Apparently the company behind the original Constructor game is doing an HD remake?

http://www.system3.com/constructor-returns-in-high-definition/

I loved that game when I was a kid so if they do a decent job and it's not just a slapped together cosmetic thing (like, they make better AI and fix all the bugs) then this could be worth a play.

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Lets do this thing:



(Substitute the flickr thing for something else if you want, most of the images are pretty boring)

Remember to save the file really compressed for lots of JPEG artifacts.

So recently some nerds have been playing Tabletop Simulator and trying out different board games, including Netrunner.

Netrunner is a neato cyberpunk card game. It has a tournament scene and deckbuilding and expansions and whatever but the core game is fun and deep enough to have a good time with (and while the game gets regular expansions and new cards it isn't a CCG so apparently there isn't so much janky power creep or pay2win garbage).

There's a client that lets you play in your browser http://www.jinteki.net/

Here's a tutorial video by the publisher: https://youtu.be/VAslVfZ9p-Y

A few of us are playing this at the moment (we're all still huge noobs though, none of us have even tried every faction of corps and runners yet) but it would be fun if more people got into it and we could have a friendly tournament on the forum. We'd use only the vanilla game set and the premade standard decks the game recommends for casual play so there'd be no deckbuilding this time around to keep things extra-simple.

Post in here if you'd be interested in a tournament and hit up me, celdur, wizard or anyone else who's already playing this if you want a game. 

---

Tentative Tournament Setup and Rules:

Players pick one Runner and one Corp deck and stick with those two for the rest of the tournament. Decks can be any legal deck (see netrunner rules) using core cards only. (Future tournaments will open up for expansion cards)

Probably bracketed match-ups. Each match will be played as the best of five games (i.e. first to three victories wins).

Christmas music!

Yesterday I found out that Bing Crosby and David Bowie once did a duet.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiXjbI3kRus" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiXjbI3kRus</a>

So while Pat is plugging his flight simulator in space I may as well try to plug another nerdcore Paradox game that's in development.

It's Paradox's first space game and first 4X and it looks like it'll be awesome. I'll just link all the dev diaries they've released so far.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/stellaris-dev-diary-1-the-vision.882808/
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/stellaris-dev-diary-2-art-vision.884052/
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/stellaris-dev-diary-3-galaxy-generation.885267/
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/stellaris-dev-diary-4-means-of-travel.886502/
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/stellaris-dev-diary-5-empires-and-species.887487/

I've been playing both of these games a lot recently.

Fallen London is a browser game (No, don't leave, it's actually really good) and Sunless Sea is a naval exploration game both set in the same mysterious gothic world.

A little backstory for the curious: At some point in the mid 19th century London was stolen away to a weird underworld called "The Neath". Certain laws don't work quite the same way down there as they do on the surface, for example, death is very rarely permanent and secrets, concepts, ideas and stories have much more of a tangible value. London is also now a great deal closer to Hell and Devils mix freely with the population.

It would be sort of pointless to go into the setting any more (and there is so much more, oh man) because most of the fun of both games is uncovering all the details and joining up the dots yourself. The writing in both games is excellent and they really deliver the story elements in a way which makes you feel like you're delving into secret knowledge, and what details you do uncover don't ever dispel the atmosphere of mystery that hangs over the world the authors have created.

Mechanics-wise fallen London is essentially a sort of choose your own adventure resource-management game. You get an allotment of actions which replenish over time in real-time, which you can spend on pursuing various plots and stories. You success in most actions is tied to one of your four main stats; Dangerous, Shadowy, Watchful and Persuasive (and sometimes to other qualities you accumulate as well) and some actions require a particular resource to complete (there are a myriad of these in the game, ranging from straightforward valuables like fragments of jade, through Blackmail Materials and on to really abstract resources like Tales of Terror or Romantic notions (even souls). The game has some paid content but its mostly just unlocking optional storylines, and as there's no substantial pvp element there's no pay to win bull****.

Sunless Sea retains a similar mechanic for story resolution but its tied to slightly more stats (Hearts, Veils, Pages, Mirrors and Iron) and also has a simple naval exploration and combat game which takes up a fair amount of your time. Fallen London is your base, and from there you venture out across the Unterzee in your steam ship, discovering weird far-off places. You put in at port on various islands and explore them via a choose-your own adventure style interface. The game is really unforgiving, particularly to begin with and it's very easy to die very quickly even on later playthroughs. Luckily there is continuity between playthroughs as you can write a will which allows your next character to inherit various resources (usually cash) from your now ex-character. Again, the story is related in intriguing little snippets and its up to you to figure out how it all fits together. Sunless Sea's story doesn't involve London much, and instead focuses on other exotic locales, which range in tone from lovecraftian horror to rather surreal and comedic locations.

Fallen London is free to play and Sunless Sea is pretty cheap on steam, I'd definitely recommend picking them up, it's one of my favourite settings ever.