Greetings. I am Stebloke, and I am a bit strange. This website contains my blog, where you can read about the things I create, the games I play, and any other things I get involved in.

I make this blog mostly because I like to look back on the things I do and feel nostalgic, but also because it keeps me motivated to keep pushing on with my backlog of nerdy little projects and tasks.

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Much like with my Terraria shenanigans from a couple of years ago, I was again motivated to play a game thanks to the chaos experienced by streamer Preach recently.

The game in question this time is Prison Architect, a game I've owned for many years and never touched. The closest I got to playing it was when the multiplayer update came out, and I installed it back then hoping that Scoob and I would give it a try, but it never happened.

So it's been pretty cool to finally get some use out of it.

After a bit of research, I learned that the developers of this game changed a few years back, and a lot of people have not been happy about it. Luckily, I'd still got my old downloads from GOG, so that is the version I've played.

Like with Terraria, I didn't really want to "play the game properly" as such. I just wanted to build something. To this end, I allowed myself infinite money, and turned off failure states. Unfortunately, like Terraria, I couldn't just build something without actually having at least some gameplay, as things had to be unlocked through game progression.

Now, you might think this would make the game very easy, and in some ways it was. But the fact that I was just diving straight into a big sandbox build with no tutorials was still pretty intimidating. It didn't help that the controls of the game are bonkers, and there are no rebindable options, even through config files and such.

I suppose I could have looked at using something like GlovePie to remap everything, but whatever.

I started off with a small build for a few minimum security prisoners, and just kept adding rooms and cells until I'd got 24 settled in and seemingly happy.

It was during this time that I learned all about the regime, programs, deployments, logistics, patrols and all of the other little things that were required to keep things running smoothly and with as much automation as possible.

While all that was going on, I started building a second cell block, this time to take 40 prisoners, who would be a slightly rougher bunch and would be placed in medium security. This included an extra perimeter fence and extra dogs to patrol among them.

I didn't add them slowly like I did with my first bunch of hoodlums, and instead opened the prison up to all 40 at the same time. As you would expect, chaos quickly ensued, with these prisoners beating each other up and leaving blood trails all through the cell block as well as in the cafeteria.

Absolute savages, ruining my nice clean floors. How dare they! And ruining my 29 day no incident streak to boot. Just rude.

It was always my intent to build a third block for high security prisoners, with armed guards and sniper towers, but soon after adding the second bunch of prisoners, and getting them to settle down, I've decided to move on. Believe it or not, I actually spent quite a bit of time over 6 days just getting to this point, so it's had enough time out of me for now.

If I come back to it, I might even try the more up to date version. I mean, I know people have commented on how buggy it has been since the devs changed, but it's not like I was free of them using this version.

Primarily, I had constant issues with the graphics flickering at the top of the screen that just kept happening at random times. For some weird reason, taking a screenshot would not show the flickering, so I had to snap this issue with my camera.

I've never seen weirdness like that before, and hopefully never again.

It's 2025's time in the spotlight, as I look back at whether I've managed to get enough done this year.

Even though I've been just as active with blog updates this year as I was last year, for some reason it feels like I've let myself down. It just doesn't feel like I got as much done.

This is due to the fact that I've had some good time off because of being between jobs, so I definitely think more of my little tasks should have been completed.

Moving forward, progress may dip further, as 2026 brings with it a new job, with potentially some weird shifts, as well as the occasional need to be on call.

However, this is a look back, not a look forward, so let's reflect...

Computer Games

Things started and ended very slowly in my effort to tick off games.

I felt like I was going great guns in June and July, but those were the only months where I really knuckled down and got some good gaming done.

While there were some important replays, like FF7: Rebirth and FF9, as well as Arkham Asylum, my number of newly completed games stands at just 7 for the year, plus one expansion in Winter Assault.

Sure, I finally got RE0 done, but overall this is certainly not good enough. I just have not had the motivation in this area. Maybe I'm getting old? Well, yes, I'm getting old. But maybe my age is finally having an effect?

I hope not.

All year I was wondering whether to subscribe to WoW just for one month through November. This was because it was the 20th anniversary of when I first started to play it, and I love me a big anniversary.

However, two big reasons held me back:
1) I just couldn't afford to spend all of my free time that month playing a game I don't really like.
2) I just can not bear the thought of giving Blizzard any money. If the game ever goes free to play, which is highly unlikely, I may revisit my old characters. But other than that, something very bizarre would have to happen for me to journey to Azeroth ever again.

Into next year, my main goal is to play FFX for the first time, as the game will be 25 years old. I'm also part way through the final Amiga marathon, as well as having the next random game installed and ready to go.

Outside of that, who knows?

Tabletop Games

What a weird year it's been for this little hobby as well.

Board gaming was very sporadic all year. We would have a few weeks of feverish gameplay, then not do anything for a couple of months, and then go again.

I finally got to play my own copy of Whitehall Mystery though, with the wait being because there's usually too many players on game nights.

This is good for some games, and good for the social aspect, but a lot of the games I want to play are more complex games for smaller numbers of players, which take a bit longer to play, and therefore are way less likely to hit the tabletop. Dune Imperium, Resident Evil 2, Detective and Twilight Imperium are all examples.

I've even studied the Resident Evil 2 rules and have made a summary sheet for if we ever play that again, which is something I've also done for Doctor Who. Hopefully these games will be much easier to pick up again in the future.

The main game I've been quite into playing this year is Alibis, a little co-operative card game where you have to try and link words. Hopefully, it's shunted Codenames off the play list going forward.

Wargaming also went through a drought, with no games at all until the last few months, triggered by the completion of Scoob's new game room.

I did however get some decent painting done, with quite a few models finished that have not shown up here yet, as I need to finish their entire armies first.

I also got some good terrain building under my belt, with my new boards and forests now being usable. I've also got some big 28mm defensive structures almost done that have been made out of polystyrene packaging. I just need some better weather so I can take them outside to begin the final steps.

Strangely, by far the most time I've spent on this hobby this past year has been sat in front of a computer, buried in spreadsheets and lines of code.

Not only have I redesigned the 40K-S army builder and point calculator, but I've also made my own method for digitally setting up games of Secret Hitler. This meant a re-introduction to MySQL, something I hadn't touched since 2012.

There was also a lot of computer-based studying for my first little dip into 3D printing. Though this is something that I will need to spend even more time on if I'm going to get the best quality out of my printer at any kind of consistent level.

It's certainly been a strange year. But now, onto the next...

I simply can not believe it's already been nearly five years since I replayed Arkham City and tackled Arkham Knight for the first time. Those playthroughs feel like they were about a year or two ago at the most.

Since those runs, I've been having this little nagging sensation that I should have also played Arkham Asylum to really round out the trilogy. I simply did not realise how long this little nag had been going on for.

To put the irritation to rest, I figured I'd blast through it again, for old time's sake. After all, I last played this back before I even started game blogging. Which was quite a while ago now.

Though it had been a good fifteen years, I was still surprised by how little of the game I could actually remember. But I should have figured this would be the case. I mean, I've played City three times since I last played this, plus my playthroughs of both Origins and Knight.

I kept trying to do moves, and trigger gadgets, that were only around for the later games. The amount of times I tried to grapple trophies, or slide under things while I was running, it was comical after a while.

Still, the game is still enjoyable, with one of my favourite combat systems from any game series, over the top characters, and really good voice acting.

It wasn't all rosy though. I still had the usual Arkham series quibbles, like Batman sometimes not throwing his Batarangs in the right direction, or him dodging the wrong way because he'd rather flip over a nearby goon's head. That sort of thing.

And then there's the Killer Croc section, which I hated back in the day, and probably hated even more here. I think I made it worse this time by being determined to rush through it, and get it out of the way as fast as possible. Unfortunately, that section only really works if you make slow and steady progress, so I just kept getting grabbed by the big dumb git and had to restart several times.

However, by far the worst thing about this playthrough was the performance, which I can only describe as terrible. If I was in one location just running around, the game would hold a solid 60 no problem. But as soon as there was any kind of loading needed, then the game would freeze for a split second, then kick back into motion at 30, before quickly climbing back up to 60 over the next second or two.

This constant freezing was a nightmare. According to my machine's performance charts, the SSD in the computer was never under any strain, so it was not the HD speed. And the CPU and GPU barely realised they were even working.

Looking online, other people have had similar problems, which are attributed to a fault in Unreal Engine 3. But if that's the case, why did Arkham City and Arkham Knight, both newer games, run a lot better than this, as they also use UE3? On top of that, those playthroughs were on a much weaker machine as well. It was so odd and frustrating.

When I got to the end and gave Joker a good smacking, I decided to do another 100% run, as I couldn't remember what happened with the Riddler at the end of this game. I only had two issues dealing with all of the Riddler challenges. One was finding one of the maps, and the other was finding the last few Joker Teeth in the mansion.

Though I'm not sure I should have bothered, as the Riddler ending to this game is not very satisfying at all.

Still, nevermind. I'm really glad I played it again, though, because while I think City and Knight may one day get another playthrough out of me, I think it's highly likely I'll never come back to this one again.

There has been some more 40K-S scrappin' going on in la casa de Scoob recently.

First, I sent my Nidz back into action, and Scoob rolled out his Orks to meet them.

After I got quite outnumbered in the last game, and seeing how much I outnumbered his army by, I thought I'd have a decent chance here.

However, it took just three turns for the outcome of this game to be clear, as it was pretty obvious that the Nidz were now the ones outnumbered.

I definitely had a really hard time damaging the Battlewagons, which was not helped when my deep-striking Trygon got mowed down in short order by the Lootas.

It still gave us info though, in that a smaller, more elite army is capable of taking on a larger mob.

Then weeks later, after a lot of coding to add all of the other units and special rules to the game, as well as a new army builder and a new points calculator, we convened again for another game.

This one saw me bring my Marines again, this time with some Battle Sister backup, to take on hordes of Scoob's deep striking Daemons.

We actually managed to play the full five turns for this one, and it was pretty close throughout. It ended up being 1859 to 1674 in Scoob's favour. It would have been much closer, with him winning by just 13 points, had I not been a bit suicidal and thrown away my Land Raider on the last turn. But I was in "have fun" mode, and wanted to flame things.

It also didn't help that my multi-meltas failed to successfully wound for the entire game, as well as Scoob dropping some monstrous saving throws to keep lots of his Daemon foot troops alive in the last couple of turns.

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Sandwiched in between all of this 40K action was my first game of Epic-S in over two years. In this one, I went up against Gareth in a 3000pt game, where he took control of the Imperials, and I commanded the Orky ladz.

Because we were re-learning the rules, we took the first turn pretty slowly, and it probably took longer than all of the other turns put together.

We decided not to go to a victory point target, and instead played the full 5 turns, during which I had some really lucky mass saving throws.

By the end of the action, I had managed the tiniest victory of just 15 points, with the score 2192 to 2177.

Board game updates haven't really been present on this site for quite a few months, but there are a few little updates and highlights from this last year that I can share.

Starting all the way back on New Year's Eve, we had a few games of Secret Sith Lord, which I think was probably the last time we played this version of the game.

There was another game of Jamaica at some point, which I handily managed to win by racing out into the lead. Only me and Gareth were over the -5pt line by the end.

We also tried my two newest games at the time. First was The Crew, which has an amazing rep online, but which we really didn't get all that into. We played a few rounds of it and managed to progress a ways, but ultimately it didn't motivate us to go back to it yet.

Then I buckled and bought Cryptid, which we had tinkered with the year before but not properly played. I can't really remember who won this game, but we made quite the mess of the board by the end of it. Looking at the colours, and who was sitting where, I think Gareth is the most likely to have won this.

We also had another game of King Of Tokyo. Again, I do not remember who won. What I do know is that I, controlling Gigazaur once again, most certainly did not win.

I introduced Scoob and his wife to Survive The Island when I popped over their's for a game. It was fun and close, and Scoob pulled out the win with 22, while I got 20 and Emma got 19.

In easily the closest game of 7 Wonders we've played yet, Gareth and I tied for the lead on 54pts, with me only taking the win because I had 5 treasure to his 4. The two other players in this were also very close on 42 and 40 respectively.

After months of waiting, I finally got to try my proper copy of Whitehall Mystery at last. Fittingly, I managed just my 2nd win as Jack. Again it was very close, and the officers actually made an arrest on my final dumping spot on the turn before I got there.

Our second play of Viking Raiders didn't really go very different to the first. We attempted a "short" 3 player game to 6 victory points. Yet it still took us a good 2 hours to finish it. I capped off a fairly decent year for board game victories when I got the ability that dropped my victory requirements to 5, as I'd got just enough in all three categories to take it.

Where the victories eluded me was in our co-operative play. Specifically, we gave the word game, Alibis, several attempts. As of yet, we have failed to succeed. We clearly need to expand our mental dictionaries.