What a God Damned Week – Daily Dispatch for 12/14/18

Opening/Random Thoughts

Hello friends, and happy Friday! This has been a really weird freaking week for me, mostly due to fatigue. Tuesday morning we did a 6 AM podcast, and while I had a great time, it TOTALLY messed my sleep up. The next day, Nicole was up half the night, sick with some stomach bug, which then meant, of course, I was up much of the night as well. The resulting sick day I took on Wednesday was super weird as well, and I’m just now feeling like I’m recovering a bit from the weird sleep. This has also gotten in the way of gaming, dangit. It’s no fun to play games when you’re exhausted. I had my worst race ever in Forza Horizon 3 the other day, tenth place. I wasn’t upset because it was still super fun but GEEZ.

In a week from today, we start our holiday break, so I’ll have nearly two weeks off, and my god do I need it. I’ve just felt so…burnt out of late. Tired, cranky, you name it. Some downtime with sleep, video games and lots of movies and TV shows will be just the trick. Oh, and Christmas too, I suppose. ;)

Today’s Video(s)

The last two videos of my X4: Foundations series (episodes nine and ten) are mostly me just doing more missions. I love missions, and this game isn’t hurting for them at all. Overall, for all its warts, this is a great open space game. I still have a lot to learn about it, and it still needs to get better at teaching me, but overall, I’m having a great time with this thing, and will continue to do so for a while. If you’re on the fence about it, maybe wait until their big 2.0 patch comes out early next year, or maybe after an expansion or two. Rebirth was really great after a couple of expansions.

I was lucky enough to get into the beta for Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II. I liked the first game, but boy was it problematic. Too tough, with a clunky UI, and buggy as all get out, I still enjoyed my time with it despite these issues. The more I read about the sequel, the more excited I am about it, so much so I pre-ordered a copy, which I never do. The beta has a small prelude campaign that you have to finish before trying the three main campaigns (which are apparently dynamic, something I’m SUPER excited about). I only had time to do one mission of the prelude, but my GOD was it fun. The game seems smoother than the last one, with a better UI and even better graphics. I am just stoked about this.

Last night, Spaz and I — along with an Internet Rando — played some Space Beast Terror Fright. The game is as awesome as ever, though there’ve been so many changes some things were super confusing at first, like hiding scientists. Overall though, we had a bloody great time, and this game is coming along super nicely.

Today’s News

• Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion will be getting a new DLC on Monday called Minor Factions, and has a patch to go along with it.
• Space Impossible released alpha 16, which is a big update that improves AI and much more.
• Galaxy in Turmoil has posted its first development update in AGES, but it’s good they’re still working on the game.
• Interstellar Rift has a new development update talking about a new bridge for larger ships.
• Star Traders: Frontiers has a new, big update with new art, new bonuses and more.
• X4: Foundations has released the first beta of its big 1.50 patch, which already has issues of its own, so if you value your saves, be careful.
• The Away Team: Lost Exodus now apparently has a demo on its Steam page.
• No Man’s Sky has a new development update with a small, captive alien you can make.
• Interplanetary: Enhanced Edition got a small patch which fixes about half a dozen bugs.
• Beat Hazard 2 got a patch which adds procedural snakes!
• Galactic Civilizations III got a pretty hefty patch which adds faction personality traits and better AI.
• Shortest Trip to Earth got a pretty big patch called Sector Six which adds new content, better crew AI and more.
• Space Battle VR just dropped on Steam. Sadly it’s VR only so I might never play it.
• Star Explorers has a new beta patch with a backpack upgrade.
• Interstellar Prime will be having some sort of premiere stream on Mixer tomorrow.
• Lazarus has a new update focusing mostly on its backend performance as well as new drones.
• Vendetta Online has a fairly hefty update with all sorts of fixes.
• Starflight Remastered has some new Spemin!
• Space Bob vs. The Replicons — which I just got but have yet to play — got a tiny hotfix.

Today’s Deal(s)

• GOG is having its big Winter Sale. With free stuff as well!
• Fanatical has a great deal on a Galactic Civilizations III gold bundle with is awesome if you don’t own the game already.

What I’ve Been Playing

• Nova Drift – Got a key for this yesterday, so I gave it a whirl. Really like the upgrade mechanics, but the controls are a bit funky. Gonna play more though! Yay!

That’s it my friends! Have a lovely weekend, and I’ll see y’all next week!