Holy Cats – Weekly Dispatch for 2/15/19

Opening/Random Thoughts

Hey friends, and happy Friday! So sorry I didn’t write one of these sooner — I so, so don’t mean to make these weekly, but this week has been insane — but a lot has happened since the last one. I’ve nearly eighty pieces of news saved as I write this, plus I made three series of videos for this past week rather than one.

This past week also brought some worrisome news about my job. I still have one thankfully, for now, but the company is changing a lot, and I have to make some severe changes along with it. I got this job two weeks after starting Space Game Junkie back in 2011, so I plan to do all I can to stay here. I just hope I can actually DO it, you know? I don’t wanna go into more detail than that, but I still wanted to vent about it a bit because I love you folks and I know you’ll get it. ;)

Regardless of that, there’s so much to go over I’m starting to write this on Thursday so it can be released on Friday. I hope y’all had a lovely Valentine’s Day! ;) Now let’s get to it.

Today’s Video(s)

Sunless Skies came out of early access at the end of January, and it was worth the wait. The eventful exploration, the delicious dialogue, the meaningful choices and the wonderfully dark-yet-vibrant universe it all takes place in makes for a wonderfully compelling experience. I definitely can’t wait to see what more awaits me in this creepy-ass universe. ;)

Arc Savior is a really fun, fast and visceral third-person space combat game. The controls feel a lot like Freelancer, which is a bonus. The campaign here has an interesting layout. The first few missions take place ten years in the game’s past, then shifts to five years in the past. I’ll definitely keep playing this one to finish it, as it’s a ton of fun, and I wanna see how the campaign plays out.

Worbital is the follow up to the planetary-artillery game from a few years ago, Interplanetary. Basically your planet is an artillery platform for a variety of weapons, defense mechanisms and resource-generating platforms. The goal is, typically, to destroy your enemy’s planetary core, and this isn’t easy because the planets are always moving, and hitting the same spot repeatedly is impossible. This is even tougher due to the wicked AI in the game. Seriously, this game is great in single player, likely great in multiplayer too.

Rodina has been in early access for a long time, so I hadn’t realize it’d been basically five years since I last recorded anything about it, and SO MUCH has changed since then. There are now first-person shooter elements, xeno aliens with mines and bases (rather than just ships as in earlier builds), a grav bike space bike and a lot more. This game is just so fun and gorgeous, and I can’t wait to see where it goes.

The reason I revisited Rodina is because we welcomed back its developer onto the podcast this past week. Brendon Anthony was a really fun guest the first time, and this time was no different. This was a super fun show wherein we talked about the game a lot, sure, but wow did we have some fun tangents. This was a really fun show y’all.

This Week’s News

As you can imagine, there’s a ton of stuff to cover after my last digest, so we’ll keep it simple. Here goes!

Releases/Release News

• Stardrop (Blog Post)
• RoboBunnies In Space!
• Element: Space
• Sirius: Age of the Free Agents
• Dangerous Orbit
• Galactic Civilizations III: Retribution
• Apolune
• ASTRONEER

New Games Discovered

• 2100
• Ostranauts
• Double Star II
• Lunar Soil
• Exoplanet

Development Blogs/Updates

• Eons of War and another
• Interstellar Rift
• Hellion and another
• Undercrewed
• Landinar: Into the Void
• Star Explorers
• Sunless Skies
• Nova Drift
• EVE Online and another
• It’s Not A Moon
• Planetes
• Battlestar Galactica Deadlock
• XO
• Galactineers
• Worbital
• Star Trek Online
• Objects in Space

Major Patches/Updates

• Worbital
• Space Impossible
• Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II
• StarMade
• Interstellar Rift
• Sirius: Age of the Free Agents
• Beat Hazard 2
• Star Traders: Frontiers and another
• Avorion and another
• Objects in Space
• Stellar Tactics
• Sunless Skies
• Angels Fall First
• AI War 2
• Cosmoteer
• X4: Foundations
• Stellaris
• Hyperspace Delivery Service
• Galimulator
• Zero Sum Future

Minor Patches/Updates

• Sirius: Age of the Free Agents
• Worbital and another
• The Away Team
• Wayward Terran Frontier: Zero Falls
• ΔV: Rings of Saturn
• Allspace and another and one more and another geez and holy cats another one
• Helium Rain
• Astrela Starlight
• Arc Savior
• Rodina
• Star Trek Online
• Vendetta Online

Today’s Deal(s)

• None that I could find, sadly!

What I’ve Been Playing

• Crusader Kings II – Decided to take a leap back into this and not worry so much about understanding it, just rolling along with it, and I’m having a lot more fun. Sure there are periods of little nothing, but that’s life, right?
• Titanfall 2 – Still cruising through the amazing campaign. Got past the wonderful factory level, now kind of stuck on the level after that. I’ll get past it, but wow, what a ride.
• Wolfenstein: The Old Blood – Played this as a break from Titanfall 2. What a wonderful game. Sure, no wall-running or anything, but great gunplay and a fun story.
• Starsector – Since we’re having the dev on next week, I decided to dive back into this. Holy cats is this thing amazing. Like, the amount of stuff going on here is just super impressive.
• Superfighters Deluxe – Every now and then I load this up just to try and take another stab at the controls, which are just WONKY AS HELL. I think I’m getting a little better though.

Welp, that’s it. Thanks for reading through all this y’all folks, and have a lovely weekend!