Moist Monday – Daily Dispatch for 1/14/19

Opening/Random Thoughts

Hey friends, welcome to Monday! If you’re wondering about the title of today’s dispatch, it’s because it’s actually RAINING IN LOS ANGELES! EEEEE! This means driving anywhere is terrrrrrible, because folks either don’t know how to drive in the rain, or forget since the last time. Anyway, there’s a lot to talk about today, so let’s dive in.

Today’s Video(s)

So this game called Space Tycoon came out a little bit ago, and it’s not in early access, so of course, I have to review it. As you’ll see in the video, I’ve no idea what’s going on. Apparently, you’re in charge of a space station and its fleet, and you have twenty years, in game, to conquer the space around you. Through a mix of hands-off combat, resource management, and wacky mini-games, you gather resources to build and fleet and take over stuff. I think. The tutorial is a mess, the dialogue is SO WEIRD and the gameplay itself is soul-crushing. Seriously, when I was done with this game, I stared off into space for thirty minutes, wondering where my joy disappeared to.

Today’s News

• UFO Simulator Control Master just dropped on Steam today. It…certainly is a thing…
• Quantum Covenant is an apparent third-person space fighter game launching later this month.
• Hades’ Star is apparently a mobile port of a popular space combat and conquest game that’s coming to Steam next month.
• Battlestar Galactica Deadlock is looking for beta testers for their next…thing. Head here to sign up.
• Shortest Trip to Earth has a Many Good Things update with a massive amount of additions and updates to the game.
• Alliance of the Sacred Suns plans to launch 0.7 this week, and their blog has been updated with a look at trade.
• Stellar Tactics has a new progress update showing off new ships in the game, and much more.
• Prosperous Universe has a new dev log entry talking balancing and more.
• Space Impossible has posted a state of the game update with proposed 2019 milestones.
• Astrohazard Solutions Ltd. will be going free as of 2/1/19.
• Empyrion has launched its experimental 9.2 patch which has a loooot of fixes and changes.
• EVE Online will be fixing its desync warping issue in its January Release, apparently.
• Flatspace IIk got its first patch in ages, which includes an engine upgrade for better performance and plenty more.
• Hypergate got a pretty extensive update with better resolution support, AI improvements and more!
• Gaia Beyond has an update with weapon upgrades, target prediction and a whole lot of fixes.
• Star Traders: Frontiers has a massive update which adds military and industry-specific faction bonuses, among other things.
• Diaspora Mass Exodus has a patch planned for this coming weekend that improves game speed and performance.
• Istrolid has a new patch with many balance changes.
• Zero Sum Future has its first patch which fixes a lot of apparent issues.
• Angels Fall First got a hotfix, as they’re calling it, with dozens of little fixes.
• Heat Signature got its first patch in a while, which fixes a bunch of little issues.
• Fleet Star V has a teensy little patch with just a few fixes.
• Reentry got a small update which fixes the SPS engine on the Apollo.

Today’s Deal(s)

• Steam’s Weeklong Deals have refreshed, and one of the best deals is the fantastic BossConstructor at its lowest historical price.
• GamersGate has everything Starpoint Gemini on sale right now.

What I’ve Been Playing

• Assassin’s Creed: Origins – Yup, eleven hours in now, which is a lot for me, and I’m still having a blast. Sometimes I won’t even follow a quest, I’ll just look at the map, go “what’s that?” and run off in that direction. I’ve had a lot of fun discovering places I’ve not supposed to be, sneaking and assassinating all of its inhabitants, then taking the treasure they were protecting. SO FUN. I might actually…you know…finish this one, you guys.
• Synthetik – Some chatter on Quarter to Three got me to return to this. I tried it in early access and thought it wasn’t great, but now? Holy cats this thing is fun. I’ve only tried a couple of the many builds you can start with — primarily the sniper — and it is just so fun. The rhythm of shooting, ejecting a cartridge then reloading in just the right way to get a little ammo boost is so fun, and the shooting itself is so satisfying.
• Hellion – Someone asked me how this was coming along, so I gave it a shot. It looks great, but its controls are annoying I feel the sake of being “challenging.” I only played maybe twenty minutes before uninstalling.
• Celestial Command – Someone asked me to try this out too, and while it has potential, there’s not really a there there for me to be really engaged with it.

Told ya there was a lot to cover. :) Have a lovely day y’all, and we’ll catch up again soon!