Back in the Saddle, Again – Hailing Frequencies for 8/21/17

Hey friends, welcome to Monday! I missed y’all, but am so happy to be back after my wedding and vacation. To keep things short, everything went splendidly and we had a wonderful time, lots of love, and a boatload of help and support. Thanks to everyone around here to passed their good wishes also! that was super awesome. :) It was a very busy couple of weeks, but thankfully I got a bit of gaming in. Much of it was Lord of the Rings Online, as I barely had the mental capacity for anything else, but I was also able to finally return to my beloved LOGistICAL as well. I’d stopped playing because I just didn’t have the brainspace to PLAN anything before the wedding, but now I feel I can handle it again, so yay!

I also spent time with the game that’ll cover our first video of the day, Helium Rain. This is a space trading sim that has a wonderful interface, streamlined gameplay and an extensive tutorial. I’m still in the midst of the tutorial actually (working on starting my first trade fleet), but overall I’m having a blast. Unlike the X games — wherein I feel like I’m flying around in an office, essentially — here I actually feel like an independent contractor who happens to own their own ship. I can’t fully explain the differences, really, but this just feels much more my speed, honestly.

I also spent time with this week’s game of the week, Novalogic’s classic Tachyon: The Fringe. I’ve not played it much since it came out seventeen years ago, so I’d forgotten pretty much everything. While I recalled Bruce Campbell’s amazing voice acting, of course, I’d forgotten how much fun it is to fly. Say what you want about Novalogic, they make fun, FUN games. In this first video, I take us through some training missions and then through the first campaign mission of the game itself. It’s a great time.

I was having a great time until the oddest thing began to happen. The game supports force feedback, so of course, I initially turned it on. Microsoft’s Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 stick has a small hole at the base of the stick with engages the stick when held, so the stick is loose when not in use, but mechanically centers and engages force feedback when that hole is covered. Well, whenever I’d cover the hole, the thing would vibrate like a goddamned lawnmower. Check it out:

SUPER FRUSTRATING. I basically had to do the last two entries flying with a mouse, which was really awkward. Didn’t detract from the fun though, it’ll just take a bit of getting used to. I’m having so much fun I’ve decided to continue the game/series until it’s over, rather than just do one week, so stay tuned for more Tachyon videos in the weeks to come along with regular game of the week coverage. :)

Now, as news goes, there were over 100 items in my Pocket list that I saved over the weeks, but I looked at that list and my brain just went “NO.” So rather than try to cover all that, I’ll just give ya what I feel are the few big highlights:

• 3030 Deathwar Redux will be leaving early access next month! Yay!
• Stellaris will be getting a “Synthetic Dawn” story pack “later this year”.
• NEXT JUMP: Shmup Tactics is getting a massive (and free) content update next month called “Red Legionaries” that looks awesome.
• Space Pirates and Zombies 2 added professional voice acting to the game, and looks to be really close to release!

That’s really it. No deals because Steam’s weeklongs are down, so we’ll just end it there! I’m so glad to be back with you guys, and thank you again for your patience during our hiatus. Have a great day!