In the future Earth has expanded out into the solar system with the use of Hypergates, then the aliens known as the Phasmids attack and its up to the brave crew of {insert player ship name here] to SAVE THE WORLD !

Space Crew is the follow up to Runner Duck's previous game Bomber Crew and has the same fun visual style and core primary loop but in Space.

In all seriousness it plays like bomber crew with some of the niggles either dealt with or replaced with others, you have a crew of six to split between piloting, comm's, security, engineering and four gunner stations. FTL style power allocation is present and skill use is ESSENTIAL to survival, but unlike Bomber Crew you can't accidentally move your pilot and crash into the ground.
Crew selection is easier inside the ship which removes the crash and burn of Bomber Crew mentioned above but it is (hilariously) possible to purge your airlock/hold and flush your mission critical personnel into space when trying to deal with a fire. But is also garment rendering possible to have a crew member sent screaming into the void when a rouge asteroid hits them when they are repairing the vessels engine.
Explosive Instrumentation is neatly inserted into game play with a serious of power conduits inside your ship and the uniforms have a strong nod towards Star Trek uniforms (mostly DS9's)
Ship and Crew upgrades are nicely thought out though for some reason mouse hover does't seem to be a thing but was eventually able to figure it out. Ship weapons fall into 2 types, Anti shield or Anti Hull (there is at least one exception that I'm not going to spoil). Crew weapons are either Rifles which have to be stored in equipment racks or Sidearms which any crew member can be given.
There is a excellent option for large UI which as a partially sighted person I will shout from the rooftops.
I can see this game being great with a VR headset for targeting and a coop with multiple player ships would be groovy.

Overall, I have been waking up since my purchase thinking "ok, grind the event in STO then I can play more Space Crew <3 !"

Just seen the trailer and was screaming "no god gods NOOOOOO"

“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

Let us wake up everyday and feed the good wolf

I know it's been 3 months since the last one of these so here we go

My right paw is now fully healed and dressing free, it only took about 5 months. (I did the self immolation thing in March just as Covid was kicking up, YAY my timing)

The now surgical wound on my big left toe IS getting smaller, but has had a almost constant low grade infection, I've been on a frankly horrific dose of antibiotic's (4 grams spread out through the day) though now is down to 2 grams which has had some frankly LOVELY side effects with my normal meds.

Yes I have had some moment's when I almost start to wish I could only count up to 20 rather than 21 but I am still VERY glad I didn't lose the big guy.
I'm sorry to my mate Alyx and close friend Kale for getting snappy at times over the last 6 months and am glad you two still put up with this grumpy old dire wolf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn4AP29n3Z0

If we forget our past, we are doomed to repeat it

So it's nice to have some actual good news to report on my paws,
saw my Vascular Doc (who saved my big toe a few weeks ago) and he's happy enough to let the Clinic report to him as long as things remain grand.
Now only have 3 toes in dressings - the left big toe and the two middle ones on the right. We're seeing if the right little toe can go without even padding, so come Thursday we'll find out

oh and in two days I turn the big bad 40.
was thinking of doing a Q&A via a journal, don't know if you lot would be intrested or not ?

After finally escaping the Vascular Ward following a pitched battle, several chase's and knocking a hole in the wall with my head, I RETURN
Was kept in as doc's didn't like the look of my left big toe and on Monday I was given a spinal tap and taken into surgery to remove the dead tissue and possibly the toe.
30 minutes afterwards I was wheeled out, Still able to count to 21
After eight hours I could kinda walk normally again after the pain killers wore off and I could move my legs

Imaging a angry drunk dire wolf pulling himself along on his front paws and you get the idea ^.^

so if I keep control on my blood sugars and take it easy I should be fine, just got to do the long slow heal thing and am currently wondering if I got all the ECG points off myself...

WAFF

So it's a mixed report this time,
My left big toe has regressed and I have an appointment at my local hospital with Vascular to get it checked but unless the infection settles down again I might be in trouble.
The disturbing thing is two of the toes on the right foot have bone which can be seen through what little flesh remins, But hopefully that will change as I heal.

Another issue I'm having at the moment is my meds for depression kicking my ass thanks to the anti biototics making me miss insulin doses which doesn't help with maintaining my blood sugar which is what I need to do to reduce the risk of making this worse.

So if I tear a strip off you for something I normally laugh at, please don't take it personally

SERIOUSLY DO NOT READ IF SQUEEMISH
















So in the ongoing saga of my toes,
Now waiting for a Xray to see if the infection reached my bones in my feet, this is unlikely but it's something I need to be aware of. Again this might be nothing but it is
-Best Case : I lose the very tiny bones at the end of my three outermost toes on right foot
-Worst Case : I get surgery and possibly lose a leg
AGAIN Worst Worst Worst Case.
So if I get a bit cranky or don't want to play theres a reason

So after a dressing change I finally got some good news, 2 toes on my left paw are out of danger, this just lefts the left big toe and the three outer most toes on the right which are healing well.

As some of you might be aware from the lips of my long suffering beloved vixen,
On Wednesday I was admitted to our local hospital with what turned out to be 1st degree burns to 3 toes on each foot.
I had recently grown tired of smacking my feet on the desk that was at the bottom of my bed so I moved it,
right next to a wall heater.
Now as some of you may or may not know, I'm a t1 diabetic with little feeling in my feet, I also suffer from Depression and take a antidepressant/sleep aid called Trazadone. 450mg of it (300 at night, 150 in the morning)
So yeah I was complete idiot and cooked my feet.
It has been sorted and at least my timing is good, I'm not going to miss anything stuck indoors while my feet heal.
Take Care of yourself
Be excellent to each other
WAFF !!

Don't like to say too much about my medication but as of today, my Antidepressent has been kicked up a bit.
Couldn't hide the fact I was sleeping back into the dark forest
So im bombed out of my skull until my system adjusts
I'm not ignoring you or angry with you
I'm just zombiing while I adjust
blegh

As I'm going to be visiting family for the next couple of days, I'd like to wish you a merry Christmas and all that guff,
Hope you don't get coal in your stockings !

:D

Thought I'd give this another try
I am getting sick of movies (and some recent games) misusing the term - Cyberpunk.

To quote Wikipedia "Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech" featuring advanced technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cybernetics, juxtaposed with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order"
Good Cyberpunks to me are Blade Runner (1982) or the excellent Johnny Mnemonic. both of which have common use and acceptance of cybernetic enhancement of humans, hell the plot around Johnny mnemonic is that there is a cure for the degenerative condition affecting the augmented.
The recent game "Cyberpunk 2077" is NOT cyberpunk as from a description given to me by a buddy who played the table top game described it as "imaging walking down a street and seeing a fully augmented murder machine sitting on some cardboard with a sign saying 'will murder for x' sign". Now fair credit, you don't see that in the trailer but if it shows up in gameplay fair enough,

Anyway

The Beyond is a Netflix movie that starts off as a found footage style documentary of a member of staff at a International style space agency where during a routine space walk to repair orbiting satellite when an anomaly sucks in and 'kills' the astronaut.
The rest of the film is trying to discover what's on the other side and after first using remote probes they discover a planet and the decision is made to send a crew through. But due to the pressures involved they would go squish so a shady government agency offers the uses of a super solider program - Human 2.0. which involves putting the brain into a robot like body. I'm going to ignore the fact that the people who volunteer for the program are going to have to fake their own death for 'ethical' reasons. The first attempt fails and results in a solider being sent with the astronaut.
Meanwhile strange massive orbs of blackness are forming around the earth (of course the military attack for no clear reason to bugger all effect) and after several days only the Scientist 2.0 returns to Earth.
After much MUCH padding it's revealed that yes their are aliens there and they killed the Solider 2.0 due to him having a weapon and they wanted to protect Earth from cosmic debrie that would kill life on the earth, they then somehow..... create a earth like planet close to Earth (named Earth 2) ignoring any possible effect on Earths tidal system and a mass of Human 2.0's go off to colonize the planet (so much for ethic's)

Overall this movie bored me, the Human 2.0's had a exposed upper face (roughly what would be covered by a pair of goggles) which really irked me, it is shown later that they can form a faceplate over this area but that's not till the END of the film. Also it seems to be their face yet when the 2.0s are introduced it's just the brain supported in gel. but the demo 2.0 has the face. It's very confusing and seems redundant to me, if your cutting out the brain at the spinal cord why leave a fair chuck of skull or even the face ?
They mention the gel contains nano optical fibres which means the optic never isn't a issue

For the one or two friends that read these, expect a posting spam as I FINALLY get around to posting gift art from roughly a year ago.

Wishing everyone a merry Christmas to you and your kin

So tired of being strong

Bah Humbug,
That is all.

Just had some good news at the eye clinic in that the injections I've started having to get seem to be working, my vision in my left eye is much improved ! so one last injection to get in 4 weeks then it becomes a annual thing YAY !

I'm sorry if theres typos in this but you know, I kust had a frikkin' injection into my eye and I can't see proplerly yet so BITE ME !

<3 <3 <3

First off, I know what some of you are thinking, Mike reviewing a Spider film ? But anyhoo.


The film opens to a derelict CCCP space station which seems to overrun with spiders when suddenly it is struck by an asteroid, the stations falls to earth and burns up in re-entry killing all eight legged bastards, credits roll....


Ok, I was joking..

The lead actor is Patrick Muldoon (who some of you might know better as the slimy pilot Zander Barcalow from Starship Troopers) who is Jason Cole, a New York Transit subway supervisor. After a waste container from the station hits a subway tunnel and one of the skitterbastards attacks a worker, resulting in his 'Death' from touching the live 3rd rail, it turns out that a U.S. Army colonel, Jenkins, is working with one of the Russian scientists Doctor Darnoff who was involved in the protect aboard the station at the start of the film.

It turns out that two decades ago, the Russians found a spacecraft under the ice and after experimenting with genesplicing found that if they combined it with spider DNA (though the exact type isn't mentioned) they could use the queen to produce an unending supply of spider-silk for the construction of body armour and thereby giving the nation that controls the source (the Queen) a military and industrial advantage over all other nations.
Unsurprisingly the spiders get loose and after the US army attacks them, they start attacking back. On top of this, Colonel JENKINS goes rogue and sends the most blatant screw up of a Cleaner to tie up loose ends, 2 co-workers and a pair of unlucky lab workers.
Meanwhile we have the trope of father committed more to his job than his child cliché with bonus points for the divorcing wife who also happens to be a work colleague, a New York city coroner who's only real contribution to the film is to show what a good mother she is, finding the queen egg and causing the death of the two lab workers and her boss :p

The film is actually pretty good up until the last 30 minutes where despite the Dump truck sized Queen breaks out and struts her stuff to focus on the suddenly back together Jason and Rachel Cole searching for their daughter who was contained with her babysitter at the Colonel's orders.
But we do get to see moments of the Queen fight against several squads of soldiers, 2 helicopters, a armoured truck of some sort with a minigun and at least one tank, but no!! we get family drama instead....
The ending of the film is completely unoriginal and flushes whatever interest the first 57 minutes built up to a predictable final showdown and ending sting.
BUT
I still liked it.

Directed by : Christa Campbell as Rachel Cole
Production Company : Nu Images
Budget : $7 million dollars (estimated)

PROS
The XenoSpyders overall Design
Some Practical effects along with CGI
A (mostly) non-mad Scientist
Effects in general were decent
Forklift Chase/Battle (seriously this needs to be a thing more often!)

CONS
The M / Emily drinking game (which I am currently recovering from)
Christa Campbell's acting
Unnecessary family breaking up / rescue child plotline
The Cleaner

Does anyone know of a preferably free map making program that lets you use hexagons ?

I was not overally impressed with this film, but here goes

Picking up from the start of the last film and you might be mistaken for somehow going back in time and watching that very film and the start is almost note for note of it.
Annnnd it's kinda downhill from there with small moments of digging its heels in.

PRO'S
Some funny lines and scenes (Any with the GotG, Strange, Spidey)
Some good small brawls
Fucking AWESOME battle royale
Powersuits <3 <3 <3 <3
Sober cameo of Stan Lee
Actual decent Thanos

CON'S
Some fights were poorly lit (though to be fair, this might be more an issue with one of my eyes not being too good right now)
Utterly unneeded music swells
Padding some plot points to the point I was chewing on the chair in front of me (much to the annoyance of the person sitting in it)
Kinda giving away plot from a line of dialogue

OVERALL
The pacing was mostly good as the 149 minutes went by without feeling slow or dragging, Visuals (that I could see for whatever reason) where very nice, good honest SOBER camerawork (jar jar abrams take fucking note you hack) but then what do I know as apparently on the opening weekend it grossed $641 million worldwide.

So had a good news, bad news visit to the doctors, turns out I've suffered a Bells Palsy which is unrelated to my fall/leg break. Doc's happy with my recovery though so it should be manageable.
Might be noticeable if I get really tired though

I am now free of the damn splint and zimmer, walking with the aid of a cruth
(nisions still a bit dodgy though so please forgive any typos
:D

As I#m spending the next couple of days away from my computer I wish everyone a merry Christmas !