Staff Blog: Blake's Glorious Space Odyssey

Blake's Glorious Space Odyssey

On 01/15/2016 at 08:39 AM by Blake Turner

Hello you beautiful, greasy McMuffins! I, the glorious Blake Turner, the one you have sworn your undying allegiance to (don't tell Nick, but it's now a legally binding condition of joining pixlbit), am back. And I bring with my person news of my endeavours! And those endeavours are pretty much all space themed. Star Wars had a greater effect on me than I thought...

For the past week every piece of media I've consumed has been space themed, with the exception of Dragon's Dogma, which is just a fucking great game that eclipses my need for sci fi goodness.

So let's kick this shit off.

VIDEO GAMES!

Let's kick things off with Elite Dangerous, which is actually just the worst game ever. Seriously, I've spent 12 hours with this game and I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing. I don't know if I'm enjoying it either, but for some reason I want it to click.

Maybe it's because the space battles I played in the tutorial were so much fun. Too bad I started in a ship that is capable of shooting things in the same way I am capable of running long distances - sure, it can be done, but not effectively, and it's probably gonna result in some bits falling off.

Maybe it's the idea of playing Euro Truck Simulator in space! Too bad the space station I started in only had missions that required ultra lasers, heaps of cargo space, or millions of other things I can't possibly have.

So if anyone who plays this game wants to give me a hand/play with me that'd be much appreciated.

The next game I played is Star Conflict, because I wanted to blow shit up. And Blow shit up I did. But there's fuck all people on at any given time. I waited for 20 minutes to get into a game. I didn't try again.

Also, all the ships in this game feel like they stepped on a child and got their foot stuck. You move slow as fuck in this game.

Well shit, there's a campaign for Brutal Doom now. And it's pretty fucking good. It takes into account the changes to gameplay the mod made, so levels are more open, there are more enemies, and it feels a lot like Serious Sam.

Also, the level architecture is seriously impressive. There are huge maps that are fucking cities with marines and demons fighting it out and it's just fucking INSANE! The gore is crazy too - to the point where it actually negatively effects framerates at times if you have it up too much.

But dear lord is it fun. It's hard, but well paced. The first few levels are more survival horror-like with seriously limited ammo, but after a while you are never going to run out. Because you need every weapon and every trick up your sleeve. You're fighting Cyber Demons by the 8th level, and there are 32 levels!

That said, it's not super hard, I think Doom 2 is still harder, this is just more chaotic.

TV SHOWS!

Well shit. The Expanse is cool. It's a hell of a lot like Battlestar Galactica in feel, and like BSG it has some cringe inducing acting early on. But stick with it and you have a really engaging show filled with the kind of shit that's been missing from sci fi. It's a good space opera. The last time we had one of those was, what? 2004 when BSG came out?

MUSIC!

Even my music has been space themed. I've been digging this melodeath album by Hoth that's a concept album about Darth Vader. And I mean that band logo, how can you not dig it? Sounds a lot like Opeth, Dissection, and early In Flames had a baby, and that's a very good thing.

Oh, and Progenie Terrestre Pura has a wonderful sci fi Blackgaze album that sounds like the inside of Samus Aran's brain. It's glorious.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

01/15/2016 at 10:36 AM

whoa that band logo IS cool!

I hear you about Elite. I started playing again last week, and I don't know if it's a good game or not, but I do know I'm obsessed with it. Maybe it's too much of a simulation, but that's also why I like it so much. Maybe we can play sometime, but I don't know if that would be fun. I'm not sure if anything about that game is fun, really. But damn do I like piloting my ship. I haven't gotten really far yet, and I still have the first ship, though I almost have enough money to buy a new one. I did buy the horizons expansion but I haven't tried landing on other planets yet. When I played the other day I was basically just relearning how to fly after not playing it for months.

Let me look into what you can do cooperatively. I know that they did some things in the past couple months to make that more fun.

Blake Turner Staff Writer

01/15/2016 at 12:32 PM

With Elite, I think it's more a problem with it just being really unfriendly to beginners. A lack of handholding is cool but you need to give your players some direction.

It's a shame, because the act of flying your ship is awesome, as is the combat and exploration. I just wish I knew what the fuck I was supposed to do, and I keep trying over and over again because this is the same problem I had with Dark Souls (to a lesser extent) and now it's my all time favourite game.

But yeah, I'd love to play with you, so keep me posted.

01/16/2016 at 09:34 AM

I think the thing is, there's is really THAT much to do, except for the "trucker" missions and later, the bounty missions that I haven't really tried yet. I dunno, I'm gonna look into it and play a little today and see what's what. But it would be fun to play together. I really like Elite, and I can really get lost in space games like that.

01/16/2016 at 06:22 PM

Yeah, the game seems very built on it's trading mechanic like a lot of other space games. Even Rebel Galaxy is to some degree. I just want another game like Freespace 2 or Freelancer I guess.

01/16/2016 at 07:06 PM

I think it will evolve over time. I think there is more swashbuckling the deeper u get into the game

transmet2033

01/15/2016 at 01:20 PM

The Expanse is tempting, but I already have 1 or 2 too many shows that I want to work through. May go back and read the books.

01/16/2016 at 06:21 PM

That's fair enough. There are far too many good shows to watch these days. And yeah, I haven't read the books, but I've heard good things, so I might give it a go.

asrealasitgets

01/15/2016 at 06:47 PM

I really enjoyed The Expanse too! It reminds me of GundamxCowboy Bebop. The gundam part is the politics between the colonies and earth and the Bebop part is the detective story going on in between. It helps that the visuals look really good. There were 2 other space themed shows that came out last year, KillJoys and Dark Matter, but Expanse feels like it has more depth.
As for StarWars, I played SWTOR MMO for a while around the movies release. It sure is more streamlined and fast paced in terms of leveling. You can go through the story much faster now, and in that it feels more like a Bioware RPG now. You also don't have to do all the lame side quests to level up anymore.

01/15/2016 at 07:01 PM

Yeah I played it for a while too. The story actually seems really fucking awesome. I played an imperial agent and it actually made me make tough decisions.

And yeah I was thinking of watching Killjoys after The Expanse, but The Expanse is pretty grand.

KnightDriver

01/16/2016 at 03:29 AM

So want to play Brutal Doom. Want it on console though so I can play it co-op with a friend of mine.

Neat music!

01/16/2016 at 03:57 AM

Honestly, it's never been easier these days. http://www.moddb.com/mods/brutal-doom/downloads Click that link, download Hell on Earth Starter Pack, and press play.

You don't even need to own doom (though you should own doom 2 because the textures are a bit weird otherwise since they use freedoom.)

01/16/2016 at 01:36 PM

Sweet!

Super Step Contributing Writer

01/16/2016 at 07:31 PM

I'd like to listen to Hoth, but I cannot right now. Logo cool. Send snacks.

Alex-C25

01/21/2016 at 12:29 PM

Awesome song choices Blake!

I have Elite on my wishlist, though I don't think i'll get it right away for a few years since it seems to be a pretty demanding game. Maybe when I get my own house and job that can afford creating a PC rig.

01/24/2016 at 12:17 AM

Cheers.

Yeah it's decently optimised but it's still pretty taxing. It is gorgeous, though, so it makes sense.

goaztecs

01/21/2016 at 02:48 PM

The Expanse sounds interesting. I wonder if it'll be available for streaming, because I'd probably watch it later on in the year when one of my shows goes on their season break.

It is interesting! Give it a shot.

PixlBit