So I decided to give Fleet Ops another bash, hopefully this time without running out of patience. I slapped on a 4v4, with me (Klingons), 2 Feds and a Dominion taking on 4 Borgy Borgs. It didn't take long for us to get completely overwhelmed. Just couldn't get my head around how fast the enemy CPU players put out ships versus those on my team. And I could barely scrape up the resources for a decent fleet even though I'd got more than double the mining stations and ships than any other player. Obviously something weird going on with this game in terms of collecting resources.

So I immediately did the same game again, but this time with unlimited resources for all involved, and unsurprisingly this time things were very different. At the start it looked like we would get swamped yet again, with the Borg players bossing the centre of the map. But as soon as I threw out my first 64 Negh'Var ships things started to change. My team mates did very little but distract them while I built up wave after wave of ships to send in to batter those Borgies into submission.

The AI in this mod was supposed to be better than in classic Armada 2, and fair enough it might be in some ways, but is still far from what I would call good. Even with unlimited resources the CPU players didn't even manage to get out their toughest ships, while I ended up with fleets of over 100 at a time of mine. Hopefully my itch to play Armada 2 again has been scratched, as I don't really fancy more games Vs. the AI. Might be interesting if I can get some mates to try some PVP, but other than that...

Bastion all done. Despite how much I liked the style, especially the audio, I could feel that the repetitive gameplay was starting to bore me a little. So I sat there for several hours and made myself finish it, as I didn't want yet another game to slip through my fingers without completion.
Had a bit of a lucky break really with the soundtrack. Darren Korb, the main man behind it, did a great job, and it kept giving me nostalgic flashbacks to the TV show Firefly. Anyway, after a bit of investigating I discovered the Humble Bundle downloads were still active, so I've been able to download it even though the Bundle ended weeks ago. Pretty cool.

Not been playing many games the last few weeks as I've been bashing the hell out of my new computer.

Anyway, now the beast is up and running, I've finally been able to slap a couple of games on it to have a jam. Firsty, I'd been fancying a game of Star Trek Armada 2 for a long while. No idea why. But I read that it will not play on Windows 7, and instead you have to install a community-made version called Fleet Operations. So I gave it a go, and it sure is a lot harder.

I slapped an 8 player skirmish on versus CPU players. I was expecting the Borg to be the daddies as I put them on "merciless" skill level, the hardest there is. Instead, the Dominion took over pretty much the entire map, with only myself and the Borg putting up any kind of resistance. Luckily they left me alone for the most part, as I was still learning the game, and was able to build up an enormous defensive line. When they finally came for me, I was ready, and pretty much destroyed their entire fleet. However, it takes so long to create ships in Fleet Ops, that I could not build up a large enough force to pose them a real threat either, so it ended in stalemate after a good couple of hours and I quit.
Quitty quit quitter.
I'll get 'em next time.

---

And for the last couple of days I've been playing another one of the Humble Indie Bundle games. This one is called Bastion, and it's an interesting little beast. It's a little similar to the button-bashing-boredom that was Diablo 2, though without the multiplayer option, and with greatly expanded combat mechanics and a strange, more interesting, storyline.
You play as "The Kid", a character that looks about 12 even though he's already supposed to have been a soldier for 10 years. In the wake of a calamity that destroyed your city, you are looking for special cores and shards to re-construct a place called The Bastion. It's a cool, simple little game, with awesome narration and fun combat against funny enemies. The only problems I have is that some of the weapons are awkward to use, so I stick to my trusty hammer and musket combo, and the fact that it's really, really easy to fall off the edge of the "world". Can get frustrating at times.

I think I'm about half way through it so far, so will knuckle down to get it done. I've still got the Witcher from GOG to get into, and have also recently purchased Torchlight, another Diablo 2-esque game. Hopefully it will better than Diablo 2 much like Bastion is. Or I will have wasted my monies.

Right, I can't remember ever really having a good old rant at any time since starting this website, but something I just found out has proven to be the straw that broke the camel's back as it were.
This information is that Transformers: Fall Of Cybertron requires Steam authentication in order to run.

This has pissed me off no end. I'm sick of seeing games I'd like to play only to discover it requires this shitty Steam software in order to run. I vowed a long time ago that I would never use Steam because I hate so many things about it, such as:

• Many people say that offline mode does not work, so you need constant internet connection to play even single player offline games. Idiotic - Once a game has been authenticated once, it should not be checked again until it is re-installed.
• I've heard that the performance of some games is affected when the Steam software is running in the background. Shoddy, shoddy programming indeed.
• Updates are forced on you. No thanks. I can easily do that myself. Some people prefer versions of games that do not use the most current patch. Yes, it's quite rare, but does happen.
• I don't know if this is true, but in my opinion surely there are people out there who try and hack or steal Steam accounts so they can play other people's games, and block the rightful account holder from logging in? Some people must try it, and probably succeed, surely, as there are many clever net users and hackers out there. It would be much more difficult to hack into someone's house and steal their game DVDs over an internet connection I feel.
• And then the biggy: The no.1 reason why I really don't want to use Steam: YOU DO NOT OWN THE GAMES YOU HAVE BOUGHT!
  At any time, Steam could either ban your account, or cease to exist (if they ever went under for example), and all that money you had spent on games would be wasted as you could not download or authenticate them ever again. This would be my all time worst fear if I used Steam. I still have many old games in the loft, going as far back as Mega Drive and even Amiga 500. Yes it's very rare I play them, but the option is there if I want to. What's the betting that Steam is still around in 20 years time? Highly doubtful I think.
  There are hundreds of thousands of Steam fanboys out there who will go running and crying to their mommies if Steam ever ceases to exist.

I've been caught out a couple of times in the last few years with games that need web-based authentication, as if I had known I would not have bought them. These were Mass Effect, Dead Space (I only bought those 2 because they were in a 3 for £10 deal), and Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition. These games do not use Steam or software of a similar type, but instead need authenticating over the internet the first time you play them. Then you are free to play them wherever or whenever you like. This is obviously a much better way of doing things than the Steam way, but is still not without one major flaw: What will happen if those authentication servers ever get switched off? Any new installations of those games will just not run unless some clever dick designs a hack to bypass the authentication requirement.
I don't suppose it will really matter to me about Mass Effect (played it for about an hour, thought it was very over-rated and tossed it into a corner somewhere never to be seen again hopefully) or Dead Space (the shittiest PC port of a console game ever? Must be pretty close) as it's unlikely I'll ever play them again. But playing the occasional game of Blood Bowl is always fun if I can't get an opponent for the actual board game.

I'm starting to realise that very soon, things like Steam will probably be required to play any new PC game. This is very painful as I've recently bought my first new PC for the better part of a decade, and I won't be able to put most new games I wanna play on it because of this shitty, shitty software.

Fall Of Cybertron was going to be my first new purchase on PC, but not now. I've been playing a bit of Transformers: War For Cybertron here and there on PS3 the last few weeks, but have always found it really awkward playing shooters on a console controller. Not to mention the shitty graphics of consoles compared to those on PC these days.
This leads me on to another question: Why, when consoles these days have USB ports, is mouse and keyboard not an option for playing games on them? This makes no sense. I could then easily play games like Transformers or Saints Row The Third on my PS3 and leave Steam to the idiots and fanboys that do not see how dangerous and evil it is.
One of the arguments I've read is that makers of console shooters don't want to give some players an unfair advantage, as those playing on keyboard and mouse would be much better on this type of game than those with controllers. But I say bollocks. A perfectly adequate USB keyboard and mouse will not cost you much more than £10 these days. Whereas controllers for consoles will knock you back around £30-40, which is rediculously expensive for such an inferior control method.

Sigh. Perhaps I'm ranting because deep down I realise at some point I will have no choice but to be a sheep and follow the masses into Steam's cold, dark embrace. I'm literally shivering at the thought.

</rant>

<rant addendum>

If that scrap iron man doesn't stop driving passed my house at all times of the day blaring his fucking horn I'm gonna go out and kick his teeth out through the back of his skull! (Seriously, just while typing this blog entry I've heard him 3 times! Wanker.)