PixlBit

Started the day with some XCOM 2. Made some progress on my restart of the game. I got a "Flawless" rating on one mission and I haven't lost a single soldier yet. I'm focusing on weapons upgrades and built a Guerilla Training Facility that gives rookies some skills before their first action. I'm beginning to figure out how to use Overwatch and how to move soldiers across the battlefield without getting caught in the line of fire. This game reminded me today of the board game Squad Leader I used to play. There's a lot of choices for types of action every turn and there are environmental hazards like fire. Note to self: don't take cover behind a buring car. Usually they blow up after a turn or two killing everyone. 

So, while I was sniping genetic snake abominations, I watched Mark play Super Mega Baseball: Extra Innings (one of the Games with Gold freebie's this month) and thought it looked pretty good. So I tried it and really liked it. It's a cartoony take on baseball but the mechanics are actually pretty complex, though, easy enough to get the hang of. I wanted to play some games with Mark online but it only supports local multiplayer. Bah! No thanks. I wasn't up to playing against the computer. 

Then I looked at a lot of multiplayer games trying to think of one to play. I looked at all the free games on Xbox Live. I downloaded a bunch of them: Gems of War (by the Puzzle Quest guys), Pinball FX2 (I guess the XBO version. I wonder if my collection of tables from X360 will show up), Pinball Arcade (same as with FX2), Battle Ages (like an Age of Empires game), and Battle Islands (made me think of Civ Rev).

Well, all those took a while to download and install so I played Minecraft for a while. I built a tiny house and dug to bedrock and cleared an enormous room. I found every darn thing but diamond. Super frustrating. 

Finally, I played some Doom II. Seems I haven't got the single player campaign achievements yet, so I played several chapters. I began remembering the ins and outs of each level after a while and soon I was flying through them. Something about the level design in Doom II that's really good. I was hooked and didn't want to stop when the night ended. Game's like 25 years old now and still holds up. Astonishing. 

I've been playing Dragon Quest VII in the off moments too. I'm deep in the robot island. It's neat how you find fragments that, when complete, send you to visit an island in the past, solve its problem, and then revisit it as it reappears in the present. It makes for some interesting story moments. It's sad sometimes. Time passing is sad. That's life though. 

Well, that's my offset weekend. Back to serious stuff and maybe some photography this week. I'm inspired by the hour I played of Beyond Good and Evil where you collect photos of living creatures and get paid by a scientist. I want that job. 

Bye!