Here We Go… – Gaming Affirmation for 9/16/19

Daily Gaming Thoughts

Hey friends, welcome to what I hope is a new daily thing here at Space Game Junkie. I always want to write more, but I’m never sure WHAT to write about. The daily digests were a fine idea when I came up with them, but truthfully they’ve become a bit much in this new era wherein I’m trying to do so much more for SGJ every day. Therefore, we’ll be doing news digests on Wednesdays, and then video recaps on Fridays from now on.

What I hope this will be is a daily space to talk about my love of gaming, what I’m playing of late and so on. It’s gonna be a stream-of-consciousness thing, not just about space games but about all games, wherein I’ll talk about what’s on my mind, what I’m excited about and so on. I hope you find it enjoyable and uplifting, because I’m gonna try to stay positive at least most of the time.

So right now my focus is on EF2000. It’s my favorite flight sim ever, and recently I got it to work on Windows 10 (this tweet has the links you need to get it working, if you’re curious). Because I can now play and stream it — and because I’ve not played it in at least a decade — I’ve dived into its documentation. Basically these beautiful things:

I’m about a third of the way through the manual, and the more I read the more excited I get to revisit this amazing sim. EF2000, I feel, is the pinnacle of a balance between a pilot sim, an immersive world to fly in, and a realistic, but still fun, flight sim. What I mean by this is that, unlike the sims of today, it’s more about being a pilot in a war situation, rather than knowing how to spend half an hour staring the damned plane in the first place.

The strategy guide is one of my prized possessions, as they were rare and expensive when they were being made, and could only be bought in the UK. That and the guides for Skyrim, Master of Magic, Master of Orion and TIE Fighter are my absolute favorites. I do so miss a good printed strategy guide.

I have to admit I’m a tad sad at playing Strike Commander tomorrow instead of EF2000. While I do need more time practicing in EF2000, Strike Commander is never a game I’ve really liked. It felt like a Wing Commander wanna-be, just with F-16s, and the mercenary element never felt compelling. I have a feeling this was because Privateer was so amazing that Strike Commander felt like an also-ran, rather than a good game in its own right. I hope I’ll enjoy the stream tomorrow, but truthfully I’ll be thinking of EF2000 while I play it.

What I’ve Been Playing

• EF2000 – As mentioned, I’ve been toying with just some of the basic dogfight missions to get a feel for it. It’s so good y’all. SO GOOD.
• CrossCode – Got this yesterday based on some friend’s reviews and the demo. It’s SO GOOD. I’m sucking at the puzzle parts, but I’ve never been great at puzzles. The ARPG combat is TOP NOTCH though.

So hey, not bad for a stream of consciousness thing. ;) I hope you enjoyed this first entry, and I thank you for reading it.