LadyCrimson

You play the same map 100 times? Or is that full campaign so lost on 2 maps out of 100? I played Caesar 3's full campaigns (Peace and War) maybe 5-7 times but after that I would find myself repeating strategies too often. I did C4's campaign only 1.5 times, the klunky 3d graphics annoyed me a bit. Never finished Pharaoh campaign because the monument building took way too freaking long and wasn't my interest.

I don't mind if they have random stats that people can stare at, or maybe decides what AI jobs their random constantly born kids end up doing, but I don't want to take care of or command individuals in any fashion. If I wanted that I'd play The Sims. What I did miss with Banished was no map goals (Prosperity, Culture etc) to give you something to shoot for per map besides mega population numbers. Especially when almost all of these games end up with performance issues once you reach 500-2000 or whatever population sizes so you get blocked in that sense anyway, often long before a map is completely "filled". I think one of those games on my wishlist actually (currently) has a 2000 hard cap. I should just play Caesar3 or 4 again I suppose.

I looked at Against the Storm. I was a little interested until one user review mentioned the mission structure vs. more open city build map scenarios with a time type of pressure (a "Queen" gets mad/you lose, or something). I don't mind a progressive, escalating map goal difficulty campaign ala Caesar 3/Pharaoh that lets you take all the time you want and the only reason you might "lose" is because your city design wasn't well thought out enough (learning curve). but I don't want Age of Empires beat constant waves with peasants and hoes until you can research/insta create army units, either. Which would Against the Storm more resemble?

I've pretty much decided if it's Early Access (starting in an early Alpha phase), 4-5 years might be average. Assuming it doesn't end up in perpetual E-A for a decadeplus etc (stares at 7 Days). Sure, some finish in 3 years or less, but... If any of those city builder games end up released on GoG, I'll actually purchase them from there, since 1: I don't expect to use a controller and 2: at least I'd have a copy of the original version I might end up liking best, on disk. >.> I still feel that way about Banished. I liked one of the earlier initial releases better than the later patches and install that one. Edit: looks like at least some of them are E-A over on GoG, so I'd assume would also release there.

I enjoyed the first one for its combo of sorta-serious and cheese. Mostly the cheese. Looks like they've embraced the cheese now. So, yes, please.

Often the list is simply a finger-string reminder for anything I was even slightly intrigued by, during 3am browsing sessions. Every 3-6 months I relook and then delete most of those. I haven't researched all of them re: how "pure" sandbox-y they can potentially be (sandbox-y ala Banished, if you want zero combat aspects etc) Ostriv (gridless) Land of the Vikings (gridless, combat seems to be off-screen raiding, optional I think, not sure) Timberborn Foundation Kingdoms Reborn (some kind of card system for some advancement?, off screen raid, no active combat) (more city builder+RTS style) Going Medieval (Standard, Peaceful, Survival modes) Manor Lords (more conquering focus but has a no/low combat Prosperity mode)

When you have 23 items in your Steam Wishlist and 8 of them are Early Access city-builder/RTS type games, 2 are E-A farming/adventure games and 2 are not released yet (the rest are one that are waiting for sales/not sure about, like Ghostwire Tokyo). I used to not mind doing early access now and then, or at least if it'd been in E-A a couple years, but at this point I can't make myself hit the buy button anymore. I'd rather just wait and "judge" a final form. Like Farthest Frontiers, despite having food spoilage mechanic I wouldn't like, its dev is Crate Ent. so eventually I'd think it would be good. But also, it's Crate, that took 6+ years to finish Grim Dawn (8+ if you include the later DLC's). Nothing wrong with that, mind, but I have no desire to buy in super early this time. But I am happy there are so many city-builder/sim type "indie" games being worked on. In 3-6 years I'll have lots to choose from.

the problem I have with stuff like that is they're getting up in arms over a 2 minute trailer and because (i'd guess) in it some woman also declares - paraphrasing - "never mind what school says, she was black". Point being, they haven't even seen a single full episode. I saw nothing in that trailer that looked wildly "Afrocentric" (in terms of say costumes, sets) culturally, only that the actress ... is black. At least wait and watch it, to see if it badly disrespects actual culture/historical events.

Hubby and I are reaching either our 30th or 31st wedding anniversary. So 50 years married = 2042/2043. Hm. *ponders our poor habits* We might make it.

I agree with this and I think it's often so in many of these cases. Maybe not all of them, but a lot.

When some notes are stuck in your head and you try to remember what they're from, then finally do. Also, this uploader's videos are great (US) top hits memory lane trips (some decades he made two vids). The approx. percent of ones I recognize: --1950's, 40% (1955+ is where it became more common for me) --1960's, 85% --1970's, 90% --1980's, 99.9%

We could all just perm-dye ourselves the same, singular color at birth, then maybe people could stop having fits over color casting. ...as long as they're not doing stuff akin to actual blackface or adhesive taping eye corners to give actors slanting eyes etc, I don't really care. ...especially since, while I assume there will be the usual solemn narration of historical stuff, it's also a docu-drama. I would suspect there may be a lot of "artistic" interpretation re: much more than the uproar in question, if other similar series I've tried to watch (initially thinking they were actual documentaries, not docu-dramas) are any indication. eg, mostly an exercise in visual fantasy as an effort to cater to modern audience retention.

Yevadu (2014) via Netflix. Tollywood, action, vengeance, lots o' cheese I only watched this because of Ram Charan from RRR. The first bit of the film his chr. is a different actor, then there's an incident and he gets lots of plastic surgery and turns into Mr. Charan. The film is cheesetastic, with otp villains/dialogue, action, overly dramatic close ups/slo mo camera pans and music, some dance numbers because that's what they do, all of that. Even the occasional moment of slappy kung fu like fight noises. I wouldn't say I "loved it" and it might kill some brain cells, but I found it hilariously entertaining. Edit: actually I watched it a while ago but recently rewatched it and couldn't remember if I mentioned it before.

Dunno how tall you are, but my brother is around 197cm and in his 20's he had something like this: ...watching him fold himself into it was hilarious.

I'm of the opinion that eventually most people will be driving things like this: ...because everything else on a vehicle will be by subscription/extra fee only. If it's raining, and you didn't pay for a roof, there will be a mount between the seats for a giant umbrella. Official brand umbrella $300 extra.

I have decided that all streaming platforms need a "never show me this title ever again, no I really mean it" tag option. I noticed a "Love is Blind: Japan" on Netflix. I remember watching two episodes of the US version and was idly curious about differences. It's pretty much the same format wise, except there is a cultural difference in terms of the men/women's reactions and convo's. It felt a tad more down to earth in that regard. Still not worth watching. On Prime, I tried watching (on air, not completed) k-rom-dramedy True to Love (alternate title: Bo ra! Deborah). Dramabeans recap comments give me the impression k-drama watcher's overall like it, but I was largely bored. I do love the lead actress, Yoo In-na (Goblin, Touch Your Heart), and the two male leads have been in some decent rom-drama's. But the first three episodes felt way too protracted. Or maybe for once the silly comedy aspects don't make me chortle. Anyway, it's all right as far as all the tropes go but I probably won't continue.

Just my unnecessarily large and largely empty home complex. ...I've played enough to notice a few bugs/glitches in the demo. Hopefully those are fixed in full release. Still a chill, relaxing game perfect for my brain right now. ...it's still not May 25th.

Just thought I'd mention that after switching power outlet strips, my PC (and the PS4 console) hasn't randomly rebooted itself overnight etc. Can't say for certain it'll never, but so far so good. Sometimes it really is as weirdly simple as that. Could've saved some hours of troubleshooting if it had occurred to me earlier. >.>

Above Snakes: Prologue - My current run/save has a bug where one stack of twigs never disappears when I try to sell it, so I can sell it endlessly for infinite bucks. Not that I need endless bucks in the demo. I keep making stacks of ink (needed to delete placed world tiles) and reconfiguring my map, because I'm weird and find that fun. Not sure if I'll port a demo save into the full game or just start from scratch. I can't wait to have more biomes and quest/dungeon squares and stuff. Is it the 25th of May yet.

Like in the first game ... there are workbenches around. Repair didn't look that expensive. Upgrading a fave weapon to be of your chr. level is the expensive thing now, seemed like. You can create/craft and mods. Btw, I don't think it looks like a bad game - certainly looks better than the first one - it just felt like nothing special. There's apparently no difficulty settings, your character is an overly talkative, b-movie one-liner tossing avatar (so if you don't like the humor...). Seriously, what I saw your chr. never shuts up. But you get to wreck zombies with great visuals.

Dead Island 1 semi-entertained me for the initial first hour or two, but it wasn't long before it devolved into a dull/predictable slog, yup. Dead Island 2 ... visually it's quite amazing, from environment visuals to zombie death detail graphics (if that's your thing) but from the playthru I saw, seems like it does the same thing where it's not too bad initially and sorta has you wanting to continue, but becomes rather monotonous before long. Still might be fun if you like zombie mashing. I'd probably wait till it was 30% off tho.

I spent the last two days playing the crafting/survival/sandbox/questing Above Snakes: Prologue demo on Steam. It's only the early part of the game so most features/upgrades etc aren't available but it gives a good idea/taste of game loop/mechanics. I think some of the Prologue progress will carry over to full game, too, if you want it to. ...TLDR: the demo was enough fun that I wanted to immediately purchase the full version ... and that's when I realized it's not releasing until May 25. Wah. One of its main appeals is how you research new biome squares and slowly get to place them on the map, essentially creating your own map on the fly. You can remove placed map tiles if you want to redo areas as you research/get more biome types or special Quest tiles etc. Kinda neat. You can have a big home area or tons of tiny ones scattered all over. Combat threat is low key and often avoidable/deal with it at your own pace, so I find it relaxing. I could see the games loop becoming a bit repetitive/mindless, but I don't mind. It works well with a controller, and I liked it enough to binge play it and start over three times, trying to figure out how best to place and efficiently use biome tiles. I wonder what the max numerical limit is for total map tiles. I can't wait.

Being one of those whose gateway kdrama was stuff like Boys Over Flowers, I grew to expect larger than life, anime-like comedy expressions/physicality, working class vs. rich elite, birth secrets, amnesia, fatal disease crisis, generally very little skinship, and noble idiocy. Especially if it's heavily romance-relationship focused, but also in general. They toned it way down since maybe 2018 as they aim for more worldwide appeal - which is fine/welcome - but yeah, down to earth isn't something they often seem to want for TV dramas (movies are a little different). Could change as generations change ofc. I mean, US TV once was dominated by squeaky clean/wholesome and often quite dramatic stage-like acting styles etc, but now it's almost fully in the other direction. Takes time, times change. And yes, at this point I'm familiar enough with kdrama patterns (crime/thriller to period to general drama to rom-com) to get bored quicker. I still often like it more than most US TV series tho. Also:

Cable? What's cable. That's always sad. According to Viki I only watched 4.5 episodes of Moment of Eighteen. Don't remember if I didn't like it or just forgot about it. Half the time now I completely forget I even started watching something, if I didn't binge-complete it in 36 hours.

Tempted to try Dredge because it sounds wacky and kewl, but it all hinges on whether I like the way the fishing mechanic works. I hated the one in Stardew Valley for example. My Time At Sandrock is also on my radar. I never bought Portia and it sounds like this new one is much improved/more "fun" vs. that. Looks cute, like a 3d Stardew or something. Still in early access tho (one year in).