Hailing Frequencies Open – 3/30/17 – Stellar Cartography

Hey everyone, happy Thursday! The weekend is almost here, Huzzah!!!! That means two more videos for this week’s game of the week, Battle for Orion 2. As you may recall from the last entry, I was horribly demoralized after getting whomped in the campaign. This was due to the AI’s ability to build defensive turrets, wherein I lacked said capabilities, which I thought was ASTOUNDINGLY unfair. Well, lo and behold, the game got an update THIS VERY DAY, which includes:

WHICH ARE THE EXACT MISSIONS I HAD ISSUES WITH! Well done, developer, now I can move on with the campaign, but on my own time, because for today’s video, I show off the map editor, which is actually really great. With just a few clicks you can create  map with multiple, varied systems connected in any which way you choose. It was really easy to use, and I was playing my own map — and getting stomped by the game’s A.I. AGAIN, man it’s good — within moments. Great stuff.

After I was done with last night’s videos, I played a couple of things. First was 1.5 levels in Turok, because I wanna finish the campaign before moving onto the second game. This is my first ever Turok game, and I am loving it. VERY fast-paced and visceral, and a ton of fun. I say 1.5 levels because I got killed halfway into the second level I was playing and decided to move onto something else.

That something else was more Lord of the Rings Online. I was in an area I’d never visited before helping Tom Bombadil. Somehow I’d gotten teleported to the overall area (Bree) for a festival and couldn’t find the fast travel way back to where I originally was, so I decided to do some book quests, which were fun, but didn’t move the needle on advancing my Elven hunter to level 31. I therefore found a way (using these magical in-game coins you can buy) to teleport myself back to my original area in North Downs. Yay! I polished off a few more quests and got THIS close to dinging the next level before it got late enough to get ready for bed. Such a fun game.

Tonight we’re returning to PULSAR: Lost Colony, and I cannot wait. We always have a great time with this game, and tonight should be no different. Bestie of the show/site/discord channel/community Spaz has been working hard to upgrade the ship we’ll be using, so we’ll be having a lot of fun system hopping and getting into trouble. :)

This weekend, since it’s hitting 1.0 tomorrow, I’ll be playing Goatee Games’ follow up the really fun Viceroy, the grand space empire and economic game, After the Empire. I’ve only toyed with After the Empire a little bit back when it hit beta, and then let it simmer until now, basically. I can’t wait to dive in because it looks pretty incredible. I’ve been watching this dev playthrough and getting very excited! Hopefully, if I have time, I’ll also be able to dabble in Starfighter Origins as well for a video.

Since we’re having a movie day party on Saturday (theme? Cornetto Trilogy), my gaming time will be pretty limited, but if I do get any gaming time for myself, I hope to dive into Guns of Icarus Alliance, The Crew (since I just got Calling All Units on sale) and Titanfall 2 (which is also on sale, FYI) for their free weekend. If I have time, of course. Regardless, it looks to be a great weekend of gaming.

In newsiness stuff, some other games got updates besides Battle of Orion 2. Holy Potatoes! We’re in Space!? got a new casual mode and an UNLOCKABLE CAT PILOT! I must try to unlock that cat pilot. Destination Ares (which I still need to get) got a patch that adds cloud saving and achievements as well! Finally, over on the Stellaris forums, they’ve posted Banks patch notes, which are massive.

In more traditional newsiness, over on the CIC, they have a fascinating article on Privateer 2 ships and their designations. The ships might’ve been the only thing I LIKED about Privateer 2…

That should do it for today folks! Thanks for reading!