Tag Archives: Humble Bundle

Thankful for Console/PC in 2023

Introduction

Last year, I came up with the idea to theme each month with a special banner and color scheme. In fact, I came up with the idea years ago, but only started to implement it last year with any regularity. I started with the holiday season. Being the busiest time of the year for us, I combined Thanksgiving and Halloween. Then, I combined Christmas and New Year’s. This year, I gave each month its own. Since this week is Thanksgiving, I plan to write articles in that spirit. The first talks about why I’m thankful for Console/PC in 2023.

I spent more time gaming with my old laptop this year than in year’s past. I don’t remember if I told the story, but I dug out an old Alienware laptop that fried the charging port. I ordered a new one from Amazon, jury rigged it into the case, and the thing worked. I wanted to play Train Sim World 3. Instead, I became addicted to driving trucks around Europe.

Train Sim World 3

I laugh when I see the Progressive commercial (not a plug) where they talk about someone who just returned from Europe. While not as annoying as the girl who reminds you that it’s pronounced “kwoisaunt”, I can’t stop mentioning to people that we took Liam to Germany for his graduation gift.

Ever since traveling to Greece with Christine for her graduation, I wanted to go back to Europe. Having family who emigrated from Germany, I loved the idea of Liam choosing that as his big trip. We worked tirelessly to make sure that we saw as much as he wanted.

One part of the trip that stayed with me is we traveled by the infamous Deutsche Bahn train line. Christine commented how ridiculously happy I looked while riding the train. Aside from an semi-autistic obsession with trains, I just advocate as much as possible for public transit. When we came home, I remembered a Humble Bundle that included Train Sim World and some DLC.

My current laptop is only for basic office tasks. Besides, the Windows partition got stuck in an infinite reboot loop. So, I can’t use it for gaming. That’s when I came up with the idea to resurrect the old Alienware. I’m glad that I did.

Euro Truck Simulator 2

While I only played the Train sim game for a couple of weeks, (I got frustrated at the realism of the game and took a break. I returned after doing some research to figure out the brakes of the train that baffled me. By that point, though, I found another passion. You wouldn’t think that staring at life through a windshield like the one in the screenshot above would be very much fun.

Well, I assure you that it keeps me entertained for at least a half an hour a day. I start up the game, log in, find a job, tune into my favorite radio station, and start driving. Sometimes I take in the scenery. Other times, I marvel at the realism of the game. Okay, once in a while, they take the realism a bit too far like when a helicopter lands on the highway and cars just drive through it. Most of the time, though, it astounds me the detail that they put into the game.

Recently, I got a bit impatient and I took out a loan to expand my operation. Several people advised against that in the Steam community. But, I generally don’t take financial advice from strangers. So far, the strategy worked out for me.

The Verdict

Other than the two simulation games, I’m thankful for console/PC in 2023 because Liam used the laptop a couple of times. He played Marvel Puzzle Quest. I played through a bit of Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2 to celebrate the release of the third game. I always find time for Minecraft. You may notice that I never mentioned consoles. Well, our XBox broke and I want to buy a PS5 for Christmas because of the new Mortal Kombat and Spider-Man games. Look for them in the coming year.

ShadowRun First Impressions

Introduction

This story starts like so many of my other stories. I went to Humble Bundle and saw that they offered a ShadowRun 5e bundle. Mostly, I heard about the game during the fight over the WotC decision to rework the common license for D&D because they built it on that license. Every now and then, I get an itch to try out Steampunk content. This bundle finally scratches that itch. So, I decided to check out the core rulebook and report back my ShadowRun first impressions.

Can I say again how much I love Humble Bundle? I paid 18 dollars for 17 eBooks and got basically a starter kit for a new tabletop roleplaying game. The trouble, as always, is that I have nobody to play with. I mean, Chris always seems down for something new, but we rarely find the time to get together more than a couple of times a year. We use those for MTG mostly. So, eventually, I need to find a way to enjoy this game solo.

They Have Stories to Tell

Before I talk about the core rulebook, give me some time to tease out that last statement. From what I see online, may nerds have the same trouble as me finding play groups. How can so many of us have the same difficulty without a workable solution? I know that I feel far too old and antisocial to reach out to new players. My most recent playgroups are my youngest son and 3-5 middle school kids at my D&D club.

Sorry about that. As I drove my son to do life guard training (long story not at all related to anything here), I just thought about all of that and it inspired me to share. Now that I have, I can talk about the part of the book that I read so far.

The first couple of sections of the book, as far as I can see, are simply a couple of short stories outlining some of the lore of ShadowRun. While I generally enjoy story telling in games, this time I skipped right by them. Maybe when I come back later to actually play the game, I can give you my opinion on the stories.

Humble Beginnings

Instead, I kept scrolling until arrived at the character creation part. To be honest (am I’m nothing if not honest), I only skimmed this part of the book so far, too. Since I work during the week, I have no time to actually try these games. Therefore, without the proper incentive, I see no reason to make a character yet.

However, I looked through the process and it looks mostly straight forward. However, I liked that they start the generation with your concept and backstory. For someone who prefers the story aspect of games, this feels more natural. Granted, I never have an issue with creating a story based on dice rolled, but I sometimes feel limited when asked to do that.

The Verdict

That’s as far as I got in the book. So, these are very early ShadowRun first impressions. I hope to get some sort of character creation and game play soon and update next month with my thoughts on that. Come back for that and for more as April showers bring us gaming opportunities.