespread concern (although the PoE community is famously jumpy!)

While I was playing they got repeat purchases out of me primarily based on goodwill and wanting to support the little guy trying to make the most fun game they could. I feel like that was part of the reason the fairly expensive cosmetics weren't seen as offensive by the fan base. It will be interesting to see whether people feel differently about that in the months to come.

Wizard of Legend is the latest indie roguelike on the conveyor belt that seems to have some promise and got a lot of YouTuber coverage this week as the new hotness. The combat's pretty fast and flashy, it may or may not have legs but does seem better than average. Personally I'd rather fire up Isaac if I ever get the itch, the recent booster tidied up the mess of Afterbirth+ quite a bit.

Mildly disappointed at moving away from the fantasy setting because Age of Wonders 3 was my favourite fantasy 4x and I hoped for more of the same. Quite a lot of AoW3 is shining through in this trailer as well, the strategic and tactical screens are pretty much the same as before.

The regions are divided up with one single named feature each by the looks of it. Slightly reminiscent of Endless Legend, so some kind of gameplay changes are in there by the looks of it. Seems like you explore / clear out / claim resources rather than colonise everything. Hopefully there is some personality, the first glance is a bit generic.

Mostly I hope they keep what was good about Age of Wonders 3 (high accessibility without throwing away the strategy, interesting unit abilities, an AI that does tactical combat pretty well.) Also hoping for improvements where the game was weak (water combat was an afterthought, and no diplomatic systems really existed other than friends and enemies.)

The chance to get painted items is doubled as well on crate openings and tradeups, so if you are sitting on keys, decryptors or surplus items, tonight's the last night to get max value any time soon.

This seems like the first step away from loot boxes, although I don't think they are disappearing as part of this revamp. Seems like a more predictable way to earn free items with game time, and some targeted, time limited things to buy for cash instead of buying keys to gamble or spend on the trade exchange. A compelling alternative to gambling seems like a healthy thing.

Young me wants to give an honourable mention Rage Against the Machine's Bullet in the Head / Know Your Enemy / Wake Up !

Hey who was it who recommended Solus OS last week? I owe you some thanks, I'm liking it a lot on my shitty laptop. I had some teething issues getting the onboard wifi to work but I got there thanks to the internet. It's leaner and a bit faster than Mint and I prefer the look as well. Best of all it has a proper driver for my Radeon A5 mobility so Slay the Spire actually plays as though the GPU is correctly driven now. Even though it's turn based it was practically unplayable due to unresponsive controls previously. Cheers!

Path of Exile Royale is more than a joke, it's a working Battle Royale mode and the best PvP the game has ever had. Rounds are fast and you have 100 players in a single giant instance with a closing circle in the usual way. There are some mobs to farm up that are actually dangerous, and the push for progress, items and skills is basically the PoE racing experience thrown on top. It's a blast from what I've seen and still running for the rest of the day.

Grim Dawn's definitely not perfect (the game engine frequently looks good but often shows its age, graphic and sound effects are really hit and miss, some skill are much less fun and interesting to use than others) but it's by far the most fun non-online "play at your own pace" ARPG to me.

And the expansion is really good. The new acts have excellent level design (although navigating in some of act 6 is a pain), and the game mechanics expanded across the board. New factions, components, augments, monster infrequents, farming spots, super bosses, and an entirely new end game itemisation because of a brand new block of Epic/Legendary/Set items from 85-100. I'm still playing regularly (at 832 hours apparently.)