Tachyon: The Fringe
Old space combat sim (97-99-ish), voiced by Bruce Campbell, on steam for >$10. It’s entertaining. There’s the possibility of multiplayer if someone wants to set up a server. I don’t think Novalogic has any operating servers any more.
Nope. Gank in EVE means using a low cost, high DPS ship to destroy a much more expensive (and unsuspecting) ship in high security space before the cops can respond. Usually you'd have a friend nearby to collect the loot after the cops kill you.
I just bought Fallout 4. I'm liking it so far, even though when the Minutemen gave me that suit of power armor, I ended up going kinda Rambo with the minigun and wasted all the ammo without even killing all the Raiders. So then I had to fight a Deathclaw with a broken suit of power armor and a pipe pistol and a couple cocktails...
Just took up DCS Digital Combat Simulator to give me some advanced combat aircraft flying and dogfighting fun and am starting with the study-level simulation of the Northrop F-5E Tiger II fighter from the 70's-80's. Literally a military style study level simulation, 300 page manual, can be flown using real world checklists and manual, a very impressive package.
It is a fantastic model, very well done with great systems, an excellent flight model and the airframe visual model is outstanding. I like my sims to be immersive so TrackIR 5 and buidling up a true HOTAS setup for this one that I may transition back into SC.
I must say though that the level of detail and integration that the DCS and FSX aircraft and systems demonstrate does make our ships in SC seem a bit oversimplified/over-automated by comparison, but then again it is a full-on open-sandbox universe set 800 years in the tuture....
So for me it is SC, Flight Simulator X Acceleration and now DCS.
I know, you only bounce off the sun if you try and fly into it. The last corp/alliance I was in some of the miners started playing around with bumping mining ships and trying to find what ship/fit would bump a ship the farthest. They got some ships to go pretty far with something like a battleship with microwarp drive.
However, Jack Northrop's boys thought of that and the chute will only deploy with weight on all three gear, it works great for those 'slightly' overspeed landings.
This thing is a ton of fun to fly but for a simple (relatively speaking) fighter, it is actually pretty complex to master. I have about 2 hours into it and can start it, takeoff, fly and land, have done a couple solo/offline tutorials on gun and missile engagements, but still have a steep learning curve before I take it online and into the harsh world.
DCS is a pretty rich environment though, there are full-on mission packages for teaching Basic Foghter Maneuvers (BFM) and Air Comnat Maneuvering (ACM) - I am really digging it.
Glorious 30-40fps. Drops to about 20 sometimes (Levski I'm looking at you) but mostly it runs relatively great.
And very stable. Not a single crash so far, even flying a Reclaimer with a buddy. That was fun, we took the P.I mission, found some poor saps in Avengers at the station, so I turned on the salvage floodlights and parked the ship right next to the gap in the station.
Needless to say, when the occupants of the station came out, they had a rather nice surprise.
So, as many have been telling me to just take a step back from SC and calm the F down (rightly so), I started playing some of my summer sale purchases. Got AC:Origins, Sniper Elite 4, and Assetto Corsa.
Played about 10 mins of SE4, tried the shooting range, looks okay so far.
I found out the Testie way that I need to get my steering wheel out of it's box to stand a chance at Assetto Corsa :D
That poor Porsche got wrecked hard...
I couldn't even see the rest of thw grid during my first tutorial race, they got soo far ahead. Then I found the Ai difficulty slider and pulled it back from the deffault 95%!!! to around 50%, and suddenly I was doing much better! I could see the second to last car crossing the finishing line in front of me when I crossed it myself! Progress! :D
But even the crashing with the xbox controller felt sooo much better than all the crap we were getting in the veins of "driving sims" lately. It seems like this is a properly oldschool non-arcadey driving sim, and I love it! Don't get me wrong, I still play Forza number XY from time to time and like it for what it is, but this is something that feels different, and better for it.
It reminds me of Sports Car GT from 1999, one of the worst looking but best "feeling" racing games ever made!
(in which you could set the race duration to a full 24 hours! or even more if you were really really crazy. I did a 24 hour one, it was awesome. Can't remember if I won or came in the middle of the pack. You could let the AI take over for as long as you wanted, so I did sleep though. Mommy wouldn't let me sit at the PC for 24 hours straight :D Thank the gawds for that, I probably wouldn't be here if I did... )
TLDR: great true oldschool racing-actual-sim, would crash again! 10/10
I havent played any Assassins Creeds since Black Flag, and I only played that for the pirate captain shippy parts really. I just got bored of the generic Ubisoft sandbox. But my gaaawd, is Origins a looker!
The combat is kinda worse than ever in a lot of ways, the hack-and-slash aiming for a souls-vibe mixed with the generic leveling system of MMORPG-s just doesn't really work, and the story is as mediocre as always, but it Looks sooooo freakin amaaaziiiing!!
I don't even care about progression, I just love the whole vibe of ancient egyptian stuff, and this is perfect for that!
Finally we seem to be out of the "drab shooter" era, and games are getting colored again! Vibrant beautiful colors everyhwere, the very best looking water I have ever seen in any game, huge buildings to climb, and lots of variety all around! It's just relaxing to walk around, and take it all in! Sounds are okay, music is awesome when it kicks in! It has a great atmosphere despite it's flawed combat and progression system.
I highly reccommennd it, even more so now that you can get the educational/relax-mode Discovery Tour version for a lot less!
ps.: already found a Chokobo camel, but still looking for the Stargate :D
TLDR: if you love ancient Egypt, get the Discovery Tour version. If you are into AC as well, get the full game, it pretty decent!
My third recommendation is for when you want to play something, but not really want to pay attention! Ya know, when you are kinda watching a half decent TV show or just want to listen to stuff and do something with your hands as well, and your genitals are just too chafed already. Car Mechanic Sim 2018 is great for this kinda gameplay!
The cars and their mechanical parts and problems finally resemble real world stuff that is recognizable, and the way to diagnose/repair/replace things is logical enough that you won't have trouble memorizing it.
The descriptions of the issues are realistic as well, as in "i dunno whats srong with it, it just got loud when i pushed the pedal and heard small noise. I never even hit that small bump I swear!" and then you see both bumbers torn off and all of the exhaust system is missing.The descriptions for "campaign mission" repairs are even better, especially the ones that come back for more repairs later.
The level of detail is, I think, just right for the average car guy, who doesn't have the chance to actually wrench on his (or her, or non-of-the-above) car, but imagined he could do it.
There is progression, and while it is kinda slow, it will pick up the pace once you get some unlocks, like increased wrenching speed, a tablet to order parts without going back to the PC (this saves a huge amount of time) and later even your own paintbooth! You can also unlock junkyards where you can buy junked cars to restore along with lots of junk parts you can try to repair. Getting a junk car and restoring it is basically the "dream" goal of car mechanics, at least as far as I'm told. It's an important incentive to play more: get a junker, repair customer car, get paid, restore junker, sell at auction, profit! Do it all over again, until you don't need to fix customer cars anymore!
Be warned though, if you know literally nothing about cars and its parts, you might end up more frustrated then relaxed! There isn't any in-depth tutorial, just some very very basic "how to control things" stuff, and then you are on your own to figure out where to find and replace the parts on the car! You get a few cars with exact part problems listed first, but then all bets are off, you will have to start finding the source of the problems as well!
TLDR.: if you are into cars at all or have been to a repair shop and found it interesting, or like clicking away the hours while you go through your netflix backlog, I'd recommend giving this one a try!