MedicineDan

Thanks, Bruce and my Scaly Friend. I hadn't been on this board for years before I saw this blog. Over that time, I've developed friendships and lost them on this board. I have a personal friendship for some 20+ years because of these boards. I don't know where metadigital is. I hope he is well and everything is okay. I literally contacted a friend in law enforcement to check up on him some years ago to make sure he was okay. Hell, I met with him in England when I was there over a decade ago and in Las Vegas also, where he mocked American coffee, of course. lol I created an imaginary card game on, I think, the old BIS board before it went under. Maybe here under the name Cantousent. I don't know. It doesn't matter. The world is different now. Eldar is dead. He was dead a long time ago. MedicineDan is a boring person and of very little consequence. Still, whoever I am now, Eldar, that ridiculous, vain, and grandiose name a very young man chose for himself years ago, is still in there somewhere. After all, I am what I've played.

Gorth, an eternal friend I don't deserve. I read this entry as a guest a couple of weeks ago. I should have expressed my gratitude then. I beg forgiveness. Someday, brother. Someday.

lol Bruce, you glorious bastard! I have a feeling we'll be laughing together soon. I read your post and I thought, "this is sweet." We will meet sometime, brother. If not in this life, then in the next. I hope Valley of Fire, only without the Deathclaws.

Many thanks, my friend. I'll send it tonight and you guys can use all, part, or none of it as you deem appropriate.

I think I've owned every Obsidian game to date. Not sure, but I think so. Considering I'm practicing thread necromancy, I'd better explain this is the first time I've seen this trailer. Then I saw another one clearly farther along on YouTube. Then I saw one with some gameplay on Steam. I'll buy it, sight unseen, because I'm a kind of a lurker fanboy, but it looks good. I get the impression we get to choose our side(s)? I hope being the nominal good guy is hard and being the actual good guy is genuinely tough. I would buy it unfinished and then play the finished product after the full release date hits, as is my custom, but that wasn't a Steam option. I loved Outer Worlds, which was an FPS RPG also a la Prey. This one seems more hardcore RPG, which is also good. I know virtually nothing about the game except for the little I've seen here and I think I'll keep it that way. I'm praying the 2024 release date is still on the docket, but I probably won't have time to play it until next year anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter.

On one hand, I doubt I have any great insight about gaming per se. I'm probably one of the few people who moderated on the old BIS boards and at Obsidian, so I might have insight there, but I've also irritated, bored, or otherwise made myself persona non grata to people in previous times. What I do find interesting, at least looking at it for myself, is how eerily my life and interests have tracked with games. Like you, my friend, I have a long history of gaming. The first Dungeons and Dragons booklets from the late 1970s when I still lived on Guam to, well, Grounded. Hitting the skids, not leaving my home, and weighing over 400lbs (over 182kg for the metric inclined). The journey, some years ago to lose weight and take back my life. Working at the clinic as a nurse practitioner and having patients seek my care. lol I guess I've already gone on long enough so who needs a blog entry? I've had a love-hate relationship with Obsidian. Well, love-"who?" relationship. Mostly I've loved them and they've mostly not known I exist, and why should they? : Eldar's broad grin icon : Still, in dark times there was always something that helped me eke out a few more steps towards the light, and sometimes one of those things was Obsidian. Another one would be Fionavar. Sorry to call you out, my scaly friend. Well, anyhow, wall of text and all. I'll scratch out a submission this weekend and whether it's deemed worthy or not doesn't matter. It will be heartfelt either way. EDIT: Sorry, I was responding to Gorth.

Wow, I haven't been here in years! I forgot my password. lol A friend sent me a link and I saw Gorth's superb offering. Respect! This brings back memories of BIS and the Interplay boards. It's funny in that I played so much Grounded on Steam a couple of years ago before it was completed. I had just gotten back into playing the finished game for about a week when I received word about this project. It's like running into an old girl friend at the grocery years after you broke up. It's not that you have animosity. You just don't know what to say.

My Wasteland 3 game has stalled. I've reached Denver, but I'm kind of puttering around. I have a couple of games I've been waiting to play until I get the last piece of my new rig, the video card. Everywhere I look, the RTX 3080 is sold out. Very frustrating, but when I get it and finally assemble the mess, I'm going to give a couple of high demand games a try. Probably start with cyberpunk 2077.

Prey is great. Anyhow, playing 2nd run of Wasteland 3. I'm on hard and the battles are easy. I think knowing the battles makes them much easier. Slow going due to time, but still fun.

I aced my ECG exam and I nailed my OSCE, which is great because it's graded, but even better is that my preceptor has started letting me do assessments and treatment. She asks me what I did, but then signs off on it. Basically, at one point, I'd written myself off. Now, I feel as if I've justified my life between my work as an RN (which I still practice) and in my upcoming role as a provider.

I'm early in my "hard" difficulty of Wasteland 3. Still easy, but there have been a couple of tough fights. I'm still more RPG centered rather than specced for combat. Great game, flaws and all.

Finished Wasteland 3. Great game, but there are things that really sucked. My philosophy in these games is to get my main skills etc. high as soon as I can and to specialize everyone. Modding and bargaining are a pain in the rear. The lack of sorting and filtering for weapons and armor is plodding. On normal level, the battles are trivial, which leads to lazy play. For example, there's no real lasting consequence for someone going down on normal, so I tended to rush in a lot and just heal up. Some battles lent themselves to planning and if it looked tough, I'd position my squad, but mostly just rolled over folks. The armored vehicle was fun, but I didn't get to use it very often. The cut scene with Liberty was cheesy as all such scenes are. Okay, this is what I hate most, though: For all that, I enjoyed the game immensely. I've got a full week coming up, but maybe I can start a game at a little higher difficulty and tweak my choices.

It was the worst reaction to a vaccination in my life. Keep in mind, GD, I was *much* younger when I went through all those shots. I get the flu every year, but that's never caused anything. As for you, Bruce, I feel ya. Just a few months before the terrible heat makes things miserable here.

I got my second shot of the Pfizer vaccine on Monday. Having served overseas and getting all scheduled vaxxes on time, I have never been hit so hard by a vax as I was by the second shot. There were a couple of things that definitely didn't help. First, I didn't get much sleep the night before. Second, I only had my usually coffee the morning of. Finally, I could have taken a Tylenol beforehand. To be fair, I felt fine the first day. It was the next morning that really kicked my ass. I wouldn't even bother posting except to advise folks to take a different route. Putatively, and by the FDA's own literature, the second shot typically can have more severe side effects, but you should do the same for both. Different people can expect different side effects and, moreover, the same person might be impacted differently depending of variables that are frankly impossible to appreciate fully. I would get a good night's sleep, eat at least a quick breakfast, take an analgesic before the shot (first or second), and make sure the next day is free just in case you feel a bitt run down. sadly, I did none of the above and ended up having class the next morning. I didn't have a choice about that. I went in when work scheduled me. It was okay. Just had to tough it out, but hedge your bets an give yourself a break if you can. Also, I think I asked for advice about smokers a while back. I decided to keep my wood smoker at home and I bought a pellet smoker, a Traeger, to keep at my out-laws because I knew my wife's brother wanted one. It's been great. We've used it a lot and my wife's mom even called to thank me because it's been such a hit that people are at her house more often. Whoever advised it, I wanted to say thanks. In a couple of months, when I am back again, I'll mention you by name if I can remember. lol God bless, brothers, and stay safe!

I've been playing Wasteland 3. Since I was here last, I actually cleared a couple of games off the docket, but I find I really like Wasteland 3. Sadly, I wasn't as enamored of Assassins Creed Odyssey. I do appreciate the Greek aspect, even the modern Greek pronunciation, but I just couldn't get into the kind of aimlessness of it. I much preferred Prey or Dishonored, which probably just means I tend to like games where I can be lazy and follow a set story-line, although I love New Vegas where I could more or less follow a story but still strike out on my own. Wasteland 3, at any rate, is more fun for me than AC:O. So much so, in fact, that I feel the need to crack down and get back to work and school again.

I not only remember the Cold War, I remember serving during it. On one hand, the threat of annihilation was always present. On the other hand, we more or less faced it together. On the third hand, I accept the gentle remonstrations of my friend. I am a Catholic and he is... not :wry grin: but I take it this way, we should be glad in our times and our trials. They have been worse. If it's true that faced them together in the past, perhaps we can find a way to face them together now. I don't know who all here is a believer, let alone a Christian. I don't even care. God bless and keep you. May you have a joyous day. May this year bring you tidings of great joy. As for you, Bruce, I'm a lifer. I get caught up in life, but this place is kind of like my personal meth. I lurk. Sometimes I post. On rare occasions, I pretend it matters.

I get the impression that I'm kind of persona non grata around here these days, but that simply can't stop me from my usual "trawling" wishing everyone a happy and blessed Christmas. :broad grin: I won't claim I'm not a troll, but I will insist that my wishes are heartfelt. This has been a difficult year for everyone, but it has had its moments. I find I'm quicker to anger, as if I were back in more impetuous days, but I remain quick to forgive, and that's what I want most this Christmas. I want to put aside all the anger that has accumulated over the past year. Anyhow, if someone has created or creates another Christmas thread, feel free to merge mine into theirs. Either way, Xairete, my Obsidian friends. Godspeed your journey. Fair winds and following seas.

Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy the day. People keep saying 2021 simply cannot be worse than this year. Makes me cringe. If it gets any worse next year, this may be the last Thanksgiving before the comet hits the earth or the zombie apocalypse or whatever the hell's going to happen.

Going through Stygian Lovecraft game. I restarted because I thought I could do a better job and then got busy, but I have some time coming up. I want to finish it and then look into other Lovecraftian games.

About 2/3 through the current semester. This one has been cake, especially since Adult and Aging Care was pushed to next semester. However, that means 180 clinical hours next semester. I'm thinking about switching to a different per diem job after the new year. I get paid fairly well for what I do now, but I don't like keeping patient information at home, I can't take patient calls like I do when I'm in clinical hours, and I don't want to have to drive all over the Inland Empire. ...And the LA office is always swamped and asking me to take their patients. They get in a bind and then really press for the help. I got an offer to work for CVS to run a Covid-19 testing center, but I'd also like to get some experience that will help when I'm a primary provider. Decisions.

Brrrrrr! Keep warm, brother! We'll be thinking of you in the lands between borders. As for myself, Obsidz therapy time. I had an experience at the grocery today. I won't get into the specifics, but I had to speak to the manager at the local market. I am probably one of the most friendly and urbane people you all would meet in person, but every now and again something can draw my ire. To put this in perspective, I am a giant and I can look *really* mean when I'm angry. So, at some point, the manager, we'll call him Ren, says, "You want to step away from me?" Oh. my. Lord. I actually grinned under my mask and I stepped toward him and said, "You know, Ren, I don't think I do!" lol Oh, I was being an ass. I feel bad about it now, but I really was angry at the time. Of course, I have too much self control to actually hurt Ren, but I think he literally thought I was going to assault him. On the other hand, while it's kind of funny, it just shows how I've let things this year get under my skin. The election doesn't bother me, but the Covid restrictions and the fact that I have patients who are literally suffering from the continued lockdown, dealing with my wife working from home, trying to do a good nursing job in an environment where even some of the seasoned nurses are having to rethink how they do the work, these things have all got me off my game. I can't remember the last time I got so angry over something so stupid. I'm ashamed of it. Granted, Ren was kind of a prick, but he wasn't truly horrible. Certainly not enough to get in his grill. ...And he's a young guy. I figure I could *probably* take him if I had to, but I'm a middle aged white guy who's had heart surgery. Whatever I was when I was younger, I'm sure as hell not that now.

I've played Naheulbeuk and it's fun. Turn based tactical game. It's fun on a rail, though, so don't think you'll get a lot of nuance and subtlety, though. The humor is pretty puerile, but it does have one of my favorite teenage laugh lines. Something like: "We're going to be shoved through the **** pipe and get shat on!" So stupid it does occasionally make you laugh.

Another day of doing nursing stuff. Nothing particularly special, but it's all part of life, I guess.

I've been playing Stygian: something of the Old Ones. ...Or Greater Old Ones. Something like that. Anyhow, a couple of observations. First, I think this must be at least the second game in a series because it assumes I have experience with the Dismal Man. I chose to play someone with investigation. Of course. That probably doesn't help me, but I can't help it. Anyhow, I played a while and ended up with schizophrenia after talking to some weirdo demon/sorcerer dude. This is a good game, but now I'm bummed and wondering if I should restart with a new character. I don't want to go mad. On the other hand, it's Lovecraftian. I'll probably go crazy one way or the other eventually anyway. By the way, I love that "Lovecraftian" isn't autocorrected. For someone who wasn't wildly successful in his own day, it's great that he has his own entire niche in our time. Gotta love Lovecraft.

Yeah, I liked Pathfinder. Solid game and absolutely huge. I couldn't get into D:OS2. Something about the combat was just too clunky for me. Anyhow, I broke down and bought that Stygian Lovecraft game. I haven't tried it yet. It got mixed reviews, but I've had good luck here, so I tend to weigh that a little heavier than the overall rating on Steam. Now that the election is over, I need another entertainment source, only one a little less time consuming.